84 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



from the position of the soil-bed in the eastern dunes it prob- 

 ably lasted five hundred years. 3. The water rose again, sub- 

 merging for a short time the upper beach, but soon fell to 

 the line of the middle one, where it remained about one thou- 

 sand six hundred or two thousand years. This period ap- 

 pears to be contemporary with the loess. 4. The water, which 

 had already slowly fallen some feet, now retired more rapidly 

 to near its present level, which it has maintained with only 

 moderate fluctuations ever since. 5. The total time of all 

 these deposits appears to be somewhere between five thou- 

 sand three hundred and seven thousand five hundred years." 

 Trans. Chicago Acad. Sci., 1870, 23. 



ACTION OF ICE OX THE NORTH AMERICAN COAST. 



According to Professor Shaler, due consideration has not 

 been given by American geologists to the influence which ice 

 has exerted in shaping the outline of our coast, since he is 

 convinced that, among other illustrations of this fact, the 

 eastern portion of Cape Cod has been produced by glacial 

 action. Though of recent formation, this feature of the coast 

 is important,, in a zoological point of view, as furnishing a 

 well-marked boundary-line for the fishes, invertebrates, and 

 marine plants of the coast. Long Island is likewise, accord- 

 ing to Professor Shaler, made up of masses of material laid 

 down in a confused manner under water. These masses came 

 from the north, and are the product of the ice-sheets which 

 poured out from the rivers running southerly and emptying 

 into the Sound. Chesapeake and Delaware Bays also exhibit 

 the action of ice, the material excavated from them having 

 been borne southward so as to form Cape Hatteras, and the 

 bars in the waters of Albemarle Sound. The Professor con- 

 cludes by expressing the opinion that no evidences of glacial 

 action south of Hatteras have been discovered. 3 7>; 



PHYSICS OP ARCTIC ICE IN SCOTLAND. 



Mr. Robert Brown, in a paper upon the "Physics of Arctic 

 Ice," especially as relating to Scotland, sums up as follows : 

 First, after the tertiary period the country was covered over 

 with a great depth of snow and ice, very much as in Green- 

 land at the present day, but possibly some of the mountain- 

 tops appeared as islands. During this and the subsequent 



