64 LIFE OF Sm JOHN LUBBOCK ch. 



to his Great Ice Age, chapter xUii. (ed. of 

 1892). He says that the criticisms levelled 

 against it have not shaken his faith in the theory, 

 and that it must stand or fall accordingly as it 

 explains or fails to explain the geological 

 evidence. 



Incidentally, Mr. Kenny -Hughes very strongly 

 urges Sir John not to give up his view as to the 

 southward pointing promontories being the results 

 of continents plunging into deeper water on the 

 South. If the Northern Hemisphere was simi- 

 larly submerged, the great mountain ranges of 

 North America, the Urals and the Scandinavian 

 axis would, according to this geologist's view, 

 show their backbones above the water in just the 

 same way. He adds his belief that the solution 

 of all our difficulties in respect of climate and the 

 age of the earth will be found in the constancy 

 and intensity of earth movements, and that the 

 secret of the distribution of life lies in the con- 

 tinuity — not the permanence, but the " shifting 

 continuity " — of oceanic and continental areas. 



Professor Bonney has a rather severe indict- 

 ment of the geological maps of Switzerland 

 extant at the time, which showed, amongst other 

 inaccuracies, no gneiss at all, where nmch gneiss 

 is, and so on. We have already seen Sir John 

 himself discovering nummulites in Swiss rock 

 which is ascribed to the Triassic period, and 

 which, on the evidence of the nummulites, must 

 needs be brought " up to date " to the Eocene. 



The press reviews were very favourable to the 

 book. The only one which seems worth special 

 notice here is from the Revue Suisse, which is 



