CORO V. 109 
Morning being, was discovered, so called from representing 
the very simple beings which first appeared on our con- 
tinent during the dawn of life. The term Azoic. is still 
retained by Geologists as meaning a scarcity of life, not 
implying, as formerly, entire absence of it. Continuing his 
journey, our Geologist soon reaches the Potsdam Sand- 
stone, abounding in characteristic fossils, of which the 
Brachiopod shells and Trilobites, extinct Crustaceans, are 
very common. Passing by the town of Oriskany, he comes to 
what is known as the Schoharie Grit, in which the remains 
of fishes are first found. Finally, he reaches Pennsylvania, 
abounding in coal, with its ferns and traces of reptiles. If he 
goes over to New Jersey, he finds in the chalks the reptiles 
more abundant. To see the higher forms of life in pro- 
fusion, he must turn to the West, Nebraska and Dakota 
having furnished the remains of deer, rhinoceros, hyena, 
lion, etc. The rocks of Canada and New York are the 
successive beaches left dry by a retreating ocean. This is 
very evident from the manner in which the rocks follow 
each other, the ripple-marks still visible on them, and their 
marine remains. The animals and plants found in the rocks 
of New York and Pennsylvania, from bearing the stamp of 
age, are called Paleozoic, or old beings, and the age in 
which they lived is known as the Primary. The fossils of 
New Jersey, though still old, are more modern in their 
appearance than those of New York; they are called, 
therefore, Mesozoic, or middle-aged beings; the rock con- 
taining them forming, with some others not well represented 
on our continent, the Secondary Age. The Cenozoic, or 
recent beings, those of Nebraska, for example, lived during 
the Tertiary Age. Not only are the fossils invaluable to 
the Zoologist and Botanist, as representing the life of the 
past, but they are equally important to the Geologist, as 
we have just seen; his classification of the rocks is princi- 
pally based on the extinct remains which they contain. The 
