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 £^£11*0 tutnxtB on (S^tologs 
 
 EIGHT 
 
 
 LECTURES ON GEOLOGY, 
 
 \ 
 
 mielioereb 
 
 AT THE BROADWAY TABERNACLE IN THE CITY OF NEW-YORK. 
 
 BY CHARLES LYELL, F V. S. 
 
 VICE PRESIDENT OP THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OP LONDON, BTO. 
 
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 FRBSH WATER FORMATIONS OF AUVERGNE ; EXTINCT VOLCANOES OF tUCCESSIVE PERIODS. 
 STRUCTURE OF «TNA; ORIGIN OF GRANITIC ROCKS; CHANGES IN THE ORGANIC WORLD. 
 
 WPHBAVAL AND SUBSIDENCE OF THE EARTH'S CRUST J SUBMERGENCK AND RE-ELEVATION OF THE TEMPLE OF SERAPH. 
 ORIGIN OF CORAL REEFS, AND THEORY OF THEIR CIRCULAR FORM ; CORALINE LIMESTONE OF VARIOUS GEOLOGICAL *CJM. 
 NATURE AND ORIGIN OF COAL; PERIOD OF ITS FORMATION. 
 POOT-M\RKS OF FOSSIL ANIMALS; THE NIAGARA DISTRICT. 
 CHIROTHERIUM ORGANIC REMAINS OF THE MOST ANCIENT ROCKS. 
 RECESSION OF THE FALLS OF NIAGARA. 
 BOULDER FORMATION; TRANSPORTING POWER OF ICE; ACTION OF GLACIER3 AND ICEBERG*. 
 
 BRPORTED FOK "THE NEW-YORK TRIBUNK.' 
 
 NEW-YORK: 
 GRSELEY & McELRATH, TRIBUNE OFFICE 
 
 1842. 
 
 
advertisement: 
 
 principal Cife of ,he Union Th' ! . ''*'' "'"' ™'P=«»I'I° »'"««»eo8 in .he 
 
 c«nvUn;::i itr^^^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 livmd at 11,0 Tabcrnacio, l,y Mr. H I RAVMnivl '' * *"'>"'"'.»' -le ■ 
 
 "Lose nopom of Dr. ..AI dL. . " „ J ' - r' ,"'■'""" "'" "' "•"' '•"•"^■ 
 eeivod „i,h .cede. n„„ n.cH.cU 1' 1 a,™ r " ^7"™ """ "'™'»- >-» -- 
 
 Nnc-Vori:, April Vi, [^iy_: 
 
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 1 
 
 
 LECTURES ON GEOLOGY. 
 
 LECTURE I . 
 
 Mr. Lyxll opened his Lecture by saying thai ho 
 had been invited to give a sliort course of lectures 
 
 upon one of the most extensive branches of Na- 
 tural Science ; and as lio was to have but a few 
 meetings, ]w should lose no time in prefatory re- 
 marks, but would proceed at once to the subject 
 and endeavor as well as he could to enable his 
 class to comprehend the objects of Geology, the 
 means of proof employed, and in what manner wo 
 attempt to interpret those monuments we term 
 geological. If any one should aak him in what 
 way ho could soonest arrive at an understanding 
 of the subject so far as eight meetings would al- 
 low, he .should take him at once into the field of 
 •bservation. I should go, said he, up this magni- 
 ficent river — the Hudson — and point you first to 
 the Palisades, which you can sec from this City; 
 I would show you the natural rock, called Basalt, 
 with its columnar structure, and explain the 
 reasons why we conclude that these rocks thus 
 piled up have existed iu a melted state in the in- 
 terior of the Earth. I would show you the other 
 rocks — as the Sandstone, which was once sand 
 until it was consolidated — deposited, one above 
 another, under the water until a flood of melted 
 matter flowed over and made it solid. Going still 
 farther up, I would show you the gneiss and gran- 
 ite of the Highlands ; or I might come back t« 
 this very island on which New-York is situated. 
 
 But as it is impossible thus to carry you into 
 the field, the next best thing I can do is to show 
 you some representation of natural scene, and 
 explain their several parts. The scene to which 
 I first call your attention is one of the most re- 
 markable known in Europe— far more striking 
 than any I have seen in the British Isles. The 
 series of geological phenomena, here exhibited, 
 all belong to the same great class of rocks, bat it 
 is easy for the merest novice to see that they be- 
 long to different periods : their origin is to be re- 
 ferred to distinct epochs and to dissimilar causes. I 
 
 Thi,.» is a scone of Auvergw. Having visited all 
 the portions of it I can vouch for the accuracy ol 
 the geological representation which is enlarged 
 from a drawing by my friend Mr. Scropk. To 
 understand the geographical position of the region 
 it will be necessary to rofir you to a map of 
 France. What is called th..- Paris Basin is a 
 strata of comparatively modern origin : nearly 
 two hundred miles South of Pari.s are situated the 
 Extinct Volcanoes, of which the principal mass 
 is Mount Dor, which is in the centre of the granite 
 region— its rocks being of marine origin. And 
 >iere let iu<i say that by rocks we mean technically 
 m Geology any set of mineral masses whether 
 hard or soft — whether loose like sand or consoli- 
 dated like granite— soft clay as well as iiard shale. 
 These rocks contain a variety of shells and coral.s. 
 called marine as having been formed originally be- 
 neath the sea. This is the zone ©f the granite re- 
 gion in Fiance. Mount Dor, which is near Cler- 
 mont, is more than 150 mil.'s South of Paris. 
 
 The next scene I srmll show you i^ a vertical 
 section of this region— just as if you should dig n 
 railway— the rocks being represented to a ccrtair- 
 depth, as far as hilf a mile, as though they were 
 cut down vertically, just as ysu may see in a lint- 
 of sea cliff. The upper portion is of basalt— simi- 
 lar to the Palisaxles— and the lower is of a differ 
 «nt kind of volcanic rock— a Feldspar rock called 
 Trachyte. As it would be impossible for you to 
 follow me were I to attempt it, I shall not enter 
 upon any detailed explanation of these terms. It 
 may be well to say that more rocks are found in 
 this mountain than could be represented in a draw- 
 ing. There is a great prevalence of Feldspathic 
 rocks and of heavier basaltic rocks containing i 
 dark mineral called augitc. You see the granite 
 represented below the volcanic rocks as we have 
 abundant evidence for thus representing it in that 
 section. You see the granite peeping out from 
 
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 th? Trachyte; we find dyk^s of other kinds 
 
 or 
 
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lava passing thro- ^li th" granito und then joinin-; 
 into iphr.-trt of lavft, uj wo may call thoin, wliicli 
 wu know onco (lowed in u nielti'd stream. 
 
 We huvo till* grunitc tlion m tlin lundunicntal 
 rock: th.-n coinc; tin, ditrcivnl kinds of voh-unic 
 rocks: tla>n nt ii •jrvatcr distance tlio BtrLiifiud 
 rock^, which wo Ivuow ure of frc«h water nrigin— 
 formed nt tho bottom of lake.s which luiv<« now 
 di.sai)j.eared ju>t iis tho fires of the volcanoes are 
 now extincl. The b.-tsalt ni-pears, as I have ,aid, 
 in preci])itou« cVAh divided into vertical columns 
 like the i'ulisades. In another portion is a mass 
 of white cal<:areous marl abounding in shells and 
 not far off' is a amaller cone— a mass of volcanic 
 matter of later dale than tho other. After tho 
 volcano had poured forth its lava until it had 
 piled up a mountain 3,000 feet high, and a valley 
 had been cut downtotiio subjacent granite through 
 a great series of volcanic rocks, and after the lake 
 had been drained by a river called ilie Coos, tlicn 
 there happened another volcanic eruption from tho 
 volcano called Puy do Tartaret similar to the one 
 which was formed in tho Bay of I'iaiae which it 
 resembles in structure and size. Now when this 
 was thrown up (which is but a type of a hundred 
 similar cones in that part of France,) it stopped 
 up the course of the Coos— blocking it up so as to 
 produce a lake which once extended much farther' 
 for the alluvial matter which was carried into it 
 formed a largo Delta wliich greatly curtailed its 
 boundaries. At the same time that tho volcano 
 bursted forth in the midst of this ancient valley 
 out flowed streams of lava from tho other side, 
 which you may see passing at the base of tho hill 
 on which tho castlo of Muro stands. Flowing 
 down tho valley for thirteen miles in a narrow 
 stream it dispossessed tno river of its ancient bed 
 as has been the case in Iceland within the last 
 century, when streams of lava have flowed from 
 the sides of Hecla and Skapta Jokul and I'mced 
 rivers to flow aside from their usual beds. So out 
 of this flowed a stream which took its course along 
 tho base of the hills, cutting its way through the 
 fresh water formations. 
 
 It is a matter of proof that these strata are 
 really of fresh water formation— that they were 
 formed in ancient lakes where were left valleys 
 after the draining of the lakes, and that through 
 the bottom of these flowed the lava. Thus we 
 may trace tho cappings np to Mount Dor, the an- 
 cient and grand centi-e of the first eruption. From 
 this tho higher cappings of basalt were produced ; 
 and to cause these phenomena and cut through 
 the valleys so oa to allow other valleys to be 
 
 formc<l, how great a aorias of changes and how 
 long a chronological order of events is miplied ! 
 The bight of Mount Dor above the level of the 
 sea is 7000 feet, and wo can look back to tho 
 lime when that country was only 3000 feet above 
 the sea, and consisteJ exclusively of iho funda- 
 mental granitv. At that time we find there wcro 
 depressions in which there were a number of lakes 
 extending all the way from I'aris to the source of 
 tho river Loire. That was the first state of things, 
 and the mountai/,s were featureless in appcaranco 
 —with round swells but with no picturesque, un- 
 OTun outline— and into tho lakes sediment wo.', 
 carried by rivers, and the bed a, of which I shall 
 soon speak, were accumulated. Then came a 
 ^ period of the draining of the lakes, and then tho 
 I excavation of the valleys ; just as we have on tho 
 borders of Lake Superior and other Northern 
 lakes, where the rocks are granite. If Earthriuakes 
 should occur and shake that region and alter the 
 level of the country, the lakes would be drained 
 and we should have tho second blato of things tii 
 ia this part of France. If we follow the volcanic 
 eruj.tions in the same district until the Java was 
 piled 3000 feet high, we should have the third 
 penod. If floods should produce deep valleys, 
 n-.d a new set of volcanoes should form small 
 mountains at tho bottom of the valleys, we should 
 have the fourth period. Tho fifth period would 
 anivo when rivers should have eaten out deep 
 chasms even in the most modern lava, and formed 
 precipices some two hundred feet high— which 
 would involve a period of considerable duration. 
 
 While great changes are going on in the inani- 
 mate world others no less interesting are produced 
 in the animate world ; for we see entire fluctua- 
 tions in quadrupeds and other beings which suc- 
 cessively inhabit the region. It is impossible U. 
 reprcse»tin a picture, in their proper proportions, 
 the hight of the various parts of the country. The 
 fre.Mi water formations do not appear sufficiently in 
 depression to give the proper appearance of the 
 ancient lakes. 
 
 There is no doubt that the superior upheaval of 
 tho Southern part of tho country was what caused 
 the drainage of the Lake and the excavation of tho 
 valleys which are cut through them, producing 
 what is called the Lacustrine formation. If wo 
 simply take for granted the upheaval of the whole 
 district, (which need surprise no one, for we shall 
 have occasion to show that far more extensive up- 
 heavals above the level of the sea, are now going 
 on ;) we need only suppose a series of movements 
 such as are demonatrated to have taken place, to 
 
1 
 
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 havo rnim^d the Southern portion at a greainr rate; 
 than th« Norihoni, to find un easy exjilaimtion for 
 thoso gaographiciil phiMiomcna. 
 
 I hav<' now stntml tlmt rotmnpomnoously with 
 thoso mighty ciuiiigo,-!, physiicul aiul geogrupliirul, 
 there wont on n series of revohiiions in organic 
 life. I am not going to enter in the present lec- 
 ture upon the dilHi'ult problem of tlno origin of 
 granite. We must take the granite as it exists in 
 the country. Hills arc made of it, and lakes have 
 been hollowed out of it. I will eome at onee, 
 then, to the Laeuslriiio period. The lakes were 
 inhabited by adifl'erent set of shell-fish, of molus- 
 eular animals, watei-birds, crocodiles and turtles 
 from any that now cxi-<t in that part of hninco- 
 There arc jiow no such animals as onee al)wunded 
 in the ancient lakes of Auvcrgne. We find their 
 i«!mnin-; well preserved in the various strata. The 
 tortoise whieh llien existed is not now to be found. 
 I may remark, too, that there have been discov- 
 ered the skeletons of some thirty or forty (piadru- 
 peds to which Cuvikr gave as many different 
 names, as the I'alujotherium, Anoplothtfrium, &c., 
 which need not bo mentioned. The I'alaiotherium is 
 nn intermediate species between the Tapir and the 
 Uhinoceros, and the Anoplotheria has some rela- 
 tion to the same animals, and also to the hog tribe. 
 There are also several species of animals found in 
 the Hfiighborhood of Paris, which now exist — 
 though not in that region — as, (or instjuice, the 
 species of Oppossum, which now exists only in this 
 country and Australia. On the whole, tiiere are 
 about fifty species of cpiadrupeds discovered, some 
 cf which are as largo as the Rhinoceros. I need 
 not say that a single jaw, or even sometimes a 
 single tooth, is quite sufficient in the hands of u 
 Naturalist to decide the species of these Mamma- 
 lia. These animals were undoubtedly washed down 
 by the swelling of the rivers, just I's they are liable 
 to be now. We have no hesitation in saying that 
 these fifty species of quadrupeds have now passed 
 away from the globe. Some might doubt our 
 ability to say this ; but a little consideration of the 
 fossils found will be sutTiciently convincing. I 
 liave procured drawings of one or two shells which 
 are there found — as, for instance, the Planorbis, 
 which abounds at present in the lakes of North 
 America, and which once existed in the lakes of 
 France, and are now found in the strata. The 
 Valvata, a fresh-water shell which is common 
 kerc and in Europe, was also to be met in the old 
 Laeuatrine formation of France. Any naturalist 
 will be easily convinced that these shells are now 
 extinct in that region, and no one will be so skep- 
 
 tical as not readily to grant that wo are safe in 
 saying that the Palii!Otherium, the Megatherium, ond 
 many other large quadrupedij which Cuvikr dib- 
 coveroil and roinpared, are now lo.^t, and havi> 
 been permilti'd by the Author of Nature to die out 
 from the globe. This is the first state of the ancient 
 world of this ri'gion, to which wo are carried back 
 by till- geological monuments of this Mcene. 
 
 Tho next period of the ancient volcanic rocks 
 of Mount Dor was when they produced a perfectly 
 distinct racii of quudnipctds, of which I believe 
 only one has been found to r<'semble those of the 
 former period. All the genera are dilTerent, ai.d 
 almost all of this period are of existing genera, 
 but not to be found in tint puit of Murope. We 
 find the rhinoceros, the elephant, tho hippopota- 
 mus, the l.>par, awd others, which never within his- 
 torica! times have peopled that cold region. Tho 
 beaver which is found is not the Hume as that now 
 common to Europe and North America, and so 
 with a vast multitude of others. 
 
 But you may ask iiow we should havo these fos- 
 sils remaining in volcanic rocks — how they could 
 bo pre3er\cd if they wero enfolded in n sheet of 
 red-hot matter as i'rom a furnace ? It is easy to 
 explain how this might happen. In all volcanoes, 
 where the lavas are feldspathic, there are great 
 floods ; lakes which exist in the craters are sud- 
 denly voided, as happened in ^Etna when floods 
 issued from it which swept away rocks and quad- 
 rupeds with ease. Showers of ashes also fall, and 
 often surprise wild animals — destroy, bury and 
 preserve them. In this way it is that we find the 
 skeletons of so many quadrupeds entombed in the 
 ancient ashes — conglomerates us they are called — 
 the rocks being forined of the pebbles carried 
 down by these floods. 
 
 But before I speak farther of the quadrupeds of 
 that period, all of which are now extinct, let me 
 describe msre minutely the operations of the first 
 period — the first gradual filling up of the lakes and 
 the formation of the Lacustrine strata ; then we 
 will speak of tha origin of the volcanic mass and 
 of the animals buried in it. Let us first ask how 
 these ancient lakes were filled up. We find around 
 tlie borders, and under the other strata, beds of 
 pebbles which have been derived from tho round- 
 ing of fragments torn from rocks in the neighbor- 
 hood; and there is this remarkable circumstance 
 connected with it, that no geologist has ever de- 
 tected a single pebblo of volcanic origin in thes« 
 conglomerates. Every one knows that if a river 
 flows from a country abounding in particular rocks, 
 it will tear olf and carry along portions of them, 
 disclmrjnng them nenr tlio shores of the sea; The 
 
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I.fie mu.l i«cnrrie,lc.ut u, a <;n.aipr HiMnnm. \.,w 
 there am van pile, of volcanic rock., Homo soft 
 »udoiU,r» Imnl ami .ap.iblo of b.ing n,uml..,l ; 
 iliou^h they nri, Hom.ni.n... « hui.(l,,-,l f,.,.t thirk 
 not ono H foun.l in iho old Rrnvol l,,.,!. „f ,h,. J „.' 
 • "Htnru. fomiaiio,,. T|,., i„foren, r is olnions- 
 tlmt not one volcanic en, pHon ha</ occurred, nny 
 
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 vo«,oN of plant, pntrifi,.,! in th.io Ik-.I.. In „,v. 
 .•ral hk.M of N. w-York-in Svnvcn Lakn for i„. 
 Ht-uic.., ih« wholo bottom i« cov.Tcd by a green 
 I'lant Hillod 6'A«mnnd r,>.^^„„,7c ]„ ,uch num 
 ''<>'-.s thnt without oil.nr in.lirulio,,, iheHc alone 
 wo.il.l tell UH of tbo oriKi,, of ihn fornm'ion. 
 It W.U formerly a matter of tfreat dilKculty with 
 
 '■'"••o than .pon tho borders of Lake Superio, ./'I'"'' '^'""''■'y '""""" "^ *r'-<'""Ji'Heulty with 
 which u a country without volcanic rorkn This i' IT"' "'"' °"''''' ""'"«•"''"" '« •-•xplain how 
 negulivn f,...t MlMnopn.v.s that in iho f.r^t ,„.,io.l I ^^""""t""" '"^ "'t"" f"und over wide areas ; 
 
 'ho region .a, tnuKp.ilund no vuIranicenMMionJ...'''"^' '"''•'"''''" " '"'«''^ ''^"^ "^'^r the 
 
 ho region ^^a, tnaupnl and no vulcanic enipiion, 
 liafi occurred. 
 
 The gravel b,,|, m tl.o bottom of the lake »,.on 
 became fine naml and passed into lin,. marl •— 
 «omo «and w,-.s earri..d lo a grcafr di ,.anee as you 
 may now sec falling elouds of it at the uioutii. of 
 mers settling to tho hot.om and being carried out. 
 Marl winch has a l,.«f.|ik« appearance i, often 
 produced by the small shells of an insect called 
 cyprt,-a crustacean-or between an in.cct and 
 a crustaccnn-which i. very like a bivalve, such as 
 <rosh water muscles, with tlii. diflerence, that it 
 molts us mteguments, while tho others do not - 
 Accordingly myriads of these shells fall to iho 
 bottom, and for hundreds of square miles you may 
 hnd that the strata have plates and kaves as mica- 
 
 Hliore, butjiot so easy to understand bow it should 
 !'•• found at a great .listan.-« out ; for the borders 
 of those ancient lakes, with all their bays, can yet 
 >« traced a. accurately as if they now existed. 
 How should those fndusinl Limestones bo found 
 ten or twelve miles from shore ? A few yrara 
 8...CC, while in Denmark, I believe I found an ex- 
 plniuun.n. In company with Dr. Beck, an emi- 
 "<"iit naturalist of Copenhagen, I saw in a lake 29 
 or JO miles in diamctar a largo band of rushes or 
 roods floating on tho water; they had been torn 
 up and floated out miles from the shore. And on 
 every one of them was an immense number of 
 these Phrygarca, wafted out with thorn ; and I 
 found that twice every year a orop of these i-ushes 
 of difleront kinds is prodnccd, covered by different 
 
 causes sand-stone to divide , and this is produ ed k nd r 1 " '^'■°'''"'''' "'''''''^ ''^ '*'«"^"' 
 
 entirely by tho case, of -hat email species of „ ;,",,. ^rygr^vm, and carried out by storms to 
 
 male. Many other shells show that this LTfr't r"'--'^" '''''* '^''"' ""' '""""''' '^^ 
 
 water and not a maHno formation, ^^ T.^X ^Z ^t^:^ ''' -''''' -'' ^'^'^^ '^' 
 
 sh»)w how ETadual wiiq ibo ,,.„„„ ■.... ^ i "' «• "• .iUM.rgne. 
 
 sh,.w how gradual was the process that went on 
 as does also another kind of rock called InJu^ial 
 Lime,(onc~,yhk.h consists of thousands of cases 
 of animals ^^ hich have been imbedded by tho wa- 
 ters that /lowed into the lakes. This is in the un 
 per part of th. marl, ,,nd we see it breaking out n 
 the side of tho bill at Clermont, when it occurs in 
 round nodules. Every one of these consists of 
 cases Bt insects encased by limestone. Thi, i„ 
 ««ct, which i. called Pkrygurea, when it is i„ the 
 lar.a state, an<I exists in the water in tho form of 
 a caterpillar, cover.s its case with shells to give it 
 a proper weigh, ; it often takes a hundred shells 
 at once; as we see in the American Lakes they 
 
 The transition from the Lacustrine period to the 
 Volcanic is not abrupt. Changes nuely occur so 
 suddenly as are represented by geologists. None 
 Huch have taken place in Auvergne. Though tl.o 
 two periods are very distinct, yet the volcano be- 
 gan us eruption before the Jakes wore drained. 
 Showers of ashes fell into tho lakes so.hat volcanic 
 ("Js are often found to alternate ^. ith the marl 
 contaming limestone which is ih. ,.pp,r part of 
 the formation. Here and ,hen> ,„,.y ,,,,3 fa^ found 
 dzkcs or threads of basalt. These facts show that 
 there were few outbreaks of this igneous matter 
 heforo the lakes were drained, when greet rivers 
 were still enrrying ,lown mud to the lakes. Ru, 
 
 take small stones for the same purpose Thev J T^T T '"""''^^ ''"''" '""^^ ^" 'he Ial;os. Rut 
 ton seize upon these shells withou the" least cere the Ivc^' T ^^j-^^""-"'' '"'^' '^-^- -.mmencod 
 mony, even when tho fish are alivo witki tLT nc ,'"'"" "' f'^' ^'^"">-^- ■ 
 and walk about in this way. It seems that t f , ' ^-^''^^'^l'-" o( the valley there is abeauti- 
 
 -am akout in those lakes when thvT.Vot n f ' f '""'''^ ''""^" '''' ^^"^'^ "' ^^^ ^cos. When 
 another encased in carbonate o l7m Zl^Z T' 'T' "'" '^^""'^ '^'° ''''•'"•-''- "^ ^ 
 may now find tho whole mass league'^ extnt TTru " T "'"' ''""'' '^""" ^^"^ --"^ ^or 
 This may give some notion of the n" e ut7 ''r'^'^^-^^'^ '"' ^--'- ^ -'-" 
 
 -1 tho gradual process neceesa^ to ^ odutiTet ITZT '''^ '""^^ °^'""-'^- ^' '-=- P-t 
 1-200 feet thick. You mav of^n find the 1 I u ''"" '"'"'"' ^'^' of pumico stone, 
 
 . Often find the seed 1 which is sometimes found floating on the sea ; it i 
 
 MM 
 
I 
 
 >^<i(i- In lav* 
 
 Lakp for ill. 
 d by a green 
 
 ill such num 
 
 these alone 
 nia'ion. 
 lilKculty with 
 
 explain how 
 r wide arras; 
 i*t near tho 
 low it should 
 
 the burdem 
 Joys, con yet 
 iiiw existed. 
 » bo found 
 A fow yrara 
 ound an ex- 
 iCK, an em]« 
 in a lake 20 
 f rushes or 
 I been torn 
 . And OB 
 
 number of 
 3m ; and I 
 leso rushes 
 by difterent 
 
 storms to 
 noved tho 
 relation to 
 
 riod to tiic 
 / occur so 
 ts. None 
 hough tJic 
 )Ioano he- 
 drained. 
 t volcanic 
 the marl 
 r part of 
 be found 
 how that 
 s matter 
 f * rivers 
 i^. But 
 imenccd 
 
 ibeauti- 
 
 When 
 
 I of the 
 
 int Dor 
 
 which 
 id part 
 
 stone, 
 a; hU 
 
 i 
 
 tt 
 
 produced hy th« trnchytn that iit thrown up, tho 
 gMtm expiindinK within it produciuf^ thv poren. 
 There in no piiniico in the biisallic formation nor 
 in tho uppi'r part of Ml. I>or; but in the oidt-r 
 portion* you may »en thousand* of them Hhowin:; 
 how gradually ih<' tnnnntiiiti was formed just iis 
 were ihi' Larustrino fortniitioni*. 
 
 In a ffoneral view of fht»Ne Hubjects yon may dr- 
 upair of undi'rHlaiiditi;; thi-ni ; but wbori we ex- 
 amine the minute piirti and sub-divisions — whi-n 
 you «e.! tlio animal rcnviins preserved in the sfnila 
 nn«i sep in the volcanic rocks how one shower of 
 Oiihcit has fallen above iinother, yon will begin to 
 liave hope of coniiireliendinif the successive steps 
 by which these geological monumeiits have been 
 ^uilt up. We see how the mountain was formed 
 by the greater filling up of volcanic matter at tli;it 
 point tbim elsewhere ; after that we see how the 
 yalloy was again hollowed out, and then came the 
 flriod from Mount Oor bringing along the rhinoce- 
 ros and other animals of the siecond period. Again 
 was this cut out, leaving bones enough to deter- 
 mine its character ; ami lar^ily the river had its 
 channel occupied by ilir most modern lava stream. 
 About iO different species of (piadnipeds have ex- 
 sted there — of all si/.e^ from that of the water rat 
 to tho great Mastodon. 
 
 In the eruption of (.'oseguina, in Nicaragua, 
 Central America, on the 18th of January, 1R35, 
 only seven years ago, there was a fall of ashes 
 which reached several hundred miles, and some 
 foil at Chiapa, 1,200 miles distant. But for 25 
 miles tho bods were ton feet (hick. Birds, cattle 
 and wild animals wern scorched to death in grent 
 numbers and buiicd in these ashes; fish were 
 smothered in the rivers ; birds fell from the air, 
 and the destruction extended over a vast region of 
 country. There is evident reason to believe that, 
 a similar eru;*tion occurred during tho formation 
 of this anrioni mountain, and that the creatures 
 which lived there were buried in the fall of red- 
 hot, melted matter from tho air. Between the 
 two eruptions there was probably a long interval, 
 and the animals had time torecover their numbers. 
 There have been intervals of seventeen centuries in 
 the history of active volcanoes. In tho island of 
 Ischia is an instance : and in the history of Vesu- 
 vius there wa.i an interval of five centuries. We 
 have a description of Vesuvius in 1631; it was 
 then covered with woed ; its crater was five miles 
 in circumference, and over its edge, after descend- 
 ing a short distance, was a beautiful copse wo»d ; 
 grassy plains spread out below, cattle were grazing 
 upon thorn, and a pleasant lake added charms to 
 
 the scenn. The peasanU who lived about tliem 
 hofl begun to look \ipon the stories of fiery (lo<Kli 
 having (xtund out of it a^ fables of the olden 
 lime. All was peace and security. But ther« 
 came nn earthquake, and in an instant all their 
 foroHfs and grusny plains iin<l their animals were 
 hurled int.) the air with the ;i-,lies and (lame; then 
 arose as from a caMron a fiery tlnod that filled the 
 whole gulf, (lowed down in seven rivers and took a 
 direction <lire("tls' over where nerculaneum had 
 been destroyed sixteen cuntniies before by a simi- 
 lar flootl of molten Ittvo : and thus one town was 
 buried beneiitli tin? other. After the ht.atrd gases 
 have found n'lief, burst forth and been discharged, 
 it appears thai the duct or chainu-l gets sealed up 
 — the lava cool^ ixnd consolidates, and it then re* 
 <piires no little force to Iniisi ii open again an«l 
 cause a new discliurgc. Thus tlierc" i» a long in- 
 terval of rest until the gases again accimni late and 
 have suflicient force to make for themselves u pas- 
 tiiige. 
 
 Thus much for the Lacustrine period, and now 
 a few words ri'specting tho more modern volcano 
 as a type of the class which are the result 
 of only one, two or three eruption.^, and are often 
 formed o;i the peaks of Vesuvius and JEtna a 
 the hight of from 500 to 700 feet in a few 
 months. There is u considerable crater at the 
 ttp, covered with beautiful chesnut trees. Getting 
 at the top of the crater you look down into a doop 
 funnel. One circumstance of interest in regard to 
 this is its loose, incoherent nature. There can 
 have been no violent rush of water, of sufficient 
 forco to carry away animals, else much of this 
 loose matter would have been carried away. Every 
 thing about it looked so fresh that one would say 
 it could have been formed but n short time ago, 
 and yet we find no mention in history of any erup- 
 tion in this part of France ; and when we go down 
 the valley and examine the lava stream which 
 we know to be its own, we open our eyes to tho 
 prodigious antiquity of this most modern volcano. 
 By reason of its loose structwre, as is alsw the cage 
 with JEtna. all the rain that falls upon it is imbiboil 
 at once, and no streams can be formed down its 
 sides. 
 
 Following these valleys alongyou see at last the 
 old river bed as it was in tho olden time when 
 there was no lake and the river (lowed on unin- 
 terruptedly. It has a bed of pebbles — formed by 
 rounding tht? fragments of basaltic trachytic rocks 
 from the higher country and from tho cappings of 
 the hills. At a still higher point wo find no vol- 
 canic pebblflB, because there were no volcanoes : 
 
 P 
 P 
 
 n 
 
 
 
 a 
 > 
 1 
 
 f 
 f 
 
8 
 
 ^"r:::;rr:r:rr'ir::l:s::irr-..-- "■:;«-•- 
 
 "f the . n.mtry in ..rdcr t» bo o w»t.«r courw. a^t 
 we know it wiis. 
 
 CmHfir .<n, amped hif nrmy but nbout ton iiiiloM 
 (r<.m C'lorin..nl, an<l yor it does not B|)pf.ar tliut im 
 WBsawun. ,,r„ny cniialnn hnving taken jilii... in 
 .Imtvidni.y, .,.. he would kavo „|ln.l..d to it in, ,„.. ,„,,. ,„„, , 
 hu Con,m,.„tari.,H. And Apoilonuriu* certainly .nnde ,., ,(„. „..„„ 
 
 would hrive reronl-.l ii had any «u.-h eruption 
 taken place within his hiMiorienl knowledge, ,1, h.. 
 iflHidod in thin vi.rinily and wrote n very niiniite 
 nccouni of\u hiHtoiy; hut it doon not appear that 
 he had th.^ least idea of ijie origin of tJi.< lake. So 
 llmt lii» Hilonco in eonchmive n» to the I'igh anti- 
 quity of ihe ocrurrrnce of ovon thtigo modern 
 ovontH. 
 
 You have from theie obsenationrt nemo idea of 
 lJ»e great nur,c«HHion of evontu contemplated by 
 Zoology. If y<.u uk mo why all the.c hills and 
 
 "ri«M. of ihin^H '-why rhey n.ay not all have been 
 railed into e.-ii^trnco at iho tumo timo at the nu- 
 '•l«'H of the planet itnelf '_F nmy an.iwei. d.ateven 
 the brief .k.ieton of faet. I have ^^iven will be 
 Hurtieient lo Hhow that thi« could not have been 
 th." ei.Hr; i|,„t ihene hilU ami valley* were no 
 'l«' nt the same inHinnt, but that they were the 
 work of dilTerenl cau«e», acting aidillorfntiime.^-. 
 H..n.e being i^iuduced by tho netion of water, and 
 other, by lir,. ; ibiit tliey were produced at difl'ereiit 
 periods of time by g.roiidary cuuhci, appointed by 
 the Author of Nature to govern the sucee.xivc 
 .hangCH in the inanimate and ponnibly in tho oni- 
 mate cnmiion, which Jie hu.i in hi» wiH.lom em. 
 ployed in producing the BucceHwive changes of 
 which tb<' records arc found in the very structuiv 
 of the globe. 
 
 I 
 
 LECTURE J I 
 
 I» the course of my last Lecture, while end. av- 
 oring to describe tho geological phenomena of a 
 region about the centre of Franco in Auvergne, I 
 bad occasion to introduce you to several clusgcs of 
 »trata— tho grani/ie, tho voltanic and certain 
 aqueous strum, constituting three of the grand di- 
 nsi«ns of the rocks of which tho Earth's crust in 
 made up. Let me remark that by the Earth's 
 crust technically wo mean that pun of the exterio. 
 of our planet which is accewiblo to human observ- 
 ation; and tlio whole of this may bo said to be 
 mado up of these throe kinds of rock. 
 
 The granitic rocks are crystalline and contain 
 ne organic remains which have been mentioned as 
 •haxacterisiug the sedimentary or aqueous stiatu. ' 
 They aro crystalline masses and the true granite is 
 unstratified. It has uo pebbles nor any of those 
 fnj, or parous rocks which aro found in the vol- 
 «Miic class. 
 
 The volcanic rocks may also bo said to be void 
 rf organic remains except those portions whidi I 
 doscnbtHl as containing beds of sand and ashes 
 showered down from the uir or ^vhich fell into 
 Jakes; or except those 5rfima, and conglomnr- 
 •t« wbch I described as having flowed down the 
 
 flank, of some volcnne as at Mount Dor, in which 
 aua.lrupcds and other animals have bee. buried 
 and their skeletons found so as to determine what 
 animals inhabited that country when the over- 
 whtjlming catastrophe occurred. 
 
 The aqueous strata, or those which were formed 
 "• lakes and seas, ur« the next division. I ,ha'l 
 only allude to these briefly by saying that they are 
 known to bo of fresh water formation fr„m the 
 fresh >vutor shells, &c. which aro found imbedded 
 '" th«n. Tbese fresh water strata compose but • 
 small portion of the strata of tho Earth's crust • 
 just as lakes now are of .mall extent in proportion 
 to the seas on the Earth's surface, so were former- 
 ly the estuaries and lakes of small area compared 
 to the ocean : and we find these sedimentary stra- 
 ta containing Lacustrine or fresh water remains 
 much loss extensive than tho marine strata. We 
 find the strata of marine origin, containing sen 
 shells and corals, at all .listance, from the present 
 shore of the oc.„„, „nd at all hights above the level 
 of tb. sen. This fa.t alone wot.ld render the re- 
 suits el geological i.»vestigatio„ extremely interest- 
 'Hff- ^\ c r,„d the marine strata often fur in die in- 
 tonort and among the Alp, there aro met, 10,000 
 
 I 
 
9 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 
 or 1 1,000 fmit above iho level of ih« unn, rockn con- 
 taining unci^iiivdoal romain* of rrt'utiitnt ihutonctt 
 lived ill ill • (icoan, I huve mynrlf j^iitlmri'tl ll,ni(;- 
 ttunei conliiinin^ inarinu *MU far iiIiuva ttiu iilKlit 
 uf p<>rputiiiil tuiiiw ill till* l)rt'iii'>io AI|iH niitl at 
 Mount CiiniH'l, tlioliigluMi |>oiiit of thii I'jnni-o 
 And iiiil mnro n'cciitly thrru hu\u bnon found in 
 till) liimtnflnyii Mountiiiiis l(i,()00 ft'ct uliovo thf 
 levul uf ihi< si>u, siiriilariiixiiiiic roniaiim ; nii<t tliirf 
 nut only ill tlig tnouiitainn, hut limtMti)iu>it rontuin- 
 iiig thcxe l''M«ilii lire coniiiiuully found tliroii^h the 
 wlinlo t.iiljli> Iiiiiil iif Tliilx't ; no tlint iliis va.tt plat- 
 lurrn of A-<ia ii* miuio up ot ruck* fornu'd — nut iit 
 tho nioit ancient pt-ologiral p'riod— ;,'riu!unlly l>f- 
 neath the mcftn, and wliioh have r*in«;n risen up In 
 higher iv^icuiH. I »peuk ua if we liiid airfjuly 
 proved that ilii'* jirocens is carried <ui liy the up- 
 heaval of the laud and not by the subHidence of 
 the Heo. In my next Lecture I will endeav >r to 
 convince yuu l>y distinct evidence of the iniglity 
 cliangos that have taken place, that this v/a^ the re- 
 sult of a fining up of the land, nrd not of ii Mink- 
 lug 'wn uf the i,oa. Speaking in the language of 
 •hat tli(!oi7, these mountain masses, which now ap- 
 neiir at liights of one, two and even three miles 
 above tlui level of the sea, were formerly boneutli 
 tlio ocean, and were raised up during the first era 
 of animals and plants, and not uU at the samope- 
 liud. 
 
 Now llie .sedimcntuiy or marine strata which en- 
 ter tliU3 largely into the masses of the ICarlh are 
 divided info various groups, which we refer to dis- 
 tinct periods. They form a chronological series 
 of volcanic action — a history of the Earth ; und 
 when we trace this series dawn from the most an- 
 cient to the most modern, it is not till we arrive 
 at the latest of the great series that wo come to 
 those groups that environ the section of France 
 which I have already described. Grand as was 
 lliis series of (events, it is not till wo arrive at the 
 latest of the larger groups tliat we come down to 
 this Epoch. I sliall not at the present meeting at- 
 tempt to sketch the history of the diiTi-rent forma 
 tions, but continue to describe most particularly 
 this strata and those which are cotemporaneous 
 with it — those containing the remains already al- 
 luded to, or those of a posterior date. Now the 
 oldest of the scries of which I spoke last, is the 
 fundamental granite and the fresh water formations 
 are imposed upon it. In order to classify the dif- 
 ferent depositions which belong to this more mod- 
 ern p«riod of the Earth's history it is indispensa- 
 ble to attend to the organic remains, and particu- 
 larly to the shells contained in it: — shells are more 
 
 UKefid in thii trinnefl than any nthnr ndicKtlonn, 
 und have IxM-n nppropiiutely called the medaU, by 
 aid of which nuture has recurdod the event* of th« 
 moit ancient history of the f^lobe. They are found 
 in such abundance in the frenh water and marine 
 Urnta of all ages that by comparing ami conlrait- 
 ing tkem we may build up a chronological lerioi, 
 and ftiid characters clearly to distinguish the did'ar- 
 lent periods. In tbii frcith water (onaatinn 
 In the ne'ghborliood of I'aris are founil twelve 
 hundred »pecie« of these shells — can fully dis- 
 tinguished from each other ; as is well known 
 to ConcholugislH only some thirty of thdsfl spe- 
 cies are known now to exist any where upwn 
 the globe. Wo arc ncqoainteil with about 
 10,000 species of shells; und of these only 30 re- 
 semble any <if the liiOO found in this strata.— 
 You may ask how we know that these rocks were 
 formed in the lakes in the province of Auvorgno, 
 at the some lime that the others were formed in th« 
 sea on the site of Paris. The manner in which wo 
 make out this cotempoiancuusness is briefly this: 
 Rivers carry down sholls to the sea ; iho shells of 
 the American Lakes, for example, are carried frojn 
 Luke Erie and the other lakes by the river St. Law- 
 rence into the marine gulf of St. Lawrence. 
 The Tiber carries down the fresh water shells 
 of Italy to the Me<litenanenn, and deposits 
 them in the Delta. So of the Adige and the Po ; 
 and if we examine the strata in the Delta wo find 
 that they ar*! filled with fresh water shells and con- 
 tain also marine shells. So in the neighborhood of 
 Paris — shells of the Lacustrine deposit are mixed 
 with marine shells.- Quadrupeds, too, are carried 
 down by rivers and deposited with the 10 or 1100 
 species of marine shells of which wo were speak* 
 ing; and by this means we first know that those 
 quadiupcds lived, and these shells inhabited the 
 lakes when the sea was inhabited by those testa- 
 oeo. In Vicenzn, Italy, wo find certain marine 
 strata, and in Paris these oltomate with volcanic 
 formations, and thus wo make out the cotompor- 
 aneousness — the Synchronism — of a certain vol- 
 canic formation, and a certain marine or Lacus- 
 trine strata. 
 
 It is necessary to have some technical names for 
 these periods, otherwise it will be imiiossible fop 
 you to follow me when I allude to them. By a 
 few terms we may express in a word what it would 
 be tedious otherwise to express. By the Eocent 
 ()c.iod, then, I mean the oldest as when this fresh 
 water strata of Auvergne and other districts con- 
 tains the same shells of alternating strata. It takes 
 Its name from »iwj — the dawn and Kaivof, recent 
 
 ml 
 0*1 
 
 A 
 
 '*"[ 
 
 it 
 
 h 
 
 a 
 
 • 
 p I 
 
 8 
 > 
 I 
 
 r 
 
 i] 
 t 
 
10 
 
 ^n,c the foBs.hferoU8 strata of this period con- 
 ta>n but few spoces that are now living, which 
 -ay .„d,cate tho dawn of the cxiBting HpUie7o 
 jo-^eous fauna. Th.next pe.odi J, L!:; 
 
 ccnta,nB a rmnont, „f r..o„t specioa-a n,ach 
 greater nun,bor than the t ,eene,but still a n,i„or. 
 
 little helps to memory are often of .^„ a i.. 
 
 valup 1 A» 1 • u , of considerable 
 
 rrirL '""'"'' ^^- "'Wilmington. N 
 a and for 40 milo. „n the «antco river and be' 
 
 ween Augusta and Savannah I found Eocene stt' 
 
 a,conta.„.ng«hcll.,ofaspedo. identical w.^h 
 U^ose found in tho Pans basin ; .be sa.ne shells 1 
 
 :';l!'''"^^""":---on.-. Yon have 
 
 i»„ Ti . '"'-''"" a minor- fi.iinrl nil „i •••-•-•"'"" wneiis are 
 
 ny. The next penod is th. Pliocene, from .Ae.o. o "he L ^"^ '"Z ""'''' "^ °" """■ ^ou have 
 
 more and ,a..„,, recent; because it contai nsa iL mJ "" ^"'»""''""y developed the ma- 
 
 pluraUf, of the existing s,.cie. That is, o t of oint!d ZT 'T''"' '''' '"'^' ^"^^ ''^'•- >^e- 
 
 «p.c.eso«he.,., found in the Eocene one or W .:i"r"'='^^. '-'^"'^- American Ge- 
 
 inn „ ^ ■ I— ".«-«. iimi IS, out ol 
 
 lOOspecesofshellsfound in the Eocene one o 
 wool w„, ,^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^,r 
 
 land had beenra,,edbyvolcanoe8-in tho Miocene 
 P«nod, about one fifth or twenty owt of the 100 
 may be k entified with existing species. AndTf 
 we comedown to the moremodcrn or Pliocene pe- 
 r,od more than one half the sh.ll. are identifiable- 
 and sometimes 90 out of the hundred. 
 When the volcano which formed Mount Dor in a 
 
 ..•o.i-; who. observation:!-;,,;:^::^ 
 and perhaps adding something of my own. Y^' 
 
 nearly the .ame proportion a., those on the Loire 
 
 [ Jll! '""'T' '^"""^ ''""' "P"" ''"'«" '"-otters lest 
 
 pass over the main object of the present lecture 
 
 ft you had examined a pnnion of this Co„Z 
 
 when the Lacustrine and Eocene strata were la gZ 
 
 penod distinguishedas recent. ;:^: ^ ^ 'L^f-'t ^"' ^'""^^ ''^ '' «om;V;::^ 
 .n that region, by volcanic eruptions lake' and ea I 117^7"' •"" ""'' ''''P'-' 'he valley of 
 <n other parts of Europe were fillin. up and ha 'T ^ T^' """"" "" ''^ '"'" '''^''^ '°" 
 
 „» ,. ' ^ —luij; up ana tha 
 
 ta,n to the Loire near Tours you may find great 
 
 urn ers of marine depositions-strata rich in 
 
 -hells; and you may find, too, .ome of the very 
 
 luudrupeds buried by the ashes and scoriae and 
 
 -,,• 1 . , ""ici lormations, vou 
 
 r nr'^'^j^:, '•"'""" ^'^"^"^--'^'»'««^ 
 
 .an these shells and the other period there was 
 no hing intervening except a thin stratum of veget- 
 
 t:J:^:z\.'!jr^y^^^-} '^-- -- hav. 
 
 oroc^s whi.h noatei down i:;;;: e ^ ^JT :ir a'^d r' '' ^-"^'-^o'here m;r:; 
 
 hur.ed near the shore in marine deno.it 07- Z . '"^'^? ''■'^""''"" ^'•-" '^^^^ «tate of the gi 
 
 oling us thus topro.e that thosestrataweTeo'rml'rlr ""'"' '"^'^ ^«^-'^--« lived, „nd wh,^ 
 ;n the same p.Hod, and that the ^:::^^^^ ^ 7^"^'^'' ^^^^^'^^^^-^r.c.^n.s, .i-tles, ^^ 
 .re was formed in the same Zoological period as den . "kT"- ' "' ''"" ""^^ ^^^ ^-^ - -d- 
 th.s Mountain. So also in Bavari! are ma ! j"! ^ and^'^T ^"'"^"'"^ '^^^^ ''^ -^'-^ - 
 oustrtne depositws, and on the Rhine you may' fid " ' B.' wh '"'^ "'"" "' '"^^ ""^' ""^ -»-^'» 
 the same quadrupeds associated with fresh iT " ^"" P*" '" '^"""^ Dor and observe 
 
 shells. Thus extending you, observli: TC itT:::::^ 
 
 ane part of Europe to another, y.u can vuJrt. U ' ' "^ '"" '"'' ''"^ ^'■^" ^ Period must 
 
 in the second period there we;.'vo,croes 1 , '"•'"''"' '^'"^''" '»''' !'--"» -cl ^ho Eo 
 
 «aHne d....„„ ..... . . . r....^. I ^ -- ^'^ for Hor race of quadrup^^s 
 
 mar.nedepo.tes. Thus is it on the borders of 2 
 Lmre between Tours and Mount Dor; and four- 
 fifths of the shells found there are of now e.tin't 
 .peces-while the other fifth are still living.' This 
 Juried IS caned Miocene-as containing a Lnori! 
 ty of shells of existing species. 
 
 all through the L.ted States. Li my tour to the 
 
 So.th I found ;n Virginia formations belonging to 
 
 he first or Eocene period. [The whole grou', is 
 
 ff Tertiary, to distinguish it fron, the Second- 
 
 that tT'n'- ^ '■""' '"'"'^ «"SS-»''^ 'o -c 
 hat he could never remember the order of the dif 
 
 until he observed that it was the natural order of 
 the,r ,n.t,als E. M. and P. in the alphabet. The.e I 
 
 -he mastodon. hippopot:;;srh-:^rr: 
 
 nmmalsto supplant the more ancien, Butyo, 
 
 may ask might not tkis at least have been the fa" 
 
 are there. lbe„ f^Uosy on and find where o«J- 
 dnnly they are cut off and again res„med-a vist 
 I-ed of pumice, and trachyte and basalt correspond 
 . n. to a similar one on the other side of thr:^- 
 
 -^.reatvaicr-:::-::--:- 
 
 rr .ret and the flowing ou. of a stream of La 
 
 ^" '' "T'"]' ''f "'- - -t'-q-nt erosion of I 
 ravines by tho lava. Rvthis timn .T . 
 
 losupher. vou will ..ve ac "= 'T' '"' "''' '^ P'"'" 
 1." ." "'^'l" 'Cd morocuution ntwJ 
 
 w.n not hastily assort that the Miocene perio:;';:' 
 

 11 
 
 the last ; you will say rather that on extending the 
 sphere of your researches you were obliged to 
 abandon your first opinions, and so if you stillfor- 
 ther enlarge the field of observation to other parts 
 of Europe, you would see that there was another 
 strata between the Miocene and our own — and 
 such is the cage. 
 
 When you have entered Italy and followed the 
 Appenines from the Po to Calabria you find a low 
 range of hills called by Brocchi, an Italian Geolo- 
 gist, the Sub-Appenlnes, consisting of strata of a 
 date posterior to t he Miocene. These wo cal' 'le 
 Pliocene — which are divided into the Older and 
 Newer Pliocene. I shall not dwell upon the first 
 but allude to the Newer Pliocene, or more modern 
 part of the group. In the South-Eastern part of 
 Sicily we have am example of maiine formations 
 ef the N(!wer I'liocenc. There are rocks of ma- 
 rine origin in which you would at first say that all 
 the shells were the same as those that now people 
 tho waters of the Mediterranean ; and yet when 
 you coma to a more sareful examination you will 
 find that »no-tenth are of a species never seen in 
 that sea. These rock* ara sometimes 2000 feet 
 thick, and it would bo easy, if I had time to de- 
 scribe them minutcily, to show that they had been 
 accumulated in the same slow and gradual manner 
 as the freshwater strata of Auvergne were elabor- 
 ated by the deposition of one layer after another, 
 with this difference, that in the former the organic 
 remainB are marine, and in the latter they are those 
 -of lakes, and therefore a fresh water species. An- 
 other difference is tliat volcanic rocks are distribu- 
 ted nearly through the whole thickness of the 
 formation in the South of Sicily. Near Syracuse 
 also you may see a strata 2000 feet thick, altern- 
 ately of volcanic and marine orig>n ; at the bottom 
 is a bed several hundred feet thick of volcanic 
 ashes, then a bod of limestone, on which rests the 
 great sht;et of lava. In one of these strata at 
 Vincenza an observer found a bed of oysters 20 
 feet thick. There had been time for this oyster 
 bed to accuiiiulate — for Serpulae and other para- 
 sitic animals to attach to them until the bed grew 
 20 feet thick ; and then a stream of lava rolled 
 over it. These facts show how gradually those 
 strata were formed. Another remarkable circum- 
 •tance is that these rocks rise 2000 and in Castro- 
 giov&nni, in Sicily, 3000 feet ahove the level of 
 the sea. Tlipso have all been formed since the 
 newer series of strati* were deposited. Volcanic 
 matter often riaea in the sea, overflows the bottom 
 and forms a temporary island, as Graham's island 
 WQS formed five years ago. The wavoR 3o«n de- 
 
 stroy it, spreading th« irdmio matter over tho 
 bottom of the ocean. All this takes place before 
 there is any upheaval. Here, too, we have proafs 
 of what an extended ccries of groups in the chro- 
 nological table is to be formed subsequent to the 
 Miocene period — the date of that volcano, before 
 you thiak you have come to the end of the series 
 of modern even^j — those which are considered as 
 belonging to modern history. 
 
 My priiic?pal object in the present lecture is to 
 convince you how far from the end of the series 
 these rocks were formed, although they have a re- 
 siiectable claim to antiquity. When we examine 
 Jltna, and the strata on which it rests, we shall 
 see another period, called the Post-Pliocene pe- 
 riod, as being subsequent to the Pliocene. In this 
 all the shells are of the existing species. Its for- 
 mation has been sufficiently protracted to admit 
 the elaboration of this vast series of volcanic move- 
 ments. The locality which I will select this eve- 
 ning ia Mount ^tna — for that volcano rests on 
 strata in which all the shells and corals appear to 
 be identical with those now found in the neighbor- 
 ing seas. 
 
 The night of ^Etna is nearly 11,000 feet. It 
 was well described by the andenta. It is divided 
 into three distinct zones, called the fertile, the 
 woody, and the desert regions. The lowest, the 
 fertile, is a most beautiful territory, embracing the 
 delightful country around the skirts of the moun- 
 tain. It is well cultivated, covered with groves, 
 olives, wines, corn, lomen and other fruit trees, 
 and is densely inhabited. When you pass above 
 this, (and its extent may be judged when I say that 
 the base of tlie mountain is ninety miles in circum- 
 ference,) you come to the woody region, a thick 
 forest of chestnut, oak, and pine trees growing 
 upon lavas of different dates : and as you go higher 
 you occasionally find groves of oak and beech.— 
 This region is rendered extremely beautiful by the 
 great number of minor eones, or small volcanoes 
 like the Puy de Tartaret, which have broken out 
 at different periods on one side of the mountain. 
 Same of these are four or five hundred feet high, 
 and one of them, Monte Minardo, is seven thou 
 sand feet high. There are few objects in Nature 
 more beautiful than this multitude of minor cones 
 that have broken out and covered the trees of this 
 woody region. This zone is two, five and in some 
 places six miles wider and when at its upper lim- 
 its you are about five thousand feet above the level 
 of the sea. From the upper confines of this forest 
 region, in 1828, I took a sketch of the scene 
 above us. We climbed up upon the eastern side. 
 
 '"I 
 
 St 
 
 tr 
 h 
 
 a 
 
 I 
 
 ) 
 1 
 
 r 
 f 
 k 
 
12 
 
 i 
 
 t 
 
 c 
 a 
 ll 
 it 
 u 
 d 
 
 But from that point we have still six thoiwanrl fof>» ™i:«r _i.i .t. • 
 . .. . ' . , »«•'" SIX mousana tpot relief, whilo the rocks around arc wasted awav hw 
 elevation between the hiffhest noint anA i>,« f...,. th :a r.„_.: , .. . T"^ ^^^^ "^ 
 
 elevation between the highest point and the fo/e- 
 ground of this picture. The mountain is general- 
 ly symmetrical, in the form of a flat cone, broken 
 down upon the eastern side by a deep chasm call- 
 ed the Valdel Bove, as may be seen in this figure. 
 
 p— Montagfnuola. 
 
 c— head oi Val del Bove. 
 
 rand ^— Inleral cones. 
 
 After entering upon the woody region, and riseing 
 about one thousand feec from the base, you reach a 
 great precipice two or three thousand feet high ; 
 then comes a plain covered deeply with snow, and 
 lastly the cone, eleven thousand feet above the 
 level of the soa, from which steam or aqueous va- 
 por is constantly emitted. When these views 
 were taken, which was in October, there was lei, 
 
 SHOW upon the mountain than at a oZ" i^^ I Zl^ " T'' "' '"l"""'"^^ ^" ^ ^'^""'" ^°'"^' 
 of the year. One eruption from the suLi oc 2. I uT "P'''^^"' '" '''' '''''''> ^"''"^ 
 
 curs for every two of the cones nn !v, fl '" ""^ directions. Both these may be in 
 
 When one o;^hese::^:r:::t^irt- :r':^:!-' -'' ------ '^ -ow 
 
 the rapid freezing and thawing to which this re- 
 gion is exposed. There was an opportunity during 
 the eruption of 1669 of observing the manner in 
 which thego dikes are produced. The mountain 
 was ront asunder l)y fissures radiating from the 
 centre— though some of them were parallel. These 
 emitted a vivid light, showing the incandescent 
 lava at a great depth below. The lava flows some, 
 times nine or ten miles down the split mountain, 
 and when it is cooled and crystalized it formi* one 
 of these vertical dikes. Similar dikes are formed 
 in Madeim, where basalt has bscn traversed by vol- 
 canic rocks. 
 
 It is supposed that as often as Mount yf^tna is 
 rent open, there may bo a slight upheaval of the 
 whole mass-nn uplifting bodily of the whole 
 mountain: and if we suppose that this has hap. 
 pened from the earliest periods, it may explain the 
 great difficulty which has puzzled some geologisu 
 in endeavoring to explain why the more ancient 
 part of the mountain has not been covered by pos- 
 terior eruptions. It has been objected, that if 
 the whole mountain was formed (as I believe it 
 was) by successive eruptions, that the ancient 
 parts of the volcano ought to have been buried 
 long ago by the more modern eruptions. I ought 
 perhaps to have remarked, that there is a general 
 dip of the beds in all directions, which thjre ara 
 two ways of endeavoring to explain. One attrib- 
 utes it to sheets of lava flowing to a certain point; 
 
 When one of these happens the melted lava pours 
 out over the snews, which are suddenly melted, 
 and rush down the mountain, producing sometimes 
 floods which sweep down the flanks and across the 
 valleys. Except when floods thus occur, there is a 
 smgular absence of running water on the flanks of 
 tlie mountain. The silence which pervades on this 
 
 zr:r-:r:ff— t^.i?"£-^ 
 
 from the rocks, Hor is there any movement of run 
 ning water as in most mountainous countri-s. Not 
 a rill runs down the sides. All the rain that falls 
 trom the heavens, and all the water from the melt- 
 ing snow is instantly absorbed by the porous lava. 
 There arp numerous vertical dikes which tra- 
 verse the mountain and sometimes extend for more 
 than a thousand feet in a perpendicular. They 
 consist of liquid matter emitted by fissures, which 
 aa It rises is consolidated, mixed with tuff's and 
 •cona,. and thm becoming harder than the cliiTs 
 
 why the most ancient parts of the mountain would 
 not be covered by the overflowing lava. 
 
 We know that there has been an upheaval of the 
 whole mass of .l^tna at no very remote period ; 
 because the mountain rests on a marine stratum 
 which contains shells identical with those now 
 living in the Mediterranean. A force which could 
 
 ot the raountain must have been able to caiTy up 
 the whole mountain; and if the lavas did not 
 cover, at each successive eruption, more and moro' 
 of this marine strata, we should be abk' to trace it 
 to a greater hight up the mountain. As it is, wo 
 find it about 1000 feet above the level. If tl,o' an 
 cient part of the mountain has been thrown up in 
 this way, we readily find the explanation of the 
 phenomena we arc seeking. First, let me state 
 that all geologists admit that the formations of «1. 
 ternato lava and scoria; of which the mass of 
 
 
 -.»a,„.,..a_,„.u,:„„,-^™-i— \':irj:v^^^^^^^^^^^ 
 
asted away by 
 vhich this re- 
 rtuniiy during 
 he manner in 
 rhe mountain 
 ing frotii the 
 rallcl. These 
 incandescent 
 a flows some- 
 ilit mountain, 
 it formi* one 
 3 are formed 
 t^ersedby vol- 
 
 junt Mtna is 
 eaval of the 
 f the whole 
 lis has hap- 
 ! explain the 
 le geologisu 
 ore ancient 
 Bred by pos- 
 ed, that if 
 I believe it 
 the ancient 
 jeen buried 
 B. I ought 
 3 a general 
 h tlure ara 
 One attrib- 
 rtain point ; 
 itre, tilting 
 may be in 
 or to show 
 itain would 
 
 laval of the 
 to period ; 
 le stratum 
 those now 
 hich could 
 
 the sides 
 ) caiTy up 
 ' did not 
 and moro 
 to trace it 
 8 it is, wo 
 If the an. 
 nvn up in 
 'n of the 
 me state 
 ons of at. 
 
 mass of 
 
 origin— 
 
 13 
 
 tliat it is formed above the water ; for it contains 
 no marine shells — no beds of tuff— no stratified 
 n,as9— no fossils ; but has every indication of be- 
 ing a volcano found m the open air. At lirst, the 
 volcano may have been of moderate hight — accu- 
 mulating one bed upon another until it reached a 
 height of 4 or 5000 feet. Then as it grew higher 
 on eiuption would take place, as it does now, 
 chiefly on the flanks. I told you that an eruption 
 generally occurs on the summit for every two on 
 llio sides : that is the proportion that has been ob- 
 served during the historical period. The higher 
 the mountain becomes, the greater, evidently, is 
 the hydrostatic pressure of the column of lava 
 that rises up : the higher the chimneys the greater 
 die pressure of the lava rising within them upon 
 the flanks. In this way the lava might continue 
 to rise until at last, if it became more than two 
 miles high, the pressure would have become so 
 enormous as to burst through the flank of the 
 mountain. Every geologist will admit that in a 
 volcano such an outbreak may take place. At 
 first, before this the accumulatioH went on by 
 eruptions from the summit ; but these eruptions 
 being afterward performed on the flanks about the 
 woody region, the older part of the volcano was 
 not buried. 
 
 Before I go farther, there is one point of grea_ 
 interest which I will noticu : ^tna is of all volca 
 noes that of which we have the most ancient rec" 
 cords, and to a knowledge of which history and 
 tradition carry us the farthest back. There is a 
 tradition mentioned by Diodcrus Sicblus, that 
 an eruption happened before the Trojan war» 
 which compelled the Sicani to desert their dis- 
 trict. Thucydides tells us that in the sixth year 
 before the Peloponnesian war, or in 435 B.C., an 
 eruption occurred which was the third that had 
 taken place there since the colonization of Sicily 
 by the Greeks, (a) The second of those three erup- 
 tions was the one mentioned in that beautiful ode 
 of Pindar, which is worth referring to because 
 it is the description by a poet which corresponds 
 precisely with the appearance of the volcano 
 twenty centuries afierwaid when Catanipi was de- 
 etroyed in 1669. Part of the city had been over- 
 flowed during the eruption, alluded to by Pindar^ 
 as having occurred in the year 475 B. C. In that 
 passage Pindar speaks of "the snowy JEtna, the 
 pillar of Heaven — the nurse of everlasting frost 
 in whose deep caverns lie concealed the fountains 
 of unapproachable Jire—a stream of tddying 
 $moke hy day — a bright and ruddy flame by 
 'la)lrT«iyfi(iIde7,"BooiriuTSec7lia 
 
 night : and burning roeks rolled down with loud 
 
 uproar into th' 
 
 We ha.e sti 
 day produced 
 appearance w 
 Mr. Scropo 8a\ 
 
 "(6) 
 
 ' stream of eddying smoke' by 
 1 eruption. It tiad the same 
 ^aw it in 1828, and also when 
 stream nine months after it 
 began to flow in lUlQ. He says that it was then 
 moving; on at the rate of one yard in an hour: 
 during the day it constantly emitted a dense va- 
 por: for aqueous vapor enters minutely into this 
 lava, though no ci.emist has yet fully explained it. 
 As often as the stream cracks, it emits several 
 gases, but chiefly steam, which boiling up brings 
 the lava to the surface, and causes it to overflow 
 the crater just as steam in a kettle carries up the 
 water, and causes it to spill over. So this steam 
 and all the gases become entangled with the red 
 hot lava, causing it to discharge large quantities 
 of aqueous vapor during the whole process of con- 
 glomeration. By night we saw the same cracks 
 emitting a glowing heat, and the whole stream 
 makes out the ' bright and ruddy flame.' 
 
 It is a singular circumstance, in regard to the 
 theory of flowing lava, that, instead of being level, 
 as you would naturally expect of a liquid, there 
 are hilUcks of considerable hight along its sur- 
 face, in consequence of the uneven ground over 
 which it flows. Another peculiarity of these 
 streams is the fact of their becoming hard and 
 solid while in motion. Instead of tliinning out, 
 as would be natural, at the edges, the upper sur- 
 face becomes cool, and the sides likewise, and 
 both grow hard ; so that the edges are often 
 rocky walls, inclined at angles of from 30 to 40 
 degrees. It is thus a flood of red hot lava flowing 
 along a solid tube. Thus, when they come to a 
 rise of ground, the streams rise as water does in a 
 pipe — as has been the case in the Val del Bove. 
 When the stream comes to a hill, it goes up the 
 slant in a tube of its own making, and thus, too, it 
 goes up the sides of solid walls. In 1669, when 
 Catania was threatened with destruction by the 
 approaching stream, a respectable citizen |of the 
 town, desiring to secure the city, took a troop of 
 
 (6) This passage may be found in the Ut Pythian Ode of 
 
 Pindar, beginnin;; 
 
 "X-pvaea 0op/iiyf AiroXXo)- 
 
 vo{ xai tonXaKajibiv 
 ^vvSiKov Mojo-av Kreavov, le. r. X. 
 The description of jEtna, the whole of which is extremely 
 beautiful, commences with the concluding lines of Dec V. 
 
 A 'ovpavia miiexti 
 Nt^OECiT Asri-a, TravcrcS 
 Xioyor o(eta<p ri^nva, 
 and i:. i:ou;iiiued through the seven succeeding verse*. 
 
 ml 
 o>l 
 
 H 
 f 
 
 ^ 
 
 A- 1 
 
 H 
 
 P» 
 
 A' 
 
 * L 
 
 >\ 
 
 ■•.*;ja»«.t#»i«*w«. 
 
some fifty men, «)m>, ebtlied with skini to protect 
 thnm from the heatt aoil armed with iron crows 
 and pick-axes, began to quarry the solid wall^ and 
 let out the lava. They opened it at the village of 
 Belpasso, and the stream immediately issued 
 forth, and took the direction of Paterno. But the 
 inhabitants of that toWn, being alarmed for th« 
 safety of their own village , took up arms and pre- 
 vented farther operations. The torrent, therefore, 
 moved on to Catania, and the inhabitants of that 
 city, being terrified for their safety, turned out and 
 threw up a rampart of stones, hewn from the lava, 
 sixty feet high. On went the burning torrent, and 
 wlien it arrived at the wall, it continued to accu- 
 mulate upon itself until it topped the wall, curled 
 over, and fell in a fiery cascade upon the town ; it 
 passed on to the Mediterranean, which it entered 
 with a loud explosion. This corresponds pre- 
 cisely with the description sf Pindar. The Prince 
 of Biscari afterwards, at great expense, made a 
 quarrying out of the lava, so as to show the man- 
 ner of its falling over ; and you may now see 
 the upright wall, with the stream of lava curling 
 over the top — appearing like a petrified cascade 
 of lavn, anrf remaining visible t* ♦V-is day. This 
 drawing will give you some idea of the view of 
 JEtna, and the iitnation of various localities 
 near it: — 
 
 14 
 
 a— highest cone, 
 fr— Monta^uola. 
 c— marine fomiation— rarely found alwve the dotted line 
 
 A t. 
 
 y— escarpment of volcanic tuff, &c. N. W. of Catania. 
 *— town of Catania, 
 ir— plain of (>atania. 
 
 /—limestone platform of the newer Pliorcne, from wiiich 
 the vjew is supposed to be taken. 
 »n— La Motta di Catania. 
 
 From these facts you may get some idea of the 
 slow manner in which the lava current goes on, at 
 the rate of a yard an hour for days, months, and 
 sometimes for years. 
 
 It is very generally conceded that the origin of 
 the chasm wn the side of the cone — the Val dei 
 
 Bove— was in the subsidence ^[of the ground for 
 some 3000 feet. We have an example at no very 
 remote period when the Dutch possessed the Isl- 
 and of Java, of a similar sinking down in the vol- 
 cano Papanda-ang— but a little before the com- 
 moncement of the nineteenth century. A space 
 of ground some fifteen miles long and six or seven 
 wide gave way during an earthquake, and buried 
 forty villages ; and one part of the volcano fell in 
 after another, until Papandayang lost 4000 of its 
 hight. The mass engulphed was larger than wo 
 need suppose was swallowed in order to produce 
 the Val del Bove on the East side of Mtna. There 
 are two mountains mentioned by Pliny, and since 
 his time the chasm between them has been nearly 
 filled by the deluges of lava. 
 
 The composition of all the lavas of ^tna, from 
 the oldest to the most inodern, is singularly 
 homogeneous. That of the modern eruptions of 
 1811 and 1819, when analyzed was found to con- 
 sist of the dark mineral augite, and of a kind of 
 feldspa, catted Labradorite. It has largo quan- 
 tities of iron, some of which is titanifcrous The 
 ntost ancient lavas of which thousnnds of sheets 
 are found, consist of nearly the same materials. 
 At those points where we can see farthest into the 
 internal structure of the Mountain, we find that it 
 is constituted oi successive beds of lava and sco- 
 riae — with large quantities of augite and feldspar, 
 which have a granitic structure. As we go farther 
 down. we find masses of rock, which are still more 
 granitiferous : they are not divided into strata, nor 
 do they agree with the volcanic rocks ; we thus 
 reach the Plutonic rocks, and I must endeavor to 
 make you familiar with the technical term. Vol- 
 canic rocks are frequently porous, because they are 
 found near the surface, and the discharge of their 
 cases causes pores in them, as in the slag of iron 
 furnaces. When they exist in a strata of consid- 
 erable depth, the pores diminish and the rocks be- 
 come stronger, and begin to crystalize, until we 
 reach the bottom, when they have no pores. Crys- 
 talization has taken place under a pressure, and 
 they have slowly cooled. The Plutonic locks con- 
 sist of certain porphyries, and have silex and alu- 
 mine, but never scoria or volcanic sand or pebbles, 
 nor are any signs of these found near the surface. 
 As, therefore, Volcanoos had been thus named, be- 
 cause Vulcan had his fo.-ge under ^tna, so it 
 was natural that those rocks should be "p'^^d 
 Plutonic, as being found in the realm of Pluto, 
 where flowed thePhlegethon — rivor of fire — and the 
 Letho rolled its watery labyrinth, which may be 
 mythical of the Lethean influence exerted by these 
 
 WfK 
 
 I 
 
---wm^' 
 
 ' j^^wl 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 if. 
 
 15 
 
 rocks — for we find that who* these granitic masMs 
 come in contact with a fossiliforoHS strata, they 
 destroy every trace of organic remains. If we 
 suppose all the different strata to come in contact 
 with those, wo shall find that we can trace the pas- 
 sage from those of the rao9t fosailiferoiM state to 
 that when fossils are rare, at last come to a pure 
 crystal rock, such as is sought by iha Sculptor. — 
 The Carrara marble is an example of this kind. — 
 Formerly this was called a primitive rock — one of 
 the oldest. Now it is known not to bo of high an- 
 tiquity,but to have been converted from fossiliferous 
 rock by contact with granite, which has deprived 
 it of all its corals. Its nodules of flint have been 
 fused, and occasionally will be found crystals of 
 augite, against which the Sculptor sometimes breaks 
 the edge of his chisel. I give this as an illmtra- 
 tion with which you are all acquainted ; it is o«ly 
 one of a thousand I might mention. Thus you see 
 that rocks which are fossiliferous, when far from 
 Plutonii; rocks, may become non-fo88ilifer»us 
 when placed for ages in their vicinity. 
 
 It wan formerly a great puzzle for chemists to 
 account for the manner in which heat pervaded the 
 rocks, because they are bad conductors. But they 
 should recollect that in the interior of the Earth 
 we have to deal not only with masses of melted 
 matter, but with steam. Volcanoes, besides mine- 
 ral matter, discharge various gases — but nine- 
 lenths of their matter is wR.ter. This steam, be- 
 fore it found vent, minglad intimately with the 
 pores of the lava, and forced the sides to disen- 
 gage. Any rock, no matter how solid and compact, 
 when put in centact with an immense reservoir of 
 this would become porous and upongy, under so 
 enormous a pressure. This may be seen at Corinth, 
 in the Lipari Islands, in Greece, and other places. 
 Tliis hypothesis must not be combated, then, by ob- 
 jections founded upon the results of subjecting 
 rocks to the heat of our furnaces ; for they exist 
 under altogether differ«nt conditions in the interior 
 of the Earth. 
 
 I may state, that, aa these remarks relate to th* 
 
 moi difficult theeries of geology, it ii not to be 
 
 expected that you should at once follow them. As 
 
 I omitted it at the last lecture, I will say a few 
 words of the origin of granite rocks. The true 
 
 unstratified granite is generally believed te be of 
 
 igneous origin, formed by that part of the volcanic 
 
 phenomenon which is far below where the eruption 
 
 takes place. In Mount Dar, they are believed to 
 
 be below the Miocene, and in ^tna, below the 
 
 Post Pliocene; and so of all antecedent periods. 
 
 It is impossible, though we know nsore of the 
 history of ^tna than of any other volcano, to form 
 even an approximate estimate of the number of 
 years required for the accumulation of such a mass 
 of volcanic matter. There is no reason to suppose 
 that the ancient eruptions were more violent than 
 the modern. The sheets of lava separated by 
 bods of scorisB and breccia, in the ancient part of 
 the volcano, do not appear to be of any greater 
 thickness than those of the modern. There is 
 one method of attempting the computation of the 
 more recent part of the mountain — to consider 
 the minor cones which adorn its flank. Of these 
 there are eighty ef the first magnitude. We can- 
 not, from what we know of these, suppose that 
 more than ose-fourth of them were produced since 
 the earliest periods mentioned by Diodorus Sicu- 
 lus and Thucydides. There may have been more 
 activity, or less violent convulsions; but if we 
 suppose that, in 12,000 years all these eighty 
 cones were produced ; and if we strip them all 
 off, we shall still have the great colossal mass of 
 iEtna remaining behind. It would still be one of 
 of the loftiest mountains in Sicily. It is evident, 
 at all events, that, between the formation of the 
 latest period of the Puy de Tartaret and the oldest 
 of ^tna, the whole of the older and newer Plio- 
 cene periods must have intervened. 
 
 In my next lecture I will endeavor to explain, 
 from the remains of the temple of Serapis, some 
 of the proofs of the upheaval of the earth. 
 
 
 d 
 
 4 
 
 >l 
 I 
 
 I 
 
LECTURE III 
 
 UPHEAVAL AND SUBSIDENCE OF THE EARTH. 
 
 Ladies and Oentlemen : I havo had occasion, 
 in both my provioua Lectures, to allude to the fact 
 that various marine fossils— the fossil remains of 
 animals that once lived in the ocean — have been 
 found entombed in the rocks of various districts ; 
 not that we find these remains of marine creatures 
 •trewed over the surface of the Earth merely, as if 
 the Sea had once overflowed the land ; but we find 
 them imbedded in the midst of mountains, at all 
 depths below the surface, and entering int« the 
 composition of the mountain masses themselves, 
 mBl.:ing up their very materials, sometimes frr 
 two or three miles thick, all having been gradu- 
 ally elaborated under the water ; thus furnishing the 
 most indisputable proof that what is now dry land 
 was once for ages under the water and formed the 
 bed of the sea. Here the geologist finds himself 
 reduced to the alternative of supposing either that 
 the ocean was oHce higher than it now is, and that 
 it has been lowered ; or that the land, the solid 
 laud itself, has been raised ap. The earlier geolo- 
 gists preferred the notion of a sinking, a general 
 sinking, of the sea; for the ocean cannot be low- 
 ered ia one place without a general subsidence 
 throughout its whole extent. But when the struc- 
 ture of the Earth came to be mnre attentively 
 studied and more thoroughly examined, geologists 
 gradually came round to the opposite opinion, 
 namely, that the land had been elevated ; and this 
 opinion was embrace* for several reasons, but 
 principally because it would account for all the 
 observed phenomena, explain all the periods of 
 stratification — those in which the strata are dis- 
 turbed and fractured as well as those in which they 
 are horizontal. For if they were all upon a level, 
 then the going down of the sea might explain their 
 appearance ; but as we find them curved, bent and 
 fractured, the other theory is the only one which 
 will explain both appearances. 
 
 Another reason for embracing the hypothesis of 
 an upheaval of the Earth is this— that we find u 
 
 the crust of the Earth fresh water formations 
 
 (yffu are now familiar with this term)— beds formed 
 in lakes and estuaries, lying beneath the deposites 
 which are evidemly of marine origin. For exam- 
 ple, in some parts of Europe you find the white 
 ehalk — a marine, calcareous matter, produced be- 
 
 neath the soa mainly by the decomposition of 
 shells; beneath that you find another stratum, evi- 
 dently of fresh water origin. Now to explain how 
 a marine stratum 1,500 feet thick could have been 
 thus deposited upon a fresh water formation, by 
 the theory of the rising and the lowering of the 
 ocean, you would have to make the ocean first re- 
 treat, in order that there might be dry land ; then 
 rise again to deposite the mass of corals and shells 
 which are found ; then retire and again go down 
 to explain the present dry land which now exists 
 in that part of the Eaith where this calcareous mat- 
 ter is found. You would uave a vast number of 
 successive retirals upon that hypothesis ; and the 
 ocean must rise several miles and stand there for 
 ages to form the marine rocks of the Himmolaya 
 and other mountain chains. 
 
 But besiios that this theory of the movement of 
 the land explains all these geological phenomena, 
 we have the experience of history, which teaches 
 that the solid land, through extended districts, 
 does sink down in some places and rise slojvly in 
 others ; whereas there is no instance on record of 
 a general lowering of the whole ocean — there has 
 been no general sinking of the sea throughout the 
 world. I think I shall bo able to show in this ajid 
 the next lecture, that there has been, and is now 
 going on, a magnificent example of this, sometimes 
 of a sudden and at others of a gradual and in- 
 sensible risingtand sinking of the earth. I will 
 here mention one example in Sweden, because ori- 
 ginally I disputed the accuracy of the statement, 
 until I visited the locality and satisfied myself of 
 its truth. I found that the Northern part of 
 Scandinavia, of Sweden and Norway, was rising 
 five or six feet in a eentury, as is ascertained by 
 fact* that have been observed for several hundred 
 years. As you go south to Gefle you find that the 
 rising has diminished to three feet, and at Stock- 
 holm to only two or three inches in the hundred 
 years, while still farther south there was no motion 
 at all. It is thus as if the whole land were a lever, 
 which is stationary at one point, rising more and 
 more as you go toward the end. In Greenland it 
 is certain that since the early Danes colonized the 
 island, built churches there and settled the country, 
 there has been a gradual sinking down of the 
 whole coast foi several hundred miles ; the churches 
 
 ■ I 
 
 ■ i 
 
 i 
 
 r 
 
I 
 
 ■i 
 
 i 
 
 r 
 
 in BOino places have been submerged, and the 
 greater part cf the lower stories and tlie pavements 
 are now whoUj under water. Theao movements 
 of the cartli are sometimes accompanied by vol- 
 canic eruptions, though not in Grecnlaad and Swe- 
 den, hut. in South America they are. In Chili, 
 for example, in 1835, that part of the coast near 
 Conception was raised some nine feet, and re- 
 mained permanently at that hight. The bed of 
 the sea was raised, as were the island ef Santa 
 Maria and a great part of the neighboring coast; 
 at the same moment the volcano of Osarno, in the 
 Andes, burst forth and lava was seen to flow from 
 its crater. A submarine volcano also burst forth 
 400 miles west of Osarno at Bacalao, and the 
 island of Juan Fernandez was also violently 
 shaken. These facts show the vast extent of the 
 subterranean volcanic activity accompanying the 
 movement of the land. The land has relapsed 
 In some degree, though not to its former position. 
 In some places it maintains its upheaval. 
 
 But you may see a more remarkable illustration 
 of this upward and downward movement in the 
 immediate neighborhood of Naples : and I mention 
 it because evidence drawn partly from antiquarian 
 researches and partly belonging to geological proof, 
 comes home more easily and more convincingly to 
 the minds of those not accus*<'med to purely geo- 
 logical evidences. In my next lecture when I come 
 to speak of the coral reefs — I think I say not too 
 much when I say that I shall show that these vast 
 areas of the Earth's surface — extending some 
 8000 miles from East to West, and 3000 or 4000 
 from North to South — are now undergoing in some 
 lections a slow upheaval, and in others an equally 
 gradual subsidence. To-day I shall confine my 
 attention to a small space in the neighborhood of 
 Naples, where the changes may be traced for the 
 last 1800 years. 
 
 If you first look at a map of the country near 
 Naples, you see extending int« the Bay of Naples, 
 south of Vesuvius, the Sorentine Promontory, off 
 which is the celebrated Island di Ca,pri. Pompeii 
 you will see at the south side of Vesuvius, and 
 Naples at the northwest. At the northwest extre- 
 mity of the beautiful Bay of Naples you see the 
 small bay of Baire, to which I would call your par- 
 ticular attention. Now movements have taken 
 place, which have caused a sinking and then a re- 
 elevation in the Bay of Baia; of twenty-five ftet — 
 and yet have not affected the neighborhood of Na- 
 ples, which is only twelve miles distant. This 
 view of the Bay [exhibited] was taken by Sir 
 William Hamilton, from the south side of the 
 
 Bay at Puziuoli. On the plain between th« se« 
 and tlie dark cliff, r«preMDted below is the town 
 of Puzzuoli. 
 
 idl 
 
 a. AnUquiUes on the hill S. E. of Puiiuoli- 
 
 6. Ancient Cliff— now inlan<l. 
 
 c. Terrace composed of ancient «ubmarlne depoatt. 
 
 This inland cliff is eighty feet in hight. When 
 I examined it in 1828, I found that it consisted of 
 indurated volcanic tuff, containing some marine 
 remains and the platform or terrace (a.) between 
 the cliff and sea, contained evidences of having 
 been formed under water. A wall had been bailt 
 to protect the rich and valuable land of the terrace 
 which slopes from the base of the cliff to the aea. 
 But fortunately for me, a sterm had swept away a 
 part of this rampart and laid open a section 80 
 that I was enabled to examine the alternate beds 
 of pumice and lapilli and volcanic matter, with 
 strata abounding in various marine shells, such a» 
 cockles and the Mytilus edulis or eatable muscle. 
 In one of these strata I found squares of a rich 
 colored mosaic pavement and various sculptured 
 ornaments. My friend Mr. Babbage found at a 
 great hight barnacles and other shells attached to 
 the face of the cliff. Tha appearance is as if th« 
 sea had beaten against the base and thus under- 
 mined the cliff. 
 
 When we pass round the premonitory to Puz- 
 zuoli and come in sight of the Bay of Baiee we 
 see what is called Cal.gula's Mole, a long line of 
 arehes and piers extending from the end of the 
 town into the water. On the last of these arches 
 but one there weie found, ten feet above the sea 
 level, great numbers of flastra and other marine 
 zoophytes attached to the building,which must once 
 have been submerged ten feet lower than it now is 
 and then raised to its present hight. On the sixth 
 pier the same thing may be noticed. Breislak 
 observes that as these arches now spring under 
 water, and as it is certain that originally they were 
 built so as to spring out of the water, though it is 
 proved that the mole has been uplifted ten feet 
 above its lowest level, still it has not yet been re- 
 stored to its original position. If you stand on 
 
 a] 
 ifE 
 
 ** 
 It 
 
 ir 
 
 h 
 
 i| 
 
 ii 
 
 )> 
 
 I 
 
 I- 
 
 \r 
 
 If 
 !k 
 
 it 
 
one of the arckos and look toward the land yi.u 
 Bee another inland cliff similar to, but not so high 
 as, the other. Between the cliff and the sea ig a 
 low terrace calltd La Starza. leading to the infer- 
 ence that the same movomont which produced the 
 other cliff, also extended to the Northwest and pro- 
 duced this with its plain and caused the cliff to 
 become inland. Upon this plain is the templo of 
 Jupiter Serapis. The cliff and plain are represent- 
 ed in this drawing : 
 
 18 
 
 ft Cicero's Academia. 
 
 b. Ancient Cliff-now inland. 
 
 ft Terrace »f Submarine (lenofits. 
 
 * Temple of Jupitor Serapis; 
 
 I will now mention the maaner in which this 
 ♦eraple of Jupiter Serapis was discovered. In tra- 
 veling along this terrace-which corresponds so 
 exactly to that on the «ther side-some antiquaries 
 in 1749, examining all the localities, saw conceal- 
 ed among some copse wood, the upper part of 
 three columns-several feet above the ground.- 
 
 Ihey were struck with the circumstance, and de- 
 termmed to remove the cops*. They did so, and 
 began to dig down to see how far the columns ex- 
 tended. They dug down, accordingly, ten, twenty 
 and thirty feet, and still found these great shafts : 
 at forty feet they found nobottom ; but at forty-six 
 feet they came to the pedestals, on which those co- 
 lumns stood. They weie buried at this enor- 
 mous depth, and when they had completed their 
 digging, they found a large pa-'^ment, seventy feet 
 in diameter, level at the base of the columns.— 
 Having found this, and still continuing to clear 
 away, they discovered a large quadrangular build- 
 ing, the roof of which had been supported by forty- 
 eix of these magnificent columns, of whi«h half 
 were granite, and the rest marble-tho marble in 
 each case being a single block, whole from top to 
 bottom. Now, in attempting to account for this, 
 you might at first, perhaps, suppose that the tem- 
 ple was buried like Pompeii, which was over- 
 whelmed by a shower of mud and ashes— and 
 was, after more than fifteen centuries, disentomb- 
 ed, and an immense amphitheatre dug out and ex- 
 posed to view. You might think that this temple 
 of Jupiter Serapis was thus buried, being hi the 
 
 eruption occurred in 1149. But wo find that some 
 of the beds, which have been dug through, contain 
 marine shells, and fragments of works like thsse I 
 mentioned as haying been found in the torraca on 
 the other side of TuzzuoH, and the situation of the 
 
 temple is that represented in tho drawing (d.) 
 
 In endeavoring, too, to account for the burial of 
 this templo by the rising and sinking of the sea, 
 you have first to suppose, as the temple was built 
 above grouad, that the sea first went down— for 
 tha presence of marine remains in the lowest strata, 
 shows this: then that it was carried up again.— 
 Bat it is evident that in rsality the temple was 
 built above the water— that it went down and was 
 buried in the sea, and that again it was raised.— 
 You may think all this very difficult to believe ; but 
 there are still greater wonders to account for, and 
 which can be satisfactorily explained, when you 
 come to examine the building. 
 
 The marble columns have been examined. For 
 the first twelve feet from the bottom they are 
 smooth and uninjured— just as they were originally 
 in the interior of the temple. (I shall not stop to 
 discuss tha opposite opinions as to the use to which 
 this temple was put. It is generally called the 
 temple of Jupiter Serapis— from the omamenti 
 found in it. Several hot baths are found also— and 
 
 hot springs which still flow out from the ruin.) 
 Above this point is a zone of about nine feet per- 
 forated by Lythodoini, a kind of marine bivalve 
 which has the power of perforating rocks. The 
 upper part of the column is smooth having only 
 marks of its eKposure to the weather. 
 
 These animals whi a have thus perforated tlie 
 columns are a species called Mytilus Lythopha. 
 gua—ox stone-eating moluscas. A diver at the Bay 
 of Genoa once told me that some years before ho 
 bad thrown to the bottom a piece of black marble 
 to be bored by these animals : I prevailed upon 
 him to go out in a boat, dive down to the bottom 
 and bring up the marble. It was filled with these 
 shells— about the length of your fingor, buried in 
 the solid rock. It has long been diificult to con- 
 ceive how these tender shells and the still more 
 tender animals that inhabit them, should be able to 
 thus eat holes in the solid rock. It was supposed 
 by some that they had the power of turning around 
 as on an axis, and that thus the shells scraped out 
 the holes like a file. But so tender are the shells 
 that this seems impossible. If we suppose the 
 animals to secrete an acid capable of eating away 
 j carbonate of lime, of which the marble is com' 
 
 region of the Volcano of Solfatara of which an Z177 ' T "" ""^^'' '' '''^• 
 
 oouaiara, oi wnich an | posed, the question will oscur. why should not the 
 
i 
 
 19 
 
 I 
 
 add eat up tho i\ent, which an made of the same 
 substance? But we may well suppose that a 
 feeble acid may act on tho. rock and not eat into the 
 shell which contains tho living animal— especially 
 when wo recollect that the shell is covered by an 
 Epidermis or skin, upon which the acid will not 
 act. It is probable that as they grow large— for 
 the hole they make at first is small— they are ena- 
 bled to eat away tho calcareous matter by discharg- 
 ing tho acid they secrete. They have drilled into 
 the columns p«ai -shaped, cylindrical cavities, which 
 it must have required a considerable time to exca- 
 vate. Their numbers are so great, and they have 
 so eaten into the columns as to diminish their dia- 
 meter : and we find thatsome of tho cavities which 
 the Lithodomi have deserted have been occupied 
 by a specie of bivalv). The appearance of tho 
 columns is indicated by the following figure. 
 
 15. 8 uninjured. 
 
 6. 6 uninjured 
 
 8. 2<| eaten by 
 myiili...... 
 
 1. 5 uninjured 
 1 . calc zone . 
 5. 8 uninjured 
 
 Total hight from bottom of Plinth 41. l^. 
 
 When first these phenomena were observed in the 
 last century, it caused a great variety of opinion: 
 and this was not confined to scientific men , but 
 even the poet Goethe wrote an essay to explain 
 how the salt water of the sea (in which alone the 
 lithodomi exist) might have been barred oat — en- 
 closed in a barrier so as to account for this appear- 
 ance. As there are no tides in the Mediterranean, 
 bow is the water to be carried up not only to ths 
 
 hight of twelve, but of ninetfloa feot T 1 do not 
 say that if there were tides thay would explain it ; 
 because the Lithodomi cannot live six hours out ci 
 water like bivalves, which take water into their 
 shells : they must be always submerged. 
 
 But some geologists have asserted tliat there must 
 have been a general chango in the level of the sea ; 
 that it must have stood nineteen feet above its 
 subsequent level. But it may be replied that there 
 are a thousand proofs to be drawn from the history 
 of all other parts of the Mediterranean, that no 
 such change has ever taken place. It is certain 
 that tho temple exi«tod in the third century: for, 
 in the atrium inscriptions have been found record- 
 ing the reparations made by the Emperor Marcni 
 Aurelius, and tha additional ornaments given to it 
 by another Emperor, Septimius Severus. We 
 know then that it was used as a place of worship- 
 er for whatever purpose it was built— down to the 
 third century : and nothing is more certain than 
 that between the third and the middle of the laat 
 century there has been no general rise of tho Medi- 
 terranean. 
 
 Nevertheless, ia spite of this difficulty, many 
 maintained that the sea had gone down. So un- 
 willing were they to entertain what they called the 
 paradox of attaching constancy to the sea and mo- 
 bility to the land. But after a time their opposi- 
 tion gave way. In 1828, the year when I had an 
 opportunity of examining the place, some excavft- 
 tions were made through the pavement, and at the 
 depth of six feet below it the antiquarians came 
 upon another pavement more rich and costly than 
 this. This suggested the idea that there had been 
 a sinking down previous to the changes we have 
 noticed. The building being near the sea, aa it 
 gave way it was necessary to construct a new 
 pavement six feet above the other ; and then upon 
 this the whole building wai erected. 
 
 The next discovery was made by Niccolini, who 
 was employed in 1807 to make drawings of the 
 temples ; he was in the habit of remaining there 
 all day and yet never saw the pavement overflowed 
 by the sea. Sixteen years after, he had occasion 
 to go back to the ten^le, and to his surprise be 
 found many parta of the marble pavement where 
 ho had stood in 1807 dry, covered at high tide b» 
 water. (I said there was no tide in the Mediter- 
 ranean ; and it is usually considered a tideless sea. 
 Still there is a slight rise and fall of a few inches 
 in the Bay of Baise.) This led Niccolini to make 
 a series of --tMBrimonts with the hydrometer; and 
 he found I.. Jie ground in 1840 had been sinking 
 at the rate of about three fourths of an inch annu* 
 
 Id 
 
 A 
 
 »-f 
 
 )t 
 
 hl 
 
 d 
 
 >■ 
 
 i 
 
 ? 
 
 w 
 
20 
 
 illy, t* that in 1840, it would be two feet two in- i it appears that the rising began to take place, when 
 
 rhos lower than in 1800. When I waa there it 
 was always covered with water. When you know 
 that the laud is thus positively going down every 
 year at a gradual rate you will be loss skeptical in 
 relation to the subsidence of the earth's surface. 
 Thus wo have not only to carry down the teuipls 
 far enough to account for the nineteen faot we had 
 before, but now we are obliged to add six feet far- 
 ther for it to sink ; we Imvo now twenty-fSw feet 
 of subsidence to acsount for. 
 
 Now, the question was, was this sinking grad- 
 uol and successive, as it has been since 1800, or 
 was it sudden 7 And to this we have a most sa- 
 tisfactory answer. In 1828 Mr. Babdaoe, tho 
 celebrated mathomaticiun, and another of my 
 friends, Mr. Hkad, carefully examined the temple 
 and found the clearest evidence that the whole was 
 gradually going down ; and Mr. Babbaok had the 
 kindness to lend mo the yet unpublished results 
 of this exomination. We find the columns eaten 
 at the ends and upon tho sides, and they wished 
 to show how the columns must have stood to allow 
 this. They found first, the whole column incruet- 
 ed near the bottom by a black deposito two feet 
 thick, containing Serpulae and marine animals.— 
 Wo may suppose that the temple had then begun 
 to sink so that the sea should have covered tho 
 base of tho columns where this incrustation was 
 deposited. The top of the deposition represented 
 the water level. Then came a shower of ashes, 
 covering tho columa for six or seven feet, 
 from an eruption of the neighboring volcano of 
 Solfatara, probably, though there are many other 
 volcanic cones in that vicinity. Now this may have 
 shut out the sea, and the water flowing into pools 
 and ponds of the uneven surface may have caused 
 the fresh water formations, as thM-e are no serpulse 
 or marine animals to bo found there. Then may 
 have occurred another shower of ashes, perhaps 
 from the eruption of 1149, when was a con- 
 siderable earthquake, which may 'have thrown 
 down the other columns which perhaps stood till 
 that time. Suppose the marble ones, (for tie 
 granite are untouched,) then to have rested on the 
 uneven surface of the layer produced by the second 
 shower : the sea flowing in might have carried the 
 lithodomi thither, and thus the columns might have 
 been eaten on all sides and at both ends. 
 
 All these geological phenomena relate to the pe- 
 riods of the succcssivo goings down of tho temple. 
 No less than 27 piiittrs have been carefully ex- 
 amined and iiicastiiml inch by inch and their origi- 
 nal position carefully made out. In the year 1 483 
 
 the gri'ut earthquake occurred which destroyed 
 Puizuoli a.id formed those inland cliflTs. We have 
 adotument, a chartarof Fonlinand and Isabella 
 of Spain, then sovereigns of Naples, granting to 
 the University of I'uzzuoli the piece of land near 
 the town of Naples ' whore the sea is drying up,' 
 (cAe va aeccando il mare ;) and this was followcJ 
 a few years after by another charter datedin 1511, 
 granting to the University, tolum desiccatum, the 
 ground that is dried up frem tho sea. So at tliis 
 time thoro is evidence that tho gradual retreating 
 of tho sea had bvgvn. In 1530, nineteen years 
 after, wo have still tho testimony of an Italian writer 
 Sofl'rcdo that though tho sea h;id dried up still it 
 washed the base of the inland cliff and swept across 
 La Starza so that he tolls us people might have 
 fished from tho ruins. Wo are now led noarly to 
 tho epoch of the formation of Monto Nuevo— tho 
 new mountain produced by an eniption in 1538 
 only eight years after Sofl'rcdo wrote. And there 
 is ample evidence in the documents collected by 
 Sir William Hamilton that tho whole upheaval of 
 the land took place about that time. I shall refer 
 to jonio account of that memorable event when a 
 mountain 450 feet high was produced in a few 
 nights. This mountain stands partly on the site of 
 the Lucrino lake and partly on the site of a little 
 villogo in tho vicinity called Tripergola. Sir Wil- 
 liam Hamilton has found two letters describing 
 the eruption which formed tlie mountain and I 
 shall read from them some interesting passages. 
 One is from Falconi in which he says : 
 
 " It is now two years since there have been fre- 
 quent earthquakes at Puzzuoli, Naples and the 
 Heighboring sections. On the day and in tho 
 night before iho eruption of Monte Nuovo above 
 twenty shocks, great and small, were folt. The 
 eruption began on tho 29th Sept. 1538. It was 
 on a Sunday about one o'clock in the night, when 
 flames of fire were seen between the hot batJisond 
 TrijMjrgola. In a short timo the fire increased to 
 such a degree that it burst open the earth in this 
 place, and threw up so great a quantity of ashes 
 and pumice stones mixed with water, aa covered 
 tho whole country. Tho next morning the poor 
 inhabitants of Puzzuoli quitted their habitations in 
 terror, covered with tho muddy and black shower 
 
 which continued the whole day in that country 
 
 flying from death, but with death painted in their 
 countenances. Some with their children in their 
 arms ; some with sacks full of their goods; others 
 leading an ass loiided with their frightened fami- 
 lies toward Naples ; others carrying quantities of 
 
 * 
 
i 
 
 21 
 
 * 
 
 birds of varioiu ««m, that livl Wlon aead at the 
 beginning of tlin onjption; oth«rg, again, wi/hfith 
 which they had found (maik thin,) and which 
 wore to bo mnt in plenty on tho «h»re, the tea 
 having le/l them dry for a eon$idcrahle time." 
 
 Thi» ii tho dencription of the eruption of tho 
 volcano that formed Monte Nuovo, by Falconi ; 
 there is another by Pictro Giacomo di Toledo, in 
 which hu says:— 
 
 " It is now two years since Campagna has b,Ton 
 nfflictod with earliiqimltcs— tho country aboiit Vm- 
 lixoW more than other parts. On the 27 ih andSBih 
 erf" September last, the earthquakes -lid not cease 
 day or nigiit; the town of I'liz/.uoli, that plain be- 
 tween Lake Av(.rnus, the Monte Barbaro nndthe 
 sea was raised a little [a remarkable expression 
 which ho would not havo used if it bad boon merely 
 Q shower of ashes which raised it, as sometimes 
 happens] and many cracks were mad« \» it, from 
 some of which issued water : at tho same time tho 
 sea adjoining tho plain dried up for about two 
 hundred paces, so that the fish were left on the 
 land a prey to tho inhabitants of Puzzuoli. At la*t 
 on tho 29lh, about 2 o'clock in tho night, the earth 
 opened near tho Lucrine lake and discovered a 
 horrid mouth, from which ever vomited furiously 
 smoke, fire, stones and mud composed of ashes, 
 making at the time of its opening a noiso lik« the 
 loudest thunder. Tho stones which followed were 
 by the flames converted to pumice, and some of 
 those were larger than an ox. The stones were 
 sent a high as a cross-bow can carry," and so ho gofjs 
 on to describe the shower of mud that built up 
 a solid mountain which has a crater at the top as 
 deep as the mountain is high. Toledo then pro- 
 ceeds to say that the erupiion lasted two nights and 
 two days — (the mountain was produced in two 
 nights,) and that many persons were knocked down 
 by the stones, and killed. 
 
 It appears to mo evident, not that the soa had 
 retired before the eruption, but that, when tho 
 tremendous explosion took place, the plain was 
 suddenly raised, and there was then a drying up 
 of tho sea some time after; but a vast deal of 
 rising must have taken place during those convul- 
 sionf, as we know the red hot lava to produce that 
 liquid fiery matter that was thrown up must have 
 molted near the surface, so that the stream, instead 
 of flowing over the orator, should escape through the 
 yielding beds below — between which it might flow 
 latitudinally until it became high enough to pierce 
 through, just as it ia easier to thrust a knife be- 
 tween two leaves of a book than through them. 
 But I have too many facts to explain to you re- 
 
 lative to thoffl supflrficial chaii|;et having li < n 
 caused by an upward and downward movement of 
 the F.arth, to enter this svoning upon tho varioui 
 speculations roHpocting thoio matters. You per- 
 ceive that wa have carried the temple down twenty- 
 five feet gradually, and that it has shot up nearly 
 the whole distance, though not entirely, at ena 
 eruption. 
 
 Not far from tho Temple of Serapis are the 
 ruins of two temples, obo of tho Nymphs and th« 
 other of Neptuno. The columns of the former 
 stand erect in five feet water. Tho temple was 
 doubtless submerged, and if there should over be 
 an upheaval of tho bottom of the bay, this temple 
 would probably bo exhumed as was tho other. As 
 to the diiliculty that arises from the columns not 
 having fallen down like tho others, it should be 
 recollected that they went down slowly, only three- 
 fourths of an inch in a year, and that before tha 
 great earthquake of 1149 occurred, they were 
 buried twelve feet deep in incnistation or in ashes; 
 being made of one block, they would bo quite 
 likely to remain erect. 
 
 One fact I forgot to mention : that these columns 
 are a little out of a perpendicular — inclining slightly 
 toward the sea. Originally they must have been 
 perpendicular; therefore the movement must have 
 been greater toward the land ; and this, too, may 
 explain why the temples of Neptune and tho 
 Nymphs are lower down and are not yet raised. 
 An antiquarian, named Capocci, has proved con- 
 fdusivoly that while these movements accurred at 
 Pu7.zuoli, no changes have taker place at Naples, 
 so that we havo an oscillation of twenty-five feet 
 up and down, while at twelve miles distance 
 every thing is stationary : an important fact in the 
 explanation of a great variety of geological phe- 
 nomena, some of which I alluded to in my other 
 lectures. 
 
 When you examine the new moimtain you find 
 no indication that it is more modern in its origin 
 than the others in its neighborhood. Indeed, as 
 the same country is under cultivation, for the most 
 part the vines are lifeless for much of the year, and 
 the olives are of a pale green. Bnt Mt. Nuovo is 
 covered with evergreens, myrtles, olives, and ar- 
 butus : — it is the most verdant spot in all that re- 
 gion: showing apparently that it is less modern than 
 the barren hills in its neighborhood. Nothing can 
 be more striking than the whole landscape — every 
 part of the picture is in such perfect harmony with 
 tho rest, that you would not suppose dilTerent 
 dates belonged to the difterent mountains. — 
 Yet I have found at a hight of 2,600 feet raarina 
 
■bellii, identical in ipAciei with thoae which now 
 live, buricid in tho ulratii of ancient, submarine tuff. 
 The whole country, wliich ii lo modem, either con- 
 (iiti of tiiiR volcani, matter wiiich has i)ccn thrown 
 up ainco it emerged from the iiea, or of strata in 
 which you find ahcllii and zoophytes identical with 
 those tiiat now live; and yet when the early 
 Greek colony first look possession of it 2,500 years 
 ■go, the appeomnco of the vailejs and hills was 
 much tlie sama as you find it now. Yon can 
 scarcely avoid being siirprisod at tho prodigious 
 antiquity, relatively to the historical jn-riod, even 
 of tho modem strata containing tho same shells 
 which I linve spoken of in my last two lectures, 
 when alluding to the antitiuity of the great mass of 
 ^tna, while all its vast sheets of lava and scoria; 
 rest on marine foimaiiens as modern as tho Bay 
 of Baia;. These species of plants and animals 
 which inhabit the hills of that country are more 
 ancient than the country itself. 
 
 Now you may say that this is an apparent para- 
 dox : yet you will easily comprehend it if you at- 
 tend to such a meuntain as Nuovo, which since 
 1538 has l)ecn colonized by all the wild plants and 
 animals of its neighborhood. So ittna has been 
 covered with vegetation older than the mountain 
 itself; not only were these species of animals 
 and plants alive before tho country ro?o from tho 
 sea, but during that whole period when the vast 
 thick strata of hills first began to be elaborated at 
 the bottom of the ocean. So we jtiny affirm that 
 the Fauna and tlie Flora of this region are of a 
 higher antiquity than the country itself. Were 
 I to atujmpt to give you an idea of this period of 
 time—the most modern subdivision of which, this 
 tertiary and its succeeding periods, I have thus far 
 considered—if I were to compare it to any thing of 
 which wo hare a conception, 1 wowld say that this 
 period, of which I have spoken thus far, may be 
 compared to such distances as exist within our 
 •olar system— between the different planetary 
 bodies. 
 
 Now when astronomers endeavor to measure the 
 distances of the solar system, they tell us that the 
 earth i<. one hundred millions of miles frem the 
 
 22 
 
 ca.ui .. one nundred millions of miles frem the P^sent state of the organic world has not gone on 
 •UB ; because they find that when six months have ' f^om eternity, as the ancient philosophers pretend- 
 
 Yet when they attempt to esttmale the greater 
 •paci. which separates our Solar System from the 
 nearest star, which again is probably tho centre of a 
 System ns magnificent as ours, they are bafllod in 
 tho endeavor, and can only find a distance which 
 shall bo the minimun—noT till lately have they 
 arrived at any accurate calculation concerning it. 
 But it seems, by observations on tlio parallax, a 
 Prussian astronomer, BessKL, has measured tho 
 distance of one star in tho constellation Cygui.-' 
 The angle subtended by the diameter of tho 
 Earth'r orbit at that star it found to be one-third 
 of a seoond, and what distance docs this third of a 
 second give you / Take the diameter of the 
 Earth's orbit for a imit, and then 700,000 of these 
 units, will express tho distance of one of those stars 
 in Cygni from our Earth, and perhaps that star is 
 tho nearest, and separated from the others which 
 we see by a distance equally vast. 
 
 Perhaps, should we compare time and space, 
 this would bo tho kind of distance which should 
 contain the myriads of organic remains of speciea 
 distinct from the species immediately antecedent 
 and following. The minor subdivisions of which 
 I have spoken would bo compared to tho space of 
 our own solar system: the others, with the grander 
 stellar distances. 
 
 Now it is a favorite speculation of astronomers, 
 that nil these worlds, separated so widely, may bo 
 inhabited; but this is mere conjecture— a probable 
 conjecture, if you like, but still incapable of de- 
 monstration. But the geologist proceeds differ- 
 ently. He has indisputable proofs, that thcro 
 have existed on this planet a succession of inhabi- 
 tants, and distinct races of animals and plants. 
 And though he does not measure the limits of time 
 so accurately, and with such geometric precision, 
 as the astronomer, still, by tho vast series of events 
 —by tho methodical phenomena of tho earth- ho 
 finds established, by purely physical phenomena 
 and proofs, the declaration of Revelation, that in 
 tiie first time Man had no cxiatence; that man had 
 a beginning, and that other races existed anterior 
 to him. Man had a beginning ; and therefore tlio 
 present state of the organic worid has not gone on 
 
 gone around, the earth is in the opposite side of her 
 orbit, which is two hundred millions of miles in 
 diameter. They calculate, therefore, by the angles 
 •ubtended, with the diameter of her orbit as the 
 base, that a distance of one hundred millions of 
 
 miles is between tbn »>nrtb n^A tUn — ._ ti t.. 
 
 piter is five times as far away ; Saturn ten times, 
 and so of the others. 
 
 .1 ; ir-'\ we have been able to prove, that beings 
 l\i-^, called I , the Creator into existence, on this 
 I'ivjj •. ~t> -isplay the beautiful and i>erfect har- 
 •.naay oi the Universe— to show that all is modeled 
 on one plan ; that different as are the various genera 
 that have lived, they all belong to the same family. 
 Geology shows that all things are the works of one 
 Intelligence— one Mind— all links of one chain ; 
 
 %, 
 
 I 
 
I 
 
 23 
 
 that thn Karth musthavn boon admirably fitted for 
 •uccoKiivfl Rtutt't which were to endure fur agei. 
 Thim do wn lonrN tomlmir*^ the variety and beauty 
 uf deii|;ndii|)layod when we find traces and atgni 
 
 of the lame design, the tame anity of plan, th« 
 *ame harmony of wisdnm tlimugh to va*t a teriM 
 a* hat beon «ittabii«hud by tlic Infinit« and Etc^ 
 nol Crcaiivo power. 
 
 f 
 
 4 
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 
 CORAL ttEBrS. 
 
 I havp already 8ai<1 tiiat in the strubt'.<ra of the 
 crust of tho Karth wc have h groat variety of gn.Mps 
 in wliich the disli.K t strn*' may he oxpresged, if 
 wc group thid" '.argoly — if we talto wide nnd com- 
 prehcnsivu t'l.iiionii — by the diftVrent numbers 
 and colors, as from «ae to eight in this figure [ex- 
 hibited] ; and that the different sets of strata — for- 
 mations as they are culled — are arranged one above 
 the other in tho order in which they are formed. 
 Not that they are invariably all to be met in one 
 place, for it is not often that wo find more than one, 
 or two, or three, «f thnso strata in any particular dis- 
 trict: but if these different sets are present, wa 
 shall find thom arranged in the order of relative 
 position in whi<-h they are represented — each cer- 
 responding to tho different period of the Earth'a 
 history at which it was farmed. So that thoy may 
 be regarded as a great chronological table — as so 
 many volumes of History in which the strata are 
 the different pages ; ond upon them are written the 
 names and charasters of the plants and animals 
 which lived and flourished at this period, with 
 many other indications of climate, habits, Slc. in 
 the periods when the different tribes flourished. — 
 Now if we examine in succession these rocks we 
 find that a great number of those of calcareous 
 formation, ov limestones, are composed in great 
 ^'ait of coriun and shells; for exum7)lo, if wo take 
 the Chalk formation of Europe — represented in the 
 figure as No. 2 — wo find a large portion of it to be 
 a white calcareous rock made up of corals and 
 shells almost entirely decomposed. I have myself 
 seen in the island of Seeland, fifty miles from Co- 
 penhagen, at Faxoe, this very chalk formation pass 
 into a mass of corals in which more than a hundred 
 species of zoophytes and shells are found. Be- 
 tween the zoophytes is found chalky matter — like 
 the ordinary chalk. This formation extends for 
 more than a thousand miles in one direction, and 
 eight hundred in the other — not continuously, but 
 
 in large paiche*, which preserve much tho sanvc 
 character. In this country too, as in Ne\r Jersey, 
 nro found rocks of tho same ago, not with the 
 white rocks of the same kind, but at difl'erent in- 
 IcrvaU down wo find in the rock, corals and shelli 
 made up of an aggregate of extinct species, but in 
 great part of genera, the same as now live in tropi- 
 cal seas. And this is regarded as one proof that 
 formerly tho climate was much warmer than since ; 
 as it is only in warm climates that these stona 
 building zoophites increase and abouna. There 
 arc zoophytes of tho same class in oil regions of the 
 globe : but these which form large masses of stone 
 (which, when tho animal dies becomes what we 
 may term hard rock,) aro found at present only in 
 warm regions ef the globe. 
 
 Now, I might trace the different formation* in 
 which they occur, and point out the limestones in 
 which they abound. In what is called the Juraa- 
 sique or Oolite formation, these corals are found 
 through England, France and Germany, atdifTerent 
 highta with great intervals of clay — in some cases 
 six or seven hundred feet thick. The corals are 
 found above the other except when they have been 
 destroyed by the depositions of clay, for thoy can 
 live only in pure water. It is clear that where 
 these take place and in tho intervals between the 
 different layers of coralline formation there had been 
 a sinking of the floor of the sea, since it is found 
 that these zoophytes cannot build in the deep and 
 dark parts of the ocean, — that they will not thrive 
 in a depth of more than 120 feet below tho sur- 
 face : and therefore wo find a mass of this coralline 
 limestone with 1000 feet of clay above and then 
 another layer of coral, and then 1500 feet thick 
 of this cretaceous rock ; it is evident that these 
 were formed not at a depth of several miles but 
 r,!>nr the Euraee : and that they then sank down io 
 allow the accumulations above. 
 
 If we come to the carboniferous or cool forma- 
 
 m 
 1 ■ 
 
 is? 
 
■■%-jr,, 
 
 24 i 
 
 XioH, (which I shall describe more particularly in warms the ocean and raises the temperature be- 
 
 my next lecture,) we find beds of coal separated 
 by vast thicknesses of other strata, which can only 
 be explaini'd by supposing that there has been a 
 sinking of the surface of the land. Below the 
 roal are found the most ancient foasiliforous rocks, 
 which have an antiquity far higher than the thick 
 limesten^', for the corals grow on spots which are 
 now found covered in great part with extinct gen- 
 era, or those which arc only foimd in tropical seas, 
 whei-e coral reefs abound. In New-York, in par- 
 ticular, there are large developements of this for- 
 mation, as I shall show when I come to speak of 
 the district around Niagara, when I shall show 
 the bights from which we are to suppose the bed 
 of the sea has sunk, and the era when these ma- 
 rine plants and animals abounded. Now if we 
 find, OH examination of existing coral reefs that 
 have limestone in their structure, similar in their 
 character over a vast extent of the globe, that 
 there is now in progress a considerable going 
 down of the bed of the sea ; we shall then feel 
 more confidence in the appearances and facts on 
 which depend some of the most interesting prob- 
 lems respecting the origin of the materials of the 
 Earth's crust. 
 
 I shall now proceed to give some accaunt of the 
 Coral Reefs, and of the manner in which they 
 grow in the sea. I have been favored by Mr. 
 Charles Darwin, who is about to publish a most 
 
 excellent work on Coral Reefs, with this map 
 
 which will first be published ia his book — drawn 
 up after a personal examination of the region re- 
 presented, and a most extensive reading of works 
 upon the subject. On it are depicted all the spots 
 known at present where Corals now grow. These 
 
 yond what naturally belongs to that zone. You 
 see by this map that in the Indian Ocean in par- 
 ticular and in the great Pacific and South Seas is 
 a prodigious growth of corals. And it is a very 
 remarkable circumstance that almost all the isl- 
 ands in that part of the sea — all that are colored 
 blue — consist of strips of coral of an annular form 
 — more or less perfectly circular— and sometimes 
 oval. And these strips have lagoons in the cen- 
 tre — small lakes of salt water. On one side of 
 this narrow "trip is an unfathomable ocean at but 
 a short distance from the edge of 6he ridge of co- 
 ral. It was formerly supposed that these coral 
 reefs were built up from the bottom of the unfath- 
 omable ocean ; but now since we know that these 
 lUhophytes, as they are called, cannot exist at a 
 depth of more than 120 feet — the limit assigned 
 by Darwin (and some other considerable natu- 
 ralists think that the limit is still more narrow,) 
 we infer, as a fact of Natural History, that these 
 were not built up from the bottom of the ocean. 
 And this is perfectly in accoi dance with the fact 
 that in thousands of cases no soundings are te be 
 found at enormous depths — only a fourth or half a 
 mile from the outer part of these narrsw rims of 
 coral. One of these circular islands is represented 
 in this picture, which was taken from an original 
 drawing colored on the spot by Lieut. Smythe who 
 accompanied Capt. Bkechey in his voyage to the 
 Pacific. It may be proper to say thai the view is 
 represented as having been taken from a higher 
 point than the top of the mast from which it was 
 actually taken, so that more of the inner part of 
 the island can be seen than in the other case. The 
 island is three er four miles in diameter, of cree- 
 
 portions [represented by the blue color] mark cent shape, and you see a narrow rim of coral 
 
 those places where there is reason to believe the 
 bed of the sea is going down, as slowly, perhaps, 
 as the floor of the Temple of Jupiter Serapis, de- 
 scribed in my last lecture. By the red are marked 
 the spaces where Corals have been raised at vari- 
 ous elevations above the level of the sea. 
 
 You will be able to see at a glance the vast ex- 
 tent of the region where corals abound. You will 
 sec, too, that it is chiefly within twenty degrees 
 North and South of the IJquator — in the warmest 
 parts of the ocean. Sometimes it reaches beyond 
 the twentieth degree but rarely so far as thirtv. 
 Its greatest deviation is in the Bermuda Islands, 
 which have a latitude of thirty-two degrees — which 
 is the farthest point from the Equator where co- 
 rals are yet known: and this is evidently con- 
 
 covered with tufts of cocoa, and bread fruit and 
 other trees. On the windward side the reef is 
 higher than on the other ; and on the leeward 
 side is an opening of thirty or forty feet — so that 
 ships can enter and lie in safety in the lagoon. 
 This opening, most fortunately, is just on that side 
 where it is most needed ; for there, during terrible 
 storms and temyx'sts, vessels may enter into the 
 tranquil lagoon, where the water is shallow, com- 
 pared with the ocean without, and whore, in con- 
 sequence of its shallow depth, it is of a most beau- 
 tiful green color. Many of you who have sailed 
 across the Atlantic; must have observed that, along 
 the Banks of Newfoundland, where the water is 
 i-omparatively ahaHnw, it is of a deep green ; and 
 in those latitudes where there is white coral at the 
 
 nected with the course of the Gulf Stream which ' bottom and a buniing tropical Sun over head, the 
 
*■'-••■*■•"'■- '. 
 
 iperature bo> 
 zone. You 
 Dcean in par- 
 South Seas ia 
 d it is a very 
 St £11 the isl- 
 t are colored 
 annular form 
 d aometimes 
 s in the cen- 
 1 one side of 
 ocean at but 
 ridge of co- 
 these coral 
 f tlie unfath- 
 iw that these 
 ot exist at a 
 nit assigned 
 ierable natu- 
 )re narrow,) 
 y, that these 
 if the ocean, 
 nth the fact 
 igs are te be 
 irth or half a 
 rrsw rims of 
 \ represented 
 n an original 
 
 5MYTHE who 
 
 ■eyago to the 
 , the view ig 
 cm a higher 
 vhich it was 
 iiicr part of 
 3r case. The 
 ter, of creg- 
 im of coral 
 id fruit and 
 the reef is 
 the leeward 
 ect — so that 
 the lagoon, 
 on that side 
 fing terrible 
 Iter into the 
 allow, corn- 
 ore, in con- 
 . most beau- 
 have sailed 
 1 that, along 
 he water in 
 green ; and 
 coral at tha 
 !r head, the 
 
 25 
 
 vivid green of the sea water is described as most 
 baautiful by those who have visited these islands. 
 Down through its green depths, they lell us, you 
 may see great herds of fish browsing upon the 
 coral branches — for some species have strong, 
 bony jaws by which they easily crush the coral, 
 shell and all : you see them feeding upon th* 
 zoophytes as the herds of buffaloes feed on the 
 herbs and trees of your wide prairies. And even 
 the prairie itself in spring time is not enameled 
 with more beautiful colors or with a greater va- 
 riety of flowers and plants than are those beautiful 
 beds of coral, according to the descriptions of 
 Ehrenberg and others who describe these lakes 
 as like beds of tulips — So beautiful and variegated 
 are their colors when seen through the still waters 
 beneath that tropical sun. 
 
 X may hero mention a fact of considerable geolo- 
 gical interest relating to one of these fish, called 
 Sparus. When their bodies are opened and their 
 intestines examined, they are found to be filled 
 rith a very dry chalk — a soft, calcareous powder, 
 which proves to be almost indistinguishable from 
 soft, pulverulen*: chalk. I have myself seen some 
 brought from the Bermudas by Lieut. Nelson, 
 which so nearly resembled European chalk that we 
 were obliged to use {jreat care lest the labels should 
 get changed, and we should mistake it for the 
 chalk with which we were comparing it. 
 
 The animals which form these reefs — for the 
 whole is a rim not half a mile, and generally but 
 three or four hundred yards wide, covered often by 
 shells of Echini, or sea urchins and otJior shell 
 fish — cannot bu41d one inch above the level of the 
 sea. Till y cannot allow themselves to be left 
 bare at low tide ; so that when the reef is so high 
 that it remains almost dry, the corals leavs off 
 building. The heat of the sun then often causes 
 the mass to crack, and the force of the waves 
 tears off largo branches of the coral, which are 
 thrown up upon the reef, thus raising it above the 
 reach of the usual tide. After this the white, 
 calcareous sand thrown upon it by the wind lies un- 
 disturbed ; and upon it are lodged the seeds of the 
 cocoanut and other plants, which grow up, until 
 at length the little island is overshadowed with lux- 
 uriant vegetation. Then come stray birds and build 
 tlicir nests there ; insects float thither on wood 
 which has drifted thousands and thousands of 
 tt'.les, and at length the island becomes inhabited. 
 Here is a specimen of the Meandrina coral— [ex 
 hibited ;] it is a small shell of a young animal ; 
 and you can conceive, when such is the size of this 
 baby-coral, how vast must be the size of a number 
 
 of zoophytes of different genera — as the Madre- 
 pora, Astrea, Porites, (of which I here show you 
 a section,) the Oculina, and others, of which thej 
 remains are found in the older rocks, and which 
 now abound in the tropical seas. These shells 
 and zoophytes constitute the mass of the materials 
 of these reefs. As to the nature of these animal 
 plants, as they are called — and very properly, too, 
 for they seem to form the intervening link between 
 animal and vegetable organization — there is still 
 great doubt. I shall only observe those called Pel- 
 lyps, inhabiting this stony structure, haso a num 
 ber of tentacula, or feelers, and a great cup- 
 shaped mouth, into which they force food seized by 
 these tentacula, and which then closes, and they 
 are able to digest their food. These assist in 
 strengthening that part which is improperly called 
 the root ; for they are fixed at the lower point by 
 a point which somewhat resembles a root, though, 
 as it does not tako in nourishment, as do the roots 
 of vegetables, the analogy is not correct. 
 
 In the common red coral of the Mediterranean 
 you see a solid internal skeleton, surrounded by a 
 fleshy covering, which, in that case, is smootli ; 
 but when this, in which the animal resides, is 
 taken off, you see a striated, fluted surface, to 
 which attention must be paid in studying the fos- 
 sils — since we have not the living animals. I shall 
 not enter (as I have so much geological ground to 
 go over,) upon a description of the different varie- 
 ties of Pollyps. But you may ask whether they 
 exist as separate, independent individuals — or 
 whether the whole mn'^s of coral is regarded as 
 one and indivisible. The same kind of question 
 may he raised with regard to trees:— whether 
 each flower is a separate individual, or whether 
 the whole is to be regarded as an aggregate. We 
 may perhaps best consider them as aH animal re- 
 public, in which all combine to build one habita- 
 tion, while each preserves its individuality. The 
 general opinion, both in regard to the plants, and 
 
 zoophytes, is that each is a definite indiyidual, 
 
 Although so beautiful when in the water, take one 
 of these stone building corals out, and you see 
 nothing but a brown slime when the animal is col- 
 lapsed. 
 
 It is a remarkable circumstance, that, although 
 these little islands arc scattered about so far from 
 ea/^h other in the wide ocean, u;'>n everj- one ca- 
 pable of supporting them were found a few fami- 
 lies when first discovered. We should regard this 
 as mysterious if we did not learn from the Voytk- 
 ges of Cook, Koezebue, Flinders, and Lieut. 
 Beechey, that canoes are frequently drifted 500 or 
 
26 
 
 1500 milos— driven before the wind in one direc- 
 tion by the monsoon, until, hopeleia of recovering 
 th'iir homes, they land upon some one of these is- 
 lands — where they find cocoa-nut* and bread fruit, 
 and fresh water too. This is singular, for you 
 would think that there would bo but little chance 
 of finding fresh water upon these small islands : 
 but if you dig into the sand, there it is — so that 
 vessels at sea are often able to relieve their thirst. 
 The beauty of these islands is described in 
 glowing terms by most of those who have naviga- 
 ted those portions of the sea. Generally there is 
 a constant white surf breaking over the outer 
 margin, which is seen gradtwlly to die away with 
 the dark heaving waters of the ocean, which con- 
 tinue to boil and rage lar beyond. Within, the 
 water is green and tranquil ; around it and out- 
 side the green line of blooming vegetation is a-glit- 
 tering beach of white sand. Beneath the water 
 you may see fish and various kinds of Zoophytes. 
 The very loneliness of these islands, moreover, 
 gives tliem a romantic aspect. Sometimes they 
 are seven hundred miles away fnpm the nearest 
 neighboring island, and more than a thousand from 
 the continent, or even much farther. The struc- 
 ture of these islands, as well as their position in 
 the unfathomable ocean, is remarkable. You find 
 no part of them argillaceous or silicious ; everj' 
 portion is made up of an organic structure of 
 which the tubes and stems are all you find. And 
 what is still more wonderful, these islands, which 
 appear so weak and fragile in their nature — these 
 mere barriers of coral are beaten upon incessant- 
 ly by the swell of the great ocean, and yet are 
 not annihilated. As Darwin truly observes, if 
 they were only rocks of common granite or quartz, 
 they would inevitably yield to the prodigious 
 force of these waves thus breaking over them. — 
 But here is a greater power than any mere inor- 
 ganic structure : in its nature far superior to the 
 mechanical force of the waves : it is the power of 
 life, of vitality ; these zoophytes on the outer edge 
 of the reef break the force of the waves by their 
 yielding bodies ; they bend like a willow before 
 the storm, and thus conquer the power of the 
 great restless ocean. Indeed that part of the reef 
 against which the waves beat with most turbu- 
 lence increases much the fastest ; for these orga- 
 nic forces separate the atoms of carbonate of lime 
 from the foaming breakers, and build them up into 
 tbsir symmetrical structure : myriads of these ar- 
 chitects are thus at work, day and night — inonth 
 after month. 
 But what causes the sineidar, ting-like shape of 
 
 these islands and why are so many just on a love 
 with the sea and neither higher nor lower ? These 
 questions have been asked ever since the peculiar 
 formation and mineral character of these islands 
 wero ascertained. It was at first imagined, and I 
 onco maintained the opinion, that thry were the 
 craters of sub-marine volcanoes. When it was 
 iiscovcred that Flinders was wrong in supposing 
 that they could be built at a great depth, in the 
 cold and dark regions of the ocean, up from the 
 bottom, it was natural (d suppose that they might 
 have grown upon the tops of some submarine 
 mountains. But what mountains would give this 
 shape to the corals? Or was it indispensable 
 that they should be built in this peculiar form ? 
 Now when Ehren berg examined thecoiialsof the 
 Red Sea he found that some banks were squaro 
 while others were rifebon-like strips witli flat tops 
 and without lagoons; and yet they were of the same 
 genera as those which had lagoons, the same as 
 the atolls, as they were named from those observed 
 in the Maldivo pnd Laccadive Islands, the term 
 expressing an island with a rim of coral out- 
 side and a lagoon within. It was thus found 
 that this annular shape is not essential; but that 
 the corals may form in a dift'erent shape. It was 
 therefore natural to suppose that this form depend- 
 ed on the outline of the submarine bottam, and 
 that they were based on volcanic crater8,thousand8 
 of which were known to exist in that part of the 
 sea. These craters would give the cup-shaped 
 center and the rim might be covered with corals 
 by these zoophytes. In the South Shetland Islands 
 and in Barren Island in the Bay of Bengal, are 
 submarine volcanoes with craters in the center 
 and a breach in the side so that you may sail with- 
 in and see all around the walls of the crater. Now 
 when submerged the corals might easily have been 
 built upon them. In farther support of this theo- 
 ry it was observed that in Gambier's group of 
 islands there wero volcanic rocks with a lagoon 
 in the center, just as modern volcanoes have sprung 
 up in the Gulf of Santorin. 
 
 Notwithstanding all these arguments in favor 
 of the theory of a volcanic origin, it was found 
 necessary to abandon it entirely ; because, though 
 it would account for some of the facts, thej-o were 
 many others which it could not explain and which 
 could be explained by anothor theory. It was 
 perfectly satisfactory so far as the rim and lagoons 
 were concerned and it also explained why the 
 Ocean near by should bo unfathomable, which at 
 first seemed an argument in favor of the volcanic 
 theory. Mr. Darwin, after considering all the 
 
% 
 
 27 
 
 ny just on a Icve 
 lor lower? These 
 inco the peculiar 
 of these islands 
 t imagined, and I 
 at thry were the 
 When it was 
 mg in supposing 
 3at depth, in the 
 ;oan, up from the 
 that they might 
 some submarine 
 i would give this 
 it indispensable 
 peculiar form? 
 I the coiials of the 
 iks were squaro 
 ps witli flat tops 
 were of the same 
 ns, the same as 
 nfi those observed 
 landfi, the term 
 n of coral out- 
 was thus found 
 ential; but that 
 shape. It was 
 his form dopead- 
 le bottam, and 
 ratcrSfthousands 
 that part of the 
 the cup-shaped 
 'ed with corals 
 Shetland Islands 
 of Bengal, are 
 s in the center 
 u may sail with- 
 he crater. Now 
 jasily have been 
 »rt of this theo- 
 bier's group of 
 i with a lagoon 
 oes have sprung 
 
 ments in favor 
 I, it was found 
 jecause, though 
 LCts, thero were 
 ilaiu and which 
 leory. It was 
 im and lagoons 
 ained why the 
 lablc, which at 
 of the volcanic 
 ndcring all the 
 
 difforont facts I have related, observed that there 
 were in some cases islands which had this same 
 coralline ring, and yet were not volcanic but gra- 
 nitic; and yet the ring of coral surrounded a 
 precisely siinilur lugoon. — How was this to be 
 explained? Again, Flinders discovered a mag- 
 nificent reef— on the North-East Coast of New 
 Hollund more than a thousand miles in length ; 
 aud he sailed for more than three hundred and 
 fifty miles and yet found no passage through that 
 narrow reef. Instead of being circular or oviil 
 or in any such shape it was parallel to the Coast 
 (if New Holland. In the island of Nt-w Cahjdo- 
 nia, which is granitic, there was also a long vidge 
 of coral -lOO miles lung and prolonged at each 
 end under the water beyond these limits : between 
 the coral reef and the shore was what might be 
 c;illod a lagoon. Ni>w we mu;., have a theory 
 which will explain these facts. Of these encir- 
 cled islands, as Darwi.v called them — islands 
 with encircling reefs around them — Vancouver's 
 is one and OtiUuMtc is another. Here we have a 
 coral reef with a lagoon inside. In the figure wo 
 have ^nsvn a socli<iii of one of tliese encircled 
 Islands. 
 
 A 
 
 \ 
 
 * 
 
 \ 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 
 \ \ 
 
 
 V 
 
 \ 
 
 
 5r 
 
 "\ 
 
 A represents the island in the centre; c and l> 
 ore the points in the encircling reef upon which 
 grow cocoa trees, Sac, and inside, or between c 
 and /; and iho sides of the island, ii a shallow sea 
 (•ommunicutiiig with the ocean ihrough occasiona 
 passages, similar to ihosr* met with in the lagoon. 
 Now it was a rule laid down by Dampier and 
 other navigators, that near high tind bold coasts 
 we shall have a deep sea; while along gently 
 sloping coast* tlie soa will centiime shallow for 
 some distance from tho sh(n'e. It was therefore 
 surprising that when wo had an. island like that 
 rcproscntod in the figure, going .lown at so stoop 
 aa angle, instead of deep water, we find it shal- 
 low. Go two or three miles away, and still the 
 water is shallow, and wo have a coial bottom. But 
 go beyond the reef, and down goes the line some 
 thousand foot. It is obvious lliut the coral alone 
 is the cause of the shallow water ; and we must 
 
 D 
 
 account by means of the coral for the fact that nt 
 a distance from the island, instead of several thou- 
 sand feet of water, as we are entitled to expect, 
 we come suddenly to a bottom. Now in what 
 manner can these aoophytcs, which cannot live at 
 a greater depth than 120 feet below the water, be. 
 able to build up a reef two, three, four or more 
 thousand feet high from the bottom ? Because the 
 belief of Flinders that these creatures could work 
 in the deep, dark, cold ocean and build up their 
 structures to the light and heat is proved not to bo 
 true ; though he did not err as a geographer in hi.s 
 statements rcspuctisg these bold coasts. 
 
 Dauwin here suggested a simple liypothesii> 
 which clears up the whole difficulty. Suppose the 
 coral to begin to grow ai c or d, in the figure 
 above ; and suppose these points at that lime in- 
 stead of being 1500 or 2000 feet deep, to be within 
 120 feet of the surface, the sea then standing at u 
 different relative level from that which it occupies 
 now. In short, the supposilio.q of a sinking down 
 of the land will explain il all. When the land be- 
 gan to sink the corals were building up, as is their 
 nature, one generation forming on the skeleton ot 
 the other, just as peat grows until it reaches a 
 thickness of a hundred or more feet ; each succes- 
 sive generation plants itself on the remains of the 
 former. So with corals : each mass forms a found- 
 ation on which a new one is built. As I have 
 shown, or as NicGolini has shown, the rate of sub- 
 sidenee in the Bay of Baiie is three-fourths of an 
 inch a year. Now common Corals will grow up 
 at that rate ; and perhaps two inches a year would 
 bu a slow gi'owth. Let me observe that we need 
 only show that the greater part of them increase 
 slowly ; though passages of the Red .Soa are known 
 to have been filled up within a few years. This, 
 however, may be easily explained, because the 
 waves, ifcc, may have thrown up sand and thus 
 filled these passages. But the common growth ef 
 the coral is slow. Indeed Ehrenberg thinks that 
 some of the species, as the Meandrina, are as old 
 as the most ancient trees of Europe, some of which 
 are three or four thousand years old. Decan- 
 DOLLE has shown that some yews and other trees 
 are two thousand years old, and some still more 
 ancient. So Khrenberg thinks that many of these 
 corals in the Red Sea are several thousand years 
 of age. But the vigor of their growth depends 
 upon the warmth and carbonate of lime that readies 
 them. 
 
 Now we may suppose the land to be sinking' 
 down gradually as the corals are building up. — 
 What is the consequenca ? Instead of sinking 
 
fJown with tho land, the coral 
 
 ,.,•,,. . • - - —•"■8 W'" grow up l)v 
 
 Zn.l 7^'"" '"•"''^ -—Jus. as one ,L. 
 , munt of ,ho Tempio of Jupiter Sorapis was li t 
 
 upoy oothor. which had sunk six fLt be We 
 evCof.hoModiterranoan. And when those co! 
 rals como to the surface and can rise no higher 
 
 cwave.th.nthrow up calcareous sand !pon 
 h^.a„dforn.arid,easi„tho,a,oons. k^ 
 nle the corals arc thus risin, up, the ,„ass „,. 
 uayB gannng :n hi«ht above its original base and 
 yet rcnaunng in other resppots in the same posi- 
 non, u ,s different with th« land : every inchthut 
 U s.nks ,s irrecoverably lost, and the distance be- 
 comes greater and greater from tho island to the, 
 
 reef Ifthe.sland sinks down, it diminishes in 
 --above the water; but tho reef remains as it 
 was, (though, from its slight inclination inward., it 
 may be a very little aff.cted,) till at last the island 
 
 All the land disappears, and tho island becomes a 
 
 per ect^.,.,,,„a if tl. subsidence still goes on 
 the lagoon w.ll acquire ronsidemblo depth^ This 
 theory also is as satisfactory in explaining the lar- 
 Tier reef as m accounting for encircled islands la 
 Eoon^ ovatlols. Let us take the following dia- 
 gram as representing a barrier reef on the coast of 
 Australia : 
 
 28 
 
 I "Mght hero to say that corals will not m,w 
 -o near the shore, in consequence of the snd':^ 
 
 ^^carrje thhher by steams and carried upi:J 
 waves It .« only ,n clear, salt water that Ihey 
 
 '' ; ^'l'^ "''"" l'»'-^«"« them. On the other 
 
 because the sea .s therv too deep. Just as only a 
 rng or zone around .€tna and TenerilTo is inhl 
 '^-1 ••yhun.an beings, because on one side is the 
 
 -and on the other volcanic ashes, &e-so is i 
 vvuh these corals, which grow cn,,yi„.„J„: 
 -ne at a certum distance from the land. As tho 
 ;^''-d go.. Wown, the corals build up, and w^ 
 Wnothingleftbntthelagoon. WehaVeisland 
 a on an mtennediate state, as Tahiti and Ga J 
 
 ! .7 7' ""' "' "'"•'' »'"-''--' »™ perfect 
 n^. ^Wtenths of them have arrived at th 
 
 Here the land, instead of going do.-., abn.wly 
 to the sea, has a gentle slope. \S l.en the 'reef 
 began to grow at d, suppose the land stood 1,000 
 feet higher t.ian now ; the level of the sea would 
 then be cc. But as the bed went down, the" f 
 would be raised 1,000 feet, or from d to ;, and f 
 would represent the lev«l of the s.a. But as the 
 d, tance/g. .« greater than c d, it i. obvioHs that 
 the higher up towards the surface the reef be built 
 so much faster must the land bo instantly re- 
 treating; and the rate at which this will go on is 
 in proportion to the anglo of descent. If at ah an- 
 gl- o, 30° one foot in vertical hight bo lost, the 
 Cha.::e in distance will be about thirty feet But 
 ma gently sloping coast every foot in hight mea- 
 sures a vast number of yards; and tho land will 
 retreat at a greater rate. Thus the i^airier reef is 
 at a consid.r..,b!r distance from the coast-iiO 30 
 and sometimes 70 miles off. ' 
 
 ^«00 fl.et Ingh. and D a shoal i„ the sea, when 
 
 cisthesoalevel.Nowifthecoralgrow nb h 
 
 - ands as they sink gradually until it be 2000 fee 
 
 nek, we sha I have attols at ,he summits. If th. 
 
 P 1- washed, so that the corals will not grow a 
 •"gwilbefonued, and gr«w up, a^d weLl 
 have a lagoon ; A will become^n «nciried fs 
 
 ";1 for ages, until it is submerged, and thn the 
 r.sing coral will f„r,n a lagoon. So that this la 
 
 fj; ''''^' ^^^"y -/>--«'.' « sunken L^^^ 
 
 Ih.s may be seen at Tahiti, in Gam'.ier's group' 
 
 n in the Dangerous Archipelag.^an a ea f 
 
 000 m. esin one direction, and COO in tho other 
 
 ustd,m..rencesinleveIofso.ast.narea. Take 
 "y continent containing a thousand mountains 
 and liow verv pro'if „ A\cr . '""luins, 
 
 *Liy grtat a ditTerence will tbero l,„ i 
 
 -een the elevation of the din;.rentZ^^^^ 
 
 ,W^. a d.fi,r„ee between the high and r;- 
 A.'d what an amount of subsidence mu . /i 
 
 place efore they are all so sunk as than:!'? 
 see only the topmost, upon the same level .' and ye 
 
 t..th,s are we ledlythe theory of subsidenc;^: 
 should we be terrified or frightened out of 2 
 sound theory by contemplating the vas.ness ofZ 
 results to which it leads. 
 
 I may ,., well r^enfon that this theory of subsi- 
 dence was not invented for the purpose of explah 
 >"^ these phenomena. Long before D.a.y^Z 
 
 i 
 
29 
 
 will not grow 
 
 of the sand and 
 [I carried up hj 
 ator that thoy 
 
 O" tho other 
 vhy from land, 
 
 •Tust us only a 
 ^rilTo is inhab- 
 me side is tho 
 , &c — nn is it 
 y in a narrow 
 land. As tho 
 J up, and wo 
 '^ehaveislandi 
 I'ti and Ganj- 
 "r, arc perfect 
 Trircd at thig 
 
 ni an island 
 ' sea, when 
 rrow on both 
 
 be 2000 feet 
 mits. If the 
 
 not grow, a 
 i we shall 
 ncircled is- 
 nJ then tho 
 lilt this la- 
 '■mountain. 
 "'■'» group, 
 an area of 
 tho other. 
 'B beoij th« 
 ea- Taka 
 mountains, 
 ere be bc- 
 Jmniits. — 
 nd low J — 
 "Uit tako 
 t we shall 
 I ■' and yet 
 'ence; nor 
 lut of any 
 I'ss of the 
 
 of subsi. 
 I^oxplain- 
 wiN had 
 
 il 
 
 maAo his examinations of iheso corai islands, in 
 J 835, 1 published my opinion upon this point, that 
 the sinking down of the Pacific might be m excess: 
 that its depression might be greater than its up- 
 heaval. For in no other way could wo expluin 
 how such a multitude of islands should exist f.i>t 
 Rt a level, and now more than (50 feet above the 
 snrfai^e. Hondt>r*oi.'s Wand is about «0 feet 
 above, and the Tonga islands of Capt. Cook, are 
 about 20 or 30 feet. Tho theory, then, was not 
 made for the purpo^>e of fitting the facts-lhough 
 it is a perfectly legitimate reason for adopting a 
 theory, that you find it will explain all the known 
 phenomena which no other theory will explain.-- 
 Still, it is somewhat more satisfactory if tho prin- 
 ciple was not fonned expressly to suit the fuels of 
 the case. I argued that if there was as equal 
 amount of upheRval and depression— stspposing a 
 motion of oscillation— a movement up as well as 
 down— to tako place, large masses of coral 
 -J will be raised ubuve tho level of the sea ; and tlmt, 
 
 1 unless we assume, that the downward movement is 
 
 in excess wc arw impelled to conclude the coral 
 would not have remained on the level. For if it 
 sink 30 feet in a century, the coral would grow up 
 I in tl It time 30 f\:et :— if it rose ten feet we should 
 
 then find the solid ground of the coral ten foet 
 b;gher up. If you reflect you will see that it is quite 
 s^ impossible to have so vast anunober of islands just 
 
 fon a level without supposing the sinking to be 
 slightly in excess ; and when you iind that this will 
 explain tke formation of attols and encircled is- 
 lands, you must be skeptical if you reject th<? evi- 
 dence in favor of it; especially when it is ascer- 
 tained that in Greenland the land is settling— that 
 there is 9k small .iubsidence in the Bay of Baiie— 
 at the mouth of tie Indus, and along parts of the 
 coast of South America. But what shall we say 
 when we are forced to conclude that, not only 
 must there have been a sinking down of the floor of 
 the ocean to bring all its mountains to the ame 
 hight, but that all must have gone down so grad- 
 ually as never to sink one hundred and ttcenty 
 feet at once 1 For if there had ever been a fall «f 
 120 feet the corals never more would have grown ; 
 all would have perished, and no new ones would 
 snring up. The whole process of subsidence then 
 must have gone on at a very gradual rate— not 
 more than a few yards at any one timo. 
 
 But when islands are rising (and wo find that a 
 large proportion of the islands in these seas are 
 volcanic islands, or that in some part of them are 
 volcanoes in active operation,) in this case we 
 have coral reefs, but they do not encircle tho 
 
 islands ; but wo shall have a formation called by 
 Darwin, /rJn^tn;? »f<'/«; reefs flinging the shore 
 as near as the soophytes could live. There is a 
 small island oil' Sumatra overspread, at all highu 
 from the coast to 200 or 300 feet above, with coral 
 sli'>Us of tho tridachna. At tho sumo time this 
 ui.heaval ims not carried tho island as fai above 
 as it must before have In^cn below the level. 
 
 Tke coaslof South America is one where nocoral 
 grows. VVhy it is that looph^ tes will not live there 
 is not perfiictly explained, any mort* than why none 
 grow in the Aikintic. The Atlantic is warm enough 
 and has all the necessary conditions; but except 
 on the borders of the gulf-stream no coral islands 
 are found on the coast situated must favorably in 
 the tropical region; at present wo can no more ex- 
 plain this than why certain plants do not grow in 
 the United States; why roses are not indigenous 
 in the Southern hemisphere, .fee. But in the geo- 
 graphical distribution of plants the Author of Na- 
 ture has given certain laws ; and so with the zoo- 
 phytes. I'hey do not flourish on the Atlantic coast. 
 The coast of South America is a coast of upheaval 
 so far as wccan j-idge. There are volcanoes here, 
 snd animals and shells are found at various bights. 
 Yet there are no coral islands. Then in Gambler's 
 group, in Tahiti and tho Friendly Islands and ia 
 the Diingerous Archipelago are attols which have 
 fiat tops ; here we suppose there were stationary 
 periods when the lagoons had time to fill up. 
 Then in the Navigators' and in Cook's island tho 
 oscillating movement causes attols and upraised 
 reefs. Then in another region, in Sullivan's Island 
 and the new Hebrides— fur a bog way from North 
 West to South-East, the upward movement is in 
 excess. In New Caledonia we find an example ©f 
 an excess in subsidence. Then in tho volcanic 
 isl»nas, Java and Sumatra, there is a great line of 
 upheaval under which the beds of coral and recent 
 shells are raised higher. 
 
 One of the most rensarkable ridges of attols i» 
 in the Laccadive and Maldivc Islands. For seve- 
 ral hundred miles in extent you find a series or 
 circular assemblage of islets all of coral, some o 
 them 30, 40 or 50 miles in diameter. So you 
 may trace them along llie coast of Africa and th« 
 Red Sea, and go over a large area 2,000 or 3,000 
 miles from North to South, and from 7,000 to 
 8,000 from East to West, and find tlie same alter- 
 nations. 
 
 It is often a subject of wonder to geologists to 
 trace the same shells in different countries. Thus 
 in Siberia and Russia Morchison has found shells 
 identical with those in England ; and tlie same spo 
 
30 
 
 . ics as the CuiynphylUa and others may 1)0 found 
 iM the N'irth of Scotliuid luid in this Siato of Ncw- 
 \'()rk. IliM-Us iiri! met containing tliis extinct spe- 
 cie.-* wiiti fifiy othoiM ; mid they may bi; traced nt 
 icu'it t') Tawa iind very liUcly to tho I'ocific It in 
 II matter lor wonder and marvel that thci:te same 
 Kpccie^j should ilourisii over so huge a space of 
 the gli.'oe as from Siberia to Iowa : yet it is noth- 
 ing to th" extent over wliich masses of limpstonn 
 !i;-c now forrr.in?. But if you penetrate to a 
 
 little dciith nil ilio interstices will bo ft und to bfl 
 fdled, tho carboniferous limo will bo found as 
 solid as any limestone, and all its organic texturii 
 will have di.sajipeared or can only bn discovered by 
 microscopic cxatr;ination. So is it with the old 
 rocks ut Trenton and Niagara which are of most 
 minule lexlure; so that it is not true that tho ex' 
 tent of tho old limestone was on a. grander scalo 
 than what is now exemplified in tho present state 
 of the globe. 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 ORIGIN OF COAL. 
 
 In speaking of the different strata of which tho 
 Rarth's crust is composed — those at least which 
 ; contain organic remains — I spoke of them as so 
 many volumes of History— as so many monu- 
 ments of the ancient states of tho globs ; and of 
 their different structures as being so many leaves 
 of these volumes. All that lean do in this short 
 course of lectures is to take down at random, first 
 one and then another of these volumes and en- 
 deavor not to give you any idea of the contents of 
 the whole but just to express something of. the 
 method employed in the attempt to deoiypher these 
 ancient mpmorinls of ih'o Ivarth's History. Now 
 the volume which I intend to take down to-night is 
 that which we term the Coal funnntion; and I 
 shall speak of it only so far as to show tho reln- 
 ■ live position, and tho stateof tho different periods 
 when they wore deposited beneath the water. 
 
 Now when I ti«rm ihii formation Coal, I merely 
 moan this assemblage of strata which rests on 
 the Older Sandstone, and in which is found that 
 valuable fuel we cull <-oa,l ; and although the quan- 
 tity in which it is contained is very small in eom- 
 purison with the bulk and volume cf tho other 
 8trata, there is still great interest and importance 
 attached to it. We see that in going from the 
 highest to tlie lowest beds yet discovered, the 
 coal occujiies quite an ancient position — one 
 indicating a formation low down in the Sea — ns 
 we have above it the most modern formations. We 
 have first the Post-riiocene, ther. the Tertiary 
 formation, then the Chalk, which is made up of 
 calcareous matter formed mostly, at least in Europe, 
 
 from decomposed shells and coals and of tho^o 
 green marls which ai-e found in New Jersey and 
 are of such extensive use in Agriculture; then we 
 have tho Jura limestone or Oolite, in which also 
 arc masses of coral like tho common coral reefs: 
 below this are two other groups, of which I shall 
 not speak at present, and lastly wo come down to 
 the Carboniferous or coal-bearing stratum which 
 rests upon the thick sar.dstono beds, or the lime- 
 stone containing corals and which like ovwry other 
 formation contains species of animals, shells and 
 plants of dificrent .specie, from these immedi- 
 ately aniecedcnt or follo'.tin^. Below this again 
 we see limeston? and shale, which eiiter most 
 largely into the structure of the rucks of tha 
 State of New-York and which abound in fossils. 
 Now a great ch;*ngo must have been experienced 
 before the coal period, when tho fossils were de- 
 posited. I am indel)te'd to Mr. Soi'with, an 
 eminent civil engineer, for copies of some models 
 prepared by him of those sections, which are faith- 
 ful and accurate representations of actual locali* 
 ties, as has been fully v;'iifird by Dr. BucktanD 
 and myself in examinations which wo made last 
 spring. The tlifferent .-trata of sandstone, shalo 
 and congI«merafo of which tho carboniferous for- 
 mation is composed, arc here represented. Tho 
 sections represent facts a«certained in cutting per- 
 pendicularly through the Newcastle coal dis- 
 trict. They are not hypothetical but are founded 
 upon exact measurement. In one of these sec- 
 tions you see the dip of tho beds is at an anglo of 
 2 0°, while the sloyc of the valley is -10°. In tho 
 
HMfHP 
 
 31 
 
 other the dip is .'iO" and the slope of tho valloy in 
 the same direction is 20". In these two cases, 
 therefore, the relation of iho slope of the valley 
 and tho dip of tho beds is reversed. In both 
 cases, also, the s^opeof the valley and dip of tho 
 boda are to iho South. To those who are not 
 acquainted with these technical tern» 1 may sny 
 that tho deviation from a horizontal i)Iana of the 
 bods ia called tho dip; while the strike, ai it is 
 called, is the extension of the strata in a direction 
 at right angles to tho dip. In this case, as tho 
 dip is to the South, the strike must bo from East 
 to West. The iley.ures of the valleys depend on 
 thoir inclination relatively to tho dip ; and these 
 two sections cut through beas of coal and shale 
 and sandstone— the shale being indurated day — 
 are illustrations of cases in which the two strata 
 come up to the surface accordini: to the various re- 
 lations of the slope of thi^ vnllcv and the dip of 
 the bed. It is a rule among miners that when 
 the dip of the beds is less steep than the slope of 
 the valley in the same direction, then the V's, as 
 tliey are termed, will point upwards, those formed 
 
 exemplification this year of tho two cascij alludedl 
 to — when in ilie coal of tho same valleys tho V'»f 
 in some cases pointed one way, and in tho othen 
 in the opposite — th(! dip and slope being both to- 
 wards the south. There is nothing more singular! 
 or which has struck me so forcibly in respect to th© j 
 coal fields of this i;ountry as their close resemblance i 
 to I'.ioso of tho north of Europe, and of England in i 
 particular. I have traveled on the north side of | 
 the Alps towards the south, and have been a»ton- j 
 iihed to find minerals of fossil of entirely distinct j 
 genera from those met with in the Pyrcnei-s. Nor 
 have the chains of mountains any thing to do with 
 this remarkable change — for the beds were formed 
 at tho Lsuttom of tho sea before the mountains ex- 
 isted. Observing thi« great change, then, in the 
 short passage of a few hundred miles, '' seums to 
 mt- most surprising that in passing, at the distance 
 of three or four thousand miie«, from England to 
 tho Apalachian chain in Virginia, we should find 
 the coal measures the same as those we left be- 
 hind, represented in the red sandstone, and con- 
 taining while grit and slaty shales, and clays not 
 
 by tho newer beds appearing in a sui)orior posi- slaty, and beds of conglomerate contaming quarts 
 tion and extending higher up the valley. But } pebbles 
 when the case is reversed, and the dip of tho beds 
 is steeper than the slope of the valley, then tho 
 
 V's point downwards and those formed of the 
 older beJs appear uppermost. These rules may 
 often be of great practical service in many cases. 
 For example, suppose a miner first to begin his 
 operations in one valley with the ati^ucture of which 
 ho is familiar. If he should sink his shaft through 
 the formations above he would come to the coal 
 which is below. But suppose one unacquainted with 
 these rules which I have been explaining, to go to 
 another valley ; and in England hemighteasily go to 
 such a valley , Cor these cases, as I said, are not hypo- 
 thetical. Ho might, cantinuing ajong the same 
 side of the hills as he had seen in tho other volleys, 
 where he observed the ssLxna out-cropping, a=i it is 
 termed, of the coal seams, suppose, reasoning from 
 his former experience, that he might begin his 
 workings in the bed at the higher part of the val- 
 ley with the expectation of coming down to the 
 
 It is generally admitted by geologists that all 
 that fuel which tee call coal is of vegetable ori' 
 din. If there has been any dispute with regard 
 to this, it was settled when a portion of the New- 
 castle coal some years ago was submitted to a 
 microscopic examination. After cutting off a slice 
 so thin that it should transmit light, it was found 
 that, in many parts of the pure and solid coal in 
 which geologists had no suspicion that they should 
 bo able to detect any vegetable structui-e, net only 
 were the annular rings of the growth of several 
 kinds of trees beautifully distinct, but even tho 
 medullary rays, and, what is still more remarkable, 
 in some ca>os even the spiral vessels could be dis- 
 cerned. But besides these proofs from observing 
 a vegetable structure in the coal itself, there has 
 been found in the shales accompanying it, fern 
 leavos and branches as well as other plants, and 
 when we find the trunks of trees and the bark con- 
 verted into this same kind of coal as we find in the 
 
 other bed. But he would be disappointed, as you | great sclid beds, no one will dispute the strong 
 will readily see by observing that tho uppermost j evidence in favor of tho vegetable origin of this 
 bod is lowest down in the valley, and tho lower bed j coal. If wo find a circumference of bark sur- 
 is the highest up. This you can easily trace with \ rounding a cylindrical mass of sand, we know that 
 your eye upon these sections. An acquaintance | it has been a hollow tree filled up with sand, nor 
 with these rules and their application is of the great- can there be any doubt that the coal is formed of 
 est importance to those speculating in mining trans- vegetable matter. No less than three hundred 
 actions, In the coal field of Pennsylvania, to which species of plants have been well determined by 
 
 I shall presently allude, near Pottsville, I saw an 
 
 botanists, some of whom have devoted a great 
 
 v^'' 
 
32 
 
 pan of ihiiir lives lo this study. From thin it i« 
 to Ijo inffiicd thiit llio carboniferous formation of 
 Kuroiio and Am( riou is iniiJ<! up of comparativoly 
 recent iilnnlt. I will ulludo lo tiireo or four of 
 tho most iioi-uli:ir facts ihiU lead to tliis conclu.^ion. 
 In tho lirsl jdacw tin; bongln und loiivos of Ferns 
 lire tho most frc(piontly imd strikingly nn t in Ame- 
 rica as well as in Kurope. So porleetly Imvo they 
 been presorv^'d thait'.iere can bo no doubt that they 
 iiro really fcrna ; and in aome cases oven their in- 
 (lorcsccnco has bivcii preserved at the back of iho 
 loaves. Wlien^ wo havi' not the flowers and prints 
 remaining wo have found it possible to distinguish 
 the diller.-nt flpccies of fo.-;sils and ancient ferns 
 by attending to the veiningof the leaves. At least 
 one hundn'4 specie^- an-; determined in this way. 
 Tho mo-?t numoidiia of ilieso vet,'<.tablo veinings 
 arc those which have been called Sigillnria — or 
 Tree Ferns. Their stems are found to bo (luted 
 vertically and in the flutings are little stars — as it 
 ^vcre — each t>f which indicates the place where 
 tho leaf was attached: and it is evident, as M. 
 Adohmik LuoNGNiART has shown, that they are 
 recent Tree Kerns. One argument for believing 
 tliis is that althouqh the bark of these trees is so 
 well mai'l-:cd that forty-two species have been des. 
 rribed, yet there is never found any leaf attached ; 
 while we have in tho same beds loose leaves in abun- 
 dance which have no trunks. The natural inference 
 is that they must have belonged to the arborescent 
 terns ; as for instance the bGction named Caulop- 
 leris is admitted by all to have belonged to this 
 species. This fact is also important because tho 
 tree ferns and especially the Caulopteris arc now 
 known bo exclusively the inhabitants of a warm 
 iu\A humid climcite— much more hot and moist than 
 in th«sc parts of the globe where coal now abounds. 
 For we find coal not only in England and Nova 
 Scotia but as far north as Melville's Island and 
 ]5affin's Bay, in a clim-ite where the growth of such 
 fern plants is dwarfish and stinted. It is evident 
 that when these vegetables existed there must 
 have been a warmer, and probably a more equa- 
 ble climate than now even in warmer latitudes. 
 For even in iho tropical zon(!s, where wo meet 
 •with large devclopcraents of tie CauloptcrU, 
 their general gru\Mh is much smaller than these 
 fossil remains. S.) is it with all tU plants of the 
 fir liibe ; many of them of which we find fossil re- 
 mains in the coal now exist only in tlw Southern 
 latitudes, whci-e no coal is found. The Annicaria 
 we now find in Chili, ar.d other warm parts of the 
 globe, but never at th.; North, wli.Jre its fossils 
 abound in coal. Tlio gigantic plants of the Equi- 
 
 citacfom tube iiro al«o found to be. much smaller 
 now in hot laliuidcs lli:in are their fossil remains. 
 This vvoulil lead to the inference that the climalo 
 in Nmtheni Liiiludes was then much warmoi- and 
 more moist lluui it is now in any part of the globe. 
 Tho spmo thin;; i< made evident by a comparison 
 of thesn fossil Sigillaria withlhoi^o whiih now at- 
 tain lliL'ir greatest si/e in the islands of the racilic. 
 I li IV.' also found several plums, as tho Attero- 
 •phyllitcs in the Apaluchian chain, this ycnr, which 
 1 have also from Novu-Scolia and Europe, and 
 which cannot certainly be referred lo any living 
 families. Tliese all, however, boiipeak a terreslriul 
 vegetation, though occiifioually found mi.\ed with 
 marliu' shells n:id coruls. 
 
 Another class of fossils common in coal shales 
 is the /(7)ttZt>u'c?i(icrt— somewhat allied in form to 
 th(! mod-in lycopodiums, or white mosses. Though 
 the mosses of tho present day are never more than 
 mere sln-ubs even in the warmest regions, yet at 
 tho carboniferous period they attained an onor- 
 mo\is developcment, being 50, (iO or even 70 feel 
 
 high. 
 
 There have been two theories to explain how 
 these plants could have been can-icd into the gea, 
 estuaries or lakes, and drawn beneath tho water 
 aud accumulated in the strata so as to form coal. 
 One of them asserts that tho plants must have 
 been drifted and buried in the water, since wo 
 find them intercollated between ditierent slates or 
 shales : just as plants lie between the leaves of a 
 botanist's herbarium and are pressed together, so 
 have thcKO ferns been found flattened between tho 
 seams of shale. They have been carried from tho 
 place where they grew, drifted out to a certain 
 dijtance, water lodged and sunk in tho mud and 
 other strata depo»itcd above them, so as to form 
 this intercollation between the different leaves of 
 
 clay. 
 
 Bur n.any believed, from seeing the root3,that the 
 plants grew on the spot where wo now find them. 
 But when we come to observe that these rooM ter- 
 minate ii; diflercnt strata, it will seem evident that 
 they were carrii i down, sunk and stuck in tho 
 mud as snags are now in the Mississippi. In tho 
 quartzose sandstone at St. Etienne, near Lyons:, 
 are found a vast number of these Lepidodendra 
 and SigiUuria. No one apparently can doubt that 
 these drift.'d to their present position, and that 
 ihey wei(> ufierwards covered with sand brought 
 down by river?. Many appearances favor this hy- 
 poUiesi.,. Sumetiinea wo find b.edrt of moi'ine 
 shells, then vegetable matter and then a mixiuiv 
 of fresh water and marine ghclis. 
 
ds 
 
 But though thodo facts may Iw thus expluinfid tlio 
 difcovories that aro being muilo lead gp.ilogiutii l« 
 <;i)mo round nii)n' aiul inoro to tlu! opiJO-,!!^ -."iDW of 
 tho case — V.i tliu hyin)ihc.ti!» which r. fcrs thf gmwlh 
 of large hcilii cf coal to tho increase on tho spot — 
 fifior tlir inanniT of jicut, as it is seen iti cold and 
 dark climali-.s. This rniiy uppcar contradictory to 
 what I sail whh regard to a cliango of chnvite 
 Binco the cnrbonifcrous era : but it ia not noccs- 
 narily so. Tho opinion of Wekneu, confirmed by 
 llie spectilalions of RRONCtMAiiT, led mo to 1)0- 
 licvc contrary to my early impressions, that by far 
 the gnmur part of the coal had grown in the spot 
 whuro it is found. Accciimulatinjj like peat on 
 tho land, tlio land must have beon subn'.crgrd again 
 and again lo allow tho strata of sand nnd mud to 
 bo supoiimp oicd as wo now (ind them. 
 
 In excavating for coal at Balgray near Glas- 
 gow, in 1{;35, many upright trees were found with 
 their roofs tonninaling in a bed of coal; and only 
 tbroi? ycarj iv;o, in cutting a section of tho Bolton 
 Railroad in Lanc!i.<liiro, eight or ten trees were 
 found ia a voriioal position ; they wcro referable 
 to tho Li'piilodcndra spc:vcfland allied to the/.y- 
 eopodiumx, or club mossos. All wcro within 40 or 
 iiO feet of each other, and some oflhcmwerc 15 
 foot in circumforcnco at tho bottom. The roots 
 spread in all <lirections and reached beds of clay, 
 nnd also sjiread out into tho scam* of (-oal. — 
 Thero is no doubt that these trees grew where 
 thoy arc found a!id that tho roots aro in their orig- 
 inal position. The acani of coal has possibly been 
 formed of tho leaves vvl ieh fell from tho troes. 
 This is n cingular fact: that just below tho coal 
 seam and abovu tho covering of tho roots v.as 
 found Hii''-^ than a busliel of the LcplUistrohaH — 
 a *■ ■•' -int unlike tlio elonguti.'d (^^(Mjr the fir tree. 
 V. '. '"n imagined thai the Lcpidustro- 
 
 hus\.^. -'t oi tho Lcpldodendra; but here 
 
 they ar< ^sith other trers. 
 
 Under t-- . oeam of coal iii \Va!es is funnd the 
 fire clay — a <;andy, blue mud, almu'.iding in the 
 plants called isiigmaria. First is tin.' seam of 
 coal, then the fire clay, then another .S(-a)ji of c.ytal, 
 and then tho sand stone. In one part of tho New- 
 castle coal field about 30 spi^cies of Sigillaria 
 wore discovered: tho trunks wore two or three feet 
 in diameter. They pierce through the hand in a 
 vortical direction, nnd after going for some 11 iect 
 perpendicularly, the upper part bpiids lound hori- 
 zontally, and extends laterally into the pand, — and 
 then the.y are so (latfennd by the supi-'riiicumbent 
 strata, that tho opposite barks arc forced within 
 half au inch of each other. Tho (lutings are beau- 
 
 tifully preserved in tho flattened horizontal stemi. 
 Hero wo hud an uncionl forest growing in a bed of 
 clay — buried in somo way with sawd to a certain 
 depth, and then tho uj^per part was bent and 
 broken ofll' by tho water current, and buried in lay- 
 ers of shale and sand. Thero aru many cases of 
 thi* kind in Wales, where ilie roots of tlio trees ev- 
 idently preserve their original position. Mr. LooAV, 
 an excellent geoh)gist, has examined no less 
 than 90 of these scams of coal in Wales. They are 
 so exciiedingly thin that they aro of but littlo value 
 in ancconomicallight — yet, they are just as impor- 
 tant for geological purposes, as if they were thick 
 strata. Under every one of tho 90 ho has found 
 the lire clay, a sandy mud containing tho plants 
 calleil SUgmaria. It was discovered years ago 
 that this lilt! clay existed with the coal mine ; but 
 it was not known that it was the (loor of every coal 
 seam, and not the roof, which contained this plant 
 in a jM'rfect state. Tho Stigmaria appears in tho 
 under clay (to use the term ciTiployed by miners,) a 
 cylindrical stem, from every side of which extend 
 loaves — not only from tho opposite sides — but from 
 i:very side ; they appear like tubercles, fitting on 
 as by ajoint. They radiate in all directions in tho 
 mud, where they are aot flattened like tho forns. 
 Had they been wo might have had leaves in two 
 directions, but not on every side. These plants 
 rescmblo the Enphorbiaceas in their structure, and 
 in somo respects are analogous to the Coniferous 
 or fir tribes. In their whole structure they are dis- 
 tinct from all living genera or families of plants.— 
 In one instance a dome -shaped mass was found 
 with stems and leaves — some of the branches be- 
 ing 20 or 30 feet in length and sometimes longer. 
 It has been thought by Dr. Buckland and other 
 geologists, that these plants cither trailed along in 
 the mud at tho bottom of swamps, or to have 
 floated in lakes like the modern Siraliotes, 
 
 After Mr. Loc.an had arrivedat this remarkable 
 fact, we became particularly desirous to know if 
 tlie same fact was true in the United Slates. When 
 I arrived here in August, I had no idea how far it 
 was true, yet it was known tho SHgmaria did oc- 
 cur; and my fust opportunity to inquire into the 
 fact was at Blossburgli, in the Bituminous field in 
 the Noithern part «f I'ennsylvania. My first in- 
 quiry of the geologist was whether he found Stig- 
 maria there. I was answered in the affirmative: 
 and on asking if tke plant occurred in the under 
 clay, he said wo could soon settle the point. Ho 
 had one of the mii'cs lifrhled up. nnd l)ie only plant 
 n:c could find ill /he nnlei- clay was this Stigma 
 ria : it existed in abundance — its leaves radiatin 
 
•J»" 
 
 34 
 
 in an directions, junl as in Wales, more than 4000 
 miloH (lifitaiit. The name cnilal oppoaranco wan 
 prcscrvoci. Iti ilm rodf of tho cuiil «cain wore spon 
 dilTurant spt'cios of furtis, — Sigillari otul Cala- 
 tnitet, just as in North Carolina ami in Wulna. — 
 Afterward* anotiicr opporttinily orrurrod in tho 
 Pottuvillo n'gioM (tf Antliracito nmi. Professor 
 RoDOEUS, tiio State (ioologift, who, though well 
 acquainted with tlie 8trata of tlie district, was as 
 anxious at I wnt to l<now if the riilfi wortld hold 
 good, oxumined lirst at I'ottsvillo and at Mauch 
 Chunk, when the same phenomena were ohserved. 
 In the fir st coal mine wo canio io,tho coal had all been 
 quarried away (for tho worli wttaearrie<lon in open 
 day) and nothing hut tho cheeks of tho mine ro- 
 Tnained. The bod.*, as they have been horizontal, 
 aro now not voriic.al, but have ^mw through an 
 angle of u little more ihaK 90", and turned a little 
 over ; 80 that what is now tho under side was 
 originally the upper; therefore tho cheek on the 
 left side was originally the lloor of the mine. Wo 
 now looked at the lower cheek; and the first thing 
 wo saw was tho Stigraaria, very distinct; on the 
 other side, but a little way oil', were ferns, Sigilla- 
 riete, Calamites, Asterophyllitcs, but no Sfigma- 
 ria. So it was at Mauch Chunk, where we found 
 one 30 feet long with loaves radiating in all direc- 
 tions. At this place there is a bod of Anthracite 
 nearly 60 feet thick— a magnificent accumulation 
 of vegetable matter, to which there is nothing 
 comparable in Europe. Except in one place it is 
 perfectly pure. 
 
 It has now been ascertained for many years that 
 Prof. Eato.v was quite correct in afhrming the 
 Anthracite and Bituminous Coals to be of tho same 
 age. This h shown not only by their relative po- 
 sition with regard to the red sand-stone, but from 
 tlio plants found in both being identical. 
 
 All tho coal fields, therefore, maybe regarded as 
 one whole, and tho question will occur. How did 
 it happen that the great (loar was let d(,wn so as to 
 prevent the accumulation of coal and yet plants of 
 BO difToreni textures should bo found in it? It has 
 been suggested that these plants grew in swamps; 
 and it is possible to imagine that there may have 
 been morasses fitted only for tlio growth of the 
 species of plants called SHgmaria; and that this 
 marsh filling up, this and tho other plants became 
 
 chango is constantly goinjj on in d ifferent parli of 
 Europe — the same transition from bogs uiid manhos 
 to a soil capable of supporting various great trees 
 is taking pliu-e, and then the ground is t^ubmerged; 
 for always, again and again, wo must refer to thU 
 b«bsid»!nce of the soil. 
 
 Many of you, I suppose, have srrn the moittss 
 on lied tho Great nismal in North Carolina and 
 Virginia; and you have probably had an opportu- 
 nity, as I have, of crossing tho northern extremity of 
 it on a railway supported by piles, from Norfolk tu 
 Weldon. This is no less than forty miles from 
 noith to south, and twenty from casi lo west, 
 covered entirely with various forest trees, under 
 which is a great quantity of moss ; tho vagetalio n 
 is of every variety of «i/.o from common creep' >g 
 mojis to tall cypresses 130 foot high. Tho water 
 surrounds tho roots of these trees for many months 
 in the year. And this ii a most singular fact to 
 one who has traveled only in l^iiropo, that, as is 
 the case in the United Slates, trees should grow ih 
 the water, or sunounded to a. certain hight by 
 water, and yet not bo killed. This Great Dismal 
 was explored some years since by Mr. Edmund 
 RuFFiN, author of a valuable Agricultural Journal. 
 He first calls attention to tho fact thai a greater 
 portisn of the vait morass stands higher than tho 
 ground that surrounds it ; it is a great spongy mass 
 of peat, standing some seven or eight feet higher 
 than its banks, as was ascertained by careful mea- 
 surements when the railroad was cut through. It 
 consists of vegetable matter with a slight admix- 
 ture of earthy substance, as in coal. Tho source 
 of peat i 1 Scotlaird is that one layer of vegetation 
 is not decomposed before nnolher forms. So 
 is it 'n Chili, Patagonia and Terra del Fuog*'. 
 Thus also is it in diftbrent parts of I'urope, in tho 
 Falkland Inlands, as Dauwin has shown. Thus, 
 too, is it in tho Great Dismal, whero tho plants and 
 trees arc different from tliose of the peat in New- 
 Y«rk. It is found on culling down the trees and 
 draining tho swamp and lotting in the sun, that tho 
 vegetation will not be supported as it was before 
 beneath the dark shade of tho trees. In the mid- 
 dle IS a iino lake, and tho whole is inhabited by 
 wild animals, and it is somewhat dangerous to dwell 
 near it by reason of tho bad atmosphere it creates. 
 It is covered by most luxuriant vegetation. Wo 
 
 dry, and the leaves accumiilated one layer above \ find in some i.laccs in England that there is a 
 another, so as to form beds of coal of a different \ species of walking mosses, which are sometimes 
 nature from those .hat preceded. You know it is i seized with a fancy lo walk off from their places: 
 
 V 
 
 a common ih-ng for shallow ponds to fill up grad- 
 ually with mud and aquatic plants and at last peat 
 and trees aro formed upon them. A corresponding 
 
 tho moss swells up, bursts and rolls off, sometimes 
 burying cottages in its path. In some places this 
 peat has been dug into and houses have been fouijd 
 
I 
 
 S5 
 
 ,evom\fo.!t l..-l>.w ihc ^urfacc-Lurious ftnliriuti- 
 rioii HMnftinH. I., ilm «ume n'.anner ibo Greut 
 ir.imal m«y Hi-r-n.! itsMf over th." surrounding 
 
 coiiiitry. 
 
 1,1 Bpoc.ilutin-,' iilH.r. 111.- p.ol.aUc I'Umalo of tho 
 CarUonilVu.us p.'rio.l, it in I.pUcv-.! tluit we l.ave 
 only to inuislMO a .liir.Tont .llsliibiilion of llm l.uul 
 over the '.urOv.-c .,f tliL- pluiu-t ihu.i that wliich now 
 prevail:^, to produce such a warm and humid .ii- 
 mato a>, mu.t have prevailed when thoio planU 
 flouri.hr.l which form coal. Tl> the existence of 
 high lands near the pole NNhich produces such great 
 cold. If the.e mountains were^ to ho transferred 
 to the tiopieal region*, it would immediat.>ly lower 
 tho temperature of all climates of the earth. Now 
 every one who hns uttend.'d to tho study of rocks 
 and fossils sees at onco that tho present physical 
 geography of tho globe has no reference to its an- 
 cient conditio... Sea* once occupied a largo por- 
 tion of what arc now continents, and we also find 
 evidences of marked change in tho Carboniferous 
 •and other strata. In the limestone accompanying 
 tho coal we f.nd corals and shells, strongly indica- 
 ting a higher temperature of tho sua, as the plants 
 shadow forth a hi-her temporaturo in tho atmos- 
 phere. 
 
 I have been fiivored with a map illustrating 
 these points by I'rof. IIai.i-, one of the State Geo- 
 logists engage.! in surveying this State, whose la- 
 bors will soon be nwde pul)lic. And hero I can- 
 not avoid saying that I have been over much of 
 tho ground vhicli they have surveyed, and it gives 
 me groat pleasure t.* bear testimony to the accu- 
 racy of their labors, to the great pains they have 
 takon, and the science with which they have con- 
 ducted the survey. I look forward to tho appear- 
 ance of their work, embracing the results of their 
 labors, as an era in the advancement of seience; 
 and tho patronage which has been alVwrded by tho 
 different States of the Union to theso surveys is 
 niHch greater, in proportion to the population, 
 than any European power has ever extended to 
 the advancemci.l of geological science. When wo 
 remember, too, tiie complaints that may be heard 
 in different parts of the State that the geologists 
 have failed to discover any mineral weaMi, even 
 in an economical point of view, those srientilic re- 
 searches are of high vilue, though their greatest 
 interest arises from tho promotion of tho know- 
 ledge of the structure of the globe. 
 
 nm mendy in estimating tho mischief they have 
 prevented, wo shall see an ample remuneration for 
 ull the expeuKe attending the survey. 1 have been 
 told that in this Stale alone more than a million 
 of dollars have been expended since tho Ilevolu- 
 tionary War in borii.-; for coal b. formations were 
 it in imp^HM:c 10 find ««j/-below the carbon- 
 iferous strata. I should not, to bo sure, have - 
 V. ntured t- gcnerali/o from Europe as a typo and 
 sny tV.at the rocks in the crust of the earth occupy 
 tho same relative position here, and that coal 
 would be found always in this country .u.d.<r the 
 same conditions as in Europe. \h,t when for 
 iwenty years or more we find coal ac(-ompanied by 
 tho same plants, and that no valuable fuel has ever 
 been found under any fither circumstances wo 
 should be safe in saying that none could bo found 
 in tho older strata. If wo begin in the newer 
 beds wo may come down to tho coal, and find 
 enough coal to pay the expense ot boring for it. 
 But if wo begin in tho strata beneath the 
 carboniferous we should certainly never roach 
 the coal until wo had bored through the whole 
 earth : wc might find it at tho antipodes but not 
 before. 
 
 Thus complaints arc made against those geolo- 
 gists not only that they have found no coal, but that 
 they have passed sentence of sterility upon tho 
 Stati', for they say that through all time no coal 
 shall be found within its borders. And when WO 
 reflect on the enormous sums that have been wast- 
 ed upon strata tnore ancient than the coal, in 
 seiirching for coal, wc shall sco the great saving 
 made in consequence of this survey ; for when all 
 its maps and secll.)ns arc published it will bo seen 
 how impossible it is to find coal in theso more 
 ancient beds. This is a kind of advantage which 
 is never easily appreciated : because, to prevent 
 mischief is never so clear and palpaple a bene- 
 fit to the multitude as to find mineral wealth. But 
 one of tho greatest advantages which have resulted 
 from these surveys in England, and it will be 
 among the greatest hero, is tho prevention of this 
 rash and absurd speculation to find coal in strata 
 below that in which those plants known to be es- 
 sential to the formation of coal are found to exist: 
 and after examining the whole ancient strata, both 
 in the United States and in Europe, there has never 
 been found a single bed of coal where these plants 
 do not exist- 
 
 ■Ml 
 
 
 
 J 
 
LECTURE VI. 
 
 FOSHIL KOOT-nUNTS. 
 I MAvr bci>n nBkod hy snvoral persons wlio heard 
 my lam Icctiin-, ujion tlio Origin of Coul, if I roiihl 
 oxplain tin) (lilToroBno between Coal utid Aiiihra- 
 eito ; aiitt a» I then liaJ no time to touch upon thi« 
 ■ubjeat, iilihouKli tny hint lecture was prolonged 
 beyond the Umit whicli I wished, I will now 
 •peak of it in a few words. It certainly is a good 
 qmigtion ; but severni persons have asked mo 
 whether, conceding ihu vogeiablo origin of coal, it 
 may not be the difcrenee in the vood which 
 •auies the differenco in the coal : whether one 
 kind may not produce the Coal and another the 
 Anthracite. Now there is no doubt that, in the 
 itrata of the Korth, there is somo variety in the 
 character I f the various Coals discovered, which 
 may be owing to a diflferenco in the original text- 
 ure and composition of the different plant* from 
 which they were formed. But this, nevertheless, 
 is not the cause of the difference between Anihra- 
 cito and Bituminous Coal, as they have brea pro- 
 duced by the same plants. There is no doubt that 
 the Palm, and other Monocotyledonous plants, and 
 bamboos, reeds, , fee. would give akindof conl to a 
 certain degree different from that produced by the 
 fir and other Dicotyledons. But as precisely the 
 same assemblage of plants is found in the Aiithra- 
 eito and Coal, it cannot be in this woy that ihe 
 difference between these substances is caused ; 
 and the conclusion to which the geol»)gist vnd 
 chemist have come is this : that Anthracile has 
 once been Bituminous Coal, but has loi^t its bitu- 
 minous matter by its escaping; that the volatile 
 part of it has escaped and tho wood has become 
 gradually converted into coal by tho loss of its ox- 
 ygen—vegetables being composed of carbon, oxy- 
 gen, and hydrogon. Tho vegetable matter losing 
 first its oxygen losbs also in tho combination 
 eome portion of its carbon, forming a carbonic acid 
 which escapes from tho wood, often as a pun; 
 gas— as may be seen in bubbles which rise from 
 tho bottom of pools of -.vater: it is thas converted 
 Into coal by the loss of its oxygen ; and this con- 
 version is so gradual that there aro found in tho 
 Earth woods in every stage of the change — both in 
 that state when they are called lignites and wlien 
 they have become perfect coal. We find, too, all 
 the iiitcfvenirig forms between wood and coai, and 
 then all between coal and anthracite. This is 
 
 caused neain by the losnof tho hydroijen which es- 
 capes in combinution with carbon, in the form of 
 cjirburetted hj Jrogen gn^— tho same subsiance that 
 we are now burning here. You are aware that thi< 
 gas 'annot be produced from anthracite because in 
 that theoperntion has already takenplace: it is man. 
 ufactUK'd entirely from bituminous coul. This vol- 
 atile, iiiflummalrflo gus may be seen to e.-(cap«! froia 
 rents in the Karth— natural rents from which this 
 carbo-hydrogcn issues ; and if the coul below bo 
 examined it will be found to be in process of grad- 
 ual change. But there is one remarkable fact ob- 
 served in this country: that, in tho coal region oi 
 Pennsylvania for ejiample,- and this has been ci- 
 peciftlly pointed out by Prof. Rodqeus in his sui- 
 vey of Pennsylvania— tho anthracite is found to bo 
 purest in the most disturbed part of the mountains; 
 and it is half bituminous when you get into tho re- 
 gions that have been slightly disturbed— in tho 
 western part of tho State ; and when you reach tlw 
 perfectly horizontal coal district— that where thejti 
 has been no disturbance, no shattering and tear. 
 ing up of the mountains— theru the coal is purely 
 bituminous, not having lost its hydrogen. Somo 
 have suggested that this is owing to iho rending 
 and (issuring of the rocks in tho disturbed region, 
 in which all the volntile matter would have esoaped 
 more easily. Of this there is no certainty. But 
 the gcneiul fact is undoubted— tlmt in proportion 
 to the disturbance, overthrow and bending of t'.u 
 stratii— gome of which have been fold.id back upon 
 themselves— do we lirij that the con\ersion into 
 anthracite from pure carbon is most completo. 
 
 The next subject of which I shall treat is that of 
 Fossil Footsteps found in the formation which wo 
 call iho New Red Sar ilstone. Its position io th« 
 series is as follows : 
 
 1. Chalk. 
 
 2. Oolite. 
 
 3. New R;d Sandstone, 
 
 4. Magnesian Limestone, 
 
 5. Coal. 
 
 6. Old Red Sandstene, 
 
 7. Silurian Group. 
 
 8. Granite. 
 In the upper part are found organic remains in 
 
 great abundance and in the red and white sand.- 
 ^ stono there were found about seven years ago in 
 
37 
 
 Dormiiiiy thr r<>niuint offoot«top«— priiitn Rpparont- 
 ly modi' by tlm fi'ct of qim(lniiii'il!« (rudfly ii'pro- 
 •nntcd in ihi!<(lruwin(f)[oxliiliilc'(J.] Ofton fivii or 
 (ix paiiij of iIk'so iiro fouml inuriKtrnrk. Tlirynn! 
 fdund nfiir llii' liordi'rn of U'>hftnia iit IIcssIxt);^ ; 
 «nJ tlinir dificovcry created at fir«t a prodigioim 
 tonsiition in ftcrrnaiiy bocaueo >iom« iinagiiird timt 
 tho aiiinmU wuro a sort of extinct form, perhapn, 
 of man, or loino prototypn of iniin. Tlioliaiid-liku 
 form of thiMi) track;*, resi'inbliiiij in noino drgreo 
 tbo human hiind, created great antoni^bmunt. The 
 largest truck wiiii about eight inches long ; before 
 each of these large tracks is a small one which i* 
 referred to the fore foot of tho creature. There 
 wore obH(!rveil four toes and one other which re- 
 *embled a thumb. In one track that wo^ found on 
 tho right, in tho next on tho left, and so on ; and to 
 whatever distance they were traced they wore found 
 thus to (ilterndte ri;;ht and lift. No doubt what- 
 ever is entertained that these represented the steps 
 of s«me unimul imprinted on layers of clny when 
 ill n soft state. They jtood out in relief upon tho 
 under side of the slabs of sand-stone when taken 
 •ut ; because this sand-stono was onco in the form 
 of loose sand, and was thus depo^tited in the hol- 
 lows of the cliiy below; so that it would present 
 tho appearance of a cast moulded in the hollows 
 of the subjacent day, and wo should have a perfect 
 cast in relief of the footsteps of tho animal us it 
 walked on the clay. 
 
 Some conjectured that this animal belonged to 
 the Marsupial OY Kangaroo tribe, because thehind 
 feet of this animal arc remarkably large iN com- 
 parison with its fore fuct ; and it has feet also very 
 much in the form of the humanhand. Others believ- 
 ed it to belong to the Crocodile tribe; and Prof. 
 Link early conceived that it belonged to tho Ba- 
 trachian or Frog family. While this discussion 
 was going on in Germany— or but fev/ months af- 
 ter this — similar footsteps were found in the Red 
 Sandstone of the same age in England, at Storeton 
 Hill in Cheshire, not far from Liverpool, on the 
 banks of tho Mersey. These salient footmarks were 
 observed on no less than fivo distinct ranges er 
 layers of sandstone; there were five thin layers of 
 clay, and resting on each was a thin white or yel- 
 low quartzose sandstone, vshich presented these 
 footsteps precisely like those found in Germany. 
 It had been previously ascertained from the posi- 
 tion of thos<! beds, and tho other fossil rocks in 
 questioii, that they were of tho same ago with those 
 !p. whicli tlio fnntprint? ware found in Germany. 
 They were found of several sizes; one in which 
 the larger footstep was eight inches iu length ; ano- 
 
 ther ill which it was twelve; thiii was called th« 
 Chtirotherium Htreulin, on account of it* grett 
 size. Thn tracks were about fourteen inches aptrt. 
 In ihn Museum at Liverjioot Ih preserved a long 
 slab lii sandstone— as long as this staff (some tea 
 foet) in which thn prints are so beautifully distinct 
 in reliefihat you would suppose tkoy Imdbeon mado 
 by the chisel of the sculpor. In some slabs pro- 
 served in th(» Dritish Museum you may see print* 
 of this shapu [exhibited] which aro evidently castj 
 of the small cracks below. Tho clay having shrunk, 
 these cracks were opened by tho heat of tho sun : 
 so Uiat when tho loose sand was deposited in thfl 
 footprints of the animals, it found them filled with 
 these rents in tho clay ; and when they came t9 
 be taken up, these cracks aro found to be in relief, 
 as well as tho footsteps. Tho same things ai« 
 found in tho same beds of England; and in this 
 red sandstone, which is found all over Cheshiro 
 and other parts of tho kingdom, aro found ripple* 
 marks — parallel ridges, marking tho ripple on th» 
 beach of the sea at low-tide. 
 
 It was remarked when reasoning upon the sub- 
 ject in London, and in the discussions of the 
 Geological Society, that these fooLsteps must 
 have been mado by an air-breathing animal; 
 as no animal which existed under water couli 
 make such distinct foot-marks, not being heavy 
 enough in that fluid ; they were pressed down 
 by the weight of an animal walking in the 
 atmosphere, and thcrpforo at low tide. And 
 nodiing is more commnn now than to observe tho 
 tracks of vaiious animals upon the beach at low 
 tide. I had an opportunity myself of observing thi» 
 in tho islands near Savannah in Georgia. At low 
 tide I have seen the whole beach covered withtha 
 trucks of the Opossum, Racoon and other animals j 
 and in many placesafter tracing those tracks somo 
 hundreds of feet, I came to places where tho 
 quartzose loose sand of the low cliffs of tho island* 
 had been blown by the wind only a few hours be- 
 fore while the tide was down; still there had been 
 time for tho tracks to be made and for the wind 
 to blow the sand over, and in soma places tho 
 tracks were thus obliterated, some entirely and 
 other« only in part. We have then only to suppose 
 a submergence of a coast so situated carrying 
 down this sand, afterwards thatit was consolidated 
 by ferraginous or other matter, and wo should 
 have a counterpart of this. Take up a slab of the 
 common sand and it wauld present the samo mark* 
 of the racoon and opossum. 
 
 At the same time that these fossil remains wero 
 discovered by Prof. Kaup who devoted considerable 
 
 -8 
 
38 
 
 ttttentisn to tho subject, Mr. Owen procured from 
 Warwick several fossil teeth of a conical form ; 
 and being engaged at the time in investigating tlie 
 internal texture of the teeth of various animals, lie 
 cut av.iiy a thin slice and subjected it to examina- 
 tio . Ly a powerful microscope, and ho was sur- 
 piibcd to find that this tooth, found in tho New 
 Red Sandstone, No. 3, difliTcd greatly from those 
 of all the other reptiles found in No. 2, or tho Oo- 
 lite formation. Thi.s Oolite has been called tho 
 age of Reptiles, becausa we have in it so many of 
 the Tcrtihratulw, ard reptiles — flies, fish, lizaid-^, 
 
 Ichthyosauriana and Saurians (sf various kind < 
 
 not one of which has a texture resemblin"- in tho 
 least degree the texture of those found in the New 
 Red-Saudstonc. He made a representation of a 
 small part — one-fourth of a tooth, which he has 
 allowed me to copy. [Exhibited.] Yon sec that 
 its texture recalls the appearance of a section of 
 the human brain ; it has the same convolutions, 
 formed W the denlino and pulp of the tooth; the 
 animal that exhibited so romarkahic u structure 
 was believed to bo distinct from any liviiifr species. 
 Supposing this to be tho case and becoming great- 
 ly interested in this discovery, Mr. Owkn" applied 
 19 tho German Professor Kaup, to have one of his 
 fossil teeth sent from Germany that it miglit be 
 dissected, and thus that it might ba ascertained if it 
 had the s;i.mG structure as those found in England. 
 This was done and the same remarkable texture 
 was observed. Thus we have in both countries — 
 five hundred miles apart — fossil teeth, found in tho 
 Fame rock oiid having the same structure, entirely 
 distinct from that of reptiles in other formations. 
 It was evident that they had belonged to reptiles — 
 for they were different from any belonging to quad- 
 rupeds or flub. It was thus believed that they were 
 a reptilian class of a now and before unknown 
 
 animal— thai </terc vas as great a disparifi/ in 
 the relative size of these bones as in the marks 
 of the hind feet compared with those of the fere 
 feet. Soon after a portion of the jaw was found 
 and Mr. Owkn was able to construct a skeleton 
 of this animal— to restore in imagination something 
 of tho form of the animal that onco may have 
 walked sc as to produce these lines of foot-marks, 
 by bringing its hind foot forward so as to make 
 an impression close to the last one of the fore foot. 
 This figure is a rcprrsoiitation of tho animal and 
 tho position of his tracks : 
 
 fannily. 
 
 The next discovery mado in the rocks of this 
 very age, and in the same scries of Sandston' in 
 which theinipressions of footmarks were found, was 
 of parts of the scapulu,fomorand pelvi-i of more than 
 one pppcios of this animal. It had received the 
 jrovifiional name of Cheirotherium or Bca.'it of 
 ike Hand, from the shape of the imprinted foot- 
 step. The question now was whether the ti"cth and 
 the bones cf'iild belong to tlie Chrirotherhim. 
 
 Mr. OwE.v rcinaikcd, uftor examining S'«me of 
 tlie bones uf thu hinder cxtremiues and comparing 
 them v.-ith tlio boiios that r-,iat.-:il!y LL!a::grd to thr 
 anterior u.xtrumitii's— ly the forearm, found in tho 
 eame place and probably belonging to tho samo 
 
 These parts were found when I left England 
 nine months ago audit i.-^ probable that more have 
 been found since that time, for all these discoveries 
 have been made within the lust twelve or fourtean 
 months. 
 
 It was therefore now clear that there had ex- 
 isted, at tho period of the daposition of this stratum 
 in which these impressions are found, several 
 species of animals which correspond well, in rela- 
 tive dimensions, with the sire of the several sots 
 of footstep.5 found in G^Tmany and England. At 
 least three distinct sizes wcie found— teeth belong- 
 ing to three distinct species. They were called 
 Lahyrirhthndou from the labyrinthine coavolutions 
 in tho structure of the tooth. 
 
 The next step made in England was to ascer- 
 tain whether tliis Labyrinthodon was an air- 
 breathing animal or not. Now Owen has shown 
 from the structure of some bones in the low(!r iaw, 
 and also of one in iIk; upper, that there was an ori- 
 fice which implied a nasal c-ivity, placed as in air- 
 breathing reptiles of the division Ratrachia. For 
 it is possible from the bone* to discover whether 
 th(! animal breathed by gills, or at least by brov.' 
 chia, for in that case tho opening would extend to 
 the nostrils ; whereas if tin-- aniniul breathed air, 
 tlie cavity would b'l placed ir.uch farther back — 
 nearer t!ie back of the head. We are able to show 
 lliul this Liihyrtn'hod<in\\M\ been an air-breathing 
 animal, and.mun have been able to walk along 
 tiie bidi- of tho reiiiing wuHr. 
 
 You are c 
 into four gre 
 
 The first cr 
 
 &c. ; the se 
 
 snakes and 
 
 salamanders 
 
 teology that 
 
 chian order 
 
 a bull, and t 
 
 as an eloph 
 
 represented 
 
 comparative 
 
 an aquatic i 
 
 feet in Icngi 
 
 in the old v 
 
 island of Ji 
 
 exactly res( 
 
 this animal 
 
 volcanic cr 
 
 den, where 
 
 Museum. 
 
 a female, at 
 
 brought ho 
 
 erous I nee 
 
 male devo7 
 
 one in the 
 
 creatures, i 
 
 bo found ill 
 
 has always 
 
 period — as 
 
 Aristotle — 
 
 and there I 
 
 made befo; 
 
 of whom ai 
 
 been seen t 
 
 been expos 
 
 or three mi 
 
 full examir 
 
 fable. 
 
 I will nc 
 complete i 
 or the Lab. 
 remains to 
 tho mind c 
 of tho sai 
 game footj 
 tain teeth 
 to that roc 
 lived at th' 
 made. W 
 
Mgyii 
 
 39 
 
 \ 
 
 You are awaro that reptiles aro distinguishci 
 into four great divisions — 
 
 1. Saurians, 
 
 2. Chclonians, 
 
 3. Ophidians, 
 
 4. Batrachians. 
 
 The first embraces crocodiles, alligators, lizards, 
 &c. ; the second, tortoises, turtles, &c. ; the third, 
 snakcrf and boas, and the fourth frogs, newts and 
 salamanders. Now it is quite evident from its os- 
 teology that this creature belongs to the Batra- 
 chian order — that it is a gigantic frog, as large as 
 a bull, and the Cheirotherum perhaps was as large 
 as an elephant. The salamandrine reptiles are 
 represented in the living order by creatures of a 
 comparatively small size. In this country there is 
 an aquatic salamander among the Alleghanies two 
 feet in length — much larger than any that we have 
 in the old world, except one which is found in the 
 island of Japan, called the Salamandra Maxima 
 exactly resembling a frog. It is very singxdar that 
 this animal should have been found in a lake in a 
 volcanic crater in that island. It is now in Ley- 
 den, where for eight or ten years it has been in the 
 Museum. There were two procured, a male and 
 a female, about four feet in length. Only one was 
 brought home ; and to prove ti at they are carniv- 
 erous I need only mention that on tlio passage the 
 male devoured the female, so that we have only 
 one in the Museum. They are fierce, voracious 
 creatures, and it is vciy singular that they should 
 bo found in the crater of a volcano ; because there 
 has always been a story — from the most remote 
 period — as long ago, at any rate, as the time of 
 Aristotle — that the Salamander was inconsumable ; 
 and there have bcei* depositions in great numbers 
 made before most respectable magistrates, some 
 of whom are now living, that these creatures have 
 been seen to come out of a fire in which they had 
 been exposed to the white heat of coals for two 
 or three minutes perfectly uninjured. But after a 
 full examination it turns out that this is entirely a 
 fable. 
 
 I will now observe that although we have no 
 complete specimen of either the Chcirolkerium 
 or the Labyrinthodon, we have still enough of their 
 remains to leave no doubt of their character on 
 the mind of any person. We Iwve first in rocks 
 of tho same ago in Germany and England the 
 aame footprints. We have in both countries cer- 
 tain teeth of a most remarkable structure, peculiar 
 to that rock to which bcliiHg tho animals which 
 lived at the period when these footmarks were 
 made. \Ve find the hinder extremities in each 
 E 
 
 species as much larger than the anterior portion - 
 as the posterior footsteps aro larger than thoso of 
 the forefeet. And lastly we require air-breathiiitr 
 animals, and wc find the structure of the nasal 
 cavity such as to show that the Labyrinthodon was 
 evidently an air-breathing creature. 
 
 You may be aware that in this country then- 
 have been found some remarkable trvcks of bird-< 
 in the Red Sandstone of the vallpy of the Connec- 
 ticut; and Professor Hitchcock \\.\^ embodied an 
 excellent account of them in his final Report of 
 tho Geological Survey of Massachusetts, and has 
 given some excellent plates !iot imly of the extinct 
 species, but also of the animals and birds that may 
 now be found on the shores of the lakes of Ameri- 
 ca. It appears to me thnA he has completely 
 made out that several species of birds existed at 
 that period which, so far as is known, is tho same 
 as Nos. 4 and 5 in which are found the footstep-t 
 in Europe ; and he has found some as large there 
 as an ostrich and others again of smaller size. The 
 variety is considerable. He has found, too, the 
 same ripple-marked figuscs — in which are seen 
 casts of the skeletons of tho cracks in the clay 
 produced by shrinking. I have seen as near this 
 as at Newark, examples of this sandstone ripple 
 with casts of the cracks in the subjacent clay.— • 
 In England there are places where occurs clay 
 which has been pitted over by small depressions 
 as though it were done by a shower of rain. You 
 can see that if rain falls upon sand it will cause 
 a pitted appearance ; and of sucli we find slabs 
 containing casts which have been called fossil 
 showers of rain; and lam inclined to believe that 
 this is the origin of the appearance. And I think 
 that upon this point Mr. Rkdfif.t.t) and myself 
 will agree — that in Newark we have slabs in which 
 can be seen the same marks, not so exactly repre- 
 senting a shower of rain as those in P'ngland but 
 still having a olose resemblance to them. In this 
 case the marks are in soft shale and we have pits ; 
 but when salient casts aro found we have all the 
 apparent marks of rain in relief like the footprints 
 and casts of cracks in the clay. There are some 
 beautiful remains of fish in the same strata in the 
 valley of the Connecticut and in parts of New Jer- 
 sey, some of which are upon the table. They ate 
 not in the same beds as the footprints — but in tha 
 same strata — formed deeper under water. 
 
 But as I must not dwell too long on any enc 
 subject— as the course I am delivering is so short, 
 and as I am desirous «f treating as snany subject'^ 
 
 ' fortna- 
 
 I 
 
 poas 
 
 having already spoke 
 
 tion No. 3, I pass the coal — »f the Flora of which 
 
 -V.*^i<A«s»— ■ 
 
40 
 
 I jiljoko in my last lecture— belww the Red Sand- 
 Monc to Strata No. 7, which wc soo abounding in 
 fossils ; and in no part of the world has it so ma^- 
 aificcnt a derelopmunt as in New-York, though it 
 occurs in greater thickness in Pennsylvania. But 
 there is at least no part of the world that has boon 
 investigated where wo see th,! fossil character of 
 the different periods so well mado out as in New- 
 York. When we come to the subdivisions of this 
 one formation, you will see at once ihst it forms as 
 many groups as are represented in the other table. 
 The first of these divisions was formerly called 
 Transition— but now the Silurian Strata ; because 
 it is found mostly in Siluria, a region on the borders 
 of Wales, composed of the border counties of 
 Wales and England. It has been well studied and 
 elucidated by my friend Mr. Murchiso.v. For 
 this section [here cxhihitr-d] I am indebted to Pro. 
 fcssor E.MMO.NS and Mr. Hall of the State of 
 New-York. It exhibits portions of the results of 
 their joint labors ; and I have had the advantage 
 of going over the region and seeing the beds in, the 
 order they are here represented. 
 
 First of all we have what is called the Moliawk 
 group, which is 1200 feet thick in the state of 
 New-York and thicker in Pennsylvania ; for the 
 thickness depends on local or accidental causes. 
 If the material of which it is composed be coan;e 
 tlie strata will be thick. The fine sand will be 
 floated farther out to sea. In this strata occurs 
 the Trenton limestone — with trilobites and other 
 species of fossils. We have in this strata some 
 extinct species as tJie Lingula and others that 
 must have lived in the seas. The GraptoUtc is 
 found in the old rocks, and ia, a species of zgophyte 
 related to the Pennatula. It is an example of an 
 extinct form only found in ancient rocks, never be- 
 yond the Transition or Sikrian Strata. When we 
 pass to the Red Sandsto.^e we have a resemblance 
 to the more modem rock, of which I have before 
 speken, in which are found the fossil foot prints. 
 It is called the Onlari) sandstone because it is 
 foHnd along the borders of Lake Ontario. The 
 lower part of the Cliif at Lewiston, in tlie 
 Niagara District is the same bed saen horizontally ; 
 it is 60, 80 and in the lo«-er part 120 feet thick. 
 Of its exact position I will speak more at length 
 in my next lecture ; I only wish now to point 
 out the order in which they follow. If you sup- 
 pose yourself aloft in a balloon— looking down 
 over that part of the country, it would present the 
 appearance in this figure— i?i which a nortinn rtf 
 tlie wood is supposeii to be cut away so that the 
 geological structure of the rock can be seen. 
 
 After the Ontario sandstone comes that which 
 is called by Mr. Vanuxk.-w the Protean group 
 from the many diffeicnt forms in which it appears. 
 It contains the Pentarncrus, an extinct .specie* of 
 bivalve shell. Sometimes it is also in the form of 
 iron ore. This Protean mass is only about 50 feet 
 thick at Qu(n)nston and Lewiston, though in some 
 parts of the country it is probably thicker. It is 
 found farther East and South. Passing, then, 
 from the Mohawk limestone to tho Ontario sandstone 
 and theivc to the Protean group, wc next come 
 to the shale and limestone of the Niagara district. 
 These beds contain an assemblage of organic re- 
 mains, as, forexamplc, tho Chain Coral— so called 
 from the resemblance of its i:2>ppr surface to a 
 chain. It is a genus peculiar to tho ancient rocks 
 of Norway, England and the United States. When 
 I say that each of these groups is distinguished by 
 a dilferent assemblage of animals, of which there 
 are several hundreds in one, I would bo under- 
 stood to mean that some species have a wide, ver- 
 tical range, as it is called. Some may live longer 
 on the globe during its changes than others ; and 
 this would be expected when we consider hat 
 some species at present bear difTcrent climates with 
 more facility than others: th<y are a sort of cos- 
 mopolitan species, which are found every where. 
 Thus we find the same shells in the Hudson as in 
 our seas and in tho Baltic; the same may be found 
 in the temperate and the trojjical zones. 
 
 Tho same group which iiordcrs Lake Erie and 
 is seen at Buffalo forms the Black Rock of Buffalo. 
 It is called the Helderbcrg lime-stone, because in 
 tho Hclderberg Mountains we have no other beds 
 of liniistone, and upon thu fosdls found m them I 
 might employ tho whole of eight lectures ; and you 
 might suppose that the whole of geology was ore- 
 braced in their discussion. Still that is only one 
 subdivision of this one stratum, and theie are bcd.s 
 of Corals fouiidin other limc-stonr , aiidin the oldest 
 Trenton lime-stone like tho ancient reefs— the spe- 
 cies being for the most part differert in each. 
 There are found in the same series of the Silurian 
 strata in England corresponding lime-stones at 
 different stages, and occurring in the position in 
 which they originally grew. They Imve the point 
 of attachment at the bottom of the stratum, and 
 the upper part continues to be uppermost. Or if 
 they are horaisph(M-ieal, those which radiate, you 
 must determine by the manner of radiation which 
 is tho base and which the upper surface of the 
 coral, atul thus determine wliether it is in its ori- 
 ginal position or has been overtumed. Wc often 
 see them in their natural position, us they grow, 
 
 h 
 
rt'^M|U«««>ttl*Mi'Wl> - 
 
 h 
 
 41 
 
 c i.v«,v, n fni- T <ef no rcacon v.l'.y it may not be earned i- 
 broken nn.l ihrmvn over, as if by tlic lo.rc m i m „v.,,,,^.io,„ on the infer- I 
 
 ,_ 1 „,.o«, in i.no i I will now offor a few observations on tlio infer- 
 
 globe at those very remote periods. Lvcn tbcmost 
 trivii.1 circumstaiRCs derive a great degree of in- 
 
 the other near the surface ; because it is known that 
 «orals Jo not grow in the deep, dark, cold, unfath- 
 
 omable abyss of the sea, but within 120 feet of the 
 surface, enjoying the light and warmth of the sun. 
 Some of these corah are a^ large as this tnble, as 
 at Wiiliamsville, near Buffalo. In following for 
 a long distance, as may bo done in England, Nor- 
 wav and Sweden, this strata of fine sand which 
 has formed this group, you find no other for.sils but 
 
 torest from their mereantiquity— they become con- 
 secrated, as it were, by time. These who walk in 
 the streets of Pompeii n.'HI look with the deepest 
 interest and the most lively curiosity upon tlic 
 mere ruts left 1 y cnrringes eighteen hundred yearn 
 ug«, which are "now as distinctin their impressions 
 
 has formed thisgroup, you nna no ou... "" =-' | J ^^„^^ ,,,,^0 yesterday: they will 
 
 the GrartolUe, bclongmg to the ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ the scribbling, 
 vhich the living ^pecnnens are fr.und in muddy iook avui ji 
 
 bottoms. Beneath tlwt ilnc mud is no example 
 
 in Greek of the soldiers, on the walls of the bar- 
 
 in deep water. If you consider the laws which 
 regulate matter falling through fluids, you will ea- 
 sily see the truth of this : the doctrine of terminal 
 velocities explains it. For example, if you let a 
 bullet of lead one inch in diameter fall through the 
 air at the density at which it exists at the surface of 
 the earth it will never fall beyond a given rate ; it 
 will fall faster and faster from the hand until it 
 reaches a rate of 2G0 feet in asecond, when it will 
 never fall faster ; fer the force of gravity is a con- 
 stant force, but the resistance of the air increases 
 in a geometrical ratio. So in water : a bullet 
 would never fall at a greater rate than 3i feet in a 
 
 buried under volcanic ashes since so remote a pe- 
 riod. How mu oh more interest will the naturalist 
 feel when he examines the remains ofcreaUn-es be- 
 lieved to have flourished on the earth— in water or 
 on land— thousands of years ago— as he finds them 
 in these racks we have been considering. 
 
 Let us, then, endeavor to draw some inferences 
 from the study of these animals, respecting the 
 state of the planet where they lived— how far it 
 was similar to, different from, that in which it 
 now; exists. Take first the invertehrated, and 
 then the vertebrated animals. Here upon theta- 
 f ie are the remains of Trilobitcs, of which there is 
 a prodigious number in this country. It is an ex- 
 
 jn diameter it will fall only one inch in a second 
 instead of 8i feet ; and so we shall find tliat if it 
 be still farther reduced its maximum rate of de- 
 scent will be much less. 
 
 But fine mud such as large rivers deliver into 
 the ocean, only falls at the rate of about two feet 
 an hour. Now, suppose the mud to bo directed 
 into a current like that ef the Gulf Stream for ex- 
 ample, which runs at the rate of three miles in an 
 jjour— suppose it to be delivered into the ecean by 
 the Amazon or some other great river, and thrown 
 into this cuirent, it would be carried 2000 miles 
 by the Gulf Stream in a month, while it was sink 
 
 hv the Gult stream m a monui, wmic im.x= o...,v -- . , , i i „„„ 
 
 bytncwuii .1 ..,,.11 i „,h.> ocean -and' cient. These were intended— as we know by rea- 
 r.no fpot which IS no depth at all intneoceaii. ana ^i<=in,. c,. . 
 
 UUU leci, vvun-u IB i „„ ,U„ V,QV,i,a niif^ structure of livins sue- 
 
 > 
 
 we have reason to believe that the influence of the 
 GnlfStream extends for at least GOO feet below 
 the surface, as is shown by its action upon ice- 
 bergs. 1 think Mr. REDFikLD will agree with me 
 in saying that the action of the Gulf Stream on 
 
 a genera now extinct. They are very characteris- 
 tic of the ancient rocks in Europe and Asia: but 
 they are never found in the newer rocks. Examine 
 
 the eye for it is a singidar circumstance that the 
 
 eye of some of these creatures is preserved in a 
 most perfect manner in the fossil in the mud in 
 which it was buried. You find that some species 
 have a hemispheric eye— sometimes placed upon 
 a pedal. Here is represented one consisting of 
 a great number of facets ; the living dragon 
 fly has no less than 14,000 /acf<s upon each eye. 
 Some of tlie living Crustacea have a great multi- 
 tude and to some e>:tont they are analogous to the an- 
 
 sonisg upon the habits and structure of living spe- 
 cies nearly analagous- to enable them to see hori- 
 zontally by these lenses. The facets are set so as 
 to look in all directions except one which is sup- 
 plied by the hemispheric form of the other -^ye. 
 
 in saying tnai, uie ucumi .-< i -- -- . , . : , , j u r> «.,^„ 
 
 cnorLus floating masses of ico extends to that Hence it has been justly observed ^y Dr. Buck^ 
 depth. When therefore the mud might be carried ' land, from an examination of optical law., and 
 
 :;r :;nd S d: : U:: r it:iU;^7;; rack, in tl. anient city, which has rem^nc. j 
 of fine srmd 1 em. p ^^^^_^^^ ^^^,^^^ ^^^^^. ^^^^^.^ ^^,,,^,^ ^^^^^^ 3, ,,„„,e a pe- 
 
 imSSSSSSmiStim 
 
42 
 
 tlifi rye to lijrht, at that remote period as now ex- 
 ists in every species. The ocean must ll.ea Imve 
 l-con transparent as i: is now ; and must have given 
 n pa.',.a^-,. to the rays of light, and so witli the al- 
 i.u)-pher.'i and this leads m on to conclude that 
 I lit' Sun existeii then a;* now and to a great Vdrie- 
 ly of other inferences. 
 
 If we turn to vertebrated animals, Uicrefore, we 
 h.ivo .sev> idl species of fi<h, of which tho parts 
 foMnd were called IchlhyodurulUe before they 
 ^vcre aware of tiieir origin. It was supposed that 
 ihoy were some part of a fish ; but they aro now 
 Jvnown to bo portions of the firn spine or darsal 
 lin, of tlic genus of fish, like the living genera 
 called Ceslraeion. A tooth in the jaw of a dif- 
 ferent species lias been found in England in the 
 'ipper part of tiie Siberian series. In tiiis country 
 geologists have traced the existence of analagous 
 speciesof fish a step lower. In several of theselub- 
 di visions there have been found remains, but never 
 verlcbrcE nor ribs or other parts of tho skeleton ; 
 but bony tubercles, &c. by which Mr. Agassiz has 
 shown Uiat they all belong to a cartillaginous fish, 
 like the .sturgeon ; in which the external parts are 
 bony, while the parts which in others are bony in 
 these are soft; something like the Crustacea.— 
 Still they are as perfectly vcrtebratcd aaimals as 
 any others. 
 
 What is implied here in the existence in the 
 rocks from this remote period of these creatures is, 
 that they may yet be traced back to an organic be- 
 ginning. We find here a type of vcrtcbratod ani- 
 mals— -not of a hign order, not yet fully developed, 
 nor yet of the lowest order. They have tlie verte- 
 bral column, with tho spinal marrow terminating 
 in ilio brain ; they have organs of motion in the 
 orbit of the eye. There must, then, have been 
 vision, locomotion, circulation of the blood, a ner- 
 vous system— in short, we have sketched in this 
 vertobrated animal of the earliest period a great 
 outline of the very skeleton which now appears in 
 reptiles and mammalia, and in man himself; and 
 this acquires the highest interest when we find 
 this first outline of that plan of organization already 
 in existence, destined, after modification at differ- 
 ont periods, to reappear in the inferior animals, 
 and in man himself. 
 
 It has been a subject of marvel and of incredu- 
 lity to many to account for the existence of so 
 many races of animals and plants which are now 
 extinct, which all preceded tho creation of man on 
 >he Earth. It is often a-sked for what purpose 
 
 'niJuige, of imagining that all tho works of na- 
 ture are produced okhcr to satisfy tiie wants or to 
 minister to the instruction and amusement of man. 
 But ihown who take a wide and philosophical 
 view ot the present state (,f the creation must meet 
 With the same dilliculty. Look at the animalcu- 
 la' in a droi. of water, and you might put the same 
 quosuo.i : Why do these exist in such myriads, of 
 which nearly all are invisibie / Look, too. .a tho 
 thousands of shells and other fish with which the 
 whole ocean teems, and which do not come under 
 tho knowledge oven of the naturalist. When this 
 question presented itstflf to the mind ef our great 
 Poet, in the exerci.o of his high imagination, he 
 sees that beings might have la.ked over the world, 
 though unbeheld by man. He even says that 
 'Millions of sniritual creatures walk tliis earth. 
 Unseen, both when we wake and when we sfeep,' 
 
 mA had tho existence of these countless creatures 
 been known to him he might have imagined that 
 they lived and moved under tho eye of spiritual 
 beholders, though man were not. And certainly 
 the light now cast upon these periods by Science 
 makes them as we-derful and sublime as could 
 tho imagination of him or of any other poet. For 
 we find that these creatures, in snch multitudes, 
 and in such varieties, existed upon the Earth for 
 ages, then disappeared- dyingand giving place to 
 other races which likewise fur a time inhabited tl > 
 globe. But they too perished and then came the 
 period of vegetation— of coal ; and all the crca- 
 tures that before lived and flourished in the wa- 
 ter gave place te otiier and new varieties. So 
 succeeded many oiher changes-each greater" than 
 the first in the catalogue. Yet throughall these peri- 
 ods of stupendous (.-hnnges we fin<l the same per- 
 fect unity of plan— the same infinite wisdom— the 
 same great outline of urganizMti,,,,. ThroughoHt 
 the whole universe and in all these ancient periods 
 of the Earth's formation we see the same great 
 laws prevailing— those laws of organic and physi- 
 cal life which govern all the revolutions of tho ani- 
 mal tribes ; at length we find superadded to these 
 other ostoological and physical organs ; yet the typo 
 re-appears not only in the inferior animals but 
 linked with the intellectual and reasoning powers 
 of man ; and we find him by the power of tliose 
 thoughts that 
 
 ' wander throagh eternity,' 
 
 taking a retrospect of all ihe.nr, grmt periods-ex- 
 amining their characters, oim3 after another, until 
 he arrives at the remotest period of animal exist- 
 
i 
 
 I 
 
 43 
 
 ence and finds himself abh to study ihok history 
 and the character of their organization. Nor has 
 he merely the power to deryphor theso records; 
 but an inexhaustible, infinite store of such memo- 
 rials have been written upon the great rocks and 
 placed, for his instrKction, in the aolld framework 
 of the globe 
 
 first periods the convulsions were more violent 
 than those which occurred at late epoch. 
 
 But whether we adhere or not to tlie opinion that 
 there has been a great scries of alternations— pe- 
 riods of violence and convulsion followed by long 
 eras of tranquillity -one thing is certain, that, from 
 the earliest period, wo have no record of one such 
 
 '^'" ^'" , . u , V. ,b o opoch-no knowledge of any .uch dissolution of 
 
 When I speak of the laws that govern these ^ .„_,„, ,„,„,,,^,i convulsion in tlie crust 
 
 successive changes, lam aware that some persons 
 look upon the idea, that such revolutions in the or- 
 ganic world are governed by laws.^as favoring the 
 doctrines of the Materialist. But wo may regard 
 these laws— when given either to the animate or 
 inanimate world— as exponents fully to cxpivsi 
 the will of the Supremo Being. A law cannot be 
 referred to any thing material ; it belongs not to 
 the material creation; it is higher than the world 
 of matter — it is spiritual in it* essence and leads 
 OS up to the contemplation of one Immaterial and 
 Spiritual Lawgiver. 
 
 But I will not dwell longer upon this subject, but 
 pass to one more strictly geological ; to the con- 
 clusions wliich we draw from finding the older 
 rocks in a horizontal position. It is striking to 
 find in Europe, in great parts of Russia, in Swe- 
 den and in this country these ancient strata in their 
 original horizontal position. As to the manner in 
 which whole portions of the country have been car- 
 ried away and left groat eliffs behind, I shall speak 
 more fully in my next lecture. You may observe 
 one strata resting on another on a level ; and this 
 
 ? 
 
 stri-ta— no such paroxysmal convulsion in tlie crust 
 of tho globe ; and had there been any such occur- 
 rence, it would not be possible new to find the an 
 cieut fossiliferous rocks in their original position. 
 As to tho fact, it i^ true, that in general wo find the 
 older rocks have undergone the greatest convul- 
 sions ; and this will be quite intelligible if we re- 
 fer them to volcanic forces which always shift their 
 points of principal dcvelopement. There have been 
 volcanoes, as I stated in one of my early lectures, 
 in districts where they are now cxtinct-and where 
 there is left no vestige of volcanic explosions. Af- 
 ter a long period «f disturbance and convulsion the 
 fires were spent and then succeeded a period of 
 tranquillity. It may be shown, too, thatin former 
 pciiods there were more volcanoes than during tne 
 more recent ; and, therefore, if we suppose a shift- 
 ing of the principal points of dcvelopement, which 
 veie near the surface and attended by earthquakes, 
 it would follow that in time they would extend over 
 a great part of the Earth's surface, and we should 
 find, as is the fact, in the more ancient rorks greater 
 convulsions undergone. I should infer from the 
 examination of all the districts in which these phe- 
 
 one strata resting on auum^i «.. ^ »-."•> - i,-s.iiiiii..^a..v... «- , -. t »„ tU\^ «pr 
 
 niav be owing to the depression of the sea, which „omena may be observed- from Iowa to this sec 
 has'leftthem exposed, or, a. 1 believe nearly «" j tion .id so through the Nonhern^^^^^^^^^^ 
 agree, that the beds themselves have b-en gently 
 lifted up out of the ocean and raised to their pre- 
 
 . tion anu su iui""8 ■- J. _ - 
 
 ' and Asia-that during all the successive period! 
 there had been prodigious volcanic action ; and that 
 
 sent hight, where they remain in their horizontal 
 position. It isthoughtby some that there have been 
 alternate periods of repose and violence all over 
 the earth; but it may bo laid down as a rule that 
 the more ancient the rock the greater is the dis- 
 «urbance that has been suffered ; because in the 
 
 the areas of the volcanic districts during any one 
 period had been limited to comparatively small 
 portions of the surface of the earth. 
 
 With this observation I will conclude my pre- 
 sent lecture; and in my next return to the consid- 
 eration of the Niagara district. 
 
 HMMi 
 
 HPW 
 
 K^PP 
 
LECTURE VII. 
 
 RECESSION OF THE 
 Vou will have learned from what I said in my 
 last L'vctiire respecting the relative position and 
 the ngo of tlio different rocks of which the Eiirth's 
 crust i^ composed, that the rocks of which the 
 Niagara district is composed, and of which I then 
 said something, belong to a period of great anti- 
 quity in the Earth's history. Below them is only 
 one stratum in wliich may be obserN-ed trace-, of 
 fossiHferous remains, and we may regard this 
 group of rocks as the most ancient respecting 
 which wo have any authentic information. Though 
 we are in the habit, therefore, of calling this the 
 New World, from the great developemont of an- 
 cient rocks and the remarkably perfect state and 
 teo richness of their fossils, it is to this New 
 World that the geological antiquary is compelled 
 to resort for a knowledge of the most ancient 
 rocke. Not only the pyramids themselves, but even 
 the lime-stone rocks out ef which the pyramids are 
 built, arc things of yesterday compared with the 
 ancient rocks found in this State of New- York. 
 The rock of which the pyramids are made belongs 
 to the upper part of what is called the Secondary 
 .series ; the primary being the lower and formerly 
 supposed to be older than any that contain fossil 
 remains, though we now know that this is un- 
 founded, and that they are igneous rocks that have 
 come up at different periods. The fossiHferous 
 rocks, however, wore named Secondary as being 
 supposed to be newer than the Primary. When 
 some other fossiHferous strata were discovered in 
 Germany — rocks with but faint traces of organic 
 remains — Werner, requiring for them some new 
 name to distinguish them from both the others, 
 • ailed them Transition rocks, because they 
 seemed to form a passage between the crystalHne 
 primary and the earthy, uncrystalline, secondary 
 rocks of Germany. In the first were found no or- 
 ganic remains whilo the latter teemed with them. 
 But Werner went farther, and, finding that the 
 primary and transition strata in the district he ex- 
 amined were highly inclined while the newer fos- 
 siHferous rocks were horizontal, he named those 
 _fldtz or flat rocks. His nomenclature would then 
 run thus : 
 
 Horizontal, 
 Transitive, 
 Sscoudary. 
 
 "A strange transition this,"' says an eminent Eng- 
 lish geologist, "from primogeniture to horizontal- 
 
 PALLS OP NIAGARA. 
 
 ity ; " and in fact its strangeness is not its only ob- 
 jection i for, as I told yon in my last Lecture, the 
 fossilifcrous rocks are, in many districts, no moro 
 horizontal than the transition ro<ks ; and thi? 
 may bo seen through this country to Iowa — through 
 northern Russia and Sweden. The others are not 
 vertical there, as Werner found them in paits of 
 Germany. 
 
 The tti)pellation of Silurian '-. ■ '-.i given to 
 these rocks by my friend Mr. ^1- .«, liocause 
 
 they characterize the ancient flis.: ,. of Siitn-ia in 
 Wales and on the borders of l^ngland. We havo 
 
 therefore in this Niagara district a country com- 
 posed of the most ancient rocks yet discovered in 
 the Earth's crust, and yet rich in organic remains. 
 I have hero a map of the district between Lake 
 Ontario and Lake F^rio. You see represented the 
 Protean group, as it has been named by Mr. Van- 
 VXEV, and above that is a bed of soft shales some 
 eighty feet in thickness, and upon the top of that is 
 the Niagara lime-stone. That lime-stone extends 
 for seven miles from its termination in the escarp- 
 ment to a point near the rapids. The River Nia- 
 gara flows out of Lake Erie in a tranquil, lake-Hke 
 state, and runs gently along all the way by Grand 
 Island, being on a level with Lower Canada on 
 one side and New-York on the other. So nearly 
 level is it that were the river to rise thirty feet, a 
 considerable district of country «n its border 
 would be under water. From Lake Erie to the 
 rapids — a distance of sixteen mil — the fall of 
 the river, I believe, is not more than twenty feet ; 
 so that it quite resembles the expansion of an arm 
 of Lake Erie. The hight of Lake Erie above the 
 level of the sea is .565 feet; its liight above Lake 
 Ontario is 334 feet. This fall is divided first into 
 the fall of twenty feet in the sixteen miles from 
 Lake Erie to the rapids ; then comes a fall of forty 
 feet in half a mile at the rapids ; at the Falls it 
 plunges at once 164 feet; then, between the base 
 of the Falls and Lewiston, a distance of seven miles, 
 it rushes rapidly along and falls 101 feet. It is evi- 
 dent that nil attempts nt representing the beauty and 
 grandeur of this scone by any <lrawingmust be per 
 fectly unavailing. I have endeavored in this sketch 
 to !jiv(!youa notion merely of the geological situation 
 of the country. It will of course seem to those ac- 
 quainted with it most inadequate and in false pro- 
 portion; but it mu8t be remember^'d that it is a 
 
45 
 
 bud's eye view-such as you would actually get if 
 you were raised above it in a balloon. The first 
 idea of this drawing was su-gosled by Mr. 
 BakeWEIX, »on of the eminent I'-nglish geologist 
 of that nam.,, who vi.iied the fulls tenor twelve 
 years ago. He published his drawing in the Gen- 
 tleman's Mnga/,iMO. On my arrival iu tlun coun- 
 try I considered in what manner I could ir.troduco 
 into his view the ge.logical structure of the coun- 
 try : and being able to make myself master «f the 
 rocks in that region, by having Mr. Haix, one of 
 the State Geologists, for a travelling companion, 
 gooner than I could otherwise have done, I pre- 
 pared surh a one, which has been copied, as you 
 now see it by Mr. Russel Smith of I'hikdelphuv- 
 who, though unacquaMited with the country, en- 
 tered so completely into the conception that he has 
 given an excellent representation of its prominent 
 geological features. 
 
 Three miles below the Fall is the Whirlpool ; 
 nnd just bdow that is a deep ravine, called the 
 Bloody Run, from an Indian tight which occurred 
 there ; there i« also another ravine some ten miles 
 below,of which I shall have occasion to speak. The 
 first feature which strikes you in this region is the 
 Kscarpment, or line of inland cliff, one of which 
 run. to a great distance East from Queenstown.- 
 Ou the Canadian side it has a bight of more than 
 300 feet. The other is found at the junction of 
 the Black Rock of Buffalo with tho shales-and 
 gypseous marls, as they are called. I shall not 
 stop to describe mineralogically these various 
 groups. They are sets of soft mails which contain 
 gypsum and so much salt that they arc often 
 called salifeious gypsums. 
 
 Tho first question that occurs when we consider 
 the nature of the country is, how the cliffs were 
 produced: why do we so suddenly step from this 
 range to the gypseous marls and then as sudc only 
 to the subjacent shale and sandstone. We have 
 similar lines of escarpment in all countries, espe- 
 cially where the rock is limestone ; md they are 
 considered to be ancient set cliffs which have 
 become more gentle in their slope .s the coun- 
 try has emerged from the ocean. If we exa- 
 mine what is now going on on the sea-side, and 
 reflect what would happen if the soa clilf. should 
 be raised up as the country around was gradually 
 
 the oca has evidently retired half a mile,) wo sec 
 
 tho edges of tho strata cropping out between high 
 
 and low water mark. Fifty years ago this cliff was 
 
 3000 feet high, as wo see from its present position. 
 
 I have myself seen frigates floating in places where 
 
 wo know historically that land existed but a few 
 
 years since. The waves have beaten against the 
 
 base of the rock, and brokpn off fragments which 
 
 have fallen down and been swej)! away by the tide 
 
 i.n the shape of mud and pebbl.M, until a whole yard 
 
 of the coast has given way in a single year. In the 
 
 rourse of time a considerable part of tho rock is 
 
 swept away. The shale and sandstone would thus 
 
 bo swept away, and the formation of the inland 
 
 cliffs would bo easily accounted for. 
 
 You may perhaps ask if tho Ontario may not 
 once have stood at a higher level and the cliffs 
 have been produced by its action instead of that 
 of the ocean. Some of you may have rode along 
 the Ridge-road— as it is called— that remarkable 
 bank of sand which exists parallel, or nearly eo, 
 to the present borders of Lake Ontario, at a con- 
 siderable hight above it. I pefectly agree with the 
 general opinion respecting this : that it was the 
 ancient boundary of Lake Ontario. In some part, 
 of it fresh water shells havo been found. You can- 
 not explain the escarpement by the aid of the action 
 of the lake, for it extends farther and not in tho 
 same direction. It may be traced to the Hudson 
 River and is not peculiar to any locality ; but may 
 be traced in all parts of the globe. When the 
 land emerged gradually from the sea, as it is now 
 doing, the sea would naturally create these sea- 
 cliffs" and during the upheaval they would of course 
 become inland. In Europe proofs that limestone 
 rocks have been washed away are abundant. In 
 Greece in the Morea this is especially conspicuous. 
 We have there three limestones one above the 
 other at various distances above the sea. Along 
 the line you may see literal caves— worn out by 
 the action of the waves. In many of them are 
 fra-ments of the limestone which have fallen down 
 and are perforated by the lithodomi, nnd yeu can 
 find among them shells of the Strombus, and va- 
 rious kinds of shells. The action of the salt spray 
 which has also effected a sort of chemical decom- 
 position, is also easily to be observed. So com- 
 pletely is this thecaso with each of these lines that 
 
 be raised up as the country arouna ..» ..a.u. , ^^ ^^^ ^„ .„3,,„, that here is a se 
 
 , ,c T » ,,„,, nro now familiar willi tins you cannoL uuuui, lui 
 
 raised (for I tru.t you are now tamu j .- i„„,, ....HiiVs: and this phenomenon bem, 
 
 notion of upheaval) you will readily see how these 
 oscarpments are formed. There arc similar ap- 
 ^_„.., „. Boulogne, in France, where we have 
 dtematr ods of limestone and clay, and between 
 the base of the cliff and the present sea sl.wre. (for 
 
 rios of inland sea-cliifs ; and this phenomenon being 
 so certain in the Morea leads us by analogy to infer 
 that these escarpements of the Niagara district were 
 produced by a similar cause. 
 
 Other proofs of this denudation exist in thesur- 
 
46 
 
 face of every country and especially in the coal 
 district of Knglund. Thoro in the coal field of 
 Ashl)y do la Zouch in Leicestershire y«tu soccoal- 
 bcdi pushed uft r)00 foot higher on one sido than 
 ihiiy uro on tho other — or tlu-ro has been a lotting 
 down of tlio other Bide. This is called by tho 
 miners n fault. You would expoct to find a corres- 
 ponding ineijualify in tl^e surface ; you would think 
 you ought to find a line of hills r>00 feet high; but 
 thoro i:i none. The whole mass hm been carried 
 away ami the surfaee is us smooth and unbroken 
 us in any other part of tho country. In this wav 
 wc can see that thousands of feet of earth nnist 
 have been removed for an extent of twenty or 
 thirty miles. When wc examine the subterranean 
 Blructure of the countiy we find proofs of such a 
 denudation ; and this it may be said has occurred 
 ill the Niagara District, either forcing up tho 
 clifl's or letting down tho lower country iKitwoen 
 
 hunter, wc shall think it surprising that we have 
 any observations at all, oven for such a period back. 
 We have an aceount of the Falls, given in 1675 by 
 Father IlENNKiMN,a French Missionury, who gives 
 nn exaggerated description of them, and yot »nc 
 which is tolerably correct. lie published with hiu 
 tmvels a plate rei)iv8entating the Fall ; but it 
 greatly exnggeratt.-d its liight compared with ltd 
 width. Ho describes Gout Island just as it is 
 found now. Mo estimates tho bight of tho Fulln 
 at doubh! what it actually is, which, after all, re- 
 moinbering that he did not measure them is not so 
 gross as might apj)ear ; and any one who has wit- 
 nessed them will readily cxctiso him for having 
 given way to a hlllo exaggeration in attempting to 
 describe the grandeur and magnificence of tho 
 scene, without the slightest intention to deceive. 
 As you will see by this copy of his picture ho 
 represents a cascailo as falling from tho Canada 
 
 the base of the escarpment and Lake Ontario. — ''ide across the other two. He says that between 
 
 But an examination of the country will satisfy jou 
 that the dill's could not havo been thus produced. 
 The rocks are continued on tho other side. There 
 are first the 1.50 feet of ;dial(!, then 25 feet of white 
 limestone and thi*n the grey and mottled lime- 
 stone, giving three great divisions and a great 
 number of subdivisions, in which the beds can be 
 traced and described by their orgiiuic remains. — 
 If these cHflswere produced by a fault, ag in Eng- 
 land the beds would notbc found upon the opposite 
 aide. 
 
 But without dwelling longer on this denudation, 
 I must pass to the more immediate subject of the 
 present lecture, t have endeavored to show that 
 thoso lines of escarpment were originally sea-clitl's, 
 formed when tho district was gradually emerging 
 from the ocean. It is not disputed that there is 
 some change going on at the Falls oven now. — 
 There occurs, as we know, occasionally a falling 
 down of fragments of rock, as may be seen in Goat 
 Island. Tho shale at tho bottom is; destroyed in 
 
 consequence of the action of tho spray and frost 
 
 the limestone being thus undermined falls down — 
 and it iias been believed that in this way there has 
 been a recession of fifty yards in about forty years ; 
 but this is now generally admitted to have been 
 overstated. There is at least a probable recession 
 of about one foot in a year ; though part of tlie 
 Fall may go back faster than tiiis, yet if you regard 
 tlie'whole rivereven this will probably be something 
 of an exaggeration. Our observations uponthispoint 
 arc necessarily imperfect • and when we rcflei^t th.it 
 fifty years ago tho countiy was perfectly wild and 
 inhabited by bear*, wolves, and here and there a 
 
 Lake Erie and Lake Ontario :lierc is a vast and 
 wonderful waterfall : after speaking of this he says 
 that there is a third cascade at the left of tho 
 other two, falling from West to East— the others 
 falling from South to North. He says in anothar 
 place, ' I wished a hundred times some one had 
 been with mo who could describe tho wonders of 
 this frightful fall.' He several times alludes to 
 the third cascade which he says was smaller than 
 the other two. Now those, who consider that be- 
 cause Father Hennepin gave the hight of tho 
 Falls at COO feet, small value is to bo attached to 
 his testimony respecting any part of the countr)-, 
 do him injustice. I think it perfectly evident that 
 there must have been such a third cascade, fallinjr 
 from West to East, as that to which ho alludes. 
 
 A Danish naturalist, in 1750, came to this coun- 
 try, and visited the Fall.i, of which he has also given 
 us a description, which was published in the Gen- 
 tleman's Maga7.ine in 1751. He also gives aview 
 of the Falls. In its general features his descrip- 
 tion agrees well with that of Father Hennepin.— 
 He went seventy-three years after him, and there 
 was then no third cascade. But the point 
 where Father H.had put this cascade helms mark- 
 ed and says Uiat ' that is tho place where tho 
 water was forced out of its direct course by 
 a prodigious rock which turned the water and 
 obliged it to fall across the falls,' He goes on 
 to say that only a few years before there had been 
 a downfall of that rock, which was undoubtedly part 
 of Table Rock — and after that the cascade ceased 
 to flow. Now, it does not appear whether ho had 
 ever seen Hennepin's account or notes. He 
 only mentions the fact that there bad been a 
 
 1 
 
i 
 
 47 
 
 tVih-a ca9ca.lo ; and it U a Btriking confirmntioii 
 of Iho g.nenil ftr.uriu-y of Father Hennepin's 
 do9criptio«. Wo (ind thcBO two observer*, at 
 an interval of w^venty yoars apart, rcmarli- 
 ing on the very kind of chauj, . which wc now 
 remark us liaviiig taken pluco within tho lai-t lifty 
 years; an underjiining of the rock, and a fulling 
 down of thrt linicslono, and a conseqnent oblitera- 
 tion of tlic fall. Everyone who has visited tho 
 Falls, on inquiring of the guides about tho changes 
 that have taken place, may have been told that tho 
 American Full has become more rcscent shaped 
 than it was thirty years ago, when it was nearly 
 straight. The centre has given way, and now 
 there is a* iiidenlaiion of nearly thirty feet. The 
 Horschoe Fall,iil^o,has been considerably altered. 
 It is not of so rcgul.ir a reacent shape as formerly, 
 but has a more ja;?ed outline— especially near 
 Ooat Island; itlwiless of tho Horseshoc-shape, 
 from which it derives its name, than when it was 
 given. 
 
 It is (^uite evident that things there ore not sta- 
 tionary, and tho great question is, whether by this 
 action tho whole fall has been produced in this 
 manner. I have visited this year the Falls of the 
 Goncsoe both at Porta go and Rochester, and ob- 
 tained many facts, especially at the upper fall, of 
 thisrecessionon a small scale. I made like ob- 
 servations at Lc Roy, at Jacock's Run near Gene- 
 960 and in other iilaces where it is impossible to go 
 far back ; for there time immemorial is oidy about 
 ten years. But the people there will tell you there 
 has been a change of a few feet or yards within this 
 time. Mr. Hall observed a recession of several 
 feet since ho surveyed the same district a few 
 years before. It is highly probable, therefore, 
 that there has been an action of this sort constantly 
 
 going on. 
 
 From representations made by other travellers 
 I was desirous of ascertaining whether fresh water 
 remains were found on Goat Island as had been 
 said: for it would be striking if on this Island 
 tliere should bo in a stratum of twenty -five feet of 
 sand and loam, pebbles and fresh water shells. 
 They were found there and I made a collection of 
 Several species of shells found on the Island; 
 among them were the Planorlis, a small Valvata 
 and several other kinds. They were of genera 
 found living either in tho rapids, is the river above 
 or in the Lake. 
 
 In diggiHg a mill-racfc there only a few years 
 eincc, thf^ro. were found a great number of shells, 
 and also the tooth ef a Mastodon, some twelve or 
 thirteen feet below the surface. It was th« com- 
 
 S 
 
 mon Ohio Mastodon, and must have been buric » 
 beneath thene twelve or thirteen feet of fresh water f 
 deposits— one luyer at u tiniP, each containing dif- ' 
 fcrunt shells. In answer to my question, whether 
 similar shells were over found lower dow«, the ^ 
 guide said ho would take me to a place half a mile 
 below, where the strata had been laid open. Wo 
 found there ileposited in iko roik a small quantity 
 of fresh water shells, showing that this old depo- 
 sition extended down t^) tliat distance. Hero we i 
 have proof that tho river once stood at a higher j 
 level and in a tranquil stale ; and there is every | 
 appearance of thu rock having been like a 9«lid j 
 barrier to hold the waters back in a lake-Hke 
 state, BO that they might throw down these fresh 
 water deposites at that hight. You will understand 
 this better if you consider that if the Falls go on 
 recttdiug, no matter at what rate— an inch, a foot, 
 a yard in a year— in tho course of time the whole 
 must recede considerably from its present condi- 
 tion. What proofs should wo have of this after- 
 wards ? You will easilv see that if tho river should 
 cut its way back to a certain point, the effect would 
 be to remove tho rocky barrier, tho limestone of 
 the rapids, which had been sufficient to pond the 
 ' river back. But if tho river cuts its way back, this 
 barrier could no longer exist; the channel would 
 be deepened, and the deposites existing high and 
 dry upon tho land would become proof of the re- 
 cession. This kind of proof wo have that the 
 Falls have receded three miles from the whirlpool, 
 the limestone having beoH higher at the whirlpool 
 than the river at the Falls. It may be well to say 
 that the beds all dip to tho south, at a rate of 
 about twenty-five feet in a mile. In seven miles 
 the dip causes a general rise of the platform to 
 the north, so that, when at the top of the cliff, you 
 are at a greater hight than the level of Laka Erie ; 
 and if tho Falls were formcriy at Lewiston, their 
 hight was probably nearly double what it now is. 
 Mr. HaT-L suggested that at that time the whole 
 fall was not at one place, and I think it (^uite 
 likely that that was tho case. There is reason to 
 believe that one fall was upon tho quartzose sand 
 below, and tho other on the Protean bed. The up- 
 per part would of course recede faster than the 
 lower, because it is softer, as is seen to be the c'\se 
 at Rochester; but the limestone becoming thicker 
 and harder would recede more slowly. There 
 may have been several falls, as at Rochester— each 
 one of them being less high than at present, and 
 yet the whole being nearly double its present hight. 
 I told you that the river fell about 100 feet be- 
 tween the base of the Falls and Lewiston— bo Umt 
 
 I 
 
 mm 
 
ih<! Iwd-i -.lojw at that ,ato. This sloi.o ..f 
 
 48 
 
 the 
 
 rivor and iluMi tlw upward aUtpo. of th.i i-liuConii 
 orp tlio masons why the fall* now aio of Iohs hight 
 than foimnrly. So when wo cany oiiim'Ivch huck 
 in imagination to tho time when th«! liver had not 
 receded so fur, wo liav.i a barrier of limo*tonc 
 much higlKT. Till, viill.«y in which ^]u^ river thou 
 flowed mu*t have been much narrower than its 
 prJHoni ravine. Tho distance now from the Can- 
 ii<la to tlie Americnu fide is about thrco-quartors 
 of a mile, whereu-i half a niiiu below it is only 
 Imlf that width. Farther investigations l.-y tra'- 
 <-ing tho fresh water depositcs lower will give 
 more precise Information. 
 
 You might suppose that, if wo find the remains 
 of a Mastodon in a fros}i water deposito so lately 
 laid dry as tliat near tho village of Niagara and 
 only twelve feet below tho surface, tho Mastodon 
 had livjd in the coimtry at a modern period: you 
 might think that perhaps a few centuries would 
 have been surticient for the accumulation of twelve 
 feet of shelly sandstone and limestone and that it 
 may have boon recently that this Mastodon was 
 buried when the barrier was at tho whirlpool be- 
 fore this twelve feet of /luviatilo strata wercdeposi ted. 
 Yet thosa strata are older than tho whirlpool. 
 
 Among the objections to the supposition that 
 the ravine was cut out by tho Niagara, ono is that 
 at the place called the Devil's Holo or (he Bloody 
 Run, the :avine must have been cut by some more 
 powerful cause than by a slight stream. But this 
 I regard as no objection at all ; fot' on examining 
 the nature of the soil, &c. I am convinced thai 
 even tho small stream which now flows would have 
 been perfectly competent to have cut out ilio ra- 
 vine, nnd that wo need look for no more powerful 
 cause. Suppose the Falls once to have been near 
 Lewiston it would recede diflferenily at different 
 times— faster when tho soft shales were at the 
 base; at other times slowly when the hard sand- 
 stone was to be cut through. First of all came the 
 quartzoso sandstoTiefor a certain distance; then 
 the Falls receded slowly, but more rapidly when it 
 come to the soft shales. Then comes the sand- 
 stone again at the base which now extends to the 
 whirlpool, and here the movement was slow. It 
 probably stood for a^es at the whirlpool. Then 
 for another period it receded more rapidly; and it 
 u piobuble that for the last mile its recession has 
 been comparatively slow, because the Protean 
 group and about twenty feet of sandstone, making 
 about fifty feef of hard rock at the base, were to 
 be cut through. It is certain that the movement 
 now is at a faster rate, as the shale is exposed. If 
 
 it nrrde« ono ftn.t in a year, then in about five 
 thousand years it would recede a mile; ond ns the 
 upward slope of tho bed of the river is about fifteen 
 feet in a mile, and at the bed's dip to tho south in 
 about twenty-live feet in a mile, we must have 
 about forty feet for tho Ions in bight of tho Fulls 
 by the receding of one mile. Another Tj.OOO years 
 would cause tho loss of another forty feet, anJ then 
 eighty feet woii'd liuvo disappeared nnd the cata- 
 ract would full over a solid mass of limestone only 
 eighty feet high. Thus, at tho end of 10,000 
 years, when the Fulls shall have receded two miles, 
 th. y would bo eighty feet high. Tho recession 
 then would bo extremely slow, as tho base would 
 bo of solid limestone. 
 
 But all these culculations would be easily vitia- 
 ted by disturbing causes. Thus by interfering 
 with the bor'.y of water above tho fall— by carrying 
 them oway, as is now done by tho Erie Canal 
 and tho Welland Canal in Canada we should have 
 a diderent state of affairs. All tho water taken 
 from the upper lakes, as by tlio Illinois canal, &c. 
 clients the Niagara of its waters and acts as a dis- 
 turbing force. Every mill race built above tho 
 falls has the samo effect : and though this may 
 seem to be a trifling matter, still in tho progress 
 of population and civilization such things may bo 
 frequeBtly perpetrated and thus, in the end have 
 a serious influence. 
 
 It has been estimated that about in, 000, 000 of 
 cubic feot fall over the cataract in every minute : 
 this was ascertained by an engineer under the di- 
 rection of Mr. RuoGLKS. By all the causes T have 
 mentioned, perhaps one four-hundredthpart of this 
 may be diverted into other directions; and this is 
 certainly un appreciable fiuantity, and might have 
 no inconsiderable efTect in tho progress of tho re- 
 cession. I only mention this as oneof tho disturb- 
 ing causes which may vitiate all the calculations 
 of which I spoke. The movement of the whole 
 country which I have before alluded to may be 
 another cause of disturbance. It is extremely 
 probable that during tho p?riod when tho Falls 
 were receding from the whirlpool there may have 
 
 been an upward, or downward, orperhaps an oscillat- 
 ing movement of the whole country. This would 
 leave whole cliffs exposed, as has been done in 
 (Jther localities in the St. Lawrence, of which you 
 have here a rei)resontation— where columns of lime- 
 stone are standing, perforated at different bights 
 by tho lithodomi. The samo motion may have ex- 
 tended to the great lakes and have affected tliis 
 whole section of country. You will see, there- 
 fore, what a variety of different causes wo have to 
 regard in making any estimate of tho former 
 state of this District. 
 
 I 
 
LECTURE VIII 
 
 f 
 
 T»IK HubjtTt i»f whirh I shall trriu to-nij^lit i« 
 what wo term llio liouhler Formation, or somii- 
 times tho Norfolk Drift. Tlio term l>ouliltjr is ap- 
 plied to any large maHs fouml rcatinjif upon thi' 
 B«pcrficial gravi'l brought from a distance. Hy 
 Bome, cliietty tlio writers of tlio luMt forty yciu:), 
 this formation is called diluvial ; because they be- 
 lieve that this ('U|icrtiiniil p;ravel, rind sand, and 
 mud, ill wliich are found thi'se rounded fragments 
 of rock, have been brouglit iliitlicr by a rush of 
 some mighty deluge, either ut one time or at dif- 
 ferent periodr*. But those who have thought lluit 
 they saw reason ta refer u large part of this to 
 other causes prefer tho term Drift — as not clioos- 
 i! to commit themselves to ony piirlictiiar liieory 
 c:ti,opt that w'.'ieh is certainly known to be true, 
 that those boulders have been drifted, by gome 
 means or other, to a considt^ruble distance from 
 Uie parent rocks, from which, as fiagmcnts, tliey 
 have been torn. You have so many examples in 
 this ccuniry, of these foreign rockri lieatterod 
 through beds of sund and mutl, that it u not iie- 
 ecssary for mo to enter iipon tho description of 
 any particular localities in Europe. If you j)asb 
 by tho great e:-i.cavulionii tluit liavo been made for 
 streets in Brooklyn, you m:iy iiee some fully or 
 fifty feet in thickness of what we call rubbish, an 
 unstratiilcd, confused mass of clay and sand, con- 
 taining fragments of rock of various kinds. This 
 nay bo seen near the Navy Yard, and in all parts 
 of the suburbs of the city. Tho same kind of for- 
 mation may be seen in various parts of the Noith 
 of Europe, as well as in different districts of this 
 Continent. In Europe, it is particularly notice- 
 able in the country bordering the Baltic, begin- 
 ningwith Finland, und through part i*f Russia and 
 Poland, to I'omcrania, Prussia, and Denmark, 
 through the lower part of SwcdvMi. The wliole 
 country consists of land at a moderate elevation, 
 covered, to depths that have never been pierced, 
 with tliis boulder formation, sometimes a thousand 
 feet thick, and often, indeed, still more. It con- 
 tains no strata; and you would becomo sensible, 
 after having made a geological survey, how very 
 rare arc unsiratiiicd rocks wtiich are n«t crystal- 
 line, like graidte. Sometimes wo find the boulder 
 formation, entirely unstratificd, passing into ano- 
 ther strata whicli is arranged in layers. The ab- 
 sence of fossils — of organic remains — is another 
 
 BOITLDRRS AND ICEBERO.S. 
 
 rbiracteriHtic wliich makas It difficult to decide 
 the nutiiie or origin of this formation ;— whether 
 it bo fresh-water, formed in lake*, or a murine fur- 
 
 nmiion, formed in the Hoa — is a matter of great 
 doulit from tho ubsenco of uU organic remains. 
 Sometimes, indeed, we have found shellu and 
 bones washed out of tho older rocks ; for, rolii- 
 tively speaking, this is a modern doposite — being 
 strewed over other strata containing fragments of 
 them all, and occasionally of their imbedded fos- 
 nili). Soiiiotimeiii, two, we find them alternately of 
 strutiliud and anstratified rocks. 
 
 Ill tiucing along this remarkable deposite 
 through the borders of tho Bullic, wo sometimes 
 find fnigmcHts of rock which must hove traveled 
 hundreds of miles frona their point of departure, 
 and, us a general thing, wo sliall find that thsy 
 grow larger in size us we approach tho region 
 fnjm wliich they vvero derived. This I foaud to 
 be the fact in going norlii from tho margin of tho 
 Rliiiio to Ilolstein, and Denmark, where I found 
 fragments of Scardinavian rocks, in Sweden nine 
 and sometimes forty feet in diameter; und at last 
 the wliole country was made up of these rocks. 
 Thus by tracing tho stream along, we shall find 
 that as it diminishes in size the stones continually 
 diminish in their individual dimensions This 
 may bo seen any where between tho Thames and 
 tlio Tine, and by following it out in any region you 
 will become convinced that there has been a gen- 
 eral drift from the north. You may travel for 
 eight or nine hundred miles over the plains of Rus- 
 sia, and you will find these Erratics, as they arc 
 called, associated to such an extent with the rocks 
 in tlie neighborhood, or immediately subjacent, 
 that they have acquired tho color and mineralogical 
 character of the rocks of each country. If, for 
 example, you trace the boulders to the red sand- 
 stone of New Jersey, you will find them red. Se 
 at Brooklyn, you will find that in great part thoy 
 are rod. Yet here in the red base you find scatter- 
 ed fragments of the trap of the Palisades, hugo 
 masses of granite from the Highlands, and somo 
 of tlio green serpentine of Ilisboken, all mixed 
 together, and yet the whole reddened by tho colors 
 and m irkcd by the character, of the adjoining 
 sands'one. So in Europe, the boulders are white 
 in th'j chalk cf Scandinavia ; black in the carbo- 
 nircious formation near Edinburgh, where the bitu- 
 
 ^SEffiSSsa** 
 
50 
 
 minotis ilmlo nf tlio coal formation nntor« largely 
 liiiii i! • ir comiiogitiori. Sometiinoit you Gnd them 
 entirely angular, at if ihry liud not NuiTorml any of 
 that nifeliaiiical rulihiiig nf^iiiuHt luljuining rocki^, 
 or ogaiii»l each other, which hux juMfnatly rounded 
 other iwdH-ies fijually large. Some of thouo ar« »o 
 largo that it is diilicult to imngino that any f<rrc of 
 water, which it tho ngont iisniilly ansigned, could 
 Iw suiricioHt to roll thuin over and over an h noceMsu- 
 ry. Tako *omo of th" gneiss for instance : tho edg- 
 es of sonio hugo masses havo heon cut oflT, so thut 
 tho wholo is us porl'tictly roundeil a;* any of tho 
 smallur ix-bbles. Uftentimes, too, thcso largo 
 bouldor.-t have been carried across seas — as from 
 th« Scandniuvian rocks to tho south side of tho 
 Ualtio. We have them too, perched upon the 
 Jura peaks, having evidoiiily been carried from the 
 higher Alps over a valley fifty miles wide, und 
 deposited upon fosslliferous limestone rocks, which 
 have nothing in common with tlioso uf the Alps. 
 This is tho kind of appearance which has so per- 
 plexed Geologists, and to explain which, bhull bo 
 one purpose of this evening's lecture. 
 
 I will lirsf , however, allude to ono other appear- 
 ance which distinguishes the boulder formation. — 
 When it rests upon hard rocks — rocUs which are 
 capable of taking and retaining a polish— rocks 
 which have not wasted away by disintegration — 
 wo find, upon removing the sand, &c. the solid 
 rock below sometimes polished so as almost to 
 answer the purpose of a looking-glass ; at otlier 
 times wo find it scratched and ridged with long 
 parallel stripes, perfectly straight for hundreds of 
 yards, and sometimes for a quarter of a mile, oc- 
 casionally deviating from being parallel to each 
 other, but still retaining the same general direc- 
 tion from north to south, or sometimes 20 or 25 
 degrees towards the east or west of that direction. 
 This is evidently a common characteristic of these 
 erratics ; and any thcojy advanced to explain 
 them must comprehend that appearance. 
 
 Another grand fact which is now established 
 respecting their gcegraphical distribution is, that 
 they arc found in the Northern Hemisphere, both in 
 Europe and this country, extending from the poles, 
 and they diminish in quantity as they approach 
 the warmr r and ctpiatorial regions, and at length 
 disappear whMi we come near the tropics. We 
 find them in Euroj)c from tho north of Sweden and 
 Norway to tho coast of England, in lutitudo 50°. 
 We find them hero still further south, but the 
 Loi;g Island deposite is one of the last grand de- 
 positcs, and that on the Susquehanna is, I be- 
 lieve, the most southerly ; and in travBling toward 
 
 (Jeorgin, or oven on tho .Famra river and the Pc 
 loninc, you will be struck with the absence of 
 thestt largo erratic fragments ■ It is tho somo in 
 I(ussii«, in traveling from north to south ; and it 
 is only when there is a chain of mountains like the 
 Alps, in latitude 1(j", that any exception is obser- 
 ved. Fnim these momitains, ns fr«ni tho Jnrn 
 rhuin, tlio.se iioulders seem to ladiate ns from a 
 O'ntre. You may soo them traveled to Lombar- 
 dy and toward the Italian sidi>. Even in tho 
 Grampian mountains ol Scotland, you may sco 
 them scattered over the hills on every side ; (o 
 also with tho small Cuiuberland chain. Thus, 
 mountain chains seem to have exerted tho same 
 kind of influencu as the poles ; for this general 
 theory is found to be true, not only of tho north 
 pole, but also of the south. When you pass from 
 thu southern part of the United States through 
 Mexico to Peru, at Quito you find no boulders, 
 exctfpt at the foot of somo mountain chain, where 
 we may easily suppose tho melted show and other 
 causus sulliciently obvious, account for their pre- 
 sence. Passing to Chili, it is not till you reach 
 latitude 41"? that you begin again to meet tlieeo 
 boulders, and then they continue to increase to 
 Terra del Fuego, where they are as magnificent in 
 their developement as ia Now England or in Swe- 
 den. 
 
 Another very remarkable appearance in regard 
 to tho stratification of this formation, is the con- 
 tortion and disturbance of some of the beds. In 
 parts of the strata in Scotland, for example, you 
 find masses of tho unstratified boulder with peb- 
 bles below of various kinds, as fragments of gra- 
 nite, gneiss, (.Sec , in which parts shall be twisted 
 so that a vortical section would pass through the 
 same bed three time?. You find alternate layers, 
 first pebbles of a particular kind and color ; then 
 sand, the* loam, and then gravel — all loose, but 
 so that you may trace the same bed for several 
 yards, one layer being deposited above another in 
 a nearly horizontal position ; and we find them 
 semctime? folded together — bent back upon them- 
 selves. This appearance was of r most perplex 
 ingUind, and evidently implied a lateral thrust by 
 which the pliant beds were brought into the folded 
 position, though those below had suffered no dis- 
 turbaHce. 
 
 In 8.!mo cases wo have a mass of chalk resting 
 on another bed, in which one has been pushed out 
 of its original position, and the gravel and sand 
 fisldesl ;iroi!nil it lii other cases, as in part of the 
 northern coast of l^ngland, for twenty miles this 
 unstratified till, as it is locally called in Scotland, 
 
 i« eoTar«d with 
 
 are curved strul 
 
 tho beds in a ci 
 
 and the hori/on 
 
 turl)ed ; so thut 
 
 which has caus 
 
 subsidence, whi( 
 
 by Tulcanic act 
 
 chains, i&c. T 
 
 causo in that cii 
 
 disturbed as m 
 
 •uon in tho scci 
 
 tlie contortions 
 
 on the Norfolk 
 
 the same genci 
 
 As to the as; 
 
 both here and i 
 
 tho most mode 
 
 tunity in Swed 
 
 the erratics an 
 
 teen feet in diu 
 
 thea came a 
 
 fnensc number 
 
 which the blui 
 
 muscle is now 
 
 is found at Up 
 
 Several other i 
 
 Baltic. The w 
 
 fourth part as 
 
 and tho shells 
 
 not of dilTeren 
 
 are yet of a dv 
 
 from those th 
 
 found freshwa 
 
 down by river 
 
 modern is th 
 
 blocks; for no 
 
 when those sp 
 
 now live, bu 
 
 titosu peculii 
 
 have modifie 
 
 I do not sa; 
 
 for some of tl 
 
 tinct, or at an 
 
 region. In 1 
 
 camo across 
 
 blago of shell 
 
 ago; and Dr. 
 
 that there w 
 
 from tho Ba 
 
 liar to the Si 
 
 chiefly found 
 
 (he Pole, as 
 
 F 
 
 •■'-"■■"-i fii r '- —-*^ ■— — --- -.««„.j^. 
 
51 
 
 f 
 
 U coTorwd with a layor of horizontal loaia in which 
 
 (iro curved strulii. Thi« foliliiig nml Iwiuling of 
 
 thi) hinln ill a circio nometitiioM, hus hucii i-iTfclcd, 
 
 ami tho hori/oiitnl hiyori* below aro not ni all ilin- 
 
 turl>«d ; »o tliut it raiinol be a motion from below 
 
 which hiw cftusiil it — u (iiibtorranoun miliouviil or 
 
 lubuidonci', which I Imvo bfforo ^ixplaintid, cau^i'd 
 
 by Tolcanic action, by which wo explain mnuntuin 
 
 chaing, (&<•. Thin cannot I o introducoil hen", br- 
 
 cauBo in ihiit cimo tlio liJwtr bcdn would huvo bcon 
 
 dirtturbud an much un tho higher. Tliit* mny bo 
 
 •eon in tho section laid open in Urookljn ; none of 
 
 tho contorlioiiH theie have been ho violent aa some 
 
 on the Norfolk const of Kii(,'liui(l und Scotlmid ; but 
 
 tho Humo general difiturbuncc may bo obsorved. 
 Aa to the asjo of these boulders, you find them 
 
 both hero iitid in Kurope, standing over rockd nil of 
 
 the most modern tertiary strata. 1 hail on oppor- 
 tunity in Sweden of hhowing how modern itomo of 
 
 iho erratics urn, by findint; fragmants of gneistij gix.- 
 
 teen fuet in diameter, rcHt'ng upou a layer of sand ; 
 
 then camo a bod of blue marl, containing an im- 
 monse number of shells of the eatable musdo, from «"<! to ^'T'^"' how they are «o often found con- 
 torted and disturbed wliilc the strata they ovcrlw 
 are still horizontal. 
 
 colder and tho hoiildnrx hud been dr«ppfid down 
 by icelieig-* ; for Capt. lUYttiCt.i) frequently iaw 
 immense rocks carried by icdnigs and lot down 
 deposited » ith strata containing sbelb the same as 
 those I spoke of in treating of the Niu'^iira dis- 
 trict. Tlina we arrive at the conclusion that thii 
 boulder formation i* one of tho most modem do" 
 posites geologictdly considered — sometime* ex. 
 tremely lnlld•^rn, and in other points ascending a 
 little hijjher, jiisl fo the perii»<l when the »amc 
 shells existed, nearly all of them belonging to \W' 
 jn^- species: the newer I'lincene period (i* I have 
 before designated th« era — when perliaps 00 out 
 of tho hundred shells found are nf living specie*. 
 Diwu to tho latter j)art of this newer riiocono pc" 
 riod it appears that these erratics extend. We 
 have to account then for this formnioii beinff of 
 guch vast thickness and unstratitii d ; for rocks 
 having boon transferred hundreds of miles over 
 lakes and valleys ; for their Iwinj nearly non-fo«- 
 siliferous; for their being found chiefly in tho Arc- 
 tic and Antarctic regions or near mountain chains ; 
 
 which the blue color of tho marl is derived. That 
 muMclo is now a living species in tho Daltic, and 
 is found at Upsala, near the ancient University. — 
 Several other shells are also found peculiar to tho 
 Baltic. The water of the U.Ulic contains only onc- 
 fotirth part as much salt as tho water of the ocean ; 
 and tho shells found in its brackish waters, though 
 not of dilTercnt species from those of tho ocean, 
 are yet of a dwarllsli form, and of a ditferent shape 
 from thosu that live in the sea. There are also 
 found freshwater shells, wliich huvo been brought 
 down by rivers. We may ol)scrve, then, how very 
 modern is the transportation of some of these 
 blocks; for not only do wo trace them to the times 
 when those species existed tho same at those which 
 now live, but when they lived placed under 
 tlioso peculiar geographical relations which 
 have modified tho character of tho waters. — 
 I do not say that they are all as modern as that, 
 for some of them contain shells that are partly ex- 
 tinct, or at any rate which do not live in the same 
 region. In tho St. Lawrence Capt. Bayfield 
 camo across boulders containing u smiiU assem- 
 blage of shells which he sent to me many years 
 ago; and Dr. Bkck, a Danish Geolo/^ist, observed 
 that there were fauna more ancient than those 
 from tho Baltic, which I received at tho same 
 time. Thsre wits Ji small number of species 'lecu- 
 liar to tho Southern regions, and the same as are 
 chiefly found in Greenland and other districts near 
 the Pole, as if tho country had formerly boon 
 
 In tho hope to explain tho greater part of thes* 
 
 pheaomena, I propose first to treat of Glaeier», 
 
 and then of Icebergs. You arc aware that in lofty 
 
 mountains, especially in the hisli latitudes, the 
 
 snow never disappears during the whole year.— 
 
 There is constantly fulling snow which the summer 
 
 heat is never sufReicnttomelt; and in Switzerland 
 
 where the Alps are three miles i-i lii^'lit above the 
 
 level of tho sea, although in latitude -Ki", their 
 
 peaks arc covered with perpetual snow; which 
 
 comes down and fills tho valley for ten or fifteen 
 
 miles: then thi-; ice bi'comes consolidated, being 
 
 melted during the day and frozen in the night — so 
 
 that it is puslieddown towards the valley to a point 
 
 3000 feet above the level, where the heal becomog 
 
 so great as to arrest its progress, and it melts, 
 
 and gives rise oftentimes to a considerable stream 
 
 of water. The cause of tho motion of these gla- 
 
 ciurs has been a matter of considerable controversy. 
 
 Gravity is admitted on all hands to be one consid- 
 
 erablo cause. It is suggested by Sau.ssurk, and 
 
 by the earlier writers is believed to be the principal 
 
 cause; but this is denied by M. Aoassiz in tha 
 
 history of his lato exploration of the Alps.— 
 
 That this snow, if it goes on accuumlating upon 
 
 the mountains which are so steep, will by its own 
 
 gravity fall down, is unquestionable. You see this 
 
 to bo tho case in avalanches, as tliey called— sliding 
 
 own of lorge masses of snow in warm weather, 
 
 I 
 
 1 
 
 t 
 
 • 
 
 )- 
 d 
 
 a 
 
 ■'t 
 
 '0 
 
52 
 
 which continues until the valley is choked by this 
 dosccnding mass, which cnishes the trees und veg- 
 etation that lie in its path. These become of such 
 enormous n'ue that they are gometimes 100 or 200 
 feet thick, and in puriicular places 500 or COO, 
 though it is supposed now that 1*20 or 130 1 ctex- 
 orossea their average depth. In Switzerland, 
 where the glaciers of the Arve, tho Luuter Arve, 
 and tho Shrecken mtet, the former being merged 
 in tho other; along the middle is a remarkable ridge 
 of rocks — many (jf them angular and some rounded. 
 Now tho lirst (juestion is, how "amc these blocks 
 in the middle of the valley where it is two or three 
 miles wide. The glaciers descend from the region 
 of perpetual snow ts a bight of, say 8000 feet above 
 the level of the sea. How cumc all these rocks in 
 the middle? You might imagine that from tho 
 steep sides there would be trafjnients detached. — 
 Avalanches might cause this, or frost penetrating 
 tlio rents and f-eezh.g the water, would oc- 
 casionally force them out and cause the rocks to 
 descend. Sometimes lightning strikes tho Alpine 
 peaks, and shivers olf large mai>ses of rocks which 
 descend. So that we should not be puzzled to find 
 along the base of lofty cliffs tv.o, three or four thou- 
 sand feet high, these fragments of rock. This 
 would bo perfectly intelligible. But hou- should 
 they get into the middlu of thti valky, and why 
 are there five distinct parallel ridges of these 
 stones ? Saussork was at fn-st completely ballled 
 in accounting for this. But having once found 
 tho explanation, it was so easy that it became sur- 
 prising how it could have been missed. 
 
 Prof. Agassiz found in exploring the higher 
 regions that this w-as a ncccsnary consequence of 
 the junction of the two glaciers. It is easy to see 
 why these lateral morainea, as they are called, 
 should exist — the rocky fragments being deposited 
 along these glaciers by their rubbing against the 
 sides of tho mountains. But suppose one of these 
 immense masses of ice to be descending the valley 
 of the Arve ; and here conies u tributary to join it 
 from tho Lauter Arve — the rocks instead of being 
 deposited in lateral moraines by rubbing against 
 the mountain sides will be brought into the mid- 
 dle of these two united frozen rivers, thus forming 
 Q central or medial moraine. Now as the glacier 
 moves along, (and in a hot day you may set3 the 
 motion daily — although an inch, or perhaps half an 
 inch an hour would be a rapid movement,) — you 
 may see sometimes fragments falling down — rub- 
 bing one against the other, and great rents often 
 traverse the ice with a noise like thunder. By this 
 nibbing against the sides of the mountain the rocks 
 
 become rounded. Many of iho fragments fall 
 through the fissures to the bottom, and some are 
 caught in the middle — the fissure penetrating only 
 twenty or thirty feet. Sometimes, however, thny 
 fall to the bottom, and then the ice resting upon 
 them grinds them along the rock, which Ixicomes 
 p(dished — those ar, least capable of receiving a pol- 
 ish — and scratched und furrowed as we afterw-ard 
 find it. All this may bo seen by the occasional 
 melting back of tho i,dacier. So at the termination 
 of the glacier it preseiits a beautiful green arched 
 cavern, out of w liich a tonenl of water rushes down 
 the valley. Frequently the glacier melts back from 
 tho extremity, and thus gives an op[)ortunity to seo 
 what has taken pkice under it, and you will find tho 
 battom oftentimes most beautifully polished. In 
 some of the boulders you will find quartz pebbles, 
 and these have scratched and made furrows upon 
 tho limestone and other rock along which they 
 have moved — just ns a diamond scratches glass. — 
 In other places you will find still deeper furrows 
 xearly parallel to each other. You will also sec — 
 as I have had occasion to refer to the prodigious 
 power of these ice masses — rocks that have been 
 ground down to tho finest impalpablepowder; and 
 nothing can exceed the fineness of this mud whicFi 
 is formed from the powder thus produced by these 
 masses of ice one or two hundred feet thick, equal 
 in weight to five and twenty or even fifty feet of 
 solid rock. 
 
 The downward motion of tho glaciers is partly 
 due to gravity. But Prof. Agassiz says that still 
 more is due to the alternate melting and freezing 
 of the water. The ice is in fact a great spongo 
 and not only may you see water in the day time 
 held up in the clefts — as many of you who have 
 traveled in Switzerland can testify — but the whole 
 surface is a spongy mass which imbibes the water 
 during the day, which every night is frozen by tho 
 same frosts, and '.hus occurs a universal dilatation 
 of the whole mass ; the water in all the rents free- 
 zing causes an expansion, and as this cannot push 
 aside the mountains on the flanks, the only vent 
 for the force is downward— in which direction it 
 has the edect to force the huge mass down at the 
 rate of one, two, tl.reo or four inches an hour, ac- 
 cording to the heat of the smnnier aiid the amount 
 of alternate melting and freezing that goes on, and 
 also according to the farther distance which the 
 glaciers have reached. I may mention that every 
 one of the moraines between the central one and 
 the sides is piroduced just like the large one — by 
 tiie junction of the Iribuluries whicli como one af- 
 cr another down for many miles. Thus the dif- 
 
53 
 
 1. c V, l^pn some time a^o. There are fonao remarkable ob 
 fent moraines maybe traced-onc to the SchrrcKc^ ..^n.crning it, which show the rate of 
 
 ana ethers to various tributar.eB -^-^J;^' 'S; ;. ^„,„„ ;„ a.c.e glaciers. It vasbuilt in 1«27. on 
 
 „p. Tho«e at the si.lcs move fast, r ban he c n^ ^^^^^^ ^,,j^^^ ^^^^^^.^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^ 
 
 ,1 „,,._,...a..c the reflection ot U.e h aOu^^ ^ J- ^ ^^^^ . ^ ^^^,,^ ,^^ ^,^^,,, ,,^^ ^,„ 
 
 ,,0 bound..,- ro.k. i. in acbbuon o he d . c a. J^^ ^^^^^ ^^ .^^_^^_^ ^^. ^^^ ^^^^^^^^.^^ ^.^_ 
 ,,eat of .he Sun, causing the .ce o ^l^^^VZ^^, ' ^^s^..^ , 2100 i^.U He .ent again four 
 
 Ca.ter: and tlu-. the ice is drawn from ^^^^^^ "J^,^ ,^f,,,/,,a .-...hI a.at it had gone down at 
 
 ,,, ,, „„ side, ana tl,e moran.e. -com n. e -^.r ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^ 
 
 ,.,a more scattered. At la.t we '^^';:^ ^ V^^ ,,, ^,, a.irieen yoor., it was found that u 
 ,.eat lateral moraine ^^^ ^^'^ ':;''^^^;\t^l^... down .t the rate of eight inches in 
 Ld when we behold the ^^^ " ;;• ^^ ^^ . '^^.(^^ hour. In .he first part of the di. 
 „.i„ation we .hall f'"'! '^^^ '"''^^";.^? l.tJ','^ eight, and in the second sixteen; 
 
 ments at all. There wa. some ^ifhc ulty m a ^^^^ ^^^^.^ ,^ ._^ ^^^^ ^^^^^^^ I„ 
 
 countingi^rthi. bccau.e.twassupp^ at a.^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^ 
 
 fragments had >^-" ^^'^V IbeauUfullv free again, a, ProlV.sor Ag..s.. remarked, that bo 
 
 ,vby should the extremuy be so --^^-^ 1 =^^;„„ ,,,3 ,uiefiy owing to dllatation-to tin. 
 
 from thorn ? The answer is .Ins . that wh ^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^.^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^^.^^ r^^.^ .^ ,,,,^,„ly 
 
 block falls into a fissure it works its way up n ^ ,,,, ;„ favor of that theory, that .t 
 
 b, .ising -X;;:tr;:::^"a :^:is:;he i;chieny durmg this eong^.ion and melting that 
 
 glacier goes dosvn, it contm mi motion is observed, 
 
 s'urface-the upper surface melung away and the^^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^.^^^^ ^^.^^^^ ^^^, ^^ 
 
 the block which had dropped down ^o * ^^^^ ^^^^ ,,,, .jvance than at other., as between the 
 
 distance must continually get "^,^'^<^'^;^^° ^^;„^^^^^^ and again m the 
 There too this block l-'-^y]'; jj ^ 1,, Leventeenth and eighteenth a general motion for- 
 
 rays of the Sun, and you see the mass belo^ ^^^ retrocession and 
 
 m Ited. If the pebble bo small it soon becomes wa d cu ..^. J^^^^^^^^^.^^, ^,,„„mcna 
 
 beated through, and thus forms a pool or hollo.. d n ^^ ^^_^^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^^^ . 
 
 Thus if the rock be small, we s a U.v. a hollo. , ho^^ ^^^ ^^ J^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^.^,,^^^^ ^^.,,, „,,, 
 
 if large, the opposite-or the rock w ^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^ .^ ^^^ ^^^.,^„^,. 
 
 ed up on a pedestal. The wind also is one cau ^^^ ^^^_^_ ^ ^^^^.^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^ j^^.^,^^^ ^^ ^b, 
 
 of evaporation. The ice --;«^ J^"^. \;^4'_ Alps in Switzerland, we have glaciers descondmg 
 pbor, without passing through the Iquu f im. 1 ^^^ ^^^ _ ^^^ ^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ ,^^,,„j ,1 
 
 The general waste of superficial ice tends to bring ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^.^ ^,,„^ ^,,1,0 ^ 
 up die fallen mas. toward the surface. ^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ ^000 f,,, bigh-balf the bight 
 
 ^ '- .,» ^.«. difficulty in ^^^^^^^,p^i„ti.,,^nie latitude. The reason of 
 
 this singular phenomenon is that to which I have 
 
 1 __*_!,. !««.-, ni-ifonctn in 
 
 f 
 
 \ have said that there was great difficulty in 
 
 ,oei.. bow such large fragments could be so per- 
 
 ecUy rounded. Sometimes we have masses per- 
 
 Boeiig now bui... ."-b" - ° ,„„. npr- this singular p"»--i»""^""" 
 
 fecUy rounded. Sometimes we ^'^ve rna^se per __^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^, ^eat is less intense .n 
 
 .eet/y angular-twenty f^t m - -c to and ^^^ ^^^^_ In Europe we have to go to atitude 6,0 
 
 twelve or fifteen in the other. There is one w 11 
 llwn to travelers, in the central moraine of the 
 glacier of the Arve. It was here that a hut was 
 built in which a family lived in the summer. The 
 
 the Alps. In Europe we have to go to latitude 67 
 before we find a single glacier reaching the sea - 
 But in the Southrn Hemisphere, in latitude 4G - 
 in Chili-we find this occurring twenty-one degree. 
 
 built in which a family lived in the summer. The ^^^^ . ^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^,^^ ,^ ^ ,„ tual 
 
 rocks arc rounded here, as is^ said by Bornc r,o by ^^^^^^_^^ ^^ .^^^^^^_^^ .^ ^ ^.^.^^.^^ ^^.^^^^^ ^^ ^,,„ 
 
 Ks are rouinn.<j n^. -. — , n 
 
 tbo action of the ice, bnt of the river that fiows 
 be.ieath the ice. But Professor Agass.z says 
 th,;: as a proof that it is the ice, and not the river, 
 
 to which the rounding of the rocks is attnoutable 
 you may go up to points above where any .tream 
 
 ^ ■'..., _..:n C,„A fVint thft 1110- 
 
 veneration of icebergs in a region which is almost 
 the limit to which the floating icebergs reach. 
 That alternate period of advance and retrocession 
 among the Swiss glaciers is one of the most re 
 remarkable facts, and explains many geological 
 
 you may go up to pou.t, ■■- - - , , !„ observing the terminal moraine. 
 
 Lmmences, and still you will fi«d that ^^^ '"^^^^ ^^^^^^^^ ..e^often find a huge mas. 
 
 tion of the ice above has rounded masses ot al J ^'^^ end of one summer. Then when tko 
 sizes. This is found s« far above __the bne^of left at_ the end^^ ^^^^ _^ ^^^^^^^ 
 
 sized. xuin '" .w.™ --. -- J I 
 
 perpetual snow that it cannot bo attributed to the 
 fu-tion of running Nyater. 
 
 glacier advances again it pushe. forward the mo- 
 raine of the last year into that of the year before, 
 "* .... 1 -_ ,r,i;i wo have 
 
 ' raine ot iiio mtsi j<-"> -- - 
 
 tion of running Nyater. , ^ j j guj eo ou until we Have 
 
 I mentioned a hut, built by Professor Hu«., I and that into the third. 
 
^^»»^'----^'ffl 
 
 54 
 
 four er five together, forming a hugo mountriin. — 
 You may seo many of these ancisnt moraines cov- 
 ered with bousos, and lofty trees, and various kinds 
 i>rherbap'; and as I witnessed in 1030, whiMi tho 
 gla<.-.ier wa^ advan'-ing, if it approach thi^ ancient 
 moraine it di'stmys the forests upon it, forcin,^ in 
 de walb of tho hoUiioa and crusliing them by a 
 H ,sb)W and almrsl impercoptible, but, >it ibc aamo 
 time irresistibU^ power; and after ircadiBg down 
 •,hr:,o lofty trees for a serli-s of year?, it will u^nin 
 retreat; and then the wood wid grow asaiii, the 
 inhabitants ngiin buihl their hou.scs, and forgot the 
 disaster which once rendered tliem desolate. So 
 that the trees show by tlicir ago how it has been 
 »inco the ice visited that part ef the conntry. 
 
 These phenomena have been well described by 
 M. Chaiu'ENTier, who remarked that we al- 
 ways hare an uoFtratified mass of large boul- 
 ders in the same district, the angular and rounded 
 being mingled together. This shows that they 
 cannot be attributed to any action of water, for 
 water exerts an assorting power carrying the finer 
 materials farther than the coarser, and would carry 
 tho small stones to farther points than the large 
 ones. Each different size would, supposing the 
 whole to be attributed to the action of water, be 
 
 40° in Chili. Scorksby tells us that he met in 
 lat. 69° an iceborgjn the Atlantic with 100,000 tons 
 of rock upon it. But in 1839 there was met in 
 the South Atlantic an iceberg 1,300 miles from any 
 known land, from which projected a block twelve 
 feet thick: how much rock was buriod beneath 
 tho surface wa?i not knew n. I do not say that thi3 
 was 1,300 miles from any land — but only from any 
 known land. Now as this was floating at a con- 
 siderable rati! from South t» North— as it melted 
 tlie rock wnuld fall to the bottom of the sea, and if 
 the 'jcd should be raised pomo day, wo should 
 have boulders at an immense distance from their 
 starting point. The shores of the Antarctic re- 
 gions are thus covered with coast ice a mile or 
 two in thickness — stranded ice containing great 
 quantities of rocks. Thus as the glaciers descend 
 to the sea, they float off, the rocks fall to the bot- 
 tom, and the floor of the ocean is thus strewed 
 over with them, and if the ice melt in still water 
 tho formation would be unstratified, because all 
 the rocks fall perpendicularly through the water. 
 But if there were a current, then an assorting 
 power would be exercised, and we should have 
 regular strata. 
 
 I now come to a remarkable feature to which I 
 
 them all indifferently to the same place, and we 
 should find them unstratified — a promiscuous, con- 
 fused mass, and that is the character of all the 
 moraine!!. Now we are not to jump to the con- 
 clusien that rdl the boulders of Long'Island are 
 attributable to glaciers. I believe that they are 
 not, but still to tlio action of ice. The pebbles 
 fsund at North Haven and along the Connecticut 
 valley, in the boulder formation are rounded on 
 three sides but flat on the other — resting on pol- 
 ished rock ; and all the furrows are parallel over 
 a large exteiit of counti-y. This parallelism does 
 not bespeak the action of water; for in that case 
 there would be none of the scooping out that we 
 sec in tho action of gl;n;i,-,rs; tin; motion would 
 not be always in the same direction; but if the 
 fragment of a lock becomes frozen in, it is kept in 
 one position, and wo should have therefore straight 
 parallel grooves. 
 
 But not to <Uv(;ll longer on the action of mere 
 glaciers, let us pass to llic consideration of ice- 
 b4irg8. We know that icebergs carry fragments of 
 ro<-.k in the same way as glaciers ; that is, frag- 
 ments of rock rest on glacitrs when they come to 
 the sea, and are then conveyed away by the float" 
 ing iceberg, as well as by tho moving glacier on 
 land. This has been observed even in latitude 
 
 arranged in different layers. But :ce would carry j »""«' *""J«' ^^ I «P"^° "f it at tho beginning of 
 
 my lecture, but of which I can only speak briefly. 
 I mean the appearance of Alpine rocks on tho 
 peaks of the Jura. The western valley is com- 
 posed of talcose granite and gneiss. Then going 
 farther East we come to the Bcnicso Alpj, where 
 the mountains arc composed of crystaline lime- 
 stone, gneiss and other rocks, frequently of highly 
 crystaline marble, fragments of gneiss, &c. Next 
 aro the Al^.o of the smaller cantons, Glaiis, 
 Schwytz, Uri, Zug, &ic. Now the phenomenon 
 alluded to is this. Wo have tho groat valley of 
 Switzerland between tbe Jura and the Alps. The 
 Alps are from 10,0(')0 to 15,000 feet high, and the 
 Jura only one-third as high. Nmv we ha^o tho 
 same blocivs in the plain below, in Lake Geneva 
 and others, perched upon the Jura Mountains, at 
 all bights and ofall sizes — one in particidiir, cele- 
 brated under tho name of Pierre a Bot, near 
 Neufchatel, no less than forty feet in diameter, 
 composed of gneiss from the Alps. The whole 
 chain of the Jura is composed of fossiliferous 
 limestone, entirely different from the Alpine rocks ; 
 so that we have no other rnscnt tlian to suppose 
 that tnesc rocks must have originated in tho Alps. 
 All agree that those on thecjntral part of tho Jura 
 camo from tho Ikrncso Ovorland ; then, again, 
 the block of slate of the Glaris regi»n sent over its 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
55 
 
 i 
 
 erratics to tho Eastern Jura, near BMle,&nd those 
 on the Western Jura have como from the region 
 of Mont Blanc and tho Val&is. 
 
 Saussurk, Van Buch and other writers sup- 
 posed that those phenomera were produced by 
 some gra!id ru^h of waters in consequence of tho 
 rise of tho Alps from the ocean ; a most violent 
 hypothesis contrary to facts now known. If wo 
 suppose that this wis the ca\ise of those rocks 
 being carried across this great valley, how is it 
 that they did not all fall down into the valley? — 
 How is it possible that they should be whirled 
 dometimes for several thousand feet ? This has 
 never been explained to the satisfaction of any 
 on? ; though to be sure this is rather more satis- 
 factory tlian no hypothesis. But the remarkable fact 
 is that wo have on parts of the Jura fragments »f 
 rock such as \\ c must suppose glaciers must have 
 carried straight across tho valley fifty miles wide ; 
 so that the western stream seems to have followed 
 the course of the Rhone, tho Central that of the 
 Arve and the eastern that of the Reuss and the 
 Limmat. But to suppose all this is in defianca of 
 all analogy of the motion of glaciers; for we must 
 r.^member that they could have an inclination from 
 on<j bank to the other of only two degrees ; so 
 that W6 should have them moving along a dead 
 flat, which is contrary to all the laws of glaciers, 
 that thoy should walk across this level and lodge 
 these blocks upon tho Jura peaks. I should rath- 
 er believe this however than that they arc owing 
 to a diluvial rush, which is "^utterly inconsistent 
 with all the laws of tho transportation of matter. 
 There is another i^pothesis suggested by tho 
 occurrence of glaciers in Chili in the same lati- 
 tude as the Swiss Alps. We may suppose from 
 geological changes, known to be going on in the 
 upheaval of the land, &c., that the Alps were 
 less lofty than they now are, during the boulder for- 
 mation, and tho Jura also. The sea may then 
 have covered the bottom of that deep valley and 
 the Alps — at one half their present hight — would 
 have stood as high as tho Chilian Andes. Sup- 
 pose they sent down glaciers to the sea, as we 
 know they do in South 'tmcrica, where Sir 
 Georgk Ayues has seen them with blocks of 
 syenite and granite. These might be stranded in 
 the great valley, which, in that case, would repre- 
 sent the channel that new separates the island of 
 Chilmi from the main land. The island of Chiloe 
 is about 100 milo'j long, and may well represent 
 tlie Jura Chain. Tho Andes represent the Alps, 
 fmtf the channel tho intervening valley. The .\lps 
 ut half their presonl hight, would be sulTicicat to 
 give rise to glaciers, which, descending to the 
 
 sea, would become icebergs and float blocks aeresi 
 tho channel. In point ot fact there are fo«nd oa 
 the island of Chiloa blocks of syenite in one part 
 and of granite in another, which might have been 
 carried from different points of the sides opposite- 
 Now if an i»i)hcaval woro to take place en tho 
 Chili Coast, which should lift up tho Andes — dry 
 up tho intervening channel — and lift up Chiloe so 
 that it would appear to be a chain of mountains 
 we should have the same puzzling appearance to 
 future geologists. It would be wondered how 
 these blocks of granite and syenite could have 
 crossed the valley from the Andes and perch d 
 themselves on the Chilian Mountains. This hy- 
 pothesis is infinitely more satisfactory than the one 
 which attributes tho phenomena to the extension 
 of glaciers from tho Alps to the Jura, or te the 
 diluvial rush of Saussure. There have beenfound 
 also moraines on the Jura which have polished 
 and scratched the surface — implying that formerly 
 there were glaciers hero also. This may have 
 happened when the climate more resembled that 
 of Chili. 
 
 I will now state one more fact of some interest 
 hsre. I observe tliat Mr. Mather, the State Ge- 
 ologist, to whom was committed tho investigation 
 of this part of the country, says that on tho East- 
 ern extremity of Long Island are blocks that have 
 come from the neighborhood of the Palisades or 
 from dift'erent parts of the Highlands. Traveling 
 farther on he saw another group which came from 
 the Connecticut region opposite ; then to trap, por- 
 phoi7 and other rocks from New Haven. Still 
 farther were Rhode Island rocks and se in differ- 
 ent parts were groups correspondiHg with strata 
 opposite. In these cases we have not to call in 
 the action of glaciers nor of icebergs to explain 
 this. It may have been caused by the action of 
 coast ice. Ice might float thither carrying these 
 blocks and being stranded lodge its load ; then tbo 
 next year might come a little more. Capt. Bat- 
 field after fixing the position of one block found 
 li carried away several yards. The experience of 
 Dease and Simpson shows the immense power 
 of these icebergs. The Utica, too, which has just 
 arrived talks of icebergs in this latitude, 400 feet 
 high above the water and as there are eight cubic 
 feet below for one above tho surface, we may judge 
 of the enormous sizo of these icebergs which were 
 several miles in circumference. 1 hey grate aleng 
 the bottom of the ocean, ploughing up mud and 
 sand, witliaforce sufliciont easily to move a building 
 like this, or even the whole city of New-York be- 
 fore them: This is the kind of action that pro- 
 duced tho»o contortions of which I^faave speken. 
 
-.^j^ti^li^ ^^:-\p^-jyj-^^, ^ 
 
 56 
 
 tb« tq. «rf * «nd-bftnk in the bottom of th^ nea 
 hat been oxponcd to • violent thruM of thin kind 
 and while the strata below remained horizontal, 
 those above would bfl forced back and folded (.ver 
 upon thcmBclvos. 
 
 I will now leave this subject half-told, m I have 
 been obliged to leave so many other» (.f equal im- 
 portance ; and atiUmorc at which I have not been 
 fible oven to glance. In concluding I may take 
 tlu« opportunity— a« this i» the luHt lecture I shall 
 have the pleasure of delivoringin the United States 
 before my returu to Europe, being about t« resume 
 
 my geological tour and to visit various parts of thfl 
 West and of Canada— not only of thanking you for 
 the great attention you havobeen so kind as to show 
 me but also to acknowledge the welcome which 
 hns aitcndod me throughout my tour from Lake 
 F.rii- t.. the Savannah river; and which has mado 
 inc in this country feel us much at home as though 
 I were in England ; and I assure you that I 
 shall always look back to the time spent hera 
 with a home-feeling, which will always make 
 it difticuli for me le regard Auwrica a« a foreign 
 laud. 
 
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