112 THE CASE AGAINST EVOLUTION 



sils. Our present classification of rocks according to their 

 fossil contents is purely arbitrary and artificial, being tanta- 

 mount to nothing more than a mere taxonomical classifica- 

 tion of the forms of ancient life on our globe, irrespective of 

 their comparative antiquity. This scheme of classification is, 

 indeed, universally applicable, and places can usually be found 

 in it for new fossiliferous strata, whenever and wherever dis- 

 covered. Its universal applicability, however, is due not 

 to any prevalent order of invariable sequence among fossilif- 

 erous strata, but solely to the fact that the laws of biological 

 taxonomy and ecology are universal laws which transcend 

 spatial and temporal limitation. If a scheme of taxonomy is 

 truly scientific, all forms of life, whether extant or extinct, 

 will fit into it quite readily. 



The anomalies of spatial distribution constitute a sixth diffi- 

 culty for transformistic palaeontology. In constructing a phy- 

 logeny the most diverse and widely-separated regions are put 

 under tribute to furnish the requisite fossils, no heed being 

 paid to what are now at any rate impassable geographical 

 barriers, not to speak of the climatic and environmental lim- 

 itations which restrict the migrations of non-cosmopolitan spe- 

 cies within the boundaries of narrow habitats. Hypothetical 

 lineages of a modern form of life are frequently constructed 

 from fossil remains found in two or more continents separated 

 from one another by immense distances and vast oceanic ex- 

 panses. When taxed with failure to plausibleize this proced- 

 ure, the evolutionist meets the difficulty by hypothecating 

 wholesale and devious migrations to and fro, and by raising up 

 alleged land bridges to accommodate plants and animals in 

 their suppositional migrations from one continent to another, 

 etc. 



The European horse, with his so-called ancestry interred, 

 partly in the Tertiary deposits of Europe, but mostly in those 

 of North America, is a typical instance of these anomalies in 

 geographical distribution. It would, of course, be preposter- 

 ous to suppose that two independent lines of descent could 



