V THE AGE OF THE COAL SWAMPS The land during this Age of Fishes was apparently quite lifeless. Crags and uplands of barren rock lay under the sun and rain. There was no real soil—for as yet there were no earthworms which help to make a soil, and no plants to break up the rock particles into mould; there was no trace of moss or lichen. Life was still only in the sea. Over this world of barren rock played great changes of climate. The causes of these changes of climate were very complex and they have still to be