244 Proceedings of the 



American beetles, which he had received through the kindness of Dr Stark 

 of Edinburgh, to whom they had been sent from the deserts of Cordova, 

 by Mr Black, a zealous naturalist (son of our respected Member for the 

 city), who is now in Chile. 



II. On the Contemporaneous Geological Age of the " Mountain" and 

 " Burdiehouse" Limestone Beds of the Linlithgowshire Coal-Field. 

 By Andrew Taylor, Esq. 



The object of Mr Taylor's communication was to describe a geological 

 section in the Bathgate Hills — taken from Dechmont Law to Balbardie 

 House, in which a limestone containing fresh-water fossils, and equiva- 

 lent to the one worked at Burdiehouse, gradually merged into another 

 limestone containing marine fossils, which is usually recognised as the 

 lowest bed of the carboniferous series. 



The axis of the hills occurs on a wooded prominence overlooking the 

 Caput Hall bogs, and near the " Clinking Stane." At this point the 

 limestones may be traced within a few hundred yards of each other, dip- 

 ping N.N.W. and S.S.E. The Kirkton limestone, — a peculiar bed de- 

 scribed by Dr Hibbert, containing both marine and fluviatile remains, — 

 intervenes. Eastward from the prominence just indicated, both the axis 

 of the hills, and the connection of the limestones, may be traced in the 

 burn running through Bengour farm, at Binny, and thence at various 

 points to the shore of the Forth at Hopetoun. 



From the section described, the succession of the strata on either side 

 of the axis, comprising the country eastward to Edinburgh on the one 

 hand and westward to Shotts on the other, was inferred to be as fol- 

 lows : — ■ 



Axis. 

 W.N.N./\s.S.E. 



3. Upper Lanarkshire coal-measures;— 

 wholly fluviatile organic characters. 



2. Beds of marine and fluvio-marine lime- 

 stone, intercalated with shale, coal, 

 ironstone, and stratified trap. 



1. Shales, sandstones. 



3. Sandstones, shale, and a bed of coal. 

 2. Fresh-water limestone. 



1. Shale, sandstone, tufa. 



It was argued that the extensive beds on the N.W. side of the axis had 

 been denuded at the south-eastern side. The beds of intercalated trap in 

 the basins on the north-western side had prevented their valuable mine- 

 ral contents from being swept away. 



On the Bathgate Hills the marine limestone is sixty feet thick, and the 

 fluviatile limestone about twenty feet thick. But towards the south-west, 

 on the borders of Edinburgh and Lanark shires, the marine limestone 

 thins into beds of from three to six feet thick, whilst the fresh-water bed 



