77 



with those of England, the author observed that no formations of a 

 more recent date than the coal series have been met with in the 

 Scottish Lowlands, for tlie red sandstones of that district do not ap- 

 pear in any instance to have been identified with the new red sand- 

 stone of England. Professor Sudgwick and Mr Conybeare have 

 stated some strong reasons, which incline him to refer these Scottish 

 coal-measures to the lower beds of the carboniferous limestone group; 

 and Mr De la Beche has been led by similar considerations to the 

 conclusion, that at the period when the carboniferous limestone of 

 the south of England was produced in the sea, there was probably 

 dry land in the part of the European area not far to the northward 

 of the present Tweed, and that a gradual rise of the land was effect- 

 ed, by which means terrestrial vegetation travelled farther to the 

 south, so that its remains became abundantly entombed in that di- 

 rection, producing the coal now found in southern England and 

 Wales, as also in Belgium and northern Erance, the continuity of 

 the whole being superficially concealed by the secondary and tertiary 

 deposits of those countries. But, as Mr De la Beche justly observes, 

 to trace even the probable extent of dry land over the European area 

 at the carboniferous epoch, would be most difficult, particularly when 

 we recollect that what we term a geological epoch may include a 

 long series of ages. 



2. On the composition of the Rangoon Petroleum, with Re- 

 marks on the composition of Petroleum and Naphtha in 

 general. By William Gregory, M.D., F.R.S.E. 



The author first adverted to the discovery, nearly about the same 

 time, of paraflRne by Reichenbach, and of petroline by Dr Christison. 

 The former occurred among the products of destructive distillation ; 

 the latter was found in the Rangoon petroleum, and they were soon 

 found to be identical. Reichenbach's researches on naphtha were 

 then quoted, by which it appears that that indefatigable observer 

 could not discover, in the kind of naphtha which he examined, any 

 trace either of paraffine, or of any other product of destructive distil- 

 lation. On the contrary, he found that naphtha to possess the cha- 

 racters of oil of turpentine, a product of vegetable lil'e ; and he suc- 

 ceeded in obtaining a precisely similar oil from brown coal by distil- 

 lation at 212". These facts had led Reichenbach to the conclusion 

 that naphtha in general is not a product of destructive distillation, 

 and, consequently, must have been separated at a comparatively low 



