18 THE WONDERS OF GEOLOGY. 



Fossil Fishes. — If we descend from the strata of newest for- 

 mation, to those that lie near, or upon the primary rocks, we 

 find not only that crustaceous and molluscous animals, of 

 various kinds, have existed in the early periods, but that fishes 

 have occupied the waters of almost all geological ages since life 

 began, and that among the earliest, even those that are buried 

 beneath the coal, there were races of great size, power, and ferocity ; 

 formidable from their teeth and jaws, which had, in some species, 

 a structure like those of reptiles ; and they had forked tails with 

 unequal flukes, which enabled them quickly to turn over on their 

 backs before striking their prey. The fossil fishes of particular genera 

 and species, are characteristic of particular geological formations — 

 they extend geographically, far and wide, to distant countries, so 

 that certain species may, if found at all, be expected in similar 

 rocks in Europe, in America, in Asia, and Africa ; and they are of 

 every size, from inches, and fractions of an inch, to several feet. 

 They occur either solitary — or in groups — or in fragments — or in 

 immense shoals, like those of Monte Bolca, near Yerona, in Italy, 

 where there are several hundred species ; still, scarcely a single 

 fish of the strata that precede the most recent tertiary, is 

 identical in species with any now existing in the waters of the 

 globe. 



Fossil Vegetables. — Vegetables are found in strata of nearly all 

 geological ages, and the labours of Count Sternberg, of M. Adolphe 

 Brongniart, and of many other able botanists, have proved that a 

 peculiar vegetation, adapted to the temperature, the degree of 

 moisture, and other circumstances of the earth's successive surfaces, 

 attended the different geological epochs. 



Splendid and expensive works are now in the hands of geologists, 

 containing exact delineations of the fossil vegetables, as far as they 

 have been ascertained. These fossil plants are of all dimensions, from 

 minute conferva? and lichens, to gigantic trees ; their structure, from 

 mere fragments to perfect plants, has been beautifully delineated ; 

 roots, trunks, branches and leaves, with the most delicate ramifica- 

 tions of the skeletons of the latter, have been examined ; and in 

 some rare cases, the more perishable organic fructification has been 

 made out, and the fruits themselves have been identified* 



* See our Author's work, entitled " Medals of Creniiot," for a lucid summary of 

 the fossil remains of animals and plants, at present known. 



