322 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



Sound practical geologists, whether they be uniformitarians, catas- 

 trophists, or evolutionists, like the great naturalist who now 

 worthily presides over the British Association, are all agreed in 

 the fundamental truths of this science as established by positive 

 readings in the stone-books of nature. They are confident that 

 undeniable proofs exist of an enormous succession of deposits, 

 which have been accumulated under the seas of former periods, in 

 each of which the physical geography of our planet, and with it 

 the orders of animals and plants, were very dissimilar from each 

 other, and also differ still more, as we examine backwards to the 

 earlier deposits, from those of the present day. We believe, upon 

 the evidences presented to us, and irrespective of all theory, that 

 the vast accumulations under the seas of those periods have had 

 their relations to each other thoroughly and conclusively estab- 

 lished by a clear order of superposition. We further believe that 

 the deposits so relatively placed contain, each of them, organic 

 remains, which are, in great measure, peculiar to the one great 

 group of strata which they occupy. 



" With these indisputable proofs of geological succession as es- 

 tablished by clear superposition of the formations, and the dis- 

 tinctive fossil characters of each, I necessarily dissent from the 

 suggestions of Dr. Carpenter and other naturalists, that, inasmuch 

 as the present deep-sea bottoms contain abundance of Globigerinss, 

 with such animals as Terebratulidre, both of which differ little 

 from the forms found fossil in the chalk formation, it may be in- 

 ferred in a broad sense that we are still in tho Cretaceous period. 

 May we not, indeed, by a similar bold hypothesis, affirm that we 

 still live in the older Silurian period? for, albeit no bon} T fishes 

 then existed, many Globigerinse, and creatures of the lowest or- 

 ganization, have been found in these old rocks and associated 

 with Terebratulido3 and Lingulte, the generic forms of which still 

 live. Revering as I do those great naturalists who have shown 

 abundant proofs of the progress of creation, or, as others term it, 

 of evolution, I hold to my opinion, matured b}^ a long experience, 

 whilst I dissent from the inferences of my friends Dr. W. Carpen- 

 ter and Professor Wyville Thomson, that the recent discoveries 

 may or can unsettle much which has been accredited to what I 

 call sound geological history, as established on absolute observa- 

 tions and separated from all theoiy. The new ideas which have 

 been introduced by the meritorious labors of Carpenter and his 

 associates do not, as he has suggested, diminish the amount of 

 positive knowledge. On the contrary, they augment it; though 

 they do not shake, in any way, the foundations of geological 

 science. I willingly grant, however, that these new discoveries 

 overthrow the theory that defines the depths in the sea at which 

 certain groups of fossil animals must have lived. 



" Whilst on this topic, I rejoice that at this meeting we are to be 

 furnished with an excellent paper by my distinguished friend, 

 Captain Sherard Osborn, on the whole subject of ocean deep-sea 

 soundings, as carried out by the Admiralty, and in which he will 

 illustrate, by maps and sections, much of his own most energetic 

 operations in reference to submarine telegraphy. 



