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The remains of fishes of the Upper Cretaceous formations consist chiefly of teeth belonging to the shark family. Some of the genera are common to the Tertiary formations, and some are distinct. But we meet with no bones of land-animals, nor any terrestrial or fluviatile shells, nor any plants, except sea-weeds, and here and there a piece of drift-wood.
Yet when the geologist inquires if any land-animals of a higher grade than reptiles lived during any one of these three periods, the rocks are all silent, save one thin layer a few inches in thickness; and this single page of the earth's history has suddenly revealed to us in a few weeks the memorials of so many species of fossil mammalia, that they already outnumber those of many a subdivision of the tertiary series, and far surpass those of all the other secondary rocks put together!
Bats also, if they may be counted among land-animals, are frequent; they belong, it is probable, to several species, one of which is Xantharpyia aegyptiaca. If the fauna of Phoenicia is restricted so far as land-animals are concerned, it is extensive and varied in respect of birds. Of these the most valuable for the table are the partridge, the francolin, and the woodcock.
And, as a necessary consequence of any sort of perfection, of mechanical perfection as of others, you find that the horse is a beautiful creature, one of the most beautiful of all land-animals. Look at the perfect balance of its form, and the rhythm and force of its action.
The only difference in this respect is, that the whale can go longer without renewing his respiration than all purely land-animals, though he must come up to breathe at intervals, or die.
At Punta Alta we have a section of one of these later-formed little plains, which is highly interesting from the number and extraordinary character of the remains of gigantic land-animals embedded in it. These have been fully described by Professor Owen, in the Zoology of the voyage of the Beagle, and are deposited in the College of Surgeons. I will here give only a brief outline of their nature.
Such an intricate underbrush of Coral growth affords an excellent retreat for many animals that like its protection better than exposure to the open sea, just as many land-animals prefer the close and shaded woods to the open plain: a forest is not more thickly peopled with Birds, Squirrels, Martens, and the like, than is the Coral Reef with a variety of animals that do not contribute in any way to its growth, but find shelter in its crevices or in its near neighborhood.
The ages rolled on while they "filled the waters of the seas and fowl multiplied on the earth." The Sixth Day's Work. The creation of land-animals and man. "And God said, 'Let the earth bring forth the living creature after its kind, cattle and creeping things, and beast of the earth after its kind'." The fifth day animals began to swarm the seas; the sixth day, to cover the land.
The perplexity in which we are involved when we attempt to solve this problem may be owing partly to our want of diligence as collectors, but still more perhaps to ignorance of the laws which govern the fossilisation of land-animals, whether of high or low degree. On green shale, from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Natural size.
There are two circumstances in the Biblical account from which we see that, although it is naturally silent as to the descent problem, it not only knows and acknowledges the connection of man with the lower creatures of the earth, but also expressly directs attention to it. One of these circumstances is connecting man's creation with that of land-animals, in a single day's work.
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