130 
say that the whole earth was alike so engulfed. The evidence 
of some districts helps to show that much less fearfully dis- 
turbing causes might have occurred there than elsewhere. 
Ij however, for a long time, thought that that species, 
the Terebratula, as a distinct species (varieties of which, 
amounting to more than two hundred, occupy a place in 
almost every stratum which geology has successively marked), 
was really extinct, till I had four individuals by accident 
brought to me by an old friend, whose brother, the late 
Captain J. M. R. Ince, R.N., had dredged them up in the 
harbour of Port Jackson. It is difficult, at the present 
time, to bring this fact so clearly before the mind of the 
general public as that they can understand its merits, as 
a proof of what is here brought forward. It needs some 
knowledge of the particular subject to enter into the value of 
this proof. Thus, Terebratula may be asserted to have been 
long known to exist, not by this term, because there was a 
slight difference in the hinge which justified its being recog- 
nized by a different name, but, nevertheless, so closely related 
to it that it really becomes a wider argument to show that 
species and varieties of many shells in a fossil state are closely 
identified with the living specimens. This convinced me of 
this fact ; viz., that regardless of the small number, I could 
not avoid coming to this conclusion, that the Terebratula as a 
species was that which formed part of the present creation, 
and, therefore, the present living creation was in type the 
same when that destruction came and placed them where they 
are in the earth, as we find them now. I have chosen this 
species, because it is found in so many strata of the earth, in 
some of the supposed oldest. The circumstance, then, of 
finding a variety of this species of shell now living, proves 
that the type of the first creation is the same as that now in 
existence, modified only by causes which led to an alteration in 
the earth’s surface , and the changes incident to those alterations 
which took place on its surface. But this kind of evidence that 
the same living creation existed, altered and modified to suit 
the changes effected upon the surface of the earth since that 
creation was formed, can be afforded by other species. 
Thus the Trigonia , which, particularly on account of its 
antiquated appearance, was thought to be extinct as a species, 
till some years ago they fished up one valve of a variety of 
this species, called Trigonia pectinat a. So unexpected a friend 
received more than ordinary attention ; immediately it sold 
for £20 ; but, as time passed on, more of this variety were 
found ; and of course, as they became less rare, their value was 
reduced, a fate that sometimes awaits the very highest genus. 
