E. Riclwrdson — Glacial Beds in Canada and Scotland. 517 



rather to direct attention to the subject generally, and to make known 

 tlie fact that much has been accomplished of late years, which has 

 not as yet found its way into manuals and encyclopaedias. Most of 

 the information to be found in such works is far behind our present 

 knowledge ; and, where not actually incorrect, has been superseded 

 by fuller and more accurate observations. The subjects taken for 

 special consideration are the following : — Diamond, ruby, sapphire, 

 spinel, beryl, emerald, lapis-lazuli, gold, silver. The steel of India, 

 or wootz, might be included here, since at least 2000 years ago it 

 was one of the most precious productions of India. 



17. — Points op Dissimilakitt and Resemblance between 

 Acadian and Scottish Glacial Beds. 



By Ralph Richardson, F.R.S.E., Vice-President G. S. Edinb. 



ME. RICHAEDSON said that, in his ' Acadian Geology,' Sir J. W. 

 Dawson gave the following as a typical section of the super- 

 ficial geology of Acadia — that is. Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and 

 Prince Edward's Island — and as, in some respects, also applicable to 

 Canada and Maine, viz. at the bottom, ipeaty deposits ; then un- 

 stratified Boulder-clay ; then stratified Leda-clay, indicating deep 

 water ; and, lastly, gravel and sand beds, the Saxicava-sand indicat- 

 ing shallow water. Mr. Eichardson pointed out wherein such a 

 section differed from and resembled the glacial beds of Scotland. 

 He said the latter showed no such orderly arrangement as the 

 Acadian, and could not, as a rule, be divided into deep and shallow 

 waterbeds. The marine shells in the Scottish beds are all mixed up 

 together, regardless, as a rule, of the province — whether Arctic or 

 British or both — to which they properly belong, regardless of the 

 depths which they usually tenant, and regardless of the deposit 

 (whether clay, gravel, or sand) in which they are now found fossil. 

 They are likewise met with at all heights, from the level of the sea to 

 more than 500 feet above it. No system of dispersion of boulder- 

 erratics from definite centres in Scotland seems as yet ascertained. 

 The peaty deposits occurring in Sir J. W. Dawson's section beloiv the 

 Boulder-clay or till, occur in Scotland above it. With regard to 

 points of resemblance, the facies of the shells in Acadia and Scotland 

 is similar, being of the Arctic and British- Arctic type. Again, both in 

 Acadia and Scotland, all the fossiliferous glacial beds occur above 

 the unstratified Boulder-clay or till. Mr. Eichardson cited various 

 Scottish sections to prove this, and remarked that the belief in earlier 

 and later Boulder-clays is of long standing in Scotland. He concluded 

 by pointing out that, in their cardinal features, the Acadian and 

 Scottish glacial beds seem to coincide. In both Acadia and Scotland 

 that great mass of unstratified clay known as till existed ; and, 

 doubtless, the geologists of the New World were, like those of the 

 Old, puzzled to account for its origin with certainty and satisfaction. 

 The question was left unsolved by the meeting of the British Asso- 

 ciation in Edinburgh in 1850; although then discussed by Hugh 

 Miller and Professor John Fleming. The author hoped that during 



