168 
RAGNAROK. 
reduced to orderly conduct by mutual attractions with other 
bodies of the Solar system, or dispatched again into space. 
For these and other reasons we decline to receive, as a 
vera causa of the Drift deposits, the impact of a comet. Whilst 
at least four true causes are known to be at work on the 
earth’s surface now, whose combination can explain the facts, 
there is no need to journey to a hypothetical comet for an 
explanation ; nor is it probable that such a comet will journey 
to us, and if it should the results would be anything but glacial. 
A word or two must be said concerning the origin 
of the boulders and erratic blocks, and also concerning the 
absence of evidence of life from the deposits. As to the 
former it is well known that in our own Midland district the 
boulders are identical in composition' and appearance witli 
local rocks, and also with rocks occurring in situ in Wales, the 
Lake district, and Scotland. The phenomena are similar in 
character in other districts. There is no need to go to a comet 
to account for these. Concerning the absence of evidence of 
life the author appears to have somewhat misunderstood the 
statements he quotes from sundry geologists. These refer 
simply and solely to contemporary life, not to fossil evidence 
of life from other formations. In our own district the 
boulders and Drift pebbles contain abundance of well-known 
fossils derived from Palaeozoic and other rocks, as the 
collection in the Midland Institute, and that exhibited in 
Bingley Hall last September, clearly demonstrate. The 
material of the Drift came from previous formations. There 
is no need to go to a comet when such rocks occur within 100 
miles, and also at no great distance beneath our feet. 
Passing now for a moment to the Biblical Exegesis, 
though that scarcely belongs to a scientific journal, it is even 
more startling than the science. The writers of the books of 
Job and Genesis would certainly be appalled if they saw the 
explanations of Ragnarok. Its author has re-arranged, 
excised, and explained in such a way as to produce a 
tessellated mosaic of the Mosaic narrative, at which even the 
most advanced of modern critics would stare in amazement. 
Now, finally, for one or two brief illustrations of quaint 
sayings and reasonings. Page 405 states “ In the age of 
man’s declension he moved eastward. In the age of his 
redemption he moves westward.” If this statement be true 
it is good for America but bad for Britain. On page 366 is 
found “ The negro race, it seems probable, may have 
separated from our own stock in pre-glacial times, and 
survived, in fragments, somewhere in the land of torrid heats, 
probably in some region on which the Drift did not fall. We 
