The Arctic Home in the Vedas c5.23

c5.23

The judgment recently pronounced by Mr. Hudleston is still more severe. In his opening address, as President of the geological section of the meeting of the British Association in 1898, he is reported to have remarked, “There is probably nothing more extraordinary in the history of modern investigation than the extent to which geologists of an earlier date permitted themselves to be led away by the fascinating theories of Croll. The astronomical explanation of that ‘Will-o’-the-wisp,’ the cause of the great Ice Age, is at present greatly discredited, and we begin to estimate at their true value those elaborate calculations which were made to account for events, which, in all probability, never occurred. Extravagance begets extravagance, and the unreasonable speculations of men like Belt and Croll have caused some of our recent students to suffer from the nightmare.” 1 This criticism appears to be rather severe; for though Dr. Croll’s elaborate calculations may be extravagant, yet we must give him the credit for not merely suggesting, but working out, the effect of a cosmical cause which under certain circumstances is powerful enough to produce extensive changes in the climate of the globe.