INTRODUCTION. 5 



not in the least more skilful than those that lived imme- 

 diately after the deluge. But they can boast of kindred 

 who were great before the flood, which have for ever passed 

 away, though their existence is proved by their wonderful 

 remains buried in the rocks in every place of our land. 

 And they can more proudly boast of kindred yet alive in 

 foreign climes, numerous almost as the sand on the sea- 

 shore, which have already achieved, what human power 

 could never have accomplished; and which with unwearied 

 assiduity are still carrying on works, which the united 

 efforts of myriads of millions of mankind would in vain 

 attempt to effect. It will easily be understood that we are 

 speaking of the coral-forming zoophytes of foreign seas. 

 They have wrought wonders in the deep in ages that are 

 past. According to my ingenious friend Mr. Ritchie's dyna- 

 mical theory of the formation of the earth, zoophytes aud 

 other apulmonic creatures were the only animals that existed 

 in the preadamitic seas, when darkness brooded over the 

 face of the deep, and ere God had yet said, " Let there be 

 light, and there was light ;" that during countless ages 

 they were working the work assigned to them by their 

 Creator, gradually forming the crust of the earth. At 

 whatever period the work was done, most evident is it that 



