100 THE FAR PAST. 



once more correct the hasty generalisations of limited ob- 

 servation, and teach us how vain it is to dogmatise on the 

 rise and order of life from the imperfect data which geo- 

 logy has yet at her command. 



Such is the hurried glance at the life of the Devonian 

 epoch. As yet we are almost in total ignorance of its ter- 

 restrial flora and fauna. We are like voyagers to whom 

 some unknown land looms in the distance through the sea- 

 fogs and grey of the morning. Here and there a few gleams 

 of light fall on hill-sides green with ferns and club-mosses ; 

 and as the mists roll away we catch a passing glimpse of 

 some river-mouth fringed with reeds and rushes. This, 

 however, is all the interior is obscured from our vision, 

 and no drift of fruit or forest-growth tells of a higher flora. 

 As we coast along, we almost think we catch the reflection 

 of glacier and icebergs, which would indicate in some re- 

 gions a sterility and dearth of vegetation; but this may be 

 a delusion, and only the sparkle of the quartzy cliffs that are 

 broken into fragments by the surf that dashes against them. 

 When we turn to the ocean, the view is somewhat nearer and 

 clearer. In the warmer seas, corals of various form and beauty 

 are rearing their reefs ; shell-fish of every grade, though not 

 of great numerical abundance, are busy along shore and in 

 mid-water ; fishes of widely different forms swarm in shoals 

 generically few, but individually most numerous ; whilst 

 crustaceans of uncouth shape and gigantic growth feed on 

 the tide-borne garbage of the muddy creeks and shallow 

 lagoons. This is all : and much as has been made of it, all 

 reason forbids us to accept it as more than the merest con- 

 tribution to the biology of the period. 



Succeeding the old red sandstone, and much more sharply 

 defined physically and vitally comes the great CARBO- 

 NIFEROUS FORMATION. We have now extensive alterations 



