860 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
want of feeling for those of onr readers who have been blind enough to adopt 
the current doctrines ; we shall, therefore, confine ourselves to sketching 
Mr. Hopkins’s theory accounting for what, in our innocence, we have hereto- 
fore simply regarded as the result of a change of climate. The presence in 
England of fossil plants akin to those of tropical countries was formerly 
explained by supposing that the surrounding conditions of this island were 
once such as to favour the growth of tropical plants. Indeed, there appeared 
to be every reason to believe that this was the true explanation. We already 
know that the climate of a country is by no means ruled by its latitude ; that, 
for example. New Zealand and France, and Ireland and Newfoundland, 
though pretty nearly equidistant from the equator, have very different 
temperatures ; indeed, Newfoundland, which is considerably nearer the 
equator than Ireland, is infinitely colder. Furthermore, an American 
gentleman. Dr. Sterry Hunt — with whose name, possibly, Mr. Hopkins is un- 
familiar — has shown that the presence of a large quantity of carbonic acid in 
the atmosphere during Palseozic times may have impeded the radiation of 
heat from the earth, and so have increased its general temperature. These 
considerations led geologists to imagine, when they found tropical plants in 
English deposits, that such remains had not been transported from some other 
land. Our author is of a different opinion. In the earlier portions of his 
essay he shows that the outer crust of the earth is perpetually shifting, — in 
fact, that it rotates upon the inner mass, and is continually moving north- 
wards at the rate 20" per annum. By this discovery he cuts the Gordian knot 
which has puzzled geologists for so many years. The truth is simply this, 
England was formerly nearly under the equator, but by a simple process of 
shifting she has gradually assumed her present position. There is, however, 
one little dif&culty which Mr. Hopkins seems to avoid, viz., the existence of 
the glacial period, which, according to his notion, ought not to have reached 
us so soon. It may, however, be conceived that the process of shifting 
was at one period carried on beyond its normal velocity, and that England 
was hurried into boreal regions before her time, and then rebounded to her 
present position. That we may not be accused of giving our author credit for 
extravagant notions such as those he so justly deprecates in geologists, 
we quote the following exposee of his views : — “ Broken shells, fish, and 
floating carcases may be brought from the tropics by means of the currents of 
the ocean, and deposited along the coasts of northern lands ; but, when we 
find forests of fossiliferous (!) tropical trees and plants, with their roots 
attached to the soil in which they grew and flourished, it is evident that the 
land in which they are now found must have been, if not within the limits of 
the mathematical tropical lines, at least in a region where such productions 
exist at the present day ; ” and, referring to the northern part of Africa, “ the 
south of England must have been within that parallel about 3,000 years ago.” 
We feel ourselves unable to penetrate the mysterious recesses of Mr. Hopkins’s 
theory, — it is too comprehensive for our finite understandings, and we prefer, 
like our author, to “ drink deep or touch not.” Meanwhile, clinging to our 
old faith, we shall watch the Reformer’s progress with the greatest interest. 
