ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 29 
west coast line of this promontory, even in the vicinity of O6 Sima. Bad 
weather and night shut in further opportunity. 
This promontory forms the eastern shores to the eastern entrance to the 
great strait, called the inland sea of Japan, through which we passed for two 
hundred and fifty miles, enjoying some of the most enchanting views I have 
ever seen, reminding me forcibly of the great inland waters from Puget 
Sound to the Chilkaht River, but enlivened by hundreds of junks and fishing 
vessels; shores lined with villages; steep hillsides terraced for cultivation to 
heights of neazly one thousand feet, wherein the numerous terrace walls 
would certainly form a total height of four hundred feet, as I have verified 
here. Some of the passages are tortuous, narrow and deep—through high 
islands or between steep fronted capes. Cultivation on every spot where 
even five hundred square feet and less can be terraced. No heavy timber; 
sparsely distributed patches of small timber; large growth of chapparal on 
the higher and steeper parts of the hills. The mountains rise to elevations of 
probably 3,000 feet, but the average height of the outline will be about one 
thousand feet. Again no indications of valleys except of the most limited 
character. 
I looked in vain through all these shores for signs of terrace formation. So 
along the outer coast and through the islands from Simonoseki strait to Naga- 
saki, the hills preserved their characteristic outlines and shapes, except 
Table Mountain, fifteen hundred feet high and lying a few miles west of Naga- 
saki. 
Here I have had ample opportunity to judge of the general geological char- 
acter of the country. It is of the most recent formation, has been violently 
distorted by pressure from below, and then eroded into its present irregular 
surface. I have looked occasionally for local traces of glacial action in some 
of the harder materials, but failed to satisfy myself beyond doubt. 
But of the glacial action at Cape Canon, and at O6 Sima, and the adjacent 
coast, I have no doubt whatever; but in both cases I could trace but one ter- 
race, and that at O6 Sima had an elevation of one hundred feet. 
I have communicated this short note to the Academy as an additional evi- 
dence to what I have already given of the abrasions of coast line by the action 
of glaciers bordering them. 
The Secretary also read a paper from Professor Davidson, as 
follows: 
‘Note on the Probable Cause of the Low Temperature of 
the Depths of the Ocean. 
BY GEORGE DAVIDSON. 
In my first note upon the ‘‘ Abrasions of the Continental Shores of North- 
west America, and the supposed Ancient Sea Levels,’’ I attributed these 
abrasions to the action of a great body of ice contiguous to the whole line of 
our coast, and which moved along the coast line either by the combined forces 
