LOWER SILURIAN FOSSILS. 45 



of humanity, under three feet high, we are weak 

 enough to bow to nature and believe that babes 

 are a mere fancy. 



Even taking the English Lower Silurians as he 

 and others would have them taken, it still appears 

 that these rocks denote, generally, a low state of 

 tlie animal kingdom. It is customarj' for those 

 who take opposite ^iews, to speak of the crea- 

 tures of this period as high — " highly-orgaaized 

 Crustacea and mollusea" is the usual phrase. 

 Some, including the Upper Silurians in their 

 view, tell us that the first formation presents 

 examples of the whole of the great divisions, the 

 fish being held as representing the vertebrata. 

 Of course, this is only done through ignorance 

 or for the purpose of decei^^ng. Where particu- 

 lars are overlooked, it is still customary to speak 

 of the earliest fauna as one of an elevated kind. 

 When rigidly examined, it is not found to be so. 

 In the first place it contains no fish. There were 

 seas supporting crustacean and molluscan life, 

 but utterly devoid of a class of tenants who seem able 

 to live in every example of that element which supports 

 meaner creatures. This single fact that only inver- 

 tebrated animals now lived, is surely, in itself, a 

 strong proof that, in the course of nature, time was 



