126 O. W. Biihncui — The Geological Chronometer. 



the present as the Cambrian. If, then, we take the period from 

 Cambrian to present as 400,000,000, we get 1,600,000,000 years as 

 the time during which there has been life on the globe. And there 

 must have been a time anterior to this before life on a heated globe 

 was possible. Yet Professor G. Darwin only allows 500,000,000 

 as the life of the sun ! 



Again, since we must suppose that rock formation began before 

 life, what has become of the great series of pre- Archaean deposits 

 Avhich must have been laid down ? Supposing for a moment that 

 the Archaean rocks represent a period as long as from the Cambrian 

 to the present, we have an interval as long as from the lowest 

 Archaean to the present in which strata were being formed. Of this 

 great series, which must have been, we know nothing. It is hardly 

 conceivable that they should have entirely disappeared, leaving no 

 trace behind. Time, we know, not only devoured his children, but 

 also the stone offered in lieu of one of them. Yet we should hardly 

 have supposed him capable of devouring quite so much rock. 



Of course, no one can object to Professor Poulton, and those of like 

 views, asserting that, on their hypothesis of the origin of the organic 

 world, this or that organism must have existed so many million years 

 ago, or at such and such a geological epoch. But if they are able, 

 from the study of an existing form, to say positively that it must have 

 existed at such a time, in spite of its entire absence in the known 

 geological record — and even in spite of the absence of any geological 

 record at all — it seems superfluous to appeal to geology at all. 

 Biologists had better at once declare their entire independence. 

 Professor Poulton practically does so. For after disposing of 

 ■geology in the manner indicated he says : " We are therefore free 

 to follow the biological evidence fearlessly." 



One can only admire, while one wonders at. Professor Poulton's 

 boldness. Geologists are yet sorely perplexed with the problem of 

 the Archa3an rocks. They have not yet definitely decided whether 

 they are metamorphosed ordinary sediments, part of the original 

 solidified crust of the earth, or chemical precipitates from a hot 

 primitive ocean. Professor Poulton assumes, not merely that 

 ■ordinary sedimentation, but life also was possible on the globe 

 untold ages ere the earliest known pre-Cambrian rocks were 

 laid down. 



Darwin found Lord Kelvin with his 100,000,000 years an " odious 

 spectre " ; Professor Poulton apparently agrees with Butler that 



"There needs no other charm or conjurer 

 To raise infernal spirits up but fear," 



and boldly waves back both geologist and physicist. He apparently 

 adopts as his motto the advice of the Sybil to Eneas — 



"Tu ne cede malis; sed contra audentior ito 

 Qua tua te fortuna sinet," 



