THE SCIENCE OF PALAEONTOLOGY 5 



such it may and should be) of "fossil-hunting" not only 

 provides grateful relaxation from the relatively seden- 

 tary occupations of description and study, but enables 

 the worker to pursue the latter with enhanced interest 

 and understanding. No one can be qualified to dis- 

 course upon palaeontological topics who has not 

 personally experienced the thrills and disappointments 

 associated with work in the field. 



When the three preliminaries have been attained, the 

 aims peculiar to Palaeontology remain. The historical 

 sequence in which living forms have arisen and dis- 

 appeared is still a matter in which direct observation 

 plays a dominant part, although it is of such a nature, 

 and often so imperfectly displayed, that some oppor- 

 tunities arise for the exercise of argument. The dis- 

 tribution of forms of life at the present day (which still 

 affords much scope for biological research) is no less 

 important, though less apparent, when past periods are 

 in review; many data of great geological importance 

 can be determined by such phenomena. 



Finally, when the succession of organisms has been 

 sufficiently established, the ultimate philosophic aim of 

 the science appears. The relations between the faunas 

 and floras of the several periods, which can hardly be 

 proved and yet may be confidently surmised, supply 

 indications of the course, and to some degree of the 

 process, of Evolution. Palaeontology, in this sense, may 

 be defined as the science that deciphers the torn and 

 blotted script in which the history of organic evolution 

 has been written. Biology (using the term in a narrow 

 and fortunately obsolescent sense) can suspect, and 

 even experiment upon, the principle of evolution ; but 

 Palaeontology alone can trace the course of its progress, 

 and display the broad views that are needed for ap- 

 preciation of a process so slow and so far-reaching. 



