ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. IxV 



western coast of Norway differs from that whicli would desolate that 

 region in the absence of the Gulf-stream. 



According to this view of the subject, the former existence in 

 northern Asia of the immense numbers of large Mammalia indi- 

 cated by the abundance of their fossil remains no longer presents 

 the slightest difficulty ; and the theory receives a still further con- 

 firmation from an observation made by Sir John Richardson in his 

 ' Arctic Searching Expedition ^''/ just published. The author ob- 

 serves, " The existence of these numerous testimonials of an ancient 

 fauna is suggestive of many curious speculations, and geologists seem 

 hitherto to have failed in explaining the circumstances under which 

 accumulations so vast could occur in such high latitudes. The diffi- 

 culty is increased when we consider that these bones have not been 

 detected to the east of the Rocky Mountains in high latitudes." This 

 increased difficulty, however, is at once removed by the theory now 

 proposed, for the region in which these remains are not found, must 

 either have been covered with the waters of the ocean to the foot of 

 the Rocky Mountains at the period when these INIammalia occupied 

 the region to the westward, or, if land existed on the north-east of 

 the present American continent, it was probably too cold to be in- 

 habited by them. Their disappearance from the country bounding 

 the Arctic Sea, from the Rocky Mountains to the Ural, would be the 

 consequence of the withdrawal of the Gulf-stream from the more 

 eastern, and of the European ocean from the more westerly portion of 

 that region. Fossil plants also, belonging to a comparatively warm 

 climate, have been found east of the Rocky Mountains, on the coast 

 of the North Sea ; and extensive beds of lignite exist along the eastern 

 flank of those mountains. So far as these phsenomena may be of 

 Pleistocene origin, they may be at once accounted for by this theory. 

 Its more complete verification must, however, be left to future obser- 

 vation. It will not fail, I hope, to attract the attention of American 

 geologists. 



I have now, Gentlemen, completed my review of those papers which 

 have been brought before us during my year of office, bearing upon 

 the phsenomena of the Drift, and the causes to which its dispersion 

 is to be referred. This discussion has occupied too much time to 

 leave room for extended remarks on papers relating to other branches 

 of our science. Some of them, however, are too important to be 

 passed over in silence. 



The first of these papers to which I shall call your attention is an 

 excellent paper by Captain Strachey, which gives us a section of the 

 Himalaya chain far more complete than any we have hitherto pos- 

 sessed. It will be recollected that this magnificent chain extends 

 through a length of more than 2000 miles, comprising 1500 miles of 

 continuous range between the points at which the Brahmapootra and 

 the Indus break through it in deep transverse gorges. The section 

 given by Captain Strachey is somewhat to the west of the centre 

 of this range, and lies about the 30th degree of north latitude and 

 the 80th of east longitude. The Kali, a tributary of the Ganges, 

 * Vol. ii. p. 210. 



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