96 POPULAR LECTURES AND ADDRESSES. 



investigations of geologists and archaeologists 

 combined. 



17. My expectations from tidal dynamics now 

 weigh with me very decidedly against M. Dufour's 

 meteoric hypothesis ; much more than they did at 

 the time I first referred to it in the Rede Lecture 

 of 1866. And although the establishment of this 

 hypothesis would be almost as fatal as the retard- 

 ation by tides to the uniformitarian geologists, 

 I cannot view the solution of the question with 

 indifference. I look forward with much interest to 

 see it tested by chemical analysis of the dust 

 which has accumulated over Egyptian, Greek, and 

 Assyrian monuments for the last two or three 

 thousand years. 



1 8. (II.) The only answer which Professor 

 Huxley gives to my argument from the sun's heat 

 is, that as lately as fifteen years ago I "entertained 

 " a totally different view of the origin of the sun's 

 " heat, and believed that the energy radiated from 

 " year to year was supplied from year to year, a 

 " doctrine which would have suited Ilutton per- 

 " fcctly." So far from this being the case, if Pro- 



