326 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[Na.e 



sent condition; it makes known to us the beings 

 which have successively inhabited its surface, the 

 revolutions that have conduced to their destruc- 

 tion, and those which have given birth to the mi- 

 neral layers the earth contains, and the modifica- 

 tions to which this surface itself has been subject 

 by reason of these revolutions; it discloses to us, 

 in short, that all these phenomena, which have 

 necessarily re(iuired so many centuries for their 

 accomplishment, were prior, in point of time, to 

 the creation of man. It conducts us alike to ap- 

 preciate events, and to re-construct beings which 

 have preceded, many thousand years, not only 

 the most ancient historical traditions, but also the 

 very existence of our race. 



This prolonged history of the formation of the 

 Buperficial strata of the earth, is constituted, like 

 the history of nations, of periods of repose, or of 

 tranquillity sufficiently great, at least, for the "^^w*-!- 

 ters and the dry land of the surface to become 

 peopled by a variety of inhabitants; and of pe- 

 riods of revolution, during which resistless forces 

 have agitated this surface, elevating mountains, 

 submerging lands previously dry, and causing an- 

 cient beds of" oceans to issue froriri, the bosom of 

 the deep; in short, pouring over pr^-existing rocks 

 the materials for new la3^ers which, enveloping 

 the ruins of living beings, destroyed by these vio- 

 lent convulsions, have thus preserved their re- 

 mains as precious monuments which now reveal 

 to us, after so many thousand years, the nature of 

 the ancient inhabitants of our globe, and the or- 

 der in which the several races of beings have suc- 

 ceeded each other. 



The study of the periods of these revolutions, 

 and of those of repose, are alike of the most vi- 

 vid interest : but the first are entirely the province 

 of the geologist ; while the second, on the con- 

 trary, necessarily require the light of the zoolo- 

 gist or the botanist; for these alone are able, by 

 an exact comparison of the fossil remains of for- 

 mer beings with the corresponding parts of such 

 as are now existent, to determine the relations 

 which exist between the inhabitants of the globe, 

 at various and distant epochs. It was thus Cu- 

 vier, in his admirable researches upon fossil bones, 

 basing his investigations upon the positive data 

 which comparative anatomy furnishes, was ena- 

 bled to reconstruct the skeletons of the greater 

 part of the animals of which the remains had 

 then been discovered, and also to determine, with 

 the greatest probability, their exterior forms, and 

 their analogy to those animals with which we are 

 now acquainted. 



Botany, nothwithstanding it has long furnished 

 fewer documents upon the ancient state of the 

 globe, ought, nevertheless, to be equally laid un- 

 der contribution, by the geologist; and it is even 

 able to cast more light than zoology upon the 

 state of the terrestrial surliice, during the most 

 ancient periods of its formation. Indeed, at that 

 epoch when life first began to be manifested upon 

 our globe, the animals were all confined to the in- 

 terior of the waters, and even these presented 

 but diminished specimens of their kinds; while a 

 powerful vegetation, forming vast forests, covered 

 at that early period, all such parts of the earth as 

 were not submerged by the sea; and each suc- 

 ceeding period of repose has had its own peculiar 

 vegetation, more or less varied, and in greater or 

 less abundance, according to the circumstances 



which influence the development of the beings 

 that composed it, and perhaps, also, in proportion 

 to the duration of these periods; but almost al- 

 ways entirely different fiomthose of either the 

 preceding or succeeding epochs. 



Of the different associations of vegetables 

 which have successively inhabited our globe, 

 there are none \vhich so pointedly merit oui* atten- 

 tion as those which seem to have been first deve- 

 loped upon. its surface; which appear during a 

 long space of time to have covered with dense 

 forests all those parts of the earth that rose above 

 the general level of the waters, and of which the 

 remains of successive growths, heaped one upon 

 another, have formed our layers of coal, so deep, 

 extensive and numerous; and in this form the re- 

 mains of these primeval forests, which have 

 preceded, by so many centuries, the existence of 

 nijan, and which now supply us with fuel, in place 

 of our more modern forests, of which the great in- 

 crease of the human family is causing a rapidly 

 augmented destruction, have become one of the 

 principal sources of the prosperity of nations. 



None can doubt that coal owes its origin to ac- 

 cumulated masses of vegetables, changed and 

 modified, as probably the layers of peat in our 

 marshes would be, if they had been overlaid by 

 thick coverings of mineral substances, compressed 

 under the weight of these, and subsequently ex- 

 posed to an elevated temperature. If farther con- 

 firmation of this origin were necessary, it is found 

 in the almost ligneous structure which coal some- 

 times presents, and in the numerous remains of 

 plants contained in the rocks which accompany 

 it.* 



But the study of the impressions of stems, 

 leaves, and even fruit, which are in general con- 

 tained, in so great quantities, in these rocks, proves 

 not only the vegetable origin of this substance, 

 but even enables us to determine the nature of the 

 vegetables of which it has been formed, and 

 which, consequently, at the period of such forma- 

 tion, occupied the surface of the earth. 



Among these vegetable imprints, the most fre- 

 quent are those produced by the leaves of the 

 ferns ; yet these ferns of the primitive world 

 are not those which now grow in our climates ; for 

 Europe, at this time, does not produce more than 

 fi'onu thirty to forty species, while the same regions 

 then nourished more than two hundred, all much 

 more analogous to those now found between the 

 tropicks than to those of the temperate climates. 



In addition to the leaves of ferns, the same 

 earths contain trunks, the dimensions of which 

 render them comparable to the most gigantic trees 

 of our forests, while their form is wholly diEsimi- 

 lar; and indeed all the ancient naturalists, struck 

 with this dissimilarity, and yet desiring to find 

 analogous productions still existent, referred them 

 to arborescent vegetables, then imperfectly known, 

 as the bamboos, palms, and the great cactus, 

 sometinjes designated torch-thistle. But a more 



* The most complete and valuable collection of 

 plates of impressions of these coal plants which is ge- 

 nerally accessible, in this country, will be found in 

 this Journal, vol. xxix. No. 2. This volume contains 

 Dr. Hiklretli's valuable paper upon the coal deposits 

 of the valley of the Ohio, which he has accompanied 

 with some thirty pages of excellent drawings of fossil 

 remains and impressions, mostly vegetable, found in 

 the accompanying rocks. — Translatgr. 



