86 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



BELFAST NATURAL HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHICAL 

 SOCIETY. 



JANUARY 17, 1855. 

 Dr. ANDREWS, President, in the Chair. 

 Mr. Joseph John Murphy read a paper on 



THE FIORDS OF NORWAY, AND OTHER SIMILAR COASTS. 



A fiord was defined as a mountain valley, partly filled by the sea ; and it was 

 remarked, that were the sea to rise on almost any mountain chain, so as to submerge 

 its base, the coast thus formed would present a succession of headlands and fiords, 

 like that of Norway. Comparatively few mountainous coasts, however, do present 

 such features, in consequence, probably, of their indentations being filled up with 

 alluvium. But the original mountain valleys are left, so as to present the fiord 

 formation, where the rocks are too hard to permit alluvium to be washed down, as 

 in Dalmatia and Greece ; and where the coast is exposed to frequent storms that 

 wash the alluvium away, as in Norway. The most storm-beaten coasts in the 

 world are those which front the west in high latitudes, and there alone is the fiord 

 formation to be seen in perfection, especially in Norway, Scotland, the northern 

 part of the west coast of North America, and the southern part of the west coast 

 of South America. A variety of geographical facts were brought to bear on the 

 writer's theory, that the fiord formation is, in general, the result of exposure of the 

 coast to violent storms. 



JANUARY 31, 1855. 

 Dr. DICKIE, V.P., in the Chair. 

 Professor Wyville Thomson, LL.D., gave a lecture on some of the 



NATIVE ZOOPHYTES. 



He alluded to the old idea, that most of the beings now included in the class 

 " Zoophy ta" were marine plants, and to the more recent speculation, that they 

 formed a distinct tribe intermediate between the animal and the vegetable kingdom. 

 He pointed out the distinctly animal nature of the whole series, but admitted that 

 they must be placed near the base of the animal scale, at a point where some of 

 the more prominent peculiarities of vegetables appear to encroach on the limits of 

 the sister kingdom. He suggested, as an interesting subject for inquiry, the 

 question, what are those properties, peculiarly animal, which attained their maxi- 

 mum amongst the highest members of the animal series, becoming less distinct as 

 we descend to simpler forms, till, at length, they become completely merged at a 

 point where the two kingdoms appear to blend ? And, in the second place, what 

 are those peculiarities, essentially vegetable, which, most fully developed among 

 higher plants, became obscure in simpler orders, till they likewise disappear at the 

 point of junction ; some of them appearing still, however, to encroach on the lower 

 members of the animal tribes ? The distinct appropriation of several defined por- 

 tions of a general whole for the performance of different functions of life, and the 

 occurrence of similar organs singly, or, at most, in pairs (e.g., a single liver to 

 assist in the process of digestion a pair of lungs to subserve the function of respi- 

 ration), were adduced as highly animal peculiarities. The absolute necessity of 

 the complete integrity of these single organs, the fact, that if lost, they cannot be 

 reproduced, and the disastrous consequences to life, consequent on the injury or 

 destruction of one of them the perfection of the nervous system, binding them all 

 together in a consciousness of unity, and the high perfection of the sensory portion 

 of this system, a consequence of the absolute necessity of removing those precious 



