34 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 



and the very wind that blew sometimes re- 

 corded the direction whence, they came, and 

 we may read in the rocks, also, accounts of 

 freshets sweeping down with turbid waters, and 

 of long periods of drouth, when the land was 

 parched and lakes and rivers shrank beneath 

 the burning sun. 



All these things have been told and retold ; 

 but, as there are many who have not read 

 Mr. Hutchinson's books and to whom Buck- 

 land is quite unknown, it may be excusable 

 to add something to what has already been 

 said in the first chapter of these impressions 

 of the past. 



The very earliest suggestion we have of the 

 presence of animal life upon this globe is in 

 the form of certain long dark streaks below 

 the Cambrian of England, considered to be 

 traces of the burrows of worms that were filled 

 with fine mud, and while this interpretation 

 may be wrong there is, on the other hand, no 

 reason why it may not be correct. Plant and 

 animal life must have had very lowly begin- 

 nings, and it is not at all probable that we 

 shall find any trace of the simple and minute 



