70 AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



ponding one the top of a continent. There would be no tendency to change, be- 

 cause the bottom of the ocean would keep cool from the superiDcumbent water, 

 while the ridge of the continent would keep cool from its height, and the hottest 

 places would be along the coast. Wi must expect these lines, therefore, to re- 

 main as a permanent condition, with only such modifications as would arise from 

 currents and glacial action : a theory which geologists seemed inclined to adopt at 

 present. He would draw attention to the effect which the trade winds produced 

 by their friction upon the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans in gulf streams. The Gulf 

 Streams, cotemporary with the first shaping of the American Continent, would 

 throw warm water upon the European world and keep it in a fluid state for some 

 time after the other continents were definitively formed. It was well known that 

 the last portions of a fluid to free2e froze over most roughly; Europe, therefore, would 

 be, as it was, the most broken up of the continents. Much criticism would arise 

 from the known age-relations of different ranges of mountains. According to this 

 view, we could hardly do otherwise than suppose that the first tendency to break 

 should be along the line of the Pacific coast. Yet we know that this was one of 

 the last to be upheaved. We must, however, remember that the first action was 

 only a little flexure — ^just enough to give direction to a current which would after- 

 wards throw the water over upon this side. This line, being the line of cleavage, 

 would be the most subject to volcanic action, and would be the last as well as the 

 first affected by it. The only ground of opposition to this was tlie theory of Elie 

 de Beaumont, which traced long lines of wrinkling from very short lines of eleva- 

 tion in Europe. He thought that Elie de Beaumont had gone too far in making 

 liaes so short the bases of such extended generalization. It was very much like 

 taking 600 or TOO miles of the Isthmus of Darien as a basis for determining the 

 direction of the Andes and Rocky Mountains. We saw on examination that 

 the lines of Elie de Beaumont were so close together, and so many of them were 

 so nearly tangential to the polar circle, that we were led to believe that they 

 might be only slight variations. 



THE ZODIACAL LIGHT. — BT THE EEV. GEOEGE JONES, U.S.N. 



The following brief notice conveys a very imperfect indication of the report 

 submitted by the author, of his laborious and protracted observations. 



Rev. Mr. Jones said, that after his former publication on the Zodiacal Light, he 

 had felt the want of accurate and suflacient data, and determined to go to Quito, 

 Ecuador, as the most eligible spot for his purpose. It was near the Equator and 

 more free from clouds than most equatorial regions, and its elevation above the 

 surface of the earth was productive of considerable transparency in the atmosphere. 

 So great was this transparency that Humboldt had been able to see his friend, 

 Bonnland, with the naked eye, at 17^ miles distance. 



During June^ July, and August, the sky at Quito was perfectly clear. But iu 

 June, Mr. Jones had been detained at Washington, and in July he and his assist- 

 ant had the fever at Panama. His friend died on board the English steamer in 

 Guayaguil River and two other persons also dying, he had been prevented from 

 landing, and had to go to Payti, Peru. Thus he did not visit Quito till the end of 

 August, when the sky had become less clear. During his eight months' stay he 

 was only enabled to make 123 observations, but these were valuable. When clear 

 the sky was surpassingly beautiful. The smaller stars were so visible that thej 



