GEOLOGY. 231 



another of sand, that separates it from the great marl-bed below. 

 This stratum contains a quantity of water, which, in the boring of 

 the Artesian well, rose in the tube to within six feet of the surface, 

 and greatly obstructed the progress of the auger by filling it with 

 quicksand. 



Embedded in the peaty substance before mentioned, are numbers of 

 rolled and water-worn rocks of all sizes, from a few inches to a foot 

 in diameter, in which is found the same form of fossils as is seen 

 in the great marl-bed below, of which, doubtless, these are frag- 

 ments broken off by the action of the sea and rolled into boulder-like 

 masses, their nature changed by some chemical process, whereby 

 nearly all the lime has been extracted, and the casts of the shells 

 left preserved in a silicious rock, emitting, when broken, a fetid odor. 

 This stratum, the cause of whose separation and separate deposit 

 yet remains to be determined, including the first ten feet of the un- 

 derlying marl, may be properly called " zeuglodons" or " basilosau- 

 rus" bed of the Charleston basin, which Prof. Agassiz has pro- 

 nounced the " richest cemetery of animal remains that he had ever 

 seen." From it was taken the most perfect skull yet found of that 

 wonderful gigantic fossil cetacean, and that by which was determined 

 the true character of this singular animal. Isolated teeth and bones of 

 Basilosaurus, Dinotherium, Methagerium, Equus, and nearly fifty spe- 

 cies of sharks, are obtained in abundance. The number of unde- 

 termined teeth and bones is considerable. Two specimens of walnuts 

 with the epidermis converted to lignite ; three casts of hickory-nuts, 

 very perfect and beautiful; and fragments of wood (now lignite), 

 bored by the Teredo, whose casts in marl are yet preserved, have 

 been also obtained ; and, says Prof. Holmes, at every visit some- 

 thing new is added to my stock. 



ANCIENT AND PRESENT CLIMATE OF ICELAND. 



A GERMAN traveller, Walterhausen, has recently published some 

 sketches of Iceland, with especial relation to its volcanic phenomena, 

 but he details many other interesting facts. Of the climate he says, 

 that, " though of course in the main determined by its geographical 

 position, it is considerably modified by the character of the neighbour- 

 ing seas and the currents prevailing in them. In the surturbrand (a 

 sort of bituminous coal existing in large beds) there are found well- 

 preserved impressions of the leaves of the oak, willow, and beech. 

 Steenstrup, who visited the island, on a commission from the Danish 

 government, in 1838, found in some of the tuff strata the impressions 

 of ten different kinds of trees of extinct species, which may be com- 

 pared to those found in Canada and the United States. The leaves 

 of the birch, willow, elm, maple, and liriodendron, as well as the 

 cones and needles of various coniferoe, place this view beyond a 

 doubt." They are found in positions which show that they could not 

 possibly have drifted thither, but that they must have grown on the 

 island, so that a milder climate must have prevailed during the ter- 

 tiary period than at present. Similar conclusions may be drawn from 



