Minutes of Proceedings. v 



Africa, the Kimberley volcanic pipes must have brought the 

 diamonds to the surface embedded in a cold matrix, for Luzi found 

 that on keeping diamonds in a mass of melted blue-ground for half 

 an hour the diamonds were intensely corroded. Chaper thought 

 that the diamond pipes were formed by the escape of cold gases, 

 like in the case of outbursts of sand in petroleum areas. The recent 

 discovery of the German South Polar ship Gauss of quartz sand 

 in mid-Atlantic points to a similar outburst beneath the sea. In 

 Scotland and Germany volcanic vents are filled with limestone, 

 which is hardly at all altered by heat, and the theory that volcanoes 

 are pipes reaching to the molten interior of the earth must be 

 abandoned. In Baviaan's Kloof, in the Cape Colony, there are 

 large areas of Table Mountain sandstone, crushed up to the finest 

 rock meal, and if the material had been more fusible the rock 

 would have melted, and a volcano would have been produced. The 

 Drakensberg volcanoes lie in a line of movement in the crust, and 

 it is almost certain that the crushing that took place along this line 

 melted the rocks, and thus produced the lavas. In the case of the 

 Sutherland and Kimberley volcanoes, the vents lie on the north 

 of the Karroo, the southern end of which is folded, the centre being 

 occupied by dolerite intrusions ; it is evident, therefore, that the 

 expansion which the heated dolerite produced in the Karroo rocks 

 found relief by buckling in the south, and shearing and consequent 

 production of volcanoes on the north. It is thus plain that 

 volcanoes and volcanic islands must have a base of older rocks, 

 and that it is the melting of these that produces them. It is also 

 proved that the lavas are not magmas brought for the first time to 

 the surface of the globe from profound depths. Professor Vogt's 

 researches show that the original rocks of the earth's crust, those 

 that do come from great depths, are altogether different in nature to 

 the volcanic series. 



Ordinary Monthly Meeting. 

 November 30, 1904. 

 Dr. J. D. F. Gilchrist, President, in the Chair. 



Messrs. B. E. A. O'Meara, and E. Pollitt were elected ordinary 

 members. Miss Inez Stebbins, B.A., and Mr. E. E. Galpin, 

 F.L.S., were nominated for election by Dr. Bolus and Professor 

 H. M. Pearson, and Dr. Flint and L. Peringuey. 



Mr. E. Hutchins spoke on the recent developments on the 

 adoption of the Metric System, and announced his intention to 



