March 27, 1902] 



NA TURE 



491 



back as 1774, that a system of valleys, like that of 

 Auvergne, had' been carved out by running water in a 

 series of rocks of varying powers of resistance, including 

 even thick and wide sheets of solid lava, failed to impress 

 the geological mind. The subsequent enforcement of 

 the same lesson from the same region by Poulett Scrope 

 in 1826, and three years afterwards by Lyell and 

 Murchison, likewise roused no general interest. 

 English geologists, while they admitted that such a 

 process of land-sculpture might very well be allowed to 

 have been effective in the heart of a foreign country, far 

 from, the sea and high above its level, remained true to 

 their impression that, by invoking convulsions of the solid 

 ground below and sufficiently destructive operations of 

 the sea above, they could satisfactorily explain all that 

 seemed to need explanation in the topography of the 

 land. How deeply rooted this prejudice was is well 

 shown in the memorable paper by Ramsay on the 

 denudation of South Wales and the adjacent English 

 counties, published in 1846. This great classic holds, 

 and deserves to hold, an honoured place in geological 

 literature, as the first concrete attempt to work out in 

 some detail the denudation of a region with reference to its 

 geological structure. Yet at that time, being as marine 

 as the staunchest adherent of the old faith could desire, 

 its author scouted the idea that rivers and streamlets 

 had played any notable part in carving out the valleys 

 of the country. With the naive remark that "it is not to 



for twenty years longer. Their last champion was 

 probably the late Dr. D. Mackintosh, whose " Scenery 

 of England and Wales" appeared in 1869. 



But some years before that date the first step in the 

 application of Hutton's teaching to the history of the 

 valleys of this country had been taken by Beete Jukes, 

 who broke new ground and opened the eyes of his 

 brother geologists to the true nature of the problems of 

 topography by the publication of his ever-memorable 

 essay, "On the Mode of Formation of River Valleys in 

 the South of Ireland," which was issued in 1862. The 

 examples cited this time were not from a foreign country, 

 but from our own islands, where they could be judged of 

 and criticised in the light of all that was known of a 

 similar nature in other parts of Britain. The process of 

 time had fitted the soil of the geological mind for the 

 seed, and it soon sprang up and bore fruit. Next year 

 (1863) Ramsay showed in the first edition of his " Physical 

 Geography and Geology of Great Britain" that his old 

 faith was weakened, and that he was prepared to follow 

 his friend and colleague in what was really a return to 

 the Huttonian fold. At that time the Geological Survey 

 was at work on the Weald under Ramsay's supervision, 

 and had to face the problem of its denudation, which had 

 been so often described and discussed and had so com- 

 placently been assumed to be a proof of the levelling 

 action of the sea. For the first time in England a tract 

 of country which was geologically mapped in detail was 



, .^ysgarth, Wunsleydalc, Yorkshit 



be expected that an unaccustomed eye should at first 

 detect all the evidences of the former action of the sea on 

 these lands," he afiirmed that "we must either adopt the 

 theory that the great features of the land have resulted 

 from the ordinary action of the sea, or else revert to the 

 hypothesis of great bodies of water violently rushing 

 over the surface." These views continued to prevail 

 NO. 1 69 1, VOL. 65] 



simultaneously subjected to a searching inquiry as to the 

 history of its topographical features. The officers of the 

 staff, after an exhaustive examination of the ground, were 

 led to discard the doctrine of marine erosion and to 

 adopt in its stead that of long-continued subaiirial waste. 

 They showed convincingly how this explanation recon- 

 ciled all parts of the evidence, and how each new 



