156 Geological Society : — 



March 6th.— J. J. H. Teall, Esq., M.A., V.P.B.S., President, 

 in the Chair. 



The following communications were read : — 



1. 'Recent Geological Changes in Northern and Central Asia/ 

 By Prof. George Frederick Wright, F.G.S.A. 



The present paper is the outcome of a journey made by the 

 author in company with Mr. Frederick B. Wright in 1900-1901. 



In North America an area of about 4,000,000 square miles was 

 brought under the direct influence of Glacial ice during the Glacial 

 Epoch. The result of six weeks spent in Japan was to show that 

 there are no signs of general glaciation in Nippon or Yesso. Neither 

 is there any sign of glaciation along the border of the Mongolian 

 Plateau, where the general elevation is 5000 feet, but the whole 

 region is covered with loess. This has usually accumulated like 

 immense snow-drifts on the south-eastern or lee-side of the mountains, 

 and in it houses and villages are excavated. In the mountainous 

 region, strata of gravel and pebbles are so frequent in the loess, that 

 it is necessary to invoke both wind and water in order to explain 

 fully the origin of the deposit. At the present time the loess in the 

 interior is being washed away by streams much faster than it is 

 being deposited by the wind. The journey across Manchuria from 

 Port Arthur along the Lao-Ho and Sungari rivers was through valleys 

 choked with alluvium, and there was no evidence that the drainage 

 of the Amur had ever been reversed by ice, like that of the 

 St. Lawrence ; nor was there any other evidence of glaciation. 

 The lower course of the Amur indicates subsidence. Again, there 

 are no signs of glaciation on the Vitim Plateau. 



Lake Baikal appears to be of recent origin ; it is 4500 feet deep 

 and has not been filled by the great quantities of sediment brought 

 down by the Selenga and other rivers. Although glaciers could 

 frequently be seen on the mountains which border the Central 

 Asiatic Plateau to the north-west, there was no evidence that the 

 glaciers had ever deployed on the plain. The loess-region of 

 Turkestan, and indeed the whole area from the Sea of Aral to the 

 Black Sea, appears to have been recently elevated, in some places as 

 much as 3000 feet. Desiccation took place at the same time, so that 

 the larger lakes are only brackish or still fresh. Direct evidence of 

 this in the form of deposits is given. The author thinks it likely 

 that the absence of glaciation in Northern Asia may have been due to 

 the rainlessness of the region, and that while America was elevated, 

 Asia was depressed during the Glacial Epoch. 



2. ' The Hollow Spherulites of the Yellowstone and Great Britain.' 

 By John Parkinson, Esq., F.G.S. 



A recent journey to the National Park of the United States, 

 resulting in a study of the obsidians and rhyolites in the field 

 and at home, suggested a direct comparison between the hollow 

 spherulites characteristic of these rocks and those of the rhyolites 

 of Shropshire, Jersey, and elsewhere. 



The first part of the paper is concerned with the spherulites of 



