CAUSE FOE THE ORIGIN OP THE TRADITION OF THE FLOOD. 285 



The President (Sir G. G. Stokes, Bart.). — I am sure all 

 present will join in according best thanks to Professor Prestwich 

 for this very elaborate communication (cheers), and only regret 

 that he is not able to be here himself to join in the discussion 

 which I hope will now take place. (Cheers.) We must, 

 however, not forget to thank Professor Rupert Jones for the 

 part he has so kindly taken as reader. As a number of 

 distinguished geologists are present, I hope we shall hear some 

 of their opinions, after a communication has been read. 



The Hon. Secretary. — Several letters of regret have been 

 received from those unable to be present, including one from the 

 Uuke of Argyll. 



The communication which has been referred to is from Sir J. 

 William Dawson, C.M.G., F.R.S. 



Montreal, 



February 9th, 1894. 

 To the Victoria Institute. 



" I beg to thank you for youi* kindness in sending me an early 

 proof of the interesting paper of my friend Dr. Prestwich. As 

 you are aware, I have for years, on geological and palseontological 

 grounds, maintained the existence of a physical break between 

 the earlier and later portions of the Anthropic Age, and that this 

 was of the nature of a temporary submergence which would 

 probably prove to be identical with the historical deluge. The 

 conviction of the truth of this theory has been growing upon me 

 in recent years, owing to the accumulation of new facts. You 

 may remember that I stated it distinctly in my paper of 1884 

 (vol. xviii), on the Lebanon caves, published in the Transactions of 

 the Institute, and more recently in a note on another occasion. 

 I have refen^ed to the subject in my Address as President of the 

 Geological Society of America, delivered in Boston in December 

 last, and of which I hope soon to send copies to the Institute. In 

 this Address I have noticed Dr. Prestwich's recent memoir in tho 

 Transactions of the Royal Society of London, and have directed 

 the attention of the members of the Geological Society to the impor- 

 tance of similar observations in America, in relation to deposits 

 resembling the Rubble- drift, but not yet satisfactorily separated 

 from the Glacial beds. 



" It is a source of much gratification to me that Dr. Prestwich 

 has accumulated so great a mass of facts as to the results of this 

 comparatively recent catastrophe, and I hope the subject will now 



