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WAT OTE: 
[FEBRUARY 11, 1897 
associated with the periodic changes in the moon’s distance and 
declination, for the simple reason that fully as prominent har- 
monic components exist when the statistics are analysed accord- 
ing to the periodic change in the moon’s position relative to the 
eclepitc, and with this particular period no tidal stresses can be 
directly associated. 
(g) Nevertheless, the value of the phase lends some support 
to the view that there is a real connection between the change in 
the moon’s distance and earthquake frequency, since the 
maximum frequency falls near the time of perigee. 
(4) These conclusions have, in comparison with previous 
similar investigations, a peculiar value, inasmuch as they are 
based upon accurate statistics of fully 7000 earthquakes occurring 
within eight years in a limited part of the earth’s crust, through- 
out which the seismic conditions may be assumed to be fairly 
similar from point to point. 
February 4.—‘* Some Experiments on Helium.” By Morris 
W. Travers. Communicated by Prof. W. Ramsay, F.R.S. 
Received December 30, 1896. 
Geological Society, January 20.—Dr. Henry Hicks, 
F.R.S., President, in the chair.—On glacial phenomena of 
Paleozoic Age in the Varanger Fiord, by Aubrey Strahan. 
The Gaisa beds of the Varanger Fiord consist of slightly altered 
quartz-grits, with red sandstones and shales, and rest upon a 
deeply denuded surface of the metamorphic rocks. Ina section, 
first noticed by Dr. Reusch, a heterogeneous mixture of grit 
and clay with boulders of granitic and other rocks is seen to be 
intercalated between the quartz-grits, the bedding of the over- 
lying grit proving that this boulder-rock was contemporaneously 
formed, and not subsequently wedged in. The surface of the 
grit below the rock is characteristically glaciated. Proof was 
given that the striated surface is not the floor of a thrust-plane, 
and that the boulder-rock is not a fault-breccia or a crush-con- 
glomerate, but a ‘‘till.” In the absence of fossils the Gaisa 
formation was doubtfully assigned to an early Paleozoic age. 
It exhibits the same sedimentary characters as the rocks of later 
date in other parts of the world in which glacial phenomena 
have been observed. The glacial episode was attributed to a 
temporary change of climate rather than to the high latitude 
in which the section lies. —The raised beaches and glacial 
deposits of the Varanger Fiord, by Aubrey Strahan. The 
raised beaches range up to nearly 300 feet above the sea. 
Though a number of impersistent shingle-banks occur at 
various heights, the highest is constant, and can be traced 
along the same level either as a shingly terrace or by a zone of 
wave-worn rocks. Evidence is furnished by the relative size of 
different parts of the beach that the prevalent wave-action was 
from the west, and by the greater abundance of erratics on or 
below the beach than above it, that floating ice was at work. 
At the head of the fiorda blue clay dotted over with stones 
is now being formed, and the raised beach there consists of a 
similar material. Both here and elsewhere this clay stimulates 
a boulder clay ; but for reasons given it was believed to bea 
marine fiord-deposit, into which many stones have been dropped 
by floating ice. Deposits of true glacial age, in the form of 
mounds of gravel, were described, and shown to have yielded the 
material out of which parts of the raised beaches were formed. 
The glaciation of the fiord was attributed to floating ice, and 
was shown to have taken place before the formation of the 
raised beaches, at a time when the sea surrounded this part of 
Finmark, by way of the Varanger Fiord, the Tana Valley, and 
the Tana Fiord. In the discussion upon the two papers, the 
President congratulated the author on the admirable manner in 
which he had worked out the evidence produced from the 
Varanger Fiord, and on his being able to show so conclusively 
that the views put forward by Dr. Reusch were substantially 
correct. Sir Archibald Geikie referred to one or two difficulties 
in the interpretations adopted by the author, one of the most 
obvious being the striated pavement of quartzite below the 
boulder-bed. This difficulty, however, was not insuperable, 
With regard to the age of the Gaisa series, Sir Archibald Geikie 
remarked that he was inclined to adopt the view of Dr. 
Reusch, who compared this series with the sparagmite of 
Central and Southern Norway. He himself had seen the 
Sparagmite 27 sz¢a, and had been much struck with its general 
resemblance, both in scenery and in lithology, with the Torri- 
donian rocks of north-west Scotland. It was, like those rocks 
older than the Cambrian system. Dr. J. W. Gregory pointed 
out that the previous failure to discover traces of glacial action 
NO. 1424, VOL. 55] 
in high northern latitudes in pre-Pleistocene times gave wide 
interest to Reusch’s paper; and the corroboration of his views 
by Mr. Strahan was of great value. He thought the deposits 
of special interest, as similar conglomerates occupying identic- 
ally the same stratigraphical position occur all round the Polar 
basin, and in places where their age can be proved. In Spitz- 
bergen the occurrence of the conglomerates was discovered last 
summer, and they are there pre-Devonian. Evidence seems to 
show that the conglomerates are probably part of a circumpolar 
belt. Mr. Hudleston corroborated the author’s statements as to 
the nature of the country and of the arenaceous quartzite system 
prevailing in Eastern Finmark. Beyond the region shown in 
his map, on the eastern side of the Tana Fiord, the Stauganes 
Fjeld rises rather steeply to heights probably reaching 3000 feet. 
This is a quartzite wilderness, almost as white as snow, having 
a strong external resemblance to the quartzite-mountains of the 
North-western Highlands ; the system might thus include both 
Torridonian and basal Cambrian beds. The importance of the 
author’s verification of Reusch’s statements was very great. The 
late Dr. Croll had been desirous of obtaining evidences of 
glaciation in the several formations anterior to the great Ice Age. 
His failure to do so he attributed to the circumstance that the 
evidences of glaciation are to be found principally on land- 
surfaces, and that the transformation of a land-surface into a 
sea-bottom would in most cases obliterate all traces of glaciation. 
A striated bed-rock went much further in this direction than 
mere boulders and striated stones; and, as far as he (the 
speaker) knew, these occurrences on the Varanger Fiord were 
the only ones as yet established in the northern hemisphere, 
with some possible exceptions in the case of the Talchirs. For 
a grander exhibition of striated bed-rock they must look to the 
southern hemisphere: Prof. Edgeworth David had recently 
brought before the Society such evidence from Southern 
Australia, referred to the Permo-Carboniferous period. 
Chemical Society, January 21.—Mr. A. G. Vernon 
Harcourt, President, in the chair.—The following papers were 
read : Observations on the properties of some highly purified 
substances, by W. A. Shenstone. The author shows that 
oxygen is far more readily ozonised when moist than when dry ; 
the conversion of ozone into oxygen is greatly retarded by the 
presence of moisture. Carefully purified and dried chlorine 
combines readily with mercury, but is not condensed by a 
silent electrical discharge.—The action of diastase on starch, by 
A. R. Ling and J. L. Baker. Starch, when hydrolysed by 
diastase; is converted into a series of maltodextrins of gradually 
decreasing molecular weight and rotatory power and of increas- 
ing cupric reducing power.—The solution density and cupric 
reducing power of dextrose, lzevulose and invert-sugar, by 
H. T. Brown, G. H. Morris, and J. H. Millar.—Derivatives of 
maclurin, Part II., by A. G. Perkin. Although maclurin yields 
no definite acetyl-derivatives, a triacetyl-derivative of maclurin- 
azobenzene can be prepared; similarly the azobenzene of 
phloroglucin yields a monacetyl-derivative.— Halogen-substi- 
tuted acidic thiocarbimides and their derivatives ; a contribution 
to the chemistry of the thiohydantoins, by A. E. Dixon. By 
the action of primary or secondary amines on halogen-substi- 
tuted thiocarbimides a number of substituted thiohydantoins 
have been prepared.The amyl (secondary butyl-methyl) 
derivatives of glyceric, diacetylglyceric, and dibenzoylglyceric 
acids, active and inactive, by P. Frankland and T. S. Price. 
The authors have prepared a number of inactive and active 
amyl salts of substituted glyceric acids, and investigated the . 
effect of temperature on their rotatory powers and the relations 
between the rotations.—The refraction constants of crystalline 
salts, by A. E. Tutton.—The refraction constants of crystalline 
salts: a correction, by W. J. Pope.—On the wide dissemina- 
tion of some of the rarer elements and the mode of their asso- 
ciation in common ores and minerals, by W. N. Hartley and 
Hi: Ramage. Out of 168 ores and minerals examined, 68 con- 
tained gallium, 30 contained indium, 17 contained thallium, 
and 70 probably contained rubidium ; conclusions are drawn 
respecting the formation of beds and lodes of ore, and relations 
are found to exist between the periodic classification and the 
distribution of the elements. 
Zoological Society, February 2.—Prof. George B. Howes 
in the chair.—Mr. Sclater exhibited a collection of bird-skins 
that had been formed by Mr. W. A. Churchill, H.B.M. Consul 
at Mozambique, during various shooting-excursions along the 
shores within twenty miles of the island of Mozambique.—Mr. 
