—-—- = Se 
50 THE TESTIMONY OF THE ROCKS. 
races would reduce a principle of progress in races. The 
tall man of six feet need entertain quite as little hope of 
rising into eleven feet as the short man of five; nor has 
the fish that occasionally flies any better chance of pass- 
ing into a bird than the fish that only swims. Geology 
abounds with creatures of the intermediate class. But tt 
furnishes no genealogical link to show that the existences 
of one race derive their lineage from the existences of 
another. The scene shifts as we pass from formation to 
formation; we are introduced in each to a new dramatis 
personae. Of all the vertebrata, fishes rank lowest, and 
in geological history appear first. Now, fishes differ very 
much among themselves: some rank nearly as low as 
worms,—some nearly as high as reptiles; and if fish 
could have risen into reptiles, and reptiles into mammalia, 
we would necessarily expect to find lower orders of fish 
passing into higher, and taking precedence of the higher 
in their appearance in point of time. If such be not the 
case,—if fish made their first appearance, not in their 
least perfect, but in their most perfect state,—not in their 
nearest approximation to the worm, but in their nearest 
approximation to the reptile,—there is no room for 
progression, and the argument falls. Now, it is a geologi- 
cal fact, that it is fish of the higher orders that appear first 
on the stage, and that they are found to occupy exactly 
the same level during the vast period represented by five- 
succeeding formations. There is no progression. If 
fish rose into reptiles, it must have been by sudden trans- 
formation. There is no getting rid of miracle in the 
case,—there is no alternative between creation and me- 
tamorphosis. The infidel substitutes progression for De- 
iety ;—Geology robs him of his God.” 
Mr. Miller then relates his discovery of the winged 
fish (Pterichtys) : “Of all the organisms of the-Old Red 
