THE CARBONIFEROUS AGE. 151 



young world, were implied in these gifts. It is one 

 of the remarkable points in the history of creation in 

 Genesis, that this step of the creative work is emphat- 

 ically marked. Of all the creatures we have noticed 

 up to this point, it is stated that God said, " Let the 

 waters bring them forth/' but it is said that " God 

 created" great reptiles (tanninim).* No doubt these 

 " great tanninim" culminate in the succeeding Meso- 

 zoic age, but their first introduction dates as far back 

 as the Carboniferous; and this introduction was em- 

 phatically a creation, as being the commencement of 

 a new feature among living beings. What further 

 differences may be implied in the formulae, " Let the 

 waters produce" and " God created," we do not know; 

 very probably he who wrote the words did not fully 

 know. But if we could give a scientific expression 

 to this difference, and specify the cases to which its 

 terms apply, we might be able to solve one of the 

 most vexed questions of biology. 



Let us observe, however, that even here, where, if 

 anywhere, we have actual creation, especial pains are 

 taken to bridge over the gap, and to prevent any 

 appearance of discontinuity in the work. The ganoid 

 fishes of the coal period very probably had, like their 

 modern congeners, well-developed air-bladders, serv- 

 ing to some extent, though very imperfectly, as lungs. 

 The humbler and more aquatic reptiles of the period 

 retained the gills, and also some of the other features 



* Not " whales," as in our version. 



