Rock. 



Lode. 



57369 



57915 



58-5 



58-5 



565 





Proceedings of the British Association. 131 



average of all the readings of these thermometers during eleven 



months was as follows : — 



Thermometer at the 

 Depth of 774 feet. 



At the surface. Air. 



Average, 50026 57*176 



Maximum, . . 58*25 



Minimum, . . 56* 



Taking the average temperature in the rock as the mean at that 

 depth, and allowing 100 feet for the depth to which the action of 

 solar causes may extend, or to the line of no variation, there is an 

 increase of 7.343 for the depth of 674 feet, equivalent to 1° in 91.82 

 feet, a rate of increase about one-half as rapid as the rate deduced from 

 a large number of observations in England, which gave an increase of 

 1° in 45 to 50 feet. Mr. Oldham also noticed the fact that there was a 

 gradual decrease in the actual temperature during these observations ; 

 the average of the thermometer in the rock being 57.718 during the 

 first half of the observation, and 57.004 during the latter half, 

 being a decrease of. 6 74 during the eleven months, although more 

 men were employed, and the works more extensive than at the 

 commencement. 



Friday. 



'Critical Remarks on certain passages of Dr. Buckland's Bridge- 

 water Treatise/ by the Dean of York. — [We give but a brief 

 abstract of this communication, as it was published the following 

 day, in the form of a pamphlet, entitled, 'The Bible defended against 

 the British Association !,] — The author objects to the theory of the 

 original formation of the earth, and the various subsequent changes 

 in its condition, described by Dr. Buckland, because his theory will 

 not account for the many facts made known by geologists. These 

 facts are, principally, the abundance of limestone rocks in formations 

 of all reputed periods ; the absence of a complete series of rocks, as 

 represented in tables of the strata, at any one locality ; the non- 

 universality of the coal, lias, &c. ; and the inversion of the strata at 

 Malvern and Abberley. He also gives Dr. Buckland credit for many 

 improbabilities, such as the formation of all the strata from the 

 wreck of granite alone by the action of rainwater ; the omission of 

 the sea, &c, in his account; the growth of trees on bare granite ; 



