118 
William Haughton Stokes, Esq., M.A., Fellow of Caius College, 
Cambridge, were elected Fellows of this Society. 
A paper was first read ‘“‘On the Climate of the newer pliocene 
tertiary period,’ by James Smith, Esq., F.G.S. 
During an examination of the fossils contained in the marine 
beds which indicate the latest changes in the relative level of sea 
and Jand in the west of Scotland, Mr. Smith observed, that many of 
the most common shells in the raised beds of the basin of the Clyde 
are identical with species found by Mr. Lyell at Uddevalla in 
Sweden*; and he has been induced to conclude from the arctic 
character of the testacea, that the climate of Scotland during the 
accumulation of these beds was colder than it is at present. 
On showing some of the fossils, which are apparently extinct, to 
Mr. Gray, that naturalist noticed their great resemblance to arctic 
species. The shells still living, though not known on the coasts 
of Great Britain, but found in the raised deposits of the Clyde, 
M. Deshayes has determined to be inhabitants of the northern seas, 
viz. Natica clausa, which occurs as far north as Spitzbergen; Fusus 
Peruvianus, erroneously considered by Lamarck to exist on the 
coasts of Peru, but which is an inhabitant of the seas at the North 
Cape; Tellina proxima, Astarte multicostata, Turbo expansus, Velutina 
undata, (also on the coast of Newfoundland) ; and Pecten Islandicus, 
erroneously considered by some conchologists, according to M. 
Deshayes and Mr. G. Sowerby, to occur in a living state on the 
coast of Scotland. 
The Cyprina Islandica, which is abundant in the raised deposits, Mr. 
Smith has not found alive in the waters of the Firth of the Clyde. 
The following summary is given in the paper of shells found in 
the newer pliocene deposits in the British Isles. 
14 hg CoV aaa a Fy eA tila ik aI 190 species. 
Mand and freshwater sees ee aa ee ae 57 
247 
Of these there are recent British 
Marine Speciesrnni .0o ca aces 77 - aloo 
Land and fresh water’... ,2J...2.... 54 
OO 
a) 
Recent in Arctic seas ..........-. 7] 
European and Indian seas 1 
Extinchor unknowm ..¢.. soe. 19 
——— 
Mr. Smith also mentions the occurrence in the newer pliocene of 
Sicily, of several species now found living only in more northern 
European seas; and he infers from them, that the climate of Sicily 
was at one period colder than it is at present. Four species are 
* Phil. Trans., 1835, Pl. 1. 
