ONWAKD THROUGH THE AGE IS. J27 



to stay his hand. But man was not yet. Ichthyic life 

 seems to have dawned upon our earth in remarkable pro- 

 fuseness. Tne bones, and plates, and jaws, and teeth of 

 fishes large and small have been cleft from the Corniferous 

 limestone in Canada, Michigan, and Ohio. Our first au 

 thentic information of these earliest vertebrates came from 

 Dr. J. S. ISTewberry equally distinguished in the service of 

 science and his country and who has very recently worked 

 up a wonderful collection of Devonian fishes, created main 

 ly by the intelligent industry of a German Methodist min 

 ister, Rev. Herman Herzer, while discharging the duties of 

 his ministry at Delaware, Ohio. These ancient fishes were 

 only the av ant-couriers of the shoals of sharks, and stur 

 geons, and garpikes which made a Golgotha of the Old Red 

 Sandstone. 



The closing convulsions of this epoch upheaved still 

 higher the growing continent, and depopulated the coral 

 cities of the sea that had just been astir with being. A 

 pause, and another epoch the Hamilton epoch followed, 

 a period characterized by its abundance of argillaceous 

 sediments, and by two masses of black bituminous shale 

 the &quot; Marcellus&quot; at the bottom, and the &quot; Genesee&quot; at the 

 top, with the more calcareous strata between. The ab 

 sence of the &quot;.Marcellus&quot; at the West has dropped the lime 

 stones of this group upon the top of the Corniferous lime 

 stone, and formed the appearance of but a single mass. 

 This is clearly seen in the extensive quarries upon the isl 

 ands in the western part of Lake Erie. Indeed, the absence 

 of the &quot; Oriskany&quot; at the West has brought the calcareous 

 portions of four groups of rocks into immediate juxtaposi 

 tion. These are the Niagara, the Salina, the Corniferous, 

 and the Hamilton. Before these groups were correctly dis 

 criminated, the entire mass was known in the West as the 

 &quot; Cliff Limestone.&quot; No epoch of the world s history ever 



