MAX'S PLACE IX THE GEOLOGICAL KECOKD. 



THE GEOLOGICAL RECORD NATURE OF ITS CHRONOLOGICAL STAGES- 

 DIFFICULTIES AND IMPERFECTIONS COMPARATIVE RECENTNESS OF 

 MAN'S PLACE NATURE OF THE EVIDENCE PREJUDICES TO BE 

 COMBATED MAN*S EARLIER LIFE - COMPANIONS IN SOUTHERN 

 AND WESTERN EUROPE THEIR REMOVALS AND EXTINCTIONS 

 TRACES OF HIS OWN RACE PRE-HISTORIC AND HISTORIC AGES 

 OF STONE, BRONZE, AND IRON SHELL-MOUNDS, CAVE-DWELLINGS, 

 LAKE-DWELLINGS, ETC. MAN IN OTHER REGIONS GENERAL 

 QUESTION OF MAN'S ANTIQUITY HOW TO BE SOLVED. 



UNLIKE the periods of human history, those of Geology 

 have no definite expression in years and centuries. We 

 speak of eras and epochs, of cycles and systems, but these 

 are merely relative terms. They have no definite duration ; 

 the one merely precedes the other, and the larger may in- 

 clude many recurrences of the lesser within its limits. In 

 speaking of geological time this is all that is signified ; in 

 fixing the dates of geological events this is all that can be 

 fairly asserted. The Primary merely precedes the Secondary, 

 the Secondary the Tertiary, and the Tertiary the events of 

 the Current epoch. "We may subdivide these greater stages 

 into narrower limits, and talk of Laurentian, Cambrian, 

 Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, Permian, Triassic, Ooli- 

 tic, Cretaceous, Tertiary, and Eecent rock-systems, and this 

 is no doubt restricting events to more precise bounds, but 

 it gives no definite idea of duration, nor tells us how long 

 the Chalk preceded the Tertiary, or the Tertiary the occur- 



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