OF DENISON UNIVERSITY. 3 



rectly the relation of our satellite to the earth, and it to the sun. 

 There is moreover, no physical action apparent, with the exception 

 of some cases which will be observed, which would denote any vio- 

 lent physical force. Most of the strata of the Palaoezoic and Meso- 

 zoic were deposited during periods when life was very abundant, and 

 its manner of preservation and more particularly of deposition show 

 that the conditions were very quiet, and probably of long duration. 

 In this connection it might also be well to remark that the very nearly 

 equible temperature of the globe which allowed the same animals and 

 plants to flourish on the equator and the Arctic zone at the same time, 

 even as late as the Tertiary jieriod, would also prevent the formation 

 of oceanic currents on a magnitude equal to the present streams, 

 but then as at present, winds acted in promoting such agencies. 

 Another agent which has suggested itself is earthquake waves 

 originating beneath the ocean. We know that the transporting power 

 of water varies as the sixth power of the velocity, consequently if 

 the velocity be increased ten times, the transporting power is in- 

 creased i,ono,ooo times. It has also been ascertained that water 

 moving at the rate of three feet per second will carry angular stones 

 the size of a hen's egg. What would be the result then of a wave 

 300 miles in diameter, and sixty feet high, moving at the rate of 370 

 miles per hour in its erosive action upon the adjacent coasts? One can 

 readily conceive that it would be possible to carry boulders two feet 

 in diameter a considerable distance, while the beds of conglomerates 

 which exist in Scotland could be produced by this agency instead 

 of the direct intervention of glacial action as CroU has supposed. 

 We have good reason to believe that earthquake action was as fre- 

 quent and extensive in the times under consideration as at present, 

 and the great sea-wave just described, which took place during the 

 South American earthquake in 1868, would probable be surpassed 

 by those of previous epochs. Rivers also operated to a large extent, 

 especially during the lower Carboniferous. 



Among the elements necessary to the formation of sandstones, 

 and as we shall also consider more particularly of conglomerates, are 

 primarily the elevation of land areas above water as the Archaean rocks 

 of Canada at the beginning of the Palaeozoic age, with other narrow 

 ranges running southwestward parallel with the Adantic, and still 

 additional areas now represented by the Cordilleras. We have also 

 to take into account that the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmos- 



