1855.] 



AFRICAN EXPLOREPuS :— EARTH AND VOGEL. 



387 



the wliole is equally and alike the MoUuscan or Silurian Age. The 

 term Cambrian, therefore, if here used for fossiliferous stx-ata, must be 

 made subordinate to Silurian. 



The Taconic System of Emmons has been supposed by its author to 

 have a place inferior to the Cambrian of Sedgwick, or else on a level 

 ■with it. But the investigations of Hall, Mather, and Rogers, and more 

 lately of Logan and Hunt, have shown that the Taconic slates belong 

 ■with the upper part of the Lower Silurian, being in fact, the Hudson 

 river Shales, far from the bottom of the scale. 



IIL The American rocks throw much light on the origin of coal. 

 Prof. H. D. Rogers, in an able paper on the American coal fields, has 

 well shown that the condition of a delta or estuary for the growth of 

 the coal plants, admitted even now by some geologists, is out of the 

 question, unless the whole continent may be so called : for a Large 

 part of its surface was covered with the vegetation. Deltas e.xist where 

 there are large rivers ; such rivers accumulate and ilow where there 

 are mountains. How then could there have been rivers or true deltas 

 of much size in the coal period, before the Rocky Mountains or Appa- 

 lachians were ra'sed. It takes the Andes to make an Amazon. This 

 remark has a wider application than simply to the coal era. 



IV. In this connection, I add a word on the idea that the rocks of 

 our continent have been supplied with sands and gravel from a continent 

 now sunk in the ocean. No facts prove that such a continent has ever 

 existed, and the whole system of progress, as I have explained, is 

 opposed to it. Moreover, gravel and sands are never drifted away 

 from seashores except by the very largest of rivers like the Amazon ; 

 and with these, only part of the lightest or finest detritus is carried 

 away; for much the larger part is returned to the coast through tidal 

 action, which has a propelling movement shoreward where there are 

 soundings. The existence of an Amazon or any such Atlantic continent 

 in Silurian, Devonian, or Cai-boniferous times, is too wild an hypothesis 

 for a moment's indulgence. 



V. The bearing of the facts in American Palfeontology on the science 

 might occupy another full discourse, I will close with brief allusions to 

 some points of general interest. 



1. The change in the Fauna of the Globe as the Age of Man ap- 

 proached, is one of the most interesting facts in the Earth's history. 

 It was a change, not in the types of the races — for each continent 

 retains its characteristics — but a remarkable dwindling in the size of 

 species. In North America, the Buffalo became the successor to the 

 huge Miistodon, Elephant and Bootherium: the small beaver to the 

 great Castoroides, and the existing Carnivora are all comparatively 

 small. 



Parallel with this fact we find that in South America, as Dr. Lund 

 observes, where in the last age before Man, there were the giant 

 Megatherium, and Glyptodcn and other related Edentata there are 

 now the small Sloths, Armadillos, and Ant-eaters. 



So, also, in the Oriental Continent the gigantic lion, tiger, hyena, 

 and elephant, and other monster quadrupeds, have now their very 

 inferior representatives. 



In New Holland, too, the land of Marsupials, there are Marsupials 

 still, but of less magnitude. 



2. The American Continent has contributed to Science a knowledge 

 of some of the earliest traces of reptiles — the species of the Pennsylvania 

 coal formation, described by Dr. King and Jlr. Lea, and others from 

 the Nova Scotia coal fields, discovered by Messrs. Dawson and Lyell. 



It has aft'orded the earliest traces of birds thus far deciphered in 

 geological history — the colossal and smaller waders whose tracks cover 

 the clayey layers and sandstones of the Jurassic rocks in the Connecticut 

 Valley. The earliest Cctacea yet known are from the American Cre- 

 taceous bed.s, as described by Dr. Leidy, and among the large Mammals 

 which had possession of the renewed world after the Cretaceous life 

 had been swept away, the largest, as far as has been ascertained, lived 

 on this continent. The Palicotheria of the Paris basin, described by 

 Cuvier, were but half the size of those of Nebraska. 



But here our boasting ceases ; for as Agassiz has shown, the pre- 

 sent Fauna of America is more analogous to the later tertiary of Europe 

 than to the existing species of that continent. 



In the P alteozoic Ages, to the close of the Coal Period, the American 

 Continent was as brilliant and profuse in its life as any other part of 

 the world' It was a period, indeed, when the globe was in an import- 

 ant sense a unit, not individualized in its climates or its distribution of 

 life, and only partially in its seas. But from this time the contrast is 

 mo.«t striking. 



The whole number of known American species of animals of 

 the Permian, Triassic. .luras.'*ic, Cretnceous, and Tertiary periods is 

 about 2,0!li); while in Britain and Europe, a territory even smaller, 



there were over 20.000 species. In the Permian we have none ; while 

 Europe has over 200 species. In the Triassic none, Europe 1,000 

 species ; in the Jurassic 60, Europe over 4,000 ; in the Cretaceous 350, 

 Europe 5,000 to 6,000; in the Tertiary less than 1,500, Europe about 

 8,000. 



America, since Paloeozoic times, has therefore been eminent for the 

 poverty of its Fauna. 



Again, the Mammalian Age in America, although commencing with 

 huge Pachyderms, shows little progress afterward. The large quad- 

 rupeds continue to be mainly herbivorous, and the Carnivora, the 

 higher group, are few. and of comp.aratively small size. The Herhi- 

 vora are still llie tt/picnl specif s. While in Europe and Asia, at the same 

 time — that is, in the Post-tertiary — the Carnivora are of great size and 

 ferocity far exceeding the largest of modern lions and tigers. The 

 single species of lion described from a bone from near Natchez, by Dr. 

 Leidy, hardly lessens the contrast. 



South America, as has been remarked by Agassiz and others, sustains 

 this inferior position of America. The huge sloths, megatheria, and 

 other Edentata of the South are even lower in grade than the ordinary 

 Herbivora, and place the southern continent at an inferior level in the 

 scale. Although there were Carnivora, they were much smaller than 

 the European, The Edentates are^ in fact, its typical species. 



The supremacy of the great Oriental Continent is therefore most sig- 

 nally apparent. 



The contrast is still greater with Australia and New Zealand, whose 

 past and present Fauna and Flora have been well said, by Agassiz, and 

 afterwards by Owen, to represent the Jurassic period, the present era 

 affording Trigonias, Terebratula?, Cestraciont Fishes, and the Arauca- 

 rian Conifenc, all Jurassic types, beside kangaroos and moas. Among 

 Mammals, the Marsupials, the lowest of all in the class, are its typical 

 species. 



Ever since PaliEozoic times, therefore, the Oriental Continent — that 

 is, Europe, A.sia, and Africa combined — has taken the lead in animal 

 life. Through the Reptilian age, Europe ami Asia had species by 

 thousands, while America was almost unten:>nted. In the later Mam- 

 malian age. North America was yet in the shade, both in its Mammals 

 and lower tribes. South America in still darker shadows, and Australia 

 even deeper still. The earth's antipodes were like light and darkness 

 in their zoological contrasts. And was there not in all this a prophetic 

 indication, which had been growing more and more distinct, that the 

 Eastern continent would be man's chosen birth-place ? that the long 

 series of living beings which had been in slow progression through in- 

 calculable ages would there at last att.ain its highest exaltation ? that 

 the stupendous system of nature would there be opened to its fullest 

 expansion? 



Another of our number has shown, in eloquent language, how the 

 diversified features and productions of the Old World conspired to adapt 

 it for the childhood and development of the race ; and that when 

 beyond his pupilage, having accomplished his rescue from himself and 

 the tyranny of the forces around him, and broken the elements into 

 his service, he needed to emerge from the trammels of the school-house 

 in order to enjoy his fullest freedom of thought, and action, and social 

 union. Prof. Guyot observes further, that America, ever free, was 

 the appointed land for this freedom and union, of which its open plains 

 and oneness of structure were a fit emblem ; and that, although long 

 without signs of progress or hope in its future, this land is to be the 

 centre of hope and light to the world. 



In view of all these arrangements, Man m.ay well feel exalted. He 

 is the last of the grand series. At his approach the fierce tribes of the 

 earth drew back, and the race dwindled to onc-lourth its bulk and 

 ferocity — the huge mastodons, lions, and hyenas yielding place to other 

 species better fitted to bo his attendants, and more in harmony with tlio 

 new creation. Partakiug of the Divine image, all nature pays him 

 tribute ; the universe is his field of study ; and eternity his future. 

 Surely it is a high eminence on which he stands. 



But yet he is only one in the series — one individuality in the vast 

 system. How vain the philosophy which makes the creature the God 

 of Nature, or Nature its own author. Infinitely beyond man, infinitely 

 beyond all created things is that Being, with whom this system and the 

 combiued systems of immensity were as one purpose of His will. 



AXricou Kxplorcrs :— BartU anil Vo^cl. 



A telegraphic despateh from Dr. H. Bnrth, dated "Marseilles, 8th 

 of September, 11-5 a.m.," received by meat Gotha this day, at 2-5 p.m., 

 conveys the gratifying intelligence that this extraordinary man, already 

 believed dead, set his foot on European shore this morning, en rottlf 



