MANUAL OF NATURAL HISTORY. 541 



bark from primeval forest-trees. On vast and soli- 

 tary plains I have encountered the Megatherium, 

 "huge of bulk/' rooting up the herbage with his 

 powerful, his devastating claws ; and again, have 

 watched the rapid paces of the Epyornis as he 

 strode along the grassy valleys, huge, powerful, and 

 ostrich-like. 



Amidst these changes of organic life, I have wit- 

 nessed, with awe, the throes of nature, as mountains 

 were upheaved, craters belched forth liquid fire, and 

 lava swept along the plains. I saw that mighty 

 torrent moving resistlessly forward, bearing in its 

 course rock-masses, and destroying all those tribes 

 of living forms whose bones are found in caverns at 

 the present day ; and noted, with amaze, the rest- 

 ing-places of those mighty boulders borne by ice- 

 bergs on the bosom of this fearful deluge. I have 

 seen the retiring waters finally leave broad and 

 solid tracks, soon to become verdant with ten thou- 

 sand varied trees, redolent of life, 



" The breath of nature and her endless bloom." 



The following pages comprise a simple compila- 

 tion of the chief facts and features of modern Geo- 

 logy ; the strata of the Earth's crust being thrown 

 into several classes of formations, the chief pecu- 

 liarities of which are defined, the geographical dis- 

 tribution mentioned, and their principal organic 

 remains briefly alluded to. 



