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find the remains of sharks^ and of sharks of the highest 
types. Every student of zoology knows that the brain orga- 
nization of the shark brings that creature extremely near to 
the reptiles. Observe^ then, that we have here the remains 
of a highly-organized fish before there are any traces of the 
lowly. Surely, there, then, we have evolution turned upside 
down. Where are the links which are needed to connect the 
fish with the Crustacea ? 
In company with the sharks are found some members of 
the ganoid fishes, which have their representatives in the 
present day in the bony pikes of North America. Leaving 
the Silurian system and entering the Devonian, we find the 
fossil known as the Eunjptesus — a monster lobster — which 
attained the size of 6 to 7 feet in length. Surely the lobsters 
of the present day are but a degraded, puny race compared 
with their ancestors. Entering the Carboniferous system, 
fossil spiders are met with for the first time. Now, surely 
natural selection must have made a mistake here. Spiders 
evolved out of mollusca or Crustacea ! This is, indeed, evolu- 
tion the other way on — a degradation rather than a develop- 
ment. In these rocks a few trilobites are still found, and side 
by side with the Limuli another set of crustaceans, whose 
representatives in the present day are the king-crabs of the 
tropical seas. But though found side by side there is no 
evidence that the ^^Limuli^^ were evolved out of the trilobites. 
Taking another step upwards we reach the Permian rocks. 
Here are found some fossil shells peculiar to this stratum, 
and also the remains of some reptilian form of animal life 
allied to the lizards and crocodiles of more recent times. 
Above these — in the Triassic rocks — are found the footprints 
of some very remarkable four-footed creatures, whose hind 
feet were larger than their fore, as is the case in the Batra- 
chians of to-day. Whence, we ask, these four limbs ? From 
what creatures were they developed ? Where are the links 
which unite them with the ganoid fishes ? Again : In these 
same rocks are found the impressions of a three-toed biped, 
supposed by some geologists to be the footprints of a walking 
bird ; and no mean creature either ! For in comparison of 
which the living ostrich is but a dwarf. Again, we ask, where 
are the links which unite these gigantic creatures with those 
animals which have gone before ? and why are their represen- 
tatives such pigmies ? 
Leaving these Triassic rocks and entering the Oolitic, some 
remarkable fossils are found. The belemnites and the ammo- 
nites tell of the presence of the mollusca ; the ganoids and 
the sharks testify of the presence of the piscerine tribes. 
