In the autumn of 1883 my friend Mr. F. W. Harmer, F.G.S., being at Penzance, chanced to hear of the occurrence near that place of a bed containing some shells not recognized as now living on the coast of Cornwall. Being introduced to Mr. Thos. Cornish, of Penzance, as a gentleman who had taken an interest in the matter, he got him to forward to me such of the shells as he possessed. These consisted of specimens of Nassa mutabilis, N. serrata , and Turritella triplicata ; and I sent them to Mr. Robert Bell, F.G.S., to see and to show to Dr. J. Gwyn Jeffreys. We all three doubted their being genuine, the Nassœ presenting, indeed, the appearance of imperfect fossilization. Sometime afterwards Mr. Cornish sent me some more specimens. These removed my doubts; but from the incredulity with which Mr. Bell was met in the comparisons which he made of them for me with specimens in the recent and foreign collections of the British Museum, I pointed out the desirability of having the pits reopened before I brought the matter to the attention of the Society, and this Mr. Cornish determined to have done. The past exceptionally dry summer in Cornwall has afforded the opportunity for this; and on the 26th of August last a party consisting of our Foreign Secretary, Prof. Warington Smyth, and twelve other gentlemen, mostly geologists, residing in the county, accompsnied Mr. Cornish and witnessed the reopening of one of the disused excavations, obtaining also a