on the Surface of the Earth, 113 



more difficult question, and open to controversy. Let it be always 

 observed, that if we admit the theory of successive creations for the 

 well-marked types, the extension of this idea to all the beings of an 

 epoch no longer presents so great a difficulty to the imagination, and 

 that the principal theoretical objections which may be made are 

 easily refuted, if wo allow the necessity of admitting a certain num- 

 ber of successive creations. Let it be remarked, in the second place, 

 that this theory applied to all beings, forms with the law of the 

 specialty of fossils a logical whole, and gives an indisputable weight 

 to the arguments which support both the one and the other. At the 

 same time there are facts opposed to this extension which must not 

 be overlooked. 



I have remarked on another occasion (Paleontology i., 91), that 

 the theory of successive and complete creations, accounts well for the 

 differences which exist between the different faunas, but it explains 

 ill the striking resemblances we often find between two successive 

 faunas. If, for example, we compare the Turonien and Albien* fau- 

 nas, in which the greater part of the species are very similar in 

 form, although really distinct, is it probable, that all the Albien 

 species have been destroyed, and then replaced in the Turonien epoch 

 by a number of nearly equal species, each of which has analogues in 

 the Albien epoch ? Have these species any direct bond of connection 

 between them \ This appears to me a point on which little light has 

 yet been thrown. The same thing may be said on comparing the 

 diflPerent Jurassic faunas, the devonian and carboniferous faunas, the 

 different tertiary stages, &c. Perhaps we ought to admit successive 

 creations only in respect to the types which are without analogues 

 in the preceding fauna, and allow to the theory of the transition of 

 species some influence in explaining the analogies of successive fau- 

 nas. The decision of these questions belongs to the future state of 

 the science, and the numerous facts which palaeontologists are every 

 day collecting, the exact description of fossils, local geological fau- 

 nas, &c., are the necessary bases which will enable future enquirers 

 to solve them. 



I shall conclude by remarking, that every time I have appealed 

 to facts in support of my views on this subject, I have spoken of 

 facts actually known, and am ready frankly to admit the authority 

 of new facts, even when they are opposed to my deductions. Such 

 a discovery may be made as shall change the face of a science still 

 in its infancy, and not firmly established. The bones of man, of the 

 elephant, or lion, once found in the ancient formations, would over- 

 throw all this scaffolding, and force us, nolens volens, to reconstruct 

 the entire edifice. But I am fully confident that these facts will 

 never present themselves, and the signal and daily confirmation which 

 observation?, made in all parts of the globe, bring to the laws of 



* The Albien or gault and the Turonien belong to the chalk system. 

 VOL. XLVI. NO. XCI. — JAN. 1849. H 



