ot in their least perfect, but in their most
perfect state,--not in their nearest approximation to the worm, but in
their nearest approximation to the reptile,--there is no room for
progression, and the argument falls. Now, it is a geological fact, that
_it is fish of the higher orders that appear first on the stage,_ and
that they are found to occupy exactly the same level during the vast
period represented by five succeeding formations. There is no
progression. If fish rose into reptiles, it must have been by sudden
transformation. There is no getting rid of miracle in the case,--there
is no alternative between creation and metamorphosis. The infidel
substitutes progression for Deiety;--Geology robs him of his God."

Mr. Miller then relates his discovery of the winged fish (Pterichtys):
"Of all the organisms of the Old Red Sandstone, one of the most
extraordinary, and the one in which Lamarck would have most delighted,
is the Pterichtys, or winged fish. Had Lamarck been the discoverer, he
would unquestionably have held that he had caught a fish almost in the
act of wishing itself into a bird. Here are wings which lack only
feathers, a body which seems to have been as well adapted for passing
through the air as the water and a tail by which to steer. I fain wish
I could communicate to the reader the feeling with which I contemplated
my first-found specimen. It opened with a single blow of the hammer;
and there on a ground of light-colored limestone, lay the effigy of a
creature fashioned apparently out of jet, with a body covered with
plates, two powerful-looking arms articulated at the shoulders, a head
as entirely lost in the trunk as that of the ray or the sun-fish, and
long angular tail." Miller says that he at first thought he had
discovered a kind of turtle that partook of the characteristics of a
fish. But he continues: "I had inferred somewhat too hurriedly, though
perhaps naturally enough, that these wings or arms, with their strong
sharp points and oar-like blades, had been at once paddles and spears,
--instrument of motion and weapons of defence; and hence the mistake of
connecting the creature with the Chelonia (turtles). I am informed by
Agassiz, however, that they were weapons of defence only, which, like
the spines of the river bull-head, were erected in moments of danger or
alarm, and at other times lay close by the creature's side; and that
the sole instrument of motion was in the tail. The river bull-h