ADDRESS SECTION A, B.A. 1876. 269 



distortion of the earth as a whole would never pro- 

 duce any great angular separation between the in- 

 stantaneous axis and the axis of maximum moment 

 of inertia for the time being. Considering, then, 

 the great facts of the Himalayas and Andes, and 

 Africa and the depths of the Atlantic, and America 

 and the depths of the Pacific, and Australia, and 

 considering further the ellipticity of the equatorial 

 section of the sea-level estimated by Capt. Clarke 

 at about T V of the mean ellipticity of meridional 

 sections of the sea-level, we need no brush from 

 the comet's tail (a wholly chimerical cause which 

 can never have been put forward seriously except 

 in ignorance of elementary dynamical principles) 

 to account for a change in the earth's axis ; we 

 need no violent convulsion producing a sudden 

 distortion on a great scale, with change of the 

 axis of maximum moment of inertia followed by 

 gigantic deluges ; and we may not merely admit, 

 but assert as highly probable, that the axis of 

 maximum inertia and axis of rotation, always very 

 near one another, may have been in ancient times 

 very far from their present geographical position 



