Some of my humbler readers may possibly be repelled by his names; they are, like all names in science, unfamiliar in their respect to mere English readers, just because they are names not for England alone, but for England and the world. I am assured, however, that they are all composed of very good Greek, and picturesquely descriptive of some peculiarity in the fossils they designate. One of his ichthyolites, with a thorn or spine in each fin, bears the name of _Acanthodes_, or thorn-like; another with a similar mechanism of spines attached to the upper part of the body, and in which the pectoral or hand-fins are involved, has been designated the _Cheiracanthus_, or thorn-hand; a third covered with curiously-fretted scales, has been named the _Glyptolepis_, or carved-scale; and a fourth, roughened over with berry-like tubercles, that rise from strong osseous plates, is known as the _Coccosteus_, or berry-on-bone. And such has been his principle of nomenclature. The name is a condensed description. But though all his names mean something, they cannot mean a great deal; and as learned words repel unlearned readers, I shall just take the liberty of reminding mine of the humbler class, that there is no legitimate connection between Geology and the dead languages. The existences of the Old Red Sandstone had lived for ages, and had been dead for myriads of ages, ere there was Greek enough in the world to furnish them with names. There is no working-man, if he be a person of intelligence and information, however unlearned, in the vulgar acceptation of the phrase, who may not derive as much pleasure and enlargement of idea from the study of Geology, and acquaint himself as minutely with its truths, as if possessed of all the learning of Bentley. CHAPTER III. Lamarck's Theory of Progression illustrated.--Class of Facts which give Color to it.--The Credulity of Unbelief.--M. Maillet and his Fish-birds.--Gradation not Progress.--Geological Argument.--The Present incomplete without the Past.--Intermediate Links of Creation.--Organisms of the Lower Old lied Sandstone.--The _Pterichthys_.--Its first Discovery.--Mr. Murchison's Decision regarding it.--Confirmed by that of Agassiz.--Description.--The several Varieties of the Fossil yet discovered.--Evidence of Violent Death in the Attitudes in which they are found.--The _Coccosteus_ of the Lower Old Red.--Description.--Gradations from Crustacea to Fishes.--Habits of the Coccosteus.--Scarcely any Conception too extravagant for Nature to realize.