THE 



QUARTERLY JOURNAL 



OF 



THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OE LONDON. 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF 



THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



February 3, 1858. 



Viscount Dufferin, Dufferin Lodge, Highgate, and Clandeboye, 

 Co. Down, the Rev. Fred. Smithe, M.A., Churchdown, Gloucester- 

 shire, and the Rev. W. A. Jones, M.A., Taunton, were elected Fellows. 



The following communication was read : — 



On the Succession of Rocks in the Northern Highlands, 

 from the oldest Gneiss, through strata of Cambrian and 

 Lower Silurian age, to the Old Red Sandstone inclusive. 

 By Sir R. I. Murchison, F.R.S., V.P.G.S., &c. 



[Abstract.] 

 [The publication of this Memoir is postponed.] 



This memoir comprised a general sketch of the succession of the 

 stratified rock-masses occupying the northernmost counties of Scot- 

 land (Sutherland, Caithness, and Ross), as determined by former 

 observations of Prof. Sedgwick and the author, and of Macculloch, 

 Jameson, Cunningham, Miller, and Nicol, and by the recent disco- 

 veries of Mr. C. Peach. In the commencement, Sir Roderick, having 

 referred to the long-held opinion that the great mountainous masses 

 of red conglomerate and sandstone of the west coast were detached 

 portions of the Old Red Sandstone, alluded to Mr. C. Peach's dis- 

 covery (in 1854) of organic remains in the limestone of Durness, 

 which led the author to revisit the Highlands (accompanied by 

 Prof. Nicol), when having found still more fossils, he expressed his 



