HUGH MILLER 141 



the marine progenitors of the Simiadce, and through 

 them of man a curious approximation to some recent 

 crude ideas of Professor Drummond in his Ascent of 

 Man. They had pointed to the general or supposed 

 agreement in fauna and flora between the Galapagos 

 and South America, between the Cape de Verde 

 Islands and Africa ; yet in such a period of conversion 

 plants of an intermediate character would be found, 

 and thousands of years have failed to produce such a 

 specimen. Thus geology, botany, and zoology would 

 seem to afford slight support to the Darwinian theory, 

 at least in the state of the argument as presented in the 

 Vestiges, unless a very large draft upon the mere 

 imagination is made. 



And such a demand is made by Darwin. ' If,' says 

 he, ' my theory be true, it is indisputable that before 

 the lowest Silurian stratum was deposited, long periods 

 elapsed, as long as, or probably far longer than, the 

 whole interval from the Silurian age to the present day ; 

 and that, during these vast, yet quite unknown periods 

 of time, the world teemed with living creatures.' This, 

 however, we may say with the Regent Morton, is only 

 ' a devout imagination ' ; and it might be more scientific 

 to take the geological record as we find it, for, says 

 Miller, c it is difficult to imagine that that uniform cessa- 

 tion of organised life at one point, which seems to have 

 conducted Sir Roderick Murchison and Professor Sedg- 

 wick to their conclusion, should thus have been a mere 

 effect of accident. Accident has its laws, but uniformity 



