134 REPORT — 1861. 



summits of very considerable hills in the vale of Worcester. They occur on Tunnel 

 Hill at Upton-on-Sevem, on the summit of Corsewood IIUl, on Ryal Hill, Twining 

 near Tewkesbmy, and at Elmore neai" Gloucester. They are foimd along the flanks 

 of the Malvems, where they have yielded the remains of Elephas antiquus and 

 Ithinoceros ticJiorhinus, animals that lived during the glacial period, and are there- 

 fore properly associated with the northern di-ift. A fine molar tooth of Mephas 

 antiquus has lately been foimd by Hemy Brooks among the gi-avel which overlies 

 the gi-eat masses of angular blocks heaped against the side of a hill, known as 

 Clincher's IMill Wood, near Ledbury. 



The author also observed the high-level drift at several points in Herefordshhe, 

 the principal of which is an excellent section, near the Kite's Nest, on the Hay 

 road, about four mUes west of Hereford, and a still better one at Wilcroft near Lug- 

 wardine. Another fine molar of E. primigenius has been brought to the author of 

 the paper since it was read at Manchester. This fossU is from the high-level diift, 

 75 teet above the Severn, and is from Twining gi-avel-pits between Tewkesbiuy 

 and Brockeridge Common on the Worcester road. 



On Suhten'anean Movements. By Professor VAUGnAN, of Cincinnati. 



The author stated that the definite relations recently discovered between calorific 

 and mechanical action seemed to have an important bearing on questions relating 

 to the secular refrigeration of the earth and the high temperatm-e of its internal 

 regions, even at the present time. The vast amount of heat supposed to have 

 escaped from our planet dming past ages might be reasonably expected to call into 

 existence forces of much greater efficiency than those indicated by the upheaval of 

 lands, or by the violence of earthquakes and mechanical eruptions. Our terrestrial 

 fabric had a strength too limited for the full development of such great calorific 

 powers by the unequal contractions of its diflerent parts ; and in a cooling globe com- 

 poimd gases could not be expected to produce any decided mechanical effect, at 

 least without materially altering the composition of the atmosphere. But, apai-t 

 fr-om these causes, the ti-ansition of the igneous rocks from a fluid to a solid state 

 would be attended with occasional paroxysmal movement and change. Being de- 

 pendent on hydi'ostatic conditions for stabilitj', the diS'erent pai-ts of the earth's 

 crust must extend into the great reservoir of lava to a depth in some measm-e pro- 

 portionate to the elevation above its surface. Continents must rest on solid fomi- 

 dations far deeper than those which supported the bodv of the ocean ; and the 

 violence which subten-anean forces manifested in several Islands might be ascribed 

 in part to the weakness of the barriers which restrained them. Inequalities in the 

 solid envelope of our globe were indicated -with some certainty by lociil forces of 

 gi'avity. The anomalous character of the vibrations of the pendulum, when applied 

 m some places, justified the conclusion that the invisible side of the eai-th's crust 

 contained the greatest in-egularities, and that our continental ti-acts of land rest on 

 the bases of gigantic subten-anean mountains, whose tops might be depressed even 

 three or fom- huudi-ed miles below the mean level of the nitrified matter. The 

 accmnulations of solid matter on the internal mountains must ultimately be crushed 

 by the strain which their augmented size occasioned ; a mighty avalanche of rock 

 would then tumble to the thinner part of the eaith's crust. Regarding these masses 

 as the cause of earthquakes, they might account for the instantaneous manner in 

 which the shocks of earthquakes occurred, their extreme violence and destructive 

 character near the coasts of continents and on adjacent islands, while they were 

 almost imperceptible in the interior of continents. It was probable that the ascend- 

 ing movements of silica, and perhaps of other isolated matter, might serve to bring 

 the hea\'y metallic deposits from the central to the supeiiicial regions of our planet, 

 and the general occm-rence of gold in auriferous quai'tz rock might thus admit of 

 plausible explanation. 



On the Bed Crag Deposits of the County of Suffolk, considered in relation to 

 the finding of Celts, in France and England, in the Drift of the Post-Pliocene 

 Period. By W, Whincopp. 



