ed to the world as an
ascertained fact; we are informed of the discovery of a human skull
fifty-seven thousand years old, _in good preservation_; asked to believe
that two tiers of cypress snags could not be deposited in the delta of
the Mississippi in less than eleven thousand four hundred years; and to
calculate that the delta of the Nile must have been a great many ages in
growing to its present size, because it is quite certain that for the
last three thousand years _it has never grown at all_.[377]

It were easy to fill a volume with such mistakes of geologists, but my
limits restrict me to a few specimens. Silliman's Journal, in a review
of "_The Geology of North America_, by Julius Marcoe, U. S. Geologist,
and Professor of Geology in the Federal Polytechnic School of
Switzerland; quarto, with maps and plates," says:

"The author describes the mountain systems of north America as _he
supposes they must be_, according to the theoretical views of Elie de
Beaumont." "Thus one single fossil--that one a species of pine, and only
very much resembling the _Pinites Fleurotti_ of Dr.
Monguett--_establishes_ a connection between the New Red of France, and
that of America. This is a very strong word for a geologist to use on
evidence so small, _and so uncertain_, with the fate of four thousand or
five thousand feet of rock at stake, and the beds beneath, containing
'perhaps Belemnites.' The prudent observer would have said, _establishes
nothing_; and such is the fact." "_On such evidence_ a region over the
Rocky Mountains, which is one thousand miles from north to south, and
eight hundred miles from east to west, is for the most part colored in
the maps as Triassic. Such a region would take in quite a respectable
part of the continent of Europe." "We now know beyond any reasonable
doubt, that all the country from the Platte to the British Possessions,
and from the Mississippi to the Black Hills, is occupied by Cretaceous
and Tertiary rocks. And as regards the region from the Platte southward
to the Red River, very far the largest part _is known to be not
Triassic_, while it is possible the Trias may occur in some parts of
it." "It is unfortunate in its bearing on the progress of geological
science to have false views about some five hundred thousand miles of
territory, and much more besides, spread widely abroad through
respectable journals, and transactions of distinguished European
Societies."[378]

One can not but symp