188 Reports & Proceedings—Edinburgh Geological Society. 
the great continents at the beginning of the Tertiary era. They 
seem to have evolved separately in America and in the Old World, 
but the two series are very sharply distinguished, although they 
form one zoological ‘sub-order’. When isolated on the island of 
Madagascar, some of the same animals acquired a few peculiarities 
of the American, others of the Old World Anthropoidea, but never 
really advanced beyond the Lemuroid stage, merely becoming senile 
just before their extinction. Hence, the Lemuroidea evolved in three 
different ways, and the resulting groups are very easily distinguished. 
The study of the Tertiary Ungulata is especially important, 
because most of the groups arose either in North America or in the 
Old World, which were united and separated several times. It 
seems clear that, although each group probably originated but once 
in one particular area, its members soon diverged into several 
independently evolving series, each imbued with some definite impulse 
or momentum towards specialization in the same way in the course 
of geological time, only at different rates. There were thus, for 
example, several distinct lines of horses and rhinoceroses, but all 
from the same source. 
It is now well known that the characteristic South American 
Tertiary Ungulates arose in an isolated area, and many of their 
specializations are curiously similar to some of those observed among 
Kuropean Eocene and Oligocene Ungulata which soon proved 
abortive or ‘inadaptive’. They are, however, by no means identical. 
While so many changes have occurred during the evolution of the 
vertebrates, the persistence of characters and the strength of heredity 
in numerous cases are still as Petplexing as they were when Huxley 
first directed special attention to ‘ persistent types’. The President 
enumerated some illustrations. 
The ballot for the Officers and Council was taken, and the following were 
declared duly elected for the ensuing year :— 
OFFICERS (who are also ex-officio members of the Council) : President: 
Alfred Harker, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S. Vice-Presidents: Sir Thomas Henry 
Holland, K.C.I.E., D.Sc., F.R.S.; Edwin Tulley Newton, F.R.S.; the Rey. 
Henry Hoyte Winwood, M.A. ; and Arthur Smith Woodward, LL. D, F.R.S. 
Secretaries: Herbert Henry Thomas, M.A., Se.D.; and Herbert Lapworth, 
D.Se., M.Inst.C.E. Foreign Secretary: Sir Archibald Geikie, O.M., K.C.B., 
D.C.L., LL.D., Se.D., F.R.S. Treasurer: Bedford McNeill, Assoc. R.S.M. 
CouncIL: Henry Bury, M.A., F.L.8. ; Professor John Cadman, C.M.G., 
D.Se., M.Inst.C.E.; Professor Charles Gilbert Cullis, D.Sce.; R. Mountford 
Deeley, M.Inst.C.E.; Professor William George Fearnsides, M.A.; Walcot 
Gibson, D.Se.; Finlay Lorimer Kitchin, M.A., Ph.D.; John Edward Marr, 
M.A., Se.D., F.R.S.; Richard Dixon Oldham, F.R.S. ; Robert Heron Rastall, 
M.A.; Professor Thomas Franklin Sibly, D.Sc.; Professor William Johnson 
Sollas, M:A., Sc.D., LL.D., F.R.S.; J. J. Harris Teall, M.A., D.Se., LL.D., 
- F.R.S.; William Whitaker, B.A., F.R.S. 
II.—Epinsurexw GrotocicaL Socrery. 
February 16, 1916.—Dr. Robert Campbell, President, in the Chair. 
““Some Obscure Factors in Coastal Changes.”? By Professor 
Thomas J. Jehu, M.A., M.D., F.R.S.E., F.G.S. 
Factors affecting the development of the coastline were considered 
under three headings—(1) Changes in the relative level of land and 
