PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTE.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 82, 4 September 1874, Page 3

PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTE.

An ordinary meeting of the Institute was held last evening, in the Public Library. Present : Dr Haast (in the chair), Drs Coward and Powell', Revs. T. W. Stack and W. J. Habens, Messrs Fereday and Wakefield (hon. sen). ■ The following presents to the Institute were laid on the table:—From the Smithsonian Institute, New York, report of the sanitary committee on the Valley of Mississippi ; Topographical Survey of the Adirondack, New York; report of chief 'signal officer of the War Department; Smithsonian Report, 1871; Jones' Lectures. From Captain Hutton, photographs of the; leg of Dinorius Ingeus; from Dr Buller, Journal of Applied Science-for 1873. Dr : Haast' then read the following extract from a letter of Commander F. Giordano, inspector of mines of Italy. Before doing so Dr Haast said that this well-known. Italian geologist had recently paid a ds&At visit to New Zealand and taken considerable interest in the contro- . veray, respecting, the formation, of the .Canterbury'plains, and had been furnished at his request with a copy of Dr Haast's report on the subject, without, however, the maps and sectious, of which a sufficient number had not been printed. Since then he (Dr Haast) had been favored by Commander Giordano with a communication, dated Auckland, August 2nd, from which he begged to lay before the. Institute that portion having reference to the above subject, which he thought would be found to be very interesting. Commander Giordano's remarks were as follows: —"I read your paper on the formation of the Canterbury plains, and so ifar as; it was for me to make acquaintance with the described peculiarity of the country without any special maps and sections, I quite agree with your conclusions. There is almost absolute identity with a great portion of* our valley of the Po in Italy, and your conclusions are perfectly conformable to those of our modern geologists. I have only to observe in a subordinate way concerning the hydraulic laws first announced by the Italian engineers Guglielmini, Manfredi, &c,|that such laws are only suitable for rivers flowing in rather soft bottoms, while in old glacial bottoms with large boulders, and principally in hard rocks, the phenomenon is greatly altered and implies a great duration of time. As to the case described in page 19, viz -.—that the river Po, near Ferrara, raised its bed much over the surrounding country, and indeed, over the houses of the town, there is a mistake, first to be ascribed to the great French engineer, Proxy, who published such a statement. Really, the Po never raised its bed so high, and only to a trifling extent in some places, here and there ; and near Ferrara it is still flowing with its bottom thirty feet or more below the surrounding plains. It is only the surface of the water during the floods which is raised higher than the roofs of the houses, but this happens only on account of the general embankment which keeps the entire bulk of the floods concentrated in the channel between the said embankment. What was erroneously told of the Po, by Proxy first, and repeated by others, is rather true in a branch river derived from the Reno near Bologna and going parallel to the Po under the name of the Po di Panaro. This was first an artificial river, which having au insufficient fall raised gradually its bed, and in places fully thirty or forty feet above the surrounding country. But these remarks have no bearing on the general question of the Canterbury plains, which is, I think, rightly explained in your paper."

A conversation ensued respecting the photograph of the leg of the Diuornis pre sented by Captain Mutton Mr Fereday brought before (he Institute the advisability of makings -me preparations to welcome the scientific expedition which is shortly expected to arrive to observe the transit of Venus. After some conversation it was agreed to d'fer the matter uutil a special meeting. The Institute then adjourned.