TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 119 
sissippi, Alabama and Georgia, exhibits this superposition as well as that of the cre- 
taceous strata on carboniferous rocks at Tuscaloosa. Mr. Lyell ascertained that the 
huge fossil cetacean, named Zeuglodon by Owen, is confined to the eocene deposits. 
In the cretaceous strata the remains of the mosasaurus and other reptiles occur 
without any cetacea. The coal-fields of Alabama were next alluded to, from which 
fossil plants have been procured by Professor Brumby and Mr. Lyell, of the genera 
Sphenopteris, Neuropteris, Calamites, Lepidodendron, Sigillaria, Stigmaria and 
others, most of them identical in species, as determined by Mr. Charles Bunbury, with 
fossils of Northumberland. This fact is the more worthy of notice, because the 
coal of Tuscaloosa, situated in latitude 33° 10’ north, is further south than any region 
in which this ancient fossil flora had previously been studied, whether in Europe or 
North America; and it affords therefore a new proof of the wide extension of a uni- 
form flora in the carboniferous epoch. Mr. Lyell, adverting to the opinion recently 
adopted by several able botanists, that the climate of the coal period was remarka- 
ble for its moisture, equability and freedom from cold, rather than the intensity of 
its tropical heat, stated that this conclusion, as well as the oscillations of tempera- 
ture implied by the glacial period, is confirmatory of the theory first advanced by 
him in 1830, to explain the ancient geological changes of climate by geographical re- 
volutions in the position of land and sea. 
The lapse of ages implied by the distinctness of the fossils of the eocene, creta- 
ceous, carboniferous and other strata, is such, that were we to endeavour to give an 
idea of it, we must estimate its duration, not by years, as in the case of the delta, 
but by such units as would be constituted by the interval between the beginning of 
the delta and our own times. 
« Tt is now fifty years,” said Mr. Lyell, “since Playfair, after studying the rocks 
in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, in company with Dr. Hutton and Sir James 
Hall, was so struck with the evidence they afforded of the immensity of past time, 
that he observed ‘how much farther reason may go than imagination can venture 
to follow.’ These views were common to the most illustrious of his contemporaries, 
and since that time have been adopted by all geologists, whether their minds have 
been formed by the literature of France or of Germany, of Italy or Scandinavia, or 
of England; all have arrived at the same conclusion respecting the great antiquity 
of the globe, and that too in opposition to their earlier prepossessions, and to the 
popular belief of their age. It must be confessed, that while this unanimity is. satis- 
factory as a remarkable test of truth, it is somewhat melancholy to reflect that at the 
end of half a century, when so many millions have passed through our schools and 
colleges since Playfair wrote that eloquent passage, there is still so great a discord- 
ance between the opinions of scientific men and the great mass of the community. 
Had there been annual gatherings such as this, where they who are entitled to speak 
with authority address themselves to a numerous assembly drawn from the higher 
classes of society, who, by their cultivation and influence, must direct the education 
and form the opinions of the many of humbler station, it is impossible that so un- 
_ desirable and unsound a state of things should have now prevailed, as that there 
should be one creed for the philosopher and another for the multitude. Had there 
been meetings like this, even for a quarter of a century, we should already have 
gained for geology the same victory that has been so triumphantly won by the astro- 
nomer. The earth’s antiquity, together with the history of successive races of orga- 
nic beings, would have been ere this as cheerfully and universally acknowledged as 
the earth’s motion, or the number, magnitude and relative distances of the heavenly 
bodies. I am sure it would be superfluous if I were to declare, in an assembly like 
this, my deep conviction, which all of you share, that the further we extend our re« 
searches into the wonders of creation in time and space, the more do we exalt, refine 
and elevate our conceptions of the Divine Artificer of the universe.” 
Mr. Lyell concluded this discourse by announcing his corroboration of the dis- 
covery recently made by Dr. King at Greensburg, thirty miles from Pittsburg in 
Pennsylvania, of the occurrence of fossil foot-prints of a large reptilian in the mid- 
dle of the ancient coal measures. They project in relief from the lower surface of 
slabs of sandstone, and are also found impressed on the subjacent layers of fine 
unctuous clay. This is the first well-established example of a vertebrated animal, 
_ more highly organized than fishes, being met with in a stratum of such high an- 
_ tiquity. 
