2 
zoology, as teaching the affinities of her fossil fauna ; with 
chemistry, as determining the constituents of her minerals, 
earths, and salts ; while hitherto she has had little connection 
with astronomy. It may be, however, that the new light 
thrown on astronomy by Captain Drayson, in his published 
book "The Earth we Inhabit/' may enable us to unravel 
many of the mysteries connected with the early history of 
this planet ; for if Captain Drayson's theory explain the 
origin of the magnificent flora of the carboniferous era and 
its extension to Melville Island, — a gradually decreasing 
climate through the immense periods of the Permian, Salife- 
rous, Oolitic, and Cretaceous systems up to the Tertiary — the 
reasons why probably the solar year has been formerly 
shorter ; and also if it explains the presence in our island of 
large icebergs and an arctic climate, then this theory must 
inevitably have also an important bearing on practical astro- 
nomy ; for, if in this northern hemisphere the expansion of the 
earth's crust is causing land to recede from the equator, it 
must be causing the latitudes of places, as measured by the 
stars, to periodically vary, and this is the case. Thus, between 
the years 1845 and 1858 (13 years) the Observatory of 
Durham moved 290 yards; that of Oxford 133 yards ; between 
1827 and 1858 (31 years) that of Edinburgh moved 1,373 
yards ; and that of Cambridge 300 yards ; between 1845 and 
1858 (13 years) that of Berlin moved one mile and 100 yards 
(1,893 yards) ; that of Christiana travelled north 3,600 feet 
during 12 years, (1,200 yards.) 
Then, also, if the earth's orbit is increasing, the sun will 
not continually appear in the same constellation, and there 
will be, as it is called, a precession of the equinoxes, so that after 
a lapse of years there will be a difference of at least several 
days in the year. Thus in the year 1582 Pope Gregory 
found the vernal equinox, which in the year 325 fell on the 
21st of March, then fell on the 11th of March, therefore in 
