riRITlSH ASSOCIATION MEETING AT DOVER. 
109 
lantern ; but in the discussion after the paper I was properly 
snubbed for asking if the Rock Trains moved at the same rate as 
'the glaciers, and if Mark Twain’s account of the rate of travel of 
the latter was correct. I was referred to the text-books, which, 
seeing nearly all we had heard during the morning was to show that 
the text-books were wrong, was not very satisfactory. 
But the best paper, to my mind, was the next, by Professor 
W. J. Sollas, on the “ Origin of Flint,” and I think he satis- 
factorily proved that flint was formed at some little depth below 
the surface of the chalk deposit at the time, and by the dissolving 
of the silica out of the fossil sponges contained in it. 
After this paper I left, went to luncheon well tired of listening, 
and in the afternoon joined an excursion to Deal Castle, the 
residence of Lord George Hamilton, and which is, I believe, held 
by virtue of the sinecure office of “ Captain of Deal Castle.” There 
is now no garrison, and the part facing the sea has been converted 
into a dwelling-house, where, I believe, Lord George resides when 
not in London. 
But there is a very great deal of the original work left, which is 
interesting as late and debased Tudor. The moat is all but perfect, 
and the places where the drawbridge swung and the portcullis hung 
are plainly seen ; in fact, except for the front next the sea, the whole 
place is much as it was when besieged by Cromwell’s soldiers ; the 
print of one of their cannon-shot is shown in the main door. 
On Saturday morning I again attended the geological section to 
hear the Sectional President’s Address. Sir Archibald Geikie took 
for his theme the question of “ Geological Time,” and arrived at 
the conclusion that this world of ours is something between 
twenty millions and one hundred millions of years old. 
On Tuesday the second of the delegates’ meetings was to be held, 
when the subject of discussion was to be the preservation of national 
places of interest. I suspect this would be more archaeological than 
anything else, and had I been a delegate of the Archaeological 
Society instead of your own I think I should have felt it my duty 
to attend. But as it was, a proposed visit to the Dover coal boring, 
I think, would have had a too irresistible attraction to me. But, 
alas! when I returned from the Saturday morning’s address I found 
telegrams which necessitated my immediate return home, and so 
my too brief holiday in your service came to an end. 
