104 GEOLOGY. 



animal having the sharp, tearing teeth of a beast of prey 

 would starve if he had such feet as grass-eating animals 

 have. These principles almost every one applies, to a 

 certain extent, with great ease. The sight of a tooth, or 

 claw, or beak will suggest at once to our minds the hab- 

 its and the shape of the animal to which it belongs. And 

 by careful observation one can acquire great skill in ap- 

 plying these principles to the minute parts of animal 

 frame-work, so that a familiar acquaintance can be formed 

 with the relations of each individual bone. The same 

 thing is true, to a certain extent, of vegetables. Now 

 as in fossils there are often only parts of a vegetable or 

 animal, this skill of which I have spoken is brought into 

 requisition, and by it the living beings of the past are 

 marshaled into classes, genera, and species, just as the 

 beings of the present are. Palaeontology is the name 

 which is given to this science of the fossils. It is a word 

 derived from three Greek words palaios, ancient; ontos, 

 the genitive of the word for being ; and logos, discourse. 

 It is really the application of two sciences, botany and 

 zoology, to the remains of life left by the past. Some, 

 however, use the term in a more restricted sense, consid- 

 ering it as meaning the science of fossil animals, while 

 the term Fossil Botany is applied to the science of fossil 

 plants. 



248. Living Structures of Former Ages like those of 

 the Present. Vegetables and animals were constructed 

 on the same fundamental plans in the far past that they 

 are now. The same general divisions existed. And the 

 diiferences result from variations which were made to 

 meet different circumstances, and not from any essential 

 alterations in general plans. This being the case, it is 

 appropriate, before we go farther, to look at the outlines 

 of the Creator's plans in the construction of the forms 

 of vegetable and animal life. A knowledge of them will 

 aid you materially in following out the developments 

 which I shall make to you in the succeeding chapters, in 



