FOSSILS 217 



fell, just as we have showers now when the rain- 

 drops are so large that we say they make ''cups and 

 saucers." 



Sometimes the wind ruffled the water in the shallow 

 pools left upon the beach by the receding tide. The 

 ruffled water sometimes rippled the sand underneath, 

 leaving it in ridges which we call ripple marks. You 

 must have noticed these when you were playing on 

 the seashore. 



Those ripple marks and those indentations made 

 by the raindrops so long ago would be covered over 

 by the sand which the next tide would bring in, just 

 as the shells and the seaweed were, and there they, 

 too, would rest undisturbed by any footfall or any 

 little spade or shovel. 



So the years went by. Slowly, oh, so slowly, the 

 sand deep down underneath was turned to rock, and 

 in that rock, all nicely preserved, were the shapes of 

 those sea shells, the shapes of the seaweed, the marks 

 made by the rippled sand and by the raindrops. 



Those shapes were locked in the deep rocks and 

 hidden away from sight, just as the minerals and 

 metals were. They, too, were treasures in God's 

 underground storehouse, and, like the rocks holding 

 the minerals and metals, they have been brought up 

 to the surface where we can now see them. 



But the shapes of the Httle shells and of the sea- 

 weed, and the marks of the raindrops and of the 

 rippled sand are treasures of a different kind from the 

 useful metals and the beautiful minerals. They are 

 treasures because they give us knowledge. They 

 form a part of the book of nature, and they tell us 



