236 RAMBLES AND REVERIES. 



chalk, and clay, crowded with the shells and 

 bones of animals which had lived and died. Hugh 

 Miller propounded the theory that the days of 

 Moses corresponded with the geologic periods, and 

 he identified the third, fifth, and sixth days, during 

 which plants and animals were created, with the 

 Primary, or more precisely the Carboniferous, the 

 Secondary, and the Tertiary epochs. Plant life he 

 referred to the Carboniferous, as exemplified in coal ; 

 sea-monsters and creeping things characterise the 

 Secondary age, as is seen from the great Saurians of 

 that time ; while cattle and beasts are the dominant 

 creatures of the Tertiary period, at the close of 

 which man appeared. This theory has had to be 

 greatly modified under the strain of geological 

 research, but it evidently contains the germ at 

 least of the truth. 



Moses himself frequently uses the word yom to 

 denote an indefinite period. He does so in the 

 account of the Creation, for he speaks of " the day 

 in which the Lord made the earth and the heavens," 

 and in many other passages of Scripture the same 

 thing occurs. We need not here pursue the argu- 

 ment, for it has already been stated in detail in a 

 former chapter. 



As to the order in which the various kinds of 

 plants and animals were introduced upon the earth, 

 the Mosaic narrative does not go into particulars. 

 It merely affirms that first came plants, then fishes, 

 birds, mammals, and man. 



It is generally admitted that graphite or plumbago 

 is carbonised vegetable matter, and that iron-ore 



