June 2, 1904] 



NA TURE 



115 



evidence obtainable in the British Isles, in regard to the 

 causes which, in this region, have determined the emergence 

 and submergence of land. The vertical range of the changes 

 of level to which the discussion in this address was limited 

 amounts at least to as much as 700 feet, that is, some 600 

 feet below and 100 feet above the surface of the sea. But 

 it will be remembered that, if we include all the deposits 

 that contain recent marine shells in situ, the range of move- 

 ment will be found considerably to e.xceed 1000 feet. The 

 problem to be solved is whether this wide amplitude of 

 shift in the relative levels of sea and land should be 

 attributed to variations in the height of the surface of the 

 oceanic envelope, or to secular movements of the terrestrial 

 crust. 



Any change of sea-level might be expected to be general 

 and fairly uniform over long distances. The area of the 

 British Isles is too restricted to permit us to believe that 

 there could ever have been any serious difference in sea- 

 level between the eastern and western coasts, or between 

 the northern and southern limits of the country. Whether, 

 therefore, the surface of the sea rose upon the land or sank 

 away from it, we should find the records of these changes 

 to e.\tend over the entire region, and to be marked on the 

 whole by a persistent uniformity of level. But an examin- 

 ation of the evidence fails to furnish proofs of any such 

 extension and uniformity. 



In the first place, the raised beaches, although so perfectly 

 developed over nearly the whole of Scotland, disappear 

 towards the north among the Orkney and Shetland Islands 

 where, had they ever existed, they had every chance of 

 being as well preserved as anywhere on the mainland. 

 These islands obviously lay outside of the area affected by 

 the movement that led to the formation of the beaches. 

 But they could not have escaped from the effects of any 

 rise in the level of the sea. Again, it is incredible that if 

 the great 100-foot terrace, so prominent a feature in Scot- 

 land, had been formed by an uprise of the surface of the 

 sea, the same terrace should not have been visible in 

 thousands of favourable positions in England, Wales, and 

 Ireland. Its entire absence cannot be accounted for by the 

 presence of former ice-sheets in these regions, or by sub- 

 sequent denudation. This absence may surely be taken as 

 proof that the terrace never extended over these parts of 

 our islands. 



In the second place, had the position of the buried forests 

 in the southern half of England and Wales been due to a 

 rise in the sea-level, similar evidence of submerged land- 

 surfaces at corresponding depths should have been met with 

 generally round our coast-line. Neolithic man was an in- 

 habitant of the country before this submergence was com- 

 plete, and has dropped his handiwork in the beds of peat. 

 In the north of Ireland and in central Scotland, however, 

 during Xeolithic time the land was emerging from the 

 sea, and man has left his flint-flakes and weapons in the 

 youngest raised beaches. Thus in the same period of 

 geological time the sea-level must be supposed to have 

 risen 50 or 60 feet in the south, and to have sunk 25 or 30 

 feet in the north. But we cannot suppose that within a 

 distance of 300 or 400 miles there could have been a differ- 

 ence of 75 feet or more in the level of the water. 



In the third place, there can be little doubt that when 

 accurate levellings are taken of the raised beaches, it will 

 be found that their apparent horizontality is not absolute, 

 but that they rise slowly in certain directions, more 

 particularly towards the axis of the country. It is not 

 improbable also that a difference of level will be detected 

 between the same beach on the eastern and on the western 

 coast, and between its most northerly and most southerly 

 parts. Such evidence of a deformation of the land can only 

 be determined by careful geodetic measurements still to 

 lie undertaken. 



In the meantime, on a review of the whole evidence, the 

 author felt confident that the balance of proof is largely 

 in favour of the old belief that the changes of level, of 

 which our islands furnish such signal illustrations, have 

 been primarily due, not to any oscillations of the surface 

 of the ocean, but to movements of the terrestrial crust con- 

 nected with the slow cooling and contraction of our globe. 

 If this belief is to be overthrown, better evidence must be 

 I nought against it than has been hitherto adduced. 



NO. 1805, VOL. 70] 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Oxford. — On Saturday, May 28, the following honorary 

 degrees were conferred on foreign delegates of the Inter- 

 national Association of Academies: — D.C.L., Chevalier 

 Edouard Descamps (of the University of Louvain), Ministre 

 d'Etat, S^nateur Beige. D.I.itt., J.L. Heiberg, University 

 of Copenhagen; M. Emile Senart, Acadimie des Inscrip- 

 tions et Belles-Lettres, Paris ; M. Boutroux, Acad^mie des 

 Sciences Morales et Politiques, Paris; Prof. Collignon, 

 Acad(5mie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Paris. D.Sc, 

 Prof. Dr. Flechsig (Leipzig), Kgl. .Siichsische Ges. der 

 Wissenschaften ; Prof. E. Ehlers, Kgl. Ges. der Wissen- 

 schaften, Gottingen ; M. A. Giard, Academic des Sciences, 

 Paris ; Dr. Victor von Lang, Kaiserl. Akad. der Wissen- 

 schaften, Vienna ; Prof. H. Mohn, chairman of the com- 

 mittee of the Videnskabs Selskab, Christiania ; and Prof. H. 

 Obersteiner, of the University of Vienna. 



A meeting of the Junior Scientific Club was held on 

 May 27. Papers were read by Mr. R. T. Lattey, on 

 " Electrochemical Actinometers," and by Mr. E. C. 

 Atkinson, on " Surveying in South Africa." 



The following are among the honorary degrees to be 

 conferred at the Encasnia on June 22 : — D.C.L., Mr. 

 Charles Booth, F.R.S., president of the Royal Statistical 

 Society. D.Sc, the Hon. C. A. Parsons, F.R.S. ; Prof. 

 Pierre Curie ; Sir W. S. Church ; Sir Andrew Noble, F.R..S. ; 

 Sir William Crookes, F.R.S. ; Sir David Gill, F.R.S. ; Sir 

 John Murray, F.R.S.; Prof. Alfred Marshall; Prof. J. J. 

 Thomson, F.R.S. ; Prof. Horace Lamb, F.R.S. ; Prof. A. R. 

 Forsyth, F.R.S. ; Prof. Dewar, F.R.S. ; and Prof. Larmor, 

 Sec.R.S. 



Cambridge. — The following are the speeches delivered by 

 the Public Orator, Dr. Sandys, on May 28, in presenting 

 the under-mentioned members of foreign academies for the 

 degree of Doctor in Science, honoris cansA : — 



Prof. Bakhuvzen, of Levden. 

 Inter doctores nostros novos primus hodie progreditur 

 Scientiarum Academiae Amstelodamensis praeses, Bata- 

 vorum astronomus insignis. Abhinc annos septemdecim 

 consilii magni inter auctores fuit, quo caeli totius stellae, 

 luminis ipsius auxilio chartis impressae, accuratissime 

 redderentur. Etiam altero in opere immenso cum aliis 

 consociatus est, quo caeli parte Boreali in regiones sedecim 

 divisa, stellarum multitudo infinita minutissime observaretur. 

 luvat hodie recordari caeli regionem astronomo Leidensi 

 assignatam regioni Cantabrigiensi esse conterminam. Idem 

 latitudinis (ut aiunt) varietatem, orbis terrarum axe leviter 

 vacillante e.xortam, diligenter exploravit. Talium virorum 

 ope Europae gentes scientiae amore excitatae, etiam in orbe 

 terrarum accuratius dimetiendo invicem certant, astronomi 

 illius antiqui laudem aemulatae, 



" descripsit radio totum qui gentibus orbem." 

 Prof. Famintsyn, of St. Petersburg. 



Russorum ab imperio adest botanicae professor eximius, 

 qui studiorum provinciam nactus pulcherrimam, rerum 

 omnium, quas terra gignit, physiologiam inter primos 

 exploravit. Quam exquisitis usus experimentis, ostendit 

 artificio quam admirabili herbarum genus omne soils radiis 

 factum virescat ; etiam subter aquas algae minutissimae 

 motu tremulo vibrent ; foliorum denique omnium in cellis 

 primordia quaedam viriditatis sese explicent, sed eadem 

 solem nimium reformident. Quam feliciter idem novo 

 lumine rem obscuram iUustravit, vitamque illam communem, 

 quae inter animalia quaedam minutissizna et algarum 

 cellulas intercedit, diei in lucem nuper protraxit. 



" sic unumquicquid paulatim protrahit aetas 

 in medium, ratioque in luminis erigit oras." 



Ed.mund Mojsisovics, Edler von Mojsv.4r, of Vienna. 



Vindobonensium ab Academia insigni ad nos advectus 

 est vir de geologia praeclare meritus, qui duodequadraginta 

 per annos palaeontologiae studiis deditus, Ammonis prae- 

 sertim cornua, rupium in sinu insculpta, aevi prioris indicia 

 (prope dixerim oracula) verissima existimavit. Quid dicam 



