Ill 



LECTURES ON EVOLUTION 69 



rocks must be referred to the last two days ; and 

 neither the Carboniferous, nor any other, for- 

 mation can afford evidence of the work of the 

 third day. 



Not only is there this objection to any attempt 

 to establish a harmony between the Miltonic ac- 

 count and the facts recorded in the fossiliferous 

 rocks, but there is a further difficulty. According 

 to the Miltonic account, the order in which 

 animals should have made their appearance in 

 the stratified rocks would be this : Fishes, in- 

 cluding the great whales, and birds ; after them : 

 all varieties of terrestrial animals except birds. 

 Nothing could be further from the facts as we 

 find them ; we know of not the slightest evidence 

 of the existence of birds before the Jurassic, or 

 perhaps the Triassic, formation ; while terrestrial 

 animals, as we have just seen, occur in the Car- 

 boniferous rocks. 



If there were any harmony between the Mil- 

 tonic account and the circumstantial evidence, we 

 ought to have abundant evidence of the existence 

 of birds in the Carboniferous, the Devonian, and 

 the Silurian rocks. I need hardly say that this is 

 not the case, and that not a trace of birds makes 

 its appearance until the far later period which I 

 have mentioned. 



And again, if it be true that all varieties of 

 fishes and the great whales, and the like, made 

 their appearance on the fifth day, we ought to find 



