Royal Physical Society. 269 



'^crumpled surface," near the washing well, a bed of sandstone, contain- 

 ing a large proportion of lime, is partially exposed, but not sufficiently so 

 to determine on what bed this calcareous sandstone rests. The Crag 

 to the eastward of Girnal Crag at Windy Gowl is termed by Mr Maclaren 

 the " Loch Crag," and is considered by that geologist and others to re- 

 present the Well Orag on the north side, the next rising above the Bog 

 Crag, and upon a portion of which the fossiliferous shale-bed is situated. 

 Overlying the compact greenstone of Loch Crag is a bed of amygdaloidal 

 tuff, very similar in character to that on which the fossiliferous shale rests. 

 Professor Fleming and myself, when tracing this crag upwards towards 

 the summit of the hill, met with masses of limestone, neither rounded nor 

 water-worn, and evidently in situ, but destitute of organic remains. 

 Vegetable fragments, similar to those now described, were found by 

 Professor Fleming and myself, in the sedimentary beds of sandstone and 

 shale, behind the Royal Terrace, overlying the concretionary clay por- 

 phyry or argillite of the Calton Hill. It is not necessary for me to en- 

 large upon the importance of the presence of fossils in any formation or 

 group of rocks in regard to geological questions ; but their importance is 

 peculiarly valuable in connection with formations of what are termed 

 "igneous origin." Professor Fleming's attention has been long en- 

 gaged in this important inquiry ; and in a paper read before the Royal 

 Society of Edinburgh, in the winter of 1855, " On the Geology of the 

 Calton Hill, and Sedimentary Trap- Rocks in the Neighbourhood of 

 Edinburgh, *' he has brought forward abundant proofs that the "theo- 

 ries" hitherto generally adopted are not in accordance with the facts ob- 

 served. I have reason to believe that this investigation will be conti- 

 nued, that it will include the geology of Arthur's Seat, and that we may 

 soon expect to be put in possession of his entire views on this question. 



Lieutenant Thomas, R.N., exhibited several small star-fishes, which 

 he considered as new. They were dredged up in 1848 from fifty fathoms 

 water, with stony bottom, half way between Fair Isle and the Orkneys. 

 The star-fish displayed both ventral and dorsal openings; and were handed 

 over to Dr Greville, who kindly undertook to examine them. 



Mr George Forrest exhibited the skin of an otter, Lutra vulgaris, 

 apparently a young female, which was killed in a small burn near PefFer 

 Mill in December last, during a severe frost, Duddingston Loch being 

 frozen over. There were three otters seen together, but the others escaped. 

 It measured three feet two inches from snout to point of tail, and weighed 

 91b. 8 oz. Mr George Logan, W.S., stated that, sometime afterwards, a 

 family, apparently of no less than five otters, had been observed again 

 and again fishing in Duddingston Loch, and a few years preceding two 

 full-grown specimens were captured alive, ascending the burn towards 

 the loch at Duddingston Mills. 



