350 Transactions. — Geology. 



some time in the future will have filled up the entire Gulf of Mexico. 

 The Nile Valley basin, 500 miles in length, is the mineral and vegetable 

 ooze brought down by that river from the Abyssinian Mountains and 

 interior of Africa, which is the great fertilizer of Egypt, a country which 

 would be comparatively worthless without its agency. It is calculated that 

 not less than sixty millions of tons of solid matter is yearly brought down 

 this river, rendering the waters of the Mediterranean turbid for a distance of 

 80 miles from its mouth. These are two prominent examples of water- 

 drift, and all other rivers on the earth's surface are similarly employed in 

 effecting the same ends and purposes. 



I have not remarked previously on moraines or ice-drift beds. A re- 

 markable bed of this description is seen on the Norfolk coast in England 

 in what is called the boulder clay, extending many miles. It puzzled 

 geologists for a long time to account for its formation, the boulders in the 

 clay being entirely of a different character from any rocks existing on the 

 English coast, till the glacial theory was suggested and established, when it 

 was afterwards proved and verified that these boulders and clay had their 

 parent rocks on the mountains in Scandinavia, and had been brought over 

 by glacial ice and deposited where they now lie. As to volcanic drift, we 

 have as examples the buried cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, and we 

 are informed from the accounts of the very recent volcanic eruptions in the 

 island of Java and Straits of Sunda, that scoria and ashes in immense 

 quantities were ejected from the volcanic island of Krakatoa, some of which 

 was drifted by wind-force as far as Cheriton, 250 miles distant. From the 

 remarks made, we may infer that rock masses form a very important part in 

 life's economy. 



Aet. XL VII. — The Ascent of Mount Franklin. 

 By James Park, Survey Department. 

 [Read before the Nelson Philosophical Society, 5th May, 1884.] 

 Abstract. 

 Although occupying a most prominent and central position in the Province 

 of Nelson, this important mountain region is almost unknown, and up to 

 the present time has always been considered inaccessible, or at least im- 

 possible to ordinary private enterprise. Even the hardy miner, who in his 

 search after gold has penetrated the dark bush-clad and rugged ranges of 

 the west coast of this Island, and other equally broken country elsewhere, 



