PEOCEEDiyGS or GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 
137 
in some instances, as at Yarmouth, by judiciously constructed works, ma- 
terial improvement was effected, and as at Orford, where no assistance was 
rendered, great changes occurred, or as at Harwich, where, from constant 
progressive change, it was difficult to speculate on the ultimate result of 
the coiitinued operation of natural agencies, unchecked by works of a con- 
servative character. 
Geological Society. — Jan. 20.— 1. "Observations on supposed Gla- 
cial Drift in the Labrador Peninsula, ^Vestern Canada, and on the South 
Branch of the Saskatchewan." By Professor H. Y. Hind, Trinity Col- 
lege, Toronto. — During an exploration of a part of the interior of the La- 
brador peninsula, in 1861, the author liad an opportuiiity of observing the 
magnitude, distribution, and extraordinary number of the boulders on the 
flanks of the tableland of that area; and he commenced this paper with 
a detailed account of the results of his observations, referring also to the 
forced arrangement 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. Whitney, and the conclusions to which that 
geologist 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 that 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 their symme- 
trical arrangement suggested to be the result of glacial rivers undermining 
the soft strata of sedimentary rocks in advance of the glacial mass itself. 
These escarpments were also thought to represent different and closely- 
succeeding glacial epochs, 
2. " Notes on the Drift-deposits of the Yalley of the Severn, in the neigh- 
bourhood of Coalbrookdale and Bridgenorth/' By Mr. George Maw.— 
The patches of drift occurring in the Yalley 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 Coalbrookdale, the author described the 
several beds w hich make up the drift-deposits 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 neighbouring districts in which 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 ot the 
older formations"'(the materials of which compose the Drift) took place, the 
manner in which the Drift was deposited, the extent of the submergence 
of England and Wales during the period of its deposition, and the mflu- 
ence of glaciers and glacier-action in its production. 
February 3.— 1. " On the Permian Eocks of the North- West of -England, 
and their Extension into Scotland." By Sir E. I. Murchison and Prof, 
Harkness.— In this paper the authors propounded a new view of the compo- 
sition of the Permian Groupin the north-west of England; by rearraugenient 
of the rocks involved in this change in classification, they were enabled to 
place the Permian strata of Great IBritain in direct correlation with those ot 
the Continent. This new feature in British classification is the assign- 
VOL. VII. ^ 
