Royal Society of Edinburgh. 147 
He also exhibited specimens of schorl which he had obtained in 
the granite of Aberdeen, and drew the inference that schorl, which 
erackles and splits with a very small increment of temperature, 
could not have been present during a molten condition of the 
quartz ; and that it was crystallized prior to the solidifying of the 
latter, as proved by the schorl impressing the quartz. The author, 
from a careful examination of the schorls in the quartzite of Aber- 
deen, was led to believe that the quartz, while in the process of 
crystallization, expanded one twenty-fourth of its bulk, a force 
which appeared to him to be sufficient to cause all the upheavals 
and disruptions which had led geologists to account for such pheno- 
mena by a molten condition of the primary rocks, If this view is 
correct, and if the highest peak is granite, as the lowest is known 
to be granite, the author calculated that as the highest mountain is 
only ;+; part of the radius of the earth, a thickness of the crust 
of 168 miles is quite sufficient to yield expansive force to raise the 
highest peak of the Himalayan range. He further stated that the 
cause of the temperature at which the fluids were confined being 
higher than the normal one, depended on the rise of: temperature 
which takes place during solidification. 
The author, in conclusion, trusted he would soon be in a position 
to confirm these views when he had finished the investigation of the 
trap rocks with which he is now engaged. 
2. Notes of Excursions to the Higher Ranges of the Anamalai 
Hills, South India, in 1858 and 1859. By Hugh Cleghorn, 
M.D., F.L.S., Conservator of Forests, Madras Presidency. 
The southern ranges of the Anamalai (.e., Elephant Hills) hav- 
ing been little explored, and only known through the manuscript 
report of Captain J. Michael, 39th N.I., formerly of the Forest 
_ Department, the author was induced to project an excursion to these 
heights, in concert with Dr D. Macpherson, Inspector-General of 
Hospitals, and the Collector and Engineer of the Coimbatore District 
(Messrs Cherry and Fraser). The arrangements were made under the 
auspices of the Right Hon. Lord Harris, Governor of Madras, and 
His Excellency Sir P. Grant, complied with the request that Major 
Douglas Hamilton, 21st N.1., should accompany them as artist, to 
delineate the characteristic features of the country. (This officer’s 
sketches, seventeen in number, some of them panoramic, were ex- 
hibited. A selection will appear in the Transactions). Notwith- 
standing the unfavourable state of the weather, the result was not 
without interest, much additional information having been obtained, 
which elucidates Col. Fred. C. Cotton’s narrative of an expedition 
over the Anamalai mountains (northern range). (See “ Madras 
Journal of Literature and Science,” vol. ii. p. 80. 1857.) 
The main results of the excursion were extracted from his Diary, 
