228 Notes and Memoranda. 



NOTES AND MEMOEANDA. 



Eamsat on the Glacial Origin of Lakes. — In a paper which will be 

 found in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society for August, 1862, 

 Professor Ramsay gives reasons for considering that the great Alpine lakes, such 

 as Geneva, Zurich, Constance, Maggiore, Lugano, Como, and others, " do not lie 

 among the strata in basins merely produced by disturbance of the rocks, but in 

 hollows due to denuding agencies that operated long after the complicated foldings 

 of the miocene and other strata were produced." He remarks that none of these 

 lakes lie in simple sinclinal troughs, and that in no case of lakes among the Alps 

 is it possible to affirm that we have a sinclinal hollow, of which the original upper- 

 most beds remain. After showing the objections to various theories of the forma- 

 tion of the lake hollows, he observes, " Now, if the Lake of Geneva do not lie in 

 a sinclinal trough, in an area of subsidence, in a line of fracture, nor in an area of 

 mere aqueous erosion, we have only one other great moulding agency left, namely, 

 that of ice." He then shows that " when at its largest, the great glacier of the 

 Rhone debouched upon the miocene beds where the eastern end of the Lake of 

 Geneva now lies." It was "about 2200 feet thick when it abutted upon the 

 mountains, and when it first flowed out upon the plain at the mouth of the valley 

 of the Rhone, the ice, according to Charpentier, must have been 2780 feet thick. 

 Add to this the depth of the lake of 984 feet, and the total thickness of the ice 

 must have been 3764 feet at what is now the eastern part of the lake." " I con- 

 ceive, then," he adds, " that this enormous mass of ice, pushing first N.W., and 

 then partly W., scooped out the hollow of the Lake of Geneva most deeply in 

 its eastern part, opposite Lausanne, where the thickness and the weight of ice, 

 and consequently its grinding power, were greatest." He applies simdar reasoning 

 to other Alpine lakes and to the great lakes of North America, also to lakes in 

 Cumberland and Scotland, and elsewhere. 



Geikie on the Last Elevation of Central Scotland. — In the same 

 journal, Archibald Geikie, Esq., of the Geological Survey, describes the evidence 

 he has obtained, to show that a " portion of the coast of the Firth of Forth has 

 been elevated not only within the human period, but even since the first years of 

 the Roman occupation." 



Burning Gunpowder in Vacuo. — M. Bianchi lays before the French 

 Academy his experiments on the combustion of gunpowder in a vacuum. He 

 found that this substance, and also the fulminates, burnt quickly if loose in an 

 exhausted vessel, and suddenly brought to a temperature exceeding 2000°. If, 

 however, the powder was placed under similar circumstances in a pistol, it in- 

 flamed with the suddenness exhibited in the air. Gun cotton slowly disappeared, 

 the layer nearest the source of heat going first, but without the production of any 

 light. In all these cases the products of combustion were the same as in air. 

 Combustion also took place in nitrogen, carbonic acid, and other gases which do 

 not support it, and there was little diminution of the ordinary rapidity of the 

 process. 



Cure for Hooping Cough. — Dr. Joset states that infusion of wild thyme 

 effects a cure in this troublesome complaint. 



Artesian Wells in the Desert of Algiers. — Cosmos informs us that in 

 five years terminating with 1859-60 fifty wells have been sunk in the Algerine 

 Sahara, capable of yielding 36,761 litres of water per minute. 30,000 palms and 

 1000 fruit-trees have been planted. Numerous oases have been recovered from 

 ruin, and two fresh villages established. The expense has not yet reached 

 298,000 francs, and has been covered by a slight additional tax, and by voluntary 

 contributions from the Arabs. The water is slightly saline, and a little bitter 

 from the presence of Epsom salts, but it is not found to be unwholesome. 



The Consanguinity Controversy.— M. Beaudouin communicates to the 

 French Academy an account of his " breeding in and in" with a flock of three 

 hundred sheep without any apparent ill effect ; but in this as in similar cases, the 

 alliances between the two sexes were strictly regulated, and all weak and unde- 



