102 PROFESSOR T. MCKENNY HUGHES, M.A. 
animals that died a natural death where they are found. I am sure we 
ought to be thankful that Professor Hughes, during his Ingleborough ex- 
plorations, was able to escape being made a martyr to science; for I can 
understand, having travelled those moors myself, how easily an accident of 
a serious nature might have occurred. As to the paper this evening, it fully 
bears out Professor Hughes’s promise to tel] us all about the operations of 
nature in forming and filling these rocky caves ; and not only has he kept 
his word in this respect, but he has given us a graphic and picturesque 
account of the exceptional meteorological circumstances which sometimes 
act as factors in these transactions. With regard to the glacial period, 
it may be gathered that there was first of all a glacial period; then a 
pluvial period which has been slightly referred to as that of a Deluge ; then 
the period in which there was the final subsidence of the land and the accu- 
mulation of modern gravels which we now behold. The controversy arises as 
to whether the animals whose bones are found in the caves lived before the 
glacial period or afterwards. What I have to say on this point is that the 
glacial period is really a sort of sliding scale. Its effects may have been 
felt at one spot and not at another at the same time, so that there must 
have been constant wasting at one time and place and constant accumulation 
at another ; the result being that life may have made its appearance, anf 
then its evidences may have been mechanically covered up by the changes. 
The subject is one of extreme difficulty, and I should say it is impos 
sible, as far as dogmatic assertion goes, to say much more than this. I quite 
agree with Sir Warington Smyth that these matters should be dealt with 
by geologists with the utmost caution, especially with regard to the 
conditions of life during the glacial period. With regard to the animals 
found in the Kentucky Cave, Professor Hughes thinks that certain of the 
features to which he refers in the case of those creatures have been modified 
by their surroundings ; but-the fact is that there is no trace of modification, 
for, as far as our knowledge goes, the features there remarked have always 
been the same,—the long antennz and absence of wings in the insects he 
alludes to having been constant. Consequently, I cannot see the force 
of producing these as proofs of evolution. Then, as to the mushrooms in 
the fairy rings, which, it is said, are prevented from growing inside 
through the material being exhausted, so that there the species become 
extinct; I submit that the species does not become extinct. The individual 
dies, but not the species ; and, although it may be speculated on as a theory, 
we have no instance of a species dying out in that way. I will not now 
enter into any argument upon the point, but simply claim to enter a caveat 
against it. 
Mr. D. Howarp, V.P.C.S.-—It seems to me that the paper to which we have 
just listened is one of exceptional value, not merely on account of the inherent 
interest of the subject, but from the very useful and sound method of study 
it puts before us, It was, I think, a most fortunate accident that led 
