Hyatt.] 122 [February 1, 



tions are parallel with tlie mountain chains. He accepted 

 Prof. Shaler's explanation of the elevation and depression of 

 land in connection with water deposition. 



He also showed that from the earliest time, in the Adiron- 

 dack^, and at different points southerly, there had been 

 peninsulas corresponding in position to Florida, which is the 

 most southern and latest. 



Prof. A. Hyatt said, beside the general westerly and 

 easterly motion described by Prof. Shaler, there were eviden- 

 ces of a motion transverse to this along the coast. 



Thus the north of Greenland, as shown by various Arctic explora- 

 tions, has beaches recently elevated, and historical records, as well as 

 direct observations, have proved that the southern portions of this 

 peninsula are sinking. Dr. Packard's observations in Labrador give 

 the evidence of a comparatively recent elevation, perhaps still in 

 progress. Farther south, at the Mingan Islands, the speaker had 

 observed a remarkable series of beaches, the lower still remaining 

 near high water mark. On the island of Anticosta the remains of 

 fresh water shells were found, evidently killed by the encroachments 

 of the sea into the mouth of an estuary or brook, where the water 

 had previously been fresh. There are two series of cliffs, stretching 

 around the southern shore of this island, each about fifty feet high. 

 The present level of high tide, however, now reaches to the foot of 

 the inner line of cliffs, burying the crest of the outer line, which is 

 only bare at low water. The shores of Nova Scotia, according to the 

 observations of Hind, Gesner and Dawson, are sinking; those of 

 New Brunswick and Eastern Maine rising. The shores of Western 

 Maine, as shown by Dr. A. S. Packard, Dr. C. T. Jackson, and 

 others, are rising. At Marblehead Neck, and along the Beverly 

 shore, the speaker has observed several marks of recent elevation in 

 beaches at the height of from eight to ten feet above high water 

 mark. 



The submarine forests of Holmes' Hole and Nantucket, described 

 by Hitchcock, appear to indicate the beginning of another grand 

 wave of subsidence. Observations made by the Coast Survey show 

 that the coast of Long Island Sound, and southward in New Jersey, 

 is sinking. The formation of Florida Keys on the other hand, ac- 



