Glasgow Geological Society. 139 



III. Ordinary meeting, 13th January, 1870, Mr. Jolin Young, 

 Vice-President, in the chair. — Mr. James Tiiomson read a paper 

 " On Further Evidences of the Existence of Plant-remains in the 

 Schistose Eocks of the West Ilighhmds." Mr. Thomson referred to 

 the paper which he had read at the previous meeting, in which ho 

 had mentioned the probability of the occurrence of plant-remains in 

 other parts of the West Highlands. This he had now been able to 

 confirm by having found fragments of wood in a conglomerate, com- 

 posed of talcose schist, with rounded pebbles of quartz, in Glencoe, 

 where it occurs intercalated between beds of schist, which overlie the 

 granite of the district. Mr. Thomson also read a paper "On the 

 Vitrified Forts of Dunskaig and Carradale in Kintyre." He described 

 the form of these forts, and drew attention to fragments of charred 

 wood which he had found imbedded between the angular pieces of 

 the schistose rocks of which they are built. The walls of each of 

 them are about 6 ft. thick, and on examination he had found that 

 they were only vitrified half through. It was evident, therefore, 

 that the forts had been vitrified by means of the wood found im- 

 bedded among the stones, and that it had also been applied along 

 the inner boundary only. 



Mr. D. Corse Glen read a paper " On the Zeolites which occur in 

 the Trap Eocks in the neighbourhood of Glasgow," illustrated by a 

 large collection of these interesting minerals from his own cabinet. 



IV. This Society met in Anderson's University, on the 27th of 

 January, 1870. — Mr. John Young, Vice-President in the chair. — 

 Mr. Wm. Cameron read a paper on the " Sutherland Gold-fields." ^ 

 He referred to a paper which he had read before the Society in 1866, 

 upon the auriferous rocks and drifts of Victoria, in which he had 

 stated that it was possible that there might yet be found in Scotland 

 fields where, with modem appliances, gold might be profitably 

 worked. What he then merely hazarded as a conjecture has since 

 been realised as a fact, and he had much pleasure in coming before 

 them to give some account of his own experiences on a modern 

 Scottish Gold-field. He first pointed out the principal geological 

 features of the district. With the exception of certain strips and 

 peaks of Old Eed Sandstone, large grained granite and Oolite, the 

 whole of the country immediately surrounding the diggings consists 

 of metamorphic Xiower Silurian rocks. No discovery of gold m situ 

 has yet been achieved, so that the question as to what is the true 

 matrix of the Sutherland gold is somewhat perplexing, and is excit- 

 ing amongst geologists a considerable degree of interest. The drifts 

 in which it is found are various, fine grained gold and even small 

 nuggets having been obtained in various strata, from the bed rock to 

 the roots of the heather. It exists in bands of black ferruginous 

 ■drift, almost of the nature of cement, containing washed boulders of 

 gneiss, granite and schists. There are occasionally two distinct 



^ For more detailed and scientific information respecting the geological structure 

 of the Sutherland Gold-fields, vide a paper by the Eev. Mr. Joass, of Golspie, Quart. 

 Joum. Geol. Soc, toI. xxt., 1869. 



