336 REVIEWS OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



(v. 3) that " there was light." Yet on the fourth it appears that it is necessary to 

 re-create light, by establishing "lights in the firmament." We should be glad to 

 know how there could have been " light" prior to the existence of " lights in the 

 firmament." The actual process of creation infinitely surpassed the idea conveyed 

 by the mosaic description, or we are greatly mistaken. Before concluding, we 

 shall probably return to the above question, but must now proceed to offer a few 

 remarks on the Treatise before us. 



At p. 118 our author briefly discusses the circumstances supposed to have 

 favoured the growth of the immense mass of vegetation imbedded in the Coal 

 formation. The tropical nature of the plants suggests the hypothesis — otherwise 

 probable — that the climate of England was formerly considerably warmer than 

 at present. In fact the temperature of the entire globe would seem to have been 

 constantly on the decrease, and the diminution, however slow, would in course of 

 time attain a considerable amount. Brongniart supposes that the air in 

 by-gone ages contained abundance of carbonic acid gas, and was thus more 

 calculated than at present to favour the growth of such vast and dense forests as 

 must at that period have encumbered the then limited portions of land. 



Professor Phillips states that, drawing a line through Cheshire and Derby- 

 shire, it is only on the western side of the boundary that plants have been 

 found in Red Sandstone, near Liverpool and Manchester, referring in the 

 former case to Lindley and Hutton's admirable Fossil Flora, the testimony 

 of which has in this case, we believe, been questioned. A supposed fossil has 

 recently been discovered in Cheshire in the Red Sandstone formation ; but as 

 some obscurity hangs over the fine specimen alluded to, further detail on the 

 subject would here be out of place. 



Those who would account for all phenomena on the score of a universal deluge 

 will do well to peruse our author's pertinent remarks at p. 146. Geology unques- 

 tionably favours the theory of a partial, though probably not of a universal, deluge. 

 Moses affords us no assistance in this inquiry, for the scriptural version is silent 

 respecting the extent of the inundation. How Noah contrived to introduce the 

 number of animals requisite to fulfil the desired purpose into his limited ark, 

 might form a subject for separate investigation, and is well calculated to stagger 

 the inquiring reader, unless, indeed, the question be settled by the very philoso- 

 phical mode of affirming that "cubit" is assuredly a mistranslation for "furlong"! 



As regards the rule that peculiar characteristic forms always occur in certain 

 rocks, we must bring modern Zoology and Botany to our assistance. Now, only 

 a small proportion of the animals found in Europe are met with on the other side 

 the Atlantic, and vice versa. Quite a different kind of catalogue, again, is that 

 of Africa or New Holland. The generalization respecting characteristic forms 

 being found in certain rocks, can, therefore, only apply to the various zoological 

 districts. Within the limits of each of these, peculiar forms may be found in 



