The Future of Geology. 347 



Such signs cannot be dissipated by any appeal to the series of strata 

 already investigated. The answer to that appeal would be favour- 

 able to our hypothesis : moreover, in the present state of our know- 

 ledge of comparative geology, it would be folly to claim infallibility 

 for geological scales founded upon the examination, partly minute, 

 partly superficial, of regions chiefly confined to the land of the 

 northern hemisphere. If we jot out on the map of the world those 

 portions which have been sufficiently examined, at once palseontolo- 

 gically and geologically, the space covered by our ink makes but a 

 poor show ; yet only about such districts can we lay claim to suffi- 

 cient knowledge, — if, indeed, knowledge be ever sufficient. Our 

 hope lies in the rapidly-advancing progress of comparative geology, 

 especially through the aid and sure operations of organised surveys. 

 All over Europe, such surveys are in progress, or about to com- 

 mence, sanctioned, as they ought to be, by governments of every 

 shade of opinion. 



Some three or four years ago it was publicly declared that the 

 geology of England was completed ; a plausible announcement, since 

 almost every corner of the country had been subjected to the tramp 

 and hammers of geologists. Yet, if we are not greatly mistaken, 

 even the geology of England has still to be done. It is ably sketched 

 out ; portions of it have been developed with skill and ability ;* but 

 by far the greater part will yield a luxuriant harvest of discovery 

 to those able and willing to enter upon the task. Compare any 

 sheet of the Ordnance map of England, after it has been re-issued, 

 with the geology laid down upon it by the Government surveyors, with 

 any pre-existing geological map of the district, and see there what 

 an amount of fresh detail has been educed by the patient labour and 

 unhurried explorations of those geologists to whom, under the su- 

 perintendence of Sir Henry de la Beche, the work is due. The 

 economical value of geological researches depends mainly on such 

 works. The nearer we come to geologizing by square miles or 

 leagues the more interesting will be the results of our labours. 

 Ages, however, must elapse before we can hope to obtain similar re- 

 sults from all countries of the earth. And yet until we do, not even 

 the geology of England, small though it be, can fairly be said to be 

 completed ; for not until we have obtained a full and minute know- 

 ledge of comparative geology, can we understand clearly one-half 

 the facts and phenomena exhibited in the structure of any country, 

 however limited, in the world. — Vide Westminster Review, July 

 1852, for further expansion of this topic. 

 



* The geognostical characters of the Old Red Sandstone, the so-called De- 

 vonian or Caledonian group, — of the Greywacke or Silurian system, — of the 

 Clay Slate or Cambrian system, are still under discussion in England. — Editor. 



