EVIDENCE OF FOSSIL REMAINS 77 



there is not a single line or word of fact that contradicts 

 evolution. What definite evidence there is tells uni- 

 formly in favor of the doctrine, for it is possible, in the 

 first place, to work out the order of succession of many 

 of the great groups of animals, and this order is found 

 to be the same as that established by the other bodies 

 of evidence. Secondly, some fossil groups are aston- 

 ishingly complete, so that the ancient history of a form 

 like the horse can be written with something approaching 

 fullness. Finally, the remains of certain animals have 

 been found so situated in geological ways, and so con- 

 structed anatomically, that the zoologist is justified in 

 denoting them " missing links," because they seem to 

 have been intermediate between groups that have 

 diverged so widely during recent epochs as to render 

 their common ancestry scarcely credible. 



With these general results in mind, we must now 

 become acquainted with such subjects as the interpre- 

 tation of fossils, the causes for the incompleteness of 

 the series, the conditions for fossilization, the forces of 

 geological nature, and other matters that make the 

 fossils themselves intelligible as scientific evidence. 



Many views have been entertained regarding the 

 actual nature of the relics of antiquity exhumed from 

 the rocks or exposed upon the surface by the wear and 

 tear of natural agencies. In earliest times such things 

 were variously considered as curious freaks of geo- 

 logical formation, as sports of nature, or as the remains 

 of the slain left upon the battle-ground of mythical 

 Titans. Some of the Greeks supposed that fossils 



