continents act in the very same way, ignoring the varying ages of the
rocks they happen to meet; as is also true of nearly all the great
faults or fissures which are of more than local extent. The ore veins of
the various minerals are about as likely to be found in Tertiary or
Mesozoic as in the Palæozoic. A very similar lesson is to be learned
from the fossils found lying exposed on the deep ocean bottom; for they
are about as likely to be Palæozoic or Mesozoic as Tertiary.

From these facts we conclude that practically all the great natural
chronometers of the earth seem to treat the fossiliferous rocks as if
they are _all of about the same age_, completely disregarding the
distinctions in age founded on the fossils.

3. According to the present chronological arrangement of the rocks, very
many genera, often whole tribes of animals, are found as fossils only in
the oldest rocks, and _have skipped all the others_, though found in
comparative abundance in our modern world. Very many others have skipped
from the Mesozoic down, while still others skip large _parts_ of the
series of successive ages.

These absurdities would all be avoided by acknowledging that the current
distinctions as to the ages of the fossils are purely artificial, and
that one fossil is intrinsically just as old or as young as another.

4. It is now known that any kind of "young" beds whatsoever, Mesozoic,
Tertiary, or even Pleistocene, may be found in such _perfect
conformability_ on some of the very oldest beds over wide stretches of
country that "the vast interval of time intervening is unrepresented
either by deposition or erosion"; while in some instances these
age-separated formations so closely resemble one another in structure