Scientific Intelligence — Geolopy and Geography/. 177 



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 Rt. Hon. Lord Greenock, F.R.S.E. Professor Edward Forbes. 



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SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. 



GEOLOGY AND CEOORAPHY. 



l.M.EUede Beaumont on the former low Temperature of European 

 IVinter.t. — When speaking of winters sufficiently cold to admit of 

 large ice-bergs tloating in great numbers as far as latitude 50° (sec 

 Cliarpentier's Paper, at p. 59. of the present Niimbei), ^I. E. de 

 Beaumont says : — At first sight, this supposition appears contrary 

 to the hypothesis so generally admitted, that the terrestrial globe 

 was warmer during former geological periods than it is at present, and 

 that it has been subsequently gradually cooled. This .apparent op- 

 position ceases, however, when we consider that the temperature of 

 a given portion of the globe during a given time, depends not only 

 on the general temperature of the globe, but also on the manner in 

 which the Isothermal Lines were disposed, during that same period, 

 under the influence of seas and of mountains whose configuration 

 was quite different from the configuration of the seas and mountains 

 of the present day. The globe, during the period which preceded 

 ours, may as a whole have been a little warmer than it now is, and 

 yet central Europe may have had a climate similar to that of Ca- 

 nada, where the phenomenon of the transport of blocks of rock by 

 ice has been observed in latitude 48° or 50°. This supposition of 

 colder winters in Europe, during the geological period preceding our 

 epoch, would, moreover, be in harmony with n any other observations. 

 (Comptcs Bendus, vol. xiv. p. lOL) 



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