Notices of Memoirs. 215 



has been well treated by Mr. T. Mallard Reads, F.G.S., in an elabo- 

 rate and exhaustive paper on the Estuaries of the Mersey, Dee, and 

 Kibble,^ in which he has made out from three to four distinct 

 periods of submergence and upheaval, and he insists on the frequency 

 of such movements. This idea seems to me to be well borne out by 

 the number of sea and land surfaces shown in such a trifling thict- 

 ness of strata as at Tramore. At the same time, we must remember 

 that extensive denudation might have taken place between each 

 .deposit, although this is not denoted by what is going on there at 

 present, since we see one part of the bog submerged and silted over, 

 while the other is still growing. 



With regard to other parts of our own coasts, I have no doubt that 

 the same phenomena have been also observed ; but I have no oppor- 

 tunity of verifying this at present. However, the shelly gravel of 

 Dundalk ^ may possibly be due to something of the same nature, and 

 this is undoubtedly true in the case of the remarkable shell and 

 peat deposit underlying Belfast : ^ while another instance in the 

 South of Ireland is furnished by the Estuary of Wexford, of which, 

 through the kindness of G. H. Kinahan, Esq., M.R.I. A., I am in 

 possession of some details showing that recent oscillations have been 

 going on there to a great extent. Around the coast, submerged bog 

 is common, and in the Estuary itself the following section is noted 

 by him : * — 



"North Mudlands, Wexford Estuary, at the Engine House at 

 the ancient island called ' The Eidge.' 



Ft. In. 



4. Marl 16 



3. Peat 5 



2. Grey muddy stuff 15 



1. Marl 



" The top of the marl, No. 4, is a few fathoms (about four) below 



average high-water mark. This section was procured while sinking 



the foundation of the Engine House." 



. ZsTOTICES OIF nv^IEilVLOIiaS. 



I. — The Upper Rhine Valley in Tertiary and Diluvial Times. 



By Dr. F. Sandberger. 



Das Ausland. ISo. 50. 16th December, 1873. 



Translated by Mrs. A. C. Ramsay. 



OF all the German rivers, there are few the history of which is 

 more interesting than that which has gradually resulted in the 

 physical development of the valley of the Rhine. It runs from 

 Basel as far as Rastadt in a broad valley, which, in an earlier form, 



1 Post-glacial Geology of Lancashire and Cheshire, by T. Mellard Reade, C.E., 

 F.G.S., etc., Proc. Liverpool Geol. Soc, November, 1871. An instance of blue mud 

 penetrating into cracks in the Boulder-clay beneath is noted (p. 45, Detailed Sections), 

 just as in the Sections given above. (See Geol. Mag. 1872, Vol. IX. p. 111.) 



2 On the Shelly Gravel underlying Dundalk, by Gen. Portlock, F.R.S., etc., Journ. 

 Dub. Geol. Soc. vol. i. 



* Mr. J. Grainger, 22nd Report Brit. Assoc, 1852, p. 42. Also Ex. pi. Memoir 

 (Slieet 36), Geol. Survey, Ireland, p. 38. * MS. note. 



