CHAPTER IX. 



HEROES OF GEOLOGY. 



The rise of the science which treats of the ancient history of the 

 earth — Students of the present changes, which are the examples 

 l)y which the past may be comprehended — The Greelis — The 

 life of Pythagoras ; a notice of the geology of Aristotcles — 

 Strabo's life — The nature of fossils and the life of Steno. 



As was the case in the other branches of natural 

 history already noticed, the Greeks knew much 

 more about geology than did the nations of the 

 rest of Europe, subsequently, for nearly seventeen 

 hundred years. The first recorded teacher of the 

 ancient history of the earth was Pythagoras, who 

 was born on the island of Samos, about the year 

 570 B.C. By his mother's side he was connected 

 with the principal families of the island, and his 

 father appears to have been a Phoenician or a 

 Tyrrhenian of Lemnos. There is nothing known 

 about his childhood, and it is evident that he 

 studied under the great philosophers of his age in 

 Greece. But he wanted further information, and 

 I. r 



