HAMILTON SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION. 143 



The remains of plants and animals found buried in stratified 

 rocks are called fossils, The}^ were known to the ancients, who 

 connected them with mythological and supernatural events. As a 

 rule onl)^ the hard parts of the vegetable or animal skeleton are 

 preserved, and, hence, we have no record of the very soft bodies 

 which probabl}' constituted the earliest forms of life. In the case 

 of the skeletons of vertebrates, it is very seldom that we find the 

 perfect skeleton ; often a very small part rewards our labours in 

 the palseontological field. Palaeontology (as the study of fossils is 

 called) shows us that the geographical distribution of the fauna 

 and flora was different in past ages to what it now is. Palaeontol- 

 ogy, while it does not teach us the exact period of man's advent, 

 at least affords ample proof that he was contemporary with the 

 mammoth, the cave-bear and other relics of the Post Pliocene. 



Among the principal factors which aid in changing the config- 

 uration of our earth may be mentioned glaciers, and, by a study of 

 their present modes of action, we are led to attribute very import- 

 ant results to their influence in past ages. They were especially 

 important as transporting agents, carr3nng along rocks and sedi- 

 ment for hundreds of miles, 



The first land, swept by a boiling ocean, was lifeless, and the 

 period of time during which all life was (.so far as we know) absent 

 is called the Azoic time. The successive periods following the 

 Azoic to the advent of man upon our planet are called : first, the 

 Palaeozoic time (time of ancient life); second, the Mcsozoic time 

 (time of middle life) ; third, the cainozoic time (time of recent life), 

 which for the convenience of the palaeontologist are all subdivided 

 into periods in relation to the succession of life upon the globe. 

 The palaeozoic period is usually subdivided into (i) the Silurian 

 Age (age of molluscs), (2) the Devonian Age (age of fishes), (3) 

 Carboniferous Age (age of coal plants and amphibians). 



Of these periods, the Carboniferous is to us by far the most 

 important, since it is principally from these rocks that we obtain 

 our coal, which plays such a widespread and significant role in all 

 phases of modern industry. 



