i894- SOME NEW BOOKS. 387 



Hampshire, and some interesting notes are promised by the 

 Director-General in his next Report. 



The study of the Drift series has made steady progress, some 

 2,711 miles of boundary having been traced, mainly in East Cheshire, 

 South Wales, and the Isle of Man. Mr. De Ranee has noted the 

 character and position of some 500 boulders, from two to twelve feet 

 in length, in East Cheshire, and the information obtained has been 

 supplied to the British Association Committee on Erratic Blocks. 



In the Petrographical laboratory the main point of interest is 

 the determination by Mr. Teall of the mineral Riebeckite as a normal 

 constituent of the granophyre of Meall Dearg. 



In Scotland, progress has been made in the mapping of Suther- 

 land and Skye, Caithness, Aberdeenshire, and Banff, while important 

 work has been accomplished in Kincardineshire and Forfar, Arran 

 and Cantyre. Well-marked fossils have been determined in the 

 shaly Cambrian series overlying the quartzites of the N.W. High- 

 lands, which have allowed the positive fixation of the true Cambrian 

 age of these beds. From the locality of Meal Gubhais, near Loch 

 Maree, Acwthele cadusia and fragments of Olenellus rewarded the 

 diligent search of Messrs. Home, Gunn, and Clough. A collector, 

 Mr. Maconochie, was accordingly directed to search the spot and a 

 large series of specimens was obtained, and is now being worked out 

 by Mr. Home. 



Mr. H. B. Woodward has completed his survey of the Jurassic 

 rocks, with their associated Tertiary Igneous rocks, of Raasay, and a 

 detailed section from below the Lias to the Great Oolite has now been 

 obtained. It is interesting to note that the quartzite summits of the 

 region north of Strathcarron retain their ice-worn character still so 

 fresh that their polished surfaces, plunging steeply down the moun- 

 tain sides, can hardly be walked upon. When wet, these glistening 

 sheets of rock shine like polished marble, and show the fine striation 

 impressed on them by the ice-sheet. Each larger valley among these 

 mountains has its lateral and terminal moraines marking the positions 

 of the later glaciers. 



In Ireland the revision of the Metamorphic areas has been 

 steadily progressing. Mr. Kilroe finds no break between the Croagh 

 Patrick quartzite and the Llandovery strata, and it is therefore 

 difficult to resist the conclusion that it must be of Upper Silurian age. 

 But on this point the Director-General advises caution until the 

 ground to the south has been exhaustively examined. In 

 Palaeontology, Professor Sollas has determined the existence of a 

 new fossil {Pucksia viachenvyi) in" a narrow band of slate, which had 

 previously yielded Oldhamia and some spherical bodies resembling 

 Radiolaria. 



The Report concludes with some notes on improvements and 

 accessions to the Museum of Economic Geology, and a return of 

 work done by the individual surveyors attached to the Geological 

 Survey. 



The half-yearly number of Tiniehri (the journal of the Royal 

 Agricultural and Commercial Society of British Guiana), just received 

 (vol. viii., pt. i.), contains several interesting and readable articles. 

 The first, on Guiana Orchids, is by the editor, Mr. James Rodway, 

 whose articles on the Guiana forest are known to readers of Natural 

 Science. Valuable hints are given on cultivation in the tropics, for 

 orchid houses seem as necessary in Georgetown as in a European 



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