But, further, it is expressly stated that aquatic animals took their
origin upon the fifth day, and not before; hence, all formations in
which remains of aquatic animals can be proved to exist, and which
therefore testify that such animals lived at the time when these
formations were in course of deposition, must have been deposited during
or since the period which Milton speaks of as the fifth day. But there
is absolutely no fossiliferous formation in which the remains of aquatic
animals are absent. The oldest fossils in the Silurian rocks are exuviae
of marine animals; and if the view which is entertained by Principal
Dawson and Dr. Carpenter respecting the nature of the _Eozooen_ be well
founded, aquatic animals existed at a period as far antecedent to the
deposition of the coal as the coal is from us; inasmuch as the _Eozooen_
is met with in those Laurentian strata which lie at the bottom of the
series of stratified rocks. Hence it follows, plainly enough, that the
whole series of stratified rocks, if they are to be brought into harmony
with Milton, must be referred to the fifth and sixth days, and that we
cannot hope to find the slightest trace of the products of the earlier
days in the geological record.
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