[betty boop]

Since you provided the quote, it seemed reasonable that you might have more information about the background and surrounding context that would help clarify it.

The quote was a direct statement from Darwin, from The Origin of Species. It is what it is. Do you think I have some privileged insight into the workings of his mind?

I take the statement at face value. Thus it seems to me Darwin was allowing that his proposed evolution theory did not have support from the geological record, at least at the time of writing. Do you read the statement another way?

[tacticalogic]

So you lifted a quote out of context and submitted it for consideration at face value, absent any consideration or knowlege of the context it was lifted from.

You maintain that it is not an exercise in "quote mining" based on the fact that you agree with it, and it supports your arguments.