Journal of Proceedings. xiii 



and general public might have an opportunity of studying it at their 

 leisure. Before putting any formal vote to the meeting, he would like 

 to listen to any remarks from members, and he was glad to say that 

 they had amongst them that evening the very Nimrod of Essex Ele- 

 phant hunters, Sir Antonio Brady himself, to whose noble and per- 

 severing exertions science and the nation were indebted for that unique 

 and magnificent collection of Pleistocene Vertebrata from the ancient 

 Thames Valley which now rested in the British Museum. 



Sir Antonio Brady, F.G.S. (Verderer of Epping Forest), who was 

 warmly greeted, referred, in a long and interesting speech, to the astro- 

 nomical causes which may be held to account for the various Glacial 

 Epochs, and mentioned in that connection two books which he deemed 

 worthy of special study — Mr. CroU's " Climate and Time," and Colonel 

 Drayson's " Glacial Epochs." To explain the various phenomena 

 observed, we must have recourse to astronomical causes. It appears 

 that the pole of the earth points to the polar star, but that the pole of 

 the plane of the ecliptic is not quite coincident with it, being about 46 

 seconds from it. It is suggested that the poles do not revolve in space 

 in a circle, but in a slightly eccentric curve. The effect is scarcely 

 noticeable in historical time, but in the course of about 17,000 years 

 such a declension would be caused in the earth's axis with regard to 

 the sun as would in that time bring the arctic circle down to about 

 the latitude of London. This would cause such a change of climate as 

 would account for the Glacial Period, which we know once, if not 

 oftener, obtained in this island, and is especially apparent in the 

 northern part of it, notably in Scotland. In this condition, the sun 

 in our latitude would not rise above the horizon for months together, 

 and the result would be an arctic winter such as now exists in the 

 higher regions of our globe. On the other hand, the sun would be 

 above the horizon for many months together, giving a tropical climate, 

 such as recent discoveries of coal measures and tropical vegetation 

 prove to have existed near the pole in ancient geological times. The effect 

 of the rapid melting of the accumulated winter ice and snow would 

 cause such floods as we have now no experience of, but which would 

 fully account for most of the phenomena of Glacial Drift, and the 

 transport of enormous boulders, presumably ice-borne on the floating 

 icebergs, as we see in a lesser degree at the present time. It is more- 

 over suggested that the animals existing at that time migrated with the 

 changing seasons, some being overwhelmed by the way. The subject 

 was too vast for him to do more in the few remarks permitted him 

 than just to glance at the theories promulgated to account for known 

 phenomena ; but anyone wishing for more detailed information on this 

 most intensly interesting subject would be amply repaid by the perusal 

 of the many works which treat on the questions raised, especially those 

 he had already referred to. 



