1S35.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



411 



Extract from the Diary of a Blase. 



SPECULATIONS ON THE ANCIENT STATE OF 

 THE EARTH AND ITS INHABITANTS. 



Of all collections of natural history, the fossil 

 department is, to me, the most interesting; there 

 is room lor speculation and reflection, till the mind 

 is lost in its own wanderings, which 1 consider one 

 of the greatest delights of existence. We are in- 

 debted to the vast comprehensive mind, and inde- 

 fatigable labor of Cuvier, for the gleams of light 

 which have lately burst upon us, and which have 

 rendered what was before mere speculative sup- 

 position, now a source of interesting and anxious 

 investigation, attended with results that are as sat- 

 isfactory as they are undeniable. 



That there was a period when the surface of 

 the earth was almost entirely covered with water 

 — a state between chaos and order, when man was 

 not yet created, (for that then the world had not 

 yet been rendered by the Almighty a fit receptacle 

 for man,) appears to be undoubted. Yet the prin- 

 ciple of life had been thrown forth by the Almigh- 

 ty hand, and monsters had been endowed with vi- 

 tality and with attributes necessary for their exis- 

 tence upon an intermediate world. 



These were the many varieties of the Ichthy- 

 osauri and the Plesiosauri, of whose remains we 

 have now such abundant specimens — all animals 

 of the lizard species, some supposed to have been 

 supplied with wings, like the flying fish of the pre- 

 sent day. 



But imagine an animal of the lizard species, 

 one hundred and twenty feet long — imagine such 

 a monster — the existence of which is now proved 

 beyond a cavil, by the remains, deeply imbedded 

 in the hard blue lias rocks, and which are now in 

 our possession. What a terrific, monster it must 

 have been! We look with horror at an alligator 

 of twenty or thirty feet, but imagine an animal of 

 that species extending his huge bulk to one hun- 

 dred and twenty feet. Were they all destroyed 

 when the waters were separated from the land, or 

 did they gradually become extinct when the earth 

 was no longer a suitable habitation for them, and 

 no longer congenial to those properties with which 

 they had been endowed when ordered into exis- 

 tence by the Almighty power? The description 

 of the behemoth by Job, has long been a puzzle 

 to the learned: we have no animal of the present 

 time which will answer to it; but, in many points, 

 this description will answer to what may be sup- 

 posed would be the appearance, the muscular 

 power, and the habits, of this huge denizen of a 

 former world. 



"His force is in the navel of his belly. 



He moveth his tail like a cedar. 



His bones are as strong pieces of brass. 



His bones are like bars of iron. 



He lieth under the shady trees in the covert of the 



reeds and fens. 

 The shady trees cover him with their shadow. 

 The willows of the brook compass him about." 



It may be a matter of deep surmise, whether 

 all animals were created as we now find them, and 

 whether the first creation was final — how far the 

 unerring Hand will permit a change to take place 

 in the forms and properties of animals, so as to 

 adapt them to their peculiar situations. I would 

 say, whether the Almighty may not have allowed 

 the principle of vitality and lift' to assume, at va- 



rious epochs, the form and attributes most conge- 

 nial to the situation; either by new formation or by 

 change. 



May not the monster of former worlds have 

 dwindled down to the alligator of this — the levia- 

 than to the whale? Let us examine whether we 

 have any proofs in existing creation to support this 

 supposition. We all know that the hair of the 

 goat and sheep in the torrid zones will be changed 

 into wool when they are taken to the colder climes, 

 and that the reverse will also take place — we 

 know that the hare and weazel tribes, whose se- 

 curity is increased from their color so nearly ap- 

 proaching to that of the earth in temperate lati- 

 tudes, have the protection aflbrded to them when 

 they are found in the regions of snow, by their 

 changing to white — and we know that the retc 

 mucosum of the African, enables him to bear the 

 exposure to a tropical sun, which would destroy 

 an European. But this is not sufficient, we must 

 examine further. Sir Humphrey Davy has given 

 us a very interesting account of a small animal, 

 found in the pools of water in the caves in Carni- 

 ola; this animal is called the Proteus dnguinus; 

 it is a species of eel, with two feet; it is only to be 

 found in these caves; it lives in darkness, and ex- 

 posure to the light destroys it. Now, here is an 

 animal which we must either suppose to have 

 been created at the universal creation — and that is 

 to suppose that these caves and pools of water 

 have also existed from the time of the creation — 

 or that the principle of vitality has been permitted, 

 at a later date, to take that form and those attri- 

 butes congenial to its situation: it is a curious pro- 

 blem. Again, it is well known that in the conti- 

 nent of New Holland there are animals who have 

 a property peculiar to that continent alone* — that 

 of a pouch or false stomach, to contain their young 

 after their birth; it Iras been surmised that at one. 

 time the major part of that continent was under 

 water, and that this pouch was supplied to them 

 lor the safety of their young; nor is this conjecture 

 without strong grounds; if only the kangaroo and 

 opossum tribes, which are animals peculiarly indi- 

 genous to that continent, were supplied with this 

 peculiar formation, the conjecture would fall to the 

 ground, as it might fairly be said that this property 

 was only another proof of the endless variety in 

 creation: but the most remarkable fact is, that not 

 only the kangaroo and opossum, animals indige- 

 nous and peculiar to that portion of the globe, but 

 that every variety of squirrel, rat, and mouse, 

 which, in every other respect, are of the sam- 

 species as those found in the other continents, ar 

 all of them provided with this peculiar false pouch 

 to contain their young. Why, therefore, should 

 all these have been supplied with it, if not for a 

 cause? And the question now arises, whether at 

 the first creation they had that pouch, or were per- 

 mitted so far to change their formation, when the 

 pouch became necessary for the preservation and 

 continuation of the species. That these changes 

 are the changes of centuries, I grant, and there- 

 fore are not likely to be observed by man, whose 

 records or whose knowledge are not permitted to 

 be handed down beyond a certain extent. Know- 

 ledge is not happiness; and when the accumula- 



* The captain is out in his natural history; opossums 

 are found elsewhere. — Ed. Port Folio. 



