221 



rare. The streams of water have been noticed for many years rushing 

 in between the rugged masses of rock of which the coast consists, but it 

 was only about two years since that they excited the attention of the 

 English. Mr. Stevens of Argostoli, desirous to turn ihem to advan- 

 tage, was induced to stop up three of these holes, and by excavating 

 a channel at the principal one, has been enabled to obtain a sufficient 

 supply of water to turn a mill. The channel which has been made is 

 about three feet wide, and the average depth of the current is six 

 inches. Infthe mean state of the tide the fall is about 3 feet, the usual 

 rise of the tide being 6 inches, but during southerly winds it is consi- 

 derably more. After passing the wheel the current flows for 6 or 7 

 yards, and is then partly absorbed in swallow holes and partly disap- 

 pears under the rocks. The water at the bottom of the excavation is 

 greatest at high tides, the quantity of water then flowing in being 

 greatest. A small freshwater spring enters the excavation on the land 

 side, and when the sea is effectually stopped out, renders the water at 

 the bottom of the excavation quite fresh in the course of a day ; rais- 

 ing it at the same time several inches to a certain point, where it rests. 

 This circumstance, Mr. Strickland thinks, may be explained by the 

 less specific gravity of the fresh water requiring a higher column to 

 overcome the obstacles met with in its subterranean course. In order 

 to ascertain the direction of the current, Col. Brown has had an exca- 

 vation made, by which it appears that the stream does not pass under 

 the sea at the opposite side of the promontory. Mr. Strickland, in 

 explanation of the constant flowing into the land of these streams, ob- 

 jects to the proposition that the subterranean current maybe absorbed 

 by the incumbent soil and evaporated at the surface, as it occurs in an 

 island of small extent : but agrees to the supposition that an earth- 

 quake has at some period opened a communication between the sea 

 and the region of volcanic fire ; that the water being there converted 

 into steam, is afterwards condensed in its upward course, and forms 

 those hot-springs which exist in various parts of Greece. 



A paper on the occurrence of fossil vertebrae of fish of the shark fa- 

 mily in the Loess of the Rhine, near Basle, by Charles Lyell, Esq., 

 F.G.S., was afterwards read. 



Mr. Lyell described in a memoir communicated to the Society in 

 May, ] 834,* the geographical extent of the Loess or ancient silt of 

 the Rhine, as far as he had then examined it. In tracing its southern 

 limits during last summer, he found it in considerable force at Basle, 

 and still higher on the Rhine at Waldshutt, where it contains the 

 usual land and freshwater shells. Beyond this point he did not trace 

 the deposit ; but from the information he received, he believes that it 

 terminates between Waldshutt and Schaft'hausen. He here alludes 

 only to the loamy portion, which can be identified by its fossils ; for 

 the gravel beds with which the loess sometimes alternates in its lower 

 part, are probably of much greater extent, and are not easily to be 



* See Proceedings of the Geological Society, No. 41.Vol. II. p. 191 j and 

 Jameson's Journal, Vol. 19. 



