99 



the back of Salisbury Crags, extends from Arthur Seat to St An- 

 thony's chapel. It is composed of basalt and sandstone, neither of 

 which are like the whin and sandstone of Salisbury Crags. The 

 basalt is the same as that near Duddingston Loch. The stratified 

 matter forms a bed two or three yards thick near St Anthony's 

 chapel. Some of it is very hard, and strikes fire with steel, but ef- 

 fervesces with acids, and has an argillaceous smell, but the greatest 

 part is soft and friable, and seems to be merely the finer debris and 

 powder of the breccia, perhaps a kind of trass or terrass. It con- 

 tains a great many vegetable impressions, with the charred matter 

 still existing. They appear to be the same which are so frequently 

 found in the strata that accompany coal. The large irregular basal- 

 tic columns at St Anthony's chapel rest upon this." P. 214. Dr 

 Fleming stated that he was induced to bring into notice this seem- 

 ingly neglected observation of Townson, as likely to interest those 

 members of the Society who attach themselves to the study of the 

 geology of the district. 



(2.) Mr Lyell, in the first volume of his " Travels in North Ame- . 

 rica," London 1845, p. 258, has the following remarks in reference 

 to the skull of a Walrus, from the tertiary beds of Gayhead, in the 

 island of Martha's Vineyard, Mussachusetts, — " I purchased from a 

 fisherman, residing near the promontory, a fossil skull, which he 

 told me had fallen out of this conglomerate upon the beach below. 

 It retained but a small portion of the original animal matter, was 

 slightly rolled, and Mr Owen recognised it as the cranium of a Wal- 

 rus or Morse, nearly allied to the existing species (Trichecus Ros- 

 marus, Linn.) On comparison it was observed to differ from it, in 

 having six (a misprint for th'ec, as is evident from the figure given of 

 the organism in Plate V.) molar teeth, instead of four on each side of 

 the upper jaw. There are eleven specimens of recent species in the 

 College of Surgeons, in all of which there are no more than four grind- 

 ers on each side. The tusk, also, of the Gayhead fossil has a rounder 

 form than that of the recent Morse (see Plate V.)" Dr Fleming stated 

 that, on perusing the above passage, he was induced to examine the ex- 

 amples of the recent skulls of the Walrus in his possession. This ex- 

 amination led him to observe a degree of irregularity in the denti- 

 tion of this animal, differing from the statement in the passage,AS 

 depending on the appearances of the eleven specimens in the 

 Museum of the College of Surgeons of London. He placed on the 

 table four examples. 



1. In the lir.t specimen there were three grinders on each side, 



