NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 127 



the genera Flustra, Cellularia, etc., etc., the whole collection having 

 been gathered from a depth of eighteen to twenty fathoms off 

 the coast, a few miles to the north of the town. 



The following mosses were exhibited by Mr John Shaw, the 

 species having been gathered by himself: — Campylojms polytrichoides, 

 from the island of Unst, Shetland; Campylopus compadus, from the 

 island of Bressay ; and Cinclidium stygium, from near Balquhidder. 

 Mr Shaw also exhibited a series of flowering plants, mainly from 

 the Channel Islands, the South of England, and South-West of 

 Ireland. 



PAPERS READ. 



I. — On the Raised Beaches at Irvine. By Mr Adam Sutherland. 



After giving a general description of these, the writer exposed 



the fallacious opinions expressed by a writer in the North British 



Review, who holds that the sea is making rapid approaches on 



the land in Ayrshire. There is the strongest evidence to the 



contrary. In the bay of Irvine several acres of land have 



been "added by the sea" to the farms adjacent within the 



memory of persons now living. The sea is known, too, to 



be retiring at the Links of Ayr. This is caused partly by 



upheaval, and partly by the silting up of the debris deposited 



from our rivers and oceanic currents on the shore; and hence 



the Irvine and the Garnock — the two rivers in the district — 



which must have flowed into the sea, at a period not long since, 



in a geological point of view, at least three miles apart, find now 



their exit into the ocean by the one channel. A mile inland, at a 



place called the Water Meetings, where the " Irvine " exposes a 



considerable part of the raised beach, no fewer than four beds of 



shells may be seen, the one immediately over the other, the 



highest and lowest being fully six feet apart. Bones of a huge 



whale (Balcemis mysticelus), which must have measured, judging from 



the size of the occiput, about seventy feet in length, were dug up 



a few years ago in tliis spot. Here, then, we have proof not only 



that the waves dashed on tliis old shore, but that a gradual 



sinking of the land took place previous to its final emergence; for 



this is the only satisfactory way of accounting for the presence of 



so many seams of shells in the positions in which they are here 



found. Two seams of shells have occasionally been observed by 



Professor Jamieson near Micklewood, in the upper reaches of the 



