72 APHORISMS AND REFLECTIONS 



of fallen trees, and the stools of such trees as may 

 have been broken by the violence of storms, remain 

 entire for but a short time. Contrary to what might 

 be expected, the dense v^ood of the tree decays, and 

 suffers from the ravages of insects, more swiftly 

 than the bark. And the traveller, setting- his foot on 

 a prostrate trunk finds that it is a mere shell, which 

 breaks under his weight, and lands his foot amidst the 

 insects, or the reptiles, which have sought food or 

 refuge within. 



cciv 



The coal accumulated upon the area covered by 

 one of the great forests of the carboniferous epoch 

 would, in course of time, have been vyasted away by 

 the small, but constant, wear and tear of rain and 

 streams, had the land which supported it remained at 

 the same level, or been gradually raised to a greater 

 elevation. And, no doubt, as much coal as now 

 exists has been destroyed, after its formation, in this 

 way. 



ccv 



Once more, an invariably-recurring lesson of 

 geological history, at whatever point its study is 

 taken up : the lesson of the almost infinite slowness 

 of the modification of living forms. The lines of the 

 pedigrees of living things break off almost before 

 they begin to converge. 



ccvi 



Yet another curious consideration. Let us suppose 

 that one of the stupid, salamander-like Labyrinth- 

 odonts, virhich potcered, w^ith much belly and 

 little leg, like Falstaff in his old age, among the 

 coal-forests, could have had thinking power enough 

 in his small brain to reflect upon the showers of 



