476 | NATURE 
simply a modification of Wallace’s gas-burner, The improve- 
ment consisted in a simple mechanism whereby the air and gas 
could be shut off by one movement. 
SECTION C.—GroLocy 
Second Report on the Discovery of Fossils in certain remote parts 
of the Norih-western Highlands, by W. Jolly. 
During the past year search has been made at various points 
along the great limestone strike of the North-western Highlands, 
but, with the exception of the Durness basin, from which the 
fossils already collected have been alone obtained, none have 
been found at any new locality. It is most Gesirable that con- 
tinued search should be made for fossils, and to determine if the 
fossiliferous Durners limestone be the same as that in the line of 
strike from Eribol to Skye. 
Report on Earthquakes in Scotland, by Dr. J. Bryce, F.G.S. 
Last year a report on this subject was read at Brighton, 
stating that there had been but little to record during the year 
then reported on; but whilst the Association was sitting a shock 
occurred in the Comrie district, an account of which is given in 
the report now presented. The earthquake occurred on Aug. 8. 
1872, at from 8m. to 1om. past 4 o’clock in the afternoon. The 
successive phases, according to almost all the observers, were :— 
a noise or sound, loud, heavy, and rumbling ; a shock with a 
shaking and rattling of objects ; and a wave-like motion of the 
ground. ‘The undulations appear to have come from the W. 
or N.W.; according to some observers, from the opposite 
direction ; but these probably did not distinguish between the 
first impulse and the recoil. 
The extent of country through which the shock was felt is 
greater than that of any which has occurred since this in- 
quiry was undertaken. The limits are marked by Stirling and 
Blair Logie on the S.E., and by St, Fillans on Loch Earn, and 
Glen Lednock on the N.W. “The shock was feebler at their 
limits than in the country between, as about the Bridge of Allan, 
Dunblane, &c, The breadth of the disturbed area does not 
appear to have extended more than two or three miles from the 
Allan Water ; the shock seems to have emanated near Comrie. 
The geological formations of the district are very various in 
character, and it does not appear that any connection can be 
traced between the nature of the rock forming the surface and 
the severity of the shock. 
Another shock, which occurred at 9.55 P.M. on April 16, 
1873, is briefly described. This was in the South of Scotland, 
in the parishes of Tyrone, Glencairn, and others adjacent. Ac- 
cording to one observer, there was another shock in this district 
at 2.46 A.M. on the following morning. 
Report of the Committee for Exploring the Settle Cave, by 
W, Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S. 
This cave is of great interest, and is heing explored by a local 
committee, aided by a grant from the Brilish Association. In 
the newest layers there is evidence of human occupation during 
the historic period ; but in the older cave earth, which contains 
the remains of extinct mammalia, no trace of man has yet been 
discovered. The exact age of the cave earth is a matter of dis- 
pute, Mr, Tiddeman, from the physical evidence alone, re- 
gards it as pre-glacial, or rather as older than the great ice- 
sheet of that district. Mr. Dawkins, whilst doubting the 
physical evidence afforded by the cave alone, is inclined to 
regard the fauna as pre-glacial, and he remarks :—It is 
obvious that the hyenas, bears, mammoths, and other creatures 
found ia the pleistocene stratum could not have occupied the dis- 
trict when it was covered by ice ; and had they lived soon after 
the retreat of the ice-sheet, their remains would occur in the 
river-gravels, from which they are absent throughout a 
large area to the north of a line drawn between Chester and 
York, whilst they occur abundantly in the first glacial river de- 
posits south of that line. On the other hand, they belong toa 
fauna, that overran Europe, and must have occupied this very 
region, before the glacial period. It may, therefore, reasonably 
be concluded that they occupied the cave in pre-glacial times, 
and that the stratum in which their remains lie buried, was pro» 
tected from the grinding of the ice-sheet, which destroyed nearly 
all the suface accumulations in the river-valleys, by the walls 
and roof of rock, which has since, to a great extent, weathered 
away, 
. en of the Boulder Committee, by.Rev. H. W. Crosskey, 
a. 
1 eS 
[ Oct. 2, 1873 
This committee was appointed at the Brighton meeting t 
collect and tabulate information upon the distribution of errati 
blocks throughout England and Wales. Good work has alread 
been done in Scotland by a committee formed for a simil 
purpose, It is evident that some steps should at once be ta 
to record the existence of remarkable blocks, and if possible 
take some steps to ensure their preservation. , 
The report, which is necessarily chiefly preliminary, describe 
the distribution of boulders around Charnwood Forest, an 
refers to the existence of Charnwood Forest boulders in Shrop 
shire. It also contains a notice, by Mr, Pengelly, of a larg 
granite boulder below the raised beach in Barnstaple Bay. At 
account is given of the place adopted by the Geological Sectio 
of the Birmingham Natural History Society for mapping th 
boulders of their district, 2 plan so effective that we reproduc 
the paragraph referring to it in the hopes that other districts } 
follow the good example here set. ‘The Ordnance map of 
neighbourhood of Birmingham has, in the first place, 
divided by ruled lines with squares of one inch wide, 
square enclosing a representation of one square mile of ‘ 
Enlarged maps, on the scale of six inches to the mile, 
prepared from this. On these enlarged maps the boulders” 
to be marked by circles, the number of concentric circles r 
senting the diameter ofone boulder in feet. For collecting t 
mens of the rocks of which the boulders are composed, bags 
were made and numbered, corresponding to each square on 
map. At the same time notes were to be made of any specim 
that was of unusual interest. Finally it was proposed to rep 
sent, on a duplicate map, the number of boulders and 
character of the rocks by discs of colour, so that a graphic r 
sentation of the boulders as to position, numbers, and kind 
rock, would be given, and the source of any class of boulders, 
granite eg., could be readily traced. It was further proposed 
make a rough relief map of the district, so as to judge in wi 
way the configuration of the country had affected the distributi 
of the boulders. i 
On the Whin Sill of Northumberland, by W. Topley, F.G.S., 
and G, A. Lebour, F.G.S. 3 
This paper, the result of work by the authors during the pro- 
gress of the Geological Survey, was laid before the section | 
permission of the Director-General of the Survey. f 
The basaltic rocks of the North of England occur in t 
forms, either as dykes cutting vertically through the rocks, or 
deds lying amongst them. ‘The intrusive character of the dy] 
is undisputed, but there is much uncertainty prevailing as to th 
character of the beds of basalt. The authors endeavoured 
show that it too is intrusive, and has been forced in a melted 
state through the rocks long after their deposition and parti 
consolidation. ; 
The Whin Sill is best known in Teesdale and along the face o 
the great Pennine escarpment. This district was only b i 
alluded to, partly because it has already been often described, 
especially by Professors Sedgwick and Phillips, but also becaus 
the intrusive character of the rock is less evident there than in 
Northumberland. ag 
An account of the literature of the subject was then ran and 
a MS. section of the Northumberland coast, made in 1822, by Sir 
Walter C. Trevelyan, Bart., was exhibited. Although the Whin 
Sill of more southern districts had been mentioned by earlier 
writers, it was not till the publication of Sir Walter Trevelyan’s 
paper in the Wernerian Transactions for 1823, that attention 
was drawn to the intrusive character of the rock, ~~ 
The Whin Sill is a true basalt, and does not differ in appear- 
ance or composition from the whin dykes of the district. In 
Teesdale it is very uniform in its position amongst the sedimentary 
strata ; for this reason, and because it generally alters but slightly, 
if at all, the rocks above, Prof. Phillips, and most geologists who 
have given most attention to the Teesdale district, believe the 
whin to be of the same date as the beds amongst which tit 
lies. : 
The object of the paper was to show that through Northum- 
berland the Whin Sill is not so constant in position, that it fre- 
quently very greatly alters the beds above it as well as those 
below, and that, in numerous instances, it can be shown to cut 
through the strata in a manner that would be impossible with a _ 
contemporaneous bed, It also varies in position to an extent of 
more than 1000 feet, and often comes up, not in true beds, but — 
in bosses, 
Nothing can be certainly known as to the age of this Whin 
Sill. That it is later than the beds with which it is associated is 
i 
to 
