Geological Society. 153 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



[Contimietl from p. 78.] 



June 15, 1859.— Prof. J. Phillips, President, in the Chair. 



The following communications were read : — 



1 . " Notes on Spitzbergen." By J. Lament, Esq. 



Mr. Lamont cruised about Spitzbergen in his yacht in the summer 

 of 1858, and went up the Stour Fiord, which, he remarks, is a Sound 

 dividing the Island, not a gulf. The first thirty miles of coast along 

 which he sailed on this Fiord consisted almost entirely of the faces 

 of two or three enormous glaciers : the water is shallow, seldom as 

 much as sixteen fathoms, and such appears to be the case all around 

 Spitzbergen ; and hence icebergs of very large size are not formed. 

 Tlae shores are mostly formed of a muddy flat, from half a mile to three 

 miles broad, with ice or hard ground at from 12 to 18 inches under 

 the surface ; this is intersected with muddy rivulets, and bears saxi- 

 frages, mosses, and lichens, on which the reindeer fattens. Pro- 

 truding trap-rocks appear at many spots on these flats. A steep 

 slope of mud, snow, and debris succeeds the flats, and reaches up to 

 perpendicular crags of schistose rock, above which extend the great 

 glaciers. Above these, peaks, probably of granite, appear when free 

 of mist. 



The upper part of the Sound has much drift-wood, chiefly small 

 pine-trees, weather-worn and water-logged, and some wreck-wood. 

 Bones and skeletons of whales are numerous. Drift-wood and 

 bones of whales were observed several miles inland and high above 

 high-water mark — at least 30 feet. Whales' skeletons were also 

 seen high up on the Thousand Islands. These circumstances, con- 

 nected with the fact that seal-fishers and whalers state their belief 

 in the shallowing of these seas, lead the author to think that Spitz- 

 bergen and the adjacent islands are emerging from the sea at a rate 

 even more rapid than that at which some parts of Norway have been 

 shown to be rising. 



2. " On the Formation of Gypsums and Dolomites." By T. S. 

 Hunt, Esq., of the Geol. Surv. Canada. 



The points to which the author calls attention are, first, the for- 

 mation of sulphate of lime and bicarbonate of magnesia by the action 

 of bicarbonate of lime upon a solution of sulphate of magnesia, and 

 their successive deposition in the forms of gypsum and hydrous 

 carbonate of magnesia, during the process of evaporation ; and, 

 secondly, the direct union, under certain conditions, of this carbonate 

 of magnesia with carbonate of lime to form a double carbonate, which 

 is dolomite. 



3. " On the Tertiary Deposits, associated with Trap-rocks, in 

 the East Indies." By the Rev, S. Hislop. With Descriptions of the 

 Shells by the Rev. S. Hislop; and of the Insects by A, Murray, 

 Esq. (Communicated by the President.) 



In the first i)lacc, the author referred to his views, already given 

 in the Society's .Journal, of the great outpouring of basalt in India 

 having taken place under no great aqueous pressure, and of the 



