248 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



selves in greatest abundance during the passage of the earth through 

 particular portions of its orbit. In saying this, however, Mr. Sedgwick 

 did not mean to express his behef that atmospheric conditions could 

 have any great effect on the deep-seated phenomena of earthquakes. 



Sir H. T. De la Beche stated, that as a general rule the earth- 

 quakes of South America and Jamaica were felt most severely along the 

 strike of the strata ; in some instances, houses built on ranges of solid 

 rock were affected by the shocks, whilst others only a quarter of a mile 

 distant, built on gravel, entirely escaped. In all the published relations 

 of the effects produced by earthquakes, much allowance was to be made 

 for the excited feelings of the spectator. Thus the earthquakes which 

 destroyed Port Royal had been described in all the exaggerated lan- 

 guage inspired by terror ; the real history was very simple ; the town 

 was built on a sand bank, encircling a number of small detached coral 

 reefs ; the violence of the waves, aided and accompanied by the concus- 

 sion of the earthquake, washed away all this sand, and with it the 

 houses, those on the coral reefs remaining as strong as before, whilst 

 loose masses of stone, amongst the craggy rocks of the interior, natu- 

 rally fell down from the effect of the same vibration. 



Mr. Nicholson, of Kendal, described a slight earthquake, which 

 had occurred on the 13th of the present month, on the shores at More- 

 cambe Bay. The shock, which was sudden and violent, took place at 

 2 A.M.; there had been six weeks of drought previously, and on the day 

 before the shock the thermometer stood at 94° in the shade, being 9° 

 higher than it had risen in that neighbourhood since the year 1826. At 

 2 P.M., of the same day, the rain set in heavily. This earthquake was 

 felt for ten miles round Kendal. 



On the Structure and Mode of Formation of Glaciers by 

 James Stark, M.D. 



The author stated that he employed the word glacier to 

 signify the entire icy masses which filled the upper as well 

 as the lower valleys of snow-covered mountains^ and ex- 

 tended downwards to the cultivated valleys or sea shore. 

 He was induced to overlook the artificial division of these 



