oy THE GENEALOGY OF ANIMALS — 117 
_ Interposes a period before each, as an “ Antetrias- 
zeit,” “Antejura-zeit,” “Antecreta-zeit,” “ Anteo- 
 cenzeit,” &e. And he conceives that the abrupt 
changes between the Faune of the different forma- 
tions are due to the lapse of time, of which we have 
no organic record, during their “ Ante-periods.” 
The frequent occurrence of strata containing 
assemblages of organic forms which are inter- 
mediate between those of adjacent formations, is, 
to my mind, fatal to this view. In the well- 
known St. Cassian beds, for example, Paleozoic 
and Mesozoic forms are commingled, and, between 
the Cretaceous and the Eocene formations, there 
are similar transitional beds. On the other hand, 
in the middle of the Silurian series, extensive 
unconformity of the strata indicates the lapse of _ 
vast intervals of time between the deposit of 
successive beds, without any corresponding change 
in the Fauna. 
Professor Haeckel will, I fear, think me unreason- 
able, if I say that he seems to be still overshadowed 
by geological superstitions ; and that he will have 
to believe in the completeness of the geological 
record far less than he does at present. He assumes, 
for example, that there was no dry land, nor any 
terrestrial life, before the end of the Silurian epoch, 
simply because, up to the present time, no indica- 
tions of fresh water, or terrestrial organisms, have 
been found in rocks of older date. And, in 
speculating upon the origin of a given group, he 
