680 EEPORT— 1881. 



difterentiated, and which therefore might have had a vascular axis of the character 

 seen in the fossil under description. 



They propose to designate their specimen MyriophyUoides Williamsoni, in 

 honour of Professor W. 0. Williamson, F.R.S. 



6. Notes on Chlamydomyxa. By P. A. Geddes. 



7. On a New Sub-Class of Infusorians. By P. A. Geddes, 



8. On the Iiwprovement of Freshwater Fisheries. 

 By Lieut.- General Sir James E, Alexander, Knt., C.B., F.R.S.E. 



Endeavours have been made for several years to induce attention to he directed 

 to the pollution of rivers in Scotland, and the loss of valuhle breeding-grounds for 

 salmon. The Duke of Buccleugh, the Marquis of Lothian, Sir Robert Christison, 

 ;Mr. INIilue Home, and others co-operated, and the Scotch Fisheries Improvement 

 Association was instituted. Owing to the extensive manufactures it is difficult to 

 prevent the pollution of streams. Settling and filtering ponds should be estab- 

 lished, svich as there are at Blanefield "^^''orks, at Hawick, &c. Bad state of the 

 Devon from impurities. Mr. Young, Commissioner of Scotch Salmon Fisheries, re- 

 commended a close time, the removal of obstructions in rivers, fixed engines in river- 

 mouths and estuaries, reformation of district boards, and the prevention of poaching. 

 Mr. Frank Bucklaud alluded to the confusing salmon legislation, and recom- 

 mended a single Act. Stake nets should be abolished near the mouths of rivers. 

 The author describes how the salmon are intercepted on the caulds or weirs of the 

 Tweed. He approves of tlie mode of keeping the Teith clear at the Deanstone 

 works, no sewage being allowed to enter the river. Old fishers state that salmon 

 live on their own substance ia fresh water ; this is disputed. The paper notices 

 Sir James Maitland, a great hatcher, and the fungoid disease in the Tweed. 



9. On some Vestiges of the Ancient Forest of imrt of the Pennine Chain} 



By Joseph Lucas. 



Nidderdale and its moors have formerly been covered by an extensive forest. 

 Many trees lie buried in the peat upon the moors, but the birch appears almost 

 everywhere predominant. Hazel, sealh (willow), thorn, oaks, &c., also occur, but at 

 a certain elevation above 1,000 feet the birch must have formed an almost universal 

 forest by itself, such as may be seen on the west coast of Norway at the present 

 day. 



The upper parts of the Moorland Gills, and much of what is now the moors, 

 must formerly have made a beautiful appearance, with its light gauze-like forest of 

 birch and mountain-ash. The last surviving example on any considerable scale is 

 preserved in Birk Gill, a tributary of the river Burn. There is no cultivation in 

 the gill, the bottom of which is 600 feet above sea at its mouth, the gill being 400 

 feet deep and half a mile wide from ridge to ridge. The belt of wood clothes the 

 sides for 200 feet, or up to 800 feet at its mouth, and ends where the bed of the 

 stream reaches 900 feet, in a distance of rather over a mile. The wood consists of 

 mountain-ash, ash, alder, oak, birch, holly, and thorn, and above 900 feet, the 

 following stragglers were noted : — Highest living. — M.-ash, 900 ; alder, 950 ; salix, 

 970; birch, 975; holly, highest living tree, 1,000. In Scale Gill, thorn, 1,100; 

 M.-ash, 1,175. In Barnley Beck, salix, 1,050 ; thorn, 1,080 : birch, 1,125 ; holly, 

 1,150; M.-ash 1,150. In Colstei-dale, House Gill, M.-ash, 1,150. Netu House Gill, 



' The subject of the above abstract will be found treated at length in the author's 

 Studies in Nidderdale, xiii. and xiv. pp. 107-120. (Thorpe, Pateley Bridge.) 



