222 Dr. Hans Reuscli — A Quartz- Eyed-Gneiss. 



to write on the subject, but that the series would obviously 

 continue as long as I live unless arbitrarily checked. An endless 

 serial tends to become a nuisance, especially when the com- 

 plexity of the plot produces a succession of virtually distinct 

 " short stories ". Distractions from research crowd upon me (as 

 witness the spasmodic appearances of the later parts of the series), 

 and distractions among the Echinoidea themselves render incon- 

 venient the restriction imposed by a specialized title. I can only 

 hope that future workers will find some useful information (or 

 even provocation) in the twelve notes here completed, and can 

 confidently claim that the series concludes with a suitable climax. 

 Those who care to read, in chronological order, the twelve papers 

 and the laiger work (Phil. Trans., 1920), which is really a member of 

 this series, will detect a gradual growth of suspicion that the 

 Holectypoida may not, after Jill, be the ancestors of the whole 

 group of Irregular Echinoids. S'lowly that conception has grown as 

 a result of comparative studies, and here I am able unexpectedly 

 to submit a tangible, though far from satisfying, fragment of 

 evidence in its support. Encouragement of such a nature may 

 permit the closing of a series of papers, but cannot fail to open 

 ncAV, and wider, prospects of research. 



A Quartz-Eyed-Gneiss from Mesopotamia. 



By Dr. Hans Reusch, late Director of the Geological Survey 

 of Norway. 



rpHE great winged man-lions from Mesopotamia are some of the 

 -*- most conspicuous and most wonderful objects in the British 

 Museum. When visiting that museum last September I was greatly 

 interested as a geologist in examining the kind of rock of which they 



Fig. 1. — Irregular quartz fragments embedded in matrix of sparagmite, eyed- 

 gneiss, Mesopotamia : natural size. 



