The conjecture, that the whole of the vegetable material now constituting the coal, was the growth of the antediluvian centuries, and that it was floated away and deposited by the flood, is untenable. In not a few instances trunks are found broken, and worn by water-action; but the great mass warrants the conclusion that trees of vast dimensions and of close array--dense, majestic forests, such as now occur only in the most humid regions of the tropics--were submerged in their native abodes, lying where they fell, and where they have left the impressions, side by side, on the upper and under surfaces of the shale, of their delicate peculiarities of structure, which would have been totally obliterated, if the trees had been sea-borne and shore-rolled, as pretended. The result of a careful and minute examination of the phenomena of coal, by Mr. Binney, is, that the vegetable matter now forming coal had grown in vast _marine_ swamps, subjected to a series of _subsidences_ with long intervals of repose; that the trees, and perhaps smaller plants, were submerged under _tranquil_ water, in the places of their growth; and that very inconsiderable portions, if any, of the beds, are owing to drifting.[31] While the coal was in process of deposition, the sea was occupied with Invertebrata, not widely differing from those which had marked the previous eras. Fishes, however, were advancing in development; and several new and strange forms, some of them of gigantic dimensions and formidable armature, were introduced. These were chiefly remarkable for their affinities with Reptiles (whence they are often called _Sauroid_ Fishes); and one of them--_Megalichthys_--was famished with jaws of serried teeth, surpassing those of the crocodile. With these were associated other and more ordinary Fishes; and swarms of Sharks of many species, and varying much in size, roved through the sea, maintaining the same pirate character as their representatives of our modern seas--fierce, subtle, voracious, and powerful. At this time, too, appeared the earliest Reptiles, chiefly of the Amphibia sub-class. Some of these are known only by their foot-prints; and the late Hugh Miller has graphically described the appearance of some of these, which, he met with marking the roof of a coal-mine, four hundred feet below the surface. These must have been _Batrachia_ of large size, as the fore feet were thirteen inches apart across the breast.[32] They will be alluded to again. With these exceptions, remains of terrestrial animals are, as has already been observed, rare in this formation. III. THE WITNESS FOR THE MACRO-CHRONOLOGY. (CONTINUED.) "Always distrust very plain cases: beware lest a snake suddenly start out upon you, in the shape of some concealed and utterly unexpected difficulty."--WARREN: _Law Studies_.