Notices respecting New Books. 345 



probable that the granitic rocks, which are the lowest of the primary 

 series, owe their present condition and appearance to the effect of 

 partial or general fusion. Above this granitic series we find, certainly, 

 the effects of deep and overruling water. Many of the primary, and 

 all of the secondary rocks owe their present appearances and arrange- 

 ments to the action of water. These strata exhibit the results both 

 of agitated and of tranquil waters, mechanical aggregates, sedi- 

 mentary deposits, and chemical precipitates, in frequent repetition. 

 This circumstance, combined with the facts relating to organic re- 

 mains, teaches us, that during a long period the sea flowed rich in 

 living beings over rocks which contain no reliques of life. At times 

 tranquil, at intervals tumultuous, this ocean, perhaps of elevated 

 temperature, even in the northernmost regions, varied its deposits at 

 different periods, yet preserved among them a general conformity of 

 arrangement, from the oldest to the most recent, and a similarity 

 over large regions. The aquatic animals and other remains, which 

 are entombed in the earth, exhibit a long series of beings, whose 

 origin dates from some of the earliest strata, and whose forms, differ- 

 ing according to the antiquity of the rocks, successively come nearer 

 and nearer to the modern productions of the land and the ocean. 

 During this process, at intervals, vegetable forests swept into estua- 

 ries, or lakes, furnished the materials of coal, and the intermitting 

 action of submarine volcanoes frequently broke the consolidated 

 strata, and formed basaltic and other overlying rocks. At times, too, 

 more violent exertions, probably of the same cause, uplifted groups 

 and ranges of mountains with great disruption and dislocation. Ope- 

 rations of the same kind are to this day continued, but so feebly*, 

 that we commonly speak as if the causes which concurred to produce 

 the crust of our planet had ceased to exist. They appear, however, 

 to have been gradually weakened j and when the last series of the se- 

 condary beds, partly marine, partly lacustrine, was deposited, a large 

 portion of pre-consolidated rocks became tenanted by land animals. 

 But again the waters returned and overflowed the inhabited world -, 

 removed rocks, excavated valleys, and destroyed the terrestrial inha- 

 bitants, from whose anatomical construction, as displayed in their 

 remains, it may be inferred that the antediluvian face of the earth was 

 like our own, diversified by lakes, and forests, and mountains. 



" This transient flood retires from the desolated continents j again 

 the forest is clothed with foliage j birds fly in air, and animals roam 

 the earth ; the mountains gather clouds, rain falls, the streams flow 

 down their new channels, the sea resumes its appointed boundary; 

 cliffs are wasted, low shores are extended, valleys are filled up, vol- 

 canoes are in action ; nature revives again, and man, by contempla- 

 tion of the phenomena, reads the awful history of his birth-place, 

 gathers ideas of the immense agency exerted in the construction of 

 the earth, compares this planet with the other members of the solar 

 system, and views the solar system itself as only a small part of the 

 immeasurable works of God !" 



* Absumptis per longum viribus aevum. 



N.S. Vol. 9. No, 53. May 1831. 2 Y 



