' 333« 



faces, widening upwards, and more and more obtuse as we recede 

 from the centre of pressure, from which the descending glacier is 

 spread out in all directions ; its extension producing fissures which 

 extend like radii, and which appear to be always perpendicular to 

 the direction of the structural planes. 



Without attempting to explain the process by which so peculiar 

 and interesting a phenomenon is produced, the author remarks, 

 thot its existcncft and production is highly important in two points 

 of view : — (1.) As defining in some respects the nature of icy 

 structure in g-Iaciers, which has been so keenly contested by later 

 writers, and on which so much of the theory of the progression of 

 glaciers depends ; and, (2.) As illustrating by analogy the myste- 

 rious geological phenomena of cleavage planes, which have been 

 attempted to be accounted for by the presence and energy of polar 

 and crystalline forces, without any evidence having been adduced 

 how such a structure could result from them. The structure of a 

 glacier is daily forming; its analysis falls within the proper do- 

 main of physical inquiry ; and however hopeless direct experi- 

 ments in the laboratory must be on such a subject, the required 

 evidence may be perhaps attained by the careful study of glacier 

 crystallization. 



James Kinnear, Esq., recommended by Dr Borthwick, was 

 duly elected an Ordinary Fellow. 



The following Donations were reported as having been re- 

 ceived since the close of last Session : — 



Astrononomical Observations made at the Royal Observatory, 



Greenwich, in the years 1838 and 1839, under the direction 



of George Riddell Airy, Esq. 2 Vols. — By the Royal Society 



of London. 

 Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London. Vol. x. 



Part 3. — By the Society. 

 Report of the Tenth Meeting of the British Association for the 



Advancement of Science, held at Glasgow in August 1840. 



— By the British Association. 

 Bulletin de la Sociel6 Geologique de France. Tome x. Feuilles 



24-29. Tome xi. et Tome xii. Feuilles 1-11 By the Society, 



Proceedings of the Meteorological Society during the Sessions 



1838-39 and 1839-40. — By the Society. 

 Quarterly Journal of the Statistical Society. Vol. iv. Part 1-2. 



—'By the Society. 



