360 ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY. 



there might, in course of time, arise by the decomposition 

 and denudation of such rocks, local deposits coloured with 

 oxide of iron, like our Old Red Sandstone. And in these 

 deposits might be buried the remains of the fish then peo 

 pling the neighbouring sea. 



Meanwhile, how would the surfaces of the upheaved 

 masses be occupied ? At first their deserts of naked rocks 

 and pebbles would bear only the humblest forms of vegetal 

 life, such as we find in grey and orange patches on our 

 own rugged mountain sides ; for these alone could flourish 

 on such surfaces, and their spores would be the most read- 

 ily transported. When, by the decay of such protophytes, 

 and that decomposition of rock efi*ected by them, there 

 had resulted a fit habitat for mosses ; these, of which the 

 germs might be conveyed in drifted trees, would begin to 

 spread. A soil having been eventually thus produced, it 

 would become possible for plants of higher organization to 

 find roothold ; and as in the way we have described the 

 archipelago and its constituent islands grew larger, and 

 had more multiplied relations with winds and waters, such 

 h*igher plants might be expected ultimately to have their 

 seeds transferred from the nearest lands. After something 

 like a Flora had thus colonized the surface, it would be- 

 come possible for insects to exist ; and of air-breathing 

 creatures, insects would manifestly be among the first to 

 find their way from elsewhere. 



As, however, terrestrial organisms, both vegetal and 

 animal, are much less likely than marine organisms to sur- 

 vive the accidents of transport from distant shores ; it is 

 clear that long after the sea surrounding these new lands 

 Had acquired a varied Flora and Fauna, the lands them- 

 selves would still be comparatively bare ; and thus that the 

 early strata, like our Silurians, would afford no traces of 

 terrestrial Ufe. By the time that large areas had been 

 raised above the ocean, we may fairly suppose a luxuriant 



