Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 20.djvu/87

Rh of temperature lasting for no less than twenty-one thousand years. This explains the fact that, as Morlot showed in 1854, the glacial deposits of Switzerland, and, as we now know, those of Scotland, are not a single uniform layer, but a succession of strata indicating very different conditions. I agree also with Croll and Geikie in thinking that these considerations explain the apparent anomaly of the coexistence in the same gravels of arctic and tropical animals; the former having lived in the cold, while the latter flourished in the hot, periods.

It is, I think, now well established that man inhabited Europe during the milder periods of the glacial epoch. Some high authorities, indeed, consider that we have evidence of his presence in pre-glacial and even in Miocene times, but I confess that I am not satisfied on this point. Even the more recent period carries back the record of man's existence to a distance so great as altogether to change our views of ancient history. Nor is it only as regards the antiquity and material condition of man in prehistoric times that great progress has been made. If time permitted, I should have been glad to dwell on the origin and development of language, of custom, and of law. On all of these the comparison of the various lower races, still inhabiting so large a portion of the earth's surface, has thrown much light; while even in the most cultivated nations we find survivals, curious fancies, and lingering ideas, the. fossil remains, as it were, of former customs and religions imbedded in our modern civilization, like the relics of extinct animals in the crust of the earth.

In geology the formation of our Association coincided with the appearance of Lyell's "Principles of Geology," the first volume of which was published in 1830, and the second in 1832. At that time the received opinion was that the phenomena of geology could only be explained by violent periodical convulsions, and a high intensity of terrestrial energy culminating in repeated catastrophes. Hutton and Playfair had indeed maintained that such causes as those now in operation would, if only time enough were allowed, account for the geological structure of the earth; nevertheless, the opposite view generally prevailed, until Lyell, with rare sagacity and great eloquence, with a wealth of illustration and most powerful reasoning, convinced geologists that the forces now in action are powerful enough, if only time be given, to produce results quite as stupendous as those which science records.

As regards stratigraphical geology, at the time of the first meeting of the British Association at York, the strata between the carboniferous limestone and the chalk had been mainly reduced to order and classified, chiefly through the labors of William Smith. But the classification of all the strata lying above the chalk and below the carboniferous limestone respectively, remained in a state of the greatest confusion. The year 1831 marks the period of the commencement of the joint labors of Sedgwick and Murchison, which resulted in the