FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE. 



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the crystalliae and sedimentary rocks, individually and collectively." 

 This is certainly somewhat startling. " Mr. E. Hopkins endeavours to 

 prove his theorem," says a writer of the present day, " by the general 

 principles of the polarity of matter, the ascertained meridional structure 

 of the crystalline rocks, the distribution of metalliferous deposits, &c. . . 

 The fact of the general meridional structure of crystalline rocks is pretty 

 clearly established; and Mr. Hopkins adds, from his own observations, 

 additional proofs of the extent to which this formation prevails over the 

 surface of the globe." 



But the most surprising part of the hypothesis is that in which it is 

 affirmed that the solid parts of the earth's surface are, by the same influence 

 (terrestrial magnetism), perpetually, though slowly, moving from the 

 south to the north, this being represented as affording the only solution 

 to certain obscure problems which have long puzzled geologists and 

 astronomers. The rate of the meridional progression is estimated as high 

 as one minute (one-sixtieth of a degree) in three years, or one degree in 

 180 years ; so that in 2,700 years the northern parts of Australia will 

 be right under *'the line," and in 3,600 years the Orkney and Shetland 

 Isles will be nearly on a level with the north pole ! " Supposing this 

 rate of movement to be constant," sa3's the writer quoted above, ''the 

 spot on which London stands must have been in the equator some 9,180 

 years ago, and the whole of England will be within the arctic circle in 

 about 2,800 years hence. Thus may be explained the phenomena of 

 organic remains of plants, which must have lived and died on the spot 

 where they are found, though the climate now around them is utterly 

 unfit for their existence. Thus also may be explained the position of 

 the stars since the altered period of the earliest authentic records of 

 astronomy. Instead of the precession of the equinoxes, or the bodily 

 oscillation of the globe, Mr. E. Hopkins maintains that a slow but 

 steady movement of the crystalline surface of the earth, from pole to 

 pole, would account for all the phenomena." 



Where will imagination carry us— -or, rather, future generations, 



when they find themselves all safely lodged at the north pole ? 



Magnetism, after all, is but one of the many physical forces which have 



acted, and still continue to act, upon our globe ; and why should that one 



be regarded as the origin of all the others, any more than heat, electricity, 



or motion ?^ Mr. E. Hopkins must answer this question before his 



hypothesis can be submitted to serious consideration. 



* Consult on this question, Grove's " Correlation of Physical Forces.'' — Ed. Geol. 



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