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the primary and granitic rocks are least 

 calculated to afford a fertile soil, they are 

 for the most part made to constitute the 

 mountain districts of the world, which 

 from their elevation and irregularities, 

 would otherwise be but ill adapted for 

 human habitation ; while the lower and 

 more temperate regions are usually com- 

 posed of derivative, or secondary strata, 

 in which the compound nature of their 

 ingredients qualifies them to be of the 

 greatest utility to mankind, by their sub- 

 serviency to the purposes of luxuriant 

 vegetation. 



It is in the strata belonging to the se- 

 condary formations that the bones of 

 enormous reptiles are first discovered ; 

 but throughout the whole series no bones 

 of mammiferous land quadrupeds have 

 been discovered, with the single exception 

 of marsupial remains which occur in the 

 oolite, at Stonesfield, near Oxford. The 

 peculiar feature in the population of the 

 whole series of secondary strata, was the 

 prevalence of numerous and gigantic 

 forms of Saurian reptiles. The earth 

 was, probably, at that time too much 

 covered with water, and those portions of 

 the land which had emerged above the 

 surface, were too frequently agitated by 

 earthquakes, inundations, and atmo- 

 spheric irregularities, to be extensively 

 occupied by any higher orders of qua- 

 drupeds than reptiles. 



The order of succession of the upper 

 strata of the secondary series may be more 

 accurately ascertained in England than in 

 any other country already examined. 



" From the examination," says Dr. 

 Mantell, " of the organic remains of the 

 secondary formations, we arrive at the 

 following results ; that the seas, lakes, 

 and rivers, during the geological epoch 

 termed secondary, were peopled by fishes, 

 mollusca, Crustacea, radiaria, polyparia, 

 and other zoophites ; all of extinct spe- 

 cies, and presenting as a whole, a greater 

 discrepancy with existing forms, than 

 those of the tertiary ; the most remark- 

 able feature being the absence of cetacea, 

 and the presence of several genera of ex- 

 tinct marine reptiles. On the land we 

 find no analogy to the tertiary or present 

 seras ; throughout the vast accumulation 

 of the spoils of the ancient islands and 

 continents, although the remains of fresh- 

 water turtles, insects, and terrestrial 

 plants abound, no indications are afforded 

 of the existence of mammalia, one in- 

 stance only excepted, that of the didel- 

 phis, discovered at Stonesfield. In vain 

 we search for the bones of man, or the 

 remains of works of art for the skeletons 

 of the mastodon or the elk of the palse- 

 otheria, or of other mammalia that were 



their ootemporaries : the osseous remains 

 of reptiles, terrestrial or fluviatile, alone 

 appear." 



With the cretaceous system ends the 

 long series of deposits which are, by ge- 

 neral consent, ranked as strata of the se- 

 condary periods of geology. Prof. Phil- 

 lips says, " turning to the organic remains 

 of the several secondary systems, it is ap- 

 parent that, within the period of time 

 which elapsed between the deposition of 

 the primary and tertiary strata, two very 

 distinct assemblages of terrestrial plants 

 had flourished, and become extinct. The 

 ancient and abundant flora of the carbo- 

 niferous era, with its lepidodendra, si- 

 gillariae, and calamites, had been replaced 

 by new races of zamiae and cycadse, 

 which, in their turn, vanished from the 

 northern zones of the globe before the 

 cretaceous system. The marine zoo- 

 phyta were changed. One total change 

 had come over the Crustacea, not a sin- 

 gle trilobite being known in the strata 

 more recent than coal : the brachopodous 

 conchifera, the gasteropodous and cepha- 

 lopous mollusca were equally altered. 

 Two large assemblages of fishes had va- 

 nished before the deposition of the chalk ; 

 and both on the land, and in the sea, 

 gigantic reptile forms had come into 

 being, reproduced themselves to a mar- 

 vellous extent, and then all perished with 

 the close of the secondary period." 



Long as the above extract has been, it 

 is scarcely possible to refrain from quoting 

 the following splendid passage from the 

 same eloquent author : 



" How, then, can they, by whom the 

 : magnificent truths of elapsed time and 

 successive creations have been put in 

 clear and strong evidence, how can they 

 be expected to yield to false notions of 

 philosophy, and narrow views of religion, 

 the secure conviction that, in the forma- 

 tion of the crust of the earth, Almighty 

 Wisdom was glorified, the permitted laws 

 of nature were in beneficent operation, 

 and thousands of beautiful and active 

 things enjoyed their appointed life, long 

 before man was formed of the dust of the 

 ancient earth, and endowed with a divine 

 power of comprehending the wonders of 

 its construction? It is something worse 

 than philosophical prejudice, to close the 

 eyes of reason on the evidence which the 

 earth offers to the eyes of sense ; it is a 

 dangerous theological error to put in un- 

 equal conflict a few ill-understood words 

 of the Pentateuch, and the thousands of 

 facts which the finger of God has plainly 

 written in the book of nature ; folly, past 

 all excuse, to suppose that the moral evi- 

 dence of an eternity of the future shall be 

 weakened by admitting the physical evi- 



