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width ” ! ( Principles , 8th ed. p. 204.) The world has been ransacked of late 
for proofs of the great antiquity of Man, and the immense lapse of years 
since any great change took place ; hut a number of facts which point to an 
opposite conclusion have been strangely overlooked ; e.g. the Delta of the 
Rhone, in the Lake of Geneva, has gained li mile since the tenth 
century (Principles, p. 183), and so has probably taken not more than 
3,000 to 4,000 years to form ; and even, allowing time for the filling up of 
smaller lakes in the upper part of its course, it seems to point to some great 
and remarkable changes in the configuration of the Alps at no very distant 
date. We are all very apt to notice only those things that we are looking 
for. I think, if geologists would only look for traces of the Deluge, and of 
the comparatively recent introduction of Man upon the Earth, they would 
find a great many more than they imagine or expect. 
Mr. D. Howard. — I have read this paper with particular interest because 
it strikes me as being one of those cases in which this Society has done good 
service in hitting the uniformitarian theory very hard. I do not think we 
have any more untrustworthy measure of the lapse of time than the thick- 
ness of stalagmite or the length of stalactite, and all the remarks that have 
been made on this subject in this paper will be fully borne out by a 
scientific study of the question, which is a very curious study, and deserving 
of a much more accurate examination than it has yet received. The very con- 
dition of the springs which produce the stalactite is often a very important 
element in the matter. There must be neither too much nor too little of what 
is held in solution. What is required is the exact quantity of the solvent — 
carbonic acid — to keep the lime and magnesia in solution till it rests on the 
floor, and the latter is then given up. You will therefore see that such a close 
balance as this may be effected by a very minute cause. Allusion has been 
already made to the quantity of vegetation on the surface above the cavern. 
Not only will this enable the soil to hold the water longer, but it will provide 
the carbonic acid required to dissolve the stone underneath ; and even under 
these circumstances it is difficult to see how this tufa could have formed ; 
the conditions are so widely different from what are generally met with. It 
is more usual that tufa forms imder water than on the surface of a wet 
floor. It is most usually formed in a lake or some confined piece of water 
into which this solution of lime flows, and where it can be deposited. 
This, as far as it goes, would tend to show that at some time the cave 
actually was full of confined water into which the carbonic acid solution of 
lime flowed. All these points require a most careful scientific examination, 
but there is one thing which is made out most clearly, that this stalag- 
mite is shown to partake of the character of a watch that does not go 
regularly, thus taking away the value which has been assigned to it as a 
chronometer. This tends to destroy one’s confidence in these kinds of estimates. 
At Ingleborough you have a cave which was apparently never touched by man 
or beast since a very remote period, at any rate since the beginning of the 
formation of this wonderful stalactite and stalagmite. When the cavern was 
broken into, this very “ Jockey’s Cap ” which is referred to in the paper was 
