164 Geological Society. 



the tide and stranding surface-waves in an estuary, as determined 

 by the structure of sand-beds, and the relations between them and 

 the physical geography of the limiting shores. The direction and 

 character of the currents being known, the physical geography of the 

 area also might be inferred within certain limits. After this were 

 explained the various structures produced by currents in strata 

 formed under their influence, from which the direction, velocity, 

 character, and depth of the currents can be ascertained. This 

 was followed by an account of the directions and other peculiari- 

 ties of the currents indicated in the various sandy and other strata 

 of the tertiary formations at numerous localities in the district 

 under consideration. From thence the author obtains data from 

 which many peculiarities in the physical geography of the coast- 

 lines of the tertiary land and sea in the area now occupied by 

 Hampshire and the Isle of Wight can be deduced. The chief of 

 these characters are, that during the tertiary period there was 

 formed a wide estuary of a large river, running from the west 

 towards the east ; that the land from which the riv^er came must 

 have been to the north, the west, and south-west, whilst the estuary 

 opened into a tidal sea towards the east; and that at the western 

 part of the Isle of Wight area there existed a considerable shoal. 

 This explains why the section of the tertiary deposits at Alum Bay 

 is so very diflferent to that at Whitecliff; where there was uo shoal, 

 but a tidal channel too deep to be aflfected by the action of the waves 

 of the surface. 



2. "On the probable Permian character of the Red Sandstone of 

 the South of Scotland." By E. W. Binney, Esq., F.G.S. ; in a letter 

 to Sir C. Lyell, F.G.S. 



During a late visit to the South of Scotland, the author came to the 

 conclusion that the red sandstones of Canobie on the Esk, Lockerbie, 

 Corncockle IMuir, Dumfries, Thornhill, Sanquhar, and Mauchline, 

 as well as those of the West of Scotland generally, with the exception 

 of the Annan beds, containing tracks of the Labyrinthodon, will have 

 to be classed as Permian instead of Triassic. The Permian beds of 

 the north-west of England, as described lately by the author in the 

 Manchester Memoirs, consist of — 1. red and variegated marls (gjrp- 

 siferous in the north, and calciferous in the south of the district), 

 300 feet thick; 2. magnesian limestone, 10 feet; 3. conglomerate, 

 350 feet; 4. lower new red sandstone, 500 feet. The conglomerate of 

 the above list is represented, according to the author, by the breccia 

 of the South of Scotland underlying red sandstones. The con- 

 glomerate or breccia consists of a cement, similar throughout the 

 whole region, and of fragments of rocks which vary in their cha- 

 racter according to the localities ; the imbedded fragments having 

 been in every case derived from the local rocks. 



The circumstance of the large tract of the South-west of Scotland 

 hitherto mapped as Trias proving to be Permian will be of great 

 importance to the ironstone and coal districts of the vicinity ; since 

 in some instances these latter deposits will probably be followed 

 beneath it. 



