fell within the ordinary rule, and being of considerable length is, we believe we are correct in stating, to be printed by the Society. Under these circumstances, a desire to treat the Society with that courtesy and consideration which we have ever received at the hands of its secretaries and assistant secretaries, suggested the impropriety of our sending a reporter to the anniversary meeting to obtain per nefas that which per fas was unattainable. What the result has been some of our readers are possibly aware. We can only hope that "Virtue

is its own reward!"

THE Journal of the Society of Arts, which has lately much increased in interest, informs us that the Acclimatation Society of Paris has awarded to Mr. P. L. Simmonds its silver medal, of the first class, for his paper on "Silk Cultivation and Supply," read before the Indian Conference of this Society last year. A silver medal has been awarded to Mr. G. W. Hart, of Hayling Island, for his labours in oyster-culture.

An improved process for the extraction of copper from its ores has been patented by Dr. T. Sterry Hunt, F.R.S., and Mr. James Douglas, jun. For the extraction of copper by this process it must be in the state of oxide, or some compound thereof. The oxidized copper is decomposed under proper conditions by protochloride of iron, with the production of dichloride of copper, which is soluble in certain saline solutions, and in some cases a portion of protochloride of copper, with certain salts of iron, which may be rendered soluble by the action of sulphurous acid.

Ir is an on dit that we are to have an International Geographical Congress this year at Antwerp.

OUR physiological readers are familiar with a curious apparatus for estimating the force of the blood moving in the arteries, and called the Hamadynamometer. We regret to state that the inventor of this instrument, M. Poisseuille, has died at Paris, at the age of 73.

THE following is the list of the officers proposed to be elected by the Chemical Society at its meeting on the 30th inst. :— President-A. W. Williamson, Ph.D., F.R.S. Vice-Presidents who have filled the office of President-Sir B. C. Brodie, F.R.S.; Warren De la Rue, Ph.D. F.R.S.; A. W. Hofmann, D.C.L., F.R.S.; W. A. Miller, M.D., D.C.L., V.P.R.S.; Lyon Playfair, M.P., Ph.D., C.B., F.R.S.; Colonel P. Yorke, F.R.S. Vice-Presidents-E. Frankland, Ph.D., F.R.S.; J. H. Gilbert, Ph.D., F.R.S.; A. Matthiessen, Ph.D., F.R.S.; H. M. Noad, Ph.D., F.R.S.; W. Odling, M.B., F.R.S.; T. Redwood, Ph.D. Secretaries-A. Vernon Harcourt, M.A., F.R.S.; W. H. Perkin, F.R.S. Foreign Secretary-H. Müller, Ph.D., F.R.S. Treasurer-F. A. Abel, F.R.S. Other Members of Council-E. Atkinson, Ph.D.; H. Bassett; E. T. Chapman; David Forbes, F.R.S.; F. Field, F.R.S.; Dr. M. Holzmann; E. J. Mills, D.Sc.; W. J. Russell, Ph.D.; Maxwell Simpson, Ph.D., F.R.S.; R. Angus Smith, Ph.D., F.R.S.; A. Voelcker, Ph.D. ANTI-TOBACCO-SMOKERS should rejoice to think that there is in France a flourishing association for the prevention of the abuse of the "weed." In its annual sitting, on the 19th ult., the Association Française contre l'Abus du Tabac distributed a number of prizes to the writers of successful essays expressive of the Society's views, and to others who have assisted in suppressing the strange custom which James I. so strongly deprecated in his Counter-blaste. The following are a few of the awards :-To Dr. Antoine Blatin the Blatin (!) prize, a silver medal, for his work entitled Recherches physiologiques et cliniques sur la Nicotine et le Tabac; to Professor Lefèvre, of Louvain, the Decroix prize, a silver medal, for his memoir entitled Nouvelles Recherches sur le Tabac, et spécialement de l'Action du Tabac dans ses rapports avec la Folie paralytique; to M. Désiré, Directeur de l'École des Carrières d'Angers, for his zeal in discouraging his pupils from indulging in the practice of tobacco-smoking; to the professional school of the printers of M. Chaix's printing-office the Chaix medal,

on account of the number of apprentices who have left off the habit of smoking. Three or four other medals were somewhat similarly awarded.

WE regret to announce the death of M. Florent Prevost, aide naturaliste in the Paris Muséum d'Histoire naturelle. His chief investigations related to the subject of agricultural zoology. He had reached the ripe age of seventy-six years.

THE Social Science Association is making an effort to spread a knowledge of Political Economy among the public. A course of lectures on subjects connected with Economic Science, especially as concerned with labour and capital, under the auspices of this Association, will be delivered (by the kind permission of the Council) in the house of the Society of Arts, John-street, Adelphi, on successive Tuesday evenings, at eight o'clock. The first lecture was delivered yesterday by W. B. Hodgson, Esq., LL.D., on "The True Scope of Economic Science;" the Right Hon. Sir Stafford H. Northcote, Bart., M.P., in the chair. The second lecture will be delivered on Tuesday, March 8th, by Frederic Hill, Esq, on "The Identity of the Interests of Employers and Workpeople." Admission to these lectures will be free by ticket, which may be obtained at the office of the Association.

Ar the present moment the science of statistics becomes of especial interest as applied to the condition of Ireland. We therefore reproduce the following abstract of the Agricultural statistics of Ireland for 1869, which have just been published by the authorities. The 4,000 enumerators, selected from the Royal Irish Constabulary and Metropolitan Police Force, have furnished returns of tillage and live stock on nearly 600,000 separate holdings. The total area under all crops in 1869 was 5,575,843 acres, showing an increase in the extent under crops of 27,872 acres. Wheat decreased by 4,033 acres, oats by 16,857 acres, and beans and peas by 3 acres. Barley increased by 34,591 acres, and bere and rye by 1,293 acres. Potatoes increased by 7,156 acres, turnips by 1,786, mangel and beet-root by 2,018, and vetches and rape by 2,355 acres. Cabbage decreased by 736 acres, carrots, parsnips, and other green crops by 58 acres, and meadow and clover by 22,335 acres. Flax increased by 22,695 acres.

THE new classes for girls at Cambridge have proved a decided success, upwards of fifty daughters of local tradesmen having availed themselves of the new scheme.

THE second course of Cantor Lectures of the Society of Arts for the present session will be given by Dr. Benjamin Paul, F.C.S. The course will consist of four lectures "On the Phenomena of Combustion, and the Chemical and Physical Principles involved in the Use of Fuel, and in the Production of Artificial Light," to be delivered on Monday evenings, the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th of March, at eight o'clock. The following is the syllabus:-1. Nature of combustion; effects; different modes of combustion; conditions under which it takes place; evolution of heat and light attending combustion; quantitative relation of the phenomena of combustion; measurement of quantities of heat; temperature; quantity and intensity of 2. Use of fuel for domestic purposes; as a source of motive power; for industrial operations not requiring intense heat, distillation, evaporation, &c., and for producing cold; varieties of fuel. 3. Use of fuel for producing very high temperatures in metallurgy, and in the working of metals, glassmaking, and other industrial arts; waste gases of smithery furnaces; means of arresting combustion; extinction of fires. 4. Use of combustible materials for producing light; varieties of illuminating materials, coal-gas, petroleum, and paraffinoil; measurement of light; photometry.

heat.

DYNAMITE is at last, we believe, likely to become a familiar explosive compound. It is said that the Home Secretary fully approves of its introduction into English mining operations. He has given notice of his intention to issue a general

Of

license for its carriage, storage, and use in mines and quarries. In this respect, says the Mining Journal, he is following in the steps of the Austrian Government, who originally prohibited the carriage of dynamite by railway, but, after numerous experiments, and a most searching investigation, issued an order candidly acknowledging that they had been mistaken in believing that dynamite was dangerous to carry, and having clearly ascertained that it might be carried with perfect safety, they authorized its free carriage on the State railways. the power as well as the safety of dynamite there can be no doubt. A large mass of iron, consisting of about 150 tons of solid metal, which had accumulated at the bottom of one of the Wigan Coal and Iron Company's blast-furnaces, near Wigan, was completely broken up with great ease with dynamite, about a fortnight since. Attempts had been previously made with gunpowder, and one bore-hole had been fired fifteen times without any effect being produced, but it yielded at once to the superior force of dynamite. This is the second mass of iron of the kind which has been broken up with dynamite at the Wigan Coal and Iron Company's works. Dynamite is now so extensively used on the Continent that Messrs. Nobel & Co., the chief manufacturers, cannot supply the demand, and are obliged greatly to increase their works at Hamburg. One of the great advantages in point of safety of dynamite is that if set fire to it will burn in any quantity without exploding. The fearful explosion of the magazine which has just resulted in so many deaths at the Morfa Colliery could not have taken place if dynamite had been used instead of gunpowder, for the dynamite, if set fire to by a spark or light, would have burned harmlessly away.

THE dignity of Senator has been conferred on Professor Pietro Cipriani, President of the Superior Council of Health of the kingdom of Italy, and of the Medical Section of the Florence Institute.

Or the sixty-one candidates for the post of architect to the Conservative Land Society, Mr. John Ashdown, formerly surveyor to the Hammersmith Bridge Company, was the successful one.

MR. FORSTER'S Education Bill is just printed, and covers 26 pages, and contains 88 clauses.

THE first conversazione of the Royal Society will be given by General Sabine at Burlington House on Saturday next. We understand that the display of scientific apparatus will be more than usually interesting.

THERE is still hope of the foundation of a Royal Society of Medicine through amalgamation of the existing leading medical societies. The original scheme of sections was carried at the last meeting by a large majority.

THE French geographers have recognized M. de Lesseps. We learn from the Builder that at the general meeting of the French Geographical Society just held, M. Barbié du Bocage, reporter of the committee to award the Empress's Grand Prize of 10,000f., given this year for the first time, announced that the award of that body had been in favour of M. Ferdinand de Lesseps, who, by cutting through the Isthmus of Suez, had accomplished the work most useful to the commercial relations of France. M. de Lesseps received from the president the medal which accompanies the prize, and announced that he would devote the sum of money to the expedition which the society is about to undertake into Central Africa.

THE Melbourne Argus states that Professor Halford is about to receive a practical recognition of the general opinion of the value of the ammonia treatment of snake-bites. A meeting, at which many members of the medical profession were present, has been held, and a committee has been formed to procure funds for a substantial presentation. We cannot help thinking that, in the face of the important and precise experiments of Dr. Fayrer, of Calcutta, which tend to conclusions opposite to

those of Dr. Halford, this movement on the part of the Melbourne doctors is premature.

THE Annual Report of the Council of the Photographic Society of London is most encouraging. In presenting their report of the progress made during the past year in all branches of photography, and in referring particularly to the subjects of interest which have come within the range of the Society's formal recognition in the shape of proceedings, the Council consider that there is much room for congratulation. The meetings have throughout been well attended, a most successful exhibition held, and an increased number of members gathered to the Society's ranks.

SIR DIGBY WYATT, who is now Slade Professor of Architecture in Cambridge, will commence his course of thirteen lectures on this day week. The following is the programme :-1, Introductory, March 9th; 2, Architecture, History, March 14th; 3, ditto, Theory, March 15th; 4, ditto, Practice, March 16th; 5, Sculpture, History, March 28th; 6, ditto, Theory, March 29th; 7, ditto, Practice, March 30th; 8, Painting, History, May 2nd; 9, ditto, Theory, May 3rd; 10, ditto, Practice, May 4th; 11, Art applied to Industry, Ancient, May 20th; 12, ditto, Modern, May 21st; 13, Facilities at Cambridge for the Study of the Fine Arts, May 23rd. The lectures will be delivered in the Fitzwilliam Museum at 2.15 p.m., with the exception of the introductory lecture, which will be delivered in the Senate-house at 2.30 p.m.

WHAT are bifacial photographic medallions? They are a new form of "photo" devised by Mr. Hemery, and which are likely to become popular among the "engaged" and "young couple" members of the community. They consist of two profiles, one being placed a little in advance of the other. The specimens already issued are good.

THE Queen's University, through Sir Dominic Corrigan, is about to ask the Medical Council to stay operations in regard to medical education till it (the University) has petitioned Parliament for a Royal Commission. We quite concur in the proposal of the Queen's University, and we are glad to see it taking such active measures.

THERE is a meteorological and magnetical observatory at Coimbra (Portugal) which, says the Athenæum, has been quietly working for some years. In certain instances the results have been printed in the Proceedings of the Royal Society; but the Observatory has now published a thin quarto containing Resumos Annuaes das Observações Meteorologicas for 1864-1866 inclusive, with diagrams in which the various facts observed are represented by curves. Apart from their intrinsic value, these results will be useful to observers in other parts of the world who wish to institute weather comparisons.

THE Natural History Society of Folkestone have just issued a list of the Butterflies and Moths of the neighbourhood, by Dr. H. G. Knaggs.

DR. LETHEBY Occasionally gives us some startling opinions, and we think the conclusion just arrived at in a recent report is one which must be received cum grano salis. The British Medical Journal, in its abstract of Dr. Letheby's views, says that he considers moderately hard water better suited for drinking than that which is very soft-an opinion which is confirmed by that of the French authorities, who took the Paris water from chalk districts instead of from sandy strata. To this we do not object, but the statements that a larger percentage of French conscripts are rejected from soft-water districts than from neighbourhoods supplied with hard water, and that English towns supplied with water of more than ten degrees of hardness have a mortality of four per one thousand less than those whose inhabitants use soft-water, are serious if they are to be considered as associated with the doctor's theory.

MR. JAMES BRITTEN, writing in Science-Gossip for this month, informs us that Mr. J. W. N. Keys is publishing a

Flora of Devon and Cornwall in the Transactions of the Ply. mouth Institution and Devon and Cornwall Natural History Society. It is at present published as far as Scrophulariacea.

THOSE who have been recently in the drive by the Serpentine will have wondered at the dried up and railway-cutting-like aspect of the pretty artificial lake. The explanation is that Mr. Fowler is cleaning the Serpentine. This is his plan:First to draw off all the water, which has been done some time; next to allow the mud to consolidate by exposure to the atmosphere, and this, in spite of the wet winter, it is very rapidly doing; then about 120,000 tons of the surface mud is to be removed till the firm mud beneath is reached, when the whole is to be covered over with a coating about 2 ft. deep of a mixture of stiff clay and gravel. This mixture is almost perfectly impervious to water, and possesses the advantage over concrete that it does not encourage the growth of weeds, as the lime in the concrete most certainly does. These may be said to be the main features of Mr. Fowler's plan, but there are other details connected with it of interest to the public. Thus the whole space to the end of the lake, west of the pretty bridge, is to be so filled in as to give it an average depth of 4 ft. 10 in. that is to say, about 4 ft. 6 in. at the sides, and 5 ft. in the middle. Over this part, therefore, skaters and sliders may venture with impunity from all risk but that of a ducking. East of the bridge the water will be much deeper, sloping from 8 ft. near the bridge to 14 ft. at what is proposed to be its outfall. The great expense of carting away the mud has been got rid of in a very simple manner. Within about 300 yards of the edge of the large lake "spoil" holes are dug of considerable extent and some 5 ft. deep. A railway is constructed leading from the lake to these extensive pits, and on this run the waggons laden with mud.

THE first number of the new series of the Illustration Horticole, now edited by M. E. André, is issued. It opens, says the Gardeners' Chronicle, with a graceful tribute to the services of its former editor, M. Lemaire.

THE late Secretary to the Royal Agricultural Society of England has been appointed Under-secretary of the Inner Temple.

DR. E. W. DAVY has been elected to the Professorship of Medical Jurisprudence in the College of Surgeons of Ireland, vacant by Professor Geoghegan's death. He had been Lecturer in the Carmichael School, and will still retain one of the Chemical Chairs in the Royal College of Science.

THE first Report of the Royal Sanitary Commissioners is not very satisfactory. It contains the evidence of seventy witnesses, but gives no conclusions, as the inquiry is still going on.

THERE does not appear to be very good feeling between some of the Professors in Trinity College, Dublin. At a recent meeting, held in the School of Physic, it was proposed "That an address and a suitable testimonial be presented by the students, past and present, of the School of Physic, to Dr. B. M'Dowel, on the occasion of the termination of his clinical connection with Sir

Patrick Dun's Hospital." On the other hand, Professor Haughton writes to the British Medical Journal that such addresses are forbidden by the laws of the College.

APROPOS of the horribly unscientific method of repairing roads adopted in London, Sir Roderick Murchison, writing from Belgrave-square, has addressed the following sensible and humorous remarks to the Times :-"As one of the oldest inhabitants of this square, I beg you to lend your powerful aid in assisting my neighbours and myself in modifying a nuisance of which we seriously complain. The present method of keeping up the roadway is very simple. At various periods of the year numerous cartloads of rough, unbroken flints are poured out, and, being equably spread over the whole surface, are then left to be ground down by the action of light carriage wheels and

the feet of horses, few heavy waggons and no omnibuses passing this way. From my almost constant residence I am enabled to testify that this nuisance is often inflicted when the road is perfectly smooth, and when the most delicate lady could not complain of a jolt in her carriage. The frequent conversion of our square into this peculiar quarry of chalk flints has resulted in the fact that the central part of the road is already much higher than its sides; and, therefore, in the absence of any other explanation, I am left to suppose that the parochial or public operator who has produced this phenomenon is determined to convince an old geologist like myself what a wonderful amount of denudation can be produced by the diurnal friction of comparatively small bodies, and the occasional descent of water from that central elevation which he himself has created in our roadway."

MR. MAX MÜLLER continues his Lectures at the Royal Institution on the "Science of Religion."

MR. P. H. GOSSE having written to the Times describing the frost of Torquay, Mr. E. Vivian writes in explanation to say that Mr. Gosse "gives a somewhat incorrect impression of our winter climate. Sandhurst, where his observations were taken, is in the parish of St. Mary Church, beyond the limits of the small peninsula upon which Torquay is situated; it is on a very elevated position, and has none of the peculiar advantages which constitute the Torquay climate." The lowest degree of temperature which Mr. Vivian has registered at Woodfield, about 150 ft. above the sea and in a north exposure, was 26°, or four degrees of frost less than at St. Mary Church. He has olives and camellias quite uninjured by frost, the latter coming into fine bloom; myrtle and several varieties of acacia and mimosa are only slightly touched. Veronicas, fuchsias, and other half-hardy plants have all survived. North-east is the only wind which brings the climate of the midland counties into the far west; it was severely felt as far as Penzance.

We are informed that the Suez Canal has undergone recent important improvements. From all that can be learnt, it appears that the rock which impeded the passage for large ships at Serapeum has been blasted to a depth of 30 ft., and the broken pieces of rock, some in huge masses, are being brought up by the dredges, of which there are still six at work. These machines were intended only to dredge sand and mud, but are doing the extraordinary work set them in a very effective

manner.

THE first of the Gulstonian lectures for the present year will be delivered at the Royal College of Physicians, on the 11th of March, by Dr. Maudsley. His subject will be the "Relations between Body and Mind, and between Mental and other Nervous Disorders." They will appear in the Lancet.

Helios is the title of a new journal which has just been started as the organ of the Dresden Photographic Society which was formed in October last. It is edited by the chairman of the society, Herr Hermann Krone, who has contributed largely to the first number.

MR. F. HOWLETT, F.R.A.S., calls the attention of astronomers to the remarkable character of the solar-spot phenomena now visible in the sun.

Ar a recent meeting of the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons it was decided to allow meetings of the Fellows and Members within the walls of the College, and immediate advantage has been taken of this resolution in the presentation of the following requisition to the President of the College, Mr. Edward Cock, signed by upwards of 250 Fellows and Members :-" Sir,-We, the undersigned Fellows and Members of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, request that you will forthwith summon a meeting of the Fellows and Members of the College, to discuss and consider the present position of the College with respect to probable legislation and the formation of a single examining board for each division of the United

Kingdom. It will be seen that the surgical profession generally is showing due interest not only in matters which directly affect its own College, but in a question which is of great importance to the profession generally."

and the steps of the watercourses constitute this very evidence.2

Some portion of this immense lapse of time we can at once cut down. Norway cannot be shown to have been 6,000 ft. lower in sea-level during the glacial epoch. The land has not comes the question as to

girl have been prosecuted.

NOTICE has been given that at the annual election of Fellows at Trinity College, Cambridge, to be held in October next, one Fellowship will be given for proficiency in the natural sciences. The examination will be held in the latter half of the month of September.

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.

[Under this head we propose to publish Papers communicated specially to the pages of this Journal.]

THE TERRACES OF NORWAY.

BY PROFESSOR KJERULF, OF CHRISTIANIA.

IN THREE PARTS.-PART II.

HE steps of the water-courses are directly connected with the question of upheaval. I consider it important to define these steps and terraces more precisely as to their marine or fresh-water origin, since, were we to consider all kinds of clay, gravel, and sand forming the stratified drifts of the English geologists as marine, whether they be situated high above the altitude where marine remains are at present found, or under that height, we should fall into most serious error.

Here comes the question of the computation of time. If it can be maintained that Scandinavia, or a portion of it, is slowly rising from the ocean, it is reasonable to employ such numbers in computing the rising of past times as can be made out as data for the present upheaval. Again we are led back to the glacial epoch; and, as it becomes more and more probable that remains of human existence may also be traced back to

the same period, the computation of time will be of particular interest even to non-geologists.

Relying upon the supposed rising at the North Cape, Sir Charles Lyell has put forth, as a probable average, that the rising of the country corresponds to the rate of 2.5 ft. in a century. Measured by this standard, the former position of the sea-level, 600 ft. (Norwegian) above the present time, would have occurred 24,000 years since. One would think this a fair estimate for modern geology, but it is not near sufficient. Lyell, making his estimate of Scandinavian upheaval the starting-point, goes on to take a survey of the condition of other countries, and lastly applies it to England and Wales.1 And, as the drifting iceberg theory requires, he further doubles the movement, supposes an entire subsidence and emergence, and thereby obtains a period of 244,000 years, which ought to correspond to the altitude in which stratified drift has been found in those countries. Also, if we carry out this mode of calculation with respect to Scandinavia, adopting Lyell's theory of the sea level, which he places at 6,000 ft. difference from that existing, we first have the 24,000 years multiplied by 10 = 240,000 years; and then, by doubling the movement, first subsiding then rising again, 480,000 years.

But at the commencement of this portion of the argument is a point which geologists have relied upon as firmly established, but which is, in truth, the weakest and least well supported in the whole calculations-the assumption that the rate of emergence has always been the same. Whereas every Norwegian valley, the coast, and the mouths of the valleys, abound in evidence showing that this rate has not always been uniform,

1 Antiquity o Man. Second Edition. London, 1863. Chap. xiv. p. 285.

reduced to 24,000 years, and then uniformity of rate of motion.

Let us consider what our terraces or watercourses tell us as to this.

Undoubtedly many and various co-operating causes exist that cause rivers to heap up materials at levels higher than their bottoms, or than the level of their outflow. The American geologist Dana recounts in his Geology various possible causes of terrace-formation under the general conditions of rivers, without the help of upheaval or subsidence. It may even be foreseen that some one will prove, upon paper, that the Norwegian terraces are, as a rule, not connected with the rising of the land, but that they belong to the conditions of rivers generally. Yet I will not dwell upon this; the marine origin of our terraces has hitherto met with universal admission.

It is evident that if, in a great number of watercourses, north, south, and west of the mountains, and therefore in both long and short valleys, we are able to prove, from various premises, that a particular step or terrace, almost identical in all situations, is the highest ancient mark of the sea-level, or, as the geologist would express it, the marine boundary, then we also establish that, so far as this step is concerned, the terrace-formation depends upon the old water-level.

Such a step is in fact evidenced in a great number of our valleys. We have, therefore, a reliable determination of a starting-point, and may now look about us for an explanation of all terraces lying above or below that step.

It must be plain to every one that a sea surface is not necessary to account for every step. We are not even at all entitled, nor have we occasion, to think of the sea-level as an explanation of the more elevated steps, so long as we are able to point out other causes. I have already mentioned that the steps lying above the most remarkable one can almost always be attributed to dams and other obstructions. The case is, however, different as regards terraces lying below the step we

speak of. Here we have no other cause to show than the sinking water-level itself; for those terraces lie entirely open to the mouth of the valley, and are unsupported by dam or obstruction of any kind.

A wide terrace seems, indeed, in every case to indicate the position of the former water-level. Materials cannot be heaped up in a broad elevated situation except in a basin, whether it be an inland lake or a bay of the sea. Various terraces have early come under observation in Finmark,3 and have been

2 For the benefit of those who always desire to attribute every newly-observed fact to long-known truth, I must not omit to refer to Professor Keilhau's essay "On the Rising of the Land," New Magazine of the Science of Nature, vol. i. p. 253. There the author states that the old beach-marks lying at different altitudes testify to changes of level having extended over a long period, alternating with epochs of entire quiet. Also Bravais (Comptes Rendus, x. 691, and xv. 17), who follows up this excellent essay on the rising of the land, declares, as the result of his celebrated survey of the old beach-marks in Finmark, that Norway has risen comme par saccades, by which he tries to show that the motion of upheaval has been of an undulatory nature, accompanied with burstings. Keilhau concludes, from the "accumulations of modern times, which increase slowly," and from the circumstance that there is no reason for supposing these accumulations progressed more rapidly in former times, "that a very long time must since have elapsed." Keilhau is, as is well known, an opponent of the glacial theory. But it has now been proved that the country was covered with inland ice. This ice has once been melted, and it is not yet demonstrated that this took an immense period. On the contrary, it cannot be denied that a single inundation can do many quiet hours' work during this period of melting. There is, therefore, good reason to suppose that the accumulations formerly progressed with greater rapidity.

3 Bravais says that the terraces are situated at the mouths of the larger valleys, and represent the ancient deltas of the watercourses. From the observations of Bravais one does not, however, arrive at clear conceptions of the significance of the terraces with regard to the question of upheaval, as one cannot trace the steps along the valleys. The corresponding steps in different valleys are in some situated near the shore, in others further inland. But by connecting the steps nearest to the coast with a former coast-line, without considering those further inland, one arrives at too hasty conclusions. The results commonly derived from the observations of Bravais, who resided one year in Finmark, are that the land has risen unequally, more in the interior than at the coast, as the "ancient coast lines," were supposed to slant from the interior towards the sea. It appears, from our investigations, that the highest steps are found farther up in the valley. But we must avoid connecting different steps by any supposed line.