556 HISTORY OF GEOLOGY. 



species, or of such as lived in distant latitudes. To 

 decide that the animals and plants, of which we 

 find the remains in a fossil state, were of species 

 now extinct, obviously required an exact and exten- 

 sive knowledge of natural history. And if this were 

 so, to assign the relations of the past to the existing 

 tribes of beings, and the peculiarities of their vital 

 processes and habits, were tasks which could not be 

 performed without the most consummate physiolo- 

 gical skill and talent. Such tasks, however, have 

 been the familiar employments of geologists, and 

 naturalists incited and appealed to by geologists, 

 ever since Cuvier published his examination of the 

 fossil inhabitants of the Paris basin. Without at- 

 tempting a history of such labours, I may notice a 

 few circumstances connected with them. 



Sect. 4. Advances in Palaeontology. Cuvier. 



So long as the organic fossils which were found in 

 the strata of the earth were the remains of marine 

 animals, it was very difficult for geologists to be 

 assured, that the animals were such as did not 

 exist in any part or clime of the existing ocean. 

 But when large land and river animals were dis- 

 covered, different from any known species, the per- 

 suasion that they were of extinct races was forced 

 upon the naturalist. Yet this opinion was not 

 taken up slightly, nor acquiesced in without many 

 struggles. 



