372 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT. 



lasted a month, leaving a crater one hundred and fifty feet in height. This 

 is the first account we have of these eruptions, and as these two volcanoes 

 are situated at a distance of one thousand versts from the sea, and one thou- 

 sand t-.vo hundred versts from the lake of Baikal, it follows that the proxim- 

 ity of the sea is no essential condition for the existence or formation of 



V 



volcanoes. 



ON THE EXTINCT VOLCANOES OF VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA. 



At a recent meeting of the London Geological Society, Mr. R. B rough 

 presented a paper on the above subject. 



The district in Southern Australia in which lavas, basalts, and other evi- 

 dences of recent igneous action are found, extends from the River Plenty on 

 the cast, to Mount Gambier on the west. Its extreme length, is 250 miles, 

 and its extreme breadth about ninety miles. In some districts the scoria} 

 have been found by well-sinkers to overlie, at the depth of sixty-three feet, 

 the original surface of the ground, covered with coarse grass, such as that 

 now found growing ; and among this dry, but not scorched grass, the work- 

 men are said to have found some living frogs. Over nearly the whole extent 

 of Victoria there are masses of intrusive basalt, in some places columnar, 

 breaking through both the granite and the palaeozoic strata, and occasionally 

 through the overlying tertiary (miocene) beds also. Extensive denudation 

 has destroyed the probable overlying portions of these old basaltic out- 

 bursts, both before and after the tertiary period. A newer period of eruptive 

 trap-rocks, sometimes as dense and hard as the older basalts, but more fre- 

 quently vesicular and amygdaloidal, pierce the older tertiary, and also the 

 post-tertiary beds, or the latter quartzosc and auriferous drifts. These newer 

 basalts and lavas were probably erupted at a period when considerable areas, 

 both north and south of the main coast-range, was submerged, and the lavas 

 cooled rapidly, and not under very great pressure. These eruptions do not 

 appear to have disturbed the tertiary beds, which are usually found nearly 

 horizontal. After these newer basaltic lavas were erupted and denuded, 

 and after the deposition of the overlying pleistocene drift, some of the vol- 

 canoes were still active (though not so energetic as previously), emitting 

 porous lavas and pumice ; and at a still later period volcanic ash and scorias, 

 such as that which rests on the ancient humus. 



Mr. R. B. Smyth point eel out the interest attached to the extinct vol- 

 canoes of Victoria, as connected with the great volcanic chain extending 

 from the Aleutian Islands to New Zealand ; and concluded with some ob- 

 servations on the recent occurrence of earthquake movements in Southern 

 Australia, and on the evident uprise of the coast-line, as having reference to 

 the probably not yet exhausted force of the volcanic foci of that region. 



ON THE INDENTIFICATION OF THE COAL MEASURES OF PENNSYL- 

 VANIA AND THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 



At the Montreal meeting of the American Association for the Promotion 

 of Science, Mr. Leslie stated that, during the past year, Mr. Lesquereux 



