SCIENTIFIC NEWS. O35 



Wemerian Natural History Society. 



At the meeting on the 28th of March, professor Jamesou Mineralogy. 

 read an account of a floetz gynsucfl formation, which occurs 

 on the banks of the Whitadder, near Kelso. Likewise of a 

 beautiful floetz quartz found in beds in the coai district of 

 Fifeshire: and of the occurence of basalt, amygdaloid, and 

 trap-tuff, in a coal -form at ion, newer than the old red sand- 

 stone, and its accompanying- porphyry, but probably older 

 than the general mass of the rocks of the newest floetz-trap 

 formation. At the same meeting, Mr. Leach read a Species of pig. 

 description of the pig of Orkney and Shetland, which lie 

 is inclined to consider as a distinct species. And the Se- Meteorological 

 cretary laid before the meeting a very full and interesting^ 

 thermometrical register and meterological journal, kept on 

 a. voyage to Davis Straits and back again, by Mr. John 

 Aitkin, surgeon. 



At the meeting on the 11th of April, Dr. Mack night ivfoun ain of 

 read a mineralogical description of Tinto, a noted mountain Tinto. 

 in Lanarkshire. It appears to be of floetz formation; 

 probably resting on the gray wacke, which pervades the 

 whole mountainous districts in the south of Scotland. 

 Around the base is found conglomerate, contaiuing rounded 

 masses of gray-wacke, iron clay, flinty slate, splintery horn- 

 stone, quartz, felspar, mica, &c. Where the rock becomes ' 

 finer grained, it approaches in some places to gray-wackej- 

 and in others to those portions of the old red sand-stone 

 formation, which are conjectured to alternate with the 

 newer members of the transition series. Over the con- 

 glomerate, masses of ciay-stone, greenstone, and green- 

 stone passing into clinkstone, and porphyry-slate, suc- 

 cessively appear, till we reach the summit, which, along 

 with the whole of the upper part, is found to consist of 

 compact felspar, and felspar porphyry. The disposition of 

 the rocks in this mountain is conformable to the idea of 

 secondary deposition, by assuming a finer and more crys- - 

 talline texture as they ascend ; and the occurrence of clay- 

 stone and felspar in a position corresponding to what is 

 observed on the Eildon Hills, the Pentlands, the Ochills, 

 Papa Stour, Dundee, and in other places, seems to favour 

 the hypothesis of a particular overlying formation, in which 



these 



