Curiosities of Science. 143 



remarks on aerolites and earthquakes, and the successive 

 changes of position which the land and sea have undergone. 

 Of the latter class is the following beautiful passage from the 

 narrative of Khidz, an allegorical personage : 



I passed one day by a very ancient and wonderfully populous city, 

 and asked one of its inhabitants how long it had been founded. "It is 

 indeed a mighty city," replied he ; " we know not how long it has ex- 

 isted, and our ancestors were on this subject as ignorant as cm-selves." 

 Five centuries afterwards, as I passed by the same place, I could not 

 perceive the slightest vestige of the city. I demanded of a peasant who 

 was gathering herbs upon its former site how long it had been destroyed. 

 " In sooth, a strange question," replied he ; " the ground here has never 

 been different from what you now behold it." " Was there not of old," 

 said I, "a splendid city here ?" " Never," answered he, "so far as we 

 have seen ; and never did our fathers speak to us of any such." On my 

 return there five hundred years afterwards, I found the sea in the same 

 place ; and on its shores were a party of fishermen, of whom I inquired 

 how long the land had been covered by the waters. " Is this a question," 

 say they, " for a man like you ? This spot has always been what it is 

 now." I again returned five hundred years afterwards; the sea had 

 disappeared : I inquired of a man who stood alone upon the spot how 

 long this change had taken place, and he gave me the same answer as 

 I had received before. Lastly, on coming back again after an equal 

 lapse of time, I found there a flourishing city, more populous and more 

 rich in beautiful buildings than the city I had seen the first time ;. and 

 when I would fain have informed myself concerning its origin, the in- 

 habitants answered me, "Its rise is lost in remote antiquity : we are 

 ignorant how long it has existed, and our fathers were on this subject 

 as ignorant as ourselves." 



This striking passage was quoted in the Examiner ', in 1834. 

 Surely in this fragment of antiquity we trace the " geological 

 changes" of modern science. 



GEOLOGICAL TIME. 



Many ingenious calculations have been made to approxi- 

 mate the dates of certain geological events ; but these, it must 

 be confessed, are more amusing than instructive. For example, 

 so many inches of silt are yearly laid down in the delta of the 

 Mississippi how many centuries will it have taken to accu- 

 mulate a thickness of 30, 60, or 100 feet ? Again, the ledges 

 of Niagara are wasting at the rate of so many feet per century 

 how many years must the river have taken to cut its way 

 back from Queeustown to the present Falls ? Again, lavas 

 and melted basalts cool, according to the size of the mass, at 

 the rate of so many degrees in a given time how many mil- 

 lions of years must have elapsed, supposing an original igneous 

 condition of the earth, before its crust had attained a state of 

 solidity ? or further, before its surface had cooled down to the 

 present mean temperature ? For these and similar computa- 

 tions, the student will at once perceive we want the necessaiy 



