Chapter XVIII 

 LIFE IN THE ANCIENT SEAS 



What traveler has stood before the pyramids of 

 Egypt without having been thrilled by the thought of 

 their hoary age? One's first sight of these mighty 

 monuments is invariably accompanied by a feeling of 

 deep awe, by the tremendous consciousness of their 

 having endured since a time so remote in the affairs of 

 man that only the haziest history of their builders 

 remains. Nor is the significance of their antiquity lost 

 on those who have never seen them. Through printed 

 books, their forms have become familiar to all; and few 

 that read have failed to feel the majesty of their years. 

 Throughout those many centuries that witnessed the 

 ascent and decline and disintegration of one of the 

 greatest empires the world has ever known, that saw 

 the rise of rude and barbaric peoples to nations of the 

 highest culture, they have stood mysterious, seemingly 

 immutable, marking the passage of time. 



And yet the years that have passed since those piles 

 were erected are but a breath In the bosom of geologic 

 time. Consider. If a small section of the stone from 

 which they are constructed Is put under a lens, it will 

 be found in many cases to consist almost entirely of 

 little shells. These shells are of considerable beauty, 



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