This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1887 edition. Excerpt: ... The mammoth and the flood Sir Henry Hoyle Howorth It is not given to many men to fill so conspicuous a place among their contemporaries as your grace has occupied. To be the representative of one of the oldest, most dignified and famous of European families, and to excel as a statesman, a political thinker, and an orator, would suffice for most ambitions. You, my Lord Duke, have not been content with these titles to fame. You have also won a distinguished place for yourself in the ranks of literature and of science. It is as the author of " the Reign of Law," as the former president of the Geological Societies of London and Edinburgh, and as the writer of well-known memoirs on the past history of the Earth, that I venture with your permission to dedicate these pages to yourself. You have done me the honour of speaking favourably of my general conclusion and have adopted it in some of your papers in which a ripe judgment and a keen logic are conspicuous. You will find many mistakes in what follows, nor will you approve of all my arguments. I shall be content if you consider that the book is the result of patient work and careful induction, and shall always deem myself fortunate in the opportunity of linking it to a name I so much honour as your own. 1 remain, Yours most respectfully, HENRY H. HOWORTH. PBEFACE. The title of this work reads like a challenge, and it is meant to be a challenge. For many years past geological reasoning has been vitiated by being tied to metaphysical premises, and it is time that some one trained in scientific methods, but untrammelled by conventional prudence, should speak out unflinchingly against a condition of things which has been most mischievous, and has very greatly impeded