Corres])ondence. 191 
from a review of all the evidence then available, some such period as 
one hundred million years would embrace the whole of geological his- 
tory." 
"Moralizing on these results," the speaker added, "it is not pleasant 
to discover that a fortune, which one has unconcernedly believed to be 
ample, has somehow taken to itself wings and disappeared. When 
the geologist was suddenly awakened by the energetic warning of the 
physicist it was but natural that he should think the accountant to be 
mistaken. But he consoled himself with tDe reflection that, after all, 
one hundred million years was a tolerably ample period of time, and 
might possibly have been quite sufficient for the long sequence of events 
recorded in the crust of the earth. But further considerations have led 
to sweeping reductions of the time allowable for the evolution of the 
planet. Lord Kelvin is willing, I Ijelieve, to grant us some twenty mil- 
lion yea's, but Prof. Tait would have us content with less than tea mil- 
lions." 
Discussing then the argument of the g-ologists from denudation of the 
land, he said that the rate of this process had in some cases been deter- 
mined, and found to vary between one foot in 730 years and < ne foot in 
6,800 years. Assuming the stratified masses to have at their greatest de- 
velopment a thickness of 100,000 feet, "tliey would reqnire at the most 
rapid recorded rate of denudation a period of 73 million years, and at 
the slowest not less than 680 millions." 
Alluding then to the biological evidence of great length of time, as 
shown by the changes which the life of the world has undergone, the 
speaker gave it as liis opinion that the " geological record furnishes a 
mass of evidence which no arguments from other departments of Nature 
can explain away, in favor of an allowance of time much beyond the 
narrow limits which recent physical speculation would concede," and 
concluded his address with an eloquent and picturesque sketch of the 
story revealed by geology concerning the region surrounding the ancient 
capital in which the meeting was held. 
Dr. C. Lapworth, the president of the geological section, being ill, his 
address was postponed and his place filled by various members. Prof- 
Rupert .Jones supplied the vacancy on the first day. The papers were 
not of special interest, but included one on the Eurypterids of the Si- 
lurian rocks, by Mr. Liurie; Prof. Jones' report on fossil phyllopods; 
the exhibition of perhaps the oldest paLTolith y^t found, by Mr. Bell 
and Prof. Bonney; a note on the discovery of the bones of a sperm-whale 
in Scotland; one by Capt. Paterson; one by Dr. .Johnston-Lavis on a 
pisolicic tufE in the Pentlands, and one by ]Mr. Watts on lava and ashes 
in the carboniferous rocks in Ireland. 
On Thursday morning, with Prof. Bonney in the chair, the report of 
the photographic committee was received, and a standard size and 
mount, to be determined later, resolved on. The report of the boulder 
committee followed, also that of the underground water committee. Two 
or three papers were also read on the Ice-age, which, however, contained 
no new matter, and are chiefly significant as indicating the extent to 
