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the palms and other varieties of vegetation now flourishing luxuriantly in Africa in latitude 35° N. Dr. Hook, in 1705, remarked that "the fossils found in Portland seemed to him to have been the productions of hotter countries; and it is necessary to suppose that England once lay under the sea within the torrid zone."

Let us compute backwards how long ago it is since the south of England was in latitude 35° N., where the animals and vegetables found entombed in the Portland deposits still flourish. As we are now in possession of the exact amount of the rate of the terrestrial change, which has been determined to a fraction of a second, we can safely proceed with our computations, and thus ascertain, with some degree of exactitude, the probable age of any given land. About 3,150 years ago, the site on which Greenwich Observatory stands was about 20° 28′ 30′′ S. of the parallel of y Ursa Majoris, and therefore in latitude 35°N., when the Portland organic remains might have flourished, and the deposits have been formed. The southern part of England, according to the slow rate of change of 20" per annum, must have been within the tropics about 5,500 years ago. Hence England might have risen from the deep within the tropics, and produced all the geological deposits found on it during the last 6,000 years, without allowing for any increased movement, which it is highly probable occurred during the Noachian deluge.

Amongst the animals entombed in the deposits of Siberia are the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, bear, hyæna, lion, tiger, and others, which can only live and flourish in or near the tropics. The fossil ivory is found in deposits like quarries of bones, and forms a lucrative article of commerce. Tobolsk,

the capital of Siberia, is now situated in the parallel of 58° latitude N.

In Cabool, Lahore, and Delhi, say in 30° latitude N., elephants and tigers still abound. How long is it since Tobolsk (site) was in the parallel of 30° N. latitude? The difference between the two parallels being 28°, the time required to produce this change is 5,040 years.

The flesh of the Siberian mammoth has been found in the ice and gravel in so fresh a state as to serve as food for dogs, bears, and wolves. Yet it is contended that the deposit must be tens of thousands of years old!

There are species of tigers and other tropical animals roving occasionally as far north as 45°. A tiger was killed in 1828 on the Lena, in latitude 52° N. Bears, with long hair, and black tigers, are seen within the tropics, as high as the inferior limits of perpetual snow; therefore these animals are not

necessarily confined to the tropical parallels. The longhair mammoth found in Siberia might have lived far beyond the tropics, and the carcass might have been carried by the floods of the rivers towards the Arctic region two or three thousand years ago. Had Africa been connected with the south of Spain, as it was in former ages, Spain would even now be infested by tropical animals. It is necessary to bear this in mind when we discuss questions connected with terrestrial changes. The African rhinoceros is found as far south as the Cape of Good Hope, latitude 34°30'S., and lions as far north as Algiers, about 36° lat. N.

The fossil forest of Atanekerdluk, in latitude 70° N. (Greenland), is still standing erect on its native soil. When those trees flourished, they required a temperature of at least 30° Fah. higher than is now found in that parallel. This land 4,000 years ago was within the parallel of 48° N., in which similar vegetation now flourishes in France.

The Nova Scotia coal-beds contain calamites, fern-trees rooted in the arenaceous beds, surrounded by their fallen leaves, and the remains of tropical reptiles. This formation is now in latitude 45° N. About 4,000 years ago it was in la titude 23° N., and might have then received its sedimentary deposits, in the same manner as they are now seen forming in the lagoons of St. Martha, near the mouth of the river Magdalena.

The south-east part of England, when the Wealden deposits were formed, was in a very warm climate. It had then its lagoons, with palms, arborescent ferns, &c. Crocodiles, iguanoes, turtles, and various reptiles, infested its fens and rivers, and have left their remains as memorials of their former existence. All this might have occurred about 4,000 years ago, when the south of England was in latitude 30° N.

How much more satisfactory it is to the inquiring mind to learn that these great geological changes are not the result of chance or disturbed elements, but are occurring as regularly, and are as uniform and exact in the rate of their movements, as the rotation of the earth; and that they do not proceed from a series of igneous catastrophes, regulated by no laws, and reducible to no fixed principles, as assumed by geologists.

I shall not refer to the theory which was propounded at the commencement of the last century, and attempted to be improved by D'Alembert, to account for the change referred to by an assumed conical motion of the terrestrial axis. This inconsistent hypothesis has been lately exposed and demolished by M. Poinset, an eminent member of the French Insti

tute. Astronomers will continue to be perplexed with the results of their observations until they have corrected their tables of refraction, and adopted the now well established superficial movement, instead of the reeling or conical motion of the terrestrial axis, which has not a single physical fact to support it. The Astronomer Royal, in his report for 1861, remarked that "the transit circle and collimators still present those appearances of agreement between themselves, and of change with respect to the stars, which seem explicable only on one of two suppositions-that the ground itself shifts with respect to the general Earth; or that the axis of rotation changes its position."

We have innumerable proofs of the land's upheaving, subsiding, and shifting, but none whatever as regards any changes in the position of the axis.

I shall next refer to the lands of the southern hemisphere. The conditions of that part of the globe are very different to those in the northern hemisphere. With the exception of a small part of the south of New Zealand and Patagonia, there are no lands in the Antarctic Sea, but mere patches of sands, gravel, and icebergs-scenes of barrenness and desolation to the latitude of 45° S. In the north, between the parallel of 45° latitude N. and the Arctic basin, are situated all Europe as far as Spain and Italy. Also Siberia, Tartary, and the northern part of China. Likewise nearly all the British possessions of North America. We have to advance from the south as far as the tropics-say to the latitude of 20° S.before we can obtain sufficient area of habitable lands in that part of the globe to investigate their geological formations, so as to form a correct opinion of their general character and probable ages. The parallel of 20° lat. S. will embrace New Zealand, Tasmania, about two-thirds of Australia, the Cape of Good Hope, and the southern part of South America. A general description of the deposits of these countries has been already given, therefore need not be repeated on this occasion. In the sedimentary deposits of the northern hemisphere are the remains of the flora and fauna of the semi-tropical and tropical climates, and not those flourishing in the northerly zones in which the deposits are now seen. The relics of the past entombed below are totally uncongenial to the climates of high northern latitudes.

In the south, on the contrary, the organic remains found in the deposits correspond with those now living in the same regions. In Australia, New Zealand, and the southern part of South America, are growing most luxuriantly arborescent ferns, Cycadeæ, Araucaria, and various coniferæ. The coasts abound

in corals and sponges even to Tasmania; also Terebratula, Trigonia, and a variety of mollusca, unknown in Europe excepting as fossils. Hence the entombed organic remains of that part of the world present no indications whatever of the lands having shifted from other climes, as we see in the northern hemisphere. We have many unequivocal proofs of the comparatively modern origin of the lands of the southern hemisphere, and that they gradually emerged from the sea, but they are occasionally subject here and there to somewhat rapid upheavals, as seen in New Zealand and on the coast of Chili, as described in my former paper.

To determine the probable age of the lands of the south temperate zone, we can have no assistance from the organic remains; we can only be guided by astronomical observations and the space traversed from the parallel of emersion in the south to the parallel now occupied. However, this is quite sufficient for my object, and as the fact of the 20" per annum movement has been well proved in all parts of the world, and, indeed, is recorded in the Nautical Almanac as an essential element to be taken into account in all our astronomical observations to insure accuracy, the ages of the lands referred to can be determined within a few centuries.

I shall take the southern part of Australia to the latitude of 30° S. as an example; and as this parallel will embrace also the whole of New Zealand, Tasmania, Cape of Good Hope, Patagonia, La Plata, and Chili, the computation will serve for all. The result of the various explorations which have been made in the Antarctic Sea shows that no permanent land on which animals and plants can exist emerges and remains above the level of the sea until it reaches the parallel of about 50° lat. S. All the so-called lands, with the exception of Terra del Fuego and its neighbourhood (which is a hard mass of primary rock), are mere shifting sands and gravels, constantly subject to be washed away by the streams and icebergs flowing from the south polar region towards the north.

If, then, we take the parallel of 50° as the starting-point from which Australia and the other lands mentioned emerged from the deep, it follows that, according to the rate of movement of 20 per annum in the meridian, the lands bounded by the parallel of 30° lat. S. can only be 3,600 years old at most. They might have first risen from the deep in the parallel of 45°, which, indeed, is highly probable, as they contain but a small amount of terrestrial deposits, and predominate in loose sands and gravel with marine shells, indicating comparatively recent origin; this would reduce the age to about 2,700 years. According to the present rate of rising in Australia, four

fifths of that country were below the level of the sea 1,000 years ago. In making these computations on the probable ages of the existing lands, it must be borne in mind that the computations refer strictly to the dry lands or continents, and not to the earth as a body. The globe, with all its elements, might have existed from eternity. The ocean and the lands emerging from the Antarctic Pole, merge again into the Arctic Pole, and thus circulate from pole to pole through the medium of the earth's axis. This question is beyond the reach of demonstrable science; but as regards the existing dry lands, we are able to determine the extreme limits of their probable ages almost to a mathematical certainty.

A new land emerging from the deep in latitude 50° S., moving at the present slow rate of 20" per annum northward, would arrive at the Arctic Circle in less than 22,000 years. Hence, had Greenland been emerged in that parallel, and had since been slowly shifted from thence, it could only be 22,000 years old. But as far as the fossil contents of that country are concerned, Greenland might have emerged from the sea, like many other northern lands, in latitudes corresponding to Spain and Portugal, and if so, it might not be above 5,000 years old. Again, we must not forget the miracle of the Flood. It is highly probable that the Flood was brought about by means of the established terrestrial physical operations. The movement of the ocean northward must have been greatly intensified, and thereby, from the same natural causes, the action of the lands in the same direction, must have increased, and thus, during their immersion by the ocean, have been carried en masse many degrees northward, with the carcasses of the animals then destroyed, leaving a new land for Noah and his live stock free from the remains of the former animals, to replenish the world with organic life for future generations.

Besides this possible extra movement northward during the Flood, we have to reflect also on the great intensity of the action of terrestrial operations in the days of the Creation. When everything was created and made to appear perfect and in a state of maturity, as quick as the word of command, "Let it be; and it was so"-time was not required. Although the Creation was spread and divided over six days as a type of certain ordinances which were to be established for the guidance of man, so many days could not have been required by our Maker. The great intensity of action which of necessity must have been going on during the days and nights of the Creation, has not been sufficiently considered by those who have attempted to compare geological formations with the Mosaic records. Greater results must have then been pro

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