CHAPTER III 



THE GEOLOGICAL RECORD 



' All the Epochs of the Past are only a few of the front carriages, 

 and probably the least wonderful, in the van of an interminable 

 procession.' J. B. Bury {The Science of History). 



The portion of the earth's surface accessible to 

 investigation is made up in part of accumulations 

 of old sediments, some indistinguishable from the 

 shingle, sand, and mud now in process of formation 

 by the ceaseless action of denudation ; others have 

 been hardened, gently folded or violently contorted 

 and so far altered by crust-movements as to render 

 their sedimentary origin well nigh unrecognisable. 

 It is these sediments of former ages, the dust of lost 

 continents, in which are preserved the majority of 

 the fragmentary remains of plants and animals, the 

 flotsam and jetsam of successive phases of evolution. 



The crust of the earth, as Darwin wrote, ' with its 

 imbedded remains must not be looked at as a well 

 filled museum, but as a poor collection made at 

 hazard and at rare intervals '(19). It is from this 



