Journal of Proceedings.
xiii
and general public might have an opportunity of studying it at their
leisure. Before putting any formal vote to the meeting, he would like
to listen to any remarks from members, and he was glad to say that
they had amongst them that evening the very Nimrod of Essex Ele-
phant hunters, Sir Antonio Brady himself, to whose noble and per-
severing exertions science and the nation were indebted for that unique
and magnificent collection of Pleistocene Vertebrata from the ancient
Thames Valley which now rested in the British Museum.
Sir Antonio Brady, F.G.S. (Verderer of Epping Forest), who was
warmly greeted, referred, in a long and interesting speech, to the astro-
nomical causes which may be held to account for the various Glacial
Epochs, and mentioned in that connection two books which he deemed
worthy of special study—Mr. Croll's "Climate and Time," and Colonel
Drayson's "Glacial Epochs." To explain the various phenomena
observed, we must have recourse to astronomical causes. It appears
that the pole of the earth points to the polar star, but that the pole of
the plane of the ecliptic is not quite coincident with it, being about 46
seconds from it. It is suggested that the poles do not revolve in space
in a circle, but in a slightly eccentric curve. The effect is scarcely
noticeable in historical time, but in the course of about 17,000 years
such a declension would be caused in the earth's axis with regard to
the sun as would in that time bring the arctic circle down to about
the latitude of London. This would cause such a change of climate as
would account for the Glacial Period, which we know once, if not
oftener, obtained in this island, and is especially apparent in the
northern part of it, notably in Scotland. In this condition, the sun
in our latitude would not rise above the horizon for months together,
and the result would be an arctic winter such as now exists in the
higher regions of our globe. On the other hand, the sun would be
above the horizon for many months together, giving a tropical climate,
such as recent discoveries of coal measures and tropical vegetation
prove to have existed near the pole in ancient geological times. The effect
of the rapid melting of the accumulated winter ice and snow would
cause such floods as we have now no experience of, but which would
fully account for most of the phenomena of Glacial Drift, and the
transport of enormous boulders, presumably ice-borne on the floating
icebergs, as we see in a lesser degree at the present time. It is more-
over suggested that the animals existing at that time migrated with the
changing seasons, some being overwhelmed by the way. The subject
was too vast for him to do more in the few remarks permitted him
than just to glance at the theories promulgated to account for known
phenomena; but anyone wishing for more detailed information on this
most intensly interesting subject would be amply repaid by the perusal
of the many works which treat on the questions raised, especially those
he had already referred to.