422 Reports and Proceedings. 
Calton Hill, and Castle-rock, are the exact counterparts of volcanic — 
activity wherever it may be manifested; and the alternations of 
strata, the dykes and faults of the Mid-Lothian Coal-field, are but an 
epitome of similar appearances in every other Carboniferous area. Let 
no opportunity, then, be lost in noting what turns up in the digging 
of foundations and city-drains, in the sinking of wells and boring for 
water, in railway-cuttings and tunnels, in the numerous quarries in 
the vicinity, along the rocky shores of the Forth, and in the channel 
of every brook that brattles from the Lammermoors and Pentlands. 
Every well-observed appearance is a record for ever; every new 
fact adds another paragraph to that World-history which it is the 
great object of our Society to decipher. And let it never be for- 
gotten that, great as has been the recent progress of Geology, the 
outline of this world-history is little more than sketched, and the 
headings of its chapters merely indicated. Every observation, then, 
however local—every fact, however limited—is a contribution of 
value, the want of which would leave a gap, and might lead to un- 
certainty or confusion. Let nothing, however trivial it may seem, 
be undervalued. The ribs and planking of the hull would be no- 
thing without the bolts and trenails,—it was for want of the shoe-nail 
that the rider was overtaken and slain by the enemy. By closer 
observation in the Pentlands, for instance, we have still to show the 
nature of the ‘ passage’ between the Silurian and Old Red. Further 
information is also needed regarding the conformability of the three 
great members of the Old Red; how far these indicate separate life- 
periods; and how far the lower section has organisms in common 
with the Upper Silurian, and the upper section organisms in common 
with the Carboniferous formation. Now that the Burdie House, or 
Lower Carboniferous, series is being so extensively worked for its 
oil-shales, minuter observation may finally settle the question of its 
estuarine or fresh-water origin ; while, by the same means, we may be 
enabled to establish the recurrence of estuarine and marine condi- 
tions throughout the whole of the Carboniferous system. There is 
nothing in Geology more interesting than the igneous phenomena 
of the Coal-formation on both sides of the Firth of Forth; and 
yet how much of minute bed-by-bed working is required to complete 
a vivid and reliable picture of the period! Every working geologist 
feels that there are many points connected with the Glacial Epoch 
that require elucidation ; and where is there a finer field for supply- 
ing these desiderata than the Counties of Fife and the Lothians ? 
We are all aware how much the superficial aspects of the British 
Islands, and, indeed, of the whole world, depend upon denudation 
in former periods moulding and configuring the hills and valleys ; 
and there is no district, perhaps, in Great Britain that elucidates 
this view more strikingly than the vicinity of our own metro- 
polis. Again, the effects of upheaval, or rather the oscillations of 
the earth’s crust, are most instructively exhibited in the raised 
beaches and submarine forests of the Forth; and as observers dis- 
agree as to the relative age of these oscillations, renewed observation 
is still required to put the questions at rest— Whether these upheavals 
