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REVIEWS OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
(v. 3) that 44 there was light.” Yet on the fourth it appears that it is necessary to 
re-create light, by establishing “lights in the firmament.” We should be glad to 
know how there could have been 44 light” prior to the existence of 44 lights in the 
firmament.” The actual process of creation infinitely surpassed the idea conveyed 
by the mosaic description, or we are greatly mistaken. Before concluding, we 
shall probably return to the above question, but must now proceed to offer a few 
remarks on the Treatise before us. 
At p. 118 our author briefly discusses the circumstances supposed to have 
favoured the growth of the immense mass of vegetation imbedded in the Coal 
formation. The tropical nature of the plants suggests the hypothesis—otherwise 
probable—that the climate of England w r as formerly considerably warmer than 
at present. In fact the temperature of the entire globe would seem to have been 
constantly on the decrease, and the diminution, however slow, would in course of 
time attain a considerable amount. Brongnxart supposes that the air in 
by-gone ages contained abundance of carbonic acid gas, and was thus more 
calculated than at present to favour the growth of such vast and dense forests as 
must at that period have encumbered the then limited portions of land. 
Professor Phillips states that, drawing a line through Cheshire and Derby¬ 
shire, it is only on the western side of the boundary that plants have been 
found in Red Sandstone, near Liverpool and Manchester, referring in the 
former case to Lindley and Hutton’s admirable Fossil Flora , the testimony 
of which has in this case, we believe, been questioned. A supposed fossil has 
recently been discovered in Cheshire in the Red Sandstone formation; but as 
some obscurity hangs over the fine specimen alluded to, further detail on the 
subject would here be out of place. 
Those who would account for all phenomena on the score of a universal deluge 
will do well to peruse our author’s pertinent remarks at p. 146. Geology unques¬ 
tionably favours the theory of a partial, though probably not of a universal, deluge. 
Moses affords us no assistance in this inquiry, for the scriptural version is silent 
respecting the extent of the inundation. Plow Noah contrived to introduce the 
number of animals requisite to fulfil the desired purpose into his limited ark, 
might form a subject for separate investigation, and is well calculated to stagger 
the inquiring reader, unless, indeed, the question be settled by the very philoso¬ 
phical mode of affirming that 44 cubit” is assuredly a mistranslation for “furlong”! 
As regards the rule that peculiar characteristic forms always occur in certain 
rocks, we must bring modern Zoology and Botany to our assistance. Now, only 
a small proportion of the animals found in Europe are met with on the other side 
the Atlantic, and vice versa. Quite a different kind of catalogue, again, is that 
of Africa or New Holland. The generalization respecting characteristic forms 
being found in certain rocks, can, therefore, only appty to the various zoological 
districts. "Within the limits of each of these, peculiar forms may be found in 
