132 Correspondence — Professor E. Hull. 



from the Weald and from the district around Bagshot, from the 

 Hampshire Basin and its bounding hills (with the exception of the 

 extreme south), and from the highest and presumably oldest gravels 

 north of the Thames. 



coI^I^ESI=OIs^ID:E:]I^^o:K!. 



SUB-OCEANIC PHYSICAL FEATUEES. 



Sir, — I take up my pen with unusual pleasure on this occasion, 

 as it is for the purpose of welcoming an adherent, and removing 

 misapprehension from the mind of a supposed opponent. I welcome 

 the adherence to my views of so able a physicist as the Eev. Osmond 

 Fisher, and I hope to be able to remove misunderstanding as to my 

 meaning from the mind of Mr. Jukes-Browne.^ 



Let me assure Mr. Fisher that I am well acquainted with the 

 paper by the late Mr. Godwin-Austen, which he quotes at length, 

 and that in the paper on the sub-oceanic physical features off 

 the coast of Western Europe (at present only in manuscript) 

 I commence my statement by calling attention to Mr. Godwin- 

 Austen's remarkable communication to the Geological Society. 

 I wish also to add that, in speaking of the subaerial origin of 

 ' the grand escarpment,' he is correct in inferring that I included 

 ' wave-action ' along a coastline, as Professor Spencer has also 

 done in his article in the Geological Magazine, January, 

 1899, p. 17. There is one point, however, in Mr. Fisher's letter, 

 towards the end, which I would ask him to reconsider. It 

 is quite true that the physical features on opposite sides of the 

 Atlantic, now submerged, do possess a remarkable similarity (though 

 not identity) of form ; but I can scarcely suppose him to mean (as 

 his language seems to imply) that it is in consequence of their 

 original union on two sides of a ' rent ' ; an impossible hypothesis. 



I shall now endeavour to reply, as concisely as possible, to the 

 three points which have called forth rather severe criticism on the 

 part of Mr. Jukes-Browne. 



(1) As regards the term 'escarpment,' as applied to the descent 

 leading down from the platform to the abyssal regions of the ocean, 

 I quite admit that the term is not strictly geological as usually 

 understood. For, although there may be portions of this long line 

 of slope where the strata may be in such a position, and of such 

 a character, as to constitute a true geological escarpment if under 

 the air, yet we know so little of the rocks otherwise than by 

 inference that we cannot pretend that this is the case. Under the 

 circumstances, therefore, and notwithstanding the support of Professor 

 Spencer for the term ' escarpment,' I am quite willing to recognize 

 the force of Mr. Jukes-Browne's objections, and to drop that term in 

 favour of ' Declivity.' This term, therefore, I intend to use, with the 

 retention of the word ' Grand,' in my paper when published." 



' Letters, Geological Magazine, Sept., 1898, p. 429, and Nov., p. 527. 

 "^ An abstract of the paper will be published by the Royal Geographical Society 

 in March ; but the full paper later on, by the Victoria Institute. 



