Feather stonhaugh^s Geological Report, 91 



recent acts of creation ; on the contrary, the earliest which 

 appear are the types of all which succeeded, entering natu- 

 rally into all the classifications which have been devised for 

 the illustration of the present order of nature. Of this pro- 

 gression clear proofs have been adduced in the preceding 

 pages. In the lowest group w-e have seen that the fossils 

 were all marine, and consisted of corallines, encrinites, bi- 

 valves, concamerated and other molluscous shells, extinct 

 Crustacea, and fishes of a voracious character approaching the 

 saurian family. Such a state of ancient zoology is in perfect 

 harmony with that condition of the earth's surface which we 

 deduce from other considerations. The ocean, though not 

 deep, as it is now, constituted almost every thing ; dry land 

 was comparatively rare, together with rivers, bays, and fresh- 

 water estuaries, the proper haunts of the saurian race. Still 

 land existed at the latter period of this group, as we find by 

 the associate plants of the anthracite coal beds, which them- 

 selves belong exclusively to a low degree of organization. 

 During this period we find generic resemblances very com- 

 mon in all parts of the world, the evidence of a common 

 temperature. In the next group we find strong resemblances to 

 the first, in organic remains, but with a character both generally 

 and specifically so distinct as to admit of an undoubted recog- 

 nition of the beds of the group in whatever part of the world 

 they may be found. The saurians, the pterodactylus, the 

 monitor, the crocodiles, the iguanodon, the deposition of ex- 

 tensive fresh-water areas, the existence of tropical forests, 

 of the bituminous coal measures, the changed character of the 

 fish, the existence of fresh-water streams and lakes, and a 

 gradual approximation to the present superficial arrangements, 

 show a very great increase of the land. These changes of 

 elevation were necessarily accompanied with increased depths 

 of the sea, and the consequent introduction of numerous 

 genera, with appropriate habits, not before noticed. We find 

 also, in the lower part of this group, important deposites of 



