166 
COURSE OF ORSERVATION. 
tween the champions of rival systems ; and 
truth has been won at the point of the ham¬ 
mer, after many years of conflict. 
It is also to be observed, that although 
these groupes have a real separate existence, 
yet the exact line of demarcation is often 
obscure, a result which points to modified 
actions of a common cause, operating dur¬ 
ing the time of the whole deposit. 
The interest which attaches to the study 
of organic remains, led its admirers first to 
the attractive and easy investigation of the 
soft upper beds, whence the prey could be 
extracted with the lustre of recent life. 
These tempting provinces having been ex¬ 
plored, the wonder-seekers have been led 
farther and farther back in the pursuit of 
their game, until each belt of the dark 
forest has been in turn ransacked and 
described, and almost every station has had 
its own geographer. So large is the science, 
that it requires and repays the enthusiasm 
with wdiich separate observers attach them¬ 
selves to the succeeding stages of the past, 
and as each unrolls the record of his own 
discoveries he asserts with parental fondness 
the superior merits of his own choice. 
