152 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



There would appear also to be this general arrangement 

 in the seeming irregularities of the earth's surface, that the 

 depressions of the sea-bottoms accompany and compensate 

 the elevations of continents, and thus preserve the due equi- 

 librium of the rotating spheroid. Thus the Atlantic is a 

 great hollow basin between the elevated continents of Asia 

 and Africa on the east and America on the west ; while the 

 deepest portions of the Pacific are on the west side of the 

 American continent, and its central portions are compara- 

 tively shallow. Even in inland .seas, the depths of the 

 Mediterranean, ranging from 5000 to 15,000 feet, correspond 

 with the elevations of Mont Blanc and the Alpine range, 

 while the shallow Baltic and North Sea are surrounded by 

 lands of no great elevation. We thus find in the great 

 operations of nature that adaptation of means to ends which 

 pervades the whole works of creation, and which are as 

 perfect in the arrangements of the mechanism of worlds as 

 in the minutest objects which exist on their surfaces. 



III. A Wernerian Examination of the Six Points of Pluto- Huttonism. 

 By Professor W. Macdonald, St Andrews. 



Wednesday, 23d March 1864. — David Page, Esq., President, in the 



Chair. 



Andrew Davidson, Esq., physician and surgeon, Antananarivo, 

 Madagascar, was balloted for, and elected a Non-Resident Member of 

 the Society. 



The following Donations were laid on the table, and thanks voted to 

 the Donors : — 



1. (1.) A Synopsis of the Carboniferous Limestone Fossils of Ireland. 

 (2.) A Synopsis of the Silurian Fossils of Ireland. — From Richard 

 Griffith, F.G.S. 2. Transactions of the Botanical Society, Vol. VII., 

 Part 3, 1863. — From the Society. 3. Canadian Journal of Industry, 

 Science, and Art. New Series, Nos. 46, 47. July to September 

 1863. — From the Canadian Institute. 4. Rules for Zoological Nomen- 

 clature. By the late Hugh E. Strickland, M.A., F.R.S. Authorised 

 by Section D. of British Association at Manchester, 1842. Reprinted 

 by requisition of Section D. at Newcastle, 1863. Two Copies. — From 

 Sir William Jardine. 5. Otago Provincial Government Gazette, Vol. 

 VI., No. 274. Geological Expedition to the West Coast of Otago, New 

 Zealand, 1863. — From the Agent of the Provincial Government of 

 Otago, Edinburgh. 



