160 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
reptiles and birds m tlie fifth day, syiiclironizcs and corresponds with the be- 
ginning of the Mesozoic period ; and tiuit of man at the close of the sixth day, 
with the commencement of the modern era in geology. These four great coin- 
cidents are so nuich more than we could have expected in records so very 
ditferent in tlieir natiu-e and origui that we need not pause to searcli for otliers 
of a more obscure character. * * * lu both records the ocean gives birth 
to the first dry land, and it is the sea that is first inhabited, yet both lead at 
least to the suspicion that a state of igneous fluidity preceded tlie primitive 
universal ocean. In scripture the original prevalence of the ocean is distinetly 
stated, and aU geologists are agreed that in the early fossiliferous periods the 
sea must have prevailed much more extensively than at present. Scripture 
also expressly states that the waters were the birth-place of the earliest 
animals ; and geology has as yet discovered in tlie whole Silurian series no 
terrestrial animal, though marine creatures are extremely abundant ; and 
though air-brcatiiing creatures are found in the later Paleozoic, they are, with 
the exception of insects, of that semi-amphibious character which is proper to 
alluvial flats and the deltas of rivers. * * * Both records concur in 
maintaining what is usually termed the doctrine of existing causes in geology. 
Scripture aud geology alike show that since the beginning to the fifth day, or 
Paleozoic period, the inorganic world has continued under the dominion of the 
same causes that now regulate its changes and processes. Tlie sacred narrative 
ives no hint of any creative interposition in this department, after the fourth 
ay ; and geology assures us that all the rocks with which it is acquainted 
have been produced by the same causes that are now tlirowing down detritus 
in the bottom of the waters, or brmging up volcanic products from the interior 
of the earth. * * * Lastly, both records represent man as the last of 
God's works, and the culmuiating point of the whole creation. * * * Man 
is the capital of the column, and if marred aud defaced by moral evil, the sym- 
metry of tlie whole is to be restored not by rejecting lum altogether, Uke tlie 
extinct species of ancient times, and replacing him by another, but by recasting 
him in the image of his Divine Redeemer. Man, though recently introduced, 
is to exist eternally. He is in one or another state of being to be the witness 
of all future changes of the earth. He has the option before him of being one 
with his Maker, and sharing in a future glorious and finally renovated condition 
of oui- planet, or of sinking into endless degradation." 
First Traces of Life on the Earth. By S. J. Mackie, P.G.S. London: 
Groombridge and Sons. 1860. 
This little book, designed to display as a simple but highly instructive geo- 
logical lesson the first appearance of animated beings on our planet, as indicated 
by the oldest fossils yet discovered, is now issued. 
Emanating as it does from the pen and pencil of the editor of this magazine, 
it would be obviously out of place to review it here. We therefore content 
ourselves with expressing the hope that it may be favourably received by the 
public ; and that, m turning the thoughts of its readers towards this one event- 
ful passage of the past history of our planet, it may become the medium, by 
directing their minds to the study of the beneficent designs of the Eternal in 
past ages, to the just comprehension of the aim and purpose of the great 
creative scheme in which we are all acting our parts. 
