forty years ago cultivated this identical bed before beds Nos. 6 and 7 were laid down. The question now arises, how were the beds 6 and 7 laid down? Bed (6) was the "tail end" of Mount Falcon, raised by Oliver Cromwell, and levelled over bed 5, when the road was made for the proposed advent of George IV. into Edinburgh in 1822. Bed No. 7, Mr Geikie describes as consisting of a true beach bed with all its shells and balani, and he is led to believe that the deposit was truly laid down by the sea. There are, however, two facts which at once set this aside: 1. The balani are often found on the stones with their valves downwards, instead of exposed to their native element; and, 2, bed No. 7 was taken out within eight years from the foundation of a house, and entirely consists of the same shells, &c., which form bed No. 1 of Mr Geikie's section, to which I shall now devote a few words, showing that it was formed within the historic epoch, and long after the advent of the Romans. From the Ordnance Survey map I have taken various contour levels of the streets and quays of Leith to the number of seventy-two. These give an average height above mean high water of 28.7 feet. Now, as the tides vary from neaps to springs about 16 feet, we must deduct from this half the amount, equal to 8 feet; this leaves for average tides a height of 20.7. Now, as the oyster bed of Mr Geikie, or rather his No. 1 (which I call a storm-raised bed) is 15 feet below the average of the streets of Leith, we have only to account for a storm-wave five feet in height, to throw up their so-called raised sea-beach bed so much insisted on by Maclaren and Chambers. Such conditions of the tides have often been observed by the elder inhabitants of Leith, the effects of which could not of course affect land lying below the houses. But let us suppose the condition of Leith before or immediately after the Romans laid the "Fishwife's Causey," and man had not placed barriers against the sea, but that the piers, harbours, and houses of Leith, with all their defences, were removed, old Ocean would soon re-assert his former sway, and claim as his domain the links of Leith, and leave at all high tides, and during N.E. storms, effects equivalent to those which make this stormraised bed the stumbling-block of all geologists who attempt to 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 Equoreal Pipe-fish. By T. STRETHILL WRIGHT, M.D. A few weeks 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 darkbrownish 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 cellwalls in both species of cell, but was unable to do so. The pigment cell appears only to consist of nucleus and contractile protoplasm, and to correspond very closely with the structure of some of the lowest forms of animal life, such as the Rhizopoda. (2.) Description of this Equoreal Pipe-fish. By JOHN ALEXANDER SMITH, M.D. Dr Wright having given me this specimen of the Equoreal Pipe-fish, Nerophis Equoreus (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. Body, octangular; fins, pectoral, anal, and caudal, awanting. Length of fish, 193 inches; length of head, 11⁄2 inch; point of snout to orbit, & inch; front of orbit to extremity of operculum, & inch; length from snout to anus, 9 inches; from anus to point of tail, 10 inches; from snout to first dorsal fin ray, 7 inches; length of dorsal fin, 2ğ inches; from last ray of dorsal fin to point of tail, 93 inches. The posterior termination of the dorsal fin is therefore nearly in the middle of the fish, The body consists of twenty-nine rings or divisions, the anus being in the twenty-ninth; the tail of about sixty. No depressions were observed on the abdomen,-probably a female. Dorsal fin, of thirty-nine rays, resting on nine rings of body and two of tail [21st to 31st inclusive]; anus under twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth rays of fin. (For descriptions of other specimens, see pp. 290 and 291). Professor Fleming, in his "British Animals," described this fish as rare, and called attention to the fact of its being "obviously pointed out by Sibbald, as an inhabitant of the Firth of Forth," in 1684. Yarrell also states that examples of this species are rare. VI. Observations on British Zoophytes. (1.) Vorticlava Proteus. (2.) Trichydra pudica. (3.) On the Development of Pycnogon Larvæ within the Polyps of Hydractinia. By T. STRETHILL WRIGHT, M.D. (1.) Vorticlava Proteus. (Plate XVII.) Scleroderm absent. Colletoderm covering body of polyp. Upper row of tentacles capitate 5; lower row 9. Several specimens of this zoophyte were found in the Fluke Hole,” Firth of Forth. The body of the polyp is exceedingly extensible. At one time a mere button attached to the stone on which it dwells; at another it transforms itself into the various shapes shown in the accompanying figures. A hard covering to the body would necessarily prevent or impede these motions. The scleroderm, therefore, is absent, and the whole body of the polyp is covered with a layer of transparent "colline," which extends from the foot, where it forms a thick mass, to a ridge VOL. II. 3 L which runs beneath the insertion of the lower rim of tentacles. The zoophyte has the power of changing its place. Description of Plate XVII. (Vorticlava proteus.) Fig. 1.- Vorticlava Proteus contracted. Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5.--Same in different states of extension. Fig. 6.-Diagram of the tissues of the polyp of V. Proteus; a a', colletoderm attached to subtentacular ridge b; c, ectoderm; d, endoderm. (2.) Trichydra pudica. (Plate XXII.) This hydroid, which I have already described to the Society, was found completely covering a small shell from the "Fluke Hole." As its mode of reproduction has never been observed, I placed it in a small vessel of carefully-examined sea-water, and exposed it to light, a mode of treatment which often induces the Hydroida to assume their medusoid phase. After some time, two small medusoids were found in the water, but I was unable, by the most careful examination, to detect their mode of development, as no "gonophores" appeared on any part of the cœnosarc. The connection of these medusoids with Trichydra is yet open. to doubt, although I am convinced that no other zoophyte occurred on the shell, or in the water in which it was placed. Medusoid of Trichydra pudica ?—Umbrella mitre-shaped, covered with minute thread-cells. Sub-umbrella with four lateral canals, destitute of ovaries or sperm sacs. Peduncle short, cylindrical, four cleft at the mouth. Tentacles four, short, with two or four intervening tubercles. Oolites absent, eye-specks absent. Description of Plate XXII. (Trichydra pudica.) Fig. 1.-Polyp extended, showing the lax habit of the zoophyte. Fig. 3.-Young Polyp. Fig. 4. Polyp within its tube. Fig. 5.-Empty cell. Fig. 6. Supposed medusoid. (3) On the Development of Pycnogon Larvae within the Polyps of Hydractinia echinata. In a communication made by Professor Allman to the British Association in 1859, entitled, "On a remarkable form of Parasitism among the Pycnogonidæ," the author de |