84 REPORT — 1870. 



solar heat would be wholly lost. In tlie ' Porcupine ' expedition seven surface- 

 temperatures of the sea averaged only 58°-2 F., the extremes being 64° and 

 54°-8 *. Ml". Wallace shows, by his map of the Indian and Australian zoological 

 provinces, that probably Celebes, New Guinea, Solomon Isles, and the interme- 

 diate islands were once xmited to Australia ; and that Sumatra, Java, Borneo, 

 and the Philippines were probably united to India. But, farther, Mr. Darwin 

 has shown that the Atolls and Barrier reefs of the Indian archipelago, and those 

 of the Lidian Ocean extending from North-west Australia to the north of Mada- 

 gascar, as well as a very large tract of the Pacific archipelago (in the Ton-id 

 Zone), are all regions of Gradual Depressimi. It is therefore very probable that 

 there were vast additional tracts of dry land on the south of Asia and in the 

 Pacific, which would at once account for coal-plants and coal having been foimd 

 as far north as 7G°, as well as for the coal-plants and extinct mammals of Si- 

 beria, by reason of the extra heat radiated from the south and transmitted to 

 the north. 



Bat we are not bound to believe that these vast geological changes must neces- 

 sarily date so far back as the Coal period. The uplifting of mountains took place 

 since the early Tertiary, and the sinkings of land probably date within the same 

 period, which was famous for upliftings and sinkings. If so, we can account for 

 the fossil mammalia and reptiles of the Siwalik Hills, for the fossil reptiles and 

 leaves of plants found at QEningen, for the bones of monkeys found at the foot of 

 the Pyrenees in France, for the tropical fossils of the Faluns of the Loire — all 

 these fossils being subtropical or tropical, and due to the absence of lofty 

 mountains and increased area of land in the south. 



The future cold period will come on when the present land has been denuded 

 to below high water, and will probably be aided by natural sinkings of land, and 

 especially by the uplifting of mountains if such should recur. The present gra- 

 dual (or intermittent) rise of northern Europe and Asia will assist to produce 

 cold if it continues. 



The Modern and Ancient Beaches of Portland. 

 By W. Pengelly, F.R.S., F.G.S. 



The author commenced by stating that the Modern and Ancient Beaches of Port- 

 land, to which he purposed calling attention, were respectively the Chesil Bank, 

 which connects the "island of Portland" with the mainland of Dorset, and the 

 raised beach at Portland Bill ; and that his object was to describe the pebbles 

 which, dm-ing a recent careful search with Mr. W. Vicaiy, F.G.S., he had found in 

 each of them. In both cases they were such as to show that during the era of the 

 ancient beach, as well as at present, the direction in which materials were trans- 

 ported was up-channel, i. e. from tcest to east, and the prevalent winds were from 

 the south-west. To account for the flints which occur on, at least, almost all the 

 modern beaches of West Devon and Cornwall, he assumed the existence of sub- 

 marine outliers of flint-gi-avel, similar to, and probably of the same age as, the 

 supracretaceous accumulations which occur so abundantly in Devon, from the basin 

 of the Teign eastward ; and he mentioned several facts in proof of the occun-ence 

 of such outliers near the Start, the Dodman, and Lundy Island. In conclusion, 

 he expressed the hope that ere long it might be part of the duty of the oificers of 

 the Geological Survey to map the bottom of the British seas and channels. 



Notes on a McrlonethsMre Gold Quartz Crijstal, and some Stream GoJd 

 recently found in the Biver Maivddach. By T. A. Eeadwn, F.G.S. 



The author exhibited a quartz crystal which he picked from a large heap of 

 quartz near Bala Lake, in 1803. At the time he said it was quite transparent, 

 though tinged slightly with golden yellow, yet under the microscope the colour 

 entirely disappeared. ' The crystal was put away in his cabinet, with other gold- 



* Proc. E«y. Soc. No. 121 , p. 465. 



