26 PROFESSOR T. MCKENNT HUGHES, M.A. 



animals that died a natural death where they are found. I am sure we 

 ought to be thankful that Professor Hughes, during his Ingleborough ex- 

 plorations, was able to escape being made a martyr to science ; for I can 

 understand, having travelled those moors myself, how easily an accident of 

 a serious nature might have occurred. As to the paper this evening, it fully 

 bears oat Professor Hughes's promise to tell us all about the operations of 

 nature in forming and filling these rocky caves ; and not only has he kept 

 his word in this respect, but he has given us a graphic and picturesque 

 account of the exceptional meteorological circumstances which sometimes 

 act as factors in these transactions. With regard to the glacial period, 

 it may be gathered that there was first of all a glacial period ; then a 

 pluvial period which has been slightly referred to as that of a Deluge ; then 

 the period in which there was the final subsidence of the land and the accu- 

 mulation of modern gravels which we now behold. The controversy arises as 

 to whether the animals whose bones are found in the caves lived before the 

 glacial period or afterwards. What I have to say on this point is that the 

 glacial period is really a sort of sliding scale. Its effects may have been 

 felt at one spot and not at another at the same time, so that there must 

 h we been constant wasting at one time and place and constant accumulation 

 at another ; the result being that life may have made its appearance, and 

 then its evidences may have been mechanically covered up by the changes. 

 1 he subject is one of extreme difficulty, and I should say it is impos- 

 sible, as far as dogmatic assertion goes, to say much more than this. I quite 

 agree with Sir Warington Smyth t.hat these matters should be dealt with 

 by geologists with the utmost caution, especially with regard to the 

 conditions of life during the glacial period. With regard to the animals 

 found in the Kentucky Cave, Professor Hughes thinks that certain of the 

 features to which he refers in the case of those creatures have been modified 

 by their surroundings ; but the fact is that there is no trace of modification, 

 for, as far as our knowledge goes, the features there remarked have always 

 been the same, the long antennre and absence of wings in the insects he 

 alludes to having been constant. Consequently, I cannot see the force 

 of producing these as proofs of evolution. Then, as to the mushrooms in 

 the fairy lings, which, it is said, are prevented from growing inside 

 through the material being exhausted, so that there the species become 

 extinct; I submit that the species does not become extinct. The individual 

 dies, but not the species ; and, although it may be speculated on as a theory, 

 we have no instance of a species dying out in that way. I will not now 

 enter into any argument upon the point, but simply claim to enter a caveat 

 against it. 



Mr. D. HOWARD, V.P.C.S. It seems to me that the paper to which we have 

 just listened is one of exceptional value, not merely on account of the inherent 

 interest of the subject, but from the very useful and sound method of study 

 it puts before us. It was, I think, a most fortunate accident that led 



