80 



SKETCHES OF CREATION. 



to light some hitherto unrecognized forms. Still other 

 species have been made known from Texas by Dr. Shu- 

 mard and Dr. F. Homer. Trilobites be 

 long to the lower not the lowest part 

 of the sub-kingdom of Articulates. The 

 radiates and the great mass of molluscs 

 hold inferior rank, and yet throughout 

 the world we find these lower strata 

 characterized by a profuseness and va 

 riety of trilobite remains which are not 

 approached by the molluscs or the ra 

 diates. Man^^nvestio;ators have con- 

 Fig. 26. Dicellocephalus J 9 



tributed to our knowledge of these pri 

 mordial creatures, but to none are we so deeply indebted 

 as to M. J. Barrande, who has enriched with marvelous de 

 tails his great work upon the &quot; Silurian System of Bohe 

 mia.&quot; He has traced them through the various stages of 

 their embryonic development, and shown that they under 

 went metamorphoses to some extent similar to certain in 

 sects. Varying in size from a pea to a foot or more in 

 length, they had the jointed external shell of a lobster, and 

 could roll themselves together like a hedgehog for the pur 

 pose of passive protection. Multitudes of them are found 

 folded in this condition (Fig. 27), intelligible witnesses of 

 an instinctive shrinking from the death-pang, which, even 

 in this early age, was the means employed 

 by Providence to secure the lives of his sen 

 sitive creatures. With aJJ except the lower 

 forms the eyes are distinctly discernible, and 

 even in these the places for the eves are vis- Fiar- 27. side view 



J of a Trilobite 



ible, and there is no reason to suppose they (Caiymene scna- 



J Ha) rolled up. 



were blind. In the others the eyes are cu 

 riously compound, like those of the common house-fly. Did 

 the reader ever examine the eyes of the domestic fly with 



