OF CREATION. 133 



It is strange that in a thin bed of fine clay, occur- 

 ring between two masses of sandstone, we should thus 

 have convincing but unexpected evidence preserved 

 concerning some of the earth 1 s inhabitants at this 

 early period. The ripple mark, the worm track, the 

 scratching^ of a small crab on the sand, and even 

 the impression of the rain drop, so distinct as to indi- 

 cate the direction of the wind at the time of the 

 shower, these, and the foot-prints of the bird and the 

 reptile, are all stereotyped, and offer an evidence 

 which no argument can gainsay, no prejudice resist, 

 concerning the natural history of a very ancient period 

 of the earth's history. But the waves that made 

 that ripple mark have long ceased to wash those 

 shores, for ages has the surface then exposed been 

 concealed under great thicknesses of strata, the 

 worm and the crab have left no solid fragment to 

 speak to their form or structure, the bird has left no 

 bone that has yet been discovered, the fragments of 

 the reptile are small, imperfect, and extremely rare. 

 Still enough is known to determine the fact, and that 

 fact is the more interesting and valuable from the 

 very circumstances under which it is presented. 



The result of an examination of the actual fossils of 

 the new red sandstone of England offers little that 

 is positive or definite, but when combined with these 

 imprints found on the ancient shores, and with the 

 fossils of beds of the same age on the Continent, it 

 becomes more satisfactory. We may with great rea- 

 son assume the existence of land, and can even partly 

 trace its ancient boundary not far from the western 

 coast of our island; but in what direction it extended, 

 how far it reached, what was its nature, whether it was 



