86 THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION 



Even as matters stand to-day, the astonishing fact is 

 that so much has been preserved, rather than that the 

 story is so incomplete. Notwithstanding all the 

 difficulties, the palaeontological method remains one 

 of the most valuable means of testing the theory of 

 evolution, because certain chapters in the history of 

 life have been recorded with a minuteness that is 

 really very surprising. 



In the brief time at my disposal it is quite im- 

 practicable to make clear all the geological pre- 

 liminaries which are needed to explain the facts of 

 palaeontology. It may seem incredible that a fossil 

 found a thousand feet below the surface is the re- 

 mains of a creature that once swam in the sea and 

 that it was buried in what was the sea-bottom at the 

 time of its death. Yet such is the fact and the ex- 

 planation is very simple. I must also ask you to 

 take for granted the possibility of arranging the 

 fossils which are buried in the rocks in the chrono- 

 logical order of their succession. This is no assump- 

 tion made to bolster up any theory, for, in its main 

 outlines, the scheme of chronology which we now use 

 had been worked out long before the publication of 

 Darwin's revolutionary book, when the theory of 

 special creation had full possession of the field. Any 

 of my hearers who may be interested to learn how 

 this chronological succession of the forms of life has 

 been ascertained, will find the explanation in any of 

 the standard text-books of geology. 



This arrangement in the order of succession in time 



