74 Geological Society : — 



are not dispersed in a cellular tissue, and are somewhat similar to 

 those described by M. Brongniart as occurring in the Avoody part 

 of Sigillaria elegans. In a rootlet Mr. Binney finds evidence of an 

 outer ring of fine cellular tissue, three or four cells broad, and in 

 the centre of the middle space twenty-seven large and eleven smaller 

 vessels, forming a mass of vascular tissue Tj^^th of an inch in dia- 

 meter, the vessels or utricles being distinctly marked with trans- 

 verse striae. 



3. " On a New Fossil Fern from Worcestershire." By John 

 Morris, Esq., F.G.S. 



A few fragments of fern-leaflets, found by Mr. G. Roberts, of 

 Kidderminster, in a micaceous sandstone about two miles north-east 

 of Bewdley, exhibit a reticulate venation ; a character comparatively 

 rare in the Coal-measures. These specimens are but fragments of 

 the frond ; and the one particularly referred to is probably the ter- 

 minal part of a pinna. The author doubtfully referred it to the 

 genus Woodwardites, with the specific name Robertsi. 



May 12. — Prof. Phillips, President, in the Chair. 



The following communications were read : — 



I. "On some of the Glacial Phfenomena of Canada and of the 

 North-eastern Provinces of the United States during the Drift- 

 period." By Prof. A. C. Ramsay, F.R.S., F.G.S. 



The author first described the evidently glacialized condition of 

 the o-reat Laurentine Chain of mountains, on the north side of the 

 St. Lawrence, which for an extent of 1500 miles exhibit, often in 

 spite of the forest, unequivocal signs of glacial abrasion, being 

 mammillated (or moutonnees), as if by the action of ice. 



On the south side of the river, the country is low, and covered 

 with boulders and other drifts, derived from the Laurentine Chain 

 and other tracts, in accordance with the observations of Bigsby, 

 Hitchcock, and others. The plains and the Thousand Islands ex- 

 hibit a general glacialization. These conditions are traceable down 

 the Valley of the Hudson to New York. 



During the period when the boulders and the associated clays and 

 gravels were being deposited, the Catskill Mountains appear to have 

 been under water, and at about the same period to have been sub- 

 jected also to very extensive glacial action. The stria3 left by ice- 

 borne rocks on the eastern flank of the Catskills have a north and 

 south direction, and are found up to nearly the height of 3000 feet 

 above the sea, excepting in the east and west gorges near the top, 

 where the striae run in a cross direction— E. and W. The sea of 

 the drift-period in the Valley of the Hudson was then from 3000 to 

 4000 feet deep. The deep valleys on the western side of the moun- 

 tains were observed by Prof. Ramsay to be often charged with drift, 

 which had not been ploughed out by glaciers of a date subsequent 

 to the upheaval of the Catskills, as is the case with some of the 

 valleys, once occui)ied by drift and afterwards by glaciers, in Wales, 

 the Highlands, the Vosges, and in the Alps. 



Prof. Ramsay then referred more particularly to the drift-deposits 

 forming terraces in the neighbourhood of Montreal, which have lately 



