ST ANDREWS.

THIS ruin is situated in the ancient city of St Andrews, near the west end of the South or principal street, The convent here situated is generally understood to have belonged to the Doninicans, or Black friars; and to have

been founded by Bishop Wishart in

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274. What now remains forms a mere Fragrant, tho' extremely elegant in its nce, with an arched roof. The building appears to have been ancienty of great extent. All the garden on he South side of the ruin, and of the resent grammar school (which stands mmediately contiguous to it) exhibits, when dug, the marks of having been uilt upon; and there are still standing, nd inhabited, on the same side of the treet, about forty yards west from the uin, some old houses which have much he appearance of having once formed art of the buildings of the convent.

This convent, with all the other ne ruins of St Andrews, was demoshed in one day (in June 1559) in onsequence of a sermon of John Knox, hich moved the hearers with such eal, that “as weill the Magistrates, ne Proveist, and the Commonalty, id agree to remove all monuments f idolatry, quhilk also they did with

no doubt be promoted by the plunder of those famous edifices, which fell to the share of the mob.

Proceedings of the WERNERIAN Natural History Society.

AT the meeting of this Society,

12th November, the Rev. Mr Jameson of St Mungo, Dumfries-shire, read a paper intituled, Observations on Meteorological Tables, with a description of a new Anemometer. After some general observations on the importance of meteorological observations, and on the merits and defects of registers of the weather, &c. he pointed out what he considered to be the best form of a meteorological journal, and then described the external form and internal structure of an extensive and complete meteorological observatory, and enumerated about twenty different instruments, which ought to find a place in every establishment of that kind. He remarked, that a daily examination of the changes that take place in these. instruments, joined with a careful record of the external appearances in the atmosphere, will afford a constant and most fascinating employment to the

most

most zealous observer, and will in time enable us to form a just theory of meTeors, to prognosticate with considerable accuracy the nature of the coming weather, and enable us to ascertain the climate of different countries, with the view of determining the influence it exerts on organic bodies. He next described an Anemometer which, by a very simple and ingenious arrangement of parts, will enable the most common observer to ascertain the velocity of the wind with perfect

accuracy.

At the same meeting, the Rev. Mr Fleming of Bressay in Shetland, (who has, for some time past, been engaged in examining the mineralogy of those remote islands,) communicated to the Society an interesting account of the geognostic relations of the rocks in the islands of Unst and Papa Stour, in the course of which he answered the queries formerly published in regard to the serpentine and sandstone of Shetland. After a general account of the position, extent and external appearance of the island of Unst, he next described the different rocks of which it is composed, in the order of their relative antiquity, and remarked that their general direction is from S. W. to N. E. The rocks are gneiss, micaslate, clay-slate, limestone, hornblenderock, potstone, and serpentine. The gneiss, in some places, appeared to alternate with the oldest mica-slate, and in others, to contains beds of hornblende-rock. The mica-slate, which is the most abundant rock in the island, is traversed by numerous cotemporaneous veins of quartz, and also of felspar, and passes distinctly into clay-slate. It contains beds of hornblende-rock and of limestone. The clay-slate occurs but sparingly in this island. The

Fleming is also inclined to believe that the serpentine of the neighbour ing island of Fetlar belongs to the same formation. The island of Papa Stour, situated on the west coast f the Mainland (the name by which the largest of the Shetland islands known,) contains no primitive rocks. on the contrary, it appears to be etirely composed of floetz-rocks. Ther are conglomerate, greenstone, ci stone, porphyritic-stone, honster and sandstone. The sandstone, as pears from observations made in th island and other parts of Shetiz would seem to belong to the olde coal formation. The claystone, c glomerate, porphyritic - stone, gre stone, and hornstone (probably clim stone,) rest on the sandstone. In some places, Mr Fleming obser the greenstone alternating with t sandstone: hence he properly c cludes that they belong to the formation. In no place, however, d he observe any of the other rec alternating with the sandstone: therefore the formation to which they belong is still somewhat problemi We recommend the re-examination this interesting island to the zeils and indefatigable author of this page. and as he announced to the Socie his intention of again examining whole of the Shetland isles, and ofce structing a mineralogical map, which the rocks should be laid dan according to their relative antiqu and their extent, we anticipate m valuable information.

At the meeting of the Society the 19th November, Mr Macken younger of Applecross, read a s account of the coal formation in t vicinity of Durham. From the cise and accurate description co

appear to belong appear to belong to the oldest formation of Werner. In the ore of his observations he explained vis is called the creep by miners, ande