80 



SKETCHES OF CREATION. 



Fig. 26. Dicellocephalus 

 Miuuesotensis. 



to light some hitherto unrecognized forms. Still other 

 species have been made known from Texas by Dr. Shu- 

 mard and Dr. F. Romer. Trilobites be- 

 long to the lower — not the lowest — part 

 of the sub-kingdom of Articulates. The 

 radiates and the great mass of molluscs 

 hold inferior rank, and yet throughout 

 the world we find these lower strata 

 characterized by a profuseness and va- 

 riety of trilobite remains which are not 

 approached by the molluscs or the ra- 

 diates. Many investigators have con- 

 tributed to our knowledge of these pri- 

 mordial creatures, but to none are we so deeply indebted 

 as to M. J. Barrande, who has enriched with marvelous de- 

 tails his great work upon the " Silurian System of Bohe- 

 mia." He has traced them through the various stages of 

 their embryonic development, and shown that they under- 

 went metamorphoses to some extent similar to certain in- 

 sects. Varying in size from a pea to a foot or more in 

 length, they had the jointed external shell of a lobster, and 

 could roll themselves together like a hedgehog for the pur- 

 pose of passive protection. Multitudes of them are found 

 folded in this condition (Fig. 27), intelligible witnesses of 

 an instinctive shrinking from the death-pang, which, even 

 in this early age, was the means employed 

 by Providence to secure the lives of his sen- 

 sitive creatures. With all except the lower 

 forms the eyes are distinctly discernible, and 

 even in these the places for the eyes are vis- 

 ible, and there is no reason to suppose they 

 were blind. In the others the eyes are cu- 

 riously compound, like those of the common house-fly. Did 

 the reader ever examine the eyes of the domestic fly with 



Pig. 27. Side view 

 of a Trilobite 

 (Calymene sena- 

 ria) rolled up. 



