140. Correspondence—F. R. Cowper Reed. 
(5) The ‘ Kalahari Sands,’ which cover large areas of the plateau, 
occur mainly in broad low swells or ‘ bults’ of friable red sand, now 
tree-clad. These sweep down to the Zambezi River in the shallow 
valley above the Victoria Falls, and cannot have been accumulated 
under existing conditions. The author endorses Dr. 8. Passarge’s 
view that they indicate a former period of greater aridity than the 
present in the Central Basin. 
Some irregular patches of surface quartzite and lmestone, due to 
the percolation and evaporation of ground-water, are described and 
compared with the ‘ Botletle-Schichten’ (Passarge) of the Kalahari, 
but the author considers that the antiquity of these beds is not so 
great as that assigned to the ‘ Botletle-Schichten.’ 
The paper concludes with a petrographical appendix by Mr. H. H. 
Thomas, giving the results of his microscopic examination of a series 
of rock-specimens collected by the author. 
CORRESPONDENCE... 
THE ASHGILLIAN SERIES. 
Srz,— In connection with Dr. Marr’s paper on the Ashgillian Series 
in this month’s GroLoetcaL Magazinu, it may be of interest to call 
attention to some further evidence of the age of the Starfish Bed in 
the Drummuck Series of Girvan which he correlates with the Stauro- 
cephalus Limestone of the north of England and Wales. To the list of 
trilobites from this bed which I have recently given in my monograph 
on the Lower Paleozoic Trilobites of the Girvan District (Paleeonto- 
graphical Society, 1903-1906) there may now be added the two 
species Cheirurus Keisleyensis, Reed, and Ampyx binodulosus, Reed, 
described by me in 1896 from the Keisley Limestone. Mrs. Gray 
collected these specimens within the last few months, and they have 
only lately come into my hands for identification. The affinities of 
the trilobitic faunas of the Keisley Limestone and Starfish Bed which 
had been previously observed are appreciably strengthened by these 
new discoveries. F. R. C. Resp. 
SepGwick Musrum, CAMBRIDGE. 
February 20th, 1907. 
@ 33 TP WrAS ys 
EDWARD BEST. 
Born Dec. 20, 1824. Disp Noy. 8, 1906. 
WE regret to record the death on November 8th, 1906, of Edward 
Best, who for more than thirty-eight years was Resident Geologist to 
the Geological Survey in Jermyn Street. Born on the 20th December, 
1824, he joined the service in January, 1855, shortly before De la Beche 
died, and he retired on March 3lst, 1893. Although he never took 
a profound interest in geology, he was ever ready to give help to 
those who sought information at the Geological Survey Office, while 
his ever cheerful disposition and donhomie endeared him to all who 
eame to know him. 
