12 
the constant evaporation from the surface, as is shewn by the following 
series taken at the same spot: — • 
Surface 20.013 
10 fathoms ... 19.909 
25 „ ... 19.909 
50 „ ... 19.909 
100 „ ... 19.805 
Hence it would appear, that the reason this concentrated superficial film 
does not sink, is that even at the depth of ten fathoms the greater 
density arising from reduction in temperature exactly balances the 
greater density arising from excess of salinity. 
Mr. Carpenter concluded by stating that the subsequent investigations 
made in the Mediterranean by Dr. Carpenter, F.B.S., had shewn (1) that 
the bed of that sea was almost barren of animal life; (2) that its 
temperature was nowhere lower than 55° Fahrenheit; and (3) that an 
undercurrent existed in the Straits of Gibraltar flowing outwards from the 
Mediterranean into the Atlantic. 
IV. 
On the Strata composing the Shores op Watereord Haven with 
ESPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE OCCURRENCE OP LlANDEILO FOSSILS 
in that Locality. 
By Fort-Major Thomas Austin, F.G-.S. 
Read before the General Meeting, March 2nd, 1871. 
The rocks, in the county of Wexford, of which I am about to speak, 
extend from the Carboniferous Limestone at the Hook Point in the South, 
to Buttermilk Castle in the North.* The more ancient portion, slates and 
schists, tilted, contorted, and dislocated as they are along an extensive line 
of coast, proved a difficult problem to solve. The Government Surveyors 
had passed over them but had failed to discover any signs of organic 
remains, therefore the relative age of these unpromising rocks could not be 
properly determined, and they wore accordingly at one period not included 
in, or referred to any well defined system of stratified deposits. It was only 
after I had examined every bed, if only an inch in thickness, along a line 
* This castle is situated at the base of an elevated region named Xeuk. 
