Schaw. — On the Last Glacial Epoch. 527 



in such a multitude of stars and for so long a period that it is 

 difficult to understand how more general recognition has not 

 been given to the discovery. I fear that there is some human 

 feeling in the case. Unfortunately, General Drayson appears 

 to have been somewhat embittered by this want of recogni- 

 tion, and in his book he devotes a good deal of space to 

 poking sarcastic fun at the astronomers. They probably 

 feel towards him much as the French engineers did towards 

 the cavalry officer Montalembert, who dared to differ from the 

 great Vauban and the teachings of the French professors of 

 fortification, and to propose a system of his own. It was 

 scouted and considered as rank heresy for many years ; but 

 he was right, outsider though he was, and their orthodox 

 systems have disappeared from the modern civilized world, 

 and have been replaced by the ideas of the cavalry officer. 

 So, I venture to believe, will the second rotation of the earth, 

 with all its far-reaching consequences, be universally accepted 

 as true doctrine before many years are passed. Already the 

 Eoyal Astronomical Society have tardily taken the first step 

 by conferring the fellowship of the society on General Dray- 

 son. 



With regard, however, to the geological aspect of this 

 second rotation, it is objected that it saddles us with a suc- 

 cession of glacial ages at regular intervals in the past, of which 

 we have no evidence : indeed, we have evidence of a genial 

 climate in arctic regions immediately preceding the glacial 

 climate, and in former periods of the world's history we have 

 evidence of climates very equable all over the earth at certain 

 times. 



General Drayson suggests, to meet this difficulty, that a 

 similar cause to that which probably produced the existing 

 second rotation on an axis in its present position may under 

 different conditions have produced a second rotation round a 

 different axis, and, as a consequence, very different climatic 

 conditions. 



We know that at different periods in the world's history 

 there have been verv different distributions of sea and land 

 from those which now exist. Now we have the bulk of the 

 land in one part of the Northern Hemisphere. Supposing this 

 special distribution to be the cause of the existing second 

 rotation — as it well may be, small as the mass of the land 

 above water is compared with the mass of the whole earth, for 

 it alters the symmetry of the globe, and throws the centre of 

 gravity some small distance out of the centre of the axis of 

 daily rotation, and any such difference must inevitably cause 

 a second rotation — admitting this cause, then, we can see 

 that any considerable submergence of land in one place and 

 elevation in another would alter the position of the centre of 



