THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



151 



have called your attention rapidly increase, 

 and there is in every direction a multiplication 

 of forms and types. What I mean by a type 

 is a general pattern ; take, for instance, a star 

 fish as a type, and we find that it has a body 

 centre with radiating arms, yet we find large 

 centres with small arms, small centres with 

 long arms, and every conceivable modification, 

 but all keeping to the general pattern — that we 

 call a type. Here we begin to find animals like 

 star-fishes set upon long stalks ; these are 

 called Encrinites, and we have now living star- 

 fishes, which, in their young state, are fixed 

 as the EncriniUs were. Corals abound in 

 these rocks, and we next come to a kind of 

 fossils known as Graptolites ; their name is 

 derived from a Greek word : grapho, I write, 

 from their resemblance to the shape of a quill 

 pen. There is some dispute as to what these 

 really were, but there is little doubt that they 

 were a kind of Coralline. We next find the 

 remains of Foramifera. The shell-fish increase, 

 and we now find shells ten or twelve feet 

 long, and these shells were embedded in 

 the body of a kind of cuttle-fish which 

 must have been a tremendous size. In 

 the upper Silurian we find animals some- 

 thing like our crabs and lobsters which 

 were seven feet long. Here we find the first 

 trace of fishes, but in these early ages only 

 two types existed. One type was called ganoid 

 fishes ; they had peculiar hard, thick scales ; 

 a few of this kind of fishes exist at present in 

 the Nile and Mississippi rivers, but they are 

 rare. The other type was allied to our 

 present sharks, which stand at the head of 

 fish organisation. This is another anomaly 

 which the theory of evolution has to explain, 

 the most perfect kind of fishes came first, and 

 we have to pass through millions of ages 

 before we come to our present kinds. Before 



we leave the Silurian rocks we meet with 

 j another animal, which, in outward appear- 

 ances, resembles the Trilobites, and it was at 

 first thought to be one, but it was afterwards 

 found to be a true fish. It is not well to trust 

 too much to outword appearances ; I need 

 not remind you in how many phases of social 

 i life it is dangerous to trust too much to out- 

 ! ward appearances. In the selection of a wife 

 a young man will pass by the plain maiden, 

 busy in the usefulness of life, he does not go 

 I below the surface and see the brains that 

 I underlie that plain face, he trusts too much to 

 ! outward appearances, and gets a painted doll, 

 while the prudent man coming after takes the 

 one he has left, and gets the prize. I have 

 shown you anomalies which seem to go 

 against the theory of evolution, and geology 

 furnishes many such anomalies; yet on the 

 whole there is exhibited a steady rise and 

 I steady progress from the lowest to the 

 highest. When we leave those rocks of which 

 I have been speaking, we pass through rocks 

 remarkable for the preponderance of fishes, 

 after which we get land plants and land 

 animals, some of such magnitude that the 

 largest of the present day sinks into insig- 

 nificance when compared with them. We 

 then come to types more nearly resembling 

 those of the present day, until at last we come 

 to the crowning act of all, — man. I am not 

 going to raise the question whether man is a 

 special creation, or whether he is a developed 

 monkey, for that is, as yet, an undetermined 

 point ; and for myself I care not which way 

 it turns, I am prepared to follow nature if we 

 can only make out what she says, but I may 

 j throw out a hint to the young men here, and 

 that is, that I hope they will try and show to 

 the world that they are men, and not 

 monkeys. 



AQUARIUM FOR SALE, 



2 ft. by 14 in., and 18 in. high, in good condition. Price 12b. — Edward 

 Moorhouse, Perseverance Street, Primrose Hill, Huddersfield. 



