438 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 
prove that we have any very modern evidence of a subsidence 
of the sea or a raising of the land in the basin of the Forth.* 
V. (1.) On the Pigmental System of the JEquoreal Pipe-Jish. By 
T. Strethill Wright, M.D. 
A few v^eeks ago I received a specimen of this fish, from 
Mr Fulton of Granton pier, in a very lively condition. It 
was placed in a large white vessel of water at ten o'clock at 
night. The colour of the fish was at that time a dark green, 
marked with the usual bands. On examining it the next 
morning, it had assumed a general hue of bright orange. 
Towards evening, again, dark-green patches appeared over 
various parts of the body. It was found the next morning 
dead on the carpet, having escaped from the vessel in which 
it was confined, and still retaining the clouded appearance 
which it possessed on the preceding evening. 
The pigmental system of the pipe-fish consists of two 
layers of pigment-cells, which are capable of contracting 
themselves to mere dots, and of extending themselves until 
they coalesce. In the outer layer these cells have a dark- 
brownish green tint; in the inner layer a bright orange. 
The green cells are excessively branched when dilated. The 
orange cells tend rather to form uniform expansions. I 
endeavoured with the utmost care to detect traces of cell- 
walls in both species of cell, but was unable to do so. The 
pigment cell appears only to consist of nucleus and con- 
tractile protoplasm, and to correspond very closely with the 
structure of some of the lowest forms of animal life, such as 
the Ehizopoda. 
(2.) Description of this uEquoreal Pipe-fish. Bj John Alexander 
Smith, M.D. 
Dr Wright having given me this specimen of the ^quo- 
real Pipe-fish, Nerophis ^quoreus (Kaup.), I thought it 
might be interesting to add a few details of its description: — 
Since the above was written, the bed No. 7 of Mr Geikie's section has been 
nearly all removed, the only portion remaining may be carried away in six or 
eight cart loads. The section exhibits now, what it did before, that humus and 
sand were alternate, as the carts which carried the stuff of the foundation 
were loaded anon with earth and then with sand. 
