IC-NRLF 
 
* 
 
 : 
 
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GEOLOGY IN 1835; 
 
 A POPULAR SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS, LEADING FEATURES, 
 
 AND LATEST DISCOVERIES OF THIS RISING 
 
 SCIENCE. 
 
 JOHN LAURANCE. 
 
 fLLUSTRATED WITH DIAGRAMS AND ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD. 
 
 The Isle of Cyclops, see page 118. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, AND CO., 
 
 STATIONER'S COURT. 
 
 1835. 
 
GEOLOGY IN 1835. 
 
 GEOLOGY, as the original Greek words from which 
 the term is derived import, is the science or knowledge 
 of the earth. Unlike Geography, which delineates the 
 surface of the glohe, and the various trihes of animate 
 beings with which it is peopled; and distinct from 
 Astronomy, which defines the figure, examines the 
 position, and has reference to the external circum- 
 stances of our planet as a member of the solar sys- 
 tem, the business of Geology is to investigate the 
 internal structure and configuration of this vast mass 
 of matter upon which we dwell a subject of the 
 highest interest and importance to man. In the 
 character of its results, and the magnitude and sub- 
 limity of the objects of which it treats, Geology may be 
 with propriety ranked in the scale of the sciences, next 
 to Astronomy ; but while the one has attained a degree 
 of perfection, which appears almost incompatible with 
 the limited capacity of the human mind, the other has 
 only, within a very recent period, assumed the dignified 
 form of a science. It is, however, established on a 
 secure and permanent basis : the intelligence of the age 
 which gave it birth is fast accelerating its growth to 
 maturity : observations are extending and facts accumu- 
 
lating, with a rapidity unparalelled in the annals of 
 science. But no Newton has yet arisen to grapple with 
 contending theories to concentrate with superhuman 
 intelligence the scattered elements to mould with 
 Promethean skill the inflexible materials, and impart 
 perfection and immutability at once to a system. This 
 circumstance peculiarly recommends Geology as a sub- 
 ject of popular study. Where a high degree of excel- 
 lence has been attained by. an individual, in any art or 
 science, emulation the main-spring of exertion is checked : 
 men are dissatisfied with the result of their efforts : the 
 ardour which would have carried to the goal had the race 
 been equal, subsides into despair. Who, in geome- 
 try, during the long interval of two thousand years, 
 has attempted to improve upon Euclid ? In the vain 
 attempt to imitate the immortal productions of Greece 
 and Rome, how many an artist has laid down his pencil 
 in disgust ! Who has ever dared to entertain the 
 thought of displacing Newton from the pinnacle of glory, 
 on which he proudly stands, and bids defiance to 
 emulation ? The mere acquisition of his ideas, the com- 
 prehension of his complex deductions, requires an effort 
 which ordinary minds are scarcely equal to. In Geology, 
 however, the ground is unoccupied : a wide field is open 
 to emulation, and results of the highest importance 
 await a patient and attentive examination. The sphere 
 of observation is co-extensive with the world itself, and 
 every locality is replete with information accessible, 
 and intelligible to all, without the preliminary acquire- 
 ments essential to the study of Astronomy, and other 
 abstract sciences. 
 
 It is a singular feature in the history of the human 
 
mind, that while with comprehensive grasp it had mea- 
 sured the heavens, and weighed all the planets of the 
 solar system, and with telescopic eye was exploring the 
 confines of the universe, the earth and all the* interest- 
 ing phenomena which it has since disclosed, were dis- 
 regarded. Elated by their splendid discoveries in space, 
 Astronomers seem to have looked with contempt upon 
 the earth beneath their feet, or at most to have regarded 
 it merely as a station from which their observations 
 upon surrounding objects were made, for which pur- 
 pose a knowledge of its form and position was all that 
 was necessary. 
 
 Nothing satisfactory can be gathered from the 
 opinions of the ancients on this interesting branch of 
 the physical sciences. Aristotle, the master-spirit of 
 his age, seems to have been aware that sea and land had 
 frequently changed their relative positions : but he also 
 contended that the earth had volition, and a better 
 specimen of his syllogistic philosophy, which during 
 twenty centuries held dominion over men's minds, and 
 which at a period not very remote from our own times 
 it was a penal offence to controvert, can scarcely be 
 adduced 
 
 " Everything which has self-motion has volition : 
 The earth is endowed with self-motion : 
 Ergo the earth has volition." 
 
 Thales, an ancient Greek philosopher, suggested 
 that all things had their origin in water ; and the Py- 
 thagoreans generally seem to have had some indefinite 
 notions on the subject of the changes which the surface 
 B 2 
 
of the globe had undergone from the operation of this 
 agent. 
 
 It was at a late period in modern times that specu- 
 lations arf*|o the origin and structure of the earth were 
 re-introduced. And as Astronomy was preceded by 
 Astrology, so Geology was introduced by Cosmogony 
 the early geologists being world-builders upon a most 
 splendid scale. I shall only allude briefly to a few of 
 these theories, the most remarkable for their whimsi- 
 cality, as illustrative of the extraordinary vagaries into 
 which the mind relapses in philosophical speculation, 
 when it forsakes the plain and simple path of induction 
 in order to make phenomena coincide with preconceived 
 ideas. 
 
 Burnet, the author of a " Sacred Theory of the 
 Earth," (a work of great merit as a literary composition) 
 which appeared in the sevententh century, conceived 
 that the globe was originally invested with a light crust, 
 which being broken up to produce the deluge, formed 
 the mountains of its fragments. 
 
 Woodward, to account for the embedding of ma- 
 rine shells in rocky strata, imagined the principle of 
 cohesion, which holds the particles of matter together, 
 to have been momentarily suspended, which gave rise 
 to the deluge, and permitted the pasty materials which 
 it left to be penetrated with shells. 
 
 The boldest idea, perhaps, was that of a philo- 
 sopher to whom Leicestershire had the honour of giving 
 birth William Whiston, the learned translator of Jose- 
 phus. In his "Theory of the Earth" he creates this 
 globe from the atmosphere of a comet, and then most 
 unceremoniously deluges it with the tail of another : and 
 
not content with explaining these great physical events, 
 he thought he had discovered the connection between 
 the physical and moral world, and proposed the solution 
 of an enigma which in all ages had puzzled theologians 
 and divines the introduction of moral evil into the 
 world. He argued that it was the heat retained in the 
 earth from its origin, that inflamed the unruly passions 
 of mankind, and impelled the whole human race to sin ! 
 These were the principles of a man who, only a century 
 ago, occupied the mathematical chair at Cambridge, 
 which had been previously filled by Sir Isaac Newton ! 
 It is true that the same restless spirit of speculation led 
 him into heretical notions on the subject of religion, for 
 which he was expelled and persecuted. 
 
 Many philosophers, from the great Kepler down 
 to those of recent times have imagined the earth to be 
 possessed of vital faculties, and some have endeavoured 
 to point out the analogy in its constitution with organ- 
 ized beings. 
 
 Demaillet, a modern French philosopher of con- 
 siderable reputation, imagined the whole earth to have 
 been at one period covered with water, in which all the 
 various tribes of living beings had their origin ; even 
 man himself, commenced his career as a fish, and had 
 been by degrees transformed into the biped, of which 
 he argued there were unequivocal proofs in the animals 
 inhabiting the ocean (mermaids) , which had only un- 
 dergone half the process of conversion, but which in 
 time would become perfect human beings. His proofs 
 however, required a degree of credulity which his con- 
 temporaries were not disposed to give. 
 
 Leibnitz, Descartes, and afterwards Buffon, main- 
 
 B3 
 
tained that the earth was an extinguished star, originally 
 in a state of fusion. Buffon, however, in enlarging 
 upon the idea, which he does most ingeniously, got into 
 hot water with the theologians of the day. It was urged 
 that his theory of the formation of mountains and 
 valleys hy the subsidence of the circumfused waters, 
 and the gradual refrigeration of the mass of the earth, 
 was highly reprehensible, as it was contrary to the creed 
 of the church. He was therefore required by the Sor- 
 bonne, an inquisitorial assembly of ecclesiastics at Paris, 
 to recant all the notions he had promulgated on the 
 subject, and to append a declaration to the subsequent 
 edition of his works, that he abandoned all that he had 
 said as to the formation of the earth. But as in the 
 case of Galileo, who under similar circumstances abjured 
 his discovery of the motion of the earth upon its axis, 
 the earth still continued to whirl round, so the accuracy 
 of Buffon's conclusions was undisturbed by his recan- 
 tation his theory is now in substance generally adopted : 
 and the spirit of enquiry which these bigots would have 
 suppressed, so far from invalidating, has actually thrown 
 light upon the sacred records. 
 
 To allude to all the various theories which since 
 this period have been evulgated, would be incompatible 
 with the object and exceed the limits of my sketch : 
 but two eminent characters must not pass unnoticed 
 Werner and Hutton, the champions of the rival elements 
 fire and water. Werner asserting the supremacy of 
 Neptune, and Hutton that of Pluto, they for a long 
 time divided the scientific world on the comparative 
 merits of their respective systems. They both erred in 
 
this, the too common error of immature philosophy 
 hasty deduction from limited observation : 
 
 " Each claiming truth, 
 And truth disclaiming both," 
 
 like the dogmatical asserters of the colour of the cha- 
 meleon, they were both right to a certain extent, as we 
 shall see hereafter that each of the causes for which they 
 contended, have been active in the production of the 
 terrestrial phenomena ; but both were wrong in their 
 sweeping generalizations. Their views, moreover, were 
 confined to the mineral structure of rocks the chemistry 
 of the science ; modern geologists have discovered and 
 adopted a less fallible test the organic contents, a 
 principle which was first recognized and practically ap- 
 plied by Smith,* in the arrangement of the strata and 
 construction of his Geological Map of England, which 
 has attained for him the proud appellation, ceded by 
 universal consent of " Father of English Geologists." 
 
 * At the meeting of the " British Association for the advance- 
 ment of Science," held at Oxford in 1833, the gold medal reserved 
 for the great luminaries emanating from this seat of education, 
 which dazzle by their learning or benefit by their discoveries, their 
 fellow-men, was awarded by the University, with a liberality that 
 does it honour, to this veteran of geology, who though destitute of 
 the advantages of education, and moving in the humble rank of a 
 land-surveyor, by his own unaided efforts had earned the laurels, 
 which in thfe presence and amid the plaudits of the illustrious in 
 science from all parts of Europe, were now wreathed upon his 
 silvery hair. A splendid instance of the reward of perseverance, 
 and a powerful stimulus to the exertions of those to whom Nature 
 has imparted a scientific taste, but Fortune has denied her ad- 
 vantages. 
 
In tracing the progress of science, it is lamentable 
 to observe the extraordinary ignorance of men whom 
 the world have called great, as to the causes of many 
 natural phenomena, with which we are so familiar. 
 Voltaire, for instance, who has been all but deified by 
 the French, to whose dwelling* pilgrimages are per- 
 formed as to the shrine at Mecca, who presumed to 
 arraign all the existing knowledge upon science, religion, 
 and government, with the most perverse tenacity, insisted 
 that fossil shells found in the earth were lusus naturce, 
 creations of Nature in her sportive mood that oyster 
 shells found in high situations on the Jura mountains 
 might have been the scallops worn in the hats of pil- 
 grims, or were probably left there by the Romans, 
 who are known to have had a taste for oysters ; that 
 vegetable impressions in rocky strata, were not those of 
 real plants ; and that the bones of a rein-deer and 
 hippopotamus found in his time near Etampes, proved 
 merely that some lover of curiosities had once preserved 
 them in his cabinet ! 
 
 Geology, as at present understood, may be said to 
 be a species of history the physical history of the great 
 globe we inhabit a sort of antiquarianism which takes 
 cognizance not of ancient coins, broken columns, and 
 antique inscriptions in order to determine the periods 
 and circumstances of revolutions and remarkable eras 
 in human affairs, but investigates the great physical 
 revolutions which our planet has undergone events of 
 which it finds indelible records, immutable archives, 
 the most infallible testimony, in the monuments and 
 
 * Femey, near Geneva. 
 
relics of former times preserved in the mineral masses 
 of which its exterior is composed. An inquiry which 
 starts where human records begin to be obscure, and 
 carries back the imagination through successive eras, to 
 a point in the infinity of the past which the mind can 
 scarcely contemplate a period coeval with the origin of 
 the earth. It exhibits the surface of the earth as having 
 been subject to a series of extraordinary and violent 
 changes of sudden and mighty revolutions. It details 
 " the war of elements and wreck of matter," the suc- 
 cessive destruction and reproduction of this fair scene of 
 man's abode, and innumerable races of animals, ere he, 
 the self-styled " lord of creation" had assumed dominion 
 upon the earth. As in the history of nations, we observe 
 a gradual developement of the human faculties a pro- 
 gressive emergence from barbarism, in which most civil- 
 ized nations have had their origin, to that intelligence 
 which afterwards distinguished them, so in Geology, we 
 discover a remarkable succession in organized beings 
 an apparent gradation from animals of a simple to those 
 of a complex structure, and by ascending the series we 
 arrive at a period anterior to the existence of life upon 
 the earth when it "was without form and void, and 
 darkness rested upon the face of the deep." The earth 
 itself, like society or an individual, appears to have passed 
 from infancy to adolescence, from adolescence to ma- 
 turity, from maturity to old age, which her present feeble 
 energies, compared with her pristine vigour, seem to 
 indicate. 
 
 The key to this long-concealed volume of nature, 
 and to all its mystic revelations, is the extraneous fossil, 
 {as it is termed,) the organic remains embedded in the 
 
10 
 
 solid framework of the globe. By means of these, we are 
 enabled to arrange the apparently innumerable strata into 
 certain orders and classes, and assign to each a definite 
 epoch, or period of formation; and hence establish the 
 extraordinary fact that there is throughout these mineral 
 masses an invariable order of superposition, which in the 
 numberless derangements and convulsions which have 
 shaken the earth to its centre, has never been inverted : 
 that this order of superposition is not confined to this or 
 that locality, but is essentially the same in the old world 
 and the new, from the arctic to the antarctic circle ; as 
 far at least as observations have at present extended. 
 
 The discoveries of Geology, like those of Astronomy, 
 are completely at variance with our preconceived ideas, 
 and in some cases opposed to the evidence of the senses. 
 Until it was proved by demonstration, it was incon- 
 cievable, that the sun which rose and set and appeared 
 constantly in motion, actually stood still : so the mind 
 is indisposed to believe that the solid earth on which we 
 tread, on which innumerable generations of men have 
 lived and died, and our cities have stood from the earliest 
 times, has been by turns, perhaps, the bed of a sea, the 
 bottom of a lake, or matter ejected from beneath by vol- 
 canic agency. At one period buried beneath the dark 
 abyss of the ocean, at another smiling with verdure on 
 its shores the abode now of sterility now of fertility - 
 now of marine and now of terrestrial animals and plants. 
 Yet even so is it with almost every portion of what we now 
 call terra firma, which is, in fact, one vast sepulchre of 
 animated beings ! The highest mountains have not escap- 
 ed the general fate the " everlasting hills" can no longer 
 with propriety be cited as the emblem of immutability. 
 
11 
 
 1 
 
 What, short of actual demonstration, would con- 
 vince us that the tops of the highest mountains in Eng- 
 land once formed the bed of the sea? and that strata now 
 buried hundreds of yards beneath the surface were once 
 elevated above its waters ? But we have unquestionable 
 evidence of this mighty bouleversement records as clear 
 as any that Herculaneum and Pompeii can exhibit of 
 their former condition. The 
 insignificant little specimen, 
 of which the engraving (1) in 
 the margin is a representa- 
 tion, is a fossil shell, (once 
 an inhabitant of the ocean) 
 from the top of Snowdon, 
 the highest mountain in Wales, broken with my own 
 hands from myriads of others in the mass of limestone * 
 which caps its summit. The other 2 
 
 engraving (2) represents a speci- 
 men of the vegetable productions 
 which adorned the hills of the pri- 
 meval world (perhaps subsequent- 
 ly to the upheaving of the ocean de- 
 posit of which the specimen just de- 
 scribed is a relic) disentombed from 
 the bowels of the earth at a depth of 
 one thousand feet beneath its sur- 
 face in this County ! f Now the evidence in this case is 
 
 * The occurrence of this limestone on the apex, the extreme 
 point of this mountain, while its mass is composed of older rocks 
 destitute of organic remains, is a remarkable feature in the Geology 
 of Wales. 
 
 f Leicestershire. *From the Ashby-de-la-Zouch coal-field. 
 
12 
 
 irresistible, it amounts to demonstration, that the ocean 
 covered the spot where the shell was found, and remained 
 there during a long period of time, for the limestone is 
 formed almost entirely of shelly fragments ; and that vege- 
 tation with all its conditions, light and heat, soil and at- 
 mosphere, once existed where the fragile plant was pre- 
 served. It could not have been transported thither, for its 
 delicate texture would have been injured in the removal, 
 whereas its fibres are as nicely preserved as if the plant 
 had been carefully enclosed between the leaves of a book. 
 Not only are some of the facts opposed to all ex- 
 perience and previously-acquired ideas, as we have seen, 
 but Geology also involves an apparent contradiction of 
 terms for the lowest in the series sometimes occupy 
 the highest level, and vice versa. Thus on the continent 
 of Europe, the lowest bed, the primitive granite, on 
 which all the other rocky masses repose, rarely makes 
 its appearan ce except on the summits of the highest moun- 
 tains, such as Mont Blanc and the Jung Frau, and the 
 loftier Alps, which 
 
 " Pinnacle in clouds" 
 " Their snowy scalps" 
 
 presenting in these cases, not horizontal beds, as their 
 position at the base of the whole superstructure of strati- 
 fied rocks might lead us to infer, but sometimes cones of 
 vertical strata of inconceivable height, which tower in ma- 
 jestic grandeur far above the reach of human footsteps, 
 
 " As if to shew" 
 " How earth may rise to heaven, yet leave vain man below." 
 
 Such are some of the anomalies to be encountered 
 in the study of Geology. 
 
13 
 
 It is the uniformity of superposition, the invariable 
 order of succession, sometimes disturbed but never in- 
 verted, on which Geology depends as a practical 
 science: the identity of a rock being proved by the 
 fossils it contains, its position in the series is at once 
 ascertained, and by a never-failing analogy, the position 
 of other rocks is accurately inferred. It is a knowledge 
 of these facts which guides the skilful miner in his ex- 
 pensive operations, and it is in defiance or ignorance of 
 them, that the many abortive searches for coal have been 
 conceived and prosecuted at so great a sacrifice of the 
 national wealth. The often-cited case of Bexhill, near 
 London, in which eighty thousands pounds are said to 
 have been expended in a fruitless search for coal, which 
 the merest tyro in Geology would in the present day 
 have condemned, is of itself sufficient to prove the 
 immense advantage of Geology as a practical science. 
 
 It is unnecessary to dilate upon the inestimable ad- 
 vantages, we derive from the skill of the miner. It would 
 be no difficult task to prove that our mineral resources 
 are the main-spring of our national prosperity, and one 
 of the chief causes of that proud pre-eminence which 
 this country occupies in the scale of nations ; supplying 
 us on the one hand with coal, the vital principle of manu- 
 factures, on the other with iron, the raw material of the 
 most considerable portion of our national industry the 
 basis of so much ingenuity, the source of incalculable 
 wealth : and how great is the aid which the science of 
 Geology has afforded to the miner : how it has system- 
 atized his operations how it has extended and is daily 
 enlarging his dominion, they only who are practically 
 
14 
 
 interested in the subject, and have watched the progress 
 of the art of mining, can form an adequate estimate. 
 
 A most gratifying instance of the successful result 
 of an enterprize, based upon geological deductions, has 
 lately occurred in the north of England, at the Monk- 
 wearmouth colliery. The works in this case were com- 
 menced on the line of the Magnesian limestone, which, 
 as all who are acquainted with the outlines of English 
 Geology are aware, overlies on its eastern edge, the great 
 northern coal-formation, throughout its whole extent from 
 the Trent to the Tyne. The coal had never been worked * 
 in this situation, and there was nothing on the surface to 
 indicate its existence beneath, as there usually is in coal- 
 fields : but assured of its presence by the well-known 
 fact that the general dip, or downward inclination of the 
 strata was in this direction, the spirited proprietors, 
 (Messrs. Pemberton and Thompson,) relying upon the 
 infallible order of succession which I have just des- 
 cribed, resolved, whatever might be the cost, to reach it. 
 At the depth of three hundred and fifty feet they first 
 found traces of the existence of coal, but many hundred 
 feet of strata were subsequently passed through, and no 
 workable seam of coal discovered. Still convinced, 
 however, of the accuracy of the conclusions which had 
 led them to embark in the undertaking, guided in fact by 
 the light of science, they pursued their object with un- 
 daunted perseverance, and at the depth of one thousand 
 six hundred feet from the surface, or one thousand 
 five hundred and thirteen feet below the level of the ad- 
 jacent ocean, a depth far greater than had ever before been 
 
 * Getting the coals is termed by miners working them. 
 
15 
 
 reached in sinking for coal,* after many years of toil and 
 anxiety, and the outlay of an enormous sum of money, 
 they met with the reward of their efforts in a valuable 
 bed of coal ! The identity of this bed being proved, the 
 
 * The following statement of the comparative depth of some 
 of the principal mines in the world, and of the magnitude of mining 
 operations, may not be uninteresting : 
 
 DEPTH OF MINES. FEET. 
 
 Kits piihl Copper mine, in the Tyrol mountains . . . 2764 
 
 Sampson mine, at Andreasberg, in the Harz 2230 
 
 Valeuciano mine, Guanaxuato, Mexico 1770 
 
 Pearce's shaft, Consolidated mines, Cornwall 1650 
 
 Monkwearmouth Colliery, Durham 1600 
 
 Sheal Abraham mine, Cornwall 1452 
 
 Dolcoath mine, Cornwall 1410 
 
 Ecton mine, Staffordshire 1380 
 
 The deep mines in the Tyrol, the Harz, and the Andes, 
 above described, are all in high situations ; the bottom of the Mexi- 
 can mine, for instance, is 6000 feet higher than the top of the 
 Cornwall shafts. The deepest perforation beneath the level of the 
 sea, consequently the nearest approach to the earth's centre, has 
 been made at the Monkwearinouth Colliery, above described. 
 Pearce's shaft, Cornwall, (1338 feet below the level of the sea), was 
 until lately, the deepest in the world ; the superiority of depth how- 
 ever must now be ceded to Monkwearmouth, which is 1513 feet 
 below the surface of the German Ocean. 
 
 The Consolidated mines in Cornwall, have 95 shafts, or verti- 
 cal pits, 25 miles in length. There are also four steam engines, 
 with cylinders 90 inches in diameter ; and it is calculated that if 
 horse-power were used, as formerly, to drain the mines, 55,000 
 horses would be required for this purpose in Cornwall alone. 
 
 The Valenciano mine, in Mexico (1770 feet deep), has a ver- 
 tical shaft of an octagonal form, 30 feet in diameter, walled 
 throughout with beautiful masonry, the cost of the construction of 
 which, was 220,000! The annual produce of the mine is 
 600,000, and 3000 persons are cou.itantly employed. 
 c 2 
 
16 
 
 existence of others beneath is inferred with so much con- 
 fidence, that the works will be continued until the " Hut- 
 ton" or most valuable seam in that district is reached. * 
 This instance will illustrate the importance of the deter- 
 minate order of succession which Geology has disclosed. 
 
 Thus, the beautiful surface of this favoured island, 
 here raised into hills, there furrowed into valleys here 
 broken into craggy steeps, there expanding into fertile 
 plains, which presents to the inexperienced eye an hete- 
 rogeneous mass of earthy matter confusedly mixed to- 
 gether, the geologist discovers to be composed of a 
 series of distinct and well-defined mineral masses, each 
 possessing, not only a peculiar character, but a certain 
 geographical distribution ; so that had the conductors 
 of the project above described, made a similar per- 
 foration in the strata of the eastern or southern part of 
 the island, disappointment instead of success would have 
 been the result of their exertions ; in fact, they might in 
 such situations, have bored through the earth's centre to 
 the antipodes, before they met with the object of their 
 search. 
 
 It is a singular fact, and one highly favourable to 
 the study of Geology in this country, that our island 
 presents us with an epitome, if it may be so termed, of 
 the greater part of the regular solid strata which com- 
 pose the crust of the globe a model in miniature, 
 nicely arranged and accurately defined, of the rocky 
 
 * The northern coal-field, from which London draws its im- 
 mense supplies of fuel, is known to be rapidly approaching to ex- 
 haustion. The success of this experiment will in all probability 
 add several centuries to the lease by which it has so long held the 
 London market. 
 
17 
 
 masses, which in other countries spread over a large sur- 
 face, or are raised into lofty chains of mountains. Thus, 
 commencing at the eastern coast, at the German ocean, 
 in Essex, and traversing England in a north-westerly 
 direction, we pass over the whole series, from what are 
 regarded as the most recent, to the most ancient deposi- 
 tions, and, with few exceptions, find each in the place 
 assigned to it in the order of succession, corresponding 
 with the order in which they are piled upon each other 
 in the continent of Europe. One or two beds, the mus- 
 chelkalk and the rothe-lwyende of the Germans, which 
 in the north of Germany are considerable formations 
 interposed between our new red sandstone and the coal- 
 formation, were generally supposed to be absent in this 
 country ; but Professor Sedgwick has lately discovered 
 their corresponding types in the English series, so that 
 the analogy is now complete. These various beds, as I 
 have before stated, are identified by means of the organic 
 fossils peculiar to each, and by the aid of these, geolo- 
 gists have arranged them into groups, having reference 
 to the epochs of their formation a sort of Zodiacal 
 system, which enables us to measure, as it were, the lapse 
 of ages, and to fix upon determinate points in the im- 
 mensity of time which our inquiries involve, as those 
 celebrated signs aid the astronomer, in determining the 
 position of the innumerable stars which glitter in the 
 vast expanse of the heavens. 
 
 In the arrangement at present adopted, it is cus- 
 tomary to class all the phenomena of stratified and un- 
 stratified rocks, into four grand divisions, which com- 
 prise all the minor subdivisions ; and the terms adopted 
 are supposed to express something like the relative ages 
 c3 
 
18 
 
 of each. These generic terms are the primitive, transi- 
 tion, secondary, and tertiary, and it is usual to commence 
 with the primitive or most ancient rocks, and comedown 
 to the most recent, as historians begin with remote, and 
 come down to contemporary times. I shall invert the 
 process, going back in the series from the newest to the 
 oldest from contemporaneous to remote periods and 
 shall only make use of the terms where they are essential 
 in fixing the brief outlines of my sketch. 
 
 But before we examine the older strata, the strati- 
 fied masses comprised in the arrangements above ad- 
 verted to, which contain, as it were, the records of re- 
 mote periods, we must examine the changes now taking 
 place on the earth's surface, the events of what may be 
 termed the contemporaneous period changes which 
 have affected the destiny of man the effect of causes 
 now in operation. 
 
 These are the action of rivers, and their deposits ; 
 the destructive and reproducing effects of the ocean ; the 
 amazing agency of volcanos and earthquakes ; the 
 accumulation of peat-bogs, and the growth of coral 
 reefs ; to the incessant and long-continued action of 
 which causes, Mr. Lyell refers all the changes which the 
 earth's surface has experienced a theory which it is the 
 special object of his three interesting volumes to prove.* 
 
 None of these changes can be appreciated in this 
 part of the world, where all the disturbing forces are 
 quiet, earthquakes rare events, and volcanic agency 
 unknown ; and where the physical features of the coun- 
 
 * The undue attachment to a favorite theory which pervades 
 these volumes greatly impairs their value and general interest. 
 
19 
 
 try are on so small a scale. It is in the great continents, 
 the seat of active volcanos, that their effects are sensibly 
 felt. Thus the great river Mississippi, in America, has 
 frequently filled up its bed, and furrowed out channels 
 in a new direction, and is fast filling up the Gulph of 
 Mexico with the prodigious amount of solid matter 
 brought down in its course. Enormous masses of tim- 
 ber and vegetable matter, swept by the flood from the 
 primeval forests of that vast country, sometimes block 
 up the channel of its tributary streams, as in the Red 
 river, where a raft, or an accumulation of timber and 
 vegetable matter, is formed, twenty miles in length, of 
 great width, and many feet in thickness : in other places 
 the torrent is undermining its banks, while lakes and 
 islands are forming at its aestuary. As with the Missis- 
 sippi, so with other large rivers the Ganges, the Indus, 
 the Niger, the Nile, and the European rivers. Such is the 
 vast accumulation of matter at the efflux of the Niger to 
 the Atlantic, that its course has been with difficulty as- 
 certained ; this mighty stream, in fact, is buried in its 
 own sands, which have stolen from the Atlantic a space 
 equal to the whole surface of England. In Europe, 
 upon a smaller scale, there are the delta * of the Rhone 
 in the Mediterranean, where a considerable tract of land 
 has gained upon the sea,f and the flat land at the mouth 
 
 * At the efflux of a river into the ocean its volume expands 
 and its banks spread out angularly in the form of the Greek letter 
 A ; hence the origin of the term delta. 
 
 f A large extent of the delta of the Rhone is known to have 
 accumulated since the time of the Romans, and to have assumed 
 the form of solid rock even within a later period ; inasmuch as a 
 
20 
 
 of the Rhine the whole country of Holland in fact 
 which has been raised from the German ocean, by 
 the accumulation of matter brought down by this 
 mighty stream.* On the other hand, however, the sea, re- 
 senting this encroachment, has exhibited manifest symp- 
 toms of reaction; and at " one fell swoop" it reclaimed 
 fifty thousand acres ! forming that large inland bay 
 upon which Amsterdam is built the Zuider Zee ; and 
 it requires all the industry of the Dutch to prevent the 
 
 camion imbedded hi a crystalline limestone rock has been taken 
 from the bed of that river. Sir Richard Phillips states in his 
 " Million of Facts" that to consolidate a soft substance into a hard 
 rock requires at least 4000 years ! If his " Facts" had been more 
 select, and less numerous, his work would not have been the less 
 valuable. 
 
 * An idea may be formed, of the geological effect of rivers ? 
 from the experiments of Mr. Homer, upon the waters of the Rhine, 
 detailed in a recent communication to the Geological Society. 
 From these experiments, which were conducted with great care, it 
 appears that earthy matter constitutes from one-twelfth to one- 
 twentieth (varying with the season,) of the whole bulk of the water 
 of this celebrated river. At Bonn, where the observations were 
 made, the width of the river is twelve hundred feet, the mean depth 
 fifteen feet, and the mean velocity of the current two and a half 
 miles per hour: the average quantity of earthy matter held in 
 suspension in the water having been ascertained to be twenty-eight 
 grains in the cubic foot, the extraordinary result is obtained, that 
 one hundred and forty-five thousand nine hundred aud eighty-one 
 cubic feet of solid matter is borne past Bonn every twenty- four 
 hours, on its voyage from the Alps to the German ocean. No 
 wonder that the Rhine should lose its identity as it approaches the 
 termination of its course, and that it should contract into the di- 
 mensions of an ordinary canal. But the Rhine at Bonn, is a pel- 
 lucid stream, compared with the Rhone at Lyons, in the summer 
 season. 
 
21 
 
 recurrence of similar depredations. As if to assert its 
 supremacy, its ordinary tides now rise above the level 
 of the country, and its infuriated billows continually 
 menace with destruction the floodgates and barriers op- 
 posed to their progress. 
 
 Every river, and every aestuary, present us with 
 similar phenomena, and the aggregation of matter 
 thus formed, and forming, is generally termed allu- 
 vium, in contradistinction to diluvium, which is ap- 
 plied to the effects supposed to have resulted from the 
 deluge. The flat land on each side of the river Forth, 
 in Scotland, is an instance where the currents and tides 
 have combined, by their reciprocal action, to form allu- 
 vial beds. In the gravel and other matter thus thrown 
 up, vestiges of the causes by which they were produced 
 of course are found ; on the one hand wrecks of the 
 ocean, on the other ruins of the land are simultaneously 
 gathered together in the same heap ; thus in the alluvial 
 gravel alluded to, the skeleton of an enormous whale has 
 been discovered, and other relics of the ocean, inter- 
 mixed with the rocky fragments brought down from the 
 neighbouring mountains. 
 
 But the changes in the earth's surface produced by 
 the action of rivers, are exceedingly slow, and in magni- 
 tude insignificant, compared with those which it is more 
 particularly the business of Geology to investigate. 
 Thus the Nile, a river of which we have the earliest and 
 most authentic records, although its stream, densely 
 charged with solid matter, annually overflows the plains 
 of Egypt, has only raised the level of the surface 
 which it inundates, six feet four inches since the com- 
 mencement of the Christian aera, and the accumulation 
 
22 
 
 of soil at its junction with the Mediterranean, has en- 
 croached upon the sea, only to the extent of half a mile, 
 since the time of Herodotus. 
 
 The ocean is known, from its effects upon our 
 coasts, to be gradually enlarging its dominion in 
 some places and retreating from the land in others, 
 demolishing on one side the rocky bulwarks of our 
 island, on the other, raising sandy ramparts on which 
 to break its billows and shelter the land from its fury. 
 In fact, a principle of compensation seems everywhere to 
 regulate the movements of this mighty element, and there 
 appear to be no indications of that march of Neptune to 
 universal empire which Mr. Lyell seems to apprehend. * 
 
 In Alpine countries, where the torrents, " nature's 
 saws," as Playfair says, " are continually at work in 
 cutting down the mountains," geological changes on a 
 scale of greater magnitude are constantly going on. 
 Thus in Switzerland, the fall of an enormous mountain- 
 mass, undermined by the action of the elements, is not 
 an uncommon occurrence. The fall of the Rossberg in 
 1806, covered one of the beautiful valleys of that country 
 with desolation, and buried many villages with their 
 inhabitants beneath its ruins. In Savoy, near Servoz, 
 there are the remains of a similar catastrophe, which 
 took place in 1 749 ; and a neighbouring mountain, 
 
 * " The changes of territory" says Mr. Lyell " within the 
 general line of coast are all of a subordinate nature, in no way 
 tending to arrest the march of the great ocean, nor to avert the des- 
 tiny eventually awaiting the whole region : they are like the petty 
 wars and conquests of the independent states and republics of 
 Greece, while the power of Macedon was steadily passing on and 
 preparing to swallow up the whole." 
 
23 
 
 which "hangs in doubtful ruin o'er its base," threatens 
 to renew the scene of devastation at no distant period- 
 All mountainous countries present us with phenomena 
 of the same description: mountain masses, like other 
 parts of the earth's surface, being composed of strata of 
 different density and degrees of hardness, where the base 
 happens to consist of a soft material and to be exposed to 
 the atmosphere, it undergoes disintegration, and the 
 superincumbent mass is precipitated into the valley 
 below. 
 
 Then, there are the Glaciers, serving as the vehicle 
 of transport to enormous masses of rock. They who 
 have not seen these phenomena, can form no idea of their 
 magnificence. They consist of enormous masses, or 
 rivers, or as the most considerable of them are termed, 
 in the inflated language of France, Seas of ice, Mers de 
 Glace, formed in the valleys of the higher regions of 
 the Alps, from the subsidence and partial dissolution of 
 the mass of snow, which, as is well known, at a certain 
 height varying with the latitude of the place, perpetually 
 covers the sides and summits of lofty mountains. These 
 have accumulated to a vast extent, and have gradually 
 advanced into the lower valleys into the region of cul- 
 tivation, where they have become permanently located 
 in the midst of corn-fields and orchards ; and there, with 
 chilly aspect, defy the rays of a southern sun. In the 
 Alps alone, there are one hundred and thirty square 
 leagues of this icy territory, and all other great 
 mountain-chains present the same phenomena. The 
 Mer de Glace of Mont Blanc, the most remark- 
 able glacier of the Alps, is twelve or fourteen miles 
 in length, with an average width of about a mile, and 
 
24 
 
 fills, to the depth of several hundred feet, a deep 
 gorge or depression in the side of the mountain. 
 Viewed from above,* it can be compared only to a tur- 
 bulent river of dazzling brightness, whose waves are 
 tossed about in the wildest confusion nothing but mo- 
 tion being wanting to complete the illusion. If any 
 one who has seen the ocean in a storm, can picture in 
 his imagination the effect of a sudden consolidation of 
 the raging mass of waters when heaving in all its fury, 
 he will have a faint conception of this singular scene. 
 On a closer inspection, it is found to consist of deep ra- 
 vines, and irregular ridges and masses of ice of adaman- 
 tine hardness, bearing enormous fragments of rock on 
 its surface, and traversed in every direction with fissures 
 or chasms of awful depth the chilly grave of many an 
 adventurous traveller. Some lines of a modern poet 
 well describe a glacier. 
 
 " Wave upon wave ! as if a foaming ocean, 
 
 By boisterous winds to fierce rebellion driven, 
 Heard in its wildest moments of commotion, 
 
 And stood congeal'd at the command of Heaven. 
 Its frantic billows chained at their explosion 
 
 And fixed in sculpture ! here to caverns riven, 
 There petrified to crystal at his nod, 
 
 Who raised the Alps an altar to their God." 
 
 As a geological agent its effects are considerable. 
 
 * The point of view from which the glacier is generally ob- 
 served, is Montanvert, about eight thousand feet above the level of 
 the sea, where a temple as it is called, dedicated " to Nature," has 
 been raised for the accommodation of her devotees, who come from 
 all parts of the world to worship at this frigid shrine. 
 
25 
 
 *The vertical masses of granite and schistose (slaty) rocks, 
 which undergo disintegration from the action of the ele- 
 ments, fall in large masses upon the surface of the glacier, 
 and are carried along with it by the slow and impercepti- 
 ble, but irresistible motion, (varying with the inclination 
 of its rocky base,) which it has been proved to have. In 
 this manner, huge fragments of inaccessible rocks from 
 the very summits of the mountains, are conveyed many 
 miles to the verge of the glacier, whence they are pre- 
 cipitated with vast masses of congealed snow into the 
 valley beneath, occasioning in their fall the phenomena 
 of avalanches, those " thunderbolts of snow" whose 
 reverberations make the mountains tremble : here they 
 meet with the torrent by which, lashed, broken, and 
 comminuted, they are transported to a great distance . 
 for out of the dark icy caverns of the glacier rush with 
 full-grown vigour, some of the mighty rivers of Europe 
 the Rhine, the Rhone, the Po, and the Arve. 
 
 In the northern regions of the world, this agent is 
 infinitely more active, and we there find it engaged in 
 carrying out to great distances at sea, enormous rocks 
 and earthy masses. Thus on the frigid coast of Green- 
 land, the glaciers, which in the Alps descend into the 
 elevated valleys, come down in the same manner to the 
 level of the ocean, into which they are precipitated by 
 accidental circumstances, and from their less specific 
 gravity, float off and sail with their heavy cargo where- 
 ever winds and tides impel them. The northern seas are 
 full of these ice-bergs * as they are termed, and they 
 have been known to stray as far south as the Madeira 
 
 * Berg is the German word for mountain. 
 D 
 
26* 
 
 isles ; * and Captain Scoresby states, that he has seen 
 masses of rock borne on these icy islets which would 
 weigh from fifty to one hundred thousand tons. We 
 shall hereafter have occasion to call in the aid of this 
 powerful agent to account for phenomena where it has 
 long since ceased to operate, but where it is inconceivable, 
 that any other cause with which we are acquainted, could 
 produce the effects. 
 
 But of all the agents now in operation to modify the 
 exterior surface of the globe, the volcano, and its attend- 
 ant the earthquake, from which this portion of the world 
 is happily exempt, are the most awful in their phe- 
 nomena, and the most extensive in their effects. Vol- 
 canos, in the strict sense of the term, are merely those 
 conical chimneys or vents, by which vapours, or solid 
 matter in a state of fusion or vitrification, are ejected by 
 the expansive force of heat, from the internal fires, by 
 some unknown cause excited, deep below the surface of 
 the earth. Upwards of two hundred of these, in various 
 parts of the world, are known to be in a state of per- 
 manent ignition, constantly giving out fire, smoke, or 
 vapour, and occasionally like mighty cauldrons, boiling 
 over streams of red-hot melted matter, or with an ex- 
 plosive force, violent beyond conception, shooting forth 
 cinders, ashes, and vitrified matter. Volcanos generally 
 are lofty mountains such as ./Etna, with 
 
 " Entrails fraught with fire 
 That now cast out dark fumes and pitchy clouds, 
 
 * From the south pole they have also travelled northward as- 
 far as the Cape of Good Hope. 
 
27 
 
 Vast showers of ashes, hov'ring in the smoke, 
 And now belch molten stones, and ruddy flames 
 Incensed, or tear up mountains by the roots, 
 Or fling a broken rock aloft in air."* 
 
 But vents or orifices in the level surface of the country, 
 sometimes give relief to the explosive forces, as the 
 Geysers in Icelai/d, where steam is evolved with amazing 
 force, and water thrown up as in artificial fountains, to 
 a great height. In the case of elevated volcanos, the 
 mass is most frequently formed by the gradual accumu- 
 lation of ejected matter. 
 
 Violent eruptions are generally attended by earth- 
 quakes, and the vast extent of the effect of these, proves 
 that the exciting cause is very deeply seated in the in- 
 terior of the earth. Thus the shock of the terrible earth- 
 quake which destroyed the City of Lisbon, in 1775, was 
 felt throughout the whole of Europe, from Norway to 
 the coast of Africa, in the Madeira isles, and the West 
 Indies ; and at the destruction of Lima, in Peru, in 1 746, 
 not only was the whole continent of America convulsed, 
 but the shock was propagated across the Atlantic and 
 sensibly perceived on the shores of Europe. 
 
 Strabo, an ancient Greek geographer, first sug- 
 gested that volcanos were " safety-valves" to regulate 
 and restrain the action of the explosive forces in the 
 earth's interior ; and some geologists have asserted, that 
 it is owing to the protection which these afford, that the 
 earth is not now convulsed as it appears to have been in 
 former periods ; while astronomers reconcile us to the 
 horrors and inconveniences of volcanic eruptions, by 
 
 * Virgil, vEneid, lib. iii. 
 D2 
 
28 
 
 assuring us, that without these " safety-valves," we 
 should in all probability be blown into space, with the 
 shattered fragments of the globe in which the explosive 
 materials are generated : which when recovered from the 
 shock might move in convoy, each in its own course, 
 round the sun, like the little planets Ceres, Pallas, and 
 Juno, whose origin they attribute ta-a similar catas- 
 trophe. It is certain, that where these safety-valves are 
 absent, the surface of the earth has undergone the most 
 considerable derangement ; the accumulation of matter 
 round the crater of a volcano, the result of repeated 
 eruptions, is inconsiderable, compared with the mighty 
 upheavings of continents and islands, which our own 
 times and historical records, as well as geological evi- 
 dence attest. In her efforts to be free, Nature has strug- 
 gled with the greatest violence. Thus the bed of the 
 ocean has been raised and rent, and islands thrown up 
 high above its level in our own times. The latest in- 
 stance on record is that of 1831, in the Mediterranean, 
 between Pantellaria and the coast of Sicily, the progress 
 of which was watched by scientific observers. In 1 8 1 1 , 
 in the Azores, a similar creation, effected in the course 
 of a few days the formation of an island in the At- 
 lantic a mile in circumference, and three hundred feet 
 high was witnessed from the shores of Saint Michael's. 
 Numbers of such instances are on record in the Azores, 
 the Grecian Archipelago, and the Ionian isles, in con- 
 temporary times, and Pliny enumerates several islands, 
 which in his time were known to have arisen from the 
 depths of the Mediterranean, at the birth of which Vulcan 
 and Pluto had the credit of presiding, for in all cases their 
 first appearance was attended by volcanic phenomena. 
 
29 
 
 The sudden swelling of an extensive plain in Mex- 
 ico* and the formation of volcanic mountains, varying, 
 from three to sixteen hundred feet in elevation, where 
 no volcanos had before existed, seems scarcely credible ; 
 yet this has happened in modern times and is established 
 on unequivocal testimony : while it is a fact in history 
 that in 1538, a hill four hundred and forty feet high 
 (Monte Nouvo, near Naples) was thrown up in twenty- 
 four hours. The latter instance is near that active vent, 
 Vesuvius ; but in Peru, where only one volcano in the 
 whole country is known, great changes have been effected 
 in the surface by internal violence, and scarcely a week 
 passes without an earthquake. Hot springs are sel- 
 dom absent in volcanic countries, and in the regions 
 of extinct volcanos they are generally abundant. 
 
 Various hypotheses have been suggested to account 
 for the phenomena of volcanos. Heat, it is well known, 
 is merely an intense chemical action, which may be 
 excited in matter in a variety of ways, independent 
 of actual contact with ignited substances by elec- 
 tricity, rapid oxidation, friction, and other processes. 
 The brilliant discovery of Sir Humphry Davy of the 
 metallic bases of the earths and alkalis, which has 
 proved that the greater part of the substances constitut- 
 ing the earth, consist of certain delicate metals, united 
 with the all-pervading principle oxygen, has been sug- 
 gested as affording a clue to the process by which inter- 
 nal heat is generated. These metallic substances, when 
 separated from their kindred element, are so eager to 
 re-unite with it, that the moment oxygen is placed 
 
 * Jorullo, in 1750. 
 D3 
 
28 
 
 assuring us, that without these " safety-valves," we 
 should in all probability be blown into space, with the 
 shattered fragments of the globe in which the explosive 
 materials are generated : which when recovered from the 
 shock might move in convoy, each in its own course, 
 round the sun, like the little planets Ceres, Pallas, and 
 Juno, whose origin they attribute ta-a similar catas- 
 trophe. It is certain, that where these safety-valves are 
 absent, the surface of the earth has undergone the most 
 considerable derangement ; the accumulation of matter 
 round the crater of a volcano, the result of repeated 
 eruptions, is inconsiderable, compared with the mighty 
 upheavings of continents and islands, which our own 
 times and historical records, as well as geological evi- 
 dence attest. In her efforts to be free, Nature has strug- 
 gled with the greatest violence. Thus the bed of the 
 ocean has been raised and rent, and islands thrown up 
 high above its level in our own times. The latest in- 
 stance on record is that of 1831, in the Mediterranean, 
 between Pantellaria and the coast of Sicily, the progress 
 of which was watched by scientific observers. In 1 81 1 , 
 in the Azores, a similar creation, effected in the course 
 of a few days the formation of an island in the At- 
 lantic a mile in circumference, and three hundred feet 
 high was witnessed from the shores of Saint Michael's. 
 Numbers of such instances are on record in the Azores, 
 the Grecian Archipelago, and the Ionian isles, in con- 
 temporary times, and Pliny enumerates several islands, 
 which in his time were known to have arisen from the 
 depths of the Mediterranean, at the birth of which Vulcan 
 and Pluto had the credit of presiding, for in all cases their 
 first appearance was attended by volcanic phenomena. 
 
The sudden swelling of an extensive plain in Mex- 
 ico * and the formation of volcanic mountains, varying, 
 from three to sixteen hundred feet in elevation, where 
 no volcanos had before existed, seems scarcely credible ; 
 yet this has happened in modern times and is established 
 on unequivocal testimony : while it is a fact in history 
 that in 1538, a hill four hundred and forty feet high 
 (Monte Nouvo, near Naples) was thrown up in twenty- 
 four hours. The latter instance is near that active vent, 
 Vesuvius ; but in Peru, where only one volcano in the 
 whole country is known, great changes have been effected 
 in the surface by internal violence, and scarcely a week 
 passes without an earthquake. Hot springs are sel- 
 dom absent in volcanic countries, and in the regions 
 of extinct volcanos they are generally abundant. 
 
 Various hypotheses have been suggested to account 
 for the phenomena of volcanos. Heat, it is well known, 
 is merely an intense chemical action, which may be 
 excited in matter in a variety of ways, independent 
 of actual contact with ignited substances by elec- 
 tricity, rapid oxidation, friction, and other processes. 
 The brilliant discovery of Sir Humphry Davy of the 
 metallic bases of the earths and alkalis, which has 
 proved that the greater part of the substances constitut- 
 ing the earth, consist of certain delicate metals, united 
 with the all-pervading principle oxygen, has been sug- 
 gested as affording a clue to the process by which inter- 
 nal heat is generated. These metallic substances, when 
 separated from their kindred element, are so eager to 
 re-unite with it, that the moment oxygen is placed 
 
 * Jorullo, in 1750. 
 D 3 
 
30 
 
 within their reach, they seize it, as it were, with incre- 
 dible violence, and light and heat of the most intense 
 description attend their embrace. * Now, although 
 potassium, sodium, calcium, and the other metallic 
 bases of the earths, are never found on the exterior of 
 the globe uncombined with oxygen, it was supposed by 
 Sir Humphry Davy, that at great depths in the interior, 
 far removed from the action of the atmosphere, they 
 might exist in a separate state : in which case, the acci- 
 dental admission of oxygen by the percolation of water, 
 would be attended with the production of that intense 
 heat, whose expansive force we witness in the volcanic 
 energy. He also suggested, that the proximity of vol- 
 canos to the sea, seemed to indicate that its waters were 
 concerned in producing the effect : and a careful ana- 
 lysis of the vapours, the sublimations, and the other 
 products of Vesuvius, seemed to confirm his conjecture. 
 It is clear that water is present, from the immense quan- 
 tity of aqueous vapour, or steam, constantly evolved, but 
 the mere contact of water with the incandescent mass 
 would be sufficient to account for this, without suppo- 
 sing that the heat is generated and maintained by its 
 decomposition. Indeed, if the constant decomposition of 
 water were going on in the manner supposed, water being 
 composed of eight parts of oxygen united with one of hy- 
 drogen, when the oxygen is absorbed, an immense volume 
 of hydrogen would be set free, and ought to be evolved 
 either in flame or gas from the crater, in much greater 
 quantities than it is found to be. That the vicinity of 
 
 * It is this principle by which the intense light of the oxy- 
 hydrogen microscope is produced. 
 
31 
 
 the ocean is not essential, is proved: for although 
 and Vesuvius, and Stromboli and Teneriffe, rise near 
 the ocean, there are extensive volcanic regions, com- 
 prising an area of two thousand five hundred square 
 miles, in the heart of Asia, at a distance of more than a 
 thousand miles from the nearest sea ; and in the central 
 chain of the Andes, in South America, there are raging 
 volcanos, far removed from the coast. To whatever 
 cause, however, they may owe their origin whether to 
 chemical decomposition, or to a permanent central heat 
 the fact is certain, that enormous furnaces, in a state of 
 frightful ignition, exist at intervals, in every part of the 
 earth, at no great distance from its surface, whose action 
 is slowly, but constantly, altering the physical features 
 of the globe ; fusing and ejecting from beneath the 
 hardest materials, upheaving mountains on the existing 
 land, and raising islands from the depth of the ocean. 
 Indeed, so extensive is the dominion of this powerful 
 agent, that one is inclined to wonder with the elder 
 Pliny a great Roman naturalist, who lost his life in 
 watching the remarkable eruption of Vesuvius in the 
 year 79 not at the frequency and magnitude of these 
 awful phenomena, but that " a single day should pass 
 without an explosion." 
 
 Many of these furnaces have gone out at different 
 periods of the earth's history. At an era, historically 
 remote but geologically recent, Europe was illuminated 
 from one end to the other with volcanic fires, compared 
 with which, those of Etna and Vesuvius in modern times, 
 are feeble coruscations. An examination of these de- 
 serted forges of Vulcan in Italy, the South of France, 
 and Germany, has presented us with some of the most 
 
32 
 
 interesting results of geological enquiry ; and we may 
 here witness all the effects of volcanic phenomena with- 
 out their attendant danger and inconvenience. They 
 belong, however, to a period antecedent to what we have 
 regarded as contemporary times, the events of which we 
 are considering. 
 
 An active agent of change in the structure of the 
 earth's surface, constantly but quietly at work, is found 
 in the organic creation. Rock-formations of vast ex- 
 tent, are in progress in many parts of the ocean, effected 
 by the labours of the well-known coral animals, or 
 animal plants * as they are termed, from the circum- 
 stance of their branch- like habitations, always being 
 found springing from rocks. These polyparia, in com - 
 mon with the other shelly inhabitants of the ocean have 
 the extraordinary property of secreting (from whence de- 
 rived is not known) an enormous quantity of carbonate 
 of lime in the construction of their dwellings. Affixing 
 themselves to the submarine mountains or elevated 
 portions of the bed of the ocean, they spread their my- 
 riad arms, and rapidly build up the ramified substance, 
 which is in this country admired for its beautiful 
 forms. In their progress upwards one generation builds 
 upon the ruined and deserted habitations of another, 
 calcareous sand and other cementing matter furnished 
 by the ocean, is mixed with the mass, and the whole 
 becomes a consolidated limestone ; which, as it emerges 
 from the water, decomposes and becomes eventually the 
 abode of vegetation, birds make it their resort, animals 
 accidentally transported by the waves find in it a refuge 
 
 * Zoophytes. 
 
33 
 
 from a watery grave, and man at last finds his way 
 thither, erects his habitation, cultivates the decom- 
 posing soil, now enriched with nutritive matter and 
 adorned with vegetable productions, and calls himself 
 " lord" of this new creation. This creative process is 
 going on to an incredible extent in various parts of the 
 world. Reefs, as these newly-built islands are called, 
 extending many hundred miles, are forming in the tropical 
 regions of the Pacific. The Indian ocean teems with this 
 world-building population, and its insidious encroach- 
 ments are fast filling up the Arabian gulph. 
 
 Springs, although upon a small scale, are actively 
 engaged in adding to the mineral masses in the earth's 
 superstructure. All waters issuing from beneath the 
 surface of the ground, contain more or less of earthy 
 matter in solution, and it is to these extraneous ingre- 
 dients that the " crystal spring" owes its clearness and 
 agreeable taste. Lime is the predominating substance 
 in mineral waters, in which it is held in solution by 
 means of carbonic acid and where this element is abun- 
 dant as in the case of thermal, or hot springs, the water 
 is sometimes saturated with the carbonate. The car- 
 bonic acid being, in these cases, withdrawn by the ab- 
 straction of heat, and other circumstances, a large de- 
 posit of limestone takes place, as in the Solfatara, and 
 on the banks of the Anio, at Tivoli, and in many other 
 situations in the neighbourhood of Rome : the princi- 
 pal buildings in " the eternal city," in fact, are built of 
 this rock of modern origin. The rapidity with which 
 this concretionary deposit is effected is not less incredi- 
 ble than the great extent of its formation. I have seen 
 specimens of travertin or tufa, as it is termed, equal in 
 
36 
 
 Lickey Hill, a remarkable mass of quartzose sandstone, 
 near Birmingham, in all the valleys diverging south- 
 wardly from that part of England, and has shewn in his 
 " Reliquae Diluvianee," that they were drifted to a great 
 distance along the valleys of the Evenlode, the Cher- 
 well, and the Thames, through two remarkable openings 
 in the range of limestone hills near Banbury, and at 
 Moreton-in-the-Marsh, the only points -where this 
 effectual obstacfc to their dispersion in that direction, 
 appears to have given way to the denuding torrent. 
 
 The citizen of London, whose travels had never 
 ^xtended beyond the district of the two-penny post, 
 and the range of whose ideas was, perhaps, confined 
 within still narrower limits, would hear with surprise 
 and incredulity, that the pebbles which he sees dug 
 from beneath the soil of Hyde Park, had travelled 
 from the neighbourhood of Birmingham. Yet this 
 is as easily proved, as that Westminster bridge is 
 built of Portland stone, and the new London bridge of 
 granite. ^ 
 
 A vast accumulation of gravel covers- ^me -iastern 
 side of Leicestershire, and runs through the adjoining 
 county of .Northampton, from "which, according |o the 
 statement of Conybeare, a complete suite of geological 
 specimens might be obtained. Thus, in the deep 
 gravel of Leicestershire, I have found specimens of 
 the echinus and the encrinite, buried in the same bed, 
 although they belong to widely-different ages, and were 
 originally deposited in localities far removed from each 
 other. These gravel beds contain also, washings from 
 the neighbouring coal-formation, which in many cases, 
 as at Billesdon, from their peculiar specific gravity, 
 
37 
 
 have assumed a stratified arrangement a circumstance 
 which has deceived many an inexperienced observer.* 
 
 In the gravel are frequently found the bones of 
 quadrupeds and other animals, which, in some cases, 
 belong to species which now inhabit the countries 
 where they are found ; but more frequently, in these 
 northern latitudes, correspond with those which belong 
 to tropical climates, such as the elephant, rhinoceros, 
 hippopotamus, hyaena, &c. Thus the tyones of elephants 
 have been found in the gravel beneath the metropolis, 
 under Gray's Inn lane, Waterloo-place, and in various 
 other situations, and in fact, more or less in all the 
 gravel-pits of the environs. Animal relics of the same* 
 description have been found under similar circum- 
 stances in every part of the country, and not only in 
 this country, but throughout Europe and America. 
 When these remains were first discovered in England, 
 they were supposed to be the bones of giants ; but 
 naturalists having exploded this idea, the next hypo- 
 thesis ^ras, that they were relics of the elephants 
 brought over with the Roman armies ; but when it was 
 discovered that they belonged to extinct species, and 
 that they were generally associated with bones of the 
 
 * Metallic fragments or pebbles, arranged in horizontal layers, 
 are also sometimes found in gravel beds formed of the wreck of 
 the rocks which originally contained them, as in the Vale of Clywdd 
 in North Wales, where abraded fragments of lead intermixed with 
 stags' horns and elephants' bones, are found in sufficient abun- 
 dance to be worth working. Between Lake Superior and the Mis- 
 sissippi, lead is obtained under similar circumstances : and gold, 
 it is well-known, is generally extracted from the alluvial gravel 
 of South America. 
 
38 
 
 rhinoceros and hippopotamus animals which were not 
 likely to have followed in the train of the Roman 
 legions, this idea was also abandoned. It was not until 
 they ceased to become objects of antiquarian research, 
 and came under the cognizance of geologists, that correct 
 opinions as to their origin began to be entertained ; and 
 even then, the extraordinary circumstances sometimes 
 connected with them, seemed to defy the application of 
 any general hypothesis. Thus they have not only been 
 found in the gravel and superficial deposits of earthy 
 matter in the valleys of this country, and throughout 
 Europe, from which an uncongenial climate has long 
 extirpated them, but at inaccessible heights, in every 
 part of the world, in Europe, Asia, and America. 
 Such is the profusion of elephants' tusks found 
 buried in the soil in many parts of Russia, that they 
 have been made an article of commerce, chess-men 
 and toys being constructed of this antediluvian ivory. 
 Humboldt found bones of the mastodon, an extinct 
 species of elephant, at eight thousand feet above the 
 level of the sea, near Santa Fe de Bagota in South 
 America, and another species, in the Andes near Quito, 
 at an equal elevation ; and there are bones of horses, 
 deer, and other animals incrusted with calcareous matter, 
 preserved in the museum of the Royal College of 
 Surgeons at London, which fell with avalanches from 
 the regions of perpetual snow in the Himalayan moun- 
 tains, at the height of sixteen thousand feet ; which, as 
 they appeared to fall from the clouds, the natives sup- 
 posed to be the bones of genii a supposition less repre- 
 hensible than that of the chief magistrate of Lucerne, 
 who, without hesitation, pronounced the bones of ele- 
 
39 
 
 phants dug up beneath that city, to be relics of those 
 unfortunate beings whom an incensed Deity hurled 
 from their high estate, the rebellious angels : and 
 adopting them as the ancient tutelar deities of the place, 
 he caused their bones to be collected with the most 
 scrupulous care, and decently interred, and imaginary 
 portraits of their collossal forms to be placed in a con- 
 spicuous part of the city, in order to inspire the 
 Lucernese at once with piety, and sympathy for these 
 miserable beings. 
 
 Two theories were at first adopted by geologists to 
 account for the presence of the remains of animals so 
 unlike the races at present existing in the countries 
 where they are found. First, that they were transported 
 thither from their native regions in the south, by the 
 same agency which rolled together the gravelly masses 
 in which they have been buried : secondly, that the 
 animals now confined to tropical climates, uncontrolled 
 by the dominion of man, at remote periods, wandered 
 occasionally beyond their natural limits, as tigers in 
 every respect corresponding with those of Bengal, now 
 roam into Siberia as far north as the parallels of Berlin 
 and Hamburgh. Subsequent observations unsettled 
 both these conclusions. It was soon observed that these 
 animal-relics, did not exhibit, like their travelled asso- 
 ciates the pebbles, any considerable marks of attrition, 
 consequently that they could not have been removed 
 far from the spot where the animals died. And the 
 discovery of a rhinoceros and an elephant * in a perfect 
 
 * The discovery of the rhinoceros with its skin and hair entire, 
 was made as early as 1770. It was found enveloped in sand, on 
 E 2 
 
40 
 
 state of preservation, encased in frozen mud in the north 
 of Russia, unequivocally proved that those animals had 
 perished on the spot where their carcases were found 
 preserved from decomposition. That they were not 
 occasional visitors to the arctic circle has been also 
 ascertained, for it appears from the account of Captain 
 Beechy's expedition, and the report of M. Hedenstrom, 
 who explored the shores of the Icy sea by the direction 
 of the Russian government, that hundreds of elephants, 
 rhinoceroses, oxen, and other animals are buried in the 
 frozen ground of the circumpolar regions of both the 
 great continents, from the American side of Behring's 
 Straits, to the aestuary of the river Lena, in Asiatic 
 Russia. Now although tigers, being carnivorous, may 
 
 the banks of one of the tributary streams of the Lena in Siberia. 
 The elephant now in the museum of Saint Petersburg, was dis- 
 covered and laid open in 1799, but not removed until 1804, during 
 which interval, the hungry dogs and wolves of that inhospitable 
 climate, made many a meal of this antediluvian morceau, and a 
 Tungusian chief stole the tusks. But although thus despoiled, it 
 is still a very respectable specimen of the ancient inhabitants of 
 the world : as will appear from Dr. Granville, who, in his " Tour 
 to St. Petersburgh" says, " I stood before the gigantic animal, by 
 the side of which, the skeletons of even an African and Asiatic 
 elephant looked insignificant, amazed, and perfectly awed at its 
 stupendous structure. The manner and locality in which it was 
 discovered were additional causes of surprise : for instead of being 
 fossilized, it has retained the skin, the very flesh and the powerful 
 tendons of the legs, in a recent state, as if its own gigantic elements, 
 aided by the preserving influence of perpetual snows, had been 
 sufficient to resist those extraordinary changes, which geological 
 commotions seem to have effected in other organized beings of the 
 antediluvian world." 
 
41 
 
 travel into high latitudes in quest of food, elephants 
 and oxen herbivorous animals were not likely to 
 migrate from the " luxurious south" to these 
 
 " Thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice," 
 
 in search of pasture. And although the circumstance 
 of this antediluvian race of elephants having been 
 clothed with long hair, is pro tanto a proof that they 
 were adapted for a climate much colder than that in 
 which the present species flourish, it is inconceivable 
 that these huge masses of flesh and bone could have 
 subsisted on the insubstantial sustenance afforded by 
 the scanty vegetation the lichens and mosses of the 
 arctic regions at the present day. The inference, there- 
 fore, is, that a considerable change in the climate as well 
 as in the inhabitants of these countries, has taken place : 
 and that this change was suddenly produced, is inferred 
 from the congelation of the fluid mass in which the 
 animals were enveloped, having taken place before de- 
 composition had time to affect their fleshy carcase's. 
 
 In addition to the comminuted fragments of rocks, 
 gravel, and easily- transported matter, which partially 
 envelope, as with a mantle, the exterior of the globe, 
 there are found dispersed in various parts of the world, 
 sometimes buried in the gravel, and more commonly 
 resting on the surface of the soil, innumerable masses or 
 huge blocks of rock, the transport of which by any agent 
 with which we are acquainted seems impossible. 
 
 Thus the countries bordering on the Baltic, Prussia, 
 Poland, Russia from St. Petersburg to Moscow, and 
 Germany, even to the foot of the Carpathian mountains, 
 are covered, and in many places rendered absolutely 
 
 3 
 
42 
 
 sterile by the vast accumulation of these transported 
 boulders ; which, from their similarity of character, are 
 proved to have been derived from the Alpine chains of 
 Scandinavia, and other countries on the opposite side 
 of the Baltic. The same phenomena may be observed 
 in this country. On the limestone hills near Kendal 
 and other situations, blocks of granite, some twelve feet 
 in diameter, are found in great abundance, which must 
 have been stripped from the mountain of Shap near 
 Penrith. Indeed, Professor Sedgwick has lately ob- 
 served that these granitic relics of Shap, have been 
 rolled over the great central chain of England into the 
 plains of Yorkshire, and even carried to the eastern 
 coast ; and Mr. Phillips states that in some parts of 
 Yorkshire, pebbles, and blocks of rock are found, 
 which must have come from Norway, and even, according 
 to Dr. Buckland, from the coast of Labrador, and it is 
 observable that there is a marked distinction between 
 the fragments drifted from distant localities and those 
 which are plainly derived from the wreck of neigh- 
 bouring hills ; the latter being less rounded by attrition 
 than the former. Looking at the vast distance which 
 separates these countries, and the " great gulph" of 
 ocean which now divides them, and viewing, moreover, 
 the enormous size of many of these travelled rocks, * 
 and the elevated situations in which they are sometimes 
 found, we are almost disposed to doubt the accuracy of the 
 conclusions at which geologists have arrived, and would 
 
 * The mass of granite which forms the base of the celebrated 
 statue of Peter the Great, at St. Petersburgh, is a travelled fragment 
 found in the marshy plains of the^Neva, and it weighs twelve hun- 
 dred tons. 
 
43 
 
 gladly get rid of the difficulty, by assuming that these 
 anomalous masses had existed from the beginning of time 
 where we now see them, or were the spontaneous growth 
 of the soil on which they rest. Geologists, however, are 
 not to be startled by the appearance of difficulties, and 
 it is a singular circumstance, that in the present day a 
 satisfactory solution to this problem is found in a 
 theory which immature philosophy pronounced to be 
 inadmissible.* 
 
 In all the cases adduced, the impelling force appears 
 to have proceeded from the north, and water is the only 
 agent with which we are acquainted, capable of producing 
 the effect. Had the diluvial remains been confined to the 
 coast, we might naturally have referred these phenomena 
 to the action of the existing seas, but they extend far 
 inland, and their dispersion everywhere seems to indicate 
 the same direction of the impelling force. For instance, 
 in the very heart of England, the hills of Charnwood 
 Forest, (entitled to veneration from the circumstance 
 that, unassuming as they are, they can boast of a higher 
 antiquity than the mighty Alps,) have undergone the 
 action of an abrading force which has dispersed fragments 
 of its rocks in a southerly direction the larger masses 
 being scattered in the red sandstone plains of Leicester- 
 shire, the smaller, rolled as far south as the chalk 
 escarpment near Dunstable. In the gravel beds on the 
 summit of the Gog-Magog hills, near Cambridge, 
 Professor Sedgwick found the joint of a basaltic pillar, 
 which must have travelled from the Hebrides or the 
 Giant's Causeway. 
 
 * " Y a-t-il eu un temps ou le globe a ete entierement inonde ? 
 Cela est physitjueiBent impossible." Voltaire, Diet. Phil. 
 
44 
 
 The inference from all these facts, is, that at a 
 period not very remote, a violent torrent overwhelmed 
 every part of the earth's surface, tearing up in its fury 
 the pre-existing rocks, breaking them into fragments, 
 and transporting them to the situations in which we 
 find them : that in these northern latitudes the denuding 
 force appears to have rushed with inconceivable violence 
 from the polar regions towards the south : that this 
 rush of waters was not confined to one hemisphere, but 
 took place alike on the European and American con- 
 tinents, for the northern states of the latter are literally 
 covered with erratic blocks, which are evidently frag- 
 ments of the mountains within the arctic circle : and a 
 thousand instances might have been added to those 
 adduced, of the southerly dispersion of these antediluvian 
 relics throughout Europe. It yet remains a question 
 for geologists to determine, whether these phenomena 
 were produced simultaneously, or whether there are not 
 proofs in the superficial beds of transported matter, of 
 a series of catastrophes, such as that to which we have 
 referred. 
 
 In the neighbourhood of the Alps, where the most 
 remarkable instances of the dispersion of erratic blocks 
 are to be found, there are unequivocal proofs of a 
 succession of these effects, and the direction of the 
 removing force, is not, as in this country and in the 
 north of Europe and America, towards the south : but 
 on every side of the great Alpine chain, fragments are 
 scattered, as if some violent repulsive force had thrown 
 them off in every direction from the centre. The 
 granitic boulders on the Jura mountains attract the 
 attention of all travellers, from the obvious distinction 
 
45 
 
 in the mineral character, and the extraordinary position 
 of these masses. Switzerland, as every person acquainted 
 with the geography of Europe is aware, is mainly 
 constituted of an undulating valley, situated between 
 two great mountain ranges, the Alps on the south, and 
 the Jura mountains on the north-west. Now granite 
 only makes its appearance in the Alps, limestone con- 
 stitutes the mass of the Jura mountains, and the 
 intervening space is filled up by a variety of local 
 deposits. But the sides of the Jura mountains 
 facing the Alps, here one continuous and almost per- 
 pendicular wall of limestone, are literally covered, 
 wherever a ledge or sufficient space exists for their 
 support, with blocks of granite of various sizes, from 
 the smallest fragments to masses of enormous mag- 
 nitude, sometimes perched on the declivities at the 
 height of four thousand feet above the intermediate 
 valley. And git is not only on the side of these 
 mountains, but wherever an elevation of considerable 
 magnitude intervenes, there we find an accumulation of 
 these detritus, as at the entrance of all the valleys 
 descending from the Alps where a mountain mass has 
 intercepted the current, as the engraving will illustrate. 
 
 Thus, on the Grand Saleve (>), a limestone mountain 
 overhanging the city of Geneva, and stretching across 
 the entrance of the valley descending from Mont Blanc 
 
46 
 
 (a), blocks of granite derived from the summit of that 
 remarkable mountain, and corresponding precisely with 
 those found on the flanks of the Jura (d) , cover its 
 southern face, from the base to the summit, although 
 forty miles distant from the parent rock ; but neither on 
 the surface nor in the mass of the interposed deposit (c) , 
 have these granite boulders been observed, although it 
 is itself a conglomerate of transported matter. The 
 inference therefore is, either that the date of its formation 
 is subsequent to the action of that of the denuding forces 
 which removed the granitic fragments to their present 
 position, or that the waters by which these masses were 
 transported had ceased to convey such heavy burdens. 
 From the circumstance of the immense size of these 
 detached masses, some of them containing fifty thousand 
 cubic feet, and their having in all cases preserved their 
 angular shape, not being rounded as if rolled by torrents, 
 it has been inferred by Von Buch, and others, that they 
 must have been borne on the surface of glaciers, which, 
 as we have seen, are now employed on the sides of 
 mountains, and in the ocean, in removing similar frag- 
 ments of rocks. 
 
 The facts we have been considering are fortunately 
 not the only records we possess of the universal catas- 
 trophe to which I have pointed, as affording the only 
 adequate explanation of these interesting phenomena. 
 It will occur to all who have directed their attention to 
 the subject, that we have in the Mosaic history as clear 
 an account of this great event as the nature of the 
 circumstances entitle us to expect. " In the six hun- 
 dredth year of Noah, in the second month, and the 
 seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the 
 
47 
 
 fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows 
 of Heaven were opened, and the waters prevailed and 
 were greatly increased, and all the high hills that were 
 under the Heaven were covered." 
 
 " If there be any fact well established in geology," 
 says the great Cuvier in his admirable " Discours 
 Preliminaire" " it is this, that the surface of our 
 globe has suffered a great and sudden revolution, the 
 period of which cannot be dated further back than five or 
 six thousand years. This revolution has on the one 
 hand engulphed and caused to disappear the countries 
 formerly inhabited by men and the animal species at 
 present best known, and on the other has laid bare the 
 bottom of the last ocean, thus converting its channel into 
 the now habitable earth." Cuvier was not predisposed 
 to arrive at this conclusion, his testimony therefore, is 
 not to be despised. But the evidence is irresistible. 
 The geologist who had never heard of Noah, or the 
 writings of Moses, would inevitably be driven to the 
 same conclusion. 
 
 Those who argue with Mr. Lyell, that all the 
 modifications of the earth's surface have been produced 
 by the slow, but gradual operation of causes now in 
 action, can never get over the proofs of this universal 
 cataclysm ; in comparison with which all the revolutions 
 and convulsions of modern times dwindle into insig- 
 nificance. Great and awful, however, as are these 
 effects, when measured by the contracted span of our 
 ideas, they are as nothing when considered with reference 
 to the globe the vast mass of matter, upon which they 
 occur, and insignificant in fact, compared with the 
 mighty boulevfrrsements which have prostrated the 
 
48 
 
 high hills, and reared" oceans' caves" into mountains- 
 such as those which produced the shelly summit of 
 Snowdon, and buried in the dark profundity of the earth 
 the beautiful vegetation of its surface. But before we 
 arrive at the consideration of these, there are other 
 interesting relics of the antediluvian world to examine, 
 and changes which may be referred to the action of 
 existing causes, operating at periods which cannot with 
 precision be determined subsequent however to the 
 consolidation of the stratified masses which we shall 
 hereafter have to investigate. 
 
 The gravel beds are not the only tombs of the 
 antediluvian population,* but Nature appears to have 
 prepared also catacombs for their reception. Every- 
 where, but more especially in the limestone rocks, we 
 find cavities or fissures partly or wholly filled up with 
 the bones of animals and extraneous substances. When 
 first discovered, they were supposed to be unequivocal 
 proofs of the deluge, and that the bones thus entombed 
 were the relics of animals who had fled into these 
 situations to escape destruction. Bui many of these 
 caverns are now ascertained to have been, for a long 
 period, the dwellings, or dens of hyaenas, bears, and 
 other animals addicted to subterraneous resorts : such 
 as the cave at Kirkdale, in Yorkshire, so carefully 
 explored and described by Dr. Buckland, which, although 
 it contains the bones of a great variety of animals, is 
 proved to be have been a hyaena's den, from the bones 
 of that animal predominating, and those of other 
 species bearing the marks of the teeth of this voracious 
 beast. In this case, as in others in England, Germany, 
 and elsewhere, the bones are enveloped in consolidated 
 
49 
 
 mud, which appears to have flowed in at the aperture, 
 and to have covered up, indiscriminately, both hyaenas 
 and their prey. In some instances, pebbles have also 
 rushed in with the torrent, and left the marks of violent 
 action upon the upper surface of the stratum of bones. 
 The entrances of these caverns have generally been filled 
 up either by transported pebbles, or an accumulation 
 of local fragments, so that their discovery is entirely 
 accidental. 
 
 In some cases, as in the osseous breccia, (bony 
 breaches,) so abundant on the coasts of the Medi- 
 terranean, the extraneous matter in which the bones 
 are imbedded, has formed a mass of stone harder 
 than the rock in which they exist, and there are other 
 remarkable features of these osseous breccia, which not 
 only indicate their great antiquity, but point to many 
 extraordinary changes since they existed as open fis- 
 sures : thus their entrances are found at great elevations 
 above the level of the sea, in the face of precipitous 
 rocks, yet there are decided proofs that they were once 
 below the surface of the water, as alithodomous or stone- 
 piercing shell, (an inhabitant of the sea,) has in many 
 cases penetrated the sides of the apertures, and left its 
 remains adhering to the rock. At a subsequent period 
 the cavity was partly filled with matter transported from 
 a distance : then with animal bones, which became 
 mixed and cemented together by a deposit of carbonate 
 of lime, from the percolation of water through the mass 
 of the rock in which the fissure was formed : and again, 
 the rock itself was lifted up, or the sea lowered to its 
 present level. 
 
 In other cases, as at the rock of Gibraltar, there are 
 
50 
 
 decided proofs that the breccia have been furnished with 
 their organic contents since the elevation of that re- 
 markable mountain, and anterior to the deluge: the 
 bones being those of animals and birds which acci- 
 dentally fell, or were carried by beasts of prey, into the 
 fissures, which, though now filled with calcareous and 
 other matter equal in hardness to the limestone itself, 
 may be traced to the surface at great heights, where the 
 entrances are covered up with rolled fragments of jasper, 
 agate, quartz, and other debris, brought from a great 
 distance by the diluvial waves which washed over this 
 lofty insulated rock, in common with all " the high hills 
 under heaven," and left traces of its action less remark- 
 able, but not less equivocal than the transported blocks 
 on the plains of Poland, or the masses of granite upon 
 the Jura mountains.* But again, at the base of the same 
 
 * "The uncovered parts of the rock (of Gibraltar) expose to 
 the eye a phenomenon worthy of some attention, as it tends clearly 
 to demonstrate, that however high the surface of this rock may now 
 be elevated above the level of the sea, it has once been the bed of 
 agitated waters. This phenomenon is to be observed in many 
 parts of the rock ; it consists of pot-like holes of various sizes, 
 hollowed out of the solid rock, and formed apparently by the 
 attrition of gravel or pebbles, set in motion by the rapidity of rivers 
 or currents in the sea. One of those which had been recently laid 
 open I examined with attention, and found it to be five feet deep, 
 and three in diameter : the edge of its mouth rounded off, as if by 
 art, and its sides and bottom retaining a considerable degree of 
 polish. From its mouth, for three-and-a-half feet down, it was 
 filled with a red argillaceous earth, thinly mixed with minute parts 
 of transparent quartz crystals; the remaining foot-and-a-half, to 
 the bottom, contained an aggregate of water- worn stones, which 
 were from the size of a goose's egg, to that of a small walnut, and 
 
51 
 
 rock there are other fissures, which have been filled in 
 modern times with concretionary matter, principally 
 formed of pebbles of the limestone of which the hill is 
 composed, interspersed with the bones of birds, which in 
 the breeding season nestle in the clefts : and in one of 
 these concretions Major Imrie informs us, part of a 
 green-glass bottle was discovered, proving its recent 
 formation. And so, in this country, and in every part 
 of Europe, there are cracks or open fissures in limestone 
 rocks, such as those at Buncombe park, and at Selside 
 near Ingeborough, in Yorkshire, into which animals 
 browsing upon the surface have accidentally fallen and 
 perished, and where, as Professor Sedgwick observes, 
 great masses of bony breccia must have accumulated in 
 the course of two or three thousand years. 
 
 Again, there are other caverns, originally dens of 
 bears and hyaenas, into which man has, at a subsequent 
 period, retreated and perished, and left his remains 
 with those of his uncongenial predecessors : as at the 
 cavern at Bize, and those near Lunel-viel in France, 
 where the bones of quadrupeds, such as the rhinoceros, 
 bear, and hyaena, are confusedly intermixed with those 
 of the human species. These dissimilar relics might 
 have been simultaneously brought together from distant 
 situations,by the rush of water which conveyed the other 
 
 consisted of red jaspers, yellowish- white flints, white quartz, and 
 blueish- white agates, firmly combined by calcareous spar. In this 
 breccia / cou Id not discover any fragment of the mountain -rock, or 
 any calcareous matter except the cement with which it is combined. 
 This pot is nine hundred and forty feet above the level of the sea." 
 Major Imries Mineralogical Description of Gibraltar. 
 F 2 
 
extraneous substances into the cavern ; but the more 
 probable inference, and the one adopted by those who 
 have examined the facts, is, that their occurrence together 
 is accidental, and their production referrible to distinct 
 periods : that the animals whose bones predominate, 
 were the first tenants of the cavern : that the enormous 
 accumulation of bones was gradually effected, during 
 the long period in which wild beasts had uncontrolled 
 dominion in the forests of Europe : when every hole 
 appears to have been the lurking-place of hyaenas, and 
 every cave a bears' den ; that at a subsequent period 
 when these races had been extirpated, man found in 
 these vacated caverns a refuge from persecution, a 
 secure abode, or a place of sepulture : thus, we see a 
 single cavern may exhibit the monuments of several 
 distinct and widely-separated epochs : and we may 
 judge with what impropriety all these phenomena were 
 referred to the deluge. The difficulty which the general 
 absence of human bones in these reliquce diluviance, 
 presents, was soon felt by geologists who adopted this 
 hypothesis ; and it was supposed that the circumstance 
 could only be explained by the supposition that the 
 world, or at least that part of it in which these animal 
 remains are found in such abundance, was but thinly 
 peopled at the time of the deluge : or that the antedilu- 
 vian population was then confined to the Asiatic regions, 
 " the cradle of the human race," * which geologists 
 have not yet explored. 
 
 * Mr. Weaver, with whom Dr. Buckland coincides, says, " the 
 satisfactory solution of the general problem as far as it relates to 
 man, is probably to be sought more particularly in the Asiatic 
 
53 
 
 There appears, cl priori, to be no satisfactory rea- 
 son why human bones should not have been buried in 
 common with those of animals : the indestructible 
 ingredient, phosphate of lime, exists in them in equal 
 abundance, and we know that in modern times human 
 skeletons, accidentally enveloped, have undergone petri- 
 faction, or have been preserved in their original state 
 several thousand years. * We can only account for 
 their absence in the diluvial relics by the supposition 
 alluded to, that our race occupied only a limited portion 
 of the earth's surface, when destruction overtook " all 
 flesh wherein was the breath of life." Europe, it is 
 clear, during the period of the occupancy of the caves 
 by the ferocious animals, whose bones they enclose in 
 such prodigious quantities, could not have been inha- 
 bited by man. f 
 
 regions, the cradle of the human race : and that another interesting 
 branch of enquiry connected with it, is, whether any fossil remains 
 of elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and hysena, exist in the 
 diluvium of tropical countries : and if they do, whether they agree 
 with the the recent species of these genera, or with those extinct 
 species, whose remains are dispersed so largely over the temperate 
 and frigid zones of the northern hemisphere." 
 
 * " In a turbary on the estate of the Earl of Moira, in Ireland, 
 a human body was dug up, a foot deep in gravel, covered with 
 eleven feet of moss ; the body was completely clothed, and the 
 garments seemed all to be made of hair. Before the use of wool 
 was known in that country, the clothing of the inhabitants was 
 made of hair, so that it would appear that this body had been buried 
 at that early period ; yet it was fresh and unimpaired." Dr. 
 Rcnnie, Bss&lfap. 521. 
 
 f An idea of the vast number of animals entombed in these 
 natural cemeteries, may be formed from Dr. Buckland's account of 
 F3 
 
54 
 
 The correspondence of the animal remains in caves 
 with those in the superficial beds of loam and gravel 
 is a remarkable fact, but it does not prove that they 
 existed at the same period, or were simultaneously de- 
 stroyed ; for it is evident, a much higher antiquity must 
 be assigned to a large portion of the inhabitants of those 
 caves, in which countless generations had lived and died, 
 and a vast accumulation of animal ruins had been 
 effected, anterior to the action of the diluvial torrent, 
 which overwhelmed the surviving individuals, and 
 covered up the whole with extraneous matter. Besides, 
 in many cases, the caves had not only been occupied for 
 centuries, but these last effects were produced they were 
 abandoned and closed up long before the surface of 
 the earth experienced the violent denuding effect of the 
 
 the cave of Kiihloch in Franconia. He says " There are hundreds 
 of cart-loads of black animal dust entirely covering the whole 
 floor, to a depth which must average at least six feet, and which if 
 we multiply the depth by the length and breadth of the cavern, 
 will be found to exceed five thousand cubic feet. The quantity 
 of animal matter accumulated on this floor is the most surprising 
 and the only thing of the kind I ever witnessed ; and many 
 hundred, T may say thousand individuals, must have contributed 
 their remains to make up this appalling mass of the dust of death. 
 It seems in great part to be derived from comminuted and pul- 
 verised bone ; for the fleshy parts of animal bodies, produce by 
 their decomposition, so small a quantity of permanent earthy 
 residuum, that we must seek for the origin of this mass principally 
 in decayed bones. The cave is so dry, that the black earth lies in 
 the state of loose powder and rises in dust under the feet ; it also 
 retains so large a proportion of its original animal matter that it is 
 used occasionally by the peasants as an enriching manure for the 
 adjacent meadows." Reliquoe Diluviance, p. 138. 
 
55 
 
 deluge. This, the remarkable position of the entrances 
 of many of the bony caverns, especially those of Ger- 
 many, seems to prove. These are very commonly in 
 inaccessible situations in the face of precipitous rocks, 
 such as those of the remarkable caverns of Rabenstein, 
 Kiihloch, and Schneiderloch, in the gorge of the Esbach 
 river in Franconia, described by Dr. Buckland. In 
 these instances the original entrances of the caverns are 
 supposed to have been, not in the perpendicular sides of 
 the rocks where they are now found, but on the surface 
 of the elevated ground through which the river-gorge 
 has been excavated. This, the wood-engraving will 
 render more intelligible. 
 
 The entrance to the cave of Rabenstein is seen on 
 the right, in the face of the cliff beneath the chapel (a) ; 
 the river Esbach flows down the centre of the denuded 
 dell ; and the caves of Kiihloch (&), and Schneiderloch 
 (c] , are midway up the sides of the opposite cliffs. Dr. 
 Buckland very fairly infers that the high ground on each 
 side of the gorge, was originally continuous, and that 
 the mouths of the caverns were on the level of the 
 country in the space now occupied by the valley, as at 
 
56 
 
 Scharzfeld and other similar situations, and that at these 
 entrances the pebbles and diluvial mud which envelope 
 the bones were introduced : at the same time, he sup- 
 poses, the upper part of the caves were cut off, and the 
 gorge excavated : but there appears some inconsistency 
 in attributing to the same agency, effects so dissimilar 
 as the quiet deposition of a thin stratum of mud in the 
 caverns, and the exertion of a force so violent as to cut 
 out a channel in the solid rocks more than a hundred 
 feet deep ; one of these caves, moreover, like that of 
 Kirkdale, exhibits no traces of the diluvial action in its 
 interior : the aperture, therefore, must have been pre- 
 viously closed. All the circumstances, indeed, justify 
 the inference that these effects have been produced by a 
 succession of causes operating at distinct periods ; 
 although the phenomena of osseous caverns and breccia 
 generally, may be referred to the last transient rush of 
 waters over the surface the great debacle whose effects 
 we everywhere discover.* 
 
 * Mr. Lyell, and other writers, suppose that the earth's sur- 
 face underwent no great modification, at the era of the Mosaic 
 deluge, and that the strictest interpretation of the scriptural narra- 
 tive does not warrant us in expecting to find any gelogical monu- 
 ments of the catastrophe. That there was no impetuous rushing 
 of the waters, Mr. Lyell argues, the olive branch brought back by 
 the dove, is an unequivocal proof, as it is a clear indication that 
 the vegetation was not destroyed. His geological objections to the 
 universality of the flood are 1st, That there are cones or minor 
 volcanos on the flanks of Etna, at least ten thousand years' old, 
 which have escaped the denuding force. 2nd, There are living 
 trees, such as the Taxodiunt of Mexico, (one hundred and seventeen 
 feet in circumference,) which according to De Candolle, have stood 
 more than five thousand years. 3rd, That many alluviums are of 
 
57 
 
 Dr. Buckland deduces another consequence from 
 the inhabited caves and osseous fissures, i. e. that the 
 relative permanent position of sea and land was not 
 materially altered by the deluge, but that the antedilu- 
 vian surface or at least a large portion of the northern 
 hemisphere was the same with the present. This opinion, 
 though in the main a legitimate conclusion, must be 
 
 more remote antiquity than the period assigned to the deluge. 4th, 
 That the extinct volcanic region of France, respecting the action of 
 which history and tradition, although they go back two thousand 
 years, are silent, exhibits no traces of the diluvial wave, the cones 
 of loose cinders and craters, several hundred in number, not having 
 been disturbed since their eruption. The scriptural deluge he regards 
 as a preternatural event, far beyond the reach of philosophical inquiry, 
 whether as to the secondary, causes employed to produce it, or the 
 effects resulting from it. It is not a little singular, that a theorist who 
 with Titanic hand lifts up mountains at the equator, and sinks the 
 elevated regions of the north beneath the ocean, in order to account 
 for the change of climate which geological phenomena prove to have 
 taken place, should be so scrupulous about the introduction of secon- 
 dary causes. The difficulties he has stated are merely negative, and 
 the grounds upon which they are raised purely hypothetical, while the 
 positive proofs the more obvious diluvial phenomena remain 
 unexplained. Thus the remote antiquity assigned to the Etnean 
 cones, is deduced from the effects observed to take place from the 
 action of the volcano in modern times. Cuvier expresses in strong 
 terms his opinion of the inadequacy of existing causes to the pro- 
 duction of geological phenomena : " C'est en vain que Ton cherche 
 dans les forces qui agissent maintenant a la surface de la terre, des 
 causes suffisantes pour produire les revolutions et les catastrophes 
 dont son enveloppe nous montre les traces ; et si Ton veut recourir 
 aux forces exterieures constantes connues jusqu' a present, Ton n 'y 
 trouve pas plus de ressources." 
 
58 
 
 admitted only with modifications : * the force which 
 denuded the valleys might have excavated the basins 
 of shallow seas ; and we have seen how the coasts of the 
 Mediterranean, where the osseous breccia exist in such 
 abundance, have been disturbed. And we have other 
 proofs of similar disturbances yet to examine. 
 
 A remarkable feature of our coasts are the sub- 
 marine forests as they are termed buried trees, which 
 lie in immense numbers beneath the soil of our fens and 
 other flat lands. The level country adjoining the coast 
 from the Hum her to Norfolk, an immense tract of land 
 which the industry and wealth of modern times has 
 fertilized, is filled with the vestiges of these ancient 
 forests, although not a tree at present enlivens the dull 
 monotony of its surface. These vestiges consist of the 
 stems, branches, and roots, and even leaves, of the oak, 
 birch, fir, and other trees and shrubs, sometimes found 
 in a state of perfect preservation, the wood retaining its 
 natural fibre and original hardness. In many places 
 they are found beneath a sedimentary deposit, such as 
 that now left by the adjacent sea on the coasts, of con- 
 siderable thickness, as if an inundation of the ocean had 
 taken place since the destruction of the forests. The 
 
 * "Wherever such caves and fissures occur, i. e. in the greater 
 part of Europe, and in whatever other part of the world such bones 
 may be found under similar circumstances, there did not take place 
 any such interchange of the surfaces occupied respectively by land 
 and water, as many writers of high authority have conceived to 
 have immediately succeeded the last great geological revolution by 
 an universal and transient inundation which has effected the planet 
 we inhabit." Reliquce Diliiviance, p. 163. 
 
59 
 
 roots are in general affixed to the substratum of clay, 
 but the trunks appear to have been prostrated by some 
 violent agency. 
 
 The most difficult circumstance to explain, is the 
 position of these buried forests, which is generally below 
 the level of the sea, beneath which in fact they are known 
 to extend. A rise in the level of the ocean upon our coasts 
 suggests itself as the obvious mode of explaining the 
 difficulty : but in other situations beaches thrown up by 
 the waves would lead us to the opposite inference. 
 The instance given by Mr. de la Beche, of the deserted 
 beach near Plymouth, is a good illustration of this fact : 
 
 a is a sea-beach formed of an accumulation of rounded 
 pebbles, fragments of shells, and sand, precisely such as 
 the sea at present leaves, resting upon the inclined 
 limestone rock (b) at the height of thirty feet above the 
 present high-water mark (c) : this is again covered up by 
 a deposit (d) of loose angular fragments of the subjacent 
 limestone, which have slipped down over the beach. 
 Similar elevated beaches occur along the line of the neigh- 
 bouring coast from which the inference might fairly have 
 been deduced, that the level of the sea had fallen. But 
 again, not further distant than Mount's bay, in Cornwall, 
 the ebb of the tide exposes to view a submarine forest. 
 How then can phenomena so anomalous, and apparently 
 contradictory, be explained by any general hypothesis ? 
 Local elevations of the land on the one hand, and a 
 
60 
 
 partial subsidence of the sea on the other, produced by 
 some unknown internal agency, afford the only possible 
 solution of the enigma. 
 
 Every coast, more or less, exhibits the same com- 
 plicated changes. On the shores of the Baltic they had 
 long been observed, and an opinion was entertained that 
 the waters of that sea had been falling for ages, when 
 Celsius, a Swedish philosopher, thought he had estab- 
 lished the rate at which this subsidence had proceeded, 
 namely, forty-five inches in a century. On the other 
 hand it was contended that there was equal reason to 
 suppose that they were rising, as trees had been found 
 growing close to the level of the water, which the number 
 of the concentric rings in their trunks proved, had stood 
 at least four hundred years on the spot ; consequently 
 according to the hypothesis of Celsius, they must for a 
 long period have grown beneath the water, which was 
 impossible. But the fact that ancient ports had become 
 inland towns, and that many parts of the Gulf of 
 Bothnia were gradually becoming land, could not be 
 denied. Von Buch, therefore, suggested that the land 
 was in some places insensibly rising; and to verify the 
 opinion, lines were chisseled along the coast, by which 
 it was thought to be proved that the mean level of the 
 greater part of the Baltic was falling. This might have 
 been effected by the deepening of the channel of efflux (the 
 Sound) , but as the waters have sunk at Stockholm and not 
 at Abo, on the opposite coast, this hypothesis was 
 untenable. In this state of things, geologists set about 
 determining the subject, and M. Brongniart soon dis- 
 covered on the coast of Sweden, shells identical with the 
 species now existing in the sea below, adhering to rocks on 
 
61 
 
 which the water- had evidently rested a long time, a^the 
 height of four hundred feet above its present level 5 
 thus proving, what before had not been suspected, th$t 
 the land had been upheaved ; and Mr. Lyell, who has 
 travelled through these countries since the publication 
 of his interesting work, has observed other facts which 
 completely establish this opinion. 
 
 It is difficult to determine the precise position 
 which these events ought, to occupy in the earth's chro- 
 nology, but were we to judge of their antiquity by the 
 changes which have been produced in this part of the 
 world, during the historical period, we should assign to 
 them a very remote date. Thus, innumerable works of 
 art constructed by the Romans on the coast from Bel- 
 gium to Alexandria, prove that no considerable alteration 
 has taken place in the relative level of land and sea, 
 throughout Europe, since the period when that renowned 
 people" bestrode the world like a colossus." The tumuli 
 or earthy mounds raised by the ancient inhabitants of 
 this island and other parts of Europe, over the bodies 
 of their warriors and illustrious dead, which are known 
 to have existed at least two thousand years, remain to 
 this day undisturbed, except by the antiquarian. Roads 
 and bridges constructed by the Romans, exist to this 
 day unimpaired, in the volcanic regions of France, where 
 there are all the appearances of recent volcanic action, 
 although in the time of Caesar, who describes the same 
 appearances, history and tradition were silent as to the 
 period of their eruptions. Rome, " the eternal city'' 
 itself, as before observed, is built of stone derived from 
 rocks of modern origin, and its celebrated hills owe 
 G 
 
62 
 
 their elevation from the bed of the Mediterranean, to 
 volcanic action of recent date ; half the peninsula 
 of Italy in fact, is known to have arisen from the 
 depths of the Adriatic ; Venice, its far-famed " queen, " 
 standing upon the lowest and last-raised portion of its 
 oozy bed. 
 
 Had Nature exhibited an invariable constancy in 
 her movements had a uniformity of operation been 
 observed throughout every period of the earth's history, 
 in the causes which have produced the geological phe- 
 nomena, we should only require to know the amount of 
 diurnal action, in order to calculate the effects produced 
 in a lapse of ages, in the same manner as the laws which 
 govern the planetary system, and the remotest bodies in 
 space, are deduced from observations on the motion of 
 bodies upon the surface of the earth : and taking the 
 facts above adverted to, which seem to indicate a state 
 of quiescence or an inappreciable change during the 
 last two thousand years, we must go back far beyond 
 the deluge for the most recent of geological changes. But 
 the reasoning is delusive ; the physical constitution of 
 the globe has suffered from repeated convulsions : the 
 energies of Nature have been exerted in paroxysms, 
 succeeding intervals of repose, and not in uniform and 
 constant efforts. It was no security to the inhabitants 
 of Herculaneum, who might thus have reasoned, that 
 Vesuvius* had been dormant from the earliest times to 
 which tradition reached, nor is the absence of the dis- 
 
 * Vesuvius from the period of the colonkation of Italy by the 
 Greeks, until the year 79 after Christ, had betrayed no symptoms 
 
63 
 
 turbing forces in our own times and country, any proof 
 that they may not have acted with great intensity in this 
 part of the world at remote periods. Upon this rock Mr. 
 Lyell splits, and here all his contemporaries leave him. 
 Everything, he argues, indicates the constancy and 
 invariability of the operations of Nature. Semper 
 eadem is his motto, applied to her energies. An earth- 
 quake raises the coast of Chili five feet once in a century, 
 four thousand such shocks may have lifted up the 
 Andes, in the short space of four hundred thousand 
 years ! Why should Nature be " prodigal of her efforts 
 and parsimonious of time?" * 
 
 But to return from this digression. Having briefly 
 examined the operations of existing causes upon the 
 earth's surface, and enquired into the physical events 
 of contemporary and remote periods within the limits 
 of the present state of things events which have hap- 
 pened from the early period, when man and the present 
 species of animals first became tenants of the earth, 
 down to the occurrences recorded in history, or witnessed 
 in our own times, we shall be prepared to enter upon 
 the second and most important division of our subject, 
 the stratified masses, to which we alluded in the outset, 
 as constituting the superstructure of the globe of which 
 indeed all the changes we have hitherto passed in review 
 before us, are only modifications the mere effect, as it 
 were, of time and accident upon the great edifice which 
 
 of its volcanic character, when after several earthquakes, its fires 
 broke out with tremendous fury, and this celebrated city was in- 
 humed by the ejected matter. 
 
 * LyelL Principles of Geoloyy. 
 Q 2 
 
64 
 
 Nature has reared. In this inquiry, history and tradi- 
 tion cease- to aid us. No longer circumscribed by these, 
 we must push forward into the great ocean of Time, and 
 explore by the light of analogy the new world that lies 
 before us. 
 
65 
 
 STRATIFIED ROCKS. 
 
 OUR observations have hitherto been confined to 
 the earth's surface, we have now to penetrate into its 
 interior, to examine the monuments of past ages which 
 Nature has imbedded in the solid masonry of the vast 
 superstructure of the globe, as if to supply the chrono- 
 logist or historian in after times, with dates and facts for its 
 history, and preserve a record of events which would 
 have been lost in the oblivious stream of time ; in the 
 same manner as in great works of architecture, coins, 
 medals, and inscriptions, are placed in some indestruc- 
 tible portion of the building, in order that posterity may 
 identify the period and circumstances of its erection, 
 should all other records be lost. As we have before 
 seen, Nature has not piled Pelion upon Ossa, or Ossa 
 upon Pelion indiscriminately, as we might from super- 
 ficial observation infer, nor has she reared a rude edifice 
 of unshapen materials like the Cyclopean masonry, but 
 throughout the great fabric of the earth has preserved a 
 symmetrical arrangement and a unity of design ; and in 
 no portion of her work has she omitted to enclose some 
 memorial of the circumstances and events of the period 
 when it was produced. 
 
 The principal agent employed in the formation of 
 G 3 
 
66 
 
 the stratified masses, appears to have been the ocean, or 
 other large bodies of water, in which the materials of 
 the rocky strata have been suspended and quietly de- 
 posited, and the innumerable inhabitants of that element, 
 whose remains form in many cases a considerable por- 
 tion of the consolidated substance, lived and died. 
 But this sedimentary process has not gone on uniformly 
 from the beginning of time : the ocean has not always 
 continued to deposit layer upon layer of earthy 
 matter ; its operations have been interrupted and for a 
 time suspended, and again renewed under different cir- 
 cumstances, by convulsions in the interior of the earth, 
 or changes upon its surface. Thus after a long series 
 of ages, during which it may have deposited an immense 
 mass of calcareous matter, the bed is perhaps upheaved, 
 the sea is dispossessed of its dominion, and land animals 
 and plants flourish on the oozy mass, where shells and 
 fishes had before luxuriated. 
 
 It is this alternation, this succession of distinct 
 operations, which has produced the series of stratified 
 masses, which it is now our business to examine, and 
 an enquiry attended with more interesting results never 
 occupied the mind of man. For we soon discover that 
 it is not merely the inorganic matter composing the 
 earth's crust which has been remodelled in these geolo- 
 gical changes, but that the animated creation has expe- 
 rienced still greater mutations, many species of animals 
 being entombed in the strata which no longer exist upon 
 the earth. Both sea and land appear to have been 
 peopled with distinct races of inhabitants at successive 
 periods, as every formation contains the remains of 
 organic beings peculiar to itself. These organic relics 
 
67 
 
 are not found in the same state as those of a more recent 
 period the elephants' tusks and bones of the diluvial 
 gravel, and the osseous caves, which we have hitherto 
 examined ; but in all cases, the substances, whether 
 animal or vegetable, have undergone petrifaction the 
 most delicate plant, the microscopic shell, and the 
 hardest bone, being alike converted into the material of 
 the rock in which they are preserved. How this meta- 
 morphosis was produced, by what process of transmu- 
 tation the original elements were replaced, atom for atom, 
 by matter in some cases so dissimilar as for instance, 
 vegetable matter converted into silex, or animal sub- 
 stance into sulphuret of iron without destroying or in 
 the least defacing their external configuration, is an 
 interesting inquiry for the chemist, but it appears to be 
 one of those secret operations conducted in Nature's 
 laboratory, which we shall never perfectly understand. 
 It is from these records, engraven upon stone, as it were 
 by the finger of the Deity, that geologists have been 
 enabled to frame a chronology of the earth, to assign 
 certain periods to certain events, to trace the history of 
 organized beings through a countless succession of ages, 
 up to the period when the Omniscient fiat first said " Let 
 there be life upon the earth," to ascend, in fact, the 
 stream of time almost to its source. But in an inquiry 
 so vast, involving a succession of events so complicated 
 and remote, united by insensible gradations, where shall 
 we commence and how measure our progress ? 
 
 There being throughout the mineral masses a 
 regular order of superposition, and an apparent grada- 
 tion in the fossil organic remains which they contain, 
 indicative of their respective ages, we ought in the 
 
68 
 
 highest of the series to find the nearest approach in 
 their organic contents, to the existing animals and 
 vegetables of the countries in which they are situated. 
 Now, were we to examine the hed of the ocean, we 
 should find it filled with shells and other organic re- 
 mains of animals, corresponding precisely with those 
 which now inhabit it ; hut extending our observations 
 to the elevated coast which skirts it, our eastern coast 
 for instance, we discover a similar accumulation of 
 sedimentary matter, (the English crag,) containing a 
 large proportion of fossilized shells of the same species 
 as those now existing in the sea below, but including 
 also others, of which there is no existing types ; and 
 looking further inland, we see rising from beneath the 
 crag another more extensive deposit, formed at an earlier 
 period beneath the ocean, in which the number of shells 
 corresponding with living species is considerably fewer, 
 and as our observations are continued, the analogy 
 ceases altogether, and the existing species entirely dis- 
 appear. With the most recent of these formations, 
 therefore, we commence our inquiry, and go back 
 through these various gradations to the oldest and 
 lowest in the series of fossiliferous rocks. 
 
 Until a recent period, the newest of the rock for- 
 mations was supposed to be the chalk, but a most in- 
 teresting series of beds, which exhibit, in a remarkable 
 manner, the retrogression in their organic contents to 
 which we have just adverted, is known to geologists as 
 the supracretaceous group, a term recently adopted, 
 which expresses their position supra upon, creta the 
 chalk they being invariably found resting upon that 
 remarkable rock, which, previous to the deposition of 
 
69 
 
 these superior beds, appears to have undergone abrasion, 
 and to have been hollowed out into deep valleys or de- 
 pressions in the surface, which these formations now 
 occupy. 
 
 The supracretaceous beds constitute a large portion 
 of the surface of Europe, and they have been traced 
 with great diligence from the newest to the oldest, from 
 the Subapennine beds on the shores of the Adriatic, 
 where the line of demarcation between the fossil remains 
 and existing species is scarcely visible, to the chalk with 
 its extinct species ; and a sub-classification founded upon 
 their organic contents has been adopted, which is sup- 
 posed to express their relative ages. * To go into a 
 detailed account of this interesting group of stratified 
 masses, even to attempt a bare enumeration of all the 
 localities and remarkable circumstances attending them, 
 would be inconsistent with the design of this " Sketch," 
 in which it is proposed to trace merely an outline of the 
 leading features of geological discovery. 
 
 * M. Deshayes and Mr. Lyell both suggested, about the same 
 time, this subdivision of the supracretaceous group of rocks : to 
 the former, however, belongs the merit of having most laboriously 
 examined the multitude of shells belonging to these formations, 
 and of having first arranged them in a chronological series. The 
 division, however, adopted, is merely one of convenience, and Mr. 
 Lyell's terms, Eocene, Miocene, and Pliocene are entirely arbitrary, 
 and can never be generally applicable. The circumstances under 
 which distant deposits were effected, must have influenced so con- 
 siderably the character of the animals and plants entombed in them, 
 that any terms expressive of their relative ages founded entirely 
 upon these, are calculated only to deceive, and to defeat rather 
 than to promote the object of geological research. 
 
70 
 
 By a remarkable coincidence, the two great capitals 
 of Europe, London and Paris, stand in the centre of 
 two of these supracretaceous formations, and it is to 
 the fortunate circumstance of Paris being so situate, that 
 geology owes its present advanced state. The extraor- 
 dinary discoveries made in the environs of that city by 
 the celebrated Cuvier, and his associate Brongniart^ 
 which first exhibited to the astonished world the forms 
 of animals hitherto unknown to the naturalist, and 
 proved that so remarkable a site, had at former periods 
 been the theatre of successive revolutions, both in the 
 animal and mineral kingdoms, formed an era in geology, 
 and gave a new impulse, not only to this, but to the other 
 natural sciences, everywhere an intense desire being 
 excited to become acquainted with the phenomena and 
 causes of these strange mutations. As the formations 
 in the Paris basin as it is termed, have been, from this 
 circumstance, more accurately examined than in any 
 other locality of similar extent, we will take them as a 
 model of the strata under consideration ; but it must 
 not be from hence inferred, that the supracretaceous 
 rocks, which form, perhaps, three-fourths of the surface 
 of Europe, are in every instance piled upon each other, 
 in conformity with this model of a district containing 
 only a few hundreds of square miles. There is, however, 
 a remarkable coincidence everywhere observed in the 
 leading features the alternations of marine and fresh- 
 water productions which characterize these formations, 
 however distant the locality, or dissimilar the circum- 
 stances under which they have been produced. * 
 
 * It appears from recent descriptions of the great mountain 
 chain of Caucasus, by Klaproth and Kupfer, that supracretaceous 
 
71 
 
 The minute and accurate examination which the country 
 surrounding Paris has undergone, has led to the dis- 
 covery that an area of ninety miles in diameter, of which 
 that city is the centre, has been at different periods 
 occupied alternately by the sea, and fresh- water lakes 
 or large rivers, whose successive deposits have formed 
 an accumulation of distinct beds of earthy matter several 
 hundred feet in thickness, in each of which indelible 
 traces of the causes by which they were produced may 
 be observed on the one hand, the sea entombed in 
 immense profusion the remains of the shelly inhabitants 
 with which it was peopled ; on the other, the fresh- water 
 enclosed in its sedimentary beds riot only its peculiar 
 shells and aquatic tribes, but relics of the strange 
 quadrupeds which frequented its margin, and were 
 accidentally drowned or overwhelmed by inundations, 
 together with specimens of the vegetation of the period 
 the trees and plants which grew upon the dry land in 
 its vicinity. Thrice was the sea quietly but effectually 
 displaced by fresh water, during the long interval in 
 which these deposits were accumulating, and at each 
 successive period a decided change in the inhabitants of 
 both sea and land is discernible, indicative, -in the main, 
 of that approach to existing species to which we have 
 
 rocks (of which the youngest contain shells of species actually 
 existing in Lake Aral and the Caspian sea,) approach to the foot 
 of that lofty ridge of mountains, and being elevated by it, attain a 
 height of two thousand five hundred feet ! They alternate with 
 fluviatile beds (deposits from rivers,) even at that elevation, and 
 repose as elsewhere upon a chalk formation, which in its turn 
 covers the oolitic series skirting the older rocks, precisely as we might 
 have inferred from the analogy of the English strata. 
 
before alluded. The subjoined diagram will aid the 
 description of these remarkable alternations, and it will 
 also illustrate the violent denudation (stripping) which 
 these beds, in common with all the solid strata of the 
 globe, have undergone since their original formation. 
 It is by these natural excavations that we get an insight 
 into the superposition of mineral masses, which would 
 otherwise be concealed from our view, and obtain access 
 to rocks, for building and other useful purposes, which, 
 but for this denudation, would be inaccessible. Thus 
 the city of Paris, although in the very heart of the 
 basin, where we should find the greatest accumulation of 
 these supracretaceous beds, stands upon one of the lowest 
 rocks of the series, the calcaire grossier, in which those 
 singular excavations, the catacombs, have been made for 
 the stone of which the city is built. But in the hill 
 of Montmartre and on the opposite side of the denuded 
 valley through which the Seine now flows, we discover 
 the whole series piled upon each other in their proper 
 order of succession, and corresponding so exactly with 
 each other in position, character, and thickness, that 
 they must have been, originally, continuous across the 
 intermediate valley; which, however, the section will 
 make more obvious than any explanation. 
 
 Chalk 
 
 Now if we trace these beds in the order in which 
 they rest upon each other, commencing at the chalk, 
 which we shall hereafter consider, and ascending to the 
 
73 
 
 surface, we find reposing upon that rock and filling up 
 the irregularities upon its surface, a bed of clay ( 1 ) of 
 variable thickness, termed plastic, from the circumstance 
 of its readily retaining the forms impressed upon it, 
 which was evidently formed beneath a freshwater lake, 
 or in the estuary of a large river, from the great accu- 
 mulation of vegetable remains, with shells peculiar to 
 freshwater, preserved in its substance. These relics of 
 vegetation consist either of impressions of the branches, 
 stems, and leaves of trees or plants, moulded in the 
 inflexible material which envelopes them, or of a mass of 
 these converted into carbonaceous matter, in which the 
 vegetable structure is obliterated, arranged in layers of 
 earthy coal (lignite) jet, and even pure coal ; but it may 
 be observed, that there is no similarity of character in 
 these vegetable productions and those found in the regular 
 coal-formations, which belong to a widely-distinct period. 
 The bones of amphibious reptiles are found associated 
 with these productions of the land, but no remains of 
 land animals and mammifera.* It appears from recent 
 discoveries, that in the upper portion of this bed of 
 plastic clay in some situations, sea shells are found in- 
 termixed with freshwater shells and drifted wood, from 
 which it has been inferred that it was deposited at the 
 entrance of a large river into the sea, in the same manner 
 as wood and other land-productions may be drifted down 
 the Mississippi, and mixed with sea-shells in the bed of 
 the Gulf of Mexico. 
 
 To the plastic clay succeeds the calcaire grassier, 
 
 * Mnmmifera animals which suckle their young, from mamma 
 breast, and/ero, to bear. 
 
 H 
 
74 
 
 (2 in the section,) a coarse limestone of great thickness, in 
 which myriads of marine remains are entombed, which 
 appears to have been quietly deposited during the long 
 period which the sea must have rested over this district. 
 The most remarkable feature of this formation is its divi- 
 sion into layers of distinct earthy matter, like courses of 
 masonry in a building, which present, wherever they are 
 examined, not only their peculiar fossil contents, but a 
 uniform thickness, although this may, in many cases r 
 amount only to a few inches. This extraordinary regu- 
 larity of formation indicates that they were deposited in a 
 tranquil sea, while, on the other hand, the comminuted 
 and triturated state of many of the shells, might lead us to 
 infer that they had been exposed to the action of agitated 
 waters. Eight hundred species of shells, few of which 
 correspond with any now existing, have been exhumed 
 from the beds of the calcaire grossier, * and a regular 
 
 * Mr, Lyell mentions the circumstance of the great pre- 
 dominance in this limestone of shells referrible to the genus 
 cerithium a testaceous shell, which is known to inhabit the sea 
 near the mouths of rivers where the waters are brackish as 
 affording strong evidence in favour of his hypothesis, that the 
 vegetable deposits in the inferior formation, as well as those 
 occasionally found in the one under consideration, were brought 
 down by the currents of rivers which flowed into the gulf or bay, 
 in the bottom of which this calcareous bed was formed. But 
 wherever they may have been deposited, whether in the bed of 
 rivers or of a fresh- water lake, it is clear that such prodigious 
 accumulations of vegetable matter, could only have been effected 
 gradually, and their uniformity over a large area, and their alter- 
 nation with other distinct masses, can hardly be attributed to the 
 accidental drifting of wood by rivers. For instance, although the 
 Mississippi may annually bring down an immense quantity of tree& 
 
75 
 
 gradation, not only in their character, but in their 
 quantity, is observable as we proceed upwards, the 
 upper layers being almost destitute of fossils, as if the 
 waters, beneath which they were deposited, no longer 
 contained shell-fish, or had ceased to preserve them. 
 
 Passing over a thin silicious stratum with marine 
 remains, we arrive at the celebrated gypsum beds, 
 (marked 3 in the section,) and here an exhaustless field 
 of interest opens upon our view. In these strata, which 
 consist of alternate layers of gypsum, marl, and lime- 
 stone, there are buried innumerable bones of unknown 
 quadrupeds, birds, tortoises, crocodiles, and insects, 
 mixed with shells and fishes of freshwater species, proving 
 that the sea, after a long period, had again abandoned 
 the basin, and left it occupied by a lake or morass ; or 
 that the waters of a river had driven back the ocean and 
 its briny tenants. * A change in the nature of the 
 
 and vegetable matter, of which it has despoiled the country in its 
 course, it would not systematically spread them in the Gulf of 
 Mexico, or in its estuary, so as to form a continuous stratum 
 to be immediately covered up by the sediment from the ocean, but 
 their deposit would of necessity be accidental, and entirely for- 
 tuitous, dependent upon the depth of water, the force of currents, 
 and the relative buoyancy of the transported matter. Alternate 
 effects must have been produced by alternate causes. 
 
 *M. Prevost, whom Mr. Lyell quotes and confirms, states, that 
 in some situations these gypseous beds alternate with some of the 
 upper strata of the inferior formation, the calcaire grossier, and 
 that the gypsum is most fully developed in the centre of the basin, 
 and from hence argues, that while the sea was forming its cal- 
 careous beds in other directions, a river, holding this sulphate of 
 lime in solution, was here depositing the gypsum and the land 
 productions which were floated down its stream. It proves unques- 
 tionably that the transition was not so sudden and complete as 
 H 2 
 
78 
 
 between the horse and the tapir, with the small stupid 
 eye of the hog. Seven species have been described by 
 Cuvier. It has been found in the Isle of Wight, and 
 in many more recent formations, but never in the caves 
 or in diluvial gravel. It is one of those species that had 
 ceased to exist before the appearance of man upon the 
 earth. The animal remains are not more strange than 
 those of the vegetable kingdom associated with them, 
 for these all belong to species peculiar to tropical 
 climates. 
 
 During the accumulation of this deposit, a great 
 extent of dry land must have existed in the neighbour- 
 hood, but this was destined to be again overwhelmed, 
 the sea suddenly resumed its dominion, reoccupied the 
 place of the fresh- water lake or river, and left beneath 
 its waters a mass of micaceous sand, (4 in the diagram) 
 eighty feet in thickness, filled exclusively with the 
 peculiar remains of the shelly tribe of animals which at 
 this period inhabited the ocean. Again, for the last 
 time, the briny element retreated, a lake took possession 
 of its vacated bed, in which the animals and plants 
 living upon its banks were submerged ; its shallow 
 waters were gradually dried up, and its marshy bed 
 (5) * now forms the summit of many of the vine- clad 
 
 * The prevalence of a species of plant called by botanists 
 charce, or water-loving plants, in this formation, has been with great 
 probability suggested, as indicating that the water which at this 
 period succeeded the ocean, existed in the state of marshy or 
 shallow lakes, such as now overspread the flat lands in the delta 
 of a large river, or a lake which has been partially silted up ; as 
 these plants are always found in such situations ; and the animal 
 remains also are such as coincide with this supposition. 
 
79 
 
 hills of that fertile country, where, apparently secure 
 from a renewal of the " war of elements," in which 
 myriads of individuals and whole races of animals have 
 been annihilated, man now pursues the peaceful occu- 
 pations of industry, interrupted only by the revolutions 
 of society, the convulsions of passion, and the con- 
 tentions of party, the destructive and frightful operations 
 of which this eventful region has also been the theatre. 
 
 The same succession of events which produced the 
 series of rocks we have been examining, in France, 
 occurred perhaps at the same geological period in this 
 country, where, however, the mineralogical character and 
 thickness of the masses is so distinct as almost to defy 
 recognition. It is their position in isolated basins 
 formed in the chalk, and the similarity of fossil organic 
 contents, which prove their identity. No remains of mam- 
 malia are found in the London clay, (although in the cor- 
 responding formation in the Isle of Wight they have lately 
 been observed) , but skeletons of amphibious reptiles have 
 been discovered, and in a detached portion of this bed, 
 the Isle of Sheppey, at the mouth of the Thames, plants, 
 fruit of the cocoa-nut species, and spices of tropical cli- 
 mates exist in great profusion. 
 
 Great commotions and convulsions appear to have 
 aflected the surface of this part of the earth, soon after the 
 deposition of the tertiary* beds, which have upheaved or 
 
 * Tertiary is the term usually applied by geologists to the 
 aupracretaceous formations, Dut there seems so much impropriety 
 in the use of a term which expresses neither the age nor the position 
 in the series of this important group of rocks, that I have ven- 
 tured, for the reasons before stated, to adopt, generally, the more 
 approved term, supracretaoeous. 
 
78 
 
 between the horse and the tapir, with the small stupid 
 eye of the hog. Seven species have been described by 
 Cuvier. It has been found in the Isle of Wight, and 
 in many more recent formations, but never in the caves 
 or in diluvial gravel. It is one of those species that had 
 ceased to exist before the appearance of man upon the 
 earth. The animal remains are not more strange than 
 those of the vegetable kingdom associated with them, 
 for these all belong to species peculiar to tropical 
 climates. 
 
 During the accumulation of this deposit, a great 
 extent of dry land must have existed in the neighbour- 
 hood, but this was destined to be again overwhelmed, 
 the sea suddenly resumed its dominion, reoccupied the 
 place of the fresh- water lake or river, and left beneath 
 its waters a mass of micaceous sand, (4 in the diagram) 
 eighty feet in thickness, filled exclusively with the 
 peculiar remains of the shelly tribe of animals which at 
 this period inhabited the ocean. Again, for the last 
 time, the briny element retreated, a lake took possession 
 of its vacated bed, in which the animals and plants 
 living upon its banks were submerged ; its shallow 
 waters were gradually dried up, and its marshy bed 
 (5) * now forms the summit of many of the vine- clad 
 
 * The prevalence of a species of plant called by botanists 
 charce, or water-loving plants, in this formation, has been with great 
 probability suggested, as indicating that the water which at this 
 period succeeded the ocean, existed in the state of marshy or 
 shallow lakes, such as now overspread the flat lands in the delta 
 of a large river, or a lake which has been partially silted up ; as 
 these plants are always found in such situations ; and the animal 
 remains also are such as coincide with this supposition. 
 
79 
 
 hills of that fertile country, where, apparently secure 
 from a renewal of the " war of elements," in which 
 myriads of individuals and whole races of animals have 
 been annihilated, man now pursues the peaceful occu- 
 pations of industry, interrupted only hy the revolutions 
 of society, the convulsions of passion, and the con- 
 tentions of party, the destructive and frightful operations 
 of which this eventful region has also been the theatre. 
 
 The same succession of events which produced the 
 series of rocks we have been examining, in France, 
 occurred perhaps at the same geological period in this 
 country, where, however, the mineralogical character and 
 thickness of the masses is so distinct as almost to defy 
 recognition. It is their position in isolated basins 
 formed in the chalk, and the similarity of fossil organic 
 contents, which prove their identity. No remains of mam- 
 malia are found in the London clay, (although in the cor- 
 responding formation in the Isle of Wight they have lately 
 been observed) , but skeletons of amphibious reptiles have 
 been discovered, and in a detached portion of this bed, 
 the Isle of Sheppey, at the mouth of the Thames, plants, 
 fruit of the cocoa-nut species, and spices of tropical cli- 
 mates exist in great profusion. 
 
 Great commotions and convulsions appear to have 
 affected the surface of this part of the earth, soon after the 
 deposition of the tertiary* beds, which have upheaved or 
 
 * Tertiary is the term usually applied by geologists to the 
 supracretaceous formations, out there seems so much impropriety 
 in the use of a term which expresses neither the age nor the position 
 in the series of this important group of rocks, that I have ven- 
 tured, for the reasons before stated, to adopt, generally, the more 
 approved term, supracretaceous. 
 
80 
 
 depressed them in common with the lower rocks ; thus, 
 the now insulated basins of London and the Isle of 
 Wight appear to have been originally continuous, but 
 have been separated by the elevation of the intervening 
 chalk hills, from which the upper formations have been 
 subsequently washed away by the violent agency which 
 scooped out our valleys : and the occurrence of the lower 
 members of this series capping the older summits of hills 
 in the west and other parts of England, precisely as they 
 are found in the country intervening between London and 
 the Isle of Wight, seems to indicate that they originally 
 extended far beyond their present circumscribed limits. 
 The general inference from all the facts connected with 
 the supracretaceous rocks, is, that Europe at the period 
 of their formation was partially covered with extensive 
 lakes, into which the sea made occasional inroads, and 
 from alterations in the surface effected by internal 
 commotions, which were then frequent, was repeatedly 
 admitted and excluded, while rivers emptying their 
 waters into these great reservoirs, aided in accumulating 
 the debris of land animals and plants. Some of these 
 lakes continued to exist until a very late period in 
 geological history, and the outlets by which they were 
 drained and laid dry still remain : as for instance, at the 
 mountain gorge of the Fortl'Ecluse, through which the 
 Rhone now escapes from Switzerland ; and the narrow 
 pass of the Rhine at Bingen, previous to the forcing of 
 which the waters of these Alpine rivers overspread a 
 large expanse of country, in the superficial strata of 
 which evident traces of their long and tranquil sojourn- 
 men t may be observed. 
 
 As we failed to identify the remains of the human 
 
81 
 
 species with the caverned bones and relics buried in the 
 diluvial and other beds, which belong to the most recent 
 of geological periods, their entire absence in the solid 
 strata will create no surprise. But when all the pheno- 
 mena of fossil remains, whether dispersed on the surface 
 or imbedded in rocks, were referred to the deluge, 
 naturalists experienced great disappointment at not 
 finding the bones of man associated with those of the 
 animals which they regarded as his contemporaries : it 
 was an anomaly which, prolific as was their age in 
 theory, they were utterly unable to explain. Judge 
 then of the satisfaction with which the announcement of 
 Scheuchzer, of the discovery of a human skeleton im- 
 bedded in the limestone of (Eningen, * was hailed by 
 these enthusiastic theorists. Their hypothesis was no 
 longer questionable, scepticism must hide its diminished 
 head before this " preuve indubitable" Scheuchzer 
 described it in a learned dissertation in the " Philo- 
 sophical Transactions" for 1 726, entitled "Homo diluvii 
 testis" or the man who witnessed 
 the deluge, accompanied by an 
 engraving on wood on the natural 
 scale ; (the sketch in the margin is, 
 however, copied from Cuvier's 
 drawing.) And again, in a subse- 
 quent work, the " Physique Sa- 
 cree," he introduces the portrait 
 and description, and assures us 
 " that it is indubitable and that 
 it contains the moiety of the 
 
 * The rock of Oil iiingeu in which these remains were found, 
 is a lacustrine formation of recent date, highly prolific in organic 
 
82 
 
 skeleton of a man that even the substance of the bones, 
 and what is more, the flesh, and parts still softer than 
 flesh, are incorporated in the stone ; in fact, that it is 
 one of the rarest relics that we can possess of the de- 
 voted race which perished at the flood !" * What must 
 have been the state of science when a philosopher and 
 an eminent physician knew so little of comparative 
 anatomy ? when the scientific world could be persuaded 
 to believe that an arrangement of bones so dissimilar, 
 resembled the human form ? Our astonishment at 
 the crudities and absurdities of the early theories of the 
 earth ceases, when we regard the extraordinary ignorance 
 which then prevailed. But how great had been the 
 progress of comparative anatomy, and with what rapid 
 strides it must have marched, when Cuvier could deduce 
 from a single bone the form and species of the entire 
 animal ! Scheuchzer's imposture, however, did not 
 long continue, it was soon discovered that this was the 
 skeleton of an individual of some other " racemaudite" 
 
 relics of animals and plants ; which are said to be of species 
 belonging to a climate approximating to that of Europe at the 
 present day, while in older deposits they are referrible exclusively 
 to tropical species. The Rhine has cut a passage through this 
 rock since its deposition. 
 
 * The deception might not have been originally so palpable, 
 as the collateral parts of the skeleton were not developed until 
 Cuvier, at the request of the director of the museum at Haarlem, in 
 181 1, examined and chisseled away the stone, where from the model 
 of a living species he expected to find other bones a process which 
 must have been singularly gratifying to the Baron, as hitherto 
 concealed portions rose up as it were beneath his chisel, in accord- 
 ance with his expectations, and in conformity with the model of 
 the species of animal to which he had at first glance referred it. 
 
83 
 
 and eventually the " man who saw the deluge" was 
 proved by Cuvier to be an aquatic salamander. 
 
 But this is not the only mistake into which philo- 
 sophers have fallen, in their eagerness to discover some 
 traces of the antediluvian population. Two real skele- 
 tons of human beings, discovered in a solid rock on the 
 shores of the island of Guadaloupe, a few years ago, 
 were for some time regarded as unequivocal remains of 
 the unfortunate contemporaries of Noah ; and to this 
 day hundreds of those who view the well-known fossil 
 skeleton in the British Museum, for want of better 
 information, regard it as a genuine homo dilumi testis. 
 But even this inference, sanctioned as it appears to be 
 by probability, was too hasty, and is now abandoned by 
 geologists. A careful examination of the spot where 
 they were discovered, proves that the mass of rock 
 which enclosed them is of very recent origin, and in 
 fact, is still accumulating, being merely a bank raised 
 by the sea at the foot of a slope on the shores of the 
 island, and formed of sand, shells, coral, and other 
 matter thrown p by the waves, and solidified in the 
 manner of stalactites* and travertin, which we described 
 among the effects of the existing operations of nature, 
 so that in all probability these ancient relics, are merely 
 the encrusted bones of some shipwrecked mariners of 
 this or the preceding century. It is impossible to infer 
 the age of any of these sedimentary rocks from their 
 mineral character, the most recent and even contem- 
 porary deposits, as we have seen, being sometimes as 
 completely indurated as the most ancient marbles. 
 
 * Solid matter deposited from water holding lime in solution. 
 
Among the extinct animals which modern research 
 has brought to light, the megatherium, from mega great, 
 and therion wild beast, is the most remarkable for its 
 colossal size and extraordinary proportions. It may 
 not, perhaps, strictly belong to the period under con- 
 sideration, and indeed the general inference is, that it 
 existed subsequently to the extinction of the palaeothe- 
 rium, and the other strange quadrupeds buried in the 
 supracretaceous rocks of Europe, but it is too remarkable 
 a character to be omitted in our retrospect of the early 
 inhabitants of the earth, and is, moreover, deserving of 
 attention from the interesting inferences to be adduced 
 from its peculiar organization. Only two individuals of 
 this species of animal have been discovered, but from 
 the fortunate circumstance of one having been found 
 almost entire, naturalists have been able to investigate 
 its structure with more precision than that of many 
 others, whose remains, though existing in greater abun- 
 dance, are generally dispersed. The discovery of this 
 interesting skeleton was entirely accidental. A peasant 
 passing along the river Solado, near Bueftos Ayres, threw 
 his lasso at something which stood half-concealed in 
 the stream, and dragged on shore the enormous pelvis 
 of the animal. This led to a further search, the river 
 was diverted from its course by means of a dam for that 
 purpose, and the rest of the bones with the teeth and 
 claws, imbedded in a stratum of blue clay, through which 
 the river had cut its channel, were soon brought to light 
 and transferred to Madrid, where, the several portions 
 having been carefully put together and the animal anatom- 
 ically re-constructed, this " mighty pre- Adamite" now 
 forms the most remarkable feature of the royal museum. 
 
85 
 
 The megatherium, although of such gigantic dimen- 
 sions, is considered to have been a species of sloth, with 
 a maily covering like the armadillo. Cuvier calls it 
 the "paresseux yeant" and inferred from its organiza- 
 tion, that like the sloth it fed upon vegetables, but 
 while the one lived upon leaves the other fed upon roots. 
 Buffon and other naturalists have regarded the organiza- 
 tion of these animals as imperfect, and considered them 
 clumsy performances of nature, in which the inconveni- 
 ences resulting from deformity were attended with no 
 compensating advantages. Professor JBuckland, in a 
 recent lecture, has shewn the absurdity of this inference, 
 and proved by an admirable train of inferential reasoning, 
 deducing the habits of the extinct animal from its organ- 
 ization, that so far from their being abortions, they are 
 beautiful instances of that richness of contrivance by 
 which all organized beings are adapted to the circum- 
 stances in which they are placed, and the part they are 
 destined to perform in the creation. The peculiarities 
 of the sloth, although they unfit it for moving with ease 
 upon the earth, admirably adapt it for its destined resi- 
 dence upon the branches of trees ; so the proportions of 
 the megatherium, apparently so anomalous, are exqui- 
 sitely arranged with a view to its intended subsistence 
 upon those tubercular roots which abound in the 
 countries where its remains were found, and which, from 
 the construction of its grinders, it is inferred, were the 
 food of this animal. " Its teeth," says Dr. Buckland, 
 " though ill-adapted for the mastication of flesh or grass, 
 are wonderfully contrived for the crushing of roots, 
 with the further advantage of keeping themselves sharp- 
 set in the very act of performing their work." 
 i 
 
An idea may be formed of the outline and general 
 proportions of the megatherium, from the subjoined 
 sketch, copied from Cuvier's very accurate drawing. 
 
 The animal was about twelve feet long and eight 
 high. The fore feet, nearly a yard in length and exceed- 
 ing a foot in breadth, were armed with three enormous 
 claws, each more than a foot long, which it is supposed 
 to have constantly employed in scraping roots from the 
 ground, while the weight of its ponderous body rested 
 firmly upon its hinder extremities the anterior part of 
 the skeleton, it will be perceived, is light and elegant 
 compared with the posterior proportions, which are said 
 to exceed in bulk those of the largest elephant. To this 
 incongruous mass of bones was added a coat of mail, 
 which it is suggested was to protect the animal from the 
 annoyance which the sand and dirt raised in digging for 
 its food would occasion,* or it might have been intended 
 to render the animal invulnerable to all external attacks, 
 whether from venomous insects, to which, in the tropical 
 climates where it existed, it would be exposed, or from 
 
 * The armadillos which obtain their food by digging in this 
 manner, are also covered with a maily skin. 
 
87 
 
 beasts of prey, with whom, notwithstanding its colos- 
 sal size, it was ill-prepared to contend. 
 
 Considerations such as these, exhibit in a new and 
 stronger light the beautiful harmony and unity of design 
 which pervades the creation, and gives geology a new 
 claim upon the philosopher and theologian. Thus, while 
 astronomy proves to us that the ponderous orb which 
 hangs in mysterious equilibrium in our system, and the 
 stupendous worlds, which, with the great globe itself, 
 whirl with inconceivable force and never- failing regu- 
 larity around it, are acted upon and governed by the 
 same laws as those which regulate the apparently capri- 
 cious motions of the smallest atom which dances in the 
 sunbeam, geology shews us that the same wise contri- 
 vance and skill, which characterize the structure of the 
 animated being of to-day, is stamped upon the organic 
 relics of the remotest period of the past. But, reserving 
 for the future these reflections, we must proceed in our 
 examination of the stratified masses, in which new won- 
 ders and new objects of admiration will present them- 
 selves as we advance. 
 
 The supracretaceous rocks, which have perhaps 
 occupied a larger share of attention than is com- 
 mensurate with their relative importance, or compatible 
 with the plan of this sketch, rest invariably upon 
 that well-known rock-formation the chalk, an imper- 
 fect limestone, distinct alike in its mineral character 
 and fossil contents. The chalk-hills are a remarkable 
 feature in this country, which appear to be the result 
 of a general upheaving of this, * in common with the 
 
 * The chalkis almost emblematic of sterility, for, although an 
 enriching manure when combined with strong aluminous soils, 
 
 i 2 
 
88 
 
 lower strata, the general line of bearing of which through- 
 out this island is from N. E. to S. W. " This/' says 
 Mr. Conybeare, " may have been effected, not by a single, 
 sudden, or violent convulsion, but by a gradual, gentle, 
 and protracted upheaving, continued without interruption 
 during the whole period of the formation of all these 
 strata." Although this is generally true, there are in 
 some situations decided marks of violent derangement : 
 for instance, in the Isle of Wight, where the chalk, which 
 must have been originally horizontal, with all its in- 
 cumbent sedimentary beds of lacustrine and marine 
 origin, similar to those in the Paris basin, have been 
 forced into a vertical position. * The chalk is entirely 
 
 where it exists in excess, it is universally attended with barrenness, 
 and is generally characterized Dy a peculiar stunted vegetation. 
 It is to this latter circumstance, according to an eminent geologist, 
 that the origin of the singular custom of the " Chiltern hundreds," 
 the fiction by which Members of Parliament vacate their seats, 
 may be traced. It appears that the Chiltern Hills, a remarkable 
 part of the chalk range in Oxfordshire, were formerly covered with 
 brushwood and thickets, which harboured banditti, whose depre- 
 dations became so alarming that it was found necessary to institute 
 a permanent local force, for the protection of the lives and property 
 of his Majesty's faithful lieges, over which force presided an officer, 
 appointed by the crown, with the title of Steward of the Chiltern 
 Hundreds. His " occupation" being long since " gone" the office 
 has become a nominal one, the acceptation of which, however, is 
 sufficient to incapacitate a Member from holding his seat in the 
 House of Commons. 
 
 * Mr. Conybeare has recently made . some interesting obser- 
 vations upon the general lines of disturbance traceable in the chalk 
 formations. He observes that there is a general tendency to 
 
89 
 
 of oceanic origin, and the manner in which its multitu- 
 dinous organic relics are preserved, is one of the most 
 remarkable features of the fossiliferous rocks. The 
 most fragile substances, such as sea- weeds and sponges, 
 retain their forms ; fish are sometimes found not only 
 with their bodies uncrushed by the enormous super- 
 incumbent pressure, but in some cases with their fins 
 expanded as if in the act of swimming ; * shells of the 
 most delicate construction are seen precisely in the 
 same state as when inhabited, the animal only being 
 displaced by carbonate of lime, even the colour of these 
 is sometimes beautifully preserved. A thousand species of 
 shells and other organized beings have been disentombed 
 from this vast deposit, nearly the whole of them are 
 inhabitants of the ocean, and very few correspond with 
 any now existing, and not only do they differ entirely 
 from existing races, but almost as widely from the fossil 
 
 parallelism between its main line of elevation and the earlier and 
 more violent convulsions which have effected the previously-formed 
 strata, such as those in the coal-formation, before the deposit of 
 the new red-sandstone which covers it : this general line subsists 
 only in the central parts of England, in the south and north there 
 are others bearing in an opposite direction, but exhibiting the 
 same parallelism to the disturbances in the older strata. See 
 Conybeares Geological Report to the British Association. 
 
 Mr. Elie de Beaumont's theory is, that all the lines of distur- 
 bance of the strata assignable to the same age are parrallel. 
 
 * Mr. De La Beche describes specimens of this kind which 
 were exhibited to the Geological Society by Mr. Mantell, and 
 observes, that they differ thus far from fossil fish usually discovered, 
 the fins of which are almost always compressed. Researches in 
 Theoretical Geology. 
 
 i 3 
 
90 
 
 remains of the more recent the supracretaceous rocks. 
 Many new genera are for the first time met with in the 
 chalk, such as the belemnite* (fig. 1), and the ammonite 
 (fig. 2) , of which a great 2 
 
 variety existed at this 
 period. In fact there 
 are no species of shells 
 common to the secon- 
 dary and tertiary rocks , 
 and Mr. Agassiz, who 
 has devoted years of study to this particular department 
 of natural history, states, that out of five hundred spe- 
 cies of fossil fish which he examined, he did not find 
 one that he could refer to both formations. 
 
 The chalk was evidently deposited in the bed of a 
 tranquil sea, from which the greater part of Europe, 
 and indeed of other continents, f have since emerged : 
 
 * Belemnite, from belemnon a dart, an extinct genus of animals 
 called cephalopoda, (cephale head, and poda feet,) so called from the 
 organs of motion being arranged round the head. 
 
 Ammonite is derived from the resemblance of this shell to the 
 horns on the statues of Jupiter Ammon. It is also an extinct 
 genus of cephalopoda, of which numerous species are found fossil, 
 in this and the older formations. 
 
 f The chalk has been observed in Patagonia, near the Straits 
 of Magellan, and an extensive deposit corresponding not in 
 appearance but in its fossil remains and position, is known to exist 
 in North America, and it is an interesting fact, that the exuviae of 
 enormous extinct animals of the saurian tribe, of precisely the 
 same species as those found in the lower sand of this formation in 
 Sussex, have been discovered in the ferruginous sand, an analogous 
 deposition, in America, from which it might be inferred, either that 
 the great gulf, the Atlantic, did not at this period exist, or that 
 remote countries were peopled with the same races of animals. 
 
91 
 
 but we have also evidence in the lower members of the 
 chalk-formation, * that dry land existed at the period 
 of, and anterior to their deposition ; for we find inter- 
 posed between the subjacent beds in the Isle of Wight, 
 and other places, a bed of black vegetable mould, full 
 of the stems of trees of the palm and fir tribe, fcycadce 
 and conifer cej sometimes erect, like the trees in the 
 submarine forests, f with their roots fixed upon the 
 Portland limestone, and in the beds which succeed, 
 the green sands of the chalk-formation, specimens of 
 wood are found pierced by the teredo, (a species of sea- 
 shell before alluded to, which bores into hard sub- 
 stances) as if they had been tossed about for a long 
 period in the ocean beneath which they were imbedded. 
 Those singular concretions, flints, are peculiar to 
 the chalk-formation, and many ingenious speculations 
 as to their origin have, from time to time, appeared. 
 Flints, it is well known, are composed of silex, a sub- 
 stance totally unlike the chalk, a carbonate of lime, in 
 which they are imbedded, and they usually exist in 
 layers, in many cases corresponding with the inclination 
 of the beds of chalk, from which the general inference 
 was, that they were deposited by mechanical means in 
 
 * These are known to Geologists by the terms Upper and 
 Lower green sands, and to travellers as they are seen in the deep 
 section, through which the road passes at Woburn. 
 
 f The only difference in the trees in the dirt-bed, as this black 
 vegetable stratum is termed, and those of the submarine forests, 
 would appear to consist in the tropical nature of those in the dirt- 
 bed, and the near approach, if not the identity of the submarine 
 trees, with those now existing in Great Britain and France. De In 
 Heche's GeoL Manual. 
 
92 
 
 the same manner as all other sedimentary strata, hut a 
 recent discovery of Mr. Babbage, (the inventor of the 
 calculating machine,) seems to prove, what had been 
 before suggested, that they are the effect of chemical 
 precipitation. In the preparation of the materials for 
 the manufacture of porcelain, clay and burnt flints 
 ground into powder are mixed together in certain pro- 
 portions, and suspended in water, from which a deposit 
 is formed, containing the materials united in their 
 proper proportions for the manufacture. It then appears 
 an homogeneous mass, so intimately are the substances 
 blended together, but ifit.be allowed to stand any con- 
 siderable time, the silex separates, and forms small 
 nodular concretions which render it unfit for use. In 
 this manner, it is suggested, the flint nodules were 
 formed in the chalk, the silicious matter being suspended 
 with the lime in water in a state of semi-fluidity, and 
 having no affinity for carbonic acid, with which the lime 
 united, would naturally separate, and as the mass con- 
 tinued to accumulate the operation would be repeated, and 
 layers of flints would be formed precisely as we find them. 
 On the continent of Europe the chalk rises into 
 lofty mountains, and instead of the white imperfect 
 limestone of this country, it there sometimes assumes 
 the form of a dark granular marble, easily identified, 
 however, by means of its fossil organic contents ; and 
 even in this country, and in Ireland, wherever there are 
 symptoms of violent disturbance from the injection of 
 basaltic matter, or other igneous action, this altered 
 character is observable. * 
 
 *.. This circumstance is one of the strongest proofs of the 
 igneous origin of basalt, and what are called trap -rocks : not only 
 
93 
 
 During the period of the deposition of the chalk, 
 a deep sea covered the whole of the extensive area which 
 it occupies, but a great extent of dry land as we have 
 seen, had previously existed, whose shores the ocean's 
 surge had long continued to lash. Into this ocean 
 poured vast rivers, and inland lakes discharged their 
 swoln waters. A Niger or a Mississippi, draining the 
 north of Europe, * of which England was then an in- 
 tegral portion, or perhaps a continent over which the 
 Atlantic now rolls, had its estuary in the Wealds of 
 Sussex, where an extensive accumulation of sand, lime- 
 stone, and clay, was formed, in which the inhabitants 
 of its brackish waters, and of its banks, with other 
 spoils of the land brought down by the current, were 
 commingled. This formation is known to geologists 
 as the Wealden rocks. 
 
 Although not of numerous species, the organic 
 
 the chalk, but all the other rocks are more or less crystallized, 
 when in contact with these veins or dykes : and Sir James Hall 
 produced the same result in his celebrated experiments upon the 
 effect of heat under pressure. Carbonate of lime, when exposed 
 to great heat, under sufficient pressure, does not part with its car- 
 bonic acid as it does in the common process of burning lime in 
 the open air, but fuses, and its particles, thus moving freely among 
 themselves, assume a crystalline arrangement. 
 
 * Dr. Fitton, in his Geological Sketch of the Vicinity of 
 Hastings, suggests, that the corresponding formation of the Bou- 
 lonnois and the Pays de Bray, in France, were formed at the same 
 period as the Wealden rocks of Sussex, hence this was the direction 
 of the river's channel. Supposing them to have been continuous 
 and formed in the estuary of a river, the area would not be greater 
 than that covered by the delta of the Niger. 
 
94 
 
 exuviae of the Wealden rocks are rare and remarkable. 
 A huge reptile resembling the Iguana of South America, 
 hence termed the Iguanodon, four times the size of the 
 largest crocodile, armed with teeth set in enormous 
 jaws, and crested with horns, * roamed on the shores 
 of the river or inland water alluded to, with associates 
 no less hideous, the Hylaesaurus, the Megalosaurus, and 
 the Plesiosaurus, all of genera which have long since 
 ceased to exist upon the earth beings whose forms rival 
 the fantastic creations of ancient mythology. Crocodiles 
 and tortoises, and other amphibious animals, were also 
 numerous, but amid all the spoils of the land, of trees and 
 a luxuriant vegetation, which are here accumulated in 
 such abundance, no remains of mammalia, or the higher 
 orders of animals have ever been discovered. It will 
 be remembered that we last saw these in the upper beds 
 of the supracretaceous rocks : the chalk-formation ap- 
 pears to form a " wall of partition" in the organic cre- 
 ation, on passing which we enter, as it were, upon 
 a new scene of existence ; all the recent tenants of terra- 
 firma have vanished, and the imagination is startled at 
 the monsters, which, at the bidding of science, spring 
 up from the vasty deep. Reptiles of gigantic stature 
 at this period, and for a long time anterior, seem to have 
 had undisputed possession of the marshy plains and 
 woody hills which then rose above the waters ; but these, 
 like their successors, became extinguished in the subse- 
 quent revolutions which the surface of the globe expe- 
 rienced. 
 
 * See Mantell's description of this monster, in Phil. Trans. 
 1825, and Illustrations of Tilgate forest, 1827. 
 
95 
 
 The Wealden rocks, it will be obvious, from the 
 origin assigned to them, were a local deposit. The 
 next in the geological series is the Oolitic group, a 
 term applied to it from the circumstance of one of its 
 most remarkable rocks being composed of small globu- 
 lar particles, resembling the roe or eggs of a fish, from 
 oon, the Greek word for egg, and lithos, stone ; the term 
 is not applicable to the character of the beds generally, 
 but, like other terms in geology, is merely one of con- 
 venience. The oolite deposits are of great extent in 
 this country, and throughout the continent of Europe, 
 where they are known as the Jura limestone ; the Jura 
 mountains being a remarkable portion of this formation. 
 In England its various beds occupy a considerable por- 
 tion of the surface, extending in continuous bands from 
 Devonshire to the mouth of the Tees. Their minera- 
 logical character is very various, * and each has its 
 peculiar term assigned to it ; but all appear to be com- 
 posed of finely-comminuted matter, arranged in parallel 
 layers: hence, and from the circumstance of shells, such 
 as those which inhabit shallow waters, being abundant, 
 it has been inferred that they were deposited in a tranquil 
 and shallow sea ; and, as in the beds beneath the chalk 
 we saw that terrestrial animals and plants were buried, 
 so, in the lower beds of the oolite, there are abundant 
 
 * Not only is their mineralogical character different, but the 
 organic contents of the same formation in the northern and southern 
 parts of England are for the most part distinct This is not sur- 
 prising; the bed of the German ocean at the mouth of the Tay, 
 would, if laid bare, be found to differ very widely from the bed of 
 the Nore, both in the character of the sedimentary matter and the 
 imbedded shells. 
 
96 
 
 relics of the dry land, which existed in the vicinity of 
 the sea at the period of the formation of these sedi- 
 mentary beds, where the vegetable remains in some 
 cases, as in Yorkshire, are accumulated in such abund- 
 ance as to form coal-strata, of an imperfect kind, but 
 of sufficient value to pay for working. * 
 
 * The similarity of appearance between many of the lower 
 beds of the oolitic group, particularly the lias clays, and the strata 
 generally accompanying coal, and the local accumulations of car- 
 bonaceous matter frequently found within the lias range, upon 
 and beneath the surface, have led to many abortive attempts to 
 procure coal in the midland counties of England. These searches 
 have been generally commenced in entire ignorance of geological 
 principles, and of course have terminated in disappointment and 
 loss. In Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire, where the lias beds 
 are strongly developed, many such experiments have from time to 
 time been made. At the foot of the escarpment of the great oolite 
 at Billesdon in Leicestershire, an attempt has been recently made 
 to reach the regular coal-formation, the outcrop of which it is said 
 may be seen in an adjacent valley. Six hundred feet of the strata, 
 however, were penetrated, but nothing but indications of the coal 
 were discovered, and among these indications fossil fruits are men- 
 tioned ! The interposition of the primitive rocks of Charnwood 
 Forest, which appear to have formed the eastern limit of the 
 Leicestershire coal-basin, render hopeless the chance of discovering 
 coal beyond the line of that remarkable range. The coal-strata 
 invariably rise upon their approach to these hills ; and even the 
 subjacent bed, the limestone, upon which they rest, is sometimes 
 thrown up to the surface, as at Gracedieu, where it is seen resting 
 on the flanks of the porphyritic rocks of Whitwick. The circum- 
 stance on which the hopes of success at Billesdon were built, when 
 the coal-strata which it was thought were traceable at the surface, 
 had eluded detection, was, that the regular coal-formation might 
 have been brought near to the surface hi this situation, by the up- 
 heaving of the Forest rocks and the circumjacent beds ; but it should 
 
97 
 
 The vegetable remains thus accumulated are quite 
 dissimilar to those which we shall hereafter find con- 
 stituting the coal-formation. An entirely new and 
 distinct vegetation seems, at the period under considera- 
 tion, to have clothed this portion of our planet, and 
 plants analogous to those now flourishing at the Cape 
 of Good Hope, and in New Holland, appear to have 
 been common. 
 
 It would far exceed our limits to describe each of 
 the various formations of which this group is composed. 
 The Lias, the lowest member of the series, is, however, 
 peculiarly entitled to consideration, on account of its 
 organic riches. It is highly prolific in animal remains, 
 
 have been remembered, that the elevation of these rocks took place 
 long anterior to the formation of the superior beds the lias, on 
 which the experiment was commenced, and the red-marl, upon 
 which the lias rests ; for even the red-marl, a much older deposit 
 than the lias, and by which the coal- formation is covered up, 
 rests everywhere undisturbed upon the almost vertical beds of 
 the primitive rocks, and the lias limestone, the lowest bed in the 
 series of the lias, has obviously undergone no considerable derange- 
 ment. In a Sketch intended merely to exhibit the great physical 
 commotions which have affected the surface of the earth, it would 
 be foreign to my object to enter into the details of a question of 
 practical geology ; and Professor Sedgwick and others have already 
 pronounced their opinion upon this and similar projects : but it 
 may be well to observe, that in any experiment of this nature, 
 where the geographical position is equivocal, a ready and infallible 
 test is always to be found in the distinct character of the vegetable 
 fossils. Ferns, it is true, are common both to the oolitic group 
 and the coal-formation, but the gigantic calamites and palms which 
 characterize the latter, are entirely absent in the former. SecLindley 
 and Hmtturis Fossil Flora, preface, vol. 1. 
 E 
 
96 
 
 relics of the dry land, which existed in the vicinity of 
 the sea at the period of the formation of these sedi- 
 mentary beds, where the vegetable remains in some 
 cases, as in Yorkshire, are accumulated in such abund- 
 ance as to form coal-strata, of an imperfect kind, but 
 of sufficient value to pay for working. * 
 
 * The similarity of appearance between many of the lower 
 beds of the oolitic group, particularly the lias clays, and the strata 
 generally accompanying coal, and the local accumulations of car- 
 bonaceous matter frequently found within the lias range, upon 
 and beneath the surface, have led to many abortive attempts to 
 procure coal in the midland counties of England. These searches 
 have been generally commenced in entire ignorance of geological 
 principles, and of course have terminated in disappointment and 
 loss. In Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire, where the lias beds 
 are strongly developed, many such experiments have from time to 
 time been made. At the foot of the escarpment of the great oolite 
 at Billesdon hi Leicestershire, an attempt has been recently made 
 to reach the regular coal-formation, the outcrop of which it is said 
 may be seen in an adjacent valley. Six hundred feet of the strata, 
 however, were penetrated, but nothing but indications of the coal 
 were discovered, and among these indications fossil fruits are men- 
 tioned ! The interposition of the primitive rocks of Charnwood 
 Forest, which appear to have formed the eastern limit of the 
 Leicestershire coal-basin, render hopeless the chance of discovering 
 coal beyond the line of that remarkable range. The coal -strata 
 invariably rise upon their approach to these hills ; and even the 
 subjacent bed, the limestone, upon which they rest, is sometimes 
 thrown up to the surface, as at G racedieu, where it is seen resting 
 on the flanks of the porphyritic rocks of Whitwick. The circum- 
 stance on which the hopes of success at Billesdon were built, when 
 the coal-strata which it was thought were traceable at the surface, 
 had eluded detection, was, that the regular coal-formation might 
 have been brought near to the surface in this situation, by the up- 
 heaving of the Forest rocks and the circumjacent beds ; but it should 
 
97 
 
 The vegetable remains thus accumulated are quite 
 dissimilar to those which we shall hereafter find con- 
 stituting the coal-formation. An entirely new and 
 distinct vegetation seems, at the period under considera- 
 tion, to have clothed this portion of our planet, and 
 plants analogous to those now flourishing at the Cape 
 of Good Hope, and in New Holland, appear to have 
 been common. 
 
 It would far exceed our limits to describe each of 
 the various formations of which this group is composed. 
 The Lias, the lowest member of the series, is, however, 
 peculiarly entitled to consideration, on account of its 
 organic riches. It is highly prolific in animal remains, 
 
 have been remembered, that the elevation of these rocks took place 
 long anterior to the formation of the superior beds the lias, on 
 which the experiment was commenced, and the red-marl, upon 
 which the lias rests ; for even the red-marl, a much older deposit 
 than the lias, and by which the coal- formation is covered up, 
 rests everywhere undisturbed upon the almost vertical beds of 
 the primitive rofcks, and the lias limestone, the lowest bed in the 
 series of the lias, has obviously undergone no considerable derange- 
 ment. In a Sketch intended merely to exhibit the great physical 
 commotions which have affected the surface of the earth, it would 
 be foreign to my object to enter into the details of a question of 
 practical geology ; and Professor Sedgwick and others have already 
 pronounced their opinion upon this and similar projects : but it 
 may be well to observe, that in any experiment of this nature, 
 where the geographical position is equivocal, a ready and infallible 
 test is always to be found in the distinct character of the vegetable 
 fossils. Ferns, it is true, are common both to the oolitic group 
 and the coal -formation, but the gigantic calamites and palms which 
 characterize the latter, are entirely absent in the former. SeeLindley 
 and Huttons Fossil Flora, preface, vol. 1. 
 E 
 
bones of crocodiles, tortoises, fishes, and reptiles ; 
 such as the Mogosaurus, a gigantic species of lizard, 
 with a body twenty- six feet in length, head four feet, 
 and tail ten feet ; the Megalosaurus , a species of 
 monitor or amphibious animal, whose height equalled 
 the largest elephant, and whose length was little short of 
 the largest whale ! the Pterodactylus * or wing-toed 
 reptile, an animal covered with scales like a lizard, and 
 provided with the means of flying like the bat, and of 
 suspending itself from trees like the sloth. Dr. Buck- 
 land has thus described it, " In size and general form 
 and character of its wings, this fossil genus, according 
 to Cuvier, somewhat resembled our modern bats and 
 vampires, but had its beak elongated like the bill of a 
 woodcock, and armed with teeth like the snout of a 
 crocodile ; its vertebrae, ribs, pelvis, legs and feet, re- 
 sembled those of a lizard ; its three anterior fingers 
 terminated in long hpoked claws like that on the fore- 
 finger of the bat, and over its body was a covering, 
 neither composed of feathers as in the bird, nor of hair 
 as in the bat, but of scaly armour like that of the Iguana, 
 in short, a monster resembling nothing that has ever 
 been seen or heard of upon earth, except the dragons of 
 romance and heraldry. By means of its powerful paw 
 and long claws, it was enabled to creep or climb, or 
 suspend itself from trees : thus, like Milton's fiend, 
 
 * The Rerodactyli have been found in the Stonesfield 
 slate, at Solenhofen in Germany, and at Lyme Regis, at M'hich 
 latter place it is associated with the ichthyosauri and plesiosauri. 
 The limestone of Barrow in Leicestershire is one of the richest 
 repositories of the remains of the ichthyosaurus. 
 
99 
 
 qualified for all services and all elements, the creature 
 was a fit companion for the kindred reptiles which 
 swarmed in the seas, or crawled on the shores of a turbu- 
 lent planet."* 
 
 The fiend 
 
 O'er bog, or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare, 
 With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way, 
 And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies." 
 
 Paradise Lost, book 2. 
 
 Insects, it is imagined, were the food of the pterodac- 
 tylus, as, where the remains of these strange creatures 
 are found in greatest abundance, there fossil insects also 
 abound. Like the bat, this winged reptile is supposed 
 also to have shunned the light, and to have made its 
 predatory excursions during the night. 
 
 Contemporary with the pterodactylus, lived in the 
 marshes and shallow lakes of that period the ichthyo- 
 saurus, or fish-lizard, many species of which have been 
 exhumed from the lias-limestone at Barrow and Lyme 
 Regis. 
 
 This voracious animal was of a species between the 
 fish and the crocodile, or lizard, furnished with paddles 
 to navigate the water, but unable to live long beneath it 
 
 * This description is applied to the pterodactylus macronyjc, dis- 
 covered in the lias at Lyme Regis, hy Miss Mary Anniug. It was 
 about the size of a raven. 
 K2 
 
100 
 
 like the fish. One species, the Ichthyosaurus platyodon, 
 had jaws eight feet long : it was armed with sharp-pointed 
 teeth, and had enormous eyes to aid its vision in the 
 dark. Cuvier describes the ichthyosaurus as having 
 the snout of a dolphin, the teeth of a crocodile, the head 
 and sternum of a lizard, the extremities of cetacea, * 
 (being, however, four in number,) and the vertebrae of 
 fish. Many entire skeletons have been found, and in 
 such profusion are their remains preserved, that the 
 organization of this strange reptile is as well known to 
 naturalists as that of any animal now existing. 
 
 Theplesiosazerus. akin to the ichthyosaurus, but 
 approximating more nearly to the lizard, as the term 
 expresses, (plesion, near to, saurus, a lizard) , existed also 
 at this period. The ichthyosaurus, it is imagined might 
 brave the waves of the sea, dashing through them as the 
 porpoise now does, but this animal, at least the long- 
 necked species, fplesiosaurus dolichodeirus \) which 
 
 the wood-cut represents, would be better suited to have 
 fished in shallow creeks and bays, defended from heavy 
 breakers. f Its enormously long neck, resembling the 
 
 * Cetacea, the species of mammiferous animals, to which the 
 whale and others belong, from cete, whale. 
 
 f See Dela Beche'sGeol. Manual, p, 343, where an idea of 
 these reptiles sporting in their native element is attempted to be 
 conveyed. 
 
101 
 
 body of a serpent, it is supposed to have carried like the 
 swan, as it floated upon the surface of the water, and 
 used in darting at its prey, the fish. In addition to the 
 reptiles enumerated, there are the remains of animals 
 analogous to the frog and the toad, and fish in a great 
 variety. * " With flocks of pterodactyl!, observes Dr. 
 Buckland, flying in the air, and shoals of no less mon- 
 strous ichthyosauri and plesiosauri, swarming in the 
 ocean, and gigantic crocodiles and tortoises crawling on 
 the shores of the primeval lakes and rivers, air, sea, and 
 land must have been strangely tenanted, in these early 
 periods of an infant world !" 
 
 Many of the animals buried in the lias, appear to 
 have lain but a short time exposed to the effects of de- 
 composition, as skeletons of ichthyosauri have been 
 found with vestiges of the skin and flesh upon their 
 bones, and the contents of their stomachs between their 
 ribs, fossilized of course, but proving that their envelope- 
 ment in the sedimentary matter must have speedily 
 followed death. The ink-bags in the fossil sepia, which 
 retain their forms precisely as they exist in animals 
 possessing organs of a similar description at the present 
 day, are also a remarkable instance of the preservation of 
 delicate animal substances by their conversion into hard 
 unyielding stone. The recent discovery of the faeces of 
 the ichthyosaurus, to which the term coprolites has 
 been given, is one of the most singular results of geo- 
 
 * It is singular that the scales of fishes should be beautifully 
 preserved where no trace of bones remain, although the bones are 
 formed of far less destructible materials than the scales, which, in 
 fact, consist almost entirely of animal matter. 
 K3 
 
104 
 
 formation emerges : in some places it is covered by the 
 red-marl, in others by the magnesian limestone, and 
 higher beds of this group, and in the west of England, 
 even by outlying portions of the superior formations, 
 the lias and oolite, while in many situations, and indeed 
 generally, it is found stripped of all the superincumbent 
 beds. 
 
 The vast quantity of vegetable remains imbedded 
 in the strata accompanying the coal, of an accumulation 
 of which, in fact, that substance itself consists, opens to 
 us an unbounded field for conjecture and astonishment. 
 
 We have now done with the relics of crocodiles, 
 ichthyosauri, plesiosauri, and pterodactyli, and must bid 
 adieu to all traces of the inhabitants of terra firma. We 
 found, as we went back into their history, that they be- 
 came less and less like the existing races. Now they have 
 entirely disappeared. In a mass of a thousand feet of 
 co&\-measures (the strata associated with coal) described 
 by Mr. Mammatt, * only one bed of a few inches in 
 thickness, containing marine remains, is mentioned, 
 yet every yard abounds in vegetable impressions, which 
 botanists assure us all belong to tropical climates. 
 Many of the genera of these plants remain undetermined, 
 but it is universally agreed that a high temperature was 
 indispensable to their production. The regularity of 
 thickness of the strata of coal, and their uniformity 
 throughout an extensive area, is one of their most re- 
 markable features. They are commonly described as 
 existing in basins, but the term is not universally appli- 
 cable, for although many of our coal-fields occupy basin- 
 
 * Geological Facts of the Leicestershire Coal Field, 1834. 
 
105 
 
 shaped depressions in the older rocks there are others 
 which are not so circumscribed. 
 
 We have seen that accumulations of vegetable matter 
 forming coal, took place during the deposition of the 
 oolitic rocks : in the Paris basin also, and in other forma- 
 tions, supposed to be of still more modern date, as the 
 Bovey lignite in Devonshire, and the yet more remark- 
 able brown coal-formation of the Rhine, proved to have 
 been formed during the action of the extinct volcanos 
 which so long convulsed the neighbouring district of 
 Neuwied and Eifel, and at a period when the climate 
 approached that of the present temperate regions of the 
 globe, for here we find imbedded the oak, the fir, the beech, 
 and other forest trees of Europe. * And coal-formations 
 are thought to be going on at the present time in the 
 large rivers, lakes, and morasses of America. 
 
 The phenomena of the coal-formation appear at 
 first sight to admit of an easy explanation. The lux- 
 uriant vegetation of the primeval world might furnish 
 the requisite quantity of vegetable matter. The earth 
 is known to produce bitumeirf in great abundance, both 
 
 * See Dr. Hibbert on the extinct volcanos of Neuwied. 
 
 f Bitumen is found in many parts of the world in a fluid state, 
 as on the lake Asphaltites in Judea, and in other volcanic regions. 
 In the island of Trinidad there is a lake of pitch or asphaltum. 
 Montgomery Martin in his History of the Colonies, thus describes 
 it : The lake is bounded on the N. W. by the sea, on the S. 
 by a rocky eminence, and on the E. by the usual argillaceous soil 
 of the country; it is nearly circular, and better than half a league 
 in length, and the same in breadth, occupying a point of land 
 which shelves into the sea, from which it is separated by a marg : n 
 of wood; the variety and extraordinary mobility of this pheno- 
 
106 
 
 in a fluid and solid state, and carbon, the other ingredient 
 of coal, and an essential element of vegetation, might 
 have existed in the atmosphere, or in the waters, in much 
 greater abundance than at present. It has been suggested, 
 indeed, that it was the gradual abstraction of carbon 
 from the atmosphere, by the successive formation of 
 coal and limestone, at this period, and subsequently 
 going on, which fitted it by degrees for the respiration, 
 first of reptiles, then of mammifera and the higher 
 races of animals. Either the atmosphere, or the waters, 
 or both combined, must indeed have furnished an im- 
 mense supply, for every cubic yard of limestone has 
 imprisoned in its mass sixteen thousand feet of car- 
 bonic acid gas, and it constitutes a large portion of 
 the substance of coal. But although the air, the earth 
 and the waters, might furnish the materials, the mode 
 by which such vast accumulations of vegetable matter 
 were effected, is inexplicable. Thus, ill Staffordshire 
 we have a bed of coal ten yards in thickness, and at 
 Saint Etiehne, in the south of France, it is sometimes 
 sixty feet thick, and in these instances, the thick bed is 
 only the principal one of a long series of strata of the 
 
 menon is very remarkable: groups of beautiful shrubs and flowers, 
 tufts of wild pine-apples and aloes, swarms of magnificent butter- 
 flies, and brilliant humming birds, enliven a scene, which, without 
 them, would be an earthly representation of Tartarus. Where a 
 small islet has been seen in the evening, a gulph is found on the 
 following morning, and on another part of the lake, a pitch islet 
 has sprung up, to be in its turn adorned with luxuriant vegetation, 
 and then again engulphed. Pieces, of, what was once wood, are 
 found completely changed into bitumen ; and the trunk of a large 
 tree, on being sawn, was entirely impregnated with petroleum." 
 
107 
 
 same composition, alternating with dissimilar matter, 
 such as ironstone and shale, to the depth of many 
 hundred yards. In the Alps there are vertical beds of 
 coal, and here, as in other instances, where a violent 
 derangement of the strata has taken place, the coal has 
 parted with its bitumen, and is found as anthracite, * 
 or pure carbon, being with the associated beds highly 
 indurated ; the shale elsewhere soft, here assumes the 
 hardness of roofing slate, for which, in Savoy, where it 
 is used indeed as a covering for houses, it might be mis- 
 taken, but for the vegetable impressions still observable 
 in its substance. The alternation of layers of coal with 
 shale, fire-clay, and other distinct accumulations of 
 earthy matter, which occur sometimes even in the coal 
 itself, would seem to indicate that these substances were 
 originally held in solution in a fluid from which they 
 were quietly precipitated, and arranged according to 
 their specific gravity ; but the occurrence of plants, such 
 as the calamites and palms, so common in coal measures, 
 in the vertical position in which they grew, proves that 
 the matter in which they are enveloped was a sediment 
 mechanically deposited from the water, which tranquilly 
 and gradually covered them : a quiet process it must 
 have been, for in many cases, although the outer cuticle 
 or bark, is carbonized, and the interior converted into 
 the substance in which it is imbedded, the stems of 
 these plants are not in the least compressed. 
 
 The fossil vegetation of the coal-formation not only 
 indicates a tropical temperature, but it has been inferred 
 from the gigantic size of many of the imbedded plants, 
 
 * Anthracite, from anthrax, coaL 
 
'108 
 
 in comparison with those of similar species now existing 
 under the most favorable circumstances within the 
 tropics, that they must have flourished in a climate 
 much hotter than that of the equatorial regions , of the 
 earth at the present day. Thus, Brongniart has de- 
 scribed fossil tree-ferns* forty to fifty feet high, and 
 Lycopodiaceae, a species of plant between the pine and 
 the fern, known as club-mosses in the north of England, 
 where the mountainous heaths produce them, and they 
 rarely reach a height of more than two or three feet, are 
 found in the fossil state sixty or seventy feet long. 
 
 If the size is remarkable, much more so is the 
 amazing geographical range of these fossil flora, for 
 wherever the carboniferous strata have been examined, 
 the vegetable impressions are of the same kind. Thus, 
 Captain Parry brought from Melville Island, within 
 fifteen degrees of the North Pole, fossil specimens of a 
 tropical vegetation, corresponding precisely with those 
 which characterize our coal-measures ; and calamites, 
 differing in no respect from that common fossil plant of 
 this country, have been brought from Port Jackson in 
 New Holland ! 
 
 Indeed, there is no fact disclosed by geology so 
 extraordinary as the uniformity of character of rock-for- 
 mations in regions remote from each other. Humboldt 
 
 * The island of Dominica, situate within fifteen degrees of 
 the equator, is celebrated for its forests of tree-ferns. " The size 
 of the ferns," says Montgomery Mai-tin, " is very remarkable ; some 
 of them rise to the height of twenty-five feet, (only half the size of 
 the fossil species,) with the branches as finely pennated, and their 
 colour as vivid and fresh, as the , dwarfish and lowly but lovely 
 English fern." 
 
109 
 
 remarks with great beauty and propriety, " that while 
 on entering a new hemisphere we change all other 
 familiar and accustomed objects; while in the plains 
 around we survey entirely new forms of vegetable and 
 animal beings, and in the heavens over our heads we 
 gaze upon new constellations, in the rocks beneath our 
 feet we recognize our old acquaintances." We know 
 that at the discovery of America by the Spaniards, none 
 of the species of animals and plants found there pre- 
 cisely corresponded with those of the old world ; and of 
 the effect of climate in circumscribing their abode we 
 have everywhere evidence. But in the primeval world 
 none of these lines of demarcation appear to have ex- 
 isted : tropical plants grew alike at the pole and the 
 -equator, in both hemispheres ; and at a later period, as 
 we have seen, the equatorial elephant ranged from the 
 torrid to the arctic zone. There are those who affect to 
 despise geology,* and designate it as a crude uninter- 
 esting collection of far-fetched facts. Is there no interest 
 in facts so novel, results so unlooked-for as these ? 
 
 The subject of the coal-formation has ever been a 
 fertile theme for those who delight to reflect upon the evi- 
 dences of design manifested in the great works of Creation: 
 the accumulation of such a vast mass of vegetable 
 matter, produced, apparently by fortuitous revolutions, 
 at remote periods in the history of the earth, for those 
 who should after wards inhabit its surface, cannot indeed 
 fail to strike the attention of the least observing : the 
 
 * Mr. Croly, in his work on Divine Providence, says, that 
 " Geology is a meagre collection of trivial facts, gathered by loose 
 enquiry, and arranged by imperfect knowledge." 
 L 
 
110 
 
 very faults, as they are termed by miners, the dislo- 
 cations, elevations, and depressions of the strata, have 
 been held to be advantageous, inasmuch, as they some- 
 times bring within reach beds of this mineral, which 
 would otherwise be inaccessible, and confine within 
 limits the subterraneous waters, which would otherwise 
 accumulate in such quantities as to defy all the efforts 
 of the miner to draw them off. 
 
 Immediately beneath the coal-measures, which in 
 some cases are themselves three thousand feet in thick- 
 ness, and connected therewith in the usual classification 
 of the carboniferous group, we find an extensive series 
 of beds of limestone, sandstone, and conglomerate. 
 The limestone, which, from the great elevation it 
 attains in Derbyshire and Yorkshire, has obtained 
 the appellation of mountain-limestone, may be said to 
 form the base or bottom of our regular coal-formations, 
 from the coal-measures being so frequently found resting 
 upon it, although in some parts of Europe, and in 
 America, coal is said to occur much lower in the series. * 
 The passage from the plastic clay to the chalk is not 
 more abrupt and remarkable than is the transition 
 from the coal-measures to the subjacent beds; the 
 former containing only terrestrial remains, the latter 
 exclusively marine, which differ also entirely from the 
 organic contents of all the subsequent formations. 
 Zoophytes, or the coral tribe, and shelly animals of the 
 crustaceous species, appear to have been the principal 
 
 * As the anthracite, worked for profitable purposes, in Brit- 
 tany, in Calvados, and in the Vosges, according to M. Elie de 
 Beaumont, and in Ireland, according to Mr. Weaver. 
 
 
Ill 
 
 inhabitants of the ocean, in whose bed these rocks were 
 formed. Myriads of polyparia, indeed, encrenites and 
 madrepores, such as 
 those figured in the 
 margin, must at this 
 period have luxuri- 
 ated in a tranquil 
 sea, and built up 
 considerable masses 
 of solid rock, form- 
 ing perhaps islands, 
 and coral-reefs, as in 
 the Pacific ocean at 
 the present day. In England the mountain limestone 
 is of great mineralogical importance, it being the main 
 depository of our lead-ore and other metals. That 
 singular substance, elastic bitumen, is frequently found 
 in the accompany ing beds, the mill- stone grit, and lime- 
 stone shale of Derbyshire, and even the fluid varieties, 
 naphtha and petroleum, have been discovered there. 
 
 Under the carboniferous group, although in this 
 country, frequently rising higher than any of the beds 
 hitherto described, lie the transition * rocks, now more 
 generally known to geologists by the euphonious appel- 
 lation of the yrauwacke group. In these, the first link 
 in the chain of fossiliferous rocks, the organic remains 
 
 * The secondary formations which commence with the chalk, 
 terminate at the grauwacke, where the transition begin : they were 
 called transition rocks, because their organic remains seemed to 
 mark a gradual developement of animated beings, from the pri- 
 meval void, but this idea is abandoned, for there does not appear 
 that dearth of organic structure which was at first supposed. 
 L 2 
 
112 
 
 are generally very obscure. The Dudley limestone is 
 perhaps the most prolific. A multitude of little animals 
 or insects, (the trilobite) , of a species unlike any existing, 
 or imbedded in other rocks, pervade 
 this mass. In Wales, between the lami- 
 nae of the slate, they are also abundant, 
 and they are, in fact, common to Eu- 
 rope and America. From the myriads 
 of these found together entombed, and 
 the contracted attitude in which they are frequently 
 observed, it is inferred that their destruction was the effect 
 of sudden catastrophes, which overtook a whole herd, 
 and as suddenly enveloped them in the matter, which 
 subsequently became hard rock. Five hundred and 
 forty-six species of shells, zoophytes, crustaceous animals^ 
 and plants, have been identified with this ancient group 
 of rocks, and among them there are several genera, 
 which still occupy a place in the animated creation, 
 having survived all the changes and convulsions, in 
 which so many tribes of beings have perished. 
 
 As we approach the primitive rocks all traces of 
 organized beings vanish. From man to the screw-like 
 encrinite from the caverned bones to the transition 
 rocks we have seen a continuous chain in the types of 
 animated beings, whose petrified relics tell the tale of 
 their existence. Here, however, it is broken off, the 
 light by which we have thus read the history of created 
 beings is withdrawn. We appear to have arrived at the 
 period when the Omniscient fiat first imparted life to 
 inanimate matter: and have now to contemplate " the 
 earth without form and void." 
 
 It has been suggested indeed, that the absence of 
 
113 
 
 fossil remains in the early sedimentary strata, is no 
 proof of the absence of life at the period when they were 
 deposited : but that the first organized beings might have 
 been of the class of those gelatinous, flesh- like substances, 
 to which the name of Medusae has been given (from the 
 organs of motion spreading out like the snaky hair of 
 the fabulous Medusa) . The ocean it is said might have 
 swarmed with these, and no traces have been left of 
 their existence. 
 
114 
 
 NON-FOSSILIFEROUS ROCKS. 
 
 Hitherto, water has been the principal agent in the 
 production of the great physical changes, which we have 
 reviewed. All the sedimentary strata, whether they be 
 clay or hard rock, chalk or marble, sand or sandstone, 
 are vestiges of the dominion of the universal ocean, or 
 of subordinate masses of its world-encircling waters. 
 Everywhere its presence at successive periods may be 
 traced, and so extensive appear to have been its opera- 
 tions, that we might almost have arrived at the conclu- 
 sion of Thales, that all things had their origin in water- 
 But another powerful agent, which we have seen operat- 
 ing in volcanos, must now be introduced, to account for 
 the phenomena of primitive* and other non-fossilife- 
 rous rocks. 
 
 Although we cannot consult the archives of nature 
 
 * These rocks being destitute of organic remains and generally 
 beneath all the other formations, are supposed to have existed ante- 
 cedent to the creation of animated beings, to be in fact, coeval with 
 the origin of the earth itself, and of the same nature as the interior 
 of the globe hence the term primitive. Some geologists have 
 conjectured that the primitive rocks are themselves merely the fused 
 wreck of pre-existing masses, but this endless system of mutation> 
 which they would thus establish, lacks both proof and analogy. 
 
115 
 
 in the organic contents of these masses, they present to 
 us internal evidence of their origin, scarcely less equivo- 
 cal. Instead however of tracing the progress of tlie 
 development of animals and vegetables r-of beholding 
 in imagination regions now sterile clad with tropical 
 splendour, groves of umbrageous palms in situations 
 where the degenerate soil now produces only the bram- 
 ble, of watching with satisfaction the gradual extinc- 
 tion of the hideous monsters, which dwelt in countless 
 herds in pestiferous marshes now transformed into 
 scenes of fertility, it is our business to examine the 
 changes which inorganic matter has undergone, an in- 
 vestigation not less interesting in its results, but requir- 
 ing a knowledge of which we have hitherto had no need, 
 of chemistry and mineralogy, without a slight acquain- 
 tance with which, the subject is unintelligible. 
 
 In the primitive rocks no traces of organized re- 
 mains have been observed : they present, in fact, a field 
 of enquiry which lies beyond the range in which we have 
 hitherto been confined ; we here appear to have reached 
 the fountain head of the long and varying stream of 
 organized being which we have imperfectly and hastily 
 traced, the source from whence animated nature first 
 sprang the period of creation : a result of science, 
 which those who have indulged in the dream of the 
 eternal duration of things, never expected to witness. 
 
 This division of the subject of my " Sketch" well 
 deserves a separate volume, it must, however, be briefly 
 dismissed. In the primitive rocks, which consist partly 
 of stratified, and mainly of unstratified masses, known 
 by the names of granite, gneiss, mica slate, primitive 
 limestone, and other local appellations, the greater part 
 
116 
 
 of our metallic treasures lie concealed. These are usually 
 found in veins or irregular lines of extraneous matter, 
 which traverse in all directions and to an unknown 
 depth, both stratified and unstratified rocks. The 
 ancient notion was, that veins were branches and twigs 
 of an immense trunk, which exists in the interior of the 
 globe, raised in the form of vapours and exhalations 
 through the rents and crevices, as the sap is raised and 
 circulated in trees, and that the substance of which they 
 are formed was elaborated from the materials of the 
 rocks. 
 
 In recent times several theories have been adopted 
 to explain these phenomena, but their origin is still in- 
 volved in obscurity: 1st, that they were open fissures 
 caused by the contraction or subsidence of the rocks, 
 and afterwards filled by aqueous solutions, poured in 
 from above, or by sublimation ; 2nd, that these rents 
 were the effect of internal violence, and were filled by 
 fused materials ejected from beneath ; 3rd, the theory of 
 Dr. Boase, which assigns their origin to the same period 
 and circumstances as the masses which enclose them.* 
 In some instances however, there seems positive indica- 
 tions of a difference of age, as where metalliferous veins 
 are crossed by others, they are displaced, and a disturb- 
 ance in the line of direction of the intersecting veins takes 
 place,t significantly termed by the miners a heave, 
 
 Mr. Robert Fox was the first to point out the 
 
 * Professor Sedgwick suggests, that there are three different 
 sets of veins, which may be referred to each of these hvpotheses, 
 
 f See Taylor's Communication to the British Association, on 
 Mineral Veins. 
 
117 
 
 probable connexion between the direction of veins and 
 magnetic currents, but experiments are yet wanting to 
 prove the analogy. That this mysterious agency will 
 hereafter solve many phenomena at present inexplicable, 
 the extraordinary results already disclosed by the science 
 of electro-magnetism, give us reason to expect. The 
 parallelism of metalliferous veins, and their tendency in 
 this country, throughout the mining countries of Europe, 
 and in the great mines of Mexico, to an east and west 
 direction, is a very remarkable fact.* 
 
 The primitive rocks are all crystalline, that is, 
 formed of an aggregate of crystalline substances, united 
 in certain proportions. Now in order to effect crystal- 
 lization, the particles of matter must be allowed to range 
 themselves freely, or, in other words, the mass must be 
 in a state of fluidity ; and this may be produced in two 
 ways, by fusion or a separation of the particles by the 
 infusion of heat, and by solution in an acid or other 
 fluid. Now, although lime and many other substances 
 and salts may be readily held in solution, silex (the 
 material of which these rocks is chiefly composed) , can 
 only be dissolved at a very high temperature. Hence 
 it has been very rationally inferred, that the primitive 
 rocks were rendered fluid previous to thfeir crystalliza- 
 tion, by means of heat, and many facts seem to confirm 
 this hypothesis. Thus they are found penetrating into 
 the substance of other rocks in fissures and crevices, 
 like the veins referred also to igneous origin, and in 
 
 * This circumstance is particularly observable in Cornwall, 
 wher,e the productive veins have generally the east and west 
 bearing. 
 
some cases to have flowed over and covered them : and, 
 moreover, they are seen to pass by insensible gradations 
 into those compounds termed basalts, and other rocks 
 which are known to have had a volcanic origin. Hence 
 the inference is now general, that all the unstratified 
 rocks have undergone fusion by heat. The uniformity 
 of the predominating rock granite, is very remarkable, 
 and indicates that it was everywhere formed under the 
 same circumstances. Thus there are specimens from 
 Dartmoor and Mont Blanc, in which no difference is 
 distinguishable. In fact, the resemblance will always 
 be found, although the proportions of the ingredients 
 may differ, if we compare specimens from the Alps or 
 the Alleghanies, India or Australia. 
 
 Akin to the granite, and other primitive formations, 
 are the basaltic or trappean rocks, which belong to all 
 ages, from the primeval epoch to the recent volcano. 
 They are found traversing strata of every description, 
 in some instances quietly interstratified with sedimen- 
 tary beds, in others, displacing and deranging the strata, 
 and leaving traces of their having been forcibly intruded. 
 Here, they may be observed capping the summit, or flank- 
 ing the sides of a hill in irregular masses, there, rising 
 from the bosorfi of the deep in stately architecture, or a 
 heap of amorphous * basalt may be seen resting upon 
 clusters of columns, as in the Cyclopean islet, in the bay 
 of Trezza, represented in the frontispiece. Here their 
 connection with the lava-streams of Etna is obvious, 
 while in other situations they merge by insensible gra- 
 dations into primitive rocks. Where, as in the former 
 
 * Destitute of regular form a without, morphe form. 
 
119 
 
 instance, they flow from volcanic craters, their igneous 
 origin is indisputable : it is not less certain in the latter, 
 where they may be far removed from volcanic action. 
 For wherever the basalt appears, whether in the colossal 
 columns of the Hebrides and the Giant's Causeway, 
 which rise in majestic grandeur out of the waves of the 
 Atlantic, or in subterraneous dykes running in straight 
 lines across a whole country, and extending to unfath- 
 omable depths beneath the surface of the earth, as in the 
 remarkable trap-dyke of Yorkshire and Durham, which 
 may be traced in a linear direction for a distance of 
 sixty miles, * indelible marks of the action of fire, is 
 always imprinted upon the mineral masses around them. 
 Coal is converted into coke, f or charcoal, or anthracite, 
 chalk discoloured and metamorphosed into indurated 
 limestone, sandy beds changed into siliceous rocks, and 
 the strata upheaved, dislocated, or contorted. 
 
 All the ancient crystalline rocks exhibit a tendency 
 to the prismatic structure, even where regular polygonal 
 forms have not been assumed, the particles are so ar- 
 ranged in the rocks, as to incline them to cleave in a 
 
 * From High Teesdale to the eastern coast, according to Pro- 
 fessor Sedgwick. 
 
 f As in the case described by Mr. Hill at the Walker col- 
 liery, Newcastle, and in other situations. At the Whitwick colliery 
 in Leicestershire, a bed of dark amorphous basalt, twenty yards 
 thick, is found protruded horizontally into the coal-formation, 
 through the red-marl which overlies it. The coal is charred when 
 the basaltic mass approaches it, and the upper seam heaved out of 
 its true position. The thickness of the basa.lt diminishes rapidly 
 as it recedes from the porphyritic rocks of Charnwood Forest, with 
 which it is evidently connected. 
 
120 
 
 certain direction in preference to others, and it is re- 
 markable that in this country the most constant clea- 
 vages in these tabular masses rise " perpendicularly, with 
 a direction from N. N. W. to S. S. E." * The inter^ 
 section of these lines of cleavage often gives the character 
 of the columnar structure to a rock, f Even sandstones 
 sometimes separate into rhomboidal forms ; and this 
 tendency of rocks, both chemical and mechanical, to 
 arrange themselves in determinate figures, has been 
 generally observed in situations which lead to the sup- 
 position, that they have been exposed to intense heat. 
 In the practice of baking a loose sandstone of the coal- 
 formation, in Yorkshire, for road-materials, a columnar 
 structure is frequently observed to have been produced. 
 These columns vary in the number of their sides, are 
 generally curved, and about half an inch in diameter. 
 In this case the heat is insufficient to fuse the silicious 
 particles of sand ; it has merely driven them into 
 closer contact, and the effect of this induration, is the 
 columnar structure. } Sir James Hall discovered the 
 
 * De laBeche's Researches, p. 187. 
 
 f On the summit of Beacon hill, one of the highest eminences 
 in the Charnwood Forest range, Leicestershire, this is well illus- 
 trated ; in fact, many portions of the rock have there assumed the 
 prismatic structure. It is worthy of observation, too, that the lines 
 of cleavage of these schistose rocks correspond, in the main, with 
 those general linear directions observed in Cornwall and elsewhere, 
 namely, N. W. by W., and S. E, by S., dipping about 72 degrees 
 to the N. E. 
 
 J Dr. Maculloch, instances the sandy hearthstone of a blast 
 furnace at the Old Park Ironworks, near Shiffnal, in which long- 
 continued heat had produced the prismatic structure, without 
 changing the chemical nature of its constituent particles. 
 
same tendency in the minerals which he succeeded 
 in crystallizing under pressure. But Mr. Gregory 
 Watt's beautiful experiments upon basalt, of the 
 amorphous kind, from Rowley rag, near Birming- 
 ham, actually exhibit the mode in which this archi- 
 tecture of nature, the columnar structure, is effected. 
 He observed, during the progress of cooling a 
 large mass which he had succeeded in fusing, the 
 formation of spheroids, or globular masses, sometimes 
 extending to a diameter of two inches, with distinct 
 fibres radiating from a centre, and forming concentric 
 coats, the middle speedily becoming compact. The 
 process being continued, he further observed, that where 
 these bodies came into contact in the cooling fluid, they 
 were mutually compressed, and became separated by a 
 well-defined plane, which, as numbers accumulated, 
 formed hexagonal, or six-sided 
 prisms, an effect which seems in- 
 evitable, where accumulations 
 of particles, arranging them- 
 selves round distinct and equi- 
 distant centres, press upon each 
 other : as the figure will illus- 
 trate. * His inference from 
 this was, that where an indefinite number of these im- 
 penetrable spheroids come into contact on the same 
 plane, (or horizontally,) their mutual action would 
 naturally form them into hexagons, which, in the ab- 
 sence of a counteracting effect from above, would rise 
 
 * Of course the diagram is intended to represent an horizontal 
 section of the spheroids and hexagonal concretions. 
 M 
 
122 
 
 into columns or prisms, in the way in which they are 
 found in nature. Where, however, any combination of 
 circumstances prevented this arrangement, the globular 
 concretions would remain, an effect which Dr. Daubeny 
 subsequently found a beautiful illustration of, in the 
 volcanic region of Eifel, which is thus described : "A 
 curious illustration of the formation of basalt occurs in 
 a natural grotto, formed at the junction of two basaltic 
 streams. The walls of this grotto are composed of 
 basalt, slightly cellular, and forming a number of con- 
 centric lamellar concretions, and somewhat compressed, 
 so that the interstices between the balls are filled up. 
 It obtains its name, cheese-cellar, from the similarity it 
 presents to Dutch cheeses piled upon each other. It 
 beautifully illustrates the origin of the jointed columnar 
 structure, which this rock so often assumes, since a 
 little more compression would have reduced these 
 globular concretions into a prismatic form, each ball 
 constituting a separate joint in the basaltic mass. The 
 most probable way of accounting for the existence of 
 this natural grotto, is, to suppose the lava which forms 
 its walls to have cooled near the surface, before the 
 mass had ceased to flow into its interior : hence, a 
 hollow would be left in which the basalt had room freely 
 to assume the form most natural to it, and the con- 
 cretions, being but little compressed on account of the 
 cavity within, retain their original globular figure. In 
 further proof of this, it may be remarked, that the lava 
 above the grotto consists of irregular prisms, and not of 
 balls, as is the case with that which constitutes its walls." 
 Some of the ancient basaltic columns of the Hebrides 
 too, when stripped of their outer coats, appear to be 
 
123 
 
 composed of an accumulation of cannon-balls and 
 bomb-shells, piled vertically upon each other. 
 
 Thus does science become familiar with the arcana 
 of nature, and in this manner sometimes anticipates her 
 secret operations ! 
 
124 
 
 CONCLUSIONS 
 
 To the hasty and imperfect outline of the leading 
 facts and phenomena which geological research has 
 brought to light, it remains now for us to glance at the 
 hypotheses which they have suggested ; to fill up the 
 sketch, by introducing the causes which have produced 
 the great physical changes, the effects of which we have 
 faintly shadowed forth, and to throw over the whole a 
 few reflections, which the contemplation of a subject so 
 vast inspires. To the immediate agency by which many 
 of the phenomena delineated have been produced, refer- 
 ence has been made in the body of the sketch : the 
 causes which produced the extraordinary oscillations of 
 land and sea, the dislocation and elevation of the strata, 
 and the high temperature of the primeval earth sub- 
 jects which come within the range of physical astronomy, 
 have engaged much of the attention of philosophers in 
 recent times, and interesting and unlooked-for conclu- 
 sions have resulted from the enquiry. 
 
 All the facts we have considered conspire to prove 
 that the earth, at early periods of its history, enjoyed a 
 much higher temperature than at present ; that the climate 
 of the frigid zone, for instance, at the period of the forma- 
 tion of coal, was even hotter than that of the tropics in 
 these days : and there are many circumstances which 
 
125 
 
 seem to indicate a gradual decrease of temperature, 
 as a gradual approximation to the present state of 
 things is observed. In the solution of this subject of 
 enquiry all geological phenomena appear to be involved. 
 
 A recent discovery in astronomy suggests a possi- 
 ble explanation of the cause of the decreased tempera- 
 ture.* It is evident that without the rays of the sun 
 the surface of the earth would be densely cold : this is 
 proved, if proof were wanting, by the cold which ensues 
 from its temporary absence during the night, and the 
 intense frost of the arctic regions during their long solar 
 night. It is equally obvious that the mean temperature 
 depends upon the mean quantity of the sun's rays re- 
 ceived in a given period. Now it is ascertained that 
 the elliptical orbit of the earth is undergoing a slow, but 
 gradual approach to a circle, or in scientific language, the 
 minor axis of the ellipse is gradually on the increase, 
 while the major axis remains the same. The consequence, 
 therefore, is clear, that the annual amount of solar radia- 
 tion from this cause is gradually decreasing, as it must 
 be inversely proportional to the minor axis of the ellipse, 
 consequently the mean annual temperature is lowering. 
 Hence we have a cause operating, as Sir John Herschel 
 observes, in the right direction, but whether adequate 
 or not, remains to be determined. 
 
 Another astronomical cause has been suggested, 
 and, in fact, was generally adopted by the early geologists, 
 namely, a change in the position of the earth upon its 
 axis, produced not gradually, as in the motion known to 
 
 *See Herschel's Treatise on Astronomy ; or Geological Tran- 
 sactions, 2nd series. 
 M 3 
 
126 
 
 astronomers in the precession of the equinoxes, but sud- 
 denly and violently by some external agency, such as that 
 of the contact of a comet, which according to Whiston 
 and others, was the secondary agency employed to pro- 
 duce the creation of the world and the deluge. But this 
 change, whether brought about suddenly or by degrees, 
 would have the effect only of bringing certain regions 
 under the solar influence, which before had enjoyed but 
 a scanty portion of the sun's rays ; it might remove the 
 polar regions to the equinoctial, and transfer the equator 
 to the pole, but it is insufficient to account for that 
 generally-diffused high temperature, which geological 
 phenomena attest. Moreover, astronomers assure us 
 that no permanent change in the position of the earth 
 upon its axis can have been effected : there being in all 
 rotating bodies not perfectly spherical an inclination 
 to revolve on a certain axis in preference to all others, 
 had any derangement occasioned by external violence 
 taken place, equilibrium would have been speedily 
 restored, and rotation upon its natural axis resumed. 
 It is obvious, however, that the least oscillation or 
 derangement in the motion of a ponderous body whirl- 
 ing with inconceivable velocity upon its axis, would 
 produce an extraordinary effect upon its surface, more 
 particulary upon the ocean, so sensitive that it invariably 
 rises when in the presence of a planetary body, which 
 never approaches within so short a distance as two 
 hundred thousand miles. Some such violent catas- 
 trophe seems almost indispensable to effect the sudden 
 revolutions of which we have geological evidence, such 
 as those in which whole races of living beings were an- 
 nihilated, solid strata turned upside down, or large 
 
127 
 
 animals transfixed in ice. These effects, on the other 
 hand, the theory of secular refrigeration, as it is termed, 
 by the diminution of the excentricity of the earth's orbit, 
 is utterly inadequate to explain. Mr. Lyell argues tha 
 an alteration in the relative distribution of land and sea, 
 and the elevation' and depression of mountain-chains, 
 may have occasioned the change of climate : and en- 
 deavours to shew that changes of climate and elevation 
 of mountain ranges were contemporaneous over the 
 European area : * that at the period of the luxuriant 
 vegetation of the northern latitudes, the great continent 
 which now encircles the pole lay beneath an ocean 
 studded with islets and coral reefs, like the present 
 Pacific, while lofty mountains reared their heads above 
 the clouds at the equator. 
 
 As poets are licensed to stop worlds upon their 
 axes in order to usher in a great event with becoming 
 solemnity, f so theorists may take the liberty of mould- 
 ing the earth at their pleasure, of smoothing down 
 the slight asperities of mountains and valleys, to clear 
 the ground for a favorite hypothesis ; but geologists, 
 in general, are not disposed to adopt these sweeping 
 generalizations, where there are no analogies to guide, 
 and facts are too vague to lead to determinate conclu- 
 sions. 
 
 The idea now generally entertained is that origin- 
 ally struck out by Leibnitz, that the high and equable 
 temperature of the earth at remote periods was owing 
 
 * Principles of Geology, vol. 1 , Chap. 7 and 8. 
 f The idea of Klopstoek, in his Messiah, when the incarnation 
 is resolved upon. 
 
128 
 
 to the radiation of heat from the globe itself, which has 
 been gradually decreasing from the earliest times. That 
 great heat does exist in the interior of earth, no matter 
 whether inherent or not, volcanos and thermal springs 
 attest. And although many writers, among them Mr. 
 Mammatt, in his recent practical treatise upon the 
 Ashby Coal-field, have treated the idea with ridicule, 
 there does appear to be fair evidence of an increasing 
 temperature from the surface of the earth downwards. 
 Mr. Mammatt made many observations upon the tem- 
 perature of the mines of Ashby- Woulds, the result of 
 which, he states to be, that there is a regular tempera- 
 ture at all considerable depths beneath the surface, of 
 about 46 of Fahrenheit, and whenever he observed an 
 increased temperature, which he could not fail to do at 
 great depths, he attributes it to the heat given out 
 by the combustion of pyrites, or to some local ac- 
 cidental cause. But the conclusion at which he arrives 
 rather tends to confirm the theory which he attempts to 
 invalidate. If there were no supply of heat in the interior, 
 whence originates this uniformity of temperature ? Why 
 does the thermometer indicate 46 Fahrenheit at all 
 depths ? The solar influence extends but a few yards 
 beneath the surface, and mineral masses are bad con- 
 ductors of heat. Whence then is the heat derived ? the 
 atmosphere warmed by the sun's rays can have no effect, 
 for it has not access, yet water rising from great depths 
 is frequently hot, and never found in a state approach ing 
 even to congelation, as one might expect to find it, where 
 the heat of the sun never penetrates. M. Cordier's ex- 
 periments, upon which he established an increase of 
 temperature from the surface downwards, in the ratio 
 
129 
 
 of one degree for about sixty-five feet of depth, have 
 been tested in the mines of Cornwall, three times the 
 depth of those at Ashby, and the result singularly 
 confirmed, where every precaution was taken to secure 
 accuracy. In the deep mine at Monkwearmouth, to 
 which I before alluded, the thermometer, excluded from 
 the external air, stood nearly twenty degrees higher in the 
 mine, than at the surface. * A general inference, how- 
 
 * The experiments at Monkwearmouth being recent, and con- 
 ducted by men of science, the following statement from the Durham 
 Advertiser may not be wholly misplaced. "A barometer at the top 
 of the shaft stood at 30.518, its attached thermometer being 53 of 
 Fahrenheit. On being carried down to the new workings, (1584 feet 
 below the top), it stood at 32.280, and in all probability higher than 
 ever before seen by human eye! the attached thermometer being 
 58. Four workings or drifts had been commenced in the coal ; 
 the longest of them being that " to the dip," twenty-two yards in 
 length and nearly two in breadth,-^-to the end of which the current 
 of fresh air for ventilating the mine was diverted, (and from which, 
 the workmen employed in its excavation, had just departed,) was 
 selected for the following thermornetric observations. 
 
 Temperature of the current air near the entrance of the drift* 
 62" Fahr. near the end 63 ; close to the face or extremity of the 
 drift, and beyond the current of air, 68. A piece of coal was 
 hewn from the face, and two thermometers placed in the spot just 
 before occupied by the coal rose to 71. A small pool of water 
 was standing at the end of the drift. Temperature of this water at 
 eleven o'clock, 70" ; three hours later, 69^". A register thermo- 
 meter was buried eighteen inches deep below the floor, and about 
 ten yards from the entrance of the drift ; forty minutes afterwards 
 its maximum temperature was 67. Another register ther- 
 mometer was similarly buried near the end of the drift, and 
 after a similar period, indicated a maximum temperature of 
 70. It was then placed in a deeper hole, and covered with 
 small coal; some water oozed out of the side of this hole 
 
130 
 
 ever, adopted from partial observations, is always liable 
 to error ; until, therefore, experiments are multiplied, the 
 theory of central heat deduced from these alone should 
 be advanced with diffidence. In all science it is much 
 easier vaguely to speculate, than patiently to observe. 
 
 The figure of the earth, which, as is well known, is 
 not a perfect globe, whose surface is everywhere equi- 
 distant from the centre, but a spheroid, whose equatorial 
 diameter exceeds in length the polar axis by twenty-six 
 miles, or 1 -305th of the diameter, has been supposed to 
 indicate that the whole mass was originally in a state of 
 fluidity, or fusion ; as it is said to be precisely that which a 
 globular mass of matter thus circumstanced, (the particles 
 moving freely among each other and the whole rotating 
 upon an axis,) would naturally assume. To the gradual 
 and partial internal cooling of this heated mass after the 
 surface had become consolidated, the numerous fractures 
 in the strata, undulations, and mountain-ranges, have 
 been referred. Every portion of the earth presents us 
 with instances of elevated, depressed, or contorted beds : 
 
 to the depth of six or eight inches above the thermometer, 
 which, upon being examined after a sufficient interval of time, 
 indicated a temperature of 7l". A stream of gas bubbles, (igniting 
 with the flame of a candle), issued through the water collected in 
 this hole : the bulbs of two very sensitive thermometers, were im- 
 mersed under water in this stream of gas, and indicated a temperature 
 constantly varying between 7 1.5 and 72.6. A thermometer was 
 lowered to the bottom of a hole drilled to the depth of two-and-a- 
 half feet, into the floor of another of the workings, and the atmos- 
 pheric air excluded from by a tight stopping of clay : this thermo- 
 meter being raised after the lapse of forty-eight hours, stood at 
 7 1.2 degrees. 
 
131 
 
 there is not in England an area of eight or ten square 
 miles, in which the strata have not been fractured and 
 deranged more or less ; in mountainous countries this 
 is more particularly the case, for in these we sometimes 
 find strata sedimentary deposits of sand or pebbles which 
 must have been originally horizontal, actually forced 
 into a vertical position ; and in great mountain- chains 
 indeed, the strata generally lean on each side of the 
 central ridge, like the roof of a house, being more or less 
 inclined in proportion to the height of the upraised 
 basement. Now, forces which could effect the elevation 
 of the Alps, the Andes, or the Himalaya, we can scarcely 
 contemplate without alarm, so vast do they appear to 
 our narrow conceptions, but viewed with reference to 
 the mass of the globe, they dwindle into insignificance, 
 and, supposing it to have undergone any considerable 
 change of temperature, it is obvious that less effects 
 could scarcely have been produced. 
 
 Our highest mountains are less than four miles in 
 perpendicular height, and the deepest depressions of the 
 ocean probably do not far exceed the elevations of the 
 land, while our greatest perforations into the interior of 
 the earth the deepest mines, fall short of one-third of a 
 mile mere pin-points or scratches on the surface of an 
 ordinary artificial globe. Supposing the outer solid crust 
 of the globe to rest upon an interior fluid mass,* the oscil- 
 
 * A lava current is sometimes terra firma above, while it is a 
 molten stream below. Sir William Hamilton lighted small pieces 
 of wood in the fissures of a current of lava from Vesuvius four 
 years after it had been ejected, a circumstance which proves how 
 slowly heat is radiated by mineral masses. 
 
132 
 
 lations and dislocations which the strata have undergone 
 are easily explained, but the contraction and expansion 
 of the solid masses themselves, may have been attended 
 with effects which at first sight are not so obvious. 
 Thus, from the experiments of Col. Totten on the action 
 of heat upon minerals, recorded in Silliman's Journal, 
 Mr. Babbage has calculated a table of the expansion of 
 granite, marble, and sandstone, from one to five hundred 
 miles in thickness, produced by variations of tempera- 
 ture, and according to the ratio of expansion he has 
 established, supposing any part of the earth's crust 
 formed of these materials, to be one hundred miles thick, 
 an elevation of temperature of 600 or 800 of Fahrenheit, 
 might raise the surface between two and three thousand 
 feet;* by an additional temperature of 50 upon a mass 
 of the consistency of sandstone ten miles in thickness, a 
 superimposed rock might be lifted up twenty-five feet, 
 and so in the same proportion with greater or less masses ; 
 and while rocks generally expand by being heated, clay 
 on the other hand contracts under the same circum- 
 stances. 
 
 The theory of M. Fourier, who has obtained some 
 interesting results connected with the decrease of tem- 
 perature as we ascend into the atmosphere, is, that the 
 earth is a globe whose exterior has cooled, but whose 
 interior has still a temperature of enormous intensity, 
 which is not now felt at the surface because of the great 
 mass of non-conducting rock which surrounds it. Mr. 
 Lyell, on the other hand, rejects the idea of the diminu- 
 tion of temperature by radiation, and maintains that 
 
 * See L yell's Geology, vol. ii., 2nd edition. 
 
133 
 
 all the heat of the interior may be referred to chemical 
 and electrical changes in the earth's crust ; and that 
 from the oxydization of the metallic bases of the earths 
 and alkalies volcanic heat is alone derived, and maintained 
 by a continued circle of action, the hydrogen evolved in 
 the decomposition again depriving the heated metals of 
 their acquired oxygen. 
 
 The theory of M. Elie de Beaumont, which has ex- 
 cited so much discussion, is, that the surface of the earth 
 has been ridged with mountain-ranges and depressions 
 in different directions, by a series of sudden and violent 
 convulsions in the external masses, the effect of the 
 unequal subsidence or contraction produced by the 
 cooling of the fluid interior : that all the elevations of 
 mountain-chains were effected in this manner at certain 
 definite periods, to twelve of which he assigns the moun- 
 tains of Europe, and that the strata raised at each of these 
 successive periods are characterized by a certain parallel- 
 ism in their direction and elevation. It is very question- 
 able, however, whether the age of elevated ranges can be 
 deduced from their parallelism, as we have before observed 
 it has been shewn that there are parallel lines of elevated 
 strata in England of very distinct ages, and others which 
 ought to agree in age, having a different direction.* 
 
 In considering these complicated geological phe- 
 nomena, we should remember that our earth is not an 
 isolated body, but one of a system of planets, in which it 
 is fair to infer the same general causes are in action, and 
 producing similar effects. Now observations upon the 
 nearest of our neighbours in space, (our satellite the 
 
 * See Note, p. 88. 
 
134 
 
 moon) prove that its surface is indented with mountain 
 ranges and vast depressions like those with which the sur- 
 face of the earth is figured. To astronomers, they<%>- 
 graphytf\hs moon is as familiar as that of the earth; its 
 mountains and valleys have not only names assigned to 
 them, but they have actually been measured, and their 
 heights ascertained with precision ; a regular survey of 
 her disc has been made, and maps drawn with so much 
 accuracy that, it is said, changes from volcanic action 
 may be traced.* It has been observed that if we take 
 Von Buch's account of the earth, in which he describes 
 crateriform amphitheatres of many leagues in diameter, 
 (such as that vast depression or pays cratdre, a volcanic 
 tract around the Caspian sea and lake Aral, contain- 
 ing eighteen thousand square miles, the lowest level 
 of which the waters of the Caspian is three hundred 
 and twenty feet below the level of the Black Sea,) of such 
 amphitheatres encircling central conical craters (as in 
 that vast seat of volcanic action the Thion Cou, south of 
 Altai in Central Asia, extending between seventy and 
 ninety degrees east longitude,) of ranges of these 
 generally disposed in a linear direction (as in the Andes) 
 and such linear trains often radiating from a principal 
 centre of disturbance, we might almost fancy that the 
 description was intended for what we observe in the 
 moon. " Is it then," it is added, "unreasonable to be- 
 lieve, that by more carefully observing these phenomena 
 where we have a whole hemisphere open to our inspec- 
 
 * Sir John Herschel says, " there are decisive marks of vol- 
 canic stratification, arising from successive deposits of ejected matter 
 in the moon." 
 
135 
 
 tion, by comparing the best of the earliest delineations 
 of its telescopic appearances with its actual forms that 
 we may be able to detect any changes in them is it too 
 much to hope that we may thus effectually extend our 
 knowledge of the laws of the volcanic forces, which 
 should appear to be among the general planetary phe- 
 nomena." Who, when he beholds "the mild moon 
 gazing" and 
 
 " Marks how soft how silently she pours 
 Her chasten'd radiance on the scene below," 
 
 would imagine that science, with undazzled eye, was ex- 
 ploring in her brilliant disc, a world convulsed, upheaved, 
 and broken, like this ? and that, not content with travel- 
 ing over its surface, it was actually speculating on the 
 geological structure of its interior. Well may the 
 observation of the ancient poet be applied to modern 
 astronomers, 
 
 " Nil mortalibus arduum est." * 
 
 Reverting to the theory of central heat, it has been 
 maintained that it may be inferred from the necessity 
 of there being some counteracting agency to resist the 
 enormous pressure of the solid matter constituting the 
 outer mass of the earth. This pressure increases prodi- 
 giously as we approach the centre ; in fact, in such a 
 ratio, that according to the known laws of gravity, no 
 solid substance with which we are acquainted, would be 
 able to resist the pressure at great depths, unless aided by 
 
 * Horace, lib. i, ode 3. 
 
136 
 
 heat, or some other repelling force. * Professor Leslie 
 supposes light to be the only substance of sufficient 
 elastic force to balance a vertical column of three thou- 
 sand five hundred miles, so that the interior of our 
 planet is not, as some have supposed, the abode of dark- 
 ness, but of imprisoned ether, luminous and resplen- 
 dent, eager to break through the adamantine walls which 
 confine it ! an hypothesis which it must be confessed, 
 however it may dazzle, throws no satisfactory light upon 
 the subject. 
 
 But again, as it is known to astronomers that the 
 density of the planets varies, that is, that it does not 
 coincide with their masses ; (thus Saturn, though infinitely 
 larger than the earth, is far less dense ;) f and the infer- 
 ence being rational, that matter exists upon their surfaces, 
 in something like the same state as upon the earth, from 
 the snow observed upon the polar regions of Mars, 
 which disappears when they are long exposed to the sun, 
 and exhibits the greatest accumulation when they first 
 emerge from the long night of their winter, { combined 
 with the appearances upon the moon's surface, it has been 
 concluded that heat, or some cause counteracting the 
 effect of gravity, operates in a greater or less degree in 
 all the planetary bodies, as well as in the earth. 
 
 * Even the atmosphere increases very considerably in weight 
 in deep mines, although they in no case exceed 1- 10,000th part of 
 the radius of the earth. See Note, p. 129. 
 
 f " The density of Saturn hardly exceeds one-eighth of the 
 mean density of the earth, so that it must consist of materials not 
 much heavier than cork." See Sir J. Herschel's Astronomy, p. 278. 
 
 \ Sir J. Herschel's Astronomy, p, 208, 
 
137 
 
 These speculations are not, perhaps, strictly within 
 the province of the geologist : but as reflections which 
 tend to illustrate the harmony of design, evinced every- 
 where in the creation, I have ventured to introduce them. 
 Some modern geologists, letting loose the imagination, 
 have been carried out further into the sea of speculation, 
 and beholding gaseous bodies, such as Encke's comet, 
 whirling in a regular orbit round the sun, with the same 
 force and regularity as the more solid planets ; and 
 looking, moreover, at those vast nebulous bodies in the 
 remote regions of space, which appear to be undergoing 
 condensation, forming, perhaps, new worlds, and sys- 
 tems of worlds by a bold analogy have suggested, that 
 the earth in its original state was an expanded nebu- 
 losity, from the condensation of which it assumed its 
 present form. There is great beauty and sublimity in 
 the idea, that it was thus the globe sprang from chaos 
 at the command of the Creator ; but our position, on the 
 frontier only of knowledge, with faculties which merely 
 enable us just to catch a distant glimpse of what is going 
 on around us, will scarcely justify a step so bold so 
 daring an invasion of the prerogatives of Omnipotence. 
 
 There are those who, with narrow vision, look with 
 suspicion at geology, nay, who openly denounce the 
 subject as fraught with danger to the interests of religion : 
 and, as it has been observed, * like the Brahmin, who 
 broke to atoms the microscope which first showed him 
 living things among the vegetables of his food, because 
 the discovery was fatal to dearly-cherished prejudices, 
 would crush this rising science, and draw a veil over 
 
 * See Sedgwick's Discourse on the Studies of Cambridge. 
 
138 
 
 the interesting facts which it has disclosed. The 
 venomous ichor, which, according to the mythological 
 fable, flowed in springs from the never-healing wounds 
 inflicted by the thunderbolts upon the Campanian 
 giants, who in the earth had hid themselves to escape 
 the justice of heaven, was not an object of greater horror 
 and abhorrence to the ancient inhabitants of Messapia, 
 than are the organic remains exhumed by geologists, 
 and the deductions which flow from their study, to 
 certain writers and theologians of these enlightened 
 times. This folly, the result of ignorance and miscon- 
 ception, it is idle to expose. Are we to revert to the 
 fable of the North American Indians, that the mammoth, 
 whose bones they find in such quantities beneath the 
 soil, was a reason-gifted monster, which, having laid 
 waste the world, had invoked the lightnings of heaven ; 
 or that the ichthyosaurus, the pterodactylus, the mega- 
 therium, and all those other beautiful specimens of the 
 exuberance of creative skill, which, in countless thou- 
 sands are imbedded in hard rocks, were produced by 
 the lapidifying juices, or some plastic virtue inherent in 
 the earth ? or are we not rather to follow the plain and 
 simple plan of induction, adopted with so much success 
 in the other sciences, deducing causes from their effects, 
 and throwing upon these all the light which analogy 
 furnishes ? There is no medium, no neutral ground of 
 truth; science must be free and unfettered, or suppressed. 
 But, properly considered, geology, in common with 
 all the natural sciences, so far from being inimical, will 
 be found to lend a powerful aid to religion, in exhibiting 
 that beautiful subserviency to final causes displayed in 
 all the operations of nature. That it is not inconsistent 
 
139 
 
 with the strictest orthodoxy, we may appeal to Sedgwick 
 andBuckland, and others, as splendid proofs names as 
 eminent in the pages of theology as in the annals of 
 science. And although the beautiful world upon which 
 we dwell, is, as we have seen, but one vast charnel-house 
 of animated beings, containing the remains of number- 
 less races of animals whose prototypes are no longer 
 found in the book of life, and animate and inanimate 
 nature appear to have been involved in an almost end- 
 less system of mutation, the geologist discovers in all 
 these changes such admirable proofs of ulterior design, 
 of adaptation of circumstances to the condition of animal 
 life, of means to an end, and these the more remarkable 
 inasmuch as their connection is sometimes so remote, 
 that he is led irresistibly to the conclusion, that the same 
 Almighty Being which at first created, has at every 
 period of the past, presided over the destinies of his 
 creatures. 
 
 Science is the language of nature, and " Nature's 
 but the name for an effect whose cause is God." Truly, 
 therefore, may it be said, that Christianity has nothing 
 to dread from the march of science, superstition may 
 shrink at its approach, but revelation may witness its 
 progress without alarm, for, as a beautiful writer has 
 observed, "truths can never war with each other." 
 
 FINIS. 
 
COCKSHAW, PRINTER, 
 

 
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