45^ 



NATURE 



\Sdpt. 2 1, 1876 



to transform chinoline into aniline. Chinoline, or more probably 

 a mixture of the two bases, CgH^N, and CmllgN yields, on oxida- 

 tion, a new acid having the formula CgHgNOj ; when treated 

 with potash lime this acid yields aniline and ammonia only. 

 The author of the paper thought that probably two intermediate 

 bodies are formed, the latter of which has the same formula as 

 indol. Prof. Dewar hopes to separate this body. This investi- 

 gation shows that the bases of the pyridene series are related to 

 the aromatic nucleus of the benzene series. 



Dr. Tilden described his investigation on the Nitrosodtriva- 

 tives of the Ttrpenes. So far as his experiments have gone, he 

 has found but two different nitroso-compounds having the formula 

 C10H15NO— one of these melts at 70°, and the other at 129°. 

 Dr. Tilden also described a substance, isomeric with purpurin, 

 C14H8O5, produced by the action of chromic acid upon either of 

 the aloms. Mr. Dittmar made some remarks on Reboul's paper 

 on pyrotartaric acid ; and also described at some length experi- 

 ments on the analysis of coal-gas. He did not consider that the 

 ultimate analysis of coal-gas gave any reliable information as to 

 i!s illuminating power. He showed that benzene vapour may 

 exist in coal-gas, but that by passage into an ordinary gas-holder 

 the greater part of that vapour is removed by the water in the 

 gas-holder. A i^fi other papers were read relating to technical 

 chemistry. 



Altogether the section may be congratulated on having got 

 through a fair amount of honest work. 



SECTION C— Geology. 



Notices of Terraces, Flats, and Haughs at High Levels in 

 the Carron Valley, near Falkirk, by Dr. D. Milne-Home, 

 F.G S.— In the region in question the author said there was 

 highest of all, and first in point of date, a terrace of gravel 150 feet 

 above the present sea-level. The form of this platform was due 

 to the arranging action of water, and' probably of the sea. Near 

 its edge it is much denuded and cut into by streams, the frag- 

 ments now remaining having been sometimes pared down by the 

 action of rivers on either side into sinuous round-backed 

 mounds which in form and structure are exactly what are known 

 as Kaims or Eskars. 



Below this level and skirting the rivers, especially the Carron 

 and Bonny, near their confluence, are two distinct sets of haughs 

 or alluvial flats, the one set, covered by ordinary floods and 

 standing about ten feet above the present level of the streams, 

 the other and older set standing 35 feet above the sea- level, and 

 formed by the rivers, while the latter ran at a higher level than 

 that of their present channel, a level which the author judged 

 might be about 25 feet, allowing 10 feet for the ordinary height 

 of floods then as now. At this period, the author maintained, 

 the streams had not begun to cut 4own to their present 

 levels, as they in all probability debouched on a sea which is 

 now represented by the well-known "Twenty-five foot raised 

 beach." 



On the Earthquake Districts of Scotland, by Dr. James Bryce, 

 F.G S. — Dr. Bryce observed that there are two lines along 

 which earthquakes are commonly observed, the one running 

 from Inverness through the North of Ireland, to Galway Bay, 

 and the other passing east and west through Comrie. The phe- 

 nomena of earthquakes in the latter district are now being syste- 

 matically observed and recorded, under the direction of a com- 

 mittee appointed by the British Association, seismometers being 

 employed on the two principles of vertical pendulums and deli- 

 cately poised cylinders. Arrangements have been made to as- 

 certain whether shocks in this region can be traced to any 

 common central point, there being reason to believe them to be 

 connected with a mass of granite in Glen Lednoch, whose posi- 

 tion was indicated on a map exhibited by the author. 



The existence in the vicinity of Comrie of important lines of 

 fracture in the earth's crust was pointed out, and it was sug- 

 gested that these might be records of earthquakes in remote 

 geological times. One of these lines of fracture is filled up with 

 a dyke of basaltic rock, traceable from the Melville Monument, 

 near Comrie, to Loch Lubnaig, and belonging to the series of 

 dykes now regarded as of Miocene age. The other line of frac- 

 ture is much older, and divides (with an enormous displacement) 

 the Lower Old Red formation from the Metamorphic rocks of the 

 highlands. 



For the Comrie earthquakes, Dr. Bryce was inclined to accept 

 Mr. Mallet's explanation, viz., the shock produced by the fall of 

 masses of rock from the roof of some subterranean cavity. 



As a remarkable manifestation of earthquake activity, Dr. 

 Bryce alluded to a sudden rise of 2^ feet in the level of Loch 

 Earn, described in a former report of the Earthquake Com- 

 mittee. On that occasion no change in the atmospheric pres- 

 sure was indicated by the barometer. It was several hours 

 before the motion of the lake's surface, produced by the shock, 

 subsided. 



On the Parallel Roads of Glen Roy, by Dr. D. Milne-Home, 

 F.G.S. — Dr. Milne- Home exhibited a map showing the parallel 

 roads as laid down by the Ordnance Survey, and the positions 

 of the barriers necessary for the damming-up of the lake at the 

 successive stages marked by the several beaches or "roads." 

 The author rejected the theory of a marine origin for the beaches, 

 and declared himself unable to accept Prof. Tyndall's view that 

 the lakes were barred by glaciers protruding from lateral valleys. 



He then went on to show that solid barriers, not of ice, but of 

 detritus, would alone account for the phenomena in question. 

 The cutting through of the barriers would account for the different 

 levels of the roads. The author pointed out that in the positions 

 where the detrital barriers must have stood, the roads stop short 

 abruptly. 



It was pointed out on the map that the detrital mounds in 

 Glen Spean make a horse-shoe bend, with the convexity up the 

 valley. They could not therefore have been derived from a 

 glacier coming down Glen Spean, or from the lateral valley of 

 Loch Treig. Mr. Milne-Home ascribed them. to the droppings 

 of icebergs floating eastward up the valley. 



Mr. J. Macfadzean also read a paper On the Parallel Roads oj 

 Glen Roy, supporting the marine theory of their origin. 



On the Geology of FouUi, Shitlands, by G. A. Gibson, M.B., 

 B.Sc. — The author had constructed from his own observations a 

 geological map of the island, which was exhibited on the wall. 

 A fault running north and south divides Foula into two regions 

 of very diflerent aspect. On the eastern or upthrow side of the 

 fault the rock is a foliated gneiss, much folded and faulted, and 

 copiously veined with red granite and to a less extent with grey 

 granite. There is no granie mass in sttn in the neighbourhood 

 whence these veins may be supposed to have radiated. The 

 gneiss resembles in character and also in its general strike the 

 Laurentian of the north-west of Scotland. 



On the western side of the fault the rocks are flags and sand- 

 stones identical with the Lower Old Red beds of the Shetland 

 Islands, although in Foula no fossils have been detected in them. 

 They dip at first at a high angle away from the fault, but gradu- 

 ally become flatter westwards, till they are almost horizontal at 

 the sea. Their thickness is estimated by Mr. Gibson at 6,600 

 feet. 



The granite dykes do not traverse the Old Red rocks. 



On the function of Granite and Old Red Sandstone in Arran, 

 by E. Wiinsch, F.G.S. — The author described and illustrated, 

 by diagrams, sections at Eas na Oich and Corrie, exhibiting a 

 passage from Old Red flags and Conglomerates to the granite 

 of the central nucleus of the island. This fact, the author said, 

 would necessitate the alteration at the points in question, of Dr, 

 Bryce's and Prof. Ramsay's maps, which agreed in representing 

 the granitic nucleus as surrounded by a ring of slates, there being 

 no slates at least as far south as Mouldon. He mentioned that 

 everywhere at the point of contact with the Old Red Sandstone 

 the granite was delicately mottled or clouded, as though the 

 black film of the absorbed mass had remained floating and 

 became fixed in the white pasty mass, and this appearance, he 

 held, was in itself sufficient to point to a junction of granite with 

 rock other than slate, for, though innumerable instances might 

 be seen in other parts of the island of junctions of granite with 

 true slate, in not a single instance was the adjoining granite 

 affected in this particular manner. 



A suite of rock specimens was exhibited showing the passage 

 of the sedimentary rocks into granite. 



On the most recent Researclies into the Structure and Affinities 

 of the Plants of the Coal MeaiUres, by Prof. W. C. Williamson, 

 F.R.S. — Prof. Williamson expressed his strong conviction that 

 the flora of the Coal Measures would ultimately become the 

 battle-field on which the question of evolution with reference to 

 the origin of species would be fought out. There would pro- 

 bably never be found another unbroken period of a duration 

 equal to that of the Coal Measures. P^urther, the roots, seeds, 

 and whole reproductive structure of the Coal-measure plants are 

 all present in an unequalled state of preservation. With refer- 

 ence to Calamites, Prof. Williamson said that what had formerly 

 been regarded as such had turned out to be only casts in san^ 

 and mud of the pith of the true plant. 



