It has been argued by some that the seas were anciently cooler than at the present day, and that thence certain ulterior effects might be assumed. Without treating of the supposed effects, I wish to state that the premiss itself seems to me inconsistent with what, geologically viewed, appears to be the order of transition through which our planet has passed in its successive changes. My own unprofessional view, founded upon grounds generally admitted, has been that, from a temperature originally much higher, the oceans had gradually cooled down under adequate influences to the mean temperatures which they now maintain under the permanent climatic conditions of the globe; and indeed that the peculiar condition distinguished by geologists as the “Glacial Period” was but the effect of the rapid condensation of the vapours arising during the longcontinued process of cooling, under a great and sudden organic change.