28 



The location of this zone, for which the appellative of the organic 

 zone is assumed, is on a south-west direction as it passes from the 

 north-east of Europe. It is indicated from thence by the fossil re- 

 mains of ancient animals, and by the consecutive coal field districts 

 of Germany, France, England and Ireland; and it is again found 

 through Newfoundland and Nova Scotia ; and, with the exception of 

 the granite region of New England, it is largely developed through 

 the centre of the United States, as in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and the 

 Mississippi country and Texas ; and thus it is specifically establifihed 

 through one-third of the circuit of the earth. 



Continuing in the same course, it crosses in a straight line into the 

 southern hemisphere, and appears in New Zealand, New Holland, 

 part of China, the Kingdom of Ava, and the Himalaya Mountains, so 

 as to come to the commencement of the circuit. 



In all this latter part of the route, through the islands and through 

 Asia, coal is found under the same circumstances and appearances as 

 in Europe and America; and along all the circuit, the fossils of the 

 great elephantine animals are more largely distributed than on any 

 other part of the earth : they have also been taken, in this course, out 

 of the ocean and deep sea of the British Channel, along the shores of 

 which they are found on the recess of the waters. But the essay 

 states that the theory does not depend upon the location of the re- 

 mains of these animals, '■'■partly migratory^'' in search of feeding 

 ground in changes of climate, but upon vegetable and animal remains 

 of the more resident animals of the land and ocean — for '■'■ these have 

 not migrated.'''' 



The facts claimed in favour of this essay are stated to be, — 



1. That there is around the earth, in the direction described, a uni- 

 form zone of former vegetable and animal life, to which the fossil re- 

 mains belong. 



2. That the zone has been tropical or torrid, and has passed 

 through nearly all the present climates. 



3. That a uniformity of products has been found in many places, 

 but not noticed heretofore to have pertained to a general connexion. 



The general principles of this essay are offered as a substitution 

 for the former hypothesis, which attributed the anterior existence of 

 the tropical plants in the cold latitudes to an original high state of 

 heat of the earth, and that they grew upon it when it had become 

 cooled to a proper temperature to favour them; and a statement is 

 made of the comparative claim of both these propositions. 



The essay closes with a general reference to the changes which 



