220 



Monlhli) lieview of Literature. 



[|AUG. 



are found ; nor are tliere any traces of them 

 prior to tlic layers deposited on the coarser 

 limestone. In these, however, the bones of 

 land animals appear in abundance. Tlie 

 limestone strata are the last, which mark 

 a long and peaceful flowing of the sea over 

 the continents. Above these are found 

 layers filled with shells and other marine 

 productions ; but these are shifting layers, 

 sands, marles, clays; and the few stony 

 layers that present themselves betray marks 

 of being the deposits of fresh water. Now 

 almost all the bones of viviparous animals 

 arc found in these fresh-water deposits, or 

 alluvial deposits ; and the more obvious 

 conclusion, of course, is, that these qua- 

 drupeds had not began to exist, or at least 

 to leave relics in tlie layers that we are able 

 to fathom, till after the last retreat but one 

 of the sea, and during that state of things, 

 which had preceded its last eruption. But 

 there is an arrangement traceable also in 

 the order of these bones, bespeaking a re- 

 markable succession of species. Tlie un- 

 known genera, the palfcotheria and anoplothe- 

 ria belong to the oldest of these layers — to 

 those which rest immediately above the 

 coarse lime-stone, composed generally of 

 sand and round flints— apparently the oldest 

 alluvial deposits of the ancient world. M'ith 

 these are found, but in small numbers, cer- 

 tain lost species of known genera, and some 

 oviparous quadrupeds, and fresh water 

 fishes. The more celebrated of these un- 

 known species, which belong to the known 

 genera, or to genera very much resembling 

 the knowni, elephant, rhinoceros, hippopo- 

 tamus, mostodons, are not found among the 

 oldest layers. It is only in the shifting 

 layers that these are discovered; and finally, 

 it is only in quite the upper layers, or in the 

 last alluvions formed on the banks of rivers, 

 or in the beds of old ponds, dried marshes, 

 or turf layers, that appear the bones of 

 species, which are the very same as ours. 

 The existing continents are in fact of re- 

 cent formation, and all examination tends 

 to establish general tradition, and all histo- 

 rical records of any credibility. The author 

 has examined this evidence with great care 

 and candour, and with Deluc and Dolomieu 

 ' concludes, if there be any thing determined 

 in geology, it is, that the surface of the 

 globe has been subjected to a vast and sudden 

 revolution, not farther back than from five 

 to six 'thousand years — that this revolution 

 has buried and caused to disappear the 

 countries formerly inhabited by man, and 

 the species of animals now most known 

 — that, on the other hand, it has left the 

 bottom of the former sea dry, and has 

 formed on it tlie countries now inhabited — 

 that, since the revolution, those few indivi- 

 duals whom it s)iared have been spread and 

 propagated over the lands newly left dry — 

 and, consequently, it is only since this epoch 

 that our societies have assumed a progres- 

 sive march, have formed establishments, 

 raised monimients, collected natural facts, 



and combined scientific systems. But the 

 countries now inhabited, and which the last 

 revolution left dry, had been before inha- 

 bited, if not by mankind, at least by land 

 animals ; consequently one revolution, at 

 least, had overwhelmed them with water ; 

 and if wc may judge by the different orders 

 of animals whose remains we still find there, 

 they had, perhaps, undergone two or three 

 eruptions of the sea. 



The great object to which Cuvier now 

 directs the attention of geologists and 

 naturalists is no longer the primitive for- 

 mations, the uniform march and regular 

 succession of which he considers as very 

 fairly ascertained — but the secondar;/ ones, 

 the study of wliich he justly thinks is 

 scarcely begun — that wonderful scries of 

 unknown zoophytes and marine niollusca, 

 followed by reptiles and fresh water fish, 

 equally unknown, and these, in their turn, 

 replaced by zoophytes and niollusca, more 

 akin to those of the present day — those 

 land animals and niollusca, and other fresh 

 water animals, also unknown, which next 

 occupy the places, to be again disjilaced, 

 but by mollusca and other animals similar 

 to those of our own seas — the relation of 

 these various beings with the plants whose 

 remains accompany theirs — the relations of 

 these two kingdoms with the mineral layers 

 which contain them — the more or less their 

 uniformity with one another in different 

 basins — " all these are a series of phenomena, 

 which appears to me," says Cuvier, " to call 

 iiiqieriously for the profound attention of 

 philosophers." 



Shreds anrf Patches of History, in tltc 

 Form of Riddles, 2 vols; 1829. The 

 author met with a circle of young people 

 finding amusement in proposing to each 

 other historical questions, and guessing at 

 the answers. That is, one of the party 

 Slated a set of circumstances, reserving 

 names, places, and dates, which the rest 

 were called upon to supply. This idea he 

 or she adopted, and in the first of these 

 volumes has drawn up nearly two hundred 

 events and anecdotes, in this enigma form ; 

 most of them relative to popidar and well- 

 known subjects — such as are described in 

 the common histories put into children's 

 hands ; and in the second is given the key, 

 with occasional remarks and explanations. 

 It is admirably calculated to promote the 

 common purposes of instruction, by setting 

 young people to work to recal and apply 

 their readings, and thus fixing facts in the 

 memory. It is indeed the only really usefid 

 application of the riddle we have ever seen ; 

 and calculated as the scheme of a riddle is 

 to draw and force attention, it has often 

 struck ourselves it might be applied to other 

 purposes, than the nonsensical and idle ones 

 on which it is usually employed. Dates are 

 incorrectly given, we observed, in several 

 places, and other little inadvertencies occur 

 which may readily be corrected. 



