Reports and Proceedings — Geologists' Association. 137 



these valleys. The author concludes, therefore, that the " Brown- 

 clay series " is of much newer date than the " Blue and grey series." 

 In conclusion, the author summed up the inferences drawn in the 

 paper, correlated the Basement Clay of Holderness with the Chalky 

 Clay of Lincolnshire, and suggested that the Purple Clay may be 

 confined to the east side of the wolds. The classification he would 

 propose is therefore as follows : — 



Lincolnshire. Yorkshire. 



T^ ni • 1 ( Hessle Clay. Hessle and Upper fled Clay of coast. 



^ ewer l^lacial | p^^.^^^ ^^^^^ p^p^^ ^^^^,_ 



Older Glacial = Chalky Clay. Basement Clay. 



{^Report to be continued.) ' 



11. — Eeport of the Meeting of the Geologists' Association, 

 January 2, 1885. 



On some Eecent Yiews concerning the Geology of the North- 

 West Highlands. By Henry Hicks, M.D., F.G.S., President 

 of the Association. 



THE author stated that as the Proceedings of the Association 

 contained several papers, dealing with the controversy con- 

 cerning the rocks of the North-West Highlands of Scotland, he 

 thought it advisable to call the attention of the members to views 

 contained in an important article published in " Nature," Nov. 13th, 

 by the Director-General of the Geological Survey; and in a " Eeport 

 on the Geology of the North-West of Sutherland," by Messrs. Peach 

 and Home in the same Numbei-, which cannot fail either to change 

 entirely the future character of the controversy, or bring it rapidly 

 to a satisfactory issue. Because of the positions held by the chief 

 disputants on the one side, the controversy had assumed, to a great 

 extent, the appearance of being one between official surveyors and 

 some amateurs who had been led to study the questions involved in 

 it. The well-known and widelj'-accepted views, first put forward by 

 Sir E. Murchison, that there were clear evidences in the North- West 

 of Scotland of a " regular conformable passage from fossiliferous 

 Silurian quartzites, shales, and limestones upwards into crystalline 

 schists, which were supposed to be metamorphosed Silurian sedi- 

 ments," were fully adopted by the official surveyors, including Sir 

 A. C. Eamsay and Prof. Geikie, also by the late Prof. Harkness 

 and others who had examined the areas. Prof. Nicol, of Aberdeen, 

 however, for many years stoutly contested Sir E. Murchison's views, 

 and maintained that they were based on erroneous observations. 

 Unfortunately his views did not meet with much approval at the 

 time. In 1878 the author reopened the controversy by calling- 

 attention to some sections examined by him in Eoss-shire, which he 

 maintained did not bear out the views of Sir E. Murchison. He 

 also suggested a modified interpretation of the views of Prof. Nicol. 

 Since then different areas in Eoss and Sutherland have been 

 examined by Mr. Hudleston, Prof. Bonney, Mr. Callaway, Prof. 

 Lapworth and Prof. Blake, and their conclusions showed that 

 though slight differences of opinion prevailed on some points, yet 



