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REVIEWS OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
siliceous, argillaceous, or calcareous, and containing some organic remains.—■ 
Lastly, the uppermost layer is formed of the tertiary and supratertiary 
deposits, in \vhich the vast mass of fossil remains occur. Whether the duration 
of time occupied by the formation of these various strata will ever be ascertained, 
remains doubtful; but at present we have no means of successfully comparing 
geological and historical periods. Nor can the various orders of strata be accu¬ 
rately defined. In Nature’s plans we find no abrupt terminations: every thing 
is so blended as to form one beautiful and harmonious whole. Our division of 
the crust of the globe is as artificial as the disposition of the animal and vegetable 
kingdoms into orders, tribes, genera, &c., and serves the same purpose, viz., that 
of assisting our minds to seize and recollect the endless varieties of form and 
structure occurring in the strata. We commonly find that strata lie parallel to 
each other, but remarkable exceptions occur, in their meeting at various angles 
of incidence, or even crossing each other. Thus much, however, is known, 
namely, that the formation of the strata by sediment from water must have 
occupied countless ages—a period before which the few thousands of years con¬ 
stituting the history of Man fall into perfect insignificance. 
Since we discover no organic remains in the primary strata—and of course 
none occur in the granitic formation on which they lie—and, as compared with 
the tertiary, but few in the secondary, those few being, moreover, among the 
lowest marine plants, and animals, as Conchifera , Mollusca , zoophytes, &c., 
it follows, as an incontrovertible position, not only that the world existed a fear¬ 
ful time without the presence of anything containing the “ breath of life,” but that 
long ages rolled along between the period when the lowest vegetables and animals 
opened their existence and the time when Man first entered the world. Taking 
the subaqueous origin of stratified rocks for our basis, this admits of no doubt. 
Thus, the Snowdon Rocks of the primary strata are 3,000 feet thick in Cumber¬ 
land. The deposition of that single formation, it is certain, must have occupied 
a number of ages which it requires powerful nerves to contemplate. But before 
this the granitic rocks below the primary strata had to be formed, and subse¬ 
quently the massy depositions lying above and below the Snowdon Rocks, to 
which we have alluded by way of example. All this time not a creature 
breathed, not a footstep ever disturbed the formations, and when at length low 
forms of animal and vegetable life existed, it is certain that the lapse of ages was 
again necessary before the world, by a series of slow and gradual changes, was 
fitted for the reception of the “ lords of the creation,” the highest of God’s mighty 
works. 
Having now brought the reader to the desired point, let us briefly advert to the 
account of the creation contained in the first chapter of Genesis. 
“ In the beginning,” we learn, “ God created the heaven and the earth.” When 
this “ beginning” was, does not transpire: probably it was a few hours previous 
