But it seems to me that here we have an enormous amount of energy going to waste. Others have demanded a continent to explain the appearance of a beetle in a certain locality; but here we have a great world-wide catastrophe to explain the sudden disappearance of merely a few species. Why not utilize this surplus energy in doing other necessary work, that has certainly been accomplished somehow, but has hitherto gone a-begging for a competent cause? The only thing I object to in Dana's view of the case is his way of having these "exterminations" take place on the installment plan. For in that way we have to work up a great world catastrophe to do only a very limited amount of work, and then have to repeat the thing another time for a similarly limited work, =when one such cosmic convulsion is competent to do the whole thing=. I plead for the "law of parsimony," and the economizing of energy. The vast shoals of carcasses which seem to be piled up in almost every corner of the world are _prima facie_ evidence that our old globe has witnessed some sort of cosmic convulsion. The exact cause, nature, and extent of this event we may never have sufficient facts to determine, though two or three additional facts having a bearing on the subject will be considered in the following chapters. FOOTNOTES: [55] "Manual," p. 229. [56] _Pop. Sci. Mo._, Vol. xxi, pp. 143, 693. [57] "Manual," p. 141. [58] "Geol. and Min.," Vol. I., pp. 124-5. Ed. 1858. [59] "Theoretical Geol.," p. 265. London, 1834. [60] "Old Red Sandstone," pp. 48, 221-2. [61] _Pop. Sci. News_, May, 1902, pp. 106-7. [62] "Histor. Geol.," p. 53. [63] "Acadian Geol.," p. 260. [64] "Mammals," p. 430. [65] "On Certain Phenomena, etc.," pp. 50-52. [66] "Ancient Life-History," p. 300. [67] "Manual," p. 736. CHAPTER X CHANGE OF CLIMATE Another great general fact about the fossil world may be stated about as follows: =All of the fossils= (save a very few of the so-called "Glacial Age," and they admit of other easy explanation) =give us proofs of an almost eternal spring having prevailed in the Arctic regions, and semi-tropical conditions in north temperate latitudes; in short give us proofs of a singular uniformity of climate over the globe which we can hardly conceive possible, let alone account for.= The proofs of this are almost unnecessary, as this subject of climate has been pretty well discussed of late years. And it was the overwhelming evidence on this point which forced Lyell and so many others to decide against the theory of Croll, which called for a regular rotation of climates, for they said that the fossil evidence was wholly against such a view. Howorth has given an admirable argument on this point in Chapter XI of his second work on the Glacial Theory[68] and to it I would refer the reader for details which I have not the space to reproduce here. This author first remarks: