362 Proceedings of the British Association. 
With the diluvial gravel over the country we find associated organic 
remains,—a strong proof that the land must have been dry when 
the transportation took place.—Mr. Murchison lad observed these 
boulders associated with recent shells at various elevations,—conse- 
quently, the land must have been at one time under the sea, and 
have been subsequently elevated. ‘There must have been a rela- 
tive change of the level of land and sea; and Prof. Esmark, in Nor- 
way, had been the originator of the idea of the icebergs transporting 
gravel. He referred to the valley of the Inn, in the Tyrolese Alps, 
as illustrating this alteration of Jevel: boulders of granite had been 
found on calcareous mountains composing one of its sides, elevated 
five or six thousand feet above the sea level; and this valley could 
not have been scooped out.—Dr. Buckland was of opinion that the 
land must have been dry before the action of the water that had 
transported these blocks. There was a great number of organic re- 
mains mixed with the gravel derived from animals existing on dry 
land ; and this was not only true in England, but confirmed by ob- 
servations made on the continent of Europe. 
In the Statistical Section Dr. Lardner delivered a lecture on steam 
communication with India. 
In the Section of Mechanical Science, Mr. Whewell gave a short 
account of the present state of the science of the tides. Though 
there can be no doubt, that the tides are to be reckoned among the 
results of the great law of universal gravitation, they differ from all 
the other results of that law in this respect, that the facts have not, 
in their details, been reduced to an accordance with the theory 3 and 
the peculiar interest of the subject at the present moment arises from 
this, that the researches now going on appear to be tending to an ac- 
cordance of theory and observation ; although much in the way of 
as i and observation remains to be still “eflocied before this ac- 
nce reaches its ultimate state of completeness. With regard 
to io oben the port of Bristol offers peculiar advantages ; for, in 
consequence of the great magnitude of the tides there, almost all the 
peculiarities of the phenomena are magnified, and may be studied as 
if under a microscope. With regard to the theory, one point mainly 
was dwelt upon. By the theory, the tides follow the moon’s south- 
ings at a certain interval of time, (the lunitidal interval,) and this 
mean interval will undergo changes, so as to leave less than the 
mean when the moon passes three hours after the sun, equal to the 
mean when the moon passes six hours after the sun, and greater 
