HISTORY OF THE FOSSIL REMAINS. 45 



themselves still to indulge, in the face of such a vast amount of 

 well-digested facts as our science now possesses. They have 

 hardly yet learned to see that there exists a definite order in 

 the succession of these innumerable extinct beings, and of the 

 relations of this gradation to the great features exhibited by 

 the animal kingdom : of the great fact, that the development of 

 LIFE is the prominent trait in the history of our globe, they 

 seem either to know nothing, or to look upon it only as a 

 vague speculation, plausible perhaps, but hardly deserving 

 the notice of sober science. 



" It is true. Palaeontology as a science is very young ; it has 

 had to fight its course through the unrelenting opposition of 

 ignorance and prejudice. What amount of labour and patience 

 it has cost only to estabhsh the fact that fossils are really the 

 remains of animals and plants that once actually lived upon 

 the earth, only those know who are familiar with the history of 

 the science. Then it had to be proved that they are not the 

 wrecks of the Mosaic Deluge, which for a time was the prevail- 

 ing opinion, even among scientific men ! After Cuvier had 

 shown, beyond question, that they are the remains of animals 

 no longer to be found upon earth among the living, Palason- 

 tology acquired for the first time a solid basis. Yet what an 

 amount of labour it has cost to ascertain, by direct evidence, 

 how these remains are distributed in the solid crust of our 

 globe, — what are the differences they exhibit in successive 

 formations, — what is their geographical distribution, only 

 those can fully appreciate who have had a hand in the work. 

 And even now, how many important questions still await an 

 answer ! " 



One result stands now unquestioned : the existence during 

 each great geological era of an assemblage of animals and plants 

 differing essentially for each period. Hence those minor sub- 

 divisions in the successive sets of beds of rocks which constitute 

 the stratified crust of our globe, the number of which is daily 

 increasing, as our investigations become more extensive and 



