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THE GEOLOGIST. 



never advocated theoretical geology : we do not advocate it now. The age of 

 geological learning is too young for any theories to be put forward which aim 

 at completeness, or that do more than indicate the position of a truth, hereafter 

 to be found, with greater labour and pains. But deductions from known and 

 established facts so insensibly grow into theories when they are treated of, that 

 the utmost care has to be used by those who make studies of any branch of 

 natural science, lest that which is hypothetical should be made to pass for a 

 truly-based conclusion. And though the domain of the "true and established" 

 is gaining every day somewhat of the treacherous and unstable ground of the 

 " uncertain," and so chances of error are diminishing, yet at no time do we be- 

 lieve, since geology began to be studied, was there less taste for drawing 

 unduly upon the steady gain of honestly-got and costly facts, or a stronger 

 feeling among those who are building upon the strong foundation, that the 

 wealth of what is real and true should not be perverted to suit a visionary 

 scheme, or made to bear witness to what may turn out a false and deluding 

 theory. 



These thoughts have occurred in considering a certain question of great 

 interest and importance which has arisen out of the endeavour to classify the 

 older Taconic (Cambrian) and Silurian rocks of America. That these Taconic 

 rocks are the representatives in the New World of the Primordial zone of 

 Europe, chiefly developed in Scandinavia and Bohemia, is generally accepted 

 among geologists ; while the only hesitation felt is from the fact that these 

 European "Bottom-rocks" show very scanty traces of life throughout their 

 thirty thousand feet of thickness, whereas on the American continent they con- 

 tain more than one hundred species of crustacean and molluscan life, and are 

 indeed nearly as rich in fauna and flora as is the Lower Silurian of Europe. 



In a letter from M. Barrande, of Bohemia, to M. Jules Marcou, of Boston, 

 dated August 14, 1860, we find the passage which set us thinking how grandly 

 one nation may become interlinked with another, through a scientific discovery 

 of harmonies existing between the construction of the continents they inhabit. 

 Two European lands — England and Spain — are brought into cousinship with 

 Canada and the States, by similarity of rocks and sympathetic arrangement of 

 their layers ; for M. Barrande has reasonable grounds for his expressed opinion 

 that the Taconic schists and limestones of Vermont reproduce in America the 

 black shales which lie against the western flank of the Malvern Hills in our 

 own land, and the schisty deposits which hold a similar position with regard to 

 the Cantabrian Mountains in Spain. Eor though slight variations and, in the 

 western continent, augmentation of animal life occur, yet the position in time 

 of the beds is beyond doubt identical ; and we are glad to read M. Barrande's 

 remark " that it is a great and noble question, whose final solution will com- 

 plete the imposing harmonies existing already between the series of Palaeozoic 

 faunae of America, and that of the contemporaneous faunas of Europe, leaving 

 to each the imprint peculiar to its continent." 



It is indeed a noble question ; and while it is one that science can settle by 

 unremitting study, her votaries need not envy the triumphs of commercial 

 enterprise. Let that great means of spreading good, work beneath banners of 

 success, and gather in fruits till its bams can hold no more; but still, there 

 will be moments when labourers in the world's hive will be undazzled from the 

 glare of their golden sun, and wish themselves with almost a sigh of regret, 

 among those few workers who arc t oiling in the shade, and there building up, 

 with materials beyond all the gold of commerce to buy, a fabric which shall 

 be a mind-dwelling for ever ! 



