CHAP. X.] IN ANY SINGLE FORMATION. 263 



yet this has been repeatedly advanced as a most serious objection 

 against my views. 



It may be worth while to sum up the foregoing remarks on the 

 causes of the imperfection of the geological record under an 

 imaginary illustration. The Malay Archipelago is about the size 

 of Europe from the North Cape to the Mediterranean, and from 

 Britain to Russia ; and therefore equals all the geological forma- 

 tions which have been examined with any accuracy, excepting 

 those of the United States of America. I fully agree with Mr. 

 Godwin-Austen, that the present condition of the Malay Archi- 

 pelago, with its numerous large islands separated by wide and 

 shallow seas, probably represents the former state of Europe, 

 whilst most of our formations were accumulating. The Malay 

 Archipelago is one of the richest regions in organic beings ; yet if 

 all the species were to be collected which have ever lived there, 

 how imperfectly would they represent the natural history of the 

 world ! 



But we have every reason to believe that the terrestrial produc- 

 tions of the archipelago would be preserved in an extremely 

 imperfect manner in the formations which we suppose to be there 

 accumulating. Not many of the strictly littoral animals, or of 

 those which lived on naked submarine rocks, would be embedded ; 

 and those embedded in gravel or sand would not endure to a 

 distant epoch. Wherever sediment did not accumulate on the bed 

 of the sea, or where it did not accumulate at a sufficient rate to 

 protect organic bodies from decay, no remains could be preserved. 



Formations rich in fossils of many kinds, and of thickness suffi- 

 cient to last to an age as distant in futurity as the secondary forma- 

 tions lie in the past, would generally be formed in the archipelago 

 only during periods of subsidence. These periods of subsidence 

 would be separated from each other by immense intervals of time, 

 during which the area would be either stationary or rising ; whilst 

 rising, the fossiliferous formations on the steeper shores would be 

 destroyed, almost as soon as accumulated, by the incessant coast- 

 action, as we now see on the shores of South America. Even 

 throughout the extensive and shallow seas within the archipelago, 

 sedimentary beds could hardly be accumulated of great thick- 

 ness during the periods of elevation, or become capped and 

 protected by subsequent deposits, so as to have a good chance of 

 enduring to a very distant future. During the periods of sub- 

 sidence, there would probably be much extinction of life ; during 

 the periods of elevation, there would be much variation, but the 

 geological record would then be less perfect. 



It may be doubted whether the duration of any one great period 

 of subsidence over the whole or part of the archipelago, together 

 with a contemporaneous accumulation of sediment, would exceed 



