Seismic Phenomena in the British Empire. 449 



The Glacial striae sweep rouud from S.S.W. at the north, to S.W. 

 aiid W.S.W. at the south end of the district. In the Penmon area 

 there is cross-hatching with a series running S.S.E., and it is 

 suggested that this is due to fluctuations in the power of the Car- 

 narvonshire glaciers to deflect the ice coming from the north, 

 combined with the local influence of certain high ground. 



3. ' Seismic Phenomena in the British Empire.' By M. F. 

 de Montessus de Ballore, Captain of Fortress Artillery at Belle- Ile- 

 en-Mer. 



The author gives a brief outline of a plan that he has elaborated 

 for studying Seismology. He has separated his work into four 

 parts: — 1. The 1'ormation of an Earthquake Catalogue. 2. Refuta- 

 tion of the empirical laws previously enunciated. 3. Description of 

 the globe from a seismological point of view. 4. Investigation of 

 the characters which differentiate stable from unstable regions. 



He gives a method by which the relative seismicity (or instability 

 as regards earthquakes) of regions may be obtained and registered, 

 and indicates some of the results which he has derived from his study, 

 including the intimate relationship between instability and surface- 

 relief, aud the independence of seismic and volcanic phenomena. 



The main part of the paper is a section of the third division of 

 the author's work, and deals iu detail with the earthquakes of the 

 British Empire. In this part of the paper, the recorded earth- 

 quakes of the British Isles, India, Australia and New Zealand, 

 British Africa, Canada, and various scattered possessions are de- 

 scribed. 



June 24th. — Dr. Henry Hicks, F.R.S., President, 

 in the Chair. 



The following communications were read : — 



1. ' Notes on the Glacial Geology of Arctic Europe and its 

 Islands. — Part II. Arctic Norway, Russian Lapland, Novaya 

 Zemlya, and Spitsbergen.' By Col. H. W. Feilden, F.G.S. With 

 an Appendix by Prof. T. G. Bonney, D.Sc, LL.D., F.R.S., V.P.G.S. 



The author gives an account of observations made in Arctic 

 Norway which tend to prove that the shell-bearing terraces are 

 true marine deposits indicating uplift since their formation, and 

 that they were not formed by ice-dams. He then describes terraces 

 recently formed in Kolguev Island, which illustrate the combined 

 influence of pack-ice, sea-waves, and snow on the formation of 

 terraces in a rising area. The glacial geology of the Kola Peninsula 

 is next considered, and the distribution of the boulders noticed. 

 There is no doubt that these boulders have been derived from local 

 rocks, and that no ice-sheet from the North ever passed through 

 Barents Sea or impinged on the northern coast of Europe. 



The author saw no evidence of the former extension of an ice- 

 sheet over the now frost-riven rocks of Novaya Zemlya. He found 

 wide-spread deposits of boulder-clay with marine shells in this 

 region, which he attributes to the action of floating ice. In the 

 Kostin Schar many of the islands are connected by ridges covered 



