Mineralogy and Geology. 125 
opinion of this very eminent and veteran geologist imports a new element 
of doubt into the question. 
e understand that the English savants were received everywhere by 
their French opponents in the most cordial and friendly manner, and that 
the various questions involved were discussed in the best possible spirit. 
The conference lasted five days. 
“The Moniteur of Saturday last, the 16th inst., contains an article by 
M. Milne-Edwards, giving a brief résumé of the constitution and labors 
of the conference, and of the results to which they were conducted. It 
is clear that we have still much to learn regarding this very remarkable 
ease, alike in its geological, paleontological and archeological aspects.— 
Athen., No. 1856, May 23, 1863. : 
5. The Geological evidences of the Antiquity of Man, with Remarks 
on Theories of the Origin of Species; by Sir Cuartes Lyett, F.R.S. 
518 pp., 8vo, with woodcuts. Philadelphia, 1863. George W. Childs. 
—Man is now the absorbing subject in science. Geology and zoology 
ume, a review of the progress which investigation has already made; 
and the extent to which the work has sold, both in this country and 
Britain, shows that in preparing it he has responded to a public demand. 
He reviews at length the geological developments of the few years past 
bearing on the subject, stating the facts with discrimination and fairness, 
and with all essential details. It is a work, therefore, of real value; and 
when science has gone forward to established conclusions, it will stand 
to mark a stage of progress in the important investiga 
The subject is so new that it is not reasonable to regard the work as 
says, has been raised 27 feet. The interior of a continent may be sup- 
to have changed some scores, or even hundreds, of feet in a single 
period, without doing violence to geological probability. This, then, is 
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densation of moisture about the heights, enlarge rivers, augment their 
eroding and transporting power increasing slope and amount 
of water, and thereby rapidly thicken the resulting deposits. More- 
over, the same action, either in high latitudes or in low, may change, as 
Lyell has shown, the climate of an entire continent. This is one example 
of a variable, of wholly unknown limits of variation ;—and one affecting 
calculations frem coral reefs and seashore formations, as well as from allu- 
vial beds. It is sufficient of itself to show that the future has yet much 
to do, before present inferences can command full confidence. Moreover, 
the doubts connected with the Abbeville deposits, mentioned on the 
preceding page, show that there are still other variables or unknown 
quantities to be considered. 
