J36 SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



these substances are prevailing ingredients, extending over 

 a considerable portion of the lower country of Scotland. — 

 In the bed of the Clyde, to the eastward of T>»to, amyg- 

 daloid appears, having nodules of calcedony coated with 

 green earth ; also calcspar, and portions of steatite.— To- 

 wards the north, the conglomerate forming the base of 

 Tinto passes into the sandstone of which the whole inferior 

 districts of Lanarkshire are composed. It is to the waste 

 of this rock that we owe the splendid scenery of Cora Linn, 

 and the other celebrated falls of the Clyde, a river which 

 exhibits in its course many charms of nature, and may 

 indeed i»e said to carry along with it beauty and fertility, 

 Meteo-oiogy A* tfr* s ame meeting, the Secretary communicated a 

 f Hudson's very ' curious meteorological journal, kept by Governor 

 Graham., during his residence in Hudson's Bay. 



Bay 



Geological Society. 

 Substances May the 1st, A paper by Dr. Mac Culloch, M. G. S. ? 



distilled from n bistre and other substances produced in the distillation 

 cons' to bitu- °f vvo °d ; and on their analogy with the native bitumens, 

 mens. was read. When wood is submitted to destructive dis- 



tillation, there is obtained, among other products, a black 

 substance resembling common tar. This tar is very irir 

 flammable, and so liquid, that it may be burnt in a lamp. 

 By washing it with water either hot or cold, or submitting 

 it to the action of lime, or of the mild alkalis, a large 

 portion of acetic acid is separated, and the residue becomes 

 pitchy and tenacious. It is entirely soluble in caustic 

 alkali, in alcohol, in ether, in acetic acid, and in the mi- 

 neral acids. The fat oils a;;d the recent essential oils 

 dissolve but little of it, but if the former are made drying, 

 and if the latter have become brown by keeping, they then 

 act more readily and copiously. Coloured oil of turpentine 

 takes up a considerable quantity, but naphtha only ac- 

 quires a scarcely sensible brown colour, by digestion upon 

 it. When carefully distilled at a gentle heat it is decom- 

 posed into an oily matter, at first limpid, and afterward 

 brown, a quantity of acetic acid combined with a little 

 ammonia, and a spungy coal remains in the retort. In this 



process 



