34 Reports and Proceedings. 



Mammoth had been taken out of the Drift-beds. The sands and 

 gravels that lie upon the Boulder-clay present still many problems, 

 which are more likely to receive solution from the organized ob- 

 servations of a local Society than from the work of single individuals. 

 Later than the Drift come the old river terraces, in which, so far as 

 the neighbourhood of Edinburgh is concerned, no human remains 

 have yet been detected, nor, indeed, any evidence of those conditions 

 which are illustrated by the old river gravels of the south of England 

 and the north-east of France. 



Passing next to the petrology of the district, Mr. G-eikie pointed 

 out that the neighbourhood of Edinburgh furnishes admirable illus- 

 trations of metamorphism in the Lower Silurian Eocks, with many 

 syenites and porphyries. The volcanic rocks of the district have 

 long been famous ; nevertheless much has still to be learned regard- 

 ing their chemical and mineralogical composition. The nomencla- 

 ture of crystalline rocks is in a most deplorable state in this country. 

 It remains, indeed, in much the same state as it was about the be- 

 ginning of the century. There is, therefore, no branch of geological 

 inquiry which, at the present time, offers greater prospect of new 

 and important results. Chemistry and mineralogy are both needed. 

 The chemist may tell the ultimate chemical composition of the rocks, 

 but not so well their mineralogical arrangement. That is best done 

 by the help of the microscope, — an instrument which will un- 

 doubtedly come to be an indispensable part of the equipment of every 

 field geologist. In conclusion, he showed that the preparation of 

 elaborate papers is not necessary ; that the Society ought not to be 

 too ambitious ; that though elaborate papers of great merit will 

 always be heartily welcomed, it can hardly be hoped that such 

 papers will be numerous. The members, however, will do good, 

 not only to themselves, but to the caxtse of the science which they 

 cultivate, by bringing to their meetings notices of new facts and dis- 

 coveries made either by themselves or by others. These notices the 

 Society ought to preserve, and, if possible, from time to time publish. 

 Many people speak disparagingly of such local efforts, but, in truth, 

 science would often make but slow progress without them. A local 

 Society will do far more good to geology by carefully illustrating 

 the geological structure of its own district, than by attempting to 

 furnish such papers on the science as, in justice alike to the author 

 and the cause of science, can only properly be done by a great 

 national society like the Geological Society of London. Its ambition 

 should be to be distinguished by the amount of useful work which 

 it can do, being well assured that no such work, no matter how local 

 in its first aspect, can be honestly done without adding something to 

 the stock of knowledge, and thereby advancing the cause of science. 



G-EOLOGicAL Society of Glasgow. — I. — Nov. 5th, 1868. Pro- 

 fessor John Young, M.D., etc., President, in the chair. 



Mr. James Armstrong exhibited a well-preserved fin-spine of 

 Orocanihus, from the Carboniferous Limestone at Eoughwood Quarry, 

 near Beith. This massive spine — new a sa Scottish fossil — is charac- 



