12 
DAVIS : PRO. PHILLIPS. 
of Howgill Fells and the secondary and tertiary series on the south 
eastern coast. In connection with the Geological Survey, he also 
produced in 1843, his work on the " Palaeozoic Fossils of Cornwall, 
Devonshire and West Somerset," which contained an equal or 
larger amount of original matter in connection with fossil remains. 
The result of all this activity in ever}'- part of the world was very 
great ; more than 30,000 species of fossils were named, described, 
and in many cases figured. The fossils were found to be far larger 
in number than the living forms, and many of them were ascertain- 
ed to be without any living representative; others, found almost in 
the earliest rocks have existed through the untold ages since their 
first appearance and are still represented in the seas of the present 
day. 
The varied picture presented to a careful and enquiring mind 
by the consideration of this subject is one of profound and awe- 
inspiring interest. It opens up a large field for speculation ; and its 
bearing on the past history of the globe and its inhabitants is of 
the utmost importance. 
Geology, as a science, is pre-eminently one of facts, and unless 
its truths are treasured and adhered to, speculations and generali- 
zations, which of necessity must be interwoven wich those facts, 
may prove not only misleading, but injurious. So long, however, 
as the imagination is chained down to a basis of truth, and a solid 
foundation of indubitable and thoroughly well digested knowledge 
serves to leaven the edifice, the superstructure of inference and 
deduction may be both correct, pleasing and highly instructive. 
Without the use of the imagination to fill in the pictures presented 
by a study of the fossils found in the rocks, of ages and periods 
long past, whose similitudes can never recur, geological as well 
as other science, would only prove barren and abortive. For 
example : — the fossil remains of some fish, or shell, or plant are 
found imbedded in the shales of the coal measures ; the whole of 
the original matter composing the bones of the fish or the tissues 
of the plant have been removed, and in their ])lace is a wonderfully 
