GAPS CONSISTENT WITH CONTINUOUS LIFE. 349 



for a century before any of them were disclosed. If now, 

 some millions of years hence, the Atlantic-bed should be 

 raised, and estuary or shore deposits laid upon it, these de- 

 posits would contain remains of a Flora and Fauna so dis- 

 tinct from everything below them, as to appear like a new 

 creation. 



Thus, along with continuity of life on the Earth's sur- 

 face, there not only may be, but there must be, great gaps, 

 in the series of fossils ; and hence these gaps are no evi- 

 dence against the doctrine of Evolution. 



One other current assumption remains to be criticized ; 

 and it is the one on which, more than on any other, de- 

 pends the view taken respecting the question of develop- 

 ment. 



From the beginning of the controversy, the arguments 

 for and against have turned upon the evidence of progres- 

 sion in organic forms, found in the ascending series of our 

 sedimentary formations. On the one hand, those who con- 

 tend that higher organisms have been evolved out of low- 

 er, joined with those who contend that successively higher 

 organisms have been created at successively later periods, 

 appeal for proof to the facts of Palaeontology ; which, they 

 say, countenance their views. On the other hand, theUni- 

 formitarians, who not only reject the hypothesis of devel- 

 opment, but deny that the modern forms of life are higher 

 than the ancient ones, reply that the Palgeontological evi- 

 dence is at present very incomplete ; that though we have 

 not yet found remains of highly-organized creatures in 

 strata of the greatest antiquity, we must not assume that 

 no such creatures existed when those strata were deposited ; 

 a<id that, probably, geological research will eventually dis- 

 close them. 



It must be admitted that thus far, the evidence has 

 gone in favour of the latter party. Geological discovery 



