94 Reports & Proceedings, — Geological Society of Glasgow. 



the Lothians yield, on destructive distillation, a characteristic crude 

 oil which consists chiefly of paraffins, olefines, and naphthenes, and 

 they thereby differ from ordinary coals, the liquid products of which 

 contain but small amounts of these hydrocarbons. This peculiarity 

 has been variously ascribed to the presence of vegetable matter 

 derived from algae or higher plants in a more or less decomposed 

 state, animal matter from the fish, ostracods, etc., whose remains 

 are abundant in the shales, to the presence of petroleum or other 

 bituminous substances or to a hypothetical material called kerogen. 

 The author described a series of experiments undertaken with a view 

 to attaining a definite result, the method being to ascertain what 

 material could actually be detected by means of the microscope, and 

 to compare these constituents with the results of the distillation of 

 the same samples. 



In those shales which contain animal remains, the yield and 

 quality of oil is independent of the amount of animal remains, but 

 varies in proportion to the quantity and nature of the vegetable 

 matter present. The latter consists of two distinct types. One 

 portion seems to be macerated and carbonized plant-material, similar 

 to that of which coal is composed, while the other portion is 

 composed of certain yellow bodies which have been variously 

 described as spores, fossil algae, or globules of dried-up petroleum. 

 It is these yellow bodies which yield the distillation products of oil- 

 shales and torbanites. The evidence is against these bodies being 

 spores, algae, or petroleum, and it is shown that they are simply 

 fragments of resin set free by the decay and oxidation of woody 

 matter with which they had been originally associated, and that, by 

 the physical action of pressure and shrinkage, structures had been 

 developed simulating those of spores and algae. The failure to 

 obtain appreciable amounts of extract by means of the usual solvents 

 is inconclusive, as it is known that the solubility of resins rapidly 

 diminishes with increasing age. Further it has recently been found 

 that the resinous material extracted from coal yields on distillation 

 just such products as are got from oil-shales and torbanites. The 

 author's view, therefore, is that both oil-shales and torbanites are 

 derived from the same original materials as ordinary coals, but have 

 reached a state of more complete elimination of the perishable parts, 

 leaving the resins with a proportion of material derived from the 

 decomposition of the woody substances, which in the case of oil- 

 shales are mixed with a large proportion of mud. 



Mr. J. Neilson read a paper entitled " The Auld Wives' Lifts, an 

 Ancient Monument". He objected to the view that these stones had 

 reached their present position through natural agencies by the 

 subaerial weathering of a ridge, as the position of the stones in the 

 centre of a shallow amphitheatre rendered the action of erosion 

 negligible, while the surrounding rocks show little sign of alteration 

 since Glacial times. The theory that their origin is due to ice-action 

 is equally untenable, while there are likewise difficulties in the 

 hypothesis that the structure is a " tor ". The explanation advanced 

 by the author is that the " Lifts " did not attain their present position 

 by natural agencies, but that they were placed there by man, the 



