THE PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. ‘ts 
for us in our attainments of Physical truth in any of its scientific 
branches. Not only in earth and sky, but in the watery realms 
beneath, facts come to light of no isolated worth, but such as 
possess wide-spreading relations, and show an unresting progress in 
Nature’s great habitude—of unity amidst variety, and the variety 
even contributing to the unity. Here are these Deep-sea soundings 
and the treasures of the dredge. What weighty facts they bring to 
the surface! what undreamt-of mysteries they reveal! Take merely 
the two I mention in my brief sketch. You have in closest 
proximity two ocean areas with totally different bottom climates ; 
and you are discovering abundant animal life at all depths. Surely 
such facts have most important bearings upon the distribution of 
Marine Life, new chapters have to be added to our Natural His- 
tory ; and our Geology has to be modified in its interpretation of 
paleontological data. The lover of Science, however, welcomes 
the facts with delight, and yet unmisgiving composure. As he 
looks forward to the ultimate unification of the ‘ Totwm scibile, 
with unswerving faith in the harmony of God’s Universe—when 
the territorial sciences shall yield a universal philosophy, he 
accepts the affluence of facts which are being always gathered in, 
undisturbed in mind, though his preconceptions are constantly dis- 
turbed, and quietly rearranging his conclusions with every accession 
of his premises. From such quietness and confidence comes the 
strength of patience for fresh research and the assurance of ulterior 
discoveries and ultimate convictions. In regard to the disquietude, 
indeed, which discoveries offer to old opinions, I may refer in 
passing to the possible effect of these very Chalk phenomena of 
the Atlantic on the chronology of Geology. The word ‘ Revo- 
lutionary’ has been used to describe the apprehended effect. 
‘“‘All the symmetry of geological time will be destroyed,” says a 
recent scientific reviewer,* ‘if the cretaceous system is to run up 
the eocene, the miocene, the pliocene, the pleistocene, and the recent ; 
and we must cease to call these by the name of ‘periods ;’ as they 
may merely indicate localities or variations of sea-depth. And if 
so, may not something analogous have occurred when the lower 
rocks were forming? May there not be other cases where depths 
of ocean have been mistaken for depths of time? In other words, 
may not many geological formations, hitherto described as successive 
deposits, have after all been actually progressing s/multaneously ?” 
* “ Journal of Science,” vol. x. p. 526. 
