1029.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



219 



he paid it promptly ; if he had not, he could 

 not ; and lie had never been taught re- 

 straint. The history of tliis hopeful per- 

 sonage, as well as that of his foster brother, 

 a random, but warm-hearted fellow, and 

 devoted to his master, are traced very mi- 

 nutely, through England, and Ireland, and 

 an American campaign, where D'Arcy gets 

 into many critical positions, from most of 

 wliich he is rescued by the zeal and sagacity 

 of his attendant — and all this, to the long 

 suspension of the story, began in the first 

 volume, and the entire oblivion of the Old- 

 courts, of whom not a word is heard 

 througli nearly two of the volumes. At 

 last the arrears are brouglit up, and Grace 

 Oldcourt re-appears. Sir 'WiUiam, struck 

 by the enchanting loveliness of this rural 

 beauty, resolves, to his own amazement, to 

 reform and venture upon matrimony, gains 

 her affections, and the v/edding is fixed. 

 On tlie bridal morning, assembled in the 

 barn-chapel, for CathoUcs had then notliing 

 but barns for chapels, the ceremony is sud- 

 denly interrupted by the coming forward of 

 Grace's foster brother, (who by the way was 

 passionately attached to Grace, but was sup- 

 posed at the time to have quitted the country) 

 accompanied by his sister, to forbid pro- 

 ceedings. The youth cliallenged tlie bride- 

 groom with seducing his sister, and in the 

 agony of his exasperation — embittered by 

 rivalry, lie snatches a pistol from his bosom 

 and snaps it at him. He is prevented from 

 turning anotlier upon himself ; but to make 

 all sure, at least as to himself, he had taken 

 poison, and dies on the spot. This har- 

 rowing event of course suspends the cere- 

 mony. D'Arcy makes every effort to con- 

 cihate Grace, but in vain, her delicacy is 

 wounded past cure, and she peremptorily 

 refuses a renewal of intercourse. The elder 

 brother now challenges the profligate 

 Sir \,V., ana a duel is fought in the true 

 style of Hibernian butcherj'. Sir W. gets 

 a bullet through his heart, and Grace buries 

 her charms in a convent. 



As we cannot affoid to quote at any 

 length, we mast be cont(?nt to direct the 

 reader's attention, to a comjiarison of Eng- 

 lish and Irish character, somewhere in the 

 first volume — the discrimination is at once 

 subtle and distinct — a very superior per- 

 fonnance. 



A Discourse on the Itevohitions of (he 

 Surface of the Glohe, hy liaron G. Ciivier; 

 HI2!i. Fossil bones discovered in positions, 

 wliere no ordinary changes of the globe 

 could have thrown them, have long been an 

 object of inquiry and speculation, t'uvicr 

 has the merit of more closely and fully in- 

 vcstigating these than any of his predeces- 

 sors — of assigning single bones to their 

 species — of tracing the whole animal from 

 a scrap — of separating the unknown from 

 flic known — of applying, moreover, these 

 relics of rcnu)tcr times to delect the theory 

 of (lie carlli, and the successive revolutions 



on its surface; — and of accomplishing all this 

 with a severity and soundness of judgment, 

 which we venture to say has no parallel 

 among philosophical naturalists. The ho- 

 rizontal strata of the earth contains marine 

 ])roductions, therefore they liave once tliem- 

 selves been the surface. These strata are 

 found up the hills oblique, therefore tliey 

 have been lifted up. On the tops of many 

 hiUs are found again horizontal strata, 

 therefore they are of later origin tlian the 

 oblique ones. Here is evidence then of nu- 

 merous revolutions — every layer is appa- 

 rently one. Some of tlicsc layers preceded 

 the creation of living beings, for in the 

 deeper ones no indications whatever are 

 discovered. The masses which now form 

 the highest hiUs were once in a state of 

 liquefaction, and covered with waters with- 

 out inhabitants. The first organized mat- 

 ters which ajjpear are moUusca and zoophytes, 

 and even tliese present themselves only in 

 the later layers of transition rocks ; but 

 are like nothing now existing. The nearer 

 we approach the present surface, the more 

 shells increase, and the more also these 

 shells resemble existing species, till the 

 very latest have some which are undis- 

 tinguishable from existing species. Bones 

 are all, comparatively, in the very latest 

 layers, and no human bones are found even 

 in the very last. But Cuvier does not 

 hastily conclude there were then no human 

 beings, for they might have inhabited some 

 confined tracts — countries not yet geologi- 

 cally examined, and from thence have 

 peopled the earth. 



The general results of Cuvier's researches 

 are, that more than 150 oviparous and vi- 

 viparous quadrupeds have been determined 

 and classed. Of these, considered as spe- 

 cies, more than ninety are no longer found 

 alive ; eleven or twelve approach so nearly 

 to known species, that there can scarcely be 

 a doubt of their identity, and others present 

 many })oints of similarity with known s])e- 

 cies. Considered as genera, among the 

 ninety unknown species, sixty belong to 

 netu genera; and of the whole 150, about a 

 fourth are oviparous ; and of the rest, the 

 viviparous ones more th.an half belong to 

 non-ruminating hoofed animals. \Fhat 

 specific relation these species bear to tlie 

 several strata in wliich they are found, the 

 carelessness with which tliey have been ge- 

 nerally collected precludes the possibility ot" 

 ascertaining, with entire satisfaction. Still 

 something has been done; for instance — 

 tlie oviparous appear more frequently than 

 the viviparous, and they arc more abundant, 

 larger, and more various in the older strata. 

 1'ortoiscs and crocodiles are found imme- 

 diately brloH' the chalk, and in the chalk. 

 Tliesc are marine oviparous animals. Ma- 

 rine vivi])arous ones, lamantins and seals, 

 are first visiliU- in the thick shelli/ linustone 

 iihorr the chalk, in the neighboiirlKKxl of 

 I'aris. It is not till after this linustone 

 that himl animals, {ivi|iari)us or viviparous 



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