IV GENESIS VERSUS NATURE 14*7 



In the right-hand column I have noted the group 

 of strata in which, according to our present infor- 

 mation, the land, air, and ivater-populaiions 

 respectively appear for the first time ; and in 

 consequence of the ambiguity about the meaning 

 of " fowl," I have separately indicated the first 

 appearance of bats, birds, flying reptiles, and flying 

 insects. It will be observed that, if " fowl " means 

 only " bird," or at most flying vertebrate, then the 

 first certain evidence of the latter, in the Jurassic 

 epoch, is posterior to the first appearance of truly 

 terrestrial Amphibia, and possibly of true reptiles, 

 in the Carboniferous epoch (Middle Palaeozoic) by 

 a prodigious interval of time. 



The water-population of vertebrated animals 

 first appears in the Upper Silurian. 1 Therefore, 

 if we found ourselves on vertebrated animals and 

 take " fowl " to mean birds only, or, at most, flying 

 vertebrates, natural science says that the order of 

 succession was water, land, and air-population, and 

 not as Mr. Gladstone, founding himself on Genesis, 

 says water, air, land-population. If a chronicler 

 of Greece affirmed that the age of Alexander pre- 

 ceded that of Pericles and immediately succeeded 

 that of the Trojan war, Mr. Gladstone would hardly 

 say that this order is " understood to have been so 

 affirmed by historical science that it may be taken 

 as a demonstrated conclusion and established fact." 

 Yet natural science " affirms " his " fourfold order " 



t 1 Earlier, it' more recent announcements are correct.] 



L 2 



