28 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS 



brought about by any arbitrary enactment, but by the natural 

 process of cause and effect, nor by any change in the laws of 

 nature, nor by any addition made to the kind of materials through 

 which these laws operated, but simply by a different combination of 

 these that would produce quite different results. 



I think we get an instructive view of one of the natural methods 

 employed in making one stage of progress prepare the way for 

 another in what is called the carboniferous era. This was character 

 ized by a remarkable profusion of vegetation of a particular kind. 

 For the production of this certain conditions were necessary, amongst 

 others heat and an unlimited supply of carbonic acid gas, such as 

 would be fatal to the animal life of the present. Now, whilst this 

 vegetation was growing in rank luxuriance, the result of favorable 

 conditions, it was also engaged in absorbing the carbonic acid gas 

 from the atmosphere in vast quantities and retaining it. This was by 

 some put under the surface of the ground, thereby making a perma- 

 nent change in the condition of the atmosphere. This would de- 

 prive the descendants of that vegetation of the materials for growth 

 in sufficient quantity, or in the required combination to produce like 

 luxuriance, making a change in the character of the vegetation 

 inevitable, and preparing the way for entirely different forms. This 

 change in the vegetation of the period would have a powerful effect 

 on the animal life of the same : some of the forms not being able to 

 accommodate themselves to the change would perish, giving place 

 to others that were better suited to the new conditions. 



Now take into consideration the vast periods of time through 

 which all this has been progressing — ages on ages roll ; no hurry, 

 but no delay. Change follows change — the destiny and doom of all 

 matter — and the stream of life running parallel with it standing per- 

 sistently, progressively, generation after generation come and go, 

 living forms appear, perpetuate their kind, but to die and be resolved 

 into their original elements, these to reappear in yet other forms, 

 and go through the same routine — the true and real transmigration 

 of nature. Then add to this the fact that during each and every one 

 of these periods of time the geographical conditions were various, 

 moulding and modifying the life of each, and that these living forms 

 were given more or less to migrating, and consequently to a 

 commingling cif these and thereby multiplying their diversities, and 

 making it possible for them to be yet greater and more numerous 



