426 Canadian Record of Science. 



An Experimental Investigation into the Flow of 

 Marble. 



By Feaxk D. Adams, M.Sc, Ph.D., and John T. Nicolson, D.Sc. 



In a jDaper read before the Eoyal Society of London 

 last June and wliicli has since been published in 

 Transactions of the Society, an extended account was 

 given of a series of experiments on the Flow of 

 Marble carried out in the laboratories of McGill 

 University. It is desired here to present a brief sum- 

 mary of this paper, indicating the methods employed 

 in the investigation and the results attained. 



That rocks, under the conditions to which they are 

 subjected in certain parts of the earth's crust, become 

 bent and twisted in the most complicated manner is 

 a fact which was recognized by the earliest geologists, 

 and it needs but a glance at any of the accurate sec- 

 tions of contorted regions of the earth's crust which 

 have been prepared in more recent years to show that 

 there is often a transfer or '' flow " of material from 

 one place to another in the folds. The manner in 

 which this contortion, with its concomitant '' flowing," 

 has taken place is, however, a matter concerning which 

 there has been much discussion, and a wide divergence 

 of opinion. Some authorities have considered it to be 

 a purely mechanical process, while others have looked 

 upon solution and redeposition as playing a necessary 

 role in all such movements. The problem is one on 

 Avhich it would appear that much light might be 



