216 
REVIEWS. 
passages from several parts of tlie work. In his “ Travels in North 
America,” lie has shown that the delta and alluvial plain of the Mis- 
sisippi consist of sedimentary matter, and after ascertaining the 
annual discharge of water and the mean amount of solid matter con¬ 
tained in it, he estimated that the river would require 100,000 years 
to bring down so large a quantity of solid matter, a period which, 
large as it seems, he still regards as the lowest estimate of the time 
required. Now it is stated that, in the loam forming the blulf on 
one side of the valley, and therefore older even than its excavation , 
the pelvic bone of a man is said to have been found near Natchez. 
Sir Charles, indeed, prudently suspends his judgment as to the 
high antiquity of this fossil; but, he adds, “ if I am asked whether I 
“ consider the Natchez loam, with land shells and the bones of Mas- 
“ todon and Megalonyx, to be more ancient than the alluvium of the 
“ Somme, containing flint implements and the remains of the mam- 
“ moth and hysena, I must declare that I do not.” Consequently 
in his opinion, the drift hatchets of England and Erance are at least 
100,000 years old. 
But we must prepare ourselves for even more startling numbers 
than these. 
As the simplest “ series of changes in physical geography which 
can possibly account for the phenomena of the glacial period,” Sir 
Charles gives the following:— 
“ Eirst, a continental period, towards the close of which the 
“ forest of Cromer flourished : when the land was at least 500 feet 
“ above its present level, perhaps much higher, and its extent pro- 
il bably greater than that given in the map, fig. 41.” In which the 
British Isles, including the Hebrides, Orkneys, and Shetlands, are 
connected with one another and with the Continent, the whole Ger¬ 
man Ocean being laid dry. 
“ Secondly, a period of submergence, by which the land north of 
“ the Thames and Bristol Channel, and that of Ireland, was gradually 
“ reduced to such an archipelago as is pictured in map, fig. 40; and 
“ finally to such a general prevalence of sea as is seen in map, fig. 
“ 39.” (In which only the tops of the mountains are left above 
water). “ This was the period of great submergence and of floating 
“ ice, when the Scandinavian flora,, which overspread the lower 
“ grounds during the first continental period, may have obtained 
“ exclusive possession of the only lands not covered with perpetual 
“ snow.” 
“ Thirdly, a second continental period, when the bed of the glacial 
“ sea, with its marine shells and erratic blocks, was laid dry, and 
“ when the quantity of land equalled that of the first period.” 
It is evident that such great changes would require a great lapse 
of time. Sir Charles assumes a mean rate of 2j feet in a century. 
¥e must confess that we should have liked to see this point more 
satisfactorily established. However, as Sir Charles himself says with 
