| → from fossil remains 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869 |
| OMIT 1872 |
|
| → not 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869 |
| until recently not 1872 |
|
| → until quite recently was 1869 |
| is 1859 1860 1861 1866 |
| was 1872 |
|
| → of one species discovered 1860 1861 1866 1869 1872 |
| discovered 1859 |
|
| → and Dr. Dawson in 1860 1861 1866 1869 1872 |
| in 1859 |
|
| → America, of which shell above a hundred specimens have now been collected. 1861 1866 1869 |
| America. 1859 |
| America, of which shell several specimens have now been collected. 1860 |
| America; but now land-shells have been found in the lias. 1872 |
|
| → OMIT 1866 1869 1872 |
| the Supplement to 1859 1860 1861 |
|
|
the most striking instances is that of the Flysch formation, which consists of shale and sandstone, several thousand, occasionally even six thousand feet, in thickness, and extending for at least 300 miles from Vienna to Switzerland; and although this great mass has been most carefully searched, no fossils, except a few vegetable remains, have been found. |
|
| With respect to the terrestrial productions which lived during the Secondary and Palæozoic periods, it is superfluous to state that our evidence
→from fossil remains
is fragmentary in an extreme degree. For instance,
→not
a land shell
→until quite recently was
known belonging to either of these vast periods, with
exception
→of one species discovered
by Sir C. Lyell
→and Dr. Dawson in
the carboniferous strata of North
→America, of which shell above a hundred specimens have now been collected. In regard to mammiferous remains, a
glance at the historical table published in
→OMIT
will bring home the truth, how accidental and rare is their preservation, far better than pages of detail. Nor is their rarity surprising, when we remember how large a proportion of the bones of tertiary mammals have been discovered either in caves or in lacustrine deposits; and that not a cave or true lacustrine bed is
belonging to the age of our secondary or palæozoic formations. |
|
| But the imperfection in the geological record
results from another and more important cause than any of the foregoing; namely, from the several
being separated from each other by wide intervals of time. This doctrine has been
emphatically admitted by many geologists and palæontologists, who, like E. Forbes , entirely disbelieve in the change of species. When we see the formations tabulated in written works, or when we follow them in nature, it is
|
