1847.] Association of Geologists and JYaturalists. 209 



rich in the same identical materials. How could these have been 

 so largely spread; no agency of water, flowing even with the ve- 

 locity of a mountain torrent, could have effected it: it is extreme- 

 ly probable that ice has been here the most important agent. 



The parallel zones of sand-stone in the Great Gulf were caused 

 by waves of translation, either from the upheaving of the Rocky 

 Mountains, or volcanic action in the Arctic Ocean. 



Dr. Binney supposed this vast tract analogous to the " loess" 

 of the Rhine; its rate of deposition must have been very slow. 

 Fresh water shells do not belong to it; in it are the remains of 

 many extinct races, the mastodon, &c. It must have been depos- 

 ited rapidly, yet quietly from this chaldron ocean, and not by 

 rivers. The fresh water shells, and various other organic remains 

 which so often puzzle naturalists, were deposited, after heavy rains, 

 by slides from post diluvial lakes. 



The origin of this alluvial clay, or marl-beds: The loam was 

 laid down during a long period of subsidence of the land, allow- 

 ing annual or successive innundations of the river-beds. 



Mr. P. A. Browne, of Philadelphia, read a paper entitled 

 "Animal Torpidity." He first treated of the respiration of hi- 

 bernating animals. With mammals the respiration does not cease 

 at once, but gradually, and no oxygen is consumed by the animal 

 in a completely toipid state. The respiration of the torpid state 

 may be only imperfect, as for instance, when the animal breathes 

 and then ceases from breathing for minutes and it may be for 

 hours. Animals, when about to enter the torpid state, seek re- 

 tirement. The mammals roll themselves up into as small a com- 

 pass as possible, and retire into holes or caverns; the mollusca 

 retreat into their shells; flies, spiders, &c., creep into holes. 



A hamster kept in a box of straw, in a sufficiently cold place, 

 did not become torpid, and revived as soon as he was dug up. 

 Hamsters have been kept in a cage and fed, eating during the 

 season when they usually hibernate. Opinions are various upon 

 the point of the total extinguishment of respiration during torpid- 

 ity. Some naturalists assert that in hibernation, animals do not 

 breathe, while others contend that respiration is not extinct. A 

 torpid animal immersed in carbonic acid gas will not die. The 

 respiration of animals is subordinate to temperature — in summer, 

 quick, in autumn, slow; in w^inter, none at all. Experiments 

 have shown that hibernating animals consume oxygen, considera- 

 ble in volume, when in an active state; that the consumption di- 

 minishes as the temperature falls; that they can exist in an air 

 which will neither support life nor combustion; that in a torpid 

 state the consumption of oxygen is small, and that in a perfect 

 state of torpidity no oxygen is consumed, and there is no respira- 

 tion. 



No. 18. 14 



