ON GEOLOGIC HISTORY. 275 



quakes on fche human mind. " No familiarity with the phe- 

 nomenon can," he remarks, "blunt the feeling. The inha- 

 bitant of Lima, who from childhood has frequently witnessed 

 these convulsions of nature, is roused from his sleep by the 

 shock, and rushes from his apartment with the cry of ' Mi- 

 sericordia /' The foreigner from the north of Europe, who 

 knows nothing of earthquakes but by description, waits with 

 impatience to feel the movements of the earth, and longs to 

 hear with his own ear the subterranean sounds, which he has 

 hitherto considered fabulous. With levity he treats the ap- 

 prehension of a coming convulsion, and laughs at the fears of 

 the natives ; but as soon as his wish is gratified, he is terror- 

 stricken, and is involuntarily prompted to seek safety in 

 flight." 



Now, a partially consolidated planet, tempested by frequent 

 earthquakes of such terrible potency, that those of the historic 

 ages would be but mere ripples of the earth's surface in com- 

 parison, could be no proper home for a creature so constituted. 

 The fish or reptile, — animals of a limited range of instinct, 

 exceedingly tenacious of life in most of their varieties, ovi- 

 parous, prolific, and whose young immediately on their escape 

 from the egg can provide for themselves, — might enjoy exist- 

 ence in such circumstances, to the full extent of their narrow 

 capacities ; and when sudden death fell upon them, — though 

 their remains, scattered over wide areas, continue to exhibit 

 that distortion of posture incident to violent dissolution, which 

 seems to speak of terror and suflfering, — ^we may safely con- 

 clude there was but little real suffering in the case : they 

 were happy up to a certain point, and unconscious for ever 

 after. Fishes and reptiles were the proper inhabitants of our 

 planet during the ages of the earth-tempests; and when, 

 under the operation of the chemical laws, these had become 

 less frequent and terrible, the higher mammals were intro- 

 duced. That prolonged ages of these tempests did exist, and 



