CU PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Iberian system. The other deposit he names the Alarician system. 

 Its fauna is stated to present more of a cretaceous than tertiary cha- 

 racter, and it has no apparent connection with the other system. 

 Its beds have been disturbed, and in the Aude the strata of the former 

 system rest unconformably upon them. The nummuhtic rocks of 

 the Central Pyrenees exclusively belong, he infers, to the Alarician 

 system. The upper or Iberian nummulitic rocks constitute two di- 

 stinct basms on the north side of the Pyrenees, that of the Aude on 

 the east, and that of the Basses-Pyrenees on the west. 



In a letter to M. FrapoUi on the polished and striated rocks of 

 Denmark, M. Forchhammer, after noticing many facts observed, 

 calls attention to the action of ice on the present coasts of that coun- 

 try. He remarks that although the coast ice envelopes the blocks of 

 rock and pebbles, to enable these to be borne away from the shore 

 it is necessary that the thaw or rupture of the ice should coincide 

 with a rise of the waters. In the winter of 1844 the ice sur- 

 rounded a block of from sixty to eighty cubic feet (about four to five 

 tons and a half) . In the following spring this was carried out to sea, 

 leaving as it quitted the coast a deep furrow in the sandy clay of the 

 shore, not quite obliterated six months afterwards. 



In the middle of February 1844, a sudden frost covered the Sound 

 with ice, particularly towards the coast of Seeland, and this ice, driven 

 by a heavy gale, was dashed on shore. Fears were entertained for 

 the fishing \dllage at the bottom of Taarbeijk bay. The masses of ice 

 suddenly rose to the height of sixteen feet, breaking in upon the 

 houses. The furrows and scratches made by this rush of ice ex- 

 tended beneath the sea-level. With regard to the transport of blocks 

 of rock now taking place, M. Forchhammer mentions that in 1844 a 

 diver in search of the remains of an English cutter which blew up, 

 at anchor, during the bombardment of Copenhagen in 1807, found 

 part of this vessel entire, but covered by blocks, some of which may 

 have measured six to eight cubic feet. The same diver affirmed that 

 all the wrecks he had visited in the roadstead were more or less covered 

 by blocks. These blocks M. Forchhammer considers to be brought 

 by the masses of ice borne out from the Baltic by the current setting 

 through the Kattegat in the spring. 



In a geological description of the northern part of the empire of 

 Morocco, Dr. Coquard, after remarking on the physical aspect of the 

 country, notices the occurrence of transition rocks {terrain de trans- 

 ition), which he separates into four divisions. The first, or the lowest, 

 is formed of crystalline slates, in which various modifications are ob- 

 served, from gneiss to argillaceous slate ; the second composed of 

 black grauwacke, quartzose conglomerates and grey quartz rocks ; 

 the third of satiny slates, thick beds of limestone and calcareous 

 slates, containing orthocerse, orthides, encrinites and trilobites ; and 

 the fourth of sandstones and conglomerates. The second of these 

 divisions is referred to the Lower Silurian, and the third to the Upper 

 Silurian series, while the fourth is considered equivalent to the De- 

 vonian series, fossils being, however, absent in it. The thickness of 

 these deposits is estimated at 2850 feet. These accumulations are suc- 

 ceeded by a vast assemblage of limestones and dolomites, referred to 



