4'62' Horticidlural Society. 



under which the remains of quadrupeds were very generally 

 found imbedded in the shell marie in Scotland, often at con- 

 siderable depths, and far from the borders of those lakes in 

 which the marie is accumulated. 



These animals must have been drowned when the lakes 

 were of a certain depth. Their bones are found in the marie, 

 unaccompanied by sand or gravel or any pro<;fs of disturbing 

 forces. From the shape of the surrounding land in some in- 

 stances, it appears that floods could not have swe])t them in ; 

 and from the occasional absence of rivers flowing into others, 

 they could not have been washed in by them. 



The author therefore suggests that they were lost in attempt- 

 ing to cross the ice in winter, the water never freezing suffi- 

 ciently hard above the springs to bear their weight, and springs 

 abounding always in those lakes in Forfarshire and Perthshire 

 in which marie is deposited. 



The skeletons of some of the animals found in the shell 

 marie in Forfarshire are in a vertical position, but some are 

 not The same circumstance has been remarked with regard 

 to the elks occurring in the marie in the Isle of Man. Of these 

 facts Mr. Lyell offers the following explanation. 



Cattle which are lost in bogs and marshes sink in and die 

 in an erect posture, and are often found with their heads only 

 appearing above the surface of the ground. "When therefore 

 a lake in which marie is deposited is shallow, the quadrupeds 

 which fall through the ice sink into the marie in the same 

 manner, and perish in an upright posture, but when the lake 

 is deep and the animals are dead before they reach the bottom, 

 they become enveloped in the marie in any position rather 

 than the vertical. 



HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



May 2. — The Anniversary of the Society, the President 

 (Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq.) in the Chair. The following 

 were chosen officers for the ensuing year. 



President: Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq. — Treasurer: 

 John Elliot, Esq. — Secretary : Joseph Sabine, Esq. — Assistant 

 Secretary : Mr. John Turner. 



The following gentlemen were elected into the vacancies in 

 the Council. 



The Duke of Bedford ; Alexander Seton, Esq. ; Mr. James 

 Young. 



The following Members of the Council were appointed Vice- 

 Presidents for the ensuing year. 



The F-arl of Aberdeen ; John Elliot, Esq. ; Robert Henry 

 Jenkinson, Esq. ; Alexander Henderson, M.D. 



May 3. 



