

38 THE PAST CONDITION 



nothing of the minute period during which he has cul- 

 tivated 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 geological inquiry has been carried 

 out : a good deal of France, Germany, and Great Brit- 

 ain and Ireland, bits of Spain, of Italy, and of Eussia, 

 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 about the ten thousandth part 

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

 ined properly. Therefore, it is with justice that the 

 most thoughtful of those who are concerned in these 

 inquiries insist continually upon the imperfection of 

 the geological record ; for, I repeat, it is absolutely 

 necessary, from the nature of things, that that record 

 should be of the most fragmentary and imperfect char- 

 acter. Unfortunately this circumstance has been con- 

 stantly forgotten. Men of science, like young colts 

 in a fresh pasture, are apt to be exhilarated on being 

 turned into a new field of inquiry, and to go off at a 

 hand-gallop, in total disregard of hedges and ditches, 

 losing sight of the real limitation of their inquiries, 

 and to forget the extreme imperfection of what is really 

 known. Geologists have imagined that they could tell 



