68 LECTURES ON EVOLUTION m 



animals took their origin on the fifth day, and not 

 before ; hence, all formations in which remains of 

 aquatic animals can be proved to exist, and which 

 therefore testify that such animals lived at the 

 time when these formations were in course of de- 

 position, must have been deposited during or 

 since the period which Milton speaks of as the 

 fifth day. But there is absolutely no fossiliferous 

 formation in which the remains of aquatic animals 

 are absent. The oldest fossils in the Silurian 

 rocks are exuviae of marine animals ; and if the 

 view which is entertained by Principal Dawson 

 and Dr. Carpenter respecting the nature of the 

 JEozoon be well-founded, aquatic animals existed 

 at a period as far antecedent to the deposition of 

 the coal as the coal is from us ; inasmuch as the 

 Eozoon is met with in those Laurentian strata 

 which lie at the bottom of the series of stratified 

 rocks. Hence it follows, plainly enough, that the 

 whole series of stratified rocks, if they are to be 

 brought into harmony with Milton, must be re- 

 ferred to the fifth and sixth days, and that we 

 cannot hope to find the slightest trace of the 

 products of the earlier days in the geological 

 record. When we consider these simple facts, we 

 see how absolutely futile are the attempts that 

 have been made to draw a parallel between the 

 story told by so much of the crust of the earth 

 as is known to us and the story which Milton 

 tells. The whole series of fossiliferous stratified 



