1 1^^- j/jy^ vse I S o\'^'\. \ GRIGGS & CO., PRINTEK^ TO DAVIES GILBERT, ESQ. D. C. L. (BY DIPLOMA,) F. R. S., HON. M. R. S. B., HON. M. R. I. *., ?. B. A., r. L. S., F. O. S., F. R. A. 3., BTC. ETC. MV DEAR SIR, I ONLY fulfil a gratifying duty in dedicating to you the present Essay, which owes its existence principally to your favourable opinion of my ability to discharge the trust con- fided to me. To have been thus selected for such a service, is a dis- tinction which I prize as one of the most honourable results of my devotion of many years to the study of the mineral structure of the Earth. I fear, however, that your estimate of my qualifications has been raised above my deserts, by your afl;ectionate regard for the University, with which it has been our common happiness to be so long connected. Whatever other results may have attended my public ex- ertions in this place, I assure you that it is a source of much satisfaction to me to find them thus rewarded by the appro- bation of a Philosopher, whose attainments placed him in the chair once occupied by Newton, and who is endeared by his urbanity to all, who have ever enjoyed the happiness of communication with him, cither as the President of the Royal Society of London, or in that more familiar inter- course of private friendship to which it has been my privi- lege to be admitted. Believe me to remain,. My dear Sir, Your much obliged and faithful Servant, William Buckland. Christ Church, Oxford, May 30, 1836. 1* PREFACE. Three important subjects of inquiiy in Natural Theology come under consideration in the present Treatise. The first regards the inorganic Elements of the Mineral Kingdom, and the actual dispositions of the Materials of the Earth : many of these, although produced or modified by the agency of violent and disturbing forces, afford abundant proofs of wise and provident Intention, in their adaptations to the uses of the Vegetable and Animal Kingdoms, and especially to the condition of Man. The second relates to the Theories which have been enter- tained respecting the Origin of the World ; and the deriva- tion of existing systems of organic Life, by an eternal suc- cession, from preceding individuals of the same species ; or by gradual transmutation of one species into another.- I have endeavoured to show, that to all these Theories the phenomena of Geology are decidedly opposed. The third extends into the Organic Remains of a former World the same kind of investigation, which Paley has pur- sued with so much success in his examination of the evi- dences of Design in the mechanical structure of the corporeal frame, of Man, and of the inferior Animals which are placed with him on the present surface of the Earth. The myriads of petrified Remains which are disclosed by the researches of Geology all tend to prove, that our Planet has been occupied in times preceding the Creation of the Human Race, by extinct species of Animals and Vegetables, made up, like Hving Organic Bodies, of " Clusters of Con- trivances," which demonstrate the exercise of stupendous Vm PREFACE- Intelligence and Power. They farther show that these extinct forms of Organic Life were so closely allied, by Unity in the principles of their construction, to Classes, Orders, and Families, which make up the existing Animal and Vegetable Kingdoms, that they not only afford an argument of surpassing force, against the doctrines of the Atheist and Polytheist; but supply a chain of connected evidence, amounting to demonstration, of the continuous Being, and of many of the highest Attributes of the One Living and True God. A friend has this day suggested tome, that expressions are used in certain parts of this Treatise, which some persons consider as speaking too confidently respiecting Physical Phenomena, as if they could not have been otherwise dis- posed, had sucii been the will of the Creator; or which seem to imply that His method of proceeding under former systems, must of necessity have been the same as those which we witness in the growth of living species of Animals and Vegetables, and in the laws that now regulate the material World. I am not conscious of liaving used any such expressions, but lest I should have inadvertently done so, I gladly take this opportunity of stating, that I accord to the fullest extent with such persons respecting the Omnipo- tence of the Creator, and admit with them, that had it been his pleasure, ail things that exist might have been the immediate results of an Almighty .Aa'- My only endeavour has been to sliow, that as far as we may venture to argue on such a subject, from tlie analogies afforded by the organic and in- organic parts of the world around us, the proofs of design which we disco- ver in the fossil relics of former systems of Creation, differ in no respect from those drawn by Paley and all writers on Physico Theology, from the structure of living organic bodies, and the other actual phenomena of the natural World, in evidence of the Wisdom and Power, and Goodness of the Deity. Oxford, April 4, 1837 The scientific Reader will feel that much value has been added to the ])reserit work, from tlie whole of the Palaeontology, during its progress tiirough the Press, having had the great advantage of passing under the re- vision of Mr. Broderip, and from tlie botanical part having been submitted to Mr. Robert Brown. I have also to acknowledge my obligations to Mr. Clift for his important assistance in the anatomy of the Megatherium; to Pro- fessor Agassiz of Neuchatel for his unreserved communications of his disco- veries relating to Fossil Fishes; to Mr. Owen for his revision of some parts of my Chapter on Mollusks; and to Mr, James Sowerby for his assistance in engraving most of my figures of radiated animals, and some of those of Mol- lusks. To all these Gentlemen I feel it my duty thus to offer my public ac- knowledgements. Many obligations to other scientific friends arc also acknowledged in the course of the work. The Wood-cuts have been executed by Mr. Fisher and Mr. Byfield, and most of the Steel plates of Mollusks by Mr. Zeltter NOTICE. Thk series of Treatises, of which the present is one, is published under the following circumstances : The Right Honourable and Reverend Francis Henrt, Earl of Bridge- water, died in the month of February, 1829 ; and by his last Will and Testament, bearing date the 25th of February, 1825, he directed certain Trustees therein named to invest in the public funds the sum of Eight thousand pounds sterling ; this sum, with the accruing dividends thereon, to be held at the disposal of the President, for the time being, of the Royal Society of London, to be paid to the person or persons nominated by him. The Testator farther directed, that the person or persons selected by the said President'should be appointed to write, print, and publish one thousand copies of a work On the Power, Wisdom and Goodness of God, as manifested in the Creation; illustrating such work by all reasonable arguments, as for instance, the variety and formation of God's creatures in the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms ; the efiect of digestion and thereby of conversion ; the construction of the hand of man, and an injinite variety of other arguments ; as also by discoveries ancient and modern, in arts, sciences, and the whole extent of literature. He desired, moreover, that the profits arising from the sale of the works so published should be paid to the authors of the works. The late President of the Royal Society, Davies Gilbert, Esq., requested the assistance of his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury and of the Bishop of London, in determining upon the best mode of carrying into effect the in- tentions of the Testator. Acting with their advice, and with the concurrence of a nobleman immediately connected with the deceased, JMr. Davies Gilbert appointed the following eight gentlemen to write separate Treatises on the different branches of the subject here stated : THE REV. THOMAS CHALMERS, D. D. Professor of divinity in the cniversitt op Edinburgh. on the power, wisdom and goodness of god as manifested in the adapta- tion of external nature to the moral and intellectual constitu- tion of man. NOTICE. JOHN KIDD, M. D. F. R. S. REGIUS PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD. ON THE ADAPTATION OF EXTERNAL NATURE TO THE FHYSICAt CONDITION OF MAN. THE REV. WILLIAM WHEWELL, M. A. F. R. S. FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. ASTRONOMY AND GENERAL PHYSICS CONSIDERED WITH REFERENCE TO NATURAL THEOLOGY. SIR CHARLES BELL, K. G. H. F. R. S. L. & E. THE HAND; ITS MECHANISM AND VITAL ENDOWMENTS AS EVINCING DESIGN. PETER MARK ROGET, M. D, FELLOW OF AND SECRETARY TO THE ROYAL SOCIETY. ON ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. THE REV. WILLIAM BUCKLAND, D. D. F. R. S. CANON OF CHRIST CHURCH, AND READER IN GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD. ON GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. THE REV. WILLIAM KIRBY, M. A. F. R. S. ON THE HISTORY, HABITS, AND INSTINCTS OF ANIMALS. WILLIAM PROUT, M. D. F. R. S. CHEMISTRY, METEOROLOGY, AND THE FUNCTIONS OF DIGESTION, CONSIDERED WITH REFERENCE TO NATURAL THEOLOGY. His Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex, President of the Royal Society having desired that no unnecessary delay should take place in the publica- tion of the above-mentioned treatises, they will appear at short intervals, as they are ready for publication. CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. Chap. I. Extent of the Province of Geology .... II. Consistency of Geological Discoveries with Sacred His tory III. Proper subjects of Geological Inquiry . IV. Relation of Unstratified to stratified Rocks V. Volcanic Rocks, Basalt, and Trap VI. Primary stratified Rocks ..... VII. Strata of the Transition Scries Remains of Vegetables in the Transition Series VIII. Strata of the Secondary Series IX. Strata of the Tertiary Series .... Mammalia of the Eocene Period Mammalia of the Miocene Period Mammalia of the Pliocene Period X. Relation of the Earth and its Inhabitants to Man XL Supposed cases of Fossil Human Bones XII. General History of Fossil Organic Remains XIII. Aggregate of Animal Enjoyment increased, and that of Pain diminished by the existence of Carnivorous Races XIV. Proofs of Design in the Structure of Fossil Vertebrated Animals § I. Fossil Mammaria— Dinotherium 11. Megatherium in. Fossil Saurians . . - IV. Ichthyosaurus V. Intestinal Structure of Ichthyosaurus and of Fossil Fishes VI. Plesiosaurus vn. Mosasaurus, or great Animal of Maestricht . VIII. Pterodactyle ■ Vol. L It Page 13 IB 37 39 45 48 55 57 60 67 70 77 79 82 86 89 105 109 109 112 130 133 147 157 lei 171 XIV CONTENTS. IX. Megalosaurus X. Iguanodon XI. Amphibious Animals allied to Crocodiles XII. Fossil Tortoises or Testudinata ..... XIII. Fossil Fishes Sauroid Fishes in the Order Ganoid .... Fishes in Strata of the Carboniferous Order . Fishes of the Magnesian Limestone, or Zechstein Fishes of the Muschelkalk, Lias, and Oolite Formations Fishes of the Chalk Formation ..... Fishes of the Tertiary Formations ..... Family of Sharks ....... Fossil Spines, or Ichthyodorulites ..... Fossil Rays . . . Conclusion . . Chap, XV. Proofs of design in the Fossil Remains of Mollusks . § I. Fossil Univalve and Bivalve Shells .... II. Fossil Remains of Naked Mollusks, Pens and Ink bags of Loligo ,....,. lit. Proofs of Design in the Mechanism of Fossil Chambered Shells .......... Mechanical Contrivances in the Nautilus IV. Ammonites V. Nautilus Sypho and Nautilus Zic-Zac VI. Chambered Shells allied to Nautili and Ammonites VII. Belemnite ........ viii. Foraminated Polythalamous Shells. Nummulites. Miliola Chap. XVI. Proofs of Design in the Structure of Fossil Articulated Animals ...... § 1. First Class of Articulated Animals Fossil Annelidans ..... It. Second Class of Articulated Animals Fossil Crustaceans .... Trilobites ..... III. Third Class of Articulated Animals Fossil Arachnidans .... Fossil Spiders Fossil Scorpions .... !V. Fourth Class of Articulated Animals Fossil Insects .... Page 180 185 191 195 202 208 212 213 214 216 216 218 220 221 222 224 224 230 235 238 252 270 273 280 288 291 292 292 292 292 294 305 305 306 307 308 308 CONTENTS. XV Page Chap. XVII. Proofs of Design in the Structure of Fossil Radiated Animals, or Zoophytes 312 § I, Fossil Echinoderms 312 Echinidans and Stelleridans .... 313 Crinoideans 314 Encrinites Moniliformis . . . . . 317 Pentacrinites 325 II. Fossil Remains of Polypes 333 Chap. XVIII. Proofs of Design in the Structure of Fossil Vegeta- bles 339 § i» General History of Fossil Vegetables . . . 339 II. Vegetables in Strata of the Transition Series . 345 Equisetaceoe 346 Ferns . . ^ . . . . 347 Lepidodendron 350 Sigillaria 352 Favularia, Megaphyton, Bothrodendron, Uloden- dron 356 Stigmaria 358 Fossil Conifera) ...... 363 in. Vegetables in strata of the Secondary Series , 368 Fossil Cycadeee 368 Fossil Pandaneoe 377 IV. Vegetables in strata of the Tertiary Series . . 380 Fossil Palms . . » . . . 385 Conclusion 390 Chap. XIX. Proofs of Design in the Dispositions of Strata of the Carboniferous Order ..... 392 XX. Proofs of Design in the Effect of Disturbing Forces on the Strata of the Earth 403 XXI. Advantageous Effect of Disturbing Forces in giving Origin to Mineral Veins 409 XXII. Adaptations of the Earth to afford Supplies of Water through the Medium of Springs .... 415 XXIII. Proofs of Design in the Structure and Composition of Unorganized Mineral Bodies .... 426 XXIV. Conclusion 432 INTRODUCTION. CHAPTER I. Extent of the Province of Geology. If a stranger, landing at the extremity of England, were to traverse the whole of Cornwall and the North of Devon- shire ; and crossing to St. David's, should make the tour of all North Wales ; and passing thence through Cumberland, by the Isle of Man, to the south-western shore of Scotland should proceed either through the hilly region of the Border Counties, or, along the Grampians, to the German Ocean ; he would conclude from such a journey of many hundred miles, that Britain was a thinly peopled sterile region, whose principal inhabitants were miners and mountaineers. Another foreigner, arriving on the coast of Devon, and crossing the Midland Counties, from the mouth of the Exe, to that of the Tyne, would find a continued succession of fertile hills and valleys, thickly overspread with towns and cities, and in many parts crowded with a manufacturing population, whose industry is maintained by the coal with which the strata of these districts are abundantly inter spersed.* ♦ It may seen, in any correct geological map of England, thai the follow- ing important and populous towns are placed upon strata belonging to the single geological formation of the new red sandstone: — Exeter, Bristol, Wor- cester, Warwick, Birmingham, Lichfield, Coventry, Leicester, Nottingham, Derby, Stafford, Shrewsbury, Chester, Liverpool, Warrington, Manchester, Preston, York, and Carlisle. The population of these nineteen towns, by tlie census of 1830, exceeded a million. The most convenient small map to which I can refer my readers, in illufi- , tration of this and other parts of the present essay, is the single sheet, re- VOL. I. — 2 14 INTRODUCTION. A third foreigner might travel from the coast of Dorset to the coast of Yorkshire, over elevated plains of oolitic limestone, or of chalk; without a single mountain, or mine, or coal-pit, or any important manufactory, and occupied by a population almost exclusively agricultural. Let us suppose these three strangers to meet at the ter- mination of their journeys, and to compare their respective observations; how different would be the results to which each would have arrived, respecting the actual condition of Great Britain. The first would represent it as a thinly peopled region of barren mountains ; the second, as a land of rich pastures, crowded with a flourishing population of manufacturers; the third, as a great corn-field, occupied by persons almost exclusively engaged in the pursuits of hus- bandry. These dissimilar conditions of three great divisions of our country, result from diflferences in the geological structure of the districts through which our three travellers have been conducted. The first will have seen only those north- w^estern portions of Britain, that are composed of rocks be- longing to the primary and transition series : the second will have traversed those fertile portions of the new red sand- stone formation which are made up of the detritus of more ancient rocks, and have beneath and near them, inestimable treasures of mineral coal : the third will have confined his route to wolds of limestone, and downs of chalk, which are best adapted for sheep-walks, and the production of corn.* duced by Gardner from Mr. Greenoiigh's large map of England, published by the Geological Society of London. * The road from Bath through Cirencester and Oxford to Buckingham, and thence by Kettering and Stamford to Lincoln, afford-, a good example of the unvaried sameness in the features and culture of the soil, and in the occupations of the people, that attends the line of direction, in whicli tlie oolite formation crosses England from Weymoutli to Scarborough. The road from Dorchester, by Blandford and Salisbury, to Andover and Basingstoke, or from Dunstable to Royston, Cambridge, and Newmarket, INTRODUCTION'. 15 t Hence it appears that the numerical amount of our popu- lation, their varied occupations, and the fundamental sources of their industry and wealth, depend, in a great degree, upon the geological character of the strata on Avhich they live. Their physical condition also, as indicated by the duration of life and health, depending on the more or less salubrious nature of their employments ; and their moral condition, as far as it is connected with these employments, are directly aflected by the geological causes in which their various oc- cupations originate. From this example of our own country, we learn that the same constituent materials of the earth are not uniformly continuous in all directions over large superficial areas. In one district we trace the course of crystaUine and granitic rocks; in another we find mountains of slate; in a third, alternating strata of sandstone, shale, and limestone ; in a fourth, beds of conglomerate rock; in a fifth, strata of marl and clay; in a sixth, gravel, loose sand, and silt. The subordinate mineral contents of these various formations are also different ; in the more ancient, are veins of gold affords similar examples of the dull uniformity that we observe in a journey along the line of bearing' of tlic clialk, from near Bridport on the coast of Dorset, to Fiamborough Head on the coast of Yorkshire. In the same line of direction, or line of bearing of the strata across Eng- land, a journey might be made from Lyme Regis to Whitby, almost entirely upon tiie lias formation; and from Weymouth to the Humber, without once leaving the Oxford clay. Indeed .ilmost any route, taking a north-east and south-west direction across England, will for the most part pass continuouslv along the same formation; wliilst a line from south-east to north-west, at right angles to the former, will no where continue on the same stratum be- }ond a few miles. Such a line will give the best information of the order of superposition, and various conditions of the very numerous strata, that tra- verse our island in a succession of narrow belts, the main direction of which is nearly north-east and south-west. This line has afforded to Mr. Cony- beare the instructive section, from Newhaven near Brighton, to Whitehaven, published in his Geology of England and Wales; along which nearly seventy elianges in the character of the strata take place. 1() INTRODUCTION. and silver, tin, copper, lead, and zinc ; in another series, we find beds of coal ; in others salt and gypsum ; many are composed of freestone, fit for the purpose of architecture ; or of limestone, useful both for building and cement ; others of clay, convertible by fire into materials of building, and pot- tery : in almost all we find that most important of mineral productions, iron. Again, if we look to the great phenomena of physical geo- graphy, the grand distributions of the solids of the globe; the disposition of continents and islands above and amidst the waters; the depth and extent of seas, and lakes, and rivers; the elevation of hills and mountains; the extension of plains; and the excavation, depression, and fractures of val- leys ; v>^e find them all originating in causes which it is the province of Geology to investigate. A more minute examination traces the progress of the mineral materials of the earth, through various stages of change and revolution, affecting the strata which compose its surface ; and discloses a regular order in the superposi- tion of these strata ; recurring at distant intervals, and ac- companied by a corresponding regularity in the order of succession of many extinct races of animals and vegetables, that have followed one after another during the progress of these mineral formations ; arrangements like these could not have originated in chance, since they afford evidence of law and method in the disposition of mineral matter ; and still stronger evidence of design in the structure of the organic remains with which the strata are interspersed. How then has it happened that a science thus important, comprehending no less than the entire physical history of our planet, and whose documents are co-extensive with the globe, should have been so little regarded, and almost with- out a name, until the commencement of the present cen- tury ? Attempts have been made at various periods, both by practical observers and by ingenious speculators, to esta- TNTRODUCTION. 17 blish theories respecting the formation of the earth; these have in great part failed, in consequence of the then imperfect state of those subsidiary sciences, which, within the last half century, have enabled the geologist to return from the region of fancy to that of facts, and to establish his conclusions on the firm basis of philosophical induction. We, now approach the study of the natural history of the globe, aided not only by the higher branches of physics, but bv still more essential recent discoveries, in Mineralogy, and Chemistry, in Botany, Zoology, and comparative Anatomy, By the help of these sciences we are enabled to extract from the archives of the interior of the earth, intelligible records of former conditions of our planet, and to decipher docu- ments, which were a sealed book to our predecessors in the attempt to illustrate subterranean history. Thus enlarged in its views, and provided with fit means of pursuing them Geology extends its researches into regions more vast and remote, than come within the scope of any other physical science except Astronomy. It not only comprehends the entire range of the mineral kingdom, but includes also the history of innumerable extinct races of animals and vegeta- bles ; in each of which it exhibits evidences of design and contrivance, and of adaptations to the varying condition of the lands and waters on which they were placed ; and be- sides all these, it discloses an ulterior prospective accommo- dation of the mineral elements, to existing tribes of plants and animals, and more especially to the uses of man. Evi- dences like these make up a history of a high and ancient order, unfolding records of the operations of the Almighty Author of the Universe, written by the finger of God him- self, upon the foundations of the everlasting hills. 2* 18 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGICAL CHAPTER IL Consistency of Geological Discoveries ivith Sacred History, It may seem just matter of sui-prise, that many learned and religious men should regard with jealousy and suspicion the study of any natural phenomena, which abound with proofs of some of the highest attributes of the Deity ; and should receive with distrust, or total incredulity, the an- nouncement of conclusions, which the geologist deduces from careful and patient investigations of the facts which it is his province to explore. These doubts and difficulties re- rsult from the disclosures made by Geology, respecting the lapse of very long periods of time before the creation of man. Minds which have long been accustomed to date the origin of the universe, as well as that of the human race, from an era of about six thousand years ago, receive reluc- tantly any information, which if true, demands some new modification of their present ideas of cosmogony; and, as in this respect, Geology has shared the fate of other infant sciences, in being for a while considered hostile to revealed religion ; so hke them, when fully understood, it wdll be found a potent and consistent auxiliary to it, exalting our conviction of the power, and Wisdom, and Goodness of the Creator.* * Hebc et hujusmodi coBlorum plisenomenn, ad Epocham sexmillennem, Balvis naturae legibus, jEgr6 revocari possunt. Quin fatcnduin erit potius non caridem fuisse originem, nequc coaevam, TcUuris noslrte et totiiis Universi: sive Intellcctualis, sive Corporci, Ncquc iniruni videri debet hsBC non distinxisse Mosem, aut Universi originem non tractasse scorsim ab ilia mundi nostri sublunaris : Hoce enim non distinguit populus, aut separatim aestimat^ — Recte igitur Legislator sapicDtissimus philosophis re- DTSCOVERIES WITH SACRED HISTORY. 19 No reasonable man can doubt that all the phenomena of the natural world derive iheir origin from God ; and no one who believes the Bible to be the word of God ; has cause to fear any discrepancy between this, his word, and the results of any discoveries respecting the nature of his works; but the early and deliberate stages of scientific discovery are always those of perplexity and alarm, and during these stages the human mind is naturally circumspect, and slow to admit new conclusions in any department of knowledge. The prejudiced persecutors of Galileo apprehended danger to rehgion from the discoveries of a science, in which a Kepler,* and a Newton found demonstrations of the most sublime and glorious attributes of the Creator. A Herschel has pronounced that " Geology, in the magnitude and sub- liquit id negotii, ut ubi maturuerit ingenium humamim, per aetatem, usiim, et observationes, opera Dei alio ordine digercrent, perfectionibus divinis atque rerum naturae adaptato. — BurneVa Archxulogix Philosophicx. C. viii. p. 306. 4to. 1692. • Kepler conchules one of his astronomical works with tlie following prayer, which is thus translated in the Christian Observer, Aug., 1834, p. 495. " It remains only tliat I should now lift up to Heaven my eyes and hands from the table of my pursuits, and humbly and devoutly supjilicatc the Father of lights. O tbou, who by the liglit of nature dost enkiralle in us a desire after the liglit of grace, tliat by this thou mayst translate us into the light of glory; I give tliee thanks, O Lord and Creator, that thou hast glad- dened me by thy creation, when I was enraptured by the work of tity hands. Behold, I have here completed a work of my calling, with as much of intellectual strength as thou hast granted me. I have declared the praise of thy works to the men who will read the evidences of it, so far as my finite spirit could comprehend them in their infinity. My mind endeavoured to its utmost to reach the truth by pliUosophy; but if any thing unworthy of thee has been taught by me — a worm born and nourisiied in sin — do thou teach me that I may correct it. Have I been seduced into presumption by the admirable beauty of thy works, or have I sought my own glory among men, in the construction of a work designed for thine honour? O then gra- ciously and mercifully forgive me; and finally grant me this favour, that this work may never be injurious, but may conduce to thy glory and the good of souls." 20 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGICAL limity of the objects of which it treats, undoubtedly ranks in the scale of sciences next to astronomy;" and the history of the structure of our planet, when it shall be fully understood, must lead to the same great moral results that have followed the study of the mechanism of the heavens; Geology has already proved by physical evidence, that the surface of the globe has not existed in its actual state from eternity, but has advanced through a series of creative operations, succeeding one another at long and definite intervals of time; that all the actual combinations of matter have had a prior existence in some other state; and that the ultimate atoms of the material elements, through whatever changes they may have passed, are, and ever have been, governed by laws, as regular and uniform, as those which hold the planets in their course. All these results entirely accord with the best feelings of our nature, and with our rational coviction of the greatness and goodness of the Creator of the universe; and the reluctance with which evidences, of such high importance to natural theology, have been ad- mitted by many persons, who are sincerely zealous for the interests of religion, can only be explained by their want of accurate information in physical science ; and by their un- grounded fears lest natural phenomena should prove incon- sistent with the account of the creation in the book of Ge- nesis. It is argued unfairly against Geology, that because its fol- lowers are as yet agreed on no complete and incontroverti- ble theory of the earth ; and because early opinions advanced on imperfect evidence have yielded, in succession, to more extensive discoveries; therefore nothing certain is known upon the whole subject ; and that all geological deductions must be crude, unauthentic, and conjectural. It must be candidly admitted that the season has not yet arrived, when a perfect theory of the whole earth can be fixedly and finally established, since we have not yet before us all the facts on v/hich such a theory may eventually be DISCOVERIES WITH SACRED HISTORY. 21 founded; but in the mean while, we have abundant evi- dence of numerous and indisputable phenomena, each establishing important and undeniable conclusions; and the aggregate of these conclusions, as they gradually accumu- late, will form the basis of future theories, each more and more nearly approximating to perfection; the first, and second, and third story of our edifice may be soundly and solidly constructed ; aUhough time must elapse before the roof and pinnacles of the perfect building can be completed. Admitting therefore, that we have yet much to learn, we contend that much sound knowledge has been already acquired ; and we protest against the rejection of established parts, because the whole is not yet made perfect. It was assuredly prudent, during the infancy of Geology, in the immature state of those physical sciences which form its only sure foundation, not to enter upon any comparison of the Mosaic account of creation with the structure of the earth, then almost totally unknown ; the time was not then come when the knowledge of natural phenomena was suf- ficiently advanced to admit of any profitable investigation of this question; but the discoveries of the last half century have been so extensive in this department of natural know- ledge, that, whether we will or not, the subject is now forced upon our consideration, and can no longer escape discussion. The truth is, that all observers, however vari- ous may be their speculations, respecting the secondary causes by which geological phenomena have been brought about, are now agreed in admitting the lapse of very long periods of time to have been an essential condition to the production of these phenomena. It may therefore be proper, in this part of our inquiry, to consider how far the brief account of creation, contained in the Mosaic narrative, can be shown to accord with those natural phenomena, which will come under consideration in the course of the present essay. Indeed some examination to this question seems indispensable at the very threshold of 22 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGICAL an investigation, the subject matter of which will be derived from a series of events, for the most part, long antecedent to the creation of the human species. I trust it may be shown, not only that there is no inconsistency between our interpretation of the phenomena of nature and of the Mosaic narrative, but that the results of geological inquiry throw important light on parts of this history, which are otherwise involved in much obscurity. If the suggestions I shall venture to propose require some modification of the most commonly received and popular interpretation of the Mosaic narrative, this admission neither involves any impeachment of the authenticity of the text, nor of the judgment of those who have formerly interpreted it otherwise, in the absence of information as to facts which have but recently been brought to light; and if, in this respect, geology should seem to require some little concession from the literal interpreter of scripture, it may fairly be held to afford ample compensation for this demand, by the large additions it has made to the evidences of natural reli- gion, in a department where revelation was not designed to give information. The disappointment of those who look for a detailed account of geological phenomina in the Bible, rests on a gratuitous expectation of finding therein historical informa- tion, respecting all the operations of the Creator in times and places with which the human race has no concern ; as rea- sonably might we object that the Mosaic history is imper- fect, because it makes no specific mention of the satellites of Jupiter, or the rings of Saturn, as feel disappointment at not finding in it the history of geological phenomena, the details of which may be fit matter for an encyclopedia of science, but are foreign to the objects of a volume intended only to be a guide of religious belief and moral conduct. We may fairly ask of those persons Mho consider physi- cal science a fit subject for revelation, what point they can imagine short of a communication of Omniscience, at which DISCOVERIES WITH SACRED HISTORY. 23 such a revelation might have stopped, without imperfections of omission, less in degree, but similar in kind, to that which they impute to the existing narrative of Moses 1 A reve- lation of so much only of astronomy, as was known to Copernicus, would have seemed imperfect after the dis- coveries of Newton; and a revelation of the science of Newton would have appeared defective to La Place : a revelation of all the chemical knowledge of the eighteenth century would have been as deficient in comparison with the information of the present day, as what is now known in this science will probably appear before the termination of another age ; in the whole circle of sciences, there is not one to which this argument may not be extended, until we should require from revelation a full development of all the mysterious agencies that uphold the mechanism of the material world. Such a revelation might indeed be suited to beings of a more exalted order than mankind, and the attainment of such knowledge of the v/orks as well as of the ways of God, may perhaps form some part of our hap- piness in a future state ; but unless human nature had been constituted otherwise than it is, the above supposed com- munication of Omniscience would have been imparted to creatures, utterly incapable of receiving it, under any past or present moral or physical condition of the human race; and would have been also at variance with the design of all God's other disclosures of himself, the end of which has uniformly been, not to impart intellectual but moral know- ledge. Several hypotheses have been proposed, with a view of reconciling the phenomena of Geology, with the brief account of creation which we find in the Mosaic narrative. Some have attempted to ascribe the formation of all the stratified rocks to the effects of the Mosaic Deluge ; an opinion which is irreconcileable with the enormous thick- ness and almost infinite subdivisions of these- strata, and with the numerous and regular successions which they con- 24 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGICAL tain of the remains of animals and vegetables, differing more and more widely from existing species, as the strata in which we find them are older, or placed at greater depths. The fact that a large proportion of these remains belong to extinct genera, and almost all of them to extinct species, that lived and multiplied and died on or near the spots where they are now found, shows that the strata in which they occur were deposited slowly and gradually, during long periods of time, and at widely distant intervals. These extinct animals and vegetables could therefore have formed no part of the creation with which we are immediately connected. It has been supposed by others, that these strata were formed at the bottom of the sea, during the interval between the creation of man and the Mosaic Deluge ; and that, at the time of that deluge, portions of the globe which had been previously elevated above the level of the sea, and formed the antediluvian continents, were suddenly sub- merged ; while the ancient bed of the ocean rose to supply their place. To this hypothesis also, the facts I shall sub- sequently advance offer insuperable objections. A third opinion has been suggested, both by learned theologians and by geologists, and on grounds independent of one another ; viz. that the Days of the Mosaic creation need not be understood to imply the same length of time which is now occupied by a single revolution of the globe ; but successive periods, each of great extent : and it has been asserted that the order of succession of the organic remains of a former w^orld, accords with the order of creation re- corded in Genesis. This assertion, though to a certain de- gree apparently correct, it is not entirely supported by geolo- gical facts ; since it appears that the most ancient marine ani- mals occui in the same division of the lowest transition strata with the earliest remains of vegetables ; so that the evidence of organic rjremains, as far as it goes, shows the origin of these extinct species of plants and animals to have been DISCOVERIES WITH SACRED HISTORY. 25 contemporaneous : if any creation of vegetables preceded that of these most ancient animals, no evidence of such an event has yet been discovered by the researches of geology. Still there is, I believe, no sound critical, or theological objection, to the interpretation of the word "day," as mean- ing a long period ; but there will be no necessity for such extension, in order to reconcile the text of Genesis with physical appearances, if it can be shown that the time indi- cated by the phenomena of Geology* may be found in the undefined interval, following the announcement of the first verse. In my inaugural lecture, published at Oxford, 1820, pp. 31, 32, 1 have stated my opinion in favour of the hypothesis, " which supposes the word ' beginning,^ as applied by Moses in the first verse of the book of Genesis, to express an undefined period of time, which M-as antecedent to the last great change that affected the surface of the earth, and to the creation of its present animal and vegetable inhabitants ; during which period a long series of operations and revo- lutions may have been going on; which, as they are wholly unconnected with the history of the human race, are passed over in silence by the sacred historian, whose only concern with them was barely to state, that the matter of the uni- verse is not eternal and self-existent, but was originally created by the power of the Almighty." I have great satisfaction in finding that the view of this subject, which I have here expressed, and have long enter- * A very interesting treatise on tlic Consistency of Geology with Sacred History has recently been published at Nevvhaven, 1833, by Professor , SiJliman, as a supplement to an American edition of BakewcU's Geology, 1833. The author contends that the period alluded to in the first verse of Genesis, " In the beginning," is not necessarily connected with the first day, and that it may be regarded as standing by itself, and admitting of any extension backward in time which the facts may seem to require. He is farther disposed to consider the six days of creation as periods of time of indefinite length, and that the word "day" is not of necessity limited to twenty-four hours, VOL. I. — 3 36 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGICAL tained, is in perfect accordance with the highly valuable opinion of Dr. Chalmers, recorded in the following passages of his Evidence of the Christian Revelation, chap. vii. : — " Does Moses ever say, that when God created the heavens and the earth, he did nnore, at the time alluded to, than trans- form them out of previously existing materials? Or does he ever say that there was not an interval of many ages between the first act of creation described in the first verse of the book of Genesis, and said to have been performed at the beginning, and those more detailed operations, the account of which commences at the second verse, and which are described to us as having been performed in so many days ? Or, finally, does he ever make us to understand that the genealogies of man went any farther than to fix the antiquity of the species, and, of consequence, that they left ihe antiquity of the globe a free subject for the speculation of philosophers ?" It has loner been matter of discussion amonar learned theo- iogians, whether the first verse of Genesis should be con- sidered prospectively, as containing a summary announce- ment of that new creation, the details of which follow in the record of the operations of the six successive days : or as -an abstract statement that the heaven and earth were made by God, without limiting the period when that creative agen- cy was exerted. The latter of these opinions is in perfect harmony with the discoveries of Geology. The Mosaic narrative commences with a declaration that " In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." These first few words of Genesis may be fairly appealed to by the geologist, as containing a brief statement of the creation of the material elements, at a time distinctly preceding the operations of the first day : it is no where affirmed that God created the heaven and the earth in the first day, but in the beginning ; this beginning may have been an epoch at an unmeasured distance, followed by periods of undefined duration, during which all the physical ■operations disclosed by Geology were going on^ DISCOVERIES WITH SACRED HISTORY. 27 The first verse of Genesis, therefore, seems expHcitly to assert the creation of the Universe; " the heaven," including the sidereal systems ;* " and the earth," more especially specifying our own planet, as the subsequent scene of the operations of the six days about to be described : no infor- mation is given as to events which may have occurred upon this earth, unconnected with the history of man, between the creation of its component matter recorded in the first verse, and the era at which its history is resumed in the second verse ; nor is any limit fixed to the time during which these intermediate events may have been going on : millions of millions of years may have occupied the indefi- nite interval, between the beginning in which God created the heaven and the earth, and the evening or commencement of the first day of the Mosaic narrative.f * Tlic Hebrew plural word, shamaim, Gen. i. 1, translated heaven, means ctymologically, the higher regions, all that seems above the earth: as we say, God above, God on high, God in heaven; meaning thereby to express the presence of the Deity in space distinct from this earth. — E. B. Pusey. t r have mucli satisfaction in subjoining the following note by m}' friend, the Regius Professor of Hebrew in Oxford, as it enables me to advance tiie very important sanction of Hebrew criticism, in support of the interpretations, by which we may reconcile the apparent difficulties arising from geological phenomena with the literal interpretation of the first chapter of Genesis. — "Two opposite errors have, I think, been com- mitted by critics, with regard to tlie meaning of the wrod bara, created ; the one, by those who asserted that it 7nust m itself signify " created out of nothing;" tlie other, by tliose who endeavoured by aid of etymology, to show that it 7}iust in itself signify " formation out of existing mat- ter." In fact, neither is the case; nor am I aware of any language in which there is a word signifying necessarily " created out of nothing ;' as of course, on the other hand, no word, when used of the agency of God would, in itself, imply the previous existence of matter. Thus the English word, create, by which baia is translated, expresses that the thing created received its existence from God, without in itself implying whether God called that thing into existence out of nothing, or no; for our very addition of the words " out of nothing," shows that the word creation has not, in itself, that force : nor indeed, when we speak of ourselves as 28 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGICAL The second verse may describe the condition of the earth on the evening of this first day ; (for in the Jevv^ish mode of computation used by Moses, each day is reckoned from the creatures of God's hand, do we at all mean that we were physically formed out of nothing. In like manner, whether bara should he para- phrased by " created out of nothing" (as far as we can comprehend these words), or, "gave a new and distinct state of existence to a substance already existing," must depend upon the context, the circumstances, or what God has elsewhere revealed, not upon the mere force of the word. This is plain, from its use in Gen. i. 27, of the creation of man, who, as wo are instructed, chap. ii. 7, was formed out of previously existing matter, the " dust of tlie ground." The word bara is indeed so far stronger than asah, " made," in that bara can only be used with reference to God, whereas asah may be applied to man. The difference is exactly that which exists in English between the words by which they are rendered, "created" and " made." But this seems to me to belong rather to our mode of conception than to the subject itself; for making, when spoken of with reference to God, is equivalent to creating. The words accordingly, bara, created — asah — made yatsar, formed, are used repeatedly by Isaiah and are also employed by Amos, as equivalent to each other. Bara and asah express alike a formation of something new (de novo,) something whose existence in this new state, originated in, and depends entirely upon the will of its creator or maker. Thus God speaks of Himself as the Creator " ftoree" of the Jewish people, e. g. Isaiah xliii. 1, 15 ; and a new event is spoken of under the same term as a "creation," JNumb. xiv. 30. English version, " If the Lord make a new thino-," in the margin, Heb. " create a creature." Again, the Psalmist uses the same word, Ps. civ. 30, when describing the renovation of the face of the earth through the successive generations of living creatures, " Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created; and thou renewest the face of the earth." The question is popularly treated by Beausobre, Hist, de Mani- cheisme, torn. ii. lib. 5, c. 4 ; or, in a better spirit, by Pctavius Dogm. Theol. torn. iii. de opificio sex dierum, lib. 1, c. 1, § 8. After having continually re-read and studied this account, I can come to no other result than that the words "created" and "made" are syno- nvmous, (although the former is to us the stronger of the two,) and that because they are so constantly interchanged; as, Gen. i. ver. 21, "God created great whales :" ver. 25, " God /Ha(/e the beast of the earth;" ver. 26, " Let us ?;io/rc man ;" ver. 27, "So God created man." At the same time it is very probable that bara, " created,'''' as being the stronger word, was selected to describe the first production of the heaven and the earth. DISCOVERIES WITH SACRED HISTORY". 29 beginning of one evening to the beginning of another even- ing.) This first evening may be considered as the termina- tion of the indefinite time which followed the primeval Tlie point, liowcver, upon vvliich the interpretation of the first chapter of Genesis appears to me really to turn, is, whether the first two verses are merely a summary statement of what is related in detail in the rest of the cliajjter, and a sort of introduction to it, or whetlicr they contain an account of an act of creation. And tliis last seems to me to be their true interpretation, first, because tliere is no other account of the creation^ of the earth; secondly, the second verse describes the condition of the earth' when so created, and thus prepares for the account of the work of the six days ; but if they speak of any creation, it appears to mc that this creation "in the beginning" was previous to the six days, because, as you will observe, the creation of each day is preceded by the declaration that God said, or willed, that such things should be (" and God said ") and therefore the very form of the narrative seems to imply that the creation of the first day began when these words are first used, i. c. with the crea . tion of light in vcr. 3. Tiie lime then of the creation in ver. 1, appears to mc not to bo defined : we are told only what alone we arc concerned with ; that all things were made by God. Nor is this any new opinion. Many of the fathers (they arc quoted by Petavius, I, c. c. 11, § i. — viii.) supposed the first two verses of Genesis to contain an account of a distinct and prior act of creation ; some, as Augustine, Theodorct and others, that of the creation of matter; otiiers, that of the elements ; others again (and they the most numerous) imagine that, not these visible heavens, but what tliey think to be called elsewhere "the highest heavens," the " iieaven of heavens," are here spoken of, our visible heavens being related to have been created on the second day. Petavius himself regards the light as the only act of creation of the first day (c. vii. " de opere prima? diei, i. e. luce,") considering the first two verses as a summary of the account of creation whicli was about to follow, and a general declaralion that all things were made by God. Episcopius again, and others, tliought that the creation and fall of the bad angels took place in the interval here spoken of: and misplaced as such speculations are, still they seem to show that it is natural to suppose that a considerable interval may have taken place between the creation, related in the first verse of Genesis and that of which an account is given in the third and following verses. Accordingly, in some old editions of the English Bible, where there is no division into verses, you actually find a break at the end of what is now the second verse; and in Luther's Bible (VVittcnburg, 1557) you have in addition to the notation of the VQrses 3* 30 C0NSI5TEXCY OF GEOLOGICAL creation announced in the first verse, and as the commence- ment of the first of the six succeeding days, in which the earth was to be placed in a condition, and peopled in a manner fit for the reception of mankind. We have in this second verse, a distinct mention of earth and waters, as already existing, and involved in darkness ; their condition also is described as a state of confusion and emptiness, {tohu bohu,) words which are usually interpreted by the vague and indefinite Greek term " chaos," and which may be geologically con- sidered as designating the wreck and ruins of a former world. At this intermediate point of time, the preceding undefined geological periods had terminated, a new series of events commenced, and the work of the first morning of this new creation was the caUinsr forth of li^ht from a tem- porary darkness, which had overspread the ruins of the ancient earth.* the figure 1 placed against the third verse, as being the beginning of the account of the creation on the first day. This then is just the sort of confirmation which one wished for, because, though one would sljrink from the impiety of bending the language of (too's boolf, to any other than its obvious meaning, we cannot help fear- ing lest we might be unconsciously influenced by the floating opinions of our own day, and therefore turn the more anxiously to those who ex- plained Hoi}' Scriptures before these theories existed. You must allow me to add that 1 would not define farther. We knovr nothing of creation, nothing of ultimate causes, nothing of space, except what is bounded b}' actual existing bodies, notliing of time, but what is limited by the revolu- tion of those bodies. I should be very sorry to appear to dogmatize upon that, of v.'hich it requires very little reflection, or reverence, to confess that wc are necessarily ignorant. " Hardly do we guess aright of things that are upon the earth, and with labour do wc find the things that are before us; but the things that are in heaven who hath searched out?" — Wisdom, ix. 16.— E. C, Pusey. * I learn from Professor Puscy that the words " let there be light,''* yehi or. Gen. i. 3, b}' no means necessarily imply any more than tiic English words by which they are translated, that light had never existed before. They may speak only of the substitution of light for darkness upon the surface of this, our planet : whether light had existed before in other DISCOVERIES WITH SACRED HISTORY. 31 . We have farther mention of this ancient earth and ancient sea in the ninth verse, in which the waters are commanded to be gathered together into one place, and the dry land to appear; this dry land being the same earth whose material creation had been announced in the first verse, and whose temporary submersion and temporary darkness are described in the second verse; the appearance of the land and the gathering together of the waters are the only facts affirmed respecting them in the ninth verse, but neither land nor waters are said to have been created on the third day. A similar interpretation may be given of the fourteenth and four succeeding verses; what is herein stated of the celestial luminaries seems to be spoken solely with reference to our planet, and more especially to the human race, then about to be placed upon it. We are not told that the sub- stance of the sun and moon were first called into existence upon the fourth day:"* the text may equally imply that these bodies were then prepared, and appointed to certain offices, of high importance to mankind ; " to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day, and over the night," " to be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years." The fact of their creation had been stated before in the first verse. The stars also are mentioned (Gen. i. 16) in three words only, almost parenthetically; as if for the sole pur- pose of announcing, that they also were made by the same Power, as those luminaries which arc more important to us, the sun and moon.f This very slight notice of the count- less host of celestial bodies, all of which are probably suns, the centres of other planetary systems, whilst our little satellite, the moon, is mentioned as next in importance to the sun, shows clearly that astronomical phenomena are here parts of God's creation, or liad existed upon tliis eartii, before the darkness described in v. 2, is foreign to the purpose of the narrative. * See notes, p. 27 and p. 30- t The literal translation of the words veclh haccocabim, is, " And the stars." — E. B. Pusev, 32 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGICAL spoken of only according to their relative importance to our earth, and to mankind, and without any regard to their real importance in the boundless universe. It seems impossible to include the fixed stars among those bodies which are said (Gen. i. v. 17,) to have been set in the firmament of the hea- ven to give light upon the earth ; since without the aid of telescopes, by far the greater number of them are invisible. The same principle seems to pervade the description of creation which concerns our planet : the creation of its com- ponent matter having been announced in the first Averse, the phenomena of Geology, like those of astronomy, are passed over in silence, and the narrative proceeds at once to details of the actual creation which have more immediate reference to man.* * The following observations by Bishop Gleig (though, at the time of writing them, he was not entirely convinced of the reality of facts announced l>y geological discoveries) show his opinion of the facility of so interpreting the Mosaic account of creation, as to admit of an indefinite lapse of time prior to tlie existence of the human race. " I am indeed strongly inclined to believe that the matter of the corpo- real universe was all created at once, though different portions of it may have been reduced to form at very different periods ; when the universe was created, or how long the solar system remained in a chaotic state are vain inquiries, to which no answer can be given. Moses records the his- tory of the earth only in its present state ; he affirms, indeed, that it was created, and that it was without form and void, when the spirit of God began to move on the surface of the fluid mass; but, he does not say how long that mass had been in the state of chaos, or whether it was, or was not the wreck of some former system, which had been inhabited by living creatures of different kinds from those which occupy the present. I say this, not to meet the objection which has sometimes been urged against the Mosaic cosmogony, from its representing the works of crea- tion as being no more than six or seven thousand years old, for Moses gives no such representation of the age of those works. However dis- tant the period may be, and it is probably very distant, when God created the heavens and the earth: there has been a time when it was not dis- tant one year, one day, or one hour. Those, therefore, who contend that the glory of the Almighty God manifested in his works, cannot be limited to the short period of six or seven thousand years, are not aware that the same objection may be made to the longest period which can DISCOVERIES WITH SACRED HISTORY. 33 The interpretation here proposed seems moreover to solve the difiiculty, which would otherwise attend the state- ment of the appearance of light upon the first day, whilst the Sim and moon and stars are not made to appear until the fourth. If we suppose all the heavenly bodies, and the earth to have been created at the indefinitely distant time, designated by the word beginning, and that the darkness described on the evening of the first day, was a temporary darkness, produced by an accumulation of dense vapours "upon the face of the deep;" an incipient dispersion of possibly be conceived by the mind of man. No assignable quantity of suc- cessive duration bears any proportion to eternity, and though we should suppose the corporeal universe to have been created six millions or six liundred millions of years ago, a caviller might still say, and with equal reason, that the glory of Almighty God manifested in his works cannot be so limited. It is not to silence such objections as this, that I have ad- mitted the existence of a former earth and visible heavens to be not incon- sistent with the cosmogony of Moses, or indeed with any other part of scrip- ture, but only to prevent the faith of the pious reader from being unsettled by the discoveries, whether real or pretended, of our modern geologists. If these philosophers have really discovered fossil bones that must have be- longed to species and genera of animals, which now no where exist, either on the earth or in the ocean, and if the destruction of these genera or spe- cies cannot be accounted for by the general deluge, or any other catastrophe to which we know, from authentic history, that our globe has been actually subjected, or if it be a fa(;t, that towards the surface of the earth are found strata, which could not have been so disposed as they are, but by t!ie sea, or at least some watery mass remaining over them in a state of tranquillity, ■for a much longer period than the duration of Noah's flood; if these things be indeed well ascertained, of which I am however by no means convinced, there is nothing in the sacred writings forbidding us to suppose that they are the ruins of a former earth, deposited in the chaotic mass of which Moses informed us tliat God formed the present S3'stem. His history, as far as it comes down, is the history of the present earth, and of the primeval an- ceators of its present inhabitants ; and one of the most scientific and inge- nious of geologists has clearly proved,* that the human race cannot bo much more ancient than it appears to be in the writings of the Hebrew law- giver."— Stcckhouse^s Bible, by BisJiop Gleig, p, 6, 7, 1816, See Cuvier's Essay on tlio Theory of the Earth. 34 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGICAL these vapours may have readmitted light to the earth, upon the first day, whilst the exciting cause of light was still ob- scured ; and the farther purfication of the atmosphere, upon the fourth day may have caused the sun and moon and stars to reappear in the firmament of heaven, to assume their new relations to the newly modified earth, and to the human race.* We have evidence of the presence of light during long and distant periods of time, in which the many extinct fossil forms of animal life succeeded one another upon the early surface of the globe : this evidence consists in the petrified remains of eyes of animals, found in geological formations of various ages. In a future chapter I shall show, that the eyes of Trilobites, which are preserved in strata of the tran- sition formation, (PI. 45, Figs. 9, 10, 11,) were constructed in a manner so closely resembling those of existing Crus- tacea ; and that the eyes of Ichthyosauri, in the lias, (PI. 10, Figs. 1,2,) contained an apparatus, so like one in the eyes of many living reptiles and birds, as to leave no doubt that these fossil eyes were optical instruments, calculated to receive, in the same manner, impressions of the same light, which conveys the perception of sight to living animals. This conclusion is farther confirmed by the general fact, that the heads of all fossil fishes and fossil reptiles, in every geological formation, are furnished with cavities for the reception of eyes, and with perforations for the passage of optic nerves, although the cases are rare, in which any part of the eye itself has been preserved. The influence of light is also so necessary to the growth of existing vegetables, that we cannot but infer, that it was equally essential to the development of the numerous fossil species of the vegetable kingdom, which are coextensive and coeval with the remains of fossil ani- mals. * Sec Note, p. 30. mSCOVERlES "WITH SACRED HISTORT. 35 ft appears highly probable from recent discoveries,* that J.ight is not a material substance, but only an effect of undu- lations of ether ; that this infinitely subtle and elastic ether pervades all space, and even the interior of all bodies ; so long as it remains at rest, there is total darkness ; when it is put into a peculiar state of vibration, the sensation of light is produced : this vibration may be excited by various causes ; e. g. by the sun, by the stars, by electricity, com- bustion, &c. If then hght be not a substance, but only a series of vibrations of ether, i. e. an effect produced on a subtile fluid, by the excitement of one or many extraneous causes, it can hardly be said, nor is it said, in Gen. i. 3, to have been a~eated,-\ though it may be literally said to be called into action. Lastly, in the reference made in the Fourth Command- ment, Exod. XX. 11, to the six days of the Mosaic creation, the word asah, " made," is the same which is used in Gen. i. 7, and Gen. i. 16, and which has been shown to be less strong and less comprehensive than bara, " created ;" and us it by no means necessarily implies creation out of ■nothing, it may be here employed to express a new arrange- ment of materials that existed bcfore.J After all, it should be recollected that the question is not respecting the correctness of the Mosaic narrative, but of our interpretation of it ; and still farther, it should be borne in mind that the object of this account was not to state in ivhat manner but by lahofu, the world was made. As the prevailing tendency of men in those early days was to worship the most glorious objects of nature, namely, the sun and moon and stars ; it should seem to have been one 'important point in the Mosaic account of creation, to guard * For a general statement of the undiilatory theory of light, see Sir John Herschel!, art. Light, part iii. sec. 2. Encyc. Metropol. See also Professor Airy's Mathematical Tracts, 2d edit. 1831, p. 249 ; and Mrs. Somerville's Connexion of the Physical Sciences, 1834, p. 185. t See Note, p. 30. t See Note, p. 27. 36 CONSISTENCY OP GEOLOGICAL, ETC. the Israelites against the Polytheism and idolatry of the nations around them ; by announcing that all these mag- nificient celestial bodies were no Gods, but the works of One Almighty Creator, to whom alone the worship of man- kind is due.* * Having tlius far ventured to enter into a series of explanations, whicii I think will rceoncile even the letter of the text of Genesis witli the phe- nomena of Geolog-y, I forbear to say more on this important subject, and liave much satisfaction in beinf^ able to refer my readers to some admirable articles in the Christian Observer (May, June, July, August, 1834) for a very able and comprehensive summary of tlie present state of this ques- tion ; explaining the difficulties with which it is surrounded, and offering many temperate and judicious suggestions, as to the spirit in which in- vestigations of this kind ouglit to be conducted. I would also refer to Bishop Horsley's Sermons, Svo. 1816, vol. iii. ser. 39 ; to Bishop Bird Sumner's Records of Creation, vol. ii. p. 356 ; Douglas's Errors regard- ing Religion, 1830, p. 261-264, Higgins on the Mosaical and Mineral Geologies, 1832; and more especially to Professor Sedwick's eloquent and admirable discourse on the Studies of the University of Cambridge, 1833, in which he has most ably pointed out the relations which Geology bears to natural religion, and thus sums up his valuable opinion as to the kind of information we ought to look for in the Bible : " The Bible in- structs us that man and other living things, have been placed but a few years upon the earth; and the physical monuments of the world bear witness to the same truth : if the astronomer tells us of myriads of worlds not spoken of in the sacred records ; the geologist, in like manner, proves (not by arguments from analogy, but by the incontrovertible evidence of physical phenomen;;) that there were former conditions of our planet separated from each other by vast intervals of time, during v.hieh man and the other creatures of his own date, had not been called into being. Periods such as these belong not, therefore, to tiie moral history of our race, and come neither within the letter nor the spirit of revelation. Between the first creation of the earth and that day in which it pleased God to place man upon it, who shall dare to define the interval ? On this (juestion scripture is silent, but that silence destroys not the meaning of those physical monuments of his pov/er that God has put before our eyes, giving us at the same time faculties whereby VvC may interpret them and comprehend their meaning." PROPER SUBJECTS OF GEOLOGICAL INQUIRY. 37 CHAPTER III. Proper Subjects of Geological Inquiry. The history of the earth forms a large and complex sub- ject of inquiry, divisible at its outset, into two distinct branches ; the first, comprehending the history of unorga- nized mineral matter, and of the various changes through which it has advanced, from the creation of its component elements to its actual condition ; the second, embracing the past history of the animal and vegetable kingdoms, and the successive modifications which these tw^o great departments of nature have undergone, during the chemical and me- chanical operations that have aflfected the surface of our planet. As the study of both these branches forms the sub- ject of the science of Geology, it is no less important to examine the nature and action of the physical forces, that have affected unorganized mineral bodies, than to investiirate the laws of life, and varied conditions of organization, that prevailed while the crust of our globe was in process of formation. Before we enter on the history of fossil animals and vege- tables, we must therefore first briefly review the progressive stages of mineral formations ; and see how^ far we can dis- cover in the chemical constitution, and mechanical arrange- ment of the materials of the earth, proofs of general pros- pective adaptation to the economy of animal and vegetable life. As far as our planet is concerned, the first act of creation seems to have consisted in giving origin to the elements of the material world. These inorganic elements appear to have received no subsequent addition to their number, and VOL. I. 38 PROPER SUBJECTS OF GEOLOGICAL INQUIRY. to have undergone no alteration in their nature and quaUties; but to have been submitted at their creation to the self-same laws that regulate their actual condition, and to have con- tinued subject to these law^s during every succeeding period of geological change. The same elements also which enter the composition of existing animals and plants, appear to have performed similar functions in the economy of many successive animal and vegetable creations. In tracing the history of these natural phenomena we enter at once into the consideration of Geological Dyna- mics, including the nature and mode of operation of all kinds of physical agents, that have at any time, and in any manner, affected the surface and interior of the earth. In the foremost rank of these agents, we find Fire and Water, — those two universal and mighty antagonizing forces, which have most materially influenced the condition of the globe ; and which man also has converted into the most efficient instruments of his power, and obedient auxiliaries of his mechanical and chemical and culinary operations. The state of the ingredients of crystalline rocks has, in a great degree been influenced by chemical and electro-mag- netic forces ; whilst that of stratified sedimentary deposites has resulted chieffy from the mechanical action of moving water, and has occasionally been modified by large admix- tures of animal and vegetable remains. As the action of all these forces will be rendered most intelligible by examples of their effects, I at once refer my readers for a synoptic view of them, to the section which forms the first of my series of plates.* The object of this section is, first, to represent the order in which the succes- sive series of stratified formations are on one another, almost like courses of masonry ; secondly, to mark the changes that occur in their mineral and mechanical condition; thirdly, * The detailed explanation of tliis section is given in the description of the plates in vol. ii. RELATION OF UN5TRATIFIED TO STRATIFIED ROCKS. 39 to show the manner in which all stratified rocks have at various periods been disturbed, by the intrusion of unstratified crystalline rocks; and variously affected by elevations, depressions, fractures, and dislocations ; fourthly, to give examples of the alterations in the forms of animal and vegeta- ble Hfe, that have accompanied these changes of the mine- ral conditions of the earth. From the above section it appears that there are eight distinct varieties of the crystalline unstratified rocks, and twenty-eight well defined divisions of the stratified forma- tions. Taking the average maximum thickness of each of these divisions, at one thousand feet,* we should have a total amount of more than five miles ; but as the transition and primary strata very much exceed this average, the aggregate of all the European stratified series may be con- sidered to be at least ten miles. CHAPTER IV. Relation of Unstratified to Stratified Rocks. I SHALL enter into no farther details respecting the compo- nent members of each group of stratified rocks, than are represented by the fines of division and colours upon the section.f They are arranged under the old divisions of * Many formations greatly exceed, whilst others fall short, of the average here taken. t For particular information respecting the mineral character and or- ganic remains of the strata composing each series, I must refer to the numerous publications that have been devoted to these subjects. A most convenient summary of the contents of these publications will be found in De La Beche's Manual of Geology, and in Von Meyer's Paljeologica, (Frankfurt, 1832;) ample details respecting the English strata are given 40 RELATION OF UNSTRATIFIED primary, transition, secondary, and tertiary series, more from a sense of the convenience of this long received arrangement, than from the reahty of any strongly defined boundaries by M^hich the strata, on the confines of each series, are separated from one another. As the materials of stratified rocks are in great degree derived, directly or indirectly, from those w^hich are unstra- tified,* it will be prematm'e to enter upon the consideration of derivative strata, until we have considered briefly the his- tory of the primitive formations. We therefore commence our inquiry at that most ancient period, when there is much evidence to render it probable that the entire materials of the globe were in a fluid state, and that the cause of this fluidity was heat. The form of the earth being that of an oblate spheroid, compressed at the poles, and enlarged at the equator, is that which a fluid mass would assume from revolution round its axis. The farther fact, that the shortest diameter coincides with the existing axis of rotation, shows that this axis has been the same ever since the crust of the earth attained its present solid form. Assuming that the whole materials of the globe may have in Conybearc and Phillips's Geology of England and Wales. See also Bakewell's Introduction to Geology, 1833; and Professor Phillips's arti- cle Geology, in the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana ; also Professor Phillips's Guide to Geology, 8vo. 1834; and Dc La Bcclie's Researches in Theo- retical Geology, 8vo. 1834. The history of the organic remains of the tertiary period has been most ably elucidated in Lyell's Principles of Geology. * In speaking of crystalline rocks of supposed igneous origin as unstra- tificd, we adopt a distribution wliicli, though not strictly accurate, has long been in general use among geologists. Ejected masses of granite, basalt, and lava have frequently horizontal partings, dividing them into beds of various extent and tliickness, sucli as those wliich are most remarkable in what the Wernerians have called the Floctz trap formation, PI. 1, section Fig. 6. ; but they do not present that subdivision into successions of small beds, and still smaller laminae, which usually exists in sedimentary strata that have been deposited by the action of water. TO STRATIFIED ROCKS 41 once been in a fluid, or even in a nebular state,* from the pre- sence of intense heat, the passage of the first consolidated portions of this fluid, or nebulous matter, to a solid state may have been produced by the radiation of heat from its surface into space ; the gradual abstraction of such heat would allow the particles of matter to approximate and crystallize ; and the first result of this crystallization might have been the formation of a shell or crust, composed' of oxidated metals and metalloids, constituting various rocks of the granitic series, around an incandescent nucleus, of melted matter, heavier than granite ; such as forms the moi'e weighty substance of basalt and compact lava. It is now unnecessary to dwell on controversies which have prevailed during the last half century, respecting the origin of this large and important class of unstratified crys- talline rocks, which the common consent of nearly all mo-, dern geologists and chemists refers to the action of fire. The agency of central heat, and the admission of water to the metalloid bases of the earths and alkalis, ofler two causes which, taken singly or conjointly, seem to explain the pro- duction and state of the mineral ingredients of these rocks; and to account for many of the grand mechanical move- ments that have affected the crust of the globe. The gradations are innumerable, which connect the in- finite varieties of granite, syenite, porphyry, greenstone, and basalt with the trachytic porphyries and lavas that are at this day ejected by volcanos. Although there still remain some difficulties to be explained, there is little doubt that the fluid condition in which all unstratified crystalline rocks * The nebular hypothesis oTers the most simple, and therefore the most probable theory, respecting the first condition of the material elements that compose our solar system. Mr. Whewell has shown how far this theory supposing it to be established, would tend to exalt our conviction of the prior existence of some presiding Intelligence.— Bridjewuter Treatises, No.. HI. Chap. vii. 4* . 42 RELATION OF UNSTRATIFIED originally existed, was owing to the solvent power of heat ; a power whose effect in melting the most solid materials of the earth we witness in the fusion of the hardest metals, and of the flinty materials of glass.* Beneath the whole series of stratified rocks that appear on the surface of the globe (see section PI. 1,) there proba- bly exists a foundation of unstratified rocks ; bearing an ir- regular surface, from the detritus of which the materials of stratified rocks have in great measure been derived,f amount- ing, as we have stated, to a thickness of many miles. This is indeed but a small depth, in comparison with the diame- ter of the globe ; but small as it is, it affords certain evidence of a long series of changes and revolutions ; affecting not only the mineral condition of the nascent surface of the earth, but attended also by important alterations in animal and ve- getable life. The detritus of the first dry lands, being drifted into the sea, and there spread out into extensive beds of mud and * The experiments of Mr. Gregory Walt on bodies cooled slowly after fusion ; and of Sir James Hall, on reprodueinn- artificial crystalline rocks, from the pounded ingredients of the same rocks highly heated under strong pressure : and the more recent experiments of Professors Mitscher- lich and Bcrthier, on the production of artificial crystals, by fusion of definite proportions of their component elements, have removed many of the objections, which were once urged against the igneous origin of crystalline rocks. Professor Kersten has found distinctly formed crystals of prismatic Fel- spar on the walls of a furnace in which Copper slate and Copper Ores had been melted. Among these jnjrochemically formed crystals, some were sim- ple, others twin. They are composed of Silica, Alumina, and Potash. This discovery is very important, in a geological point of view, from its bearing on the theory of the igneous origin of crystalline rocks, in which Felspar is usually so large an ingredient. Hitherto every attempt to make felspar crystals by artificial means has failed. See Poggendorf's Annalen, No. 22, 1834, and Jameson's Edin. New. Phil. Journal. t Either directly, by the accumulation of the ingredients of disintegrated granitic rocks, or indirectly, by the repeated destruction of different classes of stratified rocks, the materials of which had, by prior operations, been de- rived from unstratified formations. TO STRATIFIED HOCKS. 43 sand and gravel, would for ever have reaiained beneath the surface of the water, had not other forces been subsequently employed to raise them into dry land : these forces appear to have been the same expansive powers of heat and vapour which, having caused the elevation of the first raised por- tions of the fundamental crystalline rocks, continued their energies through all succeeding geological epochs, and still exert them in producing the phenomena of active volcanos; phenomena incomparably the most violent that now appear upon the surface of our planet.* The evidence of design in the employment of forces, which have thus effected a grand general purpose, viz. that of forming dry land, by elevating strata from beneath the waters in which they were deposited, stands independent of the truth or error of contending theories, respecting the origin of that most ancient class of stratified rocks, which are destitute of organic remains (see pi. 1. — section 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.) It is immaterial to the present question, whether they were formed (according to the theory of Hutton) from the detritus of the earlier granitic rocks, spread forth by water into beds of clay and sand; and subsequently modi- • "The fact of great and frequent alteration in tlie relative level of the sea and land is so well established, that the only remaining questions re- gard the mode in which these alterations have been effected, whether by- elevation of the land itself, or subsidence in the level of the sea? And the nature of the force which has produced tiiem? Tlie evidence in proof of great and frequent movements of the land itself, botii by pro- trusion and subsidence, and of the connexion of these movements with the operations of volcanos, is so various and so strong, derived from so many different quarters on the surface of the globe, and every day so mucli extended by recent inquiry, as almost to demonstrate that these have been the causes by which those great revolutions were effected; and that although the action of the inward forces which protrude the land has varied greatly in different countries, and at different periods, they are now and ever have been incessantly at work in operating present change and preparing the way for future alteration in the exterior of the globe." — Geological sketcli of the Vicinity of Hastings, by Dr. Titton, pp. 85, 86. 44 EELATION OF UNSTRATIFIED TO STRATIFIED ROCKS. fied by heat : or whether they have been produced, (as was maintained by Werner) by chemical precipitation from a fluid, having other powers of solution than those possessed by the waters of the present ocean. It is of little impor- tance to our present purpose, whether the non-appearance of animals and vegetables in these most ancient strata was caused by the high temperature of the waters of the ocean, in which they are mechanically deposited; or by the com- pound nature and uninhabitable condition of a primeval fluid, holding their materials in solution. All observers admit that the strata were formed beneath the water, and have been subsequently converted into dry land: and what- ever may have been the agents that caused the movements of the gross unorganized materials of the globe; we find sufficient evidence of prospective wisdom and design, in the benefits resulting from these obscure and distant revolutions, to future races of terrestrial creatures, and more especially to Man.* • In describing- g-eological phenomena, it is impossible to avoid the use of theoretical terms, and the provisional adoption of many theoretical opinions as to the manner in which these phenomena have been pro- duced. From among the various and conflicting' theories that have been proposed to explain the most difficult and complicated problems of Geo- log}', I select those which appear to carry with them the higliest degree of probability; but as results remain the same from whatever cause they have originated, the force of inferences from these results will be unaffected by changes that may arise in our opinions as to the physical causes by which these have been produced. As in estimating the merits of the highest pro- ductions of human art it is not requisite to understand perfectly tlie nature of the machinery by which the work has been effected in order to appre- ciate the skill and talent of the artist by whom it was contrived; so our minds may be fully impressed with a perception of the magnificent results of creative intelligence, which are visible in tlie phenomena of nature, al- though we can but partially comprehend the meclianlsm that has been in- strumental to their production; and although the full development of the workings of the material instruments by which they were effc.'cted, has not yet been, and perhaps may never be, vouchsafed to the prying curiosity of man. VOLCANIC UOCKS, BASALT, AND TRAP. 45 In unstratified crystalline rocks, wholly destitute of animal or vegetable remains, we search in vain for those most ob- vious evidences of contrivance, which commence with the first traces of organic life, in strata of the transition period ; the chief agencies which these rocks indicate, are those of fire and water ; and yet even here we find proof of system and intention, in the purpose which they have accompUshed, of supplying and accumulating at the bottom of the water the materials of stratified formations, which in after times, were to be elevated into dry lands, in an ameliorated con- dition of fertility. Still more decisive are the evidences of design and method, which arise from the consideration of the structure and composition of their crystalline mineral in- gredients. In every particle of matter to which crystalhza- tion has been applied, we recognise the action of those un- deviating laws of polar forces, and chemical affinity, which have given to all crystallized bodies a series of fixt definite forms and definite compositions. Such universal preva- lence of law, method, and order assuredly attests the agency of some presiding and controlling mind. A farther argument, which will be more insisted on in speaking on the subject of metallic veins, may be founded on the dispensation whereby the primary and transition rocks are made the principal repositories of many valuable metals, which are of such peculiar and indispensable impor- tance to mankind. CHAPTER V. Volcanic Rocks, Basalt, and Trap. In the state of tranquil equilibrium which our planet has attained in the region we inhabit, we are apt to regard the foundation of the solid earth, as an emblem of duration and 46 VOLCANIC ROCKS, stability. Very different are the feelings of those whose lot is cast near the foci of volcanic eruptions ; to them the earth affords no stable resting place, but during the paroxysms of volcanic activity, reels to and fro, and vibrates beneath their feet; overthroM^ing cities, yavsrning with dreadful chasms, converting seas into dry lands, and dry lands into seas. (See Lyell's Geology, vol. i. passim.) To the inhabitants of such districts we speak a language which they fully comprehend, when we describe the crust of the globe as floating on an internal nucleus of molten elements; they have seen these molten elements burst forth in liquid streams of lava; they have felt the earth beneath them quivering and roUing, as if upon the billows of a sub- terranean sea; they have seen mountains raised and valleys depressed almost in an instant of time ; they can duly ap- preciate, from sensible experience, the force of the terms in which geologists describe the tremulous throes, and convul- sive agitations of the earth ; during the passage of its strata from the bottom of the seas, in which they received their origin, to the plains and mountains in which they find their present place of rest. We see that the streams of earthy matter, which issue in a state of fusion from active volcanos, are spread around their craters in sheets of many kinds of lava; some of these so much resemble beds of basalt, and various trap rocks, that occur in districts remote from any existing volcanic vent as to render it probable that the latter also have been poured forth from the interior of the earth. We farther find the rocks adjacent to volcanic craters, intersected by rents and fissures, which have been filled with injections of more recent lava, forming transverse walls or dikes. Similar dikes occur not only in districts occupied by basalt and trap rocks, at a distance from the site of any modern volcanic activity; but also in strata of every formation, from the most ancient primary, to the most recent tertiary (see Plate 1. section f 1— f 8. h 1— h 2. i 1— i 5:) and as BASALT, AND TRAP. 47 the mineral characters of these dikes present insensible gradations, from a state of compact lava, through infinite varieties of greenstone, serpentine, and porphyry to granite, we refer them all to a common igneous origin. The sources from which the matter of these ejected rocks ascends are deeply seated beneath the granite ; but it is not yet decided whether the immediate cause of an erup- tion be the access of water to local accumulations of the metalloid bases of the earths and alkalies ; or whether lava be derived directly from that general mass of incandescent elements, which may probably exist at a depth of about one hundred miles beneath the surface of om* planet.* Our section shows how closely the results of volcanic forces now in action are connected, both wdth the pheno- mena of basaltic formations, and also with the more ancient eruptions of greenstone, porphyry, syenite, and granite. The intrusion both of dikes and irregular beds of unstrati- lied crystalline matter, into rocks of every age and every formation, all proceeding upwards from an unknown depth, and often accumulated into vast masses overlying the sur- face of stratified rocks, are phenomena coextensive with the globe. Throughout all these operations, however turbulent and apparantly irregular, we see ultimate proofs of method and design, evinced by the uniformity of the laws of matter and motion, which have ever regulated the chemical and me- chanical forces by which such grand efl^ects have been pro- duced. If we view their aggregate results, in causing the elevation of land from beneath the sea, we shall find that volcanic forces assume a place of the highest importance, among the second causes which have influenced the past, as well as the present condition of the globe ; each indi- vidual movement has contributed its share towards the final object, of conducting the molten materials of an uninhabita- • See Cordier on the internal temperature of the earth. 48 PRIMARY STRATIFIED ROCKS. ble planet, through long successions of change and of con- vulsive movements, to a tranquil state of equilibrium ; in which it has become the convenient and delightful habita- tion of man, and of the multitudes of terrestrial creatures that are his fellow tenants of its actual surface.* CHAPTER VJ. Primary Stratified Rocks. In the summary we have given of the leading phenomena of unstratified and volcanic rocks, we have unavoidably been led into theoretical speculations, and have seen that the most probable explanation of these phenomena is found in the hypothesis of the original fluidity of the entire mate- rials of the earth, caused by the presence of intense heat. From this fluid mass of metals, and metalloid bases of the earths, and alkalies, the first granitic crust appears to have been formed, by oxidation of these bases ; and subsequently broken into fragments, disposed at unequal levels above and below the surface of the first formed seas. Wherever solid matter rose above the water, it became exposed to destruction by atmospheric agents ; by rains, torrents, and inundations ; at that time probably acting with intense violence, and washing down and spreading forth, in the form of mud and sand and gravel, upon the bottom of the then existing seas, the materials of primary stratified rocks, which by subsequent exposure to various degrees of sub- terranean heat, became converted into beds of gneiss, and mica slate, and hornblende slate, and clay slate. In the * See farther details respcctinff the effects of volcanic forces in the description of PI. I. Vol. ii. PRIMARY SRATIFIED ROCKS 49 detritus thus swept from the earliest lands into the most ancient seas, we view the commencement of that enormous series of derivative strata which, by long continued repeti- tion of similar processes, have been accumulated to a thick ness of many miles.* * Mr, Conybcare (in his admirable Report on Geology to the British As- sociation for the advancement of Science, 1832, p. 367) shows, that many of the most important principles of the igneous theory, which has been al- most demonstrated by modern discoveries, had been anticipated by the uni- versal Leibnitz " In ihc fourth section of his Protogaea, Leibnitz presents us with a masterly sketch of his general views, and, perhaps, even in the present day, it would be difficult to lay down more clearly the fundamental positions which must be necessarily common to every theory, attributing geological phenomena in great measure to central igneous agency. He attributes the primary and fundamental rocks to the refrigeration of the crust of this volcanic nucleus; an assumption which well accords with the now almost universally admitted igneous origin of the fundamental granite, and with the structure of the primitive slates, for the insensible gradation of these formations appears to prove that gneiss must have undergone in a greater, and mica slate in a less degree the same action of which the inaAi rnuni intensity produced granite. "The dislocations and deranged position of the strata he attributes to the breaking in of vast vaults, which the vesicular and cavernous struc- ture assumed by masses, during their refrigeration from a state of fusion must necessarily have occasioned in the crust, thus cooling down and consolidated. He assigns the weight of the materials and the eruption of elastic vapours as tlie concurrent causes of tlicse disruptions; to which we should perhaps add, that the oscillations of the surface of the still fluid nucleus may, independently of any such cavities, have readily shattered into fragments the refrigerated portion of the crust; especially, as at this early period, it must have been necessarily very tliin, and resembling chiefly the seorisc floating on a surface of lava just beginning to cool. He justly adds, that these disruptions of the crust must, from the disturbances commmiv cated to the incumbent waters, have been necessarily attended with diluvial action on the largest scale. When these waters had subsequently, in the intervals of quiescence between these convulsions, deposited the materials tirst acquired by their force of attrition, these sediments formed, by their consolidation, various stony and earthy strata. Thus, he observes, we may recognise a double origin of the rocky masses, the one by refrigeration from iffneous fusion, (whicii, as we have seen, he considered principally to be us- VOL. I. — 5 50 PRIMARY STRATIFIED ROCKS. The total absence of organic remains throughout those lowest portions of these strata, which have been called pri- mary, is a fact consistent with the hypothesis which forms part of the theory of gradual refrigeration; viz. that the waters of the first formed oceans were too much heated to have been habitable by any kind of organic beings.* In these most ancient conditions, both of land and water, Geology refers us to a state of things incompatible with the existence of animal and vegetable life ; and thus on the evi- dence of natural phenomena, establishes the important fact that we find a starting point, on this side of which all forms, both of animal and vegetable beings, must have had a beginning. As, in the consideration of other strata, we find abundant evidence in the presence of organic remains, in proof of the exercise of creative power, and wisdom, and goodness, attending the progress of life, through all its stages of advancement upon the surface of the globe ; so, from the absence of organic remains in the primary strata, we may derive an important argument, showing that there was a point of time in the history of our planet, (which no other researches but those of geology can possibly approach,) ante- cedent to the beginning of either animal or vegetable fife. This conclusion is the more important, because it has been the refuge of some speculative philosophers to refer the ori- signable to the primary and fundamcnlal rocks,) the oilier by concretion from a<[ueou3 solution. We have here distinctly stated the great basis of every scientific classification of rock formalioris. By the repetition of sinii- iar causes (i, e. disruption of the crust and consequent inundations) frequent clternations of new strata were produced, until at length these cuuscs having been reduced to a condition of quiescent equilibrium, a more permancnr. slate of tilings emerged. Have we not here clearly indicated the data on. which, what may be termed the chronological investigation of the series or ecological phenomena, must ever proceed?" * So long a^ the temperature of tlie earth continued intensely high, water could have existed only in the state of steam or vapour, floating in the at- jnosphere around the incandescent surface. PRIMARY STRATIFIED ROCKS. 51 gin of existing organizations, either to an eternal succession of the same species, or to the formation of more recent from more ancient species, by successive developments, without the interposition of direct and repeated acts of creation ; and ^ thus, to deny the existence of any first term, in the infinite series of successions which this hypothesis assumes. Against ^ this theory, no decisive evidence has been accessible, until the modern discoveries of geology had established two con- clusions of the highest value in relation to this long disputed question : the first proving, that existing species have had a beginning ; and this at a period comparatively recent in the physical history of our globe : the second showing that they were preceded by several other systems of animal and vegetable life, respecting each of which it may no less be proved, that there was a time when their existence had not commenced ; and that to these more ancient systems also, the doctrine of eternal succession both retrospective and prospective, is equally inapplicable.* Having this evidence both of the beginning and end of several systems of organic life, each affording internal proof of the "^repeated exercise of creative design, and wisdom, and power, we are at length conducted back to a period anterior to the earliest of these systems ; a period in which * Mr. Lyell, in the first four chapters of the second volume of his Prin- ciples of Gcolojry, has very ably and candidly examined tlie arguments that have bepn advanced in support of the doctrine of transmutation of species, and arrives at the conclusion, — " that species have a real existence in nature, and that each was endowed, at the time of its creation, with the attributes and organization by which it is now distitiguished." Mr. Do la Beche also says (Geological Researches, 1S34, p. 239, 1st, edit. 8vo.) " There can be no doubt that many plants can adapt themselves to altered conditions, and many animals accommodate tliemselves to different climates ; but when we view the subject generally, and allow full importance £0 numerous exceptions, terrestrial plants and animals seem intended to fill the situations they occupy, as these were fitted for them ; they appear created as the conditions arose, the latter not causing a modification in prevlousU* eristing forms productive of new species." 52 PRIMARY STRATIFIED ROCKS, we find a series of primary strata, wholly destitute of or- ganic remains ; and from this circumstance, we infer their deposition to have preceded the commencement of organic life. Those who contend that hfe may have existed during the formation of the primary strata, and the animal remains have been obliterated by the effects of heat, on strata nearest to the granite, do but remove to one point farther back- wards the first term of the finite series of organic beings : and there still remains beyond this point an antecedent period, in which a state of total fusion pervaded the entire materials of the fundamental granite ; and one universal mass of incandescent elements, wholly incompatible with any condi- tion of life, which can be shown to have ever existed, formed, the entire substance of the globe.* * III adopting the hypothesis that the primary stratified rocks have been altered and indurated by subjacent iieat, it should be understood, tliat al- t!ioug-li lieat is in tills case referred to as one cause of the consolidation of strata, there are other causes which have operated largely to consolidate the secondary and tertiary strata, which are placed at a distance above rocks of igneous origin. Although many kinds of limestone may have been in certain cases converted to crystalline marble, by the action of heat under high pressure, there is no need for appealing to such agency to explain the consolidation of ordinary strata of carbonate of lime ; beds of secondary and tertiary sandstone have often a calcareous cement, which may have been precipitated from water, like the substance of stalactites and ordinary limestone. Wiien their cement is siliceous, it may also have been supplied by some humid process, analogous to that by which the siliceous matter of chalcedony and of quartz is eltiier suspended or dissolved in nature ; a process, tlie existence of which we cannot deny, althougli it has yet bafRed all the art of chemistry to imitate it. The beds of clay wiiich alternate with limestone, and sand, or sandstone, in secondaiy and tertiary formations, show no indications of the action of heat; having uridcrgonc no greater consolidation tlian may be referred to pressure, or to tlie admixture of certain pi'oportions of carbonate of lime, where the clay beds pass into marl and niarlstone. Beds of soft vuiconsolidated clay, or of loose unconsolidated sand, are very rarely if ever found amongst any of the primary strata, or in the lower regions of the transition formation ; t!ie effects of heat appear to have converted PRIMARY STRATIFIED ROCKS. 53 It may be said we have no right to deny the possible existence of life and organization upon the surface, or in the interior of our planet, under a state of igneous fusion. " Who," says the ingenious and speculative Tucker, (Light of Nature, book iii. chap. 10,) " can reckon up all the varie- ties that infinite wisdom can contrive, or show the impossi- bility of organizations dissimilar to any within our experi- ence? Who knows what cavities lie within the earth, or what living creatures they may contain, endued with senses unknown to us, to whom the streams of magnetism may serve instead of light, and those of electricity affect them as sensibly as sounds and odours affect us ? Why should we pronounce it impossible that there should be bodies formed to endure the burning sun, to whom fire may be the natural element, whose bones and muscles are composed of fixed earth, their blood and juices of molten metals ? Or others made to live in the frozen regions of Saturn, having their circulation carried on by fluids more subtle than the highest rectified spirits raised by chemistry?" It is not for us to meet questions of this kind by dogma- tizing as to possible existences, or to presume to speculate- on the bounds which creative Power may have been pleased to impose on its own operations. We can only assert^ that as the laws that now regulate the movements and properties of all the material elements, can be shown to have under- gone no change since matter was first created upon our planet ; no forms of organization such as now exist, or such as Geology shows to have existed, during any stages of the gradual formation of the earth, could hav^e supported, for an instant, the state of fusion here supposed. We therefore conclude, that whatever beings of wholly the earlier deposites of sand into compact quartz rock, and beds of clay into c'ay slate, or other forms of primary slate. Tbe reck which some authors have called primary grauwacke, seems to be a mechanical deposite of coarse sandstone, in which the form of the fragments has not been so entirely obliterated by heat, as in tlie case of compact quartz rock. 5* 54 FRIMAr.Y STRATIFIED EOCKS. different natures and properties may be imagined to be within the range of possible existences, not one of all the living or fossil species of animals or vegetables, could ever have endured the temperature of an incandescent planet. All these species must therefore have had a beginning, posterior to the state of universal fusion which Geology points out. I know not how 1 can better sum up the conclusion of this argument than in the words of my Inaugural Lecture, (Oxford, 1819, p. 20.) " The consideration of the evidences afforded by geologi- cal phenomena may enable us to lay more securely the very foundations of natural theology, inasmuch as they clearly point out to us a period antecedent to the habitable state of the earth, and consequently antecedent to the exist- ence of its inhabitants. When our minds become thus familiarized with the idea of a beginning and first creation of the beings we see around us, the proofs of design, which the structure of those beings affords, carry with them a more forcible conviction of an intelligent Creator, and the hypothesis of an eternal succession of causes, is thus at once removed. We argue thus: it is demonstrable from Geology that there was a period w4icn no organic beings had existence ; these organic beings must therefore have had a beginning subsequently to this period ; and where is that beginning to be found but in the will and fiat of an in- tellicfent and all-wise Creator?' The same conclusion is stated by Cuvier, to be the result of his observations on geological phenomena: " Mais ce qui etonne davantage encore, et ce qui n'est pas moins certain, c'est que la vie n'a pas toujours cxiste sur la globe, et qu'il est facile a I'observateur de reconnoitre le point ou elle a commence a deposer ses produits." — Cuvier, Ossemens Fossiles, Disc. Prelim. 1821, vol. i. p. ix. TRANSITION SERIES. 55 CHAPTER VII. Strata of the Transition Series. Thus far we have been occupied with rocks, in which we trace chiefly the resuhs of chemical and mechanical forces ; but, as soon as we enter on the examination of strata of the Transition Series, the history of organic Kfe becomes asso- ciated with that of mineral phenomena.* The mineral character of the transition formations pre- sents alternations of slate and shale, with slaty sandstone, limestone, and conglomerate rocks ; the latter bearing evi- dence of the action of water in violent motion ; the former showing, by their composition and structure, and by the organic remaiiis which they frequently contain, that they were for the most part deposited in the form of mud and sand, at the bottom of the sea. Here, therefore, we enter on a new and no less curious than important field of inquiry, and commence our exami- nation of the relics of a former world, with a view to ascer- tain how far the fossil members of the animal and vegetable kingdoms may, or may not, be related to existing genera and species, as parts of one great system of creation, all bearing marks of derivation from a common author.f * It is most convenient to include within the Transition series, all l.inds of stratified rocks, from liie earliest slates, in which \vc find the first traces of animal or vegetable remains, to the termination of the great coal formation. The animal remains in llic more ancient portion of this scries, viz. the Grauwacke group, though nearly allied in genera, usually differ in species from those in its more recent portion, viz. the Carboniferous group. t In Plate 1, I have attempted to convey some idea of the organic re- 56 TRANSITION SERIES. Beginning with the animal kingdom, we find the four great existing divisions of Vertehrata, Mollusca, Articulata, and Radiata, to have been coeval with the commencement of organic life upon our globe.* No higher condition of Vertehrata has been yet discover- ed in the transition formation than that of fishes, whose his- tory wdll be reserved for a subsequent chapter. The Mollusca,f in the transition series, afford examples of several famihes, and many genera which seem at that time to have been universally diffused over all parts of the world. Some of these, (e. g. the Orthoceratite, Spirifer, and Producta) became extinct at an early period in the his- tory of stratification, whilst other genera (as the Nautilus and Terebratula) have continued through all formations unto the present hour. The earliest examples of Articulated animals are those mains preserved in the several series of formations, by introducing; over each, restored figures of a few of the most characteristic animals and vege- tables that occupied tiie lands and waters, at the periods in which thej were deposited. * " It has not been found necessary, in discussing the history of fossil plants and animals, to constitute a single new class; they all fill naturally into the same great sections as the existing form?. — We are warranted in concluding that tiie older organic creations were formed upon the same general plan as at present. They cannot, therefore, be correctly described as entirely different systems of nature, but should rather be viewed as corresponding systems, composed of different details. The difference of these details arises mostly from minute specific distinctions ; but somelimes, especially among terrestrial plants, certain Crustacea, and reptiles, the differences arc of a more general nature, and it is not possible to refer the fossil tribes to any known recent genus, or even famil}'. Tlius we find the problem of the resemblance of recent and fossil organic beings to resolve itself into a general analogy of system, frequent agreement in important points, but almost universal distinction of minute organization." — Phillips's Guide to Geology, p. 61-63, 1834. t In tills great division, Cuvier includes a vast number of animals having sott bodies, witliout any articulated skeleton or 8[)inal marrow, such as the Cuttle-fish, and the inhabitants of univalve and bivalve shells. EGETABLE KEMAINS. 57 afforded by the extinct family of Trilobites, (see Plates 45 and 46) to the history of which we shall devote pecuUar consideration under the head of Organic Remains, Al- though nearly fifty species of these Trilobites occur in strata of the transition period, they appear to have become extinct before the commencement of the secondary series. The Radiated Animals are among the most frequent or- ganic remains in the transition strata ; they present nume- rous forms of great beauty, from which I shall select the family of Crinoidea, or hly-shaped animals allied to Star-fish, for peculiar consideration in a future chapter. (See PI. 47, Figs. 5, 6, 7.) Fossil corallines also abound among the radiata of this period, and show that this family had entered thus early upon the important geological functions of add- ing their calcarious habitations to the solid materials of the strata of the globe. Their history will also be considered in another chapter. Remains of Vegetables in the Transition Series. Some idea may be formed of the vegetation which pre- vailed during the deposition of the upper strata of" the tran- sition series, from the figures represented in our first plate (Fig. 1 to 13.) In the interior regions of this series, plants are few in number, and principally marine;* but in its superior regions, the remains of land plants are accumu-' lated in prodigious quantities, and preserved in a state which gives them a high and two-fold importance ; first, as illustrating the history of the earliest vegetation that appear- ed upon our planet, and the state of cHmate and geological changes which then prevailed :f secondly, as aflecting, in no small degree, the actual condition of the human race. * I\I. A. Brongniart mentions l!ic occurrence of four species of fucoids in the transition strata of Sweden and Quebec; and Dr. Harlan has described another species found in the Alleghany Mountain?. ■j- The nature of these vegetables, and ib.cir relations to existing species, will be considered in a future chapter. 58 TRANSITION SERIES. The strata in which these vegetable remains have been collected together in such vast abundance have been justtv designated by the name of the carboniferous order, or great coal formation. (See Conybeare and Phillips's Geology of England and Wales, book iii.) It is in this formation chiefly, that the remains of plants of a former world have been preserved and converted into beds of mineral coal; having been transported to the bottom of former seas and estuaries, or lakes, an^d buried in beds of sand and mud, which have since been changed into sandstone and shale. (See PI. 1, sec. 14.*) * The most cliaracteristic type that exists in this countr}' of the general condition and circumstances of the strata composing the great carbonife- rous order, is found in the north of England. It appears from Mr.Fors- ter's section of the strata from Newcastle-upon-Tyne to Cross Fell, in Cumberland, that their united thickness along this line exceeds 4,000 feet. This enormous mass is composed of alternating beds of shale or indurated clay, sandstone, limestone, and coal : the coal is most abundant in the upper part of the series, near Newcastle and Durham, and the limestone predominates towards the lower part; the individual strata enumerated by Forster, are thirty two beds of coal, sixty-two of sand- stone,, seventeen of limestone, one intruding bed of trap, and one hundred and twenty-eight beds of shale and clay. The animal remains hitherto noticed in the limestone beds are almost exclusively marine ; hence we infer that these strata were deposited at the bottom of the sea. The fresh-water shells that occur occasionally in the upper regions of this great series show that these more recent portions of the coal formation were deposited in water that was either brackish or entirely fresh. It has lately been shown that fresh water deposites occur also occasionally in the lower regions of the carboniferous series. (See Dr. Hibbert's ac- count of the limestone of Burdie House, near Edinburg; Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburg, vol. xiii. ; and Professor Phillips's Notice of fresh-water shells of the genus Unio, in tlie lower part of the coal series of Yorksiiire; London Phil. Mag. Nov. 1(S32, 349.) The causes which collected these vegetables in beds thus piled above each other, and separated by strata of vast thickness, composed of drifted sand and cla}', receive illustration from the manner in which drifted timber from the existing forests of America is now accumulated in the estuaries of the great rivers of that continent, particularly in the estuary of the Mississippi, and on the River Mackenzie. See Lyell's Principles of Geology, 3d edit VEGETABLE REMAINS. 59 Besides this coal, many strata of the carboniferous order contain subordinate beds of a rich argillacious iron ore, which the near position of the coal renders easy of reduc- tion to a metallic state ; and this reduction is farther facili- tated by the proximity of limestone, which is requisite as a tiux to separate the metal from the ore, and usually abounds in the lower regions of the carboniferous strata. A formation that is at once the vehicle of two such valu- able mineral productions as coal and iron, assumes a place of the first importance among the sources of benefit to man- kind ; and this benefit is the direct result of physical changes which affected the earth at those remote periods of time, when the first forms of vegetable life appeared upon its sur- face. The important uses of coal and iron in administering to the supply of our daily wants, give to every individual amongst us, in almost every moment of our lives, a personal concern, of which but few are conscious, in the geological events of these very distant eras. We are all brought into immediate connexion with the vegetation that clothed the ancient earth before one-half of its actual surface had yet been formed. The trees of the primeval forests have not, like modern trees, undergone decay, yielding back their ele- ments to the soil and atmosphere by which they had been nou- rished; but treasured up in subterranean store-houses, have been transformed into enduring beds of coal, which in these latter ages have become to man the sources of heat, and light, and wealth. My fire now burns with fuel, and my lamp is shining with the light of gas, derived from coal that has been buried for countless ages in the deep and dark re- cesses of the earth. We prepare our food, and maintain our forges and furnaces, and the power of our steam-en- gines, with the remains of plants of ancient forms and ex- V'ol. iii. Book iii. Ch. xv. and Prof. Phillips's Article Geoloj^y in Enclyclo- pxdia Metropolitana, Pt. 37, pag^e 596. GO SECONDARY SEPaES. tinct species, which were swept from the earth ere the for- mation of the transition strata was completed. Our instru- ments of cutlery, the tools of our mechanics, and the count- less machines which we construct, by the infinitely varied applications of iron, are derived from ore, for the most part coeval with, or more ancient than the fuel, by the aid of which we reduce it to its metallic state, and apply it to in- numerable uses in the economy of human life. Thus from the wreck of forests that waved upon the surface of the pri- meval lands, and from ferruginous mud that was lodged at the bottom of the primeval waters, we derive our chief sup- plies of coal and iron ; those two fundamental elements of art and industry, which contribute more than any other mineral production of the earth, to increase the riches and multiply the comforts, and ameliorate the condition of man- kind. CHAPTER VIII. Strata of the Secondary Series. We may consider the history of secondary, and also of tertiary strata, in two points of view: the one, respecting their actual state as dry land, destined to be the habitation The peculiar feature in the population of the whole series of secondary strata, was the prevalence of numerous and gigantic forms of Saurian reptiles. Many of these were sig^ned with especial reference to each other's peculiar condition." With respect to the final cause of thes2 peculiarities, he conjectures that they have relation to an inferior condition of the brain and nervous system in the Marsupiaiia; and considers the more protracted period of viviporous utero gestation in the higher orders of Mammalia to be connected with their fuller development of tlie parts subservient to the sensorial functions; the more simple form and inferior condition of the brain in Marsupiaiia, being attended with a lower degree of intelligence, and less perfect condition of the organs of voice. As this inferior condition of living Afarsupialia shows this order to hold an intermediate place between viviparous and oviparous animals, forming, as it were, a link, between Mammalia and Reptiles; the analogies afforded by the the occurrence of the more simple forms of other classes of animals in the earlier geological deposites, would lead ue to expect also that tlie first forms of Mammalia would have been Marsupial. In a recent letter to myself, Mr. Owen adds the following interesting par- ticulars respecting the pliysiology of this remarkable class of animals. " Of the generality of the law, as regards the simple unconvoluted form of the cere- brum in the Marsupials, I have had additional confirmation from recent dis- sections of a Dasyuriis and Phalangisla. With an organization defective in that part which I believe to be essential to the docility of the horse, and sagacity of tlie dog, it is natural to suppose that the Marsupial series of warm-blooded quadrupeds would be insufficient for the great purposes of the Creator, when the earth was rendered fit for the habitation of man. They do, indeed, afford the v/andering savages of Australia a partial supply of food; but it is more than doubtfid that any of the species will be preserved by civilized man on the score of utility. The more valuable and tractable ruminants are already fast encroaching on the plains where the kangaroo was once the sole representative of the gramnivorous Mammalia. " It is interesting, however to observe, that the Marsupials, including the Monotremes, form a verj' complete series, adapted to the assimilation of every form of organic matter ; and no doubt, with enough of instinctive precaution, to preserve tliemselves from extermination, when surrounded with enemies of no iiigher intellectual powers than the Reptilia. It woidd, indeed, be a strong support to the consideration of them as a distinct ovovi- viparous sub-class of Mammals, if they should be found as hitherto, to be the sole representatives of the highest class of vertebrata, in the secondarj.', strata." — R. Owsn. 6* 66 SECONDARY SERIES. exclusively marine; others amphibious: others were terres- trial, raging in savannahs and jungles, clothed with a tropi- cal vegetation, or basking on the margins of estuaries, lakes, and rivers. Even the air was tenanted by flying lizards, under the dragon form of Pterodactyles. The earth was pro- bably at that time too much covered with water, and those portions of land which had emerged above the surface, were too frequently agitated by earthquakes, inundations, and at- mospheric irregularities, to be extensively occupied by any higher order of quadrupeds than reptiles. As the history of these reptiles, and also that of the ve- getable remains,* of the secondary formations, will be made a subject of distinct inquiry, it will here suffice to state, that the proofs of method and design in the adaptation of these extinct forms of organization to the varied circumstances and conditions of the earth's progressive stages of advance- ment, are similar to those we trace in the structure of living animal and vegetable bodies ; in each case we argue that the existence of contrivances, adapted to produce definite and useful ends, implies the anterior existence and agency of creative intelligence. • The vegetable remains of the secondary strata differ from those of the transition period, and are very rarely accumulated into beds of valuable coal. The imperfect coal of the Cleveland Moorlands near Whitby, on the coast of Yorkshire, and that of Brora in the county of Sutherland, occurs in the lower region of the oolite formation; that of Biickeberg in Nassau, is ia the Wealdean formation, and is of superior quality. FOURFOLD DIVISION. O/ CHAPTER IX. Strata of the Tertiary Series, The Tertiary Series introduces a system of new pheno- mona, presenting formations in which the remains of animal and vegetable life approach gradually nearer to species of our own epoch. The most striking feature of these forma- tions consists in the repeated alternations of marine deposites, with those of fresh water (see PI. 1, sect. 25, 26, 27, 28.) We are indebted to Cuvier and Brongniart, for the first detailed account of the nature and relations of a very im- portant portion of the tertiary strata, in their inestimable history of the deposites above the chalk near Paris. For a short time, these were supposed to be peculiar to that neigh- bourhood; farther observation has discovered them to be parts of a great series of general formations, extending largely over the whole world, and affording evidences of, at least, four distinct periods, in their order of succession, indicated by changes in the nature of the organic remains that are imbedded in them.* Throughout all these periods, there seems to have been a continually increasing provision for the diffusion of animal life, and we have certain evidence of the character and • In Vol. II. of his Principles of Geology, Mr. Lyell has given an in- teresting map, showing the extent of the surface of Europe, which has been covered by water since the commencement of the deposition of the ter- tiary strata. M. Boue, also, has published an instructive map, representing the man- ner in which central Europe was once divided into a series of beparate ba- sins, each maintaining, for a long time, the condition of a fresh-water lake; those which were subject to occasional irruptions of the sea, would, for a while, admit of the deposition of marine remains; the subsequent exclusion of the sea, and return to the condition of a fresh-water lake, would allow the same region to become the receptacle of tlie exuvjB of animals inhabitimr fresh-water.--Synoptische Darstellung dcr Erdrinde. Hanau,. 1827. The 68 TERTIARY SERIES. numbers of the creatures that wore permitted to enjoy it, in the multitiKle of sliclls and bonf;s })reserved in the strata that were dc[)osil(;(l durintf each of the four (;j)ochs we are considering. M. Deshayes and Mr. Lyoll have recently proposed a lourfold division of the marine formations of the tertiary scries, founded on the proportions which their fossil shells hear to marine shells of existing species. To these divisions Mr. f^yell has af)plicd the terms Eocene, Miocene, Older PU.oc.rn.e and JM'ruier Pliocene; and has most ahly illustrated their history in the third volume of his Principles of Geo- logy- The term Fif)C(!ne imjjlies the commencement or danm of the existing state of the animal creation; the strata of this series containing a very small proportion of shells referable to living species. The Calcaire Grossier of Paris, and the London clay, arc; familiar examples of this older tertiary, or l']o<-<;ri(! formation. The l(!rm Miocene implies that a minority, of fossil shells,, in formations of this period, are of recent s[)ecies. To this era are referred the iossil shells of Bordeaux, Turin, and Vienna. fn formations of the Older, and Newer Pliocene, taken together, the majority of the shells belongs to living species ; the recent species in the newer, being much more abundant than in lh(! older e false ribs, acts like a parachute to support the animal in leaping from tree to tree, but has no power to beat the PTERODACTYLE» 175 and teeth with those of Bats (PL 21, and PL 22, MO shows that the fossil animals in question cannot be referred to that family of flying Mammalia. The vertebrae of the neck are much elongated, and are six or seven only in number, whereas they vary from nine to twenty-three in birds.* In birds the vertebrae of the back also vary from seven to eleven, whilst in the Ptero- dactyles there are nearly twenty ; the ribs of the Pterodac- tyles are thin and thread-shaped, like those of Lizards, those of birds are flat and broad, with a still broader recurrent apophysis, peculiar to them. In the foot of birds, the meta- tarsal bones are consolidated into one : in the Pterodactyles all the metatarsal bones are distinct ; the bones of the pelvis also difl^er widely from those of a bird, and resemble those of a Lizard; all these points of agreement, with the type of Lizards, and of difl^erence from the character of birds, leave no doubt as to the place in which the Pterodactyles must be ranged, among the Lizards, notwithstanding the approxi- mation which the possession of wings seems to give them to Birds or Bats. The number and proportions of the bones in the fingers and toes in the Pterodactyle, require to be examined in some air, or become an instrument of true flight, like the arm or wing of Birds and Bats ; the arm or fore leg of tlie Draco volans differs not from that of common Lizards. * In one species of Pterodactyle, viz. the P. macronyx, Geo!. Trans. N. s. V. iii. pi. 27, p. page 220, from the lias at Lyme Regis, there is an unusual provision for giving support and movement to a large head at the extremity of a long neck, by the occurrence of bony tendons running parallel to the cervical vertebrae, like the tendons that pass along the back of the Pigmy Musk, (Mosclius pigmsus,) and of many birds. This pro- vision does not occur in any modern Lizards, whose necks are short, and re- quire no such aid to support the head. In the compensation which these tendons afforded for the weakness arising from the elongation of the neck, we have an example of the same mechanism in an extinct order of the most ancient reptiles, which is still applied to strengthen other parts of the verte- bral column, in aftw existing- species of mammalia and birds. 176 FLYING SAURIANS. detail, as they afford coincidences with the bones in the cor^ responding parts of Lizards, from which important conclu> sions may be derived. As an insulated fact, it may seem to be of little moment, whether a living Lizard or a fossil Pterodactyle, might have four or five joints in its fourth finger, or its fourth toe; but those who have patience to examine the manutise of this structure, will find in it an exemplification of the general principle, that things apparently minute and trifling in them- selves, may acquire importance, when viewed in connexion with others, which, taken singly, appear equally insignifi- cant. Minutiae of this kind, viewed in their conjoint rela- tions to the parts and proportions of other animals, may il- lustrate points of high importance in physiology, and there- by become connected with the still higher considerations of natural theology. If we examine the fore-foot of the exist- ing Lizards, (PI. 22, b.) we find the number of joints regu- larly increased by the addition of one, as we proceed from the first finger, or thumb, which has two joints, to the third, in which there are four; this is precisely the numerical ar-^ rangement which takes place in the first three fingers of the hand of the Pterodactyle; (PI. 22, c. d. e. n. o. Figs. 30 — 38. Thus far the first three fingers of the fossil reptile agree in structure with those of the fore-foot of living Li- zards; but as the hand of the Pterodactyle was to be con- verted into an organ of flight, the joints of the fourth, or fifth finger were lengthened, to become expansors of a mem- branous wing.* * Tlius in tlie p. Longirostris (PI. 21, 39—42.) and P. Erevirostris, (PI. 22, Fig. O, 39—42,) the fourth finger is stated by Cuvier to have four elongated joints, and the fifth or ungu;ii joint to be otr.iltcd, as its presence is unnceessury. In the P. Crassirostris, according toGoidfuss (Pi. 22, Figs, a, N,) this claw is present upon the fourth finger, (43) which thus has five bones, and llie filth finger is elongated to carry the wing. Throughout all these arrangements in the fore-foot, the normal numbers of the type of Li- zards are mainlaitied. If, as appears from the specimen engraved by Goldfuss, of P. Crassi- . PTERODACTYLE. 177 As the bones in the wing of the Pterodactyle thus agree in number and proportion with those in the fore-foot of the Lizard, so do they differ entirely from the arrangement of the bones which form the expansors of the wing of the Bat.* The total number of toes in the Pterodactyles is usually four ; the exterior, or little toe, being deficient ; if we com- pare the number and proportion of the joints in these four toes with those of Lizards, (PL 22, f, g, h, i,) we find the agreement as to number, to be not less perfect than it is in the fingers ; we have, in each case, two joints in the first, or great toe, three in the second, four in the third, and five in the fourth. As to proportion also, the penultimate joint is always the longest, and the antepenultimate, or last but two, the shortest; these relative proportions are also pre- cisely the same, as in the feet of Lizards.f The apparent rostris, (PJ. 22, n, 44, 45,) the fifth finger was elongated to expand the wing, we sliould infer from the normal number of joints in the fifth finger of Lizards being only three, that tills wing finger had but tiiree joints. In the fossil itself the first two joints only arc preserved, so that his conjectural addition of a fourth joint to the fifth finger, in the restored figure, (PI. 22, A, 47 ) seems inconsistent with the analogies, that pervade the structure of this, and of every other species of Pterodactyle, as described by Cuvier. * The Bat, see PI. 22, m, 30, 31, the first finger or thumb alone, is free, and applied to the purpose of suspension and creeping; the expansors of the wing are formed by the metacarpal bones, (26 — 29,) much elongated and terminated by tlie minute phalanges of the other four fingers, 32 — 45, thus presenting an adaptation of the hand of the mammalia to the purposes of flight, analogous to that which in the fossil world, the Pterodactyle affords with respect to the hand of Lizards. + According to Goldfuss the P. Crassirostris had one more toe than Cuvier assigns to the other species of Pterodactyles; in this respect it is so far from violating the analogies we are considering, that it adds another approxi- mation to the cliaraett-r of the living Lizards; we have seen that it also differs from the other Pterodactyles, in having the fifth, instead of the fourth finger elongated, to become the expansor of the wing. It is however probable that the fifth toe had only three joints, for the 178 FLYING SAURIANS. use of this disposition of tiie shortest joints in the middle of the toes of Lizards, is to give greater power of flexion for bending round, and laying fast hold on twigs and branches of trees of various dimensions, or on inequalities of the sur- face of the ground or rocks, in the act of climbing, or run- ning.* All these coincidences of number and proportion, can only have originated in a premeditated adaptation of each part to its peculiar office ; they teach us to arrange an ex- tinct animal under an existing family of reptiles ; and when we find so many other peculiarities of this tribe in almost every bone of the skeleton of the Pterodactyle, with such modifications, and such only as were necessary to fit it for the purposes of flight, we perceive unity of design per- vading every part, and adapting to motion in the air, organs which in other genera are calculated for progression on the ground, or in the water. If we compare the foot of the Pterodactyle with that of the Bat, (see PI. 22, k,) we shall find that the Bat, like most other mammalia, has three joints in every toe, excepting the first, which has only two ; still these two, in the Bat, are equal in length to the three bones of the other toes, so that the five claws of its foot range in one strait line, forming- altogether the compound hook, by which the animal sus- pends itself in caves, with its head downwards, during its long periods of hybernation ; the weight of its body being, by this contrivance, equally divided between each of the ten toes. The unequal length of the toes -of the Pterodactyle must have rendered it almost impossible for its claws to range uniformly in line, like those of the Bat, and as no single claw could have supported for a long time the weight same reasons that are assigned respecting the number of joints in the fiftli finger. In the P. Longirostris, Cuvier considers the small bone, (PI. 21, 5, 6,) to be a rudimentary form of the fifth toe. * A sirnilur numerical disposition prevails also in the toes of birds, at. tended by similar advantages. PTERODACTYLE. 179 of the whole body, we may infer that the Pterodactyles did not suspend themselves after the manner of the Bats. The size and form of the foot, and also of the leg and thigh, show that they had the power of standing firmly on the ground, where, with their wings folded, they possibly moved after the manner of birds ; they could also perch on tress, and climb on rocks and cliffs, with their hind and fore-feet conjointly like bats and Lizards. With regard to their food, it has been conjectured by Cuvier, that they fed on insects, and from the magnitude of their eyes that they may also have been noctivagous. The presence of large fossil Libelluls, or Dragon-flies, and many other insects, in the same lithographic quarries with the Pterodactyles at Solenhofen, and of the wings of coleopte- rous insects, mixed with bones of Pterodactyles, in the oolitic slate of Stonesficid, near Oxford, proves that large insects existed at the same time with them, and may have contri- buted to their supply of food. We know that many of the smaller Lizards of existing species are insectivorous: some are also carnivorous, and others omnivorous, but the head and teeth of two species of Pterodactyle, are so much larger and stronger than is necessary for the capture of insects, that the larger species of them may possibly have fed on fishes, darting upon them from the air after the manner of Sea Swallows and Solan Geese. The enormous size and strength of the head and teeth of the P. Crassirostris, would not only have enabled it to catch fish, but also to kill and de- vour the few small marsupial mammalia which then existed upon the land. The entire range of ancient anatomy, affords few more striking examples of the uniformity of the laws, which con- nect the extinct animals of the fossil creation with existing organized beings, than those we have been examining in the case of the Pterodactyle. We find the details of parts which, from their minuteness should seem insignificant, ac- quiring great importance in such an investigation as we 180 GIGANTIC TERRESTRIAL SAURIANS. are now conducting ; they show not less distinctly, than the colossal limbs of the most gigantic quadrupeds, a numerical coincidence, and a concurrence of proportions, which it seems impossible to refer to the effect of accident; and which point out unity of purpose, and deliberate design, in some intelligent First Cause, from which they were all de- rived. We have seen that whilst all the laws of existing or- ganization in the order of Lizards, are rigidly maintained in the Pterodactyles ; still, as Lizards modified to move like birds and Bats in the air, they received, in each part of their frame, a perfect adaptation to their state. We have dwelt more at length on the minutiae of their mechanism, because they convey us back into ages so exceedingly remote, and show that even in those distant eras, the same care of a common Creator, which we witness in the mechanism of our own bodies, and those of the myriads of inferior crea- tures that move around us, was extended to the structure of creatures, that at first sight seem made up only of monstro- sities. SECTION IX. MEGALOSAURUS.* The Megalosaurus, as its name implies, was a Lizard, of great size, of which, although no skeleton has yet been found entire, so many perfect bones and teeth have been discovered * This genus was established by the Author, in a Memoir, published in the Geol. Trans, of London, (Vol. I., N. S. Pt. 2, 1824,) and was founded upon specimens discovered in the oolitic slate of Stonesfield, near Oxford, the place in which these bones have as yet chiefly occurred. Mr. Mantell has discovered remains of the same animal in the Wealden fresh-water for- mation of Tilgate Forest; and from this circumstance we infer that it existed during* the deposition of the entire series of oolitic strata. The author, in MEGALOSAURUS. 181 in the same quarries, that we are nearly as well acquainted with the form and dimensions of its limbs, as if they had been found together in a single block of stone. From the size and proportions of these bones, as com- pared with existing Lizards, Cuvier concludes the Megalo- saurus to have been an enormous reptile, measuring from forty to fifty feet in length, and partaking of the structure of the Crocodile and Monitor. As the femur and tibia measure nearly three feet each, the entire hind-leg must have attained a length of nearly two yards : a metatarsal bone, thirteen inches long, indi- cates a corresponding length in the foot.* The bones of the thigh and leg are not solid at the centre, as in Croco- diles, and other aquatic quadrupeds, but have large medul- lary cavities, like the bones of terrestrial animals. We learn from this circumstance, added to the character of the foot, that the Megalosaurus Hved chiefly upon the land. In the internal condition of these fossil bones, we see the same adaptation of the skeleton to its proper clement, which now distinguishes the bones of terrestrial, from those of aquatic Saurians.f In the Ichthyosauri and Plesiosauri, whose paddles were calculated exclusively to move in water, even the largest bones of the arms and legs were solid throughout. Their weight would in no way have embarrassed their action in the fluid medium they inhabited; but in the huge Megalosaurus, and stiU more gigantic Iguanodon, which are shown by the character of their feet to have been fitted to move on land, the larger bones of the legs were diminished in weight, by being internally hollow, and having their cavities filled with the light material of 1826, saw fragments of a jaw, containing teeth, and of some other bones of Megalosaurus, in the museum at Bcsangon, from the oolite of that neigh- bourhood. • See Geo). Trans. 2d series, Vol. 3, p. 437, PI. 41. t I learn from Mr. Owen that the long bones of land Tortoises have a close cancellous internal structure, but not a medullary cavity. VOL. I. 16 182 GIGANTIC TERRESTRIAL SAURIANS. marrow, while their cylindrical form tended also to connbine this lightness with strength.* The form of the teeth shows the Megalosaurus to have been in a high degree carnivorous : it probably fed on smaller reptiles, such as Crocodiles and Tortoises, whose remains abound in the same strata with its bones. It may also have taken to the water in pursuit of Plesiosauri and fishes.f The most important part of the Megalosaurus yet found, consists of a fragment of the lower jaw, containing many * The medullary cavities in (lie fossil bones of llie Megalosaurup, from Stonesfield, are usually filled with calcareous spar. In the Oxford Museum there is a specimen from the Wealden fresh-watcr formation at Langton, near Tunbridge Wells, which is perhaps unique amongst organic remains: it pre- sents the curious fact of a perfect cast of tlie interior of a large bone, ap- parently the femur of a Megalosaurus, exliib;ling the exact form and ramifi- cations of the marrow, whilst the bone itself has entirely perished. The substance of this cast is fine sand, cemented by oxide of iron, and its form distinctly represents all the minute reticulations, with which the mar- row filled the inlercoluminations of the cancelii, near the extremity of the bone. It exhibits also casts of the perforations along the internal panetes, whereby the vessels entered obliquely from the exterior of the bone, to com- municate with the marrow, A mould of the exterior of the same bone has been also formed by the sandstone in which it was imbedded; hence although the bone itself has perished, we have precise representations both of its ex- ternal form and internal cavities, and a model of the marrow that filled this femur, nearly as perfect as could be made by pouring wax into an empty marrow bone, and corroding away the bone with acid. The sand which formed this cast must have entered the medullary cavity by a frac- ture across the other extremity of the bone, which was wanting in the spe- cimen. From this natural preparation of ancient anatomy we learn that the dis- position of marrow, and its connexion with the reticulated extremities of the interior of the femur, were the same in these gigantic Lizards of a former world, as in medullary cavities of existing species. t Mr. Broderip informs me that a living Iguana (I. Tuberculata,) in the gardens of the Zoological Society of London, in the summer of 1834, was observed frequently to enter the water, and swim across a small pond, using^ its long tail as the instrument of progression, and keeping its fore-feet mo- tionless. MEGALOSAURUS. 183 teeth, (PI. 23, Figs. ] '— 2'.) The form of this jaw shows that the head was terminated by a straight and narrow snout, compressed laterally like that of the Delphinus Gan- geticus. As in all animals, the jaws and teeth form the most cha- racteristic parts, I shall limit my present observations to a few strikinfT circumstances in the dentition of the Mejialo- saurus. From these we learn that the animal was a reptile, closely allied to some of our modern Lizards ; and viewing the teeth as instruments for providing food to a carnivorous creature of enormous magnitude, they appear to have been admirably adapted to the destructive office for which thev were designed. Their form and mechanism will best be explained by reference to the figures in PI. 23.* In the structure of these teeth, (PI. 23, Figs. 1, 2, 3,) we find a combination of mechanical contrivances analogous to those which are adopted in the construction of the knife, the sabre, and the saw. When first protruded above the gum, (PI. 23, Figs. I'. 2'.) the apex of each tooth presented a double cutting edge of serrated enamel. In this stage, its position and line of action were nearly vertical, and its ♦ The outer margin of the juw (PI. 23, Fig-. 1'. 2'.) rises nearly an inch above its inner margin, forming a continuous lateral parapet to support the teeth on the exterior side, where the greatest support was necessary ; whilst the inner margin (PI. 23, Fig. 1') throws up a scries of triangular plates of bono, forming a z'g-zag buttress along the interior of the alveoli. From the centre of each triangular plate, a bony partition crosses to the outer parapet, thus completing the successive alveoli. The ncwteuth are seen in the angle between each triangular plate, rising in reserve to supply the loss of the older teeth, as often as progressive growth, or accidental fracture, may render such renewal necessary ; and thus affording an exuberant provision for a rapid succession and restoration of these most essential implements- They were formed in distinct cavities, by the side of the old, teeth, towards the interior surface of the jaw, and probably expelled them by the usual process of pressure and absorption ; insinuating themselves into the cavities thus left vacant. This coiiirjvance for the renewal of teeth is strictly analogous to that which takes place in the dentition of many species of existing Lizards. 184 GIGANTIC TERRESTRIAL SAURIANS. form like thai of the two-edged point of a sabre, cutting equally on each side. As the tooth advanced in growth, it became curved backwards, in the form of a pruning knife, (PI. 23, Figs. 1. 2. 3.) and the edge of serrated enamel was continued downwards to the base of the inner and cutting side of the tooth, (Fig. 1 , B. D.) whilst, on the outer side, a similar edge descended, but to a short distance from the point (Fig. 1, B. to C.) and the convex portion of the tooth (A.) became blunt and thick, as the back of a knife is made thick, for the purpose of producing strength. The strength of the tooth was farther increased by the expansion of its sides, (as represented in the transverse section, Fig. 4, A. D.) Had the serrature continued along the whole of the blunt and convex portion of the tooth, it would, in this position, have possessed no useful cutting power ; it ceased precisely at the point, (C.) beyond which it could no longer be effective In a tooth thus formed for cutting along its concave edge, eacii movement of the jaw combined the power of the knife and saw ; whilst the apex, in making the first incision, acted like the two-edged point of a sabre. The backward cur- vature of the full-grown teeth, enabled them to retain, like barbs, the prey which they had penetrated. In these adaptations, we see contrivances, which human ingenuity has also adopted, in the preparation of various instruments of art. In a former chapter (Ch. XIII.) I endeavoured to show that the establishment of carnivorous races throughout the animal kingdom tends materially to diminish the aggregate amount of animal suffering. The provision of teeth and jaws, adapted to effect the work of death most speedily, is highly subsidiary to the accomplishment of this desirable end. We act ourselves on this conviction, under the im- pulse of pure humanity, when we provide the most efficient instruments to produce the instantaneous, and most easy death, of the innumerable animals that are daily slaughtered for the supply of human food. IGUANODON. HYL^OSAURUS. 185 SECTION X. IGUANODO N.* As the reptiles hitherto considered appear from their teeth to have been carnivorous, so we find extinct species of the same great family, that assume the character and office of herbivora. For our knowledge of this genus, we are in- debted to the scientific researches of Mr. Mantell. This indefatigable historian of the Wealden fresh-water forma- tion, has not only found the remains of the Plesiosaurus, Megalosaurus, HylasosauruSjf and several species of Cro- codiles and Tortoises in these deposites, of a period inter- mediate between the oolitic and cretaceous series, but has also discovered in Tilgate Forest the remains of the Iguano- don, a reptile much more gigantic than the Megalosaurus, and which, from llie character of its teeth, appears to have been herbivorous.J The teeth of the Iguanodon are so pre- * See PI. 1, F\)r. 45, and PI. 24 ; and Mantell's Geology of Sussex, and of the soQlIi-east of lOngland. t The Hylaeosaurus, or Lizard of tlie Weald, was discovered in Tilgale Forest, in Sussex, in 1832. This extraordinary Lizard was probably about twenty five feet long^. Its most peculiar character consists in the remains of a series of lon^r, fl;it, and pointed bones, which seems to have formed an enormous dermal friiigCi liiie the horny spines on the back of the modern Iguana. These bones vary in length from five to seventeen inches, and in width from three t > seven inches and a half at the base. Together with them were found the remains of large dermal bortes, or thick scales which were probably lodged in the skin. t The Iguanodon has hitiierto been found only, with one exception, in the Wealden fresh-water formation of the south of England, (PI. 1, section 22.J intermediate between the marine oolitic deposites of the Portland stone and those of the green-sand formation in the cetaceous series. The discovery, in 1834, (Phil. Msg. July, 1834, p. 77.) of a large proportion of the skeleton of one of these animals, in strata of the latter formation, in the quarries «f Kentish Rag, near Maidstone, shows that the duration of this animal 16* 186 GIGANTIC TERRESTRIAL SAUSIANS. cisely similar, in the principles of their construction, to the teeth of the modern Iguana, as to leave no doubt of the near connexion of this most gigantic extinct reptile with the Iguanas of our own time. When we consider that the largest living Iguana rarely exceeds five feet in length, whilst the congenerous fossil animal must have been nearly twelve times as long, we cannot but be impressed by the discovery of a resemblance, amounting almost to identity, between such characteristic organs as the teeth, in one of the most enormous among the extinct reptiles of the fossil world, and those of a genus whose largest species is compa- ratively so diminutive. According to Cuvier, the common Iguana inhabits all the warm regions of America : it lives chiefly upon trees, eating fruits, and seeds, and leaves. The female occasionally visits the water, for the purpose of lay- ing in the sand its eggs, which arc about the size of those of a pigeon.* As the modern Iguana is found only in the warmest re- gions of the present earth, we may reasonably infer that a did not cease with the completion of the Wealden series. The individual from which this skeleton was deiivcd liad probab'y been drifted to sea, as those which afforded the bones found in the fresh-water deposites subjacent to this marine formation, had been drifted into an estuary. Tiiis unique skelelon is now in the museum of Mr. Mantell, and confirms nearly all his conjectures respecting the many insulated bones which he had referred to the Iguanodon. * In the Appendix to a paper in the Geol. Trans. Lnnd. (N. S. Vol. III. Pt. 3) on the fossil bones of the Iguam don, found in the Isle of Wight and Isle of Purbeck, I have mentioned the following facts, illustrative of the her- bivorous habits of the living Iguana. In the spring of 1829, " Mr. VV. J. Broderip saw a living Iguana, about two fi-ct long, in a hot-house at Mr. Miller's nursery gardens, near Bristol. It had refused to eat insects, and other kinds of animal food, until happen- ing to be near some kidney-bean plants that were in the house for forcing, it began to eat of their leaves, and was from that time forth supplied from these plants." In 1828, Captain Belcher found, in the inland of Jsabella, swarms of Iguanas, that appeared onniivorous ; they fed voraciously on the eggs of birds, and the intestines of fowls and insects. IGUANODON. 187 similar, if not a still warmer climate, prevailed at the time when so huge a Lizard as the Iguanodon inhabited what are now the temperate regions of the southern coasts of England. We know from the fragment of a femur, in the collection of Mr. Mantell, that the thigh-bone of this reptile much ex- ceeded in bulk that of the largest Elephant: this fragment presents a circumference of twenty-two inches in its small- est part, and the entire length must have been between four and five feet. Comparing the proportions of this monstrous bone with those of the fossil teeth with which it is associated, it appears that they bear to one another nearly the same ratio that the femur of the Iguana bears to the similarly constructed and pecuhar teeth of that animal.* It has been stated, in the preceding section, that the large medullary cavities in the femur of the Iguanodon, and the form of the bones of the feet, show that this animal, like the Megalosaurus, was constructed to move on land. A farther analogy between the extinct fossil and the re- cent Iguana is offered by the presence in both of a horn of * From a careful coniparisioii of llic bones of the Iguanodon with those of the Iguana, made by taking an average from the proportions of different bones from eight separate parts of the respective skeletons, Mr. Mantell has arrived at these dimensions as being the proportionate measures of the following parts of this extraordinary reptile : Feet. Length from snout to tiic extremity of the tail • . 70 Length of tail -----.--. 52^ Cireumference of body .--..-. 14^ Mr. Mantel! ealeulates the femur of tiie Iguanodon to be twenty times the size of that of a modern Iguana ; but a.; animals do not increase in length in the same ratio as in bulk, it do(^s not follow that the Iguanodon attained the enormous length of one hundred feet, although it approached perhaps nearly to seventy feet. As the Iguanodon, from its ennrni;.U3 bulk, must have been unable to mount on trees, it could not have ajip'ied iis tail to the same purpose as the Iguana, to assist in clinibing; and ilie longitudinal diameter of its caudal vertebrce is much less in proportion fhan in the Ignana, and shows the en- tiro tail to have been comparatively shorter. 188 GIGANTIC TERRESTRIAL SAURIANS. bone upon the nose, (PI. 24, Fig. 14.) The concurrence of pecuharities so remarkable- as the union of this nasal horn with a mode of dentition of which there is no example, ex- cept in the Iguanas, aflords one of the many proofs of the universality of tlie laws of co-cxistcncc, which prevailed no less constantly thronghoiit the extinct genera and species of the fossil world, than they do among the living members of the animal kingdom. Teeth. As the teeth arc the most characteristic and important' parts of the animal, I shall endeavour to extract from them evidence of design, both in their construction and mode of renewal, and also in their adaptation to the office of con- suming vegetables, in a manner peculiar to themselves. They are not lodged in distinct sockets, like the teeth of Crocodiles, but fixed, as in Lizards, along the internal face of the dental bone, to which they adhere by one side of the bony substance of their root. (PI. 24, Fig. 1.3.) The tooth of most herbivorous quadrupeds, (exclusively of the defensive tusks,) are divided into two classes of dis- tinct oliicc, viz. incisors and molars; the former destined to collect and sever vegetable substances from the ground, or from the i)aront plant; the latter to grind and masticate them on their way towards the stomach. The living Igua- nas, which are in great part herbivorous, afford a striking exception to this economy: as their teeth are little fitted for grinding, thov transmit tlicir f)od very slightly comminuted into tho stomacJi. Our giunt Ignanodon, also, bad tooth resembling those of the Iguana, and of so herbivorous a character, that at first sight they were su))posed by Cuvier to be the teeth of a Rhinoceros. The examination of these teeth will lead us to the disr INGUANODON. 1S& covery of remarkable contrivances, adapting them to the function of cropping tough vegetable food, such as the Cla- thraria, and similar plants, which are found buried with the Iguanodon, might have afforded. We know the form and power of iron pincers to gripe and tear nails from their lodgment in wood : a still more powerful kind of pincers, or nippers, is constructed for the purpose of cutting wire, which yields to them nearly as readily as thread to a pair of scis- sors. Our figures (PI. 24, Figs. 6, 7, 8, 12) show the place of the cutting edges, and form of curviture, and points of enlargement and contraction, in the teeth of the Iguanodon, to be nearly the same as in the corresponding parts of these powerful metallic tools ; and the mechanical advantages of such teeth, as instruments for tearing and cutting, must have been similar.* The teeth exhibit also two kinds of provisions to maintain sharp edges along the cutting surface, from their first pro- trusion, until they were worn down to the very stump. The first of these is a sharp and serrated edge, extending on each side downwards, from the point to the broadest portion of the body of the tooth. (See Figs. 1, 2, 6, 8, 12, &c.) The second provision is one of compensation for the gra- dual destruction of this serrated edge, by substituting a plate of thin enamel, to maintain a cutting power in the anterior portion of the tooth, until its entire substance was consumed in service.f * Fig. 2. represents t!ie front of a yoiintj toofli; and Figs. 5, 6, 7, 8 the front of four other teeth, tiirown slightly into profile. In all of these we recog- nise a near approach to the form of the nipping pincers, with a sharp cut- ting edge at the u])per margin of the enamel. The enamel is here expressed by wavy lines, which represent its actual structure: it is jjlaced only in front, like the enamel in front of the incisors of Rodentia. f This perpetual e^\ge resulted from the enamel being placed only on the front of the tooth, like that on the incisors of Uoflentia. As the softer material of the tooth itself must have worn away more readily than this enamel, and most readily at the part remotest from it, an oblique sectioji 190 GIGANTIC TERRESTRIAL SAURIANS. Whilst the crown of the tooth was thus gradually dimi- nishing above, a simultaneous absorption of the root M'ent on below, caused by the pressure of a new tooth rising to replace the old one, until by this continual consumption at both extremities, the middle portion of the older tooth was reduced to a hollow stump, (Figs, 10, 11,) which fell from the jaw to make room for a more efficient successor.* In this last stage the form of the tooth had entirely changed, and the crown had become flat, like the crown of worn out human incisors, and capable of performing imperfect masti- cation after the cutting powers had diminished. There is, I believe, no other example of teeth which possess the same mechanical advantages as instruments of cutting and tear- ing portions of vegetable matter from tough and rigid plants. of the crown was thus perpetually maintained with a sharp cutting edge in front, like that of the nippers. (See Figs. 7. 8. 12.) The younger tootli, (Fig. 1,) when first protruded, was lancet-shaped, with a serrated edge, extending on each side downwards, from the. point to its broadest portion, as in the living Iguana. (Pi. 24./ 13, and Fig. 4 ) This serrature ceased at the broadest diameter of the tootii, i. e. precisely at the line, below which, had they been continued, they would have had no effect in cutting. (Pi. 24. / 2. 6. 8. 9. 12.) As these saws were gradually worn away, the cutting power was transferred to the enamel in front, and here we find a provision of another kind to give efficacy and strength. The front was traversed longitudinally by alternate ridges and furrows, (PI. 24, Figs. 2, 5, 6, 7, 8,) the ridges serving as ribs or buttresses to strengthen and pre- vent the enamel from scaling off, and forming, together with the furrows, an edge slightly wavy, and disposed in a series of minute gouges, or fluted chisels; hence the tooth became an instrument of greater power to cut tough vegetables under the action of the jaw, than if the enamel had been in a con- tinuous straight line. By these contrivances, also it continued effective during every stage through which it passed, from the serrated lancet-point of the new toolh, (Fig. 1,) to its final consumption. (Figs. 10, 11.) * In PI. 24, Fig. 13, the jaw of a recent Iguana exhibits the commence- ment of this process, and a number of young teeth are seen farcing their way upwards, and causing absorption at the base of the older teeth. Figs 10, 11, exhibit the effect of similar absorption upon the residuary stump of the fossil tooth of an Iguanodon. IGTJANODON. 191 In this curious pieCe of animal mechanism, we find a varied adjustment of all parts and proportions of the tooth, to the exercise of peculiar functions ; attended by compensations adapted to shifting conditions of the instrument, during dif- ferent stages of its consumption. And we must estimate the works of nature by a different standard from that which we apply to the productions of human art, if we can view such examples of mechanical contrivance, united with so much economy of expenditure, and with such anticipated adaptations to varying conditions in their application, with- out feeling a profound conviction that all this adjustment has resulted from design and high intelligence. SECTION XI. AMPHIBIOUS SAURIANS ALLIED TO CROCODILESi The fossil reptiles of the Crocodilean family do not de- viate sufficiently from living genera, to require any descrip- tion of peculiar and discontinued contrivances, like those we have seen in the Ichthyosaurus, Plesiosaurus, and Pterodac- tyle ; but their occurrence in a fossil state is of high import- ance, as it shows that whilst many forms of vertebrated animals have one after another been created, and become extinct, during the successive geological changes of the surface of our globe ; there are others which have survived all these changes and revolutions, and still retain the leading features under which they first appeared upon our planet. If we look to the state of the earth, and the character of its population, at the time when Crocodilean forms were first added to the number of its inhabitants, we find that the highest class of living beings were reptiles, and that the only other vertebrated animals which then existed were fishes ; the carnivorous reptiles at this early period must therefore 192 AMPHIBIOUS SAURIANS. have fed chiefly upon them, and if in the existing family of Crocodiles there be any, that are in a pecuHar degree pis- civorous, their form is that we should expect to find in those most ancient fossil genera, whose chief supply of food must have been derived from fishes. In the living sub-genera of the Crocodilean family, we see the elongated and slender beak of the Gavial of the Ganges, constructed to feed on fishes ; whilst the shorter and stronger snout of the broad-nosed Crocodiles and Alli- gators gives them the power of seizing and devouring quad- rupeds, that come to the banks of rivers in hot countries to drink. As there were scarcely any mammalia* during the secondary periods, whilst the waters were abundantly stored with fishes, we might h priori, expect that if any Croco- dilean forms had then existed they would most nearly have resembled the modern Gavial. And we have hitherto found only those genera which have elongated beaks, in formations anterior to, and including the chalk ; whilst true Crocodiles, with a short and broad snout, like that of the Cayman and the Alligator, appear for the first time in strata of the ter- tiary periods, in which the remains of mammalia abound.f During these grand periods of lacustrine mammalia, in which but few of the present genera of terrestrial carnivora * The small Opossums in the oolite formation at Stonesfield, near Oxford, are the only land mammalia whose bones have been yet discovered in any strata more ancient than the tertiary. t One of these, found by Mr, Spencer in the London clay of (he Isle of Sheppy, is engraved, PI. 25', Fig. 1. Crocodiles of this kind have been found in the chalk of Meudon, in the plastic clay of Auteuil, in the London clay, in the gypsum of Mont Martre, and in the lignites of Pro- vence. The modern broad-nosed Crocodileans, though they have the power to capture mammalia, are not limited to this kind of prey ; they feed largely also on fishes, and occasionally on birds. This omnivorous ci)aractcr of the existing Crocodilean family, seems adapted to the present general diffusion of more varied kinds of food, than existed when the only form of the beak ia this family was fitted, like that of the Gavial, to feed cliiefly on Fishes. CROCODILEANS. 103 had been called into existence, the important ofRce of con- trolling the excessive increase of the aquatic herbivora ap- pears to have been consigned to the Crocodiles, whose habits fitted them, in a peculiar degree, for such a service. Thus, the past history of the Crocodilean tribe presents another example of the well regulated workings of a con- sistent plan in the economy of animated nature, under which each individual, whilst following its own instinct, and pur- suing its own good, is instrumental in promoting the general welfare of the whole family of its contemporaries. Cuvier observes, that the presence of Crocodilean reptiles, which are usually inhabitants of fresh-water, in various beds, loaded with the remains of other reptiles and shells that are decidedly marine, and the farther fact of their being, in many cases, accompanied by fresh-water Tortoises, shows that there must have existed dry land, watered by rivers, in the early periods when these strata were deposited, and long before the formation of the lacustrine tertiary strata of the neigh- bourhood of Paris.* The living species of the Crocodile family are twelve in number, namely, one Giaval, eight true Crocodiles, and three Alligators. There are also many fossil species: no less than six of these have been made out by Cuvier, and several others, from the secondary and ter- tiary formations in England remain to be described.! * M. Gcoffroy St. Hilairc has arranp^ed the fossil Saurians with long and narrow beaks, like that of the Gavial, under the two new g-cnera, Teleosau- rus and Steneosaurus. In the Teleosaurus, (PI. 25', Fig. 2.) the nostrils form almost a vertical section of the anterior extremity of the beak ; in the Steneosaurus, (PI. 25', Fig 3.) this anterior termination of the nasal canal had nearly the same arrangement as in the Gavial, opening upwards, and being almost semicircular on each side. — Rccherches sur les grands Saufi- ens, 1831. t One of the finest specimens of fossil Tclcosauri yet discovered, (see PI. 25, Fig. 1,) was found in the year 1824, in the alum shale of the lias formation at Sajtwick, near Whitby, and is engraved in Young and Bird's Geological Survey of the Yorkshire Coast, 2d Ed. 1828: its entire length is about eighteen feet, the breadth of the head twelve inches, the snout VOL. I. — 17 194 AMPHIBIOUS SAURIANS. It would be foreign to our j)rcscnt purpose, to enter intc U niiiiuU^ comparison of ihe usleuiogy of living and fossiJ genera and speeies of this family. We may simj)ly observe, u'ith respect !<» their similar manner of dentition, that they all present the same exami)les of provision for extraordinary expenditure of teeth, by an unusually abundant store of these most essential organs.* As Crocodiles increase to no less Ihan four hundred limes their original bulk, between the period at which they leave the egg and their full matu- rity, they are ]»ruvided with a more fre(iuent succession oi teeth than the mammalia, in order to maintain a duly pro- portioned supply during every period of their life. As the predaceous habits ol" these animals cause their teeth, placed in so long a jaw, to be peculiarly liable to destruction, the same provision serves also to renew the losses which must often be occasioned by accidental fracture. The existence of these remedial ibrces, thus uniformly adapted to supply anticipated wants, and to repair foreseen injuries, affords an example of those supplementary con- trivances, which give double strength to the argument from design, in proof of the agency of Intelligence, in the con- struction and renovation of the animal machinery in which such contrivances arc introduced. The discovery of Crocodilean forms so nearly allied to was lonij and slender, as in the Gavial, tlio teeth, one liundrcd and forty in number, are all small and slender, and |)lnccd in nearly a Ktraij^lit line. 'I'lic heads of two other individuals of the same specieci, found near Whitby, are represented in the same plate. Figs. 2, 3. Some of tho ungual phalanges, which arc preserved on the hind feet of this animal, Fig. 1, show that these extremities were terminated by long and sharp claws, adapted for motion upon land, from which wc may infer that the animal was not exclusively marine; from tiie nature of the shells with which they arc associated, in the lias and oolite formations, it is probable that both the Steneosaurus and Teleosaurus irccpienti'd shallow seas. Mr. LycU states that the larger Alligator of the Ganges, sometimes descends be- y.ond the brackish water of the delta into the sea. • Tiiis mode of dentition has been already exemplified in speaking of the ^Icntition of the Iclilhyosaurus, P. 13G, and PI. 11. A. FOSSIL TESTUDINATA. 195 the living Gavial, in the same early strata that contain the first traces of the Ichthyosaurus and the Plesiosaurus, is a fact which seems wholly at variance with every theory that would derive the race of Crocodiles from Ichthyosauri and Plesiosauri, by any process of gradual transmutation or de- velopement. The first appearance of all these three fami- lies of reptiles seems to have been nearly simultaneous ; and they all continued to exist together until the termination of the secondary formations ; when the Ichthyosauri and Ple^ siosauri, became extinct, and forms of Crocodiles, approach- ing to the Cayman and the Alligator, were for the first time introduced. SECTION XII. FOSSIL TORTOISES, OR TESTUDINATA. Among the existing animal population of the warmer regions of the earth, there is an extensive order of reptiles, comprehended by Cuvier under the name of Chelonians, or Tortoises. These are subdivided into four distinct families; one inhabiting salt water, two others fresh-water lakes and rivers, and a fourth living entirely upon the land. One of the most striking characters of this Order consists in the provision that is made for the defence of creatures, Avhose movements are usually slow and torpid, by enclosing the body within a double shield or cuirass, formed by the ex- pansion of the vertebra), ribs and sternum, into a broad bony case. The small European Tortoise, Testudo Graeca, and the eatable Turtle, Chelonia Mydas, are familiar examples of this pecuUar arrangement both in terrestrial and aquatic reptiles ; in each case the shield affords compensation for the want of rapidity of motion to animals that have no 196 FOSSIL TESTUDINATA. ready means of escape by flight or concealment from their enemies. We learn from Geology that this Order be- gan to exist nearly at the same time with the Order of Sau- rians, and has continued co-extensively with them through the secondary and tertiary formations, unto the present time: their fossil remains present also the same threefold divisions that exist among modern Testudinata, into groups re- spectively adapted to live in salt and fresh-water, and upon the land. Animals of this Order have yet been found only in strata more recent than the carboniferous series.* The earliest example recorded by Cuvier, (Oss. Foss. Vol. 5, Pt. 2, p. 525,) is that of a very large species of Sea Turtle, the shell of which was eight feet long, occurring in the Muschelkalk at Luneville. Another Marine species has been found at Glaris, in slate referable to the lower cretaceous formation. A third occurs in the upper cretaceous freestone at Maes- tricht. All these are associated with the remains of other animals that are marine ; and though they differ both from living Turtles and from one another, they still exhibit such general accordance in the principles of their construction, with the conditions by which existing Turtles are fitted for their marine abode, that Cuvier was at once enabled to pro- nounce these fossil species to have been indubitably inha- bitants of the sea.f * The fragment from the Caithness slate, engraved in the Gaol. Trans. Lond. V. iii. PI. 16, Fig. 6, as portions of a trionyx, is pronounced by M. Agassiz to be part of a fisli. t Plate 25', Fig, 4, represents a Turtle from tlie slate of Glaris : it is shown to have been marine by tlie unequal elongation of the toes in the anterior paddle; because, in fresh-water Tortoises, all tlie toes are nearly equal, and of moderate length ; and in land Tortoises, they are also nearly equal, and short ; but in all marine species they are very long, and the central toe of the anterior paddle, is by much the longest of all. The accordance with this latter condition in the specimen before us, is at once apparent ; and both in tiiis respect and general structure, it ap- proaches very nearly to living genera. This figure is copied from VoK TRIONYX EMYS. 197 The genera Trionyx and Emys, present their fossil species in the Wealden fresh-water formations of the Se- condary series ; and still more abundantly in the Tertiary lacustrine deposites ; all these appear to have lived and died under circumstances analogous to those which attend their cognate species in the lakes and rivers of the present tropics. They have also been found in marine deposites, where their admixture with the remains of Crocodilean animals shows that they were probably drifted, together with them, into the sea, from land, at no great distance.* In the close approximation of the generic characters of these fossil Testudinata, of various and ancient geological epochs, to those of the present day, we have a striking ex- ample of the unity of design which has pervaded the con- struction of animals, from the most distant periods in which these forms of organized beings were also called into ex- istence. As the paddle of the Turtle has at all times been adapted to move in the waves of the sea, so have the feet of the Trionyx and Emys ever been constructed for a more quiescent life in fresh-water, whilst those of the Tortoise have been no less uniformly fitted to creep and burrow upon land. 5, Pt. 2, Tab. 14, /, 4, of the Oss. Foss. ofCavier. M. Agassiz has favoured iiie with the following details respecting important parts which are imper- fectly represented in the drawing from which Cuvicr's engraving was taken. " The ribs show evidently that it is nearly connected with the genera Che- Ionia and Sphargis, bat referable to no known species ; the fingers of the left fore paddle are five in number; the two exterior are the shortest, and have each three articulations; and the ihree internal fingers, of which the middle one is the longest, have each four articulations, as in the existing genera, Chclonia and Sphargis." * Thus two large extinct species of EmyK occur, together with marine shells, in the jura limestone at Soleure. The Emys also and Crocodiles, are found in the marine deposites of the London clay at Shoppy and Harwich; and the former is associated with marine exuvix at Brussels. Very per, fret impressions of small horny scales of Testudinata, occur in the Oolite slate of Stonesfield, near O.vford. 17* 198 . LAND TORTOISES- The remains of land Tortoises have been more rarely ob- served in a fossil state. Cuvier mentions bat tvv^o example s, and these in very recent formations at Aix, and in the Isle of France. Scotland has recently afforded evidence of the existence of more than one species of these terrestrial reptiles, during the period of the New red, or Variegated sandstone forma- tion. (See PI. 1, Sec. 17.) The nature of this evidence is almost unique in the history of organic remains.* It is not uncommon to find on the surface of sandstone, tracks which mark the passage of small Crustacea and other marine animals, whilst this stone was in a state of loose sand at the bottom of the sea. Laminated sandstones are also often disposed in minute undulations, resembling those formed by the ripple of agitated water upon sand.f * See Dr. Duncan's account of tracks and footmarks of animals im- pressed on sandstone in th3 quarry of Corn Cockle Muir, Dumfries-shire Trans. Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1828. Dr. Duncan .states tliat the strata which bear these impressions lie on each other like volumes on the shelf of a library, when all inclining to one side: that the quarry has been worked to the depth of forty-fivo feet from the top of the rock; llirougliout the whole of this dcptli similar impressions have been found, not on a single stratum only, but on many successive strata; i. c. af- ter removing a large slab Vvhich contained foot-prints, they found perhaps the very next stratum at the distance of a few feet, or it might be less than an inch, exhibiting a similar plienomenon^ Hence it follows that tlie pro- cess by which the impressions were made on the sand, and subsequently buried, was repeated at successive intervals. I learn, by a letter from Dr. Duncan, dated October, 1834, tliat similar impressions, attended by nearly the same circumstances, have recently been discovered aboutten miles south of Corn Cockle Muir, in the Red sandstone quarries of Craigs, two miles east of the town of Dumfries. The inclination of the strata of ihis place is about 45° S. W. like that of almost all tlie sand- stone strata of the neighbourhood. One of these tracks extended from twenty to thirty feet in length: in this place also, as at Corn Cockle Muir, no bones of any kind have yet been discovered. Sir William Jardine has informed Dr. Duncan that tracks of animals have been found also in other quarries near Corn Cockle Muir. t In 1831, Mr. G. P. Scrope, after visiting the quarries of Dumfries. FOSSIL FOOTSTEPS. 199 The same causes, which have so commonly preserved these undulations, would equally preserve any impressions that might happen to have been made on beds of sand, by the feet of animals ; the only essential condition of such pre- servation being, that they should have become covered with a farther deposite of earthy matter, before they were obli- terated by any succeeding agitations of the water. The nature of the impressions in Dumfries-shire may be seen by reference to PI. 26. They traverse the rock in a direction either up or down, and not across the surfaces of the strata, which arc now inclined at an angle of 38°. On one slab there are twenty-four continuous impressions of feet, forming a regular track, with six distinct repetitions of the mark of each foot, the fore-foot being differently shaped from the hind-foot; the marks of claws are also very distinct.* found rippled markings, and abundant foot tracks of small animals on the Forest marble beds north of Halii. These were probably tracks of Crusta- cea.—See Phil. Mag. May, 1831, p. 376. We find on tiie surface of slabs both of the calcareous grit, and Stonesfield slate, near Oxford, and on sandstones of the Wealden formation, in Sussex and Dorsetshire, perfectly preserved and petrified castings of marine worms, at the upper extremity of holes bored by them in the sand, while it waa yet soft at the bottom of the water; and within the sandstones, traces of tubular holes in which the worms resided. The p^e^^ervation of these tubes and castings shows the very quiet condition of the bottom, and the gentle action of the water, which brought the materials that covered them over, without disturbing them. Cases of this kind add to the probability of the preservation of footsteps of Tortoises on the Red sandstone, and also afford proof of the alternation of intervals of repose with periods of violence, during the destructive processes by which derivative strata were formed. * On comparing some of these impressions with tiie tracks which I caused to be made on soft sand, and clay, and upon unbaked pie-crust, by a living Emys and Testudo Grjecn, I found the correspondence with the latter sufficiently close, allowing for difference of species, to render it highly pro- bable that the fossil footsteps were also impressed by the feet of land Tortoises. In the bed of the Sapey and Whelpley brooks near Tcnbury, circulai 200 FOSSIL FOOTSTEPS Although these footsteps are thus abundant in the exten- sive quarries of Corn Cockle Muir, no trace whatever has been found of any portion of the bones of the animals whose feet they represent. This circumstance may perhaps be ex- plained by the nature of the siliceous sandstone having been unfavourable to the preservation of organic remains. The conditions which would admit of the entire obliteration of bones, would in no way interfere with the preservation of impressions made by feet, and speedily filled up by a suc- ceeding deposite of sand, which would assume, with the fide- lity of an artificial plaster mould, the precise form of the surface to which it was applied. Notwithstanding this absence of bones from the rocks which are thus abundantly impressed with footsteps, the lat- ter alone suffice to assure us both of the existence and cha- racter of the animals by which they were made. Their form is much too short for the feet of Crocodiles, or any other known Saurians ; and it is to the Testudinata, or Tortoises, that we look, with most probability of finding the species to which their origin is due.* markings occur in tiic Old Red Sandstone, which are referred by the na- lives to the tracks of Horses, and the impressions of Patten-rings, and a legendary tale has been applied to explain their history. They are caused by concretions of Marlstone and Iron, disposed in spherical cases around a solid core of sandstone, and intersected by these water causes. * This evidence of footsteps on which we are here arguing, is one which all mankind appeal to in every condition of society. The thief is identified by the impression which his shoe has left near the scene of his depredations- Captain Parry found the tracks of human feet upon the banks of the stream in Possession Bay, which appeared so fresh, that he at first imagined them to have been recently made by some natives : on examination they were distinctly ascertained to be the marks of the shoes of some of his own crew, eleven months before. The frozen condition of the soil had prevented their obliteration. The American savage not only identifies the Elk and Bison by the impression of their hoofs, but ascertains also the time that has elapsed since each animal had passed. From the Camel's track upon the sand, the Arab can determine whether it was heavily or lightly laden, or whether it was lame. FOSSIL FOOTSTEPS. 201 The Historian or the Antiquary may have traversed the fields of ancient or of modern battles ; and may have pur- sued the line of march of triumphant Conquerors, whose ar- mies trampled down the most mighty kingdoms of the world. The winds and storms have utterly obliterated the epheme- ral impressions of their course. Not a track remains of a sin- gle foot, or a single hoof, of all the countless millions of men and beasts whose progress spread desolation over the earth. But the Reptiles, that crawled upon the half-finished surface of our infant planet, have left memorials of their passage, enduring and indelible. No history has recorded their crea- tion or destruction; their very bones are found no more amonrr the fossil relics of a former world. Centuries, and thousands of years, may have rolled away, between the time in which these footsteps were impressed by Tortoises upon the sands of their native Scotland, and the hour when they are again laid bare, and exposed to our curious and ad- miring eyes. Yet we behold them, stamped upon the rock, distinct as the track of the passing animal upon the recent snow ; as if to show that thousands of years are but as no- thing amidst Eternity — and, as it were, in mockery of the fleeting perishable course of the mightiest potentates among mankind.* * A similar discovery of fossil footsteps has recently been made in Saxony, at the village of Hessberg, near Hildburghausen, in several quarries of gray quartzose sandstone, alternating with beds of red sandstone, nearly of the same age with that of Dumfries. (See PI. 26'. 26". 26'".) The following account of them is collected from notices by Dr. Hohnbaum and Professor Kaup. " The impressions of feet are partly hollow, and partly in relief; all the depressions are upon the upper surfaces of slabs of sand- stone, whilst the reliefs are only upon the lower surfaces, covering those which bear the depressions. These reliefs are natural casts, formed in the subjacent footsteps as in moulds. On one slab (see PI. 26',) six feet long by five feet wide, there occur many footsteps of more than one animal, and of various sizes. The larger impressions, which seem to be of the hind-foot are eight inches long, and five wide. (See PI. 26".) One was twelve inches long. Near to each large footstep, and at the regular distance of an inch and a half before it, is a smaller print of a forefoot, four inches long and 202 FOSSIL FISHES. SECTION XIII. FOSSIL FISHES. The history of Fossil Fishes is the Branch of Palaso- logy which has hitherto received least attention, in conse- quence of the imperfect state of our knowledge of existing three inches wide. These footsteps follow one another in pairs, at intervals of fourteen inches from pair to pair, each pair being in the same line. Both large and small steps have the great toes alternately on the right and left side ; each has the print of five toes, and the first, or great toe is bent in- wards like a thumb. The fore and hind-foot are nearly similar in form, though they differ so greatly in size. On the same slabs are other tracks, of smaller and differently shaped feet, armed with nails. Many of these (PI. 26') resemble the impressions ou the sandstone of Dumfries, and arc apparently the steps of Tortoises. Professor Kaup has proposed the provisional name of Chirothcriuin for the great unknown animal that formed the larger footsteps, from the distant resemblance, both of the fore and hind-feet, to the impression of a human hand; and he conjectures that they may have been derived from some quad- ruped allied to the Marsupialia. The presence of two small fossil mammalia related to the Opossum, in the Oolite formation of Stonesficld, and the ap- proximation of this order to the class of Reptiles, which has already been alluded to, (page 64, note,) are circumstances which give probability to such a conjecture. In the Kangaroo, the first toe of the fore-foot is set obliquely to the others, like a thumb, and the disproportion between the fore and hind feet is also very great. A fartlier account of these footsteps has been published by Dr. Sickler, in a letter to Blumenbach, 1834. Our figure, (PI. 26',) is copied from a plate that accompanies this letter; on comparing it with a large slab, co- vered with similar footmarks, from the same quarries, lately placed in the British Museum, (1835) I find that the representations, both of the large and small footsteps, correspond most accurately. The hind-foot (PI. 26",) is drawn from one on this slab. PI. 26'" is drawn from a plaster rOSSIL FISHES. 203 Fishes. The inaccessible recesses of the waters they in- habit, renders the study of their nature and habits much more difficult than that of terrestrial animals. The arrange- ment of this large and important class of Vertebrata was the last great work undertaken by Cuvier, not long before his lamented death, and nearly eight thousand species of living Fishes had come under his observation. The full de- velopement of their history and numbers, and of the func- tions they discharge in the economy of nature, he has left to his able successors. The fact of the formation of so large a portion of the surface of the earth beneath the water, would lead us to ex- pect traces of the former existence of Fishes, wherever we have the remains of aquatic MoUusca, Articulata, and Ra- diata. Although a few remarkable places have long been celebrated as the repositories of fossil Fishes, even of these there are some, whose geological relations have scarcely yet been ascertained, while the nature of their Fishes re- mains in still greater obscurity.* cast in the British Museum, taken from another slab found in the same quarries, and impressed with footsteps of some small aquatic Reptile. Some fragments of bones were found in the same quarries with these foot- steps, but were destroyed. A thin deposite of Green Marl, whieh lay upon the inferior bed of sand, at the time when the footsteps were impressed, causes the slabs above and below it to part readily, and exhibit the casts that were formed by the upper sand, in the prints that the animals had made on the lower stratum, through the marl, while soft, and sufficiently tenacious to retain the form of the foot- steps. * The most celebrated deposites of fossil Fishes in Europe are the coal formation of Saarbriick, in Lorraine ; the bituminous slate of Mansfcld, in Thuringia ; the calcareous lithographic slate of Solenhofen ; the compact blue slate of Claris; the limestone of Monte Bolca, near Verona ; the marl- stone of Oeningen, in Switzerland; and of Aix, in Provence. Every attempt that has yet been made at a systematic arrangement of these Fishes has been more or less defective, from an endeavour to ar- range them under existing genera and families. The imperfection of .his own, and of all preceding classifications of Fishes, is admitted by 204 SYSTEM OF AGASSIZ. The task of arranging all this disorder has at length been undertaken by an individual, to whose hands Cuvier at once consigned the materials he had himself collected for this im- portant work. The able researches of Professor Agassiz have already extended the number of fossil Fishes to two hundred genera, and more than eight hundred and fifty spe- cies.* The results of this inquiry throw a new and most im- portant light on the state of the earth, during each of the great periods into which its past history has been divided. The study of fossil Ichthyology is therefore of peculiar im- portance to the geologist, as it enables him to follow an en- tire Class of animals, of so high a Division as the verte- brate, through the whole series of geological formations; and to institute comparisons between their various conditions during successive Periods of the earth's formation, such as Cuvier could carry only to a much more limited extent in the classes of Reptiles, Birds, and Mammifers, for want of adequate materials. The system upon which M. Agassiz has established his classification of recent Fishes is in a peculiar degree appli- cable to fossil Fishes, being founded on the character of the external coverings, or Scales. This character is so sure and constant, that the preservation even ofa single scale, will often announce the genus and even the species of the animal from which it was derived ; just as certain feathers announce to a skilful ornithologist the genus or species of a Bird. It follows still farther, that as the nature of their outward covering indicates the relations of all animals to the external world, we derive from their scales certain indications of the Cuvier; and one great proof of this imperfection is that they have led to no general results, either in Natural History, Physiolog^y, or Geology. * No existing genus is found among the fossil Fishes of any stratum older than the Chalk formation. In the inferior chalk there is one living genup, Fislularia; in the true chalk, five; and in the tertiary strata of M. Bolca, thirty-nine living genera, and lliirty.eight which are extinct. — Agassiz. SYSTEM OF AGASSIZ. 206 relations of Fishes ;* the scales forming a kind of external skeleton, analogous to the crustaceous or horny coverings of Insects, to the feathers of Birds, and the fur of Quadru- peds, which shows more directly than the internal bones, their adaptation to the medium in which they lived. A farther advantage arises from the fact that the ena- melled condition of the scales of most Fishes, w^hich existed during the earlier geological epochs, rendered them much less destructible than their internal skeleton ; and cases fre- quently occur where the entire scales and figures of the Fish are perfectly preserved, whilst the bones within these scales have altogether disappeared; the enamel of the scales being less soluble than the more calcareous material of the bone.f * The foundation of this character is laid upon the dermal covering, the skin being that organ wliich, more than any other part of the body, ehowe the relation of every animal to the element in which it moves. The form and conditions of the feathers and down show the relation of Birds to the air in which they fly, or the water in which they swim or dive. The varied forms of fur and hair and bristles on the skins of Beasts are adapted to their respective place, and climate, and occupations upon the land. The scales of Fishes show a similar adaptation to their varied place and occupations beneath the waters. Mr. Burehell informs me that he has observed, both in Africa and South America, that in the order of Serpents a peculiar character of the scales ap- pears to indicate a natural subdivision ; and that in that tribe, to which the Viper and nearly all the venomous Snakes belong, an acute ridge, or carina, along each dorsal scale may be considered as a distinctive mark. t The following are the new Orders, in which M. Agassiz divides the Class of Fishes. First Order, PLACOIDIANS. (PI. 27, Figs. 1, 2, Etym. ^A*f, a broad plate.) Fishes of this Order are characterized by having their akin covered irregularly with plates of enamel, often of considerable dimen- sions, and sometimes reduced to small points, like the shagreen on the skins of many Sharks, and the prickly, tooth-like tubercles on the skin of Rays. It compreliends all the cartilaginous fishes of Cuvier, excepting the Sturgeon. The enamelled prickly tubercles on the skin of Sharks and Dog-Fisheg VOL. I. — 18 206 FOSSIL FISHES. Jt must be obvious that another and most important branch of natural history is enhsted in aid of Geology, as soon as the study of the character of fossil Fishes has been established on any footing, which admits of such general application as the system now proposed. We introduce an additional element into geological calculations ; we bring an engine of great power, hitherto unapplied, to bear on the field of our inquiry, and seem almost to add a new sense to our powers of geological perception. The general result is, that fossil Fishes approximate nearest to existing genera and species, in the most recent Tertiary deposits; and differ from them most widely in strata whose antiquity is the highest; and that strata of intermediate age are marked by intermediate changes of ichthyological condi- tion. are well known, from the use made of them in rasping and polishing wood, and for shagreen. Second Order, GANOIDJANS. (PI. 27, 3, 4. Etym. yxm, splendour, from the bright surface of their enamel.) The families of this Order are characterized by angular scales, composed of horny or bony plates, covered with a thick plate of enamel. The bony Pike (Lepidosteus Osseus, PI. 27% Fig. 1;) and Sturgeons are of this Order. It contains more than sixty ge- nera, of which fifty are extinct. Third Order, CTENOIDIANS. (PI. 27, Figs. 5, 6. Etym. xrsve, a comb.) The Ctenoidians have their scales jagged or pectinated, like the teetli of a comb, on their posterior margin. They are formed of laminae of horn or bone, but have no enamel. The Perch affords a familiar example of scales constructed on this principle. Fourth Order, CYCLOIDIANS. (PI. 27, Figs. 7, 8. Etym. kvkmu a circle.) Families of this Order have their scales smooth, and simple at their margin, and often ornamented with various figures on the upper surface : these scales are composed of laminae of horn or bone, but have no enamel. The Herring and Salmon are examples of Cycloidians. Each of these Orders contains both cartilaginous and bony Fishes : the representatives of each prevailed in diflferent proportions during different epochs; only the first two existed before the commencement of the Cretace- ous formations; the third and fourth Orders, which contain three-fourths of the eight thousand known species of living Fishes, appear for the first time in the Cretaceous strata, when all the preceding fossil genera of the first two Orders had become extinct. CHANGES OF GENERA, AND SPECIES. 207 It appears still farther, that all the great changes in the character of fossil Fishes take place simultaneously with the most important alterations in the other classes of fossil ani- mals, and in fossil vegetables; and also in the mineral con- dition of the strata.* It is satisfactory to find that these conclusions are in per- fect accordance with those to which geologists had arrived from other data. The details that lead to them, will be de- scribed by M. Agassiz, in a work of many volumes, and will form a continuation of the Ossemens Fossiles of Cuvier. From the parts of this work already pubhshed, and from communications by the author, I select a few examples illustrating the character of some of the most remarkable families of fossil Fishes. It appears that the character of fossil Fishes does not change insensibly from one formation to another, as in the case of many Zoophytes and Testacea ; nor do the sarpe genera, or even the same families, pervade successive series of great formations ; but their changes take place ahrwpily, at certain definite points in the vertical succession of the strata, like the sudden changes that occur in fossil Reptiles and Mammalia.f Not a single species of fossil Fishes has * The genera ofFislies wliich prevail in strata of the Carboniferous order are found no more after tlic deposition of tlie Zechstein, or Magr*sian lime- stone. Those of the Oolitic series were introduced after tlie Zcehstein, and ceased suddenly at the commencement of the Cretaceous formations. The genera of the Cretaceous formations are the first that approximate to exist- ing genera. Those of the lower Tertiary deposites of London, Paris, and Monte Bolca, are still more nearly allied to existing forms ; and the fossil Fishes of Oenirgen and Aix approximate again yet closer to living genera, although every one of their species appears to be extinct. t M. Agassiz observes that fossil Fishes in the same formation present greater variation of species at distant localities, than we find in the species of shells and Zoophytes, in corresponding parts of the same formation ; and that this circumstance is readily explained by the greater locomotive powers of this higher class of animals. 208 SAUROID FISHES. yet been found that is common to any two great geological formations ; or living in our present seas.* One important geological result has already attended the researches of M. Agassiz, viz. that the age and place of several formations hitherto unexplained by any other cha- racter, have been made clear by a knowledge of the fossil Fishes which they contain.f Sauroid Fishes in the Order Ganoid. The voracious family of Sauroid, or Lizard-like Fishes, first claims our attention, and is highly important in the physiological consideration of the history of Fishes, as it * The nodules of clay stone on the coast of Greenland, containina^ fishes of a species now living in the adjacent seas, (Mallotus Villosus) are probably modern concretions. f Thus the slate of Engl, in the canton of Claris, in Switzerland, has long been one of tiie most celebrated, and least understood localities of fossil Fishes in Europe, and the mineral character of this slate had till lately caused it to be referred to the early period of the Transition series, M. Agassiz has found that among its numerous fisiies, there is not one belonging to a single genus, that occurs in any formation older than the Cretaceous series ; but that many of them agree with fossil species found in Bohemia, in the lower Cretaceous formation, or Planer kalk ; hence he infers that the Claris slate is an altered condition of an argillaceous depositc, subordinate to the great Cretaceous formations of other parts of Europe, probably of the Gault. Another example of the value of Ichthyology, in illustration of Geology, occurs in the fact, that as the fossil Fishes of the VVealden estuary forma- tion are referable to genera that characterize the strata of the Oolitic series, the Wealden deposiles are hereby connected with the Oolitic period that preceded their commencement, and arc separated from the Cretaceous for- mations that followed their termination. A change in the condition of the higher orders of the inhabitants of the waters seems to have accompanied tlie changes that occurred in the genera and species of inferior animals at the commencement of the Cretaceous formations. A third example occurs, in the fact that M. Agassiz has, by resemblances in the character of their fossil Fishes, identified the hitiierto unknown pe- riods of the fresh-water deposites of Oeningen, and of Aix in Provence, with that of the Molasse of Switzerland. SAUROID FISHES. 209 combines in the structure both of the bones, and some of the soft parts, characters which are common to the class of reptiles. M. Agassiz has already ascertained seventeen genera of Sauroid Fishes. Their only living representa- tives are the genus Lepidosteus,* or bony Pike (PI. 27* Fig. 1.) and the genus Polypterus (Agass. Poiss. Foss. Vol. 2. Tab. C.) the former containing five species, and the latter two. Both these genera are found only in fresh-waters, the Lepidosteus in the rivers of North America, and the Polypterus in the Nile, and the waters of Senegal.f The teeth of the Sauroid Fishes are striated longitudi- nally towards the base, and have a hollow cone within. (See PI. 27% 2, 3, 4; and PI. 27. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13,14.) The bones of the palate also are furnished with a large appa- ratus of teeth .J PI. 27, Figs. 11, 12, 13, 14, represent teeth of the largest Sauroid Fishes yet discovered, equalling in size the teeth of the largest Crocodiles : they occur in the lower region of the coal formation near Edinburgh, and are referred by M. Agassiz to a new genus, Megalichthys. PI. 27, Fig. 9, and PI. 27% Fig. 4, are fragments of jaws, containing many * Lepidosteus Agassiz — Lepisosteus Lacepede. t The bones of the skull, in Sauroid Fishes, are united by closer sutures than those of common Fishes. The vertebriB articulate with the spinous processes by sutures, like the vertebrce of Saurians ; the ribs also articulate with the extremities of the transverse processes. The caudal vertebrae have distinct chevron bones, and the general condition of the skeleton is stronger and more solid than in other Fishes : the air-bladder also is bifid and cellu- lar, approacliing to the character of lungs, and in the throat there is a glot- tis, as in Sirens and Salamanders, and many Saurians, — See Report of Pro- ceedings of Zool. Soc. London, October, 1834. t The object of the extensive apparatus of teeth, over the Whole interior of the mouth of many of the most voracious Fishes, appears not to be for mas- tication, but to enable them to hold fast, and swallow the slippery bodies of •ther Fishes that form their prey. No one who has handled a living Troat or Eel can fail to appreciate duly the importance of the apparatus in que?,. Uon. 18* 210 GEOLOGICAL DISTRIBUTION smaller teeth of the same kind. The external form of all these teeth are nearly conical, and within them is a conical cavity, like that within the teeth of many Saurians ; their base is fluted, like the base of the teeth of the Ichthyosaurus. Their prodigious size shows the magnitude which Fishes of this family attained at a period so early as that of the Coal formation:* their structure coincides entirely with that of the teeth of the living Lepidosteus osseus. (PI. 27*, Figs. 1, 2, 3.) Smaller Sauroid Fishes only have been noticed in the * We owe the discovery of tiiese vsry curious teetli, and much valuable information on the Geology of the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, to the zeal and discernment of Dr. Hibbert, in the spring of 1834. The limestone in which these Fishes occur lies near the bottom of the Coal formation, and is loaded with Coprolites, derived apparently from predaceous Fishes. It is abundantly charged also with ferns, and other plants of the coal formation; and with the crustaceous remains of Cypris, a genus known only as an in- habitant of fresh-water. These circumstances, and the absence of Corals and Encrinites, and of all species of marine shells, render it probable that this deposite was formed in a fresh-water lake, or estuary. It has been recog- nised in various and distant places, at the bottom of the carboniferous strata near Edinburgh. In the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Vol. XIII. Dr. Hib- bert has published a most interesting description of the recent discoveries made in the limestone of Burdie House, illustrated with engravings, from which the larger teeth in our plate are copied. (Pi. 27, Fig. 11, 12, 13, 14.) The smaller figures, PI. 27, Fig, 9, and Pi. 27», Fig. 4, are drawn from spe- cimens belonging to Dr. Hibbert and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In this memoir, Dr. Hibbert has also published figures of some curious large scales, found at Burdie House, with the teeth of Megalichthys, and re- ferred by M. Agassiz to that Fish. Similar scales have been noticed in various parts of the Edinburgh Coal field, and also in the Coal formation of Newcastle-on-Tyne. Unique specimens of the heads of two similar Fishes, and part of a body covered with scales, from the Coal field near Leeds, are preserved in the museum of that tovyn. Sir Philip Grey Egerton has recently discovered scales of the Megalich- thys, with teeth and bones of some other Fishes, and also Coprolites, in the Coal formation of Silverdale, and Newcastle-undcf-Line. These occur in a stratum of shale, containing siiells of three species of Unio, with balls of irgillaceous iron ore and plants,^ OF SAUROID FISHES. 211 Magnesian limestone, forming about one-fifth of the total number yet observed in this formation. Very large bones of this voracious family occur in the lias of Whitby and Lyme Regis, and its genera abound throughout the Oohte formation.* In the Cretaceous formations they become extremely rare.f They have not yet been discovered in, any of the Tertiary strata; and in the waters of the pre- sent world are reduced to the two genera^ Lepidosteus and Polypterus. Thus we see that this family of Sauroids holds a very im- portant place in the history of fossil Fishes. In the waters of the Transition period, the Sauroids and Sharks constituted the chief voracious forms, destined to fulfil the important office of checking excessive increase of the inferior families. In the secondary strata,, this office was largely shared by Ichthyosauri and other marine Saurians, until the com- mencement of the Chalk.. The cessation of these Reptiles and of the semi-reptile Sauroid Fishes in the Tertiary for- mations made room for the introduction of other predaceous families, approaching more nearly to those of the present creation.^ * The Aspidorhynchus, from the Jurassic limestone of Solenhofen, (PI 27*, Fig. 5,) represents the general character of the Sauroid Fishes. t The Macropoma is the only genus of Sauroid Fishes yet found in tho Chalk of England. t Much light has been thrown on the history of Fishes in the Old red sandstone at the base of the Carboniferous series, by the discoveries of Pro- fessor Sedgwick and Mr. Murcliison, in tlie bituminous schist of Caithness, (Geol. Trans. Lond. n. s. Vol. 3, part 1. ;) and those of Dr. Traile, in the same schist in Orkney. Dr. Fleming also has made important observations on Fishes in the old red sandstone of Fifeshire. Farther discoveries have been made by Mr. Murchison of Fishes in the old red sandstone of Salop and Herefordshire, The general conditions of all these Fishes accord with those in the carboniferous series, but their specific details present most interesting peculiarities. Many of them will be figured by Mr. MurchisoR in his splendid Illustrations of the Geology of the Border Counties of Eng- land and Wales. 212 FOSSIL FISHES. Fishes in Strata of the Carboniferous Order. I select the genus Amblypterus (PI. 27^,) as an example of Fishes whose duration was limited to the early periods of geological Formations ; and which are marked by cha- racters that cease after the deposition of the Magnesian lime- stone. This genus occurs only in strata of the Carboniferous or- der, and presents four species at Saarbriick, in Lorraine ;* it is found also in Brazil. The character of the teeth in Amblypterus, and most of the genera of this early epoch, shows the habit of these Fishes to have been to feed on de- cayed sea-weed, and soft animal substances at the bottom of the water : they are all small and numerous, and set close together like a brush. The form of the body, being not cal- culated for rapid progression, accords with this habit. The vertebral column continues into the upper lobe of the tail, which is much longer than the lower lobe, and is thus adapted to sustain the body in an inclined position, with the head and mouth nearest to the bottom. Among existing cartilaginous Fishes, the vertebral column is prolonged into the upper lobe of the tail of Sturgeons and Sharks: the former of these perform the office of scavengers, to clear the water of impurities, and have no teeth, but feed by means of a soft leather-like mouth, capable of protrusion and * The Fishes at Saarbilck arc usually found in balls of clay ironstone, which form nodules in strata of bituminous coal shale. Lord Greenock lias recently discovered many interesting examples of this, and otlier genera of Fishes in the coal formation at N e\v haven, and Wardie, near Leitii. The shore at Ncwhaven is strewed with nodules of ironstone, washed out by the action of the tide, from slialc beds of the coal formation. Many of these ironstones have for their nucleus a fossil Amblypterus, or some other Fish ; and an infinitely greater number contain Coprolites, apparently de- rived from a voracious species of Pygopterus, that preyed upon the smaller Fifibes. FISHES m MAGNESIAN LIMESTONE. 213 contraction, on putrid vegetables and animal substances at the bottom ; hence they have constant occasion to keep their bodies in the same inclined position as the extinct fossil Fishes, whose feeble brush-like teeth show that they also fed on soft substances in similar situations.* The Sharks employ their tail in another peculiar manner, to turn their body in order to bring the mouth, which is placed downwards beneath the head, into contact with their prey. We find an important provision in every animal to give a position of ease and activity to the head during the operation of feeding.f Fishes of the Magnesian Limestone, or Zechstein. The Fishes of the Zechstein at Mansfeld and Eisleben have been long known, and are common in all collections ; figures of many species are given by M. Agassiz. Exam- ples of the Fishes of the Magnesian limestone of the north of England, are described and figured by Professor Sedg- wick, in the Geol. Trans, of London, (2d Series, Vol. iii. p. 117, and PI. 8, 9, 10.) He states in this paper (p. 99,) that the occurrence of certain Corals and Encrinites, and several species of Producta, Area, Terebratula, Spirifier, &c. shows that the Magnesian limestone is more nearly allied in its ♦ At the siege of Silistria, the Sturgeons of the Danube were observed to feed voraciously on the putrid bodies of the Turks and Russian soldiers that were cast into that river. •j- This remarkable elongation of the superior lobe of the tail is found in every bony Fish of strata anterior to and including the Magnesian lime- stone ; but in strata above this limestone the tail is usually regular and sym- metrical. In certain bony Fishes of tiie secondary period, the upper lobe of the tail is partly covered with scales, but without vertebrae. The bodies of all these Fishes also have an integument of rhomboidal body scales, covered! with enamel. No species of Fish has been found common to the Carboniferous group, and to the Zechstein or Magnesian limestone; but certain genera occur in both, e. g. the genus Palseoniscus and Polypterus. 214 MUSCHELKALK, LIAS, AND OOLITE. zoological characters to the Carboniferous order, than to the- calcareous formations which are superior to the New red sandstone. This conclusion accords with that which M- Agassiz has drawn from the character of its fossil Fishes. Fishes of the Muschelkalk, Lias, and Oolite Formations. The Fishes of the Muschelkalk are either peculiar to it. or similar to those of the Lias and Oolite. The figure en- graved at PI. 27% is selected as an example of the charac- ter of a family of Fishes most abundant in the Jurassic or Oolite formation ; it represents the genus Microdon in the family of Pycnodonts, or thick-toothed Fishes, which pre- vailed extensively during the middle ages of Geological His- tory. Of this extinct family there are five genera. Their leading character consists in a peculiar armature of all parts of the mouth with a pavement of thick round and flat teeth, the remains of which, under the name of Bufonites, occur most abundantly throughout the Oolite formation.* The use of this pecuUar apparatus was to crush small shells^ and small Crustacea, and to comminute putrescent sea- weeds. The habits of the family of Pycnodonts appear to have been omnivorous, and their power of progression slow.f Another family of these singular Fishes of the ancient world, which was exceedingly abundant in the Oolitic or Jurassic series, is that of the Lepidoids, a family still more * PI. 27c. Fig-. 3. represents a five-fold series of these teeth on the palate of Pycnodus trigonus from Stonesfield ; and Fig-. 2, a series of similar teeth placed on the vomer in the palate of the Gyrodus Umbilieus from the great Oolite of Durrhcim, in Baden. ■j- A similar apparatus occurs in a living family of the Order Cycloids, in the case of tiie modern omnivorous Sea Wolf, Anarrhicas Lupus, and other recent Fishes of different families. M. Agassiz observes, that it is a common fact, in the class of Fishes, to find nearly all the modifications which the teeth of these animals present, recurring in several families, which in other respects are very different. LEPIDOID FISHES. 215 remarkable than the Pycnodonts for their large rhomboidal bony scales, of great thickness, and covered with beautiful enamel. The Dapedium of the lias (PI. 1. Fig. 54.) affords an example of these scales, well known to geologists. They are usually furnished on their upper margin with a large process or hook, placed like the hook or peg near the upper margin of a tile ; this hook fits into a depression on the lower margin of the scales placed next above it. (See PI. 27, Figs. 3, 4, and PI. 15, Fig. 17.) All Ganoidian Fishes, of every formation, prior to the Chalk, were enclosed in a similar cuirass, composed of bony scales, covered with enamel, and extending from the head to the rays of the tail.* One or two species only, having this peculiar arma- ture of enamelled bony scales, have yet been discovered in the Cretaceous series ; and three or four species in the Ter- tiary formations. Among living Fishes, scales of this kind occur only in the two genera, Lepidosteus and Polypterus. Not a single genus of all that are found in the Oohtic se- ries exists at the present time. The most abundant Fishes of the Wealden formation belong to genera that prevailed through the Oolitic period. f ♦ The Pycnodonts, as well as the fossil Sauroids, have enamelled scales, but it is in the Leipidoids that scales of this kind are most highly developed. M. Agassiz'has ascertained nearly 200 fossil species that had this kind of armour. The use of such a universal covering of thick bony and enamelled scales surrounding like a cuirass the entire bodies of so many species of Fishes, in all formations anterior to the Cretaceous deposites, may have been to defend their bodies against waters that were warmer, or subject to more suddeu changes of temperature than could be endured by Fishes, whose skin was protected only by such thin, and often disconnected coverings, as the mem- branous and horny scales of most modern Fishes. -j- The most remarkable of these are the genus Lepidotus, Pholidophorus, Pycnodus, and Hybodus. 216 FOSSIL FISHES. Fishes of the Chalk Formation. The next and most remarkable of all changes in the cha» racter of Fishes, takes place at the commencement of the Cretaceous formations. Genera of the first and second or- ders (Placoidean and Ganoidean,) which had prevailed ex- clusively in all formations till the termination of the Oolitic series, ceased suddenly, and were replaced by genera of new orders (Ctenoidean and Cycloidean,) then for the first time introduced. Nearly two-thirds of the latter also are now extinct ; but these approach nearer to Fishes of the tertiary series, than to those which had preceded the forma- tion of the Chalk. Comparing the Fishes of the Chalk with those of the elder Tertiary formation of Monte Bolca, we find not one species, and but few genera, that are common to both.* Fishes of the Tertiary Formations. As soon as we enter on the Tertiary strata, another change * It has been already stated, that the remarkable deposite of fossil Fishes at Engi, in the Canton of Claris, are referred by M. Agassiz to the lower portion of the Cretaceous system. Many genera of these are identical with, and others closely approximate to, the fishes of the Inferior chalk (Plilner kalk) of Bohemia, and of the Chalk of Westphalia (secLeonhard and Bronn. Neues Jahrbuch, 1834.) Al- though the mineral character of the slate of Claris presents, as we have be- fore stated, an appearance of high antiquity, its age is probably the same as that of the Gault, or Speeton clay of England. This alteration of character is consistent with the changes that have given an air of higher antiquity than belongs to them, to most of the Secondary and Tertiary formations in the Alps. The Fishes of the Upper chalk arc best known by the numerous and splendid examples discovered at Lewes by Mr. Mantcll, and figured in his works. These Fishes are in an unexampled state of perfection; in the ab- dominal cavities of one species (Macropoma) the stomach, and coprolites are preserved entire, in their natural place. IN THE TERTIARY FORMATIONS. 217 takes place in the character of fossil Fishes, not less striking than that in fossil Shells. The fishes of Monte Bolca are of the Eocene period, and are well known by the figures engraved in the Ittiolitologia Veronese, of Volta ; and in Knorr. About one-half of these fishes belong to extinct genera, and not one is identical with any existing species ; they are all marine, and the greater number approach most nearly to forms now living witbiii the tropics.* To this first period of the Tertiary formations belong also the Fishes of the London clay ; many of the species found in Sheppy, though not identical with those of Monte Bolca, are closely allied to them. The Fishes of Libanus also are of this era. The Fishes in the gypsum of Mont IMartre are referred to the same period by M. Agassiz, who differs from Cuvier, in attributing them all to extinct genera. The Fishes of Oeningen have, by all writers, been re- ferred to a very recent local lacustrine deposite. M. Agas- siz assigns them to the second period of the Tertiary for- mations, coeval with the Molasse of Switzerland and the sandstone of Fontainbleau. Of seventeen extinct species, one only is of an extra-European genus, and all belong to existing genera. The gypsum of Aix contains some species referable to one of the extinct genera of Mont Martre, but the greatest part are of existing genera. M. Agassiz considers the age of this formation as nearly coinciding with that of the Oeningen deposites. The Fishes of the Crag of Norfolk, and the superior Sub-apenninc formation, as far as they arc yet known, * M. Agassiz has rc-arrangcd these Fishes under 127 Species, all ex- tinct, and 77 Genera. Of these Genera 38 are extinct, and 39 still living: the latter present 81 fossil species at Monte Bolca, and the former 4fi species. These 39 living Genera appear for the first time in this forma- tion. VOL. I. — 19 218 FOSSIL SHARKS. appear for the most part related to genera now common in tropical seas, but are all of extinct species. Family of Sharks. As the family of Sharks is one of the most universally diffused and most voracious among modern Fishes, so there is no period in geological history in which many of its forms did not prevail.* Geologists are famihar with the occurrence of various kinds of large, and beautifully ena- melled teeth, some of them resembling the external form of a contracted leech, (PL 27% and 27^:) these are com- monly described by the name of Palate bones, or Palates. As these teeth are usually insulated, there is little evidence to indicate from what animals they have been deriv^ed. In the same strata with them are found large bony Spines, armed on one side with prickles, resembling hooked teeth, (see PI. 27^ C. 3, a.) These were long considered to be jaws, and true teeth ; more recently they have been ascer- tained to be dorsal spines of Fishes, and from their sup- posed defensive office, like those of the genus Balistes and Silurus, have been named Ichthyodorulites. M. Agassiz has at length referred all these bodies to ex- tinct genera in the great family of Sharks, a family which he separates into three sub-families, each containing forms pecuUar to certain geological epochs, and which change simultaneously with the other great changes in fossil re- mains. The first and oldest sub-family, Cestracionts, beginning with the Transition strata, appears in eveiy subsequent for- mation, till the commencement of the Tertiary, and has only one living representative, viz. the Cestracion Phillippi, or Port Jackson Shark. (PI. 1. Fig. 18.) The second * M. Agassiz has ascertained the existence of more than one hundred and fifty extinct spccice of fossil Fishes allied to this family. THREE SUB-FAMILIES. 219 family, Hyhodonts, beginning with the Muschel-kalk, and perhaps with the Coal formation, prevails throughout the Oolite series, and ceases at the commencement of the Chalk. The third family of " Squaloids,^' or true Sharks, commences with the Cretaceous formation, and extends through the Tertiary strata into the actual creation.* * The character of tlie Cestracionts is marked by the presence of large polygonal obtuse enamelled teeth, covering the interior of the mouth witli a kind of tessellated pavement. (PI. 27'*. A. 1, 3, 4, and PI. 21\ B. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.) In some species not less than sixty of these teeth occupied each jaw. They are rarely found connected together in a fossil state, in consequence of the perishable nature of the cartilaginous bones to v/hich they were attached; hence the spines and teeth usually afford the only evidence of the former existence of these extinct fossil species. They are dispersed abundantly throughout all strata, from the Corboniferous scries to the most recent Chalk. In plate 27«, Figs, 1, 2, represent a scries of teeth of the genus Acrodus, in the family of Cestracionts, from the lias of Somersetshire ; and PI. 27^, a series of teeth of the genus Ptychodus, in the same family, a genus which occurs abundantly and exclusively in the Chalk formation. In the section PI. 1, Fig. 19 represents a tooth of Psammodus, and Fig. 19', a tooth of Orodus, from the Carboniferous limestone; and Fig. 18', a recent tooth of the Cestracion Phillippi. The Cestracion Phillippi, (PI. 1, Fig. 18, and PI. 27^, A.) is the only living species in the family of Sharks that has flat tessellated teeth, and enables us to refer numerous fossil teeth of similar construction to the same family. As the small anterior cutting teeth (PI. 27'*, A. Figs. ]. 2. 5.) in this species, present a character of true Sharks, which has not been found in any of the fossil Cestracionts, we have in this dentition of a living species, the only known link that connects the nearly extinct family of Cestracionts with the true Sharks or Squaloids. The second division of the family of Sharks, Hyhodonts, commencing pro- bably with the Coal formation, prevailed during the deposition of all the Secondary strata beneath the Chalk; the teeth of this division possess inter- mediate characters between the blunt polygonal crushing teeth of the sub- family Cestracion, and the smooth and sharp-edged cutting teeth of the Squaloids, or true Sharks, which commenced with the Cretaceous f jrmations. They are distinguished from those of true Sharks by being plicated, both on the external and internal surface of the enamel. (See Plate 27^. B. Figs. 8, 9, 10.) Plate 27*C. l''^ represents a rare example of a series of teeth of Hybodus reticulatus, still adhering to the cartilaginous jaw bones, from the Lias of Lyme Regis. Striated teeth of this family abound in the Stonesfield slate and in the Wealden formation. 220 BONY SPINES OF SHARKS. Fossil Spines, or Ichihyodorulites.* The bony spines of the dorsal fins of the Port Jackson Shark (PI. 1. Fig. 18.) throw important hght on the history of fossil Spines; and enable us to refer those very comnaon. but little understood fossils, which have been called Ichthyo- dorulites^ to extinct genera and species of the sub-family of Cestracionts. (See page 218.) Several living species of the great family of Sharks have smooth horny spines connected with the dorsal fin. In the Cestracion Phillippi alone, (PI. 1, Fig. 18,) we find a hony spine armed on it? concave side with tooth-like hooks, or prickles, similar to those that occur in fossil Ichthyodorulites : these hooks act as points of suspension and attachment, whereby the dorsal fin is connected with this bony spine, and its movements Another genus in the sub-family of Hybodoats, is the Onchus, found in the Lias at Lyme Regis; the teeth of this genus are represented, PI. 27'', 6. 6, 7. In the third, or Squaloid division of fossils of this family, we have the character of true Sharks ; these appear for the first time in the Cretaceous formations, and extend through all the Tertiary deposites to the present era. (PI. 27=^, B. 11, 12, 13.) In this division the surface of the teeth is always smooth on the outer side, and sometimes plicated on the inner side, as it Is also in certain living species; the teeth are often flat and lancet-shaped, with a sharp cutting border, which, in many species, is serrated with minute teeth. Species of this Squaloid family alone, abound in all strata of the Ter- tiary formation,. The greater strength, and flattened condition of the teeth of the families of Sharks (Cestracionts and Hybodonts,) that prevailed in the Transition and Secondary formations bencatli the Chalk, had relation, most probably, to their office of crushing tiie hard coverings of the Crustacea, and of the bony enamelled scales of the Fishes, which formed their food. As soon a« Fishes of the Cretaceous and Tertiary formations assumed the softer scales of modern Fishes, the teeth of the Squaloid sub-family assumed the sharp and cutting edges that ciiaracterize the teeth of living Sharks. Not one species of the hlunttoothcd Cestraciont family lias yet been discovered ia :iny Tertiary formation^ * See PI. 27". C. 3. FOSSIL RAYS. 221 regulated by the elevation or depression of the spine, during the peculiar rotatory action of the body of Sharks. This action of the spine in raising and depressing the fin resem- bles that of a moveable mast, raising and lowering back- wards the sail of a barge. The common Dog-Fish, or Spine Shark, (Spinax Acan- thias, Cuv.,) and the Centrina Vulgaris, ha.ve a horny ele- vator spine on each of their dorsal fins, but without teeth or hooks; similar small toothless horny spines have been found by Mr. Mantell in the chalk of Lewes. These dorsal spines had probably a farther use as oflfensive and defensive weapons against voracious fishes, or against larger and stronger in- dividuals of their own species.* The variety we find of fossil spines, from the Graywacke series to the Chalk inclusive, indicates the number of extinct genera and species of the family of Sharks, that occupied the waters throughout these early periods of time. Not less varied are the forms of palate bones and teeth, in the same formations that contain these spines; but as the cartilagi- nous skeletons to which they belonged have usually perished, and the teeth and spines are generally dispersed, it is chiefly by the aid of anatomical analogies, or from occasional jux- taposition in the same stratum, that their respective species can be ascertained. Fossil 'Rays. The Rays form the fourth family in the order Placoi- * Colonel Smith saw a captain of a vessel in Jamaica who received many severe cuts in the body from the spines of a Shark in Montego Bay. (See Griffith's Cuvier.) The Spines of Balistes and Silurus have not their base, like that of the spines of Sharks, simply imbedded in the flesh, and attached to strong mns- cles; but articulate with a bone beneath them. The Spine of Balistes also is kept erect by a second spine behind its base, acting like a bolt or wedge, which is simultaneously inserted, or withdrawn, by tiie same muscular ma- lion that raises or depresses the spine. 19* 222 GENERAL CONCLUSION. dians. Genera of this family abound among living fishes; but they have not been found fossil in any stratum older than the Lias ; they occur also in the Jurassic limestone. Throughout the tertiary formation they are very abun- dant ; of one genus, Myliobates, there are seven known spe- cies ; from these have been derived the palates that are so frequent in the London clay and crag. (See PI. 21^, B. Fig. 14.) The genus Trygon, and Torpedo, occur also in the Tertiary formations. Conclusion. In the facts before us, we have an uninterrupted series of evidence, derived from the family of Fishes, by which both bony and cartilaginous forms of this family, are shown to have prevailed, during every period, from the first com- mencement of submarine life, unto the present hour. The similiarity of the teeth, and scales, and bones, of the earliest Sauroid Fishes of the coal formation (Megalichthys,) to those of the living Lepidosteus, and the correspondence of tlie teeth and bony spines of the only living Cestraciont in the family of Sharks, with the numerous extinct forms of that sub-family, which abound throughout the Carboniferous and Secondary formations, connect extreme points of this grand vertebrated division of the animal kingdom, by one unbroken chain, more uniform and continuous than has hitherto been discovered in the entire range of geological researches. It results from the review here taken of the history of fossil Fishes, that this important class of vertebrated animals presented its actual gradations of structure amongst the earliest inhabitants of our planet ; and has ever performed the same important functions in the general economy of nature, as those discharged by their living representatives in our modern seas, and lakes, and rivers. The great pur- pose of their existence seems at all times to have been, to COMMON OBJECT OF CREATION- 223 fill the waters with the largest possible amount of animal enjoyment. The sterility and solitude which have sometimes been attributed to the depths of the ocean, exist only in the fic- tions of poetic fancy. The great mass of the water that covers nearly three-fourths of the globe is crowded with life, perhaps more abundantly than the air and the surface of the earth ; and the bottom of the sea, within a certain depth, accessible to light, swarms with countless hosts of worms, and creeping things, which represent the kindred families of low degree which crawl upon the land. The common object of creation seems ever to have been, the infinite multiplication of life. As the basis of animal nutrition is laid in the vegetable kingdom, the bed of the ocean is not less beautifully clothed with submarine vegeta- tion, than the surface of the dry land with verdant herbs and stately forests. In both cases, the undue increase of herbi- vorous tribes is controlled by the restraining influence of those which are carnivorous ; and the common result is, and ever has been, the greatest possible amount of animal enjoyment to the greatest number of individuals. From no kingdom of nature does the doctrine of gradual Developement and Transmutation of species derive less support, than from the progression we have been tracing in the class of Fishes. The Sauroid Fishes occupy a higher place in the scale of organization, than the ordinary forms of bony Fishes ; yet we find examples of Sauroid s of the greatest magnitude, and in abundant numbers in the Carbo- niferous and Secondary formations, whilst they almost dis- appear and are replaced by less perfect forms in the Ter- tiary strata, and present only two genera among existing Fishes. In this, as in many other cases, a kind of retrograde de- velopement, from complex to simple forms, may be said to have taken place. As some of the more early Fishes united in a single species, points of organization which, at a 224 FOSSIL SHELLS. later period, are found distinct in separate families, these changes would seem to indicate in the class of Fishes, a process of Division and of Subtraction from more perfect, rather than of Addition to less perfect forms. Among living Fishes, many parts in the organization of the Cartilaginous tribes, (e. g. the brain, the pancreas, and organs subservient to generation,) are of a higher order than the corresponding parts in the Bony tribes ; yet we find the cartilaginous family of Squaloids co-existing with bony fishes in the Transition strata, and extending with them through all geological formations, unto the present time. In no kingdom of nature, therefore, does it seem less pos- sible to explain the successive changes of organization, dis- closed by geology, without the direct interposition of re- peated acts of Creation.. CHAPTER XV. Proofs of Design in the Fossil Remains of Mollusks.* SECTION I. FOSSIL UNIVALVE AND BIVALVE SHELLS. We are much limited in our means of obtaining informa- tion as to the anatomical structure of those numerous tribes of extinct animals which are comprehended under Cuvier's great division of Mollusks. Their soft and perishable bodies have almost wholly disappeared, and their external. * See note, p. 56. MOLLUSKS AND CONCHIFERS. 225 shells, and, in a few cases, an internal apparatus of the nature of shell, form the only evidence of the former exist- ence of the myriads of these creatures that occupied the ancient waters. The enduring nature of the calcareous coverings which these animals had the power of secreting, has placed our knowledge of Fossil Shells almost on a footing with that of recent Conchology. But the plan of our present inquiry forbids us here to take more than a general review of the history and economy of the creatures by which they were constructed. We find many and various forms, both of Univalve and Bivalve shells, mixed with numerous remains of Articulated and radiated animals, in the most ancient strata of the Transition period that contain any traces of organic life. Many of these shells agree so closely with existing species, that we may infer their functions to have been the same; and that they were inhabited by animals of form and habits similar to those which fabricate the living shells most nearly resembling them.* All Turbinated and simple shells are constructed by Mol- lusks of a higher Order than the Conchifers, which construct Bivalves ; the former have heads and eyes ; the Conchifers, or constructors of bivalves, are without either of these im- portant parts, and possess but a low degree of any other sense than touch, and taste. Thus the Mollusk, which oc- cupies a Whelk, or a Limpet shell, is an animal of a higher Order than the Conchifer enclosed between the two valves of a Muscle or an Oyster-shell. Lamarck has divided his Order of Trachelipodsf into two * See Mr. Broderip's Introduction to his Paper on some new species of Brachiopoda, Zool. Trans., vol, I., p. 141. t This name is derived from the position of the foot, or locomotive apparatus, on the lower surface of the neck, or of the anterior part of the. body. By means of this organ Trachelipods crawl like the common gar- den snail (Helix aspersa.) This Helix offers also a familiar example of 226 TWO DIVISIONS OF TRACHELIPODS. great sections, viz. herbivorous and carnivorous ; the carni- vorous are also divisible into two families of different office,, the one attacking and destroying living bodies, the other eating dead bodies that have perished in the course of na- ture, or from accidental causes ; after the manner of those species of predaceous beasts and birds, e. g. the Hya3nas and Vultures, which, by preference, live on carrion. The same principle of economy in nature, which causes the dead car- casses of the hosts of terrestrial herbivorous animals to be accelerated in their decomposition, by forming the food of numerous carnivora, appears also to have been apphed to the submarine inhabitants of the most ancient, as well as of the existing seas; thus converting the death of one tribe into the nutriment and support of hfe in others. ft is stated by Mr. Dillvvyn, in a paper read before the Royal Society, June 1823, that Pliny has remarked that the animal which was supposed to yield the Tyrean die, obtained its food by boring into other shells by means of an elon- gated tongue ; and Lamarck says, that all those Mollusks whose shells have a notch or canal at the base of their aper- ture, are furnished with a similar power of boring, by means of a retractile proboscis.* In his arrangement of inverte- the manner in which they have the principal viscera packed v^ithin the spiral shell. * The proboscis, by means of which these animals are enabled to drill holes through shells, is armed with a number of minute teeth, set like the teeth of a file, upon a retractile membrane, which the animal is en- abled to fix in a position adapted for boring or filing a hole from without, through the substance of shells, and tlirough this hole to extract and feed upon the juices of the body witliin them. A familiar example of this or- gan may be seen in the retractile proboscis of Buccinum Lapillus, and Buccinum Undatum, the common whelks of our own shores. A valuable Paper on this subject has recently been published by Mr. Osier (Phil. Trans., 1832, Part 2, P. 497,) in which he gives an engraved figure of the tongue of the Buccinum Undatum, covered with its rasp, whereby it perforates the shells of animals destined to become its prey. Mr. Osier modifies the rule or the distinction between the shells of carnivora and hcrbivora, by showing that, although it is true that all heaked shells in- TURBINATED UNIVALVES. 227 l)rate animals, they form a section of the TracheUpods, which he calls carnivorous. (Zoophages.) In the other section of TracheUpods, which he calls herbivorous (Phytiphages) the aperture of the shell is entire, and the animals have jaws formed for feeding on vegetables. Mr. Diilwyn farther asserts, that every fossil Turbinated Univalve of the older beds, from the Transition lime to the Lias, belongs to the herbivorous genera ; and that the herbi- vorous class extends through eveiy stratum in the entire se- ries of geological formations, and still retains its place among the inhabitants of our existing seas. On the other hand, the shells of marine carnivorous Univalves are very abundant in the Tertiary strata above the Chalk, but are extremely rare in the Secondary strata, from the Chalk downwards to the Inferior oolite ; beneath which no trace of them has yet been found. Most collectors have seen upon the sea shore numbers of dead shells, in which small circular holes have been bored by the predaceous tribes, for the purpose of feeding upon the bodies of the animals contained within them ; similar holes occur in many fossil shells of the Tertiary strata, wherein the shells of carnivorous Trachelipods also abound; but perforations of this kind are extremely rare in the fossil shells of any older formation. In the Green-sand and Oolite, they have been noticed only in those few cases where they are accompanied by the shells of equally rare carnivorous MoUusks ; and in the Lias, and strata below it, there are neither perforations, nor any shells having the notched mouth peculiar to perforating carnivorous species. It should seem, from these facts, that in the economy of submarine life, the great family of carnivorous Trachelipods, performed the same necessary office during the Tertiary period, which is alotted to them in the present ocean. We dicate their molluscous inhabitant to have been carnivorous, an entire aper- ture does not always indicate a herbivorous character. 228 TESTACEOUS CEPHALOPODS. have farther evidence to show^, that in times anterior to, and during the deposition of the Chalk, the same important func- tions v^^ere consigned to other carnivorous Mollusks, viz. the Testaceous Cephalopods ;* these are of comparatively rare occurrence in the Tertiary strata, and in our modern seas ; but, throughout the Secondary and Transition formations, where carnivorous Trachelipods are either w^holly wanting, or extremely scarce, we find abundant remains of carnivo- rous Cephalopods, consisting of the chambered shells of Nau- tili and Ammonites, and many kindred extinct genera of polythalamous shells of extraordinary beauty. The Mollus- cous inhabitants of all these chambered shells, probably pos- sessed the voracious habits of the modern Cuttle Fish, and by feeding like them upon young Testacea and Crustacea, restricted the excessive increase of animal life at the bottom of the more ancient seas. Their sudden and nearly total disappearance at the commencement of the Tertiary era, would have caused a blank in the " police of nature," allow- ing the herbivorous tribes to increase to an excess, that would ultimately have been destructive of marine vegeta- tion, as well as of themselves, had they not been replaced by a different order of carnivorous creatures, destined to perform in another manner, the office which the inhabitants of Ammonites and various extinct genera of chambered shells then ceased to discharge. From that time onwards, we have evidence of the abundance of carnivorous Trache- lipodes, and we see good reason to adopt the conclusion of Mr. Dillwyn, that " in the formations above the Chalk, the vast and sudden decrease of one predaceous tribe has been provided for by the creation of many new genera, and species, possessed of similar appetencies, and yet formed for obtaining their prey by habits entirely difterent from those of the Cephalopods. "f * See explanation of the term Cephalopod, in note at p. 230. t Mr. Dillwyn observes farther, that all the herbivorous marine Cepha- SPECIFIC GRAVITY OF SHELLS. 229 The design of the Creator seems at all times to have been, to fill the waters of the seas, and cover the surface of the earth with the greatest possible amount of organized beings enjoying life; and the same expedient of adapting the vege- table kingdom to become the basis of the life of animals, and of multiplying largely the amount of animal existence by the addition of Carnivora to the Herbivora, appears to have prevailed from the first commencement of organic life unto the present hour. Mr. De la Beche has recently published a list of the spe- cific gravities of living shells of different genera, from which he shows that their weight and strength are varied in ac- commodation to the habits and habitation of the animals by which they are respectively constructed; and points out evidence of design, such as we discover, in all carefully conducted investigations of the works of nature, whether among the existing or extinct forms of the animal creation.* lopods of the Transition and Secondary strata were furnished with an oper- culum, as if to protect them against the carnivorous Cephalopods which then prevailed abundantly; but that in the Tertiary formations, numerous herbivorous genera appear, which are not furnished with opercula, as if no longer requiring the protection of such a shield, aftei- the extinction of the Ammonites and of many cognate genera of carnivorous Trachelipods, at the termination of the Secondary period, i. e. after the deposition of the Chalk formation. * "It can scarcely escape the observation of the reader, that, vvlille the specific gravities of the land shells enumerated are generally greatest, the densities of the Jloating marine shells are mucli the smallest. l"he design of the difference is obvious: The land shells have to contend with all changes of climate, and to resist the action of the atmosphere, while, at the same time, they are thin for tlie purpose of easy transport, their density is therefore greatest. The Argonaut, Nautilus, and creatures of the like habits require as light shells as may be consistent with the requisite strengtii; the relative specific gravity of such shells is consequently small. The greatest observed density was that of a Helix, the smallest, that of an Argo- naut. The shell of the lanthlna, a floating Molluscous creature, is among the smallest densities. The specific gravity of all the land shells examined was greater than that of Carara marble; in general more approaching to Ar- ragonite. The fresh-water and marine shells, with the exception of the VOL, I. — 20 230 NAKED MOLLUSKS. SECTION II. FOSSJL REMAINS OF NAKED MOLLUSKS, PENS, AND INK-BAGS OF LOLIGO. It is well known that the common Cuttle Fish, and other living species of Cephalopods,* which have no external shell, are protected from their enemies by a peculiar internal provision, consisting of a bladder-shaped sac, containing a black and viscid ink, the ejection of which defends them, by rendering opaque the water in which they thus become con- cealed. The most familiar examples of this contrivance are found in the Sepia vulgaris, and Loligo of our own seas. (See PL 28, Fig. 1.) It was hardly to be expected that we should find, amid the petrified remains of animals of the ancient world, (re- mains which have been buried for countless centuries in the deep foundations of the earth,) traces of so delicate a fluid as the ink which was contained within the bodies of extinct species of Cephalopods, that perished at periods so incalcu- lably remote ; yet the preservation of this substance is esta- Argonaiit, Nautilus, lanthina, Lithodomus, Haliotis, and great radiated crys- talline Teredo from the East Indies, exceeded Carara marble in density. This marble and the Haliotis are of equal specific gravities." — De la Beche's Geological Researches, 1834, p. 76. * The figure of the common Calmar, or Squid (Loligo Vulgaris Lam. — Sepia loligo of Linnjeus,) see PI. 28, Fig. 1, illustrates the origin of the term Cephalopod, a term applied to a large family of molluscous animals, from the fiict of their feet being placed around tlieir heads. The feet are lined internally with ranges of horny cups, or suckers, by which the animal seizes on its prey, and adheres to extraneous bodies. Tiie mouth, in form and substance resembles a Parrot's beak, and is surrounded by the feet. By means of these feet jmd suckers the Sepia octopus, or common Pouipe (the Polypus of the ancients,) crawls with its head downwards, along the bottom of the sea. FOSSIL INK-BAGS. 231 blished beyond the possibility of doubt, by the recent disco- very of numerous specimens in the Lias of Lyme Regis,* in which the ink-bags are preserved in a fossil state, still dis- tended, as when they formed parts of the organization of living bodies, and retaining the same juxta-position to an internal rudimentary shell resembling a horny pen, which the ink-bag of the existing Loligo bears to the pen within the body of that animal. (PI. 28, Fig. 1.) Having before us the fact of the preservation of this fossil ink, we find a ready explanation of it, in the indestructible nature of the carbon of which it was chiefly composed. Cuvier describes the ink of the recent Cuttle Fish, as being a dense fluid of the consistence of pap, " bouillie," suspended in the cells of a thin net-work that pervades the interior of the ink-bag ; it very much resembles common printers' ink. A substance of this nature would readily be transferred to a fossil state, without much diminution of its bulk.f PI. 28, Fig. 5, represents an ink-bag of a recent Cuttle Fish, in which the ink is preserved in a desiccated state, being not much diminished from its original volume. Its form is similar to that of many fossil ink-bags (PI. 29, Figs. 3 — 10,) and the indurated ink within it differs only from the * We owe this discovery to the industry and skill of Miss Mary Anning-, to whom the scientific world is largely indebted, for having brought to light so many interesting remains of fossil Reptiles from the Lias at Lyme Regis. t So completely are the character and qualities of the ink retained in its fossil state, that when, in 1826, I submitted a portion of it to my friend Sir Francis Chantrcy, requesting him to try its power as a pigment, and he had prepared a drawing with a triturated portion of this fossil substance; the drawing was shown to a celebrated painter, without any information as to its origin, and he immediately pronounced it to be tinted with sepia of excel- lent quality, and begged to be informed by what colourman it was prepared. The common sepia used in drawing is from the ink-bag of an oriental species of cuttle-fish. The ink of the cuttle-fishes, in its natural state, is said to be soluble only in water, through which it diflTuses itself instanta. neously ; being thus remarkably adapted to its peculiar service in the only fluid wherein it is naturally employed. 232 FOSSIL PENS. fossil ink, inasmuch as the latter is impregnated with car- bonate of lime. In a communication to the Geological Society, February 1829, I announced that these fossil ink-bags had been dis- covered in the Lias at Lyme Regis, in connexion with horny bodies, resembling the pen of a recent Loligo. These fossil pens are without any trace of nacre, and are composed of a thin, laminated, semi-transparent substance, resembUng horn. Their state of preservation is such as to admit of a minute comparison of their internal structure with that of the pen of the recent Lohgo ; and leads to the same result which we have collected from the examination of so many other examples of fossil organic remains; namely, that although fossil species usually differ from their living representatives, still the same principles of construc- tion have prevailed through every cognate genus, and often also through the entire families under which these genera are comprehended. The petrified remains of fossil Loligo, therefore, add another hnk to the chain of argument which we are pursuing, and aid us in connecting successive systems of creation which have followed each other upon our Planet, as parts of one grand and uniform Design. Thus the union of a bag of ink with an organ resembling a pen in the recent Loligo, is a peculiar and striking association of contrivances, afford- ing compensation for the deficiency of an external shell, to an animal much exposed to destruction from its fellow- tenants of the deep ; we find a similar association of the same organs in the petrified remains of extinct species of the same family, that are preserved in the ancient marl and limestone strata of the Lias. Cuvier drew his figures of the recent Sepia with ink extracted from its own body. I have drawings of the remains of extinct species prepared also with their own ink : with this fossil ink I might record the fact, and explain the causes of its wonderful preservation. I might register the proofs of instantaneous death detected SUDDEN INTERMENT OF FOSSIL LOLIGO. 233 in these ink-bags, for they contain the fluid which the living sepia emits in the moment of alarm ; and might detail farther evidence of their immediate burial, in the retention of the forms of these distended membranes (PI. 29, Figs. 3 — 10 ;) since they w^ould speedily have decayed, and have spilt their ink, had they been exposed but a few hours to de- composition in the water. The animals must therefore have died suddenly, and been quickly buried in the sediment that formed the strata, in which their petrified ink and ink-bags are thus preserved. The preservation also of so fragile a substance as the pen of a Loligo, retaining traces even of its minutest fibres of growth, is not much less remarkable than the fossil condition of the ink-bags, and leads to similar conclusions.* We learn from a recent German publication (Zeiten's Versteinerungen Wiirttembergs. Stuttgart, 1832, PI. 25 and PL 37,) that similar remains of pens and ink-bags are of frequent occurrence in the Lias shale of x\alen and Boll.f * V^c have elsewhere applied this line of argument to prove the sudden destruction and burial of the Saurians, whose skeletons we find entire in the same Lias that contains the pens and ink-bags of Loligo. On the other liand, wc have proofs of intervals between the depositions of the component strata of the Lids, in tlio fact, that many beds of this formation have become the repository of CoproHtes, dispersed singly and irregularly at intervals far distant from one another, and at a distance from any entire skeletons, of the Saurians, from which tiiey were derived ; and in the farther fact, that those surfaces only of the Coprolites, which lay vppcrmost at the [bottom of the sea, have often suffered partial destruction from the action of water before they were covered and protected by tlie muddy sediment that has afterwards permanently enveloped them. Farther proof of the duration of time, during t!:c intervals of the deposition of tlie Lias, is found in the innumerable multitudes of the shells of various Mollusks and Conchifers which had time to arrive at maturity, at the bottom of the sea, during the quiescent periods which intervened between the muddy invasions that destroyed, and buried suddenly the creatures inhabiting the waters, at the time and place of their arrival. t As far as we can judge from the delineations and lines of the struc- ture in Zeiten'd plate, our species from Lyme Regis is the same \vi:h 20* 234 STRUCTURE OF FOSSIL PENS. Hence it is clear that the same causes which produced these effects during the deposition of the Lias at Lyme Regis, produced similar and nearly contemporaneous effects, in that part of Germany which presents such identity in the character and circumstances of these delicate organic re- mains.* Paley has beautifully, and with his usual felicity, de- that which he has designated by the name of Loligo Aalencis ; but I have yet seen no structure in English specimens like that of his Loligo Bol- lensis. * Although the resemblance between the pens of the Loligo and a fea- ther (as might be expected from the very different uses to which they are applied) does not extend to their internal structure, we may still, for con- venience of description, consider them as composed of the three follow- jng parts, which, in all our figures, will be designated by the same letters, A. B. C. First, the external filaments of the plume, (PI. 28, 29, 30, A.) analogous to those of a common feather. These filaments terminate in- wards on a straight line, or base, where they usually form an acute angle with the outer edges of the marginal bands. Secondly, two marginal bands, B. B., dividing the base of tiic filam.ents from the body of the shaft' the surface of these bands, B., usually exhibits angular lines of growth in the smaller fossil pens (PI. 28, Fig. 6, and Fl. 29, Fig. 2,) which become obtuse and vanish into broad cur.ves, in larger specimens, PI. 29, Fig. I, and PI. 30. Thirdly, the broad shaft, which forms the middle of the pen, is divided longitudinally into two equal parts by a straight line, or axis C. : it is made up of a number of thin plates, of a horn-like substance, laid on each other, like thin slieets of paper in pasteboard ; these thin plates are composed alternately, of longitudinal, and transverse fibres . the former (Pi. 28, Fig. 7. f. f.) straight, and nearly parallel to the axis of the shaft, the latter (P!. 28, Fig. 7, e. e.) crossing the shaft trans- versely in a succession of synmielrical and undulating curves. These transverse fibres do not interlace the others, as the woof interlaces the weaver's warp, but are simply laid over, and adhering to them, as in the alternate laminae of paper made from slices of papyrus ; the strength of such paper much exceeds that made from flax or cotton, in which tiic fibres are disposed irregularly in all directions. The fibres of both kinds are also collected at intervals into fluted fisciculi, PI. 30, f, and c, form- ing a succession of grooves and ridges fitted one into another, whereby the entire surface of each plate is locked into the surface of the adja- cent plate, in a manner admirably calculated to combine elasticity with strength. PROOFS OF DESIGN. 235 scribed the Unity and Universality of Providential care, as extending from the construction of a ring of two hundred thousand miles diameter, to surround the body of Saturn, and be suspended, like a magnificent arch, above the heads of his inhabitants, to the concerting and providing an ap- propriate mechanism for the clasping and reclasping of the filaments in the feather of the Humming-bird. The geologist descries a no less striking assemblage of curious provisions, and delicate mechanisms, extending from the entire circumference of the crust of our planet, to the mi- nutest curl of the smallest fibre in each component lamina of the pen of the fossil Loligo. He finds these pens uni- formly associated with the same pecuhar defensive provi- sion of an internal ink-b^ig,. which is similarly associated with the pen of the living Loligo in our actual seas ; and hence he concludes, that such a union of contrivances, so nicely adjusted to the wants and weaknesses of the crea- tures in which they occur, could never have resulted from the bUndness of chance, but could only have originated in the will and intention of the Creator. SECTION III. Proofs of Design in the Mechanism of Fossil Chambered Shells. NAUTILUS. I SHALL select from the family of Multilocular, or Cham- bered shells, the few examples which I shall introduce from mineral conchology, with a view of illustrating certain points that have relation to the object of the present- Treatise. I select these, first, because they afford proofs of me- 236 TROOFS OP DESIGN. chanical contrivances, more obviously adapted to a definite purpose, than can be found in shells of simpler character. Secondly, because the use of many of their parts can be explained, by reference to the economy and organization of the existing animals, most nearly allied to the extinct fossil genera and species with which we are concerned. And, thirdly, because many of these chambered shells can be shown, not merely to have performed the office of ordinary shells, as a defence for the body of their inhabitants ; but also to have been hydraulic instruments of nice operation, and delicate adjustment, constructed to act in subordination- to those universal and unchanging Laws, which appear to have ever regulated the movement of fluids. The history of Chambered shells illustrates also some of those phenomena of fossil conchology, which relate to the Hmitation of species to particular geological Formations;* and affords striking proofs of the curious fact, that many genera, and even whole families, have been called into ex- istence, and again totally annihilated, at various and suc- cessive periods, during the progress of the construction of the crust of our globe. The history of Chambered Shells tends farther to throw light upon a point of importance in physiology, and shows- that it is not always by a regular gradation from lower to hiofher degrees of organization, that the progress of life has advanced, during the early epochs of which geology takes cognizance. We find that many of tlie more simple forms have m.aintained their primeval simplicity through all the varied changes the surface of the earth has under- gone : whilst, in other cases, organizations of a higher order preceded many of the lower forms of animal life; some of * Thus, the Nautilus multicarinatus is limited to strata of tlie Transition formation ; the N. bidorsatus to the Musclielkalk ; N. obesus, and N. linea- tus, to the Oolite Formation ; N. elcgans, and N. undulatus, to the Chalk.. The divisions of the Tertiary formations have also species of Nautili pccu» liar to themselves. FOSSIL SHELLS ILLUSTRATED BY RECENT 237 the latter appearing, for the first time, after the total anni- hilation of many species and genera of a more complex character.* The prodigious number, variety, and beauty, of extinct Chambered shells, which prevail throughout the Transition and Secondary strata, render it imperative that we should seek for evidence in living nature, of the character and habits of the creatures by which they were formed, and of the office they held in the ancient economy of the animal world. Such evidence we may expect to find in those inhabitants of the present sea, whose shells most nearly resemble the ex- tinct fossils under consideration, namely, in the existing Nau- tilus Pompilius, (See PI. 31, Fig. 1,) and Spirula, (PI. 44. Figs. 1, 2.t) * The multiplication, in the Tertiary periods, of a class of animals of lower organization, viz. the carnivorous Tracheiipods, (See Chap. XV. Section 1,) to fill the place which, during the Secondary periods, had been occupied by a higher order, namely, the carnivorous Cephalopods, affords an example of Retrocession which seems fatal to that doctrine of regular Progression, which is most insisted on by those who are unwilling to admit the repeated interferences of Creative power, in adjusting the successive changes that animal life has undergone. It will appear, on examination of the shells of fossil Nautili, that they have retained through strata of all ages, their aboriginal simplicity of structure, a structure which remains fundamentally the same ia the Nautilus Pompilius of our existing seas, as it was in the earliest fossil species that we find in the Transition strata. Mean time the cognate family of Ammonites, whose shells were more elaborately constructed than those of ^Nautili, commenced their existence at the same early period with them in the Transition strata, and became extinct at the termination of the Secondary formations. Other examples of later creations of genera and species, followed by their periodi. cal and total extinction, before, or at the same time with the cessation of the Ammonites, are afforded by those cognate Multilocular shells, namely, the Hamite, Turrilitc, Scaphite, Baculite, and Belemnite, respecting each of which I shall presently notice a few particulars. t I omit to mention the mope familiar shell of the Argonaula or Paper Nautilus, because, not being a chambered species, it does not apply so directly to my present sabject; and also, because doubts still exist whe- 238 EXTENT OF THE GENUS NAUTILUS. I must enter at some length into the natural history of these shells, because the conclusions to which I have been led, by a long and careful investigation of fossil species, are at variance with those of Cuvier and Lamarck, as to the fact of Ammonites being external shells, and also with the prevailing opinions as to the action of the siphon and air chambers, both in Ammonites and Nautili. Mechanical Contrivances in the JVautilus. The Nautilus not only exists at present in our tropical seas, but is one of those genera which occur in a fossil state in formations of every age ; and the molluscous inhabitants of these shells, having been among the earliest occupants of the ancient deep, have maintained their place through all the changes that the tenants of the ocean have undergone. The recent publication of Mr. R. Owen's excellent Me- moir on the Pearly Nautilus, (Nautilus PompiUus Lin.) 1832, affords the first scientific description ever given of the ani- mal by which this long-known shell is constructed.* This Memoir is therefore of high importance, in its relation to ther the Sepia found within this shell be really the constructor of it, or a parasitic intruder into a shell formed by some other animal not yet discovered. Mr. Broderip, Mr. Gray, and Mr. G. Sowerby, are of opinion, that this shell is constructed by an animal allied to Carinaria. * It is a curious fact, that although the shells of the Nautilus have been familiar to naturalists, from the days of Aristotle, and abound in every col- lection, the only authentic account of the animals inhabiting them, is that by Rumphius, in his history of Amboyna, accompanied by an engraving, which though tolerably correct, as far as it goes, is yet so deficient in detail that it is impossible to learn any thing' from it respecting the internal organ- ization of the animal. I rejoice in the present opportunity of bearing testimony to the value of Mr. Owen's higiily philosophical and most admirable memoir upon tiiis sub- ject; a work not less creditable to the author, than honourable to the Royal College of Surgeons, under v.'hose auspices this publication has been sa handsomely conducted. NAUTILUS POMPILIUS. 239 geology; for it enables us to assert, with a confidence we could not otherwise have assumed, that the animals by which all fossil Nautili were constructed, belonged to the existing family of Cephalopodous Mollusks, allied to the common Cuttle Fish. It leads us farther to infer, that the infinitely more numerous species of the family of Ammonites, and other cognate genera of Multilocular shells, were also con- structed by animals, in whose economy they held an office analogous to that of the existing shell of the Nautilus Pompi- lius. We therefore entirely concur with Mr, Owen, that not only is the acquisition of this species peculiarly accepta- ble, from its relation to the Cephalopods of the present crea- tion; but that it is, at the same time, the living type of a vast tribe of organized beings, whose fossihzed remains testify their existence at a remote period, and in another order of things.* By the help of this living example, we are prepared to investigate the question of the uses, to which all fossil Cham- bered shells may have been subservient, and to show the existence of design and order in the mechanism, whereby they were appropriated to a peculiar and important function, in * A farther important light is thrown upon those species of fossil Multi- locular shells, e. g. Orthoceratites, Baculites, Hamites, Scaphites, Belem- nites, &c. (See PI. 44,) in which the last, or external chamber, seems to have been too small to contain the entire body of the animals that formed llieni, by Peron's discovery of the well-known chambered shell, the Spirula, partially enclosed within the posterior extremity of the body of a Sepia (PI. 44, Fig's. 1, 2.1 Although some doubts have existed respecting the authen- ticity of this specimen, in consequence of a discrepance between two draw- ings professedly taken from it (the one published in the Encyclopedia Methodique, the other in Peron's Voyage,) and from the loss of the speci- men itself before any anatomical examination of it had been made, the sub- sequent discovery by Captain King of the same shell, attached to a portion of the mutilated body of some undescribed Cephalopod allied to the Sepia, leaves little doubt of the fact that the Spirula was an internal shell, having its dorsal margin only exposed, after the manner represented in both the drawings from the specimen of Peron. (See PI. 44, Fig. ].) 240 FOSSIL CHAMBERED SHELLS, the economy of millions of creatures long since swept from the face of the living world. From the similarity of these mechanisms to those still employed in animals of the exist- ing creation, we see that all such contrivances and adapta- tions, however remotely separated by time or space, indicate a common origin in the will and design of one and the same Intelligence. We enter then upon our examination of the structure and uses of fossil Chambered shells, with a prehminary know- ledge of the facts, that the recent shells, both of N. Pompi- lius and Spirula, are formed by existing Cephalopods; and we hope, through them, to be enabled to illustrate the his- tory of the countless myriads of similarly constructed fossil shells whose use and office has never yet been satisfactorily explained. We may divide these fossils into two distinct classes; the one comprising external shells, whose inhabitants resided like the inhabitant of the N. Pompilius, in the capacious cavity of their first or external chamber (PI. 31, Fig. 1 ;) the other, comprising shells, that were wholly or partially included within the body of a Cephalopod, like the recent spirula, (PL 44, Figs. 1, 2.) In both these classes, the chambers of the shell appear to have performed the office of air vessels, or floats, by means of which the animal was enabled either to raise itself and float on the surface of the sea, or sink to the bottom. It will be seen by reference to PI. 31, Fig. 1,* that in the recent Nautilus Pompilius, the only organ connecting the air chambers, with the body of the animal, is a pipe, or siphun- cle, which descends through an aperture and short project- ing tube (y) in each successive transverse plate, till it ter- * The animal is copied from PI. 1, of Mr. Owen's Memoir; the shell from a specimen in the splendid and unique collection of my friend W. J. Broderip, Esq., by whose unreserved communications of his accurate and extensive knowledge in Natural History, I have been long and largely benefited. ILLtrSTRATED BY NAUTILUS POMPILIUS. 241 minates in the smallest chamber at the inner extremity of the "shell. I shall presently attempt to show how by means of a pecuHar fluid, admitted into or abstracted from this pipe, the animal has the the power to increase or diminish its specific gravity, and to sink or float accordingly; as the floating portion of that beautiful toy the Water balloon is made to descend or ascend by means of water forced into, or ab- stracted from its interior. (See P. 248.) The motion of the Nautilus, when swimming, with its arms expanded, is retrograde, like that of the naked Cuttle Fish, being produced by the reaction of water, violently ejected from the funnel (k.) The position assumed during this operation is that which is best adapted to facilitate its passage through the water, as it places foremost that portion of the shell, which ap- proaches most nearly in form to the prow of a boat. The fingers and tentacula (p, p,) are here represented as closed around the beak, which is consequently invisible; when the animal is in action, they are probably spread forth like the expanded rays of the sea Anemone. The horny beak of this recent Nautilus (See PI. 31, Fig. 2, 3) resembles the bill of a Parrot. Each mandible is armed in front, with a hard and indented calcareous point, adapted to the office of crushing shells and crustaceous ani- mals, of which latter, many fragments were found in the stomach of the individual here represented. As these be- longed to species of hairy brachyurous Crustacea, that live exclusively at the bottom of the sea, they show that this Nautilus, though occasionally foraging at the surface, ob- tains part of its food from the bottom. As it also had a giz- zard, much resembling that of a fowl, we see in this organ, farther evidence that the existing Nautilus has the power of digesting hard shells.* • In Pl. 31, Fig. 3 represents the lower mandible, armed in front like Fig. 2. with a hard and calcareous margin; and Fig. 4 represents the anterior calcareous part of the palate of the «pper mandible Fig. 2. formed of the VOL. I. — 21 242 USE OF CHAMBERED SHELLS. A similar apparatus is shown to have existed in the beaks of the inhabitants of many species of fossil Nautili, and Am- monites, by the abundance of fossil bodies called Rhyn- cholites, or beak-stones, in many strata that contain these fossil shells, e. g. in the Oolite of Stonesfield, in the Lias at Lyme Regis and Bath, and in the Muschelkalk at Lune- ville. As we are warranted in drawing conclusions from the structure of the teeth in quadrupeds, and of the beak in birds, as to the nature of the food on which they are respectively destined to feed, so we may conclude, from the resemblance of the fossil beaks, or Rhyncholites, (PL 31, Fig. 5 — 11,) to the calcareous portions of the beak of the Cephalopod, inha- biting the N. Pompilius, that many of these Rhyncolites were the beaks of the cephalopodous inhabitants of the fossil shells with which they are associated; and that these Cepha- lopods performed the same office in restraining excessive in- crease among the Crustaceous and Testaceous inhabitants of the bottom of the Transition and Secondary seas, that is now discharged by the living Nautih, in conjunction with the carnivorous Trachelipods.* Assuming, therefoi'e, on the evidence of these analogies, that the inhabitants of the shells of the fossil NautiU and Ammonites were Cephalopods, of similar habits to those of the animal which constructs the shell of the N. Pompilius, we shall next endeavour to illustrate, by the organization and habits of the living Nautilus, the manner in which these fossil shells were adapted to the use of creatures, that some- same hard calcareous substance at its point; this substance is of the nature of shell. These calcarcous'extremities of both mandibles are of sufficient strength to break through the coverings of Crustacea and slielis, and as they are placed at the extremity of a beak composed of thin and tough horn, tlie power of this organ is thereby materially increased. In examining the contents of the stomach of the Sepia vulgaris, and Lo- ligo, I have found Ihem to contain numerous shells of small Conchifera. * See p. 192. CHAMBERS OF NAUTILUS. 243 times moved and fed at the bottom of deep seas, and at other times rose and floated upon the surface. Tlie NautiU (see PI. 31. Fig. 1. and PI. 32. Figs. 1. 2.) constitute a natural genus of spiral discoidal shells, divided internally into a series of chambers that are separated from each other by transverse plates ; these plates are perfo- rated to admit the passage of a membranous tube or siphuncle either through their centre, or near their internal margin. (PI. 1. Fig. 31. PI. 32. Fig. 2. and PI. 33.) The external open chamber is very large, and forms the receptable of the body of the animal. The internal close chambers contain only air, and have no communication with the outer chamber, excepting by one small aperture in each plate for the passage of a membranous tube, which descends through the entire series of plates to the innermost extremity of the shell, (PI. 31, y. y. a. b. c. d. e. and PI. 32, a. b. d. e. f.) These air-chambers are destined to counterbalance the weight of the shell, and thereby to render the body and shell together so nearly of the weight of water, that the difference arising from the siphuncle being either empty, or filled with a fluid, may cause the animal to swim or sink.* * The siphuncle represented in PI. 31, Fig. 1, illustrates the structure and uses of that organ ; in the smallest whorls, from d. inwards, it is enclosed by a thin calcareous covering, or sheath, of so soft a nature as to be readily scraped off by the point of a quill; this sheath may admit of expansion or contraction, together with the membranous tube enclosed within it. In the fossil Nautili, a similar calcareous sheath is often preserved, as in PI. 32, Figs. 2, 3, and PI. 33, and forms a cormected series of tubes of carbonate of lime, closely fitted to the collar of each transverse plate. In four cham- bers of the recent shell (PI, 31, Fig. 1, a. b, c. d.) this sheath is partially removed from the desiccated membranous pipe within it, which has assumed the condition of a black elastic substance, resembling the black continuous siphuncular pipe that is frequently preserved in a carbonaceous state in fossil Ammonites, At that part of each transverse plate, which is perforated for the pas- sage of the siphuncle, (PI. 31, Fig, 1, y, y.,) a portion of its shelly mat- ter projects inwards to about one-fourth of the distance across each cham- 244 FORTIFICATION OF CHAMBERS. As neither the siphuncle, nor the external shell have any kind of aperture through which a fluid could pass into the close chambers,* it follows that these chambers contain no- thing more than air, and must consequently be exposed to great pressure when at the bottom of the sea. Several con- trivances are therefore introduced to fortify them against this pressure. First, the circumference of the external shell, is constructed every way upon the principles of an Arch, (see PI. 31, Fig. 1, and PI. 32, Fig. 1.,) so as to offer in all directions the greatest resistance to any pressure that tends to force it inwards. Secondly, this arch is farther fortified by the addition of numerous minute Ribs, which are beautifully marked in the fossil specimens represented at PI. 32, Fig. 1. In this fossil the external shell exhibits fine wavy lines of growth, which, though individually small and feeble, are collectively of ber, and forms a collar, around Uie membranous pipe, thus, directing' its pas- sajre through tlie transverse plates, and also affording to it, wlien dis. tended with fluid, a strong support at each collar. A similar projecting collar is seen in the transverse plate of a fossil Nautilus. (PL32, Fig, 2, e, and Fig. 3, e, i. and PI. 33.) A succession of such supports placed at short intervals from one another, divides this long and thin membranace- ous tube, when distended, into a series of short compartments, or small oval sacs, each sac communicating with tiie adjacent sacs by a contracted aperture or neck at both its ends, and being firmly supported around this neck by the collar of each transverse plate. (See PI. 32, Figs. 2, 3, and PL 33.) The strength of each sac is thus increased by the shortness of the dis- tance between its two extremities, and tiie entire pipe, thus subdivided into thirty or forty distinct compartments, derives from every subdivision an ac- cession of power to sustain the pressure of any fluid that may be introduced to its interior. * We learn from Mr. Owen, that there was no possibility of tlie access of water to the air chambers between the exterior of the siphuncle and the siphonic aj)crturcs of the transverse plates; because flic entire circumference of the mantle in which the sipiiuncle oriirinales, is firmly attached to tlie shell by a horny girdle, inipenctrable by any fluid. — Memoir on Nautilus Pompiliiis, p. 47. ADDITION OF CHAMBERS. 245 much avail as ribs to increase the aggregate amount of strength. (See PI. 32, Fig 1. a. to b.) Thirdly, the arch is rendered still stronger by the disposition of the edges of the internal Transverse -plates, nearly at right angles to the sides of the external shell, (See PI. 32, Fig. 1, b. to c.) The course of the edges of these transverse plates beneath the ribs of the outer shell is so directed, that they act as cross braces, or spanners, to fortify the sides of the shell against the inward pressure of deep water. This con- trivance is analogous to that adopted in fortifying a ship for voyages in the Arctic Seas, against the pressure of ice-bergs, by the introduction of an extraordinary number of trans- verse beams and bulk heads.* We may next notice a fourth contrivance by which the apparatus that gives the shell its power of floating, is pro- gi'essively enlarged in due proportion to the increasing weight and bulk of the body of the animal, and of the ex- ternal chamber in which it resides ; this is eflected by suc- cessive additions of new transverse Plates across the bot- tom of the outer chamber, thus converting into a'lr-ch ambers that part of the shell, which had become too small to hold the body. This operation, repeated at intervals in due propor- * The disposition of the curvatures of the transverse ribs, or lines of growth, in a different direction from the curvatures of the internal transverse plates, affords an example of farther contrivance for producing strength in the shells both of recent and fossil Nautili. As the internal transverse plates are convex inwards, (see PI. 32, Fig-. 1, b. to c.) whilst the ribs of the outer shell are in the greater part of their course convex outwards, these ribs in- tersect the curved edges of the transverse plates at many points, and thus divide tiieni into a series of curvilinear parallelograms ; the two shorter sides of each parallelogram being formed by the edges of transverse plates, whilst its two longer sides are formed by segments of the external ribs. The same principle of construction here represented in our plate of Nautilus hexagonus, extends to other species of the family of Nautilus, in many of which the ribs are more minute; it is also applied in other families of fossil ehambered shells; e. g. the Ammonites, PI, 35, and PI. 38. Scaphitcs, PI,. 44, Fig. 15. Ilamites, Pi. 44, Fig. 8_I3. Turrilites, PI. 44, Fig., 14, and. Baculites, PI. 44, Fig. 5. 21* 246 DISTANCES OF TKANSVERSE PLATES, tion to the successive stages of growth of the outer shell, mauitains its efficacy as a Jloat, enlarging gradually and periodically until the animal has arrived at full maturity.* A fifth consideration is had of mechanical advantage, in disposing the Distance at which these successive transverse Plates are set from one another. (See PI. 31. Fig. 1. and PI. 32, Fig, 1, 2.) Had these distances increased in the same proportion as the area of the air-chambers, the ex- ternal shell would have been without due support beneath those sides of the largest chambers, where the pressure is greatest : for this a remedy is provided in the simple con- trivance of placing the transverse plates proportionally nearer to one another, as the chambers, from becoming larger, require an increased degree of support. Sixthly, The last contrivance, which I shall here notice, is that which regulates the ascent and descent of the anima] by the mechanism of the Siphuncle. The use of this organ has never yet been satisfactorily ma'de out ; even Mr. Owen's most important Memoir leaves its manner of operation un- certain ; but the appearances which it occasionally presents in a fossil state, (see PI. 32, Fig, 2, 3.,| and PI. 33,) supplv evidence, which taken in conjunction with Mr. Owen's re- * In a young Nautilus Pompilius in the collection of Mr. Brodcrip, there are only seventeen Sepia. Dr. Hook says that he has found in some shells as many as forty. A cast, expressing the form of a single air-chamber, of the Nautilus Hcxagonus is represented in Pi. 42, Fig. 1. t PI. 32, Fig. 2, represents a fractured portion of the interior of a Nautilus Hexagonus, having the transverse plates (c. c'.) encrusted with calcareous spar ; the Siphuncle a!=o is similarly encrusted, and distended in a manner which illustrates the action of this organ. (PI. 32, Fig. 2, a, a'. a2. a3, d. e. f, and Fig. 3, d. e. f.) The fracture at Fig. 2, b. shows the diameter of the siphuncle, where it passes through a transverse plate, to be iiiuch smaller than it is midway between these Plates (at d. e. f.) The transverse sections at Fig, 2, a. and b , and the longitudinal sections at Fig. 2, d. e. f. and Fig. 3, d. e. f., show that the interior of the siphuncle is filled with stone, of the same nature with the stratum in which the ehcU was lodged. These earthy materials, having entered the orifice of the pipe at a in a soft and plastic state, have formed a cast which shows the interior of this pipe, when distended, to have resembled a string of MANNER OF ACTION OF THE SIPHUNCLE. 247 presentation of its termination in a large sac (P. 34, p, p,) surrounding the heart of the animal, (a. a.,) appears suffi- cient to decide this long disputed question. If we suppose this sac (p, p.) to contain a pericardial fluid, the place of which is alternately changed from the pericardium (p, p.), oval beads, connected at tlieir ends by a narrow neck, and enlarged at their centre to nearly double the diameter of this neck. A similar distension of nearly the entire siphuncle by the stony mate- rial of the rock in which, the shell was imbedded, is seen in the specimen of Nautilus striatus from the Lias of Whitby, represented at PI. 3 J. The Lias which fills this pipe, must have entered it in the state of liquid mud, to the same extent that tlie pericardial fluid entered, during- the hydraulic action of the siphuncle in the act of sinking-; not one of the air-chambers has admitted the smallest particle of this mud; they are all filled with cal- careous spar, subsequent I ij introduced by gradual infiltration, and at succes- itive periods which are marked by changes in the colour of the spar. In both these fossil Nautili, the entire series of the earthy casts within the siphuncle represents the bulk of fluid which this pipe could hold. The sections, F'l. 32, P'ig. 3, d. e. f, show the edges of the calcareous sheath surrounding the oval casts of three comiiartmeiits of the expanded siphuncle. This calcareous sheath was probably flexible, like that sur- rounding the membranous pipe of the recent Nautilus Pompilius. (PI. 31, Fig. 1, b. d. e. ) The continuity of this sheath across the air-chambers, (Pi. 32, Fig. 2, d. e. f. Fig. 3, d. c. f. and PI. 33,) shows that there was no communi cation for the ])assage of any fluid from the siphuncle into these chambers: had any such existed, some portion of the fine earthy matter, which, in these two fossils foi ms the casts of the siphuncle, must have passed through it into these chambers. Nothing has entered them, hnt pure crys- tallized spar, introduced by infiltration through the pores of the shell, after it had undergone sufficient decomposition to be percolated by water, hold- ing in solution carbonate of lime. The same argument applies to the solid casts of pure crystallized car- bonate of lime, which have entirely filled the chambers (>f the specimen Fl. 32, Fig. 1; and to all fossil Nautih and Ammonites, in which the air- chambers are either wholly void, or partially, or entirely filled with pure crystallized carbonate of lim.e. (See PI. 42, Fig. 1, 2, 3, and PI. 36.) In all such cases, it is clear that no communication existed, by which water could pass from the interior of the siphon to the air-chambers. When the pipe was ruptured, or the external shell broken, the earthy sediment, in- which such broken shtlls were lodged, finding through these fractures ad- mission to the air-chambers, has filled them with clay, or sa.nd or limestone 248 NAUTILUS POMPILIUS. to the siphuncle, (n.,) we shall find in these organs an hy^* draulic apparatus for varying the specific gravity of the shell; so that it sinks when the pericardial fluid is forced into the siphuncle, and becomes buoyant, whenever this fluid returns to the pericardium. On this hypothesis also the chambers would be permanently filled with air alone, the elasticity of which would readily admit of the alternate expansion and contraction of the siphuncle, in the act of admitting or rejecting the pericardial fluid. The principle to which we thus refer the rising and sink- ing of the hving Nautilus, has been already stated (P. 241) to be the same which regulates the ascent and descent of the Water Balloon: the application of external pressure through a membrane that covers the column of water in a tall glass, forces a portion of this water into the cavity, or 'single air-chamber of the balloon, which immediately begins to sink ; on the removal of this pressure, the elasti- city of the compressed air causing it to return to its former volume, again expels the water, and the balloon begins to rise.* I shall conclude this attempt to illustrate the structure and economy of fossil Nautili by those of the living species, by showing in what manner the chambers of the pearly Nau- tilus, supposing them to be permanently filled only with air, and the action of the siphuncle,f supposing it to be the recep- tacle only of a fluid secretion, interchanging its place alter- nately from the siphuncle to the pericardium, J would be sub- sidiary to the movements of the animal, both at the surface, and bottom of the sea. * See Sup. Note. t Tlie substance of the siphuncle is a thin and strong membrane, with no appearance of muscular fibres, by whicli it could contract or expand itself; its functions, therefore, must have been entirely passiue, in the process of admitting' or ejecting any fluid to or from its interior. — (See Owen's Me- moir, p. 10.) In our first edition it was stated erroneously that the siphun- cle had no appearance of muscular fibres. t See Snp. Note. ITS ACTION AT THE SURFACE. 249 First, The animal was seen and captured by Mr. Bennett, floating at the surface, with the upper portion of the shell raised above the water, and kept in a vertical position by means of the included air (See PI. 31. Fig. 1.;) this position is best adapted to the retrograde motion, which a Sepia derives from the violent ejection of water through its funnel (k;)* thus far, the air-chambers, serve to maintain both the shell and body of the animal in a state of equilibrium at the surface. Secondly, The next point to be considered is the mode of operation of the siphuncle and air-chambers, in the act of sinJdrig suddenly from the surface to the bottom. These are explained in the note subjoined.! * See Sup. Note. t It appears from the figure of the animal, PI. 34, with whicii I have been favoured by Mr. Owen, that the tjpper extremity of the siphuncle marked by tiie insertion of the probe b., terminates in tiie cavity of the peri- cardium p, p. As this cavity contains a fluid, more dense tiian water, excreted by the glandular follicles d. d., and is apparently of such a size that its contents would suffice to fill the siphuncle, it is probable that this fluid forms the. circulating medium of adjustment, and regulates the ascent or descent of the animal by its interchange of place from the pericardium to the siphuncle. When the arms and body are expanded, the fluid remains in the pericar- dium, and the siphuncle is empty, and collapsed, and surrounded by the portions of air that are permanently confined within each air-chamber; in this state, the specific gravity of the body and shell together is such as to cauise the animal to rise, and be sustained floating at the surface. When, on any alarm, the arms and body are contracted, and withdrawn into the shell, the retraction of these parts, causing pressure on the exterior of the pericardium, forces its fluid contents downwards into the siphuncle; and the bulk of the body being thus diminished, without increasing the bulk of the shell, into whose cavities the fluid is witlidrawn, the specific gravity of the whole mass is suddenly increased, and the animal begins to sink. The air within each chamber remains under compression, as long as ^he siphuncle continues distended by the pericardial fluid; and returning, by its elasticity, to its former state, as soon as the pressure of the arms and body is withdrawn from the pericardium, forces the fluid back again into the cavity of this organ ; and thus the shell, di.ninished as to its specfic gravity, has a tendency to rise. 250 ACTION AT THE BOTTOM. Thirdly, it remains to consider the effect of the air, sup- posing it to be retained continually within the chambers, at the bottom of the sea. Here, if the position of the moving animal be beneath the mouth of the shell, like that of a snail as it crawls along the ground, the air within the chambers would maintain the shell, buoyant, and floating at ease above the body; and the tendency of the shell to rise to the surface would be counteracted by the strong muscular disk (PL 31, n.,) with which the creature crawls, and ad- heres to the bottom, using freely its tentacula to seize its prey.* Dr. Hook considered (Hook's Experiments, 8vo. 1726, page 308) that the air chambers were filled alternately ivith air or water ;f and Parkinson (Organic Remains, vol. iii. p The place of tlie pericardial fluid, therefore, will be always in the peri- cardium, excepting when it is forced into and retained in the siphuncle, by muscular pressure, during the contraction of the arms and body closed up within the shell. When these are expanded, either on the surface, or at the bottom of the sea, the water will have free access to the branchiae, and the movements of the heart will proceed freely in the distended pericardium ; which will be emptied of its fluid at those times only, when the body is closed, and the access of water to the branchiae consequently impeded. The following experiments show that the weight of fluid requisite to be added to the shell of a Nautilus, in order to make it sink, is about half an ounce. I took two perfect shells of a Nautilus Pompilius, each weighing about six onuces and a half in air, and measuring about seven inches across their largest diameter; and having stopped the siphuncle with wax, I found that each shell, when placed in fresh-water, required the weight of a few grains more than an ounce to make it sink. As the shell, when attached to the living animal, was probably a quarter of an ounce heavier than these dry dead shells, and the specific gravity of the body of the animal may have exceeded that of water to the amount of another quarter of an ounce, there remains about half an ounce, for the weight of fluid which being introduced into the siphuncle, would cause the shell to sink; and this quantity seems well proportioned to the capacity both of the pericardium, and of the dis- tended siphuncle, ^ * See Sup, Note, •}■ If the chambers were filled with water, the shell could not be thus suspended without muscular exertion, and instead of being poised verti- cally over the body, in a position of ease and safety, would be continually OPINIONS OF HOOK AND PARKINSON. 251 102,) admitting that these chambers were not accessible to water, thinks that the act of rising or sinking depends on the alternate introduction of air or water into the siphuncle; but he is at a loss to find the source from which this air could be obtained at the bottom of the sea, or to explain " in what manner the animal effected those modifications of the tube and its contained air, on which the variation of its buoyancy depended."* The theory which supposes the chambers of the shell to be permanently filled with air alone, and the siphuncle to be the organ which regulates the rising or sinking of the animal, by changing the place of the peri- cardial fluid, seems adequate to satisfy every hydraulic condition of a Problem that has hitherto received no satis- factory solution. I have dwelt thus long upon this subject, on account of its importance, in explaining the complex structure, and hitherto imperfectly understood functions, of all the nume- rous and widely disseminated families of fossil chambered shells, that possessed siphunculi.f If, in all these families, it can be shown that the same principles of mechanism, under various modifications, have prevailed from the first com- mencement of organic life unto the present hour, we can hardly avoid the conclusion which would refer such unity of organizations to the will and agency of one and the same intelligent First Cause, and lead us to regard them all as " emanations of that Infinite Wisdom, that appears in the shape and structure of all other created beings."J tending to fall flat upon its side; thus exposing itself to injury by fric- tion, and the animal to attacks from its enemies. Rumphius states, that at the bottom, He creeps with his boat above him, and with his head and barbs (tentacula) on the ground, making a tolerably quick progress. I have observed that a similar vertical position is maintained by the shell of the Planorbis corneus, whilst in the act of crawling at the bottom. * The recent observations of Mr. Owen show, that there is no gland con- nected with the siphuncle, similar to that which is supposed to secrete air in the air-bladder of fishes. + See Sup. Note. t Dr. Hook's Experiments, p. 306. 252 AMMONITES. SECTION IV. AMMONITES. Having entered thus largely into the history of the Me- chanism of the shells of Nautili, we have hereby prepared ourselves for the consideration of that of the kindred family of Ammonites, in which all the essential parts are so similar in principle to those of the shells of Nautili, as to leave no doubt that they were subservient to a like purpose in the economy of the numerous extinct species of Cephalopodous Mollusks, from which these Ammonites have been derived. Geological Distribution of Amjnonites. The family of Ammonites extends through the entire series of the fossiliferous Formations, from the Transition strata to the Chalk inclusive. M. Brochant, in his Translation of De la Beche's Manuel of Geology, enumerates 270 species ; these species differ* according to the age of the strata in * Thus one of the first forms under which this family appeared, the Am- monites Henslowi, (PI. 40, Fig. 1,) ceased with the Transition formation ; the A. Nodosus (PI. 40, Figs. 4, 5.) began and terminated its period of e.t. istence with the Muschclkalk. Other genera and species of Ammonites, in like manner, begin and end witli certain definite strata, in tlic Oolitic and Cretaceous formations ; e. g, tiie A. Bucklandi (PI. 37, Fig. 6.) is peculiar to the Lias; the A. Goodhalli to the Greensand; and the A. Rustieusto the Chalk. There are few, if any, species which extend through the whole of the Secondary periods, or which have passed into the Secondary, from the Transition period. The following Tabular Arrangement of the distribution of Ammonites, in different geological formations, is given by Professor Phillips in his Guide ■1o Geology, 1834, p. 77. EXTENT AND NUMBER OF SPECIES. 253 which they are found, and vary in size from a line to more than four feet in diameter.* It is needlees here to speculate either on the physical, or linal causes which produced these curious changes of species, in this highest order of the Molluscous inhabitants of the seas, during some of the early and the middle ages of geological chronology ; but the exquisite symmetry, beauty, and minute delicacy of structure, that pervade each varia- tion of contrivance throughout several hundred species, leave no room to doubt the exercise of Design and Intelli- gence in their construction ; although we cannot always SUB-GENERA OF AMMONITES. LIVING SPECIES. In Tertiary strata In Cretaceous system. . , . In Oolitic system In Saliferous system. . . . In Carljoniferous system. . t In Primary strata 12 4 22:27 12 26 Total 223 species. " It is easy to see how important, in questions concerning the relative antiquity of stratified rocks, is a knowledge of Ammonites, since whole sections of them are characteristic of certain systems of rocks." Phillips's Guide to Geology, 8vo. 1 834, sec. 82. * Mr. Sowerby (Min. conch, vol. iv, p. 79 and p. 81,) and Mr. Mantell speak of Ammonites in Chalk, having a diameter of three feet. Sir T. Harvey, and Mr. Keith Milnes, have recently measured Ammonites in the Chalk near Margate, which exceeded /our /fief in diameter; and this in cases where the diameter can have been in a very small degree enlarged by pres- sure. t The strata here termed primary are those which, in the Sections, (PI. 1,) I have in- cluded iu the lower region of the transition series. VOL. I.— 22 254 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. point out the specific uses of each minute variation, in the arrangement of parts fundamentally the same. The geographical distribution of Ammonites in the an- cient world, seems to have partaken of that universality, we find so common in the animals and vegetables of a former condition of our globe, and which differs so remark- ably from the varied distribution that prevails among exist- ing forms of organic life. We find, the same genera, and, in a few cases, the same species of Ammonites, in strata, apparently of the same age, not only throughout Europe, but also in distant regions of Asia, and of North and South America.* Hence we infer that during the Secondary and Transi- tion periods a more general distribution of the same species, than exists at present, prevailed in regions of the world most remotely distant from one another. An Ammonite, Hke a Nautilus, is composed of three essential parts: 1st. An external shell, usually of a flat dis- coidal form, and having its surface strengthened and orna- mented with ribs (see PI. 35, and PI. 37.) 2d. A series of internal air-chambers formed by transverse plates, inter- * Dr. Gerard has discovered at the elevation of sixteen thousand feet in the Himmalaya Mountains, species of ammonites, e. g. A. Walcoti, and A- communis, identical with those of the Lias at Whitby and Lyme Regis. He lias also found in the same parts of the Himmalaya, several species of Belemnite, with Terebratulse and other bivalves, that occur in the Englisii Oolite ; thereby establishing the existence of the Lias, and Oolite for- mations in that elevated and distant region of the world. He has also collected in the same Mountains, shells of the genera Spirifer, Producta, and Terebratula, which occur in tiie Transition formations of Europe and America. The Greensand of New Jersey also contains Ammonites mixed with Hamites and Scnphites, as in the greensand of England, and Captain Beechy, and Lieutenant Belcher found Ammonites on the coast of Chili in Lat. 36 S. in the Cliffs near Conception; a fragment of one of these Ammonites is preserved in the Museum of Hasler Hospital at Gosport. Mr. Sowerby possesses fossil shells from Brazil resembling those of the laferior Oolite of England. AMMONITES WERE EXTERNAL SHELLS. 25.5 seating the inner portion of the shell, (See PI. 36 and 41.) 3d. A siphuncle, or pipe, commencing at the bottom of the outer chamber, and thence passing through the entire series of air-chambers to the innermost extremity of the shell, (see PI. 36, d. e. f. g. h. i.) In each of these parts, there are evidences of mechanism, and consequently of design, a few of which I shall endeavour briefly to point out. External Shell. The use and place of the shells of Ammonites has much perplexed geologists and conchologists. Cuvier and La- marck, guided by the analogies afforded by the Spirula, supposed them to be internal shells.* There is, however, good reason to believe that they were entirely external, and that the position of the body of the animal within these shells * The smallncss of the outer chamber, or place of lodgment for the animal, is advanced by Cuvier in favour of his opinion that Ammonites, like the Spirula, were internal shells. This reason is probably founded on obser- vations made upon imperfect specimens. The outer chamber of Ammonites is very seldom preserved in a perfect state, but when this happens, it is found to bear at least as large a proportion to the chambered part of the shell, as the outer cell of the N. Pompilius bears to the chambered interior of that shell. It often occupies more than half, (see PI. 36. a. b. c. d.) and, in some cases, the whole circumference of the out whorl. This open cham- ber is not thin and feeble, like the long anterior chamber of the Spirula, which is placed within the body of the animal producing this shell; but is nearly of equal thickness with the sides of the close chambers of the Ammo- nite. Moreover, the margin of tiie mature Ammonite is in some species reflected in a kind of scroll, like the thickened margin of the shell of the garden snail, giving to this part a strength which would apparently be needless to an internal shell. (See PI. 37. Fig. 3. d.) The presence of spines also in certain species, (as in A. Armafus, A. Sovv- erbii,) affords a strong argument against the theory of their having been internal shells. These spines which have an obvious use for protection, if placed externally, would seem to have been useless, and perhaps noxious in an internal position, and are without example in any internal structure with which we are acquainted. 256 ANIMAL OCCUPIED THE LAST CHAMBER. was analogous to that of the inhabitant of tiie Nautilus Pompilius. (See PI. 31, Fig. 1.) Mr. De la Beche has shown that the mineral condition of the outer chamber of many Ammonites, from the Lias at Lyme Regis, proves that the entire body was contained within it; and that these animals were suddenly destroyed and buried in the earthy sediment of which the lias is com- posed, before their bodies had either undergone decay, or been devoured by the crustaceous Carnivora with which the bottom of the sea then abounded.* As all these shells served the double office of affording protection, and acting as floats, it was necessary that they should be thin, or they would have been too heavy to rise to the surface: it was not less necessary that they should be strong, to resist pressure at the bottom of the sea ; and accordingly we lind them fitted for this double function, by the disposition of their materials, in a manner calculated to combine lightness and buoyancy with strength. * In the Ammonites in question, tlie outer extremity of the first great chamber in which the body of the animal was contained, is filled with stone only to a small depth, (sec PI. 36, from a. to b. ;) the remainder of this chamber from b. to c., is occupied by brown calcareous spar, which has been ascertained by Dr. Prout to owe its colour to the presence of animal matter, whilst the internal air-chambers and siphuncle are filled with pure white spar. The extent of the brown calcareous spar, therefore, in the outer chamber, represents tlie space which was occupied by the body of the animal after it had shrunk within its shell, at the moment of its death, leaving void the outer portion only of its chamber, from a. to b., to receive the muddy sediment in which tlie shell was imbedded. I have many specimens from the lias of Whilby, of the Ammonites Com- munis, in which the outer ciiambcr thus filled with spar, occupies nearly the entire last whorl of the shell, its largest extremity only being filled with lias. From specimens of this kind we also learn, that the animal inhabiting the shell of an Ammonite, had no ink-bag ; if such an organ existed, traces of its colour must have been found within the cavity which contained the body of the animal at the moment of its death. The protection of a shell seems to have rendered the presence of an ink-bag supurfluous. FLUTED FORM OP RIBS. 257 First, The entire shell, (PI. 35,) is one continuous arch, coiled spirally around itself in such a manner, that the base of the outer whorls rests upon the crown of the inner whorls, and thus the keel or back is calculated to resist pressure, in the same manner as the shell of a common hen's egg resists great force if apphed in the direction of its longitudinal dia- meter. Secondly, besides this general arch-like form, the shell is farther strengthened by the insertion of ribs, or trans- verse arches which give to many of the species their most characteristic feature, and produce in all, that pecu- liar beauty which invariably accompanies the symmetrical repetition of a series of spiral curves. (See PI. 37, Figs. 1 — 10.) From the disposition of these ribs over the surface of the external shell, there arise mechanical advantages for in- creasing its strength, founded on a principle that is practi- cally applied in works of human art. The principle I allude to, is that by which the strength and stiffness of a thin me- tallic plate are much increased by corrugating, or applying Jlutings to its surface. A common pencil-case, if made of corrugated or fluted metal, is stronger than if the same quantity of metal were disposed in a simple tube. Culinary moulds of tin and copper are in the same way strengthened, by folds or flutings around their margin, or on their convex surfaces. The recent application of thin plates of corru- gated iron to the purpose of making self-supporting roofs, in which the corrugations of the iron supply the place, and combine the power of beams and rafters, is founded on the same principle that strengthens the vaulted shells of Am- monites. In all these cases, the ribs or elevated portions, add to the plates of shell, or metal, the strength resulting from the convex form of an arch, without materially in- creasing their weight; whilst the intermediate depressed parts between these arches, are suspended and supported 22* 258 SUBDIVISION OF RIBS. by the tenacity and strength of the material. (Sec PI. 37, Figs. 1—10.*) The general principle of dividing and subdividing the ribs, in order to multiply supports as the vault enlarges, is con- ducted nearly on the same plan, and for the same purpose, as the divisions and subdivisions of the ribs beneath the groin irorli, in the flat vaulted roofs of the florid Gothic Architec- ture. Another source of strength is introduced in many species of Ammonites by the elevation of parts of the ribs into little dome-shaped tubercles, or bosses, thus superadding the strength of a dome to that of the simple arch, at each point where these tubercles are inserted.^ * The figures engraved at PI. 37, afford examples of various contrivances to give strength and beauty to the external shell. The first and simplest mode, is that represented in PI. 35 and PI. 37, V'lg. 1 and 6. Here each rib is single, and extends over the wliole surface, becoming graduall)' wider, as the space enlarges towards the outer margin, or back of the shell. The next variation is that represented (PI. 37, Figs. 2, 7, 9,) where the ribs, originating singly on tlie inner margin, soon bifurcate into two ribs that extend outwards, and terminate upon the dorsal keel. In tlie third case, (Pi. 27. Fig. 4.) the ribs originate simply, and bifur- cating as the shell enlarges, extend this bifurcation entirely around its circu- lar back. Between each pair of bifurcated ribs, a third or auxiliary sliort rib is interposed, to fill up the enlarged space on the dorsal portion where the shell is broadest. In the fourth modification, (Pi. 37, Fig. 3,) the ribs originating singly on the internal margin, soon become trifurcatc, and expand outwards, around tlie circular back of the shell. A perfect mouth of this shell is represented attl. 37,Fig. 3.d. A fifth case is that (PI. 37, Fig. 5,) in which the simple rib becomes tri- furcatc as tiie space enlarges, and one or more aiixiliary sliort ribs are also interposed, between each trlfurcation. Tiiese subdivisions are not always maintained with numerical fidelity through every individual of the same species, nor over the whole surface of the same shell; their use, however, is always the same, viz. to cover and strengthen tliose spaces whicli the ex- pansion of the shell towards its outer circumference, would have rendered weak without the aid of some such compensation. j- These places are usually either at the point of bifiu-cation, as in PI. 37, I'lgs. 2; 7, 9, 10, or at tiie point of trifurcation, as in Fig. 3. VAULTED DOMES AND BOSSES. 259 The bosses thus often introduced at the origin, division, and termination of the ribs, are placed hke those apphed by archi- tects to the intersections of the ribs in Gothic roofs, and are much more efficient in producing strength.* These tuber- cles have the eftect of little vaults or domes ; and they are usually placed at those parts of the external shell, beneath which there is no immediate support from the internal trans- verse plates (see PI. 37, Fig. 8. PI. 42. Fig. 3. c. d. e. and PI. 40. Fig. 5.)t * The ribs and bosses in vaulted roofs project beneath the under surface of the arch; in the sliclls of Ammonites, they are raised above the convex surface. T In PI. 37, Fig. 9. (A. varians,) the strength of the ribs and proportions of the tubercles arc variable, but the general character exhibits a triple se- ries of-large tubercles, rising from the surface of the transverse ribs. Each of lliese ribs commences with a small tubercle near the inner margin of the shell. At a short distance outwards is a second and l.irger tubercle, from which the rib bifurcates, and terminates in a third tubercle, raised at the extremity of each fork upon tlie dorsal margin. Many species of Ammonites have also a dorsal ridge or keel, (PI. 37, Figs. 1. 2. 6.) passing along the back of the shell, immediately over the siphuncle, and apparently answering, in some cases, the farther purpose of a cut-water, and keel (PI. 37, Figs. 1, 2.) In certain species, e. g. in the A. lautus (PI. 37, Fig. 7, a. c.) there is a double keel, produced by a deep depression along the dorsal margin ; and the keels are fortified by a line of tubercles placed at the extremity of the transverse ribs. In the A. varians (PI. 37, 9. a. b. c.) which lias a triple keel, the two external ones are fortitied by tubercles, as in Fig. 7, and the central keel is a simple con- vex arch. PI. 37, Fig. 8. offers an example of domes, or bosses, compensating tlie weakness that, without them, would exist in the A. catena, from the minuteness of its ribs, and the flatness of the sides of the shell. These fiat parts are all supported by an abundant distribution of tiie edges of the transverse plates directly beneath them, whilst those parts which arc elevated into bosses, being sufficiently strong, are but slightly provided wilh any other support. The back of this shell also, being nearly flat, (Pi. 37, Fig. 8. b. c.) is strongly supported by ramifications of the transverse plates. In PI. 37. Fig. G, which has a triple keel, (that in the centre passing over the siphuncle,) this triple elevation afi'ords compensation for the weakness that would otherwise arise from the great breadth and flatness of the dorsal 260 TRANSVERSE PLATES AND AIR-CHAMBERS. Similar tubercles are introduced with the same advantage of adding Strength as well as Beauty in many other cognate genera of chambered shells. (PI. 44, Fig. 9. 10. 14. 15.) In all these cases, we recognise the exercise of Discretion and Economy in the midst of Abundance ; distributing in- ternal supports but sparingly, to parts which, from their ex- ternal form, were already strong, and dispensing them abun- dantly beneath those parts only, which without them, would have been weak. We find an infinity of variations in the form and sculpture of the external shell, and a not less beautiful variety in the methods of internal fortification, all adapted with archi- tectural advantage, to produce a combination of Ornament with Utility. The ribs also are variously multiplied, as the increasing space demands increased support ; and are vari- ously adorned and armed with domes and bosses, wherever there is need of more than ordinary strength. Transverse Plates, and Mr Chambers. The uses of the internal air-chambers will best be under- stood by reference to our figures. PL 36 represents a lon- gitudinal section of an Ammonite bisecting the transverse plates in the central line where their curvature is most sim- ple. On each side of this line, the curvature of these plates become more complicated, until, at their termination in the external shell, they assume a beautifully sinuous, or foliated arrangement, resembling the edges of a parsley leaf, (Pi. 38,) the uses of which, in resisting pressure, I shall farther illustrate by the aid of graphic representations. portion of this species. Between these three keels, or ridg^es, are two de- pressions or dorsal furrows, and as these furrows form the weakest portion of the shell, a compensation is provided by conducting- beneath them tiic denticulated edges of the transverse plates, so that tliej' present long lines of resistance to external pressure. THEIR USE IN RESISTING PRESSURE. 261 At PI. 35, from d. to e. we see the edges of the same trans- verse plates which, in PI. 36, are simple curves, becoming foliated at their junction with the outer shell, and thus distri- buting their support more equally beneath all its parts, than if these simple curves had been continued to the extremity of the transverse plates. In more than two hundred known species of Ammonites, the transverse plates present some beautifully varied modifications of this foliated expansion at their edges ; the effect of which, in every case, is to increase the strength of the outer shell, by multiplying the subjacent points of resistance to external pressure. We know that the pressure of the sea, at no great depth, will force a cork into a bottle filled with air, or crush a hollow cylinder or sphere of thin copper ; and as the air-chambers of Ammo- nites were subject to similar pressure, whilst at the bottom of the sea, they required some peculiar provision to preserve them from destruction,* more especially as most zoologists agree that they existed at great depths, " dans les grandes profondeurs des mers."f Here again we find the inventions of art anticipated in * Captain Smyth found, on two trials, that the cyUndrical copper air tube, vuidei" the vane attached to Massey's patent sounding machine, collapsed, and was crushed quite flat under a pressure of about three hundred fathoms. A claret bottle filled with air, and well corked, was burst before it had de- scended four hundred fathoms. He also found that a bottle filled with fresh-water, and corked, had the cork forced at about a hundred and eighty fathoms below the surface; in such cases, the fluid sent down is replaced by salt water, and the cork which had been forced in, is sometimes inverted. Captain Beaufort also informs me, that he has frequently sunk corked bottles in the sea more thaii a hundred fathoms deep, some of them empty, and others containing a fluid. The empty bottles were sometimes crushed, at other times, the cork was forced in, and the bottle returned full of sea water. The cork of the bottles containing a fluid was uniformly forced in, and the fluid exchanged for sea water; the cork was always returned to the neck of the bottle, sometimes, but not always, in an inverted position. f See Lamarck, who cites Bruguieres with approbation on this point. — Animaux sans: Vert: vol. vii. p. 635. 262 SINUOUS EDGES OF TRANSVERSE PLATES. the works of nature, and the same principle applied to resist the inward pressure of the sea upon the shells of Ammonites^ that an engineer makes use of in fixing transverse stays be- neath the planks of the wooden centre on which he builds his arch of stone. The disposition of these supports assumes throughout the family of Ammonites a different arrangement from the more simple curvature of the edges of the transverse plates within the shells of NautiH ; and we find a probable cause for this variation, in the comparative thinness of the outer shells of many Ammonites; since this external weakness creates a need of more internal support under the pressure of deep water, than was requisite in the stronger and thicker shells of NautiH. This support is effected by causing the edges of the trans- verse plates to deviate from a simple curve, into a variety of attenuated ramifications and undulating sutures. (See PI. 38. and PI. 37, Figs. 6, 8.) Nothing can be more beau- tiful than the sinuous windings of these sutures in many spe- cies, at their union with the exterior shell; adorning it with a succession of most graceful forms, resembling festoons of foliage, and elegant embroidery. When these thin septa are converted into iron pyrites, their edges appear like golden filigrane work, meandering amid the pellucid spar, that fills the chambers of the shell.* * The A. Heterophyllus, PI. (38,) is so called from the apparent occur- rence of two different forms of foliage; its laws of dentation ai'e the same as in other Ammonites, but the ascending secondaiy saddles (Pi. 38. S. S.) which, in all Ammonites are round, are in this species longer than ordi- nary, and catch attention more than the descending points of the lobes, (P1.38. d.l.) The figures of the edge of one transverse plate are repeated in each sue, cessive plate. The animal, as it enlarged its shell, thus leaving behin I it a new chamber, more capacious than the last, so that the edges of the plates never interfere or become entangled. Although the pattern on the surflice of this Ammonite is apparently so VARIED PROPORTIONS OF SUPPORT. 263 The shell of the Ammonites Heterophyllus (PI. 38, and PI. 39,) affords beautiful exemplifications of the manner in which the mechanical strength of each transverse plate is so disposed, as to vary its support in proportion to the different degrees of necessity that exist for it in different parts of the same shell.* complicated, the number of transverse plates is but sixteen in one revo, lution of the shell ; in this, as in almost all other cases, the extreme beauty and elegance of the foliations result from the repetition, at regu- lar intervals, of one symmetrical system of forms, viz. those presented by the external margin of a single transverse plate. No trace of these foliations is seen on the outer surface of the external shell. (See PI. 38, c.) The figures of A. oblusus, (PI. 35 and PI. 36,) show the relations between the external shell and the internal transverse partitions of an Ammonite. PI. 35 represents the form of the external shell, wherein the body occupied the space extending from b. to c, and corresponding with the same letters in PI. 36. This species has a single series of strong ribs passing obliquely across the shell of the outer chamber, and also across the air-chambers. From c. to the inmost extremity of the shell, these ribs intersect, and rest on the sinuous edges of the transverse plates which form the air-chambers. These edges are not seen where the outer shell is not removed* (PI. 35, e.) A small portion of the shell is also preserved at PI. 35, b. From d. inwards, these sinuous lines mark the terminations of the trans- verse plates at their junction with the external shell ; they are not coincident with the direction of the ribs, and therefore more effectually co-operate with them in adding strength to the shell, by affording it the support of a series of various props and buttresses, set nearly at right angles to its internal sur- face. * Thus on the back or keel, PI. 39, from V. to B., where the shell is nar- row, and the strength of its arch greatest, the intervals between the septa are also greatest, and their sinuosities comparatively distant; but as soon as tlie flattened sides of the same shell, PI. 38, assume a form that offers less resistance to external pressure, the foliations at the edges of the transverse plates approximate more closely ; as in the flatter forms of a Gothic roof, the ribs are more numerous, and the tracery more complex, than in the stronger and more simple forms of the pointed arch. The same principle of multiplying and extending the ramifications of the edges of the transverse plates, is applied to other species of Ammo- nites, in which the sides are flat, and require a similar increase of sup- port ; whilst in those species to which the more circular form of the sides 264 COMPLEX FORM OF AIR-CHAMBERS. At Plate 41. we have a rare and most beautiful example of the preservation of the transverse plates of the Am- monites giganteus converted to calcedony, v^^ithout the introduction of any earthy matter into the area of the air- chambers.* This shell is so laid open as to show the manner in which each transverse plate forms a tortuous partition between the successive air-chambers. By means of these winding plates, the external shell, being itself a continuous arch, is farther fortified with a succession of compound arches, passing transversely across its internal cavity; each arch being disposed in the form of a double tunnel, vaulted not only at the top, but having a corresponding series of inverted arches along the bottom. We can scarcely imagine a more perfect instrument than this for affording universal resistance to external pressure, in which the greatest possible degree of lightness is com- bined with the greatest strength. The form of the air-chambers in Ammonites is much more complex than in the Nautili, in consequence of the tortuous windings of the foliated margin of the transverse plates.* gives greater strength (as in A. obtusus, PI. 35.) the sinuosities of the septa are proportionately few. It seems probable that some improvement might be made, in fortifying the cylindrical air-tube of Massey's Patent sounding machine, for taking soundings at great depths, by the introduction of transverse plates, acting on the principle of the transverse plates of the chambered portion of the shells of Nautili and Ammonites, or rather of Orthoceratites, and Baculites, (see PI. 44, Figs. 4. and 5.) * PI. 42, Fig. 1, represents the cast of a single chamber of N. Hexagonus, convex inwards, and concave outwards, and bounded, at its margin by lines of simple curvature. In a few species only of Nautilus the margin is undu- lated, (as in PI. 43, Fig. 3, 4,) but it is never jagged, or denticulated like the margin of the casts of the chambers of Ammonites. In Ammonites, the chambers have a double curvature, and are, at their centre, convex outwards (see Pi. 36. d. and PI. 3D. d. V.) PI. 42, Fig 2, represents tlie front vievir of the cast of a single chamber of A. exca- SIPHUNCLE. 265 Siphuncle. It remains to consider the mechanism of the Siphuncle, that important organ of hydrauUc adjustment, by means of ■which the specific gravity of the Ammonites was regulated. Its mode of operation as a pipe, admitting or rejecting a tluid, seems to have been the same as that we have already considered in the case of Nautili.* vatus; d, is the dorsal lobe enclosing the siphuncle, and e. f. the auxiliary ventral lobes, which open to receive the inner whorl of the shell. PI. 42, Fig. 3. represents a east of three chambers of A. catena, having two transverse plates still retained in their proper place between them. The fo- liated edges of these transverse plates have regulated the foliations of the calcareous casts, which, after the shell has perished, remain locked into one another, like the sutures of a skull. The substance of the easts in all these cases is pure crystalline carbonate of lime, introduced by infiltration tiirough the pores of the decaying shell. Each species of Ammonite has its peculiar form of air-chambers, depending on the specific form of its transverse plates. Analogous variations in the form of the air-chambers are co-extensive with the entire range of species in the family of Nautili. * In the family of Ammonites, the place of the Siphuncle is always upon the exterior, or dorsal margin of the transverse plates, (See PI, Sti. d. e. f. g. h. i., and PI. 42, Fig. 3. a, b.) It is conducted through them by a ring, or collar, projecting outwards ;^is collar is seen, well pre- served, at the margin of all the transverse plates in PI. 36. In Nautili, the collar projects uniformly inwards, and its place is either at the centre, or near the inner margin of the transverse plates. (See PI. 31, Fig. 1. y. and PI, 42. 1.) The Siphuncle represented at PI. 36, is preserved in a black carbonaceous state, and passes from the bottom of the external chamber (d.) to the inner extremity of the shell. At e. f. g. h. its interior is exposed by section, and appears filled, like the adjacent air-chambers, with a cast of pure calcareous spar. At PI. 42. Fig. 3. b. a similar cast fills the tube of the Siphuncle, and also the air-chambers. Here again, as in PI. 36, its diameter is contracted at its passage through the collar of each transverse plate, with the same me- chanical advantages as in the Nautilus. The shell engraved at PI. 42. Fig. 4. from a specimen found by the Mar- quis of Northampton in the Greensand of Earl Stoke, near Devizes, and of which Figs. 5. 6. are fragments, is remarkable for the preservation of its Si- phuncle, distended and empty, and still fixed in its place along the interior VOL. I.— 23 266 SPECIFIC GRAVITY REGULATED BY SIPHtJNCLE. The universal prevalence of such delicate hydraulic con* trivances in the Siphuncle, and of such undeviating and sys- tematic union of buoyancy and strength in the air-chambers,' throughout the entire family of Ammonites and Nautili, are among the most prominent instances of order and method? that pervade these remains of former races that inhabited the ancient seas ; and strange indeed must be the construc- tion of that mind, which can believe that all this order and method can have existed, without the direction and agency of some commanding and controlling Intelligence. Theory of Von Buck. Besides the uses we have attributed to the sinuous ar- rangement of the transverse septa of Ammonites, in giving strength to the shell to resist the pressure of deep water, M. Von Buch has suggested a farther use of the lobes thus of the dorsal margin of the shell. This Siphuncle, and also the shell and transverse plates, are converted into thin chalcedony, the pipe retaining in these empty chambers the exact form and position it held in the living shell. The entire substance of the pipe, thus perfectly preserved in a state that rarely occurs, shows no kind of aperture througii which any fluid could have passed to the interior of the air-chambers. The same con- tinuity of the Siphuncle appears at PI. 42, Fig. 3. and in PI. 36, and in many other specimens. Hence we infer, that nothing could pass from its interior into the air-chambers, and that the office of the Siphuncle was to be more or less distended with a fluid, as in the Nautili, for the purpose of adjusting the specific gravity, so as to cause the animal to float or sink. Dr. Prout has analyzed a portion of the black material of the Siphuncle, which is so frequently preserved in Ammonites, and finds it to consist of animal membrane penetrated by carbonate of lime. He explains the black colour of these pipes, by supposing that the process of decomposition, in which the oxygen and hydrogen of the animal membrane escaped, was fa- vourable to the evolution of carbon, as happens when vegetables are con- verted into coal, under the process of mineralization. The lime has taken the place of the oxygen and hydrogen which existed in the pipe before dc* composition. VON buck's theory of ammonites. 267 formed around the base of the outer chamber, as affording points of attachment to the mantle of the animal, whereby it was enabled to fix itself more steadily within its shell. The arrangement of these lobes varies in every species of Ammonite, and he has proposed to found on these varia- tions, the specific character of all the shells of this great family.* * The most decided distinction between Ammonites and Nautili, is founded on the place of tlie siphon. In the Ammonite, this organ is always on the hack of the shell, und never so in the Nautilus. Many other distinctions emanate from this leading- difference; the animal of the Nautilus having- its pipe usually fixed near the middle, (See PI. 31, Fig. 1,) or towards tlie ■ventral margin (PI. 32, Fig. 2, and PI. 42. P"ig. 1.) of the transverse plates, is thereby attached to the bottom of the external chamber, whicii is gene- rally concave, and without any jagged termination, or sinuous flexure, of its margin. As the siphon in Ammonites is comparatively small, and always placed on the dorsal margin (Pi. 36, d. and Pi. 39, d,) it would have less power than the siphuncle of Nautili to keep the mantle in its place at the bottom of the shell; another kind of support was therefore supplied by a number of depressions along tiie margin of the transverse plate, forming a series of lobes at the junction of this plate witii the internal surface of the shell. The innermost of these, or ventral lobe, is placed on the inner margin of the shell (PI. 39, V.;) opposite to this, and on the external margin, is placed tlie dorsal lobe (D,) embracing tlie siphon and divided by it into two diver- gent arms. Heneath the dorsal lobe are placed the superior lateral lobes (L,) one on each side of the shell; and still lower, the inferior lateral lobe, (1,) next above the ventral lobe. The separations between these lobes form seats, or saddles, upon which the mantle of the animal rested, at the bottom of the outer chamber; these saddles are distinguished in the same manner as the lobes — that between the dorsal and superior lateral lobe, forming the dorsal saddle (S. d.,) tiiat between the superior and inferior lateral lobes, forming the lateral saddle (S. L.,) and that between the inferior lateral and ventral lobe, the ventral saddle (S. V.) This general disposition, variously modified, pervades all forms of Ammonites; but when, as in PI. 39, the turn of the shell increases rapidly in width, so that the last whorl nearly, or enlireljs covers the pre- ceding whorls, the additional part is furnished with small auxiliary lobes, varying with the growth of the Ammonite to the number of tliree, four, or five pairs, (Pi. 39, a. 1, a. 2, a. 3, a. 4, a. 5.) 268 PROOFS OF DESIGN IN AMMONITES. The uses ascribed by Von Buch to the lobes of Am- monites in affording attachment to the base of the mantle around the margin of the transverse plates, would in no way interfere with the service we have assigned to the same lobes, in supporting the external shell against the pressure of deep water. The union of two beneficial results from one and the same mechanical expedient, confirms our opi- nion of the excellence of the workmanship, and increase our admiration of the Wisdom in which it was contrived. Conclusion. On examining the proofs of Contrivance and Design that pervade the testaceous remains of the family of Ammonites, we find, in every species, abundant evidence of minute and peculiar mechanisms, adapting the shell to the double pur- pose of acting as a float, and of forming a protection to the body of the inhabitant. All the lobes, as they dip inward, are subdivided by numerous dentations, which afford points of attachment to the mantle of the animal; thus each lobe is flanked by a series of accessory lobes, and these again arc provided with farther symmetrical dentations, the extremities of which produce all the beautiful appearances of complicated foliage, which prevail through the family of Ammonites, and of which we have a striking example on the sur- face of PI. 38. The extremities of the dentations are always sharp and pointed, inwards, towards the air-chamber, (PI. 38, d. 1.;) but are smooth and rounded up- wards towards the body of the animal, (PI. 38, S. S.,) and thus the jagged terminations of these lobes may have afforded holdfasts whereby the base of the mantle could fix itself firmly, and as it were take root, around the bottom of the external chamber. No such dentations exist in any species of Nautilus. In tlic N. Pompi- lius, Mr. Owen has shown that the base of the mantle adheres to the outer shell, near its junction with the transverse plate by means of a strong horny girdle ; a similar contrivance probably existed also in all the fossil species of Nautili. The sides of the mantle also of the N. Pompilius are fixed to the sides of the great external chamber by two strong broad lateral muscles, the impressions of which are visible in most specimens of this shell. CONCLUSIONS. 269 As the animal increased in bulk, and advanced along the outer chamber of the shell, the spaces left behind it were successively converted into air-chambers, simultaneously increasing the power of the float. This float, being regu- lated by a pipe, passing through the whole series of the chambers, formed an hydraulic instrument of extraordinary delicacy, by which the animal could, at pleasure, control its ascent to the surface, or descent to the bottom of the sea. To creatures that sometimes floated, a thick and heavy shell would have been inapplicable ; and as a thin shell, en- closing air, would be exposed to various, and often intense degrees of pressure at the bottom, we find a series of pro- visions to afford resistance to such pressure, in the mechani- cal construction both of the external shell, and of the in- ternal transverse plates which formed the air-chambers. First, the shell is made up of a tube, coiled round itself and externally convex. Secondly, it is fortified by a series of ribs and vaultings disposed in the form of arches and domes on the convex surface of this tube, and still farther addmg to its strength. Thirdly, the transverse plates that form the air-chambers, supply also a continuous succession of sup- ports, extending their ramifications, with many mechanical advantages, beneath those portions of the shell whicii, being weakest, were most in need of them. If the existence of contrivance proves the exercise of mind ; and if higher degrees of perfection in mechanism are proof of more exalted degrees of intellect in the Author from whom they proceeded ; the beautiful examples which we find in the petrified remains of these chambered shells, afford evidence coeval and coextensive with the mountains where- in they are entombed, attesting the Wisdom in which such exquisite contrivances originated, and setting forth the Pro- vidence and Care of the Creator, in regulating the structure of every creature of his hand. 23* 270 NAUTILUS SYPHQ, ETC.. SECTION V. NAUTILUS SYPHO, AND NAUTILUS ZIC ZAC. The name of Nautilus Sypho* has been applied to a ver]. curious and beautiful chambered shell found in the Tertiary strata at Dax, near Bourdeaux; and that of Nautilus Zic Zac to a cognate shell from the London clay. (See P1..43» Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4.) These fossil shells present certain deviations from the trdinary characters of the genus Nautilus, whereby they in some degree partake of the structure of an Ammonite. These deviations involve a series of compensations and pecuhar contrivances, in order to render the shell efficient in its double office of acting as a float, and also as a defence and chamber of residence to the animal by which it was constructed. Some details of these contrivances, relating to the Nauti- lus Sypho will be found in the subjoined note.f * This shell has been variously described by the names of Ammonites Atun, Nautilus Sypho, and N. Zonarius. (See M. de Basterot. Mem. Geol- de Bourdeaux.) t The transverse plates, (PI. 43, Fig. 1, a. a'. a2«,) present a peculiarity of structure in llie prolongation of the collar, or siphuncular aperture entirely across the area of the air-chambers, so that tiie whole series of transverse plates are connected in one continuous spiral chain. This union is effected by the enlargement and elongation of the collar for the passage of the siphuncle into the form of a long and broad funnel, the point of which b. fits closely into the neck of the funnel next beneath it, g. whilst its inner margin, resting upon the arch of the subjacent whorl of the shell, transfers to this iLTch a portion of the external pressure upon the transverse plates, thereby adding to their strength. As this structure renders it impossible for the flexible siphuncle to expand itself into the area of the air-chambers, as in other Nautili and in Aintnonites, the diameter of each funnel is made large enough to allow CONTRIVANCES IN NAUTILUS SYPHO. 271 As the place of the siphon in this species is upon the inter- nal margin of the transverse plates (PI. 43, Fig. 2, b', b^, b^) it had less power than the more central siphuncle of the Nautilus- to attach the mantle of the animal to the bottom of the outer chamber. For this defect we find a compensation? resembling that which Von Buch considers to have been afforded by the lobes of Ammonites to the inhabitants of those shells. This compensation will be illustrated by a comparison of the lobes in N. Sypho (PI. 43, Fig. 2.,) with a similar provision in the Nautilus Zic Zac (PI. 43, Figs. ^, 4.*) space within it for tiie distension of the siphuncle, by a sufRcient quantity of fluid to cause the aniuial to sink. At each articulation of the funnels, the diameter of the siphuncle is con- tracted, as the siphuncles of Ammonites and Nautili are contracted at their passage througli the collars of their transverse plates. Another point in the organization of the siphuncle is illustrated by this shell, namely, the existence of a soft calcareous sheath, (PI. 43, ¥'ig. 1 , b, c. d.,) analogous to that of the N. Pompilius, (PI. 31, Fig. 1, a. b. c. d.,) between each shelly funnel and the membranous pipe or siphuncle enclosed within it. At PI. 43, Fig. 1, b, we have a section of this sheath folding round the Sinaller extremity of the funnel a'. From c. to d, it lines the inside of the subjacent funnel a^; and from d. continues downwards to the termination of the funnel a2, on the inside of e. At c, and f, we see the upper termination of two perfect sheaths, similar to that of which a section is represented at b. c. d. This sheath, from its insertion between the point of the upper siphon and mouth of the lower one, (Fig. 1, c.,) must have acted as a collar, inter- cepting all communication between the interior of the shelly siphuncular tube and the air-chambers. The area of this shelly tube probably may be sufficient, not only to have contained the distended siphuncle, but also to ;^llo,w it to be surrounded with a volume of air, the elasticity of which would act in forcing back the pericardial fluid from the siphuncle, in the same manner as we have supposed the air to act within the chambers of the N . Pompilius. * On each side of the transverse plate in both these species there is an undulation, or sinus, producing lobes (I'l. 43, Fig. 2. a', a^, a^, Fig. 3. a. and Fig. 4. a. b.) There is also a deep backward curvature of the two ventral lobes, Fig. 4. c. c. All these lobes may have acted con- jointly witli the siphuncle, to give firm attachment to the mantle of the animal at the bottom of the outer chamber. The shell Fig, 1. is brokeu. 272 COMPENSATIONS AND LINKS. A still more important use of the lobes formed by the transverse plates both of the N. Sypho and N. Zic Zac, may be found in the strength which they impart to the sides of the external shell (see PI. 43, Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4.,) underpropping their flattest and weakest part, so as to resist pressure more effectually than if the transverse plates had been curved simply, as in N. Pompilius. One cause which rendered some such compensation necessary, may be found in the breadth of the intervals between each transverse plate ; the weakness resulting from this distance, being com- pensated by the introduction of a single lobe, acting on the same principle as the more numerous and complex lobes in the genus Ammonite. The N. Sypho and N. Zic Zac seem, therefore, to form Links between the two great genera of Nautilus and Am- monite, in which an intermediate system of mechanical contrivances is borrowed, as it were, from the mechanics of the Ammonite, and applied to the Nautilus. The adoption of lobes, analogous to the lobes of the Ammo- nite, compensating the disadvantages, that would other- wise have followed from the marginal position of the siphuncle in these two species, and the distances of their transverse plates,* in such a manner, that no portion of any lateral lobe is visible on the side here represented. At Fig, 2. a', we see the projection of the lateral lobes, on each side of the convex internal surface of a transverse plate ; at a- we sec the interior of the same lobes, on the concave side of another transverse plate; and at a^^ the points of a third pair of lobes attached to the sides of the largest air-chamber that remains in this frag- ment. * In some of the most early forms of Ammonites which we find in the Transition strata, c. g. A. Henslowi, A. Striatus, and A. Sphericus, (Pi, 40, Figs. 1, 2, and 3,) the lobes were few, and nearly of the same form as the single lobe of the Nautilus Sypho, and of N. Zic zac; like tliem also the margin was simple and destitute of fringed edges. The A. . nodosus (PI. 40, Figs. 4 and 5.,) which is peculiar to the early Secondary depositcs of the Muschelkalk, offers an example of an intermediate state, SHELLS ALLIED TO NAUTILUS. 273 It is a curious fact, that contrivances, similar to those which existed in some of the most early forms of Ammonite, should have been again adopted in some of the most recent species of fossil Nautili, in order to afford similar compensa- tion for weakness that would otherwise have been produced by aberrations from the normal structure of the genus Nau- tilus. All this seems inexpUcable on any theory which would exclude the interference of controlling Intelligence^ SECTION YI. CHAMBERED SHELLS ALLIED TO NAUTILUS AND AMMONITE. We have reason to infer, from the fact of the recent N. Pompilius being an external shell, that all fossil shells of the great and ancient family of Nautili, and of the still more numerous family of Ammonites, were also external shells, enclosing in their outer chamber the body of a Cephalopod- We farther learn, from Peron's discovery of the shell of a Spirula partially enclosed within the body of a Sepia,* (see PI. 44, Fig. 1, 2,) that many of those genera of fossil cham- bered shells, which, like the Spirula, do not terminate exter- nally in a wide chamber, were probably internal, or partially enclosed shells, serving the office of a float, constructed on the same principles as the float of the Spirula. In the class of fossil shells thus illustrated by the discovery of the animal enclosing the Spirula, we may include the following extinct families, occurring in various positions from the earliest Transition strata to the most recent Secondary formations:. ia which the fringed edge is partially introduced, on the descending oi inward portions only, of the lobated edge of tlie transverse plates. * The uncertainty which has arisen respecting the animal which con- structs the Spirula, from the circumstance of the specimen discovered by 274 O-RTHOCERATITE.- -r-Orthoceratite, Lituite, Baculite, Hamite, Scaphite, Turri- lite, Nummulite, Belemnite.* Orthoceratite, PL 44, Fig. 4. The Orthoceratites (so called from their usual form, — that of a straight horn) began their existence at the same early period with the Nautili, in the seas which deposited the Transition strata ; and are so nearly allied to them in structure, that we may conclude they performed a similar function as floats of Cephalopodous Mollusks. This genus contains many species which abound in the strata of the Transition series, and is one of those which, having been called into existence amongst the earliest inhabitants of our planet, was at an early period also consigned to almost total destruction-! An Orthoceratite (see PL 44, Fig. 4) is, like the Nautilus, a multilocular shell, having its chambers separated by trans- verse plates, concave externally, and internally convex ; and pierced, either at the centre or towards tiie margin, by a Siphuncle, (a.) This pipe varies in size, more than that of any other muhilocular shell, viz. from one-tenth to one-half of the diameter of the shell ; and often assumes a tumid form, which would admit of the distension of a membranous Peron having been lost, is in some degree removed by Captain King's dis- covery of another of these shells, attached to a fragment of tlie mantle of an animal of unknown species resembling a Sepia, which I have seen in the possession of Mr. Owen, at the Royal College of Surgeons, London, * In the genus Lituite, Orthoceratite, and Belemnite, PI. 44, /. 3, 4, 17, the simple curvature of the transverse plates resembles the character of the Nautilus. In the Baculite, Hamite, Scaphite, and Turrilite, PI. 44, Fig. 5' 8, 12, 13, 14, 15, the sinuous foldings and foliated edges of tlie transverse plates resemble those of the Ammonites. t See D'Orbigny's Tableau Rletiiodique des Ccphalopodos. Tiiere arc, I believe, only two exceptions yet known to the general fact, that the genus Orthoceratite became extinct before the deposition of the Secondary strata had commenced. The most recent rocks in which they have been noticed, are a small and problematical species ijs ORTHOCERATITE. LITUITE. 275 siphon. The base of the shell beyond the last plate presents a sweUing cavity, wherein the body of the animal seems to have been partly contained. The Orthoceratites are str»»ight and conical, and bear the same relation to the Nautili which Baculites (see PI. 44, Fig. .5) bear to Ammonites ; the Orthoceratites, with their simple transverse septa, resembhng straight Nautili ; and the Bacu- lites, with a sinuous septa, having the appearance of straight Ammonites. They vary considerably in external figure, and also in size ; some of the largest species exceeding a yard in length, and half a foot in diameter. A single speci- men has been known to contain nearly seventy air-chambers. The body of the animal which required so large a float to balance it, must have greatly exceeded, in all its proportions, the most gigantic of our recent Cephalopods ; and the vast number of Orthoceratites that are occasionally crowded to- gether in a single block of stone, shows ho^l^ abundantly they must have, swarmed in the waters of the early seas. These shells are found in the greatest numbers in blocks of marble, of a dark red colour, from the transition Limestone of Oeland, which some years ago was imported largely to various parts of Europe for architectural purposes.* Lituite* Together with the Orthoceratite, in the Transition Lime- stone of Oeland, there occurs a cognate genus of Cham- f he Lias at Lyme, and another species in Alpine Limestone of the Oolite for- mation, at Halstadt, in the Tyrol. * Part of the pavement in Hampton Court Palace, that of the hall of University College, Oxford, and several tombs of the kings of Poland in the cathedral at Cracow, arc formed of this marble, in which many shells of Orthoceratites are discoverable. The largest known species are found in the Carboniferous limestone of Closeburn, in Dumfrieshire, being nearly of the size of a man's thigh. The presence of such gigantic Mollusks seems to indicate a highly exalted temperature, in the then existing cli- mate of these northern regions of Europe. See Sowerby's Min. Con. Pk 24&. 276 BACULITE. bered shells, called Lituites. (PI. 44, Fig. 3.) These are partially coiled up into a spiral form at their smaller ex- tremity, whilst their larger end is continued into a straight tube, of considerable length, separated by transverse plates, concave outwards, and perforated by a siphuncle (a.) As these Lituites closely resemble the shell of the recent Spirula (PI. 44, Fig. 2,) their office may have been the same, in the economy of some extinct Cephalopod. Baculite. As in rocks of the Transition series, the form of a straight Nautilus is presented by the genus Orthoceratite, so we find in the Cretaceous formation alone, the remains of a genus which may be considered as a straight Ammonite. (See PI. 44, Fig. 5.) The bacuUte (so called from its resemblance to a straight staff) is a conical elongated, and symmetrical shell, de- pressed laterally, and divided into numerous chambers by transverse plates, hke those in the Ammonite, are sinuous, and terminated by foliated dentations at their junction with the external shell ; being thus separated into dorsal, ventral, and lateral lobes and saddles, analogous to those of Ammo- nites.* It is curious, that this straight modification of the form of Ammonites should not have appeared, until this Family had arrived at the last stage of the Secondary deposites, throughout which it had occupied so large an extent ; and that, after a comparatively short duration, the Baculite • The externa! chamber (a) is larger than the rest, and swelling ; and ca- pable of containing a considerable portion of the animal. The outer shell was thin, and strengthened, like the Ammonite, by oblique ribs. Near the posterior margin of the shell, the transverse plates are pierced by a Sipiiuncle (PI. 44, S"*, c.) This position of tiie Siphuncle, and the sinuous form and denticulated edges of the transverse plates, are characters which the Bacu- lite possesses in common with the Ammonite. HAMITE. 277 should have become extinct, simultaneously with the last of the Ammonites, at the termination of the Chalk forma- tion. Hamite. If we imagine a Baculite to be bent round near its centre, until the smaller extremity became nearly parallel to its larger end, it would present the most simple form of that cognate genus of chambered shells, which, from their fre- quently assuming this hooked form, have been called Ha- mites. At PI. 44, Fig. 9, 11, represent portions of Hamites which have this most simple curvature; other species of this genus have a more tortuous form, and are either close- ly coiled up, like the small extremity of a Spirula, (PI. 44, Fig. 2,) or disposed in a more open spiral. (PL 44, Fig. 8.*) It is probable that some of these Hamites were partly internal, and partly external shells ; where the spines are present, the portion so armed was probably external. Nine species of Hamites occur in the single formation of Gault or Speeton clay immediately below the chalk, near Scar- • Both these forms of Hamite bear the same relation to Ammonites that Lituites bear to Nautili; each being nearly such as shells of these genera would respectively present, if partially unrolled. See Pliillips' Geol. York- shire, PI. 1, Figs. 22, 29, 30. Baculites and Hamites have two characters which connect them with Am- monites; first, the position of the Siplumcle, on the back, or outer margin of the shell, (PI. 14, Figs. 5'', c. 8% a. 10, 11, a. 12, a. 13, a.;) secondly, the foliated character of the margin of the transverse plates, at the junction with the external shell. (PI. 44, Fig. 5, 8, 12, 13.) The external shell of Hamites is also fortified by tran.sverse folds or ribs, increasing the strength both of the outer chambers and of the air-chambers, upon the same princi- ples that we have pointed out in the case of Ammonites. (See Pi. 44, Fig. 8,9,11, 12, 13.) In certain species of Hamites, as in certain Ammonites, the marginal Siphuncle has a keel-shaped pipe raised over it. Others have a series of spines on each side of the back. (Pi. 44, Fig. 9, 10.) VOL. I. — 24 278 SCAPHITE. TURRILITE. borough. (See Phillips' Geology of Yorkshire.) Some of the larger species equal a man's wrist in diameter.* Scaphite. The Scaphites constitute a genus of EUiptical chambered shells, (see PI. 44, Fig. 15, 16,) of remarkable beauty, which are almost peculiar to the chalk formation ; they are so rolled up at each extremity, whilst their central part conti- nues nearly in a horizontal plane, as to resemble the ancient form of a boat ; whence the name of Scaphite has been ap- plied to them.f It is remarkable that those approximations to the struc- ture of Ammonites which are presented by Scaphites and Hamites, should have appeared but very rarely, and this in the lias and inferior oohte,J until the period of the cretaceous formations, when the entire type of the ancient and long con- tinued genus Ammonite was about to become extinct. Turrilite. The last genus I shall mention, allied to the family of Am- monites, is composed of spiral shells, of another form, coiled * The Hamites grandls, (Soweiby, M. C. 593,) from tlie Greensand at Hythe, is of these large dimensions. t The inner extremity of the Scapliite is coiled up like tliat of an Ammo- nite, (Fl. 44, Fig. 15, c. and 16) in whorls embracing one another; the last and outer chamber (a) is larger than all the rest together, and is sometimes (probably in the adult state) folded back so as to touch the spire, and thereby materially to contract the mouth, which is narrower than the last or outer chamber. (Pi. 44, Fig. 15, b.) In this character of the external cham- ber, the Scaphite differs from the Ammonite; in all other respects it es- sentially agrees with it; its transverse plates being numerous, and pierced by a marginal Siplumcle, at the back of the shell (Fig. 16, a.;) and their edges being lobated, deeply cut, and foliated. (Fig. 15, c.) t The Scaphites bifurcatus occurs in the Lias of Wurtemburg, and Ha- mites annulatus in the Inferior oolite of France. UNITY OF DESIGN. 879 around themselves in the form of a windmg tower, gradu- ally diminishing towards the apex (PL 44, Fig. 14.*) The same essential characters and functions pervade the Turrilites, which we have been tracing in the Scaphites, Hamites, Baculites, and Ammonites. In each of these genera it is the exterior form of the shell that is principally varied, whilst the interior is similarly constructed in all of them, to act as a float, subservient to the movements of Ce- phalopodous Mollusks. We have seen that the Ammonites, beginning with the Transition strata, appear in all forma- tions, until the termination of the Chalk, whilst the Hamites and Scaphites are very rare, and the Turrilites and Bacu- lites do not appear at all, until the commencement of the Cretaceous formations. Having thus suddenly appeared, they became as suddenly extinct at the same period with the Ammonites, yielding up their place and office in the economy of nature to a lower order of Carnivorous mol- lusks in the Tertiary and existing seas. In the review we have taken of genera in the family of Chambered shells, allied to Nautilus, and Ammonite, we have traced a connected series of delicate and nicely ad- justed instruments, adapted to peculiar uses in the economy of every animal to which they were attached. These all attest undeviating Unity of design, pervading many varied adaptations of the same principle; and afibrd cumulative evidence, not only of the exercise of Intelligence, but also of the same Intelligence through every period of time, in which these extinct races inhabited the ancient deep. * The shells of the Turrilites are extremely thin, and their exterior is adorned and strengthened (like that of Ammonites,) with ribs and tubercles. In all other respects also, except the manner in which they are coiled up, they resemble Ammonites; their interior being divided into numerous chambers by transverse plates, which are foliated at their edges, and pierced by a siphuncle, near the dorsal margin. (PI. 44, Fig. 14, a, a.) Tiie outer chamber is large. 280 BELEMNITBS. SECTION VII. Belemnite. We shall conclude our account of chambered shells witli a brief notice of Belemnites. This extensive family occurs only in a fossil state, and its range is included within that series of rocks which in our section are called Secondary.* These singular bodies are connected with the other families of fossil chambered shells we have already considered ; but differ from them in having their chambers enclosed within a cone-shaped fibrous sheath, the form of which resembles the point of an arrow, and has given origin to the name they bear. M. de Blainville, in his valuable memoir on Belemnites, (1827) has given a list of ninety-one authors, from Theo- phrastus downwards, who have written on this subject. The most intelligent among them agree in supposing these bodies to have been formed by Cephalopods allied to the modern Sepia. Voltz, Zieten» Raspail, and Count Munster, have subsequently published important memoirs upon the same subject. The principal English notices on Belemnites are those of Miller, Geol. Trans. N. S. London, 1826, and that of Sowerby, in his Min. Concha vol. vi. p. 169, et seq, A Belemnite was a compound internal shell, made up of three essential parts, which are rarely found together in per- fect preservation. First, a fibro-calcareous cone shaped shell, terminating at its larger end in a hollow cone (PL 44, Fig. 17. and PL 44', Fig. 7, 9, 10, 11, 12.t) * The lowest strata in wliich Belemnites are said to have been found is the IMuschelkalk, and the highest the upper Chalk of Maestricht. ■j- Tins part of the Belemnite is usually called the sheatJt, ox guard: it CHAMBERED ALVEOLUS. 281 Secondly, a conical thin horny sheath, or cup, com- mencing from the base of the hollow cone of the fibro-cal- careous sheath, and enlarging rapidly as it extends outwards to a considerable distance. PI. 44', Fig. 7, b, e, e', e". This horny cup formed the anterior chamber of the Belemnite, and contained the ink-bag, (c,) and some other viscera.* Thirdly, a thin conical internal chambered shell, called the Alveolus, placed within the calcareous hollow cone above described. (PI. 44, Fig. 17, a. and PI. 44', Fig. 7, b, b'.) This chambered portion of the shell is closely allied in form, and in the principles of its construction, both to the Nautilus and Orthoceratite. (See PI. 44, Fig. 17, a, b. and Fig. 4.) It is divided by thin transverse plates into a series of narrow air-chambers, or areolcB, resembling a pile of watch-glasses, gradually diminishing towards the apex. is made up of a pile of cones, placed one within another, having a common axis, and the largest enclosing all the rest. (See PI. 44, Fig. 17.) These cones are composed of crystalline carbonate of lime, disposed in fibres that radiate from an eccentric axis to the circumference of the Belemnite. The crystalline condition of this shell seems to result from calcareous infiltra- tions (subsequent to interment,) into the intervals between the radiating cal- careous fibres of which it was originally composed. The idea that the Be- lemnite was a heavy solid stony body, whilst it formed part of a living and floating sepia, would be contrary to all analogies afforded by the internal organs of living Cephalopods. The odour, resembling burnt horn, pror dueed on burning this part of a Belemnite, arises from the remains of horny membranes interposed between each successive fibro-ealcareous cone. An argument in favour of the opinion that Bclemnites were internal organs, arises from the fact of their surface being often covered with vascu- lar impressions, derived from the mantle in vvhich it was enclosed. In some species of Belemnitcs tiie back is granulated, like the back of the internal shell of Sepia officinalis. * This laminated horny sheath is rarely preserved in connexion with the fibro-calcareous shelly sheath ; but in the Lias at Lyme Regis, it is frequently found without the shell. Certain portions of it are often highly nacreous, whilst other parts of the same sheath !;etain their horny condition, 24* 282 ANIMAL BELEMNO-SEPIA. The transverse plates are outwardly concave, inwardly con- vex ; and are perforated by a continuous siphuncle, (PI. 44, Fig. 17, b.,) placed on the inferior, or ventral margin. We have already (Ch. XV. Section II.) described the horny pens and ink-bags of the Loligo, found in the Lias at Lyme Regis. Similar ink-bags have recently been found in connexion with Belemnites in the same Lias. Some of these ink-bags are nearly a foot in length, and shov/ that the Beleniho-sepicE,* from which they were derived, attained great size. * In 1829, I communicated to the Geological Society of London a notice respecting the probable connexion of Belemnites with certain fossil ink- bags, surrounded by brilliant nacre, found in the Lias at Lyme Regis.. (See Phil. Mag. N. S. 1821), p. 388.) At the same time I caused to be prepared the drawings of fossils, engraved in PI. 44", which induced me to con- sider these ink-bags as derived from Cephalopods connected with Belem- nites. I then withheld their publication, in the hope of discovering certain demonstration, in some specimen that shoiild present these ink-bags in connexion with the sheath or body of a Belemnite, and this demonstration has at length been furnished by a discovery made by Professor Agassiz (October, 1834,) in the cabinet of MissPhilpotts, at Lyme Regis, of two im- portant specimens which appear to be decisive of the question. (See PI. 44', Figs. 7, 9.) Each of these specimens contains an ink-bag within the anterior portion of the sheath of a perfect Belemnite ; and we are henceforth enabled with certainty to refer all species of Belemnites to a family in the class of Cepha- lopods, for which I would, in concurrence with M. Agassiz propose the name 01 Bele?nno-sepia, Such ink-bags are occasionally found in contact with traces of isolated alveoli of Belemnites: they are more frequently surrounded only by a thin plate of brilliant nacre. The specimen (PI. 44"', Fig. 1,) was procured by me from Miss Mary Anning in 1829, who considered it as appertaining to a Belemnite, Near its lower end we see the lines of growth of the horny anterior sheath, but no traces of the posterior calcareous sheath ; within this horny sheath is placed the ink-bag. The conical form of this anterior chamber seems to have been altered by pressure. It is composed of a thin laminated substance (see PI. 44", Fig. 1, d.,) which in some parts is brilliantly nacreous, whilst in other parts it presents simply the appearance of horn. The outer surface of this cup is marked transversely with gentle undula- tions, which probably indicate stages of growth. Miss Baker has a Belem- INK-BAG. 283; The fact of these animals having been provided with so large a reservoir of ink, affords an d. priori probability that they had no external shell; the ink-bag, as far as we yet know, being a provision confined to naked Cephalopods, which have not that protection from an external shelly which is afforded by the shell of the N. Pompilius to its inhabitant, that has no ink-bag. No ink, or ink-bags have been ever seen within the shell of any fossil Nautilus or Ammonite : had such a substance existed in the body of the animals that occupied their outer chamber, some traces of it must have remained in those- beds of lias at Lyme Regis, which are loaded with Nautili and Ammonites, and have preserved the ink of naked Cephalopods in so perfect a con- dition. The young Sepia officinalis, whilst included within the transparent egg, exhibits its ink-bag distended with ink, provided beforehand for use as soon as it is excluded ; and this ink-bag is surrounded by a covering of brilliant nacre- nitc from the inferior Oolite near Nortliampton, in which one lialf of the fibrous cup being- removed, the structure of the conical shell of the alveolus is seen impressed on a cast of iron-stone, and exhibits undulating' lines of growth, lilie those on the exterior of the shell of N. Pompilius. M. Blainville, although he had not seen a specimen of Belemnite in which the anterior horny conical chamber is preserved, has argued from the ana- logy of other cognate chambered shells that such an appendage was apper- tinent to this shell. The soundness of his reasoning is confirmed by the discovery of the specimen before us, containing this part in the form and place which he had predicted. "Par analogic elle etait done evidemment dorsalc et terminate, et lorsqu'elle 6t;iit complete c'estil dire pourvue d'une cavile, I'extremite postericure des visceres de I'animal (tres-probablement I'organe secreteur de la generation ct partie du foie) y etait renfermee." — Blainville Mem. sur les Belemnites. 1827. Page 28. Count Munster (Mem, Geol. par. A. Boue, 1832, V. 1, PI. 4, Figs. 1, 2, 3, 15,) has published figures of very perfect Belemnites from Solenhofen, in some of which the interior horny sheath is preserved, to a distance equal to the length of the solid calcareous portion of the Belemnite (PI. 44', Figs. 10, 11, 12, 13,) but in neither of these are there any traces of an ink-bag. 284 INK-BAG. ous matter, similar to that we find on certain internal mem branes of many fishes.* • I would here add a few words of explanation of the curious fact, that among- the innumerable specimens of Belemnites wliicli have so long at- tracted the attention of natui-alists, not one lias till now been found entire in all its parts, having the ink within its external chamber; either tiie fibro- calcareous sheath is found detached from the horny sheath and ink-bag, or the ink-bag is found apart from the Belemnite, and surrounded only by the nacreous horny membrane of its anterior chamber. We know fron> the condition of tiie compressed nacreous Ammonites in the Lias-shale at Watchet, that the nacreous lining only of these shells is here preserved, whilst the shell itself has perished. This fact seems to explain the absence of the calcareous sheath and shell in almost every specimen of ink-bags at Lyme Regis, which is surrounded with iridescent nacre, like that of the Ammonites of Watchet. The matrix in these cases may have had a capa- city for presei"ving nacreous or horny substances, whilst it allowed the more soluble calcareous matter of shells to be removed, probably dissolved in some acid. The greater difficulty is to explain the reason, why amidst the millions of Belemnites that are dispersed indiscriminately through almost all strata of the Secondary series, and sometimes form entire pavements in beds of shale connected with the Lias and Inferior oolite, it so rarely liappens that either the horny-sheath, or the ink-bag, have been preserved. We may, I think, explain the absence of the nacreous horny-sheath, by supposing that a con- dition of the matrix favourable to the preservation of the calcareous slieath was unfavourable to the preservation of horny membrane ; and we may also explain the absence of ink-bags, by supposing that the decomposition of the soft parts of the animal usually caused tlie ink to be dispersed, before the body was buried in the earthy sediment then going on. At 'the base of Golden Cap hill, near Charmouth, the shore presents two strata of marl almost paved with Belemnites, and separated by about three feet only of comparatively barren marl. As great numbers of these Belemnites have Surpulje, and other extraneous shells attached to them, we learn from this circumstance that the bodies and ink-bags had decomposed, and the Belemnites lain some time uncovered at the bottom. These facts are explained by supposing that tlie sea near this spot was much frequented by Belemno-sepise during the intervals of the deposition of the Lias. Simi- lar conclusions follow, from the state of many Belemnites in the chalk of Antrim, which had been perforated by small boring animals, whilst they lay at the bottom of the sea, and these perforations filled with casts of chalk BELEMNITE COMPARED WITH NAX^TILIJS. 285 Comparing the shell of Belemnite, with that of Nautilus, we find the agreement of all their most important parts to be nearly complete ;* and the same analogies might be traced through the other genera of chambered shells.f or flint, when the matter of the chalk strata was deposited upon them, in a soft and fluid state. (See Allan's Paper on Belemnite, Trans. Royal Soc. Edin., and Miller's Paper, Geol. Tran?. Lond. 1826, p. 53.) Thus of the millions of Belemnites which crowd the Secondary forma- tions, only the fibro-calcareous sheatli and chambered alveoli are usually preserved; whilst in certain shale beds this sheath and shell have some* times entirely disappeared, and the horny or nacreous sheath or ink-bag alone remain. See PI, 44", Fig. 1, 2, 3. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. la the rare case PI. 44', Fig. 7, which has aflforded the clue to this hitherto unexplained enigma, we have all the three essential parts of a Belemnite preserved in their respective places nearly entire. The ink-bag (c) is placed within the anterior horny cup (e, e', e'';) and the chambered alveolus, (b b') within the hollow cone of the posterior fibro-calcareous shell, or common Belemnite. * The air-chambers and siphuncle are, in both these families, essentially the same. In Belemnites, the anterior extremity of the fibro-calcareous shell, which forms a hollow straight cone, surrounding the transverse plates of the chambered alveolus, represents the hollow coiled up cone containing all the transverse plates, which make up the alveolus of the Nautilus.. The anterior horny cap, or outer chamber of the Belemnite, surrounding the ink-bag, and other viscera, represents the large anterior shelly chamber which contains the body of the Nautilus. The posterior portion of the Belemnite, which is elongated backwards into a fibrous pointed shaft, is a modification of the apex of the straight cone of this shell, to which tiiere seems to be no equivalent in the apex of the coiled-up cone of Nautilus. The cause of this peculiar addition to the ordinary parts of shells, seems to rest in the peculiar uses of the shaft of the Belemnite, as an internal shell, acting like the internal shell of the Sepia Ofiieinalis, to support the soft parts of the animals, within the bodies of which they were respectively enclosed. The fibrous structure of this shaft is such as is common to many shells, and is most obvious in the Pinnce. t Comparing the Belemnite, or internal shell of Balemno-sepia with the Sepiostaire, {Blainville,) or internal shell of the Sepia Officinalis, we have the following analogies. In the Sepiostaire, (PI. 44', Fig. 2, a. e. and Figs. 4, 4'. 5,) the small conical apex (a) represents the apex of the long calcareous posterior sheath of the Belemnite, (Fig. 7, a.,) and the 286 NUMBER OF SPECIES. Eighty-eight species of Belemnites have already been dis- covered;* and the vast numerical amount to which in- dividuals of these species were extended, is proved by the myriads of their fossil remains that fill the Oolitic and Cre- taceous formations. When we recollect that throughout both these great formations, the still more numerous extinct family of Ammonites is co-extensive with the Belemnites ; and that each species of Ammonite exhibits also contri- vances, more complex and perfect than those retained in the few existing cognate genera of Cephalopods ; we cannot but infer that these extinct families filled a larger space, and performed more important functions among the inhabitants calcareous plates, alternaling with horny plates, which form the shield and shallow cup of the Sepioslaire, (Pi. 44', Fig. 2, e. and Fig. 5. e.,) represent the hollow fibro-calcareous cone or cup of the Belemnite, surrounding its alveolus. The margin of the horny plates; interposed between the calcareous plates of the shield and cup of the Sepiostaire, (Pi. 44', Fig. 4, e, e, e', e.,) repre- sents the horny marginal cavity of the cone of the Belemnite, beyond the base of its hollow calcareous cone, (Pi. 44' Fig. 7, e. e'. e".) This horny sheath of the Belemnite was probably formed by the prolongation of the homy laminae which were interposed between its successive cones of fibro- calcareous matter. The chambered alveolus of the Belemnite is represented by the congeries of thin transverse plates, (Pi. 44', Fig. 4, b.) which occupy the interior of the shallow cup of Sepiostaire, (e. e'.;) these plates are composed of horny matter, penetrated with carbonate of lime. The hollow spaces between them, (Fig. 5, b, b',) whicli are nearly a hundred in number in the full grown animal, act as air-chambers to make the entire shell permanently lighter than water; but there is no siphuncle to vary the specific gravity of this shell; and the thin chambers between its transverse plates are studded with an infinity of minute columnar, and sinuous partitions, jilanted at right angles to the plates, and giving them support. (Fig. 6', 6", 6'".) The absence of a siphuncle render, the Sepiostaire an organ of more simple structure, and of lower office, than the more compound shell of Be- lemnite. • (See index to M. Brochant de Villiers' Translation of De la Heche's Manual of Geology.) CONCLUSION. 287 of the ancient seas, than are assigned to their few living representatives in our modern oceans. Conclusion. It results from the view we have taken of the zoological affinities between living and extinct species of chambered shells, that they are all connected by one plan and organi- zation; each forming a link in the common chain, which unites existing species with those that prevailed among the earliest conditions of life upon our globe ; and all attesting the Identity of the design, that has effected so many similar ends through such a variety of instruments, the principle of whose construction is, in every species, fundamentally the same. Throughout the various living and extinct genera of Chambered shells, the use of the air-chambers and siphon, to adjust the specific gravity of the animals in rising and sinking, appears to have been identical. The addition of a new transverse plate within the conical shell added a new air-chamber, larger than the preceding one, to counter- balance the increase of weight that attended the growth of the shell and body of all these animals. These beautiful arrangements are, and ever have been, subservient to a common object, viz. the construction of hydraulic instruments of essential importance in the economy of creatures destined to move sometimes at the bottom, and at other times upon or near the surface of the sea. The delicate adjustments whereby the same principle is extended through so many grades and modifications of a single type, show the uniform and constant agency of some controlHng Intelligence ; and in searching for the origin of so much method and regularity amidst variety, the mind can only rest, when it has passed back, through the subordinate series of Second causes, to that great First Cause, which is found in the will and power of a common Creator. 288 FORAMINATED POLYTHALAMOUS SHELLS. SECTION VIII. FORAMINATED POLYTHALAMOUS SHELLS. Mummuliies. If the present were a fit occasion for such minute in- quiries, the investigations of the various known species of Microscopic shells would unfold a series of contrivances having relation to the economy of the minute Cephalopods by which they were constructed, not less striking than those we have been examining in the shells of extinct Genera and species of larger Cephalopods. M. D'Orbigny has noticed from 600 to 700 species of these shells, and has prepared magnified models of 100 species, comprehending all the Genera.* The greater number of these shells are microscopic, and swarm in the Mediterranean and Adriatic. Their fossil species abound chiefly in the Tertiary formations, and have hitherto been noticed principally in Italy. (See Soldani, as * M. D'Orbigny, in his classification of the shells of Cephalopodous Mollusks, has established three orders. 1. Those that have but a single chamber, like the shell of the sepia and horny pen of the Loligo. 2. Poly- thalamous shells, which have a siphuncle passing' through all the internal chambers, and which terminate in a large external chamber, beyond the last partition, such as Nautili, Ammonites, and Belemnites. 3. Poly- thalamous internal shells, wiiich have no chamber beyond their last parti- tion. Shells of this order have no siphuncle, but tiie chambers communicate with each other by means of one or many small foramina. On this distinc- tion he has founded his Order Foraminiferes, containing five families and fifty-two genera. It may be necessary to apprize the reader that doubts have been enter, tained as to the cephalopodous structure of some of these minute multilocu- lar shells ; and that there are not wanting those who attrib ute to them a different organization. NUMMULITE. 289 quoted at page 97 of this volume.) They occur also in the Chalk of Meudon, in the Jura Limestone of the Cha- rente inferieure, and the Oolite of Calne. They have been found by the Marquis of Northampton in Chalk flints from the neighbourhood of Brighton. The Nummulite is the only Genus I shall select on the present occasion from this Order. It is included in M. D'Orbigny's Section Nautiloids. Nummulites (PI. 44, Fig. 6, 7,) are so called from their resemblance to a piece of money, they vary in size from that of a crown piece to microscopic littleness; and occupy an important place in the history of fossil shells, on account of the prodigious extent to which they are accumulated in the later members of the Secondary, and in many of the Tertiary strata. They are often piled on each other nearly in as close contact as the grains in a heap of corn. In this state they form a considerable portion of the entire bulk of many extensive mountains, e. g. in the Tertiary limestones of Verona and Monte Bolca, and in secondary strata of the Cretaceous formation in the Alps, Carpathians, and Pyrenees. Some of the pyramids and the Sphinx, of Egypt, are composed of limestone loaded with Nummulites. It is impossible to see such mountain-masses of the i-emains of a single family of shells thus added to the solid materials of the globe, without recollecting that each indi- vidual shell once held an important place within the body of a living animal ; and thus recalling our imagination to those distant epochs when the waters of the ocean which then covered Europe were filled with floating swarms of these extinct MoUusks, thick as the countless myriads of Beroe and Clio Borealis that now crowd the waters of the polar seas.* * We have an analogy to tliis supposed state of crowded population of Nummulites in the ancient sea, in the marvellous fecundity of the northern ocean at the present time. It is stated by Cuvier, in his memoir on the VOL. I. — 25 290 NUMMULITE. s The Nummulites, like the Nautilus and Ammonite, are divided into air-chambers, which served the office of a iioat : but there is no enlargement of the last chamber which could have contained any part of the body of the animal. The chambers are very numerous, and minutely divided by transverse plates ; but are without a siphuncle.* The form of the essential parts varies in each species of this genus, but their principles of construction, and manner of operation, appear in all to have been the same. The remains of the Nummulites are not only animal bodies which have contributed to form the calcareous strata of the crust of the earth ; other, and more minute species of Chambered shells have also produced great, and most sur- prising effects. liamarck (Note, v. 7. p. 611,) speaking of the Miliola, a small moltilocular shell, no larger than a mil- let seed, with which the strata of many quarries in the neigh- bourhood of Paris are largely interspersed, notices the im- portant influence which these minute bodies have exercised by reason of their numerical abundance. We scarcely con- Clio Borealis, that in calm weather, the surface of the water in these seas swarms with such millions of these mollusks (rising for a moment to the air at the surface, and again instantly sinking towards the bottom,) that the whales can scarce open their enormous moutlis without gulping in thou- sands of these little gelatinous creatures, an inch long, which, together with Meduss, and some smaller animals, constitute the chief articles of their food ; and we have a farther analogy in the fact mentioned in Jameson's Journal, vol. ii. p. 12. " That the number of small Medusse in some parts of the Greenland seas is so great, that in a cubic inch, taken up at random, tliere are no less than 64, In a cubic foot this will amount to 110,592; and in a cubic mile (and there can be no doubt of the water being charged with them to that extent,) the number is such, that allowing one person to count a million in a week, it would have required 80,000 persons, from the crea- tion of the world, to complete the enumeration." — See Dr. Kidd's admirable Introductory Lecture to a course of Comparative Anatomy, Oxford, 1824^ p. 35. * In PI. 44, Figs. 6, 7, sections of two species of Nummulite are copied from Parkinson. These show the manner in which the whorls are coiled up round each other, and divided by oblique septa. ARTICULATED ANIMALS. 291 descend, says he, to examine microscopic shells, from their insignificant size : but we cease to think them insignificant, when we reflect that it is by means of the smallest objects, that Nature every where produces her most remarkable and astonishing phenomena. Whatever she may seem to lose in point of volume in the production of living bodies, is amply made up by the number of the individuals, which she multi- plies with admirable promptitude to infinity. The remains of such minute animals have added much more to the mass of materials which compose the exterior crust of the globe, than the bones of Elephants, Hippopotami, and Whales. CHARTER XVI. Proofs of Design in the Structure of Fossil Articulated, Animals. The third grand division in Cuvier's arrangement of the animal kingdom, viz. the articulated animals, comprehends four classes. 1. The Annehdans, or worms with red blood. 2. Crustaceans, most familiar to us under the form of Crabs and Lobsters. 3. Arachnidans, or Spiders. 4. Insects. 292 FOSSIL CRUSTACEANS. SECTION I. First Class of Articulated Animals, FOSSIL ANNELIDANS. However numerous may have been the ancient species of Annelidans without a shelly covering, naked worms of this class can have left but slight traces of their existence, except the holes they perforated, and the little accumulations of sand or mud cast up at the orifice of these perforations ; in a preceding chapter* we have noticed examples of this kind. We have also abundant evidence of the early and continued prevalence of that order of Annelidans, which formed shelly calcareous tubes, in the occurrence of fossil Serpulae in nearly all formations, from the Transition periods to the present time. SECTION II. Second Class of Articulated Animals. FOSSIL CRUSTACEANS. The history of fossil Crustaceans has been hitherto almost untouched by Palseontologists, and their relations to the ex- isting Genera of this great Class of the Animal Kingdom are to olittle known to admit of' discussion in this place. See note at pages 198 — 199. FOSSIL CRUSTACEANS. 293 We may judge of their extent in certain Formations, from the fact, that in the cabinet of Count Munster, there are nearly sixty species collected from a single stratum of the Jurassic Limestone of Solenhofen. A rich harvest, there- fore, remains in store for the Naturalist who will trace this interesting subject through the entire series of Geological formations. The analogies between existing species, and certain fossil remains of Crustaceans have been beautifully illustrated by the investigations of M. Desmarest. From him we learn, that all the inequalities of the external shell in the living species have constant relation to distinct compartments in their internal organization. By the application of these dis- tinctions to fossil species, he has pointed out a method of comparing them with living Crustaceans in a new and un- expected manner, and has established satisfactory analogies between the extinct and existing members of this very nu- merous Class, in cases where the legs and other parts on which generic distributions have been founded, were entire- ly wanting.* * H. Von Meyer has recently noticed five or six extinct genera of Ma- crourous Decapods in the Musclielkalk of Germany. (Leonhardt and Bronn Jahrbuch, 1835.) The subject of Einglish fossil Astacids (Crawfishes) is at this time re- ceiving' important illustration in the able hands of Prof Phillips. In a recent communication to the Geological Society (June 10, 1835,) Mr. Broderip describes some very interesting remains of Crustaceans from the Lias at Lyme Regis, in the collection of Viscount Cole. In one of these, the Lamell^e of the external Antennx, the form and situation of the eyes, and other characters, show that it was a macrourous decapod intermediate be- tween Palinurus and the Shrimps. A fragment of another macrourous decapod proves the existence at this early period of a crustacean approaching to Palinurus, and as large as our common Sea Crawfish. Two other specimens exhibit the breathing organs of another delicate Crustacean, with the tips of the four larger and four smaller branchise pre- served, and pointing towards the region of the heart, showing that these fossil Crustaceans belonged to the highest division of the Macroura. They 25* 294 TEILOBITES, THEIR DISTRIBUTION. Referring my readers to these valuable commencements of the history of fossil Crustaceans, I proceed to select one very remarkable family, the Trilobites, and to devote to them that detailed consideration, to which they seem pecu- liarly entitled, from their apparently anomolous structure, and from the obscurity in which their history has been in- volved. Trilobites. The great extent to which Trilobites are distributed over the surface of the globe, and their numerical abundance in the places where they have been discovered, are remarkable features in their history ; they occur at most distant points^ both of the JNorthern and Southern Hemisphere. They have been found all over Northern Europe, and in numerous lo- calities in North America ; and in the Southern Hemisphere they occur in the Andes,* and at the Cape of Good Hope. No Trilobites have yet been found in any strata more re- cent than the Carboniferous series ; and no other Crusta- ceans, except three forms which are also Entomostracous, have been noticed in strata coeval w^ith any of those that reminded Mr. Broderip of the living Arctic forms of the macrourous deca- pods. * I learn from Mr. Pentland that M. D'Orbigiiy has lately found Trilo- bites, accompanied by Strophomena and Producta in tlie Greywacke slate formation of the Eastern Cordillera of the Andes of Bolivia. Fresh-water shells, Melania, Melanopsis, and probable Anodon, occur also in the same rock; a fact which seems analogous to the recent discovery of similar fossils in the Transition rocks of Ireland, Germany, and the United States. The Fresh-water fossils occurred near Potosi, at an elevation of 13,200 feet. M. D'Orbigny's specimens also confirm Mr. Pentland's view, as to the analogies between the great Limestone formation of this district, and tlie Carboniferous limestones of England; and as to the great extent also of the Red Marl, and New red sandstone formations on the Continent of South America. FOUND ONLY IN TRANSITION SERIES. 295 contain the remains of Trilobites ;* so that during the long periods that intervened between the deposition of the eariiest fossihferous strata and the termination of the Coal formation,! the Trilobites appear to have been the chief representatives of a class which was largely multiplied into other orders and families, after these earliest forms of marine Crustaceans became extinct. The fossil remains of this family have long attracted at- tention, from their strange peculiarities of configuration. M. Brogniart, in his valuable History of Trilobites, 1822, enumerated five genera,J and seventeen species ; other writers (Dalma, Wahlenberg, Dekay, and Green,) have added five more genera, and extended the number of spe- cies to fifty-two ; examples of four of these genera are given in plate 4G. Fossils of this family were long con- founded with Insects, under the name of Entomolithus para- doxus; after many disputes respecting their true nature, their place has now been fixed in a separate section of the class Crustaceans, and although the entire family appears to have been annihilated at so early a period as the termi- nation of the Carboniferous strata, they nevertheless present * In Scotland two genera of Entomostracous Crustaceans, the Eurypterus, and Cypris, occur in the Fresh-water limestone beneath the Mid Lothian Coal Field; the Eurypterus at Kirkton, near Bathgate, and the Cypris at Burdiehouse, near Edinburgh. (Trans. Royal Soc. Edin. vol. xiii.) The third Genus, Limulus, has but recently been recognised in the Coal Forma- tion, and will be described presently. The Entomostracans appear to have been the only representatives of the Class Crustaceans until after the deposi- tion of the Carboniferous strata, T Trilobites of a new species have lately been found in Ironstone from the centre of the coal measures in Coalbrook-dalc. Lond. and Edin. Phil. Mag, vol. 4. 1834, p. 376. X The names of these Genera are Calymene, Asaphus, Ogyges, Para- doxus, and Agnostus. Some of these terms are devised expressly to denote the obscure nature of the bodies to which they are attached; e, g. Asaphus, from a.i(, obscure; Calymene, from ■xix.xw/x/unvii, concealed; •^xfAS't^Hr wonderful; aj.i'aa-To;, unknown. 296 THE FOEM AND STRUCTURE OF TRILOBITES. analogies of structure, which place them in near approxima- tion to the inhabitants of the existing seas.* The anterior segment of the Trilobites (PI. 46, a, passim,) is composed of a large semi-circular, or crescent-shaped shield, succeeded by an abdomen, or body (c,) composed of numerous segments folding over each other, like those in a Lobster's tail, and generally divided by two longitudinal furrows into three ranges of lobes, from which they have derived the name of Trilobites. Behind this body, in many species, is placed a triangular or semi-lunar tail or post-ab- domen (d,) less distinctly lobated than the body. One of these Genera, the Calymene, has the property of rolling it- self up into a ball hke a common Wood-Louse. (See PL 46, Figs. 1,3,4,5.) The nearest approach among living animals to the ex- ternal form of Trilobites is that afforded by the genus Serolis in the class Crustacea. (See PI. 45, Figs. 6, 7.f) The most striking ditference between this animal, and the * See M. Audouin's Recherches sur les Rapports naturels qui extent enlres les Trilobites ct les Animaux articules. t The Genus Serolis was first established by Dr. Leach, on the authority of specimens collected by Sir Joseph Banks, in the Straits of Mag^ellan (or rather of Magalhaens, the proper name of the navigator, according to Cap- tain King) during Sir Joseph's voyage with Captain Cook, and given by Sir Joseph to the Linnaean Society ; and of another specimen of the same Genus from Senegal given by Mr. Dufresne to Dr. Leach. From these Dr. Leach described and named the species represented in our plate ; his description of this Genus is published in the Dictionnaire des Sciences Na- turclles, V. 12, p. 340. Captain King has lately collected many specimens of Scrolls on the east coast of Patagonia, lat. 45. S. 30 miles from the shore, and brought up by dredging in 40 fathoms water; and also at Port Famine, in the Straits of Magalhaens, where it was thrown upon the beach by the tide ; here Captain King saw the beach literally covered with them dead ; he has observed them alive svi'imming close to the bottom among the sea-- weed; Ihcir motions were slow and gradual, and not like those of a shrimp; he never saw them swimming near the surface ; their legs seemed shaped- for swimming and crawling on the boltonu ANIMALS ALLIED TO TRILOBITES. 297 Trilobites, consists in there being a fully developed series of crustaceous legs and antenna? in the Serolis (PI. 45, Fig. 7.,) whilst no traces of either of these organs have yet been discovered in connexion with any Trilobite. M. Brongniart explains the absence of these organs, by conceiving that the Trilobites hold precisely that place in the class Crustaceans [Gymnohranchia,) in which the antennae become very small, or altogether fail ; and that the legs being transformed to soft and perishable paddles {pattes,) bearing branchiee, (or filamentous organs for breathing in water,) were incapable of preservation. A second approximation to the character of Trilobites occurs in the Limulus, or King crab (Lamarck, T. 5, p. 145.,) a genus now most abundant in the seas of warm climates, chiefly in those of India, and the coasts of America (see PI. 45, Figs. 1. 2.) The history of this genus is im- portant, on account of its relations, both to the existing and extinct forms of Crustaceans ; it has been found fossil in the Coal formation of Staflbrdshire and Derbyshire; and in the Jurassic limestone of Aichstadt, near Pappenheim, together with many other marine Crustaceans of a higher Order.* * In the genus Limulus (see PI. 45, Figs. 1. 2.) there are but faint traces of antennse, and the shield (a.,) which covers the anterior portion of the body, is expanded entirely over a series of small crustaceous legs (Fig. 2. a.) Beneath the Second, or abdominal portion of the shell (c.,) is placed a series of thin horny transverse plates (Fig. 2, e. 2, e'. and 2, e",) supporting the fibres of the branchis, and at the same time acting as paddles for swimming. The same disposition of laminated branchie is found also in the Serolis, Fig. 7. e. Fig. 8. is a magnified representa* tion of these laminated branchiae, very similar to those at Figs. 3, e. and 5.6. Thus while the Serolis (Fig. 7.) presents a union of antennae and crustaceous legs with soft paddles bearing the Branchiae, we have in the Limulus (Fig. 2,) a similar disposition of legs and paddles, and only slight traces of antennse ; in the Branchipus, (Figs. 3 and 5,) we find an- tennse, but no crustaceous legs; while the Trilobite, being without an- tennae, and having all its legs represented by soft paddles, as in Branchi- 298 SEROLIS, LIMULIS, BRANCHIPUS. A third example of this disposition, in an animal belong- ing to the same class of Crustaceans, whereby the legs are reduced to soft paddles, and combine the functions of respi- ration with those of locomotion, is afforded by the Branchi- pus stagnahs, (Cancer stagnalis, Lin.,) of our EngUsh ponds, (see PI. 45, Figs. 3, e. 4, e. 5, e.) In the comparison here made between four different families of Crustaceans, for the purpose of illustrating the history of the long extinct Trilobites, by the analogies we find in the Serolis, Limulus, and Branchipus ; we have a beautiful example, taken from the extreme points of time of which Geology takes cognizance, of that systematic and uniform arrangement of the Animal Kingdom, under which every family is nearly connected with adjacent and cognate families. Three of the families under consideration are among the present inhabitants of the water, w^hile the fourth has been long extinct, and occurs only in a fossil state. When we see the most ancient Trilobites thus placed in immediate contact with our living Crustaceans, we cannot but recognise them as forming part and parcel of one great system of Creation, connected through its whole extent by perfect unity of design, and sustained in its minutest parts by uninterrupted harmonies of organization. We have in the Trilobites an example of that peculiar, and, as it is sometimes called, rudimentary development of the organs of locomotion in the Class Crustaceans, whereby the legs are made subservient to the double func- tions of paddles and lungs. The advocate for the theory of the derivation of existing more perfect species, by suc- cessive changes from more simple ancient forms, might imagine that he sees in the Trilobite the extinct parent stock from which, by a series of developments, consecutive pus, is by the latter condition placed near Branchipus among the Ento- inostracous Crustaceans, in the order of Branchlopods, whose feet are repre- sented by ciliated paddles, combining the functions of respiration and natation- At PI. 45. Fig. 3. e, Fig. 4. e. Fig. 5. e, represent the soft branchite of Branchipus, performing the double office of feet and lungs. FOSSIL EYES OF TRILOBITES. 299 forms of more perfect Crustaceans may, during the lapse of ages, have been derived ; but according to this hypothesis, we ought no longer to find the same simple condition as that of the Trilobite still retained in the living Branchipus, nor should the primeval form of Limulus have possessed such an intermediate character, or have remained unad- vanced in the scale of organization, from its first appearance "■ in the Carboniferous Series,* through the midway periods of the secondary formations, unto the present hour. Eyes of Trilohites. Besides the above analogies between the Trilobites and certain forms of living Crustaceans, there remains a still more important point of resemblance in the structure of their eyes. This point deserves peculiar consideration, as it affords the most ancient, and almost the only example yet found in the fossil world, of the preservation of parts so delicate as the visual organs of animals that ceased to live many thousands, and perhaps millions of years ago. We must regard these organs with feelings of no ordinary kind, when we recollect that we have before us the identical in- * Tlie very rare fossil engraved in Martin's Petrifacata Derbiensia (Tab. 45. Fig. 4,) by the name of Entomolithus Monoculites (Lunatus) appears to be a Limulus. It was found in Iron Stone of the Coal formation on the borders of Derbyshire, A similar fossil in the collectien of Mr, Anstice, of Madely, is engraved in our Plate 46 ",Fig, 3. In the Secondary period, during the deposition of the Jurassic limestone, the Limulus abounded in the seas which then covered central Germany ; and it still maintains its primeval intermediate form in the King Crab of the present ocean. My friend Mr. Stokes has discovered, on the under side of a fossil Trilo- bite from Lake Huron (PI. 45, Fig. 12.,) a crustaceous plate (f.) forming the entrance into the stomach, the shape and structure of which resemble those of the analogous parts in some recent Crabs. This organ forms another link of connexion between the Trilobite and living Crustaceans. — Geol. Trans. N.S.vol. i.p. 208,PI.27. 300 COMPOUND AND FACETTED. struments of vision, through which the light of heaven M'as admitted to the sensorium of some of the first created inha- bitants of our planet. The discovery of such instruments in so perfect a state of preservation, after having been buried for incalculable ages in the early strata of the Transition formation, is one of the most marvellous facts yet disclosed by geological re- searches ; and the structure of these eyes supplies an argu- ment, of high importance in connecting together the extreme points of the animal creation. An identity of mechanical arrangements, adapted to the construction of an optical in- strument, precisely similar to that which forms the eyes of existing insects and Crustaceans, affords an example of agreement that seems utterly inexpUcable without reference to the exercise of one and the same Intelligent Creative power. Professor Miiller and Mr. Straus* have ably and amply illustrated the arrangements, by which the eyes of Insects and Crustaceans are adapted to produce distinct vision, through the medium of a number of minute facets, or lenses, placed at the extremity of an equal number of conical tubes, or microscopes ; these amount sometimes, as in the Butter- fly, to the number of 35,000 facets in the two eyes, and in the Dragon-fly to 14,000. It appears that in eyes constructed on this principle, the image will be more distinct in proportion as the cones in a given portion of the eye are more numerous and long ; that, as compound eyes see only those objects which present them- selves in the axes of the individual cones, the hmit of their field of vision is greater or smaller as the exterior of the eye is more or less hemispherical. If we examine the eyes of Trilobites with a view to their principles of construction, we find both in their form, and in * See Lib. Ent Knowledge, v. 12. ; and Dr. Rogel's Bridgewatcr Trea- tise, vol, ii. p. 486 ct seq. and Fig. 422 — 42S. DISPOSITION OF THE LENSES. 301 the disposition of the facets, obvious examples of optical adaptation. In the Asaphus caudatus (see PI. 45, Figs. 9 and 10.,) each eye contains at least 400 nearly spherical lenses fixed in separate compartments on the surface of the cornea.* The form of the general cornea is peculiarly adapted to the uses of an animal destined to live at the bottom of the water: to look downwards was as much impossible as it was unne- cessary to a creature Jiving at the bottom ; but for horizon- tal vision in every direction the contrivance is complete.f The form of each eye is nearly that of the frustum of a cone (see PI. 45, Figs. 9 and 10.,) incomplete on that side only which is directly opposite to the corresponding side of the other eye, and in which if facets were present, their chief range would be towards each other across the head, where no vision was required. The exterior of each eye, like a circular bastion, ranges nearly round three-fourths of a cir- cle, each commanding so much of the horizon, that where the distinct vision of one eye ceases, that of the other eye begins, so that in the horizontal direction the combined range of both eyes was panoramic. If we compare this disposition of the eyes with that in the three cognate Crustaceans, by which we have been illus- trating the general structure of the Trilobites, we shall find the same mechanism pervading them all, modified by pecu- liar adaptations to the state and habits of each ; thus in the Branchipus (PI. 45, Fig. 3, b, b',) which moves with rapidi- ty in all directions through the water, and requires universal * As tlie Crystalline lens in the eyes of Fishes is spherical, and those in the Eye of Trilobites are nearly so, there seems to be in this form an adaptation to the medium of Water, which would lead iis to expect to find a similar form of lens in the compound Eyes of all marine Crustacea, and probably a different form in the compound Eyes of Insects that live in Air. f The facetted eyes of Bees are disposed most favourably for horizontal vision, and for looking downwards. — Lib. Ent. Knowl. v. xu. p. 130. VOL. I, — 26 302 SIMILAR EYES IN COGNATE CRUSTACEANS. vision, each eye is nearly hemispherical, and placed on a peduncle by which it is projected to the distance requisite to effect this purpose. (See PI. 45, Fig, 3, b, and b'.) In the Scrolls (PI. 45, Fig. 6. b'.,) the disposition of the eye, and its range of vision, are similar to those in the Tri- lobite; but the summit of the eye is less elevated; as the flat back of this animal presents little obstruction to the rays of light from surrounding objects.* In the Limulus (PI. 45, Fig. 1.,) vv^here the side eyes (b, b') are sessile, and do not command the space immediately before the head, two other simple eyes (b") are fixed in front, compensating for the want of range in the compound eyes over objects in that direction.f In the above comparison of the eyes of Trilobites, with those of the Limulus, SeroUs, and Branchipus, we have placed side by side, examples of the construction of that most delicate and complex organ the eye, selected from each extreme, and from a midway place in the progressive series of animal creations. We find in Trilobites of the Transition rocks, which were among the most ancient forms of animal life, the same modifications of this organ which are at the present time adapted to similar functions in the living SeroHs. The same kind of instrument was also em- ployed in those middle periods of geological chronology when the Secondary strata were deposited at the bottom of a warm sea, inhabited by Limuli, in the regions of Europe which now form the elevated plains of central Germany. • Fig. 1. b', Fig. 3. b'. and Fig. 6. b'. are magnified representations of the eyes to which these figures arc respectively adjacent. Figs. 10. and 11. are differently magnified forms of the eye of Asaphus caiidatus, which in Fig. 9. is represented of its natural size. A few of these lenses are semi- transparent; they are still set in their original rims, or frame-work of t!ie cornea, the whole being converted into calcareous spar. ■|- These eyes are placed so close together, that, having been mistaken for a single eye, they caused the name of Monoculus Polyphemus to be applied to this animal by Linnxus. GENERAL RESULTS. 303 The results arising from these facts are not confined to animal Physiology; they give information also regarding the condition of the ancient Sea and ancient Atmosphere, and the relations of both these media to Light, at that re- mote period when the earliest marine animals were fur- nished with instruments of vision, in which the minute optical adaptations were the same that impart the percep- tion of light to Crustaceans now living at the bottom of the sea. With respect to the waters wherein the Trilobites main- tained their existence throughout the entire period of the Transition formation, we conclude that they could not have been that imaginary turbid and compound Chaotic fluid, from the precipitates of which some Geologists have sub- posed the materials of the surface of the earth to be de- rived ; because the structure of the eyes of these animals is such, that any kind of fluid in which they could have been eflicient at the bottom, must have been pure and transparent enough to allow the passage of Hght to organs of vision, the nature of which is so fully disclosed by the state of perfec- tion in which they are preserved. With regard to the Atmosphere also we infer, that had it diflfered materially from its actual condition, it might have so far affected the rays of Light, that a corresponding dif- ference from the eyes of existing Crustaceans would have been found in the organs on which the impressions of such rays were then received. Regarding Light itself also, we learn from the resem- blance of these most ancient organizations to existing eyes, tiiat the mutual relations of Light to the Eye, and of the Eye to Light, were the same at the time when Crustaceans endowed wdth the faculty of vision were first placed at the bottom of the primeval seas, as at the present moment. Thus we find among the earliest organic remains, an Optical instrument of most curious construction, adapted to produce vision of a peculiar kind, in the then existing repre- 304 ANCIENT SEA AND ATMOSPHERE, AND LIGHT. sentatives of one great Class in the Articulated division of the Animal Kingdom. We do not find this instrument pass- ing onwards, as it were, through a series of experimental changes, from more simple into more complex forms; it was created at the very first, in the fulness of perfect adap- tation to the uses and condition of the class of creatures, to which this kind of eye has ever been, and is still appro- priate. If we should discover a microscope, or telescope, in the hand of an Egyptian Mummy, or beneath the ruins of Her- culaneum^ it would be impossible to deny that a knowledge of the principles of Optics existed in the mind by which such an instrument had been contrived. The same inference fol- lows, but with cumulative force, when we see nearly four hundred microscopic lenses set side by side, in the com- pound eye of a fossil Trilobite ; and the weight of the ar- gument is multiphed a thousand fold, when we look to the infinite variety of adaptations by which similar instruments have been modified, through endless genera and species, from the long-lost Trilobites, of the Transition strata, through the extinct Crustaceans of the Secondary and Tertiary for- mations, and thence onward throughout existing Crustaceans^ and the countless hosts of living Insects. It appears impossible to resist the conclusions as to Unitj^ of Design in a common Author, which are thus attested by such cumulative evidences of Creative Intelligence and Power ; both, as infinitely surpassing the most exalted fa- culties of the human mind, as the mechanisms of the na- tural world, when magnified by the highest microscopes, are found to transcend the most perfect productions of hu- man art. DOSSIL ARACHNIDANS. 305 r SECTION III. Third Class of Articulated Animals. FOSSIL ARACHNIDANS. Under the relations that now subsist between the animal and vegetable kingdoms, the connexion of terrestrial Plants with Insects is so direct and universal, that each species of plant is considered to afford nutriment to three or four species of insects. The General principle which we have traced throughout the Secondary and Tertiary formations, ever operating to maintain on the surface of the earth the greatest possible amount of life, affords a strong antecedent probability that so large a mass of terrestrial vegetables as that which is preserved in the Carboniferous strata of the Transition series, held the same relation, as the basis of nutriment to Insect families of this early date, that modern vegetables do to this most numerous class of existing ter- restrial animals. Still farther, the actual provisions for restraining this In~ sect class within due bounds, by the controlling agency of the carnivorous Arachnidans would lead us to expect that Spiders and Scorpions were employed in similar service during the successive geological epochs, in which M-e have evidence of the abundant growth of terrestrial vegetables. Some recent discoveries confirm the argument from these analogies, by the test of actual observation. The two great families in the higher order of Uving Arachnidans (Pulmo- narias) are Spiders and Scorpions ; and we have evidence to show that fossil remains of both these families exist ia strata of very high antiquity. 26* 306 FOSSIL SPIDERS. Possil Spiders.. Although no Spiders have been yet discovered in any rocks so ancient as the Carboniferous series, the presence of Insects in this series, and also of Scorpions, renders it highly probable that the cognate family of Spiders was co- ordinate with Scorpions, in restraining the Insect tribes of this early epoch, and that it will ere long be recognised among its fossil remains.* The existence of Spiders in the Jurassic portion of the Secondary formations has been established, by Count Hun- ter's discovery of two species in the hthographic limestone of Solenhofen. M.. Marcel de Serres and Mr. Murchison have discovered fossil Spiders in Fresh-water Tertiary strata near Aix in Provence. (See PI. 46", Fig. 12.) * The animal found by Me. W. Anslice in the Iron-stone of Coalbrook. Dale, and noticed by Mr. Prestvvich as "apparently a Spider" (Phil. Mag. May, 1834, V. iv. p. 376,) has been subsequently laid open by me, and shown to be an Insect, belonging to the family of Curculionidae. (PI 46", Fig. 1.) At the time when it was figured, and supposed to be a Spider, its head and tail were covered by iron-stone, and its appearance much resembled an animal of this kind. Mr. Prestwich announces also the discovery, in the same formation, of a Coleopterous Insect, which will be fartiicr described in our next section, as referable also to the Circu- lionidce. It is scarcely possible to ascertain the precise nature of the animals, rudely figured as Spiders and Insects on Coal slate by Lhwyd, (Ichnograph, Tab_ 4,) and copied by Parkinson, (Org. Rem. \^'. iii. PI. 17, Figs, 3, 4, 5, 6;) but his opinion of them is rendered highly probable by the recent discoveries in Coalbrook Dale : " Scrips! olim suspicari me Araneorum quorundam icones, unii cum Lilhophytis in Schisto Carbonaria, observasse : hoc jam ulteriore experientia edoctus aperte assero. Alias icones habeo, quas ad Scarabffiorum genus quJim proximo acccdunt. In posterum ergo non tan- ttim Lthophyta, sed etquaedam Insecta in hoc lapidc investigarc conabimur." Uuvyd Epist. iii, ad fin. FOSSIL SCORPIONS. 307 Fossil' Scorpions. The address of my friend Count Sternberg to the mem- bers of the National Museum of Bohemia (Prague, 1835,) contains an account of his discovery of a fossil Scorpion in the ancient Coal formation at the village of Chomle, near Radnitz, on the S. W. of Prague. This most instructive fossil (the first of its kind yet noticed) was found in July, 1834, in a stone-quarry, on the outcrop of the Coal measures,. near a spot where coal has been wrought since the sixteenth century. In the same quarry were found four erect trunks of trees, and numerous vegetable remains, of the same spe- cies that occur in the great Coal formation of England. A series of drawings of this Scorpion was submitted to a select committee at the meeting of NaturaUsts and Physi- cians of Germany, in Stutgard, 1834 ; and from their re- port the subjoined particulars are taken. All our Figures, (PI. 45'.) are copied from those attached to this Report, in the Transactions of the Museum of Bohemia, April, 1835.* * This fossil Scorpion differs from existing species, less in general struc- ture than in the position of the eyes.. In the latter respect, it approaclies nearest to the genus Androctonus, which, like it, has twelve eyes, but dif- ferently disposed from those of the fossil species. From the nearly circular arrangement of these orgnns in the latter animal, it has been ranged under a new genus, Cyclopihahnus. The sockets of all tiicse twelve eyes are perfectly preserved, (PI. 46'. fig. 3.) One of the small eyes, and the left large eye, still retain their form, with the cornea preserved in a wrinkled state, and their interior filled with earth: The jaws also arc very distinct, but in a reversed position. (PI. 4G'. fig,.. 2. a.) Both these jaws have three projecting teeth, and one of them (PI. 46', Figs. 4. 5.) exhibits, when magnified, the hairs with which its horny inte- gument was covered. The rings of the thorax, (apparently eight) and of the tail, are too much dislocated for their number to be accurately distinguished, but they differ 5 from all known species. The view of the back (PI. 46', Fig. 1.) has been obtained by cutting into the stone from behind. The under surface of the animal is well exposed in Fig. 2, with its cha- 308 FOSSIL INSECTS. As far as we can argue from the analogy of living species, the presence of large Scorpions is a certain index of the warmth of the climate in which they lived ; and this indica- tion is in perfect harmony with those afforded by the tropi- cal aspect of the vegetables with which the Scorpion, found in the Bohemian coal-field, is associated. SECTION IV. Fourth Class of Articulated Animals. FOSSIL INSECTS.* Although the numerical amount of living Insects forms so vast a majority of the inhabitants of the present land, few traces of this large class of Articulated animals have yet been discovered in a fossil state. This may probably re- sult from the circumstance, that the greatest portion of fossil animal remains are derived from the inhabitants oi salt water ^ racteristic pincers on the right claw. Between this claw and the tail lies a fossil carbonized Seed, of a species common in the Coal formation. The horny covering of this Scorpion is in a most extraordinary state of preservation, being neither decomposed nor carbonized. The peculiar sub- stance {Chitine or Elytrine) of which, like the elytra of Beetles, it is pro- bably composed, has resisted decomposition and mineralization. It can readily be stripped off, is elastic, translucent, and horny. It consists of two layers, both retaining their texture. The uppermost of these (PI. 46', Fig. 6. a.) , is harsh, almost opaque, of a dark-brown colour, and flexible; the under skin (PI. 46', Fig. 6. b.) is tender, yellow, less^ elastic, and organ- ized like the upper. The structure of both exhibits, under the microscope, liexagonal cells, divided by strong partitions. Both are penetrated at in- tervals by pores, which arc still open, each having a sunk areola, with a minute opening at its centre for the orifices of the trachea. Fig. 7. repre- sents impressions of the nmscular fibres connected willi the movement o£ tiie legs. » See PI. 46". Figs. 1. 2. Si. 4.— 11., INSECTS IN THE COAL FORMATION. 309 a medium in which only one or two species of Insects are now supposed to live. Had no indications of Insects been discovered in a fossil state, the presence in any strata, of Scorpions or Spiders both belonging to families constructed to feed on Insects^ would have afforded a strong a priori argument, in favour of the probability, of the contemporaneous existence of that very numerous class of animals, which now forms the prey of the Arachnidans. This probability has been recently confirmed by the discovery of two Coleoptera of the family Curculionidse in the Iron-stone of Coalbrook Dale,* and also of the wing of a Corydalis, which will be noticed in our description of PI. 46". It is very interesting and important, to have discovered in the Coal formation fossil remains, which establish the ex- istence of the great Insectivorous Class Arachnidans, at this early period. It is no less important to have found also in the same formation the remains of Insects, which may have formed their prey. Had neither of these discoveries been made, the abundance of Land plants would have implied the probable abundance of Insects, and this probabilit} would have involved also that of the contemporaneous exist- ence of Arachnidans, to control their undue increase. All these probabilities are now reduced to certainty, and we are thus enabled to fill up what has hitherto appeared a blank in the history of animal life, from those very distant times when the Carboniferous strata were deposited. The Estuary, or Fresh-water formation of those strata of the Corboniferous series which contain shells of Unio, in Coalbrook Dale, and in other Coal basins, renders the pre- sence of Insects and Ai-achnidans in such strata, easy of explanation; they may have been drifted from adjacent * Our figures (PI. 46". Figs. 1. 2.) represent these fossils of their na- tural size. See description of this Plate for farther details respecting them. 310 INSECTS IN SECONDARY AND TERTIARY STRATA. lands, by the same torrents that transported, the terrestrial vegetables which have produced the beds of Coal. The existence of the w^ing-covers of insects in the Second- ary Series, in the Oolitic slate of Stonesfield, has been long known; these are all Coleopterous, and in the opinion of Mr. Curtis many of them approach most nearly to the Buprestis, a genus now most abundant in warm latitudes. (See PI. 46''. Figs. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.*) Count Munster has in his collection twenty-five species of fossil insects, found in the Jurassic Limestone of Solen- hofen ; among these are five species of the existing Family of Libellula, (See PI. 1, Fig. 49,) a large Ranatra, and several Coleoptera. Numerous fossil Insects have recently been discovered in the Tertiary Gypsum of Fresh-water formation at Aix, in Provence. M. Marcel de Serres speaks of sixty-two Genera, chiefly of the Orders Diptera, Hemiptera, and Coleoptera ; and Mr. Curtis refers all the specimens he has seen from Aix to European forms, and most of them to existing Genera.f Insects occur also in the tertiary Brown coal of Orsberg on the Rhine. * M.Aug- Odier has ascertained, that the Elytra and other parts of the horny covering of insects, contain the peculiar substance Chitine or Ely- trine, which approaches nearly to the vegetable principle Lignine ; these parts of insects burn without fusion, or swelling, like horn, and witiiout the smell of animal matter; they also leave a Coal which retains their form. M. Odier found that even the hairs of a Scarahccus nasicornis retained their form after burning, and therefore concludes that they are different from the hairs of vertebral animals. This circumstance explains the preserva- tion of the hairs on the horny cover of the Bohemian Scorpion. He ascertained also that the Sinews (Nervures) of Scaraba;i, are composed of Chitine, and that the soft flexible laminae of the shell of a crab, which remain after the separation of the Lime, also contain Ciiitine. Cuvier observes, that the Integuments of Entomostracons, are rather horny than calcareous, and that in this respect they approximate to the nature of Insects and Arachnidans. See Zoological Journal, London, 1825, vol. i. p. 101. •J- See Edinburgh New Phil. Journ. Oct. 1829. GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 311 General Conclusions. We have seen from the examples cited in the last four sections, that all of the four existing great Classes of the grand Division of Articulated animals, viz. Annelidans, Crustaceans, Arachnidans, and Insects, and many of their Orders, had entered on their respective functions in the na- tural world, at the early epoch of the Transition formations; We find evidences of change in the Families of these Orders, at several periods of the Secondary and Tertiary series, very distant from one another; and we farther find each Family variously represented during different intervals by Genera, some of which are known only in a fossil state, whilst others (and these chiefly in the lower Classes, have extended through all geological Eras unto the present time. On these facts we may found conclusions which are of great importance in the investigation of the physical history of the earth. If the existing Classes, Orders, and Families of Marine and terrestrial Articulated animals have thus per- vaded various geological epochs, since life began upon our planet, we may infer that the state of the Land and Waters, and also of the Atmosphere, during all these Epochs, was not so widely different from their actual condition as many geologists have supposed. We also learn that throughout all these epochs and stages of change, the correlative Func- tions of the successive Representatives of the Animal and vegetable kingdoms have ever been the same as at the pre- sent moment ; and thus we connect the entire series of past and present forms of organized beings, as parts of one stu- pendously grand, and consistent, and harmonious Whole. 312 FOSSIL ECHINO DEEMS. CHAPTER XVII. Proof of Design in the Structure of Fossil Radiated Animals, or Zoophytes. The same difficulties which we have felt in selecting from other grand Divisions of the animal kingdom, subjects of comparison between the extinct and living forms of their re- spective Classes, Orders, and Families, embarrass our choice also from the last Division that remains for consideration. Volumes might be filled with descriptions of fossil species of those beautiful genera of Radiated Animals, whose living representatives crowd the waters of our present seas. The result of all comparisons between the living and fossil species of these families would be, that the latter differ al- most always in species, and often in genus, fi'om those which actually exist ; but that all are so similarly constructed on one and tlie same general Type, and show such perfect Unity of Design throughout the infinitely varied medica- tions, under which they now perform, and ever have per- formed the functions allotted to them, that we can find no explanation of such otherwise mysterious Uniformity, than by referring it to the agency of one and the same Creative Intelligence. SECTION I. FOSSIL ENCHINODERMS. The animals that compose this highest Class in the grand division of Radiated animals, viz. Echinidans, Stelleridans, and Crinoideans, have, till lately, been considered as made ENCHINIDANS AND STELLERIDANS. 313 up of many similar parts disposed like Rays around a com- mon centre. Mr. Agassiz has recently shown, (London and Edin. Phil. Mag. Nov. 1834, p. 309,) that they do not partake of this character, from which the division of radiated animals is named; but that their rays are dissimilar, and not always connected with a uniform centre ; and that a bilateral sym- metry, analogous to that of the more perfect classes of ani- mals, exists throughout the families of Echini, Asteriaa^, and Crinoidea. ECHINIDANS AND STELLERIDANS. The History of the fossil species of Echinidans and Stel- leridans has been most beautifully illustrated, in the plates of the Petrefacten of Prof. Goldfuss. Though derived from Strata of various degrees of high antiquity, they are for the most part referred by him to existing Genera. The family of Echinidans appears to have extended through all formations, from the Epoch of the Transition series to the present time.* No fossil Stelleridans have yet been noticed in strata more ancient than the Muschelkalk. As the structure of the fossil species of both these families is so nearly identical with that of existing Echini, and Star- fishes, I shall confine my observations respecting fossil ani- mals in the class of Echinoderms to a family which is of rare occurrence, excepting in a fossil state, and which seems to have prevailed most abundantly in the most ancient fos- siliferous formations. • I found many years ago fossil Echinidans in the Carboniferous lime- stone of Ireland, near Donegal, they are however rare in the Transition for- mation, become more frequent in the Muschelkalk and Lias, and abound throughout the Oolitic and Cretaceous formations. VOL. I. — 27 314 CRINOIDEANS- CKINOIDEANS. Among the fossil families of the Radiated division of ani- mals, the Geologist discovers one whose living analogues are seldom seen, and whose vast numerical extent and extraor- dinary beauty entitle it to peculiar consideration. Successions of strata, each many feet in thickness, and many miles in extent, are often half made up of the calca- reous skeletons of Encrinites. The Entrochal Marble of Derbyshire, and the Black rock in the cliffs of Carboniferous limestone near Bristol, are well known examples of strata thus composed ; and show how largely the bodies of Ani- mals have occasionally contributed by their remains, to swell the Volume of materials that now compose the mine- ral world. The fossil remains of this order have been long known by the name of Stone Lilies, or Encrinites, and have lately been classed under a separate order by the name of Cri- no'idea. This order comprehends many Genera and numerous Species, and is ranged by Cuvier after the Asteriae, in the division of Zoophytes. Nearly all the species appear to have been attached to the bottom of the Sea, or to floating extraneous bodies.* • These animals form tlie subject of an elaborate and excellent work, by Mr. Miller, entitled a Natural History of the Crinoidea, or Lily-shaped Animals. The representations at Pi. 48, and Pi. 49, Fig^. 1. of one of the most characteristic species of this family, being' that to which the name of stone-lily was first applied; and the fig'ures of two other species at Pi. 47, Fig. 1,2, 5, will exemply the following definition given of them by Mr. Miller. "An animal with a round, oval, or angular column, composed of numerous articulating joints, supporting at its summit, a series of plates, or joints, which form a cup-like body, containing the viscera, from whose upper rim proceed five articulated arms, dividing into tentaculated fingers, more or less nnmevous, surrounding the aperture of the mouth, (Pi. 47. Figs. 6, X. 7, x) situated in the centre of a plated integument, which ex- tends over the abdominal cavity, and is capable of being contracted into a conical or proboscal shape," DISTRIBUTION OF FOSSIL CRINOIDEANS. 315 The two most remarkable Genera of this famiiy have been long known to Naturalists by the name of Encrinite and Pentacrinite ; the former (see PI. 49, Fig. 1, and PI. 47, Figs. 1. 2. 5.) most nearly resembling the external form of a Lily, placed on a circular stem ; the latter (see PI. 51, and PI. 52, Fig. 1, 3,) retaining the general analogies of structure presented by the Encrinite, but, from the penta- gonal form of its stem, denominated Pentacrinite. A third Genus, called Apiocrinites, or Pear Encrinite, (PI. 47. Figs. 1, 2.) exhibits, on a larger scale, the component parts of bodies of this family ; and has been placed by Mr. Miller at the head of his valuable work on the CrinoVdea, from which many of the following descriptions and illustrations will be collected. Two existing species of recent animals throw much light on the nature of these fossil remains ; viz. the Pentacrinus Caput Medusae from the West Indies, represented at PI. 52, Fig. 1. and the Gomatula fimbriata,* figured in the first plate of Miller's Crinoidea. We will proceed to consider the mechanical provisions in the structure of two or three of the most important fossil species of this family, viewed in relation to their office as Zoophytes, destined to find their nourishment by spreading their nets and moving their bodies through a limited space, from a fixed position at the bottom of the sea ; or by em- ploying the same instruments, either when floating singly through the water, or attached, like the modern Pentelasmis anatifera, to floating pieces of wood. Although the representatives of CrinoYdeans in our modern seas of rare occurrence, this family was of vast numeri- * The Comatula presents a conformity of structure with that of the Penta- crinite, almost perfect in every essential part, excepting that the column is either wanting, or at least reduced to a single plate. Peron states that the Comatula suspends itself by its side-arms from fuci, and Polyparies, and in this position watches for its prey, and attains it by its spreading arms and fingers. Miller, p. 182. 316 BONY STRUCTURE OF CRINOIDEANS. cal importance among the earliest inhabitants of the ancient deep.* The extensive range W'hich it formerly occupied among the earliest inhabitants of our Planet, may be esti- mated from the fact, that the CrinoYdeans already discovered have been arranged in four divisions, comprising nine genera, most of them containing several species, and each individual exhibiting, in every one of its many thousand component little bonesjf a mechanism which shows them all to have formed parts of a well-contrived and delicate mechanical instrument; every part acting in due connexion with the rest, and all adjusted to each other with a view to the per- fect performance of some peculiar function in the economy of each individual. The joints, or little bones, of which the skeletons of all these animals were composed, resemble those of the star- fish : their use, hke that of the bony skeleton in vertebral animals, was to constitute the solid support of the whole body, to protect the viscera, and to form the foundation of a system of contractile fibres pervading the gelatinous in- tegument with which all parts of the animal were invested.J The bony portions formed the great bulk of the animab as they do in star-fishes. The calcareous matter of these little bones was probably secreted by a Periosteum, which * The monograph of Mr. Miller, exhibiling the minute details of every variation in the structure of each cotnponcnt part in the several Genera of the family of Crinoidea, affords an admirable exemplification of the regu- larity, with which the same fundamental type is rigidly maintained through all the varied modifications that constitute its numerous extinct genera and species. t These so-called Ossicula are not true bones, but partake of the nature of the shelly Plates of Echini, and the calcareous joints of Star* fishes. I As the contractile fibres of radiated animals are not set together in the same complex manner as the true muscles of the higher orders of ani- mals, the term Muscle, in its strict acceptation, cannot with accuracy be applied to Crinoideans ; but, as most writers have designated by this term the more simple contractile fibres which move their little bones, it will be convenient to retain it in our descriptions of these animals. LILY ENCRINITE. 317 in cases of accident, to which bodies so delicately con- structed must have been much exposed in an element so stormy as the sea, seems to have had the power of deposit- ing fresh matter to repair casual injuries. Mr. Miller's work abounds with examples of reparations of this kind in various fossil species of CrinoVdeans. Our PL 47, Fig. 2, a. represents a reparation near the upper portion of the stem of Apiocrinites Rotundus. In the recent Pentacrinus (PI. 52, Fig. 1,) one of the arms is under the process of being reproduced, as Crabs and Lobsters reproduce their lost claws and legs, and many lizards their tails and feet. The arms of star-fishes also, when broken off, are in the same manner reproduced. From these examples we see that the power of repro- duction has been always strongest in the lowest orders of animals, and that the application of remedial forces has ever been duly proportioned to the liability to injury, resulting from the habits and condition of the creatures in which these forces are most powerfully developed. Encrinites Moniliformis, As the best mode of explaining the general economy of the Crinoi'dea, will be to examine in some detail the anatomy of a single species, I shall select, for this purpose, that which has formed the type of the order, viz. the Encrinites moniliformis (see PI. 48, 49, 50.) Minute and full descrip- tions are given by Parkinson and Miller of this fossil, show- ing it to combine in its various organs a union of mechanical contrivances, which adapt each part to its peculiar functions in a manner infinitely surpassing the most perfect con- trivances of human mechanism. Mr. Parkinson* states that after a careful examination he lias ascertained that, independently of the number of pieces * Organic Rcrrnins, vol. ii. p. 180. 27* 318 LILY ENCUINITE. which may be contained in the vertebral column, and which, from its probable length, may be very numerous, the fossil skeleton of the superior part of the Lily Encrinite (Encrinites Moniliformis) consists of at least 26,000 pieces. See PI. 50, Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, &c.* Mr. Miller observes that this number would increase most surprisingly, were we to take into account the minute calcareous plates that arc interwoven in the integument covering the abdominal cavity and inner surface of the fingers and tentacula.f We will first examine the contrivances in the joints, of the vertebral column, which adapted it for flexure in every direction, and then proceed to consider the arrangement of other parts of the body. These joints are piled on each other like the masonry of a slender Gothic shaft, but, as a certain degree of flexibiUty was requisite at every articulation, and the amount of this flexure varied in different parts of the column, being least at the base and greatest at the summit, we find proportion- * Bones of the Pelvis 5 Ribs 5 Clavicles 5 Scapulsc ........ 5 Arms. Six bones in each of the ten arms .... 60 Hands. Eacii hand being formed of two fingers, and each finger consisting of at least 40 ossicula, these in 20 fingers make ............ 800 Tentacula. 30 proceeding from each of the G bones in each of the ten arms, make 1800 30 proceeding, on the average, from each of the 800 bones of the fingers make .... 24,000 Total 2G,680 t Although the names here used are borrowed from the skeleton of verte- brated animals, and are not strictly applicable to radiated Echinoderms, it w ill be convenient to retain them until the comparative anatomy of this order of animals has been arranged in some other more appropriate manner. LILY ENCRINITE. 319 ate variations both in the external and internal form and dimensions of each part.* The varieties of form and con- trivance which occur in the column of a single species of Encrinite, may serve as an example of analogous arrange- ments in the columns of other species of the family of Cri- noideans, (see PI. 47. Figs. 1,2, 5, and PL 49. Fig. 4 to Fig. 17.t) • The body (Pi. 49, Fig. 1) is supported by a long vertebral column at- tached to the ground by an enlargement of its base (PI. 49, Fig. 2.) It is composed of many cylindrical thick joints, articulating firmly with each other, and having a central aperture, like the spinal canal in the vertebra of a quad- ruped, through which a small alimentary cavity descends from the stomach to the base of the column, PI. 49, Fig. 4, 6, 8, 10. The form of the column nearest the base is the strongest possible, viz. cylindrical. This column is inten-upted, at intervals, which become more frequent as it advances up- wards, by joints of wider diameter and of a globular depressed form (Pi, 49, Fig. 1, and Figs. 3, 4, a, a, a, a.) Near the summit of the column, (Pi. 49, Figs. 3, 4,) a series of tliin joints, c, c, c, is jiluced next above and below each largest joint, and between these two thin joints, there is introduced a tliird series, b, b, b, of an intermediate size. The use of these variations in the size of tiie interpolated joints was to give increased flexibility to that ])art of the column, which being nearest to its summit required the greatest power of flexion. At Plate 49, Figs. 6, 8, 10, are vertical sections of the columnar joints 5, 7, 9, taken near the base; and sliow the internal cavity of the column, to be arranged in a series of double hollow cones, like the intervertebral cavi- ties in the back of a fish, and to be, like them, subsidiary to the flexion of the column; they probably also formed a reservoir for containing the nutri. tious fluids of tiie animals. The various kinds of Screw stone so frequent in the chert of Derbyshire, and generally in the Transition Limestone, are casts of the internal cavities of the columns of other species of Encrinites, in which the cones are usually more compressed than in the column of the E. moniliformis. t At Pi. 49, Fig. 4 is a vertical section of Fig. 3, being a portion taken from near the summit of the column, where the greatest strength and flexure were required, and where also the risk and injury and dislocation was the greatest; the arrangement of these vertebra is therefore more complex than it is towards the base, and is disposed in the following manner (see Fig. 4.) The vertebrae, a. b. c. are alternately wider and narrower; the edges of the latter, c. are received into, and included within, the perpendicularly length- 320 MECHANICAL CONTRIVANCES IN ENCKINITE. The name of Entrochi, or wheel stones, has with much propriety been applied to these insulated vertebrse. The perforations in the centre of these joints affording a facility for stringing them as beads, has caused them, in ancient times, to be used as rosaries. In the northern parts of Eng- land they still retain the appellation of St. Cuthbert's beads. On a rock by Lindisfarn Saint Cuthbert sits, and toils to frame The sea-born beads, that bear his name. Maiimion. Each of these presents a similar series of articulations, varying as we ascend upwards through the body of the ani- mal, every joint being exactly adjusted, to give the requisite amount of flexibility and strength. From one extremity of the vertebral column to the other, and throughout the hands ened margin of the wider, a. b.; the outer crenulated edge of the narrower included vertebrs, articulate with the inner crenulated edge of the wider vertebras, which thus surround them with a collar, that admits of more oblique flexion than the plane crenulated surfaces near the base of the column, Figs. 9, 10, and at the same time rendere dislocation almost impos- sible. To these is superadded a third contrivance, which still farther increases the flexibility and strength of this portion of the column, viz. that of making the alternate larger joints, b. b. considerably thinner than the larger collai' joints, a. a. The figures numbered from 11 to 26 inclusive, represent single vertebrx taken from various portions of the column of Encrinites moniliformis. The joints at Figs. 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 33, 25, are of their natural size and in their natural horizontal position, and show, at the margin of each, a cre- r.ated edge, every tooth of which articulated with a corresponding depres- sion near the margin of the adjacent joint. The stellated figures (12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24-, 26.) placed beneath the horizontal joints to which they respectively belong, are magnified representations of the various internal patterns presented by their articulating surfaces, variously covered with an alternate series of ridges and grooves, that like tiie cogs of two wheels, arti- culate with corresponding depressions and elevations on the surfaces of the adjacent vertebrse. STRUCTURE OF LILY ENCRINITE. 321 and fingers (see PL 47, figs. 1, 2, 3. and PL 50, figs. 1, 2, 3.,) the surface of each bone articulates with that adjacent to it, with the most perfect reguL-irity and nicety of adjust- ment. So exact, and methodical is this arrangement, even to the extremity of its minutest tentacula, that it is just as improbable, that the metals which compose the wheels of a chronometer should for themselves have calculated and arranged the form and number of the teeth of each respective wheel, and that these wheels should have placed themselves in the precise position, fitted to attain the end resulting from the combined action of them all, as for the successive hun- dreds and thousands of little bones that compose an Encri- nite, to have arranged themselves, in a position subordinate to the end produced by the combined effect of their united Mechanism; each acting its peculiar part in harmonious subordination to the rest, and all conjointly producing a result which no single series of them acting separately, could possibly have eflfected. In PL 50 I have selected from Goldfuss, Parkinson, and Miller, details of the structure of the body and upper extre- mities of Encrinites Moniliformis, or Lily Encrinite, in which the component parts ' are indicated by letters, explained in the annexed note; and I must refer my readers to these authors for minute descriptions of the individual forms and uses of each successive series of plates.* * " On the summit of the vertebral column are placed successive series of little bones, see Pi. 50, Fig. 4. which from their position and uses may be termed the Pelvis E, Scapula H, Costal F, forming (with the pectoral and capital plates) a kind of sub-globular body (see PI. 48. PI. 49. Fig. 1. PI. 50, Figs. 1, 2,) having the mouth in its centre and containing the viscera and stomach of the animal, from which the nourishing fluids were admitted to an alimentary cavity within the column, and also carried to the arms and tentaculated fingers." From the Scapula (H) proceeded the five arms, (PI. 50, Fig. 1, K) which, as they advanced, subdivided into hands (M) and fingers (N) terminating in minute tentacula (PI. 50. Figs. 2,3,) the number of which extended to many thousands. These hands and fingers are repre- sented as closed, or nearly closed, in PI. 48. and Pi. 49, Fig. 1. and PI. 50 322 STRUCTURE OF CRINOIDEANS. From the subjoined analysis of the compotent portions of the body of the E. MoniUformis, we see that it may be resolved into four series of plates each composed of five pieces, and bearing a distant analogy to those parts in the organiza- tion of superior animals from which they have been denomi- nated. A similar system of plates, varying in number and holding the same place between the column and the arms of the animal, may be traced through each species of the family of Crinoi'deans. The details of all these specific variations are beautifully illustrated by Mr. Miller, to whose excellent work I must again refer those who are inclined to follow Figs. 1, 2. In Mr. Miller's restoration of the Pear Encrinite (PI., 47, Fig. 1) tliey are represented as expanded in search of food. These tentaculated fingers, when thus expanded, would form a delicate net, admirably adapted to detain Acalaphans, and other minute molluscous animals that might be floating in the sea, and which probably formed part of the food of the Cri- noidea. In the centre of these arms was placed the mouth (PI. 47, Fig. 1.) capable of elongation into a proboscis. Pi. 47. 6, x. 7, x. represent the bodies of Crinoidea from which the arms liave been removed. In Pi. 50, Fig. 1 represents the superior portion of the animal, with its twenty fingers closed like the petals of a closed lily. Fig. 2 represents the same partially uncovered, with the tentacula still folded up. Fig. 3 is a side view of one of the fingers with its tentacula. Fig. 4 represents the interior of the body which contained the viscera. Fig. 5 represents the exterior of the same body, and the surface by which the base articulates with the first joint of the vertebral column. Figs. 6, 7, 8, 9, represent a dissection of the four series of plates that compose the body, forming successively the scapulae, upper and lower costal plates, and pelvis of the animal. Fig. 10 is the upper extremity of the vertebral column. Fig. 11 represents the upper surfaces of the five scapulae, showing their articulations with tiie inferior surfaces of the first bones of the arms. Fig. 12 is the inferior surface of the same series of scapular plates, showing their articulations with the superior surfaces of the upper or second series of costal plates, Fig. 13. Fig. 14 is the inferior surface of Fig. 13, and articulates with the first or lower series of costal plates, Fig. 15. Fig. 16 is the lower surface of Fig. 15, and articulates with the upper surface of the bones of the pelvis. Fig. 17. Fig. 18 is the inferior surface of the pelvis, Fig. 17. and articulates with the first or uppermost joint of the vertebral column, Fig. 10. EXTENT OF CRINOIDEANS. 323 him, through his highly philosophical analysis of the struc- ture of this curious family of fossil animals.* From the details I have thus selected from the best autho- rities, with a view to illustrate the most important parts that enter into the organization of the family of Encrinites, it is obvious that similar investigations might be carried to an al- most endless extent by examining the peculiarities of each part throughout their numerous species. We may judge of * Our PI. 47 gives Mr. Miller's restoration of two other genera, fig. 1, the Apiocrinites rotundus, or Pear Encrinite, with its root or base of attach- ment, and its arms expanded. Fig. 2 is the same with its arms contracted. Two young individuals and the broken stumps of two other small speci- mens, are seen fixed by their base to the root of the larger specimens, show- ing the manner in which these roots are found attached to the upper surface of the great oolite at Bradford near Bath. When living, their roots were confluent, and formed a thin pavement at this place over the bottom of the sea, from which their stems and branches rose into a thick submarine forest, composed of these beautiful Zoophytes. The stems and bodies are occa- sionally found united, as in their living state ; the arms and fingers have almost always been separated, but their dislocated fragments still remain, covering the pavement of roots that overspreads the surface of the subjacent Oolitic limestone rock. This bed of beautiful remains has been buried by a thick stratum of clay. Fig. 3 represents the exterior of the body, and the upper columnar joints of this animal, about two-thirds of the natural size. Fig. 4 is a longitudinal section of the same, showing the cavity for the viscera, and also the large open spaces for the reception of nourishment between the uppermost en- larged joints of the column. At fig. 5 we have the Actinocrinites 30-dactylus, from the corboniferous limestone near Bristol. D. represents the auxiliary side-arms which are attached to the column of this species, and B its base and fibres of attach- ment. Fig. 6 represents its body, from which the fingers are removed, showing the pectoral plates, Q, and capital plates, R, which form an in- tegument over the abdominal cavity of the body, and terminate in a mouth (x,) capable of being protruded into an elongated proboscis by the contraction of its plated integument. Fig. 7 represents the body of an Encrinite in the British Museum, figured by Parkinson, vol. 2, fol. 17, fig. 3, by the name of Nave Encrinite. The mouth of this specimen also is seen at X, and between the mouth and the bases of the arms, the series of plates which form the upper and exterior integuments of the stomach. 324 PHYSIOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS. the degree, to which the individuals of these species multi- phed among the first inhabitants of the sea, from the count- less myriads of their petrified remains which fill so many Limestone beds of the Transition Formations, and compose vast strata of Entrochal marble, extending over large tracts of country in Northern Europe and North America. The substance of this marble is often almost as entirely made up of the petrified bones of Encrinites, as a corn-rick is com- posed of straws. Man applies it to construct his palace and adorn his sepulchre, but there are few who know, and fewer still who duly appreciate the surprising fact, that much of this marble is composed of the skeletons of milhons of orga- nized beings, once endowed with life, and susceptible of en- joyment, which after performing the part that was for a while assigned to them in living nature, have contributed their remains towards the composition of the mountain masses of the earth.* Of more than thirty species of Crinoideans that prevailed to such enormous extent in the Transition period, nearly all became extinct before the deposition of the Lias, and only one presents the angular column of the Pentacrinite ; with this one exception, pentangular columns first began to abound among the Crinoideans at the commencement of the Lias, and have from thence extended onwards into our present seas. Their several species and even genera are also limit- ed in their extent ; e. g. the great Lily Encrinite (E. monili- formis) is peculiar to the Muschelkalk,'and the Pear Encri- nite to the middle region of the Oolitic formation. The Physiological history of the family of Encrinites is very important ; their species were numerous among the most ancient orders of created beings, and in this early state their construction exhibits at least an equal if not a higher * Fragments of Encrinites are also dispersed irregularly throughout all the depositions of this period, intermixed with the remains of other contem- porary marine animals. PENTACRTNITES. 325 degree of perfection than is retained in the existing Penta- orinites ; and although the place, which, as Zoophytes, they occupied in the animal kingdom, M'as low, yet they were constructed with a perfect adaptation to that low estate, and in this primeval perfection they afford another example at variance with the doctrine of the progression of animal life from simple rudiments through a series of gradually im- proving and more perfect forms, to its fullest development in existing species. Thus, a comparison of one of the early forms of the Genus Pentacrinite, viz. the Briarean Pentacri- nite of the Lias, (PI. 51 and PI. 52, Fig. 2. and PI. 53) with the fossil species of more recent formations, and with the existing Pentacrinus Caput Medusas from the Caribbean Sea, PL 52, Fig. 1, shows in the organization of this very ancient species an equal degree of perfection, and a more elaborate combination of analogous organs, than occur in any other fossil species of more recent date, or in its living representative. Pentacrinites. The history of these fossil bodies, that abound in the lower strata of the Oolite formation, and especially in the Lias, has been much illustrated by the discovery of two living forms of the same Genus, viz. the Pentacrinus Caput Medusas,* (PI. 52, Fig. 1,) and Pentacrinus Europasus, PI. 52, Figs. 2, 2'. Of the first of these a few specimens only have been brought up from the bottom of deep seas in the West Indies ; having their lower extremities broken, as if torn from a firm attachment to the bottom. The Penta- crinus Europasusf (see PI. 52, Figs. 2. 2',) is found attached * See Miller's Crinoidea, p. 45. t See Memoir on Pentacrinus Europaeus by T, V. Thompson, Esq. Cork, 1827. He has subsequently ascertained that this animal is the young of the Comatiila. VOL. I.— 28 326 BRIAREAN PENTACRINITE. to various kinds of Sertularia and Flustracea in the Cove of Cork, and other parts of the coast of Ireland. It appears that Pentacrinites are alhed to the existing family of star-fishes, and approach most nearly to the Coma- tula; (See Miller's Crinoidea, PI. 1, and p. 127:) the bony skeleton constitutes by far the largest portion of these ani- mals. In the living species this bony framework is invested with a gelatinous membrane, accompanied by a muscular system, regulating the movements of every bone. Although^ in the fossil species, these softer parts have perished, yet an apparatus for muscular attachment exists on each individual bone.* The calcareous joints which compose the fingers of the P. Europaeus, together with their tentacula, are capable of contraction and expansion in every direction ; at one time spreading outwards, like the Petals of an open flower (PI. 52, Fig. 2,) and at another rolled inwards over the mouth, like an unexpanded bud ; the office of these organs is to seize and convey to the mouth its destined food. Thus the habits of living animals illustrate the movements and man- ner of life of the numerous extinct fossil members of this great family, and afford an example of the vahdity of the mode of argument, to which we are obliged to have recourse in the consideration of extinct species of organic remains. In this process we argue backwards, and from the mechan- ical arrangements that pervade the solid portions of fossil skeletons, infer the nature and functions of the muscles by which motion was imparted to each bone. I shall select from the many fossil species of the Genus Pentacrinite, that, which from the extraordinary number of auxiliary side-arms, placed along its column, has been called the Briarean Pentacrinite, and of which our figures (PI. 51. * See the tubercles and corrugations on the surfaces of the bones engraved at PI. 52, Figs. 7, 9, 11, 13, 14, 15, IG, 17. VERTEBRAL COLUMN. 327 Figs. 1, 2 ; PI. 52. Fig. 3.; and PI. 53.) will give a more accurate idea than can be conveyed by verbal descriptions.* Vertebral Column. The upper part of the vertebral column of Pentacrinites is constructed on principles analogous to those already de- scribed in the upper part of the column, of the Encrinite.f All the joints of the column, when seen transversely, present various modifications of pentagonal star-like forms ; hence their name of Asteriae, or star-stones. These transverse surfaces are variously covered with a * PI. 51 represents a single specimen of Briarean Pentacrinitc, wiiich stands in iiigh relief upon tiie surface of a slab of Lias, from Lyme Regis, almost entirely made up of a mass of other individuals of the same species. The arms and fingers are considerably expanded towards the position they would assume in searching for food. The side-arms remain attached to the upper portion only of the vertebral column. At PI. 53. Fig. 1 and 2 represent two other specimens of the same spe- cies, rising in beautiful relief from a slab, which is composed of a congeries of fragments of similar individuals. The columns of these specimens, Fig. 2, a, show the side-arms rising in their natural position from the grooves between the angular projections of the Pentagonal stem. At PI. 53, Fig. 1. ¥. F. are seen the costal plates surrounding the cavity of the body ; at H^ the Scapulse, with the arms and fingers proceeding from them to the extremi- ties of the tenlacula. At PI. 53. Fig. 3. exhibits the side-arms rising from the lower part of a vertebral column, and entirely covering it. Fig. 4. is another column, on which, the side-arms being removed, we see the grooves wherein they arti- culated with the alternate vertebra). Fig. 5. exhibits a portion of another column slightly contorted. •j- The columnar joints of the Briarean Pentacrinite are disposed in pieces alternately thicker and thinner, with a third and still thinner joint inter- posed between every one of thera. PI. 53. Figs. 8, and 8», a. b. c. The edges of this thinnest joint appear externally only at the angles of the column; internally they enlarge themselves into a kind of intervertebral collar, c. c. c. A similar alternation in joints of the Pentacrinites sub-angularis is repre- sented in PI, 52. Figs. 4 and 5. 328 ROOT OF PENTACRINITE. succession of teeth, set at minute intervals from one another^ and locking into the interstices between corresponding teeth on the surface of the next vertebrae, they are so disposed as to admit of flexure in all directions, without risk of disloca- tion.* As the base or root of Pentacrinites was usually fixed to the bottom of the sea, or to some extraneous floating body, the flexibility of the jointed column, which forms the stem, was subservient to the double office, first, of varying, in every direction, the position of the body and arms in search of food, and secondly, of yielding, with facility, to the course of the current, or fury of the storm, swinging, like a vessel held by her cable, with equal ease in all directions around her moorings. The Root of the Briarean Pentacrinite was probably slight, and capable of being withdrawn from its attach- ment.! The absence of any large solid Secretions, like * The ranges of tubercles upon the exterior surface of each joint in the fragments of columns, PI. 52. Figs. 7. 9. 11. mark the origin and insertion of muscular fibres, by which the movement of every joint was regu- lated. At every articulation of the vertebrae, we see also the mode in which the crenated edges lock into one another, combining strength with flexi- bility. In PI. 52, Figs. 11. and 13, the Vertebrse (d.) present five lateral surfaces of articulation, whereby the sidc-;\rms were attached to the vertebral column at distant intervals, as in the Pentacrinus Caput Medusae, PI. 52, Fig. 1. The double series of crenated surfaces, which pass from the centre to the points of each of the five radii of these star-shaped vertebrae, PI. 62. Fig. 6. to 17.; and PI. 53. Figs. 9. to 13, present a beautiful variety of arrangements, not only in each species, but in different parts of the column of the same species, according to the degree of flexion which each individual part re- quired. t Mr. Miller describes a recent specimen of Pentacrinus Caput Medu- sa;, as having tlie joints next to the base partially consolidated, and ad- mitting but little motion, where little is required; but higher up, the ioints bcuome thinner, and are disposed alternately, a smaller and thinner joint succeeding a larger and tliicker, to allow a greater freedom of mo- tion, till near the apex this change is so conspicuous, that the small ones resemble thin leather-likc interpositions. He also observed traces of ATTACHMENT TO EXTRANEOUS BODIES. 329 those of the Pear Encrinite, by which this Pentacrinite could have been fixed permanently to the bottom, and the farther fact of its being frequently found in contact with masses of drifted wood converted into jet (PI. 52, Fig. 3.,) leads us to infer that the Briarean Pentacrinite was a locomotive ani- mal, having the power of attaching itself temporarily either to extraneous floating bodies, or to rocks at the bottom of the sea, either by its side-arms, or by a moveable articulated small root.*' the action of contractile muscular fibres on the internal surfaces of each ver- tebra. * The specimens of Briarean Pentacrinite at PI. 52, Fig, 3. from the Lias at Lyme Regis, adheres laterally to a portion of imperfect jet, which forms part of a thin bed of Lignite, in the Lias marl, between Lyme and Charmouth. Tliroughout nearly its whole extent, IVIiss Anning has constantly observed in this Lignite tlie following curious appearances: The lower surface only is covered by a stratum, entirely composed of Pentacrinites, and varying from one to three inches in tliiclincss ; they lie nearly in a horizontal posi- tion, with the foot-staiks uppermost, next to the lignite. The greater num- ber of these Pentacrinites are preserved in such high perfection, that they must have been buried in the clay that now invests them before decomposi- tion of their bodies had taken place. It is not uncommon to find large slabs several feet long, whose lower surface only presents the arms and fingers of these fossil animals, expanded like plants in a Hortus Siccus; whilst the vppcr surface exhibits only a congeries of stems in contact with the under surface of the lignite. The greater number of these stems are usually pa- rallel to one another, as if drifted in the same direction by the current in wiiich they last floated. The mode in which these animal remains are thus collected immediately beneath the Lignite, and never on its upper surface, seems to show that the creatures had attached themselves, in large groups, (like modern barnacles,) to the masses of floating wood, which, together with them, were suddenly buried in the mud, wliose accumulation gave origin to the marl, wherein this curious compound stratum of animal and vegetable remains is imbedded. Fragments of petrified wood occur also in the Lias, having large groups of Mytili, iti the position that is usually assumed by recent mytili, attached to floating wood, 28* MECHANISM OF SIDE-AK.MS* Side-Ar?ns. The Side-Arms become gradually smaller towards the upper extremity of the column. In the P. Briareus (PI. 52, Fig. 3. and PL 53, Fig. 1. and 3.) these amount to nearly a Thousand in number.* The numerous side-arms of the Briarean Pentacrinite, when expanded, would act as aux- iliary nets to retain the prey of the animal, and also serve as hold-fasts to assist it in adhering to the bottom, or to ex- traneous bodies. In agitated water they would close and fold themselves along the column, in a position which would expose the least possible surface to the element, and, together with the column and arms, would yield to the direction of the current. * If we suppose the lower portion of tlie specinien, PI. 53, Fig. 2. a. to be united to the upper portion of the fractured stem, Fig. 3, we shall form a correct idea of the manner in which the column of this animal was surrounded with this thousand side-arms, each having from fifty to a hun- dred joints, PI. 53, Fig-. 14. The number of joints in the side-arms gradually diminishes towards the top of the vertebral column ; but as one of the lowest and largest (PL 53, Fig. 14.) contains more than a hundred, we shall be much below the reality in reckoning fifty as their average number. Each of these joints articulates with the adjacent joint, by processes rcaembling a mortice and tenon ; and the form both of the articulating sur- faces and of the bone itself, varies so as to give more universal motion as they advance towards the small extremity of the arm. See PI. 53, Fig. 14. a. b. In all this delicate mechanism which pervades ever}' individual side- arm, we see provision for the double purpose of attaching itself to extrane- ous bodies, and apprehending its prey. Five of these arms are set oif from each of the largest joints of the vertebral column. At PI. 53. Fig. 7. a. we see the bases, or first joints of these side-arms articulating with the larger vertebrce, and inclined alternately to the right and left, for the purpose of occupying their position most advantageously for motion, witJ>- out interfering with each other, or with the flexure of the vertebral column. In the recent Pentacrinus Caput Medusce (PI. 52, Fig, 1.) the side-arnii* (D.) are dispersed at distant intervals along the columa. STOMACH, BODY, ARMS, AND FINGERS OF PENTACEINITE. 331 Stomach. The abdominal cavity or stomach, of the Pentacrinite, (PI. 51, Fig. 2.,) is rarely preserved in a fossil state; it formed a funnel-shaped pouch, of considerable size, com- posed of a contractile membrane, covered externally with many hundred minute calcareous angular plates. At the apex of this funnel was a small aperture, forming the mouth, susceptible of elongation into a proboscis for taking in food.* The place of this organ is in the centre of the body, sur- rounded by the arms. Body, Arms, and Fingers. The body of the Pentacrinite, between the summit of the column and the base of the arms, is small, and composed of the pelvis, and the costal, and scapular plates, (See PI. 51. PI. 52. Fig. 1. 3. and PI. 53. Fig. 2. 6. E. F. H.) The arms and fingers arc long and spreading, and have numerous joints, or tentacula ; each joint is armed at its margin with a small tubercle or hook, (PI. 53. Fig. 17.,) the form of which varies in every joint, to act as an organ of prehen- sion ; these arms and fingers, when expanded, must have formed a net of greater capacity than that of the Encri- nites.f We have seen that Parkinson calculates the number of bones in the Lily Encrinite to exceed twenty-six thousand. • This unique specimen forms part of the splendid collection of James Johnson, Esq. of Bristol. f The place of the Pentacrinites in the flimily Echinoderms, would lead us to expect to find minute pores on the internal surface of the fing-ers, analo- gous to those of the more obvious ambulacra of Echini; they were probably observed by Guettard, wlio speaks of orifices at the terminating points of the fingers and tentacula. Lamarck also, describing his generic character of Encrinus, says: "The branches of the Umbel are furnished with Polypes, or suckers, disposed in rows." 332 CONCLUSION. The number of bones in the fingers and tentacula of the Briarean Pentacrinite amounts at least to a hundred thou- sand ; if to these we add fifty thousand more for the ossicula of the side-arms, which is much too httle, the total number of bones will exceed a hundred and fifty thousand. As each bone was furnished with at least two fasciculi of fibres, one for contraction, the other for expansion, we have a hundred and fifty thousand bones, and three hundred thousand fasci- culi of fibres equivalent to muscles, in the body of a single Pentacrinite — an amount of muscular apparatus concerned in regulating the ossicula of the skeleton, infinitely exceeding any that has been yet observed throughout the entire animal creation.* When we consider the profusion of care, and exquisite contrivance, that pervades the frame of every individual in this species of Pentacrinite, forming but one of many mem- bei's, of the almost extinct family of Crino'ideans — and when we add to this the amount of analogous mechanisms that cha- racterize the other genera and species of this curious fami- ly,— we are almost lost in astonishment, at the microscopic attention that has been paid to the welfare of creatures, hold- ing so low a place among the inhabitants of the ancient deep ;f and we feel a no less irresistible conviction of the univ^ersal presence and eternal agency of Creative care, in the lower regions of organic life, than is forced upon us by the contemplation of those highest combinations of animal mechanism, which occur in that paragon of animal organi- zation, the corporeal frame of Man. * Tiedemann, in a monograph on Holotlmria, Echini, and Asteriee, states that the common Star-fish lias more than three thousand llltle bones. f A frequent repetition of the same i)arts is proof of the low place and comparative imperfection of tlie animal in which it occurs. The number of bones in the human body is but two hundred and forty-one, and that of the muscles two hundred and tlilrty-two pairs. South's Dissector's Manual. FOSSIL REMAINS OF POLYPES. 333 SECTION II. FOSSIL REMAINS OF POLYPES. It was stated in our Chapter on Strata of the Transition Series, that some of their most abundant animal remains are fossil Corals or Polyparies. These were derived from an order of animals long considered to be allied to marine plants, and designated by the name of Zoophytes ; they are usually fixed, like plants, to all parts of the bottom of the sea in warm climates which are not too deep to be below the influence of solar heat and hght, and in many species, send forth branches, assuming in some degree the form and aspect of vegetables. These coralline bodies are the pro- duction of Polypes, nearly aUied to the common Actinia, or Sea Anemone of our own shores. See PI. 54. Fig. 4. Some of them, e. g. the CaryophyUia, see PI. 54. Figs. 9, 10. are solitary, each forming its own independent stem and sup- port; others are gregarious, or confluent; living together on the same common base or Polypary, which is covered by a thin gelatinous substance, on the surface of which are scattered tcntacula, corresponding with the stars on the surface of the coral, (see PL 54. Fig. 5.) Le Sueur, who observed them in the West Indies, describes these Polypes, when expanded in calm weather at the bottom of the sea, as covering their stony receptacles with a continuous sheet of most brilliant colours. The gelatinous bodies of these Polypes are furnished with the power of secreting carbonate of Lime, with which they form a basis of attachment, and cell of retreat. These cal- careous cells not only endure beyond the life of the Polypes that secreted them, but approach so nearly to Limestone in their chemical composition, that at the death of the 334 CORAL REEFS. Polype they remain permanently attached to the bottom Thus one generation establishes the basis whereon the next fixes its habitation, which is destined to form the foundation of a farther and continual succession of similar constructions, until the mass, being at length raised to the surface of the sea, a limit is thereby put to its farther accumulation. ■ The tendency of Polypes to multiply in the waters of warm climates is so great, that the bottom of our tropical seas swarms with countless myriads of these little creatures, ever actively engaged in constructing their small but enduring habitations. Almost every submarine rock, and submarine volcanic cone, and ridge, within these latitudes, has become the nucleus and foundation of a colony of Polypes, chiefly belonging to the genera Madrepora, Astrea. Caryophyllia, meandrina, and Millepora. The calcareous secretion of these Polypes are accumulated into enormous banks or I'eefs of coral, sometimes extending to a length of many hundred miles ; these continually rising to the surface in spots where they were unknown before, endanger the navigation of many parts of the tropical seas.* If we look to the office these Polypes perform in the present economy of nature, we find them acting as scaven- gers of the lowest class, perpetually employed in cleansing the waters of the sea from the impurities which escape even the smaller Crustacea ; in the same manner as the Insect Tribes, in their various stages, are destined to find their food by devouring impurities caused by dead animal and vegetable matter upon the land.f The same system * Interesting accounts of tlie extent and mode of formation of these Coral Reefs may be found in the voyages of Peron, Flinders, Kotzcbue. and Becchy ; and an admirable application of the facts connected with modern Corals to the illustration of geological phenomena has been made by Dr. Kidd in his Geological Essay, and by Mr. Lyell in his Principles of Geo- logy, 3d edit. vol. iii, t Mr. De la Bcchc observed that the Polypes of the Caryophyllia Smithii CPl- 54, Figs. 9, 10, 11,) devoured portions of the flesh of EFFECT OF POLYPES ON MINERAL STRATA. 335 , appears to have prevailed from the first commencement of Hfe in the most ancient seas, throughout that long series of ages w^hose duration is attested by the varied succession of animal and vegetable exuviae, which are buried in the strata of the earth. In all these strata the calcareous habitations of such minute and apparently unimportant creatures as Polypes, have formed large and permanent additions to the solid materials of the globe, and afford a striking example of the influence of animal life upon the mineral condition of the earth.* If there be one thing more surprising than another in the investigation of natural phenomena, it is perhaps the infinite extent and vast importance of things apparently little and insignificant. When v^^e descry an insect, smaller than a mite, moving with agility across the paper on which we write, we feel as incapable of forming any distinct concep- tion of the minutiae of the muscular fibres, which effect these movements, and of the still smaller vessels by which they are nourished, as we are of fully apprehending the magni- ftshes, and also small Crustacea, witli which he fed several individuals at Torquay, seizing them with their tentacula, and digesting them within the central sac which forms their stomach. * Among the Corals of the Transition Series arc many existing genera, and Mr. De la Beche has justly remarked (Manual of Geology, p. 454) that* wherever there is an accumulation of Polypifcrs such as would justify the appellation of coral banks or reefs, the genera Astrea and Caryophyllia are present ; genera which arc among architects of coral reefs in the present seas. A large part of the Limestone called Coral Rng, which forms the elevated plains of Bullington and Cunmer, and the hills of Wytham, on three sides of the valley of Oxford, is filled with continuous beds and ledges of petrified corals of many species, still retaining tlie position in which they grow at the bottom of an ancient sea; as <;oral banks, are now forming in the intertropi- cal regions of the present ocean. The same fossil coralline strata extend through the calcareous hills of the N. W. of Berkshire, and N. of Wilts ; and again recur in equal or still greater force in Yorkshire, in the lofty summits on the W. and S. W. of Scar- borough. 336 IMPORTANCE OF THINGS MINUTE. tude of the universe. We are more perplexed in attempting to comprehend ^he organization of the minutest Infusoria,* * Ehrenberg has ascertained tliatthe Infusoria, which have hcrtofore been considered as scarcely organized, have an internal structure resembling that of the higher animals. He has discovered in them muscles, intestines, teeth, different kinds of glands, eyes, nerves, and male and female organs of repro- duction. He finds that some are born alive, others produced by eggs, and some multiplied by spontaneous divisions of their bodies into two or more distinct animals. Their powers of reproduction are so great, that from one individual (Hydatina senta) a million were produced in ten days; on the eleventh day four millions, and on the twelfth sixteen millions. The most astonishing result of his observations is, that the size of the smallest colour- ed spots on the body of Monas Termo, (the diameter of which is only g- J^ ,5- of a line) is 4.,_ of a line, and that the thickness of the skin of the sto- 4.8T5T50 !!■ ,■ mi • mach may be calculated at from ___i^^^ to __ ,, J -^^-^^ of a line. This skin must also have vessels of a still smaller size, the dimensions of which are too minute to be ascertained. Abhandlungen der Academie der Wissen- schaften zu Berlin, 1831. Ehrenberg has described and figured more than 500 species of these Animalcules; many of them are limited to a certain number of vegetable infusions ; a few are found in almost every infusion. Many vegetables pro- duce several species, some of which are propagated more readily than others in each particular infusion. The familiar case of the rapid appearance and propagation of animalcules in pepper water will suffice to illustrate the rest. In the London and Edin. Phil. Mag. Aug. 1, 1836, p. 158, there is an extract of a letter sent by M. Alexander Brongniart from Berlin to the Royal Academy of Sciences of Paris, announcing that Ehrenberg has also discovered the silicified remains of Infusoria in the stone called Tri- poli (Polierschiefer of Werner,) a substance which has been supposed to be formed from sediments of fine volcanic ashes in quiet waters. These petrified Infusoria from a large proportion of the substance of this kind of stone from four different localities, on which Ehrenberg has made his observations ; they were probably living in the waters, at the time when they became charged with the volcanic dust, in which the Tripoli ori- ginated. It is added in this notice that the slimy Iron ore of certain marshes is loaded witii Infusoria, of the genus Gallionella. — L'lnstitut, No. 166. These most curious observations throw important light on the obscure and long-disputed question of equivocal generation; the well-known fact that animalcules of definite cliaracters appear in infusions of vegetable and animal matter, even when prepared with distilled water, receives a CONCLUSION. 337 than that of a whafe ; and one of the last conclusions at which we arrive, is a conviction that the greatest and most probable explanalion, and the case of Infusoria no longer appears to dif- fer from that of other animals as to the principle on which their propaga- tion is conducted. Tiic chief peculiarity seems to consist in this, that their increase takes place both by the oviparous and viviparous manner of descent from parent animals, and also by division of the bodies of indi- viduals. Tlie great difficulty is, to explain the manner in which the eggs or bodies of preceding individuals can find access to each particular infusion. This explanation is facilitated by the analogous cases of various fungi which start into life, without any apparent cause, wherever decaying vegetable matter is exposed to certain conditions of temperature, humidity, and medium. Fries explains the sudden production of these plants, by supposing the light and almost invisible sporules of preceding plants, of which he has counted above 10,000,000 in a single individual, to be continually floating in the air, and falling every where. The greater part of these never germinate, from not falling on a proper matrix; those which find such matrix start rapidly into Jife, and begin to propagate. A similar explanalion seems applicable to the case of Infusoria ; tlie ex- treme minuteness of the eggs and bodies of these animalcules probably allows them to float in the air, like the invisible sporules of fungi ; they may be raised from the surface of fluids by various causes of attraction, perhaps «ver by ovaporation. From every pond or ditch that dries up in summer, these desiccated eggs and bodies may be raised by every gust of wind, and dissipated through the atmosphere like smoke, ready to start into life when ever they fall into any medium admitting of their suscitation ; Ehrenherg- has found them in fog, in rain, and snow. If the great aerial ocean which surrounds the earth be thus charged witli the rudiments of life, floating continually amidst the atoms of dust we see twinkling in a sunbeam, and ever ready to return to life as soon as they find a matrix adapted to their development, we have in these conditions of the very air we breathe a system of provisions for the almost infinite dissemination of life throughout the fluids of the present Earth ; and these provisions are in harmony with the crowded condition of the waters of the ancient world, which is manifested by the multitudes of fossil mi- croscopic remains, to which we have before alluded. (See Sect. viii. page ->90.) Mr. Lonsdale has recently discovered tiiat the Chalk at Brighton, Gravesend, and near Cambridge, is crowded with microscopic shells; thousands of these may be extracted from a small lump, by scrubbing it with a nail brush in water ; among these he has recognised vast numbers VOL. I. — 29 338 CONCLUSION. important operations of nature are conducted by the agency of atoms too minute to be either perceptible by the human eye, or comprehensible by the human understanding. We cannot better conclude this brief outline of the history of fossil Polyparies, extending as they do, from the most early transition rocks to the present seas, than in the words with which Mr. Elhs expresses the feelings excited in his own mind by his elaborate and beautiful investigations of the history of living Corallines. " And now, should it be asked, granting all this to be true, to what end has so much labour been bestowed in the de- monstration ? I can only answer, that as to me these dis- quisitions have opened new scenes of wonder and astonish- ment, in contemplating how variously, how extensively, life is distributed through the universe of things, so it is possible, that the facts here related, and these instances of nature ani- mated in a part hitherto unsuspected, may excite the like pleasing ideas in others; and, in minds more capacious and penetrating, lead to farther discoveries, farther proofs, (should such yet be wanting,) that One infinitely wise, good, all-powerful Being has made, and still upholds, the Whole of what is good and perfect ; and hence we may learn, that, if creatures of so low an order in the great scale of Nature, are endued with faculties that enable them to fill up their sphere of action with such Propriety, we likewise, who are advanced so many gradations above them, owe to ourselves, and to Him who made us and all things, a constant applica- tion to acquire that degree of Rectitude and Perfection, to which we also are endued wuth faculties of attaining." — Ellis on Corallines, p. 103. of the Valves of a marine Cypris (Cytherina) and sixteen species of Forami- nifers. GENERAL HISTORY OF FOSSIL VEGETABLES. 339 CHAPTER XVIII. Proofs of Design in the Structure of Fossil Vegetables. SECTION I. GENERAL HISTORY OF FOSSIL VEGETABLES. The history of Fossil Vegetables has a twofold claim upon our consideration, in relation to the object of our pre- sent inquiry. The first regards the influence exerted on the actual condition of Mankind, by the fossil carbonaceous re- mains of Plants, which clothed the former surface of the Earth, and has been briefly considered in a former chapter; (Chap. VII. P. 57.) the second directs our attention to the history and structure of the ancient members of the vegeta- ble kingdom. It appears that nearly at the same points in the progress of stratification, where the most striking changes take place in the remains of Animal life, there are found also concur- rent changes in the character of fossil Vegetables. A large and new field of investigation is thus laid open to our inquiry, wherein we may compare the laws which regu- lated the varying systems of vegetation, on the earlier sur- faces of our earth, with those which actually prevail. Should it result from this inquiry, that the families which make up our fossil Flora were formed on principles, either identical with those that regulate the development of ex- isting plants, or so closely allied to them, as to form con- nected parts of one and the same great system of laws, for the universal regulation of organic life, we shall add another link to the chain of arguments which we extract from the interior of the Earth, in proof of the Unity of the Intelli- 340 SEA WEEDS. gence and of the Power, which have presided over the en- tire construction of the material world. We have seen that the first remains of Animal life yet no- ticed are marine, and as the existence of any kind of animals implies the prior, or at least the contemporaneous existence of Vegetables, to afford them sustenance, the presence of sea weeds in strata coeval wuth these most ancient animals, and their continuance onwards throughout all formations of marine origin, is a matter of a friori probability, which has been confirmed by the results of actual observation. M. Adolphe Brongniart, in his admirable History of Fossil Vege- tables,* has shown, that the existing submarine vegetation seems to admit of three great divisions which characterize, to a certain degree, the Plants of the frigid, temperate, and torrid zones ; and that an analogous distribution of the fossil submerged Algoe appears to have placed in the lowest and most ancient formations, genera allied to those which now grow in regions of the greatest heat, whilst the forms of ma- rine vegetation that succeed each other in the Secondary and Tertiary periods, seem to approximate nearer to those of our present climate, as they are respectively enclosed in strata of more recent formation.-]- • Histoire des Vegetaux Fosslles, 4to. Paris, 1828. f See Ad. Brongniart's Hist, de Veg. Foss. 1 Liv. p. 47. — Dr. Harlan in the Journal of the Academy of Nat. Sc. of Philadelphia, 1831, and Mr. R. C. Taylor in Loudon's Mag. Nat. Hist. Jan. 1834, have published accounts of numerous deposites of fucoids, as occurring in repeated thin layers among the Transition strata of N. America, and extending over a long track on the E. flank of the Alleghany chain. The most abundant of these is tlie Fucoides Alleghaniensis of Dr. Harlan. I\Ir. R. C. Taylor has found extensive deposites of fossil Fuel in the Granwacke of central Pennsylvania; in one place seven courses of Plants are laid bare in the thickness of four feet, in anotlicr, one hundred courses within a thick- ness of twenty feet. {Jameson's Journal, July, 1835, p. 185.) I have also seen Fucoids in great abundance in the Grauwacke-slate of the Maritime Alps, in many parts of the new road between Nice and Genoa_ I once found small Fucoids dispersed abundantly through shale of the Lias formation, from a well at Cheltenham. The Fucoides granulatus DISTRIBUTION OF FOSSIL VEGETABLES. 341 If we take a general review of the remains of terrestrial Vegetables, that are distributed through the three great periods of geological history, we find a similar division of them into groups, each respectively indicating the same successive diminutions of Temperature upon the Land, which have been inferred from the remains of the vegetation of the Sea. Thus, in strata of the Transition series, we have an association of a few existing families of Endogenous Plants,* chiefly Ferns and Equisetaceae, with extinct id.nvXves^ both Endogenous and Exogenous, which some modern bota- nists have considered to indicate a Climate hotter than that of the Tropics of the present day. In the Secondary formations, the species of these most eaily families become much less numerous, and many of their genera, and even of the families themselves entirely cease ; and a large increase takes place in two families, that comprehend many existing forms of vegetables, and are rare in the Coal formation, viz. CycadecB and Coniferce. The united characters of the groups associated in this series, indicate a Climate, whose temperature was nearly similar to that which prevails within the present Tropics. In the Tertiary deposites, the greater number of the families of the first series, and many of those of the second, disappear ; and a more complicated dicotyledonous^ Vegeta- occars in Lias at Lyme Regis, and at Boll in Wurtemberg ; and F. Targionii in the Upper Grceiisand near Bignor in Sussex. * Endogenous Plants are those, the growth of whose stems takes place by addition from within. Exogenous are those in which the growth takes place by addition from without. t Monocotyledonous Plants are those, the embryo of whose seed is made up of one cotyledon or lobe, like the seed of a Lily or an Onion. Dicotyledonous Plants are those, the embryo of whose seed is made up of two lobes, as in the Bean and Coffee-seed. The stems of Monocotyledonous Plants are all Endogenous, i. e. increase from within by the addition of bundles of vessels set in cellular substance, and enlarge their bulk by addition from the centre outwards, e. g. Palms, Canes, and Liliacepus plants. The stems of Dicotyle- donous Plants are all Exogenous, i. e. increase externally by the addition of ^9* 342 VEGETABLE ORIGIN OF COAL. tion takes place of the simpler forms which predominated through the two preceding periods. Smaller Equisetacea; also succeed to the gigantic Calamites ; Ferns are reduced in size and number to the scanty proportions they bear on the southern verge of our temperate climates; the presence of Palms attests the absence of any severe degree of cold, and the general character marks a Climate nearly approach- ing to that of the Mediterranean. We owe to the labours of Schlotheim, Sternberg and Ad. Brongniart the foundation of such a systematic arrangement of fossil plants, as enables us to enter, by means of the analo- gies of recent plants, into the difficult question of the Ancient Vegetation of the Earth, during those periods when the strata were under the process of formation. Few persons are aware of the nature of the evidence, upon which we have at length arrived at a certain and satisfactory conclusion, respecting the long disputed ques- tion as to the vegetable origin of Coal. It is not unfrequent to find among the cinders beneath our grates, traces of fossil plants, whose cavities having been filled with silt, at the time of their deposition in the vegetable mass, that gave origin to the Coal, have left the impression of their forms upon clay and sand enclosed within them, sharp as those received by a cast from the interior of a mould. A still more decisive proof of the vegetable origin, even of the most perfect bituminous Coal has recently been dis- covered by Mr. Hutton ; he has ascertained that if any of the three varieties of Coal found near Newcastle be cut into very thin slices and submitted to the microscope, more or less of vegetable structure can be recognised.* concentric layers from without; these form the rinsjs^ wliich mark tlie amount of annual growtli in the Oak and other forest trees in our climate. * "In these varieties of coal," says Mr. Hutton, ''even in samples taken indiscriminately,, more or less of Vegetable Te.\ture could alway.-i STATE OF FOSSIL PLANTS IN NEWCASTLE COAL-PITS. 343 We shall farther illustrate this point, by a brief descrip- tion of the manner in which the remains of vegetables are disposed in the Carboniferous strata of two important Coal fields, namely, those of Newcastle in the north of England, and of Swina in Bohemia, on the N. W. of Prague. The Newcastle Coal-field is at the present time supplying rich materials to the Fossil Flora of Great Britain, now be discovered, thus affording the fullest evidence, if any such proof were wanting, of the Vegetable Origin of Coal. " Each of these three kinds of coal, besides the fine distinct reticulation of the original vegetable texture, exhibits other cells, which are filled with a light wine-yellovvcoloured matter, apparently of a bituminous nature, and which is so volatile as to be entirely expelled by heat, before any change is effected in the other constituents of the coal. The number and ap- pearance of these cells vary with each variety of coal. In caking coal, the cells are comparatively few, and are highly elongated In the finest portions of tliis coal, where tlie crystalline structure, as indicated by the rhomboidal form of its fragments, is most developed, the cells are completelv obliterated. "The slate-coal, contains two kinds of cells, both of which are filled with yellow bituminous matter. One kind is that already noticed in caking coal ; while the other kind of cells constitutes groups of smaller cells, of an elon- gated circular figure. " In those varieties which go under the name of Cannel, Parrot, and Splent Coal, the crystalline structure, so conspicuous in fine caking coal, is wholly wanting; the first kind of cells are rarely seen, and the whole surface displays an almost uniform series of the second class of cells, filled with bituminous matter, and separated from each other by thin fibrous divipion;:. Mr. Hutton considers it highly probable that these cells are derived from the reticular texture of the parent plant, rounded and con- fused by the enormous pressure, to which the vegetable matter has been subject." The author next states that though the crystalline and uncrystalline, or, in other terms, perfectly and imperfectly developed varieties of coal gene- rally occur in distinct strata, yet it is easy to find specimens which in the compass of a single square inch, contain both varieties. Erom this fact as also from the exact similarity of position which they occupy in the mine, the differences in different varieties of coal are ascribed to original dif- ference in the plants from which they were derived. Proceedings of Geolo- gical Society. Land, and Edin. Phil. Mag. 3d Series, Vol. 2 p. 302. April. 1833. 344 FOSSIL PLANTS IN COAL-PITS. under publication by Professor Lindley and Mr. Hutton. The plants of the Bohemian Coal-field laid the foundation of Count Sternberg's Flore du 7nonde primitif, the publication of which commenced at Leipsic and Prague in 1820. Lindley and Hutton state (Fossil Flora, Vol. I. page 16) that " It is the beds of shale, or argillaceous schistus, which afford the most abundant supply of these curious relics of a former World ; the fine particles of which they are com- posed having sealed up and retained in wonderful perfec- tion, and beauty, the most delicate forms of the vege- table organic structure. Where shale forms the roof of the workable seams of coal, as it generally does, we have the most abundant display of fossils, and this, not perhaps arising so much from any peculiarity in these beds, as from their being more extensively known and examined than any others. The principal deposite is not in immediate contact with the coal, but about from twelve to twenty inches above it ; and such is the immense profusion in this situa- tion, that they are not unfrequently the cause of very serious accidents, by breaking the adhesion of the shale bed, and causing it to separate and fall, when by the operation of the miner the coal which supported it is removed. After an extensive fall of this kind has taken place, it is a curious sight to see the roof of the mine covered with these vegeta- ble forms, some of them of great beauty and delicacy ; and the observer cannot fail to be struck wath the extraordinary confusion, and the numerous marks of strong mechanical action exhibited by their broken and disjointed remains." A similar abundance of distinctly preserved vegetable remains, occurs throughout the other Coal fields of Great Britain. But the finest example I have ever witnessed, is that of the coal mines of Bohemia just mentioned. Tiie most elaborate imitations of Kving foliage upon the painted ceilings of Italian palaces, bear no comparison with the beauteous profusion of extinct vegetable forms, with which the galleries of these instructive coal-mines are overhung^ PLANTS IN THE COAL FORMATION. 345 The roof is covered as with a canopy of gorgeous tapestry- enriched with festoons of most graceful fohage, flung in wild, irregular profusion over every portion of its surface. The effect is heightened by the contrast of the coal-black colour of these vegetables, with the light ground-work of the rock to which they are attached. The spectator feels himself transported, as if by enchantment, into the forests of another world ; he beholds Trees, of forms and characters now unknown upon the surface of the earth, presented to his senses almost in the beauty and vigour of their primeval life ; their scaly stems, and bending branches, with their de- licate apparatus of foliage, are all spread forth before him ; little impaired by the lapse of countless Ages, and bearing faithful records of extinct systems of vegetation, which be- gan and terminated in times of which these relics are the infallible Historians. Such are the grand natural Herbaria wherein these most ancient remains of the vegetable kingdom are preserved, in a state of integrity, little short of their living perfection, under conditions of our Planet which exist no more. SECTION II. VEGETABLES IN STRATA ON THE TRANSITION SERIES.* The remains of plants of the Transition period are most abundant in that newest portion of the deposites of this era. which constitutes the Coal Formation, and afford decisive evidence as to the condition of the vegetable kingdom at this early epoch in the history of Organic Life. The Nature of our Evidence will be best illustrated, by selecting a few examples of the many genera of fossil plants * See PI. 1. Figs. 1, to 13. 346 CALAMITES. that are preserved in the Strata of the Carboniferous Order, beginning with those which are common both to the ancient and existing states of Vegetable Life. Equisetacece.* Among existing vegetables, the Equisetacese are well known in this chmate in the common Horse-tail of our swamps and ditches. The extent of this family reaches from Lapland to the Torrid Zone, its species are most abundant in the temperate zone, decrease in size and num- ber as we approach the regions of cold, and arrive at their greatest magnitude in the warm and humid regions of the Tropics, where their numbers are few. M. Ad. Brongniartf has divided fossil Equisetacese into two Genera ; the one exhibits the characters of living Equiseta, and is of rare occurrence in a fossil state ; the other is very abundant, and presents forms that differ mate- rially from them, and often attain a size unknown among living Equisetacese ; these have been arranged under the distinct genus Calamites,'^ they abound universally in the most ancient Coal formation, occur but sparingly in the lower strata of the Secondary series, and are entirely want- ing in the Tertiary formations, and also on the actual sur- face of the earth. The same increased development of size, which in recent * See PI. 1. Fig. 2. t Histoiredes Vegetaux Fossils, 2d Livraison. t Calamites are characterized by large and simple cylindrical stems, articu- lated at intervals, but either without sheaths, or presenting them under forms unknown among existing Equiseta ; they have sometimes marks of verti- cillated Branches around their articulations, the leaves also are without joints. But the most obvious feature wherein they differ from Equiseta, is their bulk and height, sometimes exceeding six or seven inches in diameter, whilst the diameter of a living Equisetum rarely exceeds half an inch. A Calamite fourteen inches in diameter has lately been placed in the Museum at Leeds. FERNS. 34'7 Equisetacea3 accompanies their geographical approximation to the Equator, is found in the fossil species of this order to accompany the higher degrees of Antiquity of the strata in which they occur; and this without respect to the latitude, in which these formations may be placed. M. Ad. Brong- niart (Prodrome, p. 167) enumerates twelve species of Calamites and two of Equiseta in his list of plants found in strata of the carboniferous order. Ferns.* The family of Ferns, both in the living and fossil Flora, is the most numerous of vascular Cryptogamous plants.f Our knowledge of the geographical distribution of existing Ferns, as connected with Temperature, enables us in some degree to appreciate the information to be derived from the character of fossil Ferns, in regard to the early conditions and Climate of our globe. The total known number of existing species of Ferns is about 1500. These admit of a threefold geographical dis- tribution : 1. Those of the temperate and frigid zone of the northern hemisphere, containing 144 species. 2. Those of the southern temperate zone, including the Cape of Good Hope, parts of South America, and the extra* tropical part of New Holland, and New Zealand, 140 species. * See PL I. No. 6. 7. 8. 37. 38. 39. \ Ferns are distinguished from all other vegetables by the peculiar divi- sion and distribution of the veins of the leaves; and in arborescent species, by tlieir cylindrical stems without branches, and by the regular disposition and shape of the scars left upon the stem, at the jioint from which the Petioles, or leafstalks, have fallen off. Upon the former of these characters M. Ad. Brongniart has chiefly founded his classification of fossil Ferns, it being impossible to apply to them the system adopted in the arrangement of living Genera, founded on the varied disposition of the fructification, which IS rarely preserved in a fossil state. 348 AKBORESCENT FERNS. 3. Those which grow within 30 or 35 degrees on each side of the Equator, 1200 species. If we compare the amount of Ferns with the united num- bers of other tribes of plants, we may form some idea of the relative importance of this family in the vegetation of the district, or period to which we apply such comparison. Thus, in the entire number of known species of plants now existing on the globe, we have 1500 Ferns and 45,000 Pha- nerogamisB, being in the proportion of 1 to 30. In Europe this proportion varies from 1 : 35 to 1 : 80, and may average 1 : 60. Between the Tropics, Humboldt estimates the num- ber in Equinoxial America at 1 : 36, and Mr. Brown gives 1 : 20 as the proportion in those parts of intertropical Conti- nents which are most favourable* to Ferns. Mr. Brown (Appendix to Tuckey's Congo Expedition) states that the circumstances most favourable to the growth of Ferns are humidity, shade, and heat. These circum- stances are most frequently combined in the highest degree in small and lofty tropical islands, where the air is charged with humidity, which it is continually depositing on the mountains, and thereby imparting freshness to the soil. Thus in Jamaica Ferns are to the Phanerogamiae nearly in the proportion of 1 to 10; in New Zealand as 1 to 6; in Taiti as 1 to 4 ; in Norfolk Island as 1 to 3 ; in St. Helena as 1 to 2 ; in Tristan d'Acunha (extratropical) as 2 to 3. Ferns also are the most abundant Plants in the Islands of the Indian Archipelago. It appears still farther, that not only are certain Genera and tribes of Ferns peculiar to certain cHmates, but that the enlarged size of the arborescent species depends in a great degree on Temperature, since Arberescent Ferns are now found chiefly within, or near the hmit of the Tropics.f * Botony of Congo, p. 42. + The few exceptions to this rule appear to be confined to the southern DISTRIBUTION OF FOSSIL FERNS. 349 From the above considerations as to the characters and distribution of living Ferns, M. Ad. Brongniart has applied himself with much ingenuity, to illustrate the varying condi- tion and climate of our Globe, during the successive periods of geological formations. Finding that the fossil remains of Ferns decrease continually in number, as we ascend from the most ancient to the most recent strata, he founds upon this fact an important conjecture, with respect to the succes- sive diminutions of temperature, and changes of climate, which the earth has undergone. Thus, in the great Coal formation there are about 120 known species of Ferns, form- ing almost one half of the entire known Flora of this forma- tion ; these species represent but a small number of the forms which occur among living Ferns, and nearly all belong to the Tribe of Polypodiaceje, in which Tribe we find the greater number of existing arborescent species.* Frag- ments of the stems of arborescent Ferns occur occasionally in the same formation. M. Brongniart considers these cir- cumstances as indicating a vegetation, analogous to that of the Islands in the equinoctial regions of the present Earth : and infers that the same conditions of Heat and Humidity which favour the existing vegetation of these islands, pre- vailed in still greater degree during the formation of the ■Carboniferous strata of the Transition Series. hemisphere, and one species is found in New Zealand as far south as lat. 46°. See Brown in Appendix to Flinder's Voyage. * In Plate 1, figs. 7, and 37, represent two of tlie graceful forms of arborescent Ferns whicli adorn our modern tropics, where they attain the height of forty and fifty feet. An arborescent Fern forty-five feet high (Asophila brunoniana,) from Silhet in Bengal, may be seen in the staircase of the British JJuseum. The stems of these Ferns are distinguished from those of all arborescent MonocotyledonoMs plants, by the peculiar form and disposition of the scars, from which the Petioles or leaf stalks have fallen off. In Palms and other arborescent Monocotyledons, the leaves, or Petioles, embrace the stem and leave broad transverse scars, or rings, whose longer diame- ter is horizontal. In the case of Ferns alone, wilh the single exception VOL. I. — 30 350 LYCOPODIACE^* In strata of the Secondary Series, the absolute and rela- tive numbers of species of Ferns considerably diminishes^ forming scarcely one third of the known Flora of these midway periods of geological history. (See PI. 1. Figs. 37. 38. 39.) In the Tertiary Strata, Ferns appear to bear to other ve- getables nearly the same proportion as in the temperate re- gions of the present Earth. Lepidodendron.* The genus Lepidodendron comprehends many species of fossil Plants, which are of large size, and of very frequent occurrence in the Coal formation. In some points of their structure they have been compared to Coniferee, but in other respects and in their general appearance, with the exception of their great size, they very much resemble the Lycofo- diacecB, or Cluh Moss Tribe. (See PI. 1. Figs. 9. 10.) This tribe at the present day, contains no species more than three feet high, but the greater part of them are weak, or creep- of Anglopteris, the scars are either elliptic or rhomboidal, and have their longer diameter vertical. M. Ad. Brong-niart (Hist. des. Veg. Foss. p. 261, Pi. 79. 80.) has de- scribed and figured the leaf and stem of an arborescent fern (Anomopteris, Mougeottii) from the variegated sand-stone of Heilegenberg in the Vosges. Beautiful leaves of this species, with their capsules of fructification some- times adhering to the pinnules, abound in the New red sand-stone formation of this district. M. Cotta has published an interesting Work on fossil Remains of arbo- rescent ferns, which occur abundantly in the New red sand-stone of Saxony near Chemnitz. (Dendrolilhen. Dresden and Leipsig, 1832.) These con- sist chiefly of Sections of the Trunks of many extinct species, sufficiently allied in structure to that of existing arborescent Ferns, to leave little doubt that they are the remains of extinct species of arborescent Plants of this fami- ly, that grew in Europe at this period of the Secondary formation. * PI. 1. Figs. 11. 12. and PI. 55, Figs. 1. 2. 3. LEPIDODENDRON. 351 ing plants, while their earliest fossil representatives appear to have attained the dimensions of Forest Trees.* Existing Lycopodiaceae follow nearly the same law as ferns and Equisetacese, in respect of geographical distribu- tion ; being largest and most abundant in hot and humid situations within the Tropics, especially in small islands. The belief that Lepidodendra were allied to the Lycopo- diaceae, and their size, and abundant occurrence among the fossils of the Coal Formation have led writers on fossil plants to infer that great heat, and moisture, and an insular Position were the conditions, under which the first forms of this family attained that gigantic stature, which they ex- hibit in deposites of the Transition period ; thus corrobo- rating the conclusion they had derived from the Calamites associated with them, as already mentioned.f Lindley and Hutton state, that Lepidodendra are, after Calamites, the most abundant class of fossils in the Coal formation of the North of England ; they are sometimes of enormous size, fragments of stems occurring from twenty to forty-five feet long ; in the Jarrow colliery a compressed tree of this class measured four feet two inches in breadth. * Prof. Lindley states that the affinities of existing LycopodiaceeE are intermediate between Ferns and ConiferiE on the one hand, and Ferns and Mosses on the otlier ; They are related to Ferns in the want of sexual ap- paratus, and in the abundance of annular ducts contained in their axis ; to Coniferae, in the aspect of the stems of some of the larger kinds; and to Mosses in their whole appearance. f The leaves of existing Lycopodiaceae are simple, and arranged in spiral lines around the stem, and impress on its surface scars of rhomboidal or lanceolate form, marked with prints of the insertions of vessels. In the fossil Lepidodendra, we find a large and beautiful variety of similar scars, arranged like scales in spiral order, over the entire surface of the stems. A large division of these are arborescent and dichotomous, and have their branches covered with simple lanceolate leaves. Our figure of Lepidoden- dron Sternbergii (PI. 55. Figs. 1. 2. 3.) represents all these characters in a single Tree from the Coal mines of Swina in Bohemia. The form of the scales varies at different parts of the same stem, those nearest the base are elongated in the vertical direction. 352 SIGILLARIA. Thirty-four species of Lepidodendron are enumerated in M. Ad. Brongniart's Catalogue of fossil plants of the coal formation. The internal structure of the Lepidodendron has been shown to be intermediate between LycopodiaccEe and Coni- ferae,* and the conclusions which Prof Lindley draws from the intermediate condition of this curious extinct genus of i'ossil plants, are in perfect accordance with the inferences which we have had occasion to derive from analogous con- ditions in extinct genera of fossil animals. " To Botanists, this discovery is of very high interest, as it proves that those systematists are right, who contend for the possibiHty of certain chasms now existing between the gradations of organization, being caused by the extinction of genera, or even of whole orders ; the existence of which was necessary to complete the harmony which it is believed originally ex- isted in the structure of all parts of the Vegetable kingdom. By means of I^epidodendron, a better passage is established from Flowering to Flowerless Plants, than by either Equi- setum or Cycas, or any other known genus." Lindley and Hutton's Fossil Flora, vol. ii. page 43. Sigillaina.f Besides the above plants of the Coal formation which are connected with existing Families or Genera, there occur many others which can be referred to no known type in the vegetable kingdom. We have seen that the Calamitcs take their place in the existing family of Equisetaceas ; that many fossil Ferns are referable to living genera of this extensive family ; and that Lepidodendra approximate to living Lyco- * See annual report of the Yorkshire Phil. Society for 1832. William's Fossil Vegetables, 1833, PJ, 12. 13, and Lindley and Button's Fossil Flora. PI. 98 and 99. t PI. 56, Fijrs. ].2. SIGILLARIA. 353 podiacese and Coniferae. Together with these, there occur other groups of Plants unknown in modern vegetation, and of which the duration seems to have been Umited to the Epochs of the Transition Period. Among the largest and tallest of these unknown forms of Plants, we find collossal Trunks of many species, which M. Ad. Brongniart has designated by the name of Sigillaria. These are dispersed throughout the sand-stones and shales that accompany the Coal, and can occasionally be detected in the Coal itself, to the substance of which they have largely contributed by their remains. They are sometimes seen in an erect position, where views of the strata are afforded by clifls on the sea shore, or by inland sections of quarries, banks of rivers, &c.* * On the coast of Northumberland, at Creswell hall, and Newbiggin, near Morpeth, many stems of Sigillaria may be seen, standing erect at right angles to the planes of alternating strata of shale and sand-stone; they very from ten to twenty feet in height, and from one to three feet in diameter, and are usually truncated at their upper end; many terminate downwards in a bulb-shaped enlargement, near the commencement of the roots, but no roots remain attached to any of them. Mr. W. C. Trevelyan counted twenty portions of such Trees, within the length of half a mile; all but four or five of these were upright; the bark, which was seen when they were first unco- vered, but soon fell off, was about half an inch in thickness, and entirely converted into coal. Mr. Trevelyan observed four varieties of these stems, and engraved a sketch of one of them in 1816, which is copied in Count Sternberg's Table 7. Fig. 5. In September, 1834, I saw in one of the Coal Mines of Earl Fitzwilliam, at Elsecar, near Rotherham, many large Trunks of Sigillaria, in the sides of a gallery by which you walk into the mine, from the outcrop of a bed of Coal about six feet thick. These stems were inclined in all directions, and some of them nearly vertical. The interior of those whose inclination exceeded 45" was filled with an indurated mixture of clay and sand; the lower extremity of several rested on the upper surface of the bed of Coal. None had any traces of Roots, nor could any one of them have grown in ita present place. M. Alex. Brongniart has engraved a section at St. Etienne, in which many similar stems are seen in an erect position, in sand-stone of the 30* 354 SYRINGODENDRON. The vertical position of these trunks, however, is only occasional and accidental ; they lie inclined at all degrees throughout all the strata of the carboniferous series ; but are most frequently prostrate, and parallel to the lines of strati- fication, and, in this position are usually compressed. When erect, or highly inclined, they retain their natural shape, and their interior is filled with sand or clay, often different from that of the stratum in which their lower parts are fixed, and mixed with small fragments of various other plants. As this foreign matter has thus entirely filled the interior of these trunks, it follows that they must have been without any trans- verse dissepiments, and hollow throughout, at the time when the sand, and mud, and fragments of other plants found admission to their interior. The bark, which alone remains, and has been converted into coal, probably surrounded an axis composed of soft and perishable pulpy matter, like the fleshy interior of stems of living Cactese ; and the decay of this soft internal trunk, whilst the stems were floating in the water, probably made room for the introduction of the sand and clay. These trunks usually vary from half a foot to three feet in diameter. When perfect, the height of many of them must have been fifty or sixty feet, at least.* Coal formation, and infers from this fact that they grew on the spot where tlicy are now found. M. Constant Provost justly objects to this inference, that, had they grown on the spot, they would all have been rooted in the same stratum, and not have had their bases in different strata. When I visited these quarries in 1826, there were other trunks, more numerous than the upright ones, inclined in various directions, I have seen but one example, viz. that of Balgray quarry, three miles N. of Glasgow, of erect stumps of large trees fixed by their roots in sand-stone of the coal formation, in which, when soft, they appear to have grown, close to one another. See Lond. and Edin. Phil. Mag. Dec. 1835, p. 487. * M. Ad. Brongniart found in a coal mine in Westphalia near Essen, the compressed stem of a Sigillaria laid horizontally, to the length of forty feet" it was about twelve inches in diameter at its lower, and six inches at its upper extremity, where it divided into two parts, each four inclics- BARK FLUTED AND SCARRED. 355 Count Sternberg has applied the name Syringodendron to many species of Sigillaria, from the parallel pipe-shaped flutings that extend from the top to the bottom of their trunks. These trunks are without joints, and many of them attain the size of forest trees. The flutings on their surface bear dot-like, or linear impressions, of various figures, marking the points at which the leaves were inserted into the stem. This fluted portion of the Sigillarige, formed their external covering, separable like true bark from the soft internal axis, or pulpy trunk ; it varied in thickness from an inch to one- eighth of an inch, and is usually converted into pure coal. (See PI. 56, Fig. 2. a, h, c.) A fleshy trunk surrounded and strengthened only by such thin bark, must have been incapable of supporting large and heavy branches at its summit. It therefore probably termi- nated abruptly at the top, like many of the larger species of living Cactus, and the abundant disposition of small leaves around the entire extent of the trunk seems to favour this hypothesis. The impressions, or scars, which formed the articulations of leaves on the longitudinal flutings of the trunks of Sigil- laria3, are disposed in vertical rows on the centre of each fluting from the top to the bottom of the trunk. Each of these scars marks the place from which a leaf has fallen ofl^, and exhibits usually two apertures, by which bundles of vessels passed through the bark to connect the leaves with the axis of the tree. No leaf has yet been found attached to any of these trunks ; we are therefore left entirely to conjecture as to what their nature may have been. This non-occurrence of a single leaf upon any one of the many thousand trunks that have come under observation, leads us to infer that every leaf was separated from its articulation, and that many of them perhaps, like the fleshy interior of in diameter. The Jower end was broken off abruptly. Lindley and Hut- ton's Foss. Flora, vol. i. p. 153. 356 EXTINCT GENERA OF CONIFER/E. the stems, had undergone decomposition, during the interval in which they were floating between their place of growth, and that of their final submersion. M. Ad. Brongniart enumerates forty-two species of Si- gillaria, and considers them to have been nearly allied to arborescent Ferns, with leaves very small in proportion to the size of the stems, and differently disposed from those of any living Ferns. He would refer to these stems many of the numerous fern leaves of unknown species, which resem- ble those of existing arborescent genera of this family. Lindley and Hutton show reasons for considering that Si- gillariae were Dicotyledonous plants, entirely distinct from Ferns, and different from any thing that occurs in the ex- isting system of vegetation.* Favularia. Megaphyton. Bothrodendron. Ulodendron.f The same group of fossil plants to which Lindley and Hutton have referred the genus Sigillaria, contains four other extinct genera, all of which exhibit a similar dis- position of scales arranged in vertical rows, and indicating the places at which leaves, or cones, were attached to the trunk. The names of these are Favularia, Megaphy- * "There can be no doubt," say they, (Foss. Flora, vol. i. p. 155) " that as far as external characters go, Sigillaria approached Euphorbiae and Cacteae more nearly than any other plants now known, particularly in its soft texture, in its deeply channelled stems, and what is of more consequence in its scars, placed in perpendicular rows between the furrows. It is also well known that both these modern tribes, particularly the latter, arrive even now at great stature ; farther, it is extremely probable, indeed almost certain, that Sigillaria was a dicotyledonous plant, for no others at the pre- sent day have a true separable bark. Nevertheless, in the total absence of all knowledge of the leaves and flowers of these ancient trees, we think it better to place the genus among other species, the affinity of which is at present doubtful." t PI. 56, Figs. 3.4. 5. 6. 7, LEAVES AND CONES IN VERTICAL ROWS. 357 ton, Bothrodendron, Ulodendron.* Our figures PI. 56, Figs. 3, 4, 5, 6, represent portions of the trunk and scars of some of these extraordinary Coniferoe. Among existing vegetables, there are only a few succulent plants v^^hich present a similar disposition of leaves, one exactly above another in parallel rows ; but in the fossil Flora of the Coal formation, nearly one-half, out of eighty known species of Arborescent plants, have their leaves growing in parallel series. The remaining half are Lepido- * The genera composing this group are thus described, Foss, Flora, vol. ii. p. 96. 7. Sigillaria. Stem furrowed. Scars of leaves small, round, much nar- rower than the ridges of the stem. See Pi. 56, Figs. 1, 2, 2'. 2. Favularia. Stem furrowed. Scars of leaves small, square, as broad as the ridges of the stem. See PI. 56, Fig. 7. 3. Megaphyton. Stem not furrowed, dotted. Scars of leaves very large, of a horse-shoe figure, much narrower than the ridges. 4. Bothrodendron. Stem not furrowed, covered with dots. Scars of cones, obliquely oval. 5. Ulodendron. Stem not furrowed, covered with rJiomboidal marks. Scars of cones circular. See PI. 56, Figs. 3, 4,5, 6, 6'. In the first three genera of this group, the scars appear to have given origin to leaves; in the latter two they indicate the insertion of large cones. In the genus Favuluria (PI. 56, Fig. 7) the trunk was entirely covered ■with a mass of densely imbricated foliage, the bases of the leaves are nearh' square, and the rows of leaves separated by intermediate grooves ; whilst in Sigillaria the leaves were placed more loosely, and at various intervals in various species. (Foss. Flora, PI. 73. 74. 75.) In the genus Megaphyton the stem is not furrowed, and the leaf scars arc very large, and resemble the form of horse-shoes disposed in two vertical rows, one on each side of the trunk. The minor impressions resembling horse-shoes, in the middle of these scars, appear to indicate the figure of the woody system of the leafstalk. (Foss. Flora, PI. 116, 117.) In the genus Bothrodendron (Foss. Flora, IM. 80, 81) and the genus Ulo- dendron, (Foss. Flora, PI. 5. 6.) the stems arc marked with deep oval or cir- cular concavities, which appear to have been made by the bases of large cones. These cavities are ranged in two vertical rows, on opposite sides of the trunk, and in some species are nearly five inches in diameter. (PI. 56. Figs. 3. 4. 5. 6.) 358 STIGMARIA. dendra, or extinct Coniferae. (See Lindley and Hutton, Foss. Flora, vol. ii. p. 93.) Stigmaria.* The recent discoveries of Lindley and Hutton have throM^n much light upon this very extraordinary family of extinct fossil plants. Our figure, PI. 56, Fig. 8, copied from their engraving of Stigmaria ficoides, (Foss. Flora, PI. 31, Fig. 1) represents one of the best known examples of the genus.f The centre of the plant presents a dome-shaped trunk or stem, three or four feet in diameter, the substance of which was probably yielding and fleshy; both its surfaces were slightly corrugated, and covered with indistinct circular spots. (PI. 56, Figs. 8. 9.) From the margin of this dome there proceed many hori- zontal branches, varying in number in different individuals from nine to fifteen ; some of these branches become forked at unequal distances from the dome ; they are all broken oft' short, the longest yet found attached to the stem, was four feet and a half in length. The extent of these branches, when outstreched and perfect, was probably from twenty to thirty feet. J The surface of each branch is covered with » PI. 56, Figs. 8. 9. 10.1]. t Seventeen specimens of this kind have been found within the space of 600 square yards, in the shale covering the Bensham seam of coal at Jarrow Colliery near Newcastle, at the depth of 1200 feet. \ It appears from sections of a branch of Stigmaria, engraved by Lindley and Hutton, (Foss. Flora, PI. 166,) that its interior was a hollow cylinder composed exclusively of spiral vessels, and containing a thick pith, and that the transverse section exhibits a structure something like that of Coniferae, but without concentric circles, and with open spaces instead of the muriform tissue of medullary rays. No such structure is known among living plants. These cylindrical branches are usually depressed on one side, probably the inferior side (PI, 56, Figs. 8. ab, and 10. b,;) adjacent to this depres'. A GIGANTIC FLOATING PLANT. 359 spirally disposed tubercles, resembling the papillae at the base of the spines of Echini. From each tubercle there proceeded a cylindrical and probably succulent leaf; these extended to the length of several feet from all sides of the branches. (PI. 56, Figs. 10. 11.) The leaves, usually, in a compressed state, are found penetrating in all directions into the sand-stone or shale which forms the surrounding matrix ; they have been traced to the length of three feet, and have fbeen said to be much longer.* In many of the strata that accompany the coal, fragments of these plants occur in vast abundance ; they have been long noticed in the sand-stone called Gannister and Crow- stone, in the Yorkshire and Derbyshire coal fields, and have been incorrectly considered to be fragments of the stems of Cacti. The discovery of the dome-shaped centres above de- scribed, and the length and forms of the leaves and branches render it highly probable that the Stigmarise were aquatic plants, trailing in swamps, or floating in still and shallow lakes, like the modern Stratiotes and Isoetes. From such situations they may have been drifted by the same inunda- tions, that transported the Ferns and other land vegetables, with which they ai^e associated in the coal formation. The form of the trunk and branches shows that they could not have risen upwards into the air ; they must therefore either have trailed on the ground, or have floated in water. J The sion there is found a loose internal eccentric axis, or woody core (PI. 56. Fig. 10. a.) surrounded with vascular fasciculi that communicated witii the external tubercles, and resembled the internal axis within the stems of cer- tain species of Cactus, * All these are conditions, which a Plant habitually floating with the leaves distended in every direction, would not cease to maintain, when drifted to the bottom of an Estuary, and there gradually surrounded by sediments of mud and silt. •j- The place and form of the leaves, supposing them to have grown on all sides of branches suspended horizontally in water, would have been but little changed by being drifted into, and sinking to the bottom of, an 3G0 CONCLUSION. Stigmaria was probably dicotyledonous, and in its internal structure seems to have borne some analogies to that of the Euphorbiacese. Conclusion. Besides these Genera which have been enumerated, there are many others whose nature is still more obscure, and of which no traces have been found among existing vegeta- bles, nor in any strata more recent than the Carboniferous series.* Many years must elapse before the character of these various remains of the primeval vegetation of the Globe can be folly understood. The plants which have contributed most largely to the highly-interesting and im- portant formation of Coal, are referable principally to the Genera whose history we have attempted briefly to eluci- date : viz. Calamites, Ferns, Lycopodiacese, Sigillarias, and Stigmaria). These materials have been collected chiefly from the carboniferous strata of Europe. The same kind of fossil plants are found in the coal mines of N. America, and we have reason to believe that similar remains occur in Coal formations of the same Epoch, under very different Latitudes, and in very distant quarters of the Globe, e. g. in India, and New Holland, in Melville Island, and Baffin's Bay. The most striking conclusions to which the present state of our knowledge has led, respecting the vegetables which gave origin to coal arc, 1st, that a large proportion of these plants were vascular Cryptogamia), and especially Ferns; estuary or 6ea, and there becoming surrounded by sediments of mud or sand. This hypothesis seems supported by tiic observations made at Jarrow, that the extremities of tiic branches descend from tlie dome towards the adjacent bed of coal. * Some of the most abundant of these have been classed under tlie names of Asterophyllites, (see Pi. 1, Figs. 4. 5,) from the stellated disposition of the leaves around the branches. COMPLEX HISTORY OF COAL. 361 2dly, that among these Cryptogamic plants, the Equisetaceae attained a gigantic size ; 3dly, that Dicotyledonous plants, which compose nearly two-thirds of living Vegetables, formed but a small proportion of the Flora of these early periods.* 4thly, that although many extinct genera, and certain families have no living representatives, and even * The value to be attached to numerical proportions of fossil Plants, ia estimating the entire condition of the Flora of these early periods, has been diminished by the result, of a recent interesting experiment made by Prof. Lindley, on the durability of Plants immersed in water. (See Fossil Flora No. xvii. vol. iii. p. 4.) Having immersed in a tank of fresh-water, during more than two years, 177 species of plants, including representatives of all those which are either constantly present in the coal measures or universally absent, he found : 1. That the leaves and bark of most dicotyledonous Plants are wholly decomposed in two years, and that of those which do resist it, the greater part are Conifera and CycadecR, 2. That Monocotyledons arc more capable of resisting the action of wate.'', particularly Palms and Scitamincous Plants ; but that Grasses and Sedges perish. 3. That Fungi, Mosses, and all the lowest forms of Vegetation disappear. 4. That Ferns have a great Power of resisting water if gathered in a green slate, not one of those submitted to the experiment having disappeared, but that ihcxT fructification perished. Although the results of this experiment in some degree invalidate the certainty of our knowledge of the entire Flora of each of the consecutive Periods of Geological History, it does not affect our information as to the number of the enduring Plants which have contributed to make up the Coal formation ; nor as to the varying proportions, and changes in the species of Ferns and other plants, in the successive systems of vegetation that have clothed our globe. It may be farther noticed, that as both trunks and leaves of Angicspermous dicotyledonous Plants have been preserved abundantly in the Tertiary for- mations, there appears to be no reason why, if Plants of tUs Tribe had existed during the Secondary and Transition Periods, they piould not also occasionally have escaped destruction in the sedimentary (bposites of these earlier epochs. In Loudon's Mag. Nat. Hist. Jan, 1834, p. 34, is «« account of some interesting experiments by Mr. Lukis, on successivr changes in the form of the cortical and internal parts of the stems o*" succulent plants, (e. g. Sempervivum arboreum) during various stages ot decay, which may illus- trate analogous appearances in many fossil plarxis of the coal formation. VOL. I. — 31 362 STAGES IN THE PRODUCTION OF COAL. ceased to exist after the deposition of the Coal formatioi?, yet are they connected with modern vegetables by common principles of structure, and by details of organization, which show them all to be parts of One grand, and consistent, and harmonious Design. We may end our account of the Plants to which we have traced the origin of Coal, with a summary view of the various Natural changes, and processes in Art and Industry, through which we can follow the progress of this curious and most important vegetable production. Few persons are aware of the remote and wonderful Events in the economy of our Planet, and of the compli- cated applications of human Industry and Science, which are involved in the production of the Coal that supplies with fuel the Metropolis of England. The most early stage to which we can carry back its origin, was among the swamps and forests of the primeval earth, where it flou- rished in the form of gigantic Calamites, and stately Lepi- dodendra, and Sigillarias. From their native bed, these plants were torn away, by the storms and inundations of a hot and humid climate, and transported in some adjacent Lake, or Estuary, or Sea. Here they floated on the waters, until they sank saturated to the bottom, and being buried in the detritus of adjacent lands, became transferred to a new estate among the members of the mineral king- dom. A long interment followed, during which a course of Chemical changes, and new combinations of their vege- table elements, have converted them to the mineral condi- tion of Coal. By the elevating force of subterranean Fires, these beds of Coal have been uplifted from beneath the waters, to a new position in the hills and mountains, where they are accessible to the industry of man. From this fourth stage in its adventures, our Coal has again been moved by the labours of the miner, assisted by the Arts and Sciences, that rave co-operated to produce the Steam Engine and the Safety Lamp. Returned once more to the FOSSIL CONIFERS. 363 light of day, and a second time committed to the waters, it has, by the aid of navigation, been conveyed to the scene of its next and most considerable change by fire ; a change during which it becomes subservient to the most important wants and conveniences of Man. In this seventh stage of its long eventful history, it seems to the vulgar eye to un- dergo annihilation ; its Elements are indeed released from the mineral combinations they have maintained for ages, but their apparent destruction is only the commencement of new successions of change and of activity. Set free from their long imprisonment, they return to their native Atmosphere, from which they were absorbed to take part in the primeval vegetation of the Earth. To-morrow, they may contribute to the substance of timber, in the Trees of our existing forests ; and having for a while resumed their place in the living vegetable kingdom, may, ere long be ap- plied a second time to the use and benefit of man. And when decay or fire shall once more consign them to the earth, or to the atmosphere, the same Elements will enter on some farther department, of their perpetual ministration, in the economy of the material world. Fossil ConifercB.* The Coniferse form a large and very important tribe among living plants, which are characterized, not only by peculiarities in their fructification (as Gymnospermous pha- ncrogamicsif) but also by certain remarkable arrangements * See PL 1. Figs. 1. 31. 32. 69. t We owe to Mr. Brown, the important discover)', that Coniferae and Cy- cadese are the only two families of plants that have their seeds originally naked, and not enclosed within an Ovary. (See Appendix to Captain King's Voyage to Australia.) They have for this reason been arranged in a distinct order, as Gymnosjpermous PhanerogainicB. This peculiarity in the Ovulum is accompanied throughout both these families, by peculiarities in the internal structure of their stems, in which they differ from almost all dicotyledonous plants, and in some respects also from each other. 364 FOSSIL CONIFERS. in the structure of their wood, whereby the smallest frag- ment may be identified. Recent microscopic examinations of fossil woods have led to the recognition of an internal structure, resembling that of existing Coniferse, in the trunks of large trees, both in the Carboniferous series,* and throughout the Secondary formations ;f and M. Ad. Brongniart has enumerated twenty species of fossil Coniferas in strata of the Tertiary series. Many of these last approach more closely to existing Genera than those in the Secondary strata, and some are referable 1o them. It has been farther shown by Nicol, (Edin. New Phil. Journal, January, 1834) that some of the most ancient fossil Coniferse may be referred to the existing genus Pinus, and others to that of Araucaria; the latter of these compre- hends some of the tallest among Hving trees, (See PI. 1, Fig. The recognition of tlicse peculiar characters in the structure of the stem, is especially important to the Geological Botanist, because the stems of plants are often the only parts which are found preserved in a fossil state, * The occurrence of large coniferous trees in strata of the great Coal formation, was first announced in Mr. Witham's Fossil Vegetables, 1831. It was here stated that the higher and more complex organizations of Coni- ferse exists in the Coal fields of Edinburgh and Newcastle, in strata which till lately have been supposed to contain only the simpler forms of vegetable structure. t In the lower region of the Secondary strata, M. Ad. Brongniart has enumerated, among the fossil plants of the New red sand-stone of the Vosges, four species of Voltzia, a new genus of Coniferse, having near affinities to the Araucaria and Cunninghamia. Branches, leaves, and cones of this genus are most abundant at Sultz les Bains, near Stras- burgh. Mr. Witham reckons eight species of Coniferse among the fossil woods of the Lias ; and five species, of which four are allied to the existing genus Thuia, occur in the Oolite formation of Stonesfield. (See Ad. Brongniart's Prod. p. 200.) For figures of Cones from the Lias and Greensand near Lyme Regis, and the Inferior oolite of Northamptonshire, see Lindly and Hutton's Fossil Flora, Plates 89, 135, 137. Dr. Fitton has described and figured two very beautiful and perfect cones, one from Purbeck ? and one from the Hastings sand. Geol. Trans. 2d, Se* ries. Vol. iv. PI. 22, Figs. 'J, 10, p. 181 and 230. ARAUCARIA AND PINUS IN COAL FORMATION. 365 1) and is best known in the Araucaria excelsa, or Norfolk Island Pine. These discoveries are highly important, as they afford examples among the earliest remains of vegetable life, of identity in minute details of internal organization, between the most ancient trees of the primeval forests of our globe, and some of the largest living Coniferas.* The structure of Araucarias alone has been as yet iden- • The transverse section of any coniferous wood in addition to the radiating and concentric lines represented PI. 56a, Fig. 7, exhibits under the microscope a system of reticulations by which conifers are distin- guishable from other plants. The form of these reticulations magnified 400 times is given in Pi. 56a, Figs. 2, 4, 6. These apertures are trans- verse sections of the same vessels, which are seen in a longitudinal sec- tion at Pi. 56a; Fig. 8, cut from the centre towards the bark, and parallel to the medullary rays. These vessels exhibit a characteristic and beauti- ful structure, whereby a distinction is marked between the true Pines and Araucarias. In such a section the small and uniform longitudinal vessels, (PI. 56a, Fig. 8) which constitute the woody fibre, present at in- tervals a remarkable appearance of small, nearly circular figures disposed in vertical rows (See Pi. 56a, Figs. 1, 3, 5.) These objects under the name of glands or discs, are differently arranged in different species; they are generally circulai', but sometimes elliptical, and when near each other, become angular. Each of these discs has near its centre a smaller circular areola. PI. 56a, Fig. 1, represents their appearance in the Pinus strobus of North America. In some Conifers, the discs are in single rows; in others, in double as well as single rows, e. g. in Pinus strobus, PI. 56a, Fig. 1. Throughout the entire ganus of the living Pines, when double rows of discs occur in one vessel, the discs of both rows are placed side by side, and never alternate, and the number of the rows of discs is never more than two. In the Araucarias the groups of discs are an-anged in single, double, triple and sometimes quadruple rows, see Pi. 56, Fig, 3. 5. They are much smaller than those in the true Pines, scarcely half their size, and in the double rows they always alternate with each other, and are sometimes circular, but mostly polygonal. Mr. Nicol has counted a row of not less than fifty discs in a length the twentieth part of an inch, the diameter of each disc not ex- ceeding the thousandth part of an inch; but even the smallest of these are of enormous size, when compared with the fibres of the partitions bounding the vessels in which they occur. 31* 366 PINUS AND ARAUCARIA IN LIAS. tified in trees from the Carboniferous series of Britain.* That of ordinary Pines occurs in wood from the Coal formation of Nova Scotia and New Holland. The same ordinary structure of Pines predominates in the fossil wood of the Lias at Whitby ; trunks of Araucarias also are found there in the same Lias ; and branches, with the leaves still adhering to them, in the Lias at Lyme Regis.f Professor Lindley justly remarks that it is an important fact, that at the period of the deposite of the Lias, the vege- tation was similar to that of the (Southern Hemisphere, not alone in the single fact of the presence of Cycadese, but that the Pines were also of the nature of species now found only to the south of the Equator. Of the four recent species of Araucaria at present known, one is found on the east coast of New Holland, another in Norfolk Island, a third in Brazil, and the fourth in Chili. (Foss. Flora, vol. ii. p. 2L) Whatever result may follow from future investigations, our present information shows that the largest and most perfect fossil Coniferae, which have been as yet sufficiently examined from the Coal formation and the Lias, are refera- ble either to the genus Pinus, or Araucaria,J and that both * A trunk of Araucarias forty-seven feet long was found in Cragleitli Quarry near Edinburgh, 1830. (See Witham's Fossil Vegetables, 1833, PI. 5.) Another, three feet in diameter, and more tlian twenty-four feet long, was discovered in the same quarries in 1833. (See Nicol on Fossil Couiferae, Edin. New Phil. Journal, Jan, 1834.) The longitudinal sec- tions of this Tree exhibit, like the recent Araucaria excelsa, small poly- gonal discs, arranged m double, and triple quadruple rows within the longitudinal vessels; so also does a similar section from the Coal-field of New-Holland. t See Lindley and Hutton's Fossil Flora, Pi. 88. A fossil cone referable to Coniferse, and possibly to the genus Araucaria, from tlie Lias of Lyme Eegis, is represented at Plate 89 of the same work. t Mr, Nicol states that in fossil woods from tlie Whitby Lias, when concentric layers are distinctly marked on their transverse section, (PI. 56a, Fig. 2, a, a) the longitudinal sections have also the structure of pinus (Pi. 56a, Fig. 1.;) but when the transverse section exhibits no dis- tinct annual layers, (Pi. 56a, Fig. 4.) or has them but slightly indicated* CONIFERS IN THE SECONDARY SERIES. 367 these modifications of the existing Family of Coniferas date their commencement from that very ancient period, when the Carboniferous strata of the Transition formation were deposited. Fragments of trunks of Coniferous wood, and occasion- ally leaves and cones occur through all stages of the Oolite formation, from the Lias to the Portland stone. On the up- per surface of the Portland stone, we find the remains of an ancient forest, in which are preserved large prostrate silici- fied stumps of Coniferas, having their roots still fixed in the black vegetable mould in which they grew. Fragments of coniferous wood are also frequent throughout the Wealden and Greensand formations, and occur occasionally in Chalk.* It appears that the Coniferae are common to fossiliferous strata of all periods ; they are least abundant in the Transi- tion series, more numerous in the Secondary, and most fre- quent in the Tertiary series. Hence we learn that there has been no time since the commencement of terrestrial veseta- tion on the surface of our Globe, in which large Coniferous trees did not exist ; but our present evidence is insufficient, to ascertain with accuracy the proportions they bore to the (PI. 56a. Fig. 6. a) the longitudinal section has the characters of Araucaria. (PI. 56a. Fig. 3, 5.) So also those Coniferse of the great Coal formation of Edinburgh and Newcastle, which exhibit the structure of Araucaria in tlieir longitudinal section, have no distinct concentric layers ; whilst in the fossil Coniferas from the New Holland and Nova Scotia Coalfield, both lon- gitudinal and transverse sections agree with those of the recent tribe of Pinus. Mr. Witham also observes that the Coniferae of the Coal formation, and mountain limestone group, have few and slight appearances of the con- centric lines, by which the annual layers of the wood are separated, which is also frequently the case with the Trees of our present tropical re- gions, and from this circumstance conjectures that, at the epochs of these formations, the changes of season, as to temperature at least were not abrupt. * There is in the Oxford Museum a fragment of silicified coniferous wood, perforated by Teredines, found by Rev, Dr. Faussett, in a chalk flint at Lower liardrcs, near Canterburv. 368 FLOKA OF THE SECONDARY SERIES. relative numbers of other families of plants, in each of the successive geological epochs, which are thus connected with our own, by a new and beautiful series of links, derived from one of the most important tribes of the vegetable kingdom. SECTION III. VEGETABLES IN STRATA OF THE SECONDARY SERIES."^ Fossil Cycadece. The Flora of the Secondary Seriesf presents characters^ of an intermediate kind between the Insular vegetation of the Transition series, and the Continental Flora of the Ter- tiary formations. Its predominating feature consists in the abundant presence of Cycadeee, (see PI. 1, Figs. 33, 34, 35,) together with Coniferee,^ and Ferns.§ (See PI. 1, Figs. 37, 38, 39.) M. Ad. Brongniart enumerates about seventy species of * See P). 1, Figs. 31 to 39. + M. Ad. Brongniart, in his arrangement of fossil plants, has formed a distinct group out of the few species which have been found in tlie Red- sandstone formation (Gres bigarre) immediately above the Coal. In our division of the strata, this Red-sandstone is included, as an inferior mem- ber, in the Secondary series. Five Algffi, three Calamites, five Ferns, and five Coniferae, two Liliacese, and tliree uncertain Monocotyledonous plants form the entire amount of species which he enumerates in this small Flora. See also JiBger ober die Pflanzenversteinerungcn in dem Bausandstcin von Stuttgart, 1827. t We again refer to Witham's Account of Conifers from the Lias, in his observations on Fossil Vegetables, 1833. § A very interesting account, accompanied by figures, showing the in- ternal structure of the stems of fossil arborescent Ferns of the Secondary period, is given in Cotta's Dendrolithcn, Dresden, 1832 ; these appear to be chiefly from the New red sand-stone of Clicmnitz near Dresden. HABIT AND STRUCTURE OF CYCaDE^. 369 land plants in the Secondary formations, (from the Keuper to the Chalk inclusive ;) one half of these are Coniferse and Cycadas, and of this half, twenty-nine are Cycadese; the remaining half are chiefly vascular Cryptogamise, viz. Ferns, Equisetaceffi, and Lycopodiacese. In our actual vegetation, Coniferse and Cycadeae scarcely compose a three hundreth part.* The family of Cycadese comprehends only two living Genera; viz. Cycas, (PL 58.) and Zamia. (PI. 59.) There are five known living Species of Cycas and about seventeen of Zamia. Not a single species of the Cycadeae grows at the present time in Europe: their principal localities are parts of equinoctial America, the West Indies, the Cape of Good Hope, Madagascar, India, the Molucca Islands, Japan, China, and New Holland. Four or five genera, and twenty-nine species of Cycadeas, occur in the fossil Flora of the Secondary period, but remains of this family are very rare in strata of the Transi- tion, and Tertiary series.f * The fossil vegetables in the Secondary series, although they present many kinds of Lignite, very rarely form beds of valuable Coal. The imper- fect coal of the Cleaveland Moorlands near Whitby, and of Brora in Sutherland, belong to the inferior region of the Oolite formation. The bituminous coal of Buckeberg near Minden, in Westphalia, is in the Wealden formation. The coal of Hoer in Scania is either in the Wealden formation, or in the Green-sand (Ann. des Sciences Nat. torn. iv. p. 200.) t I learn by letter from Count Sternberg, (Aug. 1835.) that he has found Cycadese and Zamites in the Coal formation of Bohemia, of which he will publish figures in the 7th and 8th Cahier of his Flore du Monde primitif. This is, I believe, the first example of the recognition of plants of this family in strata of the Carboniferous series. During a recent visit to the extensive and admirably arranged geological collection in the Museum at Strasbourg, I was informed by M. Voltz that the stern of a Cycadites in that museum, described , by M. Ad. Brongniart, as a Mantellia, from the Muschelkalk of Luneville, is derived from the Lias near that Town. M. Voltz knows no example 'of any Cycadites from the Muschelkalk. Stems and leaves of Cycadese occur also in the Lias at Lyme Regis. (Lind. Foss. Fl. Fl. 143.) 370 INTERMEDIATE CHARACTER OF CYCADEiE. The Cycadese form a beautiful family of plants whose external habit resembles that of Palms, whilst their internal structure approximates in several essential characters to that of Coniferae. In a third respect, (viz. the Gyrate Vernation, or mode in which the leaves are curled up at their points, within the buds,) they resemble Ferns. (See PI. 1. F. 33,. 34, 35, and PL 58, 59.) I shall select the family of Cycadeae from the fossil Flora of the Secondary period, and shall enter into some details respecting its organization, with a view of showing an example of the method of analysis, by which Geologists are enabled to arrive at information as to the structure and economy of extinct species of fossil vegetables, and of the importance of the conclusions they are enabled to establish. Those who have attended to the recent progress of vegeta- ble Physiology will duly appreciate the value of microscopic investigations, which enable us to identify the structure of vegetables of such remote antiquity, with that which pre- vails in the organization of living species. The physiological discoveries that have lately been made with respect to living species of Cycadeae, have shown them to occupy an intermediate place between Palms^ Ferns, and Coniferac, to each of which they bear certain points of resemblance ; and hence a peculiar interest attends The most abundant deposit of fossil leaves of Cycadese in England, is in the Oolitic formation on the coast of Yorkshire, between Whitby and Scar- borough, (See Phillips' Illustration of the Geology of Yorkshire.) Leaves of this family occur also in the Oolitic slate of Stonesfield. Lindley and Hut- ton, Foss. Flora, PI. 172, 175, In Lindlcy and Hutton's Fossil Flora, PI. 136, Figures are given of Cones which he refers to the genus Zaniia, from tlic sand-stone of the Wcaldcn formation at Yaverland on the South coast of the I. of Wight. M. Ad. Brongniart has established a new fossil genus Nilsonia, in the family of Cycadca), which occurs at Hoer in Scania, in strata, either of the Wealden or Grccn-sand formation ; and another genus, Pterophyllum, which is found from the New red sand-stone upwards to the Wealden for-- mation. FOSSIL CYCADE^ IN DORSETSHIRE. 371 the recognition of similar structures in fossil plants, refera- ble to a family whose characters are so remarkable. The figure of a Cycas revoluta (PL 58,*) represents the form and habit of plants belonging to this beautiful genus. In the magnificent crown of graceful foliage surrounding the summit of a simple cylindrical trunk, it resembles a Palm. The trunk in the genus Cycas, is usually long. That of C. circinalis rises to 30 feet.f In the genus Zamia it is commonly short. Our figure of a Zamia pungens,J (PI. 59,) shows the mode of inflorescence in this Genus, by a single cone, rising like a Pine Apple, deprived of its foliaceous top, from within the crown of leaves at the summit of the stem. The trunk of the Cycadeje has no true bark, but is sur- rounded by a dense case, composed of persistent scales which have formed the basis of fallen leaves ; these, to- gether with other abortive scales, constitute a compact covering that supplies the place of bark. (See PI. 58 and 59.) In the Geol. Trans, of London (vol. iv. part 1. New Series) I have published, in conjunction with Mr. De la Beche, an account of the circumstances under which silici- fied fossil trunks of Cycadeai are found in the Isle of Port- land, immediately above the surface of the Portland stone, and below the Purbeck stone. They are lodged in the same beds of black mould in which they grew, and are accompanied by prostrate trunks of large coniferous trees, converted to flint, and by stumps of these trees standing erect with their roots still fixed in their native soil. (See PI. 57, Fig. l.§) * Drawn from a Plant in Lord Grenville's Conservatory at Dropinore, in 1832. t In Curtis's Botanical Magazine, 1828, PI. 2826, Dr. Hooker has pub- lished an Engraving of a Cycas circinalis which in 1827 flowered in the Bo- tanic Garden at Edinburgh. See PI. 1. Fig. 33. t Copied from an engraving published by Mr. Lambert, of a plant that bore fruit at Walton on Thames in the conservatory of Lady Tankerviile, 1832. § Thg sketch, PI. 57, Fig, 2, represents a triple series of circular undula. 372 ANCIENT SUBMERGED FOREST. PI. 57, Fig. 3, exhibits similar stumps of trees rooted in their native mould, in the Cliff immediately east of Lulworth Cove. Here the strata have been elevated nearly to a angle of 45*^, and the stumps still retain the unnatural inclination into vv^hich they have been thrown by this elevation. The facts represented in these three last figures are fully described and explained in the paper above referred to; they prove that plants belonging to a family that is now con- fined to the warmer regions of the earth, were at a former period, natives of the southern coast of England.* As no leaves have yet been found with the fossil Cycadeae under consideration, we are limited to the structure of their tions, marked in the stone, which surrounds a single stump, rooted in the dirt-bed in the Isle of Portland. This very curious disposition has apparently resulted from undulations, produced by winds, blowing at different times in different directions on the surface of the shallow fresh-water, from the sedi- ments of which the matter of this stratum was supplied, while the top of this stem stood above the surface of the water. See Geol. Trans. Lond. N. S. vol. iv. p. 17. * The structure of this district affords also a good example of the proofs which Geology discloses, of alternate elevations and submersions of the strata, sometimes gradually, and sometimes violently, during the formation of the crust of our planet. First. We have evidence of the rise of the Portland stone, till it reached the surface of the sea wherein it was formed. Secondly, This surface became for a time, dry land, covered by a tempo- rary forest, during an interval which is indicated by the thickness of a bed of black mould, called the Dirt-bed, and by the rings of annual growth in large petrified trunks of prostrate trees, whose roots had grown in this mould. Thirdly, We find this forest to have been gradually submerged, first be- neath the waters of a fresh-water lake, next of an estuary, and afterwards beneath those of a deep sea, in which Cretaceous and Tertiary strata were deposited, more than 2000 feet in thickness. Fourthly, The whole of these strata have been elevated by subterranean violence, into their actual position in the hills of Dorsetshire. We arrive at similar conclusions, as to the alternate elevation and depres- sions of the surface of tiie earth, from the erect position of the stems of Ca- lamites, in sand-stone of the lower Oolite formation on the eastern coast of Yorkshire. (See JVIurchison. Proceedings of Geol. Society of London, vol. i. p. 391.) IMTERNAL STRCTURE OF TRUNKS. 373 trunk and scales, in our search for their distinguishing cha- racters. I have elsewhere (Geol. Trans. London, N. S. vol. ii. part iii. 1828) instituted a comparison between the internal struc- ture of two species of these fossil trunks, and that of the trunks of a recent Zamia and recent Cycas.* I must refer to the memoir, in which these sections are described, for specific details as to the varied proportions and numerical distribution of these concentric circles of laminated wood and cellular tissue, in the trunks of living and fossil species of Cycadese.f * M. Ad. Brongniart has referred these two fossil species to a new genus, by the name of Mantellia nidiformis and Mantellia cylindrica; in my paper just quoted, I applied to them the provisional name of Cycadeoidea megalo- phylla and Cydadeoidea microphylla; but Mr. Brown is of opinion, that until sufficient reasons are assigned for separating them from the genus Cycas or Zaraia, the provisional name of Cycadites is more appropriate, as expressing the present state of our knowledge upon this subject. The name Mantellia is already applied by Parkinson (Introduction to Fossil Org. Rem. p. 53) to a genus of Zoophytes, which is figured in Goldfuss, T. vi. p. 14. t Plates 60, Fig. 1, and Gl, Fig. 1, represent very perfect specimens of fossil Cycadites from Portland, now in the Oxford Museum; both having the important character of Buds protruding from the Axillae of the leaf stalks. The section given in PI. 59, Fig. 2, of the trunk of a recent Zamia hor- rida, from the Cape of Good Hope, displays a structure similar to that in the section of the fossil Cycadites megalophyllus from the Isle of Portland ; (PI, 60, Fig. 2) each presents a single circle of radiating lamiuEB of woody fibre, B, placed between a central mass of cellular tissue, A, and an ex- terior circle of the same tissue, C. Around the trunk, thus constituted of three parts, is placed a case or false bark, D, composed of the persis- tent bases of fallen leaves, and of abortive scales. The continuation of the same structure is seen at the summit of the stem, PI. 60, Fig. 1, A. B. C. D. The Cycadites microphyllus, PI. 61, Fig. 1, affords a similar approach to the internal structure of the stem in the recent Cycas. The summit of this fossil exhibits a central mass of cellular tissue (A,) surrounded by two circles of radiating woody plates, B. b., between these laminated circles, is a narrow circle of cellular tissue, whilst a broader circle of similar cellular tissue (C) is placed between the exterior laminated circle, (b) and the leaf scales (D.) This alternation of radiating circles of wood VOL. I.— 32 374 STRUCTURE OF SCALES OR BASES OF LEAF STALKS. A strict correspondence is also exhibited in the internal structure of the scales, or bases of leaf stalks surrounding the trunks of our fossil Cycadites, with that of the correspond- ing scales in the recent species.* with circles of cellular tissue, is similar to the two laminated circles near the base of a young stem of Cycas revoluta, (PI. 59, Fig. 3.) This secliaa was communicated to me by Mr. Brown early in 1828, to confirm the analogy which had been suggested from the external surface, between these fossils, and the recent Cycadese ; and is figured in Geol. Trans. N. S, vol. ii. PI. 46, * In PI. 61, Figs. 2, 3, represent two vertical sections of a Cycadites mi- crophyllus from Portland, converted to Calcedony, These slices are parallel to the axis of the trunk, and intersect transversely the persistent bases of the Petioles or Leaf stalks. In each rhomboidal Petiole, we see the remains of three systems of vegetable structure, of which magnified representations are given PI. 62, Fig, 1, 2, 3. We have, first, the principal mass of cellular tis- sue (f ;) secondly, sections of gum vessels (h) irregularly dispersed through this cellular tissue; thirdly, bundles of vessels, (c,) placed in a somewhat rhomboidal form, parallel to, and a little within, the integument of each petiole. These bundles of vessels are composed of vascular woody fibres proceeding from the trunk of the plant towards the leaf. See magnified sec- tion of one bundle at PI. 62, Fig. 3, c'. A similar arrangement of nearly all these parts exists in the transverse section of the leaf stalks of recent Cycadeis. In Cycas circinalis, and C. revoluta, and Zamia furfuracea, the bundles of vessels are placed as in our fossil, nearly parallel to the integument. In Zamia spiralis, and Z. horrida, their disposition within the Petiole, is less regular, but the internal structure of each bundle is nearly the same. In PI, 62, Fig. A shows the place of these bundles of vessels in a transverse section of the leaf stalk of Zamia spiralis; Fig. A. c'. is the magnified appearance of one of the bundles in this section ; Fig. B, c" is the magnified transverse section of a similar bundle of vessels in the petiole of Zamia horrida. In this species the vasculur fibres are smaller and more numerous than in Z. spiralis, and the opake lines less distinct. Both in recent and fossil Cycadese the component vascular fibres of these bundles are in rows approximated so closely to each other, that their compressed edges give an appearance of opake lines between the rows of vascular fibres, (see PI. 62, Fig. i,c'. Fig. B, c" and Fig. 3, c'.) These bun- dles of vessels seem to partake) of the laminated disposition of the woody circular within the trunk. An agreement is found also in the longitudinal sections of the Petioles of recent and fossil Cycadca;, PI. 62, Fig. 1, is the longitudinal section of part of the base of a Petiole of Zamia spiralis, magnified to twice the natural size. It is made up of cellular tissue, (f,) interspersed with gum vessels, and with long bundles of vascular fibres, (c) proceeding from the INCREASE OF CYCADEiS BY BUDS. 375 Mode of increase by Buds the same in recent and fossil CycadecB. The Cycas revoluta figured in PI. 58* possesses a peculiar interest in relation to both our fossil species, in consequence of its protruding a series of buds from the axillse of many of the scales around its trunk. These buds explain analogous appearances at the axillae of many fossil scales on Cycadites trunk towards the leaf. On the lower integument, (b') is a dense coaling of minute curling filaments of down or cotton, (a) which being repeated on each scale, renders the congeries of scales surrounding the trunk, impervi- ous to air and moisture. A similar disposition is seen in the longitudinal section of the fossil Petiole of Cycadites microphyllus represented at PI. 62, Fig. 2, and magnified four times. At f, we have- cellular tissue interspersed with gum vessels, h. Be- neath c, are longitudinal bundles of vessels ; at be, is the integument; at «, a most beautiful petrifaction of the curling filaments of down or cotton, pro- ceeding from the surface of this integument. In the vascular bundles within the fossil Petioles, (c) Mr. Brown has re- cognised the presence of spiral, or scalariform vessels (Vasa scalariforma) such as are found in the Petioles of recent CycadcEe ; he has also detected similar vessels, in the laminated circle within the trunk of the fos.sil Buds next to be described. The existence of vessels with discs peculiar to recent CyeadesB and Coniferae, such as have been described in speaking of fossil ConifercB, has not yet been ascertained. * This plant has been living many years, in Lord Grenville's conserva- tory at Dropmore. In the autumn of 1827, the external part of the scales was cut away to get rid of insects : in the following spring the buds began to protrude. Similar buds appeared also in the same conservatory on a plant of the Zamia spiralis from New Holland. In vol. vi. p. 501, Horticult. Trans, leaves are stated to have protruded from the scales of a decayed trunk of Za- mia horrida in a conservatory at Petersburgh. I learn from Professor Henslow, that the trunk of a Cycas revoluta, wliich in 1830 produced a cone loaded with ripe drupac, in Earl Fitzwilliam's hot- house at Wentworth, threw out a number of buds, from the axillce of the leaf-scales soon after the Cone was cut ofi'from its summit. |In Linn. Trans, vol. vi. tab. 29, is a figure of a similar cone which bore fruit at Farnham Castle, 1799. It is stated in Miller's Gardener's Dictionary, that the Cycas-revoluta was introduced into England about 1758, by Captain Hutchinson; his ship was attacked, and the head of the plant shot off, but the stem being preserved, threw out several new heads, which were taken off, and produced as many plants. 376 INCREASE OF CYCADE^ BY BUDS. megalophyllus, and Cycadites microphyllus (see PI. 60, Fig. 1, and PI. 61, Fig. 1,) and form an important point of agree- ment in the Physiology of the Uving and fossil Cycadese* Thus, we see that our fossil Cycadites are closely allied by many remarkable characters of structure, to existing Cycadese. l.By the internal structure of the trunk, containing a ra- diating circle, or circles, of woody fibre, embedded in cellu- lar tissue. 2. By the structure of their outer case, composed of persistent bases of petioles, in place of a bark ; and by all tlie minute details in the internal organization of each Pe- tiole. 3. By their mode of increase by Buds protruded from ixerms in the Axillee of the Petioles. * In the fossil trunk of Cycadites microphyllus, PI. Gl. Fig. 1, we see fourteen Buds protruding from, the axillEe of the leaf stalks, and in PI. 60, Fig. 1, we have three Buds in a similar position in Cycadites megalophyllus. In PI. 61, Figs. 2, 3, exhibit transverse sections of three Buds of Cyca- dites niycrophyllus. The section of the uppermost bud. Fig. 3, g, passes only through the leaf stalks near its crown. The section of the bud, Fig. 3, 'd, being lower down in the embryo trunk, exhibits a double woody cir- cle, arranged in radiating plates, resembling the double woody circle in the mature trunk, PI. 61, 1, B,b. But in PI. 61, Fig. 2, the laminated circle within the embryo trunk near d, is less distinctly double, as might be expected in so young a state. At PI. 62, Fig. 3, d, and d', we see magnified representations of a portion of the embryo circle within the Bud, Pi. 61. Fig. 3, 'd. These woody cir- cles within the buds, are placed between an exterior circle of cellular tissue' interspersed with gum vessels, and a central mass of the same tissue, as in the mature stems. On the right of the lower bud, PI. 61, Fig. 3, above b, and in the magni- iied representations of the same at PI. 62, Fig. 3, e, we have portions of a small imperfect laminated circle. Similar imperfect circles occur also near the margin of tlie sections, PI. 61, Figs. 2. 3, at e, c', e" ; these may be im- perfectly developed Buds, crowded like the small Buds near the base of the living Cycasj PI. 58: or they may have resulted from the confluence of the bundles of vessels, in the Bases of leaves, forced together by pressure, con- nected with a diminution or decay of their cellular substance. The normal position of these bundles of vessels is seen magnified in PI. 62. Fig. 3. c. and in nearly all the Sections of Bases of petioles in PI. 61. Fig. 2, RECENT PANDA NE^. 377 However remote may have been the time when these Prototj^es of the family of Cycadea? ceased to exist, the fact of their containing so many combinations of pecuUarities identical with those of existing Cycadeae, connects these an- cient arrangements in the Physiology of fossil Botany, with those which now characterize one of the most remarkable families among existing plants. In virtue of these peculiar structures, the living Cycadese form an important link, which no other Tribe of plants supplies, connecting the great family of Coniferas, with the families of Palms and Ferns, and thus fill up a blank, which would otherwise have separated these three great natural divisions of dicotyledonous, monocotyle- donous, and acot3dedonous plants. The full development of this link in the Secondary periods of Geological history, affords an important evidence of the Uniformity of Design which now pervades, and ever has pervaded, all the laws of vegetable life. Facts like these are inestimably precious to the Natural Theologian ; for they identify, as it were the Artificer, by details of manipulation throughout his work. They appeal to the Physiologist, in language more commanding than hu- man Eloquence; the voice of very stocks and stones, that have been buried for countless ages in the deep recesses of the earth, proclaiming the universal agency of One all-direct- ing, all-sustaining Creator, in whose Will and Power, these harmonious systems originated, and by whose Universal Providence, they are, and have at all times been main- tained. Fossil Pandanece. The Pandanesc, or Screw-Pines, form a monocotyledo- nous family which now grows only in the warmer zones, and chiefly within the influence of the sea ; they abound in the Indian Archipelago, and the islands of the Pacific Ocean. Their aspect is that of gigantic Pine apple plants having ar- borescent stems. (See PI. 63, Fig. 1.) 32* 378 FOSSIL FRUIT RELATED TO PANDANEiE. This family of Plants seems destined, like the Cocoa nut Palm, to be among the first vegetable Colonists of new lands just emerging from the ocean ; they are found together al- most universally by navigators on the rising Coral islands of tropical seas. We have just been considering the history of the fossil stems of Cycadese in the Isle of Portland, from which we learn that Plants of that now extra-European fa- mily were natives of Britain, during the period of the Oolite formation. The unique and beautiful fossil fruit represented in our figures (Plate 63, Figs. 2, 3, 4,) aflx)rds piT)bable evi- dence of the existence of another tropical family nearly allied to the Pandaneae at the commencement of the great OoUtic series in the Secondary formations.* In structure this fossil Fruit approaches nearer to Pan- danus than to any other living plant, and viewing the peculia- rities of the fruit of Pandaneas,-]- in connexion with the office * This fossil was found by the late Mr. Page, of Bisbport near Bristol, in the lower region of the Inferior Oolite formation on the E. of Charmouth,^ Dorset, and is now in. the Oxford Museum. The size of this Fruit is that of a large orange, its surface is occupied by a stellated covering or Epicar- piuni, composed of hexagonal Tubercles, forming tlie summits of cells,^ which occupy the entire circumference of the fruit. (Figs. 2, a. 3, a. 4, a. 8, a.) Within each cell is contained a single seed, resembling a small grain of Rice more or less compressed, and usually hexagonal, Figs. 5, 6, 7, 8, 10. Where the Epicarpium is removed, the points of the seeds are seen, thickly studded over the surface of tlie fruit, (Fig. 2, 3, e.) The Bases of the cells (Fig. 3 and 10 c.) are separated from the receptacle, by a congeries of foot- stalks (d) formed of a dense mass of fibres, resembling the fibres beneath the base of the seeds of the modern Pandanus (Fig. 13, 14, 15, d.) As this, position of the seeds upon foot-stalks composed of long rigid fibres, at a dis- tance from the receptacle, is a character that exists in no other family than the Pandaneje, we are herein' enabled to connect our ibssil fruit with this remarkable tribe of plants, as a new genus, Foducarya. I owe the sugges- tion of this name, and much of my information on this subject, to tlie kind- ness of my friend, Mr. Robert Brown. ■j- The large spherical fruit of Pandanus, hanging on its parent tree is represented at PI. 63, Fig. 1. Fig. 11 is the summit of one of the many Drupes into which this fruit is usually divided. Each cell when not bar- ren contains a single oblong slender seed; the cells in each drupe vary FUNCTIONS OF PANDANE^. 379' assigned in the Economy of nature, to this family of sea-side plants, viz. to take the first possession of new-formed land, just emerging from the water, we see in the disposition of light buoyant fibres within the interior of these fruits, an arrangement peculiarly adapted to the office of vegetable colonization.* The sea -side locality of the Pandaneae, causes many of their fruits to fall into the water, wherein they are drifted by the winds and waves, until they find a resting place upon some distant shore. A single drupe of Panda- nus, thus charged with seeds, transports the elements of vegetation to the rising volcanic and coral islands of the modern Pacific. The seed thus stranded upon new-formed land, produces a plant which has pecuhar provision for its support on a surface destitute of soil, by long and large aerial roots protruded above the ground around the lower part of its trunk. (See PI. 68. Fig. 1.) These roots on reaching the ground are calculated to prop up the plant as buttresses surrounding the basis of the stem, so that it can maintain its erect position, and flourish in barren sand on newly elevated reefs, where httle soil has yet accumulated. from two to fourteen in number, and many of them are abortive, (Fig. 13.) The seeds within each drupe of Pandanus are enclosed in a hard nut, of which sections are given at P'igs. ]4, 15. These nuts are wanting in the Podo- carya, whose seeds are smaller than those of Pandancre, and not collected into drupes, but dispersed uniformly in single cells over the entire circum- ference of the fruit. (See PI. 63, Figs. 3, S, 10.) The collection of the seeds into drupes surrounded by a hard nut, in the fruit of Pandanus, forms the essential difference between this genus, and our new genus, Podocarya. In the fruit of Pandanus, PI. 63, Figs. 11, 16, 17, the summit of each cell is covered with a hard cap or tubercle, irregularly hexagonal, and crowned at its apex with the remains of a withered stigma. We have a similar covering of hexagonal tubercles over the cells of Podocarya (PI. C3, Figs. 5, a. 8, a. 10, a.) The remains of a stigma appear also in the centre of these hexagons above the apex of each seed. (Figs. 8, a. 10, a.) * There is a similar provision for transporting to distant regions of the ocean, the seeds of the other family of sea-side plants which accompanies the Pandanus, in the buoyant mass of fibrous covering that surrounds the fruit of the Cocoa-nut^ 380 VEGETABLES IN THE TERTIARY EORMATIONS. Wc have as yet discovered no remains of the leaves, or trunk of Pandanese in a fossil state, but the presence of our unique fruit in the Inferior Oolite formation near Charmouth, carries us back to a point of time, when "we knovs^ from other evidence that England was in the state of new-born land, emerging from the seas of a tepid climate; and shows that combinations of vegetable structure such as exist in the modern Pandaneas, adapted in a peculiar manner to the office of vegetable colonization, prevailed also at the time when the Oohte rocks were in process of formation. This fruit also adds a new link to the chain of evidence which makes known to us the Flora of the Secondary periods of geology, and therein discloses fresh proofs of Order, and Harmony, and of Adaptation of peculiar means to peculiar ends; extending backwards from the actual condition of our Planet through the manifold stages of change, which its ancient surface has undergone.* SECTION IV. VEGETABLES IN STRATA OF THE TERTIARY SERIES.f It has been stated that the vegetation of the Tertiary period presents the general character of that of our exist- ing Continents within the Temperate Zone. In Strata of this Series, Dicotyledonous Plants assume nearly the same proportions as at present, and are four or five times more numerous than the Monocotyledonous ; and the greater number of fossil Plants, although of extinct species, have much resemblance to living Genera. * Fruits of another genus of PandancsB, to which Mr. Ad. Brongniart has given the name of Pandanocarpum, (Prodrome, p. 138,) occur together with fruits of Cocoa-nut, at an early period of the Tertiary formations, among the numerous fossil fruits that are fouad in the London clay of the Isle of Shep- pcy. t See PI. 1, Figs. G6 to 72. DICOTYLEDONOUS PLANTS. 381 This third great change in the vegetable kingdom is considered to supply another argument in favour of the opinion, that the temperature of the Atmosphere, has gone on continually diminishing from the first commencement of hfe upon our globe. The number of species of plants in the various divisions of the Tertiary strata, is as yet imperfectly known. In 1828, M. Ad. Brongniart considered the number then dis- covered, but not all described, to be 166. Many of these belonsinff to Genera at that time not determined. The most striking difference between the vegetables of this and of the preceding periods is the abundance in the Tetiary series, of existing forms of Dicotyledonous Plants and large trees, e. g. Poplars, Willows, Elms, Chestnuts, Sycamores, and many other Genera whose living species are familiar to us. Some of the most remarkable accumulations of this vege- tation are those, which form extensive beds of Lignite and Brown-coal.* In some parts of Germany this Brown-coal occurs in strata of more than thirty feet in thickness, chiefly composed of trees which have been drifted, apparently by fresh-water, from their place of growth, and spread forth in beds, usually alternating with sand and clay, at the bot- tom of then existing lakes or estuaries. The Lignite, or beds of imperfect and stinking Coal near Poole in Dorset, Bovey in Devon, and Soissons in France, have been referred to the first, or Eocene period of the Ter- tiary formations. To the same period probably belongs the Surturbrand of Iceland, (see Henderson's Iceland, vol. ii. p. 114.) and the well-known examples of Brown-coal on the Rhine near Cologne and Bonn, and of the Miesner mountain, and Habichtswald near Cassel. These forma- tions occasionally contain the remains of Palms, and Pro- fessor Lindley has lately recognised, among some speci-- * See an admirable ailicle on Lignites by Alexandre Brongniart in ths 26th vol. of the Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles. 382 COAL OP MIOCENE PERIOD. mens found by Mr. Horner in the Brown-coal near Bonn (See Ann. Phil. Lond. Sept. 1833, V. 3, 222,) leaves closely allied to the Cinnamomum of our modern tropics, and to the Podocarpus of the southern hemisphere.* In the Molasse of Switzerland, there are many similar deposites affording sometimes Coal of considerable purity formed during the second, or Miocene period of this series, and usually containing fresh-water shells. Such are the Lignites of Vernier near Geneva, of Paudex and Moudon near Lausanne, of St. Saphorin near Vevay, of Kaepfnach near Horgen on the lake of Zurich, and of CEningen near Constance. The Brown-coal at CEningen forms thin beds of little * At Ptitzberg near Bonn, six or seven beds of Brown-coal alternate with beds of sandy clay and plastic clay. The trees in the Brown-coal are not all parallel to the planes of the strata, but cross one another in all directions, like the drifted trees now accumulated in the alluvial plains, and Delta of the Mississippi ; (see Lyell's Geology, 3d, edit. vol. i. p. 272.) some of them are occasionally forced even into a vertical position. In one vertical tree at Ptitzberg, which was three yards in diameter, M. Noggerath counted 792 concentric rings. In these rings we have a chronometer, which registers the lapse of nearly eight centuries, in that early portion of the Tertiary period which gave birth to the forests, that supplied materials for the forma- tion of the Brown-coal. The fact mentioned by Faujas that neither roots, branches, or leaves are found attached to the trunks of trees in the Lignite at Bruhl and Liblar near Cologne, seems to show that these trees did not grow on the spot, and that their more perishable parts have been lost during their transport from a distance. In tlie Brown-coal Formation near Bonn, and also with the Surturbrand of Iceland, are found Beds that divide into Lamince as thin as paper {Papier Kohle) and are composed entirely of a congeries of many kinds of leaves. Henderson mentions the leaves of two species of Poplar, resembling the P- tremula and P. balsamifera, and a Pine, resembling the Pinus abies as occurring in the Surturbrand of Iceland. Although we have followed Brongniart in referring the deposites here enumerated to the first or Eocene period of the Tertiary series, it is not improbable that some of them may be the products of a latter era, in the Miocene or Pliocene periods. Future observations on the Species of their animal and vegetable remains will decide the exact place of each, in the grand Series of the Tertiary formations. BROWN-COAL AND LIGNITE. 383 importance for fuel, but very perfect remains of vegetables are dispersed in great abundance through the marly slates and limestone quarries which are worked there, and afford the most perfect history of the vegetation of the Miocene Period, which has yet come within our reach.* • I have recently been favoured by Professor Braun of Carlsruhe, with the following important and hitherto unpublished catalogue, and observations on the fossil plants found in the Fresh-water formation of CEningen, which has been already spoken of in our account of fossil fishes. The plants enumerated in this catalogue, were collected during a long series of years by the inmates of a monastery near CEningen, on the dissolution of which they were removed to their present place in the Museum of Carlsruhe. It appears by this catalogue that the plants of CEningen afford examples of thirty.six species belonging to twenty-five genera of the following families. "Families. Polypodiaceas Equisitaceae LycopodiaceiE Coniferae Genera. 2 1 1 2 Species n 2 >CryptogamiaB, total Gymnospermi3e Genera. . 4 2 Specie 4 2 Gramineoe Najadese AmentaceEe 1 2 5 1 ? 10- Monocotyledons 3 3 Juglandeae Ebenacese 1 1 o 1 Tiliaceae 1 1 Acerineae Rhamnese 1 1 5 2 > Dicotyledons 16 21 Leguminoseae Dicotyledons of doubtful families 2 4 2 4^ This table shows the great preponderance of Dicotyledonous plants in the Flora of CEningen, and affords a standard of comparison with those of tlie Brown-coal of other localities in the Tertiary series. The greater number of the species found here correspond with those in the Brown-coal of the Wetteraw' and vicinity of Bonn. Amid this predominance of Doctyledonous vegetables, not a single herba- ceous plant has yet been found excepting some fragments of Ferns and Grasses, and many remains of aquatic plants : all the rest belong to Dico- tyledonous, and Gyranospermous ligneous plants. Among these remains are many single leaves, apparently dropped in 384 FOSSIL PLANTS AT (ENINGEN. No distinct catalogues of plants found in the Pliocene, or most recent periods of the Te rtiary series, have yet been published. the natural course of vegetation ; there are also branches with leaves on them, such as may have been torn from trees by stormy weather ; ripe seed vessels ; and the persistent calix of many blossoms. The greater part of the fossil plants at CEningen (about two-thirds) be- long to Genera which still grow in that neighbourhood; but their species differ, and correspond more nearly with those now living in North America, than with any European species, the fossil Poplars afford an example of this kind. On the other hand, there are some Genera, which do not exist in the pre- sent Flora of Germany, e. g. the Genus Diospyros ; and others not in that of Europe, e. g. Taxodium, Liquidambar, Juglans, Gleditschia. Judging from the proportions in which their remains occur. Poplars, Wil- lows, and Maples were the predominating foliaceous trees in the former Flora of (Eningen. Of two very abundant fossil species, one, (Populus latior,) resembles the modern Canada Poplar ; the other, (Populus ovalis) resembles the Balsam Poplar of North America. The determination of the species of fossil Willows is more difficult. One of these (Salixangustifolia) may have resembled our present Salix viminalis. Of the genus Acer, one species may be compared with Acer campestre, another with Acer pseudoplatanus ; but the most frequent species, (Acer protensum,) appears to correspond most nearly with the Acer dasycarpon of Nortli America; to another species, related to Acer negundo, Mr. Braun gives the name of Acer trifoliatum. A fossil species of Liquidambar (L. europeum, Braun.) differs from the living Liquidambar styracifluum of America, in having the narrower lobes of its leaf terminated by longer points, and was the former representative of this genus in Europe. The fruit of this Liqeidambar is preserved, and also that of two species of Acer and one Salix. The fossil Linden Tree of CEningen resembled our modern large leaved Linden tree (Tilia grandiflora.) The fossil Elm resembled a small leaved form of Ulmus campestris. Of two species of Juglans, one (J, falcifolia) may be compared with the American J. nigra; the other, with J. Alba, and like it, probably belonged to the division of nuts with bursting external shells, (Garya Nuttal.) Among the scarcer plants at (Eningen, is a species of Diospyros (D. bra- chysepala.) A remarkable calyx of this plant is preserved, and sliows in its centre tlie place where the fruit separated itself: it is distinguished from the living Diospyros lotus of the South of Europe by blunter and shorter sec- tions. PALMSIN SECONDARY AND TRANSITION SERIES. 385 Fossil Palms. The discovery of the remains of Pahns Trees in the Brown-coal of Germany has been already noticed ; and the Among the fossil shrubs are two species of Rhamnus ; one of these (R. multinervis, Braun) resembles the R. alpinus, in the costation of its leaf. The second and most frequent species, (R. terminalis, Braun) may with regard to the position and costation of its leaves, be compared in some de- gree with R. catharticus, but differed from all living species in having its flowers placed at the tips of the plant. Among the fossil Leguminous plants is a leaf more like that of a fruticose Cytisus than of any herbaceous Trefoil, Of a Gleditschia, (G. podocarpa, Braun) there are fossil pinnated leaves and many pods; the latter seem, like the G. Monasperma of North America, to have been single seeded, and are small and short, with a long stalk con- tracting the base of the pod. With these numerous species of foliaceous woods, are found also a few species of Conifera3. One species of Abies is still undertermined ; branches and small cones of another tree of this family (Taxodium curo- peum, Ad. Brong.) resemble the Cypress of Japan (Taxodium Japonicum.) Among the remains of aquatic plants are a narrow-leaved Potamogeton ; and an Isoctes, similar to the I. lacustris now found in small lakes of the Black Forest, but not in the Lake of Constance. The existence of Grasses at the period when this formation was deposited, is shown by a well preserved impression of a leaf, similar to that of a Triticum, turning to the right, and on which the costation is plainly ex- pressed. Fragments of fossil Ferns occur here, having a resemblance to Pteris aquilina and Aspidium Filix mas. The remains of Equisetum indicate a species resembling E. palustre. Among the kvi undetermined remains are the five-cleft and beautiful veined impressions of the Calyx of a blossom, which are by no means rare at CEningen, No remains of any Rosaceae have yet been discovered at this place."' Letter from Prof. Braun to Dr. Buckland, Nov, 25, 1825, In addition to these fossil Plants, the strata at QCningen contain many species of fresh-water Shells, and a remarkable collection of fossil Fishes which we have before mentioned, P, 285. In the family of Reptiles they present a very curious Tortoise, and a gigantic aquatic Salamander, more than three feet long, the Homo Diluvii testis of Scheuchzer, A Lagomys and fossil Fox have also been found here. (See Geol. Trans. Lond. N. S, vol. iii, p. 287. VOL. I.— 33 386 DISTRIBUTION OF RECENT AND FOSSIL PALMS. more frequent occurrence of similar remains of this inte- resting family, in the Tertiary formations of France, Swit- zerland, and England, whilst they are comparatively rare in strata of the Secondary and Transition series, suggests the propriety of consigning to this part of our subject the few observations we have to make on their history. The existing family of Palms* is supposed to consist of nearly a thousand species, of which the greater number are limited to peculiar regions of the torrid Zone. If we look to the geological history of this large and beautiful family, we shall find that although it was called into existence, to- gether with the most early vegetable forms of the Transi- tion period, it presents very few species in the Coal forma- tion (See Lindley's Foss. Flora, No. XV, PI. 142, P. 163,) and occurs sparingly in the Secondary series ;t but in the Tertiary formation we have abundant stems and leaves, and fruits, derived from Palms.J Fossil Trunks of Palm Trees. The fossil stems of Palms are referable to many species ; they occur beautifully silicified in the Tertiary deposites of Hungary, and in the Calcaire Grossier of Paris.§ Trunks In Oct. 1835, I saw in the Museum at Leyden, a living Salamander three feet long, the first ever brought alive to Europe, of a species nearly allied to the fossil Salamander of CEningen. This animal was brought by Dr. Siebold from a lake within the crater of an extinct volcano, on a high mountain in Japan. It fed greedily on small fishes, and frequently cast its epider- mis. *SeePl. l,Figs,66, 67. 68. ■j- See Sprengel's Account of Endogenites Palmacites in New red sand- stone, near Chemnitz, (Halle, 1 828.) and Cotta's Dendrolithen, (Dresden and Leipsig, 1832. PI. ix, x.) t Eight species in the family of Palms are given in Ad. Brongniart's list of the fossils of the Tertiary Series. ^ Our figure PI. 64, Fig. 2, represents the summit of a beautiful fossil Trunk in the Museum at Paris, allied to the family of Palms, and rearly four feet in circumference, from the lower region of the Calcaire Grossier at Vaillet near Soissons. M. Brongniart has applied to this fossil the FOSSIL LEAFS OF PALM TREES. 387 of Palms are also found in the Fresh-water formation of Mont Martre.*— It is stated, that at Liblar, near Cologne, they have been seen in a vertical position.f Beautifully silicified stems of Palm Trees abound in Antigua, and in India, and on the banks of the Iraw^adi, in the kingdom of Ava. It is not surprising to find the remains of Palms in warm latitudes where plants of this family are now indigenous, as in Antigua or India ; but their occurrence in the Tertiary formations of Europe, associated with the remains of Croco- diles and Tortoises, and with marine shells, nearly allied to forms which are at present found in seas of a warm tempe- rature, seems to indicate that the climate of Europe during the Tertiary period, was warmer than it is at present. Fossil Palm leaves. We have seven known localities of fossil Palm leaves, in the Tertiary strata of France, Switzerland, and the Tyrol; and among them at least three species, of flabelliform leaves, all diflfering not only from that of the Chemaerops humilis, the only native palm of the South of Europe, but also from name o? Endogenites echinutus. The projecting bodies that surround it, like the foliage of a Corinthian Capital, are the persistent portions of fallen Petioles which remain adhering to the stem after the leaves themselves have fallen off. They have a dilated base embracing one-fourth or one third of the stem; the form of these bases, and the disposition of their woody tissue in fasciculi or fibres, refer this fossil to some arborescent Monocotyledonous Tree allied to the Palms. * Prostrate trunks of Palm trees of considerable size are found in the argillaceous marl beds above the Gypsum strata of the Paris basin, together with shells of Lymnea and Planorbis ; as these Trunks occur here in fresh- water deposites they cannot have been drifted by marine current from dis- tant regions, but were probably natives of Europe, and of France. + It is not shown whether these Palm trees were drifted in this position, or are still standing in the spot whereon they grew like the Cycadites and Coniferse in the Isle of Portland, 388 FOSSIL FRUITS OF PALMS. Every known living species.* These leaves are too well preserved to have endured transport by water from a dis- tant region, and must apparently be referred to extinct species, which in the Tertiary period, were indigenous in Europe. No pinnated Palm leaf has yet been found in the Tertiary Strata, although the number of these forms among existing palms, is more than double that of the tlabelhform leaves.f Fossil Fruits of Palms. Many fossil fruits of the Tertiary period belong to the family of Palms, all of which, according to M. Ad. Brong- niart, seem derived from Genera that have pinnated leaves. Several such fruits occur in the Tertiary clay of the Island of Sheppey ; among which are the Date,J now peculiar to Africa and India ; the Cocoa-nut,§ which grows universally within the tropics; the Bactris, wdiich is hmited to America; and the Areca, which is found only in Asia. Not one of these can be referred to any flabelliform palm. Fossil Cocoa-nuts occur also at Brussels, and at Liblar near Cologne, together with fruits of the Areca. * The leaf represented in PI. 64. fig. 1. is that of a flahelliform Palm (Palmacites Latnanonis,) from the Gypsum of Aix in Provence ; similar leaves have been found in three other parts of France, near Amiens, Mans, and Ang-ers, all in strata of the Tertiary epoch. Another species (Palma- cites Parisiensis) has been found in the Calcaire Grossier, near Versailles (Cvvier and Brongniart, O'eognosie des Environs de Paris, PI. 8, fig. 1. E.) A third species of Palm leaf (Palmacites flabellatus) occurs in the Molasse of Switzerland, near Lausanne, and in the Lignite of Hoering, in Tyrol" See PI. 1, figs. 13. 66. t The Date, Cocoa-nut Palm, and Areca are familiar examples of Palms having pinnated leaves. See PI. L figs. 67. 68. t See Parkinson's Org. Rem. Vol. i, PI, VI. fig. 4, 9. § See Parkinson's Org. Rem. Vol. i. PI. VIL fig. 1—5. M. Brongniart says, these fruits are undoubtedly of the Genus Cocos, near to Cocos lapi- dea, of GtBrtner. TROPICAL FRUITS IN SHEPPEY. 389 Although all these fruits belong to Genera whose leaves are pinnated, no fossil pinnated Palm leaves (as we have just stated,) have yet been found in Europe. It seems there- fore most likely, from the mode in which so large a number of miscellaneous fruits are crowded together in the Isle of Sheppey, mixed with marine shells and fragments of timber, almost always perforated by Teredines, that the fruits in question were drifted by marine currents from a warmer climate than that which Europe presented after the com- mencement of the Tertiary Epoch; in the same manner as- tropical seeds and logs of mahogany are now drifted from the Gulf of Mexico to the Coasts of Norway and Ireland. Besides the fruits of Palms, the Isle of Sheppey presents an assemblage of many hundred species of other fruits,* most of them apparently tropical; these could scarcely have been accumulated, as they are, without a single leaf of the tree on which they gi'ew, and have been associated with drifted timber bored by Teredines, by any other means than a sea-current. We have no decisive information as to the number of spe- cies of these fossil fruits ; they have been estimated at from six to seven hundred.f In the same clay with them are found great numbers of fossil Crustaceans, and also the re- mains of many fishes, and of Crocodiles, and aquatic Tor- toises. * According' to H. Ad. Brongniart, many of these have near relation to the aromatic fruits of the Amomum (cardamom,) they are triangular, much compressed, and umbilicated at the summit, which presents a small circular areola, apparently the cicatrix of an adherent calyx; within are three valves. A sligiit furrow passes along the middle of each plain surface, similar to that on the fruit of many scitamineous plants. These Sheppey fruits, however, cannot be identified with any known Genus of that Family, but approach so nearly to it, that Ad. Brongniart gives them the name of Amomocarpum. ■\ See Parkinson's Organic Remains, Vol. i. Pi. 6, 7. Jacob's Flora Fa- vershamensis. And Dr. Parsons, in Phil. Trans. Lond. 1757, Vol. 50, page S96, Pi. XV. XVI. A collection of these fruits is preserved in the British Museum, another in the Museum at Canterbury, and a third in that of Mr. Bowerbank, in London. 33* 390 VEGETABLES OF THREE EPOCHS. As the drifted seeds that occur in Sheppey seem to have been collected by the action of. marine currents, the history of European vegetation during the Tertiary period, must be sought for in those other remains of plants, whose state and circumstances show that they have grown at no great dis- tance from the spot in which they are now found.* Conclusion. The following is a summary of what is yet known, re- specting the varying conditions of the Flora of the three great periods of Geological history we have been consider- ing. The most characteristic distinctions between the vegeta- ble remains of these 'periods are as follows. In the first period, the predominance of vascular Cryptogamic, and comparative rarity of Dicotyledonous plants. In the second, the approximation to equality of vascular Cryptogamic, and Dicotyledonous plants.f In the third, the predominance of Dicotyledonous, and rarity of vascular Cryptogamic plants. Among existing vegetables almost two-thirds are Dicotyledonous. The Remains of Monocotyledonous plants occur, though sparingly, in each period of Geological formations. The number of fossil plants as yet described is about five hundred ; nearly three hundred of these are from strata of the Transition series; and almost entirely from the Coal for- mation. About one hundred are from strata of the Secondary series, and more than a hundred from formations of the • The beautiful Amber, whicli is found on the eastern sliores of England, and on the Coasts of Prussia and Sicily, and which is supposed to be fossil resin, is derived from beds of Lignite in 'i'ertiary strata. Fragments of fossil gum were found near London in digging tlie tunnel through tlie London clay at Highgate. + The dicotyledonous plants of tlie Transition and Secondary formations present only that peculiar tribe of this class, whicli is made up of Cycadex and Coniferie, viz. Gymnospermoiis Phanerogamic. PREVAILING FAMILIES IN EACH EPOCH. 391 Tertiary series. Many additional species have been col- lected from each of these series, but are not yet named. As the known species of living vegetables are more than fifty thousand, and the study of fossil botony is as yet but in its infancy, it is probable that a large amount of fossil spe- cies lies hid in the bowels of the earth, which the dis- coveries of each passing year will be . continually bringing to light. The plants of the First period are in a great measure composed of Ferns, and gigantic Equisetacege ; and of fa- milies, of intermediate character between existing forms of Lycopodiacese and Coniferse, e. g. Lepidodendriae, Sagilla- rise, and Stigmariae; with a few Coniferce. Of plants of the Second period, about one-third are Ferns : and the greatest part of the remainder are, Cyca- deas and Coniferse, with a few Liliacese. More species of Cycadeae occur among the fossils of this period, than are found living on the present surface of the earth. They form more than one-third of the total known fossil Flora of the Secondary formations ; whilst of our actual vegetation, Cycadeae are not one-thousandth part. The vegetation of the Third period approximated closely to that of the existing surface of the globe. Among living famihes of plants. Sea- weeds. Ferns, Lyco- podiacese, Equisetacese, Cycadeae and Coniferae, bear the nearest relation to the earliest forms of vegetation that have existed upon our planet. The family which has most universally pervaded every stage of vegetation is that of Coniferae ; increasing in the number and variety of its genera and species, at each suc- cessive change in the climate and condition of the surface of the earth. This family forms about one three-hundreth part of the total number of existing vegetables. Another family which has pervaded all the Series of for- mations, though in small proportions, is that of Palms. The view we have taken, of the connexions between the extinct and living specimens of the vegetable kingdom, sup- 392 CONNEXION WITH PHYSICO-THEOLOaT. plies an extensive fund of arguments, and lays open a new and large field of inquiry, both to the Physiologist, and to the student in Physico-Theology. In the fossil Flora, we have not only the existing funda- mental distinctions between Endogenous and Exogenous plants, but we have also agreement in the details of struc- ture throughout numerous families, which indicates the m- fluence of the same Laws, that regulate the development of the living members of the vegetable kingdom. The remains of Fructification, also ; found occasionally with the plants of all formations, show still farther, that the principles of vegetable Reproduction have at all times been the same. The exquisite organizations which are disclosed by the microscope, in that which to the naked eye is but a log of Lignite, or a lump of Coal, not only demonstrate the adap- tation of means to ends, but the application also of similar means, to effect corresponding ends, throughout the several Creations which have modified the changing forms of vege- table life. Such combinations of contrivances, varying with the varied conditions of the earth, not only prove the existence of a Designer from the existence of method, and design; bat from the Connexion of parts, and Unity of purpose, which pervade the entirety of one vast, and complex, but harmo- nious Whole, show that One, and the same Mind gave ori- gin and efficacy to them all. CHAPTER XIX. Proofs of Design in the Dispositions of Strata of the Carbo-^ niferous Order. In reviewing the History and geological position of vege- tables which have passed into the state of mineral coal, we have seen that our grand supplies of fossil fuel are derived BENEFICIAL DISPOSITION OF COAL STRATA. 393 almost exclusively from strata of the Transition series. Examples of Coal in any of the Secondary strata are few and insignificant ; whilst the Lignites of the Tertiary forma- tions, although they occasionally present small deposites of compact and useful fuel, exert no important influence on the economical condition of mankind.* It remains to consider some of the physical operations on the surface of the Globe, to which we owe the disposition of these precious Relics of a former world, in a state that af- fords us access to inestimable treasures of mineral Coal. We have examined the nature of the ancient vegetables from which Coal derives its origin, and some of the processes through which they passed in their progress towards their mineral state. Let us now review some farther important geological phenomena of the carboniferous strata, and see how far the utility arising from the actual condition of this portion of the crust of the globe, may afford probable evi- dence that it is the result of Foresight and Design. ft was not enough that these vegetable remains should have been transported from their native forests, and buried at the bottom of ancient lakes and estuaries, and seas, and there converted into coal; it was farther necessary that great and extensive changes of level should elevate, and convert into dry and habitable land, strata loaded with riches, that would for ever have remained useless, had they continued entirely submerged beneath the inaccessible * Before we had acquired by experiment some extensive knowledge of the contents of each series of formations which the Geologist can readily identify, there was no d priori reason to expect tlie presence of coal in any one Series of strata rather than another. Indiscriminate experiments in search of coal, in strata of every formation, were tlierefore desirable and proper, in an age when even the name of Geology was unknown; but the continuance of such Experiments in districts which are now ascertained to be composed of non-carboniferous strata of the Secondary and Tertiary Series, can no longer be justified, since the accumulated experience of many years has proved, that it is only in those strata of the Transition Series which have been desig- nated as the Carboniferous Order, that productive Coal-mines on a large scale have ever been discovered. 394 IN TROUGHS OR BASINS. depths, wherein they were formed ; and it required the ex- ercise of some of the most powerful machinery in the Dyna- mics of the terrestrial globe, to effect the changes that were requisite to render these Elements of Art and Industry ac- cessible to the labour and ingenuity of man. Let us briefly examine the results that have been accomplished. The place of the great Coal formation, in relation to the other series of strata, is shown in our first section (PI. 1. Fig. 14.) This ideal section represents an Example of dis- positions which are repeated over various areas upon the crust of the Globe.* The surface of the Earth is found to be covered with a series of irregular depressions or Basins, divided from one another, and sometimes wholly surrounded by projecting portions of subjacent strata, or by unstratified crystalline rocks, which have been raised into hills and mountains, of various degrees of height, direction and continuity. On either side of these more elevated regions, the strata dip with more or less inclination, towards the lower spaces be- tween one mountain range and another. (See PI. 1.) This disposition in the form of Troughs or Basins, which is common to all formations, has been more particularly demonstrated in the Carboniferous Series, (See PI. 65. Fig^ 1, 2, 3.) because the valuable nature of beds of Coal often causes them to be wrought throughout their whole extent. One highly beneficial result of the basin-shaped disposition of the Carboniferous strata has been, to bring them all to the surface around the circumference of each Basin, and to render them accessible, by sinking mines in almost every part of their respective areas; (See PI. 65. Figs. 1, 2, 3.) An uninterrupted inclination in one direction only, would have soon plunged the lower strata to a depth inaccessible to man. • The Coal Formation is here represented as Iiaving partaken of the same elevatory movements, which have raised the strata of all formations towards. the mountain Ridges, ths^t separate one basin from another basin. OTHER FORMATIONS DISPOSED IN BASINS. 395 The Basin of London, (PI. 68.) affords an example of a similar disposition of the Tertiary strata reposing on the <]Ihalk. The Basins of Paris, Vienna, and of Bohemia, afford other examples of the same kind. (See PI. 1. Figg. 24—28.) The Secondary and Transition strata of the central and North Western districts of England, are marginal portions of the great geological Basin of Northern Europe ; and their continuations are found in the plains, and on the flanks of mountain regions on the Continent.* These general dispositions of all strata in the form of Troughs or Basins have resulted from two distinct systems of operations, in the economy of the terraqueous globe ; the first producing sedimentary deposites, (derived from the ma- * The section (PI. 66. Fig. 1.) shows the manner in which the Strata of the Transition Series are continued downwards between the Coal forma- tion and the older members of the Grauwacke formation through a series of deposites, to which, Mr. Murchison has recently assigned the name of the " Silurian system." This Silurian Sj'stem is represented by No. 11, in our Section, Fig. 1. The recent labours of Mr. Murchison in the border coun- ties of England and Wales have ably filled up what has hitherto been a blank page, in the history of this portion of the vast and important Systems of rocks, included under the Transition series ; and have shown us the links which connect the Carboniferous system with the older Slaty rocks. The large group of deposites to which he has given the appropriate name oi! Silurian system, (as they occupy much of the Territory of the ancient Silures,) admits of a four-fold division, which is expressed in the section Pl. 66, Fig, 1. This section represents the exact order of succession of these Strata in a district, which must henceforth be classic in the Annals of Geology, In September, 1 835, I found the three uppermost divisions of this system, largely developed in the same relative order of succession on the south frontier of the Ardennes, between the great Coal formation and the Grau- wacke. See Proceedings of the Meeting of the Geological Society of France at Mezieres and Namur, Sep, 1835, Bulletin de la Societc Geologique de France, Tom VII.) The same subdivisions of the Silurian system, maintain their relative place and importance over a large extent of the mountainous district of the Eifel, between the Ardennes and the Valley of the Rhine ; and are continued East of the Rhine through great part of the duchy of Nassau, (StifRs Gebirgs-Karte, von dcm Herzogthum-Nassau. Wiesbaden, 1831.) 396 THICKNESS or COAL BEDS. terials of older rocks, and from chemical precipitates,) on those lower spaces into which the detritus of ancient ele- vated regions was transported by the force of water ; the second raising these strata from the sub-aqueous regions in which they were deposited, by forces analogous to those whose effect we occasionally witness in the tremendous movements of land, that form one of the phenomena of mo- dern Earthquakes. I am relieved from the necessity of entering into details respecting the history of the Coal Fields of our own country, by the excellent summary of what is known upon this inte- resting subject, which has recently been given in a judicious and well selected anonymous publication, entitled The His- tory and Descriftion of Fossil Fuel, the Collieries, and Coal Trade of Great Britain. London, 1835. The most remarkable accumulations of this important ve- getable production in England are in the Wolverhampton and Dudley Coal Field, (PL 65, Fig. 1,) where there is a bed of coal, ten yards in thickness. The Scotch Coal field near Paisley presents ten beds, whose united thickness is one hundred feet. And the South Welsh Coal Basin (PI. 65, Fig. 2,) contains, near Pontypool, twenty-three beds of coal, amounting together to ninety-three feet. In many Coal fields, the occurrence of rich beds of iron ore in the strata of slaty clay, that alternate with the beds of coal, has rendered the adjacent districts remarkable as the site of most important Iron foundries ; and these locali- ties, as we have before stated, (p. 65,) usually present far- ther practical advantage, in having beneath the Coal and Iron ore, a substratum of Limestone, that supplies the third material required as a flux to reduce this ore to a metallic state. Our section, PI. 65, Fig. 1, illustrates the result of these geological conditions in enriching an important district in the centre of England, near Birmingham, with a continuous succession of Coal mines, and Iron foundries. A similar re- sult has followed from the same causes, on the north-east EFFECTS OF COAL ON HUMAN INDUSTRY. 397 frontier of the enormous Coal basin of South Wales, in the well-known Iron foundries, near Pontypool and Merthyr Tydfil,* (See PI. 65, Fig. 2.) The beds of shale in the lower region of this coal field are abundantly loaded with nodules of argillaceous iron ore, and below these is a bed of millstone grit capable of enduring the fire, and used in con- structing the furnaces; still lower is the limestone necessary to produce the fusion of the ore. PI. 65, Figs. 1, 2. The great iron foundries of Derbyshire, Yorkshire, and the south of Scotland, afford other examples of the bene- ficial results of a similar juxtaposition, of rich argillaceous iron ore and coal. " The occurrence of this most useful of metals," says Mr. Conybeare,t " in immediate connexion with the fuel requisite for its reduction, and the limestone which facili- * In the Transactions of the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle, vol. i. p. 114, it is stated by Mr. Foster, that the quantity of iron annually manufactured in Wales is about 270,000 tons, of which about three-fourths are made into bars, and one-fourth sold as pigs and castings. The quantity of coal required for its manufacture will be about five tons and a half, for each ton of iron. The annual consumption of coals by the iron works will therefore be about 1,500,000 tons. The quantity used in the smelting of copper ore imported from Cornwall, in the manufacture of tin plate, forging of iron for various purposes, and for domes- tic uses, may be calculated at 350,000 tons, which makes altogether the annual consumption of coal in Wales, 1,850,000 tons. The quantity of iron manufactured in Great Britain in the year 1827 was 690,000 tons. The production of this immense quantity was thus distributed. TONS. FURNACES, In Staffordshire - - 216,000 - - 95 Shropshire - - - 78,000 - - 31 S.Wales - - - 272,000 - - 90 N, Wales - - - 24,000 - . 12 Yorkshire • - - 43,000 - - 24 Derbyshire - - - 20,500 - - 14 Scotland • - - 36,500 - - 18 690,000 284 + Geology of England and Wales, p. 333. VOL. I. — 34 398 POWER OF STEAM ENGINES* tates that reduction, is an instance of arrangement so hap- pily suited to the purposes of human industry, that it can hardly be considered as recurring unnecessarily to final causes, if we conceive that this distribution of the rude materials of the earth was determined with a view to the convenience of its inhabitants." Let us briefly consider what is the effect of mineral fuel, on the actual condition of mankind. The mechanical power of coals is illustrated in a striking manner, in the following statement in Sir J. F. W. Herschel's admirable Discourse on the study of Natural Philosophy, 1831, p. 59. " It is well known to modern engineers that there is virtue in a bushel of coals, properly consumed, to raise seventy millions of pounds weight a foot high. This is actually the average efiect of an engine at this moment working in Cornwall. The ascent of Mont Blanc from Chamouni is considered, and with justice, as the most toilsome feat that a strong man can execute in two days. The cumbustion of two pounds of coal would place him on the summit." The power which man derives from the use of mineral coal, may be estimated by the duty* done by a pound, or * The number of pounds raised, multiplied by the number of feet througli •which they are lifted, and divided by the number of bushels of coal (each weighing eighty-four pounds) burnt in raising them, gives what is termed the duty of a steam engine, and is tlie criterion of its power. (See an im- portant paper on improvements of the steam engine, by Davis Gilbert, Esq. Phil. Trans. 1830, p. 121.) It is stated by Mr. J. Taylor, in his paper on the duty of steam engines, published in his valuable Records of Mining, 1829, that the power of the steam engine has within the last few years been so advanced by a series of rapid improvements, that whereas, in early times, the duty of an atmospheric engine was that of 5,000,000 pounds of water, lifted one foot high by a bushel of coal, the duty of an engine lately erected at Wheal Towan in Cornwall, has amounted to 87,000,000 pounds; or, in other words, that a series of improvements has enabled us to extract as much power from one bushel, as originally could be done from seventeen bushels of coal. Thus, through the instrumentality of coal as applied in the steam engine, the power of man MINES AND MACHINERY. 399 any other given weight of coal consumed in working a steam engine ; since the quantity of water that the engine will raise to a given height, or the number of quarters of corn that it will grind, or, in short, the amount of any other description of work that it will do, is proportionate to that duty. As the principal working of mineral veins can only be continued by descending deeper every year, the diffi- culty of extracting metals is continually on the increase, and can only be overcome by those enlarged powers of drain- over matter has been increased seventeen fold since the first invention of these engines; and increased nearly tlireefold within twenty years. There is now an engine at the mines called the Fowey Consols in Corn- wall, of which Mr. Taylor considers the average duty, under ordinary circumstances, to be above 9,000,000; and which has been made to lift 97,000,000 lbs. of water one foot high, with one bushel of coals. The effect of these improvements on the operations of mines, in facilitating their drainage, has been of inestimable importance in extracting metals from depths which otherwise could never have been reached. Mines which had been stopped from want of power, have been reopened, others have been materially deepened, and a mass of mineral treasure has been ren- dered available, which without these engines must have been for ever inac- cessible. It results from these rapid advances in the application of coal to the pro- duction of power, and consequently of wealth, that mining operations of vast importance, have been conducted in Cornwall at depths till lately without example, e. g. in Wheal Abraham, at 242 fathoms, at Dolcoath at 2.35 fa- thoms, and in the Consolidated Mines in Gwennap at 290 fathoms, the latter mines giving daily employment to no less than 2,500 persons. In the Consolidated Mines, the power of nine steam engines, four of which are the largest ever made, having cylinders ninety inches in diameter, lifts from thirty to fifty hogsheads of water per minute, (varying according to the season) from an average depth of 230 fathoms. The produce of these mines has lately amounted to more than 20,000 tons of ore per annum, yielding about 2,000 tons of fine copper, being more than one-seventh of the whole quantity raised in Britain. Tiie levels or galleries in these mines ex- tend in horizontal distance a length of about 43 miles. (See J. Taylor's account of the deptiis of mines, third report of British Association, 1833, p. 428.) Mr. J. Taylor farther states, (Lond.' Edin. Phil. Mag. Jan. 1836, p. 67) that the steam engines now at work in draining the mines in Cornwall, are equal in power to at least 44,000 horses, one-sixteenth part of a bushel of coals performing the work of a horse. 400 WORK DONE BY STEAM ENGINES. ing which Coal, and the steam engine, alone supply. It would be quite impossible to procure the fuel necessary for these engines, from any other source than mineral coal. The importance of Coal should be estimated, not only by the pecuniary value of the metals thus produced, but by their farther and more important value when applied to the in- tinitely varied operations and productions of machinery and of the arts. It has been calculated that in this country about 15,000 steam engines are daily at w^ork ; one of those in Cornwall is said to have the power of a thousand horses,* the power of each horse, according to Mr. Watt, being equal to that of five and a half men; supposing the average power of each steam engine to be that of twenty-five horses, we have a total amount of steam power equal to that of about two millions of men. When we consider, that a large pro- portion of this power is applied to move machinery, and that the amount of work now done by machinery in Eng- land, has been supposed to be equivalent to that of between three and four hundred millions of men by direct labour, we are almost astounded at the influence of Coal and Iron, and Steam, upon the fate and fortunes of the human race. " It is on the rivers," (says Mr. Webster,) " and the boatman may repose on his oars ; it is in highways, and begins to exert itself along the courses of land conveyances ; it is at the bottom of mines, a thousand (he might have said, 1800) feet below the earth's surface ; it is in the mill, and in the * Wlien Engineers speak of a 25 horse Engine, they mean one which would do the work of that number of horses constantly acting, but supposing that the same horses could work only 8 hours in every 24, there must be 75 horses kept at least to produce the effect of such an Engine. The largest Engine in Cornwall may, if worked to the full extent, be equal to from a 300 to 350 horse power, and would therefore require 1000 horses to be kept to produce the same constant effect. In this way it has been said than an Engine was of 1000 horse power, but this is not accord- ing to the usual computation. Letter from J. Taylor, Esq. to Dr. Buckland. VARIOUS APPLICATIONS OF STEAM. 401 workshops of the trades. It rows, it pumps, it excavates, it carries, it draws, it lifts, it hammers, it spins, it weaves,, it prints."* * As there is no reproduction of Coal in this country, since no natural causes are now in operation to form other beds of it; whilst, owing to the regular increase of our population, and the new purposes to which the steam engine is continually applied, its consumption is advancing at a rapid accelerating rate ; it is of most portentous interest to a nation, that has so krge a portion of its inhabitants dependant for existence on machinery, kept in action only by the use of Coal, to economize this precious fuel. 1 can- not, therefore, conclude this interesting subject without making some remarks upon a practice which can only be viewed in the light of a national calamity, demanding the attention of the legislature. We have, during many years witnessed the disgraceful and almost incre- dible fact, that more than a million chaldrons per annum, being nearly one- tliird part of the best coals produced by the mines near Newcastle, have been condemned to wanton waste, on a fiery heap perpetually blazing near the mouth of almost every coal-pit in that district. This destruction originated mainly in certain legislative enactments, pro- viding that Coal in London should be sold, and the duty upon it bo rated, by measure, and not by weight. The smaller coal is broken, the greater the space it fills ; it became, therefore, the interest of every dealer in Coal, to buy it of as large a size, and to sell it of as small a si^e as he was able. This compelled the Proprietors of the Coal-mines to send the large Coal only to market, and to consign the small coal to destruction. In the year 1830, the attention of Parliament was called to these evils; and pursuant to the Report of a Committee, the duty on Coal was repealed, and Coal directed to be sold by weight instead of measure. The effect of this change has been, that a considerable quantity of Coal is now shipped for the London Market, in the state in which it comes from the pit; that afler landing the cargo, the small coal is separated by screening from the rest,^ and answers as fuel for various ordinary purposes, as well as much of the Coal which was sold in London before the alteration of the law. The destruction of Coals on the fiery heaps near Newcastle, although diminished, still goes on, however, to a frightful extent, that ought not to be permitted ; since the inevitable consequence of this practice, if allowed to continue, must be, in no long space of time, to consume all the beds nearest to the surface, and rfeadiest of access to the coast; and thus enhance the price of Coal in those parts of England which depend upon the Coal-field of Newcastle for their supply; and finally to exhaust this Coal-field, at a period, aearer by at least one-third, than that to wiiich it would last,, if wisely ecgK- 34* 402 COAL THE FOUNDATION OF STEAM-POWER. We need no farther evidence to show that the presence of coal is, in an especial degree, the foundation of increasing nomized. (See Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons, on the state of the Coal Trade, 1830, page 242, and Bakewell's Introduction to Geology, 1833, page 183 and 343.) We are all fully aware of the impolicy of needless legislative interference ; but a broad line has been drawn by nature between commodities annually or periodically reproduced by the Soil on its surface, and that subterranean treasure, and sustaining foundation of Industry, which is laid by Nature in strata of mineral Coal, whose amount is limited, and which, when once exhausted, is gone for ever. As the Law most justly interferes to prevent tlie wanton destruction of life and property, it should seem also to be its duty to prevent all needless waste of mineral fuel ; since the exhaustion of this fuel would irrecoverably paralyze the industry of millions. The tenant of the soil may neglect, or cultivate his lands, and dispose of his produce, as caprice or interest may dictate; the surface of his fields is not consumed, but remains susceptible of tillage by his successor; had he the physical power to anni- hilate the Land, and thereby reflect an irremediable injury upon posterity, the legislature would justly interfere to prevent such destruction of the future resources of the nation. This highly favoured Country, has been enriched with mineral treasures in her strata of Coal, incomparably more precious than mines of silver or of gold. From these sustaining sources of industry and wealth let us help ourselves abundantly, and liberally enjoy these precious gifts of the Creator; but let us not abuse them, or by wilful neglect and wanton v;aste, destroy the foundations of the Industry of future Generations. Might not an easy remedy for this evil be found in a Legislative enact- ment, that all Coals from the Ports of Northumberland and Duriiam, should be shipped in the state in which they come from the Pit, and forbidding by high penalties the screening of any Sea-borne Coals before they leave the port at which they are embarked. A law of this kind would at once termi- nate that ruinous competition among the Coal owners, which has urged them to vie with each other in the wasteful destruction of small Coal, in order to increase the Profits of the Coal Merchants, and gratify the preference for large Coals on the part of rich consumers ; and would also afford the Public with a supply of Coals of every price and quality, which the use of the screen would enable him to accommodate to the demands of the various Classes of the Community. A farther consideration of national Policy should prompt us to consider, how far the duty of supporting our commercial interest, and of husband- ing the resoilrccs of posterity should permit us to allow any extensive exportation of Coal, from a densely peopled manufacturing country like our own ; a large proportion of whose present wealtii is founded on ma- PROSPECTIVE VIEW TO THE USES OF MAN. 403. population, riches, and pov^^er, and of improvement in almost every Art which administers to the necessities and comforts of Mankind. And, however remote may have been the periods, at which these materials of future beneficial dis- pensations were laid up in store, we may fairly assume, that, besides the immediate purposes effected at, or before the time of their deposition in the strata of the Earth, an ulterior prospective view to the future uses of Man, formed part of the design, with which they were, ages ago, dis- posed in a manner so admirably adapted to the benefit of the Human Race. CHAPTER XX. Proofs of Design in the Effects of Disturbing Forces on the Strata of the Earth. In the proofs of the agency of a wise, and powerful, and benevolent Creator ,^ which we have derived from the Ani- mal and Vegetable kingdoms, the evidence has rested chiefly on the prevalence of Adaptations aTtd Contrivances, and of Mechanisms adapted to the production of certain ends, throughout the organic remains of a former world. An argument of another kind may be founded on the Or- der, Symmetry, and Constancy, of the Crystalline forms of the unorganized Mineral ingredients of the Earth. But in considering the great geological phenomena which appear in the disposition of the strata, and their various accidents, a third kind of evidence arises from conditions of the earth, chinery, which can be kept in action only by the produce of our native Coal Mines, and whose prosperity can never survive the period of their ex- haustion. 4'04 ORDER AMIDST APPARENT CONFUSION- which are the result of disturbing forces,, that appear to a certain degree to have acted at random and fortuitously. Elevations and subsidences, inclinations and contortions-, fractures and dislocations, are phenomena, which, although at first sight they present only the appearance of disorder and confusion, yet when fully understood, demonstrate the existence of Order, and Method, and Design, even in the operations of the most turbulent, among the many mighty physical forces which have affected the terraqueous globe.* Some of the most important results of the action of these forces have been already noticed in our fourth and fifth chapters; and our first Section, PI. 1, illustrates their bene- ficial effect, in elevating and converting into habitable Lands, strata of various kinds that were formed at the bottom of the ancient Waters; and in diversifying the surface of these lands with Mountains, Plains, and Valleys, of various pro- • "Notwithstanding- the appearances of irregularity and confusion in the formation of the crust of our globe, which are presented to the eye in tl>e contemplation of its external features, Geologists have been able in nume- rous instances to detect, in the arrangement and position of its stratified masses, distinct approximations to geometrical laws. In the plienomena of anticlinal lines, faults, fissures, mineral veins, &c. such laws are easily recog- nised." Hopkin's Researches in Physical Geology. Trans. Cambridge Phil. See. V. 6. part 1.1835. "It scarcely admits of a doubt," says the author of an able article in tlie Quarterly Review, (Sept. 1826, p. 537,) "that the agents employed in ef- fecting this most perfect and systematic arrangement have been earthquakes, operating with diflTerent degrees of violence, and at various intervals of time during a lapse of ages. The order tliat now reigns has resulted there- fore, from causes which have generally been considered as capable only of defacing and devastating the earth's surface, but which we thus find strong grounds for suspecting were, in the primeval state of the globe, and periiaps still are, instrumental in its perpetual renovation. The effects of these sub- terranean forces prove that they are governed by general laws, and that these laws have been conceived by consummate wisdom and forethought." " Sources of apparent derangement in the system appear, when their operation throughout a series of ages is brought into one view, to have pro- duced a great preponderance of good, and to be governed by fixed general laws, condusive, perhaps essential, to tiie habitable state of. ths globe.>" ]aiid, p. 539. BENEFICIAL EFFECTS OF UNDULATIONS. 405 ductive qualities, and variously adapted to the habitation of Man, and the inferior tribes of terrestrial animals. In our last Chapter we considered the advantages of the disposition of the Carboniferous strata in the form of Basins. It remains to examine the farther advantages that arise from other disturbances of these strata by Faults or Fractures, which are of great importance in facilitating the operations of Coal mines ; and to extend our inquiry into the more ge- neral effect of similar Dislocations of other strata, in pro- ducing convenient receptacles for many valuable Metallic ores, and in regulating the supplies of Water from the inte- rior of the earth, through the medium of Springs. I have elsewhere observed* that the occurrence of Faults and the hicUned position in which the strata composing the Coal measures are usually laid out, are facts of the highest importance, as connected with the accessibility of their mi- neral contents. From their inclined position, the thin strata of Coal are worked with greater facility than if they had been horizontal ; but as this inclination has a tendency to plunge their lower extremities to a depth that would be in- accessible, a series of Faults, or Traps, is interposed, by which the component portions of the same formation are arranged in a series of successive tables, or stages, rising one behind another, and elevated continually upwards to- wards the surface, from their lowest points of depression. (See PI. 65. Fig. 3. and PI. 66. Fig. 2.) A similar effect is often produced by Undulations or contortions of the strata, which give the united advantage of inclined position and of keeping them near the surface. The Basin-shaped struc- ture which so frequently occurs in coal fields, has a ten- dency to produce the same beneficial consequences. (See PI. 65 Figs. 1. 2. 3.) But a still more important benefit results from' the occur- rence of Faults or Fractures,-f without which the contents of * Inaugural Lecture, Oxford, 1819. t " Faults," says Mr. Conybeare, " consist of fissures traversing the strata, extending often for several miles, and penetrating to a depth, in 406 BENEFICIAL EFFECTS OF FAULTS. many deep and rich mines would have been inaccessible.. (See PI. 65. Fig. 3. and PI. 66. Fig. 2.) Had the strata of Shale and Grit, that alternate with the Coal, been continu- ously united without fracture, the quantity of water that would have' penetrated from the surrounding country, into any considerable excavations that might be made in the po- rous grit beds, would have overcome all power of machi- nery that could profitably be appUed to the drainage of a mine ; whereas by the simple arrangement of a system of Faults, the water is admitted only in such quantities as are within control. Thus the component strata of a Coal field are divided into insulated masses, or sheets of rock, of irre- gular form and area, not one of which is continuous in the same plane over any very large district ; but each is usually separated from its next adjacent mass, by a dam of clay,, impenetrable to water, and filling the fissure produced by the fracture which caused the Fault. (See PI. 66. Fig.. 2... and PI. 1. Figs. I,— 1,1.) If we suppose a thick sheet of Ice to be broken into frag-- ments of irregular area, and these fragments again united,, after receiving a slight degree of irregular inclination to the plane of the original sheet, the reunited fragments of ice- will represent the appearance of the component portions of the broken masses, or sheets of Coal measures we are describing. The intervening portions of more recent Ice, by which they are held together, represent the clay and rub- bish that fill the Faults, and form the partition walls that insulate these adjacent portions of strata, which were originally formed, like tlie sheet of Ice, in one continuous, plane. Thus each sheet or incHned table of Coal measures, is enclosed by a system of more or less vertical walls of very few instances ascertained ; they are accompanied by a subsidence of the strata on one side of their line, or (whicli amounts to the same thing) an elevation of tliem on the other; so that it appears, tliat the same force which has rent the rocks thus asunder, has caused one side of the fractured mass to rise, or the other to sink. — The fissures are usually filled by clay.'* Geology of England and Wales^ Part I. p<,348. FAULTS PRODUCE SPRINGS. 407 broken clay, derived from its argillaceous shale beds, at the moment in which the Fracture and Dislocation took place ; and hence have resulted those joints and separations, which, though they occasionally interrupt at inconvenient positions, and cut oft' suddenly the progress of the collier, and often shatter those portions of the strata that are in immediate contact with them, yet are in the main his greatest safe- guard, and are indeed essential to his operations.* The same Faults also, while they prevent the Water from flowing in excessive quantities in situations where it would be detrimental, are at the same time of the greatest service, in converting it to purposes of utility, by creating on the surface a series of Springs along the line of Fault, which often give notice of the Fracture that has taken place be- neath. This important effect of Faults on the hydraulic machinery of the globe extends through the stratified rocks of every formation. (See PI. 69. Fig. 2.) It is also pro- * "If a field of coal (says Mr. Buddie) abounding in water, was not in- tersected with slip Dikes, the working of it might be impracticable, as the whole body of water which it might contain would flow uninterruptedly into any opening which might be made into it ; these Faults operate as Coffer Dams, and separate the field of coal into districts." — Letter from Mr. John Buddie, an eminent Engineer and experienced Coal Viewer at Newcastle, to Prof. Buckland, Nov. .30, 1831. In working a coal Pit, the Miner studiously avoids coming near a Fault, knowing that if he should penetrate this natural barrier, the Water from the other side will often burst in, and inundate the works he is conducting on the dry side of it. A shaft was begun about the year 1825, at Gosforth, near Newcastle, on the wet side of the 90 fathom Dike, and was so inundated with water that it was soon found necessary to abandon it. Another shaft was then begun on the dry side of the dike, only a few yards from the former, and in this they descended nearly 200 fatlioms witiiout any impediment from water. Artificial dams are sometimes made in coal mines to perform the office of the natural barriers which Dikes and Faults supply. A dam of this kind was lately made near Manchester, by Mr. Hulton, to cut off water that de- scended from the upper region of porous strata, which dipped towards his excavations in a lower region of the same strata, the continuity of which was thus artificially interruptedo 408 FUALTS INTERSECT METALLIC VEINS. bable that most of the Springs, that issue from unstratified rocks, are kept in action through the instrumentaUty of the Faults by which they are intersected. A similar interruption of continuity in the masses of Pri- mary rocks, and in the rocks of intermediate age between these and the Coal formation, is found to occur extensively in the working of metallic veins. A vein is often cut off suddenly by a Fault, or fracture, crossing it transversely, and its once continuous portions are thrown to a considera- ble distance from each other. This line of fracture is usually marked by a wall of clay, formed probably by the abrasion of the rocks whose adjacent portions have been thus dislo- cated. Such faults are known in the mines of Cornwall by the term Jlucan, and they often produce a similar advantage to those that traverse the Coal measures, in guarding the miner from inundation, by a series of natural dams travers- ing the rock in various directions, and intercepting all com- munication between that mass in which he is conducting his operations, and the adjacent masses on the other side of the flucan or dam.* It may be added also that the Faults in a Coal field, by interrupting the continuity of the beds of coal, and causing their truncated edges to abut against those of the unin- flammable strata of shale or grit, afford a preservative against the ravages of accidental Fire beyond the area of that sheet in which it may take its beginning ; but for such * " My object is rather to suggest whether the arrangement of veins, &c. does not argue design and a probable connexion with other phenomena of our Globe. " Metalliferous veins, and those of quartz, &;c. appear to be channels for the circulation of the subterraneous water and vapour ; and the innumera- ble clay veins, or ' flucan courses ' (as they arc termed in Cornwall,) which intersect them, and are often found contained in them, being generally im- pervious to water, prevent their draining the surface of the higher grounds as they otherwise would, and also facilitate the working of mines to a much greater depth than would be practicable without them." — R. W. Fox on the Mines of Cornwall, Phil. Trans. 1830, p. 404. MINERAL VEINS. 409 a provision, entire Coal fields might be occasionally burnt out and destroyed. It is impossible to contemplate a disposition of things, so w^ell adapted to afford the materials essential to supply the first wants, and to keep alive the industry of the inhabitants of our earth ; and entirely to attribute such a disposition to the blind operation of Fortuitous causes. Although indeed it be dangerous hastily to have recourse to Final causes, yet since in many branches of physical know^ledge, (more especially in those which relate to organized matter,) the end of many a contrivance is better understood, than the contrivance itself, it would surely be as unphilosophical to hesitate at the admission of final Causes, when the general tenor and evidence of the phenomena naturally suggest them, as it would be to introduce them gratuitously unsup- ported by such evidence. We may surely therefore feel ourselves authorized to view, in the Geological arrange- ments above described, a system of wise and benevolent Contrivances, prospectively subsidiaiy to the wants and comforts of the future inhabitants of the globe; and extend- ing onwards, from its first Formation, through the subse- quent Revolutions and Convulsions that have affected the surface of our Planet. CHAPTER XXI. Advantageous Effect of Disturbing Forces in giving Origin to Mineral Veins:* A FARTHER rcsult attending the Disturbances of the sur- face of the Earth has been, to produce Rents or Fissures in the Rocks which have been subjected to these violent * See PI. 1. Figs, fe l.—k 24, and PI. 67. Fig. 3. VOL. I. — 35 410 VEINS MOST FREQUENT IN THE OLDER ROCKS. movements, and to convert them into receptacles of metallic ores, accessible by the labom's of man. The greater part of metalliferous veins originated in enormous cracks and crevices, penetrating irregularly and obliquely downwards to an unknown depth, and resembling 4he rents and chasms which are produced by modern Earthquakes. The general disposition of mineral veins wathin these narrow fissures, will be best understood by reference to our first Section. (PI. 1. Figs, k 1. — k 24.) The narrow line which pass obliquely from the lower to the upper portion of this Section, represent the manner in which Rocks of various ages are intersected by fissures, which have become the Receptacles of rich Treasures of Metallic Ore. These fissures are more or less filled with various forms of metalliferous and earthy minerals, deposited in successive, and often corre- sponding layers, on each side of the vein. Metalhc Veins are of most frequent occurrence in rocks of the Primary and Transition series, particularly in those lower portions of stratified rocks which are nearest to unstratified crystalline rocks. They are of rare occurrence in Secondary formations, and still more so in Tertiary strata.* * M. Dufrenoy has recently shown that the muies of HaBinatite and Spathic iron in the Eastern Pyrenees, which occur in Limestones of three ages, referable severally to the Transition Scries, to the Lias, and to the Chalk, are all situated in parts, where these Limestones are in near contact with the Granite; and he considers that tiiey have all most probably been filled by the sublimation of mineral matter into cavities of the limestones, at, or soon after the time of the Elevation of the Granite of this part of the Pyre- nees. The period of this elevation was posterior to the deposite of the Chalk formation, and anterior to that of the Tertiary Strata. These Limestones have all become crystalline where they are in contact with tlic Granite; and the Iron is in some places mixed with Copper pyrites, and argentiferous galena. (Memoire sur la Position dcs Mines de Fer de la Partie orientale des Pyrenees, 1834.) According to the recent observations of Mr. C. Darwin, the Granite of the Cordilleras of Chili (near the Uspcllata Pass) which forms peaks of a height probably of 14,000 feet, has been fluid in the Tertiary period; WIDTH OF METALLIC VEINS. 411 A few metals are occasionally, though rarely, found dis- seminated through the substance of Rocks. Thus Tin is sometimes found disseminated through Granite, and Copper through the cupriferous slate at the base of the Hartz, at Mansfeld, &c. The most numerous and rich of the metallic veins in Gornw^all, and in many other mining districts, are found near the junction of the Granite with the incumbent Slates. These vary in width from less than an inch to thirty feet and upwards ; but the prevailing width, both of Tin and Copper Veins in that county, is from on to three feet; and in these narrower veins, the Ore is less intermixed with other substances, and more advantageously wrought.* Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the manner in which these chasms in solid rocks have become filled with metallic ores, and with earthy minerals, often of a different nature from the rocks containing them. Werner supposed that veins were supplied by matter descending into them from above, in a state of aqueous solution ; whilst Hutton, and his followers, imagined that their contents were and Tertiary strata which have been rendered cr3'stallinc by its heat, and are traversed by dikes from the granitic mass, are now inclined at high angles, and form regular, and conaplicated anticlinal lines. These same sedimentary strata, and also lavas are there traversed by very numerous true metallic veins of iron, copper, arsenic, silver, and gold, and these can be traced to the underlying granite. (Lond. and Edin. Phil. Mag. N. S. Vol. 8. p. 158.) * An excellent illustration of the manner in which metallic veins are dis- posed in the Rocks which form their matrix, may be found in Mr. R. Thomas's Geological Report, accompanied by a Map and Sections of the mining district near Redruth. This map comprehends the most interesting spot of all the mining districts in Cornwall, and exhibits in a small compass the most im- portant phenomena of metallic veins, slides, and cross courses, all of them penetrating to an unknown depth, and continuing uninterruptedly through Rocks of various ages. In PI. 67, Fig. 3, I have selected from this work a section, which exhibits an unusually dense accumulation of veins producing Tin, Copper, and Lead. Much highly valuable information on these subjects may shortly be ex- pected from the Geological Survey of Cornwall, now in progress by Mr. De la Beche, under the appointment of the Board of Ordnance. 412 THEORIES OF METALLIC VEINS. injected from below, in a state of igneous fusion. A third hypothesis has been recently proposed, which refers the filling of veins to a process of Sublimation from subjacent )nasses of intensely heated mineral matter, into apertures and fissures of the superincumbent Rocks.* A fourth hy- pothesis considers veins to have been slowly filled by Segre- gation, or infiltration ; sometimes into contemporaneous cracks and cavities, formed during the contraction and consolidation of the originally soft substances of the rocks tiiemselves ; and more frequently into fissures produced by the fracture and dislocation of the solid strata. Segregation of this kind may have taken place from electro-chemical agency, continued during long periods of time.f * In the London and Edin. Phil. Mag. March, 1829, p. 172, Mr. Patterson lias publislied the result of his experiments in making artificial Lead Ore (Galena) is an Earthen tube, highly heated in the middle. After causing the steam of water to pass over a quantity of Galena, placed in the hottest portion of this tube, the water was decomposed, and all the Galena had been sublimed from the heated part and deposited again in colder parts of the tube, in cubes which exactly resembled the original Ore. No pure Lead was formed. From this deposition of Galena, in a highly crystalline form, from its vapour in contact with steam, he draws the important conclusion, that Galena might, in some instances, have been supplied to mineral veins by sublimation from below. Dr. Daubeny has found by a recent experiment that if steam be passed througli heated Boracic Acid, it takes up and carries along with it a portion of the Acid, which per se does not sublime. This experiment illustrates the sublimation of Boracic Acid in volcanic craters. t The observations of Mr. Fox on the electro-magnetic properties of metalliferous veins in Cornwall, (Phil. Trans. 1830, &c.) seem to throw new light upon this obscure and difficult subject. And the experiments of M. Becquerel on the artificial production of crystallized insoluble compounds of Copper, Lead, Lime, &,c. by the slow and long continued reaction and transportation of the elements of soluble compounds, (see Becquerel, Traile de I'Electricite, T, i. e, 7, page 547, 1834,) appear to explain many chemical changes that may have taken place under the influence of feeble electrical currents in the interior of the earth, and more especially in Veins, I have been favoured by Professor Wheatstone with the following brief explanation of the experiments here quoted. •' When two bodies, one of which is liquid, react very feebly on each ADVANTAGEOUS DISPOSITION OF METALS. 413 The total quantity of all ^metals known to exist near the surface of the Earth (excepting Iron,) being comparatively small, and their value to mankind being of the highest order' as the main instruments by the aid of which he emerges from the savage state, it was of the utmost importance, that they should be disposed in a manner that would render them ac- cessible by his industry; and this object is admirably at- tained through the machinery of metallic veins. Had large quantities of metals existed throughout Rocks of all formations, they might have been noxious to vegeta- tion ; had small quantities been disseminated through the Body of the Strata, they M'^ould never have repaid the cost of separation from the matrix. These inconveniences are obviated by the actual arrangement, under which these rare substances are occasionally collected together in the natural Magazines afforded by metallic veins. In my Inaugural Lecture (page 12) I have spoken of the evidences of design and benevolent contrivance, which are apparent in the original formation and disposition of the repositories of minerals ; in the relative quantities in which they are distributed ; in the provisions that are made to ren- der them accessible, at a certain expense of human skill and industry, and at the same time secure from wanton destruc- otlier, the presence of a third body, wiiich is either a conductor of electrici- ty, or in wliich capillary action supplies the place of conductibility, opens a path to the electricity resulting from the chemical action, and a voltaic cur- rent is formed wliich serves to augment tJie energy of the chemical action of the two bodies. In ordinary cliemical actions, combinations are effected by the direct reaction of bodies on each other, by which all their constituents slmidtaneously concur to the general effect; but in the mode considered by Becquerel the bodies in the nascent state, and excessively feeble forces, are employed by which the molecules are produced, as it were, one by one, and are disposed to assume regular forms, even when they are insolu^ ble, because the number of the molecules cannot occasion any disturbance in their arrangement. By the application of tiiese principles, that is, by the long-continued action of very feeble electrical currents, this author has shown that many crystallized bodies, hitherto found only in nature, may be artifi- cially obtained." 35* 414 DESIGN IN THE DISPOSITION OF MINERALS. tion, and from natural decay; in the more general disper- sion ot" those metals which are most important, and the com- paratively rare occurrence of others which are less so; and still farther in affording the means whereby their compound ores may be reduced to a state of purity.* The argument, however, which arises from the utility of these dispositions, does not depend on the establishment of any one or more of the explanations proposed to account for them. Whatever may have been the means whereby mineral veins were charged with their precious contents; whether Segregation, or Sublimation, were the exclusive method by which the metals were accumulated; or, whether each of the supposed causes may have operated simulta- neously or consecutively in their production ; the existence of these veins remains a fact of the highest importance to the human race : and although the Disturbances, and other processes in which they originated, may have taken place at periods long antecedent to the creation of our species, we may reasonably infer, that a provision for the comfort and convenience of the last, and more perfect creatures He * I owe to my friend Mr. John Taylor the suggestion of another argu- ment, arising from the phenomena of mines, which derives much value from being the result of the long experience of a practical man of science. ♦' There is one argument," says ;Mr. Taylor, "which has always struck me with considerable force, as proving wise and beneficent design, to be drawn from the position of the metals. I should say that they are so placed as to be out of the reach of immediate and improvident exhaustion, exercising the utmost ingenuity of man, first to discover them, then to devise means of con- quering the difficulties by which tiie pursuit of them is surrounded. " Hence a continued supply through successive ages, and hence motives to industry and to the exercise of mental faculties; from which our greatest happiness is derived. The metals might have been so placed as to have been all easily taken away, causing a glut in some periods and a deartli in others» and they might have been accessible without thought, or ingenuity. " As they are, there appears to be that accordance with the perfect ar- rangement of an all-wise Creator, which it is so beautiful to observe and to contemplate." PROSPECTIVE PROVISION FOP^ MAN. 415 was about to place upon its surface, was in the providential contemplation of the Creator, in his primary disposal of the physical forces, which have caused some of the earliest, and most violent Perturbations of the globe.* CHAPTER XXII. Adaptations of the Earth to afford supplies of water through the medium of Springs. As the presence of water is essential both to animal and vegetable existence, the adjustment of the Earth's surface to supply this necessary fluid, in due proportion to the demand, * That part of the History of Metals which relates to their various Pro- perties and Uses, and their especial Adaptation to the Physical condition of Man, has been so ably and amply illustrated by two of my Associates in this Series of Treatises, that I have more Satisfaction in referring my readers to the Chapters of Dr. Kidd and Dr. Prout upon these subjects than in attempt- ing myself to follow the history of the productions of metallic veins, beyond the sources from which they are derived within the body o&the Earth. A summary of the all-important Uses of Metals to Mankind is thus briefly given, by one of our earliest and most original writers on Physico-theology. " As for Metals, they are so many ways useful to mankind, and those Uses so well known to all, that it would be lost labour to say any thing of them : without the use of these we could have nothing of culture or civility : no Tillage or Agriculture ; no Reaping or Mowing ; no Plough- ing or Digging ; no Pruning or Loping; no Grafting or Insition; no me- chanical Arts or Trades ; no Vessels or Utensils of Household-stuff; no con- venient Houses or Edifices; no Shipping or Navigation. What a kind of barbarous and sordid life we must necessaril}' have lived, the Indians in the Northern part of America are a clear demonstration. Only it is remarka- ble that those which are of most frequent and necessary use, as Iron, Brass and Lead, are the most common and plentiful : others that are more rare, may better be spared, yet are they thereby qualified to be made the common measure and standard of the value of all other commodities, and so to serve for Coin or 3Ione\', to which use they have been employed by all civil Nations in all Ages." Ray's Wisdom of God in the Creation. Pt. i. 5th ed. 1709, p. 110. 416 SPRINGS. affords one of the many proofs of Design, which arise out of the investigation of its actual condition, and of its rela- tions to the organized beings which are placed upon it. Nearly three-fourths of the Earth being covered with Sea. whilst the remaining dry land is in need of continual sup- plies of water, for the sustenance of the animal and vegeta- ble kingdoms, the processes by which these supplies are ren- dered available for such important purposes, form no incon- siderable part of the beautiful and connected mechanisms of the terraqueous Globe. The great Instrument of communication between the sur- face of the Sea, and that of the Land, is the Atmosphere, by means of which a perpetual supply of fresh-water is derived from an Ocean of salt water, through the simple process of evaporation. By this process, water is incessantly ascending in the state of Vapour, and again descending in the form of Dew and and Rain. Of the water thus supplied to the surface of the land, a small portion only returns to the Sea directly in seasons of flood through the channels of Rivers;* A second portion is re-absorbed into the Atmosphere by Evaporation ; A third portion enters into the composition of Animal and Vegetable bodies ; A fourth portion descends into the strata, and is accumu- lated ia their interstices into subterraneous sheets and reser- voirs of water, from which it is discharged gradually at the surface in the form of perennial Springs, that form the ordi- nary supply of Rivers. As soon as Springs issue from the Earth, their waters com- mence their return towards the Sea ; rills unite into stream- * It is stated by M. Arago, that one-third only of the water which fulls in rain, within the basin of the Seine, flows by that river into the sea: the re- maining two-thirds either return into the atmosphere by evaporation, or go to the support of vegetable and animal life, or find their way into the sea by subterraneous passages. Annuaire, pour I'An 1835. ALTERNATIONS OF CLAY WITH POROUS STRATA. 417 lets, which, by farther accumulation form rivulets and rivers, and at length terminate in estuaries, where they mix again with their parent ocean. Here they remain, bearing part in all its various functions, until they are again evaporated into the Atmosphere, to pass and repass through the same Cycles of perpetual circulation. The adaptations of the Atmosphere to this important ser- vice in the economy of the Globe belong not to the province of the geologist. Our task is limited to the consideration of the mechanical arrangements in the solid materials of the Earth, by means of which they co-operate with the Atmos- phere, in administering to the circulation of the most impor- tant of all fluids. There are two circumstances in the condition of the strata, which exert a material influence in collecting subterraneous stores of water, from which constant supplies are regularly giving forth in the form of springs; the first consists in the Alternation of porous beds of sand and stone, with strata of clay that are impermeable by water;* the second circum- stance is the Dislocation of these strata, resulting from Frac- tures and Faults. The simplest condition under which water is collected within the Earth, is in superficial beds of Gravel which rest on a sub-stratum of any kind of Clay. The Rain that falls upon a bed of gravel sinks down through the interstices of the gravel, and charges its lowest region with a subterra- neous sheet of water, which is easily penetrated by wells, that seldom fail except in seasons of extreme drought. The accumulations of this water are reheved by Springs, over- flowing from the lower margin of each bed of gravel. A similar result takes place in almost all kinds of per- meable strata, which have beneath them a bed of clay, or of any other impermeable material. The Rain water de- scends and accumulates in the lower region of each porous stratum next above the clay, and overflows in the same * See p. 62. 418 SPRINGS CAUSED BY FAULTS. manner by perennial springs. Hence the numerous alter- nations of porous beds with beds impenetrable to water, that occur throughout the entire series of stratified rocks, pro- duce effects of the highest consequence in the hydraulic con- dition of the Earth, and maintain a universal system of na- tural Reservoirs, from which water overflows incessantly in the form of Springs, that carry with them fertility into the adjacent valleys. (See PI. 67, fig. 1, S.) The dischai'ges of water from these reservoirs are much facilitated, and increased in number, by the occurrence of Faults or Fractures that intersect the strata.* There are two systems of Springs which have their origin in Faults, the one supplied by water descending from the higher regions of strata adjacent to a fault, by which it is simply intercepted in its descent, and diverted to the surface in the form of perennial springs; (see PI. 67, fig. 1, H.) the other maintained by water ascending from below by Hydro- static pressure, (as in Artesian Wells,) and derived from strata, which at their contact with the fault, are often at a great depth ; the water is conducted to this depth either by percolation through pores and crevices, or by small subter- raneous channels in these strata, from more elevated distant regions whence it descends, until its progress is arrested • Mr. Townsend, in his Chapter on Springs, states, that there are six dis- tinct systems of springs in the neighbourhood of Bath, wliich issue from as many regular strata of subterraneous water, formed by fiUralion through either sand or porous rocks, and placed each upon its subjacent bed of clay. From these, one system of springs is produced by overflowing in the direction tpwards which the strata are inclined, or have their dip,- whilst another sys- tem results from the dislocation of the strata, and breaks out laterally through the fractures by which they are intersected. It is stated by Mr. Hopkins, (Phil. Mag. Aug. 1834, p. 131,) that all the great springs in the Limestone District of Derbyshire are found in conjunction with great Faults, " I do not recollect (says he) a single ex- ception to this rule, for I believe in every instance where I observed a powerful spring, I had independent evidence of the existence of a great fault," ARTESIAN WELLS. 419 by the Fault. (See PI. 67. Fig. 2, d, and PI. 69. Fig. 2. H. L.) Besides the advantages that arise to the whole of the Ani- mal Creation, from these dispositions in the structm'e of the Earth, whereby natural supplies of water are multiplied almost to infinity over its surface, a farther result, of vast and peculiar importance to Man, consists in the facilities which are afforded him of procuring arii^cm/ wells, through- out those parts of the world which are best adapted for human habitation. The Causes of the rise of water in ordinary artificial wells, are the same that regulate its discharge from the natural apertures which give origin to springs ; and as both these effects will be most intelligibly exemplified, by a considera- tion of the causes of the remarkable ascent of water to the surface, and often above the surface, in those peculiar per- forations which are called Artesian Wells, our attention may here be profitably directed to their history. Artesian Wells. The name of Artesian Wells is applied to perpetually flowing artificial fountains, obtained by boring a small hole, through strata that are destitute of water, into lower strata loaded with subterraneous sheets of this important fluid, which ascends by hydrostatic pressure, through pipes let down to conduct it to the surface. The name is derived from Artois (the ancient Artesium,) where the practice of making such wells has for a long time extensively pre- vailed.* * The manner of action of an Artesian Well is explained by tlie Sec- lion PI. 69. Fig-. 3, copied from Mr. Hericart de Thury's representation of a double Fountain at St. Ouen, wliicli brings up water, from two water- bearing strata at different levels below the surface. In this double foun- tain, the ascending forces of the water in the two strata A and B are dif- ferent: the water from the lowest stratum B rising to the highest level I"; that from the upper stratum A rising only to a'. The water from 420 ARTESIAN WELLS. Artesian Wells are most available, and of the greatest use, in low and level districts where water cannot be obtain- ed from superficial springs, or by ordinary wells of mode- rate depth. Fountains of this kind are known by the name of BIoiv ivells, on the Eastern coast of Lincolnshire, in the low district covered by clay between the Wolds of Chalk near Louth, and the Sea-shore. These districts were without any springs, until it was discovered that by boring through this clay to the subjacent Chalk, a fountain might be obtained, which would flow incessantly to the height of several feet above the surface. In the King's well at Sheerness sunk in 1781 through the London clay, into sandy strata of the Plastic clay formation, to the depth of 330 feet, the water rushed up violently from the bottom, and rose within eight feet of the surface. {See Phil. Trans. 1784.) In the years 1828 and 1829 two more perfect Artesian wells were sunk nearly to the same depth in the Dock yards at Portsmouth and Gosport. Wells of this kind have now become frequent in the neigh- bourhood of London, where perpetual Fountains are in some places obtained by deep perforations through the London both strata is thus brought to the surface by one Bore Hole of sufficient size to contain a double pipe, viz. a smaller pipe included within a larger one, with an interval between them for the passage of water ; thus, the smaller pipe b brings up the water of the lower stratum B, to the highest level of the fountain b", whilst the larger pipe a, brings up the water from stratum A to the lower level a': both these streams are employed to supply the Canal-basin at St. Ouen, above the level of the Seine. Should the lower stratum B contain pure water, and that in the upper stratum A be tainted, tiie pure water might by this apparatus be brought to the surface through the impure, without contact or contamination. In common cases of Artesian wells, where a single pipe alone is used, if the Boring penetrates a bed containing impure water; it is continued deeper until it arrives at another stratum containing pure water ; the bottom of the pipe being plunged into this pure water, it ascends within it and is conduct- ed to the surface through whatever impurities may exist in the superior strata. The impure water, through which the boring may pass in its descent, being e.^cluded by the pipe from mixing with the pure water ascending from below. ARTESIAN WELLS. 421 clay, into porous beds of the Plastic-clay formation, or into the Chalk.* Important treatises upon the subject of Artesian Wells have lately been published by M. Hericart de Thury and M. Arago in France, and by M. Von Bruckmann in Germany.f * One of the first Artesian wells near London was that of Norland House on the N. W. of Holland House, made in 1794, and described in Phil. Trans. London, 1797. The water of this well was derived from sandy strata of the plastic-clay formation, but so much obstruction by sand attends the admis- sion of water to the pipes from this formation, that it is now generally found more convenient to pass lower through these sandy strata, and obtain water from the subjacent chalk. Examples of wells that rise to the surface of the lowest tract of land on the W. of London may be seen in the Artesian foun- tain in front of the Episcopal palace at Fulham, and in the garden of the Hor- ticultural Society. Many such fountains have been made in the Town of Brentford, from which the water rises to the height of a few feet above the surface. This height is found to diminish as the number of perpetually flowing fountains increases; and a general application of them would discharge the subjacent water so much more rapidly than it arrives through the inter- stices of the chalk, that fountains of this kind when numerous would cease to overflow, although the water within them would rise and maintain its level nearly at the surface of the land. The Section, PL G8 is intended to explain the cause of the rise of water in Artesian Wells in the Basin of London, from permeable strata in the Plastic-clay formation, and subjacent Chalk. The water in all these strata is derived from the rain, which falls on those portions of their surface that are not covered by the London Clay, and is upheld by clay beds of the Gault, beneath the Chalk and Fire-stone. Thus admitted and sustained, it accumulates in the joints and crevices of these strata to the line A, B. at which it overflows by springs, in valleys, such as that represented in our section under C. Below this line, all the permeable strata must be perma- nently filled with a subterranean sheet of water, except where faults and other disturbing causes afford local sources of relief. Where these reliefs do not interfere, the horizontal line A, B, represents the level to which water would rise by hydrostatic pressure, in any perforations through the London Clay, either into sandy beds of the Plastic-clay formation, or into the Chalk; such as those represented at D. E. F. G. H. I. If the Perforation be made at G. or H. where the surface of the country is below the line A. B. t!ic water will rise in a perpetually flowing Artesian fountain, as it does in the valley of the Thames between Brentford and London. + See Hericart de Thury's Considerations sur la cause du Jaillissement des Eaux des puits fores, 1839. VOL. I. — 36 422 ARTESIAN WELLS. It appears that there are extensive districts in various parts of Europe, where, under certain conditions of geological structure, and at certain levels, artificial fountains will rise to the surface of strata which throw out no natural springs,* Notices scientifiques par M. Arago. Annuaire, pour f'An. 1835. Von Bruckmann xlber Artesische Brunnen. Heilbronn am Neckar, 1833, * The Diagrams in PI. 69. Figs. 1 and 2. are constructed to illustrate the causes of the rise of water in natural, or artificial springs, within basin- shaped strata that are intersected by the side of Valleys, or traversed by Faults, Supposing a Basin (PI, 69 Fig. 1.) composed of Permeable strata, E, F, G. alternating with impermeable strata, H, I, K. L. to have the margin of all these strata continuous in all directions at one uniformly horizontal level, A, B, the water which falls in rain upon the extremities of the strata E, F, G, would accumulate within them, and fill all their interstices with water up to the line A, B; and if a Pipe were passed down through the upper, into either of the lower strata, at any point within the circumference of this basin, the •water would rise within it to the horizontal line A, B, which represents the general level of the margin of the Basin. A disposition so regular never exists in nature, the extremities or outcrops of each stratum are usually at different levels, (Fig. 1, a. c. e. g.) In such cases the line a. b. represents the water level within the stratum G; below this line, water would be permanently present in G ; it could never rise above it, being relieved by springs that would overflow at a. The line c, d. represents the level above which the water could never rise in the stratum F ; and the line e, f, represents the highest water level within the stratum E. The discharge of all rain-waters that percolated the strata, E, F, G, thus being effected by overflowing at e. c. a. If common wells were perforated from the surface, i. k, 1. into the strata G, F, E, the water would rise within them only to the horizontal lines a b, c d, e f. The upper porous stratum C, also, would be permanently loaded with water below the horizontal line, g, h, and permanently dry above it. The theoretical section, PI. 69. fig. 2. represents a portion of a basin inter- sected by the fault H, L, filled with matter impermeable to water. Sup- posing the lower extremities of the inclined and permeable strata N, O, P, Q, R, to be intersected by the fault or dike H, L, the rain-water which enters the uncovered portion of these strata between the impermeable clay beds, A, B, C, D, E, would accumulate in the permeable strata up to the horizontal lines, AA", BB", CC", DD", EE". If an Artesian well was perforated into each of these strata to A', B', C, D', E', through the clay beds A, B, C, D, E, the water from these beds would rise within a pipe ascend- ing from the perforations of the levels A", B", C", D", E", ARTESIAN WELLS. 423 and will afford abundant supplies of water for agricultural and domestic purposes and sometimes even for moving ma- chinery. The quantity of water thus obtained in Artois is often sufficient to turn the wheels of Corn-mills. In the Tertiary basin of Perpignan and the chalk of Tours, there are almost subterranean rivers having enor- mous upward pressure. The Water of an Artesian well in Roussillon rises from 30 to 50 feet above the surface. At Perpignan and Tours, M. Arago states that the water rushes up with so much force, that a Cannon-ball placed in the Pipe of an Artesian well is violently ejected by the ascend- ing stream. In some places application has been made to economical purposes, of the higher temperature of the water rising from great depths. In Wurtemberg Von Bruckmann has applied the warm water of Artesian wells to heat a paper manufactory at Heilbronn, and to prevent the freezing of common water around his mill wheels. The same practice is also adopted in Alsace, and at Constadt near Stuttgard. It has even been proposed to apply the heat of ascending springs to the warming of green houses. Artesian wells These theoretical Results can never occur to the extent here represented, in consequence of the intersections of the strata by valleys of Denudation, the irregular interposition of Faults, and the varying condition of the matter composing Dikes, If a valley were excavated in the stratum M below A", the water of this stratum would overflow into the bottom of this valley, and would never rise on tlie side of the fault so high as the level H. Wherever the contact of the Dike H, L, with the strata M, N, O, P, Q, R, that are intersected by it, is imperfect, an issue is formed, through which the water from these inclined strata will be discharged at the surface by a na- tural Artesian well ; hence a series of Artesian springs will mark the line of contact of the Dike with the fractured edges of tlic strata from which tlie water rises, and the level of the water within these strata will be always approximating to that of the springs at H ; but as the permeability of Dikes varies in different parts of their course, their effect in sustaining water with- in the strata adjacent to them, must be irregular, and the water line within these strata will vary according to circumstances, between the highest pos- sible levels, A, B, C, D, E, and the lowest possible level H. 424 ARTESIAN WELLS. have long been used in Italy, in the duchy of Modena; they have also been successfully applied in Holland, China,* and N. America. By means of similar wells, it is probable that water may be raised to the surface of many parts of the sandy deserts of Africa and Asia, and it has been in con- templation to construct a series of these wells along the main road which crosses the Isthmus of Suez. I have felt it important thus to enter into the history of Artesian Wells, because their more frequent adoption will add to the facilities of supplying fresh Water in many re- gions of the Earth, particularly in low and level districts, where this prime necessary of Life is inaccessible by any other means; and because the theory of their mode of ope- ration explains one of the most important and most common contrivances in the subterraneous economy of the Globe, for the production of natural springs. By these compound results of the original disposition of the strata and their subsequent disturbances, the entire Crust of the Earth has become one grand and connected Appa- * An economical and easy method of sinking Artesian Wells and borings for coal, &c., has recently been practised near SaarbrUck, by M. Sellow. In- stead of the tardy and costly process of boring with a number of Iron Rods screwed to each other, one heavy Bar of cast Iron about six feet long and four inches in diameter, armed at its lower end with a cutting Chisel, and surrounded by a hollow chamber, to receive through valves, and bring up the detritus of the perforated stratum, is suspended from the end of a stroug rope, which passes over a wheel or pulley fixed above the spot in which the hole is made. As this rope is raised up and down over the wheel, its tortiou gives to the Bar of Iron a circular motion, sufficient to vary the place of the cutting Chisel at each descent. When the chamber is full, the whole apparatus is raised quickly to the surface to be unloaded, and is again let down by the action of the same wheel. This process has been long practised in China, from whence the re- port of its use has been brougjit to Europe. The Chinese are said to have bored in tiiis manner to tlie depth of 1000 feet. M. Sellow has with this instrument lately made perforations 18 inches in diameter, and several hun- dred feet deep, for the purpose of ventilating coal mines at Saarbriick. The general substitution of this method for the costly process of boring with rods* of iron, may be of much public importance, especially where water can only be obtained from groat depths. ARTESIAN WELLS. 425 ratus of Hydraulic Machinery, co-operating incessantly with the Sea and with the Atmosphere, to dispense unfaihng sup- plies of fresh Water over the habitable surface of the Land.* Among the incidental advantages arising to Man from the introduction of Faults and Dislocations of the strata, into the system of curious arrangements that pervade the sub- terranean economy of the Globe, we may farther include the circumstance that these fractures are the most frequent channels of issue to mineral and thermal waters, whose medicinal virtues alleviate many of the diseases of the Human Frame.f " Thus in the whole machinery of springs and Rivers, and the apparatus that is kept in action for their duration,, through the instrumentality of a system of curiously con- structed hills and valleys, receiving their supply occasionally from the rains of heaven, and treasuring it up in their ever- lasting storehouses to be dispeiised •perpetually by thousa^nds of never-failing fountains, we see a provision not less striking, than it is important. So also in the adjustment of the re- lative quantities of Sea and Land, in such due proportions as to supply the earth by constant evaporation, without diminishing the waters of the ocean; and in the appoint- ment of the Atmosphere to be the vehicle of this wonderful and unceasing circulation,; in thus separating these waters from their native salt, (which though of the highest utility to preserve the purity of the sea, renders them unfit for the * The causes of intermitting Springs, and ebbing-, and flowing- wells, and many minor irregularities in the Hydraulic Action of natural vents of water, depend on local Accidents, such as tlie interposition of Siphons, Cavities, Sec, which are scarcely of sufficient importance to be noticed, in the general view we are here taking of the Causes of the Origin of Springs. f Dr. Daubeny has shown that a large proportion of the tiiermal springs witli which we are acquainted, arise tlirough fractures situated on the great lines of dislocation of the strata. See Daubeny on Thermal Springs, Edin. Phil. Jour. April, 1832, p. 49. Professor Hoffman has given examples of tliese fractures in the axis of vMeys of elevation, through which chalybeate waters rise at Pyrmont, and. va other valleys of Westphalia. See PI. 67, frg. 2. 36* 426 PROOFS OF DESIGN support of terrestrial animals or vegetables,) and transmit- tinjT them in genial showers to scatter fertility over the earth, and maintain the never-failing reservoirs of those springs and rivers by which they are again returned to mix with their parent ocean ; in all these circumstances we find such evidence of nicely balanced adaptation of means to ends, of wise foresight, and benevolent intention, and infinite power, that he must be blind indeed, who refuses to recog- nise in them proofs of the most exalted attributes of the Creator."* CHAPTER XXIII. Proofs of Design in the Structure and Composition of unorganized Mineral Bodies. Much of the physical histo^y of the compound forms of unorganized mineral bodies, has been anticipated in the con- siderations given in our early chapters to the unstratified and crystalline rocks. It remains, only to say a few words re- specting the simple minerals that form the ingredients of these rocks, and the elementary bodies of which they are composed.f " In crossing a heath," (says Paley,) " suppose I pitched my foot against a stone, and were asked how the stone came * Buckland, Tnaug'. Lecture, p. 13. ■j- The term simple mineral is applied not only to uncombined mineral substances, which are rare in Nature, such as pure native gold or silver, but also to all kinds of compound mineral bodies that present a regular crystal- line structm-e, accompanied by definite proportions of their chemical ingre- dients. The difference between a simple mineral and a simple substance may be illustrated by the case of calcareous spar, or crystallized carbonate of lime. I'he ultimate elements, viz. Calcium, Oxygen, and Carbon, are simple substances; the crystalline compound resulting from the union of these elements, in certain definite proportions, forms a simple mineral, called Car- bonate of lime. The total number of simple minerals hitherto ascertained according to Berzelius is nearly six hundred, that of simple substances, or elementary principles, is fifty-fooi*. IN SIMPLE MINERALS. 427 to be there ; I might possibly answer, that, for any thing I knew to the contrary, it had lain there for ever : nor would it perhaps be very easy to show the absurdity of this answer."* Nay, says the Geologist, for if the stone were a pebble, the adventures of this pebble may have been many and various, and fraught with records of physical events, that produced important changes upon the surface of onr planet ; and its rolled condition impUes that it has undergone considerable locomotion by the action of water. Or, should the stone be Sand-stone, or part of any Con- glomerate, or fragmentary stratum, made up of the rounded detritus of other rocks, the ingredients of such a stone would bear similar evidence of movements by the force of water, which reduced them to the state of sand, or pebbles, and transported them to their present place, before the existence of the stratum of which they form a part ; consequently no such stratum can have lain in its present place for ever. Again, should the supposed stone contain within it the petrified remains of any fossil Animal or fossil Plant, these would not only show that animal and vegetable life had pre- ceded the formation of the rock in which they are embedded ; but their organic structure might afford examples of contri- vance and design, as unequivocally attesting the exercise of Intelligence and Power, as the mechanism of a Watch or Steam engine, or any other instrument produced by human art, bears evidence of intention and skill in the workman who invented and constructed them. Lastly, should it even be Granite, or any crystalline Pri- mary Rock, containing neither organic remains, nor frag- ments of other rocks more ancient than itself, it can still be shown that there was a time when even stones of this class • I have quoted this passage, not in disparagement of the general argu- inent of Paley, whicli is altogether independent of the incidental and need- less comparison with which he has prefaced it, but to show the importance of the addition, that has been made by the discoveries of Geology and Minera- logy, to the evidence of the non-eternity of the earth, which so great a master pronounced to be imperfect, for lack of such information as these modern sciences have recently supplied. 438 PROOFS OP DESIGN had not assumed their present state, and consequently that there is not one of them, which can have existed, where they now are, fore ever. The Mineralogist has ascertained, that Granite is a compound substance, made up of three dis- tinct and dissimilar simple mineral bodies. Quartz, Felspar, and Mica, each presenting certain regular combinations of external form and internal structure, with physical proper- ties pecuHar to itself. And Chemical Analysis has shown that these several bodies are made up of other bodies, all of which had a prior existence in some more simple state, be- fore they entered on their present union in the mineral con- stituents of what are supposed to be the most ancient rocks accessible to human observation. The Crystallographer also has farther shown that the several ingredients of Gra- nite, and of all other kinds of Crystalline Rocks are com- posed of Molecules which are invisibly minute, and that each of these Molecules is made up of still smaller and more simple Molecules, every one of them combined in fixed and definite proportions, and affording at all the successive stages of their analysis, presumptive proof that they possess deter- minate geometrical figures. These combinations and figures are so far from indicating the fortuitous result of accident, that they are disposed according to laws the most severely rigid, and in proportions mathematically exact.* The Atheistical Theory assuming the gratuitous postulate of the eternity of matter and motion, would represent the question thus. All matter, it would contend, must of neces- sity have assumed some form or other, and therefore may * The above Paragraphs of tliis Chapter excepting the first, are taken ahuost verbatim from the Author's MS. Notes of his Lectures on Mineralogy, bearing the date of June 1822, and lie has adhered more closely to the form under which they appear, than he might otherwise have done, for the sake of showing that no part of them has been suggested by any recent publica- tions ; and that the views here taken have not originated in express consi- derations called forth by the occasion of the present Treatise, but are the natural result of ordinary serious attention to the phenomena of Geology and Mineralogy, viewed in their conjoint relations to one another, and of inquiry pursued a few steps farther beyond the facts towards the causes in wJiich. tliey originated. IN SIMPLE MINERALS. 429 fortuitously have settled into any of those under which it actually appears. Now, on this hypothesis, we ought to find all kinds of substances presented occasionally under an infinite number of external forms, and combined in end- less varieties "of indefinite proportions ; but observation has shown that crystaUine mineral bodies occur under a fixed and limited number of external forms called secondary, and that these are constructed on a series of more simple primary forms, which are demonstrable by cleavage and mechanical division, without chemical analysis ; the inte- grant molecules* of these primary forms of crystals are usually compound bodies, made up of an ulterior series of constituent molecules, i. e. molecules of the first substances obtained by chemical analysis ; and these in many cases are also compound bodies, made up of the elementary molecules, or final indivisible atoms,f of which the ultimate particles of matter are probably composed.^ * Ce que j'ai dit de la forme deviendra encore plus evident, si, en pene- trant dans le mecanisme inline de la structure, on congoit tous ces cristaux comme des assemblages de molecules integrantcs parfaitement sembiables par leurs formes, et subordonnees, k un arrangement regulier. Ainsi, au lieu qu'une etude superficielle des cristaux n'y laissail voir que des singula- rites de la nature, une etude approfondie nous conduit &. cette consequence que le meme Dieu dont la puissance et la sagesse ont soumis la course des astres a, des lois qui ne se dementent jamais, en a aussi etabli auxquelles ont obei avec la ra6me fidelite les molecules qui se sont reunies donner naissance aux corps caches dans les retraites du globe que nous habitons. Hauy, Ta- bleau comparatif des Resultats de la Cristallographie et de V Analyse Chi- mique. P. xvii. t "We seem to be justified in concluding, that a limit is to be assigned to the divisibility of matter, and consequently that we must suppose the ex- istence of certain ultimate particles, stamped, as Newton conjectured, in the beginning of time by the hands of the Almighty with permanent characters, and retaining the exact size and figure, no less than the other more subtle qualities and relations which were given to them at the first moment oftheir creation. " The particles of the several substances existing in nature may thus de- serve to be regarded as the alphabet, composing the great volume which re- cords the wisdom and goodness of the Creator." Daubney^s Atomic Theory, p. 107. \ We may once for all illustrate the combinations of exact and methodical 430 PROOFS OF DESIGN When we have in this manner traced back all kinds- of mineral bodies, to the first and most simple condition of their component Elements, we find these elements to have been at all times regulated by the self-same system of fixed and universal laws, which still maintains the mechanism of the material world. In the operation of these laws we recognise such direct and constant subserviency of means to ends, so much of harmony, and order, and methodical arrangement, in the physical properties and proportional quantities, and chemical functions of the inorganic Ele- ments, and we farther see such convincing evidence of intelligence and foresight in the adaptation of these pri- mordial Elements to an infinity of complex uses, under many future systems of animal and vegetable organizations, that we can find no reasonable account of the existence of arrangements under which the ordinary crystalline forms of minerals have been produced, by the phenomena of a single species ; viz. the well-known substance of Carbonate of Lime. We have more then five hundred varieties of secondary forms presented by the crystals of this abundant earthy mineral. In each of these we trace a five- fold series of subordinate relations of one system of combinations to another system, under which every individual crystal has been adjusted by laws,, acting correlatively to produce harmonious results. Every crystal of Carbonate of Lime is made up of millions of particles of the same compound substance, having one invariable primary form, viz. that of a rhomboidal solid, which may be obtained to an indefinite extent by mechanical division. The integrent molecules these rhomboidal solids form the smallest par- ticles to which the Limestone can be reduced without chemical decomposi- tion. The first result of chemical analysis divides these integrant molecules of Carbonate of Lime into two compound substances, namely, Quick Lime and Carbonic Acid, each of which is made up of an incalculable number of con- stituent molecules. A farther analysis of these constituent molecules shows that they also are compound bodies, each made up of two elementary substances, viz. the Lime made up of elementary molecules of the metal Calcium, and Oxygen; and the Carbonic Acid, of elementary molecules of Carbon and Oxygen. These ultimate molecules of Calcium Carbon, and Oxygen, form the final indivisible atoms into which every secondary crystal of Carbonate of Lime Qau be resolved. m SIMPLE MINERALS. 431 all this beautiful and exact machinery, if we accept not that which would refer its origin to the antecedent Will and Power of a Supreme Creator; a Being, whose nature is confessedly incomprehensible to our finite faculties, but, vviiom the " things which do appear " proclaim to be su- premely Wise, and Great, and Good. To attribute all this harmony and order to any fortuitous causes that would exclude Design, would be to reject con- clusions founded on that kind of evidence, on which the human mind reposes with undoubting confidence in all the ordinary business of life, as well as in physical and meta- physical investigations. " Si mundum efficere potest con- cursus atomorum, cur porticum, cur templem, cur domum, cur urbem non potest? quse sunt minus operosa et multo quidem faciliora."* Such was the interrogatory of the Roman Moralist, arising from his contemplation of the obvious phenomena of the natural world; and the conclusion of Bentley from a wider view of more recondite phenomena, in an age re- markable for the advancement of some of the hiirhest branches of Physical Science, has been most abundantly confirmed by the manifold discoveries of a succeeding cen- tury. We therefore of the present age have a thousand additional reasons to affirm with him, that " though univer- sal matter should have endured from everlasting, divided into infinite particles in the Epicurean way, and though mo- tion should have been coeval and coeternal with it ; yet those particles or atoms could never of themselves, by omnifarious kinds of motion, whether fortuitous or mechanical, have fallen, or been disposed into this or a hke visible system. "f — Bentley, Serm. vi. of Atheism, p. 192. * Cicero de Natura Deorum, lib. ii. 37. f Ur. Prout lias pursued this subject still farther in the third Chapter of his Bridgewater Treatise, and shown that the molecular constitution of mat- ter with its admirable adaptations to the economy of the natural world, can- not have endured from eternity, and is by no means a necessary condition of its existence; but has resulted from the Will of some intelligent and volun- tary Agent, possessing power commensui-ate with his Will. 432 PROOF OF THE EXISTENCE OF A DEITY. CHAPTER XXIV. Conclusion. In our last Chapter we have considered the Nature of the Evidence afforded by unorganized mineral bodies, in proof of the existence of design in the original adaptation of the material Elements to their various functions, in the inorganic and organic departments of the Natural World, and have seen that the only sufficient Explanation we can discover, of the orderly and wonderful dispositions of the material Elements " in measure and number and weight," throughout the terraqueous globe, is that which refers the origin of every thing above us, and beneath us, and around us, to the will and workings of One Omnipotent Creator. If the pro- perties imparted to these Elements at the moment of their Creation, adapted them beforehand to the infinity of compli- cated useful purposes, which they have already answered, and may have farther still to answer, under many succes- sive Dispensations in the material World, such an aboriginal constitution so far from superseding an intelligent Agent, would only exalt our conceptions of the consummate skill and power, that could comprehend such an infinity of future uses under future systems, in the original groundwork of his Creation. In an early part of our Inquiry, we traced back the his- In the first Section of his fourth Chapter the same author has also so clear- ly shown the great extent to which several of the most common mineral substances e. g. lime, magnesia, and iron, enter into the composition of ani- mal and vegetable bodies, and has so fully set forth the evidences of design in the constitution and properties of the few simple substances, viz. fifty-four Elementary principles, into some one or more of which the component ma- terials of all the three great kingdoms of Nature can be resolved, that I deem it superfluous to repeat in another form, the substance of arguments which have been so well and fully drawn by my learned Colleague, from those phe- nomena of the mineral Elements, which form no small part of the evidence afforded by the Chemistry of Mineralogy, in proof of the Wisdom, and Power, and Goodness of the Creator. TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 433 tory of the Primary rocks, which composed the first sohd materials of the Globe, to a probable condition of universal Fusion, incompatible with the existence of any forms of organic life, and saw reason to conclude that as the crust of the Globe became gradually reduced in temperature, the unstratified crystalline rocks, and stratified rocks produced by their destruction, were disposed and modified, during long periods of time, by physical forces, the same in kind with those which actually subsist, but more intense in their degree of operation ; and that the result has been to adapt our planet to become the receptacle of divers races of vege- table and animal beings, and finally to render it a fit and convenient habitation for Mankind. We have seen still farther that the surface of the Land, and the Waters of the Sea have during long periods, and at distant intervals of time, preceding the Creation of our species, been peopled with many different races of Vegeta- bles and Animals, supplying the place of other races that had gone before them; and in all these phenomena, con- sidered singly, we have found evidence of Method and Design. We have moreover seen such a systematic recur- rence of analogous Designs, producing various ends by various combinations of Mechanism, multiplied almost to infinity in their details of application, yet all constructed on the same few common fundamental principles which pervade the living forms of organized Beings, that we reasonably conclude all these past and present contrivances to be parts of a comprehensive and connected whole, originating in the Will and Power of one and the same Creator. Had the number or nature of the material Elements appeared to have been different under former conditions of the Earth, or had the Laws which have regulated the pheno- mena of inorganic matter, been subjected to change at various Epochs, during the progress of the many formations of which Geology takes cognizance, there might indeed have been proofs of Wisdom and Power in such unconnected VOL, I. — 37 434 "UNITY OF THE DEITY* phenomena, but they would have been insufficient to demon* strate the Unity and Universal Agency of the same eternal and supreme First Cause of all things. Again, had Geology gone no farther than to prove the existence of multifarious examples of Design, its evidences would indeed have been decisive against the Atheist ; but if such Design had been manifested only by distinct and dissi- milar systems of Organization, and independent Mechanisms, connected together by no analogies, and bearing no relations to one another, or to any existing types in the Animal or Vegetable kingdoms, these demonstrations of Design, al- though affording evidence of Intelligence and Power, would not have proved a common origin in the Will of one and the same Creator ; and the Polytheist might have appealed to such non-accordant and inharmonious systems, as afford- ing indications of the agency of many independent Intelli- gences, and as corroborating his theory of a plurality of Gods. But the argument which would infer a Unity of cause, from unity of effects, repeated through various and complex systems of organization widely remote from each other in time and place and circumstances, applies with accumula- tive force, when we not only can expand the details of facts on which it is founded, over the entire surface of the present world, but are enabled to comprehend in the same catagory all the various extinct forms of many preceding systems of organization, which we find entombed within the bowels of the Earth. It was well observed by Paley, respecting the variations we find in living species of Plants and Animals, in distant regions and under various climates, that "We never get amongst such original or totally different modes of Existence, as to indicate that we are come into the pro- vince of a different Creator, or under the direction of a dif- ferent Will."* And the very extensive subterranean re- searches that have more recently been made, have greatly » Paley Nat. Theol. p. 450. Chap, on the Unity of the Deity. UNITY OP THE DEITY, 435 enlarged the range of Facts in accordance with those on which Paley grounded this assertion. In all the numerous examples of Design which we have selected from the various animal and vegetable remains, that occur in a fossil state, there is such a never-faihng Iden- tity in the fundamental principles of their construction, and sucii uniform adoption of analogous means, to produce va- rious ends, with so much only of departure from one com- mon type of mechanism, as was requisite to adapt each in- strument to its own especial function, and to fit each Species to its pecuUar place and office in the scale of created Beings, that we can scarcely fail to acknowledge in all these facts, a Demonstration of the Unity, of the Intelligence, in which such transcendent Harmony originated ; and we may almost dare to assert that neither Atheism nor Polytheism would ever have found acceptance in the World, had the evidences of high Intelligence and of Unity of Design, which are dis- closed by modern discoveries in physical science, been fully known to the Authors, or the Abettors of Systems to which tliey are so diametrically opposed. " It is the same hand- writing that we read, the same system and contrivance that we trace, the same unity of object, and relation to final causes, which we see maintained throughout, and constantly proclaiming the Unity of the great divine Original.* It has been stated in our Sixth Chapter, on primary stra- tified rocks, that Geology has rendered an important ser- vice to Natural Theology, in demonstrating by evidences pecuHar to itself, that there was a time when none of the existing forms of organic beings had appeared upon our Planet, and that the doctrines of the derivation of living spe- cies either by Development and Transmutation] from other * Biickland's Inaug. Lect. 1819, p. 13. f As a misunderslanding may arise in the minds of persons not familiar with the language of physiology, respecting the import of the word De. velopment, it may be proper here to state, that in its primary sense, it is applied to express the organic changes which take place in the bodies of erery animal and vegetable Being, from their embryo state, until they ar- 436 PECULIAR EVIDENCES OP GEOLOGY. species, or by an Eternal Succession from preceding indi- viduals of the same species, M^ithout any evidence of a Be- ginning or prospect of an End, has no where been met by so full an answer, as that afforded by the phenomena, of fossil Organic Remains. In the course of our inquiry, we have found abundant proofs, both of the Beginning and the End of several suc- cessive systems of animal and vegetable life ; each compel- ling us to refer its origin to the direct agency of Creative Interference ; " We conceive it undeniable, that we see, in the transition from an Earth peopled by one set of animals to the same Earth swarming with entirely new forms of or- ganic life, a distinct manifestation of creative power trans- cending the operation of known laws of nature : and it ap- ])ears to us, that Geology has thus lighted a new Ijgmp along the path of Natural Theology."* Whatever alarm therefore may have been excited in the earlier stages of their development, the time is now arrived when Geological discoveries appear to be so far from dis- closing any phenomena, that are not in harmony with the arguments supplied by other branches of physical Science, in proof of the existence and agency of One and the same all-wise and all-powerful Creator, that they add to the evi- dences of Natural Religion links of high importance that have confessedly been wanting, and are now filled up by live at full maturity. In a more extended sense, the term is also applied to those progressive changes in fossil genera and species, whicli have followed one another during the deposition of the strata of the earth, in the course of the gradual advancement of the grand system of Creation. The same term has been adopted by Lamarck, to express his hypothetical views of the derivation of existing species from preceding spe^cies, by successive Trans- mutations of one form of organization into another form, independent of the influence of any creative Agent. It is important that tiiese distinctions should be rightly understood, lest the frequent application of the word Development, which occurs in the writings of modern physiologists, should lead to a false inference, that the use of this term implies an admission of the theory of Transmutation with which Lamarck has associated it, * British Critic, No. XVII. Jan. 1831, p. 194. PROVINCES OF REASON AND REVELATION. 437 facts which the investigation of the structure of the Earth has brought to light. " If I understand Geology aright, (says Professor Hitch- cock,) so far from touching the eternity of the world, it proves more directly than any other science can, that its revolutions and races of inhabitants had a commencement, and that it contains within itself the chemical energies, which need only to be set at liberty, by the will of their Creator, to accomplish its destruction. Because this science teaches that the revolutions of nature have occupied im- mense periods of time, it does not therefore teach that they form an eternal series. It only enlarges our conceptions of the Deity ; and when men shall cease to regard Geology with jealousy and narrow-minded prejudices, they will find that it opens fields of research and contemplation as wide and as grand as astronomy itself."* f " There is in truth, (says Bishop Blomfield) no opposition nor inconsistency between Religion and Science, commonly so called, except that which has been conjured up by inju- dicious zeal or false philosophy, mistaking the ends of a divine revelation." And again in another passage of the same powerful discourse, after defining the proper objects for the exercise of the human understanding, his Lordship most justly observes, " Under these limitations and correc- tions we may join in the praises which are lavished upon philosophy and science, and fearlessly go forth with their votaries into all the various paths of research, by which the mind of man pierces into the hidden treasures of nature; * Hitclicock's Geology of Massachusetts, p. 395. t " Why should we hesitate to admit the existence of our Globe through periods as long as geological researches require; since the sacred word docs not declare the time of its original creation ; and since such a view of its antiquity enlarges our ideas of the operations of the Deity in respect to duration, as much as astronomy does in regard to space ? Instead of bring- ing us into collision with Moses, it seems to me that Geology furnishes us with some of the grandest conceptions of the Divine Attributes and Plans to be found in the whole circle of human knowledge." Hitchcock's Geolojy of Massachusetts, 1835, p, 2Q5. 37* 438 PROVINCES OF REASON AND REVELATION. harmonizes its more conspicuous features, and removes the veil wliich to the ignorant or careless observer, obscures the traces of God's glory in the works of his hands."* The disappointment w^hich many minds experience, at finding in the phenomena of the natural world no indications of the will of God, respecting the moral conduct or future prospects of the human race, arises principally from an indistinct and mistaken view of the respective provinces of Reason and Revelation. By the exercise of our Reason, we discover abundant evidences of the Existence, and of some of the Attributes of a supreme Creator, and apprehend the operations of many of the second causes or instrumental agents, by which he upholds the mechanism of the material World; but here its province ends: respecting the subjects on which, above all others, it concerns mankind to be well informed, namely, the will of God in his moral government, and the future prospects of the human race, reason only assures us of the absolute need in which we stand of a Revelation. Many of the greatests proficients in philosophy have felt and expressed these distinctions. " The consideratioji of God's Provi- dence (says Boyle) in the conduct of things corporeal may prove to a well-disposed Contemplator, a Bridge, whereon he may pass from Natural to Revealed Religion., 'f J '• Next (says Locke) to the knowledge of one God, Maker * Sermon at the opening- of King's College, London, 1831, pp, 19. 14. T Christian Virtuoso, 1690, p, 42. i "Natural Religion, as it is the first that is embraced by tlie mind, so it is the foundation upon wliicli revealed religion ou^ht to be superstructed, and is as it were, the stock upon which Christianit}' must be engrafted. For though I readily acknowledge natural religion to be insufficient, yet I think it very necessary. It will be to little^purpose to press an infidel with, arguments drawn from the worthiness, that appears in the Christian doc- trine to have been revealed by God, and from the miracles its first preachers wrought to confirm it ; if the unbeliever be not already persuaded, upon the account of natural religion, that there is a God, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek /tf??!." Boyle's Christian Virtuoso. Part. II. prop. 1 PROVINCES OF E.EASON AND REVELATION. 439 of all things, a clear knowledge of their duty was wanting to mankind." And He, whose name, by the consent of nations, is above all praise, the inventor and founder of the Inductive Philo- sophy, thus breathes forth his pious meditation, *•' Thy crea- tures have been my books, but thy Scriptures much more. I have sought thee in the courts, fields, and gardens, but I have found thee in thy temples." Bacon's Works, V. 4. fol. p. 487. The sentiment here quoted had been long familiar to him, for it pervades his writings ; it is thus strikingly expressed in his immortal work. '•' Concludamus igitur theologiam sacram ex Verbo et Oraculis Dei, non ex lumine Naturee aut Rationis dictamine hauriri debere. Scriptum est enim coeli enarrant Glorium Dei, at nusquam scriptum invenitur, coeli enarrant Voluntatem Dei."* f Having then this' broad line marked out before us,, and * Bacon De Aug-m, Scient. Lib. IX. ch. i. f " Nothing," says Sir I. F. W. Herschel, " can be more unfounded than the objection whicli has been taken in limine, by persons well meaning perhaps, certainly narrow-minded, against the study of natural philosophy, and indeed against all science, — that it fosters in its cultivators an undue and overweening self-conceit, leads them to doubt the immortality of the soul, and to scoft" at revealed religion. Its natural effect, we may confidently as- sert, on every well consituted mind, is and must be the direct contrary. No doubt, the testimony of natui'al reason, on whatever exercised, must of ne- cessity stop short of those truths which it is the object of revelation to make known; but while it places the existence and principal attributes of a Deity on such grounds as to render doubt absurd and atheism ridiculous, it unques- tionably opposes no natural or necessary obstacle to farther progress; on the contrary, by cherislilng as a vital ]n-lnciple and unbounded spirit of inquiry, and ardency of expectatioji, it unfetters the mind from prejudices of every kind, and leaves it open and free to every impression of a higher nature which- it is susceptible of receiving, guarding only against enthusiasm and self- deception by a habit of strict investigation, but encouraging, rather than suppressing, every thing that can offer a prospect or a hope beyond the pre- sent obscure and unsatisfactory state. The character of the true Philoso- pher is to hope all things not impossible, and to believe all things not un-- reasonable." Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy, p. 7. 440 PROPER PROVINCE OF GEOLOGY. with a clear and perfect understanding, as to what we ought, and what we ought not to expect from the discoveries of Natural Philosophy, we may strenuously pursue our labours in the fruitful field of Science, under the full assurance that we shall gather a rich and abundant harvest, fraught with endless evidences of the existence, and wisdom, and power, and goodness of the Creator. " The Philosopher (says Professor Babbage) has conferred on the Moralist an obligation of surpassing weight ; in un- veiHng to him the living miracles which teem in rich exu- berance around the minutest atom, as well as through the largest masses of ever active matter, he has placed before him resistless evidence of immeasurable design."* " See only (says Lord Brougham) in what contemplations the wisest of men end their most subhme inquiries ! Mark where it is that a Newton finally reposes after piercing the thickest veil that envelopes nature — grasping and arresting in their course the most subtle of her elements and the swiftest — traversing the regions of boundless space — ex- ploring worlds beyond the solar way — giving out the law which binds the universe in eternal order ! He rests, as by an inevitable necessity, upon the contemplation of the great First Cause, and holds it his highest glory to have made the evidence of his existence, and the dispensations of his power and of his wisdom better understood by mcn."t If then it is admitted to be the high and peculiar privilege of our human nature, and a devotional exercise of our most exalted faculties, to extend our thoughts towards Immensity and into Eternity, to gaze on the marvellous Beauty that pervades the material world, and to comprehend that Wit- ness of himself, which the Author of the Universe has set before us in the visible works of his Creation ; it is clear that next to the study of those distant worlds which engage the contemplation of the Astronomer, the largest and most su- • Babbage on the Economy of Manufactures, 1 Ed, p. 319. + Lord Brougham's Discourse of Natuind Theology, 1 Ed. p. 194. GEOLOGY AUXILIARY TO THEOLOGY. 441 blime subject of physical inquiry which can occupy the mind of Man, and by far the most interesting, from the personal concern we have in it, is the history of the formation and structure of the Planet on which we dwell, of the many and wonderful revolutions through which it has passed, of the vast and various changes in organic life that have followed one an- other upon its surface, and of its multifarious adaptations to the support of its present inhabitants, and to the physical and moral condition of the Human race. These and kindred branches of inquiry, co-extensive with the very matter of the globe itself, form the proper subject of Geology, duly and curiously pursued, as a legitimate branch of inductive science : the history of the Mineral kingdom is exclusively its own ; and of the other two great departments of Nature, which form the Vegetable and Animal kingdoms, the foundations were laid in ages, whose records are entombed in the interior of the Earth, and art^ recovered only by the labours of the Geologist, who in the petrified organic remains of former conditions of our Planet, deciphers documents of the Wisdom in which the world was created. Shall it any longer then be said, that a science, which un- folds such abundant evidence of the Being and Attributes of God, can reasonably be viewed in any other light than as the efficient Auxiliary and Handmaid of Religion ? Some few there still may be, whom timidity or prejudice or want of opportunity allow not to examine its evidence ; who arc alarmed by the novelty, or surprised by the extent and mag- nitude of the views which Geologv forces on their attention, and who would rather have kept closed the volume of wit- ness, which has been sealed up for ages beneath the surface of the earth, than impose on the student in natural Theology the duty of studying its contents ; a duty, in which for lack of experience they may anticipate a hazardous or a laborious task, but which by those engaged in it is found to afford a rational and righteous, and delightful exercise of their highest 442 GEOLOGICAL PROOF OF A DEITY. faculties, in multiplying the evidences of the Existence and Attributes and Providence of God.* The alarm however which was excited by the novelty of its first discoveries has well nigh passed away, and those to whom it has been permitted to be the humble instruments of their promulgation, and who have steadily persevered, under the firm assurance that " Truth can never be opposed to Truth," and that the works of God when rightly understood, and viewed in their true relations, and from a right position, would at length be found to be in perfect accordance with his Word, are now receiving their high reward, in finding difficulties vanish, objections gradually withdrawn, and in seeing the evidences of Geology admitted into the list of witnesses to the truth of the great fundamental doctrines of Theology.f * A study of the natural world teaches not the truths of revealed religion, nor do the truths of religion inform us of the inductions of physical science. Hence it is, tliat men whose studies are too much confined to one branch of knowledge, often learn to overrate themselves, and so become narrow- minded. Bigotry is a besetting sin of our nature. Too often it has been the attendant of religious zeal : but it is perhaps most bitter and unsparing when found with the irreligious. A philosopher, understanding not one atom of their spirit, will sometimes scoff at the labours of religious men ; and one who calls himself religious will perhaps return a like harsii judgment, and thank God that he is not as the philosophers, — fogetting all the while, that man can ascend to no knowledge, except by faculties given to him by his Creator's hand, and that all natural knowledge is but a re- flection of the will of God. In harsh judgmentssuch as these, there is not only much folly, but much sin. True wisdom consists in seeing how all the faculties of the mind, and all parts of knowledge bear upon each other, so as to work together to a common end; ministering at once to the happi- ness of man, and his Maker's glory. — Sedgwick's Discourse on the Studies of the University, Cambridge, 1833, App. note F. p. 102, 103. t One of the most distinguished and powerful Theological writers of our time, who about 20 years ago devoted a chapter of his work on the Evidence of the Christian Revelation, to the refutation of what he then called " the Scepticism of Geologists," has in his recent publication on Natural Theology, commenced his considerations respecting the origin GEOLOGICAL PROOF OF A DEITY. 443 The whole coarse of the inquiry which we have now con- ducted to its close, has shown that the physical history of our globe, in which some have seen only Waste, Disorder, and Confusion, teems with endless examples of Economy, and Order, and Design ; and the result of all our researches , carried back through the unwritten records of past time, has been to fix more steadily our assurance of the Existence of One supreme Creator of all things, to exalt more highly our conviction of the immensity of his Perfections, of his Might, and Majesty, his Wisdom, and Goodness, and all sustaining Providence ; and to penetrate our understanding with a profound and sensible perception,* of the " high Ve- neration man's intellect owes to God."f The Earth from her deep foundations unites with the celes- tial orbs that roll through boundless space, to declare the glory and show forth the praise of their common Author and Preserver ; and the voice of Natural Religion accords harmoniously with the testimonies of Revelation, in ascribing the origin of the Universe to the will of One eternal, and dominant Intelligence, the Almighty Lord and supreme first cause of all things that subsist — " the same yesterday to-day and for ever" — " before the Mountains were brought forth, or Ever the Earth and the World were made, God from everlasting and world without End." of the world, with what he now terms "The Geological argument in behalf of a Diety." Chalmers's Natural Theology, V. 1. p. 229. Glasgow, 1835. For Dr. Chalmars's interpretation of Genesis i. 1. et seq. see Edinburgh Christian Instructor, April, 1814. * "Though I cannot with eyes of flesh behold the invisible God; yet, I do in the strictest sense behold and perceive by all my senses such signs and tokens, such effects and operations as suggest, indicate, and demon- strate an invisible God." — Berkeley's Minute Philosopher, Dial. iv. c, 5. t Boyle, SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. P. 36. Since the publication of my first edition, I have been favoured by the Rev. G. S. Faber with a communication of his opinion respecting the views propounded in my second Chapter, on the Consistency of Geological discoveries with Sacred History, and am much gratified by his permission to state, that he is satis- fied my views upon this subject are consistent with a critical inter- pretation of the Hebrew text of those verses in Genesis, with which they may at first sight appear to be at variance. This opinion of Mr. Faber is enhanced in value, by his adopting it to the exclusion of a different opinion published in his Treatise on the Three Dispensations, (1824,) in which itAvas attempted to reconcile Geological Phenomena with the Mosaic History, by supposing each of the demiurgic days to be periods of many thou- sand years. Respecting this subject, I have been much surprised to find myself misrepresented, as inclining to the opinion that each day of the creation, recorded, in the Mosaic Narrative, comprehended a space of many thousand years. In my second Chapter (P. 24 et seq.) I have stated that this opinion has been entertained, both by learned Theologians and by Geologists, but is not entirely sup- ported by Geological facts, and have adopted the hypothesis which supposes an undefined amount of time to have elapsed between the creation of the matter of the Universe, and that of the Human race. According to this view, placing the Beginning at an inde^ VOL. I.— 38 446 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. finite distance before the first of the six days described in the I Mosaic History of creation, I see no reason for extending the length of any of these beyond a natural day; and I suppose that an interval sufficient to afford all the time required by the Phenomena of Geology, elapsed between the prior creation of the Universe recorded in the first verse of Genesis, and that later creation, of which an account is given in the third and following verses, and which has especial relation to the preparation of the Earth for the abode of man. At p. 29, it is shown in a Note by Prof. Pusey, that the notion of such a prior act of creation was entertained by many of the Fathers of the Church, and also by Luther. P. 42. Professor Kersten has found distinctly formed crystals of prismatic Felspar on the walls of a furnace in which Copper slate and Copper Ores had been melted. Among these pyro- chemically formed crystals, some were simple, others twin. They are composed of Silica, Alumina, and Potash. This dis- covery is very important, in a geological point of view, from its bearing on the theory of the igneous origin of crystalline rocks, in which Felspar is usually so large an ingredient. Hitherto every attempt to make felspar crystals by artificial means has failed. See Poggendorfs Annalen, No. 22, 1834, and Jameson's Edin. New Phil. Journal. Professor Mitscherlich has also succeeded in producing syn- thetically, by the action of Heat, artificial crystals of Mica; these are difficult to make, unless the ingredients pass very slowly from a fluid to a solid state; as they are supposed to have done, in an infinitely greater degree, in the formation of Granite, and other Primary Hocks, of which Mica forms a large ingredient. In more recent igneous rocks of the Trap formation, in which Mica is rare, and crystals of Pyroxene abound, it is probable that the cooling process was much more rapid, than in rocks of the Granitic series; and crystals of Pyroxene have been formed synthetically by Mitscherlich, from their melted elements, under much more rapid cooling than is required to produce artificial Mica. The experiments of Sir James Hall, on whinstone and lava, made in 1798, first showed the efiects of slow and gradual cool- ing in reproducing bodies of tliis kind in a crystalline state. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 447 Similar experiments were repeated on a larger scale, by Mr. Gregory Watt, in 1804. Sir James Hall's experiments on repro- ducing artificial limestone and crystalline marble, were made in 1805. Mr. Whewell, in his Report on Mineralogy to the British Asso- ciation at Oxford, 1832, refers to observations of Dr. Wallaston and Professor Miller on crystals of Titanium, and Olivine, found in the slag of Iron furnaces; and to the experiments of Mits- cherlich and Berthier on artificial crystals, similar to those found in Nature, obtained by them in the furnace by direct synthesis, regulated by the Atomic Theory. With respect also to artificial crystals obtained in the humid way, he refers to the observations and experiments on artificial salts, by Brooke, Haidenger, and Beudant, and to the experiments of Haldat, Becquerel, and Repetli. At the meeting of the British Association at Bristol, August, 1836, Mr. Crosse communicated the results of his experiments in making artificial crystals by means of long continued galvanic action, of low intensity, produced by water batteries on humid solutions of the elements of various crystalline bodies that occur in the mineral kingdom; and stated, that he had in this way obtained artificial crystals of Quartz, Arragonite, Carbonates of Lime, Lead, and Copper, and more than 20 other artificial minerals. One regularly shaped crystal of Quartz, measuring f'g- of an inch in length, and y\ in diameter, and readily scratching glass, was formed from fluo-silicic acid exposed to the electric action of a water battery from the 8th of March to the latter end of June, 1836. P. .58, Note. In the note respecting the Fresh- water shells which occur in the upper region of the great Coal formation, I have omitted to refer to an important discovery of Mr. Murchison, (1831-32,) who has traced a peculiar band of limestone, charged with the remains of Fresh-water animals, e. g. Paludina, Cyclas, and microscopic Planorboid shells, interposed between the upper Coal measures, from the edge of the Breiddin hills, on the N. W. of Shrewsbury, to the banks of the Severn, near Bridgnorth, a distance of about thirty miles; and has farther shown that the Coal 448 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. measures, containing this " lacnstrine " limestone, pass upwards conformably into the Lower New Red Sand-stone of the central counties. (See Proceedings Geol. Soc. V. i. p. 472.) The chief localities of the Shropshire limestone are Pontesbury, Uffington, liC Botwood, and Tasley. Beds of limestone, occupying a similar geological position, and containing the same organic remains, (some of which belong to the well known deposite at Burdie House, near Edinburgh,) have more recently been recognised at Ardwick, near Manchester; these beds were identified with those of Shropshire, by Professor Philips (Brit. Assoc. Adv. of Science, 1836,) and have also been described by Mr. Williamson, Phil. Mag. October, 1836. P. 64, Note, and 369, Aote. The Coal of Blickeberg, in Nassau, respecting which various opinions have been entertained, some referring it to the Green sand, and others to the Oolite series, has been determined by Prof. Hoffmann to belong to the Wealden Fresh-water formation. See Roemer's Versteinerungen des Norddeutschen Oolithen Gebirges. Hanover, 1836. P. 75. An account has recendy been received from India of the discovery of an unknown and very curious fossil ruminating animal, nearly as large as an Elephant, which supplies a new and important link in the Order of Mammalia, between the Ruminantia and Pachydermata. A detailed description of this animal has been published by Dr. Falconer and Captain Cautley, who have given it the name of Sivatherium, from the Sivalic or Sub-Himalayan range of hills in which it was found, between the Jumna and the Ganges. In size it exceeded the largest Rhinoceros. The head has been discovered nearly entire. The front of the skull is remarkably wide, and retains the bony cores of two short thick and straight horns, similar in position to those of the four horned Antelope of Ilindostan. Tiie nasal bones are salient in a degree without example among Ruminants, exceeding in this respect those of the Rhinoceros, Tapir, and Palajotherium, the only herbivorous animals that have this sort of structure. Hence there is no doubt that the Sivatherium was invested with a SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 449' trunk, and probably this organ had an intermediate character be- tween the trunk of the Tapir and that of the Elephant. Its jaw is twice as large as that of a Buflalo, and larger than that of a Rhino- ceros. The remains of the Sivatherium were accompanied by those of the Elephant, Mastodon, Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus, several Ruminantia, &c. We have seen (p. 74) that there is a wider distance between the living Genera of the Order Pachydermata than between those oC any other Order of Mammalia, and that many intervals in the series of these animals have been filled up by extinct Genera and Species, discovered in strata of the Tertiary series. The Siva- therium forms an important addition to the extinct Genera of this intermediate and connecting character. The value of such links with reference to considerations ia Natural Theology has been already alluded to, p. 95. P. 77. Farther light has recently been thrown on the history of the organic remains of the Miocene system^ of the Tertiary deposites, by an account of discoveries made in the strata of this formation in the South of France, near the base of tlie Pyrenees. On the 16th of January, 1837, a Memoir was presented to the Academy of Sciences at Paris, by M. Lartet, respcctiiig a prodi- gious number of fossil bones that have been lately found in the tertiary fresh-water formation, of Simorre, Sansan, &c., in the department of Gers. Among these remains are bones of more than 30 species, referable to nearly all the orders of Mammalia^^ The most remarkable among them is the lower jaw of an Ape,, which presents the first fossil type of the order Quadrumana yet discovered. The individual from wliich this jaw was derived, was probably about 30 inches high. The following is a List of the Genera under which these fossij remains axe comprehended.. Quadrumana. Si7nia, one species. PACHYDiiRMATA. Diiwlherlum , two species. Mastadrm, five species, llhinoceros, three species. One new anin^al allied to. Rhinoceros. Folxotherium, one species. Anoplolherumi, one species. One extinct species allied to JinthracotJuraan, On?; extinct species allied to Sus. 38* 450 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. Carnivora. Canis, one Species. A new Genus, between a Dog and a Rackoon, one large species. Felis, one large species. Genefta, animal allied to. Coali, animal allied to Coali, large as a White Bear. RoDENTiA. Lepus, one small species. Many other small species of Rodents not yet determined. RuMiNANTiA. l>o«, one species, .-^n/e/o/^e^ one species. Cerviis, several species. Edentata. One large unknown species. M. de Blainville, who is about to publish an account of these remains, points out their importance in illustrating the ancient Zoology of France, since, in a single locality, which was formerly a Basin, receiving an abundance of alluvial waters, we find con-- fusedly mixed together in a Tertiary fresh-water formation, scat- tered and broken bones and iVagments of skeletons of a large pro- portion of the fossil Quadrupeds which are found dispersed over the Tertiary strata of the rest of France, and derived from genera of almost all the orders of Mammalia. — Comptes rendus, No. 3. Jan. 16, 1837. These remains appear to be of the same age with those of Epplesheim. P. 89. In September, 1835, the author saw at Liege the very extensive collection of fossil Bones made by M. Schmer- ling in the caverns of that neighbourhood, and visited some of the places where they Avere found. Many of these bones appear to have been brought together like those in the cave of Kirkdale, by the agency of Hysenas, and have evidently been gnawed by these animals; otliers, particularly those of Bears, are not broken, or gnawed, but very probably collected in the same manner as the bones of Bears in the cave of Gailenreuth, by the retreat of these animals into the recesses of caverns on the approach of death; some may have been introduced by the action of water. The human bones found in these caverns are in a state of less decay than those of the extinct species of beasts; they are accom- panied by rude flint knives and other instruments of flint and bone, and are probably derived from uncivilized tribes that inhabited the caves.. Some of the human bones may also be the remains of SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 451 individuals who, in more recent times, have been buried in such convenient repositories. M. Schmerling, in his Recherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles des Cavernes de Liege, expresses his opinion that these human bones are coeval with those of the quad- rupeds, of extinct species, found with them; an opinion from which the Author, after a careful examination of M. Schmerling's collec- tion, entirely dissents. P. 109. The Dinotherium has been spoken of as the largest of terrestrial Mammalia, and as presenting in its lower Jaw and Tusks a disposition of an extraordinary kind, adapted to the peculiar habits of a gigantic herbivorous aquatic Quadruped. In the autumn of 1836 an entire head of this animal was discovered at Epplesheim, measuring about four feet in length and three feet in breadth; Professor Kaup and Dr. Klipstein have recently pub- lished a description and figures of this head, (P. 45],) in which they state that the very remarkable form and dispositions of the hinder part of the skull, show it to have been connected with muscles of extraordinary power, to give that kind of movement to the head which would admit of the peculiar action of the tusks in digging into and tearing up the earth. They farther observe, that my conjectures (P. Ill) respecting the aquatic habits of this ani- mal, are confirmed by approximations in the form of the occipital bone to the occiput of Cetacea; the Dinotherium, in this structure, affordipg anew and important link between the Cetacea and Pachy- dermata. More than 30 species of fossil Mammalia have now been found at Epplesheim. P. 130. Mr. C. Darwin has deposited in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, London, a most interesting series of fossil bones of extinct Mammalia, discovered by him in South America. I learn from Mr. Owen " that these include two, if not three distinct species of Edentata, intermediate in size, between the Megatherium and the largest living species of Armadillo {Dasypiis Gigas, Cuv,,) all similarly protected by an armour of bony tubercles, and making the transition from the Megatherium more directly to the existing Armadillos, than to the Sloths. A still more interesting fossil, is the cranium of a quadruped, which 452 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. must have rivalled the Hippopotamus in dimensions, bu