190 PROFESSOR EDWARD HULL, M.A., LL.D., P.R.S., ON 



occurring within the human period, not unnaturally cause us to 

 think of what was brought before us some years ago at this 

 Institute by Professor Prestwich, who found in some of these 

 cases indications of a deluge that had swept over the whole of the 

 earth, washing away every living creature, and accumulating large 

 quantities of the bones of various animals on the northern shores of 

 the Mediterranean Sea. Then you have other changes following, 

 showing how' the history of man has gone on through the later 

 geological periods right up to the present time. 



I just throw out these suggestions as matters that may, perhaps, 

 deserve a little consideration and may help to make this paper more 

 interesting and instructive to us. 



The subject is now open for discussion. 



Mr. Martin Rouse. — I think that Professor Hull in his 

 admirable paper has thoroughly proved his case. It is a paper 

 teeming with historic interests whether to the geologist or to the 

 antiquarian, 



I should like to ask regarding that part which the Chairman 

 dwelt upon, whether the lofty beaches that have been found up to 

 1,200 feet in North Wales and the Wicklow Mountains are thinner, 

 or more scanty, than the beaches with which the paper mainly deals 

 at the height of 30 feet ; because that would help us, would it not, 

 to determine those questions which are matters of eyesight, of 

 which the last speaker spoke — whether the former submergence and 

 re-emergence was a very sudden one, whereas the latter was, as we 

 know, a very gradual one. If the submergence which led to these 

 lofty beaches was a very rapid one, or the uprise that followed it 

 was rapid, then, of course, these beaches w^ould be very thin and 

 scanty, and would correspond in that regard with the thin beaches 

 found at 25 or 30 feet level. 



Then I should like Professor Hull kindly to explain a little more 

 fully how the 50 feet contour line corresponds very nearly with the 

 30 feet beaches, because on the face of it I do not quite understand 

 how 50 feet above the mean sea level at Liverpool would be the 

 same as 30 feet above high water mark. If it is 50 feet above the 

 mean level, of course the mean level at that rate would be 20 feet 

 alcove the lowest level, or 20 feet below the highest level, i.e., there 

 would be a difference of 40 feet between high and low water mark, 

 which I should have thought too great. 



