24 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 
irig the formation of the Torbanehili 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 
Torbanehili 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 Eed 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^ater coal forma- 
tion of Lanarkshire. 3. The petralogical peculiarities of 
the strata around Torbanehili 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 Torbanehili 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. 
