228 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



very active, and the area now occupied by the volcanic rocks 

 in the northeastern part of Ireland may be estimated at 

 2300 square miles, extending moreover to the west coast of 

 Scotland. These last volcanic eruptions are some of the most 

 extensive that the world has ever known, and it is to them 

 that are to be referred the strange beauties of the Giant's 

 Causeway and Fingal's Cave. 



ELEVATION OF THE PACIFIC COAST OF SOUTH AMEEICA IX 



EECENT TIMES. 



Mr. Alexander Agassiz, in his recent trip to Peru, found 

 occasion to conclude that the Pacific, within a comparatively 

 recent time, extended through gaps in the Coast Range, and 

 made an internal sea which stood at a height of not less than 

 2900 feet, and probably much above this. This is proved 

 by the fact of the occurrence of coral limestone 2900 or 3000 

 feet above the sea-level, about twenty miles in a straight 

 line from the Pacific. There are now no coral reefs on the 

 west South American coast south of Cape Blanco, near the 

 equator, owing probably to the cold oceanic currents ; and 

 this generalization in regard to the previous relations of land 

 and water is one of very great interest. The corals referred 

 to are of modern aspect, although the species are unde- 

 scribed. The fact that there are extensive saline basins at a 

 height of even 7000 feet on the coast of Peru would seem 

 to indicate that the submergence was at one time still greater 

 than that suggested. Indeed, eight species of Allorchestes, 

 a salt-water genus of amphipod crustaceans found in Lake 

 Titicaca, would seem to indicate that this lake, 12,500 feet 

 above the sea, must have been at one time at the sea-level. 

 4 D, p. 499. 



THE GLACIAL EPOCH IN THE EOCKY MOUNTAINS. 



In reference to the glacial phenomena still to be traced in 

 the Rocky Mountains, Professor Powell, in his recently pub- 

 lished report on the geology of the eastern portion of the 

 Uinta Mountains, states that there has been glacial action in 

 the Uinta Mountains. There are found undoubted morainal 

 deposits. The deep valleys that lie at the foot of the axial 

 peaks of this great range have been beds of extinct glaciers. 

 Morainal deposits and glacial grooves are found in very 



