316 PROP. HULL, LL.D., F.E.S., ON THE SUBMERGED TERRACES 



The Chairman (Commander G. P. Heath, R.N.).— Professor 

 Hull's very interesting paper is, I am sure, one ujjon which 

 some would like to make remarks. 



. Professor R. Etheridge, F.R.S., F.R.S.E., F.G.S., &c.— The 

 important paper by Professor Hull can scarcely be discussed 

 here ; indeed, it would be hypercritical to do so. The con- 

 clusions in the entire paj^er are based upon facts selected from 

 the hydrographical maps, j)iibli.shed by the Admiralty, giving 

 the soundings over, and westwards of, the British platform or 

 100-fatliom line, ranging from the north-western coasts of Scotland 

 and Ireland to the coast of Western France. Little or nothing 

 had previously been done in the British area west of this 

 100-fathom or 600-foot line; but Professor Hull has extended 

 observations through the analysis of the deeper soundings outside, 

 or westwards of, the 100-fathom line or submerged terrace, to 

 depths ranging from 250 to 1,500 or 2,000 fathoms. ISTo one has 

 hitherto applied these ocean soundings for the purpose of 

 elucidating the past physical history of the old and now 

 submerged land once extending far to the west, or into the 

 now depths of the Atlantic ranging through the contours of 

 250, 500, 750, 1,000, to 1,500 fathoms. From the extensive 

 series of soundings along our own coasts, and that of Western 

 Europe, ranging from France to Spain, Professor Hull has 

 selected the old and now depressed estuarine areas of certain 

 rivers, notably those on the west coast of Ireland — the Erue, the 

 Shannon Channel, the " Irish Channel riveo;" the " English Channel 

 river," and its once extensive cafion, with sections along or over the 

 '''■ British Platform'''' nearly 300 miles west of Ireland — to illustrate 

 his views upon the great depression of the now submerged land 

 beyond the known 100-fathom level or British platform, to depths 

 varying, and ranging from 1,500, 4,500, 6,000 to 9,000 feet, ending 

 in the abyssal plain of the Atlantic. Professor Hull, in his paper 

 on "Another possible cause of the Glacial Epoch," read before 

 the members of the Victoria Institute, refers to the views and 

 labours of Mr. Warren Upham and Professor Spencer on the 

 reconstruction of the antillian area, applying this to the submarine 

 valleys of the western coast of Scotland, Ireland, England, and 

 France to depths varying from 1,000 to 10,000 feet ; the map and 

 six sections prepared by Professor Hull most clearly illustrate 

 these important discoveries or additions to our knowledge of this 



