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gravel show damp. I noticed a thermometer in the garden standing at 32. It was well placed for shelter from the sun; but it was within a few feet of two brick walls, one of them the end wall of a forcinghouse. Could that affect the thermometer? The ground-grass, gravel, and earth-remained hard all day. I noticed neither rain

nor snow.

The only local peculiarity on the occasion that I can remember was that the gardener was burning rubbish, off and on, all the forenoon between us and the bow. There was no smoke that I noticed after eleven, but there must have been a good deal of heat rising from the red ashes. This was close to the house, say 100 yards at most. The bow had all the appearance of being distant; but had it not been seen here (and no doubt elsewhere) there might have been room for suspicion of this appearance being a deception perhaps.

By Mr Buchan.

The rainbow described by Sir Robert Christison at meeting of the Royal Society was observed by us from the north windows of the

Scottish Meteorological Society. The above is a rough sketch of it made at the time.

The eastern limb of it rested on the tops of the houses of Leith Street, against what appeared to be a smoke-like cloud, precisely similar to what often accompanies the aurora. It was on this portion only of the phenomenon that the following points were noticed:

1. Spurious Bows.-Two such bows, very distinctly marked, were seen within the primary bow. The first spurious bow was separated from the primary by an intensely black band the width of the spurious bow itself, while this spurious bow and its black band were together equal in breadth to the primary bow. The second spurious

bow was separated from the first spurious bow by an intensely black band the width of the second spurious bow, and both second spurious bow with its black band were together the width of the first spurious bow.

2. Colour.-Colours were seen on the portion of the limb described above as standing out against the black smoke-like cloud. The colours, though far from being well pronounced, were distinct. Miss Buchan stated she saw the colours as we looked at the bow through the window, which at the time stood in need of the windowcleaner; but I was unable to detect the colours till the window was thrown up, when they were distinctly visible.

In no other part of the bow was any development of colour visible, either when I first observed it in St Andrew Square, or afterwards at various times in the office.

The frost was keen at the time, but it is probable that a S.W. wind with thaw had then set in aloft. I understand from Mr J. Gibson-Thomson, of York Place, who called at this office shortly thereafter, that while driving out to the country in the afternoon the wind had shifted into S.W., and the tops of the mud-ridges on the road had become soft with the thaw which had set in.

The width of the primary, or its visible portion, appeared to be about a third narrower than the ordinary coloured rainbow.

The arrangement of the colours was that of the ordinary rainbow, the yellows and yellow-reds being best marked.

The appearance of the sun, as seen in St Andrew Square, was hazy, with light wisps of clouds and large patches or blurs of mist in that part of the sky, giving rise to ill-defined shadows, so that I looked about to see if there were any appearance of halos or mocksuns visible, but none were seen.

By Dr Ferguson.

Dr Ferguson stated that he had read in the Inverness Advertiser that a similar phenomenon had been seen at Nairn and neighbourhood on the same day from eight in the morning till midday. It is described as a pale blue arch on a white ground, having the outline and position of a rainbow, but differing from it in its remarkable fixity.

I saw the rainbow at Edinburgh from the middle of the east

division of Queen Street. I think it was at eleven, but the friend in whose company I was at the time says it was twelve. I looked at the bow attentively, but not critically, as I was not aware of the exceptional character of the phenomenon. The day was fine, but there was a haze in the sky, which gave an indistinct outline to the masses of cloud which occupied the northern heaven. It looked to me like a cloud rainbow, as its continuity seemed to correspond to that of the cloudy mass on which it was seen. I remember particularly one spot to the west of the middle, where there was a partial break in the clouds and a similar defect in the bow. As regards colour, it wore the appearance of a bleached rainbow, with an indefinite stratification of tints. I did not specially mark each gradation of colour from the red to the blue, but I had a distinct impres sion of such. The colours were faint, and the perception of the coloured rainbow effect was as much, or more, due to contrast, than to the colours taken individually.

7. Extract of Letter to the President from H. E. Rosevelt, Esq., dated New York, Dec. 23, 1877.

"I saw the Phonograph' the other day, and though it is very crude I was much interested. I would briefly describe the idea as follows:

"To the centre of an iron diaphragm is attached a metallic point resting against a strip of paper or tinfoil. You speak against diaphragm through a mouthpiece, at same time the paper being drawn under the points. The vibration of diaphragm and point indent the paper to various depths, making an undulating (as it were) mark, &c. Now, if said paper is afterwards drawn under the point, the diaphragm vibrates exactly as your voice made it vibrate, and all the sounds are reproduced exactly as you said them, making a most astonishing effect-singing, laughing, and articulate words were all reproduced. Of course it is by no means perfect, but it is very interesting. By attaching a point to one of our strong telephones we could record any messages sent. Though the phonograph is purely mechanical in its ordinary use, I mention all this to you, as you will probably soon hear of it, and naturally would not believe it a possible thing. The above is the invention of Mr Eddison, who showed it to me himself."

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In delivering the Neill Medal to Dr Traquair, the Chairman made the following remarks:

DR RAMSAY TRAQUAIR,-The Neill prize for the triennial period 1874-77 has been awarded to you by the Council of this Society, nominally for your paper on the structures and affinities of Tristichopterus alatus (Egerton), communicated to this Society within the required period, and published in the 27th volume of the Transactions of the Society. The Council have, however, also taken into account, as they are entitled to do by the conditions of the prize, the many contributions which you have made during some years past to the knowledge of the structure of recent and fossil fishes.

I may mention as among the more important of these a memoir "On the Asymmetry of the Pleuronectidæ, as elucidated by an examination of the skeleton in the Turbot, Halibut, and Plaice,” published in the Transactions of the Linnean Society of London for the year 1865; a paper "On the Cranial Osteology of Polypterus," in the Journal of Anatomy and Physiology for the year 1870; and a work on "The Ganoid Fishes of the British Carboniferous Formations," now in course of publication by the Palæontographical Society.

You have been fortunately placed during the last few years in a locality remarkably rich in the group of fossils to which you have paid special attention, and already three parts of a valuable series of papers "On new and little-known Fossil Fishes from the Edinburgh District" have appeared in the Proceedings of this Society. I have much pleasure in presenting to you the Neill medal in the name of the Council of the Society.

The following Communications were read:

VOL. IX.

4 D

1. Chapters on the Mineralogy of Scotland. Chapter III. The Garnets. By Professor Heddle.

In this third chapter Dr Heddle submits the results of his analyses of garnets from thirteen localities.

Notwithstanding the great frequency of the occurrence of the mineral, it is generally so largely contaminated with quartz that he was unable to procure, from many localities, specimens fit for examination.

Three varieties of garnet new to Scotland-one of these being altogether new-have, however, been the reward of the present investigation.

On a hill lying north of Balmoral,—Creag Mohr,—two of the new varieties were found, both in limestone.

The first, the rarer, was the water garnet, or colourless garnet; he second was the grossular, or gooseberry garnet, hitherto found only in perfection on the Wilni river in Siberia.

The cinnamonstone of Glen Gairn has next been analysed. This is finer in colour than the Ceylon mineral, but so flawed as to be useless for purposes of jewellery.

Not so the pyrope of Elie-the "Elie rubies," as they used to be termed. Dr Heddle regards these as, weight for weight, the most valuable of Scottish gems.

Analyses of common garnet from Yell in Shetland, Killiecrankie and Meall Luaidh in Perthshire, Knockhill in Banff, and Clach-anEoin in Sutherland follow.

There are, lastly, analyses of a new garnet from five localities— four of these in Ross-shire; the other, Ben Resipol, in Argyll.

This is a precious garnet, containing about fifteen per cent. of oxide of manganese. Its formula places it intermediate between the ordinary precious garnet of Bohemia and the manganesian garnet of America.

This garnet, in all the localities where it is found, is of a fine currant-red colour, due probably to the manganese. From Resipol and the Raven's Rock, near Strathpeffer, pieces large enough for cutting might probably be obtained.

The lime garnets occur in certain of the limestone beds, at the upper waters of the Don and Dee, and not in others; and Dr

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