264 7. 8 Hunt on some points in Dynamical Geology. 
ArT. XXVIIL—On some points in Dynamical Geology; by 
T. Sterry Hunt, LL.D., F.RS. 
In his late essay on The Formation of the Feutures of the 
Earth's Crust, in this Journal for November and Decem- 
ber, 1872, Prof. Joseph LeConte has discussed a wide range 
of subjects in geological dynamics, in a manner for which the 
geological student cannot but be grateful. After a consid- 
eration of the arguments with regard to the nature of the 
earth’s interior, he arrives at the conclusion, that ‘“‘the whole 
of a solid ea wth” ‘Alone up to this time, so far as I am aware, I 
have labored to expand, complete and give geological and chemi- 
cal consistency to the suggestion long since put forth, both 
by Keferstein and by Sir John Herschel, that the deeply-buried 
and water-impregnated strata between the superficial crust 0 
the earth and the solid nucleus constitute a region “of plastic 
material adequate to explain all the sm hitherto as- 
cribed to a fluid nucleus,” since “any ae n volume result- 
ing from the contraction of the (solid) nubian would affect 
the outer crust through the medium of the more or less plastic 
zone of sediments precisely as if the whole interior of the globe 
were liquid.” 
A softening by heat of acessories solid porous sediments, 
filled with water, was maintained (in accordance with the views 
of Babbage as to the rise of see Caciencicabaiand horizons from 
the ng ernie - — _ to depend upon the accumula- 
tion of large thi sotindade the results of which were 
declared to la a ooaeie explanation of all the phenomena % 
voleanoes and igneous roc rocks.” This relation of ocr — 
