of fishes and the great
whales, and the like, made their appearance on the fifth day, we ought to
find the remains of these animals in the older rocks--in those which were
deposited before the Carboniferous epoch. Fishes we do find, in
considerable number and variety; but the great whales are absent, and the
fishes are not such as now live. Not one solitary species of fish now in
existence is to be found in the Devonian or Silurian formations. Hence we
are introduced afresh to the dilemma which I have already placed before
you: either the animals which came into existence on the fifth day were
not such as those which are found at present, are not the direct and
immediate ancestors of those which now exist,--in which case either fresh
creations of which nothing is said, or a process of evolution, must have
occurred,--or else the whole story must be given up, as not only devoid of
any circumstantial evidence, but as contrary to such evidence as exists.

I placed before you in a few words, some little time ago, a statement of
the sum and substance of Milton's hypothesis. Let me now try to state, as
briefly, the effect of the circumstantial evidence bearing upon the past
history of the earth which is furnished, without the possibility of
mistake, with no chance of error as to its chief features, by the
stratified rocks. What we find is that the great series of formations
represents a period of time of which our human chronologies hardly afford
us a unit of measure. I will not pretend to say how we ought to estimate
this time, in millions or in billions of years. For my purpose, the
determination of its absolute duration is wholly unessential; but
unquestionably the time was enormous.

It results from the simplest methods of interpretation, that, leaving out
of view certain patches of metamorphosed rocks, and certain volcanic
products, all that is now dry land has once been at the bottom of the
waters. It is perfectly certain that, at a comparatively recent period of
the world's history,--the Cretaceous epoch,--none of the great physical
features, which at present mark the surface of the globe, existed. It is
certain that the Rocky Mountains were not. It is certain that the Himalaya
Mountains were not. It is certain that the Alps and the Pyrenees had no
existence. The evidence is of the plainest possible character, and is
simply this: we find raised up on the flanks of these mountains, elevated
by the forces of upheaval whic