CHAPTER FOURTEENTH 



GEOLOGICAL SUCCESSION OF ANIMALS; OR, TIIEIB 

 DISTRIBUTION IN TIME. 



SECTION I. 



STRUCTURE OF THE EAETH's CRUST. 



453. The records of the Bible, as well as human tra- 

 dition, teach us that man and the animals associated with 

 him were created by the word of God ; " the Lord made 

 heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is;" and 

 this truth is confirmed by the revelations of science, which 

 unequivocally indicate the direct interventions of creative 

 power. 



454. But man and the animals which now surround him 

 are not the only kinds which have had a being. The sur- 

 face of our planet, anterior to their appearance, was not a 

 desert. There are, scattered through the crust of the earth, 

 numerous animal and vegetable remains, which show that 

 the earth had been repeatedly supplied with, and long in- 

 habited by, animals and plants altogether different from those 

 now living. 



455. In general, their hard parts are the only relics of 

 them which have been preserved, such as the skeleton and 

 teeth of Vertebrates ; the shells of the Mollusks and Radiata ; 

 the shields of the Crustaceans, and sometimes the wing-cases 

 of Insects. Most frequently they have lost their original 



