PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 



43 



remarks on the subject. The sokition you give is just what I expected, and was 

 prepared for ; but even with it I think some other questions arise, which I trouble 

 you with, as they strike me as important. Before however doing so, I may 

 describe, to the best of my ability, the rock, of wliicli I now have a specimen. It 

 is a conglomeratic sandy mass, abounding in fossil remains of vegetable matter, 

 and very hard. The frog, which I think I did not describe previously, is small 

 and attenuated. The head is about double the size of the body, and lias a beard 

 attached. The eyes are large, and mouth also considerable. It is unlike any frog 

 I have ever seen ; but perhaps its deformity may be accounted for by the fact of 

 its being cooped up in such a confined space, and being denied fresh food and air, 

 as would ha\e allowed it to increase in size, and assume its natural dimensions. 



1st. Accepting, then, your assurance that it was a recent one,— by wliich I pre- 

 sume you mean of existing species, can any probable guess be made as to its 

 longevity, or how long it has been the tenant of the domicile it was found in ] 



2d. How long could it have continued to live where it was ? I think this 

 question, with the former, bears much upon the subject ; because, if it could have 

 existed 100, 50, or even 10 years in such a cavity, what in all the world is there 

 to prevent it doing so for 'myiiads of years,' which you consider not only im- 

 probable, but almost impossible I 



3d. If the frog was at all increasing in size (for I presume that, if it was 

 generated in the cavity, it was gTowing hourly), Avhen it became too large for the 

 cavity, would it have become a part of tlie stratum, and appeared as a fossil ? 



4th. The rock is to aU appearance quite solid ; and, supposing that had a prac- 

 tised and experienced geologist, on examination of the spot where the frog was 

 fomid, pronounced it free from ' cutters,' or such fissures as could have admitted 

 spawn or air, would such a stratum be sufficiently porous to admit water enough 

 to give the animal such a continuous supply of fresh oxygen, as was necessary 

 for its existence ; or did it exist on the oxygen in the cavity alone ? 



5th. Does not a perpetual change go on in aU strata ] and, as years roll on, 

 would not the cavity have become vutually hermetically sealed ] and, if so, would 

 the frog have continued in life \ 



6th. Why, when it breathed atmospheric air, did it die at once ? 



7tli. Where and how was the cavity first formed, and was it probably larger at 

 first ? 



Hoping you v.all excuse these queries, — Your obedient Servant, R. Wardlaw 

 Ramsey, Whitehill, 16th November, 1858." 



PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 



Geological Society of London, December 1st, 1858. — The following commu- 

 nication was read : — 



" On the Geolo,gical Stmcture of the North of Scotland and the Orkney and 

 Shetland Islands." Part II. By Sn- R. I. Murchison, F.R.S., V.P.G.S. 



In a paper read during the last Session (see " Abstracts," JSTo. 10), the author 

 described the general succession of rocks in the Northern Highlands, as observed 

 by Mr. Peach and himself, aided by the researches of some other geologists. 



The rocks were described in their ascending order, as first, a fundamental gneiss 

 traversed by gTanite-veins at Cape Wrath ; secondly, a red or chocolate-coloured 

 sandstone and conglomerate, of great thickness, and regarded by the author as of 

 Cambrian age ; thirdly, succeeding unconformably, is a series of quartzite, with 

 intercalated limestone, both of them often highly crystalline, — from the limestone 

 Mr. C. Peach had succeeded in obtaining " near Durness," several fossils, shown 

 to be of Lower Silurian age ; fourthly, micaceous schists and flag.stones occupying 

 a wide extent of country to the east of Loch Eriboll, described as being of younger 

 age than the foregoing, and older than the Old Red Sandstone series which 



