THE 



aEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 



NEW SERIES. DECADE V. VOL. I. 



No. I.— JANUARY, 1904. 



I. — A Eetrospect of Geology in the last Forty Years. 

 (Part I.) 



THE completion of the 40th volume of the Geological Magazine, 

 and the commencement of its Fifth Decade under the Editorship 

 of one who has been responsibly associated with the undertaking 

 since 1864, and has been Editor-in-chief since July, 1865, furnishes 

 a fit opportunity for a retrospect. 



In the opening pages of this Magazine Professor Eupert Jones 

 dealt with " The Past and Present Aspects of Geology." He 

 remarked on the tendency to encroach upon the theory of Uniformity, 

 upon the right " to call in the agency of forces which, though not 

 seen in operation in nature, may be evoked in the laboratory." He 

 further referred to " recent discussions respecting the origin of 

 granite, the mode of formation of river-valleys, the excavation of 

 lake-basins, the doctrine of ' homotaxis,' and the origin of species." 

 At that time, owing to the teachings of Huxley, there was more 

 scepticism than there is now as to the exact truth of " the con- 

 temporaneity of strata which contain the same or similar fossils, and 

 which are geographically far apart." 



All these and many other subjects at home and abroad have been 

 discussed in our pages, the aim (as stated in the January Number, 

 1866, p. 1) having been "to enlarge the opportunities of pre- 

 serving the results " of the labours of the ever-increasing number of 

 geologists, and " to supplement, as far as possible, the authoritative 

 and old-established Journal of the Geological Society." 



Throughout this long period the material at our disposal has been 

 abundant, and the importance of the greater part of it has been 

 acknowledged : indeed, we may claim to have published many an 

 essay that is now regarded as a classic ; while among them we may 

 count perhaps a few of the ' Eejected Addresses ' that a too con- 

 servative element in former Councils of the Geological Society 

 thought right to discountenance. 



Looking back over the forty volumes, our pride and satisfaction 

 are not unalloyed with a reasonable amount of humility, such as 

 everyone naturally feels with a work that has been accomplished. 



decade v. — VOL. I. — NO. I. 1 



