13 



Another curious geological fact appears to be esta- 

 blished more especially by fossil trilobitesj it is that 

 precisely the same species of animal relic, is the 

 most generally diffused over the globe, in proportion 

 to the*antiquity of the rock which contains it. Thus 

 the transition limestone of England, France, Ger- 

 many and Sweden, contains the species called the 

 Calymene of Blumenbach, in common with the same 

 formation which extends over so large a portion of 

 the United States. 



Different genera and species of the trilobite are 

 now found in almost every part of the globe, and are 

 frequently exceedingly abundant in the rocks which 

 contain them. That they must have swarmed in 

 particular places, is abundantly evident from a num- 

 ber of localities in our own country, millions, for 

 example, must have lived and died not far from 

 Trenton falls, in the State of New York. There are 

 very few of the numerous visiters to that romantic 

 cascade, whose curiosity is not awaked, by the multi- 

 tude of these petrified beings, seemingly of another 

 world, which are there entombed. 



chology, are light and mean in their estimation, when compared 

 with the study of extensive strata and ponderous boulders. Like 

 Irving's testy governor of Manahatta, who settled the accounts of 

 his clients by placing their books in the opposite scales of a ba- 

 lance, they decide on the value of a science, by the absolute 

 weight of the objects embraced by it. Geology, as well as any 

 other branch of natural history, may degenerate into a mere love 

 for the curious, or have for its principal aim, the perfection or 

 improvement of some ideal system of classification, without ad- 

 vancing a single step further. 



