74 



December 15. 1834. 



JAMES RUSSELL, Esq., Vice-President, in the Chair. 



The following Donations were presented : — 



Memoires de I'Acadeniie Imperiale de St Petersbourg, (Sciences Ma- 

 thematiques, &c.). Tome ii. Livraisons 5 et 6. 



Memoires de I'Academie Imperiale de St Petersbourg, (Sciences 

 Politiques, &c.). Tome ii. Livraisons 2, 3, 4, 5. 



Memoires de I'Academie Imperiale de St Petersbourg (par divers 

 Savans.) Tome ii. Livraisons 1, 2, 3. 



Recueil des Seances publiques de TAcademie Imperiale de St Pe- 

 tersbourg, tenues en Decembre 1826, Decembre 1827, and 

 Decembre 1833. 



Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature of the United King- 

 dom. Vol. 2. — From the Society. 



Memoires de la Societe de Physique et d'Histoire Naturelle de Ge- 

 neve. Tome vi. — From the Society, 



The following Communications were read : — 



1. General Remarks on the Coal Formation of the Great 

 Valley of the Scottish Lowlands. By Major-General 

 Lord Greenock. 



In this paper the author stated, that although there is sufficient 

 evidence in the mechanical origin and organic contents of the beds 

 (some of them of extraordinary thickness and extent) which form the 

 coal-measures, to prove the pre-existence of much larger tracts of dry 

 land, in connection with each other, than could possibly have been 

 afforded by the older portions of the present countries ; such proofs 

 are altogether wanting when we endeavour to restore, in imagination, 

 what might have been the probable extent of that land, the greater 

 part of which may now lie buried beneath the ocean, or have since 

 been covered by more recent deposits. It appears, however, to have 

 been clothed with a luxuriant tropical vegetation, and sufficiently 

 elevated to have given rise to the rivers and torrents, by which the 

 materials for composing the coal strata had been carried down into 

 the lakes or esiuaries, where to all appearance they were deposited. 



The circumstances in which the large fossil trees are seen imbed- 



