While revelation teaches us that the period when the waters were to bring forth abundantly, was in a succeeding epoch to that in which vegetation commenced; geology bears testimony that there are few remains of animal life till we come up to more recently formed strata, than the vegetable deposits of the coal measures. It is only when we arrive at the chalk measures that we find an "abundance" of animal life. Recent investigations have shown, that chalk is mostly composed of shells in every stage of change, some perfect, some broken, and still others decayed into an impalpable dust. Some of these shells are so minute that it would require 1,800 placed side by side to measure a single inch. Perhaps no human intellect is able to form a conception of this profuseness of animal life. Well might Moses say the sea brought forth abundantly.
[REMAINS OF SHELL FISH.]
It is at this epoch that we find the first remains of shell fish which are so common in the rocks of every land; also the remains of innumerable tiny fish, so prevalent in certain sections of our own land. Again, geology teaches us that "birds made their first appearance during this epoch." No fragments of the skeletons of birds have yet been discovered in formations older than the chalk.
[REMAINS OF MACROURA—EARLIEST BIRD YET FOUND.]
Further it is only in strata formed subsequently to the chalk that we find the remains of those monsters that made the earth to tremble beneath their tread and lashed to foam the billows of the primeval ocean. To those who are unaccustomed to view fossil remains the dimensions of some of these seem almost incredible. Just think of monsters 120 feet in length with teeth eleven inches in diameter and eyes whose sockets were more than eighteen inches across; and we can easily perceive that the statement of Moses is verified, "And God created great whales" (literally sea monsters). Of this epoch, Le Conte says, "It was preeminently an age of reptiles." There are now on the whole face of the earth only six large reptiles over fifteen feet long—two in India, one in Africa, three in America—and none over twenty-five feet long. Yet in the strata that correspond to this period in Great Britain alone are found the skeletons of at least five great Dinosaurs from twenty to sixty feet long, and in the United States the fullness of reptilian life was even greater; for, one hundred and forty-seven species of reptiles have been found, most of them of gigantic size. Among these are fifty species of Mosasaurs, seventy or eighty feet long, also species of crocodiles fifty feet long, besides great numbers of gigantic turtles." These are some of the remains that are still preserved. But the fossil animals of any period are only a remnant of the animals of that period. That the climate of the earth was then warm and uniform is sufficiently attested. All great reptiles are now found only in tropical or subtropical regions; but the remains of these monsters are scattered in all latitudes from New Zealand to Spitzbergen. In all this we see a wonderful agreement between the account given by Moses and the records of geology.
Of the land animals which then inhabited the earth, might be mentioned the Dinotherium. From the remains of it which still exist it must have measured not less than sixteen feet high and twenty-four feet long with a head at least three feet in breadth and hence capable of containing a brain large enough for the most exacting phrenologist. Then again there was another huge animal called the Mastodon. We may get some idea of the enormous size of the animal from the fact that the remains of some of its grinding teeth, recently found in Pennsylvania, weighed no less than seventeen pounds. There existed at that time still another huge animal whose remains are found in Siberia, Sweden, Italy and North and South America. It is commonly called a Mammoth, though on account of its resemblance to existing elephants, naturalists have named it Elephas Primigenius. It was covered with three kinds of hair: first strong bristles, secondly, soft hair, and thirdly with reddish wool growing among the hair.
Geologists agree that during the latter part of this period the earth began to assume conditions similar to those which prevail at the present time. This is indicated by the abundance of deciduous plants (that is plants that drop their leaves each autumn), which are to be found in North America. It is thus evident that the climate was becoming cooler, the dense atmosphere which so long had wrapped the earth as with a mantle had dissipated; the carbonic acid and other poisonous gases, which were totally unfit to support animal life had been absorbed by the rank vegetation of the coal period. Geologists tell us that this was the period when the Wasatch and Uintah mountains were formed and the center of the western continent upheaved, by which the great interior sea which previously divided America into two continents was abolished. The change of physical geography was enormous and the change of climate was doubtless correspondingly great. It was natural, therefore, to expect, with the opening of the next era, a very great change both in plant and animal life. So ended the fifth epoch of creation, for "The evening and the morning were the fifth day."