Address of the President. 37 



silt carried over it by the tributary streamlets that flow into 

 the river, now the main outfall. And what becomes of the 

 great accumulation of peat that from one to six feet thick 

 caps the summits of the mountain-ranges that border Alpine 

 valleys? It is furrowed throughout into guUies, and the 

 winter's storms daily wash it down into the chief stream of 

 the valley, where it is collected as mosses in the bays, fills up 

 and forms the base of meadows where the water runs slug- 

 gish, and some is carried down even to the sea. But the time 

 for the accumulation of peat is just as varied as the circum- 

 stances of the localities where it is formed or deposited ; and 

 it is only by seeing "how these bear upon and check each 

 other " that we can arrive at any certain results. There are 

 very great opportunities for studying this within our range, 

 and I trust they will be taken advantage of. 



And next we come to the olden history and antiquities. 

 In this department much has been lost and much ruthlessly 

 destroyed and wasted, but a great deal is yet remaining. The 

 discovery of weapons, implements, and works of art, formed 

 by the hand of man, in conjunction with the remains of 

 animals that lived anterior to any historic tradition of their 

 existence in caves, and formations to which great age has 

 been ascribed, has invested this branch of research, and the 

 various weapons and implements of the stone and iron ages, 

 with more than usual interest, as upon the first is also chiefly 

 based the theory of the great antiquity of man ; and we cannot 

 too closely study, and compare together, all the forms of manu- 

 facture that occur most carefully with the position and con- 

 ditions in which they are found. Next in order, perhaps, are 

 the ancient lake dxvelUngs discovered in different parts of the 

 world, so far distant as New Guinea, and in various lakes in 

 Europe and Great Britain. Within our o^vn range, upon the 

 draining of Carlinwark Loch, Kirkcudbrightshire, in 1765, 

 various erections of both stone and wood were brought to 

 light ; and when the lochs within our range shall have beea 



