4 ¥ THE HISTORY OF CREATION, 
thing else, the knowledge and comparison of petrifactions 
ought to disclose to us the pedigree of organisms. However 
simple and clear this may seem in theory, the task becomes 
extremely hard and complicated when it is actually taken in 
hand. Its practical solution would be very difficult even 
if the petrifactions were to any extent completely preserved. 
But this is by no means the case. The obvious records of 
creation which lie buried in petrifactions are imperfect 
beyond all measure. Hence it is necessary critically to 
examine these records, and to determine the value which 
petrifactions possess for the history of the development of 
organic tribes. As I have previously discussed the general 
importance of petrifactions as the records of creation, when 
we were considering Cuvier’s merits in the science of fossils, 
Wwe may now at once examine the conditions and circum- 
stances under which the remains of organic bodies became 
petrified and preserved in a more or less recognizable form. 
As a rule we find petrifactions or fossils enclosed only 
in those stones which have been deposited in layers as mud 
by water, and which are on that account called neptunic, 
stratified, or sedimentary rocks. The deposition of such 
strata could of course only commence after the condensation 
of watery vapour into liquid water had taken place 
in the course of the earth’s history. After that period, 
which we considered in our last chapter, not only did life 
begin on the earth, but also an uninterrupted and exceed- 
ingly important transformation of the rigid inorganic crust 
of the earth. The water began that extremely import- 
ant mechanical action by which the surface of the earth 
is perpetually, though slowly, transformed. I may surely 
presume that it is generally known what an extremely 
