994 REPORT—1885.- 
SECTION C.—GEOLOGY. 
PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION—Professor J. W. Jupp, F.R.S., Sec. G.S. 
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 
The PrestpEnT delivered the following Address :— 
As this city is the only place within the limits of the Scottish Highlands where our 
Association holds its annual gatherings, it is fitting that the attention of those who 
meet in this Section should, on the present occasion, be specially directed to the 
grand problems of Highland geology. Six-and-twenty years have passed since the 
members of this Section assembled here, under the presidency of my dear friend, my 
revered master, Charles Lyell. Few now present can have actually listened to the 
stormy discussions of that memorable occasion, but all are familiar with the nature 
of the problems which in the year 1859 were here so keenly debated. It is true 
that the fires of these controversies have now almost died out, and from their ashes 
haye arisen the new problems which confront us to-day; but it will not, I think, 
be without profit to direct your attention for a few minutes to those two subjects 
which constituted the ‘ burning questions’ of that time—the age of the Crystalline 
Rocks of the Highlands, and the geological position of the Reptiliferous Sandstone 
of Elgin. 
With respect to the first of these questions, there are especial reasons why I 
should briefly review the discussions which have taken place in connection with it. 
It was in the meetings of this Section of the British Association that the successive 
stages of the controversy were gradually developed. It was at a former meeting 
of the Association in this city that James Nicol submitted to the scientific world 
that splendid solution of a difficult problem, which is now universally admitted to 
have been the correct one. This university was, during the last twenty-seven years 
of his active, useful, and honoured life, the scene and centre of the labours of that 
profound but modest thinker to whom we owe so much. Lest it should seem pre- 
sumption on my part to speak on the question, I mayadd that for some years before 
his death it was my good fortune to enjoy the friendship and confidence of the late 
Professor Nicol, with whom I had several opportunities of discussing the great 
questions at issue between himself and Murchison. Seeing, as I do to-day, his own 
great claims too often forgotten or ignored, I feel that should I, on this occasion, 
hold my peace— the very stones would cry out.’ It will indeed be an unfortunate 
day for our republic of science when the palm of recognition—withheld from him 
whom modesty and self-respect restrain from clamorous self-assertion—is permitted 
to be snatched away by the bold and noisy advertiser of his own claims. 
Nearly seventy years ago, John Macculloch—that distinguished pioneer in 
Scottish geology—was able to prove that in our Western Highlands there exists a 
grand formation, made up of red sandstones and quartzite, both exhibiting un- 
mistakable evidence of a sedimentary origin. He also pointed out that, associated 
with these red sandstones and quartzites, are beds of limestone, which are often 
altogether destitute of crystalline characters, and are sometimes bituminous, while 
they occasionally contain fossils. 
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