154 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



the present position of the Clyde, and at such a height above it, 

 shews that the configuration of the valley was then very different 

 from that which it at present assumes. 



II. — Sketch of the Coalfields in the Neighbourhood of Irvine. 

 By Mr Adam Sutherland, Corresponding Member. 



Mr Sutherland described the peculiarities of the Bogside parrot 

 coal, presently used for the manufacture of paraffin, its oily 

 character diminishing towards the east. He also dwelt on the 

 burning of the coal seams by floating whin, and applied Tyndall's 

 spectrum experiments to show that the blind coal of Irvine, 

 " which produces an intense white, dissipates in obscure heat-giving 

 rays an energy at least double that of ordinary household coal." 



The Librarian announced the following donation to the 

 Library : — Proceedings of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, 

 1870; from the Society. 



March 28th, 1871. 

 Professor Alexander Dickson, M.D., in the chair. 



SPECIMENS exhibited. 



Mr Thomas Chapman exhibited a small collection of insects 

 recently brought from Port Natal by Mr William Dale. This 

 collection embraced a few interesting forms, including a male and 

 female of Charaxes ethalion — a somewhat rare species not often 

 met with in even well-furnished cabinets; also the well-known 

 Death's-head Moth {Acherontia atropos) and Painted lady Butterfly 

 {Pyrameis cardni), the latter possessing additional interest from 

 the fact of its having now been detected in almost every quarter 

 of the globe. It has been found throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, 

 Australia, and New Zealand; also in America, from Hudson's Bay 

 to Venezuela. Specimens have been lilvcwise brought from the 

 following islands, which are very far apart : — Teneriffe, St Helena, 

 Madagascar, and the Sandwich Islands. 



Mr John Young, F.G-.S., exhibited a specimen of Carboniferous 

 shale from the roof of one of the upper coal seams in Springliill 

 Pit, near Baillieston, showing a portion of the stem of a Calamite 

 with attached slender branches of a plant with numerous whorled 



