THE OBLIQUITY OF THE ECLIPTIC. I I I 



lent to an elevation of the land. While there may have been local 

 elevations and subsidences of the land surface in high latitudes during 

 the glacial and Champlain periods, there seems to be strong reason for 

 believing that the growth and decay of the two great ice-barriers added 

 materially to such changes of level by alternately lowering and elevating 

 the general ocean surface. This lowering of the sea-level might be 

 taken into account in considering the question of the geographical 

 distribution of plants and animals ; but it is not my design to pursue 

 that branch of the subject here. 



"The suggestion here made that the large accumulation of the 

 earth's mass at the south pole was one of the contributive causes of the 

 change in the direction of the earth's axis, is but a corollary to Dr. 

 Warring's statement, that ' between the end of the miocene and the 

 beginning of the Champlain, that movement occurred which gave the 

 earth seasons, unequal days and nights, and greatly enlarged its limits 

 ■of inhabitability.' " 



SCIENTIFIC METALLURGY AND MINING. 



The inaugural address of the present session of the Otago Univer- 

 sity was delivered by Mr. David Wilkinson, Fellow of the Royal School 

 of Mines, who is the newly appointed lecturer on Metallurgy. We 

 reproduce the conclusion of Mr. Wilkinson's address, which dealt with 

 the importance of scientific metallurgy and mining from a commercial 

 as well as an educational point of view. 



" We are now arriving at the conclusion that the training of the 

 workshop and of the mine, however valuable, can each be advantageously 

 supplemented by the training to be obtained in the laboratory and the 

 lecture room. It is noticeable here how extremely utilitarian we are 

 becoming. We are not now entirely satisfied with the elegance, suavity 

 and refinement that is undoubtedly imparted by contact with the 

 classical authors. The slow, easy-going times of the beginning of this 

 centmy have passed away in the eternal competition of nations and of 

 individuals. We can no longer afford to let those chances of advance- 

 ment slip which have been so readily taken advantage of by other 

 people. Thus we arrive at the Englishman's unfailing query, do the 

 benefits to be derived from the training you speak of more than 

 counterbalance the expenditure of money and energy required for this 

 purpose? The advantage to the individual at any rate is unquestionable. 

 To confine ourselves again to illustrations from the mining world. 

 How often has it been pointed out that the tendency of the purely 

 practical man is to suppose that the methods he has learnt in his 

 particular district are applicable to all conditions. I may say, without 

 fear of contradiction, that the man who knows his work, by the training 

 of his hands and the education of his mind, must possess greater 

 adaptability than the man who works only by rule of thumb. His 



