88 PHILOSOPHY OF ZOOLOGY. 



The views which have been stated in the preceding part 

 of this chapter, pave the way for an examination of the RE- 

 VOLUTIONS which have taken place in the animal kingdom, 

 as these are indicated in the results of geognosy. It would 

 lead us into details too numerous and extensive for this 

 work, were we to give to this branch of the subject the de- 

 gree of illustration which its importance and present obscu- 

 rity require. Besides, we have already touched upon some 

 of its more prominent topics, (vol. i. p. 26.) We shall there- 

 fore, at present, restrict our remarks to a few observations 

 of a general nature. 



1. The organic remains of the animal kingdom, found in 

 the strata of this country, are generally supposed to bear a 

 very close resemblance to the living races which inhabit the 

 warmer regions of the earth, and to be unlike the modern pro- 

 ductions of temperate and cold climates. In the firm belief of 

 the truth of this statement, many naturalists have conclud- 

 ed, either that these organic remains must have been brought 

 into their present situation, by some violent means, from 

 tropical regions, or that our country once enjoyed the 

 warmth of a tropical climate. The tenderness and un- 

 broken state of the parts of these remains, and a variety of 

 circumstances connected with their position, intimate the 

 absurdity of the first supposition, and the truths of astro- 

 nomy give ample discouragement to the latter. It would 

 have been wiser to have examined all the conditions of the 

 problem before attempting its solution, than rashly suffer 

 the imagination to indulge in speculation and conjecture. 

 Had this examination taken place, we venture to assert that 

 the conclusion, that fossil shells, and other relics, must have 

 been, while recent, the natives of a warm country, would 

 never have been announced as an article of the creed of any 

 geologist. 



