568 Correspondence — Mr. 0. A. Shrubsole. 



tinental Ai'ctic ice can do the same thing required " the invention 

 of Croll, who, sitting in his arm-chair, and endowed with a brilliant 

 imagination, imposed upon sober science the extraordinary postulate " ; 

 and the sober, simple, scientific explanation of every difficulty, 

 imagined or real, is that the upheaval of " the highest masses of 

 land on the earth, including the massive mountains of Asia and the 

 American Cordillera," was " very rapid, if not sudden," and that 

 " the breaking up of the earth's crust at the time, of which the 

 evidence seems to be overwhelming, necessarily caused great waves 

 of translation to traverse wide continental areas." His own words, 

 " no science but long-suffering geology would tolerate the absurdity," 

 seem more to the point here. 



There need be no loss of temper or heated ai'gument on the 

 subject. Neither dogmatic assertion nor the weight of authority 

 will ultimately prevail. In the eyes of many it may be impertinent 

 of me to have opinions on this or any other subject ; but all, it 

 seems to me, have a right to add their mite in the hope that it will 

 assist in the elucidation of the truth. Of one thing I am sure, and 

 that is, that although we have been preceded by Forbes, Agassiz, 

 Bishop Eendu, Ramsay, and Tyndall, and a host of others who 

 have ceased to work in this world, there still remains very much 

 to be done. 



10, Chaenwood Street, Derby. E. M. Deelet. 



THE "SOUTHEEN DEIET." 

 Sir, — I am sorry that in my paper there should have been any 

 statement which Prof. Prestwich or anyone else could consider 

 misleading. In mentioning the name of Prof. Phillips, as well as 

 that of Prof. Prestwich, in connection with the Southern Drift, my 

 only object was to afford information to those unacquainted with 

 the literature of the subject. I suppose I put Phillips first because 

 the date of the work referred to (1871) was earlier than the quoted 

 paper of Prof. Prestwich.^ But no one who is at all acquainted with 

 Geology, or even with contemporary history, can suppose that the 

 slight reference in Phillips's work bears any sort of comparison to 

 the full and exhaustive work of Prof. Prestwich, who has done 

 more than any other geologist to create an interest in the once 

 despised " superficial deposits." Nor is it any disparagement of 

 Prof. Phillips's reputation as a geologist that his treatment of these 

 deposits in the Thames district should be necessarily imperfect, and 

 to some extent based on information supplied by others. . It is evident 

 that he knew of a hill-gravel formed by " currents from the south 

 transporting flints and sarsen-stones " ; but the passage quoted by 

 Prof. Prestwich contains all that he has said on the subject in the 

 work referred to. He has also figured neolithic forms as " Imple- 

 ments from the dx'ift." 



1 Prof. Prestwich writes : — " This is a mistake. Prof. Prestwich's first paper on 

 this subject was published in 1847. Besides, flint, gravel, and sarsen-stones alone do 

 not prove a drift from the south. It might as well have been from the west or 

 north-west." — J. P. 



