220 



the deposit between Altona and Geuchstad in which Mr. Lyell disco- 

 vered a valve of a Cardita, 



Newer than any of the above-mentioned formations are the deposits 

 of gravel, sand, and loam, often several hundred feet thick, which ge- 

 nerally cover the older strata, and constitute almost the whole surface 

 of Denmark. In and upon these beds, the erratic blocks so common 

 in that kingdom first appear. They consist principally of the commoner 

 varieties of the gneiss and granitic schists of Scandinavia j but in the 

 neighbourhood of Copenhagen Dr. Beck has observed blocks of trans- 

 ition limestone, basalt with olivine, and the well-known secondary 

 sandstone of Hor, In the northern part of Jutland he has also no- 

 ticed blocks of Elfadal porphyry, and the blue zircon-syenite of Fre- 

 dericksvaern in Norway, The gravel beds with erratic blocks rarely 

 contain any fossils, but when shells do occur, they are often absolutely 

 identical with living species. Dr. Beck has, however, found at Moen 

 a specimen of Pleurotoma, which he believes to be tertiary, and there 

 and at Himlingoie several specimens of Turritella not hitherto known 

 as living. 



From the difference of the fossils, together with the manner in which 

 the gravel beds are disposed upon the chalk, he infers that the older 

 strata have been elevated and submerged more than once. 



Dr. Beck says that space does not permit him to give his views re- 

 specting the erratic blocks, and he merely states that their depo- 

 sition took place after the beginning of the tertiary period, and went 

 on during the accumulation of blue marl and sand, from which he has 

 obtained more than 70 species of shells now living in the German 

 Ocean ; and that he has proofs, of which he intends to give a more 

 detailed account hereafter, that the transportation of these blocks 

 continues on the coast of Jutland. 



In conclusion the author mentions the existence of several, small, 

 lacustrine formationsin the interior of Jutland and of Moen, containing 

 remains of Lymnaea, Physa, Helix, &c. ; and an extensive formation 

 of sand cemented by oxide of iron. 



An extract from a letter addressed to the President by H. Edwin 

 Strickland, Esq., F.G.S., dated Athens, 26th Oct., 1835, was then read. 



Mr. Strickland noticed first at Trieste the vast formation of secon- 

 dary limestone which appears to extend thence uninterruptedly into 

 Greece ; and of which the Ionian Islands are almost wholly composed. 

 In Corfu, however, are several obscure and complicated patches of 

 tertiary deposits, and in Cephalonia is a Pliocene formation of vast 

 thickness, containing abundance of fossils. Mr. Strickland then de- 

 scribes the currents of sea-water which constantly flow into the land 

 near Argostoli in the island of Cephalonia. This extraordinary phe- 

 nomenon occurs about a mile north of Argostoli at the very extremity 

 of the rocky promontory which separates that town from the large bay 

 on the west. The promontory is composed of the hard, white, second- 

 ary limestone, the strata dipping about 30° to the east ; and at this 

 spot it contains several species of shells which in general are rather 



