XI PHENOMENA OF ORGANIC NATURE 341 



two-fifths, and see what are the countries in 

 which anything that may he termed searching 

 geological inquiry has been carried out : a good 

 deal of France, Germany, and Great Britain and 

 Ireland, bits of Spain, of Italy, and of Russia, have 

 been examined, but of the whole great mass of 

 Africa, except parts of the southern extremity, 

 we know next to nothing ; little bits of India, but 

 of the greater part of the Asiatic continent 

 nothing ; bits of the Northern American States 

 and of Canada, but of the greater part of the 

 continent of North America, and in still larger 

 proportion, of South America, nothing ! 



Under these circumstances, it follows that even 

 with reference to that kind of imperfect informa- 

 tion which we can possess, it is only of about the 

 ten-thousandth part of the accessible parts of the 

 earth that has been examined properly. There- 

 fore, it is with justice that the most thoughtful of 

 those who are concerned in these inquiries insist 

 continually upon the imperfection of the geological 

 record ; for, I repeat, it is absolutely necessary, 

 from the nature of things, that that record should 

 be of the most fragmentary and imperfect 

 character. Unfortunately this circumstance has 

 been constantly forgotten. Men of science, like 

 young colts in a fresh pasture, are apt to be 

 exhilarated on being turned into a new field of 

 inquiry, to go off at a hand-gallop, in total 

 disregard of hedges and ditches, to lose sight of 



