408 Geological Society : — ■ 



The pages which treat of the magnetization of a rod of soft iron 

 by a galvanic current and the attendant phenomena are well 

 worth studying. The author explains clearly by a number of 

 capital illustrations the Amperian theory of magnetism and the 

 properties of solenoids. The applications of electromagnetism 

 in telegraphy (Morse's Telegraph) and in the electric bell are well 

 described. Considering, however, how much is omitted, nine pages 

 are rather too many to devote to the electric bell alone. 



In concluding this notice we may state our opinion that Wein- 

 hold's Introduction to Elementary Physics will prove of very 

 great service to those who have to teach the elementary principles 

 of Mechanics and Physics in schools, or otherwise, and are com- 

 pelled by reasons of economy to construct their own apparatus ; 

 to these it will have the additional recommendation that the dia- 

 grams and pictures of apparatus are all drawn to scale, and the 

 scale is in all cases given. "We do not expect it will be largely 

 adopted as a text-book in schools ; it is too big and heavy, and too 

 costly also. 



XL VI. Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



[Continued from p. 329.] 



June 10th, 1874.— John Evans, Esq., F.E.S., President, 

 in the Chair. 



T HE following communications were read : — 

 1. " Notes on the Phenomena of the Quaternary Period in 

 the Isle of Portland and around Weymouth." By Joseph Prestwich, 

 Esq., E.B.S., E.G.S. 



The author remarked that although the physical features con- 

 nected with the later geological changes in this district were of much 

 interest, they had hitherto attracted little attention. Commencing 

 with the eldest drift- beds, he showed that the remains of one, 

 formerly more extensive, had been found in the Isle of Portland 

 at a height of 400 feet above the sea, that it contained the remains 

 of the Elephas antiquus, Equus fossilis, &c, and that he found in 

 this bed a number of pebbles of sandstone and ironstone of Tertiary 

 age, and of chert from the Greensands — whence he inferred that, as 

 such pebbles could not now pass over the plain of Weymouth, they 

 must have done so before that area was denuded, and when bridged 

 over by the Portland and Purbeck beds ; for the pebbles are derived 

 from beds which are only in situ to the north of the Weymouth 

 district, and at a distance of 8 to 10 miles from Portland. Further 

 this transport must have taken place before the elevation of the 

 north end of Portland, and when the slope from the Bill to the 

 Bidgeway was uniform and gradual. The anticlinal line which has 

 elevated the intermediate area must be of later date than the 

 drift-bed. 



