OP VOLCANOS. 241 



I 



ine difficult to separate vegetable and animal remains from 

 each other. The same mode of explanation ought to com- 

 prehend both. 



I have permitted myself at the conclusion of the present 

 discussion to connect with facts collected in different and 

 widely separated countries some uncertain and hypothetical 

 conjectures. The philosophical study of Nature rises beyond 

 the requirements of a simple description of Nature : it does 

 not consist in a sterile accumulation of isolated facts. It may 

 sometimes be permitted to the active and curious mind of 

 man to stretch forward from the present to the still obscure 

 future ; to divine that which cannot yet be clearly known ; 

 and thus to take pleasure in the ancient myths of geology 

 reproduced in our own days in new and varied forms. 



VOL. II. 



