178 Reporh and Proceedings — Geological Sociehj of London. 



But I cannot understand what they would gain by success in their 

 contention. If instead of one unconformable conglomerate it were 

 firanted that there were two or three conformable ones, they would 

 belong to the adit series, or to the purple slate series, or to both, 

 but in no case could they be the base of the Cambrian system, or 

 give any assistance in proving the existence of Pre-Carabrian rocks 

 in the neighbourhood. 



(To he continued.) 



S,E:F0E,TS J^InTID :E=S,OGS!ElZDIlNrC3-S. 



Geological Society of London. 



I._February 2, 1898.— Dr. Henry Hicks, F.R.S., President, in the 



Chair. 



The President announced that Dr. Charles Barrois, Secretai'y of 

 the Organizing Committee of the Eighth International Geological 

 Congress, which will be held in Paris in 1900, would shortly come 

 to London to invite the Geological Society to the Congress, and to 

 consult the Fellows with regard to the proposed excursions and the 

 subjects of discussion. 



The following communications were read : — ■ 



1. ''Contributions to the Glacial Geology of Spitzbergen." By 

 E. J. Garwood, Esq., M.A., F.G.S., and Dr. J. W. Gregory, F.G.S. 



The extent of glaciation of Spitzbergen has been exaggerated, 

 for there is no immense ice-plateau, but normal glaciers with some 

 inland sheets and Piedmont glaciers. These differ from Alpine 

 glaciers, as they are not always formed from snow-fields at the head, 

 and though some of the glaciers (as the Baldhead Glacier) have 

 tapering snouts in front, most have vertical cliffs. Chamberlin's 

 explanation that the latter are due to the low angle of the sun is 

 insufficient, and they seem to be caused by the advance of the ice 

 by a rapid forward movement of its upper layers. The ice of these 

 upper layers falls off and forms talus in front, over which the 

 glacier advances, carrying detritus uphill with it, and producing 

 a series of thrusts. The Booming Glacier illustrates cases of erratics 

 carried in different directions by the same mass of ice. 



The deposits of the Spitzbergen glaciers are of four types : — 

 (1) moraines of Swiss type ; (2) those formed mainly of intraglacial 

 material ; (3) those formed of redeposited beach-material ; (4) de- 

 posits of glacial rivers and reasserted drifts. The materials of the 

 second are subangular and rounded ; scratched and polished pebbles 

 and boulders are abundant, and the fine-grained matrix, which is 

 frequently argillaceous, is often well laminated and false-bedded. 

 Some of these drifts are stratified, others unstratified, and contorted 

 drifts occur. This type of moraine is remarkably like some British 

 Boulder-clay. The third class is sometimes formed by land-ice, at 

 other times beneath the sea ; the latter shows stratification. The 



