78 REPORT— 1870. 



On some Points in the Geoloc/y of Strath, Isle of SJci/e, 

 By Professors King mid Eownet. 



The authors entered into a minute description of a section of the east shore of 

 Loch Slappin. The rocks consist of syenite, overlaid hy serpentinous marble or 

 ophite, and a number of imaltered stratified deposits following in consecutive order. 

 An unbroken passage was traced from the marble to the highest beds ; the latter 

 are more or less charged with Liassic fossils. The following conclusions were 

 come to by the authors : — (1) That the ophite of Strath is an altered rock of the 

 Liassic period, as long ago maintained by Macculloch and Geikie ; (2) that it 

 possesses the same microscopic features as those, supposed by some to be of organic 

 origin, which occur in a corresponding rock of earlier geological ages, known in 

 Canada, Connemarra, and elsewhere ; (3) that igneous action, developing a gra- 

 nitic rock, and producing decided metamorphism in an adjacent deposit, has 

 operated at a later geological period in Skye than in any other part of the British 

 islands. Referring to their published memoirs in the ' Quart. Joum. Geol. Soc' 

 vol. xxiL 1866, and the ' Proc. Roy. Irish Acad.' vol. x. 1870, in which certain of 

 the above microscopic features in the Skye ophite were fii-st made known, the 

 authors in the present paper announced their discovery of some others, which 

 completely identify this comparatively modern rock with the " eozoonal " marble 

 of Canada, belonging to the Laurentian system ; and they maintained that the 

 repeated occurrence, so often pointed out by them, of " chamber casts " (grains of 

 serpentine, &c.), "canal system" (metaxite, &c.), and "nummuline layer" (chry- 

 sotile), in metamorphic or crystalline rocks only, proves in the simplest manner the 

 purely mineral origin of the so-called " Eozoon Canadense." Sections and numerous 

 specimens, including a large block of the Skye " eozoonal " marble, were exhibited. 



On the Discovery of Upper Silurian HocJcs in Roxburgh and Dumfriesshire. 



By Chakles Lapwoeth. 



On the Tertiary Coal-field of Soidliern Chile. 

 By G. A. Leboxtr, i^.ff.yS. 6fc., and W. Mtindle, M.E. 



The coal-formation of Chile occupies a marginal position along the western 

 coast of South America, extending from Talcahuano near Concession on the north, 

 to the Straits of Magellan on the south. It rests unconformably upon mica-schists 

 and other metamoi-phic rocks, which form the main geological featui-e of the coimtry. 



The coals are for the most part of an inferior description, mere lignites in fact. 

 The accompanying rocks are alternating sandstones (grey, white, and yellow), shales 

 and indurated clays, tnae underclays, and occasional bands of calcareous matter. A 

 detailed typical section of the strata at Coronel was given by the authors. 



The fossils of these beds belong, some of them, to what in Eui'ope would be un- 

 doublcd secondary age ; for various reasons, which he will defer to another paper, 

 Mr. G. A. Lebour believes with Darwin that they indicate more probably a very 

 early Tertiary age. 



The other portions of the paper refen-ing to the mode of deposition &c, of the 

 beds in question cannot be written in short without the aid of figures. 



On the Stratigraphical Distribution of the British Fossil Gasteropoda. 

 By J. L. LoBLET, F.G.S. 



On the Silurian Formations of the Centre of Belgium. 

 By Professor Constantine Malaise (of Gemhloux). 



M. Malaise pointed out that the terrain ardoisier of D'Omalius dTIalloy (the 

 Ai'dennais and Rh^nan formations of Dumont) are the representatives of the Cam- 

 brian, Silurian, and Devonian rocks of England. He has attempted to establish 

 the analogues in Belgium, where at first the references to English types were in- 

 correct. 



