Excerpt from The Evolution and Distribution of Fishes The impression was, therefore, almost unwillingly forced in on the writer's mind, now fully forty years ago, that during the great Carboniferous epoch a practically continuous deposit of freshwater strata with typical plant and fish enclosures gave rise to the foundation beds or Calciferous Sandstone series of that system; that then an extensive though not deep submergence of land occurred under the sea, during which the Carboniferous Limestone was formed as a great marine deposit. Even then however occasional elevation for a longer or shorter time permitted the development Of a nearby land flora and invasion again of teeming freshwater fishes in lakes or swamps of that per iod. These however showed no trace Of existence in marine strata. Finally, during deposit Of the Coal Measures, freshwater fishes that were very different in type from those of the lower rocks, were met with in ironstone in shale, or in sandstone strata that alternated with and often shaded into coal beds. 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.