174 Notices of Memoirs — Edinburgh Geologieal Society. 



the aid of water or heat''- during tlie immense time that has elapsed 

 since the Gneiss period. M. Nordenskiold does not attempt any 

 explanation of the way in which this change was effected. 



M, Ekman, in the third paper, gives the result of analyses of 

 various specimens of Nullaberg rock, which show it to be essentially 

 a potash-felspar, with a little apatite, traces of manganese and 

 copper, phosphoric acid and chlorine, besides the organic matter and 

 carbonate of lime. 



Whether this Fundamental Gneiss of Sweden is the equivalent of 

 that in the Hebrides and of the Laurentian rocks in Canada and 

 elsewhere, is a point not discussed in these papers. 



Lithologically the Swedish beds appear very similar to the Lau- 

 rentian Gneiss, containing graphite, described by Sir W. E. Logan, 

 and which without doubt was originally a sedimentary rock. So 

 long ago as 184:6 M. Elie de Beaumont announced the sedimentary 

 nature of the Swedish gneiss," while the recorded discovery by Prof. 

 Sismouda^ of an Equisetum in gneiss (of Jurassic age), would leave 

 no doubt about the original aqueous origin of the rock. — H. B. W. 



II. — Transactions of the Edinburgh Geological Society. Yol. I. 

 Parts I. and II. 1868. Svo. 



THESE Parts contain the papers read before the Edinburgh Geo- 

 logical Society between November, 1866, and May, 1868. 

 Among the more important of these communications, the following 

 may be mentioned : — On the Carboniferous Strata of Carluke, by J. 

 E. S. Hunter ; On the Geology of the Coasts of Antrim and London- 

 derry, by T. Smyth ; On the old Eed Sandstone of Scotland, by J, 

 Powrie, F.G.S., etc. ; On the Superficial Deposits at the South Esk, 

 by Dr. J. C. Howden ; On the Evidences of Glacier Action in Gallo- 

 way, by W. Jolly. — There are numerous illustrations accompanying 

 these papers, some of which have previously been noticed in the 

 Geological Magazine — the last report (of a meeting on April 2nd, 

 1868.) was published in the number for May last year. 



The following papers were read on April 16th, 1868 : — 



1. Observations on the Miocene Beds of Greenland. By Eobert 

 Brown, E.E.G.S. 



Extending over a very limited area, these strata are composed of 

 a great variety of beds of sandstone, alternating with lignite, and 

 capped by shales of various descriptions. In all the sandstones and 

 shales vegetable impressions are found, but it is only in the thin 

 layers of a hard clay- slate, impregnated with iron, that they retain 

 their impressions very distinctly. All these strata are cut across by 

 trap-dykes, which in some places stand out bare and wall-like from 

 the denuded softer rocks through which they protrude. 



The author protests against the way in which Professor Heer has 

 been making species and genera out of the fossils discovered in these 



1 It may be noted that Dr. T. Sterry Hunt has urged the presence of carbon in 

 the state of graphite, unoxidised, in metamorphic rocks, as a proof that a temperature 

 of ignition was not required for metamorphism. — Vide Geol. Mag. Vol. I, p. 202. 



2 Geol. Mag. Vol. I. p. 156. 3 Ibid. Vol. II. p. 239. 



