350 ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY. 



has year after year shown the small value of negative facts. 

 The conviction that there are no traces of higher organisms 

 in earlier strata, has resulted not from the absence of such 

 remains, but from incomplete examination. At p. 460 of 

 his Manual of Elementary Geology, Sir Charles J.jcW 

 gives a list in illustration of this. It appears that in 1709, 

 fishes were not known lower than the Permian system. In' 

 1793 they were found in the subjacent Carboniferous sys- 

 tem ; in 1828 in the Devonian ; in 1840 in the Upper Silu- 

 rian. Of reptiles, we read that in 1710 the lowest known 

 were in the Permian; in 1844 they were detected in the 

 Carboniferous; and in 1852 in the Upper Devonian. 

 While of the Mammalia the list shows that in 1798 none 

 had been discovered below the middle Eocene; but that in 

 1818 they were discovered in the Lower Oolite; and in 

 1847 in the Upper Trias. 



The fact is, however, that both parties set out with an 

 inadmissible postulate. Of the Uniformitarians, not only 

 such writers as Hugh Miller, but also such as Sir Charles 

 Lyell,* reason as though we had found the earliest, or some- 

 thing like the earliest, strata. Their antagonists, whether 

 def-^nders of the Development Hypothesis or simply Pro- 

 gressionists, almost uniformly do the like. Sir R. Murchi- 

 son, who is a Progressionist, calls the lowest fossiliferous 

 strata, " Protozoic." Prof. Ansted uses the same term. 

 Whether avowedly or not, all the disputants stand on this 

 assumption as their common ground. 



Yet is this assumj^tion indefensible, as some who make 

 t very well know. Facts may be cited against it which 

 show that it is a more than questionable one— that it is a 

 highly improbable one ; while the evidence assigned in its 

 favour will not bear criticism. 



* Sir Charles LjeU is no longer to be classed among Uniformitarians. 

 With rare and admirable candour he has, since this was written, yielded 

 to the arguments of Mr. Darwin. 



