428 ON THE GEOLOGICAL RELATIONS 



remainder may possess, they have no great bearing 

 on the subject before us; and when a contrast is 

 drawn between the number of corals and shells in 

 the fossil state, and those of the pteropodes and others 

 in the living one, it is plain that this is a question 

 of preservation simply, not of existence. But the 

 reader can consult for himself. I selected the first 

 part of the short preceding catalogue, because each 

 set lies beyond great revolutions of the earth, and the 

 former beyond three at least. If, instead of genera, 

 it is to be a question of the correspondence of species, 

 the evidence is imperfect, for these reasons. The 

 fossil animals are rare at distant periods of the earth, 

 the specific distinctions are often destroyed, and we 

 do not even know the existing species, without which 

 all evidence is nugatory. And accordingly, with the 

 exception of three or four, chiefly terebratulee, before 

 the chalk, there are no correspondences till we arrive 

 at the tertiary strata, while for these, cumbersome 

 here. I must also refer to the catalogues. And let it 

 also be remembered, that we have no right to reason 

 as to the entire globe from a limited spot; for this 

 cannot possibly be a rule for the whole earth, whatever 

 an indolent convenience which decides without ex- 

 amining, or an hypothesis which knows before it 

 has learnt, or "National vanity" may think. 



Of the larger animals, the most recent of fossil 

 remains, and comprising upwards of eighty species, 

 eleven or twelve are thought to be existing, sixteen 

 or eighteen are supposed doubtful, and the remainder 

 have no known parallels ; while there is now no great 

 probability of discovering many new quadrupeds of 

 large size. But it is difficult to perceive what re- 

 lation these latter facts possess to geology. They 

 seem pure questions of Zoology: but, unfortunately, 



