Ea ret mt Mey es 
CHAPTER PELREE. 
The Testimony of the Rocks. 
We have seen that the principal argument for a 
development of the higher types of life from lower or- 
ganisms is based upon a study of fossil remains (paleonto- 
logy). The older the strata in the earth’s surface, the 
simpler the animal forms imbedded therein; the more 
recent the strata, the more complex and highly developed 
the fossil remains. Popular scientific works, and books 
of refence generally, quote it as an axiom: In the oldest 
rocks the simplest fossils are found, hence the higher 
animals are developed from the lower. Davis “Physical 
Geography”’ says (page 17): 
“Age of the Earth.—It is impossible to say what the 
age of the earth and the solar system is, but it certainly 
should be reckoned in millions and millions of years. 
There is every reason to believe that the sun and the 
planets existed for an indefinitely long period before the 
condition of the earth’s surface was such as to allow 
the habitation of the planet by plants and animals. It 
is well proved by the prints or fossils of various plants 
and animals in ancient rock layers that these lower 
forms of life existed upon the earth for a vast length of 
time, millions and millions of years before man appeared.” 
Here, then, we are squarely confronted by the issue. 
Either the rocks testify to a slow evolution of plant and 
animal life, or they supply no such testimony. Pro- 
fessor Downing of Chicago University, says that this 
