PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



ROYAL PHYSICAL SOCIETY. 



SESSION CXIX. 



Wednesday, 20th KovewMr 1889.— Dr E. H. Tkaquair, F.Pt.S., 

 President, in the Chair. 



Professor J. Geikie, LL.D., D.C.L., F.E.S., retiring Yice- 

 President, delivered the following opening address : 



One of the most interesting questions with which geolo- 

 gical science has to deal is that of the evolution of climate. 

 Although there is no general agreement as to how former 

 climatic fluctuations came about, yet the prevalent opinion 

 is that in the past, just as in the present, the character of 

 the climate must have depended mainly on latitude and the 

 relative position of the great land- and water-areas. This 

 was the doctrine taught by Lyell, and its cogency none will 

 venture to dispute. It is true he postulated a total redis- 

 tribution of oceans and continents — a view which the progress 

 of science has shown to be untenable. We can no lonser 

 speculate with him on the possibility of all the great land- 

 areas having been grouped at one time round the equator, 

 and at some other period about the poles. On the contrary, 

 the evidence goes to show that the continents have never 

 changed places with the ocean — that the dominant features 

 of the earth's crust are of primeval antiquity, and antedate 

 the oldest of the fossiliferous formations. The whole ques- 



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