486 



NATURE 



{Sept. 19, 1889 



D. — Biology. 



Botanical Station at Peradeniya 

 Deep-sea Tow-net 

 Naples Zoological Station ... 

 West India Islands .„. 

 Marine Biological Association 



Y,— Economic Science and Statistics. 



Monetary Standard ... 

 Precious Metals in use as Money 



G. — MecJianical Science. 



Waves and Currents in Estuaries ... 

 Graphic Methods in Mechanical Science ... 



H . — Ant hi otology. 



North-Western Tribes of Canada ... 



Effect of Occupations on Physical Development 



Anthropological Notes and Queries 



Anthropometric Calculations 



Nomad Tribes of Asia Minor 



Natives of India 



10 



.. 100 



100 



•• 30 



10 

 15 



Corresponding Societies 



150 

 15 



100 

 20 

 50 

 10 



25 

 10 



20 



Total ... 



;^I265 



SECTION C. 



Opening Address by Prof. James Geikie, LL.D., F.R.SS. 

 L. & E., E.G. S., President of the Section. 



The President of this Section must often have some diffi- 

 culty in selecting a subject for his address. It is no longer 

 possible to give an interesting and instructive summary of the 

 work done by the devotees of our science during even one year. 

 So numerous liave the students of geological science become — 

 so fertile are the fields they cultivate — so abundant the harvests 

 they reap — that one in my present position may well despair of 

 being able to take stock of the numerous additions to our know- 

 ledge which have accumulated within the last twelve months. 

 Neither is there any burning question which at this time your 

 President need feel called upon to discuss. True, there are con- 

 troversies that are likely to remain unsettled for years to come — 

 there are still not a few matters upon which we must agree to 

 differ — we do not yet see eye to eye in all things geological. 

 But experience has shown that as years advance truth is 

 gradually evolved, and old controversies die out ; and so doubt- 

 less it will continue to be. The day when controversies shall 

 cease, however, is yet, I hope, far in the future ; for should that 

 dull and unhappy time ever arrive, it is quite certain that 

 mineralogists, petrologists, paleontologists, and geologists shall 

 have died out of the world. Following the example of many 

 of my predecessors, I shall confine my remarks to certain ques- 

 tions in which I have been specially interested. And in doing 

 so I shall endeavour to steer clear, as far as I can, of contro- 

 versial matters. My purpose, then, is to give an outline of some 

 of the results obtained during the last few years by Continental 

 workers in the domain of glacial geology. 



Those who are not geologists will probably smile when they 

 hear one declare that wielders of the hammer are extremely con- 

 servative — that they are slow to accept novel views, and very 

 tenacious of opinions which have once found favour in their eyes. 

 Nevertheless, such is the case ; and well for us that it is so. How- 

 ever captivating, however imposing, however strongly supported 

 by evidence a new view may appear to be, we do well to 

 criticize, to sift the evidence, and to call for more facts and ex- 

 periments, if such are possible, until the proofs become so strong 

 as to approach as near a demonstration as geologists can in most 

 cases expect such proofs to go. The history of our science, and 

 indeed of most sciences, affords abundant illustration of what 

 I say. How many long years were the views of sub-aerial 



erosion, as taught by Hutton and Playfair, canvassed and con- 

 troverted before they became accepted ! And even after their 

 general soundness had been established, how often have we 

 heard nominal disciples of these fathers of physical geology 

 refuse to go so far as to admit that the river-valleys of our islands 

 have been excavated by epigene agents? If, as a rule, it takes 

 some time for a novel view to gain acceptance, it is equally true 

 that views which have long been held are only with difficulty 

 discarded. Between the new and the old there is a constant 

 struggle for existence, and if the latter should happen to survive, 

 it is only in a modified form. I have often thought that a history 

 of the evolution of geological theories would make a very enter- 

 taining and instructive work. We should learn from it, amongst 

 other things, that the advance of our science has not always 

 been continuous — now and again, indeed, it has almost seemed 

 as if the movement had been retrograde. Knowledge has not 

 come in like an overwhelming flood — like a broad majestic river 

 — but rather like a gently-flowing tide, now advancing, now re- 

 tiring, but ever, upon the whole, steadily gaining ground. The 

 history I speak of would also teach us that many of the general 

 views and hypotheses which have betn from time to time aban- 

 doned as unworkable are hardly deserving of the reproach and 

 ridicule which we in these latter days may be inclined to cast 

 upon them. As the Scots proverb says, " It is easy to be wise 

 behindhand." It could be readily shown that not a few dis- 

 carded notions and opinions have frequently worked for good, 

 and have rather stimulated than checked inquiry. Such reflec- 

 tions should be encouraging to every investigator, whether he 

 be a defender of the old or an advocate of the new. Time tries 

 all, and each worker may claim a share in the final establishment 

 of the truth. 



Perhaps there is no department of geological inquiry that has 

 given rise to more controversy than that which I have selected 

 for the subject of this address. Hardly a single step in advance 

 has been taken without vehement opposition. But the din of 

 contending sides is not so loud now — the dust of the conflict has 

 to some extent cleared away, and the positions which have been 

 lost or maintained, as the case may be, can be readily discerned. 

 The glacialist who can look back over the last twenty- five years 

 of wordy conflict has every reason to be jubilant and hopeful. 

 Many of those who formerly opposed him have come over to his 

 side. It is true he has not had everything his own way. Some 

 extreme views have been abandoned in the struggle — that of a 

 great Polar ice-sheet, for example, as conceived of by Agassiz. 

 I am not aware, however, that many serious students of glacial 

 geology ever adopted that view. But it was quite an excusable 

 hypo hesis, and has been abundantly suggestive. Had Agassiz 

 lived to see the detailed work of these later days, he would 

 doubtless have modified his notion, and come to accept the 

 view of large continental glaciers which has taken its place. 



The results obtained by geologists, who have been studying, 

 the peripheral areas of the drift-covered regions of our continent, 

 are such as to satisfy us that the drifts of those regions are not 

 iceberg-droppings, as we used to suppose, but true morainic 

 matter and fluvio glacial detritus. Geologists have not jumped 

 to this conclusion^they have only accepted it after laborious 

 investigation of the evidence. Since Dr. Otto Torell, in 1875, 

 first stated his belief that the "diluvium" of North Germany 

 was of glacial origin, a great literature on the subject has sprung 

 up, a perusal of which will show that with our German friends 

 glacial geology has passed through much the same succession of 

 phases as with us. At first icebergs are appealed to as explain- 

 ing everything ; next we meet with sundry ingenious attempts at 

 a compromise between floating ice and a continuous ice-sheet. 

 As observations multiply, however, the element of floating ice is- 

 gradually eliminated, and all the phenomena are explained by 

 means of land-ice and Schmelz-'vasser s^Mnt. It is a remarkable 

 fact that the iceberg hypothesis has always been most strenuously 

 upheld by geologists whose labours have been largely confined! 

 to the peripheral areas of drift-covered countries. In the up- 

 land and mountainous tracts, on the other hand, that hypothesis 

 has never been able to survive a moderate amount of accurate 

 observation. Even in Switzerland— the land of g!acier.s — geo- 

 logists at one time were of opinion that the boulder-clays of the 

 low grounds had a different origin from those which occur in the 

 mountain valleys. Thus it was supposed that at the close of the 

 Pleistocene period the Alps were surrounded by great lakes or 

 gulfs of some inland sea, into] which the glaciers of the high 

 valleys flowed and calved their icebergs —these latter scattering 

 erratics and earthy debiis over the drowned areas. Sartorius 



