PROFESSOR HUXLEY'S LECTURES. 53 



the fourth day marine animals and birds appeared. And it is further 

 clear that terrestrial life made its appearance upon the sixth day, and 

 not before. Hence, it follows that, if in the large mass of circumstan- 

 tial evidence as to what really has happened in the past history of the 

 globe if in that we find down to a certain point indications of the 

 existence of terrestrial animals, it is perfectly certain that all that 

 has taken place since that time must be referred to the sixth day. 



In this great Carboniferous formation whence America has de- 

 rived so vast a proportion of her actual and potential wealth, in that 

 formation and in the beds of coal which are formed from the vege- 

 tation of that period, we find abundant evidence of the existence 

 of terrestrial animals. They have been described not only by Euro- 

 pean naturalists, but by your own naturalists. There are to be found 

 in the coal of your own coal-fields numerous insects allied to our cock- 

 roaches. There are to be found there spiders and scorpions of large 

 size, and so similar to existing scorpions that it requires the practised 

 eye of the naturalist to distinguish them. Inasmuch as these things 

 can be proved to have been alive in the Carboniferous epoch, it is. per- 

 fectly clear that, if the Miltonic account is correct, the huge mass of 

 rocks extending from the middle of the Palaeozoic formations to the 

 end of the series must belong to the day or period which is termed 

 by Milton the sixth day of the creation. But, further, it is expressly 

 stated that aquatic animals took their origin upon the fifth day, and 

 did not exist before ; hence all formations in which aquatic animals 

 can be proved to exist, and which therefore lived at the time these 

 formations were deposited, must have been deposited during the 

 time of the period which Milton speaks of as the fifth day. But there 

 is absolutely no fossiliferous rock in which you do not find the remains 

 of marine animals. The lowest forms of life in the Silurian are ma- 

 rine animals, and, if the view which is entertained by Principal Daw- 

 son and Dr. Carpenter respecting the nature of the Eozoon be correct, 

 if it is true that animal remains exist at a period as far antecedent to 

 the deposit in the coal as the coal is from us, at the bottom of the 

 series of stratified rocks in the Laurentian strata, it follows plainly 

 enough that the whole series of stratified rocks, if they are to be 

 brought into harmony with Milton at all, must be referred to the 

 sixth day, and we cannot hope to find the slightest trace of the work 

 of the other days in our stratified formations. When one comes to 

 consider this, one sees how absolutely futile are the attempts that 

 have been made to run a parallel between the story told by the strati- 

 fied rocks as we know them and the account which Milton gives of 

 it. The whole series of stratified rocks must be referred to the last 

 two periods, and neither the Carboniferous nor any other formation 

 can afford evidence of the work of the third day. Not only is there 

 this objection to any attempt to run a parallel between the Miltonic 

 account and the actual facts, but there is a further difficulty. In the 



