THE GEOLOGIST. 



SEPTEMBER, 1859, 



THE COMMON FOSSILS OE THE BRITISH ROCKS. 



By S. J. Mackie, F.G.S., E.S.A. 



(Continued from page 192.) 



Chap. 4. First Tracesi of the Succession of Life. — The Lower Sihirian 



liochs. 



How sweet tlie commiming with oneself; the thoughts that rise 

 and flee ; the dreams of solitude, away from the busy hum of men — 

 quiet — alone ^\dth God, thinking of His wonders and His powers, 

 the beauty and skillfulness of His works. As late at night I sat at 

 my open study-window gazing over the forest of roofs and chimneys 

 of the sleeping city, with its towers and church-spires pointing to 

 the holy heavens and star-lit sky, for the first time I heard the 

 great bell of "Westminster toll out the midnight hour — sonorous, 

 solemn, slow, as if clinging with throbbing pulse and quivering 

 frame to Time's flowing garments to an^est him in his sturdy march. 

 Solemn and slow" the changing hours of past creations have passed 

 away, with no " Big Ben" to mark their passage ; but solemn and 

 slow has Time himself impressed his footsteps on the yielding sands 

 of earth, and left us his own record of his onward course. 



In this chapter we pass on to the first change of scene, and as we 

 found it necessary, at the commencement of our work, to have a 

 clear idea of the succession of the great rock-masses of which the 

 fossiliferous crust of our globe is constituted, so we shall find it 

 imperative for a right comprehension and a clear understanding of 

 the succession of organic life upon our planet to have a knowledge 

 of the great types upon which the various members of the animal 



VOL. II. D D 



