Geological Society of Glasgow. 183 



worn, and never of large size ; they cannot be referred to any for- 

 mation known to exist in England. From the manner in which they 

 are distributed in England, Mr, Hull was of opinion that they had 

 their origin to the northward of the Central Counties ; and recently 

 he had observed that the Lower Old Eed Conglomerate of several 

 parts of Scotland was composed of precisely similar pebbles of quartz 

 rock, as those of the New Eed Conglomerate of England. The Con- 

 glomerate of Lesmahagow, for instance, described by Sir E. I. 

 Murchison in 1856, (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. xii.), is almost 

 entirely composed of these pebbles, sometimes attaining a diameter 

 of 16 inches. At Balmaha and Aberfoyle it presents similar fea- 

 tures, but westward, as at Gairloch, the pebbles are of a more 

 local character, though also containing the coloured quartzites, 

 as described by Dr. Bryce. Mr. Hull felt satisfied that the New 

 Eed Conglomerate of England was the daughter of the Old Eed 

 Conglomerate of Scotland. 



Mr. Eobert Craig, of Langside, near Beith, read a paper on '' The 

 Geology of the Dairy District," The area described is the trian- 

 gular basin situated in the parishes of Dairy, Kilbirnie, and Beith, 

 the south-west angle of which extends into the north of Kilwinning, 

 and has narrow extensions, one north-east into the Castle-semple 

 Valley, the other into the Lugton Valley to Shellord. After defin- 

 ing the boundaries of the basin, and giving a sketch of the Trap 

 hills which surround it, Mr. Craig minutely described the Limestone 

 series, as developed in the neighbourhood of Beith, consisting of 

 limestone, shale, sandstone, thin seams of coal, etc., which also crop 

 out in the beds of the various streams which descend from the hills 

 on the opposite side of the valley with similar lithological characters. 

 The author next described the various sections exposed at Eye Water, 

 Auchenskeigh, Auchenmeade, and other localities around the basin. 

 The underlying beds of the district are rich in fossils, chiefly Brachio- 

 poda, some beds three feet in thickness being entirely composed of 

 Producti. A band of limestone two feet thick at Broadstone is made 

 up of a coral (Liiliodendron) , while other beds have yielded numerous 

 specimens of the teeth and fin-rays of fishes. The Boulder-clay is 

 well seen in almost every quarry in the district. It is full of erratic 

 boulders derived from a northern source. Sections examined by Mr. 

 Craig between Kilvvinning and Barrhead — a distance of 15 miles in 

 the supposed line of the glacier — led him to conclude that about 80 

 per cent, of the boulders had not travelled more than five miles. 

 Thus, at Auchenskeigh, the majority are of sandstone from rocks 

 situated two and three miles to the north-east ; at Eoughwood, they 

 are from the Broadstone limestone ; and in the railway cutting east 

 of Shelford the boulders are traps from hills to the east and sandstones 

 from the Levern Valley, two miles distant. Mr. Craig concluded 

 with a description of the numerous Greenstone dykes which intersect 

 the strata from north-west to south-east in various parts of the 

 district. 



n. The next meeting was held on the evening of February 4th, — 



