64 REPORT — 1864. 



otliers, not in directions of sucli faults, were yet traceable to lines of weakness in 

 rocks occasioned by joints, having a determinate relation to these fractures. The 

 conclusion from the whole being that the main featiu-es of the inequalities of the 

 earth's surface were always referable to displacements of the rocks and_ lines of 

 weakness dependent on them ; and that the agencies of waste along their directions 

 were ancient operations of the sea, at the rising and faUinp; of the level of the land, 

 and other operations sometimes very ancient, but often still in force, depending on 

 atmospheric vicissitudes. In reference to this latter operation the author gave 

 proof from the upper part of Leek Beck that the narrow rocky limestone glen 

 which runs up toward the " County stone " is nothing else than a line of ancient 

 subterranean caverns, of which the roofs have fallen in, and that this process is still 

 in progress, the water being received in swallows at higher levels on the slope of 

 the moors, and employed in dissolving the calcareous rocks on its passage. Thus 

 the valley in question, and many others similarly situated, were not excavated from 

 the sui'face, but, after long ages of underground action of water, were formed by the 

 falling in of the unsupported roofs. After this had occurred the usual surface 

 action of running water had modified the sides and the slopes of the bed. 



On the Measure of Geological Time by Natural Chronometers. 

 By Prof. Phillips, M.A., LL.D., F.E.S., F.G.S. 



Distinguishing, in the first place, between the history of operations in the sea 

 and on the land, by which the succession of ancient phenomena is determined, 

 from the attempts to .ascertain, first the relative, and finally the absolute chronology 

 of these events, the author noticed several orders of natural effects which, being 

 traceable through the later geological periods, and still in progress, seemed the tit- 

 test to be employed in tlie measure of Cfenozoic time. Examples are found in the 

 action of streams wearing away their channels, or depositing sediment ; in the 

 formation and growth of peat moor ; in the filling up of lakes ; and, finally, in 

 the accumidation of detritus in conical mounds at the foot of precipices by falling 

 of rocks or toi-rents of water. The last case was illustrated by drawings, and a 

 description of the remarkable moimds of La Tiniere on the Lake of Geneva, near 

 VUleneuve, which had been investigated by M. Morlot. At this place one of the 

 mounds, the least ancient, has been cut through by the railway to a depth of be- 

 tween 20 and 30 feet. The section exposes the materials usually found in such 

 mounds (large and small pebbles and sand) ; but, in addition, three bands of loamy 

 matter, 6 to 8 inches thick, are seen to range parallel to the general surface, one, 

 4 feet below the surface, another, 10 feet, the third 19 feet. The bands contain 

 charcoal, and have rather the aspect of vegetable earth, in part stained yellow. 

 With the upper one were found Roman reliquiie — fragments of tiles and a coin ; 

 the middle one yielded no such objects, but some bronze fabrications; the lower 

 one, coarse potter)', also fragments of bones of men and animals. Prof. Phillips 

 was so fortunate as to obtain from this lowest band, by his own research, a portion 

 of cranial bone, which, by the help of Mr. C. Robertson of the Oxford Museum, he 

 finds to be, as he had conjectured, part of the occipital bone of man. From these 

 facts M. Morlot infeiTcd that at three successive epochs the action of the toi-rent 

 spread the reliquiai of human occupation over the growing delta of La Tiniere — 

 that the epochs may be approxunately calculated at 1600, -3800, and 6400 years ago. 

 And he refers these dates to particular points in the "Roman," "bronze," and 

 "stone" periods; so that the earliest trace of man in this delta is between 6000 

 and 7000 years old. No stone implements occurred in this mound. The age of the 

 whole mound is estimated at 10,000 years. M. Morlot also applied the same me- 

 thod of computation to the earlier and larger conical moimd of La Tiniere, which 

 was deposited while the Lake of Geneva was maintained at a higher level. The 

 result gives for this cone 1000 centuries ; and M. Morlot regards it as a fair approx- 

 imation to the length of "post-glacial" time — the term "post-glacial," as we 

 employ it in England, being supposed to agree with the end of the last great ex- 

 tension of ice in the Alps. 



Prof. Phillips then presented to the Meeting, on the part of M. Morlot, English 

 translations, executed by that gentleman, of the interesting memoirs which lie liad 



