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publication of Dr. MacCulloch's geological map of Scotland. What- 

 ever may be the intrinsic excellence of that work, it must be emi- 

 nently useful, if considered only as a nucleus, round which will im- 

 mediately congregate those ample stores of geological knowledge 

 which at present lie latent in the minds and cabinets of our northern 

 brethren. Nor will Ireland be backward in furnishing her contingent. 

 The coloured copy of Arrowsmith's map of that portion of the United 

 Kingdom which Mr. Griffith has undertaken to lay before the 

 British Association in August next, will bring within our reach an 

 abundant supply of geological information, which though it has 

 been in his possession for many years past, a natural repugnance to 

 combining geological correctness with geographical inaccuracy has 

 hitherto induced him to withhold. 



The exertions of the Geological Society of Dublin have been 

 continued, and cannot fail to diffuse over the whole of Ireland a taste 

 for those studies which at a very early period reflected so much lustre 

 on the name of Kirwan. 



It will be in your recollection that Mr. Weaver presented to us 

 some time since a valuable Memoir on the Geology of the south- 

 western part of that country. In one part of the Memoir the coal- 

 measures of the county of Kerry were referred to the transition se- 

 ries ; the correctness of this statement was questioned at the time, 

 and various inquiries were instituted and persevered in, without 

 leading however to any very decisive result. Since the commence- 

 ment of the session, the author on reexamining the district, has with 

 great candour acknowledged himself to have been in error. More 

 diligent investigation brought into view a well-characterized band 

 of old red sandstone, intervening in one part of the coal-field, be- 

 tween the carboniferous and the transition strata. 



Mr. Jephson has transmitted to us an account of a remarkable 

 spring at Mallow in the county of Cork, the temperature of which 

 varies from 67° to 71tV°' It breaks out in limestone. 



An ample and able account of the recent progress of our science 

 on the Continent will be found in the Report of M. Boue to the 

 Geological Society of France. I shall, therefore, confine my ob- 

 servations on this head almost exclusively to the Papers which have 

 been read at our evening meetings. 



The first in order relates to the loamy deposit, called in the val- 

 ley of the Rhine, Loes, a term as yet scarcely naturalized among us, 

 and which, I believe, is correctly represented by the word Silt. 

 This paper, from the pen of Mr. Lyell, has since been published 

 entire in Jameson's Journal. 



Intimately connected with this is a communication by Mr. Horner, 

 on the nature and quality of the solid matter actually suspended in 

 the water of the Rhine. To ascertain them the author made experi- 

 ments during the months of August and November, bringing up about 

 a gallon of water from different depths and drying slowly the solid 

 matter obtained from it. With whatever attention to accuracy such 

 experiments are conducted, they must, I conceive, be multiplied al- 



o 



