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of Edinburgh, Session 1878 - 79 . 
on the Old Red Sandstone formation, which was printed in the last 
volume of our Transactions, was of sufficient merit to entitle him to 
the award of the prize, and especially when regard was had to the 
many other valuable contributions which had been rendered by 
the author to geological science. 
The Old Red Sandstone formation was well known in Scotland, by 
reason of the many treatises, both popular and scientific, which had 
been published regarding it, not only by Scotchmen, but by English 
geologists of reputation, during the last fifty years. But, notwith- 
standing all that had been done in the way of investigation, the 
extent of this Formation on the earth’s surface was so great, and 
the variations in its conditions so numerous, that much remained 
to be done. There was probably no other Formation, known 
to geologists, which occurred in so many countries, or which 
presented so many new forms of animal and vegetable life. It 
occurred in England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Norway, Sweden, 
Russia, India, South America, and Canada. It was so extensively 
developed in America, that an American geologist, lately writing on 
the subject, almost made it a matter of national pride, that the 
formation was more extensive in Canada and the States, than in 
Europe, and was also richer in fossils. Professor Geikie had inti- 
mated his intention of investigating and describing this Formation as 
it existed, not merely in Scotland, but on the Continent. The 
memoir lately printed in our Transactions was a commencement of 
this large undertaking. That memoir was confined to the north of 
Scotland, — viz., the counties of Moray, Sutherland, Ross, Caithness, 
Orkney, and Shetland. The boundary of the formation in these 
parts was indicated by a great belt of shingle, made up from 
the waste of the Old Silurian roeks, and forming along their 
northern and eastern flanks a conglomerate rock. The waters 
which beat on these Silurian rocks, and in which the deposited 
sediment ultimately became Old Red Sandstone strata, are 
believed by Professor Geikie to have been lacustrine, — a view 
originally suggested by the late Dr John Fleming, and adopted by 
Mr Godwin Austen and other eminent geologists, — judging by the 
nature of the plants and fish found in the Scotch strata, none of 
which were considered marine. On this principle, Professor Geikie 
has applied to the northern district the term Lake Orcadie. The 
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