402 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Oct. 



man existed in Europe or elsewhere during the period of extreme 

 cold ; but our investigations on this head are still in their infancy. 



In an early portion of the postglacial period it has been 

 ascertained that man flourished in Europe ; and in tracing the 

 signs of his existence, from the historical ages to those immediately 

 antecedent, and so backward into more ancient times, we gradually 

 aj)proach a dissimilar geographical state of things, when the 

 climate was colder, and when the configuration of the surface 

 departed considerably from that which now preyails. 



I will now briefly allude, in conclusion, to two points on which 

 a gradual change of opinion has been taking place among geologists 

 of late years. First, as to whether there has been a continuous 

 succession of events in the organic and inorganic worlds, uninter- 

 rupted by violent and general catastrophes ; and secondly, whether 

 clear evidence can be obtained of a period antecedent to the crea- 

 tion of organic beings on the earth. I am old enough to remember 

 when geologists dogmatized on both these questions in a manner 

 very diiferent from that in which they would now venture to 

 indulge. I believe that by far the greater number now incline to 

 opposite views from those which were once most commonly enter- 

 tained. On the first point it is worthy of remark, that, although 

 a belief in sudden and general convulsions has been losing ground, 

 as also the doctrine of abrupt transitions from one set of species 

 of animals and plants to another of a very difierent type, yet the 

 whole series of the records which have been handed down to us 

 are now more than ever regarded as fragmentary. They ought to 

 be looked upon as more perfect, because numerous gaps have been 

 filled up ; and in the formations newly intercalated in the series we 

 have found many missing links and various intermediate gradations 

 between the nearest allied forms previously known in the animal 

 and vegetable worlds. Yet the whole body of monuments which 

 we are endeavoring to decipher appears niore defective than be- 

 fore. For my own part, I agree with Mr. Darwin in con^iidering 

 them as a mere fraction of those which have once existed, while 

 no approach to a perfect series was ever formed originally, it having 

 never been part of the plan of Nature to leave a complete record 

 of all her works and operations for the enlightenment of rational 

 beings who might study them in after-ages. 



In reference to the other great question, or the earliest date of 

 vital phenomena on this planet, the late discoveries in Canada have 

 at least demonstrated that certain theories founded in Europe on 



