The objects of this paper are to supplement previous descriptions of the coast sections of the New Red Sandstone from Exmouth to Oddicombe, and to discuss views of the origin of the rocks as stated in the following quotation from the revised Torquay Memoir (Ussher-LIoyd, 1933, p. 105): “It is generally accepted that the lower New Red Sandstone breccias result from continental conditions, in which the extremes of temperature and recurring torrential rainfall operated on the bare slopes of a mountainous region, to produce diluvial fans, similar to those now being formed in the mountain valleys of Kashmir and Persia, The Dartmoor granite no doubt once formed an elevated dome and from this high ground, much higher and more extensive than at present, torrents flowing in a general easterly direction would produce gravelly accumulations, composed largely of the angular debris of formations then exposed. These accumulations may in part have been swept into a lake and there mixed with, or alternated with, beds of sand deposited under normal conditions; wind-borne sand may also have been blown from the desert into this lake or inland sea.” The term “diluvial fans” was introduced by Lloyd into the revised memoir, obviously without any reference to Pleistocene glacial deposits or the Deluge of Noah, as might be suspected from the use of this old word “diluvial”. “Alluvial fans” is preferred here and no evidence has been found of glacial action at any time.

Among a batch of reprints recently received from Professor Lugeon (1946) is one dealing with the above subject; it is of more than local interest as it prompts comparison with certain phenomena in this country.

Belemnites are common throughout the boreal province of the Upper Cretaceous Series of Eurasia occurring at practically all horizons of the so-called Senonian stage (in the broader sense) nearly everywhere in this province; often they are the only group of fossils to be met frequently enough to be used for stratigraphical purposes. Despite this there have so far been relatively few efforts to use the Upper Cretaceous belemnites as zone-fossils, with the exception of some Actinocamax and Gonioteuthis species. The probable reasons for this regrettable neglect have already been mentioned in a previous paper (e.g. Jeletzky, 1946, pp. 87–90). Our researches, the results of which have till now only partly been published (e.g. Jeletzky, 1940, 1941, 1946) have shown that the Upper Cretaceous belemnites occur relatively frequently, and in the same stratigraphical order throughout the whole Eurasian boreal province and are in fact excellent guide fossils.

In the discussion on a paper read recently by A, G. MacGregor on Scottish Carboniferous volcanicity,1 one of us, speaking on behalf of both, raised some points concerning the nomenclature of magma-types which we feel are worth amplifying. The points at issue concern firstly the use of the terms “tholeiite” and “olivinebasalt” when applied to fundamental magmas, and secondly the propriety of referring to the suites of rock-types supposed to be derived from them as “calc-alkali” and “alkali” respectively.

In a recent letter to this journal, Stewart and Wager (1947) record the occurrence of rhythmic banding in the Cuillin gabbro of Skye. Apparently, before this the only described British example of rhythmic, banding was in the Belhelvie Complex of Aberdeenshire (Stewart, 1946). In view of the interest in these structures aroused by Wager and Deer's vivid and illuminating account of the Skaergaard Complex of East Greenland (Wager and Deer, 1939), a preliminary note on a more accessible occurrence where rhythmic banding is very beautifully displayed, in excellent quarry sections, seems desirable. This occurrence is in the Huntly complex of Aberdeenshire.

The Eighteenth Session of the International Geological Congress was the first session in Great Britain for sixty years; and because of wartime interruption the interval between the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Sessions was longer than that between any previous consecutive sessions. The Session therefore presented a special opportunity for the renewal of international discussion and for the demonstration of classic and recent research in Britain.