76 GEOLOGICAL MEMOIRS. 



and cliaotically mingled together, have broken through and fractured 

 the whole of Lesser Asia. Vast elevations seem also to owe their 

 origin to plutonic action, and I have already had frequent occasion, 

 for instance in the districts of Koutaya, Afiun, Karahissar, and 

 Yalonetz, to observe extensive tracts, left white like level ground on 

 all maps, and which actually appear like horizontal plains, which yet, 

 according to my barometrical measurements, are from 5000 to 6000 

 Paris feet above the level of the sea. Indeed I expect my hypso- 

 metrical operations to furnish some very beautiful contributions to 

 determine the plastic relations of Asia Minor. I employ for this 

 purpose a thermo-barometer, improved by Regnault in Paris, and 

 prepared for me under his directions, which is only about fifteen cen- 

 timetres long. It is only by means of such a portable instrument 

 that one can collect any considerable number of facts of this kind, in 

 the midst of such a fanatical people, and whilst contending with diffi- 

 culties of all kinds. The obstacles to the use of the common baro- 

 meter, which cannot be preserved for any length of time in Asia, 

 explain the reason of the height of so few points having been deter- 

 mined. I believe my own measurements, extending to about 165 

 points, which I hope to increase at least fourfold, exceed the sum of 

 all those obtained by former travellers. 



[J. N.] 



Oil the Polished Rocks of Sweden. Extract from a Letter to 

 Professor Leonhard from Jacob Berzelius, dated Stock- 

 holm, Jan. 12, 1847. 



The controversy regarding the causes of the scratching and polishing 

 of our rocks seems drawing to a conclusion. The memoir of Mur- 

 chison in the Proceedings of the Geological Society of London has 

 contributed greatly to this. Agassiz's friend Desor visited us in Sep- 

 tember last year, and on seeing the immense boulder deposits which 

 in this country are named Asars, stated without hesitation that these 

 phsenomena could not be explained by glaciers, and that they were not 

 moraines. With this assertion the glacier theory falls to the ground. 

 It is probable that Agassiz, who is now travelling in America, will also 

 be convinced of its truth. When he formed his theory he had not 

 seen these appearances on the majestic scale in which they frequently 

 occur in the United States. But now, it is probable, a contest will 

 arise of various opinions regarding the origin of such immense floods 

 of water, and as nothing more than probable causes can ever be assigned, 

 this conflict will never be decided. Whewell has already supposed a 

 *wave of translation' caused by the sudden elevation of a large tract 

 of the bed of the sea. This indeed accounts for the violent but trans- 

 itory motion of a large mass of water : our giant caldrons (* Riesen- 

 topfe') however, often ten or fifteen feet deep, show that the flood which 

 produced excavations of this kind could not have been so soon over. 



[J. N.] 



