Geological Poems, 273 



would probal^ly prove both instructive and amusing to our 

 readers. We have rarely seen in any form a more con- 

 den?''d exhibition of the principal facts and doctrines of ihe 

 Wernenan Geology, than are contained in the poetical 

 GEOGirosy, which, with the Granitc^gonv and the Geolog- 

 ical Cooker Vj we now republish with all their appendages 

 of preface, arguments and notes. — A very few passages in- 

 dicate in the poet an imagination perhaps rather too waroi, 

 but we have not thought it worth while to maim the verse 

 by dissectincr them out. 



A POETICAL GEOGKOSY. 



PREFACE. 



The external part or crust of the globe, wherever it has 

 been extensively examined, is composed of different rocks, 

 generally arranged in beds or layers over each other; and 

 these beds appear to have been consolidated at different 

 epochs. Many of the beds contain remains of extinct gen- 

 era or species of animals ; and certain species are often pe- 

 culiar to certain beds, above or below which they are nev- 

 er observed. Now it is evident that the animals whose re- 

 WiJiins are imbedded in the lower rocks, could not have 

 been cotemporaneous with those found in the upper, by 

 ^vhich they are covered : hence the different ages of these 

 rocks are proved. 



The lowest rocks that we are acquainted with contain 

 few or no remains of organic life; but from their position 

 it is inferred that they have been form^^d at different peri- 

 ods : the lowest are supposed, with certain limitations, to 

 he the oldest. It is also well deserving attention, that the 

 animal remains in the lower rocks belong exclusively to 

 the simplest forms of organic lite; namely, to moluscous 

 animals and zoophytes ; and that the remains of yertebra- 

 ted animals, or such as possessed a brain and spinal mar- 

 row, never occxxv in or below the regular coal strata. 



This po.^itfon has been recently objected to; but the author is of opiu^ 

 ««o that its t.uLh has uot yd been invalidated. He is also fully convinced 

 ^nat ailthe writer^ who have hitherto attempted to apply Wemer^s arran -e- 



