OF GEOLOGICAL DYNAMICS. 87 



evidence alone, we may regard the antiquity of life 

 on the earth as being possibly between thirty-eight 

 millions and ninety-six millions of years. How 

 many orthodox geologists accepted these estimates 

 fourteen months ago ? Now, indeed, we have a 

 precisely similar estimate from Professor Huxley 

 himself. And just twelve months ago at a meeting 

 of this Society, Mr. Geikie, 1 declaring his secession 

 from the prevailing orthodoxy, maintained that all 

 the erosion of which we have monumental evidence 

 in stratified rocks, and in the shapes of hills and 

 valleys over the world, could have taken place 

 several times over in the period of a hundred 

 million years. 



12. Professor Huxley, immediately after his 

 statement (quoted in 10 above), " If we accept 

 " the limitation of time placed before us by Sir 

 " William Thomson, it is not obvious on the face 

 " of the matter that we shall have to alter or 

 " reform our ways in any appreciable degree," says 

 " We may therefore proceed with much calmness 

 " and, indeed, much indifference to the result, to 



1 Now Sir Archibald Geikie (Note of date January 9, 1893). 



