296 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1925 



We are able to watch the evolution of the oceans and continents, 

 of the distribution of landscape and climates, and of the long 

 succession of living beings on the earth, throughout many millions 

 of years. During these ages we see the action of the same chemical 

 and physical laws as are now in operation, modified perhaps in 

 scale or scope, producing geographical and biological results com- 

 parable with those of to-day. Hutton and Lyell discovered for 

 us in the present a key to unlock the secrets of the past; the history 

 thus revealed illuminates and explains many of the phenomena of 

 the present. 



And the outcome of it all is to endow man with a simi)le and 

 Avorthy conception of the story of creation, and to fill him with 

 reverence for the wondrous scheme .which, unrolling through the 

 ages, without haste, without rest, has prepared the world for man's 

 dominion and made him fit and able to occupy it. 



I desire to express my thanks to Mr. G. W. Lamplugh, Professor 

 E. AV. MacBride, Professor W. G. Fearnsides, and Mr. G. S. Sweet- 

 ing for kind assistance in the preparation of this address. 



