The only substantial descriptions of the small, generally ice-bound archipelago in eastern Svalbard were from an expedition led by Nathorst in 1898 which landed in Kong Karls Land for fourteen days. Our paper amplifies those findings, from work with a helicopter-borne expedition in 1969. The easternmost of the three main islands, and all the small islands, are formed of basic igneous rocks of Cretaceous age. Two of the main islands, Svenskøya and Kongsøya, are formed of latest Triassic to early Cretaceous strata, protected by caps of Cretaceous lava that determine their shape and the general topography. The third, Abeløya, is basaltic throughout.

A summary is given of the preservation and general abundance information on palynomorphs of post-Silurian age in Svalbard. An explanation of the distribution of successful and unsuccessful palynomorph extraction is attempted, with a conclusion that varying burial history under other sediment was the principal controlling factor.

The lithostratigraphical division of the Wolstonian Stage of the British Pleistocene is reviewed in the light of borehole records along the line of the M 69 motorway. The Wolston Clay is divided into 5 members. The evidence from the M 69 shows that 2 periods of glacier advance were separated by a major period of recession of the order of 104 years, in which most of the sediments of Glacial Lake Harrison were deposited. It is argued that this recession was interstadial rather than interglacial.

The results of a gravity survey of Islay indicate that, with respect to a local Bouguer anomaly datum of 260 g.u., a positive anomaly of 100 g.u. occurs over the Lewisian gneiss of the Rhinns of Islay, and, immediately to the E, a negative anomaly of —120 g.u. occurs S of Bowmore. Both anomalies trend N—E to S—W. The negative anomaly is interpreted as due to the presence of a structural basin occupied by a maximum 4600 m of Bowmore Sandstones and Dalradian meta-sediments. The boundary between the Lewisian gneiss and this basin is the Loch Indaal fault. At the head of Loch Indaal this fault bifurcates, one branch continuing north-eastwards as the Bonahaven fault, the other trending northwards as the Loch Gruinart fault, All the faults are considered to possess transcurrent components. The stratigraphic position of the Bowmore Sandstones is similar to that of the supposed Torridonian sediments of western Islay.

Garnets and biotites from pelitic, psammitic and quartzofeldspathic rock enclosing the Broken Hill orebodies are sensitive to syn and post high grade metamorphic metasomatism associated with orebody-wall rock reactions but the overall garnet—biotite partitioning relationships remain unchanged. KMg-FeDgarnet-biotite and metamorphic grade calculations increase from NW to SE over the 1000 m section examined which is in accord with the regional grade variation.

The radioelement concentrations of K, U, and Th have been determined for 9 samples of granite from the Western Red Hills, Isle of Skye, Scotland, and for 10 granite specimens from the Mourne Mountains, Ireland, and are compared to 2 published results for Lundy Island granite. The concentrations are distinctly different for each of the 3 centres, and although the data do not provide conclusive proof, they favour generation of the granites by fractional crystallization of basic magmas.

A new record of an early retiolitid, Reteograptus sp., from the topmost Llanvirn strata of Abereiddi Bay, South Wales, is described and figured. An approximately contemporaneous upper Darriwillian form from Gisborne, Victoria, Orthoretiolites? speciosus (Harris) is redescribed and shown to differ radically from both Reteograptus sp. and R. geinitzianus Hall, the type species of the genus.

Field, petrographic and chemical evidence from the cumulates of western Lilloise suggest a substantially higher level of exposure in the cumulus pile than is seen on the E side, due to relative subsistence of the western half of the intrusion. It is suggested that the subsistence started while both cumulus pile and the surrounding basalts were still hot and not fully consolidated. When, later, reactivation occurred, the rocks were in a more cohesive state and ‘syenitic’ magma was available for intrusion as discrete sheets and veins.