160 Scientific Intelligence. 
metamorphic rocks and granite of the Laurentian Series. To the west 
of this follows a belt where the floor of the plateau is exposed, consisting 
of Lower Silurian and Devonian rocks. On these rest Cretaceous strata, 
which prevail all the way to the Rocky Mountains, overlaid here and 
there by detached tertiary basins. The Rocky Mountains are composed 
of Carboniferous and Devonian limestones, with massive quartzites and 
conglomerates, followed to the west by a granitic tract which occupies the 
bottom of the great valley between the Rocky and the Cascade Mountains. 
Tue Cascade chain is voleanic, but the voleanoes are now inactive; to the 
west of it, along the Pacific coast, Cretaceous and Tertiary strata prevail. 
The description of these rocks was given with considerable detail on 
account of their containing a lignite, which for the first time has been . 
determined to be of Cretaceous age. This lignite, which is of very 
superior quality, has been worked for some years past by the Hudson 
Bay Company, and is in great demand for the steam-navy of the Pacific 
station, and for the manufacture of gas. Extensive lignite-deposits in the 
Prairie were also alluded to; and, like those above mentioned, were con- 
sidered to be of Cretaceous age; but, besides these, there are also lignites 
of the Tertiary period. The general conclusion was that the existence of 
a supply of fuel in the Islands of Formosa and Japan, in Vancouver’s 
Island, in the Cretaceous strata of the western shores of the Pacific, but 
principally within the British territory, and in the plains along the 
Saskatchewan, will exercise a most important influence in considering the 
practicability of a route to our Eastern possessions through the Canadas, 
the Prairies, and British Columbia.—Proc. Geol. Soc., Lond. 
METEOROLOGY. 
2. On the Prevalence of certain forms of Disease in connection with 
Hail and Snow Showers, and the Electric condition of the Atmosphere. 
By Dr Tuomas Morrat, F.G.S.—In 1852, while deducing results from 
the meteorological observations of the two previous years, the author 
observed that an- intimate connection existed between falls of snow and 
hail and diseases of the nervous centres, such as apoplexy, epilepsy, 
paralysis, and vertigo; and the results of eight more years bear out 
the truth of the observation. A table formed from two hundred and 
thirty-six cases of the above diseases, and upwards of one thousand 
observations of the electrometor, is given, showing the percentage of 
hail and snow showers, the cases of diseases of the nervous centres, 
and the times that the air was positive and negative with each wind. 
From this table it appears that with the wind from the N., N.E., E., 
and §.E. points, which the author calls the snow points, the percentage 
of hail and snow showers is 23'2; of cases of apoplexy, ke., 36°7; of 
positive electricity, 27-0 ; and of negative electricity, 34°1 ; while with 
the wind from the hail points, S., S.W., W., and N.W., the per- 
centages are respectively 76°6, 65°7, 72°6, and 67°5, thus showing that 
the number of cases of disease increases with the frequency of hail and 
snow showers, and the consequently increased frequency of the alternations 
of positive and negative electricity. All observers agree that the air is 
negative on the approach of great storms, and negative, or alternately 
negative and positive, in unsettled weather; and the author remarks, that 
such storms are almost invariably accompanied by convulsive diseases, or 
diseases of the nervous centres in some form ; and in support of his state- 
ment he quotes many cases from his notes of the storms of the last twelve 
months, but more particularly the succession of gales which occurred from 
the 21st to the 30th of October 1859 (in one of which the ‘ Royal 
Charter”’ was lost), the gales of the 25th, 26th, and 27th,of May last, 
- which were accompanied with frequent hail-showers; and those of the 
