Notices and Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 263 



The Rev. Dr Scot read a communication on the Zehi of the Seriptm-es — 

 the Roe of the English translation — which he considered ought to be rendered 

 Mountain Gazelle. 



Some meteorological tables, exhibiting the state of the weather in the 

 Isle of Man, from 1824 to 1830, and in other parts of the kingdom, were 

 laid on the table by Professor Jameson. 



An account of the structure of the fossil trees of Van Diem en's Land, 

 by Mr Nicol, was then read. Some fine specimens, which had been trans- 

 mitted to Professor Jameson, were exhibited ; as well as a series of recent 

 and fossil woods, prepared by Mr Nicol, on the plan described in a former 

 number of this Journal, (Vol. Ill, p. 62.) so as to illustrate the structure 

 in the clearest manner. Most of the specimens from Van Diemen's Land, 

 were at once referable to the Coniferce. 



March 19. Professor Jameson read a notice of a subterranean forest, 

 discovered in the coal formation near to Glasgow ; communicated by James 

 Smith, Esq. of Jordan-hill. Several trees were discovered, many feet 

 below the surface, vertically imbedded in a stratum of sandstone, but with 

 the trunks abruptly cut off by the superincumbent shale. The bark is 

 converted into coal ; but the woody structure, for a considerable space down- 

 wards, is of a shaly nature.* 



A catalogue of coleopterous insects, collected in the neighbourhood of 

 Edinburgh, by Mr Duncan, was next laid before the society. Little has 

 been done hitherto for the entomology of Scotland. Many yearns ago, a list 

 of insects, known to have been found in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, 

 was drawn up by the late Mr Charles Stewart, and published in the first 

 volume of the Memoirs of the Wernerian Society ,- but, in this list, scarcely 

 more than one hundred species of coleoptera are recorded. Mr Duncan has 

 extended the list to neariynfity5€i:J^ypdrp4-Sfkepif§.T.t m. , 



GLASGOW^^W m «i 



Andersonian University of Glasgow — A dinner was given on the 22d of 

 last month, to commemorate the opening of the splendid museum which has 

 recently been fitted up in the Andersonian University ; and, to describe 

 which, we may be here pardoned a slight digression, previously to entering 

 on a detail of the festivity. 



Those who have not entered the Andersonian buildings since last year, 

 would now scarcely know their interior, so much has it been altered by the 

 judicious arrangements made by the able and public-spirited managers. A 

 handsome staircase, in the west wing, leads to the anteroom of the museum, 

 from which the stranger is ushered into a rotunda of noble dimensions, 

 being 52 feet in diameter, and 30 feet high. It is lighted with seven 

 windows on the ground floor, with glass cases between them, filled with 

 quadrupeds, South Sea and Indian dresses and arms, antiquities, and 

 geological specimens. Immediately over the windows there is a gallery, 

 supported on richly ornamented consoles ; a stair, with a double flight of 

 steps, leads to the gallery ; a range of glass cases, all round, is filled with 

 the Sabine collection of birds ; the whole is surmounted by a dome, from 

 the centre of which a large sky-light throws a strong and steady light on the 

 upper range of glass cases, and on the floor, on which there is exhibited, in 

 tables, an extensive series of minerals, fossils, organic remains, shells, coins, 

 medals, and antiquities. These are in general clearly arranged, and carefully 

 and elegantly named, and at the head of the flight of steps leading to the 



I* Under the escort of Mr Smith, we have recently had an opportunity of seeing this 

 splendid phenomenon. Imbedded in the solid mass of sandstone, are the forests as they 

 jfrew in a former world! There are only a few persons capable of asserting that these 

 trees are not m situ. We shall notice them in our next. -—Ed. 

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