i893. NOTES AND COMMENTS. 89 



shore, was often three or four feet in thickness, in one place it measured 

 five feet. With the rise of the tide many of these masses of spongy 

 and cavernous, gravel-laden ice were detached, often in blocks of 

 sufficient size to support and carry away the largest stones in the 

 river-bank. So the ice-age is not quite over, and many erratics may 

 have again started on their travels during the recent frost. 



In the Proc. Roy. P'liys. Soc. Edinburgh, vol. xi,, p. 215, Mr. James 

 Bennie gives a valuable list of the fossils found in the raised sea 

 bottom at Fillyside Bank, near Leith ; a deposit described by Hugh 

 Miller so long ago as .1854. The most interesting result of a closer 

 examination is, perhaps, that the change of level does not seem to 

 coincide with any climatic change, like that indicated by the Arctic 

 shells in the raised sea-beds of the Clyde district. The whole of the 

 moUusca from Fillyside, determined by Mr. Andrew Scott, are still 

 living in the neighbourhood ; and the same is the case with the 

 associated flowering plants identified by Mr. Clement Reid. 



Mr. R. Etheridge, jun., is engaged on a monograph of the 

 Permo-Carboniferous Invertebrata of New South Wales, and the 

 second part, relating to the Echinodermata, Annelida and Crustacea, 

 has just reached this country. In their general aspect the fossils are 

 much like those from corresponding beds in Europe ; at the same 

 time, slight differences are perceptible, which have necessitated the 

 erection of new genera and subgenera, and indicate that the separa- 

 tion of a marine Australian province had already begun. The 

 characteristic, however, that first strikes the eye with regard to this 

 fauna is the large size of the individuals ; especially is this noticeable 

 with regard to the crinoids. W^e are glad to learn that Mr. Etheridge 

 is not only completing the present monograph, but is extending his 

 researches to the Silurian Invertebrata of New South Wales, and to 

 the Palaeontology of Queensland and New Guinea. 



The Devonian rocks have furnished fields for many geological 

 battles. Peace, however, reigned for some years in the North Devon 

 area, until Dr. Hicks, in i8go, renewed the attack on the presumed 

 orderly succession of rocks, found fossils in the Morte Slates, and 

 claimed them to be no part of the Devonian system. The fossils 

 discovered at that time were too obscure for specific identification, 

 but he announces [Geological Magazine for January) that the Morte 

 Slates " are now proved by their contained fossils to be of Silurian 

 age." We have yet to wait the particular description of these fossils, 

 but, in the meantime. Dr. Hicks gives examples of Folds and P'aults 

 in the Devonian rocks at and near Ilfracombe, and these disturbances 

 (in his opinion) necessitate a different interpretation of the succession 

 of strata from that generally adopted. Instead of being one con- 



