iQoo] Winter Lectures. 145 



quadrupeds and birds are concerned) wholly ceases in the extreme 

 north, and over the vast ice fields no moving thing is 

 visible. Of the polar waters, on the other hand, it 



may be affirnied that they everywhere abound in minute 

 examples of animal organisms, some of which have been hitherto 

 pronounced by naturalists to be Mediterranean or even equatorial 

 species. 



It is apparent that warm and cold currents so affect and 

 modify submarine life as to complicate very much the problems 

 with which the palaeontologist deals. As the late Dr. Carpenter 

 long ago pointed out, Arctic shells have been fou^nd as far south 

 as Gibraltar, a clear proof that the glacial temperature exists there 

 beneath the waves without making any difference in the terrestrial 

 climate. Vice versa we find Tropical species in Arctic waters. 

 The late Sir William Dawson once wrote to Dr. Carpenter that 

 the latter's accounts of the temperature of the deep->ea and its 

 effect upon animal life while they tended to modify geological 

 theory, explained facts otherwise difficult to interpret, especially 

 the evidences of glacial conditions in periods when such conditions 

 were not regarded as existing. *' I am quite prepared," wrote 

 Sir William, " to accept the conclusion that glacial beds may 

 have been formed in any latitude and at any geological period." 



WINTER LECTURES. 



The Soiree Committee are now preparing the programme for 

 the series of winter lectures, and will be obliged if any members 

 who wish to read papers, or who have short notes of interest to 

 communicate at any of the meetings, will at once send in their 

 titles, and at the same time state at what date they would wish to 

 present their papers. This information may be sent to Dr. R. Bell, 

 F.R.S., the chairman of the Soir6e Committee, Dr. H. M. Ami, 

 F.R.S.C., or any member o^ the Council. It is probable that 

 there will be a Conversazione or two, and six or seven Lecture 

 nights. Fro.m the papers which have been already promised, the 

 coming season promises to be one of exceptional interest. It is 

 hoped that the first meeting will be held early in December. All 

 titles of papers must therefore be in the hands of the Committee 

 at the latest by the 15th November. 



