350 
PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 
be learnt and explained. The contraction of the earth, and its 
efforts to accommodate itself to smaller limits, have resulted in 
great crust-movements, and reversed or overthrust faults ; but it is 
by no means clear that any very great diminution in the relative 
bulk of land and water has taken place since the earlier epochs of 
which we have life-records. 
The' distribution of marine life over the surface of the globe in 
the older geological periods tells of widespread oceans : and Suess 
points out that some of these must have been very deep. Keview- 
ing this part of the subject, Professor Geikic remarks that “relatively 
small areas of the continental plateau appeared above the level of 
the sea ” ; but when larger tracts of land did appear they may 
have risen because the floor of the oceanic basin became depressed. 
Suess considers there is no evidence of vertical elevation affecting 
wide regions, but that the broad invasions of continental areas by 
the sea are due to secular movements of the water.* How these 
movements are brought about is a problem ; but the deposition of 
sediment must in the course of ages influence the seadevel. I 
cannot attempt to enter further into this subject, nor is it necessary 
with Professor Geikie’s address before us ; but I wished to call 
attention to these views, because they may help us in such matters 
as Raised Beaches and Submerged Forests, where there is often 
evidence of changes in the relative levels of land and water 
without any marked change in the inclination of the strata. Thus 
in the case of our Cromer Forest Bed there is very little change 
in its level from Sherringham to Kessingland ; and if it had been 
repeatedly depressed and upheaved during the Glacial period it is 
remarkable, at any rate, that it shows so little evidence of any 
movement. If we admit that the level of the sea may have 
fluctuated, the difficulties are not so great. 
Professor James Geikie, in another recently published paper, 
advances the view that the Cromer Forest Bed represents an 
interglacial period. t This to us is a startling notion. The Forest 
Bed, as we know, yields Elephas meridionals, it is based on the 
* E. Suess, Das Antlitz der Erdc; sec also his paper in ‘Natural Science,’ 
March, 1893, p. 180. 
t Trans, lioy. Soc. Edin. vol. xxxvii. 1892, p. 145. 
