t, accordingly, to come next upon a
whole period in which no trace of anything but plants and these animals
can be found; and lastly, we ought to find the period of mammalia,
smaller reptiles, _amphibia_ and insects (creeping things).

That is the fair and plain result of what comes of supposing the terms
"let there be," &c., to mean _production on earth of the thing's
themselves_, and that the days are long _periods_.

All overlapping of the periods is inadmissible. All meaning is taken
away, if we allow of fish (e.g.) appearing in the middle of our first
period; for God did not command another day's work till after the first
was completed--"there was evening and there was morning, a first day"
(period), &c.

No; to suit the text so interpreted, we must have a full _period_ of
plants with no fish; then a period of both but no insects, no creeping
things, no animals; and so on. Now it is quite idle to contend any
longer, that any such state of things ever existed.

If we pass over the long series of the most ancient strata in which
doubtful forms of obscure elementary plant and animal life appear
_almost_ together, we shall come to shell-fish, and crustaceans fully
established in the water, and scorpions, and some insects even on land,
_before_ plants made any great show. For the Carboniferous--_the_ age of
acrogen plants, _par excellence_--does not occur till after swarms of
_Trilobite_ Crustaceans had filled the sea and passed away, and after
the Devonian fish-age had nearly passed away; and so on throughout.

The groups in nature overlap each other so closely, that though
plant-life (in elementary forms) probably had the actual start;
virtually the two kingdoms--plant and animal--appeared almost
simultaneously. There is nothing like the appearance of a first period
in which one _alone_ predominated. And long before the plants are
established in all classes, the great reptiles, birds, and some mammals,
had appeared. The seed-bearing plants--true grasses and exogens with
seed capsules (angiosperms) did not appear till quite Tertiary times.
That is the essential difference between the facts and the theory. If we
make a diagram, and let the squares represent the main groups, the order
(according to the period interpretation) ought to be as in A, whereas
it really more resembles B. Thus.

[Illustration: The dotted extensions of the squares indicate the fore
runners of the families, i.e., their first indications in t