112 PICTURESQUE SKETCHES 



tern, are very much hidden and covered up, in conse- 

 quence of their long exposure to aqueous action, and 

 perhaps also to the atmosphere, during the countless 

 ages that have elapsed since the commencement of 

 the secondary epoch of creation. 



We pass on now from the consideration of this 

 chapter in the world's history. We have seen, first 

 of all, how the earth lay buried in the dark obscu- 

 rity of its early state, when the only rocks of mechanical 

 origin consisted of huge masses of decomposed and 

 pounded granite, broken into fragments by the disrup- 

 tion of the first thin shell of solid matter; and in these 

 deposits no evidence has yet been obtained of any 

 created thing having existed, either animal or vegetable. 

 We have traced the history from this time through the 

 period when a few worms crawled on the mud and sand 

 of the newly-made shores of the ocean, when to these 

 were added other lower forms of animal existence, 

 and when marine vegetables first contributed to the 

 subsistence of its inhabitants. We have watched the 

 appearance of its denizens, as they, one after another, 

 or in groups, present themselves, and have seen how 

 different were these from the present tenants of the 

 sea, and yet how like them, and how evidently and 

 admirably adapted to perform the part assigned them ; 

 and we have thus gazed upon the first doubtful and 

 misty appearance of light and life, as they have be- 

 come visible in the morning of creation by slow de- 

 grees, and through a long twilight. Trilobites, bra- 

 chiopods, shell-fish of various kinds, are seen to abound; 

 and the cuttle-fish, or creatures nearly allied and not 

 so highly organized, reign for a time undisputed lord 

 of the sea. At length their reign terminated ; other 



