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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The World Before the Deluge + +Author: Louis Figuier + +Editor: H. W. Bristow + +Release Date: May 18, 2012 [EBook #39723] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORLD BEFORE THE DELUGE *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Harry Lamé and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="tnbox" style="margin: 2em 10%; padding: 2em;"> +<p class="center">Please see <a href="#TN">Transcriber's Notes</a> at the end of this text.</p> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="Cover" width="450" height="647" /></div> + +<hr class="c25" /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Frontispiece" id="Frontispiece"></a> +<img src="images/illo002.jpg" alt="Frontispiece" width="600" height="381" /> +<p class="caption">THE FIRST MAN.</p></div> + +<hr class="c25" /> + +<h1><span class="fsize80">THE</span><br /> +<span class="fsize125 smcap">World before the Deluge.</span></h1> + +<p class="center">BY</p> + +<p class="center fsize150"><i><span class="gesp">LOUIS FIGUIE</span>R</i>.</p> + +<p class="center fsize125">NEWLY EDITED AND REVISED<br /> +<span class="fsize80">BY</span><br /> +<b>H. W. BRISTOW, F.R.S., F.G.S.,</b></p> + +<p class="center fsize80"><i>Of the Geological Survey of Great Britain; Hon. Fellow of King’s College, London.</i></p> + +<hr class="c05" style="margin-bottom: 0;" /> +<p class="center oldtype" style="margin: 0 auto;">With 235 Illustrations.</p> +<hr class="c05" style="margin-top: 0;" /> + +<p class="center"><span class="gesp">CASSELL, PETTER, & GALPI</span>N,<br /> +LONDON, PARIS, AND NEW YORK.</p> + +<hr class="c25" /> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[i]</a></p> + +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<table style="max-width: 80%;" summary="ToC"> + +<tr> +<td style="width: 2em;"> </td> +<td style="width: 2em;"> </td> +<td colspan="2" class="right fsize80">PAGE</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="3" class="left top padr1">GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS</td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2" class="left top padr1"><span class="smcap">Consideration of Fossils</span></td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_4">4</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2" class="left top padr1"><span class="smcap">Chemical and Nebular Hypotheses of the Globe</span></td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_15">15</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2" class="left top padr1"><span class="smcap">Modifications of the Earth’s Surface</span></td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_26">26</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="3" class="left top padr1">ERUPTIVE ROCKS</td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_30">30</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2" class="left top padr1"><span class="smcap">Plutonic Eruptions</span></td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_31">31</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padr1">Granite</td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_31">31</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padr1">Syenite</td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_34">34</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padr1">Protogine</td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_35">35</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padr1">Porphyry</td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_37">37</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padr1">Serpentine</td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_38">38</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2" class="left top padr1"><span class="smcap">Volcanic Rocks</span></td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_39">39</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padr1">Trachytic Formations</td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_39">39</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padr1">Basaltic Formations</td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_44">44</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padr1">Volcanic or Lava Formations</td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_51">51</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2" class="left top padr1"><span class="smcap">Metamorphic Rocks</span></td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_71">71</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padr1">General Metamorphism</td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_74">74</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="3" class="left top padr1">THE BEGINNING</td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_80">80</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="3" class="left top padr1">PRIMARY EPOCH</td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_99">99</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2" class="left top padr1"><span class="smcap">Cambrian Period</span></td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_101">101</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2" class="left top padr1"><span class="smcap">Silurian Period</span></td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_102">102</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padr1">Lower Silurian Period</td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_104">104</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padr1">Upper Silurian Period</td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_110">110</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2" class="left top padr1"><span class="smcap">Old Red Sandstone and Devonian Period</span></td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_119">119</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2" class="left top padr1"><span class="smcap">Carboniferous Period</span></td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_130">130</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padr1">Carboniferous Limestone</td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_140">140</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padr1">Coal Measures</td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_150">150</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padr1">Formation of Coal</td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_159">159</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2" class="left top padr1"><span class="smcap">Permian Period</span></td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_170">170</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padr1">Permian Rocks</td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_177">177</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="3" class="left top padr1">SECONDARY EPOCH</td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_185">185</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2" class="left top padr1"><span class="smcap">Triassic, or New Red Period</span></td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_185">185</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padr1">New Red Sandstone</td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_187">187</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padr1">Muschelkalk</td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_188">188</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padr1">Keuper Period</td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_199">199</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2" class="left top padr1"><span class="smcap">Rhætic (Penarth) Period</span></td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_207">207</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2" class="left top padr1"><span class="smcap">Jurassic Period</span></td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_211">211</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padr1">Liassic Period</td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_211">211</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padr1">Oolitic Sub-Period</td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_243">243</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padr1">Lower Oolite Fauna</td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_244">244</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padr1">————— Rocks</td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_249">249</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padr1">Middle Oolite</td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_255">255</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padr1">Upper Oolite</td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_265">265</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2" class="left top padr1"><span class="smcap">Cretaceous Period</span></td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_275">275</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padr1">Lower Cretaceous Period</td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_286">286</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padr1">Upper Cretaceous Period</td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_300">300</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="3" class="left top padr1">TERTIARY EPOCH</td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_312">312</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padr1">Eocene Period</td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_315">315</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padr1">Miocene Period</td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_336">336</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padr1">Pliocene Period</td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_357">357</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="3" class="left top padr1">QUATERNARY EPOCH<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[ii]</a></span></td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_378">378</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2" class="left top padr1"><span class="smcap">Post-Pliocene</span></td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_378">378</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2" class="left top padr1"><span class="smcap">European Deluges</span></td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_422">422</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2" class="left top padr1"><span class="smcap">Glacial Period</span></td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_435">435</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2" class="left top padr1"><span class="smcap">Creation of Man</span></td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_464">464</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2" class="left top padr1"><span class="smcap">Asiatic Deluge</span></td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_480">480</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="3" class="left top padr1">EPILOGUE</td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_489">489</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="3" class="left top padr1">TABLE AND DIAGRAM OF BRITISH SEDIMENTARY AND FOSSILIFEROUS STRATA</td> +<td class="right bot padl1"><a href="#Page_493">493</a></td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<hr class="c25" /> +<h2>FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2> + +<table style="max-width: 80%;" summary="Full-page illustrations"> + +<tr> +<td colspan="3" class="center"><span class="smcap"><a href="#Frontispiece">Frontispiece</a>—The First Man.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="3" class="right fsize80">PAGE</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right top padr1" style="width: 4em;"><a href="#Plate_I">I.</a></td> +<td class="left top padr1">De Sancy Peak, Mont Dore</td> +<td class="right bot">42</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right top padr1"><a href="#Plate_II">II</a>.</td> +<td class="left top padr1">Basaltic Mountain of La Coupe d’Ayzac</td> +<td class="right bot">46</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right top padr1"><a href="#Plate_III">III</a>.</td> +<td class="left top padr1">Extinct Volcanoes of Le Puy</td> +<td class="right bot">52</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right top padr1"><a href="#Plate_IV">IV</a>.</td> +<td class="left top padr1">Mud Volcano of Turbaco</td> +<td class="right bot">62</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right top padr1"><a href="#Plate_V">V</a>.</td> +<td class="left top padr1">Great Geyser of Iceland</td> +<td class="right bot">66</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right top padr1"><a href="#Plate_VI">VI</a>.</td> +<td class="left top padr1">The Earth in a gaseous state circulating in space</td> +<td class="right bot">82</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right top padr1"><a href="#Plate_VII">VII</a>.</td> +<td class="left top padr1">Condensation and rainfall</td> +<td class="right bot">94</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right top padr1"><a href="#Plate_VIII">VIII</a>.</td> +<td class="left top padr1">Ideal Landscape of the Silurian Period</td> +<td class="right bot">104</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right top padr1"><a href="#Plate_IX">IX</a>.</td> +<td class="left top padr1">Ideal Landscape of the Devonian Period</td> +<td class="right bot">121</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right top padr1"><a href="#Plate_X">X</a>.</td> +<td class="left top padr1">Ideal view of marine life in the Carboniferous Period</td> +<td class="right bot">147</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right top padr1"><a href="#Plate_XI">XI</a>.</td> +<td class="left top padr1">Ideal view of a marshy forest in the Coal Period</td> +<td class="right bot">156</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right top padr1"><a href="#Plate_XII">XII</a>.</td> +<td class="left top padr1">Ideal Landscape of the Permian Period</td> +<td class="right bot">172</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right top padr1"><a href="#Plate_XIII">XIII</a>.</td> +<td class="left top padr1">Ideal Landscape of the Muschelkalk Period</td> +<td class="right bot">191</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right top padr1"><a href="#Plate_XIV">XIV</a>.</td> +<td class="left top padr1">Ideal Landscape of the Saliferous or Keuper Period</td> +<td class="right bot">198</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right top padr1"><a href="#Plate_XV">XV</a>.</td> +<td class="left top padr1">Ideal Scene of the Lias Period with Ichthyosaurus and Plesiosaurus</td> +<td class="right bot">231</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right top padr1"><a href="#Plate_XVI">XVI</a>.</td> +<td class="left top padr1">Ideal Landscape of the Liassic Period</td> +<td class="right bot">241</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right top padr1"><a href="#Plate_XVII">XVII</a>.</td> +<td class="left top padr1">Ideal Landscape of the Lower Oolite Period</td> +<td class="right bot">254</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right top padr1"><a href="#Plate_XVIII">XVIII</a>.</td> +<td class="left top padr1">Ideal Landscape of the Middle Oolite Period</td> +<td class="right bot">258</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right top padr1"><a href="#Plate_XIX">XIX</a>.</td> +<td class="left top padr1">Apiocrinites rotundus and Encrinus liliiformis</td> +<td class="right bot">261</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right top padr1"><a href="#Plate_XX">XX</a>.</td> +<td class="left top padr1">Ideal Landscape of the Upper Oolite Period</td> +<td class="right bot">267</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right top padr1"><a href="#Plate_XXI">XXI</a>.</td> +<td class="left top padr1">Ideal Scene of the Lower Cretaceous Period</td> +<td class="right bot">296</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right top padr1"><a href="#Plate_XXII">XXII</a>.</td> +<td class="left top padr1">Ideal Landscape of the Cretaceous Period</td> +<td class="right bot">307</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right top padr1"><a href="#Plate_XXIII">XXIII</a>.</td> +<td class="left top padr1">Ideal Landscape of the Eocene Period</td> +<td class="right bot">328</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right top padr1"><a href="#Plate_XXIV">XXIV</a>.</td> +<td class="left top padr1">Ideal Landscape of the Miocene Period</td> +<td class="right bot">352</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right top padr1"><a href="#Plate_XXV">XXV</a>.</td> +<td class="left top padr1">Ideal Landscape of the Pliocene Period</td> +<td class="right bot">375</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right top padr1"><a href="#Plate_XXVI">XXVI</a>.</td> +<td class="left top padr1">Skeleton of the Mammoth in the St. Petersburg Museum</td> +<td class="right bot">394</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right top padr1"><a href="#Plate_XXVII">XXVII</a>.</td> +<td class="left top padr1">Skeleton of Megatherium</td> +<td class="right bot">403</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right top padr1"><a href="#Plate_XXVIII">XXVIII</a>.</td> +<td class="left top padr1">Ideal View of the Quaternary Epoch—Europe</td> +<td class="right bot">416</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right top padr1"><a href="#Plate_XXIX">XXIX</a>.</td> +<td class="left top padr1">Ideal Landscape of the Quaternary Epoch—America</td> +<td class="right bot">419</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right top padr1"><a href="#Plate_XXX">XXX</a>.</td> +<td class="left top padr1">Deluge of the North of Europe</td> +<td class="right bot">425</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right top padr1"><a href="#Plate_XXXI">XXXI</a>.</td> +<td class="left top padr1">Glaciers of Switzerland</td> +<td class="right bot">445</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right top padr1"><a href="#Plate_XXXII">XXXII</a>.</td> +<td class="left top padr1">Appearance of Man</td> +<td class="right bot">468</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right top padr1"><a href="#Plate_XXXIII">XXXIII</a>.</td> +<td class="left top padr1">Asiatic Deluge</td> +<td class="right bot">483</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2" class="left top padr1"><span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_Last">Diagram at End</a></span>—Ideal +Section of the Earth’s Crust, showing the order of superposition or chronological succession of the principal groups of strata.</td> +<td> </td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<hr class="c25" /> +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[iii]</a></p> + +<h2>PREFACE.</h2> + +<div style="line-height: 1.5em;"> +<p>The object of “The World before the Deluge” is to trace +the progressive steps by which the earth has reached its +present state, from that condition of chaos when it “was +without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of +the deep,” and to describe the various convulsions and +transformations through which it has successively passed. +In the words of the poet—</p> +</div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“Where rolls the deep, there grew the tree;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">O Earth, what changes hast thou seen!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">There, where the long street roars, hath been<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The silence of the central sea.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div style="line-height: 1.5em;"> +<p>It has been thought desirable that the present edition of +the work should undergo a thorough revision by a practical +geologist, a task which Mr. H. W. Bristow has performed. +Mr. Bristow has however confined himself to such alterations +as were necessary to secure accuracy in the statement +of facts, and such additions as were necessary to represent +more precisely the existing state of scientific opinion. Many +points which are more or less inferential and therefore<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[iv]</a></span> +matters of individual opinion, and especially those on which +M. Figuier bases his speculations, have been left in their +original form, in preference to making modifications which +would wholly change the character of the book. In a work +whose purpose is to give the general reader a summarised +account of the results at which science has arrived, and of the +method of reasoning regarding the facts on which these +generalisations rest, it would be out of place, as well as +ineffective, to obscure general statements with those limitations +which caution imposes on the scientific investigator.</p> + +<p>In the original work the Author had naturally enough +drawn most of his facts from French localities; in the +translation these are mostly preserved, but others drawn +from British Geology have been added, either from the translator’s +own knowledge, or from the works of well-known +British writers. It was considered desirable, for similar +reasons, to enlarge upon the opinions of British geologists, +to whom the French work scarcely does justice, considering +the extent to which the science is indebted to them for its +elucidation.</p> + +<p>In the original work the chapter on Eruptive Rocks +comes at the end of the work, but, as the work proceeded, +so many unexplained allusions to that chapter were found +that it seemed more logical, and more in accordance with +chronological order, if the expression may be used, to place +that chapter at the beginning.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum' style="font-size: 100%;"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span>A +new edition of the French work having appeared in +the early part of 1866, to which the Author contributed +a chapter on Metamorphic Rocks, a translation of it is +appended to the chapter on Eruptive Rocks.</p> + +<p>A chapter on the Rhætic (or Penarth) beds has been +inserted (amongst much other original matter), the stratigraphical +importance of that series having been recognised +since the publication of the First Edition.</p> + +<p>In the present Edition the text has been again thoroughly +revised by Mr. Bristow, and many important additions made, +the result of the recent investigations of himself and his +colleagues of the Geological Survey.</p> +</div> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi"></a></p> +<hr class="c25" /> +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></p> + +<p class="center fsize150">THE<br /> +<span class="smcap fsize150">World before the Deluge.</span></p> + +<hr class="c25" /> +<h2>GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS.</h2> + +<p>The observer who glances over a rich and fertile plain, watered +by rivers and streams which have, during a long series of ages, +pursued the same uniform and tranquil course; the traveller who +contemplates the walls and monuments of a great city, the first +founding of which is lost in the night of ages, testifying, apparently, +to the unchangeableness of things and places; the naturalist who +examines a mountain or other locality, and finds the hills and valleys +and other accidents of the soil in the very spot and condition in which +they are described by history and tradition—none of these observers +would at first suspect that any serious change had ever occurred to +disturb the surface of the globe. Nevertheless, the earth has not +always presented the calm aspect of stability which it now exhibits; +it has had its convulsions, and its physical revolutions, whose story +we are about to trace. The earth, like the body of an animal, is +wasted, as the philosophical Hutton tells us, at the same time that it +is repaired. It has a state of growth and augmentation; it has +another state, which is that of diminution and decay: it is destroyed +in one part to be renewed in another; and the operations by which +the renewal is accomplished are as evident to the scientific eye as +those by which it is destroyed. A thousand causes, aqueous, +igneous, and atmospheric, are continually at work modifying the +external form of the earth, wearing down the older portions of its +surface, and reconstructing newer out of the older; so that in many +parts of the world denudation has taken place to the extent of many +thousand feet. Buried in the depths of the soil, for example, in one +of those vast excavations which the intrepidity of the miner has dug in +search of coal or other minerals, there are numerous phenomena +which strike the mind of the inquirer, and carry their own conclusions +with them. A striking increase of temperature in these subterranean<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span> +places is one of the most remarkable of these. It is found that the +temperature of the earth rises one degree for every sixty or seventy +feet of descent from its surface. Again: if the mine be examined +vertically, it is found to consist of a series of layers or beds, sometimes +horizontal, but more frequently inclined, upright, or contorted +and undulating—even folded back upon themselves. Then, instances +are numerous where horizontal and parallel beds have been penetrated, +and traversed vertically or obliquely by veins of ores or +minerals totally different in their appearance and nature from the +surrounding rocks. All these undulations and varying inclinations +of strata are indications that some powerful cause, some violent +mechanical action, has intervened to produce them. Finally, if the +interior of the beds be examined more minutely—if, armed with the +miner’s pick and hammer, the rock is carefully broken up—it is not impossible +that the very first efforts at mining may be rewarded by the +discovery of some fossilised organic form no longer found in the +living state. The remains of plants and animals belonging to the +earlier ages of the world, are, in fact, very common; entire strata are +sometimes formed of them; and in some localities the rocks can +scarcely be disturbed without yielding fragments of bones and shells, +or the impressions of fossilised animals and vegetables—the buried +remains of extinct creations.</p> + +<p>These bones—these remains of animals or vegetables which the +hammer of the geologist has torn from the rock—belong possibly +to some organism which no longer any where exists: it may not be +identical with any animal or plant living in our times: but it is +evident that these beings, whose remains are now so deeply buried, +have not always been so covered; they once lived on the surface of +the earth as plants and animals do in our days, for their organisation +is essentially the same. The beds in which they now repose must, +then, in older times have formed the surface of the earth; and the +presence of these fossils proves that the earth has suffered great +mutations at some former period of its history.</p> + +<p>Geology explains to us the various transformations which the +earth has passed through before it arrived at its present condition. +We can determine, with its help, the comparative epoch to which +any beds belong, as well as the order in which others have been +superimposed upon them. Considering that the stratigraphical crust +of the earth with which the geologist has to deal may be some ten +miles thick, and that it has been deposited in distinct layers in a +definite order of succession, the dates or epochs of each formation +may well be approached with hesitation and caution.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span>Dr. Hutton, the earliest of our philosophical geologists, eloquently +observes, in his “Theory of the Earth,” that the solid earth is everywhere +wasted at the surface. The summits of the mountains are +necessarily degraded. The solid and weighty materials of these +mountains have everywhere been carried through the valleys by the +force of running water. The soil which is produced in the destruction +of the solid earth is gradually transported by the moving waters, +and is as constantly supplying vegetation with its necessary aid. This +drifted soil is at last deposited upon some coast, where it forms a +fertile country. But the billows of the ocean again agitate the loose +material upon the shore, wearing away the coast with endless repetitions +of this act of power and imparted force; the solid portion of our +earth, thus sapped to its foundations, is carried away into the deep +and sunk again at the bottom of the sea whence it had originated, +and from which sooner or later it will again make its appearance. We +are thus led to see a circulation of destruction and renewal in the +matter of which the globe is formed, and a system of beautiful +economy in the works of Nature. Again, discriminating between the +ordinary and scientific observer, the same writer remarks, that it is not +given to common observation to see the operation of physical causes. +The shepherd thinks the mountain on which he feeds his flock has +always been there. The inhabitant of the valley cultivates the soil as +his fathers did before him, and thinks the soil coeval with the valley +or the mountain. But the scientific observer looks into the chain +of physical events, sees the great changes that have been made, and +foresees others that must follow from the continued operation of like +natural causes. For, as Pythagoras taught 2,350 years ago, “the +minerals and the rocks, the islands and the continents, the rivers and +the seas, and all organic Nature, are perpetually changing; there is +nothing stationary on earth.” To note these changes—to decipher +the records of this system of waste and reconstruction, to trace the +physical history of the earth—is the province of <span class="smcap">Geology</span>, which, the +latest of all modern sciences, is that which has been modified most +profoundly and most rapidly. In short, resting as it does on observation, +it has been modified and transformed according to every series +of facts recorded; but while many of the facts of geology admit of +easy and obvious demonstration, it is far otherwise with the inferences +which have been based upon them, which are mostly hypothetical, +and in many instances from their very nature incapable of proof. Its +applications are numerous and varied, projecting new and useful +lights upon many other sciences. Here we ask of it the teachings +which serve to explain the origin of the globe—the evidence it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> +furnishes of the progressive formation of the different rocks and +mineral masses of which the earth is composed—the description and +restoration of the several species of animals and vegetables which +have existed, have died and become extinct, and which form, in the +language of naturalists, the <i>Fauna</i> and <i>Flora</i> of the ancient world.</p> + +<hr class="c05" /> + +<p>In order to explain the origin of the earth, and the cause of its +various revolutions, modern geologists invoke three orders of facts, or +fundamental considerations:</p> + +<div class="indented"><p>I. The hypothesis of the original incandescence of the globe.</p> + +<p>II. The consideration of fossils.</p> + +<p>III. The successive deposition of the sedimentary rocks.</p></div> + +<p>As a corollary to these, the hypothesis of the upheaval of the +earth’s crust follows—upheavals having produced local revolutions. +The result of these upheavals has been to superimpose new materials +upon the older rocks, introducing extraneous rocks called +<i>Eruptive</i>, beneath, upon, and amongst preceding deposits, in such a +manner as to change their nature in divers ways. Whence is derived +a third class of rocks called <i>Metamorphic</i> or altered <i>rocks</i>, our knowledge +of which is of comparatively recent date.</p> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Fossils.</span></h3> + +<p>The name of <i>Fossil</i> (from <i>fossilis</i>, dug up) is given to all organised +bodies, animal or vegetable, buried naturally in the terrestrial strata, +and more or less petrified, that is, converted into stone. Fossils +of the older formations are remains of organisms which, so far as +species is concerned, are quite extinct; and only those of recent +formations belong to genera living in our days. These fossil remains +have neither the beauty nor the elegance of most living species, +being mutilated, discoloured, and often almost shapeless; they are, +therefore, interesting only in the eyes of the observer who would +interrogate them, and who seeks to reconstruct, with their assistance, +the Fauna and Flora of past ages. Nevertheless, the light they throw +upon the past history of the earth is of the most satisfactory description, +and the science of fossils, or palæontology, is now an important +branch of geological inquiry. Fossil shells, in the more recent +deposits, are found scarcely altered; in some cases only an impression +of the external form is left—sometimes an entire cast of the +shell, exterior and interior. In other cases the shell has left a perfect +impression of its form in the surrounding mud, and has then been +dissolved and washed away, leaving only its mould. This mould, +again, has sometimes been filled up by calcareous spar, silica, or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> +pyrites, and an exact cast of the original shell has thus been +obtained. Petrified wood is also of very common occurrence.</p> + +<p>These remains of an earlier creation had long been known to the +curious, and classed as <i>freaks of Nature</i>, for so we find them described +in the works of the ancient philosophers who wrote on natural history, +and in the few treatises on the subject which the Middle Ages +have bequeathed to us. Fossil bones, especially those of elephants, +were known to the ancients, giving rise to all sorts of legends and +fabulous histories: the tradition which attributed to Achilles, to +Ajax, and to other heroes of the Trojan war, a height of twenty +feet, is attributable, no doubt, to the discovery of the bones of +elephants near their tombs. In the time of Pericles we are assured +that in the tomb of Ajax a <i>patella</i>, or knee-bone of that hero, was +found, which was as large as a dinner-plate. This was probably only +the patella of a fossil elephant.</p> + +<p>The uses to which fossils are applied by the geologist are—First, to +ascertain the relative age of the formations in which they occur; +secondly, the conditions under which these were deposited. The age +of the formation is determined by a comparison of the fossils it +contains with others of ascertained date; the conditions under +which the rocks were deposited, whether marine, lacustrine, or +terrestrial, are readily inferred from the nature of the fossils. The +great artist, Leonardo da Vinci, was the first to comprehend the real +meaning of fossils, and Bernard Palissy had the glory of being the +first modern writer to proclaim the true character of the fossilised +remains which are met with, in such numbers, in certain formations, +both in France and Italy, particularly in those of Touraine, where +they had come more especially under his notice. In his work on +“Waters and Fountains,” published in 1580, he maintains that the +<i>figured stones</i>, as fossils were then called, were the remains of organised +beings preserved at the bottom of the sea. But the existence +of marine shells upon the summits of mountains had already arrested +the attention of ancient authors. Witness Ovid, who in Book XV. +of the “Metamorphoses” tells us he had seen land formed at the +expense of the sea, and marine shells lying dead far from the ocean; +and more than that, an ancient anchor had been found on the very +summit of a mountain.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">“Vidi factas ex æquore terras,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Et procul a pelago conchæ jacuere marinæ,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Et vetus inventa est in montibus anchora summis.”<br /></span> +</div> + +<p style="margin-left: 13em;">Ov., <i>Met.</i>, Book xv.</p></div> + +<p>The Danish geologist Steno, who published his principal works<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> +in Italy about the middle of the seventeenth century, had deeply +studied the fossil shells discovered in that country. The Italian +painter Scilla produced in 1670 a Latin treatise on the fossils of +Calabria, in which he established the organic nature of fossil +shells.</p> + +<p>The eighteenth century gave birth to two very opposite theories +as to the origin of our globe—namely, the <i>Plutonian</i> or igneous, and +the <i>Neptunian</i> or aqueous theory. The Italian geologists gave a +marked impulse to the study of fossils, and the name of Vallisneri<a name="FNanchor_1" +id="FNanchor_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> +may be cited as the author to whom science is indebted for the +earliest account of the marine deposits of Italy, and of the most +characteristic organic remains which they contain. Lazzaro Moro<a name="FNanchor_2" +id="FNanchor_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> +continued the studies of Vallisneri, and the monk Gemerelli reduced +to a complete system the ideas of these two geologists, endeavouring +to explain all the phenomena as Vallisneri had wished, “without +violence, without fiction, without miracles.” Marselli and Donati +both studied in a very scientific manner the fossil shells of Italy, +and in particular those of the Adriatic, recognising the fact that +they affected in their beds a regular and constant order of superposition.<a name="FNanchor_3" +id="FNanchor_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + +<p>In France the celebrated Buffon gave, by his eloquent writings, +great popularity to the notions of the Italian naturalists concerning +the origin of fossil remains. In his admirable “Époques de la +Nature” he sought to prove that the shells found in great quantities +buried in the soil, and even on the tops of mountains, belonged, in +reality, to species not living in our days. But this idea was too novel +not to find objectors: it counted among its adversaries the bold +philosopher who might have been expected to adopt it with most +ardour. Voltaire attacked, with his jesting and biting criticism, the +doctrines of the illustrious innovator. Buffon insisted, reasonably +enough, that the presence of shells on the summit of the Alps was a +proof that the sea had at one time occupied that position. But +Voltaire asserted that the shells found on the Alps and Apennines +had been thrown there by pilgrims returning from Rome. Buffon +might have replied to his opponent, by pointing out whole mountains +formed by the accumulation of these shells. He might have sent +him to the Pyrenees, where shells of marine origin cover immense<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> +areas to a height of 6,600 feet above the present sea-level. But his +genius was averse to controversy; and the philosopher of Ferney +himself put an end to a discussion in which, perhaps, he would not +have had the best of the argument. “I have no wish,” he wrote, “to +embroil myself with Monsieur Buffon about shells.”</p> + +<p>It was reserved for the genius of George Cuvier to draw from the +study of fossils the most wonderful results: it is the study of these +remains, in short, which, in conjunction with mineralogy, constitutes +in these days positive geology. “It is to fossils,” says the great +Cuvier, “that we owe the discovery of the true theory of the earth; +without them we should not have dreamed, perhaps, that the globe +was formed at successive epochs, and by a series of different operations. +They alone, in short, tell us with certainty that the globe has +not always had the same envelope; we cannot resist the conviction +that they must have lived on the surface of the earth before being +buried in its depths. It is only by analogy that we have extended to +the primary formations the direct conclusions which fossils furnish us +with in respect to the secondary formations; and if we had only +unfossiliferous rocks to examine, no one could maintain that the +earth was not formed all at once.”<a name="FNanchor_4" id="FNanchor_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> + +<p>The method adopted by Cuvier for the reconstruction and +restoration of the fossil animals found in the plaster-quarries of Montmartre, +at the gates of Paris, has served as a model for all succeeding +naturalists; let us listen, then, to his exposition of the vast problem +whose solution he proposed to himself. “In my work on fossil +bones,” he says, “I propose to ascertain to what animals the osseous +fragments belong; it is seeking to traverse a road on which we have +as yet only ventured a few steps. An antiquary of a new kind, +it seemed to me necessary to learn both to restore these monuments +of past revolutions, and to decipher their meaning. I had to gather +and bring together in their primitive order the fragments of which +they are composed; to reconstruct the ancient beings to which these +fragments belonged; to reproduce them in their proportions and with +their characteristics; to compare them, finally, with others now living +on the surface of the globe: an art at present little known, and which +supposes a science scarcely touched upon as yet, namely, that of the +laws which preside over the co-existence of the forms of the several +parts in organised beings. I must, then, prepare myself for these +researches by others, still more extended, upon existing animals. A +general review of actual creation could alone give a character of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> +demonstration to my account of these ancient inhabitants of the +world; but it ought, at the same time, to give me a great collection +of laws, and of relations not less demonstrable, thus forming a body +of new laws to which the whole animal kingdom could not fail to find +itself subject.”<a name="FNanchor_5" id="FNanchor_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> + +<p>“When the sight of a few bones inspired me, more than twenty +years ago, with the idea of applying the general laws of comparative +anatomy to the reconstruction and determination of fossil species; +when I began to perceive that these species were not quite perfectly +represented by those of our days, which resembled them the most—I +no longer doubted that I trod upon a soil filled with spoils more +extraordinary than any I had yet seen, and that I was destined to +bring to light entire races unknown to the present world, and which +had been buried for incalculable ages at great depths in the earth.</p> + +<p>“I had not yet given any attention to the published notices of +these bones, by naturalists who made no pretension to the recognition +of their species. To M. Vaurin, however, I owe the first intimation +of the existence of these bones, with which the gypsum-quarries swarm. +Some specimens which he brought me one day struck me with +astonishment; I learned, with all the interest the discovery could +inspire me with, that this industrious and zealous collector had +already furnished some of them to other collectors. Received by +these amateurs with politeness, I found in their collections much to +confirm my hopes and heighten my curiosity. From that time I +searched in all the quarries with great care for other bones, offering +such rewards to the workmen as might awaken their attention. I +soon got together more than had ever been previously collected, and +after a few years I had nothing to desire in the shape of materials. +But it was otherwise with their arrangement, and with the reconstruction +of the skeleton, which could alone lead to any just idea of +the species.</p> + +<p>“From the first moment of discovery I perceived that, in these +remains, the species were numerous. Soon afterwards I saw that +they belonged to many genera, and that the species of the different +genera were nearly the same size, so that size was likely rather to +hinder than aid me. Mine was the case of a man to whom had been +given at random the mutilated and imperfect remains of some +hundreds of skeletons belonging to twenty sorts of animals; it was +necessary that each bone should find itself alongside that to which it +ought to be connected: it was almost like a small resurrection, and I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> +had not at my disposal the all-powerful trumpet; but I had the +immutable laws prescribed to living beings as my guide; and at the +voice of the anatomist each bone and each part of a bone took its +place. I have not expressions with which to describe the pleasure I +experienced in finding that, as soon as I discovered the character of +a bone, all the consequences of the character, more or less foreseen, +developed themselves in succession: the feet were found conformable +to what the teeth announced; the teeth to that announced by +the feet; the bones of the legs, of the thighs, all those which ought +to reunite these two extreme parts, were found to agree as I expected; +in a word, each species was reproduced, so to speak, from only one +of its elements.”<a name="FNanchor_6" id="FNanchor_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p> + +<p>While the Baron Cuvier was thus zealously prosecuting his inquiries +in France, assisted by many eminent fellow-labourers, what +was the state of geological science in the British Islands? About +that same time, Dr. William Smith, better known as “the father of +English geology,” was preparing, unaided, the first geological map of +this country. Dr. Smith was a native of Wiltshire, and a canal +engineer in Somersetshire; his pursuits, therefore, brought him in +the midst of these hieroglyphics of Nature. It was his practice, when +travelling professionally, during many years to consult masons, miners, +wagoners, and agriculturists. He examined the soil; and in the +course of his inquiries he came to the conclusion that the earth was +not all of the same age; that the rocks were arranged in layers, or +strata, superimposed on each other in a certain definite order, and +that the strata, when of the same age, could be identified by means +of their organic remains. In 1794 he formed the plan of his geological +map, showing the superposition of the various beds; for a +quarter of a century did he pursue his self-allotted task, which was +at last completed, and in 1801 was published, being the first attempt +to construct a stratigraphical map.</p> + +<p>Taking the men in the order of the objects of their investigation, +rather than in chronological order, brings before us the patient and +sagacious investigator to whom we are indebted for our knowledge +of the Silurian system. For many years a vast assemblage of broken +and contorted beds had been observed on the borders of North +Wales, stretching away to the east as far as Worcestershire, and to +the south into Gloucester, now rising into mountains, now sinking +into valleys. The ablest geologists considered them as a mere labyrinth +of ruins, whose order of succession and distinctive organic remains<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> +were entirely unknown, “But a man came,” as M. Esquiros +eloquently writes, “who threw light upon this sublime confusion of +elements.” Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, then a young President +of the Geological Society, had his attention directed, as he himself +informs us, to some of these beds on the banks of the Wye. After +seven years of unremitting labour, he was rewarded by success. He +established the fact that these sedimentary rocks, penetrated here +and there by eruptive masses of igneous origin, formed a unique +system, to which he gave the name of <i>Silurian</i>, because the rocks +which he considered the most typical of the whole were most fully +developed, charged with peculiar organic remains, in the land of +the ancient Silures, who so bravely opposed the Roman invaders +of their country. Many investigators have followed in Sir Roderick’s +steps, but few men have so nobly earned the honours and fame +with which his name is associated.</p> + +<p>The success which attended Sir R. Murchison’s investigations +soon attracted the attention of other geologists. Professor Sedgwick +examined the older slaty strata, and succeeded in proving the +position of the Cambrian rocks to be at the base of the Silurian. +Still it was reserved for Sir William Logan, the Director of the +Canadian Geological Survey, to establish the fact that immense +masses of gneissic formation lay at the base of the Cambrian; and, by +subsequent investigations, Sir Roderick Murchison satisfied himself +that this formation was not confined to Canada, but was identical with +the rocks termed by him Fundamental Gneiss, which exist in enormous +masses on the west coast of Scotland, and which he proved to be the +oldest stratified rocks in the British Isles. Subsequently he demonstrated +the existence of these same Laurentian rocks in Bohemia and +Bavaria, far beneath the Silurian rocks of Barrande.</p> + +<p>While Murchison and Sedgwick were prosecuting their inquiries +into the Silurian rocks, Hugh Miller and many others had their +attention occupied with the Old Red Sandstone—the Devonian of +Sedgwick and Murchison—which immediately overlies them. After a +youth passed in wandering among the woods and rocks of his native +Cromarty, the day came when Miller found himself twenty years of +age, and, for the time, a workman in a quarry. A hard fate he +thought it at the time, but to him it was the road to fame and success +in life. The quarry in which he laboured was at the bottom of a bay +formed by the mouth of a river opening to the south, a clear current +of water on one side, as he vividly described it, and a thick wood on +the other. In this silent spot, in the remote Highlands, a curious +fossil fish of the Old Red Sandstone was revealed to him; its +appearance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> +struck him with astonishment; a fellow-workman named a spot +where many such monuments of a former world were scattered about; +he visited the place, and became a geologist and the historian of the +“Old Red.” And what strange fantastic forms did it afterwards fall +to his lot to describe! “The figures on a China vase or Egyptian +obelisk,” he says, “differ less from the real representation of the +objects than the fossil fishes of the ‘Old Red’ differ from the living +forms which now swim in our seas.”</p> + +<p>The <i>Carboniferous Limestone</i>, which underlies the coal, the <i>Coal-measures</i> +themselves, the <i>New Red Sandstone</i>, the <i>Lias</i>, and the +<i>Chalk</i>, have in their turn found their historians; but it would be +foreign to our object to dwell further here on these particular branches +of the subject.</p> + +<p>Some few of the fossilised beings referred to resemble species still +found living, but the greater part belong to species which have become +altogether extinct. These fossil remains may constitute natural +families, none of the genera of which have survived. Such is the +<i>Pterodactyle</i> among Pterosaurian reptiles; the <i>Ammonite</i> among +Mollusca; the <i>Ichthyosaurus</i> and the <i>Plesiosaurus</i> among the Enaliosaurian +reptiles. At other times there are only extinct genera, belonging +to families of which there are still some genera now living, as +the genus <i>Palæoniscus</i> among fishes. Finally, in Tertiary deposits, +we meet with some extinct species belonging to genera of our existing +fauna: the <i>Mammoth</i>, for example, of the youngest Tertiary deposits, +is an extinct species of the genus elephant.</p> + +<p>Some fossils are terrestrial, like the gigantic Irish stag, <i>Cervus +Megaceros</i>, the snail or <i>Helix</i>; fluviatile or lacustrine, like the +<i>Planorbis</i>, the <i>Lymnæa</i>, the <i>Physa</i>, and the <i>Unio</i>; marine, or +inhabiting the sea exclusively, as the Cowry (<i>Cypræa</i>), and the Oyster, +(<i>Ostrea</i>).</p> + +<p>Fossils are sometimes preserved in their natural state, or are but +very slightly changed. Such is the state of some of the bones extracted +from the more recent caves; such, also, is the condition of +the insects found enclosed in the fossil resins in which they have been +preserved from decomposition; and certain shells, found in recent +and even in old formations, such as the Jurassic and Cretaceous +strata—in some of which the shells retain their colours, as well as +their brilliant pearly lustre or nacre. At Trouville, in Normandy, +in the Kimeridge strata, magnificent <i>Ammonites</i> are found in the +clay and marl, all brilliant with the colours of mother-of-pearl. In +the Cretaceous beds at Machéroménil, some species of <i>Ancyloceras</i> +and <i>Hamites</i> are found still covered with a nacre, displaying +brilliant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> +reflections of blue, green, and red, and retaining an admirable lustre. +At Glos, near Liseaux, in the Coral Rag, not only the <i>Ammonites</i>, but +the <i>Trigoniæ</i> and <i>Aviculæ</i> have preserved all their brilliant nacre. +Sometimes these remains are much changed, the organic matter +having entirely disappeared; it sometimes happens also, though +rarely, that they become petrified, that is to say, the external form is +preserved, but the original organic elements have wholly disappeared, +and have been replaced by foreign mineral substances—generally by +silica or by carbonate of lime.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="Fig_1" id="Fig_1"></a> +<img src="images/illo022.png" alt="Fig. 1" width="500" height="381" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 1.—Labyrinthodon pachygnathus and footmarks.</p></div> + +<p>Geology also enables us to draw very important conclusions from +certain fossil remains whose true nature was long misunderstood, and +which, under the name of <i>coprolites</i>, had given rise to much controversial +discussion. Coprolites are the petrified excrements of +extinct fossil animals. The study of these singular remains has +thrown unexpected light on the habits and physiological organisation +of some of the great antediluvian animals. Their examination has +revealed the scales and teeth of fishes, thus enabling us to determine +the kind of food in which the animals of the ancient world indulged: +for example, the coprolites of the great marine reptile which bears the +name of <i>Ichthyosaurus</i> contain the bones of other animals, together +with the remains of the vertebræ, or of the phalanges (paddle-bones)<span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> +of other Ichthyosauri; showing that this animal habitually fed on the +flesh of its own species, as many fishes, especially the more voracious +ones, do in our days.</p> + +<p>The imprints left upon mud or sand, which time has hardened +and transformed into sandstone, furnish to the geologist another series +of valuable indications. The reptiles of the ancient world, the turtles +in particular, have left upon the sands, which time has transformed +into blocks of stone, impressions which evidently represent the exact +moulds of the feet of those animals. These impressions have, sometimes, +been sufficient for naturalists to determine to what species the +animal belonged which thus left its impress on the wet ground. Some +of these exhibit tracks to which we shall have occasion to refer; +others present traces of the footprints of the great reptile known as +the <i>Labyrinthodon</i> or <i>Cheirotherium</i>, whose footmarks slightly resemble +the impression made by the human hand (<a href="#Fig_1">Fig. 1</a>). Another well-known +impression, which has been left upon the sandstone of Corncockle +Moor, in Dumfriesshire, is supposed to be the impress of the +foot of some great fossil Turtle.</p> + +<p>We may be permitted to offer a short remark on this subject. +The historian and antiquary may traverse the battle-fields of the +Greeks and Romans, and search in vain for traces of those conquerors, +whose armies ravaged the world. Time, which has overthrown the +monuments of their victories, has also effaced the marks of their footsteps; +and of the many millions of men whose invasions have spread +desolation throughout Europe, not even a trace of a footprint is left. +Those reptiles, on the other hand, which crawled thousands of ages +ago on the surface of our planet when it was still in its infancy, have +impressed on the soil indelible proofs of their existence. Hannibal +and his legions, the barbarians and their savage hordes, have passed +over the land without leaving a material mark of their passage; while +the poor turtle, which dragged itself along the silent shores of the +primitive seas, has bequeathed to learned posterity the image and +impression of a part of its body. These imprints may be perceived +as distinctly on the rocks, as the traces left on moist sand or in newly-fallen +snow by some animal walking under our own eyes. What grave +reflections should be awakened within us at the sight of these blocks +of hardened earth, which thus carry back our thoughts to the early +ages of the world! and how insignificant seem the discoveries of the +archæologist who throws himself into ecstacies before some piece of +Greek or Etruscan pottery, when compared with these veritable +antiquities of the earth!</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="Fig_2" id="Fig_2"></a> +<img src="images/illo024.jpg" alt="Fig. 2" width="400" height="325" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 2.—Impressions of rain-drops.</p></div> + +<p>The palæontologist (from παλαιος “ancient,” +οντος “being,” λογος<span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> +“discourse”), who occupies himself with the study of animated beings +which have lived on the earth, takes careful account also of the +sort of moulds left by organised bodies in the fine sediment which +has enveloped them after death. Many organic beings have left no +trace of their existence in Nature, except their impressions, which we +find perfectly preserved in the sandstone and limestone, in marl or +clay, and in the coal-measures; and these moulds are sufficient to tell +us the kind to which the living animals belonged. We shall, no doubt, +astonish our readers when we tell them that there are blocks of sandstone +with distinct impressions of drops of rain which had fallen upon +sea-shores of the ancient world. The impressions of these rain-drops, +made upon the sands, were preserved by desiccation; and these same +sands, being transformed by subsequent hardening into solid and +coherent sandstones, their impressions have been thus preserved to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> +the present day. <a href="#Fig_2">Fig. 2</a> represents impressions of this kind upon the +sandstone of Connecticut river in America, which have been reproduced +from the block itself by photography. In a depression of the +granitic rocks of Massachusetts and Connecticut, the red sandstone +occupies an area of a hundred and fifty miles in length from north to +south, and from five to ten miles in breadth. “On some shales of the +finest texture,” says Sir Charles Lyell, “impressions of rain-drops may +be seen, and casts of them in the argillaceous sandstones.” The +same impressions occur in the recent red mud of the Bay of Fundy. +In addition to these, the undulations left by the passage of the waters +of the sea, over the sands of the primitive world, are preserved by the +same physical agency. Traces of undulations of this kind have been +found in the neighbourhood of Boulogne-sur-Mer, and elsewhere. +Similar phenomena occur in a still more striking manner in some +sandstone-quarries worked at Chalindrey (Haute-Marne). The strata +there present traces of the same kind over a large area, and along +with them impressions of the excrements of marine worms. One may +almost imagine oneself to be standing on the sea-shore while the tide +is ebbing.</p> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Chemical and Nebular Hypotheses of the Globe.</span></h3> + +<p>Among the innumerable hypotheses which human ingenuity has +framed to explain the phenomena which surround the globe, the two +which have found most ready acceptance have been termed respectively +the <span class="smcap">Chemical</span>, and the <span class="smcap">Nebular</span> or mechanical hypothesis. +By the first the solid crust is supposed to have contained abundance +of potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, and other metallic elements. +The percolating waters, coming in contact with these substances, +produce combinations resulting in the conversion of the +metals into their oxides—potash, soda, lime, and magnesia—all of +which enter largely into the composition of volcanic rocks. The +second hypothesis involves the idea of an original incandescent mass +of vapour, succeeded by a great and still existing central fire.</p> + +<p>This idea of a great central fire is a very ancient hypothesis: +admitted by Descartes, developed by Leibnitz, and advocated by +Buffon, it is supposed to account for many phenomena otherwise inexplicable; +and it is confirmed by a crowd of facts, and adopted, or at +least not opposed, by the leading authorities of the age. Dr. Buckland +makes it the basis of his Bridgewater treatise. Herschel, Hind, Murchison, +Lyell, Phillips, and other leading English astronomers and +geologists give a cautious adhesion to the doctrine. The following<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> +are some of the principal arguments adduced in support of the +hypothesis, for, in the nature of the proofs it admits of, it can be +no more.</p> + +<p>When we descend into the interior of a mine, it is found that the +temperature rises in an appreciable manner, and that it increases with +the depth below the surface.</p> + +<p>The high temperature of the waters in Artesian wells when these +are very deep, testifies to a great heat of the interior of the earth.</p> + +<p>The thermal waters which issue from the earth—of which the +temperature sometimes rises to 100° Centigrade and upwards—as, +for instance, the Geysers of Iceland—furnish another proof in support +of the hypothesis.</p> + +<p>Modern volcanoes are said to be a visible demonstration of the +existence of central heat. The heated gases, the liquid lava, the +flames which escape from their craters, all tend to prove sufficiently +that the interior of the globe has a temperature prodigiously elevated +as compared with that at its surface.</p> + +<p>The disengagement of gases and burning vapours through the +accidental fissures in the crust, which accompany earthquakes, still +further tends to establish the existence of a great heat in the interior +of the globe.</p> + +<p>We have already said that the temperature of the globe increases +about one degree for every sixty or seventy feet of depth beneath its +surface. The correctness of this observation has been verified in a +great number of instances—indeed, to the greatest depth to which +man has penetrated, and been able to make use of the thermometer. +Now, as we know exactly the length of the radius of the terrestrial +sphere, it has been calculated from this progression of temperature, +supposing it to be regular and uniform, that the centre of the globe +ought to have at the present time a mean temperature of 195,000° +Centigrade. No matter could preserve its solid state at this excessive +temperature; it follows, then, that the centre of the globe, +and all parts near the centre, must be in a permanent state of +fluidity.</p> + +<p>The works of Werner, of Hutton, of Leopold von Buch, of Humboldt, +of Cordier, W. Hopkins, Buckland, and some other English +philosophers, have reduced this hypothesis to a theory, on which has +been based, to a considerable extent, the whole science of modern +geology; although, properly speaking, and in the popular acceptation +of the term, that science only deals with the solid crust of +the earth.</p> + +<p>The nebular theory thus embraces the whole solar system, and,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> +by analogy, the universe. It assumes that the <span class="smcap">sun</span> was originally a +mass of incandescent matter, that vast body being brought into a +state of evolution by the action of laws to which the Creator, in His +divine wisdom, has subjected all matter. In consequence of its +immense expansion and attenuation, the exterior zone of vapour, +expanding beyond the sphere of attraction, is supposed to have been +thrown off by centrifugal force. This zone of vapour, which may +be supposed at one time to have resembled the rings of Saturn, would +in time break up into several masses, and these masses coalescing +into globes, would (by the greater power of attraction which they +would assume as consolidated bodies) revolve round the sun, and, +from mechanical considerations, would also revolve with a rotary +motion on their own axes.</p> + +<p>This doctrine is applied to all the planets, and assumes each to +have been in a state of incandescent vapour, with a central incandescent +nucleus. As the cooling went on, each of these bodies may +be supposed to have thrown off similar masses of vapour, which, by +the operation of the same laws, would assume the rotary state, +and, as satellites, revolve round the parent planet. Such, in brief, +was the grand conception of Laplace; and surely it detracts nothing +from our notions of the omnipotence of the Creator that it initiates the +creation step by step, and under the laws to which matter is subjected, +rather than by the direct fiat of the Almighty. The hypothesis +assumes that as the vaporous mass cooled by the radiation of heat +into space, the particles of matter would approximate and solidify.</p> + +<p>That the figure of the earth is such as a very large mass of +matter in a state of fluidity would assume from a state of rotation, +seems to be admitted, thus corroborating the speculations of Leibnitz, +that the earth is to be looked on as a heated fluid globe, cooled, and +still cooling at the surface, by radiation of its superfluous heat into +space. Mr. W. Hopkins<a name="FNanchor_7" id="FNanchor_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> +has put forth some strong but simple +reasons in support of a different theory; although he does not attempt +to solve the problem, but leaves the reader to form his own conclusions. +As far as we have been able to follow his reasoning we +gather from it that:—</p> + +<p>If the earth were a fluid mass cooled by radiation, the cooled +parts would, by the laws of circulating fluids, descend towards the +centre, and be replaced on the surface by matter at a higher +temperature.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>The consolidation of such a mass would, therefore, be accompanied +by a struggle for superiority between pressure and temperature, +both of which would be at their maximum at the centre of the mass.</p> + +<p>At the surface, it would be a question of rapidity of cooling, by +radiation, as compared with the internal condition—for comparing +which relations we are without data; but on the result of which +depends whether such a body would most rapidly solidify at the +surface by radiation, or at the centre by pressure.</p> + +<p>The effect of the first would be solidification at the surface, followed +by condensation at the centre through pressure. There would +thus be two masses, a spherical fluid nucleus, and a spherical shell or +envelope, with a large zone of semi-fluid, pasty matter between, continually +changing its temperature as its outer or inner surface became +converted to the solid state.</p> + +<p>If pressure, on the other hand, gained the victory, the centre +would solidify before the circulation of the heated matter had ceased; +and the solidifying process would proceed through a large portion of +the globe, and even approach the surface before that would become +solid. In other words, solidification would proceed from the centre +until the diminishing power of pressure was balanced by radiation, +when the gradual abstraction of heat would allow the particles to +approximate and become solid.</p> + +<p>The terrestrial sphere may thus be a solid indurated mass at the +centre, with a solid stony crust at the surface, and a shifting viscous, +but daily-decreasing, mass between the two; a supposition which the +diminished and diminishing frequency and magnitude of volcanic +and other eruptive convulsions seem to render not improbable.</p> + +<p>It is not to be supposed that amongst the various hypotheses of +which the cosmogony of the world has been the object, a literal +acceptation of the scriptural account finds no defenders among men +of science. “Why,” asks one of these +writers,<a name="FNanchor_8" id="FNanchor_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> after some scornful +remarks upon the geologists and their science—“why an omnipotent +Creator should have called into being a gaseous-granite nebulous +world, only to have to cool it down again, consisting as it does of an +endless variety of substances, should even have been supposed to be +originally constituted of the matter of granite alone, for nothing else +was provided by the theory, nobody can rationally explain. How +the earth’s centre now could be liquid fire with its surface solid and +cold and its seas not boiling caldrons, has never been attempted to +be accounted for. How educated gentlemen, engaged in scientific<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> +investigations, ever came to accept such a monstrously stupid mass of +absurdities as deductions of ‘science,’ and put them in comparison +with the rational account of the creation given by Moses, is more +difficult to understand than even this vague theory itself, which it is +impossible to describe.</p> + +<p>“Of the first creation of the chaotic world,” the same writer goes +on to say, “or the material elements, before they were shaped into +their present forms, we can scarce have the most vague conception. +All our experience relates to their existing conditions. But knowing +somewhat of the variety of the constituent elements and their distinct +properties, by which they manifest their existence to us, we cannot +conceive of their creation without presupposing a Divine wisdom, +and—if I may say so, with all reverence, and only to suit our human +notions—a Divine ingenuity,” and he follows for six days the operations +as described by Moses, with a running comment. When light +is created, the conception of the work becomes simpler to our minds. +Its least manifestation would suffice at once to dispel darkness, and +yet how marvellous is the light! In the second day’s work the +firmament of heaven is opened; the expanse of the air between the +heavens and the earth, dividing the waters above from the waters +below, is the work recorded as performed. Not till the third day commence +the first geological operations. The waters of the earth are +gathered together into seas, and the dry land is made to appear. It +is now that we can imagine that the formation of the primary strata +commenced, while by some of the internal forces of matter the earth +was elevated and stood above the waters.</p> + +<p>Immediately the dry land is raised above and separated from the +waters the fiat goes forth, “Let the earth <i>bring forth</i> grass, and +herb and tree;” vegetable life begins to exist, and the world is first +decorated with its beauteous flora, with all its exquisite variety of forms +and brilliancy of colouring, with which not even Solomon in all his +glory can compare. In like manner, on the sixth day the earth is +commanded to bring forth land-animals—the living creature “after +his kind,” cattle and creeping thing, and beast of the earth, “after his +kind;” and last of all, but on the same day, man is created, and +made the chief and monarch of God’s other living creatures—for +that is “man’s place in Nature.” “Let us now see,” he continues, +“how this history came to be discredited by the opposition of a falsely +so-called ‘science’ of geology, that, while spared by our theologians, +has since pulled itself to pieces. The first step in the false inductions +geology made arose from the rash deduction, that the order in which +the fossil remains of organic being were found deposited in the various<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> +strata necessarily determined the order of their creation; and the next +error arose from blindly rushing to rash conclusions, and hasty +generalisation from a very limited number of facts, and the most imperfect +investigations. There were also (and, indeed, are still) some +wild dogmatisms as to the time necessary to produce certain geologic +formations; but the absurdities of science culminated when it adopted +from Laplace the irrational and unintelligible theory of a <i>natural</i> +origin for the world from a nebula of gaseous granite, intensely hot, +and supposed to be gradually cooled while gyrating senselessly in +space.”</p> + +<p>In this paper the writer does not attempt to deal with the various +phenomena of volcanoes, earthquakes, hot springs, and other matters +which are usually considered as proofs of great internal heat. Mr. +Evan Hopkins, C.E., F.G.S., is more precise if less eloquent. He +shows that, in tropical countries, plains of gravel may in a day be +converted into lagoons and marshes; that by the fall of an avalanche +rivers have been blocked up, which, bursting their banks, have covered +many square miles of fertile country with several feet of mud, sand, +and gravel. “Two thousand four hundred years ago,” he says, +“Nineveh flourished in all its grandeur, yet it is now buried in +oblivion, and its site overwhelmed with sand. Look at old Tyre, once +the queen of cities and mistress of the sea. She was in all her pride +two thousand four hundred and forty years ago. We now see but a +bare rock in the sea, on which fishermen spread their nets! A thousand +years ago, according to Icelandic histories, Greenland was a fertile +land in the south, and supported a large population. Iceland at that +period was covered with forests of birch and fir, and the inhabitants +cultivated barley and other grain. We may, therefore, conclude, with +these facts before us, that there is no necessity to assign myriads of +ages to terrestrial changes, as assumed by geologists, as they can be +accounted for by means of alterations effected during a few thousand +years, for the surface of the earth is ever changing.</p> + +<p>“Grant geological speculators,” Mr. Hopkins continues, “a few +millions of centuries, with a command over the agencies of Nature to +be brought into operation when and how they please, and they think +they can form a world with every variety of rock and vegetation, and +even transform a worm into a man! Yet the wisest of our philosophers +would be puzzled if called upon to explain why fluids become +spheres, as dew-drops; why carbonate of lime acquires in solidifying +from a liquid the figure of an obtuse rhomboihedron, silica of a six-sided +prism; and why oxygen and hydrogen gases produce both <i>fire</i> +and <i>water</i>. And what do they gain,” he proceeds to ask, “by +carrying<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> +back the history of the world to these myriads of centuries? Do they, +by the extension of the period to infinity, explain how the ‘<i>Original</i>’ +materials were created? But,” he adds, “geologists are by no means +agreed in their assumed geological periods! The so-called glacial +period has been computed by some to be equal to about eighty-three +thousand years, and by others at even as much as twelve hundred and +eighty millions of years! Were we to ask for a <i>demonstrative proof</i> of +any given deposit being more than four or five thousand years old, they +could not give it. Where is Babylon, the glory of the kingdoms? Look +at Thebes, and behold its colossal columns, statues, temples, obelisks, +and palaces desolated; and yet those great cities flourished within the +last three thousand years. Even Pompeii and Herculaneum were all +but lost to history! What,” he asks after these brief allusions to the +past—“what, as a matter of fact, have geologists discovered, as regards +the great terrestrial changes, more than was known to Pythagoras +and the ancient philosophers who taught, two thousand three hundred +and fifty years ago, ‘that the surface of the earth was ever changing—solid +land converted into sea, sea changed into dry land, marine shells +lying far distant from the deep, valleys excavated by running water, +and floods washing down hills into the sea?’”</p> + +<p>In reference to the argument of the vast antiquity of the earth, +founded on elevation of coasts at a given rate of upheaval, he adduces +many facts to show that upheavals of equal extent have occurred +almost within the memory of man. Two hundred and fifty years ago +Sir Francis Drake, with his fleet, sailed into Albemarle Sound through +Roanoke Outlet, which is now a sand-bank above the reach of the +highest tides. Only seventy years ago it was navigable by vessels +drawing twelve feet of water. The whole American coast, both on +the Atlantic and Pacific, have undergone great changes within the last +hundred years. The coast of South America has, in some places, +been upheaved twenty feet in the last century; in others, a few +hundred miles distant, it has been depressed to an equal extent. A +transverse section from Rio Santa Cruz to the base of the Cordilleras, +and another in the Rio Negro, in Patagonia, showed that the whole +sedimentary series is of recent origin. Scattered over the whole at +various heights above the sea, from thirteen hundred feet downwards, +are found recent shells of <i>littoral</i> species of the neighbouring coast—denoting +upheavals which might have been effected during the last +three thousand years.</p> + +<p>Coming nearer home, he shows that in 1538 the whole coast of +Pozzuoli, near Naples, was raised twenty feet in a single night. +Then, with regard to more compact crystalline or semi-crystalline<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> +rocks, no reliable opinion can be formed on mere inspection. Two +blocks of marble may appear precisely alike, though formed at +different periods. A crystal of carbonate of lime, formed in a few +years, would be found quite perfect, and as compact as a crystal +formed during many centuries. Nothing can be deduced from the +process of petrifaction and crystallisation, unless they enclose relics +of a known period. At San Filippo, a solid mass of limestone +thirty feet thick has been formed in about twenty years. A hard +stratum of travertine a foot thick is obtained, from these thermal +springs, in the course of four months. Nor can geologists demonstrate +that the Amiens deposits, in which the flint-implements occur, +are more than three or four thousand years old.</p> + +<p>The causes of these changes and mutations are referred by some +persons to floods, or to pre-Adamite convulsions, whereas the +cause is in constant operation; they are due to an invisible and +subtle power which pervades the air, the ocean, and the rocks below—in +which all are wrapped and permeated—which is universally +present, namely, magnetism—a power always in operation, always in +a state of activity and tension. It has an attractive power towards +the surface of the earth, as well as a directive action from pole to +pole. “It is, indeed,” he adds, emphatically, “the <i>terrestrial gravitation</i>. +Magnetic needles freely suspended show its meridional or +directive polar force, and that the force converges at two opposite +parts, which are bounded by the Antarctic and Arctic circles.”</p> + +<p>This polar force, like a stream, is constantly moving from pole to +pole; and experiment proves that this movement is from the South +Pole to the North. “Hence the various terrestrial substances, solids +and fluids, through which this subtle and universal power permeates, +are controlled, propelled, and modified over the entire surface of our +globe, commencing at the south and dissolving at the north. Thus, +all terrestrial matter moves towards the Arctic region, and finally +disappears by dissolution and absorption, to be renewed again and +again in the Antarctic Sea to the end of time.”</p> + +<p>In order to prove that the north polar basin is the receptacle of +the final dissolution of all terrestrial substances, Mr. Hopkins quotes +the Gulf Stream. Bottles, tropical plants, and wrecks cast into the +sea in the South Atlantic, are carried to Greenland in a comparatively +short time. The great <i>tidal</i> waves commence at the fountain-head in +the Antarctic circle, impinge against the south coast of Tierra del +Fuego, New Zealand, and Tasmania, and are then propelled northward +in a series of undulations. The South Atlantic stream, after +doubling the Cape of Good Hope, moves towards the Guinea coast,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> +bends towards the Caribbean Sea, producing the trade winds; again +leaves Florida as the Gulf Stream, and washes the coasts of Greenland +and Norway, and finally reaches the north polar basin.</p> + +<p>Again the great polar force shows itself in the arrangement of the +mineral structure below. In all the primary rocks in every quarter of +the globe where they have been examined, its action is recognised in +giving to the crystalline masses—granites and their laminated elongations—a +polar grain and vertical cleavage. “Had it been possible to +see our globe stripped of its sedimentary deposits and its oceanic +covering, we should see it like a gigantic melon, with a uniform +grain extending from pole to pole.” This structure appears to give +polarity to earthquakes—thermal waters and earthquakes—which are +all traceable in the direction of the polar grain or cleavage from north +to south.</p> + +<p>In England, for instance, thermal and saline springs are traceable +from Bath, through Cheltenham, to Dudley. In Central France, +mineral springs occur in lines, more or less, north and south. All +the known salt-springs in South America occur in meridional bands. +Springs of chloride of sodium in the Eastern Cordilleras stretch +from Pinceima to the Llanoes de Meta, a distance of 200 miles. +The most productive metalliferous deposits are found in meridional +bands. The watery volcanoes in South America are generally situated +along the lines of the meridional splits and the secondary eruptive +pores on the transverse fractures. The sudden ruptures arising +locally from increasing tension of the polar force, and the rapid +expansion of the generated gases, produce a vibratory jar in the +rocky structure below, which being propagated along the planes of +the polar cleavage, gives rise to great superficial oscillations, and +thus causes earthquakes and subterranean thunder for thousands of +miles, from south to north.</p> + +<p>In 1797, the district round the volcano of Tunguraqua in Quito, +during one of the great meridional shocks, experienced an undulating +movement, which lasted upwards of four minutes, and this was +propagated to the shores of the Caribbean Sea.</p> + +<p>All these movements demonstrated, according to Mr. Hopkins, +that the land as well as the ocean moves from the south pole and +north pole, and that the magnetic power has a tendency to proceed +from pole to pole in a <i>spiral</i> path from south-east to north-west, a +movement which produces an apparent change in the equinoxes, or +the outer section of the plane of the ecliptic with the equator, a +phenomenon known to astronomers as the precession of the +equinoxes.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>Such is a very brief summary of the arguments by which Mr. Evan +Hopkins maintains the literal correctness of the Mosaic account of +the creation, and attempts to show that all the facts discovered by +geologists may have occurred in the ages included in the Mosaic +chronology.</p> + +<p>That the mysterious power of terrestrial magnetism can perform +all that he claims for it, we can perhaps admit. But how does +this explain the succession of Silurian, Old Red Sandstone, Carboniferous +and other strata, up to the Tertiary deposits, with their +fossils, each differing in character from those of the preceding series? +That these were successive creations admits of no doubt, and while it +is undeniable that the fiat of the Creator could readily produce all +these phenomena, it may reasonably be asked if it is probable that +all these myriads of organic beings, whose remains serve as records +of their existence, were created only to be immediately destroyed.</p> + +<p>Again, does not the author of the “Principles of Terrestrial +Physics” prove too much? He admits that 3,000 years ago the +climate of England was tropical: he does not deny that a subsequent +period of intense cold intervened, 2,550 years ago. He +admits historical records, and 2,350 years ago Pythagoras constructed +his cosmography of the world, which has never been seriously impugned; +and yet he has no suspicion that countries so near to his +own had changed their climates first from tropical to glacial, and +back again to a temperate zone. It is not reasonable to believe this +parable.</p> + +<p>The school of philosophy generally considered to be the most +advanced in modern science has yet another view of cosmogony, of +which we venture to give a brief outline. Space is infinite, says the +exponent of this system,<a name="FNanchor_9" id="FNanchor_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9" +class="fnanchor">[9]</a> for wherever in imagination we erect a +boundary, we are compelled to think of space as existing beyond +it. The starry heavens proclaim that it is not entirely void; but the +question remains, are the vast regions which surround the stars, and +across which light is propagated, absolutely empty? No. Modern +science, while it rejects the notion of the luminiferous particles of the +old philosophy, has cogent proofs of the existence of a luminiferous +ether with definite mechanical properties. It is infinitely more attenuated, +but more solid than gas. It resembles jelly rather than +air, and if not co-extensive with space, it extends as far as the most +distant star the telescope reveals to us; it is the vehicle of their light +in fact; it takes up their molecular tremors and conveys them with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> +inconceivable rapidity to our organs of vision. The splendour of +the firmament at night is due to this vibration. If this ether has a +boundary, masses of ponderable matter may exist beyond it, but +they could emit no light. Dark suns may burn there, metals may be +heated to fusion in invisible furnaces, planets may be molten amid +intense darkness; for the loss of heat being simply the abstraction of +molecular motion by the ether, where this medium is absent no +cooling could take place.</p> + +<p>This, however, does not concern us; as far as our knowledge of +space extends, we are to conceive of it as the holder of this luminiferous +ether, through which the fixed stars are interspersed at +enormous distances apart. Associated with our planet we have a +group of dark planetary masses revolving at various distances around +it, each rotating on its axis; and, connected with them, their moons. +Was space furnished at once, by the fiat of Omnipotence, with these +burning orbs? The man of science should give no answer to this +question: but he has better materials to guide him than anybody +else, and can clearly show that the present state of things <i>may</i> be +derivative. He can perhaps assign reasons which render it probable +that it <i>is derivative</i>. The law of gravitation enunciated by Newton +is, that every particle of matter in the universe attracts every other +particle with a force which diminishes as the square of the distance +increases. Under this law a stone falls to the ground, and heat is +produced by the shock; meteors plunge into the atmosphere and +become incandescent; showers of such doubtless fall incessantly +upon the sun, and were it stopped in its orbit, the earth would rush +towards the sun, developing heat in the collision (according to the +calculations of MM. Joule, Mayer, Helmholtz, and Thomson), equal +to the combustion of five thousand worlds of solid coal. In the +attraction of gravity, therefore, acting upon this luminous matter, we +have a source of heat more powerful than could be derived from any +terrestrial combustion.</p> + +<p>To the above conception of space we must add that of its being +in a continual state of tremor. The sources of vibration are the +ponderable masses of the universe. Our own planet is an aggregate +of solids, liquids, and gases. On closer examination, these are found +to be composed of still more elementary parts: the water of our rivers +is formed by the union, in definite proportions, of two gases, oxygen +and hydrogen. So, likewise, our chalk hills are formed by a combination +of carbon, oxygen, and calcium; elements which in definite +proportions form chalk. The flint found within that chalk is compounded +of oxygen and silicon, and our ordinary clay is for the most<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> +part formed by a union of silicon, oxygen, and aluminum. By far +the greater part of the earthy crust is thus compounded of a few +elementary substances.</p> + +<p>Such is Professor Tyndall’s view of the universe, rising incidentally +out of his theory of heat, his main object being to elucidate his +theory of heat and light.</p> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Modifications of the Surface of the Globe.</span></h3> + +<p>As a consequence of the hypothesis of central heat, it is admitted +that our planet has been agitated by a series of local disturbances; +that is to say, by ruptures of its solid crust occurring at more or less +distant intervals. These partial revolutions at the surface are supposed +to have been produced, as we shall have occasion to explain, +by upheavals or depressions of the solid crust, resulting from the +fluidity of the central parts, and by the cooling down of the external +crust of the globe.</p> + +<p>Almost all bodies, in passing from a liquid to a solid state, are +diminished in size in the process. In molten metals which resume +the solid state by cooling, this diminution amounts to about a tenth +of their volume; but the decrease in size is not equal throughout the +whole mass. Hence, as a result of the solidification of the internal +parts of the globe, the outer envelope would be too large; and would +no longer fit the inner sphere, which had contracted in cooling. +Cracks and hollows occur under such circumstances, even in small +masses, and the effect of converting such a vast body as the earth +from a liquid, or rather molten condition, to a solid state, may be +imagined. As the interior became solid and concrete by cooling, +furrows, corrugations, and depressions in the external crust of the +globe would occur, causing great inequalities in its surface; producing, +in short, what are now called <i>chains of mountains</i>.</p> + +<p>At other times, in lieu of furrows and irregularities, the solid crust +has become ruptured, producing fissures and fractures in the outer +envelope, sometimes of immense extent. The liquid substances contained +in the interior of the globe, with or without the action of the +gases they enclose, escape through these openings; and, accumulating +on the surface, become, on cooling and consolidating, <i>mountains</i> of +various heights.</p> + +<p>It would also happen, and always from the same cause, namely, +from the internal contraction caused by the unequal cooling of the +globe, that minor fissures would be formed in the earth’s crust; incandescent +liquid matter would be afterwards injected into these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> +fissures, filling them up, and forming in the rocky crust those long +narrow lines of foreign substances which we call <i>dykes</i>.</p> + +<p>Finally, it would occasionally happen, that in place of molten +matter, such as granite or metalliferous compounds, escaping through +these fractures and fissures in the globe, actual rivers of boiling water, +abundantly charged with various mineral salts (that is to say, with +silicates, and with calcareous and magnesian compounds), would also +escape, since the elements of water would be abundant in the incandescent +mass. Added to these the chemical and mechanical action +of the atmosphere, of rain, rivers, and the sea, have all a tendency to +destroy the hardest rocks. The mineral salts and other foreign +substances, entering into combination with those already present in +the waters of the sea, and separating at a subsequent period from these +waters, would be thrown down, and thus constitute extensive deposits—that +is to say, <i>sedimentary formations</i>. These became, on consolidation, +the <i>sedimentary rocks</i>.</p> + +<p>The furrows, corrugations, and fractures in the terrestrial crust, +which so changed the aspect of the surface, and for the time displaced +the sea-basins, would be followed by periods of calm. During +these periods, the débris, torn by the movement of the waters from +certain points of the land, would be transported to other parts of the +globe by the oceanic currents. These accumulated heterogeneous +materials, when deposited at a later period, would ultimately constitute +formations—that is, <i>transported or drifted rocks</i>.</p> + +<p>We have ventured to explain some of the theories by which it is +sought to explain the cosmography of the world. But our readers +must understand that all such speculations are, of necessity, purely +hypothetical.</p> + +<p>In conformity with the preceding considerations we shall divide +the mineral substances of which the earth is composed into three +general groups, under the following heads:—</p> + +<p>1. <i>Eruptive Rocks.</i>—Crystalline, like the second, but formed at all +geological periods by the irruption or intrusion of the liquid matter occupying +the interior of our globe through all the pre-existing rocks.</p> + +<p>2. <i>Crystalline Rocks.</i>—That portion of the terrestrial crust which +was primarily liquid, owing to the heat of the globe, but which +solidified at the period of its first cooling down; forming the masses +known as Fundamental Gneiss, and Laurentian, &c.</p> + +<p>3. <i>Sedimentary Rocks.</i>—Consisting of various mineral substances +deposited by the water of the sea, such as silica, the carbonates of +lime and magnesia, &c.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>The +mineral masses which constitute the <i>sedimentary rocks</i> form +beds, or <i>strata</i>, having among themselves a constant order of superposition +which indicates their relative age. The mineral structure of +these beds, and the remains of the organised beings they contain, +impress on them characters which enable us to distinguish each bed +from that which precedes and follows it.</p> + +<p>It does not follow, however, that all these beds are met with, +regularly superimposed, over the whole surface of the globe; under +such circumstances geology would be a very simple science, only +requiring the use of the eyes. In consequence of the frequent eruptions +of granite, porphyry, serpentine, trachyte, basalt, and lava, these +beds are often broken, cut off, and replaced by others.</p> + +<p><i>Denudation</i> has been another fruitful source of change. Professor +Ramsay<a name="FNanchor_10" id="FNanchor_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10" +class="fnanchor">[10]</a> shows, in the “Memoirs of the Geological Survey,” that +beds once existed above a great part of the Mendip Hills to the +extent of at least 6,000 feet, which have been removed by the +denuding agency of the sea; while in South Wales and the adjacent +country, a series of Palaeozoic rocks, eleven thousand feet in thickness, +has been removed by the action of water. In fact, every foot +of the earth now forming the dry land is supposed to have been at +one time under water—to have emerged, and to have been again submerged, +and subjected to the destructive action of the ocean. At +certain points a whole series of sedimentary deposits, and often several +of them, have been removed by this cause, known by geologists as +<i>Denudation</i>. The regular series of rock formations are, in fact, rarely +found in unbroken order. It is only by combining the collected observations +of the geologists of all countries, that we are enabled to arrange, +according to their relative ages, the several beds composing the solid +terrestrial crust as they occur in the following Table, which proceeds +from the surface towards the centre, in descending order:—</p> + +<h4>ORDER OF STRATIFICATION.</h4> + +<table class="fsize80 coll" summary="Table p. 28"> + +<tr> +<td class="left padr3">Quaternary Epoch</td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left padl1">Modern Period.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="4" class="blankrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="3" class="left padr3">Tertiary Epoch</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bl bt"></td> +<td class="left padl1">Pliocene Period.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="bl"></td> +<td class="left padl1">Miocene Period.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="bl bb"></td> +<td class="left padl1">Eocene Period.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="4" class="blankrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="3" class="left padr3">Secondary Epoch</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bl bt"></td> +<td class="left padl1">Cretaceous Rocks.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="bl"></td> +<td class="left padl1">Jurassic Rocks.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="bl bb"></td> +<td class="left padl1">Triassic Rocks.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="4" class="blankrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="4" class="left padr3">Primary Epoch</td> +<td rowspan="4" class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bl bt"></td> +<td class="left padl1">Permian Rocks.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="bl"></td> +<td class="left padl1">Carboniferous Rocks.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="bl"></td> +<td class="left padl1">Devonian Rocks.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="bl bb"></td> +<td class="left padl1">Silurian Rocks.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="4" class="blankrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="2" class="left padr3">Metamorphic Series</td> +<td rowspan="2" class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bl bt"></td> +<td class="left padl1">Cambrian Rocks.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="bl bb"></td> +<td class="left padl1">Fundamental Gneiss, or Laurentian.</td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>Under +these heads we propose to examine the successive transformations +to which the earth has been subjected in reaching its +present condition; in other words, we propose, both from an historical +and descriptive point of view, to take a survey of the several +<i>epochs</i> which can be distinguished in the gradual formation of the +earth, corresponding with the formation of the great groups of rocks +enumerated in the preceding table. We shall describe the living +creatures which have peopled the earth at each of these epochs, and +which have disappeared, from causes which we shall also endeavour +to trace. We shall describe the plants belonging to each great phase +in the history of the globe. At the same time, we shall not pass over +entirely in silence the rocks deposited by the waters, or thrown up by +eruption during these periods; we propose, also, to give a summary +of the mineralogical characters and of the fossils characteristic of, or +peculiar to each formation. What we propose, in short, is to give a +history of the formation of the globe, and a description of the principal +rocks which actually compose it; and to take also a rapid glance +at the several generations of animals and plants which have succeeded +and replaced each other on the earth, from the very beginning of +organic life up to the time of man’s appearance.</p> + +<hr class="footnote" /> +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote_1" id="Footnote_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Dei corpi marini, &c., 1721.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_2" id="Footnote_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Sui crostaccei ed altri corpi marini +che sè trovano sui monti, 1740.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_3" id="Footnote_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Consult Lyell’s +“Principles of Geology” and the sixth edition of the +“Elements,” with much new matter, for further information relative to the study +of fossils during the last two centuries.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_4" id="Footnote_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> “Ossements Fossiles” +(4to), vol. i., p. 29.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_5" id="Footnote_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> “Ossements Fossiles” +(4to), vol. i., pp. 1, 2.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_6" id="Footnote_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> “Ossements Fossiles,” +vol. iv. (4to), p. 32.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_7" id="Footnote_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> See <i>Phil. Transactions</i>, +1839-40-42; also, <i>Quarterly Journal of the Geological +Society</i>, vol. viii., p. 56.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_8" id="Footnote_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> “Fresh Springs of +Truth.” R. Griffin and Co.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_9" id="Footnote_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Professor Tyndall in <i>Fortnightly +Review</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_10" id="Footnote_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> “Memoirs of the Geological +Survey of Great Britain,” vol. i., p. 297.</p> + +</div> + +<hr class="c25" /> +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></p> +<h2>ERUPTIVE ROCKS.</h2> + +<p>Nothing is more difficult than to write a chronological history of the +revolutions and changes to which the earth has been subjected during +the ages which preceded the historic times. The phenomena which +have concurred to fashion its enormous mass, and to give to it its +present form and structure, are so numerous, so varied, and sometimes +so nearly simultaneous in their action, that the records defy the +powers of observation to separate them. The deposition of the sedimentary +rocks has been subject to interruption during all ages of the +world. Violent igneous eruptions have penetrated the sedimentary +beds, elevating them in some places, depressing them in others, and +in all cases disturbing their order of superposition, and ejecting masses +of crystalline rocks from the incandescent centre to the surface. +Amidst these perturbations, sometimes stretching over a vast extent +of country, anything like a rigorous chronological record becomes +impossible, for the phenomena are so continuous and complex that +it is no longer possible to distinguish the fundamental from the +accidental and secondary causes.</p> + +<p>In order to render the subject somewhat clearer, the great facts +relative to the progressive formation of the terrestrial globe are +divided into epochs, during which the sedimentary rocks were formed +in due order in the seas of the ancient world, the mud and sand in +which were deposited day by day. Again, even where the line of +demarcation is clearest between one formation and another, it must +not be supposed there is any sharply defined line of separation +between them. On the contrary, one system gradually merges into +that which succeeds it. The rocks and fossils of the one gradually +disappear, to be succeeded by those of the overlying series in the +regular order of succession. The newly-made strata became the +cemetery of the myriads of beings which lived and died in the bosom +of the ocean. The rocks thus deposited were called <i>Neptunian</i> by +the older geologists.</p> + +<p>But while the seas of each epoch were thus building up, grain by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> +grain, and bed by bed, the new formation out of the ruins of the older, +other influences were at work, sometimes, to all appearance, impeding +sometimes advancing, the great work. The <i>Plutonic rocks</i>—the +<i>igneous or eruptive rocks</i> of modern geology, as we have seen above, +were the great disturbing agents, and these disturbances occur in +every age of the earth’s history. We shall have occasion to speak of +these eruptive formations while describing the phenomena of the several +epochs. But it is thought that the narrative will be made clearer and +more instructive by grouping this class of phenomena into one +chapter, which we place at the commencement, inasmuch as the constant +reference to the eruptive rocks will thus be rendered more +intelligible. To these are now added the section “Metamorphic +Rocks,” from the fifth edition of the French work.</p> + +<p>The rocks which issued from the centre of the earth in a state of +fusion are found associated or interstratified with masses of every epoch, +more especially with those of the more ancient strata. The formations +which these rocks have originated possess great interest; first, because +they enter into the composition of the terrestrial crust; secondly, because +they have impressed on its surface, in the course of their eruption, +some of the characteristics of its configuration and structure; finally, +because, by their means, the metals which are the objects of human +industry have been brought nearer to the surface. According to the +order of their appearance, or as nearly so as can be ascertained, we +shall class the eruptive rocks in two groups:—</p> + +<p>I. The <i>Volcanic Rocks</i>, of comparatively recent origin, which have +given rise to a succession of trachytes, basalts, and modern lavas. +These, being of looser texture, are presumed to have cooled more +rapidly than the Plutonic rocks, and at or near the surface.</p> + +<p>II. The <i>Plutonic Rocks</i>, of older date, which are exemplified in +the various kinds of granites, the syenites, the protogines, porphyries, +&c. These differ from the volcanic rocks in their more compact +crystalline structure, in the absence of tufa, as well as of pores and +cavities; from which it is inferred that they were formed at considerable +depths in the earth, and that they have cooled and crystallised +slowly under great pressure.</p> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Plutonic Eruptions.</span></h3> + +<p>The great eruptions of <i>ancient granite</i> are supposed to have +occurred during the primary epoch, and chiefly in the carboniferous +period. They present themselves sometimes in considerable masses, +for the earth’s crust being still thin and permeable, it was +prepared<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> +as it were for absorbing the granite masses. In consequence of its +weak cohesion, the primitive crust of the globe would be rent and +penetrated in all directions, as represented in the following section of +Cape Wrath, in Sutherlandshire, in which the veins of granite ramify +in a very irregular manner across the gneiss and hornblende-schist, +there associated with it. (<a href="#Fig_3">Fig. 3</a>.)</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="Fig_3" id="Fig_3"></a> +<img src="images/illo042.png" alt="Fig. 3" width="500" height="373" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 3.—Veins of granite traversing the gneiss of Cape Wrath.</p></div> + +<p>Granite, when it is sound, furnishes a fine building-stone, but we +must not suppose that it deserves that character of extreme hardness +with which the poets have gratuitously gifted it. Its granular texture +renders it unfit for road-stone, where it gets crushed too quickly to +dust. With his hammer the geologist easily shapes his specimens; +and in the Russian War, at the bombardment of Bomarsund, the +shot from our ships demonstrated that ramparts of granite could be +as easily demolished as those constructed of limestone.</p> + +<p>The component minerals of granite are felspar, quartz, and mica,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> +in varying proportions; felspar being generally the predominant +ingredient, and quartz more plentiful than mica—the whole being +united into a confusedly granular or crystalline mass. Occasionally +it passes insensibly from fine to coarse-grained granite, and the +finer grained is even sometimes found embedded in the more +coarsely granular variety: sometimes it assumes a porphyritic texture. +Porphyritic granite is a variety of granite, the components of which—quartz, +felspar, and mica—are set in a non-crystallised paste, +uniting the mass in a manner which will be familiar to many of our +readers who may have seen the granite of the Land’s End, in Cornwall. +Alongside these orthoclase crystals, quartz is implanted, usually in +grains of irregular shape, more rarely crystallised, and seldom in the +form of perfect crystals. To these ingredients are added thin scales +or small hexagonal plates and crystals of white, brown, black, or +greenish-coloured mica. Finally, the name of <i>quartziferous porphyry</i> +is reserved for those varieties which present crystals of quartz; the +other varieties are simply called <i>porphyritic granite</i>. <i>True</i> porphyry +presents a paste essentially composed of compact felspar, in which +the crystals of orthoclase—that is, felspar with a potash base—are +abundantly disseminated, and sometimes with great regularity.</p> + +<p>Granite is supposed to have been “formed at considerable depths +in the earth, where it has cooled and crystallised slowly under great +pressure, where the contained gases could not expand.”<a name="FNanchor_11" +id="FNanchor_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> “The +influence,” says Lyell, “of subterranean heat may extend downwards +from the crater of every active volcano to a great depth below, +perhaps several miles or leagues, and the effects which are produced +deep in the bowels of the earth may, or rather must, be distinct; so +that volcanic and plutonic rocks, each different in texture, and sometimes +even in composition, may originate simultaneously, the one at +the surface, the other far beneath it.” Other views, however, of its +origin are not unknown to science: Professor Ramsay and some +other geologists consider granite to be metamorphic. “For my own +part,” says the Professor, “I believe that in one sense it is an igneous +rock; that is to say, that it has been completely fused. But in +another sense it is a metamorphic rock, partly because it is impossible +in many cases to draw any definite line between gneiss and granite, +for they pass into each other by insensible gradations; and granite +frequently <i>occupies the space that ought to be filled with gneiss</i>, were it +not that the gneiss has been entirely fused. I believe therefore that +granite and its allies are simply the effect of the extreme of +metamorphism,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> +brought about by great heat with presence of water. In other +words, when the metamorphism has been so great that all traces of +the semi-crystalline laminated structure have disappeared, a more perfect +crystallisation has taken place.”<a name="FNanchor_12" id="FNanchor_12"></a><a +href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> It is obvious that the very result +on which the Professor founds his theory, namely, the difficulty “in +many cases,” of drawing a line between the granite and the gneiss, +would be produced by the sudden injection of the fluid minerals into +gneiss, composed of the same materials. Moreover, it is only in some +cases that the difficulty exists; in many others the line of separation +is definable enough.<a name="FNanchor_13" id="FNanchor_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> + +<p>The granitic rock called <i>Syenite</i>, in which a part of the mica is +replaced by hornblende or amphibole, has to all appearance been +erupted to the surface subsequently to the granite, and very often +alongside of it. Thus the two extremities of the Vosges, towards +Belfort and Strasburg, are eminently syenitic, while the intermediate +part, towards Colmar, is as markedly granitic. In the Lyonnais, the +southern region is granitic; the northern region, from Arbresle, is in +great part syenitic. Syenite also makes its appearance in the +Limousin.</p> + +<p>Syenite, into which rose-coloured felspar often enters, forms a +beautiful rock, because the green or nearly black hornblende heightens, +by contrast, the effect of its colour. This rock is a valuable adjunct +for architectural ornament; it is that out of which the ancient +Egyptians shaped many of their monumental columns, sphinxes, and +sarcophagi; the most perfect type of it is found in Egypt, not far +from the city of Syene, from which it derives its name. The obelisk +of Luxor now in Paris, several of the Egyptian obelisks in Rome, +and the celebrated sphinxes, of which copies may be seen in front of +the Egyptian Court at the Crystal Palace, the pedestal of the statue +of Peter the Great at St. Petersburg, and the facing of the sub-basement +of the column in the Place Vendôme in Paris, are of this stone, +of which there are quarries in the neighbourhood of Plancher-les-Mines +in the Vosges.</p> + +<p>Syenite disintegrates more readily than granite, and it contains +indurated nodular concretions, which often remain in the form of +large spherical balls, in the midst of the débris resulting from +disintegration<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> +of the mass. It remains to be added that syenitic masses +are often very variable as regards their composition; the hornblende +is sometimes wanting, in which case we can only recognise an +ancient granite. In other instances the hornblende predominates to +such a degree, that a large or small-grained <i>diorite</i>, or greenstone, +results. The geologist should be prepared to observe these transitions, +which are apt to lead him into error if passed over without +being noticed.</p> + +<p><i>Protogine</i> is a talcose granite, composed of felspar, quartz, and +talc or <i>chlorite</i>, or decomposed mica, which take the place of the usual +mica. Excessively variable in its texture, protogine passes from the +most perfect granitic aspect to that of a porphyry, in such a manner +as to present continual subjects of uncertainty, rendering it very +difficult to determine its geological age. Nevertheless, it is supposed +to have come to the surface before and during the coal-period; in +short, at Creusot, protogine covers the coal-fields so completely, that +it is necessary to sink the pits through the protogine, in order to +penetrate to the coal, and the rock has so manifestly acted on the +coal-measure strata, as to have contorted and metamorphosed them. +Something analogous to this manifests itself near Mont Blanc, where +the colossal mass which predominates in that chain, and the peaks +which belong to it, consist of protogine. But as no such action can +be perceived in the overlying rocks of the Triassic period, it may be +assumed that at the time of the deposition of the New Red Sandstone +the protoginous eruptions had ceased.</p> + +<p>It is necessary to add, however, that if the protogine rises in such +bold pinnacles round Mont Blanc, the circumstance only applies to +the more elevated parts of the mountain, and is influenced by the +excessive rigour of the seasons, which demolishes and continually +wears away all the parts of the rock which have been decomposed +by atmospheric agency. Where protogine occurs in milder climates—around +Creusot, and at Pierre-sur-Autre, in the Forez chain, for +instance—the mountains show none of the scarped and bristling +peaks exhibited in the chain of Mont Blanc. Only single isolated +masses occasionally form <i>rocking-stones</i>, so called because, resting +with a convex base upon a pedestal also convex, but in a contrary +way, it is easy to move these naturally balanced blocks, although +from their vast size it would require very considerable force to displace +them. This tendency to fashion themselves into rounded or +ellipsoidal forms belongs, also, to other granitic rocks, and even to +some of the variegated sandstones. The rocking-stones have often +given rise to legends and popular myths.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>The great eruptions of granite, protogine, and porphyry took +place, according to M. Fournet, during the carboniferous period, for +porphyritic pebbles are found in the conglomerates of the Coal-measure +period. “The granite of Dartmoor, in Devonshire,” says +Lyell,<a name="FNanchor_14" id="FNanchor_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14" +class="fnanchor">[14]</a> “was formerly supposed to be one of the most ancient of the +plutonic rocks, but it is now ascertained to be posterior in date to the +culm-measures of that county, which from their position, and as containing +true coal-plants, are regarded by Professor Sedgwick and Sir +R. Murchison as members of the true Carboniferous series. This +granite, like the syenitic granite of Christiana, has broken through +the stratified formations without much changing their strike. Hence, +on the north-west side of Dartmoor, the successive members of the +Culm-measures abut against the granite, and become metamorphic as +they approach. The granite of Cornwall is probably of the same +date, and therefore as modern as the Carboniferous strata, if not newer.”</p> + +<p>The <i>ancient granites</i> show themselves in France in the Vosges, +in Auvergne, at Espinouse in Languedoc, at Plan-de-la-Tour in +Provence, in the chain of the Cévennes, at Mont Pilat near Lyons, +and in the southern part of the Lyonnaise chain. They rarely impart +boldness or grandeur to the landscape, as might be expected from +their crystallised texture and hardness; for having been exposed to +the effects of atmospheric changes from the earliest times of the +earth’s consolidation, the rocks have become greatly worn away and +rounded in the outlines of their masses. It is only when recent +dislocations have broken them up that they assume a picturesque +character.</p> + +<p>The Christiania granite alluded to above was at one time thought +to have belonged to the Silurian period. But, in 1813, Von Buch +announced that the strata in question consisted of limestones containing +orthoceratites and trilobites; the shales and limestone being +only penetrated by granite-veins, and altered for a considerable +distance from the point of contact.<a name="FNanchor_15" id="FNanchor_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15" +class="fnanchor">[15]</a> The same granite is found to +penetrate the ancient gneiss of the country on which the fossiliferous +beds rest—unconformably, as the geologists say; that is, they rest on +the edges of the gneiss, from which other stratified deposits had been +washed away, leaving the gneiss denuded before the sedimentary beds +were deposited. “Between the origin, therefore, of the gneiss and +the granite,”<a name="FNanchor_16" id="FNanchor_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16" +class="fnanchor">[16]</a> says Lyell, “there intervened, first, the period when the +strata of gneiss were denuded; secondly, the period of the deposition<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> +of the Silurian deposits. Yet the granite produced after this long +interval is often so intimately blended with the ancient gneiss at the +point of the junction, that it is impossible to draw any other than an +arbitrary line of separation between them; and where this is not the +case, tortuous veins of granite pass freely through gneiss, ending +sometimes in threads, as if the older rock had offered no resistance to +their passage.” From this example Sir Charles concludes that it is +impossible to conjecture whether certain granites, which send veins +into gneiss and other metamorphic rocks, have been so injected +while the gneiss was scarcely solidified, or at some time during the +Secondary or Tertiary period. As it is, no single mass of granite +can be pointed out more ancient than the oldest known fossiliferous +deposits; no Lower Cambrian stratum is known to rest immediately +on granite; no pebbles of granite are found in the conglomerates of +the Lower Cambrian. On the contrary, granite is usually found, as +in the case of Dartmoor, in immediate contact with primary formations, +with every sign of elevation subsequent to their deposition. +Porphyritic pebbles are found in the Coal-measures; porpyhries continue +during the Triassic period; since, in some parts of Germany, +veins of porphyry are found traversing the New Red Sandstone, or +<i>grès bigarré</i> of French geologists. Syenites have especially reacted +upon the Silurian deposits and other old sedimentary rocks, up to +those of the Lower Carboniferous period.</p> + +<p>The term porphyry is usually applied to a rock with a paste or +base of compact felspar, in which felspathic crystals of various sizes +assume their natural form. The variety of their mineralogical characters, +the admirable polish which can be given to them, and which +renders them eminently useful for ornamentation, give to the porphyries +an artistic and industrial importance, which would be greatly +enhanced if the difficulty of working such a hard material did not +render the price so high.</p> + +<p>The porphyries possess various degrees of hardness and compactness. +When a fine dark-red colour—which contrasts well with the +white of the felspar—is combined with hardness, a magnificent stone +is the result, susceptible of taking a polish, and fit for any kind of +ornamental work; for the decoration of buildings, for the construction +of vases, columns, &c. The red Egyptian porphyry, called +<i>Rosso antico</i>, was particularly sought after by the ancients, who made +sepulchres, baths, and obelisks of it. The grandest known mass of +this kind of porphyry is the Obelisk of Sextus V. at Rome. In +the Museum of the Louvre, in Paris, some magnificent basins and +statues, made of the same stone, may also be seen.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>In spite of its compact texture porphyry disintegrates, like other +rocks, when exposed to air and water. One of the sphinxes transported +from Egypt to Paris, being accidentally placed under a gutter +of the Louvre, soon began to exhibit signs of exfoliation, notwithstanding +it had remained sound for ages under the climate of Egypt. +In this country, and even in France, where the climate is much +drier, the porphyries frequently decompose so as to become scarcely +recognisable. They crop out in various parts of France, but are +only abundant in the north-eastern part of the central plateau, and in +some parts of the south. They form mountains of a conical form, +presenting, nearly always, considerable depressions on their flanks. +In the Vosges they attain a height of from three to four thousand +feet.</p> + +<p>The <i>Serpentine</i> rocks are a sort of compact <i>talc</i>, which owe their +soapy texture and greasy feel to silicate of magnesia. Their softness +permits of their being turned in a lathe and fashioned into vessels of +various forms. Even stoves are constructed of this substance, which +bears heat well. The serpentine quarried on the banks of Lake +Como, which bears the name of pierre ollaire, or pot-stone, is excellently +adapted for this purpose. Serpentine shows itself in the +Vosges, in the Limousin, in the Lyonnais, and in the Var; it occupies +an immense tract in the Alps, as well as in the Apennines. +Mona marble is an example of serpentine; and the Lizard Point, +Cornwall, is a mass of it. A portion of the stratified rocks of Tuscany, +and also those of the Island of Elba, have been upheaved and +overturned by eruptions of it.</p> + +<p>As for the British Islands, plutonic rocks are extensively developed +in Scotland, where the Cambrian and Silurian rocks, often of +gneissic character—associated here and there with great bosses of +granite and syenite—form by far the greater part of the region known +as the Highlands. In the Isle of Arran a circular mass of coarse-grained +granite protrudes through the schists of the northern part of +the island; while, in the southern part, a finer-grained granite and +veins of porphyry and coarse-grained granite have broken through the +stratified rocks.<a name="FNanchor_17" id="FNanchor_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17" +class="fnanchor">[17]</a> In Devonshire and Cornwall there are four great +bosses of granite; in the southern parts of Cornwall the mineral axis is +defined by a line drawn through the centre of the several bosses from +south-west to north-east; but in the north of Cornwall, and extending +into Devonshire, it strikes nearly east and west. The great granite<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> +mass in Cornwall lies on the moors north of St. Austell, and indicates +the existence of more than one disturbing force. “There was an +elevating force,” says Professor Sedgwick,<a name="FNanchor_18" id="FNanchor_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18" +class="fnanchor">[18]</a> “protruding from the +St. Austell granite; and, if I interpret the phenomena correctly, there +was a contemporaneous elevating force acting from the south; and +between these two forces, the beds, now spread over the surface from +the St. Austell granite to the Dodman and Narehead, were broken, +contorted, and placed in their present disturbed position. Some +great disturbing forces,” he observes, “have modified the symmetry +of this part of Cornwall, affecting,” he believes, “the whole transverse +section of the country from the headlands near Fowey to those south +of Padstow.” This great granite-axis was upheaved in a line commencing +at the west end of Cornwall, rising through the slate-rocks of +the older Devonian group, continuing in association with them as +far as the boss north of St. Austell, producing much confusion in +the stratified masses; the granite-mass between St. Clear and Camelford +rose between the deposition of the Petherwin and that of the +Plymouth group; lastly, the Dartmoor granite rose, partially moving +the adjacent slates in such a manner that its north end abuts against +and tilts up the base of the Culm-trough, mineralising the great Culm-limestone, +while on the south it does the same to the base of the +Plymouth slates. These facts prove that the granite of Dartmoor, +which was formerly thought to be the most ancient of the Plutonic +rocks, is of a date subsequent to the Culm-measures of Devonshire, +which are now regarded as forming part of the true carboniferous +series.</p> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Volcanic Rocks.</span></h3> + +<p>Considered as a whole, the volcanic rocks may be grouped into +three distinct formations, which we shall notice in the following order, +which is that of their relative antiquity, namely:—1. <i>Trachytic</i>; +2. <i>Basaltic</i>; 3. <i>Volcanic or Lava formations</i>.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="Fig_4" id="Fig_4"></a> +<img src="images/illo050.png" alt="Fig. 4" width="350" height="410" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 4.—A peak of the Cantal chain.</p></div> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Trachytic Formations.</span></h4> + +<p><i>Trachyte</i> (derived from τραχυς, rough), having a coarse, cellular +appearance, and a rough and gritty feel, belongs to the class of +volcanic rocks. The eruptions of trachyte seem to have commenced +towards the middle of the Tertiary period, and to have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> +continued up to its close. The trachytes present considerable +analogy in their composition to the felspathic porphyries, but their +mineralogical characters are different. Their texture is porous; they +form a white, grey, black, sometimes yellowish matrix, in which, as a +rule, felspar predominates, together with disseminated crystals of +felspar, some hornblende or augite, and dark-coloured mica. In its +external appearance trachyte is very variable. It forms the three +most elevated mountain ranges of Central France; the groups of +Cantal and Mont Dore, and the chain of the Velay (Puy-de-Dôme).<a name="FNanchor_19" +id="FNanchor_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41"></a></span><span class='pagenum' +style="margin-top: -1.5em;"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Plate_I" id="Plate_I"></a> +<img src="images/illo052.jpg" alt="Plate I" width="600" height="376" /> +<p class="caption">I.—Peak of Sancy in the Mont Dore group, Auvergne.</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>The igneous group of Cantal may be described as a series of lofty +summits, ranged around a large cavity, which was at one period +probably a volcanic crater, the circular base of which occupies an +area of nearly fifteen leagues in diameter. The strictly trachytic +portion of the group rises in the centre, and is composed of high +mountains, throwing off spurs, which gradually decrease in height, and +terminate in plateaux more or less inclined. These central mountains +attain a height varying between 4,500 and 5,500 feet above the +level of the sea. A scaly or schistose variety of trachyte, called +<i>phonolite</i>, or clinkstone (from the ringing metallic sound it emits +when struck with the hammer), with an unusual proportion of felspar, +or, according to Gmelin, composed of felspar and zeolite, forms the +steep trachytic escarpments at the centre, which enclose the principal +valleys; their abrupt peaks giving a remarkably picturesque +appearance to the landscape. In the engraving on p. 40 (<a href="#Fig_4">Fig. 4</a>) the slaty, +laminated character of the clinkstone is well represented in one of the +phonolitic peaks of the Cantal group. The group at Mont Dore +consists of seven or eight rocky summits, occupying a circuit of about +five leagues in diameter. The massive trachytic rock, of which this +mountainous mass is chiefly formed, has an average thickness of 1,200 +to 2,600 feet; comprehending over that range prodigious layers of +scoriæ, pumiceous conglomerates, and detritus, interstratified with +beds of trachyte and basalt, bearing the signs of an igneous origin, tufa +forming the base; and between them occur layers of lignite, or imperfectly +mineralised woody fibre, the whole being superimposed on a +primitive plateau of about 3,250 feet in height. Scored and furrowed +out by deep valleys, the viscous mass was gradually upheaved, until +in the needle-like Pic de Sancy (<span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_I">Plate I.</a></span>), a pyramidal rock of +porphyritic trachyte, which is the loftiest point of Mont Dore, it +attains the height of 6,258 feet. The Pic de Sancy, represented on +page 40 (<a href="#Fig_4">Fig. 4</a>), gives an excellent idea of the general appearance of +the trachytic mountains of Mont Dore.</p> + +<p>Upon the same plateau with Mont Dore, and about seven miles +north of its last slopes, the trachytic formation is repeated in four +rounded domes—those of Puy-de-Dôme, Sarcouï, Clierzou, and Le +Grand Suchet. The Puy-de-Dôme, one of the most remarkable +volcanic domes in Auvergne, presents another fine and very striking +example of an eruptive trachytic rock. The rock here assumes a +peculiar mineral character, which has caused the name of <i>domite</i> to be +given to it.</p> + +<p>The chain of the Velay forms a zone, composed of independent +plateaux and peaks, which forms upon the horizon a long and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> +strangely intersected ridge. The bareness of the mountains, their +forms—pointed or rounded, sometimes terminating in scarped plateaux—give +to the whole landscape an appearance at once picturesque and +characteristic. The peak of Le Mezen, which rises 5,820 feet above +the sea, forms the culminating point of the chain. The phonolites of +which it consists have been erupted from fissures which present +themselves at a great number of points, ranging from north-north-west +to south-south-east.</p> + +<p>On the banks of the Rhine and in Hungary the trachytic formation +presents itself in features identical with those which indicate it in +France. In America it is principally represented by some immense +cones, superposed in the chain of the Andes; the colossal Chimborazo +being one of those trachytic cones.</p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45"></a></p><p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Plate_II" id="Plate_II"></a> +<img src="images/illo056.jpg" alt="Plate II" width="600" height="384" /> +<p class="caption">II.—Mountain and basaltic crater of La Coupe d’Ayzac, in the Vivarais.</p></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="Fig_5" id="Fig_5"></a> +<img src="images/illo057a.png" alt="Fig. 5" width="500" height="107" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 5.—Theoretical view of a basaltic plateau.</p></div> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Basaltic Formations.</span></h4> + +<p>Basaltic eruptions seem to have occurred during the Secondary +and Tertiary periods. Basalt, according to Dr. Daubeny,<a name="FNanchor_20" id="FNanchor_20"></a><a +href="#Footnote_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> in its +more strict sense, “is composed of an intimate mixture of augite with +a zeolitic mineral, which appears to have been formed out of labradorite +(felspar of Labrador), by the addition of water—the presence +of water being in all <i>zeolites</i> the cause of that bubbling-up under the +blow-pipe to which they owe their appellation.” M. Delesse and +other mineralogists are of opinion that the idea of augite being the +prevailing mineral in basalt, must be abandoned; and that although +its presence gives the rock its distinctive character, as compared with +trachytic and most other trap rocks, still the principal element in +their composition is felspar. Basalt, a lava consisting essentially +of augite, labradorite (or nepheline) and magnetic iron-ore is the +rock which predominates in this formation. It contains a smaller +quantity of silica than the trachyte, and a larger proportion of lime +and magnesia. Hence, independent of the iron in its composition, +it is heavier in proportion, as it contains more or less silica. Some +varieties of basalt contain very large quantities of olivine, a mineral +of an olive-green colour, with a chemical composition differing but +slightly from serpentine. Both basalts and trachyte contain more +soda and less silica in their composition than granites; some of the +basalts are highly fusible, the alkaline matter and lime in their composition +acting as a flux to the silica. There are examples of basalt<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> +existing in well-defined flows, which still adhere to craters visible +at the present day, and with regard to the igneous origin of which +there can be no doubt. One of the most striking examples of a +basaltic cone is furnished by the mountain or crater of La Coupe +d’Ayzac, in the Vivarais, in the south of France. <span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_II">Plate II.</a></span>, on +the opposite page, gives an accurate representation of this curious +basaltic flow. The remnants of the stream of liquefied basalt which +once flowed down the flank of the hill may still be seen adhering in +vast masses to the granite rocks on both sides of a narrow valley +where the river Volant has cut across the lava and left a pavement or +causeway, forming an assemblage of upright prismatic columns, fitted +together with geometrical symmetry; the whole resting on a base of +gneiss. Basaltic eruptions sometimes form a plateau, as represented in +<a href="#Fig_5">Fig. 5</a>, where the process of formation is shown theoretically and in +a manner which renders further explanation unnecessary. Many of +these basaltic table-lands form plateaux of very considerable extent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> +and thickness; others form fragments of the same, more or less dislocated; +others, again, present themselves in isolated knolls, far +removed from similar formations. In short, basaltic rocks present +themselves in veins or dykes, more or less, in most countries, of +which Central France and the banks of the Rhine offer many striking +examples. These veins present very evident proofs that the matter +has been introduced from below, and in a manner which could only +result from injection from the interior to the exterior of the earth. +Such are the proofs presented by the basaltic veins of Villeneuve-de-Berg, +which terminate in slender filaments, sometimes bifurcated, +which gradually lose themselves in the rock which they traverse. In +several parts of the north of Ireland, chalk-formations with flints are +traversed by basaltic dykes, the chalk being converted into granular +marble near the basalt, the change sometimes extending eight or ten +feet from the wall of the dyke, and being greatest near the surface of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> +contact. In the Island of Rathlin, the walls of basalt traverse the +chalk in three veins or dykes; the central one a foot thick, that on +the right twenty feet, and on the left thirty-three feet thick, and all, +according to Buckland and Conybeare, within the breadth of ninety +feet.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_6" id="Fig_6"></a> +<img src="images/illo057b.png" alt="Fig. 6" width="450" height="275" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 6.—Basalt in prismatic columns.</p></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="Fig_7" id="Fig_7"></a> +<img src="images/illo058.png" alt="Fig. 7" width="500" height="371" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 7.—Basaltic Causeway, on the banks of the river Volant, in the Ardèche.</p></div> + +<p>One of the most striking characteristics of basalt is the prismatic +and columnar structure which it often assumes; the lava being +homogeneous and of very fine grain, the laws which determine the +direction of the fissures or divisional planes consolidated from a +molten to a solid state, become here very manifest—these are always +at right angles to the surfaces of the rock through which the heat of +the fused mass escaped. The basaltic rocks have been at all times +remarkable for this picturesque arrangement of their parts. They +usually present columns of regular prisms, having generally six, +often five, and sometimes four, seven, or even three sides, whose disposition +is always perpendicular to the cooling surfaces. These are +often divided transversely, as in <a href="#Fig_6">Fig. 6</a>, at nearly equal distances, like +the joints of a wall, composed of regularly arranged, equal-sided +pieces adhering together, and frequently extending over a more or +less considerable space. The name of Giant’s Causeway has been +given, from time immemorial, to these curious columnar structures of +basalt. In France, in the Vivarais and in the Velay, there are +many such basaltic causeways. That of which <a href="#Fig_7">Fig. 7</a> is a sketch lies +on the banks of the river Volant, where it flows into the Ardèche. +Ireland has always been celebrated for its Giant’s Causeway, which +extends over the whole of the northern part of Antrim, covering all +the pre-existing strata of Chalk, Greensand, and Permian formations; +the prismatic columns extend for miles along the cliffs, projecting +into the sea at the point specially designated the Giant’s Causeway.</p> + +<p>These columnar formations vary considerably in length and diameter. +McCulloch mentions some in Skye, which “are about four +hundred feet high; others in Morven not exceeding an inch (vol. ii. +p. 137). In diameter those of Ailsa Craig measure nine feet, and +those of Morven an inch or less.” Fingal’s Cave, in the Isle of +Staffa, is renowned among basaltic rocks, although it was scarcely +known on the mainland a century ago, when Sir Joseph Banks heard +of it accidentally, and was the first to visit and describe it. Fingal’s +Cave has been hollowed out, by the sea, through a gallery of +immense prismatic columns of trap, which are continually beaten by +the waves. The columns are usually upright, but sometimes they +are curved and slightly inclined. <a href="#Fig_8">Fig. 8</a> is a view of the basaltic +grotto of Staffa.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_8" id="Fig_8"></a> +<img src="images/illo060.png" alt="Fig. 8" width="450" height="286" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 8.—Basaltic cavern of Staffa—exterior.</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>Grottoes are sometimes formed by basaltic eruptions on land, +followed by their separation into regular columns. The Grotto of +Cheeses, at Bertrich-Baden, between Trèves and Coblentz, is a +remarkable example of this kind, being so called because its columns +are formed of round, and usually flattened, stones placed one above +the other in such a manner as to resemble a pile of cheeses.</p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51"></a></p> +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Plate_III" id="Plate_III"></a> +<img src="images/illo062.png" alt="Plate III" width="600" height="381" /> +<p class="caption">III.—Extinct volcanoes forming the Puy-de-Dôme Chain.</p></div> + +<p>If we consider that in basalt-flows the lower part is compact, and +often divided into prismatic columns, while the upper part is porous, +cellular, scoriaceous, and irregularly divided—that the points of +separation on which they rest are small beds presenting fragments of +the porous stony concretions known under the name of <i>Lapilli</i>—that +the lower portions of these masses present a multitude of points +which penetrate the rocks on which they repose, thereby denoting +that some fluid matter had moulded itself into its crevices—that the +neighbouring rocks are often calcined to a considerable thickness, +and the included vegetable remains carbonised—no doubt can exist +as to the igneous origin of basaltic rocks. When it reached the +surface through certain openings, the fluid basalt spread itself, flowing, +as it were, over the horizontal surface of the ground; for if it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> +had flowed upon inclined surfaces it could not have preserved the +uniform surface and constant thickness which it generally exhibits.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Volcanic or Lava Formations.</span></h4> + +<p>The <i>lava</i> formations comprehend both extinct and active volcanoes. +“The term,” says Lyell, “has a somewhat vague signification, +having been applied to all melted matter observed to flow in +streams from volcanic vents. When this matter consolidates in the +open air, the upper part is usually scoriaceous, and the mass becomes +more and more stony as we descend, or in proportion as it has consolidated +more slowly and under greater pressure.”<a name="FNanchor_21" id="FNanchor_21"></a><a +href="#Footnote_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></p> + +<p>The formation of extinct volcanoes is represented in France by +the volcanoes situated in the ancient provinces of Auvergne, Velay, +and the Vivarais, but principally by nearly seventy volcanic cones +of various sizes and of the height of from 500 to 1,000 feet, +composed of loose scoriæ, lava, and pozzuolana, arranged upon +a granitic table-land, about twelve miles wide, which overlooks the +town of Clermont-Ferrand, and which seem to have been produced +along a longitudinal fracture in the earth’s crust, running in a direction +from north to south. It is a range of volcanic hills, the “chain +of <i>Puys</i>” nearly twenty miles in length, by two in breadth. By its +cellular and porous structure, which is also granular and crystalline, +the felspathic or pyroxenic lava which flowed from these volcanoes +is readily distinguishable from the analogous lavas which belong to +the basaltic or trachytic formations. Their surface is irregular, and +bristles with asperities, formed by heaped-up angular blocks.</p> + +<p>The volcanoes of the chain of <i>Puys</i>, represented on opposite +page (<span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_III">Pl. III.</a></span>) are so perfectly preserved, their lava is so frequently +superposed on sheets of basalt, and presents a composition and +texture so distinct, that there is no difficulty in establishing the fact +that they are posterior to the basaltic formation, and of very recent +age. Nevertheless, they do not appear to belong to the historic +ages, for no tradition attests their eruption. Lyell places these +eruptions in the Lower Miocene period, and their greatest activity +in the Upper Miocene and Pliocene eras. “Extinct quadrupeds of +those eras,” he says, “belonging to the genera mastodon, rhinoceros, +and others, were buried in ashes and beds of alluvial sand and gravel, +which owe their preservation to overspreading sheets of lava.”<a name="FNanchor_22" +id="FNanchor_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_9" id="Fig_9"></a> +<img src="images/illo064.png" alt="Fig. 9" width="450" height="374" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 9.—Section of a volcano in action.</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>All volcanic phenomena can be explained by the theory we have +already indicated, of fractures in the solid crust of the globe resulting +from its cooling. The various phenomena which existing volcanoes +present to us are, as Humboldt has said, “the result of every action +exercised by the interior of a planet on its external crust.”<a name="FNanchor_23" +id="FNanchor_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> We +designate as volcanoes all conduits which establish a permanent communication +between the interior of the earth and its surface—a +conduit which gives passage at intervals to eruptions of <i>lava</i>, and in +<a href="#Fig_9">Fig. 9</a> we have represented, in an ideal section, the geological mode of +action of volcanic eruptions. The volcanoes on the surface of the +globe, known to be in an occasional state of activity, number about<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> +three hundred, and these may be divided into two classes: the <i>isolated</i> +or <i>central</i>, and the <i>linear</i> or those volcanoes which belong to a <i>series</i>.<a +name="FNanchor_24" id="FNanchor_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a></p> + +<p>The first are active volcanoes, around which there may be established +many secondary active mouths of eruption, always in connection +with some principal crater. The second are disposed like +the chimneys of furnaces, along fissures extending over considerable +distances. Twenty, thirty, and even a greater number of volcanic +cones may rise above one such rent in the earth’s crust, the direction +of which will be indicated by their linear course. The Peak of +Teneriffe is an instance of a central volcano; the long rampart-like +chain of the Andes, presents, from the south of Chili to the north-west +coast of America, one of the grandest instances of a continental +volcanic chain; the remarkable range of volcanoes in the province of +Quito belong to the latter class. Darwin relates that on the 19th of +March, 1835, the attention of a sentry was called to something like a +large star which gradually increased in size till about three o’clock, +when it presented a very magnificent spectacle. “By the aid of a +glass, dark objects, in constant succession, were seen in the midst of a +great glare of red light, to be thrown up and to fall down. The light +was sufficient to cast on the water a long bright reflection—it was the +volcano of Osorno in action.” Mr. Darwin was afterwards assured +that Aconcagua, in Chili, 480 miles to the north, was in action on the +same night, and that the great eruption of Coseguina (2,700 miles +north of Aconcagua), accompanied by an earthquake felt over 1,000 +miles, also occurred within six hours of this same time; and yet +Coseguina had been dormant for six-and-twenty years, and Aconcagua +most rarely shows any signs of action.<a name="FNanchor_25" id="FNanchor_25"></a><a +href="#Footnote_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> It is also stated by Professor +Dove that in the year 1835 the ashes discharged from the mountain +of Coseguina were carried 700 miles, and that the roaring noise of the +eruption was heard at San Salvador, a distance of 1,000 miles.</p> + +<p>In the sea the <i>series</i> of volcanoes show themselves in groups of +islands disposed in longitudinal series.</p> + +<p>Among these may be ranged the volcanic series of Sunda, which, +according to the accounts of the matter ejected and the violence of +the eruptions, seem to be among the most remarkable on the globe; +the series of the Moluccas and of the Philippines; those of Japan; +of the Marianne Islands; of Chili; of the double series of volcanic +summits near Quito, those of the Antilles, Guatemala, and Mexico.</p> + +<p>Among the central, or isolated volcanoes, we may class those of +the Lipari Islands, which have <i>Stromboli</i>, in permanent activity, +for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> +their centre; <i>Etna</i>, <i>Vesuvius</i>, the volcanoes of the <i>Azores</i>, of the +<i>Canaries</i>, of the <i>Cape de Verde</i>, of the <i>Galapagos</i> Islands, the <i>Sandwich</i> +Islands, the <i>Marquesas</i>, the <i>Society</i> Islands, the <i>Friendly</i> Islands, +<i>Bourbon</i>, and, finally, <i>Ararat</i>.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_10" id="Fig_10"></a> +<img src="images/illo066.png" alt="Fig. 10" width="450" height="418" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 10.—Existing crater of Vesuvius.</p></div> + +<p>The mouths of volcanic chimneys are, almost always, situated near +the summit of a more or less isolated conical mountain; they usually +consist of an opening in the form of a funnel, which is called the +<i>crater</i>, and which descends into the interior of the volcanic chimney. +But in the course of ages the crater becomes extended and enlarged, +until, in some of the older volcanoes, it has attained almost incredible +dimensions. In 1822 the crater of Vesuvius was 2,000 feet +deep, and of a very considerable circumference. The crater of +Kilauea, in the Sandwich Islands group, is an immense chasm 1,000<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> +feet deep, with an outer circle no less than from two to three +miles in diameter, in which lava is usually seen, Mr. Dana tells us, +to boil up at the bottom of a lake, the level of which varies continually +according to the active or quiescent state of the volcano. +The cone which supports these craters, and which is designated the +<i>cone of ejection</i>, is composed for the most part of lava or <i>scoriæ</i>, the +products of eruption. Many volcanoes consist only of a <i>cone of scoriæ</i>. +Such is that of Barren Isle, in the Bay of Bengal. Others, on the +contrary, present a very small cone, notwithstanding the considerable +height of the volcanic chain. As an example we may mention the +new crater of Vesuvius, which was produced in 1829 within the +former crater (<a href="#Fig_10">Fig. 10</a>).</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_11" id="Fig_11"></a> +<img src="images/illo067.png" alt="Fig. 11" width="450" height="289" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 11.—Fissures near Locarno.</p></div> + +<p>The frequency and intensity of the eruptions bear no relation to +the dimensions of the volcanic mountain. The eruption of a volcano +is usually announced by a subterranean noise, accompanied by shocks, +quivering of the ground, and sometimes by actual earthquakes. The +noise, which usually proceeds from a great depth, makes itself heard, +sometimes over a great extent of country, and resembles a well-sustained +fire of artillery, accompanied by the rattle of musketry.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> +Sometimes it is like the heavy rolling of subterranean thunder. +Fissures are frequently produced during the eruptions, extending over +a considerable radius, as represented in the woodcut on page 57 of +the fissures of Locarno (<a href="#Fig_11">Fig. 11</a>), where they present a singular +appearance; the clefts radiating from a centre in all directions, not +unlike the starred fracture in a cracked pane of glass. The eruption +begins with a strong shock, which shakes the whole interior of the +mountain; masses of heated vapour and fluids begin to ascend, +revealing themselves in some cases by the melting of the snow upon +the flanks of the cone of ejection; while simultaneously with the final +shock, which overcomes the last resistance opposed by the solid crust +of the ground, a considerable body of gas, and more especially of +steam, escapes from the mouth of the crater.</p> + +<p>The steam, it is important to remark, is essentially the cause of +the terrible mechanical effects which accompany volcanic eruptions. +Granitic, porphyritic, trachytic, and sometimes even basaltic matters, +have reached the surface without producing any of those violent explosions +or ejections of rocks and stones which accompany modern +volcanic eruptions; the older granites, porphyries, trachytes, and +basalts were discharged without violence, because steam did not +accompany those melted rocks—a sufficient proof of the comparative +calm which attended the ancient as compared with modern eruptions. +Well established by scientific observations, this is a fact which +enables us to explain the cause of the tremendous mechanical effects +attending modern volcanic eruptions, contrasted with the more +tranquil eruptions of earlier times.</p> + +<p>During the first moments of a volcanic eruption, the accumulated +masses of stones and ashes, which fill the crater, are shot up into the +sky by the suddenly and powerfully developed elasticity of the steam. +This steam, which has been disengaged by the heat of the fluid lava, +assumes the form of great rounded bubbles, which are evolved into +the air to a great height above the crater, where they expand as they +rise, in clouds of dazzling whiteness, assuming that appearance which +Pliny the Younger compared to a stone pine rising over Vesuvius. The +masses of clouds finally condense and follow the direction of the wind.</p> + +<p>These volcanic clouds are grey or black, according to the quantity +of <i>ashes</i>, that is, of pulverulent matter or dust, mixed with watery +vapour, which they convey. In some eruptions it has been observed +that these clouds, on descending to the surface of the soil, spread +around an odour of hydrochloric or sulphuric acid, and traces of both +these acids are found in the rain which proceeds from the condensation +of these clouds.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>The fleecy clouds of vapour which issue from the volcanoes are +streaked with lightning, followed by continuous peals of thunder; in +condensing, they discharge disastrous showers, which sweep the +sides of the mountain. Many eruptions, known as <i>mud volcanoes</i>, +and <i>watery volcanoes</i>, are nothing more than these heavy rains, carrying +down with them showers of ashes, stones, and scoriæ, more or less +mixed with water.</p> + +<p>Passing on to the phenomena of which the crater is the scene +at the time of an eruption, it is stated that at first there is an +incessant rise and fall of the lava which fills the interior of the crater. +This double movement is often interrupted by violent explosions of +gas. The crater of Kilauea, in the Island of Hawaii, contains +a lake of molten matter 1,600 feet broad, which is subject to such +a double movement of elevation and depression. Each of the +vaporous bubbles as it issues from the crater presses the molten lava +upwards, till it rises and bursts with great force at the surface. A +portion of the lava, half-cooled and reduced to scoriæ, is thus projected +upwards, and the several fragments are hurled violently in all +directions, like those of a shell at the moment when it bursts.</p> + +<p>The greater number of the fragments being thrown vertically into +the air, fall back into the crater again. Many accumulating on the +edge of the opening add more and more to the height of the cone +of eruption. The lighter and smaller fragments, as well as the fine +ashes, are drawn upwards by the spiral vapours, and sometimes +transported by the winds over almost incredible distances.</p> + +<p>In 1794 the ashes from Vesuvius were carried as far as the +extremity of Calabria. In 1812 the volcanic ashes of Saint Vincent, +in the Antilles, were carried eastward as far as Barbadoes, spreading +such obscurity over the island, that, in open day, passengers could +not see their way. Finally, some of the masses of molten lava are +shot singly into the air during an eruption with a rapid rotatory motion, +which causes them to assume the rounded shape in which they are +known by the name of <i>volcanic bombs</i>.</p> + +<p>We have already remarked that the lava, which in a fluid state +fills the crater and the internal vent or chimney of the volcano, is +forced upwards by gaseous fluids, and by the steam which has been +generated from the water, entangled with the lava. In some cases +the mechanical force of this vapour is so great as to drive the lava +over the edge of the crater, when it forms a fiery torrent, spreading +over the sides of the mountain. This only happens in the case of +volcanoes of inconsiderable height; in lofty volcanoes it is not unusual +for the lava thus to force an outlet for itself near the base of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> +mountain, through which the fiery stream discharges itself over the +surrounding country. In such circumstances the lava cools somewhat +rapidly; it becomes hard and presents a scoriaceous crust on +the surface, while the vapour escapes in jets of steam through the +interstices. But under this superficial crust the lava retains its fluid +state, cooling slowly in the interior of the mass, while the thickening +stream moves sluggishly along, impeded in its progress by the fragments +of rock which this burning river drives before it.</p> + +<p>The rate at which a current of lava moves along depends upon +its mass, upon its degree of fluidity, and upon the inclination of the +ground. It has been stated that certain streams of lava have +traversed more than 3,000 yards in an hour; but the rate at which +they travel is usually much less, a man on foot being often able to +outstrip them. These streams, also, vary greatly in dimensions. +The most considerable stream of lava from Etna had, in some parts, +a thickness of nearly 120 feet, with a breadth of a geographical mile +and a half. The largest lava-stream which has been recorded issued +from the Skaptár Jokul, in Iceland, in 1783. It formed two currents, +whose extremities were twenty leagues apart, and which from +time to time presented a breadth of from seven to fifteen miles and +a thickness of 650 feet.</p> + +<p>A peculiar effect, and which only simulates volcanic activity, is +observable in localities where <i>mud volcanoes</i> exist. Volcanoes of this +class are for the most part conical hills of low elevation, with a +hollow or depression at the centre, from which they discharge the +mud which is forced upwards by gas and steam. The temperature +of the ejected matter is only slightly elevated. The mud, generally +of a greyish colour, with the odour of petroleum, is subject to the +same alternating movements which have been already ascribed to the +fluid lava of volcanoes, properly so called. The gases which force +out this liquid mud, mixed with salts, gypsum, naphtha, sulphur, +sometimes even of ammonia, are usually carburetted hydrogen and +carbonic acid. Everything leads to the conclusion that these compounds +proceed, at least in great part, from the reaction produced +between the various elements of the subsoil under the influence of +infiltrating water between bituminous marls, complex carbonates, +and probably carbonic acid, derived from acidulated springs. M. +Fournet saw in Languedoc, near Roujan, traces of some of these +formations; and not far from that neighbourhood is the bituminous +spring of Gabian.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61"></a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Plate_IV" id="Plate_IV"></a> +<img src="images/illo072.png" alt="Plate IV" width="600" height="384" /> +<p class="caption">IV.—Mud volcano at Turbaco, South America.</p></div> + +<p>Mud volcanoes, or <i>salses</i>, exist in rather numerous localities. +Several are found in the neighbourhood of Modena. There are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> +some in Sicily, between Aragona and Girgenti. Pallas observed +them in the Crimea—in the peninsula of Kertch, and in the Isle of +Tamàn. Von Humboldt has described and figured a group of them +in the province of Cartagena, in South America. Finally, they have +been observed in the Island of Trinidad and in Hindostan. In +1797 an eruption of mud ejected from Tunguragua, in Quito, filled a +valley 1,000 feet wide to a depth of 600 feet. On the opposite page +is represented the mud volcano of Turbaco, in the province of +Cartagena (<span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_IV">Plate IV.</a></span>), which is described and figured by Von +Humboldt in his “Voyage to the Equatorial Regions of America.”</p> + +<p>In certain countries we find small hillocks of argillaceous formation, +resulting from ancient discharges of mud volcanoes, from which +all disengagement of gas, water, and mud has long ceased. Sometimes, +however, the phenomenon returns and resumes its interrupted +course with great violence. Slight shocks of earthquakes are then +felt; blocks of dried earth are projected from the ancient crater, +and new waves of mud flow over its edge, and spread over the neighbouring +ground.</p> + +<p>To return to ordinary volcanoes, that is to say, those which eject +lava. At the end of a lava-flow, when the violence of the volcanic +action begins to subside, the discharge from the crater is confined to +the disengagement of vaporous gases, mixed with steam, which make +their escape in more or less abundance through a multitude of +fissures in the ground.</p> + +<p>The great number of volcanoes which have thus become extinct +form what are called <i>solfataras</i>. The sulphuretted hydrogen, which is +given out through the fissures in the ground, is decomposed by contact +with the air, water being formed by the action of the oxygen of the +atmosphere, and sulphur deposited in considerable quantities on the +walls of the crater, and in the cracks of the ground. Such is the +geological source of the sulphur which is collected at Pozzuoli, near +Naples, and in many other similar regions—a substance which plays a +most important part in the industrial occupations of the world. It is, +in fact, from sulphur extracted from the ground about the mouths of +extinct volcanoes, that is to say from the products of <i>solfataras</i>, that +sulphuric acid is frequently made—sulphuric acid being the fundamental +agent, one of the most powerful elements, of the manufacturing +productions of both worlds.</p> + +<p>The last phase of volcanic activity is the disengagement of +carbonic acid gas without any increase of temperature. In places +where these continued emanations of carbonic acid gas manifest +themselves, the existence of ancient volcanoes may be recognised, of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> +which these discharges are the closing phenomenon. This is seen in +a most remarkable manner in Auvergne, where there are a multitude +of acidulated springs, that is to say, springs charged with carbonic +acid. During the time when he was opening the mines of Pontgibaud, +M. Fournet had to contend with emanations which sometimes +exhibited themselves with explosive power. Jets of water were thrown +to great heights in the galleries, roaring with the noise of steam when +escaping from the boiler of a locomotive engine. The water which +filled an abandoned mine-shaft was, on two separate occasions, +upheaved with great violence—half emptying the pit—while vast +volumes of the gas overspread the whole valley, suffocating a horse +and a flock of geese. The miners were compelled to fly in all haste +at the moment when the gas burst forth, holding themselves as +upright as possible, to avoid plunging their heads into the carbonic +acid gas, which, from its low specific gravity, was now filling the +lower parts of the galleries. It represented on a small scale the effect +of the <i>Grotto del Cane</i>, which excites such surprise among the ignorant +near Naples; passing, also, for one of the marvels of Nature all over +the world. M. Fournet states that all the minute fissures of the +metalliferous gneiss near Clermont are quite saturated with free +carbonic acid gas, which rises plentifully from the soil there, as well +as in many parts of the surrounding country. The components of +the gneiss, with the exception of the quartz, are softened by it; and +fresh combinations of the acid with lime, iron, and manganese are +continually taking place. In short, long after volcanoes have become +extinct, hot springs, charged with mineral ingredients, continue to +flow in the same area.</p> + +<p>The same facts as those of the <i>Grotto del Cane</i> manifest themselves +with even greater intensity in Java, in the so-called Valley of Poison, +which is an object of terror to the natives. In this celebrated valley +the ground is said to be covered with skeletons and carcases of tigers, +goats, stags, birds, and even of human beings; for asphyxia or suffocation, +it seems, strikes all living things which venture into this +desolate place. In the same island a stream of sulphurous water, as +white as milk, issues from the crater of Mount Idienne, on the east +coast; and on one occasion, as cited by Nozet in the <i>Journal de +Géologie</i>, a great body of hot water, charged with sulphuric acid, was +discharged from the same volcano, inundating and destroying all the +vegetation of a large tract of country by its noxious fumes and +poisonous properties.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65"></a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="Plate_V" id="Plate_V"></a> +<img src="images/illo076.png" alt="Plate V" width="350" height="563" /> +<p class="caption">V.—Great Geyser of Iceland.</p></div> + +<p>It is known that the alkaline waters of Plombières, in the Vosges, +have a temperature of 160° Fahr. For 2,000 years, according<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> +to Daubrée, through beds of concrete, of lime, brick, and sandstone, +these hot waters have percolated until they have originated +calcareous spar, aragonite, and fluor spar, together with siliceous +minerals, such as opal, which are found filling the interstices of the +bricks and mortar. From these and other similar statements, “we +are led,” says Sir Charles Lyell,<a name="FNanchor_26" id="FNanchor_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26" +class="fnanchor">[26]</a> “to infer that when in the bowels +of the earth there are large volumes of molten matter, containing +heated water and various acids, under enormous pressure, these subterraneous +fluid masses will gradually part with their heat by the +escape of steam and various gases through fissures producing hot +springs, or by the passage of the same through the pores of the +overlying and injected rocks.” “Although,” he adds,<a name="FNanchor_27" +id="FNanchor_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> “we can only +study the phenomena as exhibited at the surface, it is clear that the +gaseous fluids must have made their way through the whole thickness +of the porous or fissured rocks, which intervene between the subterraneous +reservoirs of gas and the external air. The extent, therefore, +of the earth’s crust which the vapours have permeated, and are +now permeating, may be thousands of fathoms in thickness, and their +heating and modifying influence may be spread throughout the whole +of this solid mass.”</p> + +<p>The fountains of boiling water, known under the name of <i>Geysers</i>, +are another emanation connected with ancient craters. They are +either continuous or intermittent. In Iceland we find great numbers +of these gushing springs—in fact, the island is one entire mass of +eruptive rock. Nearly all the volcanoes are situated upon a broad +band of trachyte, which traverses the island from south-west to north-east. +It is traversed by immense fissures, and covered with masses +of lava, such as no other country presents. The volcanic action, in +short, goes on with such energy that certain paroxysms of Mount +Hecla have lasted for six years without interruption. But the Great +Geyser, represented on the opposite page (<span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_V">Plate V.</a></span>), is, perhaps, +even more an object of curiosity. This water-volcano projects a +column of boiling water, eight yards in diameter, charged with silica, +to the height, it has been said, of about 150 feet, depositing vast +quantities of silica as it cools after reaching the earth.</p> + +<hr class="c05" /> + +<p>The volcanoes in actual activity are, as we have said, very numerous, +being more than 200 in number, scattered over the whole +surface of the globe, but mostly occurring in tropical regions. The +island of Java alone contains about fifty, which have been mapped<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> +and described by Dr. Junghahn. Those best known are Vesuvius, +near Naples; Etna, in Sicily; and Stromboli, in the Lipari Islands. +A rapid sketch of a few of these may interest the reader.</p> + +<p>Vesuvius is of all volcanoes that which has been most closely +studied; it is, so to speak, the classical volcano. Few persons are +ignorant of the fact that it opened—after a period of quiescence +extending beyond the memory of living man—in the year 79 of our +era. This eruption cost the elder Pliny his life, who fell a sacrifice +to his desire to witness one of the most imposing of natural phenomena. +After many mutations the present crater of Vesuvius consists +of a cone, surrounded on the side opposite the sea by a semicircular +crest, composed of pumiceous matter, foreign to Vesuvius properly +speaking, for we believe that Mount Vesuvius was originally the +mountain to which the name of <i>Somma</i> is now given. The cone +which now bears the name of Vesuvius was probably formed during +the celebrated eruption of 79, which buried under its showers of +pumiceous ashes the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. This +cone terminates in a crater, the shape of which has undergone many +changes, and which has, since its origin, thrown out eruptions of a +varied character, together with streams of lava. In our days the +eruptions of Vesuvius have only been separated by intervals of a +few years.</p> + +<p>The Lipari Isles contain the volcano of Stromboli, which is continually +in a state of ignition, and forms the natural lighthouse of the +Tyrrhenian Sea; such it was when Homer mentioned it, such it was +before old Homer’s time, and such it still appears in our days. Its +eruptions are incessant. The crater whence they issue is not situated +on the summit of the cone, but upon one of its sides, at nearly two-thirds +of its height. It is in part filled with fluid lava, which is continually +subjected to alternate elevation and depression—a movement +provoked by the ebullition and ascension of bubbles of steam which +rise to the surface, projecting upwards a tall column of ashes. During +the night these clouds of vapour shine with a magnificent red reflection, +which lights up the whole isle and the surrounding sea with a +lurid glow.</p> + +<p>Situated on the eastern coast of Sicily, Etna appears, at the first +glance, to have a much more simple structure than Vesuvius. Its +slopes are less steep, more uniform on all sides; its vast base nearly +represents the form of a buckler. The lower portion of Etna, or the +cultivated region of the mountain, has an inclination of about three +degrees. The middle, or forest region, is steeper, and has an inclination +of about eight degrees. The mountain terminates in a cone of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> +an elliptical form of thirty-two degrees of inclination, which bears in +the middle, above a nearly horizontal terrace, the cone of eruption +with its circular crater. The crater is 10,874 feet high. It gives out +no lava, but only vomits forth gas and vapour, the streams of lava +issuing from sixteen smaller cones which have been formed on the +slopes of the mountain. The observer may, by looking at the +summit, convince himself that these cones are disposed in rays, and +are based upon clefts or fissures which converge towards the crater +as towards a centre.</p> + +<p>But the most extraordinary display of volcanic phenomena occurs +in the Pacific Ocean, in the Sandwich Islands, and in Java. Mauna +Loa and Mauna Kea, in Hawaii, are huge flattened cones, 14,000 +feet high. According to Mr. Dana, these lofty, featureless hills sometimes +throw out successive streams of lava, not very far below their +summits, often two miles in breadth and six-and-twenty in length; +and that not from one vent, but in every direction, from the apex of +the cone down slopes varying from four to eight degrees of inclination. +The lateral crater of Kilauea, on the flank of Mauna Loa, +is from 3,000 to 4,000 feet above the level of the sea—an immense +chasm 1,000 feet deep, with an outer circuit two to three miles +in diameter. At the bottom lava is seen to boil up in a molten +lake, the level of which rises or falls according to the active +or quiescent state of the volcano; but in place of overflowing, +the column of melted rock, when the pressure becomes excessive, +forces a passage through subterranean communications leading +to the sea. One of these outbursts, which took place at an +ancient wooded crater six miles east of Kilauea, was observed by +Mr. Coan, a missionary, in June, 1840. Another indication of the +subterranean progress of the lava took place a mile or two beyond +this, in which the fiery flood spread itself over fifty acres of land, and +then found its way underground for several miles further, to reappear +at the bottom of a second ancient wooded crater which it partly +filled up.<a name="FNanchor_28" id="FNanchor_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a></p> + +<p>The volcanic mountains of Java constitute the highest peaks of a +mountain-range running through the island from east to west, on +which Dr. Junghahn described and mapped forty-six conical eminences, +ranging from 4,000 to 11,000 feet high. At the top of many +of the loftiest of these Dr. Junghahn found the active cones and +craters of small size, and surrounded by a plain of ashes and sand, +which he calls the “old crater wall,” sometimes exceeding +1,000<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> +feet in vertical height, and many of the semicircular walls enclosing +large cavities or <i>calderas</i>, four geographical miles in diameter. From +the highest parts of many of these hollows rivers flow, which, in the +course of ages, have cut out deep valleys in the mountain’s side.<a name="FNanchor_29" +id="FNanchor_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></p> + +<p>To this rapid sketch of actually existing volcanic phenomena we +may add a brief notice of submarine volcanoes. If these are known +to us only in small numbers, the circumstance is explained by the +fact that their appearance above the bosom of the sea is almost +invariably followed by a more or less complete disappearance; at the +same time such very striking and visible phenomena afford a sufficient +proof of the continued persistence of volcanic action beneath the +bed of the sea-basin. At various times islands have suddenly +appeared, amid the ocean, at points where the navigator had not +before noticed them. In this manner we have witnessed the island +called Graham’s, Ferdinanda, or Julia, which suddenly appeared off +the south-west coast Sicily in 1831, and was swept away by the +waves two months afterwards.<a name="FNanchor_30" id="FNanchor_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30" +class="fnanchor">[30]</a> At several periods also, and notably +in 1811, new islands were formed in the Azores, which raised themselves +above the waves by repeated efforts all round the islands, and +at many other points.</p> + +<p>The island which appeared in 1796 ten leagues from the northern +point of Unalaska, one of the Aleutian group of islands, is specially +remarkable. We first see a column of smoke issuing from the bosom +of the ocean, afterwards a black point appears, from which bundles +of fiery sparks seem to rise over the surface of the sea. During the +many months that these phenomena continue, the island increases in +breadth and in height. Finally smoke only is seen; at the end of +four years, even this last trace of volcanic convulsion altogether +ceases. The island continued, nevertheless, to enlarge and to +increase in height, and in 1806 it formed a cone, surmounted by +four other smaller ones.</p> + +<p>In the space comprised between the isles of Santorin, Tharasia, +and Aspronisi, in the Mediterranean, there arose, 160 years +before our era, the island of <i>Hyera</i>, which was enlarged by the +upheaval of islets on its margin during the years 19, 726, and +1427. Again, in 1773, Micra-Kameni, and in 1707, Nea-Kameni, +made their appearance. These islands increased in size successively +in 1709, in 1711, in 1712. According to ancient writers, Santorin, +Tharasia, and Aspronisi, made their appearance many ages before the +Christian era, at the termination of earthquakes of great violence.</p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></p> +<h3><span class="smcap">Metamorphic Rocks.</span></h3> + +<p>The rocks composing the terrestrial crust have not always remained +in their original state. They have frequently undergone +changes which have altogether modified their properties, physical +and chemical.</p> + +<p>When they present these characteristics, we term them <i>Metamorphic +Rocks</i>. The phenomena which belong to this subject are at +once important and new, and have lately much attracted the attention +of geologists. We shall best enlighten our readers on the metamorphism +of rocks, if we treat of it under the heads of <i>special</i> and +<i>general</i> metamorphism.</p> + +<p>When a mass of eruptive rock penetrates the terrestrial crust it +subjects the rocks through which it passes to a special metamorphism—to +the effects of <i>heat</i> produced by <i>contact</i>. Such effects may almost +always be observed near the margin of masses of eruptive rock, and +they are attributable either to the communicated heat of the eruptive +rock itself, or to the disengagement of gases, of steam, or of mineral +and thermal waters, which have accompanied its eruption. The +effects vary not only with the rock ejected, but even with the nature +of the rock surrounding it.</p> + +<p>In the case of volcanic lava ejected in a molten state, for instance, +the modifications it effects on the surrounding rock are very characteristic. +Its structure becomes prismatic, full of cracks, often cellular +and scoriaceous. Wood and other combustibles touched by the lava +are consumed or partially carbonised. Limestone assumes a granular +and crystalline texture. Siliceous rocks are transformed, not only +into quartz like glass, but they also combine with various bases, and +yield vitreous and cellular silicates. It is nearly the same with +argillaceous rocks, which adhere together, and frequently take the +colour of red bricks.</p> + +<p>The surrounding rock is frequently impregnated with specular +iron-ore, and penetrated with hydrochloric or sulphuric acid, and by +divers salts formed from these acids.</p> + +<p>At a certain distance from the place of contact with the lava, the +action of water aided by heat produces silica, carbonate of lime, +aragonite, zeolite, and various other minerals.</p> + +<p>From immediate contact with the lava, then, the metamorphic +rocks denote the action of a very strong heat. They bear evident +traces of calcination, of softening, and even of fusion. When they +present themselves as hydrosilicates and carbonates, the silica and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> +associated minerals are most frequently at some distance from the +points of contact; and the formation of these minerals is probably +due to the combination of water and heat, although this last ceases to +be the principal agent.</p> + +<p>The hydrated volcanic rocks, such as the basalts and trappean +rocks in general, continue to produce effects of metamorphism, in +which heat operates, although its influence is inconsiderable, water +being much the more powerful agent. The metamorphosis which is +observable in the structure and mineralogical composition of neighbouring +rocks is as follows:—The structure of separation becomes +fragmentary, columnar, or many-sided, and even prismatic. It +becomes especially prismatic in combustibles, in sandstones, in argillaceous +formations, in felspathic rocks, and even in limestones. +Prisms are formed perpendicular to the surface of contact, their +length sometimes exceeding six feet. Most commonly they still +contain water or volatile matter. These characters may be observed +at the junction of the basalts which has been ejected upon the argillaceous +strata near Clermont in Auvergne, at Polignac, and in the +neighbourhood of Le Puy-en-Velay.</p> + +<p>If the vein of Basalt or Trap has traversed a bed of coal or of +lignite, we find the combustible strongly <i>metamorphosed</i> at the point +of contact. Sometimes it becomes cellular and is changed into <i>coke</i>. +This is especially the case in the coal-basin of Brassac. But more +frequently the coal has lost all, or part of, its bituminous and volatile +matter—it has been metamorphosed into anthracite—as an example +we may quote the lignite of Mont Meisner.</p> + +<p>Again, in some exceptional cases, the combustible may even be +changed into graphite near to its junction with Trap. This is +observed at the coal-mine of New Cumnock in Ayrshire.</p> + +<p>When near its junction with a <i>trappean</i> rock, a combustible has +been metamorphosed into <i>coke</i> or anthracite, it is also frequently +impregnated by hydrated oxide of iron, by clay, foliated carbonate of +lime, iron pyrites, and by various mineral veins. It may happen that +the combustible has been reduced to a pulverulent state, in which +case it is unfit for use. Such is the case in a coal-mine at Newcastle, +where the coal lies within thirty yards of a dyke of Trap.</p> + +<p>When Basalt and Trap have been ejected through limestone rock, +the latter becomes more or less altered. Near the points of contact, +the metamorphism which they have undergone is revealed by the +change of colour and aspect, which is exhibited all around the vein, +often also by the development of a crystalline structure. Limestone +becomes granular and saccharoid—it is changed into marble. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> +most remarkable instance of this metamorphism is the Carrara +marble, a non-fossiliferous limestone of the Oolite series, which has +been altered and the fossils destroyed; so that the marble of these +celebrated quarries, once supposed to have been formed before the +creation of organic beings, is now shown to be an altered limestone of +the Oolitic period, and the underlying crystalline schists are sandstones +and shales of secondary age modified by plutonic action.</p> + +<p>The action of basalt upon limestone is observable at Villeneuve de +Berg, in Auvergne; but still more in the neighbourhood of Belfast, +where we may see the Chalk changed into saccharoid limestone near +to its contact with the Trap. Sometimes the metamorphism extends +many feet from the point of contact; nay, more than that, some +zeolites and other minerals seem to be developed in the crystallised +limestone.</p> + +<p>When sandstone is found in contact with trappean rock, it presents +unequivocal traces of metamorphism; it loses its reddish colour +and becomes white, grey, green, or black; parallel veins may be +detected which give it a jaspideous structure; it separates into prisms +perpendicular to the walls of the injected veins, when it assumes a +brilliant and vitreous lustre. Sometimes it is even also found penetrated +by zeolites, a family of minerals which melt before the blowpipe +with considerable ebullition. The mottled sandstones of Germany, +which are traversed by veins of basalt, often exhibit metamorphism, +particularly at Wildenstern, in Würtemberg.</p> + +<p>Argillaceous rocks, like all others, are subject to metamorphism when +they come in contact with eruptive trappean rocks. In these circumstances +they change colour and assume a varied or prismatic structure; +at the same time their hardness increases, and they become +lithoidal or stony in structure. They may also become cellular—form +zeolites in their cavities with foliated carbonate of lime, as well as +minerals which commonly occur in amygdaloid. Sometimes even +the fissures are coated by the metallic minerals, and the other minerals +which accompany them in their metalliferous beds. Generally they lose +a part of their water and of their carbonic acid. In other circumstances +they combine with oxide of iron and the alkalies. This has been +asserted, for example, at Essey, in the department of the Meurthe, +where a very argillaceous sandstone is found, charged with jasper +porcellanite, near to the junction of the rock with a vein of basalt.</p> + +<p>Hitherto we have spoken only of the metamorphosis the result of +volcanic action. A few words will suffice to acquaint the reader with +the metamorphism exercised by the porphyries and granites. By +contact with granite, we find coal changed into anthracite or graphite.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> +It is important to note, however, that coal has seldom been metamorphosed +into coke. As to the limestone, it is sometimes, as we have +seen, transformed into marble; we even find in its interior divers +minerals, notably silicates with a calcareous base, such as garnets, +pyroxene, hornblende, &c. The sandstones and clay-slates have +alike been altered.</p> + +<p>The surrounding deposit and the eruptive rock are both frequently +impregnated with quartz, carbonate of lime, sulphate of baryta, +fluorides, and, in a word, with the whole tribe of metalliferous minerals, +which present themselves, besides, with the characteristics which are +common to them in the veins.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">General Metamorphism.</span></h4> + +<p>Sedimentary rocks sometimes exhibit all the symptoms of metamorphism +where there is no evidence of direct eruptive action, and +that upon a scale much grander than in the case of special metamorphism. +It is observable over whole regions, in which it has +modified and altered simultaneously all the surrounding rocks. +This state of things is called general, or normal, metamorphism. The +fundamental gneiss, which covers such a vast extent of country, is the +most striking instance known of general metamorphism. It was first +described by Sir W. E. Logan, Director of the Canadian Geological +Survey, who estimates its thickness at 30,000 feet. The Laurentian +Gneiss is a term which is used by geologists to designate those metamorphic +rocks which are known to be older than the Cambrian +system. They are parts of the old pre-Cambrian continents which lie +at the base of the great American continent, Scandinavia, the +Hebrides, &c.; and which are largely developed on the west coast +of Scotland. In order to give the reader some idea of this metamorphism, +we shall endeavour to trace its effects in rocks of the same +nature, indicating the characters successively presented by the rocks +according to the intensity of the metamorphism to which they have +been subjected.</p> + +<p>Combustibles, which have a special composition, totally different +from all other rocks, are obviously the first objects of examination. +When we descend in the series of sedimentary deposits, the combustibles +are observed completely to change their characters. From the +<i>peat</i> which is the product of our own epoch, we pass to <i>lignite</i>, to <i>coal</i>, +to <i>anthracite</i>, and even to <i>graphite</i>; and find that their density +increases, varying up to at least double. Hydrogen, nitrogen, and,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> +above all, oxygen, diminish rapidly. Volatile and bituminous matters +decrease, while carbon undergoes a proportionate increase.</p> + +<p>This metamorphism of the combustible minerals, which takes place +in deposits of different ages, may also be observed even in the same +bed. For instance, in the coal formations of America, which extend +to the west of the Alleghany mountains, the Coal-measures contain a +certain proportion of volatile matter, which goes on diminishing in +proportion as we approach the granite rocks; this proportion rises to +fifty per cent. upon the Ohio, but it falls to forty upon the Manon-Gahela, +and even to sixteen in the Alleghanies. Finally, in the +regions where the strata have been most disturbed, in Pennsylvania +and Massachusetts, the coal has been metamorphosed into anthracite +and even into graphite or plumbago.</p> + +<p>Limestone is one of the rocks upon which we can most easily +follow the effects of general metamorphism. When it has not been +modified, it is usually found in sedimentary rocks in the state of +compact limestone, of coarse limestone, or of earthy limestone such +as chalk. But let us consider it in the mountains, especially in +mountains which are at the same time granitic, such as the Pyrenees, +the Vosges, and the Alps. We shall then see its characters completely +modified. In the long and deep valleys of the Alps, for +example, we can follow the alterations of the limestone for many +leagues, the beds losing more and more their regularity in proportion +as we approach the central chain, until they lose themselves in solitary +pinnacles and projections enclosed in crystalline schists or granitic +rocks. Towards the upper regions of the Alps the limestone divides +itself into pseudo-regular fragments, it is more strongly cemented, +more compact, more sonorous; its colour becomes paler, and it +passes from black to grey by the gradual disappearance of organic +and bituminous matter with which it has been impregnated, at the +same time its crystalline structure increases in a manner scarcely +perceptible. It may even be observed to be metamorphosed into +an aggregate of microscopic crystals, and finally to pass into a white +saccharoid limestone.</p> + +<p>This metamorphism is produced without any decomposition of the +limestone; it has rather been softened and half melted by the heat, +that is, rendered plastic, so to speak, for we find in it fossils still +recognisable, and among these, notably, some Ammonites and Belemnites, +the presence of which enables us to state that it is the greyish-black +Jurassic limestone, which has been transformed into white +saccharoid or granular limestone. If the limestone subjected to +this transformation were perfectly pure, it would simply take a crystalline<span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> +structure; but it is generally mixed with sand and various +argillaceous matters, which have been deposited along with it, matters +which go to form new minerals. These new minerals, however, are not +disseminated by chance; they develop themselves in the direction of +the lamination, so to speak, of the limestone, and in its fissures, in +such a manner that they present themselves in nodules, seams, and +sometimes in veins.</p> + +<p>Among the principal minerals of the saccharoid limestone we may +mention graphite, quartz, some very varied silicates, such as andalusite, +disthene, serpentine, talc, garnet, augite, hornblende, epidote, chlorite, +the micas, the felspars; finally, spinel, corundum, phosphate of +lime, oxide of iron and oligiste, iron pyrites, &c. Besides these, +various minerals in veins figure among those which exist more +commonly in the saccharoid limestone.</p> + +<p>When metamorphic limestone is sufficiently pure, it is employed as +statuary marble. Such is the geological origin of Carrara marble, +which is quarried in the Apuan Alps on a great scale; such, also, was +the marble of Paros and Antiparos, still so celebrated for its purity. +On examination, however, with the lens the Carrara marble exhibits +blackish veins and spangles of graphite; the finest blocks, also, frequently +contain nodules of ironstone, which are lined with perfectly +limpid crystals of quartz. These accidental defects are very annoying +to the sculptor, for they are very minute, and nothing on the exterior +of the block betrays their existence. In the marble of Paros, even +when it is strongly translucent, specks of mica are often found. In the +ancient quarries the nodules are so numerous as to have hindered +their being worked, up even to the present time.</p> + +<p>When the mica which occurs in granular limestone takes a green +colour and forms veins, it constitutes the Cipoline marble, which is +found in Corsica, and in the Val Godemar in the Alps. Some white +marbles are quarried in France, chiefly at Loubie, at Sost, at Saint-Béat +in the Pyrenees, and at Chippal in the Vosges. In our country, +and especially in Ireland, there are numerous quarries of marble, +veined and coloured of every hue, but none of a purity suitable +for the finest statuary purposes. All these marbles are only metamorphosed +limestones.</p> + +<p>The white marbles employed almost all over the world are those +of Carrara. They result from the metamorphism of limestone of the +Lias. They have not been penetrated by the eruptive rocks, but +they have been subjected upon a great scale to a general metamorphism, +to which their crystalline structure may be attributed.</p> + +<p>It is easily understood that the calcareous strata have not +undergone<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> +such an energetic metamorphism without the beds of sandstone +and clay, associated with them, having also undergone some modification +of the same kind. The siliceous beds accompanying the +saccharoid limestone have, in short, a character of their own. They +are formed of small grains of transparent quartz more or less cemented +one to the other in a manner strongly resembling those of the saccharoid +limestone. Between these grains are usually developed +some lamellæ of mica of brilliant and silky lustre, of which the colour +is white, red, or green; in a word, it has produced a <i>quartzite</i>. Some +veins of quartz frequently traverse this quartzite in all directions. +Independent of the mica, it may contain, besides, the different +minerals already mentioned as occurring in the limestone, and particularly +silicates—such as disthene, andalusite, staurotide, garnet, and +hornblende.</p> + +<p>The argillaceous beds present a series of metamorphisms analogous +to the preceding. We can follow them readily through all their +gradations when we direct our attention towards such granitic masses +as those which constitute the Alps, Pyrenees, the Bretagne Mountains, +or our own Grampians. The schists may perhaps be considered the +first step towards the metamorphism of certain argillaceous rocks; in +fact, the schists are not susceptible of mixing with water like clay; they +become stony, and acquire a much greater density, but their chief +characteristic is a foliated structure.</p> + +<p>Experiment proves that when we subject a substance to a great +pressure a foliated structure is produced in a direction perpendicular +to that in which the pressure is exercised. Everything leads us, +therefore, to believe that pressure is the principal cause of the +schistous texture, and of the foliation of clay-slates, the most characteristic +variety of which is the roofing-slate which is quarried so +extensively in North Wales, in Cumberland, and various parts of Scotland +in the British Islands; in the Ardennes; and in the neighbourhood +of Angers, in France.</p> + +<p>In some localities the slate becomes siliceous and is charged with +crystals of felspar. Nevertheless, it still presents itself in parallel +beds, and contains the same fossil remains still in a recognisable state. +For example, in the neighbourhood of Thann, in the Vosges, certain +vegetable imprints are perfectly preserved in the metamorphic schist, +and in their midst are developed some crystals of felspar.</p> + +<p>Mica-schist, which is formed of layers of quartz and mica, is +found habitually associated with rocks which have taken a crystalline +structure, proceeding evidently from an energetic metamorphism of +beds originally argillaceous. Chiastolite, disthene, staurotide, +hornblende,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> +and other minerals are found in it. Mica-schists occur +extensively in Brittany, in the Vosges, in the Pyrenees. In all cases, +as we approach the masses of granite, in these regions, the crystalline +structure becomes more and more marked.</p> + +<p>In describing the various facts relating to the metamorphism of +rocks, we have said little of the causes which have produced it. The +causes are, indeed, in the region of hypothesis, and somewhat +mysterious.</p> + +<p>In what concerns special metamorphism, the cause is supposed to +admit of easy explanation—it is heat. When a rock is ejected from +the interior of the earth in a state of igneous fusion, we comprehend +readily enough that the strata, which it traverses, should sustain alterations +due to the influence of heat, and varying with its intensity. This +is clear enough in the case of <i>lava</i>. On the other hand, as water +always exists in the interior of the earth’s crust, and as this water +must be at a very high temperature in the neighbourhood of volcanic +fires, it contributes, no doubt, largely to the metamorphism. If the +rocks have not been ejected in a state of fusion, it is evidently water, +with the different mineral substances it holds in solution, which is the +chief actor in the special metamorphism which is produced.</p> + +<p>In general metamorphism, water appears still to be the principal +agent. As it is infiltered through the various beds it will modify +their composition, either by dissolving certain substances, or by introducing +into the metalliferous deposits certain new substances, such +as may be seen forming, even under our eyes, in mineral springs. +This has tended to render the sedimentary deposits plastic, and has +permitted the development of that crystalline structure, which is one +of the principal characteristics of metamorphic rocks. This action +has been seconded by other causes, notably by heat and pressure, +which would have an immense increase of power and energy when +metamorphism takes place at a great depth beneath the surface. Dr. +Holl, in an able paper descriptive of the geology of the Malvern +Hills, read before the Geological Society in February, 1865, adopts +this hypothesis as explanatory of the vast phenomena which are there +displayed. After describing the position of this interesting and +strangely-mingled range of rocks, he adds: “These metamorphic +rocks are for the most part highly inclined, and often in a position +nearly vertical. Their disturbance and metamorphism, their being +traversed by granitic veins, and still later their invasion by trap-dykes +and their subsequent elevation above the sea-level, were all +events which must have occupied no inconsiderable period, even of +geological time. I presume,” he adds, “that it will not be +maintained<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> +in the present day that the metamorphism of rocks over areas +of any but very moderate extent is due to the intrusion of veins and +erupted masses. The insufficiency of such agency becomes the more +obvious when we consider the slight effects produced by even tolerably +extensive outbursts, such as the Dartmoor granite; while in the case +of the Malverns there is an absence of any local cause whatever. +The more probable explanation in the case of these larger areas is, +that they were faulted down, or otherwise depressed, so as to be +brought within the influence of the earth’s internal heat, and this is +the more likely as they belong to an epoch when the crust is believed +to have been thinner.” When it is considered that, according to the +doctrine of modern geology, the Laurentian rocks, or their equivalents, +lie at the base of all the sedimentary deposits; that this, like +other systems of stratified rocks, was deposited in the form of +sand, mud, and clay, to the thickness of 30,000 feet; and that +over an area embracing Scandinavia, the Hebrides, great part of +Scotland, and England as far south as the Malverns, besides a large +proportion of the American continent, with certain forms of animal +life, as recent investigations demonstrate—can the mind of man +realise any other cause by which this vast extent of metamorphism +could have been produced?</p> + +<p>Electric and galvanic currents, circulating in the stratified crust, +are not to be overlooked. The experiments of Mr. R. W. Fox and +Mr. Robert Hunt suggest that, in passing long-continued galvanic +currents through masses of moistened clay, there is a tendency to +produce cleavage and a semi-crystalline arrangement of the particles +of matter.<a name="FNanchor_31" id="FNanchor_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a></p> + +<hr class="footnote" /> +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote_11" id="Footnote_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Lyell’s +“Elements of Geology,” p. 694.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_12" id="Footnote_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> +“Physical Geology and Geography of Great Britain,” by A. C. Ramsay, +p. 38, 2nd ed.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_13" id="Footnote_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> At the same time it may be +safely assumed (as Professor Ramsay believes to +be the case) that granite in most cases is a metamorphic rock; yet are there many +instances in which it may with greater truth be considered as a true plutonic rock.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_14" id="Footnote_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> “Elements of +Geology,” p. 716, 6th edition.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_15" id="Footnote_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> “Elements of +Geology,” p. 717.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_16" id="Footnote_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Ibid, p. 718.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_17" id="Footnote_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> “Geology of the Island of +Arran,” by Andrew C. Ramsay. “Geology of +Arran and Clydesdale,” by James Bryce.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_18" id="Footnote_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> See <i>Quarterly Journal of +Geological Society</i>, vol. viii., pp. 9 and 10.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_19" id="Footnote_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> For full information in reference +to the rocks and geology of this part of +France, the reader is referred to the masterly work on “The Geology and +Extinct Volcanoes of Central France,” by G. Poulett Scrope, 2nd edition, 1858.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_20" id="Footnote_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> “Volcanoes,” +2nd ed.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_21" id="Footnote_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> “Elements of +Geology,” p. 596.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_22" id="Footnote_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> Ibid, p. 677.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_23" id="Footnote_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> “Cosmos,” vol. +i., p. 25. Bohn.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_24" id="Footnote_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> “Cosmos,” vol. i., +p. 237.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_25" id="Footnote_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> Darwin’s +“Journal,” p. 291, 2nd edition.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_26" id="Footnote_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> “Elements of +Geology,” p. 732.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_27" id="Footnote_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> Ibid, p. 733.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_28" id="Footnote_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> Lyell’s “Elements +of Geology,” p. 617.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_29" id="Footnote_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> Lyell’s “Elements of +Geology,” p. 620.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_30" id="Footnote_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> Ibid, p. 620.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_31" id="Footnote_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> Report of the Royal Cornwall +Polytechnic Society for 1837. Robert Hunt, +in “Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Great Britain,” vol. i., p. 433.</p> + +</div> + +<hr class="c25" /> +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></p> +<h2>THE BEGINNING.</h2> + +<p>The theory which has been developed, and which considers the +earth as an extinct sun, as a star cooled down from its original heated +condition, as a nebula, or luminous cloud, which has passed from +the gaseous to the solid state—this fine conception, which unites so +brilliantly the kindred sciences of astronomy and geology, belongs +to the French mathematician, Laplace, the immortal author of the +“Mécanique Céleste.”</p> + +<p>The hypothesis of Laplace assigns to the sun, and to all bodies +which gravitate in what Descartes calls his <i>tourbillon</i>, a common +origin. “In the primitive state in which we must suppose the sun to +be,” he says, “it resembles one of those nebulæ which the telescope +reveals to us, consisting of a more or less brilliant central <i>nucleus</i>, +surrounded by luminous clouds, which clouds, condensing at the +surface, become transformed into a star.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_12" id="Fig_12"></a> +<img src="images/illo093.jpg" alt="Fig. 12" width="450" height="373" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 12.—Comparative volume of the earth in the gaseous and solid state.</p></div> + +<p>It has been calculated that the centre of the earth has a +temperature of about 195,000° Cent., a degree of heat which +surpasses all that the imagination can conceive. We can have no +difficulty in admitting that, at a heat so excessive, all the substances +which now enter into the composition of the globe would be +reduced to the state of gas or vapour. Our planet, then, must +have been originally an aggregation of aëriform fluids—a mass of +matter entirely gaseous; and if we reflect that substances in their +gaseous state occupy a volume eighteen hundred times larger than +when solid, we shall have some conception of the enormous volume +of this gaseous mass. It would be as large as the sun, which is +fourteen hundred thousand times larger than the terrestrial sphere. +In <a href="#Fig_12">Fig. 12</a> we have attempted to give an idea of the vast difference of +volume between the earth in its present solid state and in its +primitive gaseous condition. One of the globes, A, represents the +former, B the latter. It is simply a comparison of size, which is made +the more strikingly apparent by means of these geometrical +figures—one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81"></a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" +id="Page_82"></a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> +the twentieth part of an inch in diameter, the other two inches +and three quarters.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Plate_VI" id="Plate_VI"></a> +<img src="images/illo092.jpg" alt="Plate VI" width="600" height="380" /> +<p class="caption">VI.—The Earth circulating in space in the state of a gaseous star.</p></div> + +<p>At this excessive temperature the gaseous mass, which we have +described, would shine in space as the sun does at the present day; +and with the same brilliancy as that with which, to our eyes, the fixed +stars and planets shine in the serenity of night, as represented on the +opposite page (<span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_VI">Plate VI.</a></span>). Circulating round the sun in obedience +to the laws of universal gravitation, this incandescent gaseous +mass was necessarily regulated by the laws which govern other +material substances. As it got cooler it gradually transferred part of +its warmth to the glacial regions of the inter-planetary spaces, in the +midst of which it traced the line of its flaming orbit. Consequent on +its continual cooling (but at the end of a period of time of which it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> +would be impossible, even approximately, to fix the duration), the +star, originally gaseous, would attain a liquid state. It would then +be considerably diminished in volume.</p> + +<p>The laws of mechanics teach us that liquid bodies, when in a +state of rotation, assume a spherical form; it is one of the laws of +their being, emanating from the Creator, and is due to the force of +attraction. Thus the Earth takes the spheroidal form, belonging to +it, in common with the greater number of the celestial bodies.</p> + +<p>The Earth is subject to two distinct movements; namely, a movement +of translation round the sun, and a movement of rotation on +its own axis—the latter a uniform movement, which produces the +regular alternations of days and nights. Mechanics have also established +the fact, which is confirmed by experiment, that a fluid mass +in motion produces (as the result of the variation of the centrifugal +force on its different diameters), a swelling towards the equatorial +diameter of the sphere, and a flattening at the poles or extremities +of its axis. It is in consequence of this law, that the Earth, when it +was in a liquid state, became swollen at the equator, and depressed at +its two poles; and that it has passed from its primitive spherical form +to the spheroidal—that is, has become flattened at each of its polar +extremities, and has assumed its present shape of an oblate spheroid.</p> + +<p>This bulging at the equator and flattening towards the poles +afford the most direct proofs, that can be adduced, of the original +liquid state of our planet. A solid and non-elastic sphere—a stone +ball, for example—might turn for ages upon its axis, and its form +would sustain no change; but a fluid ball, or one of a pasty consistence, +would swell out towards the middle, and, in the same proportion, +become flattened at the extremities of its axis. It was upon +this principle, namely, by admitting the primitive fluidity of the +globe, that Newton announced <i>à priori</i> the bulging of the globe at +the equator and its flattening at the poles; and he even calculated +the amount of this depression. The actual measurement, both of +this expansion and flattening, by Maupertuis, Clairaut, Camus, and +Lemonnier, in 1736, proved how exact the calculations of the great +geometrican were. Those gentlemen, together with the Abbé Outhier, +were sent into Lapland by the Academy of Sciences; the Swedish +astronomer, Celsius, accompanied them, and furnished them with +the best instruments for measuring and surveying. At the same time +the Academy sent Bouguer and Condamine to the equatorial regions +of South America. The measurements taken in both these regions +established the existence of the equatorial expansion and the polar +depression, as Newton had estimated it to be in his calculations.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span>It does not follow, as a consequence of the partial cooling down +of the terrestrial mass, that all the gaseous substances composing it +should pass into a liquid state; some of these might remain in the +state of gas or vapour, and form round the terrestrial spheroid an +outer envelope or <i>atmosphere</i> (from the Greek words ατμος, <i>vapour</i>, +and σφαιρα, <i>sphere</i>). But we should form a very inexact idea of the +atmosphere which surrounded the globe, at this remote period, if we +compared it with that which surrounds it now. The extent of the +gaseous matter which enveloped the primitive earth must have been +immense; it doubtless extended to the moon. It included, in +short, in the state of vapour, the enormous body of water which, as +such, now constitutes our existing seas, added to all the other +substances which preserve their gaseous state at the temperature then +exhibited by the incandescent earth; and it is certainly no exaggeration +to place this temperature at 2,000° Centigrade. The atmosphere +would participate in this temperature; and acted on by such +excessive heat, the pressure that it would exert on the Earth would +be infinitely greater than that which it exercises at the present time. +To the gases which form the component parts of the present +atmospheric air—namely, nitrogen, oxygen, and carbonic acid—to +enormous masses of watery vapour, must be added vast quantities of +mineral substances, metallic or earthy, reduced to a gaseous state, +and maintained in that state by the temperature of this gigantic +furnace. The metals, the chlorides—metallic, alkaline, and earthy—sulphur, +the sulphides, and even the silicates of alumina and lime; +all, at this temperature, would exist in a vaporous form in the atmosphere +surrounding the primitive globe.</p> + +<p>It is to be inferred that, under these circumstances, the different +substances composing this atmosphere would be ranged round the +globe in the order of their respective densities; the first layer—that +nearest to the surface of the globe—being formed of the heavier +vapours, such as those of the metals, of iron, platinum, and copper, +mixed doubtless with clouds of fine metallic dust produced by the +partial condensation of their vapours. This first and heaviest zone, +and the thickest also, would be quite opaque, although the surface of +the earth was still at a red heat. Above it would come the more +vaporisable substances, such as the metallic and alkaline chlorides, +particularly the chloride of sodium or common salt, sulphur and +phosphorus, with all the volatile combinations of these substances. +The upper zone would contain matter still more easily converted into +vapour, such as water (steam), together with others naturally gaseous, +as oxygen, nitrogen, and carbonic acid. This order of superposition,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> +however, would not always be preserved. In spite of their differences +of density, these three atmospheric layers would often become mixed, +producing formidable storms and violent ebullitions; frequently +throwing down, rending, upheaving, and confounding these incandescent +zones.</p> + +<p>As to the globe itself, without being so much agitated as its hot +and shifting atmosphere, it would be no less subject to perpetual +tempests, occasioned by the thousand chemical actions which took +place in its molten mass. On the other hand, the electricity resulting +from these powerful chemical actions, operating on such a vast scale, +would induce frightful electric detonations, thunder adding to the +horror of this primitive scene, which no imagination, no human +pencil could trace, and which constitutes that gloomy and disastrous +chaos of which the legendary history of every ancient +race has transmitted the tradition. In this manner would our globe +circulate in space, carrying in its train the flaming streaks of its +multiple atmosphere, unfitted, as yet, for living beings, and impenetrable +to the rays of the sun, around which it described its vast +orbit.</p> + +<p>The temperature of the planetary regions is infinitely low; +according to Laplace it cannot be estimated at less than 100° +below zero. The glacial regions traversed in its course by the +incandescent globe would necessarily cool it, at first superficially, +when it would assume a pasty consistence. It must not be forgotten +that the earth, on account of its liquid state, would be obedient in all +its mass to the action of flux and reflux, which proceeds from the +attraction of the sun and moon, but to which the sea alone is now +subject. This action, to which all its liquid and movable particles +were subject, would singularly accelerate the commencement of the +solidification of the terrestrial mass. It would thus gradually assume +that sort of consistence which iron attains, when it is first withdrawn +from the furnace, in the process of puddling.</p> + +<p>As the earth cooled, beds of concrete substances would necessarily +be formed, which, floating at first in isolated masses on the +surface of the semi-fluid matter, would in course of time come +together, consolidate, and form continuous banks; just as we see +with the ice of the present Polar Seas, which, when brought in +contact by the agitation of the waves, coalesces and forms icebergs, +more or less movable. By extending this phenomenon to the whole +surface of the globe, the solidification of its entire surface would be +produced. A solid, but still thin and fragile crust, would thus +envelop the whole earth, enclosing entirely its still fluid interior.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> +The entire consolidation +would necessarily +be a much +slower process—one +which, according to +the received hypothesis, +is very far from +being completed at +the present time; for +it is estimated that the +actual thickness of +the earth’s crust does +not exceed thirty +miles, while the mean +radius or distance +from the centre of the +terrestrial sphere, approaches +4,000 miles, +the mean diameter +being 7,912·409 +miles; so that the +portion of our planet, +supposed to be solidified, +represents only +a very small fraction +of its total mass.</p> + +<p>We say thirty miles, +for such is the ordinary +estimated thickness +of the earth’s +crust, usually admitted +by savants; +and the following is +the process by which +this result has been +obtained.</p> + +<p>We know that the +temperature of the +earth increases one +degree Centigrade for +every hundred feet of +descent. This result<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> +has been borne out by a great number of measurements, made in +many of the mines of France, in the tin mines of Cornwall, in the +mines of the Erzgeberge, of the Ural, of Scotland, and, above all, in +the soundings effected in the Artesian wells of Grenelle and Passy, near +Paris, of St. André de Iregny, and at a great number of other points.</p> + +<p>The greatest depth to which miners have hitherto penetrated is +about 973 yards, which has been reached in a boring executed in +Monderf, in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. At Neusalzwerk, near +Minden, in Prussia, another boring has been carried to the depth of +760 yards. In the coal-mines of Monkwearmouth the pits have been +sunk 525 yards, and at Dukinfield 717 yards. The mean of the +thermometic observations made, at all these points, leads to the +conclusion that the temperature increases about one degree Fahrenheit +for every sixty feet (English) of descent after the first hundred.</p> + +<p>In admitting that this law of temperature exists for all depths of the +earth’s crust, we arrive at the conclusion that, at a depth of from +twenty-five to thirty-five miles—which is only about five times the +height of the highest mountains—the most refractory matter would be in +a state of fusion. According to M. Mitscherlich, the flame of hydrogen, +burning in free air, acquires a temperature of 1,560° Centigrade. In +this flame platinum would be in a state of fusion. Granite melts at a +lower temperature than soft iron, that is at about 1,300°; while silver +melts at 1,023°. In imagining an increase of temperature equal to one +degree for every hundred feet of descent, the temperature at twenty-five +miles will be 1,420° C. or 2,925° F.; thirty miles below the surface +there will be a probable temperature of 1,584° C. or 3,630° F.; +it follows, if these arguments be admitted, and the calculation correct, +that the thickness of the solid crust of the globe does not much +exceed thirty miles.</p> + +<p>This result, which gives to the terrestrial crust a thickness equal +to <sup>1</sup>⁄<sub>190</sub> of the earth’s diameter, has nothing, it is true, of absolute +certainty.</p> + +<p>Prof. W. Hopkins, F.R.S., an eminent mathematician, has much +insisted upon the fact, that the conductibility of granite rocks, for heat, +is much greater than that of sedimentary rocks; and he argues that in +the lower stratum of the earth the temperature increases much more +slowly than it does nearer the surface. This consideration has led +Mr. Hopkins to estimate the probable thickness of the earth’s solid +crust at a minimum of 200 miles.</p> + +<p>In support of this estimate Mr. Hopkins puts forward another +argument, based upon the precession of the equinoxes. We know +that the terrestrial axis, instead of always preserving the same +direction<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> +in space, revolves in a cone round the pole of the ecliptic. Our +globe, it is calculated, will accomplish its revolution in about 25,000 +years. In about this period it will return to its original position. +This balancing, which has been compared to that of a top when about +to cease spinning, produces the movement known as the <i>precession of +the equinoxes</i>. It is due to the attraction which the sun and moon +exercise upon the swelling equatorial of the globe. This attraction +would act very differently upon a globe entirely solid, and upon one +with a liquid interior, covered by a comparatively thin crust. Mr. +Hopkins subjected this curious problem to mathematical analysis, +and he calculated that the precession of the equinoxes, observed by +astronomers, could only be explained by admitting that the solid +shell of the earth could not be less than from about 800 to 1,000 +miles in thickness.</p> + +<p>In his researches on the <i>rigidity of the earth</i>, Sir William Thomson +finds that the phenomena of precession and nutation require that the +earth, if not solid to the core, must be nearly so; and that no continuous +liquid vesicle at all approaching 6,000 miles in diameter can +possibly exist in the earth’s interior, without rendering the phenomena +in question very sensibly different from what they are.</p> + +<p>The calculations of Mr. Hennessey are in direct opposition to +those of Sir William Thomson, and show that the earth’s crust cannot +be less than eighteen miles, or more than 600 miles in thickness.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><a name="Fig_13" id="Fig_13"></a> +<img src="images/illo097.png" alt="Fig. 13" width="241" height="550" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 13.—Relative volumes of the solid crust and liquid mass of the globe.</p></div> + +<p>Admitting, for the present, that the terrestrial crust is only thirty +miles in thickness, we can express in a familiar, but very intelligible +fashion, the actual relation between the dimensions of the liquid nucleus +and the solid crust of the earth. If we imagine the earth to be an orange, +a tolerably thick sheet of paper applied to its surface will then represent, +approximately, the thickness of the solid crust which now +envelopes the globe. <a href="#Fig_13">Fig. 13</a> will enable us to appreciate this fact +still more correctly. The terrestrial sphere having a mean diameter +of 7,912 miles, or a mean radius of 3,956 miles, and a solid crust +about thirty miles thick, which is <sup>1</sup>⁄<sub>260</sub> of the diameter, or <sup>1</sup>⁄<sub>130</sub> of +the radius, the engraving may be presumed to represent these proportions +with sufficient accuracy.</p> + +<p>To determine, even approximately, the time such a vast body +would take in cooling, so as to permit of the formation of a solid +crust, or to fix the duration of the transformations which we are +describing, would be an impossible task.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_14" id="Fig_14"></a> +<img src="images/illo100.png" alt="Fig. 14" width="450" height="296" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 14.—Formation of primitive granitic mountains.</p></div> + +<p>The first terrestrial crust formed, as indicated, would be incapable +of resisting the waves of the ocean of internal fire, which would +be depressed and raised up at its daily flux and reflux in obedience<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> +to the attraction of the sun and moon. Who can trace, +even in imagination, the fearful rendings, the gigantic inundations, +which would result from these movements! Who would dare to +paint the sublime horrors of these first mysterious convulsions of the +globe! Amid torrents of molten matter, mixed with gases, upheaving +and piercing the scarcely consolidated crust, large crevices would +be opened, and through these gaping cracks waves of liquid granite +would be ejected, and then left to cool and consolidate on the +surface. <a href="#Fig_14">Fig. 14</a> represents the formation of a primitive granitic +mountain, by the eruption of the internal granitic matter which forces +its way to the surface through a fracture in the crust. In some of these +mountains, Ben Nevis for example, three different stages of the eruption +can be traced. “Ben Nevis, now the undoubted monarch of the Scottish +mountains,” says Nicol, “shows well the diverse age and relations of +igneous rocks. The Great Moor from Inverlochy and Fort William +to the foot of the hill is gneiss. Breaking through, and partly resting +on the gneiss is granite, forming the lower two-thirds of the mountain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> +up to the small tarn on the shoulder of the hill. Higher still is the +huge prism of porphyry, rising steep and rugged all around.” In +this manner would the first mountains be formed. In this way, also, +might some metallic veins be ejected through the smaller openings, +true injections of eruptive matter produced from the interior of the +globe, traversing the primitive rocks and constituting the precious +depository of metals, such as copper, zinc, antimony, and lead. <a href="#Fig_15">Fig. +15</a> represents the internal structure of some of these metallic veins. +In this case the fracture is only a fissure in the rock, which soon +became filled with injected matter, often of different kinds, which +in crystallising would completely fill the hollow of this cleft, or crack; +but sometimes forming cavities or geodes as a result of the contraction +of the mass.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_15" id="Fig_15"></a> +<img src="images/illo101.png" alt="Fig. 15" width="450" height="358" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 15.—Metallic veins.</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>But some eruptions of granitic and other substances, ejected from +the interior, never reach the surface at all. In such cases the clefts +and crevices—longitudinal or oblique—are filled, but the fissures +in the crust do not themselves extend to the surface. <a href="#Fig_16">Fig. 16</a> represents +an eruption of granite through a mass of sedimentary rock—the +granite ejected from the centre fills all the clefts and fractures, but it +has not been sufficiently powerful to force its way to the surface.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_16" id="Fig_16"></a> +<img src="images/illo102.png" alt="Fig. 16" width="450" height="279" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 16.—Eruption of granite.</p></div> + +<p>On the surface of the earth, then, which would be at first smooth +and unbroken, there were formed, from the very beginning, swelling +eminences, hollows, foldings, corrugations, and crevices, which would +materially alter its original aspect; its arid and burning surface +bristled with rugged protuberances, or was traversed by enormous +fissures and cracks. Nevertheless, as the globe continued to cool, a +time arrived when its temperature became insufficient to maintain, in +a state of vapour, the vast masses of water which floated in the +atmosphere. These vapours would pass into the liquid state, and +then the first rain fell upon the earth. Let us here remark that these +were veritable rains of boiling water; for in consequence of the very +considerable pressure of the atmosphere, water would be condensed +and become liquid at a temperature much above 100° Centigrade +(212° Fahr.)</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93"></a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Plate_VII" id="Plate_VII"></a> +<img src="images/illo104.png" alt="Plate VII" width="600" height="383" /> +<p class="caption">VII.—Condensation and rainfall on the primitive globe.</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>The +first drop of water, which fell upon the still heated terrestrial +sphere, marked a new period in its evolution—a period the mechanical +and chemical effects of which it is important to analyse. The contact +of the condensed water with the consolidated surface of the globe +opens up a series of modifications of which science may undertake the +examination with a degree of confidence, or at least with more +positive elements of appreciation than any we possess for the period +of chaos; some of the features of which we have attempted to represent, +leaving of necessity much to the imagination, and for the reader +to interpret after his own fashion.</p> + +<p>The first water which fell, in the liquid state, upon the slightly +cooled surface of the earth would be rapidly converted into steam +by the elevation of its temperature. Thus, rendered much lighter +than the surrounding atmosphere, these vapours would rise to the +utmost limits of the atmosphere, where they would become condensed +afresh, in consequence of their radiation towards the glacial +regions of space; condensing again, they would re-descend to the earth +in a liquid state, to re-ascend as vapour and fall in a state of condensation. +But all these changes, in the physical condition of the +water, could only be maintained by withdrawing a very considerable +amount of heat from the surface of the globe, whose cooling would +be greatly hastened by these continual alternations of heat and cold; +its heat would thus become gradually dissipated and lost in the +regions of celestial space.</p> + +<p>This phenomenon extending itself by degrees to the whole mass +of watery vapour existing in the atmosphere, the waters covered the +earth in increasing quantities; and as the conversion of all liquids +into vapour is provocative of a notable disengagement of electricity, +a vast quantity of electric fluid necessarily resulted from the conversion +of such large masses of water into vapour. Bursts of thunder, +and bright flashes of lightning were the necessary accompaniments +of this extraordinary struggle of the elements—a state of things +which M. Maurando has attempted to represent on the opposite +page (<span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_VII">Plate VII.</a></span>).</p> + +<p>How long did this struggle for supremacy between fire and water, +with the incessant noise of thunder, continue? All that can be +said in reply is, that a time came when water was triumphant. After +having covered vast areas on the surface of the earth, it finally +occupied and entirely covered the whole surface; for there is good +reason to believe that at a certain epoch, at the commencement, so to +speak, of its evolution; the earth was covered by water over its whole +extent. The ocean was universal. From this moment our globe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> +entered on a regular series of revolutions, interrupted only by the +outbreaks of the internal fires which were concealed beneath its still +imperfectly consolidated crust.</p> + +<p>“At the early periods in which the materials of the ancient crystalline +schists were accumulated, it cannot be doubted that the chemical +processes which generated silicates were much more active than in +more recent times. The heat of the earth’s crust was probably then +far greater than at present, while a high temperature prevailed at +comparatively small depths, and thermal waters abounded. A denser +atmosphere, charged with carbonic acid gas, must also have contributed +to maintain, at the earth’s surface, a greater degree of heat, +though one not incompatible with the existence of organic life.</p> + +<p>“These conditions must have favoured many chemical processes, +which in later times have nearly ceased to operate. Hence we +find that subsequently to the eozoic times, silicated rocks of clearly +marked chemical origin are comparatively rare.”<a name="FNanchor_32" +id="FNanchor_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a></p> + +<p>In order to comprehend the complex action, now mechanical, +now chemical, which the waters, still in a heated state, exercised on +the solid crust, let us consider what were the components of this crust. +The rocks which formed its first <i>stratum</i>—the framework of the earth, +the foundation upon which all others repose—may be presumed to +have been a compound which, in varying proportions, forms granite +and gneiss, and has latterly been designated by geologists Laurentian.</p> + +<p>What is this gneiss, this granite, speaking of it with reference to +its mineralogical character? It is a combination of silicates, with a +base of alumina, potash, soda, and sometimes lime—<i>quartz</i>, <i>felspar</i>, +and <i>mica</i> form, by their simple aggregation, <i>granite</i>—it is thus a +ternary combination, or composed of three minerals.</p> + +<p><i>Quartz</i>, the most abundant of all minerals, is silica more or less +pure and often crystallised. <i>Felspar</i> is a crystalline or crystallised +mineral, composed of <i>silicate</i> of alumina, potash, soda, or lime; +potash-felspar is called <i>orthoclase</i>, soda-felspar <i>albite</i>, lime-felspar +<i>anorthite</i>. <i>Mica</i> is a silicate of alumina and potash, containing magnesia +and oxide of iron; it takes its name from the Latin <i>micare</i>, to +shine or glitter.</p> + +<p><i>Granite</i> (from the Italian <i>grano</i>, being granular in its structure) +is, then, a compound rock, formed of felspar, quartz, and mica, and +the three constituent minerals are more or less crystalline. <i>Gneiss</i> is +a schistose variety of granite, and composed of the same minerals;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> +the only difference between the two rocks (whatever may be their +difference of origin) being that the constituent minerals, instead of +being confusedly aggregated, as in granite, assume a foliated texture in +gneiss. This foliated structure leads sometimes to gneiss being called +<i>stratified granite</i>. “The term gneiss originated with the Freiberg +miners, who from ancient times have used it to designate the rock in +which their veins of silver-ore were found.”<a name="FNanchor_33" +id="FNanchor_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a></p> + +<p>The felspar, which enters into the composition of granite, is a +mineral that is easily decomposed by water, either cold or boiling, +or by the water of springs rich in carbonic acid. The chemical +action of carbonic acid and water, and the action (at once chemical +and mechanical) of the hot water in the primitive seas, powerfully +modified the granitic rocks which lay beneath them. The warm rains +which fell upon the mountain-peaks and granitic pinnacles, the +torrents of rain which fell upon the slopes or in the valleys, dissolved +the several alkaline silicates which constitute felspar and mica, and +swept them away to form elsewhere strata of clay and sand; thus +were the first modifications in the primitive rocks produced by the +united action of air and water, and thus were the first sedimentary +rocks deposited from the oceanic waters.</p> + +<p>The argillaceous deposits produced by this decomposition of the +felspathic and micaceous rocks would participate in the still heated +temperature of the globe—would be again subjected to long continued +heat; and when they became cool again, they would assume, +by a kind of semi-crystallisation, that parallel structure which is called +foliation. All foliated rocks, then, are metamorphic, and the result of +a metamorphic action to which sedimentary strata (and even some +eruptive rocks) have been subjected subsequently to their deposition +and consolidation, and which has produced a re-arrangement of their +component mineral particles, and frequently, if not always, of their +chemical elements also.</p> + +<p>In this manner would the first beds of crystalline <i>schist</i>, such as +mica-schist, be formed, probably out of sandy and clayey muds, or +arenaceous and argillaceous shales.</p> + +<p>At the end of this first phase of its existence, the terrestrial globe +was, then, covered, over nearly its whole surface, with hot and muddy +water, forming extensive but shallow seas. A few islands, raising their +granitic peaks here and there, would form a sort of archipelago, surrounded +by seas filled with earthy matter in suspension. During a +long series of ages the solid crust of the globe went on increasing in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> +thickness, as the process of solidification of the underlying liquid +matter nearest to the surface proceeded. This state of tranquillity +could not last long. The solid portion of the globe had not yet +attained sufficient consistency to resist the pressure of the gases and +boiling liquids which it covered and compressed with its elastic crust. +The waves of this internal sea triumphed, more than once, over the +feeble resistances which were opposed to it, making enormous dislocations +and breaches in the ground—immense upheavals of the +solid crust raising the beds of the seas far above their previous levels—and +thus mountains arose out of the ocean, not now exclusively +granitic, but composed, besides, of those schistose rocks which have +been deposited under water, after long suspension in the muddy seas.</p> + +<p>On the other hand the Earth, as it continued to cool, would also +contract; and this process of contraction, as we have already explained, +was another cause of dislocation at the surface, producing +either considerable ruptures or simple fissures in the continuity +of the crust. These fissures would be filled, at a subsequent +period, by jets of the molten matter occupying the interior of the +globe—by <i>eruptive granite</i>, that is to say—or by various mineral +compounds; they also opened a passage to those torrents of +heated water charged with mineral salts, with silica, the bicarbonates +of lime and magnesia, which, mingling with the waters of the vast +primitive ocean, were deposited at the bottom of the seas, thus +helping to increase the mass of the mineral substances composing +the solid portion of the globe.</p> + +<p>These eruptions of granitic or metallic matter—these vast discharges +of mineral waters through the fractured surface—would be +of frequent occurrence during the primitive epoch we are contemplating. +It should not, therefore, be a matter for surprise to find the +more ancient rocks almost always fractured, reduced in dimensions +by faults and contortions, and often traversed by veins containing +metals or their oxides, such as the oxides of copper and tin; or their +sulphides, such as those of lead, of antimony, or of iron—which +are now the object of the miner’s art.</p> + +<hr class="footnote" /> +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote_32" id="Footnote_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> “Address to the American +Association for the Advancement of Science,” by +Thomas Sterry Hunt, LL.D., p. 56. 1871.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_33" id="Footnote_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> Cotta’s “Rocks +Classified and Described,” by P. H. Lawrence, p. 232.</p> + +</div> + +<hr class="c25" /> +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></p> +<h2>PRIMARY EPOCH.</h2> + +<p>After the terrible tempests of the primitive period—after these great +disturbances of the mineral kingdom—Nature would seem to have +gathered herself together, in sublime silence, in order to proceed to +the grand mystery of the creation of living beings.</p> + +<p>During the primitive epoch the temperature of the earth was too +high to admit the appearance of life on its surface. The darkness of +thickest night shrouded this cradle of the world; the atmosphere probably +was so charged with vapours of various kinds, that the sun’s rays +were powerless to pierce its opacity. Upon this heated surface, and in +this perpetual night, organic life could not manifest itself. No plant, +no animal, then, could exist upon the silent earth. In the seas of +this epoch, therefore, only unfossiliferous strata were deposited.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, our planet continued to be subjected to a gradual +refrigeration on the one hand, and, on the other, continuous rains +were purifying its atmosphere. From this time, then, the sun’s rays, +being less obscured, could reach its surface, and, under their beneficent +influence, life was not slow in disclosing itself. “Without +light,” said the illustrious Lavoisier, “Nature was without life; it was +dead and inanimate. A benevolent God, in bestowing light, has +spread on the surface of the earth organisation, sentiment, and +thought.” We begin, accordingly, to see upon the earth—the temperature +of which was nearly that of our equatorial zone—a few plants +and a few animals make their appearance. These first generations of +life will be replaced by others of a higher organisation, until at the +last stage of the creation, man, endowed with the supreme attribute +which we call intelligence, will appear upon the earth. “The word +<i>progress</i>, which we think peculiar to humanity, and even to modern +times,” said Albert Gaudry, in a lecture on the animals of the ancient +world, delivered in 1863, “was pronounced by the Deity on the day +when he created the first living organism.”</p> + +<p>Did plants precede animals? We know not; but such would +appear to have been the order of creation. It is certain that in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> +sediment of the oldest seas, and in the vestiges which remain to us of +the earliest ages of organic life on the globe, that is to say, in the +argillaceous schists, we find both plants and animals of advanced +organisation. But, on the other hand, during the greater part of the +primary epoch—especially during the Carboniferous age—the plants +are particularly numerous, and terrestrial animals scarcely show themselves; +this would lead us to the conclusion that plants preceded +animals. It may be remarked, besides, that +from their cellular nature, and their looser +tissues composed of elements readily affected +by the air, the first plants could be easily +destroyed without leaving any material vestiges; +from which it may be concluded, +that, in those primitive times, an immense +number of plants existed, no traces of which +now remain to us.</p> + +<p>We have stated that, during the earlier +ages of our globe, the waters covered a great +part of its surface; and it is in them that +we find the first appearance of life. When +the waters had become sufficiently cool to +allow of the existence of organised beings, +creation was developed, and advanced with +great energy; for it manifested itself by the +appearance of numerous and very different +species of animals and plants.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><a name="Fig_17" id="Fig_17"></a> +<img src="images/illo110.png" alt="Fig. 17" width="200" height="394" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 17.—Paradoxides Bohemicus—Bohemia.</p></div> + +<p>One of the most ancient groups of organic +remains are the Brachiopoda, a group of +Mollusca, particularly typified by the genus +Lingula, a species of which still exist in the present seas; the Trilobites +(<a href="#Fig_17">Fig. 17</a>), a family of Crustaceans, especially characteristic of this +period; then come Productas, Terebratulæ, and Orthoceratites—other +genera of Mollusca. The Corals, which appeared at an early period, +seem to have lived in all ages, and survive to the present day.</p> + +<p>Contemporaneously with these animals, plants of inferior organisation +have left their impressions upon the schists; these are Algæ +(aquatic plants, <a href="#Fig_28">Fig. 28</a>). As the continents enlarged, plants of a +higher type made their appearance—the Equisetaceæ, herbaceous +Ferns, and other plants. These we shall have occasion to specify +when noticing the periods which constitute the Primary Epoch, and +which consists of the following periods: the Carboniferous, the Old +Red Sandstone, and Devonian, the Silurian, and the Cambrian.</p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></p> +<h3><span class="smcap">Cambrian Period.</span></h3> + +<p>The researches of geologists have discovered but scanty traces of +organic remains in the rocks which form the base of this system in +England. <i>Arenicolites</i>, or worm-tracks and burrows, have been found +in Shropshire, by Mr. Salter, to occur in countless numbers through a +mile of thickness in the Longmynd rocks; and others were discovered +by the late Dr. Kinahan in Wicklow. In Ireland, in the picturesque +tract of Bray Head, on the south and east coasts of Dublin, we find, +in slaty beds of the same age as the Longmynd rocks, a peculiar +zoophyte, which has been named by Edward Forbes <i>Oldhamia</i>, after +its discoverer, Dr. Oldham, Superintendent of the Geological Survey +of India. This fossil represents one of the earliest inhabitants of the +ocean, which then covered the greater part of the British Isles. “In +the hard, purplish, and schistose rocks of Bray Head,” says Dr. +Kinahan,<a name="FNanchor_34" id="FNanchor_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34" +class="fnanchor">[34]</a> “as well as other parts of Ireland which are recognised as +Cambrian rocks, markings of a very peculiar character are found. +They occur in masses, and are recognised as hydrozoic animal assemblages. +They have regularity of form, abundant, but not universal, +occurrence in beds, and permanence of character even when the beds +are at a distance from each other, and dissimilar in chemical and +physical character.” In the course of his investigations, Dr. Kinahan +discovered at least four species of Oldhamia, which he has described +and figured.</p> + +<p>The Cambrian rocks consist of the Llanberis slates of Llanberis +and Penrhyn in North Wales, which, with their associated sandy +strata, attain a thickness of about 3,000 feet, and the Barmouth and +Harlech Sandstones. In the Longmynd hills of Shropshire these last +beds attain a thickness of 6,000 feet; and in some parts of Merionethshire +they are of still greater thickness.</p> + +<p>Neither in North Wales, nor in the Longmynd, do the Cambrian +rocks afford any indications of life, except annelide-tracks and +burrows. From this circumstance, together with general absence of +Mollusca in these strata, and the sudden appearance of numerous +shells and trilobites in the succeeding Lingula Flags, a change of +conditions seems to have ensued at the close of the Cambrian period.</p> + +<p>Believing that the red colour of rocks is frequently connected with +their deposition in inland waters, Professor Ramsay conceives it to +be possible, that the absence of marine mollusca in the Cambrian +rocks may be due to the same cause that produced their absence in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> +the Old Red Sandstone, and that the presence of sun-cracks and +rain-pittings in the Longmynd beds is a corroboration of this suggestion.<a name="FNanchor_35" +id="FNanchor_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a></p> + +<h3><span class="smcap">The Silurian Period.</span></h3> + +<p>The next period of the Primary Epoch is the <i>Silurian</i>, a system of +rocks universal in extent, overspreading the whole earth more or +less completely, and covering up the rocks of older age. The term +“Silurian” was given by the illustrious Murchison to the epoch which +now occupies our attention, because the system of rocks formed by +the marine sediments, during the period in question, form large tracts +of country in Shropshire and Wales, a region formerly peopled by the +<i>Silures</i>, a Celtic race who fought gloriously against the Romans, +under Caractacus or Caradoc, the British king of those tracts. The +reader may find the nomenclature strange, as applied to the vast +range of rocks which it represents in all parts of the Old and New +World, but it indicates, with sufficient exactness, the particular region +in our own country in which the system typically prevails—reasons +which led to the term being adopted, even at a time when its vast +geographical extent was not suspected.</p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103"></a><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Plate_VIII" id="Plate_VIII"></a> +<img src="images/illo114.png" alt="Plate VIII" width="600" height="407" /> +<p class="caption">VIII.—Ideal Landscape of the Silurian Period.</p></div> + +<p>On this subject, and on the principles which have guided geologists +in their classification of rocks, Professor Sedgwick remarks in one of +his papers in the <i>Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society</i>: “In +every country,” he says,<a name="FNanchor_36" id="FNanchor_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36" +class="fnanchor">[36]</a> “which is not made out by reference to a +pre-existing type, our first labour is that of determining the physical +groups, and establishing their relations by natural sections. The +labour next in order is the determination of the fossils found in the +successive physical groups; and, as a matter of fact, the natural +groups of fossils are generally found to be nearly co-ordinate with the +physical groups—each successive group resulting from certain conditions +which have modified the distribution of organic types. In +the third place comes the collective arrangement of the groups into +systems, or groups of a higher order. The establishment of the +Silurian system is an admirable example of this whole process. The +groups called Caradoc, Wenlock, Ludlow, &c., were physical groups +determined by good natural sections. The successive groups of +fossils were determined by the sections; and the sections, as the representatives +of physical groups, were hardly at all modified by any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> +consideration of the fossils, for these two distinct views of the natural +history of such groups led to co-ordinate results. Then followed the +collective view of the whole series, and the +establishment of a nomenclature. Not only +the whole series (considered as a distinct +system), but every subordinate group was defined +by a geographical name, referring us to +a local type within the limits of Siluria; in +this respect adopting the principle of grouping +and nomenclature applied by W. Smith to +our secondary rocks. At the same time, the +older slate rocks of Wales (inferior to the +system of Siluria), were called <i>Cambrian</i>, and +soon afterwards the next great collective +group of rocks (superior to the system of +Siluria) was called <i>Devonian</i>. In this way +was established a perfect congruity of language. +It was geographical in principle, and +it represented the actual development of all +our older rocks, which gave to it its true +value and meaning.” The period, then, for +the purposes of scientific description, may be +divided into three sub-periods—the Upper +and Lower Silurian, and the Cambrian.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><a name="Fig_18" id="Fig_18"></a> +<img src="images/illo115a.png" alt="Fig. 18" width="200" height="355" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 18.—Back of Asaphus +caudatus (Dudley, Mus. +Stokes), with the eyes well +preserved. (Buckland.)</p></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_19" id="Fig_19"></a> +<img src="images/illo115b.png" alt="Fig. 19" width="450" height="172" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 19.—<i>a</i>, Side view of the left eye of the above, magnified, +(Buckland.) <i>b</i>, Magnified view of a portion of the eye of +Calymene macrophthalmus. (Hœninghaus.)</p></div> + +<p>The characteristics of the Silurian period, of which we give an ideal +view opposite (<span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_VIII">Plate VIII.</a></span>), are supposed to have been shallow +seas of great extent, with barren submarine reefs and isolated rocks +rising here and there out +of the water, covered +with Algæ, and frequented +by various +Mollusca and articulated +animals. The earliest +traces of vegetation +belong to the <i>Thallogens</i>, +flowerless plants of the +class Algæ (<a href="#Fig_28">Fig. 28</a>), +without leaves or stems, +which are found among +the Lower Silurian rocks. To these succeed other plants, according to +Dr. Hooker, belonging to the Lycopodiaceæ (<a href="#Fig_28">Fig. 28</a>), the seeds of +which are found sparingly in the Upper Ludlow beds. Among animals,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> +the <i>Orthoceratites</i> led a predacious life in the Silurian seas. Their +organisation indicates that they preyed upon other animals, pursuing +them into the deepest abysses, and strangling them in the embrace of +their long arms. The <i>Trilobites</i>, a remarkable group of Crustacea, possessing +simple and reticulated compound eyes, also highly characterise +this period (<a href="#Fig_17">Figs. 17</a> to <a href="#Fig_20">20</a>); presenting at one period or other of +their existence 1,677 species, 224 of which are met with in Great +Britain and Ireland, as we are taught by the “Thesaurus Siluricus.”<a name="FNanchor_37" +id="FNanchor_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> +Add to this a sun, struggling to penetrate the dense atmosphere of +the primitive world, and yielding a dim and imperfect light to the first +created beings as they left the hand of the Creator, organisms often +rudimentary, but at other times sufficiently advanced to indicate a +progress towards more perfect creations. Such is the picture which +the artist has attempted to portray.</p> + +<p>The elaborate and highly valuable “Thesaurus Siluricus” contains +the names of 8,997 species of fossil remains, but it probably does not +tell us of one-tenth part of the Silurian life still lying buried in rocks +of that age in various parts of the world. A rich field is here offered +to the geological explorer.<a name="FNanchor_38" id="FNanchor_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a></p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Lower Silurian.</span></h4> + +<p>The Silurian rocks have been estimated by Sir Roderick Murchison +to occupy, altogether, an area of about 7,600 square miles in +England and Wales, 18,420 square miles in Scotland, and nearly +7,000 square miles in Ireland. Thus, as regards the British Isles, +the Silurian rocks rise to the surface over nearly 33,000 square miles.</p> + +<p>The Silurian rocks have been traced from Cumberland to the +Land’s End, at the southern extremity of England. They lie at the +base of the southern Highlands of Scotland, from the North Channel to +the North Sea, and they range along the entire western coast of that +country. In a westerly direction they extended to the sea, where the +mountains of Wales—the Alps of the great chain—would stand out in +bold relief, some of them facing the sea, others in detached groups; +some clothed with a stunted vegetation, others naked and desolate; +all of them wild and picturesque. But an interest surpassing all +others belongs to these mountains. They are amongst the most +ancient sedimentary rocks which exist on our globe, a page of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> +book in which is written the history of the antiquities of Great +Britain—in fine, of the world.</p> + +<p>In Shropshire and Wales three zones of Silurian life have been +established. In rocks of three different ages <i>Graptolites</i> have left the +trace of their existence. Another fossil characteristic of these ancient +rocks is the <i>Lingula</i>. This shell is horny +or slightly calcareous, which has probably +been one cause of its preservation. The +family to which the Lingula belongs is +so abundant in the rocks of the Welsh +mountains, that Sir R. Murchison has used +it to designate a geological era. These +Lingula-flags mark the beginning of the +first Silurian strata.</p> + +<p>In the Lower Llandovery beds, which +mark the close of the period, other fossils +present themselves, thus greatly augmenting +the forms of life in the Lower Silurian rocks. +These are cœlenterata, articulata, and mollusca. +They mark, however, only a very +ephemeral passage over the globe, and +soon disappear altogether.</p> + +<p>The vertebrated animals are only represented +by rare Fishes, and it is only on +reaching the Upper Ludlow rocks, and +specially in those beds which pass upward +into the Old Red Sandstone, that the remains +have been found of fishes—the most +ancient beings of their class.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;"><a name="Fig_20" id="Fig_20"></a> +<img src="images/illo117.png" alt="Fig. 20" width="150" height="418" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 20.—Ogygia Guettardi. Natural size.</p></div> + +<p>The class of Crustaceans, of which the +lobster, shrimp, and the crab of our days +are the representatives, was that which +predominated in this epoch of animal +life. Their forms were most singular, and +different from those of all existing Crustaceans. +They consisted mainly of the +<i>Trilobites</i>, a family which became entirely +extinct at the close of the Carboniferous epoch, but in whose nicely-jointed +shell the armourer of the middle ages might have found all +his contrivances anticipated, with not a few besides which he has +failed to discover. The head presents, in general, the form of an +oval buckler; the body is composed of a series of articulations, or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> +rings, as represented in <a href="#Fig_20">Fig. 20</a>; the anterior portion carrying the +eyes, which in some are reticulated, like those of many insects (<a href="#Fig_18">Figs. +18</a> and <a href="#Fig_19">19</a>); the mouth was placed forward and beneath the head. +Many of these Crustaceans could roll themselves into balls, like the +wood-louse (<a href="#Fig_23">Figs. 23</a> and <a href="#Fig_25">25</a>). They swam on their backs.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="Fig_21" id="Fig_21"></a> +<img src="images/illo118a.png" alt="Fig. 21" width="350" height="334" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 21.—Lituites cornu-arietis. +One-third natural size.</p></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="Fig_22" id="Fig_22"></a> +<img src="images/illo118b.png" alt="Fig. 22" width="400" height="273" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 22.—Hemicosmites pyriformis. +One-third natural size.</p></div> + +<p>During the middle and later Silurian ages, whole rocks were +formed almost exclusively of their remains; during the Devonian +period they seem to have gradually died out, almost disappearing +in the Carboniferous age, and being only represented by one doubtful +species in the Permian rocks of North America. The Trilobites are +unique as a family, marking with certainty the rocks in which they +occur; “and yet,” says Hugh Miller, “how admirably do they exhibit +the articulated type of being, and illustrate that unity of design which +pervades all Nature, amid its endless diversity!” Among other +beings which have left their traces in the Silurian strata is <i>Nereites +Cambriensis</i>, a species of annelide, whose articulations are very +distinctly marked in the ancient rocks.</p> + +<p>Besides the Trilobites, many orders of Mollusca were numerously +represented in the Silurian seas. As Sir R. Murchison has observed, +no zoological feature in the Upper Silurian rocks is more striking +than the great increase and profusion of Cephalopods, many of them +of great size, which appear in strata of the age immediately antecedent +to the dawn of vertebrated life. Among the Cephalopods we +have <i>Gyroceras</i> and <i>Lituites cornu-arietis</i> (<a href="#Fig_21">Fig. 21</a>), whose living representatives +are the Nautilus and Cuttlefish of every sea. The genus +<i>Bellerophon</i> (<a href="#Fig_54">Figs. 54</a> and <a href="#Fig_56">56</a>), with many others, represented the<span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> +Gasteropods, and like the living carinaria sailed freely over the sea by +means of its fleshy parts. The Gasteropods, with the Lamellibranchs, +of which the Oyster is a living type, and the Brachiopods, whose +congeners may still be detected in the <i>Terebratula</i> of our Highland +lochs and bays, and the <i>Lingulæ</i> of the southern hemisphere, were +all then represented. The Lamellibranchiata are without a head, +and almost entirely destitute of power of locomotion. Among the +Echinodermata we may cite the <i>Hemiscosmites</i>, of which <i>H. pyriformis</i> +(<a href="#Fig_22">Fig. 22</a>) may be considered an example.</p> + +<p>The rocks of the Lower Silurian age in France are found in Languedoc, +in the environs of Neffiez and of Bédarrieux. They occupy, +also, great part of Brittany. They occur in Bohemia, also in Spain, +Russia, and in the New World. Limestones, sandstones, and schists +(slates of Angers) form the chief part of this series. The Cambrian +slates are largely represented in Canada and the United States.</p> + +<table class="fsize80" style="max-width: 90%;" summary="Table page 109"> + +<tr> +<td colspan="10" class="center"><span class="smcap">Lower Silurian Group.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="center">Formation.</td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="center">Prevailing Rocks.</td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="center">Thickness.</td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="center">Fossils.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="10" class="blankrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padr1">Lower Llandovery</td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Hard sandstones, conglomerates, and flaggy shaly beds</td> +<td class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl0">–</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1">600 to 1,000</td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1">Pentamerus lens.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="10" class="blankrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padr1">Caradoc or Bala</td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Shelly sandstones, shales, and slaty beds, with grits, conglomerates, and occasional calcareous bands +(Bala limestone)</td> +<td class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl0">–</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1">12,000</td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1">Brachiopods; Lamellibranchs; Pteropods; Cystideans; Graptolites; Trilobites.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="10" class="blankrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padr1">Llandeilo Flags</td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Dark-grey flagstones, occasionally calcareous sandstones, with black slates, containing Graptolites</td> +<td rowspan="2" class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="2" class="left padl0">–</td> +<td rowspan="2" class="center padl1 padr1">1,000 to 1,500</td> +<td rowspan="2" class="right padr0">–</td> +<td rowspan="2" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="2" class="left padl1">Trilobites (<a href="#Fig_36">Fig. 36</a>); Graptolites; Heteropods; large Cephalopods.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padr1">Lower Llandeilo Tremadoc Slates</td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Dark-grey and ferruginous slates, sandy shales, and bluish flags, with occasional beds of pisolitic +iron-ore</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="10" class="blankrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padr1">Lingula Flags</td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Black and dark shaly, grey and brown slaty flagstones and sandstones, with siliceous grits and quartzites</td> +<td class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl0">–</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1">6,000</td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1">Trilobites (Olenus, Conocoryphe, Paradoxides, <a href="#Fig_17">Fig. 17</a>); Brachiopods; Cystideans.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="10" class="blankrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="10" class="center"><span class="smcap">Cambrian Group.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="10" class="blankrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="2" class="left padr1">Cambrian</td> +<td rowspan="2" class="right padr0">–</td> +<td rowspan="2" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Llanberis slates, with sandy strata</td> +<td class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl0">–</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1">3,000</td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1">Annelides.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Harlech grits</td> +<td class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl0">–</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1">6,000</td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1">Oldhamia.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="10" class="blankrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="10" class="center"><span class="smcap">Laurentian Group.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="10" class="blankrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padr1">Upper Laurentian</td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Stratified, highly-crystalline, and felspathic rocks</td> +<td class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl0">–</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1">12,060</td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1">Eozoon.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="10" class="blankrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padr1">Lower Laurentian</td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Gneiss, quartzite, hornblende and mica-schists</td> +<td class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl0">–</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1">18,000</td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1">None.</td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Upper Silurian Period.</span></h4> + +<table class="fsize80" style="max-width: 90%;" summary="Table page 110"> + +<tr> +<td colspan="10" class="center"><span class="smcap">Upper Silurian Group.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="10" class="blankrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="3"> </td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1">Lithological Characters.</td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1">Thickness.</td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1">Fossils.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="10" class="blankrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="4" class="left padr1">Ludlow Rocks</td> +<td rowspan="4" class="right padr0">–</td> +<td rowspan="4" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Passage Beds, Tile-stones, and Downton sandstones, at the base of the bone-bed</td> +<td class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl0">–</td> +<td class="right padr4">80</td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1">Sea-weeds, Lingulæ, Mollusca.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Micaceous, yellowish and grey, sandy mudstone</td> +<td class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl0">–</td> +<td class="right padr4">700</td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1">Crustacea and Fish-remains.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Argillaceous (Aymestry) limestone</td> +<td class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl0">–</td> +<td class="right padr4">50</td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1">Crinoids.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Argillaceous Shale with impure limestones</td> +<td class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl0">–</td> +<td class="right padr4">1000</td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1">Mollusca of many genera.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="10" class="blankrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="3" class="left padr1">Wenlock Rocks</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="right padr0">–</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Argillaceous or semi-crystalline limestone</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="3" class="left padl0">–</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="right padr4">3000</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="right padr0">–</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1">Mollusca of many genera.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Argillaceous shales, in places slaty</td> +<td class="left padl1">Echinodermata; Actinozoa; Trilobites.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Woolhope Limestone and occasional bands of argillaceous nodules</td> +<td class="left padl1">Graptolites.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="10" class="blankrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padr1">Upper Llandovery Rocks</td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Grey and yellowish sandstones (occasionally conglomerates) with bands of limestone</td> +<td class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl0">–</td> +<td class="right padr4">800</td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1">Pentamerus oblongus, Rhynchonella, Orthides, &c.</td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<p>Among the fossils of this period may be remarked a number of +Trilobites, which then attained their greatest development. Among +others, <i>Calymene Blumenbachii</i> (<a href="#Fig_23">Fig. 23</a>), some <i>Cephalopoda</i>, and <i>Brachiopoda</i>, +among which last may be named <i>Pentamerus Knightii</i>, <i>Orthis</i>, &c., +and some Corals, as <i>Halysites catenularius</i> (<a href="#Fig_26">Fig. 26</a>), or the chain coral.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><a name="Fig_23" id="Fig_23"></a> +<img src="images/illo120.png" alt="Fig. 23" width="250" height="219" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 23.—Calymene +Blumenbachii partially +rolled up.</p></div> + +<p>The Trilobites, we have already said, were able to coil themselves +into a ball, like the wood-louse, doubtless as a means of defence. In +<a href="#Fig_23">Fig. 23</a>, one of these creatures, <i>Calymene Blumenbachii</i>, +is represented in that form, coiled upon itself. +(See also <i>Illænus Barriensis</i>, <a href="#Fig_25">Fig. 25</a>.)</p> + +<p>Crustaceans of a very strange form, and in no +respects resembling the Trilobites, have been met +with in the Silurian rocks of England and America—the +<i>Pterygotus</i> (<a href="#Fig_27">Fig. 27</a>) and the <i>Eurypterus</i>, (<a href="#Fig_24">Fig. +24</a>). They are supposed to have been the inhabitants +of fresh water. They were called “Seraphim” +by the Scotch quarrymen, from the winged form and +feather-like ornamentation upon the thoracic appendage, the part most +usually met with. Agassiz figured them in his work on the ‘Fossil +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> +Fishes of the Old Red Sandstone,’ but, subsequently recognising +their crustacean character, removed them from the Class of Fishes, +and placed them with the <i>Pœcilipod Crustacea</i>. The <i>Eurypteridæ</i> +and <i>Pterygoti</i> in England almost exclusively belong to the passage +beds—the Downton sandstone and the Upper Ludlow rocks.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_24" id="Fig_24"></a> +<img src="images/illo121.png" alt="Fig. 24" width="450" height="422" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 24.—Eurypterus remipes. Natural size.</p></div> + +<p>Among the marine plants which have been found in the rocks +corresponding with this sub-period are some species of Algæ, and +others belonging to the Lycopodiaceæ, which become still more +abundant in the Old Red Sandstone and Carboniferous Periods. +<a href="#Fig_28">Fig. 28</a> represents some examples of the impressions they have left.</p> + +<p>The seas were, evidently, abundantly inhabited at the end of the +Upper Silurian period, for naturalists have examined nearly 1,500 +species belonging to these beds, and the number of British species,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> +classified and arranged for public inspection in our museums cannot +be much short of that number.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="Fig_25" id="Fig_25"></a> +<img src="images/illo122.png" alt="Fig. 25" width="350" height="247" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 25.—Illænus Barriensis.—Dudley, Walsall.</p></div> + +<p>Towards the close of the Upper Silurian sub-period, the argillaceous +beds pass upwards into more sandy and shore-like deposits, +in which the most ancient known fossil Fishes occur, and then usher +us into the first great ichthyic period of the Old Red Sandstone, or +Devonian, so well marked by its fossil fishes in Britain, Russia, and +North America. The so-called fish-bones have been the subject of +considerable doubt. Between the Upper Ludlow rocks opposite Downton +Castle and the next overlying stratum, there occurs a thin bed of +soft earthy shale, and fine, soft, yellowish greenstone, immediately +overlying the Ludlow rock: just below this a remarkable fish-deposit +occurs, called the Ludlow bone-bed, because the bones of animals +are found in this stratum in great quantities. Old Drayton treats +these bones as a great marvel:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i12">“With strange and sundry tales<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of all their wondrous things; and not the least in Wales,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of that prodigious spring (him neighbouring as he past),<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That little fishes’ bones continually doth cast.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p style="margin-left: 18em;"><span class="smcap fsize80">Polyolbion.</span></p> + +<p>Above the yellow beds, or Downton sandstone, as they are called, +organic remains are extensively diffused through the argillaceous +strata, which have yielded fragments of fishes’ bones (being the earliest +trace yet found of vertebrate life), with seeds and land-plants, the latter +clearly indicating the neighbourhood of land, and the poverty of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> +numbers and the small size of the shells, a change of condition in the +nature of the waters in which they lived. “It was the central part +only,” says Sir R. Murchison, “of this band, or a ginger-bread-coloured +layer of a thickness of three or four inches, and dwindling +away to a quarter of an inch, exhibiting, when my attention was first +directed to it, a matted mass of bony fragments, for the most part of +small size and of very peculiar character. Some of the fragments of +fish are of a mahogany hue, but others of so brilliant a black that +when first discovered they conveyed the impression that the bed +was a heap of broken beetles.”<a name="FNanchor_39" id="FNanchor_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><a name="Fig_26" id="Fig_26"></a> +<img src="images/illo123a.png" alt="Fig. 26" width="300" height="396" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 26.—Halysites catenularius.</p></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><a name="Fig_27" id="Fig_27"></a> +<img src="images/illo123b.png" alt="Fig. 27" width="300" height="441" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 27.—Pterygotus bilobatus.</p></div> + +<p>The fragments thus discovered were, after examination on the spot, +supposed to be those of fishes, but, upon further investigation, many of +them were found to belong to Crustaceans. The ichthyic nature of +some of them is, however, now well established.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="Fig_28" id="Fig_28"></a> +<img src="images/illo124.png" alt="Fig. 28" width="500" height="356" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 28.—Plants of the Palæozoic Epoch.—1 and 2, Algæ; 3 and 4, Lycopods.</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span>Silurian Rocks are found in France in the departments of La +Manche, Calvados, and of the Sarthe, and in Languedoc the Silurian +formation has occupied the attention of Messrs. Graff and Fournet, +who have traced along the base of the Espinouse, the green, primordial +chlorite-schists, surmounted by clay-slates, which become more +and more pure as the distance from the masses of granite and gneiss +increases, and the valley of the Jour is approached. Upon these last +the Silurian system rests, sinking towards the plain under Secondary +and Tertiary formations. In Great Britain, Silurian strata are found +enormously developed in the West and South Highlands of Scotland, +on the western slopes of the Pennine chain and the mountains of +Wales, and in the adjoining counties of Shropshire—their most +typical region—and Worcestershire. In Spain; in Germany (on the +banks of the Rhine); in Bohemia—where, also, they are largely +developed, especially in the neighbourhood of Prague—in Sweden, +where they compose the entire island of Gothland; in Norway; in +Russia, especially in the Ural Mountains; and in America, in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> +neighbourhood of New York, and half way across the continent—in +all these countries they are more or less developed.</p> + +<p>We may add, as a general characteristic of the Silurian system as +a whole, that of all formations it is the most disturbed. In the +countries where it prevails, it only appears as fragments which have +escaped destruction amid the numerous changes that have affected +it during the earlier ages of the world. The beds, originally horizontal, +are turned up, contorted, folded over, and sometimes become +even vertical, as in the slates of Angers, Llanberis, and Ireleth. +D’Orbigny found the Silurian beds with their fossils in the American +Andes, at the height of 16,000 feet above the level of the sea. What +vast upheavals must have been necessary to elevate these fossils to +such a height!</p> + +<p>In the Silurian period the sea still occupied the earth almost +entirely; it covered the greater part of Europe: all the area comprised +between Spain and the Ural was under water. In France only +two islands had emerged from the primordial ocean. One of them was +formed of the granitic rocks of what are now Brittany and La Vendée; +the other constituted the great central plateau, and consisted of the +same rocks. The northern parts of Norway, Sweden, and of Russian +Lapland formed a vast continental surface. In America the emerged +lands were more extensive. In North America an island extended +over eighteen degrees of latitude, in the part now called New Britain. +In South America, in the Pacific, Chili formed one elongated island. +Upon the Atlantic, a portion of Brazil, to the extent of twenty degrees +of latitude, was raised above water. Finally, in the equatorial regions, +Guiana formed a later island in the vast ocean which still covered +most other parts of the New World.</p> + +<p>There is, perhaps, no scene of greater geological confusion than +that presented by the western flanks of the Pennine chain. A line +drawn longitudinally from about three degrees west of Greenwich, +would include on its western side Cross Fell, in Cumberland, and the +greater part of the Silurian rocks belonging to the Cambrian system, +in which the Cambrian and Lower Silurian rocks are now well determined; +while the upper series are so metamorphosed by eruptive +granite and the effects of denudation, as to be scarcely recognisable. +“With the rare exception of a seaweed and a zoophyte,” says the +author of ‘Siluria,’ “not a trace of a fossil has been detected in the +thousands of feet of strata, with interpolated igneous matter, which +intervene between the slates of Skiddaw and the Coniston limestone, +with its overlying flags; at that zone only do we begin to find anything +like a fauna: here, judging from its fossils, we find representations<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> +of the Caradoc and Bala rocks.” This much-disturbed district +Professor Sedgwick, after several years devoted to its study, has +attempted to reconstruct, the following being a brief summary of his +arguments. The region consists of:—</p> + +<p>I. Beds of mudstone and sandstone, deposited in an ancient sea, +apparently without the calcareous matter necessary to the existence +of shells and corals, and with numerous traces of organic forms of +Silurian age—these were the elements of the Skiddaw slates.</p> + +<p>II. Plutonic rocks were, for many ages, poured out among the +aqueous sedimentary deposits; the beds were broken up and re-cemented—plutonic +silt and other finely comminuted matter were +deposited along with the igneous rocks: the process was again and +again repeated, till a deep sea was filled up with a formation many +thousands of feet thick by the materials forming the middle Cambrian +rocks.</p> + +<p>III. A period of comparative repose followed. Beds of shells +and bands of coral were formed upon the more ancient rocks, interrupted +with beds of sand and mud; processes many times repeated: +and thus, in a long succession of ages, were the deposits of the upper +series completed.</p> + +<p>IV. Towards the end of the period, mountain-masses and eruptive +rocks were pushed up through the older deposits. After many +revolutions, all the divisions of the slate-series were upheaved and +contorted by movements which did not affect the newer formations.</p> + +<p>V. The conglomerates of the Old Red Sandstone were now +spread out by the beating of an ancient surf, continued through many +ages, against the upheaved and broken slates.</p> + +<p>VI. Another period of comparative repose followed: the coral-reefs +of the mountain limestone, and the whole carboniferous series, +were formed, but not without any oscillations between the land and +sea-levels.</p> + +<p>VII. An age of disruption and violence succeeded, marked by +the discordant position of the rocks, and by the conglomerate of the +New Red Sandstone. At the beginning of this period the great +north and south “Craven fault,” which rent off the eastern calcareous +mountains from the old slates, was formed. Soon afterwards the disruption +of the great “Pennine fault,” which ranges from the foot of +Stanmore to the coast of North Cumberland, occurred, lifting up the +terrace of Cross Fell above the plain of the Eden. About the same +time some of the north and south fissures, which now form the +valleys leading into Morecambe Bay, may have been formed.</p> + +<p>VIII. The more tranquil period of the New Red Sandstone<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> +now dawns, but here our facts fail us on the skirts of the Lake +Mountains.</p> + +<p>IX. Thousands of ages rolled away during the Secondary and +Tertiary periods, in which we can trace no movement. But the +powers of Nature are never still: during this age of apparent repose +many a fissure may have started into an open chasm, many a valley +been scooped out upon the lines of “fault.”</p> + +<p>X. Close to the historic times we have evidence of new disruptions +and violence, and of vast changes of level between land and sea. +Ancient valleys probably opened out anew or extended, and fresh +ones formed in the changes of the oceanic level. Cracks among the +strata may now have become open fissures, vertical escarpments +formed by unequal elevations along the lines of fault; and subsidence +may have given rise to many of the tarns and lakes of the +district.</p> + +<p>Such is the picture which one of our most eminent geologists +gives as the probable process by which this region has attained its +present appearance, after he had devoted years of study and observation +to its peculiarities; and his description of one spot applies in its +general scope to the whole district. At the close of the Silurian +period our island was probably an archipelago, ranging over ten +degrees of latitude, like many of the island groups now found in the +great Pacific Ocean; the old gneissic hills of the western coast of +Scotland, culminating in the granite range of Ben Nevis, and stretching +to the southern Grampians, forming the nucleus of one island +group; the south Highlands of Scotland, ranging from the Lammermoor +hills, another; the Pennine chain and the Malvern hills, the +third, and most easterly group; the Shropshire and Welsh mountains, +a fourth; and Devon and Cornwall stretching far to the south and +west. The basis of the calculation being, that every spot of this island +lying now at a lower elevation than 800 feet above the sea, was +under water at the close of the Silurian period, except in those +instances where depression by subsidence has since occurred.</p> + +<p>There is, however, another element to be considered, which cannot +be better stated than in the picturesque language of M. Esquiros, +an eminent French writer, who has given much attention to British +geology. “The Silurian mountains,” he says, “ruins in themselves, +contain other ruins. In the bosom of the Longmynd rocks, geologists +discover conglomerates of rounded stones which bear no resemblance +to any rocks now near them. These stones consequently prove the +existence of rocks more ancient still; they are fragments of other +mountains, of other shores, perhaps even of continents, broken up,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> +destroyed, and crumbled by earlier seas. There is, then, little hope +of one discovering the origin of life on the globe, since this page of +the Genesis of the facts has been torn. For some years geologists +loved to rest their eyes, in this long night of ages, upon an ideal +limit beyond which plants and animals would begin to appear. Now, +this line of demarcation between the rocks which are without vestiges +of organised beings, and those which contain fossils, is nearly effaced +among the surrounding ruins. On the horizon of the primitive world +we see vaguely indicated a series of other worlds which have altogether +disappeared; perhaps it is necessary to resign ourselves to the +fact that the dawn of life is lost in this silent epoch, where age +succeeds age, till they are clothed in the garb of eternity. The river +of creation is like the Nile, which, as Bossuet says, hides its head—a +figure of speech which time has falsified—but the endless speculations +opened up by these and similar considerations led Lyell to say, +‘Here I am almost prepared to believe in the ancient existence of +the Atlantis of Plato.’”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_29" id="Fig_29"></a> +<img src="images/illo128.png" alt="Fig. 29" width="450" height="277" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 29.—Ischadites Kœnigii. Upper Ludlow Rocks.</p></div> + +<div class="indented fsize80"><p><span class="smcap">Note.</span>—For accurate representations +of the typical fossils of the Palæozoic +strata of Britain, the reader may consult, with advantage, the carefully executed +“Figures of Characteristic British Fossils,” by W. H. Baily, F.G.S. (Van Voorst).</p></div> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></p> + +<h3>OLD RED SANDSTONE AND DEVONIAN PERIOD.</h3> + +<p>Another great period in the Earth’s history opens on us—the +Devonian or “Old Red Sandstone,” so called, because the formation +is very clearly displayed over a great extent of country in the county +of Devon. The name was first proposed by Murchison and Sedgwick, +in 1837, for these strata, which had previously been referred to the +“transition” or Silurian series.</p> + +<p>The circumstances which marked the passage of the uppermost +Silurian rocks into Old Red Sandstone seem to have been:—First, a +shallowing of the sea, followed by a gradual alteration in the physical +geography of the district, so that the area became changed into a +series of mingled fresh and brackish lagoons, which, finally, by continued +terrestrial changes, were converted into a great fresh-water lake; +or, if we take the whole of Britain and lands beyond, into a series of +lakes.<a name="FNanchor_40" id="FNanchor_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a></p> + +<p>Mr. Godwin Austen has, also, stated his opinion that the Old Red +Sandstone, as distinct from the Devonian rocks, was of lacustrine +origin.</p> + +<p>The absence of marine shells helps to this conclusion, and the +nearest living analogues of some of the fishes are found in the fresh +water of Africa and North America. Even the occurrence in the +Devonian rocks of Devonshire and Russia of some Old Red Sandstone +fishes along with marine shells, merely proves that some of them were +fitted to live in either fresh or salt water, like various existing fishes. +At the present day animals that are commonly supposed to be +essentially marine, are occasionally found inhabiting fresh water, as is +the case in some of the lakes of Sweden, where it is said marine +crustacea are found. Mr. Alexander Murray also states that in the +inland fresh-water lakes of Newfoundland seals are common, living<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> +there without even visiting the sea. And the same is the case in Lake +Baikal, in Central Asia.</p> + +<p>The red colour of the Old Red Sandstone of England and Scotland, +and the total absence of fossils, except in the very uppermost +beds, are considered by Professor Ramsay to indicate that the strata +were deposited in inland waters. These fossils are terrestrial ferns, +<i>Adiantites</i> (Pecopteris) <i>Hibernicus</i>, and a fresh-water shell, <i>Anodon +Jukesii</i>, together with the fish <i>Glyptolepis</i>.<a name="FNanchor_41" +id="FNanchor_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a></p> + +<p>The rocks deposited during the Devonian period exhibit some +species of animals and plants of a much more complex organisation +than those which had previously made their appearance. We have +seen, during the Silurian epoch, organisms appearing of very simple +type; namely, zoophytes, articulated and molluscous animals, with +algæ and lycopods, among plants. We shall see, as the globe grows +older, that organisation becomes more complex. Vertebrated animals, +represented by numerous Fishes, succeed Zoophytes, Trilobites, and +Molluscs. Soon afterwards Reptiles appear, then Birds and Mammals; +until the time comes when man, His supreme and last work, issues +from the hands of the Creator, to be king of all the earth—man, who +has for the sign of his superiority, intelligence—that celestial gift, the +emanation from God.</p> + +<p>Vast inland seas, or lakes covered with a few islets, form the ideal +of the Old Red Sandstone period. Upon the rocks of these islets the +mollusca and articulata of the period exhibit themselves, as represented +on the opposite page (<span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_IX">Plate IX.</a></span>). Stranded on the shore we +see armour-coated Fishes of strange forms. A group of plants (<i>Asterophyllites</i>) +covers one of the islets, associated with plants nearly herbaceous, +resembling mosses, though the true mosses did not appear +till a much later period. <i>Encrinites</i> and <i>Lituites</i> occupy the rocks in +the foreground of the left hand.</p> + +<p>The vegetation is still simple in its development, for forest-trees +seem altogether wanting. The Asterophyllites, with tall and slender +stems, rise singly to a considerable height. Cryptogams, of which our +mushrooms convey some idea, would form the chief part of this +primitive vegetation; but in consequence of the softness of their +tissues, their want of consistence, and the absence of much woody +fibre, these earlier plants have come down to us only in a fragmentary +state.</p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></p> +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Plate_IX" id="Plate_IX"></a> +<img src="images/illo131.png" alt="Plate IX" width="600" height="388" /> +<p class="caption">IX.—Ideal Landscape of the Devonian Period.</p></div> + +<p>The plants belonging to the Devonian period differ much from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> +the vegetation of the present day. They resembled both mosses and +lycopods, which are flowerless cryptogamic plants of a low organisation. +The Lycopods are herbaceous plants, playing only a secondary +part in the vegetation of the globe; but in the earlier ages of organic +creation they were the predominant forms in the vegetable kingdom, +both as to individual size and the number and variety of their +species.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_30" id="Fig_30"></a> +<img src="images/illo133.png" alt="Fig. 30" width="450" height="374" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 30.—Plants of the Devonian Epoch. 1. Algæ. 2. Zostera. 3. Psilophyton, natural size.</p></div> + +<p>In the woodcut (<a href="#Fig_30">Fig. 30</a>) we have represented three species of +aquatic plants belonging to the Devonian period; they are—1, +<i>Fucoids</i> (or <i>Algæ</i>); 2, <i>Zostera</i>; 3, <i>Psilophyton</i>. The Fucoid closely +resembles its modern ally; but with the first indications of terrestrial +vegetation we pass from the <i>Thallogens</i>, to which the <i>Algæ</i> belong +(plants of simple organisation, without flower or stem), to the <i>Acrogens</i>, +which throw out their leaves and branches at the extremity, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> +bear in the axils of their leaves minute circular cases, which form +the receptacles of their spore-like seeds. “If we stand,” says +Hugh Miller, “on the outer edge of one of those iron-bound +shores of the Western Highlands, where rock and skerries are +crowned with sea-weeds; the long cylindrical lines of <i>chorda-filum</i>, +many feet in length, lying aslant in the tideway; long shaggy +bunches of <i>Fucus serratus</i> and <i>F. nodosus</i> drooping from the sides of +the rock; the flat ledges bristling with the stiff cartilaginous many-cleft +fronds of at least two species of <i>Chondrus</i>; now, in the thickly-spread +Fucoids of this Highland scene we have a not very improbable representation +of the Thallogenous vegetation. If we add to this rocky +tract, so rich in Fucoids, a submarine meadow of pale shelly sand, +covered by a deep-green swathe of <i>Zosteræ</i>, with jointed root and slim +flowers, unfurnished with petals, it would be more representative still.”</p> + +<p>Let us now take a glance at the animals belonging to this period.</p> + +<p>The class of Fishes seem to have held the first rank and importance +in the Old Red Sandstone <i>fauna</i>; but their structure was very +different from that of existing fishes: they were provided with a +sort of cuirass, and from the nature of the scales were called <i>Ganoid</i> +fishes. Numerous fragments of these curious fishes are now found +in geological collections; they are of strange forms, some being completely +covered with a cuirass of many pieces, and others furnished +with wing-like pectoral fins, as in <i>Pterichthys</i>.</p> + +<p>Let any one picture to himself the surprise he would feel should +he, on taking his first lesson in geology, and on first breaking a stone—a +pebble, for instance, exhibiting every external sign of a water-worn +surface—find, to appropriate Archdeacon Paley’s illustration, +a watch, or any other delicate piece of mechanism, in its centre. +Now, this, thirty years ago, is exactly the kind of surprise that Hugh +Miller experienced in the sandstone quarry opened in a lofty wall +of cliff overhanging the northern shore of the Moray Frith. He had +picked up a nodular mass of blue Lias-limestone, which he laid open +by a stroke of the hammer, when, behold! an exquisitely shaped Ammonite +was displayed before him. It is not surprising that henceforth +the half-mason, half-sailor, and poet, became a geologist. He sought +for information, and found it; he found that the rocks among which +he laboured swarmed with the relics of a former age. He pursued +his investigations, and found, while working in this zone of strata all +around the coast, that a certain class of fossils abounded; but that in +a higher zone these familiar forms disappeared, and others made their +appearance.</p> + +<p>He read and learned that in other lands—lands of more +recent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> +formation—strange forms of animal life had been discovered; forms +which in their turn had disappeared, to be succeeded by others, more +in accordance with beings now living. He came to know that he was +surrounded, in his native mountains, by the sedimentary deposits of +other ages; he became alive to the fact that these grand mountain +ranges had been built up grain by grain in the bed of the ocean, and +the mountains had been subsequently raised to their present level by +the upheaval of one part of its bed, or by the subsidence of another. +The young geologist now ceased to wonder that each bed, or series +of beds, should contain in its bosom records of its own epoch; it +seemed to him as if it had been the object of the Creator to furnish +the inquirer with records of His wisdom and power, which could not +be misinterpreted.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_31" id="Fig_31"></a> +<img src="images/illo135.png" alt="Fig. 31" width="450" height="346" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 31.—Fishes of the Devonian Epoch. 1. Coccosteus, one-third natural size. 2. Pterichthys, +one-fourth natural size. 3. Cephalaspis, one-fourth natural size.</p></div> + +<p>Among the Fishes of Old Red Sandstone, the <i>Coccosteus</i> (<a href="#Fig_31">Fig. 31</a>, +No. 1) was only partially cased in a defensive armour; the upper part of +the body down to the fins was defended by scales. <i>Pterichthys</i> (No. 2), +a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> +strange form, with a very small head, furnished with two powerful +paddles, or arms, like wings, and a mouth placed far behind the nose, +was entirely covered with scales. The <i>Cephalaspis</i> (No. 3), which has a +considerable outward resemblance to some fishes of the present time, +was nevertheless mail-clad, only on the anterior part of the body.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_32" id="Fig_32"></a> +<img src="images/illo136.png" alt="Fig. 32" width="450" height="365" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 32.—Fishes of the Devonian epoch. 1. Acanthodes. 2. Climatius. 3. Diplacanthus.</p></div> + +<p>Other fishes were provided with no such cuirass, properly so +called, but were protected by strong resisting scales, enveloping the +whole body. Such were the <i>Acanthodes</i> (1), the <i>Climatius</i> (2), and +the <i>Diplacanthus</i> (3), represented in <a href="#Fig_32">Fig. 32</a>.</p> + +<p>Among the organic beings of the Devonian rocks we find worm-like +animals, such as the <i>Annelides</i>, protected by an external shell, and +which at the present day are probably represented by the <i>Serpulæ</i>. +Among Crustaceans the <i>Trilobites</i> are still somewhat numerous, +especially in the middle rocks of the period. We also find there +many different groups of Mollusca, of which the <i>Brachiopoda</i> form +more than one-half. We may say of this period that it is the reign<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> +of Brachiopoda; in it they assumed extraordinary forms, and the +number of their species was very great. Among the most curious we +may instance the enormous <i>Stringocephalus Burtini</i>, <i>Davidsonia +Verneuilli</i>, <i>Uncites gryphus</i>, and <i>Calceola Sandalina</i>, shells of singular +and fantastic shape, differing entirely from all known forms. Amongst +the most characteristic of these Mollusca, <i>Atrypa reticularis</i> (<a href="#Fig_33">Fig. 33</a>) +holds the first rank, with <i>Spirifera concentrica</i>, <i>Leptæna Murchisoni</i>, +and <i>Productus subaculeatus</i>. Among the Cephalopoda we have +<i>Clymenia Sedgwickii</i> (<a href="#Fig_34">Fig. 34</a>), including the <i>Goniatites</i>, illustrating +the Ammonites, which so distinctly characterise the Secondary epoch, +but which were only foreshadowed in the Devonian period.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><a name="Fig_33" id="Fig_33"></a> +<img src="images/illo137a.png" alt="Fig. 33" width="300" height="444" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 33.—Atrypa reticularis.</p></div> + +<p>Among the Radiata of this epoch, the order Crinoidea are abundantly +represented. We give as an example <i>Cupressocrinus crassus</i> +(<a href="#Fig_35">Fig. 35</a>). The Encrinites, under which name the whole of these +animals are sometimes included, lived attached to rocky places and +in deep water, as they now do in the Caribbean sea.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="Fig_34" id="Fig_34"></a> +<img src="images/illo137b.png" alt="Fig. 34" width="400" height="359" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 34.—Clymenia Sedgwickii.</p></div> + +<p>The Encrinites, as we have seen, were represented during the +Silurian period in a simple genus, <i>Hemicosmites</i>, but they greatly increased +in numbers in the seas of the Devonian period. They +diminish in numbers, as we retire from that geological age; until +those forms, which were so numerous and varied in the earliest seas, +are now only represented by two genera.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span>The Old Red Sandstone rocks are composed of schists, sandstone, +and limestones. The line of demarcation between the Silurian rocks +and those which succeed them may be followed, in many places, by +the eye; but, on a closer examination, +the exact limits of the two +systems become more difficult to fix. +The beds of the one system pass +into the other by a gradual passage, +for Nature rarely admits of violent +contrasts, and shows few sudden +transitions. By-and-by, however, +the change becomes very decided, +and the contrast between the dark +grey masses at the base and the +superincumbent yellow and red +rocks become sufficiently striking. +In fact, the uppermost beds of the +Silurian rocks are the passage-beds +of the overlying system, consisting +of flagstones, occasionally reddish, +and called in some districts “tile-stones.” +Over these lie the Old +Red Sandstone conglomerate, the +Caithness flags, and the great superincumbent +mass which forms +the upper portion of the system. +Though less abrupt than the eruptive and Silurian mountains, the +Old Red Sandstone scenery is, nevertheless, distinguished by its +imposing outline, assuming bold and lofty escarpments in the Vans +of Brecon, in Grongar Hill, near Caermarthen, and in the Black +Mountain of Monmouthshire, in the centre of a landscape which, +wood, rock, and river combine to render perfect. But it is in the +north of Scotland where this rock assumes its grandest aspect, +wrapping its mantle round the loftiest mountains, and rising out of +the sea in rugged and fantastic masses, as far north as the Orkneys. +In Devon and Cornwall, where the rocks are of a calcareous, and +sometimes schistose or slaty character, they are sufficiently extensive +to have given a name to the series, which is recognised all over +the world.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><a name="Fig_35" id="Fig_35"></a> +<img src="images/illo138.png" alt="Fig. 35" width="300" height="434" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 35.—Cupressocrinus crassus.</p></div> + +<p>In Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Shropshire, Gloucestershire, +and South Wales, the Old Red Sandstone is largely developed, and +sometimes attains the thickness of from 8,000 to 10,000 feet, divided +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> +into: 1. Conglomerate; 2. Brown stone, with <i>Eurypterus</i>; 3. Marl and +cornstones, with irregular courses of concrete limestone, in which are +spines of Fishes and remains of <i>Cephalaspis</i> and <i>Pteraspis</i>; 4. Thin +olive-coloured shales and sandstone, intercalated with beds of red marl, +containing <i>Cephalaspis</i> and <i>Auchenaspis</i>. In Scotland, south of the +Grampians, a yellow sandstone occupies the base of the system; conglomerate, +red shales, sandstone and cornstones, containing <i>Holoptychius</i> +and <i>Cephalaspis</i>, and the Arbroath paving-stone, containing +what Agassiz recognised as a huge Crustacean.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><a name="Fig_36" id="Fig_36"></a> +<img src="images/illo139.png" alt="Fig. 36" width="250" height="229" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 36.—Trinucleus +Lloydii. +(Llandeilo Flags.)</p></div> + +<p>Some of the phenomena connected with the older rocks of +Devonshire are difficult to unravel. The Devonian, it +is now understood, is the equivalent, in another area, of +the Old Red Sandstone, and in Cornwall and Devonshire +lie directly on the Silurian strata, while elsewhere +the fossils of the Upper Silurian are almost identical +with those in the Devonian beds. The late Professor +Jukes, with some other geologists, was of opinion that +the Devonian rocks of Devonshire only represented +the Old Red Sandstone of Scotland and South Wales in part; the +Upper Devonian rocks lying between the acknowledged Old Red +Sandstone and the Culm-measures being the representatives of the +lower carboniferous rocks of Ireland.</p> + +<p>Mr. Etheridge, on the other hand, in an elaborate memoir upon +the same subject, has endeavoured to prove that the Devonian and +Old Red Sandstone, though contemporaneous in point of time, were +deposited in different areas and under widely different conditions—the +one strictly marine, the other altogether fresh-water—or, perhaps, +partly fresh-water and partly estuarine. This supposition is strongly +supported by his researches into the mollusca of the Devonian +system, and also by the fish-remains of the Devonian and Old Red +Sandstone of Scotland and the West of England and Wales.<a name="FNanchor_42" +id="FNanchor_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> The +difficulty of drawing a sharply-defined line of demarcation between +different systems is sufficient to dispel the idea which has sometimes +been entertained that special <i>faunæ</i> were created and annihilated in +the mass at the close of each epoch. There was no close: each +epoch disappears or merges into that which succeeds it, and with it +the animals belonging to it, much as we have seen them disappear +from our own fauna almost within recent times.</p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></p> +<h3>CARBONIFEROUS PERIOD.</h3> + +<p>In the history of our globe the Carboniferous period succeeds to the +Devonian. It is in the formations of this latter epoch that we find the +fossil fuel which has done so much to enrich and civilise the world in +our own age. This period divides itself into two great sub-periods: +1. The <i>Coal-measures</i>; and 2. The <i>Carboniferous Limestone</i>. The +first, a period which gave rise to the great deposits of coal; the +second, to most important marine deposits, most frequently underlying +the coal-fields in England, Belgium, France, and America.</p> + +<p>The limestone-mountains which form the base of the whole system, +attain in places, according to Professor Phillips, a thickness of 2,500 +feet. They are of marine origin, as is apparent by the multitude of +fossils they contain of Zoophytes, Radiata, Cephalopoda, and Fishes. +But the chief characteristic of this epoch is its strictly terrestrial flora—remains +of plants now become as common as they were rare in all +previous formations, announcing a great increase of dry land. In +older geological times the present site of our island was covered by +a sea of unlimited extent; we now approach a time when it was a +forest, or, rather, an innumerable group of islands, and marshes +covered with forests, which spread over the surface of the clusters of +islands which thickly studded the sea of the period.</p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="Fig_37" id="Fig_37"></a> +<img src="images/illo141.png" alt="Fig. 37" width="350" height="529" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 37.—Ferns restored. 1 and 2. Arborescent Ferns. 3 and 4. Herbaceous Ferns.</p></div> + +<p>The monuments of this era of profuse vegetation reveal themselves +in the precious Coal-measures of England and Scotland. These give us +some idea of the rich verdure which covered the surface of the earth, +newly risen from the bosom of its parent waves. It was the paradise +of terrestrial vegetation. The grand <i>Sigillaria</i>, the <i>Stigmaria</i>, and +other fern-like plants, were especially typical of this age, and formed +the woods, which were left to grow undisturbed; for as yet no living +Mammals seem to have appeared; everything indicates a uniformly +warm, humid temperature, the only climate in which the gigantic ferns +of the Coal-measures could have attained their magnitude. In <a href="#Fig_37">Fig. 37</a> +the reader has a restoration of the arborescent and herbaceous Ferns<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> +of the period. Conifers have been found of this period with concentric +rings, but these rings are more slightly marked than in existing +trees of the same family, from which it is reasonable to assume that +the seasonal changes were less marked than they are with us.</p> + +<p>Everything announces that the time occupied in the deposition of +the Carboniferous Limestone was one of vast duration. Professor +Phillips calculates that, at the ordinary rate of progress, it would +require 122,400 years to produce only sixty feet of coal. Geologists +believe, moreover, that the upper coal-measures, where bed has been +deposited upon bed, for ages upon ages, were accumulated under +conditions of comparative tranquillity, but that the end of this period was +marked by violent convulsions—by ruptures of the terrestrial crust, +when the carboniferous rocks were upturned, contorted, dislocated +by faults, and subsequently partially denuded, and thus appear now +in depressions or basin-shaped concavities; and that upon this deranged +and disturbed foundation a fourth geological system, called +Permian, was constructed.</p> + +<p>The fundamental character of the period we are about to study is +the immense development of a vegetation which then covered much +of the globe. The great thickness of the rocks which now represent +the period in question, the variety of changes which are observed in +these rocks wherever they are met with, lead to the conclusion that +this phase in the Earth’s history involved a long succession of time.</p> + +<p>Coal, as we shall find, is composed of the mineralised remains of +the vegetation which flourished in remote ages of the world. Buried +under an enormous thickness of rocks, it has been preserved to our +days, after being modified in its inward nature and external aspect. +Having lost a portion of its elementary constituents, it has become +transformed into a species of carbon, impregnated with those bituminous +substances which are the ordinary products of the slow decomposition +of vegetable matter.</p> + +<p>Thus, coal, which supplies our manufactures and our furnaces, +which is the fundamental agent of our productive and economic +industry—the coal which warms our houses and furnishes the gas +which lights our streets and dwellings—is the substance of the plants +which formed the forests, the vegetation, and the marshes of the +ancient world, at a period too distant for human chronology to calculate +with anything like precision. We shall not say—with some persons, +who believe that all in Nature was made with reference to man, and +who thus form a very imperfect idea of the vast immensity of creation—that +the vegetables of the ancient world have lived and multiplied +only, some day, to prepare for man the agents of his economic and +industrial occupations. We shall rather direct the attention of our +young readers to the powers of modern science, which can thus, after<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> +such a prodigious interval of time, trace the precise origin, and state +with the utmost exactness, the genera and species of plants, of which +there are now no identical representatives existing on the face of the +earth.</p> + +<p>Let us pause for a moment, and consider the general characters +which belonged to our planet during the Carboniferous period. +Heat—though not necessarily excessive heat—and extreme humidity +were then the attributes of its atmosphere. The modern allies of the +species which formed its vegetation are now only found under the +burning latitudes of the tropics; and the enormous dimensions in +which we find them in the fossil state prove, on the other hand, that +the atmosphere was saturated with moisture. Dr. Livingstone tells +us that continual rains, added to intense heat, are the climatic +characteristic of Equatorial Africa, where the vigorous and tufted +vegetation flourishes which is so delightful to the eye.</p> + +<p>It is a remarkable circumstance that conditions of equable and +warm climate, combined with humidity, do not seem to have been +limited to any one part of the globe, but the temperature of the whole +globe seems to have been nearly the same in very different latitudes. +From the Equatorial regions up to Melville Island, in the Arctic +Ocean, where in our days eternal frost prevails—from Spitzbergen to +the centre of Africa, the carboniferous flora is identically the same. +When nearly the same plants are found in Greenland and Guinea; +when the same species, now extinct, are met with of equal development +at the equator as at the pole, we cannot but admit that at this epoch +the temperature of the globe was nearly alike everywhere. What we +now call <i>climate</i> was unknown in these geological times. There seems +to have been then only one climate over the whole globe. It was +at a subsequent period, that is, in later Tertiary times, that the cold +began to make itself felt at the terrestrial poles. Whence, then, proceeded +this general superficial warmth, which we now regard with so +much surprise? It was a consequence of the greater or nearer influence +of the interior heat of the globe. The earth was still so hot in +itself, that the heat which reached it from the sun may have been +inappreciable.</p> + +<p>Another hypothesis, which has been advanced with much less certainty +than the preceding, relates to the chemical composition of the +air during the Carboniferous period. Seeing the enormous mass of +vegetation which then covered the globe, and extended from one pole +to the other; considering, also, the great proportion of carbon and +hydrogen which exists in the bituminous matter of coal, it has been +thought, and not without reason, that the atmosphere of the period<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> +might be richer in carbonic acid than the atmosphere of the present +day. It has even been thought that the small number of (especially +air-breathing) animals, which then lived, might be accounted for by +the presence of a greater proportion of carbonic acid gas in the +atmosphere than is the case in our own times. This, however, is +pure assumption, totally deficient in proof. Nothing proves that the +atmosphere of the period in question was richer in carbonic acid than +is the case now. Since we are only able, then, to offer vague conjectures +on this subject, we cannot profess with any confidence to entertain +the opinion that the atmospheric air of the Carboniferous period +contained more carbonic acid gas than that which we now breathe. +What we can remark, with certainty, as a striking characteristic of +the vegetation of the globe during this phase of its history, was the +prodigious development which it assumed. The Ferns, which in our +days and in our climate, are most commonly only small perennial +plants, in the Carboniferous age sometimes presented themselves +under lofty and even magnificent forms.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 275px;"><a name="Fig_38" id="Fig_38"></a> +<img src="images/illo145.png" alt="Fig. 38" width="275" height="565" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 38.—Calamite restored. Thirty to forty feet high.</p></div> + +<p>Every one knows those marsh-plants with hollow, channelled, and +articulated cylindrical stems; whose joints are furnished with a membranous, +denticulated sheath, and which bear the vulgar name of +“mare’s-tail;” their fructification forming a sort of catkin composed +of many rings of scales, carrying on their lower surface sacs full of +<i>spores</i> or seeds. These humble <i>Equiseta</i> were represented during +the Coal-period by herbaceous trees from twenty to thirty feet +high and four to six inches in diameter. Their trunks, channelled +longitudinally, and divided transversely by lines of articulation, have +been preserved to us: they bear the name of <i>Calamites</i>. The +engraving (<a href="#Fig_38">Fig. 38</a>) represents one of these gigantic mare’s-tails, or +Calamites, of the Coal-period, restored under the directions of M. +Eugene Deslongchamps. It is represented with its fronds of leaves, +and its organs of fructification. They seem to have grown by means +of an underground stem, while new buds issued from the ground at +intervals, as represented in the engraving.</p> + +<p>The <i>Lycopods</i> of our age are humble plants, scarcely a yard in +height, and most commonly creepers; but the Lycopodiaceæ of the +ancient world were trees of eighty or ninety feet in height. It was +the <i>Lepidodendrons</i> which filled the forests. Their leaves were sometimes +twenty inches long, and their trunks a yard in diameter. Such +are the dimensions of some specimens of <i>Lepidodendron carinatum</i> which +have been found. Another Lycopod of this period, the <i>Lomatophloyos +crassicaule</i>, attained dimensions still more colossal. The <i>Sigillarias</i> +sometimes exceeded 100 feet in height. Herbaceous Ferns were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> +also exceedingly +abundant, and grew +beneath the shade +of these gigantic +trees. It was the +combination of +these lofty trees with +such shrubs (if we +may so call them), +which formed the +forests of the Carboniferous +period. +The trunks of two of +the gigantic trees, +which flourished in +the forests of the Carboniferous +period, +are represented in +<a href="#Fig_39">Figs. 39</a> and <a href="#Fig_40">40</a>, reduced +respectively +to one-fifth and one-tenth +the natural +size.</p> + +<p>What could be +more surprising +than the aspect of +this exuberant vegetation!—these +immense Sigillarias, +which reigned over +the forest! these +Lepidodendrons, +with flexible and +slender stems! these +Lomatophloyos, +which present themselves +as <i>herbaceous</i> +trees of gigantic +height, furnished +with verdant leaflets! +these Calamites, +forty feet high!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> +these elegant arborescent Ferns, with airy foliage, as finely cut as the +most delicate lace! Nothing at the present day can convey to us an +idea of the prodigious and immense extent of never-changing verdure +which clothed the earth, from pole to pole, under the high temperature +which everywhere prevailed over the whole terrestrial globe. +In the depths of these inextricable forests parasitic plants were +suspended from the trunks of the great trees, in tufts or garlands, +like the wild vines of our tropical forests. They were nearly all pretty, +fern-like plants—<i>Sphenopteris</i>, <i>Hymenophyllites</i>, &c.; they attached +themselves to the stems of the great trees, like the orchids and +<i>Bromeliaceæ</i> of our times.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><a name="Fig_39" id="Fig_39"></a> +<img src="images/illo146a.png" alt="Fig. 39" width="300" height="497" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 39.—Trunk of Calamites. One-fifth +natural size.</p></div> + +<p>The margin of the waters would also be covered with various +plants with light and whorled leaves, belonging, perhaps, to the +Dicotyledons; <i>Annularia fertilis</i>, <i>Sphenophyllites</i>, and <i>Asterophyllites</i>.</p> + +<p>How this vegetation, so imposing, both on account of the dimensions +of the individual trees and the immense space which they occupied,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> +so splendid in its aspect, and yet so simple in its organisation, +must have differed from that which now embellishes the earth and +charms our eyes! It certainly possessed the advantage of size and rapid +growth; but how poor it was in species—how uniform in appearance! +No flowers yet adorned the foliage or varied the tints of the forests. +Eternal verdure clothed the branches of the Ferns, the Lycopods, +and Equiseta, which composed to a great extent the vegetation of the +age. The forests presented an innumerable collection of individuals, +but very few species, and all belonging to the lower types of vegetation. +No fruit appeared fit for nourishment; none would seem to have +been on the branches. Suffice it to say that few terrestrial animals +seem to have existed yet; animal life was apparently almost wholly +confined to the sea, while the vegetable kingdom occupied the land, +which at a later period was more thickly inhabited by air-breathing +animals. Probably a few winged insects (some coleoptera, orthoptera, +and neuroptera) gave animation to the air while exhibiting their +variegated colours; and it was not impossible but that many pulmoniferous +mollusca (such as land-snails) lived at the same time.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><a name="Fig_40" id="Fig_40"></a> +<img src="images/illo146b.png" alt="Fig. 40" width="300" height="461" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 40.—Trunk of Sigillaria. One-tenth +natural size.</p></div> + +<p>But, we might ask, for what eyes, for whose thoughts, for whose +wants, did the solitary forests grow? For whom these majestic and +extensive shades? For whom these sublime sights? What mysterious +beings contemplated these marvels? A question which cannot be +solved, and one before which we are overwhelmed, and our powerless +reason is silent; its solution rests with Him who said, “Before the +world was, I am!”</p> + +<p>The vegetation which covered the numerous islands of the Carboniferous +sea consisted, then, of Ferns, of Equisetaceæ, of Lycopodiaceæ, +and dicotyledonous Gymnosperms. The Annularia and Sigillariæ +belong to families of the last-named class, which are now completely +extinct.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="Fig_41" id="Fig_41"></a> +<img src="images/illo148a.png" alt="Fig. 41" width="350" height="450" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 41.—Sigillaria lævigata. One-third natural size.</p></div> + +<p>The <i>Annulariæ</i> were small plants which floated on the surface of +fresh-water lakes and ponds; their leaves were verticillate, that is, +arranged in a great number of whorls, at each articulation of the stem +with the branches. The <i>Sigillariæ</i> were, on the contrary, great trees, +consisting of a simple trunk, surmounted with a bunch or panicle +of slender drooping leaves, with the bark often channelled, and +displaying impressions or scars of the old leaves, which, from their +resemblance to a seal, <i>sigillum</i>, gave origin to their name. <a href="#Fig_41">Fig. 41</a> +represents the bark of one of these Sigillariæ, which is often met +with in coal-mines.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="Fig_42" id="Fig_42"></a> +<img src="images/illo148b.png" alt="Fig. 42" width="350" height="204" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 42.—Stigmaria. One-tenth natural size.</p></div> + +<p>The <i>Stigmariæ</i> (<a href="#Fig_42">Fig. 42</a>), according to palæontologists, were roots +of Sigillariæ, with a subterranean fructification; all that is known +of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> +them is the long roots which carry the reproductive organs, and in +some cases are as much as sixteen feet long. These were suspected by +Brongniart, on botanical grounds, to be the roots of Sigillaria, and +recent discoveries have confirmed this impression. Sir Charles Lyell, +in company with Dr. Dawson, examined several erect <i>Sigillariæ</i> in +the sea-cliffs of the South Joggins in Nova Scotia, and found that +from the lower extremities of the trunk they sent out <i>Stigmariæ</i> as +roots, which divided into four parts, and these again threw out eight +continuations, each of which again divided into pairs. Twenty-one +specimens of Sigillaria have been described by Dr. Dawson from the +Coal-measures of Nova Scotia; but the differences in the markings +in different parts of the same tree are so great, that Dr. Dawson +regards the greater part of the recognised species of <i>Sigillariæ</i> as +merely provisional.<a name="FNanchor_43" id="FNanchor_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a></p> + +<p>Two other gigantic trees grew in the forests of this period: these +were <i>Lepidodendron carinatum</i> and <i>Lomatophloyos crassicaule</i>, both +belonging to the family of Lycopodiaceæ, which now includes only +very small species. The trunk of the Lomatophloyos threw out +numerous branches, which terminated in thick tufts of linear and +fleshy leaves.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><a name="Fig_43" id="Fig_43"></a> +<img src="images/illo149.png" alt="Fig. 43" width="250" height="445" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 43.—Lepidodendron Sternbergii.</p></div> + +<p>The <i>Lepidodendrons</i>, of which there are about forty known +species, have cylindrical bifurcated branches; that is, the branches<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> +were evolved in pairs, or were <i>dichotomous</i> to the top. The extremities +of the branches were terminated by a fructification in the +form of a cone, formed of linear scales, to which the name of +<i>Lepidostrobus</i> (<a href="#Fig_45">Fig. 45</a>) has been given. Nevertheless, many of these +branches were sterile, and terminated simply in fronds (elongated +leaves). In many of the coal-fields fossil cones have been +found, to which this name has been +given by earlier palæontologists. +They sometimes form the nucleus +of nodular, concretionary balls of +clay-ironstone, and are well preserved, +having a conical axis, +surrounded by scales compactly +imbricated. The opinion of +Brongniart is now generally +adopted, that they are the fruit +of the Lepidodendron. At Coalbrookdale, +and elsewhere, these +have been found as terminal tips +of a branch of a well-characterised +Lepidodendron. Both Hooker +and Brongniart place them with +the Lycopods, having cones with +similar spores and sporangia, like +that family. Most of them were +large trees. One tree of <i>L. Sternbergii</i>, +nearly fifty feet long, was +found in the Jarrow Colliery, near +Newcastle, lying in the shale +parallel to the plane of stratification. +Fragments of others found +in the same shale indicated, by +the size of the rhomboidal scars +which covered them, a still greater +size. Lepidodendron Sternbergii (<a href="#Fig_43">Fig. 43</a>) is represented as it is +found beneath the shales in the collieries of Swina, in Bohemia. +<a href="#Fig_46">Fig. 46</a> represents a portion of a branch of <i>L. elegans</i> furnished with +leaves. M. Eugene Deslongchamps has drawn the restoration of +the Lepidodendron Sternbergii, represented in <a href="#Fig_47">Fig. 47</a>, which is +shown entire in <a href="#Fig_44">Fig. 44</a>, with its stem, its branches, fronds, and +organs of fructification. The Ferns composed a great part of the +vegetation of the Coal-measure period.</p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><a name="Fig_44" id="Fig_44"></a> +<img src="images/illo150.png" alt="Fig. 44" width="300" height="584" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 44.—Lepidodendron Sternbergii restored. Forty feet high.</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span>The Ferns differ chiefly in some of the details of the leaf. +<i>Pecopteris</i>, for instance (<a href="#Fig_48">Fig. 48</a>), have the leaves once, twice, or thrice +pinnatifid with the leaflets adhering either by their whole base or +by the centre only; the midrib running through to the point. +<i>Neuropteris</i> (<a href="#Fig_49">Fig. 49</a>) has leaves divided like Pecopteris, but the +midrib does not reach the apex of the leaflets, but divides right and +left into veins. <i>Odontopteris</i> (<a href="#Fig_51">Fig. 51</a>) has pinnatifid leaves, like the +last, but its leaflets adhere by their whole base to the stalk. <i>Lonchopteris</i> +(<a href="#Fig_50">Fig. 50</a>) has the leaves several times pinnatifid, the leaflets +more or less united to one another, and the veins reticulated. +Among the most numerous species of forms of the Coal-measure +period was <i>Sphenopteris artemisiæfolia</i> (<a href="#Fig_52">Fig. 52</a>), of which a magnified +leaf is represented. Sphenopteris has twice or thrice pinnatifid +leaves, the leaflets narrow at the base, and the veins generally +arranged as if they radiated from the base; the leaflets are frequently +wedge-shaped.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;"><a name="Fig_45" id="Fig_45"></a> +<img src="images/illo151a.png" alt="Fig. 45" width="150" height="444" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 45.—Lepidostrobus variabilis.</p></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="Fig_46" id="Fig_46"></a> +<img src="images/illo151b.png" alt="Fig. 46" width="350" height="392" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 46.—Lepidodendron elegans.</p></div> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Carboniferous Limestone. (Sub-period.)</span></h4> + +<p>The seas of this epoch included an immense number of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> +Zoophytes, nearly 400 species of Mollusca, and a few Crustaceans +and Fishes. Among the Fishes, <i>Psammodus</i> and <i>Coccosteus</i>, +whose massive teeth inserted in the palate were suitable for grinding; +and the <i>Holoptychius</i> and <i>Megalichthys</i>, are the most important. The +Mollusca are chiefly Brachiopods +of great size. The Productæ +attained here exceptional +development, <i>Producta Martini</i> +(<a href="#Fig_53">Fig. 53</a>), <i>P. semi-reticulata</i> and +<i>P. gigantea</i>, being the most remarkable. +Spirifers, also, were +equally abundant, as <i>Spirifera +trigonalis</i> and <i>S. glabra</i>. In +<i>Terebratula hastata</i> the coloured +bands, which adorned the shell +of the living animal, have been +preserved to us. The <i>Bellerophon</i>, +whose convoluted shell +in some respects resembles the +Nautilus of our present seas, +but without its chambered shell, +were then represented by many +species, among others by <i>Bellerophon +costatus</i> (<a href="#Fig_54">Fig. 54</a>), and +<i>B. hiulcus</i> (<a href="#Fig_56">Fig. 56</a>). Again, +among the Cephalopods, we +find the <i>Orthoceras</i> (<a href="#Fig_57">Fig. 57</a>), +which resembled a straight +Nautilus; and Goniatites (<i>Goniatites +evolutus</i>, <a href="#Fig_55">Fig. 55</a>), a chambered +shell allied to the Ammonite, +which appeared in great +numbers during the Secondary +epoch.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><a name="Fig_47" id="Fig_47"></a> +<img src="images/illo152.png" alt="Fig. 47" width="300" height="575" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 47.—Lepidodendron Sternbergii.</p></div> + +<p>Crustaceans are rare in the +Carboniferous Limestone strata; +the genus Phillipsia is the last of the Trilobites, all of which became +extinct at the close of this period. As to the Zoophytes, they consist +chiefly of Crinoids and Corals. The Crinoids were represented by +the genera <i>Platycrinus</i> and <i>Cyathocrinus</i>. We also have in these +rocks many Polyzoa.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><a name="Fig_48" id="Fig_48"></a> +<img src="images/illo153a.png" alt="Fig. 48" width="300" height="488" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 48.—Pecopteris lonchitica, a little magnified.</p></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><a name="Fig_49" id="Fig_49"></a> +<img src="images/illo153b.png" alt="Fig. 49" width="300" height="494" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 49.—Neuropteris gigantea.</p></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="Fig_50" id="Fig_50"></a> +<img src="images/illo154a.png" alt="Fig. 50" width="400" height="408" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 50.—Lonchopteris Bricii.</p></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><a name="Fig_51" id="Fig_51"></a> +<img src="images/illo154b.png" alt="Fig. 51" width="250" height="477" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 51.—Odontopteris Brardii.</p></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><a name="Fig_52" id="Fig_52"></a> +<img src="images/illo154c.png" alt="Fig. 52" width="300" height="461" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 52.—Sphenopteris artemisiæfolia, magnified.</p></div> + +<p>Among the corals of the period, we may include the genera<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> +<i>Lithostrotion</i> and <i>Lonsdalea</i>, of which <i>Lithostrotion basaltiforme</i> +(<a href="#Fig_58">Fig. 58</a>), and <i>Lonsdalea floriformis</i> (<a href="#Fig_59">Fig. 59</a>), are respectively the +representatives, with <i>Amplexus coralloïdes</i>. Among the Polyzoa are +the genera <i>Fenestrella</i> and <i>Polypora</i>. Lastly, to these we may add a +group of animals which will play a very important part and become +abundantly represented in the beds of later geological periods, but +which already abounded in the seas of the Carboniferous period. We +speak of the <i>Foraminifera</i> (<a href="#Fig_60">Fig. 60</a>), microscopic animals, which +clustered either in one body, or divided into segments, and covered +with a calcareous, many-chambered shell, as in <a href="#Fig_60">Fig. 60</a>, <i>Fusulina +cylindrica</i>. These little creatures, which, during the Jurassic and +Cretaceous periods, formed enormous banks and entire masses of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145"></a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144"></a></span> +rock, began to make their appearance in the period which now +engages our attention.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;"><a name="Fig_53" id="Fig_53"></a> +<img src="images/illo155a.png" alt="Fig. 53" width="150" height="116" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 53.—Producta Martini. +One-third nat. size.</p></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;"><a name="Fig_54" id="Fig_54"></a> +<img src="images/illo155b.png" alt="Fig. 54" width="150" height="140" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 54.—Bellerophon costatus. +Half nat. size.</p></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;"><a name="Fig_55" id="Fig_55"></a> +<img src="images/illo155c.png" alt="Fig. 55" width="150" height="165" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 55.—Goniatites evolutus. +Nat. size.</p></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="Fig_56" id="Fig_56"></a> +<img src="images/illo155d.png" alt="Fig. 56" width="350" height="138" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 56.—Bellerophon hiulcus.</p></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;"><a name="Fig_57" id="Fig_57"></a> +<img src="images/illo155e.png" alt="Fig. 57" width="150" height="327" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 57.—Orthoceras laterale.</p></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><a name="Fig_58" id="Fig_58"></a> +<img src="images/illo155f.png" alt="Fig. 58" width="200" height="342" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 58.—Lithostrotion basaltiforme.</p></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><a name="Fig_59" id="Fig_59"></a> +<img src="images/illo155g.png" alt="Fig. 59" width="200" height="394" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 59.—Lonsdalea floriformis.</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span>The +plate opposite (<span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_X">Plate X.</a></span>) is a representation of an ideal +aquarium, in which some of the more prominent species, which +inhabited the seas during the period of the Carboniferous Limestone, +are represented. On the right is a tribe of corals, with reflections +of dazzling white: the species represented are, nearest the edge, +the <i>Lasmocyathus</i>, the <i>Chætetes</i>, and the <i>Ptylopora</i>. The Mollusc +which occupies the extremity of the elongated and conical tube in the +shape of a sabre is an <i>Aploceras</i>. It seems to prepare the way for +the Ammonite; for if this elongated shell were coiled round itself it +would resemble the Ammonite and Nautilus. In the centre of the +foreground we have <i>Bellerophon hiulcus</i> (<a href="#Fig_56">Fig. 56</a>), the <i>Nautilus +Koninckii</i>, and a <i>Producta</i>, with the numerous spines which surround +the shell. (See <a href="#Fig_62">Fig. 62</a>.)</p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></p> +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Plate_X" id="Plate_X"></a> +<img src="images/illo157.png" alt="Plate X" width="600" height="386" /> +<p class="caption">X.—Ideal view of marine life in the Carboniferous Period.</p></div> + +<p>On the left are other corals: the <i>Cyathophyllum</i> with straight +cylindrical stems; some Encrinites (<i>Cyathocrinus</i> and <i>Platycrinus</i>) +wound round the trunk of a tree, or with their flexible stem floating +in the water. Some Fishes, <i>Amblypterus</i>, move about amongst these +creatures, the greater number of which are immovably attached, like +plants, to the rock on which they grow.</p> + +<p>In addition, this <a href="#Plate_X">engraving</a> shows us a series of islets, +rising out of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> +a tranquil sea. One of these is occupied by a forest, in which a +distant view is presented of the general forms of the grand vegetation +of the period.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><a name="Fig_60" id="Fig_60"></a> +<img src="images/illo156a.png" alt="Fig. 60" width="200" height="361" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 60.—Foraminifera of the Mountain +Limestone, forming the centre +of an oolitic grain. Power 120.</p></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_61" id="Fig_61"></a> +<img src="images/illo156b.png" alt="Fig. 61" width="450" height="345" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 61.—Foraminifera of the Chalk, +obtained by brushing it in water. +Power 120.</p></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Fig_62" id="Fig_62"></a> +<img src="images/illo159.png" alt="Fig. 62" width="600" height="201" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 62.—Producta horrida. Half natural size.</p></div> + +<hr class="c05" /> + +<p>It is of importance to know the rocks formed by marine deposits +during the era of the Carboniferous Limestone, inasmuch as they +include coal, though in much smaller quantities than in the succeeding +sub-period of the true coal-deposit. They consist essentially of a +compact limestone, of a greyish-blue, and even black colour. The +blow of the hammer causes them to exhale a somewhat fetid odour, +which is owing to decomposed organic matter—the modified substance +of the molluscs and zoophytes—of which it is to so great an extent +composed, and whose remains are still easily recognised.</p> + +<p>In the north of England, and many other parts of the British +Islands, the Carboniferous Limestone forms, as we have seen, lofty +mountain-masses, to which the term <i>Mountain Limestone</i> is sometimes +applied.</p> + +<p>In Derbyshire the formation constitutes rugged, lofty, and fantastically-shaped +mountains, whose summits mingle with the clouds, +while its picturesque character appears here, as well as farther north, +in the <i>dales</i> or valleys, where rich meadows, through which the +mountain streams force their way, seem to be closed abruptly by +masses of rock, rising above them like the grey ruins of some ancient +tower; while the mountain bases are pierced with caverns, and their +sides covered with mosses and ferns, for the growth of which the +limestone is particularly favourable.</p> + +<p>The formation is <i>metalliferous</i>, and yields rich veins of lead-ore in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> +Derbyshire, Cumberland, and other counties of Great Britain. The +rock is found in Russia, in the north of France, and in Belgium, +where it furnishes the common marbles, known as Flanders marble +(<i>Marbre de Flandres</i> and <i>M. de petit granit</i>). These marbles are also +quarried in other localities, such as Regneville (La Manche), either +for the manufacture of lime or for ornamental stonework; one of +the varieties quarried at Regneville, being black, with large yellow +veins, is very pretty.</p> + +<p>In France, the <i>Carboniferous Limestone</i>, with its sandstones and +conglomerates, schists and limestones, is largely developed in the +Vosges, in the Lyonnais, and in Languedoc, often in contact with +syenites and porphyries, and other igneous rocks, by which it has been +penetrated and disturbed, and even <i>metamorphosed</i> in many ways, +by reason of the various kinds of rocks of which it is composed. In +the United States the Carboniferous Limestone formation occupies a +somewhat grand position in the rear of the Alleghanies. It is also +found forming considerable ranges in our Australian colonies.</p> + +<p>In consequence of their age, as compared with the Secondary and +Tertiary limestones, the Carboniferous rocks are generally more +marked and varied in character. The valley of the Meuse, from +Namur to Chockier, above Liège, is cut out of this formation; and +many of our readers will remember with delight the picturesque +character of the scenery, especially that of the left bank of the celebrated +river in question.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Coal Measures. (Sub-period.)</span></h4> + +<p>This terrestrial period is characterised, in a remarkable manner, +by the abundance and strangeness of the vegetation which then +covered the islands and continents of the whole globe. Upon all +points of the earth, as we have said, this flora presented a striking +uniformity. In comparing it with the vegetation of the present day, +the learned French botanist, M. Brongniart, who has given particular +attention to the flora of the Coal-measures, has arrived at the conclusion +that it presented considerable analogy with that of the islands +of the equatorial and torrid zone, in which a maritime climate and +elevated temperature exist in the highest degree. It is believed that +islands were very numerous at this period; that, in short, the dry +land formed a sort of vast archipelago upon the general ocean, of no +great depth, the islands being connected together and formed into +continents as they gradually emerged from the ocean.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>This flora, then, consists of great trees, and also of many smaller +plants, which would form a close, thick turf, or sod, when partially +buried in marshes of almost unlimited extent. M. Brongniart indicates, +as characterising the period, 500 species of plants belonging to families +which we have already seen making their first appearance in the +Devonian period, but which now attain a prodigious development. +The ordinary dicotyledons and monocotyledons—that is, plants having +seeds with two lobes in germinating, and plants having one seed-lobe—are +almost entirely absent; the cryptogamic, or flowerless plants, +predominate; especially Ferns, Lycopodiaceæ and Equisetaceæ—but +of forms insulated and actually extinct in these same families. A few +dicotyledonous gymnosperms, or naked-seed plants forming genera +of Conifers, have completely disappeared, not only from the present +flora, but since the close of the period under consideration, there +being no trace of them in the succeeding Permian flora. Such is a +general view of the features most characteristic of the Coal period, and +of the Primary epoch in general. It differs, altogether and absolutely, +from that of the present day; the climatic condition of these remote +ages of the globe, however, enables us to comprehend the characteristics +which distinguish its vegetation. A damp atmosphere, of an +equable rather than an intense heat like that of the tropics, a soft +light veiled by permanent fogs, were favourable to the growth of this +peculiar vegetation, of which we search in vain for anything strictly +analogous in our own days. The nearest approach to the climate +and vegetation proper to the geological period which now occupies +our attention, would probably be found in certain islands, or on the +littoral of the Pacific Ocean—the island of Chloë, for example, where +it rains during 300 days in the year, and where the light of the sun is +shut out by perpetual fogs; where arborescent Ferns form forests, +beneath whose shade grow herbaceous Ferns, which rise three feet +and upwards above a marshy soil; which gives shelter also to a mass +of cryptogamic plants, greatly resembling, in its main features, the +flora of the Coal-measures. This flora was, as we have said, uniform +and poor in its botanic genera, compared to the abundance and +variety of the flora of the present time; but the few families of plants, +which existed then, included many more species than are now produced +in the same countries. The fossil Ferns of the coal-series in +Europe, for instance, comprehend about 300 species, while all Europe +now only produces fifty. The gymnosperms, which now muster only +twenty-five species in Europe, then numbered more than 120.</p> + +<p>It will simplify the classification of the flora of the Carboniferous +epoch if we give a tabular arrangement adopted by the best authorities:—</p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></p> + +<table class="fsize80" style="max-width: 90%;" summary="Table p 152"> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2" class="center">Dr. Lindley.</td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="center">Brongniart.</td> +<td colspan="3"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right padr1">I.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Thallogens</td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Cryptogamous Amphigens, or Cellular Cryptogams</td> +<td class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl0">–</td> +<td class="left padl1">Lichens, Sea-weeds, Fungi.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right padr1">II.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Acrogens</td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Cryptogamous Acrogens</td> +<td class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl0">–</td> +<td class="left padl1">Club-mosses, Equiseta, Ferns, Lycopods, Lepidodendra.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right padr1">III.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Gymnogens</td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Dicotyledonous Gymnosperms</td> +<td class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl0">–</td> +<td class="left padl1">Conifers and Cycads.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right padr1">IV.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Exogens</td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Dicotyledonous Angiosperms</td> +<td class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl0">–</td> +<td class="left padl1">Compositæ, Leguminosæ, Umbelliferæ, Cruciferæ, Heaths. All European except Conifers.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right padr1">V.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Endogens</td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Monocotyledons</td> +<td class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl0">–</td> +<td class="left padl1">Palms, Lilies, Aloes, Rushes, Grasses.</td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<p>Calamites are among the most abundant fossil plants of the +Carboniferous period, and occur also in the Devonian. They are +preserved as striated, jointed, cylindrical, or compressed stems, with +fluted channels or furrows at their sides, and sometimes surrounded +by a bituminous coating, the remains of a cortical integument. They +were originally hollow, but the cavity is usually filled up with a substance +into which they themselves have been converted. They were +divided into joints or segments, and when broken across at their +articulations they show a number of striæ, originating in the furrows +of the sides, and turning inwards towards the centre of the stem. It +is not known whether this structure was connected with an imperfect +diaphragm stretched across the hollow of the stem at each joint, or +merely represented the ends of woody plates of which the solid part +of the stem is composed. Their extremities have been discovered to +taper gradually to a point, as represented in <i>C. cannæformis</i> (<a href="#Fig_64">Fig. 64</a>), +or to end abruptly, the intervals becoming shorter and smaller. The +obtuse point is now found to be the root. Calamites are regarded as +Equisetaceous plants; later botanists consider that they belong to an +extinct family of plants. <i>Sigillariæ</i> are the most abundant of all +plants in the coal formation, and were those principally concerned in +the accumulation of the mineral fuel of the Coal-measures. Not a +mine is opened, nor a heap of shale thrown out, but there occur fragments +of its stem, marked externally with small rounded impressions, +and in the centre slight tubercles, with a quincuncial arrangement. +From the tubercles arise long ribbon-shaped bodies, which have been +traced in some instances to the length of twenty feet.</p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 370px;"><a name="Fig_63" id="Fig_63"></a> +<img src="images/illo163.png" alt="Fig. 63" width="370" height="600" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 63.—Sphenophyllum restored.</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span>In the family of the Sigillarias we have already presented the bark +of <i><a href="#Fig_41">S. lævigata</a></i>, at page 138; on page 157 we give a drawing of the +bark of <i>S. reniformis</i>, one-third the natural size (<a href="#Fig_65">Fig. 65</a>).</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 254px;"><a name="Fig_64" id="Fig_64"></a> +<img src="images/illo164.png" alt="Fig. 64" width="254" height="600" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 64.—Calamites cannæformis. +One-third natural size.</p></div> + +<p>In the family of the Asterophyllites, the leaf of <i>A. foliosa</i> (<a href="#Fig_66">Fig. 66</a>); +and the foliage of <i>Annularia orifolia</i> (<a href="#Fig_67">Fig. 67</a>) are remarkable. In +addition to these, we present, +in <a href="#Fig_63">Fig. 63</a>, a restoration of +one of these Asterophyllites, +the <i>Sphenophyllum</i>, after M. +Eugene Deslongchamps. This +herbaceous tree, like the +Calamites, would present the +appearance of an immense +asparagus, twenty-five to thirty +feet high. It is represented +here with its branches and +<i>fronds</i>, which bear some resemblance +to the leaves of the +ginkgo. The bud, as represented +in the figure, is terminal, +and not axillary, as in some +of the Calamites.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 282px;"><a name="Fig_65" id="Fig_65"></a> +<img src="images/illo167a.png" alt="Fig. 65" width="282" height="450" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 65.—Sigillaria reniformis.</p></div> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155"></a></p> +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156"></a></p> + +<p>If, during the Coal-period, +the vegetable kingdom had +reached its maximum, the +animal kingdom, on the contrary, +was poorly represented. +Some remains have been +found, both in America and +Germany, consisting of portions +of the skeleton and the +impressions of the footsteps of +a Reptile, which has received +the name of Archegosaurus. +In <a href="#Fig_68">Fig. 68</a> is represented the +head and neck of <i>Archegosaurus +minor</i>, found in 1847 +in the coal-basin of Saarbruck +between Strasbourg and Trèves. +Among the animals of this +period we find a few Fishes, +analogous to those of the +Devonian formation. These +are the <i>Holoptychius</i> and <i>Megalichthys</i>, +having jaw-bones<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> +armed with enormous teeth. Scales of <i>Pygopterus</i> have been found in +the Northumberland Coal-shale at Newsham Colliery, and also in the +Staffordshire Coal-shale. +Some winged insects +would probably join this +slender group of living +beings. It may then be +said with truth that the +immense forests and +marshy plains, crowded +with trees, shrubs, and +herbaceous plants, which +formed on the innumerable +isles of the period a thick +and tufted sward, were almost +destitute of animals.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><a name="Fig_66" id="Fig_66"></a> +<img src="images/illo167b.png" alt="Fig. 66" width="300" height="187" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 66.—Asterophyllites foliosa.</p></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Plate_XI" id="Plate_XI"></a> +<img src="images/illo166.png" alt="Plate XI" width="600" height="384" /> +<p class="caption">XI.—Ideal view of a marshy forest of the Coal Period.</p></div> + +<p>On the opposite page +(<span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_XI">Pl. XI.</a></span>) M. Riou has attempted, +under the directions +of M. Deslongchamps, +to reproduce the aspect of +Nature during the period. +A marsh and forest of the +Coal-period are here represented, +with a short +and thick vegetation, a +sort of grass composed of +herbaceous Fern and +mare’s-tail. Several trees +of forest-height raise their +heads above this lacustrine +vegetation.</p> + +<p>On the left are seen the +naked trunk of a <i>Lepidodendron</i> +and a <i>Sigillaria</i>, +an arborescent Fern rising +between the two trunks. +At the foot of these great +trees an herbaceous Fern +and a <i>Stigmaria</i> appear, +whose long ramification +of roots, provided with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> +reproductive spores, extend to the water. On the right is the naked +trunk of another <i>Sigillaria</i>, a +tree whose foliage is altogether +unknown, a <i>Sphenophyllum</i>, +and a <i>Conifer</i>. It +is difficult to describe with +precision the species of this +last family, the impressions +of which are, nevertheless, +very abundant in the Coal-measures.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><a name="Fig_67" id="Fig_67"></a> +<img src="images/illo168a.png" alt="Fig. 67" width="300" height="245" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 67.—Annularia orifolia.</p></div> + +<p>In front of this group we +see two trunks broken and +overthrown. These are a +<i>Lepidodendron</i> and <i>Sigillaria</i>, +mingling with a heap of vegetable +débris in course of +decomposition, from which a +rich humus will be formed, +upon which new generations +of plants will soon develop +themselves. Some herbaceous +Ferns and buds of +<i>Calamites</i> rise out of the +waters of the marsh.</p> + +<p>A few Fishes belonging to +the period swim on the surface +of the water, and the +aquatic reptile <i>Archegosaurus</i> +shows its long and pointed +head—the only part of the +animal which has hitherto +been discovered (<a href="#Fig_68">Fig. 68</a>). A +<i>Stigmaria</i> extends its roots +into the water, and the pretty +<i>Asterophyllites</i>, with its finely-cut +stems, rises above it in +the foreground.</p> + +<p>A forest, composed of +<i>Lepidodendra</i> and <i>Calamites</i>, +forms the background to the +picture.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><a name="Fig_68" id="Fig_68"></a> +<img src="images/illo168b.png" alt="Fig. 68" width="300" height="471" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 68.—Head and neck of Archegosaurus minor.</p></div> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Formation of Beds of Coal.</span></h4> + +<p>Coal, as we have said, is only the result of a partial decomposition +of the plants which covered the earth during a geological period of +immense duration. No one, now, has any doubt that this is its origin. +In coal-mines it is not unusual to find fragments of the very plants +whose trunks and leaves characterise the Coal-measures, or Carboniferous +era. Immense trunks of trees have also been met with in +the middle of a seam of coal. In the coal-mines of Treuil,<a name="FNanchor_44" +id="FNanchor_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> at +St. Etienne, for instance, vertical trunks of fossil trees, resembling +bamboos or large Equiseta, are not only mixed with the coal, but +stand erect, traversing the overlying beds of micaceous sandstone in +the manner represented in the engraving, which has been reproduced +from a drawing by M. Ad. Brongniart (<a href="#Fig_69">Fig. 69</a>).</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="Fig_69" id="Fig_69"></a> +<img src="images/illo170.png" alt="Fig. 69" width="400" height="402" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 69.—Treuil coal-mine, at St. Etienne.</p></div> + +<p>In England it is the same; entire trees are found lying across the +coal-beds. Sir Charles Lyell tells us<a name="FNanchor_45" id="FNanchor_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45" +class="fnanchor">[45]</a> that in Parkfield Colliery, +South Staffordshire, there was discovered in 1854, upon a surface of +about a quarter of an acre, a bed of coal which has furnished as many +as seventy-three stumps of trees with their roots attached, some of the +former measuring more than eight feet in circumference; their roots +formed part of a seam of coal ten inches thick, resting on a layer of +clay two inches thick, under which was a second forest resting on +a band of coal from two to five feet thick. Underneath this, again, +was a third forest, with large stumps of <i>Lepidodendra</i>, <i>Calamites</i>, and +other trees.<a name="FNanchor_46" id="FNanchor_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a></p> + +<p>In the lofty cliffs of the South Joggins, in the Bay of Fundy, in +Nova Scotia, Sir Charles Lyell found in one portion of the coal-field +1,500 feet thick, as many as sixty-eight different surfaces, presenting +evident traces of as many old soils of forests, where the trunks of the +trees were still furnished with roots.<a name="FNanchor_47" id="FNanchor_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a></p> + +<p>We will endeavour to establish here the true geological origin of +coal, in order that no doubt may exist in the minds of our readers +on a subject of such importance. In order to explain the presence +of coal in the depths of the earth, there are only two possible +hypotheses. This vegetable débris may either result from the +burying of plants brought from afar and transported by river or +maritime currents, forming immense rafts, which may have grounded +in different places and been covered subsequently by sedimentary +deposits; or the trees may have grown on the spot where they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> +perished, and where they are now found. Let us examine each of +these theories.</p> + +<p>Can the coal-beds result from the transport by water, and burial +underground, of immense rafts formed of the trunks of trees? The +hypothesis has against it the enormous height which must be conceded +to the raft, in order to form coal-seams as thick as some of +those which are worked in our collieries. If we take into consideration +the specific gravity of wood, and the amount of carbon it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> +contains, we find that the coal-deposits can only be about seven-hundredths +of the volume of the original wood and other vegetable +materials from which they are formed. If we take into account, besides, +the numerous voids necessarily arising from the loose packing +of the materials forming the supposed raft, as compared with the +compactness of coal, this may fairly be reduced to five-hundredths. +A bed of coal, for instance, sixteen feet thick, would have required a +raft 310 feet high for its formation. These accumulations of wood +could never have arranged themselves with sufficient regularity to +form those well-stratified coal-beds, maintaining a uniform thickness +over many miles, and that are seen in most coal-fields to lie one +above another in succession, separated by beds of sandstone or +shale. And even admitting the possibility of a slow and gradual +accumulation of vegetable débris, like that which reaches the mouth +of a river, would not the plants in that case be buried in great quantities +of mud and earth? Now, in most of our coal-beds the proportion +of earthy matter does not exceed fifteen per cent. of the +entire mass. If we bear in mind, finally, the remarkable parallelism +existing in the stratification of the coal-formation, and the state of +preservation in which the impressions of the most delicate vegetable +forms are discovered, it will, we think, be proved to demonstration, +that those coal-seams have been formed in perfect tranquillity. We +are, then, forced to the conclusion that coal results from the +mineralisation of plants which has taken place on the spot; that is +to say, in the very place where the plants lived and died.</p> + +<p>It was suggested long ago by Bakewell, from the occurrence of +the same peculiar kind of fireclay under each bed of coal, that it +was the soil proper for the production of those plants from which +coal has been formed.<a name="FNanchor_48" id="FNanchor_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a></p> + +<p>It has, also, been pointed out by Sir William Logan, as the result of +his observations in the South Wales coal-field, and afterwards by Sir +Henry De la Beche, and subsequently confirmed by the observations +of Sir Charles Lyell in America, that not only in this country, but in +the coal-fields of Nova Scotia, the United States, &c., every layer of +true coal is co-extensive with and invariably underlaid by a marked +stratum of arenaceous clay of greater or less thickness, which, from its +position relatively to the coal has been long known to coal-miners, +among other terms, by the name of <i>under-clay</i>.</p> + +<p>The clay-beds, “which vary in thickness from a few inches to more +than ten feet, are penetrated in all directions by a confused and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> +tangled collection of the roots and leaves, as they may be, of the +<i>Stigmaria ficoides</i>, these being frequently traceable to the main stem +(<i>Sigillaria</i>), which varies in diameter from about two inches to half a +foot. The main stems are noticed as occurring nearer the top than +the bottom of the bed, as usually of considerable length, the leaves or +roots radiating from them in a tortuous irregular course to considerable +distances, and as so mingled with the under-clay that it is not +possible to cut out a cubic foot of it which does not contain portions +of the plant.” (Logan “On the Characters of the Beds of Clay immediately +below the Coal-seams of South Wales,” Geol. Transactions, +Second Series, vol. vi., pp. 491-2. An account of these beds had previously +been published by Mr. Logan in the Annual Report of the +Royal Institution of South Wales for 1839.)</p> + +<p>From the circumstance of the main stem of the Sigillaria, of which +the <i>Stigmaria ficoides</i> have been traced to be merely a continuation, +it was inferred by the above-mentioned authors, and has subsequently +been generally recognised as probably the truth, that the roots found +in the underclay are merely those of the plant (<i>Sigillaria</i>), the stem of +which is met with in the overlying coal-beds—in fact, that the <i>Stigmaria +ficoides</i> is only the root of the <i>Sigillaria</i>, and not a distinct +plant, as was once supposed to be the case.</p> + +<p>This being granted, it is a natural inference to suppose that the +present indurated under-clay is only another condition of that soft, +silty soil, or of that finely levigated muddy sediment—most likely of +still and shallow water—in which the vegetation grew, the remains of +which were afterwards carbonised and converted into coal.<a name="FNanchor_49" id="FNanchor_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a></p> + +<p>In order thoroughly to comprehend the phenomena of the transformation +into coal of the forests and of the herbaceous plants which +filled the marshes and swamps of the ancient world, there is another +consideration to be presented. During the coal-period, the terrestrial +crust was subjected to alternate movements of elevation and depression +of the internal liquid mass, under the impulse of the solar and +lunar attractions to which they would be subject, as our seas are now, +giving rise to a sort of subterranean tide, operating at intervals, more +or less widely apart, upon the weaker parts of the crust, and producing +considerable subsidences of the ground. It might, perhaps, happen +that, in consequence of a subsidence produced in such a manner, the +vegetation of the coal-period would be submerged, and the shrubs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> +and plants which covered the surface of the earth would finally +become buried under water. After this submergence new forests +sprung up in the same place. Owing to another submergence, the +second forests were depressed in their turn, and again covered by +water. It is probably by a series of repetitions of this double phenomenon—this +submergence of whole regions of forest, and the +development upon the same site of new growths of vegetation—that +the enormous accumulations of semi-decomposed plants, which constitute +the Coal-measures, have been formed in a long series of ages.</p> + +<p>But, has coal been produced from the larger plants only—for +example, from the great forest-trees of the period, such as the +Lepidodendra, Sigillariæ, Calamites, and Sphenophylla? That is +scarcely probable, for many coal-deposits contain no vestiges of the +great trees of the period, but only of Ferns and other herbaceous plants +of small size. It is, therefore, presumable that the larger vegetation has +been almost unconnected with the formation of coal, or, at least, that +it has played a minor part in its production. In all probability there +existed in the coal-period, as at the present time, two distinct kinds +of vegetation: one formed of lofty forest-trees, growing on the higher +grounds; the other, herbaceous and aquatic plants, growing on +marshy plains. It is the latter kind of vegetation, probably, which +has mostly furnished the material for the coal; in the same way that +marsh-plants have, during historic times and up to the present day, +supplied our existing peat, which may be regarded as a sort of contemporaneous +incipient coal.</p> + +<p>To what modification has the vegetation of the ancient world +been subjected to attain that carbonised state, which constitutes coal? +The submerged plants would, at first, be a light, spongy mass, in all +respects resembling the peat-moss of our moors and marshes. While +under water, and afterwards, when covered with sediment, these +vegetable masses underwent a partial decomposition—a moist, putrefactive +fermentation, accompanied by the production of much +carburetted hydrogen and carbonic acid gas. In this way, the +hydrogen escaping in the form of carburetted hydrogen, and the +oxygen in the form of carbonic acid gas, the carbon became more +concentrated, and coal was ultimately formed. This emission of carburetted +hydrogen gas would, probably, continue after the peat-beds +were buried beneath the strata which were deposited and accumulated +upon them. The mere weight and pressure of the superincumbent +mass, continued at an increasing ratio during a long series of ages, +have given to the coal its density and compact state.</p> + +<p>The heat emanating from the interior of the globe would, also,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> +exercise a great influence upon the final result. It is to these two +causes—that is to say, to pressure and to the central heat—that we +may attribute the differences which exist in the mineral characters of +various kinds of coal. The inferior beds are <i>drier</i> and more compact +than the upper ones; or less bituminous, because their mineralisation +has been completed under the influence of a higher temperature, and +at the same time under a greater pressure.</p> + +<p>An experiment, attempted for the first time in 1833, at Sain-Bel, +afterwards repeated by M. Cagniard de la Tour, and completed at +Saint-Etienne by M. Baroulier in 1858, fully demonstrates the process +by which coal was formed. These gentlemen succeeded in producing +a very compact coal artificially, by subjecting wood and other vegetable +substances to the double influence of heat and pressure combined.</p> + +<p>The apparatus employed for this experiment by M. Baroulier, at +Saint-Etienne, allowed the exposure of the strongly compressed +vegetable matter enveloped in moist clay, to the influence of a long-continued +temperature of from 200° to 300° Centigrade. This +apparatus, without being absolutely closed, offered obstacles to the +escape of gases or vapours in such a manner that the decomposition +of the organic matters took place in the medium saturated with +moisture, and under a pressure which prevented the escape of the +elements of which it was composed. By placing in these conditions +the sawdust of various kinds of wood, products were obtained +which resembled in many respects, sometimes brilliant shining coal, +and at others a dull coal. These differences, moreover, varied with +the conditions of the experiment and the nature of the wood employed; +thus explaining the striped appearance of coal when composed +alternately of shining and dull veins.</p> + +<p>When the stems and leaves of ferns are compressed between beds +of clay or pozzuolana, they are decomposed by the pressure only, and +form on these blocks a carbonaceous layer, and impressions bearing +a close resemblance to those which blocks of coal frequently exhibit. +These last-mentioned experiments, which were first made by Dr. +Tyndall, leave no room for doubt that coal has been formed from +the plants of the ancient world.</p> + +<p>Passing from these speculations to the Coal-measures:—</p> + +<p>This formation is composed of a succession of beds, of various +thicknesses, consisting of sandstones or gritstones, of clays and shales, +sometimes so bituminous as to be inflammable—and passing, in short, +into an imperfect kind of <i>coal</i>. These rocks are interstratified with +each other in such a manner that they may consist of many alterations. +Carbonate of protoxide of iron (clay-ironstone) may also be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> +considered a constituent of this formation; its extensive dissemination +in connection with coal in some parts of Great Britain has +been of immense advantage to the ironworks of this country, in many +parts of which blast-furnaces for the manufacture of iron rise by +hundreds alongside of the coal-pits from which they are fed. In +France, as is frequently the case in England, this argillaceous iron-ore +only occurs in nodules or lenticular masses, much interrupted; so that +it becomes necessary in that country, as in this, to find other ores of +iron to supply the wants of the foundries. <a href="#Fig_70">Fig. 70</a> gives an idea of +the ordinary arrangement of the coal-beds, one of which is seen interstratified +between two parallel and nearly horizontal beds of argillaceous +shale, containing nodules of clay iron-ore—a disposition very +common in English collieries. The coal-basin of Aveyron, in France, +presents an analogous mode of occurrence.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="Fig_70" id="Fig_70"></a> +<img src="images/illo175.png" alt="Fig. 70" width="500" height="289" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 70.—Stratification of coal-beds.</p></div> + +<p>The frequent presence of carbonate of iron in the coal-measures +is a most fortunate circumstance for mining industry. When the +miner finds, in the same spot, the ore of iron and the fuel required +for smelting it, arrangements for working them can be established +under the most favourable conditions. Such is the case in the coal-fields +of Great Britain, and also in France to a less extent—that +is to say, only at Saint-Etienne and Alais.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span>The extent of the Coal-measures, in various parts of the world, +may be briefly and approximately stated as follows:—</p> + +<table class="fsize80" summary="Table p 166-1"> + +<tr> +<td colspan="6" class="center fsize125">ESTIMATED AREA OF THE COAL-MEASURES<br />OF THE WORLD.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="5"> </td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1">Square Miles.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padr1">United States</td> +<td> </td> +<td class="right padr1">220,166</td> +<td rowspan="2" class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="2" class="left padl0">–</td> +<td rowspan="2" class="right">420,166</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="center">„</td> +<td class="left padr1">Lignites and inferior Coals</td> +<td class="right padr1">200,000</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="5" class="left padr1">British Possessions in North America</td> +<td class="right">2,200</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="5" class="left padr1">Great Britain</td> +<td class="right">3,000</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="5" class="left padr1">France</td> +<td class="right">2,000</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="5" class="left padr1">Belgium</td> +<td class="right">468</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="5" class="left padr1">Rhenish Prussia and Saarbrück</td> +<td class="right">1,550</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="5" class="left padr1">Westphalia</td> +<td class="right">400</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="5" class="left padr1">Bohemia</td> +<td class="right">620</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="5" class="left padr1">Saxony</td> +<td class="right">66</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="5" class="left padr1">The Asturias, in Spain</td> +<td class="right">310</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="5" class="left padr1">Russia</td> +<td class="right">11,000</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="5" class="left padr1">Islands of the Pacific and Indian Ocean</td> +<td class="right">Unknown.</td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<p>The American continent, then, contains much more extensive +coal-fields than Europe; it possesses very nearly two square miles of +coal-fields for every five miles of its surface; but it must be added +that these immense fields of coal have not, hitherto, been productive +in proportion to their extent. The following Table represents the +annual produce of the collieries of America and Europe:—</p> + +<table class="fsize80" summary="Table p 166-2"> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="center">Tons.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padr1">British Islands</td> +<td class="center padl3 padr3">(in 1870)</td> +<td class="right">110,431,192</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padr1">United States</td> +<td> </td> +<td class="right">14,593,659</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padr1">Belgium</td> +<td class="center padl3 padr3">(in 1870)</td> +<td class="right">13,697,118</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padr1">France</td> +<td class="center padl3 padr3">(in 1864)</td> +<td class="right">10,000,000</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl3">„</td> +<td class="center padl3 padr3">(in 1866)</td> +<td class="right">11,807,142</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padr1">Prussia</td> +<td class="center padl3 padr3">(in 1864)</td> +<td class="right">21,197,266</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padr1">Nassau</td> +<td class="center padl3 padr3">(in 1864)</td> +<td class="right">2,345,459</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padr1">Netherlands</td> +<td class="center padl3 padr3">(in 1864)</td> +<td class="right">24,815</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padr1">Austria</td> +<td class="center padl3 padr3">(in 1864)</td> +<td class="right">4,589,014</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padr1">Spain</td> +<td> </td> +<td class="right">500,000</td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<p>We thus see that the United States holds a secondary place as +a coal-producing country; raising one-eleventh part of the out-put +of the whole of Europe, and about one-eighth part of the quantity +produced by Great Britain.</p> + +<p>The Coal-measures of England and Scotland cover a large area; +and attempts have been made to estimate the quantity of fuel they +contain. The estimate made by the Royal Commission on the +coal in the United Kingdom may be considered as the nearest; and,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> +in this Report, lately published, it is stated that in the ascertained +coal-fields of the United Kingdom there is an aggregate quantity of +146,480,000,000 tons of coal, which may be reasonably expected +to be available for use. In the coal-field of South Wales, ascertained +by actual measurement to attain the extraordinary thickness of 11,000 +feet of Coal-measures, there are 100 different seams of coal, +affording an aggregate thickness of 120 feet, mostly in thin beds, but +varying from six inches to more than ten feet. Professor J. Phillips +estimates the thickness of the coal-bearing strata of the north of +England at 3,000 feet; but these, in common with all other coal-fields, +contain, along with many beds of the mineral in a more or less pure +state, interstratified beds of sandstones, shales, and limestone; the +real coal-seams, to the number of twenty or thirty, not exceeding +sixty feet in thickness in the aggregate. The Scottish Coal-measures +have a thickness of 3,000 feet, with similar intercalations of other +carboniferous rocks.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="Fig_71" id="Fig_71"></a> +<img src="images/illo177.png" alt="Fig. 71" width="500" height="240" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 71.—Contortions of Coal-beds.</p></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 330px;"><a name="Fig_72" id="Fig_72"></a> +<img src="images/illo178.png" alt="Fig. 72" width="330" height="500" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 72.—Cycas circinalis (living form).</p></div> + +<p>The coal-basin of Belgium and of the north of France forms a +nearly continuous zone from Liége, Namur, Charleroi, and Mons, to +Valenciennes, Douai, and Béthune. The beds of coal there are from +fifty to one hundred and ten in number, and their thickness varies +from ten inches to six feet. Some coal-fields which are situated +beneath the Secondary formations of the centre and south of France<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> +possess beds fewer in number, but individually thicker and less +regularly stratified. The two basins of the Saône-et-Loire, the +principal mines of which are at Creuzot, Blanzy, Montchanin, and +Epinac, only contain ten beds; but some of these (as at Montchanin) +attain 30, 100, and even 130 feet in thickness. The coal-basin of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> +the Loire is that which contains the greatest total thickness of coal-beds: +the seams there are twenty-five in number. After those of the +North—of the Saône-et-Loire and of the Loire—the principal basins +in France are those of the Allier, where very important beds are +worked at Commentry and Bezenet; the basin of Brassac, which +commences at the confluence of the Allier and the Alagnon; the +basin of the Aveyron, known by the collieries of Decazeville and +Aubin; the basin of the Gard, and of Grand’-Combe. Besides +these principal basins, there are a great many others of scarcely less +importance, which yield annually to France from six to seven million +tons of coal.</p> + +<p>The seams of coal are rarely found in the horizontal position in +which their original formation took place. They have been since +much crumpled and distorted, forced into basin-shaped cavities, with +minor undulations, and affected by numerous flexures and other disturbances. +They are frequently found broken up and distorted by +faults, and even folded back on themselves into zigzag forms, as +represented in the engraving (<a href="#Fig_71">Fig. 71</a>, p. 167), which is a mode of +occurrence common in all the Coal-measures of Somersetshire and in +the basins of Belgium and the north of France. Vertical pits, sunk +on coal which has been subjected to this kind of contortion and +disturbance, sometimes traverse the same beds many times.</p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></p> + +<h3>PERMIAN PERIOD.</h3> + +<p>The name “Permian” was proposed by Sir Roderick I. Murchison, +in the year 1841, for certain deposits which are now known to terminate +upwards the great primeval or Palæozoic Series.<a name="FNanchor_50" id="FNanchor_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a></p> + +<p>This natural group consists, in descending order, in Germany, of +the Zechstein, the Kupfer-schiefer, Roth-liegende, &c. In England +it is usually divided into Magnesian Limestone or Zechstein, with +subordinate Marl-slate or Kupfer-schiefer, and Rothliegende. The +chief calcareous member of this group of strata is termed in Germany +the “Zechstein,” in England the “Magnesian Limestone;” +but, as magnesian limestones have been produced at many geological +periods, and as the German Zechstein is only a part of a group, the +other members of which are known as “Kupfer-schiefer” (“copper-slate”), +“Roth-todt-liegende” (the “Lower New Red” of English +geologists), &c., it was manifest that a single name for the whole +was much needed. Finding, in his examination of Russia in Europe, +that this group was a great and united physical series of marls, limestones, +sandstones, and conglomerates, occupying a region much +larger than France, and of which the Government of Perm formed +a central part, Sir Roderick proposed that the name of Permian, +now in general use, should be thereto applied.</p> + +<p>Extended researches have shown, from the character of its embedded +organic remains, that it is closely allied to, but distinct from, +the carboniferous strata below it, and is entirely distinct from the +overlying Trias, or New Red Sandstone, which forms the base of the +great series of the Secondary rocks.</p> + +<p>Geology is, however, not only indebted to Sir Roderick Murchison +for this classification and nomenclature, but also to him, +in conjunction with Professor Sedgwick, for the name “<i>Devonian</i>,” +as an equivalent to “Old Red Sandstone;” whilst every geologist +knows that Sir R. Murchison is the sole author of the <span class="smcap">Silurian +System</span>.</p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171"></a></p> +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Plate_XII" id="Plate_XII"></a> +<img src="images/illo182.png" alt="Plate XII" width="600" height="376" /> +<p class="caption">XII.—Ideal landscape of the Permian Period.</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span>The Permian rocks have of late years assumed great interest, +particularly in England, in consequence of the evidence their correct +determination affords with regard to the probable extent, beneath +them, of the coal-bearing strata which they overlie and conceal; +thus tending to throw a light upon the duration of our coal-fields, one +of the most important questions of the day in connection with our +industrial resources and national prosperity.</p> + +<p>On the opposite page an ideal view of the earth during the Permian +period is represented (<span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_XII">Pl. XII.</a></span>). In the background, on the right, +is seen a series of syenitic and porphyritic domes, recently thrown +up; while a mass of steam and vapour rises in columns from the +midst of the sea, resulting from the heat given out by the porphyries +and syenites. Having attained a certain height in the cooler atmosphere, +the columns of steam become condensed and fall in torrents +of rain. The evaporation of water in such vast masses being +necessarily accompanied by an enormous disengagement of electricity, +this imposing scene of the primitive world is illuminated by +brilliant flashes of lightning, accompanied by reverberating peals of +thunder. In the foreground, on the right, rise groups of Tree-ferns, +Lepidodendra, and Walchias, of the preceding period. On the sea-shore, +and left exposed by the retiring tide, are Molluscs and +Zoophytes peculiar to the period, such as <i>Producta</i>, <i>Spirifera</i>, and +<i>Encrinites</i>; pretty plants—the <i>Asterophyllites</i>—which we have +noticed in our description of the Carboniferous age, are growing at +the water’s edge, not far from the shore.</p> + +<p>During the Permian period the species of plants and animals were +nearly the same as those already described as belonging to the Carboniferous +period. Footprints of reptilian animals have been found +in the Permian beds near Kenilworth, in the red sandstones of that +age in the Vale of Eden, and in the sandstones of Corncockle Moor, +and other parts of Dumfriesshire. These footprints, together with +the occurrence of current-markings or ripplings, sun-cracks, and the +pittings of rain-drops impressed on the surfaces of the beds, indicate +that they were made upon damp surfaces, which afterwards became +dried by the sun before the flooded waters covered them with fresh +deposits of sediment, in the way that now happens during variations +of the seasons in many salt lakes.<a name="FNanchor_51" id="FNanchor_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> M. Ad. Brongniart has described +the forms of the Permian flora as being intermediate between those +of the Carboniferous period and of that which succeeds it.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span>Although the Permian flora indicates a climate similar to that +which prevailed during the Carboniferous period, it has been pointed +out by Professor Ramsay, as long ago as 1855, that the Permian +breccia of Shropshire, Worcestershire, &c., affords strong proofs of +being the result of direct glacial action, and of the consequent existence +at the period of glaciers and icebergs.</p> + +<p>That such a state of things is not inconsistent with the prevalence +of a moist, equable, and temperate climate, necessary for the preservation +of a luxuriant flora like that of the period in question, is +shown in New Zealand; where, with a climate and vegetation +approximating to those of the Carboniferous period, there are also +glaciers at the present day in the southern island.</p> + +<p>Professor King has published a valuable memoir on the Permian +fossils of England, in the Proceedings of the Palæontographical +Society, in which the following Table is given (in descending order) of +the Permian system of the North of England, as compared with that +of Thuringia:—</p> + +<table class="fsize80" style="max-width: 90%;" summary="Table p 174"> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2" class="center padl1 padr1"><span class="smcap">North of England.</span><a name="Table174" id="Table174"></a></td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td colspan="2" class="center padl1 padr1"><span class="smcap">Thuringia.</span></td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td colspan="2" class="center padl1 padr1"><span class="smcap">Mineral Character.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right padr1">1.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Crystalline, earthy, compact, and oolitic limestones</td> +<td class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl0">–</td> +<td class="right padr1">1.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Stinkstein</td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="right padr1">1.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Oolitic limestones.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right padr1">2.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Brecciated and pseudo-brecciated limestones</td> +<td class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl0">–</td> +<td class="right padr1">2.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Rauchwacke</td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="right padr1">2.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Conglomerates.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right padr1">3.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Fossiliferous limestone</td> +<td class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl0">–</td> +<td class="right padr1">3.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Upper Zechstein, or Dolomit-Zechstein</td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="right padr1">3.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Marlstones.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right padr1">4.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Compact limestone</td> +<td class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl0">–</td> +<td class="right padr1">4.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Lower Zechstein</td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="right padr1">4.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Magnesian limestones.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right padr1">5.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Marl-slate</td> +<td class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl0">–</td> +<td class="right padr1">5.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Mergel-Schiefer or Kupferschiefer</td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="right padr1">5.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Red and green grits with copper-ore.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right padr1">6.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Lower sandstones, and sands of various colours</td> +<td class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl0">–</td> +<td class="right padr1">6.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Todteliegende</td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="right padr1">6.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">White limestone with gypsum and white salt.</td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<p>At the base of the system lies a band of <i>lower sandstone</i> (<a href="#Table174">No. 6</a>) +of various colours, separating the Magnesian Limestone from the coal +in Yorkshire and Durham; sometimes associated with red marl and +gypsum, but with the same obscure relations in all these beds which +usually attend the close of one series and the commencement of +another; the imbedded plants being, in some cases, stated to be +identical with those of the Carboniferous series. In Thuringia the +<i>Rothliegende</i>, or <i>red-lyer</i>, a great deposit of red sandstone and conglomerate, +associated with porphyry, basaltic trap, and amygdaloid, +lies at the base of the system. Among the fossils of this age are the +silicified trunks of Tree-ferns (<i>Psaronius</i>), the bark of which is +surrounded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> +by dense masses of air-roots, which often double or quadruple +the diameter of the original stem; in this respect bearing a +strong resemblance to the living arborescent ferns of New Zealand.</p> + +<p>The marl-slate (<a href="#Table174">No. 5</a>) consists of hard calcareous shales, marl-slates, +and thin-bedded limestone, the whole nearly thirty feet thick +in Durham, and yielding many fine specimens of Ganoid and Placoid +fishes—<i>Palæoniscus</i>, <i>Pygopterus</i>, <i>Cœlacanthus</i>, and <i>Platysomus</i>—genera +which all belong to the Carboniferous system, and which Professor +King thinks probably lived at no great distance from the shore; but +the Permian species of the marl-slate of England are identical with +those of the copper-slate of Thuringia. Agassiz was the first to point +out a remarkable peculiarity in the forms of the fishes which lived +before and after this period. In most living fishes the trunk seems +to terminate in the middle of the root of the tail, whose free margin +is “homocercal” (even-tail), that is, either rounded, or, if forked, +divided into two equal lobes. In Palæoniscus, and most Palæozoic +fishes, the axis of the body is continued into the upper lobe of the +tail, which is thus rendered unsymmetrical, as in the living sharks +and sturgeons. The latter form, which Agassiz termed “heterocercal” +(unequal-tail) is only in a very general way distinctive of +Palæozoic fishes, since this asymmetry exists, though in a minor +degree, in many living genera besides those just mentioned. The +compact limestone (<a href="#Table174">No. 4</a>) is rich in Polyzoa. The fossiliferous limestone +(<a href="#Table174">No. 3</a>), Mr. King considers, is a deep-water formation, from +the numerous Polyzoa which it contains. One of these, <i>Fenestella +retiformis</i>, found in the Permian rocks of England and Germany, +sometimes measures eight inches in width.</p> + +<p>Many species of Mollusca, and especially Brachiopoda, appear +in the Permian seas of this age, <i>Spirifera</i> and <i>Producta</i> being the +most characteristic.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><a name="Fig_73" id="Fig_73"></a> +<img src="images/illo186a.png" alt="Fig. 73" width="250" height="283" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 73.—Strophalosia Morrisiana.</p></div> + +<p>Other shells now occur, which have not been observed in strata +newer than the Permian. <i>Strophalosia</i> (<a href="#Fig_73">Fig. 73</a>) is abundantly represented +in the Permian rocks of Germany, Russia, and England, and +much more sparingly in the yellow magnesian limestone, accompanied +by <i>Spirifera undulata</i>, &c. <i>S. Schlotheimii</i> is widely disseminated +both in England, Germany, and Russia, with <i>Lingula +Credneri</i>, and other Palæozoic Brachiopoda. Here also we note the +first appearance of the Oyster, but still in small numbers. <i>Fenestella</i> +represents the Polyzoa. <i>Schizodus</i> has been found by Mr. Binney in +the Upper Red Permian Marls of Manchester; but no shells of any +kind have hitherto been met with in the Rothliegende of Lancashire, +or in the Vale of Eden.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>The brecciated limestone (<a href="#Table174">No. 2</a>) and the concretionary masses +(<a href="#Table174">No. 1</a>) overlying it (although Professor King has attempted +to separate them) are considered by Professor Sedgwick as different +forms of the same rock. They contain no foreign elements, but seem +to be composed of fragments of the underlying limestone, <a href="#Table174">No. 3</a>. +Some of the angular masses at Tynemouth cliff +are two feet in diameter, and none of them are +water-worn.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><a name="Fig_74" id="Fig_74"></a> +<img src="images/illo186b.png" alt="Fig. 74" width="250" height="303" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 74.—Cyrtoceras depressum.</p></div> + +<p>The crystalline or concretionary limestone +(<a href="#Table174">No. 1</a>) formation is seen upon the coast of Durham +and Yorkshire, between the Wear and the Tees; +and Mr. King thinks that the character of the +shells and the absence of corals indicate a deposit +formed in shallow water.</p> + +<p>The plants also found in some of the Permian +strata indicate the neighbourhood of land. These +are land species, and chiefly of genera common +in the Coal-measures. Fragments of supposed +coniferous wood (generally silicified) are occasionally +met with in the Permian red beds of many +parts of England.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 125px;"><a name="Fig_75" id="Fig_75"></a> +<img src="images/illo186c.png" alt="Fig. 75" width="101" height="300" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 75.—Walchia Schlotheimii.</p></div> + +<p>Among the Ferns characteristic of the period +may be mentioned <i>Sphenopteris dichotoma</i> and <i><a href="#Fig_52">S. +Artemisiæfolia</a></i>; <i><a href="#Fig_48">Pecopteris lonchitica</a></i> and <i><a href="#Fig_49">Neuropteris +gigantea</a></i>, figured on pp. 143, 144. “If we are,” +says Lyell, “to draw a line between the Secondary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> +and Primary fossiliferous strata, it must be run through the middle of +what was once called the ‘New Red.’ The inferior half of this group +will rank as Primary or Palæozoic, while its upper member will form +the base of the Secondary or Mesozoic series.”<a name="FNanchor_52" id="FNanchor_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> Among the <i>Equiseta</i> +of the Permian formation of Saxony, Colonel Von Gutbier found +<i>Calamites gigas</i> and sixty species +of fossil plants, most of them +Ferns, forty of which have not +been found elsewhere. Among +these are several species of <i>Walchia</i>, +a genus of Conifers, of which +an example is given in <a href="#Fig_75">Fig. 75</a>.</p> + +<p>In their stems, leaves, and cones, +they bear some resemblance to the <i>Araucarias</i>, which have been +introduced from North America into our pleasure-grounds during the +last half-century.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><a name="Fig_76" id="Fig_76"></a> +<img src="images/illo187.png" alt="Fig. 76" width="300" height="88" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 76.—Trigonocarpum Nöggerathii.</p></div> + +<p>Among the genera enumerated by Colonel Von Gutbier are some +fruits called <i>Cardiocarpon</i>, and <i>Asterophyllites</i> and <i>Annularia</i>, so +characteristic of the Carboniferous age. The Lepidodendron is +also common to the Permian rocks of Saxony, Russia, and Thuringia; +also the <i>Nöggerathia</i>, a family of large trees, intermediate +between Cycads (<a href="#Fig_72">Fig. 72</a>) and the Conifers. The fruit of one of +these is represented in <a href="#Fig_76">Fig 76</a>.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Permian Rocks.</span>—We now give a sketch of the physiognomy of +the earth in Permian times. Of what do the beds consist? What is +the extent, and what is the mineralogical constitution of the rocks +deposited in the seas of the period? The Permian formation +consists of three members, which are in descending order—</p> + +<p>1. Upper Permian sandstone, or Grès des Vosges; 2. Magnesian +Limestone, or Zechstein; 3. Lower Red Sandstone, Marl-slate or +Kupferschiefer, and Rothliegende.</p> + +<p>The <i>grès des Vosges</i>, usually of a red colour, and from 300 to 450 +feet thick, composes all the southern part of the Vosges Mountains, +where it forms frequent level summits, which are evidences of an +ancient plain that has been acted on by running water. It only +contains a few vegetable remains.</p> + +<p>The <i>Magnesian Limestone</i>, Pierre de mine, or Zechstein, so called +in consequence of the numerous metalliferous deposits met with in its +diverse beds, presents in France only a few insignificant fragments; +but in Germany and England it attains the thickness of 450 feet.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> +It is composed of a diversified mass of Magnesian Limestone, generally +of a yellow colour, but sometimes red and brown, and bituminous +clay, the last black and fetid. The subordinate rocks consist of +marl, gypsum, and inflammable bituminous schists. The beds of marl +slate are remarkable for the numbers of peculiar fossil fishes which +they contain; and from the occurrence of small proportions of argentiferous +grey copper-ore, met with in the bituminous shales which are +worked in the district of Mansfeld, in Thuringia—the latter are called +<i>Kupferschiefer</i> in Germany.</p> + +<p>The <i>Lower Red Sandstone</i>, which attains a thickness of from 300 to +600 feet, is found over great part of Germany, in the Vosges, and in +England. Its fossil remains are few and rare; they include silicified +trunks of Conifers, some impressions of Ferns, and Calamites.</p> + +<p>In England the Permian strata, to a great extent, consist of red +sandstones and marls; and the Magnesian Limestone of the northern +counties is also, though to a less degree, associated with red marls.</p> + +<p>In Lancashire thin beds of Magnesian Limestone are interstratified +with red marls in the upper Permian strata, beneath which there are +soft Red Sandstones, estimated by Mr. Hull to be about 1,500 feet +thick. These are supposed to represent the Rothliegende, and no +shells of any kind have been found in them. The upper Permian +beds, however, contain a few Magnesian Limestone species, such as +<i>Gervillia antiqua</i>, <i>Pleurophorus costatus</i>, <i>Schizodus obscurus</i>, and some +others, but all small and dwarfed.</p> + +<p>The coal-fields of North and South Staffordshire, Tamworth, Coalbrook +Dale, and of the Forest of Wyre, are partly bordered by +Permian rocks, which lie unconformably on the Coal-measures; as +is the case, also, in the immediate neighbourhood of Manchester, +where they skirt the borders of the main coal-field, and consist of +the Lower Red Sandstone, resting unconformably on different parts +of the Coal-measures, and overlaid by the pebble-beds of the Trias.</p> + +<p>At Stockport the Permian strata are stated by Mr. Hull to be +more than 1,500 feet thick.</p> + +<p>In Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, and Derbyshire, the Permian strata +are stated by Mr. Aveline to be divided into two chief groups: the +Roth-liegende, of no great thickness, and the Magnesian Limestone +series; the latter being the largest and most important member of the +Permian series in the northern counties of England. The Magnesian +Limestone consists there of two great bands, separated by marls and +sandstone, and quarried for building and for lime. In Derbyshire and +Yorkshire the magnesian limestone, under the name of Dolomite, +forms an excellent building-stone, which has been used in the construction +of the Houses of Parliament.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>In the midland counties and on the borders of Wales, the Permian +section is different from that of Nottinghamshire and the North of +England. The Magnesian Limestones are absent, and the rocks consist +principally of dark-red marl, brown and red sandstones, and +calcareous conglomerates and breccias, which are almost entirely +unfossiliferous. In Warwickshire, where they rest conformably on +the Coal-measures, they occupy a very considerable tract of country, +and are of very great thickness, being estimated by Mr. Howell to +be 2,000 feet thick.</p> + +<p>In the east of England the Magnesian Limestone contains a +numerous marine fauna, but much restricted when compared with +that of the Carboniferous period. The shells of the former are all +small and dwarfed in size when compared with their congeners of +Carboniferous times, when such there are, and in this respect, and +the small number of genera, they resemble the living mollusca of +the still less numerous fauna of the Caspian Sea.</p> + +<p>Besides the poverty and small size of the mollusca, the later +strata of the true Magnesian Limestone seem to afford strong indications +that they may have been deposited in a great inland salt-lake +subject to evaporation.</p> + +<p>The absence of fossils in much of the formation may be partly +accounted for by its deposition in great measure from solution, and +the uncongenial nature of the waters of a salt-lake may account for +the poverty-stricken character of the whole molluscan fauna.</p> + +<p>The red colouring-matter of the Permian sandstones and marls is +considered, by Professor Ramsay, to be due to carbonate of iron +introduced into the waters, and afterwards precipitated as peroxide +through the oxidising action of the air and the escape of the carbonic +acid which held it in solution. This circumstance of the red colour +of the Permian beds affords an indication that the red Permian strata +were deposited in inland waters unconnected with the main ocean, +which waters may have been salt or fresh as the case may be.</p> + +<p>“The Magnesian Limestone series of the east of England may, +possibly, have been connected directly with an open sea at the commencement +of the deposition of these strata, whatever its subsequent +history may have been; for the fish of the marl strata have generically +strong affinities with those of Carboniferous age, some of which +were truly marine, while others certainly penetrated shallow lagoons +bordered by peaty flats.”<a name="FNanchor_53" id="FNanchor_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span>There is indisputable evidence that the Permian ocean covered +an immense area of the globe. In the Permian period this ocean +extended from Ireland to the Ural mountains, and probably to Spitzbergen, +with its northern boundary defined by the Carboniferous, +Devonian, Silurian, and Igneous regions of Scotland, Scandinavia, +and Northern Russia; and its southern boundaries apparently +stretching far into the south of Europe (King). The chain of the +Vosges, stretching across Rhenish Bavaria, the Grand Duchy of +Baden, as far as Saxony and Silesia, would be under water. They +would communicate with the ocean, which covered all the midland +and western counties of England and part of Russia. In other parts +of Europe the continent has varied very little since the preceding +Devonian and Carboniferous ages. In France the central plateaux +would form a great island, which extended towards the south, +probably as far as the foot of the Pyrenees; another island would +consist of the mass of Brittany. In Russia the continent would have +extended itself considerably towards the east; finally, it is probable +that, at the end of the Carboniferous period, the Belgian continent +would stretch from the Departments of the Pas-de-Calais and Du +Nord, in France, and would extend up to and beyond the Rhine.</p> + +<p>In England, the Silurian archipelago, now filled up and occupied +by deposits of the Devonian and Carboniferous systems, would be +covered with carboniferous vegetation; dry land would now extend, +almost without interruption, from Cape Wrath to the Land’s End; +but, on its eastern shore, the great mass of the region now lying less +than three degrees west of Greenwich would, in a general sense, be +under water, or form islands rising out of the sea. Alphonse Esquiros +thus eloquently closes the chapter of his work in which he treats of +this formation in England: “We have seen seas, vast watery deserts, +become populated; we have seen the birth of the first land and its +increase; ages succeeding each other, and Nature in its progress +advancing among ruins; the ancient inhabitants of the sea, or at +least their spoils, have been raised to the summit of lofty mountains. +In the midst of these vast cemeteries of the primitive world we have +met with the remains of millions of beings; entire species sacrificed +to the development of life. Here terminates the first mass of facts +constituting the infancy of the British Islands. But great changes are +still to produce themselves on this portion of the earth’s surface.”</p> + +<p>Having thus described the <i>Primary Epoch</i>, it may be useful, +before entering on what is termed by geologists the <i>Secondary Epoch</i>, to +glance backwards at the facts which we have had under consideration.</p> + +<p>In this Primary period plants and animals appear for the first<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> +time upon the surface of the cooling globe. We have said that the seas +of the epoch were then dominated by the fishes known as <i>Ganoids</i> +(from γανος, <i>glitter</i>), from the brilliant polish of the enamelled +scales which covered their bodies, sometimes in a very complicated +and fantastic manner; the <i>Trilobites</i> are curious Crustaceans, which +appear and altogether disappear in the Primary epoch; an immense +quantity of Mollusca, Cephalopoda, and Brachiopoda; the <i>Encrinites</i>, +animals of curious organisation, which form +some of the most graceful ornaments of +our Palæontological collections.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><a name="Fig_77" id="Fig_77"></a> +<img src="images/illo191a.png" alt="Fig. 77" width="250" height="222" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 77.—Lithostrotion. +(Fossil Coral.)</p></div> + +<p>But, among all these beings, those +which prevailed—those which were truly +the kings of the organic world—were the +Fishes, and, above all, the <i>Ganoids</i>, which +have left no animated being behind them +of similar organisation. Furnished with +a sort of defensive armour, they seem to +have received from Nature this means of +protection to ensure their existence, and +permit them to triumph over all the influences which threatened +them with destruction in the seas of the ancient world.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="Fig_78" id="Fig_78"></a> +<img src="images/illo191b.png" alt="Fig. 78" width="400" height="134" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 78.—Rhyncholites, upper, side, and internal views. 1, Side view (Muschelkalk of Luneville); +2, Upper view (same locality); 3, Upper view (Lias of Lyme Regis); 4, Calcareous point +of an under mandible, internal view, from Luneville. (Buckland.)</p></div> + +<p>In the Primary epoch the living creation was in its infancy. No +Mammals then roamed the forests; no bird had yet displayed its +wings. Without Mammals, therefore, there was no maternal instinct; +none of the soft affections which are, with animals, as it were, the +precursors of intelligence. Without birds, also, there could be no +songs in the air. Fishes, Mollusca, and Crustacea silently ploughed +their way in the depths of the sea, and the immovable Crinoid lived +there. On the land we only find a few marsh-frequenting Reptiles, of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> +small size—forerunners of those monstrous Saurians which make their +appearance in the Secondary epoch.</p> + +<p>The vegetation of the Primary epoch is chiefly of inferior organisation. +With a few plants of a higher order, that is to say, Dicotyledons, +Calamites, Sigillarias, it was the Cryptogamia (also several +species of Ferns, the Lepidodendra, Lycopodiaceæ, and the Equisetaceæ, +and some doubtfully allied forms, termed Nöggerathia), then +at their maximum of development, which formed the great mass of +the vegetation.</p> + +<p>Let us also consider, in this short analysis, that during the epoch +under consideration, what we call <i>climate</i> may not have existed. The +same animals and the same plants then lived in the polar regions as +at the equator. Since we find, in the Primary formations of the icy +regions of Spitzbergen and Melville Islands, nearly the same fossils +which we meet with in these same rocks in the torrid zone, we must +conclude that the temperature at this epoch was uniform all over the +globe, and that the heat of the earth itself was sufficiently high to +render inappreciable the calorific influence of the sun.</p> + +<p>During this same period the progressive cooling of the earth +occasioned frequent ruptures and dislocations of the ground; the terrestrial +crust, in opening, afforded a passage for the rocks called +<i>igneous</i>, such as granite, afterwards to the porphyries and syenites, +which poured slowly through these immense fissures, and formed +mountains of granite and porphyry, or simple clefts, which subsequently +became filled with oxides and metallic sulphides, forming +what are now designated metallic veins. The great mountain-range +of Ben Nevis offers a striking example of the first of these phenomena; +through the granite base a distinct natural section can be +traced of porphyry ejected through the granite, and of syenite through +the porphyry. These geological commotions (which occasioned, not +over the whole extent of the earth, but only in certain places, great +movements of the surface) would appear to have been more frequent at +the close of the Primary epoch; during the interval which forms the +passage between the Primary and Secondary epochs; that is to say, +between the Permian and the Triassic periods. The phenomena of +eruptions, and the character of the rocks called eruptive, are treated +of in a former chapter.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="Fig_79" id="Fig_79"></a> +<img src="images/illo193.png" alt="Fig. 79" width="350" height="518" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 79. +<i>a</i>, Pentacrinites Briareus, reduced; <i>b</i>, the same from the Lias of Lyme Regis; natural size.</p></div> + +<p>The convulsions and disturbances by which the surface of the +earth was agitated did not extend, let it be noted, over the whole of +its circumference; the effects were partial and local. It would, then, be +wrong to affirm, as is asserted by many modern geologists, that the +dislocations of the crust and the agitations of the surface of the globe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> +extended to both hemispheres, resulting in the destruction of all living +creatures. The Fauna and Flora of the Permian period did not +differ essentially from the Fauna and Flora of the Coal-measures, +which shows that no general revolution occurred to disturb the entire +globe between these two epochs. Here, then, as in all analogous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> +cases, it is unnecessary to recur to any general cataclysm to explain +the passage from one epoch to another. Have we not, almost in our +our own day, seen certain species of animals die out and disappear, +without the least geological revolution? Without speaking of the +Beaver, which abounded two centuries ago on the banks of the +Rhône, and in the Cévennes, which still lived at Paris in the little +river Bièvre in the middle ages, its existence being now unknown +in these latitudes, although it is still found in America and other +countries, we could cite many examples of animals which have +become extinct in times by no means remote from our own. Such +are the <i>Dinornis</i> and the <i>Epyornis</i>, colossal birds of New Zealand +and Madagascar, and the <i>Dodo</i>, which lived in the Isle of France in +1626. <i>Ursus spelæus</i>, <i>Cervus Megaceros</i>, <i>Bos primigenius</i>, are species +of Bear, Deer, and Ox +which were contemporary +with man, but have now +become extinct. In France +we no longer know the +gigantic wood-stag, figured +by the Romans on their +monuments, and which +they had brought from +England for the fine quality +of its flesh. The Erymanthean +boar, so widely +dispersed during the +ancient historical period, +no longer exists among our living races, any more than the Crocodiles +<i>lacunosus</i> and <i>laciniatus</i> found by Geoffroy St.-Hilaire in +the catacombs of ancient Egypt. Many races of animals figured in +the mosaics of Palestrina, engraved and painted along with species +now actually existing, are no longer found living in our days any +more than are the Lions with curly manes, which formerly existed +in Syria, and perhaps even in Thessaly and the northern parts of +Greece. From what happens in our own time, we may infer what +has taken place in times antecedent to the appearance of man; and +the idea of successive cataclysms of the globe, must be restrained +within bounds. Must we imagine a series of geological revolutions +to account for the disappearance of animals which have evidently +become extinct in a natural way? What has come to pass in our +days, it is reasonable to conclude, may have taken place in the times +anterior to the appearance of man.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="Fig_80" id="Fig_80"></a> +<img src="images/illo194.png" alt="Fig. 80" width="350" height="207" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 80.—Terebellaria ramosissima. +(Recent Coral.)</p></div> + +<hr class="footnote" /> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote_34" id="Footnote_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> Trans. Roy. Irish Acad., vol. +xxiii., p. 556.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_35" id="Footnote_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> “On the Red Rocks of +England,” by A. C. Ramsay. <i>Quart. Jour. Geol. +Soc.</i>, vol. xxvii., p. 250.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_36" id="Footnote_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> <i>Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc</i>., +vol. iii., p. 159.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_37" id="Footnote_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> “The Flora and Fauna of +the Silurian Period,” by John T. Bigsby, M.A., +F.G.S. 4to, 1868.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_38" id="Footnote_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> Ibid, p. vi.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_39" id="Footnote_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> “Siluria,” p. 148.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_40" id="Footnote_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> “On the Red Rocks of +England,” by A. C. Ramsay. <i>Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc.</i>, +vol. xxvii., p. 243.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_41" id="Footnote_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> “On the Red Rocks of +England,” by A. C. Ramsay. <i>Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc.</i>, +vol. xxvii., p. 247.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_42" id="Footnote_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> For fuller +details on this subject, see J. B. Jukes’ “Manual of Geology,” +3rd ed., p. 762. Also, R. Etheridge, <i>Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc.</i>, vol. 23, p. 251.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_43" id="Footnote_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> <i>Quart. Jour. Geol. +Soc.</i>, vol. xxii., p. 129.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_44" id="Footnote_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> “Elements of +Geology,” p. 480.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_45" id="Footnote_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> Ibid, p. 479.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_46" id="Footnote_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> Ibid, p. 479.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_47" id="Footnote_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> Ibid, p. 483.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_48" id="Footnote_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> “Introduction to +Geology,” by Robert Bakewell, 5th ed., p. 179. 1838.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_49" id="Footnote_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> For the opinions respecting +the <i>Stigmaria ficoides</i>, see a Memoir on “The +Formation of the Rocks in South Wales and South-Western England,” by Sir +Henry T. De la Beche, F.R.S., in the “Memoirs of the Geological Survey of +Great Britain,” vol. i., p. 149.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_50" id="Footnote_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> See “Siluria,” p. +14. <i>Philosophical Mag.</i>, 3rd series, vol. xix., p. 419.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_51" id="Footnote_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> A. C. Ramsay, “On the +Red Rocks of England.” <i>Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc.</i>, +vol. xxvii., p. 246.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_52" id="Footnote_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> “Elements of +Geology,” p. 456.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_53" id="Footnote_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> “On the Red Rocks of +England,” by A. C. Ramsay. <i>Quart. Jour. Geol. +Soc.</i>, vol. xxvii., p. 246.</p> + +</div> + +<hr class="c25" /> +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></p> +<h2>SECONDARY EPOCH.</h2> + +<p>During the <i>Primary Epoch</i> our globe would appear to have been +chiefly appropriated to beings which lived in the waters—above all, +to the Crustaceans and Fishes; during the <i>Secondary Epoch</i> Reptiles +seem to have been its prevailing inhabitants. Animals of this class +assumed astonishing dimensions, and would seem to have multiplied +in a most singular manner; they were, apparently, the kings of the +earth. At the same time, however, that the animal kingdom thus +developed itself, the vegetation lost much of its importance.</p> + +<p>Geologists have agreed among themselves to divide the Secondary +epoch into three periods: 1, the <i>Cretaceous</i>; 2, the <i>Jurassic</i>; 3, the +<i>Triassic</i>—a division which it is convenient to adopt.</p> + +<h3><span class="smcap">The Triassic, or New Red Period.</span></h3> + +<p>This period has received the name of Triassic because the rocks +of which it is composed, which are more fully developed in Germany +than either in England or France, were called the Trias (or Triple +Group), by German writers, from its division into three groups, as +follows, in descending order:—</p> + +<table class="fsize80" style="max-width: 90%;" summary="Table p 185"> + +<tr> +<td class="center"><span class="smcap">England.</span></td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="center"><span class="smcap">France.</span></td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="center"><span class="smcap">Germany.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padr1">Saliferous and gypseous shales and sandstone</td> +<td class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl0">–</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Marnes irisées</td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1">Keuper. <span class="padl3">1,000 feet.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padr1">Wanting</td> +<td class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl0">–</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Muschelkalk or Calcaire coquillier</td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1">Muschelkalk. <span class="padl3">600 feet.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padr1">Sandstone and quartzose conglomerate</td> +<td class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl0">–</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Grès bigarré</td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1">Bunter-Sandstein. <span class="padl3">1,500 ft.</span></td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<p>The following has been shown by Mr. Ed. Hull to be the general +succession of the Triassic formation in the midland and north-western +counties of England, where it attains its greatest vertical +development, thinning away in the direction of the mouth of the +Thames:—</p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></p> + +<table class="fsize80" style="max-width: 90%;" summary="Table p 186"> + +<tr> +<td colspan="9"> </td> +<td colspan="2" class="center bb">Foreign Equivalents.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="11" class="center padl1 padr1">TRIASSIC<br />SERIES.</td> +<td rowspan="11" class="right padr0">–</td> +<td rowspan="11" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1"><span class="smcap">New Red Marl.</span></td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1">Red and grey shales and marls, sometimes micaceous, with beds of rock-salt and gypsum, containing +<i>Estheria</i> and <i>Foraminifera</i> (Chellaston).</td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1">Keuper.</td> +<td class="left top padl1">Marnes irisées.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="11" class="blankrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1"><span class="smcap">Lower Keuper Sandstone.</span></td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1">Thinly-laminated micaceous sandstones and marls (waterstones); passing downwards into white, brown, +or reddish sandstone, with a base of calcareous conglomerate or breccia.</td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1">Letten Kohle (?)</td> +<td class="left top padl3">„</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="11" class="blankrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1">Wanting in England.</td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1">...</td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1">Muschelkalk.</td> +<td class="left top padl1">Calcaire coquillier.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="11" class="blankrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1"><span class="smcap">Upper Mottled Sandstone.</span></td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1">Soft, bright-red and variegated sandstone (without pebbles).</td> +<td rowspan="5" class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="5" class="left padl0">–</td> +<td rowspan="5" class="left padl1 padr1">Bunter Sandstein.</td> +<td rowspan="5" class="left padl1">Grès bigarré, or Grès des Vosges (in part).</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="11" class="blankrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1"><span class="smcap">Pebble Beds.</span></td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1">Harder reddish-brown sandstones with quartzose pebbles, passing into conglomerate; with a base of +calcareous breccia.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="11" class="blankrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1"><span class="smcap">Lower Mottled Sandstone.</span></td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1">Soft bright-red and variegated sandstone (without pebbles).</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="11" class="blankrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="5" class="center padl1 padr1">PERMIAN<br />SERIES.</td> +<td rowspan="5" class="right padr0">–</td> +<td rowspan="5" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1"><span class="smcap">Upper Permian.</span></td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1">Red marls, with thin-bedded fossiliferous limestones (Manchester).</td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1">Zechstein.</td> +<td> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="11" class="blankrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="3" class="left padl1 padr1"><span class="smcap">Lower</span></td> +<td rowspan="3" class="right padr0">–</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1">Red and variegated sandstone (Collyhurst, Manchester) represented by [...].</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="3" class="left padl0">–</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="left padl1 padr1">Rothe-todte-liegende.</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="left padl1">Grès des Vosges (in part).</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="11" class="blankrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1">Reddish-brown and purple sandstones and marls, with calcareous conglomerates and trappoid breccia. +(Central counties).</td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">New Red Sandstone.</span></h4> + +<p>In this new phase of the revolutions of the globe, the animated +beings on its surface differ much from those which belonged to the +Primary epoch. The curious Crustaceans which we have described +under the name of <i>Trilobites</i> have disappeared; the molluscous +Cephalopods and Brachiopods are here few in number, as are the +Ganoid and Placoid Fishes, whose existence also seems to have +terminated during this period, and vegetation has undergone analogous +changes. The cryptogamic plants, which reached their maximum +in the Primary epoch, become now less numerous, while the +Conifers experienced a certain extension. Some kinds of terrestrial +animals have disappeared, but they are replaced by genera as +numerous as new. For the first time the Turtle appears in the +bosom of the sea, and on the borders of lakes. The Saurian reptiles +acquire a great development; they prepare the way for those enormous +Saurians, which appear in the following period, whose skeletons +present such vast proportions, and such a strange aspect, as to strike +with astonishment all who contemplate their gigantic, and, so to speak, +awe-inspiring remains.</p> + +<p>The <i>Variegated Sandstone</i>, or Bunter, contains many vegetable, +but few animal, remains, although we constantly find imprints of the +footsteps of the Labyrinthodon.</p> + +<p>The lowest Bunter formation shows itself in France, in the +Pyrenees, around the central plateau in the Var, and upon both +flanks of the Vosges mountains. It is represented in south-western +and central Germany, in Belgium, in Switzerland, in Sardinia, in +Spain, in Poland, in the Tyrol, in Bohemia, in Moravia, and in Russia. +M. D’Orbigny states, from his own observation, that it covers vast +surfaces in the mountainous regions of Bolivia, in South America. It +is recognised in the United States, in Columbia, in the Great Antilles, +and in Mexico.</p> + +<p>The Bunter in France is reduced to the variegated sandstone, +except around the Vosges, in the Var, and the Black Forest, where it +is accompanied by the Muschelkalk. In Germany it furnishes +building-stone of excellent quality; many great edifices, in particular +the cathedrals, so much admired on the Rhine—such, for example, +as those of Strasbourg and Fribourg—are constructed of this stone, +the sombre tints of which singularly relieve the grandeur and majesty +of the Gothic architecture. Whole cities in Germany are built of the +brownish-red stones drawn from its mottled sandstone quarries. In<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> +England, in Scotland, and in Ireland this formation extends from +north to south through the whole length of the country. “This old +land,” says Professor Ramsay,<a name="FNanchor_54" id="FNanchor_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> “consisted in great part of what we +now know as Wales, and the adjacent counties of Hereford, Monmouth, +and Shropshire; of part of Devon and Cornwall, Cumberland, +the Pennine chain, and all the mountainous parts of Scotland. +Around old Wales, and part of Cumberland, and probably all round +and over great part of Devon and Cornwall, the New Red Sandstone +was deposited. Part, at least, of this oldest of the Secondary rocks +was formed of the material of the older Palæozoic strata, that had then +risen above the surface of the water. The New Red Sandstone series +consists in its lower members of beds of red sandstone and conglomerate, +more than 1,000 feet thick, and above them are placed red +and green marls, chiefly red, which in Germany are called the Keuper +strata, and in England the New Red Marl. These formations +range from the mouth of the Mersey, round the borders of Wales, +to the estuary of the Severn, eastwards into Warwickshire, and +thence northwards into Yorkshire and Northumberland, along the +eastern border of the Magnesian Limestone. They also form the +bottom of the valley of the Eden, and skirt Cumberland on the west; +in the centre of England the unequal hardness of its sub-divisions +sometimes giving rise to minor escarpments, overlooking plains and +undulating grounds of softer strata.”</p> + +<p>“Different members of the group rest in England, in some region +or other,” says Lyell, “on almost every principal member of the +Palæozoic series, on Cambrian, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, +and Permian rocks; and there is evidence everywhere of disturbance, +contortion, partial upheaval into land, and vast denudations which +the older rocks underwent before and during the deposition of the +successive strata of the New Red Sandstone group.” (“Elements of +Geology,” p. 439.)</p> + +<p>The <i>Muschelkalk</i> consists of beds of compact limestone, often +greyish, sometimes black, alternating with marl and clay, and commonly +containing such numbers of shells that the name of shelly +limestone (<i>Muschelkalk</i>) has been given to the formation by the +Germans. The beds are sometimes magnesian, especially in the +lower strata, which contain deposits of gypsum and rock-salt.</p> + +<p>The seas of this sub-period, which is named after the innumerable +masses of shells inclosed in the rocks which it represents, included, +besides great numbers of Mollusca, Saurian Reptiles of twelve different<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span> +genera, some Turtles, and six new genera of Fishes clothed with a +cuirass. Let us pause at the Mollusca which peopled the Triassic +seas.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><a name="Fig_81" id="Fig_81"></a> +<img src="images/illo199.png" alt="Fig. 81" width="250" height="315" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 81.—Ceratites nodosus. +(Muschelkalk.)</p></div> + +<p>Among the shells characteristic of the Muschelkalk period, we +mention <i>Natica Gaillardoti</i>, <i>Rostellaria antiqua</i>, <i>Lima striata</i>, <i>Avicula +socialis</i>, <i>Terebratula vulgaris</i>, <i>Turbonilla dubia</i>, <i>Myophoria vulgaris</i>, +<i>Nautilus hexagonalis</i>, and <i>Ceratites nodosus</i>. The <i>Ceratites</i>, of which +a species is here represented (<a href="#Fig_81">Fig. 81</a>), form a genus closely allied to +the <i>Ammonites</i>, which seem to have +played such an important part in the +ancient seas, but which have no existence +in those of our era, either in +species or even in genus. This Ceratite +is found in the Muschelkalk of +Germany, a formation which has no +equivalent in England, but which is a +compact greyish limestone underlying +the saliferous rocks in Germany, and +including beds of dolomite with gypsum +and rock-salt.</p> + +<p>The <i>Mytilus</i> or <i>Mussel</i>, which properly +belonged to this age, are acephalous +(or headless) Molluscs with +elongated triangular shells, of which +there are many species found in our +existing seas. <i>Lima</i>, <i>Myophoria</i>, <i>Posidonia</i>, +and <i>Avicula</i>, are acephalous +Molluscs of the same period. The two genera <i>Natica</i> and <i>Rostellaria</i> +belong to the Gasteropoda, and are abundant in the Muschelkalk +in France, Germany, and Poland.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 100px;"><a name="Fig_82" id="Fig_82"></a> +<img src="images/illo200.png" alt="Fig. 82" width="100" height="396" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 82.—Encrinus +liliiformis.</p></div> + +<p>Among the Echinoderms belonging to this period may be mentioned +<i>Encrinus moniliformis</i> and <i>E. liliiformis</i>, or <i>lily encrinite</i> +(<a href="#Fig_82">Fig. 82</a>), whose remains, constituting in some localities whole beds +of rock, show the slow progress with which this zoophyte formed beds +of limestone in the clear seas of the period. To these may be added, +among the Mollusca, <i>Avicula subcostata</i> and <i>Myophoria vulgaris</i>.</p> + +<p>In the Muschelkalk are found the skull and teeth of <i>Placodus +gigas</i>, a reptile which was originally placed by Agassiz among the class +of Fishes; but more perfect specimens have satisfied Professor Owen +that it was a Saurian Reptile.</p> + +<p>It may be added, that the presence of a few genera, peculiar to +the Primary epoch, which entirely disappeared during the sub-period,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span> +and the appearance for the first time of some other animals peculiar +to the Jurassic period, give to the Muschelkalk fauna the appearance +of being one of passage from one period to the other.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="Fig_83" id="Fig_83"></a> +<img src="images/illo203.png" alt="Fig. 83" width="400" height="325" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 83.—Labyrinthodon restored. One-twentieth natural size.</p></div> + +<p>The seas, then, contained a few Reptiles, +probably inhabitants of the banks of rivers, as +<i>Phytosaurus</i>, <i>Capitosaurus</i>, &c., and sundry Fishes, +as <i>Sphœrodus</i> and <i>Pycnodus</i>. In this sub-period +we shall say nothing of the Land-Turtles, which +for the first time now appear; but, we should +note, that at the Bunter period a gigantic Reptile +appears, on which the opinions of geologists were +for a long while at variance. In the argillaceous +rocks of the Muschelkalk period imprints of the +foot of some animal were discovered in the sandstones +of Storeton Hill, in Cheshire, and in the +New Red Sandstone of parts of Warwickshire, +as well as in Thuringia, and Hesseburg in Saxony, +which very much resembled the impression that +might be made in soft clay by the outstretched +fingers and thumb of a human hand. These +traces were made by a species of Reptile furnished +with four feet, the two fore-feet being much broader +than the hinder two. The head, pelvis, and scapula +only of this strange-looking animal have been +found, but these are considered to have belonged +to a gigantic air-breathing reptile closely connected +with the Batrachians. It is thought that +the head was not naked, but protected by a bony +cushion; that its jaws were armed with conical +teeth, of great strength and of a complicated structure. +This curious and uncouth-looking creature, +of which the woodcut <a href="#Fig_83">Fig. 83</a> is a restoration, +has been named the <i>Cheirotherium</i>, or <i>Labyrinthodon</i>, +from the complicated arrangement of the +cementing layer of the teeth. (See also <a href="#Fig_1">Fig. 1</a>, p. 12.)</p> + +<p>Another Reptile of great dimensions—which would seem to have +been intended to prepare the way for the appearance of the enormous +Saurians which present themselves in the Jurassic period—was the +<i>Nothosaurus</i>, a species of marine Crocodile, of which a restoration +has been attempted in <span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_XIII">Plate XIII.</a></span> opposite.</p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Plate_XIII" id="Plate_XIII"></a> +<img src="images/illo201.png" alt="Plate XIII" width="600" height="393" /> +<p class="caption">XIII.—Ideal Landscape of the Muschelkalk Sub-period.</p></div> + +<p>It has been supposed, from certain impressions which appear in +the Keuper sandstones of the Connecticut river in North America,<span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192"></a></span> +that Birds made their appearance in the period which now occupies +us; the flags on which these occur by thousands show the tracks of +an animal of great size (some 20 inches long and 4<sup>1</sup>⁄<sub>2</sub> feet apart), +presenting the impression of three toes, like some of the Struthionidæ +or Ostriches, accompanied by raindrops. No remains of the skeletons +of birds have been met with in rocks of this period, and the footprints +in question are all that can be alleged in support of the +hypothesis.</p> + +<p>M. Ad. Brongniart places the commencement of dicotyledonous +gymnosperm plants in this age. The characteristics of this Flora +consist in numerous Ferns, constituting genera now extinct, such as +<i>Anomopteris</i> and <i>Crematopteris</i>. The true <i>Equiseta</i> are rare in it. The +Calamites, or, rather, the <i>Calamodendra</i>, abound. The gymnosperms +are represented by the genera <i>Conifer</i>, <i>Voltzia</i>, and <i>Haidingera</i>,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span> +of which both species and individuals are very numerous in the +formation of this period.</p> + +<p>Among the species of plants which characterise this formation, we +may mention <i>Neuropteris elegans</i>, <i>Calamites arenaceus</i>, <i>Voltzia heterophylla</i>, +<i>Haidingera speciosa</i>. The <i>Haidingera</i>, belonging to the +tribe of <i>Abietinæ</i>, were plants with large leaves, analogous to those +of our <i>Damara</i>, growing close together, and nearly imbricated, as +in the <i>Araucaria</i>. Their fruit, which are cones with rounded scales, +are imbricated, and have only a single seed, thus bearing out the +strong resemblance which has been traced between these fossil plants, +and the Damara.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><a name="Fig_84" id="Fig_84"></a> +<img src="images/illo205.png" alt="Fig. 84" width="300" height="433" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 84.—Branch and cone of Voltzia restored.</p></div> + +<p>The <i>Voltzias</i> (<a href="#Fig_84">Fig. 84</a>), which seem to have formed the greater +part of the forests were a genus of Cupressinaceæ, now extinct, +which are well characterised among the fossil Conifers of the period. +The alternate spiral leaves, forming five to eight rows sessile, that is, +sitting close to the branch and drooping, have much in them analogous +to the <i>Cryptomerias</i>. Their fruit was an oblong cone with scales, +loosely imbricated, cuneiform or wedge-shaped, and, commonly, +composed of from three to five obtuse lobes. In <a href="#Fig_84">Fig. 84</a> we have a +part of the stem, a branch with leaves and cone. In his “Botanic +Geography,” M. Lecoq thus describes the vegetation of the ancient +world in the first period of the Triassic age: “While the variegated +sandstone and mottled clays were being slowly deposited in regular +beds by the waters, magnificent Ferns still exhibited their light and +elegantly-carved leaves. Divers <i>Protopteris</i> and majestic <i>Neuropteris</i> +associated themselves in extensive forests, where vegetated also the +<i>Crematopteris typica</i> of Schimper, the <i>Anomopteris Mongeotii</i> of Brongniart, +and the pretty <i>Trichomanites myriophyllum</i> (Göppert). The Conifers +of this epoch attain a very considerable development, and would +form graceful forests of green trees. Elegant monocotyledons, representing +the forms of tropical countries, seem to show themselves for +the first time, the <i>Yuccites Vogesiacus</i> of Schimper constituted groups +at once thickly serried and of great extent.</p> + +<p>“A family, hitherto doubtful, appears under the elegant form of +<i>Nilssonia Hogardi</i>, Schimp.; <i>Ctenis Hogardi</i>, Brongn. It is still +seen in the <i>Zamites Vogesiacus</i>, Schimp.; and the group of the +Cycads sharing at once in the organisation of the Conifers and the +elegance of the Palms, now decorate the earth, which reveals in these +new forms its vast fecundity. (See <a href="#Fig_72">Fig. 72</a>, p. 168.)</p> + +<p>“Of the herbaceous plants which formed the undergrowth of the +forests, or which luxuriated in its cool marshes, the most remarkable is +the <i>Ætheophyllum speciosum</i>, Schimp. Their organisation approximates<span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195"></a></span> +to the Lycopodiaceæ and Thyphaceæ, the <i>Ætheophyllum stipulare</i>, +Brongn., and the curious <i>Schizoneura paradoxa</i>, Schimp. Thus we +can trace the commencement of the reign of the Dicotyledons with +naked seeds, which afterwards become so widely disseminated, in a +few Angiosperms, composed principally of two families, the Conifers +and Cycadeaceæ, still represented in the existing vegetation. The +former, very abundant at first, associated themselves with the cellular +Cryptogams, which still abound, although they are decreasing, then +with the Cycadeaceæ, which present themselves slowly, but will soon +be observed to take a large part in the brilliant harmonies of the +vegetable kingdom.”</p> + +<p>The engraving at page 191 (<span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_XIII">Plate XIII.</a></span>) gives an idealised +picture of the plants and animals of the period. The reader must +imagine himself transported to the shores of the Muschelkalk sea at +a moment when its waves are agitated by a violent but passing storm. +The reflux of the tide exposes some of the aquatic animals of the +period. Some fine Encrinites are seen, with their long flexible +stems, and a few Mytili and Terebratulæ. The Reptile which +occupies the rocks, and prepares to throw itself on its prey, is the +<i>Nothosaurus</i>. Not far from it are other reptiles, its congeners, but of +a smaller species. Upon the dune on the shore is a fine group of +the trees of the period, that is, of <i>Haidingeras</i>, with large trunks, +with drooping branches and foliage, of which the cedars of our +own age give some idea. The elegant <i>Voltzias</i> are seen in the +second plane of this curtain of verdure. The Reptiles which lived in +these primitive forests, and which would give to it so strange a character, +are represented by the <i>Labyrinthodon</i>, which descends +towards the sea on the right, leaving upon the sandy shore those +curious tracks which have been so wonderfully preserved to our +days.</p> + +<p>The footprints of the reptilian animals of this period prove that +they walked over moist surfaces; and, if these surfaces had been +simply left by a retiring tide, they would generally have been obliterated +by the returning flood, in the same manner that is seen every +day on our own sandy shores. It seems more likely that the surfaces, +on which fossil footprints are now found, were left bare by the summer +evaporation of a lake; that these surfaces were afterwards dried by +the sun, and the footprints hardened, so as to ensure their preservation, +before the rising waters brought by flooded muddy rivers again +submerged the low flat shores and deposited new layers of salt, just +as they do at the present day round the Dead Sea and the Salt Lake +of Utah.</p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197"></a></p> +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Plate_XIV" id="Plate_XIV"></a> +<img src="images/illo208.png" alt="Plate XIV" width="600" height="395" /> +<p class="caption">XIV.—Ideal Landscape of the Keuper Sub-period.</p></div> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Keuper Sub-period.</span></h4> + +<p>The formation which characterises the Keuper, or saliferous +period, is of moderate extent, and derives the latter name from the +salt deposits it contains.</p> + +<p>These rocks consist of a vast number of argillaceous and marly +beds, variously coloured, but chiefly red, with tints of yellow and +green. These are the colours which gave the name of <i>variegatea</i> +(Poikilitic) to the series. The beds of red marl often alternate with +sandstones, which are also variegated in colour. As subordinate +rocks, we find in this formation some deposits of a poor pyritic coal +and of gypsum. But what especially characterises the formation are +the important deposits of rock-salt which are included in it. The +saliferous beds, often twenty-five to forty feet thick, alternate with +beds of clay, the whole attaining a thickness of 160 yards. In Germany +in Würtemberg, in France at Vic, at Dieuze, and at Château-Salins, +the rock-salt of the saliferous formation has become an +important branch of industry. In the Jura, salt is extracted from +the water charged with chlorides, which issues from this formation.</p> + +<p>Some of these deposits are situated at great depths, and cannot be +reached without very considerable labour. The salt-mines of Wieliczka, +in Poland, for example, can be procured on the surface, or by +galleries of little depth, because the deposit belongs to the Tertiary +period; but the deposits of salt, in the Triassic age, lie so much +deeper, as to be only approachable by a regular process of mining by +galleries, and the ordinary mode of reaching the salt is by digging +pits, which are afterwards filled with water. This water, charged +with the salt, is then pumped up into troughs, where it is evaporated, +and the crystallised mineral obtained.</p> + +<p>What is the origin of the great deposits of marine salt which occur +in this formation, and which always alternate with thin beds of clay +or marl? We can only attribute them to the evaporation of vast +quantities of sea-water introduced into depressions, cavities, or gulfs, +which the sandy dunes afterwards separated from the great open sea. +In <span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_XIV">Plate XIV.</a></span> an attempt is made to represent the natural fact, which +must have been of frequent recurrence during the saliferous period, +to form the considerable masses of rock-salt which are now found in +the rocks of the period. On the right is the sea, with a dune of +considerable extent, separating it from a tranquil basin of smooth +water. At intervals, and from various causes, the sea, clearing the +dune, enters and fills the basin. We may even suppose that a gulf<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span> +exists here which, at one time, communicated with the sea; the winds +having raised this sandy dune, the gulf becomes transformed, by degrees, +into a basin or back-water, closed on all sides. However that may +be, it is pretty certain that if the waters of the sea were once shut up +in this basin, with an argillaceous bottom and without any opening, +evaporation from the effects of solar heat would take place, and a bed +of salt would be the result of this evaporation, mixed with other +mineral salts which accompany chloride of sodium in sea-water, such +as sulphate of magnesia, chloride of potassium, &c. This bed of salt, +left by the evaporation of the water, would soon receive an argillaceous +covering from the clay and silt suspended in the muddy +water of the basin, thus forming a first alternation of salt and of +clay or marl. The sea making fresh breaches across the barriers, +the same process took place with a similar result, until the basin was +filled up. By the regular and tranquil repetition of this phenomenon, +continued during a long succession of ages, this abundant deposit +of rock-salt has been formed, which occupies so important a position +in the Secondary rocks.</p> + +<p>There is in the delta of the Indus a singular region, called the +Runn of Cutch, which extends over an area of 7,000 square +miles, which is neither land nor sea, but is under water during the +monsoons, and in the dry season is incrusted, here and there, with +salt about an inch thick, the result of evaporation. Dry land has +been largely increased here, during the present century, by subsidence +of the waters and upheavals by earthquakes. “That successive +layers of salt may have been thrown down one upon the other +on many thousand square miles, in such a region, is undeniable,” +says Lyell. “The supply of brine from the ocean is as inexhaustible +as the supply of heat from the sun. The only assumption required +to enable us to explain the great thickness of salt in such an area, is +the continuance for an indefinite period of a subsidence, the country +preserving all the time a general approach to horizontally.” The +observations of Mr. Darwin on the atolls of the Pacific, prove that +such a continuous subsidence is probable. Hugh Miller, after ably +discussing various spots of earth where, as in the Runn of Cutch, +evaporation and deposit take place, adds: “If we suppose that, +instead of a barrier of lava, sand-bars were raised by the surf on a +flat arenaceous coast, during a slow and equable sinking of the surface, +the waters of the outer gulf might occasionally topple over the +bar and supply a fresh brine when the first stock had been exhausted +by evaporation.”</p> + +<p>Professor Ramsay has pointed out that both the sandstones and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> +marls of the Triassic epoch were formed in lakes. In the latter part +of this epoch, he is of opinion, that the Keuper marls of the British +Isles were deposited in a large lake, or lakes, which were fresh or +brackish at first, but afterwards salt and without outlets to the sea; +and that the same was occasionally the case with regard to other +portions of northern Europe and its adjoining seas.</p> + +<p>By the silting up of such lakes with sediment, and the gradual +evaporation of their waters under favourable conditions, such as +increased heat and diminished rainfall—where the lakes might cease +to have an outflow into the sea and the loss of water by evaporation +would exceed the amount flowing into them—the salt or salts contained +in solution would, by degrees, become concentrated and finally +precipitated. In this way the great deposits of rock-salt and gypsum, +common in the Keuper formation, may be accounted for.</p> + +<p>Subsequently, by increase of rainfall or decrease of heat, and +sinking of the district, the waters became comparatively less salt +again; and a recurrence of such conditions lasted until the close of +the Keuper period, when a partial influx of the sea took place, and +the Rhætic beds of England were deposited.</p> + +<p>The red colour of the New Red Sandstones and marls is caused by +peroxide of iron, which may also have been carried into the lakes in +solution, as a carbonate, and afterwards converted into peroxide by +contact with air, and precipitated as a thin pellicle upon the sedimentary +grains of sandy mud, of which the Triassic beds more or less +consist. Professor Ramsay further considers that all the red-coloured +strata of England, including the Permian, Old Red Sandstone, and +even the Old Cambrian formation, were deposited in lakes or inland +waters.<a name="FNanchor_55" id="FNanchor_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a></p> + +<hr class="c05" /> + +<p>There is little to be said of the animals which belong to the +Saliferous period. They are nearly the same as those of the Muschelkalk, +&c.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="Fig_85" id="Fig_85"></a> +<img src="images/illo212.png" alt="Fig. 85" width="400" height="195" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 85.—Pecten orbicularis.</p></div> + +<p>Among the most abundant of the shells belonging to the upper +Trias, in all the countries where it has been examined, are the <i>Avicula, +Cardium</i>, and <i>Pecten</i>, one of which is given in <a href="#Fig_85">Fig. 85</a>. Foraminifera +are numerous in the Keuper marls. The remains of land-plants, and +the peculiarities of some of the reptiles of the Keuper period, tend to +confirm the opinion of Professor Ramsay, that the strata were +deposited in inland salt-lakes.</p> + +<p>In the Keuper period the islands and continents presented few<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> +mountains; they were intersected here and there by large lakes, with +flat and uniform banks. The vegetation on their shores was very +abundant, and we possess its remains in great numbers. The Keuper +Flora was very analogous to those of the Lias and Oolite, and consisted +of Ferns, Equisetaceæ, Cycads, Conifers, and a few plants, +which M. Ad. Brongniart classes among the dubious monocotyledons. +Among the Ferns may be quoted many species of <i>Sphenopteris</i> or +<i>Pecopteris</i>. Among them, <i>Pecopteris Stuttgartiensis</i>, a tree with +channelled trunk, which rises to a considerable height without throwing +out branches, and terminates in a crown of leaves finely cut and +with long petioles; the <i>Equisetites columnaris</i>, a great Equisetum +analogous to the horse-tails of our age, but of infinitely larger dimensions, +its long fluted trunk, surmounted by an elongated fructification, +towering over all the other trees of the marshy soil.</p> + +<p>The <i>Pterophyllum Jägeri</i> and <i>P. Münsteri</i> represented the Cycads, +the <i>Taxodites Münsterianus</i> represented the Conifers, and, finally, +the trunk of the Calamites was covered with a creeping plant, having +elliptical leaves, with a re-curving nervature borne upon its long +petioles, and the fruit disposed in bunches; this is the <i>Preissleria +antiqua</i>, a doubtful monocotyledon, according to Brongniart, but M. +Unger places it in the family of <i>Smilax</i>, of which it will thus be the +earliest representative. The same botanist classes with the canes a +marsh-plant very common in this period, the <i>Palæoxyris Münsteri</i>, +which Brongniart classes with the <i>Preissleria</i> among his doubtful +Monocotyledons.</p> + +<p>The vegetation of the latter part of the Triassic period is thus +characterised by Lecoq, in his “Botanical Geography”: “The cellular<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> +<i>Cryptogameæ</i> predominate in this as they do in the Carboniferous +epoch, but the species have changed, and many of the genera also are +different; the <i>Cladephlebis</i>, the <i>Sphenopteris</i>, the <i>Coniopteris</i>, and +<i>Pecopteris</i> predominate over the others in the number of species. +The Equisetaceæ are more developed than in any other formation. +One of the finest species, the <i>Calamites arenaceus</i> of Brongniart, +must have formed great forests. The fluted trunks resemble immense +columns, terminating at the summit in leafy branches, disposed in +graceful verticillated tufts, foreshadowing the elegant forms of <i>Equisetum +sylvaticum</i>. Growing alongside of these were a curious Equisetum +and singular Equisetites, a species of which last, <i>E. columnaris</i>, +raised its herbaceous stem, with its sterile articulations, to a great +height.</p> + +<p>“What a singular aspect these ancient rocks would present, if we +add to them the forest-trees <i>Pterophyllum</i> and the <i>Zamites</i> of the fine +family of Cycadeaceæ, and the Conifers, which seem to have made +their appearance in the humid soil at the same time!</p> + +<p>“It is during this epoch, while yet under the reign of the +dicotyledonous angiosperms, that we discover the first true monocotyledons. +The <i>Preissleria antiqua</i>, with its long petals, drooping +and creeping round the old trunks, its bunches of bright-coloured +berries like the <i>Smilax</i> of our own age, to which family it appears to +have belonged. Besides, the Triassic marshes gave birth to tufts of +<i>Palæoxyris Münsteri</i>, a cane-like species of the Gramineæ, which, in +all probability, cheered the otherwise gloomy shore.</p> + +<p>“During this long period the earth preserved its primitive vegetation; +new forms are slowly introduced, and they multiply slowly. +But if our present types of vegetation are deficient in these distant +epochs, we ought to recognise also that the plants which in our days +represent the vegetation of the primitive world are often shorn of their +grandeur. Our Equisetaceæ and Lycopodiaceæ are but poor representatives +of the Lepidodendrons; the Calamites and Asterophyllites +had already run their race before the epoch of which we write.”</p> + +<p>The principal features of Triassic vegetation are represented in +<span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_XIV">Plate XIV.</a></span>, page 198. On the cliff, on the left of the ideal landscape, +the graceful stems and lofty trees are groups of <i>Calamites +arenaceus</i>; below are the great “horse-tails” of the epoch, <i>Equisetum +columnare</i>, a slender tapering species, of soft and pulpy consistence, +which, rising erect, would give a peculiar physiognomy to the +solitary shore.</p> + +<p>The Keuper formation presents itself in Europe at many points,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span> +and it is not difficult to trace its course. In France it appears in the +department of the Indre, of the Cher, of the Allier, of the Nièvre, of +the Saône-et-Loire; upon the western slopes of the Jura its outliers +crop out near Poligny and Salins, upon the western slopes of the +Vosges; in the Doubs it shows itself; then it skirts the Muschelkalk +area in the Haute-Marne; in the Vosges it assumes large proportions +in the Meurthe at Luneville and Dieuze; in the Moselle it extends +northward to Bouzonville; and on the Rhine to the east of Luxembourg +as far as Dockendorf. Some traces of it show themselves +upon the eastern slopes of the Vosges, on the lower Rhine.</p> + +<p>It appears again in Switzerland and in Germany, in the canton of +Basle, in Argovia, in the Grand Duchy of Würtemberg, in the Tyrol, +and in Austria, where it gives its name to the city of Salzburg.</p> + +<p>In the British Islands the Keuper formation commences in the +eastern parts of Devonshire, and a band, more or less regular, extends +into Somersetshire, through Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, +Warwick, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, to the banks of the Tees, +in Yorkshire, with a bed, independent of all the others in Cheshire, +which extends into Lancashire. “At Nantwich, in the upper Trias +of Cheshire,” Sir Charles Lyell states, “two beds of salt, in great part +unmixed with earthy matter, attain the thickness of 90 or 100 feet. +The upper surface of the highest bed is very uneven, forming cones +and irregular figures. Between the two masses there intervenes a bed +of indurated clay traversed by veins of salt. The highest bed thins +off towards the south-west, losing fifteen feet of its thickness in the +course of a mile, according to Mr. Ormerod. The horizontal extent +of these beds is not exactly known, but the area containing saliferous +clay and sandstones is supposed to exceed 150 miles in diameter, +while the total thickness of the Trias in the same region is estimated +by Mr. Ormerod at 1,700 feet. Ripple-marked sandstones and the +footprints of animals are observed at so many levels, that we may +safely assume the whole area to have undergone a slow and gradual +depression during the formation of the New Red Sandstone.”</p> + +<p>Not to mention the importance of salt as a source of health, it is +in Great Britain, and, indeed, all over the world where the saliferous +rocks exist, a most important branch of industry. The quantity of the +mineral produced in England, from all sources, is between 5,000 and +6,000 tons annually, and the population engaged in producing the mineral, +from sources supposed to be inexhaustible, is upwards of 12,000.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><a name="Fig_86" id="Fig_86"></a> +<img src="images/illo215a.png" alt="Fig. 86" width="250" height="299" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 86.—Productus Martini.</p></div> + +<p>The lower Keuper sandstones, which lie at the base of the series +of red marls, frequently give rise to springs, and are in consequence +called “water-stones,” in Lancashire and Cheshire.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;"><a name="Fig_87" id="Fig_87"></a> +<img src="images/illo215b.png" alt="Fig. 87" width="550" height="293" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 87.—Patella vulgata.<br /> +(Living.)</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span>If the Keuper formation is poor in organic remains in France, it +is by no means so on the other side of the Alps. In the Tyrol, and +in the remarkable beds of Saint Cassian, Aussec, and Hallstadt, the +rocks are made up of an immense number of marine fossils, among +them Cephalopods, Ceratites, and Ammonites of peculiar form. The +Orthoceras, which we have seen abounding in the Silurian period, +and continued during the deposit of the Devonian and Carboniferous +periods, appears here for the last time. We still find here a +great number of Gasteropods and of Lamellibranchs of the most +varied form. Sea Urchins—corals of elegant form—appear to have +occupied, on the other side of the Alps, the same seas which in +France and Germany seem to have been nearly destitute of animals. +Some beds are literally formed of accumulated shells belonging to +the genus <i>Avicula</i>; but these last-mentioned deposits are to be +considered as more properly belonging to the Rhætic or Penarth +strata, into which the New Red or Keuper Marl gradually passes +upwards, and which are more fully described at <a href="#Page_207">page 207</a>.</p> + +<p>In following the grand mountainous slopes of the Alps and Carpathians +we discover the saliferous rocks by this remarkable accumulation +of Aviculæ. The same facies presents itself under identical +conditions in Syria, in India, in New Caledonia, in New Zealand, +and in Australia. It is not the least curious part of this period, that +it presents, on one side of the site of the Alps, which were not yet +raised, an immense accumulation of sediment, charged with gypsum, +rock-salt, &c., without organic remains; while beyond, a region presents +itself equally remarkable for the extraordinary accumulation of +the remains of marine Mollusca. Among these were <i>Myophoria +lineata</i>, which is often confounded with Trigonia, and <i>Stellispongia +variabilis</i>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span></p> + +<p>France at this period was still the skeleton of what it has since +become. A map of that country represents the metamorphic rocks +occupying the site of the Alps, the Cévennes, and the Puy-de-Dôme, +the country round Nantes, and the Islands of Brittany. The Primary +rocks reach the foot of the Pyrenees, the Cotentin, the Vosges, and +the Eifel Mountains. Some bands of coal stretch away from Valenciennes +to the Rhine, and on the north of the Vosges, these mountains +themselves being chiefly composed of Triassic rocks.</p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></p> + +<h3>RHÆTIC, OR PENARTH SUB-PERIOD.</h3> + +<p>The attention of geologists has been directed within the last few +years, more especially, to a series of deposits which intervene between +the New Red Marl of the Trias, and the blue argillaceous limestones +and shales of the Lower Lias. The first-mentioned beds, although +they attain no great thickness in this country, nevertheless form a +well-defined and persistent zone of strata between the unfossiliferous +Triassic marls and the lower Liassic limestone with <i>Ostrea Liassica</i> +and <i>Ammonites planorbis</i>, <i>A. angulatus</i> and <i>A. Bucklandi</i>; being +everywhere characterised by the presence of the same groups of +organic remains, and the same general lithological character of the +beds. These last may be described as consisting of three sub-divisions, +the lowermost composed of alternations of marls, clays, and +marly limestones in the lower part, forming a gradual passage downwards +into the New Red Marls upon which they repose. 2. A middle +group of black, thinly laminated or paper-like shales, with thin layers +of indurated limestone, and crowded in places with <i>Pecten Valoniensis</i>, +<i>Cardium Rhæticum</i>, <i>Avicula contorta</i>, and other characteristic shells, +as well as by the presence, nearly always, of a remarkable bed, which +is commonly known as the “Bone-bed.” This thin band of stone, +which is so well known at Aust, Axmouth, Westbury-on-Severn, and +elsewhere, is a brecciated or conglomerated band of variable thickness +which, sometimes a sandstone and sometimes a limestone, is +always more or less composed of the teeth, scales, and bones of +numerous genera of Fishes and Saurians, together with their fossilised +excrement, which will be more fully and subsequently described under +the name of Coprolites, under the Liassic period.</p> + +<p>The molar tooth of a small predaceous fossil mammal of the +Microlestes family (μικρος, <i>little</i>; ληστης, <i>beast</i>), whose nearest living +representative appears to be some of the Hypsiprymnidæ or Kangaroo +Rats, has been found by Mr. Dawkins in some grey marls +underlying the bone-bed on the sea-shore at Watchett, in Somersetshire; +affording the earliest known trace of a fossil mammal in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span> +Secondary rocks. Several small teeth belonging to the genus Microlestes +have also been discovered by Mr. Charles Moore in a breccia +of Rhætic age, filling a fissure traversing Carboniferous Limestone +near Frome; and in addition to the discovery of the remains of +Microlestes, those of a mammal more closely allied to the Marsupials +than any other order, have been met with at Diegerloch, south-east of +Stuttgart, in a remarkable bone-breccia, which also yielded coprolites +and numerous traces of fishes and reptiles.</p> + +<p>The uppermost sub-division includes certain beds of white and +cream-coloured limestone, resembling in appearance the smooth +fracture and closeness of texture of the lithographic limestone of +Solenhofen, and which, known to geologists and quarrymen under the +name “white lias,” given to it by Dr. William Smith, was formerly +always considered to belong to, and was included in, the Lias proper. +The most remarkable bed in this zone is one of only a few inches +in thickness, but it has long been known to collectors, and sought +after under the name of Cotham Marble or Landscape Stone, the latter +name having reference to the curious dendritic markings which make +their appearance on breaking the stone at right angles to its bedding, +bearing a singular resemblance to a landscape with trees, water, &c.; +while the first name is that derived from its occurrence abundantly +at Cotham, in the suburbs of Bristol, where the stone was originally +found and noticed.</p> + +<p>This band of stone is interesting in another respect, because it +sometimes shows by its uneven, eroded, and water-worn upper surface, +that an interval took place soon after it had been deposited, when +the newly-formed stone became partially dissolved, eroded, or worn +away by water, before the stratum next in succession was deposited +upon it. The same phenomenon is displayed, in a more marked +degree, in the uppermost limestone or “white lias” bed of the series, +which not only shows an eroded surface, but the holes made by +boring Molluscs, exactly as is produced at the present day by the +same class of animals, which excavate holes in the rocks between +high and low-water marks, to serve for their dwelling-places, and as +a protection from the waves to their somewhat delicate shells.</p> + +<p>The “White Lias” of Smith is the equivalent of the Koessen +beds which immediately underlie the Lower Lias of the Swabian +Jura, and have been traced for a hundred miles, from Geneva to the +environs of Vienna; and, also, of the Upper St. Cassian beds, which +are so called from their occurrence at St. Cassian in the Austrian +Alps.</p> + +<p>The general character of the series of strata just described, is that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span> +of a deposit formed in tolerably shallow water. In the Alps of Lombardy +and the Tyrol, in Luxembourg, in France, and, in fact, +throughout nearly the whole of Europe, they form a sort of fringe in +the margin of the Triassic sea; and, although of comparatively inconsiderable +thickness in England, they become highly developed in +Lombardy, &c., to an enormous thickness, and constitute the great +mass of the Rhætian Alps and a considerable part of the well-known +beds of St. Cassian, and Hallstadt in the Austrian Alps. (See +<a href="#Page_205">page 205</a>.)</p> + +<p>The Rhætic beds of Europe were, as a whole, formed under very +different conditions in different areas. The thickness of the strata +and the large and well-developed fauna (chiefly Mollusca) indicate +that the Rhætic strata of Lombardy, and other parts of the south and +east of Europe, were deposited in a broad open ocean. On the +other hand, the comparatively thin beds of this age in England and +north-western Europe, the fauna of which, besides being poor in +genera and species, consists of small and dwarfed forms, point to the +conclusion that they were in great part deposited in shallow seas and +in estuaries, or in lagoons, or in occasional salt lakes, under conditions +which lasted for a long period.<a name="FNanchor_56" id="FNanchor_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a></p> + +<p>In consequence of the importance they assume in Lombardy (the +ancient Rhætia), the name “Rhætic Beds” has been given to these +strata by Mr. Charles Moore; Dr. Thomas Wright has proposed the +designation “Avicula Contorta Zone,” from the plentiful occurrence +of that shell in the black shales forming the well-marked middle zone, +and which is everywhere present where this group of beds is found; +Jules Martin and others have proposed the term “Infra-lias,” or “Infra-liassic +strata;” while the name “Penarth Beds” has been assigned to +these deposits in this country by Mr. H. W. Bristow, at the suggestion +of Sir Roderick Murchison, in consequence of their conspicuous +appearance and well-exposed sections in the bold headlands and +cliffs of that locality, in the British Channel, west of Cardiff.</p> + +<p>A fuller description of these beds will be found in the Reports of +the Bath Meeting of the British Association (1864), by Mr. Bristow; +also in communications to the <i>Geological Magazine</i>, for 1864, by +MM. Bristow and Dawkins;<a name="FNanchor_57" id="FNanchor_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> in papers read before the Geological +Society by Dr. Thomas Wright,<a name="FNanchor_58" id="FNanchor_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> Mr. Charles Moore,<a name="FNanchor_59" id="FNanchor_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a> and Mr. +Ralph Tate,<a name="FNanchor_60" id="FNanchor_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> as printed in their <i>Quarterly Journal</i>; and by Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> +Etheridge, in the Transactions of the Cotteswold Natural History +Club for 1865-66. The limits of the Penarth Beds have also been +lately accurately laid down by Mr. Bristow in the map of the Geological +Survey over the district comprised between Bath, Bristol, and +the Severn; and elaborately detailed typical sections of most of the +localities in England, where these beds occur, have been constructed +by MM. Bristow, Etheridge, and Woodward, of the Geological Survey +of Great Britain, which, when published, will greatly add to our +knowledge of this remarkable and interesting series of deposits.</p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></p> + +<h3>JURASSIC PERIOD.</h3> + +<p>This period, one of the most important in the physical history of the +globe, has received its name from the Jura mountains in France, the +Jura range being composed of the rocks deposited in the seas of the +period. In the term Jurassic, the formations designated as the +“Oolite” and “Lias” are included, both being found in the Jura +mountains. The Jurassic period presents a very striking assemblage +of characteristics, both in its vegetation and in the animal remains +which belong to it; many genera of animals existing in the preceding +age have disappeared, new genera have replaced them, comprising +a very specially organised group, containing not less than 4,000 +species.</p> + +<p>The Jurassic period is sub-divided into two sub-periods: those of +the <i>Lias</i> and the <i>Oolite</i>.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Lias</span></h4> + +<p>is an English provincial name given to an argillaceous limestone, +which, with marl and clay, forms the base of the Jurassic formation, +and passes almost imperceptibly into the Lower Oolite in some places, +where the Marlstone of the Lias partakes of the mineral character, as +well as the fossil remains of the Lower Oolite; and it is sometimes +treated of as belonging to that formation. “Nevertheless, the Lias +may be traced throughout a great part of Europe as a separate and +independent group, of considerable thickness, varying from 500 to +1,000 feet, containing many peculiar fossils, and having a very uniform +lithological aspect.”<a name="FNanchor_61" id="FNanchor_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a> The rocks which represent the Liassic +period form the base of the Jurassic system, and have a mean thickness +of about 1,200 feet. In the inferior part we find argillaceous +sandstones, which are called the sandstones of the Lias, and comprehend +the greater part of the <i>Quadersandstein</i>, or building-stone of the +Germans, above which comes compact limestone, argillaceous, bluish, +and yellowish; finally, the formation terminates in the marlstones +which are sometimes sandy, and occasionally bituminous.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span>The Lias, in England, is generally in three groups: 1, the upper, +clays and shales, underlying sands; 2, the middle, lias or marlstone; +and 3, the lower, clays and limestone; but these have been again sub-divided—the +last into six zones, each marked by its own peculiar +species of Ammonites; the second into three zones; the third consists +of clay, shale, and argillaceous limestone. For the purposes of description +we shall, therefore, divide the Lias into these three groups:—</p> + +<p>1. <i>Upper Lias Clay</i>, consists of blue clay, or shale, containing +nodular bands of claystones at the base, crowded with <i>Ammonites +serpentinus</i>, <i>A. bifrons</i>, <i>Belemnites</i>, &c.</p> + +<p>2. The <i>Middle Lias</i>, commonly known as the Marlstone, is +surmounted by a bed of oolitic ironstone, largely worked in Leicestershire +and in the north of England as a valuable ore of iron. The +underlying marls and sands, the latter of which become somewhat +argillaceous below, form beds from 200 to 300 feet thick in Dorsetshire +and Gloucestershire; the fossils are <i>Ammonites margaritaceus</i>, +<i>A. spinatus</i>, <i>Belemnites tripartitus</i>. The upper rock-beds, especially +the bed of ironstone on the top, is generally remarkably rich in fossils.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><a name="Fig_88" id="Fig_88"></a> +<img src="images/illo222.png" alt="Fig. 88" width="300" height="231" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 88.—Gryphæa incurva.</p></div> + +<p>3. <i>Lower Lias</i> (averaging from 600 to 900 feet in thickness) +consists, in the lower part, +of thin layers of bluish +argillaceous limestone, +alternating with shales +and clays; the whole +overlaid by the blue +clay of which the lower +member of the Liassic +group usually consists. +This member of the +series is well developed +in Yorkshire, at Lyme +Regis and Charmouth +in Dorsetshire, and +generally over the South-West +and Midland +Counties of England. +<i>Gryphæa incurva</i> (<a href="#Fig_88">Fig. 88</a>), with sandy bands, occurs at the base, in +addition to which we find <i>Ammonites planorbis Bucklandi</i>, <i>A. Ostrea +liassica</i>, <i>Lima gigantea</i>, <i>Ammonites Bucklandi</i>, &c., in the lower limestones +and shales.</p> + +<p>Above the clay are yellow sands from 100 to 200 feet thick, underlying +the limestone of the Inferior Oolite. These sands were, until lately,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span> +considered to belong to the latter formation—as they undoubtedly do +physically—until they were shown, by Dr. Thomas Wright, of Cheltenham, +to be more nearly allied, by their fossils, to the Lias below than +to the Inferior Oolite above, into which they form the passage-beds.</p> + +<p>In France the Lias abounds in the Calvados, in Burgundy, Lorraine, +Normandy, and the Lyonnais. In the Vosges and Luxembourg, +M. Elie de Beaumont states that the Lias containing +<i>Gryphæa incurva</i> and <i>Lima gigantea</i>, and some other marine fossils, +becomes arenaceous; and around the Harz mountains, in Westphalia +and Bavaria, in its lower parts the formation is sandy, and is +sometimes a good building-stone.</p> + +<p>“In England the Lias constitutes,” says Professor Ramsay, “a +well-defined belt of strata, running continuously from Lyme Regis, +on the south-west, through the whole of England, to Yorkshire on +the north-east, and is an extensive series of alternating beds of clay, +shale, and limestone, with occasional layers of jet in the upper part. +The unequal hardness of the clays and limestones of the Liassic +strata causes some of its members to stand out in the distinct minor +escarpments, often facing the west and north-west. The Marlstone +forms the most prominent of these, and overlooks the broad meadows +of the lower Lias-clay, that form much of the centre of England.” +In Scotland there are few traces of the Lias. Zoophytes, Mollusca, +and Fishes of a peculiar organisation, but, above all, Reptiles of +extraordinary size and structure gave to the sea of the Liassic period +an interest and features quite peculiar. Well might Cuvier exclaim, +when the drawings of the Plesiosaurus were sent to him: “Truly +this is altogether the most monstrous animal that has yet been dug out +of the ruins of a former world!” In the whole of the English Lias +there are about 243 genera, and 467 species of fossils. The whole +series has been divided into zones characterised by particular +Ammonites, which are found to be limited to them, at least locally.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="Fig_89" id="Fig_89"></a> +<img src="images/illo224.png" alt="Fig. 89" width="350" height="478" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 89.—Pentacrinites Briareus. Half natural size.</p></div> + +<p>Among the Echinodermata belonging to the Lias we may cite +<i>Asterias lumbricalis</i> and <i>Palæocoma Furstembergii</i>, which constitutes a +genus not dissimilar to the star-fishes, of which its radiated form +reminds us. The Pentacrinites, of which <i>Pentacrinites Briareus</i> is a +type, ornaments many collections by its elegant form, and is represented +in <a href="#Fig_79">Figs. 79</a> and <a href="#Fig_89">89</a>. It belongs to the order of Crinoidea, +which is represented at the present time by a single living species, +<i>Pentacrinus caput-Medusæ</i>, one of the rare and delicate Zoophytes +of the Caribbean sea.</p> + +<p>Oysters (<i>Ostrea</i>) made their appearance in the Muschelkalk of +the last period, but only in a small number of species; they increased +greatly in importance in the Liassic seas.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span>The <i>Ammonites</i>, a curious genus of Cephalopoda, which made their +first appearance in small numbers towards the close of the preceding +Triassic period, become quite special in the Secondary epoch, with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> +the close of which they disappear altogether. They were very +abundant in the Jurassic period, and, as we have already said, each +zone is characterised by its peculiar species. The name is taken +from the resemblance of the shell to the ram’s-horn ornaments which +decorated the front of the temple of Jupiter Ammon and the bas-reliefs +and statues of that pagan deity. They were Cephalopodous +Mollusca with circular shells, rolled upon themselves symmetrically +in the same plane, and divided into a series of chambers. The +animal only occupied the outer chamber of the shell; all the others +were empty. A siphon or tube issuing +from the first chamber traversed all the +others in succession, as is seen in all +the Ammonites and Nautili. This tube +enabled the animal to rise to the surface, +or to sink to the bottom, for +the Ammonite could fill the chambers +with water at pleasure, or empty them, +thus rendering itself lighter or heavier as +occasion required. The Nautilus of our +seas is provided with the same curious +organisation, and reminds us forcibly of +the Ammonites of geological times.</p> + +<p>Shells are the only traces which remain of the Ammonites. We +have no exact knowledge of the animal which occupied and built +them. The attempt at restoration, as exhibited in <a href="#Fig_91">Fig. 91</a>, will probably +convey a fair idea of the Ammonite when living. We assume +that it resembled the Nautilus of modern times. What a curious aspect +these early seas must have presented, covered by myriads of these +Molluscs of all sizes, swimming about in eager pursuit of their prey!</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><a name="Fig_90" id="Fig_90"></a> +<img src="images/illo225.png" alt="Fig. 90" width="300" height="242" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 90.—Ammonites Turneri, +from the Lower Lias.</p></div> + +<p>The Ammonites of the Jurassic age present themselves in a great +variety of forms and sizes; some of them of great beauty. <i>Ammonites +bifrons</i>, <i>A. Noditianus</i>, <i>A. bisulcatus</i>, <i>A. Turneri</i> (<a href="#Fig_90">Fig. 90</a>), and +<i>A. margaritatus</i>, are forms characteristic of the Lias.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="Fig_91" id="Fig_91"></a> +<img src="images/illo226a.png" alt="Fig. 91" width="350" height="319" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 91.—Ammonite restored.</p></div> + +<p>The <i>Belemnites</i>, molluscous Cephalopods of a very curious organisation, +appeared in great numbers, and for the first time, in the +Jurassic seas. Of this Mollusc we only possess the fossilised internal +“bone,” analogous to that of the modern cuttle-fish and the calamary +of the present seas. This simple relic is very far from giving us +an exact idea of what the animal was to which the name of +Belemnite has been given (from Βελεμνον, <i>a dart</i>) from their supposed +resemblance to the head of a javelin. The slender cylindrical bone, the +only vestige remaining to us, was merely the internal skeleton of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> +animal. When first discovered they were called, by the vulgar, +“Thunder-stones” and “Ladies’ fingers.” They were, at last, +inferred to be the shelly processes of some sort of ancient cuttle-fish. +Unlike the Ammonite, which floated on the surface and +sunk to the bottom at pleasure, the Belemnite, it has been thought, +swam nearer the bottom of the sea, and seized its prey from below.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="Fig_92" id="Fig_92"></a> +<img src="images/illo226b.png" alt="Fig. 92" width="500" height="254" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 92.—Belemnite restored.</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span>In <a href="#Fig_92">Fig. 92</a> is given a restoration of the living Belemnite, by Dr. +Buckland and Professor Owen, in which the terminal part of the +animal is marked in a slightly darker tint, to indicate the place of +the bone which alone represents in our days this fossilised being. A +sufficiently exact idea of this Mollusc may be arrived at from the +existing cuttle-fish. Like the cuttle-fish, the Belemnite secreted +a black liquid, a sort of ink or sepia; and the bag containing the +ink has frequently been found in a fossilised state, with the ink +dried up, and elaborate drawings have been made with this fossil +pigment.</p> + +<p>The beaks, or horny mandibles of the mouth, which the Belemnite +possessed in common with the other naked Cephalopoda, +are represented in <a href="#Fig_78">Fig. 78</a>, p. 181.</p> + +<p>As Sir H. De la Beche has pointed out, the destruction +of the animals whose remains are known to us by +the name of Belemnites was exceedingly great when the +upper part of the Lias of Lyme Regis was deposited. +Multitudes seem to have perished almost simultaneously, +and millions are entombed in a bed beneath Golden +Cap, a lofty cliff between Lyme Regis and Bridport +Harbour, as well as in the upper Lias generally.<a name="FNanchor_62" id="FNanchor_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a></p> + +<p>Among the Belemnites characteristic of the Liassic +period may be cited <i>B. acutus</i> (<a href="#Fig_93">Fig. 93</a>), <i>B. pistiliformis</i>, +and <i>B. sulcatus</i>.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;"><a name="Fig_93" id="Fig_93"></a> +<img src="images/illo227.png" alt="Fig. 93" width="100" height="422" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 93.—Belemnites +acutus.</p></div> + +<p>The seas of the period contained a great number +of the fishes called <i>Ganoids</i>; which are so called from +the splendour of the hard and enamelled scales, which +formed a sort of defensive armour to protect their bodies. +<i>Lepidotus gigas</i> was a fish of great size belonging to this +age. A smaller fish was the <i>Tetragonolepis</i>, or <i>Æchmodus +Buchii</i>. The <i>Acrodus nobilis</i>, of which the teeth are +still preserved, and popularly known by the name of +<i>fossil leeches</i>, was a fish of which an entire skeleton has +never been met with. Neither are we better informed +as to the <i>Hybodus reticulatus</i>. The bony spines, which form the +anterior part of the dorsal fin of this fish, had long been an object of +curiosity to geologists, under the general name of <i>Ichthyodorulites</i>, +before they were known to be fragments of the fin of the <i>Hybodus</i>. +The Ichthyodorulites were supposed by some naturalists to be the +jaw of some animal—by others, weapons like those of the living<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span> +<i>Balistes</i> or <i>Silurus</i>; +but Agassiz has +shown them to be +neither the one nor +the other, but bony +spines on the fin, like +those of the living +genera of <i>Cestracions</i> +and <i>Chimæras</i>, in both of which the +concave face is armed with small spines +like those of the <i>Hybodus</i>. The spines +were simply imbedded in the flesh, and +attached to it by strong muscles. “They +served,” says Dr. Buckland, “as in the +<i>Chimæra</i>, to raise and depress the fin, +their action resembling that of a movable +mast lowering backward.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Fig_94" id="Fig_94"></a> +<img src="images/illo228.png" alt="Fig. 94" width="600" height="308" /> +<p class="caption" style="margin-top: -100px;">Fig. 94.—Ichthyosaurus communis.</p></div> + +<p style="margin-top: 100px;">Let us hasten to say, however, that +these are not the beings that characterised +the age, and were the salient +features of the generation of animals +which existed during the Jurassic period. +These distinguishing features are found +in the enormous reptiles with lizard’s +head, crocodile’s conical teeth, the trunk +and tail of a quadruped, whale-like +paddles, and the double-concave vertebræ +of fishes; and this strange form, +on such a gigantic scale that even +their inanimate remains are examined +with a curiosity not unmixed with awe. +The country round Lyme Regis, in +Dorsetshire, has long been celebrated +for the curious fossils discovered in its +quarries, and preserved in the muddy +accumulations of the sea of the Liassic +period. The country is hilly—“up +one hill and down another,” is a pretty +correct provincial description of the +walk from Bridport to Lyme Regis—where +some of the most frightful creatures +the living world has probably ever<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span> +beheld, sleep the sleep of stones. The quarries of Lyme Regis form +the cemetery of the Ichthyosauri; the sepulchre where lie interred +these dragons of the ancient seas.</p> + +<p>In 1811 a country girl, who made her precarious living by picking +up fossils for which the neighbourhood was famous, was pursuing +her avocation, hammer in hand, when she perceived some bones projecting +a little out of the cliff. Finding, on examination, that it was +part of a large skeleton, she cleared away the rubbish, and laid bare the +whole creature imbedded in the block of stone. She hired workmen +to dig out the block of Lias in which it was buried. In this manner +was the first of these monsters brought to light: “a monster some +thirty feet long, with jaws nearly a fathom in length, and huge +saucer-eyes; which have since been found so perfect, that the petrified +lenses have been split off and used as magnifiers,” as a writer +in <i>All the Year Round</i> assures us.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="Fig_95" id="Fig_95"></a> +<img src="images/illo229.png" alt="Fig. 95" width="500" height="176" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 95.—Head of Ichthyosaurus platydon.</p></div> + +<p>In <a href="#Fig_95">Fig. 95</a> the head of <i>I. platydon</i> is represented. As in the +Saurians, the openings of the nostrils are situated near the anterior +angle of the orbits of the eyes, while those of the Crocodile are near +the snout; but, on the other hand, in its osteology and its mode of +dentition it nearly resembles the Crocodile; the teeth are pointed and +conical—not, however, set in deep or separate sockets, but only +implanted in a long and deep continuous groove hollowed in the +bones of the jaw. These strong jaws have an enormous opening; +for, in some instances, they have been found eight feet in length and +armed with 160 teeth. Let us add that teeth lost through the voracity +of the animal, or in contests with other animals, could be renewed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> +many times; for, at the inner side of the base of every old tooth, +there is always the bony germ of a new one.</p> + +<p>The eyes of this marine monster were much larger than those of +any animal now living; in volume they frequently exceed the human +head, and their structure was one of their most remarkable peculiarities. +In front of the sclerotic coat or capsule of the eye there is an +annular series of thin bony plates, surrounding the pupil. This structure, +which is now only met with in the eyes of certain turtles, +tortoises, and lizards, and in those of many birds, could be used so as +to increase or diminish the curvature of the transparent cornea, and +thus increase or diminish the magnifying power, according to the +requirements of the animal—performing the office, in short, of a +telescope or microscope at pleasure. The eyes of the Ichthyosaurus +were, then, an optical apparatus of wonderful power and of singular +perfection, enabling the animal, by their power of adaptation and +intensity of vision, to see its prey far and near, and to pursue it in +the darkness and in the depths of the sea. The curious arrangement +of bony plates we have described furnished, besides, to its globular +eye, the power necessary to bear the pressure of a considerable weight +of water, as well as the violence of the waves, when the animal came +to the surface to breathe, and raised its head above the waves. This +magnificent specimen of the fish-lizard, or Ichthyosaurus, as it was +named by Dr. Ure, now forms part of the treasures of the British +Museum.</p> + +<p>At no period in the earth’s history have Reptiles occupied so +important a place as they did in the Jurassic period. Nature seems +to have wished to bring this class of animals to the highest state of +development. The great Reptiles of the Lias are as complicated in +their structure as the Mammals which appeared at a later period. +They probably lived, for the most part, by fishing in shallow creeks and +bays defended from heavy breakers, or in the open sea; but they seem +to have sought the shore from time to time; they crawled along the +beach, covered with a soft skin, perhaps not unlike some of our +Cetaceæ. The Ichthyosaurus, from its form and strength, may have +braved the waves of the sea as the porpoise does now. Its destructiveness +and voracity must have been prodigious, for Dr. Buckland +describes a specimen which had between its ribs, in the place where +the stomach might be supposed to have been placed, the skeleton of +a smaller one—a proof that this monster, not content with preying on +its weaker neighbours, was in the habit of devouring its own kind. +In the same waters lived the Plesiosaurus, with long neck and form +more strange than that of the Ichthyosaurus; and these potentates of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> +the seas were warmed by the same sun and tenanted the same banks, +in the midst of a vegetation not unlike that which the climate of +Africa now produces.</p> + +<p>The great Saurians in the Lias of Lyme Regis seem to have +suffered a somewhat sudden death, partly in consequence of a series +of small catastrophes suddenly destroying the animals then existing +in particular spots. “In general the bones are not scattered about, +and in a detached state, as would happen if the dead animal had +descended to the bottom of the sea, to be decomposed, or devoured +piecemeal, as, indeed, might also happen if the creature floated for a +time on the surface, one animal devouring one part, and another +carrying off a different portion; on the contrary, the bones of the +skeleton, though frequently compressed, as must arise from the enormous +pressure to which they have so long been subjected, are +tolerably connected, frequently in perfect, or nearly perfect, order, as +if prepared by the anatomist. The skin, moreover, may sometimes +be traced, and the compressed contents of the intestines may at times +be also observed—all tending to show that the animals were suddenly +destroyed, and as suddenly preserved.”<a name="FNanchor_63" id="FNanchor_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a></p> + +<p>These strange and gigantic Saurians seem almost to disappear +during the succeeding geological periods; for, although they have +been discovered as low down as the Trias in Germany, and as high +up as the Chalk in England, they only appear as stragglers in these +epochs; so, too, the Reptiles, the existing Saurians are, as it were, +only the shadowy, feeble representatives of these powerful races of the +ancient world.</p> + +<p>Confining ourselves to well-established facts, we shall consider in +some detail the best known of these fossil reptiles—the <i>Ichthyosaurus</i>, +<i>Plesiosaurus</i>, and <i>Pterodactyle</i>.</p> + +<p>The extraordinary creature which bears the name of <i>Ichthyosaurus</i> +(from the Greek words Ιχθυς σαυρος, signifying fish-lizard), presents +certain dispositions and organic arrangements which are met with +dispersed in certain classes of animals now living, but they never seem +to be again reunited in any single individual. It possesses, as Cuvier +says, the snout of a dolphin, the head of a lizard, the jaws and teeth +of a crocodile, the vertebræ of a fish, the head and sternum of a +lizard, the paddles like those of a whale, and the trunk and tail of a +quadruped.</p> + +<p>Bayle appears to have furnished the best idea of the Ichthyosaurus +by describing it as the Whale of the Saurians—the Cetacean of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span> +primitive seas. It was, in fact, +an animal exclusively marine; +which, on shore, would rest +motionless like an inert mass. +Its whale-like paddles, and fish-like +vertebræ, the length of the +tail and other parts of its structure, +prove that its habits were +aquatic; as the remains of fishes +and reptiles, and the form of its +teeth, show that it was carnivorous. +Like the Whale, also, +the Ichthyosaurus breathed atmospheric +air; so that it was +under the necessity of coming +frequently to the surface of the +water, like that inhabitant of the +deep. We can even believe, with +Bayle, that it was provided, like +the Whale, with vents or blowers, +through which it ejected, in +columns into the air, the water +it had swallowed.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Fig_96" id="Fig_96"></a> +<img src="images/illo232.png" alt="Fig. 96" width="600" height="208" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 96.—Ichthyosaurus platydon.</p></div> + +<p>The dimensions of the Ichthyosaurus +varied with the species, of +which five are known and described. +These are <i>Ichthyosaurus +communis</i>, <i>I. platydon</i>, <i>I. intermedius</i>, +<i>I. tenuirostris</i>, and <i>I. +Cuvierii</i>, the largest being more +than thirty feet in length.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="Fig_97" id="Fig_97"></a> +<img src="images/illo233a.png" alt="Fig. 97" width="350" height="106" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 97.—Lower jaw of Ichthyosaurus. (Dr. Buckland.)</p></div> + +<p>The short, thick neck of the +Ichthyosaurus supported a capacious +head, and was continued +backwards, from behind the eyes, +in a column composed of more +than a hundred vertebræ. The +animal being adapted, like the +whale, for rapid movement +through the water, its vertebræ +had none of the invariable solidity +of those of the Lizard or Crocodile,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span> +but rather the structure and lightness of those of Fishes. +The section of these vertebræ presents two hollow cones, connected +only by their summits to the centre of the vertebræ, which would +permit of the utmost flexibility of movement. The ribs extended +along the entire length of the vertebral column, from the head to the +pelvis. The bones of the sternum, or that part of the frame which +supported the paddles, present the same combinations with those of +the sternum in the Ornithorhynchus, or Duck-billed Platypus, of New +Holland, an animal which presents the singular combination of a +mammalian furred quadruped having the bill of a duck and webbed +feet; which dived to the bottom of the water in search of its food, +and returned to the surface to breathe the air. In this phenomenon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span> +of living Nature the Creator seems to have repeated, in our days, the +organic arrangements which he had originally provided for the +Ichthyosaurus.</p> + +<p>In order that the animal should be able to move with rapidity in +the water, both its anterior and posterior members were converted +into fins or paddles. The anterior fins were half as large again as +the posterior. In some species each paddle was made up of nearly +a hundred bones, of polygonal form, and disposed in series representing +the phalanges of the fingers. This hand, jointed at the arm, bears +resemblance, in osteological construction, to the paddles, without +distinct fingers, of the Porpoise and the Whale. A specimen of +the posterior fin of <i>I. communis</i>, discovered at Barrow-on-Soar, in +Leicestershire, in 1840, by Sir Philip Egerton, exhibited on its +posterior margin the remains of cartilaginous rays, which bifurcated +as they approached the edge, like those in the fins of a fish. “It +had previously been supposed,” says Professor Owen, “that the +locomotive organs were enveloped, while living, in a smooth integument, +like that of the turtle and porpoise, which has no other support +than is afforded by the bones and ligaments within; but it now +appears that the fin was much larger, expanding far beyond the +osseous frame-work, and deviating widely in its fish-like rays from the +ordinary reptilian type.” The Professor believes that, besides the +fore-paddles, these stiff-necked Saurians were furnished at the end of +the tail with a fin to assist them in turning, not placed horizontally, as +in the whale, but vertically, forming a powerful instrument of progression +and motion. It is obvious that the Ichthyosaurus was an +animal powerfully armed for offence and defence. We cannot say, +with certainty, whether the skin was smooth, like that of the whale +or lizard, or covered with scales, like the great reptiles of our own +age. Nevertheless, as the scales of the Fishes and the cuirass and +horny armour of other Reptiles of the Lias are preserved, and as no +such defensive scales have been found belonging to the Ichthyosaurus, +it is probable that the skin was naked and smooth. The +tail, composed of from eighty to eighty-five vertebræ, was provided +with large and long paddles, arranged vertically as in the Whale.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="Fig_98" id="Fig_98"></a> +<img src="images/illo233b.png" alt="Fig. 98" width="500" height="253" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 98.—Skeleton of Ichthyosaurus.<br /> +Containing teeth and bones of Fishes in a coprolitic form. One-fifteenth natural size.</p></div> + +<p>It is curious to see to what a degree of perfection has been carried, +in our days, the knowledge of the antediluvian animals, their +habits, and their economy. <a href="#Fig_98">Fig. 98</a> represents the skeleton of an +Ichthyosaurus found in the Lias of Lyme Regis, which still retains in +its abdominal cavity coprolites, that is to say, the residue of digestion. +The soft parts of the intestinal canal have disappeared, but the <i>fæces</i> +themselves are preserved, and their examination informs us as to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span> +alimentary regimen of this animal which has perished from the earth +many thousands, perhaps millions, of years. Mary Anning, to whom +we owe many of the discoveries made in the neighbourhood of +Lyme Regis, her native place, had in her collection an enormous +coprolite of the Ichthyosaurus. This coprolite (<a href="#Fig_99">Fig. 99</a>) contained +some bones and scales of Fishes, +and of divers Reptiles, well +enough preserved to have their +species identified. It only remains +to be added that, among +the bones, those of the Ichthyosaurus +were often found, +especially those of young individuals. +The presence of the +undigested remains of vertebræ +and other bones of animals of its +own species in the coprolites of +the Ichthyosaurus proves, as we +have already had occasion to +remark, that this great Saurian +must have been a most voracious +monster, since it habitually devoured +not only fish, but individuals +of its own race—the +smaller becoming the prey of +the larger. The structure of the +jaw of the Ichthyosaurus leads +us to believe that the animal +swallowed its prey without dividing +it. Its stomach and intestines +must, then, have formed +a sort of pouch of great volume, +filling entirely the abdominal +cavity, and corresponding in +extent to the great development +of the teeth and jaws.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="Fig_99" id="Fig_99"></a> +<img src="images/illo235a.png" alt="Fig. 99" width="350" height="239" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 99.—Coprolite, enclosing bones of small +Ichthyosaurus.</p></div> + +<p>The perfection with which +its contents have been preserved in the fossilised coprolites, furnishes +indirect proofs that the intestinal canal of the Ichthyosaurus resembled +closely that of the shark and the dog-fish—fishes essentially voracious +and destructive, which have the intestinal canal spirally convoluted, an +arrangement which is exactly that indicated in some of the coprolites<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> +of the Ichthyosaurus, as is evident from the impressions which the +folds of the intestine have left on the coprolite, of which <a href="#Fig_100">Fig. 100</a> is +a representation. In the cliffs near Lyme Regis coprolites are abundant +in the Liassic formation, and have been found disseminated +through the shales and limestones along many miles of that coast.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 175px;"><a name="Fig_100" id="Fig_100"></a> +<img src="images/illo235b.png" alt="Fig. 100" width="175" height="392" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 100.—Coprolite of Ichthyosaurus.</p></div> + +<p>What an admirable privilege of science, which is able, by an +examination of the simplest parts in the organisation of beings which +lived ages ago, to give to our minds such solid teachings and such +true enjoyments! “When we discover,” says Dr. Buckland, “in +the body of an Ichthyosaurus the food which it has engulfed an +instant before its death, when the intervals between its sides present +themselves still filled with the remains of fishes which it had swallowed +some ten thousand years ago, or a time even twice as great, +all these immense intervals vanish, time disappears, and we find +ourselves, so to speak, thrown into immediate contact with events +which took place in epochs immeasurably distant, as if we occupied +ourselves with the affairs of the previous day.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_101" id="Fig_101"></a> +<img src="images/illo236.png" alt="Fig. 101" width="450" height="313" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 101.—Skull of Plesiosaurus restored. (Conybeare.)<br /> +<i>a</i>, profile; <i>b</i>, seen from above.</p></div> + +<p>The name of <i>Plesiosaurus</i> (from the Greek words πλησιος, <i>near</i>, +and σαυρος, <i>lizard</i>) reminds us that this animal, though presenting +many peculiarities of general structure, is allied by its organisation to +the Saurian or Lizard family, and, consequently, to the Ichthyosaurus.</p> + +<p>The Plesiosaurus presents, in its organic structure, the most curious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span> +assemblage we have met with among the +organic vestiges of the ancient world. +The Plesiosaurus was a marine, air-breathing, +carnivorous reptile, combining +the characters of the head of a +Lizard, the teeth of a Crocodile, a neck +of excessive length resembling that of a +Swan, the ribs of a Chameleon, a body +of moderate size, and a very short tail, +and, finally, four paddles resembling +those of a Whale. Let us bestow a +glance upon the remains of this strange +animal which the earth has revealed, +and which science has restored to us.</p> + +<p>The head of the Plesiosaurus presents +a combination of the characters +belonging to the Ichthyosaurus, the +Crocodile, and the Lizard. Its enormously +long neck comprises a greater +number of vertebræ than the neck of +either the Camel, the Giraffe, or even +the Swan, which of all the feathered +race has the longest neck in comparison +to the rest of the body. And it is to +be remarked, that, contrary to what obtains +in the Mammals, where the vertebræ +of the neck are always seven, +the vertebræ in birds increase in number +with the length of the neck.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Fig_102" id="Fig_102"></a> +<img src="images/illo237.png" alt="Fig. 102" width="600" height="142" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 102.—Skeleton of Plesiosaurus dolichodeirus restored. (Conybeare principally.)</p></div> + +<p>The body is cylindrical and rounded, +like that of the great marine Turtles. +It was, doubtless, naked, <i>i.e.</i>, not protected +with the scales or carapace with +which some authors have invested it; +for no traces of such coverings have +been found near any of the skeletons +which have been hitherto discovered. +The dorsal vertebræ are attached to +each other by nearly plane surfaces +like those of terrestrial quadrupeds, a +mode of arrangement which must have +deprived the whole of its vertebral<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span> +column of much of its flexibility. Each pair of ribs surrounded +the body with a complete girdle, formed of five pieces, as in the +Chameleon and Iguana; whence, no doubt, as with the Chameleon, +great facilities existed for the contraction and dilatation of the lungs.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><a name="Fig_103" id="Fig_103"></a> +<img src="images/illo238.png" alt="Fig. 103" width="250" height="387" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 103.—Sternum and pelvis of Plesiosaurus. +Pub., pubis; Isch., ischium; +Il., ilium.</p></div> + +<p>The breast, the pelvis, and the bones of the anterior and posterior +extremities furnished an apparatus +which permitted the Plesiosaurus, like +the Ichthyosaurus and existing Cetaceans, +to sink in the water and return +to the surface at pleasure (<a href="#Fig_103">Fig. 103</a>). +Prof. Owen, in his “Report on British +Reptiles,” characterises them as air-breathing +and cold-blooded animals; +the proof that they respired atmospheric +air immediately, being found in +the position and structure of the nasal +passages, and the bony mechanism of the +thoracic duct and abdominal cavity. In +the first, the size and position of the external +nostrils (<a href="#Fig_102">Fig. 102</a>), combined with +the structure of the paddles, indicate +a striking analogy between the extinct +Saurians and the Cetaceans, offering, +as the Professor observes, “a beautiful +example of the adaptation of structure +to the peculiar exigencies of species.” +While the evidence that they were +cold-blooded animals is found in the +flexible or unanchylosed condition of the osseous pieces of the occiput +and other cranial bones of the lower jaw, and of the vertebral column; +from which the Professor draws the conclusion that the heart was +adapted for transmitting a part only of the blood through the +respiratory organs; the absence of the ball-and-socket articulations +of the bones of the vertebræ, the position of the nostrils near the +summit of the head, the numerous short and flat digital bones, which +must have been enveloped in a simple undivided integumentary +sheath, forming in both fore and hind extremities a paddle closely +resembling that of the living Cetacea. The paddles are larger and +more powerful than those of the Ichthyosaurus, to compensate for +the slight assistance the animal derived from the tail. The latter—shorter, +as compared with the length of the rest of the body, than in +the Ichthyosaurus—was more calculated to act the part of a rudder,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span> +in directing the course of the animal through the water, than as a +powerful organ of propulsion.</p> + +<p>Such were the strange combinations of form and structure in the +Plesiosaurus and Ichthyosaurus—genera of animals whose remains +have, after an interment extending to unknown thousands of years, +been revealed to light and submitted to examination; nay, rebuilt, +bone by bone, until we have the complete skeletons before us, and +the habits of the animals described, as if they had been observed in +life. Conybeare thus speaks of the supposed habits of these extinct +forms, which he had built up from scanty materials: “That the Plesiosaurus +was aquatic is evident from the form of its paddles; that it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span> +was marine is equally so, from the remains with which it is universally +associated; that it may have occasionally visited the shore, the +resemblance of its extremities to the turtle may lead us to conjecture; +its motion, however, must have been very awkward on land; its long +neck must have impeded its progress through the water, presenting +a striking contrast to the organisation which so admirably fits the +Ichthyosaurus for cutting through the waves. May it not, therefore, +be concluded that it swam on or near the surface, arching back its +long neck like the swan, and occasionally darting it down at the fish +which happened to float within its reach? It may, perhaps, have +lurked in shallow water along the coasts, concealed among the sea-weeds, +and, raising its nostrils to the surface from a considerable +depth, may have found a secure retreat from the assaults of dangerous +enemies, while the length and flexibility of its neck may have compensated +for the want of strength in its jaws, and incapacity for swift +motion through the water, by the suddenness and agility of the +attack they enabled it to make on every animal fitted to become its +prey.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="Fig_104" id="Fig_104"></a> +<img src="images/illo239.png" alt="Fig. 104" width="400" height="370" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 104.—Remains of Plesiosaurus macrocephalus. One-twelfth natural size.</p></div> + +<p>The Plesiosaurus was first described by the Rev. W. D. Conybeare +and Sir Henry De la Beche, in the “Geological Society’s +Transactions” for 1821, and a restoration of <i>P. dolichodeirus</i>, the +most common of these fossils, appeared in the same work for 1824. +The first specimen was discovered, as the Ichthyosaurus had been +previously, in the Lias of Lyme Regis; since then other individuals +and species have been found in the same geological formation in +various parts of England, Ireland, France, and Germany, and with +such variations of structure that Professor Owen has felt himself +justified in recording sixteen distinct species, of which we have +represented <i>P. dolichodeirus</i> (<a href="#Fig_102">Fig. 102</a>), as restored by Conybeare, +and <i>P. macrocephalus</i> (<a href="#Fig_104">Fig. 104</a>), with its skeleton, as moulded from +the limestone of Lyme Regis, which has been placed in the Palæontological +Gallery of the British Museum.</p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></p> +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Plate_XV" id="Plate_XV"></a> +<img src="images/illo241.png" alt="Plate XV" width="600" height="391" /> +<p class="caption">XV.—Ideal scene of the Lias with Ichthyosaurus and Plesiosaurus.</p></div> + +<p>The Plesiosaurus was scarcely so large as the Ichthyosaurus. +The specimen of <i>I. platydon</i> in the British Museum probably belonged +to an animal four-and-twenty feet long, and some are said to indicate +thirty feet, while there are species of Plesiosauri measuring eighteen +and twenty, the largest known specimen of <i>Plesiosaurus Cramptoni</i> +found in the lias of Yorkshire, and now in the Museum of the Royal +Society of Dublin, being twenty-two feet four inches in length. On +the opposite page (<span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_XV">Plate XV.</a></span>) an attempt is made to represent +these grand reptiles of the Lias in their native element, and as +they lived.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span>Cuvier says of the Plesiosaurus, “that it presents the most monstrous +assemblage of characteristics that has been met with among +the races of the ancient world.” This expression should not be understood +in a literal sense; there are no monsters in Nature; in no +living creature are the laws of organisation ever positively infringed; +and it is more in accordance with the general perfection of creation +to see in an organisation so special, in a structure which differs so +notably from that of the animals of our own days, the simple development +of a type, and sometimes also the introduction of beings, +and successive changes in their structure. We shall see, in examining +the curious series of animals of the ancient world, that the organisation +and physiological functions go on improving unceasingly, and +that each of the extinct genera which preceded the appearance of +man, present, for each organ, modifications which always tend towards +greater perfection. The fins of the fishes of Devonian seas become +the paddles of the Ichthyosauri and of the Plesiosauri; these, in their +turn, become the membranous foot of the Pterodactyle, and, finally, +the wing of the bird. Afterwards comes the articulated fore-foot of +the terrestrial mammalia, which, after attaining remarkable perfection +in the hand of the ape, becomes, finally, the arm and hand of man, +an instrument of wonderful delicacy and power, belonging to an +enlightened being gifted with the divine attribute of reason! Let us, +then, dismiss any idea of monstrosity with regard to these antediluvian +animals; let us learn, on the contrary, to recognise, with admiration, +the divine proofs of design which they display, and in their organisation +to see only the handiwork of the Creator.</p> + +<p>Another strange inhabitant of the ancient world, the <i>Pterodactylus</i> +(from πτερον, <i>a wing</i>, and δακτυλος, <i>a finger</i>), discovered in 1828, made +Cuvier pronounce it to be incontestably the most extraordinary of all +the extinct animals which had come under his consideration; and such +as, if we saw them restored to life, would appear most strange and +dissimilar to anything that now exists. In size and general form, and +in the disposition and character of its wings, this fossil genus, according +to Cuvier, somewhat resembled our modern bats and vampyres, +but had its beak elongated like the bill of a woodcock, and armed +with teeth like the snout of a crocodile; its vertebræ, ribs, pelvis, +legs, and feet resembled those of a lizard; its three anterior fingers +terminated in long hooked claws like that on the fore-finger of the +bat; and over its body was a covering, neither composed of feathers +as in the bird, nor of hair as in the bat, but probably a naked skin; in +short, it was a monster resembling nothing that has ever been heard +of upon earth, except the dragons of romance and heraldry. Moreover,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> +it was probably noctivagous and insectivorous, and in both +these points resembled the bat; but differed from it in having the +most important bones in its body constructed after the manner of +those of reptiles.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="Fig_105" id="Fig_105"></a> +<img src="images/illo244.png" alt="Fig. 105" width="350" height="536" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 105.—Pterodactylus crassirostris.</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span>“Thus, like Milton’s fiend, all-qualified for all services and all +elements, the creature was a fit companion for the kindred reptiles +that swarmed in the seas, or crawled on the shores, of a turbulent +planet:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“The Fiend,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O’er bog, or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sinks, or swims, or wades, or creeps, or flies.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="fsize80" style="margin-left: 17em;"><i>Paradise Lost</i>, Book II., line 947.</p> + +<p>“With flocks of such-like creatures flying in the air, and shoals +of Ichthyosauri and Plesiosauri swarming in the ocean, and gigantic +Crocodiles and Tortoises +crawling on the +shores of primæval +lakes and rivers—air, +sea, and land must +have been strangely +tenanted in these +early periods of our +infant world.”<a name="FNanchor_64" id="FNanchor_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a></p> + +<p>The strange structure +of this animal +gave rise to most +contradictory opinions +from the earlier +naturalists. One +supposed it to be a +bird, another a bat, +and others a flying +reptile. Cuvier was +the first to detect the +truth, and to prove, from its organisation, that the animal was a +Saurian. “Behold,” he says, “an animal which in its osteology, +from its teeth to the end of its claws, presents all the characters +of the Saurians; nor can we doubt that their characteristics existed +in its integuments and softer parts, in its scales, its circulation, its +generative organs: it was at the same time provided with the means +of flight; but when stationary it could not have made much use of its +anterior extremities, even if it did not keep them always folded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span> +as birds fold their wings. It might, it is true, use its small +anterior fingers to suspend itself from the branches of trees; but +when at rest it must have been generally on its hind feet, like the +birds again, and like them it must have carried its neck half-erect +and curved backwards, so that its enormous head should not disturb +its equilibrium.” This diversity of opinion need not very much surprise +us after all, for, with the body and tail of an ordinary mammal, +it had the form of a bird in its head and the length of its neck, of +the bat in the structure and proportion of its wings, and of a reptile +in the smallness of its head and in its beak, armed with at least +sixty equal sharp-pointed teeth, differing little in form and size.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="Fig_106" id="Fig_106"></a> +<img src="images/illo245.png" alt="Fig. 106" width="350" height="313" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 106.—Pterodactylus brevirostris.</p></div> + +<p>Dr. Buckland describes eight distinct species, varying in size from +a snipe to a cormorant. Of these, <i>P. crassirostris</i> (<a href="#Fig_105">Fig. 105</a>) and +<i>P. brevirostris</i> (<a href="#Fig_106">Fig. 106</a>), were both discovered in the Lias of +Solenhofen. <i>P. macronyx</i> belongs to the Lias of Lyme Regis.</p> + +<p>The Pterodactyle was, then, a reptile provided with wings somewhat +resembling those of Bats, and formed, as in that Mammal, of a +membrane which connected the body with the excessively elongated +phalanges of the fourth finger, which served to expand the membrane +that answered the purposes of a wing. The Pterodactyle of the +Liassic period was, as we have seen, an animal of small size; the +largest species in the older Lias beds did not exceed ten or twelve +inches in length, or the size of a raven, while the later forms found +fossil in the Greensand and Wealden beds must have measured +more than sixteen feet between the tips of the expanded wings. On +the other hand, its head was of enormous dimensions compared +with the rest of the body. We cannot admit, therefore, that this +animal could really fly, and, like a bird, beat the air. The membranous +appendage which connected its long finger with its body +was rather a parachute than a wing. It served to moderate the +velocity of its descent when it dropped on its prey from a height. +Essentially a climber, it could only raise itself by climbing up tall +trees or rocks, after the manner of lizards, and throw itself thence to +the ground, or upon the lower branches, by making use of its natural +parachute.</p> + +<p>The ordinary position of the Pterodactyle was probably upon its +two hind feet, the lower extremities being adapted for standing and +moving on the ground, after the manner of birds. Habitually, perhaps, +it perched on trees; it could creep, or climb along rocks and +cliffs, or suspend itself from trees, with the assistance of its claws and +feet, after the manner of existing Bats. It is even probable, Dr. Buckland +thought, that it had the power of swimming and diving, so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span> +common to reptiles, and possessed by the Vampyre Bat of the island +of Bonin. It is believed that the smaller species lived upon insects, +and the larger preyed upon fishes, upon which it could throw itself +like the sea-gull.</p> + +<p>The most startling feature in the organisation of this animal is +the strange combination of two powerful wings attached to the body +of a reptile. The imagination of the poets long dwelt on such a +combination; the <i>Dragon</i> was a creation of their fancy, and it +played a great part in fable and in pagan mythology. The Dragon, +or flying reptile, breathing fire and poisoning the air with his fiery +breath, had, according to the fable, disputed with man the possession +of the earth. Gods and demigods claimed, among their most famous +exploits, the glory of having vanquished this powerful and redoubtable +monster.</p> + +<p>Among the animals of our epoch, only a single reptile is found +provided with wings, or digital appendages analogous to the membranous +wings of the bats, and which can be compared to the Pterodactyle. +This is called the <i>Dragon</i>, one of the Draconidæ, a family of +Saurians, which has been described by Daudin, as distinguished by +the first six ribs, instead of hooping round the abdomen, extending +in nearly a straight line, and sustaining a prolongation of skin which +forms a sort of wing analogous to that of the Pterodactyle. Independent +of the four feet, this wing sustains the animal, like a parachute, +as it leaps from branch to branch; but the creature has no +power to beat the air with it as birds do when flying. This reptile +lives in the forests of the hottest parts of Africa, and in some isles of +the Indian Ocean, especially in Sumatra and Java. The only known +species is that figured at page 238 (<a href="#Fig_107">Fig. 107</a>), which comes from the +East Indies.</p> + +<p>What a strange population was that which occupied the earth at +this stage of its history, when the waters were filled with creatures so +extraordinary as those whose history we have traced! Plesiosauri +and Ichthyosauri filled the seas, upon the surface of which floated +innumerable Ammonites in light skiffs, some of them as large as a +good-sized cart-wheel, while gigantic Turtles and Crocodiles crawled +on the banks of the rivers and lakes. Only one genus of Mammals +had yet appeared, but no birds; nothing broke the silence of the air, +if we except the breathing of the terrestrial reptiles and the flight of +winged insects.</p> + +<p>The earth cooled progressively up to the Jurassic period, the +rains lost their continuity and abundance, and the pressure of the +atmosphere sensibly diminished. All these circumstances favoured<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span> +the appearance and the multiplication of innumerable species of +animals, whose singular forms then showed themselves on the earth. +We can scarcely imagine the prodigious quantity of Molluscs and +Zoophytes whose remains lie buried in the Jurassic rocks, forming +entire strata of immense thickness and extent.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="Fig_107" id="Fig_107"></a> +<img src="images/illo248.png" alt="Fig. 107" width="350" height="391" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 107.—Draco volans.</p></div> + +<p>The same circumstances concurred to favour the production of +plants. If the shores and seas of the period received such a terrible +aspect from the formidable animals we have described, the vegetation +which covered the land had also its peculiar character and +appearance. Nothing that we know of in the existing scenery of the +globe surpasses the rich vegetation which decorated the continents +of the Jurassic period. A temperature still of great elevation, a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span> +humid atmosphere, and, we have no reason to doubt, a brilliant sun, +promoted the growth of a luxuriant vegetation, such as some of the +tropical islands, with their burning temperature and maritime climate, +can only give us an idea of, while it recalls some of the Jurassic +types of vegetation. The elegant Voltzias of the Trias had disappeared, +but the Horse-tails (<i>Equiseta</i>) remained, whose slender and +delicate stems rose erect in the air with their graceful panicles; the +gigantic rushes also remained; and though the tree-ferns had lost +their enormous dimensions of the Carboniferous age, they still preserved +their fine and delicately-cut leaves.</p> + +<p>Alongside these vegetable families, which passed upwards from +the preceding age, an entire family—the Cycads (<a href="#Fig_72">Fig. 72</a>, p. 168)—appear +for the first time. They soon became numerous in genera, +such as Zamites, Pterophyllum (Williamsonia), and Nilssonia. Among +the species which characterise this age, we may cite the following, +arranging them in families:—</p> + +<table class="fsize80" summary="Table p 239"> + +<tr> +<td class="center padl1 padr1">FERNS.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1">CYCADS.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1">CONIFERS.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padr1">Odontopteris cycadea.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Zamites distans.</td> +<td class="left padl1">Taxodites.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padr1">Taumopteris Munsteri.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Zamites heterophyllus.</td> +<td class="left padl1">Pinites.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padr1">Camptopteris crenata.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Zamites gracilis.</td> +<td> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Pterophyllum dubium.</td> +<td> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Nilssonia contigua.</td> +<td> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Nilssonia elegantissima.</td> +<td> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Nilssonia Sternbergii.</td> +<td> </td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<p>The <i>Zamites</i> seem to be forerunners of the Palms, which make +their appearance in the following epoch; they were trees of elegant +appearance, closely resembling the existing Zamias, which are trees +of tropical America, and especially of the West India Islands; they +were so numerous in species and in individuals that they seem to +have formed, of themselves alone, one half of the forests during the +period which engages our attention. The number of their fossilised +species exceeds that of the living species. The trunk of the Zamites, +simple and covered with scars left by the old leaves, supports a thick +crown of leaves more than six feet in length, disposed in fan-like +shape, arising from a common centre.</p> + +<p>The <i>Pterophyllum</i> (Williamsonia), formed great trees, of considerable +elevation, and covered with large pinnated leaves from top +to bottom. Their leaves, thin and membranous, were furnished with +leaflets truncated at the summit and traversed by fine nervures, not +convergent, but abutting on the terminal truncated edge.</p> + +<p>The <i>Nilssonia</i>, finally, were Cycadeaceæ resembling the Pterophyllum,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span> +but with thick and coriaceous leaves, and short leaflets contiguous +to, and in part attached to the base; they were obtuse or +nearly truncated at the summit, and would present nervures arched +or confluent towards that summit.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="Fig_108" id="Fig_108"></a> +<img src="images/illo250.png" alt="Fig. 108" width="350" height="312" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 108.—Millepora alcicornis.<br />(Recent Coral.)</p></div> + +<p>The essential characters of the vegetation during the Liassic sub-period +were:—1. The great predominance of the Cycadeaceæ, thus +continuing the development which commenced in the previous +period, expanding into numerous genera belonging both to this +family and that of the <i>Zamites</i> and <i>Nilssonia</i>; 2. The existence +among the Ferns of many genera with reticulated veins or nervures, +and under forms of little variation, which scarcely show themselves in +the more ancient formations.</p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></p> +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Plate_XVI" id="Plate_XVI"></a> +<img src="images/illo251.png" alt="Plate XVI" width="600" height="391" /> +<p class="caption">XVI.—Ideal Landscape of the Liassic Period.</p></div> + +<p>On the opposite page (<span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_XVI">Plate XVI.</a></span>) is an ideal landscape of the +Liassic period; the trees and shrubs characteristic of the age are the +elegant Pterophyllum, which appears in the extreme left of the +picture, and the Zamites, which are recognisable by their thick and +low trunk and fan-like tuft of foliage. The large horsetail, or +Equisetum of this epoch, mingles with the great Tree-ferns and the +Cypress, a Conifer allied to those of our own age. Among animals, +we see the Pterodactyle specially represented. One of these reptiles<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span> +is seen in a state of repose, resting on its hind feet. The other is +represented, not flying, after the manner of a bird, but throwing itself +from a rock in order to seize upon a winged insect, the dragon-fly +(<i>Libellula</i>), the remains of which have been discovered, associated +with the bones of the Pterodactyle, in the lithographic limestone of +Pappenheim and Solenhofen.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Oolitic Sub-period.</span></h4> + +<p>This period is so named because many of the limestones entering +into the composition of the formations it comprises, consist almost +entirely of an aggregation of rounded concretionary grains resembling, +in outward appearance, the roe or eggs of fishes, and each of which +contains a nucleus of sand, around which concentric layers of calcareous +matter have accumulated; whence the name, from ωον, <i>egg</i>, +and λιθος, <i>stone</i>.</p> + +<p>The Oolite series is usually subdivided into three sections, the +<i>Lower</i>, <i>Middle</i>, and <i>Upper Oolite</i>. These rocks form in England a +band some thirty miles broad, ranging across the country from Yorkshire, +in the north-east, to Dorset, in the south-west, but with a great +diversity of mineral character, which has led to a further subdivision +of the series, founded on the existence of particular strata in the +central and south-western counties:—</p> + +<table class="fsize80" summary="Table p 241"> + +<tr> +<td class="center padl1 padr1"><span class="smcap">Upper.</span></td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1"><span class="smcap">Middle.</span></td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1"><span class="smcap">Lower.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padr1">1. Purbeck Beds.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">1. Coral Rag.</td> +<td class="padl1">1. Cornbrash.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padr1">2. Portland Stone and Sand.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">2. Oxford Clay.</td> +<td class="padl1">2. Great Oolite & Forest Marble.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padr1">3. Kimeridge Clay.</td> +<td> </td> +<td class="padl1">3. Stonesfield Slate.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td> </td> +<td class="padl1">4. Fuller’s Earth.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td> </td> +<td class="padl1">5. Inferior Oolite.</td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<p>The alternations of clay and masses of limestone in the Liassic +and Oolite formations impart some marked features to the outline of +the scenery both of France and England: forming broad valleys, +separated from each other by ranges of limestone hills of more or less +elevation. In France, the Jura mountains are composed of the +latter; in England, the slopes of this formation are more gentle—the +valleys are intersected by brooks, and clothed with a rich vegetation; +it forms what is called a tame landscape, as compared with the +wilder grandeur of the Primary rocks—it pleases more than it surprises. +It yields materials also, more useful than some of the older +formations, numerous quarries being met with which furnish excellent +building-materials, especially around Bath, where the stone, when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span> +first quarried, is soft and easily worked, but +becomes harder on exposure to the air.</p> + +<p>The annexed section (<a href="#Fig_109">Fig. 109</a>) will give +some idea of the configuration which the +stratification assumes, such as may be observed +in proceeding from the north-west +to the south-east, from Caermarthenshire +to the banks of the Ouse.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"><a name="Fig_109" id="Fig_109"></a> +<img src="images/illo255.png" alt="Fig. 109" width="700" height="103" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 109.—General view of the succession of British strata, with the elevations they reach above the +level of the sea.<br /> +<i>G</i>, Granitic rocks; <i>a</i>, Gneiss; <i>b</i>, Mica-schist; <i>c</i>, Skiddaw or Cumbrian Slates; <i>d</i>, Snowdon rocks; <i>e</i>, Plynlymmon rocks; <i>f</i>, Silurian rocks; <i>g</i>, Old +Red Sandstone; <i>h</i>, Carboniferous Limestone; <i>i</i>, Millstone Grit; <i>k</i>, Coal-measures; <i>l</i>, Magnesian Limestone; <i>m</i>, New Red Sandstone; <i>n</i>, Lias; +<i>o</i>, Lower, Middle, and Upper Oolites; <i>p</i>, Greensand; <i>q</i>, Chalk; <i>r</i>, Tertiary strata.</p></div> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Lower Oolite Fauna.</span></h4> + +<p>The most salient and characteristic +feature of this age is, undoubtedly, the appearance +of animals belonging to the class +of Mammals. But the organisation, quite +special, of the first of the Mammalia will +certainly be a matter of astonishment to the +reader, and must satisfy him that Nature proceeded +in the creation of animals by successive +steps, by transitions which, in an almost +imperceptible manner, connect the beings +of one age with others more complicated in +their organisation. The first Mammals which +appeared upon the earth, for example, +did not enjoy all the organic attributes +belonging to the more recent creations of +the class. In the latter the young are +brought forth living, and not from eggs, +like Birds, Reptiles, and Fishes. But the +former belonged to that order of animals +quite special, and never numerous, the +young of which are transferred in a half-developed +state, from the body of the +mother to an external pouch in which they +remain until they become perfected; in +short, to marsupial animals. The mother +nurses her young during a certain time in a +sort of pouch external to the body, in the +neighbourhood of the abdomen, and provided +with teats to which the young adhere. +After a more or less prolonged sojourn in +this pouch, the young animal, when sufficiently<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span> +matured and strong enough to battle with the world, emerges +from its warm retreat, and enters fully into life and light; the process +being a sort of middle course between oviparous generation, in which +the animals are hatched from eggs after exclusion from the mother’s +body, like Birds; and viviparous, in which the animals are brought +forth alive, as in the ordinary Mammals.</p> + +<p>In standard works on natural history the animals under consideration +are classed as <i>mammiferous Didelphæ</i>. They are brought forth in +an imperfect state, and during their transitional condition are suckled +in a pouch supported by bones called <i>marsupial</i>, which are attached +by their extremities to the pelvis, and serve to support the marsupium, +whence the animals provided with these provisions for bringing up +their progeny are called <i>Marsupial Mammals</i>. The Opossum, Kangaroo, +and Ornithorhynchus are existing representatives of this group.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="Fig_110" id="Fig_110"></a> +<img src="images/illo256a.png" alt="Fig. 110" width="350" height="129" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 110.—Jaw of Thylacotherium Prevostii.</p></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><a name="Fig_111" id="Fig_111"></a> +<img src="images/illo256b.png" alt="Fig. 111" width="300" height="124" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 111.—Jaw of Phascolotherium.</p></div> + +<p>The name of <i>Thylacotherium</i>, or <i>Amphitherium</i>, or <i>Phascolotherium</i>, +is given to the first of these marsupial Mammals which made +their appearance, whose remains have been discovered in the Lower +Oolite, and in one of its higher stages, namely, that called the <i>Great +Oolite</i>. <a href="#Fig_110">Fig. 110</a> represents the jaw of the first of these animals, and +<a href="#Fig_111">Fig. 111</a> the other—both of the natural size. These jaw-bones +represent all that has been found belonging to these early marsupial +animals; and Baron Cuvier and Professor Owen have both decided +as to their origin. The first was found in the Stonesfield quarries. +The Phascolotherium, also a Stonesfield fossil, was the ornament of +Mr. Broderip’s collection. The animals which lived on the land +during the Lower Oolitic period would be nearly the same with +those of the Liassic. The insects were, perhaps, more numerous.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><a name="Fig_112" id="Fig_112"></a> +<img src="images/illo257a.png" alt="Fig. 112" width="200" height="240" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 112.—Ammonites +Herveyii.</p></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;"><a name="Fig_113" id="Fig_113"></a> +<img src="images/illo257b.png" alt="Fig. 113" width="150" height="246" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 113.—Terebratula digona.</p></div> + +<p>The marine fauna included Reptiles, Fishes, Molluscs, and +Zoophytes. Among the first were the Pterodactyle, and a great +Saurian, the Teleosaurus, belonging to a family which made its +appearance in this age, and which reappears in the following epoch.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span> +Among the Fishes, the Ganoids and Ophiopsis predominate. Among +the Ammonites, <i>Ammonites Humphriesianus</i>, <i>A. Herveyii</i> (<a href="#Fig_112">Fig. 112</a>), +<i>A. Brongniarti</i>, <i>Nautilus lineatus</i>, and many other representatives of +the cephalopodous Mollusca. Among +the Brachiopods are <i>Terebratula digona</i> +(<a href="#Fig_113">Fig. 113</a>) and <i>T. spinosa</i>. Among +the Gasteropoda the <i>Pleurotomaria +conoidea</i> is remarkable from its elegant +shape and markings, and very unlike +any of the living <i>Pleurotoma</i> as represented +by <i>P. Babylonia</i> (<a href="#Fig_114">Fig. 114</a>). +<i>Ostrea Marshii</i> and <i>Lima proboscidea</i>, +which belong to the Acephala, are +fossil Mollusca of this epoch, to which +also belong <i>Entalophora cellarioides</i>, <i>Eschara Ranviliana</i>, <i>Bidiastopora +cervicornis</i>; elegant and characteristic molluscous Polyzoa. +We give a representation of two living species, as exhibiting the +form of these curious beings. (<a href="#Fig_115">Figs. 115</a> and <a href="#Fig_116">116</a>.)</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="Fig_114" id="Fig_114"></a> +<img src="images/illo257c.png" alt="Fig. 114" width="350" height="399" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 114.—Pleurotoma Babylonia. (Recent.)</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span>The Echinoderms and Polyps appear in great numbers in the +deposits of the Lower Oolite: <i>Apiocrinus elegans</i>, <i>Hyboclypus +gibberulus</i>, <i>Dysaster Endesii</i> represent the first; <i>Montlivaltia caryophyllata</i>, +<i>Anabacia orbulites</i>, <i>Cryptocœnia bacciformis</i>, and <i>Eunomia +radiata</i> represent the second.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><a name="Fig_115" id="Fig_115"></a> +<img src="images/illo258a.png" alt="Fig. 115" width="200" height="393" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 115.—Adeona folifera.<br /> +(Recent Polyzoa.)</p></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><a name="Fig_116" id="Fig_116"></a> +<img src="images/illo258b.png" alt="Fig. 116" width="300" height="334" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 116.—Cellaria loriculata.<br /> +(Recent Polyzoa.)</p></div> + +<p>This last and most remarkable species of Zoophyte presents itself +in great masses many yards in circumference, and necessitates a long +period of time for its production. This assemblage of little creatures +living under the waters but only at a small depth beneath the surface, +as Mr. Darwin has demonstrated, has nevertheless produced banks, or +rather islets, of considerable extent, which at one time constituted +veritable reefs rising out of the ocean. These reefs were principally +constructed in the Jurassic period, and their extreme abundance is +one of the characteristics of this geological age. The same phenomenon +continues in our day, but by the agency of a new race of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span> +zoophytes, which carry on their operations, preparing a new continent, +probably, in the <i>atolls</i> of the Pacific Ocean. (See <a href="#Fig_108">Fig. 108</a>, p. 240.)</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="Fig_117" id="Fig_117"></a> +<img src="images/illo259.png" alt="Fig. 117" width="350" height="540" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 117.<br /> +1, Otopteris dubia; 2, Otopteris obtusa; 3, Otopteris acuminata; 4, Otopteris cuneata.</p></div> + +<p>The flora of the epoch was very rich. The Ferns continue to +exist, but their size and bearing were sensibly inferior to what they +had been in the preceding period. Among them Otopteris, distinguished<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span> +for its simply pinnated leaves, whose leaflets are auriculate +at the base: of the five species, 1, <i>O. dubia</i>; and 2, <i>O. obtusa</i>; and +3, <i>O. acuminata</i>; and 4, <i>O. cuneata</i> (<a href="#Fig_117">Fig. 117</a>), are from the Oolite. +In addition to these we may name <i>Coniopteris Murrayana</i>, <i>Pecopteris +Desnoyersii, Pachypteris lanceolata</i>, and <i>Phlebopteris Phillipsii</i>; and +among the Lycopods, <i>Lycopodus falcatus</i>.</p> + +<p>The vegetation of this epoch has a peculiar facies, from the +presence of the family of the Pandanaceæ, or screw-pines, so remarkable +for their aërial roots, and for the magnificent tuft of leaves which +terminates their branches. Neither the leaves nor the roots of these +plants have, however, been found in the fossil state, but we possess +specimens of their large and spherical fruit, which leave no room for +doubt as to the nature of the entire plant.</p> + +<p>The Cycads were still represented by the <i>Zamias</i>, and by many +species of Pterophyllum. The Conifers, that grand family of recent +times, to which the pines, firs, and other trees of our northern +forests belong, began to occupy an important part in the world’s +vegetation from this epoch. The earliest Conifers belonged to the +genera <i>Thuites</i>, <i>Taxites</i>, and <i>Brachyphyllum</i>. The <i>Thuites</i> were true +<i>Thuyas</i>, evergreen trees of the present epoch, with compressed +branches, small imbricated and serrated leaves, somewhat resembling +those of the Cypress, but distinguished by many points of special +organisation. The <i>Taxites</i> have been referred, with some doubts, to +the Yews. Finally, the <i>Brachyphyllum</i> were trees which, according +to the characteristics of their vegetation, seem to have approached +nearly to two existing genera, the <i>Arthotaxis</i> of Tasmania, and the +<i>Weddringtonias</i> of South Africa. The leaves of the Brachyphyllum +are short and fleshy, with a large and rhomboidal base.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Lower Oolite Rocks.</span></h4> + +<p>The formation which represents the Lower Oolite, and which in +England attains an average thickness of from 500 to 600 feet, forms +a very complex system of stratification, which includes the two +formations, <i>Bajocien</i> and <i>Bathonian</i>, adopted by M. D’Orbigny and +his followers. The lowest beds of the <i>Inferior Oolite</i> occur in +Normandy, in the Lower Alps (Basses-Alpes), in the neighbourhoods of +Lyons and Neuchatel. They are remarkable near Bayeux for the +variety and beauty of their fossils: the rocks are composed principally +of limestones—yellowish-brown, or red, charged with hydrated +oxide of iron, often oolitic, and reposing on calcareous sands. These<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span> +deposits are surmounted by alternate layers of clay and marl, blue +or yellow—the well-known <i>Fuller’s Earth</i>, which is so called from its +use in the manufacture of woollen fabrics to extract the grease +from the wool. The second series of the Lower Oolite, which +attains a thickness of from 150 to 200 feet on the coast of Normandy, +and is well developed in the neighbourhood of Caen and in the +Jura, has been divided, in Britain, into four formations, in an +ascending scale:—</p> + +<p>1. The <i>Great</i> or <i>Bath Oolite</i>, which consists principally of a +very characteristic, fine-grained, white, soft, and well-developed oolitic +limestone, at Bath, and also at Caen in Normandy. At the base of +the Great Oolite the Stonesfield beds occur, in which were found the +bones of the marsupial Mammals, to which we have already alluded; +and along with them bones of Reptiles, principally Pterodactyles, +together with some finely-preserved fossil plants, fruits, and +insects.</p> + +<p>2. <i>Bradford Clay</i>, which is a bluish marl, containing many fine +Encrinites (commonly called stone-lilies), but which had only a local +existence, appearing to be almost entirely confined to this formation. +“In this case, however,” says Lyell, “it appears that the solid upper +surface of the ‘Great Oolite’ had supported, for a time, a thick +submarine forest of these beautiful Zoophytes, until the clear and +still water was invaded with a current charged with mud, which threw +down the stone-lilies, and broke most of their stems short off near +the point of attachment. The stumps still remain in their original +position.”<a name="FNanchor_65" id="FNanchor_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a> +See Fig. 1, <span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_XIX">Plate XIX.</a></span>, p. 261. (Bradford, or Pear, +Encrinite.)</p> + +<p>3. <i>Forest Marble</i>, which consists of an argillaceous shelly limestone, +abounding in marine fossils, and sandy and quartzose marls, is +quarried in the forest of Wichwood, in Wiltshire, and in the counties +of Dorset, Wilts, and Somerset.</p> + +<p>4. The <i>Cornbrash</i> (wheat-lands) consists of beds of rubbly cream-coloured +limestone, which forms a soil particularly favourable to the +cultivation of cereals; hence its name.<a name="FNanchor_66" id="FNanchor_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a></p> + +<p>The Lower Oolite ranges across the greater part of England, but +“attains its maximum development near Cheltenham, where it can +be subdivided, at least, into three parts. Passing north, the two +lower divisions, each more or less characterised by its own fossils, +disappear, and the Ragstone north-east of Cheltenham lies directly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span> +upon the Lias; apparently as conformably as if it formed its true and +immediate successor, while at Dundry the equivalents of the upper +freestones and ragstones (the lower beds being absent) lie directly on +the exceedingly thin sands, which there overlie the Lower Lias. In +Dorsetshire, on the coast, the series is again perfect, though thin. +Near Chipping Norton, in Oxfordshire, the Inferior Oolite disappears +altogether, and the Great Oolite, having first overlapped the Fullers’ +Earth, passes across the Inferior Oolite, and in its turn seems to lie +on the Upper Lias with a regularity as perfect as if no formation in +the neighbourhood came between them. In Yorkshire the changed +type of the Inferior Oolite, the prevalence of sands, land-plants, and +beds of coal, occur in such a manner as to leave no doubt of the +presence of terrestrial surfaces on which the plants grew, and all +these phenomena lead to the conclusion that various and considerable +oscillations of level took place in the British area during the deposition<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span> +of the strata, both of the Inferior Oolite and of the formations +which immediately succeed it.”<a name="FNanchor_67" id="FNanchor_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="Fig_118" id="Fig_118"></a> +<img src="images/illo262.png" alt="Fig. 118" width="400" height="373" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 118.—Meandrina Dædalæa.<br /> +<i>a</i>, entire figure, reduced; <i>b</i>, portion, natural size.<br /> +(Recent Coral.)</p></div> + +<p>The Inferior Oolite here alluded to is a thin bed of calcareous +freestone, resting on, and sometimes replaced by yellow sand, which +constitutes the passage-beds from the Liassic series. The Fullers’ +Earth clay lies between the limestones of the Inferior and Great +Oolite, at the base of which last lies the Stonesfield slate—a slightly +oolitic, shelly limestone, or flaggy and fissile sandstone, some six +feet thick, rich in organic remains, and ranging through Oxfordshire +towards the north-east, into Northamptonshire and Yorkshire. At +Colley Weston, in Northamptonshire, fossils of <i>Pecopteris polypodioides</i> +are found. In the Great Oolite formation, near Bath, are +many corals, among which the <i>Eunomia radiata</i> is very conspicuous. +The fossil is not unlike the existing brain-coral of the tropical seas +(<a href="#Fig_118">Fig. 118</a>). The work of this coral seems to have been suddenly stopped +by “an invasion,” says Lyell, “of argillaceous matter, which probably +put a sudden stop to the growth of Bradford Encrinites, and led to +their preservation in marine strata.”<a name="FNanchor_68" id="FNanchor_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a> The Cornbrash is, in general, a +cream-coloured limestone, about forty feet thick, in the south-west of +England, and occupying a considerable area in Dorsetshire and North +Wilts, as at Cricklade, Malmesbury, and Chippenham, in the latter +county. <i>Terebratula obovata</i> is its characteristic shell, and <i>Nucleolites +clunicularis</i>, <i>Lima gibbosa</i>, and <i>Avicula echinata</i> occur constantly in +great numbers. Wherever it occurs the Cornbrash affords a rich and +fertile soil, well adapted for the growth of wheat, while the Forest +Marble, as a soil, is generally poor. The Cornbrash passes downwards +into the Forest Marble, and sometimes, as at Bradford, near +Bath, is replaced by clay. This clay, called the Bradford clay, is +almost wholly confined to the county of Wilts. <i>Terebratula decussata</i> +is one of the most characteristic fossils, but the most common is the +Apiocrinites or pear-shaped encrinite, whose remains in this clay are so +perfectly preserved that the most minute articulations are often found +in their natural positions. <span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_XIX">Plate XIX.</a></span>, p. 261 (Fig. 1), represents an +adult attached by a solid base to the rocky bottom on which it grew, +whilst the smaller individuals show the Encrinite in its young state—one +with arms expanded, the other with them closed. Ripple-marked +slabs of fissile Forest Marble are used as a roofing-slate, and +may be traced over a broad band of country in Wiltshire and +Gloucestershire, separated from each other by thin seams of clay, in +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253"></a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254"></a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span> +which the undulating ridges of the sand are preserved, and even +the footmarks of small Crustaceans are still visible.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Plate_XVII" id="Plate_XVII"></a> +<img src="images/illo265.png" alt="Plate XVII" width="600" height="383" /> +<p class="caption">XVII.—Ideal Landscape of the Lower Oolite Period.</p></div> + +<p>On the opposite page (<span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_XVII">Plate XVII.</a></span>) is represented an ideal landscape +of the period of the Lower Oolite. On the shore are types of +the vegetation of the period. The <i>Zamites</i>, with large trunk covered +with fan-like leaves, resembled in form and bearing the existing +Zamias of tropical regions; a <i>Pterophyllum</i>, with its stem covered +from base to summit with its finely-cut feathery leaves; Conifers +closely resembling our Cypress, and an arborescent Fern. What distinguishes +this sub-period from that of the Lias is a group of magnificent +trees, <i>Pandanus</i>, remarkable for their aërial roots, their long +leaves, and globular fruit.</p> + +<p>Upon one of the trees of this group the artist has placed the +<i>Phascolotherium</i>, not very unlike to our Opossum. It was amongst +the first of the Mammalia which appeared in the ancient world. +The artist has here enlarged the dimensions of the animal in order to +show its form. Let the reader reduce it in imagination one-sixth, +for it was not larger than an ordinary-sized cat.</p> + +<p>A Crocodile and the fleshless skeleton of the Ichthyosaurus +remind us that Reptiles still occupied an important place in the +animal creation. A few Insects, especially Dragon-flies, fly about in +the air. Ammonites float on the surface of the waves, and the +terrible Plesiosaurus, like a gigantic swan, swims about in the sea. +The circular reef of coral, the work of ancient Polyps, foreshadows +the atolls of the great ocean, for it was during the Jurassic period +that the Polyps of the ancient world were most active in the production +of coral-reefs and islets.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Middle Oolite.</span></h4> + +<p>The terrestrial flora of this age was composed of Ferns, Cycads, +and Conifers. The first represented by the <i>Pachypteris microphylla</i>, +the second by <i>Zamites Moreana</i>. <i>Brachyphyllum Moreanum</i> and +<i>B. majus</i> appear to have been the Conifers most characteristic of the +period; fruits have also been found in the rocks of the period, +which appear to belong to Palms, but this point is still obscure +and doubtful.</p> + +<p>Numerous vestiges of the fauna which animated the period are +also revealed in the rocks of this age. Certain hemipterous insects +appear on the earth for the first time, and the Bees among the +Hymenoptera, Butterflies among the Lepidoptera, and Dragon-flies<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span> +among the Neuroptera. In the bosom of the ocean, or upon its +banks, roamed the <i>Ichthyosaurus</i>, <i>Ceteosaurus</i>, <i>Pterodactylus crassirostris</i>, +and the <i>Geosaurus</i>; the latter being very imperfectly known.</p> + +<p>The Ceteosaurus whose bones have been discovered in the upper +beds of the Great Oolite at Enslow Rocks, at the Kirtlington Railway +Station, north of Oxford, and some other places, was a species of +Crocodile nearly resembling the modern Gavial or Crocodile of the +Ganges. This huge whale-like reptile has been described by Professor +John Phillips as unmatched in size and strength by any of the +largest inhabitants of the Mesozoic land or sea—perhaps the largest +animal that ever walked upon the earth. A full-grown Ceteosaurus +must have been <i>at least</i> fifty feet long, ten feet high, and of a proportionate +bulk. In its habits it was, probably, a marsh-loving or river-side +animal, dwelling amidst filicene, cycadaceous, and coniferous +shrubs and trees full of insects and small mammalia. The one small +and imperfect tooth which has been found resembles that of +Iguanodon more than of any other reptile; and it seems probable +that the Ceteosaurus was nourished by vegetable food, which abounded +in the vicinity of its haunts, and was not obliged to contend with the +Megalosaurus for a scanty supply of more stimulating diet.<a name="FNanchor_69" id="FNanchor_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_119" id="Fig_119"></a> +<img src="images/illo270.png" alt="Fig. 119" width="450" height="240" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 119.—Ramphorynchus restored. One-quarter natural size.</p></div> + +<p>Another reptile allied to the Pterodactyle lived in this epoch—the +<i>Ramphorynchus</i>, distinguished from the Pterodactyle by a long tail. The +imprints which this curious animal has left upon the sandstone of the +period are impressions of its feet and the linear furrow made by its tail. +Like the Pterodactyle, the Ramphorynchus, which was about the size +of a crow, could not precisely fly, but, aided by the wing (a sort of +natural parachute formed by the membrane connecting the fingers +with the body), it could throw itself from a height upon its prey. +<a href="#Fig_119">Fig. 119</a> represents a restoration of this animal. The footprints in the +soil are in imitation of those which accompany the remains of the +Ramphorynchus in the Oolitic rocks, and they show the imprints of +the anterior and posterior feet and also the marks made by the tail.</p> + +<p>This tail was very long, far surpassing in length the rest of the +vertebral column, and consisting of more than thirty vertebræ—which +were at first short, but rapidly elongate, retain their length for a considerable +distance, and then gradually diminish in size.</p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257"></a></p> +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Plate_XVIII" id="Plate_XVIII"></a> +<img src="images/illo269.png" alt="Plate XVIII" width="600" height="386" /> +<p class="caption">XVIII.—Ideal landscape of the Middle Oolitic Period.</p></div> + +<p>Another genus of Reptiles appears in the Middle Oolite, of which +we have had a glimpse in the Lias and Great Oolite of the preceding +section. This is the <i>Teleosaurus</i>, which the recent investigations of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span> +M. E. Deslongchamps allow of re-construction. The Teleosaurus +enables us to form a pretty exact idea of these Crocodiles of the +ancient seas—these cuirassed Reptiles, which the German geologist +Cotta describes as “the great barons of the kingdom of Neptune, +armed to the teeth, and clothed in an impenetrable panoply; the +true filibusters of the primitive seas.”</p> + +<p>The Teleosaurus resembled the Gavials of India. The former +inhabited the banks of rivers, perhaps the sea itself; they were +longer, more slender, and more active than the living species; they +were about thirty feet in length, of which the head may be from three +to four feet, with their enormous jaws sometimes with an opening of +six feet, through which they could engulf, in the depths of their +enormous throat, animals of considerable size.</p> + +<p>The <i>Teleosaurus cadomensis</i> is represented on the opposite page +(<span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_XVIII">Plate XVIII.</a></span>), after the sketch of M. E. Deslongchamps, carrying +from the sea in its mouth a <i>Geoteuthis</i>, a species of Calamary of the +Oolitic epoch. This creature was coated with a cuirass both on the +back and belly. In order to show this peculiarity, a living individual +is represented on the shore, and a dead one is floating on its back in +shallow water, leaving the ventral cuirass exposed.</p> + +<p>Behind the <i>Teleosaurus cadomensis</i> in the engraving, another +Saurian, the <i>Hylæosaurus</i>, is represented, which makes its appearance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span> +in the Cretaceous epoch. We have here adopted the restoration +which has been so ably executed by Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins, at +the Crystal Palace, Sydenham.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><a name="Fig_120" id="Fig_120"></a> +<img src="images/illo271a.png" alt="Fig. 120" width="250" height="324" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 120.—Eryon arctiformis.</p></div> + +<p>Besides the numerous Fishes with which the Oolitic seas swarmed, +they contained some Crustaceans, Cirripedes, and various genera of +Mollusca and Zoophytes. <i>Eryon arctiformis</i>, represented in <a href="#Fig_119">Fig. 119</a>, +belongs to the class of Crustaceans, of which the spiny lobster is the +type. Among the Mollusca were some Ammonites, Belemnites, and +Oysters, of which many hundred species have been described. Of +these we may mention <i>Ammonites refractus, A. Jason and A. cordatus, +Ostrea dilatata, Terebratula diphya, Diceras arietena, Belemnites hastatus</i>, +and <i>B. Puzosianus</i>. In some of the finely-laminated clays the +Ammonites are very perfect, but somewhat compressed, with the outer +lip or margin of the aperture entire (<a href="#Fig_120">Fig. 120</a>). Similar prolongations +have been noticed in Belemnites found by Dr. Mantell in the Oxford +Clay, near Chippenham.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><a name="Fig_121" id="Fig_121"></a> +<img src="images/illo271b.png" alt="Fig. 121" width="250" height="294" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 121.—Perfect Ammonite.</p></div> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></p> +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Plate_XIX" id="Plate_XIX"></a> +<img src="images/illo272.png" alt="Plate XIX" width="450" height="624" /> +<p class="caption"><span style="margin-left: 30px;">XIX.—Fig. 1.—Apiocrinites rotundus.</span> +<span style="margin-left: 55px;">Fig. 2.—Encrinus liliiformis.</span></p></div> + +<p>Among the Echinoderms, <i>Cidaris glandiferus</i>, <i>Apiocrinus Roissyanus</i>, +and <i>A. rotundus</i>, the graceful <i>Saccocoma pectinata</i>, <i>Millericrinus +nodotianus</i>, <i>Comatula costata</i>, and <i>Hemicidaris crenularis</i> may be mentioned; +<i>Apiocrinites rotundus</i>, figured in <span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_XIX">Plate XIX.</a></span>, is a reduced +restoration: 1, being expanded; <i>a</i>, closed; 3, a cross section of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span> +upper extremity of the pear-shaped head; 4, a vertical section +showing the enlargement of the alimentary canal, with the hollow +lenticular spaces which descend through the axis of the column, +forming the joints, and giving elasticity and flexure to the whole stem, +without risk of dislocation. <i>A. rotundus</i> is found at Bradford in +Wiltshire, Abbotsbury in Dorset, at Soissons, and Rochelle. This +species—known as the Bradford Pear-Encrinite—is only found in the +strata mentioned.</p> + +<p>The Corals of this epoch occur in great abundance. We have +already remarked that these aggregations of Polyps are often met +with at a great depth in the strata. These small calcareous structures +have been formed in the ancient seas, and the same phenomenon is +extending the terrestrial surface in our days in the seas of Oceania, +where reefs and atolls of coral are rising by slow and imperceptible +steps, but with no less certainty. Although their mode of production +must always remain to some extent a mystery, the investigations of +M. Lamaroux, Mr. Charles Darwin, and M. D’Orbigny have gone a +long way towards explaining their operations; for the Zoophyte in +action is an aggregation of these minute Polyps. Describing what he +believes to be a sea-pen, a Zoophyte allied to <i>Virgularia Patagonia</i>, +Mr. Darwin says: “It consists of a thin, straight, fleshy stem, with +alternate rows of polypi on each side, and surrounding an elastic +stony axis. The stem at one extremity is truncate, but at the other +is terminated by a vermiform fleshy appendage. The stony axis +which gives strength to the stem, may be traced at this extremity into +a mere vessel filled with granular matter. At low water hundreds of +these zoophytes might be seen, projecting like stubble, with the truncate +end upwards, a few inches above the surface of the muddy sand. When +touched or pulled, they drew themselves in suddenly, with force, so +as nearly or quite to disappear. By this action, the highly-elastic +axis must be bent at the lower extremity, where it is naturally slightly +curved; and I imagine it is by this elasticity alone that the zoophyte +is enabled to rise again through the mud. Each polypus, though +closely united to its brethren, has a distinct mouth, body, and tentacula. +Of these polypi, in a large specimen there must be many +thousands. Yet we see that they act by one movement; that they +have one central axis, connected with a system of obscure circulation.” +Such is the brief account given by a very acute observer of +these singular beings. They secrete the calcareous matter held in +solution in the oceanic waters, and produce the wonderful structures +we have now under consideration; and these calcareous banks have +been in course of formation during many geological ages. They<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span> +just reach the level of the waters, for the polyps perish as soon as +they are so far above the surface that neither the waves nor the flow +of the tides can reach them. In the Oolitic rocks these banks +are frequently found from twelve to fifteen feet thick, and many +leagues in length, and preserving, for the most part, the relative +positions which they occupied in the sea while in course of +formation.</p> + +<p>The rocks which now represent the Middle Oolitic Period are +usually divided into the <i>Oxford Clay</i>, the lower member of which is +an arenaceous limestone, known as the <i>Kellaways Rock</i>, which in +Wiltshire and other parts of the south-west of England attains a +thickness of eight or ten feet, with the impressions of numerous +Ammonites, and other shells. In Yorkshire, around Scarborough, it +reaches the thickness of thirty feet; and forms well-developed beds of +bluish-black marl in the department of Calvados, in France. It is +the base of this clay which forms the soil (<i>Argile de Dives</i>) of the +valley of the Auge, renowned for its rich pasturages and magnificent +cattle. The same beds form the base of the oddly-shaped but fine +rocks of La Manche, which are popularly known as the <i>Vaches Noires</i> +(or black cows)—a locality celebrated, also, for its fine Ammonites +transformed into pyrites.</p> + +<p>The <i>Oxford Clay</i> constitutes the base of the hills in the neighbourhood +of Oxford, forming a bed of clay sometimes more than 600 +feet thick. It is found well-developed in France, at Trouville, in +the department of the Calvados; and at Neuvisy, in the department +of the Ardennes, where it attains a thickness of about 300 feet. It +is a bluish, sometimes whitish limestone (often argillaceous), and +bluish marl. The <i>Gryphæa dilatata</i> is the most common fossil in +the Oxford Clay. The <i>Coral Rag</i> is so called from the fact that the +limestone of which it is chiefly composed consists, in part, of an +aggregation of considerable masses of petrified Corals; not unlike +those now existing in the Pacific Ocean, supposing them to be +covered up for ages and fossilised. This coral stratum extends +through the hills of Berkshire and North Wilts, and it occurs again +near Scarborough. In the counties of Dorset, Bedford, Buckingham, +and Cambridge, and some other parts of England, the limestone of +the Coral Rag disappears and is replaced by clay—in which case the +Oxford Clay is overlaid directly by the Kimeridge Clay. In France +it is found in the departments of the Meuse, of the Yonne, of the +Ain, of the Charente Inférieure. In the Alps the <i>Diceras limestone</i> +is regarded, by most geologists, as coeval with the English +Coral Rag.</p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Upper Oolite.</span></h4> + +<p>Some marsupial Mammals have left their remains in the Upper +Oolite as in the Lower. They belong to the genus <i>Sphalacotherium</i>. +Besides the Plesiosauri and Teleosauri, there still lived in the maritime +regions a Crocodile, the <i>Macrorhynchus</i>; and the monstrous +<i>Pœcilopleuron</i>, with sharp cutting teeth, one of the most formidable +animals of this epoch; the <i>Hylæosaurus</i>, <i>Cetiosaurus</i>, <i>Stenosaurus</i>, and +<i>Streptospondylus</i>, and among the Turtles, the <i>Emys</i> and <i>Platemys</i>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span> +As in the Lower Oolite, so also in the Upper, Insects similar to +those by which we are surrounded, pursued their flight in the +meadows and hovered over the surface of the water. Of these, +however, too little is known for us to give any very precise indication +on the subject of their special organisation.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="Fig_122" id="Fig_122"></a> +<img src="images/illo276.png" alt="Fig. 122" width="400" height="536" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 122.—Bird of Solenhofen (Archæopteryx).</p></div> + +<p>The most remarkable fact relating to this period is the appearance +of the first bird. Hitherto the Mammals, and of these only imperfectly-organised +species, namely, the Marsupials, have alone appeared. +It is interesting to witness birds appearing immediately after. In +the quarries of lithographic stone at Solenhofen, the remains of a +bird, with feet and feathers, have been found, but without the head. +These curious remains are represented in <a href="#Fig_122">Fig. 122</a>, in the position +in which they were discovered. The bird is usually designated the +Bird of Solenhofen.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><a name="Fig_123" id="Fig_123"></a> +<img src="images/illo277.png" alt="Fig. 123" width="250" height="116" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 123.<br /> +Shell of Physa fontinalis.</p></div> + +<p>The Oolitic seas of this series contained Fishes belonging to the +genera <i>Asteracanthus</i>, <i>Strephodes</i>, <i>Lepidotus</i>, and <i>Microdon</i>. The +Cephalopodous Mollusca were not numerous, the predominating +genera belonging to the Lamellibranchs +and to the Gasteropods, which lived on +the shore. The reef-making Madrepores +or Corals were more numerous. A few +Zoophytes in the fossil state testify to the +existence of these extraordinary animals. +The fossils characteristic of the fauna of +the period include <i>Ammonites decipiens</i> and +<i>A. giganteus</i>, <i>Natica elegans</i> and <i>hemispherica</i>, <i>Ostrea deltoidea</i> and <i>O. +virgula</i>, <i>Trigonia gibbosa</i>, <i>Pholadomya multicostata</i> and <i>P. acuticostata</i>, +<i>Terebratula subsella</i>, and <i>Hemicidaris Purbeckensis</i>. Some <i>Fishes</i>, <i>Turtles</i>, +<i>Paludina</i>, <i>Physa</i> (<a href="#Fig_123">Fig. 123</a>), <i>Unio</i>, <i>Planorbis</i> (<a href="#Fig_201">Fig. 201</a>), and the +little crustacean bivalves, the Cypris, constituted the fresh-water fauna +of the period.</p> + +<p>The terrestrial flora of the period consisted of Ferns, Cycadeaceæ, +and Conifers; in the ponds and swamps some Zosteræ. The +<i>Zosteræ</i> are monocotyledonous plants of the family of the Naïdaceæ, +which grow in the sandy mud of maritime regions, forming there, with +their long, narrow, and ribbon-like leaves, vast prairies of the most +beautiful green. At low tides these masses of verdure appear somewhat +exposed. They would form a retreat for a great number of +marine animals, and afford nourishment to others.</p> + +<hr class="c05" /> + +<p class='pagenum' style="margin-top: -1em;"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></p> +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Plate_XX" id="Plate_XX"></a> +<img src="images/illo278.jpg" alt="Plate XX" width="600" height="386" /> +<p class="caption">XX.—Ideal Landscape of the Upper Oolitic Period.</p></div> + +<p>On the opposite page an ideal landscape of the period (<span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_XX">Plate XX.</a></span>) +represents some of the features of the Upper Oolite, especially the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span> +vegetation of the Jurassic period. The <i>Sphenophyllum</i>, among the +Tree-ferns, is predominant in this vegetation; some <i>Pandanas</i>, a few +<i>Zamites</i>, and many <i>Conifers</i>, but we perceive no Palms. A coral islet +rises out of the sea, having somewhat of the form of the <i>atolls</i> of +Oceania, indicating the importance these formations assumed in the +Jurassic period. The animals represented are the <i>Crocodileimus</i> of +Jourdan, the <i>Ramphorynchus</i>, with the imprints which characterise its +footsteps, and some of the invertebrated animals of the period, as the +<i>Asteria</i>, <i>Comatula</i>, <i>Hemicidaris</i>, <i>Pteroceras</i>. Aloft in the air floats the +bird of Solenhofen, the <i>Archæopteryx</i>, which has been re-constructed +from the skeleton, with the exception of the head, which remains +undiscovered.</p> + +<hr class="c05" /> + +<p>The rocks which represent the Upper Oolite are usually divided +into two series: 1. The <i>Purbeck Beds</i>; 2. The <i>Portland Stone +and Sand</i>; and 3. The <i>Kimeridge Clay</i>.</p> + +<p>The <i>Kimeridge Clay</i>, which in many respects bears a remarkable +resemblance to the Oxford Clay, is composed of blue or yellowish +argillaceous beds, which occur in the state of clay and shale (containing +locally beds of bituminous schist, sometimes forming a sort of +earthy impure coal), and several hundred feet in thickness. These +beds are well developed at Kimeridge, in Dorsetshire, whence the +clay takes its name. In some parts of Wiltshire the beds of +bituminous matter have a shaly appearance, but there is an absence +of the impressions of plants which usually accompany the bitumen, +derived from the decomposition of plants. These rocks, with their +characteristic fossils, <i>Cardium striatulum</i> and <i>Ostrea deltoidea</i>, are +found throughout England: in France, at Tonnerre, Dept. Yonne; +at Havre; at Honfleur; at Mauvage; in the department of the +Meuse it is so rich in shells of <i>Ostrea deltoidea</i> and <i>O. virgula</i>, that, +“near Clermont in Argonne, a few leagues from St. Menehould,” +says Lyell,<a name="FNanchor_70" id="FNanchor_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a> “where these indurated marls crop out from beneath the +Gault, I have seen them (<i>Gryphæa virgula</i>) on decomposing leave the +surface of every ploughed field literally strewed over with this fossil +oyster.”</p> + +<p>The second section of this series consists of the oolitic limestone of +Portland, which is quarried in the Isle of Portland and in the cliffs of +the Isle of Purbeck in Dorsetshire, and also at Chilmark in the Vale +of Wardour, in Wiltshire. In France, the Portland beds are found +near Boulogne, at Cirey-le-Château, Auxerre, and Gray (Haute Saône).</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span>The Isle, +or rather peninsula of Portland,<a name="FNanchor_71" id="FNanchor_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a> off the Dorsetshire +coast, rises considerably above the sea-level, presenting on the side of +the port a bold line of cliffs, connected with the mainland by the +Chesil bank,<a name="FNanchor_72" id="FNanchor_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a> an extraordinary formation, consisting of a beach of +shingle and pebbles loosely piled on the blue Kimeridge clay, and +stretching ten miles westward along the coast. The quarries are +chiefly situated in the northerly part of the island. The story told of +this remarkable island is an epitome of the revolutions the surface of +the earth has undergone. The slaty Purbeck beds which overlie +the Portland stone are of a dark-yellowish colour; they are burnt in +the neighbourhood for lime. The next bed is of a whiter and more +lively colour. It is the stone of which the portico of St. Paul’s and +many of the houses of London, built in Queen Anne’s time, were +constructed. The building-stone contains fossils exclusively marine. +Upon this stratum rests a bed of limestone formed in lacustrine +waters. Finally, upon this bed rests another deposit of a substance +which consists of very well-preserved vegetable earth or <i>humus</i>, quite +analogous to our vegetable soil, of the thickness of from fifteen to +eighteen inches, and of a blackish colour; it contains a strong proportion +of carbonaceous earth; it abounds in the silicified remains of +Conifers and other plants, analogous to the <i>Zamia</i> and <i>Cycas</i>—this +soil is known as the “dirt-bed.” The trunks of great numbers of +silicified trees and tropical plants are found here erect, their roots +fixed in the soil, and of species differing from any of our forest trees. +“The ruins of a forest upon the ruins of a sea,” says Esquiros, “the +trunks of these trees were petrified while still growing. The region +now occupied by the narrow channel and its environs had been at +first a sea, in whose bed the Oolitic deposits which now form the +Portland stone accumulated: the bed of the sea gradually rose and +emerged from the waves. Upon the land thus rescued from the +deep, plants began to grow; they now constitute with their ruins the +soil of the dirt-bed. This soil, with its forest of trees, was afterwards +plunged again into the waters—not the bitter waters of the ocean, but +in the fresh waters of a lake formed at the mouth of some great river.”</p> + +<p>Time passed on, however; a calcareous sediment brought from +the interior by the waters, formed a layer of mud over the dirt-bed; +finally, the whole region was covered by a succession of calcareous +deposits, until the day when the Isle of Portland was again revealed +to light. “From the facts observed,” says Lyell, “we may infer:—1.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span> +That those beds of the Upper Oolite, called the Portland, which +are full of marine shells, were overspread with fluviatile mud, +which became dry land, and covered with a forest, throughout a +portion of space now occupied by the south of England, the climate +being such as to admit of the growth of the <i>Zamia</i> and <i>Cycas</i>. 2. +This land at length sank down and was submerged with its forest +beneath a body of fresh water from which sediment was thrown down +enveloping fluviatile shells. 3. The regular and uniform preservation +of this thin bed of black earth over a distance of many miles, shows +that the change from dry land to the state of a fresh-water lake, or +estuary, was not accompanied by any violent denudation or rush of +water, since the loose black earth, together with the trees which lay +prostrate on its surface, must inevitably have been swept away had +any such violent catastrophe taken place.”<a name="FNanchor_73" id="FNanchor_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="Fig_124" id="Fig_124"></a> +<img src="images/illo282.png" alt="Fig. 124" width="350" height="231" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 124.—Geological humus. <i>a</i>, Fresh-water calcareous +slate (Purbeck); <i>b</i>, Dirt-bed, with roots and +stems of trees; <i>c</i>, Fresh-water beds; <i>d</i>, Portland Stone.</p></div> + +<p>The soil known as the <i>dirt-bed</i> is nearly horizontal in the Isle of +Portland; but we discover it again not far from there in the sea-cliffs +of the Isle of Purbeck, having +an inclination of 45°, where +the trunks continue perfectly +parallel among themselves, +affording a fine example of a +change in the position of +beds originally horizontal. +<a href="#Fig_124">Fig. 124</a> represents this +species of geological <i>humus</i>. +“Each <i>dirt-bed</i>” says Sir +Charles Lyell, “may, no +doubt, be the memorial of +many thousand years or centuries, +because we find that +two or three feet of vegetable +soil is the only monument which many a tropical forest has left of its +existence ever since the ground on which it now stands was first +covered with its shade.”<a name="FNanchor_74" id="FNanchor_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a></p> + +<p>This bed of vegetable soil is, then, near the summit of that long +and complicated series of beds which constitute the Jurassic period; +these ruins, still vegetable, remind us forcibly of the coal-beds, for +they are nothing else than a less advanced state of that kind of +vegetable fossilisation which was perfected on such an immense scale, +and during an infinite length of time in the coal period.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span>The Purbeck beds, which are sometimes subdivided into Lower, +Middle, and Upper, are mostly fresh-water formations, intimately +connected with the Upper Portland beds. But there they begin and +end, being scarcely recognisable except in Dorsetshire, in the sea-cliffs +of which they were first studied. They are finely exposed +in Durdlestone Bay, near Swanage, and at Lulworth Cove, on the +same coast. The <i>lower beds</i> consist of a purely fresh-water marl, eighty +feet thick, containing shells of <i>Cypris</i>, <i>Limnæa</i>, and some <i>Serpulæ</i> in +a bed of marl of brackish-water origin, and some <i>Cypris</i>-bearing +shales, strangely broken up at the west end of the Isle of Purbeck.</p> + +<p>The <i>Middle series</i> consists of twelve feet of marine strata known as +the “cinder-beds,” formed of a vast accumulation of <i>Ostrea distorta</i>, +resting on fresh-water strata full of <i>Cypris fasciculata</i>, <i>Planorbis</i>, and +<i>Limnæa</i>, by which this strata has been identified as far inland as the +vale of Wardour in Wiltshire. Above the cinder-beds are shales and +limestones, partly of fresh-water and partly of brackish-water origin, +in which are Fishes, many species of Lepidotus, and the crocodilian +reptile, <i>Macrorhynchus</i>. On this rests a purely marine deposit, with +<i>Pecten</i>, <i>Avicula</i>, &c. Above, again, are brackish beds with <i>Cyrena</i>, +overlying which is thirty feet of fresh-water limestone, with <i>Fishes</i>, +<i>Turtles</i>, and <i>Cyprides</i>.</p> + +<p>The <i>upper beds</i> are purely fresh-water strata, about fifty feet thick, +containing <i>Paludina</i>, <i>Physa</i>, <i>Limnæa</i>, all very abundant. In these +beds the Purbeck marble, formerly much used in the ornamental +architecture of the old English cathedrals, was formerly quarried. +(See <a href="#Note274">Note</a>, page 274.)</p> + +<hr class="c05" /> + +<p>A few words may be added, in explanation of the term <i>oolite</i>, +applied to this sub-period of the Jurassic formation. In a great +number of rocks of this series the elements are neither crystalline nor +amorphous—they are, as we have already said, oolitic; that is to say, +the mass has the form of the roe of certain fishes. The question +naturally enough arises, Whence this singular oolitic structure assumed +by the components of certain rocks? It is asserted that the grinding +action of the sea acting upon the precipitated limestone produces +rounded forms analogous to grains of sand. This hypothesis may +be well founded in some cases. The marine sediments which are +deposited in some of the warm bays of Teneriffe are found to take +the spheroidal granulated form of the oolite. But these local facts +cannot be made to apply to the whole extent of the oolitic formations. +We must, therefore, look further for an explanation of the phenomena.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span>It is admitted that if the cascades of Tivoli, for example, can give +birth to the oolitic grains, the same thing happens in the quietest +basins, that in stalactite-caverns oolitic grains develop themselves, +which afterwards, becoming cemented together from the continued, +but very slow, affluence of the calcareous waters, give rise to certain +kinds of oolitic rocks.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, it is known that nodules, more or less large, +develop themselves in marls in consequence of the concentration of +the calcareous elements, without the possibility of any wearing action +of water. Now, as there exists every gradation of size between the +smallest oolitic grains and the largest concretions, it is reasonable to +suppose that the oolites are equally the product of concentration.</p> + +<p>Finally, from research to research, it is found that perfectly +constituted oolites—that is to say, concentric layers, as in the +Jurassic limestone—develop themselves in vegetable earth in places +where the effects of water in motion is not more admissible than in +the preceding instances.</p> + +<p>Thus we arrive at the conclusion, that if Nature sometimes forms +crystals with perfect terminations in magmas in the course of solidification, +she gives rise also to spheroidal forms surrounding various +centres, which sometimes originate spontaneously, and in other cases +are accumulated round the débris of fossils, or even mere grains of +sand. Nevertheless, all mineral substances are not alike calculated +to produce oolitic rocks; putting aside some particular cases, this +property is confined to limestone and oxide of iron.</p> + +<hr class="c05" /> + +<p>With regard to the distribution of the Jurassic formation on the +terrestrial globe, it may be stated that the Cotteswold Hills in +England, and in France the Jura mountains, are almost entirely composed +of these rocks, the several series of beds being all represented +in them—this circumstance, in fact, induced Von Humboldt to name +the formation after this latter range. The Upper Lias also exists in +the Pyrenees and in the Alps; in Spain; in many parts of Northern +Italy; in Russia, especially in the government of Moscow, and in +the Crimea; but it is in Germany where it occupies the most important +place. A thin bed of oolitic limestone presents, at Solenhofen +in Bavaria, a geological repository of great celebrity, containing +fossil Plants, Fishes, Insects, Crustaceans, with some Pterodactyles, +admirably preserved; it yielded also some of the earliest of the +feathered race. The fine quarries of lithographic stone at Pappenheim, +so celebrated all over Europe, belong to the Jurassic +formation.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span>It has recently been announced that these rocks have been found +in India; they contribute largely to the formation of the main mass +of the Himalayas, and to the chain of the Andes in South America; +finally, from recent investigations, they seem to be present in New +Zealand.</p> + +<p>In England the Lias constitutes a well-defined belt about thirty +miles broad, extending from Dorsetshire, in the south, to Yorkshire, +in the north, formed of alternate beds of clay, shales, and limestone +(with layers of jet), on the coast near Whitby. It is rich, as we have +seen, in ancient life, and that in the strongest forms imaginable. +From the unequal hardness of the rocks it comprises, it stands out +boldly in some of the minor ranges of hills, adding greatly to the +picturesque beauty of the scenery in the centre of the country. In +Scotland the formation occupies a very limited space.</p> + +<p>A map of the country at the close of the Jurassic period would +probably show double the extent of dry land in the British Islands, +compared with what it displayed as an island in the primordial ocean; +but Devon and Cornwall had long risen from the sea, and it is probable +that the Jurassic beds of Dorsetshire and France were connected +by a tongue of land running from Cherbourg to the Liassic beds of +Dorsetshire, and that Boulogne, still an island, was similarly connected +with the Weald.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="Fig_125" id="Fig_125"></a> +<img src="images/illo285.png" alt="Fig. 125" width="350" height="249" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 125.—Crioceras Duvallii, Sowerby.<br /> +A non-involuted Ammonite.<br /> +(Neocomian.)</p></div> + +<div class="indented fsize80"><p><a name="Note274" id="Note274"></a><span class="smcap">Note.</span>—Sections of the Purbeck +strata of Dorsetshire have been constructed by +Mr. Bristow, from actual measurement, in the several localities in the Isle of +Purbeck, where they are most clearly and instructively displayed.</p> + +<p>These sections, published by the Geological Survey, show in detail the beds +in their regular and natural order of succession, with the thickness, mineral +character, and contents, as well as the fossils, of each separate bed.</p></div> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></p> + +<h3>THE CRETACEOUS PERIOD.</h3> + +<p>The name <i>Cretaceous</i> (from <i>creta</i>, chalk) is given to this epoch in the +history of our globe because the rocks deposited by the sea, towards +its close, are almost entirely composed of chalk (carbonate of lime).</p> + +<p>Carbonate of lime, however, does not now appear for the first +time as a part of the earth’s crust; we have already seen limestone +occurring, among the terrestrial materials, from the Silurian period; +the Jurassic formation is largely composed of carbonate of lime in +many of its beds, which are enormous in number as well as extent; it +appears, therefore, that in the period called <i>Cretaceous</i> by geologists, +carbonate of lime was no new substance in the constitution of the +globe. If geologists have been led to give this name to the period, it +is because it accords better than any other with the characteristics of +the period; with the vast accumulations of chalky or earthy limestone +in the Paris basin, and the beds of so-called Greensand, and Chalk of +the same age, so largely developed in England.</p> + +<p>We have already endeavoured to establish the origin of lime, in +speaking of the Silurian and Devonian periods, but it may be useful to +recapitulate the explanation here, even at the risk of repeating ourselves.</p> + +<p>We have said that lime was, in all probability, introduced to the +globe by thermal waters flowing abundantly through the fissures, dislocations, +and fractures in the ground, which were themselves caused +by the gradual cooling of the globe; the central nucleus being the +grand reservoir and source of the materials which form the solid +crust. In the same manner, therefore, as the several eruptive substances—such +as granites, porphyries, trachytes, basalts, and lava—have +been ejected, so have thermal waters charged with carbonate +of lime, and often accompanied by silica, found their way to the +surface in great abundance, through the fissures, fractures, and dislocations +in the crust of the earth. We need only mention here the +Iceland geysers, the springs of Plombières, and the well-known +thermal springs of Bath and elsewhere in this country.</p> + +<p>But how comes lime in a state of bicarbonate, dissolved in these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span> +thermal waters, to form rocks? That is what we propose to +explain.</p> + +<p>During the primary geological periods, thermal waters, as they +reached the surface, were discharged into the sea and united themselves +with the waves of the vast primordial ocean, and the waters of +the sea became sensibly calcareous—they contained, it is believed, +from one to two per cent. of lime. The innumerable animals, especially +Zoophytes, and Mollusca with solid shells, with which the +ancient seas swarmed, secreted this lime, out of which they built up +their mineral dwelling—or shell. In this liquid and chemically +calcareous medium, the Foraminifera and Polyps of all forms swarmed, +forming an innumerable population. Now what became of the bodies +of these creatures after death? They were of all sizes, but chiefly +microscopic; that is, so small as to be individually all but invisible to +the naked eye. The perishable animal matter disappeared in the +bosom of the waters by decomposition, but there still remained behind +the indestructible inorganic matter, that is to say, the carbonate of +lime forming their testaceous covering; these calcareous deposits +accumulating in thick beds at the bottom of the sea, became compacted +into a solid mass, and formed a series of continuous beds +superimposed on each other. These, increasing imperceptibly in the +course of ages, ultimately formed the rocks of the <i>Cretaceous</i> period, +which we have now under consideration.</p> + +<p>These statements are not, as the reader might conceive from their +nature, a romantic conception invented to please the imagination of +those in search of a system—the time is past when geology should be +regarded as the romance of Nature—nor has what we advance at all +the character of an arbitrary conception. One is no doubt struck +with surprise on learning, for the first time, that all the limestone rocks, +all the calcareous stones employed in the construction of our dwellings, +our cities, our castles and cathedrals, were deposited in the seas +of an earlier world, and are only composed of an aggregation of +shells of Mollusca, or fragments of the testaceous coverings of Foraminifera +and other Zoophytes—nay, that they were secreted from +the water itself, and then assimilated by these minute creatures, and +that this would appear to have been the great object of their creation +in such myriads. Whoever will take the trouble to observe, and +reflect on what he observes, will find all his doubts vanish. If +chalk be examined with a microscope, it will be found to be composed +of the remains of numerous Zoophytes, of minute and divers +kinds of shells, and, above all, of Foraminifera, so small that their +very minuteness seems to have rendered them indestructible. A<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span> +hundred and fifty of these small beings placed end to end, in a +line, will only occupy the space of about one-twelfth part of an +inch.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_126" id="Fig_126"></a> +<p class="caption">Chalk under the Microscope.</p> +<img src="images/illo288.png" alt="Fig. 126" width="450" height="450" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 126.—Chalk of Meudon (magnified).</p></div> + +<p>Much of this curious information was unknown, or at least only +suspected, when Ehrenberg began his microscopical investigations. +From small samples of chalk reduced to powder, placed upon the +object-glass, and examined under the microscope, Ehrenberg prepared +the designs which we reproduce from his learned micrographical +work, in which some of the elegant forms discovered in the Chalk +are illustrated, greatly magnified. <a href="#Fig_126">Fig. 126</a> represents the chalk of +Meudon, in France, in which ammonite-like forms of Foraminifera +and others, equally beautiful, appear. <a href="#Fig_127">Fig. 127</a>, from the chalk +of Gravesend, contains similar objects. <a href="#Fig_128">Fig. 128</a> is an example<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span> +of chalk from the island of Moën, in Denmark; and <a href="#Fig_129">Fig. 129</a>, that +which is found in the Tertiary rocks of Cattolica, in Sicily. In all +these the shells of Ammonites appear, with clusters of round Foraminifera +and other Zoophytes. In two of these engravings (<a href="#Fig_126">Figs. +126</a> and <a href="#Fig_128">128</a>), the chalk is represented in two modes—in the upper +half, by transparency or transmitted light; in the lower half, the mass +is exhibited by superficial or reflected light.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_127" id="Fig_127"></a> +<p class="caption">Chalk under the Microscope.</p> +<img src="images/illo289.png" alt="Fig. 127" width="450" height="451" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 127.—Chalk of Gravesend. (After Ehrenberg).—Magnified.</p></div> + +<p>Observation, then, establishes the truth of the explanation we have +given concerning the formation of the chalky or Cretaceous rocks; +but the question still remains—How did these rocks, originally +deposited in the sea, become elevated into hills of great height, with +bold escarpments, like those known in England as the North and +South Downs? The answer to this involves the consideration of +other questions which have, at present, scarcely got beyond hypothesis.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_128" id="Fig_128"></a> +<p class="caption">Chalk under the Microscope.</p> +<img src="images/illo290.png" alt="Fig. 128" width="450" height="450" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 128.—Chalk of the Isle of Moën, Denmark.</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span>During and after the deposition of the Portland and Purbeck beds, +the entire Oolite Series, in the south and centre of England and +other regions, was raised above the sea-level and became dry land. +Above these Purbeck beds, as Professor Ramsay tells us [in the +district known as the Weald], “we have a series of beds of clays, +sandstones, and shelly limestones, indicating by their fossils that they +were deposited in an estuary where fresh water and occasionally +brackish water and marine conditions prevailed. The Wealden and +Purbeck beds indeed represent the delta of an immense river which +in size may have rivalled the Ganges, Mississippi, Amazon, &c., +and whose waters carried down to its mouth the remains of land-plants, +small Mammals, and great terrestrial Reptiles, and mingled +them with the remains of Fishes, Molluscs, and other forms native to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span> +its waters. I do not say that this immense river was formed or +supplied by the drainage of what we now call Great Britain—I do +not indeed know where this continent lay, but I do know that +England formed a part of it, and that in size it must have been +larger than Europe, and was probably as large as Asia, or the great +continent of America.” Speaking of the geographical extent of the +Wealden, Sir Charles Lyell says: “It cannot be accurately laid +down, because so much of it is concealed beneath the newer marine +formations. It has been traced about 200 miles from west to east; +from the coast of Dorsetshire to near Boulogne, in France; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span> +nearly 200 miles from north-west to south-east, from Surrey and +Hampshire to Beauvais, in France;”<a name="FNanchor_75" id="FNanchor_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a> but he expresses doubt, +supposing the formation to have been continuous, if the two areas +were contemporaneous, the region having undergone frequent changes, +the great estuary having altered its form, and even shifted its place. +Speaking of a hypothetical continent, Sir Charles Lyell says: “If it +be asked where the continent was placed from the ruins of which the +Wealden strata were derived, and by the drainage of which a great +river was fed, we are half tempted to speculate on the former +existence of the Atlantis of Plato. The story of the submergence of +an ancient continent, however fabulous in history, must have been +true again and again as a geological event.”<a name="FNanchor_76" id="FNanchor_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_129" id="Fig_129"></a> +<p class="caption">Chalk under the Microscope.</p> +<img src="images/illo291.png" alt="Fig. 129" width="450" height="455" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 129.—Chalk of Cattolica, Sicily (magnified).</p></div> + +<p>The proof that the Wealden series were accumulated under fresh-water +conditions and as a river deposit<a name="FNanchor_77" id="FNanchor_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a> lies partly in the nature of the +strata, but chiefly in the nature of the organic remains. The fish give no +positive proof, but a number of Crocodilian reptiles give more conclusive +evidence, together with the shells, most of them being of fresh-water +origin, such as Paludina, Planorbis, Lymnæa, Physa, and such like, +which are found living in many ponds and rivers of the present day. +Now and then we find bands of marine remains, not mixed with fresh-water +deposits, but interstratified with them; showing that at times +the mouth and delta of the river had sunk a little, and that it had +been invaded by the sea; then by gradual change it was lifted up, +and became an extensive fresh-water area. This episode at last comes +to an end by the complete submergence of the Wealden area; and +upon these fresh-water strata a set of marine sands and clays, and +upon these again thick beds of pure white earthy limestone of the +Cretaceous period were deposited. The lowest of these formations +is known as the Lower Greensand; then followed the clays of the +Gault, which were succeeded by the Upper Greensand. Then, +resting upon the Upper Greensand, comes the vast mass of Chalk +which in England consists of soft white earthy limestone, containing, +in the upper part, numerous bands of interstratified flints, which were +mostly sponges originally, that have since become silicified and +converted into flint. The strata of chalk where thickest are from +1,000 to 1,200 feet in thickness. Their upheaval into dry land brought +this epoch to an end; the conditions which had contributed to its +formation ceased in our area, and as the uppermost member of the +Secondary rocks, it closes the record of Mesozoic times in England.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span>Let us add, to remove any remaining doubts, that in the basin of +a modern European sea—the Baltic—a curious assemblage of phenomena, +bearing on the question, is now in operation. The bed and +coast-line of the Baltic continue slowly but unceasingly to rise, and +have done so for several centuries, in consequence of the constant +deposit which takes place of calcareous shells, added to the natural +accumulations of sand and mud. The Baltic Sea will certainly be +filled up in time by these deposits, and this modern phenomenon, +which we find in progress, so to speak, brings directly under our observation +an explanation of the manner in which the cretaceous rocks +were produced in the ancient world, more especially when taken +in connection with another branch of the same subject to which +Sir Charles Lyell called attention, in an address to the Geological +Society. It appears that just as the northern part of the Scandinavian +continent is now rising, and while the middle part south of +Stockholm remains unmoved, the southern extremity in Scania is +sinking, or at least has sunk, within the historic period; from which +he argues that there may have been a slow upheaval in one region, +while the adjoining one was stationary, or in course of submergence.</p> + +<p>After these explanations as to the manner in which the cretaceous +rocks were formed, let us examine into the state of animal and vegetable +life during this important period in the earth’s history.</p> + +<p>The vegetable kingdom of this period forms an introduction to the +vegetation of the present time. Placed at the close of the Secondary +epoch, this vegetation prepares us for transition, as it were, to the +vegetation of the Tertiary epoch, which, as we shall see, has a great +affinity with that of our own times.</p> + +<p>The landscapes of the ancient world have hitherto shown us some +species of plants of forms strange and little known, which are now +extinct. But during the period whose history we are tracing, the +vegetable kingdom begins to fashion itself in a less mysterious +manner; Palms appear, and among the regular species we recognise +some which differ little from those of the tropics of our days. The +dicotyledons increase slightly in number amid Ferns and Cycads, +which have lost much of their importance in numbers and size; we +observe an obvious increase in the dicotyledons of our own temperate +climate, such as the alder, the wych-elm, the maple, and the +walnut, &c.</p> + +<p>“As we retire from the times of the primitive creation,” says +Lecoq, “and slowly approach those of our own epoch, the sediments +seem to withdraw themselves from the polar regions and +restrict themselves to the temperate or equatorial zones. The great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span> +beds of sand and limestone, which constitute the Cretaceous formation, +announce a state of things very different from that of the preceding +ages. The seasons are no longer marked by indications of +central heat; zones of latitude already show signs of their existence.</p> + +<p>“Hitherto two classes of vegetation predominated: the cellular +<i>Cryptogams</i> at first, the dicotyledonous <i>Gymnosperms</i> afterwards; and +in the epoch which we have reached—the transition epoch of vegetation—the +two classes which have reigned heretofore become +enfeebled, and a third, the dicotyledonous <i>Angiosperms</i>, timidly take +possession of the earth—they consist at first of a small number of +species, and occupy only a small part of the soil, of which they afterwards +take their full share; and in the succeeding periods, as in our +own times, we shall see that their reign is firmly established; during +the Cretaceous period, in short, we witness the appearance of the first +dicotyledonous <i>Angiosperms</i>. Some arborescent Ferns still maintain +their position, and the elegant <i>Protopteris Singeri</i>, Preissl., and P. +<i>Buvigneri</i>, Brongn., still unfold their light fronds to the winds of this +period. Some <i>Pecopteri</i>, differing from the Wealden species, live +along with them. Some <i>Zamites</i>, <i>Cycads</i>, and <i>Zamiostrobi</i> announce +that in the Cretaceous period the temperature was still high. New +Palms show themselves, and, among others, <i>Flabellaria chamæropifolia</i> +is especially remarkable for the majestic crown at its summit.</p> + +<p>“The <i>Conifers</i> have endured better than the <i>Cycadeæ</i>; they +formed then, as now, great forests, where <i>Damarites</i>, <i>Cunninghamias</i>, +<i>Araucarias</i>, <i>Eleoxylons</i>, <i>Abietites</i>, and <i>Pinites</i> remind us of numerous +forms still existing, but dispersed all over the earth.</p> + +<p>“From this epoch date the <i>Comptonias</i>, attributed to the Myricaceæ; +<i>Almites Friesii</i>, Nils., which we consider as one of the Betulaceæ; +<i>Carpinites arenaceus</i>, Gœp., which is one of the Cupuliferæ; +the <i>Salicites</i>, which are represented to us by the arborescent willows; +the Acerinæ would have their <i>Acerites cretaceæ</i>, Nils., and the +Juglanditæ, the <i>Juglandites elegans</i>, Gœp. But the most interesting +botanical event of this period is the appearance of the <i>Credneria</i>, +with its triple-veined leaves, of which no less than eight species have +been found and described, but whose place in the systems of classification +still remains uncertain. The <i>Crednerias</i>, like the <i>Salicites</i>, +were certainly trees, as were most of the species of this remote +epoch.”</p> + +<p>In the following illustration are represented two of the Palms +belonging to the Cretaceous period, restored from the imprints and +fragments of the fossil remains left by the trunk and branches in the +rocks of the period (<a href="#Fig_130">Fig. 130</a>.)</p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="Fig_130" id="Fig_130"></a> +<img src="images/illo295.png" alt="Fig. 130" width="350" height="504" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 130.—Fossil Palms restored.</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span>But if the vegetation of the Cretaceous period exhibits sensible +signs of approximation to that of our present era, we cannot say the +same of the animal creation. The time has not yet come when +Mammals analogous to those of our epoch gave animation to the +forests, plains, and shores of the ancient world; even the Marsupial +Mammals, which made their appearance in the Liassic and Oolitic +formations, no longer exist, so far as is known, and no others of the +class have taken their place. No climbing Opossum, with its young +ones, appears among the leaves of the Zamites. The earth appears +to be still tenanted by Reptiles, which alone break the solitudes +of the woods and the silence of the valleys. The Reptiles, which +seem to have swarmed in the seas of the Jurassic period, partook +of the crocodilian organisation, and those of this period seem to bear +more resemblance to the Lizards of our day. In this period the +remains of certain forms indicate that they stood on higher legs; they no +longer creep on the earth, and this is apparently the only approximation +which seems to connect them more closely with higher forms.</p> + +<p>It is not without surprise that we advert to the immense development, +the extraordinary dimensions which the Saurian family attained +at this epoch. These animals which, in our days, rarely exceed a +yard or so in length, attained in the Cretaceous period as much as +twenty. The marine lizard, which we notice under the name of +<i>Mosasaurus</i>, was then the scourge of the seas, playing the part of +the Ichthyosauri of the Jurassic period; for, from the age of the +Lias to that of the Chalk, the Ichthyosauri, the Plesiosauri, and +the Teleosauri were, judging from their organisation, the tyrants of +the waters. They appear to have become extinct at the close of +the Cretaceous period, and to give place to the <i>Mosasaurus</i>, to whom +fell the formidable task of keeping within proper limits the exuberant +production of the various tribes of Fishes and Crustaceans which +inhabited the seas. This creature was first discovered in the celebrated +rocks of St. Peter’s Mount at Maestricht, on the banks of the +Meuse. The skull alone was about four feet in length, while the +entire skeleton of <i>Iguanodon Mantelli</i>, discovered by Dr. Mantell in +the Wealden strata, has since been met with in the Hastings beds +of Tilgate Forest, measuring, as Professor Owen estimates, between +fifty and sixty feet in length. These enormous Saurians disappear +in their turn, to be replaced in the seas of the Tertiary epoch by the +Cetaceans; and henceforth animal life begins to assume, more and +more, the appearance it presents in the actually existing creation.</p> + +<p>Seeing the great extent of the seas of the Cretaceous period, +Fishes were necessarily numerous. The pike, salmon, and dory<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span> +tribes, analogous to those of our days, lived in the seas of this +period; they fled before the sharks and voracious dog-fishes, which +now appeared in great numbers, after just showing themselves in the +Oolitic period.</p> + +<p>The sea was still full of Polyps, Sea-urchins, Crustaceans of +various kinds, and many genera of Mollusca different from those of +the Jurassic period; alongside of gigantic Lizards are whole piles of +animalculæ—those Foraminifera whose remains are scattered in +infinite profusion in the Chalk, over an enormous area and of immense +thickness. The calcareous remains of these little beings, incalculable +in number, have indeed covered, in all probability, a great part of +the terrestrial surface. It will give a sufficient idea of the importance +of the Cretaceous period in connection with these organisms +to state that, in the rocks of the period, 268 genera of animals, +hitherto unknown, and more than 5,000 species of special living +beings have been found; the thickness of the rocks formed during +the period being enormous. Where is the geologist who will venture +to estimate the time occupied in creating and destroying the animated +masses of which this formation is at once both the cemetery +and the monument? For the purposes of description it will +be convenient to divide the Cretaceous series into lower and upper, +according to their relative ages and their peculiar fossils.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Lower Cretaceous Period.</span></h4> + +<table class="fsize80" summary="Table p 286-1"> + +<tr> +<td class="center padl1 padr1">English equivalents.</td> +<td colspan="2" class="center padl1 padr1">French classification.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padr1">Lower Greensand, upper part.</td> +<td class="left padl1">Étage</td> +<td class="left">Aptien st.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padr1">Lower Greensand, lower part.</td> +<td class="center">„</td> +<td class="left">Néocomien supérieur.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padr1">Weald clay and Hastings sands.</td> +<td class="center">„</td> +<td class="left">Néocomien inférieur.</td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<p>The Lower Wealden or Hastings Sand consists of sand, sandstone, +and calciferous grit, clay, and shale, the argillaceous strata predominating. +This part of the Wealden consists, in descending +order, of:—</p> + +<table class="fsize80" summary="Table p 286-2"> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2" class="right">Feet.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padr1">Tunbridge Wells sand—Sandstone and loam</td> +<td class="right">150</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padr1">Wadhurst clay—Blue and brown shale and clay, with a little calc grit</td> +<td class="right">100</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padr1">Ashdown sands—Hard sand, with beds of calc grit</td> +<td class="right">160</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padr1">Ashburnham sands—Mottled, white, and red clay and sandstone</td> +<td class="right">330</td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<p>The Hastings sand has a hard bed of white sand in its upper part, whose +steep natural cliffs produce the picturesque scenery of the “High +rocks” of Hastings in Sussex.</p> + +<p>Calcareous sandstone and grit, in which Dr. Mantell found the +remains of the <i>Iguanodon</i> and <i>Hylæosaurus</i>, form an upper member<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span> +of the Tunbridge Wells Sand. The formation extends over Hanover +and Westphalia; the Wealden of these countries, according to Dr. +Dunker and Von Meyer, corresponding in their fossils and mineral +characters with those of the English series. So that “we can +scarcely hesitate,” says Lyell, “to refer the whole to one great +delta.”<a name="FNanchor_78" id="FNanchor_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a></p> + +<p>The overlying Weald clay crops out from beneath the Lower +Greensand in various parts of Kent and Sussex, and again in the +Isle of Wight, and in the Isle of Purbeck, where it reappears at the +base of the chalk.</p> + +<p>The upper division (or the Weald clay) is, as we have said, of +purely fresh-water origin, and is supposed to have been the estuary +of some vast river which, like the African Quorra, may have formed a +delta some hundreds of miles broad, as suggested by Dr. Dunker +and Von Meyer.</p> + +<p>The Lower Greensand is known, also, as the <i>Néocomien</i>, after +Neocomium, the Latin name of the city of Neufchatel, in Switzerland, +where this formation is largely developed, and where, also, it was first +recognised and established as a distinct formation. Dr. Fitton, in +his excellent monograph of the Lower Cretaceous formations, gives +the following descending succession of rocks as observable in many +parts of Kent:—</p> + +<table class="fsize80" summary="Table p 287"> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="center">Feet.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right padr1">1.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Sand, white, yellowish, or brown, with concretions of limestone and chert</td> +<td class="right">70</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right padr1">2.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Sand, with green matter</td> +<td class="right">70 to 100</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right padr1">3.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Calcareous stone, called Kentish rag</td> +<td class="right">60 to 80</td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<p>These divisions, which are traceable more or less from the +southern part of the Isle of Wight to Hythe in Kent, present considerable +variations. At Atherfield, where sixty-three distinct strata, +measuring 843 feet, have been noticed, the limestone is wholly +wanting, and some fossils range through the whole series, while +others are confined to particular divisions; but Prof. E. Forbes states, +that when the same conditions are repeated in overlying strata the +same species reappear; but that changes of depth, or of the mineral +nature of the sea-bottom, the presence or absence of lime or of +peroxide of iron, the occurrence of a muddy, sandy, or gravelly +bottom, are marked by the absence of certain species, and the predominance +of others.<a name="FNanchor_79" id="FNanchor_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="Fig_131" id="Fig_131"></a> +<img src="images/illo299a.png" alt="Fig. 131" width="400" height="240" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 131.—Perna Mulleti. One-quarter natural size.<br /> +<i>a</i>, exterior; <i>b</i>, part of the upper hinge.</p></div> + +<p>Among the marine fauna of the Néocomian series the following<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span> +are the principal. Among the <i>Acephala</i>, one of the largest and most +abundant shells of the lower Néocomian, as displayed in the Atherfield +section, is the large <i>Perna Mulleti</i> (<a href="#Fig_131">Fig. 131</a>).</p> + +<p>The <i>Scaphites</i> have a singular boat-shaped form, wound with +contiguous whorls in one part, which is detached at the last chamber, +and projects in a more or less elongated condition.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="Fig_132" id="Fig_132"></a> +<img src="images/illo299b.png" alt="Fig. 132" width="400" height="149" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 132.—Hamites. One-third natural size.</p></div> + +<p><i>Hamites</i>, <i>Crioceras</i>, and <i>Ancyloceras</i> have club-like terminations at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span> +both extremities; they may almost be considered as non-involuted +Ammonites with the spiral evolutions disconnected or partially +unrolled, as in the engraving (<a href="#Fig_125">Figs. 125</a> and <a href="#Fig_132">132</a>). <i>Ancyloceras +Matheronianus</i> seems to have had spines projecting from the ridge +of each of the convolutions.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><a name="Fig_133" id="Fig_133"></a> +<img src="images/illo300a.png" alt="Fig. 133" width="250" height="454" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 133.—Shell of Turritella terebra.<br /> +(Living form.)</p></div> + +<p>The <i>Toxoceras</i> had the shell also curved, and not spiral.</p> + +<p>The <i>Baculites</i> had the shell differing from all Cephalopods, inasmuch<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span> +as it was elongated, conical, perfectly straight, sometimes very +slender, and tapering to a point.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><a name="Fig_134" id="Fig_134"></a> +<img src="images/illo300b.png" alt="Fig. 134" width="200" height="305" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 134.—Turrillites costatus.<br /> +(Chalk.)</p></div> + +<p>The <i>Turrilites</i> have the shell regular, spiral, and <i>sinistral</i>; that +is, turning to the left in an oblique spiral of contiguous whorls. The +engraving will convey the idea of their form (<a href="#Fig_134">Fig. 134</a>).</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><a name="Fig_135" id="Fig_135"></a> +<img src="images/illo301a.png" alt="Fig. 135" width="200" height="230" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 135—Terebrirostra lyra.<br /> +<i>a</i>, back view; <i>b</i>, side view.</p></div> + +<p>Among others, as examples of form, we append <a href="#Fig_133">Figs. 133</a>, <a href="#Fig_135">135</a>, <a href="#Fig_136">136</a>.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><a name="Fig_136" id="Fig_136"></a> +<img src="images/illo301b.png" alt="Fig. 136" width="200" height="175" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 136.—Terebratula deformis.</p></div> + +<p>This analysis of the marine fauna belonging to the Néocomian +formation might be carried much further, did space permit, or did it +promise to be useful; but, without illustration, any further merely +verbal description would be almost valueless.</p> + +<p>Numerous Reptiles, a few Birds, among which are some “Waders,” +belong to the genera of <i>Palæornis</i> or <i>Cimoliornis</i>; new Molluscs in +considerable quantities, and some extremely varied Zoophytes, constitute +the rich fauna of the Lower Chalk. A glance at the more +important of these animals, which we only know in a few mutilated +fragments, is all our space allows; they are true medals of the history +of our globe, medals, it is true, half effaced by time, but which +consecrate the memory of departed ages.</p> + +<p>In the year 1832 Dr. Mantell added to the wonderful discoveries +he had made in the Weald of Sussex, that of the great Lizard-of-the-woods, +the <i>hylæosaurus</i> (ὑλη, <i>wood</i>, σαυρος, <i>lizard</i>). This discovery +was made in Tilgate forest, near Cuckfield, and the animal appears to +have been from twenty to thirty feet in length. The osteological +characters presented by the remains of the Hylæosaurus are described +by Dr. Mantell as affording another example of the blending +of the Crocodilian with the Lacertian type of structure; for we have, +in the pectoral arch, the scapula or omoplate of a crocodile associated +with the coracoid of a lizard. Another remarkable feature +in these fossils is the presence of the large angular bones or spines, +which, there is reason to infer, constituted a serrated crest along the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span> +middle of the back; and the numerous small oval dermal bones +which appear to have been arranged in longitudinal series along +each side of the dorsal fringe.</p> + +<p>The <i>Megalosaurus</i>, the earliest appearance of which is among the +more ancient beds of the Liassic and Oolitic series, is again found at +the base of the Cretaceous rocks. It was, as we have seen, an enormous +lizard, borne upon slightly raised feet; its length exceeded forty feet, +and in bulk it was equal to an elephant seven feet high.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="Fig_137" id="Fig_137"></a> +<img src="images/illo302a.png" alt="Fig. 137" width="400" height="188" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 137.—Lower Jaw of the Megalosaurus.</p></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;"><a name="Fig_138" id="Fig_138"></a> +<img src="images/illo302b.png" alt="Fig. 138" width="150" height="422" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 138.—Tooth +of Megalosaurus.</p></div> + +<p>The Megalosaurus found in the ferruginous sands of Cuckfield, +in Sussex, in the upper beds of the Hastings Sands, must have been +at least sixty or seventy feet long. Cuvier considered that it partook +both of the structure of the Iguana and the Monitors, the latter of which +belong to the Lacertian Reptiles which haunt the banks of the Nile +and tropical India. The Megalosaurus was probably an amphibious +Saurian. The complicated structure and marvellous arrangement of +the teeth prove that it was essentially carnivorous. It fed probably +on other Reptiles of moderate size, such as the Crocodiles and +Turtles which are found in a fossil state in the same beds. The jaw +represented in <a href="#Fig_137">Fig. 137</a> is the most important fragment of the animal +we possess. It is the lower jaw, and supports many teeth: it shows +that the head terminated in a straight muzzle, thin and flat on the +sides, like that of the <i>Gavial</i>, the Crocodile of India. The teeth of +the Megalosaurus were in perfect accord with the destructive functions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span> +with which this formidable creature was endowed. They partake at +once of the nature of a knife, sabre, and saw. Vertical at their junction +with the jaw, they assume, with the increased age of the animal, a +backward curve, giving them the form of a gardener’s pruning-knife +(<a href="#Fig_138">Fig. 138</a>; also <i>c.</i> <a href="#Fig_179">Fig. 179</a>). After mentioning some other particulars, +respecting the teeth, Buckland says: “With teeth constructed so as +to cut with the whole of their concave edge, each movement of the +jaws produced the combined effect of a knife and a saw, at the same +time that the point made a first incision like that made by a point +of a double-cutting sword. The backward curvature taken by the +teeth at their full growth renders the escape of the prey when once +seized impossible. We find here, then, the same arrangements which +enable mankind to put in operation many of the instruments which +they employ.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><a name="Fig_139" id="Fig_139"></a> +<img src="images/illo303a.png" alt="Fig. 139" width="300" height="349" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 139.—Nasal Horn of Iguanodon.<br /> +Two-thirds natural size.</p></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><a name="Fig_140" id="Fig_140"></a> +<img src="images/illo303b.png" alt="Fig. 140" width="300" height="410" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 140.—Ammonites rostratus.<br /> +(Upper Greensand.)</p></div> + +<p>The <i>Iguanodon</i>, signifying <i>Iguana-toothed</i> (from the Greek word, +οδους, <i>tooth</i>), was more gigantic still than the Megalosaurus; one of the +most colossal, indeed, of all the Saurians of the ancient world which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span> +research has yet exposed to the light of day. Professor Owen and +Dr. Mantell were not agreed as to the form of the tail; the former +gentleman assigning it a short tail, which would affect Dr. Mantell’s +estimate of its probable length of fifty or sixty feet; the largest thigh-bone +yet found measures four feet eight inches in length. The form +and disposition of the feet, added to the existence of a bony horn +(<a href="#Fig_139">Fig. 139</a>), on the upper part of the muzzle or snout, almost identifies +it as a species with the existing Iguanas, the only Reptile which is +known to be provided with such a horn upon the nose; there is, +therefore, no doubt as to the resemblance between these two animals; +but while the largest of living Iguanas scarcely exceeds a yard in +length, its fossil congener was probably fifteen or sixteen times that +length. It is difficult to resist the feeling of astonishment, not to say +incredulity, which creeps over one while contemplating so striking +a disproportion as that which subsists between this being of the +ancient world and its ally of the new.</p> + +<p>The Iguanodon carried, as we have said, a horn on its muzzle; +the bone of its thigh, as we have seen, surpassed that of the Elephant +in size; the form of the bone and feet demonstrates that it was +formed for terrestrial locomotion; and its dental system shows that +it was herbivorous.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="Fig_141" id="Fig_141"></a> +<img src="images/illo304.png" alt="Fig. 141" width="400" height="289" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 141.—Teeth of Iguanodon.<br /> +<i>a</i>, young tooth; <i>b</i>, <i>c</i>, teeth further advanced, and worn.<br /> +(Wealden.)</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span>The teeth (<a href="#Fig_141">Fig. 141</a>), which are the most important and characteristic +organs of the whole animal, are imbedded laterally in +grooves, or sockets, in the dentary bone; there are three or four +sockets of successional teeth on the inner side of the base of the old +teeth. The place thus occupied by the edges of the teeth, their +trenchant and saw-like form, their mode of curvature, the points +where they become broader or narrower which turn them into a +species of nippers or scissors—are all suitable for cutting and +tearing the tough vegetable substances which are also found +among the remains buried with this colossal reptile, a restoration of +which is represented in <span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_XXI">Plate XXI.</a></span>, p. 296.</p> + +<hr class="c05" /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="Fig_142" id="Fig_142"></a> +<img src="images/illo305.png" alt="Fig. 142" width="400" height="340" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 142.—Fishes of the Cretaceous period.<br /> +1, Beryx Lewesiensis; 2, Osmeroides Mantelli.</p></div> + +<p>The Cretaceous seas contained great numbers of Fishes, among +which some were remarkable for their strange forms. The <i>Beryx +Lewesiensis</i> (1), and the <i>Osmeroides Mantelli</i> (2) (<a href="#Fig_142">Fig. 142</a>), are +restorations of these two species as they are supposed to have been +in life. The <i>Odontaspis</i> is a new genus of Fishes which may be +mentioned. <i>Ammonites rostratus</i> (<a href="#Fig_140">Fig. 140</a>), and <i>Exogyra conica</i> +(<a href="#Fig_147">Fig. 147</a>), are common shells in the Upper Greensand.</p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295"></a></p> +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Plate_XXI" id="Plate_XXI"></a> +<img src="images/illo307.png" alt="Plate XXI" width="600" height="378" /> +<p class="caption">XXI.—Ideal scene in the Lower Cretaceous Period, with Iguanodon and Megalosaurus.</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span>The seas of the Lower Cretaceous period were remarkable in +a zoological point of view for the great number of species and the +multiplicity of generic forms of molluscous Cephalopods. The +Ammonites assume quite gigantic dimensions; and we find among +them new species distinguished by their furrowed transverse spaces, +as in the <i>Hamites</i> (<a href="#Fig_132">Fig. 132</a>). Some of the <i>Ancyloceras</i> attained the +magnitude of six feet, and other genera, as the <i>Scaphites</i>, the +<i>Toxoceras</i>, the <i>Crioceras</i> (<a href="#Fig_125">Fig. 125</a>), and other Mollusca, unknown till +this period, appeared now. Many Echinoderms, or sea-urchins, and +Zoophytes, have enriched these rocks with their animal remains, and +would give its seas a condition quite peculiar.</p> + +<p>On the opposite page an ideal landscape of the period is represented +(<span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_XXI">Plate XXI.</a></span>), in which the Iguanodon and Megalosaurus +struggle for the mastery in the centre of a forest, which enables us +also to convey some idea of the vegetation of the period. Here we +note a vegetation at once exotic and temperate—a flora like that of +the tropics, and also resembling our own. On the left we observe +a group of trees, which resemble the dicotyledonous plants of our +forests. The elegant <i>Credneria</i> is there, whose botanical place is +still doubtful, for its fruit has not been found, although it is believed +to have belonged to plants with two seed-leaves, or dicotyledonous, +and the arborescent Amentaceæ. An entire group of trees, composed +of Ferns and Zamites, are in the background; in the extreme +distance are some Palms. We also recognise in the picture the +alder, the wych-elm, the maple, and the walnut-tree, or at least +species analogous to these.</p> + +<hr class="c05" /> + +<p>The Néocomian beds in France are found in Champagne, in the +departments of the Aube, the Yonne, the Haute-Alps, &c. They +are largely developed in Switzerland at Neufchatel, and in Germany.</p> + +<p>1. The Lower Néocomian consists of marls and greyish clay, +alternating with thin beds of grey limestone. It is very thick, and +occurs at Neufchatel and in the Drôme. The fossils are <i>Spatangus +retusus</i>, <i>Crioceras</i> (<a href="#Fig_125">Fig. 125</a>), <i>Ammonites Asterianus</i>, &c.</p> + +<p>2. <i>Orgonian</i> (the limestone of Orgon). This group exists, also, +at Aix-les-Bains in Savoy, at Grenoble, and generally in the thick, +white, calcareous beds which form the precipices of the Drôme. +The fossils <i>Chama ammonia</i>, <i>Pigaulus</i>, &c.</p> + +<p>3. The <i>Aptien</i> (or Greensand) consists generally of marls and +clay. In France it is found in the department of Vaucluse, at Apt +(whence the name Aptien), in the department of the Yonne, and in +the Haute-Marne. Fossils, <i>Ancyloceras Matheronianus</i>, <i>Ostrea aquila</i>,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span> +and <i>Plicatula placunea</i>. These beds consist here of greyish clay, +which is used for making tiles; there of bluish argillaceous limestone, +in black or brownish flags. In the Isle of Wight it becomes a fine +sandstone, greyish and slightly argillaceous, which at Havre, and in +some parts of the country of Bray, become well-developed ferruginous +sandstones.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><a name="Fig_143" id="Fig_143"></a> +<img src="images/illo309a.png" alt="Fig. 143" width="300" height="241" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 143.—Cypris spinigera.</p></div> + +<p>We have noted that the Lower Néocomian formation, although a +marine deposit, is in some respects the equivalent of the <i>Weald Clay</i>, +a fresh-water formation of considerable importance on account of its +fossils. We have seen that it was either formed at the mouth of a +great river, or the river was sufficiently powerful for the fresh-water +current to be carried out to sea, carrying with it some animals, +forming a fluviatile, or lacustrine fauna, on a small scale. These +were small Crustaceans of the genus <i>Cypris</i>, with some molluscous +Gasteropoda of the genera <i>Melania</i>, <i>Paludina</i>, and acephalous +Mollusca of the five genera <i>Cyrena</i>, <i>Unio</i>, <i>Mytilus</i>, <i>Cyclas</i>, and <i>Ostrea</i>. +Of these, <i>Cypris spinigera</i> (<a href="#Fig_143">Fig. 143</a>) and <i>Cypris Valdensis</i> (<a href="#Fig_144">Fig. 144</a>) +may be considered as among the most characteristic fossils of this +local fauna.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><a name="Fig_144" id="Fig_144"></a> +<img src="images/illo309b.png" alt="Fig. 144" width="300" height="240" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 144.—Cypris Valdensis.</p></div> + +<p>The Cretaceous series is not interesting for its fossils alone; it +presents also an interesting subject for study in a mineralogical point +of view. The white Chalk, examined under the microscope by +Ehrenberg, shows a curious globiform structure. The green part of +its sandstone and limestone constitutes very singular compounds. +According to the result of Berthier’s analysis, we must consider them +as silicates of iron. The iron shows itself here not in beds, as in +the Jurassic rocks, but in masses, in a species of pocket in the +Orgonian beds. They are usually hydrates in the state of hematites, +accompanied by quantities of ochre so abundant that they are +frequently unworkable. In the south of France these veins were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span> +mined to a great depth by the ancient monks, who were the metallurgists +of their age. But for the artist the important Orgonian beds +possess a special interest; their admirable vertical fractures, their +erect perpendicular peaks, each surpassing the other in boldness, +form his finest studies. In the Var, the defiles of Vésubia, of the +Esteron, and Tinéa, are jammed up between walls of peaks, for +many hundreds of yards, between which there is scarcely room for +a narrow road by the side of the roaring torrent. “In the Drôme,” +says Fournet, “the entrance to the beautiful valley of the Vercors is +closed during a part of the year, because, in order to enter, it is +necessary to cross the two gullies, the <i>Great</i> and <i>Little Goulet</i>, +through which the waters escape from the valley. Even during the +dry season, he who would enter the gorge must take a foot-bath.</p> + +<p>“This state of things could not last; and in 1848 it was curious +to see miners suspended on the sides of one of these lateral precipices, +some 450 feet above the torrent, and about an equal distance below +the summit of the Chalk. There they began to excavate cavities or +niches in the face of the rock, all placed on the same level, and +successively enlarged. These were united together in such a manner +as to form a road practicable for carriages; now through a gallery, +now covered by a corbelling, to look over which affords a succession +of surprises to the traveller.</p> + +<p>“This is not all,” adds M. Fournet: “he who traverses the high +plateaux of the country finds at every step deep diggings in the soil, +designated pits or <i>scialets</i>, the oldest of which have their sides +clothed with a curious vegetation, in which the <i>Aucolin</i> predominates; +shelter is found in these pits from the cutting winds which rage so +furiously in these elevated regions. Others form a kind of cavern, in +which a temperature obtains sufficient to freeze water even in the +middle of summer. These cavities form natural <i>glaciers</i>, which we +again find upon some of the table-lands of the Jura.</p> + +<p>“The cracks and crevasses of the limestone receive the waters +produced by falling rain and melted snow; true to the laws of all +fluid bodies, they filter through the rocks until they reach the lower +and impervious marly beds, where they form sheets of water, which +in course of time find some outlet through which they discharge +themselves. In this manner subterranean galleries, sometimes of +great extent, are formed, in which are assembled all the marvels +which crumbling stalactites, stalagmites, placid lakes, and headlong +torrents can produce; finally, these waters, forcing their way through +the external orifices, give rise to those fine cascades which, with the +first gushing torrent, form an actual river.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span>The <i>Albien</i> of Alc. D’Orbigny, which Lyell considers to be the +equivalent of the <i>Gault</i>, French authors treat as the “<i>glauconie</i>” formation, +the name being drawn from a rock composed of chalk with +greenish grains of <i>glauconite</i>, or silicate of iron, which is often mixed +with the limestone of this formation. The fossils by which it is identified +are very varied. Among its numerous types, we find Crustaceans +belonging to the genera <i>Arcania</i> and <i>Corystes</i>; many new Mollusca, +<i>Buccinum</i>, <i>Solen</i>, <i>Pterodonta</i>, <i>Voluta</i>, <i>Chama</i>, &c.; great numbers of +molluscous Brachiopods, forming highly-developed submarine strata; +some Echinoderms, unknown up to this period, and especially a great +number of Zoophytes; some Foraminifera, and many Polyzoa +(Bryozoa). The glauconitic formation consists of two groups of +strata: the <i>Gault</i> Clay and the <i>glauconitic</i> chalk, or Upper Greensand +and Chloritic Marl.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Upper Cretaceous Period.</span></h4> + +<p>During this phase of the terrestrial evolutions, the continents, to +judge from the fossilised wood which we meet with in the rocks +which now represent it, would be covered with a very rich vegetation, +nearly identical, indeed, with that which we have described in the +preceding sub-period; according to Adolphe Brongniart, the “age +of angiosperms” had fairly set in; the Cretaceous flora displays, he +considers, a transitional character from the Secondary to the Tertiary +vegetation; that the line between the gymnosperms, or naked-seeded +plants, and the angiosperms, having their seeds enclosed in seed-vessels, +runs between the Upper and Lower Cretaceous formations. +“We can now affirm,” says Lyell, “that these Aix-la-Chapelle +plants, called Credneria, flourished before the rich reptilian fauna of +the secondary rocks had ceased to exist. The Ichthyosaurus, +Pterodactyle, and Mosasaurus were of coeval date with the oak, the +walnut, and the fig.”<a name="FNanchor_80" id="FNanchor_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a></p> + +<p>The terrestrial fauna, consisting of some new Reptiles haunting +the banks of rivers, and Birds of the genus Snipe, have certainly +only reached us in small numbers. The remains of the marine fauna +are, on the contrary, sufficiently numerous and well preserved to give +us a great idea of its riches, and to enable us to assign to it a +characteristic facies.</p> + +<p>The sea of the Upper Cretaceous period bristled with numerous +submarine reefs, occupying a vast extent of its bed—reefs formed of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span> +Rudistes (Lamarck), and of immense quantities of various kinds of +corals which are everywhere associated with them. The Polyps, in +short, attain here one of the principal epochs of their existence, and +present a remarkable development of forms; the same occurs with the +Polyzoa (Bryozoa) and Amorphozoa; while, on the contrary, the +reign of the Cephalopods seems to end. Beautiful types of these +ancient reefs have been revealed to us, and we discover that they +have been formed under the influence of submarine currents, which +accumulated masses of these animals at certain points. Nothing is +more curious than this assemblage of <i>Rudistes</i>—still standing erect, +isolated or in groups—as may be seen, for instance, at the summit of +the mountains of the <i>Cornes</i> in the Corbières, upon the banks of the +pond of Berre in Provence, and in the environs of Martigues, at +La Cadière, at Figuières, and particularly above Beausset, near +Toulon.</p> + +<p>“It seems,” says Alcide D’Orbigny, “as if the sea had retired in +order to show us, still intact, the submarine fauna of this period, such +as it was when in life. There are here enormous groups of <i>Hippurites</i> +in their places, surrounded by Polyps, Echinoderms, and Molluscs, +which lived in union in these animal colonies, analogous to those +which still exist in the coral-reefs of the Antilles and Oceania. In +order that these groups should have been preserved intact, they must +first have been covered suddenly by sediment, which, being removed +by the action of the atmosphere, reveals to us, in their most secret +details, this Nature of the past.”</p> + +<p>In the Jurassic period we have already met with these isles or +reefs formed by the accumulation of Coral and other Zoophytes; they +even constituted, at that period, an entire formation called the <i>Coral-rag</i>. +The same phenomenon, reproduced in the Cretaceous seas, +gave rise to similar calcareous formations. We need not repeat what +we have said already on this subject when describing the Jurassic +period. The coral or madrepore isles of the Jurassic epoch and the +reefs of Rudistes and Hippurites of the Cretaceous period have the +same origin, and the <i>atolls</i> of Oceania are reproductions in our own +day of precisely similar phenomena.</p> + +<p>The invertebrate animals which characterise the Cretaceous age +are among</p> + +<div class="indented"> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Cephalopoda.</span></p> + +<p><i>Nautilus sublævigatus</i> and <i>N. Danicus; Ammonites rostratus; Belemnitella +mucronata.</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Gasteropoda.</span></p> + +<p><i>Voluta elongata; Phorus canaliculatus; Nerinea bisulcata; Pleurotomaria +Fleuriausa</i>, and <i>P. Santonensis; Natica supracretacea.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Acephala.</span></p> + +<p><i>Trigonia scabra; Inoceramus problematicus</i> and <i>I. Lamarckii; Clavigella +cretacea; Pholadomya æquivalvis; Spondylus spinosus; Ostrea +vesicularis; Ostrea larva; Janira quadricostata; Arca Gravesii; +Hippurites Toucasianus</i> and <i>H. organisans; Caprina Aguilloni; +Radiolites radiosus</i>, and <i>R. acuticostus.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Brachiopoda.</span></p> + +<p><i>Crania Ignabergensis; Terebratula obesa.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Polyzoa (Bryozoa) and Eschinodemata.</span></p> + +<p><i>Reticulipora obliqua; Ananchytes ovatus; Micraster cor-anguinum, +Hemiaster bucardium</i> and <i>H. Fourneli; Galerites albogalerus; +Cidaris Forchammeri; Palæocoma Furstembergii.</i></p> + +<p class="center">1. <span class="smcap">Polypi</span>; 2. <span class="smcap">Foraminifera</span>; 3. <span class="smcap">Amorphozoa</span>.</p> + +<p>1. <i>Cycollites elliptica; Thecosmilia rudis; Enallocœnia ramosa; +Meandrina Pyrenaica; Synhelia Sharpeana</i>. 2. <i>Orbitoides media; +Lituola nautiloidea; Flabellina rugosa</i>. 3. <i>Coscinopora cupuliformis; +Camerospongia fungiformis</i>.</p></div> + +<p>Among the numerous beings which inhabited the Upper Cretaceous +seas there is one which, by its organisation, its proportions, and +the despotic empire which it would exercise in the bosom of the +waters, is certainly most worthy of our attention. We speak of the +<i>Mosasaurus</i>, which was long known as the great animal of <i>Maestricht</i>, +because its remains were found near that city in the most modern of +the Cretaceous deposits.</p> + +<p>In 1780 a discovery was made in the quarries of Saint Peter’s +Rocks, near Maestricht, of the head of a great Saurian, which may +now be seen in the Museum of Natural History in Paris. This discovery<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span> +baffled all the science of the naturalists, at a period when the +knowledge of these ancient beings was still in its infancy. One saw +in it the head of a Crocodile; another, that of a Whale; memoirs +and monographs rained down, without throwing much light on the +subject. It required all the efforts of Adrian Camper, joined to those +of the immortal Cuvier, to assign its true zoological place to the +Maestricht animal. The controversy over this fine fossil engaged +the attention of the learned for the remainder of the last century and +far into the present.</p> + +<p>Maestricht is a city of the Netherlands, built on the banks of the +Meuse. At the gates of this city, in the hills which skirt the left or +western bank of the river, there rises a solid mass of cretaceous formation +known as Saint Peter’s Rocks. In composition these beds +correspond with the Meudon chalk beds, and they contain similar +fossils. The quarries are about 100 feet deep, consisting in the upper +part of twenty feet abounding in corals and Polyzoa, succeeded by +fifty feet of soft yellowish limestone, furnishing a fine building stone, +which has been quarried from time immemorial, and extends up to +the environs of Liège; this is succeeded by a few inches of greenish +soil with Encrinites, and then by a very white chalk with layers of +flints. The quarry is filled with marine fossils, often of great size.</p> + +<p>These fossil remains, naturally enough, attracted the attention of +the curious, and led many to visit the quarries; but of all the discoveries +which attracted attention the greatest interest attached to +the gigantic animal under consideration. Among those interested by +the discovery of these strange vestiges was an officer of the garrison +of Maestricht, named Drouin. He purchased the bones of the +workmen as the pick disengaged them from the rock, and concluded +by forming a collection in Maestricht, which was spoken of with +admiration. In 1766, the trustees of the British Museum, hearing of +this curiosity, purchased it, and had it removed to London. Incited +by the example of Drouin, Hoffmann, the surgeon of the garrison, +set about forming a similar collection, and his collection soon exceeded +that of Drouin’s Museum in riches. It was in 1780 that he +purchased of the quarrymen the magnificent fossil head, exceeding +six feet in length, which has since so exercised the sagacity of +naturalists.</p> + +<p>Hoffman did not long enjoy the fruits of his precious prize, however; +the chapter of the church of Maestricht claimed, with more or +less foundation, certain rights of property; and in spite of all protest, +the head of the <i>Crocodile of Maestricht</i>, as it was already called, +passed into the hands of the Dean of the Chapter, named Goddin,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span> +who enjoyed the possession of his antediluvian trophy until an +unforeseen incident changed the aspect of things. This incident +was nothing less than the bombardment and surrender of Maestricht +to the Army of the North under Kleber, in 1794.</p> + +<p>The Army of the North did not enter upon a campaign to obtain +the crania of Crocodiles, but it had on its staff a savant who was +devoted to such pacific conquests. Faujas de Saint-Fond, who was +the predecessor of Cordier in the Zoological Chair of the Jardin des +Plantes, was attached to the Army of the North as Scientific Commissioner; +and it is suspected that, in soliciting this mission, our +naturalist had in his eye the already famous head of the Crocodile of +the Meuse. However that may be, Maestricht fell into the hands of +the French, and Faujas eagerly claimed the famous fossil for the +French nation, which was packed with the care due to a relic numbering +so many thousands of ages, and dispatched to the Museum of +Natural History in Paris. On its arrival, Faujas undertook a labour +which, as he thought, was to cover him with glory. He commenced +the publication of a work entitled “The Mountain of Saint Peter of +Maestricht,” describing all the fossil objects found in the Dutch quarry +there, especially the <i>Great Animal</i> of Maestricht. He endeavoured +to prove that this animal was a Crocodile.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately for the glory of Faujas, a Dutch savant had devoted +himself to the same study. Adrian Camper was the son of a great +anatomist of Leyden, Pierre Camper, who had purchased of the +heirs of the surgeon Hoffman some parts of the skeleton of the +animal found in the quarry of Saint Peter. He had even published +in the <i>Philosophical Transactions</i> of London, as early as 1786, a +memoir, in which the animal is classed as a Whale. At the death of +his father, Adrian Camper re-examined the skeleton, and in a work +which Cuvier quotes with admiration, he fixed the ideas which were +until then floating about. He proved that the bones belonged neither +to a Fish, nor a Whale, nor to a Crocodile, but rather to a particular +genus of Saurian Reptiles, or marine lizards, closely resembling in +many important structural characters, existing Monitors and Iguanas, +and peculiar to rocks of the Cretaceous period, both in Europe and +America. Long before Faujas had finished the publication of his work +on <i>La Montagne de Saint-Pierre</i> that of Adrian Camper had appeared, +and totally changed the ideas of the world on this subject. It did not, +however, hinder Faujas from continuing to call his animal the Crocodile +of Maestricht. He even announced, some time after, that Adrian +Camper was also of his opinion. “Nevertheless,” says Cuvier, “it +is as far from the Crocodile as it is from the Iguana; and these two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span> +animals differ as much from each other in their teeth, bones, and +viscera, as the ape differs from the cat, or the elephant from the +horse.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="Fig_145" id="Fig_145"></a> +<img src="images/illo316.png" alt="Fig. 145" width="350" height="355" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 145.<br /><i>a</i>, skull of Monitor Niloticus; <i>b</i>, under-jaw of same.</p></div> + +<p>The masterly memoir of Cuvier, while confirming all the views of +Camper, has restored the individuality of this surprising being, which +has since received the name of Mosasaurus, that is to say, Saurian or +Lizard of the Meuse. It +appears, from the researches +of Camper and Cuvier, that +this reptile of the ancient +world formed an intermediate +genus between the +group of the Lacertilia, +which comprehends the +Monitors (represented in +<a href="#Fig_145">Fig. 145</a>), and the ordinary +Lizards; and the Lacertilia, +whose palates are armed +with teeth, a group which +embraces the <i>Iguana</i> and +the <i>Anolis</i>. In respect to +the Crocodiles, the Mosasaurus +resembles them in so +far as they all belong to the +same class of Reptiles.</p> + +<p>The idea of a lizard, +adapted for living and +moving with rapidity at the bottom of the water, is not readily +conceived; but a careful study of the skeleton of the Mosasaurus +reveals to us the secret of this anatomical mechanism. The vertebræ +of the animal are concave in front and convex behind; they +are attached by means of orbicular or arched articulations, which +permitted it to execute easily movements of flexion in any direction. +From the middle of the back to the extremity of the tail +these vertebræ are deficient in the articular processes which support +and strengthen the trunk of terrestrial vertebrated animals: they +resemble in this respect the vertebræ of the Dolphins; an organisation +necessary to render swimming easy. The tail, compressed +laterally at the same time that it was thick in a vertical direction, +constituted a straight rudder, short, solid, and of great power. +An arched bone was firmly attached to the body of each caudal +vertebra in the same manner as in Fishes, for the purpose of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span> +giving increased power to the tail; finally, the extremities of the +animal could scarcely be called feet, but rather paddles, like those +of the Ichthyosaurus, the Plesiosaurus, and the Whale. We see +in <a href="#Fig_146">Fig. 146</a> that the jaws are armed with numerous teeth, fixed in +their sockets by an osseous base, both large and solid. Moreover, +an altogether peculiar dental system occupies the vault of the palate, +as in the case of certain Serpents and Fishes, where the teeth are +directed backwards, like the barb of a hook, thus opposing themselves +to the escape of prey. Such a disposition of the teeth +sufficiently proves the destructive character of this Saurian.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_146" id="Fig_146"></a> +<img src="images/illo317.png" alt="Fig. 146" width="450" height="246" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 146.—Head of Mosasaurus Camperi.</p></div> + +<p>The dimensions of this aquatic lizard, estimated at twenty-four feet, +are calculated to excite surprise. But, as we have already seen, the +Ichthyosauri and Teleosauri were of great dimensions, as were also +the Iguanodon and Megalosaurus, which were ten times the size of +living Iguanas. In all these colossal forms we can only see a difference +of dimensions, the aggrandisement of a type; the laws which affected +the organisation of all these beings remain unchanged, they were not +errors of Nature—<i>monstrosities</i>, as we are sometimes tempted to call +them—but simply types, uniform in their structure, and adapted by +their dimensions to the physical conditions with which God had +surrounded them.</p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></p> +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Plate_XXII" id="Plate_XXII"></a> +<img src="images/illo318.jpg" alt="Plate XXII" width="600" height="385" /> +<p class="caption">XXII.—Ideal Landscape of the Cretaceous Period.</p></div> + +<p>In <span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_XXII">Plate XXII.</a></span> is represented an ideal view of the earth during +the <i>Upper Cretaceous</i> period. In the sea swims the Mosasaurus; +Molluscs, Zoophytes, and other animals peculiar to the period are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span> +seen on the shore. The vegetation seems to approach that of our +days; it consists of Ferns and Cycadeæ (Pterophyllums), mingled +with Palms, Willows, and some dicotyledons of species analogous to +those of our present epoch. Algæ, then very abundant, composed +the vegetation of the sea-shore.</p> + +<p>We have said that the terrestrial flora of the Upper Cretaceous +period was nearly identical with that of the Lower. The marine flora +of these two epochs included some Algæ, Confervæ, and Naïadæ, +among which may be noted the following species: <i>Confervites fasciculatus</i>, +<i>Chondrites Mantelli</i>, <i>Sargassites Hynghianus</i>. Among the +Naïadæ, <i>Zosterites Orbigniana</i>, <i>Z. lineata</i>, and several others.</p> + +<p>The <i>Confervæ</i> are fossils which may be referred, but with some +doubt, to the filamentous Algæ, which comprehend the great group of +the Confervæ. These plants were formed of simple or branching +filaments, diversely crossing each other; or subdivided, and presenting +traces of transverse partitions.</p> + +<p>The <i>Chondrites</i> are, perhaps, fossil Algæ, with thick, smooth +branching fronds, pinnatifid, or divided into pairs, with smooth +cylindrical divisions, and resembling <i>Chondrus</i>, <i>Dumontia</i>, and +<i>Halymenia</i> among living genera.</p> + +<p>The <i>Sargassites</i>, finally, have been vaguely referred to the genus +<i>Sargassum</i>, so abundant in tropical seas. These Algæ are distinguished +by a filiform, branched, or ramose stem, bearing foliaceous +appendages, regular, often petiolate, and altogether like leaves, and +globular vesicles, supported by a small stalk.</p> + +<hr class="c05" /> + +<p>The rocks which actually represent the <i>Upper Cretaceous period</i> +divide themselves naturally into six series; but British and French +geologists make some distinction: the former dividing them into 1, +<i>Maestricht</i> and <i>Faxoe</i> beds, said not to occur in England; 2, <i>White +Chalk</i>, with <i>flints</i>; 3, <i>White Chalk</i>, without <i>flint</i>s; 4, <i>Chalk Marl</i>; +5, <i>Upper Greensand</i>; and 6, <i>Gault</i>. The latter four are divided by +foreign geologists into 1, <i>Turonian</i>; 2, <i>Senonian</i>; 3, <i>Danian</i>.</p> + +<p>The <i>Gault</i> is the lowest member of the Upper Cretaceous group. +It consists of a bluish-black clay mixed with greensand, which +underlies the Upper Greensand. Near Cambridge, where the Gault +is about 200 feet thick, a layer of shells, bones, and nodules, called +the “Coprolite Bed,” from nine inches to a foot thick, represents the +Upper Greensand, and rests on the top of the Gault Clay. These +nodules and fossils are extensively worked on account of the phosphatic +matter they contain, and when ground and converted into superphosphate +of lime they furnish a very valuable agricultural manure.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span> +The Gault attains a thickness of about 100 feet on the south-east +coast of England. It extends into Devonshire, Mr. Sharpe considering +the Black Down beds of that country as its equivalents. It +shows itself in the Departments of the Pas-de-Calais, the Ardennes, +the Meuse, the Aube, the Yonne, the Ain, the Calvados, and the +Seine-Inférieure. It presents very many distinct mineral forms, +among which two predominate: green sandstone and blackish or +grey clays. It is important to know this formation, for it is at this +level that the Artesian waters flow in the wells of Passy and +Grenelle, near Paris.</p> + +<p>The <i>glaucous</i> chalk, or Upper Greensand, which is represented +typically in the departments of the Sarthe, of the Charente-Inférieure, +of the Yonne and the Var, is composed of quartzose sand, clay, +sandstone, and limestone. In this formation, at the mouth of the +Charente, we find a remarkable bed, which has been described as a +submarine forest. It consists of large trees with their branches imbedded +horizontally in vegetable matter, containing kidney-shaped +nodules of amber, or fossilised resin.</p> + +<p>The <i>Turonian</i> beds are so named because the province of +Touraine, between Saumur and Montrichard, possesses the best-developed +type of this strata. The mineralogical composition of the +beds is a fine and grey marly chalk, as at Vitry-le-François; of a pure +white chalk, with a very fine grain, slightly argillaceous, and poor in +fossils, in the Departments of the Yonne, the Aube, and the Seine-Inférieure; +granular tufaceous chalk, white or yellowish, mixed with +spangles of mica, and containing Ammonites, in Touraine and a part +of the Department of the Sarthe; white, grey, yellow, or bluish limestone, +inclosing Hippurites and Radiolites. In England the Lower +Chalk passes also into Chalk Marl, with Ammonites, and then into +beds known as the Upper Greensand, containing green particles of +glauconite, mixed, in Hampshire and Surrey, with much calcareous +matter. In the Isle of Wight this formation attains a thickness of 100 +feet. The <i>Senonian</i> beds take their name from the ancient <i>Senones</i>. +The city of Sens is in the centre of the best-characterised portion of +this formation; Epernay, Meudon, Sens, Vendôme, Royau, Cognac, +Saintes, are the typical regions of the formation in France. In the +Paris basin, inclusive of the Tours beds, it attains a thickness of +upwards of 1,500 feet, as was proved by the samples brought up, +during the sinking of the Artesian well, at Grenelle, by the borings.</p> + +<p>In its geographical distribution the Chalk has an immense range; +fine Chalk of nearly similar aspect and composition being met with +in all directions over hundreds of miles, alternating in its lower beds<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span> +with layers of flints. In England the higher beds usually consist of a +pure-white calcareous mass, generally too soft for building-stone, but +sometimes passing into a solid rock.</p> + +<p>The <i>Danian</i> beds, which occupy the summit of the scale in the +Cretaceous formation, are finely developed at Maestricht, on the +Meuse; and in the Island of Zeeland, belonging to Denmark; where +they are represented by a slightly yellowish, compact limestone, +quarried for the construction of the city of Faxoe. It is slightly +represented in the Paris basin at Meudon, and Laversines, in the +Department of the Oise, by a white and often rubbly limestone +known as <i>pisolitic limestone</i>. In this formation <i>Ammonites Danicus</i> +is found. The yellowish sandy limestone of Maestricht is referred to +the <i>Danian</i> type. Besides Molluscs, Polyps, and Polyzoa (Bryozoa), +this limestone contains remains of Fishes, Turtles, and Crocodiles. +But what has rendered this rock so celebrated was that it contained +the remains of the <i>great animal of Mæstricht</i>, the Mæsasaurus.</p> + +<p>At the close of the geological period, whose natural physiognomy +we have thus traced, Europe was still far from displaying the configuration +which it now presents. A map of the period would represent +the great basin of Paris (with the exception of a zone of Chalk), the +whole of Switzerland, the greater part of Spain and Italy, the whole +of Belgium, Holland, Prussia, Hungary, Wallachia, and Northern +Russia, as one vast sheet of water. A band of Jurassic rocks still +connected France and England at Cherbourg—which disappeared +at a later period, and caused the separation of the British Islands +from what is now France.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_147" id="Fig_147"></a> +<img src="images/illo322.png" alt="Fig. 147" width="450" height="183" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 147.—Exogym conica. Upper Greensand and Gault, from Blackdown Hill.</p></div> + +<hr class="footnote" /> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote_54" id="Footnote_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> “The Physical Geography and Geology of Great Britain,” 2nd ed., p. 60.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_55" id="Footnote_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> A. C. Ramsay, <i>Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc.</i>, vol. 27, p. 191.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_56" id="Footnote_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> See A. C. Ramsay, “On the Physical Relations of the New Red Marl, +Rhætic Beds, and Lower Lias,” <i>Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc.</i>, vol. 27, p. 189.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_57" id="Footnote_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> <i>Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc.</i>, vol. xx., p. 396.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_58" id="Footnote_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> Ibid, vol. xvii., p. 483.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_59" id="Footnote_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> Ibid, vol. xvi., p. 374.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_60" id="Footnote_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> Ibid, vol. xx., p. 103.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_61" id="Footnote_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> Lyell, “Elements of Geology,” p. 413.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_62" id="Footnote_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> De la Beche’s “Geological Manual,” 3rd ed., p. 447.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_63" id="Footnote_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> “Geological Manual,” by H. T. De la Beche, 3rd ed., p. 346.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_64" id="Footnote_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> Professor Buckland on the Pterodactylus. “Trans. Geol. Soc.,” 2nd series, +vol. iii., p. 217.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_65" id="Footnote_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> “Elements of Geology,” p. 399.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_66" id="Footnote_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> See Bristow in Descriptive Catalogue of Rocks, in <i>Mus. Pract. Geol.</i>, p. 134.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_67" id="Footnote_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> President’s Address, by Professor A. C. Ramsay. <i>Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc.</i>, +1864, vol. xx., p. 4.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_68" id="Footnote_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> “Elements of Geology,” p. 400.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_69" id="Footnote_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> For a full account of the Ceteosaurus, see “The Geology of the Thames +Valley,” by Prof. John Phillips, F.R.S. 1871.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_70" id="Footnote_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> “Elements of Geology,” p. 393.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_71" id="Footnote_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> For details respecting these strata the reader may consult, with advantage, the +useful handbook to the geology of Weymouth and Portland, by Robert Damon.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_72" id="Footnote_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> See Bristow and Whitaker “On the Chesil Bank,” <i>Geol. Mag.</i>, vol. vi., p. 433.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_73" id="Footnote_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> “Elements of Geology,” p. 389.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_74" id="Footnote_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> Ibid, p. 391.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_75" id="Footnote_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> “Elements of Geology,” p. 349.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_76" id="Footnote_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> Ibid, p. 350.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_77" id="Footnote_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> “The Physical Geology and Geography of Great Britain,” by A. C. +Ramsay, F.R.S., p. 64.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_78" id="Footnote_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> Lyell’s “Elements of Geology,” p. 349.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_79" id="Footnote_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> Ibid, p. 340.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_80" id="Footnote_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_80"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> Lyell’s “Elements of Geology,” p. 333.</p> + +</div> + +<hr class="c25" /> +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[312]</a></p> +<h2>TERTIARY PERIOD.</h2> + +<p>A new organic creation makes its appearance in the Tertiary period; +nearly all the animal life is changed, and what is most remarkable in +this new development is the appearance, in larger numbers, of the +great class of Mammifera.</p> + +<p>During the Primary period, Crustaceans and Fishes predominated +in the animal kingdom; in the Secondary period the earth was +assigned to Reptiles; but during the Tertiary period the Mammals +were kings of the earth; nor do these animals appear in small +number, or at distant intervals of time; great numbers of these +beings appear to have lived on the earth, and at the same moment; +many of them being, so to say, unknown and undescribed.</p> + +<p>If we except the Marsupials, the first created Mammals would +appear to have been the Pachyderms, to which the Elephant belongs. +This order of animals long held the first rank; it was almost the only +representative of the Mammal during the first of the three periods +which constitute the Tertiary epoch. In the second and third periods +Mammals appear of species which have now become extinct, and which +were alike curious from their enormous proportions, and from the +singularity of their structure. Of the species which appeared during +the latter part of the epoch, the greater number still exist. Among the +new Reptiles, some Salamanders, as large as Crocodiles, and not very +distinct from existing forms, are added to the animal creation during +the three periods of the Tertiary epoch. Chelonians were abundant +within the British area during the older epoch. During the same +epoch Birds are present, but in much fewer numbers than the +Mammalia; here songsters, there birds of prey, in other cases domestic—or, +rather, some appear to wait the yoke and domestication from +man, the future supreme lord of the earth.</p> + +<p>The seas were inhabited by a considerable number of beings of +all classes, and nearly as varied as those now living; but we no +longer find in the Tertiary seas those Ammonites, Belemnites, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span> +Hippurites which peopled the seas and multiplied with such astonishing +profusion during the Secondary period. Henceforth the testaceous +Mollusca approximate in their forms to those of the present time. +The older and newer Tertiary Series contain few peculiar genera. +But genera now found in warmer climates were greatly developed +within the British area during the earlier Tertiary times, and <i>species</i> +of cold climates mark the close of the later Tertiaries.</p> + +<p>What occurs to us, however, as most remarkable in the Tertiary +epoch is the prodigious increase of animal life; it seems as if it had +then attained its fullest extension. Swarms of testaceous Mollusca of +microscopic proportions—Foraminifera and Nummulites—must have +inhabited the seas, crowding together in ranks so serried that the +agglomerated remains of their shells form, in some places, beds +hundreds of feet thick. It is the most extraordinary display which +has appeared in the whole range of creation.</p> + +<p>Vegetation during the Tertiary period presents well-defined characteristics. +The Tertiary flora approaches, and is sometimes nearly +identical with, that of our days. The class of dicotyledons shows +itself there in its fullest development; it is the epoch of flowers. +The surface of the earth is embellished by the variegated colours of +the flowers and fruits which succeed them. The white spikes of the +Gramineæ display themselves upon the verdant meadows without +limit; they seem provocative of the increase of Insects, which now +singularly multiply. In the woods crowded with flowering trees, with +rounded tops, like our oak and birch, Birds become more numerous. +The atmosphere, purified and disembarrassed of the veil of vapour +which has hitherto pervaded it, now permits animals with such +delicate pulmonary organs to live and multiply their race.</p> + +<p>During the Tertiary period the influence of the central heat may +have ceased to make itself felt, in consequence of the increased +thickness of the terrestrial crust. By the influence of the solar heat, +climates would be developed in the various latitudes; the temperature +of the earth would still be nearly that of our present tropics, and +at this epoch, also, cold would begin to make itself felt at the poles.</p> + +<p>Abundant rains would, however, continue to pour upon the earth +enormous quantities of water, which would give rise to important +rivers; new lacustrine deposits of fresh water were formed in great +numbers; and rivers, by means of their alluvial deposits, began to +form new land. It is, in short, during the Tertiary epoch that we +trace an alternate succession of beds containing organic beings of +marine origin, with others peculiar to fresh water. It is at the end of +this period that continents and seas take their respective places as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span> +we now see them, and that the surface of the earth received its +present form.</p> + +<p>The Tertiary epoch, or series, embraces three very distinct +periods, to which the names of <i>Eocene</i>, <i>Miocene</i>, and <i>Pliocene</i> have +been given by Sir Charles Lyell. The etymology of these names is +derived—Eocene, from the Greek ηως, <i>dawn</i>, and καινος, <i>recent</i>; Miocene, +from μειον, <i>less</i>, καινος, <i>recent</i>; and Pliocene, from πλειον, <i>more</i>, καινος, +<i>recent</i>; by which it is simply meant to express, that each of these +periods contains a minor or greater proportion of recent species (of +Testacea), or is more or less remote from the dawn of life and from +the present time;<a name="FNanchor_81" id="FNanchor_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a> the expressions are in one sense forced and +incorrect, but usage has consecrated them, and they have obtained +universal currency in geological language, from their convenience and +utility.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="Fig_148" id="Fig_148"></a> +<img src="images/illo325.png" alt="Fig. 148" width="400" height="164" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 148.—Trigonia margaritacea. (Living form.)</p></div> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[315]</a></p> + +<h4>THE EOCENE PERIOD.</h4> + +<p>During this period <i>terra firma</i> has vastly gained upon the domain of +the sea; furrowed with streams and rivers, and here and there with +great lakes and ponds, the landscape of this period presented the +same curious mixture which we have noted in the preceding age, +that is to say, a combination of the vegetation of the primitive ages +with one analogous to that of our own times. Alongside the +birch, the walnut, the oak, the elm, and the alder, rise lofty palm-trees, +of species now extinct, such as <i>Flabellaria</i> and <i>Palmacites</i>; +with many evergreen trees (Conifers), for the most part belonging to +genera still existing, as the <i>firs</i>, the <i>pines</i>, the <i>yews</i>, the <i>cypresses</i>, the +<i>junipers</i>, and the <i>thuyas</i> or tree of life.</p> + +<p>The <i>Cupanioides</i>, among the Sapindaceæ; the <i>Cucumites</i>, among +the Cucurbitaceæ (species analogous to our bryony), climb the +trunks of great trees, and hang in festoons of aerial garlands from +their branches.</p> + +<p>The Ferns were still represented by the genera <i>Pecopteris</i>, +by the <i>Tæniopteris</i>, <i>Asplenium</i>, <i>Polypodium</i>. Of the mosses, some +<i>Hepaticas</i> formed a humble but elegant and lively vegetation alongside +the terrestrial and frequently ligneous plants which we have +noted. <i>Equiseta</i> and <i>Charæ</i> would still grow in marshy places and +on the borders of rivers and ponds.</p> + +<p>It is not without some surprise that we observe here certain +plants of our own epoch, which seem to have had the privilege of +ornamenting the greater watercourses. Among these we may +mention the Water Caltrop, <i>Trapa natans</i>, whose fine rosettes of +green and dentated leaves float so gracefully in ornamental ponds, +supported by their spindle-shaped petioles, its fruit a hard coriaceous +nut, with four horny spines, known in France as <i>water-chestnuts</i>, +which enclose a farinaceous grain not unpleasant to the taste; the +pond-weed, <i>Potamogeton</i>, whose leaves form thick tufts of green, +affording food and shelter to the fishes; <i>Nympheaceæ</i>, which spread +beside their large round and hollow leaves, so admirably adapted for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[316]</a></span> +floating on the water, now the deep-yellow flowers of the <i>Nenuphar</i> +now the pure white flowers of the <i>Nymphæa</i>. Listen to Lecoq, as +he describes the vegetation of the period:—“The Lower Tertiary +period,” he says, “constantly reminds us of the tropical landscapes of +the present epoch, in localities where water and heat together +impress on vegetation a power and majesty unknown in our climates. +The Algæ, which have already been observed in the marine waters at +the close of the Cretaceous period, represented themselves under +still more varied forms, in the earlier Tertiary deposits, when they +have been formed in the sea. Hepaticas and Mosses grew in the +more humid places; many pretty Ferns, as <i>Pecopteris</i>, <i>Tæniopteris</i>, +and the <i>Equisetum stellare</i> (Pomel) vegetated in cool and humid +places. The fresh waters are crowded with <i>Naiades</i>, <i>Chara</i>, <i>Potamogeton</i>, +<i>Caulinites</i>, with <i>Zosterites</i>, and with <i>Halochloris</i>. Their +leaves, floating or submerged, like those of our aquatic plants, concealed +legions of Molluscs whose remains have also reached us.</p> + +<p>“Great numbers of Conifers lived during this period. M. Brongniart +enumerates forty-one different species, which, for the most part, +remind us of living forms with which we are familiar—of Pines, +Cypresses, Thuyas, Junipers, Firs, Yews, and Ephedra. Palms mingled +with these groups of evergreen trees; the <i>Flabellaria Parisiensis</i> of +Brongniart, <i>F. raphifolia</i> of Sternberg, <i>F. maxima</i> of Unger; and +some <i>Palmacites</i>, raised their widely-spreading crowns near the +magnificent <i>Hightea</i>; Malvaceæ, or <i>Mallows</i>, doubtless arborescent, +as many among them, natives of very hot climates, are in our days.</p> + +<p>“Creeping plants, such as the <i>Cucumites variabilis</i> (Brongn.), and +the numerous species of <i>Cupanioïdes</i>—the one belonging to the +Cucurbitaceæ, and the other to the Sapindaceæ—twined their slender +stems round the trunks, doubtless ligneous, of various Leguminaceæ.</p> + +<p>“The family of Betulaceæ of the order Cupuliferæ show the form, +then new, of <i>Quercus</i>, the Oak; the Juglandeæ, and Ulmaceæ mingle +with the Proteaceæ, now limited to the southern hemisphere. <i>Dermatophyllites</i>, +preserved in amber, seem to have belonged to the family of +the Ericineæ, and <i>Tropa Arcturæ</i> of Unger, of the group Œnothereæ, +floated on the shallow waters in which grew the <i>Chara</i> and the +<i>Potamogeton</i>.</p> + +<p>“This numerous flora comprises more than 200 known species, +of which 143 belonged to the Dicotyledons, thirty-three to the +Monocotyledons, and thirty-three to the Cryptogams.</p> + +<p>“Trees predominate here as in the preceding period, but the +great numbers of aquatic plants of the period are quite in accordance +with the geological facts, which show that the continents and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[317]</a></span> +islands were intersected by extensive lakes and inland seas, while +vast marine bays and arms of the sea penetrated deeply into the +land.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="Fig_149" id="Fig_149"></a> +<img src="images/illo328.png" alt="Fig. 149" width="350" height="360" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 149.—Branch of Eucalyptus restored.</p></div> + +<p>It is moreover a peculiarity of this period that the whole of +Europe comprehended a great number of those plants which are now +confined to Australasia, and which give so strange an aspect to that +country, which seems, in its vegetation, as in its animals, to have +preserved in its warm latitudes the last vestiges of the organic +creations peculiar to the primitive world. As a type of dicotyledonous +trees of the epoch, we present here a restored branch of +<i>Eucalyptus</i> (<a href="#Fig_149">Fig. 149</a>), with its flowers. All the family of the Proteaceæ,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[318]</a></span> +which comprehends the <i>Banksia</i>, the <i>Hakea</i>, the <i>Gerilea +protea</i>, existed in Europe during the Tertiary period. The family of +Mimosas, comprising the <i>Acacia</i> and <i>Inga</i>, which in our age are only +natives of the southern hemisphere, abounded in Europe during the +same geological period. A branch of <i>Banksia</i>, with its fructification, +taken from impressions discovered in rocks of the period, is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[319]</a></span> +represented in <a href="#Fig_150">Fig. 150</a>—it is different from any species of Banksia +living in our days.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="Fig_150" id="Fig_150"></a> +<img src="images/illo329.png" alt="Fig. 150" width="400" height="448" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 150.—Fruit-branch of Banksia restored.</p></div> + +<p>Mammals, Birds, Reptiles, Fishes, Insects, and Molluscs, form +the terrestrial fauna of the Eocene period. In the waters of the +lakes, whose surfaces are deeply ploughed by the passage of large +Pelicans, lived Molluscs of varied forms, as <i>Physa</i>, <i>Limnæa</i>, <i>Planorbis</i>; +and Turtles swam about, as <i>Trionyx</i> and the <i>Emides</i>. Snipes +made their retreat among the reeds which grew on the shore; +sea-gulls skimmed the surface of the waters or ran upon the sands; +owls hid themselves in the cavernous trunks of old trees; gigantic +buzzards hovered in the air, watching for their prey; while heavy +crocodiles slowly dragged their unwieldy bodies through the high +marshy grasses. All these terrestrial animals have been discovered +in England or in France, alongside the overthrown trunks of palm-trees. +The temperature of these countries was then much higher +than it is now. The Mammals which lived under the latitudes of +Paris and London are only found now in the warmest countries of +the globe.</p> + +<p>The Pachyderms (from the Greek παχυς, <i>thick</i>, δερμα, <i>skin</i>) seem +to have been amongst the earliest Mammals which appeared in the +Eocene period, and they held the first rank from their importance in +number of species as well as in size. Let us pause an instant over +these Pachyderms. Their predominance over other fossil Mammals, +which exceed considerably the number now living, is a fact much +insisted on by Cuvier. Among them were a great number of intermediate +forms, which we seek for in vain in existing genera. In +fact, the Pachyderms are separated, in our days, by intervals of +greater extent than we find in any other mammalian genera; and it is +very curious to discover among the animals of the ancient world the +broken link which connects the chain of these beings, which have +for their great tomb the plaster-quarries of Paris, Montmartre and +Pantin being their latest refuge.</p> + +<p>Each block taken from those quarries encloses some fragment of +a bone of these Mammals; and how many millions of these bones +had been destroyed before attention was directed to the subject! +The <i>Palæotherium</i> and the <i>Anoplotherium</i> were the first of these +animals which Cuvier restored; and subsequent discoveries of other +fragments of the same animals have only served to confirm what the +genius of the great naturalist divined. His studies in the quarries of +Montmartre gave the signal, as they became the model, for similar +researches and restorations of the animals of the ancient world, all +over Europe—researches which, in our age, have drawn geology<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[320]</a></span> +from the state of infancy in which it languished, in spite of the magnificent +and persevering labours of Steno, Werner, Hutton, and +Saussure.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="Fig_151" id="Fig_151"></a> +<img src="images/illo331.png" alt="Fig. 151" width="400" height="309" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 151.—Palæotherium magnum restored.</p></div> + +<p>The <i>Palæotherium</i>, <i>Anoplotherium</i>, and <i>Xiphodon</i> were herbivorous +animals, which must have lived in great herds. They appear to have +been intermediate, according to their organisation, between the +Rhinoceros, the Horse, and the Tapir. There seem to have existed +many species of them, of very different sizes. After the labours +of Cuvier, nothing is easier than to represent the <i>Palæotherium</i> as it +lived: the nose terminating in a muscular fleshy trunk, or rather +snout, somewhat like that of the Tapir; the eye small, and displaying +little intelligence; the head enormously large; the body squat, thick, +and short; the legs short and very stout; the feet supported by three +toes, enclosed in a hoof; the size, that of a large horse. Such was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[321]</a></span> +the great Palæotherium, peaceful flocks of which must have inhabited +the valleys of the plateau which surrounds the ancient basin of +Paris; in the lacustrine formations of Orleans and Argenton; in the +Tertiary formations of Issil and Puy-en-Velay, in the department of +the Gironde; in the Tertiary formations near Rome; and in the +beds of limestone<a name="FNanchor_82" id="FNanchor_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a> at the quarries of Binsted, in the Isle of Wight. +<a href="#Fig_151">Fig. 151</a> represents the great Palæotherium, after the design, in outline, +given by Cuvier in his work on <i>fossil bones</i>.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_152" id="Fig_152"></a> +<img src="images/illo332.png" alt="Fig. 152" width="450" height="305" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 152.—Skull of Palæotherium magnum.</p></div> + +<p>The discovery and re-arrangement of these and other forms, now +swept from the face of the globe, are the noblest triumphs of the great +French zoologist, who gathered them, as we have seen, from heaps of +confused fragments, huddled together pell-mell, comprising the bones +of a great many species of animals of a former age of the world, all unknown +within the historic period. The generic characters of Palæotherium +give them forty-four teeth, namely, twelve <i>molars</i>, two <i>canines</i>, +and twenty-eight others, three toes, a short proboscis, for the attachment +of which the bones of the nose were shortened, as represented +in <a href="#Fig_153">Fig. 153</a>, leaving a deep notch below them. The molar teeth +bear considerable resemblance to those of the Rhinoceros. In the +structure of that part of the skull intended to support the short<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[322]</a></span> +proboscis, and in the feet, +the animal seems to have +resembled the Tapir.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Fig_153" id="Fig_153"></a> +<img src="images/illo333.png" alt="Fig. 153" width="600" height="241" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 153.—Skeletons of the Palæotherium magnum (<i>a</i>) and minimum (<i>b</i>) restored.</p></div> + +<p>The geological place of +the extinct Palæotherium +seems to have been in the +first great fresh-water formation +of the Eocene period, +where it is chiefly found +with its allies, of which +several species have been +found and identified by +Cuvier. Dr. Buckland is +not singular in thinking +that they lived and +died on the margins of +lakes and rivers, as the +Rhinoceros and Tapir do +now. He is also of opinion +that some retired into the +water to die, and that the +dead carcases of others +may have been drifted into +the deeper parts in seasons +of flood.</p> + +<p>The <i>Palæotherium</i> varied +greatly in size, some species +being as large as the Rhinoceros, +while others ranged +between the size of the +Horse and that of a Hog +or a Roe. The smaller +Palæotherium resembled +the Tapir. Less in size +than a Goat, with slim and +light legs, it must have been +very common in the north +of France, where it would +browse on the grass of the wild prairies. Another species, the +<i>P. minimum</i>, scarcely exceeded the Hare in size, and it probably +had all the lightness and agility of that animal. It lived among the +bushy thickets of the environs of Paris, in Auvergne, and elsewhere.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[323]</a></span>All these animals lived upon seeds and fruits, on the green twigs, +or subterranean stems, and the succulent roots of the plants of the +period. They generally frequented the neighbourhood of fresh water.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_154" id="Fig_154"></a> +<img src="images/illo334.png" alt="Fig. 154" width="450" height="276" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 154.—Anoplotherium commune. One-twentieth natural size.</p></div> + +<p>The <i>Anoplotherium</i> (from ανοπλος, <i>defenceless</i>, θηριον, <i>animal</i>), had +the posterior molar teeth analogous to those of the Rhinoceros, the +feet terminating in two great toes, forming an equally divided hoof, +like that of the Ox and other Ruminants, and the tarsus of the toes +nearly like those of the Camel. It was about the size of the Ass; +its head was light; but what would distinguish it most must have been +an enormous tail of at least three feet in length, and very thick at its +junction with the body. This tail evidently served it as a rudder and +propeller when swimming in the lakes or rivers, which it frequented, +not to seize fish (for it was strictly herbivorous), but in search of roots +and stems of succulent aquatic plants. “Judging from its habits of +swimming and diving,” says Cuvier, “the Anoplotherium would have +the hair smooth, like the otter; perhaps its skin was even half naked. +It is not likely either that it had long ears, which would be inconvenient +in its aquatic kind of life; and I am inclined to think that, +in this respect, it resembled the Hippopotamus and other quadrupeds +which frequent the water much.” To this description Cuvier had +nothing more to add. His memoir upon the <i>pachydermatous fossils</i> +of Montmartre is accompanied by a design in outline of <i>Anoplotherium +commune</i>, which has been closely followed in <a href="#Fig_154">Fig. 154</a>.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[324]</a></span>There were species of Anoplotherium of very small size. <i>A. leporinum</i> +(or the Hare-Anoplotherium), whose feet are evidently adapted +for speed; <i>A. minimum</i> and <i>A. obliquum</i> were of still smaller dimensions; +the last, especially, scarcely exceeded the size of a rat. Like +the Water-rats, this species inhabited the banks of brooks and small +rivers.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_155" id="Fig_155"></a> +<img src="images/illo335.png" alt="Fig. 155" width="450" height="283" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 155.—Xiphodon gracile.</p></div> + +<p>The <i>Xiphodon</i> was about three feet in height at the withers, and +generally about the size of the Chamois, but lighter in form, and +with a smaller head. In proportion as the appearance of the <i>Anoplotherium +commune</i> was heavy and sluggish, so was that of <i>Xiphodon +gracile</i> graceful and active; light and agile as the Gazelle or the +Goat, it would rapidly run round the marshes and ponds, depasturing +on the aromatic herbs of the dry lands, or browsing on the sprouts +of the young shrubs. “Its course,” says Cuvier, in the memoir +already quoted, “was not embarrassed by a long tail; but, like all +active herbivorous animals, it was probably timid, and with large and +very mobile ears, like those of the stag, announcing the slightest +approach of danger. Neither is there any doubt that its body was +covered with short smooth hair; and consequently we only require +to know its colour in order to paint it as it formerly existed in this +country, where it has been dug up after so many ages.” <a href="#Fig_155">Fig. 155</a> is +a reproduction from the design in outline with which Cuvier accompanied +the description of this animal, which he classes with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[325]</a></span> +Anoplotherium, and which has received in our days the name of +<i>Xiphodon gracile</i>.</p> + +<p>The gypsum-quarries of the environs of Paris include, moreover, +the remains of other Pachyderms: the <i>Chæropotamus</i>, or River-hog +(from χοιρος ποταμος), which has some analogy with the living Pecari, +though much larger; the <i>Adapis</i>, which reminds us, in its form, of the +Hedgehog, of which, however, it was three times the size. It seems +to have been a link between the Pachyderms and the Insectivorous +Carnivora. The <i>Lophiodon</i>, the size of which varied with the species, +from that of the Rabbit to that of the Rhinoceros, was still more +closely allied to the Tapir than to the Anoplotherium; it is found in +the lower beds of the gypseous formation, that is to say in the +“Calcaire Grossier.”</p> + +<p>A Parisian geologist, M. Desnoyers, librarian of the Museum of +Natural History there, has discovered in the gypseous beds of the valley +of Montmorency, and elsewhere in the neighbourhood of Paris, as at +Pantin, Clichy, and Dammartin, the imprints of the footsteps of some +Mammals, of which there seems to be some question, especially with +regard to the Anoplotherium and Palæotherium. Footprints of +Turtles, Birds, and even of Carnivora, sometimes accompany these +curious traces, which have a sort of almond-shape more or less lobed, +according to the divisions of the hoof of the animal, and which recall +to mind completely, in their mode of production and preservation, +those imprints of the steps of the Labyrinthodon which have been +mentioned as occurring in rocks of the Triassic period. This discovery +is interesting, as it furnishes a means of comparison between +the imprints and the animals which have produced them. It brings +into view, as it were, the material traces left in their walks upon the +soil by animals now annihilated, but who once occupied the +mysterious sites of an earlier world. (See <a href="#Fig_1">Fig. 1</a>, p. 12.)</p> + +<p>It is interesting to picture in imagination the vast pasturages of the +Tertiary period swarming with Herbivora of all sizes. The country +now surrounding the city of Paris belongs to the period in question, +and not far from its gates, the woods and plains were crowded with +“game” of which the Parisian sportsman little dreams, but which +would nevertheless singularly animate the earth at this distant epoch. +The absence of great Carnivora explains the rapid increase of the +agile and graceful denizens of the wood, whose race seems to have +been so multiplied then, but which was ultimately annihilated by the +ferocious beasts of prey which afterwards made their appearance.</p> + +<p>The same novelty, riches, and variety which distinguished the +Mammals of the Tertiary period extended to other classes of animals.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[326]</a></span> +The class of Birds, of which we can only name the most remarkable, +was represented by the curious fossil known as the “<i>Bird of Montmartre</i>.” +The bones of other birds have been obtained from +Hordwell, as well as the remains of quadrupeds. Among the latter +the <i>Hyænodon</i>, supposed to be the oldest known example of a true +carnivorous animal in the series of British fossils, and the fossil Bat +known as the <i>Vespertilio +Parisiensis</i>. +Among Reptiles the +Crocodile, which +bears the name of Isle +of Wight Alligator, +<i>Crocodilus Toliapicus</i>. +Among the Turtles +the <i>Trionyx</i>, of which +there is a fine specimen +in the Museum +of Natural History +in Paris (<a href="#Fig_156">Fig. 156</a>).</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><a name="Fig_156" id="Fig_156"></a> +<img src="images/illo337.png" alt="Fig. 156" width="300" height="320" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 156.—Trionyx, or Turtle, of the Tertiary period.</p></div> + +<p>In the class +Fishes we now see +the <i>Pleuronectes</i>, or +flat-fish, of which +<i>Platax altissimus</i> and +<i>Rhombus minimus</i> are +well-known examples. +Among the Crustaceans +we see the +earliest crabs. At +the same time multitudes +of new Mollusca make their appearance: <i>Oliva</i>, <i>Triton</i>, <i>Cassis</i>, +<i>Harpa</i>, <i>Crepidula</i>, &c.</p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327"></a></p> +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[328]</a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Plate_XXIII" id="Plate_XXIII"></a> +<img src="images/illo339.jpg" alt="Plate XXIII" width="600" height="386" /> +<p class="caption">XXIII.—Ideal Landscape of the Eocene Period.</p></div> + +<p>The hitherto unknown forms of <i>Schizaster</i> are remarkable among +Echinoderms; the Zoophytes are also abundant, especially the +<i>Foraminifera</i>, which seem to make up by their numbers for their +deficiency in size. It was in this period, in the bosom of its seas, +and far from shore, that the <i>Nummulites</i> existed, whose calcareous +envelopes play such a considerable part as the elements of some of +the Tertiary formations. The shelly agglomerates of these Protozoan +Rhizopods constitute now very important rocks. The Nummulitic +limestone forms, in the chain of the Pyrenees, entire mountains of +great height; in Egypt it forms strata of considerable extent, and it is of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[329]</a></span> +these rocks that the ancient pyramids were built. What an enormous +time must have been necessary to convert the remains of these little +shells into beds many hundreds of feet thick! The <i>Miliola</i> were +also so abundant in the Eocene seas as to constitute the greater part of +calcareous rocks<a name="FNanchor_83" id="FNanchor_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a> out of which Paris has been built. Agglomerated in +this manner, these little shells form the continuous beds of limestone +which are quarried for building purposes in the environs of Paris, +at Gentilly, Vaugirard, and Châtillon.</p> + +<hr class="c05" /> + +<p>On the opposite page we present, in <span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_XXIII">Plate XXIII.</a></span>, an imaginary +landscape of the Eocene period. We remark amongst its vegetation +a mixture of fossil species with others belonging to the present time. +The Alders, the Wych-elms, and the Cypresses, mingle with <i>Flabellaria</i>; +the Palms of extinct species. A great Bird—a wader, the +<i>Tantalus</i>—occupies the projecting point of a rock on the right; the +Turtle (<i>Trionyx</i>), floats on the river, in the midst of Nymphæas, +Nenuphars, and other aquatic plants; whilst a herd of Palæotheria, +Anoplotheria, and Xiphodon peacefully browse the grass of the +natural meadows of this peaceful oasis.</p> + +<p>With a general resemblance in their fossils, nothing can be more +dissimilar, on the whole, than the lithological or mineral characters of +the Eocene deposits of France and England; “those of our own +island,” says Lyell,<a name="FNanchor_84" id="FNanchor_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a> “being almost exclusively of mechanical origin—accumulations +of mud, sand, and pebbles; while in the neighbourhood +of Paris we find a great succession of strata composed of +limestones, some of them siliceous, and of crystalline gypsum and +siliceous sandstone, and sometimes of pure flint used for millstones. +Hence it is by no means an easy task to institute an exact comparison +between the various members of the English and French +series. It is clear that, on the sites both of Paris and London, a +continual change was going on in the fauna and flora by the coming +in of new species and the dying out of others; and contemporaneous +changes of geographical conditions were also in progress in consequence +of the rising and sinking of the land and bottom of the sea. +A particular subdivision, therefore, of time was occasionally represented +in one area by land, in another by an estuary, in a third by +sea; and even where the conditions were in both areas of a marine +character, there was often shallow water in one, and deep sea in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[330]</a></span> +another, producing a want of agreement in the state of animal life.” +The Eocene rocks, as developed in France and England, may be +tabulated as follows, in descending order:—</p> + +<table class="fsize80" style="max-width: 90%;" summary="Table p 330"> + +<tr> +<td colspan="4" class="center">English.</td> +<td colspan="5"> </td> +<td class="center">French.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="2" class="left padr1">Upper<br />Eocene.</td> +<td rowspan="2" class="right padr0">–</td> +<td rowspan="2" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Hempstead beds.</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="3" class="left padl0">–</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="left padl1 padr1">Fluvio-<br />marine<br />series.</td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1">Calcaire de la Beauce. Grès de Fontainebleau.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Bembridge beds.</td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1">Calcaire silicieux or Calcaire Lacustre Moyen.<br />Gypseous series of Montmartre.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="4" class="left padr1">Middle<br />Eocene.</td> +<td rowspan="4" class="right padr0">–</td> +<td rowspan="4" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Osborne beds.<br />Headon beds.</td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1">Grès de Beauchamp and Calcaire Marin.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Upper Bagshot sand.</td> +<td class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td> </td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1">Upper Sables Moyens.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Barton clay.<br />Bracklesham beds.</td> +<td class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl0">–</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Middle<br />Bagshot.</td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1">Lower Sables Moyens,<br />Lower Calcaire Grossier,<br />and Glauconie Grossière.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Lower Bagshot beds.</td> +<td class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl0">–</td> +<td> </td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1">Lits coquillières.<br />Glauconie Moyenne.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="4" class="left padr1">Lower Eocene.</td> +<td rowspan="4" class="right padr0">–</td> +<td rowspan="4" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">London clay.</td> +<td colspan="5" > </td> +<td class="left padl1">Wanting.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Woolwich and Reading beds, or Plastic clay.</td> +<td class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl0">–</td> +<td> </td> +<td class="right padr0">–</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1">Argile Plastique.<br />Glauconie Inférieure.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Oldhaven beds.</td> +<td colspan="6"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Thanet sands.</td> +<td colspan="5"> </td> +<td class="left padl1">Sables Inférieurs.</td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<p>The Woolwich and Reading Beds, or the Plastic Clay of older +writers, consists of extensive beds of sand with occasional beds of +potter’s clay, which lie at the base of the Tertiary formation in both +England and France. Generally variegated, sometimes grey or white, +it is employed as a potter’s earth in the manufacture of delf-ware.</p> + +<p>In England the red-mottled clay of the Woolwich and Reading +Beds in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight is often seen in contact +with the chalk; but in the south-eastern part of the London +basin, Mr. Prestwich shows that the Thanet Sand (consisting of a +base of fine, light-coloured sand, mixed with more or less argillaceous +matter) intervenes between the Chalk and the Oldhaven Beds, or +in their absence the Woolwich and Reading beds, which lie below +the London Clay. The Thanet Sands derive their name from their +occurrence in the Isle of Thanet, in Kent, in the eastern part of +which county they attain their greatest development. Under London +and its southern suburbs the Thanet sand is from thirteen to forty-four<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[331]</a></span> +feet thick, but it becomes thinner in a westerly direction, and does +not occur beyond Ealing.<a name="FNanchor_85" id="FNanchor_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a></p> + +<p>The Woolwich and Reading beds in the Hampshire basin rest +immediately on the Chalk, and separate it from the overlying London +Clay, as may be seen in the fine exposure of the Tertiary strata +in Alum Bay, at the western extremity of the Isle of Wight, and +in Studland Bay, on the western side of the Isle of Purbeck, in +Dorsetshire.</p> + +<p>In the London basin the Woolwich and Reading beds also rest +on the Chalk, where the Thanet Sands are absent, as is the case, for +the most part, over the area west of Ealing and Leatherhead.</p> + +<p>The beds in question are very variable in character, but may be +generally described as irregular alternations of clays and sands—the +former mostly red, mottled with white, and from their plastic nature +suitable for the purposes of the potter; the latter also of various +colours, but sometimes pure white, and sometimes containing pebbles +of flint.</p> + +<p>The Woolwich and Reading beds are called after the localities +of the same names; they are fifty feet thick at Woolwich, and from +sixty to seventy feet at Reading.</p> + +<p>The Oldhaven beds (so termed by Mr. W. Whitaker from +their development at the place of the same name in Kent) are a +local deposit, occurring beneath the London Clay on the south side +of the London basin, from Croydon eastward, at the most eastern part +of Surrey, and through Kent—in the north-western corner of which +county they form some comparatively broad tracts. The beds consist +of rounded flint pebbles, in a fine sandy base, or of fine light-coloured +sand, and are from eighty to ninety feet thick under London.</p> + +<p>The London Clay, which has a breadth of twenty miles or more +about London, consists of tenacious brown and bluish-grey clay, with +layers of the nodular concretions, called Septaria, which are well +known on the Essex and Hampshire coasts, where they are collected +for making Roman cement. The London Clay has a maximum +thickness of nearly 500 feet. The fossils of the London Clay are of +marine genera, and very plentiful in some districts. Taken altogether +they seem to indicate a moderate, rather than a tropical +climate, although the Flora is, as far as can be judged, certainly +tropical in its affinities.<a name="FNanchor_86" id="FNanchor_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a> The number of species of extinct Turtles +obtained from the Isle of Sheppey alone, is stated by Prof. Agassiz<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[332]</a></span> +to exceed that of all the species of Chelone now known to exist +throughout the globe. Above this great bed lie the Bracklesham +and Bagshot beds, which consist of light-yellow sand with an intermediate +layer of dark-green and brown clay, over which lie the +Barton Clay (in the Hampshire basin) and the white Upper Bagshot +Sands, which are succeeded by the Fluvio-marine series comprising +the Headon, Bembridge, and Hempstead series, and consisting of +limestones, clays, and marls, of marine, brackish, and fresh-water +origin.<a name="FNanchor_87" id="FNanchor_87"></a><a href="#Footnote_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a> For fuller accounts of the Tertiary strata of England, the +reader is recommended to the numerous excellent memoirs of Mr. +Prestwich, to the memoir “On the Tertiary Fluvio-marine Formations +of the Isle of Wight,” by Professor Edward Forbes, and to the +memoir “On the Geology of the London Basin,” by Mr. W. Whitaker.</p> + +<p>At the base of the <i>Argile Plastique</i> of France is a conglomerate +of chalk and of divers calcareous substances, in which have been +found at Bas-Meudon some remains of Reptiles, Turtles, Crocodiles, +Mammals, and, more lately, those of a large Bird, exceeding the +Ostrich in size, the <i>Gastornis</i>, which Professor Owen classes among +the wading rather than among aquatic birds. In the Soissonnais there +is found, at the same horizon, a great mass of lignite, enclosing some +shells and bones of the most ancient Pachyderm yet discovered, the +<i>Coryphodon</i>, which resembles at once both the Anoplotherium and +the Pig. The <i>Sables Inférieurs</i>, or Bracheux Sands, form a marine +bed of great thickness near Beauvais; they are principally sands, but +include beds of calciferous clay and banks of shelly sandstone, and +are considered to be older than the plastic clay and lignite, and to +correspond with the Thanet Sands of England. They are rich in +shells, including many Nummulites. At La Fère, in the Department +of the Aisne, a fossil skull of <i>Arctocyon primævus</i>, supposed to be +related both to the Bear and to the Kinkajou, and to be the oldest +known Tertiary Mammal, was found in a deposit of this age. This +series seems to have been formed chiefly in fresh water.</p> + +<p>The <i>Calcaire grossier</i>, consisting of marine limestones of various +kinds, and with a coarse, sometimes compact, grain, is suitable for +mason-work. These deposits, which form the most characteristic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[333]</a></span> +member of the Paris basin, naturally divide themselves into three +groups of strata, characterised, the first, by <i>Nummulites</i>; the second +by <i>Miliolites</i>; and the third or upper beds by <i>Cerithia</i>. The beds +are also sometimes named Nummulite limestone, Miliolite limestone, +and Cerithium limestone. Above these a great mass, generally sandy, +is developed. It is marine at the base, and there are indications +of brackish water in its upper parts; it is called Beauchamp Sandstone, +or Sables Moyens (<i>Grès de Beauchamp</i>). These sands are +very rich in shells. The <i>siliceous limestone</i>, or lower travertin, is +a compact siliceous limestone extending over a wide area, and +resembles a precipitate from mineral waters. The <i>gypseous</i> formation +consists of a long series of marly and argillaceous beds, of +a greyish, green, or white colour, in the intervals between which a +thick deposit of gypsum, or sulphate of lime, is intercalated. This +gypsum bed is found in its greatest thickness in France at Montmartre +and Pantin near Paris. The formation of this gypsum is +probably due to the action of free sulphuric acid upon the carbonate +of lime of the formation; the sulphuric acid itself being produced by +the transformation of the gaseous masses of sulphuretted hydrogen +emanating from volcanic vents, into that acid, by the action of air +and water. It was, as we have already said, in the gypsum-quarries +of Montmartre that the numerous bones of Palæotherium and +Anoplotherium were found. It is exclusively at this horizon that we +find the remains of these animals, which seem to have been preceded +by the <i>Coryphodon</i>, and afterwards by the <i>Lophiodon</i>; the order of +succession in the appearance of these animals is now perfectly +established. It may be added that round Paris the Eocene formation, +from its lowest beds to the highest, is composed of beds of plastic +clay, of the <i>Calcaire grossier</i> with its <i>Nummulites</i>, <i>Miliolites</i>, and <i>Alveolites</i>, +followed by the gypseous formation; the series terminating in +the Fontainebleau Sandstone, remarkable for its thickness and also +for its fine scenery, as well as for its usefulness in furnishing +paving-stone for the capital. In Provence the same series of rocks +are continued, and attain an enormous thickness. This upper part +of the Eocene deposit is entirely of lacustrine formation. Grignon +has procured from a single spot, where they were embedded in a +calcareous sand, no less than 400 fossils, chiefly formed of comminuted +shells, in which, however, were well-preserved species both +of marine, terrestrial, and fresh-water shells. Of the Paris basin, Sir +Charles Lyell says: “Nothing is more striking in this assemblage of +fossil testacea than the great proportion of species referable to the +genus <i>Cerithium</i>. There occur no less than 137 species of this genus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[334]</a></span> +in the Paris basin, and almost all of them in the <i>Calcaire grossier</i>. +Most of the living <i>Cerithia</i> (<a href="#Fig_157">Figs. 157</a> and <a href="#Fig_168">168</a>) inhabit the sea near +the mouths of rivers, where the waters are brackish; so that their +abundance in the marine strata now under consideration is in harmony +with the hypothesis that the Paris basin formed a gulf into +which several rivers flowed.”<a name="FNanchor_88" id="FNanchor_88"></a><a href="#Footnote_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="Fig_157" id="Fig_157"></a> +<img src="images/illo346.png" alt="Fig. 157" width="400" height="266" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 157.—Cerithium telescopium.<br /> +(Living form.)</p></div> + +<p>To give the reader some idea of the formation, first come the +limestones and lower marls, which contain fine lignite or wood-coal +produced from vegetable matter buried in moist earth, and excluded +from all access of air, a material which is worked in some parts of +the south of France as actively as a coal-mine. In these lignites +<i>Anodon</i> and other fresh-water shells are found.</p> + +<p>From the base of Sainte-Victoire to the other side of Aix, we +trace a conglomerate characterised by its red colour, but which dies +away in its prolongation westward. This conglomerate contains land-snails +(<i>Helix</i>) of various sizes, mixed with fresh-water shells. Upon +this conglomerate, comprising therein the marls, rests a thick deposit +of limestone with the gypsum of Aix and Manosque, which is believed +to correspond with that of Paris. Some of the beds are remarkably +rich in sulphur. The calcareous marly laminæ which accompany +the gypsum of Aix contain Insects of various kinds, and Fishes resembling +<i>Lebias cephalotes</i>. Finally, the whole terminates at Manosque +in a fresh series of marls and sandstones, alternating with beds of +limestone with <i>Limnæa</i> and <i>Planorbis</i>. At the base of this series are +found three or four beds of lignite more inflammable than coal, +which also give out a very sulphurous oil. We may form some +estimate of the thickness of this last stage, if we add that, above the +beds of fusible lignite, we may reckon sixty others of dry lignite, +some of them capable of being very profitably worked if this part of +Provence were provided with more convenient roads.</p> + +<p>“The Nummulitic formation, with its characteristic fossils,” says +Lyell,<a name="FNanchor_89" id="FNanchor_89"></a><a href="#Footnote_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a> “plays a far more conspicuous part than any other Tertiary +group in the solid framework of the earth’s crust, whether in Europe, +Asia, or Africa. It often attains a thickness of many thousand feet, +and extends from the Alps to the Carpathians, and is in full force in +the north of Africa, as, for example, in Algeria and Morocco. It has +been traced from Egypt, where it was largely quarried of old for the +building of the Pyramids, into Asia Minor, and across Persia, by +Bagdad, to the mouth of the Indus. It occurs not only in Cutch, +but in the mountain ranges which separate Scinde from Persia, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[335]</a></span> +which form the passes leading to Caboul; and it has been followed +still further eastward into India, as far as eastern Bengal and the +frontiers of China.”</p> + +<p>“When we have once arrived at the conclusion,” he adds, “that +the Nummulitic formation occupies a middle place in the Eocene +series, we are struck with the comparatively modern date to which +some of the greatest revolutions in the physical geography of Europe, +Asia, and northern Africa must be referred. All the mountain chains, +such as the Alps, Pyrenees, Carpathians, and Himalayas, into the +composition of whose central and loftiest parts the Nummulitic strata +enter bodily, could have had no existence till after the Middle +Eocene period.”</p> + +<p>The Eocene strata, Professor Ramsay thinks, extended in their +day <i>much further</i> west, “because,” he says, “here, at the extreme +edge of the chalk escarpments, you find outlying fragments of them,” +from which he argues that they were originally deposited all over the +Chalk as far as these points, but being formed of soft strata they +were “denuded” backwards.</p> + +<p>The Beloptera represented in <a href="#Fig_195">Fig. 195</a> are curious Belemnite-like +organisms, occurring in Tertiary strata, and evidently the internal +bone of a Cephalopod, having a wing-like projection or process on +each side. As a genus it holds a place intermediate between the +Cuttle-fish and the Belemnite.</p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[336]</a></p> + +<h4>THE MIOCENE PERIOD.</h4> + +<p>The Miocene formation is not present in England; unless we +suppose, with Sir Charles Lyell, that it is represented by the Hempstead +beds of the Isle of Wight.</p> + +<p>It is on the European continent that we find the most striking +characteristics of the Miocene period. In our own islands traces of +it are few and far between. In the Island of Mull certain beds of +shale, interstratified with basalt and volcanic ash, are described by +the Duke of Argyll as of Miocene date;<a name="FNanchor_90" id="FNanchor_90"></a><a href="#Footnote_90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a> and Miocene clay is found +interstratified with bands of imperfect coal at Bovey Tracey. The vegetation +which distinguished the period is a mixture of the vegetable +forms peculiar to the burning climate of the present tropical Africa, +with such as now grow in temperate Europe, such as Palms, Bamboos, +various kinds of Laurels, Combretaceæ (Terminalia), with the +grand Leguminales of warm countries (as <i>Phaseolites</i>, <i>Erythrina</i>, +<i>Bauhinia</i>, <i>Mimosites</i>, <i>Acacia</i>); Apocyneæ analogous to the genera of +our tropical regions; a <i>Rubiacea</i> altogether tropical (<i>Steinhauera</i>) +mingle with some Maples, Walnut-trees, Beeches, Elms, Oaks, and +Wych-elms, genera now confined to temperate and even cold +countries.</p> + +<p>Besides these, there were, during the Miocene period, mosses, +mushrooms, charas, fig-trees, plane-trees, poplars, and evergreens. +“During the second period of the Tertiary epoch,” says Lecoq, +“the Algæ and marine Monocotyledons were less abundant than in +the preceding age; the Ferns also diminished, the mass of Conifers +were reduced, and the Palms multiplied in species. Some of those +cited in the preceding period seem still to belong to this, and the +magnificent <i>Flabellaria</i>, with the fine <i>Phœnicites</i>, which we see now +for the first time, gave animation to the landscape. Among the +Conifers some new genera appear; among them we distinguish +<i>Podocarpens</i>, a southern form of vegetation of the present age. +Almost all the arborescent families have their representatives in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[337]</a></span> +forests of this period, where for the first time types so different are +united. The waters are covered with <i>Nymphæa Arithnæa</i> (Brongniart); +and with <i>Myriophyllites capillifolius</i> (Unger); <i>Culmites animalis</i> +(Brongniart); and <i>C. Gœpperti</i> (Munster), spring up in profusion +upon their banks, and the grand <i>Bambusinites sepultana</i> throws the +shadow of its long articulated stem across them. Some analogous +species occupy the banks of the great rivers of the New World; +one Umbellifera is even indicated, by Unger, in the <i>Pimpinellites +zizioides</i>.</p> + +<p>Of this period date some beds of lignite resulting from the +accumulation, for ages, of all these different trees. It seems that +arborescent vegetation had then attained its apogee. Some <i>Smilacites</i> +interlaced like the wild vines with these grand plants, which fell on +the ground where they grew, from decay; some parts of the earth, +even now, exhibit these grand scenes of vegetation. They have been +described by travellers who have traversed the tropical regions, where +Nature often displays the utmost luxury, under the screen of clouds +which does not allow the rays of the sun to reach the earth. M. +D’Orbigny cites an interesting instance which is much to the point. +“I have reached a zone,” he says (speaking of Rio Chapura in South +America), “where it rains regularly all the year round. We can +scarcely perceive the rays of the sun, at intervals, through the screen +of clouds which almost constantly veils it. This circumstance, added +to the heat, gives an extraordinary development to the vegetation. +The wild vines fall on all sides, in garlands, from the loftiest branches +of trees whose summits are lost in the clouds.”</p> + +<p>The fossil species of this period, to the number of 133, begin to +resemble those which enrich our landscapes. Already tropical plants +are associated with the vegetables of temperate climates; but they +are not yet the same as existing species. Oaks grow side by side +with Palms, the Birch with Bamboos, Elms with Laurels, the Maples +are united to the Combretaceæ, to the Leguminales, and to the +tropical Rubiaceæ. The forms of the species, belonging to temperate +climates, are rather American than European.</p> + +<p>The luxuriance and diversity of the Miocene flora has been +employed by a German savant in identifying and classifying the +Middle Tertiary or Miocene strata of Switzerland. We are indebted +to Professor Heer, of Zurich, for the restoration of more than 900 +species of plants, which he classified and illustrated in his “Flora +Tertiaria Helvetiæ.” In order to appreciate the value of the +learned Professor’s undertaking, it is only necessary to remark that, +where Cuvier had to study the position and character of a bone, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[338]</a></span> +botanist had to study the outline, nervation, and microscopic structure +of a leaf. Like the great French naturalist, he had to construct +a new science at the very outset of his great work.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><a name="Fig_158" id="Fig_158"></a> +<img src="images/illo349.png" alt="Fig. 158" width="250" height="488" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 158.—Andrias Scheuchzeri.</p></div> + +<p>The Miocene formations of Switzerland are called <i>Molasse</i> (from +the French <i>mol</i>, soft), a term +which is applied to a <i>soft</i>, +incoherent, greenish sandstone, +occupying the country +between the Alps and the +Jura, and they may be divided +into lower, middle, and upper +Miocene; the middle one is +marine, the other two being +fresh-water formations. The +upper fresh-water Molasse is +best seen at Œningen, in the +Rhine valley, where, according +to Sir Roderick Murchison, it +ranges ten miles east and west +from Berlingen, on the right +bank, to Waugen and to +Œningen, near Stein, on the +left bank. In this formation +Professor Heer enumerates +twenty-one beds. No. 1, a +bluish-grey marl seven feet +thick, without organic remains, +resting on No. 2, limestone, +with fossil plants, including +leaves of poplar, cinnamon, +and pond-weed (<i>Potamogeton</i>). +No. 3, bituminous rock, with <i>Mastodon +angustidens</i>. No. 5, +two or three inches thick, containing +fossil Fishes. No. 9, +the stone in which the skeleton +of the great Salamander +<i>Andrias Scheuchzeri</i> (<a href="#Fig_158">Fig. 158</a>) +was found. Below this, other +strata with Fishes, Tortoises, the great Salamander, as before, with +fresh-water Mussels, and plants. In No. 16, Sir R. Murchison +obtained the fossil fox of Œningen, <i>Galacynus Œningensis</i> (Owen).<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[339]</a></span> +In these beds Professor Heer had, as early as 1859, determined 475 +species of fossil plants, and 900 insects.</p> + +<p>The plants of the Swiss Miocene period have been obtained from +a country not one-fifth the size of Switzerland, yet such an abundance +of species, which Heer reckons at 3,000, does not exist in any area +of equal extent in Europe. It exceeds in variety, he considers, +after making every allowance for all not having existed at the same +time, and from other considerations, the Southern American forests, +and rivals such tropical countries as Jamaica and Brazil. European +plants occupy a secondary place, while the evergreen Oaks, Maples, +Poplars, and Plane-trees, Robinias, and Taxodiums of America and +the smaller Atlantic islands, occupy such an important place in the +fossil flora that Unger was induced to suggest the hypothesis, that, in +the Miocene period the present basin of the Atlantic was dry land—and +this hypothesis has been ably advocated by Heer.</p> + +<hr class="c05" /> + +<p>The terrestrial animals which lived in the Miocene period were +Mammals, Birds, and Reptiles. Many new Mammals had appeared +since the preceding period; among others, Apes, Cheiropteras +(Bats), Carnivora, Marsupials, Rodents, Dogs. Among the first +we find <i>Pithecus antiquus</i> and <i>Mesopithecus</i>; the Bats, Dogs, and +Coati inhabited Brazil and Guiana; the Rats North America; the +Genettes, the Marmots, the Squirrels, and Opossums having some +affinity to the Opossums of America. Thrushes, Sparrows, Storks, +Flamingoes, and Crows, represent the class Birds. Among the Reptiles +appear several Snakes, Frogs, and Salamanders. The lakes +and rivers were inhabited by Perches and Shad. But it is among the +Mammals that we must seek for the most interesting species of +animals of this period. They are both numerous and remarkable +for their dimensions and peculiarities of form; but the species which +appeared in the Miocene period, as in those which preceded it, are +now only known by their fossil remains and bones.</p> + +<p>The <i>Dinotherium</i> (<a href="#Fig_159">Fig. 159</a>), one of the most remarkable of these +animals, is the largest terrestrial Mammal which has ever lived. +For a long time we possessed only very imperfect portions of the +skeleton of this animal, upon the evidence of which Cuvier was +induced erroneously to place it among the Tapirs. The discovery of +a lower jaw, nearly perfect, armed with defensive tusks descending +from its lower jaw, demonstrated that this hitherto mysterious animal +was the type of an altogether new and singular genus. Nevertheless, +as it was known that there were some animals of the ancient world in +which both jaws were armed, it was thought for some time that such<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[340]</a></span> +was the case with the Dinotherium. But in 1836, a head, nearly +entire, was found in the already celebrated beds at Eppelsheim, in the +Grand Duchy of Hesse Darmstadt. In 1837 this fine fragment was +carried to Paris, and exposed to public view. It was nearly a yard +and a half long, and above a yard wide. The defences, it was found, +were enormous, and were carried at the anterior extremity of the +lower maxillary bone, and much curved inwards, as in the Morse. +The molar teeth were in many respects analogous to those of the +Tapir, and the great suborbital apertures, joined to the form of the +nasal bone, rendered the existence of a proboscis or trunk very probable. +But the most remarkable bone belonging to the Dinotherium +which has yet been found is an omoplate or scapula, which by +its form reminds us of that of the Mole.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_159" id="Fig_159"></a> +<img src="images/illo351.png" alt="Fig. 159" width="450" height="335" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 159.—Dinotherium.</p></div> + +<p>This colossus of the ancient world, respecting which there has +been so much argument, somewhat approaches the Mastodon; it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[341]</a></span> +seems to announce the appearance of the Elephant; but its dimensions +were infinitely greater than those of existing Elephants, and +superior even to those of the Mastodon and of the Mammoth, both +fossil Elephants, the remains of which we shall have to describe +presently.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_160" id="Fig_160"></a> +<img src="images/illo352.png" alt="Fig. 160" width="450" height="183" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 160.—Teeth of Mastodon.</p></div> + +<p>From its kind of life, and its frugal regimen, this Pachyderm +scarcely merited the formidable name of Dinotherium which has been +bestowed on it by naturalists (from δεινος, <i>terrible</i>, θηριον, <i>animal</i>). +Its size was, no doubt, frightful enough, but its habits seem to have +been peaceful. It is supposed to have inhabited fresh-water lakes, +or the mouths of great rivers and the marshes bordering their banks +by preference. Herbivorous, like the Elephant, it employed its +proboscis probably in seizing the plants which hung suspended over +the waters, or floated on their surface. We know that the elephants +are very partial to the roots of herbaceous plants which grow in +flooded plains. The Dinotherium appears to have been organised to +satisfy the same tastes. With the powerful natural mattock which +Nature had supplied him for penetrating the soil, he would be able +to tear from the bed of the river, or lake, feculent roots like those of +the Nymphæa, or even much harder ones, for which the mode of +articulation of the jaws, and the powerful muscles intended to move +them, as well as the large surface of the teeth, so well calculated for +grinding, were evidently intended (<a href="#Fig_160">Fig. 160</a>).</p> + +<hr class="c05" /> + +<p>The <i>Mastodon</i> was, to all appearance, very nearly of the size and +form of our Elephant—his body, however, being somewhat longer, +while his limbs, on the contrary, were a little thicker. He had +tusks, and very probably a trunk, and is chiefly distinguished from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[342]</a></span> +existing Elephant by the form of his molar teeth, which form the most +distinctive character in his organisation. These teeth are nearly +rectangular, and present on the surface of their crown great conical +tuberosities, with rounded points disposed in pairs to the number of +four or five, according to the species. Their form is very distinct, +and may be easily recognised. They do not bear any resemblance +to those of the carnivora, but are like those of herbivorous animals, +and particularly those of the Hippopotamus. The molar teeth are +at first sharp and pointed, but when the conical points are ground +down by mastication, they assume the appearance presented in +<a href="#Fig_161">Fig. 161</a>. When, from continued grinding, the conical teat-like points +are more deeply worn, they begin to +assume the appearance shown in +<a href="#Fig_160">Fig. 160</a>. In <a href="#Fig_162">Fig. 162</a> we represent +the head and lower jaw of the +Miocene Mastodon; from which it +will appear that the animal had two +projecting tusks in the lower jaw, +corresponding with two of much +larger dimensions which projected +from the upper jaw.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="Fig_161" id="Fig_161"></a> +<img src="images/illo353.png" alt="Fig. 161" width="350" height="318" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 161.—Molar teeth of Mastodon, worn.</p></div> + +<p>It was only towards the middle +of the last century that the Mastodon +first attracted attention in Europe. +About the year 1705, it is true, +some bones of this animal had been +found at Albany, now the capital of New York, but the discovery +attracted little attention. In 1739, a French officer, M. de Longueil, +traversed the virgin forests bordering the great river Ohio, in order to +reach the great river Mississippi, and the savages who escorted him +accidentally discovered on the borders of a marsh various bones, +some of which seemed to be those of unknown animals. In this turfy +marsh, which the natives designated the Great Salt Lake, in consequence +of the many streams charged with salt which lose themselves in +it, herds of wild ruminants still seek its banks, attracted by the salt—for +which they have a great fondness—such being the reason probably +which had caused the accumulation, at this point, of the remains of so +large a number of quadrupeds belonging to these remote ages in +the history of the globe. M. de Longueil carried some of these bones +with him, and, on his return to France, he presented them to +Daubenton and Buffon; they consisted of a femur, one extremity of +a tusk, and three molar teeth. Daubenton, after mature examination,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[343]</a></span> +declared the teeth to be those of a Hippopotamus; the tusk and the +gigantic femur, according to his report, belonged to an Elephant; so +that they were not even considered to be parts of one and the same +animal. Buffon did not share this opinion, and he was not long in +converting Daubenton, as well as other French naturalists, to his +views. Buffon declared that the bones belonged to an Elephant, +whose race had lived only in the primitive ages of the globe. It was +then, only, that the fundamental notion of extinct species of animals, +exclusively peculiar to +ancient ages of the +world, began to be +entertained for the +first time by naturalists—a +notion which laid +dormant during nearly +a century, before it +bore the admirable +fruits which have +since so enriched the +natural sciences and +philosophy.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="Fig_162" id="Fig_162"></a> +<img src="images/illo354.png" alt="Fig. 162" width="400" height="398" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 162.—Head of the Mastodon of the Miocene period.<br /> +A, B, the whole head; C, lower jaw.</p></div> + +<p>Buffon gave the +fossil the name of the +<i>Animal or Elephant of +the Ohio</i>, but he deceived +himself as to +its size, believing it to +be from six to eight +times the size of our +existing Elephant; an +estimate which he was +led to make by an erroneous notion with regard to the number of +the Elephant’s teeth. The <i>Animal of the Ohio</i> had only four molars, +while Buffon imagined that it might have as many as sixteen, confounding +the germs, or supplementary teeth, which exist in the young +animal, with the permanent teeth of the adult individual. In reality, +however, the Mastodon was not much larger than the existing species +of African Elephant.</p> + +<p>The discovery of this animal had produced a great impression in +Europe. Becoming masters of Canada by the peace of 1763, the +English sought eagerly for more of these precious remains. The +geographer Croghan traversed anew the region of the Great Salt Lake,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[344]</a></span> +pointed out by De Longueil, and found there some bones of the same +nature. In 1767 he forwarded many cases to London, addressing +them to divers naturalists. Collinson, among others, the friend and +correspondent of Franklin, who had his share in this consignment, +took the opportunity of sending a molar tooth to Buffon.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_163" id="Fig_163"></a> +<img src="images/illo355.png" alt="Fig. 163" width="450" height="323" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 163.—Skeleton of Mastodon giganteus.</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[345]</a></span>It was not, however, till 1801 that the remains of the perfect +skeleton were discovered. An American naturalist, named Peale, was +fortunate enough to get together two nearly complete skeletons of +this important animal. Having been apprised that many large bones +had been found in the marly clay on the banks of the Hudson, near +Newburg, in the State of New York, Mr. Peale proceeded to that +locality. In the spring of 1801 a considerable part of one skeleton +was found by the farmer who had dug it out of the ground, but, +unfortunately, it was much mutilated by his awkwardness, and by the +precipitancy of the workmen. Having purchased these fragments, +Mr. Peale sent them on to Philadelphia.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_164" id="Fig_164"></a> +<img src="images/illo356.png" alt="Fig. 164" width="450" height="351" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 164.—Mastodon restored.</p></div> + +<p>In a marsh, situated five leagues west of the Hudson, the same +gentleman discovered, six months after, a second skeleton of the +Mastodon, consisting of a perfect jaw and a great number of bones.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[346]</a></span> +With the bones thus collected, the naturalist managed to construct +two nearly complete skeletons. One of these still remains in the +Museum of Philadelphia; the other was sent to London, where it +was exhibited publicly.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="Fig_165" id="Fig_165"></a> +<img src="images/illo357.png" alt="Fig. 165" width="350" height="309" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 165.—Molar tooth of Mastodon.</p></div> + +<p>Discoveries nearly analogous to these followed, the most curious +of which was made in this manner by Mr. Barton, a Professor of the +University of Pennsylvania. At a depth of six feet in the ground, and +under a great bank of chalk, bones of the Mastodon were found +sufficient to form a +skeleton. One of the +teeth found weighed +about seventeen pounds +(<a href="#Fig_165">Fig. 165</a>); but the circumstance +which made +this discovery the more +remarkable was, that in +the middle of the bones, +and enveloped in a kind +of sac which was probably +the stomach of +the animal, a mass of +vegetable matter was +discovered, partly +bruised, and composed +of small leaves and +branches, among which +a species of rush has +been recognised which is yet common in Virginia. We cannot +doubt that these were the undigested remains of the food, which +the animal had browsed on just before its death.</p> + +<p>The aboriginal natives of North America called the Mastodon +the <i>father of the ox</i>. A French officer named Fabri wrote thus to +Buffon in 1748. The natives of Canada and Louisiana, where these +remains are abundant, speak of the Mastodon as a fantastic creature +which mingles in all their traditions and in their ancient national +songs. Here is one of these songs, which Fabri heard in Canada: +“When the great <i>Manitou</i> descended to the earth, in order to satisfy +himself that the creatures he had created were happy, he interrogated +all the animals. The bison replied that he would be quite contented +with his fate in the grassy meadows, where the grass reached his +belly, if he were not also compelled to keep his eyes constantly +turned towards the mountains to catch the first sight of the <i>father of</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[347]</a></span> +<i>oxen</i>, as he descended, with fury, to devour him and his companions.”</p> + +<p>The Cheyenne Indians have a tradition that these great animals +lived in former times, conjointly with a race of men whose size was +proportionate to their own, but that the <i>Great Being</i> destroyed both +by repeated strokes of his terrible thunderbolts.</p> + +<p>The native Indians of Virginia had another legend. As these +gigantic Elephants destroyed all other animals specially created to +supply the wants of the Indians, God, the thunderer, destroyed them; +a single one only succeeded in escaping. It was “the great male, +which presented its head to the thunderbolts and shook them off as +they fell; but being at length wounded in the side, he took to flight +towards the great lakes, where he remains hidden to this day.” All +these simple fictions prove, at least, that the Mastodon has lived +upon the earth at some not very distant period. We shall see, in +fact, that it was contemporaneous with the Mammoth, which, it is now +supposed, may have been co-existent with the earlier races of mankind, +or only preceded a little the appearance of man.</p> + +<p>Buffon, as we have said, gave to this great fossil animal the name +of the Elephant of the Ohio; it has also been called the Mammoth of +the Ohio. In England it was received with astonishment. Dr. +Hunter showed clearly enough, from the thigh-bone and the teeth, +that it was no Elephant; but having heard of the existence of the +Siberian Mammoth, he at once came to the conclusion that they +were bones of that animal. He then declared the teeth to be carnivorous, +and the idea of a <i>carnivorous elephant</i> became one of the +wonders of the day. Cuvier at once dissipated the clouds of doubt +which surrounded the subject, pointing out the osteological differences +between the several species, and giving to the American animal the +appropriate name of Mastodon (from μαστος, <i>a teat</i>, and οδους, <i>a +tooth</i>), or teat-like-toothed animal.</p> + +<p>Many bones of the Mastodon have been found in America since +that time, but remains are rarely met with in Europe, except as +fragments—as the portion of a jaw-bone discovered in the Red +Crag near Norwich, which Professor Owen has named <i>Mastodon +angustidens</i>. It was even thought, for a long time, with Cuvier, that +the Mastodon belonged exclusively to the New World; but the discovery +of many of the bones mixed with those of the Mammoth, +(<i>Elephas primigenius</i>) has dispelled that opinion. Bones of Mastodon +have been found in great numbers in the Val d’Arno. In 1858 a +magnificent skeleton was discovered at Turin.</p> + +<p>The form of the teeth of the Mastodon shows that it fed, like the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[348]</a></span> +Elephant, on the roots and succulent parts of vegetables; and this is +confirmed by the curious discovery made in America by Barton. It +lived, no doubt, on the banks of rivers and on moist and marshy +lands. Besides the great Mastodon of which we have spoken, there +existed a Mastodon one-third smaller than the Elephant, and which +inhabited nearly all Europe.</p> + +<p>There are some curious historical facts in connection with the +remains of the Mastodon which ought not to be passed over in +silence. On the 11th of January, 1613, the workmen in a sand-pit +situated near the Castle of Chaumont, in Dauphiny, between the +cities of Montricourt and Saint-Antoine, on the left bank of the +Rhône, found some bones, many of which were broken up by them. +These bones belonged to some great fossil Mammal, but the existence +of such animals was at that time wholly unknown. Informed of +the discovery, a country surgeon named Mazuyer purchased the +bones, and gave out that he had himself discovered them in a tomb, +thirty feet long by fifteen broad, built of bricks, upon which he found +the inscription <span class="smcap">Teutobocchus Rex</span>. He added that, in the same +tomb, he found half a hundred medals bearing the effigy of Marius. +This Teutobocchus was a barbarian king, who invaded Gaul at the +head of the Cimbri, and who was vanquished near <i>Aquæ Sextiæ</i> (Aix +in Provence) by Marius, who carried him to Rome to grace his +triumphal procession. In the notice which he published in confirmation +of this story, Mazuyer reminded the public that, according to +the testimony of Roman authors, the head of the Teuton king exceeded +in dimensions all the trophies borne upon the lances in the +triumph. The skeleton which he exhibited was five-and-twenty feet +in length and ten broad.</p> + +<p>Mazuyer showed the skeleton of the pretended Teutobocchus +in all the cities of France and Germany, and also to Louis XIII., +who took great interest in contemplating this marvel. It gave rise +to a long controversy, or rather an interminable dispute, in which the +anatomist Riolan distinguished himself—arguing against Habicot, a +physician, whose name is all but forgotten. Riolan attempted to +prove that the bones of the pretended king were those of an +Elephant. Numerous pamphlets were exchanged by the two adversaries, +in support of their respective opinions. We learn also from +Gassendi, that a Jesuit of Tournon, named Jacques Tissot, was the +author of the notice published by Mazuyer. Gassendi also proves +that the pretended medals of Marius were forgeries, on the ground +that they bore Gothic characters. It seems very strange that these +bones, which are still preserved in the cases of the Museum of Natural<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[349]</a></span> +History in Paris, where anybody may see them, should ever have +been mistaken, for a single moment, for human remains. The +skeleton of Teutobocchus remained at Bordeaux till 1832, when it +was sent to the Museum of Natural History in Paris, where M. de +Blainville declared that it belonged to a Mastodon.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_166" id="Fig_166"></a> +<img src="images/illo360a.png" alt="Fig. 166" width="450" height="271" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 166.—Skeleton of Mesopithecus.</p></div> + +<p>The Apes made their appearance at this period. In the ossiferous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[350]</a></span> +beds of Sansan M. Lartet discovered the <i>Dryopithecus</i>, as well as +<i>Pithecus antiquus</i>, but only in imperfect fragments. M. Albert +Gaudry was more fortunate: in the Miocene rocks of Pikermi, in +Greece, he discovered the entire skeleton of <i>Mesopithecus</i>, which we +present here (<a href="#Fig_166">Fig. 166</a>), together with the same animal restored +(<a href="#Fig_167">Fig. 167</a>). In its general organisation it resembles the dog-faced +baboon or ape, a piece of information which has guided the artist +in the restoration of the animal.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="Fig_167" id="Fig_167"></a> +<img src="images/illo360b.png" alt="Fig. 167" width="500" height="308" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 167.—Mesopithecus restored. One-fifth natural size.</p></div> + +<hr class="c05" /> + +<p>The seas of the Miocene period were inhabited by great numbers +of beings altogether unknown in earlier formations; we may mention +no less than ninety marine genera which appear here for the first +time, and some of which have lived down to our epoch. Among +these, the molluscous Gasteropods, such as <i>Conus</i>, <i>Turbinella</i>, <i>Ranella</i>, +<i>Murex</i> (<a href="#Fig_169">Fig. 169</a>), and <i>Dolium</i> are the most abundant; with many +Lamellibranchiata.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><a name="Fig_168" id="Fig_168"></a> +<img src="images/illo361a.png" alt="Fig. 168" width="125" height="371" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 168.—Cerithium plicatum.</p></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><a name="Fig_169" id="Fig_169"></a> +<img src="images/illo361b.png" alt="Fig. 169" width="200" height="313" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 169.—Murex Turonensis.</p></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><a name="Fig_170" id="Fig_170"></a> +<img src="images/illo361c.png" alt="Fig. 170" width="200" height="421" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 170.—Ostrea longirostris. One quarter natural size.<br /> +Living form.</p></div> + +<p>The Foraminifera are also represented by new genera, among +which are the Bolivina, Polystomella, and Dentritina.</p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351"></a></p> +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[352]</a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Plate_XXIV" id="Plate_XXIV"></a> +<img src="images/illo363.png" alt="Plate XXIV" width="600" height="392" /> +<p class="caption">XXIV.—Ideal Landscape of the Miocene Period.</p></div> + +<p>Finally, the Crustaceans include the genera <i>Pagurus</i> (or the +Hermit crabs); <i>Astacus</i>. (the lobster); and <i>Portunus</i> (or paddling +crabs). Of the first, it is doubtful if any fossil species have been +found; of the last, species have been discovered bearing some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[353]</a></span> +resemblance to <i>Podophthalmus vigil</i>, as <i>P. Defrancii</i>, which only +differs from it in the absence of the sharp spines which terminate the +lateral angles of the carapace in the former; while <i>Portunus leucodon</i> +(Desmarest) bears some analogy to Lupea.</p> + +<hr class="c05" /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="Fig_171" id="Fig_171"></a> +<img src="images/illo364.png" alt="Fig. 171" width="400" height="354" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 171.—Podophthalmus vigil.</p></div> + +<p>An ideal landscape of the Miocene period, which is given +on the opposite page (<span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_XXIV">Plate XXIV.</a></span>), represents the Dinotherium +lying in the marshy grass, the Rhinoceros, the Mastodon, and an Ape +of great size, the <i>Dryopithecus</i>, hanging from the branches of a tree. +The products of the vegetable kingdom are, for the greater part, +analogous to those of the present time. They are remarkable for their +abundance, and for their graceful and serried vegetation; and still +remind us in some respects, of the vegetation of the Carboniferous +period. It is, in fact, a continuation of the characteristics of that +period, and from the same cause, namely, the submersion of land +under marshy waters, which has given birth to a sort of coal which is +often found in the Miocene formation, and which we call <i>lignite</i>. +This imperfect coal does not quite resemble that of the Carboniferous,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[354]</a></span> +or true Coal-measure period, because it is of much more +recent date, and because it has not been subjected to the same +internal heat, accompanied by the same pressure of superincumbent +strata, which produced the older coal-beds of the Primary epoch.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="Fig_172" id="Fig_172"></a> +<img src="images/illo365.png" alt="Fig. 172" width="400" height="395" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 172.—Lupea pelagica.</p></div> + +<p>The <i>lignites</i>, which we find in the Miocene, as in the Eocene +period, constitute, however, a combustible which is worked and +utilised in many countries, especially in Germany, where it is made +in many places to serve in place of coal. These beds sometimes +attain a thickness of above twenty yards, but in the environs of Paris +they form beds of a few inches only, which alternate with clays and +sands. We cannot doubt that lignites, like true coal, are the remains +of the buried forests of an ancient world; in fact, the substance of +the woods of our forests, often in a state perfectly recognisable, is +frequently found in the lignite beds; and the studies of modern +botanists have demonstrated, that the species of which the lignites<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[355]</a></span> +are formed, belong to a vegetation closely resembling that of Europe +in the present day.</p> + +<p>Another very curious substance is found with the lignite—yellow +amber. It is the mineralised resin, which flowed from certain extinct +pine-trees of the Tertiary epoch; the waves of the Baltic Sea, washing +the amber out of the deposits of sand and clay in which it lies +buried, this substance, being very little heavier than water, is thrown +by the waves upon the shore. For ages the Baltic coast has supplied +commerce with amber. The Phœnicians ascended its banks to +collect this beautiful fossil resin, which is now chiefly found between +Dantzic and Memel, where it is a government monopoly in the +hands of contractors, who are protected by a law making it theft +to gather or conceal it.</p> + +<p>Amber,<a name="FNanchor_91" id="FNanchor_91"></a><a href="#Footnote_91" class="fnanchor">[91]</a> while it has lost none of its former commercial value, +is, besides, of much palæontological interest; fossil insects, and +other extraneous bodies, are often found enclosed in the nodules, +where they have been preserved in all their original colouring and +integrity of form. As the poet says—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“The things themselves are neither rich nor rare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wonder’s how the devil they got there.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The natural aromatic qualities of the amber combined with exclusion +of air, &c., have embalmed them, and thus transmitted to our times +the smaller beings and the most delicate organisms of earlier ages.</p> + +<p>The Miocene rocks, of marine origin, are very imperfectly represented +in the Paris basin, and their composition changes with the +localities. They are divided into two groups of beds: 1. <i>Molasse</i>, +or soft clay; 2. <i>Faluns</i>, or shelly marl.</p> + +<p>In the Paris basin the <i>Molasse</i> presents, at its base, quartzose sands +of great thickness, sometimes pure, sometimes a little argillaceous or +micaceous. They include beds of sandstone (with some limestone), +which are worked in the quarries of Fontainebleau, d’Orsay, and +Montmorency, for paving-stone for the streets of Paris and the neighbouring +towns. This last formation is altogether marine. To these +sands and sandstones succeeds a fresh-water deposit, formed of a +whitish and partly siliceous limestone, which forms the ground of the +plateau of La Beauce, between the valleys of the Seine and the Loire: +this is called the <i>Calcaire de la Beauce</i>. It is there mixed with a reddish +and more or less sandy clay, containing small blocks of burrh-stone +used for millstones, easily recognised by their yellow-ochreous colour,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[356]</a></span> +and the numerous cavities or hollows with which their texture is +honeycombed.</p> + +<p>This grit, or <i>silex meulier</i>, is much used in Paris for the arches of +cellars, underground conduits, sewers, &c.</p> + +<p>The <i>Faluns</i> in the Paris basin consist of divers beds formed of +shells and Corals, almost entirely broken up. In many parts of the +country, and especially in the environs of Tours and Bordeaux, they +are dug out for manuring the land. To the Falun series belong the +fresh-water marl, limestone, and sand, which composed the celebrated +mound of Sansan, near Auch, in the Department of Gers, in which +M. Lartet found a considerable number of bones of Turtles, Birds, +and especially Mammals, such as <i>Mastodon</i> and <i>Dinotherium</i>, together +with a species of long-armed ape, which he named <i>Pithecus +antiquus</i>, from the circumstance of its affording the earliest instance +of the discovery of the remains of the quadrumana, or monkey-tribe, +in Europe. Isolated masses of Faluns occur, also, near the mouth +of the Loire and to the south of Tours, and in Brittany.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"><a name="Fig_173" id="Fig_173"></a> +<img src="images/illo367.png" alt="Fig. 173" width="200" height="321" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 173.—Caryophylla cyathus.</p></div> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[357]</a></p> + +<h4>PLIOCENE PERIOD.</h4> + +<p>This last period of the Tertiary epoch was marked, in some parts +of Europe, by great movements of the terrestrial crust, always due to +the same cause—namely, the continual and gradual cooling of the +globe. This leads us to recall what we have repeatedly stated, that +this cooling, during which the outer zone of the fluid mass passed to +the solid state, produced irregularities and inequalities in the external +surface, sometimes accompanied by fractures through which the semi-fluid +or pasty matter poured itself; leading afterwards to the upheaval +of mountain ranges through these gaping chasms. Thus, +during the Pliocene period, many mountains and mountain-chains +were formed in Europe by basaltic and volcanic eruptions. These +upheavals were preceded by sudden and irregular movements of the +elastic mass of the crust—by earthquakes, in short—phenomena +which have been already sufficiently explained.</p> + +<hr class="c05" /> + +<p>In order to understand the nature of the vegetation of the period, +as compared with that with which we are familiar, let us listen to +M. Lecoq: “Arrived, finally,” says that author, “at the last period +which preceded our own epoch—the epoch in which the temperate +zones were still embellished by tropical forms of vegetation, which +were, however, slowly declining, driven out as it were by a cooling +climate and by the invasion of more vigorous species—great terrestrial +commotions took place: mountains are covered with eternal +snow; continents now take their present forms; but many great +lakes, now dried up, still existed; great rivers flowed majestically +through smiling countries, whose surface man had not yet come +to modify.</p> + +<p>“Two hundred and twelve species compose this rich flora, in +which the Ferns of the earlier ages of the world are scarcely indicated, +where the Palms seem to have quite disappeared, and we see +forms much more like those which are constantly under our observation. +The <i>Culmites arundinaceus</i> (Unger) abounds near the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[358]</a></span> +water, where also grows the <i>Cyperites tertiarius</i> (Unger), where floats +<i>Dotamogeton geniculatus</i> (Braun), and where we see submerged <i>Isoctites +Brunnii</i> (Unger). Great Conifers still form the forests. This fine +family has, as we have seen, passed through every epoch, and still +presents us with its elegant forms and persistent evergreen foliage; +<i>Taxodites</i>, <i>Thuyoxylum</i>, <i>Abietites</i>, <i>Pinites</i>, <i>Eleoxylon</i>, and <i>Taxites</i> +being still the forms most abundant in these old natural forests.</p> + +<p>“The predominating character of this period is the abundance +of the group of the Amentaceæ; whilst the Conifers are thirty-two in +number, of the other we reckon fifty-two species, among which are +many European genera, such as <i>Alnus</i>; <i>Quercus</i>, the oak; <i>Salix</i>, the +willow; <i>Fagus</i>, the beech; <i>Betula</i>, the birch, &c.</p> + +<p>“The following families constitute the arborescent flora of the +period besides those already mentioned:—Balsaminaceæ, Lauraceæ, +Thymelæaceæ, Santalaceæ, Cornaceæ, Myrtaceæ, Calycanthaceæ, +Pomaceæ, Rosaceæ, Amygdaleæ, Leguminosæ, Anacardiaceæ, Juglandaceæ, +Rhamnaceæ, Celastrinaceæ, Sapindaceæ, Meliaceæ, Aceraceæ, +Tiliaceæ, Magnoliaceæ, Capparidaceæ, Sapoteaceæ, Styracaceæ, +Oleaceæ, Juncaceæ, Ericaceæ.</p> + +<p>“In all these families great numbers of European genera are +found, often even more abundant in species than now. Thus, as +Brongniart observes, in this flora we reckon fourteen species of Maple; +three species of Oak; and these species proceed from two or three +very circumscribed localities, which would not probably, at the present +time, represent in a radius of several leagues more than three or +four species of these genera.”</p> + +<p>An important difference distinguishes the Pliocene flora, as compared +with those of preceding epochs, it is the absence of the family +of Palms in the European flora, as noted by Lecoq, which forms such +an essential botanical feature in the Miocene period. We mention +this, because, in spite of the general analogy which exists between +the vegetation of the Pliocene period and that of temperate regions +in the present day, it does not appear that there is a single species +of the former period absolutely identical with any one now growing +in Europe. Thus, the European vegetation, even at the most recent +geological epoch, differs specifically from the vegetation of our age, +although a general resemblance is observable between the two.</p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[359]</a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="Fig_174" id="Fig_174"></a> +<img src="images/illo370.png" alt="Fig. 174" width="500" height="280" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 174.—Skeleton of the Mastodon of Turin.</p></div> + +<p>The terrestrial animals of the Pliocene period present us with a +great number of creatures alike remarkable from their proportions +and from their structure. The Mammals and the batrachian Reptiles +are alike deserving of our attention in this epoch. Among the former +the Mastodon, which makes its first appearance in the Miocene<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[360]</a></span> +formations, continues to be found, but becomes extinct apparently +before we reach the upper beds. Others present themselves of +genera totally unknown till now, some of them, such as the <i>Hippopotamus</i>, +the <i>Camel</i>, the <i>Horse</i>, the <i>Ox</i>, and the <i>Deer</i>, surviving to the +present day. The fossil horse, of all animals, is perhaps that which +presents the greatest resemblance +to existing +individuals; but it was +small, not exceeding the +ass in size.</p> + +<p>The <i>Mastodon</i>, which +we have considered in +our description of the preceding +period, still existed +in Pliocene times; in +<a href="#Fig_174">Fig. 174</a> the species living +in this latter age is represented—it +is called the +Mastodon of Turin. As +we see, it has only two +projecting tusks or defences +in the upper jaw, +instead of four, like the +American species, which +is described in <a href="#Page_343">page 343</a>. +Other species belonging +to this period are not uncommon; +the portion of +an upper jaw-bone with +a tooth which was found +in the Norwich Crag at Postwick, near Norwich, Dr. Falconer has shown +to be a Pliocene species, first observed in Auvergne, and named by +Messrs. Croizet and Jobert, its discoverers, <i>Mastodon Arvernensis</i>.</p> + +<p>The <i>Hippopotamus</i>, <i>Tapir</i>, and <i>Camel</i>, which appear during the +Pliocene period, present no peculiar characteristics to arrest our +attention.</p> + +<p>The Apes begin to abound in species; the Stags were already +numerous.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="Fig_175" id="Fig_175"></a> +<img src="images/illo371.png" alt="Fig. 175" width="350" height="429" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 175.—Head of Rhinoceros tichorhinus, partly restored +under the direction of Eugene Deslongchamps.</p></div> + +<p>The <i>Rhinoceros</i>, which made its appearance in the Miocene period, +appears in greater numbers in the Pliocene deposits. The species +peculiar to the Tertiary epoch is <i>R. tichorhinus</i>, which is descriptive +of the bony partition which separated its two nostrils, an anatomical<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[361]</a></span> +arrangement which is not found in our existing species. Two horns +surmount the nose of this animal, as represented in <a href="#Fig_175">Fig. 175</a>. Two +living species, namely, the Rhinoceros of Africa and Sumatra, have +two horns, but they are much smaller than those of <i>R. tichorhinus</i>. +The existing Indian Rhinoceros has only one horn.</p> + +<p>The body of <i>R. tichorhinus</i> was covered with very thick hair, and +its skin was without the rough and callous scales which we remark on +the skin of the living African species.</p> + +<p>Contemporaneously with this gigantic species there existed a +dwarf species about the size of our Hog; and along with it several +intermediate species, whose bones are found in sufficient numbers to +enable us to reconstruct the skeleton. The curvature of the nasal +bone of the fossil Rhinoceros and its gigantic horn have given rise to +many tales and popular legends. The famous bird, the <i>Roc</i>, which +played so great a part in the fabulous myths of the people of Asia, +originated in the discovery in the bosom of the earth of the cranium +and horns of a fossil Rhinoceros. The famous dragons of western +tradition have a similar origin.</p> + +<p>In the city of Klagenfurth, in Carinthia, is a fountain on which is +sculptured the head of a monstrous dragon with six feet, and a head +surmounted by a stout horn. According to the popular tradition still +prevalent at Klagenfurth, this dragon lived in a cave, whence it +issued from time to time to frighten and ravage the country. A bold +cavalier kills the dragon, paying with his life for this proof of his +courage. It is the same legend which is current in every country, from +that of the valiant St. George and the Dragon and of St. Martha, +who nearly about the same age conquered the fabulous <i>Tarasque</i> of +the city of Languedoc, which bears the name of Tarascon.</p> + +<p>But at Klagenfurth the popular legend has happily found a +mouth-piece—the head of the pretended dragon, killed by the +valorous knight, is preserved in the Hôtel de Ville, and this head has +furnished the sculptor for his fountain with a model for the head of +his statue. Herr Unger, of Vienna, recognised at a glance the cranium +of the fossil Rhinoceros; its discovery in some cave had probably +originated the fable of the knight and the dragon. And all legends +are capable of some such explanation when we can trace them back +to their sources, and reason upon the circumstances on which they are +founded.</p> + +<p>The traveller Pallas gives a very interesting account of a <i>Rhinoceros +tichorhinus</i> which he saw, with his own eyes, taken out of the ice +in which its skin, hair, and flesh had been preserved. It was in +December, 1771, that the body of the Rhinoceros was observed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[362]</a></span> +buried in the frozen sand upon the banks of the Viloui, a river which +discharges itself into the Lena below Yakutsk, in Siberia, in 64° north +latitude. “I ought to speak,” the learned naturalist says, “of an +interesting discovery which I owe to the Chevalier de Bril. Some +Yakouts hunting this winter near the Viloui found the body of a large +unknown animal. The Sieur Ivan Argounof, inspector of the Zimovic, +had sent on to Irkutsk the head and a fore and hind foot of the animal, +all very well preserved.” The Sieur Argounof, in his report, states +that the animal was half buried in the sand; it measured as it lay +three ells and three-quarters Russian in length, and he estimated its +height at three and a half; the animal, still retaining its flesh, was +covered with skin which resembled tanned leather; but it was so +decomposed that he could only remove the fore and hind foot and the +head, which he sent to Irkutsk, where Pallas saw them. “They +appeared to me at first glance,” he says, “to belong to a Rhinoceros; +the head especially was quite recognisable, since it was covered with +its leathery skin, and the skin had preserved all its external characters, +and many short hairs. The eyelids had even escaped total decay, and +in the cranium here and there, under the skin, I perceived some matter +which was evidently the remains of putrefied flesh. I also remarked +in the feet the remains of the tendons and cartilages where the skin +had been removed. The head was without its horn, and the feet +without hoofs. The place of the horn, and the raised skin which had +surrounded it, and the division which existed in both the hind and +fore feet, were evident proofs of its being a Rhinoceros. In a dissertation +addressed to the Academy of St. Petersburg, I have given a full +account of this singular discovery. I give there reasons which prove +that a Rhinoceros had penetrated nearly to the Lena, in the most +northern regions, and which have led to the discovery of the remains +of other strange animals in Siberia. I shall confine myself here to a +description of the country where these curious remains were found, +and to the cause of their long preservation.</p> + +<p>“The country watered by the Viloui is mountainous; all the +stratification of these mountains is horizontal. The beds consist of +selenitic and calcareous schists and beds of clay, mixed with numerous +beds of pyrites. On the banks of the Viloui we meet with coal much +broken; probably coal-beds exist higher up near to the river. The +brook Kemtendoï skirts a mountain entirely formed of selenite or +crystallised sulphate of lime and of rock-salt, and this mountain of +alabaster is more than 300 versts (about 200 miles), in ascending the +Viloui, from the place where the Rhinoceros was found. Opposite +to the place we see, near the river, a low hill, about a hundred feet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[363]</a></span> +high, which, though sandy, contains some beds of millstone. The +body of the Rhinoceros had been buried in coarse gravelly sand near +this hill, and the nature of the soil, which is always frozen, had preserved +it. The soil near the Viloui never thaws to a great depth, for, +although the rays of the sun soften the soil to the depth of two yards +in the more elevated sandy places, in the valleys, where the soil is +half sand and half clay, it remains frozen at the end of summer half +an ell below the surface. Without this intense cold the skin of the +animal and many parts of it would long since have perished. The +animal could only have been transported from some southern country +to the frozen north at the epoch of the Deluge, for the most ancient +chronicles speak of no changes of the globe more recent, to which we +could attribute the deposit of these remains and of the bones of +elephants which are found dispersed all over Siberia.”<a name="FNanchor_92" id="FNanchor_92"></a><a href="#Footnote_92" class="fnanchor">[92]</a></p> + +<p>In this extract the author refers to a memoir previously published +by himself, in the “Commentarii” of the Academy of St. Petersburg. +This memoir, written in Latin, and entitled “Upon some Animals of +Siberia,” has never been translated. After some general considerations, +the author thus relates the circumstances attending the discovery +of the fossil Rhinoceros, with some official documents affirming +their correctness, and the manner in which the facts were brought +under his notice by the Governor of Irkutsk, General Bril: “The +skin and tendons of the head and feet still preserved considerable +flexibility, imbued as it were with humidity from the earth; but the +flesh exhaled a fetid ammoniacal odour, resembling that of a latrine. +Compelled to cross the Baïkal Lake before the ice broke up, I could +neither draw up a sufficiently careful description nor make sketches +of the parts of the animal; but I made them place the remains, without +leaving Irkutsk, upon a furnace, with orders that after my departure +they should be dried by slow degrees and with the greatest care, +continuing the process for some time, because the viscous matter +which incessantly oozed out could only be dissipated by great heat. +It happened, unfortunately, that during the operation the posterior +part of the upper thigh and the foot were burnt in the overheated +furnace, and they were thrown away; the head and the extremity of +the hind foot only remained intact and undamaged by the process of +drying. The odour of the softer parts, which still contained viscous +matter in their interior, was changed by the desiccation into one +resembling that of flesh decomposed in the sun.</p> + +<p>“The Rhinoceros to which the members belonged was neither +large for its species nor advanced in age, as the bones of the head<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[364]</a></span> +attest, yet it was evidently an adult from the comparison made of the +size of the cranium as compared with that of others of the same +species more aged, which were afterwards found in a fossil state in +divers parts of Siberia. The entire length of the head from the +upper part of the nape of the neck to the extremity of the denuded +bone of the jaw was thirty inches; the horns were not with the head, +but we could still see evident vestiges of two horns, the nasal and +frontal. The front, unequal and a little protuberant between the +orbits, and of a rhomboidal egg-shape, is deficient in the skin, and +only covered by a light horny membrane, bristling with straight hairs +as hard as horn.</p> + +<p>“The skin which covers the greater part of the head is in the +dried state, a tenacious, fibrous substance, like curried leather, of a +brownish-black on the outside and white in the inside; when burnt, +it had the odour of common leather; the mouth, in the place where +the lips should have been soft and fleshy, was putrid and much +lacerated; the extremities of the maxillary bone were bare. Upon +the left side, which had probably been longest exposed to the air, +the skin was here and there decomposed and rubbed on the surface; +nevertheless, the greater part of the mouth was so well preserved on +the right side that the pores, or little holes from which doubtless the +hairs had fallen, were still visible all over that side, and even in front. +In the right side of the jaw there were still in certain places +numerous hairs grouped in tufts, for the most part rubbed down to +the roots, and here and there of two or three lines still retaining their +full length. They stand erect, are stiff, and of an ashy colour, but +with one or two black, and a little stiffer than the others, in each bunch.</p> + +<p>“What was most astonishing, however, was the fact that the skin +which covered the orbits of the eyes, and formed the eyelids, was +so well preserved and so healthy that the openings of the eyelids +could be seen, though deformed and scarcely penetrable to the +finger; the skin which surrounded the orbits, though desiccated, +formed circular furrows. The cavities of the eyes were filled with +matter, either argillaceous or animal, such as still occupied a part of +the cavity of the cranium. Under the skin the fibres and tendons +still remained, and above all the remains of the temporal muscles; +finally, in the throat hung some great bundles of muscular fibres. +The denuded bones were young and less solid than in other fossil +crania of the same species. The bone which gave support to the +nasal horn was not yet attached to the <i>vomer</i>; it was unprovided +with articulations like the processes of the young bones. The +extremities of the jaws preserved no vestige either of teeth or sockets,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[365]</a></span> +but they were covered here and there with the remains of the +integument. The first molar was distant about four inches from the +extreme edge of the jaw.</p> + +<p>“The foot which remains to me, and which, if I am not mistaken, +belongs to the left hind limb, has not only preserved its skin quite +intact and furnished with hairs, or their roots, as well as the tendons +and ligaments of the heel in all their strength, but also the skin +itself quite whole as far as the bend in the knee. The place of the +muscles was filled with black mud. The extremity of the foot is +cloven into three angles, the bony parts of which, with the periosteum, +still remain here and there; the horny hoofs had been detached. +The hairs adhering in many places to the skin were from one to +three lines in length, tolerably stiff and ash-coloured. What remains +of it proves that the foot was covered with bunches of hair, which +hung down.</p> + +<p>“We have never, so far as I know, observed so much hair on any +rhinoceros which has been brought to Europe in our times, as appears +to have been presented by the head and feet we have described. I +leave you then to decide if our rhinoceros of the Lena was born or +not in the temperate climate of Central Asia. In fact, the rhinoceros, +as I gather from the relations of travellers, belongs to the forests of +Northern India; and it is likely enough that these animals differ in +a more hairy skin from those which live in the burning zones of +Africa, just in the same way that other animals of a hotter climate are +less warmly covered than those of the same genera in temperate +countries.”<a name="FNanchor_93" id="FNanchor_93"></a><a href="#Footnote_93" class="fnanchor">[93]</a></p> + +<p>Of all fossil ruminants one of the largest and most singular is +the <i>Sivatherium</i>, whose remains have been found in the valley of +Murkunda, in the Sewalik branch of the Sub-Himalayan Mountains. +Its name is taken from that of Siva, the Indian deity worshipped in +that part of India.</p> + +<p>The <i>Sivatherium giganteum</i> had a body as bulky as that of an ox, +and bore a sort of resemblance to the living Elk. It combined in +itself the characteristics of different kinds of Herbivores, at the same +time that it was marked by individual peculiarities. The massive head +possessed four deciduous, hollow horns, like the Prongbuck; two front +ones conical, smooth, and rapidly rising to a point, and two hinder ones +of larger size, and branched, projected forward above the eyes.<a name="FNanchor_94" id="FNanchor_94"></a><a href="#Footnote_94" class="fnanchor">[94]</a> Thus +it differed from the deer, whose solid horns annually drop off, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[366]</a></span> +from the antelope tribe, sheep and oxen, whose hollow horns are persistent, +and resembled only one living ruminant, the prongbuck, in +having had hollow horns subject to shedding. <a href="#Fig_176">Fig. 176</a> is a representation +of the <i>Sivatherium</i> restored, in so far, at least, as it is +possible to do so in the case of an animal of which only the cranium +and a few other bones have been discovered.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_176" id="Fig_176"></a> +<img src="images/illo377.png" alt="Fig. 176" width="450" height="355" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 176.—Sivatherium restored.</p></div> + +<p>As if to rival these gigantic Mammals, great numbers of Reptiles +seem to have lived in the Pliocene period, although they are no +longer of the same importance as in the Secondary epoch. Only +one of these, however, need occupy our attention, it is the <i>Salamander</i>. +The living Salamanders are amphibious Batrachians, with +smooth skins, and rarely attaining the length of twenty inches. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[367]</a></span> +Salamander of the Tertiary epoch had the dimensions of a Crocodile; +and its discovery opens a pregnant page in the history of geology. +The skeleton of this Reptile was long considered to be that of a +human victim of the deluge, and was spoken of as “<i>homo diluvii +testis</i>.” It required all the efforts of Camper and Cuvier to eradicate +this error from the minds of the learned, and probably in the minds +of the vulgar it survived them both.</p> + +<p>Upon the left bank of the Rhine, not far from Constance, a little +above Stein, and near the village of Œningen, in Switzerland, there +are some fine quarries of schistose limestone. In consequence of +their varied products these quarries have often been described by +naturalists; they are of Tertiary age, and were visited, among others, +by Horace de Saussure, by whom they are described in the third +volume of his “Voyage dans les Alpes.”</p> + +<p>In 1725, a large block of stone was found, incrusted in which a +skeleton was discovered, remarkably well preserved; and Scheuchzer, +a Swiss naturalist of some celebrity, who added to his scientific pursuits +the study of theology, was called upon to give his opinion as to +the nature of this relic of ancient times. He thought he recognised +in the skeleton that of a man. In 1726 he published a description +of these fossil remains in the “Philosophical Transactions” of +London; and in 1731 he made it the subject of a special dissertation, +entitled “<i>Homo diluvii testis</i>”—Man, a witness of the Deluge. This +dissertation was accompanied by an engraving of the skeleton. +Scheuchzer returned to the subject in another of his works, “Physica +Sacra,” saying: “It is certain that this schist contains the half, or +nearly so, of the skeleton of a man; that the substance even of the +bones, and, what is more, of the flesh and of parts still softer than +the flesh, are there incorporated in the stone; in a word, it is one of +the rarest relics which we have of that accursed race which was +buried under the waters. The figure shows us the contour of the +frontal bone, the orbits with the openings which give passage to the +great nerves of the fifth pair. We see there the remains of the +brain, of the sphenoidal bone, of the roots of the nose, a notable +fragment of the maxillary bone, and some vestiges of the liver.”</p> + +<p>And our pious author exclaims, this time taking the lyrical form—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“Betrübtes Beingerüst von einem altem Sünder<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Erweiche, Stein, das Herz der neuen Bosheitskinder!”<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“O deplorable skeleton of an accursed ancient,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mayst thou soften the hearts of the late children of wickedness!”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The reader has before him the fossil of the Œningen schist <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[368]</a></span>(<a href="#Fig_177">Fig. +177</a>). It is obviously impossible +to see in this skeleton what the +enthusiastic savant wished to perceive. +And we can form an idea +from this instance, of the errors +to which a preconceived idea, +blindly followed, may sometimes +lead. How a naturalist of such +eminence as Scheuchzer could +have perceived in this enormous +head, and in these upper members, +the least resemblance to +the osseous parts of a man is +incomprehensible!</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Fig_177" id="Fig_177"></a> +<img src="images/illo379.png" alt="Fig. 177" width="600" height="183" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 177.—Andrias Scheuchzeri.</p></div> + +<p>The Pre-Adamite “witness of +the deluge” made a great noise +in Germany, and no one there +dared to dispute the opinion of +the Swiss naturalist, under his +double authority of theologian +and savant. This, probably, is the +reason why Gesner in his “Traité +des Pétrifactions,” published in +1758, describes with admiration +the fossil of Œningen, which he +attributes, with Scheuchzer, to +the <i>antediluvian man</i>.</p> + +<p>Pierre Camper alone dared +to oppose this opinion, which +was then universally professed +throughout Germany. He went +to Œningen in 1787 to examine +the celebrated fossil animal; he +had no difficulty in detecting +the error into which Scheuchzer +had fallen. He recognised at +once that it was a Reptile; but +he deceived himself, nevertheless, +as to the family to which +it belonged; he took it for a +Saurian. “A petrified lizard,” +Camper wrote; “could it possibly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[369]</a></span> +pass for a man?” It was left to Cuvier to place in its true family the +fossil of Œningen; in a memoir on the subject he demonstrated +that this skeleton belonged to one of the amphibious batrachians +called Salamanders. “Take,” he says in his memoir, “a skeleton +of a Salamander and place it alongside the fossil, without allowing +yourself to be misled by the difference of size, just as you could +easily do in comparing a drawing of the salamander of the natural +size with one of the fossil reduced to a sixteenth part of its dimensions, +and everything will be explained in the clearest manner.”</p> + +<p>“I am even persuaded,” adds the great naturalist, in a subsequent +edition of this memoir, “that, if we could re-arrange the fossil and +look closer into the details, we should find still more numerous +proofs in the articular faces of the vertebræ, in those of the jaws, in +the vestiges of very small teeth, and even in the labyrinth of the ear.” +And he invited the proprietors or depositaries of the precious fossil +to proceed to such an examination. Cuvier had the gratification of +making, personally, the investigation he suggested. Finding himself +at Haarlem, he asked permission of the Director of the Museum to +examine the stone which contained the supposed fossil man. The +operation was carried on in the presence of the director and another +naturalist. A drawing of the skeleton of a Salamander was placed +near the fossil by Cuvier, who had the satisfaction of recognising, as +the stone was chipped away under the chisel, each of the bones, +announced by the drawing, as they made their appearance. In the +natural sciences there are few instances of such triumphant results—few +demonstrations so satisfactory as this, of the certitude of the +methods of observation and induction on which palæontology is +based.</p> + +<hr class="c05" /> + +<p>During the Pliocene period Birds of very numerous species, and +which still exist, gave animation to the vast solitudes which man had +not yet occupied. Vultures and Eagles, among the rapacious birds; +and among other genera of birds, gulls, swallows, pies, parroquets, +pheasants, jungle-fowl, ducks, &c.</p> + +<hr class="c05" /> + +<p>In the marine Pliocene fauna we see, for the first time, aquatic +Mammals or Cetaceans—the <i>Dolphin</i> and <i>Balæna</i> belonging to the +period. Very little, however, is known of the fossil species belonging +to the two genera. Some bones of Dolphins, found in +different parts of France, apprise us, however, that the ancient +species differed from those of our days. The same remark may be +made respecting the Narwhal. This Cetacean, so remarkable for its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[370]</a></span> +long tusk, or tooth, in the form of a horn, has at all times been an +object of curiosity.</p> + +<p>The Whales, whose remains are found in the Pliocene rocks, +differ little from those now living. But the observations geologists +have been able to make upon these gigantic remains of the ancient +world are too few to allow of any very precise conclusion. It is +certain, however, that the fossil differs from the existing Whale in +certain characters drawn from the bones of the cranium. The +discovery of an enormous fragment of a fossil Whale, made at Paris +in 1779, in the cellar of a wine-merchant in the Rue Dauphine, created +a great sensation. Science pronounced, without much hesitation, +on the true origin of these remains; but the public had some difficulty +in comprehending the existence of a whale in the Rue Dauphine. It +was in digging some holes in his cellars that the wine-merchant made +this interesting discovery. His workmen found, under the pick, an +enormous piece of bone buried in a yellow clay. Its complete +extraction caused him a great deal of labour, and presented many +difficulties. Little interested in making further discoveries, our +wine-merchant contented himself with raising, with the help of a +chisel, a portion of the monstrous bone. The piece thus detached +weighed 227 pounds. It was exhibited in the wine-shop, where +large numbers of the curious went to see it. Lamanon, a naturalist +of that day, who examined it, conjectured that the bone belonged to +the head of a whale. As to the bone itself, it was purchased for the +Teyler Museum, at Haarlem, where it still remains.</p> + +<p>There exists in the Museum of Natural History in Paris only a +copy of the bone of the whale of the Rue Dauphine, which received +the name of <i>Balænodon Lamanoni</i>. The examination of this figure +by Cuvier led him to recognise it as a bone belonging to one of the +antediluvian Balænæ, which differed not only from the living species, +but from all others known up to this time.</p> + +<p>Since the days of Lamanon, other bones of Balæna have been +discovered in the soil in different countries, but the study of these +fossils has always left something to be desired. In 1806 a fossil +Balæna was disinterred at Monte-Pulgnasco by M. Cortesi. Another +skeleton, seventy-two feet long, was found on the banks of the river +Forth, near Alloa, in Scotland. In 1816 many bones of this animal +were discovered in a little valley formed by a brook running into +the Chiavana, one of the affluents of the Po.</p> + +<p>Cuvier has established, among the cetacean fossils, a particular +genus, which he designates under the name of <i>Ziphius</i>. The animals +to which he gave the name, however, are not identical either with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[371]</a></span> +the Whales (<i>Balænæ</i>), the Cachelots or Sperm Whales, or with the +Hyperoodons. They hold, in the order of Cetaceans, the place that +the Palæotherium and Anoplotherium occupy among the Pachyderms, +or that which the Megatherium and Megalonyx occupy in the order +of the Edentates. The <i>Ziphius</i> still lives in the Mediterranean.</p> + +<hr class="c05" /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="Fig_178" id="Fig_178"></a> +<img src="images/illo382.png" alt="Fig. 178" width="350" height="496" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 178.—Pecten Jacobæus.<br /> +(Living species.)</p></div> + +<p>The genera of Mollusca, which distinguish this period from all +others, are very numerous. They include the Cardium, Panopæa,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[372]</a></span> +Pecten (<a href="#Fig_178">Fig. 178</a>), Fusus, Murex, Cypræa, Voluta, Chenopus, Buccinum, +Nassa, and many others.</p> + +<hr class="c05" /> + +<p>The <i>Pliocene</i> series prevails over Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex, +where it is popularly known as the Crag. In Essex it rests directly +on the London Clay. Near Norwich it rests on the Chalk.</p> + +<p>The <i>Pliocene rocks</i> are divided into lower and upper. The <i>Older +Pliocene</i> comprises the White or Coralline Crag, including the Red +Crag of Suffolk, containing marine shells, of which sixty per cent. +are of extinct species. The <i>Newer Pliocene</i> is represented by the +Fluvio-marine or Norwich Crag, which last, according to the Rev. +Osmond Fisher, is overlaid by Chillesford clay, a very variable and +more arctic deposit, often passing suddenly into sands without a +trace of clay.</p> + +<p>The Norfolk Forest Bed rests upon the Chillesford clay, when +that is not denuded.</p> + +<p>A ferruginous bed, rich in mammalian remains, and known as the +Elephant bed, overlies the Forest Bed, of which it is considered by +the Rev. John Gunn to be an upper division.</p> + +<p>The Crag, divided into three portions, is a local deposit of limited +extent. It consists of variable beds of sand, gravel, and marl; sometimes +it is a shelly ferruginous grit, as the Red Crag; at others a soft +calcareous rock made up of shells and bryozoa, as the Coralline Crag.</p> + +<p>The <i>Coralline Crag</i>, of very limited extent in this country, ranges +over about twenty miles between the rivers Stour and Alde, with a +breadth of three or four. It consists of two divisions—an upper +one, formed chiefly of the remains of Bryozoa, and a lower one of +light-coloured sands, with a profusion of shells. The upper division +is about thirty-six feet thick at Sudbourne in Suffolk, where it consists +of a series of beds almost entirely composed of comminuted shells +and remains of Bryozoa, forming a soft building-stone. The lower +division is about forty-seven feet thick at Sutton; making the total +thickness of the Coralline Crag about eighty-three feet.</p> + +<p>Many of the Coralline Crag Mollusca belong to living species; they +are supposed to indicate an equable climate free from intense cold—an +inference rendered more probable by the prevalence of northern +forms of shells, such as <i>Glycimeris</i>, <i>Cyprina</i>, and <i>Astarte</i>. The late +Professor Edward Forbes, to whom science is indebted for so many +philosophical deductions, points out some remarkable inferences +drawn from the fauna of the Pliocene seas.<a name="FNanchor_95" id="FNanchor_95"></a><a href="#Footnote_95" class="fnanchor">[95]</a> It appears that in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[373]</a></span> +glacial period, which we shall shortly have under consideration, many +shells, previously established in the temperate zone, retreated southwards, +to avoid an uncongenial climate. The Professor gives a list +of fifty which inhabited the British seas while the Coralline and Red +Crag were forming, but which are all wanting in the glacial deposits;<a name="FNanchor_96" id="FNanchor_96"></a><a href="#Footnote_96" class="fnanchor">[96]</a> +from which he infers that they migrated at the approach of the glacial +period, and returned again northwards, when the temperate climate +was restored.<a name="FNanchor_97" id="FNanchor_97"></a><a href="#Footnote_97" class="fnanchor">[97]</a></p> + +<p>In the Upper or Mammaliferous (or Norwich) Crag, of which +there is a good exposure in a pit near the asylum at Thorpe, bones +of Mammalia are found with existing species of shells. The greater +number of the Mammalian remains have been supposed, until lately, +to be extraneous fossils; but they are now considered by Mr. +Prestwich as truly contemporaneous. The peculiar mixture of +southern forms of life with others of a more northern type lead to +the inference that, at this early period, a lowering of temperature +began gradually to set in from the period of the Coralline Crag to +that of the Forest Bed, which marks the commencement of the +Glacial Period.</p> + +<p>The distinction between the Mammaliferous Crag of Norwich +and the Red Crag of Suffolk is purely palæontological, no case of +superposition having yet been discovered, and they are now generally +considered as contemporaneous. Two Proboscidians abundant during +the Crag period were the <i>Mastodon Arvernensis</i> and the <i>Elephas +meridionalis</i>. In the Red Crag the Mastodon is stated by the Rev. +John Gunn to be more abundant than the Elephant, while in the +Norwich beds their proportions are nearly equal.</p> + +<p>At or near the base of the Red Crag there is a remarkable +accumulation, varying in thickness from a few inches to two feet, of +bones, teeth, and phosphatic nodules (called coprolites), which are +worked for making superphosphate of lime for agricultural manure.</p> + +<p>The foreign equivalents of the older Pliocene are found in the +<i>sub-Apennine strata</i>. These rocks are sufficiently remarkable in the +county of Suffolk, where they consist of a series of marine beds of +quartzose sand, coloured red by ferruginous matter.</p> + +<p>At the foot of the Apennine chain, which forms the backbone, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[374]</a></span> +it were, of Italy, throwing out many spurs, the formations on either +side, and on both sides of the Adriatic, are Tertiary strata; they form +in many cases, low hills lying between the Apennines of Secondary +formation and the sea, the strata generally being a light-brown or +bluish marl covered with yellow calcareous sand and gravel, with +some fossil shells, which, according to Brocchi, are found all over +Italy. But this wide range includes some older Tertiary formations, +as in the strata of the Superga near Turin, which are Miocene.</p> + +<p>The <i>Antwerp</i> Crag, which is of the same age with the Red and +Coralline Crag of Suffolk, forms great accumulations upon divers +points of Europe: at Antwerp in Belgium, at Carentan and Perpignan, +and, we believe, in the basin of the Rhône, in France. The +thickest deposits of this rock consist of clay and sand, alternating with +marl and arenaceous limestone. These constitute the sub-Apennine +hills, alluded to above as extending on both slopes of the Apennines. +This deposit occupies the Upper Val d’Arno, above Florence. Its +presence is recognised over a great part of Australia. Finally, the +seven hills of Rome are composed, in part, of marine Tertiary rocks +belonging to the Pliocene period.</p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[375]</a></p> +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Plate_XXV" id="Plate_XXV"></a> +<img src="images/illo386.png" alt="Plate XXV" width="600" height="388" /> +<p class="caption">XXV.—Ideal Landscape of the Pliocene Period.</p></div> + +<p>In <span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_XXV">Plate XXV.</a></span> an ideal landscape of the Pliocene period is +given under European latitudes. In the background of the picture, +a mountain, recently thrown up, reminds us that the period was one +of frequent convulsions, in which the land was disturbed and upheaved, +and mountains and mountain-ranges made their appearance. The +vegetation is nearly identical with the present. We see assembled +in the foreground the more important animals of the period—the +fossil species, as well as those which have survived to the present time.</p> + +<p>At the close of the Pliocene period, and in consequence of the +deposits left by the seas of the Tertiary epoch, the continent of +Europe was nearly what it is now; few permanent changes have +occurred since to disturb its general outline. Although the point does +not admit of actual proof, there is strong presumptive evidence that +in this period, or in that immediately subsequent to it, the entire +European area, with some trifling exceptions, including the Alps and +Apennines, emerged from the deep. In Sicily, Newer Pliocene rocks, +covering nearly half the surface of the island, have been raised from +2,000 to 3,000 feet above the level of the sea. Fossil shells have +been observed at the height of 8,000 feet in the Pyrenees; and, as if +to fix the date of upheaval, there are great masses of granite which +have penetrated the Lias and the Chalk. Fossil shells of the period +are also found at a height of 10,000 feet in the Alps, at 13,000 feet +in the Andes, and at 18,000 feet in the Himalayas.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[377]</a></span>In the mountainous regions of the Alps it is always difficult to +determine the age of beds, in consequence of the disturbed state of +the strata; for instance, the lofty chain of the Swiss Jura consists of +many parallel ridges, with intervening longitudinal valleys; the ridges +formed of contorted fossiliferous strata, which are extensive in proportion +to the number and thickness of the formations which have +been exposed on upheaval. The proofs which these regions offer of +comparatively recent elevation are numerous. In the central Alps, +Cretaceous, Oolitic, Liassic, and Eocene strata are found at the +loftiest summits, passing insensibly into metamorphic rocks of granular +limestone, and into talcose and mica-schists. In the eastern parts of +the chain the older fossiliferous rocks are recognised in similar positions, +presenting signs of intense Plutonic action. Oolitic and Cretaceous +strata have been raised 12,000 feet, Eocene 10,000, and +Miocene 4,000 and 5,000 feet above the level of the sea. Equally +striking proofs of recent elevation exist in the Apennines; the celebrated +Carrara marble, once supposed—from its crystalline texture and +the absence of fossils, and from its resting—1. on talcose schists, 2. on +quartz and gneiss—to be very ancient, now turns out to be an altered +limestone of the Oolitic series, and the underlying crystalline rocks +to be metamorphosed Secondary sandstones and shales. Had all +these rocks undergone complete metamorphism, another page in the +earth’s history would have been obscured. As it is, the proofs of +what we state are found in the gradual approach of the rocks to their +unaltered condition as the distance from the intrusive rock increases. +This intrusive rock, however, does not always reach the surface, but +it exists below at no great depth, and is observed piercing through +the talcose gneiss, and passing up into Secondary strata.</p> + +<p>At the close of this epoch, therefore, there is every probability +that Europe and Asia had pretty nearly attained their present general +configuration.</p> + +<hr class="footnote" /> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote_81" id="Footnote_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_81"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> Lyell’s “Elements of Geology,” p. 187.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_82" id="Footnote_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82"><span class="label">[82]</span></a> This limestone belongs to the Bembridge beds, and forms part of the Fluvio-marine +series. See “Survey Memoir on the Geology of the Isle of Wight,” by +H. W. Bristow.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_83" id="Footnote_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83"><span class="label">[83]</span></a> Similar beds of Miliolite limestone are found in the Middle Bagshot beds on +the coast of Sussex, off Selsey—the only instance in England of the occurrence of +such calcareous deposits of Middle Eocene age.—H. W. B.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_84" id="Footnote_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84"><span class="label">[84]</span></a> “Elements of Geology,” p. 292.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_85" id="Footnote_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_85"><span class="label">[85]</span></a> “Memoir of the Geological Survey of Great Britain. The Geology of +Middlesex, &c.;” by W. Whitaker, p. 9.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_86" id="Footnote_86"></a><a href="#FNanchor_86"><span class="label">[86]</span></a> Prestwich. <i>Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc.</i>, vol. x., p. 448.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_87" id="Footnote_87"></a><a href="#FNanchor_87"><span class="label">[87]</span></a> Detailed sections of the whole of the Tertiary strata of the Isle of Wight +have been constructed by Mr. H. W. Bristow from actual measurement of the +beds in their regular order of succession, as displayed at Hempstead, Whitecliff +Bay, Colwell and Tolland’s Bays, Headon Hill, and Alum Bay. These sections, +published by the Geological Survey of Great Britain, show the thickness, mineral +character, and organic remains found in each stratum, and are accompanied by a +pamphlet in explanation.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_88" id="Footnote_88"></a><a href="#FNanchor_88"><span class="label">[88]</span></a> “Elements of Geology,” p. 300.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_89" id="Footnote_89"></a><a href="#FNanchor_89"><span class="label">[89]</span></a> Ibid., p. 305.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_90" id="Footnote_90"></a><a href="#FNanchor_90"><span class="label">[90]</span></a> <i>Quarterly Journal of Geol. Soc.</i>, vol. vii., p. 89.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_91" id="Footnote_91"></a><a href="#FNanchor_91"><span class="label">[91]</span></a> See Bristow’s “Glossary of Mineralogy,” p. 11.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_92" id="Footnote_92"></a><a href="#FNanchor_92"><span class="label">[92]</span></a> “Pallas’s Voyage,” vol. iv., pp. 130-134.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_93" id="Footnote_93"></a><a href="#FNanchor_93"><span class="label">[93]</span></a> “Commentarii Academiæ Petersburgicæ,” p. 3.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_94" id="Footnote_94"></a><a href="#FNanchor_94"><span class="label">[94]</span></a> Dr. James Murie, <i>Geological Magazine</i>, vol. viii., p. 438.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_95" id="Footnote_95"></a><a href="#FNanchor_95"><span class="label">[95]</span></a> Edward Forbes in “Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Great Britain,” +vol. i., p. 336.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_96" id="Footnote_96"></a><a href="#FNanchor_96"><span class="label">[96]</span></a> For full information on these deposits the reader is referred to the +“Memoirs on the Structure of the Crag-beds of Norfolk and Suffolk,” by +J. Prestwich, F.R.S., in the <i>Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc.</i>, vol. xxvii., pp. 115, 325, +and 452 (1871). Also to the many Papers by the Messrs. Searles Wood published +in the <i>Quar. Jour. Geol. Soc.</i>, the <i>Ann. Nat. Hist.</i>, the <i>Phil. Mag.</i>, &c.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_97" id="Footnote_97"></a><a href="#FNanchor_97"><span class="label">[97]</span></a> Lyell’s “Elements of Geology,” p. 203.</p> + +</div> + +<hr class="c25" /> +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[378]</a></p> +<h2>QUATERNARY EPOCH.</h2> + +<p>The Quaternary epoch of the history of our globe commences at +the close of the Tertiary epoch, and brings the narrative of its revolutions +down to our own times.</p> + +<p>The tranquillity of the globe was only disturbed during this era +by certain cataclysms whose sphere was limited and local, and by +an interval of cold of very extended duration; the <i>deluges</i> and +the <i>glacial</i> period—these are the two most remarkable peculiarities +which distinguished this epoch. But the fact which predominates in +the Quaternary epoch, and distinguishes it from all other phases of +the earth’s history is the appearance of man, the culminating and +supreme work of the Creator of the universe.</p> + +<p>In this last phase of the history of the earth geology recognises +three chronological divisions:—</p> + +<div class="indented"><p>1. The European Deluges.</p> + +<p>2. The Glacial Period.</p> + +<p>3. The creation of man and subsequent Asiatic Deluge.</p></div> + +<p>Before describing the three orders of events which occurred in +the Quaternary epoch, we shall present a brief sketch of the organic +kingdoms of Nature, namely, of the animals and vegetables which +flourished at this date, and the new formations which arose. Lyell, +and some other geologists, designate this the <span class="smcap">Post-Tertiary Epoch</span>, +which they divide into two subordinate groups.—1. <i>The Post-Pliocene +Period</i>; 2. <i>The Recent or Pleistocene Period.</i></p> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Post-Pliocene Period.</span></h3> + +<p>In the days of Cuvier the Tertiary formations were considered as +a mere chaos of superficial deposits, having no distinct relations to +each other. It was reserved for the English geologists, with Sir +Charles Lyell at their head, to throw light upon this obscure page of +the earth’s history; from the study of fossils, science has not only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[379]</a></span> +re-animated the animals, it has re-constructed the theatre of their +existence. We see the British Islands now a straggling archipelago, +and then the mouth of a vast river, of which the continent is +lost; for, says Professor Ramsay, “We are not of necessity to consider +Great Britain as having always been an island; it is an accident +that it is an island now, and it has been an island many times +before.” In the Tertiary epoch we see it surrounded, then, by +shallow seas swarming with numerous forms of animal life; islands +covered with bushy Palms; banks on which Turtles basked in the +sun; vast basins of fresh or brackish water, in which the tide made +itself felt, and which abounded with various species of sharks; rivers +in which Crocodiles increased and multiplied; woods which sheltered +numerous Mammals and some Serpents of large size; fresh-water +lakes which received the spoils of numerous shells. Dry land had +increased immensely. Groups of ancient isles we have seen united +and become continents, with lakes, bays, and perhaps inland seas. +Gigantic Elephants, vastly larger than any now existing, close the +epoch, and probably usher in the succeeding one; for we are not to +suppose any sudden break to distinguish one period from another in +Nature, although it is convenient to arrange them so for the purposes +of description. If we may judge from their remains, these animals +must have existed in great numbers, for it is stated that on the coast +of Norfolk alone the fishermen, in trawling for oysters, dredged up +between 1820 and 1833, no less than 2,000 molar teeth of Elephants. +If we consider how slowly these animals multiply, these quarries of +ivory, as we may call them, must have required many centuries for +their production and accumulation.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><a name="Fig_179" id="Fig_179"></a> +<img src="images/illo391.png" alt="Fig. 179" width="300" height="483" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 179.—<i>a</i>, Tooth of Machairodus, imperfect below, natural size; <i>b</i>, outline of cast of tooth, +perfect, half natural size; <i>c</i>, tooth of Megalosaurus, natural size.</p></div> + +<p>The same lakes and rivers were at this time occupied, also, by the +Hippopotamus, as large and as formidably armed as that now inhabiting +the African solitudes; also the two-horned Rhinoceros; +and three species of Bos, one of which was hairy and bore a mane. +Some Deer of gigantic size, as compared with living species, bounded +over the plains. In the same savannahs lived the Reindeer, the Stag, +a Horse of small size, the Ass, the Bear, and the Roe, for Mammals +had succeeded the Ichthyosauri of a former age. Nevertheless, the +epoch had its tyrants also. A Lion, as large as the largest of the +Lions of Africa, hunted its prey in the British jungles. Another +animal of the feline race, the <i>Machairodus</i> (<a href="#Fig_179">Fig. 179</a>), was probably +the most ferocious and destructive of Carnivora; bands of Hyænas +and a terrible Bear, surpassing in size that of the Rocky Mountains, +had established themselves in the caverns; two species of Beaver +made their appearance on the scene.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[380]</a></span>The finding of the remains of most of these animals in caverns +was perhaps among the most interesting discoveries of geology. The +discovery was first made in the celebrated Kirkdale Cave in Yorkshire, +which has been described by Dr. Buckland; and afterwards at +Kent’s Hole, near Torquay. This latter pleasant Devonshire town<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[381]</a></span> +is built in a creek, shut out from exposure on all sides except the +south. In this creek, hollowed out of the rocks, is the great fissure +or cavern known as Kent’s Hole; like that of Kirkdale, it has been +under water, from whence, after a longer or shorter interval, it +emerged, but remained entirely closed till the moment when chance +led to its discovery. The principal cavern is 600 feet in length, +with many crevices or fissures of smaller extent traversing the rock in +various directions. A bed of hard stalagmite of very ancient formation, +which has been again covered with a thin layer of soil, forms the +floor of the cavern, which is a red sandy clay. From this bed of +red loam or clay was disinterred a mass of fossil bones belonging +to extinct species of Bear, Lion, Rhinoceros, Reindeer, Beaver, and +Hyæna.</p> + +<p>Such an assemblage gave rise to all sorts of conjectures. It was +generally thought that the dwelling of some beasts of prey had been +discovered, which had dragged the carcases of elephants, deer, and +others into these caves, to devour them at leisure. Others asked if, +in some cases, instinct did not impel sick animals, or animals broken +down by old age, to seek such places for the purpose of dying in +quiet; while others, again, suggested that these bones might have +been engulfed pell-mell in the hole during some ancient inundation. +However that may be, the remains discovered in these caves show +that all these Mammals existed at the close of the Tertiary epoch, +and that they all lived in England. What were the causes which led +to their extinction?</p> + +<p>It was the opinion of Cuvier and the early geologists that the +ancient species were destroyed in some great and sudden catastrophe, +from which none made their escape. But recent geologists trace +their extinction to slow, successive, and determinative action due to +local causes, the chief one being the gradual lowering of the temperature. +We have seen that at the beginning of the Tertiary epoch, +in the older Eocene age, palms, cocoa-nuts, and acacias, resembling +those now met with in countries more favoured by the sun, grew in +our island. The Miocene flora presents indications of a climate still +warm, but less tropical; and the Pliocene period, which follows, +contains remains which announce an approach to our present +climate. In following the vegetable productions of the Tertiary +epoch, the botanist meets with the floras of Africa, South America, +and Australia, and finally settles in the flora of temperate Europe. +Many circumstances demonstrate this decreasing temperature, until +we arrive at what geologists call the <i>glacial period</i>—one of the winters +of the ancient world.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[382]</a></span>But before entering on the evidences which exist of the glacial +era we shall glance at the picture presented by the animals of the +period; the vegetable products we need not dwell on—it is, in fact, +that of our own era, the flora of temperate regions in our own epoch. +The same remark would apply to the animals, but for some signal +exceptions. In this epoch Man appears, and some of the Mammals of +the last epoch, but of larger dimensions, have long disappeared. +The more remarkable of these extinct animals we shall describe, as +we have those belonging to anterior ages. They are not numerous; +those of our hemisphere being the Mammoth, <i>Elephas primigenius</i>; +the Bear, <i>Ursus spelæus</i>; gigantic Lion, <i>Felis spelæa</i>; Hyæna, +<i>Hyæna spelæa</i>; Ox, <i>Bison priscus</i>, <i>Bos primigenius</i>; the gigantic +Stag, <i>Cervus megaceros</i>; to which we may add the <i>Dinornis</i> and +<i>Epiornis</i>, among birds. In America there existed in the Quaternary +epoch some Edentates of colossal dimensions and of very peculiar +structure, these were <i>Megatherium</i>, <i>Megalonyx</i>, and <i>Mylodon</i>; we +shall pass these animals in review, beginning with those of our own +hemisphere.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="Fig_180" id="Fig_180"></a> +<img src="images/illo394.png" alt="Fig. 180" width="500" height="322" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 180.—Skeleton of the Mammoth, Elephas primigenius.</p></div> + +<p>The Mammoth, the skeleton of which is represented in <a href="#Fig_180">Fig. 180</a>, +surpassed the largest existing Elephants of the tropics in size, for it +was from sixteen to eighteen feet in height. The teeth, and the size +of the monstrous tusks, much curved, and with a spiral turn outwards, +and which were from ten to fifteen feet in length, serve to distinguish +the Mammoth from the two Elephants living at the present +day, the African and the Indian. The form of its teeth permits of +its being distinguished from its ally, the Mastodon; for while the +teeth of the latter have rough mammillations on their surface, those +of the Mammoth, like those of the living Indian Elephant, have a +broad united surface, with regular furrowed lines of large curvature. +The teeth of the Mammoth are four in number, like the Elephants, +two in each jaw when the animal is adult, its head is elongated, its +forehead concave, its jaws curved and truncated in front. It has +been an easy task, as we shall see, to recognise the general form and +structure of the Mammoth, even to its skin. We know beyond a +doubt that it was thickly covered with long shaggy hair, and that a +copious mane floated upon its neck and along its back; its trunk +resembled that of the Indian Elephant; its body was heavy, with a +tail naked to the end, which was covered with thick tufty hair, and +its legs were comparatively shorter than those of the latter animal, +many of the habits of which it nevertheless possessed. Blumenbach +gave it the specific name of <i>Elephas primigenius</i>.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="Fig_181" id="Fig_181"></a> +<img src="images/illo395.png" alt="Fig. 181" width="400" height="162" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 181.—Tooth of the Mammoth.</p></div> + +<p>In all ages, and in almost all countries, chance discoveries have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[383]</a></span> +been made of fossil bones of elephants in the soil. Pliny has +transmitted to us a tradition, recorded by the historian Theophrastus, +who wrote 320 years before Jesus Christ, of the existence of +bones of fossil ivory in the soil of Greece, that the bones were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[384]</a></span> +sometimes transformed into stones. “These bones,” the historian +gravely tells us, “were both black and white, and born of the earth.” +Some of the elephant’s bones having a slight resemblance to those of +man, they have often been mistaken for human bones. In the earlier +historic times these great bones, accidentally disinterred, have passed +as having belonged to some hero or demigod; at a later period they +were thought to be the bones of giants. We have already spoken of the +mistake made by the Greeks in taking the patella of a fossil elephant +for the knee-bone of Ajax; in the same manner the bones revealed +by an earthquake, and attributed by Pliny to a giant, belonged, no +doubt, to a fossil elephant. To a similar origin we may assign the +pretended body of Orestes, thirteen feet in length, which was discovered +at Tegea by the Spartans; those of Asterius, the son of Ajax, +discovered in the Isle of Ladea, of ten cubits in length (about eighteen +feet), according to Pausanius; finally, such were the great bones found +in the Isle of Rhodes, of which Phlegon of Tralles speaks in his +“Mundus Subterraneus.”</p> + +<p>We might fill volumes with the history of the remains of pretended +giants found in ancient tombs. The books, in fact, which +exist, formed a voluminous literature in the middle ages—entitled +<i>Gigantology</i>. All the facts, more or less real, true or imaginative, +may be explained by the accidental discovery of the bones of some +of these gigantic animals. We find in works on Gigantology, the +history of a pretended giant, discovered in the 4th century, at +Trapani in Sicily, of which Boccaccio speaks, and which may be taken +for Polyphemus; of another, found in the 16th century, according to +Fasellus, near Palermo; others, according to the same author, at +Melilli between Leontium and Syracuse, Calatrasi and Petralia, at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[385]</a></span> +each of which places the bones of supposed giants were disinterred. +P. Kircher speaks of three other giants being found in Sicily, of +which only the teeth remained perfect.</p> + +<p>In 1577, a storm having uprooted an oak near the cloisters of +Reyden, in the Canton of Lucerne, in Switzerland, some large bones +were exposed to view. Seven years after, the celebrated physician +and Professor at Basle, Felix Pläten, being at Lucerne, examined +these bones, and declared they could only be those of a giant. The +Council of Lucerne consented to send the bones to Basle for more +minute examination, and Pläten thought himself justified in attributing +to the giant a height of nineteen feet. He designed a human +skeleton on this scale, and returned the bones with the drawing to +Lucerne. In 1706 there only remained of these bones a portion of +the scapula and a fragment of the wrist bone; the anatomist Blumenbach, +who saw them at the beginning of the century, easily +recognised in them the bones of an Elephant. Let us not omit to +add, as a complement to this story, that since the sixteenth century, +the inhabitants of Lucerne have adopted the image of this fabulous +giant as the supporter of the city arms.</p> + +<p>Spanish history preserves many stories of giants. The supposed +tooth of St. Christopher, shown at Valence, in the church +dedicated to the saint, was certainly the molar tooth of a fossil +Elephant; and in 1789, the canons of St. Vincent carried through +the streets in public procession, to procure rain, the pretended +arm of a saint, which was nothing more than the femur of an +Elephant.</p> + +<p>In France, in the reign of Charles VII. (1456), some of these +bones of imaginary giants appeared in the bed of the Rhône. A +repetition of the phenomenon occurred near Saint-Peirat, opposite +Valence, when the Dauphin, afterwards Louis XI., then residing at +the latter place, caused the bones to be gathered together and sent +to Bourges, where they long remained objects of public curiosity in +the interior of the Sainte-Chapelle. In 1564 a similar discovery took +place in the same neighbourhood. Two peasants observed on the +banks of the Rhône, along a slope, some great bones sticking out of +the ground. They carried them to the neighbouring village, where +they were examined by Cassanion, who lived at Valence. It was no +doubt apropos to this that Cassanion wrote his treatise “De Gigantibus.” +The description given by the author of a tooth sufficed, +according to Cuvier, to prove that it belonged to an Elephant; it +was a foot in length, and weighed eight pounds. It was also on the +banks of the Rhône, but in Dauphiny, as we have seen, that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[386]</a></span> +skeleton of the famous Teutobocchus, of which we have spoken in a +previous chapter, was found.</p> + +<p>In 1663 Otto de Guericke, the illustrious inventor of the air-pump, +witnessed the discovery of the bones of an Elephant, buried in the +shelly limestone, or Muschelkalk. Along with it were found its +enormous tusks, which should have sufficed to establish its zoological +origin. Nevertheless they were taken for horns, and the illustrious +Leibnitz composed, out of the remains, a strange animal, carrying a +horn in the middle of its forehead, and in each jaw a dozen molar +teeth a foot long. Having fabricated this fantastic animal, Leibnitz +named it also—he called it the <i>fossil unicorn</i>. In his “Protogæa,” a +work remarkable besides as the first attempt at a theory of the earth, +Leibnitz gave the description and a drawing of this imaginary animal. +During more than thirty years the unicorn of Leibnitz was universally +accepted throughout Germany; and nothing less than the discovery +of the entire skeleton of the Mammoth in the valley of the Unstrut +was required to produce a change of opinion. This skeleton was at +once recognised by Tinzel, librarian to the Duke of Saxe-Gotha, as +that of an Elephant, and was established as such; not, however, +without a keen controversy with adversaries of all kinds.</p> + +<p>In 1700 a soldier of Würtemberg accidentally observed some +bones showing themselves projecting out of the earth, in an argillaceous +soil, near the city of Canstadt, not far from the banks of the +Necker. Having addressed a report to the reigning Duke, the latter +caused the place to be excavated, which occupied nearly six months. +A veritable cemetery of elephants was discovered, in which were not +less than sixty tusks. Those which were entire were preserved; the +fragments were abandoned to the court physician, and they became +a mere vulgar medicine. In the last century the fossil bones of +bears, which were abundant in Germany, were administered in that +country medicinally, as an absorbent, astringent, and sudorific. It +was then called by the German doctors the <i>Ebur fossile</i>, or <i>Unicornu +fossile</i>, <i>Licorn fossil</i>. The magnificent tusks of the Mammoth found +at Canstadt helped to combat fever and colic. What an intelligent +man this court physician of Würtemberg must have been!</p> + +<p>Numerous discoveries like those we have quoted distinguished the +18th century; but the progress of science has now rendered such +mistakes as we have had to relate impossible. These bones were at +length universally recognised as belonging to an Elephant, but erudition +now intervened, and helped to obscure a subject which was +otherwise perfectly clear. Some learned pedant declared that the +bones found in Italy and France were the remains of the Elephants<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[387]</a></span> +which Hannibal brought from Carthage with the army in his expedition +against the Romans. The part of France where the most +ancient bones of these Elephants were found is in the environs of the +Rhône, and consequently on the route of the Carthaginian general, +and this consideration appeared to these terrible savants to be a particularly +triumphant answer to the naturalist’s reasoning. Again, at +a later period, Domitius Ænobarbus conducted the Carthaginian +armies, which were followed by a number of Elephants, armed for +war. Cuvier scarcely took the trouble to refute this insignificant +objection. It is merely necessary to read, in his learned dissertation, +of the number of elephants which could remain to Hannibal when +he had entered Gaul.</p> + +<p>But the best reply that can be made to this strange objection +raised by the learned, is to show how extensively these fossil bones +of Elephants are scattered, not in Europe only, but over the world—there +are few regions of the globe in which their remains are not +found. In the north of Europe, in Scandinavia, in Ireland, in Belgium, +in Germany, in Central Europe, in Poland, in Middle Russia, +in South Russia, in Greece, in Italy, in Africa, in Asia, and, as we +have seen, in England. In the New World remains of the Mammoth +are also met with. What is most singular is that these remains exist +more especially in great numbers in the north of Europe, in the +frozen regions of Siberia—regions altogether uninhabitable for the +Elephant in our days. “There is not,” says Pallas, “in all Asiatic +Russia, from the Don to the extremity of the promontory of Tchutchis, +a stream or river, especially of those which flow in the plains, on the +banks of which some bones of Elephants and other animals foreign +to the climate have not been found. But in the more elevated regions, +the primitive and schistose chains, they are wanting, as are marine +petrifactions. But in the lower slopes and in the great muddy and +sandy plains, above all, in places which are swept by rivers and +brooks, they are always found, which proves that we should not the +less find them throughout the whole extent of the country if we had +the same means of searching for them.”</p> + +<p>Every year in the season when thaw takes place, the vast rivers +which descend to the Frozen Ocean in the north of Siberia sweep +down with their waters numerous portions of the banks, and expose +to view bones buried in the soil and in the excavations left by the +rushing waters. Cuvier gives a long list of places in Russia in which +interesting discoveries have been made of Elephants’ bones; and it is +certainly curious that the more we advance towards the north in +Russia the more numerous and extensive do the bone depositories<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[388]</a></span> +become. In spite of the oft-repeated and undoubted testimony of +numerous travellers, we can scarcely credit the statements made +respecting some of the islands of the glacial sea near the poles, +situated opposite the mouth of the Lena and of the Indighirka. +Here, for example, is an extract from “Billing’s Voyage” concerning +these isles: “The whole island (which is about thirty-three leagues +in length), except three or four small rocky mountains, is a mixture +of ice and sand; and as the shores fall, from the heat of the sun’s +thawing them, the tusks and bones of the mammont are found in +great abundance. To use Chvoinoff’s own expression, the island is +formed of the bones of this extraordinary animal, mixed with the +horns and heads of the buffalo, or something like it, and some horns +of the rhinoceros.”</p> + +<p>New Siberia and the Lächow Islands off the mouth of the river +Lena, are, for the most part, only an agglomeration of sand, ice, and +Elephants’ teeth. At every tempest the sea casts ashore new quantities +of mammoths’ tusks, and the inhabitants of Siberia carry on a +profitable commerce in this fossil ivory. Every year, during the +summer, innumerable fishermen’s barks direct their course towards +this <i>isle of bones</i>; and, during winter, immense caravans take the +same route, all the convoys drawn by dogs, returning charged with +the tusks of the Mammoth, each weighing from 150 to 200 pounds. +The fossil ivory thus withdrawn from the frozen north is imported +into China and Europe, where it is employed for the same purposes +as ordinary ivory, which is furnished, as we know, by the existing +Elephant and Hippopotamus of Africa and Asia.</p> + +<p>The <i>Isle of Bones</i> has served as a quarry of this valuable material, +for export to China, for 500 years; and it has been exported to +Europe for upwards of 100. But the supply from these strange +diggings apparently remains practically undiminished. What a +number of accumulated generations of these bones and tusks does +not this profusion imply!</p> + +<p>It was in Siberia that the fossil Elephant received the name of the +<i>Mammoth</i>, and its tusks that of <i>mammoth horns</i>. The celebrated +Russian savant, Pallas, who gave the first systematic description of +the Mammoth, asserts that the name is derived from the word <i>mama</i>, +which in the Tartar idiom signifies the <i>earth</i>. According to others, +the name is derived from <i>behemoth</i>, mentioned in the Book of Job; +or from the epithet <i>mahemoth</i>, which the Arabs add to the word “elephant,” +to designate one of unusual size. A curious circumstance +enough is, that this same legend of an animal living exclusively under +ground, exists amongst the Chinese. They call it <i>tien-schu</i>, and we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[389]</a></span> +read, in the great Chinese work on natural history, which was +written in the sixteenth century: “The animal named <i>tien-schu</i>, of +which we have already spoken in the ancient work upon the ceremonial +entitled “Lyki” (a work of the fifth century before Jesus +Christ), is called also <i>tyn-schu</i> or <i>yn-schu</i>, that is to say, <i>the mouse +which hides itself</i>. It always lives in subterranean caverns; it resembles +a mouse, but is of the size of a buffalo or ox. It has no +tail; its colour is dark; it is very strong, and excavates caverns in +places full of rocks, and forests.” Another writer, quoting the same +passage, thus expresses himself: “The <i>tyn-schu</i> haunts obscure and +unfrequented places. It dies as soon as it is exposed to the rays of +the sun or moon; its feet are short in proportion to its size, which +causes it to walk badly. Its tail is a Chinese ell in length. Its eyes +are small, and its neck short. It is very stupid and sluggish. When +the inundations of the river <i>Tamschuann-tuy</i> took place (in 1571), a +great many tyn-schu appeared in the plain; it fed on the roots of the +plant <i>fu-kia</i>.”</p> + +<p>The existence in Russia of the bones and tusks of the Mammoth +is sufficiently confirmed by the following extract from an old Russian +traveller, Ysbrants Ides, who, in 1692, was sent by Peter the Great +as ambassador to the Emperor of China. In the extract which +follows, we remark the very surprising fact of the discovery of a head +and foot of the Mammoth which had been preserved in ice with all +the flesh. “Amongst the hills which are situate north-east of the +river Kata,” says the traveller, “the Mammuts’ tongues and legs are +found, as they are also particularly on the shores of the river Jenize, +Trugan, Mongamsea, Lena, and near Jakutskoi, even as far as the +Frozen Ocean. In the spring, when the ice of this river breaks, it is +driven in such vast quantities and with such force by the high +swollen waters, that it frequently carries very high banks before it, +and breaks off the tops of hills, which, falling down, discover these +animals whole, or their teeth only, almost frozen to the earth, which +thaw by degrees. I had a person with me who had annually gone +out in search of these bones; he told it to me as a real truth, that +he and his companions found the head of one of these animals, +which was discovered by the fall of such a frozen piece of earth. +As soon as he opened it, he found the greatest part of the flesh +rotten, but it was not without difficulty that they broke out his teeth, +which were placed in the fore-part of his mouth, as those of the +Elephants are; they also took some bones out of his head, and +afterwards came to his fore-foot, which they cut off, and carried part +of it to the city of Trugan, the circumference of it being as large as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[390]</a></span> +that of the waist of an ordinary man. The bones of the head +appeared somewhat red, as though they were tinctured with blood.</p> + +<p>“Concerning this animal there are very different reports. The +heathens of Jakuti, Tungusi, and Ostiacki, say that they continually, +or at least, by reason of the very hard frosts, mostly live under +ground, where they go backwards and forwards; to confirm which +they tell us, that they have often seen the earth heaved up when one +of these beasts was upon the march, and after he was passed, the +place sink in, and thereby make a deep pit. They further believe, +that if this animal comes so near to the surface of the frozen earth as +to smell the air, he immediately dies, which they say is the reason +that several of them are found dead on the high banks of the river, +where they unawares came out of the ground.</p> + +<p>“This is the opinion of the Infidels concerning these beasts, +which are never seen.</p> + +<p>“But the old Siberian Russians affirm, that the Mammuth is very +like the Elephant, with this difference only, that the teeth of the +former are firmer, and not so straight as those of the latter. They +also are of opinion that there were Elephants in this country before +the Deluge, when this climate was warmer, and that their drowned +bodies, floating on the surface of the water of that flood, were at +last washed and forced into subterranean cavities; but that after +this universal deluge, the air, which before was warm, was changed +to cold, and that these bones have lain frozen in the earth ever +since, and so are preserved from putrefaction till they thaw, and +come to light, which is no very unreasonable conjecture, though it +is not absolutely necessary that this climate should have been warmer +before the Flood, since the carcases of the drowned elephants were very +likely to float from other places several hundred miles distant to this +country in the great deluge which covered the surface of the whole +earth. Some of these teeth, which doubtless have lain the whole +summer on the shore, are entirely black and broken, and can never +be restored to their former condition. But those which are found in +good case, are as good as ivory, and are accordingly transported to +all parts of Muscovy, where they are used to make combs, and all +other such-like things, instead of ivory.</p> + +<p>“The above-mentioned person also told me that he once found +two teeth in one head that weighed above twelve Russian pounds, +which amount to four hundred German pounds; so that these animals +must of necessity be very large, though a great many lesser +teeth are found. By all that I could gather from the heathens, no +person ever saw one of these beasts alive, or can give any account of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[391]</a></span> +its shape; so that all we heard said on this subject arises from bare +conjecture only.”</p> + +<p>It is possible this recital may seem suspicious to some readers. +We have ourselves felt some difficulty in believing that this head and +foot were taken from the ice, with the flesh and skin, when we consider +that the animal to which they belonged has been extinct +probably more than ten thousand years. But the assertion of +Ysbrants Ides is confirmed by respectable testimony of more recent +date. In 1800, a Russian naturalist, Gabriel Sarytschew, travelled +in northern Siberia. Having arrived in the neighbourhood of the +Frozen Ocean, he found upon the banks of the Alasœia, which discharges +itself into this sea, the entire body of a Mammoth enveloped +in a mass of ice. The body was in a complete state of preservation, +for the permanent contact of the ice had kept out the air and prevented +decomposition. It is well known that at zero and below it, +animal substances will not putrefy, so that in our households we can +preserve all kinds of animal food as long as we can surround them +with ice; and this is precisely what happened to the Mammoth +found by Gabriel Sarytschew in the ice of the Alasœia. The rolling +waters had disengaged the mass of ice which had imprisoned the +monstrous pachyderm for thousands of years. The body, in a complete +state of preservation and covered with its flesh as well as its +entire hide, to which long hairs adhered in certain places, found +itself, again, nearly erect on its four feet.</p> + +<p>The Russian naturalist Adams, in 1806, made a discovery quite +as extraordinary as the preceding. We borrow his account from a +paper by Dr. Tilesius in the “Memoirs of the Imperial Academy of +Sciences of St. Petersburg” (vol. v.). In 1799, a Tungusian chief, +Ossip Schumachoff, while seeking for mammoth-horns on the banks +of the lake Oncoul, perceived among the blocks of ice a shapeless +mass, not at all resembling the large pieces of floating wood which +are commonly found there. The following year he noticed that +this mass was more disengaged from the blocks of ice, and had two +projecting parts, but he was still unable to make out what it could +be. Towards the end of the following summer one entire side of +the animal and one of his tusks were quite free from the ice. But +the succeeding summer of 1802, which was less warm and more +windy than common, caused the Mammoth to remain buried in the +ice, which had scarcely melted at all. At length, towards the end +of the fifth year (1803), the ice between the earth and the Mammoth +having melted faster than the rest, the plane of its support became +inclined; and this enormous mass fell by its own weight on a bank<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[392]</a></span> +of sand. In the month of March, 1804, Schumachoff cut off the +horns (the tusks), which he exchanged with the merchant Bultenof +for goods of the value of fifty roubles (not quite eight pounds +sterling). It was not till two years after this that Mr. Adams, of the +St. Petersburg Academy, who was travelling with Count Golovkin, +sent by the Czar of Russia on an embassy to China, having been +told at Jakutsk of the discovery of an animal of extraordinary +magnitude on the shores of the Frozen Ocean, near the mouth of the +river Lena, betook himself to the place. He found the Mammoth +still in the same place, but altogether mutilated. The Jakoutskis of +the neighbourhood had cut off the flesh, with which they fed their +dogs; wild beasts, such as white bears, wolves, wolverines, and +foxes, had also fed upon it, and traces of their footsteps were seen +around. The skeleton, almost entirely cleared of its flesh, remained +whole, with the exception of one fore-leg. The spine of the back, +one scapula, the pelvis, and the other three limbs were still held +together by the ligaments and by parts of the skin; the other scapula +was found not far off. The head was covered with a dry skin; one +of the ears was furnished with a tuft of hairs; the balls of the eyes +were still distinguishable; the brain still occupied the cranium, but +seemed dried up; the point of the lower lip had been gnawed and +the upper lip had been destroyed so as to expose the teeth; the +neck was furnished with a long flowing mane; the skin, of a dark-grey +colour, covered with black hairs and a reddish wool, was so +heavy that ten persons found great difficulty in transporting it to the +shore. There was collected, according to Mr. Adams, more than +thirty-six pounds’ weight of hair and wool which the white bears had +trod into the ground, while devouring the flesh. This Mammoth +was a male so fat and well fed, according to the assertion of the +Tungusian chief, that its belly hung down below the joints of its +knees. Its tusks were nine feet six inches in length, measured along +the curve, and its head without the tusks weighed 414 pounds +avoirdupois.</p> + +<p>Mr. Adams took every care to collect all that remained of this +unique specimen of an ancient creation, and forwarded the parts to +St. Petersburg, a distance of 11,000 versts (7,330 miles). He succeeded +in re-purchasing what he believed to be the tusks at Jakutsk, +and the Emperor of Russia, who became the owner of this precious +relic, paid him 8,000 roubles. The skeleton is deposited in the +Museum of the Academy of St. Petersburg, and the skin still remains +attached to the head and the feet. “We have yet to find,” says +Cuvier, “any individual equal to it.”</p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393"></a></p> +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[394]</a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Plate_XXVI" id="Plate_XXVI"></a> +<img src="images/illo405.png" alt="Plate XXVI" width="600" height="392" /> +<p class="caption">XXVI.—Skeleton of the Mammoth in the St. Petersburg Museum.</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[395]</a></span>Beside the skeleton of this famous Mammoth there is placed +that of an Indian Elephant, and another Elephant with skin and hair, +in order that the visitor may have a proper appreciation of the vast +proportions of the Mammoth, as compared with them. <span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_XXVI">Plate XXVI.</a></span>, +on the opposite page, represents the saloon of the Museum of St. +Petersburg, which contains these three interesting remains.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_182" id="Fig_182"></a> +<img src="images/illo406.png" alt="Fig. 182" width="450" height="353" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 182.—Mammoth restored.</p></div> + +<p>In 1860 a great number of bones of the Mammoth, with remains +of Hyæna, Horse, Reindeer, Rhinoceros-megarhinus, and Bison, +were found in Belgium in digging a canal at Lierre, in the province +of Antwerp. An entire skeleton of a young Mammoth, eleven feet +six inches high (to the shoulder), has been reconstructed from these +remains by M. Dupont, and is now placed in the Royal Museum of +Natural History in Brussels.<a name="FNanchor_98" id="FNanchor_98"></a><a href="#Footnote_98" class="fnanchor">[98]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[396]</a></span>We cannot doubt, after such testimony, of the existence in the +frozen north, of the almost entire remains of the Mammoth. The +animals seem to have perished suddenly; enveloped in ice at the +moment of their death, their bodies have been preserved from decomposition +by the continued action of the cold. If we suppose +that one of those animals had sunk into a marsh which froze soon +afterwards, or had fallen accidentally into the crevasse of some glacier, +it would be easy for us to understand how its body, buried +immediately under eternal ice, had remained there for thousands of +years without undergoing decomposition.</p> + +<p>In Cuvier’s great work on <i>fossil bones</i>, he gives a long and minute +enumeration of the various regions of Germany, France, Italy, and +other countries, which have furnished in our days bones or tusks of +the Mammoth. We venture to quote two of these descriptions:—“In +October, 1816,” he says, “there was discovered at Seilberg, +near Canstadt, in Würtemberg, near which some remarkable discoveries +were made in 1700, a very remarkable deposit, which the +king, Frederick I., caused to be excavated, and its contents collected +with the greatest care. We are even assured that the visit which the +prince, in his ardour for all that was great, paid to this spot, aggravated +the malady of which he died a few days after. An officer, +Herr Natter, commenced some excavations, and in four-and-twenty +hours discovered twenty-one teeth or fragments of teeth of elephant, +mixed with a great number of bones. The king having ordered him +to continue the excavations, on the second day they came upon a +group of thirteen tusks heaped close upon each other, and along with +them some molar teeth, lying as if they had been packed artificially. +It was on this discovery that the king caused himself to be transported +thither, and ordered all the surrounding soil to be dug up, and every +object to be carefully preserved in its original position. The largest +of the tusks, though it had lost its points and its roots, was still eight +feet long and one foot in diameter. Many isolated tusks were also +found, with a quantity of molar teeth, from two inches to a foot in +length, some still adhering to the jaws. All these fragments were +better preserved than those of 1700, which was attributed to the +depth of the bed, and, perhaps, to the nature of the soil. The tusks +were generally much curved. In the same deposit some bones of +Horses and Stags were found, together with a quantity of teeth of the +Rhinoceros, and others which were thought to belong to a Bear, and +one specimen which was attributed to the Tapir. The place where +this discovery was made is named Seilberg; it is about 600 paces +from the city of Canstadt, but on the opposite side of the Necker.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[397]</a></span>“All the great river basins of Germany have, like those of the +Necker, yielded fossil bones of the Elephant; those especially +abutting on the Rhine are too numerous to be mentioned, nor is +Canstadt the only place in the valley of the Necker where they are +found.”</p> + +<p>But of all parts of Europe, that in which they are found in +greatest numbers is the valley of the Upper Arno. We find there +a perfect cemetery of Elephants. These bones were at one time so +common in this valley, that the peasantry employed them, indiscriminately +with stones, in constructing walls and houses. Since +they have learned their value, however, they reserve them for sale to +travellers.</p> + +<p>The bones and tusks of the Mammoth are met with in America +as well as in the Old World, scattered through Canada, Oregon, and +the Northern States as far south as the Gulf of Mexico. Cuvier +enumerates several places on that continent where their remains are +met with, mingled with those of the Mastodon. The Russian +Lieutenant Kotzebue found them on the north coast of America, in +the cliffs of frozen mud in Eschsholtz Bay, within Behring’s Strait, +and in other distant parts of the shores of the Arctic Seas, where +they were so common that the sailors burnt many pieces in their +fires.</p> + +<p>It is very strange that the East Indies, that is, one of the only two +regions which is now the home of the Elephant, should be almost the +only country in which the fossil bones of these animals have not been +discovered. In short, from the preceding enumeration, it appears +that, during the geological period whose history we are recording +the gigantic Mammoth inhabited most regions of the globe. Now-a-days, +the only climates which are suited for the existing race of +Elephants are those of Africa and India, that is to say, tropical +countries; from which we must draw the conclusions to which so +many other inferences lead, that, at the epoch in which these animals +lived, the temperature of the earth was much higher than in our +days; or, more probably, the extinct race of Elephants must have +been adapted for living in a colder climate than that which they now +require.</p> + +<p>Among the antediluvian Carnivora, one of the most formidable +seems to have been the <i>Ursus spelæus</i>, or Cave-bear (<a href="#Fig_183">Fig. 183</a>). +This species must have been a fifth, if not a fourth, larger than the +Brown Bear of our days. It was also more squat: some of the +skeletons we possess are from nine to ten feet long, and only about +six feet high. The <i>U. spelæus</i> abounded in England, France, Belgium,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[398]</a></span> +and Germany; and so extensively in the latter country, that the +teeth of the antediluvian Bear, as we have already stated, formed for +a long time part of its materia medica, under the name of <i>fossil +licorn</i>. <a href="#Fig_183">Fig. 183</a> represents the skull of the Cave-bear.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_183" id="Fig_183"></a> +<img src="images/illo409.png" alt="Fig. 183" width="450" height="238" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 183.—Head of Ursus spelæus.</p></div> + +<p>At the same time with the <i>Ursus spelæus</i> another Carnivore, the +<i>Felis spelæus</i>, or Cave-lion, lived in Europe. This animal is specifically +identical with the living Lion of Asia and Africa: but since in +these early times he had not to contend with the hunter for food, he +was, on the whole, considerably larger than any Lion now existing +on the earth.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_184" id="Fig_184"></a> +<img src="images/illo410.png" alt="Fig. 184" width="450" height="261" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 184.—Head of Hyæna spelæa.</p></div> + +<p>The Hyænas of our age consist of two species, the striped and the +spotted Hyænas. The last presents considerable conformity in its +structure with that of the Post-pliocene period, which Cuvier designates +under the name of the fossil Spotted Hyæna. It seems to +have been only a little larger than the existing species. <a href="#Fig_184">Fig. 184</a> +represents the head of the <i>Hyæna spelæa</i>, whose remains, with those +of others, were found in the caves of Kirkdale and Kent’s Hole; the +remains of about 300 being found in the former. Dr. Buckland satisfied +himself, from the quantity of their dung, that the Hyænas had +lived there. In the cave were found remains of the ox, young +elephant, rhinoceros, horse, bear, wolf, hare, water-rat, and several +birds. All the bones present an appearance of having been broken +and gnawed by the teeth of the Hyænas, and they occur confusedly +mixed in loam or mud, or dispersed through the crust of stalagmite +which covered the contents of the cave.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[399]</a></span>The Horse dates from the Quaternary epoch, if not from the last +period of the Tertiary epoch. Its remains are found in the same +rocks with those of the Mammoth and the Rhinoceros. It is distinguished +from our existing Horse only by its size, which was +smaller—its remains abound in the Post-pliocene rocks, not only in +Europe, but in America; so that an aboriginal Horse existed in the +New World long before it was carried thither by the Spaniards, although +we know that it was unknown at the date of their arrival. “Certainly +it is a marvellous fact in the history of the Mammalia, that in +South America, a native horse should have lived and disappeared, +to be succeeded in after ages by the countless herds descended from +the few introduced with the Spanish colonists!”<a name="FNanchor_99" id="FNanchor_99"></a><a href="#Footnote_99" class="fnanchor">[99]</a></p> + +<p>The Oxen of the period, if not identical with, were at least very +near to our living species. There were three species: the <i>Bison +priscus</i>, <i>B. primigenius</i>, and <i>B. Pallasii</i>; the first with slender legs, +with convex frontal, broader than it was high, and differing but +slightly from the <i>Aurochs</i>, except in being taller and by having larger +horns. The remains of <i>Bison priscus</i> are found in England, France, +Italy, Germany, Russia, and America. <i>Bison primigenius</i> was, +according to Cuvier, the source of our domestic cattle. The <i>Bos +Pallasii</i> is found in America and in Siberia, and resembles in many +respects the Musk-ox of Canada.</p> + +<p>Where these great Mammals are found we generally discover the +fossil remains of several species of Deer. The palæontological<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[400]</a></span> +question as regards these animals is very obscure, and it is often +difficult to determine whether the remains belong to an extinct or an +existing species. This doubt does not extend, however, to the +gigantic forest-stag, <i>Cervus megaceros</i>, one of the most magnificent of +the antediluvian animals, whose remains are still frequently found in +Ireland in the neighbourhood of Dublin; more rarely in France, +Germany, Poland, and Italy. Intermediate between the Fallow-deer +and the Elk, the <i>Cervus megaceros</i> partakes of the Elk in its general +proportions and in the form of its cranium, but it approaches the +Fallow-deer in its size and in the disposition of its horns. These +magnificent appendages, however, while they decorated the head of +the animal and gave a most imposing appearance to it, must have +sadly impeded its progress through the thick and tangled forests of +the ancient world. The length of these horns was between nine and +ten feet; and they were so divergent that, measured from one +extremity to the other, they occupied a space of between three and +four yards.</p> + +<p>The skeleton of the <i>Cervus megaceros</i> is found in the deposits of +calcareous tufa, which underlie the immense peat moss of Ireland; +sometimes in the turf itself, as near the Curragh in Kildare; in which +position they sometimes occur in little mounds piled up in a small +space, and nearly always in the same attitude, the head aloft, the +neck stretched out, the horns reversed and thrown downwards towards +the back, as if the animal, suddenly immersed into marshy ground, +had been under the necessity of throwing up its head in search of +respirable air. In the Geological Cabinet of the Sorbonne, at Paris, +there is a magnificent skeleton of <i>Cervus megaceros</i>; another belongs +to the College of Surgeons in London; and there is a third at +Vienna.</p> + +<hr class="c05" /> + +<p>The most remarkable creatures of the period, however, were the +great Edentates—the Glyptodon, the gigantic Megatherium, the +Mylodon and the Megalonyx. The order of Edentates is more particularly +characterised by the absence of teeth in the fore part of the +mouth. The masticating apparatus of the Edentates consists only of +molars, the incisors and canine teeth being, with a few exceptions, +absent altogether, as the animals composing this order feed chiefly +on insects or the tender leaves of plants. The Armadillo, Anteater +and Pangolin, are the living examples of the order. We may +add, as still further characteristics, largely developed claws at the +extremities of the toes. The order seems thus to establish itself as a +zoological link in the chain between the hoofed Mammals and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[401]</a></span> +ungulated animals, or those armed with claws. All these animals are +peculiar to the continent of America.</p> + +<p>The <i>Glyptodon</i>, which appears during the Quaternary period, +belonged to the family of Armadilloes, and their most remarkable +feature was the presence of a hard, scaly shell, or coat of mail six +feet in length, and composed of numerous segments, which covered +the entire upper service of the animal from the head to the tail. +It was, in short, a mammiferous animal, which appears to have +been enclosed in a shell like that of a Turtle; it resembled in +many respects the <i>Dasypus</i> or Anteater, and had sixteen teeth +in each jaw. These teeth were channelled laterally with two broad +and deep grooves, which divided the surface of the molars into +three parts, whence it was named the Glyptodon. The hind +feet were broad and massive, and evidently designed to support a +vast incumbent mass; it presented phalanges armed with short +thick and depressed nails or claws. The animal was, as we have +said, enveloped in, and protected by, a cuirass, or solid carapace, +composed of plates which, seen from beneath, appeared to be +hexagonal and united by denticulated sutures: above they represented +double rosettes. The habitat of <i>Glyptodon clavipes</i> was the pampas +of Buenos Ayres, and the banks of an affluent of the Rio Santo, +near Monte Video; specimens have been found not less than nine +feet in length.</p> + +<p>The tesselated carapace of the Glyptodon was long thought to +belong to the Megatherium; but Professor Owen shows, from the +anatomical structure of the two animals, that the cuirass belonged to +one of them only, namely, the Glyptodon.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_185" id="Fig_185"></a> +<img src="images/illo413.png" alt="Fig. 185" width="450" height="315" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 185.—Schistopleuron typus. One-twentieth natural size.</p></div> + +<p>The <i>Schistopleuron</i> does not differ essentially from the Glyptodon, +but is supposed to have been a different species of the same genus; +the chief difference between the two animals being in the structure of +the tail, which is massive in the first and in the other composed of +half a score of rings. In other respects the organisation and habits +are similar, both being herbivorous, and feeding on roots and vegetables. +<a href="#Fig_185">Fig. 185</a> represents the <i>Schistopleuron typus</i> restored, and as +it appeared when alive.</p> + +<p>Some of the fossil Tortoises discovered in the sub-Himalayan +beds possessed a carapace twelve feet long by six feet in breadth, +which must have corresponded to an animal from eighteen to twenty +feet in length; and the bones of the legs were as massive as those of +the Rhinoceros.</p> + +<p>The <i>Megatherium</i>, or Animal of Paraguay, as it was called, is, at +first view, the oddest and most remarkable animal we have yet had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[402]</a></span> +under consideration, where all have been, according to our notions, +strange, extraordinary, and formidable. The animal creation still +goes on as if—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Nature made them and then broke the die.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[403]</a></p> +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Plate_XXVII" id="Plate_XXVII"></a> +<img src="images/illo414.png" alt="Plate XXVII" width="600" height="329" /> +<p class="caption">XXVII.—Skeleton of the Megatherium (Clift).</p></div> + +<p>If we cast a glance at the skeleton figured on the opposite page +(<span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_XXVII">Plate XXVII.</a></span>), which was found in Paraguay, at Buenos Ayres, in +1788, and which is now placed, in a perfect state of preservation, in +the Museum of Natural History in Madrid, it is impossible to avoid +being struck with its unusually heavy form, at once awkward as a whole, +and ponderous in most of its parts. It is allied to the existing genus +of Sloths, which Buffon tells us is “of all the animal creation that +which has received the most vicious organisation—a being to which +Nature has forbidden all enjoyment; which has only been created for +hardships and misery.” This notion of the romantic Buffon is, however, +altogether incorrect. An attentive examination of the <i>Animal of</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[405]</a></span> +<i>Paraguay</i> shows that its organisation cannot be considered either odd +or awkward when viewed in connection with its mode of life and +individual habits. The special organisation which renders the movements +of the Sloths so sluggish, and apparently so painful on level +ground, gives them, on the other hand, marvellous assistance when +they live in trees, the leaves of which constitute their exclusive food. +In the same manner, if we consider that the <i>Megatherium</i> was created +to burrow in the earth and feed upon the roots of trees and shrubs, +every organ of its heavy frame would appear to be perfectly appropriate +to its kind of life, and well adapted to the special purpose +which was assigned to it by the Creator. We ought to place the +Megatherium between the Sloths and the Anteaters. Like the first, it +usually fed on the branches and leaves of trees; like the latter, it +burrowed deep in the soil, finding there both food and shelter. It +was as large as an Elephant or Rhinoceros of the largest species. +Its body measured twelve or thirteen feet in length, and it was between +five and six feet high. The engraving on page 403 (<span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_XXVII">Plate +XXVII.</a></span>) will convey, more accurately than any mere verbal description, +an idea of the form and proportions of the animal.</p> + +<p>The English reader is chiefly indebted to the zeal and energy of +Sir Woodbine Parish for the materials from which our naturalists +have been enabled to re-construct the history of the Megatherium. +The remains collected by him were found in the river Salado, which +runs through the flat alluvial plains called Pampas to the south of the +city of Buenos Ayres. A succession of three unusually dry seasons +had lowered the waters to such a degree as to expose part of the pelvis +to view, as the skeleton stood upright in the mud forming the bed +of the river. Further inquiries led to the discovery of the remains +of two other skeletons near the place where the first had been +found; and with them an immense shell or carapace was met with, +most of the bones associated with which crumbled to pieces on exposure +to the air. The osseous structure of this enormous animal, +as furnished by Mr. Clift, an eminent anatomist of the day, and +under whose superintendence the skeleton was drawn, must have +exceeded fourteen feet in length, and upwards of eight feet in height. +The deeply shaded parts of the figure show the portions which are +deficient in the Madrid skeleton.</p> + +<p>Cuvier pointed out that the skull very much resembled that of the +Sloths, but that the rest of the skeleton bore relationship, partly to +the Sloths, and partly to the Anteaters.</p> + +<p>The large bones, which descend from the zygomatic arch along +the cheek-bones, would furnish a powerful means of attaching the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[406]</a></span> +motor muscles of the jaws. The anterior part of the muzzle is +fully developed, and riddled with holes for the passage of the nerves +and vessels which must have been there, not for a trunk, which +would have been useless to an animal furnished with a very long +neck, but for a snout analogous to that of the Tapir.</p> + +<p>The jaw and dental apparatus cannot be exactly stated, because +the number of teeth in the lower jaw is not known. The upper jaw, +Professor Owen has shown, contained five molars on each side; and +from comparison and analogy with the <i>Scelidotherium</i> it may be conjectured +that the <i>Megatherium</i> had four on each side of the lower jaw. +Being without incisors or canines, the structure of its eighteen molars +proves that it was not carnivorous: they each resemble the composite +molars of the Elephant.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="Fig_186" id="Fig_186"></a> +<img src="images/illo417.png" alt="Fig. 186" width="400" height="443" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 186.—Skeleton of Megatherium foreshortened.</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[407]</a></span>The vertebræ of the neck (as exhibited in the foreshortened figure +(<a href="#Fig_186">Fig. 186</a>), taken from the work of Pander and D’Alton, and showing +nearly a front view of the head), as well as the anterior and posterior +extremities of the Madrid skeleton, although powerful, are not to be +compared in dimensions to those of the other extremity of the body; +for the head seems to have been relatively light and defenceless. +The lumbar vertebræ increase in a degree corresponding to the +enormous enlargement of the pelvis and the posterior members. +The vertebræ of the tail are enormous, as is seen in <a href="#Fig_187">Fig. 187</a>, +which represents the bones of the pelvis and hind foot, discovered by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[408]</a></span> +Sir Woodbine Parish, and now in the Museum of the College of +Surgeons. If we add to these osseous organs the muscles, tendons, +and integuments which covered them, we must admit that the tail of +the <i>Megatherium</i> could not be less than two feet in diameter. It is +probable that, like the Armadillo, it employed the tail to assist in +supporting the enormous weight of its body; it would also be a +formidable defensive organ when employed, as is the case with the +Pangolins and Crocodiles. The fore-feet would be about three feet +long and one foot broad. They would form a powerful implement +for excavating the earth, to the greatest depths at which the roots of +vegetables penetrate. The fore-feet rested on the ground to their +full length. Thus solidly supported by the two hind-feet and the tail, +and in advance by one of the fore-feet, the animal could employ the +fore-foot left at liberty in clearing away the earth, in digging up the +roots of trees, or in tearing down the branches; the toes of the fore-feet +were, for this purpose, furnished with large and powerful claws, +which lie at an oblique angle relatively to the ground, much like the +burrowing talons of the mole.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="Fig_187" id="Fig_187"></a> +<img src="images/illo418.png" alt="Fig. 187" width="350" height="550" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 187.—Bones of the pelvis of the Megatherium.</p></div> + +<p>The solidity and size of the pelvis must have been enormous; its +immense iliac bones are nearly at right angles with the vertebral +column; their external edges are distant more than a yard and a half +from each other when the animal is standing. The femur is three +times the thickness of the thigh-bone of the Elephant, and the many +peculiarities of structure in this bone appear to have been intended +to give solidity to the whole frame, by means of its short and massive +proportions. The two bones of the leg are, like the femur, short, +thick, and solid; presenting proportions which we only meet with in +the Armadilloes and Anteaters; burrowing animals with which, as we +have said, its two extremities seem to connect it.</p> + +<p>The anatomical organisation of these members denotes heavy, +slow, and powerful locomotion, but solid and admirable combinations +for supporting the weight of an enormous sedentary creature; +a sort of excavating machine, slow of motion but of incalculable +power for its own purposes. In short, the <i>Megatherium</i> exceeded +in dimensions all existing Edentates. It had the head and shoulders +of the Sloth, the feet and legs combined the characteristics of the +Anteaters and Sloths, of enormous size, since it was at least twelve +feet long when full grown, its feet armed with gigantic claws, and its +tail at once a means of supporting its huge body and an instrument +of defence. An animal built with such massive proportions could +evidently neither creep nor run; its walk would be excessively slow. +But what necessity was there for rapid movement in a being only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[409]</a></span> +occupied in burrowing under the earth, seeking for roots, and which +would consequently rarely change its place? What need had it of +agility to fly from its enemies, when it could overthrow the Crocodile +with a sweep of its tail? Secure from the attacks of other animals, +this robust herbivorous creature, of which <a href="#Fig_188">Figure 188</a> is a restoration, +must have lived peacefully and respected in the solitary pampas +of America.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_188" id="Fig_188"></a> +<img src="images/illo420.png" alt="Fig. 188" width="450" height="408" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 188.—Megatherium restored.</p></div> + +<p>The immediate cause of the extinction of the Megatherium is, +probably, to be found in causes which are still in operation in South +America. The period between the years 1827 and 1830 is called<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[410]</a></span> +the “gran seco,” or the great drought, in South America; and +according to Darwin, the loss of cattle in the province of Buenos +Ayres alone was calculated at 1,000,000 head. One proprietor at San +Pedro, in the middle of the finest pasture-country, had lost 20,000 +cattle previously to those years. “I was informed by an eyewitness,” +he adds, “that the cattle, in herds of thousands, rushed into +the Parana, and, being exhausted by hunger, they were unable to +crawl up the muddy banks, and thus were drowned. The arm of the +river which runs by San Pedro was so full of putrid carcases, that +the master of a vessel told me that the smell rendered it quite +impassable. All the small rivers became highly saline, and this +caused the death of vast numbers in particular spots; for when +an animal drinks of such water it does not recover. Azara describes +the fury of the wild horses on a similar occasion: rushing into the +marshes, those which arrived first being overwhelmed and crushed +by those which followed.”<a name="FNanchor_100" id="FNanchor_100"></a><a href="#Footnote_100" class="fnanchor">[100]</a> The upright position in which the +various specimens of Megatheria were found indicates some such +cause of death; as if the ponderous animal, approaching the banks +of the river, when shrunk within its banks, had been bogged in soft +mud, sufficiently adhesive to hold it there till it perished.</p> + +<p>Like the Megatherium, the <i>Mylodon</i> closely resembled the Sloth, +and it belonged exclusively to the New World. Smaller than the +Megatherium, it differed from it chiefly in the form of the teeth. +These organs presented only molars with smooth surfaces, indicating +that the animal fed on vegetables, probably the leaves and tender +buds of trees. As the Mylodon presents at once hoofs and claws +on each foot, it has been thought that it formed the link between the +hoofed, or ungulated animals and the Edentates. Three species are +known, which lived in the pampas of Buenos Ayres.</p> + +<p>In consequence of some hints given by the illustrious Washington, +Mr. Jefferson, one of his successors as President of the United +States, discovered, in a cavern of Western Virginia, the bones of a +species of gigantic Sloth, which he pronounced to be the remains of +some carnivorous animal. They consisted of a femur, a humerus, an +ulna, and three claws, with half a dozen other bones of the foot. +These bones Mr. Jefferson believed to be analogous to those of the +lion. Cuvier saw at once the true analogies of the animal. The +bones were the remains of a species of gigantic Sloth; the complete +skeleton of which was subsequently discovered in the Mississippi, in +such a perfect state of preservation that the cartilages, still adhering<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[411]</a></span> +to the bones, were not decomposed. Jefferson called this species the +<i>Megalonyx</i>. It resembled in many respects the Sloth. Its size was +that of the largest ox; the muzzle was pointed; the jaws were armed +with cylindrical teeth; the anterior limbs much longer than the posterior; +the articulation of the foot oblique to the leg; two great toes, +short, and armed with long and very powerful claws; the index finger +more slender, and armed also with a less powerful claw; the tail +strong and solid: such were the salient points of the organisation of +the <i>Megalonyx</i>, whose form was a little slighter than that of the +<i>Megatherium</i>.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_189" id="Fig_189"></a> +<img src="images/illo422.png" alt="Fig. 189" width="450" height="451" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 189.—Mylodon robustus.</p></div> + +<p>The country in which the Megatherium has been found is described +by Mr. Darwin as belonging to the great Pampean formation, which +consists partly of a reddish clay and in part of a highly calcareous +marly rock. Near the coast there are some plains formed from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[412]</a></span> +wreck of the upper plain, and from mud, gravel, and sand thrown up +by the sea during the slow elevation of the land, as shown by the +raised beds of recent shells. At Punta Alta there is a highly-interesting +section of one of the later-formed +little plains, in which many remains of +these gigantic land-animals have been +found. These were, says Mr. Darwin:—“First, +parts of three heads and other +bones of the Megatherium, the huge +dimensions of which are expressed by +its name. Secondly, the <i>Megalonyx</i>, a +great allied animal. Thirdly, the +<i>Scelidotherium</i>, also an allied animal, +of which I obtained a nearly perfect +skeleton: it must have been as large +as a rhinoceros; in the structure of +its head it comes, according to Professor +Owen, nearest to the Cape +Anteater, but in some other respects +it approaches to the Armadilloes. +Fourthly, the <i>Mylodon Darwinii</i>, a +closely related genus, of little inferior +size. Fifthly, another gigantic edental +quadruped. Sixthly, a large animal +with an osseous coat, in compartments, +very like that of an armadillo. +Seventhly, an extinct kind of horse. +Eighthly, a tooth of a pachydermatous +animal, probably the same with the Macrauchenia, a huge beast with +a long neck like a camel. Lastly, the Toxodon, perhaps one of the +strangest animals ever discovered; in size it equalled an Elephant or +Megatherium, but the structure of its teeth, as Professor Owen states, +proves indisputably that it was intimately related to the Gnawers, the +order which, at the present day, includes most of the smallest +quadrupeds; in many details it is allied to the pachydermata; judging +from the position of its eyes, ears, and nostrils, it was probably aquatic, +like the Dugong and Manatee, to which it is allied. How wonderfully +are the different orders—at the present time so well separated—blended +together in different points in the structure of the Toxodon!”<a name="FNanchor_101" id="FNanchor_101"></a><a href="#Footnote_101" class="fnanchor">[101]</a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"><a name="Fig_190" id="Fig_190"></a> +<img src="images/illo423.png" alt="Fig. 190" width="250" height="446" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 190.—Lower jaw of the Mylodon.</p></div> + +<p>The remains on which our knowledge of the <i>Scelidotherium</i> is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[413]</a></span> +founded include the cranium, which is nearly entire, with the teeth +and part of the os hyoides, seven cervical, eight dorsal, and five +sacral vertebræ, both the scapulæ, and some other bones. The +remains of the cranium indicate that its general form was an elongated +slender compressed cone, beginning behind by a flattened vertical +base, expanding slightly to the cheek-bone, and thence contracting +to the anterior extremity. All these parts were discovered in their +natural relative positions, indicating, as Mr. Darwin observes, that +the gravelly formation in which they were discovered had not been +disturbed since its deposition.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="Fig_191" id="Fig_191"></a> +<img src="images/illo424.png" alt="Fig. 191" width="500" height="238" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 191.—Skull of Scelidotherium.</p></div> + +<p>The lower jaw-bone of <i>Mylodon</i>, which Mr. Darwin discovered +at the base of the cliff called Punta Alta, in Northern Patagonia, +had the teeth entire on both sides; they are implanted in deep +sockets, and only about one-sixth of the last molar projects above the +alveolus, but the proportion of the exposed part increases gradually +in the inner teeth (<a href="#Fig_191">Fig. 191</a>).</p> + +<p>“The habits of life of these Megatheroid animals were a complete +puzzle to naturalists, until Professor Owen solved the problem +with remarkable ingenuity. The teeth indicate, by their simple +structure, that these Megatheroid animals lived on vegetable food, and +probably on the leaves and small twigs of trees; their ponderous +forms and great strong curved claws seem so little adapted for +locomotion, that some eminent naturalists have actually believed +that, like the Sloths, to which they are intimately related, they subsisted +by climbing back downwards, on trees, and feeding on the +leaves. It was a bold, not to say preposterous idea to conceive +even antediluvian trees with branches strong enough to bear +animals as large as elephants. Professor Owen, with far more probability,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[414]</a></span> +believes that, instead of climbing on the trees, they pulled +the branches down to them, and tore up the smaller ones by the +roots, and so fed on the leaves. The colossal breadth and weight +of their hinder quarters, which can hardly be imagined without +having been seen, become, on this view, of obvious service instead +of being an encumbrance; their apparent clumsiness disappears. +With their great tails and their huge heels firmly fixed like a tripod +in the ground, they could freely exert the full force of their most +powerful arms and great claws. The <i>Mylodon</i>, moreover, was furnished +with a long extensile tongue, like that of the giraffe, which by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415"></a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416"></a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[417]</a></span> +one of those beautiful provisions of Nature, thus reaches, with the +aid of its long neck, its leafy food.”<a name="FNanchor_102" id="FNanchor_102"></a><a href="#Footnote_102" class="fnanchor">[102]</a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Plate_XXVIII" id="Plate_XXVIII"></a> +<img src="images/illo427.jpg" alt="Plate XXVIII" width="600" height="393" /> +<p class="caption">XXVIII.—Ideal European Landscape in the Quaternary Epoch.</p></div> + +<hr class="c05" /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"><a name="Fig_192" id="Fig_192"></a> +<img src="images/illo425.png" alt="Fig. 192" width="300" height="448" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 192.—Dinornis, and Bos.</p></div> + +<p>Two gigantic birds seem to have lived in New Zealand during +the Quaternary epoch. The <i>Dinornis</i>, which, if we may judge from +the <i>tibia</i>, which is upwards of three feet long, and from its eggs, +which are much larger than those of the Ostrich, must have been of +most extraordinary size for a bird. In <a href="#Fig_192">Fig. 192</a> an attempt is made +to restore this fearfully great bird, the <i>Dinornis</i>. As to the <i>Epiornis</i>, +its eggs only have been found.</p> + +<p>On the opposite page (<span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_XXVIII">Plate XXVIII.</a></span>) an attempt is made to +represent the appearance of Europe during the epoch we have under +consideration. The Bear is seated at the mouth of its den—the +cave (thus reminding us of the origin of its name of <i>Ursus spelæus</i>), +where it gnaws the bones of the Elephant. Above the cavern the +<i>Hyæna spelæa</i> looks out, with savage eye, for the moment when it +will be prudent to dispute possession of these remains with its formidable +rival. The great Wood-stag, with other great animals of the +epoch, occupies the farthest shore of a small lake, where some small +hills rise out of a valley crowned with the trees and shrubs of the +period. Mountains, recently upheaved, rise on the distant horizon, +covered with a mantle of frozen snow, reminding us that the glacial +period is approaching, and has already begun to manifest itself.</p> + +<p>All these fossil bones, belonging to the great Mammalia which we +have been describing, are found in the Quaternary formation; but the +most abundant of all are those of the Elephant and the Horse. The +extreme profusion of the bones of the Mammoth, crowded into the +more recently formed deposits of the globe, is only surpassed by the +prodigious quantity of the bones of the Horse which are buried in the +same beds. The singular abundance of the remains of these two +animals proves that, during the Quaternary epoch, the earth gave +nourishment to immense herds of the Horse and the Elephant. It is +probable that from one pole to the other, from the equator to the two +extremities of the axis of the globe, the earth must have formed a vast +and boundless prairie, while an immense carpet of verdure covered +its whole surface; and such abundant pastures would be absolutely +necessary to sustain these prodigious numbers of herbivorous animals +of great size.</p> + +<p>The mind can scarcely realise the immense and verdant plains of +this earlier world, animated by the presence of an infinity of such<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[418]</a></span> +inhabitants. In its burning temperature, Pachyderms of monstrous +forms, but of peaceful habits, traversed the tall vegetation, composed +of grasses of all sorts. Deer of gigantic size, their heads ornamented +with enormous horns, escorted the heavy herds of the Mammoth; +while the Horse, small in size and compact of form, galloped and +frisked round these magnificent horizons of verdure which no human +eye had yet contemplated.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, all was not quiet and tranquil in the landscapes of the +ancient world. Voracious and formidable carnivorous animals waged +a bloody war on the inoffensive herds. The Tiger, the Lion, and the +ferocious Hyæna; the Bear, and the Jackal, there selected their prey. +On the opposite page an endeavour is made to represent the great +animals among the Edentates which inhabited the American plains +during the Quaternary epoch (<span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_XXIX">Plate XXIX</a></span>). We observe there +the Glyptodon, the Megatherium, the Mylodon, and, along with them, +the Mastodon. A small Ape (the Orthopithecus), which first appeared +in the Miocene period, occupies the branch of a tree in the landscape. +The vegetation is that of tropical America at the present time.</p> + +<hr class="c05" /> + +<p>The deposits of this age, which are of later date than the Crag, +and of earlier date than the Boulder Clay, with its fragments of rocks +frequently transported from great distances, are classed under the +term “pre-glacial.”</p> + +<p>After the deposition of the Forest Bed, which is seen overlying +the Crag for miles between high and low-water mark, on the shore +west of Cromer, in Norfolk, there was a general reduction of temperature, +and a period of intense cold, known as the “glacial period,” +seems to have set in, during which a great part of what is now the +British Islands was covered with a thick coating of ice, and probably +united with the Continent.</p> + +<p>At this time England south of the Bristol Channel (the estuary of +the Severn), and the Thames, appears to have been above water. +The northern part of the country, and the high-ground generally of +Britain and Ireland were covered with gliding glaciers, by whose +grinding action the whole surface became moulded and worn into its +present shape, while the floating icebergs which broke off at the sea-side +from these glaciers, conveyed away and dropped on the bed of +the sea those fragments of rocks and the gravel and other earthy +materials which are now generally recognised as glacial accumulations.</p> + +<p>In all directions, however, proofs are being gradually obtained +that, about this period, movements of submersion under the sea were +in progress, all north of the Thames.</p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[419]</a></p> +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Plate_XXIX" id="Plate_XXIX"></a> +<img src="images/illo430.png" alt="Plate XXIX" width="600" height="390" /> +<p class="caption">XXIX.—Ideal American Landscape in the Quaternary Epoch.</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[421]</a></span>Ramsay points out indications, first of an intensely cold period, +when land was much more elevated than it is now; then of submergence +beneath the sea; and, lastly, re-elevation attended by glacial +action. “When we speak of the vegetation and quadrupeds of +Cromer Forest being pre-glacial,” says Lyell, “we merely mean +that their formation preceded the era of the general submergence of +the British Isles beneath the waters of the glacial sea. The successive +deposits seen in direct superposition on the Norfolk coast,” adds Sir +Charles, “imply at first the prevalence over a wide area of the Newer +Pliocene Sea. Afterwards, the bed of the sea was converted into +dry land, and underwent several oscillations of level, so as to be, +first, dry land supporting a forest; then an estuary; then again +land; and, finally, a sea near the mouth of a river, till the downward +movement became so great as to convert the whole area into a sea +of considerable depth, in which much floating ice, carrying mud, +sand, and boulders melted, letting its burthen fall to the bottom. +Finally, over the till with boulders stratified drift was formed; after +which, but not until the total subsidence amounted to more than 400 +feet, an upward movement began, which re-elevated the whole +country, so that the lowest of the terrestrial formations, or the forest +bed, was brought up to nearly its pristine level, in such a manner +as to be exposed at a low tide. Both the descending and ascending +movement seem to have been very gradual.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="Fig_193" id="Fig_193"></a> +<img src="images/illo432.png" alt="Fig. 193" width="400" height="329" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 193.—Palæophognos Gesneri. Fossil Toad.</p></div> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[422]</a></p> + +<h3>EUROPEAN DELUGES.</h3> + +<p>The Tertiary formations, in many parts of Europe, of more or less +extent, are covered by an accumulation of heterogeneous deposits, +filling up the valleys, and composed of very various materials, consisting +mostly of fragments of the neighbouring rocks. The +erosions which we remark at the bottoms of the hills, and which +have greatly enlarged already existing valleys; the mounds of gravel +accumulated at one point, and which is formed of rolled materials, +that is to say, of fragments of rocks worn smooth and round by continual +friction during a long period, in which they have been transported +from one point to another—all these signs indicate that these +denudations of the soil, these displacements and transport of very +heavy bodies to great distances, are due to the violent and sudden +action of large currents of water. An immense wave has been +thrown suddenly on the surface of the earth, making great ravages in +its passage, furrowing the earth and driving before it débris of all +sorts in its disorderly course. Geologists give the name of <i>diluvium</i> +to a formation thus removed and scattered, which, from its heterogeneous +nature, brings under our eyes, as it were, the rapid passage +of an impetuous torrent—a phenomenon which is commonly designated +as a <i>deluge</i>.</p> + +<p>To what cause are we to attribute these sudden and apparently temporary +invasions of the earth’s surface by rapid currents of water? In +all probability to the upheaval of some vast extent of dry land, to the +formation of some mountain or mountain-range in the neighbourhood +of the sea, or even in the bed of the sea itself. The land suddenly +elevated by an upward movement of the terrestrial crust, or by the +formation of ridges and furrows at the surface, has, by its reaction, +violently agitated the waters, that is to say, the more mobile portion of +the globe. By this new impulse the waters have been thrown with great +violence over the earth, inundating the plains and valleys, and for the +moment covering the soil with their furious waves, mingled with the +earth, sand, and mud, of which the devastated districts have been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[423]</a></span> +denuded by their abrupt invasion. The phenomenon has been +sudden but brief, like the upheaval of the mountain or chain of mountains, +which is presumed to have been the cause of it; but it was +often repeated: witness the valleys which occur in every country, +especially those in the neighbourhood of Lyons and of the Durance. +These strata indicate as many successive deposits. Besides this, the +displacement of blocks of minerals from their normal position is +proof, now perfectly recognisable, of this great phenomenon.</p> + +<p>There have been, doubtless, during the epochs anterior to the +Quaternary period of which we write, many deluges such as we are +considering. Mountains and chains of mountains, through all the +ages we have been describing, were formed by upheaval of the crust +into ridges, where it was too elastic or too thick to be fractured. +Each of these subterranean commotions would be provocative of +momentary irruptions of the waves.</p> + +<p>But the visible testimony to this phenomenon—the living proofs +of this denudation, of this tearing away of the soil, are found nowhere +so strikingly as in the beds superimposed, far and near, upon +the Tertiary formations, and which bear the geological name of +<i>diluvium</i>. This term was long employed to designate what is now +better known as the “boulder” formation, a glacial deposit which is +abundant in Europe north of the 50th, and in America north of the +40th, parallel, and re-appearing again in the southern hemisphere; +but altogether absent in tropical regions. It consists of sand and +clay, sometimes stratified, mixed with rounded and angular fragments +of rock, generally derived from the same district; and their origin +has generally been ascribed to a series of diluvial waves raised by +hurricanes, earthquakes, or the sudden upheaval of land from the +bed of the sea, which had swept over continents, carrying with them +vast masses of mud and heavy stones, and forcing these stones over +rocky surfaces so as to polish and impress them with furrows and +striæ. Other circumstances occurred, however, to establish a connection +between this formation and the glacial drift. The size and +number of the erratic blocks increase as we travel towards the Arctic +regions; some intimate association exists, therefore, between this +formation and the accumulations of ice and snow which characterise +the approaching glacial period.</p> + +<p>As we have already stated at the beginning of this chapter, there +is very distinct evidence of two successive deluges in our hemisphere +during the Quaternary epoch. The two may be distinguished as +the <i>European Deluge</i> and the <i>Asiatic</i>. The two European deluges +occurred prior to the appearance of man; the Asiatic deluge<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[424]</a></span> +happened after that event; and the human race, then in the early +days of its existence, certainly suffered from this cataclysm. In the +present chapter we confine ourselves to the two cataclysms which +overwhelmed Europe in the Quaternary epoch.</p> + +<p>The first occurred in the north of Europe, where it was produced +by the upheaval of the mountains of Norway. Commencing in +Scandinavia, the wave spread and carried its ravages into those +regions which now constitute Sweden, Norway, European Russia, +and the north of Germany, sweeping before it all the loose soil on the +surface, and covering the whole of Scandinavia—all the plains and +valleys of Northern Europe—with a mantle of transported soil. As the +regions in the midst of which this great mountainous upheaval +occurred—as the seas surrounding these vast spaces were partly +frozen and covered with ice, from their elevation and neighbourhood +to the pole—the wave which swept these countries carried along with +it enormous masses of ice. The shock, produced by the collision of +these several solid blocks of frozen water, would only contribute to +increase the extent and intensity of the ravages occasioned by this +violent cataclysm, which is represented in <span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_XXX">Plate XXX</a></span>.</p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[425]</a></p> +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Plate_XXX" id="Plate_XXX"></a> +<img src="images/illo436.png" alt="Plate XXX" width="600" height="393" /> +<p class="caption">XXX.—Deluge of the North of Europe.</p></div> + +<p>The physical proof of this <i>deluge of the north of Europe</i> exists in +the accumulation of unstratified deposits which covers all the plains and +low grounds of Northern Europe. On and in this deposit are found +numerous blocks which have received the characteristic and significant +name of erratic blocks, and which are frequently of considerable +size. These become more characteristic as we ascend to +higher latitudes, as in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, the southern +borders of the Baltic, and in the British Islands generally, in all of +which countries deposits of marine fossil shells occur, which prove +the submergence of large areas of Scandinavia, of the British Isles, +and other regions during parts of the glacial period. Some of these +rocks, characterised as <i>erratic</i>, are of very considerable volume; such, +for instance, is the granite block which forms the pedestal of the +statue of Peter the Great at St. Petersburg. This block was found +in the interior of Russia, where the whole formation is <i>Permian</i>, and +its presence there can only be explained by supposing it to have been +transported by some vast iceberg, carried by a diluvial current. +This hypothesis alone enables us to account for another block of +granite, weighing about 340 tons, which was found on the sandy +plains in the north of Prussia, an immense model of which was made +for the Berlin Museum. The last of these erratic blocks deposited in +Germany covers the grave of King Gustavus Adolphus, of Sweden, +killed at the battle of Lutzen, in 1632. He was interred beneath the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[427]</a></span> +rock. Another similar block has been raised in Germany into a +monument to the geologist Leopold von Buch.</p> + +<p>These erratic blocks which are met with in the plains of Russia, +Poland, and Prussia, and in the eastern parts of England, are composed +of rocks entirely foreign to the region where they are found. +They belong to the primary rocks of Norway; they have been +transported to their present sites, protected by a covering of ice, by +the waters of the northern deluge. How vast must have been the +impulsive force which could carry such enormous masses across the +Baltic, and so far inland as the places where they have been deposited +for the surprise of the geologist or the contemplation of the thoughtful!</p> + +<hr class="c05" /> + +<p>The second European deluge is supposed to have been the result +of the formation and upheaval of the Alps. It has filled with débris +and transported material the valleys of France, Germany, and Italy +over a circumference which has the Alps for its centre. The proofs +of a great convulsion at a comparatively recent geological date are +numerous. The Alps may be from eighty to 100 miles across, and +the probabilities are that their existence is due, as Sir Charles Lyell +supposes, to a succession of unequal movements of upheaval and +subsidence; that the Alpine region had been exposed for countless +ages to the action of rain and rivers, and that the larger valleys were +of pre-glacial times, is highly probable. In the eastern part of the +chain some of the Primary fossiliferous rocks, as well as Oolitic and +Cretaceous rocks, and even Tertiary deposits, are observable; but in +the central Alps these disappear, and more recent rocks, in some +places even Eocene strata, graduate into metamorphic rocks, in which +Oolitic, Cretaceous, and Eocene strata have been altered into granular +marble, gneiss, and other metamorphic schists; showing that eruptions +continued after the deposit of the Middle Eocene formations. +Again, in the Swiss and Savoy Alps, Oolitic and Cretaceous formations +have been elevated to the height of 12,000 feet, and Eocene strata +10,000 feet above the level of the sea; while in the Rothal, in the +Bernese Alps, occurs a mass of gneiss 1,000 feet thick between two +strata containing Oolitic fossils.</p> + +<p>Besides these proofs of recent upheaval, we can trace effects of two +different kinds, resulting from the powerful action of masses of water +violently displaced by this gigantic upheaval. At first broad tracks +have been hollowed out by the diluvial waves, which have, at these +points, formed deep valleys. Afterwards these valleys have been +filled up by materials derived from the mountain and transported into +the valley, these materials consisting of rounded pebbles, argillaceous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[428]</a></span> +and sandy mud, generally calcareous and ferriferous. This double +effect is exhibited, with more or less distinctness, in all the great +valleys of the centre and south of France. The valley of the +Garonne is, in respect to these phenomena, classic ground, as it +were.</p> + +<p>As we leave the little city of Muret, three successive levels will +be observed on the left bank of the Garonne. The lowest of the +three is that of the valley, properly so called; while the loftiest +corresponds to the plateau of Saint-Gaudens. These three levels +are distinctly marked in the Toulousean country, which illustrates +the diluvial phenomena in a remarkable fashion. The city of +Toulouse reposes upon a slight eminence of diluvial formation. The +flat diluvial plateau contrasts strongly with the rounded hills of +Gascony and Languedoc. They are essentially constituted of a bed +of gravel, formed of rounded or oval pebbles, and again covered +with sandy and earthy deposits. The pebbles are principally quartzose, +brown or black externally, mixed with portions of hard “Old Red” +and New Red Sandstone. The soft earth which accompanies the +pebbles and gravel is a mixture of argillaceous sand of a red or +yellow colour, caused by the oxide of iron which enters into its +composition. In the valley, properly so called, we find the pebbles +again associated with other minerals which are rare at the higher +levels. Some teeth of the Mammoth, and <i>Rhinoceros tichorhinus</i>, have +been found at several points on the borders of this valley.</p> + +<p>The small valleys, tributary to the principal valley, would appear +to have been excavated secondarily, partly out of diluvial deposits, +and their alluvium, essentially earthy, has been formed at the +expense of the Tertiary formation, and even of the diluvium itself. +Among other celebrated sites, the diluvial formation is largely +developed in Sicily. The ancient temple of the Parthenon at +Athens is built on an eminence formed of diluvial earth.</p> + +<p>In the valley of the Rhine, in Alsace, and in many isolated parts +of Europe, a particular sort of <i>diluvium</i> forms thick beds; it consists +of a yellowish-grey mud, composed of argillaceous matter mixed with +carbonate of lime, quartzose and micaceous sand, and oxide of iron. +This mud, termed by geologists <i>loess</i>, attains in some places considerable +thickness. It is recognisable in the neighbourhood of Paris. +It rises a little both on the right and left, above the base of the +mountains of the Black Forest and of the Vosges; and forms thick +beds on the banks of the Rhine.</p> + +<p>The fossils contained in diluvial deposits consist, generally, of +terrestrial, lacustrine, or fluviatile shells, for the most part belonging<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[429]</a></span> +to species still living. In parts of the valley of the Rhine, between +Bingen and Basle, the fluviatile loam or loess, now under +consideration, is seen forming hills several hundred feet thick, and +containing, here and there, throughout that thickness, land and fresh-water +shells; from which it seems necessary to suppose, according to +Lyell, first, a time when the loess was slowly accumulated, then a +later period, when large portions of it were removed—and followed +by movements of oscillation, consisting, first, of a general depression, +and then of a gradual re-elevation of the land.</p> + +<hr class="c05" /> + +<p>We have already noticed the caverns in which such extraordinary +accumulations of animal remains were discovered: it will not be out +of place to give here a résumé of the state of our knowledge concerning +<i>bone-caves</i> and <i>bone-breccias</i>.</p> + +<p>The <i>bone-caves</i> are not simply cavities hollowed out of the rock; +they generally consist of numerous chambers or caverns communicating +with each other by narrow passages (often of considerable +length) which can only be traversed by creeping. One in Mexico +extends several leagues. Perhaps the most remarkable in Europe is +that of Gailenreuth in Franconia. The Harz mountains contain +many fine caverns; among others, those of Scharrfeld and <i>Baumann’s +Hohl</i>, in which many bones of Hyæna, Bears, and Lions have been +found together. The <i>Kirkdale Cave</i>, so well known from the description +given of it by Dr. Buckland, lying about twenty-five miles north-north-east +of York, was the burial-place, as we have stated, of at +least 300 Hyænas belonging to individuals of different ages; besides +containing some other remains, mostly teeth (those of the Hyæna +excepted) belonging to ruminating animals. Buckland states that +the bones of all the other animals, those of the Hyænas not excepted, +were gnawed. He also noticed a partial polish and wearing away to +a considerable depth of one side of many of the best preserved +specimens of teeth and bones, which can only be accounted for +by referring the partial destruction to the continual treading of the +Hyænas, and the rubbing of their skin on the side that lay uppermost +at the bottom of the den.</p> + +<p>From these facts it would appear probable that the Cave at +Kirkdale was, “during a long succession of years, inhabited as a den +by Hyænas, and that they dragged into its recesses the other animal +bodies, whose remains are found mixed indiscriminately with their +own.”<a name="FNanchor_103" id="FNanchor_103"></a><a href="#Footnote_103" class="fnanchor">[103]</a> This conjecture is made almost certain by the discovery<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[430]</a></span> +made by Dr. Buckland of many coprolites of animals that had fed on +bones, as well as traces of the frequent passage of these animals to +or from the entrance of the cavern or den. A modern naturalist +visiting the Cavern of Adelsberg, in Carniola, traversed a series of +chambers extending over three leagues in the same direction, and +was only stopped in his subterranean discoveries by coming to a lake +which occupied its entire breadth.</p> + +<p>The interior walls of the bone-caves are, in general, rounded off, +and furrowed, presenting many traces of the erosive action of water, +characteristics which frequently escape observation because the walls +are covered with the calcareous deposit called <i>stalactite</i> or <i>stalagmite</i>—that +is, with carbonate of lime, resulting from the deposition left +by infiltrating water, through the overlying limestone, into the interior +of the cavern. The formation of the stalactite, with which many of +the bones were incrusted in the Cave of Gailenreuth, is thus described +by Liebig. The limestone over the cavern is covered with a rich +soil, in which the vegetable matter is continually decaying. This +mould, or humus, being acted on by moisture and air, evolves carbonic +acid, which is dissolved by rain. The rain-water thus impregnated, +permeating the porous limestone, dissolves a portion of it, and +afterwards, when the excess of carbonic acid evaporates in the +caverns, parts with the calcareous matter, and forms <i>stalactite</i>—the +stalactites being the pendent masses of carbonate of lime, which hang +in picturesque forms either in continuous sheets, giving the cave and +its sides the appearance of being hung with drapery, or like icicles +suspended from the roof of the cave, through which the water percolates; +while those formed on the surface of the floor form <i>stalagmite</i>. +These calcareous products ornament the walls of these gloomy caverns +in a most brilliant and picturesque manner.</p> + +<p>Under a covering of stalagmite, the floor of the cave frequently +presents deposits of mud and gravel. It is in excavating this +soil that the bones of antediluvian animals, mixed with shells, +fragments of rocks, and rolled pebbles, are discovered. The distribution +of these bones in the middle of the gravelly argillaceous mud +is as irregular as possible. The skeletons are rarely entire; the +bones do not even occur in their natural positions. The bones of +small Rodents are found accumulated in the crania of great Carnivora. +The teeth of Bears, Hyænas, and Rhinoceros are cemented with +the jaw-bones of Ruminants. The bones are very often polished +and rounded, as if they had been transported from great distances; +others are fissured; others, nevertheless, are scarcely altered. Their +state of preservation varies with their position in the cave.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[431]</a></span>The bones most frequently found in caves are those of the Carnivora +of the Quaternary epoch: the Bear, Hyæna, the Lion, and +Tiger. The animals of the plain, and notably the great Pachyderms—the +Mammoth and Rhinoceros—are only very rarely met with, and +always in small numbers. From the cavern of Gailenreuth more than +a thousand skeletons have been taken, of which 800 belonged to the +large <i>Ursus spelæus</i>, and sixty to the smaller species, with 200 +Hyænas, Wolves, Lions, and Gluttons. A jaw of the Glutton has +lately been found by Mr. T. McK. Hughes in a cave in the Mountain +Limestone at Plas Heaton, associated with Wolf, Bison, Reindeer, +Horse, and Cave Bear; proving that the Glutton, which at the +present day inhabits Siberia and the inclement northern regions of +Europe, inhabited Great Britain during the Pleistocene or Quaternary +Period. In the Kirkdale cave the remains, as we have seen, +included those of not less than 300 Hyænas of all ages. Dr. Buckland +concludes, from these circumstances, that the Hyænas alone +made this their den, and that the bones of other animals accumulated +there had been carried thither by them as their prey; it is, however, +now admitted that this part of the English geologist’s conclusions do +not apply to the contents of all bone-caves. In some instances the +bones of the Mammals are broken and worn as with a long transport, +<i>rolled</i>, according to the technical geological expression, and finally +cemented in the same mud, together with fragments of the rocks +of the neighbourhood. Besides bones of Hyænas, are found not +only the bones of inoffensive herbivora, but remains of Lions and +Bears.</p> + +<p>We ought to note, in order to make this explanation complete, +that some geologists consider that these caves served as a refuge for +sick and wounded animals. It is certain that we see, in our own +days, some animals, when attacked by sickness, seek refuge in the +fissures of rocks, or in the hollows of trunks of trees, where they +die; to this natural impulse it may, probably, be ascribed that the +skeletons of animals are so rarely found in forests or plains. We may +conclude, then, that besides the more general mode in which these +caverns were filled with bones, the two other causes which we have +enumerated may have been in operation; that is to say, they were +the habitual sojourn of carnivorous and destructive animals, and they +became the retreat of sick animals on some particular occasions.</p> + +<p>What was the origin of these caves? How have these immense +excavations been produced? Nearly all these caves occur in limestone +rocks, particularly in the Jurassic and Carboniferous formations, +which present many vast subterranean caverns. At the same<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[432]</a></span> +time some fine caves exist in the Silurian formation, such as the <i>Grotto +des Demoiselles</i> (<a href="#Fig_194">Fig. 194</a>) near Ganges, of Hérault. It should be +added, in order to complete the explanation of the cave formations, +that the greater part of these vast internal excavations have been +chiefly caused by subterranean watercourses, which have eroded +and washed away a portion of the walls, and in this manner greatly +enlarged their original dimensions.</p> + +<p>But there are other modes than the above of accounting, in a more +satisfactory manner, for the existence of these caves. According to Sir +Charles Lyell, there was a time when (as now) limestone rocks were dissolved, +and when the carbonate of lime was carried away gradually +by springs from the interior of the earth; that another era occurred, when +engulfed rivers or occasional floods swept organic and inorganic débris +into the subterranean hollows previously formed; finally, there were +changes, in which engulfed rivers were turned into new channels, and +springs dried up, after which the cave-mud, breccia, gravel, and fossil +bones were left in the position in which they are now discovered. “We +know,” says that eminent geologist,<a name="FNanchor_104" id="FNanchor_104"></a><a href="#Footnote_104" class="fnanchor">[104]</a> “that in every limestone district +the rain-water is <i>soft</i>, or free from earthy ingredients, when it +falls upon the soil, and when it enters the rocks below; whereas it is +<i>hard</i>, or charged with carbonate of lime, when it issues again to the +surface in springs. The rain derives some of its carbonic acid from +the air, but more from the decay of vegetable matter in the soil +through which it percolates; and by the excess of this acid, limestone +is dissolved, and the water becomes charged with carbonate of lime. +The mass of solid matter silently and unceasingly subtracted in this +way from the rocks in every century is considerable, and must in the +course of thousands of years be so vast, that the space it once occupied +may well be expressed by a long suite of caverns.”</p> + +<p>The most celebrated of these bone-caves are those of Gailenreuth, +in Franconia; of Nabenstein, and of Brumberg, in the same country; +the caves on the banks of the Meuse, near Liège, of which the late +Dr. Schmerling examined forty; of Yorkshire, Devonshire, Somersetshire, +and Derbyshire, in England; also several in Sicily, at Palermo, +and Syracuse; in France at Hérault, in the Cévennes, and Franche +Comté; and in the New World, in Kentucky and Virginia.</p> + +<p>The <i>ossiferous breccia</i> differs from the bone-caves only in form. +The most remarkable of them are seen at Cette, Antibes, and Nice, +on the shores of Italy; and in the isles of Corsica, Malta, and Sardinia.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_194" id="Fig_194"></a> +<img src="images/illo444.png" alt="Fig. 194" width="450" height="505" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 194.—Grotto des Demoiselles, Hérault.</p></div> + +<p>Nearly the same bones are found in the <i>breccia</i> which we find in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[433]</a></span> +the caves; the chief difference being that fossils of the Ruminants are +there in greater abundance. The proportions of bones to the fragments +of stone and cement vary considerably in different localities. +In the <i>breccia</i> of Cagliari, where the remains of Ruminants are less +abundant than at Gibraltar and Nice, the bones, which are those of +the small Rodents, are, so to speak, more abundant than the mud in +which they are embedded. We find, there, also, three or four species +of Birds which belong to Thrushes and Larks. In the <i>breccia</i> at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[434]</a></span> +Nice the remains of some great Carnivora are found, among which +are recognised two species of Lion and Panther. In the Grotto di +San-Ciro, in the Monte Griffone, about six miles from Palermo, in +Sicily, Dr. Falconer collected remains of two species of Hippopotamus +and bones of <i>Elephas antiquus</i>, Bos, Stag, Pig, Bear, +Dog, and a large <i>Felis</i>, some of which indicated a Pliocene age. +Like many others, this cave contains a thick mass of bone-breccia on +its floor, the bones of which have long been known, and were formerly +supposed to be those of giants; while Prof. Ferrara suggested +that the Elephants’ bones were due to the Carthaginian elephants +imported into Sicily for purposes of sport.<a name="FNanchor_105" id="FNanchor_105"></a><a href="#Footnote_105" class="fnanchor">[105]</a></p> + +<p>But the <i>breccia</i> is not confined to Europe. We meet with it in all +parts of the globe; and recent discoveries in Australia indicate a formation +corresponding exactly to the <i>ossiferous breccia</i> of the Mediterranean, +in which an ochreous-reddish cement binds together fragments +of rocks and bones, among which we find four species of Kangaroos.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="Fig_195" id="Fig_195"></a> +<img src="images/illo445.png" alt="Fig. 195" width="500" height="206" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 195.—Beloptera Sepioidea.</p></div> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[435]</a></p> + +<h3>GLACIAL PERIOD.</h3> + +<p>The two cataclysms, of which we have spoken, surprised Europe at +the moment of the development of an important creation. The +whole scope of animated Nature, the evolution of animals, was +suddenly arrested in that part of our hemisphere over which these +gigantic convulsions spread, followed by the brief but sudden submersion +of entire continents. Organic life had scarcely recovered +from the violent shock, when a second, and perhaps severer blow +assailed it. The northern and central parts of Europe, the vast +countries which extend from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean and +the Danube, were visited by a period of sudden and severe cold: +the temperature of the polar regions seized them. The plains of +Europe, but now ornamented by the luxurious vegetation developed +by the heat of a burning climate, the boundless pastures on which +herds of great Elephants, the active Horse, the robust Hippopotamus, +and great Carnivorous animals grazed and roamed, became covered +with a mantle of ice and snow.</p> + +<p>To what cause are we to attribute a phenomenon so unforeseen, +and exercising itself with such intensity? In the present state of +our knowledge no certain explanation of the event can be given. +Did the central planet, the sun, which was long supposed to distribute +light and heat to the earth, lose during this period its calorific +powers? This explanation is insufficient, since at this period the +solar heat is not supposed to have greatly influenced the earth’s +temperature. Were the marine currents, such as the <i>Gulf Stream</i>, +which carries the Atlantic Ocean towards the north and west of +Europe, warming and raising its temperature, suddenly turned in the +contrary direction? No such hypothesis is sufficient to explain +either the cataclysms or the glacial phenomena; and we need not +hesitate to confess our ignorance of this strange, this mysterious, +episode in the history of the globe.</p> + +<p>There have been attempts, and very ingenious ones too, to explain +these phenomena, of which we shall give a brief summary,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[436]</a></span> +without committing ourselves to any further opinion, using for that +purpose the information contained in M. Ch. Martins’ excellent +work. “The most violent convulsions of the solid and liquid elements,” +says this able writer, “appear to have been themselves only +the effects due to a cause much more powerful than the mere expansion +of the pyrosphere; and it is necessary to recur, in order to +explain them, to some new and bolder hypothesis than has yet been +hazarded. Some philosophers have belief in an astronomical revolution +which may have overtaken our globe in the first age of its +formation, and have modified its position in relation to the sun. +They admit that the poles have not always been as they are now, and +that some terrible shock displaced them, changing at the same time +the inclination of the axis of the rotation of the earth.” This hypothesis, +which is nearly the same as that propounded by the Danish +geologist, Klee, has been ably developed by M. de Boucheporn. +According to this writer, many multiplied shocks, caused by the +violent contact of the earth with comets, produced the elevation of +mountains, the displacement of seas, and perturbations of climate—phenomena +which he ascribes to the sudden disturbance of the +parallelism of the axis of rotation. The antediluvian equator, +according to him, makes a right angle with the existing equator.</p> + +<p>“Quite recently,” adds M. Martins, “a learned French mathematician, +M. J. Adhémar, has taken up the same idea; but, dismissing +the more problematical elements of the concussion with comets as +untenable, he seeks to explain the deluges by the laws of gravitation +and celestial mechanics, and his theory has been supported by very +competent writers. It is this: We know that our planet is influenced +by two essential movements—one of rotation on its axis, +which it accomplishes in twenty-four hours; the other of translation, +which it accomplishes in a little more than 365<sup>1</sup>⁄<sub>4</sub> days. But besides +these great and perceptible movements, the earth has a third, and +even a fourth movement, with one of which we need not occupy +ourselves; it is that designated <i>nutation</i> by astronomers. It changes +periodically, but within very restricted limits, the inclination of the +terrestrial axis to the plane of the ecliptic by a slight oscillation, the +duration of which is only eighteen hours, and its influence upon the +relative length of day and night almost inappreciable. The other +movement is that on which M. Adhémar’s theory is founded.</p> + +<p>“We know that the curve described by the earth in its annual +revolution round the sun is not a circle, but an ellipse; that is, a +slightly elongated circle, sometimes called a circle of two centres, one +of which is occupied by the sun. This curve is called the ecliptic.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[437]</a></span> +We know, also, that, in its movement of translation, the earth +preserves such a position that its axis of rotation is intercepted, at its +centre, by the plane of the ecliptic. But in place of being perpendicular, +or at right angles with this plane, it crosses it obliquely in +such a manner as to form on one side an angle of one-fourth, and on +the other an angle of three-fourths of a right angle. This inclination +is only altered in an insignificant degree by the movement of <i>nutation</i>. +I need scarcely add that the earth, in its annual revolution, +occupies periodically four principal positions on the ecliptic, which +mark the limits of the four seasons. When its centre is at the +extremity most remote from the sun, or <i>aphelion</i>, it is the summer +solstice for the northern hemisphere. When its centre is at the +other extremity, or <i>perihelion</i>, the same hemisphere is at the winter +solstice. The two intermediate points mark the equinoxes of spring +and autumn. The great circle of separation of light and shade +passes, then, precisely through the poles, the day and night are equal, +and the line of intersection of the plane of the equator and +that of the ecliptic make part of the vector ray from the centre +of the sun to the centre of the earth—what we call the <i>equinoctial +line</i>.</p> + +<p>“Thus placed, it is evident that if the terrestrial axis remained +always parallel to itself, the equinoctial line would always pass +through the same point on the surface of the globe. But it is not +absolutely thus. The parallelism of the axis of the earth is changed +slowly, very slowly, by a movement which Arago ingeniously +compares to the varying inclination of a top when about to cease +spinning. This movement has the effect of making the equinoctial +points on the surface of the earth retrograde towards the east from +year to year, in such a manner that at the end of 25,800 years +according to some astronomers, but 21,000 years according to +Adhémar, the equinoctial point has literally made a circuit of the +globe, and has returned to the same position which it occupied at the +beginning of this immense period, which has been called the ‘<i>great +year</i>.’ It is this retrograde evolution, in which the terrestrial axis +describes round its own centre that revolution round a double conic +surface, which is known as the <i>precession of the equinoxes</i>. It was +observed 2,000 years ago by Hipparchus; its cause was discovered +by Newton; and its complete evolution explained by D’Alembert +and Laplace.</p> + +<p>“Now, we know that the consequence of the inclination of the +terrestrial axis with the plane of the ecliptic is—</p> + +<p>“1. That the seasons are inverse to the two hemispheres—that is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">[438]</a></span> +to say, the northern hemisphere enjoys its spring and summer, while +the southern hemisphere passes through autumn and winter.</p> + +<p>“2. When the earth approaches nearest to the sun, our hemisphere +has its autumn and winter; and the regions near the pole, receiving +none of the solar rays, are plunged into darkness, approaching that of +night, during six months of the year.</p> + +<p>“3. When the earth is most distant from the sun, when much the +greater half of the ecliptic intervenes between it and the focus of light +and heat, the pole, being then turned towards this focus, constantly +receives its rays, and the rest of the northern hemisphere enjoys its +long days of spring and summer.</p> + +<p>“Bearing in mind that, in going from the equinox of spring to the +autumnal equinox of our hemisphere, the earth traverses a much +longer curve than it does on its return; bearing in mind, also, the +accelerated movement it experiences in its approach to the sun from +the attraction, which increases in inverse proportion to the square of +its distance, we arrive at the conclusion that our summer should be +longer and our winter shorter than the summer and winter of our +antipodes; and this is <i>actually</i> the case by about eight days.</p> + +<p>“I say <i>actually</i>, because, if we now look at the effects of the precession +of the equinoxes, we shall see that in a time equal to half of +the <i>grand year</i>, whether it be 12,900 or 10,500 years, the conditions +will be reversed; the terrestrial axis, and consequently the poles, +will have accomplished the half of their bi-conical revolution round +the centre of the earth. It will then be the northern hemisphere +which will have the summers shorter and the winters longer, and the +southern hemisphere exactly the reverse. In the year 1248 before +the Christian era, according to M. Adhémar, the north pole attained +its maximum summer duration. Since then—that is to say for the last +3,112 years—it has begun to decrease, and this will continue to the +year 7388 of our era before it attains its maximum winter duration.</p> + +<p>“But the reader may ask, fatigued perhaps by these abstract +considerations, What is there here in common with the deluges?</p> + +<p>“The <i>grand year</i> is here divided, for each hemisphere, into two +great seasons, which De Jouvencel calls the great summer and +winter, which will each, according to M. Adhémar, be 10,500 +years.</p> + +<p>“During the whole of this period one of the poles has constantly +had shorter winters and longer summers than the other. It follows +that the pole which experiences the long winter undergoes a gradual +and continuous cooling, in consequence of which the quantities of ice +and snow, which melt during the summer, are more than compensated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[439]</a></span> +by those which are again produced in the winter. The ice and +snow go on accumulating from year to year, and finish at the end of +the period by forming, at the coldest pole, a sort of crust or cap, vast, +thick, and heavy enough to modify the spheroidal form of the earth. +This modification, as a necessary consequence, produces a notable +displacement of the centre of gravity, or—for it amounts to the same +thing—of the centre of attraction, round which all the watery masses +tend to restore it. The south pole, as we have seen, finished its <i>great +winter</i> in 1248 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span> The accumulated ice then added itself to the +snow, and the snow to the ice, at the south pole, towards which the +watery masses all tended until they covered nearly the whole of the +southern hemisphere. But since that date of 1248, our <i>great winter</i> +has been in progress. Our pole, in its turn, goes on getting cooler +continually; ice is being heaped upon snow, and snow upon ice, and +in 7,388 years the centre of gravity of the earth will return to its +normal position, which is the geometrical centre of the spheroid. +Following the immutable laws of central attraction, the southern +waters accruing from the melted ice and snow of the south pole will +return to invade and overwhelm once more the continents of the +northern hemisphere, giving rise to new continents, in all probability, +in the southern hemisphere.”</p> + +<p>Such is a brief statement of the hypothesis which Adhémar has +very ingeniously worked out. How far it explains the mysterious +phenomena which we have under consideration we shall not attempt +to say, our concern being with the effects. Does the evidence of +upward and downward movements of the surface in Tertiary times +explain the great change? For if the cooling which preceded and +succeeded the two European deluges still remains an unsolved +problem, its effects are perfectly appreciable. The intense cold +which visited the northern and central parts of Europe resulted in +the annihilation of organic life in those countries. All the watercourses, +the rivers and streams, the seas and lakes, were frozen. As +Agassiz says in his first work on “Glaciers”: “A vast mantle of ice +and snow covered the plains, the valleys, and the seas. All the +springs were dried up; the rivers ceased to flow. To the movements +of a numerous and animated creation succeeded the silence of death.” +Great numbers of animals perished from cold. The Elephant and +Rhinoceros perished by thousands in the midst of their grazing +grounds, which became transformed into fields of ice and snow. +It is then that these two species disappeared, and seem to have +been effaced from creation. Other animals were overwhelmed, +without their race having been always entirely annihilated. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[440]</a></span> +sun, which lately lighted up the verdant plains, as it dawned upon +these frozen steppes, was only saluted by the whistling of the north +winds, and the horrible rending of the crevasses, which opened up on +all sides under the heat of its rays, acting upon the immense glacier +which formed the sepulchre of many animated beings.</p> + +<p>How can we accept the idea that the plains, but yesterday smiling +and fertile, were formerly covered, and that for a very long period, +with an immense sheet of ice and snow? To satisfy the reader that +the proof of this can be established on sufficient evidence, it is necessary +to direct his attention to certain parts of Europe. It is essential +to visit, at least in idea, a country where <i>glacial phenomena</i> still exist, +and to prove that the phenomena, now confined to those countries, +were spread, during geological times, over spaces infinitely vaster. +We shall choose for our illustration, and as an example, the glaciers +of the Alps. We shall show that the glaciers of Switzerland and +Savoy have not always been restricted to their present limits; that +they are, so to speak, only miniature resemblances of the gigantic +glaciers of times past; and that they formerly extended over all the +great plains which extend from the foot of the chain of the Alps.</p> + +<p>To establish these proofs we must enter upon some consideration +of existing glaciers, upon their mode of formation, and their peculiar +phenomena.</p> + +<p>The snow which, during the whole year, falls upon the mountains, +does not melt, but maintains its solid state, when the elevation +exceeds the height of 9,000 feet or thereabouts. Where the snow +accumulates to a great thickness, in the valleys, or in the deep +fissures in the ground, it hardens under the influence of the pressure +resulting from the incumbent weight. But it always happens that a +certain quantity of water, resulting from the momentary thawing of +the superficial portions, traverses its substance, and this forms a +crystalline mass of ice, with a granular structure, which the Swiss +naturalists designate <i>névé</i>. From the successive melting and freezing +caused by the heat by day and the cold by night, and the infiltration +of air and water into its interstices, the <i>névé</i> is slowly transformed into +a homogeneous azure mass of ice, full of an infinite number of little +air-bubbles—this was what was formerly called <i>glace bulleuse</i> (bubble-ice). +Finally, these masses, becoming completely frozen, water +replaces the bubbles of air. Then the transformation is complete; +the ice is homogeneous, and presents those beautiful azure tints so +much admired by the tourist who traverses the magnificent glaciers of +Switzerland and Savoy.</p> + +<p>Such is the origin of, and such is the mode in which the glaciers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[441]</a></span> +of the Alps are formed. An important property of glaciers remains to +be pointed out. They have a general movement of translation in the +direction of their slope, under the influence of which they make a +certain yearly progress downward, according to the angle of the slope. +The glacier of the Aar, for example, advances at the rate of about +250 feet each year.</p> + +<p>Under the joint influence of the slope, the weight of the frozen +mass, and the melting of the parts which touch the earth, the glacier +thus always tends downwards; but from the effects of a more genial +temperature, the lower extremity melting rapidly, has a tendency to +recede. It is the difference between these two actions which constitutes +the real progressive movement of the glacier.</p> + +<p>The friction exercised by the glacier upon the bottom and sides +of the valley, ought necessarily to leave its traces on the rocks with +which it may happen to be in contact. Over all the places where a +glacier has passed, in fact, we remark that the rocks are polished, +levelled, rounded, and, as it is termed, <i>moutonnées</i>. These rocks +present, besides, striations or scratches, running in the direction of +the motion of the glacier, which have been produced by hard and +angular fragments of stones imbedded in the ice, and which leave +their marks on the hardest rocks under the irresistible pressure of the +heavy-descending mass of ice. In a work of great merit, which we +have before quoted, M. Charles Martins explains the physical +mechanism by which granite rocks borne onwards in the progressive +movements of a glacier, have scratched, scored, and rounded the softer +rocks which the glacier has encountered in its descent. “The friction,” +says M. Martins, “which the glacier exercises upon the bottom and upon +the walls, is too considerable not to leave its traces upon the rocks with +which it may be in contact; but its action varies according to the +mineralogical nature of the rocks, and the configuration of the ground +they cover. If we penetrate between the soil and the bottom of the +glacier, taking advantage of the ice-caverns which sometimes open at +its edge or extremity, we creep over a bed of pebbles and fine sand +saturated with water. If we remove this bed, we soon perceive that +the underlying rock is levelled, polished, ground down by friction, +and covered with rectilinear striæ, resembling sometimes small +grooves, more frequently perfectly straight scratches, as though they +had been produced by means of a graver, or even a very fine needle. +The mechanism by which these striæ have been produced is that +which industry employs to polish stones and metals. We rub the +metallic surface with a fine powder called <i>emery</i>, until we give it a +brilliancy which proceeds from the reflection of the light from an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">[442]</a></span> +infinity of minute striæ. The bed of pebbles and mud, interposed +between the glacier and the subjacent rock, here represents the emery. +The rock is the metallic surface, and the mass of the glacier which +presses on and displaces the mud in its descent towards the plain, +represents the hand of the polisher. These striæ always follow the +direction of the glacier; but as it is sometimes subject to small lateral +deviations, the striæ sometimes cross, forming very small angles with +one another. If we examine the rocks by the side of a glacier, we +find similar striæ engraved on them where they have been in contact +with the frozen mass. I have often broken the ice where it thus +pressed upon the rock, and have found under it polished surfaces, +covered with striations. The pebbles and grains of sand which had +engraved them were still encased in the ice, fixed like the diamond +of the glazier at the end of the instrument with which he marks his +glass.</p> + +<p>“The sharpness and depth of the striæ or scratches depend on +many circumstances: if the rock acted upon is calcareous, and the +emery is represented by pebbles and sand derived from harder +rocks, such as gneiss, granite, or protogine, the scratches are very +marked. This we can verify at the foot of the glaciers of Rosenlaui, +and of the Grindenwald in the Canton of Berne. On the contrary, +if the rock is gneissic, granitic, or serpentinous, that is to say, very +hard, the scratches will be less deep and less marked, as may be seen +in the glaciers of the Aar, of Zermatt, and Chamounix. The polish +will be the same in both cases, and it is often as perfect as in marble +polished for architectural purposes.</p> + +<p>“The scratches engraved upon the rocks which confine these +glaciers are generally horizontal or parallel to the surface. Sometimes, +owing to the contractions of the valley, these striæ are nearly +vertical. This, however, need not surprise us. Forced onwards by +the superincumbent weight, the glacier squeezes itself through the +narrow part, its bulk expanding upwards, in which case the flanks of +the mountain which barred its passage are marked vertically. This +is admirably seen near the Châlets of Stieregg, a narrow defile which +the lower glacier of the Grindenwald has to clear before it discharges +itself into the valley of the same name. Upon the right +bank of the glacier the scratches are inclined at an angle of 45° to +the horizon. Upon the left bank the glacier rises sometimes quite +up to the neighbouring forest, carrying with it great clods of earth +charged with rhododendrons and clumps of alder, birches, and firs. +The more tender or foliated rocks were broken up and demolished +by the prodigious force of the glacier; the harder rocks offered more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443">[443]</a></span> +resistance, but their surface is planed down, polished, and striated, +testifying to the enormous pressure which they had to undergo. In +the same manner the glacier of the Aar, at the foot of the promontory +on which M. Agassiz’ tent was erected, is polished to a great height, +and on the face, turned towards the upper part of the valley, I have +observed scratches inclined 64°. The ice, erect against this escarpment, +seemed to wish to scale it, but the granite rock held fast, and +the glacier was compelled to pass round it slowly.</p> + +<p>“In recapitulation, the considerable pressure of a glacier, joined +to its movement of progression, acts at once upon the bottom and +flanks of the valley which it traverses: it polishes all the rocks +which may be too hard to be demolished by it, and frequently impresses +upon them a peculiar and characteristic form. In destroying +all the asperities and inequalities of these rocks, it levels their surfaces +and rounds them on the sides pointing up the stream, whilst in +the opposite direction, or down the stream, they sometimes preserve +their abrupt, unequal, and rugged surface. We must comprehend, +in short, that the force of the glacier acts principally on the side +which is towards the circle whence it descends, in the same way +that the piles of a bridge are more damaged up-stream, than down, by +the icebergs which the river brings down during the winter. Seen +from a distance, a group of rocks thus rounded and polished +reminds us of the appearance of a flock of sheep: hence the name +<i>roches moutonnées</i> given them by the Swiss naturalists.”</p> + +<p>Another phenomenon which plays an important part in existing +glaciers, and in those, also, which formerly covered Switzerland, is +found in the fragments of rock, often of enormous size, which have +been transported and deposited during their movement of progression.</p> + +<p>The peaks of the Alps are exposed to continual degradations. +Formed of granitic rocks—rocks eminently alterable under the action +of air and water, they become disintegrated and often fall in fragments +more or less voluminous. “The masses of snow,” continues +Martins, “which hang upon the Alps during winter, the rain which +infiltrates between their beds during summer, the sudden action of +torrents of water, and more slowly, but yet more powerfully, the +chemical affinities, degrade, disintegrate, and decompose the hardest +rocks. The débris thus produced falls from the summits into the +circles occupied by the glaciers with a great crash, accompanied by +frightful noises and great clouds of dust. Even in the middle of +summer I have seen these avalanches of stone precipitated from the +highest ridges of the Schreckhorn, forming upon the immaculate snow +a long black train, consisting of enormous blocks and an immense<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_444" id="Page_444">[444]</a></span> +number of smaller fragments. In the spring a rapid thawing of the +winter snows often causes accidental torrents of extreme violence. +If the melting is slow, water insinuates itself into the smallest fissures +of the rocks, freezes there, and rends asunder the most refractory +masses. The blocks detached from the mountains are sometimes of +gigantic dimensions: we have found them sixty feet in length, and +those measuring thirty feet each way are by no means rare in the +Alps.”<a name="FNanchor_106" id="FNanchor_106"></a><a href="#Footnote_106" class="fnanchor">[106]</a></p> + +<p>Thus, the action of aqueous infiltrations followed by frost, the +chemical decomposition which granite undergoes under the influence +of a moist atmosphere, degrade and disintegrate the rocks which +constitute the mountains enclosing the glacier. Blocks, sometimes +of very considerable dimensions, often fall at the foot of these mountains +on to the surface of the glacier. Were it immovable the débris +would accumulate at its base, and would form there a mass of ruins +heaped up without order. But the slow progression, the continuous +displacement of the glacier, lead, in the distribution of these blocks, +to a certain kind of arrangement: the blocks falling upon its surface +participate in its movement, and advance with it. But other downfalls +take place daily, and the new débris following the first, the whole +form a line along the outer edge of the glacier. These regular trains +of rocks bear the name of “<i>moraines</i>.” When the rocks fall from two +mountains, and on each edge of the glacier, and two parallel lines of +débris are formed, they are called <i>lateral moraines</i>. There are also +<i>median moraines</i>, which are formed when two glaciers are confluent, +in such a manner that the <i>lateral moraine</i>, on the right of the one, +trends towards the left-hand one of the other. Finally, those moraines +are <i>frontal</i>, or <i>terminal</i>, which repose, not upon the glacier, but at its +point of termination in the valleys, and which are due to the accumulation +of blocks fallen from the terminal escarpments of glaciers there +arrested by some obstacle. In <span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_XXXI">Plate XXXI.</a></span> we have represented an +actual Swiss glacier, in which are united the physical and geological +peculiarities belonging to these enormous masses of frozen water: +the moraines here are <i>lateral</i>, that is to say, formed of a double line +of débris.</p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_445" id="Page_445">[445]</a></p> +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_446" id="Page_446"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Plate_XXXI" id="Plate_XXXI"></a> +<img src="images/illo456.png" alt="Plate XXXI" width="600" height="382" /> +<p class="caption">XXXI.—Glaciers of Switzerland.</p></div> + +<p>Transported slowly on the surface of the glacier, all the blocks +from the mountain preserve their original forms unaltered; the sharpness +of their edges is never altered by their gentle transport and +almost imperceptible motion. Atmospheric agency only can affect +or destroy these rocks when formed of hard resisting material. They<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_447" id="Page_447">[447]</a></span> +then remain nearly of the same form and volume they had when they +fell on the surface of the glacier; but it is otherwise with blocks and +fragments enclosed between the rock and the glacier, whether it be +at the bottom or between the glacier and its lateral walls. Some of +these, under the powerful and continuous action of this gigantic +grinding process, will be reduced to an impalpable mud, others are +worn into facets, while others are rounded, presenting a multitude of +scratches crossing each other in all directions. These scratched +pebbles are of great importance in studying the extent of ancient +glaciers; they testify, on the spot, to the existence of pre-existing +glaciers which shaped, ground, and striated the pebbles, which water +does not; on the contrary, in the latter, they become polished and +rounded, and even natural striations are effaced.</p> + +<p>Thus, huge blocks transported to great distances from their true +geological beds, that is, <i>erratic blocks</i>, to use the proper technical +term, rounded (<i>moutonnées</i>), polished, and scratched surfaces, <i>moraines</i>; +finally, pebbles, ground, polished, rounded, or worn into smooth +surfaces, are all physical effects of glaciers in motion, and their +presence alone affords sufficient proof to the naturalist that a glacier +formerly existed in the locality where he finds them. The reader +will now comprehend how it is possible to recognise, in our days, the +existence of ancient glaciers in different parts of the world. Above +all, wherever we may find both <i>erratic blocks</i> and <i>moraines</i>, and +observe, at the same time, indications of rocks having been polished +and striated in the same direction, we may pronounce with certainty +as to the existence of a glacier during geological times. Let us take +some instances.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_196" id="Fig_196"></a> +<img src="images/illo459.png" alt="Fig. 196" width="450" height="408" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 196.—Erratic Blocks in the Alps.</p></div> + +<p>At Pravolta, in the Alps, going towards <i>Monte Santo-Primo</i>, +upon a calcareous rock, we find the mass of granite represented in +<a href="#Fig_196">Fig. 196</a>. This erratic block exists, with thousands of others, on the +slopes of the mountain. It is about fifty feet long, nearly forty feet +broad, and five-and-twenty in height; and all its edges and angles +are perfect. Some parallel striæ occur along the neighbouring rocks. +All this clearly demonstrates that a glacier existed, in former times, +in this part of the Alps, where none appear at the present time. It +is a glacier, then, which has transported and deposited here this +enormous block, weighing nearly 2,000 tons.</p> + +<p>In the Jura Mountains, on the hill of Fourvières, a limestone +eminence at Lyons, blocks of granite are found, evidently derived +from the Alps, and transported there by the Swiss glaciers. The +particular mode of transport is represented theoretically in <a href="#Fig_197">Fig. 197</a>. +A represents, for example, the summit of the Alps, B the Jura<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_448" id="Page_448">[448]</a></span> +Mountains, or the hill of Fourvières, at Lyons. At the glacial period, +the glacier A B C extended from the Alps to the mountain B. The +granitic débris, which was detached from the summit of the Alpine +mountains, fell on the surface of the glacier. The movement of +progression of this glacier transported these blocks as far as the +summit B. At a later period the temperature of the globe was raised, +and when the ice had melted, the blocks, D E, were quietly deposited +on the spots where they are now found, without having sustained +the slightest shock or injury in this singular mode of transport.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Fig_197" id="Fig_197"></a> +<img src="images/illo460.png" alt="Fig. 197" width="600" height="244" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 197.—Transported blocks.</p></div> + +<p>Every day traces, more or less recognisable, are found on the Alps<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_449" id="Page_449">[449]</a></span> +of ancient glaciers far distant from their existing limits. Heaps of +débris, of all sizes, comprehending blocks with sharp-pointed angles, +are found in the Swiss plains and valleys. <i>Blocs perchés</i> (Perched +blocks), as in <span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_XXXI">Pl. XXXI.</a></span>, are often seen perched upon points of the +Alps situated far above existing glaciers, or dispersed over the plain +which separates the Alps from the Jura, or even preserving an incredible +equilibrium, when their great mass is taken into consideration, +at considerable heights on the eastern flank of this chain of +mountains. It is by the aid of these indications that the geologist +has been able to trace to extremely remote distances signs of the +former existence of the ancient glaciers of the Alps, to follow them in +their course, and fix their point of origin, and where they terminated. +Thus the humble Mount Sion, a gently-swelling hill situated to the +north of Geneva, was the point at which three great ancient +glaciers had their confluence—the glacier of the Rhône, which filled +all the basin of Lake Leman, or Lake of Geneva; that of the Isère, +which issued from the Annecy and Bourget Lakes; and that of the +Arve, which had its source in the valley of Chamounix, all converged +at this point. According to M. G. de Mortillet, who has carefully +studied this geological question, the extent and situation of these +ancient glaciers of the Alps were as follows:—Upon its northern +flank the <i>glacier of the Rhine</i> occupied all the basin of Lake Constance, +and extended to the borders of Germany; that of the <i>Linth</i>, which +was arrested at the extremity of the Lake of Zurich—this city is built +upon its terminal moraine—that of the <i>Reus</i>, which covered the lake +of the four cantons with blocks torn from the peaks of Saint-Gothard;—that +of the <i>Aar</i>, the last moraines of which crown the hills in the +environs of Berne;—those of the <i>Arve</i> and the <i>Isère</i>, which, as we +have said, debouched from Lake Annecy and Lake Bourget respectively;—that +of the <i>Rhône</i>, the most important of all. It is this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_450" id="Page_450">[450]</a></span> +glacier which has deposited upon the flanks of the Jura, at the height +of 3,400 feet above the level of the sea, the great <i>erratic blocks</i> already +described. This mighty glacier of the Rhône had its origin in all the +lateral valleys formed by the two parallel chains of the Valais. It +filled all the Valais, and extended into the plain, lying between the +Alps and the Jura, from Fort de L’Écluse, near the fall of the Rhône, +up to the neighbourhood of Aarau.</p> + +<p>The fragments of rocks transported by the ice-sea which occupied +all the Swiss plain follow, in northerly direction, the course of the +valley of the Rhine. On the other hand, the glacier of the Rhône, +after reaching the plain of Switzerland, turned off obliquely towards +the south, received the glacier of the Arve, then that of the Isère, +passed between the Jura and the mountains of the Grande-Chartreuse, +spread over La Bresse, then nearly all Dauphiny, and terminated in +the neighbourhood of Lyons.</p> + +<p>Upon the southern flank of the Alps, the ancient glaciers, according +to M. de Mortillet’s map, occupied all the great valleys from +that of the Dora, on the west, to that of the Tagliamento, on the +east. “The glacier of the <i>Dora</i>” says de Mortillet, whose text we +greatly abridge, “debouched into the valley of the Po, close to Turin. +That of the <i>Dora-Baltéa</i> entered the plain of Ivréa, where it has left +a magnificent semicircle of hills, which formed its terminal moraine. +That of the <i>Toce</i> discharged itself into Lake Maggiore, against the +glacier of the Tessin, and then threw itself into the valley of Lake +Orta, at the southern extremity of which its terminal moraines were +situated. That of the Tessin filled the basin of Lake Maggiore, and +established itself between Lugano and Varèse. That of the <i>Adda</i> +filled the basin of Lake Como, and established itself between Mendrizio +and Lecco, thus describing a vast semicircle. That of the +<i>Oglio</i> terminated a little beyond Lake Iseo. That of the <i>Adige</i>, +finding no passage through the narrow valley of Roveredo, where +the valley became very narrow, took another course, and filled the +immense valley of the Lake of Garda. At Novi it has left a magnificent +moraine, of which Dante speaks in his ‘Inferno.’ That of +the <i>Brenta</i> extended over the plain of that commune. The <i>Drave</i> +and the <i>Tagliamento</i> had also their glaciers. Finally, glaciers occupied +all the valleys of the Austrian and Bavarian Alps.”<a name="FNanchor_107" id="FNanchor_107"></a><a href="#Footnote_107" class="fnanchor">[107]</a></p> + +<p>Similar traces of the existence of ancient glaciers occur in many +other European countries. In the Pyrenees, in Corsica, the Vosges, +the Jura, &c., extensive ranges of country have been covered, in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_451" id="Page_451">[451]</a></span> +geological times, by these vast plains of ice. The glacier of the +Moselle was the most considerable of the glaciers of the Vosges, +receiving numerous affluents; its lowest frontal moraine, which is +situated below Remiremont, could not be less than a mile and a +quarter in length.</p> + +<p>But the phenomenon of the glacial extension which we have +examined in the Alps was not confined to Central Europe. The +same traces of their ancient existence are observed in all the north +of Europe, in Russia, Iceland, Norway, Prussia, the British Islands, +part of Germany, in the north, and even in some parts of the south, +of Spain. In England, <i>erratic</i> blocks of granite are found which were +derived from the mountains of Norway. It is evident that these +blocks were borne by a glacier which extended from the north pole +to England. In this manner they crossed the Baltic and the North +Seas. In Prussia similar traces are observable.</p> + +<p>Thus, during the Quaternary epoch, glaciers which are now +limited to the Polar regions, or to mountainous countries of considerable +altitude, extended very far beyond their present known limits; +and, taken in connection with the deluge of the north, and the vast +amount of organic life which they destroyed, they form, perhaps, the +most striking and mysterious of all geological phenomena.</p> + +<p>M. Edouard Collomb, to whom we owe much of our knowledge +of ancient glaciers, furnishes the following note explanatory of a map +of Ancient Glaciers which he has prepared:—</p> + +<p>“The area occupied by the ancient Quaternary glaciers may be +divided into two orographical regions:—1. The region of the north, +from lat. 52° or 55° up to the North Pole. 2. The region of Central +Europe and part of the south.</p> + +<p>“The region of the north which has been covered by the ancient +glaciers comprehends all the Scandinavian peninsula, Sweden, Norway, +and a part of Western Russia, extending from the Niemen on the +north in a curve which passed near the sources of the Dnieper and +the Volga, and thence took a direction towards the shores of the +glacial ocean. This region comprehends Iceland, Scotland, Ireland, +the isles dependent on them, and, finally, a great part of England.</p> + +<p>“This region is bounded, on all its sides, by a wide zone from +2° to 5° in breadth, over which is recognised the existence of erratic +blocks of the north: it includes the middle region of Russia in Europe, +Poland, a part of Prussia, and Denmark; losing itself in Holland +on the Zuider Zee, it cut into the northern part of England, and we +find a shred of it in France, upon the borders of the Cotentin.</p> + +<p>“The ancient glaciers of Central Europe consisted, first, of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_452" id="Page_452">[452]</a></span> +grand masses of the Alps. Stretching to the west and to the north, +they extended to the valley of the Rhône as far as Lyons, then +crossing the summit-level of the Jura, they passed near Basle, covering +Lake Constance, and stretching beyond into Bavaria and Austria. +Upon the southern slopes of the Alps, they turned round the summit +of the Adriatic, passed near to Udinet, covered Peschiera, Solferino, +Como, Varèse, and Ivréa, extended to near Turin, and terminated in +the valley of the Stura, near the Col de Tenda.</p> + +<p>“In the Pyrenees, the ancient glaciers have occupied all the +principal valleys of this chain, both on the French and Spanish sides, +especially the valleys of the centre, which comprehend those of +Luchon, Aude, Baréges, Cauterets, and Ossun. In the Cantabrian +chain, an extension of the Pyrenees, the existence of ancient glaciers +has also been recognised.</p> + +<p>“In the Vosges and the Black Forest they covered all the +southern parts of these mountains. In the Vosges, the principal +traces are found in the valleys of Saint-Amarin, Giromagny, Munster, +the Moselle, &c.</p> + +<p>“In the Carpathians and the Caucasus the existence of ancient +glaciers of great extent has also been observed.</p> + +<p>“In the Sierra Nevada, in the south of Spain, mountains upwards +of 11,000 feet high, the valleys which descend from the Picacho de +Veleta and Mulhacen have been covered with ancient glaciers during +the Quaternary epoch.”</p> + +<p>There is no reason to doubt that at this epoch all the British +islands, at least all north of the Thames, were covered by glaciers in +their higher parts. “Those,” says Professor Ramsay, “who know the +Highlands of Scotland, will remember that, though the weather has +had a powerful influence upon them, rendering them in places rugged, +jagged, and cliffy, yet, notwithstanding, their general outlines are often +remarkably rounded and flowing; and when the valleys are examined +in detail, you find in their bottoms and on the sides of the hills that +the mammillated structure prevails. This rounded form is known, by +those who study glaciers, by the name of <i>roches moutonnées</i>, given to +them by the Swiss writers. These mammillated forms are exceedingly +common in many British valleys, and not only so, but the very +same kind of grooving and striation, so characteristic of the rocks in +the Swiss valleys, also marks those of the Highlands of Scotland, of +Cumberland, and Wales. Considering all these things, geologists, +led by Agassiz some five or six and twenty years ago, have by degrees +come to the conclusion, that a very large part of our island was, +during the glacial period, covered, or nearly covered, with a thick<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_453" id="Page_453">[453]</a></span> +coating of ice in the same way that the north of Greenland is at +present; and that by the long-continued grinding power of a great +glacier, or set of glaciers nearly universal over the northern half of our +country, and the high ground of Wales, the whole surface became +moulded by ice.”</p> + +<p>Whoever traverses England, observing its features with attention, +will remark in certain places traces of the action of ice in this +era. Some of the mountains present on one side a naked rock, and +on the other a gentle slope, smiling and verdant, giving a character +more or less abrupt, bold, and striking, to the landscape. Considerable +portions of dry land were formerly covered by a bluish clay, which +contained many fragments of rock or “boulders” torn from the old +Cumbrian mountains; from the Pennine chain; from the moraines +of the north of England; and from the Chalk hills—hence called +“boulder” clay—present themselves here and there, broken, worn, +and ground up by the action of water and ice. These erratic blocks +or “boulders” have clearly been detached from the parent rock by +violence, and often transported to considerable distances. They have +been carried, not only across plains, but over the tops of mountains; +some of them being found 130 miles from the parent rocks. We +even find, as already hinted, some rocks of which no prototypes have +been found nearer than Norway. There is, then, little room for +doubting the fact of an extensive system of glaciers having covered +the land, although the proofs have only been gathered laboriously +and by slow degrees in a long series of years. In 1840 Agassiz visited +Scotland, and his eye, accustomed to glaciers in his native mountains, +speedily detected their signs. Dr. Buckland became a zealous advocate +of the same views. North Wales was soon recognised as an independent +centre of a system which radiated from lofty Snowdon, +through seven valleys, carrying with them large stones and grooving +the rocks in their passage. In the pass of Llanberis there are all the +common proofs of the valley having been filled with glacier ice. “When +the country was under water,” says Professor Ramsay, “the drift was +deposited which more or less filled up many of the Welsh valleys. +When the land had risen again to a considerable height, the glaciers +increased in size: although they never reached the immense magnitude +which they attained in the earlier portion of the icy epoch. Still they +became so large that such a valley as the Pass of Llanberis was a +second time occupied by ice, which ploughed out the drift that more or +less covered the valley. By degrees, however, as we approach nearer +our own days, the climate slowly ameliorated, and the glaciers began to +decline, till, growing less and less, they crept up and up; and here<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_454" id="Page_454">[454]</a></span> +and there, as they died away, they left their terminal and lateral +moraines still as well defined in some cases as moraines in lands +where glaciers now exist. Frequently, too, masses of stone, that floated +on the surface of the ice, were left perched upon the rounded <i>roches +moutonnées</i>, in a manner somewhat puzzling to those who are not +geologists.</p> + +<p>“In short, they were let down upon the surface of these rocks so +quietly and so softly, that there they will lie, until an earthquake +shakes them down, or until the wasting of the rock on which they +rest precipitates them to a lower level.”</p> + +<p>It was the opinion of Agassiz, after visiting Scotland, that the +Grampians had been covered by a vast thickness of ice, whence +erratic blocks had been dispersed in all directions as from a centre; +other geologists after a time adopted the opinion—Mr. Robert +Chambers going so far as to maintain, in 1848, that Scotland had +been at one time moulded by ice. Mr. T. F. Jamieson followed in +the same track, adducing many new facts to prove that the Grampians +once sent down glaciers in all directions towards the sea. “The +glacial grooves,” he says, “radiate outward from the central heights +towards all points of the compass, although they do not strictly +conform to the actual shape and contour of the minor valleys and +ridges.” But the most interesting part of Mr. Jamieson’s investigations +is undoubtedly the ingenious manner in which he has worked +out Agassiz’ assertion that Glenroy, whose remarkable “<i>Parallel +Roads</i>” have puzzled so many investigators, was once the basin of a +frozen lake.</p> + +<p>Glenroy is one of the many romantic glens of Lochaber, at the +head of the Spey, near to the Great Glen, or the valley of the Caledonian +Canal, which stretches obliquely across the country in a northwesterly +direction from Loch Linnhè to Loch Ness, leaving Loch +Arkaig, Loch Aich, Glen Garry, and many a highland loch besides, +on the left, and Glen Spean, in which Loch Treig, running due north +and south, has its mouth, on the south. Glenroy opens into it +from the north, while Glen Gluoy opens into the Great Glen opposite +Loch Arkaig. Mr. Jamieson commenced his investigations at the +mouth of Loch Arkaig, which is about a mile from the lake itself. +Here he found the gneiss ground down as if by ice coming from the +east. On the hill, north of the lake, the gneiss, though much worn +and weathered, still exhibited well-marked striæ, directed up and +down the valley. Other markings showed that the Glen Arkaig +glacier not only blocked up Glen Gluoy, but the mouth of Glen +Spean, which lies two miles or so north of it on the opposite side.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_455" id="Page_455">[455]</a></span>At Brackletter, on the south side of Glen Spean, near its junction +with Glen Lochy, glacial scores pointing more nearly due west, but +slightly inclining to the north, were observed, as if caused by the +pressure of ice from Glen Lui. The south side of Glen Spean, from +its mouth to Loch Treig, is bounded by lofty hills—an extension of +Ben Nevis, the highest of these peaks exceeding 3,000 feet. Numerous +gullies intersect their flanks, and the largest of these, Corry N’Eoin, +presents a series of rocky amphitheatres, or rather large caldrons, +whose walls have been ground down by long-continued glacial action: +the quartz-veins are all shorn down to the level of the gneiss, and +streaked with fine scratches, pointing down the hollows and far up the +rocks on either side. During all these operations the great valley +was probably filled up with ice, which would close Glen Gluoy and +Glen Spean, and might also close the lowest of the lines in Glenroy. +But how about the middle and upper lines?</p> + +<p>A glacier crossing from Loch Treig, and protruding across Glen +Spean, would cut off Glens Glaibu and Makoul, when the water in +Glenroy could only escape over the Col into Strathspey, when the +first level would be marked.</p> + +<p>Now let the Glen Treig glacier shrink a little, so as to let out +water to the level of the second line by the outline at Makoul, and +the theory is complete. When the first and greatest glacier gave way, +Glenroy would be nearly in its present state.</p> + +<p>The glacier, on issuing from the gorge at the end of Loch Treig, +would dilate immensely, the right flank spreading over a rough +expanse of syenite, the neighbouring hills being mica-schists, with +veins of porphyry. Now the syenite breaks into large cuboidal blocks +of immense size. These have been swept before the advancing +glacier along with other débris, and deposited in a semicircle of +mounds having a sweep of several miles, forming circular bands which +mark the edges of the glacier as it shrunk from time to time under +the influence of a milder climate.</p> + +<p>This moraine, which was all that was wanting to complete the +theory laid down by Agassiz, is found on the pony-road leading from +the mouth of Loch Treig towards Badenoch. A mile or so brings the +traveller to the summit-level of the road, and beyond the hill a low +moor stretches away to the bottom of the plain. Here, slanting +across the slope of the hill towards Loch Treig, two lines of moraine +stretch across the road. At first they consist of mica-schists and bits +of porphyry, but blocks of syenite soon become intermingled. Outside +these are older hillocks, rising in some places sixty and seventy +feet high, forming narrow steep-sided mounds, with blocks fourteen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_456" id="Page_456">[456]</a></span> +feet in length sticking out of the surface, mixed with fragments of +mica-schist and gneiss. The inner moraine consists, almost wholly, of +large blocks of syenite, five, ten, fifteen, and five-and-twenty feet long.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_198" id="Fig_198"></a> +<img src="images/illo467.png" alt="Fig. 198" width="450" height="289" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 198.—Parallel roads of Glenroy; from a sketch by Professor J. Phillips.</p></div> + +<p>The present aspect of Glenroy is that of an upper and lower glen +opening up from the larger Glen Spean. The head-waters of Lochaber<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_457" id="Page_457">[457]</a></span> +gather in a wild mountain tract, near the source of the Spey. The +upper glen is an oval valley, four miles long, by about one broad, +bounded on each side by high mountains, which throw off two +streams dividing the mica-schist from the gneissic systems; the +former predominating on the west side, and the latter on the east. +The united streams flow to the south-west for two miles, when the +valley contracts to a rocky gorge which separates the upper from the +lower glen. Passing from the upper to the lower glen, a line is +observed to pass from near the junction of the two streams, on a +level with a flat rock at the gorge, and also with the uppermost of the +three lines of terraces in the lower glen. This line girdles the sides +of the hills right and left, with a seemingly higher sweep, and is followed +by two other perfectly parallel and continuous lines till Glenroy +expands into Glen Spean, which crosses its mouth and enters the +great glen a little south of Loch Lochy. At the point, however, +where Glenroy enters Glen Spean, the two upper terraces cease, +while the lower of the three appears on the north and south side of +Glen Spean, as far as the pass of Glen Muckal, and southward a little +way up the Gubban river and round the head of Loch Treig.</p> + +<p>In Scotland, and in Northern England and Wales, there is distinct +evidence that the Glacial Epoch commenced with an era of continental +ice, the land being but slightly lower than at present, and possibly at +the same level, during which period the Scottish hills received their +rounded outlines, and scratched and smoothed rock-surfaces; and the +plains and valleys became filled with the stiff clay, with angular +scratched stones, known as the “Till,” which deposit is believed by +Messrs. Geikie, Jamieson, and Croll to be a <i>moraine profonde</i>, the +product of a vast ice-sheet.</p> + +<p>In Wales, Professor Ramsay has described the whole of the +valleys of the Snowdonian range as filled with enormous glaciers, the +level of the surface of the ice filling the Pass of Llanberis, rising 500 +feet above the present watershed at Gorphwysfa. In the Lake District +of Cumberland and Westmorland, Mr. De Rance has shown that +a vast series of glaciers, or small ice-sheets, filled all the valleys, +radiating out in all directions from the larger mountains, which +formed centres of dispersion, the ice actually pushing over many of +the lesser watersheds, and scooping out the great rock-basins in +which lie the lakes Windermere, Ullswater, Thirlmere, Coniston +Water, and Wastwater, the bottoms of which are nearly all below +the sea-level. The whole of this district, he has shown, experienced +a second glaciation, after the period of great submergence, in which +valley-glaciers scooped out the marine drift, and left their <i>moraines</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_458" id="Page_458">[458]</a></span> +in the Liza, Langdale, and other valleys, and high up in the hills, as +at Harrison’s Stickle, where a tarn has been formed by a little +<i>moraine</i>, acting as a dam, as shown by Professor Hull.</p> + +<p>In Wales, also, valley-glaciers existed after the submergence beneath +the Glacial sea. Thus in Cwm-llafar, under the brow of +Carnedd Dafydd, and Carnedd Llewelyn, Professor Ramsay has +shown that a narrow glacier, about two miles in length, has ploughed +out a long narrow hollow in the drift (which “forms a succession of +terraces, the result of marine denudation, during pauses in the re-elevation +of its submersion) to a depth of more than 2,000 feet.”<a name="FNanchor_108" id="FNanchor_108"></a><a href="#Footnote_108" class="fnanchor">[108]</a></p> + +<p>The proofs of this great submergence, succeeding the era of +“land-ice,” are constantly accumulating. Since 1863, when Professor +Hull first divided the thick glacial deposits of Eastern Lancashire +and Cheshire into an Upper Boulder Clay, and Lower Boulder Clay +divided by a Middle Sand and Gravel, the whole of which are of +marine origin, these subdivisions have been found to hold good, by +himself and Mr. A. H. Green, over 600 square miles of country +around Manchester, Bolton, and Congleton; by Mr. De Rance over +another 600 square miles, around Liverpool, Preston, Blackpool, +Blackburn, and Lancaster, and also in the low country lying between +the Cumberland and Welsh mountains and the sea.</p> + +<p>In Ireland, also, the same triplex arrangement appears to exist. +Professors Harkness and Hull have identified the “Limestone and +Manure Gravels” of the central plain, as referable to the “Middle +Sand and Gravel,” and the “Lower Boulder Clay” rests on a glaciated +rock-surface along the coasts of Antrim and Down, and is overlain +by sand, which, in 1832, was discovered by Dr. Scouler to be shell-bearing. +At Kingstown the three deposits are seen resting on a +moutonnéed surface of granite, scored from the N.N.W.</p> + +<p>In Lancashire and on the coast of North Wales, between Llandudno +and Rhyl, Mr. De Rance has shown that these deposits often +lie upon the denuded and eroded surface of another clay, of older +date, which he believes to be the product of land-ice, the remnant of +the <i>moraine profonde</i>, and the equivalent of the Scotch “Till.” He also +shows that the Lower Boulder Clay never rises above an elevation of +fifty or eighty feet above the sea-level; and that the Middle Sand and +Shingle rests directly upon the rock, or on the surface of this old Till.</p> + +<p>Near Manchester the Lower Boulder Clay occasionally rests upon +an old bed of sand and gravel. It is extremely local, but its presence +has been recorded in several sections by Mr. Edward Binney, who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_459" id="Page_459">[459]</a></span> +was the first to show, in 1842,<a name="FNanchor_109" id="FNanchor_109"></a><a href="#Footnote_109" class="fnanchor">[109]</a> that the Lancashire Boulder Clays +were formed in the sea, and that the erratic pebbles and boulders, +mainly derived from the Cumberland Lake Districts, were brought +south by means of floating ice.</p> + +<p>Most of the erratic pebbles and boulders in the Lancashire clays +are more or less scratched and scored, many of them (though quite +rounded) in so many directions that Mr. De Rance believes the Cumberland +and Westmoreland hills to have been surrounded by an ice-belt, +which, occasionally thawing during summer or warm episodes, +admitted “breaker action” on the gradually subsiding coast, wearing +the fragments of rocks brought down by rivers or by glaciers into +pebbles that, with the return of the cold, became covered with the +“ice-belt,” which, lifted by the tides, rolled and dinted the pebbles +one against another, and gradually allowed them to be impressed into +its mass, with which they eventually floated away.</p> + +<p>The Middle Sands and Shingles in England have also afforded a +great number of shells of mollusca. At Macclesfield they have been +described by Messrs. Prestwich and Darbishire as occurring at an +elevation of 1,100 to 1,200 feet above the level of the sea.<a name="FNanchor_110" id="FNanchor_110"></a><a href="#Footnote_110" class="fnanchor">[110]</a></p> + +<p>Among other proofs of glacial action and submersion in Wales +may be mentioned the case of Moel Tryfaen, a hill 1,400 feet high, +lying to the westward of Caernarvon Bay, and six or seven miles +from Caernarvon. Mr. Joshua Trimmer had observed stratified +drift near the summit of this mountain, from which he obtained some +marine shells; but doubts were entertained as to their age until 1863, +when a deep and extensive cutting was made in search of slates. In +this cutting a stratified mass of loose sand and gravel was laid open +near the summit, thirty-five feet thick, containing shells, some entire, +but mostly in fragments. Sir Charles Lyell examined the cutting, +and obtained twenty species of shells, and in the lower beds of the +drift, “large heavy boulders of far-transported rocks, glacially polished +and scratched on more than one side:” underneath the whole, the +edges of vertical slates were exposed to view, exhibiting “unequivocal +marks of prolonged glaciation.” The shells belonged to species still +living in British or more northern seas.</p> + +<p>From the gravels of the Severn Valley, described by Mr. Maw, +thirty-five forms of mollusca have been identified by Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_460" id="Page_460">[460]</a></span> +In the Shingle beds of Leyland, Euxton, Chorley, Preston, Lancaster, +and Blackpool,<a name="FNanchor_111" id="FNanchor_111"></a><a href="#Footnote_111" class="fnanchor">[111]</a> Mr. De Rance has obtained nearly thirty species.</p> + +<p>In Eastern Yorkshire, Mr. Searles V. Wood, Jun., has divided the +glacial deposits into “Purple Clay without Chalk,” “Purple Clay with +Chalk,” and “Chalky Clay,” the whole being later than his “Middle +Glacial Sands and Gravel,” which, in East Anglia, are overlain by the +“Chalky Clay,” and rest unconformably upon the “Contorted Drift” +of Norfolk, the Cromer Till, and the Forest Bed. His three Yorkshire +clays are, however, considered by most northern geologists to be the +representatives of the “Upper Boulder Clay” west of the Pennine +Chain, the “Chalky Clay” having been formed before the country +had sufficiently subsided to allow the sandstones and marls, furnishing +the red colouring matter, to have suffered denudation; while the +“Purple Clay without Chalk, and with Shap Granite,” was deposited +when all the chalk was mainly beneath the sea, and the granite from +Shap Fell, which had been broken up by breaker-action during the +Middle Sand era, was floated across the passes of the Pennine Chain +and southwards and northwards. A solitary pebble of Shap granite +has been found by Mr. De Rance at Hoylake, in Cheshire; and many +of Criffel Granite, in that county, and on the coast of North Wales, +by Mr. Mackintosh, who has also traced the flow of this granite in +the low country lying north and south of the Cumberland mountains.</p> + +<p>At Bridlington, in Yorkshire, occurs a deposit at the base of the +“Purple Clay,” with a truly Arctic fauna. Out of seventy forms of +mollusca recorded by Mr. S. V. Wood, Jun., nineteen are unknown to the +Crag—of these thirteen are purely arctic, and two not known as living.</p> + +<p>Shells have been found in the Upper Boulder Clay of Lancashire, +at Hollingworth Reservoir, near Mottram, by Messrs. Binney, Bateman, +and Prestwich, at an elevation of 568 feet above the sea, consisting +of <i>Fusus Bamffius</i>, <i>Purpura lapillus</i>, <i>Turritilla terebra</i>, and +<i>Cardium edule</i>. The clay is described by Mr. Binney as sandy, and +brown-coloured, with pebbles of granite and greenstone, some +rounded and some angular. All the above shells, as well as <i>Tellina +Balthica</i>, have been found in the Upper Clay of Preston, Garstang, +Blackpool, and Llandudno, by Mr. De Rance, who has also found +all the above species (with the exception of <i>Fusus</i>), as well as <i>Psammobia +ferroensis</i>, and the siliceous spiculæ of marine sponges, in +the Lower Boulder Clay of West Lancashire. He has described +the ordinary red Boulder Clay of Lancashire as extending continuously +through Cheshire and Staffordshire into Warwickshire,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_461" id="Page_461">[461]</a></span> +gradually becoming less red and more chalky, everywhere overlying +intermittent sheets of “sands and shingle-beds,” one of which +is particularly well seen at Leamington and Warwick, where it +contains Pectens from the Crag, <i>Gryphæa</i> from the Lias, and chalk +fossils and flints. The latter have also been found by Mr. Lucy +in the neighbourhood of Mount Sorrel, associated with bits of the +Coral Rag of Yorkshire. The gravels of Leicester, Market Harborough, +and Lutterworth were long ago described by the Rev. W. D. +Conybeare as affording “specimens of the organic remains of most +of the Secondary Strata in England.”</p> + +<p>The Rev. O. Fisher, F.G.S., has paid much attention to the superficial +covering usually described as “heading,” or “drift,” as well as +to the contour of the surface, in districts composed of the softer strata, +and has published his views in various papers in the <i>Journal of the +Geological Society</i> and in the <i>Geological Magazine</i>. He thinks that +the contour of the surface cannot be ascribed entirely to the action of rain +and rivers, but that the changes in the ancient contour since produced +by those changes can be easily distinguished. He finds the covering +beds to consist of two members—a lower one, entirely destitute of +organic remains, and generally unstratified, which has often been +forcibly indented into the bed beneath it, sometimes exhibiting +slickenside at the junction.</p> + +<p>There is evidence of this lower member having been pushed or +dragged over the surface, from higher to lower levels, in a plastic condition; +on which account he has named it “The Trail.”</p> + +<p>The upper member of the covering beds consists of soil derived +from the lower one, by weathering. It contains, here and there, the +remains of the land-shells which lived in the locality at a period antecedent +to cultivation. It is “The Warp” of Mr. Trimmer.</p> + +<p>Neither of these accumulations occur on low flats, where the surface +has been modified since the recent period. They both alike pass below +high-water mark, and have been noticed beneath estuarine deposits.</p> + +<p>Mr. Fisher is of opinion that land-ice has been instrumental in +forming the contour of the surface, and that the trail is the remnant of +its <i>moraine profonde</i>. And he has given reasons<a name="FNanchor_112" id="FNanchor_112"></a><a href="#Footnote_112" class="fnanchor">[112]</a> for believing that +the climate of those latitudes may have been sufficiently rigorous for +that result about 100,000 years ago. He attributes the formation of +the superficial covering of Warp to a period of much rainfall and +severe winter-frosts, after the ice-sheet had disappeared.</p> + +<p>The phenomena which so powerfully affected our hemisphere +present themselves, in a much grander manner, in the New World.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_462" id="Page_462">[462]</a></span> +The glacier-system appears to have taken in America the same +gigantic proportions which other objects assume there. Nor is it +necessary, in order to explain the permanent existence of this icy +mantle in temperate climates, to infer the prevalence of any very +extraordinary degree of cold. On this subject M. Ch. Martins thus +expresses himself: “The mean temperature of Geneva is 9° 5 Cent. +Upon the surrounding mountains the limit of perpetual snow is found +at 8,800 feet above the level of the sea. The great glaciers of the +valley of Chamounix descend 5,000 feet below this line. Thus +situated, let us suppose that the mean temperature of Geneva was +lowered only 4°, and the average became 5° 5; the decrease of +temperature with the height being 1° c. for every 600 feet, the limit of +perpetual snow would be lowered by 2,437 feet, and would be 6,363 +feet above the level of the sea. We can readily admit that the +glaciers of Chamounix would descend below this new limit, to an +extent at least equal to that which exists between their present limit +and their lower extremity. Now, in reality, the foot of these glaciers +is 5,000 feet above the ocean; with a climate 4° colder, it would be +2,437 feet lower; that is to say, at the level of the Swiss plain. +Thus, the lowering of the line of perpetual snow to this extent would +suffice to bring the glacier of the Arve to the environs of Geneva.... +Of the climate which has favoured the prodigious development +of glaciers we have a pretty correct idea; it is that of Upsala, +Stockholm, Christiana, and part of North America, in the State of +New York.... To diminish by four degrees the mean temperature +of a country in order to explain one of the grandest revolutions +of the globe, is to venture on an hypothesis not bolder than +geology has sometimes permitted to itself.”<a name="FNanchor_113" id="FNanchor_113"></a><a href="#Footnote_113" class="fnanchor">[113]</a></p> + +<p>In proving that glaciers covered part of Europe during a certain +period, that they extended from the North Pole to Northern Italy +and the Danube, we have sufficiently established the reality of this +<i>glacial period</i>, which we must consider as a curious episode, as well as +certain, in the history of the earth. Such masses of ice could only +have covered the earth when the temperature of the air was lowered +at least some degrees below zero. But organic life is incompatible +with such a temperature; and to this cause must we attribute the +disappearance of certain species of animals and plants—in particular, +the Rhinoceros and the Elephant—which, before this sudden and +extraordinary cooling of the globe, appear to have limited themselves, +in immense herds, to Northern Europe, and chiefly to Siberia, +where their remains have been found in such prodigious quantities.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_463" id="Page_463">[463]</a></span> +Cuvier says, speaking of the bodies of the quadrupeds which the ice +had seized, and in which they have been preserved, with their hair, +flesh, and skin, up to our own times: “If they had not been frozen +as soon as killed, putrefaction would have decomposed them; and, +on the other hand, this eternal frost could not have previously prevailed +in the place where they died; for they could not have lived in +such a temperature. It was, therefore, at the same instant when +these animals perished that the country they inhabited was rendered +glacial. These events must have been sudden, instantaneous, and +without any gradation.”<a name="FNanchor_114" id="FNanchor_114"></a><a href="#Footnote_114" class="fnanchor">[114]</a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="Fig_199" id="Fig_199"></a> +<img src="images/illo474.png" alt="Fig. 199" width="400" height="195" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 199.—Fissurella nembosa.<br /> +(Living shell.)</p></div> + +<p>How can we explain the <i>glacial period</i>? We have explained M. Adhémar’s +hypothesis, to which it may be objected that the cold of the glacial +period was so general throughout the Polar and temperate regions on +both sides of the equator, that mere local changes in the external configuration +of our planet and displacement of the centre of gravity scarcely +afford adequate causes for so great a revolution in temperature. Sir +Charles Lyell, speculating upon the suggestion of Ritter and the discovery +of marine shells spread far and wide over the Sahara Desert by Messrs. +Escher von der Linth, Desor, and Martins—which seem to prove +that the African Desert has been under water at a very recent period—infers +that the Desert of Sahara constituted formerly a wide marine +area, stretching several hundred miles north and south, and east and +west. “From this area,” he adds, “the south wind must formerly +have absorbed moisture, and must +have been still further cooled and +saturated with aqueous vapour as +it passed over the Mediterranean. +When at length it reached the +Alps, and, striking them, was +driven into the higher and more +rarefied regions of the atmosphere, +it would part with its watery +burthen in the form of snow; so +that the same aërial current which, under the name of the Föhn, or +Sirocco, now plays a leading part with its hot and dry breath, sometimes, +even in the depth of winter, in melting the snow and checking the growth +of glaciers, must, at the period alluded to, have been the principal +feeder of Alpine snow and ice.”<a name="FNanchor_115" id="FNanchor_115"></a><a href="#Footnote_115" class="fnanchor">[115]</a> Nevertheless, we repeat, no explanation +presents itself which can be considered conclusive; and in +science we should never be afraid to say, <i>I do not know</i>.</p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_464" id="Page_464">[464]</a></p> + +<h3>CREATION OF MAN AND THE ASIATIC DELUGE.</h3> + +<p>It was only after the glacial period, when the earth had resumed its +normal temperature, that man was created. Whence came he?</p> + +<p>He came from whence originated the first blade of grass which +grew upon the burning rocks of the Silurian seas; from whence proceeded +the different races of animals which have successively replaced +each other upon the globe, gradually, but unceasingly, rising in the +scale of perfection. He emanated from the supreme will of the +Author of the worlds which constitute the universe.</p> + +<p>The earth has passed through many phases since the time when—in +the words of the Sacred Record—“the earth was without +form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. +And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” We have +considered all these phases; we have seen the globe floating in space +in a state of gaseous nebulosity, condensing into liquidity, and +beginning to solidify at the surface. We have pictured the internal +agitations, the disturbances, the partial dislocations to which the +earth has been subjected, almost without interruption, while it could not, +as yet, resist the force of the waves of the fiery sea imprisoned within +its fragile crust. We have seen this envelope acquiring solidity, and +the geological cataclysms losing their intensity and frequency in +proportion as this solid crust increased in thickness. We have +looked on, so to speak, while the work of organic creation was proceeding. +We have seen life making its appearance upon the globe; +and the first plants and animals springing into existence. We have +seen this organic creation multiplying, becoming more complex, and +constantly made more perfect with each advance in the progressive +phases of the history of the earth. We now arrive at the greatest +event of this history, at the crowning of the edifice, <i>si parva licet +componere magnis</i>.</p> + +<p>At the close of the Tertiary epoch, the continents and seas +assumed the respective limits which they now present. The disturbances +of the ground, the fractures of the earth’s crust, and the volcanic +eruptions which are the consequence of them, only occurred at rare<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_465" id="Page_465">[465]</a></span> +intervals, occasioning only local and restricted disasters. The rivers +and their affluents flowed between tranquil banks. Animated Nature +is that of our own days. An abundant vegetation, diversified by the +existence of a climate which has now been acquired, embellishes the +earth. A multitude of animals inhabit the waters, the dry land, and +the air. Nevertheless, creation has not yet achieved its greatest +work—a being capable of comprehending these marvels and of +admiring the sublime work—a soul is wanting to adore and give +thanks to the Creator.</p> + +<p>God created man.</p> + +<p>What is man?</p> + +<p>We might say that man is an intelligent and moral being; but +this would give a very imperfect idea of his nature. Franklin says +that man is one that can make tools! This is to reproduce a portion +of the first proposition, while depreciating it. Aristotle calls man the +“wise being,” ζωον πολιτικον. Linnæus, in his “System of Nature,” +after having applied to man the epithet of wise (<i>homo sapiens</i>) writes +after this generic title these profound words: <i>Nosce te ipsum</i>. The +French naturalist and philosopher, Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, +says, “The plant <i>lives</i>, the animal <i>lives and feels</i>, man <i>lives, feels, and +thinks</i>”—a sentiment which Voltaire had already expressed. “The +Eternal Maker,” says the philosopher of Ferney, “has given to man +organisation, sentiment, and intelligence; to the animals sentiment, +and what we call instinct; to vegetables organisation alone. His +power then acts continually upon these three kingdoms.” It is +probably the animal which is here depreciated. The animal on +many occasions undoubtedly thinks, reasons, deliberates with itself, +and acts in virtue of a decision maturely weighed; it is not then +reduced to mere sensation.</p> + +<p>To define exactly the human being, we believe that it is necessary +to characterise the nature and extent of his intelligence. In certain +cases the intelligence of the animal approaches nearly to that of man, +but the latter is endowed with a certain faculty which belongs to him +exclusively; in creating him, God has added an entirely new step in +the ascending scale of animated beings. This faculty, peculiar to the +human race, is <i>abstraction</i>. We will say, then, that man is an +<i>intelligent</i> being, gifted with the faculty of comprehending the <i>abstract</i>.</p> + +<p>It is by this faculty that man is raised to a pre-eminent degree of +material and moral power. By it he has subdued the earth to his +empire, and by it also his mind rises to the most sublime contemplations. +Thanks to this faculty, man has conceived the ideal, and +realised poesy. He has conceived the infinite, and created mathematics.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_466" id="Page_466">[466]</a></span> +Such is the distinction which separates the human race so +widely from the animals—which makes him a creation apart and +absolutely new upon the globe. A being capable of comprehending +the ideal and the infinite, of creating poetry and algebra, such is +man! To invent and understand this formula—</p> + +<p class="formula">(<i>a</i> + <i>b</i>)<sup>2</sup> = <i>a</i><sup>2</sup> + 2<i>ab</i> + <i>b</i><sup>2</sup>,</p> + +<p>or the algebraic idea of negative quantities, this belongs to man. It +is the greatest privilege of the human being to express and comprehend +thoughts like the following:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">J’étais seul près des flots, par une nuit d’étoiles,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pas un nuage aux cieux, sur les mers pas de voiles,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mes yeux plongeaient plus loin que le monde réel,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Et les vents et les mers, et toute la nature<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Semblaient interroger dans un confus murmure,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Les flots des mers, les feux du ciel.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Et les étoiles d’or, légions infinies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">À voix haute, à voix basse, avec mille harmonies<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Disaient, en inclinant leur couronne de feu;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Et les flots bleus, que rien ne gouverne et n’arrête:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Disaient, en recourbant l’écume de leur crête:<br /></span> +<span class="i4">“C’est le Seigneur, le Seigneur Dieu!”*<br /></span> +</div> + +<p style="margin-left: 15em;"><span class="smcap">Victor Hugo</span>, <i>les Orientales</i>.</p></div> + +<hr class="c05" /> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">* Alone with the waves, on a starry night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My thoughts far away in the infinite;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On the sea not a sail, not a cloud in the sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the wind and the waves with sweet lullaby<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seem to question in murmurs of mystery,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">The fires of heaven, the waves of the sea.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And the golden stars of the heavens rose higher,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Harmoniously blending their crowns of fire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the waves which no ruling hand may know,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘Midst a thousand murmurs, now high, now low,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sing, while curving their foaming crests to the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">“It is the Lord God! It is He.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The “Mécanique Céleste” of Laplace, the “Principia” of +Newton, Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” the “Orientales” by Victor Hugo—are +the fruits of the <i>faculty of abstraction</i>.</p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_467" id="Page_467"></a></p> +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_468" id="Page_468">[468]</a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Plate_XXXII" id="Plate_XXXII"></a> +<img src="images/illo479.png" alt="Plate XXXII" width="600" height="374" /> +<p class="caption">XXXII.—Appearance of Man.</p></div> + +<p>In the year 1800, a being, half savage, who lived in the woods, +clambered up the trees, slept upon dried leaves, and fled on the +approach of men, was brought to a physician named Pinel. Some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_469" id="Page_469">[469]</a></span> +sportsmen had found him; he had no voice, and was devoid of +intelligence; he was known as the little savage of Aveyron. The +Parisian <i>savants</i> for a long time disputed over this strange individual. +Was it an ape?—was it a wild man?</p> + +<p>The learned Dr. Itard has published an interesting history of the +savage of Aveyron. “He would sometimes descend,” he writes, “into +the garden of the deaf and dumb, and seat himself upon the edge of +the fountain, preserving his balance by rocking himself to and fro; +after a time his body became quite still, and his face assumed an expression +of profound melancholy. He would remain thus for hours—regarding +attentively the surface of the water—upon which he +would, from time to time, throw blades of grass and dried leaves. At +night, when the clear moonlight penetrated into the chamber he +occupied, he rarely failed to rise and place himself at the window, +where he would remain part of the night, erect, motionless, his neck +stretched out, his eyes fixed upon the landscape lit up by the moon, +lost in a sort of ecstasy of contemplation.” This being was, undoubtedly, +a man. No ape ever exhibited such signs of intelligence, +such dreamy manifestations, vague conceptions of the ideal—in +other words, that faculty of <i>abstraction</i> which belongs to humanity +alone. In order worthily to introduce the new inhabitant who comes +to fill the earth with his presence—who brings with him intelligence +to comprehend, to admire, to subdue, and to rule the creation +(<span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_XXXII">Pl. XXXII.</a></span>), we require nothing more than the grand and simple +language of Moses, whom Bossuet calls “the most ancient of historians, +the most sublime of philosophers, the wisest of legislators.” +Let us listen to the words of the inspired writer: “And +God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let +them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of +the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every +creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in +his <i>own</i> image, in the image of God created he him; male and +female created he them.”</p> + +<p>“And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, <i>it was</i> +very good.”</p> + +<hr class="c05" /> + +<p>Volumes have been written upon the question of the unity of the +human race; that is, whether there were many centres of the creation +of man, or whether our race is derived solely from the Adam of +Scripture. We think, with many naturalists, that the stock of +humanity is unique, and that the different human races, the negroes, +and the yellow race, are only the result of the influence of climate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_470" id="Page_470">[470]</a></span> +upon organisation. We consider the human race as having appeared +for the first time (the mode of his creation being veiled in Divine +mystery, eternally impenetrable to us) in the rich plains of Asia, on +the smiling banks of the Euphrates, as the traditions of the most +ancient races teach us. It is there, where Nature is so rich and +vigorous, in the brilliant climate and under the radiant sky of Asia, +in the shade of its luxuriant masses of verdure and its mild and perfumed +atmosphere, that man loves to represent to himself the father +of his race as issuing from the hand of his Creator.</p> + +<p>We are, it will be seen, far from sharing the opinion of those +naturalists who represent man, at the beginning of the existence of +his species, as a sort of ape, of hideous face, degraded mien, and +covered with hair, inhabiting caves like the bears and lions, and participating +in the brutal instincts of those savage animals.<a name="FNanchor_116" id="FNanchor_116"></a><a href="#Footnote_116" class="fnanchor">[116]</a> There +is no doubt that early man passed through a period in which he +had to contend for his existence with ferocious beasts, and to live in +a primitive state in the woods or savannahs, where Providence had +placed him. But this period of probation came to an end, and man, +an eminently social being, by combining in groups, animated by the +same interests and the same desires, soon found means to intimidate +the animals, to triumph over the elements, to protect himself from +the innumerable perils which surrounded him, and to subdue to his +rule the other inhabitants of the earth. “The first men,” says +Buffon, “witnesses of the convulsive movements of the earth, still +recent and frequent, having only the mountains for refuge from the +inundations; and often driven from this asylum by volcanoes and +earthquakes, which trembled under their feet; uneducated, naked, +and exposed to the elements, victims to the fury of ferocious animals, +whose prey they were certain to become; impressed also with a +common sentiment of gloomy terror, and urged by necessity, would +they not unite, first, to defend themselves by numbers, and then to +assist each other by working in concert, to make habitations and +arms? They began by shaping into the forms of hatchets these hard +flints, the Jade, and other stones, which were supposed to have been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_471" id="Page_471">[471]</a></span> +formed by thunder and fallen from the clouds, but which are, nevertheless, +only the first examples of man’s art in a pure state of Nature. +He will soon draw fire from these same flints, by striking them against +each other; he will seize the flames of the burning volcano, or profit +by the fire of the red-hot lava to light his fire of brushwood in the +forest; and by the help of this powerful element he cleanses, purifies, +and renders wholesome the place he selects for his habitation. With +his hatchet of stone he chops wood, fells trees, shapes timber, and +puts it together, fashions instruments of warfare and the most necessary +tools and implements; and after having furnished themselves +with clubs and other weighty and defensive arms, did not these first +men find means to make lighter weapons to reach the swift-footed +stag from afar? A tendon of an animal, a fibre of the aloe-leaf, or +the supple bark of some ligneous plant, would serve as a cord to +bring together the two extremities of an elastic branch of yew, forming +a bow; and small flints, shaped to a point, arm the arrow. They +will soon have snares, rafts, and canoes; they will form themselves +into communities composed of a few families, or rather of relations +sprung from the same family, as is still the case with some savage +tribes, who have their game, fish, and fruits in common. But in all +those countries whose area is limited by water, or surrounded by high +mountains, these small nations, becoming too numerous, have been +in time forced to parcel out the land between them; and from that +moment the earth has become the domain of man; he has taken +possession of it by his labour, he has cultivated it, and attachment to +the soil follows the very first act of possession; the private interest +makes part of the national interest; order, civilisation, and laws +succeed, and society acquires force and consistency.”<a name="FNanchor_117" id="FNanchor_117"></a><a href="#Footnote_117" class="fnanchor">[117]</a> We love to +quote the sentiments of a great writer—but how much more eloquent +would the words of the naturalist have been, if he had added to his own +grand eloquence of language, the knowledge which science has placed +within reach of the writers of the present time—- if he could have +painted man in the early days of his creation, in presence of the +immense animal population which then occupied the earth, and +fighting with the wild beasts which filled the forests of the ancient +world! Man, comparatively very weak in organisation, destitute +of natural weapons of attack or defence, incapable of rising into the +air like the birds, or living under water like the fishes and some reptiles, +might seem doomed to speedy destruction. But he was marked +on the forehead with the Divine seal. Thanks to the superior gift of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_472" id="Page_472">[472]</a></span> +an exceptional intelligence, this being, in appearance so helpless, has +by degrees swept the most ferocious of its occupants from the earth, +leaving those only who cater to his wants or desires, or by whose aid +he changes the primitive aspects of whole continents.</p> + +<hr class="c05" /> + +<p>The antiquity of man is a question which has largely engaged the +attention of geologists, and many ingenious arguments have been +hazarded, tending to prove that the human race and the great +extinct Mammalia were contemporaneous. The circumstances +bearing on the question are usually ranged under three series of facts: +1. The Cave-deposits; 2. Peat and shell mounds; 3. Lacustrine +habitations, or Lake dwellings.</p> + +<p>We have already briefly touched upon the Cave-deposits. In the +Kirkdale Cave no remains or other traces of man’s presence seem to +have been discovered. But in Kent’s Hole, an unequal deposit of +loam and clay, along with broken bones much gnawed, and the teeth +of both extinct and living Mammals, implements evidently fashioned +by the human hand were found in the following order: in the upper +part of the clay, artificially-shaped flints; on the clay rested a layer +of stalagmite, in which streaks of burnt charcoal occurred, and +charred bones of existing species of animals. Above the stalagmite +a stone hatchet, or celt, made of syenite, of more finished appearance, +was met with, with articles of bone, round pieces of blue slate and +sandstone-grit, pieces of pottery, a number of shells of the mussel, +limpet, and oyster, and other remains, Celtic, British, and Roman, of +very early date; the lower deposits are those with which we are here +more particularly concerned. The Rev. J. MacEnery, the gentleman +who explored and described them, ascertained that the flint-instruments +occupied a uniform situation intermediate between the +stalagmite and the upper surface of the loam, forming a connecting link +between both; and his opinion was that the epoch of the introduction +of the knives must be dated antecedently to the formation of the +stalagmite, from the era of the quiescent settlement of the mud. +From this view it would follow that the cave was visited posteriorly +to the introduction and subsidence of the loam, and before the formation +of the new super-stratum of stalagmite, by men who entered +the cave and disturbed the original deposit. Although flints have +been found in the loam underlying the regular crust of stalagmite, +mingled confusedly with the bones, and unconnected with the evidence +of the visits of man—such as the excavation of ovens or pits—Dr. +Buckland refused his belief to the statement that the flint-implements +were found beneath the stalagmite, and always contended that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_473" id="Page_473">[473]</a></span> +they were the work of men of a more recent period, who had broken +up the sparry floor. The doctor supposed that the ancient Britons +had scooped out ovens in the stalagmite, and that through them +the knives got admission to the underlying loam, and that in this +confused state the several materials were cemented together.</p> + +<p>In 1858 Dr. Falconer heard of the newly-discovered cave at +Brixham, on the opposite side of the bay to Torquay, and he took +steps to prevent any doubts being entertained with regard to its contents. +This cave was composed of several passages, with four +entrances, formerly blocked up with breccia and earthy matter; the +main opening being ascertained by Mr. Bristow to be seventy-eight +feet above the valley, and ninety-five feet above the sea, the cave +itself being in some places eight feet wide. The contents of the cave +were covered with a layer of stalagmite, from one to fifteen inches +thick, on the top of which were found the horns of a Reindeer; +under the stalagmite came reddish loam or cave-earth, with pebbles +and some angular stones, from two to thirteen feet thick, containing +the bones of Elephants, Rhinoceros, Bears, Hyænas, Felis, Reindeer, +Horses, Oxen, and several Rodents; and, lastly, a layer of +gravel, and rounded pebbles without fossils, underlaid the cave-earth +and formed the lowest deposit.</p> + +<p>In these beds no human bones were found, but in almost every +part of the bone-bed were flint-knives, one of the most perfect being +found thirteen feet down in the bone-bed, at its lowest part. The +most remarkable fact in connection with this cave was the discovery +of an entire left hind-leg of the Cave-bear lying in close proximity +to this knife; “not washed in a fossil state out of an older alluvium, +and swept afterwards into this cave, so as to be mingled with the +flint implements, but having been introduced when clothed in its +flesh.” The implement and the Bear’s leg were evidently deposited +about the same time, and it only required some approximative estimate +of the date of this deposit, to settle the question of the antiquity +of man, at least in an affirmative sense.</p> + +<p>Mr. H. W. Bristow, who was sent by the Committee of the Royal +Society to make a plan and drawings of the Brixham Cave, found +that its entrance was situated at a height of ninety-five feet above the +present level of the sea. In his Report made to the Royal Society, +in explanation of the plan and sections, Mr. Bristow stated that, in +all probability, at the time the cave was formed, the land was at a +lower level to the extent of the observed distance of ninety-five feet, +and that its mouth was then situated at or near the level of the sea.</p> + +<p>The cave consisted of wide galleries or passages running in a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_474" id="Page_474">[474]</a></span> +north and south direction, with minor lateral passages branching off +nearly at right angles to the main openings—- the whole cave being +formed in the joints, or natural divisional planes, of the rock.</p> + +<p>The mouth or entrance to the cave originated, in the first instance, +in an open joint or fissure in the Devonian limestone, which became +widened by water flowing backwards and forwards, and was partly +enlarged by the atmospheric water, which percolated through the +cracks, fissures, and open joints in the overlying rock. The +pebbles, forming the lowest deposit in the cave, were ordinary +shingle or beach-gravel, washed in by the waves and tides. The +cave-earth was the residual part of the limestone rock, after the calcareous +portion had been dissolved and carried away in solution; and +the stalactite and stalagmite were derived from the lime deposited +from the percolating water.</p> + +<p>With regard to bone-caves generally, it would seem that, like +other such openings, they are most common in limestone rocks, +where they have been formed by water, which has dissolved and +carried away the calcareous ingredient of the rock. In the case of +the Brixham cave, the mode of action of the water could be clearly +traced in two ways: first, in widening out the principal passages +by the rush of water backwards and forwards from the sea; and, +secondly, by the infiltration and percolation of atmospheric water +through the overlying rock. In both cases the active agents in producing +the cave had taken advantage of a pre-existing fissure or +crack, or an open joint, which they gradually enlarged and widened +out, until the opening received its final proportions.</p> + +<p>The cave presented no appearance of ever having been inhabited +by man; or of having been the den of Hyænas or other animals, like +Wookey Hole in the Mendips, and some other bone-caves. The +most probable supposition is, that the hind quarter of the Bear and +other bones which were found in the cave-earth, had been washed +into the cave by the sea, in which they were floating about.</p> + +<p>We draw some inferences of the greatest interest and significance +from the Brixham cave and its contents.</p> + +<p>We learn that this country was, at one time, inhabited by animals +which are now extinct, and of whose existence we have not even a +tradition; that man, then ignorant of the use of metal, and little +better than the brutes, was the contemporary of the animals whose +remains were found in the cave, together with a rude flint-implement—the +only kind of weapon with which our savage ancestor defended +himself against animals scarcely wilder than himself.</p> + +<p>We also learn that after the cave had been formed and sealed up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_475" id="Page_475">[475]</a></span> +again, as it were, together with all its contents, by the deposition of +a solid crust of stalagmite—an operation requiring a very great length +of time to effect—the Reindeer (<i>Cervus Tarandus</i>) was indigenous to +this country, as is proved by the occurrence of an antler of that +animal which was found lying upon, and partly imbedded in, the +stalagmite forming the roof or uppermost, that is, the latest formed, +of the cave-deposits.</p> + +<p>Lastly, we learn that, at the time the cave was formed, and while +the land was inhabited by man, that part of the country was lower by +ninety-five feet than it is now; and that this elevation has probably +been produced so slowly and so gradually, as to have been imperceptible +during the time it was taking place, which extended over a +vast interval of time, perhaps over thousands of years.</p> + +<p>Perhaps it may not be out of place here to describe the mode of +formation of bone-caves generally, and the causes which have produced +the appearances these now present.</p> + +<p>Caves in limestone rocks have two principal phases—one of formation, +and one of filling up. So long as the water which enters the +cavities in the course of formation, and carries off some of the calcareous +matter in solution, can find an easy exit, the cavity is continually +enlarged; but when, from various causes, the water only enters +in small quantities, and does not escape, or only finds its way out +slowly, and with difficulty, the lime, instead of being removed, is re-deposited +on the walls, roof, sides, and floor of the cavity, in the +form of stalactites and stalagmite, and the work of re-filling with +solid carbonate of lime then takes place.</p> + +<p>Encouraged by the Brixham discoveries, a congress of French +and English geologists met at Amiens, in order to consider certain +evidence, on which it was sought to establish as a fact that man and +the Mammoth were formerly contemporaries.</p> + +<p>The valley of the Somme, between Abbeville and Amiens, is +occupied by beds of peat, some twenty or thirty feet deep, resting on +a thin bed of clay which covers other beds, of sand and gravel, and +itself rests on white Chalk with flints. Bordering the valley, some +hills rise with a gentle slope to a height of 200 or 300 feet, and here +and there, on their summits, are patches of Tertiary sand and clay, +with fossils, and again more extensive layers of loam. The inference +from this geological structure is that the river, originally flowing +through the Tertiary formation, gradually cut its way through the +various strata down to its present level. From the depth of the peat, +its lower part lies below the sea-level, and it is supposed that a +depression of the region has occurred at some period: again, in land<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_476" id="Page_476">[476]</a></span> +lying quite low on the Abbeville side of the valley, but above the +tidal level, marine shells occur, which indicate an elevation of the +region; again, about 100 feet above the valley, on the right bank of +the river, and on a sloping surface, is the Moulin-Quignon, where +shallow pits exhibit a floor of chalk covered by gravel and sand, +accompanied by gravel and marly chalk and flints more or less worn, +well-rounded Tertiary flints and pebbles, and fragments of Tertiary +sandstone. Such is the general description of a locality which has +acquired considerable celebrity in connection with the question of the +antiquity of man.</p> + +<p>The Quaternary deposits of Moulin-Quignon and the peat-beds of +the Somme formerly furnished Cuvier with some of the fossils he +described, and in later times chipped flint-implements from the +quarries and bogs came into the possession of M. Boucher de +Perthes; the statements were received at first not without suspicion—especially +on the part of English geologists who were familiar with +similar attempts on their own credulity—that some at least of these +were manufactured by the workmen of the district. At length, the +discovery of a human jaw and tooth in the gravel-pits of St. Acheul, +near Amiens, produced a rigorous investigation into the facts, and it +seems to have been established to the satisfaction of Mr. Prestwich +and his colleagues, that flint-implements and the bones of extinct +Mammalia are met with in the same beds, and in situations indicating +very great antiquity. In the sloping and irregular deposits overlooking +the Somme, the bones of Elephants, Rhinoceros, with land +and fresh-water shells of existing species, are found mingled with flint-implements. +Shells like those now found in the neighbouring streams +and hedge-rows, with the bones of existing quadrupeds, have been +obtained from the peat, with flint-tools of more than usual finish, and +together with them a few fragments of human bones. Of these +reliquiæ, the Celtic memorials lie below the Gallo-Roman; above +them, oaks, alders, and walnut trees occur, sometimes rooted, but no +succession of a new growth of trees appear.</p> + +<p>The theory of the St. Acheul beds is this: they were deposited +by fluviatile action, and are probably amongst the oldest deposits in +which human remains occur, older than the peat-beds of the Somme—but +what is their <i>real</i> age? Before submitting to the reader the +very imperfect answer this question admits of, a glance at the previous +discoveries, which tended to give confirmation to the observations +just narrated, may be useful.</p> + +<p>Implements of stone and flint have been continually turning up +during the last century and a half in all parts of the world. In the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_477" id="Page_477">[477]</a></span> +neighbourhood of Gray’s Inn Lane, in 1715, a flint spear-head was +picked up, and near it some Elephants’ bones. In the alluvium of +the Wey, near Guildford, a wedge-shaped flint-tool was found in the +gravel and sand, in which Elephants’ tusks were also found. Under +the cliffs at Whitstable an oval-shaped flint-tool was found in what +had probably been a fresh-water deposit, and in which bones of the +Bear and Elephant were also discovered. Between Herne Bay and +Reculver five other flint-tools have been found, and three more near +the top of the cliff, all in fresh-water gravel. In the valley of the +Ouse, at Beddenham, in Bedfordshire, flint-implements, like those of +St. Acheul, mixed with the bones of Elephant, Rhinoceros, and +Hippopotamus, have been found, and near them an oval and a spear-shaped +implement. In the peat of Ireland great numbers of such +implements have been met with. But nowhere have they been so +systematically sought for and classified as in the Scandinavian +countries.</p> + +<p>The peat-deposits of those countries—of Denmark especially—are +formed in hollows and depressions, in the northern drift and Boulder +clay, from ten to thirty feet deep. The lower stratum, of two or +three feet in thickness, consists of <i>sphagnum</i>, over which lies another +growth of peat formed of aquatic and marsh plants. On the edge of +the bogs trunks of Scotch firs of large size are found—a tree which +has not grown in the Danish islands within historic times, and does +not now thrive when planted, although it was evidently indigenous +within the human period, since Steenstrup took with his own hands a +flint-implement from beneath the trunk of one. The sessile variety +of the oak would appear to have succeeded the fir, and is found at a +higher level in the peat. Higher up still, the common oak, <i>Quercus +robur</i>, is found along with the birch, hazel, and alder. The oak has +in its turn been succeeded by the beech.</p> + +<p>Another source from which numerous relics of early humanity +have been taken is the midden-heaps (Kjökken-mödden) found along +the Scandinavian coast. These heaps consist of castaway shells mixed +with bones of quadrupeds, birds, and fishes, which reveal in some +respects the habits of the early races which inhabited the coast. +Scattered through these mounds are flint-knives, pieces of pottery, +and ashes, but neither bronze nor iron. The knives and hatchets are +said to be a degree less rude than those of older date found in the +peat. Mounds corresponding to these, Sir Charles Lyell tells us, +occur along the American coast, from Massachusetts and Georgia. +The bones of the quadrupeds found in these mounds correspond with +those of existing species, or species which have existed in historic times.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_478" id="Page_478">[478]</a></span>By collecting, arranging, and comparing the flint and stone implements, +the Scandinavian naturalists have succeeded in establishing +a chronological succession of periods, which they designate—1. The +Age of Stone; 2. The Age of Bronze; 3. The Age of Iron. The +first, or Stone period, in Denmark, corresponded with the age of the +Scotch fir, and, in part, of the sessile oak. A considerable portion of +the oak period corresponded, however, with the age of <i>bronze</i>, swords +made of that metal having been found in the peat on the same level +with the oak. The <i>iron</i> age coincides with the beech. Analogous +instances, confirmatory of these statements, occur in Yorkshire, and +in the fens of Lincolnshire.</p> + +<p>The traces left indicate that the aborigines went to sea in canoes +scooped out of a single tree, bringing back deep-sea fishes. Skulls +obtained from the peat and from tumuli, and believed to be contemporaneous +with the mounds, are small and round, with prominent +supra-orbital ridges, somewhat resembling the skulls of Laplanders.</p> + +<p>The third series of facts (<i>Lake-dwellings</i>, or <i>lacustrine habitations</i>) +consisted of the buildings on piles, in lakes, and once common in +Asia and Europe. They are first mentioned by Herodotus as being +used among the Thracians of Pæonia, in the mountain-lake Prasias, +where the natives lived in dwellings built on piles, and connected +with the shore by a narrow causeway, by which means they escaped +the assaults of Xerxes. Buildings of the same description occupied +the Swiss lakes, in the mud of which hundreds of implements, like +those found in Denmark, have been dredged up. In Zurich, Moosseedorf +near Berne, and Lake Constance, axes, celts, pottery, and +canoes made out of single trees, have been found; but of the human +frame scarcely a trace has been discovered. One skull dredged up at +Meilen, in the Lake of Zurich, was intermediate between the Lapp-like +skull of the Danish tumuli and the more recent European type.</p> + +<p>The age of the different formations in which these records of the +human race are found will probably ever remain a mystery. The +evidence which would make the implements formed by man contemporaneous +with the Mammoth and other great Mammalia would go a +great way to prove that man was also pre-glacial. Let us see how +that argument stands.</p> + +<p>At the period when the upper Norwich Crag was deposited, the +general level of the British Isles is supposed to have been about 600 +feet above its present level, and so connected with the European +continent as to have received the elements of its fauna and flora from +thence.</p> + +<p>By some great change, a period of depression occurred, in which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_479" id="Page_479">[479]</a></span> +all the country north of the mouth of the Thames and the Bristol +Channel was placed much below the present level. Moel Tryfaen +experienced a submergence of at least 1,400 feet, during which +it received the erratic blocks and other marks, indicative of floating +icebergs, which have been described in a former chapter. The +country was raised again to something like its original level, and +again occupied by plants, Molluscs, Fishes and Reptiles, Birds, and +Mammifera. Again subsidence takes place, and, after several oscillations, +the level remains as we now find it. The estimated time +required for these various changes is something enormous, and might +have extended the term to double the number of years. The unit +of the calculation is the upward rate of movement observed on +the Scandinavian coast; applied to the oscillation of the ancient +coast of Snowdonia, the figures represent 224,000 years for the +several oscillations of the glacial period. Adding the pre-glacial +period, the computation gives an additional 48,000 years. But, let +us repeat, the figures and data are somewhat hypothetical.</p> + +<p>With regard to the St. Acheul beds—said to be the most ancient +formation in which the productions of human hands have been found—they +are confessedly older than the peat-beds, and the time required +for the production of other peat-beds of equal thickness has been +estimated at 7,000 years. The antiquity of the gravel-beds of St. +Acheul may be estimated on two grounds:—1. General elevation +above the level of the valley. 2. By estimating the animal-remains +found in the gravel-beds, and not in the peat. The first question +implies the denudation of the valley below the level of the gravel, +or the elevation of the whole plateau. Each of these operations +would involve an incalculable time, for want of data. In the second +case, judging from the slow rate at which quadrupeds have disappeared +in historic times, the extinct Mammoth and other great +animals must have occupied many centuries in dying out, for the +notion that they died out suddenly from sharp and sudden refrigeration, +is not generally admitted.</p> + +<p>With regard to the three ages of stone, bronze, and iron, M. +Morlot has based some calculations upon the condition of the delta +of Tinière, near Villeneuve, which lead him to assign to the oldest, +or stone period, an age of 5,000 to 7,000 years, and to the bronze +period from 3,000 to 4,000. We may, then, take leave of this subject +with the avowal that, while admitting the probability that an immense +lapse of time would be required for the operations described, we are, +in a great measure, without reliable data for estimating its actual +extent.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_480" id="Page_480">[480]</a></span>The opinion which places the creation of man on the banks of +the Euphrates in Central Asia is confirmed by an event of the highest +importance in the history of humanity, and by a crowd of concordant +traditions, preserved by different races of men, all tending to confirm +it. We speak of the Asiatic deluge.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="Fig_200" id="Fig_200"></a> +<img src="images/illo491.png" alt="Fig. 200" width="400" height="332" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 200.—Mount Ararat.</p></div> + +<p>The Asiatic deluge—of which sacred history has transmitted to +us the few particulars we know—was the result of the upheaval of a +part of the long chain of mountains which are a prolongation of the +Caucasus. The earth opening by one of the fissures made in its +crust in course of cooling, an eruption of volcanic matter escaped +through the enormous crater so produced. Volumes of watery vapour +or steam accompanied the lava discharged from the interior of the +globe, which, being first dissipated in clouds and afterwards condensing,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_481" id="Page_481">[481]</a></span> +descended, in torrents of rain, and the plains were drowned +with the volcanic mud. The inundation of the plains over an extensive +radius was the immediate effect of this upheaval, and the +formation of the volcanic cone of Mount Ararat, with the vast +plateau on which it rests, altogether 17,323 feet above the sea, the +permanent result. The event is graphically detailed in the seventh +chapter of Genesis.</p> + +<p>11. “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second +month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the +fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven +were opened.</p> + +<p>12. “And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty +nights.”</p> + +<hr class="c05" /> + +<p>17. “And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the +waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the +earth.</p> + +<p>18. “And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon +the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters.</p> + +<p>19. “And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and +all the high hills, that <i>were</i> under the whole heaven, were covered.</p> + +<p>20. “Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the +mountains were covered.</p> + +<p>21. “And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of +fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that +creepeth upon the earth, and every man:</p> + +<p>22. “All in whose nostrils <i>was</i> the breath of life, of all that <i>was</i> +in the dry land, died.</p> + +<p>23. “And every living substance was destroyed which was upon +the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, +and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the +earth: and Noah only remained <i>alive</i>, and they that <i>were</i> with him +in the ark.</p> + +<p>24. “And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and +fifty days.”</p> + +<p>All the particulars of the Biblical narrative here recited are only +to be explained by the volcanic and muddy eruption which preceded +the formation of mount Ararat. The waters which produced the +inundation of these countries proceeded from a volcanic eruption +accompanied by enormous volumes of vapour, which in due course +became condensed and descended on the earth, inundating the extensive +plains which now stretch away from the foot of Ararat. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_482" id="Page_482">[482]</a></span> +expression, “the earth,” or “all the earth” as it is translated in the +Vulgate, which might be implied to mean the entire globe, is explained +by Marcel de Serres, in a learned book entitled “La Cosmogonie +de Moïse,” and other philologists, as being an inaccurate +translation. He has proved that the Hebrew word <i>haarets</i>, incorrectly +translated “all the earth,” is often used in the sense of +<i>region</i> or <i>country</i>, and that, in this instance, Moses used it to express +only the part of the globe which was then peopled, and not its entire +surface. In the same manner “<i>the mountains</i>” (rendered “<i>all the +mountains</i>” in the Vulgate), only implies all the mountains known to +Moses. Similarly, M. Glaire, in the “Christomathie Hébraïque,” +which he has placed at the end of his Grammar, quotes the passage +in this sense: “The waters were so prodigiously increased, that the +highest mountains of the vast horizon were covered by them;” thus +restricting the mountains covered by the inundation to those bounded +by the horizon.</p> + +<p>Nothing occurs, therefore, in the description given by Moses, to +hinder us from seeing in the Asiatic deluge a means made use of by +God to chastise and punish the human race, then in the infancy of its +existence, and which had strayed from the path which he had marked +out for it. It seems to establish the countries lying at the foot of the +Caucasus as the cradle of the human race; and it seems to establish +also the upheaval of a chain of mountains, preceded by an eruption +of volcanic mud, which drowned vast territories entirely composed, in +these regions, of plains of great extent. Of this deluge many races +besides the Jews have preserved a tradition. Moses dates it from +1,500 to 1,800 years before the epoch in which he wrote. Berosus, +the Chaldean historian, who wrote at Babylon in the time of +Alexander, speaks of a universal deluge, the date of which he places +immediately before the reign of Belus, the father of Ninus.</p> + +<p>The <i>Vedas</i>, or sacred books of the Hindus, supposed to have +been composed about the same time as Genesis, that is, about +3,300 years ago, make out that the deluge occurred 1,500 years +before their time. The <i>Guebers</i> speak of the same event as having +occurred about the same date.</p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_483" id="Page_483">[483]</a></p> +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_484" id="Page_484"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"><a name="Plate_XXXIII" id="Plate_XXXIII"></a> +<img src="images/illo494.png" alt="Plate XXXIII" width="600" height="383" /> +<p class="caption">XXXIII.—The Asiatic Deluge.</p></div> + +<p>Confucius, the celebrated Chinese philosopher and lawgiver, born +towards the year 551 before Christ, begins his history of China by +speaking of the Emperor named Jas, whom he represents as making +the waters flow back, which, <i>being raised to the heavens</i>, washed the +feet of the highest mountains, covered the less elevated hills, and +inundated the plains. Thus the Biblical deluge (<span class="smcap"><a href="#Plate_XXXIII">Plate XXXIII.</a></span>) is +confirmed in many respects; but it was local, like all phenomena of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_485" id="Page_485">[485]</a></span> +the kind, and was the result of the upheaval of the mountains of +western Asia.</p> + +<p>A deluge, quite of modern date, conveys a tolerably exact idea of +this kind of phenomena. We recall the circumstances the better to +comprehend the true nature of the ravages the deluge inflicted upon +some Asiatic countries in the Quaternary period. At six days’ +journey from the city of Mexico there existed, in 1759, a fertile and +well-cultivated district, where grew abundance of rice, maize, and +bananas. In the month of June frightful earthquakes shook the +ground, and were continued unceasingly for two whole months. On +the night of the 28th September the earth was violently convulsed, +and a region of many leagues in extent was slowly raised until it +attained a height of about 500 feet over a surface of many square +leagues. The earth undulated like the waves of the sea in a tempest; +thousands of small hills alternately rose and fell, and, finally, an immense +gulf opened, from which smoke, fire, red-hot stones and ashes +were violently discharged, and darted to prodigious heights. Six +mountains emerged from this gaping gulf; among which the volcanic +mountain Jorullo rises 2,890 feet above the ancient plain, to the +height of 4,265 feet above the sea.</p> + +<p>At the moment when the earthquake commenced the two rivers +<i>Cuitimba</i> and <i>San Pedro</i> flowed backwards, inundating all the plain +now occupied by Jorullo; but in the regions which continually rose, +a gulf opened and swallowed up the rivers. They reappeared to the +west, but at a point very distant from their former beds.</p> + +<p>This inundation reminds us on a small scale of the phenomena +which attended the deluge of Noah.</p> + +<hr class="c05" /> + +<p>Besides the deposits resulting from the partial deluges which we +have described as occurring in Europe and Asia during the Quaternary +epoch there were produced in the same period many new +formations resulting from the deposition of <i>alluvia</i> thrown down by +seas and rivers. These deposits are always few in number, and +widely disseminated. Their stratification is as regular as that of any +which belong to preceding periods; they are distinguished from those +of the Tertiary epoch, with which they are most likely to be confounded, +by their situation, which is very frequently upon the shores +of the sea, and by the predominance of shells of a species identical +with those now living in the adjacent seas.</p> + +<p>A marine formation of this kind, which, after constituting the +coast of Sicily, principally on the side of Girgenti, Syracuse, Catania, +and Palermo, occupies the centre of the island, where it rises to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_486" id="Page_486">[486]</a></span> +height of 3,000 feet, is amongst the most remarkable of the great +Quaternary European productions. It is chiefly formed of two great +beds; the lower a bluish argillaceous marl, the other a coarse but +very compact limestone, both containing shells analogous to those of +the present Mediterranean coast. The same formation is found in +the neighbouring islands, especially in Sardinia and Malta. The great +sandy deserts of Africa, as well as the argillo-arenaceous formation of +the steppes of Eastern Russia, and the fertile Tchornozem, or +“<i>black earth</i>” of its southern plains, have the same geological origin; +so have the Travertines of Tuscany, Naples, and Rome, and the +Tufas, which are an essential constituent of the Neapolitan soil.</p> + +<p>The pampas of South America—which consist of an argillaceous +soil of a deep reddish-brown colour, with horizontal beds of marly +clay and calcareous tufa, containing shells either actually living now +in the Atlantic, or identical with fresh-water shells of the country—ought +surely to be considered as a Quaternary deposit, of even +greater extent than the preceding.</p> + +<p>We are now approaching so near to our own age, that we can, as +it were, trace the hand of Nature in her works. Professor Ramsay +shows, in the Memoirs of the Government Geological Survey, that +beds nearly a mile in thickness have been removed by denudation +from the summit of the Mendip Hills, and that broad areas in South +Wales and the neighbouring counties have been denuded of their +higher beds, the materials being transported elsewhere to form newer +strata. Now, no combination of causes has been imagined which has +not involved submersion during long periods, and subsequent elevation +for periods of longer or shorter duration.</p> + +<p>We can hardly walk any great distance along the coast, either of +England or Scotland, without remarking some flat terrace of unequal +breadth, and backed by a more or less steep escarpment—upon such +a terrace many of the towns along the coast are built. No geologist +now doubts that this fine platform, at the base of which is a deposit +of loam or sandy gravel, with marine shells, had been, at some period, +the line of coast against which the waves of the ocean once broke at +high water. At that period the sea rose twenty, and thirty, and some +places a hundred feet higher than it does now. The ancient sea-beaches +in some places formed terraces of sand and gravel, with +littoral shells, some broken, others entire, and corresponding with +species in the seas below; in others they form bold projecting promontories +or deep bays. In an historical point of view, this coast-line +should be very ancient, though it may be only of yesterday in a +geological sense—its origin ascending far beyond written tradition.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_487" id="Page_487">[487]</a></span> +The wall of Antoninus, raised by the Romans as a protection from +the attacks of the Caledonians, was built, in the opinion of the best +authorities, not in connection with the old, but with the new coast-line. +We may, then, conclude that in <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 140, when the greater +part of this wall was constructed, the zone of the ancient coast-line +had attained its present elevation above the actual level of +the sea.</p> + +<p>The same proofs of a general and gradual elevation of the country +are observable almost everywhere: in the estuary of the Clyde, canoes +and other works of art have been exhumed, and assigned to a recent +period. Near St. Austell, and at Carnon, in Cornwall, human skulls +and other relics have been met with beneath marine strata, in which +the bones of whales and still-existing species of land-quadrupeds were +imbedded. But in the countries where hard limestone rocks prevail, +in the ancient Peloponnesus, along the coast of Argolis and Arcadia, +three and even four ranges of ancient sea-cliffs are well preserved, +which Messrs. Boblaye and Verlet describe as rising one above the +other, at different distances from the present coast, sometimes to the +height of 1,000 feet, as if the upheaving force had been suspended +for a time, leaving the waves and currents to throw down and shape +the successive ranges of lofty cliffs. On the other hand, some +well-known historical sites may be adduced as affording evidence of +the subsidence of the coast-line of the Mediterranean in times comparatively +modern. In the Bay of Baiæ, the celebrated temple of +Serapis, at Puzzuoli, near Naples, which was originally built about 100 +feet from the sea, and at or near its present level, exhibits proofs of +having gradually sunk nineteen feet, and of a subsequent elevation +of the ground on which the temple stands of nearly the same +amount.</p> + +<p>So, also, about half a mile along the sea-shore, and standing at +some distance from it, in the sea, there are the remains of buildings +and columns which bear the name of the Temples of the Nymphs +and of Neptune. The tops of these broken columns are now +nearly on a level with the surface of the water, which is about five +feet deep.</p> + +<p>With respect to the littoral deposits of the Quaternary period, +they are of very limited extent, except in a few localities. They +are found on the western coast of Norway, and on the coasts of +England. In France, an extensive bed of Quaternary formation is +seen on the shores of the ancient Guienne, and on other parts of the +coast, where it is sometimes concealed by trees and shrubs, or by +blown sand, as at Dax in the Landes, where a steep bank may be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_488" id="Page_488">[488]</a></span> +traced about twelve miles inland, and parallel with the present coast, +which falls suddenly about fifty feet from a higher platform of the +land, to a lower one extending to the sea. In making some excavations +for the foundations of a building at Abesse, in 1830, it was +discovered that this fall consisted of drift-sand, filling up a steep +perpendicular cliff about fifty feet high, consisting of a bed of Tertiary +clay extending to the sea, a bed of limestone with Tertiary shells and +corals, and, at the summit, the Tertiary sand of the Landes. The +marine beds, together with the alluvium of the rivers, have given +rise to those deposits which occur more especially near the mouths +of rivers and watercourses.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"><a name="Fig_201" id="Fig_201"></a> +<img src="images/illo499.png" alt="Fig. 201" width="450" height="341" /> +<p class="caption">Fig. 201.—Shell of Planorbis corneus.</p></div> + +<hr class="footnote" /> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote_98" id="Footnote_98"></a><a href="#FNanchor_98"><span class="label">[98]</span></a> H. Woodward, <i>Geological Magazine</i>, vol. viii., p. 193.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_99" id="Footnote_99"></a><a href="#FNanchor_99"><span class="label">[99]</span></a> “Darwin’s Journal,” p. 130.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_100" id="Footnote_100"></a><a href="#FNanchor_100"><span class="label">[100]</span></a> “Journal of Researches,” &c., 2nd ed., p. 133. Charles Darwin.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_101" id="Footnote_101"></a><a href="#FNanchor_101"><span class="label">[101]</span></a> “Journal of Researches,” &c., by Charles Darwin, p. 81.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_102" id="Footnote_102"></a><a href="#FNanchor_102"><span class="label">[102]</span></a> “Journal of Researches,” &c., by Charles Darwin, 2nd ed., p. 81.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_103" id="Footnote_103"></a><a href="#FNanchor_103"><span class="label">[103]</span></a> “Reliquiæ Diluvianæ,” by the Rev. W. Buckland, 1823, p. 19.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_104" id="Footnote_104"></a><a href="#FNanchor_104"><span class="label">[104]</span></a> “Elements of Geology,” p. 122.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_105" id="Footnote_105"></a><a href="#FNanchor_105"><span class="label">[105]</span></a> <i>Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc.</i>, 1859.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_106" id="Footnote_106"></a><a href="#FNanchor_106"><span class="label">[106]</span></a> <i>Revue des Deux Mondes</i>, p. 925; March 1, 1847.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_107" id="Footnote_107"></a><a href="#FNanchor_107"><span class="label">[107]</span></a> “Carte des Anciens Glaciers des Alpes,” pp. 8-10. (1860.)</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_108" id="Footnote_108"></a><a href="#FNanchor_108"><span class="label">[108]</span></a> Professor Ramsay, “The Old Glaciers of North Wales.” Longman, 1860.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_109" id="Footnote_109"></a><a href="#FNanchor_109"><span class="label">[109]</span></a> In 1840 Dr. Buckland described the occurrence of boulders of Criffel +Granite between Shalbeck and Carlisle, and attributed their position to the agency +of ice floating across the Solway Firth.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_110" id="Footnote_110"></a><a href="#FNanchor_110"><span class="label">[110]</span></a> Mr. Darbishire records seventy species from Macclesfield and Moel Tryfaen, +taken together, of which 6 are Arctic, and 18 are not known in the Upper Crag.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_111" id="Footnote_111"></a><a href="#FNanchor_111"><span class="label">[111]</span></a> The typical species in West Lancashire are <i>Tellina Balthica</i>, <i>Cardium edule</i>, +<i>C. aculeatum</i>, <i>C. rusticum</i>, <i>Psammobia ferroensis</i>, <i>Turritella terebra</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_112" id="Footnote_112"></a><a href="#FNanchor_112"><span class="label">[112]</span></a> <i>Geological Magazine</i>, vol. iii., p. 483.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_113" id="Footnote_113"></a><a href="#FNanchor_113"><span class="label">[113]</span></a> <i>Revue des Deux Mondes.</i></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_114" id="Footnote_114"></a><a href="#FNanchor_114"><span class="label">[114]</span></a> “Ossements fossiles. Discours sur les Révolutions du Globe.”</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_115" id="Footnote_115"></a><a href="#FNanchor_115"><span class="label">[115]</span></a> Lyell’s “Elements of Geology,” p. 175.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_116" id="Footnote_116"></a><a href="#FNanchor_116"><span class="label">[116]</span></a> It is told of a former distinguished and witty member of the Geological +Society that, having obtained possession of the rooms on a certain day, when +there was to be a general meeting, he decorated its walls with a series of cartoons, +in which the parts of the members were strangely reversed. In one cartoon +Ichthyosauri and Plesiosauri were occupied with the skeleton of Homo sapiens; +in another, a party of Crustaceans were occupied with a cranium suspiciously +like the same species; while in a third, a party of Pterichthys were about to dine +on a biped with a suspicious resemblance to a certain well-conditioned F.G.S. of +the day.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_117" id="Footnote_117"></a><a href="#FNanchor_117"><span class="label">[117]</span></a> “Époques de la Nature,” vol. xii., pp. 322-325. 18mo. Paris, 1778.</p> + +</div> + +<hr class="c25" /> +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_489" id="Page_489">[489]</a></p> +<h2>EPILOGUE.</h2> + +<p>Having considered the past history of the globe, we may now be +permitted to bestow a glance upon the future which awaits it.</p> + +<p>Can the actual state of the earth be considered as definitive? The +revolutions which have fashioned its surface, and produced the Alps +in Europe, Mount Ararat in Asia, the Cordilleras in the New +World—are they to be the last? In a word, will the terrestrial +sphere for ever preserve the form under which we know it—as it +has been, so to speak, impressed on our memories by the maps of +the geographers?</p> + +<p>It is difficult to reply with any confidence to this question; +nevertheless, our readers will not object to accompany us a step +further, while we express an opinion, founded on analogy and scientific +induction.</p> + +<p>What are the causes which have produced the present inequalities +of the globe—the mountain-ranges, continents, and waters? The +primordial cause is, as we have had frequent occasion to repeat, the +cooling of the earth, and the progressive solidification of the external +crust, the nucleus of which still remains in a fluid or viscous state. +These have produced the contortions, furrows, and fractures which +have led to the elevation of the great mountain-ranges and the depression +of the great valleys—which have caused some continents to +emerge from the bed of ocean and have submerged others. The +secondary causes which have contributed to the formation of a vast +extent of dry land are due to the sedimentary deposits, which have +resulted in the creation of new continents by filling up the basins of +the ancient seas.</p> + +<p>Now these two causes, although in a minor degree, continue in +operation to the present day. The thickness of the terrestrial crust +is only a small fraction compared to that of the internal liquid mass. +The principal cause, then, of the great dislocations of the earth’s crust +is, so to speak, at our gates; it threatens us unceasingly. Of this the +earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, which are still frequent in our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_490" id="Page_490">[490]</a></span> +day, give us disastrous and incontestable proofs. On the other +hand, our seas are continually forming new land: the bed of the +Baltic Sea, for instance, is gradually rising, in consequence of the +deposits which will obviously fill up its area entirely in an interval +of time which it might not be impossible to calculate.</p> + +<p>It is, then, probable that the actual condition of the surface and +the respective limits of seas and continents have nothing fixed or +definite in them—that they are, on the contrary, open to great modifications +in the future.</p> + +<p>There is another problem much more difficult of solution than the +preceding, but for which neither induction nor analogy furnish us with +any certain data—viz., the perpetuity of our species. Is man doomed +to disappear from the earth some day, like all the races of animals +which preceded him, and prepared the way for his advent? Will a +new <i>glacial period</i>, analogous to that which, during the Quaternary +period, was felt so rigorously, again come round to put an end to his +existence? Like the Trilobites of the Silurian period, the great +Reptiles of the Lias, the Mastodons of the Tertiary, and the Megatheriums +of the Quaternary epoch, is the human species to be annihilated—to +perish from the globe by a simple natural extinction? Or +must we believe that man, gifted with the attribute of reason, marked, +so to say, with the Divine seal, is to be the ultimate and supreme +term of creation?</p> + +<p>Science cannot pronounce upon these grave questions, which +exceed the competence, and extend beyond the circle of human +reasoning. It is not impossible that man should be only a step in +the ascending and progressive scale of animated beings. The Divine +Power which has lavished upon the earth life, sentiment, and thought; +which has given organisation to plants; to animals, motion, sensation, +and intelligence; to man, in addition to these multiple gifts, the +faculty of reason, doubled in value by the ideal—reserves to Himself +perhaps in His wisdom the privilege of creating alongside of +man, or after him, a being still more perfect. This new being, religion +and modern poesy would present in the ethereal and radiant +type of the Christian angel, with moral qualities whose nature and +essence would escape our perceptions—of which we could no more +form a notion than one born blind could conceive of colour, or the +deaf and dumb of sound. <i>Erunt æquales angelis Dei.</i> “They will +be as the angels of God,” says Holy Scripture, speaking of man +raised to the life eternal.</p> + +<p>During the Metamorphic epoch the <i>mineral kingdom</i> existed +alone; the rocks, silent and solitary, were all that was yet formed of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_491" id="Page_491">[491]</a></span> +the burning earth. During the Primary epoch, the vegetable kingdom, +newly created, extended itself over the whole globe, which it +soon covered from pole to pole with an uninterrupted mass of +verdure. During the Secondary and Tertiary epochs, the vegetable +and animal kingdoms divided the earth between them. In the +Quaternary epoch the <i>human kingdom</i> appeared. Is it in the future +destinies of our planet to receive yet another lord? And after the +four kingdoms which now occupy it, is there to be a <i>new kingdom</i> +created, the attributes of which can never be anything but an impenetrable +mystery, and which will differ from man in as great a degree +as man differs from the other animals, and plants from rocks?</p> + +<p>We must be contented with suggesting, without hoping to solve, +this formidable problem. It is a great mystery, which, according to +the fine expression of Pliny, “lies hidden in the majesty of Nature,” +<i>latet in majestate naturæ</i>; or (to speak more in the spirit of Christian +philosophy) it is known only to the Almighty Creator of the +Universe.</p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_492" id="Page_492"></a></p> +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_493" id="Page_493">[493]</a></p> + +<h2><span class="fsize150 gesp">TABLE</span><br /> +OF<br /> +<span class="fsize125">BRITISH SEDIMENTARY AND FOSSILIFEROUS STRATA.</span></h2> + +<p class="fsize125 center"><span class="smcap">By H. W. BRISTOW.</span></p> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_494" id="Page_494">[494]</a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="Plate_Last" id="Plate_Last"></a> +<img src="images/illo505.png" alt="Strata" width="350" height="600" /></div> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_495" id="Page_495">[495]</a></p> + +<table class="fsize80 coll nowrap" summary="Table p 495"> + +<tr> +<td class="bt bl bb br"> </td> +<td colspan="5" class="center bt br bb"><span class="smcap">Subdivisions.</span></td> +<td colspan="3" class="center bt br bb"><span class="smcap">Foreign<br />Equivalents.</span></td> +<td class="center bt br bb"><span class="smcap">Origin.</span></td> +<td class="center bt br bb"><span class="smcap">Commercial<br />Products.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bl br bb"><span class="smcap">Post Pliocene.</span></td> +<td colspan="2" class="bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bb">Blown Sand.<br />Raised Beaches.<br />Alluvium.<br />Brick Earth.<br />River Gravel.<br />Cave +Deposits.<br />Glacial Deposits.</td> +<td colspan="2" class="bb br"> </td> +<td colspan="2" class="bb"> </td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 bb br">Mud of the Nile.<br />Loess of the Rhine.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 bb br">Various.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br bb">Peat.<br />Amber.<br />Gold, Diamonds,<br />and other Gems<br />derived from the<br />older +deposits.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bl br bb"><span class="smcap">Pliocene.</span></td> +<td colspan="2" class="bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bb">Crags.</td> +<td colspan="2" class="bb br"> </td> +<td colspan="2" class="bb"> </td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 bb br">Sub-Apennine<br />Strata.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br bb">Marine</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br bb">Phosphatic Nodules.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bl br bb"><span class="smcap">Miocene.</span></td> +<td colspan="2" class="bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bb">Leaf Beds and Lignite.</td> +<td colspan="2" class="bb br"> </td> +<td colspan="2" class="bb"> </td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 bb br">Molasse.<br />Faluns of Touraine.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 bb br">and</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br bb">Pipeclay.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bl br bb"><span class="smcap">Eocene.</span></td> +<td colspan="2" class="bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bb">Upper Eocene.<br />Bagshot Beds.<br />London Clay.<br />Reading Beds, &c.</td> +<td colspan="2" class="bb br"> </td> +<td colspan="2" class="bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bb br">Calcaire Grossier.<br />Nummulitic Lime-<br />stones (European<br />and Asiatic).</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 bb br">Freshwater.<br />Estuarine<br />and<br />Marine.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br bb">Sand, Brown Coal,<br />Pipeclay,<br />Cement Stone,<br />Bricks, and Pottery.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="thinrow bl br"> </td> +<td colspan="5" class="thinrow br"> </td> +<td colspan="3" class="thinrow br"> </td> +<td class="thinrow br"> </td> +<td class="thinrow br"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bl br"><span class="smcap">Upper Cretaceous.</span></td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">White and Grey Chalk.<br />Upper Greensand.</td> +<td colspan="2" class="br"> </td> +<td class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">Maestricht Beds.<br />Senonien Turonien.</td> +<td rowspan="4" class="center padl1 padr1 br">Marine<br />and<br />Freshwater<br />(Wealden).</td> +<td rowspan="4" class="center padl1 padr1 br">Flints from Up. Chalk.<br />Phosphate of Lime.<br />Iron Pyrites.<br />Sandy +Ironstones.<br />Building Stone.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="thinrow bl br"> </td> +<td colspan="5" class="thinrow br"> </td> +<td colspan="3" class="thinrow br"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="bl br"> </td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Gault.</td> +<td rowspan="2" class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="2" class="left padl0 br">‒</td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">Albien.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bl br"><span class="smcap">Lower Cretaceous.</span></td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Lower Greensand.<br />Wealden Beds, &c.</td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left padr1 padl1 br">Aptien.<br />Neocomian.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="thinrow bl br bb"> </td> +<td colspan="5" class="thinrow br bb"> </td> +<td colspan="3" class="thinrow br bb"> </td> +<td class="thinrow br bb"> </td> +<td class="thinrow br bb"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="thinrow bl br"> </td> +<td colspan="5" class="thinrow br"> </td> +<td colspan="3" class="thinrow br"> </td> +<td class="thinrow br"> </td> +<td class="thinrow br"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bl br"><span class="smcap">Upper Oolitic.</span></td> +<td class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Purbeck.<br />Portland and Kimeridge.</td> +<td colspan="2" class="br"> </td> +<td colspan="3" class="br"> </td> +<td class="center br">Estuarine<br />and Marine.</td> +<td rowspan="4" class="center br bb">Coal, Jet,<br />Iron Ores,<br />Roofing Slates,<br />Building Stones,<br />and Flags.<br />Alum +Shales.<br />Hydraulic Lime-<br />stones.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bl br"><span class="smcap">Middle Oolitic.</span></td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Coral Rag & Oxford Clay.</td> +<td colspan="2" class="br"> </td> +<td colspan="3" class="br"> </td> +<td class="br"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bl br"><span class="smcap">Lower Oolitic.</span></td> +<td class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Cornbrash.<br />Forest Marble and Great<br />Oolite.<br />Stonesfield Slate.<br />Inferior Oolite.</td> +<td colspan="2" class="br"> </td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">Jura Formation.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br">Marine.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="br bb bl"> </td> +<td colspan="2" class="bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bb">Lias.</td> +<td colspan="2" class="bb br"> </td> +<td colspan="3" class="br bb"> </td> +<td class="br bb"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bl bb br"><span class="smcap">Keuper.<br />Bunter.</span></td> +<td colspan="2" class="bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bb">Rhætic.<br />New Red Marl, Sandstone,<br />and Conglomerate.<br />Sandstone & Pebble Beds.</td> +<td colspan="2" class="br bb"> </td> +<td colspan="2" class="bb"> </td> +<td class="center br bb">Muschelkalk absent<br />in British Isles.</td> +<td class="center br bb">Inland Seas.<br />Salt Lakes.</td> +<td class="center br bb">Gypsum.<br />Rock Salt.<br />Building Stones.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bl br"><span class="smcap">Magnesian Lime-<br />stone.</span></td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Red Marls and Magnesian<br />Limestone.</td> +<td colspan="2" class="br"> </td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td rowspan="2" class="center br bb">Zechstein.<br />Kupferschiefer.<br />Rothliegende.</td> +<td rowspan="2" class="center padl1 padr1 top br bb">Marine.</td> +<td rowspan="2" class="center padl1 padr1 br bb">Building Stones.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bl br bb"><span class="smcap">Lower Permian.</span></td> +<td colspan="2" class="bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bb">Red Marl, Sandstone, and<br />Conglomerate.</td> +<td colspan="2" class="br bb"> </td> +<td colspan="2" class="bb"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bl br bb"><span class="smcap">Carboniferous.</span></td> +<td colspan="2" class="bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bb">Coal Measures.<br />Millstone Grit.<br />Yoredale Rocks.<br />Mountain Limestone.</td> +<td colspan="2" class="br bb"> </td> +<td colspan="2" class="bb"> </td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br bb top">Carboniferien.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br bb">Terrestrial<br />and<br />Marine.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br bb">Coal, Anthracite.<br />Iron and Lead Ores.<br />Bldng. Stone,Marble.<br />Oil Springs.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bl br bb"><span class="smcap">Devonian<br />and<br />Old Red Sandstone.</span></td> +<td colspan="2" class="bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bb">Devonian Slates and<br />Limestones.<br />Old Red Sandstone, &c.</td> +<td colspan="2" class="bb br"> </td> +<td colspan="2" class="bb"> </td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br bb top">Eifel Limestone.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br bb">Marine<br />and<br />Freshwater.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br bb">Ornamental Marbles.<br />Serpentine & Slates.<br />Tin, Copper, Lead,<br />Silver Ores, +&c.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="thinrow bl br"> </td> +<td colspan="5" class="thinrow br"> </td> +<td colspan="3" class="thinrow br"> </td> +<td class="thinrow br"> </td> +<td class="thinrow br"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bl br"><span class="smcap">Upper Silurian.</span></td> +<td class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Ludlow.<br />Wenlock.<br />Upper Llandovery.</td> +<td rowspan="3" colspan="2" class="br"> </td> +<td rowspan="3" colspan="2"> </td> +<td rowspan="3" class="center padl1 padr1 br bot">Primordial Zone.</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="center padl1 padr1 br">Marine.</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="center padl1 padr1 br">Roofing Slates.<br />Building Stones.<br />Gold & other Metals.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="thinrow bl br"> </td> +<td colspan="5" class="thinrow br"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bl br"><span class="smcap">Lower Silurian.</span></td> +<td class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Lower Llandovery.<br />Bala and Caradoc.<br />Llandeilo.<br />Lingula Flags.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="thinrow bl br bb"> </td> +<td colspan="5" class="thinrow br bb"> </td> +<td colspan="3" class="thinrow br bb"> </td> +<td class="thinrow br bb"> </td> +<td class="thinrow br bb"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bl br bb"><span class="smcap">Cambrian.</span></td> +<td colspan="2" class="bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bb">Harlech Grits.<br />Llanberis Slates.</td> +<td colspan="2" class="br bb"> </td> +<td colspan="2" class="bb"> </td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br bb">Huronian of<br />America.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br bb">Marine.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br bb">Roofing Slates.<br />Gold & other Metals.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bl br bb"><span class="smcap">Laurentian.</span></td> +<td colspan="2" class="bb"> </td> +<td class="left padr1 padl1 bb"><span style="margin-left: 4em;">Gneiss</span><br />of the Outer Hebrides, and<br />N.W. +Coast of Scotland.</td> +<td colspan="2" class="br bb"> </td> +<td colspan="2" class="bb"> </td> +<td class="center br bb">Labradorite Series<br />in Canada.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br bb">Marine.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br bb">Serpentine.<br />Graphite.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="11" class="tabind bl br"><span class="smcap">Metamorphic Rocks</span> (<i>of all ages</i>):—<br /> +<span style="padding-left: 5em;">Gneiss, Mica-schist, Quartzite, Talcose-schist, &c. (Serpentine probably?)</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="11" class="tabind bl br bb"><span class="smcap">Intrusive Rocks</span> (<i>of all ages</i>):—<br /> +<span style="padding-left: 5em;">Lavas, Basalt, Trachyte, Pitchstone, &c.</span><br /> +<span style="padding-left: 5em;">Granite, Syenite, Greenstone, Felstone, Porphyrites, Melaphyres, Mica-Traps, &c. &c.</span></td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<hr class="c25" /> +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_496" id="Page_496">[496]</a></p> + +<h2>EXTENSION OF THE PREVIOUS TABLE.</h2> + +<table class="fsize80" summary="Table p 496"> + +<tr> +<td class="thinrow"> </td> +<td style="width: .5em;" class="thinrow"> </td> +<td style="width: .5em;" class="thinrow"> </td> +<td class="thinrow"> </td> +<td style="width: .5em;" class="thinrow"> </td> +<td style="width: .5em;" class="thinrow"> </td> +<td class="thinrow"> </td> +<td style="width: .5em;" class="thinrow"> </td> +<td style="width: .5em;" class="thinrow"> </td> +<td class="thinrow"> </td> +<td style="width: .5em;" class="thinrow"> </td> +<td style="width: .5em;" class="thinrow"> </td> +<td class="thinrow"> </td> +<td style="width: .5em;" class="thinrow"> </td> +<td style="width: .5em;" class="thinrow"> </td> +<td style="width: 3em;" class="thinrow"> </td> +<td style="width: .5em;" class="thinrow"> </td> +<td style="width: .5em;" class="thinrow"> </td> +<td style="width: 1.5em;" class="thinrow"> </td> +<td style="width: .5em;" class="thinrow"> </td> +<td style="width: .5em;" class="thinrow"> </td> +<td style="width: 1em;" class="thinrow"> </td> +<td style="width: .5em;" class="thinrow"> </td> +<td style="width: .5em;" class="thinrow"> </td> +<td class="thinrow"> </td> +<td style="width: .5em;" class="thinrow"> </td> +<td style="width: .5em;" class="thinrow"> </td> +<td style="width: .5em;" class="thinrow"> </td> +<td style="width: .5em;" class="thinrow"> </td> +<td class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="50" class="left padl1 padr1">AGE<br />OF<br />MAM-<br />MALS.</td> +<td rowspan="50" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="50" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="18" class="left padl1 padr1">POST<br />TERTIA-<br />RY.</td> +<td rowspan="18" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="18" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="18" colspan="3"> </td> +<td rowspan="18" class="left padl1 padr1">PLEISTO-<br />CENE,<br /><span class="smcap">or<br />Quater-<br />nary.</span></td> +<td rowspan="18" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="18" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="6" class="left padl1 padr1"><span class="smcap">Recent<br />and<br />Pre-<br />Historic.</span></td> +<td rowspan="6" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="6" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="15" class="left padl1">Blown Sand and Shingle.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="15" class="left padl1">Alluvium and River Deltas.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="15" class="left padl1">Burtle Beds of Somerset.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="15" class="left padl1">Clay, with Scrobicularia of Pagham, Morecombe, &c.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="15" class="left padl1">Submerged Forests of Bristol Channel, &c.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="15" class="left padl1">Peat Bogs of Ireland and Peat Beds of England.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="18" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="5" class="left padl1 padr1">Post<br />Glacial</td> +<td rowspan="5" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="5" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="15" class="left padl1">Raised Beaches.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="4" class="left padl1 padr1">Cave Deposits</td> +<td class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="9" class="left padl1">Cave Earth and Loam.<br />Stalagmite and Bone-breccia.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="15" class="left padl1">River Gravels, Brick Earths, and Freshwater Clays, with Mammalian Remains.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="15" class="left padl1">Gravels of Bedford Levels, Salisbury, and other Old Valley Gravels and Alluvia.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="15" class="left padl1">Tufa and Shell-marl.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="18" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="3" class="left padl1 padr1">Glacial</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="15" class="left padl1">Kaimes or Kames of Scotland.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="15" class="left padl1">Eskers or Escars of Ireland.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="15" class="left padl1">Drift (Upper Boulder Clay or Till, Marine Gravels, Lower Till and Moraines), Scotch and Welsh, Loess of the Rhine, &c.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="18" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Pre-<br />glacial</td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td colspan="15" class="left padl1">Forest Bed of Norfolk Shore.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="28" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="31" class="left padl1 padr1">KAINO-<br />ZOIC,<br />OR<br />TERTIA-<br />RY.</td> +<td rowspan="31" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="31" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="8" colspan="3"> </td> +<td rowspan="3" class="left padl1 padr1">PLIO-<br />CENE.</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="3" class="left padl1 padr1">Crag</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="7" class="left padl1">Mammaliferous Crag</td> +<td rowspan="2" class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="2" class="left padl0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="2" colspan="6" class="left padl1"><i>Norwich and Chillesford Crag</i> (Newer Pliocene).</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="7" class="left padl1">Red Crag</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="15" class="left padl1">Coralline Crag (<i>Suffolk Crag</i>) (Older Pliocene).</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="24" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="3" colspan="4" class="left padl1 padr1">MIOCENE.</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="15" class="left padl1">Leaf Bed of Mull.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="15" class="left padl1">Lignite of Antrim.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="15" class="left padl1">Bovey Beds, with Lignite.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="24" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="23" class="left padl1 padr1">EO-<br />CENE.</td> +<td rowspan="23" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="23" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="7" class="left padl1 padr1"><span class="smcap">Upper<br />Eocene.</span></td> +<td rowspan="7" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="7" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="4" class="left padl1 padr1">Hemp-<br />stead<br />Beds</td> +<td rowspan="4" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="4" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="12" class="left padl1">Corbula Beds.</td> +<td rowspan="14" class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="14" class="left padl0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="14" class="left padl1">Fluvio-Marine Series.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Upper</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="3" class="left padl0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="3" colspan="9" class="left padl1 padr1">Freshwater and Estuary Marls.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Middle</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Lower</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="18" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="2" class="left padl1 padr1">Bem-<br />bridge<br />Beds</td> +<td rowspan="2" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="2" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="15" class="left padl1">Bembridge Marls.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="15" class="left padl1"><span class="padl4 padr5">„</span>Limestone.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="21" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="10" class="left padl1 padr1"><span class="smcap">Middle<br />Eocene.</span></td> +<td rowspan="10" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="10" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="2" class="left padl1 padr1">Osborne<br />Beds</td> +<td rowspan="2" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="2" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="12" class="left padl1">St. Helen's Sands.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="12" class="left padl1">Nettlestone Grits.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="18" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="3" class="left padl1 padr1">Headon<br />Beds</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Upper</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="3" class="left padl0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="3" colspan="9" class="left padl1 padr1">Headon Beds.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Middle</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Lower</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="18" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="3" class="left padl1 padr1">Bagshot<br />Beds</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="4" class="left padl1">Upper Bagshot</td> +<td colspan="11" class="left">Sand.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="4" class="left padl1 padr1">Middle<span class="padl3">„</span></td> +<td class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="9" class="left padl1">Barton Clay.<br />Bracklesham Beds.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="4" class="left padl1">Lower <span class="padl3">„</span></td> +<td colspan="11" class="left">Sand and Pipeclay, with Plants.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="21" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="4" class="left padl1 padr1"><span class="smcap">Lower<br />Eocene.</span></td> +<td rowspan="4" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="4" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="4" class="left padl1 padr1">London<br />Tertia-<br />ries</td> +<td rowspan="4" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="4" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="15" class="left padl1">London Clay and Bognor Beds (Upper London Tertiaries).</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="10" class="left padl1">Oldhaven Beds.</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="3" class="left padl0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="3" colspan="3" class="left padl1">Lower do.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="10" class="left padl1">Woolwich and Reading Beds (Plastic Clay).</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="10" class="left padl1">Thanet Beds.</td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<hr class="c25" /> + +<p class='pagenum'><a name="Page_497" id="Page_497">[497]</a></p> + +<table class="fsize80" summary="Table p 497"> + +<tr> +<td class="thinrow"> </td> +<td class="thinrow" style="width: .5em;"> </td> +<td class="thinrow" style="width: .5em;"> </td> +<td class="thinrow"> </td> +<td class="thinrow" style="width: .5em;"> </td> +<td class="thinrow" style="width: .5em;"> </td> +<td class="thinrow"> </td> +<td class="thinrow" style="width: .5em;"> </td> +<td class="thinrow" style="width: .5em;"> </td> +<td class="thinrow"> </td> +<td class="thinrow" style="width: .5em;"> </td> +<td class="thinrow" style="width: .5em;"> </td> +<td class="thinrow"> </td> +<td class="thinrow" style="width: .5em;"> </td> +<td class="thinrow" style="width: .5em;"> </td> +<td class="thinrow"> </td> +<td class="thinrow" style="width: .5em;"> </td> +<td class="thinrow" style="width: .5em;"> </td> +<td class="thinrow"> </td> +<td class="thinrow" style="width: .5em;"> </td> +<td class="thinrow" style="width: .5em;"> </td> +<td class="thinrow"> </td> +<td class="thinrow" style="width: .5em;"> </td> +<td class="thinrow" style="width: .5em;"> </td> +<td class="thinrow" style="width: .5em;"> </td> +<td class="thinrow" style="width: .5em;"> </td> +<td class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="77" class="left padr1 padl1">MESO-<br />ZOIC,<br />OR<br />SECON-<br />DARY.</td> +<td rowspan="77" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="77" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="22" colspan="3"> </td> +<td rowspan="22" class="left padl1 padr1">CRETA-<br />CEOUS.</td> +<td rowspan="22" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="22" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="8" class="left padl1 padr1"><span class="smcap">Upper<br />Creta-<br />ceous.</span></td> +<td rowspan="8" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="8" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="4" colspan="7" class="left padl1 padr1">Chalk</td> +<td rowspan="4" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="4" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Upper Chalk, with Layers of Flint (Maestricht and Faxoe Beds).</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Lower Chalk, without Flints.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Chalk Marl.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Chloritic Marl.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="18" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="7"> </td> +<td class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Upper Greensand (Fire-stone of Surrey, Malm-rock), &c.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="18" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="7"> </td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Gault.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="21" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="13" class="left padl1 padr1"><span class="smcap">Lower<br />Creta-<br />ceous,<br />or<br />Neo-<br />comian.</span></td> +<td rowspan="13" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="13" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="17" class="left padl1 padr1">Weal-<br />den.</td> +<td rowspan="17" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="17" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="13" class="left padl1 padr1">Neo-<br />co-<br />mian.</td> +<td rowspan="13" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="13" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="4" class="left padl1 padr1">Lower<br />Green-<br />sand</td> +<td rowspan="4" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="4" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Folkestone Beds (Sand).</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Sandgate Beds (with Fullers’ Earth).</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Hythe Beds (with Kentish Rag and Bargate Stone).</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Atherfield Clay.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="14" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Weald Clay (with Sussex or Bethersden Marble and Horsham Stone).</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="14" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="6" class="left padl1 padr1">Has-<br />tings<br />Sands</td> +<td rowspan="6" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="6" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="3" class="left padl1 padr1">Upper Tunbridge Wells Sand</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="3" class="left padl0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="left padl1">Tunbridge Wells Beds.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="3" class="left padl1 padr1">Grinstead Clay</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="3" class="left padl1 padr1">Lower Tunbridge Wells Sand</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Wadhurst Clay (with Iron Ore).</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Ashdown Sands.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Ashburnham Beds.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="9" class="thinrow"> </td> +<td colspan="12" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="40" class="left padl1 padr1">JURAS-<br />SIC<br />SERIES.</td> +<td rowspan="40" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="40" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="34" class="left padl1 padr1">OO-<br />LITIC<br />SERIES.</td> +<td rowspan="34" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="34" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="7" class="left padl1 padr1"><span class="smcap">Upper<br />Oolite.</span></td> +<td rowspan="7" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="7" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="3" colspan="3"> </td> +<td rowspan="3" class="left padl1 padr1">Pur-<br />beck</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="3" class="left padl1 padr1">Upper (with Purbeck Marble)</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="3" class="left padl0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="left padl1">Purbeck Beds.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="3" class="left padl1 padr1">Middle</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="3" class="left padl1 padr1">Lower (with Dirt Beds)</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="18" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="3" colspan="7" class="left padl1 padr1">Portland</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Portland Stone.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Portland Sand.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Kimeridge Clay (with Bituminous Shale).</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="21" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="6" class="left padl1 padr1"><span class="smcap">Middle<br />Oolite.</span></td> +<td rowspan="6" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="6" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="3" colspan="7" class="left padl1 padr1">Coralline Oolite</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Upper Calcareous Grit.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Coral Rag (with Iron Ore).</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Lower Calcareous Grit.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="18" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="2" colspan="7" class="left padl1 padr1">Oxford Clay</td> +<td rowspan="2" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="2" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Oxford Clay and</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Kellaways Rock.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="18" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="25" class="left padl1 padr1"><span class="smcap">Lower<br />Oolite.</span></td> +<td rowspan="25" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="25" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="3" colspan="7">Forest Marble</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Cornbrash.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="3" class="left padl1 padr1">Forest Marble and</td> +<td rowspan="2" class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="2" class="left padl0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="3" class="left padl1 padr1">Bradford Clay (with Encrinites)</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="18" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="2" colspan="7">Great Oolite</td> +<td rowspan="2" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="2" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Great or Bath Oolite (with “Fullers’ Earth” at base, in S. of England).</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Stonesfield Slate, near the base, in part of S. of England.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="18" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="3" colspan="7">Fullers’ Earth</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Upper Fullers’ Earth (Clay).</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Fullers’ Earth Rock (Limestone).</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Lower Fullers’ Earth (Clay).</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="18" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="8" colspan="7">Inferior Oolite</td> +<td rowspan="8" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="8" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Northampton Sand (with Iron Ore, in N. Oxfordshire and S. Northamptonshire).</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Ragstone and Clypeus Bed.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Upper Freestone.</td> +<td rowspan="4" class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="4" class="left padl0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="4" colspan="3" class="left padl1">Cheltenham Sections.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Oolite Marl.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Lower Freestone.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Pea Grit.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">(Colleyweston Slate, at the base of the Limestone, in Lincolnshire).</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Sands.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="21" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="5" colspan="4" class="center br"><span class="smcap">Age of Reptiles,<br />or<br />Saurozoic Epoch.</span></td> +<td rowspan="5" class="left padl1 padr1">Lias.</td> +<td rowspan="5" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="5" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="4" class="left padl1 padr1">Upper Lias</td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Clay and Shale.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="14" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="4" class="left padl1">Middle Lias,</td> +<td colspan="2" class="center">or</td> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Marlstone (Rock Bed, with Iron Ore, Sand, &c.).</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="14" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="4" class="left padl1">Lower Lias</td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Clay, Shale, and Limestone.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="24" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="13" class="left padl1 padr1">POIKI-<br />LITIC<br />SERIES.</td> +<td rowspan="13" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="13" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="13" class="left padl1 padr1"><span class="smcap">Trias,<br />or<br />New Red<br />Sand-<br />stone.</span></td> +<td rowspan="13" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="13" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="7" class="left padl1 padr1"><span class="smcap">Upper<br />Trias.</span></td> +<td rowspan="7" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="7" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="3" colspan="7" class="left padl1 padr1">Rhætic, or Penarth Beds.</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">“White Lias,” Avicula contorta Beds, with Koessen Beds.<span class='pagenum' style="font-size: 100%;"><a name="Page_498" id="Page_498">[498]</a></span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Bone Beds of Aust, &c.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1"><i>St. Cassian and Hallstadt Beds.</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="18" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="3" colspan="7">Keuper</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Red variegated Marl and Upper Keuper Sandstone (with Gypsum and Rock Salt).</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Lower Keuper Sandstone and Marl (Waterstones).</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Dolomitic Conglomerate (of Keuper Age, Somerset, Gloucester, and S. Wales).</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="21" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1"><span class="smcap">Middle<br />Trias.</span></td> +<td class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl0">‒</td> +<td colspan="7"> </td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1"><i>Muschelkalk, absent in Britain.</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="21" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="3" class="left padl1 padr1"><span class="smcap">Lower<br />Trias.</span></td> +<td rowspan="3" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="3" colspan="7">Bunter</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Upper Red and Mottled Sandstone.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Pebble Beds, Calcareous Conglomerate, and Breccia.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1">Lower Red and Mottled Sandstone.</td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<hr class="c25" /> + +<table class="fsize80" summary="Table p 498-499"> + +<tr> +<td class="thinrow"> </td> +<td class="thinrow" style="width: .5em;"> </td> +<td class="thinrow" style="width: .5em;"> </td> +<td class="thinrow"> </td> +<td class="thinrow" style="width: .5em;"> </td> +<td class="thinrow" style="width: .5em;"> </td> +<td class="thinrow"> </td> +<td class="thinrow" style="width: .5em;"> </td> +<td class="thinrow" style="width: .5em;"> </td> +<td class="thinrow"> </td> +<td class="thinrow" style="width: .5em;"> </td> +<td class="thinrow" style="width: .5em;"> </td> +<td class="thinrow"> </td> +<td class="thinrow" style="width: .5em;"> </td> +<td class="thinrow" style="width: .5em;"> </td> +<td class="thinrow"> </td> +<td class="thinrow" style="width: .5em;"> </td> +<td class="thinrow" style="width: .5em;"> </td> +<td class="thinrow" style="width: .5em;"> </td> +<td class="thinrow" style="width: .5em;"> </td> +<td class="thinrow"> </td> +<td class="thinrow" style="width: .5em;"> </td> +<td class="thinrow" style="width: .5em;"> </td> +<td class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="23"> </td> +<td class="center"><span class="smcap">Germany.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="24" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="60" class="left padl1 padr1">PALÆO-<br />ZOIC, OR<br />PRIMARY.</td> +<td rowspan="60" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="60" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="25" class="left padl1 padr1">UPPER<br />PALÆO-<br />ZOIC.<br /><span class="smcap">Age of<br />Fishes,<br />or Ichthyo-<br />zoic<br />Epoch.</span></td> +<td rowspan="25" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="25" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="6" colspan="4" class="left padl1 padr1"><span class="smcap">Permian.</span></td> +<td rowspan="6" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="6" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="4" class="left padl1 padr1">Upper, or<br />Magnesian<br />Limestone<br />Series.</td> +<td rowspan="4" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="4" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1 padr1">Upper Red Marl and Sandstone</td> +<td rowspan="4" class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="4" class="left padl0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="4" class="left padl1">Zechstein.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1 padr1">Upper Magnesian Limestone</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1 padr1">Lower Red Marl and Sandstone</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="6" class="left padl1 padr1">Lower Magnesian Limestone</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="12" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Lower, or<br />Rothliegende.</td> +<td class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="9" class="left padl1">Red Marl, Sandstone, Breccia, Röthe-liegende, and Conglomerate.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="18" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="14" colspan="4" class="left padl1 padr1"><span class="smcap">Carboniferous Series.<br />Age of Plants, or<br />Phytozoic Epoch.</span></td> +<td rowspan="14" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="14" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="3"> </td> +<td colspan="3" class="center"><span class="smcap">England.</span></td> +<td colspan="2" > </td> +<td colspan="4" class="center"><span class="smcap">Scotland.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="12" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="5" class="left padl1 padr1">Coal<br />Measures</td> +<td rowspan="5" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="5" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Upper Coal Measures</td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td rowspan="5" class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="5" class="left padl0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="5" colspan="4" class="left padl1">Upper Coal Measures.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Middle Coal Measures</td> +<td rowspan="2" class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="2" class="left padl0">‒</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Pennant Grit</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Lower Coal Measures</td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1">Gannister Beds</td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="12" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="3" class="left padl1 padr1">Millstone Grit or Farewell Rock</td> +<td class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td class="left padl0">‒</td> +<td colspan="4" class="left padl1">Moor Rock.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="12" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="4" class="left padl1 padr1">Carboni-<br />ferous, or<br />Mountain<br />Limestone.</td> +<td rowspan="4" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="4" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="3" class="left padl1 padr1">Upper Limestone Shale (Yoredale Rocks)</td> +<td rowspan="2" class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="2" class="left padl0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="2" colspan="4" class="left padl1">Upper Limestones.<br />Edge Coals Series.<br />Lower Limestones.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="3" class="left padl1 padr1">Carboniferous Limestone</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="9" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="3" class="left padl1 padr1">Lower Limestone Shale</td> +<td class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="4" class="left padl1">Sandstones, Shales, and Burdie House Limestone.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="18" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="3" colspan="4" class="left padl1 padr1"><span class="smcap">Old Red Sandstone<br />and Devonian.</span></td> +<td rowspan="3" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="3" class="left padl1 padr1">Old Red<br />Sandstone,<br />or<br />Devonian<br />Beds.</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="9" class="left padl1">Upper Devonian or Barnstaple and Marwood Beds, with Petherwin Limestone, in N.E. Cornwall.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="9" class="left padl1">Middle Devonian or Ilfracombe Beds, with Fossiliferous Limestones and Cornstones.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="9" class="left padl1">Lower Devonian, or Lynton Beds.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="21" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="12"> <span class='pagenum' style="font-size: 100%;"><a name="Page_499" id="Page_499">[499]</a></span></td> +<td colspan="3" class="center"><span class="smcap">Wales and Central England.</span></td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +<td colspan="4" class="center"><span class="smcap">Lake District.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="21" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="24" class="left padl1 padr1">LOWER<br />PALÆO-<br />ZOIC.<br /><span class="smcap">Age of<br />Crusta-<br />ceans ond<br />Molluscs,<br />or<br />Malacozoic<br />Epoch.</span></td> +<td rowspan="24" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="24" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="24" class="left padl1 padr1"><span class="smcap">Silurian.</span></td> +<td rowspan="24" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="24" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="17" class="left padl1 padr1"><span class="smcap">Upper<br />Silurian.</span></td> +<td rowspan="17" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="17" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="3"> </td> +<td colspan="3" class="left padl1 padr1">Tilestones (Passage Beds)</td> +<td rowspan="3" class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="3" class="left padl0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="3" colspan="4" class="left padl1">Kirkby Moor Flags.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="6" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="4" class="left padl1 padr1">Ludlow<br />Beds</td> +<td rowspan="4" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="4" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="3" class="left padl1 padr1">Upper Ludlow Beds (with Bone Bed)</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="12" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="3" class="left padl1 padr1">Aymestry Limestone</td> +<td rowspan="5" class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="5" class="left padl0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="5" colspan="4" class="left padl1">Bannisdale Beds.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="3" class="left padl1 padr1">Lower Ludlow Beds</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="6" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="5" class="left padl1 padr1">Wenlock<br />Beds</td> +<td rowspan="5" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="5" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="3" class="left padl1 padr1">Wenlock Limestone</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="3" class="left padl1 padr1">Wenlock Shale, Sandstone, and Flags</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="9" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="3" class="left padl1 padr1">Woolhope Limestone and Shale</td> +<td rowspan="2" class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="2" class="left padl0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="2" colspan="4" class="left padl1">Coniston Grits and Flags.<br />Stockdale Slates.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="3" class="left padl1 padr1">Denbighshire Grits, Shales, Slates, and Flags</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="12" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="3"> </td> +<td colspan="9" class="left padl1">Tarannon Shale (Pale Slates).</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="12" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="2" class="left padl1 padr1">Llandovery<br />Beds</td> +<td rowspan="2" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="2" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="9" class="left padl1">Upper Llandovery Rocks.<br /><span style="padding-left: 2em;">(May Hill Sandstone).</span> +<br /><span style="padding-left: 2em;">(Pentamerus Beds).</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="9" class="left padl1">Lower Llandovery Rocks.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="15" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="6" class="left padl1 padr1"><span class="smcap">Lower<br />Silurian.</span></td> +<td rowspan="6" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="6" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="2" class="left padl1">Caradoc,<br />or<br />Bala Beds.</td> +<td rowspan="2" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="2" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="3" class="left padl1 padr1">Caradoc and Bala Beds.</td> +<td rowspan="4" class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="4" class="left padl0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="4" colspan="4" class="left padl1">Coniston Limestone, Bala (Limestone and Shale)<br />Skiddaw Slates.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="3" class="left padl1 padr1">(Sandstones often shelly, with Bala Limestone, Shale, and Slate)</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="6" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="2" class="left padl1 padr1">Llandeilo</td> +<td rowspan="2" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="2" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="3" class="left padl1 padr1">Llandeilo Flags and Limestone, &c.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="9" class="left padl1">Tremadoc Slates.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="3" class="left padl1 padr1">Lingula<br />Beds</td> +<td colspan="9" class="left padl1">Lingula Flags. (Primordial Zone of Barrande).</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="21" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td rowspan="7" class="left padl1 padr1">EOZOIC.</td> +<td rowspan="7" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="7" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="5" colspan="4" class="left padl1 padr1"><span class="smcap">Cambrian.</span></td> +<td rowspan="5" class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="5" class="left padl0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="5" class="left padl1 padr1">Cambrian</td> +<td rowspan="5" class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td rowspan="5" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="9" class="left padl1">Harlech Grits, &c.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="9" class="left padl1">Purple Slates and Grits (St. David's).</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="9" class="left padl1">Llanberis Grits and Slates.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="9" class="left padl1">Longmynd Rocks.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="9" class="left padl1">Red Sandstone and Conglomerate (Scotland).</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="18" class="thinrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="7"><span class="smcap">Laurentian</span></td> +<td class="right padr0">‒</td> +<td class="bt bl bb"> </td> +<td colspan="9" class="left padl1">Fundamental Gneiss of the Outer Hebrides and of the N.W. coast of Scotland, &c., containing the oldest known fossil, <i>Eozoon Canadense</i>.</td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<hr class="c25" /> +<h2>INDEX.</h2> + +<div class="fsize80"> + +<hr class="c05" style="margin: 0 auto;" /> +<p class="center"><sup>*</sup><sub>*</sub><sup>*</sup> ITALICS ARE WOODCUT ILLUSTRATIONS.</p> +<hr class="c05" style="margin: 0 auto;" /> + +<ul class="index"> +<li>Abbeville, <a href="#Page_475">475</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span>Peat-beds and Flint-tools of, <a href="#Page_476">476</a>.</li> +<li>Abietinæ, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>.</li> +<li>Acacia, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>.</li> +<li><i>Acanthodes</i>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li> +<li>Acephala of the Oolite, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</li> +<li>Acephalous or headless Molluscs, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li> +<li>Acerites cretaceæ, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>.</li> +<li>Acrodus nobilis, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.</li> +<li>Acrogens, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li> +<li>Adams, Mr., discoveries of, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>.</li> +<li>Adapis, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>.</li> +<li>Adelsberg Cave, <a href="#Page_430">430</a>.</li> +<li><i>Adeona folifera</i>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>.</li> +<li>Adhémar’s Glacial Hypothesis, <a href="#Page_436">436</a>.</li> +<li>Adiantites, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.</li> +<li>Agassiz on Glaciers, <a href="#Page_439">439</a>.</li> +<li>Age of Angiosperms, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> Formations, how ascertained, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>.</li> +<li>Ailsa Craig, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li> +<li>Air Volcano at Turbaco, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.</li> +<li>Albien of D’Orbigny, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>.</li> +<li>Albite, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.</li> +<li>Aleutian Isles, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.</li> +<li>Algæ, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>.</li> +<li>Alkaline Waters of Plombières, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li> +<li>Alleghany Mountains, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.</li> +<li>Alluvial Deposits, <a href="#Page_485">485</a>.</li> +<li>Almites Frescii, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.</li> +<li>Alps, upheaval of, <a href="#Page_427">427</a>.</li> +<li>Alveolites, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>.</li> +<li>Amber, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>.</li> +<li>Amblypterus, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.</li> +<li>Amiens, Peat-beds of, <a href="#Page_475">475</a>.</li> +<li><i>Ammonite, a perfect</i>, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> <i>restoration of an</i>, <a href="#Page_215">216</a>.</li> +<li>Ammonites, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr5">„</span> <i>rostratus</i>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr5">„</span> <i>Turneri</i>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr5">„</span> of Jurassic Period, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr5">„</span> rotundus, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr5">„</span> Herveyii, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr5">„</span> Danicus, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li> +<li>Amorphozoa, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>.</li> +<li>Ancient Glaciers of the Rhine, Linth, and the Reus, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>.</li> +<li>Ancient Granite, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.</li> +<li>Ancyloceras, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li> +<li><i>Andrias Scheuchzeri</i>, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>.</li> +<li>Angiosperms, Age of, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr6">„</span> Seeds, in a Seed-vessel, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>.</li> +<li>Animal of the Ohio, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span> of Paraguay, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>.</li> +<li>Annelides, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li> +<li>Anning, Mary, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>.</li> +<li>Annularia, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> <i>orifolia</i>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>.</li> +<li>Anodon, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>.</li> +<li>Anomopteris, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>.</li> +<li>Anoplotherium, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr6">„</span> <i>commune</i>, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>.</li> +<li>Anorthite, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.</li> +<li>Antediluvian Glaciers, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr6">„</span>Man, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>.</li> +<li>Anthracite, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.</li> +<li>Antiquity of Man, <a href="#Page_469">469</a>.</li> +<li>Antwerp Crag, <a href="#Page_373">373</a>.</li> +<li>Ape, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl1 padr2">„</span> First Appearance of<span class='pagenum' style="font-size: 100%;"><a name="Page_502" id="Page_502">[502]</a></span>, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>.</li> +<li><i>Apiocrinites liliiformis</i>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span><i>rotundus</i>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>.</li> +<li><i>Aploceras</i>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.</li> +<li>Aptien (Greensand of Apt) Fossils of Havre, of the Isle of Wight, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>.</li> +<li>Apuan Alps, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>.</li> +<li><i>Arborescent Ferns</i>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.</li> +<li>Arbroath Paving-stone, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.</li> +<li>Archæopteryx, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</li> +<li><i>Archegosaurus minor</i>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>.</li> +<li>Arctocyon primævus, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>.</li> +<li>Arenicolites, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.</li> +<li>Argile de Dives, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span>plastique, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>.</li> +<li>Armentaceæ, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>.</li> +<li>Arran, Granite of, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>.</li> +<li>Artesian Wells, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.</li> +<li>Artificially-formed Coal, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>.</li> +<li><i>Asaphus caudatus</i>, <a href="#Page_105">103</a>.</li> +<li>Ashburnham Sands, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.</li> +<li>Ashdown Sands, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.</li> +<li>Ashes, Showers of Volcanic, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</li> +<li>Asiatic Deluge, <a href="#Page_423">423</a>; caused by upheaval of Caucasian Range, <a href="#Page_480">480</a>.</li> +<li>Asplenium, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.</li> +<li>Asteracanthus, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>.</li> +<li>Asterias lombricalis, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>.</li> +<li>Asterophyllites, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr6">„</span> <i>foliosa</i>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>.</li> +<li>Atherfield Series of Rocks, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>.</li> +<li>Atlantis of Plato, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>.</li> +<li><i>Atrypa reticularis</i>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li> +<li>Auchenaspis, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.</li> +<li>Aucolin, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</li> +<li>Augite, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.</li> +<li>Auvergne, Mountains of, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> Acidulated Springs in, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> Extinct Volcanoes of, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.</li> +<li>Aveyron Savage, <a href="#Page_469">469</a>.</li> +<li>Avicula, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> contorta, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> contorta zone, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>.</li> +<li>Azores, New Islands formed in the, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.</li> +<li> </li> +<li>Baculites, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>.</li> +<li>Bagshot Beds, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>.</li> +<li>Bajocien Formation, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>.</li> +<li>Bala Beds, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>.</li> +<li>Balæna of Monte Pulgnasco, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>.</li> +<li>Balænodon Lamanoni, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>.</li> +<li>Balistes, or Silurus, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>.</li> +<li>Baltic Sea filling up, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_490">490</a>.</li> +<li><i>Banksia</i>, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>.</li> +<li>Barmouth Sandstone, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.</li> +<li><i>Basalt in Prismatic Columns</i>, <a href="#Page_49">47</a>.</li> +<li>Basalt, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> Action of, upon Limestone, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> of Ireland, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> Prismatic Structure of, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li> +<li>Basaltic Formations, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> Causeways, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> <i>Plateau, theoretical view of</i>, <a href="#Page_46">47</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> Cavern of Staffa, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li> +<li>Bat, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>.</li> +<li>Bath Oolite, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li> +<li>Bathonian Formation, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>.</li> +<li>Batrachian Reptiles of Pliocene, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li> +<li>Baumann’s Hohl, <a href="#Page_429">429</a>.</li> +<li>Bay of Fundy, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.</li> +<li>Beaver, Disappearance of, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> of Post-Pliocene Period, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>.</li> +<li>Beds of Coal, Formation of, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.</li> +<li>Bees, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</li> +<li><i>Belemnite restored</i>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span>of Liassic Period, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.</li> +<li>Belemnites, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr5">„</span><i>acutus</i>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.</li> +<li>Bellerophon, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span> <i>costatus</i>, <a href="#Page_143">145</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span> <i>hiulcus</i>, <a href="#Page_143">145</a>.</li> +<li><i>Beloptera Sepioidea</i>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_434">434</a>.</li> +<li>Bembridge Series, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>.</li> +<li>Ben Nevis, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>.</li> +<li>Bernese Alps, <a href="#Page_427">427</a>.</li> +<li><i>Beryx Lewesiensis</i>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>.</li> +<li>Biblical Account of Noachian Deluge, <a href="#Page_480">480</a>.</li> +<li>Bidiastopora cervicornis, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</li> +<li>Bigsby, Dr. J. T., on Silurian Fauna and Flora, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>.</li> +<li>Binney, Edw., on Boulder Clay of Lancashire, <a href="#Page_462">462</a>.</li> +<li><i>Bird of Solenhofen</i>, <a href="#Page_266">265</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl1 padr2">„</span>of Montmartre, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>.</li> +<li>Birds, First Appearance of, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span> of Eocene Period, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span> of Miocene Period, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>.</li> +<li>Bison primigenius, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span> priscus, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>.</li> +<li>Bituminous Fountains, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</li> +<li>Black Down Beds, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>.</li> +<li>Boccaccio’s Giant, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>.</li> +<li>Bogs of Denmark, <a href="#Page_477">477</a>.</li> +<li>Bone-beds of Rhætic, or Penarth Series<span class='pagenum' style="font-size: 100%;"><a name="Page_503" id="Page_503">[503]</a></span>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>.</li> +<li>Bone-breccias, <a href="#Page_429">429</a>.</li> +<li>Bone Caves, <a href="#Page_429">429</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span> <span class="padl2 padr2">„</span> H. W. Bristow on formation of, <a href="#Page_475">475</a>.</li> +<li><i>Bos</i>, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl1 padr2">„</span>Pallasii, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl1 padr2">„</span>Primigenius, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.</li> +<li>Bracheux Sands, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>.</li> +<li>Brachiopoda, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span> Abundance of, in Devonian Period, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span> in Upper Cretaceous Period, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span> Reign of, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li> +<li>Brachyphyllum, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>.</li> +<li>Bracklesham Beds, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>.</li> +<li>Bradford Clay, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr4">„</span>Encrinites, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>.</li> +<li><i>Branch of Banksia</i>, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span><i>Eucalyptus</i>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>.</li> +<li>Bray Head, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.</li> +<li>Breccia, Ossiferous, <a href="#Page_432">432</a>.</li> +<li>Brecciated Limestone, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>.</li> +<li>Bridlington Beds, <a href="#Page_460">460</a>.</li> +<li>Bristow, H. W., on Formation of Bone Caves, <a href="#Page_475">475</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr6">„</span>on Brixham Bone-cave, <a href="#Page_473">473</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr6">„</span>on Penarth or Rhætic Beds, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>.</li> +<li>British Islands at close of Jurassic Period, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>.</li> +<li><i>British Strata</i>, Section of, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr6">„</span>Table of, <a href="#Page_493">493</a>-<a href="#Page_499">499</a>.</li> +<li>Brixham Bone-cave, <a href="#Page_473">473</a>.</li> +<li>Brongniart, Ad., on Upper Cretaceous Fauna, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>.</li> +<li>Bronze Age, <a href="#Page_478">478</a>.</li> +<li>Brumberg Cavern, <a href="#Page_432">432</a>.</li> +<li>Buckland, Dr., on Kirkdale Cave, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>.</li> +<li>Buffon and Voltaire, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> on Man, <a href="#Page_470">470</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> on Fossils, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.</li> +<li>Bunter Sandstone, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>.</li> +<li>Burrh Stone, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>.</li> +<li>Butterflies, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</li> +<li> </li> +<li>Caithness Flags, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.</li> +<li>Calamary, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>.</li> +<li><i>Calamite restored</i>, <a href="#Page_134">135</a>.</li> +<li>Calamites, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span>arenaceus, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span><i>cannæformis</i>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span><i>Trunk of</i>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.</li> +<li>Calcaire de la Beauce, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> Grossier, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>.</li> +<li>Calceola Sandalina, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li> +<li>Calderas, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.</li> +<li><i>Calymene Blumenbachii</i>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>.</li> +<li>Cambrian Period, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr4">„</span> Fauna, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.</li> +<li>Camper, Pierre, on the Mosasaurus, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> <span class="padl2 padr2">„</span> <span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> Œningen Skeleton, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>.</li> +<li>Camptopteris crenata, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>.</li> +<li>Canstadt Excavations, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>.</li> +<li>Cantal Group of Mountains, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> <span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> <span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> <i>a peak of</i>, <a href="#Page_39">40</a>.</li> +<li>Cape Wrath, Granite and Gneiss of, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.</li> +<li>Capitosaurus, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>.</li> +<li>Caradoc Beds, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>.</li> +<li>Carboniferous Flora, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr6">„</span><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span> compared with that of Islands in the Pacific, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li> +<li>Carboniferous Limestone, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr6">„</span> Period, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr6">„</span> Vegetation of, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr6">„</span> Climate of, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr6">„</span> Foraminifera of, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr6">„</span> of France, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr6">„</span> Crustaceans of, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr6">„</span> Rocks, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr6">„</span> Seas, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.</li> +<li>Cardiocarpon, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>.</li> +<li>Cardium Rhæticum, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> striatulum, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>.</li> +<li>Carpinites arenaceus, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>.</li> +<li>Carrara Marble, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>.</li> +<li><i>Caryophylla cyathus</i>, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>.</li> +<li>Causeways, Basaltic, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li> +<li>Cave Bear, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>, <a href="#Page_473">473</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span>Deposits, <a href="#Page_468">468</a>, <a href="#Page_472">472</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span>Hyæna, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span>Lion, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>.</li> +<li>Caverns, their Origin, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.</li> +<li>Cellaria loriculata, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>.</li> +<li>Central Heat of the Earth, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr6">„</span> Increase of in Depth, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>.</li> +<li>Central France, Puys of, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.</li> +<li><i>Cephalaspis</i>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.</li> +<li>Cephalopoda, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>.</li> +<li>Ceratites<span class='pagenum' style="font-size: 100%;"><a name="Page_504" id="Page_504">[504]</a></span>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.</li> +<li><i>Ceratites nodosus</i>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.</li> +<li>Cerithium, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>.</li> +<li><i>Cerithium plicatum</i>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span><i>telescopium</i>, <a href="#Page_334">335</a>.</li> +<li>Cervus megaceros, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>.</li> +<li>Cestracion, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>.</li> +<li>Cetaceans of Pliocene Period, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>.</li> +<li>Cetiosaurus, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</li> +<li>Chæropotamus, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>.</li> +<li>Chætetes, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.</li> +<li>Chalk Formation, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr6">„</span> <i>Foraminifera of</i>, <a href="#Page_149">146</a>.</li> +<li>Chalk Marl, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span> White, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span> <i>of Cattolica, Sicily</i>, <a href="#Page_281">280</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span> <i>of Gravesend</i>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span> <i>of Isle of Moën</i>, <a href="#Page_278">279</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span> <i>of Meudon</i>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>.</li> +<li>Chara, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.</li> +<li>Cheirotherium, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>.</li> +<li>Chemical Theory of the Earth, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>.</li> +<li>Chesil Bank, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>.</li> +<li>Chillesford Beds, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>.</li> +<li>Chimæra, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>.</li> +<li>Chloë, Isle of, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li> +<li>Chondrites, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</li> +<li>Chorda-filum, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.</li> +<li>Christiana Granite and Syenite, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>.</li> +<li>Cinder Bed of Purbeck, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>.</li> +<li>Cipoline Marble, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>.</li> +<li>Cirripedes, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>.</li> +<li>Clermont-Ferrand, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.</li> +<li>Climate of the Coal Period, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr6">„</span>Permian Period, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>.</li> +<li><i>Climatius</i>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li> +<li>Clinkstone, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>.</li> +<li><i>Clymenia Sedgwickii</i>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li> +<li>Coal, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl1 padr2">„</span> Formation of, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl1 padr2">„</span> Origin of, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl1 padr2">„</span> Theories Respecting Formation of, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl1 padr2">„</span> <i>Stratification of Beds of</i>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl1 padr2">„</span> Quantities annually raised in different Countries, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl1 padr2">„</span> Quantity of, in United Kingdom, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</li> +<li>Coal Measures, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr6">„</span> Composition of, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr6">„</span> Extent of, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr6">„</span> Flora of, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr6">„</span> of Scotland, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr6">„</span> of South Wales, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr6">„</span> of Belgium, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr6">„</span> of France, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr6">„</span> Time of Formation, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr6">„</span> Composition of, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.</li> +<li><i>Coal Mines of Treuil</i>, <a href="#Page_159">160</a>.</li> +<li><i>Coccosteus</i>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.</li> +<li>Cœlacanthus, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.</li> +<li>Composition of Air in Carboniferous Period, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.</li> +<li>Comptonia, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>.</li> +<li>Confervæ of the Chalk, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</li> +<li>Conglomerates, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.</li> +<li>Conifers of Jurassic Period, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> of Cretaceous Period, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> of Eocene Period, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> of Miocene Period, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> of Pliocene Period, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li> +<li><i>Contortions of Coal Beds</i>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</li> +<li>Conybeare’s Account of Plesiosaurus, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>.</li> +<li>Copper Slate, Fossils of, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr6">„</span><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> of Thuringia, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>.</li> +<li>Coprolites, Petrified Excrements of Antediluvian Animals, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_373">373</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> <i>of Ichthyosaurus, enclosing Bones</i>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> <i>of Ichthyosaurus, showing Cast of Intestines</i>, <a href="#Page_226">225</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> Bed of Cambridge, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</li> +<li>Coral Rag, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>.</li> +<li>Coralline Crag, Corals of, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>.</li> +<li>Corals, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>.</li> +<li>Cornbrash, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>.</li> +<li>Cornstone, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.</li> +<li>Cornwall, Granite of, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>.</li> +<li>Coryphodon, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>.</li> +<li>Cotham Marble, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.</li> +<li><i>Coupe, la, d’Ayzac</i>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>.</li> +<li>Crag, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>.</li> +<li>Creation of Man, <a href="#Page_464">464</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span><span class="padl1 padr2">„</span>Evidences of, <a href="#Page_469">469</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span>World, Scriptural Account of, Defended, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>.</li> +<li>Credneria, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>-<a href="#Page_300">300</a>.</li> +<li>Crematopteris, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>.</li> +<li>Cretaceous Period, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr5">„</span><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span> Fauna of, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr5">„</span><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span> Flora of<span class='pagenum' style="font-size: 100%;"><a name="Page_505" id="Page_505">[505]</a></span>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr5">„</span><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span> Reptiles of, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr5">„</span><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span> Fishes of, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>.</li> +<li>Crinoidea, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li> +<li>Crioceras, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr4">„</span> <i>Duvallii</i>, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>.</li> +<li>Crocodile of Maestricht, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>.</li> +<li>Crocodilus Toliapicus, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>.</li> +<li>Croll, J., on Till, <a href="#Page_457">457</a>.</li> +<li>Crust of the Earth, Composition of, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr4">„</span><span class="padl3 padr4">„</span>Thickness of, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr4">„</span><span class="padl3 padr4">„</span>Temperature of, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.</li> +<li>Crustaceans, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span> Predominance of, in Lower Silurian Seas, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span> Rarity of in Carboniferous Period, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span> of Eocene Period, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span> of Miocene Period, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</li> +<li>Cryptogamia, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.</li> +<li>Crystalline Action, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> Limestone, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> Rocks Defined, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>.</li> +<li>Cucumites, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.</li> +<li>Cupanioides, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.</li> +<li><i>Cupressocrinus crassus</i>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.</li> +<li>Cuvier’s Account of Plesiosaurus, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> Account of Pterodactyle, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> on the Restoration of Extinct Animals, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> on the Destruction of Species, <a href="#Page_381">381</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> on the Mammoth, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>.</li> +<li>Cyathophyllum, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.</li> +<li>Cycadeaceæ, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>.</li> +<li>Cycads, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>.</li> +<li><i>Cycas circinalis</i>, <a href="#Page_167">168</a>.</li> +<li>Cypress, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>.</li> +<li>Cypris, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> fasciculata, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> <i>spinigera and C. Valdensis</i>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>.</li> +<li><i>Cyrtoceras depressum</i>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>.</li> +<li> </li> +<li>Damara, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.</li> +<li>Danian Beds, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li> +<li>Danish Peat Mosses and Kjökken Mödden, <a href="#Page_477">477</a>.</li> +<li>Dartmoor, Granite of, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>.</li> +<li>Darwin, C., on Coral Formations, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr6">„</span> Volcanoes of Quito, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>.</li> +<li>Daubeny on Basalt, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.</li> +<li>Davidsonia Verneuilli, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li> +<li>Dawkins, W. B., Discoverer of Microlestes, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>.</li> +<li>De la Beche on the Plesiosaurus, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>.</li> +<li>De Rance, C. E., on Glacial Deposits, <a href="#Page_458">458</a>.</li> +<li>Deer, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>.</li> +<li>Deluge confirmed by traditions of all Ancient Races, <a href="#Page_482">482</a>.</li> +<li>Denudation, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>.</li> +<li>Descartes, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>.</li> +<li>Destruction of Successive Creations, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.</li> +<li>Devon and Cornwall, Granite of, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>.</li> +<li>Devonian Period, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span>System, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span>Flora, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span><i>Fishes</i>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.</li> +<li>Diameter of the Earth, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>.</li> +<li>Diceras Limestone, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</li> +<li>Dicotyledons, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>.</li> +<li>Diluvium, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>, <a href="#Page_423">423</a>.</li> +<li>Dinornis, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>.</li> +<li><i>Dinornis</i>, <a href="#Page_417">414</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>.</li> +<li>Dinotherium, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span> <i>restored</i>, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>.</li> +<li>Diorite, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.</li> +<li><i>Diplacanthus</i>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li> +<li>Dirt-bed, Fossils of, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>.</li> +<li>Dodo, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.</li> +<li>Dolomite, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>.</li> +<li>Domite, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>.</li> +<li>Donati on Fossil Shells, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.</li> +<li>Downs, North and South, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>.</li> +<li>Downton Sandstone, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>.</li> +<li><i>Draco volans</i>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>.</li> +<li>Draconidæ, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>.</li> +<li>Dragon Fly, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</li> +<li>Dragons of Mythology, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>.</li> +<li>Drifted Rocks, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>.</li> +<li>Drôme, the, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</li> +<li>Dryopithecus, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.</li> +<li>Dykes, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>.</li> +<li> </li> +<li>Early Geologists, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>.</li> +<li>Earth, Cooling of the, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span> Theories of the Origin of the, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span> <i>in a Gaseous State</i>, <a href="#Page_80">81</a>.</li> +<li>Earth’s Crust, Thickness of, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> Surface, Changes of, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>.</li> +<li>Earthy Limestone, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>.</li> +<li>Ebur Fossile, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>.</li> +<li>Echinoderms, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>.</li> +<li>Edentates<span class='pagenum' style="font-size: 100%;"><a name="Page_506" id="Page_506">[506]</a></span>, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>.</li> +<li>Ehrenberg’s Microscopic Investigations, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>.</li> +<li>Electric Currents, Action of, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>.</li> +<li>Elephant of the Ohio, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>.</li> +<li>Elephants, Fossil, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>.</li> +<li>Elephants’ Cemetery at Canstadt, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>.</li> +<li>Elephas meridionalis, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>primigenius, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>.</li> +<li>Emys, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>.</li> +<li>Encrinites, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> Abundance of during Devonian Period, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.</li> +<li><i>Encrinus liliiformis</i>, <a href="#Page_189">190</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>.</li> +<li>Entalophora cellarioides, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</li> +<li>Eocene Strata of France and England, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>.</li> +<li>Eocene, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>Period, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>Vegetation, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>Fauna, Seas, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>Characters of, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>Table of Strata, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>.</li> +<li>Epilogue, <a href="#Page_489">489</a>.</li> +<li>Epiornis, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>.</li> +<li>Equiseta (Horse-tails), <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.</li> +<li>Erratic Blocks, <a href="#Page_424">424</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr6">„</span> <i>of the Alps</i>, <a href="#Page_447">448</a>.</li> +<li><i>Eruption of Granite</i>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</li> +<li>Eruptive Rocks, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr6">„</span> Plutonic Eruptions, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr6">„</span> Volcanic <span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.</li> +<li><i>Eryon arctiformis</i>, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>.</li> +<li>Erymanthean Boar, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.</li> +<li>Estimated Coal Measures of the World, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.</li> +<li>Etheridge, R., on Devonian and Old Red Sandstone, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.</li> +<li>Etna, Volcano of Mount, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li> +<li><i>Eucalyptus</i>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>.</li> +<li>Eunomia radiata, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>.</li> +<li>Europe at Close of Cretaceous Period, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> Pliocene Period, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>.</li> +<li>European Deluge, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>.</li> +<li>Eurypterus, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr5">„</span> <i>remipes</i>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>.</li> +<li><i>Exogyra conica</i>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li> +<li>Expansion of the Earth at the Equator, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.</li> +<li>Extinct Volcanoes of Auvergne, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.</li> +<li>Eye of Ichthyosaurus, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>.</li> +<li> </li> +<li>Falconer, Dr., on Brixham Cave, <a href="#Page_473">473</a>.</li> +<li>Faluns, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>of Paris Basin, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>.</li> +<li>Fans, of Brecon, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.</li> +<li>Fault, a Dislocation of Strata, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>.</li> +<li>Fauna, Definition of Term, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> Devonian, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> Neocomian, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> of Permian Period, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> of the Middle Oolite, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> of the Upper Oolite, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> of Cretaceous Period, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> of Eocene Period, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> of Pliocene Period, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> of Miocene Period, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>.</li> +<li>Faxoe Beds, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</li> +<li>Felis spelæa, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>.</li> +<li>Felspar, composition of, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.</li> +<li>Fenestrella retiformis, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.</li> +<li>Ferns, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.</li> +<li>Fingal’s Cave, Staffa, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li> +<li>Fisher, Rev. O., on Chillesford Clay, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span> on Warp and Trail, <a href="#Page_461">461</a>.</li> +<li>Fishes, Silurian, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span> Bones of, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span> of Devonian Period, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span> of Carboniferous Period, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span> of Oolitic Seas, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span> of Cretaceous Seas, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span> of Eocene Period, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span> of Miocene Period, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>.</li> +<li><i>Fissurella nembosa</i>, <a href="#Page_463">463</a>.</li> +<li><i>Fissures near Locarno</i>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.</li> +<li>Flabellaria, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> Chamæropifolia, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li> +<li>Flint-tools in peat-beds, <a href="#Page_475">475</a>.</li> +<li>Flints, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>.</li> +<li>Flora of Upper Cretaceous Period, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span>of Devonian Period, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span>of Cretaceous Period, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span>of Tertiary Period, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span>of Eocene Period, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span>of Triassic Period, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span>of Miocene Period, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>, <a href="#Page_381">381</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span>of Carboniferous Period, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span>of Permian Period, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span>of Pliocene Period, <a href="#Page_381">381</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span>of Upper Oolite Period<span class='pagenum' style="font-size: 100%;"><a name="Page_507" id="Page_507">[507]</a></span>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>.</li> +<li>Fluvio-marine Crag, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>.</li> +<li>Foliation, Cause of, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>.</li> +<li>Footprints in Rocks, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span>at Corncockle Moor, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.</li> +<li>Foraminifera, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span> <i>of the Chalk</i>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span> <i>of the Mountain Limestone</i>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.</li> +<li>Forbes (Professor Ed.) on the Pliocene Marine Fauna, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>.</li> +<li>Forest-bed of Norfolk, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>.</li> +<li>Forest Marble, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>.</li> +<li><i>Formation of Primitive Granite</i>, <a href="#Page_89">90</a>.</li> +<li>Fossil, Term Defined, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> Bones, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> Uses of, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> Condition of, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> Footprints, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> Species, relations of, to existing Species, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> Ivory of Siberia, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> <i>Palms restored</i>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> Shells, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> Fishes, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> Leeches, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> Licorn, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> Unicorn, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>.</li> +<li>Fossils of Permian Formation, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> of Keuper Formation, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> of Upper Oolite, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> of Neocomian Beds, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> of Orgonian Beds, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> of Aptien Beds, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> of the Glauconie, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> of Calcaire Grossier, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> of Muschelkalk, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> of New Red Sandstone, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> of Argile Plastique, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>.</li> +<li>Fournet on the Drôme, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>on Eruptions of Granite, &c., <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>on Eruptions of Gas and Water, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li> +<li>Fox of Œningen, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>.</li> +<li><i>Fucoids</i>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li> +<li>Fuller’s Earth, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li> +<li><i>Fusulina cylindrica</i>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>.</li> +<li>Future of the Earth and Man considered, <a href="#Page_489">489</a>.</li> +<li> </li> +<li>Gabian, Bituminous Springs of, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</li> +<li>Gailenreuth, Caves of, <a href="#Page_429">429</a>, <a href="#Page_430">430</a>.</li> +<li>Galacynus Œningensis, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>.</li> +<li>Ganoid Fishes, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</li> +<li>Garonne Valley, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>.</li> +<li>Gastornis, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>.</li> +<li>Gault, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</li> +<li>Gavials of India, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>.</li> +<li>Geikie, Prof., on Till, <a href="#Page_457">457</a>.</li> +<li>Gemerelli on Fossils, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.</li> +<li><i>Geological humus</i>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span> Inferences, Hypothetical Nature of, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>.</li> +<li>Geological Record, Complexity of, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>.</li> +<li>Geology, Objects of, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> a Recent Science, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> its Influence on other Sciences, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> How to be Studied, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>.</li> +<li>Geosaurus, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>.</li> +<li>Geoteuthis, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>.</li> +<li>Gerilea protea, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>.</li> +<li><i>Geysers of Iceland</i>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_66">67</a>.</li> +<li>Giants’ Causeways, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span> <i>in the Ardèche</i>, <a href="#Page_49">48</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> Legends of, accounted for, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>.</li> +<li>Gigantology, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>.</li> +<li>Glacial Action during Permian Period, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span> Deposits of Northern England and Wales, <a href="#Page_457">457</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span> Period, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>, <a href="#Page_435">435</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span> Evidences of, <a href="#Page_463">463</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span> Regions of Europe, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span> Theory of Martins, <a href="#Page_462">462</a>.</li> +<li>Glacier System of Wales, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span> Systems, <a href="#Page_440">440</a>.</li> +<li>Glaciers of Scotland, <a href="#Page_454">454</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>of Switzerland, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>of the British Isles, <a href="#Page_457">457</a>.</li> +<li>Glauconie, or Glauconite, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>.</li> +<li>Glaucous Chalk, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>.</li> +<li>Glenroy, Parallel Roads of, <a href="#Page_456">456</a>.</li> +<li>Globe, Modification of Surface of, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>.</li> +<li>Glyptodon, the, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>.</li> +<li>Glyptolepis, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.</li> +<li>Gneiss of Cape Wrath, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> Laurentian, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> Composition of, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.</li> +<li>Goniatites, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li> +<li><i>Goniatites evolutus</i>, <a href="#Page_143">145</a>.</li> +<li>Goulet, Great and Little, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</li> +<li>Granite<span class='pagenum' style="font-size: 100%;"><a name="Page_508" id="Page_508">[508]</a></span>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>Mineral Composition of, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>How Formed, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>of St. Austell, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>of Christiana, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>of Dartmoor, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>of Cornwall and Devon, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>Eruptions of, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>Stratified or Foliated, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>Qualities of, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>How Formed, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span><i>Veins of, at Cape Wrath</i>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.</li> +<li><i>Granitic Eruptions</i>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</li> +<li>Gran Seco, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>.</li> +<li>Graptolites, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.</li> +<li><i>Gravesend Chalk, under Microscope</i>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>.</li> +<li>Great Animal of Maestricht, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>.</li> +<li>Great Oolite, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr4">„</span> Reptiles of, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li> +<li>Great Year, the, <a href="#Page_436">436</a>.</li> +<li>Green, A. H., on Glacial Deposits, <a href="#Page_458">458</a>.</li> +<li>Greensand, Upper and Lower, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</li> +<li>Greenstone, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.</li> +<li>Grès Bigarré, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.</li> +<li>Grès de Beauchamp, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>.</li> +<li>Grès des Vosges, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>.</li> +<li>Grotta del Cane, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li> +<li><i>Grotto des Demoiselles</i>, <a href="#Page_432">433</a>.</li> +<li>Grotto of Cheeses, Trèves, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li> +<li>Gryphæa dilatata, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr3">„</span> virgula, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr3">„</span> <i>incurva</i>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.</li> +<li>Gulf Stream, <a href="#Page_435">435</a>.</li> +<li>Gymnogens, Plants with Naked Ovary, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.</li> +<li>Gymnosperms, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>.</li> +<li>Gypseous Formation, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>.</li> +<li>Gypsum Quarries of Montmartre, Fossils in, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>.</li> +<li>Gyroceras, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>.</li> +<li> </li> +<li>Haidingera speciosa, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.</li> +<li>Hakea, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>.</li> +<li>Hallstadt Beds, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.</li> +<li><i>Halysites catenularius</i>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>.</li> +<li><i>Hamites</i>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>.</li> +<li>Hannibal’s Elephants, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>.</li> +<li>Harkness, Prof., on Glacial Deposits, <a href="#Page_458">458</a>.</li> +<li>Harlech Sandstones, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.</li> +<li>Hastings Sands, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>.</li> +<li>Hawaii, Volcanoes of, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.</li> +<li><i>Head of Cave-bear</i>, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span><i>of Cave-hyæna</i>, <a href="#Page_398">399</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span><i>of Mosasaurus Camperi</i>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span><i>of Rhinoceros tichorhinus</i>, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.</li> +<li>Headon Beds, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>.</li> +<li><i>Hemicosmites pyriformis</i>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>.</li> +<li>Hennessey, on the Earth’s Crust, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.</li> +<li>Hepaticas, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.</li> +<li><i>Herbaceous ferns</i>, <a href="#Page_130">131</a>.</li> +<li>Herbivora, Eocene, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>.</li> +<li>Heterocercal, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.</li> +<li>Hippopotamus, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>.</li> +<li>Hippurites, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>.</li> +<li>Holl, Dr., on Malvern Rocks, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>.</li> +<li>Holoptychius, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>.</li> +<li>Homo diluvii testis, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>.</li> +<li>Homocercal, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.</li> +<li>Hopkins, Evan, on Earth’s Antiquity, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span> on Terrestrial Magnetism, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr4">„</span> W., Theory of Central Heat, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span><span class="padl2 padr1">„</span> on the Earth’s Crust, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.</li> +<li>Horse, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>.</li> +<li>Horse-tails, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.</li> +<li>Hot Springs, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li> +<li>Hughes, T. McK., Discovery of Glutton by, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>.</li> +<li>Hull, Prof., on Trias, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> on Glacial Deposits, <a href="#Page_458">458</a>.</li> +<li>Human Jaw, <a href="#Page_472">472</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> Period, <a href="#Page_474">474</a>.</li> +<li>Hunt, Rob., Electric Experiments of, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span> Prof. Sterry, on Formation of Crystalline Schists, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.</li> +<li>Hutton’s Theory of the Earth, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>.</li> +<li>Hyæna Spelæa, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr6">„</span> <i>head of</i>, <a href="#Page_398">399</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>.</li> +<li>Hyænodon, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>.</li> +<li>Hybodus, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.</li> +<li>Hyera, Island of, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.</li> +<li>Hylæosaurus, Lizard of the Woods, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>.</li> +<li>Hymenoptera, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>.</li> +<li> </li> +<li>Iceland, Geysers of, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>Lava Streams in, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>Volcanoes of, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li> +<li>Ichthyodorulites, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.</li> +<li>Ichthyosaurus, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr6">„</span>Coprolites of<span class='pagenum' style="font-size: 100%;"><a name="Page_509" id="Page_509">[509]</a></span>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.</li> +<li><i>Ichthyosaurus communis</i>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr6">„</span> <i>platydon</i>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>.</li> +<li>Igneous Rocks, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>.</li> +<li>Iguana, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>.</li> +<li>Iguanodon, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr5">„</span> Mantelli, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr5">„</span> <i>Teeth of</i>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>.</li> +<li><i>Illænus Barriensis</i>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>.</li> +<li>Incandescence of the Globe, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr6">„</span>of the Sun, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>.</li> +<li>Indian Traditions of the Father of the Ox, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>.</li> +<li>Inferior Oolite, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>.</li> +<li>Infra-Lias, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>.</li> +<li><i>Injected Veins of Granite</i>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.</li> +<li>Insects, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>of Coal-measures, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>of Oolites, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>.</li> +<li>Iron Age, <a href="#Page_478">478</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr1">„</span> Ore in Coal-measures, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr1">„</span><span class="padl2 padr1">„</span>in Orgonian Beds, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>.</li> +<li><i>Ischadites Kœnigii</i>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>.</li> +<li>Islands, Sudden Appearance of, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.</li> +<li>Isle of Bones, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span>Lächow, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span>Portland, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span>Purbeck, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span>Wight Alligator, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>.</li> +<li> </li> +<li>Jamieson, T. F., on Glenroy, <a href="#Page_454">454</a>.</li> +<li>Jarrow Colliery, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>.</li> +<li>Java, Volcanic Mountains of, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span>Valley of Poison, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li> +<li><i>Jaw and Tooth of Megalosaurus</i>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl1 padr2">„</span><i>of Phascolotherium</i>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl1 padr2">„</span><i>of Thylacotherium</i>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.</li> +<li>Jet, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>.</li> +<li>Juglandites elegans, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>.</li> +<li>Jukes, J. B., on Devonian and Old Red Sandstone, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.</li> +<li>Jura Mountains, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>.</li> +<li>Jurassic Limestone, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>Distribution of, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>Reptiles of, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>Plants of the, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>Series, Distinguishing Features of, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>.</li> +<li> </li> +<li>Kangaroo, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.</li> +<li>Kea, Mauna, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.</li> +<li>Kellaways Rock, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>.</li> +<li>Kent’s Hole, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>, <a href="#Page_472">472</a>.</li> +<li>Kentish Rag, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>.</li> +<li>Keuper, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>Rock Salt in, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.</li> +<li>Kilauea, Volcano of, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> Eruption of, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> Crater of, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.</li> +<li>Kimeridge Clay, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>.</li> +<li>King, Prof., on Permian System, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>.</li> +<li>Kirkdale Cave, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>, <a href="#Page_429">429</a>.</li> +<li>Kjökken-Mödden, <a href="#Page_477">477</a>.</li> +<li>Koessen Beds, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.</li> +<li>Kupfer Schiefer, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>.</li> +<li> </li> +<li>Labradorite, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.</li> +<li>Labyrinthodon, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr6">„</span> <i>pachygnathus</i>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.</li> +<li><i>Labyrinthodon restored</i>, <a href="#Page_190">193</a>.</li> +<li>La Coupe d’Ayzac, Crater of, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>.</li> +<li>Lacunosus laciniatus, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.</li> +<li>Lacustrine Habitations, <a href="#Page_472">472</a>.</li> +<li>Ladies’ Fingers, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>.</li> +<li>Lake Dwellings, <a href="#Page_472">472</a>.</li> +<li>Lamellibranchs, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>.</li> +<li>Landscape Stone, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.</li> +<li>Land-turtles, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>.</li> +<li>Laplace’s Theory of the Earth, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>.</li> +<li>Lasmocyathus, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.</li> +<li>Laurentian Formation in Britain, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> Gneiss, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>.</li> +<li>Lava Formations, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span>Streams of, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.</li> +<li>Lecoq, on Triassic Vegetation, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span>Keuper Flora, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span>Cretaceous Flora, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span>Tertiary Flora, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span>Flora of Miocene Period, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span>the Vegetation of Pliocene Period, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>.</li> +<li>Leibnitz’ Fossil Unicorn, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>.</li> +<li>Lepidodendra, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>.</li> +<li>Lepidodendron carinatum, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr6">„</span> <i>elegans</i>, <a href="#Page_141">140</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr6">„</span> <i>Sternbergii</i>, <a href="#Page_138">139</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr6">„</span> <i>Sternbergii restored</i>, <a href="#Page_140">142</a>.</li> +<li>Lepidoptera, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</li> +<li><i>Lepidostrobus variabilis</i>, <a href="#Page_141">140</a>.</li> +<li>Lepidotus, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> gigas, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.</li> +<li>Leptæna Murchisoni, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li> +<li><i>Le Puy, Chain of</i>, <a href="#Page_52">51</a>.</li> +<li>Lias, The<span class='pagenum' style="font-size: 100%;"><a name="Page_510" id="Page_510">[510]</a></span>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>;</li> +<li>Lower, Upper, and Middle, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.</li> +<li>Liassic Period, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> Fauna, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> Flora, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>.</li> +<li>Libellula, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>.</li> +<li>Licorn Fossil, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>.</li> +<li>Life, First Appearance of, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl1 padr2">„</span>Abundance of, in Upper Silurian Times, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>.</li> +<li>Lignite, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>.</li> +<li>Lima gigantea, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl1 padr2">„</span> striata, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl1 padr2">„</span> proboseilea, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</li> +<li>Limestone, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span>of La Beauce, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span>of Solenhofen, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span>Metamorphism of, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.</li> +<li>Limnæa, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>.</li> +<li>Lingula, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>Credneri, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>Flags, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.</li> +<li>Lions with Curly Manes, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.</li> +<li>Lipari Isles, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li> +<li>Lithographic Limestone of Solenhofen, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>.</li> +<li><i>Lithostrotion</i>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr5">„</span> <i>basaltiforme</i>, <a href="#Page_143">145</a>.</li> +<li><i>Lituites cornu-arietis</i>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>.</li> +<li>Lizard of the Meuse, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>.</li> +<li>Llanberis Slates, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.</li> +<li>Llandeilo Flags, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>.</li> +<li>Llandovery Rocks, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.</li> +<li>Loa, Mauna, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>.</li> +<li><i>Locarno, Fissures of</i>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</li> +<li>Logan, Sir W., on Laurentian Gneiss of Canada, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>.</li> +<li>Logan, Sir W., on Underclay of Coal Measures, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>.</li> +<li>Lomatophloyos crassicaule, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.</li> +<li><i>Lonchopteris Bricii</i>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_142">144</a>.</li> +<li>London Clay, Flora of, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>.</li> +<li>Longmynd Hills, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.</li> +<li><i>Lonsdalea floriformis</i>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>.</li> +<li>Lophiodon, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>.</li> +<li>Lower Cretaceous Period, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span>Keuper Sandstone, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span>Neocomian, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span>Lias, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span>Silurian Rocks, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span>Oolite Fauna, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span>Oolite Rocks, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span>Greensand, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>.</li> +<li>Lucerne, The Giant of, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>.</li> +<li>Ludlow Bone-beds, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>Rocks, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>.</li> +<li><i>Lupea pelagica</i>, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>.</li> +<li>Lycopodiaceæ, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li> +<li>Lycopods, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>.</li> +<li>Lyell, Sir Charles, on Formation of Granite, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li> +<li>Lyell, Sir Charles, on the Upper Cretaceous Flora, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>.</li> +<li>Lyme Regis, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>.</li> +<li> </li> +<li>Machairodus, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr6">„</span><i>Tooth of</i>, <a href="#Page_379">380</a>.</li> +<li>Macrorhynchus, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>.</li> +<li>Madrepores, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>.</li> +<li>Maestricht Quarries, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> Animal of, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> Beds, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</li> +<li>Magnesian Limestone, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>.</li> +<li>Magnetism, Terrestrial, Evan Hopkins on, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>.</li> +<li>Malvern Hills, Dr. Holl on, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>.</li> +<li>Mammals, First Appearance of, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span>of Pliocene Period, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li> +<li>Mammaliferous Crag, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>.</li> +<li>Mammiferous Didelphæ, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.</li> +<li>Mammoth, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> of Ohio, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> of the Unstrut, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> Origin of Name, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> Siberian Accounts of, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>-<a href="#Page_395">395</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> <i>restored</i>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> <i>Skeleton of the</i>, <a href="#Page_382">383</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> Teeth and Tusks of, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> Tooth of the, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>.</li> +<li>Man and Animals Compared, <a href="#Page_465">465</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl1 padr2">„</span> First Appearance of, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl1 padr2">„</span> Antiquity of, considered, <a href="#Page_478">478</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl1 padr2">„</span> Age of St. Acheul Beds, <a href="#Page_479">479</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl1 padr2">„</span> Morlot’s Calculation, <a href="#Page_479">479</a>.</li> +<li>Mantell’s, Dr., Discoveries, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>.</li> +<li>Marble, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>Carrara, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>Cipoline, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>of France, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>.</li> +<li>Marbre de Flandres and M. de petit Granit, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.</li> +<li>Mare’s-tail, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>.</li> +<li>Marl<span class='pagenum' style="font-size: 100%;"><a name="Page_511" id="Page_511">[511]</a></span>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>.</li> +<li>Marl-slate, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.</li> +<li>Marlstone of the Lias, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.</li> +<li>Marsupial Mammals, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>.</li> +<li>Martins, C., on Glaciers, <a href="#Page_462">462</a>.</li> +<li>Mastodon, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> its Discovery, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> Opinions of Naturalists, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> Difference from Mammoth, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> Molar Tooth of, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> Arvernensis, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> angustidens, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> <i>restored</i>, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> <i>Skeleton of</i>, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> <i>Skeleton of the Turin</i>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> <i>Teeth of</i>, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>.</li> +<li>Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.</li> +<li>Mazuyer’s Pretended Discovery, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>.</li> +<li><i>Meandrina Dædalæa</i>, <a href="#Page_252">251</a>.</li> +<li>Mechanical Theory of the Earth, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>.</li> +<li>Megaceros Hibernicus, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>.</li> +<li>Megalonyx, <a href="#Page_371">371</a>, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>.</li> +<li>Megalosaurus, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr5">„</span> <i>Jaw of</i>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr5">„</span> <i>Tooth of</i>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>, <a href="#Page_379">380</a>.</li> +<li>Megalichthys, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>.</li> +<li>Megatherium, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr5">„</span><i>Pelvis of</i>, <a href="#Page_408">407</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr5">„</span><i>Restored</i>, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr5">„</span><i>Skeleton of</i>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr5">„</span><span class="padl3 padr4">„</span> <i>foreshortened</i>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>.</li> +<li>Megatheroid Animals, Habits of, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>.</li> +<li>Mendip Hills, Denudation of, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>.</li> +<li>Mesopithecus, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr6">„</span><i>restored</i>, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr6">„</span><i>Skeleton of</i>, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>.</li> +<li><i>Metallic veins</i>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.</li> +<li>Metamorphic Rocks, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>.</li> +<li>Metamorphism, Special and General, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr6">„</span> Action of, on Limestone, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr6">„</span> of Combustible Materials, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr6">„</span> of Argillaceous Beds, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr6">„</span> Cause of, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>.</li> +<li><i>Meudon Chalk under Microscope</i>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>.</li> +<li>Mexican Deluge, <a href="#Page_485">485</a>.</li> +<li>Mezen, Le, Peak of, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.</li> +<li>Mica, Composition of, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.</li> +<li>Mica-schist, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>.</li> +<li>Microdon, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>.</li> +<li>Microlestes, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span>Discovery of teeth of by Mr. C. Moore, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.</li> +<li>Middle Lias, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span> Oolite, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</li> +<li>Miliola, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>.</li> +<li>Millepora alcicornis, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>.</li> +<li>Miller, Hugh, How he became a Geologist, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span> First Lesson in Geology, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.</li> +<li>Milliolites, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>.</li> +<li>Mimosa, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>.</li> +<li>Mineral Masses composing the Earth’s Crust, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>.</li> +<li>Mines, Greatest Depths of, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.</li> +<li>Miocene, Meaning of, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>.</li> +<li>Miocene Period, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr4">„</span>Vegetation, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>, <a href="#Page_381">381</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr4">„</span>Fauna, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr4">„</span>Volcanoes of, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr4">„</span>Foraminifera, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr4">„</span>Rocks of Greece, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>.</li> +<li>Moel Tryfaen, <a href="#Page_459">459</a>.</li> +<li><i>Molar Teeth of Mastodon</i>, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li> +<li>Molasse, or Soft Clay, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>.</li> +<li>Mollusca, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr3">„</span> of Pliocene, <a href="#Page_371">371</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr3">„</span> of Eocene, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr3">„</span> of Miocene, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr3">„</span> of Crag, <a href="#Page_373">373</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr3">„</span> Gasteropodous, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>.</li> +<li><i>Monitor Niloticus</i>, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>.</li> +<li>Monocotyledons, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>.</li> +<li>Montmartre, Gypseous Series of, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span>Cuvier on Fossils of, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>.</li> +<li>Mont Dore, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>.</li> +<li>Moraines, <a href="#Page_444">444</a>.</li> +<li>Moro, Lazzaro, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.</li> +<li>Mortillet on Glaciers, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>.</li> +<li>Mosaic Account of Creation, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>.</li> +<li>Mosasaurus, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span> <i>Camperi</i>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>.</li> +<li>Mosses, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>.</li> +<li>Moulin-Quignon, Chalk Beds of, <a href="#Page_476">476</a>.</li> +<li><i>Mount Ararat</i>, <a href="#Page_480">480</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span> Hecla, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span> Idienne, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span> Sion, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>.</li> +<li>Mountain Limestone<span class='pagenum' style="font-size: 100%;"><a name="Page_512" id="Page_512">[512]</a></span>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>.</li> +<li>Mountains, First Appearance of, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr5">„</span> Chains, Formation of, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>.</li> +<li>Mud Volcanoes, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr6">„</span> of Italy, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.</li> +<li>Murchison, Sir R. I., Founder of Silurian System, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>.</li> +<li><i>Murex Turonensis</i>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</li> +<li>Muschelkalk, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>.</li> +<li>Mussels, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.</li> +<li>Mylodon, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr4">„</span> <i>Lower Jaw of</i>, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr4">„</span> <i>restored</i>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>.</li> +<li>Mytilus, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.</li> +<li> </li> +<li>Nabenstein, Cavern of, <a href="#Page_432">432</a>.</li> +<li>Naïdaceæ, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>.</li> +<li>Nantwich Salt-works, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.</li> +<li>Nasal Horn of Iguanodon, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>.</li> +<li>Natica, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.</li> +<li>Nautilus, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>.</li> +<li>Nebular Theory of the Earth, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>.</li> +<li>Nenuphar, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>.</li> +<li>Neocomian Beds, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr4">„</span><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span>of France, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr4">„</span>Formation, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr4">„</span>Fauna of, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>.</li> +<li>Neptunian Rocks, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> Theory, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.</li> +<li>Nereites Cambriensis, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>.</li> +<li>Neuroptera, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li> +<li>Neuropteris elegans, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr4">„</span> <i>gigantea</i>, <a href="#Page_142">143</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>.</li> +<li>New Red Marl, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr3">„</span>Period, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr3">„</span>Sandstone, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr3">„</span>Plants of, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr3">„</span>Colour of, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr3">„</span>Fauna of, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.</li> +<li>New Zealand, Birds of, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.</li> +<li>Newer Pliocene, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> of Alps, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> of Sicily, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>.</li> +<li>Nicol, Prof., on Ben Nevis, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.</li> +<li>Nilssonia, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>.</li> +<li>Nöggerathia, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>.</li> +<li>Norfolk Forest Bed, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>.</li> +<li>Northern Deluge, <a href="#Page_424">424</a>.</li> +<li>Norwich Crag, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>, <a href="#Page_478">478</a>.</li> +<li>Nothosaurus, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>.</li> +<li>Nummulites, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>.</li> +<li>Nummulitic Formation, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr5">„</span>Limestone, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>.</li> +<li>Nympheaceæ, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.</li> +<li> </li> +<li>Odontaspis, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>.</li> +<li><i>Odontopteris Brardii</i>, <a href="#Page_142">144</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span> Cycades, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.</li> +<li>Œchmodus Buchii, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.</li> +<li>Œningen Formation, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr3">„</span> Limestone, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>.</li> +<li><i>Ogygia Guettardi</i>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.</li> +<li>Old Red Sandstone, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span><span class="padl5 padr4">„</span> Colour of, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span><span class="padl5 padr4">„</span> Period, Vegetation of, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span><span class="padl5 padr4">„</span> Fishes of, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span><span class="padl5 padr4">„</span> Rocks of, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span><span class="padl5 padr4">„</span> Conglomerate of, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.</li> +<li>Older Pliocene, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>.</li> +<li>Oldhamia, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.</li> +<li>Oldhaven Beds, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>.</li> +<li>Olivine, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.</li> +<li>Oolite, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span> of Solenhofen, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span> Upper, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span> Lower, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span> Middle, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span> Great, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span> Conifers of, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span> Rocks, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>.</li> +<li>Oolitic Fauna, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span>Mollusca, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span>Echinoderms, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span>Insects, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span>Period, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span>Flora of, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span>Mammals of, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span>Reptiles of, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span>Corals of, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span>Zoophytes of, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>.</li> +<li>Ophiopsis, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</li> +<li>Opossum, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.</li> +<li>Orgon Limestone, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</li> +<li>Ornithorhynchus, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.</li> +<li>Orthoceras, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr5">„</span> Disappearance of, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr5">„</span> <i>laterale</i>, <a href="#Page_143">145</a>.</li> +<li>Orthoceratites, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>.</li> +<li>Orthoclase, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>.</li> +<li>Orthopithecus, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>.</li> +<li><i>Osmeroides Mantelli</i>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>.</li> +<li>Ossiferous Beds of Sansan, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> Breccia, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_432">432</a>.</li> +<li>Ostrea deltoidea<span class='pagenum' style="font-size: 100%;"><a name="Page_513" id="Page_513">[513]</a></span>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span> distorta, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span> liassica, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span> <i>longirostris</i>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span> Marshii, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span> virgula, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>.</li> +<li><i>Otopteris acuminata</i>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr3">„</span> <i>dubia</i>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr3">„</span> <i>obtusa</i>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr3">„</span> <i>cuneata</i>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>.</li> +<li>Ovid a geologist, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.</li> +<li>Owen, Prof., on Megatheroid Animals, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span>on Plesiosaurus, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>.</li> +<li>Ox, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>.</li> +<li>Oxford Clay, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>.</li> +<li>Oysters, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>.</li> +<li> </li> +<li>Pachyderms, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>.</li> +<li>Pachypteris microphylla, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</li> +<li>Palæocoma Furstembergii, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>.</li> +<li>Palæoniscus, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.</li> +<li>Palæontology, the Study of Ancient Life, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>.</li> +<li>Palæontology Defined, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>.</li> +<li><i>Palæophognos Gesneri</i>, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>.</li> +<li>Palæotherium, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr5">„</span> <i>magnum and P. minimum, Skeletons of</i>, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr5">„</span> <i>Skull of</i>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>.</li> +<li>Palæoxyris Münsteri, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.</li> +<li>Palæozoic Fishes, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>.</li> +<li>Palissy, Bernard, on Fossils, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>.</li> +<li>Pallas on the Siberian Rhinoceros, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span> on the Siberian Mammoth, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>.</li> +<li>Palmacites, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.</li> +<li>Palms, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span> absence of, in Pliocene Period, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span> of Tertiary Epoch, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span> of Cretaceous Period, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span> <i>Fossil, restored</i>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>.</li> +<li>Paludina, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>.</li> +<li>Pampean Formation, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>.</li> +<li>Pandanaceæ, The, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>.</li> +<li>Pandanus, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</li> +<li>Pappenheim, Lithographic Stone of, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>.</li> +<li><i>Paradoxides Bohemicus</i>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</li> +<li><i>Parallel Roads of Glenroy</i>, <a href="#Page_456">456</a>.</li> +<li>Parian Marble, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>.</li> +<li>Paris Basin, Sir C. Lyell on, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>.</li> +<li>Parkfield Colliery, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.</li> +<li><i>Patella vulgata</i>, <a href="#Page_204">205</a>.</li> +<li><i>Peaks of the Cantal Chain</i>, <a href="#Page_39">40</a>.</li> +<li>Pear Encrinite, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li> +<li>Peat-deposits and Shell-mounds, <a href="#Page_472">472</a>.</li> +<li>Pecopteris, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> <i>lonchitica</i>, <a href="#Page_142">143</a>.</li> +<li>Pecten, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> <i>Jacobæus</i>, <a href="#Page_371">371</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> <i>orbicularis</i>, <a href="#Page_201">202</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> Valoniensis, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>.</li> +<li>Penarth Beds, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>.</li> +<li>Pennine Chain, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>.</li> +<li><i>Pentacrinites Briareus</i>, <a href="#Page_182">183</a>, <a href="#Page_213">214</a>.</li> +<li>Perched Blocks, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>.</li> +<li>Permian Flora, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> Rocks, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> Ocean, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> Period, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> Fauna and Flora of, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>.</li> +<li><i>Perna Mulleti</i>, <a href="#Page_287">288</a>.</li> +<li>Phascolotherium, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</li> +<li>Philadelphia Museum, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li> +<li>Phillips, Prof. J., on Rate of Formation of Coal, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.</li> +<li>Phillips, Prof. J., on Thickness of Carboniferous Limestone, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.</li> +<li>Phonolite, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>.</li> +<li><i>Physa fontinalis</i>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>.</li> +<li>Phytosaurus, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>.</li> +<li>Pic de Sancy, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>.</li> +<li>Pimpinellites zizioides, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>.</li> +<li>Pinites, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>.</li> +<li>Pisolitic Limestone, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li> +<li>Pithecus antiquus, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>.</li> +<li>Placodus gigas, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.</li> +<li>Planorbis, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr4">„</span> <i>corneus</i>, <a href="#Page_488">488</a>.</li> +<li>Plants, First Appearance of, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span> <i>of Devonian Period</i>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span> <i>of the Palæozoic Epoch</i>, <a href="#Page_113">114</a>.</li> +<li>Plastic Clay, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>.</li> +<li>Platemys, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</li> +<li>Platycrinus, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.</li> +<li>Platysomus, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>.</li> +<li>Pleistocene Period, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>.</li> +<li>Plesiosaurus, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span> Cramptoni, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span> <i>Sternum of</i>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span> <i>Skull of</i>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span> <i>Skeleton of</i>, <a href="#Page_230">229</a>.</li> +<li>Pleuronectes<span class='pagenum' style="font-size: 100%;"><a name="Page_514" id="Page_514">[514]</a></span>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>.</li> +<li><i>Pleurotoma Babylonia</i>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</li> +<li>Pleurotomaria conoidea, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</li> +<li>Pliocene, Meaning of, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr4">„</span>Period, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr4">„</span>Birds of, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr4">„</span>Series, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr4">„</span>Vegetation of, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr4">„</span>Fauna of, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr4">„</span>Reptiles of, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr4">„</span>Mollusca of, <a href="#Page_371">371</a>.</li> +<li>Plombières, Alkaline Waters of, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li> +<li>Plutonic Rocks, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> Theory, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> Eruptions, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> Ancient Granite, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.</li> +<li><i>Podophthalmus vigil</i>, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.</li> +<li>Pœcilopleuron, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</li> +<li>Poikilitic Series, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>.</li> +<li>Polyphemus, Supposed Bones of, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>.</li> +<li>Polypodium, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.</li> +<li>Polyps of Carboniferous Period, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>.</li> +<li>Polyzoa, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>.</li> +<li>Pontgibaud Mines, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li> +<li>Porphyritic Granite, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>.</li> +<li>Porphyry, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr3">„</span> Definition of, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr3">„</span> Components of, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>.</li> +<li>Portland Isle, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> Dirt Bed, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> Sand, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> Stone, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>.</li> +<li>Posidonia, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.</li> +<li>Post-pliocene Period, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr5">„</span>Animals of the, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr5">„</span>Birds of the, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr5">„</span>Carnivora of, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr5">„</span>Deposits in Britain, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>.</li> +<li>Post-Tertiary Epoch, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>.</li> +<li>Potamogeton, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.</li> +<li>Pravolta, <a href="#Page_447">447</a>.</li> +<li>Pre-glacial deposits, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>.</li> +<li>Preissleria antiqua, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.</li> +<li>Prestwich, J., on Glacial Deposits, <a href="#Page_459">459</a>.</li> +<li><span class="smcap">Primary Epoch</span>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> Retrospective Glance at, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> Vegetation of, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>.</li> +<li>Proboscideans of Crag, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>.</li> +<li>Producta, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr3">„</span> <i>horrida</i>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>.</li> +<li><i>Producta Martini</i>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_204">205</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr3">„</span> subaculeata, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li> +<li>Protogine, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.</li> +<li>Protopteris, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>.</li> +<li>Psammodus, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.</li> +<li>Psaronius, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>.</li> +<li><i>Psilophyton</i>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li> +<li>Pteraspis, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.</li> +<li><i>Pterichthys</i>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.</li> +<li>Pteroceras, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>.</li> +<li>Pterodactyles, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr6">„</span> <i>brevirostris</i>, <a href="#Page_236">235</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr6">„</span> <i>crassirostris</i>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>.</li> +<li>Pterophyllum, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr6">„</span> Jägeri, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr6">„</span> Münsteri, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.</li> +<li>Pterygotus, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr5">„</span> <i>bilobatus</i>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>.</li> +<li>Ptylopora, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.</li> +<li>Purbeck Beds, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> Marble, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> Isle of, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>.</li> +<li>Puy-de-Dôme, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>.</li> +<li><i>Puy-de-Dôme, Extinct Volcanoes of</i>, <a href="#Page_52">53</a>.</li> +<li>Puys, Chain of, in Central France, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.</li> +<li>Pycnodus, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>.</li> +<li>Pygopterus, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>.</li> +<li> </li> +<li>Quadersandstein, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>.</li> +<li><span class="smcap">Quaternary Epoch</span>, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span> Animals of, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>.</li> +<li>Quartz, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.</li> +<li>Quartziferous Porphyry, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>.</li> +<li>Quartzite, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>.</li> +<li> </li> +<li>Rain, First Fall of, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>.</li> +<li><i>Raindrops, Impressions of, in Rocks</i>, <a href="#Page_13">14</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>.</li> +<li>Raised Beaches, <a href="#Page_488">488</a>.</li> +<li><i>Ramphorynchus</i>, <a href="#Page_256">255</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>.</li> +<li>Ramsay, A. C., on the Lower Oolite, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span>on Formation of Keuper Marls, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span>on Colour of Red Rocks, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span>on Denudation, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span>on Formation of Granite, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span>on Glacial Deposits, <a href="#Page_458">458</a>.</li> +<li>Reading Beds, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>.</li> +<li>Recent or Historical Period, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>.</li> +<li>Re-construction of Fossil Animals from a Part<span class='pagenum' style="font-size: 100%;"><a name="Page_515" id="Page_515">[515]</a></span>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>.</li> +<li> <span class="padl6 padr6">„</span> Difficulties Attendant on, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>.</li> +<li>Red Crag, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>.</li> +<li>Reindeer, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>.</li> +<li><i>Relative Volume of the Earth</i>, <a href="#Page_82">83</a>.</li> +<li><i>Remains of Plesiosaurus macrocephalus</i>, <a href="#Page_230">229</a>.</li> +<li>Reptiles, Prevalence of during Secondary Epoch, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span>during Cretaceous Period, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span>during the Pliocene Period, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>, <a href="#Page_366">366</a>.</li> +<li>Rhætic Strata, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>.</li> +<li>Rhinoceros, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr5">„</span> Discovery of, Entire, in Siberia, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr5">„</span> <i>Head of</i>, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr5">„</span> tichorhinus, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>.</li> +<li>Rhombus minimus, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>.</li> +<li><i>Rhyncholites</i>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>.</li> +<li>Rio Chapura, Humidity of, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>.</li> +<li>Ripple-marks, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span> on Sandstone, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>.</li> +<li>River, Great, of Cretaceous Period, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>.</li> +<li>Roc, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>.</li> +<li>Roches moutonnées, <a href="#Page_443">443</a>, <a href="#Page_447">447</a>.</li> +<li>Rock, in Geology, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>.</li> +<li>Rocks composing the Earth’s Crust, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span>formed during the Carboniferous Limestone Period, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span>Crystalline, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>.</li> +<li>Rock Salt, its Origin, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span>Quantity produced in England, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>.</li> +<li>Rocking Stones, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.</li> +<li>Rosso Antico, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>.</li> +<li>Rostellaria, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.</li> +<li>Rothliegende, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>.</li> +<li>Rudistes, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>.</li> +<li>Runn of Cutch, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.</li> +<li> </li> +<li>Sables Inférieurs, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span>Moyens, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>.</li> +<li>Saccharoid Limestone, Minerals of, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>.</li> +<li>St. Acheul Gravel Beds, <a href="#Page_476">476</a>.</li> +<li>St. Acheul Gravel Beds, probable Age of, <a href="#Page_479">479</a>.</li> +<li>St. Austell, Granite of, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>.</li> +<li>St. Cassian Beds, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.</li> +<li>St. Christopher’s Tooth, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>.</li> +<li>Salamander of Œningen, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>.</li> +<li>Salicites, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>.</li> +<li>Saliferous or Keuper Period, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span> Fauna of, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.</li> +<li>Saline Springs, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</li> +<li>Salses, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</li> +<li>Salt Mines, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.</li> +<li>Sandwich Islands, Volcanoes of, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.</li> +<li>Sargassites, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</li> +<li>Sargassum, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</li> +<li>Saurians, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr3">„</span>of Cretaceous Period, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr3">„</span>of Lias, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>.</li> +<li>Savoy Alps, <a href="#Page_440">440</a>.</li> +<li>Scandinavian Continent, Upheaval and Depression of, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>.</li> +<li>Scaphites, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li> +<li>Scelidotherium, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr6">„</span><i>Skull of</i>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>.</li> +<li><i>Scheuchzer’s Salamander</i>, <a href="#Page_368">367</a>.</li> +<li>Schist, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>.</li> +<li>Schistopleuron typus, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr6">„</span><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span> <i>restored</i>, <a href="#Page_401">402</a>.</li> +<li>Schizaster, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>.</li> +<li>Scoriæ, Volcanic, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.</li> +<li>Sea-Pen, Virgularia Patagonia, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>.</li> +<li>Sea Urchins, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.</li> +<li><span class="smcap">Secondary Epoch</span>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.</li> +<li><i>Section of a Volcano in Action</i>, <a href="#Page_53">52</a>.</li> +<li>Sectional Appearance of the Earth, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>.</li> +<li>Sedgwick, Prof. A., on Cambrian Rocks, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2"> </span><span class="padl6 padr6">„</span><span class="padl1"> </span>on Granite of Devon and Cornwall, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2"> </span><span class="padl6 padr6">„</span><span class="padl1"> </span>on Classification of Rocks, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>.</li> +<li>Sedimentary Rocks, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>.</li> +<li>Senonian Beds, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>.</li> +<li>Septaria, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>.</li> +<li>Serpentine, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>.</li> +<li>Serpents of Tertiary Epoch, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>.</li> +<li>Serpulæ, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>.</li> +<li>Shell Mounds, <a href="#Page_478">478</a>.</li> +<li>Shells, Marine, on Tops of Mountains, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>.</li> +<li>Sheppey, Isle of, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr4">„</span><span class="padl1 padr2">„</span> Turtles of, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>.</li> +<li>Siberia, Fossil Elephants in, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>.</li> +<li>Sigillaria, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr4">„</span><i>lavigata</i>, <a href="#Page_137">138</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr4">„</span><i>reniformis</i><span class='pagenum' style="font-size: 100%;"><a name="Page_516" id="Page_516">[516]</a></span>, <a href="#Page_156">157</a>.</li> +<li>Silex meulier, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>.</li> +<li>Siliceous Limestone, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>.</li> +<li>Silurian Period, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>Divisions of, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>Characteristics of, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>Fauna and Flora of, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>Fishes of, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>Mollusca of, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span><i>Plants</i> of, <a href="#Page_104">103</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>System, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>.</li> +<li>Sivatherium, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr5">„</span> <i>restored</i>, <a href="#Page_366">366</a>.</li> +<li>Skaptár Jokul, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</li> +<li><i>Skeleton of Ichthyosaurus</i>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr4">„</span><i>of Plesiosaurus</i>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>.</li> +<li><i>Skull of Plesiosaurus</i>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span><i>Palæotherium magnum</i>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span><i>Scelidotherium</i>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>.</li> +<li>Skye, Basalt of Isle of, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li> +<li>Smith, Dr. W., Labours of, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.</li> +<li>Smilax, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.</li> +<li>Solenhofen, Limestone of, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>.</li> +<li>Solfataras, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.</li> +<li>Somma, Mount, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li> +<li>Somme, River, Valley of, <a href="#Page_475">475</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>Peat-Beds of the, <a href="#Page_475">475</a>.</li> +<li>South America, Depression and Upheaval of, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</li> +<li>Spalacotherium, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</li> +<li>Sphenophyllum, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr6">„</span> <i>restored</i>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>.</li> +<li>Sphenophyllites, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.</li> +<li>Sphenopteris, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr6">„</span><i>artemisiæfolia</i>, <a href="#Page_142">144</a>.</li> +<li>Spirifera, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> concentrica, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> undulata, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.</li> +<li>Sphœrodus, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>.</li> +<li><i>Staffa, Grotto of</i>, <a href="#Page_49">50</a>.</li> +<li>Stag, gigantic Forest, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>.</li> +<li>Stalactite, <a href="#Page_430">430</a>.</li> +<li>Stalagmite, <a href="#Page_430">430</a>.</li> +<li>Stellispongia variabilis, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.</li> +<li>Stenosaurus, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</li> +<li><i>Sternum and Pelvis of Plesiosaurus</i>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>.</li> +<li>Stigmaria, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>.</li> +<li><i>Stigmaria</i>, <a href="#Page_137">138</a>.</li> +<li>Stone Age, The, <a href="#Page_478">478</a>.</li> +<li>Stone Lilies, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li> +<li>Stonesfield Slate, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>.</li> +<li>Strata, Disposition of, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>.</li> +<li>Stratification, Order of, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span> <i>of Coal Beds</i>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.</li> +<li>Strephodus, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>.</li> +<li>Streptospondylus, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</li> +<li>Stringocephalus Burtini, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li> +<li>Stromboli, Volcanic Island of, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li> +<li><i>Strophalosia Morrisiana</i>, <a href="#Page_175">176</a>.</li> +<li>Struthionidæ, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>.</li> +<li>Submarine Volcanoes, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.</li> +<li>Sub-Apennine Strata, <a href="#Page_373">373</a>.</li> +<li>Suffolk Crag, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>.</li> +<li>Sulphurous Streams from Mount Idienne, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li> +<li>Sun-cracks, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>.</li> +<li>Syenite, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>.</li> +<li> </li> +<li>Tæniopteris, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.</li> +<li>Taxoceras, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>.</li> +<li>Taxodites, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span>Münsterianus, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.</li> +<li>Teeth of Mammoth, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>.</li> +<li><i>Teeth of Iguanodon</i>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span><i>Mastodon</i>, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span><i>Megalosaurus</i>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>, <a href="#Page_379">380</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span><i>Machairodus</i>, <a href="#Page_379">380</a>.</li> +<li>Teleosaurus, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span>cadomensis, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>.</li> +<li>Temperature of the Earth, Increase of as we descend, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span>at Various Depths, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span>of Deep Mines, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span>at the Centre, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span> of Planetary Regions, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span> uniform, in Carboniferous Period, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span> Gradual Alteration of, during Tertiary Period, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span> of Cretaceous Period, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>.</li> +<li><i>Terebellaria ramosissima</i>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.</li> +<li><i>Terebratula digona</i>, <a href="#Page_245">246</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr4">„</span> decussata, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr4">„</span> hastata, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr4">„</span> <i>deformis</i>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr4">„</span> <i>subsella</i>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>.</li> +<li><i>Terebrirostra lyra</i>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>.</li> +<li>Terrestrial Plants of Devonian Period<span class='pagenum' style="font-size: 100%;"><a name="Page_517" id="Page_517">[517]</a></span>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.</li> +<li>Tertiary Period, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>Vegetation of, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>Animals of, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>.</li> +<li>Tetragonolepis, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.</li> +<li>Teutobocchus Rex, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>.</li> +<li>Thallogens, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li> +<li>Thanet Beds, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>.</li> +<li><i>Theoretical View of a Plateau</i>, <a href="#Page_46">47</a>.</li> +<li>Theories of the Earth, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>.</li> +<li>Theory, Hutton’s, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> Laplace’s, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>.</li> +<li>Thermal Springs, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</li> +<li>Thickness of the Earth’s Crust, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.</li> +<li>Thomson, Sir William, on the Earth’s Crust, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.</li> +<li><i>Thylacotherium</i>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.</li> +<li>Tidal Wave, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>.</li> +<li>Tile Stones, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>.</li> +<li>Till Formation, <a href="#Page_457">457</a>.</li> +<li>Tortoises, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>.</li> +<li>Toxoceras, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>.</li> +<li>Toxodon, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>.</li> +<li>Trachyte, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>.</li> +<li>Trachytic Formations, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>.</li> +<li>Trail, <a href="#Page_461">461</a>.</li> +<li>Transition, or Primary Epoch, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.</li> +<li><i>Transported Blocks</i>, <a href="#Page_448">449</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl5 padr5">„</span>Rocks, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>.</li> +<li>Trapa natans, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.</li> +<li><i>Trappean Grotto, Staffa</i>, <a href="#Page_49">47</a>.</li> +<li>Travertin, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>.</li> +<li>Tree Ferns, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>.</li> +<li>Tremadoc Slates, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>.</li> +<li><i>Treuil, Coal Mine at</i>, <a href="#Page_159">160</a>.</li> +<li>Triassic Period, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span>Flora, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.</li> +<li>Trigonia, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr4">„</span><i>margaritacea</i>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>.</li> +<li><i>Trigonocarpum Nöggerathii</i>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>.</li> +<li>Trilobites, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>.</li> +<li>Trimmer, Joshua, on Moel Tryfaen, <a href="#Page_459">459</a>.</li> +<li><i>Trinucleus Lloydii</i>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.</li> +<li><i>Trionyx of Tertiary Period</i>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>.</li> +<li>Trionyx, a Turtle, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>.</li> +<li>Tropical Vegetation, D’Orbigny on, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>.</li> +<li><i>Trunk of Calamites</i>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr4">„</span><i>Sigillaria</i>, <a href="#Page_137">136</a>.</li> +<li>Tunbridge Wells Sand, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.</li> +<li>Turbaco, Mud Volcanoes of, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.</li> +<li>Turonian Series, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>.</li> +<li>Turrilites, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr3">„</span> <i>communis</i>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr3">„</span> <i>costatus</i>, <a href="#Page_290">289</a>.</li> +<li><i>Turritella terebra</i>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>.</li> +<li>Turtle, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>.</li> +<li>Tyndall’s, Professor, Theory of Heat, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>.</li> +<li> </li> +<li>Uncites Gryphus, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li> +<li>Under Clay, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>.</li> +<li>Unicornu Fossile, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>.</li> +<li>Unio, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>.</li> +<li>Upper Cretaceous, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>-<a href="#Page_306">306</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span> Greensand, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span> Oolite, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span> Lias, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span> Lias Clay, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr2">„</span> Silurian Period, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>.</li> +<li>Ursus spelæus, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl6 padr6">„</span> <i>Head of</i>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.</li> +<li> </li> +<li>Vale of Wardour, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>.</li> +<li>Valley of Poison, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li> +<li>Vallisneri on Marine Deposits of Italy, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.</li> +<li>Variegated Sandstone, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>.</li> +<li><i>Veins of Granite traversing Gneiss of Cape Wrath</i>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.</li> +<li>Velay, Chain of the, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>.</li> +<li>Vertebrata, First Appearance of, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.</li> +<li>Vespertilio Parisiensis, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>.</li> +<li>Vesuvius, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr3">„</span> <i>Existing Crater of</i>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>.</li> +<li>Virgularia, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>.</li> +<li>Vivarais, Valley of, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>.</li> +<li>Volcanic Bombs, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> Ashes, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> Scoriæ, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> Eruptions, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> Formations, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> Islands, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> Rocks, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>.</li> +<li><i>Volcano in Action</i>, <a href="#Page_53">52</a>.</li> +<li>Volcanoes, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span>Action of, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span>Active, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span>Mud, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span>Extinct, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span>Sandwich Islands, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span>Watery<span class='pagenum' style="font-size: 100%;"><a name="Page_518" id="Page_518">[518]</a></span>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.</li> +<li>Voltaire and Buffon, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.</li> +<li>Voltzia heterophylla, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.</li> +<li><i>Voltzia restored</i>, <a href="#Page_194">195</a>.</li> +<li>Vosges Mountains, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr2">„</span><span class="padl5 padr4">„</span> Submergence of in Permian Period, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>.</li> +<li> </li> +<li>Wadhurst Clay, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.</li> +<li>Walchia, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> <i>Schlotheimii</i>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>.</li> +<li>Warp, <a href="#Page_461">461</a>.</li> +<li>Water, First Cradle of Life, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</li> +<li>Waterstones, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.</li> +<li>Watery Volcanoes, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.</li> +<li>Weald Clay, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>.</li> +<li>Wealden Beds, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl3 padr3">„</span> Shells, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>.</li> +<li>Wenlock Rocks, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>.</li> +<li>Whale of the Rue Dauphine, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>.</li> +<li>White Chalk, Berthier’s Analysis, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>.</li> +<li>White Lias, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.</li> +<li>Wild Man of Aveyron, <a href="#Page_469">469</a>.</li> +<li>Williamsonia, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>.</li> +<li>Wood, Searles V., Junr., on Glacial Deposits, <a href="#Page_460">460</a>.</li> +<li>Wookey Hole, <a href="#Page_474">474</a>.</li> +<li>Woolwich and Reading Beds, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>.</li> +<li>Wright, Dr. Thos., on Penarth Beds, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>.</li> +<li> </li> +<li>Xiphodon, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> <i>gracile</i>, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>.</li> +<li> </li> +<li>Ysbrants Ides’ Account of Discovery of Frozen Mammoth, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>.</li> +<li>Yuccites, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.</li> +<li> </li> +<li>Zamia, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl2 padr3">„</span> Moreana, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</li> +<li>Zamites, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>.</li> +<li>Zechstein, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>.</li> +<li>Zeolites, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.</li> +<li>Ziphius, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>.</li> +<li>Zones of different density round the incandescent Earth, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.</li> +<li>Zoophytes of Lias, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> Middle Oolite, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>.</li> +<li><span class="padl4 padr4">„</span> of Carboniferous Period, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.</li> +<li><i>Zostera</i>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>.</li> +</ul> + +</div> + +<p class="center fsize125" style="margin: 2em auto;">THE END.</p> + +<hr class="c25" /> +<p class="center fsize80">CASSELL, PETTER, AND GALPIN, BELLE SAUVAGE WORKS, LONDON, E.C.<br /> +773</p> +<hr class="c25" /> + +<div class="adverts"> + +<p class="center fsize125">MESSRS. 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With 470 Illustrations<span class="padl6"> </span></p> + +<p class="price">7s. 6d.</p> + +<p class="adv"><span class="booktitle"><i>The Ocean World.</i>—</span>A Descriptive History of the Sea and +its Inhabitants. By <span class="smcap">Louis Figuier</span>. Revised and Corrected by +Professor <span class="smcap">E. Perceval Wright</span>, M.D. With 427 +Illustrations<span class="padl6"> </span></p> + +<p class="price">7s. 6d.</p> + +<p class="adv"><span class="booktitle"><i>Reptiles and Birds.</i>—</span>By <span class="smcap">Louis Figuier</span>. Newly Edited and +Revised by <span class="smcap">Parker Gillmore</span>, Author of “Gun, Rod, and Saddle,” +&c. With 307 Illustrations. 664 pp.<span class="padl6"> </span></p> + +<p class="price">7s. 6d.</p> + +<p class="fsize80">“Admirable works of popularised science.”—<i>Daily Telegraph.</i></p> + +<hr class="c05" /> + +<p class="center">CASSELL, PETTER, & GALPIN,</p> + +<p class="center gesp">LONDON, PARIS, AND NEW YORK.</p> + +<hr class="c25" /> + +<table class="coll fsize80" cellspacing="10" cellpadding="10" summary="Advertisements 2"> + +<tr class="fsize125"> +<td class="bb br"> </td> +<td class="bb" style="width: 2em;"> </td> +<td class="bb"> </td> +<td class="bb" style="width: 2em;"> </td> +<td class="bl bb"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr class="fsize125"> +<td rowspan="24" class="bt br bb"> </td> +<td rowspan="24"> </td> +<td class="center gesp">The New and Cheaper Edition of</td> +<td rowspan="24"> </td> +<td rowspan="24" class="bt bl bb"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr class="fsize125"> +<td class="center sstype fsize125"><b><span class="smcap">Figuier’s Works</span>,</b></td> +</tr> + +<tr class="fsize125"> +<td class="center">Containing all the Original Illustrations, with the Text Revised and Corrected, +extra crown 8vo, cloth lettered, price <b>7s. 6d.</b> each, comprise</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tabadv tabadv1"><span class="booktitle"><i>The World before the Deluge.</i></span> Newly Edited and +Revised by <span class="smcap">H. W. Bristow</span>, F.R.S. With 235 Illustrations. <i>Third Edition.</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tabadv tabadv1"><span class="booktitle"><i>The Ocean World.</i></span> A Descriptive History of the Sea +and its Inhabitants. Revised and Corrected by Professor <span class="smcap">E. Perceval +Wright</span>, M.D. With 427 Illustrations. <i>Third Edition.</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tabadv tabadv1"><span class="booktitle"><i>The Vegetable World.</i></span> Revised and Corrected by an +<span class="smcap">Eminent Botanist</span>. With 471 Illustrations. <i>Third Edition.</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tabadv tabadv1"><span class="booktitle"><i>The Insect World.</i></span> Revised and Corrected by <span class="smcap">P. +Martin Duncan</span>, M.D., F.R.S., Professor of Geology in King’s College, +London. With 576 Illustrations. <i>Third Edition.</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tabadv tabadv1"><span class="booktitle"><i>Reptiles and Birds.</i></span> Revised and Corrected by +Captain <span class="smcap">Parker Gillmore</span>. With 307 Illustrations. <i>Second Edition.</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="blankrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="btd"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr class="fsize125"> +<td class="center sstype"><b>POPULAR NATURAL HISTORY WORKS.</b></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><hr class="c05" /></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="center"><span class="smcap">Second Edition</span> now ready, price 16s.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tabadv tabadv1"><span class="booktitle"><i>The Transformations of Insects.</i></span> By <span class="smcap">P. Martin +Duncan</span>, F.R.S., M.D., Professor of Geology, King’s College, London. +With 240 highly-finished Engravings. Royal 8vo, 500 pp., handsomely +bound in cloth gilt.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="center">Now ready, complete in Four Vols., cloth. 7s. 6d.; cloth, gilt edges, 10s. 6d. each; +or Two Vols., half-calf, £2 2s.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tabadv tabadv1"><span class="booktitle"><i>Cassell’s Brehm’s Book of Birds.</i></span> Translated from +the Text of Dr. <span class="smcap">Brehm</span> by Professor <span class="smcap">T. Rymer Jones</span>, F.R.S. With +upwards of 400 Engravings on Wood, and numerous full-page Plates, +printed in Colours, from Original Designs by <span class="smcap">F. W. Keyl</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="center"><span class="smcap">Second Edition</span>, 256 pages, crown 8vo, cloth, price 5s.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tabadv tabadv1"><span class="booktitle"><i>The Dog</i>:</span> with Simple Directions for his Treatment, and +Notices of the Best Dogs of the Day, their Breeders and Exhibitors. By +“IDSTONE.” With 12 full-page Portraits of Famous Dogs, Drawn from +Life by <span class="smcap">George Earl</span>.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="center">Complete in Two Vols., crown 4to, 1,532 pp., cloth, 30s.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tabadv tabadv1"><span class="booktitle"><i>Cassell’s Popular Natural History.</i></span> Profusely Illustrated +with about <b>2,000</b> splendid Engravings and Tinted Plates. Can also +be had in Two Volumes, half-calf, 45s.; half-morocco, 50s.; also, with +Coloured Illustrations, in Four Volumes, cloth, 42s.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="center">Complete in One Volume, 600 pages, demy 4to, 31s. 6d.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tabadv tabadv1"><span class="booktitle"><i>The Illustrated Book of Poultry.</i></span> By <span class="smcap">L. Wright</span>, +Author of “The Practical Poultry-Keeper,” &c. With <span class="smcap">Fifty Full-page +Coloured Plates</span> of Celebrated Prize Birds of Every Breed, recently +Painted from Life expressly for this Work, and with numerous Woodcuts.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><hr class="c25" /></td> +</tr> + +<tr class="fsize125"> +<td class="center">CASSELL, PETTER, & GALPIN, LUDGATE HILL, LONDON.</td> +</tr> + +<tr class="fsize125"> +<td class="br"> </td> +<td colspan="3" class="br bt"> </td> +<td> </td> +</tr> + +</table> + +</div> + +<hr class="c25" /> + +<div class="tnbox" style="margin: 2em 10%; padding: 2em;"><a name="TN" id="TN"></a> + +<h2>TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:</h2> + +<p>The original text has been maintained, including inconsistencies +in spelling, hyphenation, lay-out, formatting, etc. and in the use +of capitals, diacriticals and accents, except as described below +under Changes Made. Important inconsistencies include: Saarbruck/Saarbrück, Coalbrookdale/Coalbrook Dale, +Roth-liegende/Rothliegende/Röthe-liegende, Westmorland/Westmoreland, blow-pipe/blowpipe, cuttle-fish/cuttlefish, frame-work/framework, +fresh-water/freshwater, Kupfer-schiefer/Kupferschiefer, +rain-drops/raindrops, re-construct/reconstruct (and related +words), Roth-todt-liegende/Rothe-todte-liegende, sub-divide/subdivide (and related words), tile-stones/tilestones, under-clay/underclay, +water-stones/waterstones, aërial/aerial, Baikal/Baïkal, +Ceteosaurus/Cetiosaurus, Colley Weston/Colleyweston, Cupanioides/Cupanioïdes, Hoffman/Hoffmann (this is apparently the same person, +it is not clear what the correct spelling should be); Kjökken-Mödden/Kjökken +Mödden/Kjökken-mödden, Mæstricht/Maestricht, +Néocomian/Neocomian, predaceous/predacious, proboscideans/proboscidians, and Tunguragua/Tunguraqua.</p> + +<p>There are slight differences in wording between the Table of +Contents, the Index and the text. Since the meaning is not +affected, this has not been standardised.</p> + +<p>Depending on the software used and its settings, some symbols may not +display properly, or not at all.</p> + +<h3>Textual remarks:</h3> + +<ul> + +<li>Page 109 (table): <i>12,060</i> should possibly be <i>12,000</i>;</li> + +<li>Page 196 (table): <i>Red and variegated sandstone (Collyhurst)</i> ...: +there is a line missing in the original work that is not present +in other editions either. This line has been replaced by [...];</li> + +<li>Page 212: <i>The Lias, in England, is generally in three groups</i>: +possibly there is a word (divided or similar) missing;</li> + +<li>Page 301: <i>The invertebrate animals which characterise the +Cretaceous age are among</i>: possibly there is a word missing at +the end of the sentence (others);</li> + +<li>Page 339: <i>not one-fifth the size of Switzerland</i> should possibly +be <i>not one-fifth the size of Great Britain</i>;</li> + +<li>Index: contrary to the remark at the top of the index, not all +italic entries refer to illustrations.</li> +</ul> + +<h3>Changes made to original text:</h3> + +<ul> +<li>Multi-page tables have been combined into single tables.</li> + +<li>Footnotes have been moved to the end of each chapter.</li> + +<li>Some obvious typographical errors (including punctuation) have +been corrected silently.</li> + +<li>Table of Contents: entries Eruptive Rocks and The Beginning have +been indented one level less as in the text; entry Metamorphic +Rocks has been indented one level less, in line with the other +headings printed in small capitals.</li> + +<li>Page 11: <i>Ancylyceras</i> changed to <i>Ancyloceras</i>;</li> + +<li>Page 34: <i>has disappeared</i> changed to <i>have disappeared</i>; <i>Strasburg</i> +changed to <i>Strasbourg</i> as elsewhere;</li> + +<li>Page 36: <i>Cevennes</i> changed to <i>Cévennes</i> as elsewhere;</li> + +<li>Page 37: <i>bigarrè</i> changed to <i>bigarré</i>; <i>gres</i> changed to <i>grès</i> as elsewhere; <i>porpyhries</i> changed to <i>porphyries</i>;</li> + +<li>Page 57: <i>diameter)</i> changed to <i>diameter</i> (bracket removed);</li> + +<li>Page 152: <i>on page 155</i> changed to <i>on page 157</i>;</li> + +<li>Page 167: <i>Liége</i> changed to <i>Liège</i>;</li> + +<li>Page 184: <i>Cevennes</i> changed to <i>Cévennes</i> as elsewhere; <i>Rhone</i> changed to <i>Rhône</i> as elsewhere;</li> + +<li>Page 194: <i>Nilsonia</i> changed to <i>Nilssonia</i> as elsewhere;</li> + +<li>Page 206: <i>Cevennes</i> changed to <i>Cévennes</i> as elsewhere;</li> + +<li>Page 213: <i>Pentatrinus</i> changed to <i>Pentacrinus</i>;</li> + +<li>Page 225: <i>Ichythyosaurus</i> changed to <i>Ichthyosaurus</i>;</li> + +<li>Page 239: <i>Nilsonia</i> changed to <i>Nilssonia</i> as elsewhere;</li> + +<li>Page 240: <i>Nilsonia</i> changed to <i>Nilssonia</i> as elsewhere;</li> + +<li>Page 247, caption fig 115: <i>Polyzoa.</i> changed to <i>Polyzoa.)</i> (bracket added);</li> + +<li>Page 248: <i>O. cuneatea</i> changed to <i>O. cuneata</i>;</li> + +<li>Page 250: first footnote anchor missing, inserted in most likely place;</li> + +<li>Page 269: <i>Gryphea</i> changed to <i>Gryphæa</i> as elsewhere;</li> + +<li>Page 305: <i>represented in Fig. 146</i> changed to <i>represented in Fig. 145</i>;</li> + +<li>Page 316: <i>Nymphæea</i> changed to <i>Nymphæa</i>;</li> + +<li>Page 319: <i>πσχυς</i> changed to <i>παχυς</i>; <i>inférièure</i>/<i>inférièurs</i> changed to <i>inférieure</i>/<i>inférieurs</i>;</li> + +<li>Page 329: <i>Nymphæeas</i> changed to <i>Nymphæas</i>;</li> + +<li>Page 338: <i>—astodon</i> changed to <i>Mastodon</i>;</li> + +<li>Page 341: <i>Fig. 161</i> changed to <i>Fig. 160</i>;</li> + +<li>Page 348: <i>Rhone</i> changed to <i>Rhône</i> as elsewhere;</li> + +<li>Page 401: <i>chaneled</i> changed to <i>channelled</i> as elsewhere; <i>Fig 186</i> changed to <i>Fig. 185</i>;</li> + +<li>Page 413: <i>antedulivian</i> changed to <i>antediluvian</i>;</li> + +<li>Page 429: <i>Bauman's</i> changed to <i>Baumann's</i>;</li> + +<li>Page 430: <i>Gailenruth</i> changed to <i>Gailenreuth</i> as elsehwere;</li> + +<li>Page 452: <i>Varese</i> changed to <i>Varèse</i>;</li> + +<li>Page 462: <i>Upsal</i> changed to <i>Upsala</i>;</li> + +<li>Page 470, footnote 117: <i>Epoques</i> changed to <i>Époques</i> as elsewhere;</li> + +<li>Page 479: <i>Tiniêre</i> changed to <i>Tinière</i>;</li> + +<li>Page 502: <i>Archeopterix</i> changed to <i>Archeopteryx</i> as in text; <i>Bathonean</i> changed to <i>Bathonian</i> as in text; <i>cervicornus</i> changed to <i>cervicornis</i> as in text;</li> + +<li>Page 503: second entry <i>Carboniferous Flora</i> aligned with <i>Flora</i>, ditto marks added;</li> + +<li>Page 504: ditto mark added under <i>Man</i> in <i>Creation of Man</i> for clarity; Cerithium plicatum <i>250</i> changed to <i>350</i>; Coccosteus <i>141</i> changed to <i>142</i>; Coupe d'Ayzac <i>45, 47</i> changed to <i>46, 47</i>;</li> + +<li>Page 505: <i>Danien</i> changed to <i>Danian</i> as in text; <i>Duvalii</i> changed to <i>Duvallii</i> as in text (the modern spelling is <i>Duvalii</i>, Lyell used <i>Duvallii</i>);</li> + +<li>Page 508: <i>tichorhynus</i> changed to <i>tichorhinus</i> as in text;</li> + +<li>Page 509: <i>Igneous</i>, <i>Iguana</i> and <i>Iguanodon</i> moved to proper place in alphabetical order; <i>Kellaway’s</i> changed to Kellaways as in text; <i>Lachow</i> changed to <i>Lächow</i> as in text; <i>lacumosus</i> changed to <i>lacunosus</i> as in text; <i>Leptœna</i> changed to <i>Leptæna</i> as in text;</li> + +<li>Page 510: <i>Limnea</i> changed to <i>Limnæa</i> as in text; <i>Lithostrotion cornu-arietis</i> changed to <i>Lituites cornu-arietis</i>;</li> + +<li>Page 511: page numbers added after <i>Mortillet on Glaciers</i> and <i>Mosaic Account of Creation</i>; page reference <i>737</i> changed to <i>73</i>;</li> + +<li>Page 512: <i>Osmeroïdes</i> changed to <i>Osmeroides</i> as in text;</li> + +<li>Page 513: <i>Pecopteris</i>, page numbers placed in numerical order; <i>Fustembergii</i> changed to <i>Furstembergii</i> as in text; second reference to <i>Otopteris acuminata</i> removed; <i>Pecten obicularis</i> changed to <i>Pecten orbicularis</i> as in text;</li> + +<li>Page 514: <i>Podophtalmus</i> changed to <i>Podophthalmus</i> as in text; Purbeck Beds: <i>27</i> changed to <i>279</i>;</li> + +<li>Page 515: <i>Reptiles, Prevalence of</i>: two entries combined into one; <i>St. Cassian Beds</i> moved to proper alphabetical order; tichorhynus changed to tichorhinus as in text; entries on Sheppey Isle moved to proper alphabetical order;</li> + +<li>Page 516: <i>Sphærodus</i> changed to <i>Sphœrodus</i> and moved to proper alphabetic place; <i>Sun-Appenine</i> changed to <i>Sub-Apennine</i>; <i>Terebellaria</i> moved to proper place in alphabetical order.</li> + +</ul> +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The World Before the Deluge, by Louis Figuier + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORLD BEFORE THE DELUGE *** + +***** This file should be named 39723-h.htm or 39723-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/7/2/39723/ + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Harry Lamé and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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