SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
93 
loam especially favourable to the oak and the apple : the conglomerates 
furnish soils well suited for roots and barley ; on the clay a strong wheat- 
soil is formed, whilst the slaty or shaly beds are best adapted for woodland. 
The mountain limestone soil produces good pasture for the native sheep and 
cattle. The millstone grit appears adapted for sheep-walks only. It has 
been stated, says Mr. Fothergill, that the worst land in England lies upon 
the coal-measures ; and certainly, at its best, it is but hungry soil ,* however, 
by draining and lining, it may be rendered in a measure productive. The 
new red sandstone is of well-known and marked fertility, producing in rich 
abundance every kind of crop. The lias furnishes a cold, wet, tenacious clay 
or clayey loam. When pervious it is found fit for cultivation, and grows 
good wheat and tares. The alluvium gives great variety of soil, both in 
appearance and in productiveness ; and this arises partly from deficient 
drainage, partly from the character of the subsoil, and sometimes from the 
elevation. 
The- Jurassic of France and the Oolitic of England. — The relation of these 
two systems in two distinct countries has been well traced by Dr. Thomas 
Wright, who shows that there is a wonderful correspondence between them. 
The subject is noticed at some length in the “ Geological Magazine.” The 
localities taken are the Jurassic department of the Cote-d’Or of France and 
the Oolitic of Gloucester and Wilts, England. 
The Former Existence of Local Glaciers in the White Mountains of 
America. — At the meeting of the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science, held in the autumn, a very interesting paper by Professor 
Agassiz was read by Mr. J. Perry on the above subject. The author con- 
siders that twenty-three years ago, when he first visited the White Moun- 
tains, he discovered unmistakeable evidence of the former existence of 
glaciers. His paper is published in the “American Naturalist, ” and deals at 
considerable length with the subject. 
Indisposition of Sir R. Murchison. — There are very few scientific men, 
whether geologists or not, who will not hear with regret of the serious 
indisposition of Sir Roderick Murchison. His age indeed is ripe, but his 
energies are active ; and hence his loss to British geology would not be one 
whit worse than his loss to the geologists of the British Isles. 
The Carboniferous Flora of Bear Island. — On November 9 a paper by 
Professor Oswald Heer was read before the Geological Society u On the Car- 
boniferous Flora of Bear Island” [lat. 74° 30' N]. The author described the 
sequence of the strata supposed to belong to the carboniferous and Devonian 
series in Bear Island, and indicated that the plant-bearing beds occurred 
immediately below those which, from their fossil contents, were to be referred 
to the mountain limestone. He enumerated eighteen species of plants, 
and stated that these indicated a close approximation of the flora to those 
of Tallowbridge and Kiltorkan in Ireland, the Greywacke of the Vosges and 
the southern Black Forest, and the Vern euilii-sh ales of Aix and St. John’s, 
New Brunswick. These concordant floras he considered to mark a peculiar 
set of beds, which he proposed to denominate the “ Ursa-stage.” The author 
remarked that the flora of Bear Island has nothing to do with any Devonian 
flora. The paper gave rise to considerable discussion. 
North of England and South of Scotland Silurians. — Dr. W. A. Nicholson. 
