Diurnal Geology. 227 



first sight of those comparatively recent assemblages of strata, 

 which he designates the Eocene ., Meiocene^ and Pleiocene For- 

 mations, (unknown but a few years ago, though diffused as ex- 

 tensively as many which were then honoured with the title of 

 universal), shews the extreme difficulty of distinguishing their 

 detritus from what we have been accustomed to esteem diluvium. 

 The fossil contents of these formations strongly confirm this ar- 

 gument. M. Deshayes has shewn that they belong to a series 

 unbroken by any great intervals, and that, if they be divided 

 from the secondary strata, the chasm can have no relation to any 

 such event as is called the Flood. 



Further, the elephants and other animals once supposed to be 

 exclusively diluvial, are now admitted to be referrible to two or 

 three distinct epochs ; and it is highly probable that the blocks 

 of the Jura Mountains, of the north of Germany, of the north 

 of Italy, of Cumberland, Westmoreland, &c. are not the waifs 

 and strays of one, but of several successive inundations. 



It is, Gentlemen, a well-known rule of such institutions as 

 ours, that the " authors alone are responsible for the facts and 

 opinions contained in their respective productions." Under that 

 feeling have I spoken on the present occasion, and having freely 

 set before you what has occurred to me on some points of gene- 

 ral interest to our science at this time, I think it my duty, in 

 concluding this address, to disclaim and deprecate any attempt 

 to connect what I have here expressed, with the general senti- 

 ments of the Geological Society. The opinions I have uttered 

 are my own, and I should be sorry that more importance should 

 be attached to them than they intrinsically deserve, from the ac- 

 cident of their having been delivered from this Chair. Had not 

 the whole responsibility fallen on myself, I should have hesitated, 

 or perhaps altogether forborne, to bring before you opinions, se- 

 veral of which, I know, are little in accordance with those of 

 ' some of the most distinguished members of our Association. 



