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Knowing how much you are interested in all inquiries about the drift of this country, we take the liberty to forward to you some specimens of shells which we have lately collected from the cliffs of Sancati Head, in the island of Nautucket. Allow us to accompany them with some observations upon this locality. The cliff of Sancati, as you know, constitutes the eastern border of the island of Nantucket, rising to a height of ninety-two feet above the beach. Although covered in a great measure with the loose sand that is carried by the wind from the beach, yet there are several points where the successive layers are to be seen, as for example near the tripod: fig. 1 will give an idea of their superposition. At the base of the cliff is found a stratum of brown, very brittle and partly sandy clay ( l ), nearly twenty feet thick. Over the rests a bed of gravel several feet thick ( k ), which is overlaid by a stratum of homogenous white sand ( j ). On this is found a layer of very tough clay ( i ), very similar in its aspect to the plastic clay near Paris, except that it contains a great many nodules of ferruginous sand. This clay-bed is overlaid by an oyster-bank ( h ) one foot thick, intermixed and covered by large masses of Serpula ( g ), which are, like the oysters, in their natural position. There are besides a great many other shells scattered through this bank, all of them in

Mr. H. Bauerman having requested me to examine a series of typical specimens of the Nummulitic rocks brought by him from the East, I append the following remarks on eight specimens, including a Strontian crystal, containing some Nummulites and other organisms, from near Cairo. Specimen No. 1. “S. of Wady Gharandel, 7 April, 1868.” (Greyish brown asphaltic Nummulitic limestone, weathering white.) Mainly composed of Nummulitic Ghyzensis *, large and small, with N. curvispira and N. Ramondi . Serpula present. No. 2. “Asphalt rock, S. of Wady Gharandel, 7 April.” Like No. 1, but browner. Contains N. Ghyzensis (large and small), pieces of Conchifera, and small fragments of Echinoderms. Serpula also is present. No. 3. “Asphalt Rock, S. of Wady Gharandel, 7 April.” Lightbrown rock (weathering white), in which Nummulina Ghyzensis is abundantly visible throughout, together with Serpulœ and some fragments of Echinoderms. No. 4. “Asphalt Rock, S. of Wady Gharandel, 7 April.” A piece of thin-bedded (–inch) light-brown limestone, weathering grey on the planes of bedding, and there showing its granular structure and the organic fragments of which it is mainly composed. On one face is a small Ostrea , with Nummulina Ramondi . N. intermedia and pieces of Pecten (?) and of Echinoderms are seen in the mass. No. 5. “Asphalt Rock, near Gharandel, 7 April.” No definite organic remains are visible in this brown rock. It has the darkest colour of all the specimens. By treatment with acid, it is found to contain 90 per cent. of carbonate of lime and 10 per

The part of the Bathgate limestone which has been most extensively worked of late is at the north end of the range of workings called Petershill Quarries, and the upper 40 feet of the limestone. A great variety of corals and shells, and at least three species of palatal teeth of fish, occur in it. Besides many others, I obtained specimens of the following:—Lithodendron junceum, Lithostrotion basaltiforme (?), Serpula parallela, Productus aculeatus, Productus giganteus, Productus scabriculus, Pinna flabelliformis, Pinna spatula, Cardiomorpha orbicularis, Edmondia sulcata, Dentalium ingens, Euomphalus Dionysii, Euomphalus pentangulatus, Euomphalus anguis, Naticopsis dubia, Natica elongata, Pleurotomaria Yvanii, Cochliodus magnus, Petalodus Hastingsiae.