THE EAnXH. 29 



principal aiin, of establishing a theory, yet he has brought to- 

 gether such a multitude of facts relative to the history of the 

 earth, and the nature of its fossil productions, that curiosity 

 finds ample compensation, even while it feels the want of con 

 viction. 

 Before, therefore, I enter upon the description of those parts 



by gndden inequalities, as those in « hich the primitive and transition rock* 

 prevail. Host of the rocks which have been just enumerated, are covered 

 by a great formation, which is named the newest floetz trap. This formation 

 hIso covers many of the highest primitive mountains; it has but little cou. 

 tinuity, but is very widely distributed. It contains considerable quantities 

 of mechanical depositcs, such as clay, sand, and gravel. The remains both 



f vegetables and animals also occur very abundantly in thi'se deposites. 

 Heaps of trees, and parts of plants, and an abundance of shells and other 

 marine productions, ivitU the horns of stags, and great beds of bituminous 

 fossils, point out the lateness of the period when this formation was deposit- 

 ed, iu tiiis formation several rocks occur wliieli are alio met with in other 

 fliietz formations ; but the following are supposed to be peculiar to this class : 

 basalt, wacke, greystone, porphyry, slate, and trap tuff. These rocks are 

 said to have been formed during the settling of the water consequent upon 

 a vast deluge, which is supposed to have taken place when the surface of the 

 earth was covered with animals and vegetables, and when much dry land ex 

 istej. From various appearances observed in these rocks, it is concluded, 

 Biat the waters in which they were formed, had risen with great rapidity, 

 and had afterwards settled into a state of considerable calmness. The col- 

 lections and deposites derived from the materials of pre-existing masses, worn 

 down by the powerful agency of air and water, and afterwards deposited on 

 tiie land, or on the sea-coast, are termed alluviai, and are of course, of much 

 later formation than any of the preceding classes. These deposites may be 

 divided into : 1st, Those which are formed in mountainous countries, and are 

 found in valleys, being composed of rolled masses, gravel, sand, and some- 

 times loam, fragments of ores, and different kinds of precious stones. 2d, 

 Those wliiuh occur iu low and flat countries, being peat, sand, loam, bog, iron 

 ore, nagelflech, calc-tuff and calc-sinter ; the three latter being better known 

 by the names breccia, tufa, and stalactite. 



fivery part of the surface of this globe, M. Cuvier maintains, exhibits such 

 phenomena, as unavoidably lead to the conclusion that the sea, at one period 

 or another, has covered the whole, and remained for a long time ifl a state 

 of tranquillity so as to form those regular and extensive horizontal deposites 

 in which many of the marine exuviae are contained. But there are also in. 

 clined or vertical strata of the same nature, situated under the horizontal 

 itrata, which having been necessarily formed in a horizontal position, have 

 been subsequently lifted up and shifted into their inclined or vertii-al situa- 

 eion, and that too before the horizontal strata were deposited above them. 

 Now amid these changes it was hardly possible that the same species of aui. 

 mals should continue to live. There must have been a succession of changes 

 In animal natures corresponding t) that in the chemical properties of the fluid 

 which th<'y inhabited. It is als> conceivable that the change of element might 



C 3^ 



