G E 



[191 ] 



GEY 



plation of their glorious and bene- 

 ficent Author." 



Geology reveals to us the extra- 

 ordinary fact that as the globe 

 passed from one condition to 

 another, whole races of animals 

 perished, and were succeeded by 

 others with organizations adapted 

 to the altered state of the planet. 

 On this phenomenon is based the 

 fundamental principle of the iden- 

 tification of strata by their imbedded 

 remains ; the passage from one 

 deposit to another being marked by 

 a change in the animals which 

 lived and died during the accumu- 

 lation of each. Thus, although 

 the fossils of any one great series 

 of beds possess a common character, 

 yet those which are found in the 

 lowest and highest strata of a great 

 formation are for the most part dis- 

 similar in species, and often in 

 genera. 



Geology, aided not only by the 

 higher branches of physics, but by 

 recent discoveries in mineralogy 

 and chemistry, in botany, zoology, 

 and comparative anatomy, is en- 

 abled to extract from the archives 

 of the interior of the earth, intel- 

 ligible records of former conditions 

 of our planets, and to decipher 

 documents, which were a sealed 

 book to our predecessors. Thus 

 enlarged in its views, and provided 

 with fit means for pursuing them, 

 geology extends its researches into 

 regions more vast and remote, than 

 come within the scope of any other 

 physical science, except astronomy. 

 Davy. Bucldand. Herschell. Chal- 

 mers. Lyell. Phillips. Mantell. 

 Bakewell. 



GEOSATJ'ETJS. A fossil saurian of the 

 oolite and lias formations, discov- 

 ered by M. de Scemmering in the 

 environs of Manheim, and interme- 

 diate between the crocodile and 

 monitor. Cuvier considered the 

 geosaurus to constitute a new sub- 

 genus of the saurian order. The 



specimen above mentioned is sap* 

 posed to have been from twelve to 

 thirteen feet in length. 



GEEM. (germe, Fr. germe, It. germm, 

 Lat.) 1. In botany, the swollen 

 base of the pistil, forming the rudi- 

 ment of the fruit and seed. 

 2. The embryo; so long as the 

 offspring has no independent exist- 

 ence, but participates in that of its 

 parent, it is called a germ. The 

 separation of the germ is called 

 generation. 



GEEVI'LLIA. A fossil genus of bivalve 

 shells; they are subequi valve, ob- 

 long, oblique, the hinge long, 

 straight, having small irregular, 

 transverse, ligamentary pits, and 

 likewise a series of parallel internal 

 ribs. The general form resembles 

 avicula, the umbo having an auricle 

 on each side. Five species are 

 known as belonging to the carbon- 

 iferous, seven to the Jurassic, and 

 five to the cretaceous strata of the 

 British Isles. Lycett. 



GET' SEE. The name given to certain 

 boiling springs or fountains in 

 Iceland. The water of these 

 geysers holds a considerable pro- 

 portion of silex in solution. " These 

 intermittent hot springs occur in a 

 district situated in the south-west" 

 ern division of Iceland, where 

 nearly one hundred of them are 

 said to break out within a circle of 

 two miles. They rise through a 

 thick current of lava which may, 

 perhaps, have flowed from Mount 

 Hecla, the summit of that volcano 

 being seen from the spot at a dis- 

 tance of more than thirty miles. 

 Pew of the geysers play longer 

 than five or six minutes at a time, 

 and the intervals between their 

 eruptions are, for the most part, 

 very irregular. The great geyser 

 rises out of a spacious basin at the 

 summit of a circular mound, com- 

 posed of siliceous incrustations de- 

 posited from the spray of its waters. 

 The diameter of this basin is fifty- 



