Notices of Memoirs — Sir John Evans'' Presidential Address. 457 



I believe, I am primarily indebted to Lyell ; views which I taught 

 to my class in Dublin, and which time has only tended to confirm ; 

 namely, that the Great Ice Age was introduced by a general rise of 

 the land bordering the North Atlantic, accompanied by increased 

 cold and Glacial conditions, followed by submergence and inter- 

 Glacial, or milder, conditions of temperature ; this again, by 

 emergence and elevation ultimately attaining to the present levels, 

 including minor marginal undulations. These were the three great 

 physical epochs of the Glacial period. When firmly grasped, they 

 are the wards of a key which serves to unlock the many difficulties 

 in the phenomena of the Post-Pliocene period. If Sir Henry 

 Howorth will condescend to make use of this key he will pi-obably 

 find a solution to his difficulties as regards the views of his opponents, 

 while fresh light will be thrown on those he so ably expounds. He 

 will see how it explains the superimposition of marine stratified 

 deposits on glaciated rock-surfaces and moraine-profonde matter- 

 dejDosits, differing in age and in conditions of formation. I am 

 writing these notes at a distance from books, maps, and memoirs, 

 Avhich I hope will be accepted as my apology for errors, whether 

 of omission or commission. 



intotioiejs o:f iMiiBnynoiK-S- 



I. — British Association for the Advancement of Science. 

 Toronto, August 18th, 181^7. 



PllESIDENTIAL AdDRESS 



Ey Sir John Evans, K.C.B., D.C.L., LL.D., Sc.D., V.P.S.A., For. Sec. G.S., etc. 



rpHE President said the British Association, for a second time, 

 X had the honour and pleasure of accepting the hospitality of 

 Canada. On their last visit in 1884:, their place of assembly was 

 Montreal, a city which is justly proud of her M'Gill University ; 

 to-day they met within the buildings of another of the Universities 

 of the vast Dominion, and in a city the absolute fitness of which for 

 such a purpose must have been foreseen by the native Indian tribes 

 when they gave to a small aggregation of huts upon that spot the 

 name of Toronto — " the place of meetings." His election to the 

 important post he now held might, in the main, be regarded as 

 a recognition by this Association of the value of Archseology as 

 a science. It was no doubt hard to define the exact limits to be 

 assigned to Archeeology as a science, and Archteology as a branch 

 of history and belles lettres. A distinction did, however, exist 

 between Archeeology proper and what, for want of a better word, 

 might be termed Antiquarianism. 



A familiarity with all the details of Greek and Roman mythology 

 and culture must be regarded as a literary rather than a scientific 

 qualification ; and yet, when among the records of classical times 

 they came upon traces of manners and customs which had survived 

 for generations, and which iseemed to throw some rays of light upoa 



