OF CREATION. 397 



districts in which reptiles or quadrupeds now abound 

 at all. A very broad line of distinction should be 

 drawn between positive and negative evidence in 

 cases like these, where we are so entirely dependent 

 on analogies. Making, however, all allowances, it 

 cannot but appear as a very remarkable and interest- 

 ing conclusion, that there should have been in many 

 different countries, extending from high northern la- 

 titudes to Van Diemen's Land, at the same geologi- 

 cal epoch, and under nearly similar circumstances, 

 this extensive deposit of vegetable matter; nor is it 

 easy to avoid the conclusion, that there must have 

 existed some conditions distinct from those which 

 have since obtained, and that these acted with great 

 comparative uniformity, since they produced such 

 similar results. There are few problems in geology, 

 the solution of which would be more interesting and 

 instructive than that of the origin of coal; and this 

 perhaps is a matter not altogether hopeless, since the 

 careful and minute investigation of the associated 

 beds of shale and stone, so well laid open in the nu- 

 merous excavations made to obtain the coal from its 

 bed, affords material of unusual value and extent, 

 available for this purpose. 



Fourthly, It appears that the period which suc- 

 ceeded the paleeozoic age was one during which 

 various singular and gigantic reptilian animals were 

 introduced, and that these animals then lived in 

 great numbers, and occupied a most important place, 

 both among the vegetable and animal feeders ; but, 

 judging from the fossils of this period, we are still 

 without distinct evidence of there having been any 

 such difference in climate as is inconsistent with the 



