318 Geological Society. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 

 [Continued from p. 238.] 

 February 7, 1866. — W. J. Hamilton, Esq., President, in the Chair. 

 The following communications were read : — 



1. " On the mode of formation of certain Lake-basins in New 

 Zealand." By W, T. Locke Travers, Esq. 



The author's observations had been chiefly directed to the neigh- 

 bourhood of the Spencer Mountains, which occupy the centre of the 

 area constituting the provinces of Nelson and Marlborough, in the 

 Middle Island, and in this paper he more particularly described 

 Lake Arthur, Lake Howick, and Lake Tennyson, with the rivers 

 flowing out of them. After describing the nature and mode of 

 occurrence of certain Postpliocene boulder-beds overlying older 

 Tertiary deposits in the vicinity of Lake Arthur, Mr. Travers showed 

 that that lake owes its existence to the presence of a moraine nearly 

 a mile and a half in width, and extending for several miles down the 

 valley. Similar facts were then described as having been observed 

 at Lakes Howick and Tennyson ; and attention was specially drawn 

 to their great depth, Lake Howick being 1000 feet deep rather less 

 than halfway up, and the others also attaining a depth of several 

 hundred feet. The valleys of the rivers Dillon and Clarence 

 present abundant evidence of the former existence of enormous 

 glaciers in them ; and these the author described in detail. 



In conclusion Mr. Travers stated that, although he had confined 

 his remarks to the lake-basins found amongst the spurs of the 

 Spencer Mountains, he firmly believed that all the lakes which lie in 

 the valleys of rivers debouching on the Canterbury plains owe their 

 existence to moraine-dams which have the same foundations as the 

 Postpliocene shingle of which the plains themselves are formed, 

 and that therefore the sites of those lakes were occupied by ice at 

 the commencement of the period of depression, and so continued for 

 some time after the re-emergence of the upper part of the plains 

 above the level of the sea. 



2. " On the occurrence of dead Littoral Shells in the bed of the 

 German Ocean, forty miles from the coast of Aberdeen." By Robert 

 Dawson, Esq. Communicated by T. F. Jamieson, Esq., F.G.S. 



The occurrence of shells of Purpura lapillus, Litorina rudis, Solen 

 siliqua, and Mytilus edulis, in a worn and semifossil condition, at 

 depths of 36, 40, and 42 fathoms, on the bank known as " the Long 

 Forties," seemed to the author, in conjunction with other and well- 

 known facts, to point to a time, towards the close of the Glacial 

 period, when the British islands stood higher above the sea than 

 they do at present. The fact of four species having been found in 

 the course of one day's dredging was, Mr. Dawson considered, suffi- 

 cient to render it probable that they had lived and died where they 

 were found, and did not owe their presence at that depth and 

 distance from land to any mere accident. 



3. " On the Glacial Phenomena of Caithness." By T. F. Jamie- 

 son, Esq., F.G.S. 



The glacial drift of Caithness occurs in sheets filling up the low 



