57 
high water and reaching the bar at near low water. This 
is especially the case with the Isle of Man steamers during 
the greater part of the year. No doubt that particular 
winds may at one time increase and at another diminish the 
sand on the bar, but it appears pretty certain that for some 
considerable number of years the water has gradually 
become shallower at the entrance of the Queen’s Channel. 
The true cause of this evil has first to be ascertained and then 
no doubt the authorities at Liverpool will lose no time in 
remedying it. 
Mr. Binney also exhibited to the meeting a very perfect 
specimen of a fossil fish, measuring from head to tail 14 
inches. It was discovered in the cannel seam of the Pirnie 
Coal Company at Methill in the county of Fife. He con- 
sidered it to be a small MagalicJithys Hihherti. Although 
fragments of this fish are very frequently met with in the 
coal measures, it is not often that a, specimen is found in so 
good a condition. 
