New-York tribune., 1902-05-26
GEOLOGY.
a GROUP OF IMPORTANT PUBLICATIONS

BRITAIN AND BRITISH SEAS, by II. ]. Mac
n9eTs1 9Se Of xfaTd faofT fsrafed st With maps and
diagrams. Octave, PIP $77- d. Appleton * Co.
THE. sCENERY OF ENMGLANDi NC a b, AND THE The
AVebury. Copiousy illustrated with photographs
and diagrams Octave. PIP 58i. The Macmillan
THE NEARER EAST. BY D. 6. Hogarth Fell, Fellow
Of Magdalen College. oxford, and late Director
diagrams 5l1s octavo. pp 2ss D. Appleton & Co.
HISTORY OF GEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLQGY
TURY BY Kari Alfred Won Zittel, Professor Of
Geology and PaleontGlogy IN the uniyersitg OF
don. octave. PIP 5s2 Imported by Charles
That there can. be a close relation between
the revelations of geology and nations char
acter and destiny is a comparatively new
thought. This. however, is the fundamental
Idea Of the Regions Of the World series, TO
which Mr.. MacKinder contributes the first vol
Dme. and he effectively demonstrates the sound
ness Of the proposition therein. One significant
feature Of Britain's geographical position is its
insularity. Though near the Continent of Eu-
rope from which most Of its population was
originally derived. il was nevertheless suffi-
GENTLY separated from II at that time to render
the task OF emigrating thither difficult. The
Celts who came from the south, and the Teu-
tons. who invaded II from the east, were the
most daring. and enterprising representatives
Of their respective races. Thus the people OF
the island kingdom inherited an exceptionally
progressive and hardy spirit. They were sailors,
too, from their very birth. and took TO mari
time pursuits naturally duck does to
water.
So shallow are the North Sea and English
Channel that were their beds raised a hundred
fathoms they would cease TO exist, and England,
Scotland and Ireland would belong to the main
land. 1t is only after one gets well TO the west
ward Of both the French and Irish coasts that
the ocean bottom drops off to great depths. In
spite OF this submarine connection Mr.. Mac
Kinder regards Britain as the southeastern cor
ner of a lost Atlantis not situated where the
old Greeks placed it-of the pillars of Hercules
but up near the Arctic Circle. Perhaps Green
land and Iceland are remnants OF the sunken
continent which may have supplied Britain
with her earliest human inha bitants, the makers
of primitive implements. One Of the reasons
for thinking that large land area rose above
sea level TO the northwestward OF the United
szingdom is that several Of the foldings of the
rock strata in the latter region seem TO have
been formed by the squeezing together OF the
conjectural continent and Europe. Since that
time Britain has risen and sunk repeatedly, and,
lowing to q variety of influences, the face Of the
country has undergone many changes. Yet II
IS interesting TO notice that there is almost
continuous chain Of uplands from north 10 south
between the highlands Of Scotland and Devon.
The greatest elevations are in the former To-
cality. but the loftiest Of them all. Ben Nevis,
IS scarcely more than four thousand feet high
Another circumstance which has exercised a
powerful and benefcent influence over Britain
IS her climate. Though situated as far north
as bleak and frigid Labrador the genial warmth
OF the Gulf Stream drift keeps the sea open all
around her in midwinter and affords easy ac-
cess to her ports from all parts of the globe.
Farming and stock raising are conducted there
aInder peculiarly favorable auspices from the
game cause. Primarily, Of course. the phenome-
non is meteorological, but back of 1t all lies the
location Of ocean, continent and island, which is
the outcome of purely geological forces. So. too,
ere deposits Of coal and iron which un-
sequaled elsewhere in Europe and the food bear
ing currents that attract to the eastern shores
OF Scotland and England innumerable fish. Ma
ture has indeed smiled on British industry.
Picturesque as is the surface of England to-
day, It is very different from what ii once was.
When shrinkage of the interior of the globe
Through cooling formed more less sharply
folded ridges on the crust, deep seated
rock strata of enormous thickness tilted
ap at various angles. Then something ate away
the crests of these enormous wrinkles and ex-
posed the edges of layers which had once been
hidden. Not only along mountain chains, but
also over comparatively level plains this de-
structive action has been going on for many
millions Of years. The older biologists believed
that the eroding agent the sea, which Oper-
ated at time when the land was submerged.
Lord Avebury lays great stress, therefore, on
the more recent teachings of Hutton, Scrope,
Murchison, Jukes and Ramsay. which assign
the work to a period when the surface out
of water. The sculpture performed, It is
now thought. by rivers, glaciers and the
weather. Some hint Of its extent may be de-
rived from the fact that up in the Cheviot Hills
rocks are now bare which were covered TO
a depth of from twenty thousand 10 fifty thou
sand feet, or four 10 ten miles. No wonder that
few remaining elevations in England are more
chan half mile above the sea!
Il was not long. of course, after rain began
TO fall upon the surface before slight irregulari
ties in level led to the formation Of rivulets and
rivers Owing TO a lack Of uniformity in the
hardness of the material that thus COW
cred. the descent of the water was not always
gradual. Sometimes il formed rapids and
waterfalls. Though one would suppose that the
beds OF streams would be continually lowered.
.t often happened that for time they would be
raised by the aCcumulations OF mud and gravel.
though the bulk of the debris which was car
ried away from the hill.ides would be trans
ported 10 the mouths Of the streams, where 1T
would form deltas, and some of II went out into
the ocean. Lakes have been formed in several
different ways. Some of those in Wales We're
probably old river valleys. damned by the
gravelly deposits Of glaciers. Lord Avebury is
;n doubt about these in the Lake District. which
are comparatively shallow, but inclines 10 the
belief that their basins were scooped out by
glaciers. II has been suggested that several of
the lakes of Switzerland and Northern Italy
have been formed by a gradual but sensible up
lifting of the lower end of great valleys, but
49,