28 The Ma\e'l]p and the WorXjngs of the Earth 



in connection with his work, kept a record of the fossils which 

 he found in the different kinds of rocks. He became so 

 f amihar with their distribution in various parts of the coun- 

 try that he could always tell what kinds would be found in 

 a given layer of rock, what kinds would be found above and 

 what kinds would be found below. In other words, he had 

 discovered a certain uniformity in the distribution of fossils 

 with respect to the relative ages of the rocks. While he did 

 not know much about the plants and animals which these 

 fossils most closely resembled, he did know what he had seen: 

 the types of animals and plants to which these fossils corre- 

 sponded resembled existing plants more and more as the 

 layers from which they were taken were nearer to the surface, 

 or more recent. 



Fossils had been known for centuries, but their signifi- 

 cance is a comparatively modern discovery. The ancients 

 either looked upon them as " freaks of nature," or took them 

 to be what they are, namely, the relics of dead plants and 

 animals, without understanding the importance of their ex- 

 istence. Those who wondered about them at all usually 

 invented fantastic " explanations." For example, they were 

 supposed to be evidences of nature's plasticity. A rock might 

 take on one shape as well as another, and some happen to 

 take on these queer shapes suggesting monstrous animals or 

 parts of animals. Or they were supposed to be abortive at- 

 tempts of nature to produce animals. A parallel idea was 

 that the creator had made numerous experiments before he 

 decided upon the species of animals and plants with which 

 he was going to people the earth, and the fossils were the 

 discarded models. Again, the fossils were put in the earth 

 to confuse the geologist and to humble him with the futility 

 of trying to understand the inscrutable ways of providence. 

 Or they were put in either by God to test men's faith, or 

 by Satan to tempt and mislead us. 



At the end of the Fifteenth Century, Leonardo da Vinci, 

 the artist and thinker, gave a very simple explanation of fos- 

 sils. They are the remains of animals left in the sand or mud. 



