Obituary — Professor Dr. Oscar von Fraas. 141 



SiOg 26-00 



Al.,03 4005 



FeO 19-50 



Fe^Og 505 



MgO 2-88 



Loss on ig;nition .... 6-00 



Total .... 99-48 



The author discusses some of the published analyses, and suggests 

 that many of the discrepancies may be due to impurities in the 

 material analyzed. 



coies,Es:F'Oif;riD:Eisro:E. 



THE AGE OF THE EAND BEDS. 



Sir, — In the Geological Magazine, 1897, p. 549, Mr. W. Gibson 

 states that I have obtained fossils of doubtful Cax'boniferous age from 

 a dolomite associated with the Gat's Rand Beds. I am not aware 

 of having made such a statement, and it certainly does not occur in 

 the paper alluded to ("The Occurrence of Dolomite in South Africa," 

 Q.J.G.S., vol. L, p. 561). In fact, so far as I am aware, no fossils 

 of any kind have hitherto been discovered in the Dolomite of this 

 country. David Draper. 



Johannesburg, Dec. 31, 1897. 



THE OCCURRENCE OF FLACOPARIA IN THE SKIDDAW SLATES. 



Sir, — In the course of my work on the Graptolite Fauna of the 

 Skiddaw Slates I have come across two specimens of the trilobite 

 Placoparia. No mention of this form is made by Postlethwaite and 

 Goodchild in their paper on the *' Trilobites of the Skiddaw Slates " 

 (Proc. Geol. Assoc, vol. ix, p. 455), and as it is known to be 

 characteristic of a definite horizon in other localities, it seems worth 

 while to place on record the occurrence of this genus in the Lake 

 District, The specimens in question come from two different 

 localities, Outerside and Ellergill, and are in the Woodwardian 

 Museum. The Ellergill specimen is a recent gift from Professor 

 H. A. Nicholson. Gertrude L. Elles. 



WooDWAKDiAN MusEUM, CAMBRIDGE, February, 1898. 



OIBITTJJ^Xa'y. 



OSCAR FRIEDRICH VON FRAAS. 



Born January 17, 182-t. Died November 22, 1897. 



We regret to announce the death of the veteran geologist 

 Dr. Oscar von Fraas, of Stuttgart, Director of the Royal Wiirtemberg 

 Museum of Natural History. He was born at Lorch, in Swabia, in 

 1824, and after his ordinai'y education at school he proceeded to the 

 University of Tubingen. There he devoted special attention to 



