Donated to LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS \ ' - * i I cc fHE J5TORY OF THE I\OCKg. POPULAR GEOLOGY. J. DORMAN STEELE, Ph.D. FBLLOW OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOtlETY, LONDON, AND AUTHOR Of FOURTEEN-WEEK9 SERIES IN PHYSIOLOGY, PHILOSOPHY, CHEMISTRY, AND ASTRONOMY. ]y heart is awed within me, when I think Of the great miracle which still goes on In silence round me the perpetual worle Of Thy creation, finished, yet renewed Forever. '' BRYANT A. S. BARNES & COMPANY, NEW YORK AND CHICAGO. 1875. LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS TIJE FOURTEEN WEEKS' COURSES IN NATURAL SCIENCE, BY J. DORMAN STEELE, A.M., PH.D. Fourteei] Weeks iij Natural Philosophy, . . $1.50 Fourteeij Weeks iij Cljenjistry, . . . . 1.50 Fourteeq Weeks iij Descriptive J^stroijomy, . i 50 Fourteeij Weeks irj Popular Geology, . . 1.50 Fourteeij Weeks iq Hunjan Physiology, . .. 1.50 A Key, containing Answers to the Questions and Problems in Steele's 14 Weeks' Courses, 1.50 4 HISTORICAL SERIES, on the plan of Steele's 14 Weeks in the Sciences, inaugurated by \ Brief History of tlje Urjited States, . . 1.50 The publishers of this volume will send either of the above by mail, post-paid, on receipt of the price. The same publishers also offer the following standard scientific works, being more extended or difficult treatises than those of Prof. Steele, though still of Academic grade. Peck's Gaijot's Natural Philosophy, . . . 1.75 Porter's Principles of Cfyerqistry, .... 2.00 Jarvis' Physiology aqd Laws of tyealtlj, . 1.65 Wood's Botanist aqd Florist, . . . . . 2.50 djanjbers' Elenjeijts cf Zoology, .... 1.50 'tyclijtyre's ^stroijomy aqd the Globes, . . 1.50 Page's Elenjeqts of Geology, '. . . , . 1.25 Address A. S. BARNES & CO., . Educational Publishers, NEW YORK OR CHICAGO. ENTERED according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by A. S. BARNES & CO., In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. TO MY PUPILS, WHOSE NEEDS FIEST SUGGESTED THE PLAN OF THIS SERIES, AND IN WHOSE APPRECIATION AND LOVE 1 HAVE FOUND MY CONSTANT SATISFACTION AND REWARD, is AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED. a^nfr C E. present work is based upon the same general plan as the preceding ones of the series. The aim is to make science interesting by omitting the minutiae which are of value only to the scientific man, and by presenting alone those points of general importance with which every well- informed person wishes to become acquainted. The thing is of more value than the name. A pleasant fact will be recollected long after an unpronounceable term has been forgotten. Therefore, only enough geologic nomenclature is used to make the study systematic, to awaken a love for the order of nature, and to afford a plan around which other knowledge may crystallize. The author is satisfied from his experience as a teacher that pupils take no interest in the fossils'which characterize the various geologic epochs, except the few which are typi- cal, unless they have access to a paleontological cabinet ; in that case, they learn the names best by association with the objects. If any attempt is made to name and illustrate the fossils of any group, the limits of a small text-book per- mit but a scanty selection, which is of little value in the 6 PREFACE. identification of the fossils gathered by a class even within the limits of that group, while to those outside it is useless. Hence a school Geology should give only the general out- lines, leaving to the teacher, with a copy of the survey of his own State, and such collections as he may have or can gather, to impart the instruction in local paleontology. The author has sought to develop the following peculiarities : (i) To give the general outlines of each subject, and only enough of the details to interest without burdening the mind ; (2) to develop the theories of the science thor- oughly, and thus afford a clear idea of the methods of geo- logic study as a basis for future progress ; (3) to give blackboard analyses of each subject for topical recitations ; (4) by means of foot-notes to present the pupil with much geologic literature, thus affording the information and cul- ture of an extended range of collateral scientific reading which would otherwise be within the reach of few pupils ; (5) to add the benefits of the "question and answer" sys- tem to those of the topical method by means of a set of thorough review questions at the close of the book ; (6) to lead the pupil to a study of natural objects by treating very fully the stones common in the Drift, and thus giving prac- tical field-work at once ; (7) to adapt the book to all sec- tions of our country by means of a clear presentation of the typical New York system, and such modifications in the text or foot-notes as will enable any pupil to make the ap-. plication to his own State. It is -hoped that this book will render the study of Geol- ogy possible to young persons striving after self-education to men of business, whose leisure allows only a -limited ac- quaintance with books, and to schools where the fresh buoy- ant spirits of youth are now repelled by cold, formal state- ments of purely technical truth. The author's most earnest PREFACE. 7 desire is to awaken the thought and quicken the imagina- tion of the pupil ; to lead him to trace in nature the hallow- ing and refining influence of Divine truth, and thus to become one of that happy number who n*u*vi/v " As by' some secret gift of soul or eye, In every spot beneath the smiling sun See where the springs of living water lie." The author would take this opportunity of thanking the following teachers and friends, who have aided him through- out this entire series with many valuable suggestions, as well as in the reading of manuscripts and proof-sheets : L. S. BURBANK, A. M., Teacher of Nat, Science, High School, Lowell, Mass. ;.J. J. STEVENSON, Ph. D., Prof, of Geology, West Virginia University ; S. G. WILLIAMS, Ph. D., Prin. High School, Cleveland, Ohio ; J. W. P. JENKS, A. M., Prin. Middleboro' Acad., Middleboro', Mass. ; A. D. SMALL, A. M., Prin. High School, Rockland, Maine ; A. P. STONE, A. M., Prin. High School, Portland, Maine ; B. S. POTTER, A. M., Prof, of Nat. Science, Illinois Wesleyan University ; C. H. CHANDLER, A. M., Prin. Norwood Ladies' Institute, Northampton, Mass., and many others who have kindly furnished the rich fruits of their experience. The author takes great pleasure, also, in acknowledging his particular obligations to Foster's Mississippi Valley, WinchelFs Sketches of Creation, and Agassiz's Geological Sketches, Many of the drawings are copied from nature ; the ideal views are taken from Figuier's World before the Deluge. The Scenic Descriptions, which are a pe- culiar feature of the book, are rhetorical flowers culled from the broad field of geologic literature. The Glos- sary at the close of the work is based upon standard authorities. 8 REFA CE. The author would recognize his obligations, in general, to the following authorities : Manual of Geology . . . . . DANA. . Manual of Mineralogy DANA. . Geological Sketches AGASSIZ. Methods of Study . . . . . AGASSIZ. Travels in Brazil AGASSIZ. Elements of Geology . . . . . HITCHCOCK. The Mississippi Valley . . . . . FOSTER. Our Planet . DENTON. Chips and Chapters . ... . PAGE. Elements of Geology PAGE. The Earth's Crust PAGE. Past and Present Life . . . . . PAGE. Medals of Creation . . . .-.;-.. MANTELL. Wonders of Geology MANTELL. The World Before the Deluge . . . FIGUIER. Elements of Geology . . . . . LYELL. Earth and Man . . . . . . GUYOT. Vegetation des Diverses Periodes du Monde Primitif . . . . F. UNGER. Recent and Fossil Shells .... WOODWARD. Man in Genesis and in Geology . . . THOMPSON. Acadian Geology . . ... . . DAWSON. Old Red Sandstone HUGH MILLER. Testimony of the Rocks . . . . HUGH MILLER. Popular Geology HUGH MILLER. State Report of New York .... HALL. State Report of New Jersey .... COOK. State Report of California .... WHITNEY. State Report of Illinois . . . . WORTHEN. State Report of Pennsylvania . . . ROGERS. Manual of Geology EMMONS. Elements of Geology ANSTED. Siluria (fourth ed., 1867) .... MURCHISON. Sketches of Creation . . . . . WINCHELL. SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS. *T^HE author has followed, in general, the classification * given in Dana's Manual of Geology. The teacher will therefore find that book of great value for reference. In the eastern States, tfctchcock's works are of especial ser- vice. The geological report of one's own State is essential to furnish local information^ and to enable the teacher and pupil to identify the fossils they may gather. Geology can be pursued without a cabinet, and yet a small collection of the most common minerals is almost indispensable, and can easily be obtained for comparison. Fossils are more diffi- cult to secure. The teacher must rely mainly on his own collection and exchanges with friends. Plaster casts of typical genera and species can be purchased of Prof. Henry A. Ward, of Rochester, N. Y. They answer all the purposes of instruction, and in color and form can scarcely be dis- tinguished from the original specimens. Information con- cerning the cost of small cabinets can be obtained of the publishers of this work. Geological excursions to river channels, quarries, ravines, railroad cuttings, mines, gravel beds, stone fences, &c., furnish most valuable information and healthful recreation. A steel hammer of the form 10 SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS. shown in Fig. i will be found most generally useful ; the edges should be square, the socket FlG - *: large, the handle strong, and the entire weight about two pounds. Rock specimens should not be 12 over three inches square and an A GEOLOGICAL HAMMER. , , . . , - 111 i inch thick, and should be neatly trimmed. The locality of each specimen should be care- fully noted and preserved. The diagram -at the commencement of each general sub- ject forms an analysis of the topic. The author is accus- tomed to have this placed upon the blackboard, and to conduct the recitation from it, without asking questions, excepting as occasion may suggest the necessity of addi- tional information, or a closer investigation of the pupil's knowledge. Questions for review are given in the Appen- dix. It is suggested that teachers instruct their pupils to assign such fossils as they may find, or have the privilege of examining, first, to the sub-kingdom ; second, to the class ; and third) to the order, but not to the family, genus, or species, except in case of well-known fossils. Better satis- faction will be given, and results secured, by doing so much well, than by a vain attempt to teach everything in a brief school-term. Never let a pupil recite a lesson, nor answer a question, except it be a mere definition, in the language of the book. The text is designed to interest and instruct the pupil ; the recitation should afford him an opportunity of expressing what he has learned, in his own style and words. -CONTENTS. I. PAGE INTRODUCTION,. . . . .. -17 II. LITHOLOGICAL GEOLOGY, . . . .35 III. HISTORICAL GEOLOGY, 91 IV. THE AGE OF MAN, 241 APPENDIX. QUESTIONS, . 257 GLOSSARY, 275 INDEX, 277 30 AM .. >. ; " 31n tfre beginning: oa createn tfje fceatien anD tfje eartf)." GENESIS i. 1. > \ csR 2 ANALYSIS OF INTRODUCTION H CJ & Q O I. ORIGIN OF THE EARTH ACCORDING TO THE NEBU- LAR HYPOTHESIS. II. SCENIC DESCRIPTION. III. DEFINITION OF GEOLOGY. i. THE SOLID SHELL. IV. THE EARTH'S CRUST. V. METHODS OF GEOLOGIC STUDY. 2. PROOF OF THE INTERNAL HEAT OF THE 1. Temperature. 2. Artesian Wells. 3. Hot Springs. 4. Elevations and De- pressions. 5. Volcanoes. EARTH. [6. Earthquakes. 1. NATURE'S LAWS UNIVERSAL. 2. SEDIMENTARY ROCKS. 3. TEACHINGS OF SED. ROCKS. 4. IGNEOUS ROCKS. 5. TEACHINGS OF IG. ROCKS. 6. FOSSILS. 7. TEACHINGS OF FOSSILS. 8. GLACIERS. g. TEACHINGS OF GLACIERS. a. Caves. ro. CHRONOLOGY. b. Lake-bottoms. c. Scottish Illus- trations. INTRODUCTION. The Origin of the Earth's Crtist according to the Nebtiiar 'Hypothesis .* Our earth was once, doubtless, a glowing star. In that far off beginning it shone as brilliantly as do now the sun and the fixed stars. In process of time it cooled from a gaseous to a liquid form. It then assumed a spherical figure in obedience to the same familiar laws of force which round a drop of dew. Its atmosphere comprised not only the gases that compose our present atmosphere, but all the oxygen and carbon now locked in the rock and coal masses of the earth vast quantities of min- eral matter vaporized by the fierce heat, and, in the form of superheated steam, all the water which now fills the ocean. The air, thus dense with moisture and poison- ous metallic vapors, rested on a seething ocean of fire. Ages passed, and the earth, radiating its heat into space, and thus cooling, began to show on its surface patches of solid substance, like the floating films that first appear * See Fourteen Weeks in Astronomy, p. 282. THE NEBULAK HYPOTHESIS. 18 GEOLOGY. on water as it passes into ice. These, gradually combin- ing, formed at last a thin -crust over the entire exterior. This was, however, constantly rent asunder by eruptions from the molten mass beneath. Huge crevices were opened, and torrents of liquid lava, ejected from the cracks and seams, were poured in fiery floods over the scarcely solid crust. The surface, arid and burning, bristled with ragged eminences, or was furrowed with enormous clefts and cracks. But the earth had ceased to shine as a star, and henceforth was itself to be lighted and at last heated from other bodies. As the globe continued to cool, a time arrived when the heat was not sufficient to support the water in the form of vapor. Under the tremendous pressure of the dense atmosphere, the steam was precipitated, boiling hot, upon the heated earth below. Eevaporized, it ascended again only to be condensed and returned as rain. This process, long continued, cooled the earth yet more rap- idly. The crust, shrinking and cracking as it hard- ened, became still more uneven with wrinkles and folds, yawning gulfs and fissures. The hot rain falling on the volcanic peaks, the torrents which poured down the mountain sides and through the valleys, all combined to dissolve the rock and sweep the sediment into the deeper hollows. The crust had not yet attained the consistency necessary to resist the pressure of the heated gases and liquids. Hence, in this manner also, enor- mous dislocations were made, whose folds and uplifts with deep gulfs and belching lavas denoted terrific convulsions. Thus a fierce conflict was raging between fire and water. At last the water triumphed, and the ocean became universal. A hot, muddy, shallow sea INTRODUCTION. 19 surged round the earth from pole to pole. There being no dry land to divert its course, a constant trade- wind must have swept over this primitive ocean spanning the globe. ' Astronomy teaches us the probable origin of our globe. As soon as the crust began to be formed by the mingled action of lire and water, Geology steps in to explain the phenomena. In this vague and nebulous border-land the two sciences meet. From that time we find that the earth entered on a regular series of progressive revolu- tions which gradually fitted it for the introduction of life. The Mosaic Account of the Creation informs ns that " the earth was at first without form and void ; find darkness was upon the face of the deep." With the first motion of nebulous matter light was developed, or, in the nervous language of Scripture " God said, Let there be light." Thus ended the work of the first day.* * The word "day" is of course considered not as a literal day, but as sym- bolical of a long period of time ages, during which God was fitting this earth as a home for man. The idea of exact days of twenty-four hoars each is neither required by the original nor by the scope of the narration. The word "day 1 ' itself is used in four senses in the description. The Christian fathers did not interpret it as a common clay. Augustine, in the fourth century, called the days of creation " ineffable days," and described them as " alternate births and pauses in the work of the Almighty the boundaries of periods in the vast evolution of the worlds." How glorious the idea which we here obtain of. God, as, through measureless ages in which he is rich, resting not, hasting not, but slowly and by the steady operation of His own laws, He works out to the finest detail His mighty thought of a world. Moses gives but the grand outline of this creative act, an outline which Geology is filling up rapidly and surely. The Mosaic account is a hymn, full of poetry and grandeur, not a close, exact, scientific record of events. Yet its truths were inspired by the eame God who made the world. As such we receive the records of both rev- elation and nature, and gladly notice their harmony in all their grand teachings. As yet Geology is in its infancy, and we often are able only to suggest and intimate what may hereafter be, firmly believing that God's truth must stand, whether it be revealed in the rock or in the book. 20 GEOLOGY. On the second, the firmament or atmosphere was formed, separating the clouds above from the sea below, which, as the revelations of both the rock and the book teach us, as yet covered the entire earth. This was the work of the second day, that long era of cooling and consolida- tion that separated the formless period of chaos from th birth of the continents. SCENIC DESCRIPTION.- Let us imagine the scenery of that primitive period. A dark atmosphere of steam, vapor, and sulphurous clouds which conceals the face of the sun, and through which the light of moon or star never penetrates ; an ocean of boiling water, heated at a thousand points from the central fire ; low, half- molten islands, dim through the fog, and scarcely more fixed than the waves themselves that heave and tremble, lashed into fury by perpetual tempests ; roaring geysers, that ever and anon throw up intermittent jets of boil- ing water and steam from these tremulous lands. In the dim horizon the red gleam of fire shoots forth from yawning chasms, and fragments of molten rock with- clouds of ashes are borne aloft ; incessant flashes of light- ning evoked by the vast chemical changes which are taking place, dart to and fro, shedding a lurid glare upon the seething ocean-cauldron beneath ; while bursts of echoing thunder, peal on peal, complete the grand but awful picture. Geology (ge the earth, and logos a, discourse) may be defined as the history of the earth's crust as taught by its rocks and fossils. 1 X T 11 O J) U C T 1 O X. ,-1 2?ie JZarffi's Crust. This is evidently thickening from age to age as the cooling process goes on. Our examination of it is very superficial, extending down- ward not more than ten miles. On a terrestrial globe, eighteen inches in diameter, the deepest wells, mines, and valleys would be exaggerated by a delicate scratch upon the varnish with a pin. It is generally believed, however, that the solid shell is not over fifty miles in thickness, and that the interior is still a molten mass. The facts upon which this opinion rests are as follows : (1.) THE TEMPERATURE INCREASES AS WE DESCEND. The rate varies in different localities, but is always over 1 F. for every hundred feet. At fifty miles this would give a temperature of at least 3000 F., sufficient to melt the most refractory rocks.* Instances illustrat- ing this increase of heat abound in all parts .of the world in frigid Siberia, in temperate Germany, and in tropi- cal Africa. At a depth of fifty or sixty feet in our lati- tude, there is a uniform temperature unaffected by the vicissitudes of the seasons, and a half mile below us there is summer heat the year round. In a tin mine at Eed- ruth, Cornwall, 1800 feet deep, there is a constant tem- perature of 100, equal to that of a hot July day. The miners, it is said, cannot endure their clothing, and are often compelled to . ascend part way, and plunge into pools of the cooler water, in order to continue their labor. Similar difficulties also are already experienced in some of the silver mines of the west. (2.) ARTESIAN WELLS FURNISH WARM WATER. The hospital at Grenelle is heated by water from an Artesian * Granite liquefies sooner than soft iron, or at a temperature of about 2,400. 8 GEOLOGY. well 1800 feet deep. At Wurtemburg, large manufac- tories are warmed in the same manner, the water being conducted through the buildings in metallic pipes. In the Garden of Plants, in Paris, the pipes are laid in the soil ; and at Erfurt, Saxony, a salad garden is thus made to yield its proprietor an income of $60,000 per annum. The well at Louisville, Ky., furnishes water of a steady temperature of 76^, and the one at Charleston, 1250 feet deep, water of 87. (3.) HOT SPRINGS AND GEYSERS. One of the former in Arkansas has a temperature of 180. The geysers of Iceland and California are fountains of boiling water. The great geyser throws a column of mingled steam and water, eight yards in diameter, to a height of 150 feet. Near the Sah watch River, Col., is an immense spring so hot that the hunters sometimes cook their provisions in it. (4.) ELEVATIONS AND DEPRESSIONS OF THE EARTH'S CRUST. The land in various places has been uplifted or depressed, either by convulsive throes or by a slow move- ment continued through centuries. This indicates that the ground on which we tread has not an unyielding support. (5.) VOLCANOES. These throw up great masses of lava, which is merely molten rock. There are estimated to be over 300 volcanoes which are either constantly or occa- sionally active. The amount of melted matter they eject is enormous. Two streams of lava flowed from Skaptar Jokul, a crater in Iceland, in 1783 one fifty miles long and twelve broad, the other forty miles long and seven broad ; each was one hundred feet deep. When we think of such fiery torrents, and that the lava everywhere is INTRODUCTION. S3 essentially the same in its composition, we can but con- sider the interior of the earth as a melted mass, and the volcanoes as the chimneys of this huge central furnace. (6.) EARTHQUAKES. Within the past fifty years, over 2,000 earthquake shocks have been recorded. They are accompanied by volcanic eruptions, jets of boiling water, and heated gases. The only rational explanation is that they are produced by tidal waves or some terrific convul- sion in the fiery ocean beneath. , MetJ&ds of Geological Study. UNIFORMITY OF "NATURE. The earth is a microcosm the universe in miniature. The laws which govern our world govern all worlds. The elements of matter of which it is com- posed are the same as those which make up the farthest star in space. The earth, therefore, as Prof. Dana beau- tifully says, though but an atom in immensity, is immen- sity itself in its revelations of truth ; and science, though gathered from our small sphere, is the deciphered science of all spheres. As this world thus reveals to us the laws of other worlds, so the present time makes known to us the laws of past time. The geologist believes in the unchangeableness of God's laws. All results are brought about by established methods. The same effects are always produced by the same causes. The motions of the heavenly bodies, the principles of heat, electricity, chemical affinity, etc., are the same now as they have been from the beginning. The geologist sees God work- ing in nature through the uncounted ages of the past as He works to-day, not fitfully, but uniformly developing the mighty plan of the universe. Thus a knowledge of the present is the magic key whereby the geologist un- & GEOLOGY. locks the history of the past. Let us notice a few of the practical applications of this principle. Sedimentary ffocfcs. The rain- which falls on the hills runs down every slope, washing the soil into the brooks and rivers, thence to the lake or sea. It is there deposited as a soft mud or sediment in horizon- tal layers or strata (singular, stratum). The process is necessarily slow, but uninterrupted. Year after year, century after century, adds layer on layer, the more recent deposits concealing the more ancient. If we FIG. 2. Ripple Marks. visit the sea-shore, we shall see the fine sand washed up' by the waves, and spread, layer upon layer, in a similar manner, each wave rippling its tiny ridges, and covering .others beneath its shifting sands. The geologist exam* ines the solid rocks, and finds strata composed of fine sediment arranged in layers, with oftentimes ripple marks curving the surface, appearing as distinct as if the tide had just ebbed. He finds rocks presenting the look of INTRODUCTION. 86 half-dried mud from which the water had been evapo- rated but yesterday, leaving cracks and even prints of rain-drops so clearly denned that one can tell from what direction the storm came which fell on those mud flats of the olden time. (See Fig. 3.) He notices other strata FIG. 3. a. Modern impressions of rain-drops. b. Carboniferous impressions of rain-drops. composed of sand, gravel, or round water-worn pebbles, such as are now seen along the shore of river or lake among swiftly moving waters. Again he discovers banks of sand or clay where the process of rock-making is still progressing, and the material is in all stages of harden- ing. He therefore decides that all similar stratified rocks have been formed by the action of water, and hence calls them sedimentary. TEACHINGS OF THE SEDIMENTAKY ROCKS. The water records the history of the land. Not only is' the inani- mate dust of earth carried into the vast storehouse of the sea, but there lie millions of shells of every shape 2 SO GEOLOGY. and hue ; there, into the soft, oozy bottom settle the remains of countless fishes which have thronged the waters ; thither float leaves and reeds, and trees torn up by the tempest, swept seaward from every shore; there sink skeletons of sea-fowls, exhausted land-birds, and animals borne to the sea by rapid rivers ; ships with their unclaimed cargoes, gone on their final voyage, and in harbor at last ; drowned mariners lying in their quiet graves unconscious of the fiercest storm that sweeps above them all these varied relics are slowly buried by the ever-settling sediment. The bottom of the ocean is a cemetery in which lie the dead from the three king- doms of Nature. Layer by layer are gathered the re- mains of each passing year, the history of every age being thus deposited and built into the very founda- tions of the earth. Could we. gain access to this sea- bottom, we should find revealed, with each layer turned up by our spade, a fresh page of the history of the world. The ocean is now making up a continuation of this his- tory. The geologist is reading the earlier volumes in the stratified rocks, the sea-bottom of the olden time. Igneous ffioc&s. The geologist watches the action of volcanoes and earthquakes at the present day. He notices that rocks of various consistency and character are formed from the cooling lava, and that stratified or sedimentary rocks are displaced and rent, the fissures being filled with injected matter. In the earth's crust, at various places, the exact counterparts of these rocks and these ' displacements occur. The rocks are not ar- ranged in layers, but piled up in mountain masses, break- ing through the stratified rocks, tilting and throwing INTRODUCTION. 27 them out of their original positions. The observer has no more difficulty in accepting the evidence that the unstratified rocks give of former igneous action and con- vulsion than in admitting the eruptions and earthquakes of Etna and Vesuvius. TEACHINGS OF THE IGNEOUS ROCKS. The geologist calls all rocks which indicate the action of fire igneous, and ascribes dislocations of strata and filling up of cracks with igneous products to the operation of ancient vol- canoes and earthquakes. If he is not correct in his con- clusions, then Nature is not uniform, and is making the same kind of rock on one day by fire and on another by water, and thus all the history of the past is a delusion. \ * Fossils (fossilis, dug up) is a name applied to all animal or vegetable remains which are found embedded in the rocks oil the earth's crust. What we have already said concerning the sedimentary rocks shows us how fossils arc now forming and have been formed in all time.* As the autumnal leaf drops into the stream, and * These remains were known to the ancients, and considered "freaks of Na- ture." Tradition, which attributed to Achilles and other heroes of the Trojan war a height of twenty feet, is traceable, no doubt, to the discovery of ele- phants' bones near their tombs. Thus, for example, we are assured that, in the time of Pericles, in the tomb of Ajax was found a knee-bone of that hero which was as large as a dinner plate. It was, probably, the fossil knee-bone of an elephant. The Spartans prostrated themselves befqre the remains of one of these animaly, in which they thought they recognized the skeleton of Orestes. Some bones of a mammoth found in Sicily were considered as having belonged to Polyphemus. Even the learned of a later day were not exempt from these blunders. Felix Plater, Professor of Anatomy at Basle, in 1517, referred the bones of an elephant discovered at the roots of a tree torn up by the wind near Lucerne, to a giant at least nineteen 'feet high. He even restored it in a sketch which was long preserved in the college at Lucerne. In England, similar bone3 \verc regarded as those of the fallen angels ! When geology first began to be studied, people generally considered the deposition of fossils ns having a connection with Noah's flood. Cuvier found the skeleton 28 GEOLOGY. becomes imbedded in its mud as the trees of the forest are borne down by the flooded river and are ultimately entangled in the sediment of its estuary as the coral reef and shell-bed are gradually increasing and growing as it were into limestone before our eyes as the skele^ tons of animals are drifted by the tide and fall to the sea-bottom or sink into rivers and marshes, and are th&s preserved from rapid decay so in all time past have similar agencies been at work ; here preserving the bro- ken twig and the fallen forest, there the coral reef and th'e shell-bed, and anon the remains of animals that were borne by rivers from the land, or drifted by the Waves on the muddy sea-shore. > TEACHINGS OF THE FOSSILS. Digging in me soil, we find a bone. We examine it. It is one of t^e vertebra) of a horse. We believe it to be real. It is not a "freak of Nature," but was once part of a living l^rse. We dis- cover some strange fossil bone, and are 1M irresistibly to a similar conclusion. The skilful geologist, understand- ing perfectly the relation tyiat exists bo/ween the different parts of the animal frame, whereby each portion subserves its part toward the development of/ life and its functions, can restore the entire form, and even indicate the habits of the creatures that formerly^peopled our globe. For example, a sharp claw belongs to a flesh-eating animal with sharp cutting molars ; a hoof, to a grazing species of a gigantic salamander preserved as a specimen of the accursed race swal- lowed up by the Deluge. When we speak of fossils being converted to stone, we do not mean that the particles of the original substance have been changed to stone", but that, as they decayed, they have been replaced by stone. This is true, however, only of the fossils of the older formations. The new ones retain their original substance. Shells of the Tertiary Period can often scarcely be distinguished from modern ones, while sharks' teeth exhibit their enamel intact. INTRODUCTION. 29 with broad 'molars. Knowing, too, the conditions neces- sary to the life of such animals, he can also decide upon the climate, food, etc., which then existed. Agassiz, from a single scale, reconstructed an entire fish. Subsequent discoveries proved his idea to be singularly accurate. The restoration of the megalosaur by Hawkins is a remarkable instance of a similar character. (See Fig. 83.) We visit the sea-shore, and gather shells along the beach.. On digging, we discover others buried from sight, l^ese are. filled with damp sand, which perfectly retains their impress. In the quarry among the layers of sedimentary rocks, we find similar fossil shells. They are certainly the remains of ancient life, and must have existed when the rock was in process of formation. They prove the rock to have been once under water. If the shells are marine, it was the sea ; if fresh water, a lake or river ; if intermediate, an estuary. The testimony is as conclusive a ilVvve had lived by that ancient shore, and ha$f 'Witnessed their growth, decay, and entombment in *%<* In certain clay beds of England, shells are found of species now existing only in polar seas. We thence infer that when that clay was deposited, and those shells were inhabited, a climate similar to that of Greenland must have prevailed in British latitudes. Remains of the rein- deer and musk ox occur in France.. These indicate a former Arctic temperature, unless we are to suppose that the habits of those animals have . entirely changed since the time of their existence in southern Europe. Action of Glaciers (Gla'-seers). Philosophers have carefully studied the effects of .moving masses of 30 GEOLOGY. ice. They have seen how the glacier pushes its down the Alpine valley, grinding, rounding, smoothing, and marking the rocks over which it passes, and de- positing at the bottom its burden of debris. They have \vatched the glaciers of polar regions collecting on the sea-shore until at last great mountains of ice break loose and float southward. They have seen these ice- bergs grounding and melting in a more genial clime, where they finally drop their load of rocky fragments on the sea-bottom. TEACHINGS OF THE GLACIERS. The geologist, in re- gions now far removed from glacial action, finds the lower extremities of mountain glens and valleys heaped with mounds of sand and gravel, and the rocky surface marked with parallel grooves, such as no known agency except the glacier ever produces. Resting on the lower hills and scattered over valley and plain teyond, he sees great bowlders of a weight far exceeding tne transporting power of water, miles removed from their parent rocks, and with their sides smoothed and marked. He ascribes these results to glaciers and icebergs. He assumes that these mountains were once covered with snow, these glens once filled with glaciers, and that these lower lands were the bottoms of seas on which floating ice- bergs grounded, and, melting, left their loads of rocky debris. Cfironotogy. Many geological facts aid in deter- mining the relation of different events in respect to time. The following instances illustrate the method : CAVES. In certain caves the bones of various ani- mals are found embedded in a calcareous deposit, which INTRODUCTION. 81 has accumulated on the floor by water slowly dripping from the roof. Many of the bones have been gnawed, and the hollow ones split lengthwise. The geologist ascribes the former to den-frequenting, carnivorous animals like the hyena, and the latter to a marrow-sucking race of men. This conclusion is still further substantiated by finding traces of the hyena, and also stone-hatchets, ashes, and charred sticks of wood. Man, alone, lights a fire. Hence we are as sure of the existence of a rude cave-dwelling tribe of men as if we had witnessed their grim countenances lighted up by the fires of which those fragments were the latest embers. The .hyena and the cave-dwellers lived at the same epoch. The deeper the layer the older the remains. If we can only deter- mine the rate at which the soil accumulates, we can estimate with some degree of accuracy their antiquity. LAKE-BOTTOMS. We drain a level, basin-shaped mead- ow. The general form and location suggest the idea that it may have been anciently the site of a lake. The moment, however, we dig below the surface, the geologic evidence converts the inference into a matter of certainty. We pass through first the soil, next a layer of peat, then one of marl, and lastly, one of clayey sedi- ment. In the peat we find antlers of deer and bones of oxen ; in the marl, fresh-water shells ; and in the sedi- ment, a log hollowed out into a rude canoe. Here we have the whole history of the lake, and in reading it we can trace the successive stages as clearly as if we had lived by its shores from the time it was a sheet of shal- low water to the hour of its final obliteration. First, the open lake, over which the simple native paddled his rude canoe ; second, the shallower sheet, where fresh- 82 GEOLOGY. water shell-fish luxuriated in myriads, and succeeded each other, generation after generation ; third, the peat marsh, over which deer and oxen occasionally ventured, and were mired; and fourth, the level meadow, when the site became too dry for the peat-forming plants to nourish. We have no exact chronology for these events, and can only decide their order. The canoe may have sunk one thousand or five thousand years ago, for aught we know. If, however, we can form some idea of the rate at which the sediment was deposited, or the marl and the peat formed, we can then judge somewhat of its antiquity. SCOTTISH ILLUSTRATIONS. Such ancient lake-bottoms are seen in the Lowlands of Scotland. The geologist finds below the peat-bog the bones of horse, pig, deer, dog, and man ; deeper still, the Eoman eagle or sword ; next, the bones of the wild ox, bear, wolf, beaver ; then the wooden canoe; below the marl, bones and antlers of the gigantic Irish elk, and tusks of the great mammoth.; and at the bottom the solid rock, strewn with ice-borne blocks the original bed of the lake when its waters were first gathered together. Occasionally, also, raised mounds of piles, plank, branches, stones, and other material are laid bare. These were the foundations of the lake-dwell- ings of former days, raised by primitive men for their defence. They reveal stone hammers, flint spear-heads, split bones, and fragments of rude potters-ware. What a marvelous history we read from these records of Na- ture ! In the beginning there is the gleaii sheet of water rippling in the European landscape lor Great Britain has not yet been separated from the -continent surrounded by forests of pine, birch, and willow. The INTRODUCTION. 83 climate is severe, and the woolly-haired mammoth tramps through the overhanging bushes down to the water's edge. Centuries pass. Eeindeer and Irish elk betake themselves to the water in summer, and sink into its miry depths, or seek to cross its frozen crust during the winter's snow, and are buried beneath the treacher- ous surface. Ages roll on. The climate becomes milder, and Britain is detached from the continent. The lake is gradually becoming shallow ; reeds and bulrushes en- croach upon its margin ; oak clumps adorn its banks, along which prowl the wolf and bear ; the beaver builds his dam across the entering stream, and the wild ox and red deer stand lolling in its cool waters. A race of short, broad, round-headed men settle by the shore, pile the mounds and wattle their simple lake-dwellings ; with fire and stone adzes scoop out the oak-trunks into canoes, spear the ox and deer in the woods, and enjoy the com- forts of a dawning civilization. Time passes. Still the lake grows shallower, and its reedy margin broader. A new race of men taller, higher-headed, and more nimble take possession of the scene. They settle the slopes, erect their rude alfars in the oak clumps, domesticate the ox, horse, and dog, and attempt a scanty cultivation of the soil. The Roman legions at last we know the date of that event, about two thousand years ago invade the country, scatter the natives, and encamp by the lake. They erect their votive altars, make plank roads through the marshy borders, and drop their implements and uten- sils by the side of those of the ancient Briton. The pre- historic ages have now passed, and we can more easily, but still somewhat confusedly, continue the onward his- tory of the fast lessening waters. The Romans dis- 84 GEOLOGY. appear. Celt and Saxon contend for the soil, and we trace in the uppermost bog-earths the remains of ex- isting breeds of oxen, sheep, horses, pigs, dogs, and other domestic animals, and even implements of iron belonging to successive stages of civilization down to the present time. (A Stone= o h 5 55 ^s 2jKgS i.LCEDONY, \.TE, ONYX !? jgass - % ** Q S 1 C/3 <" o H 1 O M **^ s i. NBLENDE, :, SOAPSTO NET. RMALINE. K ^3 OH <2 | 'S U g pj g O^f^*^ U"^ H^MI 73* w j U 09 b ^ffiHO o o o H o H w O HH O U gp M 2 OH H < V^^ (J OCKS . M fj- S K W "W S Q 3 riia 8 & u 2 3 U z 2 < s S 04 < 3 K - U O C/QJc/i H H > n r^4l ri JfQ LI T HO LOG 1C A L GEOLOGY. from one stage of consolidation into another, the geolo- gist applies the term rock alike to all. The desert of Sahara is a sand-rock. Ice is a rock as certainly as is limestone. 1 COMPOSITION OF THE MOCKS. Rocks are composed, in general, of only three common minerals Quartz, C2qy, and J^ime. Wherever you stand on the solid ground, in any country of the globe, you may be sure that the rock under you is mainly some form or compound of one or more of these earth- builders.* '(,. ) SILICA: /. Quartz (silica, silex) is the oxide of silicon, a rare non-metallic substance known only to the chemist. Silica is the most abundant of all* the minerals, compris- ing one-half of the earth's crust. It is so hard that it strikes fire with steel, scratches glass like a diamond, and * Since there were so few substances, Nature seems to have set herself about making these three as interesting and beautiful as she can. The clay, being a soft and changeable substance, she doesn't take much pains about she only brings the color into it when it takes on a permanent form on being baked into brick. (Buskin's statement does not hold good in America. For examples, the clays of Southern Virginia and North Carolina are beautifully mottled, the cliffs at Gay Head present brilliant tints, and the porcelain clays of Western Kentucky exhibit fine coloring.) But the limestone and flint she paints in her own way, in their native state ; and her object in painting them seems to be much the same as in her painting of flowers to draw us, careless and idle human creatures, to watch her a little, and see what she is about, that being, on the whole, good for us, her children. To lead us to do this she makes picture- books for us of limestone and flint ; and tempts us, like foolish children, as we are, to read her books by the pretty colors in them. The pretty colors in her limestone books form those variegated marbles which all mankind have taken pains to polish and build with from the beginning of time ; and the pretty COMPOSITION OF THE ROCKS. 41 cannot be cut with a knife. It has no cleavage,* and breaks into irregular fragments having a glassy lustre. It is insoluble in any acid (except hydrofluoric), and melts only in the heat of the compound blow-pipe. On FIG. 4. A Cluster of Quartz Crystals from Lake Superior. colors in her flint books form agates, jaspers, carnelians, etc., which men have, in like manner, taken delight to cut and polish and make ornaments of from the beginning of time ; and yet so much of babies are they, and so fond of looking at the pictures instead of reading the books, that I question whether, after six thousand years of cutting and polishing, there are more than two or three out of any hundred who know, or care to know, how a bit of agate or marble was made or painted. fiuskin. * Cleavage is the property of splitting with smooth surfaces in certain fixed directions: Many crystals separate very easily in those joinings which Nature has made. 42 LITHOLOGICAL GEOLOGY. account of its hardness, which resists the action of the elements, it comprises a large part of ordinary pebbles, sand, and much even of the soil. It is found in crys- tals of the form shown in the figure. When pure, like those of other minerals, they are generally small, and sometimes occur in beautiful clusters. Crystals of great size, though of inferior clearness, are occasionally seen. Dartmouth College cabinet possesses a group weighing 147 pounds. At Milan is a single crystal 3| feet long and 5J feet in circumference, estimated to weigh 870 pounds. 2. ffioc/c Crystal is the clear crystalline quartz. The name is derived from the Greek word krustallos, meaning ice. The purest specimens, are often cut for. jewelry, and sold as " white stone " and " California diamonds." They are also used for spectacle glasses. Anciently they were cut into vases and cups, some of which are still preserved as curiosities. It is said that Nero, on learning of the insurrection which led to his fall, dashed into pieces two crystal vases, one valued at $3000. Pure quartz sand is used in large quantities for making glass. Quartz, when colored by the various metallic oxides, presents a bewildering variety. The young geologist, after having gathered a very respectable collection of minerals, has often been surprised to learn that he has hardly passed outside of this legion family. i 3. ffiose or ^Pinfc Quartz is rarely found as crys- tals, but generally as a massive rock. On exposure to the light, the color fades, but it can be restored by leaving the stone for a time in a damp place. COMPOSITION OF THE ROCKS. 43 SMOKY QUARTZ has a dark-brown, smoky tint. It is often black and opaque, except in thin portions, which are semi-transparent. MILKY QUARTZ is a milk-white, opaque, massive variety, looking not unlike porcelain. GRANULAR QUARTZ consists of small grains of quartz cemented into a massive rock. It has a texture similar to that of loaf-sugar, and oftentimes crumbles easily into sand. It is used for hearthstones, furnaces, etc., and, when powdered, for making sand-paper, glass, or pottery. / . J~.mel?iysl has a beautiful purplish tint from the oxide of manganese, which it contains. The name means " a preservative from intoxication," and was given it from a belief of the ancient Persians, that wine drank from an amethyst cup lost its inebriating properties. 5 '. Chalcedony is distinguished by its waxy, horn- like lustre. It has generally a white or brownish shade. "When bright red, it is a carnelian. When brownish red, a sard. When colored apple-green with nickel, a chrys- oprase. 6 '. Agate is a kind of chalcedony, in which the dif- ferent shades of color are arranged in parallel lines the edges of the layers which compose the stone. These layers are very like the coats of an onion, and represent the successive deposits by which the agate was formed. They are often so thin as to number fifty within an inch. When the lines are zigzag, it is termed a fortification agate, from the resemblance to the irregular outlines of a fortress. When the stripes alternate, an opaque with a 44 LITHOLOGICAL GEOLOGY. transparent band, the stone is termed an onyx (onyx, a nail), from a fancied resemblance to the alternating lines ' on the finger-nail. When a deep brownish-red stripe (a sard) alternates with a white one, the agate is called a sardonyx. When a yellowish-brown oxide of iron is dis- seminated through the stone in moss-like forms, it is termed a moss agate. Eeal cameos are cut from the onyx. The most cele- brated of the ancient cameos is the Mantuan vase at Brunswick. It was cut from a single stone. It is in the form of a cream-pot, 'about 7 inches high and 2| broad. On its outside, which is of a brown color, there are white and yellow groups of raised figures, representing Ceres and Triptolemus in search of Proserpine. The lines of agates sometimes present a striking resemblance to vari- ous objects. Some are so remarkable as to be, without doubt, exceedingly ingenious works of art. Thus, Pliny tells of an agate, belonging to Pyrrhus, in which were pictured the nine muses, and Apollo in the midst playing on his lyre. Agates are very abundant on the shores of Lake Superior, and many lakes and rivers of the west.. Externally the agate is rough, and exhibits no sign of the beautifully varied appearance it will present when polished.* * AGATE MANUFACTURE. The most celebrated agate quarries are at Ober- stein, Germany. The nodules are of an ashen-gray color. After being washed, they are placed in a vessel containing honey and water, which, being closely covered, is kept in hot ashes for two or three weeks. The stones are then taken out, cleansed, immersed in sulphuric acid, and then roasted a second time in the hot ashes. The honey, penetrating the pores, is carbonized either by the long-continued heat or the action of the acid. The depth of the color depends on the porosity of the agate! Some become perfectly black, others take a rich brown or chocolate tint, some are striped alternately like the onyx, while others resist all attempts to change the natural hue. By soaking the porous agates in a solution of sulphate of iron, and then heating in an oven, a fine COMPOSITION OF THE ROCKS 43 7. J~asper is a dull, massive variety of quartz, with a little clay. It has shades of red, yellow, brown, and green, owing to the presence of iron in different stages of oxidation. The yellow becomes red by heat, which changes the yellow oxide of iron to red. When the colors are arranged in stripes, it is termed ribbon jasper. It is susceptible of high polish, and is therefore much prized for ornamental purposes. When of a deep green, with dark red spots, it is named Uood-stone. At Paris there is a bust of Christ carved from this stone in such a manner that the red spots represent the drops of blood. A hard, velvet black jasper is called the touchstone. It is used for testing the purity of gold alloys. This is done by rubbing the alloy on the stone, and comparing the color with that of some known alloy. The stone is adapted for this purpose because of its hardness and smoothness, and also because it presents a good back- ground on which to compare colors. 6*. Opa2 is a most beautiful variety of quartz. It contains ten per cent of water, which is combined with the silica. It is softer than quartz, and, unlike it, is easily soluble in a hot solution of potash. Its external color is a pure white, but when broken it exhibits a play of rich and delicate internal reflection. A kind called carnelian red is produced. A blue color, which has all the effect of a turquoise, is also developed by a process not yet divulged. By roasting, the natural colors are heightened and rendered more permanent. In these various ways a coarse and valueless stone may be so changed as to pass for a gem of the first quality. The agates are ground on rough stones, turned by water-power from the numer- ous little brooks which abound in that neighborhood, and polished on soft wooden wheels with powder of tripoli (see page 48) found near by. Vases, cup*, ' seals, knife-blades, agate mortars for the chemist's use, etc., are made in such abundance as to become articles of commerce. Jf(J LITHO LO GICAL G E L G Y. hydrophane is remarkable for becoming transparent when dipped into water.* 9. Sand y 'Pebbles, Grare2, Cobblestones, etc., consist largely of quartz, since it resists the action of the water longer than other rock materials. The color is due to the various oxides of iron ; f although it is some- times a mere stain produced by vegetable matter. /#. Flint is a compact form of quartz of various colors white, brown, and even black. It. breaks into fragments having a sharp edge and a conchoidal J sur- face. Its use formerly for gun-flints, and by the Indians for arrow-heads is well known. HOK^STONE is an impure variety of flint, so named from its color and appearance. BuTirstone is a kind of flint possessing a cellular texture, which makes its sur- face very rough. In many of the best stones the cavities equal the solid portions. It is found in various- States * The same phenomenon is shown in an ox's eyeball. When plunged into water, it vanishes instantly from the sight. They refract light at the same angle as water, and hence the eye has no power of distinguishing them. t Iron is Nature's universal dye. Without it the soil would be a dirty white the color of snow in a time of thaw. Instead of the pretty lively color of sand and pebbles, we should see the dull and somber hue of ashes ; and instead of the glittering sand of the sea and lake shore, a plain drab or gray, which no wealth of sunshine or of spray could turn to beauty. The slates used for roofing have a warm rich tint ; oxide of iron puts vermillion into them as it does into our bricks, which else would be only a plain pepper (and ealjt. The ruddy hues of brown now seen in ploughing sandy fields, contracting sjb richly with the green of woods and meadow, would be, without the iron 1 , only the cold repulsive gray of clayey E oils. Mary marble?, too, are colored with this same familiar dye. " The violet veinings and variegations of the marbles of Sicily and Spain, the [flowing orange and amber of Sienna, the blood-red color of precious jat'.pcr that enriches the temples of Italy," are all painted with iron-rust. Thus by an infinity of design does God, from the simplest, commonest material, interweav- ing the beautiful in Nature everywhere, cultivate our taste and adorn the world for our happiness. $ A coEchoidal surface is one that is curved like the outside of a watch-crystal.- C O HP O S I T I O X F THE C K S . ^-Ohio, Massachusetts, Arkansas, Georgia, etc. The buhrstone ef Ohio contains some lime, and it has been thought that the cellular character may be due to the partial dissolving of the lime out of the stone. OEIGIK OF QUARTZ. Though quartz is a mineral, probably most of the flint and hornstone which we find is of animal or vegetable origin. Sponges secrete little spicules or points of silica. Diatoms are minute one- celled vegetable organisms, too small to be seen singly by the naked eye. Yet when gathered in countless myri- ads, they appear as a brown or reddish slime.* They have the power of separating the silex from the water in some unknown way. These plants grow in such numbers that after their death their inde- structible siliceous coverings so accumulate as to form strata of great thickness and Diatoms from Albany and Waterford, extent. The hardness, sharp- Maine . B is magnified 25 Diameters. C is magnified 250 Diameters. D is magnified 200 Diameters. ness, minute size and fragil- ity of the particles, whereby * Dr. Hooker, in his account of the Antarctic regions, says : " Everywhere the waters and the ice abounded in these microscopic vegetables. They stained the iceberg and pack-ice wherever the latter was washed into the sea, and imparted to it a pale ocherous color. In the 80th deg. of S. latitude, all the surface ice carried along by currents, and the sides of every berg, and the base of the great Victoria barrier itself a perpendicular wall of ice from one to two hundred feet above the sea level were tinged brown from this cause, as if the waters were charged with oxyd of iron." It is a curious fact that these minute, flint-secret- ing diatoms are th? food of the soft, almost impalpable, jelly fish, and, as has been lately stated, that this in turn constitutes the food of the huge whale. 48 LITHO LOGICAL GEOLOGY. they fall to pieces at the least touch, make the mass useful as a polishing material. Tripoli, or polishing slate, is composed of these siliceous remains, a single cubic inch containing 41,000,000; so that at every stroke made with the powder millions of perfect fossils are crushed to atoms. The mountain meal, or fossil farina of Tuscany, is a mass of these organisms. In Lapland a similar earth is found, which in times of scarcity the inhabitants mix with the ground bark of trees, and use for food. This infusorial earth, as it is termed, is found at various localities in this country, as at Rich- mond, Va., Maidstone, Vt., "Waterford, Me., etc. At Bilin, Bohemia, besides a stratum of tripoli 14 feet thick, a kind of semi-opal occurs, composed of diatoms and sponge spicules, cemented with siliceous matter. It is thought that the more delicate shells were dissolved by the water, and thus formed' opal cement, in which the more durable of the fossils are preserved, like insects in amber. Flint and hornstone, under the microscope, reveal the outlines of spicules of sponges, of diatoms, and of other animalcules. We are thence led to believe that perhaps the larger part of the quartz we find, in all its Protean forms, has impressed upon it an organic structure which it received at an inconceivably remote time, when it was animated by microscopic life. (2.) ALUMINA. &2umina is the oxide of the metal aluminum, which, on account of its abundance in clay, is called the " clay metal." In hardness, alumina is only inferior to the diamond, and will easily scratch quartz. Pure COMPOSITION OF THIS 11 O C K S . J^t / Su crystallized alumina, when bJe, constitutes the {(qfqpMifr This ranks in value next to the diamond, and some per- fect specimens have sold at even a higher rate. The dull-colored variety is called corundum, and the coarse granular kind emery. (See feldspar and common clay, page 53.) (3.) LIME. /. Carbonate of ime is more commonly called " limestone." (a.) LIMESTONE is a compound of lime and carbonic acid. It embraces all shades from white and cream color to a dense black. It may be known by its softness being easily scratched with a knife and by its effer- vescing with an acid. Limestone is useful for building purposes, and when the carbonic acid is expelled by heat, quick-lime is produced. (b.) CALC-SPAR (Calcite). Pure crystals of limestone are called calc-spar. Those having the fundamental form the rhombohedron are familiarly termed Iceland spar, as they were first brought from that country. They il- lustrate double refrac- tion very beautifully. (c.) CHALK is a por- FIG. 6. Object seen through Iceland Spar. Crystal from Rossie, N. Y. ous, uncompacted vari- ety of limestone. (d.) CALCAREOUS TUFA* is formed by deposition from * Calcareous tufa, or travertine, often forms beds of limestone, which can ba 3 50 LITHOLOOICAL GEOLOGY. water charged with carbonate of lime in solution. (Rev. Chem., page 138.) Stalactites depend from the roof of caverns in limestone regions. They are produced, like tufa, from calcareous waters. The water, dripping down from crevices in the rock, evaporates, deposits its lime- stone, and thus forms pendants of curious and grotesque figures. Some hang like icicles, while others look like falling sheets of water caught in mid-air, and turned to stone. The drippings upon the floor produce calcare- ous mounds, called stalagmites. The two, meeting, often form pillars strangely grouped and interwoven like trees in a forest, and sometimes even combined into broad curtains of semi-transparent rock. (e.) OOLITE (oon, an egg, and FIG. 7. litlws, a stone) is a limestone consisting of numerous small, rounded grains, resembling the roe of a fish. (f.) MAUL is a mixture of clay and carbonate of lime. It is loose, friable, and gen- erally full of small shells. It is valuable as a fertilizer. OOlitic Marble. Chester, England. (g-) MAGNESIA* LlME- nsed for architectural purposes. The Coliseum at Rome is built of this rock. In the vicinity of Rome a solid layer of this stone, a foot in thickness, has been formed in four months. Springs near the Tiber are famous for their production of travertine. . Indeed, the term travertine means simply Tiber stone. The water of the river near them is eo charged with mineral matter that it is said that even fish have been entangled and petrified. In certain regions, springs deposit the tufa so readily that incrustations may be obtained upon sticks, leaves, baskets, etc. At the-baths of San Filipo, Tuscany, the preparation of casts in this way forms a regular business. Moss petrified in this manner is so plenti- ful in Caledonia, N. Y., that it is used for building fences. It is also found in abundance at Chittenango and Sharon Springs. COMPOSITION OF THE ROCKS. 51 BTONE, or dolomite, contains magnesia. It is harder than limestone, and does not readily effervesce with an acid unless heat is applied. (h.) MARBLE is crystallized limestone. When pure, it is clear and fine-grained, like loaf-sugar. It is of great value in the arts.* The finest statuary marble comes from Carrara and the island of Paros, whence the term, Parian marble, so famous among the Greek sculptors. The pure whiteness of Parian marble was thought to be especially pleasing to the gods, hence it was selected for the work of Praxiteles and other cele- brated artists. The Venus de Medici, the Oxford mar- bles, and many noted statues are wrought from this stone. An excellent building marble is quarried at Eutland, Vt, in Massachusetts, and in Connecticut. Marble often contains mica and other impurities, which give it a clouded and mottled appearance. This de- tracts from its value, and ruins it for statuary purposes. Verde Antique is a variety of marble streaked with ser- pentine. r ' Marble is sawed into slabs by means of a thin iron plate, a saw without teeth, driven by machinery. The friction is produced by sharp sand and water, which are * What are marbles made for ? Over the greater part of the surface of the earth we find that a rock has been providentially distributed in a manner particularly pointing it out as intended for the service of man. It is exactly of the consistence which is best adapted for sculpture and architecture. It is neither hard nor brittle, nor flaky, nor splintery, but uniform and delicately, yet not ignobly soft exactly soft enough to allow the sculptor to work it without force, and trace on it the finest lines of finished form ; yet it is so hard as never to betray the touch or moulder away beneath the steel ; and so admi- rably crystallized and of such permanent elements, that no rains dissolve it, no lime changes it, no atmosphere decomposes it; once shaped, it is shaped for- ever, unless subjected to actual violence or attrition. This rock, then, is pre- pared by Nature for the sculptor and architect, as paper is by the manufacturer for the artist ; nay, with greater care and more perfect adaptation.- Buskin. 52 LITHOLOGICAL GEOLOGY. constantly applied. The saws penetrate very slowly, not more than an inch per hour. ORIGIN or LIMESTONE. Limestone forms a promi- nent constituent of shells, bones, corals, etc. Animals have the power of secreting the lime from the water in which they live, or from the food they eat. When they die their mineral remains accumulate in great quanti- ties, and gradually harden into rock. Chalk was formed by the consolidation of minute shells, smaller than a grain of sand. As each particle is thus cellular, and not soli'd, the chalk has a soft porous structure. The microscope reveals these tiny shells in the glazing on a visiting-card. Even when the rock contains no trace of fossils, it may have been made by the sea breaking and grinding shells and corals into a fine powder, just as it grinds rock and pebbles into fine sand. We see this process now going on in the formation of coral-reefs, as, for example, off the coast of Florida. From the vast extent of the limestone rock on the earth, we can form some estimate of the amount of animal life which has existed in past ages. 2. Sulphate of Zsime, or, as it is generally called, '' gypsum," is a compound of lime and sulphuric acid. GYPSUM is readily distinguished from limestone by its superior softness. It may be scratched with the finger- nail, and carved with a knife into any desired shape. It does not effervesce with the acids. (a.) FKCRYSTALLINE GYPSUM is commonly known as " plaster stone." When the stone is crushed and ground it forms a white powder sold as plaster, and used as a fertilizer. COMPOSITION OF THE ROCKS. 53 (b.) CRYSTALLINE GYPSUM occurs in fibrous masses with a pearly lustre, known as satin spar ; in scales, layers, and crystals, pellucid as glass, selenite ; and as a snowy- white solid, alabaster. At Grand Rapids, Mich., a mottled variety is found, which is turned in a lathe into beautiful vases, goblets, and other ornamental objects. In the mammoth cave, Kentucky, are found exquisite forms resembling leaves, flowers, and vines. When burned, gypsum is known as " plaster of Paris." (4.) TH E SILICATES. The Silicates are compounds of silica with other substances, such as alumina, lime, magnesia, potash, oxide of iron, etc. The following are the most com- mon ones : /. feldspar. This is somewhat softer than quartz, and, unlike it, has a regular cleavage on two sides, each crystal showing a flat surface and pearly lustre. It has usually a white or flesh-red color. There are three vari- eties which are silicates of alumina with an additional substance, viz : orthoclase or potash-feldspar, albite or soda-feldspar, and labradorite or lime-feldspar. Albite (albus, white) may always be distinguished by its marked whiteness. Labradorite (originally from Labrador) ex- hibits often a beautiful play of colors from internal reflection, and is susceptible of polish. Clinkstone, so named because of the metallic ring it emits when struck with a hammer, is a compact variety of feldspar. COMMON CLAY is formed by the decomposition of feld- 54 LIT HO LOGICAL GEOLOGY. spar rocks mixed with a large proportion of quartz sand. Pure feldspar, when decomposed, produces kaolin (high ridge, the name of a hill near Jauchu Fu, where it is obtained), a kind of clay used for making porcelain or China-ware. The red color of bricks is due to the iron contained in the clay. Pipe-clay is free from iron. The beautiful pipe-stone used by the Indians was a compacted red clay from Coteau des Prairies. A bed of similar clay is now accumulating in Lake Superior. 2. Jlficct (micare, to glisten) is commonly called " isinglass." It is easily known by its lustre and by its separating readily into thin elastic plates, which may again be subdivided until many thousand would be re- quired to make an inch in thickness. It is often seen in sand as bright, glittering particles. On account of its transparency it is used in Siberia for windows. It is employed on board of ships where the concussion would be liable to break glass, and for windows in stoves. At several places in New Hampshire, perfectly transparent plates, two or three feet in diameter, have been obtained. 3 '. Hornblende is so named from its toughness. It has generally a black or greenish-black color and a pearly lustre. Some varieties present long, slender, needle-shaped crystals of a delicate green tint and a glassy lustre. Asbestos (unconsumed) is so fibrous that it can be spun and woven like cotton. The ancients made it into napkins, which, when soiled, were cleansed by being thrown into the fire, where they were burned clean and white in a few minutes. The Greenlanders use it for lampwicks, and it formerly served a similar COMPOSITION OF THE ROCKS. 56 purpose in keeping the perpetual fire in the temples, its incombustibility being thought to render it sacred. It is said that in Siberia and Spain, gloves, purses, etc., are made from ami- antlius (undefilcd), a vari- ety of asbestos having a beautiful satin lustre. The finest locality for asbestos in this country is at the Quarantine, New York. PYROXENE, Often Called Hornblende Crystals in Quartz. augite (from auge, lustre), is a dark-green mineral, very like hornblende, and some of its massive specimens can hardly be distinguished from it. Its crystals, however, are stouter and thicker, and are never needle-shaped, though it has a fibrous asbestos which can hardly be distinguished from horn- blende except by analysis. Augite is a characteristic constituent of igneous rocks. . 2*a2c is so soft that it can be cut with a knife, and even scratched by the finger-nail. It separates readily into thin pearly layers, which are not elastic and tough like those of mica. It has usually a light- green color, and an unctuous feel from the magnesia it contains. A compact variety of talc is familiarly known as French chalk." SOAPSTO:N"E or steatite (stear, fat) is a massive crys- talline variety which is susceptible of being worked into any desired form, and of receiving a high polish. It can be sawed into slabs or turned in a lathe. It is made into 56 LITHOLOGICAL GEOLOGY. inkstands, water-pipes, and fire-stones for furnaces and culinary vessels. SEKPE^TIXE is a sort of compact talc. It differs from steatite in being less granular and more compact in its texture, and in being sometimes separable into layers ; it has also a dull, resinous lustre. It was named from its mottled colors, resembling the skin of a serpent. Stoves have been made of it, as it bears heat well. When pol- ished, "precious serpentine" has a rich, oil-green tint, and is highly valued for inlaid work. OHLOKITE is a mineral somewhat resembling talc and serpentine. It has, however, a dark, olive-green color, a granular texture, and is much less unctuous to the touch. It forms a slaty rock very common in some localities. 5. Garnet is a common mineral in connection with FIG. 9. Garnets in Mica Schist. FIG. 10. Tourmaline Crystals in Quartz, Alexandria Bay, N. Y. miea, hornblende, and gran- ite. It is found usually in dark-red crystals of 12 or 24 sides. This dodecahe- dral form, and its fracture presenting an entire want of cleavage, with its glassy lustre, sufficiently distin- guish it. The garnet is the ancient carbuncle. When clear-colored it is a beauti- ful gem. 6. Tourmaline is found in long prisms of 3, 6, 9, or 12 sides, each of CLASSIFICATION OF THE ROCKS. 57 which is generally deeply furrowed lengthwise. It is of various colors black, red, green, and even white. The black crystals are highly polished, have no cleavage, and break like resin. They are often found as small as a knitting-needle, and several inches long, radiating in every direction through the rock which contains them. II. CLASSIFICATION OF THE iOCKS. In the earth's crust we find two kinds of rocks, pro- duced respectively by the action of fire and of water. The former was poured out from the furnace within the earth, and the latter spread out by the waters above. These two agents, fire and water, seem to have worked jointly in laying the solid foundations. Rocks are di- vided into three different classes according to their mode of formation : Sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic. (i.) SEDIMENTARY ROCKS. Sedimentary ffiocfcs are those which have been deposited by water. They are arranged in strata or layers, and are hence sometimes called the stratified rocks. They comprise the following kinds: /. Sandstone, which is only consolidated sand, and may be either siliceous or argillaceous (clayey). 2 . Conglomerate, which is only consolidated gravel the conglomerate taking the name siliceous, calcare- 58 LITHOLOOICAL GEOLOGY. ous, or ferruginous (ferrum, iron), from the character of the sandy paste which cements together its pebbles. If the conglomerate is composed of rounded pebbles, it is often styled a " pudding stone ; " if of angular frag- ments, a " breccia " (brek-cea). The Potomac marble, seen in the capitol at Washington, is a very beautiful calcareous breccia. 3 '. Shale., or- argillaceous rock, which is composed mainly of clay, and separates easily into thin, fragile, irregular plates. 4. Jjimestone, which has been pulverized from shells, corals, etc., by the action of the water, and been deposited in sediment at the bottom of the sea. SCENIC DESCRIPTION.-Sandy regions, from the shifting character of the material, must be some- times abruptly uneven and irregular, and may, there- fore, occasionally afford a pleasing diversity ; the tend- ency, however, is to a flat and monotonous surface, Shaly, and especially slaty formations, consisting usu- ally of harder and softer layers, which weather unevenly, present oftentimes wild ravines and picturesque water- falls, as in the Walking Glen, near Seneca Lake, N. Y. The streams cut deep channels and make abrupt plunges with unaccountable leaps, while the tops of the hills form escarpments with sharp edges. When the clay shale is more uniform, it presents a scenery less picturesque, but not less beautiful. Gracefully contoured hills and grass-carpeted meadows in wide-spreading valleys mark the softer aspects of the rural landscape^ CLASSIFICATION OF THE ROCKS. 59 (2.) IGNEOUS ROCKS. Igneotis flocks are those which have been thrown out in a melted state. They are usually not arranged in layers, and are hence termed the unstratified rocks. They are divided into two classes trap and volcanic rocks. /. 2'rap flocks are so called from the Swedish word trappa, a stair, because they frequently occur in terrace-like bluffs, in the form of massive steps. They are generally black or of a dark color, often with shades of green or brown. Their hardness renders them very ser- viceable in paving and " macadamizing" roads, for which purpose they are largely used. Their dull and unattrac- tive hues, and the difficulty of dressing them into shape, unlit them for general purposes. They are, however, very appropriate for Gothic edifices on account of the appearance of age which they give. There are four common varieties of the trap-rock. (a.) BASALT is also called dolerite (doleiros, deceptive), because of the difficulty in distinguishing its constituent minerals. These are principally augite and feldspar. It sometimes contains, scattered through it, crystals of a bottle-glass green color, called chrysolite (olivine). When the rock weathers, these little grains fall out. They are found of considerable size at Isle Royale, Lake Superior. They are used as gems, though they are quite soft and have little lustre. (b.) GREENSTONE known sometimes as "ironstone"- 60 LITHOLOGICAL GEOLOGY. FIG. ii. is also called diorite (dioros, distinct), because its com- position is so readily determined. It consists of horn- blende and feldspar. Most of the trap -rocks of the Eastern States are diorite. (c.) PORPHYRY (porplmra, purple) is so named from a purple variety which was highly prized in Egypt. It consisted of a red feldspar with rose-colored crystals scattered through it. It was susceptible of a high polish, and was very en- during, hence it was much sought after by the an- cients, who wrought it into sepulchres, baths, obelisks, etc. Any trap- rock in which the feld- spar is disseminated in distinct crystals is said to be porphyritic. (d.) AMYGDALOID (amygdala, an almond) is a name applied to certain trap-rocks which contain rounded cavities often filled with quartz, calcite, etc., so that the rock ap- pears like a cake stuck full of almonds. Lava (Scoria), in part turned into an Amygdaloid. SCENIC DESCRIPTION. -The most striking characteristic of the trap-rocks is their columnar struc- CLASSIFICATION OF THE ROCKS. 61 ture.* They are crystallized into prisms more or less regular, with from three to eight sides, a diameter of from one inch to many feet, and a height often of sev- eral hundred feet. These pillars are frequently jointed, and the sections are concave at the top and convex at the bottom. The columns often stand perpendicularly, and when broken and disintegrated by the action of the weather or of the sea, present most picturesque appear- ances as of old castles and of ruined fortifications. Some of the most remarkable scenery in the world is of this character. FingaFs Cave, Isle of Staffa, and the Giant's FIG. 13. Fingal's Cave. (From a Photograph.) * We suppose that the columnar structure of trap-rocks has resulted from a port of crystallization while cooling under pressure from a melted state, for two reasons : 1, similar columns are found in recent lavas ; and, 2, from experiment, Mr. Watt melted 700 Ibs. of basalt, and caused it to cool slowly, when globular masses were formed, which enlarged and pressed against one another until reg- ular columns were the result. This can be illustrated by putting balls of putty into a vessel, and gently pressing 62 LITHOLOOICAL GEOLOGY. Causeway* in the north of Ireland, are familiar exam- ples. On the north shore of Lake Superior, among the Palisades on the Hudson, upon Mts. Tom and Holyoke, Mass., along the banks of the Columbia Biver, and the Penobscot in Maine, are presented many similar scenes. Trap-rocks, when weathered, acquire a dull, dark brown appearance, and are often colored with patches of white lichens. There are cases of the existence of basalt in well-defined flows, which still adhere to craters visible at the present day, and in regard to the igneous origin of which there can be no doubt. One of the most striking examples of a basaltic crater is that of La Coupe in the south of France. Upon the flank of this mountain, the traces left by the current of liquefied basalt are still seen occupying the bottom of a narrow valley, except at those places where the river Volant has cut away portions of the lava. Trappean regions abound in " perpendicular walls, sharp ascents, and abrupt precipices. The erup- tive masses often rise from amid level plains, while hard iikes . alternate with rich strata which decompose * into upon them, when they will be seen to arrange themselves in five and six-sided columns, precisely similar to the five and six-sided columns of Stafla or the Giant's Causeway. Page. * Hogg, the " Ettrick Shepherd, 11 thus graphically refers to these grandeurs of Nature : "Awed to deep silence, they tread the strand Where furnaced pillars in order stand ; All framed of the liquid burning levin, And bent like the bow that spans the heaven ; Or upright ranged, in wondrous array With purple of green o'er the darksome gray. The solemn rows in that ocean den Were dimly seen like the forms of men ; Like giant monks in ages agone, Whom the god of the ocean had seared to stone ; And their path was on wondrous pavement old In blocks all cast in some giant mould. 11 f. "* CLASSIFICATION OF THE ROCKS. 65 fertile soils. The soft plain ascends often at one stride into a hill fantastically rugged ; and bare, fractured precipices overtop level fields and terraced slopes rich in verdure.* 2 . Yolcanic ffiocfcs are of two common varieties. (a.) TEACH YTE (trachus, rough) is so named because of its rough, gritty feel. It is porous, has a white, gray, or 'black color, and is usually porphyritic. It is abundant in South America the colossal Chimborazo being a lofty trachytic cone -in the extinct volcanic regions of the west, on the banks of the Rhine, and in France. (b.) LAVA is a term applied to all melted matter observed to flow in streams from volcanoes. It consists ' almost entirely of augite (pyroxene) and feldspar.f The former constitutes dark colored, and the latter light col- ored lava. When cooled, the upper part of the stream is light and porous as a sponge, from the expansion of * Hugh Miller has mentioned the curious fact that all, or nearly all, the noted Scottish fortresses are built upon trappean rocks. Thus the early geologic history of a country seems typical of its subsequent civil history. A stormy morning, during which its strata have been tilted into abrupt angles and yawn- ing chasms, is generally succeeded by a stormy day of fierce wars, protracted sieges, and all the turmoil of human passion. Amid the centers of disturbance, the natural strongholds of the earth, the true battles of the race have been fought. Greece, the Holy- Land, the Swiss Cantons, Scotland, New England, all have been grand theatres alike of geologic and of patriotic strife. t Other simple minerals occur in lava. At least 100 species have been de- tected in that of Vesuvius, but they bear eo small a proportion to the wholf mass as to render it incompatible with the design of this work to devote spac< to them here. There are al ?o thrown out from volcanoes " fragments of grair ite and other rocks scarcely altered ; cinders and ashes of various decrees o 1 fineness, which are sometimes converted into mud by the water that accom- panies them ; also sulphur in a pure state ; various salts and acids ; and several gases, among which are the hydrochloric, sulphurous, and sulphuric acids ; alum, gypsum, sulphates of iron and magnesia, chlorides of sodium and potas- sium, of iron, copper, and cobalt ; chlorine, nitrogen, sulphuretted hydrogen." etc. Hitchcock. 66 LITHOLOOICAL GEOLOGY. the steam bubbles, and will swim in water, while the lower portions are hard and compact like the ancient basalt. The porous lava is called scoria. Pumice is a feldspathic scoria with long, slender air-cavities, drawn out by the forward movement of the lava stream ; large quantities of it are often found floating in the ocean. It is much used in polishing marble. Obsidian is a glassy-like lava. SCENIC DESCRIPTION*-Regions of frequent volcanic action contain cones and craters surrounded by beds of lava and scoria. These features are well exhibited in the accompanying view of a scene near Mono Lake, Sierra Nevada region. FIG. 15. Volcanic Cones, near Mono Lake. (3.) M ETAMORPH 1C ROCKS. JlfelamorpMc ffiocfcs are those which have been altered by heat. A mass of melted lava penetrating CLASSIFICATION OF THE ROCKS. 67 sedimentary rocks would materially modify their char- acter ; the clay would be changed to slate, the limestone converted into marble, earthy sandstone and clay rocks into granite-like rocks, and the impurities crystallized into various minerals.* The stratification would be de- stroyed, and the fossils in part, if not entirely, obliter- ated. Sometimes, however, the original fossils may be still distinguished. There is a kind of marble found at Kilkenny which contains shells of the ammonite. They look exactly like the prints of a careless heel, and many a housekeeper has wearied herself in vainly trying to scour out these fossil remains. The famous Carrara marble is a metamorphic limestone. On examination with a lens it reveals spangles of graphite, and frequently nodules of ironstone lined with perfectly limpid crystals of quartz. These accidental defects, resulting from impurities in the limestone, are very annoying to the sculptor, since noth- ing in the exterior of a block betrays their existence. /. Granite (from the Italian grano, because of its granular structure) consists of feldspar, mica, and quartz. The feldspar shows a smooth surface of cleavage in two directions, and is usually of a white or flesh color ; the mica may be readily recognized by its glistening look, * In Whitney's Geological Survey of California, constant illustrations are given of the effects of metamorphism. Places were found where the line of separation between the sedimentary and metamorphic rocks is sharply drawn. Near the junction of the two kinds, the latter seem to have Detained their origi- nal stratification. Patches of sedimentary rocks which entirely escaped the igneous action are inclosed in the metamorphic rocks. Here is a layer of quartz, which beyond is converted into jasper ; a clayey sandstone into sei - pentine, or into mica slate with disseminated garnets. The metamorphic and sedimentary rocks give each a distinctive character to the landscape. The former furnish hills of sharper outline, richer soil, and more abundant vegeta- tion, so as to be readily recognized even at a distance. 68 LITHOLOGICAL GEOLOGY. and by being easily separated into thin layers ; the quartz has a -glassy lustre and no cleavage. Graphic granite is a variety in which the quartz is imperfectly crystallized into long, slender crystals. When the rock is broken crosswise, the ends of these crystals pre- FlG - l6 - sent forms somewhat re- sembling Hebrew charac- ters. Sometimes granite has a very coarse struc- ture, the crystals being a foot or more in diameter ; at other times it is so fine that One Can With diffi- Graphic Granite, Berkshire, Mass. culty distinguish the con- stituent minerals. When sound, it is an excellent build- ing stone, but does not merit the character of extreme hardness which is proverbially ascribed to it. Its granu- lar texture unfits it for road-making, since it is crushed into dust so readily by tramping feet. In the Crimean war it was shown that granite ramparts were as easily de- molished as those of limestone. Granite seems to be the lowest rock in the earth's formation, and yet, strangely enough, it is found on Mt. Blanc the highest in Europe, and crowns many of the Eocky Mountains. Granite is quarried in great quantities in the East- ern States for building purposes. New Hampshire and Massachusetts are noted for their extensive beds. They may be called the Granite States of the Union. The granite is detached in blocks by drilling a series of holes, one every few inches, to a depth of three inches, and then driving in wedges of iron between steel cheeks. CLASSIFICATION OF THE ROCKS 69 In this manner, masses of any size are split out. There is a choice of direction, as the granite has certain direc- tions of easiest fracture. Masses 120 feet in length have been obtained at some of the quarries. Granite was highly prized by the ancients. There are granite obel- isks in Egypt which have stood for 3,000 years. Pom- pey's Pillar and several of the principal Pyramids are composed of this material. EOSMATIOK OF GEANITE. Granite is often styled the primitive rock, since it seems to be the one which consti- tutes the basement of the earth's crust. Though it may now lie at the foundation, it may still be a metamorphic rock, and not the first product of the slowly cooling globe. It is more likely that most of the granite rocks have resulted from the wearing down of the primeval crust of true igneous rocks. These were carried into the sea and deposited as stratified rock. Buried after- ward beneath vast accumulations of other rocks, by the internal heat and the influx of hot water charged with various chemical agents,* they were crystallized, and their fossils and stratification obliterated. Again, they may have been worn by the sea, deposited, and afterward * In the account given of the Pluton Geysers, California, we seem to have an insight into the laboratory of the world, and can learn something of the chemi- cal changes which have been going on in past ages. These geysers are hot springs, which throw out intermittingly and spasmodically powerful jets of steam and scalding water, fheir temperature varying from 93 to 169' F. The water contains sulphuric acid, sulphuretted hydrogen, and probably other active solvents. The rocks are rapidly dissolving under this powerful metamorphic action. Porphyry and jasper are transformed into a kind of potter's clay. Trap and magnesian rocks are consumed, much like wood in a slow fire, forming- sul- phate of magnesia and other products. Granite is rendered so soft that one can crush it between his fingers as easily as unbaked bread. The feldspar is con- verted partly into alum. The boulders and angular fragments brought down the ravine by floods are being converted into a firm conglomerate, so that it is diffi- cult to dislodge even a small pebble, the pebble itself sometimes breaking before the cement will yield. Shepherd, Am. Jmirn. of Scienca. 70 LI TH OLOG 1 C AL GEOLOGY. metamorphosed. How many times this cycle of change, has taken place, we have no way of judging. The entire crust of the earth has doubtless undergone metamorphic action, to some extent at least, and is unlike what it was when created. What made up that primeval crust we do not know, and hence cannot tell whether any of the ancient formation, survives. It is generally believed that granite could not be produced directly by the cooling of the melted lava that then composed the globe. There are, however, places where it has been found at a great depth, and, by some powerful convulsion, has been ejected to the surface in a melted state, like a true igneous rock. It may even now be in the process of formation in the lower portions of the earth's crust. It is certain that as the crust wears away above, new rocks must be cooling underneath, since the point of fusion is constantly pass- ing downward. Granite has, however, been formed in all ages, of the world, and cannot be thought a primitive rock merely, although specially characteristic of the earlier periods. We shall, therefore, consider it, in gen- eral, as a metamorphic rock crystallized by the combined action of heat, ivater, and other chemical agents, from sedi- mentary or mftre ancient rocks. SCENIC DESCHIPTIOHf.-The ancient granite, having been exposed for so long a time to the wear of the elements, rarely imparts boldness or grandeur to the landscape, unless more recent convulsions have broken it up and rendered it picturesque. When containing little feldspar, and being therefore more durable, it forms lofty pyramidal peaks of sharp outline that rise in enormous spires, as in the vicinity of Mt. Blanc. There seems to CLASSIFICATION OF THE ROCKS. 71 be often a tendency to rounded concentric outlines,* which render the view sombre and uninteresting. The FIG. 17. North Dome Yosemite Valley. peculiar dome-like appearance of granite mountains is beautifully illustrated in the magnificent scenery of the * Humboldt says : " All formations are common to every quarter of the globe, and assume the like forms. Everywhere basalt rises in twin mountains and truncated cones ; everywhere trap porphyry presents itself to the eye under the form of grotesquely shaped masses of rock ; while granite terminates in gently rounded summits." As the pupil will observe, however, this latter is but one of the a?pects which granite presents. 72 LITHOLOGICAL GEOLOGY. Yosemite. Its colossal peaks are of solid granite, the North Dome being 3568 feet in height. Granite forms, in general, lofty hills and elevated table-lands, which are rendered still more bleak and forbidding by the snow- clad peaks of the more elevated mountains. The soil is generally scanty and barren. The clay from the decom- posed granite is the finest and best that can be found ; the sand, often of the purest white, always lustrous and bright. As a result, the landscape wears a peculiar aspect of purity.* It cannot become muddy, foul, or unwholesome. The streams may indeed be opaque and white as cream with the churned substance of the weath- ered granite; but the water is good and pure, and the shores not slimy nor treacherous, but pebbly or of firm and sparkling sand. The quiet springs and lakes are of exquisite clearness, and the sea, which washes a granite coast, is as unsullied as a flawless emerald. 2 . Gneiss (nice) differs from granite only in being stratified. Indeed, the two kinds of rock pass into each other so insensibly that they are often difficult to dis- * It is remarkable how this intense purity in the country seems to influence the character of the inhabitants. It is almost impossible to make a cottage built in a granite country look absolutely miserable. Rough it may be, neglected, cold, full of aspect of hardship, but it never can look foul ; no matter how care- lessly, how indolently its inhabitants may live, the water at their doors will not stagnate, the soil at their feet will not allow itself to be trodden into slime ; they cannot so much as dirty their faces or hands if they try. Do the worst they can, there will still be a feeling of firm ground under them and pure air about them, and an inherent wholesomeness which it will need the misery of years to con- quer. The inhabitants of granite countries have, too, a force and healthiness of character about them, abated or modified according to their other circumstances of life, that clearly distinguish them from the inhabitants of less pure dis- tricts. Euskin. CLASSIFICATION OF THE ROCKS. 73 tinguish.* Its origin, therefore, is doubtless the same as that of granite, both being made from stratified rocks ; when the stratification entirely disappeared, granite being the result ; and when only partially or not at all, gneiss. Because of the ease with which it divides into thin layers, this rock is much used for flagging. SGE1ITIC DESCRIPTIOH.-In our own country we find much of the grand scenery of the White Moun- tains, Blue Ridge, and Rocky Mountains, among rocks of this formation. Hugh Miller, humorously speaking of the gneiss hills of Scotland, says : A gneiss hill is usually massive, rounded, broad of base, and withal somewhat squat, as if it were a mountain well begun, but interdicted somehow in the building, rather than a finished mountain. It seems almost always to lack the upper stories and the pinnacles. It is, if I may so ex- press myself, a hill of one heave ; whereas all our more imposing Scottish hills such as Ben Nevis and Ben Lomond are hills of at least two heaves ; and hence in journeying through a gneiss district, there is a frequent feeling on the part of the traveler that the scenery is incomplete, but that a few hills, judiciously set down upon the tops of the other hills, would give it the * Doubtless some gneiss has been formed by the action of water, and is per- haps a sedimentary rock. Thus granite being worn away by the waves, the granite debris would be deposited in regular strata at the bottom of the sea, constituting gneiss. Most of it is, however, the product of an incomplete meta- morphic action, which, if made complete, would have produced true granite by destruction of all fossils and stratification. Thus Dawson, in his Acadian Geology, says that in Nova Scotia, near the Nictaux river, there are beds of elate in which the granite has been intruded, and the slates near the junction have been altered into gneiss containing garnets. Here is a case of clear meta- morphism of shale into gneiss. 74 LITHOLOGICAL GEOLOGY. proper finish. No hill, however, accomplishes more with a single heave than a gneiss one. 3. Mica Schist is a gneiss rock, consisting mostly of mica. The dust in the roads of places abounding in this rock is full of the fine glistening particles of mica. SCENIC DESCRIPTION. -The scenery of re- gions where mica schist predominates is bold, rugged, and unfertile. Thrown into lofty mountains by the pro- truding granite, and often tilted in nearly vertical posi- tions, they present that rugged and abrupt aspect so characteristic of the Scottish highlands and some of the mountain ranges of our own country. Loch Kat- rine and many other places, classic for their picturesque beauty, owe their origin to the peculiarities of this for- mation. Hugh Miller says : " Their gray locks of silky lustre are curved, wrinkled, contorted, so as to remind us of pieces of ill-laid-by satin, that bear on their crushed surfaces the creases and crumplings of a thousand care- less foldings."' . Syenite is a granite in which the mica is re- placed by hornblende. It is so called from the city of Syene, Upper Egypt, where the ancient Egyptians quarried it for monumental purposes.* The celebrated Quincy granite is mostly of this class. It is largely used in architecture, many public edifices being composed of it ; for example, the Bunker Hill monument, the custom- * It has since been found, however, that the ancient syenite is only a granite with black mica, and not hornblende as was supposed. As the upper part of Mt. Sinai is a mass of true sj^enite. it has been proposed to rename this rock as tinaite, CLASSIFICATION OF THE ROCKS. 75 houses at Boston and New Orleans, and the Astor House in New York. 5 '. Quart zite is a rock composed of quartz sand cemented by heat. In a quartz district, because of the slow weathering, the hills present a scenery of savage wildness, but wonderful grandeur. 6. Marble is metamorphosed limestone. The dif- ferent varieties have already been described on page 51. Limestone is one of the rocks in which the metamor- phic action can be most easily traced. When not thus modified we find it as common limestone, chalk, etc. By heat its character is entirely changed ; it takes on a crystalline -structure, its color is varied, the fossils are generally destroyed, and the various impurities form new minerals which often fill the veins of the marble with beautiful colored figures, as seen in the variegated mar- bles of California. There are also other varieties of metamorphic rocks, viz., talcose schist, a slate which contains much talc, chlo- rite schist, one which contains chlorite (an olive-green mineral very like talc), and slate rock, which passes almost insensibly into an argillaceous or clayey shale. III. STRUCTURE OF THE MOCKS. t2> CJO The rocks of the earth's crust are divided according to their structure into two classes, the stratified and the unstratified rocks. The former are arranged in layers, the latter are not The former were generally produced 70 L1THOLOGICAL GEOLOGY. by aqueous, the latter by igneous agencies. The former mark the periods of rest in the world's history, the lat- ter chronicle its convulsions. Upon the exterior of the crust the stratified rocks are largely in excess, occupy- ing probably J of the surface; upon the interior, how- ever, the unstratified comprise the whole mass, and ex- tend to a depth of perhaps 50 miles. Historical geology deals almost entirely with the stratified rocks, and nearly all of its principles are based upon facts which they dis- close. STRATIFIED ROCKS. As soon as dry land was formed, it began to be worn away by the ceaseless action of the rain and the restless sea, depositing the debris at the bottom of the ocean.* Thus, while the earth's crust has been growing from below by the formation of unstratified, it has been grow- ing above by the formation of stratified rocks. These materials are arranged in comparatively flat layers as in Fig. 18. In this way the earth would be covered over by successive deposits like the coats of an onion. . FIG. 18. /. *Dis2ocations of Strata. Had these wrap- * It is probable also that submarine volcanoes poured their liquid streams into the primeval ocean. These materials were worked over and deposited as stratified rocks. The earliest strata, says Agassiz, are pierced with numerous funnels, which were outlets for the fierce floods beneath. STRUCTURE OF THE ROCKS. 77 pings remained undisturbed, we could have made little progress in deciphering their history, since we have not pierced the crust much more than half a mile in perpen- dicular line. But by igneous action, the rocks which would have lain as in Fig. 18 have been upheaved, and present a form similar to that shown in Fig. 19, where FIG 19. we can examine, on the top, the edges of various sedi- mentary strata, and also the igneous rocks which were hidden below. Oftentimes the geologist, in tracing the course of a river, will find successive strata tilted up on edge, presenting the appearance represented in Fig. 20. FIG. 20. Here, had the rocks remained in their original position, the river in its descent might not have disclosed more than two or three layers ; now, by the outcropping, as it is termed, many successive strata can be examined often- times within a few miles. 78 LITHOLOGICAL GEOLOGY. 2. ^Definitions . A stratum includes one or more layers, or lamina^ of any particular kind of rock. A /or- mation is composed of several strata which were deposited in the same period. A group is a part of a formation, including such strata as are in any way related to each other. The laminae, or layers, of a group bear the same relation to each other that the. groups of a formation do. In Fig. 21 the strata at A are said to be horizontal, FIG. 21. those at B inclined (and the angle which they form with the horizon is called the dip), those at E to be tilted up, at C to be vertical, and at D to be contorted. In Fig. 22, strata dipping in opposite directions, a, are FIG. 22. called anticlinal; when dipping toward each other, s, synclinal; e is an escarpment or bluff; strata, as c, coming to the surface, are called an outcrop; strata arranged regularly above each other, as at o, are said STRUCTURE OF THE ROCKS. 79 to be conformable; those not, as at x, are styled un- conformable. 3. ^Diverse Stratification. Sedimentary rocks were not always originally deposited in horizontal layers. FIG. 23. Diverse Stratification. Along the sea-shore we can see the deposits being made on its sloping bottom. The ebb and flow of the tide, the sand blown by the wind, and the action of the waves, which often undermine one part and elevate another, may cause a rock to present the diverse stratification seen in Fig. 23. -. Inanimation. It is necessary to distinguish be- tween stratification and lamination. Separate laminae, as well as strata, indicate a pause in the process of depo- sition, whereby the sediment had time to partially harden. The former denote a shorter time, so that the laminse, in general, do not easily separate from each other. In. some stones it requires as much force to split them along the planes of lamination as "across the grain." The different kinds of lamination are instructive, since they indicate the circumstances under which the rock 80 LITUOLOGICAL GEOLOGY. was formed. Quiet deposition always produced parallel, slowly rippling waves, curved, and pressure, contorted lamination. 5. faults. Vertical cracks or seams frequently trav- erse the rocks, and the strata on one side slipping away from those on the other, the layers on the two sides do not correspond. During the unequal movements which have produced the dislocation, the edges have often ground together so as to become polished and grooved. Fig. 24 represents a series of faults, offsets, as they are called, in the iron mine at Mt. Pleasant, N. J. FIG. 24. Faults (offsets) in Mt. Pleasant Iron Mine, Rockaway, N. J. 6. Jointed Structure. -When these vertical cracks are parallel to each other, and, in addition, a second system crosses the first at right angles, the rocks are divided into regular blocks, forming a jointed structure. On Cayuga Lake the rocky bluifs resemble fortifications STRUCTURE OF THE ROCKS. 81 with towers and bastions. Joints in the rocks are almost invaluable to the quarrymen. It would be a most diffi- cult task indeed to quarry a rock destitute of stratifica- FIG. 25. Jointed Structure, Cayuga Lake. tion and joints. These seams have doubtless been pro- duced partly by shrinkage as the earth has cooled, and partly also by long-continued lateral pressure consequent upon movements of the earth's crust. The fact that the joints of any region are parallel to each other indicates a common origin. 7. Folds. Strata are often so folded upon each other that it is difficult to decide upon their relative age. Huge mountains consist of rocks twisted and contorted as if they had been "crumpled up" by some mighty hand. Fig. 26 represents a section of slate 1000 feet long and 300 feet high, taken in the coast ranges of California. After these were deposited as sediment, they were crushed together and bent over by steady lateral 82 LITHO LOGICAL GEOLOGY. pressure.* " How prodigious the force which could fold the rocky strata of a mountain as one would the leaves FIG. 26. FIG. 27. Flexures in Slate, Coast Range, California. of a book." After rocks have been folded in this man- ner, the top has often been removed by denudation^ i. e., the action of water, leaving parallel strata standing on edge, the older or lower being above the newer. Thus, in Fig. 27, if the fold were swept off down to the line D E, there would be no appearance of anything more than a mere tilting up of the strata; yet the layer A would lie above C, when it was really deposited be- low it. B C A B A Decapitated Fold. * Lyell illustrates the effects which pressure would produce on flexible strata by laying several pieces of cloth upon each other in a pile, and then placing a book on top ; apply other books at each end and force them toward each other. The folding of the cloth will exactly imitate the folding seen in the rock strata. t Near Cfcambersburg, Pa., there is a fault 20 miles in length, and the depth of the dislocation is 20,000 feet, and yet a man can stand with one foot on one side of this fracture and the other foot on the other side. What has become, then, of this immense mass of material 20,000 feet in height . It must have been swept into the Atlantic by the denuding flood. If this had not been done, a bold precipice would have stood there nearly four miles in height and twenty miles in length. Long ages must have been required for water to effect such a denudation. Lesley. STRUCTURE OF THE ROCKS. 83 8. Concretions are rounded nodules formed by the tendency of matter to collect about a center. They are usually flattened, though they are sometimes quite spher- ical. At the center there is most commonly some foreign object, a fossil, shell, twig, or the like, which was the nucleus of the crystallization. In some iron mines are found balls of ore, which, from their peculiar form, are termed "kidney shaped." Calcareous concretions, washed up by the waves, abound along the shores of Lake Erie. They have been found as large as six feet in diameter. They sometimes have the shape of large sea-turtles, and the cracks formed by shrinkage often re- sembling the plates of the shell, they are considered by the neighboring people as petrified relics of that animal. On the coast of Durham, England, the magnesian lime- stone forms bold cliffs, which look as if made up of irreg- ularly piled cannon balls. "When the internal cracks formed in drying have become filled with spar, the con- cretions are termed septaria (septum, a division), and, FIG. 28. Claystone, Springfield, Mass. when cut and polished, present an ornamental appear- ance. They are so abundant as to be used in making the 84 LITHOLOGICAL GEOLOGY. famous Eoman cement.. In beds flf clay containing con- siderable carbonate of lime are found peculiar concretions called claystones. They are popularly supposed to be worn by the water. They often assume most fantastic shapes, resembling familiar objects, such as a hat, bird, ring, etc. A variety of limestone composed of minute concretions, often as small as a grain of sand, is termed oolitic (see Fig. 7). Along the limestone bluffs of the Mis- sissippi beautiful "geodes" are found. Externally they are merely rough stones, but a blow of the hammer re- veals the interior lined with delicate quartz crystals.* Fig. 29 represents iron nodules, found in coal mines, FIGS. 29-3 ^BP Ironstone Nodules, showing Varieties of Central Nuclei. with their central nuclei No. 1, a fragment of a plant ; 2, a fish-tooth ; 3, a coprolite (fossil excrement) ; and 4, a septarium, with curious partitions of white carbonate of lime, giving the section the appearance of a beetle ; from which circumstance such nodules are known in some places as beetle stones. * " Water is sometimes found in the geodes, holding the silex in solution, and making with itXjnilky looking mixture. As the water evaporates, the eilex has been known to suddenly form into delicate crystals. Such geodes were at one time abundantly found on Briar Creek, in Scriven or Burke County, Ga., in a rock composed of hornstone and jasper; the milky fluid contained in them was used by the inhabitants as a paint or whitewash." Am. Journal of Science. STRUCTURE OF THE ROCKS. 85 9. Slate Structure. This term is commonly ap- plied to any rock which splits into thin layers. The true FIG. 33. Section exhibiting Lines of Cleavage. slate, however, splits in layers transverse, often at right angles to the strata. Such rocks have been changed from clay shales by metamorphic action, in which process they have been hardened and partially crystallized, while at the same time they have been submitted to long-con- tinued lateral pressure. Prof. Tyndall has shown that even soft clay will in this manner divide into thin laminae. (2.) UNSTRATIFIED ROCKS. The unstratified rocks are found as shapeless masses underlying, overlying, and sometimes penetrating the stratified rocks. /. ^Definitions. In Fig. 34, C is an underlying mass of granite, e is a stratum forced between two FIG. 34. c B A strata of sedimentary rocks, d is an overlying mass, and 83 LITHOLOGICAL GEOLOGY. A simply a mass thrown up from below, and disrupt- ing the regular stratified rocks above it. In Fig. 35, FIG. 35. at c is a fault in the rocks, and the joint at that point filled with igneous rock is called a dike. At a is a series of veins traversing a stratified and an unstratified rock. 2. Yeins are fissures in the rock strata, filled with crystallized mineral matter, such as fluor spar, quartz, etc. They are of all sizes, from an inch to many feet in thickness. We often find rocks and even pebbles crowded with veins sometimes not thicker than a sheet of paper (see Fig. 39). 3. tDifces are wide fissures filled with igneous rocks or recent lava. They are generally larger than veins, have their sides more nearly parallel, ramify less com- monly in branching veins, and contain but a single kind of rock. In Fig. 36 is a representation of modern dikes near Mt. Etna. The term dike means a wall. It is de- rived from the fact that the trap is generally harder than the adjacent rock, and hence disintegrates more slowly when exposed to the elements. The dike thus projects above the surface like i wall, often traversing the coun- try for many miles. Hugh Miller, in speaking of the STRUCTURE OF THE ROCKS. FIG. 36. 87 Modern Dikes near Mt. Etna. scenery about Edinburgh, compares the denuding influ- ences to the work of the sculptor; as he brings out his FIG. 37. Trap Dike, Lake Superior. 88 LITHOLOGICAL GEOLOGY. FIG. 38 figures in relief by cutting away about them, so Time scoops away the sand rock and shale, and leaves the bold, rugged features of the trap ridges. When veins cross each other, it is easy to decide upon their relative age, the one which is separated being necessarily the older. Thus in Fig. 38 there is a trap-dike protruding through a bed of gneiss, and crossing that is a vein of quartz, a #. Prof. Hitchcock de- scribes a block of greenstone which exhibits eleven series of veins. Dike. a b. A Quartz Vein passing through a Greenstone Dike and Layers of Gneiss. ^. Origin of Yeins and 3)Mes.When the rocks cooled from a melted, or dried from a moist state, they naturally shrank so as to form cracks or seams of varying size. In different ways Nature collected material to fasten the rocks together again. Some clefts were filled by melted rocks injected from below, and then cooled. This is known, because the adjacent rocks are metamorphosed by contact with the burning mass, and wear a different look from the rest, while the mass itself, by its crystallization, shows that it cooled sooner on the outside against the walls than at the center. Dikes pass- ing through beds of chalk in the county of Antrim, in the north of Ireland, have changed the chalk to mar- ble. Some seams were filled by chemical processes with STRUCTURE OF THE ROCKS. 89 matter which crystallized out from the adjacent rocks, as, for example, a plaster rock dark and muddy is often found crossed with layers and filaments of white, trans- parent selenite crystals, which have doubtless been formed from the parent stone. The larger number, however, of these rents were mended with rock material from highly- heated water charged with mineral matter.* This water filtering through the finest seams of the rock would fill them with a crystalline paste. We often see this process FIG. 39. Vein-form Pebble from Drift, Elmira. * Large rocks are sometimes as full of veins as your hand is, and of veins nearly as fine (only a rock-vein does not mean a tube but a crack). These clefts are mended usually with the strongest material the rock can find, and often literally with threads ; for the gradually opening rent seems to draw the sub- stance it is filled with into fibers which cross from one side to the other, so that when the crystals become distinct, the fissure has often the look of a rent brought together with strong cross stitches. ^When all has been fastened, a new change of temperature may occur, and the roc^-contract again. The old vein must open or a new one be formed. If the old one be well filled the cross stitches will be too strong to break, so that it can only give away at the sides; and thus this space being filled afterward, a supplementary vein is added. In this manner three or four parallel veins have been made. Buskin. 90 LITHO LOGICAL GEOLOGY. FIG. 40. beautifully illustrated in an opaque uncrys- talline rock, and in pebbles threaded with fine crystalline veins of a different variety. (Fig. 39.) Veins are often rich in metallic ores. Probably the metal in such cases has been sublimed by heat below, and car- ried up either with steam or melted mat- ter, and deposited in the rock fissures above. In the figure is shown a valuable vein of lead-ore for- merly worked at Ros- sie, K Y. This is the simplest form of a metallic vein (lode), as it is a mere vertical sheet. Lead Vein of Rossie, N. Y, ef The crust of our earth is a great cemetery, where the rockt are tombstones on which the buried dead have written theit own epitaphs. 3 ' AGASSIZ. THE history of . the formation of the earth's crust is not yet fully written. In its investigation many diffi- culties are met. Strata were not made over the whole earth at the same time, so that the coatings of rock are not uniform. Again, some are found in one section which are wanting in others, and the same strata even are composed frequently of diverse material in different parts of the earth. Thus, the chalk formation of Eng- land is represented by a limestone in this country, though both belong to the same era. It is therefore a difficult task to reconstruct these scattered fragments, and put them together. " The world is to the geologist a great puzzle box." He is to trace the resemblances and learn how to combine all the widely strewn parts of the world's history, and to arrange them in order and symmetry. He is, however, constantly learning to read more accurately the rocky leaves of the book of nature. In his work the fossils are his chief reliance. They have been well termed "the Medals of Creation," since by their means the geologist identifies different strata, and 94 HISTORICAL GEOLOGY. judges of the successive creations of animals and plants through the ages of the past. As the seals, medals, coins, etc., found in a ruined city concerning which history is silent, declare its nationality, so the organic remains of a. stratum determine its geologic period and characteristics. Each epoch recorded in its rocks and fossils the history of the life which it supported, and the changes through which it passed.* Each formation possesses its peculiar fossils. This similarity obtains in a great degree over the entire world. Thus, the identification of fossils is the identification of formations. We can therefore under- stand with what eagerness these are gathered and pre- served. Fragments which the ignorant would spurn from his feet are invested with as high an interest as the obelisks of Egypt or the sculptures of Nineveh. The antiquarian pores over those with intensest enthusiasm, seeking to read the history of a few thousand years. The geologist bends with equal delight over the forms and impressions of the rocks, seeking to gather information with regard to a past, compared to the duration of which the chronology of man is but as the moments of yester- day. The print of a leaf, a petrified shell, a tooth, the fragment of a bone, a fish-scale even, may serve to un- riddle the most puzzling problem. Eough and mutilated * " Nature has all her facts stereotyped. She writes her events often upon the most fragile plants and flowers, on the very winds and waters all the most evanescent and changing forms, as well as the most permanent. Her record is as enduring as the phases of the object upon which she writes, and sometimes, as if fearing both would be lost, she petrifies the whole, and leaves it thus to endure for the ages. She has often preserved in stone the history of her frailest leaves, her most ephemeral and minutest insects and infusoria, the record of her ebbing and flowing tides, of the piles of dust blown together by her winds, the footprints of her smallest birds, and of her rain-drops falling upon the sand." Blackwell. HISTORICAL GEOLOGY. 95 though the fragments may be, to the educated eye they embody a tale as legible as any sculpture or hieroglyph- ics, and far more comprehensive. That tiny stem, a, mere discoloration on the rock, once floated as sea-weed in the waters; that reed once luxuriated in a primevd marsh ; that delicate rock impression was a fern thri once waved in the sunshine ; and that simple leaf, nov: only a film of coal-like matter, sparkled with the dew of heaven as certainly as the tender herb is cherished by the dew to-day, or existing verdure grows to beauty in the sunlight. Every trace, then, becomes a letter, every fragment a word, every perfect fossil a chapter in the world's history. Each tells of races that lived, multi- plied and died, of' lands that were tenanted, and waters thronged with life, so oft repeated, again and again, that the mind, at first excited by the marvels, at last grows weary and loses itself in the contemplation of the works of the Infinite Creator. There are no sharply-drawn lines between the different ages. They fade into each other as insensibly as the mountain blends with the plain. Yet each has a promi- nent idea, and chronicles a grand transition in the world's history.* Lesser changes are denoted by Periods, Epochs, and Groups. Some, at least, of the revolutions marking the separate ages were nearly if not quite universal. Those denoting the other divisions were more local in their character. The periods and epochs are therefore * The land now lay low in the water, and anon was lifted into arid, moun- tainous regions. Consequent upon each change was a new set of climatic influ- ences, winds, ocean currents, rains, etc., each necessarily producing its impress on the vegetable and animal life of the period. Thus there were pauses, as it were, in the deposition of sediment, each pause making a break in the strata. 96 HISTORICAL GEOLOGY. not the same in Europe and America. They vary much in the formations which are represented even on the Atlantic slope and in the Mississippi valley. Geological ^Divisions. The first land, swept by a boiling ocean, was lifeless. The age during which it was formed has received a corresponding name, The Azoic TIME (without life). Following this, we have the successive stages in the -development of life on the globe. As the history of man upon the earth's crust is di- vided into three portions, Ancient) Medieval, and Mod- ern history, so the history of the crust itself is sepa- rated into three grand eras, the Palceozoic time (ancient life), the Mesozoic time (middle life), and the Cenozoic time (recent life). Under these are classified those ages which resemble each other in their dominant types of life. I. PALEOZOIC TIME. 1. SILURIAN AGE (Age of Mollusks). 2. DEVONIAN AGE (Age of Fishes). 3. CARBONIFEROUS AGE (Age of Coal-Plants.) II. MESOZOIC TIME. THE AGE OF REPTILES. III. CENOZOIC TIME. THE AGE OF MAMMALS. The following table contains the geological subdivi sions now generally received : C ? > & " ^ O 2 ? ^5 w ^3 c: f Crt . > ^ O />! ^/ ^' vO O w P ^ s ^ ^ s 1 P SILURIA UPPER C/) gS is 3 2 ^ CTl fe! )fr . ; ? 2 "d 2 r* > a ^ > > 7i > 1 1 1 r 2 3 ? a- S 3 w ^ 2 o 2 s 50 o o o CB a w o PI 71 , o a . 9S HIS T O R 1C AL G EOLOG Y. T/ie ^Duration of Time represented by these geological periods and epochs we have no means of judg- ing. Estimating the past, however, by the present rate of change, it must be immense, so that even if we could express it in centuries and years, we could form no idea of the aggregate any more than we can comprehend the distances thut separate our earth from the fixed stars. This idea of immense duration of time is suggested at the first examination of the stratified rocks. All that Geology attempts, at present, is to arrange in regular order the -various stages of progress in the history of the earth's crust, leaving it for the future to decide upon the length of the different epochs. As yet we only know that " time is long" and hence estimate it by ages, eras, and periods, rarely venturing more than an occasional hint at their relative duration. There is an eternity of time as well as of space in which God works out His almighty plan of creation. Whatever may have been our preconceived notions, we should come to the study of Nature with a reverent, teach- able spirit, seeking to learn its mysteries, to compre- hend its plan, and to understand the ways of Him who created all things. |HE Szoi'c fiME. ^Location. The Azoic rocks probably constitute the foundation rock over the entire globe, but are generally covered deeply with later deposits. On our continent they form the surface rock of a V-shaped region resting on the great lakes, one arm reaching N.W. to the Arctic THE AZOIC TIME. ( JU Ocean, and the other N.E. to Labrador ; in addition there are isolated sections, as shown in the map (Fig. 41). These constitute the oldest dry land of our globe the Canada area representing tho ancient continent, and he other portions widely scattered islands. America is, FIG. Azoic Continent (D.ina). geologically speaking, the old rather than the new worir, Leing the first-born among the continents. " We may walk," says Agassiz, "along its summit, and feel that we are treading upon the granite ridge that first divided the waters into a Northern and a Southern ocean ; and 100 HISTORICAL GEOLOGY. if our imagination carry us so far, we can look down to its base, and fancy how the sea washed against this earliest shore of a lifeless world." ICinds of ffiocfc. .The rocks are generally mete- m orphic, such as granite, gneiss, etc. Statuary marble, schists, porphyry, soapstone, slates, and the like, also oc- cur. All were doubtless deposited as sedimentary strata from the washings of the original crust, and perhaps also the eruptions of submarine volcanoes, and afterward crystallized. The iron mountains of Missouri, and the iron-ore beds of northern New York, date from this time. . Of the life of this era we know nothing definitely, except that if any existed it must have been of the lowest order. The term Azoic indicates that the land and sea were devoid of inhabitants. There was, without doubt, such a time when the boiling water and the heated earth could not support either animal or vege- table life. Some of the slates and sandstones are not more altered than rocks of a later period which abound in 'fossils, so that organic remains may reasonably be sought. Should any be hereafter definitely discovered in what we have termed the Azoic time, this will simply remove the " dawn of life " back to an earlier period. Logan found in a bed of marble, near the Eiver St. Lawrence, what seemed to be fossil corals. Prof. Daw- son, of Montreal, after a careful microscopic examina- tion, pronounced them to be shells of Ehizopods * (root- * They were so called because the shell was full of holes, through which passed fleshy filaments or sterna. The higher orders of .these animals laid hold of objects by means of these stems, and dragged themselves along. The fpzoOn, however, simply grew in patches on the sea-bottom. THE AZOIC TIME. 101 footed). The name Eozoon Canadense (Canadian early life) has been' given to this remarkable fossil. Since then it is said to have been found in the serpen- IG ' 42 ' tine rocks of Chelms- ford, Bolton, Boxboro', and at many other lo- calities in Massachu- setts. Still, the hypothesis of the organic struc- ture of these remains is not universally ac- cepted. Should it be established, it will remove the beginning of life back through an era represented by 30,000 feet of rocks. I itec^i NJttv- a. b. a. Serpentine Marble of Canada. b. Chamber- Wall of EozoOn magnified (Car- penter). . /. Mountains. Between Canada and New York runs a low range of hills called the Lauren- tian, named from the River St. Lawrence.* They are probably the oldest mountains upon the earth. * "Their low stature, as compared with that of other more lofty mountain ranges, is in accordance with an invariable rule, by which the relative age of mountains may be estimated. The oldest mountains are the lowest, while the younger and more recent ones tower above their elders, and are usually more torn and dislocated also. This is easily understood when we remember that all mountains and mountain chains are the result of upheavals, and that the vio- lence ot the outbreak must have been in proportion to the strength of the resistance. When the crust of the earth was so thin that the heated masses within easily broke through it, they were not thrown to so great a height, and formed comparatively low elevations, such as the Canadian hills or the moun- tains of Bretagne and Wales. But in later times, when young, vigorous giants, such as the Alps, the Himalayas, or, later still, the Rocky Mountains, forced their way out from their fiery prison-house, the crust of the earth was much thicker, and fearful indeed must have been the convulsions which attended their exit." Geological SketcJies, Agassiz. 10, HISTORICAL GEOLOGY. 2 . Convulsions. The metamorphism of the Azoic rocks was closely attended by extensive upheavals, which twisted and folded them, throughout vast areas, into every conceivable form. They, however, commonly re- main in regular layers, which can be traced. This would indicate a uniform force acting at right angles to the dip of the beds. These movements must have taken place prior to the Silurian age, since the Silurian rocks rest unconformably upon the Azoic, as is shown in the accompanying figure. We see here that the sedimentary Unconformity of the Lower Silurian with the Gneiss at Montmorency, Canada East , d, C, b. Lower Silurian, a. Gneiss. /. Black Slate. rocks c, d, c, b, lie horizontally upon tilted gneiss, a, and black slate, /. The Azoic rocks at Montmorency are about 12,000 feet in thickness. Through what ages those vast deposits must have slowly gathered in the primeval ocean!* * In the Azoic rocks are conglomerates bearing no resemblance to the beds in which they are found. They are fragments of other rocks, other continents perhaps, broken up and destroyed. There is, then, little hope of our discover- ing the origin of life on the globe, since this page of the genesis of the facts has been torn. For some years geologists loved to rest their eyes in this long night of ages upon an ideal limit, beyond which plants and animals would cease to Now, this line of demarcation between the rocks which are without THE AZOIC TIME. 103 3. Canadian ^Divisions. The Azoic rocks of Canada have been divided by Logan into two distinct systems, the Laurentian and the Huronian. They have a total thickness of about 30,000 feet. The former in- cludes nearly all the Azoic area ; the latter, a section near Lake Huron. of ife. The presence of lime- stone, graphite and anthracite coal would indicate tha existence of life. It would seem reasonable to suppose x that vegetable life had the precedence, since the animal 1 kingdom is wholly dependent on the vegetable for its subsistence; and that the vegetation consisted of land- plants, since -the earth would be cooled sufficiently to admit of life sooner than the water. Geology is, how- ever, as yet silent on this subject, and no plants of that period are known. 5. The Outlines of tfie Continent. This V-- shaped Azoic land was the nucleus around which the continent grew. Through the subsequent ages addi- tions were made to this germ upon the southeast and southwest sides. Its very shape was thus a prophecy of the shape of North America. The direction of the two vestiges of organized beings and those which contain fossils is nearly effaced among the surrounding ruins. On the horizon of the primitive world we eeo vaguely indicated a series of other worlds which have altogether disappeared ; perhaps it is necessary to resign ourselves to the fact that the dawn of life is lost in this silent epoch where age succeeds age till they are clothed in the garb of eternity. The river of creation is like the river Nile, which, as Bossuet says, hides its head a figure of speech which time has falsified ; but the endless spec- ulations opened up by these and similar considerations led Lyell to say : " Ktere I am almost prepared to believe in the ancient existence of the Atlantis ^f Plato." M. Esquiros. 104 HISTORICAL GEOLOGY. arms was parallel to that of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans (see Fig. 41). The land and sea have from the beginning maintained these relative positions. We are thus led to believe that the thought of God, as ulti- mately revealed in the form of this continent, was fairly outlined in the first land that appeared. In the early part of the next age the Appalachian and Kocky moun- tains began to rise, thus forming the framework of the continent, and still further developing the plan. How accurately did the ancient " backbones " define the present contour of the finished continent ! The St. Law- rence flows to the sea through a valley parallel to the Laurentian ridge ; the Mississippi river in a second valley inclosed between the Appalachian and Eocky mountains ; the Mackenzie finds its way to the Arctic sea in a third valley .between the Eocky and Laurentian mountains; while Hudson's Bay is snugly locked in the arms of the Laurentian mountains. 6. 2*he Mosaic Accotmt informs us that on the third day the waters were gathered into one place and the dry land appeared, and, as a later creation of the same day, that vegetation was brought forth. The geo- logic record of the Azoic age agrees with the first por- tion, and upon the second gives as yet only hints of possible discoveries. The direct rays of the sun could not penetrate the thick mists which then enshrouded the warm, damp earth, and hence, although the sun and moon had shone since the first, these luminaries were net yet set in the firmament to rule the day and the night. THE AZOIC TIME. 105 [The following leaf of Natural History is inserted for the bene- fit of those pupils who may not be familiar with that delight- ful branch of knowledge. This brief analysis will enable us to speak more understandingly of the ancient life of our globe. It may be studied separately or used merely for reference.] TPE A NIMAL K IN' 'DOM. [Sub-kingdoms.] I. VERTEBRATES.- [Classes.] i. Mammals. 2. Birds. 3. Reptiles. 4. Fishes . . . [Orders.] f (i) Teliosts. { (2) Ganoids. 1(3) Selachians. fi. Insects. II. ARTICULATES. { 2. Crustaceans. 1 3. Worms. Ill, MOLLUSKS . . IV. RADIATES . . 1. Cephalopods. 2. Gasteropods. 3. Pteropods. 4. Brachiopods. 5. Conchifers. 6. Bryozoans. i. Echinoderms. \ (2 2. Acalephs. 3. Polyps. 1(3 Echinoids. Star-fishes. Crinoids. All animals are constructed upon one of four* different types which constitute the sub-kingdoms of the animal creation. Each type is a thought of God worked out in a multitude of ways. The design of nature seems to be to have an infinity of detail and variety, with the utmost simplicity of elements, or, as Agassiz beautifully says, a fundamental harmony upon which an endless set of vari- * Some authorities give a fifth class, which includes what are termed Proto- zoans, or systemless animals. It embraces sponges, infusoria, and other similar animals which seem to have no distinct plan of structure. 106 HISTORICAL GEOLOGY. ations may be played. It is our privilege to trace out these four ideas in their curious ramifications, and thus classify the animals of the present as well as the fossils of the past. I. Sub- kingdom of Tertebrales. The verte brate is the highest type of structure. Fishes, reptileg, birds and man all agree in having an axis running from one end of the body to the other, which in the lowest an- imals is a soft cord, but in most is a series of small bones (vertebrae), making what we call a backbone. The spinal cord lies above this, and expands at one end into a brain. This sub-kingdom is divided into four classes MAMMALS, BIRDS, EEPTILES, and FISHES. Fishes are subdivided into three orders Teliosts, Ganoids, and Selachians. The Teliosts (telios, complete, and osteon, a bone) in- clude common fishes having a bony skeleton. Ex., perch, salmon, etc. The Ganoids (ganos, splendor) comprise fishes covered with enameled scales. Ex., sturgeon, garpike, etc. The Selachians (selachos, cartilage) embrace those hav- ing a cartilaginous skeleton and a rough skin, often called shagreen. Ex., shark. II. Sub -kingdom of Articulates. The articu- late type is a jointed structure, i. e., one composed of rings. Ex., spider, centipede, shrimp, etc. It is ex- pressed in three different ways, and thus there are three classes INSECTS, CRUSTACEANS, and WORMS. Crusta- ceans have a shelly covering. Ex., crab, lobster, etc. III. Stib- kingdom of Molhisks. The mollusk type is a soft sack, usually inclosed in a hard shell. Ex., THE AZOIC TIME. 107 oyster, clam, etc. There are six classes CEPHALOPODS, GASTEROPODS, PTEROPODS, BRACHIOPODS, CONCHIFERS, and BRYOZOANS. The CEPHALOPODS (head-footed) have arms attached to their head. Ex., nautilus, cuttle-fish, etc. The GASTEROPODS (body-footed) move on the under part of their body, which forms a fleshy foot. Ex., snail, slug, etc. The PTEROPODS (wing-footed) live only in the sea, and swim with a pair of fins extending out like wings from the side of the head. They are the food of the right whale. The BRACHIOPODS (arm-footed) are bivalves having arms by which they stir the water, and thus bring their food within their reach. The two parts of the shell are unequal ; the larger is called the ventral and the smaller the dorsal valve. Each valve is, however, equal sided, so that if a line be dropped from the beak to the opposite side, it will divide the valve into equal parts. The COISTCHIFERS have their gills in thin, membranous plates on each side of the body, which may be easily seen in the oyster, clam, etc. (For this reason they are some- times called Lamellibranchs, lamella, a plate.) A line let fall as in the case of the brachiopods, will divide the shell into two unequal parts. The BRYOZOAXS (moss-like animals) grow in clusters, and form moss-like incrustations on rocks. They re- semble corals. IT. Sub- kingdom of Hadiales.^z radiate type is a structure arranged around a central axis. Ex., star-fish. There are three classes ECHIKODERMS, ACA- LEPIIS, and POLYPS. 108 HISTORICAL GEOLOGY. The ECHINODEKMS (hedge-hog skin) are covered with spines. They are divided into three orders: (1) The EcliinoidSy which have a hard shell, as sea-urchins and the like; (2) Star-fishes ; and (3) Crinoids, or " stone- lilies," as they are called, since they grow on a stem like a flower. The ACALEPHS (headless) are soft, jelly-like animals. Ex., jelly-fish, medusa. Some of them, however, formed corals, and have hence left remains among fossils. The POLYPS (many-footed) are the true coral-produ- cing animals. They have a mouth around which is ar- ranged a row of tiny arms, like the petals of a China aster. The coral is the bone of the polyp, which it secretes from the water. As the animal dies below, it leaves its skeleton of bone behind, and grows above. ^~~JZrJ^S4pr4sr*^^. I HE ?ALJEOZOIC IIME. \^y "XiL? \1^) / i. Silurian Age. PALAEOZOIC TIME. J 2. Devonian Age. ( 3. Carboniferous Age. The Palaeozoic time is divided into three ages to mark the great life-changes which occurred. These are called the Silurian or Age of mollusks, the Devonian or Age of fishes, and the Carboniferous or Age of coal-plants. These ages, though unlike in marked particulars, are yet distinguished by certain common features in the life they supported,- while they are all very dissimilar to any later formations. Neither birds nor mammals were known, THE SILURIAN AGE. 109 and many extensive classes of animals which peculiarly characterized these ages disappeared with them. I. THE SILURIAN AGE. I. SILURIAN AGE (AGE OF MOLLUSKS.) 1. Potsdam Period. 2. Trenton Period. 3. Hudson Period. 1. Niagara Period. 2. Salina Period. 3. Lower Helderberg Period. This first great stage in the progress of life on the globe was so called by Murchison, the celebrated English geologist, who first fully investigated it in Wales, and so named it from the ancient Silures, a tribe of Britons formerly inhabiting that region. The subdivisions of the age vary greatly in different portions even of the United States. The Silurian and Devonian rocks are very distinctly developed in New York, and the epochs established in the geologic survey of that State are there- fore taken as the basis for study and comparison. In FIG. 44. Ideal Section of the New York Formations. Fig. 44 is shown an ideal section extending from the Azoic rocks in the northeastern part of the State to the carboniferous in the southern. It will be seen that the 110 THE SILURIAN AGE. different epochs succeed each other regularly. The dip of the strata is by no means as uniform as is represented, nor is there any attempt to indicate their relative thick- ness. This illustrates on a grand scale the fact stated on page 77 concerning the method of geologic study. We shall see that, with each period, a narrow, irregular lolt was added to the Azoic area, from which, as a germ, the continent grew by successive additions. General Characteristics. It is probable that at this early day the Appalachians on the east and the Eocky Mountains on the west were already being lifted above the floor of the sea, thus rendering the interior of the continent an immense lagoon, protected in great measure from the ocean. At the bottom of this shallow basin, sandstone, shale and limestone were formed. The kind of rock varied with different sections of the country and periods of the age, according to the peculiar circum- stances which influenced the deposit of sediment at any specified place or time. There were broad areas of low mud-flats and wave-washed sand beaches. There may have been rivers and lakes on the Azoic continent, but if so, they have entirely disappeared in the wreck of subse- quent changes. The land was rocky and barren, while the waters swarmed with crustaceans and mollusks. The pale sun, struggling to penetrate the dense atmosphere of a yet heated primitive world, now first yielded a dim imperfect light to these, as far as we know, earliest cre- ated beings* that left the hand of the Creator. * We have already spoken of the EozoQn of the Laurentian rocks, which, if accepted as a true fossil, is the oldest known inhabitant of our globe. Among the Longmynd rocks of Ireland, Dr. Oldham discovered a zoQphite (zo-o-Jite^ plant-animal, a class of polyps, BO named because they resemble both plants and THE POTSDAM PERIOD. Ill POTSDAM PERIOD. . This period is named from Potsdam, a town in northern New York, where the rock is well de- veloped. The formation is very thick in Pennsylvania, and can be traced westward through Michigan, along the southern shore of Lake Superior, through Wisconsin and Minnesota to the Black Hills of Dacotah, and southward along the Appalachian range from Vermont to Alabama. It outcrops at many other places, and generally underlies all the newer sedimentary rocks, forming over the entire continent the floor, as it were, on which the more recent deposits rest. ICind of ffiocfc. The rock varies much throughout this wide extent. At Potsdam it is a coarse, hard sand- stone ; at Malone, N. Y., a friable one ; at Keeseville, a quartzite ; and at. other localities, a fine white sand, fit for glass-making. At some points east it is a good build- ing-stone, while at the west it is often so friable as to crumble in the fingers. The colors are brown, gray, yel- lowish, and even red. In many localities it is worm- burrowed,* ripple-marked, mud-cracked, and rain-pitted, animals), which in his honor has been named the Oldhamia antiqua. These rocks are called by Sedgwick and Murchison the Cambrian. The latter au- thority places them on the same geologic horizon with the Huronian. American geologists, however, believe them to be the equivalent, in part, of Barrande's Primordial Zone of Bohemia, and in part of the Potsdam sandstone.. The pupil will see from this that the question of the " dawn of life " on our globe is yet an unsettled one, although we have traced it back to where organisms of the lowest type seem to just emerge out of the igneous rocks of the primitive earth. * * The holes burrowed out by marine worms were filled with sand, which hardened like the rock itself, and, when the rock is broken, form regular casts of the worm-burrow. The holes are like those now made along the eea-shore iq the same way. 112 THE SILURIAN AGE. showing the mode of its formation on a low sand-beach or mud-flat. The upper portion of this period, known as the Calciferous Epoch, is in part calcareous, so that some layers are even burned for lime. In the Mississippi valley its character changes, and it is called the Lower Magne- sian Limestone.* FIG. 45. Lingula antiqua. FIG. 46. A Trilobite (Dikelocephalus Minnesotensis). Fossils. A brachiopod, the lingula (little tongue), so named from its peculiar shape, is a char- acteristic fossil. The form and size of the shell are similar to that of the finger-nail. The pecu- liarity of this mollusk was that, when alive, it grew on a fleshy stem which anchored .it to the rock. Several species of the lingula still exist in the Moluc- cas. A crustacean, the triloUte (three-lobed), is the most con- spicuous fossil. This family was prominent in the early creations, but disappeared in the Carboni- ferous Age. It is perfectly pre- served, and the various stages of growth, from the egg to the adult, have been more accurately traced than even those of the crab, a * In Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, and Illinois, this is overlaid by the St. Peter's sandstone, a soft, white, incoherent rock, composed of grains of quartz that crumble easily under the hammer, though in some localities it is hardened by a calcareous cement. It is used in Chicago for glass-making. Like tha Lower Magnesian Limestone, it is destitute of fossils. Whitney. THE POTSDAM PERIOD. living crustacean. It was of wonderful variety, more than 400 species having been discovered. It had an oval figure, and was from * of an incli to 24 inches in length. The body, divided into three lobes, was covered with small plates which folded over each other as in the tail of the lobster. Some species could roll themselves up into a ball, and thus, present a hard armor in every direction. The head was protected by a buckler of a crescent shape. Its eyes were very curious. They were of a conical shape, and each one was composed of from 40 to 6000 separate facets or lenses,* by means of which FIG. 47. Eyes of Trilobites, showing that the eyes of insects of the present day are constructed on the same plan. 3. Enlarged Lens. the animal could see in every direction at once. The inner side-" of each eye being of no practical value, Na- ture, on her principle of economy, placed no lenses there. The trilobite is supposed to have gathered in shoals in the shallow water, swimming slowly on its back by means of membranous appendages now lost. * The construction of the eye was very like that of certain insects at the present day. The house-fly has 14,000 of these facets, the butterfly 35,000, and the dragon-fly 00,000. , 114 THE SILURIAN AGE. S. /. The Atmosphere. The eyes of the trilobite would have been useless unless the atmos- phere had been clear enough to permit sufficient sunlight; to reach the earth to render objects visible in some de- gree. God makes all things for a purpose ; hence we con- clude that at this early period the sun had pierced tha clouds, and the air was being purified. 2. J?ar2y Siltirian 3$eac?i. Where the Pots- dam rock lies on the surface, we are assured that that locality was raised above the sea at or near the close of this period (unless uncovered by subsequent denudation), else it would have been concealed by the sediment of the succeeding one. The narrow zone of the Potsdam rock along the borders of the Azoic area, was doubtless the beach of the early Silurian sea. J. Z/ife. The organic remains found in this period represent the Radiates, Mollusks, and Articulates among animals, and the sea-weeds among plants. The trilobite was the highest type. Three of the four general ideas of expressing animal life were thus simultaneously de- veloped at the beginning; the fourth does not appear until long after. There is, says Dana, no proof that the dry, primordial hills bore a moss or lichen, or that the ocean contained a single fish. No sounds were heard in the air save those of inanimate Nature the moving waters, the tempest, and the earthquake. ^. Climate. No difference is seen in the life of different latitudes ; hence it is thought that there was a uniformity of temperature existing over the earth, and THE POTSDAM PERIOD. 115 that the diversity of zone and climate had not yet been established. Various reasons .have been assigned for this, among which are (a) the greater interior heat of the earth on account of the thinness of the crust, (b) the dense atmosphere which retained the sun's heat more fully, (c) the great expanse of the ocean which tended to equalize the temperature, and (d) the greater size and heat of the sun in that era, according to the nebular hypothesis. 5. Changes in the Sea, Z,ife, and fiocfc. Shales were produced in the muddy water, and lime- stones in the shallow, clearer sea; since the coral animal tli rives best in pure water less than a hundred feet deep. The crust of the still unsteady earth, as it rose and fell, shallowing or deepening the waters, rendering them muddier or purer, varied the character of the life sup- ported and the rock formed. There were frequent tran- sitions of this kind during the Potsdam Period, and especially in passing into the Calciferous Epoch, when there was almost a complete extermination of the dif- ferent species. 6. afce Superior ^Region. In connection with the deposit of Potsdam sandstone, there was a depression of the crust, thus forming the bed of Lake Superior, and also igneous ejections, making the trap-rocks and dikes so characteristic of that section. The sandstone has since been worn into grotesque and curious forms as seen in the famous Sculptured and Pillared Rocks.* * These strata form a wall 50 to 100 feet high, and line the shore for a distance of five miles. Their brilliant hues and fantastic shape excite the imagination THE SILURIAN- AGE. 7. The M'osaic Account fells us that the sun and moon were created on the fourth day. Geology shows us that the distinctive feature of the early Silurian Age was the partial clearing of the sky after the murky FIG. 48. Sculptured Rocks, Lake Superior. "The Inverted Volcano." clouds of the Azoic. The first glimpse of the sun woulcf have seemed to an observer as a new creation, and, in popular language, it is thus described in Genesis. "We also read that on the fifth day the waters brought forth of every beholder. Here is " Miner's Castle," with its turrets and bastions ; there "Sail Rock," a ship with sails full spread; and yonder "The Amphi- theatre," with its symmetrical curves. A closer inspection only reveals more curious details and resemblances. For a very interesting account of these rocks see Harpers' Magazine, Vol. XXXIV, p. 681. THE TRENTON PERIOD. Ill abundantly the moving creature that hath life. We shall see how perfectly the swarming seas of the Silurian an<} Devonian Ages justify this description. t* TRENTON PERIOD. ^Location. The Trenton formation extends along the great Appalachian chain of mountains on the east, thence outcrops at various points westward to the Missis- sippi river, and beyond to the Rocky Mountains. It is more widely distributed than any similar deposit. Iinds of 2tock. This was the first great limestone period of the continent. In New York there are four epochs (l) the Chazy limestone, a dark, irregular rock, named from a locality near Lake Champlain; (2) the Bird's Eye limestone, a dove-colored rock containing fine white crystalline points scattered through it; (3) the Black River limestone, a black, hard-grained marble capable of a high polish,* named from the river of that name, east of Lake Ontario; (4) the Trenton proper, f a hard, compact rock of a grayish or black color, so called from the well-known gorge at Trenton Falls. This epoch of the period has been identified in Canada and throughout the south and west, but the other epochs vary somewhat, and their equivalents are not so well estab- lished. \ * At Watertown, N. Y., it is lumpy, and breaks into rhomboidal fragments, while the Bird's Eye has a conchoidal fracture. Tli3 river takes its name from the dark color of the rocks over which it flows. t The massive pillars of the court-house at St. Louis are from the Trenton limestone quarries of Sulphur Spring. The crest of the Falls of St. Anthony is of Trenton limestone. In Kentucky and Tennessee this rock is termed tho atone River group. 118 THE SILURIAN AGE. (5) In Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa, the Galena stone overlies the Trenton. It is the great lead and zinc bearing rock of a region embracing about 3,000 square miles. The streams have cut deeply down into this stone, so that they are bordered by precipitous bluffs crowned by perpendicular ledges, having frequently a castellated appearance like the walls of some half-ruined city, while isolated masses sometimes rise abruptly from the valleys like lofty watch-towers. Dubuque and Ga- lena are partly situated on picturesque bluffs of this char- acter.* . The Chazy limestone is not characterized by many very distinctive fossils. The principal ones are gasteropods. Fig. 49 represents the characteristic marine FIG. 49. The Bird's Eye Coral (Phytopsis tubulosum). * The QUEBEC GROUP is thought by Hall to underlie the Chazy (Shz-ee) in New York, and to be the equivalent of Emnions 1 much disputed TACOSUC SY T~3i. Others refer both to the Calciferous epoch. THE TRENT OX PERIOD. 110 plant which is found in the Bird's Eye limestone. The ends of the stems give the rock the dotted appearance from which it takes its name. Fig. 59 gives an idea of a coral common in the Black River limestone. It been found in masses of a ton's weight. The Trenton limestone abounds in organic remains. The flagstones in the streets of Ottawa show branching sea-weeds spread out on their surface ; at Cincinnati, where the rock is known as the Blue lime- stone, at Nashville. Tenn., and at many other widely- Black River Coral (Coiumnaria scattered localities, corals, crinoids, and shells are found crowded together in the greatest profusion. Thin, semi-transparent slices, appa- rently devoid of fossils, under the microscope reveal their animal origin. Brachiopods occur in wonderful variety. Trilobites, the highest type of the Potsdam, appear of a dozen species, varying in size from that of a finger-nail to a foot in length. They, however, now yield in abundance, activity and power to the cephalopods. A family of these, the Ortlwceratite (straight-horn), distinguishes the entire period. It had a long straight shell, divided into some- times as many as seventy chambers. These were formed to accommodate the growth of the animal. As it in- creased in size, it moved forward in its room, and ex- tending its shell at the larger end, partitioned off its new quarters from the rest by a shelly wall. Thus, in time, a long series of chambers were made, each larger 120 THE SILURIAN AGE. than its predecessor.* They were connected, however, by a membranous tube (" siphuncle "), which passed from the animal in the newest and largest chamber at one end to the oldest and smallest room at the other. These empty chambers are thought to have acted as a buoy to float the heavy animal. Some of the fossil orthoceratites are not larger than a lead pencil, while others are a foot thick and thirty feet in length. They had many muscular arms, with which they seized and strangled their prey in their powerful grasp. They were doubtless the sea-rovers of the Lower Silurian Ocean. . /. Z SCHOHAEIE GRITS, which are named the former from a peculiar feathery sea-weed common in it, and the latter from the typical locality in eastern New York. 2. THE HELDERBERG LIMESTONE the last great lime- stone formation in New York the lower beds of which are termed the Onondaga } and the upper the Corniferous limestone. The Helderberg beds lose their distinctive features westward and blend into one group, which is called by either of these names. The Corniferous limestone (cornu, a horn) derives its appellation from disseminated nodules of hornstone ("chert"). The Onondaga is a dark-gray rock which takes an excellent polish. These limestones are quarried as a building-stone at multitudes of points throughout western New York, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa. 142 THE DEVONIAN AGE. Fossils. This was the great Palaeozoic coral reef. Corals are found in every conceivable form standing, lying down, broken into fragments, or preserved as perfectly as if they had grown but yesterday. They nourished luxuriantly and may have exhibited all the wealth of- coloring now manifested in the tropical seas. They are especially abundant at the Falls of the Ohio, near Louisville. Some have a diameter of five or six feet. Crinoids and mollusks, in all their orders, present a be- wildering variety and profusion. HAMILTON PERIOD. Z/ocalion . This formation extends across ISTew York, Michigan, thence west of the Mississippi river, and southward through Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Tennessee. ICinds of ffiock. In New York this period com- prises three epochs.* * The entire Hamilton series in New York makes one enormous formation, the strata being in all 5,000 or more feet in thickness. They are nearly destitute of lime, and thus differ widely from the Onondaga, Trenton, and Niagara limestones which overlie them on the north. They give rise to marked peculiarities in the country which they underlie, and also affect its soil and pro- ductions. Containing little lime, we find the culture of wheat does not gener- ally succeed well upon them ; nor does the central wheat-growing district ex- tend upon them more than a few miles south of the limestone range, except in a few alluvial valleys, or places where calcareous materials from the limestone belts have been strewed over the southern slates by the Drift, of which we shall speak hereafter. Grazing and dairying are almost exclusively the pursuits of the farmer. The most marked physical features of all this great extent of country consist in its deep valleys and long ridgy hills, usually extending in a north and south direction, as an inspection on any map of the rivers which follow the valleys will show. Some of these long north and south valleys having been excavated THE HAMILTON PERIOD. 1J+1 1. THE MARCELLUS SHALE is a soft, clayey rock, often nearly jet-black. It is very fissile, and .breaks under the hammer into thin, slaty fragments, not more than six or eight inches across. It abounds in septaria, such as those spoken of on page 83, as resembling turtles. It contains so much carbonaceous matter as to sometimes burn quite freely* This fact has led to much waste of money in exploring it for coal. The attempts are always futile, since the formation lies thousands of feet below the coal measures. 2. THE HAMILTON GROUP* consists of a harder and lighter shaly sandstone, often calcareous. The layers are remarkable for the abundance of ripple-marks. They present also a yery perfect jointed structure, some fine examples of which are seen on Cayuga Lake (Fig. 25). It is extensively used as a flagging-stone, since it breaks -into slabs of great size and of uniform thickness. 3. THE GE^ESEE SLATE which overlies the Hamilton BO deeply below their outlets as to retain the accumulated waters of the rains and streams, form that remarkable series of lakes beginning with the Otsego, and comprising the Canaseraga, Cazenovia, Otisco, Skarieateles, Owasco, Cay- uga, Seneca, Crooked, Canandaigua, Honeoye, Canadice, Hemlock, and Conesus lakes ; all so similar in their general form and direction, and in the shape and geological formation of their inclosing hills. Over the whole extent of these rocks, the country is "rolling" or broken into ridges generally running north and south, and rising from one to eight hundred feet above their main dividing valleys ; and it is rarely that we find among them a plain half a mile in width, excepting in a few of the "bottom-flats" or alluvial lands along the larger rivers. The Hamilton Group in New York is overlaid by a dark, impure rock, termed the Tully limestone. It is about twenty feet in thickness, and contains a few distinguishing fossils. * The absence of the Marcellus Group at the west, drops the Hamilton directly upon the Corniferous, forming the appearance of a single mass. Thus, four limestone formations the Niagara, Salina, Corniferous, and Hamilton are there brought into juxtaposition. Before they were closely distinguished, the entire mass was known as the "Ctiff limestone" because they often formed bold bluffs along the river-banks. 144 THE DEVONIAN AGE. beds derives its name from the gorge in the Genesee river, where it is well developed. It is a dark-blue, green, and often black slate, by which last name ft is known through the Mississippi valley. Marcellus shale contains few fossils, mostly small except the orthoceratite and goniatite. The FIG. 65. Goniatite. latter is like the former, but is partly coiled, thus re- sembling the modern nautilus. The name (gonia, an angle), refers to the sinuous form of the partitions which separate the different chambers. The Hamilton Group, in its limestone layers, has fine crinoids and corals, but the predominant fossils are brachiopods and conchifers, species which flourish in muddy waters. Among the for. mer are many beautiful ones belonging to the family of spirifers. A peculiar coral, commonly styled the cup coral (see 1 and 7, Fig. 67) is noticeable. It is horn- shaped, and was occupied by a single -polyp, which, when alive, with its tentacles expanded, must have been seven or eight inches in diameter. Fish-bones are common in DEVONIAN CORALS. FIG. 67. -i. Heliophyllum Halli. 2. Knclophyl'um simcoense. 3. Favosites sothlandica. 4 Syringopora e!egar.s. 5. Aulopora con-.iitum. C>. Plii'lipsastra.?. Venieuili. 7. Zaph- renti-; proliftra. THE DEVONIAN AGE. some localities. A small trilobite (Phacops bufo, lens- eyed-toad) is conspicuous because of the perfect pre- FIG. 66. Spirifer mucronatus. servation of its eye lenses. Terrestrial plants are an interesting feature, since they now first appear in any abundance. CHEMUNG PERIOD. Z/Ocation. The Chemung forma- tion is found in New York, attains a great thickness in Pennsylvania, and ex- tends west through Ohio. FIG. 68. Phacops bufo. Kinds of 3tocfc. This period contains in New York three epochs. 1. THE POKTAGE GROUP receives its name from the celebrated falls in the Genesee Eiver. It consists of shales and sandstones, which are nearly 1,000 feet thick at that locality. THE C HEM UNO PERIOD. 147 2. THE CHEMUNG GROUP, named from the Narrows in the Chemung * Biver, is composed of coarse shales and shaly sandstones of an olive or greenish color. 3. THE CATSKILL GR^UP covers the upper range of the Catskill Mountains. It also consists of shales and sandstones, but of a reddish color, and oftentimes gritty character. The harder layers of the sand-rock sometimes weather in a peculiar way, dividing into thin layers re- sembling a pile of boards. All of the Chemung rocks abound in ripple-marks, mud cracks, and other proofs of broad, low flats, swept by a muddy sea. . The Portage and Catskill Groups contain few fossils. The Chemung, however, in many localities abounds in organic remains. Large slabs are found com- pletely covered with impressions of shells. Brachiopods and cpnchifers are plentiful, and occasionally a trilobite or an orthoceratite is met. A prominent brachiopod is the broad-winged spirifer, which is commonly known as a " petrified butterfly." It resembles the one shown in Fig. 66. Beautiful fern impressions are also presented a prophecy of the abundant vegetation of the Carbonifer- ous Age. . Geography. The Empire State is now nearly finished, as is also Wisconsin. Interior Mich- igan is yet an inland sea, while the ocean washes in unrestrained freedom the vast area of the Mississippi valley. * The name Chemung meaning big horn was given to it by the In- dians because of a mammoth tusk which they found In the bed of the iver. 148 THE DEVONIAN AGE. SCENIC DESCRIPTION* - Let us try to picture to ourselves a scene in the Devonian landscape. The air is yet heavy with mist, and we strain our eyes to catch a view of the land, like a voyager before whom, amid the fogs and dews of early twilight, looms an unknown shore. Gleams of light here and there reveal to us hill-sides green with forests of lofty ferns and club mosses of gigantic size. The rivers, fringed with tall, slender rushes and reeds, look almost familiar; but back from the banks no grass carpets the meadows, no moss clings to the rocks, no flowers deck the landscape, no forests cover the mountains. The sea-shore, however, is stirring with life. Euryp- teri crawl over the slimy bottom, and, thrusting out their long, muscular arms, draw into their voracious maws sea-weeds, fish, and other organic remains thrown up by the tide. Innumerable fish, the armor-clad pirates of the Devonian seas, impregnable against attack, dart through the water in eager pursuit of their prey, which they crush between their poniard-like teeth. In the deeper waters the coral tribes are busily at work, clearing the water and building up the continent, while on the shallow, muddy bottoms, shell-fish congregate in myri- ads, furnishing food for the rapacious monsters of the deep. Nowhere in the rocky book of Nature do we read a page of quiet, free from pain or death. From the begin- ning the flesh-eater preyed on the plant-eater, and, as now, the weak succumbed to the strong. The struggle for ex- istence began with its gift, and the reign of death was inau- gurated by the enjoyment of life. Thus only can Nature preserve the equipoise between growth and decay, between the means of subsistence and the development of life. THE C ARBO NIFE ROUS AGE. III. THE CARBONIFEROUS AGE. ( i. Sub-carboniferous Period. CARBONIFEROUS AGE. J 2. Carboniferous Period. (3. Permian Period. This ago is so named from the abundance of coal formed in its time. FIG. 69. A Carboniferous Fern (Sphenopteris Egyptiaca). General Characteristics .LI the beginning of the age the growing continent had increased by the sue- 150 THE CARBONIFEROUS AGE* cessive additions of the Silurian and Devonian Ages, so that the shore-line of the Atlantic extended through southern New York, thence west through the southern part of Ohio, across the future Mississippi valley. The Gulf of Mexico reached north to central Iowa. Lake Superior was the only one of the great lakes in existence. The pressure of the waters in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans gradually deepened their beds and produced a corresponding uplift of the future continent, so that after a time the water drained off the site of the present southern and the middle States south of the coast line, against which the warm water of the Gulf had beaten so long. The low muddy tracts, the former sea-bottom, became a wide extended marsh, warmed to a tropical temperature by the internal heat. The atmosphere, dense with moisture, and containing, in the form of carbonic acid, all the carbon now locked up in the coal- beds,* was rich in vegetable food. These favorable con- ditions rendered the earth a very greenhouse, fit to teem with luxuriant vegetation. This same acid, however, would have been fatal to air-breathing animals. Hence, before they could be introduced, the atmosphere, must be prepared for their use. Here came a pause, as it were, in the progress of the animal life of the world. The plant must purify the air for the animal. The All^creative Hand, suiting the means to the end, at once covered the land with a new and abundant flora. Forests of strange form and prodigious size sprang up as if by magic to meet this new demand of Nature. No change of climate * The atmosphere now contains 1 part in 2,500 of carbonic acid. According to M. Brongniart, it had from 7 to 8 parts in 100 in the Carboniferous Era. THE CARBONIFEROUS AGE. 151 varied the productions of the ground, but everywhere flourished the same tropical growth. The crust of the earth was unsteady, and frequent elevations and depres- sions alternated. At one time it was lifted up to be covered with vegetation, and at another sunk with the ruins of the forests below the incoming ocean to receive a deposit of sedimentary rocks. The theater of these re- peated changes was the whole of the present coal area, and much besides from which the coal has been swept by subsequent denudation. During a season of verdure a vast amount of vegetable debris, such as leaves, limbs, fallen trunks, etc., accumulated, only to be overwhelmed by the flood of sand, pebbles and mud washed in by the rushing waters. The peat-deposit gradually changed to coal, and the sediment hardened to shales, sandstone, or clay. Sometimes the water became deep and clear enough for corals or mollusks to exist, and Nature, suit- ing the life to the new condition, populated the shallow sea with swarming millions, and there a limestone was interpolated. Perhaps a hundred times, in the course of the age this process was repeated, and as many alternate layers chronicled the changes in regular succession. In a Nova Scotia coal-bed Lyell found in a portion 1,400 feet thick no less than sixty-eigKt levels, showing as many different old soils of forests, one above the other, where the trunks of trees were still furnished with roots. These characteristics culminated in the Carboniferous Period of the age, being preceded by the Sub-carbonifer- ous and followed by the Permian, in both of which the land of these formations was submerged by the sea, re- ceiving mainly rock deposits. 152 THE SUB-CARBONIFEROUS PERIOD. SUB-CARBONIFEROUS PERIOD. . This formation is so named because it is the base of the great carboniferous system of the conti- nent. It is found in southern New York, southward along the Appalachian region, and westward through Iowa, Illinois, and Mississippi. J^inds of ffiocfc. In New York and in some parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, it is a hard conglomerate of quartz pebbles cemented with sand. It is very massive in appearance, and the ledges often separate into huge blocks, with intervening fissures. Where the larger portion lias been swept off by subse- quent geologic changes, the remains often present a striking resemblance to the streets and blocks of a ruined city. In Pennsylvania and Virginia it is over- laid by a vast deposit of sandstone and shale to a depth of several thousand feet. At the West* it is a compact yellowish or grayish limestone, of great thickness and wide extent. fossils. The limestone abounds in crinoids. No- where else are these stone-lilies the blossoms of the Sub- * The following arc the subdivisions in Illinois, given by Worthen : 1. The Chester Group, 500 to 800 feet thick. 2. The St. Louis Group, 50 to 200 feet thick. 3. The Keokuk Group, 100 to 150 feet thick. 4. Burlington Limestone, 25 to 200 feet thick. 5. Kinderhook Group, 100 to 150 feet thick. The Marshall Group, so named from Marshall, Michigan, is doubtless, ill part at least, of this period. It is worked at Cleveland and Waverly, Ohio, furnishes the grindstones of Berea and Huron, and underlies the limestone bluff at Burling- ton, Iowa. Dana thinks the Kinderhook and Marshall groups are on about the same creolojnc horizon. THE SUB-CARBONIFEROUS PERIOD. 153 carboniferous sea found in such profusion and beauty. There are also many brachiopods and fish remains. In England this rock is termed the Mountain Limestone. When the stone is worn away by the elements, the round, hard joints of the crinoids are found lying loose in the soil, and are gathered and strung.as beads by the children.* 7) Ciller iiS. /. Cares. Many of the most famous caves are in this rock; for example, the Mammoth Cave, the Wyandotte Cave, etc. In many places in Indiana and Kentucky, "sink-holes" are abundant, sometimes so numerous as to interfere with plowing. These are openings in the earth where the soil has been washed down probably into subterranean caves never yet seen by man. The Mammoth Cave is the largest in the World. It has been explored to a distance of over thirty miles. Views of the grandest description are con- stantly presented. Eoyal thrones, sparry grottoes, dia- mond arches, flowers of every zone sparkling with crys- talline beauty, reflect the light of the traveler's torch. Stalactite halls decorated with fantastic pillars, and mar- * Thus Sir Walter Scott, in allusion to the popular fable concerning this for- mation, eays : 41 But fain St. Hilda's nuns would learn If on a rock by Lindisferne - St. Cuthbert sits, and toils to fr.ime The sea-born beads that bear his narao : Such tales had Whitby's fishers told. And said they might his shape behold, And hear his anvil sound, A deadened clang, a huge, dim form, Seen but and heard when gathering storm And night were closing round. 1 " Hugh Miller humorously remarks that if St. Cuthbert made all these beads, he must have been the busiest saint in the calendar. 154 THE CARBONIFEROUS AGE. ble statues draped with crystal mantles, charm with their magical splendor. At one point the River Styx rolls its sad waters beneath dark vaults, the windings of which are indented by a thousand rocks. In its dismal depths gropes a kind of fish the Cyprinodon which is blind, as it should be, since of what service are eyes where absolute darkness reigns ? 2. ^Reptiles. In Sub-carboniferous rocks at Potts- ville, Pa., the footprints of a reptile, having a stride of thirteen inches, have been found. Later in the age, there appear many advance scouts, as it were, of the reptilian hosts of the succeeding age. CARBONIFEROUS PERIOD, ^Location. The great coal-beds of the country lie in six detached areas as seen in the Frontispiece. They are styled respectively the Rhode Island, Appalachian, Michi- gan, Illinois, Missouri, and Texas coal-fields. The Rhode Island is the smallest, and comprises an area of only 1,000 square miles ; the Missouri is the largest, and covers 100,000 square miles. J&nds of ffiock. The Carboniferous Period was inaugurated by the formation of a great ' conglomerate sandstone known as the Millstone Grit. As it often con- tains thin seams of coal, it is frequently termed the False Coal Measures. During this era of convulsion, the fishes and ferns of the Devonian Age were buried deep beneath vast accumulations of lifeless sand and gravel. This was interrupted, however, by frequent times of quiet, when, THE CARBONIFEROUS PERIOD. 155 for a brief interval, the land was partially clothed with vegetation. The coal-measures proper present stratified rocks of every kind sandstone, shales, limestone, etc. They can be distinguished from Silurian or Devonian strata only by the fossils. There is generally about one foot of coal to fifty feet of rock. The thickness of the coal-bed is at some places only that of paper, and at others from thirty to forty feet. The "mammoth vein " exposed to view at Wilkesbarre, and worked at Carbon- dale, Mauch Chunk, Shamokin, etc., is 29J feet thick.* The Pittsburg seam is 8 feet thick, and may be traced for a long distance as a conspicuous black band along the high banks of the Monongahela. The miners estimate that a coal-bed gives 1,000,000 tons to the square mile for every foot of thickness. Iron ore is also abundant. Iron pyrites (sulphuret of iron) is distributed either in nodules, often of many pounds weight, or in thin seams, so as to greatly injure the coal. The best quality of coal contains a trace of this impurity, which gives the disagree- able odor of coal-gas. Fossils \ I. PLANTS are the characteristic fossils of this period. Everywhere the shales bear impress of the deli- * " The amount of vegetable matter in a single coal-seam six inches thick is greater than the most luxuriant vegetation of the present day would furnish in 1,200 years. Boussingault calculates that luxuriant vegetation at the present day takes from the atmosphere about half a ton of carbon per acre annually, or fifty tons per acre in a century. Fifty tons of stone-coal, spread evenly over an acre of surface, would make a layer of less than one-third of an inch. But sup- pose it to be half an inch, then the time required for the accumulation of a seam of coal three feet thick the thinnest which can be worked to advantage would be 7,200 years. If the aggregate thickness of all the seams of coal in any basin amounts to sixty feet, the time required for its accumulation would be 144,000 years. In the coal measures of Nova Scotia are seventy-six Reams of coal, of which one is twenty -two feet thick, and another thirty-seven." WincheWs Geo- logical Sketches. 156 THE C A R B XIFE R US A G E. cate tracery of ferns, leaves, stems, depicted with the sharpest outlines.* Trunks of trees, erect or prostrate, appear with their roots yet imbedded in the layer of clay, the very soil in which they grew, underneath the coal. These fossils reveal to us most perfectly the vegetation of the Period. It is the fulfillment of that which scantily appeared in the Devonian Age. It was almost entirely a flowerless growth. The leading forms were tree-ferns, rushes, and club-mosses, which grew to a size unknown in our climate. If we should collect the cryptogams (flowerless plants) of North America to form a forest, it would hardly overtop a man's head, and the ferns would have an undergrowth of toad-stools, mosses, and lichens (Dana). 1. The Ferns. Ferns which to-day creep at our feet, then towered into stately trees, with trunks a foot and a half in diameter. They are abundant fossils, and doubt- less contributed most to the formation of coal. 2. The Calainites w r ere jointed, rush-like plants. Un- like the " horse-tail" or "scouring rushes" of the pres- ent, which are rarely two feet long, their Carboniferous prototypes shot up like a gigantic asparagus, with a woody fiber, to a height of a score or more of feet. The impressions of their huge prostrate stems are frequent. * " The most elaborate imitations of living foliage upon the painted ceilings of Italian palaces, bear no comparison with the beauteous profusion with which *,he galleries of these instructive coal mines are overhung. The roof is covered as with a canopy of gorgeous tapestry, enriched with festoons of most graceful foliage, flung in wild irregular profusion over every portion of its surface. The effect is heightened by the contrast of the coal-black color of these vegetables with the light ground- work of the rock to which they are attached. The spec- tator feels himself transported, as if by enchantment, into the forests of another world ; he beholds trees of forms and characters now xiuknown upon the sur- face of the earth, presented to his senses almost in the beauty and vigor of their primeval life. 1 ' Dr. Buckland. T II E C A R B O XIFE R US PERIOD. 151 3. The Sigillaria (seal -marked) is curiously orna' merited: with vertical ribs, along each of which is a row of seal-like impressions. These are the scars left where the leaves fell off. They wind in a spiral around the trunk. The roots (stigmaricB) are also dotted with scars. They arc generally found separate, though sometimes combined with the parent tree. The sigillarian tree- trunks frequently occur standing in coal mines. The miners sometimes cut them off below, when their taper- ing form permits the whole mass to descend upon the workmen beneath. These "coal-pipes," as they are styled, are therefore much dreaded. 4. The Lepidodcndra (scaly-steins) the club-rnosscs of that time were lofty trees, sixty feet high, with pitted trunks and branches. The scars arc arranged diagonally or in a quincunx order. 5. Conifers, or cone-bearing trees, were not infrequent, with their boughs laden with fruit. Such was the vege- tation which flourished in the Carboniferous Age, and which we now use to warm and light our houses and to drive our engines. II. ANIMALS. In a coal mine near the Bay of Fundy, in the stumps of two sigillariae, there have been found the remains of several small reptiles bearing frog-like and lizard-like forms, a centipede, and the shell of a land snail. These little creatures had probably crept into these hollow trees for shelter, and were overtaken by the convulsions which overwhelmed them. Several larger fossil reptiles have since been identified. Two or three species of insects, with broad gauze wings, like the dragon-fly, have also been discovered. Remains of fishes, FIG. 70. CARBONIFEROUS FOSSILS. I. Calamites cistii. 2. Archimedes Worthu. 3. Asterophyllites equisetiformis. 4. Actinocrinus chrvstii. 5. Sijjillaria attenuata. 6. Pentremites Godoni. 7. Pentremites pyriformis. 8. Pentremites Koninckana. (4, 6, 7 and 8 are varieties of Crinoid?O . ; G)I ,-3 rz vyit^k^^t: i I THE CARBONIFEROUS PERIOD. 161 brachiopods, crinoids and corals are abundant. (See Pig. 70.) SCENIC DESCRIPTIOIT.-In Fig. 71 is an at- tempt to reproduce the characteristic features of a car- boniferous landscape. On the right are two naked trunks of a lepidodendron and sigillaria (whose foliage is entirely unknown); between them is a tall tree-fern with its um- brella-like top. At the foot of these great trees are smaller ferns, and, in front, a stigmaria, whose curiously dotted and branching roots reach out into the water. On the extreme left is an asterophyllite, like the calamitc, with its gigantic bamboo-like trunk. Next is a conifer, with a few pine-like branches. In front is a sigillaria, and at its foot, prostrate, a sigillaria and a lepidoden- dron mingled with ferns and vegetable debris. In the centre is a clump of smaller lepidodendra. The back- ground is filled with tall calamites. In the foreground are the asparagus-like buds of young calamites just rising out of the water. At the right several tiny stems of asterophyllites show their pretty, finely-cut branches. In the water float two fishes, and the archegosaurus shows its long-pointed head. What a strange scene is presented as we stem the muddy current of the sluggish rivers, or thread the mazes of those tropical jungles. It is as if the plants of a wet meadow had shot up into forest trees. The trunks, not gnarled and rough as in modern times, spring up like the sculptured shafts of a medieval temple, graceful in proportion arid rich in ornament. Each col- umn is embossed with its varied fluting spirals and ovals of curiously intricate patterns. T]ie tall ferns at every 162 THE CARBONIFEROUS AGE. breath of wind wave their feathery crowns like beautiful plumes. The scent of the morning air is hot and damp as that of a greenhouse. The sky, ever somber and veiled, shuts down heavy with oppressive clouds. A wan and dubious light scarcely makes visible the tangled stems of lepidodendra and sigillarise, and sheds a vague and shadowy hue of horror over the scene. The flowers, few and inconspicuous, fail to enliven the somber tints with a gayer color. No song of bird, and rarely the hum of insect is heard; and, save when the alligator- like bellowings of the archegosaurus wake the echoes of this dismal .forest, the awful silence is supreme. THE PERMIAN PERIOD. ZrOcation. This formation is named from the an- cient kingdom of Permia, in Russia, where it was first recognized. It is wanting in the older States, but is well developed in Kansas, and has been recognized in Nebraska and Texas. Jinds of ffiocfc. Limestones predominate, though sandstone, shales, etc., are found. At Manhattan, Kan., a limestone is quarried from this series for architectural purposes, which is so soft that it may be sawed with a hand-saw and planed with a jack-plane, and yet is very durable. It is the cheapest material of which the pioneer can construct his house cheaper even than it would be to resort to the forest, if such existed, for logs (Foster). Hayden notices the occurrence of a similar limestone, and. belonging to the same age, in Nebraska. The best building material in England is the Permian lime- THE PERMIAN PERIOD. 163 stone of which the new houses of Parliament are con- structed. Fossils. The Permian system is more a new rock- formation than a new life-period. Many of its forms are identical with those of the Carboniferous Period. The air has been cleared by the action of the abundant vege- tation, and the empire of animal life trembles between the fishes and reptiles. The former are decreasing, while the latter are increasing in size and number. The first definite reptiles are seen, while the old armor-clad fishes disappear. The coal flora has not entirely died, though the coal-making epoch is passed ; the low swampy lands seem to have been raised so as to be unfavorable to its growth, and no new vegetation fills the place. It is near- ing the close of the great Paleozoic Time. Older forms are dying, and the Creator develops no fresh world- thoughts to mark the dawn of a new era. The coal is stored in the earth, and the continent now moves for- ward in its preparation for the advent of man, for whom it has been so wonderfully contrived. . / dppatactiian Devolution. -The close of the Palaeozoic Age was marked by terrific con- vulsions. Neither animal nor plant survived the catas- trophe. The tremendous pressure of the two oceans during the Carboniferous Age, had kept the newly- formed continent continually vibrating to and fro; but at last the tension was too great, and the crust was up- heaved in gigantic folds thousands of feet high, extending from Vermont to Alabama. The Appalachians, being nearest the Atlantic force, were thrown up far higher 164 THE CA K B NIFER O US AGE. than they are at present, often toppling over from their dizzy heights, while more gentle elevations were made toward the central portion of the continent. Since then many of these folds have been denuded. A striking illustration, occurring near Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, has already been alluded to on page 82. At that point, along a fracture of twenty miles in extent, rocks of the Upper Silurian lie opposite those of the' Lower. A man can stand astride the crevice with one foot on Trenton, limestone and the other 011 Hamilton slates, and, in addi- tion, put his hand on some great fragments of Oneida conglomerate, caught as they were falling down the chasm, and held in its earthquake jaws. All the strata between these two extremes, at the time of the Appala- chian Kevolution, must have formed an immense wall 20,000 feet high and twenty miles in length. Metamorphic Action. This fearful earth-storm sweeping over the continent not only twisted and dislo- cated the horizontal coal-beds, but lifted them above their former level. An evolution of the internal heat accompanied the convulsion, and thus the bituminous coal was metamorphosed into anthracite. This effect, like that seen in the rock strata, was most felt near the Atlantic coast; hence we find anthracite coal in the Ap- palachian Mountains, next semi-bituminous, and in the western area bituminous coal alone. The same meta- morphic force, where greatest, as in the eastern States, > produced granite, gneiss, and other crystalline rocks. Nine-tenths of the rocks on the surface of the globe" were made prior to this period. Many of these beds during this revolution were crystallized, and also stored with THE PERMIAN PERIOD. U'>~) mines of gold, tin, copper, lead, etc., thus fitting them for the purposes of art and commerce. 2. 'Progress of Z,ife. We have beheld seas vast watery deserts become densely populated. We have traced the Creative thought slowly advancing among the ruins of ages. A vast progress has been made in the life of the world. The four types of structure have all been introduced, and all, except the vertebrate, devel- oped to their highest orders. The lower forms have, one by one, given place to the higher. We now pass over a chasm to where the distinctions stand out in bold relief. We take leave of the trilobites, graptolites, orthoceratites, eurypteri and corals of the Silurian seas, of the mail- encased fishes of the Old Eed Sandstone, of the sigil- larias, stigmariae, and lepidodendra of the Carboniferous jungles, and go forward to meet higher forms of life more nearly resembling those of the present age. The Palaeozoic types fade away in the world's progress to its brighter future. " As the stars sink, one by one, in the west, and new stars rise in the east, to be succeeded by the dawn and then the day, so through the night of the past sank the old life-forms, to be succeeded by the new, approaching nearer to the dawn of the day in whose morning we live." (Denton.) 166 THE AGE OF REPTILES. IHE if-Esozoie fiME. The Mesozoic or Middle-life of Geologic History com- prises but one age, that of reptiles. [ i. Triassic Period. THE AGE OF REPTILES. ' 2. Jurassic Period. ( 3. Cretaceous Period. General Characteristics. A new cycle now be- gins. The four grand old types of life remain, but they are presented under new and more familiar features. The four orders of vertebrates are at last complete. The air is purified for land animals. A flora arises capable of supporting a more abundant fauna. Birds, mam- mals, common or bony fishes, palms and flowering plants appear. The plants of the Palaeozoic were mainly endo- gens (in-growers), i. e., plants which grow by increasing .within, like the corn, cane, etc. To these are now added cxogens (out-growers), i. e., plants which grow by external layers of annual increase, like the beech, oak, etc. The endogens have leaves with parallel veins, and the parts of the flowers arranged by threes; the exogens have leaves with net-veins, and the parts of the flowers commonly arranged by Jives. The former expand, and make their development mainly in the sculptured stem ; the latter, in the beauty of fruit and flower. The Palaeo- zoic corals had rays or arms arranged in fours; the later corals, in ^sixes. The Palaeozoic chambered shells had plain and simple divisions ; the later shells have intricately- TRIASSIC AND JURASSIC PERIODS.^ 107 folded ones. The Palaeozoic fishes had tails unequally lobed ; since then, the equally-lobed or undivided tail has been the usual form. Aside from these general features, the distinguishing characteristic of the Mesozoic Time is the extraordinary development of reptiles. These ani- mals astonish us by their vast number, gigantic size, and unwonted appearance. Through those antique forests enormous lizards, forty to fifty feet in length, dragged their ponderous bodies, the modern representatives of which are inoffensive little creatures a few inches long, that seek only to hide from our view in the grass. Geograpfiy '. The continent has grown by the addition of the Carboniferous area. The Appalachian region has been uplifted above the sea. The scene of rock-making is pushed to the borders of the Atlantic and the Gulf, and to the slopes of the Eocky Mountains. The accompanying map is an attempt to show some of the outlines of the Mesozoic continent. New England was a peninsula. The beautiful valley of the Connecticut was an arm of the ocean, with broad, flat, muddy shores. The Gulf States were out at sea. The Gulf of Mexico swept along the eastern flank of the Eocky Mountains to the Arctic Ocean, while the Pacific Ocean laved the west- ern flank of the Sierra Nevada. New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, North and South Carolina, were as yet only half made. (See Fig. 72.) TRIASSIC AND JURASSIC PERIODS, These groups are not fully separated in America. The Triassic (triple) takes it name from the fact that, in Ger- 168 THE A G E O F R E P TIL E S. many it is composed of three distinct groups.* It is sometimes termed the New Red Sandstone, to distinguish it from the Old Eed Sandstone of the Devonian. The Jurassic is so called because it is extensively developed in the Jura Mountains, Switzerland. The foreign divisions are the Lias, Oolite, and Wealden. FIG. 72. The Mesozoic Continent. jocation. ln the United States the rocks of this period are found along the Connecticut Valley from * The Hunter Sandstein or colored sandstone, the Muschelkalk or mussel chalk, and the Keuper, a miner's term, meaning a group of red and green marls and shells. TRIASSIC AND JURASSIC PERIODS. 169 Long Island Sound to the northern boundary of Massa- chusetts ; thence they may be traced from the Palisades on the Hudson, in long, narrow, scattered strips through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina. (See Frontispiece.) They probably occupy the synclinal valleys running north and south, left between the great folds of the Appalachian Eevolution. During that time they were under the water, and formed deep inland bays, receiving the washings from adjacent hills to work into rock formations. The beds are from 3,000 to 6,000 feet thick; hence these valleys must have constantly set- tled and as steadily filled with the accumulating sedi- ment. The great Pacific Triassic belt extends from Mexico to British Columbia, through a width of per- haps four degrees of longitude (Whitney). The rocks are also found extensively in Colorado and Nevada. ICinds of ffiocfc. The rocks of the Connecticut valley are principally sandstones, which are extensively quarried for the " brown-stone fronts " of New York city. The popular " free-stone " of Portland, Conn., and New- ark, N. J., is a Triassic rock. Near Richmond, Va., and Deep River, N. C., are valuable coal beds in the rocks of this era. At the west this formation consists of beds of brick-red marl and sandstone. The celebrated Solen- hofen limestone, so much used in lithography, is of the Jurassic Period. Fossils. The organic remains are of the most varied and wonderful description. They reveal very clearly the plant and animal life of these periods. I. PLANTS. The vegetation included numerous varie- 8 170 THE AGE OF REPTILES. ties of ferns, conifers, and calamites, which formed graceful forests, as in the Carboniferous Period; but ^there were no jungles of lepidodendra or sigillariae. In- stead of these, the Cycad appeared. This had a short trunk, and at the top a tuft of branching leaves (Fig. 82, left of the center). In shape, the leaves resembled those of the palm, but did not split lengthwise, while they unrolled from a coil, like those of the fern. The struc- ture of the wood and fruit was like that of the conifers. The cycad, combining thus characteristics of three orders of plants conifers, ferns, and palms is another illus- tration of what we have termed a comprehensive type. II. AKIMALS. Birds and mammals make their first appearance, completing the last and highest order of animals. Spiders, beetles and other insects have been discovered, and even their tracks in the soft mud have been preserved. Fish remains are plentiful, as at Sun- FIG. 73. FIG. 74- Ostrea marshii. Middle O51ite. Trails of Insects and Prints of Rain-drops. derland, Mass. Fig. 73 represents an Oolitic oyster, the progenitor of our modern bivalve. Marine life seems TRIASS1C AND JURASSIC PERIODS. 171 wanting in this country, but the European rocks contain a prolific record of the Mesozoic seas. Crinoids were abundant ; one of these, the Lily Encrinite, is especially beautiful (Fig. 75). The cephalopods reached their cul- mination in the ammonite and belemnite. FIG. 75. Encrinite (krine, a lily) raoniliformis (from the necklace shape of the stalk). The Ammonite is the fully coiled and perfected or- thoceratite of the Silurian seas. It derives its name from its resemblance to the horn which decorated the front of the temple of Jupiter Ammon and the bas-reliefs and statues of that pagan deity. It is found of all sizes, from that of a pin's-head to a cart-wheel. The shell is thin, but strengthened by many sinuous partitions (septa), which add to its beauty and strength.* This curious internal archwork, by its joinings with the external shell, * The economy of the Ammonite designed it to live mainly at the bottom of deep waters, but to be able to rise at pleasure to the surface. For this purpose the outer chamber (0 o) (Fig. 76) of the wreathed shell was fitted for the reception of the animal, while the interior chambers (i i) were hollow, so as to make the whole structure nearly of the same weight as the element in which it moved. Through all of these chambers an elastic tube passed by means of a pipe or siphuncle ( s), the tube being in connection with the cavity of the heart, which, under ordinary circumstances, was filled with a dense fluid. When alarmed, or wishing to descend, the animal withdrew itself within the outer chamber, and the pressure upon the cavity of the heart forced the fluid into the siphuncle, so as to increase the gravity of the shell, by which means it readily sunk to the bottom. On the other hand, when wishing to ascend, it had only to project its arms, and the fluid, being freed from the pressure, returned from the siphuncle to the cavity of the heart, thus restoring the whole structure to its ordinary floating gravity. As the pressure of water at the sea-bottom would break any ordinary shell, we perceive that the septa were essential to the preservation of the little animal, enabling it to resist a weight which would otherwise crush it. '17* THE AGE OF REPTILES. adorns it with graceful figures resembling the most deli- cate foliage or embroidery. The chambers are often found lined with quartz crystals, making tiny geodes of FIGS. 76-7. i. Ammonites obtusus ; 2. Section of Ammonites obtusus, showing the interior cham- bers and siphuncle ; 3. Ammonites nodosus. exquisite beauty, while the edges of the partitions, being converted into iron pyrites, form a kind of golden tra- cery, glittering in the midst of the pellucid spar. The only surviving member of this family is the modern nautilus (naus, a ship), the "fairy sailor" of the Indian seas. The Belemnite (lelemnon, a dart) is so called from the peculiar shape of the fossil (Fig. 78). They have also FIG.. 78. - Belemnitella mucronata, Cretaceous Period, N. J. been vulgarly called " thunder-heads," " lady-fingers," etc. The relics do not give any idea of the animal to which the name was applied. They were merely the terminal bones of the body and were surrounded with flesh. The TRIASSIC AND JURASSIC PERIODS. 173 FIG. 79. animal resembled the modern cuttle-fish.* It secreted a kind of ink which it used as a means of defence. In an emergency, it blackened the water in its vicinity, and escaped from sight. These ink-bags have been found so perfectly preserved that their contents have been used in sketching their fossil remains. The enormous reptiles are, how- ever, the distinguishing fossils of the age. We shall notice only the more prominent ones. 1. The IcJithyosaur (fish-lizard) is a striking illustration of a compre- hensive type, having the general con- tour of a dolphin, the snout of a porpoise, the head of a lizard, the jaws and teeth of a crocodile, the vertebras of a fish, the sternal arch of the water-mole, f the paddles of a whale, and the trunk and tail of a quadruped. Its habits were doubt- less aquatic, while, like the whale, ,., , , Belemnite restored ; a, the it breathed atmospheric air, and was ink-bag in place. * All are familiar with " cuttle-fish bones," so commonly used as food for canary hirds. The substance, it is well to observe, is not a "bone," nor de- rived from a true " fish." It is simply the rudimentary shell of a mollusk. The cuttle-fish of our own shores is a harmless animal, only tensor twelve inches long, but the one frequenting the African seas attains a formidable size. This is the "devil-fish," so graphically described by Victor Hugo. Its staring, glassy eyes strike terror to beholders. It has eight huge, muscular arms, many times the length of its body, with which it holds its prey in a grasp so tenacious that the arms have been severed before they would yield. t The ornithorhynchus or water-mole of New Holland is a mammalian-furred quadruped with webbed feet and the bill of a duck. In this animal the Creator peems to have repeated the curioii* contrivance originally provided for the Ichthyosaur. 174 THE AGE OF REPTILES. thus compelled to come frequently to the surface of the water. Its neck was short and thick, its' head large, and its body twenty or thirty feet long. Its jaws had an enormous opening, some having been found with 160 teeth, which could be renewed many times, as above each -tooth was always the bony germ of a new one. The eyes were often two feet in diam- eter. Surrounding the pupil of each one was a circu^ lar series of thin bony plates. This apparatus, which still exists in the eyes of turtles and lizards, could be used to increase or diminish the curvature of the cornea, and adapt the magnifying power to the wants of the animal. The eye could thus be used as a telescope or a microscope to see its prey far and near, and to descry it in the darkness and depths of the sea. The fossil ex- crements of the Ichthyosaur are styled coprolites, and when polished are sold as jewelry.* They reveal dis- tinctly the food and the internal organism of this Meso- zoic saurian. In them have been found the scales and bones of smaller animals of their own species. The quar- ries of Lyme Regis, in Dorsetshire, England, abound in the remains of the Ichthyosaur.f * Under the name of "beetle stones" coprolites have been also used for artistic purposes. Dr. Buckland, the celebrated English geologist, had a table in Iris drawing-room that was made entirely of these fossils, and was often much admired by persons who had not the least idea of what they were looking at. " I b,ave seen," says his son, " in actual use, ear-rings made of the polished portions .of coprolites (for they are as hard as marble) ; and while admiring the beauty of the wearer, have made out distinctly the scales and bones of the flsh which once formed the dinner of a hideous reptile, but now hung pendulous from the ears of an unconscious belle, who had evidently never read or heard of such productions." Bucklantfs Curiosities of Natural History, t In 1811, Mary Anning, a poor country girl, who made her precarious living by picking up fossils, for which the neighborhood was famous, was pursuing her avocation, hammer in hand, when she perceived some bones projecting a little out of the cliff. Finding, ou examination, that it wae part of a large skele- TRIASSIC AND JURASSIC PERIODS. 177 2. The Plesiosaur had the head of a lizard, the teeth of a crocodile, the neck of a swan, the trunk and tail of a quadruped, the ribs of a chameleon,* and the paddles of FIG. 81. A Coprolite. ton, she cleared away the rubbish, and found the whole creature imbedded in the block of stone. She hired workmen to dig out the block of lias in which it was buried. In this manner was the first of these monsters brought to light ; a monster some thirty feet long, with jaws nearly a fathom in length, and huge saucer .eyes which have since been found so perfect that the petrified lenses have been split off and used as magnifiers. Hugh Miller gives the following graphic description of the lias of Scotland : "It consists of laminae as thin as sheets of pasteboard, which, of course, shows that there was but little deposited at a time, and pauses between each deposit. Yet never did characters or figures lie closer on a printed page than the organ- isms on the surfaces of these leaf-like laminae. We insinuate our lever into a fissure, and turn up a portion of one of the laminae, whose surface had last seen the light when existing as part of the bottom of the old Liassic sea, when more than half of the formation had still to be deposited. The ground of the tablet it' of a deep black, while the colors of the fossils stand out in various shades, from, opaque to a silvery white or deep gray. There, for instance, is a group of large ammonites, as if drawn in white chalk ; there, a cluster of minute bivalve shells, each of which bears its thin film of silvery nacre. We turn over another page. Here are ammonites of various sizes, but all of one species, as if a whole argosy had been wrecked at once and sent to the bottom. And here we open yet another page, which bears a set of extremely slender belemnites. They lie along and athwart, and in every possible angle, like a heap of boarding-pikes thrown carelessly down a vessel's deck on the surrender of her crew. Here, too, is an assemblage of bright, black plates, that shine like pieces of Japan work, the head-plates of some fish of the ganoid order ; and here an immense accumu- lation of minute, glittering scales of a circular form. And so, leaf after leaf, for tens and hundreds of feet together, repeats the same strange story. The great Alexandrian Library, with its unsummed tomes of ancient literature, the accu- mulation of long ages, was but a poor and meager collection, scarce less puny in bulk than recent in date, when compared with this vast and wondrous library of the lias of Scotland." * Each pair of ribs surrounded the body with a complete girdle formed of five piece?, thus affording great facility for the expansion and dilation of the lungs. 178 THE AGE OF REPTILES. a whale. Its tail was shorter than that of the ichthy* osaur, being only sufficient to act as a rudder in guiding the body. To compensate this loss and assist in propul- sion, its paddles were much larger and more powerful. Its appearance presented a striking contrast to that of its more ponderous foe, the ichthyosaur, whose attacks it could escape by sinking to the bottom, while its long neck reached to the surface of the w r ater and maintained respiration. 3. The Pterodactyle (wing-fingered), in its apparent monstrosity* surpassed even the two reptiles just men- tioned. It was so named because the bone of one finger was greatly expanded in order to support an extended membrane for flying (Fig. 82). It was a true aerial reptile. Its wings resembled those of bats. Its bones were hollow, like those of birds, but it bore no feathers, and had a mouth full of teeth. Remains have been found indicating a spread of wing of not less than sixteen feet ; but the usual species of the Liassic did not exceed ten inches in length. Its ordinary position was upon its hind feet, walking uprightly with folded wings, or perched on trees> or climbing along cliffs with its hooked * The fins of the fishes of the Devonian seas became the paddles of the ichthy- osaur and of the plesiosaur ; these, in their turn, became the membranous foot of the pterodactyle, and, finally, the wing of the bird. Afterwards came the articulated fore-foot of the terrestrial mammalia, which, after attaining remark- able perfection in the hand of the ape, became, finally, the arm and hand of man, an instrument of wonderful delicacy and power, belonging to an enlightened being gifted with the divine attribute of reason ! A careful examination of the fore paddles of the plesiosaur reveals all the essential parts of the human arm the scapula, humerus, radius and ulna, the bones of the carpus, the metacarpus and the phalanges. Was not this a prophecy of man ? " Let us, then, dismiss this idea of monstrosity, which can only mislead us, and not consider antedilu- vian beings as mistakes or freaks of nature. Let us not regard them with dis- gust ; let us learn, on the contrary, to behold in them with admiration the divine proofs of design which they display, and, in their organization, to see the hand! work of the sublime Creator of all things." . ( > TRIASSIC AND JURASSIC PERIODS. 181 claws and feet. The smaller ones lived on insects, but the larger probably pounced on struggling reptiles, or, diving into the water, preyed on fish. More than twenty species of the pterodactyle have been discovered in the old world, but in the new there have been found only a pair of finger-bones, at Phosnixville, Pa. Poets have long pictured to us a flying dragon of the olden time, which played a conspicuous part in pagan mythology. It breathed fire, poisoned the air with its exhalations, and disputed with man the possession of the earth. In the Jurassic times we find the realization of this creature of poetic fancy, but it is only an uncouth reptile, utterly unworthy of those fabled conflicts in which gods and heroes shared. 4. The Dinosaurs (terrible lizards) were land reptiles of enormous size that roamed elephant-like over the river-plains, or browsed in the forests of the Oolitic and Wealdcn Epochs. These included the megalosatir (large lizard), hylteosaur (wood-lizard), iguanodon, etc. (Fig. 83), huge monsters from forty to seventy feet in length. The megalosaur* was carnivorous, having teeth curved backward like a pruning-knife, and with a double edge of enamel so as to cut like a sabre equally on each side. The iguanodon f (ig-wan-o-don) was herbivorous, twigs of cypress having been found fossil in its stomach, and its teeth often being half-worn to the roots. * A thigh-bone has been found four and a half feet long, indicating a leg eight or nine feet in length, and an animal taller than a man on horseback. t A party of twenty-one scientific men, at tho invitation of Dr. Hawkins, once took dinner within the restored body of this animal. On that occasion Dr. Owen, the celebrated geologist, sat in the head for brains ! This model contains 659 bushels of artificial stone, 100 feet of iron hooping, 600 bricks, 20 feet of inch bar iron, 900 plain tiles, and 650 two-inch, half-round drain tiles; while the legs are four iron columns, nine feet long and four inches in diam- eter. (" Penny Guide to the Crystal Palace at Sydcnham.") 182 THE AGE OP REPTILES. The Megalosaur and Hylseosaur. Restored by Hawkins. There is a restoration of a megalosaur in the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, England. .This model was con- structed under the direction of B. Waterhouse Hawkins. On the back of the animal is a hump like the withers of a horse. (See p. 269.) From the few bones discov- ered at that time, this celebrated anatomist decided that., to make the huge head effective, a mass of muscle and bone on the fore shoulders was .essential. This bunch was thought by other geologists to be a mere monstrosity of his own invention. Subsequently, the entire skeleton being found, the conclusion was proved to be correct. 5. TJie Labyrinthodon was a frog-like quadruped, often attaining the size of an ox. It is so named because the outer coating of its teeth was bent inward in intricate mazy folds. Its head was protected by a helmet, and its body by a scaly armor. The Rampliorhyncus, the remains of which have been found in the quarries of Solenhofen, is a curious intermediate link between birds and reptiles. Its tail. TRIASSIC AND JURASSIC PERIODS. 183 a singular appendage shown in the figure, was long, reptile-like, and dragged upon tha ground, while its foot- Labyrinthodon of the Trias restored, with its foot-prints prints were bird-like. No wonder that palaeontologists hesitate whether to class it with birds or with reptiles. FIG. 85. The Ramphorhyncus, with OOHtic Vegetation 184 THE AGE OF REPTILES. Bird-tracks. In the red sandstones of the Connecticut valley, numerous foot-prints have been found, described FIG. 86. Imprints of Feet. Turner's Falls, Massachusetts. TRIASSIC AND JURASSIC PERIODS. 185 by Hitchcock as jnainly the tracks of birds. The number of these foot-prints is wonderful. Tracks of many different sizes and species often traverse the same slab. The largest tracks are fifteen inches long, and so deep as to hold nearly two quarts of water. .They were made by an animal walking erect and having a stride of three feet. Hitchcock estimates that it far ex- ceeded the ostrich in size, being at least twelve feet high, and weighing from 400 to 800 pounds. From the fact that parallel rows of tracks are found, we infer that these strange bipeds frequented in flocks the shores of the Con- necticut, and waded into its shallow waters in quest of the fish and mollusks of the Mesozoic types, now long extinct.* Geologists are divided in opinion as to whether any of these tracks were made by birds, and not rather by three-toed reptiles somewhat similar to the ramphor- hyncus. (Fig. 85.) . /. Climate. The Gulf Stream, sweep- ing northward through the center of the continent, combined with the other causes already named to ameliorate the climate so as to permit a sub-tropical growth as far north as latitude 60. Corals and ammo- nites, now restricted to torrid seas, then flourished in the * "It is a solemn and impressive thought that the footprints oi these dumb and senseless creatures have been preserved in all their perfection for thousands of ages, while so many of the works cf man which date but a century back have been obliterated from the records of time. Kings and conquerors have marched at the head of armies across continents, and piled up aggregates of human suf- fering and experience to the heavens, and all the physical traces of their march have totally disappeared ; but the solitary biped which stalked along the mar- gins of a New England inlet before the human race was born, pressed footprints in the soft and shifting sand which tho rising and sinking of the continent could not wipe out." Winchell. 186 THE AGE OF REPTILES. valley of the Upper Mississippi, while .the prairies of Ohio and Illinois were green with perennial palms and pines. 2. Salt 3?eds . The most extensive salt deposits in Europe are of the Triassic Period, and it has hence been sometimes styled the Saliferous formation. In Cheshire, England, are two beds of rock salt, each nearly 100 feet thick. At Cordova, Spain, is a mountain of salt several hundred feet high. This salt rock is pure as glass, and is carved into images, cups, etc., for sale to travelers. At the base is a brook, which in rainy seasons swells into a river, and carries down so much salt as to destroy the fish.* The mines of Cracow, Poland, have been worked at a depth of over 1,000 feet in galleries whose total length is 270 miles. At one point is a village with streets and houses, and even a chapel with altar, pulpit, statues, etc., all hewn out of the solid rock. The deposits in the salt beds indicate that .the same conditions existed in portions of Europe during the Triassic as in New York during the Salina Period. 3. T/ie Gold-bearing flocks of California are mainly Jurassic or Triassic metamorphic sandstones, with interstratified quartz containing gold. Where the quartz veins have come to the surface and weathered, the particles of gold have been washed out, and thus formed the auriferous sands. There are frequent dikes of trap and outcrops of granite. On the crests of the Sierra Nevada these masses of granite often assume a dome * This mountain presents a wondrous beauty to the looker-on at sunrise. Aside from its graceful -and majestic form, it seems to rise above the river like a mountain of precious gems, displaying the brilliant colors of the rainbow. THE CRETACEOUS PERIOD. 187 shape, and reach a height of 15,000 feet above 'the sea- level. . ^Disturbances '. Long-continued upheavals and perhaps even terrific convulsions attended the close of this era, whereby such stupendous mountain ranges as the Sierra Nevada, Sierra Madre, etc., were lifted above the interior sea. The trap rocks of Mts. Holyoke and Torn, East and West Eocks near New Haven, Conn., the Palisades on the Hudson, and Bergen Hill in New Jersey, are all illustrations of the wide extent of the igneous action. Everywhere trap dikes and ridges at- tend this formation. The proofs that the trap was thrown out in a melted state are abundant. The adja- cent sandstone has been baked by the heat, the layers uplifted by the escaping steam, and the fissures often filled with crystallized minerals. C RETACEO US PERIOD. . The Cretaceous rocks occur on the At- lantic coast from New York to South Carolina, along the Gulf through Texas, and northward over the slopes of the Eocky Mountains, at a height of 6,000 feet above the sea, through Colorado to the head- water of the Mis- sissippi river. (See Frontispiece). Kinds of 32oc.ThQ name is derived from the Latin creta, chalk. The famous white chalk cliffs of Dover are of this* formation. On our continent this group contains no chalk. The beds consist of layers of sand of various colors white, green, or red, and are often 188 THE AGE OF REPTILES. FIG. 87. BO loose that they may be rubbed to pieces with the hand or dug with a spade. Beds of " green sand " are abundant in New Jersey. This is composed of small rounded grains, con- sisting mostly of sili- cate of iron and potash: The peculiar shape of these granules is prob- ably due to the fact that they are the casts of microscopic shells. It is termed marl, and is extensively used for fertilizing purposes. In A common Fossil of the Green Sand the Exo- western Texas are beds gyracostata. of cream-colored lime- stone called " Chimney Stone," from its use in building chimneys. When taken from the quarry, it is soft enough to hew with an axe or smooth with a plane. The Cretaceous beds of the west contain many valuable seams of coal, such as the deposits of Mt. Diablo, near San Francisco, of Bellingham Bay, Washington Terri- tory, etc. The quicksilver mines of New Almaden are also referred to this period. Fossils . CHALK. If we examine chalk with a pow- erful microscope, we shall find that it is composed of the remains of numerous zoophites, of various kinds of minute shells, and above all of rhizopods* (foramenif- * The imagination fails to conceive the countless millions of these foramenif- era in all ages. In Nature nothing is small. She seems to have delighted in achieving the grandest results with the feeblest means. The history of this ani- TH E C R E TA C E US PERIOD. 189 era), so tiny that their very smallness seems to have rendered them indestructible. Eighteen hundred of FIG. 88. Chalk of Gravesend (Ehrenberg). these placed in a row would occupy but an inch of space. Schleiden says that the chalk on a visiting card malcule is a striking illustration of this truth. A handful of sand taken up on the sea-shore is often half composed of these microscopic shells. The Paris chalk contains them so abundantly that D'Orbigny found 58,000 in a cubic inch of the rock. Paris itself is built up of these cast-off abodes of the tiny rhizopod. The species vary in different sections and ages. A curious application of this has lately come to notice. Ehrenberg was requested to assist in tracing the robbery of a case of wine. It had been repacked by the criminal in sand differ- ing from that in the original case. Ehrenberg, by a microscopic analysis, deter- mined that the sand was found only on a certain ancient sea-coast in Germany. On this fact being discovered, the locality of the crime was speedily found and the thief arrested. 190 THE AGE OF REPTILES. is a microscopic cabinet of a hundred thousand shells* Throughout the beds of chalk are scattered nodules of flint, which, being broken, reveal at the center shells, corals, etc., the nuclei around which the flint collected out of the chalk before that had consolidated from the pasty mass in which it first formed on the sea-bottom. DEEP SEA DREDGINGS. The soundings made in 1857-8 along the great telegraphic plateau which reaches fromValentia Bay to Newfoundland show that the sea- bottom is covered with a fine calcareous mud. Micro- scopic examination proved this to consist of shells of rhizopods and other species allied to the Cretaceous Period. These fragile and delicate shells were found to be in a perfect state of preservation. Many similar dis- coveries have since been made in different parts of the ocean. Depths of the sea so profound that the highest peaks of the Eocky or the Himalaya Mountains could be engulfed within them are believed to be inhabited by organic forms which have undergone little if any change since the Mesozoic Age. THE AMERICAN FOSSILS are far removed from the microscopic remains of the Old World. While chalk- beds were accumulating on the deep-sea bottom in Eu- rope, the shallow waters on the American shore teemed with as busy and strange a life as swarmed upon the coasts of England, France or Germany during the entire Mesozoic Age. The Cretaceous beds of New Jersey have furnished abundant reptilian remains.* 1. The Cimoliasaur and the Elasmosaur were huge * We are indebted to the untiring and skilful labors of Dr. Cope and Dr. Leidy, of Philadelphia, for the following description of these Cretaceous reptiles. THE CRETACEOUS PERIOD. 191 eea-serpents, twenty-five to forty feet long, with bodies larger than an ox, sharp teeth, and flippers like a whale, the latter having a flattened tail, which it used like an oar for sculling. j found six inches in length. The bones of a species of whale the Zeuglodon (yoke-tooth), so called from the shape of its teeth, occur in great abundance scattered over the cotton lands of the south. In Alabama they have been laid up in Zeuglodon's Tooth. THE TERTIARY PERIOD. walls for fences, or burned for lime. A single vertebra is a load for a man to carry. The animal was about seventy feet long.* QUADRUPEDS, thick-skinned and ruminating mammals, were the great feature of the Tertiary life. European Quadrupeds. Cuvier was the first to bring to light the forms of these long-extinct animals. In the Gypsum quarries, near Paris, bones were dug up in great FIG. 98. ' /&6>ir Scene in Paris Basin. x. The Paleotherium. 2. The Anoplotherium. 3. The Xiphodon. numbers, but they were disregarded, as they were thought to be those of existing species, until the attention of this great naturalist was directed to them. He gathered a large quantity in a room, and commenced the work of assorting and re-creating. "At the voice of comparative anatomy every bone and fragment resumed its place." * The restored skeleton of a Zeuglodon is on exhibition in Wood's Museum, Chicago. It contains 118 vertebrae, and its head is six feet long. Prof. Winchell pronounces it, for the most part, an accurate representation of this alligator-like whale. 204 THE ACE OF MA M M A L S. (Cuvier.) He restored the animals, assigned them to their classes, and investigated their habits. The neighborhood seems to have been a gulf of the sea, into which emptied several rivers. Animals inhabiting the banks of these streams Tere borne down, and de FIG. 99. View of the Bad Lands. " .' posited in the sediment which gathered at the mouth. Among the quadrupeds the most conspicuous was the ' PdleotUerium (ancient wild beast), peaceful flocks of which must have inhabited the plateau which environed the ancient basin of Paris. It resembled the South - American tapir, but was as large as a horse. American Quadrupeds. On this continent similar dis-, v coveries have been made in the Mauvaises Terres, or Bad Lands of Dacotah. This region consists of immense beds of clay cut out by rivers into winding channels, leaving THE TERTI'ARY PERIOD. 205 thousands of irregular columnar masses often one to two hundred feet in height. So thickly is the surface studded with these natural towers, that the traveler must thread his way through deep, confined labyrinthine passages not unlike the narrow, irregular streets and lanes of some quaint old European town.* The soil is barren and arid, It is a literal Golgotha a place of bones. At every step in this charnel-house the explorer treads upon the re- mains of a former age. The clayey walls are built up with broken skeletons. Hundreds of fossil turtles (see Fig. 100) are strewn about, many weighing a ton each. On every side are scattered bones strangely like the familiar forms of to-day, but of unknown species and unwonted combinations. The Titanotherium was one of these wonderful animals. It resembled a hornless rhino- ceros, but was eighteen or twenty feet long, and nine feet high. The Origin of this Region was, probably, as fol- lows : The great Tertiary sea was at first salt, but receiv- * These rocky piles, in their endless succession, assume the appearance of maasive artificial structures decked out with all the accessories of buttress arid turret, arched doorway and clustered shaft, pinnacle and finial and tapering spire. On a nearer approach the illusion vanishes, and all the forms which fancy has conjured are resolved into barren desolation. The bottom of the vale is an earth of chalky whiteness, baked by the sun, and utterly destitute of vegetation. The water which oozes out of the foundation-wall of the prairie is brackish and unpalatable. In winter, the wind and snow rush through the lanes and corri- dors of this city of the dead in eddying whirls, while the withered grasses and the voiceless and motionless solitude, together with the relentless frost and never-tiring storm, make the place the realization of utter bleakness and desola- tion. In summer the scorching sun literally bakes the clays which have been kneaded by the frosts and thaws of spring ; and the daring explorer of the scene finds no tree nor shrub to shelter him from the fervid rays poured down from above, and reflected from the white walls which tower around him, and the whHe floor which almost blisters his feet Sketches of Creation Winchdl. 206 THE AGE OP MAMMALS. ing fresh water from the drainage of the adjacent land, and having an outlet into the ocean, it gradually became a brackish, and at last a fres.h-water sea. As the conti- nent was elevated, this great inland sea was drained in part, and in time probably became broken up into a FIG. ico. Testudo Oweni. chain of fresh-water lakes.* The basin of one of these, now constituting the Bad Lands, is thought by Hayden to have covered an area of 150,000 square miles five times as great as that of Lake Superior. The shores of these lakes during the Tertiary and Post-Tertiary Periods were inhabited by the rhinoceros, elephant, camel, horse, beaver, wild cat, wolf, and many quadrupeds, whose en- tire species are now extinct. In these familiar haunts, * It is not difficult, with the discoveries already made in Colorado, to call up the country as it existed on the eastern side of the mountains about the close of the Miocene Period. A long and wide lake covered the spot where Golden City and Denver now stand, and stretched north and south for an immense distance. Ita banks were clad with forests of pines, palms, and gum-bearing trees. Denton. THE POST-TERTIARY PERIOD. 207 amid a semi-tropical vegetation, they lived and died. Their remains, sinking in the soft mud, reveal to us to-day the forms of Tertiary life. lf PO ST-TERTI A RY PE R I D. (Quaternary Epoch.) ( i. Glacial Epoch. POST-TERTIARY P-ERIOD. \ 2. Champlain Epoch. ( 3. Terrace Epoch. i. G LAC I AL EPO C H. (Drift or Bowlder Period) The continent has been steadily growing through the ages until now it has attained its full dimensions. It would seem to be ready for man. It abounds in coal, timber, water, game, and the domestic animals necessary for man's use. We naturally expect his creation next, and, almost unconsciously, look about for traces of his presence. But God's plan is not yet complete. The next perio.d seems one of retrogression, and a superficial view would lead one almost to despair of the result. We must not, however, be impatient, but wait the slow development of Nature's laws. The earth having passed the ordeal by fire and water, now enters upon that by ice. The long summer is over. For ages a tropical climate has pre- vailed, and on the borders of the Arctic Ocean animals have roamed and plants have flourished which now find a home only beneath the burning sun of the Tropics. Their reign is past. A tedious Arctic winter succeeds. During its rigors life disappears, and half of the conti- nent reverts to its primeval desolation. Let us notice 208 THE AGE OF. MAMMALS. some of the traces of this wonderful change this appar- ent check in the world's progress. . This includes the lopse unstratified* deposits of clay, sand, gravel and stones familiar to all inhabit- ants of the northern States. It does not extend south of latitude 39 f nor west of the Rocky Mountains (Whit- ney and Foster). In some places the Drift material forms only a slight covering over the solid rock, while in others it is piled up in hills and ridges. BOWLDEES. The stones are of all sizes, from small cobble-stones up to great rock-masses. In Whittingham, Vt., is a bowlder whose length is forty feet, and whose estimated weight is 3,400 tons; another in Bradford weighs over, 2,000 tons. Plymouth Eock is a bowlder of syenitic granite, ledges of which are to be seen near Boston. The pedestal of the statue of Peter the Great was hewn from a block of granite weighing 1,500 tons, which was found in a neighboring marsh. Bowlders are sometimes so nicely poised that they can be rocked by the hand, although an immense force would be required to dislodge them. Bowlders are more or less rounded, as if water-worn, and their structure and mineral composition are different from those of the rocks on which they rest. They have evidently been transported to the places they occupy. * When the deposit is arranged in layers, it is termed Modified Drift. Mod- ified Drift at many places forms knolls of a most picturesque description. On account of their beauty, they are oftentimes chosen for burial places. Mt. Hope at Rochester, and Woodlawn at Elmira, N. Y., Mt. Auburn at Cam- bridge, and the cemeteries at Plymouth, Newburyport, and ^forth Adams, Mass., are all delightfully located on sites of this formation. t 39 is about the latitude of Washington, Cincinnati, St. 'LiOais, Kansas City. Pike's Peak, and Sacramento City. THE POST-TERTIARY PERIOD. 20$ The "parent ledges "from which they were derived can generally be found at the north of the locality some- View near Gloucester, Mass. times at a distance of a few rods only, at others of many miles. Long Island and Martha's Vineyard are covered with rocks derived from the main-land. The southern part of Rhode Island is strewn with iron ore from Iron Hill (Cumberland, K, I.). On Hoosic Moun- tain is a bowlder of 500 tons weight, which has been carried from a ledge across an intervening valley 1,300 feet deep, and at the same time elevated 1,000 feet above its source. Masses of native copper from Lake Superior are scattered over Wisconsin, Michigan, and even Ohio and Indiana. The streets of Cincinnati are paved with stones quarried by the hand of Nature in the region of the Upper Lakes (Winchell). Azoic rocks are found on the western prairies, from 400 to 600 miles distant from their homes. Such bowlders are significantly 210 THE AGE OF MAMMALS. termed lost rocks.* A bushel of pebble-stones gathered in any northern State will often represent nearly every geological formation found for hundreds of miles north of that locality. GLACIAL S:rtiL#!. A careful examination of many of these bowlders shows us that -they are covered with paral- lel grooves (strice). These have obviously been caused by the scraping of the bowlders on the solid rock, as if the Drift material had been carried forward by an irresistible force, since the "bed rock" (the rock in place) in the regions covered by the Drift is polished and grooved in a similar manner. These striae consist of long, straight, parallel lines, furrows a foot broad and several inches deep, or scratches fine as a pin would make. The sur- faces of hard rocks, as quartz, -are often polished smooth as glass, while the markings can be seen only with the microscope. The general course is that in which the bowlders have been carried, i. e., from north to south, f * In New England, oftentimes the surface for many miles is covered with these erratic blocks ; on the prairies, however, they are found only occasionally. This may be caused by the different character of the rocks at the east and at the west. While every location shows the intrusion of foreign material, the great mass is made up by the destruction of neighboring rocks. The Silurian and Devonian rocks of the Mississippi valley would naturally produce a soil far different from that of the crystalline and metamorphic rocks of New England. The agent which transported the rocks might have ground the softer class to an impalpable powder, and left the other of a far coarser texture. t "In general, these striae do not alter their course for any topographical feature of the country. They cross valleys at every conceivable angle, and even if the striae run in a valley for some distance, when the valley curves the striae will leave it, and ascend hills and mountains 'even thousands of feet high. But these striae are never found upon the south sides of mountains, unless for a part of the way where the slope is small. Mt. Monadnoc, of New Hampshire, is an illustration of these statements. It is a naked mass of mica schist, 3,250 feet high, rising like a cone out of an undulating country. And from top to bottom it has been scarified on its northern and western sides, indicated by striae run- ning up the mountain, at first south-easterly, and at the top at S. 10* E. There are deep furrows and other phenomena on the summit, and the striae extend a short distepce up the southern slope of the mountain." Hitchcock. THE POST-TERTIARY PERIOD 211 varying generally not more than 20 east or west. There are frequently two or more sets of striae, differing a little in direction. At Stony Point, Lake Erie, the limestone FIG. 102. Bowlder Scratches. lies exposed above the level of the water. The bed is planed down smooth as a floor, and at one place the par- allel grooves strikingly resemble the deep ruts produced by a loaded wagon. On the Platte river there is a ledge of limestone so regularly planed that, without further 212 THE AGE OF MA MM A L S. working, it can be used for caps and sills in houses. At Marquette, on Lake Superior, there are surfaces as uniform as if worked to a level and afterward rubbed with sand-paper. Near the sea-shore at Portland, Maine, the striae run parallel for great distances and then dis- appear in the water. Everywhere in the northern part of the continent, up to a height of five or six thousand feet above the level of the sea, where the bed-rock is laid bare, it is found covered with these Drift-tracings. We can best understand the cause of the Drift phenom- ena by noticing similar cases now exhibited in Alpine regions. GLACIAL PHENOMENA. The snow which falls on the mountains of Switzerland, above the height of 9,000 feet does not melt, but accumulates to a great thickness. By its own weight it generally packs into a solid mass. Thawing superficially by day, tiny streams of water per- colate through, and convert it into the beautiful azure- tinted ice, so much . admired by tourists. Seas of ice (mers de glace) fill the spaces between the summits, while from them, down every valley, pour rivers of ice, glaciers, from 200 to 5,000 feet deep. These ice-streams, le^ by the snows above, extend downward until they are melted by tha summer sun in the valley below. They sometimes plough irresistibly into the cultivated fields, so that a person can, with one hand, touch the growing corn, and with the other the descending ice-wall. The glacier ad- vances down the mountain at the rate of from eight to twelve inches per day. Frost, rain, hail, and avalanches of snow are continually detaching from the mountain- peaks masses of rock, which roll down upon the glacier. If the ice were stationary these would merely gather. in a 'i- v THE POST-TERTIARY PERIOD. 215 confused pile, but owing to the forward movement of the glacier, they form along the outer edge a line of stones which is termed a Moraine. When the rocks fall from opposite mountains and on each side of the glacier, they make two parallel trains which are called Lateral Mo- raines (Fig. 103). At the foot of the glacier the debris gathers in ridges, styled Terminal Moraines.* In this way enormous blocks of stone have been carried many miles. They are often found perched on points of the Alps far above existing glaciers, or dispersed over distant plains. Masses thus conveyed on the surface of the glacier are little worn. Blocks, pebbles, etc., however, which become frozen in the ice, are forced along in the onward progress of the glacier, scoring the rock beneath with parallel lines, and smoothing its surface as emery polishes steel, while they are themselves rounded and scratched in every direction, and even*g1fa|j^d into im- palpable powder. The glacier thus .J^ewftes a gigantic ick, OTfcu rasp hundreds of feet 4hick, OTfcusaniWfcsvid^ and miles in length, scouring the rocks between and*bver which it passes. * "The masses of enow which hang upon the Alps during winter, the rain which infiltrates between their beds during summer, the sudden action of tor- rents of water, and more slowly, but yet more powerfully, the chemical affini- ties, degrade, disintegrate, and decompose the hardest rocks. The debris thus produced. falls from the summits into the circles occupied by the glaciers with a great crash, accompanied by frightful noises and great clouds of dust. Even in the middle of summer I have seen these avalanches of stone precipitated from the highest ridges of the Schreckhorn, fonning upon the immaculate snow a long black train, consisting of enormous blocks and an immense number of smaller fragments. In the spring, a rapid thawing of the winter snows often eauses accidental torrents of extreme violence. If the melting is slow, water insinuates itself into the smallest fissures of the rocks, freezes there, and rends asunder the most refractory masses. The blocks detached from the mountains are sometimes of gigantic dimensions ; we have found them sixty feet in length, and those measuring thirty feet each way are by no means rare in the Deux Monties Martin. 216 THE AGE OF MAMMALS. Uridences of Former Glaciers. Moraines, erratic blocks, polished surfaces, striae, etc., become to the geologist infallible signs of the former existence of glaciers,* and enable him to follow them in their course and fix their origin. One who is familiar with tracing the furrows of this mighty ice-plow will recognize at once where the large bowlders have hollowed out their deeper gashes, where small pebbles have drawn their finer marks, where the stones with angular edges have left their sharp scratches, and where fine sand and gravel -have rubbed and smoothed the rocky surface, and left it polished as if it came from the hand -of the marble-worker. G2aciers of Greenland. Glacial phenomena are displayed on the grandest scale in Greenland. On its western coast is a glacier 1,200 miles long. It presents to the voyager a perpendicular wall of ice 2,000 feet high. A great glacial river, says Kane, seeking outlets at every valley, rolling icy cataracts into the Atlantic and * Some or all the marks above enumerated are observed in the Alps at great heights above the present glaciers and far below their actual extremities ; also in the great valley of Switzerland, fifty miles broad ; and almost everywhere on the Jura, a chain whick lies to the north of this valley. The average height of the Jura is about one-third that of the Alps, and it is now entirely destitute of glaciers ; yet it presents almost everywhere similar moraines, and the same pol- ished and grooved surfaces and water-worn cavities. The erratics, moreover, which cover it present a phenomenon which has estonlshed and perplexed the geologist for more than half a century. No conclusion can be more incontest- able than that these angular blocks of granite, gneiss, and other crystalline for- mations came from the Alps, and that they have been brought for a distance of fifty miles and upward across one of the widest and deepest valleys in the world ; so that they are now lodged on the hills and valleys of a chain composed r<* limestone and other formation?, altogether distinct from those of the Alps. Their great size and angularity, after a journey of so many leagues, have justly excited wonder; for hundreds of them are as large as cottages; and one in par- ticular, composed of gneiss, celebrated under the name of Pierre a Bot, rests on the side of a hill about 900 feet above the Lake of Neufchatel, and is no less than forty feet in diameter. Lyell. THE P O S T- TE 1! TIA R Y P EH I OD. .ill the Greenland seas, and at last reaching the northern limit of the land which has borne it up, pours a mighty frozen torrent into Arctic space. Unlike the Alpine glaciers, which melt in the warm valleys below, this empties into 'the ocean, and vast masses becoming de- tached, are floated away, to be dissolved in the milder water of southern seas. Thousands of these icebergs throng the northern ocean, freighted with debris to be deposited on the sea-bottom of lower latitudes.* Could we examine the track of these ice-rafts, we should doubt- less find striae cut in the polished rocks, and blocks de- posited in long trains where the bergs had struck, scraped along by their enormous momentum and at last stranded. We are now prepared to understand the meaning of the Drift phenomena. Origin- of the tDrift. The Arctic regions are elevated.f The climate of the whole continent feels the change. The cold creeps .down every ' valley. Each northern blast brings a frost. The verdure of forest and plain withers and falls. The sun loses a part of its heat. The sea becomes cold. Tertiary life perishes * Describing Cape James Kent, Kane says : "As I looked over this ice-belt, losing itself in the far distance, and covered with millions of tons of rubbish- greenstones, limestone;?, chlorite slates, rounded and irregular, massive and ground to powder its importance as a geological agent in the transportation of Drift struck me with great force. Its whole substance was covered with these contributions from the shore; and farther to the south, upon the now frozen waters of Marshall Bay, I could recognize raft after raft from last year's ice-belt, which had been caught up by the winter, each one laden with its heavy freight of foreign material. 1 ' Arctic Expedition. t It is proper to remark that, while all geologists agree as to the temperature of this period,. all do not accept the theoiy given above as to the cause of thy cold. Many different opinions are advanced. The above is supported by Dana, Wine-hell, and many prominent geologists. (See note in (^UEPTIO^S. p, 272.) 10 SIS THE AGE OF MAMMALS. in this frigid temperature. Arctic vegetation covers the land where tropical flowers have so lately bloomed in beauty. The musk-ox and the reindeer roam the south of Europe where, in .modern times, are to grow the olive and the vine.* New species of animals spring into being/ clothed with a raiment of wool to protect them from the rigors of the climate, and furnished with teeth of a peculiar complexity, to enable them to browse on the new vegetation. The seas are frozen to their lowest depths. Elvers are stopped and turned" to ice. Snow gathers in the wintry air, and wraps in its mantle of white all the desolation that has been wrought. Glaciers, born in the icy north, invade the land. Sullenly they move southward, along' every great river valley, f plough- ing the rock, paring down acclivities, filling up ancient * In the Drift are found the musk-ox, the reindeer, the walrus, the seal, and many kinds of shells characteristic of the Arctic regions. The northernmost part of Norway and Sweden is at this day the southern limit of the reindeer in Europe ; but their fossil remains are found in large quantities in the Drift about the neighborhood of Paris, and quite recently they have been traced even to the foot of the Pyrenees. Side by side with the remains of the reindeer are found those of the European marmot, whose present home is in the mountains, about 6,000 feet above the level of the seaj The occurrence of- these animals in the super- ficial deposits of the plains of Central Europe, one of which is now confined to the high north, and the other to mountain-heights, certainly indicates an entire change of climatic conditions, since the time of their existence. European shells now confined to the Northern Ocean, are found as fossils in Italy showing-that, while the present Arctic climate prevailed in the Temperate Zone, that of the Temperate Zone extended much farther south to the regions we now call sub- tropical. In America there is abundant evidence of the same kind ; throughout the recent marine deposits of the Temperate Zone, covering the low lands above tide-water on this continent, are found fossil shells, whose present home is on the shores of Greenland. It is not only in the Northern hemisphere that these remains occur, but in Africa and in South America, wherever there has been an opportunity for investigation, the Drift is found to contain the traces of animals whose presence indicates a climate many degrees colder than that now prevail- ing there. Agassiz's Geological Sketches. t The Connecticut Valley seems to have had an Independent glacier, as the striae are parallel with the general course of the river ; the Mohawk another ; the Hudson a third one ; and traces of many smaller ones are being discovered. THE POST-TERTIARY PERIOD. 21V river-channels,* burying forests under masses of debris, scoring and polishing the surface, grinding up the stones into soil, and strewing rocks, gravel, and sand over south- ern fields. Reaching the coast of New England, they fringe the ocean with an ice- wall for hundreds of miles. Mighty icebergs, breaking loose, float southward, and, grinding their way through river-channel and strait, deposit their rocky burdens in long trains over the sea-bottom, f or, grounding on its shore, drop them in promiscuous piles. II. CHAMPLAIN AND TERRACE EPOCHS. ^Depression .of Ike Continent ET>OCH). The epoch of Arctic elevation ceases. The northern regions descend toward their former level. Again the continent feels a change. A geologic spring- * There is proof of the existence of rivers in different channels from the present. At the Whirlpool, on the west bank of the gorge, three miles below Niagara Falls, there Is a deep ravine filled with gravel and sand. This old chan- nel can be traced to Lake Ontario, four miles west of the present mouth of the river, and must have been the ancient bed. During the Glacial Epoch, the mighty ice-plow pared off the ridge, and filled the ravine with Drift materials, so that the river was forced to seek a new route, and since then has worn away the present tremendous gorge between Queenstown and the Falls. In boring for oil, and in excavating for railroads, such ancient river-channels, now filled with Drift, are frequently found. " In excavating one of the canals for supplying the mills of Lowell, the old channel of the Merrimack was found under the Drift and alluvium, half a mile from the present bed of the river." L. S. Burbank. t "There is one of these trains in Berkshire county, Mass. The moun- tains from which the angular blocks of hard talcose slate have been torn off, lies in Canaan, N. Y. ; and from thence they lie in trains, running for a few miles. S. 56 E., and then changing to S. 34 E., and extending yet further, making in the whole distance not less than fifteen or twenty miles ; at least one of them extends that distance, passing obliquely over mountain ridges some 600 or 800 feet high. Its width is not more than thirty or forty rods-. The blocks are of all sizes, from two or three feet in diameter to those containing 1(5,000 cubic feet, and weighing nearly 1,400 tons, and in some places almost cover the Burfrce of the common Drift, and are not mixed with \t"-Hitchcock. 220 THE AGE OF MAMMALS. time has come. The fetters of winter fall off. The glacier feels the touch of heat, and myriad streams leap gladly FIG .104 Stream issuing from a Glacier. forth. The snow-fields disappear. Torrents of water, hastening to the ocean, deluge the continent. They cover the southern States with fine sediment, the debris of the THE POUT- TERTIARY PERIOD. 221 glacier, and strew pebbles from the Appalachian to the very border of the Gulf* (Winchell). A genial warmth pervades the air. Vegetation springs to life. The de- pression of the land still continues. The ocean covers a part of Maine. The River St. Lawrence and Lake Champlain become arms of the sea, tenanted by seals and whales. The valleys are filled with broad, deep, majestic rivers, whose waters, flowing to the sea, dig deep channels, open new routes to the ocean, plough through mountain-ridges, sort and sift the Drift debris, arranging it in layers, and forming alluvial deposits of a great thickness. In many parts of the northern States, only the loftiest mountains emerge above the engulf- ing waters. Billows roll w T h ere birds sang and flowers bloomed. The land gained during all these long ages of geological history seems lost again. The ocean triumphs, and once more the Gulf joins its waters with the Arctic Ocean. l?leratio?i of the Continent (TERRACE EPOCH). Slowly the continent rises from its last baptism. Be- fore reaching its former level it stops. The rivers dig deeper channels in the soft alluvial deposit of the valleys, and leave their former banks far up on side-hills to mark their submersion during the Cha-mplain .Epoch. The lakes retire to smaller limits and form new beaches like the old they have deserted. The ocean yields the sea- coast, where it has so recently dashed in eager conquest, and the land it has just reclaimed, and sullenly retreats. * There are no " cobble-stones 11 in the southern States. The streams-do not seem to have had sufficient force to carry the coarse material of the Drift. Thus the sediment naturally becomes finer toward the eouth, and coarser north. ; THE AGE OF MAMMALS. * There are several pauses of this kind in the upward progress of the continent.* At each stage the retiring waters toy with the sand and gravel, arrange them in beds, spread the alluvial soil upon the muddy bottom, and put the finishing strokes to the work of fitting the continent for man's use. Y - ^Proofs of these Oscillations. Over the entire continent we find in the river valleys, overlying the true Drift, alluvial deposits * reaching far above the present FIG. 105. Terraces on Connecticut River, south of Hanover, N. H. (Dana). * The theory given in the text is that generally received. The author, how- ever, does not himself believe in these extreme oscillations of the continent, and its submergence to the extent claimed, by many geologists. Some places have doubtless been too hastily accepted as sea-beaches, and the whole subject demands more careful investigation. There is reason to believe, however, that at this period the Great Lakes were filled with salt water and inhabited by Arctic fauna. Their depths are even now, probably, tenanted by life of that type. THE POST-TERTIARY PERIOD. river beds. Looking up or down the banks of almost any principal river, one can trace horizontal lines, marking one or more terraces indicating the higher level of the stream in 'former times.* Many villages owe the beauty of their sites to these natural terraces. At a distance from the present shore of lakes, we find beaches of sand and gravel similar to those now existing on the borders of the lakes, and, in general, parallel with them. There are several of these on the south shore of Lake Erie ; one extending for many miles is locally known as the " Ridge Road." At Mackinac there are three of these stair-like ridges, the highest 100 feet above the present water-level, f Remains of whales and seals have been found at Mon- treal, and the skeleton of a whale has been dug up on the borders of Lake Champlain, sixty feet above its present level. Near Brooklyn a sea-beach exists 100 feet above the ocean. Along the River St. Lawrence, and in the Champlain and Hudson valleys, there are deposits termed " Champlain Clays," containing marine shells. They are found over 500 feet above the ocean! It is evident that * I counted to-day forty-one distinct ledges or shelves of terrace embraced between our water-line and the syenitic ridges through which Mary River forces itself. These shelves, though sometimes merged into each other, presented dis- tinct and recognizable embankments "or escarps of elevation. Their surfaces were at a nearly uniform inclination of descent of 5% and their breadth either 12, 24, 36, or some other multiple of twelve paces. This imposing series of ledges carried you in forty-one gigantic steps to an elevation of 480 feet ; and as the first rudiments of these ancient beaches left the granite which had once formed the barrier sea-coast, you could trace the passing from Drift-strewn rocky barricades to clearly-defined and gracefully curved shelves of shingle and pebbles. I have studies of these terraced beaches at various points on the northern coast of Greenland. They are more imposing and on a larger scale than those of Wellington Channel, which are now regarded by geologists as in- dicative of secular uplift of coast. Kane's Arctic Explorations. t When the lake stood at this level, it is probable that the water poured in floods down the Illinois River valley, swelling it to a mighty stream. Traces of its former grandeur are abundant far above its present banks. J4 THE AGE OF MAMMALS. the banks exhibiting these remains were ancient sea- beaches, and. that the ocean level has since sunk and the laud risen.* Fossils of the (Post - 2'erliary ^Period. This .is the current era of geologic history. The record no longer lies deep in the solid rock. We find it in the * The most distinct beaches occnr below 1,200 feet above the ocean level. A very fine beach, however, is found on the west side of the Green Mountains, in West Hancock, Vt., 2,196 feet high. Others are found in Peru, Mass., 2,022 feet ; at the Franconia Notch of the White Mountains, 2,665 feet ; and at the Notch of the White Mountains (Gibb's Hotel), 2,020 feet, Upon comparing to- gether the heights of beaches in different parts of New England, we find a num- ber of them having essentially the same elevatkm ; thus showing that they were formed contemporaneously. For example, there are beaches in Ashfield and Shutesbury, Mass. ; in Norwich, Corinth, Elmore, Hardwick, and Brownington, Vt., each 1,200 feet above the ocean, and the most remote are nearly 200 miles apart. Hitchcock" 1 s Elementary Geology, Page, in ' Chips and Chapters," referring to the raised beaches and submarine forests of Great Britain, remarks substantially as follows : From 120 feet down to the present sea-level we have a series of well-marked shore-lines 120, 63, 40, 25, and 12 feet marking a succession of uprises, all clearly pre-historic, if wo except the last, which indicates no very high antiquity. Every successive uplift, while it increased the dimensions of the British Islands, also decreased the general temperature of the country in the proportion of 1 F. for every 250 feet of uprise or nearly. These raised beaches arc not all alike well marked and decided, owing partly to the nature of the rocks into which they have been re- spectively cut, and partly to the length of time at which the sea stood at these respective levels. The lowest or twelve-feet beach is generally marked by ter- races of recent shells and gravel. Though the latest of British-raised beaches, this uprise must have taken place long antecedent to history; and there is not; so far as we are aware, any certain evidence either of upheaval or depression since the time of the Eomans, although certain misinterpreted appearances have led some observers to an opposite conclusion. Any remains found in the caves of the twelve-feet beach are savage and pre-Celtic, showing that the uprise had taken place before (perhaps long before) the occupation of these primitive inhab- itants. The twenty-five-feet beach is perhaps the most striking stretching for miles in unbroken continuity, composed in many districts of recent shells and gravel, frequently backed by old caverned cliffs, and forming the level site for most of our modern sea-ports and fashionable watering-places. The sixty-three- feet beach is also well defined on many tracts of the seaboard, but its once over- hanging cliffs have been obliterated by the tear and wear of the elements, its shells and exuvise dissolved and destroyed, and its gravel beds now covered by soil and greensward. Of the higher beaches little is known with precision or accuracy. THE POST-TERTIARY PERIOD. 225 marls and sediment of filled - tip lakes ; in beds of sand and -clay ; in the alluvial deposits of rivers ; in the growth of peat-bogs and mornss'es ; in the deep, muddy accumulations of swamps ; in the stalagmites of fissures and caverns, and in the ice of Arctic regions. The plant-remains willow, hazel, fir, beech, and oak are familiar to those who now live in the same latitudes. The fres*h-water shells are identical with those which throng the neighboring ponds. The marine fossils oysters, clams, mussels, etc. cannot be distinguished from those which inhabit the surrounding ocean. When, however, we turn to the land animals, the change, prob- jibly through the instrumentality of man, becomes more apparent. Tho quadrupeds, as in the Tertiary Period, tako tho precedence, and attract our attention by their enormous liill:. Wo shall describe the following: the mammoth, mcistodo:i 9 megatherium^ glyptodon, Irish elk, cave-bear, and hyena. 1. THE MAMMOTH, or fossil elephant, was about one- third larger than any known to modern times. A tooth, in the Ward cabinet, Rochester, weighs fourteen pounds. This animal wandered in great herds over England, thence to Siberia, and across . Behring's Straits into North America. Its remains are very abundant.* Over 2,000 molar-teeth * In 1GG3, Otto von Guericke, the illustrious inventor of the air-pump, wit- nessed the discovery of the bones of an elephant buried in the shelly limestone, or muschelkalk. Along with it were found its enormous tusks, which should have sufficed to establish its zo51ogical origin. Nevertheless they were taken for horns, and the illustrious Leibnitz composed, out of the remains, a strange animal, carrying a horn in the middle of its forehead, and in each jaw a dozen molar-teeth a foot long. Having fabricated this fantastic animal, Leibnitz named it also ; he called it the fossil unicwn. For over thirty years the uni- roni of Leibnitz was universally accepted throughout Germany, and nothing lc~>> than tho discovery of the entire skeleton of the mammoth could change the 226 THE AGE OF MAMMALS. were found in a few years by the fishermen of the little village of Happisburg. The islands in the sea north of FIG. 106. The Mammoth or Fossil Elephant. THE POST-TERTIARY PERIOD. 227 Siberia are- but conglomerations of sand, ice, and the tusks and teeth of elephants. During every storm, the waves wash loose and cast ashore this fossil ivory,, which becomes a profitable article of commerce. Single tusks are found weighing over 200 pounds. In 1844, 16,000 pounds are said to "have been sold at St. Petersburg. The ivory thus obtained has been exported to China for five centuries, and yet the supply seems undiminished. The colossal size of these remains has given rise, among the Tartars, to a curious legend. They were believed to belong to an enormous animal an elephantine mouse which lived underground, like the mole, and which in- stantly perished when exposed to the least ray of sun or. moon-. In 1799, a fisherman discovered among the icebergs on the banks of the Lena, an odd-shaped block of ice. Two years after, he found the tusks and flank of a mammoth protruding from it, and in five years the entire body be- came disentangled, and fell upon the sand. He removed the tusks -and sold them. Two years subsequent, Mr. Adams, of the St. Petersburg Academy, heard of the dis- covery, and visited the spot. The people of the neigh- borhood had cut off pieces of the flesh for their dogs, and wild beasts had mangled it, but the skeleton was nearly entire. The skin yet covered the head ; one of the ears, well preserved, was furnished with a tuft of hair; the neck had a flowing mane ; and the body retained scat- popular opinion, and then iiot without a keen controversy. In 1700, a veritable cemetery of elephants was discovered near the banks of the Necker River, in Wurtemberg. Not less than sixty tusks were exhumed. As a cnrious instance of the superstition of the times, the fact may be mentioned that the court physician possessed himself of the fragments which were left, to aid him in com- bating fever and colic ! Chinese apothecaries now use similar remedies. 228 THE AGE OF MANUALS. tered tufts of reddish wool and black hair. Mr. Adams collected the bones, repurchased the tusks which were more than nine feet long and sold this unique specimen to the Emperor of Eussia for $6,000. 2. THE MASTODON resembled the modern elephant, but had, in general, a longer body and more massive limbs. The Mastodon. "When discovered, Buffon called this animal the Elephant of the Ohio. A single tooth, however, is sufficient to dis- tinguish its remains. The grinding surface of a masto- don's tooth is covered with conical projections whence the name of the animal while that of the elephant is flat. Teeth have been dug up weighing seventeen pounds each, and tusks fourteen feet in length. Six skeletons THE POST-TERTIARY PERIOD. 229 were found in Warren county, N. J., by a farmer digging in a bog. Within the ribs of one of them, being evidently the contents of the stomach, were seven bushels of vege- table matter, which, on microscopic examination, proved to consist of cedar twigs, which probably formed tho animal's last supper. Similar discoveries, and also the form of the teeth, prove that its food was roots, small branches, leaves, grass,- etc. The mastodon was once common in the United States, and probably wandered in herds over all the country west of the Connecticut Kiver. 3. THE MEGATHERIUM * (monstrous beast), at first sight seems the most ill-formed creature we have yc'; considered. We shall, however, find its structure full of harmony and adaptation. It was simply a huge sloth of the size of an elephant. Like the sloth it fed on leaves, and possibly like the ant-eater, it burrowed deep, in the earth. Its fore-feet were each three feet long and a foot broad, and were furnished with gigantic claws. Its tail was two feet in diameter, and must have assisted in supporting its huge body, as it tore down trees for its food, while it constituted also a powerful means of de- fence. Its massive proportions and clumsy form rendered it extremely slow in its movements, but there was no need of rapid locomotion in an animal thao merely bur- rowed for roots or browsed for leaves in a tropical forest ; neither was there necessity for flight, when its most dan- gerous foe, the crocodile* could be destroyed by a single blow from its gigantic tail. Thus this mighty creature * The megatherium is shown in Fi.cr. Ill, on the right hand ; the glyptodon in frcnt fit tho renter, tho mylodon just back holding on to rv tree, and the masto- don a: the left nnd in the rear. 230 THE AGE OF MAMMALS. lived peaceful and respected in spite of its apparently unwieldy structure.* - 4. THE. GLYPTODOK (sculptured tooth) was a mammal clad iir the shell of a turtle. This defensive armor mea- sured sometimes eleven feet in length, and weighed 1,000 pounds. FIG. 108. Glyptodon clavipes. 5. THE IRISH ELK was a magnificent and imposing animal. Its antlers were often ten feet long, and spread, from one tip to the other, a distance of three or four yards. 6. THE CAVE BEAR was the most formidable of the ancient flesh-eating animals. It 'attained the size of a large horse. Some of the * During the dry season a hunter discovered, on the banks of the River Salado, S. A., what appeared to be the trunk of a tree. Throwing his lasso over it, with the help of a comrade he drew it upon the bank. It proved to be an enormous bone five ' feet through ; the pelvis of what has since been happily styled the megatherium. To this countryman the bone appeared useless. It did not make half as good a seat as a bullock's skull the arm-chair of the pampas. Finally this, with other bones, was sent as a- curiosity to the owner of the land on which they were discovered. Sir W. Parish found them here, dug out others, and forwarded them to England. From these remains the casts now in Boston, Amherst, etc., were made. Denton in " Our Planet." THE POST-TERTIARY PERIOD. 231 skeletons are ten feet long and six feet high. The ani- mal is so named because it dragged its prey into caves, where the remains of a large number of antediluvian repasts are found buried in the stalactites which have / d^t/Ws*^ / r fcuJslA The Irish Elk. since accumulated on the floor. In the celebrated cave at Gaylenreuth, portions of the skeletons of 800 cave- bears have been identified. TUB AGE OF 31 A 'AL S. 7. Tns HYENA was very abundant in England. The bones of seventy-five have been discovered in a single cavern. The cave at Kirkdale, England,* is noted as an FIG. no. Cave Bear and Hveua. * In the summer of 1821, some, workmen em-ployed in quarrying stone upon fche slope of a limestone hill at Kirkdale, in Yorkshire, came accidentally upon the mouth of a cavern. Overgrown with grass and bushes, the mouth of this cave -in the hill-side had been eflecttially closed against all intruders, and ' - v ? ix^ sU c ! THE POST-TERTIARY PERIOD. 236 ancient haunt of these animals. "The stalagmitic de- posit in this cavern, with its projecting bones/' says Buckland, "looks like a pigeon-pie with pigeon's legs sticking through the crust." , In Fig. 110, a cave-bear is seen sitting at the mouth of its den, watching the bones of an elephant, while, above, a hyena waits the proper moment to dispute possession with its formidable rival. its existence had never been suspected. The hole was just large enough to admit a man on his hands and knees, and led into a low broad cavern, with branches opening out from it some of which have not yet been explored. The whole floor was strewn with hundreds of bones, like a huge dog-kennel. The workmen wondered a little at their discovery, but, remembering that there had been a murrain among the cattle in that region some years before, concluded that these must be the banes of cattle which then died in great numbers ; and having thus satisfactorily settled the matter, threw out the bones on the road with the lime- stone. A gentleman, living near, preserved them ; and in a few months, Dr. Buckland, the great English geologist, visited Kirkdale, and examined its strange contents, which proved indeed stranger than any one had imagined ; for many of these remains belonged to animals never before found in England. The bones of hyenas, tigers, elephants, rhinoceroses, and hippopotamuses were mingled with those of deer, bears, wolves, foxes, and many smaller creatures. The bones were gnawed, and many were broken, evidently not by natural decay, but as if snapped violently apart. After a complete investigation, Dr. B. convinced him- self, and proved to the satisfaction of all scientific men, that the cave had been a den of hyenas at a time when these animals, as well as tigers, elephants, etc., existed in England in as great numbers as they now do in the wildest parts of tropical Asia or Africa. The narrow entrance to the cave still retains the marks of grease and hair, such as are seen on the bars of a cage in a menagerie, against which the imprisoned animals constantly rub themselves, and there were similar marks on the floor and walls. The hyenas were evidently the lords of this ancient cavern, and the other animals their unwilling guests ; for the remains of the latter had been most gnawed, broken, and mangled ; and the head of an enormous hyena, with gigantic fangs complete, testified to their great size and power. Some of the animals, such as the elephants, rhinoceroses, etc., could not have been brought into the cave without being first killed and torn to pieces. But their gnawed and broken bones attest that they were de- voured like the rest ; and probably the hyenas then had the same propensity which characterizes those of our own time to tear in pieces the body of any dead animal, and carry it to their den to feed upon it apart. (Agassiz.) A de- tailed account of this investigation,- etc., may be found in "Reliquiae Diluvi- anse," by Dr. Buckland. 286 THE OF MAMMALS. .- /. Glacial IZpoch on the ^Pacific Coast. California shows no traces of northern Drift.* The Eocky Mountains probably constituted a sufficient barrier against the advancing glacier that overwhelmed so large a portion of the continent. Yet no section ex- hibits more frequent signs of glacial action. The glaciers were, however, confined to the elevated regions of the mountains, as the conspicuous moraines, striae, etc., abun- dantly prove. Swift torrents sweeping down the slopes of the mountain ranges denuded extensive regions and Cafion of Grand River. deposited vast quantities of Drift-material. This erosive action doubtless broke up the auriferous rocks and as- * Whitney in Proc. Cal. Acad. Nat. Sci. Foster says the same remark holds true throughout Oregon. THE POST-TERTIARY PERIOD. 231 sorted the materials of the rich gold-fields of California. The great canons (can-yones) of the Colorado and other western rivers are believed by Newberry to have been worn out during this period. They are gorges cut in the solid rock, sometimes to the depth of a mile. For days the adventurer may travel along the brink of such a gulf, unable to cross or to descend to the water which winds along so far below, at the bottom of the appalling chasm. 2 . 2'he IsOess (Lo-ess, from the German Tosz^ loam). The alluvial deposits along the banks of rivers are "generally composed of coarse materials at the lowest por- tions, and fine loam (silt) in the higher. Where, the current is strongest, coarse gravel is borne along, and where weakest, onjy sand or mud. A thin film of this line sediment is spread during floods over wide areas on either bank of the stream. The well-known deposits of the River Nile, to which Egypt owes its fertility, are of this character. The aggregate during a century is said rarely to exceed five inches, though in all it has attained a vast thickness. Along the valley of the Rhine similar deposits of loam have taken place to a depth of many hundred feet. The color is of' a yellowish gray, the structure very homoge- neous, and the composition like tnat of the Nile. Shells most perfectly preserved, whose fragility is too great to endure the rushing of a stream of water, are quite abun- dant. 3. Bluff Formation. This Loess or "Bluff For- mation" (Swallow) extends to a great distance along the lower Missouri, and often lines its branching rivers. It is 238 THE 'AGE OF MAMMALS. very conspicuous at Sioux City, Council Bluffs, etc. On the Mississippi it reaches from the junction of the Mis- souri to the delta, forming in the State of Mississippi a belt ten or fifteen miles wide, and often seventy feet deep (Hilgard). The color is a buff, and its composition a siliceous loam. The shells belong to existing species, while the remains of mammoth, horse, lion, musk-ox, etc., are of extinct species. We thence conclude that the physical changes which resulted in the destruction of the land animals did not extend to the inhabitants of fresh water. Foster thinks that the formation is a lacustrian one, and that when it was deposited, the land was- de- pressed a couple of hundred feet below its present level. 4 . Sand 1)unes* are hills of sand heaped up along the shore. They are formed by sand drifted inland by the wind, as snow is piled in drifts. The sand is driven with such force as to smooth the surface even of quartz rocks, and to wear holes in window-glass. The sand- dunes of Cape Cod, Long Island shore, Lake Michigan, etc., are conspicuous features of the landscape. Some- times long, narrow sand-ridges, or Osars, extend back from the shore for miles. 5-. The Mosaic Account states that on the fifth day the waters brought forth abundantly the moving * On the east side of Cape Cod, clearly marked -in many places on the beach between Provincetown and Truro, the former shore-line, of the west side may be distinctly traced. The whole mass of sand forming that part of the cape has been carried over westward into the bay. This movement is still going on, and threatens to destroy the harbor of Provincetown. Parties of men have therefore been employed by the United States government to set out beach-grass along the coast. This, by the extension and interlacing of its fibrous roots, tends to hold the sand in place. Burbank. THE POST-TERTIARYPERIOD. creature that hath life, the fowl that flies above the earth, and great whales. The sixth day was characterized by two works the creation of mammals, and lastly of man, to be the lord of all created things. Geology gives us the same general outline. In the Palaeozoic Age, the seas swarmed with life. In the Meso- zoic Age, birds appeared, while reptiles (styled, in popular language, great whales or sea-monsters, as the word may be translated) became the dominant life. In the dawn of the Cenozoic, mammals of enormous size and in pro- digious numbers covered the earth; while at the close, Man appeared to crown the creative- work. SGSITIC DSSGRIPTIOIT.-This glimpse of Ter- tiary times presents a scene of sylvan beauty. Before us is a broad meadow carpeted with grass and blooming flowers, while behind are mountains clad in forests of familiar trees. In the foreground is a lake stretching away in the distance far as the eye can reach, its waves sparkling in the noontide sun. Snipes make their retreat among the reeds which line the low marshy shore ; .sea- gulls skim the water ; owls hide themselves in the trunks of old cavernous trees ; gigantic buzzards hover threaten- ingly in the air, poised for prey ; great turtles crawl up the bank; heavy crocodiles drag their unwieldy bodies through the high marshy grass ; and a huge rhinoceros wallows, grunting, in the mud. . Over the plain gallops a troop of wild horses ; foxes scamper through the bushes ; and .flocks of birds sing in the branches of the willows that border a neighboring brook. Everywhere wander great, unwieldy quadrupeds. Here is a solitary megathe- rium a gigantic sloth standing on his massive hind- 4 TH:s 'AGE OF MAMMALS. legs, and propped up by his huge tail, which makes a secure tripod support. See, he slowly reaches out his muscular arms, draws down branches and young trees, and lazily feeds on their tender foliage. Yonder is a herd of mammoths with long curved tusks, broad flapping leathern ears, large as a blacksmith's apron, and legs like fleshy pillars. Now they feed along the bank, now they trumpet shrilly to their companions in the forest, whose responses sound like distant thunder, and now they go crashing through the woods, tearing down trees for sport, and leaving the limbs strewn over the ground, as if a hurricane had passed. Fierce beasts abound. A drove of wild oxen of colossal strength, maned and shaggy, feed over the meadow, and troops of hyenas prowl about, waging relentless war on all weaker tribes. Hark ! the yelping of dogs! A pack of hounds out on a hunt. The herd of wild horses catch the dreaded sound, snort with fear, toss their manes, and go flying off like the wind, with their gaunt pursuers in full chase. Scarcely have they disappeared than a drove of camels stalk deliberately down to the water's edge, and while they drink (as only camels can), a troop of monkeys, chattering in the branches overhead, with solemn grimaces, mock the grav- ity of their slow, awkward movements. p-1) ' Geology, which is the story of the rocks, finds its climax in History, which is the story of Man. / . ' - I 1 Coming of Jlfan . We have no means of de- ciding the exact time when the human race first appeared on the earth. The most scientific man is unable to name centuries or years with any degree of accuracy in connec- tion with any geological event. In the loam (Loess), peat-bbg and cave-earth of the Post-Tertiary Period we first find rude stone implements, tree canoes, and the embers of the fire which man alone can kindle or sus- tain. Side by side with these are the remains of the mammoth,* cave -bear, rhinoceros, Irish elk, etc. It would seem that about the time of the glacial epoch, probably just as the great ice-floats began to melt away, man suddenly appeared among the mighty quadrupeds which then covered the earth, to contest the supremacy, The "Primeval Man . The life of the pre-historic man has been classified according to the character of the * In the valley of the River Sorame, near Abbeville, flint implements, associ- ated with remains of the mammoth, elephant, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, etc., were found by M. Boucher de Perthes. Near Amiens, in the same valley, another deposit of gravel was discovered, containing flint hatchets, poniards, knives, etc., nearly 400 in number, accompanied also by bones of the above animals. THE ERA OF MIND. fossil remains in the following manner. (Saint-Germain, Vogt, and others.) THE STONE AGE. < II. THE METAL AGE. 1. Epoch of extinct animals, mam- moth, cave-bear, etc. 2. Epoch of migrated existing ani- mals, or Reindeer Epoch. 3. Epoch of domesticated animals, or Polished Stone Epoch. 1. The Bronze Epoch. 2. The Iron Epoch. These terms indicate the successive progress of the ancient races. Every nation seems to have had some such stages in its advance. The Indians have hardly passed out of their stone age. The Sandwich Islanders, when discovered, were in that age, while the nations of Asia emerged from it long before the Christian era. Some of these ages may have been contemporaneous in different nations. HE TONE GE, JZpoch of IZxlinct Animals. The primeval man during this epoch dwelt in caves, dressed in skins, and FIG. 113. made weapons chipped out of the rough flint (Fig. 113), by means of which he fought the cave- bear, hunted the Irish A Danish Axe-hammer. elk, and speared the mam- moth. He was rude and barbarous, perhaps a cannibal, THE STONE AGE. FIG. 114. yet he made fire, instruments of offence^ and defence, articles of pottery-ware for domestic use (Fig. 114), sewed skins into garments, adorned his person with strings of rudely - carved shells, wrought out images emblematic of his po- litical or religious views, and buried his dead in caves with religious rites and ceremonies.* Reindeer Epoch . In this epoch man advanced in knowledge, learned to work in bone, ivory, Earthen Vase found in Cave of Furfooz (Belgium). * In 1842, on the elope of a hill near Aurignac, an excavator, named Bonne- maison, discovered a great vertical slab of limestone covering an arched open- ing. In the cave thus closed up he found the remains of seventeen human skeletons. These were removed to the village cemetery, and thus lost to science forever. In 1860, M. Lartet, having heard of the event, visited the spot, which, during a long course of centuries, had entirely escaped the notice of the inhabit- ants. The entrance to the cave was concealed by masses of earth, which, having been brought down from the top of the hill by the action of water, had accumulated in front, hiding a flat terrace, on which many vestiges of pre- historic times were found. As no disturbance of the ground had taken place in this spot subsequent to the date of the burial, this gradual accumulation had protected the traces of these primeval men. The investigations of M. Lartet were attended with the following results : He found on the floor of the cave a bed of " made ground " two feet thick. In this were some human remains which had escaped the first investigations ; also bones of mammals well preserved, and exhibiting no fractures or teeth- marks, wrought flint-knives, carved reindeer horns, and eighteen small eea- ehells pierced in the center, and doubtless intended to be strung together in a necklace or bracelet. He found also a quantity of the bones of the cave-bear, the bison, the reindeer, the horse, etc. The perfect state of preservation of these bones shows that they were neither broken to furnish food for man nor torn by carnivorous animals, as is seen in many cases. It must be concluded, 246 THE ERA OF MIND. FIG. 115. Bone pierced by an Arrow of Reindeer-horn. and reindeer-antlers (Fig. 115) ; to catch fish ; to make saAVS, knives, and other tools; to form amulets and charms of bone; to ornament the in- struments of the chase; and in his leisure to sketch on ivory the outlines of the animals he pur- sued (Fig. 116). 'Polished Stone JZpoch . The next epoch witnessed a still higher condition. Skiffs were made in which the primitive man ventured out on the sea, and caught the fish of deeper waters.* He made nets for fishing near the then, that the stone which closed the entrance to the cavern was moved away for every interment, and carefully put back immediately afterward. In explaining the presence of so many foreign objects in the burial-cave, we must admit as probable that the customs which now exist among savage tribes such as plac- ing near to the dead body the weapons, hunting-trophies, and ornaments be- longing to the deceased existed among the men of the great bear and mammoth epoch. In front of the cave was also found the site of an ancient fire-hearth, where evidently the funeral banquet was held. In this bed of ashes and char- coal an immense quantity of the most interesting relics were discovered a large number of teeth and broken bones of herbivorous animals ; a hundred flint-knives ; two chipped flints, which are believed to be sling projectiles ; several implements made of reindeer's horn, etc., etc. Some of the bones were partly carbonized, others only scorched, but the greater number had been un- touched by fire. All the marrow bones were broken lengthwise, showing that they had been used at a feast where the marrow from animal bones furnished a delicious viand. Traces of the hyena were found at this spot. From all these signs we infer that after the death of one of these primitive men, his friends accompanied him to his last resting-place, after which they assembled together to partake of a feast in front of his tomb ; then every one took his departure, leaving the scene of the banquet free to the hyenas, which came to devour the remains of the meal. * Along the coast of Denmark, in Cornwall and Devonshire, England, in Scotland, and e\:en in France, have been discovered what have received the THE METAL AGE. shore. He domesticated the dog. He attempted agri- Fro. 116. Sketch of a Mammoth graven on a Slab of Ivory. culture; raised corn, ground it, and thus became less dependent on the chances of the chase. He interred his dead in vaults, and erected monuments to mark their last resting-place. (See Fig. 117). name of "kitchen-middens." They are immense accumulations of shells from 3 to 10 feet in thickness, and from 100 to 200 feet in width ; their length is some- times as much as 1,000 feet, with a width of 250 feet. At first seeming, one would think them banks of fossil shells which had been submerged, and after- ward volcanically brought to light. But it has been discovered that these shells belong to four different species which are never found together, and conse- quently must have been brought there by man. Nearly all the shells are those of full-grown animals. Also traces of fire remains of hearths were found in these heaps, which, with the other facts, lead to one conclusion. Tribes once existed there who lived on the products of hunting and fishing, throwing out round their cabins the remains of their meals, especially the debris of shell-fish. Hence the name, which signifies " kitchen heaps of refuse." Nearly all these kitchen-middens are found on the coast, along the fiords, where the action of the waves is not much felt. Some have been found inland; but this proves that the sea once occupied those localities from which it has now retired. These refuse deposits consist mostly of various shells of mollusks such as the oyster, the cockle, the mussel, and the periwinkle. Fishes' bones, in great abundance, are also found. They belong to the cod, herring, dab, and eel. From this we may infer that the primitive inhabitants ventured far out to sea, as the herring and cod can only be caught at some distance from shore. The remains also of the stag, the roe, the boar, and various other mammals are discovered, with some traces of birds mostly aquatic species. All the long bones are found split to extract the marrow. THE ERA OF MIND, FIG. 117. Row of Menhirs or Monuments set up on Tombs at Carnac, Brittany. HE ETAL GE. This age indicates a great advance in civilization. Thenard asserted that we may judge of the civilization of any nation by the degree of perfection it has attained in working iron. We may safely say that, without a knowl- edge of the metals, man would have remained a barbarian. Iron ores do not readily attract attention, and their re- duction is a very difficult process. The method whereby iron becomes utilized in the arts, requires extensive chem- ical knowledge and high progress in science. Gold, how- THE METAL AGE. ever, is found native, and by its glitter attracts the eye even of the savage. Copper occurs pure, and its ores are rather widely diffused, as are 'also those of tin. It is strange that bronze (brass), which is an alloy of copper and tin, should have been the first metal used. We can hardly understand the cause of this, since the metals must have been known before the alloy could be manu- factured. Bronze JZpoch . Tools of a better character were now made, and life wore an improved aspect. Extensive villages were built on piles* driven deep in the lake- * The discovery of the remains of lake-dwellings in Switzerland, and their connection with the bronze epoch as first asserted by Dr. Keller, of Zurich, and eince agreed to by all archaeologists reveal to us many very interesting facts in regard to the pre-historic natives of that country. When, in the dry, cold winter of 1853-1854, the waters of the lakes in Switzerland fell so far below their ordi- nary level, the inhabitants of Meilen, on the banks of Lake Zurich, thus gaining from the lake a tract of ground, set to work to raise it and surround it with banks. In carrying out this work they found in the mud at the bottom of the lake a number of piles, some thrown down and some still upright, frag- ments of rough pottery, bone and stone instruments, and various other relics similar to those found in the Danish peat-bogs. Previous to this, various instru- ments and strange utensils had been obtained from the mud of some of the Swiss lakes, and piles had often been noticed standing up in the water, but no one had thought of attributing any great antiquity to these objects, or, indeed, made much attempt to explain them. The fishermen had for some time been acquainted with the sites of some of these lake settlements, in consequence of having often torn their nets on the piles sticking up in the mud. Thus, guides were at hand to aid in searching out the mystery of these lake abodes. More than 200 settlements are already known, and every year fresh ones are being found. The builders of these lacustrine dwellings seem to have pro- ceeded on two different systems of construction : either they buried the piles very deeply in the bed of the lake, and on them placed the platform which was to support their huts, or they artificially raised the bed of the lake by means of heaps of stones, fixing in them large stakes to make a firm and compact body. Sometimes these are so high as to rise above the water, and form artificial islands ; and some of them are still inhabited. We may reasonably suppose that need for security prompted the ancient people to thus construct their dwellings over the water. Encompassed by vast marshes and impenetrable forests, no means could so effectually secure them from the attacks of wild beasts as to surround themselves with water. In later THE ERA OF MIND. FIG. 118. Woolen Shawl found in a Tomb in Denmark. bottom, looms were erected, cloth was woven and made into garments (Fig. 118). The horse, ass, ox, sheep and goat were domestica- ' ted in great numbers. Hatchets, reaping- hooks, mills, peiid- \ants, rings, li air-pins, barbed fish - h ooks, and numerous arti-* cles of ornament were manufactured (fig. 119). The clothing became more 'grace- ful, and the hair was adorned with the most elaborate taste. Wheat, barley and oats were cultivated. The baker's art was established. Glass was discovered. Mats of bark and cord were made. Apples, pears, berries, and other fruits were stored for winter's use. Iron JZpocfi. With the discovery of iron, civiliza- tion rapidly advanced. This metal marked the latest period of primeval development. The art of metallurgy times it served to protect them from sudden surprises by their enemies of other clans. The number of piles used in these constructions is surprising. They were often sixteen or twenty feet long, and in the stone-heaps were some- times ten or twelve inches in diameter." The mind is almost confused when it endeavors to sum up the amount of energy and strong will which, without the aid of iron implements, must have been bestowed in constructing these settle- ments. One of the largest, that of Morges, in Lake Geneva, is 71,000 square yards in area. The huts themselves seem to have been formed of trunks of trees placed upright side by side, and bound together by interwoven branches. A coating of earth covered this wattling. Some of these huts having been par- tially destroyed by fire, among the charred debris various articles have been perfectly preserved, such as fishing-nets, basket-work, corn, etc. THE JIE TA L A G 11. 251 FIG. 119. had made great progress during the bronze epoch, but now assumed nev importance. Extensive smelting works were erected.* The potter's wheel was invented. Better tools were made (Fig. 120). Silver and lead were discov- ered. Coined money was in- troduced and commerce flour- ished (Fig. 121). Agriculture was practiced on a large scale, Fruit trees were cultivated. Civilization was fairly es- . * Bronze Vase from the lomb of Hallstadt. tablished. At this point the written records and oral traditions take up the story of the past, and the naturalist's labors cease as the histo- rian's begin. FIG. 120. Knife from the Lacustrine Settlements of Switzerland. FIG. 121. The ^Development 2' heavy. This primeval man shows no sign of a development from the higher tribes of animals. He is not a perfected monkey. " No gorilla ever took out a patent." No ape ever made any improvement on the condition in which he was born. Man, on the other hand, never stays where he starts. He * Four hundred iron furnaces have been discovered by M. Quiqucrez in the Bernese Jura. /~> 852 THE ERA OF MIND. continually progresses. The very names given to the vari- ous ages and epochs of his primeval history in Europe in- dicate this fact. He appears among those huge quadru- peds whose figures stalk like mighty shadows across the scenes of the Post-Tertiary Period, and is at once their lord and master. He uses the bow and spear. He be- comes a builder and inventor. He makes tools, subdues the earth, hews down the forest, bridges the river, builds houses, tames wild animals and converts their strength to his purposes, while from every element of Nature he gathers material for use and beauty. Lastly and best of all, he buries his dead with religious ceremonies, in care- fully constructed tombs, and deposits in their graves arms and food for their journey to the spirit-land. (Vogt.) His thought reaches out into the life beyond, and he be- trays at once the longings of an immortal soul. (Geologyjgives us no means of answering that oft-asked question, whether there was one or were many centers of man's creation. As far as the facts' go, however, the sameness of the remains, wherever found, evinces a simi- larity of ideas, and thus tends to prove a common origin for the race. Those who, disregarding the unity of lan- guage, of mental constitution, and of the religious senti- ment of the human race, desire to show that the Mosaic account is only a partial and inaccurate one, must look for arguments elsewhere than in the records of geology. , Geological 2'heories. Many of the geological theories we have discussed may be set aside by future discoveries, and be proved to have been vain assumptions. They will yet, however, have served a purpose. The mind instinctively demands order. Each theory is a cord THE METAL AGE. on which to string facts that otherwise might be lost. Theories are generalizations of truth. They give consist- ency and interest to a science that otherwise would be only a mass of discordant and uninviting detail. Our theories may yet be thrown away, but our facts never, and we can but be grateful for the former in that they have helped us to retain the latter. 2*he 'World Uiifinished. Creation is continually going on around us. Astronomy teaches that the stars are changing new ones flashing out in the sky and others fading away into darkness. Geology did not cease when history began. Since the coming of man, vast physical changes have taken place. The mastodon and Irish elk vanished with his first appearance. The dodo of Mauritius is known only by tradition. The animals of the present the ostrich, beaver, etc. are hastening to extinction. The mud and sands of our sea-shore will be the rocks of future hills, and the rocks of our hills the ocean sediment of another age. Rivers have deserted their old channels; the ocean has encroached on the land ; * lakes and marshes have disappeared ; volcanoes * There is abundant evidence to show a slow subsidence of the whole eastern coast of the United States, which has been going on for several years past. The movement is one of alternate elevation and depression within the limits of per- haps twenty feet. A map of Cape May, dated 1694, shows Egg Island as contain- ing 200 acres ; it now contains less than an acre at ebb tide, and is entirely submerged at high tide. The light-house at the Cape has been moved consider- ably inland on account of the wear. The shore in front of the boarding-houses at Cape Island must have worn away neatly a mile since the Revolution. Dur- ing the war of that period, a militia artillery company had its practicing ground here. Their gun was placed near a house which stood just outside the present shore-line, and their target was set up at the outer side of a corn-field, three- quarters of a mile cast. Beyond this there were sand-beaches for nearly or quite a quarter of a mile, and then the sea-shore. The whole of this ground is now gone, and one of the boarding-houses has been moved back twice. Sandy Hook has extended out to the northeast a mile since the Revolution. The spot where THE ERA OF MIND. have thrown out rivers of lava, and earthquakes have cracked the earth's crust. " There rolls the deep where grew the tree ; O earth, what changes hast thou seen ! There, where the long street roars, hath been Tho stillness of the central sea." Tennyson. The Origin of Man. Was man created directly by God's fiat, or by some intermediate process of second- ary causes ? "Alas for the impotence of science and the scope of our finite intelligence!" We bring the subtlest agencies to the accomplishment of our designs Heat, Light, Electricity but when we seek to develop from them even the intangible forces which clothe the decay- ing rock with verdure, or mantle the stagnant pool with slime, failure inevitably waits upon us. In vain do we seek to associate vital manifestation with electrical action ; we may resolve the vital organism into cells and granules and nuclei, but the life eludes our proudest philosophy. If, under certain conditions, inorganic matter assumes organic form, those conditions and the laws which gov- the first boarding-house was erected at Long Branch, together with the road behind it, is now all worn away. The loss is sometimes twelve feet in a year. Where seventy years ago were cultivated fields is now the ship-channel. At several points in New Jersey an enormous quantity of white cedar is found buried in the salt marshes. This indicates extensive forests on land now too low and wet for the growth of trees. Trunks are found sunk at all depths down to the underlying gravel, and so thick that in many places a number of trials must be made before a sounding-rod can be thrust down without striking against them. Tree after tree from one to two thousand years of age lies crossed above each other in every conceivable direction. These cedar logs are mined and split into shingles, and thus is carried on a very extensive business. Sub- marine forests exist on the shore of Martha's Vineyard and also at Rye Beach. All along the sea-coast, from South Carolina to Florida, similar phenomena are to be found which seem to indicate a subsidence of the laud.^-iSee Cook's Geology Of New Jersey, PP- 343-373. CONCLUSION. 255 ern them are alike unknown to us. And so we pause on the threshold of created life, and, standing reverently aside, lay humbly down our little wisdom as we recog- nize the unfathomable greatness of the ONE ALL-WISE CREATOR. " We have but faith : we cannot know ; For knowledge is of things we see ; And yet we trust it C3mes from Thee, A beam in darkness : let it grow." % N C L U S. I N . We have traced in the dim light of the past the his- tory of our earth and its inhabitants. Everywhere we have found a Divine Hand shaping and moulding to accomplish a Divine ideal. " IN THE BEGINNING GOD." We can add nothing to the old Hebrew declaration. We have gone back to the origin of man, and there too we have rested on that sublime truth, " IN THE BEGINNING GOD." We have winged our imagination backward to the .time when our earth was " without form and void," and here again we have felt the force of that same statement " IN THE BEGINNING GOD." The study of science ought never to lead one astray from this great fundamental thought. God has assuredly never written anything in Nature contradictory of Himself! Science and religion alike are His offspring. Both will ultimately vindicate Him and His attributes. During this transitional period they may oftentimes seem to clash, but they will ulti- mately come into perfect accord. He who, even now, from an elevated point surveys the contending hosts on THE ERA OF MIND. this fiercely-fought field, will see that the scientists and the religionists are fast setting out, if not even now moving upon converging lines of thought. By-and-by they will meet. Forgetting, then, the rancor and bitter- ness of the past in the joy of newly-found truth, they will clasp hands, and together cast the crowns of their triumphs the triumphs of Science and Christianity at the feet of their common Author, and God shall be pro- claimed LORD or ALL! FIRST PART. [Tke figures refer to the pages of the book.] INTRODUCTION. State the origin of the earth according to the nebular hypothesis. Why did the earth assume a globular form ? Describe the appearance of the first crust. The first rain. Why was the water hot ? What was the effect of the rain ? Describe the conflict between fire and water. 19. Where do Astronomy and Geology meet? Meaning of the term "day" in the Scriptures? Give the parallel between the Mo- saic and the geologic account. 20. Give some idea of the appearance of the earth at that time. Define Geology. 21. How thick is the earth's crust? How deep has it been ex- amined? Condition of the interior? Name the six reasons given to prove that the interior is a melted mass. At what rate does the temperature increase as we descend ? Illustrate. Name some ar- tesian wells that furnish warm water. 22. Name some geysers that throw up hot water. Cause of this difference in temperature? Is the earth's crust steady? What does this oscillation show? What are volcanoes? How many are active? Give an illustration of the amount of lava they throw out at an eruption. Cause of volcanoes? 258 QUESTIONS. 23. How many earthquakes have been recorded in the last half of a century ? Cause of earthquakes ? * State in what respects the , earth is a microcosm. In what way is the present to the geologist the key to the past ? 24-5. By what course of reasoning does the geologist infer that .certain kinds of rocks were formed by water? Are rocks now being 'made in this way? What does the geologist call such rocks: How does the ocean record the history of the land? 26. Where does the geologist find the history of the past written? Has the ocean always been where it is now? By what course of reasoning does the geologist conclude that certain rocks have been thrown up in a melted state from the interior of the earth ? 27. What name does he apply to such rocks? Can he be mis- taken in the principle ? Define fossils. Give some illustrations of the mistakes the ancients made concerning them. Plater's blunder. What view was generally held at a later day ? 28. Describe the process of fossilization. Are fossils now being made ? When we find a fossil bone, what conclusion do we draw ? How can a geologist restore the form of an ancient animal, deter- mine its habits, etc. ? f * In the text the theory of earthquakes is given as that of " billowy pulsations " in the crust resting on the waves of a lava-ocean. Dana, holds that they are pro- duced by the folding up of the rocks in the slow process of cooling and conse- quent contraction. An earthquake Wave consists, as in all wave-motion, of a progressive vibration as well as a vertical oscillation (Phil., p. 128). The upward vibration seldom exceeds two feet in height. The forward movement has a rate of twenty to thirty miles per minute, depending on the character of the crust through which it passes ; in the " undisturbed beds of the Mississippi valley the rate being greater than among the contorted strata of Europe." Orton says that no familiarity with earthquakes enables one to laugh during the shock, or even at the subterranean thunders, which sound like the clanking of chains in the realm of Pluto. All animated nature is terror-stricken. The horse trembles in his stall. The cow moans a low, melancholy tune. The dog sends forth an unearthly yell. Sparrows drop from the trees as if dead. Crocodiles leave the trembling bed of the river and run with loud cries into the forest. When the earth rocks beneath our feet, we feel something beside giddiness. " A moment," says Humboldt, " destroys the illusion of a whole life." We realize an utter insignificance in the presence of that mysterious Power that guides the forces of Nature. t " Such is the unity and persistence of plan which runs through the different classes of the animal kingdom, that a single tooth, whether of a living or extinct species, will often suffice to enable the expert to disclose all the zoological rela- tionships of the animal to which it belonged, to delineate its form, and size, and habits of life ; as the architect from a single capital rescued from a ruined edifice QUESTIONS. 259 29. Illustrate. Why does a geologist think a fossil shell was once inhabited ? What does the shell show ? What proof is there that an Arctic climate once existed in England and France? Is this good reasoning ? 30. What reasons has the geologist for thinking that certain re- gions were once covered with glaciers or icebergs ? 31. How does he know that a race of cave-dwelling men once lived in Europe? That they were contemporaneous with the hyena? Describe the discoveries that could be made in digging through an old lake-bottom. 32. Give the history of the lake as deduced from such data. Can we judge of the antiquity of the lake? State what has been found in draining old Scottish lake-bottoms. The history indicated by these remains. SECOND PA RT. LITHOLOGICAL GEOLOGY. Define. Name the three classes into which it is divided. Define the term " rock." 40. What common minerals compose the larger part of the earth's crust ? Properties of quartz ? Its tests? 42. Why are quartz pebbles, etc., so abundant ? Size, clearness, etc., of quartz crystals? What is rock crystal? Why so called? can declare not only the general style of the entire architecture, but can repro- duce the size and proportions of the temple whose spirit and method it embodies. Not less sublime than the work of the astronomer", who sits in his observatory, and, by the use of a few figures, determines the existence and position in space of some far-off, unknown orb, is that of the palaeontologist the astronomer of time-worlds who, from the tooth of a reptile, or the bony scale of a fish found thirty feet deep in the solid rock, declares the existence, ages ago, of an animal form which human eyes never beheld a form that passed totally out of being uncounted centuries before the first intelligent creature was placed upon our planet and by laws as unerring and uniform as those of the mathematics, pro- ceeds to give us the length and breadth of the extinct form ; to tell us whether it lived upon dry land, in marshes, or in the sea ; whether a breather of air or water, and whether subsisting upon vegetable or animal food. It is this unity of the laws of animal life and organization running through .the whole chain of ex- istence, whether past or present, whether extinct or recent, that constitutes the sublime philosophy of palseontological studies, and assures us that one enduring and infinite Intelligence has planned and executed every part of creation." Winchelfs Sketches of Creation, p, 175. 260 QUESTIONS. Its uses ? Illustrate the great variety of forms which quartz as- sumes. Describe rose quartz. 43. Smoky quartz. Milky quartz. Granular quartz. Its uses. Amethyst. Why so called? Chalcedony. Carnelian. Sard. Chrysoprase. Agate. Name the different varieties of agate.* 44. What is a cameo? Describe some celebrated antique cameos. The process for preparing agates for the market. 45. Describe jasper. Cause of its color? Name and describe the different varieties of jasper. What is opal? Its appearance ? 46. For what is hydrophane noted? How is this explained? What gives the color to quartz pebbles, sand, etc. ? Show that iron is Nature's universal dye ! Describe flint. Its tests. Hornstone. Buhrstone. 47. Cause of its cellular structure? Origin of quartz? What are diatoms? How do they form rocks ? 48. What is tripoli ? Fossil farina? Infusorial earth? Noted localities ? Appearance of flint, etc., under the microscope ? What conclusion is drawn from these facts? Describe alumina. Its tests. 49. Sapphire. Corundum. Emery. Composition of limestone. Tests. Lime. Calcite. Iceland spar. Its test. Chalk. Calca- reous tufa. The Tiber stone. 50. What are stalactites ? Stalagmites ? Appearance of Oolite ? What is marl? Its uses? Dolomite? Its test ? Marble? 51. Describe the Parian marble. Name some works of art wrought from this stone. How is the quality of marble often in- jured? What is verde-antique? Describe the process of sawing marble. Wherein is this stone especially designed for man's use ? 52. Illustrate the abundance of limestone. What was the origin of limestone ? Of chalk ? What does the abundance of limestone prove? What is gypsum ? Its tests? Plaster? Its uses? 53. Forms of crystallized gypsum? A noted locality? What is plaster of Paris? What are silicates? Name the six prominent ones. Tests of feldspar. Three varieties of feldspar. Their tests. What is clinkstone? Common clay? * The peculiar form assumed by the oxyd of iron in the moss-agate is said by microscopists to be due to the presence of tiny fossil sponges in the stone. 54. Kaolin ? Why are bricks red and tobacco-pipes white ? Common name for mica? Its tests? Its uses? In what forms is it found ? Describe hornblende. Why so called ? Asbestos. Its uses. 55. Augite. How distinguished from hornblende?* Talc.f Its tests. What is French chalk ? Soapstone? Uses? 56. What is serpentine ? Its tests ? Why so called ? Its uses ? What is chlorite? Garnet? Its tests? Ancient name? Tour- maline ? 57. Name the three general classes of rocks. Define sedimen- tary rocks. Name the four divisions of sedimentary rocks. What is sandstone? Conglomerate? A siliceous sandstone ? An argil- laceous one ? 58. Name the three kinds of conglomerate. What is a pudding- stone ? A breccia? A shale ? A sedimentary limestone ? What are the characteristics of the landscape in a sandy region ? 59. Define igneous rocks. By what other name are they known? Into what two classes are they divided ? Describe trap-rocks. Why so called ? Their uses ? Name the four varieties of trap-rocks. What is basalt ? Chrysolite ? Greenstone ? Common name ? 60. Describe porphyry. Why so called ? What is a porphyritic rock ? An amygdaloid ? 61. What form does trap assume in crystallizing? Causes of this ? Noted trappean scenery ? * The soft, light-colored pencils in common use are made from a soap-stone rock found at Castleton, Vt. It is a silicate, technically known as argillite. This is the only deposit fit for pencils as yet discovered in the world. The rock is blasted, and is worked immediately, as it soon becomes hard and brittle, and hence useless. The stone is first split into slabs about an inch thick, and then sawn into blocks about seven inches long and five wide. These are carried to the " splitting table," where workmen, with a hammer and a bit of steel like the blade of a knife, split them into little plates about one-third of an inch thick. The squares are now of a tolerably uniform size, about an inch wide, one-third of an inch thick, and seven inches long, but are very rough. They are next passed through a planing-machine, which smooths them, and a rounding-ma- chine, which cuts off the corners, and then are sawed to the proper length. Each pencil is afterward sharpened separately on a grindstone. The waste is very great, as not more than one-hnndredth of the original stone appears in the form of pencils. This refuse is ground three grades finer than superfine flour, and used to mix with paper pulp to give it body, as it is termed, and a satin finish. t Talc is found as a compact rock in North Carolina. It is largely used as a black-board crayon. 262 QUESTIONS. 62. Characteristic features of the landscape in a trappean region ? Proof of the igneous origin of basalt ? 64. Curious relation between the civil and geologic history of trappean countries ? Name the three varieties of volcanic rocks. Describe trachyte ? Noted peak of trachyte ?* What is lava ? 65. Scoria? Its uses? Pumice? Its uses? What are the char- acteristic features of the landscape in a volcanic region ? Define metamorphic rocks. 66. What effect would melted lava have on sedimentary rocks ? Illustrate. Cause of fossils in certain kinds of marble ? Imperfec- tions in marble ? Composition of granite ? How may its constitu- ents be distinguished ? 67. What is graphic granite ? Is the structure of granite uni- form ? Its value for various uses ? Its location in the earth's crust ? Process of quarrying granite ? 68-9. Estimate of granite by the ancients ? Is granite a primi- tive rock ? Has the original crust of the earth been preserved un- changed ? State what changes it has probably undergone. Could granite crystallize directly out from lava ? State the theory of the formation of granite. If granite be not an igneous rock, how do you explain the fact that it has been thrown up in a melted state ? What are the various aspects which granite assumes in a land- scape ? 71. What is the general appearance of a granitic region ? What effect has the purity and sublimity of nature upon the inhabitants? Difference between granite and gneiss ? 72. Origin of gneiss? Its use? Appearance of gneiss hills? 73. What is mica schist? Character of a mica schist landscape? What noted scenery is of this description ? What is syenite ? Why so called ? Was this name correctly applied ? Is " Quincy granite " a true granite ? * Chimborazo is a trachytic dome, which is a characteristic feature of the moun- tain scenery among the Andes, as sharp granitic pinnacles are of the Alps. (See page 69.) It is a majestic pile of snow, white as if cut out of spotless marble. Yet it once gleamed with volcanic fires. Its ancient name, Chimpurazu, meant mountain of snow. It is a little singular to notice how many lofty peaks in the world are thus named Himalaya, Mont Blanc, Hcemus, Sierra Nevada, Ben Nevis, Snowdon, Lebanon, White Mountains, Chimborazo, and Illimani. Or- ion's ^A ndes and the A mazon" Q U E STI ONS. 74. What is quartzite ? Repeat the effects of metamorphic action on limestone. Cause of colored veins in marble ? How are rocks classified according to their structure ? 75. Which class is the more abundant on the exterior of the earth's crust ? On the interior ? Which is of the greater value in geologic study ? Does the crust remain of the same thickness ? How are igneous rocks worked over into stratified rocks ? How are stratified rocks generally deposited ? 76. Show how igneous action has disturbed this uniform arrange- ment. Value of this disturbance in geologic study ? Define out- cropping. 77. Define stratum, formation, group, and lamina. Name and define the- various terms used to indicate the position of strata. 78. When are strata conformable? What is diverse stratifica- tion ? Distinguish between lamination and stratification. State the circumstances under which different kinds of lamination are produced. 79. Define a fault. A jointed structure. Illustrate. 80. Value to the quarrymen ? Cause of these seams? What are folds? How produced ? 81. What is a decapitated fold ? Effect in apparently displacing strata ? Illustrate. 82. What is a concretion ? The nucleus ? A septarium ? 83. A claystone ? A geode ? A beetle-stone ? 84. A slate structure ? How produced ? How do the unstrati- fied rocks occur ? 85. What is a vein ? A dike ? Meaning of the term ? 86. State Hugh Miller's beautiful comparison. 87. How can the relative age of veins or dikes be estimated? What proof is there that some veins have been filled from below With melted matter ? 88. Describe the various ways in which Nature mends her rock- rents. 90. How have metallic veins been formed ? What is a lode ? Q UE S TI N S. THIRD PART. HISTORICAL GEOLOGY. Define historical geology. Name some of the difficulties the geologist finds in reading this history. Value of fossils ? Why does the identification of a fossil identify a forma- tion ? Are the geologic ages clearly separated ? What terms are used to designate the lesser divisions ? 96. Name and define the four different Times of geologic his- tory. On what are these divisions based ? THE Azoic TIME. Location of the Azoic rocks ? Is America the " new world ? " * 100. Name the kinds of Azoic rocks. How formed ? What ores do they contain ? Was there ever a true Azoic time ? Is it defi- nitely fixed ? State the historyoftheEozoon Canadense. What are rhizopods ? (See further account on page 188.) What other name do these fossils have ? 101. Is the Eozoon accepted universally as a fossil ? What effect would its admission have ? How are the relative ages of moun- tains indicated ? The oldest mountains in the world ? 102. Describe the effect of the metamorphic action on the Azoic rocks. 103. Divisions of the Azoic rocks in Canada. State the proba- bility that life existed at that early day, and that vegetable life had the precedence. 104. Show how the frame-work of the continent was developed in the Azoic Time. The parallel which exists between the Mosaic and geologic accounts. * The oldest land in South America is in Guiana. Its granite peak rose above the ocean an island where now expands a continent. Its Azoic rocks, together with those of Brazil, which afterward appeared as a cluster of islands, were for ages the only dry land. south of the Canada Hills. While the Creator was build- ing up a continent at the north, the south seems to have been left for a later age to develop. Carboniferous vegetation mantled the coal regions with a gorgeous flora, monstrous saurians paddled the waters of the upper Atlantic coast, and huge dinotheria wallowed in the mire where now stand the palaces of Paris, London, and Vienna, but as yet only the broad table-land of Guiana and Brazil appeared above the waste of the Palaeozoic Sea. Sec Orion's "Andes ^and tAt Amazon" q v i: ,s T i o x ,s . ;.v;/7 [If the chapter on Natural History be learned, the questions will readily suggest themselves.] THE PAL/EOZOIC TIME. Name the ages of the Palaeozoic Time. THE SILURIAN AGE. Why is the age so called ? Name the periods of the Silurian Age. Why is the New York survey taken as the basis of the Silurian and Devonian Ages.-" no. State the method by which the continent grew. The gen- eral characteristics of the Silurian Age. in. Location of the Potsdam rocks ? Kinds of rocks ? 112. Describe the lingula. The trilobitc. 114. The atmosphere of the Potsdam Period. f The early Silu- rian beach. What sub-kingdoms of animals were represented ? Was there any vegetation ? Any distinction of zones ? 115. Reasons for this uniformity? Show how changes in the sea produced corresponding changes in the life and the rock. What geologic events occurred in the Lake Superior region ? * This system has been established by the genius and the indefatigible perse- verance of James Hall, LL.D., State Geologist. To his labor the world is in- debted for a palaeontological work on the rocks of New York, the compeer of Murchison's on the Silurian of Europe. t Nature does nothing by halves. She does not stop at fractions of enter- prises. She never forsakes a part until it becomes a whole. Her works are often a process ; often is the process long, but provision is always made for finishing up in a congruous manner whatever she has undertaken. Many human works are finally forsaken at various stages of incompleteness machines, edifices, books. Nature is no Michael Angelo, leaving piles of unfinished productions. All her parts bid us look for wholes. Did you ever find a fraction whose integer is not come or coming ? When you see the crescent moon, be sure that the rest of the sphere is by its side, though for the present unillumined. Look more closely ; perhaps you may discern the old moon in the new moon's arms. Look more closely ; perhaps you may discover over against yonder organic need in Nature a full supply for that need which Nature has provided. But whether you discover it or not, make sure that the supply exists. Nature does not waste her- self. She has no fondness for throwing herself away either wholly or in parts. If you find one of her reservoirs, make sure that there is something to put in it, and as much as it will hold. If you find one of her tools, be certain that it has something to do, and as much as it can do well. A good and careful pro- vider is she, and never to be reckoned as an infidel who does not care for his own ! Cuvier finds a bone, and he. at once reconstructs the whole animal to which it belongs. How ? On the observed fact that whatever is needed to com- plement a full mechanism in Nature exists or has existed that wherever shines a Castor of a demand, over against it shines also the twin Pollux of a supply. Pater Mundi,pp. 233-5. la Q UE S TI NS. 116. Draw the parallel between the Mosaic and geologic ac. counts. 117. Location of Trenton rocks ? Principal kinds of rocks ? Name the epochs. 118. Scenery of the Galena limestone. Fossils of the Chazy. 1 19. Characteristic fossils of Bird's Eye and Black River lime- stones. Describe the orthoceratite. 120. What is the siphuncle ? Were species constant ? Did ani- mals die as now ? 122. What sub-kingdoms of animals existed? Any terrestrial plants ? What mountains were elevated at the close of the period ? How is this known ? Location of Hudson rocks ? By what other name is the formation known ? Kinds of rock ? Does it contain any coal ? 123. Describe the graptolite. Geography of the Hudson Period. 124. Location of Niagara rocks ? Why so called ? Name the epochs. 125. What is Niagara limestone called in Chicago ? Minerals at Lockport ? Appearance at the west ? What abundant and inter- esting fossil ? Describe the fucoids. 126. The crinoids ? What common name has the crinoid ? What is crinoidal (encrinital) limestone ? 127. Condition of the Appalachian region during this period ? Location of Salina rocks ? 129. Kinds of rock ? Why is it so destitute of fossils ? Explain the Salt Springs. The gypsum beds. 130. Location of the Lower Helderberg rocks? Kind of rock? Name of the lower beds ? What is said of the abundance of fos- sils ? Describe the eurypterus. . 131. The tentaculites. Geography of this period. 132. The climate. What animals took the lead ? What classes were yet wanting to complete the scheme of life ? Illustrate the uniformity of Nature in all ages. The changes which took place in the life at various times. THE DEVONIAN AGE. Why so called? What name has it in England? Is it a red sandstone in America ? Name its periods. Describe the general characteristics of the age. What is the promi- nent feature ? Q UE ST I NS. 135. What is a ganoid ? Name and describe the five principal kinds of fish the coccosteus, the pterichthys, the cephalaspis, the holoptychius, and the'osteolepis. 137. Illustrate their singular union of reptilian and fishy traits. What is a comprehensive type ? A prophetic and a retrospective one? 139. Location of Oriskany rocks ? Kind of rock ? 140. Its characteristic fossils ? Condition of the sea along the old Appalachian beach ? 141. Location of the Upper Helderberg rocks ? What other name is applied to them ? Why ? Name the epochs. Which stone is most valuable for building purposes ? What is " chert " ? 142. Characteristic fossil ? Location of the Hamilton rocks ? 143. Name the epochs and describe the different rocks. Physi- cal features of districts underlaid by Hamilton rocks. 144. By what name is the Genesee slate known at the west ? Describe the goniatite. The cup coral. 146. For what is the phacops bufo distinguished ? When did terrestrial plants first appear ? Location of Chemung rocks ? Name the epochs. Under what circumstances were the Chemung rocks deposited? What are its prominent fossils? Its geo- graphy ? . THE CARBONIFEROUS AGE. Why so called ? Name the periods. The general characteristics of the age ? Its geography ? The con- ditions favorable to the growth of vegetation ? The formation of .coal ? The frequent oscillations of the land ? 152. Location of the Sub-Carboniferous rocks? Kinds of rock ? Curious appearance which they sometimes present?* Prominent fossils ? Describe the " sink holes " found in this formation. The caves. 154. Peculiarity of the fish found in the Mammoth Cave ? What animals appeared, as it were, before their time ? Location of Car- boniferous rocks ? Name the six great coal-fields of the United States. What are the False Coal Measures ? 155. Kinds of rock ? State some facts with regard to coal * These remains are popularly styled rock-cities. Several are found in the south-western part of New York. 268 QUESTIONS. seams. The effect of pyrites. What are the characteristic fos- sils ? 156. Describe the Carboniferous vegetation. The ferns. The calamites. 157. The sigillarise. The lepidodendra. The stigmarise. The conifers. Reptilian remains. Insects. Fishes. 162. Location of Permian Period. Why so called ? Kinds of rock ? Curious kind of limestone found near Manhattan, Kansas ? 163. Describe the character of the Permian fossils. The Appa- lachian revolution. 164-5. Illustration of the subsequent denudation seen at Cham- bersburg, Penn. The metamorphic action. Beneficent effects of this upheaval and metamorphism. The progress of life. THE MESOZOIC TIME. Name the periods of the Mesozoic Time. The general characteristics of the Age of Reptiles. 167. Grand characteristic ? The geography ? Origin of the terms Triassic and Jurassic ? 168. What name is sometimes given to the Triassic rocks in Europe? What are the European divisions of the Jurassic rocks? 169. Location of the Triassic and Jurassic rocks in the United States ? Describe the formation of the rocks. Kinds of rock. Is coal found ? 170. What change took place in the character of the vegetation ? Describe he cycad. Show that it is a comprehensive type. What classes now make their appearance ? Had birds or mammals been known before? Describe the various kinds of fossils insects, fishes, oysters, crinoids, etc. 171. In what families did the class of cephalopods culminate? Describe the ammonite. 172. How did the ammonite sink? Describe the belemnite. 173. Common names? What is said of the cuttle-fish? The fchthyosaur ? 174. Coprolites? Beetle-stones? 177. Tell the story of Mary Anning. 178. Describe the plesiosaur. The pterodactyle. How were the fins of the Devonian fishes a prophecy of man ? QUESTIONS. 269 181. Describe the dinosaurs. What are the names of the princi- pal of these land reptiles ? 182. Describe the megalosaur. The iguanodon. The restora- tion of the latter animal. What striking illustration of the mutual adaptation of the various. parts of the animal occurred in the restora- tion of the megalosaur?* What'naturalist discovered this principle in comparative anatomy (p. 203) ? 183. Describe the labyrinthodon. The ramphorhyncus. 184-5. The "bird-tracks" of the Connecticut valley. What is said of the animal by which they were made? What was the cli" mate at that time ? 1 86. Describe the Triassic salt-beds of Europe. The Triassic gold-bearing rocks of California. What was the origin of the gold placers? * The following is an extract from a letter on this subject received from Dr. Hawkins too late for insertion in its proper place, but which is too valuable to be omitted : u In the first instance, I was much affected toward it by reading that admirable work, The Bridgewater Treatise on Geology, written by the Rev. Dr. Buckland, in which he describes the teeth of that gigantic saurian, and so graphically com- pares them to the combination of knife, saw and scimeter, which, with the fossil fragment of the jaw in my hand, could not fail to impress me with a precise idea of the manner in which this creature devoured its prey. He did not snap and swallow like an alligator, but did, with tooth and claw, cut off and tear the flesh of his victim, like the lion or tiger. The fragment of the jaw also gave a definite conception of the dimensions of the head, and explained the necessity for the animal to have an active power over the formidable weapons with which he con- quered and devoured his prey. To do this successfully, it was necessary for the strong tendon attached to the back of the head to be also firmly anchored at its other extremity to the long spines of the nerve-arches at the junction of the neck and back, as in the horse, stag, elephant, tiger, and all animals having an active, use for a large and heavy head. This theoretical reasoning and conviction 1 em- bodied in a preliminary sketch with the elevated ridge on the fore part of tho back, to submit to the learned savans whom I had the privilege of consulting a\ that time, and by whom it was condemned as exceptional in the case of reptiles. My convictions, however, were too strong to allow me to yield to their decision. I therefore commenced this gigantic model in the spring of the year 1854, an .-^A ^ WW\ rt J^ X . i A\- Acalephs, 107. Agate, 43. Alabaster, 53. Albite, 53. Alluvial Deposits, 237. Alumina, 48. Amethyst, 43. Ammonite, 171. Amygdaloid, 60. Anoplotherium, 203. Appalachian Beach, 140. Appalachian Metamorphism, 164. Appalachian Mountains, 110. Appalachian Revolution, 163. Artesian Wells, 21. Articulates, 106. Asbestos, 54. Athens Marble, 125. Angite, 55. Azoic Time, 98. Bad Lands, 204. Basalt, 59. Basaltic Pillars, 63. Beetle Stones, 84. Belemnite, 172. Bird's Eye Limestone, 11T. Bird Tracks, 184. Black River Limestone, 117. Black Slate, 144. Bloodstone, 45. Blue Limestone, 119. Bowlders, 208. Brachiopods, 107. Breccia, 58. Bronze Epoch, 249. Bryozoans, 107. Buhrstone. 46. Calamites, 156. Calc Spar, 49. Calcite, 49. Cameo, 44. Camel, 240. Canadian Divisions, 108. Calciferous Epoch, 112. Caflon, 236. Cauda Galli Grit, 141. Carbuncle, 56. Carboniferous Age, 149. Carboniferous Period, 154, Carnelian, 43. Caves, 153. Cave Bear, .230. Cenozoic Time, 194. Cephalaspis, 137. Cephalopods, 107. Chalcedony, 43. Chalk, 49, 189. Chazy Group, 117. Champlain Epoch, 219. Chlorite, 56, 15. Chemung Period, 146. Chert, 125, 141. Chronology, 30. Chrysoprase, 43. Chrysolite, 59. Cimoliasaur, 190. Cincinnati Limestone, 128. Clay, 53. Clay Stones, 83. Cleavage, 41. Cliff Limestone, 143. Clinton Group, 124. Clinkstone, 53. Coal, 155. Coccoeteus, 135. INDEX. Comprehensive Type, 137. Conchifers, 107. Concretions, 83. Conglomerate, 57. Conifers. 157. Continent, Outlines of, 104, 110. Coprolites, 174. Coral, 108. Corniferous Period, 141. Corundum, 49. Cretaceous Period, 187. Crinoids, 108, 125. Crocodiles, 191. Crust of Earth, 21. Crustaceans, 106. Cycad, 170. Denudation, 82. Deep-Sea Dredgings, 190. Development Hypothesis, 251. Devonian Age, 134. Diatoms, 47. Dikes, 86. Dinosaur, 181, 191. Diorite, 60. Dip, 78. Diverse Stratification, 78. Dislocations of Strata, 76. Dolomite, 51. Dolerite, 59. Drift Epoch, 207. - Earthquakes, 23. Echinoids, 108. Echinoderms, 108. Elasmosaur, 190. Elephant, 227. Emery, 49. Eocene, 196. Escarpment, 78. Eurypterus, 130. EozoSn Canadense, 101. Faults, 80. Feldspar, 53. 'Fingal's Cave, 61. Flint, 46. Folds, 81. Fossil, 27. - Fossil Farina, 48. Fucoids, 125, Galena Limestone, 118. .Ganoids, 106. Garnet, 56. Gasteropods, 107. Genesee Slate, 143. Geodes. 83. Geology, Definition of, 20. Geysers?, 22. Glacial Epoch, 207. Glacial Striae, 210. Glaciers, 29, 212. Glyptodon, 230. Gneiss, 72. Gold Rocks, 186. Goniatite, 144. Granite, 67. Graptolite, 123. Green Mountains, 122, 131 Greenstone, 59. Gypsum, 52, 129. Hadrosaur, 191. Hamilton Period, 142. Helderberg Period, 130. Holoptychius, 137. Hornstone, 46. Hornblende, 54. Horse, 240, 250, 271. Hot Springs, 22. Hyena, 232. Hudson Period, 122. Hudson River, 123. Iceberg, 217. Ichthyosaur, 173. Iguanodon, 181. Igneous Rocks, 26, 59. Infusoria, 105. Infusorial Earth, 48. Iron Epoch, 250. Ironstone, 59. Irish Elk, 231. Isinglass, 54. Jasper, 45. Jointed Structure, 81. Jurassic, 167. Kaolin, 54. Kitchen Middens, 247. Labradorite, 53. Labyrinthodon, 183. Lselaps, 192. Lake Bottom, 31. N D EX. Lake Dwellings, 249. Lake Superior, 115. Lamellibranch, 107. Lamina, 78. Lava, 65. Lepidodendron, 157. Lias, 168. Limestone, 49, 58. Lingula, 112. Lithological Geology, 35. Loess, 237. Man, Coming of, 243. Mammoth Cave, 153. Mammoth, 225. Map of Azoic Time, 99. Map of Mesozoic Time, 168. Map of Cenozoic Time, 195. Marble, 51/75. Marble, Carrara, 67. Marl; 50. Marcellus Shale, 143. Mastodon, 228. Medina Group, 124. Megalosaur, 182. Megatherium, 229. Metal Age, 248. 'Metamorphism, 66, 88, 164. Metamorphic Rocks, 65. Mesozoic Time, 166. Methods of Geological Study, 23. Mica, 54. Mica Schist, 74. Millstone Grit, 154. Miocene, 196. Mound Limestone, 125. Mountains, 101. Mollusks, 106. Mosaic Account, 19, 104, 116, 238. Nature, Uniformity of, 23. Natural History, 105. Nebular Hypothesis, 17. Niagara Limestone, 124. Nummulitic Limestone, 198. Obsidian, 66. Offsets, 80. Old Red Sandstone, 134. Oneida Epoch, 124. Onondaga Group, 141. Onyx, 44. OOlite, 50, 168. Opal, 45. Oriskany Period, 139. Orthoceratite, 119. Ostrea Marshii, 170. Outcrop, 77. Oyeter, 170. Palaeozoic Time, 108. Paleotherium, 203. Pentamerus, 130. Permian, 162. ' Phacops bufo, 146. Pine Barrens, 197. Plaster, 52. Plesiosaur, 177. Pliocene, 196. Polyps, 107. . Porphyry, 60. Post-Tertiary, 207. Potsdam, 111. Portage Group, 146. Primeval Man, 243. Protozoans, 105. Pterodactyle, 178. Pterichthys, 135. Pteropods, 107. Pudding-stone, 58. Pumice, 66. Pyroxene, 55. Quartz, 40. Quartzite, 75. Quaternary Epoch, 207. Quincy Granite, 74. Ramphorhynchus, 183. Reindeer Epoch, 245. Rhizopods, 100, 188. Rhinoceros, 239. Rocky Mountains, 124. Rocks, Classification of, 57. Rocks, Composition of, 40. Rocks, Metamorphic, 66. Rocks, Sedimentary, 57. Rocks, Structure of, 75. Rocks, Stratified, 57, 78. Rocks, Trap, 59. Rocks, Unstratifierf, b9, 85. Rocks, Volcanic, 65. Sand Dunes, 238. Salina Period, 127. Salt Springs, 129. XD E X. Salt Beds, 186. Sand, 46. Sandstone, 57. Sapphire, 49. Sard, 43. Satin Spar, 53. Scenic Description, 20, 58, 60, 66, 70, 73, 74, 132, 148, 161, 192, 239. Schoharie Grit, 141. Scoria, 66. Sculptured Rocks, 115. Sea-weeds, 119, 125. Sea-pens, 123. Sedimentary Rocks, 24, 57. Selenite, 53. Selachians, 106. Septaria, 83. Serpentine, 56. Shale, 58. Sigillaria, 157. Silica, 40. Silicates, 53. Silurian Age, 109. Sink-holes, 153. Siphuncle, 120. Slate, 75, 85. Solenhofen Limestone, 169. Soapstone, 54. Spirifer arenosus, 139. Spirifer mucronatus, 146. Stalactites, 50. Stalagmites, 50. Steatite, 55. Stone River Group, 117. St. Lawrence River, 123. St. Peter's Sandstone, 112. Stone Age, 244. Stratified Rocks, 57. Stratum, 78. Sub-Carboniferous Period, 153. Syenite, 74. Talc, 55. Talcose Schist, 75. Teliosts, 106. Tentaculite, 181. Tertiary Period, 196. Terrace Epoch, 221. Theory, Value of a, 252. Titanotherium, 205. Touchstone, 45. Tourmaline, 56. Tully Limestone, 143. Turtles, 191. Trap-rock, 59. Trachyte,, 65. Travertine, 49. Trenton Period, 117. Trilobite, 112. Triassic Period, 167. Tufa, 49. Uniformity of Nature, 23, 133. Upper Helderberg Period, 141. Verd-antique, 51. Veins, 86. Vertebrates, 106. Water Lime Group, 130. Wealden, 168. Xiphodon, 203. Zeuglodon, 202. ZoOphite, 110. National Series of Standard Schoot-jBooks. DRAWING? Chapman's American Drawing Book, . -*$6 oo The standard American text-book and authority in all branches of art. A com- pilation of art principles. A manual for the amateur, and basis of study for the pro- fessional artist. Adapted for schools and private instruction. CONTENTS. "Any one who can Learn to Write can Learn to Draw." Primary Instruction in Drawing. Rudiments of Drawing the Human Head. Rudiments in Drawing the Human Figure. Rudiments of Drawing. The Elements of Geometry. Perspective. Of Studying and Sketching from Nature. Of Painting. Etching and Engraving. Of Modeling. Of Composition Advice to the American Art-Student. The work is of course magnificently illustrated with all the original deeigns. Chapman's Elementary Drawing Book, . . 1 so A Progressive Course of Practical Exercises, or a text-book for the training of tb* eye and hand. It contains the elements from the larger work, and a copy chould be in the hands of every pupil; while a copy of the ''American Drawing Book," named above, should be at hand for reference by the class. The Little Artist's Portfolio, *50 25 Drawing Cards (progressive patterns), 25 Blanks, and a fine Artist's Pencil, all in one neat envelope. Clark's Elem:n(s of Drawing, *i oo A complete coirve i:i this graceful art, from the first rudiments of outline to the finished sketches of 1 riukaipti and scenery. 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Any pupil old enough to study Geography can learn by this System, in a short time, to draw accurate map?. 8. The System is not the result of theory, but comes directly from the school-room. It has been thoroughly and successfully tested there, with all grades of pupil<. 9. It is economical, as it requires no mapping plates. It gives Uie pupil the ability of rapidly drawing accurate maps. Ripley's Map-Drawing, i 25 Basod on the Circle. One of the most efficient aids to the acquirement of a knowledge of Geography is the practice of map-drawing. It is useful for the same reason that the best exercise, in orthography is the writing of difficult words. Sight romes to the aid of hearing, and a double impression is produced upon the memory. Knowledge becomes less mechanical and more intuitive. The student who has sketched the outlines of a country, and dotted the important places, is littlo likely to forget either. 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The treatise on, Double Entry Book-keeping combines all the ad- rantages of the most recent methods, with the utmost simplicity of application, thus affording the pupil all the advantages of actual ex- perience in the counting-house, and giving a clear comprehension of the entire subject through a judicious course of mercantile trans- actions. The shape of the book is such that the transactions can be pre- sented as In actual practice ; and the simplified form of Blanks- three in number adds greatly to the ease experienced in acquiring the science. 27 The National Series of Standard School-ftooks. NATURAL SCIENCE. FAMILIAR SCIENCE. Norton & Porter's First Book of Science, H 75 By eminent Professors of Yale College. Contains the principles of Natural Philosophy, Astronomy, Chemistry, Physiology, and Geology. Arranged on the Catechetical plan for primary classes and beginners. 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Chambers' Elements of Zoology, 1 50 A complete and comprehensive system of Zoology, adapted for aca- demic Instruction, presenting a systematic view of the Animal Kingdom as a portion of external Nature. 82 National Series of Standard School-tBooks. LITERATURE. Cleveland's Compendiums .... each, 8*2 60 ENGLISH LITERATURE. AMERICAN LITERATURE. ENGLISH LITERATURE OF THE XIXTH CENTURY. In these volumes are gathered the cream of the literature of the English speak, ing people for the school-room and the general reader. Their reputation i mtional. More than 125,000 copies have been sold. Boyd's English Classics each, *l 25 MILTON'S PARADISE LOST. THOMSON'S SEASONS. YOUNG'S NIGHT THOUGHTS. POLLOK'S COURSE OF TIME. COWPER'S TASK, TABLE TALK, &c. LORD BACON'S ESSAYS. This series of annotated editions of great English writers, in prose and poetry, is designed for critical reading and parsing in schools. Prof. J. K. Boyd proves himself an editor of high capacity, and the works themselves need no encomium. As auxiliary to the study of Belles Lettres, etc., these works have no equal. Pope's Essay on Man ......... *20 Pope's Homer's Iliad *so The metrical translation of the great poet of antiquity, and the matchless ' k Essay on the Nature and State of Man, 1 ' by ALEXANDER POPE, afford superior exercise in literature and parsing. AESTHETICS. Huntinglon's Manual of the Fine Arts -*i 75 A view of the rise and progress of Art in different countries, a brief account of the most eminent masters of Art, and an analysis of the prin- ciples of Art. It is complete in itself, or may precede to advantage tno critical work of Lord Kames. Boyd's Kames' Elements of Criticism -*i 75 The best edition of this standard work ; without the study of which none may be considered proficient in the science of the Perceptions. No other study can be pursued with so marked an effect upon the taste and refinement of the pupil. POLITICAL ECONOMY. Champlin's Lessons on Political Economy l 25 .tises. jf rei 36 An improvement on previous treatises, being shorter, yet containing every thing essential, with a view of recent questions in finance, etc., which is not elsewhere found. The National Series of Standard School- GERMAN. A COMPLETE COUKSE IN THE GEEMAN, By JAMES H. WORMAN, A. M. Worrnan's Elementary German Grammar -$i 50 Ytforman's Complete German Grammar 2 oo \ These volumes are designed for intermediate and advanced classes respectively. Though following the same general method with "Otto" (that of l Gaspey'> smr author differs essentially in its application. He is more practical, more syd" tematic, more accurate, and besides introduces a number of invaluable feature* which have never before been combined in a German grammar. Among other things, it may be claimed for Prof. Worman that he has been the first to introduce in an American text-book for learning German, a system of analogy and comparison with other languages. Our best teachers are also enthusiastic about his methods of inculcating the art of speaking, of understanding the spoken language, of correct pronunciation ; the sensible and convenient origi' nal classification of nouns (in four declensions), and of irregular verbs, also de- serves much praise. We also note the use of heavy type to indicate etymological changes in the paradigms^ nd, in the exercises, the parts which specially illustrate preceding rules. Worman's Elementary German Reader . . 1 25 Worman's Collegiate German Reader . . . 2 oo The finest and most judicious compilation of classical and standard German Literature. These works embrace, progressively arranged, selections from the masterpieces of Goethe, Schiller, Korner, Seumte, Uhland, Freiligrath, Heine, Schlegel, Holty, Lenau, Wieland, Herder, Lessing, Kant, Fiehte, Schelling, Win- kelmann, Humboldt, Eanke, Raumer, Menzel, Gervinus, &c., and contains com- plete Goethe's " IpLigenie," Schiller's " Jungfrau;" also, for instruction in mod- ern conversational German, Benedix's " Eigensinn." There are besides, Biographical Sketches of each author contributing, Notes, explanatory and philological (after the text), Grammatical References to all lead- Ing grammars, as well as the editor's own, and an adequate Vocabulary. Worman's German Echo l 25 Consists of exercises in colloquial style entirely in the German, with an ade- quate vocabulary, not only of words but of idioms. The object of the system de- veloped in this work (and its companion volume in the French) is to break up the laborious and tedious habit of translating the thoughts, which is the student's most effectual bar to fluent conversation, and to lead him to think in the language in which he speaks. As the exercises illustrate scenes in actual life, a considera- ble knowledge of the manners and customs of the German people is also acquired from the use of this manual. Worman's German Copy-Books, ! Numbers, each 15 On the same plan aB the most approved systems for English penmanship, with progressive copies. 43 The National Series of Standard School-2>ooks. CHARTS. McKenzie's Elocutionary Chart, $3 50 Baade's Reading Case, .;'.;. *io