ORDINARY MEETING.* 



The President (Sir George G. Stokes, Bart., F.R.S.), 

 in the Chair. 



The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed. 



The President. — I regret to say that the Author of this Paper has 

 been unable to leave Edinburgh University, as he had hoped, so as to 

 have been present here this evening ; he has therefore asked his friend, 

 Mr. G. G. Chisholm, to read the Paper for him. 



THE GLACIAL PERIOD AND THE EARTH-MOVE- 

 MENT HYPOTHESIS. By Professor James Geikie, 

 LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.S., etc. 



PERHAPS no portion of the geological record has been 

 more assiduously studied during the last quarter of a 

 century than its closing chapters. We are now in possession 

 of manifold data concerning the interpretation of which there 

 seems to be general agreement. But while that is the case, 

 there remain, nevertheless, certain facts or groups of facts which 

 are variously accounted for. Nor have all the phenomena of the 

 Pleistocene period receivedequal attention from those who have 

 recently speculated and generalised on the subject of Pleisto- 

 cene climate and geography. Yet, we may be sure, geologists 

 are not likely to arrive at any safe conclusion as to the con- 

 ditions that obtained in Pleistocene times, unless the evidence 

 be candidly considered in all its bearings. No interpretation 

 of that evidence which does not recognise every outstanding 

 group of facts can be expected to endure. It may be possible 

 to frame a plausible theory to account for some particular 

 conspicuous phenomena, but should that theory leave 



* 9th Meeting, 27th Session. 



