existent crustaceous form.

With regard to the link character of these animals, some curious
facts are mentioned. It appears that in the imperfect condition of
the vertebral column, and the inferior situation of the mouth in the
pterichthys, coccosteus, &c., there is an analogy to the form of the
dorsal cord and position of the mouth in the embryo of perfect
fishes. The one-sided form of the tail in the osteolepis &c. finds a
similar analogy in the form of the tail in the embryo of the salmon.
It is not premature to remark how broadly these facts seem to hint at
a parity of law affecting the progress of general creation, and the
progress of an individual foetus of one of the more perfect animals.

It is equally ascertained of the types of being prevalent in the old
red, as of those of the preceding system, that they are uniform in
the corresponding strata of distant parts of the earth; for instance,
Russia and North America.

In the old red sandstone, the marine plants, of which faint traces
are observable in the Silurians, continue to appear. It would seem
as if less change took place in the vegetation than in the animals of
those early seas; and for this, as Mr. Miller has remarked, it is
easy to imagine reasons. For example, an infusion of lime into the
sea would destroy animal life, but be favourable to vegetation.

As yet there were no land animals or plants, and for this the
presumable reason is, that no dry land as yet existed. We are not
left to make this inference solely from the absence of land animals
and plants; in the arrangement of the primary (stratified) rocks, we
have further evidence of it. That these rocks were formed in a