CHAPTER XII.
The two Aspects in which Matter can be viewed; Space and Time.—Geological History of the Earlier Periods.—The Cambrian System.—Its Annelids.—The Silurian System.—Its Corals, Encrinites, Molluscs, and Trilobites.—Its Fish.—These of a high Order, and called into Existence apparently by Myriads.—Opening Scene in the History of the Old Red Sandstone a Scene of Tempest.—Represented by the Great Conglomerate.—Red a prevailing Color among the Ancient Rocks contained in this Deposit.—Amazing Abundance of Animal Life.—Exemplified by a Scene in the Herring Fishery.—Platform of Death.—Probable Cause of the Catastrophe which rendered it such,
CHAPTER XIII.
Successors of the exterminated Tribes.—The Gap slowly filled.—Proof that the Vegetation of a Formation may long survive its Animal Tribes.—Probable Cause.—Immensely extended Period during which Fishes were the Master-existences of our Planet.—Extreme Folly of an Infidel Objection illustrated by the Fact.—Singular Analogy between the History of Fishes as Individuals and as a Class.—Chemistry of the Lower Formation.—Principles on which the Fish-enclosing Nodules were probably formed.—Chemical Effect of Animal Matter in discharging the Color from Red Sandstone.—Origin of the prevailing tint to which the System owes its Name.—Successive Modes in which a Metal may exist.—The Restorations of the Geologist void of Color.—Very different Appearance of the Ichthyolites of Cromarty and Moray,
CHAPTER XIV.
The Cornstone Formation and its Organisms.—Dwarf Vegetation.—Cephalaspides.—Huge Lobster.—Habitats of the existing Crustacea.—No unapt representation of the Deposit of Balruddery, furnished by a land-locked Bay in the neighborhood of Cromarty.—Vast Space occupied by the Geological Formations.—Contrasted with the half-formed Deposits which represent the existing Creation.—Inference.—The formation of the Holoptychius.—Probable origin of its Siliceous Limestone.—Marked increase in the Bulk of the Existences of the System.—Conjectural Cause.—The Coal Measures.—The Limestone of Burdie House Conclusion,
Ichthyolites of the Old Red Sandstone—from Agassiz's "Poissons Fossiles,"