8 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 
by a model his solution of the Miner's Problem, in reference to 
the security of the foundation of the houses in Moray Place. 
On the 23d February, Mr E. Forbes read a communication 
on the Asteriadce of the Irish Sea, which was afterwards pub- 
lished in the Society's Memoirs. This was one of Forbes's 
early papers, and gave indications of what might be expected 
from his natural history labours. 
On 9th March 1839, Mr Cunningham read a valuable 
paper on the Geology of the islands of Eigg, Rum, and Canna, 
which was subsequently published in the Society's Me- 
moirs. 
The session was closed on 20th April 1839 ; and the twenty- 
third session was opened on 23d November, when, among 
other notices, I find that Edward Forbes was made a mem- 
ber of Council. 
On 7th December 1839, Mr E. J. Hay Cunningham read 
an essay on the relations of granite and trap to stratified 
rocks, illustrating it by twenty-six large coloured sections, 
showing numerous contortions, in w^hich there is no evidence 
of the granite having been forcibly injected so as to* produce 
shifting. Mr Macgillivray exhibited a specimen of the but- 
cher bird (Lanius excuMtor), shot at Whittinghame by Mr 
Archibald Hepburn. 
On 21st December 1839, a communication was read from 
Professor Ehrenberg on the calcareous and siliceous micro- 
scopic animals w^hich form the chief component parts of chalk 
and its associated rocks. Dr Greville stated that Mr Shuttle- 
worth considered many of these organisms of Ehrenberg to be 
of vegetable origin. Mr Stevenson mentioned that, up to 1st 
December current, no snow lay upon the mountains of the outer 
Hebrides, which, in ordinary seasons, were clothed with snow 
in the end of October or beginning of November ; but that 
wild swans were abundant in the lochs, indicating a severe 
winter in Iceland and Faroe. 
The Society would appear also to have extended its opera- 
tions beyond the ordinary limit of science ; for I find in the 
minutes of 12th January 1840, "on the motion of Professor 
Jameson, it v/as unanimously agreed that the members of 
this Society will give all possible countenance and encourage- 
