[128]

Jan 7. /50/. (Cause of non-passage of forms in any of Geological Formations, & the sudden coming in of new group explained, hypothetically). — When we look at any Geolog formation we soon begin to see how many years its formation must have consumed, when we study it we are generally deeply impressed with prodigious length.— The intervals of time between each formation — generally believed in (except by foreign catastrophists) yet almost hypothetical except where upheaved & worn down strata & we are liberal when those who take this view will probably in their own minds conclude that they give to the intervals ample time when they consider they are equal to periods of dep accumulation. Some even ignorantly think that accumulations are somewhere always going on. — The view propounded by me in S. America wd lead to conclusion that intervals exceed accumulation‒ But to make accord with species theories; we must look at each great formation, consuming time making head giddy is a mere unit, & that all the formations may be compared to some ten or twelve units taken out of a series of say perhaps some several thousand,

[128v]

as an example of what I mean some imagine all languages even Chinese. English & Hindustani Indo-germanic derived from one stock, assume this as true are derived from one source Indo-germanic, & therefore cd be traced passing to each other.— some authors imagine even Semitic & Indo-germanic may have had a common source.— Now suppose we were to take between present time English & such old the parent of Semitic & language, only say 2 languages, there wd be nothing like a passage destroy every trace of an languageexcept English & the hypothetical parent language of the Indo-germanic & Semitic — comparable to pleistocene & Silurian formations to Chalk Secondary— formations & then if we were to discover some two or three books wd it reveal to us a passage certainly not — it wd be a new so many new species of language related to intermediate between ten known ones, but not passage.—

11