292 IMPERFECTION OF THE Chap. IX. 



preserve the remains before they had time to decay. 

 On the other hand, as long as the bed of the sea re- 

 mained stationary, thick deposits could not have been 

 accumulated in the shallow parts, which are the most 

 favourable to life. Still less could this have happened 

 during the alternate periods of elevation ; or, to speak 

 more accurately, the beds which were then accumu- 

 lated will have been destroyed by being upraised and 

 brought within the limits of the coast-action. 



Thus the geological record will almost necessarily be 

 rendered intermittent. I feel much confidence in the 

 truth of these views, for they are in strict accordance with 

 the general principles inculcated by Sir C. Lyell ; and 

 E. Forbes independently arrived at a similar conclusion. 



One remark is here worth a passing notice. During 

 periods of elevation the area of the land and of the 

 adjoining shoal parts of the sea will be increased, and 

 new stations will often be formed ; — all circumstances 

 most favourable, as previously explained, for the form- 

 ation of new varieties and species; but during such 

 periods there will generally be a blank in the geological 

 record. On the other hand, during subsidence, the 

 inhabited area and number of inhabitants will decrease 

 (excepting the productions on the shores of a continent 

 when first broken up into an archipelago), and conse- 

 quently during subsidence, though there will be much 

 extinction, fewer new varieties or species will be formed ; 

 and it is during these very periods of subsidence, that 

 our great deposits rich in fossils have been accumulated. 

 Nature may almost be said to have guarded against the 

 frequent discovery of her transitional or linking forms. 



From the foregoing considerations it cannot be doubted 

 that the geological record, viewed as a whole, is ex- 

 tremely imperfect; but if we confine our attention to 

 any one formation, it becomes more difficult to under- 



