Reports and Proceedings. 37 
and confirmed, donations announced, and thanks voted, it was pro- 
posed and decided that, instead of in pounds, future subscriptions and 
compositions should be in guineas; and that Fellows should be 
elected in February (not more than 10), and, if need be, in June 
(not more than 5). 
Mr. Scott stated that the Journal of the Society for the last 
session was ready, and would immediately be distributed to all 
Members whose subscriptions were paid up for 1864. It finished 
the series of ten volumes of the Journal of the Society under its 
former name; and the publication would be continued with a slightly 
varied title. 
The Secretary read Mr. Foot’s paper ‘On a recent Erratic Block,’ 
in which the author gave an account of a large block of limestone, 
weighing about two tons, which had been raised from its bed and 
carried for a distance of about fifty yards by the action of ice in the 
severe winter of 1855 at Rathclive, at the northern extremity of 
Lough Ree. 
The Secretary also read a paper by Mr. John Kelly, containing 
his views on ‘The Doctrine of Characteristic Fossils,’ based on 
comparisons of those of the Silurian, Devonian, and Carboniferous 
. Systems. 
EpinspureH Gro.ocicaL Society.—The annual meeting of the 
Edinburgh Geological Society was held on November 3rd, in their 
rooms at 5 St. Andrew’s Square, Mr. David Page, F.G.S., F.R.S.E., 
the retiring president, in the chair. After the reports had been 
read, collections of minerals and fossils from Mr. James Anderson 
and Mr. Monteith were presented to the Society ; and the following 
new office-bearers were elected for the ensuing session :—President, 
Mr. C. Maclaren, F.G.S.; vice-presidents, Mr. M. Lothian and Mr. 
D. Page, F.G.S., F.R.S.E. ; secretary, Mr. G. C. Haswell ; librarian, 
Mr. T. Smyth; treasurer, Mr. G. Lyon; curators, Messrs. T. R. 
Marshall and A. Somerville; council, Messrs. R. H. Bow, D. Mar- 
shall, J. R.S. Hunter, J. P. Falkner, $.S.C., James Haswell, M.A., 
and R. A. F. A. Coyne. Mr. Page, in his valedictory address, 
referred to the great discoveries which have been made in other 
countries during the past year, and to the questions which have been 
raised in consequence. The age of our rocks which we have been in 
the habit of ealling metamorphic rocks, fundamental rocks, or the 
primordial zone, appears not to have been so very low in the geo- 
logical formations as was supposed, or rather the geological scale 
must be extended downwards, so as to include, as fossiliferous rocks 
below those which in this country contain fossils, the Cambrian and 
Laurentian system. He then referred to the position of some ques- 
tions which had been raised during the last session regarding the 
effect of metamorphism, the propriety of the term Old Red Sand- 
stone as applied to the beds of Forfarshire, the age of the coal-beds 
of Borneo, New Zealand, aan Brazil, the age of the Greensand, the 
arrangement of the Post-tertiary system and the difficulties connected 
