re 
358 
the immediate shore, and most of them grow in a depth 
of water not exceeding forty feet. It is easy to see that 
if the present oceans were affected bya movement similar 
to that described by Prof. Ball, the zone of seaweeds 
would be the scene of the greatest mechanical violence, 
and they would be alternately left to dry in the sun, or be 
torn with irresistible force from their anchorage, and 
scattered over the land washed by the flood tide. But on 
every old beach, of which we find so many in the geo- 
logical series, the casts of the fronds and stems of sea- 
weeds are as plainly discernible as on our present shores. 
Indeed we may say that of the thousand forms of animal 
and vegetable life which have their home along the 
shores of continents, the seaweeds, the boring annelids, 
the lingulas, the oysters, the barnacles, in short the vast 
majority of mollusks and all the shore-loving fishes and 
crustaceans, none could possibly have existed while tides 
such as have been described prevailed; for that which is 
now their chosen habitat and the zone of greatest vital 
activity on the globe, would have been a scene of constant 
and terrible destruction. 
_ It may also be said that if, as we suppose, the precipi- 
tation of ocean waters took place before the corrugations 
of the earth’s surface had assumed any considerable 
magnitude, and it was nearly or quite covered with water, 
tidal waves five hundred or more feet in height sweeping 
over the earth in rapid successio1 would have worn away 
the emerging land as fast as it appeared, would have pre- 
vented the formation of continents, and have precluded 
the existence of land animals or plants. And farther, 
since marine vegetation is practically confined to shallow 
water, high tides would have rendered the growth of alge 
impossible; and as they have supplied the pabulum for 
marine animal life, it follows that, with tides six hundred 
feet in height, our globe would have been a lifeless one. 
For the reasons cited above, and others that might 
be given, we are compelled to conclude that the high tides 
which formed the subject of Prof. Ball's lecture have had 
“no existence during the time covered by the geological 
record; and further, that since the beginaing of that 
record the order of nature has been essentially what it is 
to-day. The testimony of the rocks on this subject is so 
full and conclusive, that it really leaves no room for dis- 
cussion ; and hence the astronomers have been in error 
in regard to the genesis of the moon, and she never formed 
a portion of the earth’s mass, or the separation took place 
at a period so remote that she had receded to nearly her 
present distance before the dawn of life on the earth. 
J. S. NEWBERRY 
s 
EASY STAR LESSONS 
Easy Star Lessons. By Richard A. Proctor. 
Chatto and Windus, 1881.) 
E have been repeatedly struck by the comparative 
(it might have been said, more than comparative) 
ignorance which prevails, even among educated people, 
as to the nomenclature and position of the stars. There 
are many who would be grievously scandalised at the idea 
of not being able to call trees or flowers by their right 
names, but who seem very little concerned by having to 
admit a similar incompetency as to the beautiful luminaries 
of the skies. They would be indignant at the supposition 
that they did not know an oak from an ash, or could pos- 
(London : 
NATURE 
| Fed. 16, 1882 
sibly mistake a cowslip for a primrose ; but they have no 
hesitation to confess that they do not know the difference 
between the two dogs that have been for so many ages 
keeping guard in the heavens; and if possibly the pre- 
eminent brilliancy of Sirius, or the magnificent configu- 
ration of Orion, may have awakened enough of curiosity 
to ascertain what they are called, they would still be at 
an utter loss to discriminate between Capella and Arctu- 
rus, or to say in what constellation or at what time they 
are to look for the Pleiades, whose existence they can 
hardly ignore. Itis not easy to account for such a de- 
gree of uninstructed heedlessness. One reason possibly 
may be, that the knowledge of natural objects which makes 
its way by such gentle and imperceptible approaches into 
the minds of intelligent children is acquired by day rather 
than by night, and that their rambles with parents and 
nurses in sunshine hours familiarise them insensibly with 
many things of which they would remain ignorant if they 
were visible only during their hours of rest. But, however 
we may try to explain it, so it is, that what was termed in 
a previous generation the “ diffusion of useful knowledge,” 
seems not to have included a popular acquaintance with 
the sky, and that the maps which were published under 
that title and to promote that object have been much 
more serviceable to the express student of astronomy than 
to educated society in general. Whether such a state of 
ignorance or z#souciance may be equally prevalent in other 
countries we never had an opportunity of ascertaining ; 
but there can be no doubt of it among ourselves, and as 
little question can be made that it is a discredit to the 
professed intellectual progess of the age. 
Nor can a plausible excuse be fabricated from the want 
of adequate and familiar help. We pity those indeed 
who were obliged in former days to gain—or toil after— 
such knowledge from “exercises” on the celestial globe. 
Exercises indeed they were, to no common extent, of 
attention and patience, when some poor child had first of 
all to learn that left did not mean left, but right, and that 
she must fancy herself inside the globe to rectify what was 
drawn all wrong on its outside. This disagreeable and 
circuitous road to knowledge had indeed its advantages 
in the solution of problems which are probably less under- 
stood in its absence by a subsequent generation; but it 
was very troublesome, not to say expensive in its mma- 
chinery, and passed away, to be succeeded by planispheres 
and delineations of various kinds, and of easier attain- 
ment, any of which would have done much towards giving 
the requisite information, had they been used, or we may 
say cared for. There was help enough had the want of it 
been felt as it should have been. But now that astronomy 
is so decidedly in the ascendant, and takes rank among 
the prevailing tastes of the age, an opportunity is offered 
for a fresh attempt, with a fairer prospect of success , 
and we are glad to find that it has been laid hold of by an 
author whose name is a sufficient guarantee for his accu- 
rate knowledge both of the objects to which he would 
jntroduce us, and of the means of delineating them as 
naturally, and with as little derangement of position, as 
may be. For it is not every one that knows—though any 
one may readily convince himself by a trial with the rind 
of a halved orange—how great is the difficulty of exhibit_ 
ing a hemisphere on a plane surface, or how much inge- 
nuity is required in arranging a number of planes to 
