563 
A little beyond the neck EE, it met the Limeridge Railway, car- 
ried away part of it, and covered it between E and G. It spread 
over the natural basin marked GG, where it left large masses. One 
measured seven feet by four feet, and was nearly five feet deep. At 
H it entered Binniehill Burn, and covered the haugh I. The next 
point favourable for it spreading occurs in the haugh on the south and 
east of Slamannan village. At this place it covered the highway at 
two points, and left about two feet of peat soil on the surface of the 
clay, at that time under cultivation. Having reached the Avon, 
the flow left broad marks on its banks, as far down as Linlithgow 
bridge, thirteen miles distant. 
The author, in conclusion, pointed out resemblances between the 
Auchingray landslip and that of the Solway in 1771, and referred 
to phenomena associated with the Slip now noticed, fitted to shed 
light on several questions bearing on the formation of modern strata. 
2. On the Rainfall in the Lake District in 1861. With some 
Observations on the Composition of Rain-Water. By John 
Davy, M.D., F.R.SS., Lond. and Edin. 
This paper consists of two parts. In the first part an account is 
given of the rain-fall in the Lake District during the year 1861, 
chiefly remarkable for its great amount (exceeding the average by 
many inches), and varying in different localities from sixty inches 
on the skirts of the district, for instance, at Kendal and Mirehouse, 
the latter four miles northward of Keswick, to 123 and 182 inches ; 
the former, the fall at Grasmere, where approaching the higher 
mountains, the latter at Seathwaite in Borrowdale, a spot in the 
midst of them. 
In the second part an account is given of the author’s observa- 
tions and experiments on rain, in relation to composition, as ex- 
amined microscopically and chemically. 
The results of both trials seem to prove that rain-water is rarely, 
if ever pure, and that almost constantly it is the vehicle of saline 
matter, probably derived from the sea, and of other matter as well 
as saline, probably derived from the land, especially from our great 
manufacturing districts, and that in each and every instance, the 
impregnations it contains are raised and diffused by the winds. 
The diffusion of matter thus affected is so strongly marked, that, 
in the author’s opinion, it seems to prove that as there is a circula- 
4 G 
VOL. IV. 
