BIOLOGICAL CHANGE IN GEOLOGICAL TIME. 115 



for the Reign of Law than the Eeign of the Will of God. The fact 

 of natural law is to me only the expression of the infinite consistency 

 of the Almighty. 



Dr. W. Woods Smyth. — My thanks are due to Professor Lobley 

 for his papers both for the present and last years. I can see that 

 he is a thorough Uniformitarian. I thought we had come to a 

 compromise and admitted that both Uniformitarianism and 

 Cataclysmatarianism existed. Both do exist. While changes have 

 been going on in a placid form at some places, there have been 

 mighty upheavals occurring at others. At Martinique at the time 

 of the eruption of Mt. Pelee, we would have found changes going on 

 in the same place in a very mild form indeed. Going back to former 

 times, look at the earth when it must have resembled the moon. 

 There was a vast volcanic globe covered with scoriae, tufa and 

 pumice. 



The earth's crust must then have been disintegrated so that at 

 last when rivers formed they must have brought down large 

 deposits — in large masses of material — and that would account for 

 some of the Pre-Cambrian sedimentary rocks. 



There was a mighty change which Professor Lobley has shown us in 

 connection with the Himalayan range, which has risen up 14,000 feet 

 since Eocene times, so that part of that was at the bottom of the 

 sea in the Eocene (Nummulite) period, and the same applies to the 

 Carpathian and Alpine ranges. 



Speaking of physical environment, Professor Lobley has given 

 evidence to show its limited influence on life. He has shown the 

 great influence of the biological environment, with which I agree. 

 Now the influence of the biological environment goes to support the 

 theory of selection, or the "survival of the fittest." Genesis is 

 undoubtedly in harmonj^ with what Professor Lobley has presented 

 to us, the absence of any interference, or directivity. It does not 

 occur in that wonderful chapter. The uniform flow is beautiful 

 throughout. I mentioned before here that the Hebrew tense 

 speaks of the incoming, the continuous, and these tenses are used 

 forty-nine times and show the flow onward of God's creation. 



Mr. Woodford Pilkington, M.Inst.C.E., expressed his con- 

 currence with the views of fhe author. 



Professor Orchard. — I must thank Professor Lobley for bringing 

 before us " Biological Changes in Geological Time " in a series of 



