outlines have first been traced by igneous powers, in lines undoubtedly often so faint that they may have been scarcely perceptible, always rough and imperfect. These lines the denuding agencies have in some cases enlarged, in some lessened, in all smoothed down or otherways so altered, that the original tracings are all but lost in the finished picture.

And in this we have a beautiful instance of the mode in which the all-powerful Creator causes the many agencies by which He accomplishes the great schemes of nature, to work together in harmony for the general well-being of His universe.

Thursday, 16th April 1868.

Dr PAGE, President, in the Chair.

The following Communications were read :—

I. Observations on the Miocene Beds of Greenland. By ROBERT BROWN, F.R.G.S., Foreign Corresponding Fellow of the Society. Communicated by JAMES HASWELL, M.A.

[The following observations are contained in a letter which I received from Mr Brown in December last. He says-]

"We brought home-that is to say, my companion Mr Edward Whymper (brother of my old travelling friend Mr F. Whymper, a Foreign Member of your Society) and myself, under my direction-an immense load of specimens-leaves, fruits, twigs, and possibly a cone of some coniferous tree-principally from Atanakerdluk (lat. 70° 02′ 30′′ N.), Kudlesæt, and Ounartok, all localities in the Waigatz Straits, on the Noursak Peninsula and Disco Island, where alone in all Greenland Miocene strata have been found. Extending over a very limited district, these strata are composed of a great variety of beds of sandstone, alternating with lignitic coal, and topped by shales of various descriptions. In all the sandstones and shales (with the exception of the coarse grits) I found more or less of vegetable impressions, but it was only in the thin layers of a hard clay slate impregnated with iron that they retained their impressions very distinctly. All these strata were cut across by trap-dykes, in some places standing out bare and wall-like from the denuded softer strata through which they had protruded. In other places the trap was interstratified with the sedimentary rocks, and in others again it stood out in bold basaltic (amorphous) headlands or skerries in the sea, from which circumstance, indeed, the principal fossil locality, At-an-ǎk-ērd-lŭk (the rocks in the sea'), gets its name.

"The stems I found at Kudlesæt, in lat. (by my observations, August 26, 1867) 70° 05′ 35′′ N., wholly imbedded in coal in a horizontal position. The beds of coal there were about 2 or 3 feet in thickness, and the stems were on an average 2 feet in diameter.

"The fossil leaves were very perfect, even to the venation and serration, and undoubtedly never were floated there by water, but most probably grew near the spot (as has been supposed, theoretically, by Professor Heer of Zurich), but yet I cannot aver that in any instance did I find the leaves in conjunction with or attached to the stem, by which I could positively say that these were the leaves of the tree to which the stem belonged, or that the stem was brought there, or was in any way connected with the same natural or physical causes which influenced the leaves. Indeed, on my last visit to Copenhagen, on the question being stated to Professor Steenstrup, one of the most acute of all the Scandinavian naturalists, that eminent biologist immediately said, 'Perhaps they were blown by the wind to their present locality.'

"Of course, our collection is not the first specimens of this miocene flora which have reached Europe, though I am the first naturalist who ever examined the beds, collected the plants personally, or thought over the subject with the locality before him. Dr Heinrich Rink is generally supposed to be the discoverer of these beds; and in his valuable work, Grönland Geographisk og Statistisk beskrevet' (Kjöbenhavn, 1857), gave the first inkling of the existence of these strata; but he only passed the locality hastily, nor seemed he to be aware of the importance of the discovery, for he only mentions one plant, Pinites Rinkiana. Since then various odd specimens, brought in as curiosities by the Eskimo, or picked up by sailors or Danish officers in the same light, have reached England and the Continent, on which Dr Oswald Heer, Professor of Botany in Zurich, made a vast number of species (amounting already to more than one hundred species and genera, so called). [See his Paper in the Journal of the Royal Dublin Society,' 1866.] He is now engaged in incorporating all the Arctic fossil plants from Melville Island, the M'Kenzie River, &c., into a large work on the Arctic Fossil Flora,* of which I have seen some of the proofs of the plates, and our collections have all gone to him for the same purpose. Now, although no one can value Professor Heer's qualifications for the task he has undertaken, or the utility of his proposed work, or of his other publications on the Tertiary flora of Europe, more than I do, yet I must, at this early period, emphatically, as an humble student of trees, shrubs, and plants in many parts of the world, and the only botanist who has

* Flora fossilis Artica since published.

visited the Greenland Tertiaries, and with all diffidence and modesty, protest against the way in which Professor Heer has been making species and genera out of these fossils, with a recklessness regardless of consequences. But in the making of species and genera out of slender characteristics, he perhaps does not stand alone; and I am glad that Mr W. Carruthers is doing the synthetic to other botanists' analytic subdivision of fossil species. It is well known that serration on the leaf, or want of serration, is no character by which to form a species or erect a new genus, as the same individual plant will have leaves serrated and plain, and leaves of entirely different form; besides, the stipular and radical leaves of many plants are totally different.

"The characters by which Professor Heer separates some of these fossil plants from recent species, such as Sequoia Landsdorfii from Sequoia sempervirens of California, are equally unfounded. I also happen to know that the locality from which the plants he first had were taken is not bigger than an ordinary sized room, and to have such a large number of species growing in that space, bespeaks not a temperate climate like that of Alta California, to which he compares it, but a tropical one like Central America, with both of which regions I am not unacquainted. . . . .

"The most I could positively say about these plants is that they belonged to such and such an order and family, in some instances to such a like living genus, and in a few cases to such another living species, or has apparently good characters to separate it from any at present known to exist in a recent state. I defy any botanist to describe the species of the leaf-beds of the Isle of Wight, or even of Mull; and I know that only the other day a very eminent botanist declined working at the former for the same reasons that have induced me to pass those strictures on Professor Heer's work."

II. Brief Notes on the Precious Stones and Pearls of Scotland. By ALEX. M. COCKBURN.

Sir David Lindsay has recounted some of the advantages of Scotland in these terms-" Of ever ilk mettell we have the rich mynis, baith gold, silver, and stanes precious." What these precious "stanes" or gems of Scotland were he does not specify, and it will be the object of the following notes to give some account of those gems that are best known in Scotland. It may be taken for granted that diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, and rubies have never been found in Scotland; but that does not preclude the belief or possibility of their being discovered. Although poor in the more precious gems, yet Scotland can

boast of her jaspers, pebbles, agates, pearls, and of fine specimens of quartz, found in the form of perfect crystals, varying in colour from pure white to amber and dark brown. Our native pebbles are of singular conformations, and of all colours-red, green, grey, brown, auburn, and yellow. Jasper is a mixture of all these colours. The colour of pebbles differs in various localities. Pebbles are found in every county in Scotland, but more plentifully in Ayrshire, Argyleshire, Aberdeenshire, Perthshire, Morayshire, Roxburghshire, Fifeshire, and Mid-Lothian. There is the " Arthur Seat" jasper and pebble, found on the hill of that name; the Pentland pebble, on the Pentland Hills; the Perth bloodstone, on Kinnoull Hill; and the Montrose grey pebble, near the shore there. The Ayrshire jasper deserves special notice; it is remarkably rich in colour, and varies in streaks, like a kaleidoscope. A small rivulet in Ayrshire contributes one of the richest and finest varieties of jasper to be found in Scotland. In confirmation of this statement, the agent for the landed proprietor on whose grounds it is found says, that on the 3d March 1545, John Hamilton, abbot of Paisley, granted a charter in favour of David Hamilton, of Monkton Mains, of "all and whole our sixteen shilling and eight penny land of old extent, called the Jasper Steyne Steid, lying within our regality of Paisley, barony of Kyle Stewart, and sheriffdom of Ayr." Jasper steyne steid or stone must at a former period have been plentiful on these lands when they received that distinctive name. Many years ago the proprietors interdicted any one from taking away the jasper; but it is still, however, to be obtained, and brings a high price. The lapidaries and jewellers of Edinburgh use this beautiful Scottish jasper in the manufacture of the best Scottish jewellery. The "Arthur Seat" jasper deserves notice for its rich and variegated colours. It was found in large quantities on the face of the hill, but is now difficult to obtain. Our moss agate is not the least beautiful and valuable of precious stones, and for certain styles of setting it is peculiarly suitable.

On the top and sides of the range of the Cairngorm Hills, in Aberdeenshire and Banffshire, Cairngorm stones or crystals are found in great abundance in the matrix of the granite. The Cairngorm is not unlike the Brazil topaz in colour, and is often mistaken for it.

Not many years ago the Scottish amethyst could be plentifully procured and cheaply purchased; but now it is becoming scarce, and brings in the market from fifty to sixty shillings an ounce. The Cairngorm bears the same value. Scottish amethysts possess the same component chemical parts as the Oriental amethyst, but they are not quite so brilliant in hue.

Another Scottish gem is the garnet. It has a very fine deep red colour, and sparkles brilliantly when cut. Large quantities

of small-sized garnets are found at Elie Point and along the sands on the east coast of Fife.

Another, and one of the chief of our Scottish gems, is the pearl. The beauty of lustre and form, and the fine opaque colour of the Scottish pearl, attract more attention now than formerly. The late Prince Consort ordered a necklace to be made of pearls of a certain size, which took more than twenty years to complete. The fishing for these pearls is now a regular trade. Fine and large specimens of pearls are found in the rivers Teith, Forth, Dee, Don, Earn, Tay, Tweed, and the rivers of Ross and Sutherlandshires. Country people often bring these treasures to town in an old stocking or snuff-box, and sell them for prices varying from a few shillings up to twenty-five pounds. Scottish pearls are easily known from the fine Oriental pearls. They are of a different shade of colour. Pearls about the size of a pea bring as much as L.15 to L.25; very large and fine ones from L.30 to L.90. The trade in these has increased very much within the last few years. A very fine specimen of Scottish pearl, mounted in gold, was sent from Edinburgh to the late Dublin Exhibition, the value of which was L.500. It was set in enamel and gold as a tiara for a lady's head-dress.

III. On the Chemical and other Characteristics of the Geology of the Pyrenees. By P. W. STUART MENTEATH.

IV. Remarks on Two Flints from Jubbulpore, Central India, exhibited at a Meeting of the Society on 19th December 1867, and on the Flint Implements discovered there by the late Lieut. Downing Swiney, R.E. By JAMES HASWELL, M.A., Corresp. Mem. California Acad. of Sciences.

(Abstract.)

The two flints exhibited were received in August last (1867) from Mr H. Rivett-Carnac, the Secretary of the Antiquarian and Scientific Society of the Central Provinces of India, who has described that part of Lieut. Swiney's collection (consisting of 182 pieces) which was left in India, and which is now in the possession of Lieut.-Col. Wells of the Royal Regiment. (See No. 1 of that Society's Journal, Nagpore, 1866.) The principal part of the collection (numbering 977 pieces) is now in the British Museum, and was described by Mr Jolin Evans, F.R.S., F.S.A, in a paper read before the Society of Antiquaries, 19th January 1865. Lieut. Swiney was Deputy Consulting Engineer for Railways in Central India, and discovered these worked flints in 1864. Unfortunately for science, he died shortly after transmitting his collection to England.