In two papers read before this Society, I have very fully described the Diatomaceæ of the Glenshira Sand, which is very remarkable both for the large number of species found in it, which is certainly more than 320, and for the circumstances in which it must have been deposited. There can be no doubt, from the nature of the locality, which I have lately visited, that this bed was formed in the bottom of the Dhu Loch, a shallow fresh-water lake, at that time extending about two miles farther up the valley than it now does, and being at a higher level. In consequence of a rise in the level of the land, or a fall in that of the sea (from which—that is, from Loch Fine, the lower end of the lake is separated by a narrow and low barrier, through which the waters of the lake pass to Loch Fine), the lake has long ago been drained, till its upper end is nearly two miles from the point it must have reached when the bed of sand was formed. The present level of the lake is considerably lower than it was then; the precise difference I had no means of ascertaining, but I believe it is about 30 feet.
exercise, consumes 13'9 oz. of carbon daily. (3) These 13-is oz. of carbon escape through the skin and lungs as carbonic acid gas. For conversion into carbonic acid gas, 13^oz. of carbon require 37 oz. of oxygen. According to the analyses of Boussingault (Ann. de Ch. et de Ph. LXXI. p. 136) a horse consumes in twenty-four hours 97J oz. of carbon, a milch cow 69A oz. The quantities of carbon here mentioned are those given off from the bodies of these animals in the form of carbonic acid ; and it appears from them that the horse consumes, in converting carbon into carbonic acid, 13 Ibs. 3J oz. in twentyfour hours, and the milch cow 11 Ibs. 10J oz. of oxygen in the same time. (4)
The author stated that he had examined, more or less minutely, nearly 300 fresh-water gatherings, and that he had found in these very nearly all the known British species, besides a number not yet described. He mentioned that, from the want of figures, it was often difficult to know whether a form were new or not. Thus,Pinnularia latestriata, found by the author two years since in the Mull earth, had been considered as a new species by all British naturalists, as well as several foreign ones; yet in Ehrenberg's last work, “Mikrogeologie” it is figured asP. borealis, and as having been described by Ehrenberg ten or twelve years ago. The papers of that author, in the Berlin Reports and Transactions, are not generally accessible.
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