86 
Geology of Sydney. 
tion, are very suggestive. He remarks : — “ Each 
formation possesses its peculiar fossils. This similarity 
obtains in a great degree over the entire world. 
Thus, the identification of fossils is the identification 
of formation. We can, therefore, understand with 
what eagerness they are gathered and preserved. 
Fragments, which the ignorant would spurn from his 
feet, are invested with as high an interest as the 
obelisks of Egypt or the sculptures of Nineveh. The 
antiquarian pores over these with intense enthusiasm, 
seeking to read the history of a few thousand years. 
The geologist bends with equal delight over the forms 
and impressions on the rocks, seeking to gather infor- 
mation with regard to a past, compared to the 
duration of which the chronology of man is but as the 
moments of yesterday. The print of a leaf, a 
petrified shell, a tooth, the fragment of a bone, a fish- 
scale even, may serve to unriddle the most puzzling 
problem. Rough and mutilated though the fragments 
may be, to the educated eye they embody a tale as 
legible as any sculpture or hieroglyphics, and far more 
comprehensive. That tiny stem, a mere discoloration 
on the rock, once floated as sea- weed on the waters; 
that reed once luxuriated in a primeval marsh ; that 
delicate rock impression was a fern that once waved 
in the sunshine ; and that simple leaf, now only a film 
of coal-like matter, sparkled with the dew of heaven 
as certainly as the tender herb is cherished by the 
dew to-day, or existing verdure grows to beauty in 
the sunlight. Every trace then becomes a letter, 
every fragment a word ; every perfect fossil a chapter 
