THE EARTH-BOOK. 
5 
the present can furnish us, we shall begin with the 
latest chapter lying on top where it was written, and 
quickly turn forward chapter after chapter until the 
earliest is reached. 
The earth-book has no cover, for the last chapter 
is not yet written. Present deposits will preserye 
the story of present life just as former deposits have 
preserved earlier life. Growing plants and living 
animals will here and there fall into preserving mud, 
where they will remain till in some future time they 
reveal the present manner of life even if all man’s 
proud monuments of stone and paper shall have per¬ 
ished. 
The last leaf, the last chapter written, lies on top, 
but not everywhere. Water was the wTiting fluid ; 
and consequently where the earth was out of water 
there no deposits could he had and no record made. 
The latest records, therefore, are about the shores of 
present lakes and seas. In past ages the land rose 
more and more out of the water; the sea is the 
mother of the land. The more recent layers are 
resting on the earlier. 
To discover the different chapters we might go 
from one end of the country to the other, as did Dr. 
William Smith, “ the father of geology ” in England, 
but fortunately that has been done for us. The 
geologist examines the surface-rocks, collects all the 
specimens of fossil life he can find in that region, 
describes them with pen and pencil, and makes a list 
of them. The same is done in ad joining regions until 
the whole country has been mapped. 
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