512 Geological Society : — 



addition, the counties marked out with colours. The vertical scale, 

 being six times that of the horizontal, exaggerates the heights ; hut 

 the relative altitudes of the mountains are preserved. The further 

 issue of this series will be a great aid to both geographer and 

 geologist ; and to the meteorologist these maps will facilitate the 

 study of rainfall and other phenomena. 



LXXI. Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



[Continued from p. 449.] 



April 7, 1886.— Prof. J. W. Judd, E.B.S., President, 

 in the Chair. 



n^HE following communications were read : — 



X 1. " On Glacial Shell-beds in British Columbia." By G. W. 



Lamplugh, Esq. 



This paper was divided into two parts, relating respectively to 

 Vancouver Island and the Eraser Valley. Having to spend nearly 

 a month at the city of Victoria in 1884, the. author had leisure for 

 the investigation of the geological features of the district, but he 

 expressed his regret that, at the time, he was unacquainted with the 

 publications of Mr. Bauerman and Dr. Dawson on the subject. 



The most important shell-beds were disclosed in an excavation 

 for a dry dock at Esquimault, V.I. Here a fissure in an igneous 

 rock had been filled in by glacial beds. Shells were most numerous 

 on the north side of the dock in Boulder-clay, associated with irre- 

 gular sandy seams, the whole being softer than the general mass. 

 The containing rock was not glaciated at this point. Leda, Nucula, 

 Cardiwn, Tellina, My a, and Saocicava are the principal genera. 



There was great difference in the state of preservation according 

 to position ; the shells below the waterline being remarkably fresh, 

 while acidulous waters, engendered by vegetable decay, had attacked 

 the upper portions. 



The author concludes that the whole mass of drift, including the 

 shells, had been pushed up by ice in its passage southwards. The 

 general mode of occurrence was very similar to that at Bridlington. 

 He further observed that the rocks were not striated in the first in- 

 stance by these shelly clays, but he believed the glaciation to have 

 taken place through the action of harder substances, and that 

 afterwards a milder term set in, when an arctic fauna established 

 itself in the neighbourhood, after which fresh ice pushed the sea- 

 bottom along with other accumulations into its present position. 



The shell-beds in the Eraser Valley are about 100 feet above sea- 

 level. Three sections of glacial beds were given. The stratified clay 

 in which the shells were found contains no pebbles, and, though 

 somewhat disturbed, has evidently been deposited where it now 

 occurs. 



