old Ocean as a Builder 



Not only relics of sea- weeds and other ocean 

 vegetation. Not merely the actual remains, 

 hardened into stone ; but also the casts or 

 shapes of all such remains, found impressed in 

 the substance of the rocks. The whole of these 

 various records of the past must be included 

 under the term "fossils." 



Firmer substances, like shells and bones, have 

 become often transformed into actual solid stone. 

 But softer living substances have more frequently 

 passed out of existence, leaving only an impress 

 or cast, which is filled up later by some other 

 substance. 



When upon high mountain -tops such fossils 

 are found — the remains of sea-weeds and sea- 

 creatures embedded in rock — the question must 

 naturally arise, How could these ocean-inhabit- 

 ants have found their way to such a height ? 



That the sea must once have flowed over them 

 cannot be doubted. But how did it come about ? 

 Were those water-built heights under the sea, 

 because in those times the land lay lower, or be- 

 cause the sea-surface stood higher .^^ 



That the earth-crust is restless, heaving, dis- 

 posed to rise and sink, to crumple into furrows, 

 to fold into ravines and mountain ranges, we now 

 know. Yet this may not be the whole explana- 



K 129 



