Catalogue Raisonne. ' 7«5 



servers, would make us augur favourably of this great work, whose gra- 

 phic representations will be derived from the chorographic map of Ger- 

 many, and adjacent countries, by Keymann and Berghaus. 



Notes on the Formation of extensive Conglomerate and Gravel 

 Deposits. By Henrv T. de la Beche, F.R.S. &c. — Philoso- 

 phtcal Magazine. No. XXXIX.— March, 1830. 



A short and rather imperfect inquiry into the extent of the causes at present 

 acting on the surface of the earth. The action of tidal seas ontheir coasts, 

 according to the author, is to pile up at one point the detritus of rocks 

 which they wash away in another. Shingle beaches travel in the direc- 

 tion of the prevalent winds, or those which produce the greatest breakers, 

 but there is no evidence of their being transported outwards, or into the 

 depths of the ocean. It is rarely that pebbles on shingle beaches are 

 foiind to have travelled considerable distances even along shore ; shingle 

 beaches are formed on sea shores from the harder parts of the neighbour- 

 ing coasts, destroyed by the joint action of atmospheric agency, land 

 springs, and the sea. 



On the coasts of tideless seas and lakes there are also shingle beaches, 

 but we do not see their bases, and they are of inferior dimensions. 



Action of rivers on their ierfs.—- Fragments of rock fall into the bed, 

 the rock may be undermined, and these are the materials of gravel. This 

 gravel cannot be carried far ; short and rapid rivers bear pebbles into the 

 sea, but when they are long and slow they transport mere sand or mud. 

 «■ Tidal rivers most frequently keep their mouths open, though there is 



* always a tendency to form bars and sand banks. When the force of the 



current is considerable, the tides small, or the seas not much subject to 

 storms setting in shore, they form deltas. Tidal rivers, when small, 

 have a tendency to be blocked up by the sea ; in these cases the sea re- 

 jects the detritus it receives from the river, and forces it back with the 

 cliff detritus upon the land. 



The discharge of rivers into tideless seas generally tend to push forward 

 deltas before them ; torrents alone bear pebbles into these seas. On high 

 and mountainous coasts gravel may be deposited in deep waters, and re- 

 main quietly at the bottom. 



PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTIONS. 



EDINBURGH. 



Ropai Society March 1. Sir Walter Scott, Bart, in the Chair. Dr. Knox 



read No. II. of his series of Papers, " illustrating the laws which regulate 

 Hennaphroditical Appearances in the Mammalia." 



March 15. Dr. Knox concluded his papers on Hermaphroditical Appear- 

 ances in the Mammalia. 



Professor Christison read a paper, which he intimated to the Society was the 

 first of a series of experimental essays on the Physiology of the Blood and Re* 

 spiration. 



Royal Physical Society Feb. 24. 1830. Mr. Ainsworth read a paper on 



the evidence derived from the Animal Kingdom, of a change in the climate of 

 the Northern Regions. 



March 3. A. Hohroyd, Esq. F.L.S. F.Z.S., read a notice of some rare 

 Animalij rec^ntl^ added to the Collection of the Zoological Society of London. . 



