254 PROF. E. HULL, ON SUBMERGED RIVER-VALLEYS, ETC. 



channels, or canons, were being eroded down to their floors, the- 

 region must have stood about 7,200 feet higher than it does at 

 the present day. A great many leading geologists and men of 

 science have, to a greater or less extent, accepted my conclusions 

 as borne out by the contour lines — but there are others who' 

 doubt or disbelieve them altogether. 



Amongst the former was, till recently, Lord Avebury, F.R.S., 

 who has just brought out an elaborate and interesting work on 

 The Scenery of England, of Avhicli his loi'dship was so good as to 

 present me with a copy. I was gratified to find that my investiga- 

 tions had received recognition in very handsome terms, but with this 

 was added a statement of caution to the effect that I had, perhaps,, 

 cai'ried the argument farther than the facts entirely w^arranted. 

 On seeing this, I wrote to Lord Avebury to say that if he would 

 allow me I would be glad to show him the charts with the contour 

 lines in order that he might satisfy himself as to whether the 

 caution was justified. Accordingly, on a prearranged day, I took 

 the charts to his house, and for half-an-hour he went over thenv 

 very carefully, satisfying himself on the various points of interest 

 or difficulty — and I left the charts for some days in his keeping.. 

 The result was that I received from him a note dated 27th April, 

 in which he says in reference to the new edition of his book which 

 he is preparing, that after seeing my charts he is omitting thfr 

 sentence (p. 106) in which he expresses the " cautious doubt "" 

 above referred to ; practically i-ecognizing that the conclusions 

 I had arrived at were justified. 



The second confirmatory statement is of a totally difi'erent 

 nature, and though confirmatory of the view of the great elevation 

 of the European lands at which I had arrived, is based on physical 

 or biological evidence. Professor W. C. Brogger of the University 

 of Christiania, in a recent work Om de Senglaciale og Postglaciale 

 nivaforayidringer i kristianiafeliet, states (p. 683) " the occurrence 

 at great depths in the Norwegian sea oE the high Arctic fossil 

 shallow ivater mollusca of the Yoldia-fauna is explained by the 

 hypothesis, that the sea-bottom during the time of the greatest 

 ice-sheet of Europe, must have been uplifted at least 2,600 metres 

 (8,328 feet) higher than it is at present. In a discussion of this- 

 hypothesis, Dr. Frithjof N'ansen concludes that the explanation of 

 the occurrence of these arctic shallovr water fossils at great 

 depths in the Norwegian sea by the theory of transportation hj 



