30 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



we are informed that Wodrow was born in 1680, and died 

 in 1734. "Besides his worth as a minister, he was a man of 

 extraordinary industry and application to such researches as 

 were connected with the antiquities of Scotland. . . . He 

 was among the first who attended to natural history in this 

 country, and he left behind him a small museum of fossils, 

 chiefly collected from his own parish, and also a collection of 

 medals." * 



The iirst work published bearing on Scotch Carboniferous 

 Palaeontology is that remarkable and scholarly book, "The 

 History of Kuthergien and East Kilbride,"i- by the Eev. David 

 Ure. In this clever work, which, as the title denotes, is partly 

 antiquarian, partly historical, many pages are devoted to the 

 geology of the district. Indeed, the whole of the sixth chapter 

 treats of the "Extraneous Fossils" found around East Kilbride, 

 and contains " An account of vegetable impressions, petrified 

 wood, shells, entrochi, coralloids, and fishes' teeth." The major- 

 ity of lire's fossils were collected at " Laurieston," a locality 

 which has been ascertained by Mr James Bennie to be the 

 Brankamhall, East Kilbride, of the present day. % 



Ure's book occupies the same position with regard to 

 Scotch Palasontology that the equally classic work of Lhwyd,§ 

 published at a much earlier date, does to that of England 

 and Wales. 



A very interesting life of Ure has appeared from the pen 

 of Mr John Gray, " Biographical Notice of the Eev. David 

 Ure," etc., II who, speaking of the "History," considers it to 

 be " the production of no common mind, and contains within 

 itself material of much more than a local value." IT 



David Ure, born in Glasgow, Mr Gray tells us, was the 

 son of a weaver. He educated himself under disadvantage- 

 ous circumstances, but after passing through a course of study 

 at Glasgow University, was licensed and appointed assistant 

 in the ministry of East Kilbride. In 1796 he was presented 



* Stat. Ace. Scotland, 1796, xviii., pp. 210, 211. 



+ Pp. 334, pis. 20, 8vo, Glasgow, 1793. 



X Davidson, Geologist, iii., p. 17. 



§ Lithophylacii Britannici Iclmograpliia, etc., 8vo, Oxonii, 1699. 



II Pp. 59, 8vo, Glasgow, 1865. II Loc. ciL, p. v. 



