Dili 
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. Ixxxiil 
by waters when they could form and act upon the hard rocks, par- 
tially reducing them, with the assistance of atmospheric influences, to 
sedimentary accumulations, these entombing the remains of life, when 
such was called into existence, Dr. Daubeny willingly admits that the 
researches of Mr. Grove show that, given sufficient heat, the consti- 
tuents of our globe might have been mutually diffused, “and though 
thus intermixed, would have continued in a state of perfect chemical 
indifference one to the other.’ ‘‘ Now,” he adds, ‘‘if under these 
circumstances we suppose the temperature to have sunk down to that 
point at which the elective attraction of certain of the elements for 
each other prevailed over the repulsive force of heat, we have a right 
to infer the occurrence of those very phzenomena and the formation 
of those very products, which the one theory (the chemical) assumes 
to be going on at the present day, wherever volcanos exist. There 
is therefore,” he continues, “‘no antecedent absurdity in imagining 
that volcanic action may consist in a process of oxygenation, caused, 
in part at least, by the presence of these substances, and all that 
seems necessary is to ascertain how far the known phznomena accord 
with such an hypothesis.” We would refer to the chapter on the 
chemical theory of voleanos for an able exposition of that theory, one 
which Dr. Daubeny continues to advocate as affording the better ex- 
planation of the facts observed. 
VoyAGEs or DISCOVERY AND SURVEY. 
The publication during the past year of three voyages of our 
countrymen has added to our knowledge of the geological structure 
of the earth’s surface in distant places. The voyage of Sir James 
Ross to the Antarctic regions has proved, not only the great extent 
of a mass of land in the South Polar regions, but also that volcanic 
forces are still in full activity there. A mountain estimated to rise 
12,000 feet above the sea, and named Mount Erebus, is described as 
throwing out jets of dense smoke to the height of 1500 and 2000 
feet, the diameter of the jets being estimated at 200 to 300 feet. 
Even streams of lava were thought by some persons to be ejected. 
Not far from Mount Erebus another mountain, named Mount Terror, 
exhibited a form leading to the inference that it was an extinct vol- 
eano, and crater-like hillocks were observable on its sides. 
An iey barrier for the most part prevented access to the land, but 
wherever a landing was effected igneous rocks alone were found, 
and all the fragments or pebbles obtained from icebergs, and by 
soundings, were of the same character, granitic rocks being discovered 
among them. 
It is not a little interesting to consider the different conditions under 
which rocks would be placed in a region like that of Victoria Land, 
and in those parts of the world where snow never falls and frost is not 
felt, as also in those exposed alternately to the cold of winter and the 
heats of summer. On the Antarctic land no great river appears to bear 
detritus into the sea, and decomposition from the action of many 
atmospheric influences, such as aid the disintegration of rocks in tem- 
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