394 Scientific Intelligence. 



sequently obtained) ought surely to teach us caution in generaliz- 

 ing from such uncertain data. It has been argued that, where 

 paleontological evidence is wholly wanting, and stratigraphical 

 relations are doubtful or obscure, then we may be allowed to 

 avail ourselves of the only data remaining to us — those derived 

 from mineralogical resemblances. But surely, in such cases, it is 

 wiser to admit the insufficiency of the evidence, and to say ' We 

 do not know !' rather than to construct for ourselves a ' fool's 

 paradise,' with a tree of pseudo-knowledge bearing the Dead-Sea 

 fruit of a barren terminology ! The impatient student may learn 

 with the blind poet that 



They also serve, who only stand and wait. 

 It is thought by some that the application of the microscope to 

 the study of rock-masses may reveal peculiarities of structure 

 that will serve as a substitute for paleontological evidence con- 

 cerning the age of a rock when the latter is wanting. Greatly as 

 I value the insight afforded to us by the microscope when it is 

 applied to the study of the rocks, and highly as I esteem the 

 opinions of some of those who hold these views, yet I fail to see 

 that any such connection between the minute structure and the 

 geological age of a rock has as yet been established." 



He later states, with regard to certain Cambrian beds in Scan- 

 dinavia, that Kjerulf believes there is evidence of their passing 

 horizontally into true gneiss ; and adds that " similar appearances 

 are not wanting in the case of our Torridon sandstone," which he 

 is disposed to refer to the same age, though leaving the ques- 

 tion open as it has afforded yet no fossils. 



The fossiliferous beds overlying the Torridon Sandstone con- 

 taining " Primordial " forms of trilobites are either true Cam- 

 brian or the equivalent of the American Calciferous and Chazy. 

 The Triassic rocks of Scandinavia are described as undistinguish- 

 able in all their features from those of the Highlands. On both 

 sides of the North Sea they pass up insensibly into Rhsetic and 

 Infra-lias beds, of marine and estuary origin having vast thick- 

 ness, though thin in England, and having coal seams, and in 

 Scania many plants of several distinct floras. Over these in each 

 country are Jurassic beds, 3000 to 4000 feet thick, with other coal 

 beds and abundant Ferns, Cycads and Conifers; and the upper 

 Jurassic beds in Sutherland bear evidence of forests of such 

 trees, and at the same time of transportation on large rivers, at 

 certain seasons, of bowlders of vast dimensions by floating ice. 

 The following epoch of the Neocomian was apparently a time of 

 emergence and great denudation ; but the beds of the Cretaceous 

 once covered large areas in the Scottish Highlands and Scandi- 

 navia. The Tertiary period left few stratified deposits in either 

 land, but was an era of great sub-aerial denudation, stripping the 

 country largely of Mesozoic and older strata " except where 

 buried deeply by gigantic earth-throes or sealed up under lava 

 streams." In the west of Scotland a chain of volcanic mountains 

 with summits towering to the height of 10,000 to 15,000 feet have 



