CHAP, vi GEOGRAPHICAL AXD GEOLOGICAL CHANGES 105 



forms throughout the whole of that enormous lapse of 

 time. 



On the side of the oceans we have also a great weight 

 of evidence in favour of theii^ permanence and stability. 

 In addition to their enormous depths and great extent, 

 and the circumstance that the deposits now forming in 

 them are distinct from anything found upon the land- 

 surfa<;e, we have the extraordinary fact that the countless 

 islands scattered over their whole area (with one or two 

 exceptions only and those comparatively near to continental 

 areas) never contain any Palaeozoic or Secondary rocks — 

 that is, have not preserved any fragments of the supposed 

 ancient continents, nor of the deposits which must have 

 resulted from their denudation during the whole period of 

 their existence ! The exceptions are New Zealand and 

 the Seychelles Islands, both situated near to continents and 

 not really oceanic, leaving almost the whole of the vast 

 areas of the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Southern oceans, 

 without a solitary relic of the great islands or continents 

 supposed to have sunk beneath their waves. 



