I am indebted to my friend, Mr. Thomas Crowther Brown, of Further Barton, Cirencester, for placing in my hands some time since certain Arctic Corals (brought home in 1853 or 1854), for illustration, to be afterwards deposited in the Geological Department of the British Museum. Some time previously I had also received a small but interesting series of specimens from Beechey Island, collected by Dr. A. Horner, the Medical Officer to the S.Y. “Pandora” (Captain Sir Allen Young), and by the Artist to the Expedition, G. R. De Wilde, Esq.; these latter were collected in August, 1875.

The most important geological problem, and the one of all others which at present excites the greatest attention, is the cause of those extraordinary changes of climate which have taken place during past ages. How are we to account for the cold and Arctic condition of things which prevailed in temperate regions during what is called the Glacial Epoch, or for the warm and temperate climate enjoyed by the Arctic regions, probably up to the Pole, during part of the Miocene and other periods? Theories of the cause of those changes, of the most diverse and opposite character, have been keenly advocated, and one important result of the discussions which have recently taken place is the narrowing of the field of inquiry and the bringing of the question within proper limits.

The land-plants lately discovered both in the American and Continental Silurians seem to be attracting attention, while those found in Ireland nearly a quarter of a century ago appear to be quite forgotten. This is probably due to the unsatisfactory condition in which the classification of the Irish Silurians are left at the present time; perhaps therefore it is allowable for me to give a short description of these rocks.

A few weeks ago a flint implement was found in the gravel-pit at Barnwell, near Cambridge, by the workmen, from whom I bought it. It is a very fine specimen of the hache type, its greatest length being 6¾ins., its greatest breadth 3⅝ins., and thickness 2⅛. It corresponds closely with specimens in the Woodwardian Museum, from Thetford, in Suffolk, and from Amiens. It agrees almost exactly in size and outline with an implement of the “River-drift type,” figured by Dr. John Evans in his beautiful work on the “Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain”; from Biddenham, Bedford (fig. 414, p. 481); also with one from Redhill, Thetford (fig. 427, ½ nat. size, p. 496, op. cit.).

The overland route to Russia viâ Konigsberg or Warsaw—now accomplished with comparative ease—reveals some instructive facts connected with one of the most recent yet extreme of climatal changes which has contributed to mould and fashion so large a portion of the surface geology of Northern Europe. I refer to the “Great Ice Age,” or “Glacial Period,” when a frozen sea probably covered the extensive plains now known as Russian Poland.