2G3 



ORDINARY MEETING.* 



The President, Sir G. G. Stokes, Bart., F.R.S., 

 IN the Chair. 



The Minutes of tlie last Meeting were read aud confirmed. 



The President. — We had all hoped that Professor Prestwich— whose 

 Paper I am glad to see is exciting such interest, to judge by the number 

 attending this meeting — would have been with us to-day ; but I am 

 sorry to add that, to his great regret, he is unable to be present, his doctor 

 having absolutely refused to allow him to face the journey in these east 

 winds. Professor Eupert Jones, F.R.S., has kindly arranged with the 

 author to read the paper, and I will now call upon him to do so. I am 

 sure there are not any in this room who will not regret Professor Prest- 

 wich's absence more from a feeling of deep regard for him than even by 

 reason of their own loss (applause). 



■ Professor T. Rupert Jones, F.E.S., then read the following paper :— 



A POSSIBLE CA USE EOR THE ORIGIN OF THE 

 TRADITION OF THE FLOOIJ.-^ By Joseph Prest- 

 wicH, D.C.L. (Oxon.), F.R.S., F.G.S., Coit. Inst. France, 

 etc. 



ri^HE geologist has to interpret two very distinct classes 

 I of phenomena. Firstly, those connected with the great 

 mass of stratified and solid Rocks, and secondly, those relating 

 to the thin sprinkling of debris derived from those rocks and 

 scattered over their surface. These latter, termed superficial 

 or Drift deposits are. nevertheless of no less interest than the 

 stratified rocks, as they are connected with the first appear- 

 ance of Man and with the distribution of the existing Fauna 

 and Flora on the surface of the Fiarth. These Drifts con- 

 sist of beds of sand, gravel, and loam, sometimes showing 

 stratification, at other times unstratified. At first they 

 attracted but little attention, and were all included together 

 under the general term of Diluvium, it being then supposed 

 that they were due to " an universal and transient deluge," 

 Avhereby the animals whose remains are buried iu these beds 

 were destroyed and their remains dispersed " by the waters 



* 7th Meeting of 29th Session, 19th Mar, 1894. 



t The facts on which this hypothesis is founded are only given in short 

 abstract in this paper. The full evidence will be found in the two 

 memoirs referred to in a note, p. 285. 



T 



