232 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



climate, and some the tropics. That any of these were extinct species 

 was as yet only suspected. Large collections of fossils had now been 

 made, and valuable catalogues, well illustrated, had been published. 

 Something was known, too, of the geological position of fossils. 

 Steno, long before, had observed that the lowest rocks were without 

 life. Lehmann had shown that above these primitive rocks, and de- 

 rived from them, were the secondary strata, full of the records of life ; 

 and above these were alluvial deposits, which he referred to local 

 floods, and the deluge of Noah. Rouelle, Fuchsel, and Odoardi had 

 shed ncAV light on this subject. Werner had distinguished the tran- 

 sition rocks containing fossil remains, between the primitive and the 

 secondary, while everything above the chalk he grouped together, as 

 the " overflowed land." Werner, as we have seen, had done more than 

 this, if we give him the credit his pupils claim for him. He had found 

 that the formations he examined contained each its own peculiar fos- 

 sils, and that from the older to the newer there was a gradual approach 

 to recent forms. William Smith had worked out the same thing in 

 England, and should equally divide the honor of this important dis- 

 covery. 



The greatest advance, however, up to this time, was that men now 

 preferred to observe rather than to believe, and facts were held in 

 greater esteem than vague speculations. With this preparation for 

 future progress, the second period in the history of paleontology, as 

 I have divided it, may appropriately be considered at an end. 



Thus far, I have said nothing in regard to one branch of my sub- 

 ject, the methods of paleontological research, for, up to this time, of 

 method there was none. We have seen that those of the ancients who 

 noticed marine shells in the solid rock called them such, and concluded 

 that they had been left there by the sea. The discoveiy of fossils 

 led directly to theories of how the earth was formed. Here the prog- 

 ress was slow. Subterranean spirits were supposed to guard faithfully 

 the mysteries of the eai-th ; while above the earth, Authority guarded 

 with still greater power the secrets men in advance of their age sought 

 to know. The dominant idea of the first sixteen centuries of the pres- 

 ent era was, that the universe was made for man. This was the great 

 obstacle to the correct determination of the position of the earth in 

 the universe, and, later, of the age of the earth. The contest of as- 

 tronomy against authority was long and severe, but the victory was 

 at last with science. The contest of geology against the same power 

 followed, and continued almost to our day. The result is still the 

 same. In the early stages of this contest there was no strife, for 

 science was benumbed by the embrace of superstition and creed, and 

 little could be done till that was cast off. In a superstitious age, when 

 every natural event is referred to a supernatural cause, science can not 

 live ; and often as the sacred fire may be kindled by courageous, far-see- 



