Re-ports, and Proceedings. 275 



2. " On the Change in the Obliquity of the Ecliptic : its Influence 

 on the Climate of the Polar Eegions and Level of the Sea." By Mr. 

 James Croll. The reading of this long and valuable communication, 

 which will be published in full in the next part of the " Society's 

 Transactions," was followed by some observations by the President 

 and the Eev. H. W. Crosskey. 



Dr. Young exhibited a new Crustacean from the Upper Silurian 

 Eocks of Lesmahagow, which had been kindly lent him by Dr. 

 Slimon. He beKeved that it belonged to the genus Hemiaspis. which 

 Mr. Woodward is at present studying. The specimen is interesting 

 as being the first which has occurred in the Lesmahagow district. 



Mr. James Thomson then exhibited a new genus of Carboniferous 

 Corals, of which beautiful photographs of polished sections were 

 shown by the oxyhydrogen light. 



Before declaring the session closed, the President congratulated 

 the Society on the number of important papers which had been read 

 during the winter, and on the wide range of subjects which had 

 engaged the attention of members. The Society, since it was founded, 

 had cautiously abstained from rash generalisations ; it had, on the 

 contrary, devoted itself to the careful observation of facts ; and it had 

 at once rendered the best service to science, and earned for itself a 

 distinctive character by the ready generosity with which its accTi- 

 mulated results in physical geology and paleeontology had been 

 placed at the disposal of those who were engaged in special studies. 

 The Transactions of the Society contain the testimony of Davidson, 

 Woodward, Kirkby, and Eupert Jones, to the success and the liberality 

 of Gflasgow collectors ; while the records of other Societies often 

 show that not a few contributions have been founded on materials 

 derived from the West of Scotland. The only purely theoretical 

 paper of the session, that by Mr. Croll, " On the Influence of the 

 Obliquity of the Ecliptic," had been read this evening. Discussion 

 on such an admirable and exhaustive memoir is impossible ; but the 

 Society may well be proud that such a memoir will be found in its 

 publications. On questions of physical geology, Messrs. Dougall, 

 Skipsey, J. Bryce, LL.D., Bennie, J. Young, and J. Young, M.D., 

 had contributed papers referring to the Southern Highlands, the 

 Eocks of Ayrshire, of the Kilpatricks, Arran, and of the vicinity of 

 Glasgow. In chemical geology, Mr. J. Wallace Young has from 

 time to time given us the results of his analysis of rocks from the 

 Carboniferous strata, and brought into notice some remarkable pecu- 

 liarities in their composition. The palteontological contributions 

 come under three groups — 1st, The faunas of different periods have 

 been illustrated by the Eev. H. W. Crosskey in the case of the 

 Glacial beds ; by Mr, Young in that of our Limestones ; by Mr. 

 Daim in that of the Southern Silurians. 2nd. Descriptions of species 

 and of genera have been given incidentally at nearly all the meet- 

 ings, and have formed the subject of two very important papers — 

 that by Mr. H.Woodward, and that read this evening by Messrs. Jones 

 and Kirkby. 3rd. At every meeting specimens liave been shown 

 from the human remains of the Clyde alluvium to the earliest Silu- 



