96 THE CASE AGAINST EVOLUTION 



palaeontology concerning the unimpeachable time-value of in- 

 dex fossils as age-markers. The force of these considerations, 

 therefore, must be acknowledged even by the most fanatical 

 adherents of the aforesaid dogma. Our forbearance in this 

 instance, however, must not be construed as a confession that 

 the dogma in question is really unassailable. On the contrary, 

 not only is it not invulnerable, but there are many and weighty 

 reasons for rejecting it lock, stock, and barrel. 



The palseontological dogma, to which we refer, is reducible 

 to the following tenets: (1) The earth is swathed with fossil- 

 iferous strata, in much the same fashion that an onion is cov- 

 ered with a succession of coats, and these strata are universal 

 over the whole globe, occurring always in the same invariable 

 order and characterized not by any peculiar uniformity of 

 external appearance, physical texture, or mineral composition, 

 but solely by peculiar groups of fossil types, which enable us 

 to distinguish between strata of different ages and to cor- 

 relate the strata of one continent with their counterparts in 

 another continent — "Even the minuter divisions," says Scott, 

 ''the substages and zones of the European Jura, are applicable 

 to the classification of the South American beds." ("Intro- 

 duction to Geology," p. 681.) (2) In determining the relative 

 age of a given geological formation, its characteristic fossils 

 form the exclusive basis of decision, and all other considera- 

 tions, whether lithological or stratigraphic, are subordinated 

 to this — "The character of the rocks," says H. S. Williams, 

 "their composition or their mineral contents have nothing to 

 do with settling the question as to the particular system to 

 which the new rocks belong. The fossils alone are the means 

 of correlation." ("Geological Biology," pp. 37, 38.) 



To those habituated to the common notion that stratigraph- 

 ical sequence is the foremost consideration in deciding the 

 comparative age of rocks, the following statement of Sir Archi- 

 bald Geikie will come as a distinct shock: "We may even 

 demonstrate," he avers, "that in some mountainous ground 

 the strata have been turned completely upside down, if we can 



