The lavas of the Bathgate and Linlithgow Hills occur, as already described, in a series of zones alternating with sedimentary deposits. So far as their field characters are concerned they may be grouped with convenience into two classes: fine-grained, columnar, basaltic types, usually porphyritic with augite and olivine, rarely with felspar, and coarser-grained, doleritic types, usually much decomposed, not evidently porphyritic or porphyritic with olivine alone. The yellow crusts of the compact lavas are minutely vesicular and pumiceous, while steam-cavities are rare in the interior. The doleritic lavas on the other hand are coarsely vesicular and amygdaloidal above and below, and frequently also throughout. The blue basaltic types are relatively very fresh; the doleritic types are frequently entirely decomposed into a whitish, earthy material, with knots of limonite, calcite, and quartz, similar in many respects to the white trap of the coal-fields. Good examples of this mode of weathering may be found in the Riccarton Burn. The differences in texture are probably to be referred not so much to differences in chemical composition as to the effect of variation in the quantity of water vapour contained in the successive flows. The coarse and open structure of the dolerites has evidently also given freer scope to the action of decomposing influences than the more compact structure of the basalts. Both types are much veined by such secondary minerals as calcite, siderite, limonite, quartz, chalcedony, and various zeolites. Frequently cavities in the veins, steam-holes in the pumiceous crusts, and even vesicles within the solid rocks, are found filled with brown viscous pitch or black lustrous asphalt. Such occurrences undoubtedly indicate that these rocks have been subjected to some slight extent to post-volcanic pneumatolytic action.

In 1905 there was published an account of the Tardigrada collected in the Scottish Lochs by the Lake Survey (6). At that date we were able to name 21 species. The subsequent work of the Survey has enabled us to add a number of species to the list.

Moreover, the wanderings of the members of the Survey over every part of Scotland offered an excellent opportunity for the study of the whole Tardigrade Fauna. A recent journey to the Orkney and Shetland Islands added much of interest to our knowledge of Tardigrada, though few of the species found were lacustrine. The work of Mr Wm. Evans in the basin of the Forth has also added much of value to our records of Tardigrada (7), (10).

In a recent paper published by the authors, some measurements of the viscosity of aqueous solutions indicated that it would be of interest to investigate more fully the viscosity of solutions, especially those which exhibit what is now generally known as “negative viscosity,” over a wider range of temperature.

This has now been done to a certain extent, and to enable a comparison to be made between electrolytes and non-electrolytes in aqueous solution, some other substances have been included in the investigation. They are:—potassium chloride, potassium chlorate, ammonium iodide, potassium ferricyanide, potassium ferrocyanide; mercuric chloride, mercuric cyanide; carbamide.

These notes on Arctic Tardigrada embody the results of an examination of quantities of moss collected by Mr William S. Bruce on his various expeditions to the Arctic Regions.

While studying the Tardigrada of the Scottish lochs, I wished to compare our Tardigrade fauna with that of more northern lands, as it was thought that, considering the geographical position of Scotland, its fauna might have some relation with that of those lands. Mr Bruce was kind enough to put all his available material at my disposal.

My object in this paper is not, as the title might suggest, to give a comparative study of the fresh-water lochs of Scotland from the point of view of temperature. I had hoped at one time that this would be possible, and I may again return to this part of the subject of lake temperatures; but the more I have considered the question the more am I convinced that such a comparative study from the observations at my disposal would be based on assumptions too fundamental and too uncertain to make the conclusions reached of any great value. Consider the factors which go to produce variations of temperature as they are given by Professor Forel. Briefly, these are the indirect action of the sun in heating up the atmosphere and the surroundings of the loch, radiation from the loch, the effect of warm or cold water brought into the loch by rivers and by rain.

A necessary preliminary to the study of the complex problems involved in the biology of lakes is to ascertain the facts. The collection of the bathymetrical data was begun many years ago by Sir John Murray and Mr Pullar, and is nearing completion under the Lake Survey. The next thing is to take a census of the inhabitants. This we are now trying to do by compiling lists of the animals and plants living in the lakes. The study of the problems after the data are collected falls outside the province of a lake survey, and within that of some permanent biological station. This present compilation is one step in the accumulation of the facts.

That mechanical vibrations affect magnetisation has long been known. The simple experiment of hammering an iron rod (Gilbert) in the earth's magnetic field needs only to be mentioned

About twenty years ago Ewing published investigations upon the effects of vibrations on magnetism. These have been summarised in his subsequent work, Magnetic Induction in Iron and other Metals. He states (§ 84, 3rd ed.) that the “influence of vibrations and mechanical disturbances generally” “may be succinctly described by saying that vibration lessens those differences of magnetic condition to which hysteresis gives rise. Thus, if we tap a piece of iron during the application and removal of a magnetising force, we find at each stage of the application that tapping increases the susceptibility, and at each stage of the removal it reduces the retentiveness.”

It has been known for a length of time that the presence of a non-volatile substance diminishes the vapour pressure of the solvent in which it is placed, and as the boiling point of a solvent or a solution is the temperature at which the vapour pressure is just equal to, or overcomes the pressure of the atmosphere, it follows that a solution has a higher boiling point than the solvent. Amongst the first experimenters in this field were Faraday, Legrand, Griffiths, and Raoult. TO Raoult we owe much for his development of the subject.

The first part of this work was published in the Transactions of the Society for 1905, when the present section was promised by the end of the same year. But the labour of revising the whole work on the sections and of posting all the muscles in the extensive series of key sections along with the skeleton has been much greater than was anticipated, and hence the delay. This labour, however, is amply repaid by the knowledge that one is now in a unique position for studying the blood-vessels and nerves; for not only has every fraction of the skeleton and muscles been microscopically explored, but the information obtained is immediately and completely available on reference to the key sections. When the whole work is completed and all the systems have been entered in these sections, I hope to obtain a grant to enable me to publish them as an atlas. As far as I am aware, no animal has been studied throughout in this way before.

The two new species of Osmundites described in this paper are based upon two fossils from the Jurassic rocks near Gore, Otago district, New Zealand. The one was discovered by Mr Robert Dunlop, and the other by Mr Robert Gibb. Both specimens eventually came into the possession of Mr Dunlop, who generously handed them over to the authors for investigation, with full permission to have them cut for microscopical examination, and to whom we take this opportunity of expressing our indebtedness.

Although great advances have been made during the last thirty years in our knowledge of dilute solutions, there has been no corresponding advance in respect of concentrated solutions. This is primarily due to the fact that hitherto no simple and general relationship has been discovered between the conductivity and the concentration of concentrated solutions of electrolytes. Ostwald's law of dilution holds only for dilute solutions of weak electrolytes, and the formulæ of Rudolphi and Van T'Hoff are applicable only to dilute solutions of good electrolytes. It seems therefore important to inquire whether the difficulty may not be to some extent overcome by an alteration in the mode of representing the facts.

The collection of Hydroids hereafter described was made in the years 1902–4 by the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition ship Scotia, during her cruises in Antarctic and sub-Antarctic seas.

For the opportunity of examining the specimens I am indebted to Mr W. S. Bruce, the energetic leader of the expedition; and I also wish to thank Professor J. Arthur Thomson for much assistance and advice in the course of my work.

The collection, as here described, coutains 41 specimens, of which 33 are referable to 27 known species distributed among 15 genera, some of them being new varieties; while the remainder have required the establishment of 7 new species and 1 new genus. One specimen remains specifically undetermined. Thus there are in all 18 different genera, represented by 35 different species.

In three memoirs published from time to time in the Transactions of this Society I have described the characters of the crania in several Asiatic races, the bulk of which were natives of India, though a few were from countries adjoining Hindostan. In this memoir I intend to continue my inquiries into the cranial characters of Asiatic people, and to give an account of natives of Borneo, the Malays, the natives of Formosa, and the Tibetans.