TRANSACTIONS OF THB SECTIONS. 81 



Now, five of the canoes were discovered on, or near these terraces, under the 

 streets, viz. one near the bottom of the ridge ; two within a few yards of each 

 other at the City Cross, on a lower terrace, one whereof was in a vertical position 

 with the prow uppermost as if it had sunk in a storm, and had within it a number 

 of marine shells ; a fourth was dug out further down the slope ; and the fifth under 

 what is now St. Enoch's parish church, within 200 yards from, and at an elevation 

 of about ten feet above the river bank, being the lowermost terrace. In this last 

 canoe was a stone hatchet, still preserved. The three first-mentioned boats lay at 

 points far above all river action, and could not have been drifted by the mere stream 

 of the Clyde to their resting-places. 



The remaining twelve canoes were discovered within the last ten years, still lower 

 down, during extensive operations for improving and widening the harbour. Large 

 portions of the river banks were cut away, and these canoes were found. They lay 

 in groups in a very thick bed of finely laminated sand, on the lands of Springfield, 

 Clyde-haugh, Bankton, &c., at an average depth of about twenty vertical feet, and . 

 at a distance of more than 100 yards back from the river edge, as laid down in the 

 oldest maps. One of these canoes had gone down prow foremost, and was sticking 

 in the sand at an angle of 45 degrees ; another had been capsized, and lay bottom 

 uppermost ; all the rest were in a horizontal position, as if they had sunk in smooth 

 water. 



These facts seem to warrant the conclusion that, at the time the canoes floated, 

 a sea or estuary, several miles wide, and reaching far up the country, existed at 

 what is now Glasgow, washing the base of the hills on both sides of the valley ; and 

 that this ancient sea retired either by the recession o( the waters, or the elevation of 

 the bottom, by degrees, with long pauses between, which occasioned the formation 

 of the terraces, or deserted beaches already noticed. The tide is still perceptible 

 three miles above Glasgow, at the little burgh of Rutherglen, where a canoe similar 

 to those described in the outset was found in 1830, at a considerable elevation, and 

 a long way back from the river, as recorded in the ' New Statistical Account of 

 Scotland,' vol. vi. p. 601. 



On the Auriferous Quartz Formation of Australia. By J. A. Campbell. 

 Mr. Campbell was of opinion that the gold fields are inexhaustible, and the finding 

 of gold only in its infancy. Boundless fields lie still untouched, which will employ the 

 labour of ages yet to come, when efiBcient machinery shall have been brought to 

 operate upon the rocks. 



On Denudation and other effects usually attributed to Water. 

 By Robert Chambers, F.G.S. 



On the Probable Maximum Depth of the Ocean. By W. Darling. 



Mr. Darling suggested, that as the sea covers three times the area of the land, it 

 is reasonable to suppose that the depth of the ocean, and that for a large portion, is 

 three times as great as the height of the highest mountains. 



On the Fossils of the Coal Formation of Nova Scotia. 



By J. W. Dawson, Principal of MacGill College, Montreal. 



[The paper was illustrated by a rich collection of specimens.] 



Mr. Dawson said, that the strata of the coal-measures in Nova Scotia extend to 



a depth of no less than 14,000 feet, containing sixty distinct surfaces, covered with 



plants and trees. He spoke of the marine and land deposits collected in the deltas, 



where the roots of the Calamite held together the mud which, forming into flats, 



sank down to receive others. 



Many of the fossil remains described by Mr. Dawson as existing in the coal for- 

 mations of Nova Scotia are to be found also in the coal-fields of Scotland. 



1855. 6 



