98 Observations Concerning Fossil Organic Remains. 
not form in geology a special epoch. Without delaying to 
prove this principle by tarther arguments, it shall suffice me 
to cite asingle fact. The strata at Calabria have been these 
thirty-eight years, the scene of the most frightful disorder ; 
horizonta beds have become vertical; entire strata have 
witness Ae the Alps ; whilst, five or six thousand years 
have not given rise to any appreciable di es in the 
forms, oil other characters of orga 
7 do not however mean to assert that dheilracte rs staken 
from the saanire situation of strata, (but not from their evident 
superposition,) from their very nature, ought not to be em- 
ployed with confidence by the geologist i in the determination 
of the different epochs of formations. Alone, or united'to 
those we draw from the nature of fos sil remains, they are of 
the highest value ; ‘but I merely contend, and I think I have 
given reasons sufficiently weighty for my belief, that when 
these characters are in opposition to those we obtain from 
the presence of organic remains, the last ought to have 
the precedence. 
“ Nor do I conceal that it is necessary to bring the greatest 
circumspection to the use of these characters ; I am aware 
that it is necessary to know how to distinguish and calculate 
the influence of distance and of climate upon the different 
species; that it is — to be able to appreciate the ap- 
rent ‘and sometimes real resemblances which occur in 
r ev pany yeas distinct, and to recognize some 
species. which have enjoyed the rare privilege of poe 
tion of their contemporaries, and of ¢ m 
ining the same, amidst all those catedecelili wae 
wore — pap eed. them 
