BRITISH ASSOCIATION MEETING. 
545 
as aqueducts along tlie 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 niountains of earth, provided the 
point (Vappi'.i be afforded. It was evident with respect to the lower portions 
supporting Mount St. Wias, which were subject to a sununer-heat whicli 
ripened strawberries, and was even more oppressive than we ex))erienced in 
England, and to rapid thaws of the inferior levels, tbat repeated fracture and 
avalanches would occur, and that one must calculate on sudden and tremendous 
concussive force, by the breaking away of whole rang.^s and precipitating them- 
selves on the lov\-er strata. His opinion was that the shocks of the avalanches 
communicated laterally liad produced such fractures as liad been noticed in those 
peculiar pyramidical forms near Mount St. Elias. These fractures opened, 
were filled by water, v»liich probably froze at night or when the sun was 
absent, and expansion drove the exterior masses, which were terined bergs, 
into the sea. 
DURA DEN. 
By ihe Rev. Dr. Axdersox, F.G.S. 
The llev. Dr. Anderson stated that last year the Committe.'^ of the Asso- 
ciation made laborious researches in quest of the lono--lost Funiphrnchin 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 })reservation. 
There was a double interest connected with tiiis curious crustacean. First, of 
a rare discovery ; and next, of a successfid result in a matter of keen and 
important controversy. The specimens discovered were five impressions of the 
Faniphractus 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 ail 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 liead 
comparatively very large. 
SUBTERRANEAN MOVEMENTS. 
By Prof. Vai giiax, F.G.S. 
Professor Yaughan, 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 inaicated by the upheaval of lands, or by the violence of 
earthquakes and mechanical eruptions. Our terrestrial fabric had a strength 
too limited for the full development of such great calorific jiOMcrs by the 
