134 Reports and Proceedings. 
depositing heaps, in part forming the undulated surface which 
characterizes this district. Ages passed on, and the glaciers had 
melted away, but onward flowed the clear streams of the Nith to 
the Solway. I will not attempt to argue when it was that men 
first occupied this valley. The first have left a few stone celts, 
and by these we know that there were men ere history had began.’ 
Dr. Grierson then took up the archeological history of Tibbers 
Castle, tracing it down from the time of the Roman occupation 
to its destruction by Robert Bruce in 1311. The company then 
proceeded to Drumlanrig Castle, and thence to Durrisdeer. Here, 
some went to examine the King’s Quarry, others held on up the hills, 
by what was formerly the only road—properly the bridlepath—to 
Edinburgh, till they struck into the ancient Roman road which 
leads to the Roman Camp. —Dumfries Herald, 10th June. 
Exeter Naturaists’ Crus.—On Saturday, 18th June, this 
Club made an excursion to Strete Raleigh, by invitation of Went- 
worth Buller, Esq., who awaited their arrival, and threw open his 
hothouses and conservatories, containing a very fine collection of 
orchids, palms, and ferns, to their inspection. 
The party next proceeded to the interesting gravel-pit at Straight- 
way Head, where beds of pebbles identical in character with those 
seen on the beach at Budleigh Salterton are inter-stratified with 
bands of white sand and red marly clay. Having made a minute 
examination of these, the members continued their walk for some 
distance up the hill, and on their return to Strete Raleigh were 
shown two living Badgers, captured by Mr. Buller on the borders of 
Dartmoor, near Becky Falls. The Badger is a peculiarly interest- 
ing animal to the naturalist and ecologist, being the last represen- 
tative of the Bear-tribe existing in the British Isles, of which it is, 
geologically speaking, one of the oldest existing quadrupeds, its 
bones being mixed with those of extinct animals in the bone-caverns 
around Torbay, &c. Unfortunately it bids fair to disappear before 
long, though a few still exist about Poltimore and on Haldon, as 
well as on Dartmoor. 
Mr. Buller read a highly interesting paper on the distribution of 
plants in the south-western parts of England. The general con- 
clusion Mr. Buller arrived at, was that the last climatic change was 
not from a colder, but from a warmer period to the comparatively 
cold climate of the present time. 
Mr. Vicary then read a paper ‘On the Pebble-bed of Budleigh 
Salterton.’ (This has since been published in the Quarterly Journal 
of the Geological Society, No. 79.) Engravings of the fossils, and 
a geological map showing the continuity of the various formations 
on the opposite sides of the English Channel,* were exhibited in 
illustration of Mr. Viecary’s paper, which excited great interest 
amongst the members.—4Axeter and Plymouth Gazette, 24th June. 
THe Dupiey anp Mipianp GeoxLoeicat Society held their 
second Field-meeting at Llangollen on the 14thand 15th July, in con- 
* See Guotocicat Magazine, No. 1. 
