THE GEOLOGIST. 



ON ELONGATED RIDGES OF DRIFT, IN BERWICKSHIRE AND 

 OTHER PARTS OF THE SOUTH OF SCOTLAND. 



By Mr. Milne-Home, F.G.S. 



Mr. Milne-Home described several examples of these "Kaims" in Berwickshire, 

 Roxburghshire, and other places. He stated that they were so regular as to 

 have the appearance of railway-embankments or fortifications, and that they 

 had often been mistaken for the latter. They were from forty feet to sixty feet 

 in height, and sometimes could be traced for three or four miles. They were 

 found at various heights above the sea up to seven hundred and fifty feet. In 

 examining their internal structure they were seen to consist generally of sand, 

 gravel, and boulders ; the latter generally rounded, but also occasionally angu- 

 lar. He adverted to the fact that they are sometimes intersected by rivulets 

 and even rivers, but that notwithstanding this they had all the appearance of 

 having, been when originally formed, continuous. The author offered some 

 remarks on the agency supposed to have been concerned in the production of 

 these "kaims." He repudiated the notion of their formation by glaciers. He con- 

 sidered they were due to the action of water, as indicated by their internal 

 structure ; and supposed that they must have been formed by the waters of 

 the ocean when they stood at least eight hundred feet above its present level. 

 The only question, as he thought, was whether they had been thrown up as 

 submarine spits or banks, or whether they had been formed by a process of 

 scooping out, when the land emerged from the ocean. His opinion wavered 

 between these two views, but he was inclined to favour the last, as he thought 

 that the violent action of tides and currents was inconsistent with the layers 

 of fine sand which frequently occurred in the kaims. 



REMARKS ON THE TEMPERATURE OF THE EARTH'S CRUST, AS 

 EXHIBITED BY TBERMOMETRICAL RETURNS OBTAINED DURING 

 THE SINKING OF THE DEEP MINE AT DUKINFIELD. 



By Wm. FAIM3AIRX, Esq., LL.D., F.R.S, 



Wm. Fairbairn, Esq., LL.D., F.R.S., said— It is now more than ten years 

 since a series of experiments was commenced to determine the temperature 

 at which certain substances became fluid under pressure. These experiments 

 had reference to the density, point of fusion, and conducting power of the 

 materials of which the earth's crust is composed, and Avere prosecuted witli a 

 view to the solution of some questions regarding the probable thickness of the 

 earth's crust. Contemporaneously with these, we were fortunate in being able 

 to ascertain by direct experiments, under very favourable circumstances, the 

 increase of temperature in the earth's crust itself. These observations were 

 obtained by means of thermometers placed in bore-holes at various depths, 

 during the sinking 0 f one of the deepest mines in England, the coal-mine 

 belonging to E. D. Astley, Esq., at Dukinfield. The bore-holes were driven to 

 such a depth as to be unaffected by the temperature in the shaft, and the 

 thermometers were left in them for periods varying from half an hour to two 

 hours. It is very difficult to arrive at accurate data on the subject of the 



