﻿100 J. E. Lee — Saltern and Budesheim Fossils. 



Admitting, in agreement with Mr. Croll, the existence of a 

 Southern ice-cap on the earth at the present day, which he ascribes 

 to geographical causes, while Mr. Croll ascribes it to astronomical, 

 he still seems to concur with Mr. Croll in ascribing the great extent 

 of the Southern oceans to the action of this ice-cap. For he says : 

 " The ice-cap, as Mr. Croll has elaborately shown, will, by displacing 

 the earth's centre of gravity, draw a greater share of ocean water to 

 the glaciated hemisphere." Now it is obviously impossible to ascribe 

 the oceanic character of our Southern, hemisphere to the ice-cap, if 

 the ice-cap is itself due to the ocean climate ; so obviously indeed 

 that it is impossible to believe Mr. Murphy intended to do so : yet it 

 is difficult to read his words otherwise. 



But there are difficulties every way. For if our Southern oceans 

 are not mainly due to the ice-cap, it has to be considered that they 

 may be due to a permanent internal displacement of the centre 

 of gravity from the centre of figure of the earth — especially if Sir 

 William Thomson is correct in supposing the interior of the earth to 

 be solid. And if this is the case, then the tendency of water to 

 collect in the Southern hemisphere will be a permanent one, and 

 will always militate a good deal against the glaciation of the 

 Northern hemisphere. 



Certainly if the choice lay between supposing the great abundance 

 of water in the Southern hemisphere to be due to a displacement of 

 the earth's centre of gravity by a polar ice-cap, and supposing it due 

 to a permanent internal displacement, I should prefer the latter 

 supposition. And for this reason. The probability seems immensely 

 strong that, in the process of formation of a body like the earth 

 (whatever that process might be), the centre of gravity would not 

 take the exact position of the centre of figure — immensely stronger 

 than that it would. If the centre of gravity, however, were not in 

 the centre of figure, it would necessarily lie in the axis of rotation : 

 in fact, the axis of rotation would not be permanent unless it passed 

 through the centre of gravity. Thus the centre of gravity would 

 necessarily come to lie towards one or other of the poles ; and thus 

 would result a necessary, though indirect, connexion between the 

 pole and the preponderance of water in its neighbourhood.^ 



II. — Notice of the Discovekt op Upper Devonian Fossils in 

 THE Shales of Torbay.- 

 By John Edwaud Lee, F.G.S., etc. 

 (PLATE V.) 

 N the present state of our knowledge of the Devonian formation, 

 it seems highly desirable, if possible, to correlate any of the 

 beds in Devonshire with those of this wide-spread formation on 

 the Continent. 



1 An excellent article on the planet Mars appeared in the Quarterly Journal of 

 Science, vol. ii. for 1865, p. 369, from the pen of the late Prof. John Phillips, M.A., 

 F.E..S., Avliose name is still dear to many of our geological readers. — Edit. Geol. Mag. 



■^ The Editor expresses his regret that he has unwillingly detained this Notice 

 mthout publication for several months, the plate not having been executed. — Ed. 

 Geol. Mag. 



