"What is an old rock? how old?"
"I am sure I can't say, Daisy. Only that a _young_ rock is apt to be a
good deal older than Adam and Eve."
"How can you tell that?"
"When you see a man's hair grey, can't you tell that he is old?"
"But there are no grey hairs in rocks?" said Daisy.
"Yes, there are. Trilobites do just as well."
"But I say," said Daisy laughing, "how can you tell that the rock is
old? You wouldn't know that grey hairs were a sign, if you saw them on
young people."
"Pretty well, Daisy!" said the Captain, delighted to see her interested
in something again;--"pretty well! But you will have to study something
better than me, to find out about all that. Only it is true."
"And you were not laughing?"
"Not a bit of it. That little fellow, I suppose, lived a thousand
million years ago; may as well say a thousand as anything."
"I can't see how you can tell," said Daisy, looking puzzled.
"That was a strange old time, when he was swimming about--or when most
of them were. There were no trees, to speak of; and no grass or anything
but sea-weed and mosses; and no living things but fishes and oysters and
such creatures?"
"Where were the beasts then, and the birds?"
"They were not made yet.
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