The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1878-02-26


ed somewhat irregularly, so that in all
ages some portions Of the LAND have
been going up and some going down,
aud wherever the surface passed below
the sea level the water would flow in and
deposit one or another Of the kinds OF
sediment we find in the rocks. SedI-
ments are still forming from the shells
and skeletons of animals which lnhabit
the sea, and which, in death, sink to the
bottom. This rock history is not com.
plete, because only such form OF lite
would be preserved as were not perisha-
bic and inhabited the sea drifted into II.
The history is, however, more complete
than would be supposed, and has been
but partially read.
Mammals began their existence, so far
az we know, in the Trias, but through
out tue Mesozoic ages held an altogether
subordinate ard Insignificant position.
The reptiles occupied the sea, the field
and the air, for they were swimmers and
walkers and flyers; the sea reptiles re-
sembling the whales, as we know them,
and the sea serpents, as we imagine them
10 exist al present. The first bird, so far
rs yet known, was the archeopteryx,
found in the lithogr sphic'slates of Solen-
hofen, Bavaria. Part reptile and part
bird in anatomical structure, it
was apparently clothed with feathers,
but tho wings were short and COM
posed of plumes arranged rsdately, as IN
fan; while the tsil, q prolongstion oil
the vertebral column, had the shape OF
an oar-blade. 1t is supposed it had
teeth. The flying dragon, or Pterodac.
tyls. OF the Jurasslc and Cretsceous pc
RODS, had great wings, like bats in
structure, and measured as much as
twenty five feet from tip to tiHof their
wlngs. In the Tertiary period, the veg
citation was apparently more luxuriant
and beautiful than that Of the present
day, for the grsndeSt and most interest
Ing of our living forest trees, the great
Sequoias OF California, the redwood and
the mammoth trecc, cur tulip
treeg, msgnoliss, sycGmores and cy-
presses are the lingering remnants of the
magnificent forests which covered our
continent even to the Arctic Sea. The
Tertiary has been well named the age of
mammals. Brute force then ruled the
world; for man, its present master, had
not yet appeared on the stage. During
the ice period, the climate of Greenland
was brought rs far south as New York,
and unbroken sheets of ice held all nature
in the embrace OF death for thousands of
years. Whole races OF animals and
plants persisted, but those forms that
were driven far south survived, ard ulti.
mately moved northward with the
ameliorstion of the climate, and were at
tended by new element in the history
of the world, primitive man.
Thus we see that geological record as
far as it goes is more authentic and credl-
bic than any uninspired history, slRce it
is the product of no human prejudice,
passion or partial view, which color other
human histories. That the earlier chap
tiers Of this history, those which contain
the records of the beginning OF lie, are
for the most part oblterated and illegi-
bic; that there are many gaps in the mar
rative which doubtless will be, but up to
the present time have not been filled;
and thus that the record consists OF 8
series of chapters, more or less disconnect-
ed, The evidence is conclusive that
the earliest fauna and fora of which
we have any knowledge consisted
of fewer elements, and these of
simpler structure, than in any succeed
ing age. Also that there has been coz
slant and progressive increase in the
variety of animals and plants and IN the
complexity OF their structure. THIS pro-
gress of life is 50 evident and general
that we can not resist the conclusion that
it is the expression of law.
The psrallelism of the progress of life
through the geological ages with that of
the growth of an individual from germ,
is so close that most students of paleon-
tology are inspired with the Conviction
that the hfe.forms Of the different ages are
links in connected chain; in other
words, that the later forms are derl-
vations from those which proceeded
them. This is evolution, and therefore
most biologists are evolutionists, and
they believe that evolution is not only
exempliHed in the progress OF life, but
that it is 3 law OF nsture.
Professor Huxley explains the.persist-
ent types of life by saying that if the
spontaneous variation of = species does
not give it an advantageous formor struc.
ture, that variety has not been perpetu-
sted, or no profitable variation has been
hit upon. To my mind, this explanation
is inadequate, because l can not con-
ceive that highly organized animal
with complicated structure like the
nautilus should pass through all the rev.
olutions OF the globe without being more
affected than it has been by external cir
cumstsnce, unless the life that inspired
il was more potent thsn sll surroundings