2-979-774 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Scene of the Geological Discoveries at Swanage, Dorset - from a photograph by F. Briggs, 1857. 'The excavations...are interesting as the scene of important geological discoveries [including] the jaws of at least fourteen different species of mammalia...It was supposed till very lately that few if any mammalia were to be found below the tertiary rock; and this supposed fact was very comfortable to those who support the doctrine of "progressive development"...that a fish by mere length of time became a reptile, a lemur, an ape, and finally an ape, a man. But...A very ancient bed of the secondary rocks is found, full of [perfect] mammalia...and Mr. Beckles's discoveries give fresh strength to the theory of our best scientific men that not merely species, but whole orders, were created from time to time by some absolute act of the Almighty mind...Thus are the conclusions of sound science shown more and more to coincide with those of sound religion'. From "Illustrated London News", 1857.