52 Notices respecting Neiso Books. 



single individual, to show us the strange terrestrial creatures that 

 then existed." 



Respecting the possible character of the animals which first appeared 

 on the surface of the globe, the author observes : 



" Whatever the kind of animal life may have been which first ap- 

 peared on the surface of our planet, we may be certain that it was 

 consistent with the wisdom and design which has always prevailed 

 throughout nature, and that each creature was peculiarly adapted to 

 that situation destined to be occupied by it. Bearing therefore in 

 mind this general adaptation of animals to the circumstances under 

 which they are placed, we may be led so far to speculate at this early 

 condition of life as to inquire what kind of creatures, judging from 

 the general character of those known to us, might flourish at a period 

 when there might have been a comparative difficulty in procuring 

 carbonate of lime for their solid parts. It will be obvious that 

 fleshy and gelatinous creatures, such as MeduscB and other animals 

 of the like kind, might have abounded, as far as regards a comparative 

 scarcity of this substance. Hence it would be possible to have the 

 seas swarming with these and similar animals, while testaceous crea- 

 tures and others with solid parts were rare. 



" These remarks are merely intended to show that the scarcity of 

 organic remains observed in the lowest fossiliferous deposits by no 

 means proves a scarcity of animal life at the same period, though 

 from it we may infer that testaceous and other animals with solid 

 parts were not abundant. Mere fleshy creatures may have existed in 

 myriads without a trace of them having been transmitted to us. In 

 proof of this, if any were requisite, we may inquire what portion of 

 those myriads of fleshy animals which now swarm in some seas could 

 be transmitted, as organic remains, to future ages." 



Having described the inferior stratified rocks, such as gneiss, mica 

 slate, &c., Mr. De la Beche proceeds to the consideration of the un- 

 stratified rocks, such as granite, the trap-rocks, &c., and remarks 

 respecting the latter, that " if we regard these various igneous pro- 

 ducts as a mass of matter which has successively and during the lapse 

 of all that time comprehended between the earliest formation of the 

 stratified rocks and the present day, been ejected from the interior of 

 the earth, we shall be struck with certain differences of these rocks 

 on the great scale, which have led to their practical arrangement 

 under the heads of granitic, trappean, serpentinous, and volcanic 

 products, as above noticed. The two former and the last occur most 

 abundantly, whilst the third is comparatively more scarce, though 

 sufficiently common in nature. As yet we are unacquainted with the 

 conditions necessary for the production of these different compounds, 

 and it would be a highly interesting inquiry, and one well worthy of 

 the attention of the chemist, to ascertain as nearly as may be the 

 essential average differences which may exist as to the ultimate elemen- 

 tary substances constituting the rocks of this nature, thus approaching 

 towards a knowledge of the possible circumstances which may have 

 determined such substances to arrange themselves in one man- 

 ner rather than in another. Possibly the quantity and proportion 



of 



