2 6 THE HISTORY OF CREATION. 



the organic remains enclosed in them has been entirely 

 destroyed. It has been preserved only here and there by a 

 happy chance, as in the case of the most ancient petrifac- 

 tions known, the Eozoon canadense, from the lowest 

 Laurentian strata. However, from the layers of crystalline 

 charcoal (graphite) and crystalline limestone (marble), 

 which are found deposited in the metamorphic rocks, we 

 may with certainty conclude that petrified animal and 

 vegetable remains existed in them in earlier times. 



Our record of creation is also extremely imperfect from the 

 circumstance that only a small portion of the earth's sur- 

 face has been accurately investigated by geologists, namely, 

 England, Germany, and France. But we know very little 

 of the other parts of Europe, of Russia, Spain, Italy, and 

 Turkey. In the whole of Europe, only some few parts of the 

 earth's crust have been laid open, by far the largest portion of 

 it is unknown to us. The same applies to North America and 

 to the East Indies. There some few tracts have been investi- 

 gated ; but of the larger portion of Asia, the most extensive 

 of all continents, we know almost nothing ; of Africa almost 

 nothing, excepting the Cape of Good Hope and the shores of 

 the Mediterranean; of Australia almost nothing; and of South 

 America but very little. It is clear, therefore, that only quite 

 a small portion, perhaps scarcely the thousandth part of the 

 whole surface of the earth, has been palseontologicaUy 

 investigated. We may therefore reasonably hope, when 

 more extensive geological investigations are made, which 

 are greatly assisted by the constructions of railroads and 

 mines, to find a great number of other important petrifac- 

 tions. A hint that this will be the case is given by the 

 remarkable petrifactions found in those parts of Africa and 



