lxxxiv peocbedijStgs of the geological society. [May 1909, 



falling under the two heads of morphology and distribution. From this 

 point of view, we apply our knowledge of palaeontology to geological 

 problems, just as we apply our knowledge of any other science, but 

 it remains a branch of pure biology none the less. Nothing could 

 be more exact, yet there is good reason why the geologist should 

 devote himself to a study of fossils, and we may hope that palaeont- 

 ology will receive, not less, but even more attention from us in 

 the future than it has in the past. There is no other science which 

 can speak with such authority on the past stages in the evolution 

 of the organic world. It is the geologist who finds the fossils, and 

 in his case the rule of ' findings keepings ' can be employed without 

 contravening any rule of ethics. It is the geologist also who- 

 elucidates the stratigraphical facts by which the chronological and 

 chorological distribution of the fossils is determined. His interest 

 in these objects is closer, and his zeal in their investigation more 

 ardent, than that of the pure zoologist. Logically we are confronted 

 with alternatives : if the zoologist engages in this work he must 

 become more or less of a geologist, if a geologist he must become 

 more or less of a zoologist ; so far the latter alternative seems to 

 have been generally accepted and with very fortunate results. 

 If, as I am sure we shall wish, this arrangement is to continue, 

 it is imperative to cultivate a close acquaintance with animal and 

 vegetal morphology. 



The question of geological time has ceased to be made a cause of 

 reproach to us, and we no longer are suspected of an overdrawn 

 account in a metaphorical bank of time : indeed, since physics, in 

 the language of the Stock Exchange, has forsaken its role of ' bear * 

 for that of ' bull,' we seem rather to be threatened with the novel 

 embarrassment of having more time on our hands than we know 

 how to dispose of. 



The Rigidity of the Earth. — Lord Kelvin's argument as to 

 time, now that we can impartially survey it, is found to have exercised 

 a very salutary discipline, and it still remains valid in relation to the 

 factors it involves. There is one assumption on which it rests that 

 has recently received the fullest justification, I allude to the asserted 

 rigidity of the interior of the earth. This was something more 

 than an assumption at the time it was made, for it rested on an 

 argument drawn from the tides, which would have had greater 

 force if it had been able to command a larger array of observational 

 data. The investigation of the fortnightly tides forms indeed a 



