62 



Geology — Fossil Remains. 



Vol. VI. 



Geology — Fossil Remains. 



The remains of animals and vegetables in 

 the rocks and earthy strata of the earth, are 

 the true and only means of ascertaining its 

 history and natural clianges before the records 

 of man. In all countries, on digging to cer- 

 tain depths and in mining, the remains of 

 fishes, vegetables, quadrupeds and birds, are 

 found in the soil or imbedded in the rocks, 

 except in those of primitive antiquity. The 

 general regularity with which those that are 

 marine are laid at one level, and those which 

 are products of land are laid at another, and 

 the alternations of these marine and land 

 products, lead to tlie conclusion that the sea 

 has repeatedly covered the land for long pe- 

 riods of time, and that the land has at inter- 

 mediate periods been dry; and what is very 

 remarkable, the remains wliich are found, 

 consist, and always at certain depths, of spe- 

 cies of animals, vegetables, &c., not now in 

 existence, and often of genera not natural to 

 the present climate. The lowest rocks, it is 

 inferred, were at one time the surface of the 

 earth, and the seat of organic life ; these ap- 

 pear to have been destroyed by some great 

 revolutions, which brought new tribes of or- 

 ganized beings, while their kinds prove that 

 the surface was covered with water; then, 

 the subsequent appearance of amphibia, &c., 

 prove the development of dry land; these 

 then appear to have been swept away ; 

 and amongst later solid rocks the monstrous 

 race of herbivorous quadrupeds and gigantic 

 lacerta came into existence, when the earth 

 seems to have acquired herbage for their sub- 

 sistence; but how long this race kept posses- 

 sion cannot be guessed, but their great length 

 of life is well known. The gypsum, &c., 

 which now contains their remains, is covered 

 with newer deposits abounding in sea shells, 

 and above this stratum is found a new race 

 of herbivorous animals of the genera of the 

 elephant, rhinoceros, &c., and above them is 

 the first loose soil intermixed with marine 

 6ubstancr>s — proving second or third immer- 

 sions of the sea; and above this lies the soil 

 which the present race of animals enjoy! 

 Wiiat may follow, and when and how, is a 

 most momentous question. 



The older secondary rocks contain aquatic 

 plants and reeds ; then above these, madre- 

 pores, corals, &,c., all fixed where they lived; 

 then shell-fish; and in strata above these, 

 Jishes, bamboos, and ferns; in a still higher 

 stratum are more complicate shells and ovipa- 

 rous amphibia, as crocodiles, tortoises, and 

 reptiles; and these are imbedded in the up- 

 permost solid rocks of the oldest secondary 

 formation ; while in the neivest solid rock 

 formations, whales, seals, and birds, appear; 

 and above these, laiid animals of enormous 



size, birds, and fresh water shells, all in cori' 

 Crete rocks. Alwve these again, in the low- 

 est beds of loose soil and peat-bogs, elephants, 

 elks, rhinoceroses of peculiar species, are 

 found; and then, near the surface, are found 

 the remains of the existing races; human 

 bones having only been found amongst these. 

 Bats have been found in limestone ; opos- 

 sums in slate ; guinea-pigs, rabbits, rats and 

 beavers, in limestone ; dogs, bears, foxes and 

 wolves, in diluvial soils and caves; hyenas 

 and tigers in limestone caves and marl ; the 

 teeth of horses, elephants, rhinoceroses, hye- 

 nas, bears, wolves, tigers, &c., are found in 

 masses in diluvial soils; oxen in peat-bogs; 

 deer and elks in peat-bogs and marl-pits; one 

 of these, six feet high and nine feet long, was 

 found in the Isle of Man, in marl. Rhinoce- 

 roses are found in every part of Europe, and 

 in the arctic circle; the hippopotamus is found 

 in England, France, and Germany, — while 

 mammoths, much larger than either, are found 

 in Europe, America, and Siberia: one 16 

 feet high, at Abingdon, in England, another 

 in Siberia, in ice, quite perfect in its flesh, 

 skin, hair, and eyes, with a long mane and 

 tail of stiff black bristles; and others have 

 been found in Hudson's bay ; and whales are 

 found in Essex, in London clay, and in Bath 

 limestone. Eight species of birds are found 

 in gypsum near Paris; crocodiles are found 

 in blue clay in Dorsetshire; lizards, 24 feet 

 long, equal to the dragons of antiquity, in Ba- 

 varia, and at Stonefield one in particular, 40 

 feet long and 8 feet high! In France, at a 

 distance of 100 miles from the sea, is a single 

 oyster-bed, which in oysters and other marine 

 bodies, is equal to 500 millions of cubic yards! 

 Forests of standing trees have been found in 

 Yorkshire imbedded in stone, and others con- 

 verted into iron-stone in Lapland and Siberia. 

 Two caves, full of bones, have lately been 

 discovered in France, and in one of them, the 

 remains of rude pottery. A whole mammoth 

 was found imbedded in ice near the mouth 

 of the Lena ; it was 9 feet high, and its horns 

 weighed 400 lbs. All volcanoes appear to ex- 

 ist near a sea, and by the matter they eject, 

 to have some communication with it; and 

 Danberry ascribes earthquakes and volcanoes 

 to the access of water to the inflammable bases 

 of the earths and alkalies; and when the ex- 

 plosion is single or double, and confined in a 

 cavernous space, it is an earthquake ; but 

 when fed and supported by water, as in an 

 elevation, it is a volcano. Vast quantities of 

 fish are sometimes thrown from craters of 

 burning volcanoes. A person of Verona pos- 

 sessed a cabinet containing GOO fishes of dif- 

 ferent sizes, many of them of extraordinary 

 size, extracted from Mount Balec, where they 

 are imbedded in the calcareous quarries — a 

 sort of marly schist of a light grey colour — and 



