FACTS AND OBSERVATIONS. li 



It is constructed from the Dredging- Tables of Edward Forbes, for certain parts of the coast of 

 Great Britain. We see that the majority of the three orders, selected on account of their numbers, 

 inhabit 1, 2, 3, 4 grounds. An Echinoderm (Ophiocoma rosula], an order in palaeozoic times rigidly 

 confined to one or two calcareous grounds, is found now in seven. 



POSTSCRIPT. 



I. Time and space will only permit the introduction into these pages of the foregoing twelve 

 short sketches, almost entirely unaided by illustrative remarks drawn from palseozoic literature. It 

 is probable that a calmer and more deliberate examination of the lights scattered throughout the 

 ' Thesaurus' would have suggested some still more striking truths which therefore remain yet latent. 

 For this an apology has been already offered. 



The following further list of geological subjects, partly already treated of in MS., will show how 

 important are the omissions we know of. Full and comprehensive as the standard works are, the 

 rapid progress of the science has left even now more to be said. 



ADDITIONAL SUBJECTS. Oscillation, its effects on life. Silurian areas of Europe and America 

 compared in strata, and their contents, country with country, stage with stage. The Silurian 

 selvages of N.W. Scotland and Ireland, peculiarly American, carefully examined. Silurian and 

 recent sea-beds compared. The bathometry of molluscan life in the Silurian and present periods. 

 The increment and decrement of Silurian life, species, and genera, separately tabulated for all 

 countries. The greater or less synchronism of strata far apart ; measured, where possible. Was 

 America inhabited before Europe &c. ? as seems probable. During the existence of an epoch may 

 the foreshadowing of the next become perceptible ? We see this in Nova Scotia (Devonian) and in 

 Pennsylvania (Carboniferous formation). The transport or removal of dead organisms from place to 

 place ; the " remaniement " of the French. Extra-epochal recurrence is of all time and place, and 

 full of interest. 



II. An Extract from an Address to a Meeting of Geologists at Chambery, Savoy, 1844. 



" II n'y a qu'un demi- siecle, un orateur chretien, se defiant des hommes de la science leur 

 disait : ' Arretez-vous enfin, et ne creusez pas jusqu'aux enfers. Aujourd'hui, Messieurs, rassures 

 sur Finebranlable Constance de notre foi, nous vous disons : creusez, creusez encore : plus vous 

 descendrez, plus vous rapprocherez du grand mystere de Fimpuissance de Fhomme et de la verite de 

 la religion. Creusez done, creusez : et quand la science aura donne son dernier coup de marteau 

 sur les fondements de la terre, vous pourrez a la lueur du feu qu'il fera jaillir, lire encore Fidee de 

 Dieu et contempler Fempreinte de sa main ' " *. Monseigneur Rendu, Bishop of Annecy, Savoy. 



* Bullet. Soc. Geol. de France, n. s. tome i. p. 857. 



