6o4 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



is incumbent on astronomers either to publish the breakdown 

 of the Laplace dogma, or take the next step of adopting another 

 centre for the precession movement, with final recognition that 

 Drayson is right. 



Perhaps the real simplicity of the question will come as the 

 greatest surprise to geologists, who in studying glaciations have 

 grown reconciled to weird theories of volcanic dust, carbonic 

 acid set free, dearth of supply of comets to the sun, and so forth, 

 though none have a single fact to support them. The power 

 with which a knowledge of Drayson 's discovery invests anyone 

 in obtaining astronomical results without observation may be 

 doubted by those who will not attempt to investigate his 

 formula?, but geologists who accept his data will find ample 

 justification for every statement he has made regarding this 

 last period of earth-history. The universality of the glaciations 

 at both poles at the same period was the first indication that 

 the astronomers were wrong, and that Drayson was right. To 

 this have been added other facts which are each in their way 

 telling proofs of the accuracy of his deductions. Resistance 

 to Drayson must break down when the perplexing question of 

 the " submerged forests " stands revealed as the direct outcome 

 in time and place of the condition specified by Admiral de 

 Horsey's curve. Mr. Clement Reid, without any thought of 

 glaciation or its effects, gives a date for the rise of the sea 

 (which he deems as a submergence of the land) and the probable 

 duration of the process, which supplies a convincing and un- 

 intentional verification of the nature and duration of the last 

 phase of glaciation as denoted by Drayson. 



I for my part challenge any geologist to bring forward a 

 single geological fact which can be found fundamentally in 

 disagreement with the results of Drayson 's discover}^. 



My chief difficulty until I found such a complete corrobora- 

 tion in the Submerged Forests, has been to obtain evidence 

 in these islands which supported researches in North America, 

 Sweden, in the Antipodes, and even in India, in which countries 

 it has been shown that the last glaciation was recent, and 

 only passed away less than 10,000 years ago. 1 



1 See Journal of the Torquay Nat. Hist. Soc. 19 17, "The Submerged Forests 

 and the Last Glaciation." 



