Yo See 
‘ ws 
60 THE TESTIMONY OF THE ROCKS, 
the geological record, we speak of progressive evolution, 
the evolving of higher or more complicated types of or- 
ganisms from those simpler and more general in struc- 
ture.” Now read carefully the following: “This fact 
has permitted geologists to mark off distinct eras or 
periods in the life-history of the planet, each of them de- 
termined by certain characteristic animal or vegetable 
forms, which either do not appear before or after such 
period, or else are by numbers so distinctive of it as to 
typify it clearly.” Evidently, the Philadelphia professor, 
too, assumes “progressive evolution” as an ascertained 
fact and in accordance therewith classifies the layers of 
the earth’s surface. “Almost every species of fossil has 
a definite position in the geological scale, and would by 
itself serve to locate a formation; but oftentimes the 
determination of species, owing to insufficiency of knowl- 
edge of the obliteration of characters, is a most difficult 
task, and then recourse is had to the aspect of the entire 
group of fossils which a given rockmass contains. This 
generally gives the age or position without difficulty.” 
Edward Clodd, in “The Story of Creation, a Plain Ac- 
count of Evolution,” says, page 18. “The relative age and 
place of each stratum .:.. are fixed by the fossils.” 
Now, is not this a most extraordinary situation? The 
evolutionist says: The science of paleontology furnishes 
the basic argument for our hypothesis,—the older the 
strata of the earths surface, the simpler the fossils found 
therein. This sounds impressive. But we ask him: 
How do you know the age of the strata,—and the answer 
is, that, of course, is the business of the geologist. to 
determine. We now turn to the geologist and ask: 
How do you determine the age of the strata? And the 
geologist answers: Why, evolutionary science has proven 
that the simplest animals and plants appeared first ; hence, 
