22 REPORT— 1892. 



there been any marked difference in this rate from ancient to modern 

 times, it would be incredible that no clear proof of it should have been 

 recorded in the crust of the earth. 



But in actual fact the testimony in favour of the slow accumulation 

 and high antiquity of the geological record is much stronger than might 

 be inferred from the mere thickness of the stratified formations. These 

 sedimentary deposits have not been laid down in one unbroken sequence, 

 but have had their continuity interrupted again and again by upheaval 

 and depression. So fragmentary are they in some regions, that we can 

 easily demonstrate the length of time represented there by still existing 

 sedimentary strata to be vastly less than the time indicated by the gaps 

 in the series. 



There is yet a further and impressive body of evidence furnished by 

 the successive races of plants and animals which have lived upon the 

 earth and have left their remains sealed up within its rocky crust. No 

 one now believes in the exploded doctrine that successive creations and 

 universal destructions of organic life are chronicled in the stratified 

 rocks. It is everywhere admitted that, from the remotest times up to 

 the present day, there has been an onward march of development, type 

 succeeding type in one long continuous progression. As to the rate 

 of this evolution precise data are wanting. There is, however, the 

 important negative argument furnished by the absence of evidence of 

 recognisable specific variations of organic forms since man began to 

 observe and record. We know that within human experience a few 

 species have become extinct, but there is no conclusive proof that a 

 single new species has come into existence, nor are appreciable variations 

 readily apparent in forms that live in a wild state. The seeds and plants 

 found with Egyptian mummies, and the flowers and fruits depicted on 

 Egyptian tombs, are easily identified with the vegetation of modern 

 Egypt. The embalmed bodies of animals found in that country show no 

 sensible divergence from the structure or proportions of the same animals 

 at the present day. The human races of Northern Africa and "Western 

 Asia were already as distinct when portrayed by the ancient Egyptian 

 artists as they are now, and they do not seem to have undergone any 

 perceptible change since then. Thus a lapse of four or five thousand 

 years has not been accompanied by any recognisable variation in such 

 forms of plant and animal life as can be tendered in evidence. Absence 

 of sensible change in these instances is, of course, no proof that consider- 

 able alteration may not have been accomplished in other forms more 

 exposed to vicissitudes of climate and other external influences. But it 



