142 ESSAY ON CLASSIFICATION. 



great features exhibited by the animal kingdom, of the 

 great fact that the development of life is the prominent 

 trait in the history of our globe, 1 they seem either to 

 know nothing, or to look upon it only as a vague specu- 

 lation, plausible perhaps, but hardly deserving the notice 

 of sober science. 



It is true, Palseontology as a science is very young; 

 and it has had to fight its course through the unrelenting 

 opposition of ignorance and prejudice. What amount of 

 labour and patience it has cost merely to establish the fact 

 that fossils are really the remains of animals and plants 

 that once actually lived upon earth, 2 only those know who 

 are familiar with the history of science. Then it had to 

 be proved that they are not the wrecks of the Mosaic 

 deluge, which, for a time, was the prevailing opinion, even 

 among scientific men. 3 After Cuvier had shown beyond 

 question that they are the remains of animals no longer 

 to be found upon earth among the living, Palaeontology 

 acquired for the first time a solid basis. Yet the amount 

 of labour which it has cost to ascertain by direct evi- 

 dence how these remains are distributed in the solid 

 crust of our globe, what differences they exhibit in suc- 

 cessive formations, 4 and what their geographical distribu- 



1 AGASSIZ'S Geological Times, etc., fossils of the oldest geological forma- 

 q. a., p. 35, note 2. DANA'S Address tions, see the works quoted above, p. 

 to the Arner. Ass. for Adv. Sc. 8th 32, note 1. Also, McCoY, (F.,) Sy- 

 Meeting, held at Providence, 1855. nopsis of the Silurian Fossils of 



2 SCILLA, (Aa.,) La vaua specula- Ireland ; Dublin, 1846, 4to. fig. 

 zione desingannata dal senso ; Napoli, GEIXITZ (H. D.), Die Versteinerun- 

 1670, 4to. fig. gen der Grauwackenformation ; Leip- 



3 SCHEUCHZER, (J. J.,) Homo Di- zig, 1850-53, 4to. fig. And for local 

 luvii testis et 0* 6vKoiros ; Tiguri, 1726, information, see the geological reports 

 4to. BUCKLAND, (W.,) Reliquiae di- of the different States of the Union, a 

 luvianse, or Observations on the Or- complete list of which, with a sum- 

 ganic Remains attesting the Action rnary of the Geology, may be found 

 of an Universal Deluge ; London, in MARCOU'S (J.), Resume explicatif 

 1826, 4to. fig. d'une carte geologique des Etats- 



4 For references respecting the Unis, Bull. Soc. Geol. de France; 



