Reports and Proceedings. 283 



traces out tlie discovery of the use of metals and tlie influence of 

 foreign civilization on the progress of man in Belgium. 



He refers first to the researches of others in this same field, and 

 particularly to the early observations of Schmerling, on the caverns 

 of Liege. He then gives, in Chapter I., a general resume of the 

 geology and palaeontology of the Quaternary Period, treating of the 

 origin of caverns, the changes of climate, the extension of glaciers, 

 and the different forms of life. Chapter 11. is devoted to " Man 

 during the age of the' Mammoth," wherein he brings forward the 

 evidences furnished by the caverns of Montaigle, Lesse, and Goyet. 

 Chapter III. treats of " Man during the age of the Eeindeer," and 

 Chapter IV. of " Man during the age of polished Stone, 



The work is accompanied by numerous engravings, four litho- 

 graphic plates, and a large table showing the caverns which have 

 yielded human bones, flint implements, and other indications of man, 

 and mammalian remains of the Stone Age, which Age is divided into 

 that of the Mammoth, that of the Eeindeer, and lastly that of polished 

 Stone, 



Geological Society of London. — April 9th, 1873. — His Grace the Duke 

 of Argyle, K.T., F.R.S., President, ia the Chair. — Th« following commuiiications 

 were read : — 1. " Lakes of the North-eastern Alps, and their bearing on the Glacier- 

 erosion Theory." By the Ee¥. T. G. Bonney, M.A., F.G.S. 



The purpose of this paper was to test, by the Lakes of the Salzkammergut 

 and neighbourhood, the theory of the erosion of lake-basins by glaciers, 

 which has been advanced by Prof. Ramsay. The author premised — 1. That an 

 extensive glacier could not exist without a considerable area to supply it. 2. 

 That under no circumstances could a glacier excavate a cliff of considerable height 

 (say 1000 feet) approximately vertical. 3. That owing to the proximity of the 

 regions, a theory of excavation which applied to the Western and Central Alps 

 ought to be applicable also to the Eastern Alps. He then proceeded to examine a 

 number of lakes in detail. The Konigsee lies in a remarkably deep, steep-sided valley 

 terminated by a cirque, with cliffs full a thousand feet high, and has no large supply 

 area behind. The Hallstadtersee is similarly situated, has a cirque at the head, and 

 two lateral valleys nearly at right angles to the lake, up which arms of it have formerly 

 extended. These are not likely to have furnished glaciers which could have exca- 

 vated the lake ; and above the cirque there is no large supply area. The Gosauthal 

 consists of lake-basins separated by valleys of river-erosion. The Fuschelsee and 

 "Wolfgangersee, on the south side of the Schafberg, are separated by a narrow sharp 

 ridge of hills, incapable of nourishing glaciers large enough to grind them out ; there 

 are no signs of glaciers from other directions having eroded them The Mondsee and 

 Attersee (once one lake) on the north lie under the steep cliffs of the Shaf berg, which 

 could not have nourished a large glacier ; and the ridge of the Schafberg is too 

 sharp to admit of the supposition that a great glacier, coming ft-om the south, has 

 passed over it to excavate the lake ; yet the Attersee, in a position least favourable to 

 glacial action, is the largest and deepest lake in the Salzkammergut. The head of 

 the valley in which these lakes lie is really among low hills, in the direction of the 

 Austro-Bavarian plain. The Traunsee was shown to give no evidence in favour of a 

 theory of glacial-erosion. Since then these lakes either had at their heads preglacial 

 cirques (the very existence of which was incompatible with much erosive power on 

 the part of a glacier), or were beneath sharp and not greatly elevated ridges of rock, 

 the author concluded that they had not been excavated primarily by glaciers. He 

 considered a far more probable explanation to be, that the greater lake- basins were 

 parts of ordinary valleys, excavated by rain and rivers, the beds of which had under- 

 gone disturbances after the valley had assumed approximately its present contour. 

 He showed that the lakes were in most cases maintained at their present level by 



