Trans. N. V. Ac. Set. SO Jan. g, 



toward the close of the period of advancement of the ice, due to the 

 stream being forced into the deep and narrow valleys of Seneca and 

 Cayuga — alternations of pressure which must have been felt throughout 

 the mass for some distance northward. 



Discussion. 



Dr. Newberrv expressed his opinion of the great value and import- 

 ance of the observations thus given, in a region that has been much 

 discussed and yet but little understood. 



Prof. D. S. Martin inquired whether the direction and position of 

 Oneida Lake would not bring it into the series of radiating lake-basins 

 mentioned by Dr. Johnson, as the most easterly member thereof. 



Dr. Johnson replied that while its general course would correspond 

 ■^^'ith such a view, yet that the basin of Oneida Lake is so different, in 

 its shallow character, from the others to which he had referred, that he 

 regarded it as not related to them geologically. 



Dr. J. S. Newberry then read the following paper : 



HYPOTHETICAL HIGH TIDES, AS AGENTS OF GEOLOGICAL CHANGE. 



Prof. Robert Ball, of Dublin, has recently delivered a novel and in- 

 teresting lecture, with the poe'ical t)tle "A Glimpse through the Corri- 

 dors of Time," in which he advances a theory in regard to the agency 

 of the tides in producing changes on the earth's surface, which is so dis- 

 ■cordant with the facts observed and the conclusions adopted by geolo- 

 gists, that it would seem to call for some notice from them. 



In this lecture, the views of Mr. George Darwin, in regard to the 

 history of our telluric system, are accepted, and it is claimed that 

 the moon was at one time apart of the earth, but that while the latter 

 was imperfectly consolidated, it was thrown off by the prepon- 

 derance of the centritugal over the centripetal force. After the separa- 

 tion, according to Prof. Ball, the earth and moon revolved simul- 

 taneously around a common axis once in three hours. Since that time, 

 the moon has been gradually receding, and lagging behind in its rota- 

 tion, unt 1 it is now 240,000 miles away, and revolves but once while 

 the earth makes twenty-seven revolutions of twenty-four hours each. 



The special purpose of the lecture was the announcement of the dis- 

 covery of a new agency in geological change, and one represented to 

 be of transcendent power, viz., ancient high tides. At the present 

 time, with the moon 240,000 miles distant, its attraction produces a 

 tide reaching sometimes, as in the Bay of Fundy, a height of sixty feet, 

 a tide which, in it s ebb and flow, causes a considerable amount of change 

 in the land, washing away banks and cliffs, and transporting to sea 

 ^reat quantities of detrital matter. 



Prof. Ball asserts that at certain times in the recession of the moon 



