110 REPORTS ON THE STATE OP SCIENCE. — 1919. 



to remain in the gas if the sale of gas on the proposed new thermal 

 basis is instituted. Though fully realising the present national 

 shortage of motor s.pirit, the Committee felt that gas undertakings 

 should be under no obligation to remove benzenoid hydi'ocarbons unless 

 the selling price of motor spirit would justify their doing so on financial 

 grounds. 



The Committee reco'mmends that it be reappointed to continue its 

 investigations, with a grant of 25L 



RJiynie, Ahcrdeensliire.— Report of the Committee, consisting of 

 Dr. J. HoRNE {Chairman) , Dr. W. Mackie (Secretary), and 

 Drs. J. S. Flett, W. T. Gordon, G. Hickling, 11 Kidston, 

 B. N. Peach, and D. M. S. Watson, appointed to excavate 

 Critical Sections in the Old Red Sandstone of Rhynie, Aber- 

 deenshire. 



The plant-bearing cherts discovered by Dr. Mackie in the Old Eed 

 Sandstone at Rhynie, Aberdeenshire, when examined under the micro- 

 scope, showed fragments of Crustacea in certain sections. Some of 

 the sections were submitted to Dr. W. T. Caiman and Mr. D. I. 

 Scourfield, who have furnished the following report. ' The animal 

 remains are, for the most part, very fragmentary and confused, but 

 they are in an excellent state of preservation, even the fine feathering 

 on small setfe being, in some cases, easily recognisable. All the remains 

 examined appear to be referable to the class Crustacea, and to have 

 belonged to animals comparable in size to the Copepoda of the present 

 day. The most complete portions hitherto found have been tails, 

 consisting each of a number of seginents and ending in a furca. Both 

 lateral and dorsal views Have been seen, and the general arrangement 

 of tlie parts fairly well made out. Two distinct species appear to 'be 

 represented, belonging either to a primitive group of the Copepoda or 

 to very small Branchiopoda ( ? Anostraca). Fragments O'f appendages 

 are numerous in nearly all the slides, but are extremely difficult to 

 interpret. One slide, however, shows a series of about three pairs 

 of biramous feet in their natural connections. They are remarkably 

 similar to the swimming feet of Copepods of the genus Cyclops, except 

 that the branches are unjointed instead of being composed of the usual 

 three segments. A considerable number of detached mandibles have 

 also been seen, all of them most closely comparable to those of the 

 Branchiopoda. It is evident that these remains are of extraordinary 

 interest, and, although little progress has been made towards reconstruct- 

 ing any one of the several species that are represented in the material, 

 enough has been done to show that, given a sufficient number of 

 sections, the structure of the body and limbs could almost certainly 

 be worked out, even if no entire specimens should be brought to light.' 

 During 1918 Mr. D. Tait, H.M. Geological Survey, obtained addi- 



