OF THE ORGANIC FOSSILS. 431 



lutions and extinctions ; but this is a question of the 

 natural history of living heings : as it is, very obvi- 

 ously, to inquire whether the Creator acted in one 

 manner or in another, when we seek to determine 

 whether such new creations differ from or resemble 

 former ones. 



Whatever remains as to supposed extinctions of 

 races may be made brief; and like almost all which 

 has preceded, it is chiefly a question of Zoology- 

 The ammonites, the belemnites, and the orthocera- 

 tites, are the genera which seem most remarkably to 

 have disappeared, yet the evidence scarcely exceeds a 

 probability. As far as geology is concerned, it is in 

 the causes : and these, with the facts and the far 

 more satisfactory evidences of revolutions, have al- 

 ready been discussed, or will form the subject of the 

 following chapter. It is sufficient here to say, that 

 the first elevation of the primary strata, furnishing 

 the materials of a next set, a second elevation which 

 raised these above the water, the depression after the 

 productions of the germs of coal, and the subsequent 

 elevation of all that is now above the ocean, to note 

 no more at present, must have produced effects on 

 the inhabitants of the earth of whatever nature^ 

 whether these revolutions were partial or general, 

 sudden or tedious, which could not have been but 

 destructive, whether to extermination or not ; though 

 an entire extinction would not exclude the repeti- 

 tion of similar beings. And it must be through the 

 proofs of these and the proofs of their nature, that 

 we must draw our conclusions as to extinctions and 

 renewals of living creations ; since the organic fossil 

 bodies themselves cannot teach us what we wish to 

 know. 



And I may end with these remarks. The negative 



