13 
‘Another curious geological fact appears to be esta- 
“plished more especially. by fossil trilobites; it is that 
precisely the same species of animal relic, is the 
most generally diffused over the globe, in proportion 
to the antiquity of the rock which contains it. Thus 
the transition limestone of England, France, Ger- 
many and Sweden, contains the species called the 
Calymene of Blumenbach, in common with the same 
formation which extends over so large a portion of 
the United States. 
~ Different genera and species of the trilobite are 
now found in almost every part of the globe, and are 
frequently exceedingly abundant in the rocks which 
contain them. That they must have swarmed in 
particular places, is abundantly evident from anum- — 
ber of localities in our own country,—millions, for 
example, must have lived and died not far from 
Trenton falls, in the State of New York. There are 
_ very few the numerous visiters to that romantic 
cascade; Whose curiosity is not awaked, by the multi-_ : 
tude of these petrified beings, seemingly of anothe 
world, which are there entombed. 
chology, are light and mean in their estimation, when compared: 
with the study of extensive strata and ponderous boulders. Like 
Irving’s testy governor of Manahatta, who settled the accounts of 
his clients by placing their books in the opposite scales of a ba- 
lance, they decide on the value of a science, by the absolute 
weight of the objects embraced by it. Geology, as well as any 
other Geanek of natural history, may degenerate into a mere love 
for the curious, or have for its principal aim, the perfection or 
improvement of some ideal system of classification, without ad- 
vancing a single step further. 
B 
