138 MARK TWAIN'S SKETCHES. 



But let us not outrun our narrative. After close examination of the fronts of 

 the caverns, and much thinking and exchanging of theories, the scientists deter- 

 mined the nature of these singular formations. They said that each belonged 

 mainly to the Old Red Sandstone period ; that the cavern fronts rose in innumer- 

 able and wonderfully regular strata high in the air, each stratum about five frog- 

 spans thick, and that in the present discovery lay an overpowering refutation of all 

 received geology : for between every two layers of Old Red Sandstone reposed a 

 thin layer of decomposed limestone ; so instead of there having been but one Old 

 Red Sandstone period there had certainly beeji not less than a hundred and seventy- 

 five ! And by the same token it was plain that there had also been a hundred 

 and seventy-five floodings of the earth and depositings of limestoiie strata! The 

 unavoidable deduction from which pair of facts, was, the overwhelming truth that 

 the world, instead of being only two hundred thousand years old, was older by 

 millions upon millions of years! And there was another curious thing: every 

 stratum of Old Red Sandstone was pierced and divided at mathematically regular 

 intervals by vertical strata of limestone. Up-shootings of igneous rock through 

 fractures in water formations were common ; but here was the first instance where 

 water-formed rock had been so projected. It was a great and noble discovery and 

 its value to science was considered to be inestimable. 



A critical examination of some of the lower strata demonstrated the presence of 

 fossil ants and tumble-bugs (the latter accompanied by their peculiar goods), and 

 with high gratification the fact was enrolled upon the scientific record; for this 

 was proof that 'these vulgar laborers belonged to the first and lowest orders of 

 created beings, though at the same time there was something repulsive in the 

 reflection that the perfect and exquisite creature of the modern uppermost order 

 owed its origin to such ignominious beings through the mysterious law of Develop- 

 ment of Species. 



The Tumble-Bug, overhearing this discussion, said he was willing that the par- 

 venus of these new times shpuld find what comfort they might in their wise-drawn 

 theories, since as far as he was concerned he was content to be of the old first 

 families and proud to point back to his place among the old original aristocracy of 

 the land. 



