56 Proceedings of the British Association. 



by the hand of man. In many parts of the new continent the 

 rivers present these terraces ; they may be observed near the St. 

 Lawrence, the Mississippi, and in many other places ; and had 

 the rivers of the Old World been examined before their banks 

 became cultivated, in all probability they would, in many cases, 

 have displayed similar terraces. Dr 11. adverted to the theory 

 which explains the formation of these terraces by the bursting of 

 the barriers of lakes through which the river had passed. He 

 conceived that in a few cases, the phenomena might be so ex- 

 plained, but that in general we must have recourse for the solu- 

 tion of the problem to an upheaving of the land, and that at a com- 

 paratively recent period. In these terraces, but few organic re- 

 mains had been discovered, which he accounted for by the pau- 

 city of the limestone rocks from which mollusca could obtain 

 matter for the formation of shells ; the long cold winter, too, 

 might have had its influence. He had, however, found in the 

 lower terraces, Unio7ies and Anodontes resembling those now 

 existing in the river. Some bones had been discovered, but they 

 seemed to be recent, probably belonging to the spermaceti whale. 

 In the different terraces there is a difference in the quality of the 

 soil, there being most alluvium on the lowest terraces. The 

 middle terraces, being so nearly horizontal, are well fitted for roads, 

 and are used accordingly. At Frederickton, where wells had 

 been sunk, the vegetable soil was three inches deep, after which 

 14 feet of sand was gone through, when water was reached, re- 

 tained by a bed of clay, underlaid by a slate rock. The terraces 

 were composed wholly of detrital matter, the upper ones being 

 coarser, and often having boulder stones, some of which were 15 

 feet in diameter, and seemingly derived from parent rocks to the 

 N. W., inferred from scratches on the ground, coinciding with 

 the major axes of the boulders. The rocks in the neighborhood 

 of the river, are slates, with some limestone, the whole disturbed 

 by sienite. 



Prof. Johnston submitted an account of the first part of his 

 Report on Chemical Geology. He referred to the combination 

 of science requisite to promote geology. It had drawn upon 

 the labor of the zoologist, the comparative anatomist, the bo- 

 tanist, the historian, the natural philosopher, and had now called 

 in the assistance of the chemist. Prof. J. referred to what had 

 been done by the late Sir Humphry Davy, and the late Dr. 



