GEOLOGY. 



GKOLOGY. 



K i 



coune of a prufwainnal journey from Bath into the north of England, 

 examined impartially whether the general feature* of stratification in 

 other part* of England corresponded with the impression fixed in liix 

 mind by abundant evidence, near Bath, that one general order of 

 succession of the strata could be traced throughout the island, with a 

 general dip to the east or south-east The result confirmed his view, 

 and excited him to devote time, professional income, and unequalled 

 labour to produce proof satisfactory to others. The result was a 

 geological map of England and Wales, drawn previous to 1801, when 

 proposal* were issued for the publication of it. 



The strong conviction in his mind of the regular, orderly, and 

 ucrcmiJTo deposition of the strata, led him to a more minute analysis 

 of the characteristic marks of the several deposits than had ever been 

 conceived before. The remarkable resemblance and occasional proxi- 

 mity of many rocks near Bath, belonging to different places in the 

 section of strata, and which (to use a favourite expression of Dr. 

 Smith) " had been successively the bed of the sea," prevented any 

 merely mineral distinction from being effectual ; and be was thus 

 forced to study with care the method of distribution of the fossil 

 organic remains in the rocks for the purpose of discriminating these 

 similar deposits. This was not long pursued before the local pecu- 

 liarities of the strata in this respect were connected to a general Ian- ; 

 and it was found that throughout the district in question the fossils 

 were definitely located in the rocks ; each stratum had its own peculiar 

 species, wherever it occurred, and could thus be identified when in 

 detached masses and in distant localities. This great discovery was 

 recorded as a thing fully determined in a table of the Order of Strata 

 in 1799, of which copies were distributed beyond the British Islands. 

 The clear idea of each stratum being successively the bed of the sea 

 is apparently the germ of that happy expansion of geological truths, 

 unmixed with hypothesis and unfettered by a formula of merely 

 local stratification, for which English geology is indebted to Or. Smith. 

 Such an idea immediately suggests, not a speculation in cosmogony, 

 but various yet harmonious researches in the full spirit of inductive 

 science. The history of successive geological periods, all character- 

 isable by their chemical or mechanical products and contemporaneous 

 organic existence, was thus placed in a concentrated light as a general 

 problem for inquiry, and the effects were immediately obvious in the 

 employment of organic remains, and sections and maps of strata, to 

 determine the true condition of the land and sea from the earliest 

 periods to the present hour. 



Against the hypothesis of Woodward, that the fossil exuviic in the 

 rocks were lodged in them by the ' universal deluge,' it was objected, 

 that though the fossil shells, corals, fish-teeth, Ac., resembled the 

 recent kinds, they were not the same. The question thus raised 

 could not rest. Lister affirmed that in general the fossil species ol 

 shells were entirely distinct from living forms ; Camerarius inquired 

 to what marine genus of animals Woodward referred the belemnites, 

 and received for reply that it was a mere mineral ! The ammonites 

 were admitted to be not nautili, but were declared to be ' Pelagian 

 shells' not likely to be thrown on the present sen-coasts by the 

 moderate force of tides and storms, which do not influence the deep 

 parts of the ocean. Linua-us continually points out the species o: 

 corals and shells to which no recent analogue is known ; and Solander 

 by giving suitable names to the extinct shells of Hordwell ('lit! 

 figured by Brander (1766), opened the way to the researches of Martin 

 Parkinson, Sowerby, Brocchi, Deahayes, Goldfuss, and more modern 

 writers. 



Llwyd and Scheuchzer commenced the study of fossil plants, which 

 has lately been so much advanced by Steinberg, Adolphe Brongniart, 

 Lindley, and Joseph Hooker. But by none of those writers who com 

 pared the fossil and recent worlds of life under the aspects of zoology 

 and botany only could any clear notion be formed of the existeno 

 and destruction of a succession of different races of animals am 

 plant*. Lister had noticed the constant occurrence of a certain 

 belemnite in the red layers at the base of the chalk ; Morton hoc 

 distinguished the geological position of some fossils in Northampton 

 shire ; and Llwyd and Woodward had some knowledge of this kind 

 Roucllr and Werner hare chums to attention, but certainly it is U 

 Dr. William Smith that we owe the introduction of the importan 

 doctrine, that during the formation of the stratified crust of the earth 

 the races of animals and plants were often and completely changed 

 so that each stratified rock became in his eyes the museum of tha 

 age of the world, containing a peculiar suite of organic exuviae, th 

 remains of the creatures then in existence. 



In France the same truth was put in a bright light by the micceasfu 

 labours of Cuvier and Alex. Brongniart in the vicinity of Paris ; th 

 former of whom, by his great anatomical skill, succeeded in restorin 

 the vanished forms of many quadrupeds, different from those whic 

 now live ; while the Utter, collecting materials with great judgmen 

 from a wide field of research, brought the most convincing proof o 

 the almost total dissimilitude between the forms of life of the secondary 

 and tertiary periods of geology, while both were fur the most part 

 distinct from those of the actual land and sea. 



The general doctrine of many successive creations of life in th 

 globe, thus firmly established in England and France, was speedil 

 acknowledged in every country where accurate observations could be 

 mad*, and it only remained to trace out its consequences, and appl 



lem to particular problems. One very successful effort of this kind 

 us been made by M. Deshayes and Sir Charles Lyell, who, observing 

 among a vast number of the tertiary fossil shells which are dill 

 rum existing types, some few of which are identical with them, pro- 

 XMed to determine what variation then* might be in the proporti 

 et existing species among the tertiary fossils from different localities 

 ad deposits of a different geological age. As a general result (subject 

 to exceptions) it may be stated, that the more recent the strata the 

 freater the amount of resemblance between their fossil contents and 

 le existing creation a result in harmony with general views of the 

 hole subject of the analogy of recent and fossil forms. Hence arises 

 method of classification for these strata of peculiar interest and 

 owor, though its successful application may for a time be delayed, 

 ili t ho philosophy of organic remains be more perfectly developed. 



Without maps and sections of particular districts, representing the 

 x tent, thickness, and order of superposition of the several com) 

 rocks, the abstract truths of geology could never become of general 

 nterest or public value. Until the whole of the loud be thus surveyed 

 and described geological inferences may be insecure ; it is therefore 

 ratifying to reflect, that since Dr. Smith first proponed to puK 

 eological map of England (1801), a considerable part of Europe has 

 leen thus delineated. The first idea of such a map wa 

 aster in a communication to the Royal Society in 1683; Mil i 

 lescriptions in 1760 are such as to make it surprising that no map 

 came from his hands. The Wernerian school of geognosy pr< > 

 none, we believe, so early as those few maps of the Board of Agriculture 

 in England (1794), which contained delineations of soils, and occasion- 

 ally of the rocks which gave them their distinctive qualities. In this 

 respect Dr. Smith had no precursor ; and when his map of the strata 

 f England and Wales was produced, in 1815, it had no rival 

 .his time maps of England have been published by Greeuough, Phillip . 

 iurchison, Kuipe, and others. The geological survey of Great Britain 

 s also going on. Mr. Griffith has published a map of Ireland ; Dr. 

 il'Culluch a map of Scotland; Von Buch's great map of Germany is 

 niblished ; the Mining Engineers of France are completing thrir 

 survey of that country ; the United States of America have made 

 great progress in a similar labour ; and the number of topographical 

 works illustrated by maps and sections is innumerable. Before many 

 fears have passed, the whole accessible surface of the laud will have 

 jcen mapped by geologists. 



We may conclude this historical sketch of the progress of geology 

 with the following remarks from Sir Charles LyeU's ' Principles of 

 Geology : 



" A distinguished modern writer has with truth remarked, that the 

 advancement of three of the main divisions of geological inquiry have 

 during the last half century been promoted successively by three 

 different nations of Europe the Germans, the English, and tho 

 French. We have seen that the systematic study of what may be 

 called Mineralogical Geology had its origin and chief point of activity 

 in Germany, where Werner first described with precision the mint-nil 

 characters of rocks. The classification of the secondary form r 

 each marked by their peculiar fossils, belongs in a great measure to 

 England, where the labours, before alluded to, of Smith, and those of 

 the most active members of the Geological Society of London, were 

 steadily directed to these objects. The foundation of the third branch, 

 that relating to the tertiary formations, was laid in France by the 

 splendid work of Cuvier and Brongniart, published in 1808, 'On tho 

 Mineral Geography and Organic Itemaius of the Neighbourly 

 Paris.' We may still trace in the language of the science, and our 

 present methods of arrangement, the various countries where the 

 growth of these several departments of geology was at different times 

 promoted. Many names of simple minerals and rocks remain t 

 day German, while the European divisions of the secondary strata are 

 in great part English, and are indeed often founded too exclusively 

 on English types. Lastly, the subdivisions first established of the 

 succession of strata in the Paris basin have served as normal groups 

 to which other tertiary deposits throughout Europe have been Din- 

 pared, even in cases where this standard was wholly inapplicable. 

 No period could have been more fortunate for the discovery, in th- 

 immediate neighbourhood of Paris, of a rich store of well-preserved 

 fossils, than the commencement of the present century; for at no 

 former era had Natural History been cultivated with such enthusiasm 

 in the French metropolis. The labours of Cuvier iu comparative 

 osteology, and of Lamarck in recent and fossil shells, had raised them 

 departments of study to a rank of which they had never pre\ . 

 been deemed susceptible. Their investigations had eventually a 

 powerful effect in dispelling tho illusion which had long piv 

 concerning the absence of analogy between the ancient and m 

 state of our planet. A close comparison of the recent and 

 species, and the inferences drawn in regard to their habit*, accustomed 

 the geologist to contemplate the earth as having been at sue 

 periods the dwelling-place of animals and plants of different races, 

 some terrestrial and others aquatic, some fitted to live in seas, others 

 in ih- waters of lakes and rivers. 



" By the consideration of these topics, the mind was slowly and 

 insensibly withdrawn from imaginary pictures of catastrophes and 

 chaotic confusion, such as haunted the imagination of tho early 

 ooamogonists. Numerous proofs were discovered of the tranquil 



