280 Witchell — Denudation of the Cotteswolds, 



may be so expressed), there "would be an alternation of colder with 

 wanner seasons; and the Miocene age may be compared with its 

 summer, the Glacial age with its winter, and our present age with 

 its spring. This orbit of our sun is, indeed, one of immeasurable 

 length, and we cannot yet fully comprehend it. But there is a time 

 coming when its extent will be calculated ; and races yet unborn 

 will teach in their hand-books the course of the sun, just as we now 

 do the courses of the planets. If we, as it were, become dizzy with 

 surveying the vast period of ages here spread before us, we ought to 

 consider how small is the measure we are accustomed to apply to it. 

 A glance will show us this. There are many living things whose 

 life is but a day long. Let us imagine for a moment that one of 

 these beings were endowed with consciousness ; — or that the life of 

 man lasted but for a day : now, an individual, born in winter, could 

 only learn by tradition that the climate was once warmer, and that 

 at some future time, after a long series of generations, a warmer 

 period would again occur : and another individual, born in summer, 

 could only learn by means of races long since passed away, that this 

 warm weather would be followed by a long cold season, and that 

 afterwards the warmth would again return. One of our years must 

 to these beings of a day have seemed immeasurably long, as it would 

 have included 365 generations. 



But the present age of the world is not even a day, — it is hardly a 

 minute of the great orbit, or year of our sun ; and no mortal will be able 

 to note its phases. We certainly cannot examine them with our bodily 

 eyes ; but we can do so with our mental vision ; for, in spirit, we 

 can look back into far gone ages, and recognise the connection of 

 phenomena which have occurred in the course of thousands of years. 

 The mental eye glances into the very earliest periods of time, and 

 scans even the furthest regions of the universe. 



But however small man may be corporeally, when compared 

 with the immensity of nature— however short may be his life on 

 the shoreless sea of time ; yet, as to his mind, he is great ; for it is 

 this which raises him above the vicissitudes of ages, and gives him 

 a consciousness that, under his perishable body, he hides the germ of 

 an endless life. 



II. — On the Denudation of the Cotteswolds. 



By E. Witchell, F.G.S. 



(Proceedings of the Cotteswold Naturalists' Field-club. 1867.) 



THIS paper is a valuable contribution to the advancement of that 

 theory of denudation which seems to be steadily gaining ground, 

 and which explains the formation of present irregularities of surface 

 by the action of subaerial forces. The following are the chief points 

 insisted on : — 



There is no evidence that the valleys of the Cotteswolds were cut 

 out by the sea or by tidal rivers : the sea would tend rather to wear 

 away inequalities. There is abundant evidence of denudation, but 

 it is of subaerial denudation, helped by landslips. 



It has been held that tides acting along lines of fracture are essen- 



