ly as the member of a learned society who
differs from me on a scientific question; nor does his reference to the
"carboniferous era" as "the _latest_ of the" Palaeozoic "series," and his
apparent unacquaintance with that Permian period, in reality the
terminal one of the division during which the Palaeozoic forms seem to
have gradually died away, in order to give place to those of the
Secondary division, inspire any very high respect for his acquirements
as a geologist. Waiving, however, the legitimacy of his claim, I may be
permitted to repeat, for the further information of the non-geological
reader, that the _carboniferous_ formations, _wherever they have yet
been detected_, justify, in the amazing abundance of their carbonized
vegetable organisms, the name which they bear. Mr. Foulke, in three
short sentences, uses the terms "carboniferous era," "carboniferous
rocks," "carboniferous period," four several times; and these terms are
derived from the predominating amount of carbon (elaborated of old by
the plants of the period) which occurs in its several formations. The
very language which he has to employ is of itself a confirmation of the
statement which he challenges. For so "patent" is this _carboniferous_
character of the system, that it has given to it its universally
accepted designation,--the verbal sign by which it is represented
wherever it is known. Mr. F. states, that "if taken for the entire
surface of the earth," it cannot be truly asserted that the
carboniferous flora preponderated over that of the present time, or, at
least, that its preponderance could not be regarded as "patent to all,"
The statement admits of so many different meanings, that I know not
whether I shall succeed in replying to the special meaning intended by
Mr. Foulke. There are no doubt carboniferous deposits on the earth's
surface still unknown to the geologist, the evidence of which on the
point must be regarded, in consequence, not as "patent to all," but as
_nil_. They are witnesses absent from court, whose testimony has not yet
been tendered. But equally certain it is, I repeat, that wherever
carboniferous formations _have_ been discovered and examined, they have
been found to bear the unique characteristic to which the system owes
its name,--they have been found charged with the carbon, existing
usually as great beds of coal, which was elaborated of old by its
unrivalled flora from the elements. And as this evidence is certain a