142 Proceedings of Philosophical Societies. {[Aue. 
parallel copper vein, and by the oblique course of a channel of 
porphyry, was lost, and exercised the skill of the ablest Cornish 
miners for more than 40 years before it was recevered. A descrip- 
tion of the particular deviations produced in the course of the vein 
by each of these disturbing causes is given in this paper, and its 
accompanying plans and sections. 
WERNERIAN SOCIETY. 
At the meeting on 2Ist January, Mr. P. Syme laid before the 
Society an account of some remarkable atmospheric appearances 
observed by him during a thunder-storm on the 29th of July 1814, 
accompanied with several beautiful drawings executed by him from 
sketches which he took at the moment. 
At the meeting on 4th February was read an essay on the germi- 
nation and physical economy of ferns, by Dr. Yule.—At the same 
meeting there was read an account of the mineralogy of the Red 
Head, by Dr. Fleming. The Red Head is a well known promon- 
tory in the county of Forfar. The rocks consist of sand-stone and 
gravel-stone. The author seemed inclined to consider these rocks 
as mechanical deposits, as they bear the closest resemblance in all 
respects, except in being cemented, to beds of sand and gravel in 
the neighbourhood. ‘The sand-stone belongs to the old red sand- 
stone formation, in which many_trap-recks rising into hills, such 
as the Ochils, and hills of Kinnoul and Perth, occur in the form 
of great beds. 
At the meeting on 25th February, Professor Jameson read a 
short account of the places where fossil remains of elephants have 
been found, and exhibited the tooth of a mammoth discovered by 
William Auld, Esq. in Hudson’s Bay, this being the first time 
that such remains have been observed so far.to the northward in 
America. Professor Jameson also read a notice concerning the 
indurated tale which occurs in quantity in the island of Unet, one 
of the Zetlands, and which, he stated, might be profitably brought 
to market, the article being in demand for removing stains from 
silks, &c. and selling at a considerable price. 
At the meeting on the 11th of March, Professor Jameson read 
the continuation of his mineralogy of the Lothians. 
At the meeting on 25th March was read a description of a new 
species of water ouzel or dipper, found in this country by James 
Wilson, Esq. A specimen of the young bird and a drawing of the 
bird in full plumage were exhibited. It differs from the common 
‘ouzel chiefly in the deep rufous band on the lower breast being 
wanting, and in the breast feathers being marked with transverse 
“waved lines, from which last circumstance Mr. Wilson proposes to 
call it Aquatilis undulatus. 
. At-different meetings of the Wernerian Society in January, Fe- 
bruary and March, a paper by Mr. Scoresby junior of Whitby, on 
Polar Ice, and the Practicability of a Journey to the Pole, excited 
much interest, 
