PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 
65 
During an exploration of a part of the interior of the Labrador penin- 
sula, in 1861, the author had an opportunity of observing the magnitude, 
distribution, and extraordinary number of the boulders on the tlanks of 
the table-land of that area ; and he commenced this paper with a detailed 
account of the results of his observations, referring also to the forced ar- 
rangement of blocks of limestone, shale, and Laurentian rocks in Boulder- 
clay at Toronto, and on the south branch of the Saskatchewan. 
Professor Hind then described briefly the Driftless Area, in "Wisconsin, 
discovered by Prof. J. D.TVhitney, and the conclusions to whicli that geo- 
logist has been led by the study of this district. He next adverted to the 
beaches and terraces about the great Lakes, and considered their origin to 
be similar to tliat suggested by Mr. Jamieson for the Parallel Roads of 
Glen Eoy. The formation of anchor-ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and 
at the heads of rapids in the great river itself was alluded to as one of the 
means by which river-beds may be excavated. The parallelism of escarp- 
ments in America, at great distances apart, and at elevations varying from 
600 feet to 3000 feet above the sea, was next described, and tlieir symme- 
trical arrangement suggested to be the result of glacial rivers underminmg 
the soft strata of sedimentary rocks in advance of the glacial mass itself. 
Th^e escarpments were also thought to represent difl'ereut and closely- 
succeeding glacial epochs. 
2. " Notes on the Drift-deposits of the Valley of the Severn, in the 
neighbourhood of Coalbrookdale and Bridgenorth." By George ]Mavr, 
RS.A., F.L.S. 
The patches of Drift occurring in the Valley of the Severn from about 
four miles below Bridgenorth up to Shrewsbury, including a north and 
south range of about twenty miles, have been carefully examined by the 
author, and were described in detail in this paper. 
Commencing with Strethill, a hill close to the entrance of Coalbrook- 
dale, the author described the several beds which make up the Drift-de- 
posits of which it is composed, and gave a list of the rocks which he had 
found in them. In the same manner he described in succession the neigh- 
bouring districts in \a hich the Drift-deposits are exhibited, and gave a list 
of the fossils which had been found in the beds at the different localities. 
In conclusion Mr. Maw put forward some hypotheses as to the period 
■when the degradation of the older formations (the materials of which com- 
pose the Drift) took place, the maimer in which the Drift was deposited, 
the extent of the submergence of England and Wales during the period 
of its deposition, and the influence of glaciers and glacier-action in its pro- 
duction. 
E.OYAL School of Mines. — Tw^elve Lectures on Chemical Geo- 
logy, BY De. Percy, F.R.S. — Decemher lOth, 1863. — Geology has 
for its object the study of the nature and mode of formation of tlie 
exterior of the earth, which alone is accessible for investigation. That 
exterior is usually designated the "crust" of the earth, an expression 
which implies necessarily that the interior is not solid, but is in a state of 
greater or less liquidity. The received hypothesis is, that our planet was 
once molten, and that in the lapse of ages it has gradually cooled down, 
and has become solid on its surface. The lecturer did not propose to 
examine the foundations of this hypothesis; but used the word " crust" 
simply because it is a term perfectly well understood, and generally ac- 
cepted, and not as any exponent of the lecturer's belief. 
We are acquainted altogether with about sixty elementary bodies ; and 
it is really remarkable how few constitute the great bulk of the earth's crust 
VOL. VII. K 
