SCIENTIFIC NEW*. 159 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



Wernerian Society. 



,/\t the meeting of this Society on the 30th of November, Paper on 

 prof. Jameson read a papf r on granite. Three principal framte. 

 granite formations, and two of sienite, were described. 

 Two of the granite formations are primitive : the third, 

 transition : and of the sienites, one is primitive, and the 

 other transition. He described particularly the appear- 

 ances, that present themselves at the junctions and alterna- 

 tions of the granite and sienite with gneiss and kitlas, 

 (which last is probably a newer gneiss), and the relations of 

 these rocks to mica-slate, clay-slate, gray-wacke, and gray- 

 wacke-slate. The descriptions were illustrated by nume- 

 rous sections and specimens from Galloway, island of Arrah, 

 and other parts of Scotland. — The professor likewise read 



an account of the natural history of a new genus of conca- ^®^, g«""^ *» 



1 p -1 1 11 T J -1 • 1 • I i7 1 . 1 '°s8i' sh«iis. 



merated lossil shell, in describing this shell, he employed 



the usual zoological language; but in detailing the other 



particulars, the method followed was that used in giving 



the natural history of minerals. 



At the same meeting the secretary read a communication Bed of fossiif 



from the Rev. Mr. Fleming of Flisk, containing an ac- * * '* 



count of a bed of fossil shells, which occurs on the banks of 



the Frith of Forth, near Borrowstounness. The bed is 



three feet thick, nearly three miles in extent, and lies about 



33 feet above the present level of spring tides. The kinds 



of shells which compose this extensive bed, are still found ia 



a recent state in the Frith.— -At the same meeting, also. Echinus Ikho- 



Mr. Leach read a description of a new British species of P*^^S"*» anew 



1 . species, 



echinus, which he observed in plenty at Bantry Bay in 



Ireland, and which he proposed to call e. lithophagus, as it 

 forms a small hollow for itself in the substance of the sub- 

 marine rocks. 



At the meeting of this society on the 14th of Dec, pro- Geognosy of 

 fessor Jameson read a short general account of the geognosy b/jg^^j" ' 

 of the stewartry of Kirkcudbright. It would appear from 



the 



