Origin of Species Variorum

→ we may fairly conclude 1859 1860 1861 1866

OMIT 1869 1872

→ any right 1859 1860 1861

have no reason 1866 1869 1872

→ the beginning of this world? 1860 1861

eternity? 1859

the beginning of the world. 1866 1869

the beginning of the world. Our continents seem to have been formed by a preponderance, during many oscillations of level, of the force of elevation; but may not the areas of preponderant movement have changed in the lapse of ages? 1872

→ formations 1859 1860 1861

sedimentary formations in a recognisable condition 1866 1869 1872

extend; for had they

existed,

existed

~~there,~~

there,

palæozoic and secondary formations would in all probability have been accumulated from sediment derived from their wear and tear; and

these would

would

have been at least partially upheaved by the oscillations of level, which →we may fairly conclude must have intervened during these enormously long periods. If then we may infer anything from these facts, we may infer

that,

that

where our oceans now extend, oceans have extended from the remotest period of which we have any record; and on the other hand, that where continents now exist, large tracts of land have existed, subjected no doubt to great oscillations of level, since the

earliest silurian

Cambrian

earliest Silurian

period. The

colored

coloured

map appended to my volume on Coral Reefs, led me to conclude that the great oceans are still mainly areas of subsidence, the great archipelagoes still areas of oscillations of level, and the continents areas of elevation. But

~~have~~

have

we →any right to assume that things have thus

existed

remained

from →the beginning of this world? Our continents seem to have been formed by a preponderance, during many oscillations of level, of the force of elevation; but may not the areas of preponderant movement have changed in the lapse of ages? At a period

long

immeasurably

antecedent to the

silurian

Cambrian

Silurian

epoch, continents may have existed where oceans are now spread out; and clear and open oceans may have existed where our continents now stand. Nor should we be justified in assuming that if, for instance, the bed of the Pacific Ocean were now converted into a continent, we should there find →formations older than the

silurian

Cambrian

Silurian

strata, supposing such to have been formerly deposited; for it might well happen that strata which had subsided some miles nearer to the centre of the earth, and which had been pressed on by an enormous weight of superincumbent water, might have