230 THE EARTH MADE READY FOR MAN 



branches. Even the dragon flies and locusts were 

 caught and pressed; for when anything fell from the 

 forest upon the soft clay that the sea had brought 

 in, it was pressed closely and preserved. 



In the layers of slate or shale above the coal 

 there have been found more kinds of ferns than we 

 now have. The shapes of many of them are so per- 

 fect that it seems as if the most careful fingers had 

 smoothed out the delicate fronds and pressed them 

 between the leaves of a book. 



Shall we not sing a song of praise to the Creator 

 who has kept for our use in the beautiful marble the 

 excess of carbon taken from the water, and in the 

 useful coal, the carbon taken from the air? Who 

 has also preserved the forms of the shells and plants 

 that made the marble and the coal, so that we may 

 now see and know in what a wonderful way they 

 were made. 



