742 ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1908. 



Summary, 



As will be seen from the above account Linne's contributions to 

 geological science were both many sided and extensive. In assuming 

 the existence of a definite succession of strata throughout the world 

 he laid a foundation for stratigraphic geology which has been en- 

 larged by Werner and other geologists of subsequent times. Linne 

 certainly did not have, and at that period could not have had any 

 true conception of the relative age of the other sedimentary rock 

 species as compared with those of the Westrogothia Mountains; but 

 this was a problem for investigators of a later period to solve. It is 

 very interesting to notice how it gradually dawned upon him that the 

 fossils in the Silurian strata, which he at first believed to exist in the 

 depths of neighboring seas, were probably for the most part extinct; 

 and the same may also be said of certain Cretaceous fossils. This 

 circumstance seemed so remarkable to him because of the fact that 

 at that time there existed no adequate conception of the real age of the 

 earth. Linne, who in so many things was far ahead of his own time, 

 seems even in this respect to have been inclined to emancipate him- 

 self from the prevailing opinion, and, as has been stated above, it was 

 only his couA'iction that the Bible should be literally interpreted that 

 prevented him from adopting a more liberal view. On the other 

 hand, he strongly opposed the prevalent belief that the evidences of 

 a former higher water level which were so common in Sweden, were 

 connected with the " deluge." On the contrary he declares that he 

 has never seen a trace of that catastrophe. 



The evidences cited b}^ him in support of this higher water level 

 of ancient times, which are founded on his own observations, are 

 clear and positive, * * * ^^^^ j^g ^j^g ^}-^g f^j.g^ naturalist to de- 

 scribe shore lines in the high mountains. 



He always took special pains to collect data on material of economic 

 importance, and hence also labored within the realm of applied or 

 practical geology. It should here be remembered that although he 

 pointed out the significance of marl in the agricultural development 

 of Skane, he was so far ahead of his time that a hundred years 

 passed by before his prophecy commenced to attain its fulfillment. 

 * * * He left a clear and concise statement of the different ways 

 in which fossils may occur; he published an excellent description, 

 for its time, of Gotland's fossil corals; he was the first to assign to 

 the trilobites their true position in the zoological system of the period, 

 and in the Museum Tessinianum and the Systema Natura3 he de- 

 scribed a great number of fossils, many of which still retain the spe- 

 cific names assigned to them by him. 



