INTRODUCTION 5 
ejected in the air, so that the sun was darkened for a time, and 
the surface of the sea was covered for many miles with floating 
pumice and volcanic dust, which in time sank to the bottom, 
and was made into hard rock, such as we now find on the top of 
Snowdon. 
Earthquake shocks were quite as frequent, and no doubt the 
ground swayed to and fro, or was rent open as some unusually 
great earth-movement took place, and perhaps a mountain range 
was raised several feet or yards higher. All this we learn from 
the testimony of the rocks beneath our feet. It only requires the 
use of a little imagination to conjure up scenes of the past, and 
paint them as on a moving diorama, 
We shall not, however, dwell at any length on the scenery, or 
the vegetation that clothed the landscape at different periods ; for 
these features are sufficiently indicated in the beautiful drawings 
of extinct animals by our artists, Mr. J. Smit, and others. 
The researches of the illustrious Baron Cuvier, at Paris, as 
embodied in his great work, Ossemens Fossiles, gave a great 
impetus to the study of organic remains. It was he who laid 
the foundations of the science of Paleontology,) which, though 
much has already been accomplished, yet has a great future before 
it. Agassiz, Owen, Huxley, Marsh, Cope, and others, following 
in his footsteps, have greatly extended its boundaries; but he 
was the pioneer. 
Before Cuvier’s time fossil forms were very little known, and still 
less understood. His researches, especially among vertebrates, or 
backboned animals, revealed an altogether undreamed-of wealth 
of entombed remains. It is true, the old and absurd notion that 
1 Paleontology is the science which treats of the living beings, whether 
animal or vegetable, which have inhabited this globe at past periods in its 
history. (Greek—palatos, ancient ; onta, beings; logos, discourse.) 
