38 THE PAST CONDITION 



But to how much has man really access ? If you 

 ■will look at this Map you will see that it repre- 

 sents the proportion of the sea to the earth : this 

 coloured part indicates all the dry land, and this other 

 portion is the water. You will notice at once that the 

 water covers three-fifths of the whole surface of the 

 globe, and has covered it in the same manner ever 

 since man has kept any record of his own observations, 

 to say nothing of the minute period during which 

 he has cultivated geological inquiry. So that three- 

 fifths of the surface of the earth is shut out from 

 us because it is under the sea. Let us look at the 

 other two-fifths, and see what are the countries in 

 which anything that may be termed searching geolo- 

 gical inquiry has been carried out: a good deal of 

 France, Germany, and Great Britain and Ireland, bits of 

 Spain, of Italy, and of Russia, have been examined, but 

 of the whole great mass of Africa, except parts of the 

 southern extremity, we know next to nothing; little bits 

 of India, but of the greater part of the Asiatic continent 

 nothing; bits of the Northern American States and of 

 Canada, but of the greater part of the continent of 

 North America, and in still larger proportion, of South 

 America, nothing ! 



Under these circumstances, it follows that even with 

 reference to that kind of imperfect information which we 

 can possess, it is only of about the ten-thousandth part 

 of the accessible parts of the earth that has been ex- 

 amined properly. Therefore, it is with justice that the 

 most thoughtful of those who are concerned in these in- 

 quiries insist continually upon the imperfection of the 

 geological record; for, I repeat, it is absolutely necessary. 



