188 SPECIES NOT 



which overlie the carboniferous. I take the fact 

 as it is, and I have no difficulty. The time in 

 which all this was brought about may have been 

 very long, even upon a geological scale of time. 

 But where do the intervening and connecting 

 types exist, which are to mark the work of 

 natural selection? We do not find them. There- 

 fore the step onwards gives no true resting-place 

 to a baseless theory ; and is, in fact, a stumbling- 

 block in its way. 



3rd. Before we rise through the new red 

 sandstone, we find the muschel-kalk (wanting in 

 Knidand, though its place on the scale is well- 

 known,) with an entirely new fauna : where have 

 \\c a proof of any enormous lapse of geological 

 time to account for the change? We have no 

 proof in the deposits themselves: the presumption 

 they offer to our senses is of a contrary kind. 



4th. If we rise from the muschel-kalk to tin; 

 lias, we find again a new fauna. All the anterior 

 species are gone; yet the passage through the 

 upper members of the new red sandstone to the 

 lias is by insensible gradation, and it is no easy 

 matter to fix the physical line of their demar- 

 cation. I think it would be a very rash assertion 

 to affirm that a great interval took place between 

 the formation of the upper part of the new red 

 sandstone and the lias. Physical evidence is 

 against it. To support a baseless theory, Darwin 

 would require a countless lapse of ages, of which 

 we have no commensurate physical monuments; 

 and he is unable to supply any of the connecting 



