1825.] Climate of the Antediluvian World. fill' 



During the long period of time comprehended between these 

 remote points, the development of vegetable and animal life has 

 passed through a great variety of remarkable forms, totally dif- 

 ferent from each other, and unlike those which exist in our days ; 

 but what peculiarly characterizes the living foriiis of the ancient 

 world in contradistinction to the present races is, that in each 

 epocha we meet with genera and species which have a perfect 

 resemblance with each other over the whole surface of the globe, 

 at least as far as it has been explored. The great distances of 

 these parts which have been examined both as to latitude and 

 longitude, justify in a great degree the accuracy of the assertion. 



A minute examination of these ancient relics with those which, 

 bear the closest resemblance to them among our present races 

 of vegetables and animals, seems to prove that, the process has 

 been from the simplest forms to the more complicated structures, 

 and from those which require a constancy of heat and moisture 

 to those which were fitted for great alternations of heat and cold, 

 and for a great variety of soil. 



As far as the great collection of facts which relate to the 



O ... 



remains of organized bodies justifies their bemg generalised 

 under this point of view, we seem to have a right to say, that the 

 Series of living forms which nature has observed is nearly as 

 follow ; first, a few plants of very doubtful character in the 

 oldest greywacke slate; then zoophites,andcrustaceousmolusc8e 

 ■withtrilobites; afterwards an abundant creation of acotyledonous 

 and monocotyledonous plants ; after these a great increase of 

 marine testaceous and crustaceous moluscse and zoophytes ; 

 then fishes, birds, and oviparous quadrupeds, comprehending the 

 Saurian family ; afterwards dicotyledonous plants ; then marine 

 mammalia ; and lastly, terrestrial mammalia, and the present 

 race of animals. The fossil remains of these lie buried in beds, 

 which overlie each other, nearly in the order mentioned ; and 

 between the beds or strata are generally found others which do 

 not contain any fossil remains, and which mark intervals of time 

 in the process of their extinction. 



The study of these remains and the strata in which they lie, 

 cannot, I think, fail to produce an entire conviction on the mind 

 of every impartial person, that their death was slow and gradual, 

 there never having been at any one period a total and sudden 

 destruction of the whole of the living races until the Deluge. 



When the character of the vegetables and animals of the 

 ancient world is duly considered in a physiological point of view 

 as testimonies of temperature, we are led to the belief that the 

 various living forms appeared in regular succession accordingly 

 as the temperature of the earth suH'ered diminution : each suc- 

 ceeding race becoming fitted by its peculiarity of organization 

 to support a colder climate, and increasing vicissitudes of heat 

 and cold. 



p2 



