carried too far in my Discourse of last year, iti the endeavour 

 to limit the number of centres from which icebergs may have been 

 detached. Whilst, therefore, T cannot bring my mind to advocate 

 that extent of glacial action in which my friend Dr. Buckland be- 

 lieves, and have failed, in a recent excursion^, to observe any proofs 

 of the existence of " moraines" on the flanks of Snow don, I allow 

 that, looking to the sea-shells which lie around it at different alti- 

 tudes, the summits of Snowdon may^ like those of Spitsbergen, have 

 constituted icy peaks in the midst of an ocean, others being at the 

 same time in existence in the mountains of Cumberland. This is, I 

 am persuaded, the full extent to which we can admit the application 

 of the glacial theory in England, and it therefore appears to me to be 

 futile to look for marks of terrestrial glaciers upon the surface of the 

 rocks of Cornwall or on our southern and eastern counties, the coasts of 

 which exhibit beds of marine gravel and shells at different altitudes 

 up6h the cliffs. This observation leads us away from Alpine theories 

 little suited to our island, and carries our thoughts to other su- 

 perficial phsenomena, some of which we can much more satisfac- 

 torily explain by means of our own insular evidences *. 



Raised Beaches, and proof s of ancient Levels of the Sea.- — In a re* 

 cent report to the French Institute, our foreign Associate, M. Elie de 

 Beaumont, has given the substance of a most important memoir by 

 M. Bravais, ' On the Lines of Ancient Sea-level in Finmark.' In- 

 forming us that this work proceeds from the pen of a naval officer 

 attached to one of those numerous scientific enterprises conducted 

 at the public cost, which do so much honour to the French govern- 

 ment, M. de Beaumont embodies the labours of M. Bravais in a lucid 

 analysis of many of the facts relating to the same subject, which 

 have been accumulated in Norway, Sweden, and the British Isles. 



Proofs of the elevation of the coasts of Norway have been brought 

 before geologists by Von Buch, Brongniart and Keilhati, and have 

 recently been extended by M. Eugene Robert to Spitzbergen. Mr. 

 Lyell has made the British public familiar with the gteat oscilla- 

 tions which the land of Sweden has undergone since the existence 

 of the present marine fauna ; (for Scania has been depressed beneath 

 the Baltic, whilst other parts of Sweden have been raised) and I 

 may be permitted to add, that the extent td which elevations have 

 affected the north-eastern corner of Europe has been recently pointed 

 out in Russia by my companions and myself. ' 



In the prelude to the report on the part which M. Bl'avais has 

 performed in these labours, we are put in possession of the results 

 of the valuable researches of Professor Keilhau, who, prior to the 

 French expedition, had ascertained the levels of different accumu- 

 lations, all supposed to be marine, from the sea-shores to altitudes 

 of above 600 feet in the interior of Norway. 



The greater number of geologists have for some time believed, 

 that these phsenomena could alone be satisfactorily explained by 



* See letters addressed to Sir Charles Lemon, Bart. M.P,, published in 

 his last Discourse as President of the Royal Geolagical Society of Cornwall. 



