50 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Yol. viii. 



We have already seen that the old sceptical objection to the 

 truth of Genesis, based on the formerly incredible statement of 

 Moses that light was created long prior to the creation of the 

 sun, has disappeared before the advancing science of our day. 

 In reply to objections based upon the absence of fossil vegetation 

 in the earliest rocks, it might fairly be urged that these primi- 

 tive rocks, whenever yet seen, bear evidence of great alteration, 

 which has re-arranged their constituents into crystalline forms. 

 But Dr. Dawson points out that the discovery of Eozoon and 

 the occurrence of graphite in these rocks, demonstrate the exist- 

 ence of organized life at that early period. This subject is ably 

 treated by Sterry Hunt, in his address before the American 

 Association, in 1871, and was more fully worked out in an 

 address delivered in New York. He has for many years been 

 maintaining that the enormous accumulations of iron oxides and 

 metallic sulphides, and the great quantities of graphite which 

 occur in the Laurentian rocks, can only be accounted for by 

 supposing the existence, during that age, of a large development 

 of organized life. To this conclusion, he states the views of 

 Bischof also point, and in this direction the current of scientific 

 opinion is now running. We may, therefore, confidently wait, 

 in the belief that before long the following out of the line of 

 research will justify in the fullest manner the Mosaic narrative. 

 As it exists, it must be admitted that there is a difficulty, but it 

 is much less formidable than it was a few years ago. 



On page 2-i, the lecturer abundantly refutes that ridiculous 

 theory, inculcated so generally of late years, that Moses intended 

 to convey by the word translated ''firmament'' in our version, 

 the idea of a hard and solid arch, like a hammered metal plate, 

 in which the sun, moon, stars and planets were firmly fixed, like 

 lamps. This absurd notion seems to have been suggested by a 

 misconception of the true force of the Latin word u firmamentum" 

 which our translators found in the old Vulgate version. They 

 retained the English derivative, which certainly never had any 

 meaning of dense solidity in its customary usage, and in the 

 margin they put the word "expansion" as being the nearest 

 equivalent to the Hebrew, and although not in common use, like 

 the word firmament, yet important to be borne in mind in a 

 close examination of the passage. This may be seen in any mar- 

 ginal Bible ; and yet, with the most audacious unfairness, the 

 impugners of Genesis seek to fasten the " hammered plate " 



