THE WORLD'S LIFE-SYSTEM 
 
"The investigation of nature teaches us to recognise the omnipotence, the 
 perfection, and the inscrutable wisdom of an infinitely higher Being, in his works 
 and actions. So long as we are ignorant of these things, the perfect development 
 of the human mind cannot be hoped for, or even conceived. Without this know- 
 ledge the immortal spirit of man cannot attain to a consciousness of its own 
 dignity, or of the rank which it occupies in creation." LIEBIG'S Familiar Letters 
 on Chemistry. 
 
THE 
 
 PAST AND PRESENT LIFE 
 
 OP, 
 
 THE GLOBE 
 
 BEING A SKETCH IN OUTLINE 
 
 THE WOBLD'S LIFE-SYSTEM 
 
 BY 
 
 DAVID PAGE, F.G.S. 
 
 AUTHOR OF " INTRODUCTORY AND ADVANCED TEST-BOOKS OF GEOLOGY' 
 " HANDBOOK OF GEOLOGICAL TERMS," ETC. 
 
 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS 
 
 EDINBUKGH AND LONDON 
 
 MDCCCLXI 
 

TO 
 
 WILLIAM MILLEB, ESQ. 
 
 IN PLEASANT REMEMBRANCE 
 HOURS AND EVENINGS OF DISCUSSION 
 
 OUR THEME 
 
 THE THEME OF THE FOLLOWING PAGES. 
 
 856261 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THE object of the following Chapters is to present a 
 sketch in outline of the World's Life-System tracing 
 from the earliest organisms in the stratified crust to 
 the forms that now adorn and people its surface. The 
 aim has been to link the remote to the recent the 
 living to the extinct that the general reader may be 
 enabled to form some intelligible conception of the 
 whole as a great and continuously-evolving scheme of 
 vegetable and animal existences. There is no attempt 
 whatever to teach anatomical details or point out spe- 
 cific distinctions the volume being intended not as a 
 Handbook of Palaeontology, but simply as a readable 
 sketch for the information of those who have neither 
 the time nor the preliminary training to avail them- 
 selves of works of higher scientific pretensions. And 
 yet the reader will find in these pages a reliable resumtf 
 of the science, as founded 011 the most recent discov- 
 eries, and a treatment of its bearings from a higher 
 stand-point than can be conveniently taken by the 
 mere text-books and manuals of Geology. At a time 
 
O PREFACE. 
 
 when the question of Life is receiving a wider audience, 
 such a resumd may also be of utility in indicating the 
 line that separates the assumed and hypothetical from 
 the known and ascertainable ; and so prevent the un- 
 professional inquirer from ascribing to Geology what 
 it does not affirm, or from expecting from its teachings 
 what they cannot reveal. 
 
 Designed for the general reader, and delivered in 
 part to popular audiences, the style is, perhaps, some- 
 what more rhetorical than befits the exactitudes of 
 science ; but even on this point the Author could not 
 well have done otherwise. His object was to excite 
 rather than satisfy the curiosity of his hearers to 
 impress them with the universality and uniformity of 
 natural law believing there can be no true notion 
 of Nature or of Nature's requirements while her facts 
 are viewed through the medium of the miraculous. 
 Nor let it be thought that, by recognising in every 
 instance the fixity and unerring operation of Law, we 
 place a wider distance between the Creator and his 
 works, or that any knowledge of this kind has a tend- 
 ency to self-sufficiency or irreverence. On the con- 
 trary, he who knows most of creational law, and that 
 the most intimately, stands generally the least in need 
 of the injunction " Put off thy shoes from off thy 
 feet, for the place whereon thou treadest is holy/' 
 
 In treating such a theme as Life its apparent origin 
 and progress the writer has necessarily had occasion 
 
PEEFACE. 9 
 
 to allude to subjects on which there is much diversity 
 of opinion ; to some that are usually approached with 
 uneasy tenderness, as coming in conflict with prevalent 
 beliefs ; and to others on which the united labours of 
 Geologists, during the last fifty years, have thrown but 
 little reliable light or information. In either case he 
 has expressed his opinions freely, but without dogma- 
 tism ; firmly, but solely under the warrant of Geology ; 
 and always with a frank admission of the many defi- 
 ciencies and imperfections of that science. As there 
 is nothing to be gained by offending a prejudice where 
 we cannot establish a conviction, he has contented 
 himself by stating what Geology affirms, without allud- 
 ing to what it appears to contradict ; and as the estab- 
 lishment of truth does not always follow the overturn- 
 ing of error, the expounder of science may surely be 
 permitted to attempt the one without hazarding an 
 endeavour to accomplish the other. In approaching 
 our subject, therefore, a subject too often treated as 
 if it lay beyond the pale of natural law, let it be 
 clearly understood that we are dealing with Life solely 
 in its geological aspects. We appeal unto Caesar ; 
 let us be judged by Ctesar's laws. 
 
 GILMORE PLACE, EDINBURGH, 
 February 1861. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 PA OK 
 
 Interest attached to the study of the PAST in natural as in human 
 history. Fossils, or petrified remains of plants and animals, 
 the medals and records of Creation. The unerring certainty of 
 the record. Palaeontology, or the Science of Extinct Life. Its 
 scope and bearings, as founded on a knowledge of the present 
 life of the globe. Its importance, abstract and practical. 
 The task it has yet to accomplish, . . . .17 
 
 THE PRESENT. 
 
 Characteristics and classification of living plants and animals as 
 established by the Botanist and Zoologist : 1. Plant- Life. Its 
 governing conditions in space. Its typical forms and charac- 
 ters. Its primal plan and patterns. Systematic arrangement 
 of its forms. Their apparent functions. Persistency of plan 
 in time past. 2. Animal Life. Its distribution or governing 
 conditions in space. Its typical forms and their functions. 
 Its primal plan and patterns. Higher and lower. Systematic 
 arrangement of its forms. Identity of plan and design in 
 time past. 3. Co-adaptation of plants and animals in one great 
 Life-Scheme, 27 
 
 THE RECORD. 
 
 Chronology of geology, or the arrangement of the world's past into 
 Rock-formations and Life-periods. Principles and methods of 
 this arrangement. Continuity of natural law. Provisional 
 and negative state of geological knowledge as influencing our 
 comprehension of the successional order of organic being. 
 Palaeontology so based. The problems it has to solve. Its 
 progress and prospects, . . . . .69 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 THE FAR PAST. 
 
 PACK 
 
 Characteristics and gradations of the PALAEOZOIC or " Ancient Life" 
 period: 1. The Cambrian age so-called "Dawn of Life." 2. 
 The Silurian age. Erroneous notions respecting its physical 
 geography and life-relations.- Its vegetation, graptolites, corals, 
 star-fishes, shell-fish, and crustaceans. Their specialties and 
 place in the scale of being. 3. The Devonian or Old Red Sand- 
 stone age. Physical features of the epoch. Its plants, crus- 
 taceans, shell-fish, and fishes. 4. The Carboniferous age. The 
 physical geography and climatal conditions of the period. Its 
 forest - growths, coral-reefs, shell -beds, crustaceans, insects, 
 fishes, and reptiles. 5. The Permian or Lower New Red Sand- 
 stone age so-called "close" of the Paleozoic cycle. Imper- 
 fect interpretation and provisional nature of the Life-phases 
 and Life-periods of the geologist, . . . .79 
 
 THE MIDDLE PAST. 
 
 Characteristics and gradations of the MESOZOIC or "Middle Life" 
 period: 6. The Triassic or Upper New Red .Sandstone age.- 
 Its foot-tracks, birds, and reptiles. 7. The Oolitic age. Sea 
 and land of the epoch. Its vegetation, lower marine life, shell- 
 fish, Crustacea, insects, reptiles, and terrestrial mammals. 8. 
 The Cretaceous or Chalk age. Physical geography of its seas 
 and shores. Its lower marine life, foraminiferse, sponges, star- 
 fishes, sea-urchins, shell-fish, fishes, reptiles, birds, and mam- 
 mals. Generalisations resulting from a review of the Mesozoic 
 cycle, . . . . . . . 
 
 THE RECENT. 
 
 Characteristics and gradations of the CAINOZOIC or " Recent Life" 
 period: 9. The Tertiary age. Geography of the epoch. Its 
 huge terrestrial mammals and recent forms of life. Interme- 
 diate forms, and their relation to the fauna of existing areas.- 
 Extinctions during the so-called " Glacial" or " Drifts" period. 
 10. The Post-Tertiary or Current age. General existing ar- 
 rangements of sea and land. Existing forms and distribution 
 of life. General and local extinctions. Man, pre-historic and 
 historic. Mutations of the human race, . . . 151 
 
CONTENTS. 1 3 
 
 THE LAW. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 General deductions arising from the discoveries of Palaeontology. 
 Origin and advent of life unknown to science. Universality of 
 life in time and space. Uniformity of type and plan through 
 all the geological life-periods. Similarity of functions and life- 
 relations. Distribution in space. External conditions never 
 uniform. Representatives of the great life-types in every 
 epoch. Gradation and progress. The course and apparent 
 order of this progress. Introduction of new forms. Extinction 
 and creation of species. Theories of variation and development. 
 Geological epoch of man. Time and progress. Apparent 
 course of creation. Life-phases of the Current epoch. Causes 
 of local and general extinction. Man as a sub-creative centre 
 and modifying agent. Duration of species. Time and term of 
 the human race. Life aspects of the future. Progression or 
 succession? Onward and upward, .... 177 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 What has been aimed at. The known and the unknown. The field 
 in which we may all become fellow-workers. The spirit in which 
 we should inquire, ...... 241 
 
IXTEODUCTOKY 
 
 PALEONTOLOGY ITS SCOPE AND BEARINGS 
 
fPHESE fragments of rock on the table before us, chips 
 
 which the road-maker woiild consider sorry material for 
 
 his purpose, and the feet of the ignorant might spurn from 
 
 their path, are in the eye of Science invested with as high 
 
18 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 an interest as the obelisks of Egypt, or the sculptures of 
 Nineveh. The antiquarian pores with enthusiasm over the 
 lines and letters of the one, and endeavours to decipher the 
 unconnected history of a few thousand years ; the geolo- 
 gist bends with equal delight over the forms and impres- 
 sions on the other, and tries to gather therefrom some intel- 
 ligible glimpses of a PAST, compared with whose duration 
 the chronology of man is but as the moments of yesterday. 
 The one as connected with the Humanity to which we be- 
 long chequered and humiliating as it has been in many of 
 its phases must ever excite a lively and immediate inter- 
 est ; the other appertaining to the history of the globe we 
 inherit, and of whose plan our race forms so important a 
 feature, can never cease to attract the attention of enlight- 
 ened intelligence. In his inciting research the archaeolo- 
 gist exhumes buried cities and catacombs, collects the 
 mutilated fragments of human art, deciphers monumental 
 inscriptions, and notes every vestige of the various races 
 that may have peopled any given locality; so in geology 
 the earnest inquirer examines every accessible stratum, col- 
 lects the fossil fragments he exhumes, and, comparing them 
 with the plants and animals now peopling the earth, endea- 
 vours to arrive at a knowledge of the various races that 
 have Successively aorn;ed its surface. As a stone-hatchet, 
 a flint arrow-head, a if ee canoe, or fragment of pottery, will 
 often; riiitfW, a 3pod ci' ligl).t on the researches of the his- 
 torian ; so in geology, the impression of a leaf, a petrified 
 shell, a tooth, a fragment of bone, or a single fish-scale, 
 will often suffice to unriddle the most puzzling problem. 
 The one kind of evidence speaks of the hand that fabri- 
 cated, the degree of intelligence that directed the fabrica- 
 tion, and the purpose it was meant to subserve ; the other 
 tells of the nature of the plant or animal to which it be- 
 longed, the climate and conditions under which it grew 
 
PALAEONTOLOGY ITS OBJECTS. 19 
 
 and flourished, the place it held, and the function it per- 
 formed in the world's economy, and, higher than all, the 
 omniscience and skill that pre-ordained and directed with 
 unerring precision its numerous and complicated co-adapta- 
 tions. 
 
 Eough and mutilated as these fragments may appear 
 obscure as are the forms impressed on their surfaces, they 
 embody a tale of the world's PAST as legible to the eye of 
 Science and often far more connected than these sculp- 
 tures on this slab, or those hieroglyphics graven on that 
 sarcophagus. These forked lobes, little more than a mere 
 discoloration on the stone, once floated as sea- weed in the 
 waters ; that reed-like stem converted into stone, as it now 
 is, luxuriated in some primeval marsh ; that rock-impressed 
 fern-frond once waved its feathery leaflets in the sunshine of 
 a genial climate ; and that tiny spikelet, now the merest 
 film of carbonaceous matter, has sparkled with the night- 
 dews of heaven as certainly as the dews now cherish the 
 tender herb, or the sunlight gives colour to existing 
 verdure. Worthless as these chips may seem, the eye of 
 the zoologist detects in this the pore-work of a coral, in 
 that the valves of a shell-fish ; on this the scales of a fish, 
 on that the plates of a reptile ; in this the bone of a bird, 
 in that the bone of a mammal ; in this the grinder that 
 milled the leafy twigs of the forest, in that the trenchant 
 tooth that preyed on the flesh of other creatures. Every 
 trace becomes a letter, every fragment a word, and every 
 perfect fossil a chapter in the world's history, which tells of 
 waters that were thronged and of lands that were tenanted 
 by life of races that lived and multiplied and perished 
 of others that took their places and this (as we shall after- 
 wards see) so often repeated, over and over and over again, 
 that the mind, at first excited by the marvels it unfolds, 
 begins at last to grow weary of the review, and the finite 
 
 B 
 
20 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 creature loses itself in the contemplation of the works of 
 the Infinite Creator. 
 
 The objects through which we arrive at a knowledge of 
 this extinct life are what are familiarly termed "Fossils" 
 the remains of plants and animals that were entombed in 
 the silt and sediment of former lakes and estuaries and seas, 
 and became petrified, or converted into stone, as these sedi- 
 ments solidified into rocky strata. As the autumnal leaf 
 drops into the stream and becomes imbedded in its mud 
 as the trees of the forest are borne down by the flooded 
 river and are ultimately entangled in the silt of its estuary 
 as the coral-reef and shell-bed are gradually increasing and 
 growing, as it were, into limestone before our eyes as the 
 skeletons of animals are drifted by the tide and fall to the 
 sea-bottom, or sink into rivers and marshes, and are thus 
 preserved from further decay so in all time past have 
 similar agencies been at w r ork : here preserving the broken 
 twig and the fallen forest, there the coral-reef and the 
 littoral shell-bed, and anon the remains of animals that 
 were borne by rivers from the land, or drifted by the waves 
 on the muddy sea-shore. These organisms so preserved 
 and petrified constitute the "fossils" of the geologist, who, 
 treating them apart from the rocks in which they are im- 
 bedded, has erected their study into a new science, under 
 the title of PALAEONTOLOGY, or the Study of Ancient Life. 
 Originally differing in nature, being in various degrees of 
 completeness at the time they were imbedded, and, above 
 all, being preserved in different kinds of rock-matter, as 
 shale, and coal, and limestone, and flint, and sandstone, 
 they are now found in different degrees of perfection and 
 distinctness. In some we find the original form and all the 
 parts entire, of others we have a mere hollow cast or mould, 
 of some a simple impression of the external surface, of 
 others we have but scattered traces, and these so obscure 
 
PALEONTOLOGY ITS OBJECTS. 21 
 
 that they can be read only by the higher powers of the 
 microscope ; while of many we have no other relic save the 
 passing footprint or the slimy trail that was left on the 
 yielding sands of a former sea-shore. In whatever state 
 they may be found, they are taken up by the palaeontolo- 
 gist, compared with existing plants and animals, and ar- 
 ranged, as far as their nature will permit, according to the 
 classifications of the botanist and zoologist. To the palae- 
 ontologist, therefore, we commit these relics of primeval 
 life, and ask of him to tell Whether they are the same in 
 kind as those that now adorn our fields and people the 
 land and waters; whether they were of a simpler and 
 lowlier kind that gradually rose, as time rolled on, to their 
 present forms ; whether they were of tinier or of more 
 gigantic dimensions ; or whether they varied according 
 to external conditions here dwarfing and dying out, and 
 there some newer creations increasing and spreading under 
 conditions that were favourable to their existence ] In fine, 
 we ask of him the history of these extinct forms, as we 
 demand from the botanist and zoologist the history of the 
 plants and animals that now nourish around us ; and, com- 
 bining the living with the extinct, and the recent with the 
 remote, the highest aim of our science is to discover the 
 Creative Plan which binds the whole into one unbroken 
 and harmonious life-system. 
 
 It is true that many of these fossils are so fragmentary 
 and obscure that they cannot yet be deciphered, and others 
 are so different from anything now existing in the vegetable 
 or animal world that no definite place can be assigned them. 
 It is also true that the science of Palaeontology has little 
 more than passed its infancy, and that of the innumerable 
 relics entombed in the rocky strata of different regions only 
 a small proportion can have yet been discovered. Not- 
 withstanding all this, so enthusiastic has been the research, 
 
22 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 and so attractive the study, that much satisfactory work has 
 been done, and, by the aid of some of the highest minds in 
 Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and America, paleontology 
 has already taken a permanent place on the roll of human 
 knowledge. Under the hand of a Brongniart, a Goeppert, 
 or a Lindley, these stony stems have started anew into life 
 and verdure, and tangled the swampy jungle or waved in the 
 upland forest ; under the reconstructing skill of a Cuvier, 
 an Agassiz, or an Owen, these scattered bones have been 
 reunited in intelligible symmetry, and once more repeopled 
 the earth, the air, and the ocean; while under the magic 
 lenses of an Ehrenberg these muds, and marls, and chalks, 
 have become instinct with life, and ancient waters swarm 
 with innumerable forms. 
 
 " The dust we tread upon was once alive." 
 
 Much as these and many others have done, year after year 
 is still adding largely to our knowledge of the PAST LIFE 
 of the Globe ; and the time, it is hoped, is not far distant 
 when Geology shall be enabled to read, through these fossil 
 chips and fragments, the Life-History of the World, with 
 as much, if not with greater, certainty than we can now read 
 the phases of human history itself, as displayed in the suc- 
 cessive developments of Mnevites and Egyptians, of Greeks 
 and Eomans, of medieval Goths and modern Anglo-Saxons. 
 Exciting, however, as this history of the world's Past 
 must be, even to minds the most illiterate, it may be fairly 
 questioned at the outset To whom, and for what purpose, 
 is all this research and ingenuity expended? Is Palason- 
 tology a theme merely for the gratification of idle curiosity 
 and ignorant wonder; or has it, like every true science, 
 qualities of sterling value that appeal at once to the intel- 
 lectual and physical exigencies of Man ? Does it bear in 
 any way on the industrial purposes of life ; does it present 
 
PALAEONTOLOGY ITS USES. 23 
 
 itself in the light of an exalting intellectual exercise ; or, 
 combining both these qualities, does it lead to sounder and 
 more ennobling views of our relationship to God and Crea- 
 tion ? If it does neither, it is no true science, and stands 
 unworthy to be ranked with the legitimate subjects of 
 intellectual research. Luckily, however, it does all, and 
 recommends itself, as it were, instinctively to the inquiring 
 and reflective mind. Guided by its deductions, the identi- 
 fication of rock formations, which was formerly in a great 
 measure a matter of hap-hazard, is now a certainty. Fifty 
 years ago the miner and engineer had little to direct them 
 in their researches, save the very variable tints of colour, the 
 structure, or other external aspects of rock-masses. ISTow, 
 however, a fossil branch, a tooth, or a few scattered fish- 
 scales, will enable them to identify with certainty strata in 
 distant localities, and so save years of unnecessary toil and 
 thousands of useless expenditure. There is, for instance, 
 in Britain a red sandstone beneath, and a red sandstone 
 above, our most valuable coal-fields so like in many re- 
 spects, that which is which mere mineral characteristics 
 cannot always determine. Shall we ignorantly dig through 
 the one for that mineral fuel which never lies beneath it ; 
 or shall we, mistaking the other, maintain that it is folly to 
 pierce through its strata ? Where the mere mineralogist 
 stands perplexed, the palaeontologist proceeds in the con- 
 fidence of certainty, from the detection of a HoloptycMan 
 fish-scale which stamps the existence of the Old Red, or 
 the discovery of a tiny Palceonwcus which is equally decisive 
 of the New. Exalted as may be the task of solving the 
 physical and vital problems of the globe, the duty of turn- 
 ing to account its mineral and metallic treasures is not less 
 worthy or important. Science acquires fresh power and 
 position when combined with practice ; Philosophy new 
 dignity when ministering to Humanity. 
 
24 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 Again, a science that opens up so muc]i of the Past, that 
 reveals so many new forms of life and organisation, cannot 
 fail to have an exalting effect as a purely intellectual exer- 
 cise. The anatomical reasonings the skill required to re- 
 construct such scattered fragments the detection of means 
 to an end all this, and much more that must readily suggest 
 itself to the thinking mind, cannot fail to stamp Palaeon- 
 tology as one of the highest themes that can engage en- 
 lightened intelligence. Nor is the neAV light which its 
 deductions have thrown on other branches of natural science 
 among the least of its claims to general attention. The re- 
 vivifying, as it were, of so many extinct forms of existence 
 has given a new significance to the science of Life ; and 
 henceforth no view of the vegetable or animal kingdoms 
 can lay claim to a truly scientific character that does not 
 embody the discoveries of the palaeontologist. In fact, so 
 inseparably woven into ONE GREAT SYSTEM are all fossil 
 forms with those now existing, that we cannot treat of the 
 one without considering the other ; and can never hope to 
 arrive at a knowledge of Creative Law by any method 
 which, however accurate as regards the one, is not equally 
 careful and accurate as regards the other. Furthermore, 
 connected as the whole phases of external nature are into 
 one beautiful COSMOS, the mind that remains in ignorance 
 of their history can form but a very imperfect, if not an 
 altogether erroneous, notion of its own relationship and 
 connection therewith. For, while the scope of human 
 duty is circumscribed by our relations to external nature, 
 by our relations to our fellow-men, and by our relations to 
 God, a knowledge of these relations as manifested in the 
 great scheme of Creation is altogether indispensable. In 
 the eloquent language of our motto " So long as we are 
 ignorant of these things, the perfect development of the 
 human mind cannot be hoped for or even conceived. "With- 
 
PALEONTOLOGY ITS USES. 25 
 
 out this knowledge, the immortal spirit of man cannot 
 attain to a consciousness of its own dignity, or of the rank 
 which it occupies in Creation." Still more: if existing 
 nature furnishes the theologian with irrefragable proofs of 
 unity of plan and design throughout Creation if his con- 
 ceptions of Deity are enlarged and his reverence increased 
 by the study of these adaptations much more must they 
 be exalted when he finds the same harmonies of design and 
 the same unity of plan running through untold ages, and 
 spreading and ramifying through forms so numerous and 
 varied that, varied and rife as existing Life may be, it 
 constitutes but the merest fraction of the Life that has been, 
 and of the forms that have passed away. 
 
 Such is the nature and scope of Palaeontology a science 
 whose function is to extract from the sandstones, and lime- 
 stones, and clays of the stratified crust, the petrified remains 
 of plants and animals, and from these remains to recon- 
 struct the forms to which they belonged, so as to arrive 
 at some intelligible conception of the Life that formerly 
 tenanted the land and peopled the waters. These sand- 
 stones, and limestones, and clays, in all their various repe- 
 titions, are but the sediments of pre-existing lakes and 
 estuaries and seas ; and the fossils they imbed will be more 
 or less perfectly preserved, just as they were deposited in 
 the areas where they lived and grew, or were drifted from 
 a distance in detached and scattered fragments accord- 
 ing as they were rapidly enveloped from further decay, 
 or exposed to the wasting influences of the air and water 
 and, above all, according to the preservative character of 
 the stratum that contains them. Their imperfection, and 
 the difficulty of reading aright their characters, is greatly 
 increased by the fact that they are for the most part the 
 chance findings of the quarryman and miner, and extracted 
 
26 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 in chips and fragments even more fragmentary than when 
 originally imbedded. Notwithstanding these obstructions, 
 and the hopelessness of ever obtaining in a fossil state the 
 colours and softer parts that give beauty and outline to 
 animal forms in spite of the fact that the corresponding 
 portions of structures found to-day may not be turned up 
 even for years to come and in face of the toil and expense 
 which the study unavoidably entails substantial progress has 
 been made in Palaeontology, and these fragmentary remains 
 of Past Life been reconstructed so as to take intelligible 
 rank and position in the great categories of existing Vitality. 
 Founding on the uniformity of natural law and persistency 
 in the main structural characteristics of plants and animals 
 throughout all time, the Palaeontologist, strong in his faith 
 and hopeful of the result, proceeds to his arduous task, 
 and resuscitates as it were the Life of former epochs 
 clothing the land with verdure and beauty, and peopling 
 the waters with their varied and appropriate forms. Lifting 
 the veil from the Past, he displays the terraqueous aspects 
 of the globe at the successive stages of its history ; even as 
 now, through the combined labours of the geographer, the 
 botanist, and the zoologist, we are enabled to present a 
 panorama of existing lands and seas with all their exube- 
 rant and varied vitality. 
 
THE PKESENT. 
 
 ITS FLORA, FAUNA, AND THEIR CO-ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 BEFORE we can rightly compare the Past Life, of which 
 these relics give evidence, with that which now peoples the 
 globe, we must glance at the conditions under which plants 
 and animals at present exist, and know something of their 
 nature and the functions they have to perform. We can 
 only reason respecting the Past from our knowledge of the 
 the Present ; and the more intimate our acquaintance with 
 the various phases of existing nature, the sounder our 
 deductions relating to those that have long since passed 
 away. We say the various phases of existing nature, for 
 the plants and animals that people the surface of any given 
 latitude may differ altogether in character from those en- 
 tombed in the strata beneath, and the organisms in the 
 several formations below may now find their nearest ana- 
 logues in the flora and fauna of distant and diversified 
 regions. If we are familiar, however, with the general con- 
 ditions under which plants and animals now live and 
 flourish, and if we can establish a relationship between 
 those existing and those long since extinct, then we can 
 recall the conditions under which the latter grew and 
 flourished, and map out the geography and climate of the 
 primeval world, as the geographer now maps out the areas 
 of sea and land, and depicts the various races of life the 
 belts of sterility and exuberance and the creative centres 
 
28 THE PRESENT. 
 
 from which peculiar families have emanated to perform their 
 functions in the great economy of nature. 
 
 I. ITS FLORA OR PLANT-LIFE. 
 
 Glancing first at the VEGETABLE WORLD, we perceive that 
 the great regulators of plant-life are heat, light, and mois- 
 ture. Such is the order of nature now, and such, we are 
 bound to believe, have been the ordainings of creation from 
 the earliest moment that the vegetable cell was evoked into 
 existence. Under the tropics, both individual exuberance 
 and specific variety attain their maximum intensity ; in the 
 temperate zones this intensity gradually declines ; while in 
 the arctic regions vegetable life dwarfs and diminishes till 
 it ultimately disappears and gives place to utter sterility. 
 As we start from the equator, each great belt equatorial, 
 tropical, subtropical, warm-temperate, cold-temperate, sub- 
 arctic, arctic, and polar* presents its own distinctive fea- 
 tures ; and though the zones of the southern hemisphere 
 may differ in genera and species from those of the northern, 
 there is still in the respective stages a sufficient resemblance 
 of growth, colouring, and inflorescence, to prove that, lati- 
 tude for latitude, the prime governing influence is essenti- 
 ally solar. As with latitude, which is influenced in the 
 main by light and heat, so with height above the level of 
 the ocean an advance upwards into the rarer regions of 
 the atmosphere being equivalent, in some measure, to an 
 advance northwards or southwards into the colder latitudes 
 
 * The equatorial zone extends on both sides of the equator to about 
 15 of latitude ; the tropical from 15 to the tropics ; the subtropical 
 from the tropics to 34" ; the warmer temperate from 34 to 45 ; the 
 colder temperate from 45 to 58 ; the subarctic from 58 to the polar 
 circle ; the arctic from the polar circle to latitude 72 ; and the polar 
 zone from 72 to the poles. 
 
ITS FLORA. 29 
 
 of either pole.* The mountain that has its base waving 
 with the palms and tree-ferns of India, may have its sides 
 clothed with the oaks and pines of Europe, its higher cliffs 
 with the dwarf- willows and mosses of Nova Zembla, while 
 its snowy peaks are as void of life as the ice-bound shores 
 of the arctic circle. Besides these conditions, there are 
 others of site, or locality, or habitat conditions which re- 
 quire that the weeds of the ocean should differ from the 
 plants of the marsh, the plants of the marsh from the 
 herbage of the open plain, and the verdure. of the plain 
 distinct from that of the mountain forest. Nay more : 
 there are some tribes that will nourish only in rich organic 
 mould, others that prefer the shingly surface of the arid 
 desert ; some that exist only on calcareous soils, and others 
 unknown beyond the limits of the salt marsh. Wherever 
 the prime conditions of heat, light, and moisture are present, 
 there the vegetable germ manifests itself here incrusting 
 the naked rock, there mantling the surface of the stagnant 
 pool now rooting itself in the decay of its own kind, and 
 at times finding a habitat even in the tissues of the animal 
 structure. More than this : every climatic influence, how- 
 ever faint, leaves its impress on vegetable life. A thicker 
 layer is added to the concentric growth of the timber-tree 
 during a genial than during an ungenial summer ; the 
 southern slopes of a hill are more verdant and flowery than 
 those of its northern side ; some plants luxuriate in the 
 sea-breeze which would be death to others ; and the leafiest 
 side of a tree is ever that which is most accessible to the 
 open sunshine. Again : plants that grow in localities 
 marked by sudden extremes of heat and cold are always 
 more variable in stature, habit, and foliage, than those 
 which flourish under the steadier influences of a genial 
 
 * The capacity of the atmosphere for heat decreases with its density, 
 and this density decreases from the level of the ocean upwards. 
 
30 THE PRESENT. 
 
 climate ; and thus we can judge of the climate of a newly- 
 discovered country, as well as of the conditions that pre- 
 vailed and affected plant-life during the deposition of a 
 rock- formation, which took place thousands of ages ago. 
 Still further, and apparently altogether independent of 
 climate : certain families are restricted to certain regions, 
 beyond which, and under the present arrangements of sea 
 and land, they naturally never pass ; and thus it is that 
 the Cape of Good Hope rejoices in its pelargoniums and 
 geraniums ; China in its teas and camelias ; Australia in 
 its eucalypti and casuarina3 ; the Spanish peninsula in its 
 ever -green oaks; and the pampas of South America in 
 their gigantic thistles and clover, to the almost total exclu- 
 sion of other species. Descending from family regions to 
 the narrower provinces of genera and species, we find some 
 limited to a single valley, to a solitary island, or, it may be, 
 to some particular mountain-slope which, as far as science 
 can perceive, enjoys no external influence that is not equally 
 shared by the other slopes that surround it. 
 
 Beyond all these distinctions there is the difference of 
 KIND a difference for which science can assign no reason, 
 save that it has pleased the Creator so to create them. 
 Why, for instance, does the moss differ from the rush, the 
 rush from the reed, the reed from the willow, the willow 
 from the birch, the birch from the pine, or the pine from 
 the palm 1 The oak and the ash grow side by side in the 
 same forest, and yet they are, in the language of naturalists, 
 specifically and generically distinct ; the daisy and wild 
 clover spring from the same soil, and interweave their root- 
 lets to form the same turf, and yet they have no feature or 
 quality in common. That these are facts, the eye of the 
 passing observer may readily perceive ; the reason why, 
 man may never know. It is of little avail to talk of the 
 plasticity of the vegetable organism under the force of 
 
ITS FLORA. 31 
 
 external conditions, or to tell us that under these influences 
 the one form is but a modification and development of the 
 other. Even could we establish this fact, and determine 
 the order of its occurrence, it would be no solution of the 
 great primal question of diversity, seeing that plant-life is 
 altogether passive, and that external conditions are of them- 
 selves utterly impotent without a higher power to sustain, 
 and an intellect to direct and control, the course of their 
 operations. And, after all, it is less the mere matter of 
 diversity than the plan which connects this diversity into 
 one harmonious system ; less the apparent order which 
 may be learned than the reason thereof, to which human 
 knowledge may never attain. God has thought fit so to 
 evoke the vegetable kingdom to invest His works with 
 variety and complexity ; and to unravel this complexity, 
 to arrange these various plants according to their kind and 
 character, to classify them, in accordance with the divine 
 design, into species and genera and orders, and to learn 
 their functions and relations, is the task of the student of 
 Nature. Proceeding upon this plan, the botanist arranges 
 plants according to the complexity of their organs, attempt- 
 ing to separate the simpler from the more highly organised, 
 and these again one from another according to certain dis- 
 similarities and differences of form and function. His aim 
 is to discover the creative idea that pervades the vegetable 
 kingdom ; and the nearer he approaches that conception, 
 the more intelligible and permanent his so-called "systems" 
 of arrangement. 
 
 In attempting this arrangement numerous, varied, and 
 complex as vegetable life may at first sight appear the 
 botanist has happily a few great fixed principles in nature 
 to guide him. Type and Order run unswervingly through- 
 out the whole ; and though the Creator might easily have 
 constructed each species after its own type, and rendered 
 
32 THE PRESENT. 
 
 plants as varied in their individual forms as they are nume- 
 rically abundant, yet He has thought fit to restrict Himself, 
 as it were, to a few types and models, and, humanly speak- 
 ing, like a skilful inventor, to produce an almost endless 
 variety from the co-adaptation of a few simple elements, 
 and complexity of design by the elimination of a few primal 
 patterns. As innumerable hues can be produced from a 
 few primitive colours, as endless strains of music flow from 
 the touches of a few simple chords, or as the ideas of all 
 times and nations can be expressed by the combinations of 
 some twenty or thirty letter-sounds ; so in the structure 
 of plants and animals every variety of form, every conceiv- 
 able adaptation of structure, proceeds from the modification 
 of a few elementary forms and types in nature. Without 
 this uniformity of plan and design, the study of nature by 
 man's limited faculties would have been impossible. Be- 
 wildered with variety without design, and lost in complex- 
 ity without order, the human intellect could never have 
 arrived at any true conception of Nature or of Nature's 
 laws ; could never have woven those chains of reason 
 wherewith it may be said to have linked earth to heaven, 
 and affiliated the created to the uncreated Creator. But 
 inasmuch as God is a God of law and of order, and clearly 
 me'ant those laws and orders to be intelligible to our limited 
 comprehensions, so He has considerately narrowed the bounds 
 of creative design, and made creation a theme at once fitted 
 to exercise our reason, and to draw forth our reverence 
 and love. In studying the vegetable world, therefore, the 
 botanist finds that every diversity of form and structure 
 proceeds from the elimination of a simple CELL, and that 
 this cell-growth lies at the basis of all vegetable develop- 
 ment. He also finds that the primary structural form into 
 which it is developed is a LEAF or leaf-like organ ; and that 
 this leaf -like organ manifests itself variously rising from a 
 
ITS FLORA. 33 
 
 simple aggregation of cells, as in the sea-weeds and lichens, to 
 the more complex fronds of the ferns and clu~b-mosses ; from 
 these to the parallel-nerved leaves of the grasses and palms ; 
 and from these again to the reticulated and more highly 
 organised venation of the leaves of the flowering shrubs 
 and true timber-trees. He further finds that, while the 
 leaf is produced by the development of the cell, all the 
 other organs of the plant are but modifications of the leaf 
 that the stem and branches are elaborated from the suc- 
 cessive growths of leaves, that the petals of the flower are 
 but modifications of the same organ for a special purpose, 
 that the fruit is but a specialised combination of leaves, and 
 that the seed itself consists of a leaf or leaves folded up 
 and protected for the return of those conditions of heat and 
 moisture necessary to its starting again into life and verdure, 
 to perform the same round of development and reproduc- 
 tion. How this cell, or globule of matter, should become 
 vivified how it should be capable, under certain conditions 
 of heat, light, and moisture, of being reproduced indefin- 
 itely into some determinate form as a leaf, and how these 
 leaves or leaf-like organs should be persistently maintained, 
 each in its own distinctive type throughout the great 
 categories of the vegetable kingdom are problems which 
 science cannot solve. We know, however, the facts and 
 the order of their occurrence. We perceive the expres- 
 sion of a prescient plan ; that plan we endeavour to inter- 
 pret. Everywhere purpose and design are manifest ; into 
 the motives of the Designer we may not inquire. The 
 secondary we may discover : to the primary we can only 
 appeal. 
 
 Founding on this great principle of cell and leaf develop- 
 ment, the botanist traces its elaboration in the different 
 races of plants, and regards those which manifest little more 
 than a repetition of the same parts as of lower organisation 
 
34 THE PRESENT. 
 
 than those in which the leaf is metamorphosed into various 
 organs, each organ having a special function to perform in 
 the plant's growth and perfection. The higher, therefore, 
 that a plant is in the scale of being, the more specialised its 
 organisation ; that is, instead of all the functions or several 
 of its functions being performed by the same organ, each 
 function is performed by an organ specially devoted to it. 
 It is thus that the fern is regarded higher than the sea- 
 weed ; the palm higher than the fern ; and the oak than 
 the palm. In ranking plants as " higher" and "lower," 
 the botanist by no means asserts that the one is less fitted 
 than the other for its purpose in creation. All that he 
 affirms and common-sense homologates the affirmation 
 is, that the lichen, composed of a mere congeries of cells, 
 and increasing by a mere homogeneous development of 
 these cells, is a less highly organised structure than the 
 timber- tree, in which is elaborated a variety of tissues, which 
 is increased by leaf-growth, and whose reproduction is pro- 
 vided for by a complicated process of flowering and fructifi- 
 cation. Aware of these distinctions, and knowing the per- 
 sistency of nature in her modes of operation, we can 
 determine the relative positions not merely of the plants 
 that now adorn the various regions of the earth, but of 
 those that existed during the successive epochs of her by- 
 gone history. As a region of shrubs and timber-trees is 
 said to enjoy a higher flora than a region of ferns and club- 
 mosses, so do the reticulated leaves and concentric woody 
 layers, found fossil in a recent rock- system, give indication 
 of a higher physiological value than the parallel-veined 
 leaves and vascular-bundled steins of some earlier forma- 
 tion. It is thus that we arrive, in general terms, at the 
 great truths of vital progress a leaf, a stem, the disposi- 
 tion of a branch, or the structure of a fruit, affording such 
 evidence to the palaeontologist as the flint arrow-head, the 
 
ITS FLORA. 35 
 
 "bronze spear, and the primitive matchlock, afford to the 
 archaeologist and historian. 
 
 Proceeding upon such principles as those indicated in the 
 preceding paragraphs, the botanist arranges all vegetables 
 into two grand divisions the CELLULA-R and the VASCU- 
 LAR : the former embracing those which, like the mush- 
 rooms and lichens and sea-weeds, possess no regular vessels, 
 but are composed of a mere congeries of cells or cellular 
 tissue ; the latter comprising those that are composed of 
 various tissues and furnished with various organs of nutri- 
 tion and reproduction. Again, he subdivides the vascular 
 into the FLOWERLESS, as the mosses, equisetunis, and ferns ; 
 and the FLOWERING, which embraces the palms, and lilies, 
 and grasses, the pines and cycads, and all herbs and shrubs, 
 and true timber-trees. In the Flowerless division (Crypto- 
 gams or Sporocarps, as they are sometimes termed) the 
 organs of reproduction are not essentially different from the 
 other parts ; that is, they are not apparent similar cells 
 forming alike the organs of growth and the organs of re- 
 production. On the other hand, in the Flowering (Phane- 
 rogams or Spermocarps) the organs' of reproduction are 
 apparent the seed being enclosed in an embryo in which 
 the rudiments of the future plant are distinguishable. Still 
 subdividing and arranging, he speaks of Dicotyledons, or 
 those whose seeds, like the bean and acorn, are furnished 
 with two lobes ; of Monocotyledons, or those like the palms 
 and grasses, which have only one seed-lobe ; of Acoty- 
 ledons, or those like the ferns and fungi, which have no lobes, 
 but are propagated by spores, and so termed Sporocarps in 
 contradistinction to the Spermocarps, or those bearing true 
 seed-fruits. Again, looking at their modes of development, 
 the botanist speaks of Exogens, or plants whose stems in- 
 crease by external layers of annual growth around a central 
 pith hence the concentric rings of the ash and beech ; 
 
36 THE PRESENT. 
 
 of Endogens, whose increase takes place from within by a 
 coalescence of the footstalks of the old leaves, as in the 
 palm ; of Acrogens, or those that increase by shooting from 
 the top, as the ferns and horsetails, and whose stems are 
 thus generally thicker above than below ; and of Amphigens, 
 or those which grow by additions to the external margin, 
 and spread, as it were, on every side, as in the sea-weeds 
 and lichens. Founding in this way first, on the different 
 modes of reproduction ; second, on the aspect of the repro- 
 ducing organs; thirdly, on the primary development; and 
 fourthly, on the ultimate development of the plant the 
 botanist arrives at a scheme of classification which may be 
 briefly expressed as in the annexed tabulation. 
 
 It is true, the palaeontologist cannot always avail himself 
 of the terms and classification of the botanist, as there occur 
 in the geological formations a number of forms that stand 
 intermediate between existing orders and families, and of 
 which we have now no living representatives. Still, these 
 forms never diverge so widely from any of the existing 
 families but that their affinities can be determined with 
 some degree of certainty ; and at all events, even where 
 family alliance fails, they can be readily ranked under the 
 wider categories of orders and sections. It is thus that the 
 subjoined scheme embraces alike the extant and extinct 
 the latter supplying the links that unite the whole into a 
 still more homogeneous and consistent system : 
 
ITS FLORA. 
 
 VASCULAR. 
 
 CELLULAR. 
 
 T3 J f-> 
 2 ^ 
 
 & 5 
 o o o 
 
 sag 
 
 5 fci 
 
 H 
 
 s s 
 
 ^ o 
 
 a PS 
 
 Pi Et] 
 
 O H 
 
 8 S 
 
 r- 
 
38 THE PRESENT. 
 
 Or, adopting a simpler and more explanatory arrangement, 
 the several grand divisions of the vegetable kingdom may 
 be exhibited as under : 
 
 I. CELLULAR Without regular vessels, but composed of fibres which 
 sometimes cross and interlace each other. The Confervce (green 
 scum-like aquatic growths), the Lichens (which incrust stones and 
 decaying trees), the Fungi (or mushroom tribe), and the A lyce (or 
 sea-weeds), belong to this division. In some of these families there 
 are no apparent seed-organs. From their mode of growth viz., 
 sprout-like increase of the same organ they are known as THALLO- 
 GENS or AMPHIGENS. 
 
 II. VASCULAR With vessels which form organs of nutrition and re- 
 production. According to the arrangement of these organs, vascular 
 plants have heen grouped into two great divisions CRYPTOGAMIC 
 (no visible seed-organs), and PHANEROGAMIC (apparent flowers or 
 seed-organs). These have been further subdivided into the follow- 
 
 1. CRYPTOGAMS Without perfect flowers, and with no visible 
 
 seed-organs. To this class belong the mosses, eqidsetums, 
 ferns, and lycopodiums. It embraces many fossil forms 
 allied to these families. From their mode of growth viz., 
 increase at the top or growing point only they are known as 
 
 ACROGENS. 
 
 2. PHANEROGAMIC MONOCOTYLEDONS Flowering plants with one 
 
 cotyledon or seed-lobe. This class comprises the water-lilies, 
 lilies, aloes, rushes, grasses, canes, and palms. In allusion to 
 their growth, by increase within, they are termed ENDOGENS. 
 
 3. PHANEROGAMIC GYMNOSPERMS This class, as the name in- 
 
 dicates, is furnished with flowers, but has naked seeds. It 
 embraces the cycadece or pine-apple tribe, and the coniferce or 
 firs. In allusion to their naked seeds, these plants are also 
 known as GYMNOGENS. 
 
 4. PHANEROGAMIC DICOTYLEDONS Flowering plants with two 
 
 cotyledons or seed-lobes. This class embraces all forest trees 
 and shrubs the composites, leguminosce, iwnhelliferce, cruciferce, 
 and other similar orders. None of the other families of plants 
 have the true woody structure, except the coniferce or firs, 
 which seem to hold an intermediate place between monocoty- 
 ledons and dicotyledons ; but the wood of these is readily 
 distinguished from true dicotyledonous wood. From their 
 mode of growth increase by external rings or layers the 
 dicotyledons are termed EXOGEN.S. 
 
ITS FLORA. 39 
 
 NOTE EXPLANATORY. 
 
 SPERMOCARPS (Gr. spernia, seed, and karpos, fruit). Literally, "fruit- 
 seeded ; " plants whose seeds contain an embryo, in which the rudiments 
 of the future plant are distinguishable. 
 
 SPOROCARPS (Gr. spora, a germ, and karpos). Literally, "produced 
 by germs ; " plants which have no seed-fruits, but which are reproduced 
 by a development of certain germs or parts of their cellular tissues, 
 called spores. 
 
 PHANEROGAMS (Gr. phaneros, apparent, audgamia, marriage). Plants 
 having apparent flowers or seed-organs. 
 
 CRYPTOGAMS (Gr. kryptos, concealed, and gainia). Plants having no 
 apparent seed-organs, or whose organs of reproduction are not essentially 
 different from the other parts. 
 
 ANGIOSPERMS (Gr. angeion, a vessel, and sperma, seed). Plants having 
 their ovules contained in ovaries. 
 
 GYMNOSPERMS (Gr. gynmos, naked, and sperma). Plants having their 
 ovules in open carpels ; literally, "naked or unenclosed seeds." 
 
 ANGIOSPORES (Gr. a-ngeion and spora). Plants having spores formed 
 in cases which are not open till ripe. 
 
 GYMNOSPORES (Gr. gymnos and spora). Plants having their spores 
 superficial, and not enclosed in cases. 
 
 EXOGENS (Gr. ex, out, and getinao, I produce). Plants whose stems 
 increase by external layers of annual growth, as the beech and oak. 
 
 ENDOGEN (Gr. endon, within, and gennao). Plants whose stems in- 
 crease from within, by a coalescence of the footstalks of the leaves, which 
 always encircle the growing point, as the palms and canes. 
 
 ACROGEN (Gr. akros, the summit). Plants which increase by growth 
 of the top or growing point, as the ferns, &c. 
 
 AMPHIGENS (Gr. amphi, around). Plants which increase by the growth 
 or development of their cellular tissue on all sides, as the lichens. 
 
 DICOTYLEDONS (Gr. dis, two, cotyledon, seed-lobe). Plants whose seeds 
 have two lobes, as the bean. 
 
 MONOCOTYLEDON (Gr. monos, one, and cotyledon). Plants whose seeds 
 have only one lobe, as the grasses. 
 
 THALLOGENS (Gr. thallos, a sprout). Plants whose spores are attached 
 to the frond or leaf, as the ferns. 
 
 AXOGAMS (Gr.) Plants having their spores on a stem or axis, as the 
 mosses and liverworts. 
 
 HYDROPHYTES (Gr. hydor, water, phyton, a shoot). Water-plants, 
 like the sea-weeds and confervas. 
 
 AEROPHYTES (Gr. aer, the air). Growing in the air, as the lichens, 
 in contradistinction to the hydrophytes. 
 
 HYSTEROPHYTES (Gr. hysteros, the last). The lowest or last of the 
 plant-race, as the fungi or mushrooms. 
 
40 
 
 THE PRESENT. 
 
 Throwing these various groups into diagrammatic form, 
 we have first the Amphigens the fungi, lichens, and sea- 
 weeds whose homogeneous structure and simple modes of 
 
 Amphigenous Aspect of Vegetation. 
 
 growth are readily recognisable, even by the unscientific 
 observer. Lowly alike in their aspect and functions, they 
 cluster, as fungus-growths, over the decomposition and 
 decay of organised tissues ; mantle, as lichens, the surface 1 
 of the weathering rock and the mouldering trunk ; clothe, 
 as sea- weeds, the shelves and ledges of the shallower ocean, 
 or spread scum-like over the surface of the stagnant pool. 
 Decay and putrescence seem to be their appointed elements; 
 arid wherever the organic cell is on the verge of dissolution 
 into inorganic matter, there they are ready to appropriate 
 and reconvert it once more into the circle of vitality. The 
 pioneers of the higher orders, they elaborate a soil for their 
 growth ; cosmopolitan in habit, they are found where other 
 plants are unknown. Such are the Amphigens IIOAV ; does 
 
ITS FLORA. 
 
 41 
 
 the palaeontologist exceed his warrant when he presumes 
 that such they ever have been from the moment they first 
 
 Arro^euous Aspect of Vegetation. 
 
 clustered over the rocks or spread their leathery lohes in 
 
4'2 THE PRESENT. 
 
 the waters? Next in order come the Acrogens the mosses, 
 equisetums, and ferns -the lovers of the swamp and shade, 
 and the colonists of emerging and new-formed lands. Of 
 rapid and widespread growth, they have ever contributed 
 to the consolidation of alluvial soils, and their remains 
 mingle largely with the coals and shales of the past, as they 
 
 Gymnoftenous Aspect of Vegetation 
 
 do now with the peat-bogs and mud-silts of the present 
 day. Less cosmopolitan than the amphigens, they still have 
 
ITS FLORA. 43 
 
 an extensive range ; but, like them, their function is largely 
 physical, and comparatively few of the animal races find 
 subsistence on their stems or foliage. As the peaty marsh, 
 the silty lake, and the shady river-swamp are now their 
 established headquarters, so the increment and consolida- 
 tion of these by their annual growth and decay has ever 
 been their geological function. Higher than these, and of 
 more varied aspect, come the Gymnogens the cycads, and 
 yews, and pines the gregarious forest growths of the pre- 
 sent, as of former ages. Lovers of the temperate and coldly 
 temperate zones inhabitants alike of the swamp, the arid 
 plain, and the mountain they exhibit an enlarged diversity 
 of habit, and form, and function. Like the acrogens, many 
 of them are swamp and coal formers ; and, as will be after- 
 wards seen, it is to the acrogens and gymnogens, and espe- 
 cially to extinct intermediate forms, that we are chiefly in - 
 debted for the coal-beds of the earlier formations. As food- 
 suppliers, their function is comparatively limited their dry 
 rigid foliage, their scaly seeds and fleshless berries, being 
 little fitted for the miscellaneous requirements of the higher 
 animals. And it is a curious coincidence that so few of 
 the higher animals appear in the geological periods where 
 these acrogenous and gyninogenous groups so universally 
 prevail. The Endogens the grasses, lilies, and palms 
 follow next in order, and present a still increasing variety, 
 both in form, habitat, and function. Tropical and tempe- 
 rate, but unfitted for the extremes of climate, they assume 
 more diversified areas of localisation, and become more and 
 more fitted for the sustenance of a varied terrestrial fauna. 
 While radiates, molluscs, and Crustacea may feed on the 
 thallogens, and insects, and it may be a few birds and rep- 
 tiles, find their food and shelter among the acrogens and 
 gymnogens, it is certainly to the endogens and exogens that 
 the higher terrestrial animals turn for their main depend- 
 
44 
 
 THE PRESENT. 
 
 ence. The formative or geological function so prominent 
 in the lower groups, now gives place to the alimentative ; 
 
 Aspect of Vegetation. 
 
 and though the grassy carpet may conserve the soil from 
 waste, and the palm-grove may induce the accumulation of 
 vegetable matter, still the relations of the endogens are 
 mainly and obviously zoological. Highest and last come 
 
ITS FLORA. 
 
 45 
 
 the Exogens the herbs, and shrubs, and timber-trees 
 which, in their beauty and variety and dignity of aspect, 
 
 Exogenous Aspect of Vegetation. 
 
 crown the long line of vegetable existences. Slower of 
 growth, but of greater longevity, the beauty of their flowers, 
 the utility of their seeds and fruits, the durability of their 
 structure, and the diversity of their habits and forms, all 
 point to them as the culminating orders of the vegetable 
 
40) THE PRESENT. 
 
 kingdom. And it is curious to learn that, unknown in the 
 earlier eras, and just beginning to make their appearance 
 in the secondary epochs, they come into full force and 
 vigour in the tertiary and post-tertiary the periods at 
 which the higher animals and man are present to reap the 
 advantages of their more varied utilities. 
 
 Such are the leading features of the great groups of the 
 vegetable kingdom groups to which we shall have frequent 
 occasion to allude when we come to treat the successive 
 stages of the fossil flora, and which are here displayed in 
 pictorial outline with a view to facilitate the comprehension 
 of these allusions. Though thus arranged in physiological 
 groups, the whole, from the simple cell that floats on the 
 putrid pool to the noblest tree of the forest, forms but one 
 orderly and co-adjusted system ; and could we combine 
 the extinct with the living, the same order and co-adjust- 
 ments would be found to run as unswervingly through the 
 wider combination. The conception is one, though its 
 expression through time and space must necessarily assume 
 the character of infinite diversity. 
 
 Subdividing still further, according to their most marked 
 characteristics, whether external or internal, the botanist 
 arranges all the forms of vegetable life into some 60 or 
 70 orders, about 300 genera, and upwards of 100,000 
 . species. As most of these distinctions, however, are founded 
 on the form and connection of the flower, fruit, and leaf 
 organs which rarely or never occur in intelligible union and 
 preservation in a fossil state the palaeontologist is guided 
 in the main by the great structural distinctions already 
 adverted to, and not unfrequently by the simple but un- 
 satisfactory test of "general resemblance." On the whole, 
 Fossil Botany, or Palseophytology, as it is sometimes termed, 
 is by no means in a satisfactory state, and the science 
 languishes for the advent of some master minds to do for 
 
ITS FAUNA. 47 
 
 it what Cuvier and Agassiz and Owen have done for the 
 sister science of Fossil Zoology. 
 
 Notwithstanding the fragmentary state of the plants that 
 turn up to the geologist, the greatly altered conditions of 
 the parts that are found, and the hopelessness of ever dis- 
 covering the legible dispositions of such evanescent portions 
 as the floral organs, on which so much of existing botany is 
 founded: notwithstanding all these obstructions, there is 
 still so much remaining the structure of the roots, stems, 
 barks, leaves, fronds, and fruits the characteristic markings 
 of their different surfaces and the scars which their parts 
 leave on separation that the competent botanist, armed with 
 his microscope and ample means of comparison, should have 
 little difficulty in arriving at many definite and important 
 conclusions. The anastomosing disposition of a sea- weed 
 is surely sufficiently distinct from the branching aspect of a 
 terrestrial plant the reticulate venation of a dicotyledon- 
 ous leaf from the parallel arrangement of a monocotyledon 
 the scalariforni tissue of a fern from the punctated tissue 
 of a conifer and the bundled mass of an endogenous stem 
 from the concentric layers of an exogen. These and many 
 other characteristics are sufficiently preserved in the strata 
 of every formation ; and though we may not be enabled to 
 say, on the principles of existing botany, that this fragment 
 is that of a cruciferous plant, and that of a leguminous one, 
 we have, at all events, enough to fix in the mean time the 
 great progressional order of plant-life from the predominance 
 of Acrogenous orders in primary formations to the higher 
 Gymnosperms of the secondary, and from these again to 
 the still higher Anglos-perms of the tertiary and current 
 epochs. And Geology, strong in the faith of Nature's unity 
 and persistency of plan, rests assured, that under right 
 methods of research the key to that Plan will yet be dis- 
 
48 THE PRESENT. 
 
 covered, enabling the palaeontologist to unfold the relations 
 of fossil plant-life, its distribution in space, and its progress 
 in time, even as the botanist now determines its existing 
 relationships, and maps out its centres and areas of geo- 
 graphical arrangement. 
 
 2. ITS FAUNA OR ANIMAL LIFE. 
 
 As with plants, so with animals. While Ave find them 
 everywhere on the earth, in the air, and in the waters 
 on the substances of plants, and even in the living tissues 
 of other animals they are as imperatively governed by the 
 influences of climate, food, and other external conditions as 
 the Vegetable world, though possessed for the most part of 
 a locomotion which at first sight might seem to confer on 
 them an ubiquity of habitat. Thus, the FAUNA of the 
 tropics is essentially different from that of the temperate 
 zone, and the animals which people the temperate zone 
 have but little in common with those of the arctic regions. 
 It is true that some, like Man and his companions, the 
 dog, horse, and other domesticated animals, have a range all 
 but universal ; but generally speaking, the zones of Animal 
 Life horizontally and vertically are about as sharply 
 defined as those of vegetation. The elephant and rhinoceros 
 that luxuriate in the low tropical jungle would fare but in- 
 differently on the lofty slopes of the Himalayas ; while the 
 buffalo and bison which herd at these heights would cease 
 to exist were they raised but a few thousand feet higher. 
 As with altitude on land, so with depth in the ocean ; and 
 thus the sea- weeds and shells that grow and live within the 
 influence of the tides constitute a Littoral zone very different 
 from the Laminarian or broad sea-tangle zone which extends, 
 in British seas, from 40 to 90 feet in depth ; this again is 
 
ITS FAUNA. 49 
 
 essentially distinct from the Coralline zone, which ranges 
 from 90 to 300 feet, and is the great theatre of marine life; 
 while beyond this lies the Coral zone, the region of the 
 strong calcareous corals extending from 300 to 600 feet in 
 depth from the shore line. But it is not alone to climate 
 and external conditions that we must look for the variety 
 and distribution of animal life. There is an aboriginal 
 diffusion of different tribes and families from certain centres 
 and over certain areas, for which science can as yet offer no 
 satisfactory reason. Thus, why should the giraffe, or ostrich, 
 or hippopotamus, be restricted to the continent of Africa, 
 while the forests, and plains, and river-swamps of South 
 America enjoy the same tropical sun, and seem every way 
 equally adapted to identity of vitality ? The pampas of 
 America, as has been proved by experience, are as well 
 fitted for the increase of the horse as the plains of Europe 
 or the steppes of Tartary; and yet, till man carried him 
 thither a few hundred years ago, no horse of the current 
 epoch existed there. The ornithorliynchus burrows only 
 in the river banks of Australia ; the apteryx is unknown 
 beyond the limits of New Zealand ; the sloth is confined 
 to the tropical forests of America the armadillo to the 
 same region ; and not one of the Old World monkeys is 
 identical with any of those of the New. Nor is it alone 
 the terrestrial tribes that are thus limited and restricted ; 
 the aerial and aquatic, though possessing superior facilities 
 for dispersion, are equally circumscribed, each within its 
 own geographical habitat. The humming-birds nutter only 
 over the flowers of the New World ; the pheasants are 
 unknown beyond the coverts of the Old ; the shark-like 
 cestraciont frequents alone the waters of the Southern 
 Pacific ; and the trigonia never carries its shell beyond the 
 shores of Australasia. Such restrictions w 7 e cannot explain 
 unless by ascribing them to independent centres of creation, 
 
50 THE PRESENT. 
 
 or to means of distribution that prevailed during former 
 geological epochs, but which ceased to exist when sea and 
 land received their present relations. And this brings us 
 to remark 011 what are termed by zoologists the law of 
 identity and the law of representation ; that is, that different 
 regions, though not peopled by identical species, may be 
 peopled by animals which perform analogous functions, and 
 represent them, as it were, in the great plan of vital eco- 
 nomy. Thus, the ostrich of Africa is represented in South 
 America by its congener the rhea ; the jaguar and puma of 
 the New World represent the tiger and lion of the Old; 
 the camel of Arabia finds its analogue in the llama of Peru ; 
 and similar functions are at once discharged by the gavial 
 of the Ganges, the crocodile of the Nile, and the alligator of 
 the Amazon. Over and above these physical relationships 
 there is also that which has reference to the size of the 
 animal, and the element in which it is destined to live. 
 As a general rule, and each within its own order or family, 
 the aquatic members are larger than the terrestrial; the 
 amphibious bulkier than those that are strictly terrestrial; 
 the marine superior in size to those of fresh- water habitat ; 
 and the terrestrial more massive than the arboreal. Ad- 
 mitting these relations, and reasoning from the present to 
 the past, the comparative bulk of organic remains may often 
 become an index to external conditions of life, and throw 
 light over the investigations of the palaeontologist, when 
 other indications are uncertain and obscure. 
 
 Besides these distinctions and restrictions imposed on 
 vitality by external conditions, there are those connected 
 with the functions they have to perform in the economy of 
 nature. Some, for instance, are fitted to live on a purely 
 vegetable diet, others to prey on the flesh of other creatures ; 
 gome are constructed so as to feed only on seeds and grains, 
 others to prey solely on insects ; many earn their subsist- 
 
ITS FAUNA. 51 
 
 ence by a life of ceaseless activity and toil, others are formed 
 for parasitic attachment to the living tissues of larger 
 animals, and there find life and enjoyment without a single 
 effort or care of their own. And as these varied functions 
 necessarily require for their performance a special adapta- 
 tion of organs a tooth to cut or a tooth to grind, a foot to 
 seize or a foot to dig, a limb to run or a limb to fly so 
 will similar modifications afford to the palaeontologist an 
 evidence of functions performed in bygone ages, and enable 
 him, not only to reconstruct forms of harmonious organs, 
 but to assign to these organs the part they had to play in 
 the great drama of vitality. In the performance of these 
 varied functions many animals have to make long periodic 
 migrations, either for the immediate purpose of procuring 
 food and shelter for themselves, or prospectively for their 
 future young. From colder to warmer regions, and from 
 warmer to colder from land to water, and from water to 
 land from sea to river, and from river to sea there is 
 ever, among certain animals, an incessant interchange; and 
 though palaeontology has yet been unable to detect such 
 migrations in the past, we may rely on their occurrence, 
 and be prepared to admit the fact into our inferences and 
 reasonings. 
 
 Coexistent with and beyond all this, there are those in- 
 numerable differences of species and kind and family and 
 class, which we can only resolve into the eternal will of the 
 Creator. Why, for instance, should the polype differ from 
 the star-fish, the star-fish from the crab, the crab from the 
 turtle, the turtle from the fish, the fish from the bird, or 
 the bird from the quadruped 1 It is in vain to tell us that 
 the one is but a progressive or developmental form of the 
 other that the reptile is but a transmutation, in time and 
 under new external conditions, from the fish, and that the 
 fish is but the lineal descendant o the shell-fish. Adniit- 
 
 D 
 
52 THE PRESENT. 
 
 ting that such was the true genetic origin of the various 
 grades of vitality, there still lies "behind and unaccounted 
 for the orderly plan in which such development shall occur, 
 and the reason for the definite specific forms which the 
 descendants invariably assume. Grant, we again repeat, 
 that all vitality were indissolubly interwoven into one great 
 genetic mesh, still that mesh presents, at determinate 
 times and over determinate areas, definite variety and spe- 
 ciality of pattern. "Whence this orderly variety 1 Where- 
 fore these special and distinctive patterns 1 At the most, 
 Science can only note the distinctions, it can never hope to 
 assign the reason. To do so would be to place the intelli- 
 gence of the finite creature on the same level with the 
 prescience of the infinite Creator. It is our high privilege, 
 however, to observe and reason ; and, reasoning, to arrange 
 and classify the animal kingdom according to their different 
 grades and affinities, and so arrive at some intelligible com- 
 prehension of the great scheme of vitality. 
 
 As in Botany, so in Zoology this arrangement is greatly 
 facilitated by the fact that, numerous as animal forms are, 
 they are all constructed after a few primal types and pat- 
 terns. Some are furnished with a bony skeleton, the lead- 
 ing feature of which is the vertebral coluinn or backbone 
 these are the VERTEBRATES; others have no such osseous 
 framework these constitute the INVERTEBRATES. As the 
 Zea/was the primary organ in the plant's development, so 
 the vertebra seems to be the primal organ in the vertebrate 
 skeleton ; and by its modifications and adaptations for spe- 
 cial ends, the Creator has produced every form of terrestrial, 
 aerial, and aquatic existence. According to the modern 
 doctrines of anatomy, the skull, or brain-case, is composed 
 of vertebral bones, modified and adapted for a special pur- 
 pose : so are the liinbs, whether for running, flying, or 
 swimming ; so also the ribs, whatever their form or mini- 
 
ITS FAUNA. 53 
 
 her and in like manner all the other appurtenances of the 
 vertebrate skeleton. This is the great doctrine of HOM- 
 OLOGY, or science of similar parts, as it is termed, through 
 which we arrive at the conclusion that the arm and hand of 
 man, the fore-limb and foot of the quadruped, the wing of 
 the bird, and the fore-fin of the fish, are one and the same 
 primal organ, composed of the same or homologous parts, 
 and merely modified or altered for the performance of cer- 
 tain special functions. As the stationary engine that turns 
 the spindles of the factory, the locomotive that drags the 
 railway cars, and the marine engine that propels the steam- 
 ship, are but modifications of the same primal machine ; so 
 the mammal that runs, the mammal that flies, and the 
 mammal that swims, are but specialised expressions of the 
 same primal plan, the creation of a new type being unne- 
 cessary where a modification of an existing one would suffice. 
 Knowing these modifications in the limbs, jaws, teeth, and 
 other organs, and the ends they were meant to subserve in 
 living races, we can predicate of forms long since extinct, 
 and can associate with co-relation of structure the functions 
 that creatures were meant to perform in the economy of 
 former ages. It is by this " law of the co-relation of parts," 
 and faith in the uniformity of nature's method, that Cuvier 
 and Owen, and other great anatomists, have been enabled 
 to accomplish their wonderful restorations of extinct life, 
 and from a few sorely mutilated and scattered fragments to 
 present us with forms of harmonious entirety. "Every 
 organised being," says the great French anatomist, " forms a 
 whole, a single circumscribed system, the parts of which 
 mutually correspond and concur to the same definite action 
 by a reciprocal reaction. None of these parts can change 
 without the others also changing, and consequently each 
 part, taken separately, indicates and gives all the others." 
 As with the vertebrate type, so with the niolluscan, the 
 
54 THE PRESENT. 
 
 articulate, and the radiate. There is a plan and primal 
 pattern to each, and that plan, modified and specialised, 
 can be traced through every species and individual of the 
 division, no matter how varied and numerous they may be. 
 And what has been done to homologise the external frame- 
 work will shortly be done for the muscular, respiratory, 
 and vascular systems for the organs of digestion, secretion, 
 and reproduction so that we may no longer combine things 
 that are merely analogous with those that are homologous, 
 and thus confound, in our interpretations of nature, beings 
 that were from the first constructed on an essentially dif- 
 ferent basis. 
 
 Proceeding on grounds such as these, the zoologist sepa- 
 rates the vertebrate from the invertebrate, the mammals 
 from the birds, the birds from the reptiles, and the rep- 
 tiles from the fishes. He also separates the invertebrate 
 shell-fish from the invertebrate crab, the crabs from the 
 sea-urchins, the sea-urchins from the star-fishes, the star- 
 fishes from the corals, and these again from the lower 
 sponges' that can scarcely be distinguished from the sea- 
 weeds that surround them. Looking at the manner in 
 which the functions of nutrition, reproduction, and sensa- 
 tion are performed in each of these classes, w r e speak of 
 "higher" and "lower" forms, of creatures of more simple 
 and of more complex organisation ; but we do not say and 
 reason and experience alike shrink from endorsing the alle- 
 gation that one form or family is less perfect than another, 
 either in its nature or in the functions it was designed to 
 perform. 
 
 " All are but parts of one stupendous whole, 
 Whose body Nature is, and God the soul ; 
 That changed in all, and yet in all the same ; 
 Great in the earth as in the ethereal frame ; 
 Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze, 
 Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees ; 
 
ITS FAUNA. 
 
 Lives through all life, extends through all extent, 
 Spreads undivided, operates unspent; 
 Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part, 
 As full, as perfect in a hair as heart ; 
 As full, as perfect in vile man that mourns, 
 As the rapt seraph that adores and burns ; 
 To him no high, no low, no great, no small, 
 He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all." 
 
 While thus disclaiming the idea of "imperfection" as 
 applicable to any grade of vitality, it would be erring 
 against all reason and instinct to discard the terms " high- 
 er" and "lower" in treating of organised existences. The 
 creature consisting of a uniform mass must appear, even 
 to the most untutored observer, to stand on a humbler 
 platform than that composed of a variety of parts and tis- 
 sues. The protozoan, that envelops its food in its gelatin- 
 ous sac, assimilates the nutritive juices, and then rejects 
 the remainder, and this without mouth, stomach, or open- 
 ing of any kind, is certainly lower (or less highly organised, 
 if you will) than the mollusc, which is furnished with 
 mouth, stomach, and alimentary canal ; and the mollusc, 
 furnished only with external gill-tufts and the merest 
 heart-like cavity, can never be placed on the same level 
 with the quadruped provided with masticating and saliva- 
 tory apparatus, its stomach, its organs of chylification and 
 chymification and intestinal canal its respiratory and cir- 
 culating system of lungs, heart, veins, and arteries. Again, 
 the protozoan that reproduces itself by a mere cellular ex- 
 pansion of its own mass a mass, any portion of which is 
 equally vital, and capable of becoming a separate creature 
 is surely lower in the scale than the shell-fish that repro- 
 duces by spawn, and would perish under subdivision of its 
 tissues ; while the reptile, reproducing by eggs, which it 
 drops in the stagnant pool and never cherishes, can never, 
 without the abuse of everything like discrimination, be 
 
56 THE PRESENT. 
 
 ranked so high as the mammal that brings forth its young 
 alive, and even then, by a special organisation, suckles 
 them during months with assiduous care. But on such 
 distinctions we need not dwell. They were made long be- 
 fore observation had shaped itself into systems of science, 
 and are patent alike to the learned and the unlearned. 
 This dictum, therefore, the zoologist lays down, that the 
 loiver a creature is in the scale of being, the more its indi- 
 vidual parts resemble each other (vegetative repetition) ; and 
 the higher it is, when, instead of several functions being per- 
 formed by the same organ, each function, be it of nutrition, 
 reproduction, or sensation, is performed by an organ speci- 
 ally devoted to it. 
 
 This brings us to the classification of the zoologist ; and 
 in comparing the Past with the Present Life of the Globe, 
 the paleontologist requires to invent no new system or 
 scheme of arrangement. One plan and design runs through 
 the whole of animated nature ; and though species and 
 genera, and even whole families, have died out, and others 
 have taken their places and this has been repeated again 
 and again still have all the successive incomers been con- 
 structed upon the same plan, and designed to perform ana- 
 logous functions. The classification of the palaeontologist 
 is therefore the same as that of the zoologist, with the 
 exception of such extinctions as fill up the gaps that exist 
 between conterminous genera, and render more compact 
 and harmonious, if we may so speak, the grand scheme of 
 terrestrial vitality. The following outline of the animal 
 kingdom will render more intelligible the comparisons we 
 have to institute betAveen the past and the present be- 
 tween the forms that now live and act, and those that 
 have become extinct and been converted into stone thou- 
 sands of ages ago : 
 
ITS FAUNA. 57 
 
 VERTEBRATA, 
 
 Or animals with back-bone and bony skeleton, and comprehending 
 
 MAMMALIA, AVES, REPTILIA, and PISCES. 
 I. MAMMALIA, or Sucklers, subdivided into Placental and Aplacental. 
 
 1. PLACENTAL, bringing forth mature young. 
 BIMANA (Two-handed) Man. 
 
 QUADRUMANA (Fow-lianded) Monkeys, Apes, Lemurs. 
 CHEIROPTERA (Hand-winged) Bats, Vampyre-bats, Fox-bats. 
 INSECTIVORA (Insect-eaters) Mole, Shrew, Hedgehog, Banxring. 
 CARNIVOBA (Flesh-eaters) Dog, Wolf, Tiger, Lion, Badger, Bear. 
 PINNIPEDIA (Fin-footed)- Seals, Walrus. 
 
 RODENTIA (Gnawers) Hare, Beaver, Rat, Squirrel, Porcupine. 
 EDENTATA (Toothless) Ant-eater, Armadillo, Pangolin, Sloth. 
 RUMINANTIA (Cud-ckewers) Camel, Llama, Deer, Goat, Sheep, Ox. 
 SOLIDUNGULA (Solid-hoofs) Horse, Ass, Zebra, Quagga. 
 PACHYDERMATA (Thick-skins) Elephant, Hippopotamus, Rhinoceros. 
 CETACEA ( Whales) Whale, Porpoise, Dolphin, Lamantin. 
 
 2. APLACENTAL, bringing forth immature young. 
 MARSUPIALIA pouched) Kangaroo, Opossum, Pouched Wolf, &c. 
 MONOTREMATA (One-vented) Ornithorhynchus, Porcupine- ant-eaters. 
 
 II. AVES, or BIRDS. 
 
 RAPTORES (Seizers) Eagles, Falcons, Hawks, Owls, Vultures. 
 INSESSORES (Perchers) Jays, Crows, Finches, Sparrows, Thrushes, &c. 
 SCANSORES (Climbers) Woodpeckers, Parrots, Cockatoos, &c. 
 COLUMB.E (Pigeons) Common Dove, Turtle Dove, Ground Dove. 
 RASORES (Scrapers) Barnfowl, Partridge, Grouse, Pheasant. 
 CURSORED (Runners) Ostrich, Emeu, Apteryx. 
 GRALLATORES ( Waders) Rails, Storks, Cranes, Herons. 
 NATATORES (Swimmers) Divers, Gulls, Ducks, &c. 
 
 III. REPTILIA, subdivided into Reptiles Proper and Batrachians. 
 1. REPTILES PROPER. 
 
 CHELONIA ( Tortoises) Turtles, Tortoises. 
 
 LORICATA (Covered with Scutes) Crocodile, Gavial, Alligator. 
 
 SAURIA (Lizards) Lizard, Iguana, Chameleon. 
 
 OPHIDIA (Serpents) Vipers, Snakes, Boas, &c. 
 
 2. BATRACHIANS, or FROGS. 
 
 ANOURA (Tail-lets) Toad, Frog, Tree-frog. 
 URODELA (Tailed) Siren, Triton, Salamander. 
 A POD A (Footless) Lepidosiren, Blind worm. 
 
58 THE PRESENT. 
 
 IV. PISCES, or FISHES. 
 
 SELACHIA (Cartilaginous) Chimaera, Sharks, Sawfish, Rays. 
 GANOIDEA (Enamel-scales) Amia, Bony-pike, Sturgeon. 
 TELEOSTIA (Perfect-bones) Eels, Salmon, Herring, Cod, Pike, &c. 
 C YCLOSTOMATA ( Circle-mouths) Lamprey. 
 LEPTOCARDIA (Slender-hearts) Amphioxus. 
 
 INYERTEBRATA, 
 
 Or animals void of back-bone and bony skeleton, and comprehending 
 ARTICULATA, MOLLUSCA, RADIATA, and PROTOZOA. 
 
 I. ARTICULATA, subdivided into Articulates and Vermes. 
 
 1. ARTICULATA, or Jointed Animals Proper. 
 
 IXSECTA (Insects) Beetles, Butterflies, Flies, Bees. 
 MYRIAPODA (Many-feet) Scolopendra, Centipedes. 
 ARACHNIDA (Spiders) Spiders, Scorpions, Mites. 
 CRUSTACEA (Crust-clad) Crayfish, Crabs, Shrimps, Woodlice. 
 CIRRHOPODA (Curl-feet) Acorn-shells, Barnacles. 
 
 2. VERMES, or Worms Proper. 
 
 AXNELIDA (Small-rings) Lobworm, and almost all the marine worms. 
 
 ROTIFER A ( Wheel-bearers) Rotifers, Hydatina. 
 
 GEPHYRIA (Intermediates urchin-like] Sipunculus, Echinurus. 
 
 LUMBRICINA (Earth-worms) Earth-worms, Nais. 
 
 HIRUDINEI (Leeches) Leeches, Branchellion. 
 
 TURBELLARIA (T urbellaries) Planaria, Ribbon-worms. 
 
 HELMINTHES (Giit-v:orms) Intestinal worms. 
 
 II. MOLLUSCA, subdivided into Mollusca and Molluscoida. 
 
 1. MOLLUSCA, or Shell-fish Proper. 
 
 CEPHALOPODA (Head-footed) Cuttle-fish, Octopus, Calamary, Nautilus. 
 PTEROPODA ( Wing-footed) C lio, Hyalsea. 
 GASTEROPODA (Belly -fooled) Snails, Slugs, Whelks, Cowries. 
 ACEPHALA (Headless) Oysters, Mussels, Cockles, Shipworms. 
 BRACHIOPODA (Arm-footed)- Terebratula, Lingula. 
 
 2. MOLLUSCOIDA, or Mollusc-like Animals. 
 
 )hora, Simj 
 Ascidians. 
 
 TUNICATA (Coated, but Shell-less)- { Biphora, Simple and Compound 
 
 POLYZOA (Compound animals) \ . 
 
 or J, Flustra, Eschara, Plumatella. &c. 
 
 BRYOZOA (Moss-like animals) ) 
 
ITS FAUNA. 59 
 
 III. RADIATA, or ZOOPHYTES Ray-like Animals. 
 ECHIXODERMATA ( Urchin-shinned) Sea-urchins, Star-fishes. 
 ACALEPH^ (Sea-nettles) Jelly-fish, Beroes. 
 POLYPI (Many-feet} Coral animals, Sea-anemones, Hydras. 
 
 IV. PROTOZOA, or LOWEST- LIFE Globular Animals. 
 INFUSORIA (Infusories) Monads, Volvoces, Vorticella. 
 PORIFERA (Pore-bearers) Sponges, Fresh-water Sponges. 
 RHIZOPODA (Root-footed) Amoeba, Polythalamia (Foraminiferae). 
 
 Throwing, as in the case of the vegetable world, these 
 great groups into diagrammatic form, we have first the 
 
 Protozoan Aspect of Animal Lite. 
 
 Protozoa the sponges, foraminiferse, and infusorial animal- 
 
60 
 
 THE PRESENT. 
 
 cules which, half-plant half-animal, stand, as it were, on 
 the verge of organised existence. Restricted to the waters, 
 rooted as sponges to the sea-bed, appearing as infusoria (we 
 cannot tell how) in stagnant and putrid waters, or throng- 
 ing in inconceivable numbers as foraminiferae alike the 
 shallow estuary and the profoundest ocean-depth, their 
 office seems to be the reconversion of organic matter from 
 ultimate decay, and the reconstruction of mineral matter 
 from a state of solution and diffusion. Mere gelatinous 
 specks or glairy films, encased in or encasing some horny, 
 flinty, or limy framework, they constitute the food of many 
 of the lower orders, though their function, on the whole, is 
 
 Radiate Aspect of Animal Life. 
 
 mainly formative or geological. As the calcareous muds of 
 
ITS FAUNA. 61 
 
 existing seas and estuaries are in great part composed of the 
 shelly coverings of the minute foraminiferse, and the sili- 
 ceous muds composed of the still minuter shields of in- 
 fusoria, so we shall afterwards find that extensive strata in 
 the earth's crust owe their formation to similar agencies. 
 Next above these lowest forms of life stand the Kadiata 
 the corals, sea-anemones, jelly-fish, star-fishes, and urchins 
 all, too, inhabitants of the ocean, and in one or other of 
 their orders appearing in every depth and in every latitude 
 of space. Elaborating from microscopic organisms, the 
 material of their pulpy fabrics, which in turn become the 
 food of the higher orders, their function, though more 
 largely biological than the protozoans, is still in a great 
 measure formative. To coral-zoophytes we owe our exist- 
 ing coral reefs, and from the same source, or from their 
 allies the encrinites, have sprung many*of the massive lime- 
 stones that give character to the crust of the globe. The 
 office of the radiata is thus comparatively humble, as their 
 organisation, though beautifully symmetrical, is simple and 
 lowly. Next we approach the Molluscoida, or mollusc- 
 like organisms of modern naturalists the sea-mats and 
 dead-men's fingers of the fisherman and common observer. 
 Fixed in their habitats, and elaborating, like the corals 
 and sponges, their structures from the waters of the 
 ocean, their functions are humble and their characters 
 obscure. From them we ascend in the zoological scale 
 to the true Mollusca the oysters, mussels, cockles, whelks, 
 snails, slugs, nautili, and cuttle-fishes the " shell-fish" of 
 everyday language, though many of them are naked and 
 altogether shell-less. Of more diversified organisation than 
 any of the preceding groups, they are, in one or other of 
 their orders, inhabitants of the ocean, the lake, the river, 
 the marsh, and the dry land. Having also a more cosmo- 
 politan range feeding, some on plants and others on ani- 
 
THE PRESENT. 
 
 mals being in turn preyed upon by other races, aquatic, 
 aerial, and terrestrial, and creating extensive calcareous 
 masses with their shelly coverings the niollusca fulfil im- 
 
 Molluscan Aspect of Animal Lite. 
 
 portant vital as well as physical functions. From the 
 enduring nature of their testaceous coverings, they become 
 import ant indices to the palaeontologist, and the interpreta- 
 tions of geology have largely profited by the persistency of 
 their remains. Next in order come the Articulata the 
 worms, insects, spiders, and crabs known at once by their 
 many-ringed, segmented, or jointed bodies. Inhabitants of 
 
ITS FAUNA. 
 
 63 
 
 every element earth, air, and ocean and even finding 
 their abodes as parasites on other animals, the articulata 
 have a function as diversified as their organisation. They 
 
 Articulate Aspect of Animal Life 
 
 are vegetable as well as animal feeders, and occur in every 
 region, though culminating in numbers, size, and specific 
 variety under the genial influences of equatorial and tropi- 
 cal latitudes. Their world-office is mainly biological ; and 
 while preying alike on plants and animals, they become in 
 turn the principal food of other creatures fishes, birds, 
 reptiles, and mammals. Lastly, and highest and most diver- 
 
64 
 
 THE PRESENT. 
 
 sified in structure, come the Vertebrata the fishes, reptiles, 
 birds, and mammals the inhabitants of every element, 
 and the tenants of every region, though culminating chiefly 
 in numbers and rank within temperate and warm parallels. 
 
 Vertebrate Aspect of Animal Life. 
 
 In general terms, the ascent in the zoological scale is from 
 the aquatic to the terrestrial, from the cold-blooded water- 
 breathers to the cold-blooded air-breathers, and from these 
 to the still higher warm-blooded air-breathers. The great 
 majority of invertebrate forms are confined to the w r aters : 
 a large proportion of the vertebrates are strictly terrestrial, 
 or own an amphibious existence. Between them and the 
 higher forms of terrestrial vegetation, the interdependence 
 is complete ; the existence of the higher flora being unin- 
 telligible in the absence of a higher fauna. The grasses, 
 
ITS FAUNA. 65 
 
 foliage, seeds, fruits, and roots of the one kingdom become 
 the indispensable sustenance of the vegetable-feeders of the 
 other; while the vegetable-feeders in turn become the food 
 of the carnivora. Among the vertebrata the actions and 
 reactions of life are more immediate and apparent, and in 
 them alone are manifested all the higher offices of vitality. 
 Sense, instinct, volition, reason, and moral perception, mark 
 the line of ascent. The vital predominates over the mate- 
 rial, and in the- culminating order (Bimana) the psycholo- 
 gical rise superior to the physiological functions. 
 
 Such are the leading divisions of the animal kingdom, 
 which are again divided and subdivided into families, and 
 genera, and species each minor group presenting a distinct 
 and determinate pattern on the great web of created exist- 
 ence. By a study of these patterns, and a knowledge of 
 their manifold relations, the zoologist is enabled to arrive 
 at some intelligible idea of the scheme of existing vitality ; 
 and so, possessed of similar knowledge, the palaeontologist 
 strives to reunite his scattered fragments, and to assign to 
 them their proximate place in the still greater scheme 
 which combines the present with the past, and the forms 
 that have become extinct with those that still flourish 
 around us. In the study of Fossil Zoology, or Palseo- 
 Zoology, as it is termed, much more satisfactory progress 
 has been made than in the sister department of Fossil 
 Botany, the harder structures of animals (corals, shells, 
 crusts, scales, scutes, teeth, and bones) being better preserved 
 than the softer and more perishable tissues of vegetation. 
 It is true that many of these fragments are widely scattered 
 and sorely mutilated, that marine forms are relatively 
 more abundantly retained than those of terrestrial origin, 
 that only the merest specks of the fossiliferous strata have 
 yet been examined, and that the sea now rolls over strati- 
 
66 THE PRESENT. 
 
 fied areas vastly more extended than those that lie patent 
 to geological research. Still, in face of all these obstruc- 
 tions and imperfections, paleontology has wonderfully en- 
 larged our conceptions of vitality, has opened up to the 
 present age a theme altogether unknown to our ancestors, 
 and, guided by a true knowledge of the present, is destined 
 yet to unfold a fuller and fairer vision of the life that has 
 gone before us. As the zoologist pushes his discoveries 
 into space, so the palaeontologist pushes his discoveries into 
 time. As the former turns to unexplored regions in the 
 hope of finding new forms, so the latter turns to unexplored 
 formations formations whose areas are as varied as their 
 dates, and whose strata give promise of other and other 
 life-revelations for centuries yet to come. 
 
 3.-CO-ADAPTATIONS OF FLOKA AND FAUNA. 
 
 Perfect as the existing flora and fauna may appear, each 
 in its own proper line, they are only constituent portions 
 of a greater life-system, bound together by numerous co- 
 adaptations and adjustments. As each is adapted to, as 
 well as dependent on, external conditions, so both are de- 
 pendent on one another, and, as ' presently constituted, 
 neither could possibly enjoy a separate existence. Both, 
 for example, are incessantly dependent on the atmosphere, 
 yet the oxygen which the plant exhales is inhaled by the 
 animal, and the carbonic acid expired by the animal is ab- 
 sorbed and assimilated by the plant. The plant rooted in 
 the soil and casting abroad its leaves and branches in the 
 atmosphere, though seemingly deriving the main elements 
 of its growth from inorganic sources, is nevertheless stimu- 
 lated into life and exuberance by the presence of organic 
 decay ; w r hile the animal, being herbivorous, subsists im- 
 
ITS FLOEA AND FAUNA. 67 
 
 mediately upon plants, or, if carnivorous, preys upon the 
 plant-feeders, and is thus also ultimately dependent on the 
 vegetable world for its subsistence. The law of circulation 
 and interdependence is complete ; and no portion of the 
 circle could be removed without a corresponding change in 
 the characters of the vegetable and animal kingdoms. Again, 
 many plants are dependent on the locomotive powers of 
 animals for their wider dispersion and increase ; while other 
 animals acquire a wider range through this new and in- 
 creased source of subsistence. Further, as many animals, 
 in their habits and organisation, are altogether fitted for an 
 arboreal existence,the destruction of the tree would involve 
 the destruction or non-existence of this peculiar organisa- 
 tion ; and as other creatures are specially fitted to live on 
 certain fruits, leaves, and roots, the disappearance of these 
 specific supplies would necessarily involve the annihilation 
 of the consumers. As in existing nature these and many 
 other similar adaptations are fixed and certain, and we may 
 safely reason from cause to effect and from effect to caus- 
 ation, so, in the ancient world, we may rely on similar ad- 
 justments reasoning from certain phases of plant and ani- 
 mal life to the conditions under which they must have ex- 
 isted, and from the presence of certain races of plants and 
 animals to the existence of other plants and animals to 
 which they were necessarily co-adapted. It is thus that 
 the study of the Past becomes hopeful, and Palaeontology 
 assumes the character of an inductive and reliable science. 
 The Present is ever the safest guide to the Past ; the Ex- 
 tinct is ever most clearly illuminated by the light reflected 
 from the Existing. 
 
THE EECOED. 
 
 ROCK-FORMATIONS AND LIFE-PERIODS OF GEOLOGY. 
 
 IN the preceding chapter we have endeavoured to lay be- 
 fore the reader a brief sketch of the PRESENT LIFE OF THE 
 GLOBE its plants and animals ; the causes which seem to 
 affect their growth ; the conditions that govern their geo- 
 graphical distribution ; their ordinal characters, as known 
 to the botanist and zoologist ; and the functions they are 
 apparently destined to perform in the economy of creation. 
 We now turn to that which is extinct to that which 
 geology exhumes from the rocky crust, and palaeontology 
 reinvests with verdure and vitality, as it clothed the forests 
 and peopled the fields and waters thousands of ages before 
 the human eye was created to be gladdened by its beauties 
 or startled by its marvels. Before we can institute a satis- 
 factory comparison, however before we can decide be- 
 tween the older and the newer, and trace tjhe order of their 
 incomings and their outgoings in the scheme of nature we 
 must first appeal to the geologist for the order, in point of 
 time, that prevails among the stratified formations. 
 
 In the " crust" or accessible portion of the globe, we dis- 
 cover two great sets of rocks the one massive and unstrati- 
 fied, like the solidified lavas of Hecla and Vesuvius, and 
 evidently the products of igneous eruption ; the other 
 
70 THE RECORD. 
 
 stratified, or occurring in layers, like the silt of lakes and 
 seas, and undoubtedly the results of sedimentary or aqueous 
 operations. Between these two great forces the aqueous 
 and igneous the crust of the earth is ever held in habit- 
 able equipoise and never-ending variety of superficial aspect. 
 As the former tends to waste and wear down, and carry the 
 eroded material to the bottoms of lakes and estuaries, there 
 to be spread out in layers of varied consistency, so the 
 latter as incessantly strives to elevate and reconstruct 
 here throwing up the sea-bed into new islands, there dis- 
 rupting and undulating the solid crust, and anon casting 
 forth from volcanic craters new rocks and rocky compounds. 
 These forces being incessantly active, such transpositions of 
 sea and land must have frequently taken place piling the 
 newer deposits over those of earlier dates, varying it every 
 turn the relative distribution of sea and land, and offering 
 different conditions of life to plants and animals at each 
 successive mutation. And as the sediments of existing 
 lakes and seas envelop the remains of plants and animals 
 that have lived in their waters, or been borne thither by 
 floods and rivers, so also must there have been entombed in 
 the sediments of former epochs the plants and animals of 
 the period the deepest being the oldest or first-formed, 
 and the others occurring above them in order of time or 
 superposition. This is the great key to geological sequence : 
 the deeper, the older, and the older, the wider the dif- 
 ference between fossil plants and animals and those now 
 existing. To the paleontologist this physiological differ- 
 ence becomes, as it were, the measure of chronological pro- 
 gress ; stratigraphical sequence and vital gradation are but 
 convertible terms ; and either were resolvable into TIME 
 could we only determine the ratio of its increment and ad- 
 vancement. 
 
 Presuming on the uniformity of nature's operations and 
 
ITS UNIFOKMITY. 71 
 
 without this presumption the history of the Past would 
 be an uncertainty and delusion the geologist proceeds to 
 unfold the history of the stratified deposits, tracing back 
 from the silt of yesterday's tide to the first-formed strata ; 
 and this through the lapse of ages for which chronology has 
 no name save "cycles" and "systems" of indefinite dura- 
 tion. Geology is not entitled it dare not, in the spirit of 
 true philosophy, appeal to " abnormal conditions," to "cata- 
 clysms," or to " revolutionary forces," for a solution of its 
 problems. Certain agents may act over certain areas with 
 greater intensity at one period than at another, or may ex- 
 ert themselves, in the varying distributions of sea and land, 
 over wider areas ; still the results are homologous though 
 differing in magnitude, and cannot be ascribed to convul- 
 sion or disorder. Where geology cannot explain, it can at 
 least observe and describe, and this its legitimate culti- 
 vators will ever do, rather than take shelter under the 
 assumption of abnormal conditions in primeval nature. 
 There is ever much more philosophy in honest doubt than 
 in the utmost ingenuity of unsupported assumption. 
 
 " The agencies," we have elsewhere* observed, "that now 
 operate on and modify the surface of the globe ; that scoop 
 out valleys and wear down hills ; that fill up lakes, and 
 estuaries, and seas ; that submerge the dry land, and ele- 
 vate the sea-bottom into new islands ; that rend the rocky 
 crust, and throw up new mountain-chains ; and that influ- 
 ence the character and distribution of plants and animals, 
 are the same in kind though differing, it may be, in de- 
 gree as those that have operated in all time past. The 
 layers of mud, and sand, and gravel, now deposited in our 
 lakes and estuaries, and along the sea-bottom, and gradually 
 solidifying into stone before our eyes, are the same in kind 
 with the shales and sandstones and conglomerates that 
 * A dvanced Text- Book of Geology. 
 
72 THE RECORD. 
 
 compose the rocky strata of the globe; the marls of onr 
 lakes, the shell-beds of our estuaries, and the coral-reefs of 
 existing seas, year after year increasing and hardening, be- 
 long to the same series of materials, and in process of time 
 will be indistinguishable from the chalks, and limestones, 
 and marbles we quarry ; the peat mosses and jungle growth, 
 and the vegetable drift that have grown and collected within 
 the history of man, are but continuations of the same forma- 
 tive power that gave rise to the lignites and coals of the 
 miner ; the molten lavas of ./Etna and Vesuvius, and the 
 cinders and ashes of Hecla, are but repetitions of the same 
 materials which now compose the basalts and greenstones 
 and trap-tuffs of the hills around us ; the corals, and shells, 
 and fishes, the fragments of plants, and the skeletons of 
 quadrupeds, now imbedded in the mud of our lakes and 
 estuaries and seas, will one day or other be converted into 
 stone, and tell as marvellous a tale as the fossils we now 
 exhume with such interest and admiration." Without this 
 uniformity in the great operations of nature, our reasonings 
 would be baseless, our conclusions a dream. We can only 
 read the Past as connected with the Present, and premise 
 of the Future from what is now taking place around us. 
 
 Destroy this belief in the continuous operation of natural 
 law* and appeal to "revolutions" and "cataclysms," and 
 you present a world of disorder, a Creator without a plan, 
 and the human reason striving in vain to elaborate a system 
 from phenomena over which no system prevails. Establish 
 this belief, and the geologist feels he is dealing with a pre- 
 scient plan whose past ever bears certain appreciable rela- 
 tions to its present ; and in tracing the development of that 
 plan, he is animated by the high hope of ultimately attain- 
 ing to some conception, however faint, of the divine idea of 
 its Creator. And it is in this spirit of procedure that he 
 has subdivided the strata of the earth's crust into "sys- 
 
ITS ORDER. 73 
 
 terns," and " groups," and " series" each system being 
 but the sediments of the lakes and seas of a certain period, 
 and characterised, of course, by its own peculiar fossils, as 
 evidence of the life that prevailed during the time of its 
 formation. And the reason is obvious : as land and sea 
 have often changed places the former at one time more 
 insular, at another more continental ; now sitting low and 
 moist in the water, now elevated into lofty and arid re- 
 gions ; subjected at each change to diversity of colder or 
 warmer ocean-currents, to new sets of winds, rains, and 
 other cliniatal conditions each period must necessarily 
 have stamped its own impress on vegetable and animal life ; 
 and so it happens that the great rock-formations (the only 
 records of the world's history) are each characterised by its 
 own peculiar fossils, or facies of animated existence. Thus, 
 when tabulated, these systems and groups present the fol- 
 lowing chronological arrangement : 
 
 BOCK-SYSTEMS. LIFE-PEKIODS. 
 
 POST-TERTIARY, 
 
 TERTIARY, ) 
 
 ICAINOZOIC (Recent Life), 
 
 CRETACEOUS, 
 OOLITIC, . 
 
 TRIASSIC (Upper New Red), 
 PERMIAN (Lower New Red), 
 
 CARBONIFEROUS, 
 
 DEVONIAN (Old Red), . 
 
 SILURIAN, 
 
 MESOZOIC (Middle Life), 
 
 CAM 
 
 BRIAN, 
 
 PALAEOZOIC (Ancient Life), 
 
 METAMORPHIC, HYPOZOIC ( Under Life), ... 
 
 Such are the main stages into which geologists have ar- 
 
74 THE RECORD. 
 
 ranged the stratified crust of the globe the great chapters, 
 as it were, of world-history, whose strata, like the leaves of 
 a mighty volume, are indelibly stamped with the forms and 
 characters of extinct vitality. As in human history we 
 speak of the times of Ninevites, Egyptians, Greeks, and 
 Romans, so in geology we refer to Silurian, Devonian, Car- 
 boniferous, and other systems ; and as Ninevites and Egyp- 
 tians present a certain similarity or fades of civilisation, 
 and Greeks and Romans another, so we unite certain sys- 
 tems, having features in common, into Palaeozoic, Mesozoic, 
 and Cainozoic epochs. As to the Time represented by these 
 groups and systems, we have at present no means of deter- 
 mining ; but, gauging the past by the present rate of geolo- 
 gical change, the amount must be immense, and we could 
 no more form, an idea of its aggregate even could we ex- 
 press it in years and centuries than we can form a con- 
 ception of the distances that separate our globe from the 
 remoter stars of the universe. Enough for us, in the 
 mean time, to be convinced of the vastness of its relative 
 portions, and to fix with certainty the order of their occur- 
 rence. As in human history it is ever more important to 
 determine the true sequence and connection of events than 
 to be curious about the minutiae of dates, so in geology it 
 is far more satisfactory to discover the order in time than 
 to indulge in surmises about the expression of its duration 
 in years and centuries. It is surely of higher value to be 
 able to determine the relative ages of two contiguous depo- 
 sits, the contemporaneity of others widely apart, and the 
 kind and character of life they respectively imbed, than to 
 perplex ourselves with vague hypotheses as to the number 
 of years that have passed since the date of their deposit. 
 And yet even for this, too, the time will undoubtedly ar- 
 rive ! Geological events are the orderly results of natural 
 laws ; laws are as fixed in their times as in their modes of 
 
ITS DATES. 75 
 
 action; and while the Creator has permitted the human 
 intellect to investigate and determine the one, we may rest 
 assured that the same intellect is yet destined to discover 
 the amount and duration of the other. In the mean time, 
 all that geology attempts is to arrange the formation of 
 the earth's crust into so many provisional stages each 
 stage representing an indefinite amount of time, but em- 
 bracing such stratified deposits as indicate a contempor- 
 aneity of origin, and are characterised by a general simi- 
 larity of organic remains. In this case, each .stage repre- 
 sents the sediments of a certain period, and is necessarily 
 characterised by its own peculiar fossils every change of 
 sea and land not only giving rise to new sediments, but to 
 altered conditions of vital existence, that are inevitably fol- 
 lowed by a modification of the flora and fauna. And sum- 
 ming up the whole, we are presented with the outline, at 
 least, of a grand and continuous evolution of vitality. Here 
 there may be local imperfections in the record there the 
 characters may be fragmentary and obscure ; but in the 
 main the broad features of world -history are sufficiently 
 obvious, and these systems and formations (provisional as 
 they may be) enable the geologist to give intelligible ex- 
 pression to the line and order of occurrence. 
 
 Proceeding upon the basis of this arrangement, let us 
 now inquire into the nature of the Plants and Animals 
 preserved in these successive formations. Were they con- 
 structed on the same plan, and destined to perform analo- 
 gous functions in the economy of nature, with those that 
 now live and flourish around us 1 Or if differing in type, 
 what the amount of that difference, and the presumable 
 function which that difference implies] If race after race 
 has come and departed, what the conditions that accom- 
 panied their advent, and what the causes which apparently 
 
76 THE RECORD. 
 
 lead to their extinction ] Do the simpler and lowlier forms 
 always precede the higher and more complex ; and does 
 the introduction of any family in point of time harmonise 
 with its place in the scale of organisation 1 ? Does the ex- 
 tinction of species appear to be, in every case, the result of 
 a change in external conditions ; or may not species, like 
 individuals, have a term assigned to their existence from 
 the beginning 1 ? If race after race follow each other in 
 order of organisation, what countenance does this give to 
 the theory of self-development 1 Is there, as far as palae- 
 ontology can discover, any foundation whatever for the be- 
 lief in a progressive transmutation of species, by which the 
 lower gives birth to the higher ; or does geology not rather 
 establish the conviction of independent creations as time 
 rolled on and new conditions were prepared for their re- 
 ception 1 Seeing that physical phenomena invariably take 
 place under the orderly operations of natural laws, are we, 
 in the spirit of sound philosophy, entitled to assume for 
 vital phenomena any other mode of occurrence 1 ? In all 
 other reasonings are we to adopt the inductive method, and 
 in the solitary instance of LIFE its incomings and outgo- 
 ings are we to forsake this course as impotent and una- 
 vailing, and appeal to the direct and miraculous interference 
 of Creative Power ? These, and numerous analogous ques- 
 tions, present themselves to the palaeontologist ; and if in 
 human history chronologers are often disagreed as to times 
 and incidents so recent as those that come within the range 
 of a few thousand years, if ethnologists have failed to trace 
 with certainty the relationship of the few varieties of our 
 own race, and antiquarians be only beginning to decipher 
 the phases of certain extinct civilisations, what marvel need 
 it be that geologists are not yet as one as to events for 
 which time has no dates, save "cycles" and " systems," or 
 that they should be occasionally unable to discover the 
 
ITS INTERPRETATION. 77 
 
 nature and functions of creatures whose remains are so 
 fragmentary, and to whom existing nature offers not a 
 single specific identity? And yet, as we shall afterwards 
 see, geological belief is much more uniform than is gene- 
 rally supposed j and, founding on this belief, palaeontology 
 has been enabled, within the brief space of half a century, 
 to establish a history of the world's Past Life, more marvel- 
 lous by far than the fabled creatures of romance, and yet 
 so true that he who remains in ignorance of its facts can 
 never hope to attain to a satisfactory knowledge of the 
 scheme of life that at present surrounds us. 
 
THE FAR PAST. 
 
 PALAEOZOIC SYSTEMS THE CAMBRIAN, SILURIAN, DEVONIAN, 
 
 CARBONIFEROUS, AND PERMIAN. 
 
 ON glancing over the existing forms of the vegetable and 
 animal kingdoms, struck as we may be at first by their 
 wondrous variety and complexity, we gradually begin to 
 detect innumerable affinities that link one family to an- 
 other, and at length perceive that one plan and purpose 
 runs throughout the whole. In like manner, when we 
 turn to the still stranger and more complicated forms of the 
 Past, and blend them with those of the Present varied 
 and endless as the details may appear they gradually coa- 
 lesce into one unbroken sequence of design, from the morn- 
 ing that first dawned on infant life, to the sunset that closed 
 around us but a few hours ago. Without this uniformity 
 in purpose and design, the study of nature would be im- 
 possible : we can only reason respecting the past from our 
 knowledge of the present, and predict of the future from 
 what is now taking place around us. And here at the out- 
 set we must specially guard against the misconception that 
 in the Past Life of the globe we are to meet with anything 
 that is monstrous or abnormal. As in the physical world 
 we have no evidence of the operation of " aberrant" or 
 " cataclysmal" or "revolutionary" forces, so in the vital 
 world philosophy cannot point its finger to a single instance 
 
80 THE FAR PAST. 
 
 of the abnormal. The " Antediluvian" and " Pre- Adamite 
 monsters," of which, we occasionally hear, are the mere 
 creations of the platform orator, who would rather excite 
 the marvellous for the chance of a little applause, than 
 appeal to the reason of his audience hy a simple statement 
 of the truth as it occurs in nature. And yet, after all, the 
 works of God are in themselves sufficiently wondrous to 
 arrest the attention, and never more so than when arranged 
 in that simplicity and perfection of design which it is the 
 aim of legitimate science to detect, and the pride of the 
 philosopher to explain. 
 
 In treating, then, of the Extinct Life of the globe, it shall 
 be our aim to assimilate its forms, as far as the facts will 
 permit, with those still living around us ; to assign to them 
 their places in the scale of being; to note their incomings 
 and outgoings in point of time; and, above all, to discover 
 their functions in the great economy of nature. Important 
 as facts and specific distinctions are to the botanist and 
 zoologist, the discovery of the functions and ultimate de- 
 sign of being is, to our apprehension, a more exalted pur- 
 suit ; so true is it (in the impressive words of Coleridge) 
 that " a man may be a chaos of facts, and yet lack the 
 knowledge that God is a God of order." As the establish- 
 ment of Law appears to be the highest effort of creative 
 energy, so the expression of that law must ever constitute 
 the noblest attainment of created intelligence. And this 
 law is operating everywhere. The force that directs the 
 drifting of a grain of sand is as fixed as that which guides 
 the revolution of a planet ; the tiniest blade of grass that 
 turns itself to the sun is but obeying the same law that 
 regiilates the growth of the lordliest oak ; and the monad, 
 invisible to the naked eye, is the creature of instincts and 
 appetites as imperative as those that impel the actions of 
 man. Nay, not a shower that falls, nor a breeze that blows 
 
HYPOZOIC ERA. 81 
 
 fickle and uncertain as these may seem but is the re- 
 sult, immediate and remote, of Law, could we only grasp 
 the multifarious conditions that are connected with its 
 production. In tracing, then, the Flora and Fauna of suc- 
 cessive epochs, as far as the limits of a popular sketch will 
 permit, we can only indicate a few of their more prominent 
 features and the laws that seem to bear on their develop- 
 ment ; and yet, restricted as these limits are, enough, we 
 trust, will be indicated to arrest the attention and to arouse 
 the interest in the further prosecution of a subject that 
 stands second to none on the roll of human acquirements. 
 And, after all, it is better to be imbued with the right 
 spirit of research, and to be impressed with the conviction 
 of the universality and uniformity of natural law, than to 
 have the mind bewildered with details which it cannot 
 connect, and for whose occurrence in nature it is altogether 
 unable to render a reason. 
 
 And, first, we enter on what has been termed the PALEO- 
 ZOIC or " Ancient-Life" period of the world a period em- 
 bracing the Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, and Per- 
 mian formations, and characterised, as far as geological 
 evidence goes, by the almost total absence of a dicotyledon- 
 ous flora, by a preponderance of invertebrate life, and by 
 the general absence of the higher vertebrata, as reptiles, 
 birds, and mammals. The lowest in rank seem the earli- 
 est in time ; and so in this primeval epoch, cryptogams 
 and cold-blooded water -breathers become the leading 
 manifestations of vitality. The strata lying beneath the 
 PaLeozoic (as will be seen by a reference to the Geological 
 Eecord) have been termed the Azoic or " void of life ; " 
 but, more correctly and philosophically, the HYPOZOIC, which 
 merely indicates their position "beneath" the fossiliferous 
 strata, and that without asserting them to be wholly desti- 
 
82 THE FAR PAST. 
 
 tute of organic remains. So far as our present purpose is 
 concerned, it matters little which term is adopted, so long 
 as we bear in mind that up to the present day they have 
 yielded no traces of life, and are to all intents and purposes 
 truly Azoic. That the Crystalline or Metamorphic strata^ 
 termed clay-slate, mica-schist, and gneiss, were at one time 
 the clayey, sandy, and limy deposits of seas and estuaries, 
 is at once admitted by every competent geologist ; and that 
 if these seas contained life, those strata must have imbedded 
 its remains. But then, these deposits have, since their soli- 
 dification into rock, been subjected to thermal, chemical, 
 electrical, and other agencies, to such a degree that they 
 have been converted, or metamorphosed, into crystalline 
 masses, and every trace of life has been obliterated from 
 their structure. No doubt it has been ingeniously sug- 
 gested that the occurrence in metamorphic rocks of sulphuret 
 of iron, of phosphate of lime, bituminous springs, and other 
 similar products, gives evidence of the presence of organic 
 bodies, through the medium of whose decay such com- 
 pounds were eliminated. On the other hand, experimental- 
 ists equally ingenious have assigned to these products a 
 purely chemical origin ; and, even if they could not, the 
 geologist would be little aided by a contrary hypothesis, so 
 long as he had no trace of organic form or texture to guide 
 him in his deductions. 
 
 To the palaeontologist, therefore, the CAMBRIAN period, 
 with its obscure and scattered zoophytes, trilobites, and 
 shells, becomes the so-called " Dawn of Life." He knows 
 of nothing beyond this primordial zone, and the spirit of 
 true philosophy forbids him to substitute conjecture for 
 fact, or hypothesis for reality. It may gratify the cos- 
 mogonist to fashion a glowing globe by the condensation 
 of nebular masses, to cool by radiation a solid crust on the 
 glowing orb, and, after ages of chaotic confusion, to plant 
 
SILURIAN ERA. 83 
 
 the germ of life on some sunny and serene spot ; it may 
 charm the materialist to claim for Life the eternity he does 
 for Matter, by referring to a metaniorphism which is con- 
 tinuously obliterating the fossils in the deepest seated rocks ; 
 but the palaeontologist is debarred from such reveries, and 
 is bound down by a rigid chain of facts as they occur in 
 nature. He has traced life so early as the Cambrian slates j 
 should it be detected still lower, he is ready to accept it. 
 To him, in the mean time, the Metamorphic schists are a 
 tabula rasa; the Cambrian slates form his furthest verge 
 and boundary ; and the spirit of induction restrains him 
 within its limits. And, after all, fossil evidence itself is 
 greatly in favour of the view, that we have here attained, 
 or all but attained, the furthest limit of life. "We see it 
 increasing and spreading into higher and higher forms as 
 we ascend in the geological scale, and decreasing and nar- 
 rowing into lowlier forms as we descend : numerically the 
 forms are fewer, physiologically they become less important ; 
 and it is but fair induction to believe that in the few scat- 
 tered forms of Cambria we have all but reached the zero of 
 organic existence/* 
 
 From the Cambrian the palaeontologist passes into the 
 Silurian age a period characterised by its lowly sea- weeds 
 and doubtful traces of land plants by genera and species 
 of protozoan, radiate, molluscoid, molluscan, and articu- 
 late types, but by few, if any, even of the lowest verte- 
 brate order. Its strata consist of shales, sandstones, con- 
 glomerates, and limestones the solidified muds, sands, 
 
 * It is right to mention, however, that the tendency of recent dis- 
 covery is to carry the traces of life further and further back among 
 these slaty and semi-crystalline strata. The detection of new grapto- 
 lites and trilobites in the schists of Bray Head, Skiddaw, Bohemia, and 
 North America, is a fact too significant to be overlooked in geological 
 speculation. 
 
 F 
 
84 
 
 THE FAR PAST. 
 
 pebbles, and coral-growths of seas and estuaries. It is 
 customary for a certain class of geologists to talk of 
 " the deep, turbid, and shoreless seas" of the Silurian 
 epoch, as if the globe was then enveloped by one dreary 
 monotony of ocean. Do such generalisers ever for a mo- 
 ment think that such a vast thickness of sediments could 
 never have been produced without the existence of broad 
 lands from which they were transported by rivers, or of 
 sea-shores from which they were abraded by waves and 
 tidal currents 1 Could conglomerates be formed without 
 wave-exposed beaches, sands without open sea-shores, or 
 could shells that are truly littoral, and corals that nourish 
 only from twenty to sixty fathoms, have existed without 
 water of limited depth for their development ? The eye of 
 the trilobite would have been useless in a turbid ocean ; a 
 turbid ocean w r ould have been death to the growth of corals ; 
 worm-burrowed, ripple-marked, and rain-pitted sandstones 
 could have been formed only on shores exposed to the 
 alternate ebb and flow of the tide ; and conglomerates are 
 merely the broken-down and water- worn fragments of an 
 older rocky shore. In fine, there is not a single feature in 
 the rocks of the Silurian period which might not take place 
 in the ocean of our own day. The existence of deeper and 
 shallower seas of waves, currents, tides of lands, shores, 
 and rivers of sunlight, and rains, and winds are as clearly 
 impressed on its strata as they are upon those of every 
 other geological epoch. It differs alone in the geographical 
 distribution of its sea and land the greater insularity, 
 perhaps, of the land-masses their consequent climatology 
 and the specific characters of its plants and animals ; though, 
 knowing the wide extent of its deposits (and they occur 
 alike in the continents of the Old and New World, in the 
 northern and in the southern hemisphere), geology is not 
 yet in a position to map with accuracy the geography of the 
 
SILURIAN ERA. 
 
 85 
 
 period, nor to define with certainty the external conditions 
 to which its flora and fauna would be necessarily sub- 
 jected. 
 
 When we turn to its biological aspects, the outline, 
 though far from complete, is at least, as far as it goes, 
 homogeneous and intelligible. Fucoids or fucus-like sea- 
 weeds, some carbonaceous fragments of unknown stems, 
 spore-like organisms, apparently from land plants, and a 
 few lepidodendroid twigs that may have belonged to some 
 ancient form of club-moss, are nearly all we know of the 
 silurian Flora ; though, judging from the extent of an- 
 thracite deposits in various regions, vegetation (aquatic and 
 terrestrial) must in certain centres have existed in some 
 
 1. ;, FucoicU Ci-aziana and Choudrites >,?) ; 3, 4, Lyccpodites Lepidodendroid twigs from. 
 the Upper Silurians of Lanarkshire . 
 
 exuberance. On the whole, the silurian Flora is of a very 
 lowly character, and its scanty fragments find their nearest 
 affinities in the sea-weeds, liver-worts, and club-mosses of 
 existing nature. Of course, the imperfection of the geolo- 
 gical record is fully and frankly admitted, for it cannot be 
 
86 
 
 THE FAR PAST. 
 
 supposed that in strata so eminently marine, we are likely 
 to discover more than the merest indication of a terres- 
 trial vegetation. Still we can only reason from what we 
 know, and shape our inferences by the results of our ob- 
 servation. 
 
 When we turn to the Fauna of the system, we find the 
 record much more complete and legible. We are presented 
 with infusorial organisms from its shales ; graptolites or ser- 
 tularian-like zoophytes in inconceivable numbers ; corals of 
 
 SILURIAN HYDROZOA AND BRTOZOA. 
 
 1. Oldhamia ; 2, Protcvtruiaria ; 3, Graptolites ; 4, 5, Diplograpsus 6, Didymograpsus ; 
 7, Rastriocs. 
 
 many genera and species ; encrinites of various forms ; 
 star-fishes, independent and free-floating ; and sea-urchin- 
 like cystidece, attached to the sea-bottom by their jointed 
 foot-stalks. In molluscan life we have representatives of 
 every order brachiopods, acephalaiis, gasteropods, ptero- 
 pods, and cephalopods vegetable-feeders thronging the 
 shores, carnivorous orders in the open sea, and infusorial- 
 feeders in the deeper waters. The great preponderance of 
 brachiopods over acephalans and gasteropods is one of the 
 most noticeable features in the molluscan life of the period 
 a feature now reversed, seeing that acephalans and gas- 
 
SILURIAN ERA. 
 
 87 
 
 teropods are the predominating forms in existing waters.* 
 In the articulate division we have numerous annelid mark- 
 ings the trails and burrows of sea- worms; the calcareous 
 crusts and shell-like cases of serpulcv and spirorbes; and 
 a vast and characteristic display of tnlobites (three-lobed), 
 a form of crustacean almost restricted to the period ; toge- 
 ther with the larger and higher forms of eurypterites (broad- 
 fins in allusion to their paddle-like swimming limbs). These 
 
 SILURIAN CORALS AND ECHINODERM3. 
 
 1, Heliolites; 2, Catenipora ; 3, CyathophyUum ; 4, Taxocrinus ; 5, Cystidea ; 6, Palaeaster 
 
 trilobites, along with some smaller bivalved forms of crus- 
 tacea, have been long and familiarly known ; but the euryp- 
 
 * We abstain, in this as in other instances of comparison, from nume- 
 rical tabulations, as every year of further discovery and nicer discrimi- 
 nation of species disturbs, if not destroys, the value of such statistics. 
 Not many years ago the Brachiopoda were supposed to be on the very 
 verge of extinction, and yet the application of the dredge to deeper 
 waters has revealed the existence of nearly a dozen genera in modern 
 seas. Every year, too, discovery adds some new form to our lists of 
 fossils, while former lists of so-called species Continental, British, and 
 American are being examined with more rigorous care, and reduced to 
 their proper value. 
 
88 THE FAR PAST. 
 
 terites are a comparatively recent discovery in the higher 
 
 1. Lingula : 2, Rbynconella : 3, Pentarnerus; 4, Strophomeua ; 5, Spirifer : 6, Murchisouia 
 7, Orthoceras ; 8, Lituites ; 9, JVIaclurea. 
 
 beds of the system, and two of the most abundant genera 
 
 1, Fhacops; 2, Trinucleus ; 3, Ampyx ; 4, Ogygia; 5, Ilaenus ; 6, Calyrnene ; 
 7. Calymene coiled up. 
 
SILURIAN ERA. 
 
 are here for the first time restored with something like 
 accuracy and life-like proportions. As already hinted, the 
 remains of fishes are but sparingly found in the uppermost 
 beds of the system j and it is still an open question with 
 
 1, Pterygotus Acurrrinatus ; 2, P. Bilobus ; 3, Ceratiocaris (bivalved Crustacean). 
 From tlie Upper Silurian or Passage Beds of Lanarkshire. 
 
 geologists, whether these are to be viewed as marking the 
 close of the silurian or the dawn of the devonian epoch. 
 For our own part, we accept them as part and parcel of the 
 silurian fauna; and though negative evidence forbids us in 
 the meanwhile to enter on our lists the remains of insects, 
 reptiles, birds, and mammals, there is nothing that militates 
 against the likelihood of their occurrence. On the contrary, 
 all analogy favours the supposition that the great types of 
 life radiate, molluscan, articulate, and vertebrate were 
 from the beginning contemporaneous on our globe, and that 
 it is to the minor modifications of the type, and not to the 
 type itself, we are to look for that gradation and progress 
 
90 THE FAR PAST. 
 
 which marks the geological periods. In this opinion we are 
 further fortified by the decidedly expressed conviction of one 
 of the ablest investigators of the present age. " However 
 much naturalists may still differ in their views regarding the 
 origin, the gradation, and the affinities of animals," says Pro- 
 fessor Agassiz in his Essay on Classification, " they now all 
 know that neither radiata, nor molluscs, nor articulata have 
 any priority one over the other as to the time of their first 
 appearance upon earth j and that, though some still main- 
 tain that vertebrata originated somewhat later, it is univer- 
 sally conceded that they were already in existence towards 
 the end of the first great epoch in the history of our globe. 
 I think it would not be difficult to show, upon physiologi- 
 cal grounds, that their presence upon earth dates from as 
 early a period as any of the three other great types of the 
 animal kingdom, since fishes exist wherever radiata, mol- 
 luscs, and articulata are found together, and the plan of 
 structure of these four great types constitutes a system 
 intimately connected in its very essence. Moreover, for the 
 last twenty years every extensive investigation among the 
 oldest fossiliferous rocks has carried the origin of vertebrata 
 step by step farther back j so that, whatever may be the 
 final solution of this vexed question, so much is already 
 established by innumerable facts, that the idea of a gradual 
 succession of radiata, molluscs, articulata, and vertebrata, is 
 for ever out of the question." 
 
 Here, then, in the silurian system we find nothing ab- 
 normal or marvellous ! Its sediments tell of seas whose 
 shores, in favourable localities, were clad with weeds, and 
 whose waters were thronged with zoophytes, star-fishes, 
 sea-urchins, shell-fish, and Crustacea. Plant-feeder and 
 animal-feeder start simultaneously in the race of life ; and 
 it requires no great stretch of fancy to repeople silurian 
 waters, busy and joyous on a summer's eve as the tribes 
 
DEVONIAN ERA. 91 
 
 that throng the existing ocean. The life-forms of the pe- 
 riod are, in their kind, neither larger nor smaller, neither 
 less perfect nor less complex, than those of the current era. 
 From the beginning, and simultaneously, species and genera 
 and orders assume their distinctive characters ; there are 
 no transitional forms (in the ordinary sense of the term) 
 through which we can trace the development of the higher 
 from the lower ; each species takes its place from the be- 
 ginning, and varies only within a certain defined limit ; 
 while the whole, obeying the impulses and instincts of life, 
 subserve with unerring certainty the creational functions 
 they were destined to perform. 
 
 We now pass from the Silurian to the Old Red sandstone, 
 or, as it is now more frequently termed, the Devonian 
 epoch. And here, in its sandy and pebbly deposits, we find 
 more decided evidence of frequent alternations of sea and 
 land, of broad shallow bays, and long reaches of shingle- 
 covered shores. Much of the silurian deep sea had been 
 upheaved into dry land ; the former islands and continents 
 had received new configurations and altitudes ; and the 
 seas so changed must have been subject to the influences 
 of other tides and currents. We have also clearer evidence 
 of estuarine and lake areas ; and were this the place to 
 enter on questions of physical geology, testimony is not 
 wanting to prove the existence in certain regions of a cold 
 or glacial climate.'"" All this implies numerous modifications 
 
 * Whoever has examined the bouldery conglomerates of the Scottish 
 Old Red, with their large irregular blocks, their peculiar unassorted 
 aggregation, the nature of the cementing matrix, and the frequent 
 " nestings" or interlaminated patches of fine argillaceous sandstone, 
 must have had suggested to his mind the idea of ice-action. And this 
 notion must have been strengthened when he turned to the sandstones, 
 and found them imbedding angular fragments of rock, shale, and even 
 clay, which could scarcely have suffered transport unless enclosed in 
 drifting ice-floes. The paucity of life in certain areas seems also a further 
 
92 
 
 THE FAR PAST. 
 
 of external conditions, under the influences of which many 
 of the silurian genera and species became extinct, and other 
 races were introduced specially adapted to the physical cir- 
 cumstances by which they were surrounded. 
 
 In the Vegetable World we have now a greater exuber- 
 ance and variety of fucoids or sea-weeds ; marsh plants, 
 apparently related to the equisetums, reeds, and rushes ; 
 
 1, Fucoid (Roxburghshire) ; 2, Zosteritea (Forfarshire) ; 3, Psilophyton (Canada), Dawson 
 
 and unmistakable evidence of a terrestrial flora of no feeble 
 growth. Ferns of rare beauty (adiantites), club- moss- 
 like stems of gigantic growth (lepidodendra), and fruit 
 cones (lepidostrolms\ are by no means uncommon, and 
 every year is adding some new feature to a flora which a 
 dozen years ago was set down as having no existence. 
 
 corroboration of the idea of glacial influences an hypothesis which seems 
 at first sight extremely probable, though requiring for its final demon- 
 stration a much more protracted and careful examination than the several 
 phenomena have yet received from geologists. 
 
DEVONIAN ERA. 
 
 93 
 
 Even in some more favoured spots, like Point Gaspe, in 
 Canada, thin seams of bituminous coal are interlaminated 
 with the plant-yielding shales and sandstones, thus giving 
 further proof that the old red period had its areas of fer- 
 tility and areas of dwarfish sterility regions where climatic 
 influences were mild and genial, and others where they 
 were rigorous and destructive of vegetation. 
 
 Adianates -Libernicus 
 
 SandsLOue Series of Ireland. 
 
 In the Animal World we have still the same numerical 
 abundance of zoophytes, of brachiopod, gasteropod, and cepha- 
 lopod molluscs; but the yraptolites, which flourished in such 
 profusion in the muddy bottoms of the silurian seas, have be- 
 come extinct ; the trilobites, whose species were then num- 
 bered by hundreds, are reduced to a dozen or two ; while 
 the larger crustacean forms of eurypterus, pterygotun, and 
 stylonurus, then merely appearing, now flourish in great 
 force; and fishes of various families swarm in vast profu- 
 
94 
 
 THE FAR PAST. 
 
 sion. Gigantic annelids,* large as a man's arm, throng the 
 sandy shore, leaving, like the lobworm, their frequent casts 
 
 1, Suingocephalus ; 2, Spirifera : 3, Calceola: 4, IvTegalcdon; 5, Hurchisouia ; 
 6, Pleurotomaria ; 7, Clymenia. 
 
 and burrows, while smaller species and wandering Crustacea 
 thickly track the rippled, and rain-pitted, and sun-cracked 
 surface with their devious courses. Reptiles also, for the 
 first time, come into notice there being no great order in 
 existing nature unrepresented, save insects, birds, and 
 mammals. 
 
 The most noticeable feature in the fauna is, perhaps, 
 the large Crustacea, the curiously encased fishes, and the 
 
 * These so-called annelid burrows, which occur alike in the lowest 
 Old Red of Forfar, and in the upper beds of Roxburgh, are deserving of 
 a closer examination than they have yet i-eceived from the paleontolo- 
 gist. Some of them are so large and of such curious internal configur- 
 ation, that one is tempted to inquire whether pterygotus and his allies 
 did not occasionally burrow their abdominal segments in the sandy 
 mud, and there, pincers at rest, watch for their passing prey. 
 
DEVONIAN ERA. 
 
 95 
 
 occurrence of reptiles the earliest of their class positively 
 known to geology, if British observers be not mistaken 
 as to the relations of the strata in which their remains 
 have been detected. Of these crustaceans, found chiefly as 
 yet in Forfarshire and Hereford, we know too little to 
 assign to them their exact place in existing classification ; 
 but if concentration and specialisation of organs are to be 
 tests of higher and lower, then we are compelled to place 
 them rather low in the class to which they belong. Like 
 many extinct forms, the eurypterites partake of the char- 
 acters of several adjacent orders, and thus, like the dis- 
 
 1, Styionurus Powriei; 2, Pterygotus Anglicus (ventral aspect). SVorn the Lower 
 Old Redof Forfajsh:re. 
 
 covered portions of some ancient mosaic work, they fill 
 up the gaps, and bring out more clearly the continuity of 
 the design that runs throughout the whole. King-crab- 
 like in their carapace and organs of mastication, lobster 
 like in their prolonged and segmented bodies, furnished 
 with broad paddle -like swimming limbs, and frequently 
 
96 THE FAR PAST. 
 
 with huge prehensile claws, they present the zoologist 
 with an entirely distinct family (Eurypteridae), if not with 
 the elements of a new and separate legion. Some of 
 the species are of great size three, four, and six feet in 
 length and seem to have been the scavengers of their 
 period, living on the lower forms and garbage of the sea- 
 shore ; and so it happens that wherever they are found 
 entire fishes are rare, though their heads, fin-spines, and 
 other unmanageable portions occur in abundance. Another 
 curious feature in connection with these Crustacea, and oc- 
 curring in the same beds, is an immense number of dark- 
 coloured patches of spawn-like organisms, which are now 
 pretty generally regarded as the egg-packets of eurypterus and 
 pterygotus. Compressed and flattened, the ova appear less 
 
 Parka Decipiens Supposed Spawn or F.gg-packets of Crustacea. 
 
 or more in concentric arrangement, and every appearance 
 favours the idea of their crustacean origin, unless, perhaps, 
 their great abundance, which has suggested to some the 
 possibility of their being the berries or carpels of some un- 
 known plant. The egg-packet theory is now the most 
 prevalent, and, admitting its truth, the widespread abun- 
 dance of these remains increases beyond expression our 
 notions of the exuberance of crustacean life within certain 
 areas of the old red sandstone. 
 
 The Fishes of the period are also peculiar, inasmuch as 
 many of them are encased in bony plates, or covered with 
 
DEVONIAN ERA. 
 
 07 
 
 hard enamelled scales ; are frequently furnished with fin- 
 spines or external defences ; and are, many of them, of 
 forms so widely differing from those of existing seas, that 
 they have not unfrequently been mistaken for reptiles, for 
 crustaceans, or even for huge water -beetles ! And yet, 
 when closely examined, and their affinities made out, there 
 is nothing about them either abnormal or nondescript. 
 The more familiar forms are the ceplialaspis, or " buckler- 
 head," so called from the shield -like shape of the bony 
 head-plate, which consists of a single piece ; the ptericli- 
 tkys, or "wing-fish," having the body encased in a box- 
 like covering of bony plates, and furnished with two w T ing- 
 like appendages for swimming ; the coccosteus, or " berry - 
 
 1, Cocccsteus; 2, Pierichthys ; 3, Cephalaspis. 
 
 bone," similarly encased, and having the surface of the plates 
 covered with minute berry-like tubercles ; the ucantlwdians 
 (diplacanth, cheiracanth, &c.), having for the most part their 
 fins armed and supported by bony spines ; the dipterus, or 
 
98 
 
 THE FAR PAST. 
 
 " double-fin ;" the osteolepis, or "bony-scale;" the asterolepis, 
 or "star-scale;" and the Iwloptycldus, or "all-wrinkle," so 
 
 1, Acanthodes : 2, Clirnatius ; 3, Diplacanthus. Forfarshire. 
 
 called from the wrinkle-like sculpturing that adorns its large 
 enamelled scales. The majority of these fishes are small, or 
 of moderate size ; and even the largest of them, the holop- 
 tychius and asterolepis, do not greatly, if at all, exceed 
 the dimensions of a full-grown cod-fish. Nor would 
 they startle by their forms, were they recalled to take their 
 place among existing fishes. The little armed bull-head of 
 our own shores is encased in as marvellous, and even more 
 highly ornamented armour than the cephalaspis ; the ostra- 
 cion, or trunk-fish of the Indian ocean, is encased in a 
 bony box, as curiously fabricated as that of the pterichthys 
 or coccosteus ; the spines of the balistes and sea-snipe are 
 as formidable weapons as the ichthyodorulites of the dipla- 
 canth; and the scales of the bony-pike of South America, 
 or the polypterus of the Nile, glitter with enamel, and are 
 as quaintly sculptured as those of the osteolepis or holop- 
 
DEVONIAN ERA. 99 
 
 tychius of the old red sandstone. Wonderful they are, as 
 all God's works are wonderful! but to dwell, as is too often 
 the case, on these ancient denizens of the deep as something 
 unusually strange and marvellous, is neither the way to 
 forward the interests of science, nor to teach the popular 
 mind a just appreciation of the world that surrounds it. 
 
 Turning next to the higher order of reptiles, we have 
 as yet no undoubted instance of their existence, though 
 footprints, bones, teeth, and scutes, unquestionably rep- 
 tilian, have been detected in the sandstones of Elgin 
 sandstones till recently regarded as Devonian, but whose 
 relations have lately been questioned ; first, on account 
 of the obscurity of their stratigraphical relations to the 
 surrounding old red sandstone of the district ; and, second, 
 on account of the affinity of their reptilian remains to those 
 occurring in true triassic strata. Partaking in the doubt, 
 both on lithological and paleontological grounds, that the 
 place of these Elgin sandstones may yet be found to belong 
 to the dawn of the triassic, and not to the close of the Devon- 
 ian, epoch, we have transferred the small lizard-like teler- 
 peton, and the large " drop-scaled" crocodilian stayanolepis, 
 to the newer era a transposition already approved by some 
 of our leading palaeontologists. It is thus that paleonto- 
 logy often corrects the first impressions of physical geology, 
 and in this instance conformably so with all that we know 
 of the reptilian life of the carboniferous era, where forms 
 more lowly and fish-like in their character alone make their 
 appearance. In the mean time, therefore, the existence of 
 reptiles during the old red sandstone epoch must be held 
 as problematical, and paleontology constrained to date 
 their advent with the commencement of the carboniferous 
 era. If it shall be ultimately found that these Elgin sand- 
 stones are of true Devonian age, the occurrence of reptiles 
 having such high affinities as lizards and crocodiles, will 
 
100 THE FAR PAST. 
 
 once more correct the hasty generalisations of limited ob- 
 servation, and teach us how vain it is to dogmatise on the 
 rise and order of life from the imperfect data which geo- 
 logy has yet at her command. 
 
 Such is the hurried glance at the life of the Devonian 
 epoch. As yet we are almost in total ignorance of its ter- 
 restrial flora and fauna. We are like voyagers to whom 
 some unknown land looms in the distance through the sea- 
 fogs and grey of the morning. Here and there a few gleams 
 of light fall on hill-sides green with ferns and club-mosses ; 
 and as the mists roll away we catch a passing glimpse of 
 some river-mouth fringed with reeds and rushes. This, 
 however, is all the interior is obscured from our vision, 
 and no drift of fruit or forest-growth tells of a higher flora. 
 As we coast along, we almost think we catch the reflection 
 of glacier and icebergs, which would indicate in some re- 
 gions a sterility and dearth of vegetation; but this may be 
 a delusion, and only the sparkle of the quartzy cliffs that are 
 broken into fragments by the surf that dashes against them. 
 When we turn to the ocean, the view is somewhat nearer and 
 clearer. In the warmer seas, corals of various form and beauty 
 are rearing their reefs ; shell-fish of every grade, though not 
 of great numerical abundance, are busy along shore and in 
 mid-water ; fishes of widely different forms swarm in shoals 
 generically few, but individually most numerous ; whilst 
 crustaceans of uncouth shape and gigantic growth feed on 
 the tide-borne garbage of the muddy creeks and shallow 
 lagoons. This is all : and much as has been made of it, all 
 reason forbids us to accept it as more than the merest con- 
 tribution to the biology of the period. 
 
 Succeeding the old red sandstone, and much more sharply 
 defined physically and vitally comes the great CARBO- 
 NIFEROUS FORMATION. We have now extensive alterations 
 
CARBONIFEROUS ERA. 101 
 
 in the distribution of land and water shallower seas larger 
 rivers and estuaries wide, far- stretching swampy lands ; and 
 with these, new ocean-currents, a more genial and equable 
 climate, and, as a concomitant, a more exuberant exhibi- 
 tion, and over wider areas, of vegetable and animal life. 
 In some regions, but by no means over the whole world.' 
 the transition from the one period to tlte -otXai" seems to 
 have taken place through convulsive -energy ; -aikl hence 
 in these regions comparatively few of 'ihe'fOrms b* the 1 eld 
 red sandstone survive, or pass into the carboniferous era. 
 As in every other period, the new forms come slowly and 
 gradually on the stage, attain their " culminating point," or 
 period of greatest variety, size, and numbers, and then 
 gradually or quickly decline, according to the continuity of 
 the conditions by which they are surrounded. In the 
 vegetable world we have now a most exuberant Mora so 
 exuberant that it is but faintly paralleled by the rankest 
 growth of the tropical jungle. To account for this extra- 
 ordinary development of plant-life, over such wide and 
 diversely situated regions of the globe, various hypotheses 
 have been offered, such as a larger percentage of carbonic 
 acid gas in the atmosphere the greater effect of the earth's 
 central heat change in the earth's axis of rotation, so as to 
 bring the coal-bearing areas within the tropics and greater 
 eccentricity of the earth's orbit, so as to have brought the 
 globe periodically nearer to the sun's influence ; but as we 
 have not in the mean time* a shadow of proof for such 
 abnormal causes, and much evidence to the contrary, we are 
 bound by sound induction to seek for the explanation in 
 
 * We say in the mean time; for the recurrence of colder and warmer 
 cycles over the northern hemisphere, as evinced by the geological record, 
 is clearly the result of some great cosmical law, depending either on 
 telluric or on solar influences, and, as such, must sooner or later be 
 satisfactorily determined. See Concluding Chapter "The Law," Sec- 
 tion 6. 
 
102 THE FAR PAST. 
 
 the then peculiar distribution of sea and land, in the alti- 
 tude of its shores, in the arrangement of warmer aerial and 
 oceanic currents, and generally in a concentration of these 
 conditions, such as would produce the necessary climate. 
 And, after all as in the case of the great tertiary elephants 
 and rhinoceroses of Northern Europe, whose representatives 
 rfre now' foun'd 'oriy in the tropics we know too little of 
 ^tb.c nature of the plants to say under what conditions of 
 ' climate t^y would attain their greatest exuberance, though 
 we clearly perceive from their foliage and mode of growth 
 that it was at once equable and continuous.* Generally 
 speaking, we find them resembling equisetums, marsh- 
 grasses, reeds, club-mosses, tree-ferns, and coniferous trees ; 
 and these in existing nature attain their maximum de- 
 velopment in warm-temperate and subtropical, rather than 
 in equatorial regions. The "Wellingtonias of California, 
 and the pines of Norfolk Island, are more gigantic than the 
 largest coniferous tree yet discovered in the coal-measures ; 
 the tree-ferns of New Zealand luxuriate in humid and shady 
 spots ; the tussack of Falkland Island, and the phormium 
 of New Zealand, show leaves as broad and long as the 
 poacites of the carboniferous period ; while accumulations 
 of peat-growth are the products of coldly-temperate, rather 
 than of equatorial latitudes. Besides all this, we have 
 coal-beds in other formations the oolite, the Wealden, and 
 tertiary ; and if we are to go in search of abnormal condi- 
 tions for the production of the one, we must admit the 
 existence of similar causes for the production of the other 
 an admission, as we shall afterwards see, that would lead to 
 
 * It is more than likely, as suggested by the late Robert Brown, that 
 many of the Coal-plants were inhabitants of the swamp and shallow 
 waters estuarine and marine ; and that, rooted in mud, rich in organic 
 matters, and surrounded by water of an equable and genial tempera- 
 ture, they enjoyed the conditions at once of a rapid and of a gigantic 
 growth. 
 
CARBONIFEROUS ERA. 103 
 
 irreconcilable absurdities. The fact is, coal is a necessary 
 product of every period, and is merely the mineralised re- 
 sult of vegetable accumulation pointing rather to im- 
 mensity of time than to rapidity of growth as the cause of 
 that accumulation. It is to time, therefore, and to genial 
 equability of climate, rather than to excessive tempera- 
 ture, that we are to look for an explanation of the vegetable 
 masses of the coal period and he who would cut short the 
 difficulty by appeals to abnormal conditions, instead of ex- 
 hausting the possibilities within the scope of natural law, 
 at once does violence to Nature, and retards the progress of 
 legitimate induction. 
 
 The vegetation to which we allude consists offucoids and 
 confervites, or sea-weeds and confervas ; of equisetites, hip- 
 purites, and asterophyUites, gigantic plants resembling the 
 horse-tails of our swamps and ditches ; of innumerable tree- 
 ferns distinguished by the forms and venation of their 
 leaves, as neuropteris (nerve-fern), cydopteris (circle-fern), 
 ylossopteris (tongue-fern), pecopteris (comb-fern), sphenop- 
 teris (w T edge-fern), and the like ; of fern stems, caulopteris; 
 of reed-like plants, calamites; of palms,* palmacites and 
 Noeggerathia ; of a vast variety of trees of unknown relation- 
 ship, as sigillaria (fluted bark), stigmaria (dotted bark), 
 now known to be the roots of sigillaria, &c., lepidodendron 
 (scaly stem), bothrodendron (pitted stem), favularia (honey- 
 combed bark), and the like ; and of true coniferous trunks 
 
 * It has been recently questioned, and apparently on good grounds, 
 whether we have certain evidence of the existence of palms during the 
 Carboniferous epoch? The three-cornered fruits (trigonocarpum), for- 
 merly supposed to be those of palms, are now regarded as those of coni- 
 ferous plants, which, like the berry of the juniper, was enclosed in a 
 fleshy envelope ; while the broad flabelliform or fan - shaped leaves 
 (Noeygerathia) are also considered coniferous and akin to the existing 
 subtropical Salisburia. The so-called palm-stems have always been held 
 as doubtful. 
 
104 
 
 THE FAR PAST. 
 
 resembling the pine, araucaria, pence, yew, &c., and hence 
 known as pinites, arauearites, peucites, and to.xites. As 
 
 Calamite ; Bothrodendron : Equis^tites ; Asterophyllit.es; Tepidodendron : C;mlupU:r!s. or 
 Tree-fern ; Sigillaria, with Stigmaria roots ; J.ycopoaues : Peroptcris, xc. 
 
 yet, we have only two or three doubtful instances of a dicoty- 
 
CARBONIFEROUS ERA. 105 
 
 ledonous flora the majority of the preceding forms being 
 monocotyledons and conifers. Occurring as they do in 
 stony and carbonised fragments, their relations are but ill 
 understood ; and botanists have as yet contented themselves 
 by pointing out resemblances rather than in establishing 
 true affinities. Whatever their nature, they must have 
 grown in vast luxuriance and variety, clothing every river- 
 side and plain, and spreading over every swamp in one im- 
 penetrable jungle, and this, season after season, and age 
 after age, till their accumulated growth completed the coal- 
 beds now so indispensable to the progress of civilisation. 
 It is customary for a certain class of writers to descant on 
 the " dreary and flowerless monotony" of the vegetation of 
 the Coal period. This, however, is an error. Though all 
 the equisetunis and club-mosses and ferns were undoubted- 
 ly flowerless, the higher gynmogens and endogens were 
 not so, as we have evidence in the fossil flowers and fruits 
 (antholites and carpolites), which thickly stud many of the 
 shales; and we have often thought that what was wanting 
 in blossom was more than compensated for by the profu- 
 sion of light symmetrical, feathery fronds, and by the tall 
 pillar-like steins Avhich rose, each one boldly carved with 
 its own peculiar pattern. The trunks of a modern forest 
 are rough and gnarled; those of the period now under 
 review sprang up like the sculptured shafts of a medieval 
 temple, graceful in proportion, and rich in ornament through 
 the endless repetition of flutings, spirals, zigzags, lozenges, 
 ovals, and other geometrical designs these designs being 
 the persistent leaf-scars of a vegetation simpler in structure 
 and more primitive in plan. 
 
 When we turn to the Animal Life of the period, which 
 belongs almost exclusively to the waters, we find it equally 
 exuberant in numbers and in variety. Life abounds near 
 shore and in the shallow waters life is rife in the deeper 
 
106 
 
 THE FAR PAST. 
 
 ocean and over all there is a fades or general resemblance 
 that stamps the period as distinct from the old red sand- 
 stone that precedes, as from the new red that follows. 
 The seas swarm with zoophytes of various families, and 
 reef-building corals (astrwopora, cyathophyllum, clisioplnjl- 
 lum, and lithostrotiori) pile up the masses of the mountain 
 
 1, Syringopera ; 2, Lithostrotion ; 3, Aulopora ; 4, Amplexus ; 
 o, ClisiophyUum ; 6, Ptilopora ; 7, Arcliimedopora. 
 
 limestone. Star-fishes (pentremites), sea-urchins (palcechinus 
 and arcliceocidaris), and encrinites of numerous genera and 
 species abound the latter in such profusion that ihey 
 now outweigh the zoophytes, and whole strata are com- 
 posed of their calcareous remains. Serpulce and spirorbes 
 attach their sheaths to every available object ; sea- worms, 
 like the arenicola, leave their tracks and burrows in the 
 sands ; and these are also pattered with footprints, pitted 
 
CARBONIFEROUS ERA. 
 
 with rain-drops, and crested with ripple-marks. In the 
 stagnant lagoons, minute crustaceans, like cypris and cy fli- 
 p/re, swarm in myriads ; a few species of trilobite still 
 
 1, Woodocrinus ; 2, Cyathocrinus . 3, Palaechinus ; 4, Plates and Spine 
 of Archseocidaris. 
 
 linger in the muddy creeks ; eurypterites are on the wane, 
 and forms like the limulus or king-crab of the Indian Ocean 
 now make their appearance. For the first time, too, we 
 discover the crusts and wing-cases of beetle-like insects, 
 showing that the vegetation of the period afforded them 
 abundance of food ; and that garbage, perhaps of an ani- 
 mal nature, was there also, though we have not been enabled 
 to trace the connection. Every order of molluscan life is 
 busy in the waters bryozoa, like the flustra and retepora 
 of our own seas, spread their cells in symmetrical network 
 on dead shells and broken encrinites ; brachiopods, like 
 
108 
 
 THE FAK PAST. 
 
 spirifer and productus, are in deep water ; huge nautilus- 
 like cephalopods, nautilus, goniatite, and orthoceratite, in 
 
 L, Sec. 
 
 1, Ditliyrocaris ; 2, Limuloides (Bellinurus) ; 3, Cypris magnified ; 4, Spirorbis 
 
 (Annelid) magnified; 5, Phillipsia (Trilobite) ; 6, Earypterus (Ldothea) 
 
 Scouleri, from Linlithgowshire. 
 
 the open sea ; gasteropods, like euomphalus and pleurotom- 
 aria, on shore ; acephalans, like unio and anodon, in fresh- 
 water and tidal estuaries ; and others, like aviculopecten, 
 mytilus, and mactra, in its shallower bays. The bone- 
 encased fishes of the old red sandstone have now disap- 
 peared, and their place is taken by the more fish-like forms 
 (if we may so express it) of megalichthys, paloeoniscus, am- 
 Uypterus, eurynotus, and platysomus; by gigantic shark-like 
 cestracionts, whose teeth (helodus, poecilodw, psammodus, 
 &c.) and fin-spines (yyracantltus, ctenacanthus, oracanthm, 
 &c.) are alone preserved to us ; and huge sauroid genera 
 (rhizodus, &c.), whose dentition marks an affinity to the 
 
CARBONIFEROUS ERA. 
 
 109 
 
 higher class of reptiles. In many localities these fishes 
 seemed to have swarmed in shoals, preying on shell-fish and 
 
 1, Tarebratula ; 3 Productus ; 3, Spirifera; 4, Aviculopecten ; 5, Bellcrophon ; 6. Loxoneraa ; 
 
 7, Murchisonia ; 6, Pleurotomaria ; 9, Euomphalus ; 10, Conularia ; 
 
 11, Goniatites , 12, Orthoceratite. 
 
 young coral-growth, and also on one another, as is amply 
 testified by their fossil droppings or coprolites, which crowd 
 the shales or muds of the carboniferous sea-bed. In rep- 
 tilian life, the forms are, on the whole, of loAvly organisation, 
 indicating, as it were, the recent advent of the order, an 
 
110 
 
 THE FAR PAST. 
 
 order whose remains have not been discovered with cer- 
 tainty in any preceding formation. From the European and 
 
 CARBONIFEROUS FISHES. 
 
 1 , Palaeoniscus ; 2, Amblypterus. 
 
 lS r ova Scotian coal-fields, however, we have five or six genera 
 of frog-like and lizard-like forms some evidently aquatic, 
 others amphibious, and some fitted for an arboreal habitat. 
 They are known by such names as archoeogosaurus (ancient 
 land-lizard), parabatraclius (frog-like reptile), and dendrer- 
 peton (tree-lizard), and carry the imagination back to stag- 
 nant pools, to sludgy river-shores, and to ancient forest- 
 growths, whose hollow trunks furnished at once their insect- 
 food and a place of security and shelter. In these early 
 reptiles in the persistence of their dorsal chord, their gill- 
 arches, their large median and lateral throat-plates, and 
 other piscine characters Professor Owen traces a " linking 
 and blending" of the two cold-blooded vertebrate groups ; 
 arcliffiogosaurus conducting, as it were, the inarch of life 
 
CARBONIFEROUS ERA. 
 
 Ill 
 
 from the fish proper to these labyrinthodont reptiles that 
 come boldly into force in the Permian and triassic eras. 
 
 Fin Spines: 1, Pleuracanthus ; 2, Gyracanthus . 3, Ctenacanthus. Palatal Teeth: 
 
 4, Ctenoptychius ; 5, Psammodus ; 6, Poecilodus. 7, Jaw of Rhizodus, 
 
 showing Reptilian Teeth. 
 
 The course of vitality is thus for ever onward and upward 
 onward in the introduction of forms having more varied 
 geographical adaptations, and upward in the manifestation 
 of higher physiological and functional performance. 
 
 Such is the panorama of carboniferous life an unparal- 
 leled exuberance of endogenous flora ; a wonderful profusion 
 of estuarine and marine life in all its aspects : but as yet 
 few insects, none of the higher reptiles, no birds, no mam- 
 mals ! And yet, looking at mere external conditions, it is 
 
112 THE FAR PAST. 
 
 difficult to conceive how, in some of their specific forms, 
 they should not be there. There was abundant food for 
 insects why not insectivorous reptiles and mammals to prey 
 upon them] Besides insects, there were also fruits and 
 seeds why not birds to feed upon them ; and why not the 
 larger herbivorous reptiles and quadrupeds to browse upon 
 the excess of vegetation that then clothed so large a portion 
 of the earth's surface 1 True, such plants as equisetums, 
 club-mosses, ferns, and coniferous trees, are, from the pecu- 
 liar principles they contain, the least fitted for the susten- 
 ance of known animals ; but then there were the succulent 
 shoots and roots of palms, of calamites, poacites, and other 
 leafy herbage the fruits of palms and other allied trees, 
 and these we know are the favourite food of many mammals 
 at the present day. Nay more ; as we know that certain 
 savage tribes exist on palm fruits, or farinaceous roots, and 
 on the fish of the ocean, we might carry this sort of reason- 
 ing still further, and ask whether the human race, in some 
 of its lowlier phases, might not also have been participators 
 in the life of the carboniferous era 1 To questions such as 
 these the palaeontologist has no other answer to offer than 
 that he has hitherto failed to detect the remains of birds 
 and mammals ; that as the food to be consumed and the 
 consumer are generally concomitants, so he more than ex- 
 pects the discovery of higher life during the coal-period ; 
 but that this higher life, though discovered to-morrow, 
 would necessarily take its stand lower in the scale of organ- 
 isation than the reptiles, and birds, and mammals which 
 are found in the immediately succeeding formations of the 
 new red sandstone and oolite. If there is one truth that 
 geology has established more clearly than another, it is that 
 of the progressive evolution of life on this globe ; not pro- 
 gress from imperfection to perfection, for all are alike fitted 
 to the end for which they were created, but progress from 
 
CARBONIFEROUS ERA. 113 
 
 simpler to more specialised forms. All the discoveries that 
 have been made, and are daily making, never controvert in 
 the least this great order of life ; nor do the ablest geolo- 
 gists, though anticipating many new forms, ever expect to 
 find it otherwise with creation than onward and still up- 
 ward. In this respect the coal-formation takes its place 
 orderly and in perfect harmony with what is known of other 
 formations : more prolific and more specialised in its forms 
 than the old red sandstone beneath, and less so than the 
 new red and other secondary strata that follow. 
 
 Looking, in the mean time, at the whole aspects of the 
 carboniferous period, we are reminded (as we have else- 
 where* indicated) of geographical conditions never before 
 nor since exhibited on our globe. The frequent alterna- 
 tions of strata, and the great extent of our coal-fields, indi- 
 cate the existence of vast estuaries and inland seas of 
 gigantic rivers and periodical inundations the numerous 
 coal-seams and bituminous shales clearly bespeak conditions 
 of soil, moisture, and warmth favourable to an exuberant 
 vegetation, and point partly to vegetable drift, and partly 
 to submerged forests, to peat-swamps and jungle-growth ; 
 the mountain limestone, with its marine remains, reminds 
 us of low islands fringed with encrinite-banks and coral- 
 reefs, and lagoons thronged with shell-fish and fishes the 
 existence of reptiles and insects tells us of air, and sunlight, 
 and river-banks ; the vast geographical extent of the system 
 bears evidence of an equable and continuous climate over a 
 large portion of the earth's surface ; while the interstratified 
 trap-tuffs, the basaltic outbursts, and the numerous faults 
 and fissures, testify to a period of intense igneous activity 
 within the same areas, to repeated upheavals of sea-bottom 
 and submergences of dry land. All this is so clearly indi- 
 cated to the investigator of the carboniferous system, that 
 
 * Advanced Text-Book of Geology. 
 
114 THE FAR PAST. 
 
 he feels as convinced of their occurrence as if he had stood 
 on the river-bank of the period, and seen the muddy cur- 
 rent roll down its burden of vegetable drift ; threaded the 
 channels of the estuary, gloomy with the gigantic growth 
 of swamp and jungle ; or sailed over the shallow waters of 
 its archipelago, studded with reef-fringed volcanic islands, 
 and dipped his oar into the forests of encrinites that waved 
 below. 
 
 The Permian period, to which we now turn, presents 
 itself more in the light of a new rock-formation than a 
 distinct life-period. Many of its forms are identical with 
 those of the coal period, and we may, without doing great 
 violence to fact, regard it as the continuation and close of 
 the carboniferous era specialised by local disturbances 
 in the areas of deposit, and the consequent dying out of 
 many genera and species. Perhaps the most remarkable 
 feature is the rapid disappearance of the coal flora, and its 
 restriction to a few higher forms of tree-ferns and conifer- 
 ous trees, as if the low swampy jungle had been upheaved 
 into higher and drier lands unfavourable to the growth of 
 
 1, Palseoniscus Frieslebeni 2, Platysomus striatus 
 
 sigillaria, calamites, equisetums, and lepidodendra. The 
 gigantic sauroid fishes have also disappeared with the 
 
PERMIAN ERA. 115 
 
 estuaries in which they held supreme sway, though less 
 localised forms, as palcBoniscus andplatysomus, still occur in 
 abundance ; reptiles of larger growth and curious configura- 
 tion (labyrinthodon) come into view; reptilian and bird-like 
 footsteps (ichnites) can also be traced on the sandstones ; and 
 if American geologists be not mistaken, mammalian life in 
 its lowly marsupial form (dromathermm) now comes for the 
 first time on the stage of being. On the whole, however, 
 
 Jaw of Dromatheriutn silvestre, from the Red Sandstones 
 of North. Carolina (Emmons). 
 
 there seems a paucity of life during the Permian period, when 
 compared with that which preceded it ; and this we may, in 
 the mean time, ascribe partly to geographical changes in the 
 distribution of sea and land, partly to the altered composi- 
 tion of the sea-water in certain areas where we have now 
 magnesian limestones and red ferruginous sandstones, and 
 partly to that change of climate which is indicated by the 
 symptoms of glacial action in the formation of its con- 
 glomerates and bouldery breccias. * 
 
 * Professor Ramsay, who was the first to advocate, in a decided man- 
 ner, the glacial origin of these breccias, founds his belief on the following 
 evidences : 1. The great size of many of the fragments the largest 
 observed weighing (by a rough estimate) from a half to three-quarters 
 of a ton. 2. Their forms. Rounded pebbles are exceedingly rare. 
 They are angular or sub-angular, and have those flattened sides so 
 peculiarly characteristic of many glacier- fragments in existing moraines, 
 and also of many of the stones of the pleistocene drifts, and the moraine 
 matter of the Welsh, Highland, Irish, and Yosges glaciers. 3. Many 
 of them are highly polished, and others are grooved and finely striated, 
 like the stones of existing Alpine glaciers, and like those of the ancient 
 
116 THE FAR PAST. 
 
 We now close the long record of Ancient Life, during 
 which whole races and families departed, and others took 
 their place the march of vitality being ever forward to 
 higher and higher orders. We have seen that all the great 
 types of life radiate, molluscan, articulate, and verte- 
 brate had their beginning simultaneously and indepen- 
 dently on the globe, and that all subsequent progress has 
 been restricted to the modification and elimination of these 
 primal patterns. We have seen the graptolites of Siluria 
 rise, culminate, and depart with that period ; seen also its 
 curious encrinites and foot-stalked sea-urchins, or cystidecp., 
 flourish and die within the same limits ; and witnessed its 
 wonderful flush of trilobite life, which waned in the old red, 
 and finally disappeared about the middle of the carbonifer- 
 ous era. So also have we witnessed the larger crustacean 
 forms of eurypterus and pterygotus come strongly and 
 forcibly on the Devonian stage, and somewhat speedily 
 wane and die out with the coal period, during which other 
 forms, prefigurative as it were of the existing limulm, take 
 their places. In like manner the curious bone-clad fishes 
 of the old red (the " palichthyan" aspect of fish life) rise 
 and depart with that system only a few of the genera, but 
 none of the species, living into the carboniferous epoch. 
 And when we come to the coal period itself, there also all 
 the wonderful and exuberant forms of its vegetation its 
 stigmaria, sigillaria, lepidodendra, bothrodendra, catamites, 
 and tree-ferns start into being, nourish in profusion, and 
 depart with those physical peculiarities which stamped 
 
 glaciers of the Vosges, Wales, Ireland, and the Highlands of Scotland ; 
 or like many stones in the pleistocene drifts. 4. A hardened cementing 
 mass of red marl, in which the stones are very thickly scattered, and 
 which in some respects may be compared to a red boulder-clay, in so far 
 that both contain angular, flat-sided, and striated stones, such as form the 
 breccias wherever they occur. Journal of Geological Society, vol. xi. 
 
ITS CLOSE. 117 
 
 their impress on the life of that era. So also with its 
 sauroid fishes ; and so also with many genera and species 
 of its shell-fish and corals and encrinites, which though 
 more lowly are nevertheless peculiarly distinctive of car- 
 boniferous seas, and are never found in the waters of sub- 
 sequent ages. 
 
 From the first to the last from the Silurian to the Per- 
 mian all has been growth and decay, and in that death a 
 progress which ever goes forward without halt or hesitation. 
 No indecision ; no trial-work ; no error to be corrected ; 
 no blunder to be revised. And yet amid all this incoming 
 and outgoing, as we shall see in the following chapter, 
 there has been no break in vitality, no change of the 
 great primal patterns, but merely such modifications as 
 best harmonise with the new conditions of each succeeding 
 era. Nor must we regard this harmony between geographi- 
 cal condition and organic manifestation in any other light 
 than that of a mere co-adaptation ; for over and above it there 
 is clearly a prescient design, having respect to development 
 in time from more general to more specialised types, and from 
 physiological simplicity to physiological complexity of func- 
 tions. From the obscure and simple forms of the lowest 
 stratified systems we rise stage after stage to higher and 
 higher manifestations of life ; onwards and, still upwards is 
 the orderly course of creation ; and yet in this vast and 
 varied progression every member is bound to that which 
 preceded it, as well as to that which accompanies it, by the 
 ties and relationship of one great cosmical plan. This is 
 surely more than mere " physical development" some- 
 thing higher than the " transmutation of specific forms 
 under the force of external conditions" something more 
 precise and definite than " natural selection in the struggle 
 for existence," or any other of the materialistic hypotheses 
 
 H 
 
118 THE FAR PAST. 
 
 that have been recently advanced to account for the great 
 chronological elimination of vitality. It is (if anything 
 man shall ever comprehend) the gradual unfolding of a 
 predestined scheme a divine conception, to the realisation 
 of which the various forces of nature, co-related and co- 
 adapted, are in ever-active co-operation. 
 
THE MIDDLE PAST. 
 
 MESOZOIC SYSTEMS THE TRIAS, OOLITE, AND CHALK. 
 
 WE now take leave of the palaeozoic aspects of the world, 
 and pass on to those of the Mesozoic or "middle life" 
 period characterised by forms and species which hold an 
 intermediate place between those of the more ancient and 
 those of the more modern epochs. The grand primeval 
 types and patterns are still the same radiate, niolluscan, 
 articulate, and vertebrate but the modifications of the types 
 are new, and the consequent organisation higher and more 
 complex. The " differentiation" of the vital functions (as 
 zoologists express it) now becomes more marked and ap- 
 parent that is, instead of organisations in which several 
 functions are performed by the same organ, each function 
 has an organ specially devoted to its purpose. The expres- 
 sion of Creative thought has become more specialised, and 
 the plants and animals of the newer epochs bear the im- 
 press of that specialisation, and find in new external condi- 
 tions a fitting habitat for their growth and elimination. 
 
 We noAV take farewell of the graptolites, cystideans, tri- 
 lobites, and eurypterites of Silurian seas of the gigantic 
 crustaceans and bone-cased fishes of the old red sandstone 
 of the sigillarire, stigmariae, lepidodendra, and other endo- 
 genous forms of the coal period of the cup-in-cup, honey- 
 
120 THE MIDDLE PAST. 
 
 comb, chain-pore, spider-web, and other corals of the De- 
 vonian and mountain limestones of the huge reptile-like 
 fishes that swarmed in carboniferous waters ; and are intro- 
 duced to other species and newer forms of vitality. The 
 vegetation that adorns the lands of the mesozoic period 
 bears a closer resemblance and affinity to the tree-ferns, 
 cycads, zamias, palms, and subtropical pines of the present 
 day ; and the botanist feels he can now institute compari- 
 sons with some prospect of success, and attempt restorations 
 with greater confidence and certainty. So also in the ani- 
 mal world the approximations are becoming closer and 
 closer ; the divergence from existing families is less percep- 
 tible even to the unscientific observer ; and the zoologist 
 now meets with all the great divisions of vertebrate life 
 fishes, reptiles, birds, and mammals. A vast progress has 
 been made in the great onward evolution of vitality 
 whole families of lower life have died out, and higher ones 
 have taken their places and orders only beginning to come 
 into existence in the primeval world are now approaching 
 their culmination, or point of greatest numbers, variety, 
 and development. 
 
 Besides these gradational advances from lower to higher 
 forms, which are common to every geological epoch, there 
 are also some curious external characteristics which must 
 arrest the notice even of the least scientific and the least 
 geological of observers. So noticeable are these features, 
 that if the fossils of the palaeozoic cycle were arranged on 
 one side of a museum, and those of the neozoic on another, 
 the difference would strike the casual observer as strongly 
 as would the difference between the brute-man sculptures 
 of the* ^ r inevites and Egyptians on the one hand, and the 
 man-god sculptures of the Greeks and Eomans on the other. 
 It is like passing from the Assyrian and Egyptian chambers 
 of the British Museum to those devoted to the Greeks and 
 
ITS GENERAL FEATURES. 121 
 
 Romans. The expression of human thought is not more 
 clearly indicated by the remains of these ancient civilisa- 
 tions, than the expression of creative thought is indicated 
 by the fossil forms of the palaeozoic and mesozoic Earth- 
 periods. Thus, in the palaeozoic endogens the ultimate 
 development of the leaf is, for the most part, stamped in 
 permanent beauty on the tall sculptured stems, whereas in 
 the neozoic exogens it ascends to the more exquisite but 
 evanescent beauties of the flower and fruit. Again, the 
 palaeozoic leaf, being endogenous, has a venation wholly 
 parallel, whereas the neozoic leaf adds the reticulated vena- 
 tion of the exogen to that of the endogen. Further, as the 
 floral arrangement of the endogen is formed by three, and 
 that of the exogen by Jive, all the palaeozoic flowers and 
 fruits are stamped by the normal number three, whereas 
 Jives and threes are equally normal in the neozoic flora. So 
 also in the animal kingdom : the corals of the palaeozoic 
 cycle had their septa or ray-like partitions arranged in fours, 
 while those of the neozoic are arranged in sixes. In -the 
 palaeozoic cephalopods the arms are for the most part void 
 of sucking discs, while those of the neozoic seas are, on the 
 other hand, generally furnished with them ; and in the 
 chambered shells of the same order, the palaeozoic species 
 have their sutural junctions plain and simple, while those 
 of the neozoic are often foliated and of most intricate pat- 
 tern. The palaeozoic Crustacea, even in the highest forms 
 yet discovered, are more larval-like or abdominal in their 
 segmentation than the neozoic, in which head, thorax, and 
 abdomen become distinct and definite. Again, the palaeo- 
 zoic fishes had all the heterocercal or unequally-lobed tail 
 (which marks the embryonic condition of fish-life in gene- 
 ral), while in the neozoic order, the heterocerque is subor- 
 dinated, and the homocerque, or equally-lobed, and the un- 
 divided tails become the general and normal forms. 
 
122 THE MIDDLE PAST. 
 
 These and other distinctions, upon which our limits will 
 not permit us to dwell, stamp the palaeozoic as a life-period 
 widely different from that of the mesozoic, and yet there 
 was no break, no discontinuity in the great evolution of 
 vitality. As the life of one system runs imperceptibly into 
 that of another, and the two have always some forms in 
 common ; so the palaeozoic runs into the mesozoic, and it 
 is only when viewed as a whole, and at a sufficient distance, 
 that its distinctive characters stand out in bold and peculiar 
 relief. So in like manner we shall find it with the meso- 
 zoic life-period, when we have reviewed the forms of its 
 triassic, oolitic, and cretaceous systems. It has a facies 
 peculiar to itself, and though approaching in some of its 
 features, yet as a whole unmistakably different from the 
 facies of the cainozoic period, which is now running its 
 course, and bearing us along with it. 
 
 And first, we turn to the Trias or upper new red sand- 
 stone, with its " triple" series of various coloured sandstones, 
 shelly limestones, and saliferous and gypseous shales. These 
 party-coloured deposits, in which ferruginous tints predo- 
 minate, are clearly the sediments of circumscribed oceanic 
 areas areas which, in the northern hemisphere at least, 
 were of no great depth, and subjected to repeated elevatory 
 and depressing movements. This new arrangement of sea 
 and land, accompanied by no gigantic rivers or estuaries, 
 and apparently by a somewhat arid climate, is characterised 
 by a numerical as well as specific paucity of life a paucity 
 which is greatly aggravated by the unsuitable nature of 
 the sandstones and marls for the preservation of organic 
 remains. Physiologically, however, the forms are still on 
 the advance ; cycads and conifers are more decided in their 
 characters ; brachiopods diminish, and true bivalves in- 
 crease ; cold-blooded air-breathers become more numerous, 
 
TRIASSIC ERA. 
 
 123 
 
 and warm-blooded races (birds and marsupials) for the first 
 time make their unmistakable appearance. Vitality, in 
 obedience to some great law of progress, is ever pressing 
 forward to higher and higher forms, even though restricted 
 to unstable seas, and subjected to the stunting influences of 
 riverless plains and thirsty uplands. 
 
 Of the marine flora of the trias we know little or nothing. 
 Fucus-\\ke impressions are occasionally retained on the sand- 
 stones, but so fragmentary and obscure that a " general re- 
 
 1, Walchia ; 2. Pterozamites or Ptercphyllum from North America (Smmous). 
 
 semblance" is all the paleontologist can affirm. When we 
 turn to the land -plants, equisetums, calamites, ferns, cy- 
 cads, and conifers are the predominating forms ; the equi- 
 setum and calaniite pointing to the marshy pools of the 
 summer-dried river-course, the fern and cycad to the scrubby 
 plain, and the coniferous trees to the open upland. The 
 triassic equisetums, calamites, and tree-ferns (sphenopteris, 
 
124 THE MIDDLE PAST. 
 
 pecopteriti, neuropteris, &c.), though bearing the stamp of 
 generic resemblance to paleozoic forms, and evidently ful- 
 filling the same functions, are all of different species ; while 
 the cycadaceous pteropliyllum and Mantellia, and the coni- 
 ferous Voltzia and Wcdchia are altogether new and unknown 
 to former floras. On the whole, the aspect of the triassic 
 flora is more akin to that of the oolite, which succeeds, than 
 to that of the carboniferous that went before ; and though 
 scantily exhibited in the areas of Britain and Germany, 
 many have had a fuller and more connected development 
 in other regions. At all events, Ave are not entitled to 
 generalise from these limited localities, but rather to believe 
 that the apparent severance between palaeozoic and meso- 
 zoic was bridged over by intermediate forms that now lie 
 entombed in areas still unknown or covered by the existing 
 ocean. 
 
 In the animal kingdom (the forms being chiefly marine) 
 the connection is more continuous and intelligible, even 
 though the bulk of triassic sediments are highly unfavour- 
 able to the preservation of organic structure. The lower 
 Radiate forms are yet little known, few corals occurring in 
 any investigated area, and only two or three species of 
 encrinite and pentaerinite. The higher radiates are equally 
 rare, there being no well-authenticated instance of a sea- 
 urchin, and only two or three genera of star-fish, as opliiura, 
 aspidura, and asterias. The Articulata are even still more 
 scantily represented in the triassic seas of Europe, only a 
 few insignificant serpulob and a single crustacean (palinu- 
 rus) being all that have yet turned up to the palaeontolo- 
 gist ; thus leaving an almost unbridged gulf between the 
 higher annelids, Crustacea, and insects of the coal, and 
 those that are known to succeed in the oolite. This, how- 
 ever, is obviously a local imperfection in the Record, and 
 geologists look forward with interest to the discovery of the 
 
TRIASSIC ERA. 125 
 
 connecting forms in the strata of other triassic regions. When 
 we turn to the Mollusca, the record becomes much more 
 satisfactory and connective, though many of the old genera 
 are evidently on the wane, and several have wholly de- 
 parted. The brachiopods, diminishing alike in generic and 
 numerical force, are still represented by lingula, terebratula, 
 and spirifer; the conchifera, or true bivalves, are vastly on 
 the increase, and such forms as trigonia, my a, plagiostoma, 
 avicula, and ostrea, throng the waters; the gasteropods 
 present buccinum, turbo, turiteUa, and other characteristic 
 genera ; while the predaceous cephalopods, rising in com- 
 plexity of structure, are represented by orthoceras, nautilus, 
 cemtite, belemnite, and rhyncholite. The Fishes of the pe- 
 
 Bestored form of Labyrinthodon, with footprints the same as Cheirotherium. 
 
 riod present as yet few well-determined forms, being known 
 chiefly by their detached teeth and fin-spines. These or- 
 ganisms, scattered as they are, clearly point to shark-like 
 genera (ceratodus, hybodus, &c.), whose mouths, like that of 
 the Australian cestracion, were paved with broad-crowned 
 corrugated teeth for the crushing of shell-fish, \vhile their 
 serrated fin-spines supplied them with a sure and ready 
 means of defence. Besides these, there are other forms 
 (saurichthys, &c.) which still carry forward, though on a 
 
126 
 
 THE MIDDLE PAST. 
 
 diminished scale, the line of sauroid fishes that had its 
 culmination in the estuaries of the carboniferous era. But 
 if sauroid fishes are on the wane, true reptiles marine and 
 amphibious are strikingly on the increase, their teeth, bones, 
 and footprints foreshadowing that enormous development 
 and variety that found its meridian during the oolite epoch. 
 Of these the gigantic frog-like labyrinthodon, the plesio- 
 saur, pliytosaur, and thecodo?itosaur, the small lizard-like 
 telerpeton of the Elgin sandstones, the larger liyperodape- 
 
 Telerpeton Eljinense 
 
 don, and the crocodile-like staganolepis of the same for- 
 mation, are perhaps the most noticeable forms ; while 
 innumerable foot-tracks (chelichnm, cheirotherium, batrich- 
 nis, &c.) point partly to turtle -like, partly to frog -like, 
 and partly to crocodilian-like genera. 
 
 Still higher in the scale of life rank the foot- tracks of 
 gigantic birds, and the teeth and jaws of small insectivorous 
 mammals. These fossil foot-prints (ichnites) form one of the 
 most curious features of the period, and their study (iehno- 
 logy) constitutes one of the most interesting chapters in 
 geology.* In the successive stages of the earth's history 
 
 * The valley of the Connecticut in America, Corncockle Muir in Dum- 
 friesshire, Storeton in Cheshire, and Hildberghausen in Germany, have 
 been, as yet, the chief repositories of these fossil footprints. So abundant 
 are they in the Connecticut sandstones, which are mainly triassic (the 
 upper being of the age of the lias, and the lower perhaps permian), that 
 
TRIASSIC ERA. 127 
 
 worms must have tracked and burrowed in the open sands, 
 shell-fish and Crustacea crawled and pattered on the muddy 
 beach, and reptiles, birds, and mammals footed the tidal 
 silt of bays and estuaries. Wherever these materials were 
 of sufficient consistence, and exposed during a long tidal 
 ebb to the desiccating effects of the sun, there the impres- 
 sions would be retained, and act as a mould for the recep- 
 tion of the next influx of mud. The mould and its cast, 
 covered over by repeated sediments, are thus preserved 
 for ever, bearing every outline of form and minutiae of 
 structural surface, according to the nature of the deposit 
 that received the living impression. Over these old trias- 
 sic shores numerous birds and reptiles waded and wandered, 
 now wheeling in sport, now fleeing in fear, and anon steal- 
 ing stealthily on their devoted victims. JS r ot a bird-bone 
 has yet been discovered in the sediments that bear these 
 fossil footprints,""" and yet so characteristic is the foot of 
 the bird (the number and disposition of its joints, and the 
 corrugations of its skin), that palaeontology rests satisfied 
 in their existence as fully as though their skeletons were 
 there to indicate their habits and dimensions. In the case 
 of mammalian life the evidence, though scantier, is much 
 
 Dr Hitchcock has already enumerated 123 species viz., marsupialoid 
 animals, 5 ; birds, 31 ; ornithoid reptiles, or reptiles walking on their 
 hind feet, 12; lizards, 17; batrachians or frog-like reptiles, 16; chelo- 
 nians or turtles, 8 ; fishes, 4 ; crustaceans, myriapods, and insects, 17 ; 
 and annelids, 10. 
 
 * In 1860, a block of red sandstone, containing the impressions of 
 bones, apparently of ornithic character, was discovered in America, and 
 described by Professor W. B. Rogers to the Natural History Society of 
 Boston. This block was not, however, found in situ, but among other 
 building stones which were said to have been brought from Portland 
 Quarry, in the valley of the Connecticut. The evidence is thus some- 
 what invalidated, though Professor Rogers seems confident as to its 
 mesozoic or new red sandstone origin. This specimen, unique in the 
 mean time, gives hope of the speedy discovery of other and more legible 
 fragments. 
 
128 THE MIDDLE PAST. 
 
 more conclusive teeth, jaws, and other fragments pointing 
 unmistakably to small marsupial quadrupeds (microlestes, 
 dromatherium, &c.), which find their nearest analogues in 
 the wombats and kangaroo-rats of Australia. 
 
 Such is the scanty and imperfect record of triassic life, 
 as preserved in the variegated sandstones, the muschelkalk, 
 and saliferous marls of Europe and North America. This 
 imperfection may arise, partly from the circumscribed and 
 varying seas of deposit, partly from the saline peculiarities 
 of their waters, and partly from the unsuitable nature of 
 their sediments for the preservation of organic structure ; 
 but from whatever cause, we are clearly not entitled to 
 generalise from these limited areas to the universal distri- 
 bution of triassic vitality. On the contrary, the steady 
 creational advance to higher and higher facies of life, pre- 
 suppose not only an extensive series of graclational species, 
 but a numerical exuberance through which the law of spe- 
 cific advancement could operate. And even now, in the 
 St Cassian beds of the Austrian Alps, we are not without 
 evidence of many new and connecting forms genera which 
 unite the palaeozoic and niesozoic into one continuous life- 
 stream, and forbid the unphilosophical idea of creational 
 breaks in the evolution of vitality. As the facts stand 
 (and we know little beyond a few unconnected belts of de- 
 posit in the northern hemisphere), the triassic flora points 
 to insular rather than to continental conditions, and to an 
 arid rather than to a genial climate ; its marine fauna, in 
 harmony with these conditions, points rather to circum- 
 scribed seas than to gigantic estuaries ; whilst its terrestrial 
 animals indicate the thirsty desert rather than the fertile 
 plain, and sun-baked muddy creeks rather than the ex- 
 posed shores of the open ocean. 
 
 The Oolitic era, to which we next turn, presents geograph- 
 
OOLITIC ERA. 129 
 
 ical conditions extremely different from those of the trias, 
 and apparently more favourable to an exuberant exhibition 
 of vitality. In its ascending series of Lias, Oolite, and 
 Wealden, we have a succession of deep-sea, littoral, and 
 estuarine deposits, which, in the old world at least, spread 
 over wider areas, and are in their calcareous muds, clays, and 
 limestones, much more conservative of organic structure. 
 Xot only do the seas show broader and more southerly ex- 
 panses, but they are more connected, and seem to have been 
 less liable to sudden variation either in their depth or con- 
 figuration. Their waters were likewise more normal in 
 their composition, and we get quit of those super-saline 
 and ferruginous constituents which, in the trias, appear to 
 have been as unfavourable to the development as to the 
 preservation of organic nature. The land also assumes a 
 more continental aspect, and, under a genial climate, gigan- 
 tic rivers and estuaries bespeak conditions conducive alike 
 to numerical abundance and specific variety. In conjunc- 
 tion with these new conditions of area and climate, vitality 
 puts on newer aspects. The palaeozoic forms that lingered 
 in the trias altogether disappear, and mesozoic life, in a 
 prolific flora and fauna, attains its meridian of development. 
 In vegetation, palms, lilies, and other allied monocotyledons 
 are on the increase ; tree-ferns, cycads, and conifers, are the 
 dominant orders; while dicotyledonous types make their 
 appearance in fragments of wood, leaves, and inflorescence. 
 In the animal kingdom the advance is still more marked 
 and decisive. Zoophytes and other lowly orders are more 
 abundantly and beautifully preserved; sea-urchins, star- 
 fish, and crustaceans assume generic aspects more akin to 
 existing races ; bivalves and gasteropods are still largely on 
 the increase, and cephalopods attain their specific and num- 
 erical meridian ; the fishes more closely approximate the 
 existing ichthyic type ; and though indications of mammalian 
 
130 THE MIDDLE PAST. 
 
 life become more abundant, reptiles aquatic, terrestrial, and 
 aerial herbivorous, carnivorous, and omnivorous are now 
 the dominant forms, and discharge in their every function 
 the part now assigned to the several grades of the higher 
 mammalia. 
 
 The marine plants of the oolite, like the marine flora of all 
 other geological formations, are indistinct and fragmentary. 
 Their bifurcating impressions are not unfrequent in some 
 of the oolitic sandstones, but such names as halymenites 
 indicate a resemblance rather than a determinable affinity 
 to any living form. Aquatic plants, resembling the pond- 
 weeds (chara, naiadites, and the like), occur in considerable 
 abundance, but little has been done to fix their true rela- 
 tions to existing orders, and in the mean time we can do 
 little more than note the fact of their presence, and indi- 
 cate the conditions that must have favoured their develop- 
 ment. Among the lower or cryptogamic orders of land- 
 plants, equisetums (equisetites), and club-mosses (lycopod- 
 ites), though not so frequent as in earlier formations, are by 
 no means uncommon ; while tree-ferns (pecopteris, splien- 
 opteris, tceniopteris, otopteris, &c.) appear in vast profusion, 
 and many of them peculiar to and restricted to the period. 
 Stems and leaves of unknown endogens (endogenites), palms 
 (palmacites), and lily-like plants occur throughout the for- 
 mation, while cycadaceous stems, leaves, and fruits (cycade- 
 oidea, palceozamia, zamites, pterophyllum, zamiostrobus, 
 &c.) constitute one of the most noticeable botanical peculi- 
 arities of the period. Coniferous trees are also in the 
 ascendant, and so similar in many respects to the cypresses, 
 araucarias, thujas, yews, and pines of southern latitudes, that 
 their affinities are at once expressed by such terms as cupres- 
 sites, araucarites, thuyites, taxites, and pinites. Altogether, 
 the vegetation of the oolite presents a high specific as well 
 
OOLITIC ERA. 
 
 131 
 
 as numerical abundance, and indicates genial and continu- 
 ous geographical conditions so genial as to give rise in 
 
 Palm, Screw-pine, Araucaria, Cycas, Tree-fern, &c. 
 
 many areas (Europe, India, the Indian Islands, and North 
 America) to repeated and valuable deposits of coal. Indeed, 
 many coal-fields at one time attributed to the carboniferous 
 
132 THE MIDDLE PAST. 
 
 epoch have been proved to be of oolitic age,* and, as inves- 
 tigation is pushed still further, other areas, in both hemi- 
 spheres, will be found to belong to the same geological 
 system. 
 
 When we direct our attention to the fauna we find the 
 lower marine animals abundantly represented, showing that 
 in the oolitic seas there were those varied conditions of 
 warmth, depth, sea-bottom, and shore-line essential to their 
 dissemination and development. Sponges (spongid) are 
 by no means rare ; foraminiferous organisms (lituola, rota- 
 linci, spirolina, &c.) are scattered throughout the forma- 
 tion ; and corals (thamnastrcea, montlivaltia, isastrcea, 
 &c.) of varied and elegant forms occur in vast profusion, 
 and point to a time when the oolitic areas of Europe and 
 Asia were instinct with coral-life, and dotted and barred 
 with reefs like the existing seas of the southern hemisphere. 
 Encrinites, though now on the wane, still star the sea- bed 
 with their elegant forms (pejitacrinus, apiocrinus, &c.); 
 sea-urchins (cidaris, hemicidaris, diadema, echinus, &c.) 
 throng the marine strata in increasing numbers ; and free- 
 floating star-fishes (astropectcn, amphiura, and ophioderma), 
 apparently replacing the encrinites, now approximate in gen- 
 eric aspects to those of the present ocean. Annelids, like 
 the living serpulce, cement their tortuous tubes to stones and 
 dead-shells ; barnacles (potticipes) attach their many-valved 
 mansions to rocks and floating timber ; minute crustaceans 
 (cypris, cypridea, and estheria) moult their bivalved crusts 
 in myriads in the muddy creeks and estuaries ; while the 
 higher Crustacea (glyphcea, enjon, and megaclieirus) approxi- 
 
 * The coals of Southern India, of Borneo, Labuan, Zebu in the Philip- 
 pine Islands, &c., are now ascertained to be of oolitic age; to which 
 epoch also it is suspected that most of those of China and Japan belong ; 
 as well as that of Virginia in America, and other localities. The oolitic 
 coal-fields of Eastern Yorkshire and Brora in Sutherlandshire have been 
 long known to British geologists. 
 
OOLITIC ERA. 
 
 133 
 
 mate in form and function to the crayfish and lobsters of 
 Insects, destructible as their remains may 
 
 existing waters. 
 
 1. Eryon ; 2, Megacheirus ; 3, Archaeoniscus ; 4, 5, Cyprides natural size, and magnified. 
 
 seem, now assume an important place in the lists of the 
 palaeontologist burrowers among the decaying timber of 
 the pine-forests ; leapers among the leaves and herbage of 
 the cycas grove; hunters along the river-bank and across 
 its sunny waters ; and gaudy flutterers over the flowers of 
 the lily and palm-tree. All the great orders of insect-life 
 beetles, cockroaches, dragon-flies, grasshoppers, and ants 
 are abundantly represented, and their resemblances (if 
 not affinities) are indicated at once by such generic appella- 
 tions as buprestium, blattidium, libellelium, cicadeUium, 
 and formicium. 
 
 The waters are now thronged with molluscan life. The 
 minute polyzoans or sea-mats weave their delicate network 
 (diastopora, ceriopora, lieteropora, &c.) over shells, encrin- 
 ites, and every available ground-work varying slightly in 
 
 i 
 
134 
 
 THE MIDDLE PAST. 
 
 pattern, but still preserving that similarity of design which 
 has ever characterised their beautiful structures. The deep- 
 sea, infusorial-feeding brachiopods, though specifically fewer 
 than in the palaeozoic periods, are still abundantly repre- 
 sented terebratula, rhynchonella, spirifera, discina, and 
 the like, being the dominant forms in the marine beds of 
 
 1, Spirifer ; 2, Avicula ; 3, Terebratula ; 4, Pholadomya ; 5, Modiola ; 6, Gryphaea ; 
 7, Trigonia ; 8, Plagiostoma ; 9, Pleurotomaria. 
 
 the lias and oolite. The true bivalves, now so greatly in 
 the ascendant, present themselves in vast profusion, throng- 
 
OOLITIC ERA. 
 
 135 
 
 ing every condition of sea-shore, and leaving their remains 
 in every degree of beauty and perfection. Gryphcea, ger- 
 villia, avicula, lima, ostrea, and pecten ; trigonia, modiola, 
 plioladomya, cardium, astarte, and scores of other genera, 
 occur in numerous specific forms in the marine beds of the 
 lias and oolite ; while fresh-water mussels (unionidce) are 
 equally characteristic of the estuarine sediments of the 
 
 oorAric CEPHA.LOPODS. 
 
 1, Ammonites Jason. ; 2, A. communis ; 3, A. Bucklandi ; 4, Belemnitea Puzcsianus 
 5, 6, Belemnites ; 7. Belemnoteuthis. 
 
 Wealden. The gasteropods, too, in many generic aspects, 
 crowd the sea-shores turbo, trochus, pleurotomaria, nerincea, 
 
136 THE MIDDLE PAST. 
 
 patella, ceritliium, and the like, being the more common 
 forms in the marine strata ; while planorbis, paludina, and 
 their congeners occur in the fresh-water limestones of the 
 Weald thick as their modern species do on the marls of our 
 lakes and marshes. The cephalopods now attain their 
 meridian, and in variety of form, size, and numbers, stamp 
 the period with one of its most peculiar aspects. Shell- 
 clad genera, like nautilus and ammonite, leave their cham- 
 bered habitations in myriads ; and naked genera, like the 
 cuttle-fishes, are evidenced by thousands of those internal 
 organisms (belemnites) which survive the decay of the softer 
 structures. It is indeed the "reign of ammonites" these 
 beautiful shells occurring in hundreds of specific forms, in 
 every stage of growth, and in the most diversified styles of 
 external ornamentation. Along the exposed shore, in the 
 land-locked bay, and out in the open waters of the old 
 oolitic seas, these predaceous shell-clad cephalopods reign 
 the lords of niolluscan life, and mark the culmination of an 
 order which now finds its only representative in the plain- 
 looking nautilus of the Southern Ocean. 
 
 The fishes to which we next ascend belong exclusively 
 to the great placoid and ganoid divisions the soft-scaled 
 orders (the ctenoids and cycloids) of the newer epoch being 
 as yet unrepresented in oolitic waters. The placoids are 
 chiefly rays and sharks, whose teeth (liybodus, acrodus, 
 ganodm, &c.) and fin-spines (aster acanthus, nemacanthus, 
 and myriacanthus) were the only preservable portions of 
 their uncalcified skeletons. Many of these, like the cestra- 
 cion of the Australian seas, were evidently fitted for the 
 crushing of crustaceous and testaceous animals, others for 
 the prehension of fishes, while some, more slenderly armed, 
 gorged themselves, like their modern congeners, on the 
 squids and cuttle-fishes that then thronged the ocean. The 
 ganoids, now more ichthyic in their aspect, appear in nu- 
 
OOLITIC ERA. 
 
 137 
 
 merous generic forms (pachytormus, pycnodus, echmodus, 
 lepidotus, &c.), the majority of which, are peculiar to the 
 mesozoic period, and many of them even restricted to the 
 time of the lias and oolite. It is now, too, the high noon 
 of reptilian development " the Age of Eeptiles" when 
 marine genera (ichthyosaurus and irtesiosaurus) were the 
 
 IcliLhyubaurus ; Loug-uecked Plesiosaurus ; aud Pterodactyle. 
 
 whale-like monarchs of the ocean ; when crocodilians (teleo- 
 saurus and cetiosaurus) thronged the rivers and estuaries ; 
 turtles (chclone and platemys) traversed the muddy shores ; 
 gigantic land-saurians (meyalosaurus, hylffiosaurus, and igu- 
 anodon) roamed, elephant -like, over the river -plains, or 
 
138 THE MIDDLE PAST. 
 
 browsed in the virgin forest ; lizards (lacerta and macellodus} 
 basked on the sunny cliffs ; and bird-like genera (pterodady- 
 
 Eestored forms of Megalosaurus and Hylaeosaurus HA.WKINS. 
 
 lus) winged the upper firmament. Every adaptation of form 
 and function finds its exemplar in these ancient saurians, 
 and the part now played by birds and mammals was then 
 in a great measure discharged by reptiles. They were the 
 representatives in time of the higher orders of vitality 
 occupying every habitat, aquatic, terrestrial, and aerial, and 
 fulfilling every function, herbivorous, carnivorous, and om- 
 nivorous. Everywhere they are the dominant forms, and 
 though birds and mammals are coming more clearly on the 
 stage, the great vital phase of creation was, for the time 
 being, unmistakably reptilian. 
 
 This "Reign of Reptiles," as it is sometimes termed, 
 has suggested to minds, more imaginative than logical, the 
 idea of an epoch of incessant warfare and murder; and 
 nothing is more common than pictorial delineations and 
 high-wrought descriptions of reptilian carnage and cruelty. 
 
OOLITIC ERA. 139 
 
 i 
 
 Transferring the attributes of the infuriated human mind 
 to the unreasoning brute, they picture every species lying 
 in wait for his neighbour writhing in savage combat for 
 supremacy, and mangling with their horrid fangs even 
 where prey does not become a necessity. Alas ! for man's 
 mistaken notion of creation's life-scheme ; as if, even in a 
 world of reptiles, there were not a thousand checks and 
 compensations ever actively at work to secure the greatest 
 happiness of the greatest numbers. No doubt the flesh- 
 eater preyed on the plant-eater, and the weak succumbed 
 where the strong exulted ; but death comes unconsciously 
 quick where the pre} T er strikes from necessity, and the 
 fall of the sickly gives wider verge to the enjoyment of 
 the healthy survivor. The wants of nature supplied, and 
 then, as now, the gigantic herbivora rolled sportively 
 among the over- topping herbage, or stood drowsily dream- 
 ing under the shade of the noonday forest ; while the 
 carnivora gambolled in the open waters, or lazily sunned 
 themselves on the ebbing sea-shore. Wherever life prevails, 
 there also is meted out to it its measure of enjoyment, and 
 man only errs when, describing the lower animals, he in- 
 vests them with passions and feelings unfortunately too 
 frequently his own. But cold-blooded air-breathers, how- 
 ever varied in size, form, and function, were not destined to 
 be the culminating orders in the world's life-scheme. The 
 divine creational idea, fixed from the beginning, was steadily 
 evolving itself into higher and higher types ; and along 
 with this overwhelming exuberance of reptiles, the line of 
 triassic birds was continued in such forms as palceornis 
 (ancient -bird), while in certain areas there appeared the 
 higher manifestations of mammalian development. Small 
 insectivorous quadrupeds amphitlierium (doubtful-beast), 
 pliascolotherium (pouched-beast), stereognathus (thick-jaw), 
 placjiaulax (oblique-grooved tooth), &c. have been detected 
 
140 
 
 THE MIDDLE PAST. 
 
 in the upper oolite, apparently marsupial in their structure, 
 and pointing to the wombats, bandicoots, and phalangers of 
 Australia as their nearest living analogues. From the num- 
 ber of these imbedded in a few square yards of a stratum 
 near Swanage in Dorsetshire, we may confidently look for- 
 ward to the discovery of many other mammalian forms 
 every condition of the period being favourable to the de- 
 velopment of such a fauna. 
 
 Oolitic Mammals, natural size 1, Lower Jaw and Teeth of Phascolotherium ; 
 2, Of Triconodon ; 3, Of Plagiaulax. 
 
 Such are the phases of oolitic life, and such the conditions 
 of sea and land, which its miscellaneous sediments seem to 
 imply. Continuous lands of ample area for the growth of 
 a varied flora, open free-flowing seas for an exuberant marine 
 fauna, gigantic estuaries and river plains for the amphibious 
 reptiles of the Weald, and over all a genial but periodically 
 interrupted climate. We have as yet no means of deter- 
 mining the universal climatology of the period, but over 
 the oolitic areas of the northern hemisphere the varying 
 rings of coniferous growth would seem to indicate seasonal 
 variations, while the prevailing aspect of the flora, the 
 abundance of land reptiles, and the presence of small mar- 
 supials, point to conditions of general warmth and periodic 
 drought, such as now obtain over the riverless plains of 
 
OOLITIC ERA. 141 
 
 Australia, As in its external, so in its vital conditions the 
 oolitic epoch finds its newest analogue in the flora and 
 fauna of the Australasian continent, thus indicating once 
 more the connection that invariably subsists between the 
 manifestations of life, and the conditions by which they are 
 surrounded. "The close approximation," remarks Profes- 
 sor Owen, "of the amphitherium and phascolotherium to 
 marsupial genera, now confined to New South Wales and 
 Van Die man's Land, leads us to reflect upon the interesting 
 correspondence between other organic remains of the British 
 oolite and other existing forms now confined to the Aus- 
 tralian continent and adjoining seas. Here, for example, 
 swims the cestracion which has given the key to the nature 
 of the palates from our oolite, now recognised as the teeth of 
 congeneric gigantic forms of cartilaginous fishes. Not only 
 trigoniw, but living terebratulce exist, and the latter abun- 
 dantly, in Australian seas, yielding food to the cestracion, 
 as their extinct analogues doubtless did to the allied cartila- 
 ginous fishes called acrodi, psammodi, &c. Araucarise and 
 cycadaceous plants likewise flourish on the Australian con- 
 tinent, where marsupial quadrupeds abound, and thus ap- 
 pear to complete a picture of an ancient condition of the 
 earth's surface, which has been superseded in our hemi- 
 sphere by other strata, and a higher type of mammalian 
 organisation." This picture, however, must be received as 
 nothing more than the merest analogy. Nature never re- 
 peats herself in time any more than in space, and forms 
 once. gone disappear for ever. To speak, as some have done, 
 of Australia being " a belated portion of the earth's surface," 
 is altogether to misinterpret the scheme of creational pro- 
 gress. The species of the oolite are not the species of 
 Australia, while fossil evidence already shows that the pre- 
 sent races of the Austral islands have had their gigantic 
 tertiary predecessors, just as other regions have had theirs, 
 
142 THE MIDDLE PAST. 
 
 and this in a genetic line backwards through the prior 
 epochs of the chalk and oolite. In some of its minor 
 features the oolite may find an analogue in existing nature, 
 but in its entirety it stands alone a great life-epoch, whose 
 forms are not to be confounded either with what has gone 
 before, or with what has yet to follow. 
 
 The Cretaceous or Chalk period, to which we next turn, 
 brings to a close the long and exuberant line of niesozoic 
 life. Great changes in the relative distribution of sea and 
 land in the northern hemisphere have been gradually 
 brought about ; much of the oolitic sea-bed has become 
 dry land ; and the areas of deposit have assumed a less 
 southerly aspect. Stretching more in an easterly and 
 westerly direction, they present less variety of climate, and, 
 opening up to the north, they become recipients of currents 
 which tend to deteriorate the more genial conditions of the 
 oolitic era. Greensands, clays, clay-marls, and chalk of vary- 
 ing consistence form the prevailing sediments, which, being 
 eminently marine, are replete with the remains of oceanic life. 
 Little of the terrestrial surface of the period is indicated by 
 the fossil flora or fauna, and much of the marine area in 
 Asia and in America has been but imperfectly explored. 
 Notwithstanding this imperfection of the record, we find 
 enough to corroborate the ever -onward progression of 
 vitality, and to show that oolitic forms, though by no 
 means rare, are gradually being replaced by others peculiar 
 to the chalk and greensand. 
 
 The Flora, though scantily preserved, has still somewhat 
 of an oolitic aspect, looking more like the remnants of that 
 age than the peculiar products of a newer epoch. Sea-weeds 
 (confervitcs and chondrites) resembling the living confervas 
 and Irish-moss, ferns (lonchopteris\ lily-like leaves (dra- 
 cwna), cycads (zamiostrobus and dathraria), and coni- 
 
CRETACEOUS ERA. 143 
 
 ferous trees (aUetites and strobolites), in drifted fragments, 
 are all or nearly all we can read intelligibly of the cretaceous 
 vegetation. And yet we know, from certain lignitic beds, 
 that considerable areas must have been clad with swamp 
 and forest-growth, and this during long periods of alternate 
 reproduction and decay."" On the whole, however, the cre- 
 taceous flora appears to have been by no means an exuberant 
 one less varied in its form than that of the oolite w r hich 
 preceded, and less southern in its aspect than that of the 
 early tertiary that followed. And the cause of this we find 
 in the colder currents of the northward opening seas seas 
 which occasionally brought drifting-ice even to the latitudes 
 of the British Islands if we are to seek in ice-floes, as Mr 
 Godwin- Austen has done, an explanation of the isolated 
 blocks of granite and lignite that have been recently found 
 imbedded in the chalk of the south of England. 
 
 The marine fauna presents an exuberant display of sponge- 
 growth (spongia, ventriculites, siphonia, scyphia, &c.), all 
 less or more converted into flints j and leading to the in- 
 genious speculation of Dr Bowerbank, that their function 
 in nature is to induce the deposit of siliceous matter from 
 the waters of the ocean just as the corals assist in the con- 
 solidation of its calcareous constituents. Foraininiferous 
 organisms (textularia, rotalina, dentalina, lulima, &c.) in 
 countless myriads throng the waters, and drop their cal- 
 careous cases in such abundance, that more than the half of 
 some chalk strata is composed of their exuviae. It is now, 
 and during the dawn of the tertiary period, that foramini- 
 ferous life attains its meridian physiologically in hundreds 
 of generic forms, and numerically in such abundance that 
 
 * Besides the cretaceous lignites of Europe, it is now known that the 
 coal of Vancouver's Island and other American localities "belongs to the 
 same epoch. It is also more than likely that some coal-fields, now sup- 
 posed to be oolitic, and several lignites now reputed of lower tertiary 
 age, will yet be found to belong to the chalk formation. 
 
144: 
 
 THE MIDDLE PAST. 
 
 thousands of miles of rock-matter (as the nummulitic lime- 
 stone) owe their origin to the shell-like coverings of these 
 
 1, Siphonia ; 2, Ventriculites ; 3 Manon ; 4, Scypliia ; 5, Textularia ; 0, Lituola: 
 7, Orbitoides ; 8, Rotalia. 
 
 the lowest of animated existences. Corals, though occur- 
 ring in many genera (parasmilia, trocJiocyathus, &c.), are 
 by no means so abundant as in the oolite ; but star-fishes 
 (goniaster and oriaster) and sea-urchins (cidaris, diadema, 
 salenia, galerites, &c.) are obviously on the increase, and 
 the beautiful preservation of the latter constitutes one of 
 the most characteristic features of the chalk formation. 
 Encrinite life is now drawing to a close, and in a few species 
 of pentacrinus, Bourgueticrinm, and marsupites, carries 
 down the descent to the solitary pentacrinite of the existing 
 ocean. Annelids, like serpula and vermicular la, construct 
 their tortuous tubes in profusion, and in such a marine me- 
 dium barnacles (pollicipes and scalpellum) appear in greater 
 force than during any former epoch. In crustacean life, 
 the bivalved entomostraca are extensively represented by 
 
CRETACEOUS ERA. 
 
 145 
 
 Bairdia, cy there, cy thereto, cytheretta, &c., while the larger 
 malacostracans ahound in numerous generic forms, myeria, 
 
 1, Uarsupites ; 2, Goniaster ; 3, Hamipneustes ; 4, Ananchytes ; 5, Galerites. 
 
 pagurus, notopocorystes, &c., all more nearly approaching 
 in aspect and function the crabs and lobsters of existing 
 waters. And now the minute polyzoans or sea-mats weave 
 their delicate tracery of network in a thousand forms (flus- 
 tra, eschara, diastopora, actinopora, idmonea, &c.), spread- 
 ing it over corals, dead shells, and crustaceans, as if their 
 function had been to shroud in beauty the worthless and 
 decaying wreck of the cretaceous sea-shore. The higher 
 mollusca also appear in vast profusion many of the oolitic 
 genera having departed or being on the wane, while other 
 forms peculiar to the chalk begin to make their appearance. 
 The deep-sea brachiopods are represented by species of 
 terebratula, terebratella, and rhynconella ; the true bivalves 
 by inoceramus, lima, ostrea, pecten, astarte, cardiitm, tri- 
 
146 
 
 THE MIDDLE PAST. 
 
 gonia, Venus, and many others whose specific forms are new 
 and peculiar to the period ; while gasteropods, like natica, 
 
 1, Pecten ; '2, Terebratula ; 3, Gervillia ; 4, Ostrea ; 5, Plagiostcma ; 6, Inoceramus ; 
 7, Radiolites ; 8, Eippurites ; 9, Cinulia. 
 
 llttorina, cerithium, rostellaria, solarium, pleurotomaria, 
 and others, mark a busy sea-shore of herbivorous and car- 
 nivorous activity. The cephalopods, though numerically 
 fewer than in the lias and oolite, now appear in strange and 
 fantastic forms. Hitherto the chambers of the shell-clad 
 genera were either simply straight, like the orthoceras, or 
 coiled on the same plane, like the nautilus and ammonite. 
 Now, along with the nautilus and ammonite we have them 
 bent like a hook (hamites), curved like the prow of a skiff 
 (scaphites), incurved like a crosier (ancyloceras), curled 
 like a ram's horn (crioceras\ twisted round a straight axis, 
 
CRETACEOUS ERA. 
 
 147 
 
 and tapering tower -like (turrilites), or in some other 
 grotesque and simulative forms. This flush of generic 
 
 .1, Ancyloceras ; 2, Scaphites ; 3, Crioceras; 4, Hamites; 5, Turrilites. 
 
 type, and that on the eve of their decline, has given 
 rise to many hypotheses ; and by those who associate mo- 
 dification of form with the influence of physical conditions, 
 obnoxious changes in the waters of deposit are supposed 
 to have been the proximate causes of these curious and 
 sportive shapes. It is true that an influx of fresh water 
 into a marine area, or vice versa, is often attended by ciiri- 
 ous changes in the indwelling mollusca, and that new con- 
 ditions of cultivation produce strange sports among the 
 varieties of the gardener but the forms of these cretaceous 
 shells is too decisive and persistent to be otherwise ex- 
 plained than by the introduction of new genera, in obedi- 
 ence to some great but unknown law of creation. The 
 fish life of the chalk period presents us with many of the 
 old placoids and ganoids (the sharks, rays, and sauroids) of 
 
148 
 
 THE MIDDLE PAST. 
 
 the oolite, but with new and peculiar genera of the same 
 great divisions; while for the first time the ctenoids and 
 cycloids, which are now the prevailing orders of ichthyic 
 life, make their first appearance. Among the placoids, as 
 indicating their fossil teeth, ptychodits, hybodus, acrodus, and 
 lamna are the dominant genera ; among the ganoids, gyro- 
 das, pycnodw, and macropoma; while the cycloids show 
 osmeroides, hypsodus, saurocephalus, and the like ; and the 
 ctenoids, the perch-like forms of beryx and berycopsis. 
 
 CRETACEOUS FISHES. 
 
 1, Baryx Lewesiensis ; 2, Osmeroides Mantelli MANTELL. 
 
 When we turn to the reptiles, a few species of plesiosaurus 
 and ichthyosaurus still linger in the ocean j a solitary 
 iyuanodon represents the gigantic land-tribes ; and ptero- 
 dactyles, in lessening flocks, wing the sea-cliffs or skim the 
 surface of the creeks and river-mouths. The crocodiles, 
 
CRETACEOUS ERA. 149 
 
 lizards, and turtles are represented by several genera ; but 
 on the whole the meridian of reptilian life is past, and the 
 huge and varied forms of the oolite are now extinct, or 
 rapidly disappearing. Of birds and mammals the highly 
 marine beds of the chalk have yielded little more than 
 the merest indications (cimoliornis, bird-of-the-chalk-marl, 
 &c. ), but as these seem to point to the higher types of the 
 rapacious birds and true mammals, we may rest assured of 
 the existence of intervening orders, and look forward with 
 hope to the discovery of their remains. 
 
 "With the Chalk, which closes the long and prolific line 
 of mesozoic life, we lose sight of many tribes, and families, 
 and genera, but not, as is sometimes sweepingly asserted, 
 of every species that up to that time had given character 
 to the onward phases of vitality. The passage from the 
 mesozoic to the cainozoic was as gradual as that from the 
 palaeozoic to the mesozoic, and if a break shall appear to 
 exist in some districts, we cannot accept this as more than 
 a mere local and limited phenomenon. The submergence 
 of old lands, and the elevation of the sea-bed into new 
 islands and continents, is a slow and gradual process ; it 
 is never cataclysmal save over the most partial and isolated 
 tracts ; and only in such tracts is there a chance of any 
 genus or species being suddenly extinguished. As the 
 gift of life is handed from generation to generation within 
 certain limits of variety, so epoch passes it on to epoch 
 within the wider limit of specific change, but this so im- 
 perceptibly that it is only after the lapse of ages the dif- 
 ference becomes apparent. Viewed at these wide intervals, 
 the palseozoic flora seems essentially exogenous ; endogens 
 and gymnogens prevail in the mesozoic ; and now the 
 cainozoic is about to be characterised by the newer and 
 higher manifestations of the exogens. In like manner 
 
 K 
 
150 THE MIDDLE PAST. 
 
 with the fauna : we rise (speaking in general terms) from 
 a world of cold-blooded air-breathers in the palaeozoic to 
 cold-blooded air-breathers in the mesozoic, and from these 
 again to the warm-blooded air-breathers of the cainozoic 
 era. If fishes were the dominant vertebrates in paleozoic 
 times, reptiles were undoubtedly so during the mesozoic ; 
 and now, in the cainozoic, the mammals (so feebly repre- 
 sented in the past) are about to assume the chief import- 
 ance. The great march of life is not only ever forward, but 
 ever upward. It is not merely that creation is concomi- 
 tant with extinction, but the new creations are ever as- 
 suming more exalted ordinal forms of the same primal 
 patterns. 
 
THE EECENT. 
 
 CAIXOZOIC SYSTEMS. THE TERTIARY AND POST -TERTIARY. 
 
 HAVIXG passed the middle ages of the earth's history, 
 whose life-species have all, or nearly all, disappeared, we 
 enter upon an epoch whose forms insensibly graduate into 
 those that are now our fellow-participators in the great pro- 
 gressional scheme of vitality. In other words, we approach 
 the Cainozoic, or " recent-life period," which, though but 
 as yesterday compared with the aeons of the paleozoic and 
 mesozoic, yet embraces a vast lapse of time, and is neces- 
 sarily characterised by higher and still advancing forms. 
 We say necessarily characterised, for though science can 
 prove no causal connection between the physical and vital 
 manifestations of the globe, the one set of changes so in- 
 variably accompany the other, that we are compelled to 
 regard them as necessary concomitants^. And yet, though 
 concomitants in time, they may stand in no relation to each 
 other as cause and effect, but be each an independent phase 
 of that divine creational plan that is still evolving itself 
 around us. "We, who but dimly perceive the broken out- 
 line of the scheme, can only note the coincidence ; those 
 in after ages of higher intelligence may succeed in tracing 
 the connection. But whatever that connection, it is now 
 more marked and appreciable, and geologists can associate 
 with almost every fluctuation of condition, a change in the 
 accompanying aspects of cairiozoic life. 
 
152 THE RECENT. 
 
 It is now that the more complex forms of an exogenous 
 flora are superadded to the endogens and gymnogens of the 
 mesozoic, and in their more varied forms and higher utili- 
 ties hecome not only a fitter ornament for a more varied 
 surface, but a necessary sustenance for a higher and more 
 diversified fauna. The herbs, and shrubs, and trees the 
 flowers, and fruits, and grains all that can gladden the 
 senses or satisfy the wants of man and his existing life- 
 comrades, appear with the current epoch, and by their ap- 
 pearance again confirm that fitness that ever reigns be- 
 tween the organic and inorganic aspects of creation. In 
 the animal world the advance is equally apparent, and in 
 orders where no advance appears a thousand modifications 
 present themselves. Among the protozoans the calcareous 
 sponges for the most part disappear, their place being 
 taken by those of a horny nature, while the foraminifera 
 are culminating in size and complexity of configuration. 
 The encrinites, with one or two solitary exceptions, have 
 vanished from the waters ; and the sea-urchins, so exqui- 
 sitely preserved in the chalk, are reduced by several of 
 their most beautiful and numerous families. Among the 
 shell-fish the brachiopods dwindle to a few families, the true 
 bivalves are still on the increase, the gasteropod univalves 
 become dominant in genera and species, while the shell- 
 clad cephalopods that thronged the mesozoic ocean in myr- 
 iads, perish to a solitary genus. The crustaceans become 
 less natatory and more ambulatory in their character, while 
 the insects, so imperfectly preserved in the past, now throng 
 every element air, earth, and water in apparently still 
 increasing numbers. The placoids and ganoids, so long the 
 only representatives of ichthyic life, are now on the wane, 
 and the cycloids and ctenoids appear as the prevailing or- 
 ders. Of the ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs that whale-like 
 ruled the ocean, of the megalosaurs and hylseosaurs that 
 
ITS CHARACTERISTICS. 153 
 
 tenanted the plain and roamed the forest, and of the ptero- 
 saurs that winged the air, not a living trace remains. They 
 are utterly extinguished, and their place is now filled by 
 the crocodiles, lizards, turtles, and serpents of existing na- 
 ture. The birds so scantily preserved (though largely indi- 
 cated) in mesozoic strata, and the mammals represented 
 only by a few insignificant marsupials, now assume the 
 chief importance in the great vital scheme ; and last, and 
 highest of all, man himself enters on the stage of being as 
 the crowning form of the current epoch. 
 
 To facilitate comparison, it is usual to subdivide the 
 Cainozoic into eocene, miocene, pliocene, and pleistocene 
 that is, into its earliest, less recent, more recent, and most 
 recent life-stages j but enough for our review to treat it in 
 two great sections the first, when land and sea had a 
 somewhat different distribution from the present ; and the 
 second, when they had assumed, within the limits of an 
 appreciable mutation, their existing arrangement. Adopt- 
 ing the familiar phraseology that designates the palae- 
 ozoic as primarily and the mesozoic as secondary, we may 
 regard the first section as tertiary, and the second as post- 
 tertiary ever bearing in mind that such distinctions are 
 mere provisional aids to facilitate the comprehension of 
 geological progression. It has been customary, no doubt, 
 for certain geologists, generalising from limited tracts in 
 Europe, to draw a bold line of demarcation between the 
 chalk and tertiary so bold that not a single species was 
 regarded as passing from the one epoch to the other. This, 
 like many of the early conclusions of the science, is alto- 
 gether erroneous ; and now, even in Europe, to say nothing 
 of America, abundant passage -beds have been detected, 
 showing in this instance, as in every other, that abrupt 
 transitions are at the most merely local and limited pheno- 
 
154 THE RECENT. 
 
 mena. Assuming, then, that the life-forms of the Chalk 
 pass insensibly into those of the Tertiary, even though in 
 many European areas the cretaceous era was suddenly 
 brought to a close by the violent displacement of the then 
 land and sea, we yet discover a wide difference between 
 the vital aspects of these respective epochs. In the northern 
 hemisphere the tertiary seas still trend in an easterly and 
 westerly direction stretching diagonally through what is 
 now Central Europe and Southern Asia, spreading over a 
 large tract of Northern Africa, and covering in North Ame- 
 rica wide belts of the Southern States. Shut up from the 
 northern currents that seem to have influenced the chalk 
 seas, and exposed to those which, like the Gulf Stream, 
 partake of a tropical temperature, the climate of the tertiary 
 areas becomes more genial, and is, in the progress of crea- 
 tion, accompanied by a more exuberant flora and fauna. 
 The seas, even in the latitudes of England, teem with 
 southern forms ; while the lands, clothed with a vegetation 
 that finds its nearest analogues in the plants of sub-tropical 
 regions, were tenanted by gigantic mammals which, like 
 the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, tapir, lion, and 
 tiger, now find their headquarters in the forests and plains 
 of the torrid zone. Extensive lacustrine areas also appear 
 in certain regions, as in Central France, and in their fresh- 
 water forms present, for the first time, a fauna but doubt- 
 fully and obscurely represented in former epochs.* In fine, 
 
 * With the exception of the estuarine beds of the Weald, and the 
 doubtfully estuarine portions of the Carboniferous system, we are al- 
 together ignorant of the fresh-water areas of the older epochs. Lake, 
 river, and marsh must have existed then as now, each peopled by its 
 own distinctive tenantry ; but of these forms we have not a single trace, 
 and it is only as we approach the Tertiary epoch that a fresh-water 
 fauna becomes known and appreciable. As we cannot believe in the 
 total obliteration of ancient fresh-water deposits, so we hopefully look 
 forward to important discoveries in this rich and varied section of 
 vitality. 
 
EARLY TERTIARIES. 155 
 
 we have every type and feature of existing vitality; and 
 the character of the period will perhaps be better indicated 
 by a notice of the forms that have become extinct, than by 
 any description of the whole, which still constitutes in a 
 great measure the flora and fauna now flourishing around us. 
 
 Separating the early tertiaries the eocene and miocene 
 from the pliocene and pleistocene, when, under the chang- 
 ing conditions of sea and land, the climate of the northern 
 hemisphere began to assume a boreal character ; we shall 
 shortly glance at the more marked and peculiar aspects of 
 this early period. Wherever we turn whether to the clays 
 and gravels of the London basin, or to the marls and gyp- 
 sums of Paris, whether we restrict our review to the south 
 of Europe, or carry it forward to the centre of Asia we 
 everywhere find in these earlier tertiaries abundant evi- 
 dence of a warm - temperate, or even subtropical flora. 
 Palm-like leaves and fruits, such as now flourish on the 
 mud-islands of the Ganges (flabellaria, nipadites, tricarpel- 
 lites), leguminous seeds of arboreal growth (legumenosites), 
 twigs and leaves of mimosa, laurel, and other plants, whose 
 congeners now find a habitat in southern latitudes, are 
 thickly scattered through these strata. Nor are these the 
 mere twigs and fragments of tropical forests, drifted from 
 afar by gigantic rivers ; for associated with the formation 
 are beds of lignite or wood-coal, composed of kindred plants 
 that must have flourished for centuries on the spots where 
 their remains are now entombed. 
 
 And even if the flora gave no certain evidence of the 
 geniality of the climate that then pervaded the parallels of 
 London and Paris, the associated fauna would of itself 
 establish the belief. Gigantic sharks and rays (lamna, 
 carckarodoH, myliobatis\ such as now frequent the Southern 
 Ocean, crocodiles and turtles (crocodilus, clielone, emys) in 
 greater specific exuberance than is now known to the zoolo- 
 
156 THE RECENT. 
 
 gist, tapir -like pachyderms (palcvotherium, anoplotherium\ 
 akin to those of the Malayan peninsula and South America, 
 
 ss. 
 
 Restored Outlines Xiphodon, Anoplotheiium, PalaeoUierium. 
 
 and river-hogs (hyopotamus, cliceropotamus), like those that 
 now wallow in the mire of African rivers, have left their 
 remains in thousands, testifying at once to the warmth of 
 the climate and to the long continuance of conditions fav- 
 ourable alike to individual growth and to numerical abun- 
 dance. An exuberance of pachydermatous quadrupeds, 
 foreshadowing in their varied forms the solidungulates and 
 ruminants of a subsequent era, is perhaps the most notable 
 feature of the period ; for, though the remains of whale, 
 opossum, mole, bat, and even monkey, have been detected 
 in the earlier tertiaries of Europe, the dominant impress of 
 mammalian life over a larger section of the northern hemi- 
 sphere was undoubtedly palasotheroid. In the forest, over 
 the plain, and by lake and river-swamp, these curious crea- 
 tures held supreme sway, simulating every form sea-cow, 
 tapir, hog, rhinoceros, ass, camel, antelope and apparently 
 performing every function now assigned to these later and 
 diverse families. During the prevalence of the genial cli- 
 mate that then prevailed, we find not only an unusual flush 
 
EARLY TERTIARIES. 
 
 157 
 
 of terrestrial life, but discover that the fresh- water lakes, 
 the estuaries, and the seas, also teemed with many new and 
 ascending forms. It is now that we detect in these marls 
 the approximating species of our lymnece, paludinm, plau- 
 orbes, and other fresh-water shells ; the terrestrial snails, 
 helix, pupa, dausilia, &c., so slenderly represented in former 
 epochs ; and in the clays and limestones, increasing con- 
 geners of our marine gasteropods (spindle -shells, peri- 
 winkles, volutes, and cowries), fusus, cerithium, natica, 
 valuta, cyprcea all assuming so recent an aspect, that the 
 conchologist begins to rank them with living species, and 
 to reckon the chronology of strata by the percentage of ex- 
 isting shells.* It is now, too, that the seas swarm with 
 these foraminiferous organisms that attain their meridian 
 in numbers, bulk, and variety, and give rise, by their 
 myriad calcareous cases, to masses of nummulitic limestone 
 
 , Section of do., showing its cells. 
 
 that rival in extent and thickness the limestones of former 
 epochs, or the coral-reefs of the present day. The nummu- 
 litic limestone of the Old World, extending for thousands 
 of miles, and many hundred feet in thickness, arid the 
 
 * The terms eocene, miocene, &c., have reference to the percentage 
 of existing shells contained in the different stages of tertiary strata, 
 thus : 
 
 Pleistocene (most recent) from 90 to 98 of living species. 
 Pliocene (more recent) 60 to 88 
 
 Miocene (less recent) 20 to 30 ,, 
 
 Eocene (dawn of recent) ,, 1 to 5 
 
158 THE RECENT. 
 
 rivalling orbitoidal masses of the New World, are almost 
 entirely the work of these many-celled foraminifera ; while 
 thick and extensive strata of tripoli, and other siliceous 
 earths, are wholly made up of the moulted shields of 
 the minuter diatoms and infusoria. There is nothing 
 more wonderful in nature than the magnitude of the 
 stony masses elaborated by the lowest of animated 
 creatures the diatoms, foraminifers, corals, and other mi- 
 croscopic organisms. It seems as if an ordinance, that the 
 nearer the vital approaches the physical, the less the organic 
 is elevated above the inorganic, the more nearly they should 
 resemble each other in the bulk and character of their 
 lithological operations. And yet the elaboration of, lime- 
 stone from marine waters, by the merest vitalised speck of 
 gelatinous matter, is a result that can never be mistaken 
 for that of mechanical or chemical, agency. The two things 
 may approximate ; they can never be confounded. 
 
 Exuberant as the aspect of eocene life may appear, the 
 march of creation is still ever forward. The physical agen- 
 cies of nature are ever slowly but surely at work. Here 
 the eocene sea is being gradually elevated into shoals and 
 islands ; there the fresh- water lake is submerged, and its 
 sediments overlaid by those of marine origin ; and here 
 again volcanic energy gives birth to new mountain-chains, 
 which interrupt the former currents of the air and ocean, 
 and new external influences begin to prevail. The eocene 
 gradually merges into the miocene, and the miocene into the 
 pliocene. Old forms drop away, new ones begin to take 
 their places, and a flora and fauna indicative of a more tem- 
 perate climate begin to establish themselves over the lati- 
 tudes that now constitute the middle regions of Europe, 
 Asia, and North America. And just as we approach ex- 
 isting nature in time, so in space the flora and fauna begin 
 
MIDDLE TERTIARIES. 159 
 
 to assume those distributive features that continue to char- 
 acterise them more or less at the present day. The maples, 
 planes, elms, willows, and other dicotyledonous trees con- 
 tained in the middle tertiaries of Europe, bear the closest 
 resemblance to those that still adorn her forests ; and the 
 elephants, hippopotami, rhinoceroses, bears, lions, and tigers 
 of the Old World find their congeneric predecessors in the 
 tertiary mastodons, mammoths, hippopotami, rhinoceroses, 
 cave -bears, tiger -like niachairodi, and camel -like mery- 
 cotheres of the same hemisphere. In like manner the 
 sloths, ant-eaters, armadilloes, and llamas of South America 
 find their geographical prototypes in the megatheres, my- 
 lodons, glyptodons, and macrauchenes, so abundantly fossil 
 in the upper tertiaries of that continent ; while even in 
 Australasia the kangaroo is preceded by the gigantic dipro- 
 todon, the lace-lizard by the megalanea, and the apteryx 
 and emeu by the palapteryx and dinornis. As the miocene 
 and pliocene epochs advance, the more and more do their 
 fossil forms assimilate to those now peopling the same 
 geographical regions, till the fossil may be said to graduate 
 into the sub-fossil, and the sub-fossil into the species still 
 existing. 
 
 In European tertiaries, for instance, we ascend from the 
 eocene or palaeotheroid age to the elephantoid or middle 
 tertiary, and from this again to the later age of ruminants 
 antelopes, deer, and oxen. Connected as Europe has been 
 with the rest of the Old World ever since the earliest ter- 
 tiary epoch, we might naturally expect to find many species 
 spreading indiscriminately over the other continents of Asia 
 and Africa ; but while this undoubtedly occurs, there are 
 camel-like, giraffe-like, and antelope forms merycotherium, 
 sivatherium, Iramatherium, and the like peculiar to the 
 tertiaries of Asia, W 7 hich point to distinctive geographical 
 distributions of life that obtained so early as the middle and 
 
160 THE RECENT. 
 
 upper tertiary epochs. And these curious forms the huge 
 camel-like merycothere and the elephant- antelope sivathere 
 suggest a peculiarity that runs through many of these ter- 
 tiary mammals. Thus, while all the mammalian classes, 
 with the exception of man, are less or more represented in 
 the miocene and pliocene strata of the Old World, one 
 feature that stamps the fauna of the period, and renders it 
 noticeahle even to unprofessional inquirers, is the vast 
 amount of intermediate or inosculating forms. The horns 
 of a ruminant with the proboscis of a pachyderm ; the 
 prehensile lip and dentition of a pachyderm with the light 
 proportions of an antelope ; the blending of horse, camel, 
 and tapir; the inosculating of camel and giraffe these and 
 many other converging characters, appreciable only by the 
 practised anatomist, are features that distinguish the ter- 
 tiary mammals as a strange and peculiar fauna. Nor is it 
 alone the more generalised physiological character, but their 
 bulk is also in many instances a marked peculiarity of the 
 period. The gigantic mammoths and mastodons, the huge 
 hippopotami and rhinoceroses, the great cave-bears and 
 cave-lions, the unwieldy megatheres and glyptodons com- 
 pared with the existing sloths and armadilloes, the mac- 
 rauchene compared with the llama, the trogontherium with 
 the beaver, the diprotodon with the kangaroo, or the dinor- 
 nis with the cassowary all point to creational phases as 
 the tertiary that have ceased to manifest themselves in the 
 current era. The tusks of the mammoth have been found 
 from twelve to fourteen feet (measuring along their outer 
 curve), those of the existing elephant rarely exceed half 
 that length ; the fore-limb of the megathere would far out- 
 weigh the largest living sloth ; the cuirass of the glyptodon 
 would cover more than a score of armadilloes ; the full- 
 grown llama would make but a tiny calf to the macrauchene; 
 and the emeu could walk beneath the stride of the extinct 
 
LATER TERTIAEIES. 161 
 
 dinornis. This preponderance of bulky frameworks, and 
 the number of intermediate forms that serve as connecting 
 links between species now widely separate, are perhaps the 
 most notable features of the tertiary fauna, and are highly 
 suggestive to the physiologist, who, rising above mere de- 
 scription, strives to attain to the higher knowledge of crea- 
 tional method and law. 
 
 The diversified latitudes over which tertiary deposits are 
 spread, and the difficulty of assigning a contemporaneity to 
 strata containing few or no species in common, compels the 
 palaeontologist often to deal with the details of the respec- 
 tive areas rather than attempt a generalised expression for 
 the whole. Enough for our outline, however, to remark 
 that as sea and land approach their present configuration, 
 the fossil flora and fauna begin in like manner to assume 
 that distinctive impress which now characterises existing 
 nature. As already stated, many of the Old World forms 
 are unknown in the New ; some of those that characterise 
 the tertiaries of India are unknown in the strata of Europe ; 
 and only a few, and these during the earlier stages of the 
 period, appear to have anything like a cosmopolitan exten- 
 sion. So also in the earliest or eocene stage the number 
 of existing species are few compared with the extinct ; this 
 proportion increases in the middle stages \ and as we rise 
 to the uppermost deposits, it is often difficult to draw any 
 specific distinction between the fossils they contain and 
 the plants and animals that now flourish on their super- 
 ficial areas. In. the earliest stages the fauna of Europe was 
 characterised by its palreotheres, anoplotheres, xiphodons, 
 river-hogs, alligators, crocodiles, gavials, and turtles ; in 
 the middle stages these decline or die out, and deinotheres, 
 mastodons, mammoths, camels, giraffes, cave-bears, lions, 
 and hyamas take their places ; while in the upper stages 
 
162 
 
 THE RECENT. 
 
 many of these decline, and mammoths, hippopotami, rhino- 
 ceroses, deer, wild oxen, horse, "bears, and tigers become the 
 dominant features. In like manner, when we turn to Asia, 
 we can trace a similar ascent from the earlier stages, which 
 contain many forms in common with those of Europe, to 
 the middle stages, characterised by their numerous forms of 
 elephant, sivatheres, bramatheres, camels, giraffe, lion, tiger, 
 
 Mammoth (Elephas primiAemus). Mastodon. 
 
 monkey, crocodiles, and tortoises of enormous magnitude ; 
 and from these again to the upper stages, where the mam- 
 moth, rhinoceros, urus, horse, ass, and other creatures lead 
 insensibly to the existing forms of that gigantic continent. 
 In the same way it will be found with Africa, when geo- 
 logy has carried her researches further into that little 
 known region ; and so also it has been found in North 
 
LATER TERTIARIES. 
 
 163 
 
 America, whose forms bear a wonderful parallelism to those 
 of Europe; while in South America a similar gradation 
 will yet be determined upward to those Pampean flats, 
 whose pliocene clays and gravels have yielded those won- 
 derful megatheres, mylodons, toxodons, glyptodons, mac- 
 
 Glyptodou, Megatherium (gigantic ground-sloth) HAWKINS. 
 
 rauchenes, and other mammals, whose congeneric forms now 
 people, in diminutive scale, the plains and forests and up- 
 lands of that exuberant continent. As with the larger 
 
164 
 
 THE RECENT. 
 
 continents, so with smaller and more detached areas. The 
 marsupials of Australia have their forerunner in the gigan- 
 
 Dodo, Dinoruis elcpbauiopus, and D. mger 
 
 tic diprotodon ; the wingless birds of New Zealand were 
 
GLACIAL EPOCH. 1G5 
 
 preceded by palapteryx and dinornis ; and' the still more 
 gigantic aepyornis of Madagascar foreshadows the advent of 
 the ostrich of Africa. 
 
 In the elimination of these successive fauna long ages 
 must have passed away ; and during these ages vast physi- 
 cal changes were necessarily effected on the terraqueous 
 relations of the globe. In the northern hemisphere, some 
 of the principal mountain-chains the Alps, Apennines, 
 Carpathians, and Himalayas had been gradually assuming 
 their ultimate configuration ; and the large inland seas that 
 had occupied the central latitudes of Europe, of Northern 
 Africa, Middle India, and Eastern Siberia and China, had 
 been elevated successively into shoals, lake, and island, 
 swamp and dry land. Simultaneously with these terra- 
 queous changes, the genial temperature that ushered in the 
 eocene period of Europe and America began, stage by stage, 
 to decline ; the miocene was marked by more temperate 
 manifestations ; and ultimately the pliocene sank into a 
 condition incompatible with the existence of the former 
 flora and fauna. A cold, glacial, and barren period ensued, 
 and under its rigours pliocene life in the northern hemi- 
 sphere succumbed, and was succeeded by genera and species 
 akin to those that now people the boreal regions. 
 
 This ungenial period, generally known in geology as the 
 "Glacial," "Northern Drift," or "Boulder Clay" epoch, is 
 lithologically characterised by its superficial mounds and 
 masses of drift-sand and gravel, by thick tenacious clays, 
 interspersed indiscriminately with water- worn blocks of all 
 sizes, from mere .pebbles to boulders many tons in weight, 
 and by the polished, rounded, and striated surfaces of the 
 subjacent rocks, as if they had been subjected to the long- 
 continued friction of water or ice-borne material, and 
 scratched and furrowed by the passage of the harder and 
 
166 THE RECENT. 
 
 heavier fragments. In Europe, Asia, and North America, 
 down to the 44th or 42d parallel of latitude, and up to the 
 altitude of 2000 feet, these appearances present themselves, 
 and are inexplicable, unless on the ground of the gradual 
 submergence of the northern hemisphere to that extent, 
 and its subjection to a boreal climate which engendered 
 glaciers on its hills, and drifted, during a brief summer, 
 icebergs laden with rocky debris over its waters. The 
 glaciers smoothing, rounding, and grooving the rocks of the 
 higher grounds the icebergs grinding their way through 
 firth and strait, dropping their burden of mud, sand, and 
 gravel on the sea-bed, or stranding themselves on its shores 
 complete the necessary arrangements for the production 
 of the geological phenomena of the period. For ages the 
 pliocene lands must have slowly subsided, each step gra- 
 dually narrowing the boundaries of vegetable and animal 
 life, and driving the surviving species, under the rigours of 
 a deteriorating climate, to higher and higher regions. Eace 
 after race would succumb : first the more limited and local, 
 next the more cosmopolitan, and ultimately few of the old 
 flora or fauna would survive, except the more elastic in 
 constitution, and those that had, step by step, retreated into 
 more southern latitudes. 
 
 How long these conditions continued we have no means 
 of determining in centuries, but, judging from the amount 
 of denudation, the extent and nature of the heterogeneous 
 deposits, as well as from the slow rate of elevation and sub- 
 mergence now going on in known regions, vast periods 
 must have elapsed during the manifestation of this glacial 
 epoch. At length the downward tendency of these north- 
 ern latitudes comes to a close ; submergence stops and 
 elevation begins. Slowly, and for long under a rigorous 
 climate, the lands of Europe, Asia, and North America 
 emerge from the waters. Glaciers still envelop the higher 
 
GLACIAL EPOCH. 
 
 167 
 
 elevations ; icebergs, summer after summer, drift over the 
 waters ; and the sea, attacking the soft emerging shores, re- 
 assorts and re-deposits the sands, gravels, and clays of the 
 older glacial epoch. By-and-by the deposits become fossili- 
 ferous, showing that the ocean was tenanted by shell-fish, 
 seals, whales, and other creatures, whose habitats are now 
 
 Skeleton of Seal (Phoca vitulma '<). from the Brick-clay of Suatheden, Fifeshire ; 
 a, detentition of do. 
 
 the icy regions of the arctic circle. Upward, still upward, 
 the land emerges, evincing in its old water-lines and raised 
 beaches the successive steps of its uprise, till ultimately 
 the continents of the northern hemisphere assume, within 
 appreciable limits of current mutation, the configuration 
 and climatology they now present. As the continents 
 
 ;i 4 j 
 
 Boreal Shells in the Drift of the Clyde. SMITH. 
 
 1, Astarte borealis ; 2, Leda oblonga ; 3, Saxicava rugosa; 4, Pecten islandicus ; 
 5, Natica clausa ; 6, Trophon clathratum, 
 
 emerge and the land surfaces augment, as new atmospheric 
 and oceanic currents are established, and as the post-ter- 
 
 L 
 
168 THE RECENT. 
 
 tiary epoch advances, the boreal races retreat farther to the 
 north, some of the old pliocene families again return and 
 spread over European latitudes, and other and newer forms, 
 in the course of creation, begin to appear. 
 
 It is now the current era of geological history, whose 
 vital record is the silts and marls of filled-up lakes, the 
 alluvium of rivers and estuaries, the growth of peat-bogs 
 and morasses, the stalagmite of fissures and caverns, and 
 the tufa and ashes of volcanoes. In these superficial ac- 
 cumulations, which meet us at every turn, and are still in 
 course of formation, every imbedded organism is fresh and 
 familiar. With the exception of a few extinctions, the 
 species yet nourish in the same latitudes, and the lists of 
 the palaeontologist become identical with those of the 
 botanist and zoologist. The peat-bogs of Europe are re- 
 plete with the mosses, grasses, willows, hazels, birches, firs, 
 and oaks that still spread over our swamps, and adorn our 
 forests. The tundras of Siberia, the jungle-soil of India, 
 and the cypress-swamps of America, are in like manner 
 composed of the plants now peculiar to these regions; and 
 though in the course of geological change, local features 
 may have varied, the main aspects of the Current Flora 
 continue, zone for zone, and province for province, with 
 little alteration or disturbance. 
 
 When we turn to the Fauna, the case is much the same. 
 The most ancient lake-marls of Europe are thronged with 
 lymnea, paludina, cyclas, planor'bis, scarcely, if at all, dis- 
 tinguishable from those that now people our fresh- water 
 ponds ; and the marine shells of our estuarine silts and 
 raised beaches the mussels, cockles, oysters, periwinkles, 
 whelks, silver-shells, and clams with a few local variations, 
 are identical with those that inhabit the surrounding seas. 
 When we turn to the terrestrial fauna, the change, chiefly 
 
CURRENT ERA. 169 
 
 through the instrumentality of men, becomes a little more 
 decided and apparent. The mammoth and mastodon, the 
 Irish deer and urus, the cave-bear and hyaena, that seem to 
 have roamed over Europe during the dawn of the post- 
 
 Megaceros Hiberuicus, or Gigantic Irisla De 
 
 tertiary period, become extinct, though their congeners still 
 flourish in Asia and Africa. As we ascend to later deposits, 
 species, or, it may be, merely varieties of horse, ass, ox, deer, 
 goat, sheep, bear, wild boar, wolf, and fox become the more 
 frequent forms ; and ultimately, in the more recent accumu- 
 lations, the bones, whether of mammals, birds, reptiles, or 
 fishes, become indistinguishable, even in variety, from those 
 that are now our associates in the scheme of vitalit} r . 
 
 And it is just in this palpable approach to existing nature 
 that we begin to detect the earliest traces of the human 
 species. First, and far back among the river-silts and 
 peat-bogs and cave-earths, we discover his rude stone-im- 
 plements and weapons, his tree- canoes, and the embers of 
 the fires which he alone of all animals can either kindle or 
 sustain. Side by side with these remains, occasionally lie 
 
170 THE RECENT. 
 
 bones of the mammoth, rhinoceros, and Irish deer ; but whe- 
 ther these may not have been washed up, drifted, and re-as- 
 sorted from earlier deposits, is a question not always easily 
 determinable. However the question may be ultimately 
 answered, one thing is certain, that just as the mammoths 
 and mastodons drop away, and the horse, ox, goat, and 
 sheep begin to spread over Europe in increasing numbers, 
 so the traces of primeval man become more frequent and 
 unmistakable. In all likelihood nay, it is all but certain 
 that over the plains and through the forests of the Old 
 World man hunted the Irish deer and speared the mam- 
 moth, just as at a later period, and in the same region, he 
 lassoed the wild horse and impounded the urns and buffalo. 
 With regard to this subject, however viz., the first appear- 
 of man much unnecessary discussion has taken place, and 
 a great deal of uneasy tenderness been displayed. Like 
 other events in geological history, we have at present no 
 means of assigning to it a definite date in years and cen- 
 turies. The time is merely relative, and all that science 
 can safely do is to ascribe it to an early, though not to the 
 very earliest, stages of the pleistocene epoch. Whether this 
 was six thousand or sixteen thousand years ago, we cannot 
 by any known data determine, though this much is evident, 
 that the amount of change since effected on the physical 
 and vital world, as well as the course of civilisation itself, 
 would, at the current rate of progress, require for their 
 elimination a much more extended period than is usually 
 allowed. 
 
 And here it may be remarked, that while in these 
 superficial accumulations we find frequent traces of prim- 
 eval man his stone -implements, tree -canoes, &c. we 
 rarely or ever discover the remains of man himself. Not 
 a human bone has been detected, even in the valley of 
 the Somme, where the flint-implements lie in thousands 
 
HUMAN EPOCH. 
 
 171 
 
 not a fragment where other fragments more slender and 
 fragile occur in abundance. It is true, the search has yet 
 been confined to a small portion of Europe ; but the fact is 
 somewhat significant, and forbids any attempt at generalisa- 
 tion till wider areas in Asia and America have been ex- 
 plored. Till this is done, and till bones and crania have 
 been found and examined, it will be impossible to decide 
 the ethnographic character of these early men, or to say 
 whether they appeared in Asiatic, European, and American 
 species, and consequently arose from various creative centres, 
 or were merely time-distributed varieties of a single and 
 one-created form. Geology, as far as the facts have been 
 collated, gives no countenance to the idea of a plurality of 
 creative centres. On the contrary, the sameness of the 
 stone-implements, wherever they have been found, evince 
 
 1, 2, From valley of Somme ; 3, 4, 5, England ; 6, 7, 8, Canada ; 9, 10, Scandinavia. 
 
 a similarity of idea the same conception and the same 
 design. Those, therefore, who, disregarding the unity of 
 
172 THE RECENT. 
 
 language, mental constitution, and religious sentiment of 
 the human race, will still contend for several creative 
 centres, must seek other corroboration of their hypothesis 
 than is yet afforded by the discoveries and indications of 
 geology. 
 
 -As the pre-glacial passed gradually into the glacial, and 
 the glacial into the post-glacial period ; so the pre-human 
 passes insensibly into the pre-historic, and the pre-historic 
 into the historical ages. And even when the historical 
 arrives, the record of our own race is often less certain in 
 the hands of the historian than in those of the geologist. 
 Geology by no means ceases where history begins. Vast 
 physical changes have occurred since man first peopled the 
 globe.* Some regions have been rising above the waters of 
 the ocean, others have been sinking. Rivers have changed 
 their courses ; lakes and estuaries have been converted 
 into alluvial tracts ; and volcanoes have given birth to new 
 mountain masses. 
 
 " There rolls the deep where grew the tree ; 
 Oh, Earth, what changes hast thou seen ! 
 There, where the long street roars, has been 
 The stillness of the central sea." 
 
 Of such mutations, history is altogether silent ; and even 
 where she speaks, her utterance is frequently of less value 
 than her silence. The earth, however, pens and preserves 
 with fidelity her own record : geology becomes her inter- 
 preter. As in the physical world, so also in the vital, im- 
 portant mutations have been effected, even within historical 
 times. Many local removals of species and several general 
 
 * For an able and lucid exposition of the recent changes to which the 
 earth has been subjected, the reader is referred to Sir Charles Lyell's 
 Principles of Geology a work which should be carefully studied by every 
 one who would lay a logical and solid foundation for his geological know- 
 ledge. 
 
HISTORIC EPOCH. 173 
 
 extinctions have taken place, and this altogether apart from 
 the effects produced by man's cultivation and domestication. 
 The wild-boar, wild-ox, bear, wolf, and beaver have dis- 
 appeared from Britain ; and every century their tenure of 
 Europe becomes more slender and uncertain. The dodo has 
 become extinct in the Mauritius, the solitaire in Eodriguez, 
 the sepiornis in Madagascar, the dinornis in New Zealand, 
 the Phillip's Island parrot from Australia, and the rytina 
 from the rivers and estuaries of Kamtschatka, And as 
 with these, so it will shortly be with others whose circum- 
 scribed ranges are gradually being broken in upon by new 
 conditions, imposed either by natural change or by man's 
 progress and civilisation. The apteryx of New Zealand, 
 the ornithorhynchus, echidna, and kangaroo of Australia, 
 the mooruk of New Britain, the ostrich, elephant, and 
 giraffe of Africa, the anrochs of Europe, the beaver and 
 bison of America, the musk-ox of the arctic regions, and 
 many others, look more like the residuary forms of the ter- 
 tiary, than the advancing species of a newer era. And as 
 with animals, so it has been and will be with many plants 
 (the gigantic Wellingtonia, for instance, confined to a few 
 narrow valleys in California) ; only we have been less ob- 
 servant of their mutations, and are merely beginning to note 
 their specific restrictions. 
 
 As history has failed to note geological mutations and 
 vital extinctions, so we ask her in vain for any evidence of 
 new creations. No doubt, naturalists have now and then 
 announced the " discovery" of a new species of plant or 
 animal, but whether these were existing forms previously 
 unnoticed, or new forms only recently introduced, the im- 
 perfection of history leaves us no means of determining. 
 And yet, reasoning from our knowledge of the past, the 
 appearance of new species must take place as infallibly as 
 the disappearance of the old. So long as the energies of 
 
174 THE RECENT. 
 
 nature continue unimpaired, the balance of vital activity 
 must be maintained. Even man's extirpations and modifi- 
 cations, extensive as they appear, are in a great measure 
 counterbalanced by his introduction and wider distribution 
 of the cultivated plants and domesticated animals in all 
 their endless varieties. The scheme of Life is as progres- 
 sive now as it ever was, and man himself is as subject to 
 its laws as the meanest form he modifies. The pre-historic 
 nomades of Asia, the stone-implement makers of Europe, 
 and the mound-builders of America, have passed away, and 
 are less known to us in their aspects, thoughts, and doings 
 than their contemporary mammoths, great deer, and wild 
 oxen. The temple-reariDg, idol-worshipping races of Baby- 
 lonia, Egypt, and Central America, have perished, and their 
 characters are merely beginning to be revealed to us ; while 
 our more immediate predecessors, the Greeks, Romans, Celts, 
 and early Saxons, have partaken of the same doom, and 
 much of their history remains in doubt and obscurity. Thus, 
 physical features, habits of life, modes of thought, social 
 systems, and religious beliefs all that renders humanity dis- 
 tinctive, and confers on it its highest attributes have ever 
 been as mutable and progressive as the phases of nature by 
 which they are surrounded ; nor do the realities of the pre- 
 sent exhibit the slightest symptom of persistence and 
 finality. As the pala3ozoic passed into the mesozoic, and 
 the mesozoic into the recent ; so the recent is pressing on 
 to a future, that will be stamped by features physical and 
 vital, social and moral peculiarly its own. 
 
 Supposing, then, that science could determine all the 
 physical and vital conditions of the earth in other words, 
 could read her history up to the present moment the 
 question naturally arises, How far we are entitled, in the 
 spirit of philosophy, to presume on what is yet to follow ? 
 
THE FUTURE. 175 
 
 This brings us, in conclusion, to look at the earth's pro- 
 bable Future through her knowledge of her Past. As 
 students of nature, we can no more refrain from this in- 
 quiry than we can cease to take an interest in her bygone 
 history. The present is a mere evanishing point : yesterday 
 it was the future, to-morrow it will be the past. Past, pre- 
 sent, and future are but portions of one vast cycle of change ; 
 and could we determine with accuracy the rate of progress 
 in the past, the future would be rationally computable. In 
 the mean time our knowledge of world-history is far from 
 perfect, hence our estimate of the future can assume at 
 best little more than the character of speculation. Still, 
 we are fairly entitled to hold that as the rocky crust has, 
 under the operation of the physical forces, been the theatre 
 of incessant change in, the past, so it will continue to be 
 subjected to similar mutations in the future. As we see no 
 decline in the forces that operate, so reason refuses to admit 
 a cessation of their results. Volcanic energy will shift its 
 centres of activity ; continents will be submerged ; sea- 
 beds be uplifted into dry land ; climatic influences be altered ; 
 living races will succumb to obnoxious conditions; and new 
 ones will appear co-adapted to these newer phases. As in 
 the past the changes were always gradual and local, and the 
 newer phases ever bore a certain appreciable relation to 
 those that went before ; so in the future we may rely on a 
 similar gradation, and believe that the differences between 
 the phases yet to be will never exceed those geology has 
 discovered between two successive formations. 
 
 As with the physical, so with the vital forces. Age after 
 age has been characterised by its own peculiar phases of vital- 
 ity, and as we fail to detect any symptom of decline, so we 
 may fairly presume that the future aspects of life will differ 
 from that which now prevails, as that which exists differs 
 from that which preceded. As the course has ever been to 
 
] 76 THE RECENT. 
 
 higher and higher forms, so the life of the future must 
 transcend that of the present, as the present excels the 
 past. Unless geology has altogether misinterpreted the 
 history of this earth, and her teachings be no better than a 
 fable and delusion, philosophy is chained to this conclusion. 
 Could we discover the terms of the law that has regulated 
 the evolutions of past vitality, we might approximate to 
 some idea of its future forms ; but, ignorant of these terms, 
 we can only rely on the upward progress of life, and believe 
 that its newer phases will retain the same appreciable rela- 
 tions to the present that the present does to the age that 
 immediately preceded. The great primal patterns radiate, 
 articulate, molluscan, and vertebrate will ever remain the 
 same : their modifications seem, endless, their adaptations 
 interminable. 
 
THE LAW. 
 
 HAVING reviewed in detail the life-phases of the successive 
 epochs of geology, we now proceed to a few generalisations 
 respecting the advent and exit the rise, progress, and de- 
 cay of specific vitality. In so doing, we shall endeavour 
 to give expression to some of the leading laws which seem 
 to have influenced Life since its first appearance on the ter- 
 raqueous globe, believing that details are of themselves 
 comparatively worthless unless we can co-relate and con- 
 nect them into something like order and system. I am 
 fully aware, where so much of our evidence is merely nega- 
 tive, and where more, perhaps, is still fragmentary and im- 
 perfect, that any attempt of this kind may be thought 
 premature and perhaps presumptuous. But the law of our 
 nature, like the law of creation, is ORDER ; and the mind 
 instinctively groups and associates, and tries to connect ef- 
 fects with their causes, the moment it turns itself to any 
 new field of research. And so, in Paleontology, these 
 generalisations, however tentative and temporary, serve as 
 centres round which to marshal new facts, and help to 
 give consistency and interest to what might otherwise ap- 
 pear a mass of discordant and repulsive details. And grant- 
 ing that many of these generalisations may be set aside by 
 future discoveries, so long as they are received in the same 
 spirit in which they are submitted, they cannot retard the 
 
178 THE LAW. 
 
 progress of research, by leading either to presumptuous 
 dogmatism on the one hand, or to ungenerous illiber- 
 ality on the other. They are submitted in the spirit of 
 honest earnestness, more anxious to arrive at the expression 
 of one plain truth than give currency to a thousand hypo- 
 theses, however brilliant and attractive. And yet, while 
 the main value must ever be ascribed to inductive reason- 
 ing from facts, hypothetical promptings cannot always be 
 ignored. They have their own value, and oftener than 
 once has the road to truth been indicated by the finger- 
 posts of hypothesis. 
 
 [Dawn of Life.] 
 
 As at present, so during all former life-epochs, the land 
 and waters were tenanted by various families of plants and 
 animals these families exhibiting affinities and gradations 
 even as plants and animals do now. It is true, that as we 
 descend into the rocky crust we arrive at a stage (the meta- 
 m orphic strata) when plants and animals do not seem to 
 have existed ; but on this point the evidence is merely 
 negative, and Geology cannot say with certainty that Life 
 was not coeval with the globe itself, though the presump- 
 tion is, that organic being was not called into existence 
 till about the dawn of the Silurian era. Nothing is gained 
 by the assumption that it had a prior existence, and that 
 every organism has been obliterated by the metamorphism 
 to which the earlier strata have been subjected. We can 
 only reason from what we know ; and in the mean time 
 the lowest Silurian or Cambrian rocks stand as the farthest 
 verge to which Palaeontology has pushed her discoveries. 
 
 It has been argued, no doubt, that as the vertebrate ani- 
 mals seem to show an ascent through the geological periods 
 from fish to reptile, from reptile to bird, and from bird to 
 mammal, so the invertebrate may also obey a similar law of 
 
DAWN OF LIFE. 179 
 
 development, from the simpler protozoa up through the 
 radiata, articulata, and mollusca. As every class, however, 
 of the invertebrata is represented in Silurian strata, we must, 
 according to this hypothesis, seek for the commencement 
 of the simpler forms, stage by stage, further back among 
 the Cambrian and metamorphic rocks. Such a belief would 
 carry the commencement of life immensely further back in 
 time as far back, indeed, before the Silurian period for the 
 development of the invertebrates, as from the Silurian to the 
 tertiary for the vertebrates ; but as the same ratio cannot 
 possibly be applied to two sub-kingdoms so entirely dis- 
 similar, the idea of a long pre- Silurian cycle of invertebrate 
 life, however plausible, has really little in fact to recom- 
 mend it to our acceptance. We by no means argue for the 
 restriction of life to the Cambrian period, but we must have 
 something more certain than fanciful analogies to carry our 
 convictions any distance beyond these strata. And even 
 the evidence of Fossil life itself is greatly in favour of the 
 belief that at this stage we have reached, or all but reached, 
 the dawn of organised existence. As we ascend in the geo- 
 logical scale, we find life increasing and spreading, stage by 
 stage, into newer and higher forms ; and as we descend we 
 find it decreasing and narrowing to simpler and lowlier as- 
 pects ; and surely we are justified in the inference, that in 
 the few scattered organisms of Cambria, we have all but 
 attained the ultimate limit of vitality. Were matter and 
 life co-dependent we might reasonably argue for their co- 
 existence; but as matter can exist without the manifesta- 
 tion of vitality, and as life appears only in subordination to 
 the material forces, so the one may have existed for ages 
 without necessarily implying the presence of the other. 
 
 And, further, if untold epochs have been spent in the 
 evolution of life from its earliest to its present aspects, it 
 is equally conceivable that cycle after cycle may have rolled 
 by in the elimination of the purely material structure of 
 
180 THE LAW. 
 
 the world before it seemed to the Divine mind a fitting 
 habitat for the plants and animals with which He had pre- 
 destined to adorn its surface. Life is a measured and re- 
 stricted gift ; it is adjusted to, as well as governed by, ex- 
 ternal conditions, and it is only in harmony with what we 
 know of Nature's progress to believe in a long Azoic period, 
 during which these external conditions were undergoing 
 the necessary preparation and arrangement for the advent 
 of Vitality. At present all our ideas of Life are associated 
 with a globe superficially composed of land and water, sur- 
 rounded by a breatheable atmosphere, lighted and warmed 
 by a genial sun, and subjected to ever- acting physical and 
 chemical forces ; and while we firmly believe that inde- 
 pendent of these great cosmical conditions Life could not 
 exist, we may surely be permitted to presume that it has 
 been their unfailing accompaniment from the earliest mo- 
 ment they were harmoniously established, and will con- 
 tinue to be so while that harmony remains undissolved. 
 
 [Origin of Life.] 
 
 Starting from this point, we may fairly inquire, How 
 and by what means this earth became the "procreant cradle" 
 of organised existences 1 "Was it by some process of second- 
 ary causation, or directly and at once by the fiat of the 
 Creator 1 Alas for the impotence of science, and the scope 
 of our finite intelligence ! Science cannot even indicate 
 the line of inquiry our highest philosophy is the humble re- 
 cognition of the fact. The chemist and the physiologist may 
 resolve the vital organism into cells, and granules, and nuclei, 
 but here their efforts stop : they cannot endow these cells and 
 germs with life, or cause them to assume the lowliest form 
 of vegetable or animal existence. The " slime that mantles 
 
ORIGIN OF LIFE. 181 
 
 o'er the stagnant pool" the simplest arrangement of cell- 
 growth that spreads over the surface of the decaying rock, 
 are results beyond the proudest achievements of science. 
 And even could we in any way connect these manifestations 
 of life lowly as they are with the subtle agencies of heat, 
 light, and electricity, this would be only bringing us a little 
 nearer, but not within the precincts of that mysterious 
 shrine which science may not unveil, and before which the 
 proudest philosophy can only humble itself and adore. 
 
 It may be a law of nature that inorganic matter, in cer- 
 tain conditions and under the influence of certain forces, 
 shall assume an organic form, but of the operations of such 
 a law, or of the forces which obey its behest, human know- 
 ledge stands in utter ignorance. It may be, as suggested 
 by Professor Owen, that " if it be ever permitted to man 
 to penetrate the mystery which enshrouds the origin of or- 
 ganic force, it will be, most probably, by experiment and 
 observation on the atoms that manifest the simplest condi- 
 tions of life," but in the mean time the lowly monad stands 
 as unrevealed as to its origin as the lordly man, or as the 
 still more subtle elimination of mental phenomena. "We 
 know something of the nature and functions of vitality its 
 order, and operations, and increase but of its origin we 
 know nothing. In vain have physicists experimented to 
 associate vital manifestation with electrical action : most 
 unsatisfactory the evidence for what naturalists, in ignor- 
 ance of the phenomena, have been pleased to designate 
 spontaneous generation ! This present ignorance, however, 
 can form no plea for the absence of future effort ; everything 
 unknown is not to be held as a miracle. On the contrary, 
 where natural science, under the direction of proper methods, 
 has already done so much towards the elucidation of Life 
 in all its aspects and operations, philosophy may surely be 
 permitted, humbly and reverently, to inquire into its cause 
 
182 THE LAW. 
 
 and origin. The distance that separates the Uncreated 
 from the created is no doubt inconceivably great, but who 
 shall fix the " Hither shalt thou come but no farther" of 
 the legitimate efforts of the human intellect 1 
 
 [Uniformity of Type and Pattern.] 
 
 At whatever stage the first creation of plants and animals 
 took place, the same types and patterns have ever run 
 throughout the whole analogous functions have had to be 
 performed ; and the various biological provinces of every 
 epoch have been peopled, even as they are now, partly by 
 identical and partly by representative species. The earliest 
 sea- weed that floated in Silurian waters spread its broad 
 leathery lobes, and grew and multiplied precisely like the 
 sea-weeds of existing seas ; the shell-fish were constructed 
 after the same types, and so similar in many respects, that 
 only the practised conchologist can detect their specific dis- 
 tinctions ; the fishes of the old red sandstone, strange as 
 they may appear, find their analogues, bone for bone, and 
 organ for organ, in existing fishes ; while the reptiles of the 
 Oolite and Weald present, in their gigantic skeletons, 
 nothing that the comparative anatomist cannot readily 
 identify with .the homologies of the vertebrate pattern. 
 And not only the structural plan, but the structural com- 
 position of each great type has been equally persistent and 
 normal. The mucilaginous sea-weed for ever leaves its 
 faint impress devoid of cortical integument, the terrestrial 
 stem has ever constructed its woody pillar of carbon, the 
 equisetum elaborated its varnish of silica, and the pine- 
 trees distilled their resins and amber. The corals of Siluria, 
 like those of the existing Pacific, consist of carbonate of 
 lime ; the fossil and the recent tooth have alike their den- 
 
UNIFORMITY OF TYPE. 183 
 
 tine, osteo-dentine, and enamel ; and had the parts been 
 less evanescent, or were chemistry more subtle to detect, 
 bone, cartilage, and flesh hair, wool, and horn scale, 
 feather, and claw, would be found to have been ever built 
 up of the same elements, and, family for family, in the 
 same proportions. 
 
 So far as fossil evidence goes (and by that alone can 
 we be guided), the plants and animals of the ancient 
 world, though differing widely in genera and species, were 
 neither "abnormal" nor "monstrous," but both in point 
 of size, and form, and structural adaptations, were very 
 much alike to those of the present day. So much so, 
 indeed, that could we recall them to mingle in the busy 
 scene of life around us, they would neither startle us by 
 their appearance, nor alarm us by their habits, one whit 
 more than the existing Flora and Fauna of distant and 
 different regions. The great types remain the same through- 
 out all time and space ; and though the modifications have 
 been innumerable, these modifications, even in their aggre- 
 gate, have never amounted to an obliteration of any im- 
 portant primal distinction. Acrogenous, endogenous, and 
 exogenous radiate, articulate, molluscan, and vertebrate, 
 range side by side as distinctly now, each within its own 
 typical idea, as when they first clothed the land and peo- 
 pled the waters. The relations of a mathematical line, or 
 the unions of a chemical element, are not more fixed and 
 certain than the relationships of structural organisation. 
 This organ or that organ may be modified for the perform- 
 ance of some special function, and this modification may 
 imply a certain amount of variation in all the co-related 
 parts ; still the prime typical conception remains distinct 
 and essential under every condition of space, and through 
 every progressional mutation of time. 
 
 " Nor is it only the plan of the great types," says Pro- 
 
184 THE LAW. 
 
 fessor Agassiz, " which must have been adopted from the 
 beginning, but also the manner in which these plans were 
 to be executed : the systems of form under which these 
 structures were to be clothed, and even the ultimate details 
 of structure which, in different genera, bear definite rela- 
 tions to those of other genera ; the mode of differentiation 
 of species, and the nature of their relations to the surround- 
 ing media, must likewise have been determined ; for the 
 character of the classes is as well defined as that of the four 
 great branches of the animal kingdom, or that of the fami- 
 lies, the genera, and the species. Again, the first repre- 
 sentatives of each class stand in definite relations to their 
 successors in later periods ; and as their order of appearance 
 corresponds to the various degrees of complication of their 
 structure, and forms a natural series closely linked together, 
 this natural gradation must have been contemplated from 
 the beginning." In other words, the evolution of life in all 
 its successive phases is but the realisation of a pre-deter- 
 mined plan ; and whether primary or secondary means be 
 employed in its enactment, the harmonious unity of their 
 action implies alike omnipresence in space and omniscience 
 in time. 
 
 [Function.] 
 
 As to function ; earth, air. and water ever seem to have 
 had their varied tenantry. Burrowers, creepers, runners, 
 leapers, fliers, floaters, and swimmers, make their appear- 
 ance in every epoch. Simple and lowly they may be, yet 
 still in their respective grades perfect, and fitted by the 
 nicest organic adjustments at once for the functions they 
 had to discharge and the element they were destined to 
 inhabit. From these organs we also clearly perceive, that 
 some families were designed to feed on vegetables, others to 
 
FUNCTION. 185 
 
 prey on flesh ; that some were formed to roam at large for 
 their food, others to find it by parasitic attachment ; while 
 many, like the Crustacea of the lower old red, the sauroid 
 fishes of the coal period, and the reptiles of the lias, became 
 the scavengers of their respective times, and lived on the 
 decaying garbage of the river -bank and the muddy sea- 
 shore. The functional performance of each great class, as 
 well as of the life of each great geological epoch, has ever 
 been, Avithin its own limits, a complete and independent 
 system. A world of shell-fish littoral and deep-sea, se- 
 dentary and vagrant, phytophagous and carnivorous ex- 
 isted in the earliest waters. The gigantic sauroid fishes of 
 the palaeozoic were the functional representatives of the 
 secondary reptiles ; the secondary reptiles, in their marine 
 ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs, their estuarine teleosaurs 
 and steneosaurs, their terrestrial hylaeosaurs and megalo- 
 saurs, and their aerial pterosaurs, were respectively the 
 whales and dolphins, the crocodiles and gavials, the ele- 
 phants and tigers, the bats and the birds, of their period. 
 At every stage of time, and under every type of life, analo- 
 gous functions have been unerringly discharged. Herbi- 
 vorous, insectivorous, carnivorous, and omnivorous, are at- 
 tributes alike of the fish, the reptile, the bird, and the 
 mammal ; walkers, swimmers, and fliers, with powers more 
 or less restricted, have ever occurred within the same great 
 classes. 
 
 In the interdependencies of existence demand has ever 
 pressed on supply, decay trodden closely in the wake of 
 reproduction, and suffering been commensurate with enjoy- 
 ment. An ideal COSMOS of painless beatitude is a dream 
 and delusion. Pain and death are stamped on the earliest 
 records of life. From the beginning the flesh-eater has 
 preyed on the plant-eater, and the weak have ever suc- 
 cumbed to the strong, even as they do now. The struggle 
 
186 THE LAW. 
 
 for existence commenced with its gift ; and the reign of 
 death was inaugurated by the enjoyment of life. Constructed 
 as ISTature is, this seems part and parcel of her plan, and 
 the means by which the equipoise and balance of vitality is 
 maintained. The larger and more abundant plant-feeders, 
 ever pressing on the means of subsistence, are held in check 
 by the comparatively smaller and scantier flesh-eaters ; and, 
 so far as man can comprehend, it is only by some such com- 
 pensatory system that the greatest happiness of the greatest 
 numbers can be maintained. Besides, subjected as life is 
 to the inevitable laws of a material world, it must, for its 
 own comfort, learn to accommodate itself to the circum 
 stances by which it is surrounded ; and so, under this view, 
 the accident and reminiscence of pain become an institu- 
 tion for the animal's own benefit and protection. What 
 pleases will be pursued, what pains will be avoided ; while 
 the excess of force which destroys is, for the most part, mer- 
 cifully accompanied by insensibility and unconsciousness. 
 Life, like the world it inhabits, is after all but a system of 
 re-agency and compensation ; and in all our reasonings on 
 the question of Pain and Death we should ever remember 
 that "He who tempers the wind to the shorn lamb" may 
 have so ordained, that to the various grades of organisation 
 suffering and the terror of death should be merely compara- 
 tive, and that their intensity should be felt only where pain 
 becomes the penalty of the infringement of the eternal law 
 of right and wrong. 
 
 [Distribution.] 
 
 With regard to distribution, we also perceive that from 
 the beginning different areas have been peopled partly by 
 identical and partly by representative species. In the Pal- 
 seozoic epochs, the marine areas being apparently wider 
 
DISTRIBUTION. 187 
 
 and more conterminous, the same species had, perhaps, a 
 more extensive range ; but even then there was no uni- 
 versal uniformity of life a thing as incompatible with the 
 habits of the creatures themselves, as uniformity of climate 
 is with the form and motions of the globe. Plant the first 
 germ of life on whatever spot you may, this act of creation 
 has always some relation of fitness to external conditions ; 
 and as universal uniformity of condition is a thing unknown 
 either in time present or in time past, so we may rest assured 
 that universal uniformity of Life was a feature that never 
 entered into the scheme of creation. Tropical and temper- 
 ate, low-lying and elevated, littoral and deep-sea, have ever 
 prevailed as distinctive areas, impressed by different physi- 
 cal conditions, and requiring for their tenancy orders and 
 families equally distinct in their habits and organisation. 
 No doubt certain animals, in consequence of their periodic 
 migrations, have a much wider range than others, but even 
 this is fixed and ascertainable, and these migratory races, at 
 the present day at least, are comparatively few. Applying 
 this rule to the past, we may believe in the migrations of 
 certain extinct races,* but these always within definite 
 limits, and, race for race, each over its own appointed area. 
 From the first to the last, variety and complexity are 
 unmistakably stamped on all created forms ; and this variety 
 manifests itself not only in the structure of the creatures 
 themselves, but in their general fades at successive epochs, 
 as well as over the different areas they were meant to in- 
 
 * The migrations of living animals are comparatively well known ; the 
 migration of extinct races is altogether wrapt in obscurity. And yet we 
 may believe that the mastodons and mammoths had a wide range from 
 south to north, that some of the tertiary birds dipped their wings alike in 
 temperate and arctic waters, and that many of the secondary fishes 
 were, like the salmon and sturgeon, anadromous now frequenting the 
 sea, and now returning to the river under the periodic impulse of repr6- 
 duction. 
 
188 THE LAW. 
 
 habit. Infinite variety of structure, infinite variety through 
 time, and infinite variety over space, seem leading charac- 
 teristics of the Creator's scheme ; and we err in our inter- 
 pretation when we try to establish for the .primeval world 
 a law that has ceased to operate in the new. It is true 
 that as we ascend in time, from higher to higher forms, the 
 areas of specific distribution seem to become more and more 
 circumscribed, and such a limitation would only accord with 
 the idea of increased diversity of species as dependent on 
 more localised varieties of food, climate, and other external 
 conditions ; but even on this point we must exercise great 
 care and discrimination. In the present continents we 
 trace, in some measure, the outline of former seas and 
 lands ; but more than two-thirds of the earth's crust are 
 covered by water, and hide from our research the continua- 
 tions of systems, a knowledge of whose extent is indispen- 
 sable to the solution of the problem. It is better, then, to 
 shape our inferences in accordance with what we know of 
 existing nature, and believe in variety and distribution of 
 species from the first, in various centres of creative mani- 
 festation, and in a process of local extinctions and crea- 
 tions which necessarily prevented universal uniformity of 
 Life during any of the geological epochs. 
 
 [External Conditions never Uniform.] 
 
 It has been argued, no doubt, that in the primeval epochs 
 our earth, in virtue of its internal heat, enjoyed a higher 
 and more uniform climate, and was consequently peopled 
 by a more uniform flora and fauna. This argument, like 
 many others of the earlier geologists, seems altogether with- 
 out foundation. Granting the existence of a higher internal 
 temperature in pre-vital times, and admitting its influence 
 
CONDITIONS NEVER UNIFORM. 189 
 
 on the surface, we are still without a shadow of evidence 
 that this interior heat has exercised the least perceptible 
 effect on the climatology of the globe since the deposition 
 of the fossiliferous strata.* On the contrary, all that we 
 know of the nature and thickness of pre-Cambrian sedi- 
 ments, and all that we have learned of the Cambrian rocks 
 themselves, preclude the supposition of such an influence 
 beyond the most infinitesimal degree, and compel us to 
 believe that the physical conditions of life have been much 
 the same throughout every period of its existence. It is 
 true that during the Carboniferous period, the Oolite, and 
 the earlier Tertiaries, certain latitudes of the northern hemi- 
 sphere appear to have enjoyed a more genial climate than 
 they do now ; but the explanation of this we are to seek in 
 the varying distributions of sea and land, the existence of 
 warmer oceanic currents and other geographical conditions, 
 rather than in any perceptible influence derived from the 
 earth's interior, ^ay, as we have warmer and colder regions 
 in space, in virtue of the earth's relations to the solar system, 
 so w r e are inclined to believe we have had warmer and 
 colder periods in time, in virtue of some great but unknown 
 cosmical law. The existence of the Glacial or boulder epoch 
 over the greater portion of the northern hemisphere (say 
 up to the 40th or 42d parallel of latitude) is now ad- 
 mitted on all hands ; and as we cannot entertain the idea of 
 
 * According to Fourier, Hopkins, and other physicists, the internal 
 heat of the globe, which increases at the rate of 1 degree for every 60 
 feet of depth, does not at present affect the mean superficial tempera- 
 ture more than l-20th of a degree ; and to have had any sensible effect 
 on external climates say to the exent of 10 degrees this interior heat 
 must have been two hundred times its present amount. At that rate 
 the melting point of lavas would have been reached at a depth of 580 
 feet, instead of 116,000 feet as presently estimated, and all the deeper 
 seated strata must have been fused or rendered crystalline a condition 
 in which they do not occur even to the depth of 30,000 feet, as many of 
 the Cambrian and Silurian slates are merely hardened and cleaved, but 
 in no degree metamorphie. 
 
190 THE LAW. 
 
 cataclysmal irregularity in Creation, so we are led to infer 
 the prior occurrence of such glacial periods at determinate 
 times and over determinate areas. The existence of such 
 glacial recurrences has been surmised by several geologists 
 as characterising the periods of the old red sandstone and 
 Permian ; * and we may venture to extend them to other 
 systems as probable features of a great cosmical plan. 
 
 Thus, looking at the Cambrian strata of the northern 
 hemisphere their angular grits and conglomerates, their 
 extreme paucity of fossil forms, and other features we are 
 at once reminded of the action of ice and the presence of 
 ungenial conditions. This is followed over the same areas 
 by the more genial and exuberant period of Siluria ; which 
 is in turn succeeded by the old red sandstone, whose grits 
 and bouldery conglomerates, as well as paucity of vegetable 
 forms, once more suggest the recurrence of colder influences. 
 Following the old red we have the exuberant flora and 
 fauna of the coal period, again to be succeeded by the scanty 
 life-forms and grits and conglomerates of Permia. Again, 
 the trias and oolite of the northern hemisphere are charac- 
 terised by life-forms that betoken warm and genial condi- 
 tions; while the chalk that succeeds imbeds water-worn 
 blocks of granite and lignite, which would seem to imply 
 the presence of ice-drift and deposit in seas that were 
 open to boreal influences. Next the early tertiaries occur 
 over the same areas, marked by plants and animals that in- 
 dicate a warm and genial climate ; and this in turn gives 
 place to the well-known glacial or boulder-drift epoch ; 
 once more to be succeeded by the milder influences of the 
 post-tertiary or current era. Throwing these recurrences 
 into diagrammatic form, we appear to have had an alter- 
 
 * Mr Gumming, in History of the Isle of Man (1848) ; Mr Goodwin- 
 Austen, Geological Journal (1850); Professor Ramsay, Ibid. (1855); 
 and the author, in his Advanced Text- Book. 
 
CONDITIONS NEVER UNIFORM. 191 
 
 nation of colder and warmer cycles over the northern hemi- 
 sphere, at least ; and if such has really ^ 
 been the case, we must seek the ex- g / 
 planation not in revolutions and cata- J \ 
 clysms, but in some fixed and contin- N> X N g 
 uously operating law.* Whether the % \5 
 phenomena may depend on causes j % 
 operating on and within the globe ,*'' % 
 itself, so as to change the axis of / 
 rotation, or whether it may not more 5 \ 
 
 * This idea of colder and warmer cycles as N % 
 
 affecting the northern hemisphere was indicated x ^ 
 
 some years ago to the Literary and Philosophi- ' Is 
 
 cal Society of St Andrews. Since then the / o 
 
 author has endeavoured to establish the fact, +'' 
 
 partly by the character and composition of the - / aj 
 
 rocks of the colder periods, and partly by the j ' ' 
 
 nature of their fossil contents. Much, however. ^ / \ 
 
 O ^ \ r~) 
 
 still remains to be done, and he would earnestly # X N X 
 
 solicit the attention of geologists to the subject, S N a 5 
 
 and this altogether apart from the cosmical ^ * "~ *"" 
 
 causes to which the recurrences may be due. ^. J & O 
 
 On this latter aspect of the question some w f S 
 
 discussion took place in the A tkenceum of 1860, g f /' 
 
 on the suggestion of Colonel James of the Ord- / 
 
 nance Survey, that former changes of climute \ 
 
 may be due to changes in the inclination of the ^ \ x 
 
 earth's axis, brought about by alterations in ^ XX N 
 
 the crust that gradually affect the centre of \ ^ 
 
 gravity. Whatever the cause whether it is to 
 
 be sought for on or within the globe itself, or /' g 
 
 in purely astronomical influences this is not /"' 
 
 the place to discuss ; but most unmistakably / 
 
 the gradual uprise of land that is now taking "| { 
 
 place in the arctic regions, the shifting of vol- 55 \ 
 
 canic areas in the northern hemisphere since XX N 
 
 the tertiary period, and the approach and de- NS X J 
 
 parture of the boulder epoch over the same ' 
 
 latitudes, all point to the operation of some J | 
 
 determinate law of secular succession. May it "' 
 
 not be, that in the periodicity of this law we may yet discover the key 
 
 to the expression of geological chronology in years and centuries ? 
 
192 THE LAW. 
 
 likely depend on forces purely astronomical, are questions 
 that lie beyond the scope of the present Sketch. Enough 
 for our purpose to have indicated the probability of such 
 recurrences, and derive therefrom the conclusion that the 
 conditions of life have been very much the same through all 
 geological periods successively varying in different areas, 
 but never presenting, any more than they do now, a uni- 
 versal similitude, and that least of all through the influ- 
 ence of the earth's internal temperature. 
 
 [Introduction of New Life-form?.] 
 
 As each geological epoch is characterised by its own pe- 
 culiar plants and animals, the question naturally arises, 
 Whether these are independent creations, or whether there 
 is in nature some law of development by which, during the 
 lapse of ages and under the change of physical conditions, 
 the lower may not be developed into the higher species, 
 and the simpler into the more complex? On this topic 
 much has been said and written, but after all, geology is 
 not in a position to solve the problem of vital gradation 
 and progress. It cannot tell, for instance, why trilobites 
 should have flourished so profusely during the silurian 
 epoch and died out before the deposition of the oolite ; why 
 chambered cephalopods, like the ammonite, should have 
 come to their meridian, as it were, during the liassic era; 
 reptilian life during the oolite and chalk ; or why mamma- 
 lian development should have been reserved to the tertiary 
 and current epochs. It cannot explain why the palaeo- 
 therium should not continue to inhabit the same forest 
 with the tapir of South America, or the ichthyosaurus 
 gambol in the same waters with the alligator of the Ama- 
 zon. It can discover no physical condition in the oolitic 
 
INTRODUCTION OF NEW LIFE- FORMS. 193 
 
 seas to have prevented the continuance of trilobites ; 
 nothing in the geography or climate of the coal period to 
 have prevented the huge terrestrial reptiles of the Weald 
 from browsing on its vegetation, or marine species, like 
 those of the lias, from preying on its fishes. The appear- 
 ance and preponderance of certain races during certain 
 geological epochs is a problem which lies as yet beyond the 
 solution of science. That this succession occurs regularly 
 as regards time, space, and biological sequence, we clearly 
 perceive; but how, or by what means of causation, we are 
 altogether unable to determine. We can often trace the 
 extinction of races to a change of external condition ; and 
 as vitality is endowed with a certain amount of elasticity 
 and adaptability, we may account for modifications within 
 the limits of what naturalists term varieties; but we appeal 
 in vain to physical conditions for the first introduction or 
 creation of species. 
 
 In the PAST LIFE of the globe we only see dimly and 
 broadly the outline of a great scheme of gradation and pro- 
 gress a progress on which we may rest as a matter of 
 FAITH, but the terms of whose LAW lie far, as yet, beyond 
 the grasp of exact scientific demonstration. In vain we 
 turn to "external conditions" and "unlimited time;" to 
 the doctrines of "embryology" and " morphology;" or to 
 ''natural selection in the struggle for existence." These 
 are oracles to which theorists have often appealed, but they 
 fail, as yet, to utter an intelligible response. That each of 
 them has some portion of the mystery in keeping, all the 
 tendencies of modern science do, no doubt, appear to indi- 
 cate, but how much, and in what order of connection, our 
 highest determinations are little better than a train of inge- 
 nious guess-work. As far as geological evidence goes, all 
 the great types of life began simultaneously and inde- 
 pendently. All the subsequent introductions of new genera 
 
194 THE LAW. 
 
 and species are but modifications of these types ; but how, 
 or by what process they were modified, science cannot tell, 
 any more than it can account for the creation of the type 
 itself. This much we know if the geological record is to 
 be trusted that age after age new forms of life have made 
 their appearance, differing in what naturalists would term 
 generic and specific aspects, but still bearing to the great 
 primal patterns, and to each other, certain definite and ap- 
 preciable affinities ; and as we are not entitled to place vital 
 phenomena any more than physical phenomena beyond the 
 pale of natural law, we are bound, in the spirit of philoso- 
 phy, to seek inductively for the causes of these successive 
 introductions. In the whole world around us we see 
 nothing but the activities of secondary causes ; and though 
 Reason has yet failed to detect the mode in which new 
 life-forms are produced, Faith may surely be allowed to be- 
 lieve in their genetic connection by some continuously oper- 
 ating law. To such a law science can give no satisfactory 
 expression ; and in the mean time the idea of NEW CREA- 
 TIONS is, if not the most philosophical, at least the most 
 prevalent belief, just as it is the most convenient term, 
 perhaps, whereby we can describe the phenomena in ques- 
 tion. Instead of the term " new creations," some palaeon- 
 tologists, with a view to avoid an opinion, make use of the 
 phrases, "the first appearance," and the "introduction" of 
 new races. Little, however, is gained by this evasion. 
 If new species do enter upon the stage of being, and we 
 cannot explain how or by what process they come, then 
 they are to us, to all intents and purposes, new creations. 
 It may not be a new creation in the sense of a direct and 
 miraculous interference on the part of Creative Power ; but 
 it is the equivalent of creation through the operation of 
 a law defined by the prescience of a Creator, and producing 
 its results at determinate times, over determinate areas, 
 
EXTINCTION AND CEEATION. 195 
 
 and always with a determinate relation to pre-existing 
 vitality. 
 
 [Extinction and Creation of Species.] 
 
 In adopting the terms "extinction" and "creation," 
 we must not fall into the common, but mistaken, notion, 
 that the Flora and Fauna of one period were utterly extin- 
 guished before the commencement of the next. There are 
 no such extinctions and re-creations in nature. Just as the 
 physical change from one formation to another was sudden 
 or gradual, so a less or greater number of genera and spe- 
 cies passed from the older to the newer epoch. In some 
 localities the change was sudden and entire, in others it 
 was gradual so gradual that we can hardly trace the line 
 of demarcation. Take, for example, the old red sandstone 
 of the British Islands. What a vast difference between the 
 fauna of Siluria proper, and that of the old red sandstone 
 of Caithness ! The break seems decided and impassable, 
 and yet when we turn to Forfarshire and Lanark we find 
 silurian genera and species passing up into the old red 
 sandstone and completing the continuity, which, to a Caith- 
 ness geologist, would have seemed to be entirely rent 
 asunder. Again, what a marked difference between the 
 fauna of the Forfarshire and Caithness beds between 
 that of the Hereford sandstones, and that of the limestones 
 of Devon ! and yet when we pass to the old red sandstone 
 region of Russia we find these different stages fused and 
 equalised into one homogeneous Life-system. What was 
 broken up into different stages by physical irregularities in 
 the area of Great Britain was left to evolve itself gradually 
 and continuously in the region of Russia. We must exa- 
 mine more and know more before we hasten to such sweep- 
 ing conclusions as general extinctions and creations ; and 
 
196 THE LAW. 
 
 the more we examine and know, the more we become con- 
 vinced that geology cannot point its finger to a single 
 break in the great evolution of vitality, any more than it 
 can point to a moment's cessation in the physical operations 
 of nature. On the contrary, geologists now know that a 
 considerable number of species always pass from one for- 
 mation to another; and such terms as " passage -beds," 
 " Cambro- Silurian," " Siluro-Devonian," &c., sufficiently 
 express their conviction that the outgoings and incomings 
 of life-forms are inseparably interwoven into one gradual 
 and continuous sequence. 
 
 The whole of our groups and formations are merely suc- 
 cessive stages in one great system or COSMOS the minor 
 stages imperceptibly graduating into each other, and the 
 amount of progress becoming apparent only after the lapse 
 of ages. These progressive stages constitute, in fact, our 
 "systems" and "periods;" and if in one region there 
 should appear to be a sudden break between them, let it 
 ever be remembered that the deficiency is to be supplied 
 by some other district in other words, let it be remem- 
 bered that the oscillations of sea and land, of elevation and 
 depression, and other physical changes, are sufficient to 
 account for local breaks in life but that there is no found- 
 ation whatever for the belief in "general extinctions," and, 
 consequently, "new general creations." So far as the few 
 thousand years of man's experience extends, the current 
 era is as mutable as any of the epochs that preceded, and 
 yet so gradually have its extinctions and creations taken 
 place, that science can scarcely corroborate the one, and has 
 as yet failed to detect the other. The systems of the geo- 
 logist are, therefore, mere concatenations of events indica- 
 tive of certain periods ; and as nature never repeats herself 
 in time, each period, when taken at sufficiently distant in- 
 tervals, is characterised by some forms of vitality peculiar 
 
DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESES. 197 
 
 to itself, the while that its general life merges imperceptibly 
 into that of the epoch that follows, just as it was impercep- 
 tibly interwoven with that which preceded. 
 
 [Development Hypotheses.] 
 
 This belief in a gradual and unbroken evolution of vitality 
 gives no encouragement to the doctrine of development from 
 lower to higher types, through some long-continued but 
 little-understood process of physical transmutation. We 
 say "physical" transmutation; for, whether we appeal, with 
 Lamarck, to the modifying influence of new external condi- 
 tions with the author of the Vestiges, to the force of internal 
 volition on the embryotic organism or with Mr Darwin, 
 to the gradual accumulation of minute beneficial changes, 
 which amount in the long-run to specific distinctions, we 
 adopt the same blind-chance process, and are merely phras- 
 ing in different terms the same materialistic* hypothesis. 
 Of such a process we have no direct evidence either in 
 existing nature or in that which has become extinct ; nor 
 by the assumption of such a process can the various grades 
 and affinities of vitality be logically reduced into one har- 
 monious and consistent scheme. If by any unknown ge- 
 iietic process the polype has given birth to the star-fish, the 
 star-fish to the mollusc, the mollusc to the fish, the fish to 
 the reptile, the reptile to the bird, and the bird to the 
 mammal, it must have been either through a graduated 
 succession of intermediate forms, or at once and directly. 
 
 * Should this assertion appear unwan*anted, we have only to refer to 
 Lamarck's own avowal, to the advertisement first announcing the publi- 
 cation of the Vestiges in 1844, and to the whole tone and tenor of the 
 Origin of Species, in which there seems to be a studied non-recognition 
 of any higher Influence than chance, external conditions, nature, law, 
 and other kindred activities. 
 
198 THE LAW. 
 
 If by the former process, where is the finely graduated 
 scale of transitional forms, either living or fossil ? And if 
 by the latter, how comes it to pass that we have not a 
 universal uniformity of life-type at the successive stages of 
 geological time ? for we cannot conceive of any mere phy- 
 sical law acting with discrimination, and peopling one region 
 with one set of forms, and another region with other classes 
 and orders. If it shall be argued that the physical condi- 
 tions of one region differ from those of another, and must 
 necessarily be accompanied by a diversity of results, we 
 restrict our reasonings to any one area, and there we find as 
 great a complexity and variety characterising the part as the 
 advocates of this hypothesis can demand for the whole. 
 Some forms continue persistent and unchanged, others die 
 out and are succeeded by closely allied forms ; some remain 
 scanty and localised, while others increase and largely ex- 
 tend their boundaries; and this under precisely the same 
 conditions and in the self-same area a fact altogether in- 
 explicable were the influence of external conditions the 
 only factor in the law of vital diversity. 
 
 As to " intermediate or gradational forms," let us 
 take care also that we do not mistake functional re- 
 semblance for genetic affinity, and simulative forms for 
 identities. That we have quadrupeds, like the orni- 
 thorhyncus, partaking of some of the characteristics of 
 birds ; mammals, like the whale, modified so as to as- 
 sume the aspect of fishes; fish-like reptiles, as the ichthy- 
 osaurus; and reptile-like fishes, as the rhizodus, no one 
 for a moment gainsays. These, however, are mere func- 
 tional resemblances, not genetic affinities ; the modification 
 of the great aboriginal types, so as to adapt them for every 
 element air, earth, and ocean and to fit them for the 
 performance of every function which the conditions of the 
 world, for the time being, might require. The whale, 
 
DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESES. 199 
 
 though swimming in the ocean, is nevertheless a mammal 
 breathing by lungs, bringing forth its young alive, and 
 suckling them with true mammalian affection ; and the 
 young - bearing, young - suckling bat, though fluttering 
 through the air like a bird, has no essential feature in 
 common with the birds, save that which belongs to the 
 great vertebrate pattern. Such resemblances are simply 
 adaptive, not essential. Instead of indicating any genetic 
 affinity, they merely point to a law which ordains that 
 agreement of habit and economy, in widely differing groups, 
 shall be accompanied by similarity of form; and this, of 
 physical necessity, so long as the same element has to be 
 traversed, the same kind of food sought after, and the same 
 general functions to be performed. 
 
 Again, if at various stages the lower had given birth to 
 the higher, we should naturally have expected only the 
 lowliest and simplest at first, and an equable and uniform 
 diffusion of the higher races, step by step, in the successive 
 geological epochs. Instead of this, we find protozoans, 
 radiates, articulates, and molluscs, side by side, in the low- 
 est fossiliferous rocks ; and in every stage upwards a 
 variety and complexity of higher and lower, which seem to 
 obey anything but a regular arithmetical or geometrical pro- 
 gression, such as any mere physical law of development 
 must necessarily obey. The palaeozoic brachiopods were 
 higher and more varied than those of existing waters ; the 
 noblest cephalopods shell-clad and shell-less were those 
 of the secondary period ; the highest structural fishes were 
 the sauroids of the upper paleozoic ; and anatomists (Owen) 
 assure us that the thecodont reptiles of the new red sand- 
 stone, had they existed at the present day, would have 
 taken rank at the head of the Lacertian order. So far as 
 paleontology can prove, there is no known line of continu- 
 ous development from one primordial germ no uniform 
 
 N 
 
200 THE LAW. 
 
 genetic ascent in time for the various classes and orders of 
 vitality ; and the rise and progress which geology unfolds 
 has been clearly under the influence of a much more com- 
 plicated law than that which takes order from the force of 
 mere external conditions. Besides, in regarding external 
 conditions as the sole cause of vital diversity, we ascribe to 
 them a task to which they are unequal, and leave altogether 
 unexplained which family of the radiates, for example, and 
 why that family alone, was selected to be transformed into 
 the articulates ; which of the mollusca became the progeni- 
 tors of the fishes ; or which of the fishes, while the others 
 were left uninfluenced in their piscine state, were advanced 
 to the dignity of giving birth to the reptiles. 
 
 If there be any truth in the hypothesis, the highest forms 
 of the lower class must have always given birth to the 
 lowest forms of the next higher class for we can scarcely 
 expect the lower forms to have been endowed with a power 
 which was not permitted to the higher. ISTow, so far from 
 this being geologically true, we find fishes making their 
 appearance in the Silurian rocks ages before molluscan life 
 had attained its culminating point in the oolitic era; so 
 also we find reptiles appearing almost simultaneously with 
 fishes in the old red sandstone, and long before the higher 
 fishes (their natural progenitors, according to this theory) 
 had appeared ; just as birds are found in the new red sand- 
 stone ages before the highest forms of reptiles had come on 
 the stage in the upper secondary series. Here then, the 
 offspring often precedes the parent ; and any line of uni- 
 form development is altogether disproved by the very facts 
 on which the advocates of the Law of Development are 
 attempting to found it. That during the long lapse of 
 geological time there has been rise within each great sub- 
 division of life from lower to higher forms, no one can deny; 
 but the law of this progress is other than that of mere 
 
DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESES. 201 
 
 physical development, and lies, as yet, far beyond the grasp 
 of human philosophy. ]S r or, indeed, as has been fitly re- 
 marked by Professor Agassiz, " will there be any scientific 
 evidence of the method of God's working in nature, until 
 naturalists have shown that the whole creation is the ex- 
 pression of a thought, and not the product of physical 
 agents." 
 
 Further, as every creature has its own nature, and habits, 
 and functions, we must, under the transmutation hypothesis, 
 either make the plant and animal capable of changing their 
 own nature and habits, or ascribe the change to the force 
 of external conditions. In the vegetable kingdom we can 
 readily admit, within very wide limits, the operation of 
 external causes ; but even there the generic diversity oc- 
 curring under precisely the same conditions remains alto- 
 gether inexplicable by such a hypothesis ; while the nature 
 of plant-life for ever debars the idea of internal volition. 
 In the animal kingdom we have the same difficulty to con- 
 tend with. Admitting that physical conditions had the 
 power to modify the vital organism, the nature and limit of 
 these modifications must be predetermined and directed in 
 order to preserve the harmony that prevails throughout 
 living as well as throughout extinct forms ; and this har- 
 mony can never be other than the ordaining of a governing 
 mind. It is impossible to invest any mere physical law 
 with a discriminating power absurdity to ascribe to in- 
 dividual volition any permanent change of organisation 
 while an intimate relationship continues to pervade the 
 whole. And even admitting the Creator had chosen to act 
 through such means, they can be placed in no higher light 
 than the unconscious machinery of a system requiring 
 superintendence at every turn, and whose every variation is 
 in effect the equivalent of a new creation. The conversion 
 of a mollusc into a fish, or of a fish into a reptile even if 
 
202 THE LA.W. 
 
 accomplished by a thousand imperceptible stages is to our 
 apprehension as much a creative act as the aboriginal forma- 
 tion of the mollusc; and though nature acts largely through 
 the employment of secondary causes, science will ever most 
 safely appeal to the primal, till she has learned to determine 
 with precision the operations of the secondary returning, 
 like Noah's dove, from an ocean of inquiry that offers as yet 
 to the sole of her foot no sure and abiding resting-place. 
 Xo doubt plants and animals are endowed with a certain 
 amount of elasticity so as to adapt themselves to minor 
 changes of external conditions ; and acting upon this elas- 
 ticity, man has been enabled to produce all the varieties of 
 cultivated fruits and grains, and domesticated animals. 
 This limit of variation, however, is soon reached : the species 
 is never affected, and the varieties can only be maintained 
 by a continuation of the artificial stimulus.* In this case 
 man presents himself as a sub-creative centre, deputed with 
 a power of prescient design otherwise unknown in creation ; 
 and to argue from his operations, as Mr Darwin has done, 
 to those occurring in mere physical nature, is altogether to 
 misinterpret the functions that intellect and reason were 
 destined to subserve. As we have no other power in nature 
 akin to the human intellect, so we are not entitled, in the 
 spirit of induction, to argue from the results produced by 
 that intellect to the operations of the unreasoning material 
 agencies of nature. 
 
 To appeal, in the next place, to embryology to state 
 that, in their embryonic stage, the higher animals always 
 pass through the successive phases of those that are lower, 
 
 * That the individuals of a species should be capable of varying 
 within certain limits, so as to adapt themselves to minor variations in 
 their creative centres, seems part of a wise and beneficial arrangement ; 
 but that such variations partake of a progressive character is disproved 
 rather than supported by the well-known tendency of all artificial 
 varieties to revert to their original stocks. 
 
DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESES. 203 
 
 and then to maintain that the fish-embryo, for example, 
 acted upon by extremely favourable conditions, might be 
 developed beyond itself into a reptile, or the reptile into a 
 bird, is assuming a doctrine of which we have no proof, 
 and merely stating, in perverted terms, the grand physiolo- 
 gical fact of animal gradation and affinity. Besides, it is 
 an argument that cuts both ways. If an embryo, under 
 favourable conditions, can be developed beyond its own 
 parent species, it may also, under unfavourable conditions, 
 be retarded and thrown back into the grade that lies be- 
 neath it ; and as external conditions varied during the 
 geological epochs now genial and now obnoxious we 
 ought to have degradation as well as development. The 
 great gradational progress taught by geology being always 
 steadily from higher to higher, is. however, against this ; 
 and when a species or family is subjected to obnoxious 
 conditions, it invariably dwarfs and dies out in its ow T n 
 proper character a trilobite as a trilobite, an ammonite as 
 an ammonite, an ichthyosaur as an ichthyosaurus and never 
 under the guise of a lower order. All, too, that we know 
 of existing nature is against this doctrine of transmutation 
 species and genera remaining (under the restricted limits 
 of variation) as fixed and permanent now as they were 
 known to the Ninevites and Egyptians four thousand 
 years ago. 
 
 It is argued, no doubt, that the transmutational advances 
 from species to species take place by slow and imperceptible 
 stages, which cumulatively become apparent only after the 
 lapse of ages. Admitting, however, this rate of progress, 
 there ought still to be transitional forms in various stages 
 of progress at every epoch forms w T hich we fail to perceive 
 in the living world, just as geology has failed to detect 
 them in that which has become extinct. Again, the modi- 
 fications for which the developist contends are those of a 
 
204 THE LAW. 
 
 beneficial kind ; so that, in the great struggle for existence 
 and under the influence of altered conditions, every creature, 
 advantageously modified, will have a chance of surviving, 
 whilst those unaffected must go to the wall. He fails, 
 however, to show how the operation of a purely physical 
 law should not affect alike every member of a species, and 
 to perceive that his doctrine of " natural selection" is "but a 
 materialistic phraseology for an undefined law of progress, 
 which forms part of a predestined plan, and must clearly 
 obey an intelligent behest. Above all, he fails to prove 
 how or in what manner it could be more advantageous, in 
 a world where every adaptation is perfect, for a crustacean 
 to drop the mask of a trilobite and assume that of a euryp- 
 terite, or for a eurypterite to drop, step by step, its charac- 
 teristic organisation, and put on the ultimate guise of a lob- 
 ster. Still further, if there has really been such a perpetual 
 transmutation of form and function, we are driven backward 
 and backward in the abysm of time to simpler and simpler 
 forms, and compelled to seek for herbivorous and carnivor- 
 ous races a common paternity and origin. To transmute, 
 however, the graminivorous into the carnivorous to change 
 entirely their every organ of prehension, mastication, and 
 digestion their habits and instincts and functions even 
 if it were conceivable, is utterly disproved by the geological 
 record, in which, from the earliest epochs, we find plant- 
 eater and flesh-eater arranged side by side in the great 
 drama of life, and as sharply defined in all their character- 
 istic organisation as they are at the present moment. 
 
 The hypothesis, untenable as it may appear, must be 
 carried still further. As man is inseparably connected with 
 the great scheme of vitality, any genetic doctrine of trans- 
 mutation must be equally applicable to him as to the rest 
 of creation, and he must stoop, however humiliating, to 
 trace his pedigree from the order that stands next beneath 
 
DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESES. 205 
 
 him. Against this, however, all reason and moral instinct 
 recoils. To transmute the monkey into man, even though 
 the change were effected, step "by step, through a whole 
 wilderness of monkeys, could not invest the brutish nature 
 with the human intellect, or endow the progeny of the 
 irresponsible beast with the moral responsibility of man ! 
 Admitting the similarity of physical organisation admit- 
 ting the lowdy condition of the lowest varieties of the 
 human race and granting that the difference between the 
 most highly endowed philosopher and most degraded 
 savage was even greater than that between the lowest 
 savage and the most exalted monkey still we know of no 
 intermediate forms, living or extinct,* to bridge over the 
 gulf that lies between no germ of moral perception in the 
 brute, whereon to graft the improving consciousness of 
 moral responsibility in the man. Here then (admitting 
 that men had been physically descended from monkeys) 
 there is something in the man unknown and unevidenced 
 in the brute ; and unless we can learn to regard this 
 superadded gift of reason and moral perception to say 
 nothing of religious sentiment in the light of a new 
 creation, the common ground of argument is removed from 
 between us, and conviction becomes impossible. Even 
 were w r e to concede the point of mental relationship, and 
 to admit that science could trace the most intimate rela- 
 tions of organic life that life which associates man with 
 the plants and animals around him ; still (as has been 
 
 * It has been hinted, no doubt, that as other mammalia have had 
 their gigantic tertiary precursors, so it is likely the gorilla and chim- 
 panzee were also preceded by larger and more man-like forms of monkey. 
 Of the existence of such forms we have not, at present, the slightest 
 indication ; but, admitting the ingenuity of the surmise, and supposing 
 such remains were to be discovered to-morrow, it will still remain to be 
 shown that larger and more erect aspects of ape must necessarily be 
 endowed with higher mental and more man-like qualities. 
 
206 THE LAW. 
 
 aptly remarked) "no observation from the outside ever did, 
 or ever will, approach that most intense of all realities 
 our relations as responsible agents to right and wrong." 
 This is the rock ahead on which all theories of mere 
 physical development must ever split ; and their abettors 
 are driven to this dilemma either to maintain the identity 
 of man's nature (though differing in degree) with that of 
 the beasts that perish, or frankly to admit that the human 
 race sprang into being only when " God breathed into his 
 nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul." 
 
 We are aware that certain physiologists who adopt the 
 development hypothesis contend also for a unity of mental 
 constitution between man and the lower creatures its 
 manifestations differing only in degree among the various 
 grades of organisation. Adhering to the one hypothesis, 
 they are prepared to accept the other and all its conse- 
 quences as a logical and sequential deduction. It is strange, 
 however, to find others who, like Professor Agassiz, re- 
 pudiate all theories of physical development, adopting a 
 similar conclusion ; and not only so, but arguing for the 
 community of an immaterial and immortal principle, as if 
 this were not a stronger argument for universal genetic 
 connection than any that can be drawn from mere similar- 
 ity of external organs. " For the most part," says'the Pro- 
 fessor, in his Essay on Classification, " the relations of in- 
 dividuals to individuals are unquestionably of an organic 
 nature, and, as such, have to be viewed in the same light 
 as any other structural feature; but there is much also in 
 these connections that partakes of a psychological character, 
 taking this expression in the widest sense of the word. 
 When animals fight with one another when they associate 
 for a common purpose when they warn one another in 
 danger when they come to the rescue of one another 
 when they display pain and joy they manifest impulses of 
 
DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESES. 207 
 
 the same kind as are considered among the moral attributes 
 of man. The range of their passions is even as extensive 
 as that of the human mind, and I am at a loss to perceive 
 a difference of kind between them, however much they 
 may differ in degree and in the manner in which they are 
 expressed. The gradations of the moral faculties among 
 the higher animals and man are moreover so imperceptible, 
 that to deny to the first a certain sense of responsibility 
 and consciousness, would certainly be an exaggeration of 
 the differences which distinguish animals and man. There 
 exists, besides, as much individuality, within their respec- 
 tive capabilities, among animals as among man, as every 
 sportsman, every keeper of manageries, and every farmer or 
 shepherd can testify, or any one who has had large experi- 
 ence with wild, tamed, or domesticated animals. This 
 argues strongly in favour of the existence in every animal 
 of an immaterial principle similar to that which, by its 
 excellence and superior endowments, places man so much 
 above animals. Yet the principle unquestionably exists, 
 and whether it be called soul, reason, or instinct, it pre- 
 sents in the whole range of organised beings a series of 
 phenomena closely linked together ; and upon it are based 
 not only the higher manifestations of the mind, but the 
 very permanence of the specific differences which characterise 
 every organism. Most of the arguments of philosophy in 
 favour of the immortality of man apply equally to the per- 
 manency of this principle in other living beings. May I 
 not add, that a future life, in which man would be deprived 
 of that great source of enjoyment and intellectual and 
 moral improvement which result from the contemplation 
 of the harmonies of an organic world, would involve a 
 lamentable loss? And may we not look to a spiritual con- 
 cert of the combined worlds and all their inhabitants in 
 presence of their Creator, as the highest conception of para- 
 
208 THE LAW. 
 
 dise 1 " For hypotheses such as these, however curious or 
 startling they may appear, let it be clearly understood that 
 science is in no way responsible. Xo observation from the 
 external world no analogy, however plausible no analy- 
 sis, however minute can ever solve the problem of an im- 
 material and immortal existence. They may be received as 
 possible or probable auxiliaries, but in the main our faith 
 on this point must rest, as it has hitherto rested, 011 an 
 altogether different foundation. Science has its own line 
 and limit of inquiry, and no satisfactory result can ever 
 arise from any attempt to carry it beyond the boundary of 
 the philosophically attainable. If the developists have 
 failed on physical grounds to prove a genetic unity for the 
 various grades of organisation, their opponents only compli- 
 cate the question by the unnecessary introduction of the 
 still more difficult problem of a spiritual community. 
 
 [Acceptance of Vital Hypotheses.] 
 
 While repudiating this doctrine of physical development, 
 we would treat its advocacy without that acrimony and in- 
 vective which has been too frequently displayed against it. 
 The progress and gradation of vitality is still in a great 
 measure a mystery to science ; and any honest and earnest 
 endeavour to unveil it should ever meet with a correspond- 
 ing regard. In the organic as in the inorganic world the 
 Creator often operates through secondary causes, and the 
 discovery of these causes, in the spirit of true philosophy, is 
 to human reason a duty as well as a privilege. Every re- 
 sult that meets the senses, every phenomenon that nature 
 presents to us, becomes the legitimate subject of scientific 
 research ; and subtle as the eliminations of Life may be, 
 mysterious as its ordainings may appear, there is clearly 
 
ACCEPTANCE OF HYHOTHESES. 209 
 
 nothing in its character to put it beyond the pale of such 
 investigation. Where, then, so little is positively known, 
 and so much merely tentative and temporary, no one has a 
 right to dogmatise* far less to treat the earnest opinion 
 of another otherwise than in the spirit of candour and re- 
 spect. Argument is weak if it cannot divest itself of acri- 
 mony truth is half shorn of her lustre when surrounded 
 by a medium of angry invective. The development hy- 
 pothesis, when pursued in a right spirit in the spirit of 
 inductive research and logical interpretation is entitled to 
 a fair hearing, even should it startle our accustomed beliefs 
 and offend our prejudices. Science, confident in its strength, 
 grapples with the argument j prejudice, feeling her weak- 
 ness, avoids the combat, and, assassin-like, launches those 
 infernal missiles " sceptic," " infidel," and " atheist." But 
 whatever the uneasy tenderness with which the theme of 
 Life is usually treated, its origin and progress, its incomings 
 and outgoings, are questions which meet us at every turn in 
 geology, and themes which no scientific naturalist can pos- 
 sibly ignore. Year after year they are being more forcibly 
 pressed upon our attention, and no geologist can afford to 
 stand by while the brunt of the battle must be met on the 
 ground of his own special science. Lamarck's well-known 
 hypothesis the Vestiges of Creation, which stands bas- 
 tardised by the moral cowardice that shrinks from avow- 
 ing its paternity and Mr Darwin's Origin of Species have 
 each given a fresh impetus to the question ; and though 
 our limits debar any further discussion of the question, we 
 may be permitted to express our opinion, that be it " trans- 
 
 * " In respect to very many questions, a wise man's mind rests long 
 in a state neither of belief nor of unbelief. But your intellectually short- 
 sighted people are apt to be preternaturally clear-sighted, and to find 
 their way very plainly to positive conclusions upon one side or the other 
 of every mooted question." Dr ASA GRAY, in his Review of the Dar- 
 winian Hypothesis. 
 
210 THE LAW. 
 
 mutation under the influence of external conditions" " de- 
 velopment through the force of maternal volition on the 
 embryotic organism" or, "natural selection in the struggle 
 for existence," neither of them (even were they true to the 
 extent their advocates argue) ascends any higher than a 
 mere subordinate factor in the law of vital development. 
 We are far from denying the influence of such causes on the 
 diversity of life. On the contrary, unprejudiced inquiry is 
 constrained to rank them among the activities of the Crea- 
 tor's plan, but simply as secondary activities, limited alike 
 in their power and in the range of their applicability. 
 Thus, however, it ever is : we discover a cause where several 
 others are equally operative and potent, and our ignorance 
 or enthusiasm is but too prone to ascribe to the one what 
 is ascribable alike to the others that remain undetected and 
 undetermined. 
 
 Even Mr Darwin, wedded as he is to the theory of Na- 
 tural Selection, is constrained to admit the operation of 
 several activities in the law of vital diversity. " It is in- 
 teresting," he says, in one of the most genial passages in his 
 work, "to contemplate an entangled bank, clothed with 
 many plants of many kinds, Avith birds singing on the 
 bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms 
 crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that those 
 elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, 
 and dependent on each other in so complex a manner, have 
 all been produced by laws acting around us. These laws, 
 taken in the largest sense, being growth by reproduction ; 
 inheritance, which is almost implied by reproduction ; va- 
 riability from the indirect and direct action of the external 
 conditions of life, and from use and disuse ; a ratio of in- 
 crease so high as to lead to a struggle for life, and as a con- 
 sequence to natural selection, entailing divergence of charac- 
 ter and the extinction of less improved forms. Thus, from' 
 
ACCEPTANCE OF HYPOTHESES. 211 
 
 the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted 
 object we are capable of conceiving namely, the production 
 of the higher animals directly follows. There is grandeur 
 in this view of life, with its several powers having been 
 originally breathed into a few forms or into one ; and that, 
 whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed 
 law of gravity, from so simple a beginning, endless forms 
 most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being 
 evolved." Here then, according to his own showing, in- 
 heritance, external conditions, use and disuse, struggle for 
 life, and natural selection, are all fulfilling their parts as 
 co-factors in one great law, and it is strange that in the 
 face of this admission he should labour to ascribe to one 
 cause what would have been much more philosophically 
 and satisfactorily ascribed to the many. He admits, too, the 
 " original breathing of life into a few forms or into one form," 
 and yet unaccountably appeals throughout his argument 
 to chance and nature for all subsequent development, as if 
 these blind deities were aught without the direction of the 
 same original life-breathing Impulse ! If science is con- 
 strained to admit a Divine origination of life, why should 
 she be ashamed to confess to an equally Divine sustaining 
 of its subsequent manifestations 1 If we are compelled to 
 invoke a creative act for a beginning we cannot compre- 
 hend, why should we shrink from appealing to the same 
 cause for subsequent diversities we cannot explain 1 But 
 for this weakness or vanity, the erroneous in these so-called 
 u theories of life" had met with a kindlier tolerance, and 
 the true with a readier acceptance. 
 
 If, as these theorists assert, the question be merely this : 
 Has or has not the Creator endowed inorganic matter with 
 the power of assuming, under the influence of certain forces, 
 an organic form 1 and has or has not the Creator further 
 ordained that under certain external phases of nature these 
 
212 THE LAW. 
 
 forms shall be transmuted into other and altered forms of 
 organisation 1 ? then the subject assumes a purely physical 
 aspect, and they are bound, like the mathematician and 
 chemist, to prove their case by the ordinary rules of physical 
 induction. Given the scales, fins, and gills of a fish what 
 the conditions and what the amount of time necessary to 
 transmute them into the scutes, paddles, and lungs of a 
 marine reptile ] Given the scutes, membranous fore-arms, 
 and stomach of a flying reptile what the phases of change 
 and what the amount of time required for their transforma- 
 tion into the feathers, wings, and gizzard of a bird ? Or, 
 given the four hands with partially opposable thumbs, the 
 low facial angle, and the jabbering half-reasoning instinct of 
 a monkey what the force of conditions, and what the term 
 of time for their development into the two-handed dexter- 
 ity, the erect aspect, and the eloquent ratiocinations of a 
 philosopher of the nineteenth century? If the question 
 be one of purely physical import, such are the formulae the 
 developists are called upon to frame, and such are the prob- 
 lems that await their solution. This task they have hitherto 
 failed to accomplish ; and as yet the place of sterling proof 
 is usurped by plausible assumption. The evolution of life, 
 however, in all its multifarious forms and aspects its 
 cosmical functions and relationships its orderly appear- 
 ings and disappearings at certain geological periods its 
 bearings on the intellectual and moral position of Man 
 all this and much more that instinctively interweaves 
 itself with our innermost thoughts of time and destiny, 
 must surely rest on a broader and deeper foundation. It 
 is if anything we shall ever comprehend the gradual 
 unfolding of a predestined plan, the expression of a 
 Divine thought, which it is our high privilege as well as 
 duty to interpret ; but depend on it, we altogether err in 
 our method of interpretation if we attempt to associate life 
 
ADVENT OF MAN. 213 
 
 with physical agency in any other way than the mere me- 
 dium through which creative power has chosen to manifest 
 itself to our observation. In vain does Mr Darwin taunt 
 that this is a mere "dignified way" of putting the ques- 
 tion : better surely to rest satisfied with a dignified belief 
 we are unable to prove, than seek unsatisfactory shelter 
 under a cold undignified materialistic assumption ! For 
 our own part, believing as we do that Life in all its rela- 
 tions its incomings and outgoings in time its modifica- 
 tions in form, and its distribution over space are under 
 the incessant operation of fixed and determinable laws, we 
 are as free to entertain the question of vitality as we are to 
 entertain the formation of a stratum of sandstone or the 
 aggregation of a mineral crystal ; but this we cannot do 
 unless at every stage of our reasoning we associate a su- 
 perintending with a creative intellect. And. we have yet 
 to learn wherein the variation of a natural law, or the 
 variation of a well-known form of life even to the ten- 
 thousandth degree is less an act of creation than the 
 original establishment of that law, or the original calling of 
 that life-form into existence. 
 
 [Advent of Man.] 
 
 The study of life, palseontologically regarded, necessarily 
 involves the creation and first appearance of Man ; and on 
 this subject much discussion has taken place, unprofitable 
 alike to science and the cause of Christian theology. So 
 far as geological evidence goes, we have no traces of man or 
 of his works till we arrive at the Superficial Accumula- 
 tions the coral-conglomerates, the bone-breccias, the cave- 
 deposits, and the peat-mosses of the current period. It is 
 true, that so far as the earlier formations are concerned, the 
 
214 THE LAW. 
 
 evidence is purely negative ; but taking into account all 
 that palaeontology lias revealed touching the other families 
 of animated nature, the fair presumption is, that man was 
 not called into being till the commencement of the current 
 geological era, and about the time when, in the northern 
 hemisphere, the sea and land received their present con- 
 figuration, and were peopled by those genera and species 
 which (with a few local removals and still fewer extinctions) 
 yet adorn their forests and inhabit their lands and waters. 
 
 It has been often argued, that up till this time the world 
 was altogether unfit for the habitation and support of Man 
 its physical conditions being so unstable, and its flora 
 and fauna being unsuited for his sustenance. Now, while 
 we at once admit a physical as well as a moral fitness in 
 all things created, and that no creature was brought on the 
 stage of being till external conditions were suited alike for 
 the maintenance and genial development of its existence, 
 we must guard against any hasty generalisation that is not 
 absolutely warranted by the facts of geology, and which, in 
 its ultimate bearings, is quite as materialistic and physical 
 as any other that has been advanced to account for the 
 phenomena of vital development. The idea of a generally 
 unstable and convulsed world during the earlier geological 
 epochs is altogether disproved by the facts we have over 
 and over again repeated, even if it were not abhorrent to 
 all philosophical notions of a law -regulated cosmos ; and 
 the alleged absence of plants and animals necessary for 
 man's sustenance scarcely rests on a surer foundation. It 
 is true, and a beautiful corroboration of the fitness of 
 physical conditions, that all the flowers, and fruits, and 
 cereals, all the domesticated animals the horse, ox, and 
 sheep on which man in temperate regions so much relies 
 for the comforts and necessaries of existence, are unknown 
 till the latest geological epochs the means of support 
 
ADVENT OF MAN. 215 
 
 occurring simultaneously with the object to be supported. 
 But while this holds true, and is fitly applicable to a beef- 
 cooking, bread-eating phase of human progress, it is not 
 strictly applicable to man in all his conditions ; and it is 
 quite conceivable (geologically speaking) that inferior races 
 of men may have existed in much earlier epochs. The 
 flora and fauna of the oolite are extremely similar to those 
 of Australia, where we know that an early aboriginal race 
 have for ages hunted in the bush and camped on its grassy 
 karoos. The inhabitants of the South Sea Islands live ex- 
 clusively on palm-fruits, on farinaceous roots, and the fish 
 of the surrounding ocean : now, palm-fruits and farinaceous 
 roots abound in the lower tertiary and in the oolite, and 
 we see nothing in the fishes of those periods that would 
 render them inedible or unnutritious. The Esquimaux, to 
 whom the very names of tree and wheat are unknown, and 
 who exist on fish, seal-oil, and w r hale-blubber, among the 
 extreme rigours of the north, attain even there a certain 
 amount of civilisation ; and such a lowly race would have 
 found precisely similar conditions in Middle Europe during 
 the glacial era, when icebergs floated in our seas, and 
 whales and seals were stranded in our estuaries. 
 
 We mention these things not from a conviction that 
 man existed during those early epochs, but simply as an 
 argument to show that his first appearance, at whatever 
 period, must have been in accordance with the general plan 
 of vital development, and not in obedience to any phase of 
 external conditions, and that we may fairly expect, in the 
 progress of geological discovery, a much higher antiquity to 
 be proved to the human race than is now usually assigned 
 it. And even now, proofs are not wanting in the lake- 
 deposits, the bone-caves, and peat-mosses of Southern 
 Europe, to connect man with the latest pliocene fauna, and 
 to render it possible that he contested the same cavern 
 
 o 
 
216 THE LAW. 
 
 with the lion and hysena, hunted the gigantic Irish deer 
 on the plains, and speared the mammoth and mastodon 
 in its forests. Nor would such a discovery militate in 
 any way against the facts of history, so far as these are 
 known, with anything like demonstrable certainty. The 
 facts and their order remain the same ; it is only the chron- 
 ology, about which the ablest historians still differ so widely, 
 that could possibly be affected. Moreover, while reasoning 
 about the advent and progress of man, let it ever be re- 
 membered, that the higher the race the more rapid its cul- 
 mination ; and that we have no standard in the develop- 
 ment of the lower creatures impelled solely by instinct, 
 wherewith to measure the progress of man guided by reason, 
 and capable of making the elements of nature subservient 
 to his elevation and to his dispersion over every region of 
 the globe. On the whole, and as geological evidence now 
 stands, man, though the noblest, is one of the latest emana- 
 tions of creative wisdom crowning, as it were, that long 
 line of gradational vitality which apparently began with 
 the Silurian epoch, but whose further progress and termina- 
 tion lies in the mysteries of the future. 
 
 And here it must be observed that Geology, though often 
 indiscreetly summoned to pronounce, can throw little or no 
 light on certain questions respecting the advent and early 
 condition of our race. The varieties of the human family, 
 distinguished and described by ethnographers, are alto- 
 gether unknown to Geology ; and, so far as the stone-im- 
 plements, the cave-fires, and the tree-canoes of the pleisto- 
 cene epoch are concerned, they are such as might readily 
 be formed by any of the savage tribes of the present day. 
 Whether, therefore, man originated in one centre or in 
 many centres whether the several known races are separate 
 creations, or merely time-distributed varieties, of the same 
 one-created species Geology can give no certain reply. Not 
 
ADVENT OF MAN. 217 
 
 a skeleton or skull has yet accompanied these primeval im- 
 plements, to indicate the character of the race that fashioned 
 them ; and be it ever remembered that only the merest 
 specks in Western Europe have yet been examined leav- 
 ing wholly untouched the wider areas of Asia, to which 
 history and tradition alike point as the earlier nursery of 
 the human family. In the mean time then, these ancient 
 implements, wherever they occur, indicate the same con- 
 ception and the same design, and would go to prove so 
 far as the evidence is of value a unity and community of 
 the heads and hands concerned in their fabrication. An- 
 other question occasionally mooted by theologians who 
 dabble in geology, is, that man came from the hand of his 
 Maker a higher and nobler being than those rude old im- 
 plements would seem to imply, and, therefore, they are of 
 no antiquity, but the mere yesterday fabrications of a savage 
 and curse-degenerated race. Geology, restricting herself to 
 her own proper province, declines to argue this question. 
 Those are the facts deep in the old alluvia and gravels ; 
 these are the evidences which science has to deal with ; 
 and sound induction will not permit her to travel beyond 
 her own tangible record. The question of moral debase- 
 ment lies altogether beyond the pale of natural science ; and 
 these disputants seem to forget that man's early condition, 
 as indicated by geology, is much the same as that depicted 
 in the Mosaic record. Our great progenitors sewed them- 
 selves aprons of fig-leaves, not of jacquarded silks or power- 
 loom calicoes ; were tillers of the ground and keepers of 
 flocks, ignorant alike of high farming, steam- ploughs, and 
 reaping-machines ; travelled and communicated by camel- 
 caravans and pack-horses, not by railroads and electric 
 telegraphs. The course of civilisation is ever slow and 
 gradual ; and history, tradition, and experience alike point 
 to the early condition of every race as hunters and herds- 
 
218 THE LAW. 
 
 men the conditions unmistakably indicated by those sim- 
 ple pleistocene implements. 
 
 [Time Geological.] 
 
 Whatever may have been the creational development of 
 plants and animals whenever the advent or whatever the 
 first condition of the human race the groups and systems 
 of geology afford irrefragable evidence of the lapse of vast 
 epochs of TIME. The idea of immense duration is at once 
 suggested by an examination of the stratified rocks. The 
 innumerable alternations of their shales, limestones, sand- 
 stones, and conglomerates their vast thickness their re- 
 peated laminations the alternation of marine and fresh- 
 water beds their upheaval into dry land and subsequent 
 submergence, again and again the various races that have 
 lived and grown and been entombed in them, system after 
 system all this, and much more that will readily suggest 
 itself to the reflecting mind, must clench beyond cavil the 
 conviction of the unconceivable duration of geological time. 
 In all our reasonings, then, we must never lose sight of the 
 element TIME. With unlimited duration at command, we 
 have a power equal to the mightiest results ; and forces 
 which in themselves appear puny and feeble, become giants 
 when backed by that spirit of unrest whose eye never 
 closes, whose wing never wearies, and whose foot never 
 tires. The hardest rock is hollowed by the ceaseless water- 
 drop ; the Nilotic plain has been borne, particle by particle, 
 from the mountains of Abyssinia ; and the massive coral- 
 reef of a thousand leagues owes its origin to an animated 
 speck all but invisible to the unassisted eye. The problems 
 of geology, like the problems of mechanics, are thus de- 
 pendent for their solution on the conjoint elements of force 
 
TIME GEOLOGICAL. 219 
 
 and time. Where the exertion of force is great, the time 
 for performance may be short ; but where the force is 
 small, the time must be proportionally prolonged. The 
 two elements are ever in inverse ratio ; and thus agents 
 in themselves comparatively insignificant may, during the 
 lapse of ages, accomplish most important results. It is 
 generally, therefore, to the cumulative effects of this inex- 
 haustible resource of TIME that the developists make their 
 last appeal contending that the progress of transmutation 
 is so gradual as not to be appreciable with the five or six 
 thousand years of man's observation. Admitting the 
 plausibility of the argument in existing nature, the geo- 
 logist appeals to the fossil world for evidence of these 
 insensible gradations, and he finds stratum after stratum 
 containing the same unchanged species, and then, in the 
 next stratum, at once and decidedly, the remains of a species 
 altogether new. This, if anything Ave can intelligibly de- 
 fine, is not genetic gradation, but pre-appointed creation ; 
 and as time is merely passive unless the law of specific pro- 
 gress obeys some active and controlling power, an eternity 
 of time will never affect it. 
 
 In the present state of our knowledge, any attempt to 
 calculate geological knowledge by years is altogether futile ; 
 we can only indicate its vastness by the use of indefinite 
 terms, as " eras," and "epochs," and "cycles." It is cus- 
 tomary, however, to speak of pre-geological, geological, and 
 historical time meaning by pre-geological all that extends 
 backwards before the deposition of the fossiliferous rocks ; 
 by geological, all that is embraced between the earliest fos- 
 siliferous deposits and human history ; and by historical, all 
 to which a determinate chronological value can be assigned. 
 With regard to the first, it is an abysm which the human 
 intellect, even in its boldest flights, shrinks from exploring; 
 as to the last, important as it may seem to man, creationally 
 
220 THE LAW. 
 
 it is but a thing of yesterday; while to time geological we 
 turn as entering into every problem of our science, and in- 
 vesting their consideration with strange and deeper interest. 
 The amount of this time we have as yet no means of 
 estimating no power to give it expression in years and 
 centuries. Many ingenious calculations have, no doubt, 
 been made to approximate the dates of certain geological 
 events, but these, it must be confessed, are more amusing 
 than instructive. For example, so many lines of mud are 
 annually laid down by the inundation of the ISTile, frag- 
 ments of pottery have been found at the depth of thirty 
 feet. How many years have elapsed since the pottery was 
 first imbedded 1 Again, the ledges of Niagara are w r asting 
 at the rate of so many feet per century. How many years 
 must the river have taken to cut its way back from Queens- 
 town to the present Falls ? Again, lavas and melted basalts 
 cool, according to the size of the mass, at the rate of so 
 many degrees in a given time. How many millions of 
 years must have elapsed (supposing an original igneous con- 
 dition of the earth) before its crust had attained a state of 
 solidity 1 ? or, farther, before its surface had cooled down to 
 the present mean temperature? For these and similar com- 
 putations it will at once be perceived that we want the neces- 
 sary uniformity of factor ; and until we can bring elements 
 of calculation as exact as those of astronomy to bear on 
 geological chronology, it will be better to regard our " eras/' 
 and " epochs," and " cycles " as so many terms, indefinite 
 in their duration, but sufficient for the magnitude of the 
 operations embraced within their limits. Eut even on this 
 point of expressible time, the earnest geologist is not with- 
 out hope and encouragement. He rests confident (confi- 
 dent as in the existence of his own being) that the whole 
 history of geological phenomena the shifting of volcanic 
 energy from centre to centre, the elevation and depression 
 
COURSE OF CREATION. 221 
 
 of certain areas of the earth's crust, the interchanges of sea 
 and land thereby occasioned, the recurrence of colder and 
 wanner climates over determinable latitudes, the necessary 
 re -arrangements of life attending these changes, and the 
 like is but a chronological exposition of the influence of 
 natural law; and that as law is as obedient to times as to 
 modes, the periodicity of these occurrences will one day or 
 other be determined. This done, its expression in years 
 and centuries is a simple task ; but though accomplished 
 to-niorrow, and expressed in figures like the distances of 
 the astronomer, the mind would altogether fail to grasp the 
 conception of its immensity. 
 
 [Course of Creation.] 
 
 On the whole, then, the systems and cycles of the geolo- 
 gist imperfectly interpreted, as they yet undoubtedly are 
 present a long series of vital gradation and progress. Not 
 progress from imperfection to perfection of purpose, but 
 from humbler to more highly - organised orders, as if the 
 great design of Nature had been to ascend from the simpler 
 conception of materialism to the higher aims of mechanical 
 combination, from mechanism to the subtler elimination of 
 mind, and from mentalism to the still higher attribute of 
 moralism as developed alone in the heart and soul of man. 
 Thus, from a long azoic period, during which the material 
 elements of the world were being eliminated into mechani- 
 cal order under the influence of chemical and physical 
 forces, we rise, as it were, to the conception and first ex- 
 pression of vitality in the simple organisms of Cambria and 
 Siluria. Again, from the lowly sea- weeds of the silurian 
 strata and the marsh-plants of the old red sandstone, we rise 
 (speaking in general terms) to the prolific club-mosses, 
 
222 THE LAW. 
 
 ferns, reeds, and gigantic endogens of the coal-measures ; 
 from these to the palms, cycads, and pines of the oolite ; 
 and from these, again, to the exogens and true timber-trees 
 of the tertiary and current eras. So also in the animal 
 kingdom : the graptolites and trilobites of the silurian seas 
 are succeeded by the eurypterites and bone-clad fishes of the 
 old red sandstone ; these by the sauroid fishes of the coal- 
 measures; the sauroid fishes by the saurians and birds of the 
 trias and oolite ; the reptiles and marsupials of the oolite by 
 the true mammals of the tertiary epoch : and these, in turn, 
 give place to existing species, with man as the crowning form 
 of created existence. And even as regards man, he, too, has 
 ever been in a state of gradation and progress. Many an- 
 cient races and forms of civilisation have passed away, and 
 others have taken their place. Nor has the line of develop- 
 ment in man's case been uniform and continuous, any more 
 than in the purely geological elimination of vitality. Here at 
 one time, and there at another, with greater intensity now 
 torpid and slow, now fresh and vigorous, but ever and always 
 still forward the human mind acquiring a cumulative force 
 from the experience of the past, and that race becoming 
 most powerful who can grasp the most of nature's laws, and 
 turn them with irresistible force to its own purposes. As 
 in the great design of Nature, so in the minor scheme of 
 Humanity that lies within it, the progress has ever been from 
 materialism to mechanism, from mechanism to mentalism, 
 and all that science indicates or history reveals points to mo- 
 ralism as the highest stage of man's terrestrial development. 
 Such is clearly the course of creation, however dimly we 
 may descry the law that governs its elimination. Matter 
 acted on by certain forces assumes the varied mechanism of 
 minerals, plants, and animals ; to this graduated mechanism 
 is gradually superadded the qualities of sensation and men- 
 talism ; and to mentalism in its highest phase is bequeathed 
 
COURSE OF CREATION. 223 
 
 the godlike gift of moral perception. Much of the simi- 
 larity that runs through the great types of Life has evident 
 reference to those physical forces which act independently 
 alike on all matter, organic and inorganic ; but over and 
 above this, there is the homology of parts in the several 
 main divisions of plants and animals the embryonic phases 
 of life which harmonise in a wonderful manner with the 
 successive geological phases the ascent in time as well as 
 in organisation from acrogens to endogens, gyinnogens, and 
 exogens, from cold-blooded water-breathers to cold-blooded 
 air-breathers, warm-blooded water-breathers, and warm- 
 blooded air-breathers the curious modifications in time on 
 the various families of the same great classes as already in- 
 dicated in the geological record the occurrence of con- 
 temporary representative species in distant geographical 
 areas the similarity of form accompanying the similarity 
 in function in widely separated classes, &c. all of which 
 are undoubtedly the results of some great pre-appointed 
 and continuously operating law. It may not be the force 
 of external conditions, the power of hereditary impulse 
 affecting embryonic germs, the result of natural selection in 
 the struggle for existence, or any one of the causes acting 
 gradually through indefinite time, that have been advanced 
 to account for the phenomena. Yet each and all of them 
 may be factors in some great scheme of causation; and we 
 are bound in the spirit of true research not only to treat 
 fairly, but to honour, every earnest endeavour towards the 
 solution of the problem. It has been well and prettily 
 said, that " before common minds can know, men of genius 
 must guess ; and if in assaulting the citadel of the unknown 
 they should sometimes fall, their names ought at least to 
 be chronicled with honour." In this spirit, and as tentative 
 aims at Truth, suppositions cannot be debarred from our 
 science, and all the less in questions so intricate and ob- 
 
224 THE LAW. 
 
 scure as the origin and progress of Life. It may "be that 
 the solution of the problem lies far, as yet, beyond the 
 efforts of inductive science, but assuredly the time will 
 come for its attainment, and all the more quickly the less 
 we attempt to dissociate from nature's operations the ever- 
 active presence of a Supreme Intelligence. 
 
 In the mean time, all that can be asserted under the 
 warrant of geology is, that in the Vegetable World the 
 course of creation has evidently been from the amphigens 
 of Siluria to the acrogens of Devonia and the coal-measures 
 from the acrogens to the gymnogens of the coal and new 
 red sandstone from the gymnogens to the endogens of the 
 oolite and from these to the exogens of the tertiary and 
 current epochs. This ascent in time harmonises in the 
 main with advance in structural organisation ; and, were 
 the geological record perfect, it is more than likely that 
 intermediate forms like the sigillarire and lepidodendra 
 of the coal-measures might be found throughout, linking 
 these great sections more intimately into one continuous 
 series than inosculating species now connect and bind to- 
 gether existing genera. As we approach the present day, 
 the structural forms become higher and more complex ; 
 and as we descend in time, step by step the higher dis- 
 appear, till ultimately, in the lowest fossiliferous rocks, 
 we meet only with the cellular amphigens, that take rank 
 at the bottom of the botanical scale. In the same way 
 with the Animal World, we clearly ascend from the radiates 
 and articulates of Cambria to the mollusca of Siluria from 
 these to the fishes of upper Siluria and Devonia from these 
 to the lowly reptiles of the carboniferous from the reptiles 
 to the birds of the trias from the birds to the marsupials 
 of the oolite and from these to the true mammalia of the 
 tertiary and current eras. Here is the same chronological 
 and physiological harmony : and not only so, but within 
 
COURSE OF CREATION. 225 
 
 each great section there has been a similar structural ascent, 
 an ascent (take the Crustacea for example) from trilobites to 
 eurypterites from eurypterites to limuloid forms from 
 these to the long-tailed lobsters and cray-fish (macrura) 
 and from the macrura to the short-tailed crabs (brachyura) 
 of the chalk and tertiary the ancient forms being charac- 
 terised in their mature state by certain features which now 
 only transitorily appear in the embryonic stages of their 
 existing congeners. In the main, the chronological and 
 physiological harmony is complete ; and were the record 
 entire, a thousand connecting forms would appear, linking 
 the whole into one continuous unity of design a design to 
 whose perfection every part conspires, and yet maintains its 
 own essential arid distinctive character. Whatever, we 
 again repeat, may be the operating causes in this scheme of 
 vital evolution, it is clearly the predestined scheme of a 
 Governing Mind a mind that from the beginning has co- 
 adapted and co-adjusted all the forces and progressive con- 
 ditions of the universe, and whose power, wisdom, and 
 goodness are the same, whether displayed in a succession 
 of creative acts which we cannot comprehend, or in a series 
 of secondary causations which we fail to explain. If the 
 course of creation be the result of a succession of creative 
 acts, these acts have always the most intimate relation to 
 one another, as well as to those that have preceded, and 
 their order and character are therefore hopefully deter- 
 in inable if, on the other hand, the course of creation de- 
 pends on a series of secondary causations, these causes, 
 being patent to our investigation, must be inductively dis- 
 coverable. Either way, the constitution of our intellect 
 constrains us to inquire ; and though the problem may 
 never be fully solved, the effect of the inquiry must be to 
 elevate the creature who earnestly strives to attain to the 
 comprehension of the designs of its Creator. 
 
226 THE LAW. 
 
 [Creation still in Progress.] 
 
 This idea of progression implies not only an onward change 
 among the rock-materials of the earth in obedience to the 
 physical laws of the universe, but also, as plants and ani- 
 mals are adapted to, as well as influenced by, external con- 
 ditions, the creation of new species and the dropping out 
 of others from the great scheme of animated nature. And 
 such, we have seen, was the fact even with respect to the 
 current era. The mastodon, mammoth, and other huge 
 pachyderms that lived from the tertiary into the modern 
 epoch, have long since become extinct, leaving their bones 
 in the silts and sands of our valleys. The Irish-deer, urus, 
 bear, wild-boar, wolf, and beaver, are now extinct in 
 Britain ; and what takes place in insular districts must also 
 occur, though more slowly, in continental regions. The 
 dodo of the Mauritius, the a3piornis of Madagascar, and the 
 dinornis of New Zealand, are now matters of history; and 
 the same causes that led to the extinction of these, are 
 hurrying forward to the obliteration of the beaver, apteryx, 
 ostrich, elephant, kangaroo, ornithorhynchus, and other 
 animals, whose circumscribed provinces are gradually being 
 broken in upon by new conditions. And here the question 
 naturally occurs, If we have now local removals and gene- 
 ral extinctions, what of New Creations'? The local re- 
 moval or the general extinction of any well-known creature 
 we readily perceive \ the introduction of new species (un- 
 less we assume with Mr Darwin that all varieties are but 
 incipient species) has as yet escaped detection, or resolved 
 itself into that more facile solution l ' the discovery of a 
 new plant or animal." Unless, however, creative energy 
 be waxing faint, and the scheme of vitality be destined to 
 come ,to an end, new creations must take place as infallibly 
 
CREATION IN PROGRESS. 227 
 
 as extinctions. We rest on this as a matter of faith, 
 though human observation has hitherto been so partial and 
 limited, that it is only of late it has been enabled to estab- 
 lish the one, and is just beginning (in the question of the 
 variation of species) to direct attention to the other. 
 
 There is, however, no error more common than to con- 
 sider creation as a thing accomplished to regard it as an 
 act rather than a work still in progress. Go back to the 
 earliest condition imagination is able to picture condense 
 this globe from nebulous masses floating in ether cool and 
 consolidate its crust from igneous matter, or call it at once 
 into being by the fiat of a word, it is now as it was then a 
 scheme in the process of creation. All its rock-matter has 
 been and is continually changing, and assuming new forms 
 and distributions. The muds and sands of our present 
 shores will be the rocks of some future hills, and the rocks 
 of our hills the sediments of the ocean of some after epoch. 
 So in like manner with its Vitality. The genera and species 
 have been continually changing and pressing forward under 
 the operation of pre-appointed laws to new and different 
 forms. Call this by what name you will, it is in purpose 
 as it is in effect, Creation. Interpose a thousand secondary 
 causes establish a law for every act, and try to remove by 
 the widest distance the worker from his work still, these 
 "causes" and "laws" are of themselves utterly impotent, 
 unless sustained and directed as immediately now as they 
 were when first "the Spirit of God moved upon the face of 
 the waters." As we fail to detect any symptom of decay, 
 so we cannot admit the idea of cessation, but must believe 
 in the advent of new races as implicitly as we believe in 
 the physical changes which more directly and forcibly 
 appeal to our observation. 
 
228 THE LAW. 
 
 [Duration of Species.] 
 
 In reasoning on the causes which have led to the ex- 
 tinction of races, we must not lose sight of the speculation, 
 that species, like individuals, may have had a limit of 
 duration assigned to them from the beginning, and that 
 this limit may be attained even when all extraneous causes 
 remain quiescent and stationary. " Attempts have been 
 made," says Professor Owen, "to account for the extinction 
 of the race of northern elephants (the mammoth of Siberia) 
 by alterations in the climate of their hemisphere, or by 
 violent geological catastrophes, and the like extraneous 
 physical causes. When we seek to apply the same hypo- 
 thesis to explain the apparently contemporaneous extinc- 
 tion of the gigantic leaf-eating megatherium of South 
 America, the geological phenomena of that continent ap- 
 pear to negative the occurrence of such destructive changes. 
 Our comparatively brief experience of the progress and 
 duration of species within the historical period is surely in- 
 sufficient to justify, in every case of extinction, the verdict 
 of violent death. With regard to many of the larger mam- 
 malia, especially those that have passed away from the 
 American and Australian continents, the absence of suffi- 
 cient signs of extrinsic extirpating change or convulsion 
 makes it almost as reasonable to speculate with Brocchi 
 on the possibility that species, like individuals, may have 
 had the cause of their death inherent in their original con- 
 stitution, independently of changes in the external world ; 
 and that the term of their existence, or the period of ex- 
 haustion of the prolific force, may have been ordained from 
 the commencement of each species." We can readily ac- 
 count for the annihilation of races by the submergence and 
 elevation of land, by alterations in the aerial and oceanic 
 
DURATION OF SPECIES. 229 
 
 currents which affect the temperature of a region, or by the 
 destruction of their food through climatic changes; but 
 when races w T ane and die out without any apparent change 
 in external conditions (just as individuals appear, grow up 
 to maturity, and then fade away), we are driven to some 
 such conclusion as the limited duration of specific force. 
 And if species thus depart without the operation of physical 
 causes, we are compelled to accept the converse, that they 
 may also make their appearance independently of the influ- 
 ences of those external conditions on which the Transmu- 
 tationists have based so much of their hypothesis. 
 
 Nor is it the narrow circle of species alone, but the larger 
 groups and families seem also to have had a similar limit 
 assigned to their duration. The graptolites of siluria, the 
 paleozoic trilobites and eurypterites, the carboniferous sigil- 
 larise and lepidodendra, the ammonites of the oolite, the 
 enaliosaurs and dinosaurs of the same epoch, and the palaBO- 
 theres of the tertiary, all have had their beginning, their 
 culmination, in individual bulk and specific variety, their 
 declension and decay ; and this, be it observed, under no 
 phases of external conditions that geology can determine, 
 but apparently in obedience to some law of structural evolu- 
 tion which runs its course within a definite period. The 
 whole system of life, vegetable and animal, appears but to 
 be a pre-arranged series of typical ideas, each to be realised 
 at a certain period and Avithin certain limits of variation, 
 and when once realised to become passive for ever. The 
 realisation of these creative ideas must of course be accom- 
 panied by a thousand co-relative circumstances, and the 
 great caution of philosophy should be to avoid confounding 
 concomitants with causes, or mistaking mere ordinal arrange- 
 ment for sequential connection. 
 
230 THE LAW. 
 
 [Term of the Human Race.] 
 
 This curious speculation as to the inherent limit of species 
 suggests another equally curious, and of still greater import 
 to man. Generally speaking, the species that has the widest 
 geographical range has also the longest duration in point of 
 time this wider range increasing its chances of surviving 
 the occurrence of local catastrophes and the vicissitudes of 
 climate. Man, of all animals, is the most cosmopolitan in 
 his nature, being found, in one or other variety of his species, 
 in every region of the globe. It might, therefore, be natu- 
 rally inferred from this that the existence of the human 
 race will be of corresponding duration ; and this inference, 
 geologically speaking, would be correct were it not for 
 another law that seems to regulate vitality. Throughout 
 the whole systems of geology the higher seems to have a 
 more limited duration than the lower orders, their persist- 
 ence in time being inversely proportional to their biological 
 pre-eminence. Thus, the mammalia of the tertiary epoch 
 had a briefer existence than the reptiles of the Wealden and 
 oolite ; these reptiles a more restricted time-range than the 
 pala3ozoic Crustacea ; and these again a more limited base 
 of specific duration than the lower shell-fish and corals, 
 some of which in their generic aspects (like the lingula and 
 terebratula) are extant to the present day. If, then, this 
 generalisation can be established, we are forced to the con- 
 clusion that the term of the human species, as well as of 
 those domesticated animals on which he so much relies, 
 notwithstanding their wide geographical range, will be brief 
 in proportion to their organisation. 
 
 Startling as such speculations may be, it must ever be 
 remembered that there are a thousand qualifying circum- 
 stances in Man's case which do not apply to our reasonings 
 
TERM OF HUMAN RACE. 231 
 
 regarding the lower animals. He has not only a wider geo- 
 graphical range, but is more omnivorous in his diet than other 
 creatures, the while that his structure and intellect enable 
 him to combat with difficulties of food and climate to which 
 they must at once succumb. Submerge Australia, and you 
 at once annihilate almost the entire division of marsupial 
 mammals, while as regards the aboriginal tribes you destroy 
 only a very small, and that by no means an important, section 
 of the human family. Alter the climate of Europe so as to 
 place it beyond the growth of the fruits and grains on which 
 its people now chiefly subsist, and, while its high civilisation 
 might be destroyed, and its dense population reduced to a 
 few nomadic races struggling with the rigours of the new 
 climate, still you do not annihilate them, nor greatly affect 
 the inhabitants of the other quarters of the globe. Direct 
 the Gulf-stream from its present course across the Atlantic, 
 and you at once destroy whole families of marine life de- 
 pendent on its thermal waters, and whole phases of vegeta- 
 tion that border the shores where its climatic influence 
 impinges ; but, so far as man is concerned, you only make 
 him shift ground and seek in other localities the congenial 
 conditions that have been withdrawn. Unless, therefore, 
 the human species has a limited creational term assigned to 
 it in accordance with that law which the more highly 
 organised existences seem to obey, we at once perceive that 
 the adaptability of man's constitution, and the inventive 
 powers of his intellect, give him, geologically speaking, 
 every chance of a prolonged tenure of this earthly domain. 
 It must be borne in mind that speculations such as these 
 refer to man only in his geological bearings, and touch not 
 at all on the rise, progress, and decay of nationalities, or 
 types of civilisation. These obey an altogether different set 
 of laws, having reference to that Moralism which separates 
 him from other living beings, and confers on him his highest 
 and most distinctive characteristics. 
 
 p 
 
232 THE LAW. 
 
 [Influence of Man on the Future.] 
 
 The removal and extinction of species, viewed in con- 
 nection with the physical changes that are continually taking 
 place on the surface of the globe, necessarily lead to specu- 
 lations as to the conditions and phases of the FUTURE. 
 Eespecting these, however, it seems vain to offer even the 
 widest conjecture, so long as we remain in ignorance of the 
 law that has regulated the progression of the Past. Where 
 the terms of a law are known, the formulae may be readily 
 framed for the calculation of its times and results ; but where 
 these terms are little better than guessed at, our reasonings 
 can never rise beyond the value of the merest hypotheses. 
 Subjected as our planet is to numerous modifying causes, 
 we know, however, that vast changes are ever in progress, 
 and that the present aspects of nature will not be the same 
 as those she must assume in the eras that are to follow. 
 But what may be the nature and amount of these changes, 
 what the new conditions brought about by them, or what 
 the races of plants and animals adapted to these conditions, 
 science has yet no available means of determining. And 
 yet, as we have seen that in past ages certain species of one 
 epoch always passed less or more numerously into the suc- 
 ceeding epoch, so it is not unreasonable to presume that 
 many of the existing species will pass into the period which 
 is to follow. We have also seen that though in certain 
 regions extinctions took place rapidly and entirely, yet over 
 the whole world the progress of vitality has been gradual 
 and continuous ; and, generalising in like manner for the 
 future, it is surely allowable to presume on a similar con- 
 tinuity and gradation. We have also seen that whatever 
 the specific phases of vitality, they never diverged beyond 
 certain limits, but were ever constructed after a few grand 
 
MAX AND THE FUTURE. 233 
 
 types and models ; and, believing in the continuity of 
 natural law, we rely on the future adherence to the same 
 primal patterns. In fine, progressing as nature is, the life 
 of the Future must differ specifically from that of the Pre- 
 sent ; but, speaking in general terms, the difference cannot 
 be more than that we have traced between the life of the 
 successive epochs of geological history. 
 
 In reasoning on the future aspects of vitality, we must 
 ever make allowance for the influence and operations of 
 MAN, who comes on the present stage of geological time as 
 a sub-creative power and new modifying agent. In the 
 olden epochs the laws of change acted solely through the 
 operations of purely physical agents, and what under their 
 control took ages to accomplish may now, under the 
 agency of man, be brought about within the scope of a 
 single century. To the materialism and mechanism of the 
 Past we now add the mentalism of the Present an emana- 
 tion " after God's own image," and a reasoning instrument 
 in the hands of the Creator to effect most important changes 
 on the vitality of the globe. The modifications brought 
 about by man in his onward progress are already remark- 
 able, though only the merest fraction of what they are 
 destined to be under the influences of increasing population 
 and higher civilisation. In his onward progress of cultiva- 
 tion, observe how many species of plants be destroys, and 
 how many new varieties he creates ; how by his drainage and 
 tillage he modifies soil and climate, making new conditions, 
 obnoxious and fatal to some races, and congenial to others ; 
 and how, in taking possession of new countries, he destroys 
 the carnivorous and dangerous animals, and substitutes the 
 domesticated in their stead extirpates the indigenous 
 flora, and plants in its place the vegetation of other regions ! 
 Mark what changes the white man has wrought, within the 
 last few centuries, on the life of the globe, in North and 
 
234 THE LAW. 
 
 South America, in Southern Africa, in Australia, and in 
 New Zealand, by the extirpation, the introduction, and the 
 interchange of species ! With the exception of the dingo, 
 or problematically native dog, no placental mammal was 
 known in Australia, which lay like a belated outlier of 
 secondary life, at the time of its discovery by European 
 navigators ; and now most of the quadrupeds of Europe 
 are there thriving and increasing amazingly. When we 
 turn to the New World we find the same process on an 
 older and larger scale. All the domestic animals of Europe, 
 naturally unknown in America, have firmly taken root in 
 that continent, and many of them now roam in a wild state 
 as freely as if they had been indigenous to the country. 
 Even the " pests and vermin " of the Old World have in- 
 sensibly found their way to the New ; and the New has 
 not been slow in making reprisals on the Old by the trans- 
 mission of such unwelcome settlers. In the fulfilment of 
 this great law of natural progress, the inferior races of his 
 own kind are also vanishing before the civilisation of the 
 higher ; and, however much our sympathies may be excited 
 by the fact, their continuance would be only to retard that 
 Divine scheme of advancement to which everything above, 
 beneath, and around us has ever been incessantly tending. 
 No scheme of benevolent enlightenment can ever avert 
 the fate of the natives of New Zealand and Australia ; 
 no project of civilisation, however ingenious, postpone the 
 doom of the Red Indian. As the waves of Progress have 
 successively swept away the nationalities, pre-historic and 
 historic, of Asia and Europe, so the same tide is irresist- 
 ibly swelling towards the obliteration of mental and moral 
 inferiority in other regions. The order has gone forth from 
 the beginning : its execution is inevitable. 
 
 Observe, then, what an amount of extirpation, inter- 
 change, and transmission of species has been effected by 
 
PROGRESSION OR SUCCESSION ? 235 
 
 man within the lapse of a few centuries ; and note how 
 impossible it is to predicate of future life-changes where 
 such a power has been superinduced upon the purely phy- 
 sical agencies of nature ! It is true that man's influence 
 has its limit. He may modify, but he cannot create ex- 
 tirpate, but cannot replace may alter the distribution, but 
 cannot change the character of functional performance. 
 Over and above him are the great external conditions of 
 nature, to which he is as subject as the meanest creature he 
 modifies ; but within certain limits he acts as a sub-creator, 
 and this influence must ever be allowed for in all our rea- 
 sonings on the future aspects of vitality. 
 
 [Progression or Succession?] 
 
 There is just one other speculation, and we can scarcely 
 avoid adverting to it. We have traced a progress in the 
 past, we perceive a progress going on around us, and we 
 presume an analogous progress in the future. Whether, 
 then, is this progress part of some great recurring succession, 
 or is it a progression from a beginning we cannot trace to 
 an eternity of which we cannot even imagine'? ^Nature 
 operates in great successions as well as in what appears to 
 our limited observation a great cosmical progression. We 
 note the movement of the silent shadow on the sun-dial, 
 and were our observations limited to the space between 
 morning and mid-day, we might fairly question whether 
 this slowly-progressing shadow went forward and forward 
 for ever, or whether it did not form part of a recurring suc- 
 cession. We watch, and the shadow attains its meridian, 
 falls back, and again commences its progress to-day as it did 
 on the yesterday, and as we presume it will do on the to- 
 morrow. As the earth daily on her axis, so also in her 
 
236 THE LAW. 
 
 orbit she obeys a great law of annual recurrence a succes- 
 sion that might readily be mistaken for progression by one 
 whose observations were limited to a few long days in the 
 month of June. The magnetic needle, which in 1660 
 pointed due north in London, began in 1662 to diverge to 
 the westward, till, in 1815 (a lapse 155 years), it pointed 24|- 
 west of north. Since 1815 it has been gradually returning 
 from this extreme divergence, and we therefore regard it as 
 obeying some law of secular succession. So also with the 
 polar direction of the earth's axis, which we usually regard 
 as pointing to one spot or " fixed point" in the heavens 
 viz., the " Polar Star." This, however, is not strictly cor- 
 rect. The pole moves very slowly, so as to describe very 
 nearly what is called a small circle in the heavens. This 
 small circle, and the motion of the pole along it, are such 
 that, in 12,000 or 13,000 years, the pole will be distant 
 from the present pole by more than 40 ; but in some 25,000 
 years it will have returned to the point in the heavens 
 which it now occupies. In the geologic ages we have seen 
 again and again the return of cold and warm influences to 
 the same latitudes. First, the icy sterility of the Cambrian 
 grits ; second, the doubtful glaciers of the old red ; next 
 those of the Permian or new red ; and again, those of the 
 boulder-drift that immediately preceded the current era. 
 These are also indicative of great secular recurrences in 
 nature successions rather than continuous progression. 
 May it not be so with the World itself? Is it going for- 
 ward, with all its physical mutations and garniture of life, 
 from a beginning philosophy cannot trace to an end that 
 fancy cannot dream of? Does nature never repeat herself; 
 or" is all that has taken place only part of a great succession 
 that will again be repeated ? Is there in reality nothing 
 new under the sun, and is that which now exists only that 
 which already has been? or is there not, as implied* in the 
 
ONWARD AND UPWARD. 237 
 
 facts of geology, a recurrence of infinitesimally divergent 
 phenomena that assume the stamp and character of an ever 
 onward progress 1 From the restricted nature of individual 
 life we are unconsciously led to associate with everything 
 around us the idea of a beginning, a progress, and an end. 
 An endless progression, like an eternity of unchangeable 
 sameness, is a notion we cannot realise ; and we are apt to 
 regard the successive phases of geological history as mere 
 stages in a progression which has had its beginning in the 
 Past, and must come to an end in the Future. The be- 
 ginning and end of this progression, however widely sepa- 
 rated, may after all only mark the limits of a single stage in 
 some vaster scheme of progress ; and what seems to termi- 
 nate the present may only be the beginning of another and 
 higher phase of terrestrial vitality. 
 
 [Onward and Upward.] 
 
 Ignorant of the teachings of geology and the great pro- 
 gression it unfolds, mankind have hitherto regarded the 
 scheme of life as culminating and terminating with their 
 own race. All or nearly all the hopes that give colouring 
 to their thoughts and direction to their actions proceed 
 from this belief, though in strictest science the belief itself 
 rests on no logical foundation. It is true, one of our high- 
 est biological authorities (Professor Agassiz) "thinks it can 
 be shown by anatomical evidence, that man is not only the 
 last and highest among the living beings of the present 
 period, but that he is the last term of a series, beyond 
 which there is no material progress possible in accordance 
 with the plan upon which the whole animal kingdom is 
 constructed ; and that the only improvement we can look 
 for upon earth, for the future, must consist in the develop- 
 
238 THE LAW. 
 
 ment of man's intellectual and moral faculties." This, 
 however, is a mere plausible assertion; the "anatomical 
 evidence" is not produced ; and every one cognisant of the 
 history of man knows that intellectual and moral develop- 
 ment has ever been restricted to the newer, and advancing 
 varieties of our race. It is true that man at present stands 
 the crowning form of vital existence, but the facts of the 
 past give no countenance to the belief that he shall remain 
 the crowning form in future epochs. From its dawn until 
 now the great evolution of life has been ever upward, geo- 
 logically speaking (and be it borne in mind we are treating 
 the question solely from a geological stand-point) : shall it 
 not continue to be upward still ? We see no symptom of 
 decay either in the physical or vital forces of nature ; and 
 so long as these forces continue to operate, mutation and 
 progress must inevitably follow. Man's own history, phy- 
 sical and moral, has been one of incessant change and pro- 
 gress. The features of different races, their mental quali- 
 ties, civil systems, and religious beliefs, have all less or 
 more partaken of this mutation ; and the difference that 
 now subsists between the most intellectual, city-dwelling, 
 machine -making Anglo-Saxons and the men of the old 
 flint-implements and bone-caves may be infinitesimally small 
 when compared with that which may exist between the 
 noblest living nations and races yet to be evoked. Unless 
 science has altogether misinterpreted the past, and the 
 course of Creation as unfolded by geology be no better than 
 a delusion, the future must transcend the present, as the 
 present transcends that which has gone before it. Man 
 present cannot possibly be man future. Noble as he may 
 appear in his highest aspects, it were to limit creative 
 power and arrest its progress to aver that man may not be 
 superseded by another form still nobler and more divine. 
 Physiologically, we cannot suppose that the homologies of 
 
ONWARD AND UPWARD. 239 
 
 the vertebrate skeleton have been exhausted in the struc- 
 tural adaptations of man : psychologically, we dare not pre- 
 sume against the correlation of a nobler intellect with a 
 higher organisation. On the contrary, in these ascending 
 forms the divine idea of moral perfection, though uncon- 
 ceivably unattainable by created existences, may be nearly 
 and more nearly approached, and stage by stage the loftiest 
 and holiest aspirations of the present may become the real- 
 isations of the future. To speculations such as these, 
 though lying fairly in the way of geological inquiry, science 
 can do little more than merely indicate the line of reason- 
 ing ; and if they shall be thought to involve any question 
 as to man's religious beliefs and his hopes of a future life, 
 on this point also science is mute, and defers with humility 
 to the teachings of a higher philosophy. 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 AND now my task is finished. I have endeavoured, in 
 tracing the long line of Past Life, to assimilate its extinct 
 forms to those now existing, that we may be enabled to 
 catch a glimpse, however faint, of the unity and connection 
 that run throughout the whole. Impossible as it was, 
 within the limits of this Sketch, to enter into minute de- 
 tails, I have restricted myself to such an outline as might, 
 with a little previous information, be intelligible to the 
 majority of general readers, or which, in the want of that 
 information, might be readily filled up by the perusal of 
 any of the ordinary works on Geology. To those who may 
 sneer at " smatterings of science," or grow facetious on the 
 "dangers of a little learning" (and these are generally the 
 mere technical tradesmen of some narrow department), I 
 have only to answer, that a beginning must be made some- 
 where that the little learning of to-day may form a foun- 
 dation for the larger stock of the to-morrow and that the 
 mind is more likely to be stimulated to further inquiry by 
 the generalisations of a vivid outline than by an array of 
 details, the very nomenclature of which is often a puzzle 
 and perplexity. 
 
 Whatever the amount of information conveyed, one of 
 the main objects has been to keep prominently in view the 
 operation of natural law, and to discourage the common 
 
242 CONCLUSION. 
 
 but mistaken idea of the cataclysmal and revolutionary in 
 the past history of the globe. There can be no true notion 
 of nature or of nature's requirements so long as her facts 
 are Tie wed through the medium of the miraculous or abnor- 
 mal ; and it were greatly to be desired that in social and 
 moral, as well as in natural science, we should learn to re- 
 cognise in every instance the fixity and unerring operation 
 of Law, and so cease to ascribe to the blind deity of Fate 
 what our own knowledge ought to teach us to avoid and 
 enable us to avert. Nor let it be thought, we again repeat, 
 that by so doing we place a wider distance between the 
 Creator and his works, or that any knowledge of this kind 
 has a tendenc}^ to self-sufficiency and irreverence. Law is 
 but the mode in which the Creator has chosen to manifest 
 himself in his works, and the highest attainment of reason 
 is to give intelligible expression to these modes, so that 
 we may be enabled to determine their courses and antici- 
 pate their results. For this purpose I have endeavoured, 
 throughout the preceding review, to group and associate 
 facts, and therefrom to deduce such generalisations as seem 
 warranted by the teachings of Palaeontology. Where the 
 objects of research are so fragmentary and obscure, where 
 so few of the innumerable forms entombed in the crust of 
 the globe can have yet been exhumed, and where so little 
 has been done in distant regions to discover and identify 
 contemporaneous formations, I am fully aware how provi- 
 sional and temporary such generalisations must necessarily 
 be. In the mean time, however, they serve as centres 
 round which to marshal new facts, and they give consist- 
 ency to what might otherwise appear a mass of heterogene- 
 ous and not unfrequently contradictory details. 
 
 And speaking of facts, I would here, in the name of 
 Palaeontology, solicit that assistance which lies, less or 
 more, in the power of every one to afford. The objects of 
 
ADVANTAGES OF THE STUDY. 243 
 
 research, are scattered everywhere ; and every chip and frag- 
 ment that bears on it the impress of organic structure, 
 however worthless it may appear to him Avho stumbles 
 against it, may be the means not only of restoring a new 
 form to the life of a former epoch, but the means of sug- 
 gesting the connection that leads to the determination of 
 some great creational law. Much as has been done within 
 the last twenty years, we still stand greatly in need of 
 additional data; and without an extensive array of facts 
 whereon to found our generalisations, the laws that regu- 
 late the great cosmical evolution of vitality must remain, 
 in a proportional degree, uncertain and obscure. Nor let 
 it be thought that any devotion to palaeontology to the 
 "stocks and stones" of the sneerers at science will ever 
 lessen our love for the fresh and beautiful in existing na- 
 ture. To him who has traced with appreciation the long 
 line of vegetable evolution, the flowers will bloom with, 
 new lustre, the woodlands with fresh verdure, and the 
 solemn forest-growths inspire unwonted adoration and awe. 
 To the student of the Past the lowest shell-fish may claim 
 an ancestry that excites new interest; the meanest reptile 
 may retain some curious feature of its gigantic prototypes; 
 and some obscure and solitary quadruped may be the last 
 of a line that once held regal sway in the forests of pre- 
 human epochs. As the existing throws new light on the 
 extinct, so the extinct adds fresh interest to the existing ; 
 and thus, to the paleontologist, the study of life becomes 
 not only a more exciting pursuit, but a higher and more 
 ennobling theme. 
 
 Besides these intellectual advantages, there are others of 
 a moral kind that spring indirectly from the study of 
 palaeontology. There is no other science, perhaps, that 
 tends to engender so much the feeling of community ; none 
 that connects more closely the whole of animated nature 
 
244 CONCLUSION. 
 
 into one inseparable system. It shows that life existed be- 
 fore we were ; it indicates that life may exist after mankind 
 has ceased to be. Evade and resent as we may the idea of 
 a genetic connection with the lower animals, there is no 
 gainsaying the fact that with them we constitute part and 
 parcel of a great vital plan. They are our life-comrades; 
 they suffer hunger and thirst as we do; they are happy 
 under pleasure, and miserable under pain. Exalted above 
 them by a higher intellect and the gift of moral perception, 
 we are bound to extend to them the humanity of our posi- 
 tion ; and we err against the Creator's scheme the moment 
 we deal with them otherwise than is indicated by the great 
 law of interdependence which pala3ontology reveals. And 
 if we are thus led by cosmical considerations to extend 
 mercy to our fellow- creatures, much more are we called 
 upon to exercise it towards our fellow-men. It were a 
 sorry account of our knowledge of the material and vital 
 worlds, and the laws by which they are governed, did we fail 
 to apply it to the material and moral welfare of our race. 
 Vanity and vexation of spirit, did the tree of knowledge 
 ripen no fairer fruit than the pride and boast of knowing ! 
 In this way the philosophy of our science ascends above the 
 mere materialities of the earth, and becomes portion of the 
 higher philosophy of the heart and soul. 
 
 And now, and in the last place, a word on the spirit in 
 which we should inquire. Geology is at best but a recent 
 science, and its task (as yet but imperfectly performed) is 
 a very wide and difficult one : wide, as embracing a vast 
 field of co-relative science ; and difficult, as the objects of 
 research can only be obtained by great labour, are often 
 obscure, and, for the most part, far removed from their 
 producing causes. In this case, though the history of the 
 past be ever attractive, its elimination requires extensive 
 travel and careful research. Guided solely by a desire to 
 
HOW TO INQUIRE. 245 
 
 arrive at Truth, our observations must be made with great 
 caution ; and even with the utmost care we must often 
 remain contented with mere description confessing, and 
 not ashamed to confess, that the facts observed are beyond 
 our explanation. To observe without being biased by pre- 
 conceived theory to describe accurately so that others may 
 reap the legitimate fruits of our observation to advance 
 our opinions with humility, where there is so much lia- 
 bility to error and to deal charitably towards the opinions 
 of others are duties, without the exercise of which no man 
 can be said to be imbued with the right spirit of geology. 
 It has been nobly said, that " to do justly, to love mercy, 
 and to walk humbly/' are the chief requirements of moral 
 duty: would the same spirit were ever reverently carried 
 into matters of scientific investigation! It was for the 
 want of these qualities that the early course of geology 
 was so much obstructed ; it is still for the neglect of their 
 exercise that so much contention prevails, and that humble 
 honest truth is so often over-ridden by bold-faced ignorance 
 and dogmatism. 
 
 Guided by this spirit, and exercising it within her own 
 proper field, a glorious future lies before geology that 
 future being nothing short of a perfect history of our 
 planet. "We say, exercising it within her own proper field ; 
 for it cannot be denied that many, assuming to themselves 
 the character of geologists, indulge in speculations for 
 which the science is not fairly accountable. "Theories of 
 the Earth," " Vestiges of Creation," " Untieings of the 
 Geological Knot," " Pro- Adamite Sketches," and " Scrip- 
 tural Reconciliations," are ever crowding thick upon us 
 enough to destroy the reputation of any science not founded 
 on the sure and ample bases of Truth and Philosophy. 
 The day for a veritable theory of the World is yet far 
 distant ; let us content ourselves in the mean time by labour- 
 
246 CONCLUSION. 
 
 ing diligently in the way. The vestiges of vital develop- 
 ment are yet but faintly discernible ; we shall never trace 
 them to their source and origin under the guidance of a 
 materialistic hypothesis. To attempt, on the other hand, 
 reconciliations of geology with Scripture is to mistake the 
 functions of both to confound the philosophically ascer- 
 tainable with what needed to be revealed the physical 
 with the spiritual, and reason with faith. It has been re- 
 plied, no doubt, that the Words and the Works of God 
 cannot possibly be at variance. This, however, is a mere 
 dignified nothingism. No rational man ever supposed they 
 could, but men may differ in their interpretation of either, 
 and this makes all the difference. Geology loses by such 
 well-meant but ignorant attempts theology cannot be a 
 gainer. 
 
 Let us then, as geologists, restrict ourselves to our own 
 proper field the physical evidences of God's working in 
 creation , labouring to comprehend his plan, and from a 
 comprehension of that plan to rise to the higher conception 
 of his will as regards our own place and function in the 
 scheme of vitality. To combine our knowledge of the 
 earth's history as an intellectual attainment with the prac- 
 tical application of its treasures to our material necessities, 
 is a high and important aim; to ascend from this aim to 
 the conception of the whole as an orderly Cosmos, with 
 whose ordainings, physical and vital, our thoughts and 
 actions are inseparably interwoven, is the loftiest attainment 
 the true philosophy of geology. As yet this height has 
 lain far and dimly before us ; arid the path of the earlier 
 travellers has been often uncertain and obscure. Light, 
 however, is beginning to crest the mountain-tops, and ob- 
 jects to cast their shadows across the valley below. Yet a 
 little longer, and the sun will attain its meridian, and bathe 
 
THE HOPE THAT ANIMATES. 247 
 
 in the light of knowledge all that is permissible and pos- 
 sible to be known. Let us take care, lest by presumptuous 
 generalisation, by illiberality to the opinions of others, by 
 the want of moral courage to avow the truth as it appears 
 to us, or by giving way to unworthy prejudices, we should 
 do aught to retard such a devoutly- to-be-wished-for con- 
 summation. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 PAOK 
 
 Acanthodes, Lower Old Red species, figured, . . .98 
 
 Acrogens, their aspect and function, .... 41 
 
 Adiantites, gigantic fern from Irish Old Red, figured, . . 93 
 
 J^pyornis, extinct bird of Madagascar, .... 164 
 Agassiz, Professor, quoted, .... 183, 201 
 
 Agassiz, on immortality of animals, quoted, . . . 206 
 
 Agencies, nature of, affecting the globe, . . .71 
 
 Amblypterus, ganoid fish of coal-measures, . . . 110 
 
 Ammonites, oolitic cephalopods, figured, .... 135 
 Amphigens, their aspect and function, .... 40 
 
 Ananchytes, characteristic chalk sea-urchin, figured, . . 145 
 
 Ancyloceras, characteristic chalk cephalopod, . . . 147 
 
 Animal life, its governing conditions in space, ... 48 
 
 Animals, systematic classification of, . . .57 
 
 Annelid burrows, or tracks of marine worms (?), ... 94 
 
 Anoplotherium, restored outline of form, . . . 156 
 
 An tholites, fossil flowers of the Carboniferous, . . . 105 
 
 Archseocidaris, carboniferous, plates and spine of, . . 107 
 
 Archseogosaurus, carboniferous reptile, .... 110 
 Archaeology, interest and importance of, . . . .18 
 
 Articulata, aspect and apparent functions of, . . . 63 
 
 Avicula, oolitic species, figured, . . . . .134 
 
 Barnacles, occurring fossil in oolite, .... 132 
 
 Belemnites, internal shells of fossil cuttle-fishes, . . 135 
 
 Bellerophon, carboniferous gasteropod, figured, . . . 109 
 
 Bellinurus, limuloid carboniferous crustacean, figured, . . 108 
 
 Beryx, fish of cretaceous epoch, figured, .... 148 
 Birds, occurrence of in cretaceous strata, . . . 149 
 
 Birds, supposed first appearance of, . . . .127 
 
 Boreal shells from valley of the Clyde, . . . .167 
 
 Botanical arrangement, principles regulating, ... 33 
 
250 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Bothrodendron, pitted stem of the Carboniferous, . . 104 
 
 Boulder-clay or Glacial period, ..... 165 
 
 Boulders or drift-masses imbedded in chalk, . . . 143 
 
 Bramatherium, gigantic tertiary mammal from India, . . 159 
 
 Cainozoic or " Recent Life" systems of strata, . . . 151 
 
 Calamites, reed-like stems of the coal-measures, . . . 104 
 Calceola (a little slipper), Devonian shell, figured, 
 Cambrian era, its vital characteristics, .... 
 
 Carboniferous era, its physical and vital characteristics, . 100 
 
 Carboniferous flora, its peculiar aspect and nature, . . 102 
 
 Carpolites, fossil fruits of the Carboniferous, . . 105 
 
 Caulopteris, tree-fern stem of the coal-measures, . . 104 
 
 Cell, the vegetable, nature of, . . . .33 
 Centres of creation, for human species, .... 216 
 
 Cephalaspis, characteristic fish of Lower Old Red, . . 97 
 
 Cephalopods of the chalk, curious configurations of, . . 147 
 
 Cephalopods of the Oolitic era, various, figured, . . . 135 
 
 Ceratiocaris, palaeozoic bivalved crustacean, ... 89 
 Cereals, their first appearance, ..... 152 
 
 Chondrites, Silurian sea-weed, figured, .... 85 
 
 Conclusion, general review of generalisations, . . . 241 
 
 Climate, its influence on plant life, ... 29 
 
 Climatius, spiny-fish of Lower Old Red, . 98 
 
 Clisiophyllum, carboniferous coral, figured, . . . 106 
 
 Clymenia, characteristic Devonian shell, figured, . . 94 
 
 Coal-fields of the Oolitic era, . . . . .132 
 
 Coccosteus, characteristic fish of Lower Middle Old Red, . 97 
 Colder and warmer cycles, hypothesis of, . 
 
 Coniferous trees of the oolite, seasonal growth, . . . 130 
 
 Connecticut Valley, fossil footprints of, . . .126 
 
 Conularia, carboniferous pteropod, figured, . . . 109 
 
 Coprolites, or fossil droppings, carbon iferous, . . 109 
 
 Corals, various carboniferous genera, figured, . . 106 
 
 Corals, various Silurian forms, figured, . .87 
 
 Co-relation of parts, Cuvier's law of, . . 53 
 
 Creation, apparent course of, as indicated by Geology, . . 221 
 
 Creation still in progress, .... . 226 
 
 Creations, new, how and by what means effected, . 194 
 
 Cretaceous era, physical and vital features of, . . 142 
 
 Crioceras, characteristic cephalopod of chalk, . . . 147 
 
 Crust of the earth, its composition and structure, . 69 
 
 Crustacea of oolite, their characteristics, . . .133 
 
 Cruziana, Silurian sea-weed, figured, .... 85 
 
 Ctenacanthus, carboniferous fin-spine, figured, . . . Ill 
 
 Ctenoptychius, palatal tooth of carboniferous fish, . .111 
 
 Current or Human era, its aspects, . . . .168 
 
 Cuttle-fishes, or naked Cephalopods of oolite. . . '. 135 
 
INDEX. 251 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Cyathophyllum, carboniferous cup-coral, figured. . . 106 
 
 .Cycadaceous plants of the Oolitic epoch, .... 132 
 Cypris, small bivalved crustacean of coal, . . .108 
 
 Darwin, on origin of life, quoted, . . . ... 210 
 
 Darwin's hypothesis as to origin of species, . . . 197 
 
 Death, consideration of, in scheme of vitality. . . . 185 
 
 Dendrerpeton, lizard-like reptile of Coal era, . . . 110 
 
 Development hypotheses, considered, .... 197 
 
 Devonian flora, various fragments of, figured, . . . 92, 93 
 
 Devonian, or Old Red Sandstone era, .... 91 
 
 Dinornis, great fossil bird of New Zealand, . . . 164 
 Diplacanthus, Lower Old Red species, figured, . . .98 
 Diprotodon, extinct kangaroo of Australia, . . 159,366 
 
 Distribution of life never uniform, .... 186 
 
 Dithyrocaris, carboniferous bivalved crustacean, . . 108 
 
 Dodo, extinct bird of the Mauritius, .... 164 
 
 Dromatherium, jaw of, from North America, . . . llo 
 
 Egg-packets, supposed fossil spawn of Crustacea, . . 96 
 
 Electricity and vital phenomena, . . . . .181 
 
 Elgin sandstones, containing reptilian remains, ... 99 
 
 Embryology, nature of the doctrine of, . . . . 202 
 
 Encrinites, Silurian genera, figured, . . .87 
 
 Encrinites, various carboniferous forms, figured. . . 107 
 
 Endogens, their aspect and function, .... 44 
 
 Eocene flora and fauna, their characteristics, . . . 155 
 
 Equisetites, fossil stems resembling the equisetum, . . 104 
 
 Euomphalus, carboniferous gasteropod, figured, . . . 109 
 
 Eurypteridae, palaeozoic Crustacea, characters of, . . 95 
 
 Eurypterites, Silurian Crustacea, figured, . . . 89 
 
 Eurypterus or Idothea, carboniferous crustacean, figured, . 108 
 
 Exogens, their aspect and function, . . .45 
 
 External conditions of life never uniform, . . . 188 
 
 Extinction or creation of species, never general, . . .195 
 
 Fauna and flora, their mutual co-adaptations, ... 66 
 
 Flint implements from upper pleistocene, figured. . . 170 
 
 Flora and fauna of the Current epoch, . . . .168 
 
 Flora and fauna, their mutual co-adaptations, ... 66 
 Footprints, how occurring in a fossil state, . . . 126 
 
 Foraminiferse, their abundance in chalk rocks, . . . 143 
 
 Fossils, interest attached to, ..... 18 
 
 Fossils, nature and character of, . . . .20 
 
 Fresh- water formations, occurrence of, . . . 154 
 
 Fresh-water shells of the Tertiary era, .... 157 
 Function, uniformity of, in all time past, . . . .184 
 
 Functional adaptations of animal life, .... 51 
 
252 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Future life- periods, probable aspects of, . . .174 
 
 Future vitality, man's influence on, .... 232 
 
 Galerites, characteristic chalk sea-urchin, figured, . . 145 
 
 Generation, spontaneous, unsatisfactory evidence of, . .181 
 
 Geological classification systems and periods, . . .73 
 
 Geology, her own proper field of inquiry, . . . 245 
 
 Geology, spirit in which to study, .... 244 
 
 Geology, the vital problems yet to solve, ... 75 
 
 Glacial action, appearances of, during Old Red era, . . 91 
 
 Glacial or Northern Drift epoch, ..... 1(55 
 Glyptodon, extinct gigantic armadillo, .... 163 
 Goniaster (corner-star), chalk star-fish, figured, . . . 145 
 
 Goniatite, carboniferous cephalopod, figured, . . . 109 
 
 Graptolites, Silurian zoophytes, figured, .... 86 
 
 Gryphsea, characteristic shell of the Oolite, . . .134 
 
 Gymnogens, their aspect and function, . . . .42 
 
 Gyracanthus, carboniferous fin-spine, figured, . . . Ill 
 
 Hamites, characteristic chalk cephalopod, . . .347 
 
 Hemipneustes, sea-urchin of Cretaceous epoch, figured, . . 145 
 
 Higher and lower, as applied to organised beings, . . 55 
 
 Hippurites, characteristic cretaceous bivalve, . . .146 
 
 Homology, the anatomical doctrine of, . . .53 
 
 Human race, mutability of, . , . . .173 
 
 Human race, probable antiquity of, . . 215 
 
 Human race, probable duration of, .... 230 
 
 HylaBosaurus, great land saurian of the Weald, . . . 138 
 
 Hypotheses, their value in science, . . . .178 
 
 Hypozoic or metamorphic strata, ..... 81 
 
 
 
 Ice-action, appearances of, during Devonian period, . . 91 
 
 Ice-action, supposed occurrence of, in Permian, . . . 115 
 
 Ichnites, or fossil footprints, how occurring, . . 1 26 
 
 Ichnology, or science of fossil footprints, . . . .126 
 
 Ichthyosaurus, oolitic marine reptile, figured, . . . 137 
 
 Igneous or fire-formed rocks, defined, . . 69 
 
 Immortality of life-forms, question of, . 206 
 
 Implements, flint, what they indicate, . . . .217 
 
 Inoceramus, cretaceous species of, figured, . . . 146 
 
 Inquiry, spirit of, necessary for geology, . . . 244 
 
 Insects, various genera, fossil in oolite, .... 133 
 Irish gigantic deer, sketch of, figured, .... 169 
 
 Labyrinthodon, lower secondary reptile, figured, . . 125 
 
 Lamarckian hypothesis of vital development, . . . 197 
 
 Law, natural, its nature and importance, . . % 242 
 
 Law of similar habit and economy, .... 199 
 
INDEX. 253 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Law, uniformity and universality of action, ... 80 
 
 Laws apparently regulating past vitality, . . . 177 
 
 Leaf, as the primary structural organ, . . . .32 
 
 Lepidodendron, characteristic plant of the Carboniferous, . 104 
 
 Life, dawn of, as known to geology, . . . .178 
 
 Life, origin of, wholly unknown, . . . . .180 
 
 Life-periods of geology, arrangement of, . . . . 73 
 
 Lignites and coals of the Cretaceous epoch, . . . 143 
 
 Lmgula, Silurian brachiopod, figured, .... 88 
 
 Lituites, Silurian cephalopod ? figured, .... 88 
 
 London basin, its flora and fauna, . . . .155 
 
 Loxonema, carboniferous gasteropod, figured, . . . 109 
 
 Machairodus, fossil cave-lion of Europe, .... 159 
 Maclurea, characteristic Silurian shell, figured, ... 88 
 
 Mammals in Permian sandstones of America, . . . 165 
 
 Mammoth, or extinct hairy elephant, .... 162 
 Man, his advent or first appearance, . . . 170, 213 
 
 Man, his advent in accordance with the general plan of vitality, 215 
 Man, his early condition, as indicated by geology, . . 217 
 
 Man, his influence on future life-aspects, .... 232 
 Man, inferior races of, their inevitable decay, . . . 234 
 
 Man, not the last of this vital series, .... 237 
 
 Marsupial quadrupeds of Triassic era, . . . .128 
 
 Marsupials of the Oolite, jaws of various, .... 139 
 Marsupites, cretaceous echinoderms, figured, . . . 144 
 
 Mastodon, extinct elephantoid mammal, .... 162 
 Megaceros Hibernicus, or great Irish deer, . . . 169 
 
 Megalanea, extinct lace-lizard of Australia, . . . 159 
 
 Megalodon (large toothed hinge), Devonian shell, figured, . 94 
 
 Megalosaurus, great land saurian, figured, . . .138 
 
 Megatherium, extinct gigantic ground-sloth, . . . 163 
 
 Merycotherium, fossil mammal from India, . . . 159 
 
 Mesozoic systems, their chief characteristics, . . .119 
 
 Microlestes, insectivorous mammal of trias, . . .128 
 
 Migration and migratory races at all periods, . . .387 
 
 Modiola, oolitic bivalve, figured, ..... 134 
 Mollusca, aspect and apparent functions of, . . . 62 
 
 Mollusca of the Oolite, various genera, figured, . . . 134 
 
 Monkey, development of, considered, .... 205 
 Moral perception, restricted to man, .... 205 
 
 Murchisonia, gasteropod, carboniferous species of, . . 109 
 
 Murchisonia, gasteropod, Devonian species, figured, . . 94 
 
 Murchisonia, gasteropod, Silurian, figured, ... 88 
 
 Natural selection, Mr Darwin's theory of, ... 204 
 
 New life forms, how introduced, . . . . .192 
 
 Nummulites and nummulitic strata, .... 157 
 
254 INDEX. 
 
 PAOK 
 
 Oldhamia, Silurian polyzoan, figured, .... 86 
 
 Old Red Sandstone or Devonian era, . . . .91 
 
 Oolitic era, physical and vital features of, ... 128 
 
 Oolitic era, physical geography of, . . ' . . 141 
 
 Oolitic flora, restored aspect of, . . . . . 130 
 
 Orbitoidal limestone of North America, . . . .158 
 
 Orbitoides, abundant foraminiferous forms, . . . 144 
 
 Orthoceratite, carboniferous species, figured, . . . 109 
 
 Orthoceratite, Silurian, figured, ... . . .88 
 
 Osmeroides, fish of chalk formation, figured, . . . 148 
 
 Pain, consideration of, in scheme of life, . . . 185 
 
 Palsechinus, carboniferous sea-urchin, figured, ; . . 107 
 
 Palaeoniscus, ganoid fish of Carboniferous era, . . . 110 
 Palaeoniscus, Permian species, figured, . . . .114 
 
 Palaeontology, advantages of the study of, ... 242 
 Palaeontology, its general scope and function, . . .25 
 
 Palaeontology, its intellectual bearings, .... 24 
 
 Palaeontology, its practical bearings, .... 33 
 
 Palaeontology, science of ancient beings, defined, . . 20 
 
 Palaeophytology, or science of fossil plants, ... 46 
 
 Palaeotherium, restored outline of form, .... 156 
 
 Palaeozoic, or ancient life-systems, ..... 79 
 
 Palaeozoology, or science of extinct life, .... 65 
 
 Palapteryx, or extinct apteryx of New Zealand, . . 159, 166 
 
 Palms, doubtfully occurring in the coal-measures, . . 103 
 
 Pampas of South America, their fossils, .... 163 
 
 Permian, or Lower New Red Sandstone era, . . . 114 
 Phascolotherium, jaw of, from the upper Oolite, . . .140 
 
 Phillipsia (after Professor Phillips), carboniferous, trilobite, . 108 
 
 Plagiaulax, jaw and teeth from the upper Oolite, . . 140 
 
 Plan and order of life pre-ordained, .... 184 
 
 Plants, systematic classifications of, .... 37 
 
 Platysomus, Permian fish, figured, .... 114 
 
 Plesiosaurus, Oolitic marine reptile, figured, . . . 137 
 
 Pleuracanthus, carboniferous fin-spine, figured, . . . Ill 
 
 Pleurotomaria, carboniferous species, figured, . . . 109 
 
 Poecilodns, carboniferous palatal tooth of fish, . . . Ill 
 
 Polyzoa of the chalk, their characteristics, . . 145 
 
 Post-tertiary and Tertiary, definitions of, ... 153 
 
 Present, the, its flora and fauna, ..... 27 
 
 Productus, characteristic carboniferous brachiopod, . . 109 
 
 Progression or succession in nature, .... 235 
 
 Protozoa, aspect and apparent functions of, . . . 59 
 
 Provinces of animal life, ...... 50 
 
 Psammodus, carboniferous palatal tooth of fish, . . . Ill 
 
 Psiloplyton, plant from Canadian Old Red, figured, ' . .. 92 
 
 Pterichthys, characteristic fish of Middle Old Red, . . 97 
 
INDEX. 255 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Pterodactyle, flying reptile of the Oolite, figured, . . 138 
 
 Pterozamites, pinnate leaf of, Triassic era, . . . 125 
 
 Pterygotus angiicus, from Lower Old Red, figured, . 95 
 
 Pterygotus, upper Silurian species, figured, . . 89 
 
 Radiata, aspect and apparent functions of, . 60 
 
 Radiolites, cretaceous bivalve, figure of, . . . 146 
 
 Rain-prints, or impressions of ancient showers, ... 94 
 
 Ramsay, Professor, on Permian glaciers, .... 115 
 
 Representative species, what is meant by, ... 50 
 
 Reptiles, carboniferous, lowly nature of, . . . . 110 
 
 Reptiles, gigantic secondary, their functions, . . . 185 
 
 Reptiles of the Old Red, still doubtful, . 99 
 
 Rhizodus, sauroid fish, jaw and dentition of, . . Ill 
 
 Rock-systems of geology, arrangement of, ... 73 
 
 Rotalia, cretaceous foraminiferous organism, . . . 144 
 Rytina, extinct dugong of Kamtschatka, . . . .172 
 
 Sauroid fishes of Carboniferous era, .... 110 
 
 Scaphites, characteristic chalk cephalopod, . . . 147 
 
 Scriptural reconciliations, in utility of, . . . 245 
 Seals, sub-fossil, in pleistocene strata, . . . .167 
 
 Sedimentary, or water-deposited rocks, defined, ... 70 
 
 Sigillarise, gigantic trees of the Carboniferous era, . . 104 
 
 Silurian era, physical and vital characteristics, ... 83 
 
 Silurian flora, scanty and fragmentary, .... 84 
 
 Siphonia, silicified spongiform organ in chalk, . . . 144 
 
 Sivatherium, sub-fossil ruminant of India, . . . 159 
 
 Solitaire, extinct bird of Rodriguez, .... 172 
 
 Species, duration of, in time, ..... 228 
 
 Species representative and identical, .... 50 
 
 Spirifer, carboniferous species, figured, .... 109 
 
 Spirorbes, calcareous tubes of, in coal-measures, . . 106, 108 
 
 Sponges and their function in cretaceous strata, . . . 143 
 
 Star-fish, Silurian, figured, ...... 87 
 
 Stigmaria, roots of the carboniferous sigillaria, . . . 104 
 
 Stone implements of the upper pleistocene, . . . 170 
 
 Stringocephalus, characteristic Devonian shell, figured, . . 94 
 
 Strophomena, Silurian brachiopod, figure of, . . 88 
 
 Stylonurus, crustacean from Forfarshire Old Red, . . 95 
 
 Succession or progression in natural events, . . . 235 
 
 Superposition of strata, key to geological time, ... 70 
 
 Telerpeton, lacertilian reptile from Elgin sandstones, . . 126 
 
 Temperature, internal, its effect on climate, ... . 189 
 
 Terebratula, carboniferous species, figured, . . ] 09 
 Tertiary and post-tertiary strata, defined, . . .153 
 
 Tertiary, its different chronological stages, . . . 157 
 
256 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Textularia, abundant foraminiferous organism, . . . 144 
 
 The Record as depending on Geology, .... 69 
 Thecodont reptiles, their high position, . . . .199 
 
 Theory of the World, Geology not prepared for, . . . 245 
 
 Time, its estimate in years and centuries, . . . 220 
 
 Time, pre-geological and geological, .... 218 
 
 Transitional or intermediate forms, . . . .198 
 
 Triassic era, physical and vital conditions of, . . . 121 
 
 Triconodon, jaw and teeth of, from Upper Oolite, . . 140 
 
 Trigonia, Oolitic bivalve, figured, ..... 134 
 Trigonocarpon, supposed coniferous fruit, . . . 105 
 
 Trilobites, characteristic Silurian Crustacea, figured, . . 88 
 
 Trogontherium, gigantic fossil beaver of Europe, . . 160 
 
 Turrilites, characteristic chalk cephalopod, . . .147 
 
 Type and pattern, uniformity of, in life, . . . 1 82 
 
 Typical order of nature, ..... 31 
 
 Uniformity of natural law, . . . . .71 
 
 Varieties, their limit and continuance, .... 202 
 Vegetation, the existing zones of, . 
 
 Vegetation, effects of altitude on, . 29 
 
 Vegetation, existing provinces of, . . 30 
 
 Ventriculites, fossil chalk sponge, figured, . .144 
 
 Vertebrata, aspect and apparent functions of, . . 64 
 
 Vestiges of Creation, its materialistic views, . . .197 
 
 Vestiges of Creation, referred to, . . . . . 209 
 
 Vital hypotheses, how to receive, .... 208 
 
 Walchia, triassic coniferous stem, figured, . . . 125 
 
 Well ingtonias of California, limited range of, . . .173 
 
 Xiphodon, restored outline of form, . . . .156 
 
 Zoological arrangement, principles of, . . . 52 
 
 Zones of depth, as influencing marine life, . . 49 
 
 Zosterites, Devonian sea-weed, figured, .... 92 
 
 THE END. 
 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH. 
 
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