50 ANTIQUITY OF THE EAETH. 



dating but from the five or six thousand years which science 

 and revelation unite to prove as the era of his creation, 

 Geology demonstrates the far higher antiquity of the planet 

 assigned for his abode. A mere investigation into the crust 

 of the earth, will convince us that the substances of which 

 it is composed, from their variety, extent, and order of suc- 

 cession, could only be the result of accumulations con- 

 tinued through vast cycles of time. The series of the fos- 

 siliferous formations are the mineralised beds of primeval 

 oceans, with occasional intercalations of fluviatile and lacus- 

 trine strata ; the deposits of seas, or of rivers and lakes, 

 bearing, in their stratified arrangement and the relics of the 

 animal forms which once inhabited their waters, incontestable 

 proofs of their sedimentary origin. These aqueous accumu- 

 lations, subsequently to their deposition, have repeatedly 

 undergone the action of disturbing causes; the eruptive 

 rocks have broken through the sedimentary deposits, and 

 volcanoes, terrestrial and submarine, have exploded from 

 below, shattering the superincumbent beds, and wedging their 

 sheets of molten matter into the chasms of the strata they 

 have divided, or, bursting to the top, have poured their 

 waves and spread their terraces over the surface of the whole. 

 Periods of intense volcanic activity have been followed by 

 others of repose, which have again been succeeded by revivals 

 of former energy; so that frequent alternations of this nature, 

 of enormous extent and duration, have occurred, even in 

 periods which are regarded as comparatively recent in the 

 history of the earth. 



The question of geological time is one of much difficulty. 

 It has, however, received important illustration from the 

 recent investigations made by Sir Charles Lyell, relating to 

 the eroding power of the celebrated Falls of Niagara. 



It has long been a popular belief that the Niagara flowed 

 in a shallow valley across the whole platform from the pre- 

 sent site of the Falls to Queenston Heights, where it is sup- 

 posed the cataract was first situated, and that the river has 

 been slowly eating its way backwards through the rocks which 

 belong to the Silurian series, for a distance of seven miles. 

 The strata throughout the whole region are nearly horizontal, 

 having a gentle dip to the south of twenty-five feet in a mile. 



It has been ascertained that the Falls have shifted their 



