﻿246 Canadian Record of Science. 



so closely is still a riddle to us ; but it is, nevertheless, a 

 fact that in this part of the earth old table-lands and 

 most recent foldings meet one another. 



We have similar points in our Fatherland (Germany). 

 If one travels from Vienna on the Northern Eailway 

 towards Ostrau and Krakau, he seldom thinks that in the 

 neighborhood of Weisskirchen and Prerau the bent-over 

 folds of the Variscian rocks abut against the Carpathians, 

 one of the few points of contact of two systems of 

 mountains which are distinctly observable. 



So we arrive at a picture which is only partially com- 

 pleted. If the relief be more closely studied, many 

 details will become visible. One can see how the notched 

 coast of south-west Ireland is nothing else than the 

 stretching out of the folds into the sea. It may repeatedly 

 be seen, as for example at Brest, how separate lines of 

 folding form so many separate lines of foothills, and much 

 else that I must here pass over. 



This, ladies and gentlemen, is the ground-work of the 

 geological structure of Europe, as it appears to-day from 

 a series of studies. I say, to-day ; I must add, that it is 

 that which we now know ; in ten years we shall know 

 more. Knowledge progresses continuously. Of that 

 which I have told you to-day there was no knowledge 

 thirty years ago. So science advances. 



Thirty years ago I was in the habit, when I signed 

 papers, of affixing a flourish to my name. At that time 

 I also considered it necessary to close my lectures with a 

 few remarks of a general nature. To-day I no longer add 

 a flourish to my name, and I have slowly come to the 

 conviction that at the close of a lecture one may leave the 

 hearers to reflect as to how far we have come, and what 

 wonderful and unexpected knowledge science has given 

 us — in this case, above all, that Europe has been three 

 tunes built up, each time broken down and rebuilt. 



