Abstract
LONDON Geological Society, June 21.-Prof. P. Martin Duncan, F.R.S., president, in the chair.—Mr. Hector Maclean and Mr. Samuel Trickett were elected Fellows, and Dr. L. Riitimeyer, of Basle, a Foreign Correspondent of the Society. —The following communications were read: —I. On the Ice-fjords of North Greenland and on the formation of fjords, lakes, and cirques in Norway and Greenland, by M. A. Helland. Communicated by Prof. A. C. Ramsay, F.R.S. The author described in great detail his observations on the glacial phenomena of Greenland, and applied their results to the consideration of the traces of glacial action exhibited in Norway. His view of the course of events in Norway is as follows: —Before the Glacial epoch thousands of streams commenced the work of erosion and produced valleys. During the Glacial epoch these valleys were enlarged and lake-basins were hollowed out. The descending glaciers ground out fjords to their full length when the Glacial epoch was at its highest, but as it declined the glaciers ground out the inner part to a still greater depth, producing the present characters of the marine fjords, and giving rise to lake-hollows in other places. That the glaciers once extended beyond the fjords is shown by moraine-matter being dredged up. Some of the sea-banks and islands off Christiania-f jord are old moraines; and if Norway should be raised 400 metres, these banks would show as moraines and plains before the lake-basins of the fjords. 2. On the drift of Brazil, by Mr. C. Lloyd Morgan. The author described the position and mode of occurrence of large boulders of gneiss and granite in the red drift of Brazil and on the slopes of hills even at considerable elevations, and stated that, like Prof. Agassiz, he could not see how these could have been transported to their present positions except by the agency of ice. He is inclined to believe that the drift, if of glacial origin, was not formed by glaciers taking their rise in any of the peaks indicated by him, but by an almost universal South-American ice-sheet. —3. Recent glacial and aqueous action in Canada and the drift-uplands of the Province of Ontario, by the Rev. Wm. Bleasdell. Communicated by the President. The author described the glacial action which takes place every winter in Canada, especially on the River St. Lawrence and its large lakes. —4. The glacial climate and the Polar ice-cap, by Joseph John Murphy. The author agrees with Mr. Croll in thinking that a Glacial epoch must be one of maximum eccentricity of the earth's orbit, and that the northern and southern hemispheres during such an epoch must be glaciated alternately; but he maintains in opposition to that writer that the glaciated hemisphere must have its summer in aphelion. He intends this paper to be a reply to Mr. Croll's objections to this theory as put forth in his work on of “Climate and Time.” —5. On the discovery of plants in the Lower Old Red Sandstone of the neighbourhood of Callander, by R. L. Jack and R. Etheridge, jun., of the Geological Survey of Scotland. The plant-remains are described as being of a very fragmentary nature. The authors discuss the relationships of these remains with other described Devonian forms, and regard them as most nearly allied to Pdlo-phyton princeps^ Dawson. They describe the plant with doubt as a species of Psilophyton. —6. On an adherent form of Productus and a small Spiriferina from the Lower Carboniferous Limestone Group of the East of Scotland, by R. Etheridge, jun., F.G.S., of the Geological Survey of Scotland. From the consideration of the characters presented, by the more mature valves, the author stated that the nearest affinity of the species of Productus appears to be with P. wrightii, Dav., but that it shows peculiarities allying it to P. longispinus, Sow., P. scabriculus, Mart., and P. undatus, Defr. He was not prepared to describe it as a distinct species, but suggested for it the name of Productus complectens, in allusion to its embracing habit, in case of its proving to be distinct. The Spiriferina described by the author was compared by him with S, cristata, Schl., var, octoplicata. Sow., and with S. insculpta, Phill., from both of which it differs in certain characters; but as only one specimen has been met with, he refrained from founding a new species upon it. The specimen is from Fullarton Quarry, near Temple, Edinburghshire. —7. Notice of the occurrence of remains of a British fossil Zeuglodon (Z. wanklyni, Seeley) in the Barton Clay of the Hampshire coast, by Harry Govier Seeley, F. L. S. In this paper the author described the remains of a species of Zeug-lodon obtained by the late Dr. A. Wanklyn from the Barton Cliff, consisting of a great part of the skull, about the same size as that of Zeuglodon brachyspondylus, Miiller. The species, named Z. wanklyni in memory of its discoverer, differs from all known species of the genus in the shortness of the interspaces between the teeth. —8, On the remains of Emys hordwellensis, from the Lower Hordwell beds in the Hordwell Cliff, contained in the Woodwardian Museum of the University of Cambridge, by Harry Govier Seeley, F.L.S. The remains described by the author consist of some fragments constituting the greater part of the plastron and carapace of a species of Emys, for which he proposes for the species the name of Emys kordwdlensis, —9. On an associated series of cervical and dorsal vertebrae of Polyptychodon from the Cambridge Upper Greensand in the Woodwardian Museum of the University of Cambridge, by Harry Govier Seeley, F. L. S. The author described in detail the structure of the atlas and axis and of the five succeeding (cervical) vertebras; nine dorsal vertebrae were also described.-10. On Crocodilus icenictts (Seeley), a second and larger species of crocodile from the Cambridge Upper Greensand contained in the Woodwardian Museum of the University of Cambridge, by Harry Govier Seeley, F. L. S. II. On Macrurosaurus semnus (Seeley), a long-tailed animal with procoelous vertebrae, from the Cambridge Upper Greensand, preserved in the Woodwardian Museum of the University of Cambridge, by Harry Govier Seeley, F.L.S., F.G.S.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Societies and Academies . Nature 14, 282–284 (1876). https://doi.org/10.1038/014282a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/014282a0