consistent with the Mosaic History. 37 



Hebrew term (remes) does not. This is derived from a verb which 

 signifies to move, and which is so far from being limited in its appli- 

 cation to the insects or the reptiles, that, in Psalm civ. 20, 21, we 

 find it applied to the beast of the forest and the young lions : "Thou 

 makest darkness and it is night, wherein all the beasts of the forest 

 do creep (tiremos). The young lions roar after their prey." In the 

 24th and 25th verses, (remes) is grouped with cattle (behemach), 

 and beast of the earth (haith haaretz). Proofs are abundant, and too 

 tedious to be all referred to, that by (behemah) the Hebrews gener- 

 ally expressed the larger herbivorous animals, and by (haith haaretz) 

 the larger beasts of prey. (For the former see Genesis xxxiv. 23, 

 and for the latter Leviticus xxvi. 22). Thus we find races of mam- 

 malia expressed by these terras, and to comprehend the whole class 

 we must understand (remes) as referring to its other tribes. It is at 

 least no race of insects that can be meant by the term, for, in point of 

 fact, where any of these are obviously meant in other Hebrew pas- 

 sages, either the name (sheretz) is given to them as in Leviticus xi. 

 42, " Whatsoever doth multiply feet among all creeping things," 

 (hasheretzj, or the name (oph), as we have already seen. 



It is true that remes is applied to the oviparous tribes, but not as a 

 noun or name, but as. a verb to express their motion, just as in some 

 passages above quoted, we have seen sheretz applied as a verb, but 

 not a name to mammalia. 



Previously to setting down the following table of coincidences be- 

 tweeri the first chapter of Genesis and the results of geological obser- 

 vation, it is necessary to make a remark on one passage in Hum- 

 boldt's table of geological formations, which possesses a classical 

 celebrity over Europe. In that table, following an earlier authority, 

 he has placed the formations of transition, in the limestones of which 

 are found several species of shells, intermediately between the prim- 

 itive formations and those containing bituminous coal ; and his table 

 would thus indicate that an animal creation had preceded any vege- 

 table one. We shall not need to discuss the question, whether the 

 formations, named transition, are considered in a right point of view, 

 when they are placed between the primitive and pit-coal strata, since 

 it is sufficient for our present purpose to remark, that several obser- 

 vations, among which we may particularly refer to those of Thomas 

 Weaver, Esq., F. R. S., on the geological relations of the south of 

 Ireland, have proved that the anthracite or glance coal of the tran- 

 sition formations, with some of its accompanying strata, are full of 



