﻿240 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Apr. 30, 



been somewhat blunted by the tide, and by several rain-prints having 

 been joined into one by a repetition of drops falling on the same spot ; 

 in which case the casts present a very irregular and blistered appear- 

 ance. Dr. Webster has also sent me some specimens, showing the 

 result of long-continued rain, in which all signs of circular or oval 

 cavities have disappeared, and where no one would suspect the pluvial 

 origin of that slight unevenness which may still be traced on the 

 otherwise level surface. 



The finest examples of rain-prints sent to me from Kentville were 

 made by a heavy shower, which fell on the 21st of July, 1849, when 

 the rise and fall of the tides were at their maximum in that small 

 estuary which opens into the Basin of Mines. The impressions (see 

 fig. 1 ) consist of cup-shaped or hemispherical cavities, the largest being 



Fig. 1. — Recent Rain-prints, formed July 21, 1849, at Kentville, 

 Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia. 



The arrow represents the direction of the shower. 



fully half an inch in diameter, and from one-tenth to one-sixth of an 

 inch deep ; but there are very few of such dimensions. The depth 

 is chiefly below the general plane of stratification, but the walls of the 

 cavity consist partly of a prominent rim of sandy mud, formed of the 

 matter which has been forcibly expelled from the pit, and this margin 

 or lip sometimes projects as much above the plane of the stratum as 

 the bottom of the pit extends below it. The rim of the largest rain- 

 prints is sometimes no less than one-twelfth of an inch broad, but it 

 is usually much narrower. The outer side of it is often perpendicular 

 or almost overhanging. In the same shower in which the largest 

 drops are half an inch in diameter, the average impressions are only 

 from one-eighth to one-tenth of an inch across. Many of every size 

 are circular, but others are oval, the largest diameter exceeding the 

 shortest by one-third or one-fifth. All the cavities having an ellipti- 

 cal form are deeper at one end, where they have also a higher rim, 



