24 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



ing the formation of the Torbanehill mineral and the shales 

 described,, as well as the isolated bitumen so frequently met 

 with in various rocks of the district, to the second method 

 of injection. It was admitted by the late Dr Fleming that 

 the stratified traps we have described do not necessarily 

 demand intense heat for their formation, but may be best 

 accounted for by ejection from a mud volcano, and subse- 

 quent assortment by water. A careful examination of their 

 junction with the stratified rocks will convince observers 

 that this is the most philosophical view of their formation. 

 Surrounded by such a mass of organic rock, the ejection of 

 bitumen from the ancient salses, which have left such 

 abundant proofs of intense activity, is a by no means extra- 

 vagant assumption. 



I would, then, draw the following conclusions as to the 

 Torbanehill mineral bed :— 



1. The Scottish Carboniferous system is probably of much 

 earlier age than the true English Coal Measures, being phy- 

 sically more united with the Upper Old Ked Sandstone 

 series. Further research may probably yet prove the Scot- 

 tish Carboniferous and Upper Old Eed series of rocks to 

 correspond with the English Mountain Limestone series in 

 reality, and form one formation. 2. The strata east and 

 west of Bathgate are the underlying beds of the Scottish 

 series, and must be taken as covering a great lapse of time 

 prior to the deposition of the upper fresh-w T ater coal forma- 

 tion of Lanarkshire. 3. The petralogical peculiarities of 

 the strata around Torbanehill are such as to justify us in 

 assigning a distinct method of formation to a mineral which 

 neither physically, chemically, nor microscopically possesses 

 the characteristics of a true coal. 4. The Torbanehill mine- 

 ral is diffused over a limited area ; a distinct stratigraphical 

 position cannot therefore be assigned to it in any general 

 synopsis of the Scottish Coal Measures. 



An interesting discussion followed, in which the Pre- 

 sident Dr M'Bain, Professor J. Y. Simpson, Mr A. Bryson, 

 Dr Stevenson Macadam, Dr Murray Thomson, and others, 

 took part. 



