434 SKETCH TOWARDS A 



also, proves nothing. And these have been the dis- 

 puted points. Every one believes in the existence of 

 organic beings, both vegetable and animal, in each 

 subsequent stage of the earth ; and I may therefore be 

 the more brief in rny remarks on these. 



The organic creation of the sixth form, or third 

 terraqueous condition of the Earth, is found in the old 

 red sandstone and its subsequent limestone. The re- 

 mains prove a marine creation of animals, but not a 

 terrestrial one : yet, as before, I cannot allow this ne- 

 gative any weight against the general argument. Ve- 

 getables were created for food to animals ; it is the 

 final cause : there are terrestrial as well as marine ve- 

 getables ; and therefore a terrestrial animal creation 

 should have existed. 



Having already stated my uncertainty whether the 

 seventh condition was partial or general, it is here also 

 that there commences a great obscurity in the general 

 Theory, as far as it relates to an organic creation. We 

 have evidence only of marine animals, contained in 

 those, yet unsettled, strata, which must have been 

 forming under the ocean while the preparations for 

 coal were proceeding above it, and of such animals of 

 fresh waters as are also preserved in these. Were there 

 terrestrial quadrupeds ? I confess that even my own 

 faith in the general argument, as to this condition at 

 least, is somewhat shaken by the negative fact, that 

 their remains have not yet been found in the coal strata; 

 since the circumstances appear to have been favourable 

 to their preservation. But I will not speculate: since 

 this is no part of my plan : it is another blank in a 

 Theory of the Earth, and I leave it a legacy to futu- 

 rity. Of a terrestrial vegetable creation, the records 

 are most ample, since we owe the coal to it. 



From the eighth condition, in which the coal is be- 



