New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1858-11-09
MATTERS OF SCIENCE.

bore cavern at Bi1tam, near torquAy, which yeid-d
on exploration upward Of 2,o00 bones of tue rhin-
ocerce, boz, horse, reindeer, cave bear and hyets
with which were mingled WI Unmarked specimens Of
tie remains Of savage men. in the shape Of flint
knives and arrox. heas There is great di-posi-
ton felt however in England as well g IN tbs couu-
try, ia dislike upon theological grounds the Obvious
consequences Of such discoveries 70 carry back the
lfe Of upon the earth beyond the renost Of
any Ii own history or any calculated chronology that
the paper when rcsd excited pot only IL doe interest
but earnest discussion. As it is ACKNOWLEDGED TO re
longer possible to separate the remains of man
from those OF extinct aDimas, and some new line of
defense must be adopted by bohsrs of the old IDEAS,
the effort was made 20 brig the Of the animals
down into the commonly accepted era of mankiud
Prof Owen who stand, at the head of this depart
meut of scence in the Briti-h Isles took occasion 20
rtrea geoo gists present not TO chuckle a. check
which DO, cbeckmate. Tigers and elephants
once lived Siberia, protected from the cold by hair.
Rbnoceros ard reindeer might inhabit Epgland, not
only at ore and the time, but in comparatively
modern times, for the climate was az much too warm
for tie one too cold for the other unless
accept the true explanation of the fact, namely,
that food and security Of more Importance to al
wild creatures than any particular kind Of climate
And in the writings Of julius Gees ar less than 900
years old there is eyideloe that in his day there
manned of these extinct races two kinds of gigantic
OK and a rendeer, living stD among the painted
sayages Prof Owen was satisfied himself that tlere
was also a native British hon All this is very well
a. case of special pleading. Had We no other caves,
pottery in the Delta Of the Nile or in the uped
beaches Of the Peruviau coast no skeletons in the
Florida coral in the cypress swamPs Of Louisiana,
10 pyramids older than the Rsbbnical flood, or arrow
heads and burnt brands under the mammoth skeleton
| in Missouri Facts like these make the hesitancy
of the learned anatomist seem a little too ultra
conservative and the side too, where the advance
of science has always suffered most from friction. We
are not impatient with the low vel betty Of this great
glacier but cannot help plying any larger fragment OF
lateral moraine hat We happen to notice caught and
held behind al angle of the rocks that hem it IN.
Mr. Teae brought to the notice Of the same section
fine specimens Of elephant and hippopotamus bones
from the clays of Are Valley Glacial clsys be con-
sders them resting the upturned edges OF the coal
measures. The lowest is blue clay deposited by ga-
cia waters in an era Of submergeace; on il yellow
clay also deposited by ice but in an era of emegeRee
On this again warp with angular and ai.o rolled
stones the debris Of the blue and yellow clays and
gravel from distant hills, Subsequent 10 tie glacial Pc
rod in England, and containing the animal remains.
II is surprising how extensively and unhestatingy the
ice hypothesis is received among biologists in expans-
ton Of every sort of luvsl phenomenon Ist gravel'
the uoraine Is II clay 1.-The glacial mud. Are they
erooves7-the ice moved slowly. Are they long, straight
scratches THE ice moved swift. Physicians would
say that there wss glacial diathesis. Statisti'
clans would call it an epidemic. 1t takes well with
preacher because ice is of particular age, has
1 4 arlia raafits
her, after. Archbishop Ushers Jew teacher is safe
out Of the way. Agasz likes II because he can fish
in Massachusetts, Bay and imagine behind him the
Glttcher Aar descending the valley in front of West
Conway. Ramsey fances it because he can repeat at
Montreal bis beautiful discoveries of glacial breccia in
front Of the hills Of Montgomery II suits our West
ern geoogists because anything is better than the
Joye and Titan chaos of Rogers North Pole qualus-
versal delugc and the goring out of Appalachian an
telnal valleys ten miles deep In fact this last named
philosopher even backed he is by the Coryphpus
of transatlantic biologists, the great Sir Roderck,
used the up Or in common parlance, ran 1t into
the ground spoiled its prestige-a prestige OF great
and glorious antiquity, but ot little value now.
Since Desor built his stone chalet the glaces of
the Aar and Edward Forbes stole the facts Of the
Birnese Oberland to feed bis theories Of the Mer de
Glace the ocean is an iere Poss<-ice has been at
premium among cosmologists. When Agazzis and
Desor ard Guyot and Iesquereux came over in their
Mayfower, il was freighted with trnkets for the
natives and ice for the crew and in a single the
triukets were distributed from Portland to New
Orleans aud the ice covered the northern hemisphere
down TO the latitude of 49, the limit Of the drift. The
cap thus made for the globe, however, did not fit aud
had to be altered and patched AMI wholly made up
anew than once and was at one time despairngy
thrown away. But the New World was 10 such costa
cies with its new cap tLa IN spite OF the ridiculous
figure il cut, the inventor could not bear to take II of,
and il it still. Imagine grave glscislsts
pointing sconu fingers at Rogerss Ooean,c 6D0rs, aud
then laying the fingers against their own noses,
and with nnumerabe wiuks and mods to another,
| procaimng a continental mere, moving miles deep
| over dead level through Hrdsons Bay, up hill over
the White Mountains and tine Catsks losirg none of
its depth by the increasing areas of lis ATTITUDES, and
ing of its force in mounting the Aeghenies.
Our report Of this session Of the British Associs
is very meager. We suspect that very little OF interest
or Importance presented in fact, as much as that
has been confessed The Association has degeGeratei
greatly from It's original IDEAL ell such immense,
perpatetc omiverous organizations must in the very
nature Of things. Like the launch of snipofthe-
line expectation is tiptoe, the first rush is irress
bic and truly sublime but at the last single hawser
can stop the forward movement, the crowd without
dcpar, TO attend to other matters and the un~ieldy
fossken by her architects is taken possession Of
by uercenay and stuffed with private goods
The yachts Of science the only craft which keep up
the paint and crowd sail and e. L. IS ouy ,ach
losa, wesliby aud exclusive soci,tes ~ the Royal,
the London Geological, and Geographical. Linnaan
and Astronomical Societies, or such Academies - the
Brussels ana the Berlin filled with honest working men