,3,, NOTES AND COMMENTS. 569 



species is given. The elephant and the rhinoceros are recorded, but 

 without specific name. As the common Pre-glacial elephant {Elephas 

 meridionalis) and Pre-glacial rhinoceros {Rhinoceros etruscus) are quite 

 distinct from the mammoth and the woolly rhinoceros, the 

 determination of these species might help to settle the question. 



The Geological Survey of Great Britain. 



We are glad to learn from the Report of the Director-General of 

 the Geological Survey that a re-survey of the South Wales coal-field 

 has been commenced on the scale of six inches to the mile. From a 

 practical point of view, no more important work could be undertaken 

 by the Geological Survey, but we fear that some time must elapse 

 before the work is accomplished, as at present only one officer — Mr. 

 Aubrey Strahan — is engaged in the survey of that large area. The 

 original survey was made by De la Beche, Logan, and others, about 

 fifty years ago. As there are other coal-fields, including those of the 

 Forest of Dean, Bristol and Somerset, South Staffordshire, &c., that 

 should be surveyed geologically on the six-inch scale, it would seem 

 necessary to increase the staff if the work is to be carried out during 

 the lifetime of anyone now living. 



The survey of the north-west Highlands has been vigorously 

 prosecuted, and the Director-General draws attention to the 

 important scientific results that follow from the determination of 

 the Pre-cambrian age of the Torridon Sandstone. The aid of photo- 

 graphy has been appropriately introduced to illustrate the structure 

 of the Archaean Gneiss. Another important piece of work is the 

 determination that the " Calcareous Sericite-schists," which extend 

 as a traceable band through the whole of Perthshire into Forfarshire, 

 are a continuation, in a more metamorphosed condition, of the shales 

 or slates of Ardrishaig. 



Archeology in Dorsetshire and Wiltshire. 



We have just ha^d the opportunity of seeing the large quarto 

 volume, entitled " Excavations in Bokerly and W^ansdyke, Dorset 

 and Wilts," by Lieutenant-General Pitt-Rivers, F.R.S. This forms 

 the third volume of a series of researches which he has been 

 carrying on. 



In the two former volumes General Pitt-Rivers described the 

 excavations he had made during a period of ten years in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Rushmore, in Wiltshire. The particular tract is a part 

 of Cranbourne Chase, that lies along the Wiltshire and Dorsetshire 

 Downs, south-east of Shaftesbury. Evidence was obtained of two 

 Romano-British villages, just outside the park of Rushmore ; both 

 villages were alike in their general arrangement, and their chief 

 feature consisted of pits, 3 feet 6 inches to 10 feet in diameter, and 3 

 feet 6 inches to g feet deep. The pits were filled with earth and 



