A. Vaughan — Problem of a Cooling Earth. 505 



pretation of the history of these phenomena as sudden and cata- 

 clysmic. Sir Henry goes on to produce evidence of his postulated 

 concurrent elevations of mountain chains, vv^hich, as he says, were 

 very rapidly, if not suddenly, elevated at the same period, viz. the 

 close of the Mammoth age. 



Again, he observes : — "Just as I ventured to argue that the upheaval 

 of the Ural Mountains, of the Altai, and of the American Cordillera 

 was rapid, if not sudden, and marked by every sign of cataclysmic 

 change, so also do I hold the corresponding subsidences to have 

 been rapid, if not sudden." No ambiguity of expression here; Sir 

 Henry seems to outdo his " old masters " in his appeal to catas- 

 trophism to explain his difficulties. He, however, naively says, 

 "Evidence on such a point is not always easy to find"; just so, 

 because the facts are all the other way. Mountain ranges were not 

 formed in a day, but are the result of long-continued upward move- 

 ments, of periods of repose, and also of depression. 



It may be asked, what would be the efi'ect of such sudden and 

 violent terrestrial disturbances on the organic life of the globe? 

 Undoubtedly great climatic changes would be induced, unfavourable 

 and destructive to any unfortunate animal or plant that might be 

 then existing ; as no time would be given to the organism to adapt 

 itself to its altered environment. Where are the signs and evidences 

 of such destruction of life ? 



But to return to our mountain-uplifts — the very structure of 

 mountain ranges, their various strata of different geological ages, 

 their successive lines of cliff and other evidences of long erosion, all 

 requiring time for their production, prove that their movements, as 

 with subsidences, have, as a rule, been very slow and intermittent. 



There was undoubtedly a very pronounced upward movement of a 

 large area of North America at the close of the Tertiary period, to 

 which American Geologists, with great show of probability, ascribe 

 that severe climatic change which resulted in what is known as the 

 " Glacial age " ; but, if this continental uplift be the cause of the 

 Glacial age, it does not square with Sir Henry's postulate as to the 

 geological date of the changes of level which resulted, as Sir Henry 

 assumes, in the destruction of the Mammoth at the close of that 

 period. 



It will be needless, I think, to pursue this subject farther, or to 

 attempt to lighten " the burden of the parable which Sir Henry has 

 been trying to preach" (I would rather say paradox). His recent 

 pleadings in favour of his pet postulate of the " Mammoth and the 

 Flood " appear to me as unreliable and unconvincing as those of 

 his many previous contributions to the pages of the Geological 

 Magazine on the same subject. 



VIII. — Problems connected with a Cooling Earth. 

 By Arthur Vaughan, B.A,, B.Sc. 



IN the Geological Magazine for June and July of this year, 

 I stated a new theory to account for the inequalities of the 

 earth's surface, and, at the same time, offered a criticism of Mr. 



