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low-lying woods — hazel, alder, and marsh plants predominant. 

 This period was subsequent to the boulder clay period, and 

 is synchronous with the times of the sunken peat beds of the 

 South and West of Ireland, with the Norfolk and Somerset- 

 shire submerged peat and forests, and with similar growths 

 now found buried below the 'carse clays' of Scotland. 2. Era 

 of Scrobicularia. The land depressed to some ten feet or 

 thereabouts lower than at present — deposition of several feet 

 of clay on a muddy fiat shore — littoral shells in the ascendant. 

 3. Thracia convexa period. Further depression — deep water 

 where our quays and docks are now built — littoral shells re- 

 placed by shells of the coralline and laminarian zones. This 

 is the time that corresponds with the recent deposits of clay, 

 on various points of the Irish and English shores, and also 

 with the time when the old coast line of Scotland stood some 

 forty feet higher than that now existing. 4. Elevation. The 

 present sea-level established here — similar upward movements 

 in England and Scotland, as shown by raised beaches, and 

 inland cliffs and terraces." 



On Wednesday evening, 22nd March, 1871, Mr. J. J. 

 Murphy, F.G.S., read a paper on " Ocean Currents, and their 

 Effect on Climate." 



Mr. Murphy began by stating that Maury's " Physical 

 Geography of the Sea," though it has done good by attracting 

 attention to an interesting and important subject, is full of 

 errors, and is now in a great degree superseded. Some of 

 the most important data on the subject of ocean temperatures 

 and ocean currents have been obtained in the deep sea explora- 

 tions of H.M.S. Porcupine, in the Atlantic, in the summer 

 of 1869, and in the Mediterranean in the summer of 1870. In 

 both seas the temperatures at great depths were ascertained 

 by letting down registering thermometers. This had been 



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