4 Anniversary Address of the 



which presents ns with a fossil flora and fauna, both terres- 

 trial and aquatic, of a very complete character, comprising 

 mammalia both of the sea and land, of all the principal classes, 

 now contemporary with man. It would doubtless be rash to 

 assume that no plants or animals of equally high organiza- 

 tion may not have pre-existed on this globe, for the recent 

 progress of discovery in our science puts us on our guard 

 against founding hasty generalizations on mere negative 

 evidence. The fossil skeletons of saurians discovered in the 

 coal-measures of Saarbriick near Treves are still fresh in our 

 recollection, as are those footprints of the same age first de- 

 tected by Dr King, and which I have myself examined at 

 Green sburg in Pennsylvania. We are waiting also with im- 

 patience for more minute details respecting some reptilian 

 footprints of a still more ancient date, found by Mr Isaac 

 Lea in the old red sandstone at Pottsville, near Philadelphia ; 

 nor have we forgotten the tracks of numerous birds, observed 

 in the red shales and sandstones of Connecticut, of a date 

 nearly bordering on palaeozic times. Such facts, like the un- 

 expected discovery of the Stonesfield marsupials, a quarter 

 of a century ago, warn us against the presumption of taking 

 for granted, that our present knowledge of the earliest occur- 

 rence of a particular class of fossils in stratified rocks, can be 

 reasoned upon as if it afforded a true indication of the first 

 appearance of a particular class of beings on the globe. 

 Nevertheless, with every reservation for the future enlarge- 

 ment of our ideas respecting the comparative perfection 

 of the living creation in our own times and in the remoter 

 ages, we may at least assert, that in the present state of our 

 science the eocene fauna and flora may be contrasted with 

 those of older date, in regard to the more complete manner 

 in which they represent the animal and vegetable creation. 



In the chronological classification of the materials com- 

 posing the crust of the earth, it has been often asked, whether 

 we ought to ascribe to the older tertiary epoch, or to the 

 cretaceous system, the great nummulitic formation of the 

 Alps, and other parts of Europe. This much-controverted 

 question, — one, as I shall presently point out, of the highest 

 theoretical interest, in reference to the hypothesis of the 



