420 Reports and Proceedings — 



coast-line of the lake is proceeding at tlie rate of from 30 to 40 feet 

 in twenty years. 



Fringing the basin of Lake Ontario are terraced highlands of 

 loose gravel, with here and there apparent stratification of a partial 

 character, called Artemisia-gravel by the Canadian Survey. A 

 peculiar feature of these gravel ridges is the presence in them of 

 numerous small lakes. The author records the bursting of the 

 natural dam of one of these lakes, and mentions the occurrence of a 

 peculiar hollow, probably the basin of a lake that burst in a similar 

 way in former times. 



Freshwater shell-deposits occur here and there ; further down the 

 river a brackish-water shell is found in them ; and they are re- 

 placed lower down by marine deposits. The author quotes various 

 opinions relative to the formation of these terraces and shell-deposits 

 by supposing the former cKistence of a barrier of ice or rock lower 

 down the river, and concludes that by these phenomena noteworthy 

 alterations are year by year being made on the surface of the land. 



4. "The Glacial Climate and the Polar Ice-cap." By Joseph 

 John Murphy, Esq., F.G.S. 



The author agrees with Mr. Croll in thinking that a glacial epoch 

 must be one of maximum excentricity of the earth's orbit, and that 

 the northern and southern hemispheres during such an epoch must 

 be glaciated alternately ; but he maintains, in opposition to that 

 writer, that the glaciated hemisphere must have its summer in 

 aphelion. He intends this paper to be a reply to Mr. Croll's ob- 

 jections to this theory as put forth in his work on " Climate and 

 Time." The author holds that some of Mr. Croll's conclusions are 

 erroneous, and concludes with some remarks on Mr. Tylor's paper 

 read before the Society in April, 1875. 



5. '' On the Discovery of Plants in the Lower Old Eed Sandstone 

 of the Neighbourhood of Callander." By R. L. Jack, Esq., F.G.S., 

 and E. Etheridge, Jun., Esq., F.G.S., of the Geological Survey of 

 Scotland. 



The authors give an abstract of the various previous references 

 to the existence of remains of land -plants in deposits of Old Eed 

 Sandstone age, and mention the following localities in Scotland in 

 which such remains have recently been discovered by them : — 

 1. Buchanan Castle Quarry, near Drymen ; 2. Old Quarry at small 

 reservoir at Kilmahew; 3. Green Burn, Keltic Water; 4. Keltic 

 Water, above Chapelrock ; 5. Keltic Water, below Brackland Linns ; 

 6. Quarry at Karnes Farm, near Callander ; 7. QuaiTy at Easterhill, 

 near Gartmore ; 8. Quany in Cameron plantation, near Alexandria ; 

 9. Turnpike road at Overballoch, Loch Lomond ; — and the localities 

 from which the specimens noticed in this paper were obtained, 

 namely, a quarry 2^ miles from Braendam House, and the south- 

 west corner of Muir plantation, near Callander. The plant-remains 

 are described as being of a very fragmentary nature, and as oc- 

 curring in the two last-named localities in a deposit consisting of 

 greenish-grey flags and thin-bedded sandstones about 500 feet in 

 thickness, the best specimens beiug in the sandstone. They present 



