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HA RD WI CKF 'S S CIENCE- G SSI P. 



commander of the " Travailleur." M. Perrier has 

 described it to the Paris Academy. It is distin- 

 guished from other forms chiefly by the composition 

 of its calyx, which is formed of five long (so-called) 

 "basals," making a sort of funnel. These are 

 separated by a circular depression from five rudi- 

 mentary, alternating "radials," on which are five 

 free radials bearing as many arms. In no other fixed 

 crinoid is the width of the calyx so small relatively to 

 the stalk. This new form of crinoid is thought to be 

 of considerable morphological significance. 



The Liverpool Geological Society.— Part 

 4, vol. iv. of the Proceedings of this well-known 

 society have been published, containing papers by 

 Mr. D. Mackintosh, F.G.S., on "Traces of an Inter- 

 glacial land-surface at Crewe ; " " Marine beds and 

 peat beds at Hightown," by Mr. J. M. Reade, F.G.S. ; 

 *' Mammalian remains from ditto," by Mr. F. J. Moore ; 

 " The Subsidence of Land in the Salt Districts of 

 Cheshire," by Thomas Ward ; " The Carboniferous 

 Limestone and Sandstone of Flintshire," by G. H. 

 Morton, F.G.S., and " The Base of the New Red 

 Sandstone around Liverpool," by the same author. 



The Metamorphic Rocks of Ross and 

 Inverness-shire. — The following communication 

 was read at a recent meeting of the Geological 

 Society by Henry Hicks, M.D., F.G.S. The author 

 described numerous sections which have been examined 

 by him in'three separate visits made to the north-west 

 Highlands. In some previous papers, sections in the 

 neighbourhood of Loch Maree had been chiefly referred 

 to. Those now described are to the south and south- 

 east of that area, and occur in the neighbourhoods of 

 Achmashellach, Strathcarron, Loch Carron, Loch 

 Trishm, Attadale, Stronoe Ferry, Loch Alsh, and in the 

 more central areas about Loch Shiel and Loch Eil 

 to the Caledonian Canal. In these examinations the 

 author paid special attention to the stratigraphical 

 evidence, to see whether there were any indications 

 which could in any way be relied upon to prove the 

 theory propounded by Sir R. Murchison that in these 

 areas fossiliferous Lower Silurian rocks dip under 

 thousands of feet of the highly crystalline schists 

 which form the mountains in the more central areas. 

 On careful examination he found that in consequence 

 of frequent dislocations in the strata, the newer rocks 

 were frequently made to appear to dip under the 

 highly crystalline series to the east, though in reality 

 the appearance in each case was easily seen to be due 

 to accidental causes. Evidences of dislocation along 

 this line were most marked ; and the same rocks, in 

 consequence, were seldom found brought together. 

 He recognized in these eastern areas at least two 

 great groups of crystalline schists metamorphosed 

 throughout in all the districts examined, even when 

 regularly bedded and not disturbed or contorted ; 

 and they have representatives in the western areas, 

 among the Hebridean series, which cannot in any 



way be differentiated from them. These he called 

 locally by the names, in descending order, of Ben- 

 Fyn and Loch-Shiel series. The former consist, in 

 their upper part, of silvery mica-schists and gneisses, 

 with white felspar and quartz ; in their lower part, 

 of hornblendic rocks, with bands of pink felspar and 

 quartz, and of chloritic and epidotic rocks and 

 schists. The Loch-Shiel series consists chiefly of 

 massive granitoid gneisses and hornblendic and 

 black mica-schists. Thirty-three microscopical sec- 

 tions of the crystalline schists and the overlying rocks 

 are described by Professor Bonney, and he recognises 

 amongst them three well-marked types. In No. I 

 he includes the Torridon sandstone, the quartzites 

 and the supposed overlying flaggy beds on the east 

 side of Glen Laggan. These are partially metamor- 

 phosed, only distinct fragments are always easily 

 recognizable in them in abundance. In No. 2, the 

 Ben-Fyn type, the rocks are crystalline throughout, 

 being typical gneisses and mica-schists. In No. 3, 

 the Loch-Shiel series, he recognizes highly typical 

 granitic gneisses of the Lower Hebridean type. Dr. 

 Hicks failed to find in these areas at any point the 

 actual passage from group 1 to group 2 ; neither did 

 the same rocks belonging to group 1 meet usually 

 the same rocks belonging to group 2. The evidence 

 everywhere showed clearly that the contacts between 

 these two groups were either produced by faults or 

 by overlapping. Group 3, placed by Murchison as 

 the highest beds in a synclinal trough, supported by 

 the fossiliferous rocks, the author regarded as 

 composed of the oldest rocks in a broken anticlinal. 

 They are the most highly crystalline rocks in these 

 areas ; and the beds of group 2 are thrown off on 

 either side in broken folds. These, again, support 

 the rocks belonging to group I. The author there- 

 fore feels perfectly satisfied that the crystalline schists 

 belonging to groups 2 and 3, which compose the 

 mountainsin the central areas, do not repose conform- 

 ably upon the Lower Silurian rocks of the north-west 

 areas with fossils, and that these highly crystalline rocks 

 cannot therefore be the metamorphosed equivalents of 

 the comparatively unaltered, yet highly disturbed and 

 crumpled, richly fossiliferous Silurian strata of the 

 southern Highlands, but are, like other truly cry- 

 stalline schists examined by him in the British Isles, 

 evidently of pre-Cambrian age. In an Appendix by 

 Professor T. G. Bonney, F.R.S., Sec.G.S., on the 

 Lithological Characters of a series of Scotch Rocks 

 collected by Dr. Hicks, the author stated that he 

 observed in the above series, as he had done in other 

 Scotch rocks lately examined by him, three rather 

 well-marked types : — one, where, though there is a 

 certain amount of metamorphism among the finer 

 constituents forming the matrix, all the larger grains 

 of quartz, felspar, and perhaps mica, are of clastic 

 origin ; a second, while preserving a bedded structure 

 and never likely to be mistaken for an igneous rock, 

 being indubitably of clastic origin, retains no certain 



