478 Correspondence — Prof. H. O. Seeley. 



exceedingly scarce in the area bounded on the east by Lakes Onega 

 and Ladoga, an area where the Boulder-drift prevails." That floods 

 of considerable magnitude vasiy have taken place, again and again 

 during the Glacial period, is more than likely ; but the stratigraphical 

 and physical evidence in support of the Great Flood, as pictured by 

 Mr. Howorth, has yet to be made known. 



Mr. Howorth has given lists of the Pleistocene Mammalia from 

 various parts of the world, a task which we can readily admit has 

 given him a great deal of patient labour. Nor was his task at all 

 lightened by the uncouth names so profusely applied to the genera 

 and species. On this subject he seeks to comfort his troubled mind 

 by remarking, " Surely we are nearing a time when the man who 

 coins a new species without abundant excuse will be deemed a 

 scientific criminal, and when the ambition to flood text-books with 

 lists of names of one's own invention will cease to be called science, 

 and be treated as mere child's play." 



In addition to the Mammalia, other organic remains, including 

 the Plants of Pleistocene times, are more or less fully recorded. 



The author loses no opportunities of entering and repeating his 

 protests against "■ the creed of English Uniformitarians." In this 

 respect he is not alone, we think, in somewhat needlessly spending 

 ■a good deal of energy ; his views, after all, as he points out, coincide 

 with those advanced by Prof. Huxley more than eighteen years ago 

 in an address to the Geological Society of London. Moreover, the 

 elementary facts to which Mr. Howorth alludes (p. xv), such as the 

 sudden creation and rapid disappearance of the submarine island 

 near Santorin, are clearly not opposed to the teachings enunciated 

 by Lyell, and they do not " strain the theory of Uniformity to the 

 breaking point." Geologists do not argue " that the present forces 

 which are busy with the Earth's crust are the measure of what 

 they have always been," but they do hesitate to introduce 

 ^' abnormal " causes, or tools that are not known to exist in 

 Nature's workshop, to explain phenomena that can be accounted 

 for by known agents. 



Notwithstanding our objections to the very sweeping conclusions 

 drawn by Mr. Howorth, his work will be of great value as a 

 storehouse of facts on the fauna and flora of Pleistocene times. 

 The book is well printed on thick paper and neatly bound. Its 

 value, however, as a work of reference is seriously damaged by the 

 lack of an index : but perhaps the author can remedy this when he 

 brings out his second volume. 



COIiK^IESI^OITIDIBlsrCIE]. 



JSTAMES OF BONES REVISED. 



Sir, — In "The Ornithosauria," 1870, pi. xii. figs. 12, 13, I gave 

 two views of a fragment of bone, which is described as follows : 

 " Undetermined [? pterygoid end of palatine bone]." This fragment 

 I now know to be the radial crest of an Ornithosaurian humerus. 



In the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, 1877, vol. 

 xxxii. p. 716, is an account of Pliosaurus Evansi. A bone in that 



