52 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 
specimens of the abundant flora that is associated with the coal in these 
and other areas ; so that the paucity of references to such fossils can only 
be attributed to apathy, or interests in quite other matters. There is no 
doubt that great quantities of coal were raised and employed, among other 
uses, for evaporating sea water to produce salt. Prior to 1567, for example, 
the roth Earl of Sutherland had opened up the Brora coalfield ; and the 
coal was used by Lady Jean Gordon, not only for domestic purposes, but 
also for the salt pans working in the neighbourhood. ‘That a goodly number 
of people were employed is shown by old records and implied by old laws 
against the ‘ colliers and salters’ (1606). Had there been only a small 
number of operatives employed, there would have been no need of Acts 
of Parliament to regulate their behaviour: so that everything goes to show 
an extraordinary lack of interest in the fossils they must have unearthed 
during their work. But, if fossil plants had not been mentioned very 
frequently in these ancient treatises, the time soon came when they were 
used with great effect. 
The recognition, complete or partial, that these /apides figurati once were 
living organisms drove philosophers to attempt some explanation of their 
presence in rocks. In close proximity to the sea-board the presence 
of marine shells could be explained by elevation of the land, but their 
occurrence far inland, and at considerable heights and also deep down in 
mines, introduced difficulties. Men were not prepared to accept such 
wholesale drowning of the land as would be necessary. ‘The first chapter 
of the Bible contains statements that the land was separated from the 
waters on the third day of Creation, and this was held to be the incon- 
trovertible truth. But the Church also taught the occurrence of one great 
flood—Noah’s flood—and this, for the time at any rate, presented a way 
out of the philosophical impasse. Scientific discovery and what was 
thought to be Divine revelation were once more in accord. Fossils were 
real organisms that had been overwhelmed at the flood. Now, as Suess 4 
has shown, there is no event of pre-historic time so well authenticated as 
an inundation that terrified the Near Eastern world. Records of such 
an event are preserved in the traditions of many races round what is now 
Mesopotamia. Although the story of this occurrence had not been so 
well examined in these days as Suess has now done, yet it appeared in the 
sacred books of the Old ‘Testament, and was thoroughly implanted in the 
philosophy of the Hebrews, and, consequently, in Christian philosophy. 
Of course there were dissentients. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), 
for one, could not accept the theory, for there were such obvious diffi- 
culties. We cannot estimate the effect of his dissent, for his writings 
were not published until long after his death ; but Fracastoro at any rate, 
who held similar beliefs, was a power in the land, and his views, set forth 
in 1517, had great influence. We have indeed to thank the Italian scien- 
tists of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries for establishing the organic 
character of fossils, and for combating the notion of Noah’s flood as an 
explanation of their presence in rocks. They were before their time, 
however, and their influence was destined to be eclipsed. 
4 The Face of the Earth, introductory chapters. 
