SECTIONAL TRANSACT rONS.—O. 363 



the inaiLjiii of the ice ud to its last contact with tiie British siiores on the 

 Ord of Caithness. Oscillations of level accompanied the retreat and raised 

 beaches were left, especially north of the Tweed, but on the completion of 

 the withdrawal the land stood about 90 feet higher relatively to the sea than 

 at present. The southern portion of the North Sea became a marshy plain, 

 over which great rivers such as the Rhine, Thames and Weser took a meandering 

 course. Peat bogs occupied much of the area, and forest,s clothed the margins. 



A depression to the present level then ensued and the great shallow bay 

 of the North Sea south of the Dogger Bank was formed. Only in a few places 

 does its depth exceed 25 fathoms. The sea ran up the estuaries, and thus the 

 Humber itself and its branch the Hull came into being. 



A true scale of the breadth and depth of the North Sea in this latitude can 

 be obtained by taking a piece of No. 40 sewing cotton 13 ft. 8 in. in length. 

 Knots tied in the cotton would represent Heligoland and any of the ' pits.' 



(b) Mr. J. O. BonhEY.— The Floor Deposits of the North Sea. 



2. Mr. Thomas Sheppard. — Lecture on The Geology of the Hull 



District. 



3. Mr. C. Thompson. — The Erosion of the Holderness Coast. 



An attempt has beren made to indicate the strip of land lost by erosion fiom 

 the coast of Holderness during the past seventy years. A reliable average loss 

 per year has also been sought for. 



The plan adopted was to take the Ordnance Survey map (6-inch scale) of 

 the coast, to measure various well-defined lines on that map, and to measure 

 the remnants of those lines in the field. 



These measurements have been plotted on the 1852 map and the present coast- 

 line drawn approximately, so that the actual loss may be readily visualised. 



The averages for the seventy years are somewhat less than the usually 

 accepted rate. 



Friday, September 8. 



4. Professor A. P. Coleman. — Pleistocene and Recent Ice Conditions 



in North-Eastern Labrador. 



The Labrador ice sheet of the Pleistocene left uncovered some thousands 

 of square miles of North-eastern Labrador, in what has been called the Torngat 

 Mountains, the lofty edge of the Archasan Shield. There were, however, large 

 valley glaciers carving up the edge of the Shield with deep valleys and fioids, 

 giving the wildest and most mountainous region of Eastern North America. 



At present there are about fourteen small cirque glaciers on or near the 

 coast. On the interior plateau there are numerous small stagnant ice sheets 

 which are doing no geological work. 



The present climate, though severe, with less than two months of summer, 

 is semi-arid, providing little moisture for precipitation as snow. During the 

 Ice Atje the snowfall must have been much heavier, implying much moister 

 conditions. 



5. Mr. J. W. Stather. — A Neiu Section in the Oolites and Glacial 



Deposits at South Cave. 



The old railway cutting in the Millepore Oolite, west of South Cave Station, 

 has recently been quarried back and exhibits some unexpected features. The 

 most important of these is the occurrence of an irregular band of flinty and 

 chalky rubbly drift, above which is a mass of displaced Millepore Limestone, 

 partly shattered, but in places maintaining its original bedding, almost giving 

 the impression of being in situ. 



The presence of the Millepore Limestone above the chalky rubble can only 

 be explained by supposing the limestone to have been carried over the newer 

 deposits by some transporting agency, presumably glacial, as there is no place 

 in the immediate neighbourhood from which the Millepore Limestone could have 

 slipped by gravity into its present position. 



6. Presidential Address by Prof. P. F. Kendall, on The Physio- 



graphy of the Coal Swamps. (See p. 49.) 



