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from Snowdonia. Mr. Trimmer discovered on the summit of Moel 

 Tryfane, one thousand feet above the level of the sea, broken shells 

 of recent species of the genera Buccinum, Venus, Natica, and 

 Turbo, beneath twenty feet of sand and gravel. The same shells have 

 also been seen by him, in similar accumulations, in the low cliffs of 

 Beaumaris. It is likewise mentioned that the slate-rock, when laid 

 bare, frequently exhibits on its surface, scratches and furrows like 

 those, which have been described in Scotland. 



This striking phenomenon, of the sea having overspread the western 

 parts of this island at a period so comparatively recent, led me in a 

 late journey along the north-west coast, to endeavour to ascertain 

 whether the lower country of Lancashire had partaken of similar 

 operations ; and I was induced to suppose this might have been the 

 case from the occurrence, as stated by Mr. Gilbertson, of marine shells 

 of existing species near Preston in Lancashire. I was fortunately 

 able to confirm this discovery ; and to observe similar phsenomena 

 over a very considerable tract of country, occupying the ancient 

 estuary of the Ribble. Sands, marls, and gravels, occasionally 

 constituting terraces, are spread over this great area, sometimes in 

 finely laminated beds, but for the most part loosely aggregated, and 

 ■bearing a great resemblance to the arrangement of the same materials, 

 now in the act of formation, on the adjoining shore. Many of the 

 shells found in these beds, far inland and at heights extending to 

 three hundred feet above the sea, are perfectly identical with existing 

 species. These circumstances have induced me to dissent from the 

 theory, which would refer all these deposits to a diluvial current ; and 

 1 have inferred, that the ancient shore of Lancashire, and the es- 

 tuary of the Ribble, in which the above materials had accumulated 

 during a long protracted epoch, were elevated and laid dry after the 

 creation of many of the existing species of mollusca. 



Of communications descriptive of foreign countries, I have first to 

 notice two papers by Fellows of this Society on different parts of 

 distant colonies in Australia. One of them by Archdeacon Scott, 

 accompanied by instructive specimens, is interesting, as being 

 the first attempt at a geological sketch of the country around 

 the new settlement of Swan River. This tract, we are told, has 

 a granitic nucleus, which towards the coast is overlaid by sandstone 

 and limestone ; these being succeeded along the shore by coralline 

 and shelly deposits of very modern date. — The other memoir, from 

 the pen of Major Mitchell*, Surveyor-General of New South Wales, 

 gives an account of the limestone caves in Wellington Valley, 

 and of the bones of quadrupeds, which occur in clefts or cavities con- 



* The author of this memoir, who acquired such deserved scientific repu- 

 tation in the peninsular war by his beautiful, military drawings of the Pyre- 

 nees, has lately announced to me his completion of the Trigonometrical 

 Survey of an important part of our eastern colonies in Australia ; after 

 the accomplishment of which he promises to devote much of his time to 

 the examination of the geological structure of those districts. 



