530 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



axis of daily rotation to the plane of its orbit, which he proves 

 to have occurred in both hemispheres for some 16,000 years, 

 ending about 6,000 years ago, was or was not the sole efficient 

 cause of the glacial conditions which immediately preceded 

 the present climatic state of the earth in the Northern Hemi- 

 sphere, it must have been a most important factor. Should 

 it appear that glacial conditions were synchronous in both 

 hemispheres, the astronomical explanation would seem to be 

 complete. 



This is really a crucial question, and I hope we may have 

 some light thrown upon it this evening, as I suppose there are 

 no living authorities so competent to give an opinion on the 

 subject as some of those now present. My own imperfect 

 observations, which have been confined to the valley of tbe 

 Waitaki and to the vicinity of Lake Wakatipu, have led me to 

 believe that the great moraines and other evidences of glacia- 

 tion to be seen there are geologically very recent : indeed, 

 owing to the slight changes made by the hand of man in this 

 country, they have the appearance of being even more recent 

 than similar evidences of old glacial action which I have seen 

 in Europe, because the latter have been considerably modified 

 in most cases by human agency. If there be no strong reasons 

 which would lead a geologist to assign a date for the southern 

 glaciation some 100,000 years prior to that of the glaciation 

 in the Northern Hemisphere, the astronomical changes traced 

 out by Sir E. Ball cannot have been effective in this matter. 

 Indeed, his explanation throws the whole cycle of changes 

 80,000 to 200,000 years back, which is contrary to geological 

 evidence in the Northern Hemisphere, with which, however, 

 Drayson's discovery, with its consequences, is perfectly in 

 harmony. 



Should it be established on sound geological evidence that 

 the last ice age in the Southern Hemisphere was synchronous 

 with that in the Northern Hemisphere, the harmony between 

 geological results and astronomical causes, as demonstrated 

 by General Drayson, will be complete for the last ice age. 

 Prestwich states that he has been unable to obtain any reliable 

 evidence of glacial action in any of the formations between the 

 Permian and the Eeeent ; other geologists have thought they 

 had evidence of intermediate ice ages. Possibly Sir E. Ball's 

 theory may throw light on this question ; but, as regards the 

 last ice age, no cause that has been suggested appears to have 

 weight or fitness compared with that resulting from General 

 Drayson's discovery of the second rotation of the earth. 



I think it was Galileo who, when objections were urged 

 against his statement that the earth was daily revolving — not 

 the heavens — contented himself with remarking, " E pur si 

 muove," Nevertheless it does move. General Drayson may 



