392 Sclentijic Intelligence — Geology. 



be confined to the beds of sandstone, at a very little depth below the 

 Muschelkalk. From these circumstances Mr Murchison was induced 

 to regard the upper beds alone of the Bunter-sandstein as belonging 

 to the trias ; whilst the lower portion, which, thoug-h generally un- 

 fossiliferous, contained, in Russia, the same groups of fossils with the 

 Permian rocks, he proposed henceforth to separate from the second- 

 ary system, and consider it, together with the Zcchstein and Rothe- 

 todte-liegende, as the upper member of the Palaeozoic series, sup- 

 posed to be represented by a thin band of dolomite. The plants of 

 the Permian system of Russia appear, from the opinion of M. 

 Adolphe Brongniart, to possess a peculiar character ; but they are 

 still closely allied to carboniferous forms, like the plants of the Rothe- 

 todte-Iiegende of Saxony ; and this evidence is in complete harmony 

 with that afforded by the molluscs, corals, and ich thy elites. In con- 

 clusion, Mr Murchison remarked that the English strata, ranging 

 under the synonym of Permian, formed a well-defined tract, se- 

 parating the coal-fields from the newer deposits of red sandstone and 

 marl ; and as the magnesian limestone does not often appear in the 

 form of a continuous deposit, it was the more desirable to give a 

 certain latitude to this group, and not to define it too narrowly by 

 mere mineral characters. 



6. On the Rise of the Coast of Scandinavia. — Major L. Beamish, 

 F.R.S., read a paper " On the apparent fall or diminution of Water 

 in the Baltic, and elevation of the Scandinavian Coast.'' During a 

 journey to Stockholm, in the early part of the present summer, the 

 author had occasion to see and hear much respecting the diminution 

 of water in the Baltic, 'a practical and personal evidence of which he 

 experienced in the harbour of Travemunde, on the 4th of May, by 

 the sudden fall of water at the port, which took place very rapidly, 

 and to a great extent. The steamer, which ought to have left Tra- 

 vemunde on the 18th, was detained by this cause until the 21st. It 

 is well known, that, although without tide, the Baltic is subject to 

 periodical variations of depth, but the water has fallen, during the 

 present summer, to a degree far below these ordinary variations ; 

 and the fact was considered so remarkable as to be thought worthy of 

 being brought before the notice of the Swedish Academy of Sciences, 

 by Baron Berzelius, in July last. This fall or diminution of water 

 was already perceptible in the summer of 1842, since which, the Bal- 

 tic has never returned to its average mean height : but, on the con- 

 trary, has diminished, and there seems now no probability that the 

 former level, or the height of 1841, will be again attained. Meantime, 



