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THE GEOLOGIST. 



The Past and Present Life of the Globe, being a Sketch in Outline of the World's 

 Life System. By David Page, P.G.S. London and Edmburgh: Wm. 

 Blackwood & Sons, 1861. 



There is little doubt that the heading of the papers on popular geology, 

 which we commenced in this Magazine, have been, at least, suggestive of titles 

 to more than one author ; if, indeed they have not been suggestive of the sub- 

 ject matters of some books. We are not jealous of, nor sorry for this. If we 

 had desired the credit of doing the work ourselves, we should have kept our 

 own by our own activity. We have not abandoned that series, although fate 

 has denied us the opportunities of- carrying them on rapidly. We hope shortly 

 to be able to go on again with them, and then, from time to time, we shall 

 have the means of giving our own views on matters now under discussion by 

 geologists. Whether Mr. Page has caught an idea or two from the "Geologist" 

 is of little moment ; and if he has, he is quite welcome to them for the good 

 use he has turned them to. In the charming little book before us, he has 

 under the title of "The Past and Present Life of the Globe," discussed in very 

 moderate terms the great question of the day introduced by Darwin's very 

 memorable book — the uniform development of creation. He has not pro- 

 fessedly done this, but in reality, this is what he has done ; and the book is 

 well worthy of the student's attention. The introductory chapter commences 

 with a peroration on the interest attaching to the study of the Past in natural 

 as in human history : fossils or petrified remains of plants and animals are, of 

 course, regarded as the alphabet -letters of the great book of creation, by 

 which its interesting chapters are to be read. Then Mr. Page brings his 

 readers to the Present. He describes broadly the great groups and characteristic 

 features of its fauna and flora and their co-adaptations. He thinks properly 

 that before we can right compare the Past Life, of which these (fossil) relics 

 give evidence, with that which now peoples the globe, we must glance at the 

 conditions under which plants and animaLs at present exist, and know some- 

 thing of their nature and the functions they have to perform. " We can only 

 reason," he says, " respecting the Past from our knowledge of the Present ; 

 and the more intimate our acquaintance with the various phases of existing 

 nature, the sounder our deductions relating to those which have long since 

 passed away. We say the various phases of existing uature for the plants and 

 animals that people the surface of any given latitude may differ in character 

 from those entombed in the strata beneath, and the organisms in the several 

 formations below may now find their nearest analogies in the flora and fauna 

 by distant and different regions. If we are familiar, however, with the 

 general conditions under which plants and animals now live and flourish, and 

 if we can establish a relationship between those existing and those long since 

 extinct, then we can recall the conditions under which the latter grew and 

 flourished, and map out the geography and climate of the primeval world, as 

 the geographer now maps out the areas of sea and land, and depicts the various 

 races of life, the belts of sterility and exuberance, and the creative centres 

 from which peculiar families have emanated to perform their functions in the 

 great economy of nature." And so, on these principles Mr. Page takes us 

 t hrough the flora and fauna of the present age, beginning with plants and the con- 

 ditions under which they exist, their typical forms and characters, their primal 

 plan and patterns, the systematic arrangement of their forms, and the persistency 

 of plan in time past. Animal life is now taken up, and its typical forms and their 

 functions, its primal plan and patterns, the systemmatic arrangement of its 

 forms, and the identity of plan in time past are considered, and then we are led 

 to the co-adaptation of plants and animals in one great life-scheme. 



Some might think the treatment of these subjects slightly antiquated, but 



