582 SOMU OBJUCTIONS TO THE EVOLUTION THEORY. 



or invoked. Even the Darwinian tlieory of the "survival of tlie fittest" can- 

 not aid them here, for, at the time of the appearance of these fishes, and 

 throughout the Silurian age, the waters were filled with giant crustaceans, 

 Nautili and Polyps, so numerous that they almost covered the bottom of 

 the sea, and, of course, possessed of ravenous appetites, and yet they per- 

 mitted these small vertebrata to appear, grow, multiply, and finally prey 

 upon them and become the monarchs of the deep. 



Coming now to the Devonian age, and hastening swiftly over it, we find 

 the Trilobites approaching their end, while the vertebrate fishes, both Ga- 

 noids and Placoids, rise to the zenith of their power and development with 

 no recognizable ancestors, (except those which appeared so unaccountably 

 in the preceding Silurian age), but with descendants innumerable and in a. 

 direct line down to the present day. 



Coming next to the Carboniferous age, we find that it is, so far as living 

 beings are concerned, the most complete of the Palaeozoic periods, or, as it 

 has been beatifuUy and graphically described, "the summation aud comple- 

 tion of them all, and the embodiment of their highest excellence." The few 

 insects that appeared in the Devonian age have largely increased in num- 

 bers, though but three species are rejjresented: And singularl}^ enough 

 these three orders are yet represented on the earth in the shape of weevils,, 

 mayflies and cockroaches, all of which, though vigorous enough for all of 

 our uses, are mere pigmies in comparison with those of the Carboniferous 

 age. They also possessed, even in this the dawn of their existence, the 

 complex and compound-lensed eyes which render their descendants the 

 wonder and admiration of the most scientific men of modern times. 



In this age we meet, for the first time, mollusks, in the familiar shape 

 of common snails, 07i land. Hitherto all animal life seemed to have been 

 confined to the oceans and seas. Now, however, they begin to appear on 

 land, and again we must exclaim, how remarkable ! for these snails present 

 almost identically the same form and appearance as those we find to-day in 

 the mar&hes and low grounds along the margins of our Missouri and Kan- 

 sas rivers. 



Here we also find, suddenly introduced into the geological history, with- 

 out any evidence of ancestors, either near or remote, those immense reptiles 

 or semi-reptiles which are so closely imitated in form and habits by the 

 alligators and crocodiles of the torrid zone. 



The fishes of the Carboniferous remain confined to the two orders of the 

 Ganoids and Placoids. 



Upon reaching the Permian age, which has been called the twilight of 

 the Palaeozoic day, we find it characterized by the appearance of ^n^e rep- 

 tiles, as distinguished from those of the preceding age, which, by some na- 

 turalists, are placed among the lower grade Batrachians. Few of the pre- 

 vious orders, however, survived the violent alternations of uj)heaval and de- 

 pression in the Permian age, with the rapidly changing chemical conditions 

 necessary to the building up of its varied lithological formations, and its 



