REVOLUTIONS. 1Q3 



formed strata are loose in their texture, and usually hori- 

 zontal in their position. In proportion as we retire from 

 these, towards the older formations, the texture becomes 

 more compact and crystalline, and the strata become more 

 inclined and distorted. These characters may be traced, 

 by comparing the common loose mai'l of a peat-bog with the 

 firmer chalk ; the compact floetz limestone with the transition 

 marble ; or the peat itself with the older beds of wood-coal, 

 or the still older beds of coal of the indej^endent coal forma- 

 tion. The organic remains in the newer strata are yet un- 

 altered in their texture, and easily separable from the matter 

 in which they ai'e imbedded. In the older rocks, the re- 

 mains are changed into stone, and intimately incorporated 

 with the suiTounding rocks. These facts are of vast im- 

 ]3ortance in a geological point of view, as they make us ac- 

 quainted \vdth the original condition of the matter with which 

 the organic remains were enveloped, and lead us to believe 

 that the bed now in the form of limestone or marble, was 

 once loose as chalk, or even marl ; that coal once resembled 

 peat ; and that the strata of sandstone and quartz rock were 

 once layers of sand. They are no less interesting when 

 viewed in connection with the characters presented by the 

 petrifactions of the different seras. 



The fossil remains of the alluvial strata, nearly resemble 

 the same parts of the animals which live on the eai'th at pre- 

 sent, and in the newer strata, the remains of existing races 

 are found. As we trace, however, the characters of the pe- 

 trifactions of tlie floetz and transition rocks, we find the 

 forms which they exhibit differing more and more from the 

 animals of the present day, in proportion as the rocks in 

 which they are contained exhibit new characters of texture, 

 }X)sition, and relation. 



It is impossible to regard these concomitant circumstan- 

 ces as accidental. Their co-existence indicates their rcla- 



