BRITISH ASSOCIATION MEETING, 



545 



as aqueducts along the upper portions into which water would flow, must 

 produce compact ice ; and its power in that very action was quite adequate, by 

 compression, not only to remove ice, but even mountains of earth, provided the 

 point (Tappui be afforded. It was evident with respect to the lower portions 

 supporting Mount St. Mas, which were subject to a summer-heat which 

 ripened strawberries, aud was even more oppressive than we experienced in 

 England, and to rapid thaws of the inferior levels, that repeated fracture and 

 avalanches would occur, and that one must calculate on sudden and tremendous 

 concussive force, by the breaking away of whole ranges and precipitating them- 

 selves on the lower strata. His opinion was that the shocks of the avalanches 

 communicated laterally had produced such fractures as had been noticed in those 

 peculiar pyramidical forms near Mount St. Elias. These fractures opened, 

 were filled by water, which probably froze at night or when the sun was 

 absent, and expansion drove the exterior masses, which were termed bergs, 

 into the sea. 



DURA DEN. 



By the Rev. Dr. Axdersox, F.G.S. 



The Rev. Dr. Anderson stated that last year the Committee of the Asso- 

 ciation made laborious researches in quest of the lon^-lost Pamphmchis of 

 Agassiz, nowhere seen nor heard of in any part of the above-named rocks for 

 a period of twenty-five years. He had now to state that in their latter exca- 

 vations they had come upon the hidden treasures, and he had the pleasure of 

 laying them upon the table, in a condition of the most perfect preservation. 

 There was a double interest connected with this curious crustacean. Eirst, of 

 a rare discovery ; and next, of a successful result in a matter of keen and 

 important controversy. The specimens discovered were five impressions of the 

 Pamphractus Andersoni, two of which were perfect in all their plates, whilst 

 the others were more or less mutilated in some of their organisms. Besides 

 this' genus, the excavations had revealed at least one other entirely new to 

 science. The specimen of this new fossil, which he laid upon the table, was 

 in a sufficiently good state of preservation for determining all the true charac- 

 teristics of the genus in scales, fins, plates, and general contour. The caudal 

 and pectoral fins were enormously large, the body short and small, and the head 

 comparatively very large. 



SUBTERRANEAN MOVEMENTS. 



By Prof. Yaughax, F.G.S. 



Professor Vaughan, of Cincinnati, stated that the definite relations recently 

 discovered between calorific and mechanical action seemed to have an important 

 bearing on questions relating to the secular refrigeration of the earth and the 

 high temperature of its internal regions, even at the present time. The vast 

 amount of heat supposed to have escaped from our planet during past ages, 

 might be reasonably expected to call into existence forces of much greater 

 efficiency than those indicated by the upheaval of lands, or by the violence of 

 earthquakes aud mechanical eruptions. Our terrestrial fabric had a strength 

 too limited for the full development of such great calorific powers by the 

 vol. iv. 2 P 



