326 Doubts Relative to the Epochal and 



with the flora and fauna of the quarternary or historical 

 formation. 



Professor Owen, in his " Palaeontology," page 12, thus 

 incidentally alludes to it : " Most of the fossil genera, and 

 even some of the species, pass through many formations." 

 And concludes by saying " It has, however, been observed 

 that fossil rhizopods, set free by the disintegration of rocks, 

 are mingled with the recent shells on every beach; and Mr. 

 McAndrew has obtained them in this condition from great 

 depths of the mid-channel." 



Again, Mr. Page, in speaking of icebergs, says : " Nay, 

 icebergs have been encountered in the North Sea covered or 

 interstratified with ancient soil, among which were the 

 bones of mammoths and other extinct animals, still further 

 confusing the nature of their deposits by mingling the 

 remains of an existing fauna (reindeer, musk ox, Arctic bear,. 

 &c.) with one of a much higher antiquity." 



If our logic proceeds from direct facts as they stand 

 revealed in the contents of each stratum, or from general 

 and precisely defined principles, how is it POSSIBLE to main- 

 tain that the tertiary periods in their organic remains should 

 be so distinct from the entire secondary (saving at their 

 lowest margin with certain chalk formations), and yet that 

 they should be formed from the detritus or washings of 

 numerous preceding strata, and those strata themselves 

 formed in a great measure by debris from each other ? 



To be certified as to the correctness of the conclusions, 

 there is no need for any very lengthened analysis of the con- 

 tents of each stratum, since, in exact proportion to the 

 increased knowledge of the conditions in which the strata, 

 with their organic bodies are found, will be the increased 

 evidence of the fact that the strata of the earth's crust were 

 not derived from each other, either wholly or in part. 

 Whilst, on the other hand, the explanation or theory of each 



