REPORT ON GEOLOGY. 
413 
would still leave the inequality of the seasons in the higher lati¬ 
tudes as great as at present. For this more equable tempera¬ 
ture, then, it seems difficult to account, without having recourse 
to the hypothesis, which so many other geological arguments 
render probable, of an internal source of heat proper to the 
globe itself. 
Of more recent secondary strata than the carboniferous se¬ 
ries, there appear few traces in the parts of America yet ex¬ 
plored, excepting, as I have already observed, the marls of New 
Jersey, of which the fossils exhibit a close generic agreement 
with those of our subcretaceous formations, such as the gait, 
although they are certainly often specifically distinct. In Vir¬ 
ginia we have also extensive tracts of shells, approximating to 
recent species, as in our own tertiary deposits ; and in the 
diluvium we may observe that the Mastodons approximate to 
those of Ava and Tuscany, although nevertheless mostly speci¬ 
fically distinct, while the Megalonyx is peculiar to America. 
We have yet collected from India and from Australia little 
information on which we can rely, only;that it appears that 
the usual remains in the bone caves of the latter, are generally 
those of kangaroos, wombats, and other animals still inhabiting 
that continent, mingled however with other bones belonging to 
some animal resembling an hippopotamus, now unknown in 
those parts. To India and to Australia, however, it is that we 
must look, no less than to America, with full confidence that we 
shall speedily thence obtain sufficient evidence on all these fun¬ 
damental questions to afford us a basis of induction sufficiently 
extensive and firm to^enable us, at no distant period, steadily 
to lay the foundation, and securely to raise the superstructure 
of an enduring and general geological theory. 
England, the mistress of such vast and remote portions of 
the globe, seems peculiarly called upon to take the lead in this 
task. And the increased attention to scientific pursuits, now 
diffusing itself among her military and naval classes,—one of the 
most favourable characteristics of the age,—promises to supply 
her every day with observers more and more competent to 
achieve this honourable duty. 
As an appropriate illustration of the recent progress and 
actual state of geology, I have presented to the Society an 
engraved section traversing Europe from the northern ex¬ 
tremity of Great Britain to Venice, being, as I believe, the 
first attempt at so extensive a design as yet submitted to 
the public. In its execution the merit of a careful compiler 
is of course all that I can pretend to claim: the English por¬ 
tion is all which I can fairly appropriate to myself on the 
title of original observation; for both the extremities, viz. the 
