490 



NA rURE 



[March 27, 1902 



board go to each subboard, and twelve subsidiary circuits 

 leave it. In the main electrical laboratories there are 

 five of these subcircuits, and to avoid magnetic action 

 concentric wiring has been used in the section. Each 

 board is fitted with a voltmeter, so that the voltage can 

 be tested before connection is made with any instruments. 

 Thus the electrical equipment, so far as it goes, is 

 unusually complete. It should be noted, however, that 

 provision is still required for alternating current supply 

 and for voltages above i lo volts. Arrangements have been 

 made by which the experimental battery can be put on to 

 ihe lighting circuit, or run in series with the lighting 

 battery to get 220 volts, but it is not anticipated that this 

 will often be done. ."Xs sion as funds permit, the outfit 

 will need supplementing in this respect. 



It will apjiear from the above that there is much to be 

 done before the Laboratory can be called complete ; still, 

 for many branches of its work it has the means to start, 

 and its success in these will lead to increased opportunities 

 for development. 



THE SCENER V OF ENGLAND} 



IT is curious to reflect on the history of man's inquiry 

 into the origin of the landscapes among which he 

 has lived for so many thousand years, and to find how 

 recent is his intelligent interest in the subject. Within 



secrets of the rocks below the surface and thus recon- 

 structing the geography and scenery of the successive 

 eras of the geological past, only meagre attention was 

 given to the causes which had brought about the existing 

 features of that surface. The popular notion that every- 

 thing remained as it had been from the beginning 

 was known to be untenable and absurd ; nevertheless, 

 the subject failed to excite the interest of geologists as a 

 body. Some of them were VVernerian tories, others 

 I'kitonist conservatives or Uniformitarian liberals ; 

 but whatever might be their geological creed, they 

 were for the most part Gallios in this matter, never 

 caring to set themselves seriously to consider how their 

 familiar hills and valleys were in detail to be accounted 

 for. 



Vet the way had been shown to them generations before. 

 It had been opened up by Lazzaro Moro and Generelli in 

 Italy ; by Ray and afterwards by Hutton and Playfair in 

 this country ; and by (iuettard and Dcsmarest in France. 

 Living on an island and accustomed to continual tales of 

 the destruction wrought by the sea on the margin of the 

 land, British geologists, largely influenced in later years 

 by Lyell, had come to look upon the sea as the prime 

 agent in the degradation of the terrestrial surface. They 

 had no theoretical objection to depressing or uplifting the 

 land to any extent that might be desired, in order to 

 account by marine erosion for any particular topo- 

 graphical feature. While admitting the existence of 



Granite Coast, l.;ornwaii. 



the memory of many who are still alive and active, the what were called " valleys of denudation," they thought it 

 present topography of the land hardly came within the much more probable that these hollows had been scooped 



scope of scientific investigation, and while the utmost 

 energy and enthusiasm were displayed in unravelling the 



Ripht He 

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;encry of England :»nd itie C.iuscs to which it is Du 

 I-ord Avcbury. Pp. x.vvi + 534. (London : Mai 

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NO. 1 69 1, VOL. 65] 



out by violent inundations of the sea, or by ocean currents 

 moving with great velocity over the submerged country, 

 than that they could have been carved out by such seem- 

 ingly feeble agents as the rivers that tlow in them. The 

 admirable demonstration given by Dcsmarest, as far 



