150 PROCEEDINGS OP THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [June 15, 



of feet have been removed from probably the greater portion of the 

 whole area which they now occupy ; nor does this exceed Ramsay's 

 estimate of the denudation of the Silurian rocks of South Wales, in 

 his Paper in the first volume of the ' Memoirs of the Geological 

 Survey of Great Britain.' 



Our gold-drifts are often one, two, and three hundred feet thick 

 (and this over very extended areas), completely filling up, with their 

 contemporaneous lavas, nearly all the older valleys of the country. 



June 15, 1859. 



SPECIAL GENERAL MEETING. 



It was resolved that persons proposed on and after November 2, 

 1859, for election as Non-resident Fellows of the Society, should pay 

 an Entrance-fee of £6 6s., and an Annual Subscription of £1 lis. 6d. 



ORDINARY GENERAL MEETING. 



Major W. E. Warrand, Bengal Engineers, "Westhorpe, Southwell, 

 Notts, was elected a Fellow. 



The following communications were read : — 



1. Remarks on the Geology of Spitzbergen. 

 By James Lamont, Esq., F.G.S. 



In the summer of 1858 I passed a month cruising in my yacht 

 around the shores of Spitzbergen and its many outlying inlets (or 

 " skerries," as we should call them in the Highlands), and, although 

 I have but a very slight knowledge of geology, still I was very 

 much struck by the singular geological aspect of the country. As I 

 visited a part of Spitzbergen which has never before been seen by 

 any one except the ignorant seal-fishers who frequent the coast, I 

 have been induced to commit a few of my observations to writing, 

 in hope that others better acquainted with the theories of glacial 

 action and upheaval of land may be able to understand the changes 

 which are being brought about in those regions by the above 

 agencies. 



We first reached the shores of Spitzbergen, about 20 miles north 

 of South Cape, and inside of what is known as Stour-fiord or Wybe 

 Jan's Water, an immense sound of about 300 miles long, and vary- 

 ing from 6 to 60 miles broad. This Sound is improperly marked in 

 the maps as a Gulf, whereas it is in reality a Sound, dividing Spitz- 

 bergen into two nearly equal halves ; but the north end, being very 

 narrow, is invariably almost choked with heavy ice, and, being con- 

 sequently impassable, has given rise to that error : boats are known, 



