their origin on 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
Eozoon 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 Eozoon 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. When we
consider these simple facts, we see how absolutely futile are
the attempts that have been made to draw a parallel between the
story told by so much of the crust of the earth as is known to
us and the story which Milton tells. The whole series of
fossiliferous stratified rocks must be referred to the last two
days; and neither the Carboniferous, nor any other, formation
can afford evidence of the work of the third day.

Not only is there this objection to any attempt to establish a
harmony between the Miltonic account and the facts recorded in
the fossiliferous rocks, but there is a further difficulty.