Correspondence — CoL Greenwood. 37 



— when light was created, motion began, and after that, ^' the dry 

 land appeared," — since then there has been perpetual motion, during 

 which, parts of the land have been submerged, while other parts 

 have been elevated ; and this process has been enacted over and over 

 again. While the land was above the sea, " Frost and Fire," with 

 "Rain and Rivers," have each in their appointed place done their 

 work ; neither was the sea idle, as it must have acted on the land 

 as it was appearing above, or disappearing under the waters, carving 

 out the main features afterwards to be remodelled by the other 

 existing forces. 



An observer who has seen the sea yearly carrying away a coast 

 may be inclined to believe that it is the great destroyer ; while 

 those who live among soft strata that are easily denuded, may pin 

 their faith to " Rain and Rivers," and those accustomed to Alpine 

 or Arctic regions to ice ; but an unprejudiced observer will find 

 that " all are right and all are wrong." Moreover, if the advice of 

 the Chameleon — 



*' When next you talk of what you view, 

 Think others see as well as you," 



was generally adopted among geologists, it would not be so difficult 

 a task as at present to find *' keys to fit all the locks." 



The Biblical record may be sneered at because human remains 

 have not been found except among the most recent of the Tertiary 

 deposits. However, in answer to this I may be allowed to put for- 

 ward Col. Greenwood's suggestion ; that there is only negative evidence 

 against the existence of Man and the other land animals from the earliest 

 periods of the earth ; for to quote that author's words : ^ — ** Where are 

 the fossil remains of land quadrupeds found ? In cavern deposits, in 

 drift and alluvium ' deposited on dry land,' in filled up lakes, in 

 bogs, or frozen up in polar regions. Now all these land museums 

 are not only modern, but they are superficial and temporary. They 

 are liable to be washed into the sea ; and their fossil contents must he 

 destroyed before they can be re-deposited in marine strata." 



G. Henry Kinahan. 



CoNNEMARA, Bec. 1st, 1867. 



DENUDATION OF THE WEALD. 

 SiE, — In your December number, page 572, Mr. Mackintosh 

 names me as " Colonel Greenwood, the father of modem subaerial- 

 ism." And thereupon he puts this question to me, *'If rain has 

 washed away the soluble chalk, what has become of the insoluble 

 flints?" In reply I would ask Mr. Mackintosh where do " surface 

 flints " come from ? I have said " Everything on the surface of the 

 earth which is not living is decaying. On this decay depends soil. 

 On soil, vegetable life. On vegetable life, herbivorous animals. On 

 herbivorous animals, carnivorous animals. So that all life depends 

 on decay." At page 211, of " Rain and Rivers," is this passage, — 

 " In chalk countries denudation leaves a residuum of flints on the 

 surface, because though these flints disintegrate and though each is 

 ^ " Eain and Rivers," 2nd Edition, p. 199. 



