GEOLOGY. 317 



would essentially have disturbed the strata, or mine- 

 ralized its victims. 



From these several creations it appears that beings 

 have proceeded, gradually increasing in superiority, 

 from testaceous animals to reptiles, marine, and fresh- 

 water amphibia, quadrupeds, and lastly, to man. 



Series of Living Forms. 



First, a few plants of very doubtful character in the 

 oldest gray wacke slate ; then, zoophytes and crusta- 

 ceous mollusca with trilobites ; afterwards, an abun- 

 dant creation of cotyledonous and monocotyledonous 

 plants ; following these, a great increase of marine 

 testaceous and crustaceous molluscae and zoophytes ; 

 then, fishes, birds, and oviparous quadrupeds, com- 

 prehending the saurian or lizard family ; afterwards, 

 dicotyledonous plants ; then, marine mammalia, and 

 the present race of animals. The fossil remains of 

 these lie buried in beds that overlie each other, 

 nearly in the order above detailed, and between beds 

 or strata are generally found others which do not 

 contain any fossil remains, and which mark the flux 

 of considerable intervals of time in the process of 

 their extinction. 



The Deluge. 



De Luc, Dolomieu, and Cuvier are of opinion that 

 reciprocal exchanges of land and water took place at 

 the deluge ; that catastrophe having buried all coun- 

 tries that were previously inhabited by man and 

 other animals, while at the same time it laid dry the 

 bed of the last ocean, which now forms the countries 

 at present inhabited. 



Revolutions in the Animal Kingdom. 



Recent geological discoveries lead to the conclu- 

 sion, that the revolutions which have taken place in 



