CHAPTER VI. 



THE CARBONIFEROUS AGE. 



THAT age of the world's history which, from its rich- 

 ness in accumulations of vegetable matter destined 

 to be converted into coal, has been named the Car- 

 boniferous, is in relation to living beings the most 

 complete and noble of the Palaeozoic periods. In it 

 those varied arrangements of land and water which 

 had been increasing in perfection in the previous 

 periods, attained to their highest development. In 

 it the forms of animal and plant life that had been 

 becoming more numerous and varied from the Eozoic 

 onward, culminated. The Permian which succeeded 

 was but the decadence of the Carboniferous, prepara- 

 tory to the introduction of a new order of things. 

 Thus the Carboniferous was to the previous periods 

 what the Modern is to the preceding Tertiary and 

 Mesozoic ages the summation and completion of 

 them all, and the embodiment of their highest excel- 

 lence. If the world's history had closed with the 

 Carboniferous, a naturalist, knowing nothing further, 

 would have been obliged to admit that it had already 

 fulfilled all the promise of its earlier years. It is im- 

 portant to remember this, since we shall find ourselves 

 entering on an entirely new scene in the Mesozoic 



