OBJE C TIONS A GA INS T E VOL U TION. 167 



continuous their action, and how inevitable their ef- 

 fect. We shall then learn that evolutionists have 

 reason for insisting so strongly on the imperfection 

 of the geological record, and for appealing to the re- 

 sults of future research and discovery for a confirma- 

 tion of certain facts of their theory, and for an ex- 

 planation of certain difficulties which, as matters now 

 stand, are admittedly insoluble. 



As to the formation of fossils, it is, as is well 

 known, only the hard portions of organisms which 

 are ever fossilized. But even these, as well as the 

 softer parts, soon suffer disintegration unless in some 

 way screened from sub-aerial agencies competent to 

 decompose them, and unless they are protected from 

 the solvent action of salt water, or fresh water hold- 

 ing carbonic acid in solution. 



Again, as Darwin remarks, " we probably take a 

 quite erroneous view, when we assume that the 

 sediment is being deposited over nearly the whole 

 bed of the sea at a rate sufficiently thick to embed 

 and preserve fossil remains. Throughout an enor- 

 mously large proportion of the ocean, the bright 

 blue tint of the water bespeaks its purity. The 

 many cases on record of a formation conformably 

 covered, after an immense interval of time, by an- 

 other and later formation, without the underlying 

 bed having suffered in the interval any wear and 

 tear, seem explicable only on the view of the bottom 

 of the sea not rarely lying for ages* in an unaltered 

 condition." ' " In regard to the mammiferous re- 

 mains," the same authority continues, "a glance at 



. cit., vol. II, p. 58. 



