88 Correspondence — Rusticus expectans. 



Geological Society of Glasgow. — December 1st, 1870. — Mr. 

 John Young, Vice-President, in the chair. 



Bituminous Striped Sandstone. — The Chairman exhibited a block of Carboni- 

 ferous sandstone from Gilmorehill quarry, about nine inches in thickness, showing in 

 that space thirty-two well-defined alternate white and dark-brown stripes, which gave 

 the specimen a beautifully stratified appearance. Mr. Young stated that the brown 

 stripes were due to the particles of sand having become mixed with bituminous mat- 

 ter previous to their deposition. It was perhaps not easy to explain the alternation, 

 so oft repeated, of these white and coloured bands, but he thought the stripes could 

 not have been so clear and distinct if the sand had been impregnated Avith the 

 colouring matter after deposition. The layers of white and brown sand had evidently 

 been deposited as such, at irregular intervals, over the area in which this striped 

 sandstone is found, and which, he might mention, is of very limited extent in the 

 quarry he had named. He then referred to other bituminous sandstones found in the 

 coal-measures near Glasgow, and said he believed the bitumen by which they had 

 become impregnated had been driven ofi' by heat from other bituminous strata in 

 their neighbourhood, and in some cases had been mixed with the sand during the 

 deposition of the bed; in others, had been carried into it at a later period by infiltra- 

 tion. As regarded the specimen before them, the former, as he had already indicated, 

 was the more probable hypothesis. All these bituminous sandstones, on being burnt, 

 lose their bitumen, and return to their normal colour. 



Carboniferous Fossils.^ — Mr. Thomas Naismyth exhibited several drawers of 

 fish remains, principally from the coal-fields around Glasgow, upon which Mr. Young 

 offered a few remarks illustrative of their generic characters and their range in the 

 Carboniferous strata. The collection contained a number of fine large teeth of 

 Rhizodus Hibberti, from the ironstone pits at Possil ; jaws, scales, and teeth of Mega- 

 liehthys Hibberti and Megalichthys rugosus, besides a number of fin-spines and other 

 fragments of fishes, from the Airdrie coal-field. Among the specimens were also to 

 be noticed a few fragments of reptilian remains, consisting of portions of crania, 

 yertebrse, etc., which had been found near Airdrie, and at Quarter, near Hamilton. 



Mr. James Thomson, F.G.S., said the specimens exhibited by Mr. Naismyth were 

 of considerable interest, especially the reptilian. These belonged to two new species 

 of Labyrinthodon, of which he had already found remains in strata of the same 

 geological horizon. 



Oil Shale. — Mr. D. C. Glen, C.E., laid before the meeting several slabs of oil 

 shale from near Collingwood, on Lake Huron, Canada ; and also some samples of 

 the petroleum distilled from it. The slabs were from the Silurian formation, which 

 is of great extent in North America, and remarkable for the regular succession of 

 its strata. When examined, these blocks of shale were found to be stratified horizon- 

 tally with layers of Trilobites, Entomostraca, and other marine organisms. The 

 oil shown was distilled from the shale in the usual manner, by heated retorts. 

 The pure, clear spirit is taken from the oil, leaving a thick residuum, which is used 

 for tarring outside work, and also for burning in steam-boiler and other furnaces. 

 Another sample of oil on the table was pumped up from a bored well at Both well, C.W., 

 where the oil occurs at a depth of from 100 to 500 feet from the surface. "When 

 pumped out, it is mixed with three or four times its bulk of salt water. It is then 

 allowedto settle in large tanks, and when the water is drawn off from below it leaves 

 the oil in very much the same state as that distilled from the shale. In all proba- 

 bility, therefore, this oil is derived from a similar stratum, impregnated with organic 

 animal matter. 



coiaK-iEsiPoivriDiBisroDS. 



SPORE-COAL; FLINT, AND PROTOZOA. 

 Sib, — I am an elderly amateur of Geology, and have suffered 

 many disappointments, on finding that what my scientific guides 

 had, at one time or another, told me to accept as the definite 

 cause and explanation for this or that fact or problem, on which I 

 sought their opinion, was rotten or could not hold water. Indeed, 



