supposed Change of' Climate of the Arctic Regions. 279 



distribution of* one species of a genus, can we predicate, with any 

 degree of safety, concerning the habits and distribution of thei 

 other species with which it is generically connected ? Geologists 

 ought to have investigated this prehminary question with care, ■ 

 before they commenced their speculations. Instead, however, 

 of acting with such caution, they have assumed that the question 

 may be answered in the affirmative ; or rather, it does not ap- 

 pear that they were aware of any difficulty in the case, or con- 

 ceived for a moment that their regulating principle might have 

 no higher authority than a petitio principii. 



Geologists, it is true, were countenanced, to a certain extent, in 

 reposing confidence in analogy as their guide, by the authority of 

 the most zealous, enlightened, and successful comparative anato- 

 mist the world ever possessed. Baron Cuvier. Successful in the em- 

 ployment of this instrument, in several instances, assisted, however, 

 by numerous observations, this anatomist, under the influence of 

 prejudices which few can avoid, has stated his confidence in the cer- 

 tainty of its deductions, with a boldness, which is the more as- 

 tonishing, as it is equally at war with his own admissions and 

 well-known facts. " Any one who observes only the print of a 

 cloven foot, may conclude that the animal which left this im- 

 pression ruminates ; and this conclusion is quite as certain as 

 any other in physics, or in moral philosophy." — Recherches sur 

 les Ossemcns Fossiles^ i. 51. Observation had discovered many 

 animals with cloveq hoofs which ruminated; but, in such circum- 

 stances, would it be safe to infer that all cloven-hoofed animals 

 ruminate ? Conceive ourselves contemplating the footmarks of 

 a sheep and sow. Under the guidance of Cuvier's declarations, 

 we would conclude that both ruminated, — an inference true in 

 the one case, and false in the other. Observation here warns us 

 against the employment of -a guide so liable to deceive us. But 

 this charge against analogy may perhaps appear in greater 

 strength, after the reader has perused the solution of the follow^ 

 ing questions. ' ) 



1^ If two animals resemble each other in structure^ will their' 

 habits be similar? — If this question could be answered in the af- 

 firmative, it would greatly heighten the intci*cst which is at- 

 tached to the study of fossil remains, by giving to our observa- 

 tions an authority which at present they do not possess. The 



