Eeports and Proceedings. 41 



and when land-ice was the chief agent of glaciation ; 2. When the 

 land began to sink to the extent of 1800 or 2000 feet, and when 

 land and sea-ice were both instrumental in moulding, rounding, and 

 smoothing the rocky surface ; and 3. AVhen a reverse action set in, 

 and the land began to rise again, stage by stage, accompanied by a 

 gradually improving climate, and during which mountain and bay- 

 ice were annually the operative agents. The first stage was the 

 period of the " lower till " of Scotland, characterised mainly by its 

 tenacioiis clays, and angular blocks and boulders not far removed 

 from their parent sources ; the second stage the period of heterogen- 

 ous clays and gravels of rounded and striated bouldei-s, far drifted 

 from their original sites ; and the third stage, the period of moraines 

 or gravel mounds in our upper glens, of " Kaims " or sand and gravel 

 mounds in our lower valleys, and of the stratified clays or "brick- 

 clays" in our lower straths and sea-belts. The first and second stages 

 he described as unfossiliferous, and the third stage as partially fossili- 

 ferous. The brick-clays (which were the sea-muds of the gradually 

 uprising land) containing remains of whales, seals, northern ducks, 

 shells, starfishes, etc., indicative of a colder or more boreal climate. 

 The "lower till," resting upon Pre-glacial surfaces of sands, gravels, 

 soils, and peat-earths, was fossiliferous, and contained bones of Mam- 

 moth, Mastodon, Ehinoceros, etc. ; the upper clays were overlaid by 

 Post-glacial beds, which also contained remains of Mammoth, Mas- 

 todon, Ehinoceros, Irish Elk, Eeindeer, etc., which proved the return 

 of these animals to the same latitudes after the glacial influences had 

 passed av^ay, and were restricted to their existing Arctic limits. 

 By the subsequent removal, in some places, of the upper and second 

 stages, the Post-glacial fossils were sometimes brought in connection 

 with the "lower till "■ — hence the error of regarding the latter as fossil- 

 iferous ; and by the removal of the whole of the Glacial accumula- 

 tion, the Post-glacial and the Pre-glacial were sometimes brought in 

 contact, and hence the error of confounding events separated by 

 thousands of ages. He stated that whatever theory was adojited to 

 account for the Glacial epoch, it must be one applicable alike to 

 past and future, and obedient to regular periods of recurrence. 

 There was evidence of colder and warmer jDeriods in the earliest 

 history of the globe, and these, like the Glacial epoch, were no 

 doubt dependent upon some great law of secular succession. 

 Before arriving at any correct theory, however, geologists had still 

 much to accomplish : to examine and fix the succession of the 

 accumulations, to ascertain the limits within which the Glaciation 

 had occurred, to find whether it had been contemporaneous all 

 over the higher latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, and to deter- 

 mine, also, how far the Southern Hemisphere had been subjected to 

 a similar phase, or phases, of ice-action. 



n. — ^November 23rd, 1865. — Mr. Stedman read a paper on the 

 Charlestown Limeworks, near Dunfermline, Fifeshire, the property 

 of the Earl of Elgin. The lime is obtained from a quarry in the 

 Mountain Limestone. He described the lithologrical character of 



