Edinburgh Geological Society. 137 



3. " Notice of columnar Mica- schist from a Vitrified Fort in the 

 Kyles of Bute." By J. Haswell, M.A. 



After describing the appearance of this Vitrified Fort, and the 

 various theories advanced by different authors to account for the 

 formation of such forts in early times, Mr. Haswell noticed the 

 changes which had taken place in the Mica- schist, in consequence of 

 the great heat to which it had been subjected ; and he shewed, by 

 adducing examples of columnar structure in other substances, that 

 the columns in this Mica-schist have probably owed their origin to 

 the subsequent contraction of the mass. 



4. A beautiful "Nautilus" from the Carboniferous Limestone of 

 Bathgate was exhibited by Alexander Somervail. It is thought that 

 this specimen may turn out to be a new species. 



H. — ^The fourth ordinary meeting of this Society was held on the 

 21st January, in the Society's rooms, Archibald Geikie, Esq., F.E.S., 

 President, in the chair. 



Mr. Geikie gave a Sketch of the Life and Works of the late 

 Principal Forbes. 



James David Forbes was bom at Edinburgh, on the 20th April, 

 1809. He died on the 31st of December, 1868. When a youth. 

 Principal Forbes studied geology under Jameson, from whom he 

 acquired a love for mineralogy, and retained it to the last. More- 

 over, his own predominant tendency towards physics tinged even 

 his geological studies. Hence we find him rising, on the one hand, 

 from a contemplation of the phenomena of glaciers to a philosophi- 

 cal investigation of the laws under which these phenomena occur ; 

 on the other, from the mere observation and collection of rocks and 

 minerals, to the natural philosophy of the operations by which they 

 were produced. He attended the classes of the Edinburgh Univer- 

 sity. On leaving college, his favourite pursuits, as he tells us, were 

 geology, meteorology, and general and terrestrial physics. He made 

 excursions in his own country, and extended his summer rambles 

 into the Continent, and particularly to Switzerland, where he 

 formed friendships with some of the foremost scientific men of that 

 coimtry, and where the idea of investigating the natux-al history of 

 glaciers early began to form itself in his mind. In the year 1833, 

 when only twenty-four years of age, he was appointed to the chair 

 of natural history in his own University, an office which he held 

 with distinction up to 1859. No one who had the good fortune to 

 hear his prelections will be likely to forget the singular clearness, 

 patience, and thoroughness of his expositions. With his students he 

 was a favourite professor. In addition to his labour in the Univer- 

 sity, he was indefatigable in attention to the welfare of the Royal 

 Society of Edinburgh, of which he continued to be for many years 

 the active general secretary. He communicated papers which shed 

 a new lustre upon the transactions of that body, eliciting for their 

 author the highest honours which the Society had to bestow, and 

 giving him a name honoured and familiar throughout Europe. 



When the duties of the winter were over, he loved to escape to 



