4 THE HISTORY OF CREATION. 



thing else, the knowledge and comparison of petrifactions 

 ought to disclose to us the pedigree of organisms. However 

 simple and clear this may seem in theory, the task becomes 

 extremely hard and complicated when it is actually taken in 

 hand. Its practical solution would be very difficult even 

 if the petrifactions were to any extent completely preserved. 

 But this is by no means the case. The obvious records of 

 creation which lie buried in petrifactions are imperfect 

 beyond all measure. Hence it is necessary critically to 

 examine these records, and to determine the value which 

 petrifactions possess for the history of the development of 

 organic tribes. ' As I have previously discussed the general 

 importance of petrifactions as the records of creation, when 

 we were considering Cuvier's merits in the science of fossils, 

 we may now at once examine the conditions and circum- 

 stances under which the remains of organic bodies became 

 petrified and preserved in a more or less recognizable form. 



As a rule we find petrifactions or fossils enclosed only 

 in those stones which have been deposited in layers as mud 

 by water, and which are on that account called neptunic, 

 stratified, or sedimentary rocks. The deposition of such 

 strata could of course only commence after the condensation 

 of watery vapour into liquid water had taken place 

 in the course of the earth's history. After that period, 

 which we considered in our last chapter, not only did life 

 begin on the earth, but also an uninterrupted and exceed- 

 ingly important transformation of the rigid inorganic crust 

 of the earth. The water began that extremely import- 

 ant mechanical action by which the surface of the earth 

 is perpetually, though slowly, transformed. I may surely 

 presume that it is generally known what an extremely 



