SI 8 Geological Society : Anniversary Address. 



drift ice, and have dropped to the bottom of the sea as the ice 

 melted. 



While Mr. Lyell, by the aid of Dr. Beck's determination of fos- 

 sils, had adopted these views respecting the climate of Canada, Mr. 

 James Smith, of Jordan Hill, had been led by independent observa- 

 tions to a similar conclusion respecting the climate of Scotland 

 during the Newer Pliocene era, arguing from the arctic character of 

 the Testacea found in the raised beds of the valley of the Clyde, and 

 other localities. In the first of two papers communicated by this 

 author, he regarded all the deposits abounding in recent shells in 

 Scotland and Ireland as belonging to one group ; but in his second 

 memoir he contends that there are two distinct formations on the 

 Clyde, in the older of which there are from ten to fifteen per cent, of 

 extinct or unknown species of shells, which he refers to the Newer 

 Pliocene system of Lyell ; whereas all the species found in the 

 newer, which he calls Post-tertiary, exist also in the present seas. 

 During this Post-tertiary period, which is considered to have been 

 anterior to the human epoch, an elevation of at least forty feet 

 took place on the shores of the Clyde. Mr. Smith affirms that the 

 Till, or unstratified accumulation of clay and boulders, belongs not 

 to the Post-tertiary, but to the older Pliocene division. 



IGNEOUS ROCKS. 



The principal communication we have received on rocks of igne- 

 ous origin has been from our Secretary, Mr. W. I. Hamilton, who has 

 read an interesting paper on the north-west part of Asia Minor, from 

 the Peninsula of Cyzicus to Koola, with a description of the Kata- 

 kekaumene. Between Cyzicus and Koola the principal stratified 

 rocks are schist, with saccharine marble, compact limestone resem- 

 bling the scaglia of Italy and Greece, tertiary sandstones, and tertiary 

 limestones. The igneous rocks are granite, peperite, trachyte and 

 basalt. The tertiary limestones are referred to the great lacustrine 

 formation which occupies so large a part of Asia Minor. Hot 

 springs burst forth near Singerli from a porphyritic trap rock. The 

 Katakekaumene is a volcanic region, extending about seven miles 

 from north to south, and from eighteen to nineteen east and west. It 

 presents two systems of volcanic craters and coulees : the older of 

 them are placed on parallel ridges of gneiss and mica slate, and the 

 newer in the intervening valleys ; hence he argues, that when the 

 latter eruptions took place, the lines of least resistance to subter- 

 raneous expansion were in the valleys. The streams of lava from 

 the more recent cones are bare and rugged, like the coulees in cen- 

 tral France. Three periods of eruption are traced : the first, ha- 

 ving produced basalt, which caps the plains of white limestone, and 

 was ejected before the formation of the valleys ; the second, marked 

 by currents of lava from the more ancient system of volcanos in 

 action since the formation of the valleys ; the third resembling the 

 coulees of Etna and Vesuvius, and mentioned by Strabo, but of 

 which there is no historical tradition as to the period when they 

 were in activity. 



