Geological Society of London. 381 
fossils, apparently subservient to the circulation of water in their 
interior. 
9. ‘On the Old Red Sandstone of the North of Ireland.” By 
F. Nolan, Esq., M.R.I.A. Communicated by Prof. Hull, LL.D., 
F.R.S., F.G.S. 
The rock classed on maps of the north of Ireland as Old Red 
Sandstone is of two kinds, the lower and larger portion chiefly con- 
glomerate of felstone, schist, grit, passing into sandstones, cut off by 
a fault on N. and N.W. from metamorphic rocks, and resting near 
Pomeroy, in the N.E., on fossiliferous Lower-Silurian. Associated 
with these are sheets of lava, probably submarine, from which the 
above felstone-pebbles have been derived; these are porphyrite. Near 
Recarson, also, are vesicular melaphyres, whether contemporaneous 
or intrusive is doubtful. There is also an intrusive granite, which 
alters the sandstones into quartzites, and is prior to the upper series 
now generally held to be basement conglomerate of the Carboniferous. 
This, formerly coloured as Old Red Sandstone, is unconformable with 
the other, which it much resembles. The lower conglomerates have 
been considered Lower Old Red Sandstone; the author showed that 
these bear great resemblance to parts of the Dingle series of the 
South of Ireland. In the North of Ireland the upper conglomerates 
are succeeded by sandstones, and these by Carboniferous Limestone, 
The author regards the upper conglomerates as representing the Upper 
Old Red Sandstone of Waterford (the Kiltorean beds of the south not 
being identifiable in the north); and the overlying sandstones as the 
equivalents of the Carboniferous shale and Coomhola grit, and, in 
Scotland, of the Calciferous Sandstone. 
10. “© A Review of the Family Vincularide, Recent and Fossil, for 
the Purpose of Classification.” By G. R. Vine, Esq. Communicated 
by Prof. P. M. Duncan, M.B., F.R.S., F.G.S. 
The author examined in detail the insufficient description of the 
genus Vincularia by its founder Defrance, and the manner in which 
it has been employed by subsequent authors. He concluded that 
the different forms, ranging from the Carboniferous to the present 
day, which have been included in the genus, present no such features 
in common as would justify the retention of the generic or family name. 
11. ‘‘On the Zones of Marine Fossils in the Calciferous Sandstone 
Series of Fife.” By James W. Kirkby, Esq. Communicated by 
Prof. T. Rupert Jones, F.R.S., F.G.S. 
In this paper the author described the marine beds that he has 
met with in the Calciferous Sandstones of the east of Fife, and 
traced the sequence of over 4000 feet of beds, probably all belonging 
to the ‘‘Cement-stone group.’ In the section from the west of 
Pittenween to Anstruther he recognized eighteen zones, which he 
characterized by their contained fossils ; in the section at Randerstone 
he distinguished eleven limestone beds; and he compared and, as far 
as possible, correlated the two series of deposits. Full lists of fossils 
were given, and the author further specially discussed the characters 
and distribution of the more important species. 
12. “*The Glaciation of the Orkney Islands.”’ By B. N. Peach, 
Esq., F.G.S., and John Horne, Esq., F.G.8. 
