﻿Obituary — E. Billings. 43 



optical delusion." If the boundary-lines of beds 15 and 20 feet 

 thick can be distinguished separately, local deflections from the hori- 

 zontal even to that amount should be visible too. Nor is the fact 

 that they are only " nearly horizontal " worthy of any weight. Their 

 dip is about l"" westward. They have been spoken of ^ as " with 

 their strata so little inclined that these can be traced by the eye in 

 long horizontal bars on the side of the steeper declivities." But 

 while holding by what I have affirmed on the subject, I am sensible 

 that Mr. Judd's objections can be obviated only by an authority equal 

 to his own. 



Wae,k-on-Ttne, Nov. Uth. HuGH MiLLEK. 



"THE CLIMATE CONTROVERSY." 



Sm, — Will you allow me to call the attention of geologists inter- 

 ested in this subject to a statement made by Sir George Nares to 

 the Geographical Society. 



He tells us that in the extreme north of Greenland, as well as on 

 the opposite side of Smith's Sound, instead of the land being en- 

 veloped in ice like the more southern parts of Greenland, the glaciers 

 do not reach the sea. This Sir George attributes to the snowfall 

 being less than the summer sun can dissolve, the snow-bearing 

 clouds discharging their contents principally in latitudes further 

 south, and the land-ice being made up of undissolved snow. 



Now does not this militate against the possibility of a polar 

 ice-cap, as well as against the alleged cumulative tendency of 

 snow and ice over any large portion of the polar areas ? If with 

 the present lower excentricity the aphelion sun of the northern 

 summer is sufficient to dissolve the winter snow in latitude 82°, 

 would not the perihelion sun of a high excentricity be proportionately 

 more effective, instead, as Mr. Croll contends, of being insufficient 

 to prevent the accumulation of snow ? During the augmented cold 

 of the Glacial period would not the region of excessive snowfall 

 have been pushed down to about lat. 55° in Europe (where we find 

 evidences of the enveloping land-ice), and the chief part of Green- 

 land, instead of, as now, being enveloped in ice, have been in the ice- 

 free condition of the land about Smith's Sound ? And since the cold 

 of that region, notwithstanding this absence of land-ice, was found to 

 be more intense than that of latitudes where the ice envelopes the land, 

 may not the cold of the Glacial period have been proportionately more 

 intense without any greater snow accumulation than now prevails ? 



Searles V. Wood, Jun. 



O BIT TJ.A.S,"^'. 



ELKANAH BILLINGS, F.G.S. 



BOBN 1820, DIED 1876. AGED 56 YEARS. 



The late Mr. Billings was born in the Township of Gloucester, 



near Ottawa, Ontario, on the 5th of May, 1820. His family came 



originally from Wales, and settled in the New England States, but 



subsequently removed to Canada. Mr. Billings was educated partly 



1 Prof. Geikie's Scenery of Scotland, p. 211. 



