Q 



473( Geological Society. 



case of mercury seems to be very small, and it may be said that a 

 mercurial thermometer properly graduated, will denote the true 

 temperature, even down to the freezing-point of the mercury itself. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 

 Continued from p. 156.] 

 January 20, 1864. — Professor A. C. Ramsay, President, 

 in the Chair. 

 The following communications were read : — 



1. " Observations on supposed Glacial Drift in the Labrador 

 Peninsula, Western Canada, and on the South Branch of the Sas- 

 katchewan." By Professor H. Y. Hind, M.A., F.R.G.S., Trinity 

 College, Toronto. 



During an exploration of a part of the interior of the Labrador 

 peninsula, in 1861, the author had an opportunity of observing the 

 magnitude, distribution, and extraordinary number of the boulders 

 on the flanks of the tableland of that area ; and he commenced 

 this paper with a detailed account of the results of his observations, 

 referring also to the forced arrangement of blocks of limestone, 

 shale, and Laurentian rocks in Boulder-clay at Toronto, and on the 

 south branch of the Saskatchewan. 



Professor Hind then described briefly the Driftless Area, in Wis- 

 consin, discovered by Prof. J. D. Whitney, and the conclusions to 

 which that geologist has been led by the study of this district. 

 He next adverted to the beaches and terraces about the great 

 Lakes, and considered their origin to be similar to that suggested by 

 Mr. Jamieson for the Parallel Roads of Glen Roy. The formation 

 of anchor-ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and at the heads of rapids 

 in the great river itself was alluded to as one of the means by which 

 river-beds may be excavated. The parallelism of escarpments in 

 America, at great distances apart, and at elevations varying from 

 600 feet to 3000 feet above the sea, was next described, and their 

 symmetrical arrangement suggested to be the result of glacial rivers 

 undermining the soft strata of sedimentary rocks in advance of the 

 glacial mass itself. These escarpments were also thought to repre- 

 sent different and closely succeeding glacial epochs. 



2. " Notes on the Drift- deposits of the Valley of the Severn, in 

 the neighbourhood of Coalbrookdale and Bridgenorth." By George 

 Maw, Esq., F.S.A., F.L.S. 



The patches of Drift occurring in the Valley of the Severn from 

 about four miles below Bridgenorth up to Shrewsbury, including a 

 north and south range of about twenty miles, have been carefully 

 examined by the author, and were described in detail in this paper. 



Commencing with Strethill, a hill close to the entrance of Coal- 

 brookdale, the author described the several beds which make up the 

 Drift- deposits of which it is composed, and gave a list of the rocks 

 which he had found in them. In the same manner he described in 

 succession the neighbouring districts in which the Drift-deposits are 

 exhibited, and gave a list of the fossils which had been found in the 

 beds at the different localities. 



