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The fossiliferous beds which form the subject of the following paper occupy positions at some distance from each other. The first and most interesting of them is situated in the neighbourhood of Pondicherry. The silicified wood, found in the adjacent sandstones, has long been known to the inhabitants of that part of the country, from the fine polish which it admits of and its capability of being formed into ornaments; but the beds of limestone which have furnished the material for the pavement for the streets of Pondicherry, and which lie within seven miles of the French capital in India, have almost entirely escaped observation. Pondicherry itself, as well as Madras, is situated on a very recent formation of loose sand, which extends for a considerable distance along the eastern coast of India, and which in many cases contains marine shells in such abundance that they are dug up and burnt for lime. I have obtained specimens from a spot about thirty miles from Pondicherry and ten from the coast. They are all shells such as now inhabit the Indian seas, and consist of—1. Pyrula vespertilio ; 2. Purpura carinifera ; 3. Cardita antiquata ; 4. Pullastra ; 5. an undescribed species of Cytherea ; 6. Arca granosa ; 7. Arca rhombea . This formation is usually bounded by granite, which comes to the surface at Sadras, Madras, and many other places along the coast. Immediately behind the town of Pondicherry, however, the recent beds rest upon some low hills of red sandstone, which encloses an

In a former paper published in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London (vol. ii. p. 405, May 1846), I stated that the limestone containing abundantly the Nummulites Mantelli , Morton, which occurs near Suggesville, Clarksville, and other places between the rivers Alabama and Tombecbee, in the State of Alabama, was a member of the Eocene tertiary group, and that so far from constituting any part of the cretaceous formation, as had formerly been imagined, it holds in reality a place high up in the Eocene series of the South. In the same memoir I gave a section extending from Claiborne through Suggesville and Macon to the west of Clarksville, Alabama, in which the position of the so-called nummulitic limestone was explained. It was stated to be newer than all the beds of the well-known Claiborne Bluff, and I mentioned that “the bones of the gigantic cetacean called Zeuglodon by Owen were everywhere found in Clarke County, in a limestone below the level of the nummulitic rock and above the beds which contain the greater number of perfectly preserved eocene shells, such as Cardita planicosta and others.”

I have lately visited, with my friend Escher von der Linth, the Alps of the Vorarlberg, and the neighbourhood of the Lake of Lugano and the Lake of Como. In the Vorarlberg we found immediately under the Lias, which is well developed, the beds of the Dachstein Limestone, characterized by numerous Corals and a large bivalve (Megalodon scutatus of Schafhautl, “Dachstein bivalve” of the Austrians). Below the Dachstein limestone are the Gervillia-beds (lately called Kossen-beds by Von Hauer). The Cardita crenata, Goldf., the Aviculae of the family of the Gryphaeatae, and small turrited univalves, contained in these beds, induced me to refer them to some of the St. Cassian beds. Lower still are thickly developed masses of dolomite, under which sandstones with impressions of Keuper plants occur. The exact relation of the Salzburg beds containing Ammonites globosus with the Gervillia-beds has not yet been made out. We have not hitherto been able to find in the Alps of the Vorarlberg this characteristic family of Ammonites. In the vicinity of the Lake of Como, the dolomitie masses change their appearance ; but beneath the lias the Gervillia-beds form a good geological horizon, which can be found in numerous places when once one has become accustomed to its position. This bed is also found under the Lias of the chain of the Stockhorn, Canton Berne ; and Escher has found it in the neighbourhood of Geneva. We have called the whole of the beds situated between the Lias and the Keuper

Mr. Hugh Cuming, the eminent conchologist, has lately received from Mr. F. Manse a small collection of fossils from two localities in the Middle Island of New Zealand. Though in a very bad state of preservation, they are sufficiently perfect to enable us to determine the genera, and to pronounce whether or not they are identical with or different from known New Zealand fossils, or animals now existing in the neighbouring seas. The one locality is at Banks9 river. The fossils are imbedded in a greenish grey sandstone. They consist of shells of the genera Solecurtus , one species; Tellina , one species; Lucina , three species; Cardita , one species; Artemis , one species; Pectunculus , one species; Crenella ? one large species; Modiola , coated with Membranipora ; Turritella , one species very abundant; Calyptrœa , one species; and Trochus , one species. The other locality is at the cliffs of Blind Bay. The fossils are imbedded in a greenish conglomerate of small pebbles. They consist of a Lucina , a large species of Area, a Cardita distinct from that at Banks9 river; one species of each of the following genera. Turbo, Fusus ? Acmœa, Bulla, Tornatella ? and a Haliotis -like shell; also two fragmentary corals, apparently belonging to the genera Turbinolia and Dendrophyllia . None of the fossils in either locality can be identified with any recent species. Their general aspect recalls very strongly that of eocene shells from the Bognor beds. The specimens have been presented by Mr. Cuming to the Museum of Practical Geology.