re in
course of deposition, must have been deposited during or since the period
which Milton speaks of as the fifth day. But there is absolutely no
fossiliferous formation in which the remains of aquatic animals are
absent. The oldest fossils in the Silurian rocks are exuviae of marine
animals; and if the view which is entertained by Principal Dawson and Dr.
Carpenter respecting the nature of the Eozoon be well founded, aquatic
animals existed at a period as far antecedent to the deposition of the
coal as the coal is from us; inasmuch as the Eozoon is met with in those
Laurentian strata which lie at the bottom of the series of stratified
rocks. Hence it follows, plainly enough, that the whole series of
stratified rocks, if they are to be brought into harmony with Milton, must
be referred to the fifth and sixth days, and that we cannot hope to find
the slightest trace of the products of the earlier days in the geological
record. When we consider these simple facts, we see how absolutely futile
are the attempts that have been made to draw a parallel between the story
told by so much of the crust of the earth as is known to us and the story
that Milton tells. The whole series of fossiliferous stratified rocks
must be referred to the last two days; and neither the Carboniferous nor
any other formation can afford evidence of the work of the third day.

Not only is there this objection to any attempt to establish a harmony
between the Miltonic account and the facts recorded in the fossiliferous
rocks, but there is a further difficulty. According to the Miltonic
account, the order in which animals should have made their appearance in
the stratified rocks would be this: fishes, including the great whales,
and birds; after them, all varieties of terrestrial animals except birds.
Nothing could be further from the facts as we find them; we know of not
the slightest evidence of the existence of birds before the Jurassic, or
perhaps the Triassic, formation; while terrestrial animals, as we have
just seen, occur in the Carboniferous rocks. If there were any harmony
between the Miltonic account and the circumstantial evidence, we ought to
have abundant evidence of the existence of birds in the Carboniferous, the
Devonian, and the Silurian rocks. I need hardly say that this is not the
case, and that not a trace of birds makes its appearance until the far
later period which I have mentioned.

And again, if it be true that all varieties