eatures were perfected on the fourth day, and
immediately before the creation of animals. The land and the water
have undergone during this long lapse of ages many minor changes.
Whole tribes of animals and plants have been swept away and replaced
by others, but the general aspect of inorganic nature has remained the
same.

2. Both records show the existence of vegetation during this period;
though the geologic record, if taken alone, would, from its want of
information respecting the third day, lead us to infer that plants are
no older than animals, while the Bible does not speak of the nature of
the vegetation that may have existed on the fifth day.

3. Both records inform us that reptiles and birds were the higher and
leading forms of animals, and that all the lower forms of animals
co-existed with them. In both we have especial notice of the gigantic
Saurian reptiles of the latter part of the period; and if we have the
remains of a few small species of mammals in the Mesozoic rocks,
these, like a few similar creatures apparently included under the word
_sheretz_ in Leviticus, are not sufficiently important to negative
the general fact of the reign of reptiles.[95]

4. It accords with both records that the work of creation in this
period was gradually progressive. Species after species was locally
introduced, extended itself, and, after having served its purpose,
gradually became extinct. And thus each successive rock formation
presents new groups of species, each rising in numbers and perfection
above the last, and marking a gradual assimilation of the general
conditions of our planet to their present state, yet without any
convulsions or general catastrophes affecting the whole earth at once.

5. In both records the time between the creation of the first animals
and the introduction of the mammalia as a dominant class forms a
well-marked period. I would not too positively assert that the close
of the fifth day accords precisely with that of the Mesozoic or
secondary period. The well-marked line of separation, however, in many
parts of the world, between this and the earlier tertiary rocks
succeeding to it, points to this as extremely probable.

It thus appears that Scripture and geology so far concur respecting
the events of this period as to establish, even without any other
evidence, a probability that the fifth day corresponds with the
geological ages with which I have endeavored to identify it. Geology,
h