accumulate as much on the one side as they hitherto appear to have done on the other. I have also attempted to shew, that the diluvial covering of the different strata has not yet received from geologists that attention which its importance, in a theoretical view, deserves. To those who have ample leisure and other concomitant opportunities for such pursuits, there is not a field of greater interest presented to the exertions of the philosopher than some of these geological investigations afford; and few where he can be more harmlessly, or, as regards the promotion of the arts and conveniences of life, perhaps more usefully employed. 21, FORTH STREET, January, 1838. "The great branches of the Comparative Geology and Comparative Palæontology, (or study of Fossil Remains,) of distant countries, much as they have recently advanced, have as yet even a still wider interval to pass over than that which they may have already accomplished before they shall have obtained that degree of completeness which alone can qualify them to serve as sound bases in any geological theory."-CONYBEARE-Geological Report of British Association. "While so large a portion of the globe is geologically unexplored-while all the general views which are to extend our classifications satisfactorily from one hemisphere to another, are still unformed-while the organic fossils of the tropics are almost unknown, and their general relation to the existing state of things has not even been conjectured,-how can we expect to speculate rightly and securely respecting the history of the whole of our globe? and if geological classification and description are thus imperfect, the knowledge of geological causes is still more so."WHEWELL'S History of the Inductive Sciences, vol. iii. p. 621. |
