e than their more modern representatives.

It remains to consider very briefly how far Palaeontology supports
the doctrine of "Evolution," as it is called; and this, too, is a
question of almost infinite dimensions, which can but be glanced at
here. Does Palaeontology teach us that the almost innumerable kinds
of animals and plants which we know to have successively flourished
upon the earth in past times were produced separately and wholly
independently of each other, at successive periods? or does it
point to the theory that a large number of these supposed distinct
forms, have been in reality produced by the slow modification of a
comparatively small number of primitive types? Upon the whole, it
must be unhesitatingly replied that the evidence of Palaeontology
is in favour of the view that the succession of life-forms upon
the globe has been to a large extent regulated by some orderly
and constantly-acting law of modification and evolution. Upon
no other theory can we comprehend how the fauna of any given
formation is more closely related to that of the formation next
below in the series, and to that of the formation next above,
than to that of any other series of deposits. Upon no other view
can we comprehend why the Post-Tertiary Mammals of South America
should consist principally of Edentates, Llamas, Tapirs, Peccaries,
Platyrhine Monkeys, and other forms now characterising this
continent; whilst those of Australia should be wholly referable
to the order of Marsupials. On no other view can we explain the
common occurrence of "intermediate" or "transitional" forms of
life, filling in the gaps between groups now widely distinct.

On the other hand, there are facts which point clearly to the
existence of some law other than that of evolution, and probably
of a deeper and more far-reaching character. Upon no theory of
evolution can we find a satisfactory explanation for the constant
introduction throughout geological time of new forms of life,
which do not appear to have been preceded by pre-existent allied
types; The Graptolites and Trilobites have no known predecessors,
and leave no known successors. The Insects appear suddenly in the
Devonian, and the Arachnides and Myriapods in the Carboniferous,
under well-differentiated and highly-specialised types. The
Dibranchiate Cephalopods appear with equal apparent suddenness in
the older Mesozoic deposits, and no known type of the Palaeozoic
period can be pointed to as