572 Correspondence. — Mr. T. Mellard Rcade. 



up to it, is a misleading method. The only fertile method in such 

 inquiries as ours is induction from the facts, and io this I most 

 unflinchingly invite your readers. 



If the facts are susceptible of a more reasonable explanation than 

 that I have given, by all means let us have it, and I will surrender. 

 At present I am a more incorrigible heretic than ever. 1 hope I 

 have not said one offensive or irritating word. If I have, may it be 

 cancelled and forgiven. In conclusion, let me quote a most weighty 

 sentence or two from one whom both Mr. Reid and myself will 

 agree with honouring and paying some deference to. Professor 

 Huxley, in his address to the Geological Society for 1869, said, 

 " To my mind there appears to be no sort of necessary theoretical 

 antagonism between Catastrophism and Uniformitarianisra. On 

 the contrary, it is very conceivable that catastrophes may be part 

 and parcel of uniformity. Let me illustrate my case by analogy. 

 The working of a clock is a model of uniform action. Good time- 

 keeping means uniformity of action. But the striking of the clock 

 is essentially a catastrophe. The hammer might be made to blow 

 up a barrel of gunpowder or turn on a deluge of water ; and by 

 proper arrangement the clock, instead of marking the hours, might 

 strike at all sorts of irregular intervals, never twice alike in the 

 intervals, force, or number of its blows. Nevertheless, all these 

 irregular and apparently lawless catastrophes would be the result 

 of an absolutely Uniformitarian action, and we might have two 

 schools of clock theorists, one studying the hammer and the other 

 the pendulum." These are weighty words, to every one of which I 

 subscribe. In objecting to the current doctrine of Uniformity, it 

 may be suggested that I am objecting to the government of the 

 universe by law — a view I repudiate altogether. What I say is 

 that the law which governs the universe is not to be grasped by 

 those who will not look beyond what is passing now at their elboM'^s. 

 A beautiful city like Lisbon, where I was born, has existed for 100 

 years in peaceful prosperity ; and yet in 1753 it was overwhelmed by 

 the most terrible cataclysm that is mentioned in modern history. 

 That cataclysm is the type of others. How can such an event, the 

 only one of its extent and kind recorded in the West, be explained 

 by tlie current school of English geologists ? To Professor Huxley, 

 and those who hold with him, such a cataclysm is as much the result 

 of law as the peace which has succeeded ; and to some of us a 

 cataclysm of a much greater extent, involving a great revolution in 

 current geological views about Post-Glacial geology, is just as reason- 

 able a priori, w]iile we affirm that it is abundantly required to 

 explain the facts. Henry H. Howokth. 



Derby House, Eccles, JVov. 5th, 1881. 



COAL-MEASURES UNDER THE NEW RED SANDSTONES. 



Sir, — Permit me to say that the discovery of limestone bands at 

 Winwick beneath the Trias is not quite so novel a one as both Mr. 

 Strahan and Mr. De Ranee appear to think. 



In a letter of mine to the Liverpool Daily Post, dated 15 Sept. 



