Scientific Intelligence — Geology. 185 



deposit of Schossnitz answering, it will be seen, to that of the vege- 

 tation of the southern portion of the United States, or to that of the 

 north of Mexico. Professor Goppert purposes to lay the results of 

 the examination of the Schossnitz deposit before the scientific public, 

 as far as it has at present been made, in a separate work. — (American 

 Journal of Science and Arts, vo). xiv., No. 41, 2d Series, p. 281.) 



13. On the Tides, Bed, and Coasts of the North Sea or German 

 Ocean, by John Murray, Esq. — The author commenced his 

 paper by remarking that great similarity of outline prevades the 

 western shores of Ireland, Scotland, and Norway, and then observed 

 that the great Atlantic flood-tide wav.e, having traversed the shores 

 of the former countries, strikes with great fury the Norwegian coast 

 between the Lafoden Isles and Stadtland, one portion proceeding to 

 the north, while the other is deflected to the south, which last has 

 scooped out along the coast, as far as the Sleeve, at the mouth of the 

 Baltic, a long channel from 100 to 200 fathoms in depth, almost 

 close in-shore, and varying from 50 to 100 miles in width. After 

 describing his method of contouring and colouring the Admiralty 

 chart of the North Sea, he traces the course of the tide-wave among 

 the Orkney and Shetland Islands along the eastern shores of Scot- 

 land and England to the Straits of Dover, and along the western 

 shores of Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands, to the same 

 point. He then remarks that the detritus arising from the con- 

 tinued wasting away of nearly the whole line of the eastern coasts 

 of Scotland and England, caused by the action of the flood-tide, is 

 carried by it, and at the present day finds a resting-place in the 

 North Sea ; and that this filling process is increased by the sand, 

 shingle, and other matter brought through the Straits of Dover by 

 the other branch of the Atlantic flood-tide. Hence, he remarks, the 

 gradual shoaling of this sea, and the formation of its numerous sand- 

 banks ; the silting up the mouth of the Rhine, the Meuse, and the 

 Scheldt ; the formation of the numerous islands on the coast of 

 Holland, that country itself, and much of Belgium ; the deposits at 

 the mouth of the Baltic, the islands in the Cattegat, and indeed the 

 whole country of Sleswig, Denmark, and Jutland. 



The author then takes a view of the tides, and their effects upon 

 the Baltic and its shores before the course of the tide-wave was 

 checked by these shoals and low lands. He considers that, previous 

 to these great changes, the flood-tide entering the North Sea between 

 Norway and Scotland, would make directly towards the German 

 coast, and necessarily heap up the waters in the Baltic considerably 

 above their present level, ~and that a great part of Finland, Russia, 

 and Prussia, bordering upon that sea, would thus every twelve hours 

 be under water, in the same way as the waters now rise in the Bay 

 of Fundy, at Chepstow, and other places, much above their ordinary 

 level in the open sea ; that the current outward, on the receding 



VOL. LIV. NO. CVII. — JANUARY 1853. N 



