GEOLOGY. 307 



of Mr. Sorby and of Professor Tyndall have already indicated. lie con- 

 cludes by suggesting to all geologists engaged in the examination of rocks, 

 the above mechanical considerations, as likely to lead to more definite views 

 than at present prevail as to the origin of the metamorphic schists, and the 

 internal structure of many of the older and more disturbed rocks of all 

 characters. 



ON A GRADUAL ELEVATION OF THE COAST OF SICILY. 



At a recent meeting of the London Geological Society, Sir Charles Lyell 

 read a paper from Signor Gemmellaro, " On the gradual elevation of a part 

 of the. Coast of Sicily, from the mouth of the Simeto to the Onobola," in 

 which the author described in detail the physical evidences observed by him 

 along a great part of the eastern coast of Sicily, which prove : 1st. That 

 from the shores of the Simeto to the Onobola, undeniable characters of the 

 former levels of the sea, in the recent period, are traceable from place to 

 place. Sndly. That great blocks of lava, with blunted angles, and rolled and 

 corroded on the surface, a calcareo-siliceous shelly deposit, and a marine 

 breccia, which are seen at different heights above the present sea-level, are 

 the effects of the continued and daily action of the waves of the sea at suc- 

 cessive levels. Srdly. That the existence and disposition of the holes of the 

 Modiola Iithophaga (Lamarck), in the calcareo-siliceous shelly deposit, and 

 the local presence of shells, both Gasteropods and lamellibranchiates, in 

 their normal positions, support the view of a slow and gradual elevation of 

 the coast. 4thly and lastly. That the lithodomous molluscs and the calc- 

 siliceous deposit being found on the Cyclopean Islands (Faraglioni) up to the 

 height of almost thirteen metres, and large rolled blocks of lava, invested 

 with Serpulte, being also found there to the height of fourteen metres, a mean 

 height of thirteen metres and five decim. is established, as the greatest ex- 

 tent of the now undeniable gradual elevation of this portion of the coast of 

 Sicily during the present period. 



ON THE GEOLOGICAL CAUSES THAT HAVE INFLUENCED THE SCE- 

 NERY OF CANADA AND THE NORTH-EASTERN PROVINCES OF THE 

 UNITED STATES. 



The following is a resume of a paper recently read before the Royal Insti- 

 tution, London, by Prof. Ramsay, on the above subject : t 



The island of Belleisle, and the Laurentine chain of mountains between the 

 shores of Labrador and Lake Superior, consist of gneissic rocks, older than 

 the Huronian formation of Sir William Logan. This gneiss is probably the 

 equivalent of the oldest gneiss of the Scandinavian chain, and of the north- 

 west of Scotland, underlying that conglomerate, which, according to Sir 

 Roderick Murchison, in Scotland represents the Cambrian strata of Long- 

 mynd and of Wales. The mountains of the Laurentine chain present those 

 rounded contours that evince great glacial abrasion; and among the forests 

 'north of the Ottowa the mammillated surfaces were observed by the speaker 

 to be often grooved and striated, the striations running from north to south. 

 The whole country has been moulded by ice. Above the metamorphic 

 rocks, in the plains of Canada and the United States, south of the St. Law- 

 rence, and around Lake Ontario, and Lake Erie, the Silurian and Devonian 

 strata lie nearly horizontally, but slightly inclined to the south. Consisting 



