International Geological Congress. 135 



geological researches to be undertaken and to indicate the methods 

 suitable for arriving at the desired end. 



This programme, sanctioned by the authority and prestige of an 

 International Geological Congress, would be submitted to the Inter- 

 national Association of Academies at its next meeting, which will 

 be held in London at Whitsuntide, 1904. 



2. — Eeport of the Commission on the Eaised Beaches of the 

 Northern Hemisphere. Presented to the International Geo- 

 logical Congress at Vienna in 1903, by Sir Archibald Gkikie, 

 President of the Commission. 



The Commission submits the following propositions for the con- 

 sideration of the Congress :— 



1. Hitherto the height of old coastlines (raised beaches) has been 

 measured from high- water level, mean sea-level, from the zone of 

 Fucus, etc. But no one of these boundaries is precisely defined, 

 and they vary perceptibly in the same district. To determine them 

 exactly it is necessary to have a point or level for each country 

 cut, or max'ked in some durable manner, on the solid rock near the 

 high tide. From this fixed point all the altitudes along the coast- 

 line should be measured or calculated. 



2. Note should be taken of all the possible variations of the mean 

 level of the sea, and to this end the archives of the ports should be 

 consulted. 



3. The height of a raised beach or strand-line should always be 

 calculated from its interior or superior margin, where this is visible, 

 but the height of the exterior or inferior edge should also be given 

 when it can be observed, as an indication of the extent of tide at the 

 time of that coastline. 



4. It is important to follow the horizontal extent of a coastline 

 from one end of a country to the other. 



5. The variations in altitude of a coastline should be measured 

 in two directions where that is possible : (1) along the coast, 

 i.e. parallel to the axis of a country ; (2) transversely to this axis, 

 in the bays or fjords. 



6. It should be ascertained if a coastline or a series of these lines 

 disappears in a given direction, and the conditions under which this 

 disappearance takes place should be exactly stated. In Scotland, 

 for example, the raised beaches, so clearly defined along the west and 

 east coasts, disappear towards the northern extremity of the kingdom 

 in the county of Caithness, and in the islands of Orkney and Shetland. 



7. The diversities of character in a line of raised beach deserve 

 to be registered. Parts have perhaps been cut in the solid rock 

 (seter of Norway), others have been formed of deposits of detritus. 

 The relations of these diversities to the contours and to other 

 Varieties of topographical configuration should be examined. 



8. In a successive series of raised beaches it is important to 

 determine with precision their relative variations in level, in such 

 a manner as to demonstrate whether or not the movements to 



