16 Teachings or Thomas IItxley 



which confuses almost as much as it assists in 

 solving the problem. 



There is a certain kind of evidence which 



favors the hypothesis that certain forms of life 

 have persisted from their remotest origin al- 

 most unchanged. For example, we find that 

 in the upper Niagara region there are remains 

 of animals in perfect preservation, and among 

 them shells, belonging to exactly the same 

 species as those now found at the bottom and 

 on the shores of Lake Erie. According to Sir 

 ( Sharles L veil's calculation these must be at least 

 30,000 years old, and they have not varied in 

 structure or form for this relatively long period. 

 The cretaceous epoch also shows forms which 

 cannot be at all distinguished from present 

 types, e.g., the Terebrantvla-c or lamp-shells; 

 the (jrlobigeri-nae or chalk-animals, whose skele- 

 tons make up a great portion of the English 

 chalk, and which to-day live at the surface of 

 all great oceans, being deposited at death upon 

 the bottom and giving rise to a chalky mud ; 

 and again the Beryx, a fish very closely allied 

 to a species found at the present time in both 

 the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. 



These facts, however, scarcely argue against 

 the theory of evolution, for we know that given 

 certain variations from the parent type, the 

 parent type may prove so much hardier in 

 accommodating itself to environment that the 

 offspring or variation finally dies out. Again 



