128 The Geology of the Cluden Basin. 



the most characteristic customs of the Northmen, viz., the blood- 

 feud and fostering. 



Tales from the Sagas were then quoted to illustrate the 

 belief in dreams, in ghosts, and second sight, the broad humour 

 and the simple pathos of these fine narratives, the simplicity 

 and directness of whose style has never been surpassed. 



In conclusion, Mr Bremner read a summarised version of 

 one of the most romantic of the Sagas, that of " Gunnlaug the 

 Worm-tongue and Rafn the Skald." 



4th 3I(ncJi, 1910. 



Chairman — Mr Hugh S. Gladstone, M.A., F.Z.S., President. 



The Geology of the Cluden Basin and its Relation to the 

 Scenery. By Mr R. Wallace. 



Our native land has within its borders scenes of rare and 

 fascinating beauty, which give to it a grandeur and a glory all its 

 own. These scenes are engraven on the memory of her sons and 

 daughters scattered throughout the world — they are enshrined in 

 their hearts, and, while Scotsmen revere the land of their birth 

 for its rich heritage of patriots, saints, and martyrs, interwoven 

 with the halo of history are those beautiful mental pictures of 

 mountain and moor, of burn and glen, in endless variety and rich 

 detail. That emotion was happily expressed by the High Priest 

 of Nature, William Wordsworth, in these beautiful lines referring 

 to his youth : — 



" The stiunding cataract 

 Haunted me like a passion; the tall rock, 

 The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood. 

 Their colours and their forms were then to me 

 An appetite ; a feeling and a love." 



And again in his later years : 



" Therefore am I still 

 A lover of the meadows and the woods, 

 And mountains ; and of all that we behold 

 From this green earth; of all the mightv world." 



