PEOCEEDINGS FOE 1888. XXVII 



land of much promise. Fully three-fourths of the area is bare rock, mainly Laui'eutian. Disintegra- 

 tion is a noticeable feature of the higher altitudes, while the lower and older rocks are polished by 

 glacial action of apparently so recent an age that their smooth surfaces indicate but the faintest 

 traces of weathering. The climate is severe, the vegetation dwarfed. 



Ice action is more specially taken up in the two papers communicated by Dr. Bell, from Prof 

 Spencer, formerly of King's CoUego. The first is on Glacial Erosion in Norway and in High 

 Latitudes, and gives an account of Dr. Spencer's visit in 1886 to the three largest snowfiolds in Norway 

 (one with an area of 580 square miles), all of which send down glaciers to within 50 to 1,200 feet of the 

 sea. After giving a series of interesting descrijîtions and observations, Dj-. Spencer arrives at the con- 

 clusion that the potency of land-glaciei's to act as great eroding agents is not only not proven, but 

 most strongly negatived, wliilst the v^'ork of floating or tea ice is in some forms enormous, its erosive 

 power depending upon its moving Avith a velocity never acquired by glaciers. The second paper, on 

 the Theory of Glacial Motion, deals specially with Prof J. D. Forbes's theory, which excited much 

 discussion forty years ago, that : " A glacier is an imperfect fluid or viscous body which is urged down 

 slopes of a certain inclination by mutual pressure of its parts," as Forbes illustrated simply by a 

 barrel of pitch, with its end out, lying in the sun. Pi'of. Spencer, after a full consideration of facts 

 and arguments, favours this old fluidity theory as the most acceptable ex2)lanation of the motion 

 of glaciers. 



The Petroleum Field of Canada has engaged the pen of Dr. Bell, President of the Section, who 

 gives its inteiesting history, describing it as situated near the south-western extremity of the province 

 of Ontario, and on rocks of Devonian age overlaid by a considerable thickness of drift. The gum- 

 beds arc located in wet chiycy land in the townships, adjoining each other, of Enniskillen and Down, 

 where the drift clay is fi-om seventy to eighty-five feet thick. An essential condition of the retention 

 of the peti'olcum is that the natural subtci-rancan reservoir must be covered by an impervious stratum, 

 such as a considerable thickness of shales, clays or marls, to hold it down, while another necessary' 

 feature is a sufficient body of porous <n- fisi-ured and channelled rock below, for storing the accunuilated 

 oil. The anticlinal theory of tlie accumulation of gas and petroleum was favoured by the late Sir 

 William Logan, but oi'iginaled, it is believed, with a distinguished fellow member whose presence we 

 miss at the present meeting, Dr. T. Stcrry Hunt. According to this theory, the fissures, and spaces 

 between beds of deep seated rocks being filled with water, the oil and gas, following hj'drostatic 

 laws, accumulate at the highest points, or the domes, along anticlinal folds. In his paper, Dr. 

 Bell has brought together a large number of useful and important facts in legard to the petroleum 

 accumulations, the methods of search, and also the details of several boring, pumping, tanking and 

 refining operations, the last process (refining) being now almost entirely conducted on the spot, at 

 Petrolca, by native Canadians. The productive resources of a countiy do not consist alone of its 

 material wealth — its mineral treasures, the fertility of its soil, the fish in its waters — but also, and to 

 an extent that controls all the others, in the ability of its peoj^le to convert these into profitable com- 

 modities. It is gratifying, then, to note the fact that, at J-'etrolca, our Canadian workmen have by 

 their own ingenuity developed each branch of the petroleum industry to its present perfection, bj^ 

 carefully studying the necessities of the case, and that an excellent mechanical education has thus 

 been aftbrdcd to a large number of intelligent men, who are not only engaged in this industiy at 

 home, but whose services are now sought in Eussia, India, Austi-alia, California, wherever there is 

 peti-oleum to be secured. 



Mr. Geo. F. Matthew, of St. John, an indefatigable woilcer, continues his account of the Fauna 

 of the St. John group, giving a description of a remarkable tiilobite found by Mr. W. D. Matthew 

 in the grey shales at Poi'tland, New Brunswick. This mngnificont trilobite, probably the largest 

 hitherto discovered, having an estimated surface aiea of 117 square inches, is honourel with Her 

 Majesty's title, Paradoxides regina, as that of a soveieign who, dui'ing the many years of her reign, 

 has greatly fostered science and art. 



