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Excerpt from Introduction and Succession of Vertebrate Life in America: An Address Delivered Before the American Association for the Advancement of Science, at Nashville, August 30 In considering the ancient life of America, it is important to bear In mind that I can only offer you a brief record of a few of the countless forms that once occupied this continent. The review I can bring before you will not be like that of a great army, when regiment after regiment with full ranks moves by in orderly succession, until the entire host has passed. My review must be more like the roll-call after a battle, when only a few scarred and crippled veterans remain to answer to their names. Or rather, it must resemble an array of relics, dug from the field of some old Trojan combat, long after the con test, when no survivor remains to tell the tale of the strife. From such an ancient battle-field, a Schliemann might unearth together the bronze shield, lance-head, and gilded helmet of a prehistoric leader, and learn from them with certainty his race and rank. Perhaps the skull might still retain, the barbaric stone weapon by which his northern foe had slain him. Near by, the explorer might bring to light the commingled coat of mail and trappings of a horse and rider, so strangely different from the equipment of the chief, as to suggest a foreign ally. From these, and from the more common implements of war that fill the soil, the antiquary could determine, by patient study, what nations fought, and. Perhaps. When, and why. By this same method of research, the more ancient strata of the earth have been explored, and, in our Western wilds veritable battle-fields, strown with the fossil skeletons of the slain, and guarded faithfully by savage superstition, have been despoiled, yielding to science treasures more rare than bronze or gold. Without such spoils, from many fields, I could not have chosen the present theme for my address to-night. According to present knowledge, no vertebrate life is known to have existed on this continent in the Archaean, Cambrian, or Silurian periods; yet during this time, ' more than half of the thickness of American stratified rocks was deposited. It by no means follows that vertebrate animals of some kind did not exist here in those remote ages. Fishes are known from the Upper Silurian of Europe, and there is every probability that they will yet be discovered in our strata of the same age, if not at a still lower horizon. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
