pressure. At each descent, the water beneath increased its upward resistance. Thus the entire hypozoic rock described by Sedgwick, was formed, or all that, containing no organic remains.

5.

Some of this rock must have remained in a plastic state for untold ages, as is attested by numerous injected dikes of granite, basalt, or greenstone, into rock far above.

6. At the end of the second period portions of this rock began to appear at the surface, which must then have extended thirty miles into the

ocean.

7. Here commenced the existence of organic matter. Hitchcock, Lyell Miller and others, tell us that the depth of organic remains exceeds a thickness of ten miles; yet they suggest that traces of untold ages of the grasses may have been obliterated by metamorphic action.

8. The first traces of organic matter were submarine plants; higher up are terrestrial plants, but for a long way only the cryptogamia, or flowerless plants; which could mature without clear sunlight.

9. Up to the close of the third period, and for long ages after, the atmosphere did not allow the sun to shine upon the earth; and the vegetation, though rank, perfected its fruit, like the fern, by the expansion of some portion of its leaf. In the language of Moses, "Vegetation was a kind whose seed was in itself."

QUESTIONS.

1. What changes must have been made during the second period?

When were these deposits made?

Does not water increase in gravity under pressure?*

Would any deposit sink farther than to water of its own specific gravity?*

To what have all the lower strata been subjected?

2. What must have been true in the earlier ages?

Was the atmosphere then the same as now? Would the air then have sustained animal life?

If it would, had food been prepared for them? 3. What was the nature of the first deposits?

Do not the circumstances of condensation

greatly vary the weight of stone?

Where would the resistance of the water equal the weight of a descending body ?*

Ans. where its specific gravity equaled.

What relation would the first deposits hold to those afterward made?

4. What would be the effect of after deposits of the same weight?

As any substance shall be pressed below its own specific gravity, what would be the influence of the water beneath?

What does hypozoic rock mean as described by Sedgwick?

5. Do we ever now find primitive rock in horizontal layers?

Does it always underlie after formations ? * On the ground that granite was of aqueous formation, how can we account for granite dikes ejected into other stone?

6. What happened at the close of the second period?

How deep must it have been? Ans. About thirty miles.

7. What commenced here?

What is the estimated depth of the deposits containing organic remains?

Is it known that the remains now found, extend to the begining?

How may the remains of grasses have been entirely obliterated ?

8. What is the character of the lowest remains found?

Above these what next appears?

To what grand division do all the lower orders of vegetation belong?

What advantage had this class over the flowering kind?

9. At the close of the third period, had the sun shone upon the earth? Gen. 1: 15.

How does such vegetation perfect its fruit? Does revelation, thus far, accord with the facts as now discovered ?*

REVELATION AND THE CARBON

IFEROUS PERIOD.

LESSON LIX.

"When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling band for it. Job 38: 9.

1. At the close of the second period great quantities of carbonic acid gas had been taken from the air in the formation of primitive rock; but it was reserved to vegetation to tame this giant foe to animal life, and to lock it up in storehouses, in the shape of bituminous coal and crude oils.

2. At the close of the third period, still greater changes had taken place in the air, earth and sea. The vegetation of untold ages had been deposited upon the ground, rich with organized carbon, and dripping with oil. The earth would seem a match, ready for ignition.

3. The deep purple atmosphere of carbonic acid gas, then enveloping the earth for miles in height, served as a medium, for conveying to plants the actinism of light.

4. Carbonic acid ever eager to unite with vegetation, was then greatly aided to do so. It also served as a guard against combustion of every kind, hence, there were no volcanoes then. An atmosphere of carbonic acid gas will not support combustion. Geologists place the commencement

of volcanoes at a later date.

5. The depositing of carboric acid gas occupied the most of three periods, viz: The second, third and fourth, nor was the carbonic acid disposed of sufficiently for a continuation of uninterrupted animal life, until the close of the fourth.

6. The Biblical distinction of this period, is that wherein the atmosphere had become so far changed as to admit the rays of the sun upon the earth. The organic changes wrought upon the earth are not noted.

7. Moses' attention seemed directed to the heavens during this entire period; his language would indicate more a prophetic view of what the sun, moon and stars would be to the nations, than of any real design in their creation. Mankind have generally used them for signs, seasons, days and years.

8. The primary design of the fixed stars could not be for light, or for signs to the inhabitants