GO ORIGIN OF THE 



ble, and animal organization. But no air-breath- 

 ing animal could yet exist, on account of the 

 vast quantities of carbonic acid that yet pervaded 

 the atmosphere. And now commenced the form- 

 ation, in the waters, of crystallized rock, and 

 salts. The materials for quartz, settling into the 

 crevices and interstices of primitive rock, (which 

 had been cracked as they were lifted from the 

 beds where they had been first cooled,) were 

 there crystallized and solidified. Carbonates of 

 lime were deposited in the valleys, beneath the 

 waters, where they became consolidated. Fluid 

 metals were frequently protruded from beneath 

 the crust, through openings and rents, and, be- 

 coming cooled, remained till disturbed by other 

 convulsions. 



Even then, as now, Nature was incessant in 

 her operations. The whole mass of waters, 

 with the gases of the atmosphere, as then con- 

 stituted, became a vast chemical laboratory ; and 

 the germs of mollusca and Crustacea were then 



