796 
aré accompanied by littoral appearatices, as ripple-marks, the casts 
of cracks in the clay, and often by the marks of rain. 
In regard to the age of the red sandstone of the valley of the 
Connecticut and New Jersey, the author states he has nothing 
to add to what had been previously advanced, by which its position 
had been shown to be between the carboniferous and cretaceous 
series: In the neighbourhood of Durham, Connecticut, he had col- 
lected in the sandstone, fishes of the genera Paleoniscus and Cato- 
pterus, but no other organic remains, except fossil wood. 
In conclusion, Mr. Lyell remarks, Ist, that the Ornithichnites of 
Connecticut should teach extreme caution in inferring the non- 
existence of land animals from the absence of their remains in con- 
temporaneous marine strata; 2ndly, that when this red sandstone of 
Connecticut was deposited, there was land in the immediate vici- 
' tity of the places where the Ornithichnites occur; and that but for 
them it might naturally be inferred that the nearest land was several 
miles distant, namely, that of the hypogene rocks which bound the 
basin of the Connecticut. Now, the land that caused the sea-beach, 
Mr. Lyell says, must have been formed of the same sandstone which 
was then in the act of accumulating, in the same manner as where 
deltas are advancing upon the sea. 
In a postscript, Mr. Lyell states, that subsequently to writing the 
paper he had read the luminous report of Mr. Vanuxem on the Or- 
nithichnites described by Prof. Hitchcock, and though it agrees in 
substance with his own account in some particulars, yet that he has 
left his notice as it stood. 
7. The following notice by Captain Pringle respectiti¢ the Ochil 
Hills 
A gentleman resident in the district had often remarked the oc- 
eurrence of sounds, which appeared to him to be subterranean, but 
which the country people attributed to noises from the river Divan, or 
to the machinery of iron-works some miles distant. At the time 
of the earthquake, however, which was felt at Comrie in October 
1840, he was on the hill and heard a loud noise like the rushing of 
steam through a cavern, and the same noise was heard also by others 
two to three miles distant. On inquiry he ascertained that the noise 
was contemporaneous with the earthquake, and that the machinery 
at the iron-works was at that moment not in action, ad 
The Gaelic word ochain or ochail signifies moaning, howling, wailing 
(Armstrong’s Dictionary) ; and hence it is inferred that the name of 
the “ Moaning Hills” may have been given to the range from the 
sounds so frequently heard in the district ; and further, that the sounds 
are connected with the earthquakes felt in the neighbourhood, near 
Crief and Comrie. 
This being the last evening of meeting for the Session, the Society 
adjourned to Wednesday, November the 2nd. 
