288 British Association for the Advancement of Science. 
Murchison’s opinions, that a strait formerly divided England from 
Wales: into this strait gravel might be drifted from both sides; and 
Mr. Murchison had discovered, in Wales, local covered by erratic 
gravel. He himself had discovered in a valley of the Yorkshire 
Wolds at an elevation of six hundred feet, gravel drifted from Cum- 
berland, and containing bones of the elephant.—Mr. Sedgwick had 
traced the gravel of the central parts of England to its northern 
sources ; and he instanced a singular phenomenon of a mountain, 
near Buttermere, which appeared to be water-worn by a stream 
passing over it. The recent elevation of Siluria, he conceived, was 
proved by the morasses and lakes in its lines of valleys, which val- 
leys, although shaped under the ocean, had been evidently modified 
by existing waters. He concluded by asserting, that all examina- 
tion of nature, by means of accurately ascertained facts, must agree 
with moral or scriptural interpretation; and that we need have no 
fear as to the one clashing with the other, as truth cannot oppose 
truth, but must, in all cases, be coincident. 
Geology of the Desert between Suez and Cairo.—In this desert 
travellers have always suffered great inconvenience from the want of 
water, and this was likely to prove a serious obstacle to the proposed 
communication by this route to India. In order to overcome the 
inconvenience, Mr. Briggs, the British consul, employed a Swiss 
engineer to bore for water. Mr. Gensberg, the engineer, caused 
the first boring to be made in the Valley of Kejche, but being un- 
successful, he transferred his operations to the Valley of Candelli, 
where water was found in clay underlying a calcareous rock. Con- 
siderable ingenuity. was shown in the excavation. Besides the usual 
boring downwards, lateral openings were made to increase the sup- 
ply of water: borings were made in other situations, and very sin- 
gular results obtained. A great variety of strata were penetrated, 
and this variety existed even within a limited distance of superficial 
extent: thus, in one place marine sand was found; and a little way 
off, terrestrial or desert sand: gravel occurred only in one spot. But 
the most singular geological phenomenon was the existence of gra- 
nite over clay, in which good water was obtained. ‘The marquis 
mentioned that a notice of the intention of the British consul to bore 
for water, appeared in the first volume of the Journal of the Geo- 
graphical Society, but that the communication now laid before the 
Section, was the first notification of the results obtained. 
