R. D. Oldham — Probable Changes of Latitude. 307 



tend to suggest the probability that a land barrier interposed 

 in Middle Cretaceous times between Southern India with Assam and 

 Arakan on the one side and the Western Narbada region with the 

 south coast of Arabia on the other. We have thus another argument 

 presented to us in favour of the Indian peninsula being portion 

 of an ancient land-area; and taking into consideration the marked 

 connexion between the faunas of the South Indian and South African 

 Cretaceous deposits, and the circumstance that both appear to be of 

 littoral origin, it is probable that this land-area extended to Africa." l 



These facts indicate that the permanence of continents is a hobby 

 which some of its admirers have ridden too hai'd, and at any rate 

 prove that it cannot be used to stifle a plausible hypothesis. 



Another group of facts which are in favour of the suggestion I 

 have made above is the observational evidence in favour of a change 

 of latitude in some of the principal European observatories. In 

 the American Journal of Science for March, 1885, Professor Asaph 

 Hall gives, on the authority of S. Fergola, the following table of 

 latitudes of the principal observatories of Europe and America : — 



Washington 1845 38° 53' 39"-25 



do. 1863 38"-78 



Paris 1825 48° 50' 13''- 



do. 1853 11"- 2 



Milan 1811 45° 27' 60"- 7 



do. 1871 59"-19 



Eome 1810 41° 53 54"-26 



do. 1866 54"-09 



Naples 1820 40° 51' 46"-63 



do. 1871 45"-41 



Konigsberg 1820 54° 42' 50"-71 



do. 1843 50"-56 



Greenwich 1838 51° 28' 38"-43 



do. 1845 38"-17 



do. 1856 37". oo- 



Besides this there are the Pulkowa observations which give the 

 following results : — 



Pulkowa 1843 59° 46' 18"-73 + 0"-013 



do. 1866 18"-65 ± 0"-014 



do. 1872 18"-50 + 0"-014 



I am aware that the most recent investigations of the Greenwich 

 observations by the present Astronomer-Eoyal have shown that there 

 is no proof of continuous change of latitude ; but it is surely some- 

 thing more than a coincidence that the change in every case is in 

 the same direction ; had the change been due merely to imperfect 

 observation or the vagaries of refraction, it would hardly have ex- 

 hibited these strange coincidences. There is, however, more than 

 one way of explaining these slight variations of latitude, and, seeing 

 that the observations extend over a comparatively short period of 

 time, it would not do to attach too great importance to them in this 

 connexion. 



A more important argument is to be derived from the careful 

 measurements of the pyramids of Gizeh which have been made by 



1 Loc. cit. p. 297. 



