Geological Survcy of the Yorkshire Coast. 295 
destroyed; each succeeding race approaching nearer to the pre- 
sent genera and species. According to them, there was first a 
world of zoophytes ; and this being destroyed was followed by a 
world of cockles, or such like bivalves; which cockle world being 
also ruined, was succeeded by a world of crocodiles or huge li- 
zards, destined to perish in their turn, to make way for other 
creations; a few stragglers from each lower world being allowed, 
however, to ascend and hold a station in the world next above: 
but all the inhabitants of these numerous worlds became extinct, 
before the creation of man, and his present fellow-tenants of the 
globe. Some go so far as to assert, that not one fossil species 
agrees exactly with any living species; except a few species found 
in the alluvium, which by peculiar favour have obtained a kind 
of apotheosis, having ascended from the world last destroyed, to 
figure in the present.—These notions, yyhich seem to have gained 
eurrency chiefly through their novelty and their wildness, it is 
impossible to reconcile with facts. No such gradation exists ; 
but we see in all the beds, whether high or low, organized sub- 
stances that have recent analogues, and others that have not; 
and find as large a proportion of the latter in the oolite and the 
chalk, as in the aluminous strata. Zoophytes abound most in 
the chalk and the oolite, while in the lowest shale we see oysters 
and other shells, corresponding in every respect with living spe- 
cies. Indeed, there are some shells, particularly ostracites, am- 
monites, and belemnites, that exist in almost all the strata con- 
taining organic remains. They occur in the chalk and the oolite, 
and in the lowest shale: nay, they occur in much dower, or, to 
use the common phrase, older strata; for Dr. Macculloch dis- 
covered belemnites in Garvh island, in limestone alternating with 
gneiss and quartz rock*. The idea, that none of our fossil ani- 
mals or vegetables can be assigned to any recent species, cannot 
be adinitted, without shutting our eyes against the clearest evi- 
dence ; and several genera and species now regarded as extinct, 
may yet be found recent. Many countries, rivers, and creeks, 
remain to be explored ; and doubtless the ocean contains living 
treasures hitherto unseen. Brown in his Travels in Egypt, &c. 
(p. 70), observes, that, with the exception of some eels, none of 
the fishes which he found in the Nile correspond with the Euro- 
_ pean fishes: and every scientific traveller discovers in distant 
parts of the world, new species, and even new genera, of animals 
* Description of the Western Islands, ii. p. 512. It is worthy of notice, 
that Dr. M. observed in Rasay and Sky, a series of strata, reposing on gray 
wacké schist, conglomerate, and gneiss, beaving a strong analogy to part of 
our strata; consisting of white sandstone, dark blue shale with thin seams 
of coarse limestone, and below that, red sandstone. The shale contains am- 
monites, ostracites, gryphites, belemnites, &c. Ibid. i. p, 250, &e. 
and 
