296 ’ Notices respecting New Books. 
and plants. Within these few years, the trigonia, which was 
deemed an extinct genus, has been found recent ; and the same 
remark is applicable to a few other genera. After the recent :ac- 
cessions which natural history has acquired, particularly the dis- 
covery of the ornithorhynchus and of the animal of Stronsay, we 
need not despair of seeing the lizard-fish in a living state. 
‘< The authors of the hypothesis of successive creations, or for- 
mations as they are more frequently termed, have not told us 
what we are to make of the extensive strata containing no or- 
ganic remains, or next to none, intervening between strata that 
abound with them. Was the creative power suspended or con- 
tracted for some ages? Did worlds of barren sand alternate with 
worlds replete with life ? 
** We have other objections to produce against this theory, but 
they will appear with more advantage under the next observation. 
“ We have reason to believe, from the facts before us, that no 
considerable interval occurred between the deposition of the se- 
veral members of our strata; but that they were all deposited 
nearly about the same period.—The doctrine of successive forma- 
tions is connected with the opinion, that ages intervened between 
one formation and another; and that the lowest strata are of 
very high antiquity, while the upper strata, such as the chalk 
beds, are comparatively quite modern. To the same system be- 
long the notions, which we have already exploded, that the ani- 
mals petrified in the several formations are peculiar to these for- 
mations, and that they have lived and died on the spots where 
we find them. 
** As the formation system has many learned and zealous advo- 
cates, it is the more necessary to set forth the leading facts, from 
which we draw the conclusion, That the different members of our 
strata have been all deposited nearly about the same period. 
‘¢(1.) The breaks in the strata are not limited by the boundaries 
of any particular member of the series, but affect the whole mass 
of the strata at the places where they occur. Had the strata been 
deposited in successive formations, separated by ages, or long 
periods of time, we ought to find in the lower formations their 
own peculiar breaks and irregularities ; and might expect to see, 
in numerous instances, breaks leaving off at the limits of the se- 
veral formations ; and to observe the materials of the higher for- 
mations descending into the fissures of the lower. Now, when | 
we perceive, on the contrary, the same breaks passing directly 
through the aluminous beds, the coal measures, the oolite, and 
all the intermediate strata, without any regard to supposed for- 
mations, it is natural to conclude, that the division of the strata 
into such formations is the work of fancy. We do not, indeed,’ 
find any one break crossing the whole series; but we see a suc- 
cession - 
