44 THE METEOROLOGIUAL CONDITIONS [ Feb. 1902, 
minimum of the preceding day : and both these phenomena were due 
to the existence of strongly marked cyclonic conditions in the Atlantic. 
There does not seem anything unreasonable in the idea that under 
similar conditions, but of.a more permanent character, such a state 
of things might have persisted in Glacial times for a lengthened 
period. 
The view that there was one period of greatest cold, which 
gradually approached and gradually passed away, with local varia- 
tions in climate, if it could be established, would remove a great and 
at present unexplained geological difficulty. It seemed a priori 
improbable that the annual isotherms of the Northern Hemisphere 
then coincided more nearly with the parallels of latitude than they 
do now. 
He suggested that the Author should construct hypothetical 
charts, showing what would probably have been the distribution of 
pressure and of temperature during the Pleistocene Epoch, on the 
theory that the maximum glaciation of North America and of 
Europe took place at the same time. 
Prof. Sottas remarked that, since Mr. Harmer’s contribution to 
this subject, the study of Glacial phenomena had been distinguished 
by a remarkable advance ; the homology which had been traced 
between the extension of the ice in the Old and New Worlds seemed 
now to be extended from the Northern into the Southern Hemi- 
sphere. Prof. Edgeworth David and his colleagues had confirmed 
the observations of Lendenfeld and Stirling in the Kosciusko dis- 
trict of the Australian Alps; and Prof. Penck, after analysing the 
phenomena as presented in Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, 
and comparing them with those of Europe, had shown that the 
snow-line in the Southern Hemisphere had been brought nearer the 
sea-level during the Glacial Period by at least 1000 feet more than 
in corresponding parallels of the Northern Hemisphere. But it is 
just this difference which distinguishes the height of the snow-line 
in these two cases at the present day, and the conclusion is thus 
naturally suggested that the Southern and Northern Hemispheres 
were simultaneously affected by the conditions of the Glacial Period 
and to a like degree. ‘The proved extension of the ice in Kerguelen, 
Patagonia, and the Bolivian Andes, as well as over Kenya and / 
Ruwenzori, was in harmony with this conclusion; and it would 
thus seem that the meteorological conditions to be considered were of 
no mere local character, but general and affecting the whole planet. 
The incompetence of such geographical changes as seemed likely to 
have occurred, to account for a Glacial Period, was clearly shown by 
the now established glaciation of the Southern Hemisphere. For, 
although the two hemispheres presented an almost perfect contrast 
in geological conditions, yet each had passed through a Glacial 
climate, which was certainly not less severe in the Southern than in 
the Northern Hemisphere. Mr. Dickson had lately shown that a 
change in the temperature-gradient from the Equator to the Poles 
would bring about a change in meteorological conditions of just such a 
nature as was required to account either for genial or glacial climates, 
