course even this must be but an outline of what is given elsewhere.

1. In the earlier days of the theory of successive ages it was taught
that only certain kinds of fossils were to be found _at the bottom_ of
the series, or next to the Primitive or Archæan. This feature of the
theory was demanded by the supposed universal spread of one type of life
all around the globe in the earliest age. But it is now known that the
so-called "oldest" fossiliferous rocks occur only in detached patches
over the globe, while other or "younger" kinds are just as likely to be
found on the Primitive or next to the Archæan. Not only may any kind of
fossiliferous rocks occur next to the Archæan, but even the "youngest"
may be so metamorphosed and crystalline as to resemble exactly in this
respect the so-called "oldest" rocks. On the other hand some of the very
"oldest" rocks may, like the Cambrian strata around the Baltic and in
some parts of the United States, consist of "muds scarcely indurated and
sands still incoherent."[40]

[Footnote 40: J.A. Howe; Encyclopædia Britannica, Vol. II, p. 86.
Cambridge Edition.]

All this means that many facts regarding the _position_ of the strata as
well as regarding their _consolidation_ contradict the theory of
successive ages.

2. Many of the rivers of the world completely ignore the alleged varying
ages of the rocks in the different parts of their course, and treat them
all as if of the same age or as if they began sawing at them all at the
same time. This is true of the Rhine, the Meuse, and the Danube in
Europe, the Sutlej of India, and the upper part of the Colorado in
America, not to mention others. The old strand lines around all the