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SOME SALIENT POINTS

SCIENCE OF THE EARTH

BY

SIR J. WILLIAM DAWSON

C.M.G., LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S., ETC.

WITH FORTY-SIX ILLUSTRATIONS

Montreal
W. DRYSDALE AND CO.

232, ST. JAMES STREET

.Mucccxciii

WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

Modern Science in Bible Lands. With Illus-
trations. Popular Edition, Revised. Crown 8vo, 6/-

The Origin of the World, according to Revela-
tion and Science. Sixth Edition. Crown 8vo, cloth, 7/6.

The Story of the Earth and Man. Tenth

Edition, with Twenty Illustrations. Crown Svo, cloth, 7/6.

Fossil Men and Their Modern Representa-
tives. .\n atteniiit to illustrate the Characters and Con-
dition of Pre-historic Men in Europe, by those of the
American Races. With numerous Illustrations. Third
Edition. Crown Svo, cloth, 7/6.

LONDON : HODDER AND STOUGHTON.

PREFACE.

'T^HE present work contains much that is new, and

much in correction and ampHfication of that

which is old ; and is intended as a closing deliverance

on some of the more important questions of geology,

on the part of a veteran worker, conversant in his

younger days with those giants of the last generation,

who, in the heroic age of geological science, piled up

the mountains on which it is now the privilege of their

successors to stand.

J. W. D.

Montreal, 1893.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I. PACE

The Starting-Poini 3

CHAPTER n.
World-Making 9

CHAPTER HI.
The Imperfection' of the Geological Record • • • 39

CHAPTER IV.
The History of the North Atlantic 57

CHAPTER V.
The Dawn of Life 95

CHAPTER VL
What may be Learned from Eozoon 135

CHAPTER VII.
The Apparition and Succession of Animal Forms . . 169

CHAPTER VHI.
The Genesis and Migrations of Plants .... 201

CHAPTER IX.
The Growth of Coai 233

vm CONTENTS.

CHAPTER X. 'A-.t

The Oldest Aik-bre.viiiers 257

CHAPTER XI.
Markings, Footprints, and Eucoids 311

CHAPTER XH.
Pre-determination in Nature 329

CHAPTER XHI.
The Great Ice Ace 345

CHAPTER XIV.
Causes of Climatal Change 383

CHAPTER XV,
The Distkiuution ov Animals and Plants as Related to

Geographical and Geological Changes . . . 401

CHAPTER X\ I.
Alpine AND Arctic Plants in Connection with Geological

History 425

CHAPTER XVII.
Early Man 459

CHAI'IKR XVIII.
Man in Nature 481

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Cape Trinity on the Saguenay

Folding of the Earth's Crust .

Cambro-Sihirian Sponges

Map of the North Atlantic

Nature-print of Eozoon .

Laurentian Hills, Lower St. Lawrence

Section from Petite Nation Seigniory to St. Jerome

The Laurentian Nucleus of the American Continent

Attitude of Limestone at St. Pierre

Weathered Eozoon and Canals

Group of Canals in Eozoon
Amoeba and Actinophrys
Minute Foraminiferal Forms ,
Section of a Nummulite
Portion of Shell of Calcarina
Weathered Eozoon with Oscular tubes
Diagram showing different States of Fossilization
Tubulate Coral ......

Slice of Crystalline Lower Silurian Limestone
Walls of Eozoon penetrated with Canals
Joint of a Crinoid .....

Shell from a Silurian Limestone, Wales .

Casts of Canals of Eozoon in Serpentine

Canals of Eozoon .

Primordial Trilobites

Primitive Fishes

Devonian Forest .

Coal Section in Nova Scotia .

of

I'AGE

Frontispiece

To face 9

39

57

95

100

lOI

103
109
112
"3
"5
119
123
127
128
135

To face

To fac
Cell of

To face

139
141
141

145
146

147
147
169
185
201
233

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Skeleton of Hylonomus Lyelli
Footprints of Hylopits Logani
Humerus and Jaws of Dendrerpeioji
Replilifeious Tree .
Microsaurian, restored
Dolkhosoma longissiinian, restored
Pupa and Coniihis .
Millipedes and Insect
Footprints of Limiiliis
Ritsichniles Grenvillensis
Restoration of Protospongia ietrauema
Giant Net-sponge .....
Boulder Beach, Little Metis .
Palaeography of North .\merica
Distribution of Animals in Time
Tuckerman's Ravine and Mount Washington
Pre-historic Skulls .....
Primitive .Sculpture . ' .

7;->

PAGE
261

277
279
287
289
295

329

337
343
383
401

425
459
481

TABLE OF GEOLOGICAL HISTORY.

Non-geological readers will find in the following table a
condensed explanation of the more important technical terms
used in the following pages. The order is from older to
newer.

GREATER SYSTEMS OF
PERIODS. FORMATIONS.

characteristic fossils.

i

Arch.«an or
Eozoic

Pre-Laurentian
Laurentian

Protozoa Protophyta

PAi,.4i:ozoic

Huronian

Cambrian

Cambro- Silurian*

Silurianf

Devonian

Carboniferous

Permian

Crustaceans Alga.>
Molluscs Cryptogamous
Worms and
Corals, etc. Gymnospermous
Fishes Plants.
Amphibians

Mesozoic

Triassic
Jurassic
Cretaceous

C Reptiles Pines and
i Birds Cycads
[Earliest Mammals. Trees of modern
types.

Kainozoic or
Tertiary

Eocene

Miocene
Pliocene
Pleistocene
Modern

Higher Mammals
of extinct forms

Recent Mammals Modern Plants.
and
Man.

Ordovician of Lapworth.

f Salopian of Lapworth.

ERRATA IN
LIST AND LEGENDS OF ILLUSTRATIONS, ETC.

Owing to an illness while the work was in press, the author was
unable to revise proofs of the Legends of the Illustrations ; hence
the following errata.

List of Illustrations.

Page ix, for "Tabulate" read " Trzbulate."

Page X, for ' ' Palaeography "* read ' ' Pateo^^ography. "

Cambro-silitrian Sponges, page 39.

For " Lanotkrix " read " Lasiothrix."
,, " Palasosaa'us " read " PalKosamis."

Sped tn en cf Eozoon, page 135.

For " Genera " read " Genera/."

Diagram of Coral, page 139.

For " T?/bulate" read " Tabulate."

Primitive Fishes, page 185.

For " Pterichth?/s " read " Pterichthrs."

Pupa and Conulus, page 289.

For " Darwin" read " Dawson."
,, " prisca "read " priscus."
In note for figured " above " read figured " here."

Carboniferous Millipedes, page 295.

For " Darwin " read " Dawson."

Footprints of Limulus, page 311.

For " Protfchnites " read " Prot/chnites."

Restoration of Protospongia, page 329.

For " Giluru-" read " Siluro-."

Maps of North America, page 383.

For " surmergence" read "submergence."

Distribution of Animals, page 401.

After ' ' Cuttlefishes " insert " 6. Brachiopods. "
Page 485, line 10 from bottom, for " physical" read " psychical.'

THE STARTING-POINT.

DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF
PROF, ROBERT JAMESON,

Of the University of Edinburgh, my first Teacher in Geology,

WHOSE Lectures I attended, and whose kind Advice and

Guidance I enjoyed, in the Winter of 1840-1841.

S. E.

Hkadlands and Spurs— Popular Papers on Leading
Topics — Revisitinc Old Localities — Dedications —
General Scope oe thi; Work

CHAPTER I.
THE STARTING-POINT.

AN explorer trudging along some line of coast, or traversing
some mountain region, may now and then reach a pro-
jecting headland, or bold mountain spur, which may enable
him to command a wide view of shore and sea, or of hill and
valley, before and behind. On such a salient point he may
sit down, note-book and glass in hand, and endeavour to cor-
relate the observations made on the ground he has traversed,
and may strain his eyes forward in order to anticipate the
features of the track in advance. Such are the salient points
in a scientific pilgrimage of more than half a century, to which
I desire to invite the attention of the readers of these papers.
In doing so, I do not propose to refer, except incidentally, to
subjects which I have already discussed in books accessible to
general readers, but rather to those which are imbedded in
little accessible transactions, or scientific periodicals, or which
have fallen out of print. I cannot therefore pretend to i)lace
the reader on all the salient points of geological science, or
even on all of those I have myself reached, but merely to lead
him to some of the viewing-places which I have found particu-
larly instructive to myself.

For similar reasons it is inevitable that a certain personal
element shall enter into these reminiscences, though this auto-
biograi)hical feature will be kept as much in the background
as possible. It is also to be anticipated that the same subject

THE STARTING-POINT

may appear more than once, but from different points of view,
since it is often useful to contemplate certain features of the
landscape from more than one place of observation.

To drop the figure, the reader will find in these papers, in a
plain and popular form, yet it is hoped not in a superficial
manner, some of the more important conclusions of a geo-
logical worker of the old school, who, while necessarily giving
attention to certain specialties, has endeavoured to take a
broad and comprehensive view of the making of the world in
all its aspects.

The papers are of various dates ; but in revising them for
publication I have endeavoured, without materially changing
their original form, to bring them up to the present time, and
to state any corrections or changes of view that have com-
mended themselves to me in the meantime. Such changes or
modifications of view must of necessity occur to every geologi-
cal worker. Sometimes, after long digging and hammering in
some bed rich in fossils, and carrying home a bag laden with
treasures, one has returned to the spot, and turned over the
debris of previous excavation, with the result of finding some-
thing rare and valuable, before overlooked. Or, in carefully
trimming and chiselling out the matrix of a new fossil, so as
to uncover all its parts, unexpected and novel features may
develop themselves. Thus, if we were right or partially right
before, our new experience may still enable us to enlarge our
views or to correct some misapprehensions. In that spirit I
have endeavoured to revise these papers, and while I have
been able to add confirmations of views long ago expressed,
have been willing to accept corrections and modifications based
on later discoveries.

In the somewhat extended span of work which has been
allotted to me, I have made it my object to discover new facts,
and to this end have spared no expenditure of time and
labour; but I have felt that the results of discoveries in the

THE STARTING-POINT

works of God should not be confined to a coterie, but should
be made public for the benefit of all. Hence I have gladly
embraced any opportunities to popularise my results, whether
in lectures, articles, popular books, or in the instruction of
students, and this in a manner to give accurate knowledge,
and perhaps to attract the attention of fellow-workers to points
which they might overlook if presented merely in dry and
technical papers. These objects I have in view in connection
with the present collection of papers, and also the fact that my
own pilgrimage is approaching its close, and that I desire to
aid others who may chance to traverse the ground I have
passed over, or who may be preparing to pass beyond the
point I have reached.

To a naturalist of seventy years the greater part of life lies
in the past, and in revising these papers I have necessarily had
my thoughts directed to the memory of friends, teachers,
guides, and companions in labour, who have passed away. I
have therefore, as a slight token of loving and grateful remem-
brance dedicated these papers to the memory of men I have
known and loved, and who, I feel, would sympathise with me
in spirit, in the attempt, however feeble, to direct attention to
the variety and majesty of those great works of the Creator
which they themselves delighted to study.

Since the design of these papers excludes special details as
to Canadian geology, or that of those old eastern countries to
which I have given some attention, I must refer for them to
other works, and shall append such reference of this kind as
may be necessary. At the same time it will be observed that
as my geological work has been concerned most largely with
the oldest and newest rocks of the earth, and with the history
of life rather than with rocks and minerals, there must neces-
sarily be some preponderance in these directions, which might
however, independently of personal considerations, be justified
by the actual value of these lines of investigation, and by the

THE STARTING-POINT

special interest attaching to them in the present state of scien-
tific discovery.

Having thus defined my starting-point, I would now with all
respect and deference ask the reader to accompany me from
])oint to point, and to examine for himself the objects which
may appear either near, or in the dim uncertain distance, in
illustration of what the world is, and how it became what it is.
Perhaps, in doing so, he may be able to perceive much more
than I have been able to discover ; and if so, I shall rejoice,
even if such further insight should correct or counteract some
of my own impressions. It is not given to any one age or set
of men to comprehend all the mysteries of nature, or to arrive
at a point where it can be said, there is no need of farther
exploration. Even in the longest journey of the most adven-
turous traveller there is an end of discovery, and, in the study
of nature, cape rises beyond cape and mountain behind moun-
tain interminably. The finite cannot comprehend the infinite,
the temporal the eternal. We need not, however, on that
account be agnostics, for it is still true that, within the scope
of our narrow powers and opportunities, the Supreme Intelli-
gence reveals to us in nature His power and divinity ; and it is
this, and this alone, that gives attraction and dignity to natural
science.

WORLD-MAKIXG.

DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF
ADAM SEDGWICK AND SIR RODERICK IMPEY MURCHISON',

Whose joint Labours cakkisd

OUR Knowledge of the History of the Earth

TWO Stages farther back,

AND WHOSE Differences of Opinion served to render

MORE glorious THEIR VICTORIES.

Vision of a Xascent World — Thk Oi.ukst Rocks — De-
velopment OF Lite — Fok>l\tiox of Continents —
In what Sense Permanent — America as an Example

^2- - '^

CHAPTER II.

WORLD-MAKING.

GEOLOGICAL reading, especially when of a strictly
uniformitarian character and in warm weather, some-
times becomes monotonous ; and I confess to a feeling of
drowsiness creeping over me when preparing material for a pre-
sidential address to the American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science in August, 1883. In these circumstances I
became aware of the presence of an unearthly visitor, who
announced himself as of celestial birth, and intimated to me
that being himself free from those restrictions of space and
time which are so embarrassing to earthly students, he was pre-
pared for the moment to share these advantages with me, and
to introduce me to certain outlying parts of the universe,
where I might learn something of its origin and €arly history.
He took my hand, and instantly we were in the voids of spac2.
Turning after a moment, he pointed to a small star and said,
"That is the star you call the sun ; here, you see, it is only about
the third magnitude, and in a few seconds it will disappear."
These few seconds, indeed, reduced the whole visible firma-
ment to a mere nebulous haze like the Milky ^^'ay, and we
seemed to be in blank space. But pausing for a moment I
became aware that around us were nmltitudes of dark bodies,
so black that they were, so to speak, negatively visible, even
in the almost total darkness around. Some seemed large
and massive, some a mere drift of minute particles, formless
and without distinct limits. Some were swiftly moving, others

lO WORLD-MAKING

stationary, or merely revolving on their own axes. It was a
" horror of great darkness," and I trembled with fear. "This,"
said my guide, "is vdiat the old Hebrew seer called tohu ve
bohii, ' formless and void,' the ' Tiamat ' or abyss of the old
Chaldeans, the ' chaos and old night ' of the Greeks. Your
nmndane physicists have not seen it, but they speculate re-
garding it, and occupy themselves with questions as to whether
it can be lightened and vivified by mere attractive force, or by
collision of dark bodies impinging on each other with vast
momentum. 'J'heir speculations are vain, and lead to nothing,
because they ha\-e no data wherefrom to calculate the in-
finite and eternal Power who determined either the attraction
or tlie motion, or who willed which portion of this chaos
was to become cosmos, and which was to remain for ever
dead and dark. Let us turn, however, to a more hopeful
prospect." We sped away to another scene. Here were
vast luminous bodies, such as we call nebulae. Some were
globular, others disc-like, others annular or like spiral wisps,
and some were composed of several concentric shells or rings.
All were in rapid rotation, and presented a glorious and bril-
liant spectacle. "This," said my guide, " is matter of the same
kind with that we have just been considering ; but it has been
set in active motion. The fiat ' Let there be light ! ' has been
issued to it. Nor is its motion in vain. Each of these ne-
bulous masses is the material of a system of worlds, and they
will produce systems of different forms in accordance with the
various shapes and motions which you observe. Such bodies
are well known to earthly astronomers. One of them, the great
nebula of Andromeda, has been photographed, and is a vast
system of luminous rings of vapour placed nearly edgewise to
the earth, and hundreds of times greater than the whole solar
system, but now let us annihilate lime, and consider the^e
gigantic bodies as they will be in the course of many millions
of years." Listantaneously these vast nebuUxj had concentratetl

WORLD- MAKING II

themselves into systems of suns and planets, but with this
difference from ours, that the suns were very large and sur-
rounded with a wide luminous haze, and each of the planets
was self-luminous, like a little sun. In some the planets were
dancing up and down in spiral lines. In others they were
moving in one plane. In still others, in every variety of
direction. Some had vast numbers of little planets and
satellites. Others had a few of larger size. There were even
some of these systems that had a pair of central suns of con-
trasting colours. The whole scene was so magnificent and
beautiful that I thought 1 could never weary of gazing on it.
" Here," said he, " we have the most beautiful condition of
systems of worlds, when considered from a merely physical point
of view : the perfection of solar and planetary luminousness, but
which is destined to pass away in the interest of things more
important, if less showy. This is the condition of the great
star Sirius, which the old priest astronomers of the Nile
Valley made so much of in their science and religion, and
which they called Sothis. It is now known by your star-
gazers to be vastly larger than your sun, and fifty times more
brilliant.^ Let us select one of these systems somewhat
similar to the solar system, and suppose that the luminous
atmospheres of its nearer i)lanets are beginning to wane in
brilliancy. Here is one of them, through whose halo of light
we can see the body of the planet. What do you now per-
ceive ?" The planet referred to was somewhat larger in appear-
ance than our earth, and, approaching near to it, I could see
that it had a cloud-bearing firmament, and that it seemed to
have continents and oceans, though disposed in more regular
forms than on our own planet, and with a smaller proportion
of land. Looking at it more closely, I searched in vain for

* In evidence of these and other statements I may refer to Iluggins'
recent address as President of the British Association, and to tlie " Story
of the Heavens," etc., by Sir Robert Ball.

12 WORLD-MAKING

any sign of animal life, but I saw a vast profusion of what
might be plants, but not like those of this world.^ These were
trees of monstrous stature, and their leaves, which were of
great size and shaped like fronds of seaweeds, were not usually
green, but variegated with red, crimson and orange. The sur-
face of the land looked like beds of gigantic specimens ot
Colias and similar variegated-leaved plants, the whole present-
ing a most gorgeous yet grotesque spectacle. " This," said my
guide, " is the primitive vegetation which clothes each of the
planets in its youthful state. The earth was once so clothed,
in the time v,-hen vegetable life alone existed, and there were
no animals to prey upon it, and when the earth was, like the
world you now look upon, a paradise of plants ; for all things
in nature are at first in their best estate. This vegetation is
known to you on the earth only by the Carbon and Graphite
buried in your oldest rocks. It still lingers on your neighbour
Mars,~ which has, however, almost passed beyond this stage,
and we are looking forward before long to see a still more
gigantic though paler development of it in altogether novel
shapes on the great continents that are being formed on the
surface of Jupiter. But look again." And time being again
annihilated, I saw the same world, now destitute of any
luiiiinous envelope, with a few dark clouds in its atmosphere,
and presenting just the same appearance which I would sup-
pose our earth to present to an astronomer viewing it with a
powerful telescope from the moon. " Here we are at home
again,"' said my guide; "good-bye." I found myself nodding
over my table, and that my ])en had just dropped from my
hand, making a large blot on my paper. My dream, however,

* We shall see farther on that there is reason to believe that the primitive
land vegetation was more diflerent from that of the Devonian and Carboni-
ferous than it is from that of the present day.

'^ Mars is probably a stage behind the earth in its development, and the
ruddy line of its continents would seem to be due to some organic covering.

WORI.D-MAKING 1 3

gave me a hint as to a subject, and I determined to devote
my address to a consideration of questions whicli geology has
not solved, or has only imperfectly and hypothetically dis-
cussed.

Such unsolved or partially solved questions must necessarily
exist in a science which covers the whole history of the earth
in time. At the beginning it allies itself with astronomy and
physics and celestial chemistry. At the end it runs into
human history, and is mixed up with archaeology and anthro-
pology. Throughout its whole course it has to deal with
tjuestions of meteorology, geography and biology. In short,
there is no department of physical or biological science, with
which this many-sided study is not allied, or at least on which
the geologist may not presume to trespass. When, therefore,
it is proposed to discuss in the present chapter some of the
unsolved problems and disputed questions of this universal
science, the reader need not be surprised if it should be some-
what discursive.

Perhaps we may begin at the utmost limits of the subject by
remarking that in matters of natural and physical science we
are met at the outset with the scarcely solved question as to
our own place in the nature which we study, and the bearing
of this on the difficulties we encounter. The organism of man
is decidedly a part of nature. We place ourselves, in this
aspect, in the sub-kingdom vertebrata and class mammalia,
and recognise the fact that man is the terminal link in a chain
of being, extending throughout geological time. But the or-
ganism is not all that belongs to man, and when we regard him
as a scientific inquirer, we raise a new question. If the human
mind is a part of nature, then it is subject to natural law,
and nature includes mind as well as matter. Indeed, without
being absolute idealists we may hold that mind is more potent
than matter, and nearer to the real essence of things. Our
science is in any case necessarily dualistic, being the product

14 WORLD-MAKING

of the reaction of mind on nature, and must be largely sub-
jective and anthropomorphic. Hence, no doubt, arises much
of the controversy of science, and much of the unsolved diffi-
culty. We recognise this when we divide science into that
which is experimental, or depends on apparatus, and that which
is observational and classificatory — distinctions these which
relate not so much to the objects of science as to our methods
of pursuing them. This view also opens up to us the thought
that the domain of science is practically boundless, for who
can set limits to the action of mind on the universe, or of the
universe on mind. It follows that science, as it exists at any
one time, must be limited on all sides by unsolved mysteries ;
and it will not serve any good purpose to meet these with
clever guesses. If we so treat the enigmas of the sphinx
nature, we shall surely be devoured. Nor, on the other hand,
must we collapse into absolute despair, and resign ourselves to
the confession of inevitable ignorance. It becomes us rather
boldly to confront the unsolved questions of nature, and to
wrestle with their difficulties till we master such as we can,
and cheerfully leave those we cannot overcome to be grappled
with by our successors.

Fortunately, as a geologist, I do not need to invite attention
to those transcendental questions which relate to the ultimate
constitution of matter, the nature of the ethereal medium filling
space, the absolute difference or identity of chemical elements,
the cause of gravitation, the conservation and dissipation of
energy, the nature of life, or the primary origin of bioplasmic
matter. I may take the much more humble role of an in-
quirer into the unsolved or partially .solved problems which
meet us in considering that short and imperfect record which
geology studies in the rocky layers of the earth's crust, and
which leads no farther back than to the time when a solid
rind had already formed on the earth, and was already covered
with an ocean. This record of geology covers but a small

WORLD-MAKING 1 5

part of the history of the earth and of the system to which it
belongs, nor does it enter at all into the more recondite
problems involved ; still it forms, I believe, some necessary
preparation at least to the comprehension of these. If we are
to go farther back, we must accept the guidance of physicists
rather than of geologists, and I must say that in this physical
cosmology both geologists and general readers are likely to
find themselves perplexed with the vagaries in which the most
sober mathematicians may indulge. We are told that the
original condition of the solar system was that of a vaporous
and nebulous cloud intensely heated and whirling rapidly
round, that it probably came into this condition by the impact
of two dark solid bodies striking each other so violently, that
they became intensely heated and resolved into the smallest
possible fragments. Lord Kelvin attributes this impact to
their being attracted together by gravitative force. Croll ^
argues that in addition to gravitation these bodies must have
had a proper motion of great velocity, which Lord Kelvin
thinks " enormously " improbable, as it would require the
solid bodies to be shot against each other with a marvellously
true aim, and this not in the case of the sun only, but of all
the stars. It is rather more improbable than it would be to
affirm that in the artillery practice of two opposing armies,
cannon balls have thousands of times struck and shattered
each other midway between the hostile batteries. The ques-
tion, we are told, is one of great moment to geologists, since
on the one hypothesis the duration of our system has amounted
to only about twenty millions of years ; on the other, it may
have lasted ten times that number.- In any case it seems a
strange way of making systems of worlds, that they should
result from the chance collision of multitudes of solid bodies

^ " Stellar Evolution."

- Other facts favour the sliorter time (Clarence King, Am. Jl. of Science,
vol. xlv. , 3rd series),

S. E. 2

l6 WORLD-MAKING

rushing hither and thither in space, and it is almost equally
strange to imagine an intelligent Creator banging these bodies
about like billiard balls in order to make worlds. Still, in that
case we might imagine them not to be altogether aimless.
The question only becomes more complicated when with
Grove and Lockyer we try to reach back to an antecedent
condition, when there are neither solid masses nor nebulas,
but only an inconceivably tenuous and universally diffused
medium made up of an embryonic matter, which has not yet
even resolved itself into chemical elements. How this could
establish any motion within itself tending to aggregation in
masses, is quite inconceivable. To plodding geologists labori-
ously collecting facts and framing conclusions therefrom, such
flights of the mathematical mind seem like the wildest fan-
tasies of dreams. We are glad to turn from them to examine
those oldest rocks, which are to us the foundation stones of
the earth's crust.

What do we know of the oldest and most primitive rocks ?
At this moment the question may be answered in many and
discordant ways ; yet the leading elements of the answer may
be given very simply. The oldest rock formation known to
geologists is the Lower Laurentian, the Fundamental Gneiss,
the Lewisian formation of Scotland, the Ottawa gneiss of
Canada, the lowest Archaean crystalline rocks. This forma-
tion, of enormous thickness, corresponds to what the older
geologists called the fundamental granite, a name not to be
scouted, for gneiss is only a stratified or laminated granite.
Perhaps the main fact in relation to this old rock is that it is a
gneiss ; that is, a rock at once bedded and crystalline, and
having for its dominant ingredient the mineral orthoclasc, a
compound of silica, alumina and potash, in which are imbedded,
as in a paste, grains and crystals of quartz and hornblende.
We know very well from its texture and composition that it
cannot be a product of mere heat, and being a bedded rock

WORLD-MAKING 1 7

we infer that it was laid down layer by layer in the manner
of aqueous deposits. On the other hand, its chemical com-
position is quite different from that of the muds, sands and
gravels usually deposited from water. Their special charac-
ters are caused by the fact that they have resulted from the
slow decay of rocks like these gneisses, under the operation of
carbon dioxide and water, whereby the alkaline matter and
the more soluble part of the silica have been washed away,
leaving a residue mainly silicious and aluminous. Such
more modern rocks tell of dry land subjected to atmospheric
decay and rain-wash. If they have any direct relation to the
old gneisses, they are their grandchildren, not their parents.
On the contrary, the oldest gneisses show no pebbles or sand
or limestone — nothing to indicate that there was then any
land undergoing atmospheric waste, or shores with sand
and gravel. For all that we know to the contrary, these
old gneisses may have been deposited in a shoreless sea, hold-
ing in solution or suspension merely what it could derive
from a submerged crust recently cooled from a state of fusion,
still thin, and exuding here and there through its fissures
heated waters and volcanic products. This, it may be observed
here, is just what we have a right to expect, if the earth was
once a heated or fluid mass, and if our oldest Laurentian rocks
consist of the first beds or layers deposited upon it, perhaps by
a heated ocean. It has been well said that " the secret of the
earth's hot youth has been well kept." But with the help of
physical science we can guess at an originally heat-liquefied
ball with denser matter at its centre, lighter and oxidised
matter at its surface. We can imagine a scum or crust form-
ing at the surface ; and from what we know of the earth's in-
terior, nothing is more likely to have constituted that slaggy

' Carbon dioxide, the great agent in the decay of silicious rocks, must
then have constituted a very much larger part of the atmosphere than at
present.

WORLD-MAKING

crust than the material of our old gneisses. As to its bedded
character, this may have arisen in part from the addition of
cooling layers below, in part from the action of heated \Yater
above, and in part from pressure or tension ; while, wherever
it cracked or became broken, its interstices would be injected
with molten matter from beneath. All this may be conjecture,
but it is based on known facts, and is the only probable con-
jecture. If correct, it would account for the fact that the
gneissic rocks are the lowest and oldest that we reach in every
part of the earth.

In short, the fundamental gneiss of the Lower Laurentian
may have been the first rock ever formed ; and in any case it
is a rock formed under conditions which have not since re-
curred, except locally. It constitutes the first and best example
of those chemico-physical, aqueous or aqueo-igneous rocks,
so characteristic of the earliest period of the earth's history.
"\'iewed in this way the Lower Laurentian gneiss is probably
the oldest kind of rock we shall ever know — the limit to our
backward progress, beyond which there remains nothing to the
geologist except physical hypotheses respecting a cooling incan-
descent globe. For the chemical conditions of these primitive
rocks, and what is known as to their probable origin, I may
refer to the writings of my friends, the late Dr. Sterry Hunt and
Dr. J. G. Bonney, to whom we owe so much of what is known
of the older crystalline rocks^ as well as of their literature, and
the questions which they raise. My purpose here is to sketch
the remarkable difference which \vc meet as we ascend into the
Middle and Upper Laurentian.

In the next succeeding formation, the middle part of the
Laurentian of Logan, the Grenville series of Canada, we meet
with a great and significant change. It is true we have still a
predominance of gneisses which may have been formed in the

' Hunt, "Essays on Chemical Geology"; Bonney, "Addresses to
]5iilish Association and Geological Society of London."

WORLD-MAKING IQ

same manner with those below them ; but we find these now-
associated with great beds of limestone and dolomite, which
must have been formed by the separation of cnlcium and mag-
nesium carbonates from the sea water, either by chemical pre-
cipitation or by the agency of living beings. We have also
quartzite, quartzose gneisses, and even pebble beds, which in-
form us of sandbanks and shores. Nay, more, we have beds
containing graphite which must be the residue of plants, and
iron ores which tell of the deoxidation of iron oxide by organic
matters. In short, here we have evidence of new factors in
world-building, of land and ocean, of atmospheric decay of
rocks, of deoxidizing processes carried on by vegetable life on
the land and in the waters, of limestone-building in the sea.
To afford material for such rocks, the old Ottawa gneiss must
have been lifted up into continents and mountain masses by
bendings and foldings of the original crust. Under the slow
but sure action of the carbon dioxide dissolved in rainwater,
its felspar had crumbled down in the course of ages. Its
potash, soda, lime, magnesia, and part of its silica had been
washed into the sea, there to enter into new combinations
and to form new deposits. The crumbling residue of fine clay
and sand had been also washed down into the borders of the
ocean, and had been there deposited in beds. Thus the
earth had entered into a new phase, which continues onward
through the geological ages ; and I place in the reader's hands
one key for unlocking the mystery of the world in affirming
that this great change took place, this new era was inaugurated
in the midst of the Laurentian period, the oldest of our great
divisions of the earth's geological history.'

' I follow the original arrangement oi Logan, who first delintd lliis
succession in the extensive and excellent exposures of these rocks in Canada.
Klsewlicre the subject h.is often been confused and mixed with local de-
tails. The same facts, though sometimes under dilTerent names, are re-
corded by the geologists of Scandinavia, Britain, and the United States,

20 WORLD-MAKING

Was not this a fit period for the first appearance of life?
should we not expect it to appear, independently of the evidence
of the fact, so soon at least as the temperature of the ocean falls
sufficiently low to permit its existence ? ^ I do not propose to
enter here into that evidence. This we shall have occasion
to consider in the sequel. I would merely say here that
we should bear in mind that in this latter half of the Lower
Laurentian, or if we so choose to style it, Middle Laurentian
period, we have the conditions required for life in the sea
and on the land ; and since in other periods we know that life
was always present when its conditions were present, it is not
unreasonable to look for the earliest traces of life in this forma-
tion, in which we find, for the first time, the completion ot
those physical arrangements which make life, in such forms of
it as exist in the sea, possible.

This is also a proper place to say something of the disputed
doctrine of what is termed metamorphism, or the chemical
and molecular changes which old rocks have undergone.

The Laurentian rocks are undoubtedly greatly changed from
their original state, more especially in the matters of crystalli-
zation and the formation of disseminated minerals, by the action
of heat and heated water. .Sandstones have thus passed into
quartzites, clays into slates and schists, limestones into mar-
bles. So far, metamorphism is not a doubtful question ; but
when theories of metamorphism go so far as to suppose an
actual change of one element for another, they go beyond the
bounds of chemical credibility ; yet such theories of meta-
morphism are often boldly advanced and made the basis of
important conclusions. Dr. Hunt has happily given the name
" metasomatosis " to this imaginary and improbable kind of

and the acceptance of tlie conclusions of Nicol and Lapworlli lias served to
bring even the rocks of the Iliglilands of Scotland more into line with
those of Canada.

' Dana stales this al iSo ]•'. for plants and uo for animals.

WORLD-MAKING 21

metamorphism. I would have it to be understood that, in
speaking of the metamorphism of the older crystaUine rocks, it
is not to this metasomatosis that I refer, and that I hold that
rocks which have been produced out of the materials decom-
posed by atmospheric erosion can never by any process of
metamorphism be restored to the precise condition of the
Laurentian rocks. Thus, there is in the older formations a
genealogy of rocks, which, in the absence of fossils, may be
used with some confidence, but which does not apply to the
more modern deposits, and which gives a validity to the use of
mineral character in classifying older rocks which does not
hold for later formations. Still, nothing in geology abso-
lutely perishes, or is altogether discontinued ; and it is prob-
able that, down to the present day, the causes which produced
the old Laurentian gneiss may still operate in limited locali-
ties. Then, however, they were general, not exceptional. It is
further to be observed that the term gneiss is sometimes of wide
and even loose application. Beside the typical orthoclase and
hornblendic gneiss of the Laurentian, there are micaceous,
quartzose, garnetiferous and many other kinds of gneiss ; and
even gneissose rocks, which hold labradorite or anorthite in-
stead of orthoclase, are sometimes, though not accurately, in-
cluded in the term.

The Grenville series, or Middle Laurentian, is succeeded by
what Logan in Canada called the Upper Laurentian, and which
other geologists have called the Norite or Norian series. Here
we still have our old friends the gneisses, but somewhat peculiar
in type, and associated with them are great beds and masses, rich
in lime-felspar, the so-called labradorite and anorthite rocks.
The precise origin of these is uncertain, but this much seems
clear, namely, that they originated in circumstances in which
the great limestones deposited in the Lower or Middle Lauren-
tian were beginning to be employed in the manufacture, prob-
ably by a([ueo-igneous agencies, of iime-felspars. This proves

22 WORLD-MAKING

the Norian rocks to be younger than the Lower Laurentian, and
that, as Logan supposed, considerable earth movements had
occurred between the two, implying lapse of time, while it is
also evident that the folding and crumpling of the Lower Lau-
rentian had led to great outbursts of igneous matter from below
the crust, or from its under part.

•Next to the Laurentian, but probably after an interval, the
rocks of which are yet scarcely known, we have the Huronian
of Logan, a series much less crystalline and more fragmentary,
and affording more evidence of land elevation and atmo-
spheric and aqueous erosion than those preceding it. It has
extensive beds of volcanic rock, great conglomerates, some of
them made up of rounded fragments of Laurentian rocks, and
others of (juartz pebbles, which must have been the remains of
rocks subjected to very perfect decay. The pure quartz-rocks
tell the same tale, while slates and limestones speak also of
chemical separation of the materials of older rocks. The Hu-
ronian evidently tells of previous movements in the Lauren-
tian, and changes which allowed the Huronian to be deposited
along its shores and on the edges of its beds. Yet the Huronian
itself is older than the Palaeozoic series, and affected by power-
ful earth movements at an earlier date. Life existed in the
waters in LIuronian times. We have spicules of sponges in
the limestone, and organic markings on the slaty beds ; but
they are few, and their nature is uncertain.

Succeeding the Huronian, and made up of its dcbrii and
that of the Laurentian, we have the great Cambrian series,
that in which we first find undoubted evidence of abundant
marine life, and which thus forms the first chapter in the great
Palaeozoic book of the early history of the world. Here let it
be observed we have at least two wide gaps in our history,
marked by the crum])ling up, first, of the Laurentian, and then
of the Huronian beds.

After what has been said, the reader will perhaps nut be

WORLD-MAKING 23

astonished that fierce geological battles have raged over the
old crystalline rocks. By some geologists they are almost
entirely explained away, or referred to igneous action, or to the
alteration of ordinary sediments. Under the treatment of
another school they grow to great series of Pre-Cambrian
rocks, constituting vast systems of formations, distinguishable
from each other chiefly by differences of mineral character.
Facts and fossils are daily being discovered, by which these
disputes will ultimately be settled.

After the solitary appearance of Eozoon in the Laurentian,
and of a few uncertain forms in the Huronian, we find our-
selves, in the Cambrian, in the presence of a nearly complete
invertebrate fauna of protozoa, polyps, echinoderms, moUusks
and Crustacea, and this not confined to one locality merely,
but apparently extended simultaneously throughout the ocean,
over the whole world. This sudden incoming of animal life,
along with the subsequent introduction of successive groups of
invertebrates, and finally of vertebrate animals, furnishes one of
the greatest unsolved problems of geology, which geologists
were wont to settle by the supposition of successive creations.
In the sequel I shall endeavour to set forth the facts as to this
succession, and the general principles involved in it, and to
show the insufficiency of certain theories of evolution suggested
by biologists to give any substantial aid to the geologist in
these questions. At present I propose merely to notice some
of the general principles which should guide us in studying the
development of life in geological time, and the causes which
have baffled so many attempts to throw light on this obscure
portion of our unsolved problems.

It has been urged on the side ot rational evolution— and
there are both rational and irrational forms of this many-sided
doctrine — that this hypothesis does not profess to give an
explanation of the absolute origin of life on our planet, or even
of the original organization of a single cell, or of a simple mass

24 WORLD-MAKING

of protoplasm, living or dead. All experimental attempts to
produce by synthesis the complex albuminous substances, or to
obtain the living from the non-living, have so far been fruitless,
and indeed we cannot imagine any process by which such
changes could be effected. That they have been effected we
know, but the process employed by their maker is still as
mysterious to us as it probably was to him who wrote the
words : — " And God said, Let the waters swarm with swarmers."
How vast is the gap in our knowledge and our practical power
implied in this admission, which must, however, be made by
every mind not absolutely blinded by a superstitious belief in
those forms of words which too often pass current as
philosophy.

But if we are content to start with a number of organisms
ready made — a somewhat humiliating start, however — we still
have to ask — How do these vary so as to give new species ?
It is a singular illusion, and especially in the case of men who
I)rofess to be believers in natural law, that variation may be
boundless, aimless and fortuitous, and that it is by spontaneous
selection from varieties thus produced that development arises.
But surely the supposition of mere chance and magic is un-
worthy of science. Varieties must have causes, and their
causes and their effects must be regulated by some law or laws.
Now it is easy to see that they cannot be caused by a mere
innate tendency in the organism itself. Every organism is so
nicely equilibrated that it has no such spontaneous tendency,
except within the limits set by its growth and the law of its
}>eriodical changes. There may, however, be equilibrium
more or less stable. I believe all attempts hitherto made have
failed to account for the fixity of certain, nay, of very many,
types throughout geological time, but the mere consideration
that one may be in a more stable state of equilibrium than
another, so far explains it. A rocking stone has no more
spontaneous tendency to move than an ordinary boulder, hut

WORLD-MAKING 2$

it may be made to move with a touch. So it probably is with
organisms. But if so, then the causes of variation are external,
as in many cases we actually know them to be, and they must
depend on instability with change in surroundings, and this so
arranged as not to be too extreme in amount, and to operate
in some determinate direction. Observe how remarkable the
unity of the adjustments involved in such a supposition ! —
how superior they must be to our rude and always more or less
unsuccessful attempts to produce and carry forward varieties
and races in definite directions ! This cannot be chance. If
it exists, it must depend on plans deeply laid in the nature of
things, else it would be most monstrous magic and causeless
miracle. Still more certain is this conclusion when we con-
sider the vast and orderly succession made known to us by
geology, and which must have been regulated by fixed laws,
only a few of which are as yet known to us.

Beyond these general considerations we have others of a
more special character, based on palceontological facts, which
show how imperfect are our attempts as yet to reach the true
causes of the introduction of genera and species.

One is the remarkable fixity of the leading types of living
beings in geological time. If, instead of framing, like Haeckel,
fanciful phylogenies, we take the trouble, with Barrande and
Gaudry, to trace the forms of life through the period of their
existence, each along its own line, we shall be greatly struck
with this, and especially with the continuous existence of many
low types of life through vicissitudes of physical conditions of
the most stupendous character, and over a lapse of time
scarcely conceivable. What is still more remarkable is that
this holds in groups which, within certain limits, are perhaps
the most variable of all. In the present world no creatures
are individually more variable than the protozoa ; as, for
example, the foraminifera and the sponges. Yet these groups
are fundamentally the same, from the beginning of the Palceo-

26 WORLD-MAKING

zoic until now, and modern species seem scarcely at all to
differ from specimens procured from rocks at least half-way
back to the beginning of our geological record. If we suppose
that the present sponges and foraniinifera are the descendants
of those of the Silurian period, we can affirm that in all that
vast lapse of time they have, on the whole, made little greater
change than that which may be observed in variable forms at
present. The same remark applies to other low animal forms.
In types somewhat higher and less variable, this is almost
equally noteworthy. The pattern of the venation of the wings
of cockroaches, and the structure and form of land snails,
gally-worms and decapod crustaceans were all settled in the
('arboniferous age, in a way that still remains. So were the
foliage and the fructification of club-mosses and ferns. If, at
any time, members of these groups branched off, so as to lay
the foundation of new species, this must have been a very rare
and exceptional occurrence, and one demanding even some
suspension of the ordinary laws of nature.

We may perhaps be content on this question to say with
Gaudry,^ that it is not yet possible to " pierce the mystery that
surrounds the development of the great classes of animals," or
with Prof. Williamson,- that in reference to fossil plants " the
time has not yet arrived fur the appointment of a botanical
King-at-arms and Constructor of pedigrees." A\'c shall, how-
ever, find that by abandoning mere hypothetical causes and
carefully noting the order of the development and the causes
in operation, so far as known, we may reach to ideas as to cause
and mode, and the laws of succession, even if unable to pene-
trate the mystery of origins.

.\nother caution which a pakieontologist has occasion to give
with regard to theories of life, has reference to the tendency of
biologists to infer that animals and plants were iiitrodiiced

' " EnchaiiiemciUs dii Moiule Animal,'' Paris, 1SS3.
- Address before Royal Institution, Feb., 18S3.

WORLD-MAKING 2/

under embryonic forms, and at first in few and imperfect
species. Facts do not substantiate this. The first appearance
of leading types of life is rarely embryonic, or of the nature of
immature individuals. On the contrary, they often appear in
highly perfect and specialized forms, often, however, of compo-
site type and expressing characters afterwards so separated as
to belong to higher groups. The trilobites of the Cambrian are
some of them of few segments, and so far embryonic, but the
greater part are many-segmented and very complex. The
batrachians of the Carboniferous present many characters higher
than those of their modern successors and now appropriated
to the true reptiles. The reptiles of the Permian and Trias
usurped some of the prerogatives of the mammals. The ferns,
lycopods and equisetums of the Devonian and Carboniferous
were, in fructification, not inferior to their modern representa-
tives, and in the structure of their stems" far superior. The
shell-bearing cephalopods of the Paleeozoic would seem to
have possessed structures now special to a higher group, that
of the cuttle-fishes. The bald and contemptuous negation of
these facts by Haeckel and other biologists does not tend to
give geologists much confidence in their dicta.

Again, we are now prepared to say that the struggle for
existence, however plausible as a theory, when put before us in
connection with the productiveness of animals and the few
survivors of their multitudinous progeny, has not been the
determining cause of the introduction of new species. The
periods of rapid introduction of new forms of marine life were
not periods of struggle, but of expansion — those periods in
which the submergence of continents afforded new and large
space for their extension and comfortable subsistence. In like
manner, it was continental emergence that afforded the oppor-
tunity for the introduction of land animals and plants. Fur-
ther, in connection with this, it is now an established conclusion
tliat the great aggressive faunas and floras of the continents

28 WORLD-MAKING

have originated in the north, some of them within the arctic
circle, and this in periods of exceptional warmth, when the
perpetual summer sunshine of the arctic regions coexisted with
a warm temperature. The testimony of the rocks thus is that
not struggle but expansion furnished the requisite conditions
for new forms of life, and that the periods of struggle were
characterized by depauperation and extinction.

But we are sometimes told that organisms are merely
mechanical, and that the discussions respecting their origin
have no significance any more than if they related to rocks or
crystals, because they relate merely to the organism considered
as a machine, and not to that which may be supposed to be
more important, namely, the great determining power of mind
and will. That this is a mere evasion by which we really gain
nothing, will appear from a characteristic extract of an article
by an eminent biologist in the new edition of the Encyclopedia
Britannica, a publication which, I am sorry to say, instead of
its proper role as a repertory of facts, has admitted partisan
papers, stating extreme and unproved speculations as if they
were conclusions of science. The statement referred to is as
follows : — "A mass of living protoplasm is simply a molecular
machine of great complexity, the total results of the working of
which, or its vital phenomena, depend on the one hand on its
construction, and on the other, on the energy supplied to it ;
and to speak of vitality as anything but the name for a series
of operations is as if one should talk of the horologity of a
clock." It would, I think, scarcely be possible to put into
the same number of words a greater amount of unscientific
assumption and unproved statement than in this sentence. Is
" living proto[)lasm " different in anyway from dead protoplasm,
and if so, what causes the difference ? What is a " machine "?
Can we conceive of a self-produced or uncaused machine, or
one not intended to work out some definite results ? The results
of the machine in question are said to be " vital phenomena '" ;

WORLD-MAKING 29

certainly most wonderful results, and greater than those of any
machine man has yet been able to construct. But why " vital " ?
If there is no such thing as life, surely they are merely physical
results. Can mechanical causes produce other than physical
effects ? To Aristotle life was " the cause of form in organ-
isms." Is not this quite as likely to be true as the converse pro-
position ? If the vital phenomena depend on the " construction "
of the machine, and the "energy supplied to it," whence this
construction and whence this energy ? The illustration of the
clock does not help us to answer this question. The construc-
tion of the clock depends on its maker, and its energy is de-
rived from the hand that winds it up. If we can think of a
clock which no one has made, and which no one winds, a clock
constructed by chance, set in harmony with the universe by
chance, wound up periodically by chance, we shall then have
an idea parallel to that of an organism living, yet without any
vital energy or creative law ; but in such a case we should
certainly have to assume some antecedent cause, whether we
call it "horologity " or by some other name. Perhaps the term
evolution would serve as well as any other, were it not that
common sense teaches that nothing can be spontaneously
evolved out of that in which it did not previously exist.

There is one other unsolved problem in the study of life by
the geologist to which it is still necessary to advert. This is
the inability of palaeontology to fill up the gaps in the chain of
being. In this respect we are constantly taunted with the im-
perfection of the record, a matter so important that it merits a
separate treatment ; but facts show that this is much more
complete than is generally supposed. Over long periods of
time and many lines of being we have a nearly continuous
chain, and if this does not show the tendency desired, the
fault is as likely to be in the theory as in the record. On the
other hand, the abrupt and simultaneous appearance of new
types in many specific and generic forms and over wide and

30 WORLU-MAKIXG

separate areas at one and the same time, is too often repeated
to be accidental. Hence palaeontologists, in endeavouring to
establish evolution, have been obliged to assume periods of
exceptional activity in the introduction of species, alternating
\vith others of stagnation, a doctrine differing very little from
that of special creation, as held by the older geologists.

The attempt has lately been made to account for these breaks
by the assumption that the geological record relates only to
periods of submergence, and gives no information as to those of
elevation. This is manifestly untrue. In so far as marine life
is concerned, the periods of submergence are those in which
new forms abound for very obvious reasons, already hinted ; but
the periods of new forms of land and fresh-water life are those
of elevation, and these have their own records and monuments,
often very rich and ample, as, for example, the swamps of the
Carboniferous, the transition from the great Cretaceous sub-
sidence, when so much of the land of the Northern Hemisphere
was submerged, to the new continents of the Tertiary, the
Tertiary lake-basins of Western America, the Terraces and
raised beaches of the Pleistocene. Had I time to refer in
detail to the breaks in the continuity of life which cannot be
explained by the imperfection of the record, I could show at
least that nature in this case does advance per saltuin — by
leaps, rather than by a slow continuous process. Many able
reasoners, as Le Conte, in America, and Mivart and CoUard in
England, hold this view.

Here, as elsewhere, a vast amount of steady conscientious
work is required to enable us to solve the problems of the
history of life. But if so, the more the hope for the patient
student and investigator. I know nothing more chilling to re-
search, or unfavourable to progress, than the promulgation of
a dogmatic decision that there is nothing to be learned but a
merely fortuitous and uncaused succession, amenable to no
law, and only to be covered, in order to hide its shapeless and

WORLD-MAKING 31

uncertain proportions, by the mantle of bold and gratuitous
hypothesis.

So soon as we find evidence of continents and oceans we
raise the question, Have those continents existed from the first
in their present position and form, or have the land and water
changed places in the course of geological time? This ques-
tion also deserves a separate and more detailed consideration.
In reality both statements are true in a certain limited sense.
On the one hand, any geological map whatever suffices to show
that the general outline of the existing land began to be formed
in the first and oldest crumplings of the crust. On the other
hand, the greater part of the surface of the land consists of
marine sediments which must have been deposited when the
continents were in great part submerged, and whose materials
must have been derived from land that has perished in the
process, while all the continental surfaces, except, perhaps, some
high peaks and ridges, have been many times submerged.
Both of these apparently contradictory statements are true ; and
without assuming both, it is impossible to explain the existing
contours and reliefs of the surface.

In exceptional cases even portions of deep sea have been
elevated, as in the case of the Polycistine deposits in the West
Indies ; but these exceptions are as yet scarcely sufficient to
prove the rule.

In the case of North America, the form of the old nucleus of
Laurentian rock in the north already marks out that of the
finished continent, and the successive later formations have
been laid upon the edges of this, like the successive loads of
earth dumped over an embankment. But in order to give the
great thickness of the Palaeozoic sediments, the land must ha\e
been again and again submerged, and for long periods of time.
Thus, in one sense, the continents have been fixed ; in another,
they have been constandy fluctuating. Hall and Dana have
well illustrated these points in so far as eastern North America

s. E. 3

WORLD-MAKING

is concerned. Prof. Hull of the Geological Survey of Ireland
has had the boldness to reduce the fluctuations of land and
water, as evidenced in the British Islands, to the form of a
series of maps intended to show the physical geography of each
successive period. The attempt is probably premature, and
has been met with much adverse criticism ; but there can be no
doubt that it has an element of truth. When we attempt to
calculate what could have been supplied from the old Eozoic
nucleus by decay and aqueous erosion, and when we take into
account the greater local thickness of sediments towards the
present sea-basins, we can scarcely avoid the conclusion that
extensive areas once occupied by high land are now under the
sea. But to ascertain the precise areas and position of these
perished lands may now be impossible.

In point of fact we are obliged to believe in the contempo-
raneous existence in all geological periods, except perhaps the
very oldest, of three sorts of areas on the surface of the earth :
(i) Oceanic areas of deep sea, which must always have oc-
cupied the bed of the present ocean, or parts of it ; (2) Conti-
nental plateaus sometimes existing as low flats, or as higher
table-lands, and sometimes submerged ; (3) Areas of plication
or folding, more especially along the borders of the oceans,
forming elevated lands rarely submerged and constantly afford-
ing the material of sedimentary accumulations. We shall find,
however, that these have changed places in a remarkable man-
ner, though always in such a way that neither the life of the
land nor of the waters was wholly extinguished in the process.

luery geologist knows the contention which has been
occasioned by the attempts to correlate the earlier Palaeozoic
deposits of the Atlantic margin of North America with those
forming at the same time on ihe interior plateau, and with
those of intervening lines of plication and igneous disturbance.
Stratigraphy, lithology and fossils are all more or less at fault
in dealing with these questions, and while the general nature

WORLD-MAKING 33

of the problem is understood by many geologists, its solution
in particular cases is still a source of apparently endless
debate.

The causes and mode of operation of the great movements
of the earth's crust which have produced mountains, plains
and table-lands, are still involved in some mystery. One
patent cause is the unequal settling of the crust towards the
centre ; but it is not so generally understood as it should be,
that the greater settlement of the ocean-bed has necessitated
its pressure against the sides of the continents in the same
manner that a huge ice-floe crushes a ship or a pier. The
geological map of North America shows this at a glance, and
impresses us with the fact that large portions of the earth's
crust have not only been folded but bodily pushed back for
great distances. On looking at the extreme north, we see that
the great Laurentian mass of central Newfoundland has acted
as a projecting pier to the space immediately west of it, and
has caused the gulf of St. Lawrence to remain an undisturbed
area since Palaeozoic times. Immediately to the south of this,
Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are folded back. Still farther
south, as Guyot has shown, the old sediments have been
crushed in sharp folds against the Adirondack mass, which has
sheltered the table-land of the Catskills and of the great lakes.
South of this again the rocks of Pennsylvania and Maryland
have been driven back in a great curve to the west. Move-
ments of this kind on the Pacific coast of America have been
still more stupendous, as well as more recent. Dr. G. M.
Dawson ^ thus refers to the crushing action of the Pacific bed
on the rocks of British Columbia, and this especially at two
periods, the close of the Triassic and the close of the Cretace-
ous : " The successive foldings and crushings which the Cor-
dillera region has suffered have resulted in an actual change
of position of the rocks now composing its western margin.
' Trans. Royal Society of Canada, 1S90.

34 WORLD-MAKING

This change may have amounted since the beginning of
Mesozoic time to one-third of its whole present width, which
would place the line of the coast ranges about two degrees of
longitude farther west." Here we have evidence that a tract
of country 400 miles wide and consisting largely of mountain
ranges and table-lands, has been crushed bodily back over two
degrees of longitude ; and this applies not to British Columbia
merely, but to the whole west coast from Alaska to Chili.
Yet we know that any contraction of the earth's nucleus can
crumple up only a very thin superficial crust, which in this
case must have slid over the pasty mass below. ^ Let it
be observed, however, that the whole lateral pressure of vast
areas has been condensed into very narrow lines. Nothing, I
think, can more forcibly show the enormous pressure to which
the edges of the continents have been exposed, and at the
same time the great sinking of the hard and resisting ocean-
beds. Complex and difficult to calculate though these move-
ments of plication are, they are more intelligible than the
apparently regular pulsations of the flat continental areas,
whereby they have alternately been below and above the
waters, and which must have depended on somewhat regularly
recurring causes, connected either with the secular cooling of
the earth or with the gradual retardation of its rotation, or with
both. There is, however, good reason to believe that the suc-
cessive subsidences alternated with the movements of plication,
and depended on upward bandings of the ocean floor, and
also on the gradual slackening of the rotation of the earth.
Throughout these changes, each successive elevation exposed
the rocks for long ages to the decomposing influence of the
atmosphere. Each submergence swept away and deposited as

' This view is quite consistent with the practical solidity of the earth,
and with the action of local expansion by heat, of settlement of areas
overloaded with sediment, and of primitive or downward sliding of beds.
This we shall see in the sequel.

WORLD-MAKING 35

sediment the material accumulated by decay. Every change
of elevation was accompanied with changes of climate, and
with modifications of the habitats of animals and plants.
Were it possible to restore accurately the physical geography
of the earth in all these respects, for each geological period,
the data for the solution of many difficult questions would l>e
furnished.

We have wandered through space and time sufficiently for
one chapter, and some of the same topics must come up later
in other connections. Let us sum up in a word. In human
history we are dealing with the short lives and limited plans of
man. In the making of worlds we are conversant with the
plans of a Creator with whom one day is as a thousand years,
and a thousand years as one day. ^^'e must not measure such
things by our microscopic scale of time. Nor should we fail
to see that vast though the ages of the earth are, they are parts
of a continuous plan, and of a plan probably reaching in space
and time immeasurably beyond our earth. When we trace the
long history from an incandescent fire-mist to a finished earth,
and vast ages occupied by the dynasties of plant and animal
life, we see not merely a mighty maze, an almost endless pro-
cession of changes, but that all of these were related to one
another by a chain of causes and effects leading onward to
greater variety and complexity, while retaining throughout the
traces of the means employed. The old rocks and the ancient
lines of folding and the perished forms of life are not merely a
scaffolding set up to be thrown down, but the foundation
stones of a great and symmetrical structure. Is it yet com-
pleted ? Who can tell ? The earth may still be young, and
infinite ages of a better history may lie before it.

Rki EKENXES ' : Presidential Address to the American Association for the
Advancement of Science, meeting at Minneapolis, 1S83. "The
Story of the Earth and Man." Nintli edition, London, 1887.
^ The references in this and succeeding chapters are exclusively to papers

and works by tlie author, on which the several chapters are based.

THE IMPERFECTION OF THE GEOLOGICAL
RECORD.

DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF

JOACHIN BARRANDE,

One of the most successful Labourers

IN THE

Completion of the History of Life
in its earlier stages.

Nature of the Imperfection — Questions as to its
ARISING from Want of Continuity, from Lack of
Preservation, from Imperfect Collecting. Ex-
amples— Land Snails, CARnoNiFEROus Batrachians,
Paleozoic Sponges, Pleistocene Shells, Devonian
and Cardoniferous Plants — ■ Comparative Perfec-
tion IN the Case of Marine Shells, etc. — Possible
Camhrian Scjuids — Questions as to A\'ant of First
Chapters of thi: Rf.coki) Pracikai. Conclusions

/

CHAPTER III.

THE IMPERFECTION OF THE GEOLOGICAL
RECORD.

COMPLAINTS of the imperfection of the geological
record are rife among those biologists who expect to
find continuous series of fossils representing the gradual trans-
mutation of species. No doubt these gaps are in some cases
portentous, and unfortunately they often occur just where it is
most essential to certain general conclusions that they should
be filled up. Instead, however, of making vague lamentations
on the subject, it is well to inquire to what causes these gaps
may be due, to what extent they invalidate the completeness
of geological history for scientific purposes, and how they may
best be filled.

Here we may first remark that it is not so much the physical
record of geology that is imperfect as the organic record. Ever
since the time of Hutton and Playfair we have learned that
the processes of mineral detrition and deposition are contin-
uous, and have been so throughout geological time. The
erosion of the land is constantly going on, every shower carries
its tribute of earthy matter toward the sea, and every wave
that strikes against a beach or cliff does some work toward
the grinding of shells, pebbles or stone. Thus, everywhere
around our continents there is a continuous deposition of beds
of earthy matter, and it is this which, when elevated into new
land, has given us our chronological series of geological forma-
tions. True, the elevating process is not continuous, but, so

40 IMPERFECTION OF THE GEOLOGICAL RECORD

far as we know, intermittent ; but it has been so often repeated
that we have no reason to doubt that the wasting continents
afford a complete series of aqueous deposits, since the time
when the dry land first appeared.

In recent years the Challenger expedition and similar dredg-
ings have informed us of still another continuity of deposition
in the depths of the ocean. There, where no detritus from
the land, or only a very little fine volcanic ash or pumice has
ever reached, we have, going on from age to age, a deposit of
the hard parts of abyssal animals and of those that swim in
the open sea ; so that if it were possible to bore or sink a shaft
in some parts of the ocean, we should find not only a continu-
ous bed, but a continuous series of pelagic life from the
Laurentian to the present day. Thus we have continuous
physical records, could we but reach or completely put them
together, and eliminate the disturbing influence of merely local
vicissitudes. It is when we begin to search the geological
formations for fossils, that imperfection in our record first
becomes painfully manifest.

In tlic case of many groups of marine animals, as, for
example, the shell-fish and the corals, and I may add the
l)ivalve crustaceans, so admirably worked up by my friend
Prof. Rupert Jones, we have very complete series. "With the
land snails the case is altogether different. As stated in an-
other paper of this series, a few species of these animals appear
in the later PaLxozoic age, and after that they have no suc-
cessors known to us in all the great periods covered by the
Permian, the Trias, and the earlier Jurassic. A few air-breath-
ing water-snails appear in the upper Jurassic, and true land
snails are not met with again until the Tertiary, ^\'ere there
no land snails in this vast la[)se of time? Have we two suc-
cessive creations, so to speak, of these creatures at distant
intervals ? ^^'ere they only diminished in numbers and distri-
bution in the intervening time? Is the hiatus owing merely

IMPERFECTION OF THE GEOLOGICAL RECORD 4 1

to the unlikelihood of such shells being preserved? Or is it
owing to the lack of diligence and care in collecting?

In this particular case we are, no doubt, disposed to say
that the series must have been continuous. But we cannot
be sure of this. In whatever way a few species of land snails
were so early introduced in the time of the Devonian or of
the Coal formation, if from physical vicissitudes or lack of
proper pabulum they became extinct, there is no reason known
to us why, when circumstances again became favourable, they
should not be reintroduced in the same manner as at first,
whether by development from allied types or otherwise. The
fact that the few Devonian and Carboniferous species are very
like those that still exist, perhaps makes against this supposition,
but does not exclude it. If we suppose that new forms of life
of low grade are introduced from time to time in the course
of the geological ages, and if we adopt the Darwinian hypo-
thesis of evolution, we arrive, as Naegeli has so well pointed
out, at the strange paradox, that the highest forms of life must
be the oldest of all, since they will be the descendants of the
earliest of the lower animals, whereas the animals now of low
grade may have been introduced later, and may not have had
time to improve. But all our attempts to reduce nature to
one philosophic expression necessarily lead to such paradoxes.

On the other hand, the chances of the preservation of land
snails in aqueous deposits are vastly less than those in favour
of the preservation of aquatic species. The first Carboniferous
species found ^ had been preserved in the very exceptional
circumstances afforded by the existence of hollow trunks of
Sigillariae on the borders of the Coal formation flats, and the
others subsequently found were in beds no doubt receiving
the drainage of neighbouring land areas. Still it is not un-
common on the modern sea-shore, anywhere near the mouths
of rivers, to find a few freshwater shells here and there. The
' Pupa vetusta of the Nova Scotia coal formation.

42 IMPERFECTION OF THE GEOLOGICAL RECORD

carbonaceous beds of the Trias, the fossil soils of the Portland
series, the estuarine Wealden beds would seem to be as favour-
ably situated as those of the coal formation for preserving land
shells, though possibly the flora of the Mesozoic was less suit-
able for feeding such creatures than that of the Coal period,
and they may consequently have become few and local. After
all, perhaps more diligent collecting and more numerous col-
lectors might succeed, and may succeed in the future, in filling
this and similar gaps.

It is a great mistake to suppose that discoveries of this kind
are made by chance. It is only by the careful and painstaking
examination of much material that the gaps in the geological
record can be filled up, and I propose in the sequel of this
article to note a few instances, in a country where the range
of territory is altogether out of proportion to the number of
observers, and which have come within my own knowledge.

It was not altogether by accident that Sir C. Lyell and the
writer discovered a few reptilian bones and a land snail in
breaking up portions of the material filling an erect Sigillaria
in the South Joggins coal measures. We were engaged in a
deliberate survey of the section, to ascertain as far as might
be the conditions of accumulation of coal, and one point
which occurred to us was to inquire as to the circumstances
of preservation of stumps of forest trees in an erect position,
to trace their roots into the soils on which they stood, and to
ascertain the circumstances in which they had been buried,
had decayed, and had been filled with mineral matter. It was
in questioning these erect trees on such subjects — and this not
without some digging and hammering — that we made the dis-
covery referred to.

But we found such remains only in one tree, and they were
very imperfect, and indicated only two species of batrachians
and one land snail. There the discovery might have rested.
But I undertook to follow it up. In successive visits to the

I.\JPERFECTION OF THE GEOLOGICAL RECORD 43

coast, a large number of trees standing in the cliff and reefs,
or fallen to the shore, were broken up and examined, the
result being to discover that, with one unimportant exception,
the productive trees were confined to one of the beds at Coal
Mine Point, that from which the original specimens had been
obtained. Attention was accordingly concentrated on this,
and as many as thirty trees were at different times extracted
from it, of which rather more than one-half proved more or
less productive. By these means bones representing about
sixty specimens and twelve species were extracted, besides
numerous remains of land shells, millipedes, and scorpions.
In this way a very complete idea was obtamed of the land life,
or at least of the smaller land animals, of this portion of the
coal formation of Nova Scotia. It is not too much to say that
if similar repositories could be found in the succeeding forma-
tions, and properly worked when found, our record of the
history of land quadrupeds might be made very complete.

When in 1855 I changed my residence from Nova Scotia to
Montreal, and so was removed to some distance from the
carboniferous rocks which I had been accustomed to study, I
naturally felt somewhat out of place in a Cambro-Silurian dis-
trict, more especially as my friend Billings had already almost
exhausted its fossils. I found, however, a congenial field in
the Pleistocene shell beds ; more especially as I had given
some attention to recent marine animals when on the sea coast.
The very perfect series of Pleistocene deposits in the St.
Lawrence valley locally contain marine shells from the bottom
of the till or boulder clay up to the overlying sands and gravels.
The assemblage was a more boreal one than that on the coast
of Nova Scotia, though many of the species were the same,
and both the climatal and bathymetrial conditions differed in
different parts of the Pleistocene beds themselves. The gap
in the record here could at that time be filled up only by col-
lecting recent shells. In addition to what could be obtained

44 IMPERFECTION OF THE GEOLOGICAL RECORD

by exchanging with naturahsts who had collected in Greenland,
Labrador, and Norway, I employed myself, summer after
summer, in dredging both on the south and north shore of
the St. Lawrence, until able at length to discover in a living
state, but under different conditions as to temperature and
depth, nearly every species found in the beds on the land,
from the lower boulder clay to the top of the formation, and
from the sea-level to the beds six hundred feet high on the
hills. Not only so : 1 could ascertain in certain places and
conditions all the peculiar varieties of the species, and the
special modes of life which tliey indicated. Thus, in the cases
of the Peter Redpath Museum, and in notes on the Post-
pliocene of Canada, the gap between the Modern and the
Glacial age was completely filled up in so far as Canadian
marine species are concerned. The net result was, as I have
elsewhere stated, that no change other than varietal had
occurred.

In studying the fossil plants of the Carboniferous, so abundant
in the fine exposures of the coal formation in Nova Scotia,
two defects struck me painfully. One was the fragmentary
and imperfect state of the specimens procurable. Another
was the question. What preceded these plants in the older
rocks ? The first of these was to be met only by thorough
exploration. When a fragment of a plant was disclosed it was
necessary to inquire if more existed in the same bed, and to
dig, or blast away or break up the rock, until some remaining
portions were disclosed. In this way it has been possible to
obtain entire specimens of many trees of the Carboniferous ;
and to such an extent has the laborious and somewhat costly
])rocess been effectual, that more species of carboniferous trees
are probably known in their entire forms from the Coal forma-
tions of Nova Scotia than from any other part of the world.
I have been amused to find that so little are experiences of
this kind known to some of my confreres abroad, that they

IMPERFECTION OF THE GEOLOGICAL RECORD 45

are disposed to look with scepticism on the information
obtained by this laborious but certain process, and to suppose
that they are being presented with imaginary *' restorations."
I think it right here to copy a remark of a German botanist,
who has felt himself called to criticise my work : " Dawson's
description of the genus {Fsi/ophyton) rests chiefly on the
impression made on him in his repeated researches," etc.
" He puts us off with an account of the general idea which he
has drawn from the study of them." This is the remark of a
closet naturalist, with reference to the kind of work above
referred to, which, of course, cannot be represented in its
entirety in figures or hand specimens.^

As to the precursors of the Carboniferous flora, in default
of information already acquired, I proceeded to question the
Erian or Devonian rocks of Canada, in which Sir William
Logan had already found remains of plants which had not,
however, been studied or described. Laboriously coasting
along the cliffs of Gaspe and the Baie des Chaleurs, digging
into the sandstones of Eastern Maine, and studying the plants
collected by the New York Survey, I began to find that there
was a rich Devonian flora, and that, like that of the Carboni-
ferous, it presented different stages from the base to the summit
of the formation. But here a great advance was made in a
somewhat unexpected way. My then young friends, the late
Prof Hartt and Mr. Matthew, of St. John, had found a few
remains of plants in the Devonian, or at least pre-Carboniferous
beds of St. John, which were placed in my hands for descrip-
tion. They were so novel and curious that inquiry was stimu-
lated, and these gentlemen, with some friends of similar tastes,
explored the shales exposed in the reefs near St. John, and
when they found the more productive beds, broke them up by

1 Solms-Laubacli, " Fossil Botany." A pretentious book, which should
not have been translated into English without thorough revision and
correction.

S. E. 4

46 IMPERFECTION OF THE GEOLOGICAL RECORD

actual quarrying operations in such a way that they soon
obtained the richest Devonian plant collections ever known.
I think I may truly say that these young and enthusiastic
explorers worked the St. John plant-beds in a manner pre-
viously unexampled in the world. Their researches were not
only thus rewarded, but incidentally they discovered the first
known Devonian insects, which could not have been found
by a less painstaking process, and one of them discovered
what I believe to be the oldest known land shell. Still more,
their studies led to the separation from the Devonian beds of
the Underlying Cambrian slates, previously confounded with
them ; and this, followed up by the able and earnest work of
Mr. Matthew, has carried back our knowledge of the older
rocks in Canada several stages, or as far as the earliest
Cambrian previously known in Europe, but not before fully
recognised in America, and has discovered in these old rocks
the precursors of many forms of life not previously traced so
far back.

The moral of these statements of fact is that the imper-
fections of the record will yield only to patient and painstaking
work, and that much is in the power of local amateurs. I
would enforce this last statement by a reference to a little
research, in which I have happened to take part at a summer
resort on the Lower St. Lawrence, at which I have from time
to time spent a few restful vacation weeks. Little Metis is on
the Quebec Group of Sir William Logan, that peculiar local
representative of the lower part of the Cambro-Silurian and
Upper Cambrian formations which stretches along the soutli
side of the St. Lawrence all the way from Quebec to Cape
Rosier, near Gaspe, a distance of five hundred miles. This
great series of rocks is a jumble of deposits belonging at tliat
early time to the marginal area of what is now the American
continent, and indicating the action not merely of ordinary
causes of aqueous deposit, but of violent volcanic ejections,

IMPERFECTION OF THE GEOLOGICAL RECORD 47

accompanied perhaps by earthquake waves, and not improb-
ably by the action of heavy coast ice. The result is that mud
rocks now in the form of black, grey, and red shales and slates
alternate with thick and irregular beds of hard sandstone,
sometimes so coarse that it resembles the angular debris of the
first treatment of quartz in a crusher. With these sandstones
arc thick and still more irregular conglomerates formed of
pebbles and boulders of all sizes, up to several feet in diameter,
some of which are of older limestones containing Cambrian
fossils, while others are of quartzite or of igneous or volcanic
rocks.

The whole formation, as presented at Metis, is of the most
unpromising character as regards fossils, and after visiting the
place for ten years, and taking many long walks along the
shore and into the interior, and scrutinising every exposure, I
had found nothing more interesting than a few fragments of
graptolites, little zoophytes, ancient representatives of our sea
mosses, and which are quite characteristic of several portions
of the Quebec Group. With these were some marks of
fucoids and tracks or burrows of worms. The explorers of the
Geological Survey had been equally unsuccessful.

Quite accidentally a new light broke upon these unpromis-
ing rocks. My friend, Dr. Harrington, strolling one day on
the shore, sat down to rest on a stone, and picked up a piece
of black slate lying at his feet. He noticed on it some faintly
traced lines which seemed peculiar. He put it in his pocket
and showed it to me. On examination with a lens it proved
to have on it a few spicules of a hexactinellid sponge— little
crosses forming a sort of mesh or lattice-work similar to that
which Salter had many years before found in the Cambrian
rocks of Wales, and had named Protospongia — the first sjjonge.
The discovery seemed worth following up, and we took an
early opportunity of proceeding to the place, where, after some
search, we succeeded in tracing the loose pieces to a ledge of

48 IMPERFECTION OF THE GEOLOGICAL RECORD

shale on the beach, where there was a Uttle band, only about an
inch thick, stored with remains of sponges, a small bivalve shell
and a slender branching seaweed. This was one small layer
in reefs of slate more than one hundred feet thick. We sub-
sequently found two other thin layers, but less productive.
Tools and workmen were procured, and we proceeded to
quarry in the reef, taking out at low tide as large slabs as
possible of the most productive layer, and carefully splitting
these up. The results, as published in the Transactions of
the Royal Society of Canada,^ show more than twelve species
of siliceous sponges belonging to six genera, besides fragments
indicating other species, and all of these living at one time on
a very limited space of what is practically a single surface of
muddy sea-bottom.^ The specimens show the parts of these
ancient sponges much more perfectly than they were previously
known, and indeed, enable many of them to be perfectly re-
stored. They for the first time connect the modern siliceous
sponges of the deep sea with those that flourished on the old
sea-bottom of the early Cambro-Silurian, and thus bridge over
a great gap in the history of this low form of life, showing that
the principles of construction embodied in the remarkable
and beautiful siliceous sponges, like Euplectella, the " "\'enus
flower-basket," now dredged from the deep sea, were already
perfectly carried out in this far-back beginning of life. This
little discovery further indicates that portions of the older
PaUieozoic sea-bottoms were as well stored with a varied
sponge life as those of any part of the modern ocean. I
figure ^ a number of species, remains of all of which may be
gathered from a few yards of a single surfoce at Little Metis.
The multitude of interesting details embodied in all this it is
impossible to enter into here, but may be judged of from

' Aiiditioncil collections made in 1892 sliow two or three .idditional
species, one of them the type of a new and remarkable genus.
-' 1S89, section iv. p. 39. ' Frontispiece to chapter.

IMPERFECTION OF THE GEOLOGICAL RECORD 49

the forms reproduced. These examples tend to show that the
imperfection of the record may not depend on the record itself,
but on the incompleteness of our work. We must make large
allowance for imperfect collecting, and especially for the too
prevalent habit of remaining content with few and incomplete
specimens, and of grudging the time and labour necessary to
explore thoroughly the contents of special beds, and to work
out all the parts of forms found more or less in fragments.

The point of all this at present is that patient work is needed
to fill up the breaks in our record. A collector passing along
the shore at Metis might have picked up a fragment of a fossil
sj)onge, and recorded it as a fossil, or possibly described the
fragment. This fact alone would have been valuable, but to
make it bear its full fruit it was necessary to trace the fragment
to its source, and then to spend time and labour in extracting
from the stubborn rock the story it had to tell. Instances of
this kind crowd on my memory as coming within my own ex-
perience and observation. It is hopeful to think that the re-
cord is daily becoming less imperfect ; it is stimulating to
know that so much is only waiting for investigation. The his-
tory never can be absolutely complete. Practically, to us it is
infinite. \"et every series of facts known may be complete in
itself for certain purposes, however many gaps there may be
in the story. Even if we cannot find a continuous series be-
tv»-een the snails of the Coal formation or the sponges of the
(Quebec Group and their successors to-day, we can at least see
that they are identical in plan and structure, and can note the
differences of detail which fitted them for their places in the
ancient or the modern world. Nor need we be too discontented
if the order of succession, such as it is, does not exactly square
with some theories we may have formed. Perhaps it may in
the end lead us to greater and better truths.

Another subject which merits attention here is the evidence
which mere markings or other indications mav sometimes give

50 IMPERFECTION OF THE GEOLOGICAL RECORD

as to the existence of unknown creatures, and thus may be as
important to us as the footprints of Friday to Robinson Crusoe.
As I have been taking Canadian examples, I may borrow one
here from Mr. Matthew, of St. John, New Brunswick.

He remarks in one of his papers the manner in which the
Trilobites of the early Cambrian are protected with defensive
spines, and asks against what enemies they were intended to
guard. That there were enemies is further proved by the oc-
currence of Coprolites or masses of excrement, oval or cylin-
drical in form, and containing fragments of shells of Trilobites,
of Pteropods (Hyolithes) and of Lingula. There must there-
fore have been marine animals of considerable size, which
preyed on Trilobites. Dr. Hunt and myself have recorded
similar facts from the Upper-Cambrian and Canibro- Silurian
of the Province of Quebec. No remains, however, are known
of animals which could have produced such coprolites, except,
indeed, some of the larger worms of the period, and they seem
scarcely large enough. In these circumstances Mr. Matthew
falls back on certain curious marks or scratches with which
large surfaces of these old rocks are covered, and which he
names Ctenichnites or " Comb tracks." These markings
seem to indicate the rapid motion of some animal touching
the bottom with fins or other organs ; and as we know no fishes
in these old rocks, the question recurs, What could it have
been ? From the form and character of the markings Mr.
Matthew infers (i) That these animals lived in "schools," or
were social in their habits ; (2) That they had a rapid, direct,
darting motion ; (3) That they had three or four (at least)
flexible arms ; (4) That these arms were furnished with hooks
or spines; (5) That the creatures swam with an easy motion,
so that sometimes the arms of one side touched the bottom,
sometimes those of the other. These indications point to
animals allied to the modern scjuids or cuttlefishes, and as
these animals may have had no hard parts capable of pre-

IMPERFECTION OF THE GEOLOGICAL RECORD 5 1

servation, except their homy beaks, nothing might remain to
indicate their presence except these marks on the bottom.
Mr. Matthew therefore conjectures that there may have been
large cuttlefishes in the Cambrian. Since, however, these are
animals cf very high rank in their class, and are not certainly
known to us till a very much later period, their occurrence in
these old rocks would be a very remarkable and unexpected
fact.

A discovery made by Walcott in the Western States since
Mr. Matthew's paper was written, throws fresh light on the
question. Remains of fishes have been found by the
former in the Cambro Silurian rocks nearly as far back as
Mr. Matthew's comb-tracks. Besides this, Pander in Russia
has found in these old rocks curious teeth, which he refers
conjecturally to fishes (Conodonts). Why may there not have
been in the Cambrian large fishes having, like the modern
sharks, cartilage or gristle instead of bone — perhaps destitute
of scaler, and with small teeth which have not yet been de-
tected. The fin rays of such fishes may have left the comb
tracks, and in support of this I may say that there are in the
Lower Carboniferous of Horton Bluff, in Nova Scotia, very
similar tracks in beds holding many remains of fishes. Which-
ever view we adopt we see good evidence that there were in
the early Cambrian animals of higher grade than we have yet
dreamt of. Observe, however, that if we could complete the
record in this point it would only give us higher forms of life
at an earlier time, and so push farther back their possible
development from lower forms. I fear, indeed, that I can
hold out little hopes to the evolutionists that a more complete
geological record would help them in any way. It would
possibly only render their position more difficult.

But the saddest of all the possible defects of the geological
record is that it may want the beginning, and be like the
Bible of some of the German historical critics, from which they

52 IMPERFECTION OF THE GEOLOGICAL RECORD

eliminate as mythical everything before the time of the later
Hebrew kings. Our attention is forcibly called to this by the
condition of the fauna of the earliest Cambrian rocks. The
discoveries in these in Wales, in Norway, and in America show
us that the seas of this early period swarmed with animals re-
presenting all the great types of invertebrate marine life, ^^'e
have here highly organized Crustaceans, Worms, Mollusks and
other creatures which show us that in that early age all these
distinct forms of life were as well separated from each other
as in later times, that eyes of different types, jointed limbs
with nerves and muscles, and a vast variety of anatomical
contrivances were as highly developed as at any subsequent
time.^ To a Darwinian evolutionist this means nothing less
than that these creatures must have existed through countless
ages of development from their imagined simple ancestral
form or forms — how long it is impossible to guess, since, unless
change was more speedy in the infancy of the earth, the term
of ages required must have far exceeded that from the Cam-
brian to the Modern. Yet, to represent all this we have abso-
lutely nothing except Eozoon in its solitary grandeur, and a

* Walcott and Matthew record more than i6o species of 67 genera, in-
cluding Sponges, Zoophytes, Echinoderms, Brachiopods, Bivalve and
Univalve shellfishes, Trilobites and other Crustaceans from the Lower
Cambrian of the United States of America and Canada alone ; and these
are but a portion of the inhabitants of the early Cambrian seas. There is
a rich Scandinavian fauna of the same early date, and in England and
Wales, Sailer, Hicks and Lap worth have described many fossils of the
basal Cambrian. From year to year, also, discoveries of fossil remains are
being made, both in America and Europe, in beds of older date than those
previously known to be fossilifcrous. At present, however, these remains
are still few and imperfectly known, and it is not in all cases certain
whether the beds in which they occur are pre-Cambrian or belong to the
lowest members of that great system. It is unfortunate that so many
of the strata between the Laurentian and the Cambrian seem to be of a
character little likely to contain fossils ; being littoral deposits produced
in times of much physical disturbance. Yet there must have been con-
temporaneous beds of a different character, which may yet be discovered.

IMPERFECTION OF THE GEOLOGICAL RECORD 53

few other forms, possibly of Protozoa and worms. An im-
aginary phylogeny of animal life from Monads to Trilobites
would be something as long as the whole geological history.
Yet it would be almost wholly imaginary, for the record of the
rocks tells little or nothing. In face of such an imperfection
as til is, geologists should surely be humble, and make confes-
sion of ignorance to any extent that may be desired. Yet we
may at least, with all humility and self-abasement, ask our
critics how they know that this great blank really exists, and
whether it may not be possible that the swarming life of the
early Cambrian may, after all, have appeared suddenly on the
stage in some way as yet unknown to us and to them.

References : " Fossil Sponges from the Quebec Group of Little Metis,
Lower St. Lawrence": Transactions Royal Society of Canada, 1890.
"Resume of the Carboniferous Land Shells of North America":
American Journal of Science, 18S0. "Burrows and Tracks of In-
vertebrate Animals": Journal Geological Society of London, 1890.
"Notes on the Pleistocene of Canada" : Canadian A^aturalisf, 1876.
" Air-breathers of the Coal Paiod " : Ibid., 1863.

THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC.

DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF

TROF. JOHN THIIXIPS,

OF OXFORD,

One of the most able, earnest, and genial of

Engllsh Geologists ;

and of other Eminent Scientific Men, now passed away,

who supported him as

President of the British Association, at its

Meeting in Birmingham, in 1865.

Distribution of Land and Water — Causes of Irregu-
larities OF THE Surface Crust and Interior —
Position of Continents — Past History of the
Atlantic — Its Relations to Life — Its Future

ma w-Ki LJt

VI

A'^

r

=" ^' J»-»^ .^-ng— .^— ^^■

CHAPTER IV.
THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC.

I HAD the pleasure of being present at the meeting of the
British Association at Birmingham, in 1865 : a meeting
attended by an unusually large number of eminent geologists,
under the presidency of my friend Phillips. I had the further
pleasure of being his successor at the meeting in the same
place, in 1886; and the subject of this chapter is that to
which I directed the attention of the Association in my
Presidential address. I fear it is a feeble and imperfect utter-
ance compared with that which might have been given forth by
any of the great men present in 1865, and who have since left
us, could they have spoken with the added knowledge of the
intervening twenty years.

The geological history of the Atlantic appeared to be a
suitable subject for a trans-Atlantic president, and to a Society
which had vindicated its claim to be British in the widest
sense by holding a meeting in Canada, while it was also
meditating a visit to Australia — a visit not yet accomplished,
but in which it may now meet with a worthy daughter in the
Australian Association formed since the meeting of 1886. The
subject is also one carrying our thoughts very far back in
geological time, and connecting itself with some of the latest
and most important discussions and discoveries in the science
of the earth, furnishing, indeed, too many salient points to be
profitably occupied in a single chapter.

If we imagine an observer contemplating the earth from a

58 THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC

convenient distance in space, and scrutinizing its features as it
rolls before him, we may suppose him to be struck with the
fact that eleven-sixteenths of its surface are covered with water,
and that the land is so unequally distributed that from one
point of view he would see a hemisphere almost exclusively
oceanic, while nearly the whole of the dry land is gathered in
the opposite hemisphere. He might observe that large portions
of the great oceanic areas of the Pacific and Antarctic Oceans
are dotted with islands — like a shallow pool with stones rising
above its surface — as if the general depth were small in com-
parison with the area. Other portions of these oceans he
might infer, from the colour of the water and the absence of
islands, cover deep depressions in the earth's surface. He
might also notice that a mass or belt of land surrounds each
pole, and that the northern ring sends off to the southward
three vast tongues of land and of mountain chains, terminating
respectively in South America, South Africa, and Australia,
towards which feebler and insular processes are given off by
the antarctic continental mass. This, as some geographers
have observed, ^ gives a rudely three-ribbed aspect to the earth,
though two of the ribs are crowded together, and form the
Eurasian mass or double continent, while the third is isolated
in the single continent of America. He might also observe
that the northern girdle is cut across, so that the Atlantic
opens by a wide space into the Arctic Sea, while the Pacific is
contracted toward the north, but confluent with the Antarctic
Ocean. The Atlantic is also relatively deeper and less cum-
bered with islands than the Pacific, which has the highest
ridges near its shores, constituting what some visitors to the
Pacific coast of America have not inaptly called the " back of
the world," while the wider slopes face the narrower ocean.
The Pacific and Atlantic, though both depressions or flat-

' Dana, " Manual of Geology," introcluclory part. Green, " Vestiges
of a Molten Globe," has summed up these facts.

THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC 59

tenings of the earth, are, as we shall find, different in age,
character, and conditions; and the Atlantic, though the smaller,
is the older, and, from the geological point of view, in some
respects, the more important of the two ; while, by virtue of its
lower borders and gentler slope, it is, though the smaller basin,
the recipient of the greater rivers, and of a proportionately
great amount of the drainage of the land.^

If our imaginary observer had the means of knowing any-
thing of the rock formations of the continents, he would notice
that those bounding the North Atlantic are, in general, of
great age — some belonging to the Laurentian system. On the
other hand, he would see that many of the mountain ranges
along the Pacific are comparatively new, and that modern
igneous action occurs in connection with them. Thus he
might see in the Atlantic, though comparatively narrow, a
more ancient feature of the earth's surface ; while the Pacific
belongs to more modern times. But he would note, in con-
nection with this, that the oldest rocks of the great continental
masses are mostly toward their northern ends ; and that the
borders of the northern ring of land, and certain ridges en-
tending southward from it, constitute the most ancient and
permanent elevations of the earth's crust, though now greatly
surpassed by mountains of more recent age nearer the equator,
so that the continents of the northern hemisphere seem to
have grown progressively from north to south.

If the attention of our observer were directed to more
modern processes, he might notice that while the antarctic
continent freely discharges its burden of ice to the ocean north
of it, the arctic ice has fewer outlets, and that it mainly dis-
charges itself through the North Atlantic, where also the great
mass of Greenland stands as a huge condenser and cooler,

* Mr. Mellard Reade, in two Presidential addresses before the Geo-
logical Society of Liverpool, lias illustrated tliis point and its geological
consequences.

S. E. S

6o THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC

unexampled elsewhere in the world, throwing every spring an
immense quantity of ice into the North Atlantic, and more
especially into its western part. On the other hand, he might
learn from the driftage of weed and the colour of the water,
that the present great continuous extension and form of the
American continent tend to throw northward a powerful branch
of the equatorial current, which, revolving around the North
Atlantic, counteracts the great flow of ice which otherwise
would condemn it to a perpetual winter.

Further, such an observer would not fail to notice that the
ridges which lie along the edges of the oceans and the ebul-
litions of igneous matter which proceed, or have proceeded
from them, are consequences of the settling downward of the
great oceanic depressions, a settling ever intensified by their
receiving more and more of deposit on their surfaces ; and
that this squeezing upward of the borders of these depressions
into folds has been followed or alternated with elevations and
depressions without any such folding, and proceeding from
other causes. On the whole, it would be apparent that these
actions are more vigorous now at the margins of the Pacific
area, while the Atlantic is backed by very old foldings, or by
plains and slopes from which it has, so to speak, dried away
without any internal movement. Thus it would appear that
the Pacific is the great centre of earth-movement, while the
Atlantic trench is the more potent regulator of temperature,
and the ocean most likely to be severely affected in this respect
by small changes of its neighbouring land. Last of all, an
observer, such as I have supposed, would see that the oceans
are the producers of moisture and the conveyors of heat to the
northern regions of the world, and that in this respect and in
the immense condensation and delivery of ice at its north end,
the Atlantic is by far the more active, though the smaller of
the two.

So much could be learned by an extra-mundane observer •

THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC 6l

but unless he had also enjoyed opportunities of studying the
rocks of the earth in detail and close at hand, or had been
favoured by some mundane friend with a perusal of " Lyell's
Elements," or "Dana's Manual," he would not be able to ap-
preciate as we can the changes which the Atlantic has seen in
geological time, and in which it has been a main factor. Nor
could he learn from such superficial observation certain secrets
of the deep sea, which have been unveiled by the sounding
lead, the inequalities of the ocean basin, its few profound depths,
like inverted mountains or table-lands, its vast nearly flat
abyssmal floor, and the sudden rise of this to the hundred
fathom line, forming a terrace or shelf around the sides of
the continents. These features, roughly represented in the
map prefixed, he would be unable to perceive.

Before leaving this broad survey, we may make one further
remark. An observer, looking at the earth from without,
would notice that the margins of the Atlantic and the main
lines of direction of its mountain chains are north-east and
south-west, and north-west and south-east, as if some early
causes had determined the occurrence of elevations along
great circles of the earth's surface tangent to the polar circles.

We are invited by the preceding general glance at the surface
of the earth to ask certain questions respecting the Atlantic.
(i) What has at first determined its position and form? (2)
What changes has it experienced in the lapse of geological
time ? (3) What relations have these changes borne to the
development of life on the land and in the water? (4) ^^'hat
is its probable future ?

Before attempting to answer these questions, which I shall
not take up formally in succession, but rather in connection
with each other, it is necessary to state, as briefly as possible,
certain general conclusions respecting the interior of the earth.
It is popularly supposed that we know nothing of this beyond
a superficial crust perhaps averaging 50,000 to 100,000 feet in

62 THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC

thickness. It is true we Inave no means of exploration in the
earth's interior, but the conjoined labours of physicists have
now proceeded sufficiently far to throw much inferential light
on the subject, and to enable us to make some general affirma-
tions with certainty ; and these it is the more necessary to
state distinctly, since they are often treated as mere subjects of
speculation and fruitless discussion.

(i) Since the dawn of geological science, it has been evi-
dent that the crust on which we live must be supported on a
plastic or partially liquid mass of heated rock, approximately
uniform in quality under the whole of its area. This is a
legitimate conclusion from the wide distribution of volcanic
phenomena, and from the fact that the ejections of volcanoes,
while locally of various kinds, are similar in every part of the
world. It led to the old idea of a fluid interior of the earth,
but this seems now generally abandoned, and this interior
heated and plastic layer is regarded as merely an under-crust,
resting on a solid nucleus. ^

(2) We have reason to believe, as the result of astronomical
investigations, 2 that, notwithstanding the plasticity or liquidity
of the under-crust, the mass of the earth — its nucleus as we
may call it — is practically solid and of great density and
hardness. Thus we have the apparent paradox of a solid yet
fluid earth ; solid in its astronomical relations, liquid or

' I do not propose to express any definite opinion as to this question, as
either conclusion will satisfy the demands of geology. It would seem,
however, that astronomers now admit a slight periodical deformation of
the crust. See Lord Kelvin's Anniversary Address to Royal Society,
1892.

- Hopkins, Mallet, Lord Kelvin, and Prof. G. II. Darwin maintain
the solidity and rigidity of the earth on astronomical grounds ; but different
conclusions have been reached by Fisher, Ilennesey, Delaunay, and Airy.
In America, Hunt, Barnard and Crosby, Dutton, Le Conte and Wadsworth
have discussed these questions. Bonney has suggested that a mass may be
slowly mobile under long-continued pressure, while rigid with reference to
more sudden movements.

THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC 63

plastic for the purposes of volcanic action and superficial move-
ments.

(3) The plastic sub-crust is not in a state of dry igneous
fusion, but in that condition of aqueo-igneous or hydrothermic
fusion which arises from the action of heat on moist substances,
and which may either be regarded as a fusion or as a species
of solution at a very high temperature. This we learn from
the phenomena of volcanic action, and from the composition
of the volcanic and plutonic rocks, as well as from such
chemical experiments as those of Daubree, and of Tilden, and
Shenstone.^ It follows that water or steam, as well as rocky
matter, may be ejected from the under-crust.

(4) The interior sub-crust is not perfectly homogeneous, but
may be roughly divided into two layers or magmas, as they
have been called ; an upper, highly silicious or acidic, of low
specific gravity and light-coloured, and corresponding to such
kinds of plutonic and volcanic rocks as granite and trachyte ;
and a lower, less silicious or more basic, more dense, and
more highly charged with iron, and corresponding to such
igneous rocks as the dolerites, basalts, and kindred lavas. It
is interesting here to note that this conclusion, elaborated by
Durocher and Von Waltershausen, and usually connected with
their names, appears to have been first announced by John
Phillips, in his " (Geological Manual," and as a mere common-
sense deduction from the observed phenomena of volcanic
action and the probable results of the gradual cooling of the
earth. It receives striking confirmation from the observed
succession of acidic and basic volcanic rocks of all geological
periods and in all localities. It would even seem, from recent
spectroscopic investigations of Lockyer, that there is evidence
of a similar succession of magmas in the heavenly bodies, and
the discovery by Nordenskiold of native iron in Greenland

• Phil. Trans., 1SS4. Also Crosby in Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist.,
1883.

64 THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC

basalts, affords a probability that the inner magma is in part
metallic, and possibly, that vast masses of unoxidised metals
exist in the central portion of the earth.

(5) Where rents or fissures form in the upper crust, the
material of the lower crust is forced upward by the pressure
of the less supported portions of the former, giving rise to
volcanic phenomena either of an explosive or quiet character,
as may be determined by contact with water. The underlying
material may also be carried to the surface by the agency of
heated water, producing those quiet discharges which Hunt
has named crenitic. It is to be observed here that explosive
volcanic phenomena, and the formation of cones, are, as
Prestwich has well remarked, characteristic of an old and
thickened crust ; quiet ejection from fissures and hydro-
thermal action may have been more common in earlier periods
and with a thinner over-crust. This is an important con-
sideration with reference to those earlier ages referred to in
chapter second.

(6) The contraction of the earth's interior by cooling and
by the emission of material from below the over-crust, has
caused this crust to press downward, and therefore laterally,
and so to effect great bends, folds, and plications ; and these,
modified subsequently by surface denudation, and the piling
of sediments on portions of the crust, constitute mountain
chains and continental plateaus. As Hall long ago pointed
out,^ such lines of folding have been produced more especially
where thick sediments had been laid down on the sea-bottom,
and where, in consequence, internal expansion of the crust had
occurred from heating below. Thus we have here another
apparent paradox, namely, that the elevations of the earth's
crust occur in the places where the greatest burden of de-

* Hall (American Association Address, 1S57, subsequently republislied,
with additions, as "Contributions to the Geological History of the American
Continent "), Mallet, Rogers, Dana, La Conte, etc.

THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH ATLAxXTIC 05

tritus has been laid down upon it, and where, consequently, the
crust has been softened and depressed. A\'e must beware, in
this connection, of exaggerated notions of the extent of con-
traction and of crumpling required to form mountains. Bonney
has well shown, in lectures delivered at the London Institu-
tion, that an amount of contraction, almost inappreciable in
comparison with the diameter of the earth, would be sufficient ;
and that, as the greatest mountain chains are less than -g^oth
of the earth's radius in height, they would, on an artificial
globe a foot in diameter, be no more important than the slight
inequalities that might result from the paper gores overlapping
each other at the edges. This thinness of the crushed crust
agrees with the deductions of physical science as to the
shallowness of the superficial layer of compression in a cooling
globe. It is perhaps not more than five miles in thickness.
A singular proof of this is seen by the extension of straight
cracks filled with volcanic rock in the Laurentian districts of
Canada. 1 The beds of gneiss and associated rocks are folded
and crumpled in a most complex manner, yet they are crossed
by these faults, as a crack in a board may tear a sheet of
paper or a thin veneer glued on it. We. thus see that the
crumpled Laurentian crust was very thin, while the uncrushed
sub-crust determined the line of fracture.

(7) The crushing and sliding of the over-crust implied in
these movements raise some serious questions of a physical
character. One of these relates to the rapidity or slowness
of such movements, and the consequent degree of intensity
of the heat developed, as a possible cause of metamorphism
of rocks. Another has reference to the possibihty of changes
in the equilibrium of the earth itself, as resulting from local
collapse and ridging. These questions in connection with the

* As, for instance, the great dyke running nearly in a straiglit line from
near .St. Jerome along the Ottawa to Templeton, on the Ottawa, and be-
yond, a distance of more than a hundred miles.

66 THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC

present dissociation of the axis of rotation from the magnetic
poles, and with changes of chmate, have attracted some atten-
tion,^ and probably deserve further consideration on the part
of physicists. In so far as geological evidence is concerned,
it would seem that the general association of crumpling with
metamorphism indicates a certain rapidity in the process of
mountain-making, and consequent development of heat ; and
the arrangement of the older rocks around the Arctic basin for-
bids us from assuming any extensive movement of the axis of
rotation, though it does not exclude changes to a limited extent.

(8) It appears from the above that mountains and conti-
nental elevations may be of three kinds. (^7) They may con-
sist of material thrown out of volcanic rents, like earth out of
a mole burrow. Mountains like ^'esuvius and Aiina are of
this kind. (/^) They may be parts of wide ridges or chains
variously cut and modified by rains and rivers. The Lebanon
and the Catskill Mountains are cases in point, {c) They may
be lines of crumpling by lateral pressure. The greatest moun-
tains, like the Cordillera, the Alps, and the Appalachians are of
this kind, and such mountains may represent lateral pressure
occurring at various times, and whose results have been greatly
modified subsequently.

I wish to formulate tliese princi|)les as distinctly as possible,
and as the result of all the long series of observations, calcu-
lations, and discussions since the time of Werner and Hutlon,
and in which a vast number of able physicists and naturalists
have borne a part, because they may be considered as certain
deductions from our actual knowledge, and because they lie
at the foundation of a rational physical geology.

We may roughly popularise these deductions by comparing
the earth to a drupe or stone-fruit, sucli as a i)lum or peach

' See leceiit papers of Olillinm ainl ]"islicr, in G<vh\^ical Magdzin,-, ami
Philosophical M<igaziih-, luly, 1SS6. Also Peroche, " Rcvol. Polaircs."
1'arl.s, 1 886.

THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC 6/

somewhat dried up. It has a large and intensely hard stone
and kernel, a thin pulp made up of two layers, an inner, more
dense and dark-coloured, and an outer, less dense and lighter-
coloured. These constitute the under-crust. On the outside
it has a thin membrane or over-crust. In the process of drying
it has slightly shrunk, so as to produce ridges and hollows of
the outer crust, and this outer crust has cracked in some places,
allowing portions of the pulp to ooze out — in some of them its
lower dark substance, in others, its upper and lighter material.
The analogy extends no farther, for there is nothing in our
withered fruit to represent the oceans occupying the lower parts
of the surface, or the deposits which they have laid down.

Here a most important feature demands attention. The
rain, the streams, and the sea are constantly cutting down the
land and depositing it in the bed of the waters. Thus weight
is taken from the land, and added to the sea bed. Geological
facts, such as the great thickness of the coal measures, in which
we find thousands of feet of sediment, all of which must have
been deposited in shallow water, and the accumulation of
hundreds of feet of superficial material in deltas at the mouth
of great rivers, show that the crust of the earth is so mobile as
to yield downward to every pressure, however slight.^ It may
do this slowly and gradually, or by jumps from time to time ;
and this yielding necessarily tends to squeeze u[) the edges of
the depressed portions into ridges, and to cause lateral move-
ment and ejection of volcanic matter at intervals.

Keeping in view these general conclusions, let us now turn
to their bearing on the origin and history of the North Atlantic.

Though the Atlantic is a deep ocean, its basin does not
constitute so much a depression of the crust of the earth as
a flattening of it, and this, as recent soundings have shown,
with a slight ridge or elevation along its middle, and banks or
terraces fringing the edges, so that its form is not so much
' Starkie Ganliaer, A'aliirc, December, 1SS9.

68 THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC

that of a basin as that of a shallow elongated plate with its
middle a little raised. Its true margins are composed of
portions of the over-crust folded, overlapped and crushed, as
if by lateral pressure emanating from the sea itself. We can-
not, for example, look at a geological map of America without
perceiving that the Appalachian ridges, which intervene be-
ween the Atlantic and the St. Lawrence valley, have been
driven bodily back by a force acting from the east, and that
they have resisted this pressure only where, as in the Gulf of
St. Lawrence and the Catskill region of New York, they have
been protected by outlying masses of very old rocks, as, for
example, by that of the island of Newfoundland and that of
the Adirondack Mountains. The admirable work begun by
my friend and fellow-student. Professor James Nicol, followed
up by Professor Lapworth, and now, after long controversy,
fully confirmed by the recent observations of the Geological
Survey of Scotland, has shown the most intense action of the
same kind on the east side of the ocean in the Scottish high-
lands ; and the more widely distributed Eozoic and other old
rocks of Scandinavia may be appealed to in further evidence
of this. 1

If we now inquire as to the cause of the Atlantic depres-
sion, we must go back to the time when the areas occupied
by the Atlantic and its bounding coasts were parts of the
shoreless sea in which the earliest gneisses or stratified granites
of the Laurentian age were being laid down in vastly extended
beds. These ancient crystalline rocks have been the subject
of much discussion and controversy, to which reference has
been made in a previous chapter.

It will be observed, in regard to these theories, that they do

' Address to CJeological Section, Brit. Assoc, by Prof. Jiidd, Aberdeen
Meeting, 1885. According to Rogers, the crumpling of the Appalachians
has reduced a breadth of 158 miles to about 60. Cleikie, Address, Geo-
logical Society, 1891-2.

THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC 69

not suppose that the old gneiss is an ordinary sediment, but
that all regard it as formed in exceptional circumstances, these
circumstances being the absence of land and of subaerial
decay of reck, and the presence wholly or principally of the
material of the upper surface of the recently hardened crust.
This being granted, the question arises. Ought we not to com-
bine the several theories as to the origin of gneiss, and to
believe that the cooling crust has hardened in successive layers
from without inward ; that at the same time fissures were
locally discharging igneous matter to the surface ; that matter
held in supension in the ocean and matter held in solution by
heated waters rising from beneath the outer crust were ming-
ling their materials in the deposits of the primitive ocean ? ^
It would seem that the combination of all these agencies may
safely be evoked as causes of the pre-Atlantic deposits. This
is the eclectic position I have maintained in a previous chap-
ter, and which I hold to be in every way the most probable.

Let us suppose, then, the floor of old ocean covered with
a flat pavement of gneiss, or of that material which is now
gneiss, the next question is, How and when did this original
bed become converted into sea and land ? Here we have some
things certain, others most debateable. That the cooling
mass, especially if it was sending out volumes of softened
rocky material, either in the form of volcanic ejections or in
that of matter dissolved in heated water, and piling this on the
surface, must soon become too small for its shell, is apparent ;
but when and where would the collapse, crushing and wrink-
ling inevitable from this cause begin ? The date is indi-
cated by the lines of old mountain chains which traverse the
Laurentian districts ; but the reason why is less apparent.
The more or less unequal cooling, hardening and conductive
power of the outer crust we may readily assume. The driftage
unequally of water-borne detritus to the south-west by the
' Hunt, Transactions Royal Society of Canada, 1885.

70 THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC

bottom currents of the sea is another cause, and, as we shall
soon see, most effective. Still another is the greater cooling
and hardening of the crust in the polar regions, and the ten-
dency to collapse of the equatorial protuberance from the
slackening of the. earth's rotation. Besides these, the internal
tides of the earth's substance at the times of solstice would
exert an obhque pulling force on the crust, which might tend
to crack it along diagonal lines. From whichever of these
causes, or the combination of the whole, we know that, within
the Laurentian time, folded portions of the earth's crust began
to rise above the general surface, in broad belts running from
north-east to south-west, and from north-west to south-east,
v.-here the older mountams of Eastern America and Western
Europe now stand, and that the subsidence of the oceanic
areas, allowed by this crumpling of the crust, permitted other
areas on both sides of the Atlantic to form limited table-lands.
This was the commencement of a process repeated again and
again in subsequent times, and which began in the middle
Laurentian, when for the first time we find beds of quartzitc,
limestone, and iron ore, and graphite beds, indicating that there
was already land and water, and that the sea, and perhaps the
land, swarmed with forms of animal and plant life, unknown,
for the most part, now. Independently of the questions as to
the animal nature of Eozoon, I hold that we know, as certainly
as we can know anything inferentially, the existence of these
primitive forms of life. If I were to conjecture what were
these early forms of plant and animal life, still unknown to us
by actual specimens, I would suppose that, just as in the Pak\;o-
zoic, the acrogens culminated in gigantic and complex forest
trees, so in the Laurentian, the alg^, the lichens, and the
mosses grew to dimensions and assumed complexity of struc-
ture unexampled in later times, and that, in the sea, the
humbler forms of Protozoa and Sea Mosses were the dominant
types, but in gigantic and complex forms. The land of this

THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC 7 1

period was probably limited, for the most part, to high lati-
tudes, and its aspect, though more rugged and abrupt, and
of greater elevation, must have been of that character which
we still see in the Laurentian hills. The distribution of this
ancient land is indicated by the long lines 01 old Laurentian
rock extending from the Labrador coast and the north shore
of the St. Lawrence, and along the eastern slopes of the
Appalachians in America, and the like rocks of the Hebrides,
the Western Highlands, and the Scandinavian mountains. A
small but interesting remnant is that in the Malvern Hills, so
well described by Holl. It will be well to note here, and to
fix on our minds, that these ancient ridges of Eastern America
and Western Europe have been greatly denuded and wasted
since Laurentian times, and that it is along their eastern sides
that the greatest sedimentary accumulations have been de-
posited.

From this time dates the introduction of that dominance of
existing causes which forms the basis of uniformitarianism in
geology, and which had to go on with various and great modi-
fications of detail, through the successive stages of the geolo-
gical history, till the land and water of the northern hemisphere
attained to their present complex structure.

So soon as we have a circumpolar belt or patches of Eozoic ^
land and ridges running southward from it, we enter on new
and more complicated methods of growth of the continents
and seas. Portions of the oldest crystalline rocks, raised out
of the protecting water, were now eroded by atmospheric
agents, and especially by the carbonic acid, then existing in the
atmosphere perhaps more abundantly than at present, under
whose influence the hardest of the gneissic rocks gradually
decay. The arctic lands were subjected, in addition, to the
powerful mechanical force of frost and thaw. Thus every
shower of rain and every swollen stream would carry into the
^ Or Archa;an, or pre-Cambrian, if these terms are preferred.

72 THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC

sea the products of the waste of land, sorting them into fine
clays and coarser sands ; and the cold currents which cling to
the ocean bottom, now determined in their courses, not merely
by the earth's rotation, but also by the lines of folding on both
sides of the Atlantic, Avould carry south-westward, and pile up
in marginal banks of great thickness the debris produced from
the rapid waste of the land already existing in the Arctic
regions. The Atlantic, opening widely to the north, and
having large rivers pouring into it, was, especially, the ocean
characterised, as time advanced, by the prevalence of these
phenomena. Thus, throughout the geological history it has
happened that, while the middle of the Atlantic has received
merely organic deposits of shells of foraminifera and similar
organisms, and this probably only to a small amount, its
margins have had piled upon them beds of detritus of im-
mense thickness. Professor Hall, of Albany, was the first
geologist who pointed out the vast cosmic importance of these
deposits, and that the mountains of both sides of the Atlantic
owe their origin to these great lines of deposition, along with
the fact, afterwards more fully insisted on by Rogers, that the
portions of the crust which received these masses of debris
became thereby weighted down and softened, and were more
liable than other parts to lateral crushing.

Thus, in the later Eozoic and early Palaeozoic times, which
succeeded the first foldings of the oldest Laurentian, great
ridges were thrown up, along the edges of which were beds of
limestone, and on their summits and sides, thick masses of
ejected igneous rocks. In the bed of the central Atlantic
there are no such accumulations. It must have been a flat, or
slightly ridged, plate of the ancient gneiss, hard and resisting,
though perhaps with a few cracks, through which igneous mat-
ter welled up, as in Iceland and the Azores in more modern
times. In this condition of things we have causes tending to
perpetuate and extend the distinctions of ocean and continent,

THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC J^

mountain and plain, already begun ; and of these we may more
especially note the continued subsidence of the areas of
greatest marine deposition. This has long attracted attention,
and affords very convincing evidence of the connection of sedi-
mentary deposit as a cause with the subsidence of the crust.^

We are indebted to a French physicist, M. Faye, for an impor-
tant suggestion on this subject. It is that the sediment accu-
mulated along the shores of the ocean presented an obstacle
to radiation, and consequently to cooling of the crust, while
the ocean floor, unprotected and unweighted, and constantly
bathed with currents of cold water having great power of con-
vection of heat, would be more rapidly cooled, and so would
become thicker and stronger. This suggestion is complemen-
tary to the theory of Professor Hall, that the areas of greatest
deposit on the margins of the ocean are necessarily those of
greatest folding and consequent elevation. We have thus a
hard, thick, resisting ocean bottom, which, as it settles down to-
ward the interior, under the influence of gravity, squeezes
upwards and folds and plicates all the soft sediments deposited
on its edges. The Atlantic area is almost an unbroken cake
of this kind. The Pacific area has cracked in many places,
allowing the interior fluid matter to exude in volcanic ejec-
tions.

It may be said that all this supposes a permanent continu-
ance of the ocean basins, whereas many geologists postulate a
mid-Atlantic continent to give the thick masses of detritus
found in the older formations both in Eastern America and
Western Europe, and which thin off in proceeding into the

* \y\\\X.o\\'\\\ Report Pj U.S. Gcolo-^ical Suixxy, 1 891. From facts stated
in tliis report and in my "Acadian Geology," it is apparent that in the
Western States and in the coalfields of Novia Scotia, sliallow-water deposits
have been laid down, up to thicknesses of 10,000 to 20,000 feet in connection
with continuous subsidence. See also a paper by Ricketts in the Geol.
Mag., 1883.

74 THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC

interior of both continents. I prefer, as already stated, to
consider these belts of sediment as the deposits of north-
ern currents, and derived from arctic land, and that, like the
great banks off the American coast at the present day, which
are being built up by the present arctic current, they had little
to do with any direct drainage from the adjacent shore. We
need not deny, however, that such ridges of land as existed
along the Atlantic margins were contributing their quota of
river-borne material, just as on a still greater scale the Amazon
and Mississippi are doing now, and this especially on the sides
toward the present continental plateaus, though the greater
part must have been derived from the wide tracts of Lauren-
tian land within the Arctic Circle, or near to it. It is further
obvious that the ordinary reasoning respecting the necessity of
continental areas in the present ocean basins would actually
obHge us to suppose that the whole of the oceans and conti-
nents had repeatedly changed places. This consideration op-
poses enormous physical difficulties to any theory of alterna-
tions of the oceanic and continental areas, except locally at their
margins.

But the permanence of the Atlantic depression does not ex-
clude the idea of successive submergences of the continental
plateaus and marginal slopes, alternating with periods of eleva-
tion, when the ocean retreated from the continents and con-
tracted its limits. In this respect the Atlantic of to-day is
much smaller than it was in those times when it sjjread widely
over the continental plains and slopes, and much larger than it
has been in times of continental elevation. This leads us to
the further consideration that, while the ocean beds have been
sinking, other areas have been better supported, and constitute
the continental plateaus ; and that it has been at or near the
junctions of these sinking and rising areas that the thickest de-
posits of detritus, the most extensive foldings, and the greatest
ejections of volcanic matter have occurred. There has thus

THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC 75

been a permanence of the position of the continents and oceans
throughout geological time, but with many oscillations of these
areas, producing submergences and emergences of the land.
In this way we can reconcile the vast vicissitudes of the conti-
nental areas in different geological periods with that continuity
of development from north to south, and from the interiors
to the margins, which is so marked a feature. We have, for
this reason, to formulate another apparent geological paradox,
namely, that while, in one sense, the continental and oceanic
areas are permanent, in another, they have been in continual
movement. Nor does this view exclude extension of the con-
tinental borders or of chains of islands beyond their present
limits, at certain periods ; and indeed, the general principle
already stated, that subsidence of the ocean bed has produced
elevation of the land, implies in earlier periods a shallower
ocean and many possibilities as to volcanic islands, and low
continental margins creeping out into the sea ; while it is also
to be noted that there are, as already stated, bordering shelves,
constituting shallows in the ocean, which at certain periods
have emerged as land.

We are thus compelled, as already stated, to believe in the
contemporaneous existence in all geological periods, except
perhaps the earliest of them, of the three distinct conditions of
areas on the surface of the earth, defined in chapter second —
oceanic areas of deep sea, continental plateaus and marginal
shelves, and lines of plication and folding.

In the successive geological periods the continental pla-
teaus, when submerged, owing to their vast extent of warm and
shallow sea, have been the great theatres of the development of
marine life and of the deposition of organic limestones, and
when elevated, they have furnished the abodes of the noblest
land faunas and floras. The mountain belts, especially in
the north, have been the refuge and stronghold of land life
in periods of submergence ; and the deep ocean basins have

S. £. 6

^6 THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC

been the perennial abodes of pelagic and abyssal creatures and
the refuge of multitudes of other marine animals and plants
in times of continental elevation. These general facts are full
of importance with reference to the question of the succession
of formations and of life in the geological history of the earth.

So much space has been occupied with these general views,
that it would be impossible to trace the history of the Atlantic
in detail through the ages of the Palaeozoic, Mesozoic, and
Tertiary. We may, however, shortly glance at the changes
of the three kinds of surface already referred to. The bed of
the ocean seems to have remained, on the whole, abyssal ; but
there were probably periods when those shallow reaches of the
Atlantic which stretch across its most northern portion, and
partly separate it from the Arctic basin, presented connecting
coasts or continuous chains of islands sufficient to permit
animals and plants to pass over.^ At certain periods also there
were, not unlikely, groups of volcanic islands, like the Azores,
in the temperate or tropical Atlantic. More especially might
this be the case in that early time when it was more like the
present Pacific ; and the line of the great volcanic belt of the
Mediterranean, the mid-Atlantic banks, the Azores and the
West India Islands point to the possibility of such partial con-
nections. These were stepping stones, so to speak, over which
land organisms might cross, and some of these may be con-
nected with the fabulous or pre-historic Atlantis.

In the Palaeozoic period, the distinctions already referred to.
into continental plateaus, mountain ridges, and ocean depths,
were first developed, and we find, already, great masses of sedi-
ment accumulating on the seaward sides of the old Laurentian
ridges, and internal deposits thinning away from these ridges
over the submerged continental areas, and presenting dissimilar

^ It would seem, from (ieikie's descriiilion of the Faroe Islands, that
they may be a remnant of such connecting land, dating from the Cretaceous
or Eocene period.

THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC //

conditions of sedimentation. It would seem also that, as Hicks
has argued for Europe, and Logan and Hall for America, this
Cambrian age was one of slow subsidence of the land previously
elevated, accompanied with or caused by thick deposits of
detritus along the borders of the subsiding shore, which was
probably covered with the decomposing rock arising from long
ages of subaerial waste.

In the coal formation age its characteristic swampy flats
stretched in some places far into the shallower parts of the
ocean. ^ In the Permian, the great plicated mountain margins
were fully developed on both sides of the Atlantic. In the
Jurassic, the American continent probably extended farther to
the sea than at present. In the Wealden age there was much
land to the west and north of Great Britain, and Professor
Bonney has directed attention to the evidence of the existence
of this land as far back as the Trias, while Mr. Starkie Gardiner
has insisted on connecting links to the southward, as evidenced
by fossil plants. So late as the Post-glacial, or early human
period, large tracts, now submerged, formed portions of the
continents. On the other hand, the interior plains of America
and Europe were often submerged. Such submergences are
indicated by the great limestones of the Palaeozoic, by the chalk
and its representative beds in the Cretaceous, by the Num-
mulitic formation in the Eocene, and lastly, by the great Pleis-
tocene submergence, one of the most remarkable of all, one
in which nearly the whole northern hemisphere participated,
and which was probably separated from the present time by
only a few thousands of years.- These submergences and ele-

'■ I have shown the evidence of tliis in the remnants of Carboniferous
districts once more extensive on the Atlantic coast of Nova .Scotia and Cape
Breton ("Acadian Geology ").

* The recent surveys of the Falls of Niagara coincide \\ ith a great many
evidences to which I have elsewhere referred in proving that the Pleistocene
submergence of America and Europe came to an entl not more than ten

y^ THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC

vations were not always alike on the two sides of the Atlantic.
The Salina period of the Silurian, for example, and the Jurassic,
show continental elevation in America not shared by Europe.
The great subsidences of the Cretaceous and the Eocene were
proportionally deeper and wider on the eastern continent, and
this and the direction of the land being from north to south,
cause more ancient forms of life to survive in America. These
elevations and submergences of the plateaus alternated with
the periods of mountain-making plication, which was going on
at intervals, at the close of the Eozoic, at the beginning of the
Cambrian, at the close of the Siluro-Cambrian, in the Permian,
and in Europe and V/estern America in the Tertiary. The
series of changes, however, affecting all these areas was of a
highly complex character in detail.^

We may also note a fact which I have long ago insisted on,^
the regular pulsation of the continental areas, giving us alter-
nations in each great system of deep-sea and shallow-water
beds, so that the successive groups of formations may be di-
vided into triplets of shallow-water, deep-water, and shallow-
water strata, alternating in each period. This law of succession
applies more particularly to the formations of the continental
plateaus, rather than to those of the ocean margins, and it
shows that, intervening between the great movements of plica-
tion there were subsidences of those plateaus, or elevations of
the sea bottom, which allowed the waters to spread themselves
over all the inland spaces between the great folded mountain
ranges of the Atlantic borders.

In referring to the ocean basins we should bear in mind
that there are three of these in the northern hemisphere — the
Arctic, the Pacific, and the Atlantic. Uc Ranee has ably

thousand years ago, and was itself not of very great duiatlon. Thus in
Pleistocene times the land must have been submerged and re-elevatcd in a
very rapid manner.

' " Acadian Cieology."

THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC 79

summed up the known facts as to Arctic geology in a series of
articles in Nature, from which it appears that this area pre-
sents from without inwards a succession of older and newer
formations from the Eozoic to the Tertiary, and that its extent
must have been greater in former periods than at present,
while it must have enjoyed a comparatively warm climate from
the Cambrian to the Pleistocene period. The relations of its
deposits and fossils are closer with those of the Atlantic than
with those of the Pacific, as might be anticipated from its wider
opening into the former. Blandford has recently remarked on
the correspondence of the marginal deposits around the Pacific
and Indian oceans,^ and Dr. Dawson informs me that this is
equally marked in comparison with the west coast of America,
but these marginal areas have not yet gained much on the
ocean. In the North Atlantic, on the other hand, there is a
wide belt of comparatively modern rocks on both sides, more
especially toward the south and on the American side ; but
while there appears to be a perfect correspondence on both
sides of the Atlantic, and around the Pacific respectively, there
seems to be less parallelism between the deposits and forms of
life of the two oceans, as compared with each other, and less
correspondence in forms of life, especially in modern times.
Still, in the earlier geological ages, as might have been antici-
pated from the imperfect development of the continents, the
same forms of life characterise the whole ocean from Australia
to Arctic America, and indicate a grand unity of Pacific and

^ Joiinul of Geological Socidy, May, 1 886. Blamlford's statements re-
specting the mechanical depcsits of the close of the Palx'ozoic in the Indian
Ocean, whether these arc glacial or not, would seem to show a correspond-
ence with tlie Permian conglomerates and earth movements of the Atlan-
tic area ; but since that time the Atlantic has enjoyed comparative repose.
The Pacific seems to have reproduced the conditions of the Carboniferous
in the Cretaceous age, and seems to have been less affected by the great
changes of the Pleistocene.

So THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC

Atlantic life not equalled in later times,' and which speaks of
true contemporaneity rather than of what has been termed
homotaxis or mere likeness of orders.

Wc may pause here for a moment to notice some of the
effects of Atlantic growth on modern geography. It has
given us rugged and broken shores, composed of old rocks
in the north, and newer formations and softer features to-
ward the south. It has given us marginal mountain ridges
and internal plateaus on both sides of the sea. It has pro-
duced certain curious and by no means accidental corre-
spondences of the eastern and western sides. Thus the solid
basis on which the British Islands stand may be compared
with Newfoundland and Labrador, the English Channel with
the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Bay of Biscay with the Bay of
Maine, Spain with the projection of the American land at
Cape Hatteras, the Mediterranean with the Gulf of Mexico.
The special conditions of deposition and plication necessary
to these results, and their bearing on the character and pro-
ductions of the Atlantic basin, would require a volume for
their detailed elucidation.

I'hus far our discussion has been limited almost entirely to
physical causes and effects. If we now turn to the life
history of the Atlantic, we are met at the threshold with the
question of climate, not as a thing fixed and immutable, but
as changing from age to age in harmony with geographical
mutations, and producing long cosmic summers and winters of
alternate warmth and refrigeration.

We can scarcely doubt that the close connection of the
Atlantic and Arctic oceans is one factor in those remarkable
vicissitudes of climate experienced by the former, and in
which the Pacific area has also shared in connection with the

^ Daintiee and Etheiidj^e, " Queensland Geology, "yiw/'wa/ Geological
Society, August, 1872 ; R. Etheridge, Junior, "Australian Fossils," Trans.
Phys. Soc, Ed in., 1880.

THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC 8[

Antarctic Sea. No geological facts are indeed at first sight
more strange and inexplicable than the changes of climate in
the Atlantic area, even in comparatively modern periods. W'e
know that in the early Tertiary temperate conditions reigned as
far north as the middle of Greenland, and that in the Pleisto-
cene the Arctic cold advanced until an almost perennial winter
prevailed half way to the equator. It is no wonder that nearly
every cause available in the heavens and the earth has been
invoked to account for these astounding facts. I shall, I trust,
be excused if, neglecting most of these theoretical views, I
venture to invite attention, in connection with this question,
chiefly to the old Lyellian doctrine of the modification of
climate by geographical changes. Let us, at least, consider
how much these are able to account for.

'J'he ocean is a great equalizer of extremes of temperature.
It does this by its great capacity for heat, and by its cooling
and heating power when passing from the solid into the
liquid and gaseous states, and the reverse. It also acts by its
mobility, its currents serving to convey heat to great distances,
or to cool the air by the movement of cold icy waters. The
land, on the other hand, cools or warms rapidly, and can
transmit its influence to a distance only by the winds, and the
influence so transmitted is rather in the nature of a disturbing
than of an equalizing cause. It follows that any change in the
distribution of land and water must affect climate, more espe-
cially if it changes the character or course of the ocean currents.

Turning to the Atlantic, in this connection we perceive that
its present condition is peculiar and exceptional. On the one
hand it is widely open to the Arctic Sea and the influence of
its cold currents, and on the other it is supplied with a heating
apparatus of enormous power to give a special elevation of
temperature, more particularly to its eastern coasts. The great
equatorial current running across from Africa is on its
northern side embayed in the Gulf of Mexico, as in a great

82 THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC

cauldron, and pouring through the mouth of this in the
Bahama channel, forms the gulf stream, which, widening out like
a fan, forms a vast expanse of warm water, from which the pre-
vailing westerly winds of the North Atlantic waft a constant
supply of heated moist air to the western coasts of Europe,
giving them a much more warm and uniform climate than that
which prevails in similar latitudes in Eastern America, where
the cold Arctic currents hug the shore, and bring down ice from
Baffin's Bay. Now all this might be differently arranged, ^^'e
shall find that there were times, when the Isthmus of Panama
being broken through, there was no Gulf Stream, and Norway
and England were reduced to the conditions of Greenland
and Labrador, and when refrigeration was still further increased
by subsidence of northern lands affording freer sweep to the
Arctic currents. On the other hand, there were times when
the Gulf of Mexico extended much farther north than at
present, and formed an additional surface of warm water to
heat all the interior of America, as well as the Atlantic. Geo-
graphical changes of these kinds, have probably given us the
glacial period in very recent times, and at an earlier era those
warm climates which permitted temperate vegetation to flourish
as far north as Greenland. These are, however, great topics,
which must form the subject of other chapters.

I am old enough to remember the sensation caused by the
delightful revelations of Edward Eorbes respecting the zones
of animal life in the sea, and the vast insight which they gave
into the significance of the work on minute organisms pre-
viously done by Ehrenberg, Lonsdale and \\'illiamson, and
into the meaning of fossil remains. A little later the sound-
ings for the Atlantic cable revealed the chalky foraminifcral
ooze of the abyssal ocean. Still more recentl\-, the wealth of
facts disclosed by the Cha/kfiger voyage, which naturalists
have scarcely yet had time to digest, have opened up to us
new worlds of deep-sea life.

THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC 8^

The bed of the deep Atlantic is covered, for the most part,
by a mud or ooze, largely made up of the dedn's of foramini-
fera and other minute organisms mixed with fine clay. In the
North Atlantic the Norwegian naturalists call this the Biloculina
mud. Farther south, the Challenger naturalists speak of it as
(ilobigerina ooze. In point of fact it contains different species
of foraminiferal shells, Globigerina and Orbulina being in some
localities dominant, and in others, other species ; and these
changes are more apparent in the shallower portions of the
ocean.

On the other hand, there are means for disseminating
coarse material over parts of the ocean beds. There are, in
the line of the Arctic current, on the American coast, great
sand banks, and off the coast of Norway, sand constitutes a
considerable part of the bottom material. Soundings and
dredgings off Great Britain, and also off the American coast,
have shown that fragments of stone referable to Arctic lands
are abundantly strewn over the bottom, along certain lines,
and the Antarctic continent, otherwise almost unknown, makes
its presence felt to the dredge by the abundant masses of
crystalline rock drifted far from it to the north. These are not
altogether new discoveries. I had inferred, many years ago,
from stones taken up by the hooks of fishermen on the banks
of Newfoundland, that rocky material from the north is dropped
on these banks by the heavy ice which drifts over them every
spring, that these are glaciated, and that after they fall to the
bottom sand is drifted over them with sufficient velocity to
jiolish the stones, and to erode the shelly coverings of Arctic
animals attached to them.^ If, then, the Atlantic basin were
upheaved into land, we should see beds of sand, gravel and
boulders with clay flats and layers of marl and limestone.
According to the Challenger reports, in the Antarctic seas S.
of 64° there is blue mud, with fragments of rock, in depths
1 "Notes on Post-Pliocine of Cannda," 1872.

84 THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC

of 1,200 to 2,000 fathoms. The stones, some of them glaci-
ated, were granite, diorite, amphiboUte, mica schist, gneiss and
quartzite. This deposit ceases and gives place to Globigerina
ooze and red clay at 46° to 47° S., but even farther north there
is sometimes as much as 49 percent, of crystalline sand. In
the Labrador current a block of syenite, weighing 400 lbs., was
taken up from 1,340 fathoms, and in the Arctic current, 100
miles from land, was a stony deposit, some stones being
glaciated. Among these were smoky quartz, quartzite, lime-
stone, dolomite, mica schist, and serpentine ; also particles of
monoclinic and triclinic felspar, hornblende, augite, magnetite,
mica and glauconite, the latter, no doubt, formed in the sea
bottom, the others drifted from Eozoic and Palaeozoic forma-
tions to the north. ^

A remarkable fact in this connection is that the great depths
of the sea are as impassable to the majority of marine animals
as the land itself. According to Murray, while twelve of the
Challcng^crs dredgings, taken in depths greater than 2,000
fathoms, gave 92 species, mostly new to science, a similar
number of dredgings in shallower water near the land, give no
less than 1,000 species. Hence arises another apparent para-
dox relating to the distribution of organic beings. While at
first sight it might seem that the chances of wide distribution
are exceptionally great for marine species, this is not so. Ex-
cept in the case of those which enjoy a period of free locomo-
tion when young, or are floating and pelagic, the deep ocean
sets bounds to their migrations. On the other hand, the
spores of cryptogamic plants may be carried for vast distances
by the wind, and the growth of volcanic islands may effect
connections which, though only temporary, may afford oppor-
tunity for land animals and plants to pass over.

With reference to the transmission of living beings across
the Atlantic, we have before us the remarkable fact that from
' General Report, " Challenger''^ Expedition.

THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC 85

the Cambrian age onwards there were, on the two sides of the
ocean, many species of invertebrate animals which were either
identical or so closely allied as to be possibly varietal forms, in-
dicating probably the shallowness of the ocean in these periods.
In like manner, the early plants of the Upper Silurian, Devo-
nian, and Carboniferous present many identical species ; but
this identity is less marked in more modern times. Even in
the latter, however, there are remarkable connections between
the floras of oceanic islands and the continents. Thus the
Bermudas, altogether recent islands, have been stocked by
the agency chiefly of the ocean currents and of birds, with
nearly 150 species of continental plants ; and the facts col-
lected by Helmsley as to the present facilities of transmission,
along with the evidence afforded by older oceanic islands
which have been receiving animal and vegetable colonists
for longer periods, go far to show that, time being given,
the sea actually affords facilities for the migration of the in-
habitants of the land, comparable with those of continuous
continents.

In so far as plants are concerned, it is to be observed that
the early forests were largely composed of cryptogamous
plants, and the spores of these in modern times have proved
capable of transmission from great distances. In considering
this, we cannot fail to conclude, that the union of simple cryp-
togamous fructification with arboreal stems of high complexity,
so well illustrated by Dr. Williamson, had a direct relation to
the necessity for a rapid and wide distribution of these ancient
trees. It seems also certain that some spores, as, for example,
those of the Rhizocarps,^ a type of vegetation abundant in
the Palaeozoic, and certain kinds of seeds, as those named
^Jhoetesta and Pachythera, were fitted for flotation. Further,
the periods of Arctic warmth permitted the passage around

' See paper by the author on Pak^ozoic Rhizocarps, Chicago Trans.,
1886.

86 THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC

the northern belt of many temperate species of plants, just as
now happens with the Arctic flora ; and when these were dis-
placed by colder periods, they marched southward along both
sides of the sea on the mountain chains.

The same remark applies to northern forms of marine inver-
tebrates, which are much more widely distributed in longitude
than those farther south. The late IMr. Gywn Jeffreys, in one
of his latest communications on this subject, stated that 54
j)er cent, of tl:e shallow-water mollusks of New England and
Canada are also European, and of the deep-sea forms, 30 out
of 35 ; these last, of course, enjoying greater facilities for
migration than those which have to travel slowly along the
shallows of the coast in order to cross the ocean and settle
themselves on both sides. Many of these animals, like the
common mussel and sand clam, are old settlers which came
over in the Pleistocene period, or even earlier. Others, like the
common periwinkle, seem to have been slowly extending them-
selves in modern times, perhaps even by the agency of man.
The older immigrants may possibly have taken advantage of
lines of coast now submerged, or of warm periods, when they
could creep round the Arctic shores. Mr. Herbert Carpenter
and other naturalists employed on the ChaUenger collections
have made similar statements respecting other marine inverte-
brates, as, for instance, the Echinoderms, of which the deep-
sea crinoids present many common species, and my own collec-
tions prove that many of the shallow-water forms are common.
Dall and Whiteaves^ have shown that some mollusks and
Echinoderms are common even to the Atlantic and Pacific
coasts of North America ; a rcmarkal)Ie f;\ct, testifying at once
to the fixity of these species and to the manner in which they
ha\c been able to take advantage of geographical changes.
Some of the species of whelks common to the Gulf of St.
Lawrence and the Pacific are animals which have no special
' Dall, Report on Alaska ; Wliitcaves, Trans. R. S. C.

THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC 87

locomotive powers, even when young, but they are northern
forms not proceeding far south, so that they may have passed
through the Arctic seas. In this connection it is well to re-
mark that many species of animals have powers of locomotion
in youth which they lose when adult, and that others may have
special means of transit. I once found at Gaspe a specimen
of the Pacific species of Coronula, or whale-barnacle, the C.
regince. of Darwin, attached to a whale taken in the Gulf of St.
Lawrence, and which had possibly succeeded in making that
passage around the north of America which so many navigators
have essayed in vain.^

But it is to be remarked that while many plants and marine
invertebrates are common to the two sides of the Atlantic, it
is different with land animals, and especially vertebrates. I do
not know that any palaeozoic insects or land snails or millipedes
of Europe and America are specifically identical, and of the
numerous species of batrachians of the Carboniferous and
reptiles of the Mesozoic, all seem to be distinct on the two
sides. The same appears to be the case with the Tertiary
mammals, until in the later stages of that great period we find
such genera as the horse, the camel, and the elephant appear-
ing on the two sides of the Atlantic ; but even then the species
seem different, except in the case of a few northern forms.

Some of the longer-lived mollusks of the Atlantic furnish
suggestions which remarkably illustrate the biological aspect of
these questions. Our familiar friend the oyster is one of these.
The first-known oysters appear in the Carboniferous in Belgium
and in the United States of America. In the Carboniferous
and Permian they are few and small, and they do not culminate
till the Cretaceous, in which there are no less than ninety-one
so-called species in America alone ; but some of the largest
known species are found in the Eocene. The oyster, thougli

^ I am informed, however, that the Coronula is found also in the Bis-
cayan whales.

88 THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC

an inhabitant of shallow water, and very limitedly locomotive
when young, has survived all the changes since the Carbon-
iferous age, and has spread itself over the whole northern
hemisphere, 1 though a warm water rather than Arctic type.

I have collected fossil oysters in the Cretaceous clays of the
coulees of Western Canada, in the Lias shales of England, in
the Eocene and the Cretaceous beds of the Alps, of Egypt, of
the Red Sea coast, of Judea, and the heights of Lebanon.
Everywhere and in all formations they present forms which are
so variable and yet so similar that one might suppose all the
so-called species to be mere varieties. Did the oyster originate
separately on the two sides of the Atlantic, or did it cross over
so promptly that its appearance seems to be identical on the
two sides ? Are all the oysters of a common ancestry, or did
the causes, whatever they were, which introduced the oyster in
the Carboniferous act over again in later periods ? Who can
tell? This is one of the cases where causation and develop-
ment— the two scientific factors which constitute the basis of
what is called evolution —cannot easily be isolated. I would
recommend to those biologists who discuss these questions to
devote themselves to the oyster. This familiar moUusk has
successfully pursued its course, and has overcome all its enemies,
from the fiat-toothed selachians of the Carboniferous to the
oyster dredges of the present day, has varied almost indefinitely,
and yet has continued to be an oyster, unless, indeed, it may at
certain portions of its career have temporarily assumed the
guise of a Gryphsea or an Exogyra. The history of such an
animal deserves to be traced with care, and much curious in-
formation respecting it will be found in the report which I have
cited in the note.

But in these respects the oyster is merely an example of
many forms. Similar considerations apply to all those Pliocene
and Pleistocene mollusks which arc found in the raised sea
' ^^'hite, Ji!e/>ori U. S. Gcol. SufZ'cy, 1882-83.

THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC 89

bottoms of Norway and Scotland, on the top of Moel Tryfaen,
in Wales, and at similar great heights on the hills of America,
many of which can be traced back to early Tertiary times, and
can be found to have extended themselves over all the seas of
the northern hemisphere. They apply in like manner to the
ferns, the conifers, and the broad-leaved trees, many of which
we can now trace without specific change to the Eocene and
Cretaceous. They all show that the forms of living things are
more stable than the lands and seas in which they live. If we
were to adopt some of the modern ideas of evolution, we might
cut the Gordian knot by supposing that, as like causes produce
like effects, these types of life have originated more than once
in geological time, and need not be genetically connected with
each other. But while evolutionists repudiate such an appli-
cation of their doctrine, however natural and rational, it would
seem that nature still more strongly repudiates it, and will not
allow us to assume more than one origin for one species.
Thus the great question of geographical distribution remains
in all its force ; and. by still another of our geological paradoxes,
mountains become ephemeral things in comparison with the
delicate herbage which covers them, and seas are in their pre-
sent extent but of yesterday, when compared with the minute
and feeble organisms that creep on their sands or swim in their
waters.

The question remains : Has the Atlantic achieved its des-
tiny and finished its course, or are there other changes in store
for it in the future ? The earth's crust is now thicker and
stronger than ever before, and its great ribs of crushed and
folded rock are more firm and rigid than in any previous period.
The stupendous volcanic phenomena manifested in Mesozoic
and early Tertiary times along the borders of the Atlantic
have apparently died out. These facts are in so far guarantees
of permanence. On the other hand, it is known that move-
ments of elevation, along with local depression, are in progress

90 THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC

in the Arctic regions, and a great weight of new sediment is
being deposited along the borders of the Atlantic, especially
on its western side ; and this is not improbably connected with
the earthquake shocks and slight movements of depression
which have occurred in North America. It is possible that
these slight and secular movements may go on uninterruptedly,
or with occasional paroxysmal disturbances, until considerable
changes are produced.

It is possible, on the other hand, that after the long period
of quiescence which has elapsed, there may be a new settlement
of the ocean bed, accompanied with foldings of the crust, es-
pecially on the western side of the Atlantic, and possibly with
renewed volcanic activity on its eastern margin. In either
case, a long time relatively to our limited human chronology
may intervene before the occurrence of any marked change.
On the whole, the experience of the past would lead us to ex-
pect movements and eruptive discharges in the Pacific rather
than in the Atlantic area. It is therefore not unlikely that the
Atlantic may remain undisturbed, unless secondarily and in-
directly, until after the Pacific area shall have attained to a
greater degree of quiescence than at present. But this subject
is one too much involved in uncertainty to warrant us in follow-
ing it farther.

In the meantime the Atlantic is to us a practically permanent
ocean, varying only its tides, its currents, and its winds, which
science has already reduced to definite laws, so that we can
use if we cannot regulate them. It is ours to take advantage
of this precious time of quietude, and to extend the blessings
of science and of our Christian civilisation from shore to shore,
until there shall be no more sea, not in the sense of that final
drying-up of old ocean to which some physicists look forward,
but in the higher sense of its ceasing to be the emblem of un-
rest and disturbance, and the cause of isolation.

I must now close this chapter with a short statement of some

THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC 9 1

general truths which I have had in view in directing attention
to the geological development of the Atlantic. We cannot,
I think, consider the topics to which I have referred with-
out perceiving that the history of ocean and continent is an
example of progressive design, quite as much as that of living
beings. Nor can we fail to see that, while in some important
directions we have penetrated the great secret of nature, in
reference to the general plan and structure of the earth and
its w^aters, and the changes through which they have passed,
we have still very much to learn, and perhaps quite as much to
unlearn, and that the future holds out to us and to our suc-
cessors higher, grander, and clearer conceptions than those to
which we have yet attained. The vastness and the might of
ocean and the manner in which it cherishes the feeblest and
most fragile beings, alike speak to us of Him who holds it in
the hollow of His hand, and gave to it of old its boundaries
and its laws ; but its teaching ascends to a higher tone when
we consider its origin and history, and the manner in which it
has been made to build up continents and mountain-chains,
and, at the same time, to nourish and sustain the teeming life
of sea and land.

References : — Presidential Address to the British Association for tlie

Advancement of Science, Birmingham, 1SS6. " Geology of Nova

Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island." Fourth
Edition, London, 1S91.

S. E.

THE DAWX OF LIFE.

DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF
SIR WILLIAM E. LOGAX,

The UNWEARIED Explorer of the Laurentlvn Rocks,
AND THE Founder

OF THE

Geological Survey of Canada.

What are the Oldest Rocks, and where? — Conditions
OF their Formation — Indications of Life— What its
probable" Nature

XATURE-rRiXT 01" Eozoox, showiiig laiiiinateJ, acervuline, and fragniental

portions.

This is printed from an electrotype taken from an etched slab of Eozoon,
and not touched with a graver except to remedy some accidental flaws in
the plate. Tlie diagonal white line marks the course of a calcite vein.

CHAPTER V.
THE DAWN OF LIFE

DO we know the first animal ? Can we name it, explain
its structure, and state its relations to its successors ?
Can we do this by inference from the succeeding types of
being ; and if so, do our anticipations agree with any actual
reality disinterred from the earth's crust ? If we could do this ,
either by inference or actual discovery, how strange it would
be to know that we had before us even the remains of the first
creature that could feel or will, and could place itself in vital
relation with the great powers of inanimate nature. If we
believe in a Creator, we shall feel it a solemn thing to have
access to the first creature into which He breathed the breath
of life. If we hold that all things have been evolved from
collision of dead forces, then the first molecules of matter
which took upon themselves the responsibility of living, and,
aiming at the enjoyment of happiness, subjected themselves to
the dread alternatives of pain and mortality, must surely evoke
from us that filial reverence which we owe to the authors of
our own being ; if they do not involuntarily draw forth even a
superstitious adoration. The veneration of the old Egyptian
for his sacred animals would be a comparatively reasonable
idolatry, if we could imagine any of these animals to have
been the first that emerged from the domain of dead matter,
and the first link in a reproductive chain of being that produced
all the population of the world. Independently of any such
hypotheses, all students of nature must regard with surpassing

96 THE DAWN OF LIFE

interest the first bright streaks of h'ght that break on the long
reign of primeval night and death, and presage the busy day
of teeming animal existence.

No wonder, then, that geologists have long and earnestly
groped in the rocky archives of the earth in search of some
record of this patriarch of the animal kingdom. But after
long and patient research there still remained a large residuum
of the oldest rocks destitute of all traces of living beings, and
designated by the hopeless name " Azoic," — the formations
destitute of remains of life, the stony records of a lifeless
world. So the matter remained till the Laurentian rocks of
Canada, lying at the base of these old Azoic formations,
afforded forms believed to be of organic origin. The dis-
covery was hailed with enthusiasm by those wlio had been
prepared by previous study to receive it. It was regarded with
feeble and not very intelligent faith by many more, and was
met with half-concealed or open scepticism by others. It pro-
duced a copious crop of descriptive and controversial literature,
but for the most part technical, and confined to scientific trans-
actions and periodicals, read by very few except specialists.
Thus, few even of geological and biological students have clear
ideas of the real nature and mode of occurrence of these
ancient organisms, if organisms they are, and of their relations
to better known forms of life ; while the crudest and most in-
accurate ideas have been current in lectures and popular books,
and even in text-books.

-This state of things has long ceased to be desirable in the
interests of science, since the settlement of the questions raised
is in the highest degree important to the history of life. We
cannot, it is true, aflirm that Eo/.oon is in reality the long-
sought prototype of animal existence ; but it was for us, at
least until recently, the last organic foothold, on which we can
poise ourselves, that we may look back into the abyss of the infi-
nite past, and forward to the long and varied progress of life in

THE DAWN OF LIFE 9/

geological time. Now, however, we have announcements to be
referred to in the sequel of other organisms discovered in the
so-called Archaean rocks ; and it is not improbable that these
will rapidly increase. The discussion of its claims have also
raised questions and introduced new points, certain, if properly
entered into, to be fruitful of interesting and valuable thought,
and to form a good introduction to the history of life in con-
nection with geology.

As we descend in depth and time into the earth's crust,
after passing through nearly all the vast series of strata consti-
tuting the monuments of geological history, we at length reach
the Eozoic or Laurentian rocks,' deepest and oldest of all the
formations known to the geologist, and more thoroughly altered
or metamorphosed by heat and heated moisture than any
others. These rocks, at one time known as Azoic, being sup-
posed destitute of all remains of living things, but now more
properly Eozoic, are those in which the first bright streaks of
the dawn of life make their appearance.

The name I.aurentian, given originally to the Canadian
develoi)ment of these rocks by Sir William Logan, but now
applied to them throughout the world, is derived from a range
of hills lying north of the St. Lawrence valley, which the old
French geographers named the Laurentides. In these hills
the harder rocks of this old formation rise to considerable
heights, and form the highlands separating the St. Lawrence
valley from the great plain fronting on Hudson's Bay and the
Arctic Sea. At first sight it may seem strange that rocks so
ancient should anywhere appear at the surface, especially on
the tops of hills ; but this is a necessary result of the mode of
formation of our continents. The most ancient sediments
deposited in the sea were those first elevated into land, and
first altered and hardened. Upheaved in the folding of the
earth's crust into high and rugged ridges, they have either re-
^ Otherwise named "Archiran."

98 THE DAWN OF LIFE

mained uncovered with newer sediments, or have had such as
were deposited on them washed away ; and being of a hard
and resisting nature, they have remained comparatively unworn
when rocks much more modern have been swept off by denud-
ing agencies.^

But the exposure of the old Laurentian skeleton of mother
earth is not confined to the Laurentide Hills, though these
have given the formation its name. The same ancient rocks
appear in the Adirondack mountains of New York, and in
the patches which at lower levels protrude from beneath the
newer formations along the American coast from Newfoundland
to Maryland. The older gneisses of Norway, Sweden, and
the Hebrides, of Bavaria and Bohemia, of Egypt, Abyssinia
and Arabia, belong to the same age, and it is not unlikely that
similar rocks in many other parts of the old continent will be
found to be of as great antiquity. In no part of the world,
however, are the Laurentian rocks more extensively distributed
or better known than in Canada ; and to this as the grandest
and most instructive development of them we may more
especially devote our attention.

The Laurentian rocks, associated with another series only a
little younger, the Huronian, form a great belt of broken and
hilly country, extending from Labrador across the north of
Canada to Lake Superior, and thence bending northward to
the Arctic Sea. Everywhere on the lower St. Lawrence they
appear as ranges of billowy rounded ridges on the north side
of the river, and as viewed from the water or the southern
shore, especially when sunset deepens their tints to blue and
violet, they present a grand and massive appearance, which, in
the eye of the geologist, who knows that they have endured
the battles and the storms of time longer than any other moun-

' This iinplics tlie permanence of continents in llieir main features, a
doctrine the writer lias maintained for tliirty years, and wliich is discussed
elsewhere.

THE DAWN OF LIFE 99

tains, invests them with the dignity which their mere elevation
would fail to give. (Fig. i.) In the isolated mass of the
Adirondacks, south of the Canadian frontier, they rise to a
still greater elevation, and form an imposing mountain group,
almost equal in height to their somewhat more modern rivals,
the White Mountains, which face them on the opposite side of
Lake Champlain.

The grandeur of the old Laurentian ranges is, however, best
displayed where they have been cut across by the great trans-
verse gorge of the Saguenay, and where the magnificent preci-
pices, known as Capes Trinity and Eternity, look down from
their elevation of 1,500 feet on the fiord, which at their feet is
more than 100 fathoms deep. The name Eternity applied to
such a mass is geologically scarcely a misnomer, for it dates
back to the very dawn of geological time, and is of hoar
antiquity in comparison with such upstart ranges as the Andes
and the Alps. (See Frontispiece.)

On a nearer acquaintance, the Laurentian country appears
as a broken and hilly upland and highland district, clad in its
pristine state with magnificent forests, but affording few attrac-
tions to the agriculturist, except in the valleys, which follow the
lines of its softer beds, while it is a favourite region for the
angler, the hunter, and the lumberman. ]\Lany of the Lauren-
tian townships of Canada are, however, already extensively
settled, and the traveller may pass through a succession of
more or less cultivated valleys, bounded by rocks or wooded
hills and crags, and diversified by running streams and roman-
tic lakes and ponds, constituting a country always picturesque
and often beautiful, and rearing a strong and hardy population.
To the geologist it presents in the main immensely thick beds
of gneiss, bedded diorite and quartzite, and similar crystalline
rocks, contorted in the most remarkable manner, so that if
they could be flattened out they would serve as a skin much
too large for mother earth in her present state, so much has

THE DAWX OF LIfE

.\ir.M. lit

I
1

"^i.

'''y'm Z I

,;i.l

THE DAWN OF LIFE lOI

she shmnk and vnnkled ance those
youthful days when the Lanroitian roc^
woe her outer covering.

I cannot describe such locks, but their
names, as givoi in the section. Fig. 2.
win teQ something to those who have
any knowledge of the older crystalline
materials of the earth s crusL To those
who have not, I would advise a visit to
some cUff on the lower Sl Lawrence^ or
the Hebridean coasts, or the shore of
Norway, whoe the old hard crystalline
and gnaried beds {nresent their sharp
edges to the ever raging sea, and show
tfadr endless alternations of various kinds
and colours of strata, often diversified
with veins and nests of crystalline
minerals. He who has seen and studied
such a section of Laurentian rock carmot
forget it

The elaborate stradgrai^cal work of
Sir WllUam Logan has proved that these
old ajstalUne rocks are bedded or
stratified, and that they must have been
deposited in succession by some process
of aqueous action. They have, however,
through geological ages of vast duration
been subjected to pressure and chemical
action, which have, as stated in a pre-
vious chapter, much modified their struc-
ture, while it is also certain that they
must have differed originally 6rom the
sands, clays and other materials laid
down in the sea in later times.

102 THE DAWN OF LIFE

It is interesting to notice here that the Laurentian rocks
thus interpreted show that the oldest known portions of our
continents were formed in the waters. They are oceanic sedi-
ments deposited perhaps when there was no dry land, or very
little, and that little unknown to us, except in so far as its
debris may have entered into the composition of the Lauren-
tian rocks themselves. Thus the earliest condition of the
earth known to the geologist is one in which old ocean was
already dominant on its surface ; and any previous condition
when the surface was heated, and the water constituted an
abyss of vapours enveloping its surface, or any still earlier con-
dition in which the earth was gaseous or vaporous, is a matter
of mere inference, not of actual observation. The formless
and void chaos is a deduction of chemical and physical prin-
ciples, not a fact observed by the geologist. Still we know,
from the great dykes and masses of igneous or molten rock
which traverse the Laurentian beds, that even at that early
period there were deep-seated fires beneath the crust ; and it
is quite possible that volcanic agencies then manifested them-
selves, not only with quite as great intensity, but also in the
same manner, as at subsequent times. It is thus not unlikeh-
that much of the land undergoing waste in the earlier Lauren-
tian time was of the same nature with recent volcanic ejections,
and that it formed groups of islands in an otherwise boundless
ocean.

However this may be, the distribution and extent of these
pre-Laurentian lands is, and probably ever must be, unknown
to us ; for it was only after the Laurentian rocks had been
deposited, and after the shrinkage and deformation of the
earth's crust in subsecjuent times had bent and contorted them,
that the foundations of the continents were laid. The rude
sketch map of America given in Fig. 3 will show this, and will
also show that the old Laurentian mountains mark out the
future form of the American continent.

THE DAWN OF LIFE

103

Some subsequent writers have, it is true, treated with dis-
behef Logan's great discoveries ; but no competent geologist
who has traced the regularly bedded limestones and other
rocks of his original fields of investigation could continue to
doubt. On this subject I may quote from my friend Dr.
Bonney, one of the most judicious of the builders who under-
take hypothetically to lay the foundation stones of the earth's

-Tlie Laurentian Nucleus of th

ilLl- I

Fig. 3.-

crust for our enlightenment in those later days. In an address
delivered at the Bath meeting of the British Association he
says : —

"The first deposits on the solidified crust of the earth would
obviously be igneous. As water condensed from the atmo-
sphere on the cooling surface, aqueous waste or condensation
would begin, and stratified deposits in the ocean would become

104 'THE DAWN OF LIFE

possible in addition to detrital volcanic material. But at that
time the crust itself, and even later stratified deposits would
often be kept for a considerable period at a high temperature.
Thus, not only rocks of igneous origin (including volcanic
ashes) would predominate in the lowest foundation stones, but
also secondary changes would occur more readily, and even
the sediments or precipitates might be greatly modified. As
time went on, true sediments would predominate over volcanic
materials, and these would be less and less affected by chemical
changes, and would more and more retain their original char-
acter. Thus we should expect that as we retraced the earth's
course through ' the corridor of time ' we should arrive at
rocks which, though crystalline in structure, were evidently in
great part sedimentary in origin, and should behind them find
rocks of more coarsely crystalline texture and more dubious
character, which, however, probably were in part of a like
origin, and should at last reach coarsely crystalline rocks, in
which, while occasional sediments would be possible, the
majority were originally igneous, though modified at a very
early period of their history. This corresponds with what we
find in nature, when we apply, cautiously and tentatively, the
principles of interpretation which guide us in stratigraphical
geology." ^

This expresses very well the general result of the patient
stratigraphical and chemical labours of Logan and Sterry
Hunt, as applied to the vast areas of old crystalline stratified
rocks in Canada, and which I have had abundant opportunities
to verify on the ground. Under the undoubted Cambrian
beds of Canada lies the Huronian, a formation largely of
hardened sands, clays and gravels, now forming sandstones,
slates, and conglomerates, but with great beds of igneous or
volcanic rock, and hardened and altered ash beds. Under

^ "The Foundation Stones of the Earth's Ciust," 1888. The extract is
slightly condensed.

THE DAWN OF LIFE I05

this, in the upper portion of the Laurentian, we have regularly
bedded rocks, quartzites, limestones, and quartzose, and gra-
phitic and ferruginous gneisses, evidently altered aqueous
sediments ; but intermixed with other rocks, as diorites and
hornblendic gneisses, which are plainly of different origin.
Lastly, on the bottom of all, we have nothing but coarse
crystalline gneiss, representing perhaps the earliest crust of a
cooling globe. Broadly, and without entering into details or
theoretical views as to the precise causes of formation and
alteration of these rocks, this is the structure of the Archasan
or Eozoic system in Canada ; and it corresponds with that of
the basement or foundation stones of our continents in every
country that I have been able to visit, or of which T have
trustworthy accounts.

In the lower or fundamental gneiss, and in the igneous beds
which succeed it, we need not look for any indications of
living beings; but so soon as the sea began to deposit sand,
mud, limestone, iron ore, carbon, there would be nothing to
exclude the presence of some forms of marine life ; while, as
land must have already existed, there would be a possibility of
life on it. This, therefore, we may begin to look for so soon
as we ascend to those beds of the Laurentian in, which lime-
stone, iron ore, and quartzite appear ; and it is precisely at this
point in the Laurentian of Canada that indications of life are
supposed to have been found. Certain it is that if we cannot
find some sign of life in the Laurentian or Huronian, we shall
have to face as the beginnings of life the swarms of marine
creatures that appear all over the globe at once, in the early
Cambrian age.

Is it likely, then, that such rocks should afford any traces of
living beings, even if any such existed when they were formed?
Geologists who had traced organic remains back to the lowest
Cambrian might hope for such remains, even in the Lauren-
tian ; but they long looked in vain for their actual discovery.

s. E. 8

I06 THE DAWN OF LIFE

Still, as astronomers have suspected the existence of unknown
planets from observing perturbations not accounted for, and
as voyagers have suspected the approach to unknown regions
by the appearance of floating wood or stray land birds, antici-
pations of such discoveries have been entertained and ex-
pressed from time to time. Lyell, Dana, and Dr. Sterry Hunt
more especially have committed themselves to such specula-
tions. The reasons assigned may be stated thus : —

Assuming the Laurentian rocks to be altered sediments,
tliey must, from their great extent, have been deposited in the
ocean ; and if there had been no living creatures in the waters,
we have no reason to believe that they would have consisted of
anything more than such sandy and muddy debris as may be
washed away from wasting rocks originally of igneous origin.
But the Laurentian beds contain other materials than these.
No formations of any geological age include thicker or more
extensive limestones. One of the beds measured by the
officers of the Geological Survey is stated to be 1,500 feet in
thickness, another is 1,250 feet thick, and a third, 750 feet;
making an aggregate of 3,500 feet.^ These beds may be traced,
with more or less interruption, for hundreds of miles. What-
ever the origin of such limestones, it is plain that they indicate
causes equal in extent, and comparable in power and duration,
with those which have produced the greatest limestones of the
later geological periods. Now, in later formations, limestone
is usually an organic rock, accumulated by the slow gathering
from the sea-water, or its plants, of calcareous matter, by
corals, foraminifera, or shell fish, and the deposition of their
skeletons, either entire or in fragments, in the sea bottom.
The most friable chalk and the most crystalline limestones
have alike been formed in this way. We know of no reason
why it should be different in the Laurentian period. When,

* Logan : "Geology of Canada," p. 45.

THE DAWN OF LIFE I07

therefore, we find great and conformable beds of limestone,
such as those described by Sir William Logan in the Lauren-
tian of Canada, we naturally imagine a quiet sea bottom, in
which multitudes of animals of humble organization were
accumulating limestone in their hard parts, and depositing
this in gradually increasing thickness from age to age. Any
attempts to account otherwise for these thick and greatly
extended beds, regularly interstratified with other deposits,
have so far been failures, and have arisen either from a want
of comprehension of the nature and magnitude of the appear-
ances to be explained, or from the error of mistaking the true
bedded limestones for veins of calcareous spar.

The Laurentian rocks contain great quantities of carbon, in
the form of graphite or plumbago. This does not occur
wholly, or even principally, in veins or fissures, but in the sub-
stance of the limestone and gneiss, and in regular layers. So
abundant is it, that I have estimated the amount of carbon in
one division of the Lower Laurentian of the Ottawa district at
an aggregate thickness of not less than twenty to thirty feet, an
amount comparable with that in the true coal formation itself
Now we know of no agency existing in present or in past
geological time capable of deoxidizing carbonic acid, and
fixing its carbon as an ingredient in permanent rocks, except
vegetable life. Unless, therefore, we suppose that there existed
in the Laurentian age a vast abundance of vegetation, either in
the sea or on the land, we have no means of explaining the
Laurentian graphite.

The Laurentian formation contains great beds of oxide of
iron, sometimes seventy feet in thickness. Here, again, we
have an evidence of organic action ; for it is the deoxidizing
power of vegetable matter which has in all the later formations
been the efficient cause in producing bedded deposits of iron.
This is the case in modern bog and lake ores, in the clay iron-
stones of the coal measures, and apparently, also, in the great

Io8 THE DAWN OF LIFE

ore beds of the Silurian rocks. May not similar causes have
been at work in the Laurentian period ?

Any one of these reasons might, in itself, be held insufficient
to prove so great and, at first sight, unlikely a conclusion as
that of the existence of abundant animal and vegetable life in
the Laurentian ; but the concurrence of the whole in a series
of deposits unquestionably marine, forms a chain of evidence
so powerful that it might command belief even if no fragment
of any organic and living form or structure had ever been
recognised in these ancient rocks.

Such was the condition of the matter until the existence of
supposed organic remains was announced by Sir W. Logan, at
the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in
Springfield, in 1859 ; and we may now proceed to narrate the
manner of this discovery, and how it has been followed up.

Before doing so, however, let us visit Eozoon in one of its
haunts among the Laurentian Hills. One of the most noted
repositories of its remains is the great Grenville band of lime-
stone; and one of the most fruitful localities is at a place
called Cote St. Pierre on this band. Leaving the train at
Papineauville, we find ourselves on the Laurentian rocks, and
pass over one of the great bands of gneiss for about twelve
miles, to the village of St. Andre Avelin. On the road we see
on either hand abrupt rocky ridges, partially clad with forest,
and sometimes showing on their flanks the stratification of the
gneiss in very distinct parallel bands, often contorted, as if the
rocks, when soft, had been wrung as a washerwoman wrings
clothes. Between the hills are little irregular valleys, from
which the wheat and oats have just been reaped, and the tall
Indian corn and yellow pumpkins are still standing in the
fields. Where not cultivated, the land is covered with a rich
second growth of young maples, birches, and oaks, among
which still stand the stumps and tall scathed trunks of enor-
mous pines, which constituted the original forest. Half way

THE DAWN OF LIFE IO9

we cross the Nation River, a stream nearly as large as the
Tweed, flowing placidly between wooded banks, which are
mirrored in its surface ; but in the distance we can hear the
roar of its rapids, dreaded by lumberers in their spring drivings
of logs. Arrived at St. Andre, we find a wider valley, the
indication of the change to the limestone band, and along this,
with the gneiss hills still in view on either hand, and often
encroaching on the road, we drive for five miles more to Cote
St. Pierre. At this place the lowest depression of the valley is
occupied by a little pond, and, hard by, the limestone, pro-

FiG. 4. — Attiuule of Limestone .it .St. Pierre, (a) Gneiss band in the
Limestone. (/') Limestone with Lozoon. {c) Dioiite and Gneiss.

tected by a ridge of gneiss, rises in an abrupt wooded bank by
the roadside, and a little farther forms a bare white promontory,
projecting into the fields.

The limestone is here highly inclined and nmch contorted,
and in all the excavations a thickness of about 100 feet of it
may be exposed. It is white and crystalline, varying much,
however, in coarseness in different bands. It is in some layers
pure and white ; in others it is traversed by many grey layers of
gneissose and other matter, or by irregular bands and nodules
of pyroxene and serpentine, and it contains subordinate beds of
dolomite. In one layer only, and this but a few feet thick,
does the Eozoon occur in abundance in a perfect state, though

no THE DAWN OF LIFE

fragments and imperfectly preserved specimens abound in
other parts of the bed. It is a great mistake to suppose that it
constitutes whole beds of rock in an uninterrupted mass. Its
true mode of occurrence is best seen on the weathered sur-
faces of the rock, where the serpentinous specimens project in
irregular patches of various sizes, sometimes twisted by the
contortion of the beds, but often too small to suffer in this way.
On such surfaces the projecting patches of the fossil exhibit
laminae of serpentine so precisely like the Stromatopone of the
Silurian rocks, that any collector would pounce upon them at
once as fossils. In some places these small weathered speci-
mens can be easily chipped off from the crumbling surface of
the limestone ; and it is perhaps to be regretted that they have
not been more extensively shown to palaeontologists, with the
cut slices which to many of them are so problematical. One
of the original specimens, brought from the Calumet, and now
in the Museum of the Geological Survey of Canada, was of
this kind, and much finer specimens from Cote St. Pierre are
now in that collection and in my own. A very fine example is
represented on the plate facing this chapter, which is taken
from an original photograph. In some of the layers are found
other and more minute vesicular forms, which may be organic,
and these, together with fragmental remains, as ingredients in
the limestone, will be discussed in the sequel. We may merely
notice here that the most abundant layer of P^ozoon at this
place occurs near the base of the great limestone band, and
that the upper layers, in so far as seen, are less rich in it.
Further, there is no necessary connection between Eozoon
and the occurrence of serpentine, for there are many layers full
of bands and lenticular masses of that mineral without any
Eozoon except occasional fragments, while the fossil is some-
times partially mineralised with pyroxene, dolomite, or common
limestone. The section in Fig. 4 will serve to show the atti-
tude of the limestone at this place, while the more general

THE DAWN OF LIFE I I I

section, Fig. 2, page loi, taken from Sir William Logan, shows
its relation to the other Laurentian rocks.

We may now notice the manner in which the specimens
discovered in this and other places in the Laurentian country
came to be regarded as organic.

It is a trite remark that most discoveries are made, not by one
person, but by the joint exertions of many, and that they have
their preparations made often long before they actually appear.
For this reason I may be excused here for introducing some
personal details in relation to the discovery of Eozoon, and
which are indeed necessary in vindication of its claims. Li this
case the stable foundations were laid years before the discovery
of Eozoon, by the careful surveys made by Sir William Logan
and his assistants, and the chemical examination of the rocks
and minerals by Dr. Sterry Hunt, which established beyond all
doubt the great age and truly bedded character of the Lauren-
tian rocks and their probable original nature, and the changes
which they have experienced in the course of geological time.
On the other hand, Dr. Carpenter and others in England were
examining the structure of the shells of the humbler inhabitants
of the modern ocean, and the manner in which the pores of
their skeletons become infiltrated with mineral matter when
deposited in the sea bottom. These laborious and apparently
dissimilar branches of scientific inquiry were destined to be
united by a series of happy discoveries, made not fortuitously
but by painstaking and intelligent observers. The discovery
of the most ancient fossil was thus not the chance picking up
of a rare and curious specimen. It was not likely to be found
in this way ; and if so found, it would have remained unnoticed
and of no scientific value, but for the accumulated stores of
zoological and palseontological knowledge, and the surveys
previously made, whereby the age and distribution of the
Laurentian rocks and the chemical conditions of their deposi-
tion and metamorphism were ascertained.

112 THE DAWN OF LIFE

The first specimens of Eozoon ever procured, in so far as
known, were collected at Burgess, in Ontario, by a veteran
Canadi.ui mineralogist, Dr. Wilson, of Perth, and were sent to
Sir William Logan as mineral specimens. Their chief interest
at that time lay in the fact that certain laminae of a dark green
mineral present in the specimens were found, on analysis by Dr.
Hunt, to be composed of a new hydrous silicate, allied to serpen-
tine, and which he named loganite. The form of this mineral
was not suspected to be of organic origin. Some years after, in
1858, other specimens, differently mineralized with the minerals
serpentine and pyroxene, were found by Mr. J. McMullen,
an explorer in the service of the Geological Survey, in the
limestone of the Grand Calumet on the River Ottawa. These
seem to have at once struck Sir W. E. Logan as resembling the
Silurian fossils known as Stroniatopora, and he showed them
to Mr. Billings, the paleontologist of the survey, and to the
writer, with this suggestion, confirming it with the sagacious
consideration that inasmuch as the Ottawa and Burgess speci-
mens were mineralized by different substances, yet were alike
in form, there was little probability that they were merely
mineral or concretionary. Mr. Billings was naturally unwilling
to risk his reputation in affirming the organic nature of such
specimens ; and my own suggestion was that they should be
sliced, and examined microscopically, and that if fossils, as they
presented merely concentric laminoi and no cells, they would
probably prove to be protozoa rather than corals. A few slices
were accordingly made, but no definite structure could be
detected. Nevertheless, Sir William Logan took some of the
specimens to the meeting of the American Association at
Springfield, in 1859, and exhibited them as possibly Laurentian
fossils ; but the announcement was evidently received with
some incredulity. Li 1862 they were exhibited by Sir William
to some geological friends in London, but he remarks that
"few seemed disposed to believe in their organic character,

Fig. I.

FjG. 2.

Fk

Fig. I. Small aPLCi.MEN of Eozoon, weathered out, natural size, from
a photograph.

Fig. 2. Canal System of Eozoon injected with serpentine (magni-
fied).

Fig. 3. Very fine Canals and Tukuli filled with Dolumite (magni-
fied).

(From Micro-photographs.-)

THE DAWN OF LIFE

113

with the exception of my friend, Professor Ramsay." In 1863
the general Report of the Geological Survey, summing up its

P"iG. 5. — Weathered Specimen of Eozoon from the Calumet.
(Collected by Mr. McMullen.)

\

MSSS1''V'1:.\

Fu;. 6. — Cross Section of the Specimen represented in Fig. 8. The
dark parts are the lamince of calcareous matter converging to the outer
surface.

114 THE DAWN OF LIFE

work to that time, was published, under the name of the
" Geology of Canada," and in this, at page 49, will be found
two figures of one of the Calumet specimens, here reproduced,
and which, though unaccompanied with any specific name or
technical description, were referred to as probably Laurentian
fossils. (Figs. 5 and 6.)

About this time Dr. Hunt happened to mention to me, in
connection with a paper on the mineralization of fossils which
he was preparing, that he proposed to notice the mode of
preservation of certain fossil woods and other things with
which I was familiar, and that he would show me the paper in
proof, in order that I might give him any suggestions that
occurred to me. On reading it, I observed, among other
things, that he alluded to the supposed Laurentian fossils,
under the impression that the organic part was represented by
the serpentine or loganite, and that the calcareous matter was
the filling of the chambers. I took exception to this, stating
that though in the slices I had examined no structure was
apparent, still my impression was that the calcareous matter
was the fossil, and the serpentine or loganite the filling. He
said- — " In that case, would it not be well to re-examine the
specimens, and try to discover which view is correct ? " He
mentioned, at the same time, that Sir ^\"illiam had recently
shown him some new and beautiful specimens collected by Mr.
Lowe, one of the explorers on the staff of the Survey, from a
third locality, at Grenville, on the Ottawa. It was supposed
that these might throw further light on the subject ; and
accordingly Dr. Hunt suggested to Sir ^\'illiam to have
additional slices of these new specimens made by Mr. Weston,
of the Survey, whose skill as a preparer of these and other
fossils has often done good service to science. A few days
thereafter some slices were sent to me, and were at once put
under the microscope. I was delighted to find in one of the
first specimens examined a beautiful group of tubuli penetrating

THE DAWN OF LIFE II5

one of the calcite layers. Here was evidence, not only that
the calcite layers represented the true skeleton of the fossil,
but also of its affinities with the foraminifera, whose tubulated
supplemental skeleton, as described and figured by Dr. Car-
penter, and represented in specimens in my collection, pre-
sented by him, was apparently of the same type with that
preserved in the canals of these ancient fossils. Hg. 7 is an
accurate representation of the group of canals first detected by
me.

}
I
(

(

Fig. 7. — Group of Canals in the Supplemental Skeleton of Eozoon.
Taken from the specimen in which they were first recognised. Magnified.
(Camera tracing by Mr. H. S. Smith.)

On showing the structures discovered to Sir William Logan,
he entered into the matter with enthusiasm, and had a great
number of slices, as well as decalcified specimens, prepared,
which were placed in my hands for examination.

Feeling that the discovery was most important, but that it
would be met with determined scepticism by a great many
geologists, I was not content with examining the typical speci-
.mens of Eozoon, but had slices prepared pf every variety of

Il6 THE DAWN OF LIFE

Laurentian limestone, of altered limestones from the Primordial
and Silurian, and of serpentine marbles of all the varieties
furnished by our collections. They were examined with ordi-
nary and polarized light, and with every variety of illumination.
They were also examined as decalcified specimens, after the
carbonate of lime had been removed by acids. An extensive
series of notes and camera tracings were made of all the
appearances observed ; and of some of the more important
structures beautiful drawings were executed by the late Mr.
H. S. Smith, the then palteontological draughtsman of the
Survey. The result of the whole investigation was a firm con-
viction that the structure was organic and foraminiferal, and
that it could be distinguished from any merely mineral or
crystalline forms occurring in these or other limestones.

At this stage of the matter, and after exhibiting to Sir
William all the characteristic appearances, in comparison with
such concretionary, dendritic and crystalline structures as
most resembled them, and also with the structure of recent and
fossil Foraminifera, I suggested that the further prosecution
of the matter should be handed over to Mr. Billings, as
paleontologist of the Survey. I was engaged in other re-
searches, not connected with the Survey or with this particular
department, and I knew that no little labour must be devoted
to the work and to its publication, and that some controversy
might be expected. Mr. Billings, however, with his character-
istic caution and modesty, declined. His hands were full of
other work. He had not given any special attention to the
microscopic appearances of Foraminifera or of mineral sub-
stances. It w^as finally arranged that I should prepare a de
scription of the fossil, which Sir William would take to London,
along with the more important specimens, and a detailed list
stating all the structures observed in each. Sir AN'illiam was to
submit the manuscript and specimens to Dr. Carpenter, or,
failing him, to Prof. T. Rupert Jones, in the hope that these

THE DAWN OF LIFE II7

eminent authorities would confirm my conclusions, and bring
forward new facts which I might have overlooked or been
ignorant of. Sir William saw both gentlemen, who gave their
testimony in favour of the organic and foraminiferal character
of the specimens ; and Dr. Carpenter, in particular, gave much
attention to the subject, and worked out more in detail many
of the finer structures, besides contributing valuable suggestions
as to the probable affinities of the supposed fossil.

Dr. Carpenter thus contributed in a very important manner
to the perfecting of the investigations begun in Canada, and on
him fell the greater part of their illustration and defence,^ in so
far as Great Britain is concerned.

The immediate result was a composite paper in the Pro-
ceedings of the Geological Society, by Sir W. E. Logan, Dr. Car-
penter, Dr. Hunt, and myself, in which the geology, palaeonto-
logy and mineralogy of Eozoon Canadense and its containing
rocks were first given to the world.^ It cannot be wondered at
that when geologists and palseontologists were thus required to
believe in the existence of organic remains in rocks regarded as
altogether Azoic and hopelessly barren of fossils, and to carry
back the dawn of life as far before those Primordial rocks,
which were supposed to contain its first traces, as these are
before the middle period of the earth's life history, some hesita-
tion should be felt Further, the accurate appreciation of the
evidence for such a fossil as Eozoon required an amount of
knowledge of minerals, of the more humble types of animals,
and of the conditions of mineralization of organic remains, pos-
sessed by few even of professional geologists. Thus Eozoon has
met with some scepticism and not a little opposition, — though
the latter has been weaker than we might have expected when

^ In Quaiterly Journal of Geological Society, vol. xxii. ; Proc. Royal
Society, vol. xv. ; Intellectual Observer, 1S65. Annals and Magazine of
Natural History, 1874 ; and other papers and notices.

'^ Journal Ceolooical Society, February, 1865.

IlS THE DAWN OF LIFE

we consider the startling character of the facts adduced, and
has mostly come from men imperfectly informed.

But what is Eozoon, if really of animal origin ? The shortest
answer to this question is, that this ancient fossil is supposed
to be the skeleton of a creature belonging to that simple and
humbly organized group of animals which are known by the
name Protozoa. If we take as a fi^miliar example of these the
gelatinous and microscopic creature found in stagnant ponds,
and known as the Amceba ^ (Fig. 8), it will form a convenient
starting-point. Viewed under a low power, it appears as a
little patch of jelly, irregular in form, and constantly changing
its aspect as it moves, by the extension of parts of its body into
finger-like processes or pseudopods which serve as extempore
limbs. When moving on the surface of a slip of glass under
the microscope, it seems, as it were, to flow along rather than
creep, and its body appears to be of a semi-fluid consistency.
It may be taken as an example of the least complex forms of
animal life known to us, and is often spoken of by naturalists
as if it were merely a little particle of living and scarcely organ-
ized jelly or protoplasm. When minutely examined, however,
it will not be found so simple as it at first sight appears. Its
outer layer is clear and transparent, and more dense than the
inner mass, which seems granular. It has at one end a curious
vesicle which can be seen gradually to expand and become
filled with a clear drop of liquid, and then suddenly to contract
and expel the contained fluid through a series of pores in the
adjacent part of the outer wall. This is the so-called pulsating
vesicle, and is an organ both of circulation and excretion. In
another part of the body may be seen the nucleus, which is a
little cell capable, at certain times, of producing by its division
new individuals. Food, when taken in through the wall of the
body, forms little pellets, which become surrounded by a

^ The allemnting animal, alluding to its change of form.

THE DAWN OF LIFE

119

digestive liquid exuded from the enclosing mass into rounded
cavities or extemporised stomachs. Minute granules are seen
to circulate in the gelatinous interior, and may be substitutes
for blood-cells, and the outer layer of the body is capable of
protrusion in any direction into long processes, which are very
mobile, and used for locomotion and prehension. Further,
this creature, though destitute of most of the i)arts which we
are accustomed to regard as proper to animals, seems to exer-
cise volition, and to show the same appetites and passions with
animals of higher tyi)e. I have watched one of these animal-

FlG. 8. Amoeba. FiG. 9. Actinophrys.

From original sketches.

cules endeavouring to swallow a one-celled plant as long as its
own body; evidently hungry and eager to devour the tempting
morsel, it stretched itself to its full extent, trying to envelope
the object of its desire. It failed again and again ; but renewed
the attempt, until at length, convinced of its hopelessness, it
flung itself away as if in disappointment, and made off in search
of something more manageable. With the Amoeba are found
other types of equally simple Protozoa, but somewhat differently
S. E. 9

I20 THE DAWN OF LIFE

organized. One of these, Acfinofhrys (Fig. 9), has the body
globular and unchanging in form, the outer wall of greater thick-
ness ; the pulsating vesicle like a blister on the surface, and the
pseudopods long and thread-like. Its habits are similar to
those of the Amoeba, and I introduce it to show the variations
of form and structure possible even among these simple
creatures.

The Amoeba and Actinophrys are fresh-water animals, and
are destitute of any shell or covering. But in the sea there ex-
ist swarms of similar creatures, equally simple in organization,
but gifted with the power of secreting around their soft bodies
beautiful little shells or crusts of carbonate of lime, having one
orifice, and often in addition multitudes of microscopic pores
through which the soft gelatinous matter can ooze, and form
outside finger-like or thread-like extensions for collecting food.
In some cases the shell consists of a single cavity only, but in
most, after one cell is completed, others are added, forming
a series of cells or chambers communicating with each other,
and often arranged spirally or otherwise in most beautiful and
symmetrical forms. Some of these creatures, usually named
Foraminifera, are locomotive, others sessile and attached.
Most of them are microscopic, but some grow by multiplication
of chambers till they are a quarter of an inch or more in
breadth.

The original skeleton or primary cell wall of most of these
creatures is seen under the miscroscope to be perforated with
innumerable pores, and is extremely thin. When, however,
owing to the increaseol size of the shell, or other wants of the
creature, it is necessary to give strength, this is done by add-
ing new portions of carbonate of lime to the outside, and to
these Dr. Carpenter has given the appropriate name of " sup-
plemental skeleton " ; and this, when covered by new growths,
becomes what he has termed an " intermediate skeleton." The
supplemental skeleton is also traversed by tubes, but these are

THE DAWN OF LIFE 121

often of larger size than the pores of the cell-wall, and of
greater length, and branched in a complicated manner. Thus
there are microscopic characters by which these curious shells
can be distinguished from those of other marine animals ; and
by applying these characters we learn that multitudes of
creatures of this type have existed in former periods of the
world's history, and that their shells, accumulated in the bottom
of the sea, constitute large portions of many limestones. The
manner in which such accumulation takes place we learn from
what is now going on in the ocean, more especially from the
result of the recent deep-sea dredging expeditions. The
Foraminifera are vastly numerous, both near the surface and
at the bottom of the sea, and multiply rapidly ; and as suc-
cessive generations die, their shells accumulate on the ocean
bed, or are swept by currents into banks, and thus, in process
of time, constitute thick beds of white chalky material, which
may eventually be hardened into limestone. This process
is now depositing a great thickness of white ooze in the bottom
of the ocean ; and in times past it has produced such vast
thicknesses of calcareous matter as the chalk and nummulitic
limestone of Europe and the orbitoidal limestone of America.
The chalk which alone attains a maximum thickness of i,ooo
feet, and, according to Lyell, can be traced across Europe for
i,ioo geographical miles, may be said to be entirely composed
of shells of Foraminifera imbedded in a paste of smaller
calcareous bodies, the Coccoliths, which are probably products
of marine vegetable life, if not of some animal organism still
simpler than the Foraminifera.

Lastly, while we have in such modern forms as the masses
of Polytrema attached to corals, and the Loftusa of the
Eocene and the carboniferous, large fossil foraminiferal
species, there is some reason to believe that in the earlier geo-
logical ages there existed much larger animals of this grade
than are found in our present seas ; and that these, always

122 THE DAWN OF LIFE

sessile on the bottom, grew by the addition of successive
chambers, in the same manner with the smaller species.^

Let us, then, examine the structure of Eozoon, taking a
typical specimen, as we find it in the limestone of Grenville or
Petite Nation. In such specimens the skeleton of the animal
is represented by a white crystalline marble, the cavities of the
cells by green serpentine, the mode of whose introduction we
shall have to consider in the sequel. The lowest layer of ser-
pentine represents the first gelatinous coat of animal matter
which grew upon the bottom, and which, if we could have
seen it before any shell was formed upon its surface, must have
resembled a minute patch of living slime. On this primary
layer grew a delicate calcareous shell, perforated by innumer-
able minute tubuli, and resting on the slimy matter of the
animal, though supported also by some perpendicular plates or
septa. Upon this again was built up, in order to strengthen it,
a thickening or supplemental skeleton, more dense, and desti-
tute of fine tubuli, but traversed by branching canals, through
which the soft gelatinous matter could pass for the nourish-
ment of the skeleton itself, and the extension of pseudopods be-
yond it. (Figs. 11,12.) So was formed the first layer of Eozoon,
which probably was at its beginning only of very small dimen-
sions. On this the process of growth of successive layers of
animal sarcode and of calcareous skeleton w-as repeated again
and again, till in some cases even a hundred or more layers
were formed (nature-print. Chap. VI.) As the process went on,
however, the vitality of the organism became exhausted, prob-
ably by the deficient nourishment of the central and lower
layers making greater and greater demands on those above,
and so the succeeding layers became thinner, and less sup-
plemental skeleton was developed. Finally, toward the top,
the regular arrangement in layers was abandoned, and the cells

* I refer to some of the Stromatoporrc of the Silurian and the Cryptozoon
of the Cambrian. See note appended to this chapter.

THE DAWN OF LIFE

123

became a mass of rounded chambers, irregularly piled up in
what Dr. Carpenter has termed an "acervuline" manner, and
with very thin walls unprotected by supplemental skeleton.
Then the growth was arrested, and possibly these upper layers
gave off reproductive germs, fitted to float or swim away and
to establish new colonies. We may have such reproductive
germs in certain curious globular bodies, like loose cells, found
in connection with Eozoon in many of the Laurentian lime-

i:^/mm>

1 '/ 1/ -I

. .^ ' Ik

imm

Fig. 10. — Minute Foraminiferal forms from the Lnurcntiaii of Long
Lake. Highly magnified, {a) Single cell, showing tubulated wall. {^>, f)
Portions of same more highly magnified. (if) Serpentine cast of a
similar chamber, decalcified, and showing casts of tubuli.

stones.^ At St. Pierre, on the Ottawa, these bodies occur on
the surface of layers of the limestone in vast numbers, as if
they had been growing separately on the bottom, or had been
drifted over it by currents. They may have served as repro-

' It would be interesting to compare these bodies with the forms re-
cently found by Barrois and Cayeux in the "Azoic " quartzite of Brittany,
which should certainly now be called Eozoic.

124 THE DAWN OF LIFE

ductive buds or germs to establish new colonies of the species.
Such was the general mode of growth of Eozoon, and we may
now consider more in detail some questions as to its gigantic
size, its precise mode of nutrition, the arrangement of its
parts, its relations to more modern forms, and the effects of
its growth in the Laurentian seas.

, AVith respect to the size of Eozoon, this was rivalled by
some succeeding animals of the same humble type in later geo-
logical ages ; and, as a whole, foraminiferal animals have been
diminishing in size in the lapse of geological time. This is
indeed a fact of so frequent occurrence that it may almost be
regarded as a law of the introduction of new forms of life,
that they assume in their early history gigantic dimensions,
and are afterwards continued by less magnificent species. The
relations of this to external conditions, in the case of higher
animals, are often complex and difficult to understand ; but in
organisms so low as Eozoon and its allies, they lie more
on the surface. Such creatures may be regarded as the
simplest and most ready media for the conversion of vegetable
matter into animal tissues, and their functions are almost
entirely limited to those of nutrition. Hence it is likely tliat
they will be able to appear in the most gigantic forms under
such conditions as afford them the greatest amount of pabulum
for the nourishment of their soft parts and for their skeletons.
There is reason to believe, for example, that the occurrence,
both in the chalk and the deep-sea mud, of immense quanti-
ties of the minute bodies known as Coccoliths along with
P'oraminifera, is not accidental. The Coccoliths appear to be
grains of calcareous matter formed in minute plants adapted
to a deep-sea habitat ; and these, along with the vegetable
and animal debris constantly being derived from the death of
the living things at the surface, afford the material both of
sarcode and shell. Now if the Laurentian graphite represents
an exuberance of vegetable growth in those old seas propor-

THE DAWN OF LIFE I25

tionate to the great supplies of carbonic acid in the atmosphere
and in the waters, and if the Eozoic ocean was even better
supphed with salts of lime than those Silurian seas whose vast
limestones bear testimony to their richness in such material,
we can easily imagine that the conditions may have been more
favourable to a creature like Eozoon than those of any other
period of geological time.

Growing, as Eozoon did, on the floor of the ocean, and
covering wide patches with more or less irregular masses, it
must have thrown up from its whole surface its pseudopods
to seize whatever floating particles of food the waters carried
over it. There is also reason to believe, from the outline of
certain specimens, that it often grew upward in conical or club-
shaped forms, and that the broader patches were penetrated by
large pits or oscula, admitting the sea-water deeply into the
substance of the masses. In this way its growth might be
rapid and continuous ; but it does not seem to have possessed
the power of growing indefinitely by new and living layers
covering those that had died, in the manner of some corals. Its
life seems to have had a definite termination, and when that
was reached, an entirely new colony had to be commenced.
In this it had more affinity with the Foraminifera, as we now
know them, than with the corals, though practically it had the
same power with the coral polyps of accumulating limestone
in the sea bottom^a power indeed still possessed by its fora-
miniferal successors. In the case of coral limestones we
know that a large proportion of these consist not of continuous
reefs, but of fragments of coral mixed with other calcareous
organisms, spread usually by waves and currents in continuous
beds over the sea bottom. In like manner we find in the
limestones containing Eozoon, layers of fragmental matter
which show in places the characteristic structures, and which
evidently represent the debris swept from the Eozoic masses
and reefs by the action of the waves. It is with this frag-

126 THE DAWN OF LIFE

mental matter that the small rounded organisms already re-
ferred to most frequently occur ; and while they may be
distinct animals, they may also be the fry of Eozoon, or small
portions of its acer\-uline upper surface floated off in a living
state, and possibly capable of living independently and of
founding new colonies.

It is only by a somewhat wild poetical licence that Eozoon
has been represented as a " kind of enormous composite
animal stretching from the shores of Labrador to Lake
Superior, and thence northward and southward to an unknown
distance, and forming masses 1,500 feet in depth."' We may,
it is true, readily believe in the composite nature of masses of
Eozoon, and we see in the corals evidence of the great size to
which composite animals of a higher grade can attain. In the
case of Eozoon we must imagine an ocean floor more uniform
and level than that now existing. On this the organism would
establish itself in spots and patches. These might finally be-
come confluent over large areas, just as massive corals do.
As individual masses attained maturity and died, their pores
would be filled up with limestone or silicious deposits, and
thus could form a solid basis for new generations, and in this
way limestone to an indefinite extent might be produced.
Further, wherever such masses were high enough to be
attacked by the breakers, or v.here portions of the sea bottom
were elevated, the more fragile parts of the surface would
be broken up and scattered widely in beds of fragments over
the bottom of the sea, while here and there beds of mud or
sand, or of volcanic debris would be deposited over the li\ing
or dead organic mass, and would form the layers of gneiss
and other schistose rocks interstratified with the Laurentian
limestone. In this way, in short, Eozoon would perform a
function combining that which corals and Foraminifera perform
in the modern seas ; forming both reef limestones and exten-
sive chalky beds, and probably living both in the shallow and

THE DAWN OF LTFE 12/

the deeper parts of the ocean. If in connection with this we
consider the rapidity with which the soft, simple, and almost
structureless sarcode of these Protozoa can be built up, and
the probability that they were more abundantly supplied with
food, both for nourishing their soft parts and skeletons, than
any similar creatures in later times, we can readily understand
the great volume and extent of the Laurentian limestones
which they aided in producing. I say aided in producing,
because I would not care to commit myself to the doctrine
that the Laurentian limestones are wholly of this origin.
There may have been other limestone builders than Eozoon,

w

Fig. II. — Section of a Niimmulite, from Eocene Limestone of Syria.
Showing chambers, tubuli, and canals. Compare this and Fig. 12 witli Fig.
7 and Nature-print of Eozoon.

and there may have been limestones formed by plants like the
modern Nulliporcs, or by merely mineral deposition.

Its relations to modern animals of its type have been very
clearly defined by Dr. Carpenter. In the structure of its
proper wall and its fine parallel perforations, it resembles the
NuvuHuUtes and their allies ; and the organism may therefore
be regarded as an aberrant member of the Nummuline group,
which affords some of the largest and most widely distributed
of the fossil Foraminifera. This resemblance may be seen in
Fig. II. To the Nummulites it also conforms in its tendency
to form a supplemental or intermediate skeleton with canals,

128

THE DAWN OF LIFE

though the canals themselves in the arrangement more nearly
resemble Calcarina, which is represented in Fig. 12. In its
superposition of many layers, and in its tendency to a heaped
up or acervuline irregular growth it resembles Fofyfrema and
Tinoporus, forms of a different group in so far as shell-struc-
ture is concerned. It may thus be regarded as a composite
type, combining peculiarities now observed in two groups, or
it may be regarded as representing one of these in another
series. At the time when Ur. Carpenter stated these

1lk

Fig. 12. — Portion of shell of Calcarina. Magnified, after Carpenter.
{a) Cells. (i>) Original cell wall with tubuli. (<) Supplementary
skeleton with canals.

affinities, it might be objected that P'oraminifera of these
families are in the main found in the modern and Tertiary
periods. Dr. Carpenter has since shown that the curious oval
Foraminifer called Fusuli)ia, found in the coal formation, is
alHed to both Nummulites and Rotalines ; and Mr. Brady has
discovered a true Numnuilite in the Lower Carboniferous of
Belgium. I have myself found small Foraminifera in the
Silurian and Cambro-Silurian of C'anada. This group being

THE DAWN OF LIFE 1 29

now brought down to the Palaeozoic, we may hope to trace it to
the Primordial, and thus to bring it still nearer to Eozoon in time.

Though Eozoon was probably not the only animal of the
Laurentian seas, yet it was in all likelihood the most con-
spicuous and important as a collector of calcareous matter,
filling the same place afterwards occupied by the reef-building
corals. Though probably less efficient than these as a con-
structor of solid limestones, from its less permanent and con-
tinuous growth, it formed wide floors and patches on the
sea bottom, and when these were broken up, vast quantities of
limestone were formed from their debris. It must also be borne
in mind that Eozoon was not everywhere infiltrated with ser-
pentine or other silicious minerals ; quantities of its substance
were merely filled with carbonate of lime, resembling the
chamber w'all so closely that it is nearly impossible to make out
the difference, and thus is likely to pass altogether unobserved
by collectors, and to baffle even the microscopist. Although,
therefore, the layers which contain well characterised Eozoon
are few and far between, there is reason to believe that in the
composition of the limestones of the Laurentian it bore no
small part, and as these limestones are some of them several
hundred feet in thickness, and extend over vast areas, Eozoon
may be supposed to have been as efficient a world-builder as
the Stromatoporae of the Silurian and Devonian, the Globi-
gerinas and their allies in the chalk, or the Nummulites
and Miliolites in the Eocene. It is a remarkable illustration
of the constancy of natural causes and of the persistence of
animal types, that these humble Protozoans, which began to
secrete calcareous matter in the Laurentian period, have been
continuing their work in the ocean through all the geological
ages, and are still busy in accumulating those chalky muds with
which recent dredging operations in the deep sea have made
us so familiar. (See Note appended.)

All this seems sufficiently reasonalile, more especially since

130 THE DAWN OF LIFE

no mineralogist has yet succeeded in giving a feasible inor-
ganic explanation of the combination of canals, lamince, tubu-
lation and varied mineral character existing in Eozoon.
But then comes the strange fact of its apparent isolation with-
out companions in highl}' crystalline rocks, and with appa-
rently no immediate successors. This has staggered many,
and it certainly, if taken thus baldly, seems in some degree
improbable. Recent discoveries, however, are removing this
reproach from Eozoon. The Laurentian rocks have yielded
other varieties, or perhaps species of the genus, those which I
have described as variety Acervulina, and variety Minor, and
still another form, more like a Stromatopora, which I have
provisionally named E. /afior, from the breadth and uniformity
of its plates.^ There are also in the Laurentian limestone
cylindrical bodies apparently originally tubular, and with the
sides showing radiating markings in the manner of corals, or
of the curious Cambrian Arch?eocyathus. Matthew, a most
careful observer, has found in the Laurentian limestone of
New Brunswick certain laminated bodies of cylindrical form,
constituting great reefs in the limestone, and in the slates
linear flat objects resembling Algcc or Graptolites, and spicular
structures resembling those of sponges.- Britton has also de-
scribed from the Laurentian limestone of New Jersey certain
ribbon-like objects of graphite which he regards as vegetable,
and names Ar-chceophyton Newberryii? Should these objects
prove to be organic, Eozoon will no longer be alone. Besides
this the peculiar bodies named Cryptozoum by Hall, and which
are intermediate in structure between Eozoon and Loftusia,
have now been found as low as the Lower Cambrian.' Barrois

* Notes on .Specimens of Eozoon, " .Memoirs of Peter Reilp.TlIi Museum,"'
1 888.
2 Bid. Nat. Hist. New Brunsioick, No. IX., 1S90.
•" Annals N.Y. Academy of Science, 18SS.
^ Walcolt, Lower Cambrian, 1892.

THE DAWN OF LIFE 131

has also recently announced the discovery of forms which he
regards as akin to the modern Radiolaria, creatures of a little
higher grade than the Foraminifera, in the " Archgean " rocks
of Brittany.^ Thus Eozoon is no longer isolated, but has
companions of the same great age with itself. The progress of
discovery is also daily carrying the life of the Cambrian to
lower beds, and thus nearer to the Laurentian. It is not un-
likely that in a few years a pre-Cambrian fauna will force itself
on the attention of the most sceptical geologists.

References: — "Life's Da\sn on Earth," London, 1875. (^'o\v out of
print.) "Specimens of Eozoon Canadense in the Peter Redpath
Museum, Montreal," 1S88. (This memoir contains reference to pre-
vious papers.)

^ Natural Science, Oct., 1892.

Appended Notes.

1. Stromatopora-. — It has been usual of late to regard these as allies of
the modern Millepores and HydrsetiniEe ; but careful study of large series
of specimens has convinced me that some species, notably the Stroinalo-
cerium of the Cambro-Silurian and the cryptozoum of the Cambrian,
cannot be so referred. I hope to establish this in the future, if time
permit.

2. Modern Foraminifera. — The discovery by Brady and Lister of
reproductive chamberlets at the margin of the modern orbitolites, tends to
connect this with Eozoon. The gigantic foraminiferal species discovered
by Agassiz at the Gallipagos, has points of affinity with Eozoon ; and its
arenaceous nature does not affect this, as we know sandy species in this
group closely allied to others that are calcareous.

WHAT MAY BE LEARNED FROM EOZOON.

DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF
DR. WILLIAM B. CARPENTER,

Who, among his many Services to Science,
devoted much time and labour to the investigation

OF EoZOON,

AND BY HIS Knowledge of Foraminifera

AND unrivalled POWER OF UNRAVELLING DIFFICULT

Structures
DID much to Render it Intelligible.

The Microscope in Geology — Contributions of the
Study of Eozoon to our Kno\vledce of the Mode
OF Preservation of Fossils — Its Teaching Rela-
tively to the Origin of Life and the Laws of its
Introduction and Progress

S. E.

Specimen ok Eozoon Canadense (Dawson), showing Genera) Fori
and Osculiform Tubes, (Reproduced from Photograph.)

CHAPTER VI.
WHAT MAY BE LEARNED FROM EOZOON.

THE microscope has long been a recognised and valued
aid of the geological observer, and is perhaps now in
danger of being somewhat overrated by enthusiastic specialists.
To the present writer its use is no novelty. When, as a very
young geologist, collecting fossil plants in the coal fields of
Novia Scotia, I obtained access to the then recently published
work of Witham on the " Internal Structure of Fossil Vege-
tables." ^ Fired by the desire to learn something of the structure
of the blocks of fossil wood in my collection, I at once procured
a microscope of what would now be considered a very im-
perfect kind, and proceeded to make attempts to slice and
examine my specimens, and was filled with joy when these
old blackened stems for the first time revealed to me their
wonderful structures. At the same time I extended my
studies to every minute form of life that could be obtained
from the sea or fresh waters. A few years later (in 1841), when
a student in Edinburgh, I made the acquaintance of Mr.
Sanderson of that city, who had worked for Nicol and Witham
in the preparation of specimens, and learnt the modes which he
had employed. Since that time I have been accustomed to
subject every rock, earth or fossil which came under my notice
to microscopic scrutiny, not as a mere specialist in that mode
of observation, or with the parade of methods and details now
customary, but with the view of obtaining valuable facts bear-

' Edinburgh, 1 833.

I3S

136 WHAT MAY BE LEARNED FROM EOZOON

ing on any investigation I might have in hand. It was this
habit which induced my old friend, Sir William Logan, in 1858
and subsequent years to ask my aid in the study of the forms
believed or suspected to be organic, which had been discovered
in the course of his surveys of the Laurentian rocks. In one
respect this was unfortunate. It occupied much time, inter-
fered to some extent with other researches, led to unpleasant
controversies. But these evils were more than compensated by
the insight which the study gave into the fact of the persistence
of organic structures in highly crystalline rocks, and to the
modes of ascertaining and profiting by these obscure remains,
while it has guided and stimulated enquiry and thought as to
the origin and history of life. These benefits entitle the re-
searches and discussions on Eozoon to be regarded as marking
a salient point in the history of geological discovery, and it is
to these principally that I would attract attention in the pre-
sent chapter.

Perhaps nothing excites more scepticism as to the animal
nature of Eozoon than the prejudice existing among geologists
that no organism can be preserved in rocks so highly crystalline
as those of the Laurentian series. I call this a prejudice, be-
cause any one who makes the microscopic structure of rocks
and fossils a special study, soon learns that fossils and the
rocks containing them may undergo the most remarkable and
complete mechanical and chemical changes without losing
their minute structure, and that limestones, if once fossiliferous,
are hardly ever so much altered as to lose all traces of the
organisms which they contained, while it is a most common
occurrence to find highly crystalline rocks of this kind abound-
ing in fossils preserved as to their minute structure.

Let us, however, look at the precise conditions under which
this takes place.

When calcareous fossils of irregular surface and porous or
cellular texture, such as Eozoon may have been, or corals were

WHAT MAY BE LEARNED FROM EOZOON 1 37

and are, become imbedded in clay, marl, or other soft sedi-
ment, they can be washed out and recovered in a condition
similar to that of recent specimens, except that their pores or
cells, if open, may be filled with the material of the matrix, or
if not so open that they can be thus filled, they may be more
or less incrusted with mineral deposits introduced by water
percolating the mass, or may even be completely filled up in
this way. But if such fossils are contained in hard rocks, they
usually fail, when these are broken, to show their external sur-
faces, and, breaking across with the containing rock, they ex-
hibit their internal structure merely, — and this more or less
distinctly, according to the manner in which their cells or
cavities have been filled with mineral matter. Here the
microscope becomes of essential senice, especially when the
structures are minute. A fragment of fossil wood which to
the naked eye is nothing but a dark stone, or a coral which is
merely a piece of grey or coloured marble, or a specimen of
common cr)'stalline limestone made up originally of coral frag-
ments, presents, when sliced and magnified, the most perfect
and beautiful structure. In such cases it will be found that
ordinarily the original substance of the fossil remains in a more
or less altered state. Wood may be represented by dark lines
of coaly matter, or coral by its white or transparent calcareous
lamince; while the material which has been introduced, and
which fills the cavities, may so differ in colour, transparency, or
crystallization, as to act differently on light, and so reveal the
original structure. These fillings are very curious. Sometimes
they are mere earthy or muddy matter which has been washed
into the ca^■ities. Sometimes they are transparent and cr}stal-
line. Often they are stained with oxide of iron or coaly
materials. They may consist of carbonate of lime, silica or
silicates, sulphate of bar)ta, oxides of iron, carbonate of iron,
iron pyrite, or sulphides of copper or lead, all of which are
common materials. They are sometimes so complicated that

138 WHAT MAY BE LEARNED FROM EOZOON

I have seen even the minute cells of woody structures, each
with several bands of differently coloured materials deposited
in succession, like the coats of an onyx agate.

A further stage of mineralisation occurs when the substance
of the organism is altogether removed and replaced by foreign
matter, either little by little, or by being entirely dissolved or
decomposed, leaving a cavity to be filled by infiltration. In
this state are some silicified woods, and those corals which
have been not filled with but replaced by silica, and can thus
sometimes be obtained entire and perfect by the solution in
an acid of the containing limestone, or by its removal in
weathering. In this state are the beautiful silicified corals ob-
tained from the corniferous limestone of Lake Erie, which are
so perfectly replaced by flinty matter that when weathered out
of the limestone, or treated with acid till the latter is removed,
we find the coral as perfect as when recent. It may be well
to present to the eye these different stages of fossilization. I
have attempted to do this in Fig. 13, taking a tabulate coral of
the genus Favosites for an example, and supposing the material
employed to be calcite and silica. Precisely the same illustra-
tion would apply to a piece of wood, except that the cell wall
would be carbonaceous matter instead of carbonate of lime.
In this figure the dotted parts represent carbonate of lime,
the diagonally shaded parts silica or a silicate. Thus we have
in the natural state the walls of carbonate of lime and the
cavities empty (a). When fossilized the cavities may be merely
filled with carbonate of lime, or they may be filled with silica
((^, c) ; or the walls themselves may be replaced by silica, and
the cavities may remain filled with carbonate of lime (d) ; or
both the walls and cavities may be represented by or filled
with silica or silicates (r). The ordinary specimens of Eozoon
are supposed to be in the third of these stages, though some
exist in the second, and I have reason to believe that some
have reached to the fifth. I have not met with any in the

WHAT MAY BE LEARNED FROM EOZOON

139

fourth stage, though this is not uncommon in Silurian and
Devonian fossils. I have further to remark that the reason
why wood and the cells of corals so readily become silicified is
that the organic matter which they contain, becoming oxidized
in decay, produces carbon dioxide, which, by its affinity for
alkalies, can decompose soluble silicates and thus throw down
their silica in an insoluble state. Thus a fragment of decay-
ing wood imbedded in a deposit holding water and alkaline
silicates almost necessarily becomes silicified. It is also to be
remarked that the ordinary specimens of Eozoon have actually
not attained to the extreme degree of mineralization seen in
some much more recent silicified woods and corals, inasmuch

a

i:L_.

'.'I'm ,

c-

r A

ri

rr=cr

Fk;. 13.- — Diagram sliowiiig different States of Fossilization of a cell of
a Tul)ulate Coral, {a) Natural condition — -walls calcite, cell empty. (l>)
\N'alis calcite, cell filled with the same, (c) Walls calcite, cell filled with
silica or silicate, (d) Walls silicified, cell filled with calcite. {c) Walls
silicified, cell filled with silica or silicate.

as the portion believed to have been the original calcareous
test has not usually been silicified, but still remains in the state
of calcium carbonate.

With regard, then, to the calcareous organisms with which we
have now more especially to do, when these are embedded in
pure limestone and filled with the same, so that the whole rock,
fossils and cavities, is one in composition, and when meta-
morphic action has caused the whole to become crystalline,
and has perhaps removed the remains of carbonaceous matter,
it may be very difficult to detect any traces of structure. But

140 WHAT MAY BE LEARNED FROM EOZOON

even in this case careful management of light may reveal some
indications. In many instances, however, even where the
limestones have become perfectly crystalline, and the cleavage
planes cut freely across the fossils, these exhibit their forms
and minute structures in great perfection. This is the case in
many of the Lower Silurian limestones of Canada, as I have
elsewhere shown. ^ The grey crystalline Trenton limestone of
Montreal, used as a building stone, is an excellent illustration.
To the naked eye it is a grey marble composed of cleavable
crystals ; but when examined in thin slices, it shows its or-
ganic fragments in the greatest beauty, and all their minute
parts are perfectly marked out by delicate carbonaceous lines.
The only exception in this limestone is in the case of the
crinoids, in which the cellular structure is filled with trans-
parent calc-spar, perfectly identical with the original solid
matter, so that they appear solid and homogeneous, but there
are examples in which even the minute meshes of these become
apparent. The specimen represented in Fig. 14 is a mass of
Corals, Polyzoa, and Crinoids, and shows these under a low
power, as represented in the figure. The specimen in Fig. 15
shows the Faurentian Eozoon in a similar state of preservation.
It is from a sketch by Dr. Carpenter, and exhibits the delicate
canals partly filled with calcite or dolomite, as clear and colour-
less as that of the shell itself, and distinguishable only by careful
management of the light.

In the case of recent and fossil Foraminifers, these very
frequently have their chambers filled solid with calcareous
matter, and as Dr. Carpenter well remarks, even well preserved
Tertiary Nummulites in this state often fail greatly in showing
their structures, though in the same condition they occasionally
show these in great perfection. Among the finest I have seen
are specimens from tlie Mount of Olives, and Dr. Carpenter

' Canadian Naturalist, 1S59 : "Microscopic Structure of C.anatlian
Limestones."

WHAT MAY BE LEARNED FROM EOZOON

141

mentions as equally good those of the London clay at Brackle-
sham. But in no condition do modern Foraminifera, or those
of the Tertiary and Mesozoic rocks appear in greater perfection
than when filled with the hydrous silicate of iron and potash

Fig. 14. — Slice of Crystalline Lower Silurian Limestone ; showing
Crinoicls, Bryozoa, and Corals in fragments.

f^^^rZCR^J^IS^^^Uj

Fig. 15. — Walls of Eozoon penetrated with Canals. The unshaded
portions filled with Calcite. (After Carpenter.)

called glauconite or green earth, a substance now forming in
some parts of the ocean, and which gives, by the abundance of
its little bottle-green concretions the name of " greensand " to
formations of the Cretaceous age both in Europe and America.

142 WHAT MAY BE LEARNED FROM EOZOON

In some beds of greensand every grain seems to have been
moulded into the interior of a microscopic shell, and has re-
tained its form after the frail envelope has been removed. In
some cases the glauconite has not only filled the chambers
but has penetrated the fine tubulation, and when the shell is
removed, either naturally or by the action of an acid, the
silicious fillings of the interior of the tubes project in
minute needles or bundles of threads of marvellous delicacy
from the surface of the cast. It is in the warmer seas, and
especially in the bed of the Egean and of the Gulf Stream, that
such specimens are now most usually found.' If we ask why
this mineral glauconite should be associated with foraminiferal
shells, the answer is that they are both products of one kind
of locality. The same sea bottoms in which Foraminifera
most abound are also those in which the chemical conditions
for the formation of glauconite exist. Hence, no doubt, the
association of this mineral with the great foraminiferal forma-
tion of the chalk. It is indeed by no means unlikely that the
selection by these creatures of the pure carbonate of lime from
the sea water or its minute plants, may be the means of setting
free the silica, iron, and potash, in a state suitable for their
combination. Similar silicates are found associated with
marine limestones, as far back as the Cambro-Silurian age ;
and Dr. Sterry Hunt, than whom no one can be a better
authority on chemical geology, has argued on chemical grounds
that the occurrence of serpentine with the remains of Eozoon
is an association of the same character.

However this may be, the infiltration of the pores of Eozoon
with serpentine and other silicates has evidently been one main
means of its i)reservation. When so infiltrated no meta-
mori)hism short of the complete fusion of the containing rock

' Ikautiful specimens of Numnnilites preseived in this way, from tlie
Eocene of Kumpfen in 15avaria, have been comnninicated to me lliiougli the
kindness of Dr. Otto Hahn.

WHAT MAY BE LEARNED FROM EOZOON I43

could obliterate the minutest points of structure ; and that
such fusion has not occurred, the preservation in the Laurentian
rocks of the most delicate lamination of the beds shows con-
clusively ; while, as already stated, it can be shown that the
alteration which has occurred might have taken place at a
temperature far short of that necessary to fuse limestone.
Thus has it happened that these most ancient fossils have
been handed down to our time in a state of preservation com-
parable, as Dr. Carpenter states, to that of the best preserved
fossil Foraminifera from the more recent formations that have
come under his observation in the course of all his long ex-
perience.

Let us now look more minutely at the nature of the typical
specimens of Eozoon as originally observed and described, and
then turn to those preserved in other ways, or more or less de-
stroyed or defaced. Taking a polished specimen from Petite
Nation, we find the shell represented by white limestone, and
the chambers by light green serpentine. By acting on the
surface with a dilute acid we etch out the calcareous part,
leaving a cast in serpentine of the cavities originally occupied
by the soft animal substance, and when this is done in polished
slices, these may be made to print their own characters on
l)aper, as has actually been done in the plate prefixed, which
is an electrotype from an etched specimen, and shows both
the laminated and acervuline parts of the fossil. If the pro-
cess of decalcification has been carefully executed, we find in
the excavated spaces delicate ramifying processes of opaque
serpentine or transparent dolomite, which were originally im-
bedded in the calcareous substance, and which are often of
extreme fineness and complexity.^ (Figs. 18, 19.) These are
casts of the canals which traversed the shell when still inhabited
by the animal, and have subsequently been filled with mineral

• Very fine specimens can be produced by polishing thin slices, and then
etching them slightly with a very weak acid. (Plate prefixed.)

144 WHAT MAY BE LEARNED FROM EOZOON

matter. In evidence of this we sometimes find in a single canal
an outer tubular layer of serpentine and an inner filling of
dolomite, just as vessels of fossil plants are sometimes filled
with successive coats of different materials. In some well
preserved specimens we find the original cell wall represented
by a delicate white film, which under the microscope shows
minute needle-like parallel processes representing its still finer
tubuli. It is evident that to have filled these tubuli, the ser-
pentine must have been introduced in a state of actual solution,
and must have carried with it no foreign impurities. Conse-
quently we find that in the chambers themselves the serpentine
is pure ; and if we examine it under polarized light, we see that
it presents a singularly curdled or irregularly laminated appear-
ance, as if it had an imperfectly crystalline structure, and had
been deposited in irregular lamince, beginning at the sides of
the chambers, and filling them toward the middle, and had
afterward been cracked by shrinkage, and the cracks filled with
a second deposit of serpentine.^ Now, serpentine is a hydrous
silicate of magnesia, and all that we need to suppose is that in
the waters of the Laurentian sea magnesia was present instead
of iron, alumina or potash, and we can understand that the
Laurentian fossil has been petrified by infiltration with ser-
pentine, as more modern Foraminifera have been with glaucon-
ite, which, though it does not contain magnesia, often has a
considerable percentage of alumina. Further, in specimens of
Eozoon from Burgess, the filling mineral is loganite, a com-
pound of silica, alumina, magnesia and iron with water, while
in other specimens the filling mineral is pyroxene. In like

' The same structures may be well seen in ihin slices polished, to be
viewed as transparent objects. I may, however, explain tliat if these are
made roughly, and lieated in the process, they may often show only
mineral structures and cleavage planes, whereas, if polished with great care
and slowly, and afterwards cleaned with an acid, they may show tlic
canals in great perfection.

WHAT MAY BE LEARNED FROM EOZOON I45

manner, in certain Silurian limestones from New Brunswick
and Wales, in which the delicate microscopic pores of the
skeletons of stalked starfishes or crinoids have been filled with
mineral deposits, so that when decalcified these are most beau-
tifully represented by their casts, Dr. Hunt has proved the filling
mineral to be ^ intermediate between serpentine and glauconite.
We have, therefore, ample warrant for adhering to his con-

FiG. 16. — ^Joint of a Crinoid, having its Pores injected with a Hydrous
Silicate. Upper Silurian Limestone, Pole Hill, New Brunswick. Magni-
fied 25 diameters.

elusion that the Laurentian serpentine was deposited under
conditions similar to those of the modern greensand. Indeed,
independently of Eozoon, it is impossible that any geologist
who has studied the manner in which this mineral is associated
with the Laurentian limestones could believe it to have been
* Silicate of alumina, iron, magnesia, and potash.

146

WHAT MAY BE LEARNED FROM EOZOON

formed in any other way. Nor need we be astonished at the
fineness of the infiltration by which these minute tubes, perhaps
Tooo 0 of ^" '"^h i"^ diameter, are filled with mineral matter.
The micro-geologist well knows how, in more modern deposits,
the finest pores of fossils are filled, and that mineral matter in
solution can penetrate the smallest openings that the micro-
scope can detect. Wherever the fluids of the living body can
penetrate, there also mineral substances can be carried, and

^'"/,VM

ir

Fig. 17.— Shell from a Silurian Limestone, Wales ; its cavity filled with
Hydrous Silicate. Magnified 25 diameters.

tliis natural injection, effected under great pressure and with
the advantage of ample time, can surpass any of the feats of
the anatomical manipulator. Fig. 16 represents a microscopic
joint of a Crinoid from the Upper Silurian of New Brunswick,
injected with the hydrous silicate already referred to, and Fig.
17 shows a microscopic chambered or spiral shell, from a
Welsh Silurian limestone, with its cavities filled with a similar
substance.

Taking the specimens preserved by serpentine as typical, we
now turn to certain other and, in some respects, less character-

WHAT MAY BE LEARNED FROM EOZOON

147

istic specimens, which are nevertheless very instructive. At
the Calumet some of the masses are partly filled with serpen-
tine and partly with white pyroxene, an anhydrous silicate of
lime and magnesia. The two minerals can readily be distin-
guished when viewed with polarized light ; and in some slices
I have seen part of a chamber or group of canals filled with

Fig. iS. — Casts of Canals of Eozoon in Serpentine, decalcified and highly

magnified.

Fin. 19. — Canals of Eozoon. Highly Magnified.

serpentine and part with pyroxene. In this case the pyroxene,
or the materials which now compose it, must have been intro-
duced by infiltration, as well as the serpentine. This is the
more remarkable as pyroxene is most usually found as an in-
gredient of igneous rocks ; but Dr. Hunt has shown that in the
Laurentian limestones, and also in veins traversing them, it

IX:> WHAT ilAY BE LEARNED FROM EOZOOX

occurs under conditions which imply its deposition from water,
either cold or warm. Gombel remarks on this : — " Hmit, in a
Tarr ingenious manner, compares this formation and deposition
of serpentine, pyroxene and loganite, with that of glauconite,
whose formation has gone on uninterruptedly from the Silurian
to the Tertiary period, and is even now taking place in the
depths of the sea ; it being well known that Ehrenberg and
others have already shown that many of the grains of glauconite
are casts of the intmor of foraminiferal shells. In the light of
parison, the notion that the serpentine and such-like
: of the primitive limestones have been formed, in a
similar niannerj in the chambers of Eozoic Foraminifera, loses
any traces of improbability which it might at first seem to
possess."

In many ports of the skeleton of Eozoon, and even in the
best infiltrated serpentine specimens, there are portions of the
cell wall and canal system which have been filled with cal-
careous ^)ar or with dolomite, so similar to the skeleton that it
ran be detected only under the most favourable lights and
with great care (Fig. 15, supra). It is further to be remarked
that in al the specimens of true Eozoon, as well as in many
'"'""-" -/[careous fossils preserved in ancient rocks, the cal-
- .".latter, even when its minute structures are not pre-
served, or are obscured, presents a minutely granular or curdled
appearance, arising, no doubt, from the original presence of
organic matter, and not recognised in purely inorganic
cakxte.

Other specimens of fragmental Eozoon 'from the Petite
Natkm localities have thdr canals filled with dolomite, which
probably penetrated them after they were broken up and im-
bedded \xx the rocL I have ascertained, with respect to these
firagments of Eozoon, that they occur abundandy in certain
layers of the Laurentian limestone, beds of some thickness
beii^ in great part made up of them, and coarse and fine frag-

WHAT iL\Y BE LEARNED FROM EOZOON 149

molts occur in altanate Livers, lite the broken corals in sorae
Silurian limestones.

Finally, on this part of the subject, careful obsaration of
many specimens of Laurentian limestone which present no
trace of Eozoon when viewed by the naked eye. and no evi-
dence of structure when acted on with acids, are nevertheless
organic, and consist of fragments of Eozoon, and possibly of
other organisms, not infiltrated with silicates, but only with
carbonate of hme, and consequendy revealing only obscure
indications of their minute structure. I have satisfied myself
of this by long and patient investigations, which scarcely admit
of any adequate representation, either by words or figures.

Even,- worker m those applications of the microscope to
geological specimens which have been termed micro-geology, is
familiar with the fiict that crvstaHine forces and mechanical
movements of material often play the most tintastic tricks with
fossihzed organic matter. In fossil woods, for example, we
otten have the tissues disorganized, with radiating crvstaHiza-
tions of calcite and little spherical concretions of quartz, or dis-
seminated cubes and grains of pyrite, or Htde veins filled with
sulphate of barium or other minerals. We need no^ therefore,
be surprised to find that in the venerable rocks rnnrnming
Eozoon. such things occur in the highly crysmllfne Laurentian
Umestoaes, and even in some still showing the traces of Eozoon.
We find many disseminated crystals of magnetite, pyrite,
spineL mica and other minerals, curiously curved prisms of
vermicular mica, bundles of aciculi of tremohte and similar
substances, veins of calcite and crysodle or fibrous serpentine,
which often traverse the best specimens. WTiere these occur
abundantly, we usually find no organic structures remaining, or
if they exist, they are in a very defective state of preservaaon.
Even in specimens presentingt he lamination of Eozoon to the
naked eye. these crystalline actions have often destroyei the
minute structure : and I fear that some micrcscopists have

S. E. H

I50 WHAT MAY BE LEARNED FROM EOZOON

been victimized, by having under their consideration only
specimens in which the actual characters had been too much
defaced to be discernible. No mistake can be greater than to
suppose that any and every specimen of Laurentian limestone
must contain Eozoon. More especially have I hitherto failed
to detect traces of it in those carbonaceous or graphitic lime-
stones which are so very abundant in the Laurentian country.
Perhaps where vegetable matter was very plentiful Eozoon did
not thrive, or, on the other hand, the growth of Eozoon may
have diminished the quantity of vegetable matter. It is also
to be observed that much compression and distortion have oc-
curred in the beds of Laurentian limestone and their contained
fossils, and also that the specimens are often broken by faults,
some of which are so small as to appear only on microscopic
examination, and to shift the plates of the fossil just as if they
were beds of rock. This, though it sometimes produces
puzzling appearances, is an evidence that the fossils were hard
and brittle when this faulting took place, and is consecjuently
an additional proof of their extraneous origin. Li some speci-
mens it would seem that the lower and older part of the fossil
had been wholly converted into serpentine or pyroxene, or had
so nearly experienced this change that only small parts of the
calcareous wall can be recognised. These portions correspond
with fossil woods altogether silicified, not only by the filling of
the cells, but also by the conversion of the walls into silica. I
have specimens which manifestly show the transition from the
ordinary condition of filling with serpentine to one in which
the cell-walls are represented obscurely by one shade vi this
mineral and the cavities by another. In general, however, it
will be gathered from the above explanations that the specimens
of Eozoon fall short in thoroughness of mineralization of some
fossils in much more modern rocks. I have specimens of
ancient sponges whose spicular skeletons, originally silicious,
have been replaced by pyrite or bisulphide of iron, and of

WHAT MAY BE LEARNED FROM EOZOON 15I

Tertiary fossil woods retaining perfectly their most minute struc-
tures, yet entirely replaced by silica, so that not a particle of
the original wood remains.

The above considerations as to mode of preservation of
Eozoon concur with those in the previous chapter in showing
its oceanic character, if really a fossil ; but the ocean of the
Eozoic period may not have been so deep as at present, and its
waters were probably warm and well stocked with mineral
matters derived from the newly formed land, or from hot
springs in its own bottom. On this point the interesting in-
vestigations of Dr. Hunt with reference to the chemical con-
ditions of the Silurian seas allow us to suppose that the Lau-
rentian ocean may have been much more richly stored, more
especially with salts of lime and magnesia, than that of subse-
quent times. Hence the conditions of warmth, light, and nutri-
ment required by such gigantic Protozoans would all be present,
and hence, also, no doubt, some of the peculiarities of their
mineralization.

I desire by the above statement of facts to show, on the one
hand, that the study of Eozoon, regarded as probably an ancient
form of marine life, aids us in understanding other ancient
fossils, and their manner of preservation ; and on the other hand,
that those who deny the organic origin of Eozoon place us in
the position of being unable, in any rational manner, to account
for these forms, so characteristic of the Laurentian limestones,
and set at naught the fair conclusions deducible from the mode
of preservation of fossils in the later formations. The evidence
of organic origin is perhaps not conclusive, and in the present
state of knowledge it is certain to be met with much scepticism,
more especially by certain classes of specialists, whose grasp of
knowledge is not sufficiently wide to cover, on the one hand,
fossilization and metamorphism, and on the other, to under-
stand the lower forms of life. It may, however, be sufficient to
qualify us in turning our thoughts for a few moments to con-

152 WHAT MAY BE LEARNED FROM EOZOON

siderations suggested by the probable origin of animal life in
the seas of the Laurentian period.

Looking down from the elevation of our physiological and
mental superiority, it is difficult to realize the exact conditions
in which life exists in creatures so simple as the Protozoa.
There may perhaps be higher intelligences, that find it equally
difficult to realize how life and reason can manifest themselves
in such poor houses of clay as those we inhabit. But placing
ourselves near to these creatures, and entering, as it were, into
sympathy with them, we can understand something of their
powers and feelings. In the first place it is plain that they
can vigorously, if roughly, exercise those mechanical, chemical,
and vegetative powers of life which are characteristic of the
animal. They can seize, swallow, digest, and assimilate food ;
and, employing its albuminous parts in nourishing their
tissues, can burn away the rest in processes akin to our respi-
ration, or reject it from their system. Like us, they can sub-
sist only on food which the plant has previously produced ;
for in this world, from the beginning of time, the plant has
been the only organism which could use the solar light and
heat as forces to enable it to turn the dead elements of matter
into living, growing tissues, and into organic compounds
capable of nourishing the animal. Like us, the Protozoa ex-
pend the food which they have assimilated in the production
of animal force, and in doing so cause it to be oxidized, or
burnt away, and resolved again into dead matter. It is true
that we have much more complicated apparatus for performing
these functions, but it does not follow that these give us much
real superiority, except relatively to the more difficult condi-
tions of our existence. The gourmand who enjoys his dinner
may have no more pleasure in the act than the Amoeba which
swallows a Diatom ; and for all that the man knows of the
subsequent processes to which the food is subjected, his in-
terior might be a mass of jelly, with extemporised vacuoles,

WHAT MAY BE LEARNED FROM EOZOON 1 53

like that of his humble fellow-animal. The clay is after all
the same, and there may be as much difficulty in the making
of a simple organism with varied powers, as a more complex
frame for doing higher work.

In order that we may feel, a complicated apparatus of
nerves and brain cells has to be constructed and set to work ;
but the Protozoon, without any distinct brain, is all brain, and
its sensation is simply direct. Thus vision in these creatures
is probably performed in a rough way by any part of their
transparent bodies, and taste and smell are no doubt in the
same case. Whether they have any perception of sound as
distinct from the mere -vibrations ascertained by touch, we do
not know. Here, also, we are not far removed above the Pro-
tozoa, especially those of us to whom touch, seeing and hear-
ing are direct acts, without any thought or knowledge of the
apparatus employed. We might, so far, as well be Amoebas.
As we rise higher we meet with more differences. Yet it is
evident that our gelatinous fellow being can feel pain, dread
danger, desire possessions, enjoy pleasure, and in a direct un-
conscious way entertain many of the appetites and passions
that affect ourselves. The wonder is that with so little of
organization it can do so much. Yet, perhaps, life can mani-
fest itself in a broader and more intense way where there is
little organization, and a highly strung and complex organism
is not so much a necessary condition of a higher life as a mere
means of better adapting it to its present surroundings.

A similar lesson is taught by the complexity of their
skeletons. We speak in a crude, unscientific way of these
animals accumulating calcareous matter, and building up
reefs of limestone. We must, however, bear in mind that they
are as dependent on their food for the materials of their
skeletons as we are, and that their crusts grow in the interior
of the sarcode just as our bones do within our bodies. The
provision even for nourishing the interior of the skeleton by

154 WHAT MAY BE LEARNED FROM EOZOOX

tubuli and canals is in principle similar to that involved in the
canals, cells, and canalicules of bone. The Amoeba, of course,
knows neither more nor less of this than the average English-
man. It is altogether a matter of unconscious growth. The
process in the Protozoa strikes some minds, however, as the
more wonderful of the two. It is, says an eminent modern
physiologist, a matter of " profound significance " that this
"particle of jelly [the sarcode of a Foraminifer] is capable of
guiding physical forces in such a manner as to give rise to
these exquisite and almost mathematically arranged structures."
Respecting the structures themselves there is no exaggeration
in this. No arch or dome framed by human skill is more
perfect in beauty or in the realization of mechanical ideas than
the tests of some Foraminifera, and none is so complete and
wonderful in its internal structure. The particle of jelly, how-
ever, is a figur J of speech. The body of the humblest Foram-
inifer is much more than this. It is an organism with divers
parts, and it is endowed with the mysterious forces of life which
in it guide the physical forces, just as they do in building up
phosphate of lime in our bones, or indeed, just as the will of
the architect does in building a palace. The profound signi-
ficance which this has, reaches beyond the domain of the
physical and vital, even to the spiritual. It clings to all our
conceptions of living things : "quite as much, for example, to
the evolution of an animal with all its parts from a one-celled
germ, as to the connection of brain cells with the manifesta-
tions of intelligence." Viewed in this way, we may share with
the author of the sentence I have quoted his feeling of venera-
tion in the presence of this great wonder of animal life, " burn-
ing, and not consumed," nay, building up, and that in many
and beautiful forms. We may realize it most of all in the
presence of the organism which was perhaps the first to mani-
fest on our planet these marvellous powers. We must, how-
ever, here also, beware of that credulity which makes too many

WHAT MAY BE LEARNED FROM EOZOON 1 55

thinkers limit their conceptions altogether to physical force in
matters of this kind. The merely materialistic physiologist is
really in no better position than the savage who quails before
the thunderstorm, or rejoices in the solar warmth, and seeing
no force or power beyond, fancies himself in the immediate
presence of his God. In Eozoon we must discern not only a
mass of jelly but a being endowed with that higher vital force
which surpasses vegetable life, and also physical and chemical
forces ; and in this animal energy we must see an emanation
from a Will higher than our own, ruling vitality itself ; and
this not merely to the end of constructing the skeleton of a
Protozoon, but of elaborating all the wonderful developments
of life that were to follow in succeeding ages, and with re-
ference to which the production and growth of this creature
were initial steps. It is this mystery of design which really
constitutes the " profound significance " of the foraminiferal
skeleton.

Another phenomenon of animality forced upon our notice
by the Protozoa is that of the conditions of life in animals not
individual, as we are, but aggregative and cumulative in in-
definite masses. What, for instance, the relations to each
other of the Polyps, growing together in a coral mass, or the
separate parts of a Sponge, or the separate lobes of a Foram-
inifer. In the case of the Polyps we may believe that there
is special sensation in the tentacles and oral opening of each
individual, and that each may experience hunger when in
want, or satisfaction when it is filled with food, and that in-
juries to one part of the mass may indirectly affect other parts,
but that the nutrition of the whole mass may be as much
unfelt by the individual Polyps as the processes going on in
our own liver are by us. So in the case of a large Sponge, or
Foraminifer, there may be some special sensation in individual
cells, pseudopods, or segments, and the general sensation may
be very limited, while unconscious living powers pervade the

156 WHAT MAY BE LEARNED FROM EOZOON

whole. In this matter of aggregation of animals we have thus
various grades. The Foraminifers and Sponges present us
with the simplest of all, and that which most resembles the
aggregation of buds in the plant. The Polyps and complex
Bryozoons present a higher and more specialized type ; and
though the bilateral symmetry which obtains in the higher
animals is of a different nature, it still at least reminds us of
that multiplication of similar parts which we see in the lower
grades of being. It is worthy of notice here that the lower
animals which show aggregative tendencies present but im-
perfect indications, or none at all, of bilateral symmetry.
Their bodies, like those of plants, are for the most part built
up around a central axis, or they show tendencies to spiral
modes of growth.

It is this composite sort of life which is connected with the
main geological function of the Foraminifer. While active
sensation, appetite, and enjoyment pervade the pseudopods
and external sarcode of the mass, the hard skeleton common
to the whole is growing within ; and in this way the calcareous
matter is gradually removed from the sea water, and built up
in solid reefs, or in piles of loose foraminiferal shells. Thus
it is the aggregative or common life, alike in Foraminifers as
in Corals, that tends most powerfully to the accumulation of
calcareous matter ; and those creatures whose life is of this
complex character are best suited to be world builders, since
the result of their growth is not merely a cemetery of their
osseous remains, but a huge communistic edifice, to which
multitudes of lives have contributed, and in which successive
generations take up their abode on the remains of their an-
cestors. This process, so potent in the progress of the earth's
geological history, began, as far as we know, with Eozoon.

Whether, then, in questioning our proto-foraminifer, we have
reference to the vital functions of its gelatinous sarcode, to the
complexity and beauty of its calcareous test, or to its capacity

WHAT MAY BE LEARNED FROM EOZOON 1 57

for effecting great material results through the union of in-
dividuals, we perceive that we have to do, not with a low
condition of those powers which we designate life, but with
their manifestation through the means of a simple organism ;
and this in a degree of perfection which we, from our point of
view, would have in the first instance supposed impossible.

If we imagine a world altogether destitute of life, we still
might have geological formations in progress. Not only would
volcanoes belch forth their liquid lavas and their stones and
ashes, but the waves and currents of the ocean and the rains
and streams on the land, with the ceaseless decomposing action
of the carbonic acid of the atmosphere, would be piling up
mud, sand, and pebbles in the sea. There might even be
some formation of limestone taking place where springs charged
with bicarbonate of lime were oozing out on the land or the
bottom of the waters. But in such a world all the carbon
would be in the state of carbon dioxide, and all the limestone
would either be diffused in small quantities through various
rocks or in limited local beds, or in solution, perhaps as
chloride of calcium, in the sea. Dr. Hunt has given chemical
grounds for supposing that the most ancient seas were largely
supplied with this very soluble salt, instead of the chloride of
sodium, or common salt, which now prevails in the sea water.

Where in such a world would life be introduced ? on the
land or in the waters ? All scientific probability would say
in the latter.^ The ocean is now vastly more populous than
the land. The waters alone afford the conditions necessary
at once for the most minute and the grandest organisms, at
once for the simplest and for others of the most complex
character. Especially do they afford the best conditions for

* A recent writer (Simrolh) lias, however, unilertaken to iiiaintain the
thesis that land life preceded that in the sea. It is unnecessary to say that
he is an evolutionist, influenced by the necessity laid upon tliat pliilosopliy
to deduce whales, seals, etc., from land animals.

158 WHAT MAY BE LEARNED FROM EOZOON

those animals which subsist in complex communities, and
which aggregate large quantities of mineral matter in their
skeletons. So true is this that up to the present time all the
species of Protozoa and of the animals most nearly allied to
them are aquatic. Even in the waters, however, plant life,
though possibly in very simple forms, must precede the
animal.

Let humble plants, then, be introduced in the waters, and
they would at once begin to use the solar light for the jiurpose
of decomposing carbonic acid, and forming carbon compounds
which had not before existed, and which, independently of
vegetable life, would never have existed. At the same time
lime and other mineral substances present in the sea water
would be fixed in the tissues of these plants, either in a minute
state of division, as little grains or Coccoliths, or in more solid
masses like those of the Corallines and Nullii)ores. In this
way a beginning of limestone formation might be made, and
quantities of carbonaceous and bituminous matter, resulting
from the decay of vegetable substances might accumulate on
the sea bottom. Now arises the opportunity for animal life.
The plants have collected stores of organic matter, and their
minute germs, along with microscopic species, are floating
everywhere in the sea. The plant has fulfilled its function as
far as the waters are concerned, and now a place is prepared
for the animal. In what form shall it ajipear? Many of its
higher forms, those which depend upon animal food or on the
more complex plants for subsistence, would obviously be un-
suitable. Further, the sea water is still too much saturated
with saline matter to be fit for the higher animals of the waters.
Still further, there may be a residue of internal heat forbidding
coolness, and that solution of free oxygen which is an essential
condition of existence to the higher forms of life. Something
must be found suitable for this saline, imperfectly oxygenated,
tepid sea. Something, too, is wanted that can aid in introduc-

WHAT MAY BE LEAl^NED FROM EOZOON 1 59

ing conditions more favourable to higher Hfe in the future.
Our experience of the modern world shows us that all these
conditions can be better fulfilled by the Protozoa than by any
other creatures. They can live now equally in those great
depths of ocean where the conditions are most unfavourable
to other forms of life, and in tepid unhealthy pools overstocked
with vegetable matter in a state of putridity. They form a
most suitable basis for higher forms of life. They have re-
markable powers of removing mineral matters from the waters
and of fixing them in solid forms. So, in the fitness of things,
a gigantic Foraminifer is just what we need, and after it has
spread itself over the mud and rock of the primeval seas, and
built up extensive reefs therein, other animals may be intro-
duced, capable of feeding on it, or of sheltering themselves in
its stony masses, and thus we have the appropriate dawn of
animal life.

But what are we to say of the cause of this new series of
facts, so wonderfully superimposed upon the merely vegetable
and mineral? Must it remain to us as an act of creation, or
was it derived from some pre-existing matter in which it had
been potentially present ? Science fails to inform us, but con-
jectural " phylogeny " steps in and takes its place. Haeckel,
the prophet of this new philosophy, waves his magic wand,
and simple masses of sarcode spring from inorganic matter,
and form diffused sheets of sea slime, from which are in time
separated distinct amoeboid and foraminiferal forms. Ex-
perience, however, gives us no facts whereon to build this
supposition, and it remains neither more nor less scientific or
certain than that old fancy of the Egyptians, which derived
animals from the fertile mud of the Nile.

If we fail to learn anything of the origin of Eozoon, and if
its life processes are just as inscrutable as those of higher
creatures, we can at least enquire as to its history in geolo-
logical time. In this respect we find, in the first place, that

l60 WHAT MAY BE LEARNED FROM EOZOON

the Protozoa have not had a monopoly in their profession of
accumulators of calcareous rock.

Originated by Eozoon in the old Laurentian time, this pro-
cess has been proceeding throughout the geological ages ; and
while Protozoa, equally simple with the great prototype of the
race, have been and are continuing its function, and producing
new limestones in every geological period, and so adding to
the volume of the successive formations, new workers of higher
grades have been introduced, capable of enjoying higher forms
of animal activity, and equally of labouring at the great task
of continent building; of existing, too, in seas less rich in
mineral substances than those of the Eozoic time, and for that
very reason better suited to higher and more skilled artists. It
is to be observed in connection with this, that as the work of
the Foraminifers has thus been assumed by others, their size
and importance have diminished, and the larger forms of
more recent times have some of them been fain to build up
their hard parts of cemented sand instead of limestone.

^^'hen the marvellous results of recent deep-sea dredgings
were first made known, and it was found that chalky foram-
iniferal earth is yet accumulating in the Atlantic, with sponges
and sea urchins, resembling in many respects those whose
remains exist in the chalk, the fact was expressed by the state-
ment that we still live in the chalk period. Thus stated the
conclusion is scarcely correct. We do not live in the chalk
period, but the conditions of the chalk period still exist in the
deeper portions of the sea. We may say more than this. To
some extent the conditions of the Laurentian period still exist
in the sea, except in so far as they have been removed by the
action of the Foraminifcra and other limestone builders. To
those who can realize the enormous lapse of time involved in
the geological history of the earth, this conveys an impression
almost of eternity in the existence of this oldest of all the
families of the animal kingdom.

WHAT MAY BE LEARNED FROM EOZOON l6l

We are still more deeply impressed with this when we bring
into view the great physical changes which have occurred since
the dawn of life. When we consider that the skeletons of
Eozoon contribute to form the oldest hills of our continents ;
that they have been sealed up in solid marble, and that they
are associated with hard crystalline rocks contorted in the
most fantastic manner ; that these rocks have almost from the
beginning of geological time been undergoing waste to supply
the material of new formations ; that they have witnessed in-
numerable subsidences and elevations of the continents ; and
that the greatest mountain chains of the earth have been built
up from the sea since Eozoon began to exist, — we acquire a
most profound impression of the persistence of the lower forms
of animal life, and know that mountains may be removed, and
continents swept away and replaced, before the least of the
humble gelatinous Protozoa can finally perish. Life may be
a fleeting thing in the individual, but as handed down through
successive generations of beings, and as a constant animating
power in successive organisms, it appears, like its Creator,
eternal.

This leads to another and very serious question. How long
did lineal descendants of Eozoon exist, and do they still exist ?
We may for the present consider this question apart from ideas
of derivation and elevation into higher planes of existence.
Eozoon as a species, and even as a genus, may cease to exist
with the Eozoic age, and we have no evidence whatever that
any succeeding creatures are its modified descendants. As far
as their structures inform us, they may as much claim to be
original creations as Eozoon itself. Still descendants of Eozoon
may have continued to exist, though we have not yet met with
them. I should not be surprised to hear of a veritable speci-
men being some day dredged alive in the Atlantic or the
Pacific. It is also to be observed that in animals so simple as
this many varieties may appear, widely different from the

l62 WHAT MAY BE LEARNED FROM EOZOON

original. In these the general form and habit of life are the
most likely things to change, the minute structures much less
so. We need not, therefore, be surprised to find its descend-
ants diminishing in size or altering in general form, while the
characters of the fine tubulation and of the canal system would
remain. We need not wonder if any sessile Foraminifer of the
Nummuline group should prove to be a descendant of Eozoon.
It would be less likely that a Sponge or a Foraminifer of the
Rotaline type should originate from it. If one could only
secure a succession of deep-sea limestones with Foraminifers
extending all the way from the Laurentian to the present time,
I can imagine nothing more interesting than to compare the
whole series, with the view of ascertaining the limits of descent
with variation, and the points where new forms are introduced.
We have not yet such a series, but it may be obtained ; and as
these creatures are eminently cosmopolitan, occurring over
vastly wide areas of sea bottom, and are very variable, they
would afford a better test of theories of derivation than any
that can be obtained from the more locally distributed and
less variable animals of higher grade. I was much struck with
this recently, in examining a series of Foraminifera from
the Cretaceous of Manitoba, and comparing them with the
varietal forms of the same species in the interior of Nebraska,
500 miles to the south, and with those of the English chalk and
of the modern seas. In all these different times and places wo
had the same species. In all they existed under so many
varietal forms passing into each other, that in former times
every species had been multiplied by naturalists into several.
Yet, in all, the identical varietal forms were repeated with the
most minute markings the same. Here were at once constancy
the most remarkable, and variations the most extensive. If we
dwell on the one to the exclusion of the other, we reach only
one-sided conclusions, imperfect and unsatisfactory. By taking
both into connection we can alone reali/.c the full significance

WHAT MAY BE LEARNED FROM E02OON 163

of the facts. We cannot yet obtain such series for all geological
time ; but it may even now be worth while to enquire, What do
we know as to any modification in the case of the primeval
Foraminifers, whether with reference to the derivation from
them of other Protozoa or of higher forms of life ?

There is no link in geological fact to connect Eozoon with
any of the Mollusks, Radiates, or Crustaceans of the succeed-
ing Cambrian. What may be discovered in the future we can-
not conjecture ; but at present these stand before us as distinct
creations. It would of course be more probable that Eozoon
should be the ancestor of some of the Foraminifera of the
Primordial age, but strangely enough it is very dissimilar from
all these, except Cryptozoum and some forms of Stromatopora;
and here, as already stated, the evidence of minute structure
fails to a great extent. Of actual facts, therefore, we have
none ; and those evolutionists who have regarded the dawn
animal as an evidence in their favour have been obliged to have
recourse to supposition and assumption.

We may imagine Eozoon itself, however, to state its experi-
ence as follows : — " I, Eozoon Canadense, being a creature of
low organization and intelligence, and of practical turn, am no
theorist, but have a lively appreciation of such facts as I am
able to perceive. I found myself growing upon the sea bottom,
and know not whence I came. I grew and flourished for ages,
and found no let or hindrance to my expansion, and abundance
of food was always floated to me without my having to go in
search of it. At length a change came. Certain creatures
with hard snouts and jaws began to prey on me. \V'^hence
they came I know not ; I cannot think that they came from
the germs which I had dispersed so abundantly throughout the
ocean. Unfortunately, just at the same time lime became a
little less abundant in the waters, perhaps because of the great
demands I myself had made, and thus it was not so easy as
before to produce a thick supplemental skeleton for defence.

l64 WHAT MAY BE LEARNED FROM EOZOON

So I had to give way. I have done my best to avoid extinc-
tion ; but it is clear that I must at length be overcome, and
must either disappear or subside into a humbler condition, and
that other creatures better provided for the new conditions of
the world must take my place." In such terms we may suppose
that this patriarch of the seas might tell his history, and mourn
his destiny, though he might also congratulate himself on hav-
ing in an honest way done his duty and fulfilled his function in
the world, leaving it to other and perhaps wiser creatures to
dispute as to his origin and fate, while perhaps much less
perfectly fulfilling the ends of their own existence.

Thus our dawn animal has positively no story to tell as to
its own introduction or its transmutation into other forms of
existence. It leaves the mystery of creation where it was, but
in connection with the subsequent history of life we can learn
from it a little as to the laws which have governed the succes-
sion of animals in geological time. First, we may learn that
the plan of creation has been progressive, that there has been
an advance from the few low and generalized types of the
primeval ocean to the more numerous, higher, and more
specialized types of more recent times. Secondly, we learn that
the lower types, when first introduced, and before they were
subordinated to higher forms of life, existed in some of their
grandest modifications as to form and complexity, and that
in succeeding ages, when higher types were replacing them,
they were subjected to decay and degeneracy. Thirdly, we
learn that while the species has a limited term of existence in
geological time, any large type of animal existence, like that of
the Foraminifera or Sponges, for example, once introduced,
continues and finds throughout all the vicissitudes of the earth
some appropriate residence. Fourthly, as to the mode of in-
troduction of new types, or whether such creatures as Eozoon
had any direct connection with the subsequent introduction
of MoUusks, Worms, or Crustaceans, it is altogether silent, nor

WHAT MAY BE LEARNED FROM EOZOON 1 65

can it predict anything as to the order or manner of their
introduction.

Had we been permitted to visit the Laurentian seas, and to
study Eozoon and its contemporary Protozoa when aHve, it is
plain that we could not have foreseen or predicted from the
consideration of such organisms the future development of life.
No amount of study of the prototypal Foraminifer could have
led us distinctly to the conception of even a Sponge or a Polyp,
much less of any of the higher animals. Why is this ? The
answer is that the improvement into such higher types does not
take place by any change of the elementary sarcode, either in
those chemical, mechanical, or vital properties which we can
study, but in the adding to it of new structures. In the Sponge,
which is perhaps the nearest type of all, we have the movable
pulsating cilium and true animal cellular tissue, and along with
this the spicular or fibrous skeleton, these structures leading to
an entire change in the mode of life and subsistence. In the
higher types of animals it is the same. Even in the highest we
have white blood corpuscles and germinal matter, which, in so
far as we know, carry on no higher forms of life than those of an
Amoeba ; but they are now made subordinate to other kinds of
tissues, of great variety and complexity, which never have been
observed to arise out of the growth of any Protozoon. There
would be only a few conceivable inferences which the highest
finite intelligence could deduce as to the development of future
and higher animals. He might infer that the Foraminiferal
sarcode, once introduced, might be the substratum or founda-
tion of other but unknown tissues in the higher animals, and
that the Protozoon type might continue to subsist side by side
with higher forms of living things, as they were successively
introduced. He might also infer that the elevation of the
animal kingdom would take place with reference to those new
properties of sensation and voluntary motion in which the
humblest animals diverge from the Hfe of the plant,
s. E. 12

l66 WAHT MAY BE LEARNED FROM EOZOON

It is important that these points should be clearly before our
minds, because there has been current of late among natural-
ists a loose way of writing with reference to them, which seems
to have imposed on many who are not naturalists. It has been
said, for example, that such an organism as Eozoon may include
potentially all the structures and functions of the higher
animals, and that it is possible that we might be able to infer
or calculate all these with as much certainty as we can calcu-
late an eclipse or any other physical phenomenon. Now, there
is not only no foundation in fact for these assertions, but it is,
from our present standpoint, not conceivable that they can ever
be realized. The laws of inorganic matter give no data whence
any a priori deductions or calculations could be made as to
the structure and vital forces of the plant. The plant gives no
data from which we can calculate the functions of the animal.
The Protozoon gives no data from which we can calculate the
specialties of the Mollusk, the Articulate, or the Vertebrate.
Nor, unhappily, do the present conditions of life of themselves
give us any sure grounds for predicting the new creations that
may be in store for our old planet. Those who think to build
a philosophy and even a religion on such data are mere
dreamers, and have no scientific basis for their dogmas. They
are as blind guides as our primaeval Protozoon himself would
be in matters whose real solution lies in the harmony of our
own higher and immaterial nature with the Being who is the
Author of all life — the Father " from whom every family in
heaven and earth is named."'

Rf.fekences :—" Life's Dawn on Eailli." London, 18S5. Specimens
of Eozoon in the Peter Redpath Museum, Montreal, 1888.

THE APPARITION AND SUCCESS/ON OF ANIMAL
FORMS.

DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF

THE EMINENT SWISS AND AMERICAN ZOOLOGIST

LOUIS AGASSIZ,

The Founder of the Modern School of American Biolcgv,

AND OF

SIR RICHARD OWEN,

A Great and Phh.osophical Naturalist,

TO whose Teaching I and very many Others owe our earliest

introduction to the Principle of Homology

IN THE Animal Kingdom.

Modern Ideas of Derivation — Development of Animal
Forms in Time — Various Theories of Derivation —
History of Organic Types — History of Organs —
Testimony of the Geological Record — Laws of the
Succession — Development and Evolution — Evolu-
tionist Theologians

Old forms of Triloeites, from tlie Lower Cambrian (p. 173 el saj.
Oleiielliis Thompsoui, Emmons.
Apiostus vir, Matthew.
Parndoxides regiua, Matthew.

CHAPTER VII.

THE APPARITION AND SUCCESSION OF ANIMAL

FORMS.

TIME was when naturalists were content to take nature as
they found it, without any over-curious inquiries as to
the origin of its several parts, or the changes of which they
might be susceptible. Geology first removed this pleasant
state of repose, by showing that all our present species had
a beginning, and were preceded by others, and these again
by others. Geologists were, however, too much occupied with
the facts of the succession to speculate on the ultimate causes
of the appearance and disappearance of species, and it re-
mained for zoologists and botanists, or as some prefer to call
themselves, biologists, to construct hypotheses or theories to
account for the ascertained fact that successive dynasties of
species have succeeded each other in time. I do not propose
in this paper so much to deal with the various doctrines as to
derivation and development now current, as to ask the ques-
tion. What do we actually know as to the origin and history of
life on our planet ?

This great question, confessedly accompanied with many
difficulties and still waiting for its full solution, has points of
intense interest both for the Geologist and the Biologist.
" If," says the great founder of the uniformitarian School of
Geology, " the past duration of the earth be finite, then the
aggregate of geological epochs, however numerous, must con-
stitute a mere moment of the past, a mere infinitesimal portion
of eternity." Yet to our limited vision, the origin of life fades

170 THE SUCCESSION OF ANIMAL FORMS

away in the almost illimitable depths of past time, and we are
ready to despair of ever reaching, by any process of discovery,
to its first steps of progress. At what time did life begin ? In
what form did dead matter first assume or receive those
mysterious functions of growth, reproduction and sensation ?
Only when we picture to ourselves an absolutely lifeless world,
destitute of any germ of life or organization, can we realize
the magnitude of these questions, and perceive how necessary
it is to limit their scope if we would hope for any satisfactory
answer.

We may here dismiss altogether that form in which these
questions present themselves to the biologist, when he experi-
ments as to the evolution of living forms from dead liquids or
solids attacking the unsolved problem of spontaneous genera-
tion. Nor need we enter on the vast field of discussion as to
modern animals and plants opened up by Darwin and others.
I shall confine myself altogether to that historical or palreonto-
logical aspect in which life presents itself when we study the
fossil remains entombed in the sediments of the earth's crust,
and which will enable me at least to show why some students
of fossils hesitate to give in their adhesion to any of the cur-
rent notions as to the origin of species. It will also be desir-
able to avoid, as far as possible, the use of the term "evolution,''
as this has recently been employed in so many senses, whether
of development or causation, as to have become nearly useless
for any scientific purpose ; and that when I speak of creation
of species, the term is to be understood not in the arbitrary
sense forced on it by some modern writers, but as indicating
the continuous introduction of new forms of life under definite
laws, but by a power not emanating from within themsehes,
nor from the inanimate nature surrounding them.^

' The terms Derivalion, Development and Causatit)n have elear and
definite meanings, and it is preferable, wherever possible, to use one or other
of these.

THE SUCCESSION OF ANIMAL FORMS I7I

If we were to follow the guidance of those curious analogies
which present themselves when we consider the growth of the
individual plant or animal from the spore or the ovum, and the
development of vegetable and animal life in geological time —
analogies which, however, it must be borne in mind can have
no scientific value whatever, inasmuch as that similarity of
conditions which alone can give force to reasoning from an-
alogy in matters of science, is wholly wanting — we should ex-
pect to find in the oldest rocks embryonic forms alone, but of
course embryonic forms suited to exist and reproduce them-
selves independently.^

I need not say to palaeontologists that this is not what we
actually find in the primordial rocks. I need but to remind
them of the early and remarkable development of such forms
as the Trilobites, the Lingulidce and the Pteropods, all of them
highly complex and specialized types, and remote from the
embryonic stages of the groups to which they severally belong.
In the case of the Trilobites, one need merely consider the
beautiful symmetry of their parts, both transversely and longi-
tudinally, their division into distinct regions, the necessary com-
plexity of their muscular and nervous systems, their highly
complex visual organs, the superficial ornamentation and micro-
scopic structure of their crusts, their advanced position among
Crustaceans, indicated by their strong affinity with the Arach-
nidans or spiders and .scorpions. (See figures prefixed.)

^ I may be pardoned for taking an example of the confusion of thought
which this mode of reasoning has introduced into Biology from a clever
article in the Contemporary written by a very able and much-esteemed
biologist. He says : " The morphological distance between a newly hatched
frog's tadpole and tiie adult fiog is almost as great as that between the
adult lancelet and the newly hatched larva; of the lamprey." The "mor-
phological distance" truly, but what of the physiological distance between
the young and adult of the same animal and two adult animals between
which is placed the great gulf of specific and generic diversity which w ith-
in human experience neither has been known to pass ?

172 THE SUCCESSION OF ANIMAL FORMS

All these characters give them an aspect far from embryonic,
while, as Barrande has pointed out, this advanced position of
the group has its significance greatly strengthened by the fact
that in early primordial times we have to deal not with one
species, but with a vast and highly differentiated group, embrac-
ing forms of many and varied subordinate types. As we shall
see, these and other early animals may be regarded as of
generalized types, but not as embryonic. Here, then, meets us
at the outset the fact that in as far as the great groups of annu-
lose and molluscous animals are concerned, we can trace these
back no farther than to a period in which they appear already
highly advanced, much specialized and represented by many
diverse forms. Either, therefore, these great groups came in on
this high initial plane, or we have scarcely reached half way
back in the life-history of our planet.

We have, here, however, by this one consideration, attained
at once to two great and dominant laws regulating the his-
tory of life. First, the law of continuity, whereby new forms
come in successively, throughout geological time, though,
as we shall see, with periods of greater or less frequency.
Secondly, the law of specialization of types, whereby general-
ized forms are succeeded by those more special, and this pro-
bably connected with the growing specialization of the inorganic
world. It is this second law which causes the paralleHsm
between the history of successive species and that of the
embryo.

We have already considered the claims which Eozoon and
its contemporaries may urge to recognition, as beginnings of
life ; but when we ascend from the Laurentian beds, we find
ourselves in a barren series of conglomerates, sandstones, and
other rocks, indicating shore rather than sea conditions, and
remarkably destitute of indications of life. These are the
Huronian beds, and possibly other series associated with them.
They have afforded spicules of sponges, casts of burrows of

THE SUCCESSION OF ANIMAL FORMS 1/3

worms, obscure forms, which may represent crustaceans or
molhisks, markings of unknown origin, and some laminated
forms which may perhaps represent remains of Eozoon, though
their structures are imperfectly preserved. These are sufficient
to show that marine life continued in some forms, and to en-
courage the hope that a rich pre-Cambrian fauna may yet be
discovered.

But let us leave for the present the somewhat isolated case
of Eozoon, and the few scattered forms of the Huronian, and
go on farther to the early Cambrian fauna. This is graphi-
cally presented to us in the sections in South Wales, as de-
scribed by Hicks. Here we find a nucleus of ancient rocks,
supposed to be T.aurentian, though in mineral character more
nearly akin to the Huronian, but which have hitherto afforded
no trace of fossils. Resting unconformably on these is a
series of slates and sandstones, regarded as Lower Cambrian,
the Caerfai group of Hicks, and which are the earliest holding
organic remains. The lowest bed which contains indications
of life is a red shale near the base of the series, which holds a
few organic remains. The species are a Linguklla, worm bur-
rows and a Trilobite.^ Supposing these to be all, it is remark-
able that we have no Protozoa or Corals or Echinoderms, and
that the types of Brachiopods and Crustaceans are of compara-
tively modern affinities. Passing upward through i,ooo feet
of barren sandstone and shale, we reach a zone in which
many Trilobites of at least five genera are found, along with
Pteropods, Brachiopods and Sponges. Thus it is that life
comes in at the base of the Cambrian in ^^'ales, and it may be
regarded as a fair specimen of the facts as they appear in the
earlier fossiliferous beds succeeding the Laurentian. Taking
the first of these groups of fossils, we may recognise in the
worms representatives of those that still haunt our shores, in
the Trilobite a Crustacean or Arachnoid of no mean grade.

' Probably of the genus Olenelliis.

174 THE SUCCESSION OF ANIMAL FORMS

The Linguiella;, whether we regard them as moUuscoids, or,
with Professor Morse, as singularly specialized worms, represent
a peculiar and distinct type, handed down, through all the
vicissitudes of the geological ages, to the present da)'. Had
the Primordial life begun with species altogether inscrutable
and unexampled in succeeding ages, this would no doubt have
been mysterious ; but next to this is the mystery of the oldest
forms of life being also among the newest. One great fact
shines here with the clearness of noon-day. Whatever the
origin of these creatures, they represent families which have
endured till now in the struggle for existence without either
elevation or degradation. Here, again, we may formulate an-
other creative law. In every great group there are some forms
much more capable of long continuance than others. Lingula
among the Brachiopods is a marked instance.

But when, with Hicks, we surmount the mass of barren beds
underlying these remains, which from its unfossiliferous charac-
ter is probably a somewhat rapid deposit of Arctic mud, like
that which in all geological time has constituted the rough fill-
ing of our continental formation.s, and have suddenly sprung
upon us many genera of Trilobites, including the fewest-jointed
and most many-jointed, the smallest and the largest of their
race, our astonishment must increase, till we recognise the fact
that we are now in the presence of another great law of creation,
which provides that every new type shall be rapidly extended
to the extreme limits of its power of adaptation.

That this is not merely local is evidenced by the researches
of Matthew and Walcott in the oldest Cambrian of America,
where a similar succession occurs, but with this difference, that
in the wider area presented by the American continent we find
a greater variety of forms of life. Walcott records up to 1893
no less than 67 genera and 165 species in the oldest Cambrian
of America. These include representatives of the Sponges,
Hydroids, Corals, Echinoderms, Worms, Brachiopods, Bivalve

THE SUCCESSION OF ANIMAL FORMS 1 75

and Univalve MoUusks and Crustaceans, or in other words, all
the leading groups of invertebrate animals that we find in the
sea at present. Of these the dominant group is the Crustaceans,
including Trilobites, numbering one-third of the whole ; and
these with the univalve MoUusks and the Brachiopods constitute
the majority, the other groups having comparatively few species.
What a marvellous incoming of life is here ! Walcott may
well say that on the theory of gradual development we must
suppose that life existed at a period far before the Cambrian —
as far, indeed, as the Cambrian is before our own time. But
this would mean that we know only half of the history of life ;
and perhaps it is more reasonable to suppose that when the
conditions became favourable, it came in with a rush.

Before considering the other laws that may be inferred from
these facts, however, let us in imagination transfer ourselves
back to the Primordial age, and suppose that we have in our
hands a living specimen of one of the larger Trilobites, recently
taken from the sea, flapping vigorously its great tail, and full of
life and energy ; an animal larger and heavier than the modern
king-crab of our shores, furnished with all the complexity of
external parts for which the crustaceans are so remarkable, and
no doubt with instincts and feelings and modes of action as pro-
nounced as those of its modern allies, and, if Woodward's views
are correct, on a higher plane of rank than the king-crab itself,
inasmuch as it is a composite type connecting Limuli with
Isopods, and even with scorpions. We have obviously here,
in the appearance of this great Crustacean or Arachnoid, a repe-
tition of the facts which we met with in Eozoon ; but how vast
the interval between them in geological time, and in zoological
rank ! Standing in the presence of this testimony, I think it
is only right to say that we possess no causal solution of the
appearance of these early forms of life ; but in tracing them
and their successors upward through the succeeding ages, we
may hope at least to reach some expressions of the laws of

1/6 THE SUCCESSION OF ANIMAL FORMS

their succession, in possession of which we may return to
attack the mystery of their origin.

First, it must strike every observer that there is a great same-
ness of plan throughout the whole history of marine inverte-
brate life. If we turn over the pages of an illustrated textbook
of geology, or examine the cases or drawers of a collection of
fossils, we shall find extending through every succeeding for-
mation, representative forms of Crustaceans, Mollusks, Corals,
etc., in such a manner as to indicate that in each successive
period there has been a reproduction of the same type with
modifications ; and if the series is not continuous, this appears
to be due rather to abrupt physical changes ; since sometimes,
where two formations pass into each other, we find a gradual
change in the fossils by the dropping out and introduction of
species one by one. Thus, in the whole of the great Palaeozoic
Period, both in its Fauna and Flora, we have a continuity and
similarity of a most marked character.

It is evident that there is presented to us in this similarity
of the forms of successive faunas and floras, a phenomenon
which deserves very careful sifting as to the question of identity
or diversity of species. The data for its comprehension must
be obtained by careful study of the series of closely allied
forms occurring in successive formations, and the great and
undisturbed areas of the older rocks in America seem to give
special facilities for this, which should be worked, not in the
direction of constituting new species for every slightly diver-
gent form, but in striving to group these forms into large
specific types. ^

There is nothing to preclude the supposition that some of
the groups mentioned in the note are really specific types, with

^ The Rynchonella; of Ihe type of R. plena, the Oi tbids, of the type of
O. testiuiinaria, the Strophouienie of the types of 6". (7//tV7/aAi ancKS". Rhom-
boidalis, the Atrypne of tlie type of -•/. rdicuhiiis, furnish cases in point
among the Brachiopods.

THE SUCCESSION OF ANIMAL FORMS 1 7/

numerous race modifications. My own provisional conclusion,
based on the study of Palaeozoic plants, is that the general law
will be found to be the existence of distinct specific types, in-
dependent of each other, but liable in geological time to a
great many modifications, which have often been regarded as
distinct species.^

While this unity of successive faunae at first sight presents
an appearance of hereditary succession, it loses much of this
character when we consider the number of new types introduced
without apparent predecessors, the necessity that there should
be similarity of type in successive faunae on any hypothesis of
a continuous plan ; and above all, the fact that the recurrence
of representative species or races in large proportion marks
times of decadence rather than of expansion in the types to
which they belong. To turn to another period, this is very
manifest in that singular resemblance which obtains between
the modern mammals of South America and Australia, and
their immediate fossil predecessors — the phenomenon being
here manifestly that of decadence of large and abundant
species into a few depauperated representatives. This will be
found to be a very general law, elevation being accompanied
by the apparent abrupt appearance of new types and decadence
by the apparent continuation of old species, or modifications
of them.

This resemblance with difference in successive faunas also
connects itself very directly with the successive elevations and
depressions of our continental plateaus in geological time.
Every great Palaeozoic limestone, for example, indicates a
depression with succeeding elevation. On each elevation
marine animals were driven back into the ocean, and on each
depression swarmed in over the land, reinforced by new
species, either then introduced, or derived by migration from
other localities. In like manner, on every depression, land
' "Geological History of Plants."

178 THE SUCCESSION OF ANIMAL FORMS

plants and animals were driven in upon insular areas, and on
re-elevation, again spread themselves widely. Now I think it
will be found to be a law here that periods of expansion were
eminently those of introduction of new specific types, and
periods of contraction those of extinction, and also of continu-
ance of old types under new varietal forms.

It must also be noticed that all the leading types of in-
vertebrate life were early introduced, that change within these
was necessarily limited, and that elevation could take place
mainly by the introduction of the vertebrate orders. So in
plants. Cryptogams early attained their maximum as well as
GymnospermSj and elevation occurred in the introduction of
Phsenogams, and this not piecemeal, but as we shall see in
a succeeding chapter, in great force at once.

We may further remark the simultaneous appearance of like
types of life in one and the same geological period, over widely
separated regions of the earth's surface. This strikes us es-
pecially in the comparatively simple and homogeneous life-
dynasties of the Palaeozoic, when, for example, we find the same
types of Silurian Graptolites, Trilobites and Brachiopods ap-
pearing simultaneously in Australia, America and Europe.
Perhaps in no department is it more impressive than in the
introduction of the Devonian and Carboniferous Ages of that
grand cryptogamous and gymnospermous flora which ranges
from Brazil to Spitzbergen, and from Australia to Scotland,
accompanied in all by^the same groups of marine invertebrates.
Such facts may depend either on that long life of specific
types which gives them ample time to spread to all possible
habitats, before their extinction, or on some general law where-
by the conditions suitable to similar types of life emerge at one
time in all parts of the world. Both causes may be influential,
as the one does not exclude the other, and there is reason to
believe that both are natural facts. Should it be ultimately
proved that species allied and representative, but distinct in

THE SUCCESSION OF ANIMAL FORMS 179

origin, come into being simultaneously everywhere, we shall
arrive at one of the laws of creation, and one probably con-
nected with the gradual change of the physical conditions of
the world.

Another general truth, obvious from the facts which have
been already collected, is the periodicity of introduction of
species. They come in by bursts or flood tides at particular
points of time, while these great life waves are followed and
preceded by times of ebb in which little that is new is being
produced. We labour in our investigation of this matter
under the disadvantage that the modern period is evidently
one of the times of pause in the creative work. Had our time
been that of the early Tertiary or early Mesozoic, our views as
to the question of origin of species might have been very dif-
ferent. It is a striking fact, in illustration of this, that since
the glacial age no new species of mammal, except, possibly, man
himself, can be proved to have originated on our continents,
while a great number of large and conspicuous forms have
disappeared. It is possible that the proximate or secondary
causes of the ebb and flow of life production may be in part at
least physical, but other and more important efficient causes
may be behind these. In any case these undulations in the
history of life are in harmony with much that we see in other
departments of nature.

It results from the above and the immediately preceding
statement, that specific and generic types enter on the stage in
great force, and gradually taper off towards extinction. They
should so appear in the geological diagrams made to illustrate
the succession of living beings. This applies even to those
forms of life which come in with fewest species and under the
most humble guise. What a remarkable swarming, for ex-
ample, there must have been of Marsupial Mammals in the
early Mesozoic, and in the Coal formation the only known
Pulmonate snails, five or six in number, belong to four generic

S. E. 13

l8o THE SUCCESSION OF ANIMAL FORMS

types, while the Myriapods and Amphibians ahke appear in a
crowd of generic forms.

I have already referred to the permanence of species in
geological time. We may now place this in connection with
the law of rapid origination and more or less continuous
transmission of varietal forms. A good illustration will be
afforded by a group of species with which I am very familiar,
that which came into our seas at the beginning of the Glacial
age, and still exists. With regard to their permanence, it can
be affirmed that the shells now elevated in Wales to 1,200,
and in Canada to 600 feet above the sea, and which lived be-
fore the last great revolution of our continents — a period very
remote as compared with human history — differ in no tittle
from their modern successors after hundreds or thousands of
generations. It can also be afifirmed that the more variable
species appear under precisely the same varietal forms then as
now, though these varieties have changed much in their local
distribution. The real import of these statements, which might
also be made with regard to other groups, well known to pale-
ontologists, is of so great significance that it can be realized
only after we have thought of the vast time and numerous
changes through which these humble creatures have survived.
I may call in evidence here a familiar New England animal,
the common sand clam, Jlfva arenaria, and its relative Mya
fniiicaia, the short sand clam, which now inhabit together all
the northern seas ; for the Pacific specimens, from Japan and
California, though differently named, are undoubtedly the same.
Alva tritncata appears in Europe in the Coralline Crag, and
was followed by M. arenaria in the Jvcd Crag. Both shells
occur in the Pleistocene of America, and their several varietal
forms had already developed themselves in the Crag, and re-
main the same to-day ; so that these humble mollusks, littoral
in their habits, and subjected to a great variety of conditions,
have continued for a very long period to construct their shells

THE SUCCESSION OF ANIMAL FORMS l8l

precisely as at present ; while in many places, as on the Lower
St. Lawrence, we find them living together on the same banks,
and yet preserving their distinctness. ^ Nor are there any in-
dications of a transition between the two species. I might
make similar statements with regard to the Astartes, Bucci-
nums and Tellinje of the drift, and could illustrate them by
extensive series of specimens from my own collections.

Another curious illustration is that presented by the Tertiary
and modern faunce of some oceanic islands far separated from
the continents. In ALadeira and Porto Santo, for example,
according to Lyell, we have fifty-six species of land shells in
the former, and forty-two in the latter, only twelve being com-
mon to the two, though these islands are only thirty miles
apart. Now in the Pliocene strata of Madeira and Porto
Santo we find thirty-six species in the former, and thirty-five in
the latter, of which only eight per cent, are extinct, and yet
only eight are common to the two islands. Further, there
seem to be no transitional forms connecting the species, and
of some of them the same varieties existed in the Pliocene as
now. The main difference in time is the extinction of some
species and the introduction of others without known connect-
ing links, and the fact that some species, plentiful in the
Pliocene, are rare now, and vice versa. All these shells differ
from those of modern Europe, but some of them are allied to
Miocene species of that continent. Here we have a case of
continued existence of the same forms, and in circumstances
which, the more we think of them, the more do they defy all
our existing theories as to specific origins.

Perhaps some of the most remarkable facts in connection
with the permanence of varietal forms of species are those
furnished by that magnificent flora which burst in all its
majesty on the American continent in the Cretaceous period,
and still survives among us, even in some of its specific types.

' Paper in Record of Science, on Shells at Little Metis.

1 82 THE SUCCESSION OF ANIMAL FORMS

I say survives ; for we have but a remnant of its forms living,
and comparatively little that is new has probably been added
since. The confusion which has obtained as to the age of
this flora, and its mistaken reference to the Miocene Tertiary,
have arisen in part from the fact that this modern flora was in
its earlier times contemporary with Cretaceous animals, and
survived the gradual change from the animal life of the Creta-
ceous down to that of the Eocene, and even of the Miocene.
In collections of these plants, from what may be termed beds
of transition from the Cretaceous to the Tertiary, we find many
plants of modern species, or so closely related that they may be
mere varietal forms. Some of these v. ill be mentioned in the
next paper, and they show that modern plants, some of them
small and insignificant, others of gigantic size, reach back to a
time when the Mesozoic Dinosaurs were becoming extinct, and
the earliest Placental mammals being introduced. Shall we
say that these plants have propagated themselves unchanged
for half a million of years, or more ? '

Take from the western Mesozoic a contrasting yet illustrative
fact. In the lowest Cretaceous rocks of Queen Charlotte's
Island, Mr. Richardson and Dr. G. M. Dawson find Ammon-
ites and allied Cephalopods similar in many respects to those
discovered farther south by the California Survey, and Mr.
Whiteaves finds that some of them are apparently not distinct
from species described by the Palteontologists of the Geological
Survey of British India. On both sides of the Pacific these
shells lie entombed in solid rock, and the Pacific rolls between,
as of yore. Yet these species, genera, and even families are
all extinct — why, no man can tell, while land plants that must
have come in while the survivors of these Cephalopods still
lived, reach down to the present. How mysterious is all this,

^ Among these are living species of ferns, one of tliem our common
" Sensitive Fern," of Eastern America, two species of Hazel still extant,
and Sequoias or giant pines, like those now surviving in California.

THE SUCCESSION OF ANIMAL FORMS 1 83

and how strongly does it show the independence in some sense
of merely physical agencies on the part of the manifestations
of life !

We have naturally been occupied hitherto with the lower
tribes of animals and with plant life, because these are pre-
dominant in the early ages of the earth. Let us turn now to
the history of vertebrate or back-boned animals, which presents
some peculiarities special to itself. Many years ago Pander ^
described and figured from the Cambro-silurian of Russia, a
number of minute teeth, some conical and some comb-like,
which he referred to fishes, and to that low form of the fish
type represented by the modern lampreys. Much doubt was
thrown on this determination, more especially as the teeth
seemed to be composed not of bone earth, but of carbonate of
lime, and it was suggested that they may have belonged to
marine worms, or to the lingual ribbons of Gastropod mol-
lusks. Some confirmatory evidence seems to have been sup-
plied by the discovery of great numbers of similar forms in the
shales of the coal formation of Ohio, by the late Dr. Newberry.
I have had an ojiportunity to examine these, and find that they
consist of calcium phosphate,- or bone earth, and that their
microscopic structure is not dissimilar from that of the teeth
of some of the smaller sharks (Uiplodus) found with them. I
have therefore been inclined to believe that there may have
already been, even in the Cambrian or Lower Silurian seas,
true fishes, related partly to the lampreys and partly to sharks ;
so that the history of the back-boned animals may have gone
nearly as far back as that of their humbler relations. This
conjecture has recently received further support from the
discovery in rocks of Lower Silurian age, in Colorada of a
veritable bone bed, rich in fragmentary remains of fishes.

' More recently Rohan has described conical teeth (St. Petersburg
Academy, 18S9), but I have not seen his paper.
- Analysis of Dr. B. J. Harrington.

184 THE SUCCESSION OF ANIMAL FORMS

They are unfortunately so comminuted as to resemble the
debris of the food of some larger animal ; but in so far as I can
judge from specimens kindly given to me/ they resemble the
bony coverings of some of the familiar fishes of the Devonian.
Thus they would indicate, with Pander's and Rohan's speci-
mens, already two distinct types of fishes as existing almost as
early as the higher invertebrates of the sea.

In the Silurian (Upper Silurian of Murchison) we have un-
doubted evidence of the same kind, on both sides of the
Atlantic, in teeth and spines of sharks, and the plates which
protected the heads and bodies of the plate-covered fishes
(Placo-ganoids). But it is in the Devonian that these types
appear to culminate, and we have added to them that remark-
able type of " lung fish," as the Germans call them, represented
in our modern world only by the curious and exceptional
Burramunda of Australia, and the mud fishes of Africa and
South America,^ creatures which show, as do some of the
mailed fishes, or ganoids, of equally great age, the intermediate
stages between a swimming bladder and a lung, and thus ap-
proach nearer to the air-breathing animals than any other fishes.

Many years ago, in "Acadian Geology," I referred to the
probability that the mailed and lung fishes of the Devonian and
Carboniferous possessed airb ladders so constructed as to
enable them to breathe air, as is the case with their modern
representatives. In the modern species this, no doubt, enables
them to haunt badly aerated waters, in swamps and sluggish
streams, and in some cases even to survive when the water
in which they live is dried up. In the Carboniferous and
Devonian it may have served a similar purpose, litting them
to inhabit the lagoons and creeks of the coal swamps, the
water of which must often have been badly aerated. It makes
against this that some sharks followed them into these waters,

1 By Mr. F. D. Adams ami Dr. Walcott.
- Ceratodus, Lipidosiren, Protopterus.

'"'^'^^^OfloaaBOO^^^

Two Primitive VERTEiiRATFS, PalaosponJylns (enlarged) and

PtirkhtJnis (reduced),

(After Woodward, with some modifications.)

THE SUCCESSION OF ANIMAL FORMS 1 85

and the modern sharks have no swim-bladders. Possibly,
however, the sharks habitually haunted the open sea, and
only made occasional raids on the dangerous waters tenanted
by the ganoids. It is also true that only certain genera of
sharks are found to be represented in the carbonaceous shales,
and they may have differed in this respect from the ordinary
forms of the order. It has been suggested that only a small
change would be necessary to enable some of these lung fishes
to become Batrachians, and no doubt this is the nearest
approach of the fish to the reptile ; but we have not yet found
connecting links sufficient to bridge over the whole distance.

The plate-bearing ganoids of the Silurian and Devonian, at
one time supposed to be allied to Crustaceans, but whose
dignity as " Forerunners of the back-boned animals "' is now
generally admitted,^ are clearly true fishes, and of somewhat
high rank, their strange bony armour being evidently a special
protection against the attacks of contemporary sharks and
gigantic crustaceans ; and if we may judge by the Colorado
specimens, their existence dates back almost to the close of the
Cambrian, and they were probably contemporary with small
sharks ; while as early as the Silurian and Devonian, if we
regard the scaly ganoids as a distinct type, we have already
four types of fishes, and these akin to those which in modern
time Ave must regard as the highest of their class.

One very little fish of the Devonian, of which specimens
have been kindly sent me by a friend in Scotland,^ the Pala^o-

' A. Smith Woodward, " Natuial Science," 1892, and Annals and
Alaga. Nat. Hist,, October, 1S90. This able naturaHst, in introducing
his subject, remarks, from the point of view of an evolutionist : —
"Whether some form of 'v/orm' gave origin to the forerunners of the
great back-boned race, or whether a primeval relative of the King-crab
turned upside down and rearranged limbs and head — these are questions
still admitting of endless discussion, no doubt fruitless in their main object,
liut desirable from the new lines of investigation they continually suggest."

- James Reed, Esq., of Allan House, Blairgowrie.

1 86 THE SUCCESSION OF ANIMAL FORMS

spondylus of Traquair, may raise still higher hopes for the early
vertebrates. It is a little creature, an inch to two inches in
length, destitute or nearly destitute of bony covering, having a
head which suggests the presence of external gills, large eyes,
and even elongated nasal bones,^ a long vertebral column
composed of separate bony rings, more than fifty in number,
with possible indications of ribs in front and distinct neural
and haemal processes behind. One cannot look at it with-
out the suggestion occurring of some of the smaller snake-
like Batrachians of the Carboniferous and Permian ; and I
should not be surprised if it should come to be regarded
either as a forerunner of the Batrachians or as a primitive
tadpole.

However this may be, the upper part of the Devonian, though
rich in fishes and plants, has afforded no higher vertebrates
than its lower parts, and in the lowest Carboniferous beds we
suddenly find ourselves in the presence of Batrachians with
well-developed limbs and characters which ally them to the
Lizards. True lizard-like reptiles appear in the Permian, and
then we enter on that marvellous reign of reptiles, in which
this class assumed so many great and remarkable forms, and
asserted itself in a manner of which the now degraded reptilian
class can afford no conception.

The mammals and birds make their first appearance quietly
in small and humble forms in the reign of reptiles, in which
there was little place left for them by the latter ; but the
mammals burst upon us in all their number and magnitude in
the Eocene and Miocene, jn which quadrupedal mammalian
life may be said to have culminated in grandeur, variety, and
geographical distribution ; far excelling in these respects the
time in which we live.

The development in time of the back-boned animals thus
stands in some degree by itself; but it illustrates the same
' I .im aware that Woodward regards these parts differently.

THE SUCCESSION OF ANIMAL FORMS 1 8/

laws of early generalised types, and sudden and wide introduc-
tion of new forms, which we have seen in the case of the in-
vertebrates and the plants.

Such facts as those to which I have referred, and many
others, which want of space prevents me from noticing, are in
one respect eminently unsatisfactory, for they show us how
difficult must be any attempts to explain the origin and succes-
sion of life. For this reason they are quietly put aside or
explained away in most of the current hypotheses on the sub-
ject. But we must, as men of science, face these difficulties,
and be content to search for facts and laws, even if they should
prove fatal to preconceived views.

A group of new laws, indeed, here breaks upon us. (i)
The great vitality and rapid extension and variation of new
specific types. (2) The law of spontaneous decay and mor-
tality of species in time. (3) The law of periodicity and of
simultaneous appearance of many allied forms. (4) The
abrupt entrance and slow decay of groups of species. (5) The
extremely long duration of some species in time. (6) The
grand march of new forms landwards, and upwards in rank.
Such general truths deeply impress us at least with the conclu-
sion that we are tracing, not a fortuitous succession, but the
action of power working by law.

I have thus far said nothing of the bearing of the prevalent
ideas of descent with modification on this wonderful pro-
cession of life. None of these, of course, can be expected to
take us back to the origin of living beings ; but they also fail
to explain why so vast numbers of highly organized species
struggle into existence simultaneously in one age and disappear
in another, why no continuous chain of succession in time can
be found gradually blending species into each other, and why,
in the natural succession of things, degradation under the
influence of external conditions and final extinction seem to be
laws of organic existence. It is useless here to appeal to the

1 88 THE SUCCESSION OF ANIMAL FORMS

imperfection of tlie record, or to tine movements or migrations
of species. Tlie record is now, in many important parts, too
complete, and the simultaneousness of the entrance of the
faunas and floras too certainly established, and moving species
from place to place only evades the difficulty. The truth is
that such hypotheses are at present premature, and that we
require to have larger collections of fiicts. Independently of
this, however, it appears to me that from a philosophical i)oint
of view it is extremely probable that all theories of evolution, as
at present applied to life, are fundamentally defective in being
too partial in their character; and perhaps I cannot better group
the remainder of the facts to which I wish to refer than by
using them to illustrate this feature of most of our attempts at
generalization on this subject.

First, then, these hypotheses are too partial, in their tendency
to refer numerous and complex phenomena to one cause, or to
a few causes only, when all trustworthy analogy would indicate
that they must result from many concurrent forces and deter-
minations of force. We have all, no doubt, read those ingenious,
not to say amusing, speculations in which some entomologists
and botanists have indulged with reference to the mutual
relations of flowers and suctorial insects. Geologically the
facts oblige us to begin with Cryptogamous plants and chewing
insects, and out of the desire of insects for non-existent honey,
and the adaptations of plants to the requirements of non-
existent suctorial apparatus, we have to evolve the marvellous
complexity of floral form and colouring, and the exquisitely
delicate apparatus of the mouths of haustellate insects. Now.
when it is borne in mind that this theory implies a mental con-
fusion on our part precisely similar to that which, in the depart-
ment of mechanics, actuates the seekers for perpetual motion,
that we have not the smallest tittle of evidence that the changes
required have actually occurred in any one case, and that the
thousands of other structures and relations of the plant and the

THE SUCCESSION OF ANIMAL FORMS 1 89

insect have to be worked out by a series of concurrent develop-
ments so complex and absolutely incalculable in the aggregate,
that the cycles and epicycles of the Ptolemaic astronomy were
child's play in comparison, we need not wonder that the com-
mon sense of mankind revolts against such fancies, and that we
are accused of attempting to construct the universe by methods
that would baffle Omnipotence itself, because they are simply
absurd. In this aspect of them, indeed, such speculations are
necessarily futile, because no mind can grasp all the com-
plexities of even any one case, and it is useless to follow out an
imaginary line of development which unexplained facts must
contradict at every step. This is also, no doubt, the reason
why all recent attempts at constructing " Phylogenies " are so
changeable, and why no two experts can agree about almost
any of them.

A second aspect in which such speculations are too partial,
is in the unwarranted use which they make of analogy. It is
not unusual to find such analogies as that between the em-
bryonic development of the individual animal and the succes-
sion of animals in geological time placed on a level with that
reasoning from analogy by which geologists apply modern
causes to explain geological formations. No claim could be
more unfounded. When the geologist studies ancient lime-
stones built up of the remains of corals, and then applies the
phenomena of modern coral reefs to explain their origin, he
brings the latter to bear on the former by an analogy which in-
cludes not merely the apparent results, but the causes at work,
and the conditions of their action, and it is on this that the
validity of his comparison depends, in so far as it relates to
similarity of mode of formation. But when we compare the
development of an animal from an embryo cell with the pro-
gress of animals in time, though we have a curious analogy as
to the steps of the process, the conditions and causes at work
are known to be altogether dissimilar, and therefore we have no

190 THE SUCCESSION OF ANIMAL FORMS

evidence whatever as to identity of cause, and our reasoning
becomes at once the most transparent of fallacies. P'urther, we
have no right here to overlook the fact that the conditions of
the embryo are determined by those of a previous adult, and
that no sooner does this hereditary potentiality produce a new
adult animal, than the terrible external agencies of the physical
world, in presence of which all life exists, begin to tell on the
organism, and after a struggle of longer or shorter duration it
succumbs to death, and its substance returns into inorganic
nature, a law from which even the longer life of the species
does not seem to exempt it. All this is so plain and manifest
that it is extraordinary that evolutionists will continue to use
such partial and imperfect arguments. Another illustration
may be taken from that application of the doctrine of natural
selection to explain the introduction of species in geological
time, which is so elaborately discussed by Sir C. Lyell in the
last edition of his " Principles of Geology." The great geolo-
gist evidently leans strongly to the theory, and claims for it the
" highest degree of probability," yet he perceives that there is
a serious gap in it ; since no modern fact has ever proved the
origin of a new species by modification. Such a gap, if it
existed in those grand analogies by which he explained geo-
logical formations through modern causes, would be admitted
to be fatal.

A third illustration of the partial character of these hypo-
theses may be taken from the use made of the theory deduced
from modern physical discoveries, that life must be merely a
product of the continuous operation of physical laws. The
assumption — for it is nothing more — that the phenomena of life-
are produced merely by some arrangement of physical forces,
even if it be admitted to be true, gives only a partial explana-
tion of the possible origin of life. It docs not account for the
fact that life, as a force, or combination of forces, is set in
antagonism to all other forces. It does not account for the

THE SUCCESSION OF ANIMAL FORMS IQI

marvellous connection of life with organization. It does not
account for the determination and arrangement of forces
implied in life. A very simple illustration may make this
plain. If the problem to be solved were the origin of the
mariner's compass, one might assert that it is wholly a physical
arrangement, both as to matter and force. Another might
assert that it involves mind and intelligence in addition. In
some sense both would be right. The properties of magnetic
force and of iron or steel are purely physical, and it might even
be within the bounds of possibility that somewhere in the
universe a mass of natural loadstone may have been so balanced
as to swing in harmony with the earth's magnetism. Yet we
would surely be regarded as very credulous if we could be in-
duced to believe that the mariner's compass has originated in
that way. This argument applies with a thousandfold greater
force to the origin of life, which involves even in its simplest
forms so many more adjustments of force and so much more
complex machinery.

Fourthly, these hypotheses are partial, inasmuch as they fail
to account for the vastly varied and correlated interdepen-
dencies of natural things and forces, and for the unity of plan
which pervades the whole. These can be explained only by
taking into the account another element from without. Even
when it professes to admit the existence of a God, the evolu-
tionist reasoning of our day contents itself altogether with the
physical or visible universe, and leaves entirely out of sight the
power of the unseen and spiritual, as if this were something
with which science has nothing to do, but which belongs only
to imagination or sentiment. So much has this been the case,
that when recently a few physicists and naturalists have referred
to the " Unseen Universe," they have seemed to be teaching
new and startling truths, though only reviving some of the
oldest and most permanent ideas of our race. From the dawn
of human thought it has been the conclusion alike of philoso-

192 THE SUCCESSION OF ANIMAL FORMS

phers, theologians, and the common sense of mankind, that the
seen can be explained only by reference to the unseen, and
that any merely physical theory of the world is necessarily
partial. This, too, is the position of our sacred Scriptures, and
is broadly stated in their opening verse, and indeed it lies alike
at the basis of all true religion and all sound philosophy, for it
must necessarily be that "the things that are seen are temporal,
the things that are unseen, eternal." With reference to the
primal aggregation of energy in the visible universe, with refer-
ence to the introduction of life, with reference to the soul of
man, with reference to the heavenly gifts of genius and pro-
phecy, with reference to the introduction of the Saviour Himself
into the world, and with reference to the spiritual gifts and
graces of God's people, all these spring, not from sporadic acts
of intervention, but from the continuous action of God and the
unseen world ; and this, we must never forget, is the true ideal
of creation in Scripture and in sound theology. Only in such
exceptional and little influential philosophies as that of Demo-
critus, and in the speculations of a few men carried off their
balance by the brilliant physical discoveries of our age, has
this necessarily partial and imperfect view been adopted. Never,
indeed, was its imperfection more clear than in the light of
modern science.

Geology, by tracing back all present things to their origin,
was the first science to establish on a basis of observed facts
the necessity of a beginning and end of the world. But even
physical science now teaches us that the visible universe is a
vast machine for the dissipation of energy; that the processes
going on in it must have had a beginning in time, and that all
things tend to a final and helpless equilibrium. This necessity
implies an unseen power, an invisible universe, in which the
visible universe must have originated, and to which its energy
is ever returning. The hiatus between the seen and the unseen
may be bridged over by the conceptions of atoiuic vortices of

THE SUCCESSION OF ANIMAL FORMS I93

force, and by the universal and continuous ether ; but whether
or not, it has become clear that the conception of the unseen,
as existing, has become necessary to our belief in the possible
existence of the pliysical universe itself, even without taking
life into account.

It is in the domain of life, hov^-ever, that this necessity be-
comes most apparent ; and it is in the plant that we first
clearly perceive a visible testimony to that unseen which is the
counterpart of the seen. Life in the plant opposes the out-
ward rush of force in our system, arrests a part of it on its
way, fixes it as potential energy, and thus, forming a mere eddy,
so to speak, in the process of dissipation of energy, it accumu-
lates that on which animal life and man himself may subsist,
and assert for a time supremacy over the seen and temporal on
behalf of the unseen and eternal. I say, for a time, because
life is, in the visible universe, as at present constituted, but a
temporary exception, introduced from that unseen world where
it is no longer the exception but the eternal rule. In a still
higher sense, then, than that in which matter and force testify
to a Creator, organization and life, whether in the plant, the
animal, or man, bear the same testimony, and exist as outposts
put forth in the succession of ages from that higher heaven
that surrounds the visible universe. In them, too, Almighty
power is no doubt conditioned or limited by law ; yet they bear
more distinctly upon them the impress of their Maker, and,
while all explanations of the physical universe which refuse to
recognise its spiritual and unseen origin must necessarily be
partial and in the end incomprehensible, this destiny falls more
quickly and surely on the attempt to account for life and its
succession on merely materialistic principles.

Here again, however, we must bear in mind that creation, as
maintained against such materialistic evolution, whether by
theology, philosophy, or Holy Scripture, is necessarily a con-
tinuous, nay, an eternal, influence, not an intervention of dis-

.s. E. 14

194 THE SUCCESSION OF ANIMAL FORMS

connected acts. It is the true continuity, which inckides and
binds together all other continuity.

It is here that natural science meets with theology, not as an
antagonist, but as a friend and ally in its time of greatest
need ; and I must here record my belief that neither men of
science nor theologians have a right to separate what God in
Holy Scripture has joined together, or to build up a wall
between nature and religion, and write upon it, " no thorough-
fare." The science that does this must be impotent to explain
nature, and without hold on the higher sentiments of man.
The theology that does this must sink into mere superstition.

In conclusion, can we formulate a few of the general laws,
or perhaps I had better call them the general conclusions,
respecting life, in which all Palaeontologists may agree. Per-
haps it is not possible to do this at present satisfactorily, but
the attempt may do no harm, ^^'e may, then, I think, make
the following afifirmations : —

1. The existence of life and organization on the earth is not
eternal, or even coeval with the beginning of the physical uni-
verse, but may possibly date from Laurentian or immediately
pre-Laurentian ages.

2. The introduction of new species of animals and plants has
been a continuous process, not necessarily in the sense of
derivation of one species from another, but in the higher sense
of the continued operation of the cause or causes which intro-
duced life at first. This, as already stated, I take to be the
true theological or Scriptural as well as scientific idea of what
we ordinarily and somewhat loosely term creation.

3. Though thus continuous, the process has not been uni-
form ; but periods of rapid production of species have alter-
nated with others in which many disappeared and few were
introduced. This may have been an effect of physical cycles
reacting on the progress of life.

4. Species, like individuals, have greater energy ami \ iuility in

THE SUCCESSION OF ANIMAL FORMS 1 95

their younger stages, and rapidly assume all their varietal forms,
and extend themselves as widely as external circumstances will
permit. Like individuals also, they have their periods of old
age and decay, though the life of some species has been of
enormous duration in comparison with that of others ; the
difference appearing to be connected with degrees of adaptation
to different conditions of life.

5. Many allied species, constituting groups of animals and
plants, have made their appearance at once in various parts of
the earth, and these groups have obeyed the same laws with
the individual and the species in culminating rapidly, and then
slowly diminishing, though a large group once introduced has
rarely disappeared altogether.

6. Groups of species, as genera and orders, do not usually
begin with their highest or lowest forms, but with intermediate
and generalized types, and they show a capacity for both eleva-
tion and degradation in their subsequent history.

7. The history of life presents a progress from the lower to
the higher, and from the simpler to the more complex, and
from the more generalized to the more specialized. In this
progress new types are introduced, and take the place of the
older ones, which sink to a relatively subordinate place, and
become thus degraded. But the physical and organic changes
have been so correlated and adjusted that life has not only
always maintained its existence, but has been enabled to
assume more complex forms, and thus older forms have been
made to prepare the way for newer, so that there has been, on
the whole, a steady elevation culminating in man himself.
Elevation and specialization have, however, been secured at the
expense of vital energy and range of adaptation, until the new
element of a rational and inventive nature was introduced only
in the case of man.

8. In regard to the larger and more distinct types, we
cannot find evidence that they have, in their introduction,

196 THE SUCCESSION OF ANIMAL FORMS

been preceded by similar forms connecting them with previous
groups ; but there is reason to beheve that many supposed
representative species in successive formations are really only
races or varieties.

9. In so far as we can trace their history, specific types are
permanent in their characters from their introduction to their
extinction, and their earlier varietal forms are similar to their
later ones.

10. Palaeontology furnishes no direct evidence, perhaps
never can furnish any, as to the actual transformation of one
species into another, or as to the actual circumstances of
creation of a species ; but the drift of its testimony is to show
that species come in per saltiim, rather than by any slow and
gradual process.

11. The origin and history of life cannot, any more than the
origin and determination of matter and force, be explained on
purely material grounds, but involve the consideration of power
referable to the unseen and spiritual world.

Different minds may state these principles in different ways,
but I believe that in so far as palaeontology is concerned, in
substance they must hold good, at least as steps to higher
truths. And now allow me to say that we should be thankful
that it is given to us to deal with so great questions, and
that in doing so, deep humiliation, earnest seeking for truth,
patient collection of all facts, self-denying abstinence from
hasty generalizations, forbearance and generous estimation with
regard to our fellow labourers, and reliance on that Divine
Spirit which has breathed into us our intelligent life, and is
the source of all true wisdom, arc the qualities which best be-
come us.

But while the principles noted above may be said to be
known laws of the apparition of new forms of life, they do
not reach to the secondary efficient causes of the introduction
of new species. "What these may ultimately prove to be, to

THE SUCCESSION OF ANIMAL FORMS IQ/

what extent they can be known by us, and to what extent they
may include processes of derivation, it is impossible now to
say. At present we must recognise in the prevailing theories
on the subject merely the natural tendency of the human mind
to grasp the whole mass of the unknown under some grand
general hypothesis, which, though perhaps little else than a
figure of speech, satisfies for the moment. We are dealing
with the origin of species precisely as the alchemists did with
chemistry, and as the Plutonists and Neptunists did with
geology ; but the hypotheses of to-day may be the parents of
investigations which will become real science to-morrow. In
the meantime it is safe to affirm that whatever amount of truth
there may be in the several hypotheses which have engaged
our attention, there is a creative force above and beyond them,
and to the threshold of which we shall inevitably be brought,
after all their capabilities have been exhausted by rigid in-
vestigation of facts. It is also consolatory to know that
species, in so far as the Modern period, or any one past geo-
logical period may be concerned, are so fixed that for all
practical purposes they may be regarded as unchanging. They
are to us what the planets in their orbits are to the astronomer,
and speculations as to the origin of species are merely our
nebular hypotheses as to the possible origin of worlds and
systems.

References : — Address as Vice-President of American Associalioii at
Detroit, 1875. " Tlie Chain of Life in Geological Time," London,
1879. Addresses to Natural History Society of Montreal, published
in Canadian A'atnralist, "Apparition of Animal Yovm^," PiincetoJi
/\e7'ici<.'.

THE GENESIS AND MIGRATIONS OF PLANTS.

DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF
DR. OSWALD HEER,

The Able and Successful Student of the later Flokas
OF THE Northern Hemisphere.

Geologicai, Periods as Related to Plants — Arctic Orioix
OF Floras — The Devonl\n Fi ora — Arctic CLnL\TES
OF the Past — History of Some Modern Forms —
Laws of the Succession

Win W*

Vegetation of the Middle Devonian or Erian, restored from
actual specimens (p. 202).

CHAPTER VIII.
THE GENESIS AND MIGRATIONS OF PLANTS.

IF, for convenience of reference, we divide the whole history
of the earth, from the time when a sohd crust first formed
on its surface and began to be ridged up into islands or moun-
tains in the primeval ocean, into four great periods, we shall
find that each can be characterized by some features in relation
to the world of plants.

That Archean age, in which the oldest known beds of rocks
were produced — rocks now greatly crumpled by the first move-
ments of the thin crust, and hardened and altered by heat and
pressure — has, it is true, little to tell us. But, as elsewhere
stated, even it has beds of Carbon in the form of Graphite —
veritable altered coal seams — which the analogy of later forma-
tions would lead us to believe must have been accumulated by
the growth of plants. This growth is indeed the only known
cause capable of producing such effects. If we should ever
be fortunate enough to find beds of the Laurentian series in
an unaltered state, we may hope to know something of this old
flora. Nor need we be surprised if it should prove of higher
grade and more noble development than we should at first sight
anticipate. If there ever was a time when vegetation alone
possessed the earth, and when there were no animals to devour
or destroy it, we might expect to find it in its first and best
estate, perhaps not comparable in variety and complexity of
parts with the flora of the modern world, but grand in its
luxuriance and majesty. Of such discoveries, however, we have
no certain indication at present.

202 THE GENESIS AND MIGRATION OF PLANTS

If such a primeval flora as that above indicated ever ex-
isted, it must have perished utterly before the incoming of the
next great age of the world — that known as the Palaeozoic,
whose rocks are surpassingly rich in the remains of animals,
especially those of the lower or invertebrate classes and those
that inhabit the waters.

In the oldest Palaeozoic rocks we find no plants certainly
terrestrial, but abundance of Algae or seaweeds, and some
gigantic members of the vegetable kingdom which seem to
have been trees, with structures more akin to those of aquatic
than to those of land plants.^ At a somewhat early stage, how-
ever, in the rocks of this period, we discover a few undoubted
land plants.^ These seem to be allied to the modern Club-
mosses and to their humble relations, the pilhvorts -^ and
other small plants of similar structure found in ponds and
swamps. Some of them, indeed, appear to be intermediate
between these groups. All these plants are Cryptogams, or
destitute of true flowers, but do not belong to the lowest forms
of that type. Thus, so far as we know, plant life on the land
began possibly with certain large trees of algoid structures, and
more certainly with the club mosses and pilhvorts and their
allies, and these last in the form of species not tree-like in
dimensions, but of very moderate size. The structures of
these plants are already sufficiently well known to inform us
that the plan and functions of the root, stem and leaf, and of
spores and spore case were set up ; and that the structures and
functions of vegetable cells, fibres and some kinds of vessels
were perfected, and all the apparatus introduced necessary for
the fertilization and reproduction of plants of some degree of
complexity. At the same time, the peculiar structures of the
higher Algae were brought to a pitch of perfection not surpassed

* Nematopliyloii, etc. Sec " Gcolpt;ical History of Plants. "'
- Psilophyton, rrotannularia, etc.
■* Rhizocarpeiv.

THE GENESIS AND MIGRATIONS OF TLANTS 203

if equalled in modern times, and which may have enabled
plants so constructed to exist even on the land.

From these beginnings in the early Palaeozoic, the progress
of the vegetable kingdom went on, until, in the later parts of
that great period, the Devonian and Carboniferous eras, it
culminated in those magnificent forests ^Yhich have left so
many interesting remains, and which accumulated the materials
of our great beds of coal. In these the famihes of the Club
mosses, the Ferns and the Mare's-tails attained to a perfection
in structure and size altogether unexampled in the modern
world, and may be said to have overspread the earth almost to
the exclusion of other trees. Here, however, two new families
come in of higher grade, and leading the way to the flowering
plants. These are the Pines and their allies and the Cycads,
and certain intermediate forms, neither Pines nor Cycads, but
allied to both.^ This wonderful flora, which we have now the
materials to reproduce in imagination almost in its entirety,
decays and passes away in the Permian system, the last portion
of the Palaeozoic, and in entering into the third great period of
the earth's history — the Mesozoic, we again find an almost
entire change of vegetation. Here, however, we are able to
understand something of the reasons of this. The Palceozoic
floras seem to have originated in the North, and propagated
themselves southward till they replenished the earth, and they
were favoured by the existence at that time of vast swampy
flats extending over great areas of the yet imperfectly elaborated
continents. The Mesozoic floras, on the other hand, seem to
have been of Southern or equatorial origin, and to have fol-
lowed up the older vegetation as it decayed and disappeared,

' Cordaitis, etc. As I have elsewliere shown, these are distinct sub-
floras in the Lower, Middle and Upper Devonian, and in the Lower,
Middle and Upper Carboniferous and Permian, sufficiently different to
allow these periods to be determined by the evidence of these fossil
plants. Reports prepared for Geological Survey of Canada.

204 THE GENESIS AND MIGRATIONS OF PLANTS

or retreated in its old age to its northern home. There is, of
course, much in all this that we do not understand, but the
general fact seems certain.

The early Mesozoic is altogether peculiar. It shows a vast
predominance of Cycads, Pines and Ferns, to the exclusion
both of the gigantic Cryptogams of the Palaeozoic and of the
ordinary exogenous trees of the modern time. It has a strange,
weird aspect, and more resembles that of some warm i.slands
of the southern hemisphere at present, than anything else
known to us. It is as if the flora of some southern island had
migrated and invaded all parts of the world. The geographical
and climated conditions which permitted this must have been of
a character different from those both of earlier and later times.

As we approach to the termination of the Mesozoic, which,
in regard to animal life, is the age of reptiles, a new and
strange development meets us. We find beds filled with
leaves of broad-leaved plants similar to those of our modern
woods, and in most cases apparently belonging to the same
genera with plants now living, and this new type of vege-
tation persists to the present, though with marked differences
of species in successive eras, as in the Middle and Upper
Cretaceous, and the Lower, Middle and Upper Kainozoic, or
Tertiary. It is noteworthy that while this new vegetation not
only altogether supersedes the great Cryptogamous forests of
the Palaeozoic, but replaces the Cycads of the immediately
preceding eras, the Pines retain all their prominence and
grandeur, and even seem to excel in number of species, in
breadth of dispersion, and in magnitude of growth their
successors in the present world.

While in the latter Cretaceous and Early Tertiary, the
northern hemisphere at least seems to have enjoyed an ex-
ceptionally warm climate, the later Tertiary introduces that
period of cold known as the Glacial age. ^Vhile there is no
doubt that the intensity of this glaciation lias been greatly

THE GENESIS AND MIGRATIONS OF PLANTS 205

exaggerated by extreme glacialists, and while it is certain that
some vegetation, and this not altogether of Arctic types, con-
tinued to exist throughout this period, even in the now tem-
perate regions of our continents, it is evident that a great
reduction of the exuberance of the flora occurred by the
removal of many species, and that the present flora of the
northern hemisphere is inferior in variety and magnificence
to that of the Middle Tertiary, just as it is found that the
Mammalian fauna of our continents has since that time been
reduced both in the number and magnitude of its species.

If the reader has followed this general sketch, he will be
prepared to appreciate some examples of a more detailed
character relating to the floras of different periods, and some
discussions of general points relating to the genesis and vicis-
situdes of the vegetable kingdom.

The origination of the more important floras which have
occupied the northern hemisphere in geological times, not,
as one might at first sight suppose, in the sunny climates of
the South, but under the arctic skies, is a fact long known or
suspected. It is proved by the occurrence of fossil plants in
Greenland, in Spitzbergen, and in Grinnell Land, under cir-
cumstances which show that these were their primal homes.
The fact bristles with physical difficulties, yet is fertile of the
most interesting theoretical deductions, to reach which we may
well be content to wade through some intricate questions.
Though not at all a new fact, its full significance seems only re-
cently to have dawned on the minds of geologists, and within
recent years it has produced a number of memoirs and ad-
dresses to learned societies, besides many less formal notices. 1

' Sapoiata, " Aiicienne Vegetation Tolaire " ; Hooker, Presidential
Address to Royal Society, 1878; Thistleton Dyer, "Lecture on Plant
Distribution " ; Mr. Starkic Gardner, Letters in Nature, 1S78, etc. Tlie
basis of most of the.>c brochures is to be found in I leer's " Flora Fossilis
Arctica."

2o6 THE GENESIS AND MIGRATIONS OF PLANTS

The earliest suggestion on this subject known to the writer
is that of my old and dear friend, Professor Asa Gray, in 1867,
with reference to the probable northern source of the related
floras of North America and FLastern Asia. With the aid of
new facts disclosed by Heer and Lesquereux, Gray returned
to the subject in 1872, and more fully developed this conclu-
sion with reference to the Tertiary floras, '^ and still later he
further discussed these questions in an able lecture on " Forest
Geography and Archseology." ^ In this he puts the case so
well and tersely that I may quote the following sentences as a
text for what follows : —

" I can only say, at large, that the same species (of Tertiary
fossil plants) have been found all round the world ; that the
richest and most extensive finds are in Greenland ; that they
comprise most of the sorts w^hich I have spoken of, as Ameri-
can trees which once lived in Europe— Magnolias, Sassafras,
Hickories, Gum-trees, our identical Southern Cypress (for all
we can see of difference), and especially Sequoias, not only the
two which obviously answer to the two Big-trees now peculiar
to California, but several others ; that they equally comprise
trees now peculiar to Japan and China — three kinds of Gingko-
trees, for instance, one of them not evidently distinguishable
from the Japan species which alone survives : that we have
evidence, not merely of Pines and Maples, Poplars, Birches,
Lindens, and whatever else characterize the temperate-zone
forests of our era, but also of particular species of these, so
like those of our own time and country, that we may fairly
reckon them as the ancestors of several of ours. Long
genealogies always deal more or less in conjecture ; but we
appear to be within the limits of scientific inference when we
announce that our existing temperate trees came from the
north, and within the bounds of high probability when we

' Address to American Associ.ition.

* American Journal 0/ Science, y.\\, 1S7S.

THE GENESIS AND MIGRATIONS OF PLANTS 20/

claim not a few of them as the originals of present species.
Remains of the same plants have been found fossil in our
temperate region, as well as in Europe."

Between i860 and 1870 the writer was engaged in working
out all that could be learned of the Devonian plants of
Eastern America, the oldest known flora of any richness, and
which consists almost exclusively of gigantic, and to us
grotesque, representatives of the Club mosses. Ferns, and
Mares'-tails, with some trees allied to the Cycads and Pines.
In this pursuit nearly all the more important localities were
visited, and access was had to the large collections of Professor
Hall and Professor Newberry in New York and Ohio, as well
as to those of the Geological Survey of Canada, and to those
made in the remarkable plant-bearing beds of St. John, New
Brunswick, by Messrs. Matthew and Hartt. In the progress
of these researches, which developed an unexpectedly rich
assemblage of species, the northern origin of this old flora
seemed to be established by its earlier culmination in the
north-east, in connection with the growth of the American
land to the southward, which took place after the great Upper
Silurian subsidence, by elevations which began in the north,
while those portions of the continent to the south-west still
remained under the sea.

When, in 1870, the labours of those ten years were brought
before the Royal Society of London, in the Bakerian Lecture
of that year, and in a memoir illustrating no less than one
hundred and twenty-five species of plants older than the great
Carboniferous system, these deductions were stated in con-
nection with the conclusions of Hall, Logan, and Dana, as to
the distributions of sediment along the north-east side of the
American continent, and the anticipation was hazarded that
the oldest Palaeozoic floras would be discovered to the north
of Newfoundland. Mention was also made of the apparent
earlier and more copious birth of the Devonian flora in

s. E, ic

2oS THE GENESIS AND MIGRATIONS OF PLANTS

America than in Europe, a fact which is itself connected with
the greater northward extension of this continent.

Unfortunately the memoir containing these results was not
published by the Royal Society, and its publication was
secured in a less perfect form only in the reports of the Geo-
logical Survey of Canada. The part of the memoir relating
to Canadian fossil plants, with a portion of the theoretical de-
ductions, was published in a report issued in 1871.^ In this
report the following language was used : —

" In Eastern America, from the Carboniferous period on-
ward, the centre of plant distribution has been the Appalachian
chain. From this the plants and sediments extended west-
ward in times of elevation, and to this they receded in times
of depression. But this centre was non-existent before the
Devonian period, and the centre of this must have been to the
north-east, whence the great mass of older Appalachian sedi-
ment was derived. In the Carboniferous period there was
also an eastward distribution from the Appalachians, and
links of connection in the Atlantic bed between the floras of
Europe and America. In the Devonian such connection can
have been only far to the north-east. It is therefore in New-
foundland, Labrador, and Greenland that we are to look for
the oldest American flora, and in like manner on the border of
the old Scandinavian nucleus for that of Europe."'

"Again, it must have been the wide extension of the sea of
the Corniferous limestone that gave the last blow to the re-
maining flora of the Lower Devonian : and the re-elevation in
the middle of that epoch brought in the Appalachian ridges as
a new centre, and established a connection with Europe which
introduced the Upper Devonian and Carboniferous floras.
Lastly, from the comparative richness of the later Erian '' flora

1 " Fossil Plants of the Devonian and Upper .Silurian Formations of
Canada," pp. 92, twenty plates. Montreal, 1S71.

* The term Erian is used as synonymous with Devonian, and prob-

THE GENESIS AND MIGRATIONS OF PLANTS 209

in Eastern America, especially in the St. John beds, it might
be a fair inference that the north-astern end of the Appala-
chian ridge was the original birthplace or centre of creation of
what we may call the later Palaeozoic flora, or a large part of
that flora."

When my paper was written I had not seen the account
published by the able Swiss paloeobotanist Heer, of the re-
markable Devonian flora of Bear Island, near Spitzbergen.^
From want of acquaintance with the older floras of America
and Western Europe, Heer fell into the unfortunate error of
regarding the Bear Island plants as Lower Carboniferous, a
mistake which his great authority has tended to perpetuate,
and which has even led to the still graver error of some Euro-
pean geologists, who do not hesitate to regard as Carboni-
ferous the fossil plants of the American deposits from the
Hamilton to the Chemung groups inclusive, though these be-
long to formations underlying the oldest Carboniferous, and
characterized by animal remains of unquestioned Devonian
age. In 1872 I addressed a note to the Geological Society of
London on the subject of the so-called " Ursa stage " of Heer,
showing that though it contained some forms not known at so
early a date in temperate Europe, it was clearly Devonian when
tested by North American standards ; but that in this high
latitude, in which, for reasons stated in the report above re-
ferred to, I believed the ]3evonian plants to have originated,
there might be an intermixture of the two floras. But such a
mixed group should in that latitude be referred to a lower
horizon than if found in temperate regions.

Between 1870 and 1873 my attention was turned to the two
subfloras intermediate between those of the Devonian and the

ably should be preferred to it, as poinling to the best development of
this formation known, which is on the shores of Lake Erie.

' Trans. Swedish Academy, 187 1, Journal London Geological Sociely,
vol. xxviii.

2IO THE GENESIS AND MIGRATIONS OF PLANTS

coal formation, the floras of the Lower Carboniferous (Sub-
carboniferous of some American geologists) and the Millstone
Grit, and in a report upon these ^ similar deductions were ex-
pressed. It was stated that in Newfoundland and Northern
Cape Breton the coal formation species come in at an early
part of that period, and as we proceed southward they belong
to progressively newer portions of the Carboniferous system.
'J'he same fact is observed in the coal beds of Scotland, as
compared with those of England, and it indicates that the
coal formation flora, like that of the Devonian, spread itself
from the north, and this accords with the somewhat extensive
occurrence of Lower Carboniferous rocks and fossils in the
Parry Islands and elsewhere in the Arctic regions. ^

Passing over the comparatively poor flora of the earlier
Mesozoic, consisting largely of cycads, pines, and ferns, which,
as we have seen, is probably of southern origin, and is as yet
little known in the arctic, though represented, according to
Heer, by the supposed Jurassic flora of Cape Boheman, we
find, especially at Kome' and Atane in Greenland, an interest-
ing occurrence of those earliest precursors of the truly modern
forms of plants which appear in the Cretaceous, the period of
the English chalk, and of the New Jersey greensands. There
are two plant groups of this age in Greenland, one, that of
Kome consists almost entirely of ferns, cycad.s, and pines, and is
of decidedly Mesozoic aspect. This was regarded by Heer as
Lower Cretaceous. The other, that of Atane, holds remains
of many modern temperate genera, as Fopuhis, JMyrica, Ficus,
Sassafras, and AIai:;nolia. This he regards as IMiddle Creta-
ceous. Above this is the Patoot series, with many exogenous
trees of modern genera, and representing the Upper Creta-
ceous. Resting u[)on these Upper Cretaceous beds, without

* " Fossil Plants of Lower Carboniferous and Millstone Grit Formations
of Canada," pp. 47, 10 plates. Montreal, 1S73.

* G. M. Dawson, " Report on Arctic Regions of Canada."

THE GENESIS AND MIGRATIONS OF PLANTS 211

the intervention of any other formation/ are beds rich in
plants of much more modern appearance, and referred by
Heer to the Miocene period, a reference which appeared at
the time to be warranted by comparison with the Tertiary
plants of Europe, but, as we shall see, not with those of
America. Still farther north this so-called Miocene assemblage
of plants appears in Spitzbergen and Grinnell Land ; but
there, owing to the predominance of trees allied to the spruces,
it has a decidedly more boreal character than in Greenland, as
might be anticipated from its nearer approach to the pole.^

If now we turn to the Cretaceous and Tertiary floras of
Western America, as described by Lesquereux, Newberry, and
Ward, we find in the lowest Cretaceous rocks known there
until very recently — those of the Dakota group, which may
be in the lower part of the Middle Cretaceous — a series of
plants •'' essentially similar to those of the Middle Cretaceous
of Greenland. To these I have been able to add, through the
researches of Mr. Richardson and Dr. G. M. Dawson, a still
earlier flora, that of the Kootanie and Queen Charlotte Island
formations, as old as the Gault and Wealden. It wants the
broad-leaved plants of the Dakota, and consists mainly of
pines, cycads, and ferns ; and only in its upper part contains
a few forerunners of the exogens.'* These plants occur in beds
indicating shallow sea conditions as prevalent in the interior
of America, causing, no doubt, a warm climate in the north.
Overlying this plant-bearing formation we have an oceanic
limestone (the Niobrara), corresponding in many respects to

* Nordenskiold, Expedition to Greenland, Geological Alagazijit', 1872.

^ Yet even here the Bald Cypress {Taxodiitni distichiiin), or a tree nearly
allied to it, is found, though this species is now limited to the Southern
States. Fielden and Dc Y^-xwzq, Journal of Geological Society, 1878.

^ Lesquereux, Rejiort on Cretaceous Flora. The reader not interested
in American details may pass over to the middle of page 213.

■* This flora has since been described in Virginia and Maryland by
l'"()ntaine, and has been recognised in Montana by Newberry.

212 THE GENESIS AND MIGRATIONS OF PLANTS

the European chalk, and containing similar microscopic organ-
isms. This extends far north into the British territory,^ indi-
cating farther subsidence and the prevalence of a vast Mediter-
ranean Sea, filled with warm water from the equatorial cur-
rents, and not invaded by cold waters from the north. This
is succeeded by Upper Cretaceous deposits of clay and sand-
stone, with marine remains, though very sparsely distributed ;
and these show that further subsidence or denudation in the
north had opened a way for the arctic currents, producing a
fall of temperature at the close of the Cretaceous, and partially
filling up the Mediterranean of that period.

Of the flora of the Middle and Upper Cretaceous periods,
which must have been very long, we know something in the
interior regions through the plants of Dunvegan and Peace
River ; ^ and on the coast of British Columbia we have the
remarkable Cretaceous coalfield of Vancouver's Island, which
holds the remains of plants of modern genera, including species
of fan palm, ginkgo, evergreen oak, tulip tree, and other forms
proper to a warm temperature or subtropical climate. They
probably indicate a warmer climate as then prevalent on the
Pacific coast than in the interior, and in this respect corre-
spond with a meagre transition flora, intermediate between the
Cretaceous and Eocene or earliest Tertiary of the interior re-
gions, and named by Lesquereux the Lower Lignitic.

Immediately above these Upper Cretaceous beds we have
the great Lignite Tertiary of the west — the T-aramie group or
recent American reports ^ — abounding in fossil plants, proper
to a temperate climate, at one time regarded as Miocene, but
now known to be Lower Eocene.' These beds, with their

' G. M. Dawson, Report on Foily-niiUli Paiallcl.

- Trans. Royal Society of Canada.

^ Ward, Repts. and Bulletins Am. Geol. Survey.

* Lesquereux's Tertiary Flora ; White and Ward on the Laramie Group;
Stevenson, Geological Relations of Lignitic Groups, Am. Phil. Soc. , Tune,
1875-

THE GENESIS AND MIGRATIONS OF PLANTS 213

characteristic plants, have been traced into the British territory
north of the forty-ninth parallel, and it has been shown that
their fossils are identical with those of the McKenzie River
Valley, described by Heer as Miocene, and probably also with
those of Alaska, referred to the same age.^ Now this truly
Eocene flora of the temperate and northern parts of America
has so many species in common with that called Miocene in
Greenland, that its identity can scarcely be doubted. These
facts have led me to doubt the Miocene age of the upper
plant-bearing beds of Greenland, and more recently Mr. J.
Starkie Gardner has shown from comparison with the Eocene
flora of England and other considerations, that they are really
of that earlier date.-

In looking at these details, we might perhaps suppose that
no conditions of climate could permit the vegetation of the
neighbourhood of Disco in Greenland to be identical with
that of Colorado and Missouri, at a time when little difference
of level existed in the two regions. Either the southern flora
migrated north in consequence of a greater amelioration of
climate, or the northern flora moved southward as the climate
became colder. The same argument, as Gardner has ably
shown, applies to the similarity of the Tertiary plants of tem-
perate Europe to those of Greenland. If Greenland required
a temperature of about 50°, as Heer calculates, to maintain its
" Miocene " flora, the temperature of England must have been
at least 70°, and that of the south-western States still warmer.
It is to be observed, however, that the geographical arrange-

* G. M. Dawson, Report on the Geology of the Forty-ninth Parallel,
1875, where full details on these points may be found.

2 Nature, Dec. 12th, 1878 ; Publications Palreontographical Society ;
Reports to British Association. It seems certain that the so-called Miocene
of Rovey Tracey in Devon, and of Mull in Scotland, is really Eocene. The
Tertiary plant-bearing beds of Greenland are said by Nathorst to rest un-
cnnformably on the Cretaceous, and are characterized by JirClinlockia and
other forms known in the Eocene of Great Britain and Ireland.

214 THE GENESIS AND MIGRATIONS OF PLANTS

merits of the American land in Cretaceous and early Eocene
times, included the existence of a great inland sea of warm
water extending at some periods as far north as the latitude of
55°, and that this must have tended to much equality of clima-
tical conditions.

We cannot certainly affirm anything respecting the origin
and migrations of these floras, but there are some probabilities
which deserve attention. The ferns and cycads of the so-
called Lower Cretaceous of Greenland are nothing but a
continuation of the previous Jurassic flora. Now this was
established at an equally early date in the Queen Charlotte
Islands,^ and still earlier in Virginia.- The presumption is,
therefore, that it came from the south. It has indeed the
facies of a southern hemisphere and insular flora, and pro-
bably spread itself northward as far as Greenland at a time
when the American land was long, narrow, and warm, and
when the ocean currents were carrying tepid water far toward
the arctic regions. The flora which succeeds this in the sec-
tions at Atane and Patoot has no special affinities with the
southern hemisphere, and is of a warm, temperate and conti-
nental character. It is very similar in its general aspect to
that of the Dakota group farther to the south, and this is
probably Middle Cretaceous. This flora must have originated
either somewhere in temperate America, or within the arctic
circle, and it must have replaced the older one by virtue of
increasing subsidence and gradual change of climate. It must
therefore have been connected with the depression of the land
which took place in the course of the Cretaceous. During this
movement it spread over all Western America, and as the land
again arose from the sea of the Niobrara chalk, it assumed an
aspect more suited to a cool climate, or moved southward,

' Reports Geological .Survey of Canad.i.

- Fontaine has well describeil the Mcsozoic flora of Virginia, Aincrican
journal of Science^ January, 1S79.

THE GENESIS AND MIGRATIONS OF PLANTS 21 5

and finally abandoned the Arctic regions, perhaps continuing
to exist on the Pacific coast, and in sheltered places in the
north, till the warm inland seas of the Upper Cretaceous had
given place to the wide plains and landlocked brackish seas or
fresh-water lakes of the Laramie period (Eocene). Thus the
true Upper Cretaceous marks in the interior a cooler period
intervening between the Middle Cretaceous and the Lower
Eocene floras of Greenland.

This latter established itself in Greenland, and probably all
around the Arctic circle, in the mild period of the earliest
Eocene, and as the climate of the northern hemisphere became
gradually reduced from that time till the end of the Pliocene,
it marched on over both continents to the southward, chased
behind by the modern arctic flora, and eventually by the frost
and snow of the Glacial age. This history may admit of cor-
rection in details ; but, so far as present knowledge extends, it
is in the main not far from the truth.

Perhaps the first great question which it raises is that as to
the causes of the alternations of warm and cold climates in the
north, apparently demanded by the vicissitudes of the vegetable
kingdom. Here we may set aside the idea that in former
times plants were suited to endure greater cold than at present.
It is true that some of the fossil Greenland plants are of un-
known genera, and many are new species to us ; but we are
on the whole safe in affirming that they must have required
conditions similar to those necessary to their modern repre-
sentatives, except within such limits as we now find to hold in
similar cases among existing plants. Still we know that at the
present time many species found in the equable climate of
England will not live in Canada, though species to all ajipear-
ance similar in structure are natives of the latter. There is
also some reason to suppose that species, when new, may have
greater hardiness and adaptability than when in old age, and
verging toward extinction. In any case, these facts can account

2l6 THE GENESIS AND MIGRATIONS OF PLANTS

for but a small part of the phenomena, which require to be ex-
plained by physical changes affecting the earth as a whole, or
at least the northern hemisphere. Many theoretical views
have been suggested on this subject, which will be found dis-
cussed elsewhere, and perhaps the most practical way to deal
with them here will be to refer to the actual conditions known
to have prevailed in connection with the introduction and
distribution of the principal floras which have succeeded each
other in geological history.

If we can assume that all the carbon now sealed up in lime-
stones and in coal was originally floating in the atmosphere
as carbon dioxide, then we would have a cause which might
seriously have affected the earlier land floras — that, for instance,
which may have existed in the Eozoic age, and those well
known to us in the Palaeozoic. Such an excess of carbonic
acid would have required some difference of constitution in
the plants themselves ; it would have afforded them a super-
abundance of wood-forming nutriment, and it would have
acted as an obstacle to the radiation of heat from the earth,
almost equal to the glass roof of a greenhouse, thus constituting
a great corrective of changes of temperature. Under such cir-
cumstances we might expect a peculiar and exuberant vegeta-
tion in the earlier geological ages, though this would not apply
to the later in any appreciable degree. In addition to this
we know that the geographical arrangements of our continents
were suited to the production of a great uniformity of climate.
Taking the American continent as the simpler, we know that
in this period there existed in the interior plateau between the
rudimentary eastern and western mountains a great inland
sea, so sheltered from the north that its waters contained hun-
dreds of species of corals, growing with a luxuriance unsur-
passed in the modern tropics. On the shores and islands of
such a sea we do not wonder that there should have been tree
ferns and gigantic lycopods. In the succeeding Carboniferous,

THE GKNESIS AND MIGRATIONS OF PLANTS 21/

vast areas, both on the margins and in the interior of the
continent, were occupied with swampy flats and lagoons, the
atmosphere of which must have been loaded with vapour, and
rich in compounds of carbon, though the temperature may
have been lower than in the Devonian. There still remained,
however, more especially in the west, a remnant of the old
inland sea, which must have greatly aided in carrying a warm
temperature to the north.

If now we pass to the succeeding Jurassic age, we find a
more meagre and less widely distributed flora, corresponding
to less favourable geographical and climatal conditions, while
in the Cretaceous and Eocene ages a return to the old con-
dition of a warm Mediterranean in continuation of the Gulf of
Mexico gave those facilities for vegetable growth, which
carried plants of the temperate zone as far north as Greenland.

It thus appears that those changes of physical geography
and of the ocean currents to which reference is so often made
in these papers, apply to the question of the distribution or
plants in geological time.

These same causes may help us to deal with the peculiarities
of the great Glacial age, which may have been rendered ex-
ceptionally severe by the combination of several of the conti-
nental and oceanic causes of refrigeration. We must not
imagine, however, that the views of those extreme glacialists,
who suppose continental ice caps reaching half way to the
equator, are borne out by facts. In truth, the ice accumulat-
ing round the pole must have been surrounded by water, and
there must have been tree-clad islands in the midst of the icy
seas, even in the time of greatest refrigeration. This is proved
by the fact that in the lower Leda clay of Eastern Canada,
which belongs to the time of greatest submergence, and whose
fossil shells show sea water almost at the freezing point, there
are leaves of poplars and other plants which must have been
drifted from neighbouring shores. Similar remains occur in

2l8 THE GENESIS AND MIGRATIONS OF PLANTS

clays of similar origin in the basin of the great lakes and in
the West, and are not Arctic plants, but members of the North
Temperate flora.^ These have been called " interglacial," but
there is no evidence to prove that they are not truly glacial.
Thus, while the arctic flora must have continued to exist within
the Arctic circle in the Glacial age, we have evidence that those
of the cold temperate and subarctic zones continued to exist
pretty far north. At the same time the warm temperate flora
would be driven to the south, except where sustained in insular
spots warmed by the equatorial currents. It would return north-
ward on the re-elevation of the land and the return of warmth.

If, however, our modern flora is thus one that has returned
from the south, this would account for its poverty in species
as compared with those of the early Tertiary. Groups of plants
descending from the north have been rich and varied. Re-
turning from the south they are like the shattered remains of
a beaten army. This, at least, has been the case with such re-
treating floras as those of the Lower Carboniferous, the Per-
mian, and the Jurassic, and possibly that of the Lower Eocene
of Europe.

The question of the supply of light to an Arctic flora is
much less difficult than some have imagined. The long
summer day is in this respect a good substitute for a longer
season of growth, while a copious covering of winter snow not
only protects evergreen plants from those sudden alternations
of temperature which are more destructive than intense frost,
and prevents the frost from penetrating to their roots, but
by the ammonia which it absorbs preserves their greenness.
According to Dr. Brown, the Danish ladies of Disco long ago
solved this problem.'' He informs us that they cultivate in

' Pleistocene Plants of Cannda, Dawson and Penhallow, Bull. Gcol.
Soij., America, 1S90. In Europe the Arctic flora extended, relatively to
present climate, farther south.

* /''Ion/la Discoaiia, Botanical Society of Edinburgh, 1S6S.

THE GENESIS AND MIGRATIONS OF PLANTS 219

their houses most of our garden flowers, as roses, fuchsias, and
geraniums, showing that it is merely warmth, and not light
that is required to enable a subtropical flora to thrive in Green-
land. Even in Canada, which has a flora richer in some re-
spects than that of temperate Europe, growth is effectually
arrested by cold for nearly six months, and though there is
ample sunlight there is no vegetation. It is indeed not im-
possible that in the plans of the Creator the continuous
summer sun of the Arctic regions may have been made the
means for the introduction, or at least for the rapid growth and
multiplication, of new and more varied types of plants. It is a
matter of familiar observation in Canada that our hardy garden
flowers attain to a greater luxuriance and intensity of colour
in those more northern latitudes where they have the advan-
tage of long and sunny summer days.

Much, of course, remains to be known of the history of the
old floras whose fortunes I have endeavoured to sketch, and
which seem to have been driven like shuttlecocks from north
to south, and from south to north, especially on the American
continent, whose meridional extension seems to have given a
field specially suited for such operations.

This great stretch of the western continent from north to
south is also connected with the interesting fact that, when
new floras are entering from the Arctic regions, they appear
earlier in America than in Europe ; and that in times when the
old floras are retreating from the south, old genera and species
linger longer in America. Thus, in the Devonian and Cre-
taceous new forms of those periods appear in America long
before they are recognised in Europe, and in the modern
epoch forms that would be regarded in Europe as Miocene
still exist. Much confusion in reasoning as to the geological
ages of the fossil flora has arisen from want of attention to
this circumstance.

What we have learned respecting this wonderful history has

220 THE GENESIS AND MIGRATIONS OF PLANTS

served strangely to change some of our preconceived ideas.
We must now be prepared to admit that an Eden might exist
even in Spitzbergen, that there are possibihties in this old
earth of ours which its present condition does not reveal to
us ; that the present state of the world is by no means the
best possible in relation to climate and vegetation ; that there
have been and might be again conditions which could con-
vert the ice-clad Arctic regions into blooming paradises, and
which, at the same time, would moderate the fervent heat of the
tropics. We are accustomed to say that nothing is impossible
with God ; but how little have we known of the gigantic pos-
sibilities which lie hidden under some of the most common of
His natural laws.

Yet these facts have been made the occasion of speculations
as to the spontaneous development of plants without any
direct creative intervention. It would, from this point of view,
be a nice question to calculate how many revolutions of climate
would suffice to evolve the first land plant ; what are the
chances that such plant would be so dealt with by physical
changes as to be preserved and nursed into a meagre flora like
that of the Upper Silurian or the Jurassic ; how many trans-
jjortations to (ireenland would suffice to promote such meagre
flora into the rich and abundant forests of the Upper Creta-
ceous, and to people the earth with the exuberant vegetation
of the early Tertiary. Such problems we may never be able
to solve. Probably they admit of no solution, unless we invoke
the action of a creative mind, operating through long ages, and
correlating with boundless power and wisdom all the energies
inherent in inorganic and organic nature. Even then we shall
perhaps be able to comprehend only the means by which, after
specific types have been created, they may, by the culture of
their Maker, be " sported " into new varieties or sub-species,
and thus fitted to exist under different conditions, or to occupy
higher places in the economy of nature.

THE GENESIS AND MIGRATIONS OF PLANTS 221

Before venturing on such extreme speculations as some now
current on questions of this kind, we would require to know
the successive extinct floras as perfectly as those of the modern
world, and to be able to ascertain to what extent each species
can change, either spontaneously or under the influence of
struggle for existence, or expansion under favourable conditions,
and under Arctic semi-annual days and nights, or the shorter
days of the tropics. Such knowledge, if ever acquired, it may
take ages of investigation to accumulate. In any case the sub-
ject of this paper indicates one hopeful line of study with
the object of arriving at some comprehension of the laws of
creation.

While the facts above slightly sketched impress us with the
grand progress of the vegetable kingdom in geological time,
they equally show the persistence of vegetable forms as com-
pared with that of the dead continental masses and the decay
of some forms of life in favour of the introduction of others.

AVhen we find in the glacial beds the leaves of trees still
living in North America and Europe, and consider the vicissi-
tudes of elevation and submergence of the land, and of
Arctic and temperate climates which have occurred, we are
struck with the persistence of the weak things of life, as com-
pared with the changeableness of rocks and mountains. A
superficial observer might think the fern or the moss of a
granite hill a frail and temporary thing as compared with solid
and apparently everlasting rock. But just the reverse is the
ca.se. The plant is usually older than the mountain. But the
glacial age is a very recent thing. We have facts older than
this. As hinted in a previous paper, in the Laramie clays
associated with the Lignite beds of North-western Canada —
beds of Lower Eocene or early Tertiary age — which were de-
posited before the Rocky Mountains or the Himalayas had
reared their great peaks and ridges, and at a time when the
whole geography of the northern hemisphere was different

222 THE GENESIS AND MIGRATIONS OF PLANTS

from what it is at present — are remains of very frail and deli-
cate plants which still live. I have shown that in these clays
there exist, side by side, the Sensitive Fern, Onoclea scnsibi/is,
and one of the delicate rock ferns, Davallia tenuifolia} The
first is still very abundant all over North America. The second
has ceased to exist in North America, but still survives in the
valleys of the Himalayas. These two little plants, once prob-
ably very widely diffused over the northern hemisphere, have
continued to exist through the millenniums separating the
Cretaceous from the present time, and in which the greater
part of our continent was again and again under the sea, in
which great mountain chains have been rolled up and sculptured
into their present forms, and in which giant forms, both ot
animal and plant life, have begun, culminated and passed
away. Truly God hath chosen the weak things of the world to
confound those that are strong.

Other plants equally illustrate the decadence of important
types of vegetable life. In the beautiful family of the Magnolias
there exists in America a most remarkable and elegant tree,
whose trunk attains sometimes a diameter of 7 feet and a
height of 80 or 90 feet. Its broad deep green leaves are
singularly truncate at the end, as if artificially cut off, and in
spring it puts forth a wealth of large and brilliant orange and
yellow fiowers, from which it obtains the name of Tulip tree.
It is the Liriodendron tullpifera of botanists, and the sole
species of its genus. This Tulip tree has a history. All
through the Tertiary beds we find leaves referable to the genus,
and belonging not to one species only, but to several, and as
we go back into the Cretaceous, the species seem to become
more numerous. Many of them have smaller leaves than the
modern species, others larger, and some have forms even more
quaint than that of the existing Tulij) tree. The oldest that I
have seen in Canada is one from the Upper Cretaceous of
* Report on 49th Parallel, 1875.

THE GENESIS AND MIGRATIONS OF PLANTS 223

Port McNeil in the north of Vancouver Island, which is as
large as that of the modern species, and very similar in form.
Thus this beautiful vegetable type culminated long geological
ages ago, and was represented by many species, no doubt occu-
pying a prominent place in the forests of the northern hemi-
sphere. To-day only a single species exists, in our warmer re-
gions, to keep up the memory of this almost perished genus ;
but that species is one of our most beautiful trees.

The history of the Sequoias or giant Cypresses, of which two
species now exist in limited areas in California, is still more
striking. These giant trees, monsters of the vegetable king-
dom, are, strange to say, very limited in their geographical
range. The greater of the two. Sequoia gigantea, the giant
tree par excelknce, seems limited to a few groves in California.
At first sight this strikes us as anomalous, especially as we find
that the tree will grow somewhat widely both in Europe and
America when its seeds are sown in suitable soil. The mystery
is solved when we learn that the two existing species are but
survivors of a genus once diffused over the whole northern
hemisphere, and represented by many species, constituting,
in the Later Cretaceous and Eocene ages, vast and dark forests
extending over enormous areas of our continents, and forming
much of the material of the thick and widely distributed
Lignite beds of North-western America. Thus the genus has
had its time of expansion and prevalence, and is now prob-
ably verging on extinction, not because there are not suitable
habitats, but either because it is now old and moribund, or
because other and newer forms have now a preference in the
existing conditions of existence.

The Plane trees, the Sassafras, the curious Ginkgo tree or
fern-leaved yew of Japan, are cases of similar decadence of
genera once represented by many species, while other trees, like
the Willows and Poplars, the Maples, the Birches, the Oaks
and the Pines, though of old date, are still as abundant as

S. E, 16

224 THE GENESIS AND MIGRATIONS OF PLANTS

they ever were, and some genera would seem even to have
increased in number of species, though on the whole the flora
of our modern woods is much less rich than those of the
Miocene and Eocene, or even than that of the Later Cre-
taceous. The early Tertiary periods were, as we know, times of
exuberant and gigantic animal life on the land, and it is in con-
nection with this that the vegetable world seems to have
attained its greatest variety and luxuriance. Even that early
post-glacial age in which primitive man seems first to have
spread himself over our continents was one richer both in
animal and plant life than the present. The geographical
changes which closed this period and inaugurated the modern
era seem to have reduced not only the area of the continents
but the variety of land life in a very remarkable manner. Thus
our last lesson from the genesis and migrations of plants is
the humbling one that the present world is by no means the
best possible in so far as richness of vegetable and animal life
is concerned.

Reference has been made to the utility of fossil plants as
evidence of climate ; but the subject deserves more detailed
notice. I have often pondered on the nature of the climate
evidenced by the floras of the Devonian and Carboniferous; but
the problem is a difficult one, not only because of the peculiar
character of the plants themselves, so unlike those of our time,
but because of the probably different meteorological conditions
of the period. It is easy to see that a flora of tree-ferns, great
lycopods and pines is more akin to that of oceanic islands in
warm latitudes than anything else that we know. But the
Devonian and Carboniferous })lants did not flourish in oceanic
islands, but for the most part on continental areas of consider-
able dimensions, though probably more flat and less elevated
than those of the present day. They also grew, from Arctic
latitudes, almost, if not altogether, to the equator ; and though
there are generic differences in the plants of these periods in

THE GENESIS AND MIGRATIONS OF PLANTS 225

the southern hemisphere, yet these do not affect the general
facies. There are, for example, characteristic Lepidodendroids
in the Devonian and Carboniferous of Brazil, Australia, and
South Africa. If now we consider the plants a little more in
detail, coniferous and taxine trees grow now in very different
latitudes and climates. There is therefore nothing so very
remarkable in their occurrence. The great group of Cordaites
may have been equally hardy ; but it is noteworthy that their
geographical distribution is more limited. In Europe, for
example, they are more characteristic in France than in Great
Britain. Ferns and Lycopods and Mares'-tails are also cosmo-
politan, but the larger species belong to the warmer climates,
and nowhere at present do they become so woody and so com-
plex in structure as they were in the older geological periods.
At the present day, however, they love moisture rather than
aridity, and uniformity of temperature rather than extreme
light and heat. The natural inference would be that in these
older periods geographical and other conditions must have
conspired to produce a uniform and moist climate over a large
portion of the continents. The geographical conditions of
the Carboniferous age, and the distribution of animal life on
the sea and land, confirm the conclusion based on the flora.
Further, if, as seems probable, there was a larger proportion of
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than at present, this would
not only directly affect the growth of plants, but would im-
pede radiation, and so prevent escape of heat by that means,
while the moisture exhaled from inland seas and lagoons and
vastly extended swamps, would tend in the same direction.

It would, however, be a mistake to infer that there were not
local differences of climate. I have elsewhere^ advocated the
theory that the great ridge of boulders, the New Glasgow con-
glomerate, which forms one margin of the coal field of Picton,

* " Acadian Geology,'" Caiboniferous ol Picton.

226 THE GENESIS AND MIGRATIONS OF PLANTS

in Nova Scotia, is an ice-formed ridge separating the area of
accumulation of the great thirty-six feet seam from an outer
area in which aqueous conditions prevailed, and little coal was
formed. In this case, an ice-laden sea, carrying boulders on
its floes and fields of ice, must have been a few miles distant
from forests of Lepidodendra, Cordaites, and Sigillarice, and the
climate must have been anything but warm, at least at certain
seasons. Nor have we a right to infer that the growth of the
coal-plants was rapid. Stems, with woody axes and a thick
bark, containing much fibrous and thick-walled cellular tissue,
are not to be compared v/ith modern succulent plants, es-
pecially when we consider the sparse and rigid foliage of many
of them. Our conclusion should, therefore, be that geographi-
cal conditions and the abundance of carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere favoured a moist climate and uniform temperature,
and that the flora was suited to these conditions.

As to the early Mesozoic flora, I have already suggested that
it must have been an invader from the south, for which the
intervening Permian age had made way by destroying the
Palaeozoic flora. This was probably effected by great earth-
movements changing geographical conditions. But in the
Mesozoic the old conditions to some extent returned, and the
Carboniferous plants being extinct, their places were taken by
pines, lycopods, and ferns, whose previous home had been in the
insular regions of the tropics, and which, as climatal conditions
improved, pushed their way to the Arctic circle. But, being
derivatives of warm regions, their vitality and capacity for
variation were not great, and they only locally and in favourable
conditions became great coal producers. The new flora of the
Later Cretaceous and the Tertiary, as previously stated, origi-
nated in the Arctic, and marched southward.

These newer Cretaceous plants presented from the first the
generic aspects of modern vegetation, and so enable us much
better to gauge their climatal conditions. In general, they do

THE GENESIS AND MIGRATIONS OF PLANTS 22/

not indicate tropical heat in the far north, but only that of the
warm temperate zone ; but this in some portions of the period
certainly extends to the middle of Greenland, unless, without
any evidence, we suppose that the Cretaceous and lower Tertiary
plants differed in hardiness of constitution from their modern
representatives. They prove, however, considerable oscillations
of climate. Gardner, Nathorst and Reid have shown this in
Europe, and that it extends from the almost tropical flora of
the lower Eocene to the Arctic flora of the Pleistocene. In
America, owing, as Grey has suggested, to its great north and
south extension, the changes were more regular and gradual.
In the warmer periods of the Cretaceous, the flora as far north
as 55° was similar to that of Georgia and Northern Florida at
the present day, while in the cooler period of the Laramie
(Lower Eocene, or more probably Paleocene) it was not un-
like that of the Middle States. In the Pleistocene, the flora
indicates a boreal temperature in the Glacial age. Thus there
are no very extreme contrasts, but the evident fact of a warm
temperate or sub-tropical climate extending very far north at
the same times when Greenland had a temperate climate. As
I have elsewhere shown, ^ discoveries in various parts of North
America are beginning to indicate the precise geographical
conditions accompanying the warmer and colder climates.

It would be wrong to leave this subject without noticing
that remarkable feature in the southward movement of the
later floras, to which I believe Prof Gray was the first to
direct attention. In those periods when a warm cliniate pre-
vailed in the Arctic regions, the temperate flora must have been,
like the modern Arctic flora, circumpolar. When obliged to
migrate to the south, it had to follow the lines of the con-
tinents, and so to divide into separate bands. Three of these
at present are the floras of ^^'estern Europe, Eastern Asia,
and Eastern America, all of which have many re[)resentative
' Trans. Royal Society of Canaila, 1S90-1.

228 THE GENESIS AND MIGRATIONS OF PLANTS

species. They are separated by oceans and by belts of land
occupied by plants which have not been obliged to migrate.
Thus, while the flora of the Eastern United States resembles
that of China and Japan, that of California and Oregon is
distinct from both, and represents a belt of old species retained
in place by the continued warmth of the Pacific shore, and the
continuous extension of the American continent to the south
affording them means of retreat in the Glacial age. Were the
plants of China and Eastern America enabled to return to the
Arctic, they would then reunite into one flora. Gray compares
the process of their separation to the kind of selection which
might be made by a botanical distributor who had the whole
collection placed in his hands, with instructions to give one
species of each genus to Europe, to Eastern Asia, and to
Eastern America ; and if there was only one species in a
genus, or if one remained over, this was to be thrown into one
of the regions, with a certain preference in favour of America
and Asia. This remarkable kind of geographical selection
opens a wide field not only for thought, but for experiment on
the actual relationship of the representative species. There is
a similar field for comparison between the trees of Georgia in
latitude 30° to 35°, and the same species or their representa-
tives as they existed in Cretaceous times in the latitudes of
50° and 60°. The two floras, as I know from actual com-
parison, are very similar.

One word may be said here as to use of fossil [ilants in
determining geological time. In this 1 need only point to
the fact of my having defined in Canada three Devonian
floras, a Lower, Middle, and Upper, and that Mr. Whiteaves, in
his independent study of the fossil fishes, has vindicated my
conclusions. There arc also in Nova Scotia three distinctive
sub-floras of the Tower, Middle, and Upper Carboniferous.' I

' Transactions Royal Society of Canada, 1SS3 to 1S91.

THE GENESIS AND MIGRATIONS OF PLANTS 229

have verified these for the Devonian and Carboniferous of the
United States, and to some extent also for those of Europe.
To the same effect is the recognition of the Kootanie or
Lower Cretaceous, the Middle Cretaceous, Upper Cretaceous,
Laramie and Miocene in Western Canada. These have in all
cases corresponded with the indications of animal fossils ^ and
of stratigraphy. Fossil plants have been less studied in this
connection than fossil animals, but I have no hesitation in
affirming that, with reference to the broader changes of the
earth's surface, any competent paleeobotanist is perfectly safe
in trusting to the evidence of vegetable fossils.

It may be objected that such evidence will be affected by the
migrations of plants, so that we cannot be certain that identical
jpecies flourished in Greenland and in temperate America at
the same time. If such species originated in Greenland and
migrated southward, the specimens found at the south may be
much newer than those in the north. This, no doubt, is
locally true, but the migrations of plants, though slow, occupy
less time than that of a great geological period. It may also be
objected that the flora of swamps, plains, and mountain tops
would differ at any one period. This also is true, but the same
difiiculty applies to animals of the deep sea, the shore, and the
land ; and these diversities of station have always to be taken
into account by the paleontologist.

References : — Report on the Eiian or Devonian Plants of Canada,
Montreal, 1871. Article in Princeton Keview on Genesis and
Migrations of Plants. " The Geological History of Plants," London
and New York, 188S and 1892. Papers on Fossil Plants of Western
Canada, 1883, and following volumes of Transactions of Royal
Society of Canada.

Note. — Since writing the above, I have obtained access to Dal! and
Harris' " Neocene Correlation Papers," which throw some additional

' Reports on Fossil Plants of the Devonian and Lower Carboniferous.

230 THE GENESIS AND MIGRATIONS OF PLANTS

light on the Cretaceous and Eocene Floras of Alaska, which, from its high
northern latitude, affords a good parallel to Greenland. It would appear
that plant beds occur in that territory at two horizons. One of these
(Cape Beaufort), according to Lesquereux and Ward, holds species ot
Neocomian Age, and apparently equivalent to the Kootanie of British
Columbia and the Kome of Greenland. The other, which occurs at
several localities (Elukak, Port Graham, etc.), has a flora evidently of
Laramie (Eocene) age, equivalent to the "Miocene" of Heer and Les-
quereux, and to the Lignite Tertiary of Canada. The plants are accom-
panied by lignite, and evidently in siiii, and clearly prove harmony with
Greenland and British Cohimbia in two of the periods of high Arctic
temperature indicated above.

THE GROWTH OF COAL.

DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF

DR. SCHIMPER,

OF STRASBURG,

The Author of "La Flore du Monde Primitif," and
many other contributions to fo.ssil botanv,

AND OF

DR. H. R. GOEPPERT,

WHOSE Essay on the Structure and Formation of Coal
WAS One of my first Guides in its Study.

Questions of Growth and Driftage — Testimony of a
Block of Coal under the Microscope — Different
Kinds of Coal — Conditions Necessary to Accumu-
lation IN situ — Coal Beds and their Accompani-
ments— Underclays and Roofs — Vegetable Remains
— History of Coal Groups— Summary of Evidence —
Subsidence of Coal Areas— Stigmaria and other
Coal Plants — Later Coal Accumulations — The
Story and Uses of Coal

Part of a Com. Group, at the South Joggins, wiili uikI-ji clays am
erect trees and Calamites (p. 238).

CHAPTER IX.

THE GROWTH OF COAL.

MY early boyhood was spent on the Coal formation rocks
and in the vicinity of collieries ; and among my first
natural history collections, in a childish museum of many
kinds of objects, were some impressions of fern leaves from the
shales of the coal series. It came to pass in this way that the
Carboniferous rocks were those which I first studied as an
embryo geologist, and much of my later work has consisted in
collecting and determining the plants of that ancient period, and
in studying microscopic sections of coals and fossil woods ac-
companying them. For this reason, and because I have pub:-
lished so much on this subject, my first decision was to leave
it out of these Salient Points: but on second thoughts it
seemed that this might be regarded as a dereliction of duty ;
more especially as some of the conclusions supposed to be the
best established on this subject have recently been called in
question.

Had I been writing a few years ago, I might have referred to
the mode of formation of coal as one of the things most surely
settled and understood. The labours of many eminent geolo-
gists, microscopists and chemists in the old and the new worlds
had shown that coal nearly always rests upon old soil-surfaces
penetrated with roots, and that coal beds have in their roofs
erect trees, the remains of the last forests that grew upon them.
Logan and the writer have illustrated this in the case of the
series of more than eighty successive coal beds exposed at the

234 THE GROWTH OF COAL

South Joggins, and of the great thirty feet seam of the Picton
coal series, whose innumerable laminre have all been subjected
to careful scrutiny, and have shown unequivocal evidence of
land surfaces accompanying the deposition of the coal. Micro-
scopical examination has proved that these coals are composed
of the materials of the same trees whose roots are found in the
underclays, and their stems and leaves in the roof shales ; that
much of the material of the coal has been partially subjected to
subaerial decay at the time of its accumulation ; and that in
this, ordinary coal differs from bituminous shale, earthy bit-
umen and some kinds of cannel, which have been formed under
water ; that the matter remaining as coal consists almost entirely
of epidermal tissues, which being suberose or corky in char-
acter are highly carbonaceous, very durable and impermeable
by water, and are, hence, the best fitted for the production of
pure coal ; and finally, that the vegetation and the climatal and
geographical features of the coal period were eminently fitted
to produce in the vast swamps of that period precisely the
effects observed. All these points and many others have been
thoroughly worked out for both European and American coal
fields, and seemed to leave no doubt on the subject. But
several years ago certain microscopists observed in slices of
coal, thin layers full of spore cases, a not unusual circumstance,
since these were shed in vast abundance by the trees of the
coal forests, and because they contain suberose matter of the
same character with epidermal tissues generally. Immediately
we were informed that all coal consists of spores, and this being
at once accepted by the unthinking, the results of the labours
of many years are thrown aside in favour of this crude and
partial theory. A little later, a German microscopist has
thought proper to describe coal as made up of minute algne, and
tries to reconcile this view with the appearances, devising at the
same time a new and formidable nomenclature of generic and
specific names, which would seem largely to represent mere

THE GROWTH OF COAL 235

fragments of tissues. Still later, some local facts in a French
coal field have induced an eminent observer of that country to
revive the drift theory of coal, in opposition to that of growth
in situ. Views of this kind have also recendy been advanced
in England by some of those younger men who would earn dis-
tinction rather by overthrowing the work of their seniors than
by building on it. These writers base their conclusions on a
few exceptional facts, as the occasional occurrence of seams of
coal without distinct underlays, and the occurrence of clay
partings showing aquatic conditions in the substance of thick
coals ; and they fail to discern the broader facts which these ex-
ceptions confirm. Let us consider shordy the essential nature
of coal, and some of the conditions necessary to its forma-
tion.

A block of the useful mineral which is so important an element
in national wealth, and so essential to the comfort of our winter
homes, may tell us much as to its history if properly interro-
gated, and what we cannot learn from it alone we may be taught
by studying it in the mine whence it is obtained, and in the
cliffs and cuttings where the edges of the coaly beds and their
accompaniments are exposed.

Our block of coal, if anthracite, is almost pure carbon. It
bituminous coal, it contains also a certain amount of hydrogen,
which in combination with carbon enables it to yield gas and
coal tar, and which causes it to burn with flame. If, again, we
examine some of the more imperfect and more recent coals, the
brown coals, so called, we shall find that in composition and
texture they are intermediate between coal proper and hardened
or compressed peat. Now such coaly rocks can, under the
present constitution of nature, be produced only in one way,
namely, by the accumulation of vegetable matter, for vegetation
alone has the power of decomposing the carbonic acid of the
atmosphere, and accumulating it as carbon. This we see in
modern times in the vegetable soil, in peaty beds, and in

236 THE GROWTH OF COAL

vegetable muck accumulated in ponds and similar places.
Such vegetable matter, once accumulated, requires only pressure
and the changes which come of its own slow putrefaction to be
converted into coal.

But in order that it may accumulate at all, certain conditions
are necessary. The first of these includes the climatal and or-
ganic arrangements necessary for abundant vegetable growth.
The second is the facility for the preservation of the vegetable
matter, without decay or intermixture with earthy substances ;
and this, for a long time, till a great thickness of it accumulates.
The third is its covering up by other deposits, so as to be com-
pressed and excluded from air. It is evident that when we have
to consider the formation of a bed of coal several feet in thick-
ness, and spread, perhaps, over hundreds of square miles, many
things must conduce to such a result, and the wonder is perhaps
rather that such conditions should ever have been effectively
combined. Yet this has occurred at difierent periods of geo-
logical history and in many places, and in some localities it has
been so repeated as to produce many beds of coal in succes-
sion.

Let us now question our block of coal as to its origin, sup-
posing it to be a piece of ordinary bituminous coal, or still better,
a specimen of one of the impure somewhat shaly coals which
one sometimes finds accidentally in the coal bin. In look-
ing at the edge of our specimen we observe that it has a " reed "
or grain, which corresponds with the lamination or bedding of
the seam of coal from which it came. Looking at this carefully,
we shall see that there are many thin layers of bright shining
coal, and the more of these usually the better the coal. These
layers, in tracing them along, we observe often to thin out and
disappear. They are not very continuous. If our specimen is
an impure coal, we will find that it readily splits along the sur-
faces of these layers, and that when so split, we can see that each
layer of shining coal has certain markings, perhaps the flattened

THE GROWTH OF COAL 237

ribs and scars of Sigillaria or other coal-formation trees on
its surface. In other words, the layers of fine coal are usually
flattened trunks and branches of trees, or perhaps rather of the
imperishable and impermeable bark of such trees, the wood
having perished. A few very thin layers of shining coal we may
also find to consist of the large-ribbed leaves of the plant known
as Cordaites. This kind of coaly matter then usually represents
trunks of trees which in a prostrate and flattened state may
constitute more than half of the bulk of ordinary coal-formation
coal. Under the microscope this variety of coal shows little
structure, and this usually the thickened cells of cortical tissue.
Intervening between these layers we perceive lamina, more or
less thick and continuous, of what we may call dull coal, black
but not shining ; resembling, in fact, the appearance of cannel
coal. If we split the coal along one side of these layers, and
examine it in a strong light, we may see shreds of leaf stalks
and occasionally even of fern leaves, or skeletons of these, show-
ing the veins, and many flattened disc-like bodies, spore cases
and macrospores, shed by the plants which make up the coal.
These layers represent what may be called compressed
vegetable mould or muck, and this is by no means a small
constituent of many coals. This portion of the coal is the
most curious and interesting in microscopic slices, showing a
great variety of tissues and many spores and spore cases.
Lastly, we find on the surface of the coal, when split parallel to
the bedding, a quantity of soft shining fibrous material, known
as mineral charcoal or mother coal, which in some varieties of
the mineral is very abundant, in others much more rare. This
is usually too soft and incoherent to be polished in thin slices
for the microscope ; but if boiled for a length of time in nitric
acid, so as to separate all the mineral matter contained in it,
the fibres sometimes become beautifully translucent and reveal
the tissues of the wood of various kinds of Carboniferous trees,
more especially of Calamites, Cordaites and Sigillaria;. Fibres
s. E. 17

TflE GROWTH OF COAL

of mineral charcoal prepared in this way are often very beauti-
ful microscopic objects under high powers ; and this material of
the coal is nothing else than little blocks of rotten wood and
fibrous bark, broken up and scattered over the surface of the
forming coal bed. All these materials, it must be observed, have
been so compressed that the fragments of decayed wood have
been flattened into films, the vegetable mould consolidated into
a stony mass, and trunks of great trees converted by enormous
pressure into laminae of shining coal, a tenth of an inch in thick-
ness, so that the whole material has been reduced to perhaps
one-hundredth of its original volume.

Restoring the mass in imagination to its original state, what
do we find ? A congeries of prostate trunks with their interstices
filled with vegetable muck or mould, and occasional surfaces
where rotten wood, disintegrated into fragments, was washed
about in local floods or rain storms, and thus thrown over the
surface. Lyell seems very nearly to have hit the mark when
he regarded the conditions of the great dismal swamp of
Virginia as representing those of a nascent coal field. We
have only to realize in the coal period the existence of a dense
vegetation very different from that of modern Virginia, of a
humid and mild climate, and of a vast extension of low
swampy plains, to restore the exact conditions of the coal
swamps.

But how does this correspond with the facts observed in
mines and sections ? To the late Sir William Logan is due the
merit of observing that in South \^■ales the underclays or beds
of indurated clay and earth underlying the coal seams are
usually filled with the long cyUndrical rootlets and branching
roots of a curious plant, very common in the coal formation,
the Stigmaria. He afterwards showed that the same fact
occurs in the very numerous coal beds exposed in the fine
section cut by the tides of the Bay of Fundy, in the coal rocks
of Nova Scotia. In that district I have myself followed up

THE GROWTH OF COAL 239

his observations, examining in detail every one of eighty-one
Coal Groups, as I have called them, each consisting of at
least one bed of coal, large or small, with its accompaniments,
and in many cases of several small seams with intervening
clays or shales. ^ In nearly every case the Stigmaria "under-
clay " is distinctly recognisable, and often in a single coal
group there are several small seams separated by underclays
with roots and rootlets. These underclays are veritable fossil
soils ; sometimes bleached clays or sands, like the subsoils of
modern swamps ; sometimes loamy or sandy, or of the nature
of hardened vegetable mould. They rarely contain any remains
of aquatic animals, or of animals of any kind, but are filled
with stigmaria roots and rootlets, and sometimes hold a few
prostrate stems of trees.- While the underclay is thus a fossil
soil, the roof or bed above the coal, usually of a shaly char-
acter, is full of remains of leaves and stems and fruits, and
often holds erect stumps, the remains of the last trees that
grew in the swamp before it was finally covered up.

Some of the thinnest coals, and some beds so thin and
impure that they can scarcely be called coals at all, are the
most instructive. Witness the following from my section ol
the South Joggins.

Coal Group i, of Division 3, is the highest of the series. Its
section is as follows : —

" Grey argillaceous shale.
Coal, I inch.
Grey argillaceous underclay, Stigmaria.

"The roof holds abundance of fern leaves {Alethopteris

* For details stt Journal Geol. Society of London, 1865 ; and " Acadian
Oeology," last edition, 1S91.

- At the South Joggins, in two or three cases, beds of bituminous shale
full of Naiadites and Cyprids have by elevation and drying become fit
for the growth of trees with stigmaria roots ; but this is quite e.xceptional,
no doubt arising from the accidental draining of lakes or lagoons on their
elevation above the sea level.

240 THE GROWTH OF COAL

lonchitica). The coal is coarse and earthy, with much epider-
mal and bast tissue, spore cases, etc., vascular bundles of ferns
and impressions of bark of Sigillaria and leaves of Cordaites.
It may be considered as a compressed vegetable soil resting on
a subsoil full of rootlets of Stigmaria." In this case the coal is
an inch in thickness, but there are many beds where the coal
is a mere film, and supports great erect stems of Sigillaria,
sending downward their roots in the form of branching
Stigmarise into the underclay, thus proving that the Stigmaria:;
of the underclays are the roots of the Sigillarias of the coals
and their roofs.

Here is another example which may be called a coal group,
and is No. 1 1 of the same division :

" Grey argillaceous shale, erect Calamites.

Coal, I inch.

Grey argillaceous underclay, Stigmaria, ift. 6in.

Coal, 2 inches.

Grey argillaceous underclay, Stigmaria, 4 in.

Coal, I inch.

Grey argillaceous underclay, Stigmaria.
" This is an alternation of thin, coarse coals with fossil soils.
The roof shale contains erect Calamites, which seem to have
been the last vegetation which grew on the surface of the upper
coal."

Such facts, with many minor varieties, extend through the
whole eighty-one coal groups of this remarkable section, as
any one may see by referring to the paper and work cited in
the preceding note. It is possibly because in most coal fields
the smaller and commercially useless beds are so little open to
observation, that so crude ideas derived merely from imperfect
access to the beds that are worked exist among geologists. The
following summary of facts may perhaps serve to place the
evidence as to the mode of accumulation of coal fairly before
the reader : —

THE GROWTH OF COAL 24 1

(i) The occurrence of Stigmaria under nearly every bed of
coal proves, beyond question, that the material was accum-
ulated by growth /;/ situ, while the character of the sediments
intervening between the beds of coal proves with equal cer-
tainty the abundant transport of mud and sand by water. In
other words, conditions similar to those of the swampy deltas
of great rivers, or the swampy flats of the interiors of great con-
tinents, are implied.

(2) The true coal consists principally of the flattened bark
of sigillaroid and other trees, intermixed with leaves of ferns
and Cordaiies, and other herbaceous debris, including vast
numbers of spores and spore cases, and with fragments of
decayed wood constituting "mineral charcoal,'' all their
materials having manifestly alike grown and accumulated where
we find them.

(3) The microscopical structure and chemical composition
of the beds of cannel coal and earthy bitumen, and of the
more highly bituminous and carbonaceous shales, show them
to have been of the nature of the fine vegetable mud which
accumulates in the ponds and shallow lakes of modern swamps.
These beds are always distinct from true subaerial coal.
When such fine vegetable sediment is mixed, as is often the
case, with mud, it becomes similar to the bituminous lime-
stone and calcareo-bituminous shales of the coal measures.

(4) A few of the underclays which support beds of coal
are of the nature of the vegetable mud above referred to ; but
the greater part are argillo-arenaceous in composition, v^-ith
little vegetable matter, and bleached by the drainage from
them of water containing the products of vegetable decay.
They are, in short, loamy or clay soils in the chemical con-
dition in which we find such soils under modern bogs, and
must have been sufficiently above water to admit of drainage.
The absence, or small quantity of sulphides, and the occur-
rence of carbonate of iron in connection with them, prove that

242 THE GROWTH OF COAL

when they existed as soils, rain water, and not sea water, per-
colated them.

(5) The coal and the fossil trees present many evidences of
subaerial conditions. Most of the erect and prostrate trees
had become hollow shells of bark before they were finally
imbedded, and their wood had broken into cubical pieces of
mineral charcoal. Land snails and galley worms {Xy/obius)
crept into them, and they became dens or traps for reptiles.
Large quantities of mineral charcoal occur on the surfaces of
all the larger beds of coal. None of these appearances could
have been produced by subaqueous action.

(6) Though the roots of Sigi/iaria bear some resemblance
to the rhizomes of certain aquatic plants, yet structurally they
have much resemblance to the roots of Cycads, which the
stems also resemble. Further, the Sigi/Iarhi; grew on the
same soils which supported conifers, Lepidodendra, Cordaitcs,
and ferns, plants which could not have grown in water. Again,
with the exception, perhaps, of some Pinnularue and Astero-
phyllites, and Rhizocarpean spores, there is a remarkable
absence from the coal measures of any form of properly
aquatic vegetation.

(7) The occasional occurrence of marine or brackish-water
animals in the roofs of coal beds, or even in the coal itself,
affords no evidence of subaqueous accumulation, since the
same thing occurs in the case of modern submarine forests.
Such facts merely imply that portions of the areas of coal
accumulation were liable to inundation of a character so
temporary as not finally to close the process, as happened when
at last a roof shale was deposited by water over the coal.
Cannel coals and bituminous shales holding mussel-like shells,
fish scales, etc., imj)ly the existence sometimes for long periods
of ponds, lakes or lagoons in the coal swamps, but ordinary
coal did not accumulate in these. It is in the cannels and
similar subaqueous coals that the macrospores which I

THE GROWTH OF COAL 243

attribute in great part to aquatic plants, allied to modern
Salvinia, etc., are chiefly found. ^

For these and other reasons, some of which are more fully
stated in the papers referred to, while I admit that the areas of
coal accumulation were frequently submerged, I must maintain
that the true coal is a subaerial accumulation by vegetable
growth on soils wet and swampy, it is true, but not submerged.
I would add the further consideration, already urged elsewhere,
that in the case of the fossil forests associated with the coal, the
conditions of submergence and silting-up which have pre-
served the trees as fossils, must have been precisely those
which were fatal to their existence as living plants, a fact
sufficiently evident to us in the case of modern submarine
forests, but often overlooked by the framers of theories of the
accumulation of coal.

It seems strange that the occasional inequalities of the floors
of the coal beds, the sand or gravel ridges which traverse them,
the channels cut through the coal, the occurrence of patches
of sand, and the insertion of wedges of such material splitting
the beds, have been regarded by some able geologists as
evidences of the aqueous origin of coal. In truth, these
appearances are of constant occurrence in modern swamps
and marshes, more especially near their margins, or where
they are exposed to the effects of ocean storms or river inun-
dations. The lamination of the coal has also been adduced
as a proof of aqueous deposition ; but the miscroscope shows,
as I have elsewhere pointed out, that this is entirely different
from aqueous lamination, and depends on the superposition of
successive generations of more or less decayed trunks of trees
and beds of leaves. The lamination in the truly aqueous can-
nels and carbonaceous shales is of a very different character.
It is scarcely necessary to remark that in the above summary

' "Geological History of Plants," Bulletin Chicago Academy oj
Sciences, 1886.

244 I'HE GROWTH OF COAI-

I have had reference principally to my o'.vn observations in the
coal formation of Nova Scotia; but similar facts have been
detailed by many other observers in other districts. ^

A curious point in connection with the origin of coal is the
question how could vegetable matter be accumulated in such
a pure condition ? There is less difficulty in regard to this if
we consider the coal as a swamp accumulation in situ. It is
in this way that the purest vegetable accumulations take place
at present, whereas in lakes and at the mouths of rivers vege-
table matter is always mixed up with mud. Coal swamps,
however, must have been liable to submergences or to tem-
porary inundations, and it is no doubt to these that we have to
attribute the partings of argillaceous matter often found in coal
beds, as well as the occasional gulches cut into the coal and
filled with sand and lenticular masses of earthy matter. To a
similar cause we must also attribute the association of cannel
with ordinary coal. The cannel is really a pulpy, macerate
mass of vegetable matter accumulated in still water, surrounded
and perhaps filled with growing aquatic herbage. Hence it is
in such beds that we find the greatest accumulations of macro-
spores, derived, probably, in great part from aquatic plants.
Euckland long ago compared the matter of cannel to the
semifluid discharge of a bursting bog, and Alex. Agassiz has
more recently shown that in times of flood the vegetable muck
of the Everglades of Florida flows out in thick inky streams,
and may form large beds of vegetable matter having the
character of the materials of cannel. It is evident that in
swamps of so great extent as those of the coal formation, there
must have been shallow lakes and ponds, and wide sluggish
streams, forming areas for the accumulation of vegetable debris
and this readily accounts for the association of ordinary beds
of coal with those of cannel, and with bituminous shales or

' Especially Brongniart, Goeppert, Hawkshaw, Lyell, Logan, De la
Boclie, Beaumont, Biiiney, Rogers, Lcsquereux, Williamson, Grand' Eury.

THE GROWTH OF COAL 245

earthy bitumen, as well as fur the occurrence of scales of fish
and other aquatic animals in such beds. Lyell's interesting
observation of the submerged areas at New Madrid, keeping
free of Mississippi mud, because fringed with a filter of cane-
brake, shows that the areas of coal accumulation might often
be inundated v.ithout earthy deposit, if, as seems probable,
they were fringed with dense brakes of calamites, sheltering
them from the influx of muddy water. It seems also certain
that the water of the coal areas would be brown and laden
with imperfect vegetable acids, like that of modern bogs, and
such water has usually little tendency to deposit any mineral
matter, even in the pores of vegetable fragments. The only
exception to this is one which also occurs in modern swamps,
namely, the tendency to deposit iron, either as carbonate (Clay
Ironstone), or sulphide (Iron Pyrite), both of which are
products of modern bogs, and equally characteristic of the coal
swamps.

Where great accumulations of sediment are going on, as at
the mouths of modern rivers, there is a tendency to subsidence
of the area of the deposit, owing to its weight. This applies,
perhaps, to a greater extent to coal areas. Thus the area of a
coal swamp would ultimately sink so low as to be overflowed,
and a roof shale would be deposited to bury up the bed of
coal, and transmit it to future ages, chemically, and mechanically
changed by pressure and by that slow decomposition which
gradually converts vegetable matter into carbon and hydrocar-
bons. The long continuance and great extent of these alterna-
tions of growth and subsidence is perhaps the most extraordinary
fact of all. At the South Joggins, if we include the surfaces
having erect trees with those having beds of coal, the process
of growth of a forest or bog, and its burial by subsidence and
deposition must have been repeated about a hundred times
before the final burial of the whole under the thick sandstones
of the Upper Carboniferous and Permian.

246 THE GROWTH OF COAL

Mention has been made of Sigillaria and other trees of the
coal formation period. These trees and others alHed to them,
of which there were many kinds, may be Hkened to gigantic
club mosses, which they resembled in fruit and foliage, though
vastly more complex in structure of stem and branch. Some
of them, perhaps, were of much higher rank than any of the
modern plants most nearly allied to them. One of their most
remarkable features was that of their roots — those Stigmarise,
to which so frequent reference has been made. They differed
from modern roots, not only in some points of structure, but
in their regular bifurcation, and in having huge root fibres
articulated to the roots, and arranged in a regular spiral
manner, like leaves. They radiate regularly from a single stem,
and do not seem to have sent up buds or secondary stems.
They thus differed from the botanical definition of a root, and
also from that of a rhizoma, or root stock ; being, in short, a
primitive and generalized contrivance, suited to trees them-
selves primitive and generalized, and to special and peculiar
circumstances of growth. Some botanists have imagined that
they were aquatic plants, growing at the bottom of lakes, but
their mode of occurrence negatives this. I have elsewhere
stated this as follows : — ^

" It is quite certain that Stigmariai are not ' rhizomes which
floated in water, or spread themselves out on the surface of
mud.' Whether rhizomes or not, they grew in the soil, or in
the upper layers of peaty deposits since changed into coal.
The late Richard Brown and the writer have shown that they
grew in the underclays or fossil soils, and that their rootlets
radiated in these soils in all directions." In one of my papers
I have figured a Stigmarian root penetrating through an erect
Sigilla?-ia, and Logan, in his Report of 1845, had already

' Natural Science, May, 1S92.

'' Quart. Jourii. Geol. Soc, vol. ii. p. 394 (1846) ; //'/</,, vol. iv. p. 47
(1847) ; Ilnd., vol. v. p. 355 (1849); Ibid., vol. v. pp. 23, 30.

THE GROWTH OF COAL 247

figured a similar example. The penetration of decaying stems
by the rootlets of Stiginaria is a fact well known to all who
have studied slices of Carboniferous plants/ while Stigmari^
are often found creeping inside the bark of erect and prostrate
trunks. Besides this, as I have shown in ' Acadian Geology,'
in the section of 5,000 feet of coal measures at the South
Joggins (including eighty-one distinct coal groups, and a larger
number of soils with Stigmaria, or erect trees), Sigillaria and
Stigmaria occur together, and the latter nearly always either
in argillaceous soils, or sands hardened into ' Gannister,' which
are often filled with roots or rootlets, or on the surfaces of
coal beds. On the other hand, the numerous bituminous
limestones, and calcareous and other shales holding remains
of fishes, crustaceans, and bivalve shells do not contain
Stigmaria in situ — the only exceptions being two beds of bitu-
minous limestone, the upper parts of which have been converted
into underclays. This section, and that of North Sydney — two
of the most complete and instructive in the world — have
afforded conclusive proof of this mode of growth of Sigillaria
and Stigmaria.

" The objection to calling the Stigmariae roots and their
processes rootlets, appears to me a finical application of modern
botanical usages to times for which they do not hold. We
might equally object to the application of the term roots to
those which spring from the earthed- up stems of Calamites,
radiating as they do from nodes which, in the air, would pro-
duce branchlets. Grand' Eury's figures show abundant in-
stances of this. We might also object to the exogenous stems
described by Williamson, which belong to cryptogamous
plants ; and, unlike anything modern, are made up exclusively
of scalariform tissue. If the articulation and regular arrange-
ment of those gigantic root hairs, the rootlets, or ' leaves ' of

' Williamson has noticed this in his excellent Memoirs in the Phil.
Trans.

248 THE GROWTH OF COAL

Siig/iiaria, are to be regarded as depriving them of the name
which clearly describes their function, we may call them under-
ground branches, though, by so doing, we set at nought both
their function and their mode of growth."

Dr. Williamson, in a recent paper, expresses the same view
in the following terms ^ : — " At that period (the Carboniferous
age) no Angiosperms existed on the earth, and even the
Gymnosperms were very far from reaching their modern
development. Under these circumstances the Cryptogams
chiefly became the giant forest trees of that remote age. To
become such, they required an organization very different
in some respects from that of their degraded living representa-
tives. Hence we must not appeal to these degenerate types
for illustrations and explanations of structures no longer
existing. Still less must we turn to what we find in the
Angiosperms, that wholly distinct race which has taken the
place of the primceval Cryptogams in our woods. The primaeval
giants of the swampy forests had doubtless a morphology
assigned to them, adapted to the physical conditions by which
they were surrounded ; but if even their dwarfed and other-
w^'se modified descendants fail to throw light upon morphologi-
cal details once so common, still less must we expect to obtain
that light from the living and wholly different flowering
plants."

With the remarkable trees above referred to, there co-existed
a vast multitude of ferns, some arborescent, others herbaceous,
tall, reed-like plants, the Calamitcs, allied to modern Marcs'-
tails, a very remarkable family of plants allied to modern
Cycads and Pines ; the Cordaites, which seem to have grown
plentifully in certain parts of the coal areas — probably the
drier parts, so that their remains sometimes constitute the
greater part of small seams of coal. There were also true pine-
like trees, though these would seem to have grown most abun-
' Niitu7-al Scieine, July, 1892.

THE GROWTH OF COAL 249

dantly on the higher levels. Nor was strictly aquatic vegetation
wanting. We find, both in the preceding Devonian and the
Carboniferous, that the little aquatic plants now known as
Rhizocarps, and structurally allied to the Ferns — such plants
as the floating Salvinia, and the Pillworts of our swamps, were
vastly abundant, and they may have filled and choked up with
their exuberant growth many of the lakes and slow streams of
the period, furnishing layers of cannel and " macrospore "
coal, and earthly bitumen or Torbanite.

We have hitherto confined our attention to the great Car-
boniferous period, so called, as emphatically the age of coal ;
but this mineral, and allied forms of carbon, were produced
both before and after. Even in that old Laurentian age,
which includes the oldest rocks that we know, formed when
the first land had just risen out of the waters, there are thick
beds of graphite, or plumbago, chemically the same with
anthracite coal, and which must have been produced by the
agency of plants, whether terrestrial or aquatic. We may sup-
pose that the plants of this remote age were of very humble
type as much lower than those of the coal formation as these
are lower than those of the present day ; but if so, then, on the
analogy of the Carboniferous, they would be high and complex
representatives of those low types. But there is another and
more startling possibility ; that the Laurentian may have been
a period when vegetable life culminated on the earth, and
existed in its most complete and grandest forms in advance of
the time when it was brought into subordination to the higher
life of the animal. In the meantime, the Laurentian rocks are
in a state of so extreme metamorphism that they have afforded
no certain indication of the forms or structures of the vegeta-
tion of the period.

We find indications of plant life through all the Palaeozoic
groups succeeding the Laurentian ; but it is not till we reach
the Devonian, the system immediately preceding the Carboni-

250 THE GROWTH OF COAL

ferous, that we find an abundance of forms not essentially
different from those of the Carboniferous, though similar in
details. Only a few and very small beds of coal were accumu-
lated in this age ; but there was an immense abundance of
bituminous shale enriched with the macrospores of Rhizocarps.
The Ohio black shale, which is said to extend its outcrop
across that state with a breadth of ten to twenty miles, and a
thickness of 550 feet, is filled with macrospores of Protosalvinia,
as is its continuation in Canada.

Above the great coal formation the Permian and Jurassic
contain beds of coal, though of limited extent, and formed in
the case of the two latter of very different plants from those of
the Carboniferous. In the Cretaceous and Tertiary ages,
after the abundant introduction of species of forest trees still
living, coal making seems to have obtained a new impulse, so
that in China and the western part of America there are coals
of great extent and value, all made of plants ot genera still
existing. In the Cretaceous coal of Vancouver Island there
are remains of such modern trees as the Poplars, Magnolias,
Palmettos, Sequoias, and a great variety of other genera still
living in America. Out of the remains of these, under favour-
ing conditions, quite as good coal as that of the coal formation
has been made, although the plants are so different. There
is, indeed, reason to believe that those now rare trees, the
Sequoias, represented at the present time only by the big trees
of California, and their companion, the redwood, were then
spread universally over the northern hemisphere, and formed
dense forests on swampy flats which led to the accumulation of
coal beds in which the trunks and leaves of the Sequoias
formed main ingredients, so that Sequoia and its allies in this
later age take the place of the Sigillarias of the coal formation.
Last of all, coal accumulation is still going on in the Ever-
glades of Florida, the dismal swamp of Virginia, and the peat-
bogs of the more northern regions. So the vegetable kingdom

THE GROWTH OF COAL 25 I

has, throughout its long history, been continually depriving the
atmosphere of its carbon dioxide, and accumulating this in
beds of coal. In the earlier ages indeed, this would seem to
us to have been its main use.

To the modern naturalist, vegetable life, with regard to its
uses, is the great accumulator of pabulum for the sustenance
of the higher forms of vital energy manifested in the animal.
In the Paleozoic this consideration sinks in importance. In
the Coal period we know few land animals, and these not vege-
table feeders, with the exception of some insects, millipedes,
and snails. But the Carboniferous forests did not live in vain,
if their only use was to store up the light and heat of those
old summers in the form of coal, and to remove the excess of
carbonic acid from the atmosphere. In the Devonian period
even these utilities fail, for coal does not seem to have been
accumulated to any great extent, though the abundant petro-
leum of the Devonian is, no doubt, due to the agency of aquatic
vegetation. In addition to scorpions, a few insects are the
only known tenants of the Devonian land, and these are of
kinds whose larvc'e probably lived in water, and were not
dependent on land plants. We may have much yet to learn
of the animal life of the Devonian ; but for the present, the
great plan of vegetable nature goes beyond our measures of
utility; and there remains only what is perhaps the most
wonderful and suggestive correlation of all, namely, that our
minds are able to trace in these perished organisms structures
similar to those of modern plants, and thus to reproduce in
imagination the forms and habits of growth of living things
which so long preceded us on the earth.

In another way Huxley has put the utilitarian aspect of the
case so admirably, that I cannot refrain from quoting his clever
apotheosis of nature in connection with the production of coal.

"Nature is never in a hurry, and seems to have had always
before her eyes the adage, ' Keep a thing long enough, and

252 THE GROWTH OF COAL

you Avill find a use for it.' She has kept her beds of coal for
miUions of years without being able to find a use for them ;
she has sent them beneath the sea, and the sea beasts could
make nothing of them ; she had raised them up into dry land,
and laid the black veins bare, and still for ages and ages there
was no living thing on the face of the earth that could see any
sort of value in them ; and it was only the other day, so to
speak, that she turned a new creature out of her workshop,
who, by degrees, acquired sufficient wits to make a fire, and
then to discover that the black rock would burn.

" I suppose that nineteen hundred years ago, when Julius
Caesar was good enough to deal with Britain as we have dealt
with New Zealand, the primaeval Briton, blue with cold and
woad, may have known that the strange black stone which he
found here and there in his wanderings would burn, and so
help to warm his body and cook his food. Saxon, Dane, and
Norman swarmed into the land. The English people grew
into a powerful nation ; and Nature still waited for a return
for the capital she had invested in ancient club mosses. The
eighteenth century arrived, and with it James Watt. The
brain of that man was the spore out of which was developed
the steam engine, and all the prodigious trees and branches
of modern industry which have grown out of this. But coal
is as much an essential of this growth and development as
carbonic acid is of a club moss. Wanting the coal, we could
not have smelted the iron needed to make our engines ; nor
have worked our engines when we got them. But take away
the engines, and the great towns of Yorkshire and Lancashire
vanish like a dream. Manufactures give place to agriculture
and pasture, and not ten men could live where now ten thou-
sand are amply supported.

" Thus all this abundant wealth of money and of vivid life
is Nature's investment in club mosses and the like so long
ago. But what becomes of the coal which is burnt in yielding

THE GROWTH OF COAL 253

the interest ? Heat conies out of it, light comes out of it, and
if we could gather together all that goes up the chimney, and
all that remains in the grate of a thoroughly burnt coal fire,
we should find ourselves in possession of a quantity of carbonic
acid, water, ammonia, and mineral matters exactly equal in
weight to the coal. But these are the very matters with which
Nature supplied the club mosses which made coal. She is
paid back principal and interest at the same time ; and she
straightway invests the carbonic acid, the water, and the
ammonia in new forms of life, feeding with them the plants
that now live. Thrifty Nature, surely ! no prodigal, but the
most notable of housekeepers." ^

All this is true and well told ; but who is " Nature," this
goddess who, since the far-distant Carboniferous age, has
been planning for man ? Is this not another name for that
Almighty Maker who foresaw and arranged all things for His
people " before the foundation of the world."

References : — On Structures in Coal, Journal Geological Society of
Lojtdon, XV., 1853. Contains results of microscopic study of Nova
Scotia coals. Conditions of Accumulation of Coal, Ibid., xxii.,
1866. Contains South Joggins section. Spore cases in Coal, Am.
/'ournal of Science, 3rd series, vol. I, 1871. Rhizocarps in the
Devonian, Bulletin Chicago Academy, vol. i, 1886. "Acadian
Geology and Supplement," 3rd edition, 1891, Cumberland Coal Field.
"Geological History of Plants," chap, iv., London and New York,
2nd edition, 1892.

' Contemporary Review, 187 1.

S. E. 18

THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS.

DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF

MY FRIEND AND EARLY PATRON AND GUIDE

SIR CHARLES LYELL,

To WHOM WE ARE INDEBTED FOR SO MUCH

OF THE Scientific Basis of Modern Geology.

Earliest Discoveries — Footprints of Batrachians —
Labyrinthodents of the Carboniferous — Micro-
sauria of the Carboniferous — Other Types — Dis-
coveries IN Erect Trees — Invertebrate Air-
breathers, Land Snails, Millipedes, Insects, Spiders
and Scorpions — General Conclusions

- OK HvL'jNi'M' - . ..:";.

Photograph of Type specimen somewhat enlarfjetl, Geol. JSfa^aziru, 1891 (p. 279).
(i) Cranial bones and mandibles; {la) Sternal and shoulder bones; (2) Mandible ;
(3) Humerus, ribs and vertebne ; {4) Hind limb ; (5) Pehns ; (6) Caudal vertebne.

CHAPTER X.
THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS.

ANIMAL life had its beginning in the waters, and to
this day the waters are the chief habitat of animals,
especially of the lower forms. If we divide the animal kingdom
into great leading types, the lowest of these groups, the
Protozoa, includes only aquatic forms ; the next, that of the
coral animals and their allies, is also aquatic. So are all the
species of the Sea Urchins and Star Fishes. Of the remaining
groups, the Mollusks, the Crustaceans, and the Worms are
dominantly aquatic, only a small proportion being air-breathers.
It is only in the two remaining groups, including the Insects
and Spiders on the one hand, and the Vertebrate animals on
the other, that we have terrestrial species in large proportion.

The same fact appears in geological time. The periods
represented by the older Palaeozoic rocks have been termed
ages of invertebrates, and they might also be termed ages
of aquatic animals. It is only gradually, and as it were with
difficulty, that animals living in the less congenial element of
air are introduced — at first a few scorpions and insects, later,
land snails and amphibian reptiles, later still, the higher rep-
tiles and the birds, and last of all the higher mammalia.

We need not wonder at this, for the conditions of life with
reference to support, locomotion, and vicissitudes of temper-
ature are more complex and difficult in air, and require more
complicated and perfect machinery for their maintenance.
Thus it was that probably half of the whole historj- of our

258 THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS

earth had passed away before the land became the abode
of any large number and variety of animals ; while it was only
about the same time that the development of the vegetable
kingdom became so complete as to afford food and shelter
for air-breathers.

It is also worthy of note that it is only in comparatively
recent times that we have been able to discover the oldest
air-breathing animals, and geologists long believed that the
time when animals had existed on the land was even shorter
than it had actually been. This arose in part from the in-
frequency and rarity of preservation of the remains of the
earliest creatures of this kind, and perhaps partly from the
fact that collectors were not looking for them.

That there was dry land, even in the Cambro-Silurian
period, we know, and can even trace its former shores. In
Canada our old Laurentian coast extends for more than a
thousand miles, from Labrador to Lake Superior, marking the
southern border of the nucleus of the American continent in
the Cambrian and Cambro-Silurian periods. Along a great
part of this ancient coast we have the sand flats of the Potsdam
Sandstone, affording very favourable conditions for the im-
bedding of land animals, did these exist ; still, notwithstanding
the zealous explorations of the Geological Survey, and of many
amateurs, no trace of an air-breather has been found. I have
myself followed the oldest Palneozoic beds up to their ancient
limits in some localities, and collected the shells which the
waves had dashed on the beach, and have seen under the
Cambro-Silurian beds the old pre-Cambrian rocks pitted and
indented with weather marks, showing that this shore was then
gradually subsiding; yet the record of the rocks was totally
silent as to the animals that may have trod the shore, or the
trees that may have waved over it. All that can be said is
that the sun shone, the rain fell, and the wind blew as it does
now, and that the sea abounded in living creatures. The eyes

THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS 259

of Trilobites, the weathered Laurentian rocks, the wind ripples
in the Potsdam sandstone, the rich fossils of the limestones,
testify to these things. The existence of such conditions
would lead us to hope that land animals may yet be found in
these older formations. On the other hand, the gradual failure
of one form of life after another, as we descend in the geo-
logical series, and the rarity of fishes and land plants in the
Silurian rocks and their absence from the Cambrian, might
induce us to believe that we have here reached the beginning
of animal life, and have left far behind us those forms that
inhabit the land.

Even in the Carboniferous period, though land plants
abound, air-breathers are not numerous, and most of them
have only been recently recognised. We know, however,
with certainty that the dark and luxuriant forests of the coal
period were not destitute of animal life. Reptiles ^ crept
under their shade, land snails and millipedes fed on the
rank leaves and decaying vegetable matter, and insects flitted
through the air of the sunnier spots. Great interest attaches
to these creatures ; perhaps the first-born species in some of
their respective types, and certainly belonging to one of the
oldest land faunas, and presenting prototypes of future forms
equally interesting to the geologist and the zoologist.

It has happened to the writer of these pages to have had
some share in the finding of several of these ancient animals.
The coal formation of Nova Scotia, so full in its development,
so rich in fossil remains, and so well exposed in coast cliffs,
has afforded admirable opportunities for such discoveries,
which have been so far improved that at least twenty-five out
of the not very large number of known Carboniferous land
animals have been obtained from it. - The descriptions of

' I shall use the term reptile here in its broad, popular sense, as including
Batrachians as well as reptiles proper.

- It appears that about a hundred species of Carboniferous reptiles

26o THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS

these creatures, found at various times and at various places,
are scattered through papers ranging in date from 1844 to
1891,^ and are too fragmentary to give complete information
respecting the structures of the animals, and their conditions
of existence.

Footprints.

It has often happened to geologists, as to other explorers of
new regions, that footprints on the sand have guided them to
the inhabitants of unknown lands, and such footprints, pro-
verbially perishable, may be so preserved by being filled up
with matter deposited in them as to endure for ever. This we
may see to-day in the tracks of sandpipers and marks of rain-
drops preserved in the layers of alluvial mud deposited by the
tides of the Bay of Fundy, and which, if baked or hardened
by pressure, might become imperishable, like the inscriptions
of the old Chaldeans on their tablets of baked clay. The
first trace ever observed of reptiles in the Carboniferous
system consisted of a series of small but well-marked foot-
prints found by Sir W. E. Logan, in 1841, in the lower coal
measures of Horton Bluff, in Nova Scotia ; and as the authors
of most of our general works on geology have hitherto, in so
far as I am aware, failed to do justice to this discovery, I shall
notice it here in detail. In the year above mentioned, Sir
William, then Mr. Logan, examined the coal fields of Penn-
sylvania and Nova Scotia, with the view of stud\ing their
structure, and extending the application of the discoveries as
to beds with roots, or Stigmaria underclays, which he had made

have been recognised on the conthient of l^urope, in (Ireat Britain, and in
the United States. They belong to a number of distinct types, all, however,
being of batrachian aflhiities.

^ Papers by Lyell, Owen, and the author, in the Journal of the Geolo-
gical Society of London, i. ii. i.x. x. xi. xvi. xvii. xviii. ; "Acadian Geology,"
by the author ; Papers in I'rans. Royal Society of London, Am. Jl. of
Science, and Geological Magazine.

Fuotpiinls ol Hylopns Lc^aiii, Dawson, Lower Carboniferous,

Nova Scotia.

Natural size and reduced.

These footprints were tlie first indications of Carboniferous land ^■erte-

brates ever observed; they were probably made by a Microsaurian anei one

of the earliest species of this type. They show a remarkable length of

stride and development of limb.

THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS 261

in the Welsh coal fields. On his return to England he read
a paper on these subjects before the Geological Society of
London, in which he noticed the subject of reptilian footprints
at Horton Bluff. The specimen was exhibited at the meeting
of the Society, and was, I believe, admitted, on the high
authority of Prof. Owen, to be probably reptilian. Unfortu-
nately Sir William's paper appeared only in abstract in the
Transactions ; and in this abstract, though the footprints are
mentioned, no opinion is expressed as to their nature. Sir
William's own opinion is thus stated in a letter to me, dated
June, 1843, when he was on his way to Canada, to commence
the survey which has since developed so astonishing a mass
of geological facts.

" Am.ong the specimens which I carried from Horton Bluff,
one is of very high interest. It exhibits the footprints of some
reptilian animal. Owen has no doubt of the marks being
genuine footprints. The rocks of Horton Bluff are below the
gypsum of that neighbourhood ; so that the specimen in ques-
tion (if Lyell's views are correct^) comes from the very bottom
of the coal series, or at any rate very low down in it, and
demonstrates the existence of reptiles at an earlier epoch than
has hitherto been determined ; none having been previously
found below the magnesian limestone, or, to give it IMurchison's
new name, the ' Permian era.' "

This extract is of interest, not merely as an item of evidence
in relation to the matter now in hand, but as a mark in the
progress of geological investigation. For the reasons above
stated, the important discovery thus made in 1841, and pub-
lished in 1842, was overlooked; and the discovery of reptilian
bones by Von Dechen, at Saarbruck, in 1844, and that of
footprints by Dr. King in the same year, in Pennsylvania,

^ Sir Charles Lyell had then just read a paper announcing his discovery
that the gypsiferous system of Nova Scotia is Lower Carboniferous, in
which he mentions the footprints referred to, as being reptilian.

262 THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS

have been uniformly referred to as the first observations of
this kind. Insects and Arachnidans, it may be observed, had
previously been discovered in the coal formation in Europe.

The original specimen of these footprints is still in the
collection of the Geological Survey of Canada, and a cast
which Logan kindly presented to me is exhibited in the Peter
Redpath Museum of McGill University. It is a slab of dark-
coloured sandstone, glazed with fine clay on the surface ; and
having a series of seven footprints in two rows, distant about
three inches ; the distance of the impressions in each row being
three or four inches, and the individual impressions about one
inch in length. They seem to have been made by the points
of the toes, which must have been armed with strong and
apparently blunt claws, and appear as if either the surface had
been somewhat firm, or the body of the animal had been
partly water-borne. In one place only is there a distinct mark
of the whole foot, as if the animal had exerted an unusual
pressure in turning or stopping suddenly. One pair of feet—
the fore feet, I presume — appear to have had four toes touching
the ground ; the other pair show only three or four, and it is
to be observed that the outer toe, as in the larger footprints
discovered by Dr. King, projects in the manner of a thumb,
as in the cheirotherian tracks of the Trias. At a later date
another series of footprints, possibly of the same animal, was
obtained at the same place by Prof. Elder, and is now in the
Peter Redpath Museum. Each foot in this shows five toes,
and it is remarkable that the animal was digitigrade and took
a long step for its size, indicating a somewhat high grade
of quadrupedal organization. No mark of the tail or belly
appears. The impressions are such as may have been made
by animals similar to some of those to be described in the
sequel.

Shortly afterward. Dr. Harding, of Windsor, when examining
a cargo of sandstone which had been landed at that place from

THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS 263

Parrsboro', found on one of the slabs a very distinct series of
footprints, each with four toes, and a trace of the fifth. Dr.
Harding's specimen is now in the museum of King's College,
Windsor. Its impressions are more distinct, but not very
different otherwise from those above described, as found at
Horton Bluff. The rocks at that place are probably of nearly
the same age with those of Parrsboro'. I afterward examined
the place from which this slab had been quarried, and satisfied
myself that the beds are Carboniferous, and probably Lower
Carboniferous. They were ripple-marked and sun-cracked,
and I thought I could detect some footprints, though more
obscure than those in Dr. Harding's slab. Similar footprints
are also stated to have been found by Dr. Gesner, at Parrs-
boro'. All of these were from the lowest beds of the Carboni-
ferous system.

I have since observed several instances of such impressions
at the Joggins, at Horton, and near Windsor, showing that
they are by no means rare, and that reptilian animals existed
in no inconsiderable numbers throughout the coal field of
Nova Scotia, and from the beginning to the end of the Carbo-
niferous period. Most of these, when well preserved, shew five
toes both on the anterior and posterior limb. On comparing
these earlier Carboniferous footprints with one another, it will
be observed that they are of similar general character, and
may have been made by one kind of animal, which must have
had the fore and hind feet nearly of equal size, and a digiti-
grade mode of walking. Footprints of similar form are found
in the coal formation, as well as others of much larger size.
The latter are of two kinds. One of these shows short hind
feet of digitigrade character and a long stride, in this resem-
bling the smaller footprints of the Lower Carboniferous, which
are remarkable for the length of limb which they indicate by
the distance between the footprints. The other kind shows
long hind feet, as if the whole heel were brought down to the

264 THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS

ground in a plantigrade manner. These have also the outer
toe separated from the others, and sometimes provided with
a long claw. The fore foot is sometimes smaller than the
hind foot, and differently formed.^ In these respects they
resemble the great Labyrinthodont Batrachians of the sub-
sequent Trias. Their stride also is comparatively short, and
the rows of impressions wide apart, as if the body of the
animal had been broad, and its limbs short.

We have thus two types of quadrupedal footprints, to the
first of which I have given the name Hylopus, and have
restricted the term Sauropus,^ to the second. The first
apparently belongs to the usually small reptiles of the group
Microsauriii^ which had a well-marked lizard-like form, with
well-developed limbs, and perhaps also to some of the smaller
Labyrinthodonts, the second to the group of Labyrinthodontia^
which were often of large size and with stout and short limbs
and plantigrade hind feet. There are also some small and
uncertain tracks, which may have been made by newt-like
animals with short feet, and a singular trail of large size, and
with a row of impressions at each side (Diplichnites),-' which,
if made by a vertebrate animal, would seem to indicate that
serpentiform shape which we know belonged to some Carbo-
niferous Batrachians.

The bones of these animals, however, hitherto found in
Nova Scotia, may all have belonged to the two groups first
named, the Labyrinthodontia and Microsauria, and I shall
proceed to give some examples of each of these.

In leaving the footprints, I may merely mention that the
animals which produced them may, in certain circumstances,
have left distinct impressions only of three or four toes,

' Fine slabs of these footprints have been presented by ^h\ Sandford
Fleming to the Geological Survey of Canada,
^ Given by King.
^ Impressions and Footprints of Animals, Am. Jour. Set., 1873.

THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS 265

when they actually possessed five, while in other circumstances
all may have left marks ; and that, when wading in deep mud,
their footprints were altogether different from those made on
hard sand or clay. In some instances the impressions may
have been made by animals wading or swimming in water,
while in others the rain marks and sun cracks afford evidence
that the surface was a subaerial one. They are chiefly inter-
esting as indicating the wide diffusion and abundance of the
creatures producing them, and that they haunted tidal flats
and muddy shores, perhaps emerging from the water that they
might bask in the sun, or possibly searching for food among
the rejectamenta of the sea, or of lagunes and estuaries.

The Labyrinthodonts of the Coal Period, Baphetes
Planiceps and Dendrerpeton Acadianum.

In the summer of 185 1 I had occasion to spend a day
at the Albion Mines in the eastern part of Nova Scotia, and
on arriving at the railway station in the afternoon, found my-
self somewhat too early for the train. By way of improving
the time thus left on my hands, I betook myself to the ex-
amination of a large pile of rubbish, consisting of shale and
ironstone from one of the pits, and in which I had previously
found scales and teeth of fishes. In the blocks of hard car-
bonaceous shale and earthy coal, of which the pile chiefly
consisted, scales, teeth and coprolites often appeared on the
weathered ends and surfaces as whitish spots. In looking
for these, I observed one of much greater size than usual on
the edge of a block, and on splitting it open, found a large
flattened skull, about six inches broad, the cranial bones of
which remained entire on one side of the mass, while the palate
and teeth, in several fragments, came away with the other half.
Carefully trimming the larger specimen, and gathering all the
smaller fragments, I packed them up as safely as possible, and

s, E. 19

266 THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS

returned from my little excursion much richer than I had
hoped.

The specimen, on further examination, proved somewhat
puzzling. I supposed it to be, most probably, the head of a
large ganoid fish ; but it seemed different from anything of
this kind with which I could compare it ; and at a distance
from comparative anatomists, and without sufficient means of
determination, I dared not refer it to anything higher in the
animal scale. Hoping for further light, I packed it up with
some other specimens, and sent it to the Secretary of the
Geological Society of London, with an explanatory note as to
its geological position, and requesting that it might be sub-
mitted to some one versed in such fossils. For a year or
two, however, it remained as quietly in the Society's collection
as if in its original bed in the coal mine, until attention
having been attracted to such remains by the discoveries
made by Sir Charles Lyell and myself in 1852, at the South
Joggins, and published in 1853,1 the Secretary or President of
the Society re-discovered the specimen, and handed it to Sir
Richard Owen, by whom it was described in December, 1853,2
under the name of Baphetes pla?iiceps, which may be inter-
preted the "flat-headed diving animal," in allusion to the
flatness of the creature's skull, and the possibility that it may
have been in the habit of diving.

The parts preserved in my specimen are the bones of the
anterior and upper part of the skull in one fragment, and
the teeth and palatal bones in others. These parts were
carefully examined and described by Owen, and the details
will be found in his papers referred to in the note. We
may merely observe here that the form and arrangement of
the bones showed batrachian affinities, that the surface of the
cranium was sculptured in the maimer of the group of

* Jottrnal of Geological Society of London, vol. ix.

^ Journal of Geological Society, vol. x. ; and additional notes, vol. xi.

THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS 26/

Labyrinthodonts, and that the teeth possessed the pecuHar
and compUcated pUcation of the ivory and enamel seen in
creatures of this type. The whole of these characters are
regarded as allying the animal with the great crocodilian frogs
of the Trias of Europe, first known as Cheirotherians, owing
to the remarkable hand-like impressions of their feet, and
afterwards as Labyrinthodotits, from the beautifully complicated
convolutions of the ivory of their teeth.

Unfortunately the original specimen exhibited only the
head, and after much and frequent subsequent searching, the
only other bones found are a scapula, or shoulder bone, and
one of the surface scales which served for protection, and
which indicate at least that the creature possessed walking
limbs and was armed with bony scales sculptured in the
same manner with the skull bones.

Of the general form and dimensions of Bap/ietes, the facts
at present known do not enable us to say much. Its
formidable teeth and strong maxillary bones show that it must
have devoured animals of considerable size, probably the
fishes whose remains are found with it, or the smaller reptiles
of the coal. It must, in short, have been crocodilian, rather
than frog-like, in its mode of life ; but whether, like the
Labyrinthodonts, it had strong limbs and a short body, or
like the crocodiles, an elongated form and a powerful
natatory tail, the remains do not decide. One of the limbs
or a vertebra of the tail would settle this question, but neither
has as yet been found. That there were large animals of
the labyrinthodontal form in the coal period is proved by
the footprints discovered by Dr. King in Pennsylvania, which
may have been produced by an animal of the type of Baphetes,
as well as by those of Sauropus unguifer from the Carboni-
ferous of Nova Scotia, and which would very well suit an
animal of this size and probable form. On the other hand,
that there were large swimming reptiles seems established

268 THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS

by the discovery of the vertebrse of Eosaurus Acadia/ius, at
the Joggins, by Marsh. ^ The locomotion of Baphetes must
have been vigorous and rapid, but it may have been effected
both on land and in water, and either by feet or tail, or Ijoth.
A jawbone found at the Joggins in Nova Scotia, and to
which I have attached the name Baphetes minor, may have
belonged to a second species. Great Batrachians allied to
Baphetes, but different specifically or generically, have since
been found in the coal formations of Great Britain, the conti-
nent of Europe and the United States.

With the nature of the habitat of this formidable creature
we are better acquainted. The area of the iMbion Mines coal
field was somewhat exceptional in its character. It seems to
have been a bay or indentation in the Silurian land, separated
from the remainder of the coal field by a high shingle beach,
now a bed of conglomerate. Owing to this circumstance,
while in the other portions of the Nova Scotia coal field the
beds of coal arc thin, and alternate with sandstones and shales,
at the Albion Mines a vast thickness of almost unmixed vege-
table matter has been de[)osited, constituting the " main seam "
of thirty-eight feet thick, and the " deep seam," twenty-four feet
thick, as well as still thicker beds of highly carbonaceous
shale. But, though the area of the Albion coal measures was
thus separated, and preserved from marine incursions, it must
have been often submerged, and probably had connection
with the sea, through rivers or channels cutting the enclosing
beach. Hence beds of earthy matter occur in it, containing
remains of large fishes. One of the most important of these
is that known as the "Holing stone," a band of black highly
carbonaceous shale, coaly matter, and clay ironstone, occur-
ring in the main seam, about five feet below its roof, and vary-
ing in thickness from two inches to nearly two feet. It was
from this band that the rubbish heap in which I found the
* Silliman^sjourftal, 1859.

THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS 269

skull of Baphetes planiceps was derived. It is a laminated bed,
sometimes hard and containing much ironstone, in other
places soft and shaly, but always black and carbonaceous,
and often with layers of coarse coal, though with few fossil
plants retaining their forms. It contains large round flat
scales and flattened curved teeth, which I attribute to a fish of
the genus Rhizodus, resembling, if not identical with, R.
hi/icifer, Newberry. AVith these are double-pointed shark-like
teeth, and long cylindrical spines of a species of Dip/odus,
which I have named D. achiaces} There are also shells of
the minute Spirorbis, so common in the coal measures of
other parts of Nova Scotia, and abundance of fragments of
coprolitic matter, or fossil excrement, sometimes containing
bones and scales of fishes.

It is evident that the " Holing stone " indicates one ot
those periods in which the Albion coal area, or a large part of
it, was under water, probably fresh or brackish, as there are no
properly marine shells in this, or any of the other beds of this
coal series. We may then imagine a large lake or lagune,
loaded with trunks of trees and decaying vegetable matter,
having in its shallow parts, and along its sides, dense brakes of
Calamites, and forests of Sigil/aria, Lepidodeiidro/i, and other
trees of the period, extending far on every side as damp pesti-
lential swamps. In such a habitat, uninviting to us, but no
doubt suited to Baphetes, that creature crawled through
swamps and thickets, wallowed in flats of black mud, or swam
and dived in search of its finny prey. It was, in so far as we
know, the monarch of these swamps, though there is, as
already stated, evidence of the existence of similar creatures of
this type quite as large in other parts of the Nova Scotia coal
field. We must now notice a smaller animal belonging to the
same family of Labyrinthodonts.

1 "Supplement to .\cadian Geology," ]ip. 43 and 50. These fishes are
now known under the generic name Leplacanthus.

2/0 THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS

The geology of Nova Scotia is largely indebted to the world-
embracing labours of Sir Charles Lyell. Though much had
previously been done by others, his personal explorations in
1842, and his paper on the gypsiferous formation, published in
the following year, first gave form and shape to some of the
more difficult features of the geology of the country, and
brought it into relation with that of other parts of the world.
In geological investigation, as in many other things, patient
plodding may accumulate large stores of fact, but the magic
wand of genius is required to bring out the true value and
significance of these stores of knowledge. It is scarcely too
much to say that the exploration of a few weeks, and subse-
quent study of the subject by Sir Charles, with the impulse
and guidance given to the labours of others, did as much for
Nova Scotia as might have been effected by years of laborious
work under less competent heads.

Sir Charles naturally continued to take an interest in the
geology of Nova Scotia, and to entertain a desire to explore
more fully some of those magnificent coast sections which he
had but hastily examined; and when, in 185 1, he had occa-
sion to revisit the United States, he made an appointment
with the writer of these pages to spend a few days in renewed
explorations of the cliffs of the South Joggins. The object
specially in view was the thorough examination of the beds of
the true coal measures, with reference to their contained
fossils, and the conditions of accumulation of the coal ; and
the results were given to the world in a joint paper on "The
remains of a reptile and a land shell discovered in the interior
of an erect tree in the coal measures of Nova Scotia," and in
the writer's paper on the " Coal Measures of the South
Joggins";^ while other important investigations grew out ot
the following up of these researches, and much matter in

^ Journal of the Geological Socictj' of London, vols, ix, and x, ; and
"Acadian Geology,"

THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS 27 1

relation to the vegetable fossils still remains to be worked up.
It is with the more striking fact of the discovery of the remains
of a reptile in the coal measures that we have now to do.

The South Joggins Section is, among other things, remark-
able for the number of beds which contain remains of erect
trees imbedded in situ : these trees are for the most part
Sigillariae, those great-ribbed pillar-like trees which seem to
have been so characteristic of the forests of the coal formation
flats and swamps, and so important contributors to the forma-
tion of coal. They vary in diameter from six inches to five feet.
They have grown on underclays and wet soils, similar to those
on which the coal was accumulated ; and these having been
submerged or buried by mud carried down by inundations,
the trees, killed by the accumulations around their stems,
have decayed, and their tops being broken off at the level of
the mud or sand, the cylindrical cavities left open by the dis-
appearance of the wood, and preserved in their form by the
greater durability of the bark, have been filled with sand and
clay. This, now hardened into stone, constitutes pillar-like
casts of the trees, which may often be seen exposed in the
cliffs, and which, as these waste away, fall upon the beach.
The sandstones enveloping these pillared trunks of the ancient
Sigillariae of the coal, are laminated or bedded, and the
laminae, when exposed, split apart with the weather, so that the
trees themselves become broken across ; this being often
aided by the arrangement of the matter within the trunks, in
layers more or less corresponding to those without. Thus one
of these fossil trees usually falls to the beacli in a series of
discs, somewhat resembling the grindstones which are exten-
sively manufactured on the coast. The surfaces of these
fragments often exhibit remains of plants which have been
washed into the hollow trunks, and have been imbedded
there ; and in our explorations of the shore, we always care-
fully scrutinized such specimens, both with th? view of observ-

2/2 THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS

ing whether they retained the superficial markings of Sigillarise,
and with reference to the fossils contained in them. It was
while examining a pile of these " fossil grindstones " that we
were surprised by finding on one of them what seemed to be
fragments of bone. On careful search other bones appeared,
and they had the aspect, not of remains of fishes, of which
many species are found fossil in these coal measures, but
rather of limb bones of a quadruped. The fallen pieces of the
tree were carefully broken up, and other bones disengaged, and
at length a jaw with teeth made its appearance. We felt quite
confident, from the first, that these bones were reptilian ; and
the whole, being carefully packed and labelled, were taken by
Sir Charles to the United States, and submitted to Prof. J.
Wyman of Cambridge ; who recognised their reptilian char-
acter, and prepared descriptive notes of the principal bones,
which appeared to have belonged to two species. He also
observed among the fragments an object of different character,
apparently a shell ; which was recognised by Dr. Gould of
Boston, and afterward by M. Deshayes, as probably a land-
snail, and has since been named Pupa vetusta.

The specimens were subsequently taken to London and re-
examined by Prof. Owen, who confirmed Wyman's inferences,
added other characters to the description, and named the
larger and better preserved species Dejidrerpeton Acadianiaii,
in allusion to its discovery in the interior of a tree, and to its
native country of Acadia or Nova Scotia. It is necessary to
state in explanation of the fragmentary character of the remains
obtained, that in the decay of the animals imbedded in the
erect trees at the Joggins, their skeletons have become disar-
ticulated, and the portions scattered, either by falling into the
interstices of the vegetable fragments in the bottom of the
hollow trunks, or by the water with which these may have
sometimes been partly filled. A\'e thus usually obtain only
separate bones ; and though all of these are no doubt present

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THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS 273

in each case, it is often impossible in breaking up the hard
matrix to recover more than a portion of them. The original
description by Owen was therefore based on somewhat imperfect
material, but additional specimens subsequently found have
supplemented it in such a manner as to enable us somewhat
completely to restore in imagination the form of the animal,
which, though much smaller than Baphetes, agrees with it in its
sculptured bones, in its bony armature, especially beneath, and
in its plicated teeth.

In form, Detidrerpeton Acadianutn was probably lizard-like ;
with a broad flat head, short stout Umbs and an elongated tailj
and having its skin, and more particularly that of the belly,
protected by small bony plates closely overlapping each other,
and arranged en chevron, in oblique rows meeting on the
mesial line, where in front was a thoracic plate. It may have
attained the length of two feet. The form of the head is not
unlike that of Baphetes, but longer in proportion ; and much
resembles that of the labyrinthodont reptiles of the Trias.
The bones of the skull are sculptured as in Baphefes, but in a
smaller pattern.

The fore limb of the adult animal, including the toes,
must have been four or five inches in length, and is of
massive proportions. The bones were hollow, and in the case
of the phalanges the bony walls were thin, so that they are
often crushed flat. The humerus, or arm bone, however, was
a strong bone, with thick walls and a cancellated structure
toward its extremities ; still even these have sometimes yielded
to the great pressure to which they have been subjected. The
cavity of the interior of the limb bones is usually filled with
calcspar stained with organic matter, but showing no struc-
ture ; and the inner side of the bony wall is smooth without
any indication of cartilaginous matter lining it.

The vertebrce, in the external aspect of their bodies, remind
one of those of fishes, expanding toward the extremities, and

2/4 THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS

being deeply hollowed by conical cavities, which appear even
to meet in the centre. There is, however, a large and flattened
neural spine. The vertebrre are usually much crushed, and it
is almost impossible to disengage them from the stone. The
ribs are long and curved, showing a reptilian style of chest.
The posterior limb seems to have been not larger than the
anterior, perhaps smaller. The tibia, or principal bone of the
fore leg is much flattened at the extremity, as in some Labyrin-
thodonts, and the foot must have been broad, and probably
suited for swimming, or walking on soft mud, or both. That
the hind limb was adapted for walking is shown, not merely
by the form of the bones, but also by that of the pelvis.

The external scales are thin, oblique-rhomboidal or elon-
gated-oval, marked with slight concentric lines, but otherwise
smooth, and having a thickened ridge or margin, in which
they resemble those of Anhegosaiiri/s, and also those of Pholi-
dogaster piscifonnis, described by Huxley from the Edinburgh
coal field, — an animal which indeed apppears in most respects
to have a close affinity with Dendrcrpeton. The microscopic
structure of the scales is quite similar to that of the other
bones, and different from that of the scales of ganoid fishes, the
shape of the cells being batrachian. For other particulars of
its structure reference may be made to the papers named at
the end of the chapter.

With respect to the affinities of the creature, I think it is
obvious that it is most nearly related to the group of Labyrin-
thodonts, and that it has the same singular mixture of batra-
chian and reptilian characters which distinguish these ancient
animals, and which give them the appearance of prototypes of
the reptilian class. A second and smaller species of Den-
drerpeton was subsequently obtained at the Joggins, and others
have been found, more especially by Fritsch, in the Carboni-
ferous and Permian of Europe.

This ancient inhabitant of the coal swamps of Nova Scotia

THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS 2/5

was, in short, as we often find to be the case with the earUest
forms of Hfe, the possessor of powers and structures not usu-
ally, in the modern world, combined in a single species. It
was certainly not a fish, yet its bony scales and the form of its
vertebra3, and of its teeth, might, in the absence of other evi-
dence, cause it to be mistaken for one. AVe call it a Batrachian,
yet its dentition, the sculpturing of the bones of its skull,
which were certainly no more external plates than the similar
bones of a crocodile, its ribs, and the structure of its limbs,
remind us of the higher reptiles ; and we do not know that it
ever possessed gills, or passed through a larval or fish-like
condition. Still, in a great many important characters, its
structures are undoubtedly batrachian. It stands, in short, in
the same position with the Lepidodendra and Siginafics under
whose shade it crept, which, though placed by palaeobotanists
in alliance with certain modern groups of plants, manifestly
differed from these in many of their characters, and occupied
a different position in nature. In the coal period the distinc-
tions of physical and vital conditions were not well defined.
Dry land and water, terrestrial and aquatic plants and animal.s,
and lower and higher forms of animal and vegetable life, are
consequently not easily separated from each other. This is
no doubt a state of things characteristic of the earlier stages of
the earth's history, yet not necessarily so ; for there are some
reasons, derived from fossil plants, for believing that in the
preceding Devonian period there was less of this, and conse
quently that there may then have been a higher and more
varied animal life than in the coal period. ^

The dentition of Dendrerpeton shows it to have been car-
nivorous in a high degree. It may have captured fishes and
smaller reptiles, either on land or in water, and very probably
fed on dead carcases as well. If, as seems likely, any of the

* See the author's paper on Devonian plants, Journal of the Geological
Society, vol. xviii. p. 328.

2/6 THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS

footprints referred to previously belong to this animal, it
must have frequented the shores, either in search of garbage,
or on its way to and from the waters. The occurrence of its
remains in the stumps of Sigillaria, with land snails and milli-
pedes, shows also that it crept in the shade of the woods in
search of food ; and in noticing coprolitic matter, in a subse-
quent page, I shall show that remains of excrementitious
substances, probably of this species, contain fragments attri-
butable to smaller reptiles, and other animals of the land.

All the bones of Detidrerpeton hitherto found, as well as
those of the smaller reptilian species hereafter described, have
been obtained from the interior of erect Sigillariae, and all of
these in one of the many beds, which, at the Joggins, contain
such remains. The thick cellular inner bark of Sigillaria was
very perishable ; the slender woody axis was somewhat more
durable ; but near the surface of the stem, in large trunks,
there was a layer of elongated cells, or bast tissue, of consider-
able durability, and the outer bark was exceedingly dense and
indestructible. ^ Hence an erect tree, partly imbedded in
sediment, and subjected to the influence of the weather, be-
came a hollow shell of bark ; in the bottom of which lay the
decaying remains of the woody axis, and shreds of the fibrous
bark. In ordinary circumstances such hollow stems would be
almost immediately filled with silt and sand, deposited in the
numerous inundations and subsidences of the coal swamps.
Where, however, they remained open for a considerable time,
they would constitute a series of pitfalls, into which animals
walking on the surface might be precipitated ; and being prob-
ably often partly covered by remains of prostrate trunks, or
by vegetation growing around their mouths, they would be
places of retreat and abode for land snails and such creatures.
When the surface was again inundated or submerged, all such

' See a paper by the author, on the Structures of Coal, Journal of the
Geological Society, vol. xv. ; also " Supplement to Acadian Geology."

A REPTII.IFEROUS Tree ill sitit. South Joggins, N. Scotia.
This is a sketch of a tree which afforded remains of Dendrerpeton,
Pupae, etc.

THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS 2//

animals, with the remains of those which had fallen into the
deeper pits, would be imbedded in the sediment which would
then fill up the holes. These seem to have been the precise
conditions of the bed which has afforded all these remains.

The history of a bed containing reptiliferous erect trees
would thus be somewhat as follows : — ■

A forest or grove of the large-ribbed trees known as Sigil-
laricE, was either submerged by subsidence, or, growing on low
ground, was invaded with the muddy waters of an inundation,
or successive inundations, so that the trunks were buried to
the depth of several feet. The projecting tops having been
removed by subaerial decay, the buried stumps became hollow,
while their hard outer bark remained intact. They thus be-
came hollow cylinders in a vertical position, and open at top.
The surface having then become dry land, covered with vegeta-
tion, was haunted by small quadrupeds and other land animals,
which from time to time fell into the open holes, in some cases
nine feet deep, and could not extricate themselves. On their
death, and the decomposition of their soft parts, their bones
and other hard portions remained in the bottom of the tree
intermixed with any vegetable debris or soil washed in by rain,
and which formed thin layers separating successive animal
deposits from each other. Finally, the area was again sub-
merged or overflowed by water, bearing sand and mud. The
hollow trees were filled to the top, and their animal contents
thus sealed up. At length the material filling the trees was by
pressure and the access of cementing matter hardened into
stone, not infrequently harder than that of the containing beds,
and the whole being tilted to an angle of 20°, and elevated into
land exposed to the action of the tides and waves, these singular
coffins present themselves as stony cylinders projecting from
the cliff or reef, and can be extracted and their contents
studied.

The singular combination of accidents above detailed was,
s. E. 20

278 THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS

of course, of very rare occurrence, and in point of fact we
know only one set of beds at the South Joggins in which such
remains so preserved occur ; nor is there, so far as I am aware,
any other known instance elsewhere. Even in the beds in
question only a portion of the trees, about fifteen in thirty,
have afforded animal remains. We have, however, thus been
enabled to obtain specimens of a number of species which
would probably otherwise have been unknown, being less
likely than others to be preserved in properly aqueous de-
posits. Such discoveries, on the one hand impress us with
the imperfection of the geological record ; on the other, they
show us the singular provisions which have been made in the
course of geological time for preserving the relics of the ancient
world, and which await the industry and skill of collectors to
disclose their hidden treasures.

I may add that I believe all the trees, about thirty in num-
ber, which have become exposed in this bed since its dis-
covery, have been ransacked for such remains ; and that while
the majority have afforded some reward for the labour, some
have been far more rich than others in their contents. It is
also to be observed that owing to the mode of accumulation
of the mass filling the trees, the bones are usually found scat-
tered in every position, and those of different species inter-
mingled ; and that being often much more friable than the
matrix, much labour is required for their development ; while
after all has been done, the result is a congeries of fragments.
A few specimens only have been found, showing skeletons
complete, or nearly so, and I shall endeavour to figure one or
two of these by way of illustration in the present chapter.

The beds on a level with the top of the reptiliferous erect
trees are arenaceous sandstones, with numerous erect Cala-
7nites. I have searched the surfaces of these beds in vain for
bones or footprints of the reptiles which must have traversed
them, and which, but for hollow erect trees, would apparendy

^^^

^.».^- '^■

>'

^T'<.:

A TYi'icAL Carboniferous IMicrosauriax, Hylonomus Lyeni—V.c-
storation showing dermal armour and ornaments. Skeleton restored from
measurements of the bones of the type specimen figured at the beginning
of the chapter.

THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS 279

have left no trace of their existence. On a surface of s'milar
character, sixty feet higher, and separated by three coals, with
their accompaniments, and a very thick compact sandstone, I
observed a series of footprints, which may be those of Deudrer-
feton or Hylonomus.

Species of Microsauria. Hylonomus Lyelli.

In the original reptilifcrous tree discovered by Sir C. Lyell
and the writer, at the Joggins, in 1851, there were, beside the
bones of Dendrerpeton Acadianian, some small elongated
vertebrae, evidently of a different species. These were first
detected by Prof. Wyman, in his examination of these speci-
mens, and were figured, but not named, in the original notice
of the specimens. In a subsequent visit to the Joggins I
obtained from another erect stump many additional remains of
these smaller reptiles, and, on careful comparison of the .speci-
mens, was induced to refer them to three species, all appa-
rently generically allied. I proposed for them the generic
name Hylonomus, " forest dweller." They were described in
the Proceedings of the Geological Society for 1859, with illustra-
tions of the teeth and other characteristic parts. ^ The smaller
species first described I named H. ]Vyma>u' ; the next in size,
that to which this article refers, and which was represented by
a larger number of specimens, I adopted as a type of the genus,
and dedicated to Sir Charles Lyell. The third- and largest,
represented only by a few fragments of a single skeleton, was
named H. aciedcntatus. This I had subsequently to remove
to a new genus, Smilerpetoii.

Hylonomus Lyelli was an animal of small size. Its skull is
about an inch in length, and its whole body, including the tail,
could not have been more than six or seven inches long. The
bones appear to have been thin and easily separable ; and even

^Journal of Geological Society, vol. xvi.

28o THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS

when they remain together, are so much crushed as to render
the shape of the skull not easily discernible. They are smooth
on the outer surface to the naked eye ; and under a lens show-
only delicate, uneven striae and minute dots. They are more
dense and hard than those of Dendrerpeton^ and the bone cells
are more elongated in form. The bones of the snout would
seem to have been somewhat elongated and narrow. A speci-
men in my possession shows the parietal and occipital bones,
or the greater part of them, united and retaining their form.
^Ve learn from them that the brain case was rounded, and that
there was a parietal foramen. There would seem also to have
been two occipital condyles, as in modern Batrachians. Several
well-preserved specimens of the maxillary and mandibular
bones have been obtained. They are smooth, or nearly so,
like those of the skull, and are furnished with numerous sharp,
conical teeth, anchylosed to the jaw, in a partial groove
formed by the outer ridge of the bone. In the anterior part of
the lower jaw there is a group of teeth larger than the others.
The total number of teeth in each ramus of the lower jaw was
about forty, and the number in each maxillary bone about
thirty. The teeth are perfectly simple, hollow within, and
with very fine radiating tubes of ivory. The vertebrae have
the bodies cyclindrical or hour-glass shaped, covered with a
thin, hard, bony plate, and having within a cavity of the form
of two cones, attached by the apices. This cavity was com-
pletely surrounded by bone, as it is filled with stained calcspar
in the same manner as the cavities of the limb bones. It was
probably occupied by cartilage. The vertebrae were apparently
bi-concave, and are furnished with upper and lateral processes
similar to those of small lacertian animals. The ribs are long,
curved, and at the proximal end have a shoulder and neck.
They are hollow, with thin hard bony walls. The anterior
limb, judging from the fragments procured, seems to have been
slender, with long toes, four or possibly five in number. The

THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS 28 1

posterior limb was longer and stronger, and attached to a
pelvis so large and broad as to give the impression that the
creature enlarged considerably in size toward the posterior ex-
tremity of the body, and that it may have been in the habit of
sitting erect. The thigh bone is large and well formed, with a
distinct head and trochanter, and the lower extremity flattened
and moulded into two articulating surfaces for the tibia and
fibula, the fragments of which show that they were much
shorter. The toes of the hind feet have been seen only in
detached joints. They seem to have been thicker than those
of the fore foot. Detached vertebrae, which seem to be caudal,
have been found, and show that the tail was long and probably
not flattened. The limb bones are usually somewhat cru.shed
and flattened, especially at their articular extremities, and this
seems to have led to the error of supposing that this flattened
form was their normal condition ; there can be no doubt, how-
ever, that it is merely an effect of pressure. The limb bones
present in cross section a wall of dense bone with elongated bone-
cells, surrounding a cavity now filled with brown calcspar, and
originally occupied with cartilage or marrow. I desire to specify
the above points because I believe that most of the creatures
referred by Fritsch, Credner, and other European naturalists
to the Microsauria are of inferior grade to Hylonomus, though
admitted to present points of approximation to the true rep-
tiles. Woodward has recently described the remains of a
Microsaurian from the English coal formation. Nothing is
more remarkable in the skeleton of this creature than the con-
trast between the perfect and beautiful forms of its bones, and
their imperfectly ossified condition, a circumstance which raises
the question whether these specimens may not represent the
young of some reptile of larger size.

The dermal covering of this animal is represented in part by
oval bony scales, which are so constantly associated with its
bones that I can have no doubt that they belonged to it, being,

^Sj the oldest air-breathers

perfsapsw ttte cfedung: of its low^r or abdominal parts. But the
- - , ,:re

^&s^ >tod<«ti Bastescimits aie cfearjectenstKaLBT nabei ami

feisesv One of the specimens ot HrloncwiTS had associated

^ " ■ ■ " '; " -' ^ -" ' ■ ' ':^'k and ca.r-

. .:r.ed and so
pKsarved br the water liliing the hollow tree impregnared
— - ;-----.-- --- - — ;- --,.-:,--i-^ This skm iras coverevi

-, - - -'x under the microscope,

showed the structure ot bom rather than of bone. Besides
these onSrraiT scales there were bonr pcominences. like
rhose ot the homed taig, on the hack and shoulders, and a

- - " ■ n-

Beiades dsese there were in front arsd at the side rows of per»-

t%rrr> or Iappe::s. oil - ■ -jT,

thocgh nowpertectiT :_,_■_ _, :____ _. :_;_____ __:_, :._- :.ie

Tsse of the ornsece covering,, and perhaps the questioo raises

. . . _^

: - _ - - - ^ - ;>e

of BaJiachians. ScTjdder suggests a somewhat prosaic use in

- - " ;ra to be _ - - - :r-

ae tne --s.

aead some oc them almost as large m aze. But the word " ver>-

: - -w-ae v^ - _ .lid traces of

an imiired joint at tne aid of the taii in some :^?ecimai5. We

:' the scc" -

p«;hnrf«r it xmda" uic >.< ; n. were perieczed a: tois eariy usie.
Thus we have in the ir back C^-~-"""""e-:'US ajre a creature as

THR '■ air-j^^kath;

ekboratdy ornameaited arid protected a$ st»y of ^i<e «o<Kkr»

portar.*; ceparture ': . ,, -

sunimal* are &up5>osed to cofi£orm. I isaay add b<ere ^aaJ se^

s«:aJy arvl had lap5>e:ts, tho«^ tfaey <&1 jskX appear liO isiajsre tr>e

'Ilie answer k tiiat ^ae cascBaaastaiJoes of preserve

of reptikrs f^jnnn m the Carv/n/f-ero^a^

It 13 evwient frocn true rerr ::

in ffylonorf .'^ - ■ - -^ - ^-

arijd stout <:a5*-

strong and thdr articulaiioc y finaa, to

have . 'J

leap. _ - ., ... , . -. , - '^

more finraly knit tiaan tiioee of De»drirfet'm. YwCe^. 'Sm.

ryaexrdy a more hi^lj viialized jaaoscular srsseia. If to do^se

puzzling in its afiiruEtjes vben a.raatoms.':-. ^ered. k ciearir

not to be ranked as Lo^r ir -' : -. - - ' "viem

tailed Barrach:ajis. or even -. . . - imasi

add to these also, as importaia pc-n^ o«r' cusereace, ir^ bocj
icales widi irBidi it vas armed bekyir,. and ti^ie oraaaie apcja-

284 THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS

ratus of horny appendages, with which it was clad above.
These last, as described in the last section, show that this little
animal was not a squalid, slimy dweller in mud, like Meno-
branchiis and its allies, but rather a beautiful and sprightly
tenant of the coal-formation thickets, vying in brilliancy, and
perhaps in colouring, with the insects which it pursued and
devoured. Remains of as many as eight or ten individuals
have been obtained from three erect Sigillariae, indicating that
these creatures were quite abundant, as well as active and ter-
restrial in their mode of life.

With respect to the affinities of this species, I think it is
abundantly manifest that it presents no close relationship with
any reptile hitherto discovered in the Carboniferous system,
except perhaps some of the smaller forms in the Permian of
Europe, with which Credner and Fritsch have compared it. It
is scarcely necessary to say that the characters above described
entirely remove this animal from the Labyrinthodonts. Equal
difficulties attend the attempt to place it in any other grou})
of recent or extinct Batrachians or proper reptiles. The struc-
tures of the skull, and of some points in the vertebra?, certainly
resemble those of Batrachians ; but, on the other hand, the
well-developed ribs, evidently adapted to enlarge the chest in
respiration, the pelvis, and the cutaneous covering, are un-
exampled in modern Batrachians, and assimilate the creature
to the true lizards. I ha\e already, in my original description
of the animal in 1859, expressed my belief that Hylonovitis
may have had lacertian affinities, but I do not desire to speak
too positively in this matter ; ^ and thall content myself with
stating the following alternatives as to the probable relations
of these animals, (i) They may have been true reptiles of low
type, and with batrachian tendencies. (2) They may have
been representatives of a new family of Batrachians, exhibit-
ing in some points lacertian affinities. (3) They may have

* I am glad to say that Fritsch and Credner now lean to the same view.

THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS 285

been the young of some larger reptile, too large and vigorous
to be entrapped in the pitfalls presented by the hollow Sigil-
laria stumps, and in its adult state losing the batrachian pecu-
liarities apparent in the young. Whichever of these views we
may adopt, the fact remains, that in the structure of this curi-
ous little creature we have peculiarities both batrachian and
lacertian, in so far as our experience of modern animals is
concerned. It would, however, accord with observed facts in
relation to other groups of extinct animals, that the primitive
Batrachians of the coal period should embrace in their struc-
tures points in after times restricted to the true reptiles. On
the other hand, it would equally accord with such facts that
the first-born of Lacertians should lean towards a lower type, by
which they may have been preceded. My present impression
is, that they may constitute a separate family or order, to w'hich
I would give the name of Microsauria, and which may be
regarded as allied, on the one hand, to certain of the humbler
lizards, as the Gecko or Agama, and, on the ot];er, to the
tailed Batrachians.

It is likely that Hyloiionius Lyelli was less aquatic in its
habits than Dendrerpeton. Its food consisted, apparently, of
insects and similar creatures. The teeth would indicate this,
and near its bones there are portions of coprolite, containing
remains of insects and myriapods. It probably occasionally
fell a prey to Dendrerpeton, as bones, which may have belonged
either to young individuals of this species or to its smaller
congener H. Jlyniani, are found in larger coprolites, which
may be referred with probability to Dendrerpeton Acadianuin.
This coprolitic matter, which is somewhat plentiful on some of
the surfaces in the erect trees, also informs us that the im-
prisoned animals may in some cases have continued to live for
some time, feeding on such animals as may have fallen into
their place of confinement, which was destined also to be
their tomb. Some other points of interest appear on the

286 THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS

examination of this excrementitious matter. It contains much
carbonate of Hme, indicating that snails or other moUusks
furnished a considerable part of the food of the smaller rep-
tiles. Some portions of it are filled with chitinous fragments,
parts of millipedes or insects, but usually so broken up as
scarcely to be distinguishable. One curious exception was a
part of the head of an insect containing a portion of one of its
eyes. The facets of this can be readily seen with the micro-
scope, and are similar to those of modern cockroaches. About
250 of these little eyes are discernible, and they must have
been much more numerous. Two points are of interest here :
First, the perfection of the compound eye for vision in air.
It had long before, in the case of the Trilobites, been used for
seeing under water. Secondly, the great age of the still ubi-
quitous and aggressive family of the cockroaches. In point of
fact the oldest known insect, the Protoblattina of the Silurian,
is one of these creatures, and they are the most abundant in-
sects in the Carboniferous, so that if they now dispute with us
the possession of our food, they may at least put in the claim
of prior occupancy of the world. In one mass a quantity of
thickish crust or shell appears, which under the microscope
presents a minutely tubular and laminated appearance. It may
have belonged to some small crustacean or large scorpion on
which a Dendrerpeton may have been feeding before it fellinto
the pit in which it was entombed.

In addition to the reptilian species above noticed, the erect
trees of Coal Mine Point have afforded several others. There
is a second and smaller species of Dendrerpeton {D. Oiveni)
and other forms belonging to the group of Microsauria of which
Hylonomus is the type. A second species of that genus (//.
liy/na/ii) has already been mentioned. A similar creature, but
of larger size and with teeth of a wedge or chisel shape, has
been referred to a distinct genus, Smikrpeton. It seems to
have been rare, and the only skeleton found is very imperfect.

Dolichosotna longissimuin, a serpentiform rennian Batrachian after
Fritsch. This and Hylonomus are opposite or extreme types in regard to
general form.

THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS 287

Its teeth are of a form that may have served even for
vegetable food, as their sharp edges must have had considerable
cutting power. Another curious form of tooth appears in the
genus Hylerpeton. It has the points worked into oblique
grooves separated by sharp edges, which must have greatly
aided in piercing tough integument. These creatures seem to
have been of stout and robust build, with large limbs. Still
another generic type {Frifschia) is represented by a species
near to Hylonomus in several respects, and with long and beau-
tifully formed limb bones, but with the belly protected with
rod-like bodies instead of scales. In this respect Hylerpeton
is somewhat intermediate, having long and narrow scales on
the belly instead of the oval or roundish scales of Hylonomus.
All these last-mentioned forms are Microsaurians, with simple
teeth and well-developed ribs and limbs, and smooth cranial
bones. Two other species are represented by portions of
single skeletons too imperfect to allow them to be certainly
determined.

I would emphasize here that the vertebrate animals found
in the erect trees are necessarily a selection from the most
exclusively terrestrial forms, and from the smaller species of
these. The numerous newt-like and serpentiform species found
in the shales of the coal formation could not find access to these
peculiar repositories, nor could the larger species of the Laby-
rinthodonts and their allies, even if they were in the habit of
occasionally prowling in the forests in search of prey, and this
would scarcely be likely, more especially as the waters must
have afforded to them much more abundant supplies of food.
Of the numerous species figured by Fritsch, Cope and Huxley,
only a few approach very near to the forms entrapped in the
old hollow Sigillariae, though several have characters half ba-
trachian and half reptilian.

288 THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS

Invertebrate Air-breathers.

The coal formation rocks have afforded Land Snails, jSIilli-
pedes, Spiders, Scorpions and Insects, so that all the great
types of invertebrate life which up to this day can live on land
already had representatives in this ancient period. Some of
them, indeed, we can trace further back, the land snails prob-
ably to the Devonian, the Millipedes to the same period, and
the Scorpions and insects as far as the Silurian. No land ver-
tebrate is yet known, older than the Lower Carboniferous, but
there is nothing known to us in physical condition, to preclude
the existence of such creatures at least in the Devonian.

It would take us too far afield to attempt to notice the in-
vertebrate land life of the Palaeozoic in general. This has been
done in great detail by Dr. Scudder. I shall here limit myself
to the animals found in our erect trees, and merely touch in-
cidentally on such others as may be connected with them.

I have already mentioned the occurrence of a land snail,
a true pulmonate moUusk, in the first find by Lyell and my-
self at Coal Mine Point, and this was the first animal of this
kind known in any rocks older than the Purbeck formation of
England. It is one of the groups of so-called Chrysalis-shells,
scarcely distinguishable at first sight from some modern West
Indian species, and distinctly referable to the modern genus
Pupa. It was named Pupa vetusta, and a second and smaller
species subsequently found was named P. P/[i,^s/>r/, and a third
of different form, and resembling the modern snails, bears the
name Zonites priscus. The only other Palaeozoic land mol-
lusks known at present are a few species found in the coal
formation of Ohio, and a fragment supposed to indicate another
species from the Devonian plant beds of St. John's, New
Brunswick. This last is the oldest known evidence of pulmon-
ate snails. If we ask the precise relations of these creatures to
modern snails, it may be answered that of the two leading sub-

S. E

*s:5Mr^^

n^ Carbumferol's Land Snails.

Pufa vetusla, Baiwin, and Coiiulus pnsca. Carpenter, with egg of Pupa
vettista — Ihe whole considerably magnified.

I published in iSSo, in the A'lteri-
cait Journal of Science, a fragment of
what seemed to be a land snail, from
the Middle Erian plant beds of St.
John, New Brunswick {Strophia grand-
tcva, figured above), but have mentioned
it with some doubt in the te.xt. Mr. G.
F. Matthew has, however, recently
communicated to the Royal Society of
Canada a second species, found by Mr.
W. I. Wilson in the same beds, and
which he names Pupa priuurva. It is
accompanied with a scorpion and a
millipede. Thus the existence of Land
Snails of the Pupa type in the Devonian
may be considered as established.

A Dkvonian Land Snail.

THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS 289

divisions of the group of air-breathing snails {Pitlmonifera), the
Operculate, or those with a movable plate to close the mouth
of the shell, and the Inoperculate, or those that are destitute
of any such shelly lid or operculum to close the shell, the first
has been traced no farther back than the Eocene. The second
or inoperculate division, includes some genera that are aquatic
and some that are terrestrial. Of the aquatic genera no re-
presentatives are known in formations older than the Wealden
and Purbeck, and these only in Europe. The terrestrial group,
or the family of the Ifeh'cidie, which, singularly enough, is that
which diverges farthest from the ordinary gill-bearing Gastero-
pods, is the one which has been traced farthest back, and
includes the Palaeozoic species. It is further remarkable that
a very great gap exists in the geological history of this family.
No species are known between the Carboniferous and the early
Tertiary, though in the intervening formations there are many
fresh-water and estuarine deposits in which such remains
might be expected to occur. There is perhaps no reason to
doubt the continuance of the Helicidas through this long por-
tion of geological time, though it is probable that during the
interval the family did not increase much in the numbers of
its species, more especially as it seems certain that it has its
culmination in the modern period, where it is represented by
very many and large species, which are dispersed over nearly
all parts of our continents.

The mode of occurrence of the Palaeozoic Pulmonifcra in
the few localities where they have been found is characteristic.
The earliest known species, Pi/pa retiista, was found, as
already stated, in the material filling the once hollow stem of
a Sigillaria at the South Joggins in Nova Scotia, and many
additional specimens have subsequently been obtained from
similar repositories in the same locality, where they are associ-
ated with bones of Batrachians and remains of Millipedes.
Other specimens, and also the species Zonites pn'scus, have

290 THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS

been found in a thin, shaly layer, containing debris of plants
and crusts of Cyprids, and which was probably deposited at
the outlet of a small stream flowing through the coal-formation
forest. The two species found in Illinois occur, according to
Bradley, in an underclay or fossil soil which may have been
the bed of a pond or estuary, and subsequently became a
forest subsoil. The Erian species occurs in shales charged
with remains of land plants, and which must consequently
have received abundant drainage from neighbouring land. It
is only in such deposits that remains of true land snails can be
expected to occur ; though, had fresh water or brackish water
Pulmonates abounded in the Carboniferous age, their remains
should have occurred in those bituminous and calcareo-bitu-
minous shales which contain such vast quantities of debris of
Cyprids, Lamellibranchs and fishes of the period, mixed with
fossil plants.

The specimen first obtained in 1887 having been taken by
Sir Charles Lyell to the United States, and submitted to the
late Prof. Jeffries Wyman, the shell in question was recognised
by him and the late Dr. Gould, of Boston, as a land shell. It
was subsequently examined by M. Deshayes and Mr. Gwyn
Jeffries, who concurred in this determination ; and its micro-
scopic structure was described by the late Prof. Quekett, of
London, as similar to that of modern land shells. The single
specimen obtained on this occasion was somewhat crushed,
and did not show the aperture. Hence the hesitation as to
its nature, and the delay in naming it, though it was figured
and described in the paper above cited in 1852. Better
specimens showing the aperture were afterward obtained by
the writer, and it was named and described by him in his
"Air-breathers of the Coal Period," in 1863. Owen, in his
" Palaeontology," subsequently proposed the generic name
Deiidropiipa. This I have hesitated to accept, as expressing
a generic distinction not warranted by the facts ; but should

THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS 29 1

the shell be considered to require a generic or sub-generic
distinction, Owen's name should be adopted for it. There
seems, however, nothing to prevent it "from being placed in
one of the modern sub-genera of simple-lipped Pupae. With
regard to the form of its aperture, I may explain that some
currency has been given to an incorrect representation of it,
through defective specimens. In the case of delicate shells
like this, imbedded in a hard matrix, it is of course difficult
to work out the aperture perfectly ; and in my published
figure in the "Air-breathers," I had to restore somewhat the
broken specimens in my possession. This restoration, speci-
mens subsequently found have shown to be very exact.

As already stated, this shell seems closely allied to some
modern Pupae. Perhaps the modern species which approaches
most nearly to it in form, markings and size, is MacrocheUus
Gossei from the West Indies, specimens of which were sent to
me some years ago by Mr. Bland, of New York, with the
remark that they must be very near to my Carboniferous
species. Such edentulous species as Pupa {Leucoc/iila) fallax
of Eastern America very closely resemble it ; and it was re-
garded by the late Dr. Carpenter as probably a near ally of
those species which are placed by some European concholo-
gists in the genus Pupilla.

Pupa vetusta has been found at three distinct levels in the
coal formation of the South Joggins. The lowest is the shale
above referred to. The next, 1,217 feet higher, is that of the
original discovery. The third, 800 feet higher, is in an erect
Sigillaria holding no other remains. Thus, this shell has lived
in the locality at least during the accumulation of 2,000 feet
of beds, including a number of coals and erect forests, as well
as beds of bituminous .shales and calcareo-bituminous shale,
the growth of which must have been very slow.

In the lowest of these three horizons the shells are found,
as already stated, in a thin bed of concretionary clay of dark

292 THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS

grey colour, though associated with reddish beds. It contains
Zonitcs priscus as well, though this is very rare, and there are
a few valves of Cythere and shells of Naiadiies as well as
carbonaceous fragments, fronds of ferns, 2^rigo)wcarpa, etc.
The Piipce are mostly adult, but many very young shells also
occur, as well as fragments of broken shells. The bed is
evidently a layer of mud deposited in a pond or creek, or at
the mouth of a small stream. In modern swamps multitudes
of fresh-water shells occur in such places, and it is remarkable
that in this case the only Gasteropods are land shells, and
these very plentiful, though only in one bed about an inch in
thickness. This would seem to imply an absence of fresh-
water Pulmonifera. In the erect Sigillarice of the second
horizon the shells occur either in a sandy matrix, more or less
darkened with vegetable matter, or in a carbonaceous mass
composed mainly of vegetable debris. Except when crushed
or flattened, the shells in these rei)Ositories are usually filled
with brownish calcite. From this I infer that most of them
were alive when imbedded, or at least that they contained the
bodies of the animals ; and it is not improbable that they
sheltered themselves in the hollow trees, as is the habit of
many similar animals in modern forests. Their residence in
these trees, as well as the characters of their embryology, are
illustrated by the occurrence of their mature ova. One of
those, which I have considered worth figuring, has been broken
in such a way as to show the embryo shell.

They may also have formed part of the food of the reptilian
animals whose remains occur with them. In illustration of
this I have elsewhere stated that I have found as many as
eleven unbroken shells of Fhysa heierostropha in the stomach
of a modern Menobianchus. I think it certain, however, that
both the shells and the reptiles occurring in these trees must
have been strictly terrestrial in their habits, as they could not
have found admission to the erect trees unless the ground had

THE OLDEST AIR-DREATIIERS 20^

been sufficiently dry to allow several feet of the imbedded
hollow trunks to be free from water. In the highest of the
three horizons the shells occurred in an erect tree, but without
any other fossils, and they had apparently been washed in
along with a greyish mud.^

If we exclude the alleged Palieorbis referred to below, all
the Palaeozoic Pulmonifera hitherto found are American.
Since, however, in the Carboniferous age, Batrachians, Arach-
nidans, Insects and Millipedes occur on both continents, it is
not unlikely that ere long European species of land snails will
be announced. The species hitherto found in Eastern
America are in every way strangely isolated. In the plant
beds of St. John, about 9,000 feet in thickness, and in the
coal formation of the South Joggins, more than 7,000 feet in
thickness, no other Gasteropods occur, nor, I believe, do any
occur in the beds holding land snails in Illinois. Nor, as
already stated,- are any of the aquatic Pulmonifera known in
the Palceozoic. Thus, in so far as at present known, these
Palreozoic snails are separated not only from any predecessors,
if there were any, or successors, but from any contemporary
animals allied to them.

It is probable that the land snails of the Erian and Carboni-
ferous were neither numerous nor important members of the
faunae of those periods. Had other species existed in any
considerable numbers, there is no reason why they should not
have been found in the erect trees, or in those shales which
contain land plants. More especially would the discovery of
any larger species, had they existed, been likely to have
occurred. Further, what we know of the vegetation of the
Palreozoic period would lead us to infer that it did not abound

' The discovery of the shells in this tree was made by Albeit I. Hill,
C.E. The tree is in Group XXVI. of Division 4 of my Joggins section.
Tlie original rcpliliferous trees aic in Ciroiip X V., and ihe lowest bed in
Groiip VIII.

294 THE OLDEST AIR BREATHERS

in those succulent and nutritious leaves and fruits which are
most congenial to land snails. It is to b^ observed, however,
that we know little as yet of the upland life of the Erian or
Carboniferous. The animal life of the drier parts of the low
country is indeed as yet very little known ; and but for the
revelations in this respect of the erect trees in one bed in the
coal formation of Nova Scotia, our knowledge of the land
snails and Millipedes, and also of an eminently terrestrial group
of reptiles, the Microsanria, would have been much more
imperfect than it is. We may hope for still further revelations
of this kind, and in the meantime it would be premature to
speculate as to the affinities of our little group of land snails
with animals either their contemporaries or belonging to
earlier or later formations, except to note the fact of the little
change of form or structure in this type of life in that vast
interval of time which separates the Erian period from the
present day.

It may be proper to mention here the alleged Pulmonifera
of the genus Palxorbis described by some German naturalists.
These I believe to be worm tubes of the genus Spirorbis, and
in fact to be nothing else than the common ^. carbonariiis or
S. piisillus of the coal formation. The history of this error
may be stated thus. The eminent palasobotanists Germar,
Goeppert and Geinitz have referred the Spirorbis, so common
in the Coal measures to the fungi, under the name Gyromyccs,
and in this they have been followed by other naturalists,
though as long ago as 1868 I had shown that this little
organism is not only a calcareous shell, attached by one side
to vegetable inatters and shells of mollusks, but that it has the
microscopic structure characteristic of modern shells of this
type.^ More recently Van Beneden, Ca^nius, and Goldenberg,
perceiving that the fossil is really a calcareous shell, but

' "Acadian Cleology,'" 2nd eilition, p. 205.

Carhonifekous Mii.i.irEDES, Xylohiits Sii^illaihc, Darwin (<i, <), an-l
Aichiuhis xylohioides, Sciulder (/').

Carbonifeuous Cockroach. — Blattina Bre/oiiciius, Sc.

Carboniferol's Scorpion. — Anthraconiartus Carbonariiis, abdominal
segments.

THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS 295

apparently unaware of the observations made in this country
by myself and Mr. Lesquereux, have held the Spirorhis to be a
pulmonate mollusk allied to Planorbis, and have supposed that
its presence on fossil jjlants is confirmatory of this view,
though the shells are attached by a flattened side to these
plants, and are also found attached to shells of bivalves of the
genus Ahiiadifes. ]\Ir. R. Etheridge, jun., of the Geological
Survey of Great Britain, has summed up the evidence as to the
true nature of these probably brackish-water shells, and has
revised and added to the species, in a series of articles in the
Geological Magazine of London, vol. viii.

The erect trees of Coal Mine Point are rich in remains of
Millipedes. The first of these {Xylobius Sigillan'cc), which was
the first known Palaeozoic Myriapod, was described by me
from specimens found in a tree extracted in 1852, and this,
V, ith a number of other remains subsequently found, was after-
wards placed in the hands of Ur. Scudder, who has recognised
in the material submitted to him eight species belonging to
three genera {Xylobius, Anhinlus, and Ainynilyspes). These
animals in all probability haunted these trees to feed on the
decaying wood and other vegetable matter, and were un-
doubtedly themselves the prey of the Microsaurians. Though
these were the earliest known, their discovery was followed by
that of many other species in Europe and America, and some
of them as old as the Devonian. ^

The only other remains of Air-breathers found in the erect
trees belong to Scorpions, of which some fragments remain in
such a state as to make it probable that they have been
partially devoured by the imprisoned reptiles. No remains of
any aquatic animals have been found in these trees. The

' The two first-named genera from the erect trees, according to Scudder,
belong to an extinct family of Millipedes, wliich he names Archiulid:e,
and places with other Carboniferous genera in the oviXcy Aic/iifoly/'odj.
Tlic tliird belongs to family luiphoberid.v. I'roc. R. S. of I.nndon, 1S92.

296 THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS

Scorpions are referred by Scudder to three species belonging
to two genera.^

In the previous paper we have considered the mode of
accumulation of Coal, and it may be useful here to note the
light thrown on this subject by the Air-breathers of the coal
formation and their mode of occurrence.

In no part of the world are the coal measures better
developed, or more fully exposed, than in the coast sections of
Nova Scotia and Cape Breton ; and in these, throughout their
whole thickness, no indication has been found of any of the
marine fossils of the Lower Carboniferous Limestone. Abun-
dant remains of fishes occur, but these may have frequented
estuaries, streams and ponds, and the greater part of them are
small ganoids which, like the modern Lepidostais and Ai/iia,
may have been specially fitted by their semi-reptilian respira-
tion, for the impure waters of swampy districts. Bivalve
moUusks also abound ; but these are all of the kinds to which
I have given the generic name Naiadifes, and Mr. Salter those
of Atithracomya and Anthracoptera. These shells are all
distinct from any known in the marine limestones. Their thin
edentulous valves, their structure consisting of a wrinkled
epidermis, a thin layer of prismatic shell and an inner layer of
imperfectly pearly shell, all remind us of the Anodons and
Unios. A slight notch in front concurs with their mode of
occurrence in rendering it probable that, like mussels in
modern estuaries, they attached themselves to floating or
sunken timber. They are thus removed, both in structure and
habit, from truly marine species ; and may have been fresh-
water or hra(M<ish-watcr mussels closch^ allied to modern
Unios.

The crustaceans {Eioypfents, D/p/osh/iis, Cyprids), and the

' Mazonia Acadica, and .i secoiul species of Mazonla, with fragments
of a lliird species generally distinct. Proceedings Royal Society of London,

THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS 297

worm shell (Spirorbis) found with them, are not necessarily
marine, though some of them belonged probably to brackish
water, and they have not yet been found in those carboniferous
beds deposited in the open sea. There is thus in the whole
thickness of the middle coal measures of Nova Scotia a
remarkable absence at least of open sea animals ; and if, as is
quite probable, the sea inundated at intervals the areas of coal
accumulation, the waters must have been shallow, and to a
great extent land-locked, so that brackish-water rather than
marine animals inhabited them.

On the other hand, there are in these coal measures
abundant evidences of land surfaces ; and subaerial decay of
vegetable matter in large quantity is proved by the occurrence
of the mineral charcoal of the coal itself, as I have elsewhere
shown. ^ The erect trees which occur at so many levels also
imply subaerial decay. A tree imbedded in sediment and
remaining under water, could not decay so as to become
hollow and deposit the remains of its wood in the state of
mineral charcoal within the hollow bark. Yet this is the case
with the greater part of the erect Sigillarias which occur at
more than twenty levels in the Joggins section. Nor could
such hollow trunks become repositories for millipedes, snails
and reptiles, if under water. On the other hand, if, as seems
necessary to explain the character of the reptiliferous erect
trees, these remained dry, or nearly so, in the interior, this
would imply not merely a soil out of water, but comparatively
well drained ; as would indeed always be the case, when a flat
resting on a sandy subsoil was raised several feet above the
level of the water. Further, though the peculiar character of
the roots of Sigillarice and Calamites may lend some counten-
ance to the supposition that they could grow under water, or in
water-soaked soils, this will not apply to coniferous trees, to

' Journal of Geological Survey, vo'. xv.

298 THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS

ferns, and other plants, which are found under circumstances
which show that they grew with the Sigiilarice.

In the coal measures of Nova Scotia, therefore, while marine
conditions are absent, there are ample evidences of fresh-water
or brackish-water conditions, and of land surfaces, suitable for
the air-breathing animals of the period. Nor do I believe that
the coal measures of Nova Scotia were exceptional in this
respect. It is true that in Great Britain evidences of marine
life do occur in the coal measures ; but not, so far as I am
aware, in circumstances which justify the inference that the
coal is of marine origin. Alternations of marine and land
remains, and even mixtures of these, are frequent in modern
submarine forests. When we find, as at Fort Lawrence in
Nova Scotia, a modern forest rooted in upland soil forty feet
below high-water mark,^ and covered with mud containing
living Tellinas and Myas, we are not justified in inferring that
this forest grew in the sea. ^^'e rather infer that subsidence
has occurred. In modern salt marshes it is not unusual to
find every little runnel or pool full of marine shell fish, while in
the higher parts of the marsh land plants are growing ; and
in such places the deposit formed must contain a mixture of
land plants and marine anim.als with salt grasses and herbage
— the whole in situ?

These considerations serve, I think, to explain all the
apparently anomalous associations of coal plants with marine
fossils ; and 1 do not know any other arguments of apparent
weight that can be adduced in favour of the marine or even

' Journal of Geological Society, vol. xi.

2 In the marshes at the mouth of Scarborough River, in Maine, channels
not more than a foot wide, and far from the sea, are full of Mussels and
Myte; and in little pools communicating with these channels there are
often many young Li/niili, which seem to prefer such places, and the cast-
off shells and other remains of which may become imbedded in mud and
mixed with land plants, just as in the shales of the coal measures.

THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS 299

aquatic origin of coal, except such as are based on misconcep-
tions of the structure and mode of growth of sigillaroid trees
and of the stratigraphical relations of the coal itself.^ It is to
be observed, however, that while I must maintain the essen-
tially terrestrial character of the ordinary coal and of its plants,
I have elsewhere admitted that cannel coals and earthy
bitumen present evidences of subaquatic deposition ; and
have also abundantly illustrated the facts that the coal plants
grew on swampy flats, liable not only to river inundations, but
also to subsidence and submergence.^ In the oscillation of
these conditions it is evident that Sigi//a>-!ce and their con-
temporaries must often have been placed in conditions un-
favourable or fatal to them, and when their remains are
preserved to us in these conditions, we may form very incorrect
inferences as to their mode of life. Further, it is to be
observed that the conditions of submergence and silting up
which were favourable to the preservation of specimens of
Sigillaricp as fossils, must have been precisely those which

' It is unfortunate that few writers on this subject have combined with
the knowledge of the geological features of the coal a sufficient acquaint-
ance with the phenomena of modern marshes and swamps, and with the
conditions necessary for the growth of plants such as those of the coal.
It would be easy to show, were this a proper place to do so, that the
" swells," " rock faults," splitting of beds, and other appearances of coal
seams quite accord with the tlieory of swamp accumulation ; that the
plants associated with SigiliaricB could not have lived with their roots
immersed in salt water ; that the chemical character of the underclays
implies drainage and other conditions impossible under the sea ; that the
composition and minute structure of the coal are incompatible with the
supposition that it is a deposit from water, and especially from salt water;
and that it would be more natural to invoke wind driftage as a mode of
accumulation for some of the sandstones, than water driftage for the forma-
tion of tlie coal. At the same tinve it is pretty certain that such beds as
the cannels and earthy bitumens which appear to consist of finely com-
minuted vegetable matter, without mineral charcoal, may have been de-
posits of muck in shallow lakes or lagoons.

" Journal of Ceol. Socy., vols. x. and xv. , and "Acadian Geology."

too THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS

were destructive to them as living plants ; and on the contrary,
that the conditions in which these forests may have flourished
for centuries must have been those in which there was little
chance of their remains being preserved to us, in any other
condition at least than that of coal, which reveals only to
careful microscopic examination the circumstances, whether
aerial or aquatic, under which it was formed.

It is also noticeable that, in conditions such as those of the
coal formation, it would be likely that some plants would be
specially adapted to occupy newly emerged flats and places
liable to inundation and silting up. I believe that many of the
Sigillarice, and still more eminently the Calamilcs, were suit-
able to such stations. There is direct evidence that the nuts
named Trigonocarpa were drifted extensively by water over
submerged flats of mud. Many Cardiocarpa were winged
seeds which may have drifted in the air. The Calamites may,
like modern Eqitiseta^ have produced spores with elaters cap-
able of floating them in the wind. One of the thinner coals
at the Joggins is filled with spores or spore cases that seem to
have carried hairs on their surfaces, and may have been suited
to such a mode of dissemination. I have elsewhere proved ^
that at least some species of Calamites were, by their mode of
growth, admirably fitted for growing amid accumulating sedi-
ment, and for promoting its accumulation.

The reptiles of the coal formation are [probably the oldest
known to us, and possibly, though this we cannot aftirm, the
highest products of creation in this period. Supposing, for
the moment, that they are the highest animals of their time,
and, what is perhaps less likely, that those which we know are a
fair average of the rest, we have the curious fact that they are
all carnivorous, and the greater part of them fitted to find food
in the water as well as on the land. 'J'he plant feeders of the
period, on the land at least, are all invertebrates, as snails,

* "Acadian Geology," chapter on Coal Plants.

THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS 30I

millipedes, and perhaps insects. The air-breathing vertebrates
are not intended to consume the exuberant vegetable growth,
but to check the increase of its animal enemies. Plant life
would thus seem to have had in every way the advantage.
The millipedes probably fed only on roots and decaying sub-
stances, the snails on the more juicy and succulent plants
growing in the shadow of the woods, and the great predomi-
nance of the family of cockroaches among carboniferous insects
points to similar conclusions as to that class. While, moreover,
the vegetation of the coal swamps was most abundant, it was
not, on the whole, of a character to lead us to suppose that it
supported many animals. Our knowledge of the flora of the
coal swamps is sufficiently complete to exclude from them any
abundance of the higher phaenogamous plants. We know
little, it is true, of the flora of the uplands of the period ; but
when we speak of the coal-formation land, it is to the flats only
that we refer. The foliage of the plants on these flats with the
exception of that of the ferns, was harsh and meagre, and there
seem to have been no grasses or other nutritious herbaceous
plants. These are wants of themselves likely to exclude many
of the higher forms of herbivorous life. On the other hand,
there was a profusion of large nut-like seeds, which in a modern
forest would probably have afforded subsistence to squirrels
and similar animals. The pith and thick soft bark of many of
the trees must at certain seasons have contained much nutri-
tive matter, while there was certainly sufficient material for all
those insects whose larvae feed on living and dead timber, as
well as for the creatures that in turn prey on them. It is re-
markable that there seem to have been no vertebrate animals
fitted to avail themselves of these vast stores of food. The
question : " What may have fed on all this vegetation ? " was
never absent from my mind in all my explorations of the Nova
Scotia coal sections ; but no trace of any creature other than
those already mentioned has ever rewarded my search. In

S. E. 2 2

302 THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS

Nova Scotia it would seem that a few snails, gally-worms, and
insects were the sole links of connection between the plant
creation and air-breathing vertebrates. Is this due to the
paucity of the fauna, or the imperfection of the record ? The
fact that a few erect stumps have revealed nearly all the air-
breathers yet found, argues strongly for the latter cause ; but
there are some facts bearing on the other side.

A gally-worm, if, like its modern relatives, hiding in crevices
of wood in forests, was one of the least likely animals to be
found in aqueous deposits. The erect trees gave it its almost
sole chance of preservation. Pupa vetiista is a small species,
and its shell very thin and fragile, while it probably lived among
thick vegetation. Further, the measures 2,000 feet thick,
separating the lowest and highest beds in which it occurs, in-
clude twenty-one coal seams, having an aggregate thickness of
about twenty feet, three beds of bituminous limestone of animal
origin, and perhaps twenty beds holding Stigfuaria in situ, or
erect Sigil/a?-i(e and Calamites. The lapse of time implied by
this succession of beds, many of them necessarily of very slow
deposition, must be very great, though it would be mere guess
work to attempt to resolve it into years. Yet long though this
interval must have been, Pupa vetusta lasted without one iota
of change through it all ; and, more remarkable still, was not
accompanied by more than two other species of its fomily.
Where so many specimens occur, and in situations so diverse,
without any additional species, the inference is strong that no
other of similar habits existed. If in any of those subtropical
islands, whose climate and productions somewhat resemble
those of the coal period, after searching in and about decaying
trees, and also on the bars upon which rivers and lakes drifted
their burdens of shells, we should find only three species, but
one of these in very great numbers, we would surely conclude
that other species, if present, were very rare.

Again, footprints referable io Dend re >pe to u, or similar animals,

THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS 303

occur in the lower Carboniferous beds below the marine lime-
stones, in the middle coal measures, and in the upper coal
formation, separated by a thickness of beds which may be
estimated at 15,000 feet, and certainly representing a vast lapse
of time. Did we know the creature by these impressions
alone, we might infer its continued existence for all this great
length of time; but when we also find its bones in the princi-
pal repositories of reptile remains, and in company with the
other creatures found with it, we satisfy ourselves that of them
all it was the most likely to have left its trail in the mud flats.
We thus have reason to conclude that it existed alone during
this period, in so far as its especial kind of habitat was con-
cerned ; though there lived with it other reptiles, some of
which, haunting principally the woods, and others the water,
were less likely to leave impressions of their footprints. These
may be but slight indications of truth, but they convey strong
impressions of the persistence of species, and also of the pau-
city of species belonging to these tribes at the time.

If we could affirm that the Air-breathers of the coal period
were really the first species of their families, they might acquire
additional interest by their bearing on this question of origin
of species. We cannot affirm this ; but it may be a harmless
and not uninstructive play of fancy to suppose for a moment
that they actually are so, and to inquire on this supposition as
to the mode of their introduction. Looking at them from this
point of view, we shall first be struck with the fact that they
belong to all of the three great leading types of animals which
include our modern Air-breathers — the Vertebrates, the Arthro-
pods, and the IMollusks. We have besides to consider in this
connection that the breathing organs of an insect are air tubes
opening laterally (trachere), those of a land snail merely a
modification of the chamber which in marine species holds the
gills, while those of the reptiles represent the air bladder of the
fishes. Thus, in the three groups the breathing organs are

304 THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS

quite distinct in their nature and affinities. This at once ex-
cludes the supposition that they can all have been derived from
each other within the limits of the coal period. No transmu-
tationist can have the hardihood to assert the convertibility, by
any direct method, of a snail into a millipede or an insect, or
of either into a reptile. The plan of structure in these crea-
tures is not only different, but contrasted in its most essential
features. It would be far more natural to suppose that these
animals sprang from aquatic species of their respective types.
We should then seek for the ancestors of the snail in aquatic
Gasteropods, for those of the millipede in worms or Crustaceans,
and for those of the reptiles in the fishes of the period. It
would be easy to build up an imaginary series of stages, on
the principle of natural selection, whereby these results might
be effected ; but the hypothesis would be destitute of any sup-
port from fact, and would be beset by more difficulties than it
removes. Why should the result of the transformation of
water snails breathing by gills be a Pupa 1 Would it not much
more likely be an Auricula or a Limnca ? It will not solve
this difficulty to say that the intermediate forms became ex-
tinct, and so are lost. On the contrary, they exist to this day,
though they were not, in so far as we know, introduced so
early. But negative evidence must not be relied on ; the
record is very imperfect, and such creatures may have existed,
though unknown to us. It may be answered that they could
not have existed in any considerable numbers, else some of
their shells would have appeared in the coal-formation beds, so
rich in crustaceans and bivalve moUusks. Further, the little
Pupa remained unchanged during a very long time, and shows
no tendency to resolve itself into anything higher, or to descend
to anything lower, while in the lowest bed in which it occurs
it is associated with a round snail of quite different type.
Here, if anywhere, in what appears to be the first introduction
of air-breithing invertebrates, we should be able to find the

THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS 305

evidences of transition from the gills of the Prosobranchiate
and the Crustacean to the air sac of the Pulmonate and the
tracheae of the millipede. It is also to be observed that many
other structural changes are involved, the aggregate of which
makes a Pulmonate or a millipede different in every particular
from its nearest allies among gill-bearing Gasteropods or
Crustaceans.

It may be said, however, that the links of connection be-
tween the coal reptiles and fishes are better established. All
the known coal reptiles have leanings to the fishes in certain
characters ; and in some, as in Anhegosaurus, these are very
close. Still the interval to be bridged over is wide, and the
differences are by no means those which we should expect.
\\'ere the problem given to convert a ganoid fish into an
A>r/iegvsai/riis or Deiidrerpeton, we should be disposed to
retain unchanged such characters as would be suited to the
new habits of the creature, and to change only those directly
related to the objects in view. We should probably give little
attention to differences in the arrangement of skull bones, in
the parts of the vertebra, in the external clothing, in the micro-
scopic structure of the bone, and other peculiarities for serving
similar purposes by organs on a different plan, which are so
conspicuous so soon as we pass from the fish to the Batrachian.
It is not, in short, an improvement of the organs of the fish that
we witness so much as the introduction of new organs.^ The
foot of the batrachian bears, perhaps, as close a relation to the
fin of the fish as the screw of one steamship to the paddle
wheel of another, or as the latter to a carriage wheel ; and can
be just as rationally supposed to be not a new instrument, but
the old one changed. In this connection even a footprint in
the sand startles us as much as that of Friday did Robinson

^ An ingenious attempt by Prof. Cope, to deduce the batrachian foot
from the fins of certain carboniferous fishes, will be found in the Froceed-
iiigs of the Philos. Academy of Philadelpliia for the present year.

306 THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS

Crusoe. We see five fingers and toes, and ask how this
numerical arrangement started at once from fin rays of fishes
all over the world ; and how it has continued unchanged till
now, when it forms the basis of our decimal arithmetic.

Again, our reptiles of the coal do not constitute a continuous
series, and belong to a great number of distinct genera and
families, nor is it possible that they can all, except at widely
different times, have originated from the same source. It
either happened, for some unknown reason, that many kinds of
fishes put on the reptilian guise in the same period, or else the
vast lapse of ages required for the production of a reptile from
a fish must be indefinitely increased for the production of many
dissimilar reptiles from each other; or, on the other hand, we
must suppose that the limit between the fish and reptile being
once overpassed, a facility for comparatively rapid changes
became the property of the latter. Either supposition would,
I think, contradict such facts bearing on the subject as are
known to us.

We commenced with supposing that the rejitiles of the Coal
might possibly be the first of their fiiniily, but it is evident
from the above considerations, that on the doctrine of natural
selection, the number and variety of reptiles in this period
would imply that their predecessors in this fi)rni must have
existed from a time as early as any in which even fishes are
known to exist ; so that if we adopt any hypothesis of deriva-
tion, it would probably be necessary to have recourse to that
which supposes at particular periods a sudden and as yet un-
accountable transmutation of one form into another; a view
whi(-h, in its remoteness from anything includeil under ordinary
natural laws, does not materially differ from that currently re-
ceived idea of creative intervention, with whith, in so far as
our coal repfiles can inform us, we are for the present satisfied.

There is one other point which strikes the naturalist in con-
sidering these animals, and whicli has a certain bearing on such

THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS 307

hypothesis. It is the combination of various grades of reptihan
types in these ancient creatures. It has been well remarked
by Hugh Miller, and more fully by Agassiz, that this is charac-
teristic of the first appearance of new groups of animals. Now
selection, as it acts in the hands of the breeder, tends to
specialization ; and natural selection, if there is such a thing, is
supposed to tend in the same direction. But when some dis-
tinctly new form is to be introduced, an opposite tendency
seems to prevail, a sort of aggregation in one species of char-
acters afterward to be separated and manifested in distinct
groups of creatures. The introduction of such new types also
tends to degrade and deprive of their higher properties pre-
viously existing groups of lower rank. It is easy to perceive in
all this, law and order, in that higher sense in which these
terms express the will and plan of the Supreme Mind, but not
in that lower sense in which they represent the insensate
operation of blind natural forces.

Refekexcls : — " Air-bieathurs of the Coal rciiod."' Montreal, 1S86.
Papers on Reptiles, etc., in South Joggins Coal Field, Journal 0/
Geological Society of London, vols. ix. x. xi. xvi. Remains of Ani-
mals in Erect Trees in the Coal Formation of Nova Scolia, Trans.
Koyal Society, 1881. "Acadian Geology," fourth edition, 1891. Re-
vision of Land Snails of the Pahcozoic Era, Am. Journal of Science,
vol. XX., 1880. Supplementary Report to Royal Society of London,
Proceedings, 1S92. Notice of additional Reptilian Remains, Geo-
logical Magazine of London, 1891.

MARKINGS. FOOTPRINTS AND FUCOIDS.

DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF THE LATE

DR. J. J. BIGSBY, F.R.S.,

OF LONDON,

The painstaking and accukate Author

OF THE Thesaurus Siluricus and Devonico-Carbomferus,

A warm and kind Friend and Christian Gentleman

and one ok the

Pioneers of Canadian Geology.

Reminiscences of Lvei.l"s Work — Tidal Flats of the
Bay of Funuv— -Rill Marks and Shrinkage Cracks
— Worm Trails and Burrows — The Paces of Limu-
lus — FucoiDS versus Trails — Footprints of ^'ER-
tebrates

os";- i:'W\\< ^|^mH,\ \

}'

^ ^

5n

r

t

7

S ' '

\

i

~ !•■

\

.'\.

\

Track of Limulus. — Modern, Oichaid Beach.
Showing its resemblance to the Protechnites of the Cambrian. (Tage 320.)

CHAPTER XI.
MARKINGS, FOOTPRINTS AND FUCOIDS.

I BELIEVE my attention was first directed to the markings
made by animals on the surfaces of rocks, when travelling
with the late Sir Charles Lyell in Nova Scotia, in 1842. He
noticed with the greatest interest the trails of worms, insects,
and various other creatures, and the footprints of birds on the
surface of the soft red tidal mud of the Bay of Fundy, and
subsequently published his notes on the various markings in
these deposits in his "Travels in North America," and in a paper
presented to the Geological Society of London. I well re-
member how, in walking along the edge of the muddy shore,
he stopped to watch the efforts of a grasshopper that had
leaped into the soft ooze, and was painfully making a most
complicated trail in his effort to escape. Sir Charles re-
marked that if it had been so fortunate as to make these
strange and complicated tracks on some old formation now
hardened into stone and buried in the earth, it might have
given occasion to much learned discussion.

At a later period I found myself perplexed in the study of
fossil plants by the evident errors of many palaeobotanists un-
acquainted with modern markings on shores, in referring all
kinds of mere markings to the vegetable kingdom, and espe-
cially to the group of fucoids or seaweeds, which had become
a refuge for destitute objects not referable to other kinds of
fossils. It thus became necessary to collect and study these
objects, as they existed in rocks of different ages, and to com-

312 MARKINGS, FOOTPRINTS AND FUCOIDS

pare them with the examples afforded by the modern beach ;
and perhaps no locaUty could have afforded better opportuni-
ties for this than the immense tidal flats of the finest mud left
bare by the great tides of the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia.
At a more recent period still, the subject has come into great
prominence in Europe, and if we are to gauge its importance
by the magnitude of the costly illustrated works devoted to it
by Delgado, Saporta, Nathorst, and others, and the multitude
of scattered papers in scientific periodicals, we should regard
it as one of the most salient points in Geology.^

It may be well further to introduce the subject by a few
extracts from Lyell's work above referred to.

"The sediment with which the waters are charged is ex-
tremely fine, being derived from the destruction of cliffs of red
sandstone and shale, belonging chiefly to the coal measures.
On the borders of even the smallest estuaries communicating
with a bay, in which the tides rise sixty feet and upwards,
large areas are laid dry for nearly a fortnight between the
spring and neap tides, and the mud is then baked in summer
by a hot sun, so that it becomes solidified and traversed by
cracks caused by shrinkage. Portions of the hardened mud
may then be taken up and removed without injury. On ex-
amining the edges of each slab we observe numerous layers,
formed by successive tides, usually very thin, sometimes only
one-tenth of an inch thick, of unequal thickness, however,
because, according to Dr. ^\'ebster, the night tides rising a
foot higher than the day tides throw down more sediment.
When a shower of rain falls, the highest portion of the mud-
covered flat is usually too hard to receive any impressions ;
while that recently uncovered by the tide, near the water's
edge, is too soft. Between these areas a zone occurs almost
as smooth and even as a looking-glass, on which every drop
forms a cavity of circular or oval form ; and if the shower be
^ Journal of Londo)! dologiial Society, \o\. vii. p. 239.

MARKINGS, FOOTPRINTS AND FUCOIDS 313

transient, these pits retain their shape permanently, being dried
by the sun, and being then too firm to be effaced by the
action of the succeeding tide, which deposits upon them a new
layer of mud. Hence we find, on splitting open a slab an
inch or more thick, on the upper surface of which the marks
of recent rain occur, that an inferior layer, deposited perhaps
ten or fourteen tides previously, exhibits on its under surfiice
perfect casts of rain prints which stand out in relief, the moulds
of the same being seen in the layer below."

After mentioning that a continued shower of rain obliterates
the more regular impressions, and produces merely a blistered
or uneven surface, and describing minutely the characteristics
of true rain marks in their most perfect state, Sir Charles
adds : —

"On some of the specimens the winding tubular tracks of
worms are seen, which have been bored just beneath the
surface. Sometimes the worms have dived beneath the sur-
face, and then re-appeared. Occasionally the same mud is
traversed by the footprints of birds {Tringa mhnifa), and of
musk-rats, minks, dogs, sheep and cats. The leaves also of
the elm, maple and oak trees have been scattered by the
winds over the soft mud, and having been buried under the
deposits of succeeding tides, are found on dividing the layers.
When the leaves themselves are removed, very faithful im-
pressions, not only of their outline, but of their minutest veins,
are left imprinted on the clay."

This is a minor illustration of that application of recent
causes to explain ancient effects of which the great English
geologist was the apostle and advocate, and which he so
admirably practised in his own work. It is also an illustration
of the fact that things the most perishable and evanescent
may, when buried in the crust of the earth, become its most
durable monuments. Footprints in the sand of the tidal shore
are in the ordinary course of events certain to be obliterated

314 MARKINGS, FOOTPRINTS AND FUCOIDS

by the next tide ; but when carefully filled up by gently de-
posited new material, and hardened into stone, there is no limit
to their duration.

Let us inquire how this may take place, and the tidal flats
of the Bay of Fundy and Basin of Minas may supply us with
the information desired. In the upper parts of the Bay of
Fundy and its estuaries the rise and fall of tide, as is well
known, are excessive. I quote the following description of
the appearance they present from a work of earlier date : —

" The tide wave that sweeps to the north-east, along the
Atlantic coast of the United States, entering the funnel-like
mouth of the Bay of Fundy, becomes compressed and elevated,
as the sides of the bay gradually approach each other, until in
the narrower parts the water runs at the rate of six or seven
miles per hour, and the vertical rise of the tide amounts to
sixty feet or more. In Cobequid and Chiegnecto Bays these
tides, to an unaccustomed spectator, have rather the aspect of
some rare convulsion of nature than of an ordinary daily
phenomenon. At low tide wide flats of broNyn mud are seen
to extend for miles, as if the sea had altogether retired from
its bed ; and the distant channel appears as a mere strip of
muddy water. At the commencement of flood a slight ripple
is seen to break over the edge of the flats. It rushes swiftly
forward, and, covering the lower flats almost instantaneously,
gains rapidly on the higher swells of mud, which appear as if
they were being dissolved in the turbid waters. At the same
time the torrent of red water enters all the channels, creeks
and estuaries ; surging, whirling, and foaming, and often having
in its front a white, breaking wave, or ' bore,' which runs
steadily forward, meeting and swallowing up the remains of
the ebb still trickling down the channels. The mud flats are
soon covered; and then, as the stranger sees the water gaining
with noiseless and steady rapidity on the steep sides of banks
and cliffs, a sense of insecurity creeps over him, as if no limit

MARKINGS, FOOTPRINTS AND FUCOIDS 315

could be set to the advancing deluge. In a little time, how-
ever, he sees that the fiat, ' Hitherto shalt thou come, and no
farther,' has been issued to the great bay tide : its retreat com-
mences, and the waters rush back as rapidly as they entered.

" The rising tide sweeps away the fine material from every
exposed bank and cliff, and becomes loaded with mud and
extremely fine sand, which, as it stagnates at high water, it
deposits in a thin layer on the surface of the flats. This layer,
which may vary in thickness from a quarter of an inch to a
quarter of a line, is coarser and thicker at the outer edge of
the flats than nearer the shore ; and hence these flats, as well
as the marshes, are usually higher near the channels than at
their inner edge. From the same cause, — the more rapid de-
position of the coarser sediment, — the lower side of each layer
is arenaceous, and sometimes dotted over with films of mica,
while the upper side is fine and slimy, and when dry has a
shining and polished surface. The falling tide has little effect
on these deposits, and hence the gradual growth of the flats,
until they reach such a height that they can be overflowed only
by the high spring tides. They then become natural or salt
marsh, covered with the coarse grasses and carices which grow
in such places. So far the process is carried on by the hand
of nature ; and before the colonization of Nova Scotia, there
were large tracts of this grassy alluvium to excite the wonder
and delight of the first settlers on the shores of the Bay of
Fundy. Man, however, carries the land - making process
farther; and by diking and draining, excludes the sea water,
and produces a soil capable of yielding for an indefinite period,
without manure, the most valuable cultivated grains and
grasses."

The mud of these great tidal flats is at the surface of a red
colour, and so fine that when the tide leaves it and its surface
becomes dry, it shines in the sun as if polished. It is thus
capable of taking the finest impressions. When the tide is in,

S. E. 23

3l6 MARKINGS, FOOTPRINTS AND FUCOIDS

numerous small fish of various species occupy the ground and
may leave marks of their fins and tails as they gambol or seek
their food. Shell fishes, worms, and Crustaceans scramble
over the same surface, or make burrows in it. As the tide
recedes flocks of sandpipers and crows follow it down, and
leave an infinity of footprints, and even quadrupeds like the
domestic hog go far out at low water in search of food. It is
said that in some parts of the Bay the hogs are so assiduous
in this pursuit that they even awake and go out on the flats in
the night tide, and that they have so learned to dread the
dangers of the flood, that when in the darkness they hear the
dull sound of the approaching bore, they squeal with fear and
rush madly for the shore.

If we examine it minutely, we shall find that the tidal de-
posit is laminated. The tidal water is red and muddy, and
holds in suspension sediment of various degrees of coarseness.
This, undergoes a certain process of levigation. In the first
run of the flood the coarser material falls to the bottom. As
its force diminishes the finer material is deposited, and at full
tide, when the current has ceased, the finest of all settles,
forming a delicate coat of the purest and most tenacious clay.
Thus, if a block of the material is taken up and allowed to
dry, it tends to separate into thin laminae, each of which re-
presents a tide, and is somewhat sandy below, and passes into
the finest moulding clay above. The tracks and impressions
preserved are naturally made on the last or finest deposit, and
filled in with the coarser or more sandy of the next tide. But
this may take place in difi"erent ways. Impressions made
under water at flood tide, or on the surface left bare by the
ebb, may in favourable localities be sufiiciently tenacious or
firm to resist the abrading action of the flood, and may thus
be covered and preserved by the next layer, and in this way
they may be seen on splitting up a block of the dried mud.
But in shallow places and near the shore, where the deposit

MARKINGS, FOOTPRINTS AND FUCOIDS 317

has time to consolidate and become dried by the sun and air
before the next tide, much better impressions are preserved ;
and lastly, on those parts of the shore which are reached only
by the spring tides, the mud of the highest tide of course may
have several days to harden before the next tide reaches it,
and in this case it becomes cracked by an infinity of shrinkage
cracks, which, when it is next covered with the tide, are filled
with new sediment. In this way is produced in great perfec-
tion that combination of footprints, or even of impressions of
rain, with casts of cracks, which is so often seen in the older
rocks. Where on the sides of channels or near the shore the
mud has a considerable slope, another and very curious effect
results. As the tide ebbs the water drains off the surface, or
oozing out of the wet sand and mud, forms at the top of the
bank minute grooves often no larger than fine threads. These
coalesce and form small channels, and these, again, larger ones,
till at low tide the whole sloping surface is seen to be covered
with a smooth and beautiful tracery resembling the rivers on
a map, or the impressions of the trunks and branches of trees,
or the fronds of gigantic seaweeds. These " rill marks," as
they have been called, are found in great abundance in the
coal formation and triassic sandstones and shales, and I am
sorry to say, have often been named and described as Fucoids,
and illustrated by sumptuous plates. Sometimes these im-
pressions are so fine as to resemble the venation of leaves,
sometimes so large as to simulate trees, and I have even seen
them complicated with shrinkage cracks, the edges of which
were minutely crenulated by little rills running into them from
the surface.

It is further to be noticed that all these markings and im-
pressions on tidal shores may, when covered by succeeding
deposits, appear either in intaglio or relief. On the upper
surface they are of course sunken, but on the lower surface of
the bed deposited on them they are in relief. It often happens

3l8 MARKINGS, FOOTPRINTS AND FL'COIDS

also that these casts in relief are the best preserved. This
arises from the fact that the original moulds or impressions
are usually made in clay, whereas the filling material is sandy,
and the latter, infiltrated with calcareous or siliceous matter,
may become a hard sandstone, while the clay may remain a
comparatively soft shale. This tendency of casts rather than
of moulds to be preserved sometimes produces puzzling effects.
A cylindrical or branching trail thus often assumes the appear-
ance of a stem, and any pits or marginal impressions assume
the form of projections or leaves, and thus a trail of a worm
or Gastropod or a rill mark may easily simulate a plant. It is
to be observed, however, that these prominent casts are on
the under side of the beds, that their material is continuous
with that of the beds to which they belong, and that they are
destitute of any carbonaceous matter. There are, however,
cases where markings may be in relief, even on the upper
surfaces of beds. The following are illustrations of this. Just
as a man walking in newly fallen snow compresses it under his
feet, and if the snow be afterwards drifted away or melted
away by the sun, the compressed part resists longest, and may
appear as a raised footmark, so tracks made on soft material
may consolidate it so that if the soft mud be afterwards washed
away the tracks may remain projecting. Again, worms eject
earthy matter from their burrows, forming mounds, patches or
raised ridges of various forms on the surface, and some animals
burrow immediately under the surface, pushing up the mud
over them into a ridge, while others pile up over their bodies
pellets of clay, forming an archway or tunnel as they go.
Zeiller has shown that the mole cricket forms curious roofed
trails of this kind, and it seems certain that Crustaceans and
marine worms of different kinds execute similar works, and
that their roofed burrows, either entire or fallen in, produce
curious imitations of branches of plants.

The great and multiform army of the sea worms is indeed

MARKINGS, FOOTPRINTS AND FUCOIDS 319

the most prolific source of markings on sea-formed rocks.
Sometimes they cover very large surfaces of these, or penetrate
the beds as perforations, with tortuous furrows, or holes per-
fectly simple, or marked with little stride made by bristles or
minute feet, sometimes with a fringe of little footmarks at
each side, sometimes with transverse furrows indicating the
joints of the animal's body. Multitudes of these markings
have been described and named either as plants or as worm-
tracks. Again, these creatures execute subterranean burrows,
sometimes vertical, sometimes tortuous. These are often
mere cylindrical holes afterwards filled with sand, but some-
times they have been lined with a membranous tube, or with
the rejectamenta of the food of the animals, or with little
fragments of organic matter cemented together. Sometimes
they open on the surface as simple apertures, but again they
may be surrounded with heaps of castings, sometimes spiral
in form, or with dumps of sand produced in their excavation,
and which may assume various forms, according to circum-
stances. Sometimes the aperture is double, so that they seem
to be in pairs. Sometimes, for the convenience of the animal,
the aperture is widened into the form of a funnel, and some-
times the creature, by extending its body and drawing it in,
surrounds its burrow with a series of radiating tracks simulat-
ing the form of a starfish or sea anemone, or of the diverging
branches of a plant.

Creatures of higher grade, provided with jointed limbs,
naturally make their actions known in more complicated ways.
Some years ago I had the pleasure of spending a few weeks
at the favourite sea-side resort of Orchard Beach on the New
England coast, and there made my first acquaintance with that
very ancient and curious creature the Limulus, or Horse-shoe
Crab, or King-crab, as it is sometimes called. Orchard Beach
is, I presume, near its northern range on our coast, and the
specimens seen were not very large in size, though by no means

3-0 MARKINGS, FOOTPRINTS AND FUCOIDS

rar^ and noc fnfreqnentLy cast on shore in storms. But the
best fiicilities for studying their habits were found in a marsh
aE no great distance from the hoteL where there were numerous
rhannelss, ditches and little ponds filled with sea water at high
tide. In these were multitudes of young T.imuli, varying firom
an inch to three or four inches in breadth, and though many
were dead or merely cast shells, it was easy to take young
specimens with a hnding net. A number of these were se-
cured, and I made it my busines for some rime to study their
habits and mode of life, and especially the tracks which they
made in sand or mud.

The King-crabj viewed from above, consists ot three parts.

The antarior shi^dd or carapace is semi-circular in form, with

rs or projecting points at the angles, raised in the

— .md sloping down to a smooth or moderately sharp

edge ra fixtnt- The eyes are set like windows in this shield.
Two large ones at the sides, which are compound eyes con-
ssting of numerous ocelli or little eyes, and two microscopic
oo^ in front, at the base of a little spine, which are simple.
The second : - ' ~ -al part is also in one piece, somewhat
quadrate in :"; : ridges and serratiires at the sides armed

with spines, and which may be said to simulate the separate
- ' ' '- the abdomen of an ordinary Crastacean is
^ : . - : --"d part is a long tail spine, triangular in cross
section, sharply pointed, and so jointed to the posterior end
of the abdomen that it can be freely moved in any direction
as a bayonet-like weapon of defence. "When unable to escape
&«MQ an enetny it is the habit of the creature to double itself
up by be- i'- z ''- : " ' : " " :a against the carapace, and erecting
the shar . . —lih fixed bayonet it awaits attack,

like the kneeimg soldier in froat of a square.

r :' '-•- :-— ;r shield, which is thin and papery in the

jiomy in the adult, are the numerous limbs
-ta:ure. wirfi which we are at present most concerned

MARKINGS, FOOTPRINTS, AND FUCOIDS 32 1

Under the carapace are several pairs of jointed limbs differing
in size and form. The two anterior are small and peculiarly
formed claws, used apparently in manipulating the food. The
four next are larger in size, and are walking feet, each furnished
with two sharp points which form a pincer for holding. The
last pair is much larger and stronger than any of the others, and
armed not only ^yith a pair of pincers, but with four blunt nail-
like points. Under the abdomen are flat swimming feet, as they
have been called, each composed of a broad plate notched and
divided in the middle. When at rest these lie flat on each
other, but they can be flapped back and forth at the will of the
animal.

Let us now see what use the creature can make of these
numerous and varied pedal appendages, and for distinctness'
sake we shall call the anterior set thoracic and the posterior
abdominal. When placed in shallow water on fine sand it
walked slowly forward, and its tracks then consisted of a
number of punctures on the sand in two lines. If, however, the
water was very shallow or the sand very soft or inclined upward
the two edges of the carapace touched the bottom, making a
slight furrow at each side ; and if the tail was trailed on the
bottom, this made a third or central furrow. When climbing a
slope, or when placed at the edge of the water, it adopted
another mode of locomotion, pushing with great force with its
two posterior limbs, and thus moving forward by jerks. It
then made four deep marks with the toes of each hind limb,
and more or less interrupted marks with the edges of the cara-
pace and the tail. In these circumstances the marks were al-
most exactly like those of some forms of the Protichnites of the
Potsdam sandstone. When in sufficiently deep water and de-
sirous to escape, it flapped its abdominal feet, and then swam
or glided close to the bottom. In this case, when moving near
the soft bottom, it produced a series of transverse ridges and
furrows like small ripple marks, with a slight ridge in the middle.

5--^

MARKING?, FOOTPRINTS AND FUCOIDS

and sometimes, when the edges of the carapace touched the
bottom, with lateral furrows. In this way the animals were
able to swim with some ease and rapidity, and on one occasion
I observed an individual, confined in a tub of water, raise itself
from the bottom and swim around the tub at the surface in
search of a way of escape. Lastly, the young Limuli were fond
of hiding themselves by burrowing in the sand. They did this
by pushing the anterior rounded end of the carapace under the
sand, and then vigorously shoveUing out the material from below
with their feet, so that they gradually sank under the surface,
and the sand flowed in upon them till they were entirely covered.
If carefully removed from the hollow they had made, this was
found to be ovoid or hoof shaped in form and bilobed, not un-
like the curious hollows {Riisophycus Grenvillensis of Billings)
which I have supposed to be burrows of Trilobites.

I thus found that the common King-crab could produce a
considerable variety of tracks and burrows comparable with
those which have been named Protichnites, Climactichnites,
Bilobites, Cruziana, Rusichnites, etc. ; and that the kind of
markings depended partly on the differences of gait in the
animal, and partly on the circumstances in which it was placed ;
so that different kinds of tracks do not always prove diversity
in the animals producing them.

The interest of this investigation as applied to Limulus is
increased by the fact that this creature is the near ally of
Trilobites, Eurypterids and other Crustaceans which were
abundant in the earlier geological ages, and whose footprints
are probably among the most common we find on the rocks.

Lastly, on this part of the subject, it is to be observed that
many other marine animals, both crustaceans and worms, make
impressions resembling in general character those of Limulus.
In addition to those already mentioned, Nathorst and Bureau
have shown that various kinds of shrimps and lobster-like
Crustaceans, when swimming rapidly by successive strokes ot

Ru-siciiNiTES Grenvii.lensis, Uillings— a " IJilobiu
Probably the Cast of a Crustacean bunow .

MARKINGS, FOOTPRINTS AND FUCOIDS 323

the tail, make double furrows with transverse ridges resembling
those of Bilobites, and there are even some moUusks which by
the undulations of the foot or the hook-like action of its an-
terior part, can make similar trails. A question arises here as
to the value of such things as fossils. This depends on the fact
that many creatures have left their marks on the rocks when
still soft on the sea bottom, of which we have no other indica-
tions, and it also depends on our ability to understand the
import of these unconscious hieroglyphics. They will certainly
be of little use to us so long as we persist in regarding them as
vegetable forms, and until we have very carefully studied all
kinds of modern markings. ^ Nor does it seem of much use to
assign to them specific names. The same trail often changes
from one so-called species, or even genus, to another in tracing
it along, and the same animal may in different circumstances
make very different kinds of tracks. There will eventually,
perhaps, arise some general kind of nomenclature for these
markings under a separate sub-science of Ichnology or the doc-
trine of Footprints.

I have said nothing of true Algs or seaweeds, of which there
are many fossil species known to us by their forms, and also
by the carbonaceous or pyritous matter, or discharge of colour
from the matrix, which furnishes evidence of the presence
of organic material ; nor of the marks and trails left by sea-
weeds and land plants drifting in currents, some of which are
very curious and fantastic ; nor of those singular trails referred
to the arms of cuttlefishes and the fins of fishes, or to sea
jellies and starfishes. These might form n-saterials for a
treatise. My object here is merely to indicate the mode of
dealing with such things, and the kind of information to be
derived from them.

When we come to the consideration of actual footprints of

^ Geologists are greatly indebted to Dr. Nathorst of Stockholm for his
]iainstal<ing researches of tliis kind.

324 MARKINGS, FOOTPRINTS AND FUCOIDS

vertebrate animals having limbs, the information we can obtain
is of a far more definite character. This has already been re-
ferred to in treating of the first Air-breathers in a previous
chapter. One very curious example we may close with. It is
that of the celebrated " bird tracks " of the sandstone quarries
in the Trias of Connecticut and Massachusetts. These tracks,
of immense size, as much as eighteen inches in length, and so
arranged as to indicate the stride of a long-legged biped, were
naturally referred to gigantic birds, allied to modern waders.
But when it was found that some of them showed a central
furrow indicating a long tail trailing behind, this conclusion was
shaken, and when in tracing them along, places were found
where the animal had sat down on its haunches and the end of
its tail, and had brought down to the ground a pair of small fore
feet with four or five fingers, it was discovered that we had to
deal with biped reptiles ; and when the tracks were correlated
with the bones of the extinct reptiles known as Dinosaurs, we
found ourselves in the presence of a group of the most strange
and portentous reptilian forms that the earth has ever known.
Marsh has been enabled, by nearly perfect skeletons of some
allied reptilian bipeds found in the West, to reproduce them
in their exact forms and proportions, so that we can realize in
imagination their aspect, their gait, and their gigantic propor-
tions. Examples of this putting together of footprints and
osseous remains of vertebrate animals are not rare in the
history of geology, and show us how the monsters of the
ancient world, equally with their human successors, could leave
"footprints on the sands of time."

The Dinosaurs which have left their footprints on the sand-
stones of Connecticut and Massachusetts are, however, greatly
more numerous than those known to us by osseous remains.
Thus footprints have the further use of filling up the imperfec-
tions of our geological record, or at least of pointing out gaps
which but for them we might not have suspected. The re-

MARKINGS, FOOTPRINTS AND FUCOIDS 325

markable inferences of Matthew already referred to, respecting
cuttlefishes in the Cambrian period, constitute a case in point.
Footprints of Batrachians in the Carboniferous rocks were known
before their bones. The strange hand-like tracks in the Trias
were known before we knew the Labyrinthodon that produced
them. We are still ignorant of the animals whose tracks in the
old Potsdam sandstones we name Protichnites.

Referen'CES : — On Rusichnites (a form of Bilobite), Canadian Naturalist,
1864. On Footprints of Limulus compared with Protichnites, etc.
IbiJ. On Footprints and Impressions of Aquatic Animals and Imita-
tive Markings, Amer. Journal of Science, 1873. On Burrows and
Tracks of Invertebrate Animals, Quarterly Journal of Geological
Society, 1890. On Footprints of Carboniferous Batrachians. "Acadian
Geology," "Air-breathers of the Coal Period," etc.

PRE-DETERMINATION IN NATURE.

DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF

ELKANAH BILLINGS,

First PALiEONTOLOGIST OF

THE Geological Survey of Canada,

WHO LAID THE FOUNDATIONS OF OUR KNOWLEDGE
OF THE INVERTEBRATE FOSSILS OK CANADA.

Fixity of Laws and Properties of Energy and Matter
— Permanence of Continents and Oceans — The
Permanent and the Changeable - Permanence of
Animal and Vegetable Forms and Structures —
Principles of Construction in the Parts of Trilo-
bites— In the Skeletons of Sponges — In Early
Vertebrates — In Plants — Laws of Fixity and
Diversity

S. E.

24

Restoration oi-" PROTOsroNc.iA Tetranema. — Quebec group;

Gilui-u-Canibrian, Lilllc Metis (p. 335).

CHAPTER XII.
P RE-DETERMINATION IN NATURE.

THE natural prejudice of persons not acquainted with
geology is that in the world all things continue as they
were from the beginning. But a little observation and experi-
ence dispels this delusion, and perhaps replaces it with an
opposite error. When our minds have been familiarized with
the continuous processes by which vaporous nebulce may be
differentiated into distinct planets, and these may be slowly
cooled from an incandescent state till their surfaces become
resolved into areas of land and water ; and still more, when
we contemplate the grand procession of forms of life from the
earliest animals and plants to man and his contemporaries, we
become converts to the doctrine that all things are in a per-
petual flux, and that every succeeding day sees them different
from what they were the day before. In this state of mind the
scientific student is apt to overlook the fact that there are
many things which remain the same through all the ages, or
which, once settled, admit of no change. I do not here refer
to those fundamental properties of matter and forces and laws
of nature which form the basis of uniformitarianism in geology,
but to determinations and arrangements which might easily
have been quite different from what they are, but which, once
settled, seem to remain for ever.

We have already considered the great fact that the nuclei
and ribs of the continental masses were laid down as foundations
in the earliest periods, and have been built upon by determi-

330 rRE-DETERMINATION IX NATURE

nate additions, more especially upon their edges and their
hollows, so that while there has been a constant process of
removal of material from the higher parts of the land, and
deposition in the sea, and while there have been periodical
elevations and subsidences, the great areas of land and water
have remained substantially the same, and the main lines of
elevation and folding have conformed to the directions origin-
ally fixed. Thus, in regard to the dry land itself, there has
been fixity, on the one hand, and mutation on the other, of a
most paradoxical aspect, till we understand something of the
great law of constant change united with perennial fixity in
nature. From want of attention to this, the permanence of
continents is still a debated question, and it is difficult for
many to understand how the frequent dips of the continental
plateaus and margins under the sea, and their re-elevation,
often along with portions of the shallower sea bottom, can be
consistent with a general permanence of the position of the
continents and of the corresponding ocean abysses ; yet, when
this is properly understood, it becomes plain that the union
of fixity with changes of level has been a main cause of the
continuity and changes of organic beings. Only the submerg-
ence of inland plateaus under shallow and warm waters
could have given scope for the introduction of new marine
faunas, and only re-elevation could have permitted the greatest
extension of plants and animals of the land. Thus, the con-
tinuity of life with continual advance has depended on the
permanent existence of continental and oceanic areas ; and
the continents that remain to us with all their diversity of
elevation and outline, their varied productions, both mineral
and organic, and their life, which is a select remainder of all
that went before, have been produced and furnished by a
succession of changes, modified by the most conservative
retention of general arrangements and forms.

Ir is evident, however, that it is not merely permanence we

PRE-DETERMI NATION IN NATURE 33 I

have to deal with here, but permanence of position along with
change of elevation ; and this modified by the fact that there
have always been mountain ridges, internal plateaus, and mar-
ginal areas affected in various ways by the vertical movement
of the land. Further, the elevation and subsidence of the land
have not always been uniform, but often differential, while every
movement has tended to produce modifications of ocean cur-
rents and of atmospheric conditions. The whole subject, more
especially in its relations to life, thus becomes very complicated,
and it is perhaps in consequence of partial and imperfect views
on these points that so much diversity of opinion has arisen.
For example, it is evident that we can gain nothing by adding
to the continents those submerged margins delineated by
Murray in the Challenger reports, and which have in periods of
continental elevation themselves formed portions of the land.
Nor do we establish a case in favour of perished oceanic conti-
nents by the argument that they are needed to furnish the
materials of marginal mountains which are due to the con-
tinuous sweeping of arctic material to the south by currents, as
we see in the coast of North America to-day. Nor do we in-
validate the permanence of the continents by the bridges of
land, islands, and shallow water at various times thrown across
the Atlantic. The distribution of Cambrian Trilobiies, as illus-
trated by Matthew,^ seems to show a bridge of this kind in the
north in very early times, and similar evidence is furnished by
the animals and plants of the Devonian and Carboniferous,
and by the sea animals and plants of the later Tertiary and
modern. Gardener has postulated a southern bridge in the
region of the West Indies for the migrations of plants, and
Gregory has adduced the evidence of those conservative and
slow-moving creatures, the sea urchins, in favour of similar con-
nection in the West Indian region at two distinct periods of
time (the Lower Cretaceous and the Miocene Tertiary). But
' Transactions Royal Society of Canada, 1S92.

33^ PRE-DETERMINATION IN NATURE

bridges do not involve want of permanence in their termini.
Because an engineer has bridged the Firth of Forth, it does not
follow that the banks of this inlet did not exist before the
bridge was built ; and if the bridge were to perish, the evidence
that trains had once passed that way would not justify the
belief that the bed of the Firth had been dry land, and the
areas north and south of it depressed. The more we consider
this question the more we see that the permanence, growth
and sculpture of the continents are parts of a great continuous
and far-reaching plan. This view is strengthened rather than
otherwise, when we consider the probable manner in which the
enormous weight of the continents is sustained above the
waters. We may attribute this, on the one hand, to rigidity and
lateral arching and compression, or, on the other, to what may
be termed flotation of the lighter parts of the crust; and there
seems to be little doubt that both of these principles have been
employed in constructing the "pillars which support the earth.''
It is livident, however, that an arch thrown over the internal
abyss of the earth, or a portion of its crust so lightened as to be
pressed upward by its heavier surroundings, must, when once
established, have become a permanent feature of the earth's
foundations, not to be disturbed without calamitous conse-
cjuences to its inhabitants.

It is the part of the philosophical naturalist to bring together
these apparent contrarieties of mutation and permanence ; both
of which are included, each in its proper place, in the great
plan of nature. It is therefore my purpose in the present
chapter to direct attention to some of the terminal points or
fixed arrangements that we meet with in the course of the
geological history, and even in its earlier parts, and more par-
ticularly in reference to the organic world. 'I'his, which is in
itself constantly changing, has been placed untler necessity In
adhere to certain determinations fixed of old, and which
regulate its forms and possil)ilities down to our own time.

PRE-DETERMINATION IN NATURE 333

The argument, as we have seen in a previous chapter, for the
animal nature of Eozoon depends on our assuming certain
parts of this fixity. We suppose that then as now calcium
carbonate had been selected as the material for the skeletons
of such creatures; that then, as now, minute tubuli and large
canals were necessary to enable the soft animal matter to per-
meate and pass through the skeleton, and that the protoplas-
mic animal matter of these far back geological periods had the
same vital properties of contraction and extension, digestion, etc.,
that it has to-day. C'ould any one prove that these determina-
tions of vital and other forces had not been established, or that
living protoplasmic matter, with all its wonderful properties,
had not been constructed in the l.aurentian period, the exist-
ence of this ancient animal would be impossible. Yet how
much is implied in all this, and though nothing is more un-
stable chemically or vitally than protoplasm, if it were intro-
duced in the Laurentian, it has continued practically unchanged
up to the present time.

If we pass on to the undoubted and varied life of the
Cambrian period, we shall find that multitudes of things which
might have been otherwise were already settled in a way that
has required no change.

In the oldest Trilobites the whole of the mechanical con-
ditions of an external articulated skeleton had been finally
settled. The material chitinous or partly calcareous, its micro-
scopic structure, fitted to combine lightness and strength with
facility for rapid growth, the subdivision of its several rings, so
as to form a protective armour and a mobile skeleton, the
arrangement of its spines for defence without interfering with
locomotion, the contrivance of hinge joints arranged in different
planes in the limbs, — all these were already in full perfection,
and just as they are found to-day in the skeleton of a king-
crab or any other Crustacean. They have, it is true, been
modified into a vast number of subordinate forms and uses,

FRE-DETER^nXATIOy IX XATTRE

bur the geieral pnnciries ird ~;i'- scructures all sxaad. I
was iri'-ch. struck wiiji this recently in stadying a remarkable
sf'eciinei no-w in die Xadonal ilnsemn at Washington. It is
a large species of Asaphos : the same gams which gave to the
late iln Billings :"t - - 3t a TrEIobTte- die first ever de-

scribed : bcr in thr ^"on SDccimen they are remarkably

perfect. Each l-'-mb presents a series of joints resembling
~'" : ; T jf the tarsus of an insect, each joint being of conical
. v- ^srrth the narrow prosicnal end ardculated to the enlarged
distal end c£ tiie previons one. so as to grre great faolrty of
mxjvemenr and. accommodation for deKcate mnscniar bands.
This re-ls 'i? of nmsctdar nbre and tendon fitted for fiesing
and t . :aese nnmorons joints, of motor narves to woA

that !.__: .„.'_s contractile powa" of the striated musde.
whose mode of action is stilL an insoluble mystery, yet one
7- " : 7 ronote Cambrian age for the benefit

-. _. -...7 ___ ..- ..-_^...:ant5 of tfie sea. If we coold imagine
rfr.TT the inryentlve power to perfect such machinery was pre-
: r : ■ 1 Crustaceaiis or Arachnidans, we

~-__- : _- zsn. had survived to instruct us in

m^firtrTi whjch baSe our research.

It is long ance the compour : : :' these Trilobites, as

illnstntted. by EunneisterT gave 2 . : the oppornmity to

infer that the laws of Tight and of 'wiaoa were die same from

the first as now. But what doe- ' ' ly? Xot only that

the Tight of the sun penetnring t: . - _ .-^ of die Cambrian

seay was regulated by die 'rrame laws as to-day^ but that a saries

-"--eras was perfected to receive die light as r^ected from

- - _^ to picnire the appearance of these objects on a retinal

screen, as sensitive as the film, of the photographer, and thereby

"' ""' : : ' ■ ~: r perceptions of viaon in tiie sensorium of these

I have b^bre me a firagmeni of tlie eye of a

Imootte iJ-ztacopii, in which may be seen the little radiating

--'.'r^. -'z^.dcd for the several ocelli of die compound eye. just

PRE-DETER3a2f ATIOK IK SATrRE

a~ Ts-e see in ihe m-jdem Liniiilns : and ^di of these o:eDi must
hare tieer a r<erfect n . -'Z- and more than ttds.

since absolctely a:itoi:i- ^ ^ _ - - , oanng the po^r^ to
represent colour as ^s-ell as light and shade. We krw?w also,
from the recent exineriinents of an Austrian physologist on lie
eyes of insects, that such compoimd eyes are so constmcte'i
as to present a sngle picture, jttsi as "we can see the ••rhoie
landscape in looting Through the many htrle panes of a cottage
window. In onr own time the ting-crab and lobster no donbc
see jtist as ti-ar predecessors did mUhons of years ago. and widi
precisely '^imflar instnnnents.

Bin the eTes of the modem Cmstaceans hare to caimpssjt
with eres of a dissimilar type, constrocted on tije same geneial
opti'Cal jHiociples. but qxhte different in detail. These are the
simple or single eyes of the cnnie&^ies and me troe "iTshes.
The same rivalry existed in tiie oldest seas, when ihe com-
petition of Crctstaceans and cnrdes was jtist as teen as now.
Though the eyes of the latter have not been preserved, or at
least have not vet been found, we have a right to inier that the
cuttles of the Cambrian and Sthrrian seas m.ti5t have been aiiie
to see as well as dieir Cnistacean foes and compentiars. If so,
the odier type of eye must have been perfected for aqnanc
vision as earlv as the componnd type. In any case we tnow
rhir a htde later, in the Carboniferoiis period, we have evideoDce
that tiie eves of fishes conformed to those ot their mode~i sac-
cessors. I have myself described ^ a caxboniferotis nsh [J^a^
MBSCMs) from the hirominotis shales of Albert Cotmiy, Xew
Bninswict. in which the hard globnlar lens of the eye had beai
Siimcientiv firm and dtirable to retain is form, and to be re-
rljLced bv cakite, showing even that lite die lens of the eye of
a modan fish it had been consrrocred of concentric l^TriT'..y-
In the Carboniferous period olsa both types of eye. the com-
pound and the single, experienced the further modmcanons

334 PRE-DETERMINATION IN NATURE

but the general principles and main structures all stand. I
was much struck with this recently in studying a remarkable
specimen now in the National Museum at Washington. It is
a large species of Asaphus; the same genus which gave to the
late Mr. Billings the limbs of a Trilobite, the first ever de-
scribed ; but in the Washington specimen they are remarkably
perfect. Each limb presents a series of joints resembling
those of the tarsus of an insect, each joint being of conical
form with the narrow proximal end articulated to the enlarged
distal end of the previous one, so as to give great facility of
movement and accommodation for delicate muscular bands.
This tells us of muscular fibre and tendon fitted for flexing
and extending these numerous joints, of motor nerves to work
that marvellous contractile power of the striated muscle,
whose mode of action is still an insoluble mystery, yet one
practically solved in the remote Cambrian age for the benefit
of these humble inhabitants of the sea. If we could imagine
that the inventive power to perfect such machinery was pre-
sent in the brains of these old Crustaceans or Arachnidans, we
might wish that some of them had survived to instruct us in
matters which baffle our research.

It is long since the compound eyes of these Trilobites, as
illustrated by Burmeister, gave Buckland the opportunity to
infer that the laws of light and of vision were the same from
the first as now. But what does this imply ? Not only that
the light of the sun penetrating to the depths of the Cambrian
sea, was regulated by the same laws as to-da}-, but that a series
of cameras was perfected to receive the light as reflected from
objects, to picture the appearance of these objects on a retinal
screen as sensitive as the film of the photographer, and thereby
to produce true perceptions of vision in the sensorium of these
ancient animals. I have before me a fragment of the eye of a
Trilobite {Phacops), in which may be seen the little radiating
tubes provided for the several ocelli of the compound eye, just

PRE-DETERMINATION IN NATURE 335

as we see in the modern Limulus; and each of these ocelU must
have been a perfect photographic camera, and more than this,
since absolutely automatic, and probabl}' having the power to
represent colour as well as light and shade. We know also,
from the recent experiments of an Austrian physiologist on the
eyes of insects, that such compound eyes are so constructed
as to present a single picture, just as we can see the whole
landscape in looking through the many little panes of a cottage
window. In our own time the king-crab and lobster no doubt
see just as their predecessors did millions of years ago, and with
precisely similar instruments.

But the eyes of the modern Crustaceans have to compete
with eyes of a dissimilar type, constructed on the same general
optical principles, but quite different in detail. These are the
simple or single eyes of the cuttlefishes and the true fishes.
The same rivalry existed in the oldest seas, when the com-
petition of Crustaceans and cuttles was just as keen as now.
Though the eyes of the latter have not been preserved, or at
least have not yet been found, we have a right to infer that the
cuttles of the Cambrian and Silurian seas must have been able
to see as well as their Crustacean foes and competitors. If so,
the other type of eye must have been perfected for aquatic
vision as early as the compound type. In any case we know
that a little later, in the Carboniferous period, we have evidence
that the eyes of fishes conformed to those of their modern suc-
cessors. I have myself described ^ a carboniferous fish {Pala:-
oniscus) from the bituminous shales of Albert County, New
Brunswick, in which the hard globular lens of the eye had been
sufticiently firm and durable to retain its form, and to be re-
placed by calcite, showing even that like the lens of the eye of
a modern fish it had been constructed of concentric lamina;.
In the Carboniferous period also, both types of eye, the com-
pound and the single, experienced the further modifications

' Canadian Naturalist.

A Giant Net-sponge. — Palaosacais Daivsoui, Hinde.

From the Quebec group (Ordovician), Little Metis, Canada.

Reduced to ^ the diameter.

(From the Geological Magazine, 1803.)

PRE-DETERMINATION IN NATURE },^7

The sponge, in order to support its delicate protoplasmic
structures, must have a skeleton. In modern times we find
these creatures depositing corneous or horny fibres, as in the
common washing sponges, or forming complex and beautiful
structures of needles, or threads of silica or calcite, and they
seem from the first to have been able to avail themselves of
all these different materials. The oldest species that we know
had silicious or calcareous skeletons, though some of them
must also have had a certain amount, at least, of the ordinary
spongy or corneous fibres. But the most astonishing feature
in what remains of their skeletons, flattened out as they are on
the surfaces of dark slaty rock, is the manner in which they
worked up so refractory a material as silica into fibres like spun
glass rods and crosses, and built these up into beautiful basket-
like forms, globular, cylindrical or conical. It was necessary
that they should fix themselves on the soft muddy bottoms
on which they grew, and to this end they produced slender
silicious fibres or anchoring rods, which, fine though they were,
had the form of hollow tubes. Sometimes a single rod sufficed,
but in this case it had a crosslike anchor affixed to its lower
end, to give it stability. Sometimes there were several simple
rods, and then they were skilfully braced by spreading them
apart at the ends, and by flattening their extremities into
blades. Sometimes four rods joined in a loop at the end gave
the required support. Some larger species wound together many
threads like a wire rope, and even added to this flanges like the
thread of a screw, anticipating the principle of the modern
screw pile.

The body of the sponge must be hollow within, and must
have a large aperture or opening for the discharge of water, and
smaller pores for its admission. Various general forms were
adopted for this. Some were globular, or oval, or pear-shaped ;
others cylindrical, concave, or mitre-shaped. To give form and
strength to these shapes there were sometimes vertical and

338 PRE-DETER.MIXATION IX NATURE

transverse rods soldered together. In other cases there were four-
rayed or six-rayed needles of silica, with their points attached
so as to form a beautiful lattice-work, with its meshes either
square or lozenge-shaped. For protection sharp needles were
arranged like chevaux de frize at the sides and apertures, and
these last were sometimes covered with a hood or grating of
needles, to exclude intruders from the interior cavity. Other
species, however, like some in the modern seas, seemed to despise
these niceties, and contented themselves with long straight
needles placed in bundles, or radiating from a centre, and thus
supporting and protecting their soft and sensitive protoplasm.

Curiously enough, these old sponges did not avail them-
selves of the natural cystallization of silica, which, left to itself,
would have formed six-rayed stars, with the rays at angles of
sixty degrees, or six-sided plates, rods, or pyramids. They
adopted another and peculiar form of the mineral, known as
colloidal silica, and being thus relieved from any need to be
guided by its crystalline form, treated it as we do glass, and
shaped it into cylindrical tubes, round needles and stars or
crosses, with the rays at right angles to each other.

The sponges whose skeletons are thus constructed, and which
anticipated so many mechanical contrivances long afterwards
devised by man, belonged to a group of silicious sponges
{^HexacUnellidce) which is still extant, and represented by
many rare and beautiful species of the deep sea, which arc
the ornaments of our museums, and of which the beautiful
.£'?,;//^^(r/^//(!! or Venus flower-basket, from the Philippine Islands,
and the glass-rope sponge {/lya/onema), from Japan, arc
examples. But contemporary with these there was another
group {Lithistidce), constructing skeletons of carbonate of lime,
and which preferred, instead of the regular mechanical struc-
tures of the others, a kind of rustic work, made up of irregular
fibres, very beautiful and strong, but as a matter of pattern antl
taste standing quite by itself If there were any sponges with

PRE-DETIiRMIXATION IX NATURE

altogether soft and spongy skeletons in these old times, their
remains do not seem to have been preserved.

Here, it will be observed, are a great variety of vital and
mechanical contrivances devised in the very early history of the
earth, settled for all time, and handed down without improve-
ment, and with little change, to our later day. They are indeed
vastly more wonderful than the above general account can show ;
for to go into the details of structure of any one of the species
would develop a multitude of minor complexities and niceties
which no one not specially a student of these animals could
appreciate.

These are not solitary cases. The student of fossils meets
with them at every turn ; and if he possesses the taste and
imagination of a true naturalist, cannot fail to be impressed with
them.

To turn to a later but very ancient period, what can be more
astonishing than those first air-breathing vertebrates of the
Coal formation referred to in a previous chapter, with all their
special arrangements for an aerial habitat ? I have mentioned
their footprints, and when we see the quarrymen split open a
slab of sandstone and expose a series of great plantigrade tracks,
not unlike those of a human foot, with the five toes well deve-
loped, we are almost as much astonished as Crusoe was when
he saw the footprints on the sand. Crusoe inferred the presence
of another man in his island ; we infer the earliest appearance
of an air-breathing vertebrate and the pre-human determination
of the form and number of parts of the human foot and hand,
to appear in the world long ages afterward. We see also that
already that decimal system of notation which we have founded
on the counting of our ten fingers was settled in the framework
of most unmathematical Batrachians. It has approved itself ever
since as the typical and most perfect number of parts for such
organs.

If sceptically incHned, we may'ask. Why five rather than

340 PRE-DETERMINATION IN NATURE

four or six ? In the case of man we see that individuals who
have lost one finger have the use of the hand impaired, while
the few who happen to have six do not seem to be the better.
How it was with the old Batrachians we do not know; but it is
certain that if we could have amputated the claw-bearing little
toe of Sauropus itnguifer^ or the reflexed little toe of Cheirothe-
riiim, we should have much injured their locomotive power.

The vegetable kingdom is full of similar examples of the early
settlement of great questions. Perhaps nothing is more mar-
vellous than the power of the green cells of the leaf as workers
of those complex and inimitable chemical changes whereby out
of the water, carbon dioxide and ammonia of the soil and the
atmosphere, the living vegetable cell, with the aid of solar
energy, elaborates all the varied organic compounds produced
by the vegetable kingdom. Yet this seems all to have been
settled and perfected in the old Silurian period, long before any
kind of plant now living was on the earth. Perhaps in some
form it existed even in the Laurentian age, and was instru-
mental in laying up its great beds of carbon. So all that is
essential in plant reproduction, whether in that simpler form in
which a one-celled spore is the reproductive organ, or in that
more complex form in which an embryo plant is formed in the
seed, with a store of nourishment laid up for its susten-
ance.

These arrangements were obviously as perfect in the great
club mosses and pines of the Devonian and Carboniferous as
they have ever been since, and we have specimens so jireserved
as to show their minute parts just as well as in recent plants.
The microscope also shows us that the contrivances for thicken-
ing and strengthening the woody fibres and trunk of the stem
by bars or interrupted linings of ligneous matter, so as to give
strength and at the same time permit transudation of sap, were
all perfected, down to their minutest details, in the oldest land
plants. It is true that flowers with gay petals and some of the

PRE-DETERMINATION IN NATURE 34 1

more complicated kinds of fruit are later inventions, but the
additions in these consist mainly of accessories. The essentials
of vegetable reproduction were as well provided for from the
first.

The same principle applies to many of the leading forms and
types of life, considered as genera or species. While some of
these are of recent introduction, others have continued almost
unchanged from the remotest ages. Such creatures as the
Lingute, some of the Crustaceans and of the Mollusks, the
Polyzoa and some Corals have remained with scarcely any
change throughout geological time, while others have dis-
appeared, and have been replaced by new types.

We began this chapter with a consideration of the per-
manence of continental areas, and may close with a reference
to the same great fact in connection with the continuity of life.
Whether with some we attach more importance to the support
of the continents by lateral pressure and rigidity, or with others
to what may be termed flotation, by virtue of their less density,
as compared with that of the lower parts of the earth ; there
can be little doubt that both principles have been applied, and
that both admit of some vertical movement. Thus the stability
of the continents is one of position rather than height, and
their internal plateaus as well as their partially submerged
marginal slopes have undergone great and unequal elevations
and depressions, causing most important geographical changes.
Among these are the formation of connecting bridges of shoals,
islands, or low land, connecting the continental masses at
different periods, and permitting migrations of shallow-water
animals and even of denizens of the land. The facts adduced
in previous pages are sufficient to show connections across the
north of the Atlantic at intervals reaching from the Cambrian
to the Modern.

The conclusion of the whole matter is that there is a fixity
and unchangeableness in determinations and arrangements of

s. E. 25

342 PRE-DETERMINATION IN NATURE

force just as much as in natural laws ; and that while God has
made everything beautiful in its time He has also made every-
thing beautiful and useful in some sense for all time. With all
this, while the great principles and modes of operation remain
unchanged, there is ample scope for development, modification
and adaptation to new ends, without deviation from essential
properties and characters. It is a wise and thoughtful philosophy
which can distinguish what is fixed and unchangeable from that
which is fluctuating and capable of development. Until this
distinction is fully understood, we may expect one-sided views
and faulty generalizations in our attempts to understand
nature.

References : — "The Chain of Life in Geological Times." London. New
Species of Fossil Sponges from the Quebec Group at Little Metis.
Trans. Royal Society of Canada, 1889. Fossil Fishes from the Lower
Carboniferous of New Brunswick. Canadian Naturalist, "Acadian
Geology," 1855, and later editions to 1892. London and Montreal.
"The Story of the Earth," 1872, and later editions to 1891. -London.

THE GREAT ICE AGE.

DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF

MY LATE FRIEND

DAVID MILNE HOME, LL.D., F.R.S.E., ETC.,

An eminent and judicious Advocate of sound and

MODERATE VIEWS RESPECTING THE GLACIAL AGE.

Exaggerated Ideas — TheSt. I-a\vre\ce Valley — Modern
Ice Action in the St. Lawrence — Coast Ice — The
Icebergs of Belle-Isle — Mt. Blanc and its Glaciers
— Effects of Glaciers — Possible Extension of
Glaciers — Facts of Glaciation in Canada. — Cor-
dilleran Glacier, Laurentide Glacier, Appalachian
Glacier — Submerged Valleys and Plains — Double
Submergence and Intermediate Partial Elevation
— Interglacial Periods— Questions as to Alternate
Glaciation of Northern and Southern Hemispheres

^ '-'

c ^

ym ill" '^igi

w H

:/: o

CHAPTER XIII.
THE GREAT ICE AGE.

SCIENTIFIC superstitions, understanding by this name
the reception of hypotheses of prominent men, and using
these as fetishes to be worshipped and to be employed in
miraculous works, are scarcely less common in our time than
superstitions of another kind were in darker ages. One of
these which has been dominant for a long time in geology,
and has scarcely yet run its course, is that of the Great Ice
Age, with its accompaniments of Continental Glaciers and
Polar Ice Cap. The cause of this it is not difficult to
discern. The covering of till, gravel and travelled boulders
which encumbers the surface of the northern hemisphere
from the Arctic regions more than half way to the equator,
had long been a puzzle to geologists, and this was increased
rather than diminished when the doctrine of appeal to recent
causes on the principle of uniformity became current. It was
seen that it was necessary to invoke the action of ice in some
form to account for these deposits, and it was at the same
time perceived that there was much evidence to prove that
between the warm climate of the early Tertiary and the more
subdued mildness of the modern time there had intervened
a period of unusual and extreme cold. In this state of
affairs attention was attracted to the Alpine glaciers. Their
movement, their erosion of surfaces, their heaping up of
moraines bearing some resemblance to the widely extended
boulder deposits, their former greater extension, as indicated

54^ THE GREAT ICE AGE

by old moraines at lower levels than those in process of
formation, were noted. Here was a modern cause capable of
explaining all the phenomena. IMen's minds were taken by
storm, and as always happens in the case of new and im-
portant discoveries, the agency of glaciers was pushed at once
far beyond the possibilities of their action under any known
physical or climatal laws. This exaggerated idea of the
action of land ice in the form of glaciers is not yet exploded,
more especially in the United States, where official sanction
has been given to it by the Geological Survey, and where it
has been introduced even into school and college text books.
It affords also a telling bit of scientific sensationalism, which
can scarcely be resisted by a certain class of popular writers.
America has also afforded greater facilities for extreme theories
of this kind, owing to the wide and uninterrupted distribution
of glacial deposits, and the more simple and less broken
character of its great internal plateau, while the influence
of great leading minds, like those of the elder Agassiz and of
Dana, naturally held sway over the younger geologists. Fortu-
nately Canada, which possesses the larger and more northern
half of the North American continent ; though numerically
inferior, and therefore overborne in the discussion, has, in
the main, remained stedfast to facts rather than to specious
theories, and has been confirmed in this position by the
clearer testimony of nature in a region where many of the
features of the glacial age still persist. ^

The writer of these pages has, ever since the publication of
tlie first edition of his " Acadian Geology," ~ steadily resisted
the more extreme views of glaciation, and has opposed the
southward progress of the great continental glacier. Though,
figuratively speaking, overborne and pressed back in the

' I may refer lieic to ihe recent researches of Dr. G. M. Dawson, Mr.
R. Chalmers, Mr. McConnell and Dr. Ells.
-' 1855.

THE GREAT ICE AGE 347

course of its extension, he has now, Hke those primitive men
who are imagined in the post-glacial age to have followed up
the retreat of the ice, the pleasure of seeing the once formid-
able continental glacier broken up into great local glaciers
on the mountain ranges separated by intervening areas of
submergence.

The questions relating to this subject are too numerous and
varied for treatment here. The question of the causes of the
great lowering of temperature in the glacial age I shall leave
for consideration in the next chapter, and merely state here
that I believe changes of distribution of sea and land and of
ocean currents are sufficient to account for all the refrigeration
of which there is good evidence. I content myself with a
comparison of the glacial phenomena of Mont Blanc and of
the Gulf of St. Lawrence from my own observation,^ and some
general deductions as to glacier possibilities.

A scientific voyager carries with him a species of question-
ing peculiar to himself. Not content with vacantly gazing
at the sea, scrutinizing his fellow passengers, noting the
changes of the weather and the length of the day's run, he
recognises in the sea one of the great features of the earth,
and questions it daily as to its present and its past. The
present features of the sea include much of surpassing interest,
but the questions which relate to its origin and early history
are still more attractive. Some of these questions are likely
to interest a voyager from Canada entering the Atlantic by
one of its greatest tributaries, the St. Lawrence.

In doing so, we approach the ocean not at a right angle,
but along a line only slightly inclined to its western side, and
we find ourselves in a broad estuary or trough, having on its
north-western side rugged hills of old crystalline rocks, the
Laurentian, ridged up in great folds or earth waves parallel
to the river. On the south-east or right-hand side we have
• rul)!i-hecl in 1S67.

348 THE GREAT ICE AGE

a lower barrier of earth waves composed of sedimentary rocks
somewhat later in date, but still geologically very ancient. We
are thus introduced to a remarkable feature of the west side
of the North Atlantic, namely, that its border is made up of
very old rocks folded into mountain ridges thrown up at an
ancient period, and approximately parallel to the coast. The
Lower St. Lawrence occupies a furrow between two of these
ridges.

Here, however, a more modern feature attracts our attention.
The sides of the bounding hills are cut in a succession of
terraces, rising one above another from the level of the sea
to a height of 500 feet or more, capped with long ranges of
the white houses and barns of the Canadian habitants, and
furnishing level lines for the " concession roads " which run
along the coast. These terraces are really old sea margins
indicating the stages of the elevation of the land out of the
sea immediately before the modern period. On these terraces,
and in the clays and sands which form the plateaus extend-
ing in some places in front of them, are sea shells of the
same kinds with those now living in the Gulf of St. Lawrence,
and occasionally we find bones of whales which have been
stranded on the old beaches.

These terraces are, of course, indications of change of level
in very modern times. They show that in what we call the
Pleistocene age the land was lower than at present, and we
shall find that in the Lower St. Lawrence there is evidence
of a depression extending to over 1,000 feet, carrying the
sea for up the valley, so that sea shells are found in the clays
as far up as Kingston and Ottawa, and stranded skeletons
of whales as far west as Smith's Falls, in Ontario.

If we examine the shores more minutely, we shall find all
along the south coast a belt of boulders which are often as
much as eight to ten feet in diameter, and consist largely
of rocks found only in the hills of the northern coast, more

THE GREAT ICE AGE 349

than thirty miles distant, from which they must have been
drifted to their present position. This boulder belt, which
extends from the lowest tide mark about fifty feet or more
upward, is sometimes piled in ridges and sometimes flattened
out into a rude pavement. It is a product of the modern
field ice, which, attaining a great thickness in winter, has
boulders frozen into its bottom, and floating up and down
with the tide, deposits these on the shore. At Little Metis,
two hundred miles below Quebec, where I have a summer
residence, I have from year to year cleared a passage through
the boulder belt for bathing and for launching boats, and
nearly every spring I find that boulders have been thrown into
the cleared space by the ice, while one can notice from year
to year differences in the position of very large boulders.

If we pass inland from the shore belt of boulders, we shall
find similar appearances on the inland terraces at various
heights, up to at least 400 feet. These are inland boulder
belts belonging to old shores now elevated. Like the modern
boulder belt these inland belts and patches consist partly of
Laurentian rocks from the North Shore, partly of sandstones
and conglomerates in place near to their present sites. In
some places the stones are smaller than those of the present
beach, in other places of gigantic size. These boulders lie
not only on the bare rock striated in places with ice grooves
pointing to the north-north-east ; but on the old till or boulder
clay, which also abounds with boulders, and which is more
ancient than the superficial boulder drift. Locally we find
here and there masses of fossiliferous limestone which must
have been derived from the high ground to the south of the
St. Lawrence, and which have been borne northward either
by drift ice or by local glaciers.

If now we study the polished and scored surfaces of rocks
in the St. Lawrence valley and the bounding hills, we shall
find that while the former testify to a great movement of

150 THE GREAT ICE AGE

ice and boulders up the river from the north-east, the latter
show evident signs of the movement of locial glaciers down
the valleys of the Laurentide hills to the south, and on the
continuation of the Appalachians south of the river similar
evidence of the movement of land ice to the north. Thus
we have evidence of the combined action of local glaciers and
floating ice. To add to all this, we can find on the flat tops
of the hard sandstone boulders on the beach the scratches
made by the ice of last winter, often in the same north-easterly
direction with those of the Pleistocene time.

In addition to the ice formed in winter in the St. Lawrence
itself, the snow clad hills of Greenland send down to the sea
great glaciers, which in the bays and fiords of that inhospitable
region form at their extremities huge cliffs of everlasting ice,
and annually "calve," as the seamen say, or give off a great
progeny of ice islands, which, slowly drifted to the southward
by the arctic current, pass along the American coast, diffusing
a cold and bleak atmosphere, until they melt in the warm
waters of the (lulf Stream. Many of these bergs enter tlie
Straits of BelleTsle, for the Arctic current clings closely to
the coast, and a part of it seems to be deflected into the
(lulf of St. Lawrence through this passage, carrying wiili it
many large bergs. The voyager passing through this strait
in clear weather may see numbers of these ice islands glisten-
ing in snowy whiteness, or showing deep green cliffs and
pinnacles — sometimes with layers of earthy matter and stones,
or dotted with numerous sea birds, which rest upon them
when gorged with the food afforded by shoals of fish aiid
others marine animals which haunt these cold seas. In earl\-
summer the bergs are massive in form, often with flat tojis.
but as the summer advances they become eroded by the sun
and warm winds, till they present the most grotesque forms
of rutle towers and spires rising iVom broad fi)unilations little
ele\ated above the water.

THE GREAT ICE AGE

Mr. Vaughan, late superintendent of the Lighthouse at
Belle-Isle, has kept a register of icebergs for several years. He
states that for ten which enter the straits, fifty drift to the
southward, and that most of those which enter pass inward on
the north side of the island, drift toward the western end of
the straits, and then pass out on the south side of the island, so
that the straits seem to be merely a sort of eddy in the course
of the bergs. The number in the straits varies much in differ-
ent seasons of the year. The greatest number are seen in
spring, especially in May and June ; and toward autumn and
in the winter very few remain. Those which remain until
autumn are reduced to mere skeletons ; but if they survive
until winter, they again grow in dimensions, owing to the accu-
mulations upon them of snow and new ice. Those that we
saw early in July were large and massive in their proportions.
The few that remained when we returned in September were
smaller in size, and cut into fantastic and toppling pinnacles.
Vaughan records that on the 30th of May, 1858, he counted in
the Straits of Belle-Isle 496 bergs, the least of them sixty feet
in height, some of them half a mile long and 200 feet high.
Only one-eighth of the volume of floating ice appears above
water, and many of these great bergs may thus touch the
ground in a depth of thirty fathoms or more, so that if we ima-
gine four hundred of them moving up and down under the in-
fluence of the current, oscillating slowly with the motion of the
sea, and grinding on the rocks and stone-covered bottom at all
depths from the centre of the channel, we may form some con-
ception of the effects of these huge polishers of the sea floor.

Of the bergs which pass outside of the straits, many ground
on the banks off Belle-Isle. Vaughan has seen a hundred large
bergs aground at one time on the banks, and they ground on
various parts of the banks of Newfoundland, and all along the
coast of that island. As they are borne by the deep-seated
cold current, and are scarcely at all affected by the wind, they

352 THE GREAT ICE AGE

move somewhat uniformly in a direction from north-east to
south-west, and when they touch the bottom, the striation or
grooving which they produce must be in that direction.

In passing through the straits in July, I have seen great
numbers of bergs, some low and fiat-topped, with perpendicular
sides, others convex or roof-shaped, like great tents pitched on
the sea ; others rounded in outline or rising into towers and
pinnacles. Most of them were of a pure dead white, like loaf
sugar, shaded with pale bluish green in the great rents and
recent fractures. One of them seemed as if it had grounded
and then overturned, presenting a flat and scored surface
covered with sand and earthy matter.

At present we wish to regard the icebergs of Belle-Isle in
their character of geological agents. Viewed in this aspect,
they are in the first place parts of the cosmical arrangements
for equalizing temperature, and for dispersing the great accu-
mulations of ice in the Arctic regions, which might otherwise
unsettle the climatic and even the static equilibrium of our
globe, as they are believed by some imaginative physicists and
geologists to have done in the so-called glacial period. If the
ice islands in the Atlantic, like lumps of ice in a pitcher of
water, chill our climate in spring, they are at the same time
agents in preventing a still more serious secular chilling which
might result from the growth without limit of the Arctic snow
and ice. They are also constantly employed in wearing down
the Arctic land, and aided by the great northern current from
Davis's Straits, in scattering stones, boulders and sand over
the banks along the American coast. Incidentally to this
work, they smooth and level the higher parts of the sea bottom,
and mark it with furrows and stri;e indicative of the direction
of their own motion.

When we examine a chart of the American coast, and observe
the deep channel and hollow submarine valleys of the Arctic
current, and the sandbanks which extend parallel to this

THE GREAT ICE AGE 353

channel from the great bank of Newfoundland to Cape Cod,
we cannot avoid the conclusion that the Arctic current and
its ice have great power both of excavation and deposition.
On the one hand, deep hollows are cut out where the current
flows over the bottom, and on the other, great banks are heaped
up where the ice thaws and the force of the current is abated.
I have been much struck with the worn and abraded appear-
ance of stones and dead shells taken up from the banks off the
American coast, and am convinced that an erosive power com-
parable to that of a river carrying sand over its bed, and mate-
rially aided by the grinding action of ice, is constantly in action
under the waters of the Arctic current.^ The unequal pres-
sure resulting from this deposition and abrasion is not improb-
ably connected with the slight earthquakes experienced in
Eastern America, and also with the slow depression of the
coast ; and if we go back to that earliest of all geological
periods when the Laurentian rocks of Sir Wm. Logan, consti-
tuting the Labrador coast and the Laurentide Hills, were alone
above water, we may even attribute in no small degree to the
Arctic current of that old time the heaping up of those thou-
sands of feet of deposits which now constitute the great range
of the Alleghany and Apalachian mountains, and form the
breast bone of the American continent. In those ancient
times also large stones were floated southward, and enter into
the composition of very old conglomerates.

' At the time when this was written I had only studied stones brought
up accidentally by fishermen and others from the banks of Newfoundland
and elsewhere. At a later date Murray of the Challenger has given
more ample material. He states that the bottom in the Labrador current,
loo miles from land, was found to be blue mud with 60 per cent, of sand
and stones ; and mentions a block of syenite weighing 490 lbs. taken up
in 1,340 fathoms, and stones and pebbles of quartzite, limestone, dolomite,
mica schist and serpentine, one of which was glaciated. This is the
modern boulder clay produced by Greenland glaciers and the field ice of
Baffin's Bay and the Labrador coast.

354 THE GREAT ICE AGE

But such large speculations might soon carry us far from
Belle-Isle, and to bring us back to the American coast and to
the domain of common things, we may note that a vast variety
of marine life exists in the cold waters of the Arctic current,
and that this is one of the reasons of the great and valuable
fisheries of Labrador, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, regions
in which the sea thus becomes the harvest field of much of the
human population. On the Arctic current and its ice also
floats to the southward the game of the sealers of St. John and
the whalers of Gaspe.

We may now proceed to connect these statements as to the
distribution of icebergs, with the glaciated condition of our
continents, with the remarkable fact that the same effects now
produced by the ice and the Arctic current in the Strait of
Belle-Isle and the deep-current channel off the American coast,
are visible all over the North American and European land
north of forty degrees of latitude, and that there is evidence
that the St. Lawrence valley itself was once a gigantic Belle-
Isle, in which thousands of bergs worked perhaps for thou-
sands of years, grinding and striating its rocks, cutting out its
deeper parts, and heaping up in it quantities Oi northern debris.
Out of this fact of the so-called glaciated condition of the sur-
face of our continents has, however, arisen one of the great
controversies of modern geology. While all admit the action
of ice in distributing and arranging the materials which consti-
tute the last coating which has been laid upon the surfiice of
our continents, some maintain that land glaciers have done
the work, others, that sea-borne ice has been the main agent
employed. As in some other controversies, the truth seems to
lie between the extremes. Glaciers are slow, inactive, and
limited in their sphere. Floating ice is locomotive and far-
travelled, extending its action to great distances from its
sources. So far, the advantages are in favour of the flotation.
But the work whicli the glacier does is done thoroughly, and,

THE GREAT ICE AGE 355

time and facilities being given, it may be done over wide areas.
Again, the iceberg is the child of the glacier, and therefore the
agency of the one is indirectly that of the other. Thus, in any
view we must plough with both of these geological oxen, and
the controversy becomes like that old one of the Neptunists
and Plutonists, which has been settled by admitting both water
and heat to have been instrumental in the formation of rocks.

In the midst of these controversies a geologist resident in
Great Britain or Canada should have some certain doctrine as
to the question whether at that period, geologically recent,
which we call the Pleistocene period, the land was raised to a
great height above the sea, and covered like Greenland with a
mantle of perpetual ice, or whether it was, like the strait of
Belle-Isle and the banks of Newfoundland, under water, and
annually ground over by icebergs, or whether, as now seems
more probable, it was in part composed of elevated ridges
covered with snow and sending down glaciers, and partly de-
pressed under the level of ice-laden straits and seas.

A great advocate of the glacier theory has said that we can-
not properly appreciate his view without exploring thoroughly
the present glaciers of Greenland and ascertaining their effects.
This I have not had opportunity to do, but I have endeavoured
to do the next best thing by passing as rapidly as possible from
the icebergs of Belle-Isle to the glaciers of Mont Blanc, and by
asking the question whether Canada was in the Pleistocene
period like the present Belle-Isle or the present Mont Blanc,
or whether it partook of the character of both ? and taking ad-
vantage of these two most salient points in order to elicit a
reply.

Transporting ourselves, then, to the monarch of the Alps, let
us suppose we stand upon the Flegere, a spur of the mountains
fronting Mont Blanc, and commanding a view of the entire
group. From this point the western end of the range presents
the rounded summit of Mont Blanc proper, flanked by the

s. E. 26

356 THE GREAT ICE AGE

lower eminences of the Dome and Aiguille de Goute, which
rise from a broad and uneven plateau of neve or hard snow,
sending down to the plain two great glaciers or streams of ice,
the Bossons and Tacony glaciers. Eastward of Mont Blanc
the 7iev'e or snow plateau is penetrated by a series of sharp
points of rock or aiguilles, which stretch along in a row of
serried peaks, and then give place to a deep notch, through
which flows the greatest of all the glaciers of this side of Mont
Blanc, the celebrated Mer de Glace, directly in front of our
standpoint. To the left of this is another mass of aiguilles,
culminating in the Aiguille Verte. This second group of
needles descends into the long and narrow Glacier of Argen-
tiere, and beyond this we see in the distance the Glacier and
Aiguille de Tour. As seen from this point, it is evident that
the whole system of the Mont Blanc glaciers originates in a
vast mantle of snow capping the ridge of the chain, and extend-
ing about twenty miles in length, with a breadth of about five
miles. This mass of snow being above the limits of perpetual
frost, would go on increasing from year to year, except so far
as it might be diminished by the fall of avalanches from its
sides, were it not that its plasticity is sufficient to enable the
frozen mass to glide slowly down the valleys, changing in its
progress into an icy stream, which, descending to the plain,
melts at its base and discharges itself in a torrent of white
muddy water. The Mont Blanc chain sends forth about a
dozen of large glaciers of this kind, besides many smaller ones.
Crossing the valley of Chamouni, and ascending the Montan-
vert to a height of about 6,000 feet, let us look more particu-
larly at one of these glaciers, the Mer de Glace. It is a long
valley with steep sides, about half a mile wide, and filled with
ice, which presents a general level or slightly inclined surface,
traversed with innumerable transverse cracks or crevasses,
penetrating apparently to the bottom of the glacier, and with
slippery sloping edges of moist ice threatening at every step to

THE GREAT ICE AGE 357

plunge the traveller into the depths below. Still the treacher-
ous surface is daily crossed by parties of travellers, apparently
without any accident. The whole of the ice is moving steadily
along the slope on which it rests, at the rate of eight to ten
inches daily— the rate of motion is less in winter and greater in
summer ; and farther down, where the glacier goes by the name
of the Glacier du Bois, and descends a steeper slope, its rapid-
ity is greater ; and at the same time by the opening of immense
crevasses its surface projects in fantastic ridges and pinnacles.
The movements and changes in the ice of these glaciers are in
truth very remarkable, and show a mobility and plasticity
which at first sight we should not have been prepared to
expect in a solid like ice.^ The crevasses become open or
closed, curved upwards or downwards, perpendicular or in-
clined, according to the surface upon which the glacier is mov-
ing, and the whole mass is crushed upward or flattens out, its
particles evidently moving on each other with much the same
result as would take place in a mass of thick mud similarly
moving. On the surface of the ice there are a few boulders
and many stones, and in places these accumulate in long
irregular bands indicating the lines of junction of the minor ice
streams coming in from above to join the main glacier. At the
sides are two great mounds of rubbish, much higher than the
present surface of the glacier. They are called the lateral
moraines, and consist of boulders, stones, gravel and sand,
confusedly intermingled, and for the most part retaining their
sharp angles. This mass of rubbish is moved downward by
the glacier, and with the stones constituting the central moraine,

* I need scarcely say that I adopt the explanation of glacier motion
given by Forbes. "The fuller consideration of the physical properties of
glacier ice leads essentially to the same conclusions as those to which
Forbes was led forty-one years ago by the study of the larger phenomena
of glacier motion, that is, that the motion is that of a slightly viscous mass,
partly sliding upon its bed, partly sheAringupon itself under the influence
of gravity." — Trotter, Proc. Royal Society of London, xxxviii. 107.

358 THE GREAT ICE AGE

is discharged at the lower end, accumulating there in the mass
of detritus known as the terminal moraine.

Glaciers have been termed rivers of ice ; but there is one
respect in which they differ remarkably from rivers. They are
broad above and narrow below, or rather, their width above
corresponds to the drainage area of a river. This is well seen
in a map of the Mer de Glace. From its termination in the
Glacier du Bois to the top of the Mer de Glace proper, a dis-
tance of about three and a half miles, its breadth does not ex-
ceed half a mile, but above this point it spreads out into three
great glaciers, the Geant, the Du Chaud, and the Talefre, the
aggregate width of which is six or seven miles. The snow and
ice of a large interior tableland or series of wide valleys are
thus emptied into one narrow ravine, and pour their whole
accumulations through the Mer de Glace. Leaving, however,
the many interesting phenomena connected with the motion of
glaciers, and which have been so well interpreted by Saussure,
Agassiz, Forbes, Hopkins, Tyndall, and others, we may con-
sider their effects on the mountain valleys in which they
operate.

1. They carry quantities of debris from the hill tops and
mountain valleys downward into the plains. From every peak,
cliff and ridge the frost and thaw are constantly loosening
stones and other matters which are swept by avalanches to the
surface of the glacier, and constitute lateral moraines. When
two or more glaciers unite into one, these become medial
moraines, and at length are spread over and through the whole
mass of the ice. Eventually all this material, including stones
of immense size, as well as fine sand and mud, is deposited in
the terminal moraine, or carried off by the streams.

2. They are mills for grinding and triturating rock. The
pieces of rock in the moraine are, in the course of their move-
ment, crushed against one another and the sides of the valley,
and are cracked and ^round as if in a crushinii mill. Further

THE GREAT ICE AGE 359

the stones on the surface of the glacier are ever falling into
crevasses, and thus reach the bottom of the ice, where they are
further ground one against another and the floor of rock. In
the movement of the glacier these stones seem in some cases
to come again to the surface, and their remains are finally dis-
charged in the terminal moraine, which is the waste heap of
this great mill. The fine material which has been produced,
the flour of the mill, so to speak, becomes diffused in the water
which is constantly flowing from beneath the glacier, and for
this reason all the streams flowing from glaciers are turbid with
whitish sand and mud.

The Arve, which drains the glaciers of the north side of
Mont Blanc, carries its burden of mud into the Rhone, which
sweeps it, with the similar material of many other Alpine
streams, into the Mediterranean, to aid in filling up the bottom
of that sea, whose blue waters it discolours for miles from the
shore, and to increase its own ever-enlarging delta, which
encroaches on the sea at the rate of about half a mile per
century. The upper waters of the Rhone, laden with similar
material, are filling up the Lake of Geneva ; and the great
deposit of " loess " in the alluvial plain of the Rhine, about
which Gaul and German have contended since the dawn of
European history, is of similar origin. The mass of material
which has thus been carried off from the Alps, would suffice to
build up a great mountain chain. 'J'hus, by the action of ice
and water —

"The mountaia falling comelh lo nau^^ht,
And tbe rock is removed out of its place."

Many observers who have commented on these facts have
taken it for granted that the mud thus sent off from glaciers,
and which is so much greater in amount than the matter
remaining in their moraines, must be ground from the bottom
of the glacier valleys, and hence have attributed to these

\6o THE GREAT ICE AGE

glaciers great power of cutting out and deepening their valleys.
But this is evidently an error, just as it would be an error to
suppose the flour of a grist mill ground out of the mill stones.
Glaciers, it is true, groove and striate and polish the rocks over
which they move, and especially those of projecting points and
slight elevations in their beds ; but the material which they
grind up is principally derived from the exposed frost-bitten
rocks above them, and the rocky floor under the glacier is
merely the nether mill stone against which those loose stones
are crushed. The glaciers, in short, can scarcely be regarded
as cutting agents at all, in so fixr as the sides and bottoms of
their beds are concerned, and in the valleys which the old
glaciers have abandoned, it is evident that the torrents which
have succeeded them have far greater cutting power.

The glaciers have their periods of advance and of recession.
A series of wet and cool summers causes them to advance and
encroach on the plains, pushing before them their moraines,
and even forests and human habitations. In dry and warm
summers they shrink and recede. Such changes seem to have
occurred in bygone times on a gigantic scale. All the valleys
below the present glaciers present traces of former glacier
action. Even the Jura mountains seem at one time to have
had glaciers. Large blocks from the Alps have been carried
across the intervening valley and lodged at great heights on the
slopes of the Jura, leading the majority of the Swiss and
Italian geologists to believe that even this great valley and the
basin of Lake Leman were once filled with glacier ice. But,
unless we can suppose that the Alps were then vastly higher
than at present, this seems scarcely to be physically possible,
and it seems more likely that the conditions were just the
reverse of those supposed, namely, that the low land was sub-
merged, and that the valley of Lake Leman was a strait like
Belle-Isle, traversed by powerful currents and receiving ice-
bergs from both Jurassic and Alpine glaciers, and probably

THE GREAT ICE AGE 361

from farther north. One or other supposition is required to
account for the appearances, which may be explained on either
view. The European hills may have been higher and colder,
and changes of level elsewhere may have combined with this to
give a cold climate with moisture; or a great submergence
may have left the hills as islands, and may have so reduced the
temperature by the influx of arctic currents and ice, as to
enable the Alpine glaciers to descend to the level of the sea.
Now, we have evidence of such submergence in the beds of
sea-shells and travelled boulders scattered over Europe, while
we also have evidence of contemporaneous glaciers, in their
traces on the hills of Wales and Scotland and elsewhere, where
they do not now occur.

I have long maintained that in America all the observed
facts imply a climate no colder than that v/hich would have
resulted from the subsidence which we know to have occurred
in the temperate latitudes in the Pleistocene period, and
though I would not desire to speak so positively about Europe,
I confess to a strong impression that the same is the case there,
and that the casing of glacier ice imagined by many geologists,
as well as the various hypotheses which have been devised to
account for it, and to avoid the mechanical, meteorological, and
astronomical difficulties attending it, are alike gratuitous and
chimerical, as not being at all required to account for observed
facts, and being contradictory, when carefully considered, to
known physical laws as well as geological phenomena.^

Carrying with me a knowledge of the phenomena of the
glacial drift as they exist in North America, and of the modern
ice drift on its shores, I was continually asking myself the
(question — To what extent do the phenomena of glacier drift
and erosion resemble these ? and standing on the moraine of
the Bosson glacier, which struck me as more like boulder clay

' Canadian Naturalist, vols. viii. and ix. Geological Magazine, Decem-
ber, 1865.

l62 THE GREAT ICE AGE

than anything else I saw in the Alps, with the exception of
some recent avalanches, I jotted down what appeared to me
to be the most important points of difference. They stand
thus : —

1. Glaciers heap up their debris in abrupt ridges. Floating
ice sometimes does this, but more usually spreads its load in a
more or less uniform sheet. ^

2. The material of moraines is all local, floating ice carries
its deposits often to great distances from their sources.

3. The stones carried by glaciers are mostly angular, except
where they have been acted on by torrents. Those moved by
floating ice are more often rounded, being acted on by the
waves and by the abrading action of sand drifted by cur-
rents.

4. In the marine glacial deposits mud is mixed with stones
and boulders. In the case of land glaciers, most of this mud
is carried off by streams and deposited elsewhere.

5. The deposits from floating ice may contain marine shells.
Those of glaciers cannot, except where, as in Greenland and
.Spitzbergen, glaciers push their moraines out into the sea.

6. It is of the nature of glaciers to flow in the deepest
ravines they can find, and such ravines drain the ice of exten-
sive areas of mountain land. Floating ice, on the contrary, acts
with greatest ease on flat surflices or slight elevations in the sea
bottom.

7. Glaciers must descend slopes and must be backed by
large supplies of perennial snow. Floating ice acts indepen-
dently, and being water-borne may work up slopes and on
level surfaces.

8. Glaciers striate the sides and bottoms of their ravines
very unequally, acting with great force and effect only on
those places where their weight impinges most heavily. Float-

* Under floating ice I include floe, ] ack, and hoidage ice as wrll as
bergs

THE GREAT ICE AGE 363

ing ice, on the contrary, being carried by constant currents and
over comparatively flat surfaces, must striate and grind more
regularly over large areas, and with less reference to local
inequalities of surface.

9. The direction of the strice and grooves produced by
glaciers depends on the direction of valleys. That of floating
ice, on the contrary, depends upon the direction of marine
currents, which is not determined by the outline of the surface,
but is influenced by the large and wide depressions of the sea
bottom.

10. When subsidence of the land is in progress, floating
ice may carry boulders from lower to higher levels. Glaciers
cannot do this under any circumstances, though in their pro-
gress they may leave blocks perched on the tops of peaks and
ridges.

I believe that in all these points of difference the boulder
clay and drift on the lower lands of Canada and other parts of
North America, correspond rather with the action of floating
ice than of land ice; though certainly with glaciers on such land
as existed at the different stages of the submergence, and tlicse
glaciers drifting stones and earthy matter in different directions
from higher land toward the sea. More especially is this the
case in the character of the striated surfaces, the bedded dis-
tribution of the deposits, the transport of material up the
natural slope, the presence of marine shells, and the mechanical
and chemical characters of the boulder clay. In short, those
who regard the Canadian boulder clay as a glacier deposit, can
only do so by overlooking essential points of difference between
it and modern accumulations of this kind.

I would wish it here to be distinctly understood, that I do
not doubt that at the time of the greatest Pleistocene submerg-
ence of Eastern America, at which time I believe the greater
part of the boulder clay was formed, and the more important
striation effected, the hijrher hills then standing as islands would

364 THE GREAT ICE AGE

be capped with perpetual snow, and through a great part of the
year surrounded with heavy field and barrier ice, and that in
those hills there might be glaciers of greater or less extent.
Further, it should be understood that I regard the boulder
clays of the St. Lawrence valley as of different ages, ranging
from those of the early Pleistocene to that now forming in the
Gulf of St. Lawrence ; and that during these periods great
changes of level occurred. Further, that this boulder clay
shows in every place where I have been able to examine it,
evidence of subaqueous accumulation, in the presence of
marine shells or in the unweathered state of the rocks and
minerals enclosed in it; conditions which, in my view, preclude
any reference of it to glacier action, except possibly in some
cases to that of glaciers stretching from the land over the mar-
gin of the sea, and forming under water a deposit equivalent
in character to the bone glaciare of the bottom of the Swiss
glaciers. But such a deposit must have been local, and would
not be easily distinguishable from the marine boulder clay. It
is of some interest to compare Canadian deposits with those of
Scotland,* which in character and relations so closely resemble
those of Canada ; but I confess several of the facts lead me to
infer that much of what has been regarded as of subaerial
origin in that country must really be marine, though whether
deposited by icebergs or by the fronts of glaciers terminating
in the sea, I do not pretend to determine.^ It must, however,
be observed that the antecedent probability of a glaciated con-
dition is much greater in the case of Scotland than in that of
Canada, from the high northern latitude of the former, its
hilly and maritime character, and the fact that its present

* Journal of Geological Society. Papeis by Jamieson, Bryce, Crosskey,
and Geikie.

^ Geikie, Trans. Royal Society of Edin. Geikie assigns a more compli-
cated structure than appears to be present in Canada; but there are Cana-
dian equivalents of the principal glacial periods which he assumes.

THE GREAT ICE AGE 365

exemption from glaciers is due to what may be termed excep-
tional and accidental geographical conditions ; more especially
to the distribution of the waters of the Gulf Stream, which
might be changed by a comparatively small subsidence in Cen-
tral America. To assume the former existence of glaciers in a
country in north latitude 56^, and with its highest hills, under
the present exceptionally favourable conditions, snow-capped
during most of the year, is a very different thing from assuming
a covering of continental ice over wide plains more than ten
degrees farther south, and in which, even under very unfavour-
able geographical accidents, no snow can endure the summer
sun, even in mountains several thousand feet high. Were the
plains of North America submerged and invaded by the cold
arctic currents, the Gulf Stream being at the same time turned
into the Pacific, the temperature of the remaining North
American land would be greatly diminished ; but under these
circumstances the climate of Scotland would necessarily be
reduced to the same condition with that of South Greenland
or Northern Labrador. As we know such a submergence of
America to have occurred in the Pleistocene period, it does not
seem necessary to have recourse to any other cause for either
sidet)f the Atlantic. It would, however, be a very interesting
point to determine, whether in the Pleistocene period the
greatest submergence of America coincided with the greatest
submergence of Europe, or otherwise. It is quite possible
that more accurate information on this point might remove
some present difficulties. I think it much to be desired that
the many able observers now engaged on the Pleistocene ot
Europe, would at least keep before their minds the probable
effects of the geographical conditions above referred to, and
inquire whether a due consideration of these would not allow
them to dispense altogether with the somewhat extravagant
theories of glaciation now agitated.

The preceding pages give the substance of my conclusions

366 THE GREAT ICE AGE

of twenty -four years ago. I give those of to-day from a paper
of 1891/ relating to Eastern Canada only : —

These conclusions have, in my judgment, been confirmed,
and their bearing extended, more especially by the researches
of Mr. Chalmers, who has shown in the most convincing way
that glaciers proceeding from local centres along with sea-borne
ice, may have been the agents in glaciating surfaces and trans-
porting boulders in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Taken
in connection with the observations of Dr. Dawson and Mr.
McConnell in the Cordillera region of the west, and those of
])r. Bell, Dr. Ells, INIr. Low, and others in the Laurcntian
country north of the St. Lawrence, and in the Province of
Quebec, we may now be said to know that there was not, even
at the height of the glacial refrigeration of America, a contin-
ental ice sheet, but rather several distinct centres of ice action,
— one in the Cordillera of the West, one on the Laurentian
V-shaped axis, and one on the Appalachians, with subordinate
centres on isolated masses like the Adirondacks, and at certain
periods even on minor hills like those of Nova Scotia. It
would further seem that, in the west at least, elevation of the
mountain ridges coincided with depression of the plains. In
Newfoundland also, it would appear from the observations of
Captain Kerr, with which those of Mr. Murray are in har-
mony,' though they have been differently interpreted, that the
gathering ground of ice was in the interior of the island, and
that glaciers moved thence to the coasts, but principally to the
east coast, as was natural from the conformation of the land
and the greater supply of moisture from the Atlantic.

The labours of Murray in Newfoundland, of Matthew,
Chalmers, Bailey, and others, in Nova Scotia and New Bruns-
wick, have considerably enlarged our knowledge of Pleistocene
fossils, showing, however, that the marine fauna is the same

■ Supplement to 4th edition of "Acadian Geology," 1891.
^ Trans. Royal Society of Canada, vol. i.

THE GREAT ICE AGE 367

with that of the beds of hke age in the St. Lawrence valley, and
with the existing fauna of the Labrador coast and colder por-
tions of the Gulf and River St. Lawrence, as ascertained by
Prickard, Whiteaves, and the writer. It would seem that
throughout this region, the 60 feet and the 600 feet terraces
were the most important with reference to these marine
remains, and that their chief repository is in the Upper Leda
Clay, a marine deposit intermediate between the Lower and
Upper boulder drift, and corresponding to the interglacial beds
of the interior of America.

The general conditions of the period may be thus sum-
marized : —

In this district, and the eastern part of North America
generally, it is, I think, universally admitted that the later
Pliocene period was one of continental elevation, and probably
of temperate climate. The evidence of this is too well known
to require re-statement here. It is also evident, from the raised
beaches holding marine shells, extending to elevations of 600
feet, and from drift boulders reaching to a far greater height,
that extensive submergence occurred in the middle and later
Pleistocene. This was the age of the beds I have named the
Leda clays and Saxicava sands, found at heights of 600 feet
above the sea in the St. Lawrence valley, nearly as far west as
Lake Ontario.

It is reasonable to conclude that the till or boulder clay,
under the Leda clay, belongs to the earliest period of prob-
ably gradual subsidence, accompanied with a severe climate,
and with snow and glaciers on all the higher grounds, sending
glaciated stones into the sea. This deduction agrees with the
marine shells, polyzoa, and cirripedes found in the boulder
deposits on the lower St. Lawrence, with the unoxidized charac-
ter of the mass, which proves subaqueous deposition, with the
fact that it contains soft boulders, which would have crumbled
if exposed to the air, with its limitation to the lower levels and

368 THE GREAT ICE AGE

absence on the hillsides, and with the prevalent direction of
striation and boulder drift from the north-east.^

All these indications coincide with the conditions of the
modern boulder drift on the lower St. Lawrence and in the
Arctic regions, where the great belts and ridges of boulders
accumulated by the coast ice would, if the coast were sinking,
climb upward and be filled in with mud, forming a continuous
sheet of boulder deposit similar to that which has accumulated
and is accumulating on the shores of Smith's Sound and else-
where in the Arctic, and which, like the older boulder clay, is
known to contain both marine shells and driftwood. ~

The conditions of the deposit of "till" diminished in intensity
as the subsidence continued. The gathering ground of local
glaciers was lessened, the ice was no longer limited to narrow
sounds, but had a wider scope, as well as a freer drift to the
southward, and the climate seems to have been improved.
The clays deposited had few boulders and many marine shells,
and to the west and north there were land-producing plants
akin to those of the temperate regions ; and in places only
slightly elevated above the water, peaty deposits accumulated.
The shells of the Leda clay indicate depths of less than loo
fathoms. The numerous Foraminifera, so far as have been
observed, belong to this range, and I have never seen in this
clay the assemblage of foraminiferal forms now dredged from
200 to 300 fathoms in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

I infer that the subsidence of the Leda clay period and of
the interglacial beds of Ontario belongs to the time of the sea
beaches from 450 to 600 feet in height, which are so marked
and extensive as to indicate a period of repose. Li this period

' Notes on the Post-Pliocene : Canadiatt Naturalist, op. cit. ; also
Paper by the author on Boulder Drift at Metis, Canadian Record of
Science, vol. ii., 1886, p. 36, et seq.

^ For references see "Royal Society's Arctic Manual," London, 1S75,
oj". cit.

THE GREAT ICE AGE 369

there were marine conditions in the lower and middle St.
Lawrence and in the Ottawa valley, and swamps and lakes on
the upper Ottawa and the western end of Lake Ontario. It is
quite probable, nay, certain, that during this interglacial period
re-elevation had set in, since the upper Leda clay and the
Saxicava sand indicate shallowing water, and during this re-
elevation the plant-covered surface would extend to lower levels.
This, however, must have been followed by a second subsi-
dence, since the water-worn gravels and loose, far-travelled
boulders of the later drift rose to heights never reached by the
till or the Leda clay, and attained to the tops of the highest
hills of the St. Lawrence valley, 1,200 feet in height, and else-
where to still greater elevations. This second boulder drift
must have been wholly marine, and probably not of long
duration. It shows no evidence of colder climate than that
now prevalent, nor of extensive glaciers on the mountains ;
and it was followed by a paroxysmal elevation in successive
stages till the land attained even more than its present height,
as subsidence is known to have been proceeding in modern
times.

I am quite aware that the above sequence and the causes
assumed are somewhat different from those held by many
geologists with reference to regions south of Canada ; but must
hold that they are the only rational conclusions which can be
propounded with reference to the facts observed from the
parallel of 45° to the Arctic Ocean.

My own observations have been chiefly in the eastern part
of North America. My son. Dr. G. M. Dawson, has much
more ably and thoroughly explored those of the west ; and
after describing the immense Cordilleran ice mass which ex-
tended for a length of 1,200 miles along the mountains of
British Columbia and discharged large glaciers to the north, as
well as to the west and south, and stating his reasons for
believing in that differential elevation and depression which

2,70 THE GREAT ICE AGE

caused the greatest height of the mountains to coincide with
the greatest depression of the plains, and vica versa, and show-
ing the Cordilleran glacier must have been separated by a
water area from that of the Laurentide hills on the east, thus
concludes :—

" It is now distinctly known, as the result of work done
under the auspices of the Geological Survey of Canada, and
more particularly of observations by the writer and his col-
leagues, ]\Iessrs. McConnel and Tyrrell, that the extreme
margins of the western and eastern glaciated areas of the
continent barely overlap, and then only to a very limited
extent, while the two great centres of dispersion were entirely
distinct. For numerous reasons which cannot be here entered
into, the writer does not consider it probable, or even possible,
that the great confluent glacier of the north-eastern part of the
continent extended at any time far into the area of the great
plains ; but erratics and drift derived from this ice mass did so
extend, and are found between the 49th and 50th parallels,
stranded on the surface of moraines produced by the large
local glaciers of the Rocky Mountains. Recognising, however,
the essential separateness of the western and eastern confluent
ice masses, and the foct that it is no longer appropriate to desig-
nate one of these the " continental glacier," the writer ventures
to propose that the eastern incr de glace may appropriately be
named the great Laurentide glacier, while its western fellow is
known as the " Cordilleran glacier." It rnay be added that
there is good evidence to show that both the Laurentide and
Cordilleran glaciers discharged into open water to the north."

These conclusions, based on a large induction of facts
applying to a very large area of the North American Continent,
coincide with my own observations in the east, and with the
inferences deducible from the present condition of Greenland
and Arctic America.

When extreme glacialists point to Greenland and ask us to

THE GREAT ICE AGE 37 1

believe that in the Glacial age the whole continent of North
America, as far south as the latitude of 40", was covered with a
continuous glacier, having a wide front, and thousands of feet
thick, we may well ask, first, what evidence there is that Green-
land or even the Antarctic continent is at present in such a
condition ; and, secondly, whether there exists a possibility
that the interior of a great continent could ever receive so large
an amount of precipitation as that required. So far as present
knowledge exists, it is certain that the meteorologist and thd
physicist must answer both questions in the negative. In short,
perpetual snow and glaciers must be local, and cannot be con-
tinental, because of the vast amount of evaporation and con-
densation required. These can only be possible where com-
paratively warm seas supply moisture to cold and elevated land,
and this supply cannot, in the nature of things, penetrate far
inland. The actual condition of interior Asia and interior
America in the higher northern latitudes affords positive proof
of this. In a state of partial submergence of our northern
continents, we can readily imagine glaciation by the combined
action of local glaciers and great ice floes ; but in whatever
way the phenomena of the boulder clay and of the so-called
" terminal moraines " are to be accounted for, the theory of a
continuous continental glacier must be given up.

The great interior plain of western Canada, between the
Laurentian axis on the east and the Rocky Mountains on the
west, is seven hundred miles in breadth, and is covered with
glacial drift, presenting one of the greatest examples of this
deposit in the world. Proceeding eastward from the base of
the Rocky Mountains, the surface, at first more than 4,000
feet above the sea level, descends by successive steps to 2,500
feet, and is based on Cretaceous and Laramie rocks, covered
with boulder clay and sand, in some places from one hundred
to two hundred feet in depth, and filling up pre-existing hollows,
though itself sometimes ])iled into ridges. Near the Rocky

s. F. 27

3/2 THE GREAT ICE AGE

Mountains the bottom of the drift consists of gravel not
glaciated. This extends to about one hundred miles east of
the mountains, and must have been swept by water out of their
valleys. The boulder clay resting on this deposit is largely
made up of local debris, in so far as its paste is concerned. It
contains many glaciated boulders and stones from the Lauren-
tian region to the east, and also smaller pebbles from the
Rocky Mountains, so that at the time of its formation there
must have been driftage of large stones for seven hundred
miles or more from the east, and of smaller stones from a less
distance on the west. The former kind of material extends to
the base of the mountains, and to a height of more than 4,000
feet. One boulder is mentioned as being 42 x 40 x 20 feet in
dimensions. The highest Laurentian boulders seen were at an
elevation of 4,660 feet on the base of the Rocky Mountains.
The boulder clay, when thick, can be seen to be rudely strati-
fied, and at one place includes beds of laminated clay with
compressed peat, similar to the forest beds described by
Worthen and Andrews in Illinois, and the so-called interglacial
beds described by Hinde on Lake Ontario. The leaf beds on
the Ottawa river, and the drift trunks found in the boulder
clay of Manitoba, belong to the same category, and indicate
in the midst of the Glacial period many forest oases far to
the north, having a temperate rather than an arctic flora. In
the valleys of the Rocky Mountains opening on these plains
there are evidences of large local glaciers now extinct, and
similar evidences exist on the Laurentian highlands on the cast.
A recent paper of Dr. G. M. Dawson on the Palaeography of tlie
Rocky Mountains illustrates in a most convincing manner the
changes which have occurred in the Cordillera of North
America, and the differential elevation and depression which
have affected its climate in the later geological periods.*

Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the western drift region
* Transactions Royal Socitty of Canada, 1S90.

THE GREAT ICE AGE 373

is that immense series of ridges of drift piled against an escarp-
ment of Laramie and Cretaceous rocks, at an elevation of about
2,500 feet, and known as the " Missouri Coteau." It is in some
places 30 miles broad and 180 feet in height above the plain
at its foot, and extends north and south for a great distance :
being, in fact, the northern extension of those great ridges of
drift which have been- traced south of the great lakes, and
through Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and which figure on the
geological maps as the edge of the continental glacier — an
explanation obviously inapplicable in those western regions
where they attain their greatest development. It is plain that
in the north it marks the western limit of the deep water of a
glacial sea, which at some periods extended much farther
west, perhaps with a greater proportionate depression in going
westward, and on which heavy ice from the Laurentian dis-
tricts on the east was wafted southwestward by the arctic
currents, while lighter ice from the Rocky Mountains was
being borne eastward from these mountains by the prevailing
westerly winds. We thus have in the west, on a very wide
scale, the same phenomena of varying submergence, cold cur-
rents, great ice floes and local glaciers producing icebergs, to
which I have attributed the boulder clay and upper boulder
drift of eastern Canada. In short, we arrive at the conclusion
that there never has been a continental glacier, properly so
called, but that in the extreme Glacial period there have been
great centres of snow and glacial action, in the Cordillera of
the west, in the Laurentian plateau of the north, and in the
northern Appalachians, and the Adirondacks, while the lower
lands have been either submerged, or enjoying a climate habit-
able by hardy animals and plants.

The till or boulder clay has been called a "ground moraine,"
but there are really no Alpine moraines at all corresponding to
it. On the other hand, it is more or less stratified, often rests
on soft materials which glaciers would have swept away, some

374 THE GREAT ICE AGE

times contains marine shells, or passes into marine clays in its
horizontal extension, and invariably in its embedded boulders
and its paste, shows an unoxidized condition, which could not
have existed if it had been a subaerial deposit. When the
Canadian till is excavated and exposed to the air, it assumes a
brown colour, owing to oxidation of its iron, and many of its
stones and boulders break up and disintegrate under the action
of air and frost. These are unequivocal signs of a subaqueous
deposit. Here and there we find associated with it, and es-
pecially near the bottom and at the top, indications of power-
ful water action, as if of land torrents acting at particular
elevations of the land, or heavy surf and ice action on coasts,
and the attempts to explain these by glacial streams have been
far from successful. A singular objection sometimes raised
against the subaqueous origin of the till is its general want of
marine remains ; but this is by no means universal, and it is
well known that coarse conglomerates of all ages are generally
destitute of fossils, except in their pebbles, and it is further to
be observed that the conditions of an ice-laden sea are not
those most favourable for the extension of marine life, and that
the period of time covered by the glacial age must have been
short, compared with that represented by some of the older
formations.

It follows from all this that the great "continental moraine,"'
which the United States Geological Survey has now "delineated
for several thousand miles extending from the Atlantic to the
Pacific," cannot be a glacier moraine, but must be, like its
great continuation northward, the Missouri coteau, a margin
of sea drift, and that we must explain the whole of the drift
of the American continent by the supposition, first, of a period
of elevation of the liills and subsidence of the valleys in which
there were great accumulations of snow on the Western Cor-
dillera ; the Laurentian axis, and the Appalachians and Adiron-
dacks radiating in every direction from these points, while

THE GREAT ICE AGE 375

minor areas of radiation may have temporarily existed on
smaller elevations : that this was followed by a period of more
equal level, in which parts of the low grounds were clothed
with a temperate flora, the " Interglacial period " so called,
succeeded by a second great depression, in which the high level
boulders of the second boulder drift were wafted to great dis-
tances by floating ice.

The late Prof. Alexander Winchell, a man who did not
hesitate to express his convictions, thus bears similar testi-
mony : — " There has been no continental glacier. There has
been no uniform southerly movement of glacier masses.
There has been no persistent declivity as a sine qua non, down
which glacier movements have taken place. The continuity of
the supposed continental glacier was interrupted in the regions
of the dry and treeless plains of the west ; and in the interior
and Pacific belts of the continent within the United States,
ancient glaciation was restricted to the elevated slopes. ''^ He
might have added that the St. Lawrence valley was submerged
and received the ends of Appalachian and Adirondack glaciers
on the south-east, and those of Laurentide glaciers on the
north-west.

My friend Prof Claypole, who, however, has some hesitation,
fearing, I persume, to be cast out of the synagogue for heresy,
ventures to .say,'- " We deduce from the facts and arguments
stated above, that all the observations of glacial action in the
northern hemisphere are explicable by assuming the existence
of enormous and confluent ^ glacier-systems in and about the
high lands of Europe, Asia, and America, which high lands be-
came, therefore, glacial radiants, and shed their load of ice in all
directions over the lower adjacent ground, along the lines of

' Nov., 1890. - Aiiieriian Geologist, Feb., 18S9.

•* The term " confluent " is not necessary here. The glaciers of all
nioiintain chains may be said to be more or less confluent in the neve,
fruni wliich individual glaciers radiate.

376 THE GREAT ICE AGE

easiest flow ; that this theory does no violence to the analogy
of the existing order of things, requiring merely an enlargement
of actual glaciers by the intensification of actual conditions :
that abundant evidence can he obtained, as, for example, from
Switzerland, that the present glacier system of the earth was
once of sufficient magnitude to produce all the observed
phenomena ; that the most important glacial radiants in the
northern hemisphere were, in North America, the district
round Hudson Bay, New England and the Adirondacks, with
certain areas in the western Cordilleras, and in Europe the
Norwegian Dovrefelds and the Alps, Asia apparently possess-
ing none of commensurate importance ; that it satisfactorily
explains, also, the previously puzzling absence of glacial action
over the great plain of Siberia, the coldest portion of the
northern temperate zone ; that the belief in a vast polar ice cap,
thousands of feet thick, covering the whole Arctic region, and
extending almost continuously down to low latitudes, is an as-
sumption doing violence to observed physical facts and to
probability, that it is not required to account for the pheno-
mena, and is, in fact, contradictory to some of them."

In Europe there is equally good evidence of the existence of
huge glaciers on the Scandinavian mountains and the Alps,
and of lesser accumulations of ice on the hills, as, for instance,
those of the British Islands ; but the Scandinavian boulders
scattered over the plains of Great Britain must have been
water borne. ^

In connection with these extracts I would observe that the
writer, and those with whom he has acted in this matter, have
never held that icebergs alone, or fields of ice alone, have pro-
duced the Pleistocene deposits. Their contention has been
that tlie period was one in which glaciers, icebergs, and field

' The reports of the .Scottisli boulder committee, and Lapworth's recent
careful examination of the deposits on the East of England (Joiirii. Geol.
Soc, Aug., 1 891), strongly confirm me in this opinion,

THE GREAT ICE AGE 377

ice acted together, and along with aqueous agencies, in produc-
ing the complicated formations of this remarkable age. They
have, however, objected strenuously to the sole employment of
one agent to the exclusion of others, and to attributing to that
agent powers and extension which obviously could not belong
to it, under the known laws which regulate the movement of
glaciers by the force of gravity, and the precipitation of
moisture in the form of snow on mountains and plateaus.
These laws show that the movement of glaciers over level
surfaces, or against the slope of the ground, and their moving
stones otherwise than down slopes, are physical impossibilities,
and that the accumulation of snow to form glaciers can take
place only on elevated and cold land, supplied with large
quantities of vapour from neighbouring water. Such accumu-
lation can under no imaginable conditions take place in the
interior plains and table lands of great continents.

Applying these laws and conclusions to the whole northern
hemisphere, we learn that the conditions to produce a glacial
period are the diversion of the warm currents from the northern
.seas, the submergence of land in the temperate regions, and
its invasion by cold Arctic water, and great condensation of
snow on the higher lands. Whether this condensation has a
tendency finally to rectify the state of affairs, by pressing down
the mountains and elevating the plains, we do not know, but I
should imagine that it has not ; for the high lands will, in the
case supposed, be lightened by denudation, while the plains
will be burdened with a great weight of deposit. Perhaps we
should rather look to this as the agency for depressing and sub-
merging the plains and elevating the hills, and suppose some
other and more general pressure proceeding from the great sea
basins, to effect the re-elevation of the plains.

These questions suggest that of the date of the Glacial period.
This subject has recently been discussed by Prestwich and
others, with the result that there is no purely geological ground

378 THE GREAT ICE AGE

for referring the Glacial age to a period so remote as that advo-
cated by Croll on astronomical grounds. Claypole has recently
discussed the matter at some length, and in a temperate spirit.^
He takes the rate of erosion of the Niagara gorge as a measure,
and shows that the Falls of St. Anthony, as described by Win-
chell, and all the other falls and river gorges in North America,
give similar estimates, which are confirmed by the evidences of
lake ridges, of the rate of erosion, and of the conditions of
animal and plant life. The whole go to show that the culmina-
tion of the Glacial age may have occurred less than 10,000
years ago. He further shows that the differential elevation of
Lakes Erie and Ontario, the greater ease with which the river
could cut the lower part of its ravine, the probability that
the part of the gorge between the whirlpool and the fall was
not cut, but only cleaned out in modern times, and the possible
greater flow of water in the early modern period, all tend to
shorten the time required, and that, as Prestwich has inferred
from other data, and the writer also in various papers, some of
them of old date, the. so-called post-glacial period, that of the
melting away of the ice, may come within 8,000 to 10,000
years of our own time. Probably the first of these figures is
the nearest to the truth, '-^ so that, geologically considered, the
Glacial age is very recent.

Still another question of great cosmic interest relates to the
possible alternation of glacial conditions in the northern and
southern hemispheres. There is evidence of drift in the south-
ern ])art of South America, similar to that in the north ; but was
it deposited at the same time ? If we could be sure that it was
not, many difficulties would be removed. The southern hemi-

' Trans. Edinburgh Gcol. .Soc, vol. v., iSSS.

- Upham, one of the ablest and most experienced of the Glacial geolo-
gists ill the United Stales, in a recent paper on the causes of the glacial
period, states similar conclusions, and adduces the evidence of Gilbert,
Andrews, Wright, Emerson and others in the same sense.

THE GREAT ICE AGE 379

sphere is at present emphatically the ocean hemisphere ; the
northern, the land hemisphere. Perhaps these conditions may
be capable of being reversed, in which case the periods of de-
pression in the south may have corresponded with those of
elevation in the north. One thing which we know is, that
there is a polar ice ring, not an ice cap, for we do not know
what is within its edges at the South Pole, about 2,000 miles in
diameter, and this in the only circumstances in which it can
exist, namely, surrounded by a vast ocean furnishing it with
abundant aqueous vapour. ^Ve also know that from this ice
ring radiate glaciers, carrying debris^ with which the sea bottom
is strown half way to the equator. If continents were elevated
out of the Southern Ocean, we should probably have on their
surfaces glacial deposits more widespread and continuous than
any remaining on the continents of the northern hemisphere, and
like some of them thinning out to a terminal edge or border,
instead of a terminal moraine like that of a glacier.^ Thus we
may say with some truth that the southern hemisphere is now
passing through one phase of the Glacial period.

I have often thought that in the southern hemisphere the
condition of Kerguelen Island and Heard Island, as described
in the reports of the Chaneiiger,~ must very nearly represent the
state of some mountain ranges and peaks in North America
in the Glacial age. Heard Island, in S. latitude 53^ 2', is a
mountain peak 6,000 feet high, and 25 miles in length. It
sends down large glaciers to the sea. In its larger neighbour,
Kerguelen, the glaciers do not reach the sea ; but there is evi-
dence that at one time they did. It is still more curious that,
in Kerguelen the modern ice overlies late tertiary deposits,
holding remains of large trees, indicating a more continental
condition and mild climate at no very remote period.

1 Tliis is now admitted by Cliamberlain and others to be the case with
tlie oldest boulder clay on the American continent.
- Vol. i. ]). 370, etc.

380 THE GREAT ICE AGE

The glaciers of Heard Island and Kerguelen have, no doubt,
been carrying down moraine material into the sea, and this is
certainly done on a still greater scale by those of the Antarctic
continent. This sends off bergs which fill the whole ocean
south of 60°, and float much farther north. Some of tliem have
been seen 2,000 feet long and 200 high, and though most of
the boulders they contain are necessarily concealed, yet masses
of rock, supposed to weigh many tons, have been seen on
them. The whole sea bottom off this continent, as far south
as 64°, consists of blue mud, with boulders and pebbles, some
of them glaciated, and farther north there is, as far as 47
degrees of latitude, a considerable percentage of drift material,
and this sometimes in depths of 1,950 fathoms. It is evident
that, if large areas of the southern hemisphere were elevated
into land, we should have phenomena to deal with not much
unlike those of North America at present.

Perhaps no discussion carries with it more of warning to
geologists to exercise caution in framing theories than this of
the great ice age ; and if the collapse of extreme views on
this subject shall have the effect of inducing geologists to keep
within the limits of well-ascertained facts and sound induction,
to adhere to the Lyellian doctrine of modern causes to ex-
plain ancient phenomena, and to bear in mind that most great
effects involve not one cause, but many co-operating causes, it
may lead to consequences beneficial to science ; and so, emerg-
ing from the cold shadows of the continental glacier, we may
find ourselves in the sunshine of truth.

Rkkerencks : — "Acadian Geology,"' ist ed., 1S55 ; 4th ed., 1S92. Ice-
bergs of I5elle-Isle, and Glaciers of Mont Blanc, Canadian Natitralisty
1865. "Notes on Pleistocene of Canada," Montreal, 1S71. Papers at
various dates in the Canadian Naturalist and Canadian Record cj
Science. "The Ice Age in Canada," INIontreal, 1893. Canadian Pleis-
tocene, London Geological Magazine, March, 1883. Flora of the
Pleistocene, .5////f//« of Geological Society of America, vol. i., 1890,
p. 311, Dawson and Penhallow.

CAUSES OF CLIMATAL CHANGE.

DEDICATED TO

DR. T. STERRY HUNT, F.R.S.,

Whose Work in

THE Chemical and Cosmical Relations of Geology

IS beyond all Praise,

AND IS DESTINED TO COMMAND

IN THE Future
even greater Acceptance than in the Past.

Various Theories as to Changes of Climate — The
Astronomical Theory of Croll — The Geographical
Theory of Lyell — Objections of a Geological
Character to the Former — Testimony of Geology
AND Physical Geography in Favour of the Latter

CHAPTER XIV.

CAUSES OF CLIMATAL CHANGE.

THE subject of this chapter is one which has been in dis-
pute ever since I began to read anything on geology,
nearly sixty years ago. It ought to have been settled, but up
to to-day one finds in geological works and papers — especially
those relating to the Glacial age — the most divergent views ;
and in the writings of men not geologists, it is not unusual to
find exploded theories gravely stated as established facts of
science. The subject is one which I cannot hope to make
interesting, but if the reader will wade through a short chapter,
he will be able to find some of the data on which statements on
this subject in other papers of this series are based.

Mr. Searles V. Wood, in an able summary of the possible
causes of the succession of cold and warm climates in the
northern hemisphere, enumerates no fewer than seven theories
which have met with more or less acceptance, and he might
have added an eighth. These are : —

(i) The gradual cooling of the earth from a condition of
original incandescence.

(2) Changes in the obliquity of the ecliptic.

(3) Changes in the position of the earth's axis of rotation.

(4) The effect of the precession of the equinoxes, along with
changes of the eccentricity of the earth's orbit.

(5) Variations in the amount of heat given off by the sun.

(6) Differences in the temperature of portions of space passed
through by the earth.

383

384 CAUSES OF CLI-MATAL CHANGE

(7) Differences in the distribution of land and water in con-
nection with the flow of oceanic currents.

(8) Variations in the properties of the atmosphere with
reference to its capacity for allowing the radiation of heat.

Something may be said in favour of all these alleged causes ;
but as efficient in any important degree in producing the cold
and warm climates of the Tertiary period, the greater number
of them may be dismissed as incapable of effecting such results,
or as altogether uncertain with reference to the fact of their
own occurrence.

(i) That the earth and the sun have diminished in heat
during geological time seems probable ; but physical and geolo-
gical facts alike render it certain that this influence could have
produced no appreciable effect, even in the times of the
earliest animals and plants, and certainly not in the case of
Tertiary floras or faunas.

(2) The obliquity of the ecliptic is not believed by astrono-
mers to have changed to any great degree, and its effect would
be merely a somewhat different distribution of heat in different
periods of the year.

(3) Independently of astronomical objections, there is good
geological evidence that the poles of the earth must have been
nearly in their present places from the dawn of life until now.
From the Laurentian upward, those organic limestones which
mark the areas where warm and shallow equatorial water was
spreading over submerged continents, are so di-sposed as to
prove the permanence of the poles. In like manner all the
great foldings of the crust of the earth have followed lines
which are parts of great circles tangent to the existing polar
circles. So, also, from the Cambrian age the great drift of
sediment from the north has followed the line of the existing
Arctic currents from the north-east to the south-west, throwing
itself, for example, along the line of the Appalachian ujilifts in
I'Lastcrn America, and against the ridge of tiic C'ordilloras in
the west.

CAUSES OF CLIMATAL CHANGE 385

(4) The effects of change of eccentricity and precession have
been so ably urged by Croll, and recently by Ball, and have so
strongly influenced the minds of those who are not working
geologists, that they deserve a more detailed notice.

(5) The heat of the sun is known to be variable, and the
eleven years' period of sun spots has recently attracted much
attention as producing appreciable effects on the seasons.
There may possibly be longer cycles of solar energy ; or the
sun may be liable, like some variable stars, to paroxysms of in-
creased energy. Such changes are possible, but we have no
evidence of their occurrence, and they could not account for
periods of refrigeration of limited duration like the CMacial
age.

(6) It has been supposed that the earth may have at dif-
ferent times traversed more or less heated zones of space,
giving alternations of warm and cold temperature. No such
differences in space are, however, known, nor does there seem
any good ground for imagining their existence.

(7) The differences in the form and elevation of our conti-
nents, and in the consequent distribution of surfaces of different
absorbent and radiating power, and of the oceanic currents, are
known causes of climatal change, and have been referred to in
these papers as competent to account for many, at least, of the
phenomena.

(8) Reference has already been made, in connection with the
distribution of plants, to the possibility that the primeval
atmosphere was richer in carbon than that of more modern
times, and that this might operate to produce diminution of
radiation, and consequent uniformity of temperature ; but this
cause could not have been efficient in the later geological
periods.

There may thus be said to remain two theories of those
enumerated by Wood, to which more detailed consideration may
be given, namely, numbers four and seven, which may be named

s. E. 28

386 CAUSES OF CLIMATAL CHANGE

respectively those of CroU and Lyell, or the astronomical and
geographical theories.

The late Mr. CroU has, in his valuable work " Climate and
Time," and in various memoirs, brought forward an ingenious
astronomical theory to account for changes of climate. This
theory, as stated by himself, is that when the eccentricity of
the earth's orbit is at a high value, and the northern winter
solstice is in perihelion, agencies are brought into operation
which make the south-east trade winds stronger than the north-
east, and compel them to blow over upon the northern hemi-
sphere as far as the Tropic of Cancer. The result is that all
the great equatorial currents of the ocean are impelled into the
northern hemisphere, which thus, in consequence of the im-
mense accumulation of warm water, has its temperature raised,
so that ice and snow must, to a great extent, disappear from the
Arctic regions. In the prevalence of the converse conditions
the Arctic zone becomes clad in ice, and the southern has its
temperature raised.

At the sithie time, according to CroU's calculations, the ac-
cumulation of ice on either pole would tend, by shifting the
earth's centre of gravity, to raise the level of the ocean and
submerge the land on the colder hemisphere. Thus a sub-
mergence of land would coincide with a cold condition, and
emergence with increasing warmth. Facts already referred to,
however, show that this has not always been the case, but that
in many cases submergence was accompanied with the influx
of warm equatorial waters and a raised temperature, this ap-
parently depending on the question of local distribution of
land and water ; and this, in its turn, being regulated not always
by mere shifting of the centre of gravity, but by foldings occa-
sioned by contraction, by equatorial subsidences resulting from
the retardation of the earth's rotation, and by the excess of
material abstracted by ice and frost from the Arctic regions, and
drifted southward along the lines of arctic currents. This drift-

CAUSES OF CLIMATAL CHANGE T,8j

ing must in all geological times have greatly exceeded, as it
certainly does at present, the denudation caused by atmospheric
action at the equator, and must have tended to increase the
disposition to equatorial collapse occasioned by retardation of
rotation. 1

While such considerations as those above referred to tend to
reduce the practical importance of Mr. Croll's theory, on the
other hand they tend to remove one of the greatest objections
against it — namely, that founded on the necessity of supposing
that glacial periods recur with astronomical regularity in geolo-
gical time. They cannot do so if dependent on other causes
inherent in the earth itself, and producing important move-
ments of its crust.

Sir Robert Ball has in a recent work very ingeniously im-
proved this theory by showing that Croll was mistaken in
assigning equal amounts of heat to the earth, as a whole, in
the periods of greater and less eccentricity. This would tend
to augment the effect of astronomical revolutions as causes of
difference of temperature ; but has no bearing on the more
serious geological objections to the theory in question.

A fatal objection, however, to Croll's theory, the force of
which has been greatly increased by recent discoveries, is that
the astronomical causes which he adduces would place the
close of the last Glacial period at least So,ooo years ago, where-
as it is now certainly known from geological facts that the close
of the last Glacial period cannot be older than about an eighth
or a tenth of that time. This difficulty seems to have caused
the greater number of geologists, specially acquainted with the
later geological periods, to regard this theory as quite inapplic-
able to the facts.

' Croll, in "Climate and Time," and in a note read before the British
Association in 1876, takes an opposite view ; but this is clearly contiaiy to
the facts of sedimentation, which show a steady movement oi debris toward
the south and south-west.

38S CAUSES OF CLIMATAL CHANGE

We are thus obliged to fall back upon the old Lyellian theory
of geographical changes, with such modifications as recent dis-
coveries have rendered necessary. Taking this as our guide,
we reach at once the important conclusion that the movements
and distribution of animals and plants, however dependent on
climate, altitude and depth, have, when regarded in connection
with geological time, been primarily determined by those great
movements of the crust of the earth which have established
our islands, continents and ocean depths. These geographical
changes have also in connection with animal and vegetable
growth, deposition of sediments and volcanic ejections, fixed
even the stations, soils and exposures of plants and animals.
Thus, subject to those great astronomical laws which regulate
the temperature of our planet as a whole, our attention may be
restricted to the factors of physical geography itself. We
must, however, carry with us the idea that though the great
continents and the ocean depths may have been fixed through-
out geological time, their relative elevations, and consequently
their limits, have varied to a great extent, and are constantly
changing.

We must also remember that something inore than mere
cold is necessary to produce a glacial period. It has sometimes
been assumed that the tendency of an exceptionally cold winter
would necessarily be to accumulate so great a quantity of snow
and ice, that these could not be removed in the short though
warm summer, and so would go on accumulating from year to
year. Actual experience and observation do not confirm this
supposition. In those parts of North America which have a
long and severe winter, the amount of snow deposited is not in
proportion to the lowness of the temperature, but, on the con-
trary, the greatest precipitation of snow takes place near the
southern margin of a cold area, and the snow disappears with
great rapidity when the spring warmth sets in. Nor is there, as
has been imagined, any tendency to the production of fogs and

CAUSES OF CLIMATAL CHANGE 3S9

mists which have been invoked as agencies to shield the snow
from the sun. In North America the melting snow is ordinarily
carried off as liquid water, or as invisible vapour, and the sky is
usually clear when the snow is melting in spring. It is only
when warm and moist winds are exceptionally thrown upon the
snow-covered land that clouds are produced ; and when this is
the case, the warm rain that ensues promotes the melting of the
snow. Thus there is no possibility of continued accumulations
of snow on the lower parts of our continents, under any imagin-
able conditions of climate. It is only on elevated lands in high
latitudes and near the ocean, like Cireenland and the Antarctic
continent, that such permanent snow-clad conditions can occur,
except on mountain tops. Wallace and Woeickoff ^ very pro-
perly maintain, in connection with these facts, that permanent
ice and snow cannot under any ordinary circumstances exist in
low lands, and that high land and great precipitation are neces-
sary conditions of glaciers. The former, however, attaches
rather too much importance to snow and ice as cooling agents ;
for though it is true that they absorb a large amount of heat in
})assing from the solid to the liquid state, yet the quantity of
snow or ice to be melted in spring is so small in comparison
with the vast and continuous pouring of solar heat on the sur-
face, that a very short time suffices for the liquefaction of a deep
covering of snow. The testimony of Siberian travellers proves
this, and the same fact is a matter of ordinary observation in
North America.

Setting aside, then, these assumptions, which proceed from
incorrect or insufficient information, we may now refer to a con-
sideration of the utmost importance, and which Mr. CroU him-
self, though he adduces it only in aid of the astronomical theory
of glacial j^eriods, has treated in so masterly a manner, as

' Von Wfcickoff hns very slron}:;ly put tlicse principles in u Review of
Croll's recent book, "Climate and Cosmology''; A iiwriian Journal of
Science, March, 1SS6.

390 CAUSES OF CLIMATAL CHANGE

really to give it the first place as an efficient cause. This is the
varying distribution of ocean currents, in connection with the
differences in the elevation and distribution of land. The great
equatorial current, produced by the action of the solar heat on
the atmosphere and the water, along with the earth's rotation,
is thrown, by opjiosing continental shores, northward into the
Atlantic and Pacific in the Gulf Stream and Japan current,
giving us a hot-water apparatus which effectually raises the tem-
perature of the wh^le northern hemisphere, and especially of
the wj-.tern sides of the continents. Mr. CroU imagined that
if his astronomical causes could, to ever so small an extent, in-
terisify the action of these currents, or their determination to
the north, we should have a period of warmth, while a similar
advantage given to the southern hemisphere would produce a
glacial age in the north. But this requires us to assume what
ought to be proved ; namely, that the position of aphelion, and
the increase or decrease of eccentricity, would actually so swing
the equatorial current to the north or south. It further requires
us to assume — and this is the most important defect of the
theory — that no change occurs in the distribution of land
and water ; because any important change of this kind might
obviously exert a dominant influence on the currents. Let us
take two examples in illustration of this.

At the present time the warm water thrown into the North
Atlantic, co-operating with the prevalent westerly winds, not
only increases the temperature of its whole waters, but gives an
exceptionally mild climate to western Europe. Still the counter-
vailing influence of the Arctic currents and the Greenland ice,
is sufficient to permit numerous icebergs to remain unmelted on
the coast of Labrador and Newfoundland throughout the sum-
mer. Some of the bergs which creep down to the mouth of
the Strait of Belle-Isle, in the latitude of the south of England,
actually remain unmelted till the snows of a succeeding winter
fall upon them. Now let us suppose that a subsidence of land

CAUSES OF CLIMATAL CHANGE 39 1

in tropical America were to allow the equatorial current to pass
through into the Pacific. The effect would at once be to re-
duce the temperature of Norway and Britain to that of Green-
land and Labrador at present, while the latter countries would
themselves become colder. The northern ice, drifting down
into the Atlantic, would not, as now, be melted rapidly by the
warm water which it meets in the Gulf Stream. Much larger
quantities of it would remain undissolved in summer, and thus
an accumulation of permanent ice would take place, along the
American coast at first, but probably at length even on the
European side. This would still further chill the atmosphere,
glaciers would be established on all the mountains of temperate
Europe and America, the summer would be kept cold by
melting ice and snow, and at length all eastern America and
Europe might become uninhabitable, except by Arctic animals
and plants, as far south as perhaps 40° of north latitude. This
would be simply a return of the glacial age. I have assumed
only one geographical change ; but other and more complex
changes of subsidence and elevation might take place, with
effects on climate still more decisive.^

We may suppose an opposite case. The high plateau of
Greenland might subside, or be reduced in height, and the
opening of Baffin's Bay might be closed. At the same time
the interior plain of America might be depressed, so that, as
we know to have been the case in the Cretaceous period, the
warm waters of the Mexican gulf might circulate as far north as
the basins of the present great American lakes. In these cir-
cumstances there would be an immense diminution of the
sources of floating ice, and a correspondingly vast increase in
the surface of warm water. The effects would be to enable a

' According to Bonney, the west coast of Wales is about 12' above the
average for its latitude, and if reduced to 12' below the average, its moun-
tains would have large glaciers. So near is England even now to a glacial
age.

392 CAUSES OF CLIMATAL CHANGE

temperate flora to subsist in Greenland, and to bring all the
present temperate regions of Europe and America into a con-
dition of subtropical verdure.

It is only necessary to add that we actually know that
changes not dissimilar from those above sketched have really
occurred in comparatively recent geological times, to enable us
to perceive that we can disj)ense with all other causes of change
of climate, though admitting that some of them may have occu-
pied a secondary place. ' This will give us, in dealing with the
distribution of life, the great advantage of not being tied up to
definite astronomical cycles of glaciation, which do not well
agree with the geological facts, and of correlating elevation and
subsidence of the land with changes of climate affecting living
beings. It will, however, be necessary, as Wallace well insists,
that we shall hold to a certain fixity of the continents in their
position, notwithstanding the submergences and emergences
which they have experienced.

Sir Charles Lyell, more than forty years ago, published in
his " Principles of Geology "'"two imaginary maps, which illustrate
the extreme effects of various distribution of land and water.
In one, all the continental masses are grouped around the
equator. In the other they are all placed around the poles,
leaving an open equatorial ocean. In the one case the whole
of the land and its inhabitants would enjoy a perpetual summer,
and scarcely any ice could exist in the sea. In the other, the
whole of the land would be subjected to an Arctic climate, and
it would give off immense quantities of ice to cool the ocean.
Sir Charles remarks on the present a})parently capricious distri-
bution of land and water, the greater part being in the northern
hemisphere, and, in this, placed in a very unecjual manner.
But Lyell did not suppose that any such distribution as that
represented in his maps had actually occurred, though this
supposition has been sometimes attributed to him. He merely
put what he regarded as an extreme case to illustrate what

CAUSES OF CLIMATAL CHANGE 393

might occur under conditions less exaggerated. Sir Charles,
like all other thoughtful geologists, was well aware of the gen-
eral fixity of the areas of the continents, though with great
modifications in the matter of submergences and of land con-
ditions. The union, indeed, of these two great principles of
fixity and diversity of the continents lies at the foundation of
theoretical geology.

We can now more precisely indicate this than was possible
when Lyell produced his "Principles," and can reproduce the
conditions of our continents in even the more ancient periods
of their history. An example of this may be given from the
American continent, which is more simple in its arrangements
than the double continent of Eurasia. Take, for instance, the
early Devonian or Erian period, in which the magnificent flora
of that age, the earliest certainly known to us, made its appear-
ance. Imagine the whole interior plain of North America
submerged, so that the continent is reduced to two strips on
the east and west, connected by a belt of Laurentian land on
the north. In the great mediterranean sea thus produced,
the tepid water of the equatorial current was circulated, and it
swarmed with corals, of which we know no less than 150 species,
and with other forms of life appropriate to warm seas. On the
islands and coasts of this sea was introduced the Erian flora,
appearing first in the north, and with that vitality and colonizing
power of which, as Hooker has well shown, the Scandinavian
flora is the best modern type, spreading itself to the south. A
very similar distribution of land and water in the Cretaceous
age gave a warm and equable climate in those portions of North
America not submerged, and coincided with the appearance of
the multitude of broad-leaved trees of modern types which ap-
peared in the middle Cretaceous, and prepared the way for
the mammalian life of the Eocene.

\Ve have in America ancient periods of cold as well as of
warmth. I have elsewhere referred to the boulder conglomer-

394 CAUSES OF CLIMATAL CHANGE

ates of the Huronian, of the early Lower Silurian, and of the
Millstone grit period of the Carboniferous ; but I have not ven-
tured to afifirm that either of these periods was comparable in
its cold with the later glacial age, still less with that imaginary
age of continental glaciation, assumed by the more extreme
theorists. We know that these ancient conglomerates were
produced by floating ice, and this at periods when in areas not
very remote, temperate floras and faunas could flourish. The
glacial periods of our old continent occurred in times when the
surface of the submerged land was opened up to the northern
currents drifting over it mud and sand and stones, and render-
ing nugatory, in so far, at least, as the bottom of the sea was
concerned, the effects of the superficial warm streams. Some
of these beds are also peculiar to the eastern margin of the
continent, and indicate ice drift along the Atlantic coast much
as at present, while conditions of greater warmth existed in the
interior. Even in the more recent glacial age, while the moun-
tains were covered with snow, and the low lands submerged
under a sea laden with ice, there were interior tracts in some-
what high latitudes of America in which hardy forest trees and
herbaceous plants flourished abundantly, and these were by no
means exceptional " interglacial" periods. Thus we can prove
that from the remote Huronian period to the Tertiary, tlie
American land occupied the same position as at present, and
that its changes were merely changes of relative level, as com-
pared with the sea ; but which so influenced the ocean currents
as to cause great vicissitudes of climate.

Uniformitarian geologists have recently been taunted with a
willingness to assume great and frequent elevations and sub-
mergences of continents, as if this were contrary to their
principle. But rational uniformitarianism allows us to use any
cause of whose operation in the past there is good geological
evidence, and Lyell himself was perfectly aware of this.

While no geologists can fail to appreciate the evidence of

CAUSES OF CLIMATAL CHANGE 395

the power of geographical change in affecting climatal change,
and the fact that such change has occurred at various geo-
logical periods, there are some, and especially those who take
extreme views as to the latest period of cold climate, who
doubt its sufficiency to account for all the phenomena ob-
served. It is instructive, however, to notice that some of
the ablest of these, in default of other probable causes, are
driven to fall back either on agencies of a wholly improbable
character, or to give up the problem as insoluble. Two recent
examples of this deserve citation.

The late Dr. Newmayr, of Vienna, a veteran physical geo-
grapher, in an able discussion of the climates of past ages,
one of his last scientific papers, has fallen back on the hypo-
thesis of a change in the position of the poles.^ His failure
to account for ancient climates by other causes evidently,
however, depends on an inadequate conception of the effects
of geographical changes, along with serious misconceptions
as to the distribution of plants and the characters of vege-
tation at different periods. These points we shall have to
discuss in subsequent pages.

In an address before the American Association, in 1886,
Dr. Chamberlain, one of the ablest American authorities on
the Glacial period, makes the following remarks as to the
causes of the Pleistocene cold : —

"If we turn to the broader speculations respecting the
origin of the Glacial epoch, we find our wealth little increased.
We have on hand practically the same old stock of hypotheses,
all badly damaged by the deluge of recent facts. The earlier
theory of northern elevation has been rendered practically
valueless ; and the various astronomical hypotheses seem to
be the worse for the increased knowledge of the distribution
of the ancient ice sheet. Even the ingenious theory of Croll

* Society for Disseminalioii of Xalnral Science. Vienna, January, 1889.

39^ CAUSES OF CLIMATAL CHANGE

becomes increasingly unsatisfactory as the phenomena are
developed into fuller appreciation. The more we consider
the asymmetry of the ice distribution in latitude and longitude,
and its disparity in elevation, the more difficult it becomes
to explain the phenomena upon any astronomical basis. If
we were at liberty to disregard the considerations forced upon
us by physicists and astronomers, and permit ourselves simply
to follow freely the apparent leadings of the phenomena, it
appears at this hour as though we should be led upon an old
and forbidden trail, — the hypothesis of a wandering pole. It
is admitted that there is a vera causa in elevations and de-
pressions of the earth's crust, but it is held inadequate. It
is admitted that the apparent changes of latitude shown by
the determinations of European and American observatories
are remarkable, but their trustworthiness is challenged. Were
there no barriers against free hypotheses in this direction,
glacial phenomena could apparently find adequate explanation ;
but debarred — as we doubtless should consider ourselves to
be at present — from this resource, our hypotheses remain
inharmonious with the facts, and the riddle remains unsolved."

It should be observed here that the unsolved " riddle " is
that of a continental ice sheet. This, as we have already seen,
is probably insoluble in any way, but fortunately needs no
solution, being merely imaginary. If we adopt a moderate
view as to the actual conditions of the Pleistocene, the geo-
graphical theory will be found quite sufficient to account for
the facts.

Let it be observed here also, in connection with the above
thoughtful and frank avowal of one of the ablest of American
glacialists, that the geographical theory provides for that
" asymmetry "' or irregular distribution of glacial deposits to
which he refers ; since, at every stage of continental elevation
and depression, there must have been local changes of cir-
cumstances; and the same inequality of temperature in identical

CAUSES OF CLIMATAL CHANGE 397

latitudes which we observe at present must have existed, prob-
ably in a greater degree, in the Glacial age.

The sufficiency of the Lyellian theory to account for the
facts, in so far as plants are concerned, may, indeed, be
inferred from the course of the isothermal lines at present.
The south end of Greenland is on the latitude of Christiania,
in Norway, on the one hand, and of Fort Liard, in the Peace
River region, on the other ; and while Greenland is clad in
ice and snow, wheat and other grains, and the ordinary trees
of temperate climates, grow at the latter places. It is evident,
therefore, that only exceptionally unfavourable circumstances
prevent the Greenland area from still possessing a temperate
flora, and these unfavourable circumstances possibly tell even
on the localities with which we have compared it. Further,
the mouth of the McKenzie River is in the same latitude
with Disco, near which are some of the most celebrated
localities of fossil Cretaceous and Tertiary plants. Yet the
mouth of the McKenzie River enjoys a much more favourable
climate, and has a much more abundant fiora than Disco.
If North Greenland were submerged, and low land reaching
to the south terminated at Disco, and if from any cause either
the cold currents of Baffin's Bay were arrested, or additional
warm water thrown into the North Atlantic by the Gulf
Stream, there is nothing to prevent a mean temperature of
45° Fahrenheit from prevailing at Disco ; and the estimate
ordinarily formed of the requirements of its extinct floras is
50°, which is probably above, rather than below, the actual
temperature required.

We thus know that the present distribution of land and
water greatly influences climate, more especially by affecting
that of the ocean currents and of the winds, and by the
different action of land as compared with water in the recep-
tion and radiation of heat. The present distribution of land
gives a large predominance to the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions.

398 CAUSES OF CLIMATAL CHANGE

as compared with the equatorial and with the Antarctic; and
we might readily imagine other distributions that would give
very different results. But this is not an imaginary case, for
we can to some extent restore, on geological grounds, the
ancient geography of large regions, and can show that it has
been very different from that prevailing at present. We
know also that, while the forms and positions of the great
continents have been fixed from a very early date, they have
experienced many great submergences and re-elevations, and
that these have occurred in somewhat regular sequence, as
evidenced by the cyclical alternations of organic limestones
and earthy sediments in the successive great geological periods,
each of which, as may be seen in any geological text book,
presents a dip of the continental plateaus, with subsequent
elevation, as if the land was subject to a series of regular
pulsations.^

Finally, the Lyellian theory tends to abate the tendency to
imagine portentous and impossible climatal changes ; and it
inclines geologists to give more attention to the connection
of palaeo-geography with changes in the life history of the
earth.

References: — "Acadian Geologj'," ist ed., 1S55 ; 4th ed., 1892. Ice-
bergs of Belle-Isle, and Glaciers of Mont Blanc, Canadian Naturalist,
1865. ''Notes on Pleistocene of Canada," Montreal, 1871. Papers
at various dates in the Canadian Nattiralist and Canadian Record of
Science. ''The Ice Age in Canada," Montreal, 1S92. Canadian
Pleistocene, London Geological Magazine, March, 1S83. Elora of
the Pleistocene, Dawson and Penhallow. Bulletin of Geological
Society of America, vol. i., 1890, p. 311.

See "Acadian Geology" — Introduction to the Carboniferous System.

THE DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS

AS RELATED TO GEOGRAPHICAL AND GEOLOGICAL

CHANGES.

DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF MY LATE FRIEND,

MR. GWYN JEFFRIES,

WHO SO ABLY INVESTIGATED THE DISTRIBUTION

OF Oceanic Molluska,

MORE especially IN THE XORTH ATLANTIC.

Changes of Climate and of Land and Water with
Reference to Distribution of Life — Regions of
THE Continents — Insular Faunas and Floras — ■
Their History — Applications to Geology and to
Man — Geological Time — Theories of Introduction
and Migration

S. E,

29

VERTEBRATA.

INVERTEBRATA.

PALEOZOIC MESOZOIC KAlNOZQIC MODERN

DisTRiiiu-iioN cF Animals in Time. (p. 420.)
Vcrtebra'a. — i, Ganoid Fishes; 2, Telioit Fishes; 3, Batrachians ; 4,

Reptiles ; 5, Birds ; 6, Mammals.

Invertehrata. — i, Trilobites, etc.; 2, Worms; 3, Bivalve and I'nivalve

Shellfishes ; 4, Nautiloid Shellfishes ; 5, Cuttlefishes.

It will be noticed that Nos. 2 and 5 in the first table, and 3 and 5 in the

second, follow a different order of curve from the others, indicating their

exceptional culmination in modern times.

CHAPTER XV.

THE DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS

AS RELATED TO GEOGRAPHICAL AND

GEOLOGICAL CHANGES.

ALL are now agreed that to explain the extraordinary and
^ often apparently anomalous distribution of animals and
plants over the surface of the earth, and the occurrence of
like forms in very distant localities, and even on islands
separated by vast stretches of ocean from one another and
from the continents, we must invoke the aid of geology. We
must have reference to those changes of climate and of eleva-
tion which have occurred in the more recent periods of the
earth's history, and must carry with us the idea, at first not
apparently very reasonable, that living beings have existed
much longer than many of the lands which they inhabit,
or at least than the present state of those lands in reference
to isolation or continental connection. To what extent we
may further require to call in the aid of varietal or specific
modification to explain the facts, may be more doubtful ; and
I think we shall find that a larger acquaintance with geological
truths would enable us to dispense with the aid of hypotheses
of evolution, at least in so far as the local establishment of
new generic and specific types is concerned.

One of the most remarkable and startling results of geo-
logical investigation, and one which must be accepted as an
established fact, independently of all theoretical explanations,
is that the earth has experienced enormous revolutions of

402 THE DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS

climate within comparatively late periods, and since the date
of the introduction of many existing species of animals and
plants. To this great truth, in some of its bearings, I have
endeavoured to direct attention in the previous articles. In
the present case it will be necessary to consider these vicis-
.situdes in their more general aspects, and with some reference
to their effects on the distribution of living beings.

The modern or human period of geology, that in which
man and his contemporaries are certainly known to have
inhabited the earth, was immediately preceded by an age of
climatal refrigeration known as the Glacial or Ice age. This
was further characterized not only by a prevalence of cold,
unexampled so far as known either before or since, but by
immense changes of the relative levels of sea and land,
amounting, in some cases, at least, to several thousands of
feet. The occurrence of these changes is clearly proved by
the undoubted traces of the action of ice, whether land ice or
floating ice, on all parts of our continents, half way to the
equator, and by the occurrence of sea terraces and modern
marine shells at high levels on mountains and table-lands.
Perhaps we scarcely realize as we should the stupendous
character of the changes involved in the driftage of heavy ice
over our continents as far south as the latitude of 40°, in the
deposit of boulders on hills several thousands of feet in height,
and in the occurrence of shells of species still living in the
sea, in beds raised to more than twelve hundred feet above
its present level. Yet such changes must have occurred in
the latest geological period immediately preceding that in
which we live. Proceeding farther back in geological time,
we find the still more extraordinary fact that in the middle and
earlier Tertiary the northern hemisphere enjoyed a climate
so much more mild than that which now prevails, that plants
at present confined to temperate latitudes could flourish in

THE DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS 403

Greenland and Spitzbergen.^ The age in which we Hve is
thus one of mediocrity, attaining neither to the Arctic rigour of
the later Pleistocene, nor to the universal mildness of the
preceding Miocene.

The causes of these changes of climate we have discussed
elsewhere. It remains for us now to consider the actual
condition of our present continents, and the bearing of past
conditions on the distribution of their living inhabitants.

In speaking of continents and islands, it may be as well to
remark at the outset that all the land existing, or which
probably has at any time existed, consists of islands great
or small. It is all surrounded by the ocean. Two of the
greater masses of land are, however, sufficiently extensive to
be regarded as continents, and from their very extent and
consequent permanence may be considered as the more special
homes of the living beings of the land. Two other portions
of land, Australia and the Antarctic polar continent, may be
regarded either as smaller continents or large islands, but
partake of insular rather than continental characters in their
animals and plants. All the other portions of land are pro-
perly islands ; but while these islands, and more especially
those in mid-ocean, cannot be regarded as the original homes
of many forms of life, we shall find that they have a special
interest as the shelters and refuges of numerous very ancient
and now decaying species.

The two great continents of .Vmerica and Eurasia have been
the most permanent portions of the land throughout geological
time, some parts of them having always been above water,
probably from the Laurentian age downward, though at various
times they have been reduced to little more than groups of
islands. On them, and more especially in their more northern

^ As I have elsewhere shown, a warm climate in an Arctic region seems
to have afforded the necessary conditions for the great colonizing floras of
all geological periods.

404 THE DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS

parts, in which the long continuance of dayhght in summer
seems in warm periods to have been pecuHarly favourable to
the introduction of new vegetable and animal forms, and to the
giving to them that vigour necessary for active colonization,
have originated the greater number of the inhabitants of the
land.

Regarded as portions of the earth's crust, the continents are
areas in which the lateral thrust, caused by the secular con
traction of the interior of the earth and unequal settlement of
the crust, has ridged up and folded the rocks, producing
mountain chains. This process began in the earliest geological
periods, and has been repeated at long intervals, the original
lines of folding guiding those formed in each new thrust pro-
ceeding from the broad oceanic areas. Along the ridges thus
produced, and in the narrower spaces between them, the
greater part of the sediment carried by water was laid down,
thus producing plateaus in connection with the mountain-
chains, while the weight of new sediments and the removal of
matter from other areas by denudation, have been constantly
producing local depression and elevation. The tendency of
the ocean to be thrown toward the poles by the retardation of
the earth's rotation, alternating with great collapses of the
crust at the equator proceeding from the same cause, along
with the secular cooling, have produced alternate submer-
gence and emergence of these plateaus. This has been
further complicated by the constant tendency of the Arctic and
Antarctic currents, aided by ice, to drift solid materials, set free
by the vast denuding action of frost, from the polar to the
temperate regions, and by the further tendency of animal lile
to heap up calcareous accumulations under the warm waters of
the tropical regions. All these changes, as already stated, have
conspired to modif)' the directions of the great oceanic cur-
rents, and to produce vicissitudes of climate under which
animals and plants have been subjected in geological time to

THE DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS 405

those migrations, extinctions, and renovations of which their
fossil remains and present distribution afford evidence.

Still, it is true that throughout the whole of these great
mutations, since the beginning of geological history, there
seems never to have been any time when the ocean so regained
its dominion as to produce a total extinction of land life ;
still less was there any time when the necessary conditions of
all the various forms of marine life failed to be found ; nor
was there any climatal change so extreme as to banish any
of the leading forms of life from the earth. To geologists it is
not necessary to say that the conclusions sketched above are
those that have been reached as the results of long and
laborious investigation, and which have been illustrated and
established by I.yell, Dana, Wallace,^ and many other writers.-
Let us now place beside them some facts as to the present
distribution of life, and of the agencies which influence it.

Just as political geography sometimes presents boundaries
not in accordance with the physical structure of countries, so
the distribution of animals and plants shows many peculiar
and unexpected features. Hence naturalists have divided the
continents into what Sclater has called zoological regions,
which are, so to speak, the great empires of animal life, divisible
often by less prominent boundaries into provinces. In vege-
table life similar boundaries may be drawn, more or less coin-
cident with the zoological divisions. Zoologically, North
America and Greenland may be regarded as one great region,
the Nearctic, or new Arctic, the prefix not indicating that the
animals are newer than those of the old world, which is by no
means the case. South America constitutes another region — •

1 Wallace, " Geographical Distribution of Animals" and " Lland Life."
Second edition.

■'' The writer has endeavoured to popularize these great results of geology
ill his work, the " Story of the Earth." Ninth Edition. London, 1SS7.
They are often overlooked by specialists, ami by compilers of geological
manuals.

406 THE DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS

the Neotropical. If now we turn to the greater Eurasian con-
tinent, with its two prolongations to the south in Africa and
Australia, we shall find the whole northern portion, from the
Atlantic to the Pacific, constituting one vast region of animal
life, the Palearctic, which also includes Iceland and a strip
across North Africa. Africa itself, with Madagascar, whose
allegiance is, however, only partial, constitutes the Ethiopian
region. India, Burmah, the south of China, and certain
Asiatic islands form the Oriental region. Australia, New
Guinea, and the Polynesian islands constitute the Australian
region. All of these regions may in a geological point oi
view be considered as portions of old and permanent contin-
ental masses, which, though with movements of elevation and
depression, have continued to exist for vast periods. Some of
them, however, seem to have enjoyed greater immunity from
causes of change than others, and present, accordingly, animals
and plants having, geologically speaking, an antique aspect in
comparison. In this sense the Australian province may be re-
garded as the oldest of all in the facies of its animal forms,
since creatures exist there of genera and families which have
very long ago become extinct everywhere else. Next in age to
this should rank the Neotropical or South American region,
which, like Australia, presents many low and archaic forms of
animal life. The Ethiopian region stands next to it in this, the
Oriental and Nearctic next, and last and most modern in its
aspect is the great Palearctic region, to which man himself be-
longs, and the animals and plants of which vindicate their claims
to youth by that aggressive and colonizing character already
referred to, and which has enabled them to spread themselves
widely over the other regions, even independently of the in-
fluence of man. On the other hand, the animals and plants
of the Australian aud South American regions show no such
colonizing tendency, and can scarcely maintain themselves
against those of other regions when introduced among them.

THE DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS 407

Thus we have at once in these continental regions a great and
suggestive example of the connection of geographical and geo-
logical distribution, the details of which are of the deepest in-
terest, and have not yet been fully worked out. One great
principle is, however, sufficiently established ; namely, that
the northern regions have been the birthplace of new forms of
land life, whence they have extended themselves to the south,
while the comparative isolation and equable climate of the
South American and Australian regions have enabled them to
shelter and retain the old moribund tribes.

Those smaller portions of land separated from the con-
tinental masses, the islands properly so called, present, as
might be expected, many peculiar features. Wallace divides
them into two classes, though he admits that these pass into
each other. Continental islands are those in the vicinity ot
continents. They consist of ancient as well as modern rock
formations, and contain animals which indicate a former
continental connection. Some of these are separated from
the nearest mainland only by shallow seas or straits, and may
be assumed to have become islands only in recent geological
times. Others are divided from the nearest continent by very
deep water, so that they have probably been longer severed
from the mainland. These contain more peculiar assemblages
of animals and plants than the islands of the former class.
Oceanic islands are more remote from the continents. They
consist mostly of rocks belonging to the modern geological
periods, and contain no animals of those classes which can
migrate only by land. Such islands may be assumed never
to have been connected with any continent. The study of
the indigenous population of these various classes of islands
affords many curious and interesting results, which Wallace
has collected with vast industry and care, and which, on the
whole, he explains in a judicious manner and in accordance
with the facts of geology. When, however, he maintains that

408 THE DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS

evolution of the Darwinian type is " the key to distribution,"
he departs widely from any basis of scientific fact. This be-
comes apparent when we consider the following results, which
appear everywhere in the discussion of the various insular
faunas and floras : — (i) None of these islands, however remote,
can be affirmed to have been peopled by the spontaneous
evolution of the higher animals or plants from lower forms.
Their population is in every case not autochthonous, but de-
rived. (2) Even in those which are most distant from the
continents, and may be supposed to have been colonized in
very ancient times, there is no evidence of any very important
modification of their inhabitants. (3) While the facts point
to the origin of most forms of terrestrial life in the Palearctic
and Nearctic regions, they afford no information as to the
manner or cause of their origination. In short, so far is evo-
lution from being a key to distribution, that the whole question
would become much more simple if this element were omitted
altogether. A few examples may be useful to illustrate this, as
well as the actual explanation of the phenomena afforded by
legitimate science.

The Azores are situated in a warm temperate latitude
about 900 miles west of Portugal, and separated from it by a
sea 2,500 fathoms in depth. The islands themselves are al-
most wholly volcanic, and the oldest rocks known in them are
of late Miocene age. There is no'probability that these islands
have ever been connected with Europe or Africa, nor is there
at present any certainty that they have been joined to one
another, or have formed part of any larger insular tract. In
these islands there is only one indigenous mammal, a bat,
which is identical with a European species^ and no doubt
reached the islands by flight. There is no indigenous reptile,
amphibian, or fresh-water fish. Of birds there are, exclusive
of waterfowl, which may be regarded as visitors, twenty-two
land birds ; but of these, four are regarded as merely accidental

THE DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS 4C9

stragglers, so that only eighteen are permanent residents. Of
these birds fifteen are common European or African species,
which must have flown to the islands, or have been drifted
thither in storms. Of the remaining three, two are found also
in Madeira and the Canaries, and therefore may reasonably
be supposed to have been derived from Africa. One only is
regarded as peculiar to the Azores, and this is a bullfinch, so
nearly related to the European bullfinch that it may be regarded
as merely a local variety. Wallace accounts for these facts by
supposing that the Azores were depopulated by the cold of the
Olacial age, and that all these birds have arrived since that
time. There is, however, little probability in such a supposi-
tion. He further supposes that fresh supplies of stray birds
from the mainland, arriving from time to time, have kept up
the identity of the species. Instead of evolution assisting him,
he has thus somewhat to strain the facts to agree with that
hypothesis. Similar explanations are given for the still more
remarkable fact that the land plants of the Azores are almost
wholly identical with European and African forms. The in-
sects and the land snails are, however, held to indicate the
evolution of a certain number of new specific forms on the
islands. The beetles number no less than 212 species, though
nearly half of them are supposed to have been introduced by
man. Of the whole number 175 are European, 19 are found
in Madeira and the Canaries, 3 are American. Fourteen
remain to be accounted for, though most of these are closely
allied to European and other species ; but a few are quite dis-
tinct from any elsewhere known. Wallace, however, very truly
remarks that our knowledge of the continental beetles is not
complete ; that the species in question are small and obscure ;
that they may be survivors of the Glacial period, and may thus
represent species now extinct on the mainland ; and that for
these reasons it may not be irrational to suppose that the.se
peculiar insects either still inhabit, or did once inhabit, some

4IO THE DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS

part of the continents, and may be portions of " ancient and
widespread groups," once widely diffused, but now restricted
to a few insular spots. Among the land snails, if anywhere,
we should find evidence either of autochthonous evolution or
of specific change. These animals have existed on the earth
since the Carboniferous period, and, notwithstanding their
proverbial slowness and sedentary habits, they have contrived
to colonize every habitable spot of land on the globe — that is,
unless in some of these places they have originated de novo.
In the Azores there are sixty-nine species of land snails, of
which no less than thirty-two, or nearly one-half, are peculiar,
though nearly all are closely allied to European types. What,
then, is the origin of these thirty-two species, admitting for the
sake of argument that they are really distinct, and not merely
varietal forms, though it is well known that in this group species
are often unduly multiplied. Three suppositions are possible,
(i) These snails may have originated in the islands themselves,
either by creation or evolution from lower forms ; say, from sea
snails. (2) They may have been modified from modern con-
tinental species. (3) They may be unmodified descendants
of species of Miocene or Pliocene age now existing on the
continents only as fossils. As the islands appear to have ex-
isted since Miocene times, it is no more improbable that
species of that or the Pliocene age should have found their
way to them than that modern species should ; and as we
know only a fraction of the Tertiary species of Europe or
Africa, it is not likely that we shall be able to identify all of
these early visitors. Unfortunately no Miocene or Pliocene
deposits holding remains of land snails are known in the
Azores themselves, so that this kind of evidence fails us. In
Madeira and Porto Santo, however, where there are numerous
modern snails, there are Pliocene beds holding remains of these
animals. In Madeira there are, according to Lyell, 36 Plio-
cene species, and in Porto Santo 35, and of these only eight

THE DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS 4II

are extinct. Thus we can prove that many of the peculiar
species of these islands have remained unchanged since Plio-
cene times. While differing from modern European shells,
several of these species are very near to European Miocene
species. Thus we seem to have evidence in the Madeira
group, not of modification, but of unchanged survival of Ter-
tiary species long since extinct in Europe. May we not infer
that the same was the case in the Azores ? These results are
certainly very striking when we consider how long the Azores
must have existed as islands, how very rarely animals, and es-
pecially pairs of animals, must have reached them, and how
complete has been the isolation of these animals, and how
peculiar the conditions to which they have been subjected in
their island retreat.

Other oceanic islands present great varieties of conditions,
but leading to similar conclusions. Some, as the Bermudas,
seem to have been settled in very modern times with animals
and plants nearly all identical with those of neighbouring coun-
tries, though even here it would appear that there are some
indigenous species which would indicate a greater age or more
extended lands, now submerged.^ Others, like St. Helena,
are occupied apparently with old settlers, which may have come
to them in early Tertiary, or even in Secondary periods, which
have long since become extinct on the continents, and whose
nearest analogues are now widely scattered over the world.
Islands are therefore places of survival of old species — special
preserves for forms of life lost to the continents. One of the
most curious of these is Celebes, which seems to be a surviving
fragment of Miocene Asia, which, though so near to that con-
tinent, has been sufficiently isolated to preserve its old popula-

^ Heilprin mentions eleven marine mollusks supposed to be peculiar to the
islands, and eight species of land shells, as well as a few Crustaceans hither-
to found only in the Pacific. The comparisons are, however, admitted to
be Incomplete.

412 THE DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS

tion during all the vast lapse of time between the middle
Tertiary and the present period. This is a fact which gives
to the oceanic islands the greatest geological interest, and
induces us to look into their actual fauna and flora for the
representatives of species known on the mainland only as
fossils. It is thus that we look to the marsupials of Australia
as the nearest analogues of those of the Jurassic of Europe,
and that we find in the strange Barramunda {cerafodus) of its
rivers the only survivor of a group of fishes once widely distri-
buted, but which has long since perished elsewhere.

Perhaps one of the most interesting examples of this is
furnished by the Galapagos Islands, an example the more re-
markable that no one who has read in Darwin's fascinating
" Journal " the description of these islands, can have failed to
perceive that the peculiarities of this strange Archipelago must
have been prominent among the facts which first planted in
his mind the germ of that theory of the origin of species which
has since grown to such gigantic dimensions. It is curious
also to reflect that had the bearing of geological history on the
facts of distribution been as well known forty years ago as it is
now, the reasoning of the great naturalist on this and similar
cases might have taken an entirely different direction.

The Galapagos are placed exactly on the equator, and there-
fore out of reach of even the suspicion of having been visited
by the glacial cold, though from their isolation in the ocean,
and the effects of the currents flowing along the American
coast, their climate is not extremely hot. They are 600 miles
west of South America, and the separating ocean is in some
parts 3,000 fathoms deep. The largest of the islands is 75
miles in length, and some of the hills attain an elevation of
about 4,000 feet, so that there are considerable varieties of
station and climate. So far as is known they are wholly vol-
canic, and they may be regarded as the summits of submerged
mountains not unlike in structure to the Andes of the main-

THE DISTRIIiUTION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS 413

land. Their exact geological age is unknown, but ihere is no
improbability in supposing that they may have existed with
more or less of extension since the Secondary or Mesozoic
period. In any case their fauna is in some respects a survival
of that age. Lyell has truly remarked, " In the founa of the
Galapagos Islands we have a state of things very analogous to
that of the Secondary period.''

Like other oceanic islands, the Galapagos have no indigenous
mammals, with the doubtful exception of a South American
mouse ; but, unlike most others, they are rich in reptiles. At
the head of these stand several species of gigantic tortoises.
This group of animals, so far as known, commenced its exist-
ence in the Eocene Tertiary ; and in this and the Miocene
period still more gigantic species existed on the continents. It
has been supposed that at some such early date they reached
the Galapagos from South America. Another group of Gala-
pagan reptiles, perhaps still more remarkable, is that of iguana-
like lizards of the genus Amblyrhyncus, which are vegetable
feeders, — one of them browsing on marine weeds. They recall
the great iguana-like reptiles of the European VVealden, and
stand remote from all modern types. There are also snakes of
two species, but these are South American forms, and may
have drifted to the islands in comparatively recent times on
floating trees. The birds are a curious assemblage. A few are
common American species, like the rice bird. Others are
quaint and peculiar creatures, allied to South American birds,
but probably representing forms long since extinct on the
continent. The bird fauna, as Wallace remarks, indicates that
some of these animals are old residents, others more recent
arrivals ; and it is probable that they have arrived at various
times since the early Tertiary. He assumes that the earlier
arrivals have been modified in the islands " into a variety of
distinct types "; but the only evidence of this is that some of
the species are closely related to each other. It is more likely

414 THE DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS

that they represent to our modern eyes the unmodified descend-
ants of continental birds of the early Tertiary. Darwin re-
marks that they are remarkably sombre in colouring for equa-
torial birds ; but perhaps their ancestors came from a cooler
climate, and have not been able to don a tropical garb ; or
perhaps they belong to a far-back age, when the vegetable king-
dom also was less rich in colouring than it is at present, and
the birds were in harmony with it. This, indeed, seems still
to be the character of the Galapagos plants, which Darwin
says have "a wretched, weedy appearance," without gay flowers,
though later visitors have expressed a more favourable opinion.

These plants are in themselves very remarkable, for they are
largely peculiar species, and are in many cases confined to par-
ticular islands, having apparently been unable to cross from one
island to another, though in some way able to reach the group.
The explanation is that they resemble North American plants,
and came to the Galapagos at a time when a wide strait sepa-
rated North and South America, allowing the equatorial cur-
rent to pass through, and drift plants to the Galapagos, where
they have been imprisoned ever since. This was probably in
Miocene times, and when we know more of the Miocene flora
of the southern part of North America we may hope to recover
some of the ancestors of the Galapagos plants. In the mean-
time their probable origin and antiquity, as stated by Wallace,
render unnecessary any hypothesis of modification.

Before leaving this subject, it is proper to observe that on
the continents themselves there are many remarkable cases of
isolation of species, which helj) us better to understand the
conditions of insular areas. The "variable hare" of the
Scottish highlands, and of the extreme north of Europe, appears
again in the Alps, the Pyrenees, and the Caucasus, being in
these mountains separated by a thousand miles of apparently
impassable country from its northern haunts. It no doubt ex-
tended itself over the intervening plains at a time when Europe

THE DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS 415

was colder than at present. Another curious case is that of the
inarsh-tit of Europe. This httle bird is found throughout south-
western Europe. It reappears in China, but is not known
anywhere between. In Siberia and northern Europe there
is, however, a species or distinct race which connects these
isolated patches. In this case, if the Siberian species is truly
distinct, we have a remarkable case of isolation and of the
permanence of identical characters for a long time ; for in that
case this bird must be a survivor of the Pliocene or Miocene
time. On the other hand, if, as is perhaps more likely, the
marsh-tit is only a local variety of the Siberian species, we have
an illustration of the local recurrence of this form when the
conditions are favourable, even though separated by a great
space and long time.

The study of fossils gives us the true meaning of such facts,
and causes us to cease to wonder at any case of local repetition
of species, however widely separated. The " big trees " of
California constitute a remarkable example. There are at
present two very distinct species of these trees, both found
only in limited areas of the western part of North America.
Fossil trees of the same genus (Sequoia) occur as far back as
the Cretaceous age ; but in this age ten or more species are
known. Nor are they confined to America, but occur in
various parts of the Eurasian continent as well. Two of the
Lower Cretaceous species are so near to the two modern ones
that even an unbeliever in evolution may suppose them to be
possible ancestors; the remaining eight are distinct, but some
of them intermediate in their characters. In the Tertiary
period, intervening between the Cretaceous and the modern,
fourteen species of Sequoia are believed to have been recog-
nised, and they appear to have existed abundantly all over the
northern hemisphere. Thus we know that these remarkable
Californian giants are the last remnant of a once widely distri-
buted genus, originating, as far as known, in the Cretaceous age

s. E. ^o

4l6 THE DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS

Now had a grove of Sequoias, however small, survived any-
where in Europe or Asia, and had we no knowledge of the
fossil forms, we might have been quite at a loss to account for
their peculiar distribution. The fossil remains of the Tertiary
rocks, both animal and vegetable, present us with many instances
of this kind.

The discussion of the distribution of animals and plants,
when carried on in the light of geology, raises many interesting
questions as to time, which we have already glanced at, but
which deserve a little more attention. As to the vast duration
of geological time all geologists are agreed. It is, however,
now well understood that science sets certain limits to the time
at our disposal. Edward Forbes humorously defined a geolo-
gist to be "an amiable enthusiast who is content if allowed to
appropriate as much as he pleases of that which other men
value least, namely, past time " ; but now even the geologist
is obliged to be content with a limited quantity of this com-
modity.

The well-known estimate of Lord Kelvin gave one hundred
millions of years as the probable time necessary for the change
of the earth from the condition of a molten mass to that which
we now see. On this estimate we might fairly have assumed
fifty millions of years as covering the time from the Laurentian
age to the modern period. The great physicist has, however,
after allowing us thus much credit in the bank of time, " sud-
denly put up the shutters and declared a dividend of less than
four shillings in the pound.'" ^ In other words, he has reduced
the time at our disposal to twenty millions of years. Other
physicists, reasoning on the constitution of the sun, agree
with this latter estimate, and affirm that " twenty nu'lHons of
years ago the earth was enveloped in the fiery atmosphere of
the sun."~ Geology itself has attempted an indei)cndent cal-

' Bonney, Address before British Association, l888.
- Newcomb, Helniholtz, Tait, etc.

THE DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS 417

culation based on the wearing down of our continents, which
appears to proceed at the rate of about a foot in four or five
thousand years, and on the time required to deposit the sedi-
ments of the several geological formations, estimated at about
70,000 feet in thickness. These calculations would give us,
say, eighty-six millions of years since the earth began to have
a solid crust, which would, like Lord Kelvin's earlier estimate,
give us nearly fifty millions of years for the geological time
since the introduction of life. The details of the several esti-
mates made it would be tedious and unprofitable to enter into,
but I may state as my own conclusion, that the modern rates of
denudation and deposit must be taken as far below the average,
and that perhaps the estimate stated by Wallace on data sup-
plied by Houghton, namely, twenty-eight millions, may be not
far from the truth, though perhaps admitting of considerable
abatement.

This reduced estimate of geological time would still give
scope enough for the distribution of animals and plants, but
it will scarcely give that required by certain prevalent theories
of evolution. When Darwin says, " If the theory (of natural
selection) be true, it is indisputable that before the lowest Cam-
brian stratum was deposited long periods elapsed, as long as,
or probably far longer than, the whole interval from the Cam-
brian to the present day," he makes a demand which geology
cannot supply ; for independently of our ignorance of any
formations or fossils, except those included in the Archsean,
to represent this vast succession of life, the time required
would push us back into a molten state of the planet. This
difficulty is akin to that which meets us with reference to the
introduction of many and highly specialized mammals in the
Eocene, or of the forests of modern type in the Cretaceous.
To account for the origin of these by slow and gradual evolu-
tion requires us to push these forms of life so far back into
formations which afford no trace of them, but, on the contrary,

41 8 THE DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS

contain other creatures that appear to be exclusive of them,
that our faith in the theory fails. The only theory of evolu-
tion which seems to meet this difficulty is that advanced by
Mivart, Leconte, and Saporta, of " critical periods," or periods
of rapid introduction of new species alternating with others
of comparative inaction. This would much better accord
with the apparently rapid introduction of many new forms of
life over wide regions at the same period. It would also
approach somewhat near, in its manner of stating the problem
to be solved, to the theory of "creation by law" as held by
the Duke of Argyll, or to what may be regarded as " mediate
creation," proceeding in a regular and definite manner, but
under laws and forces as yet very imperfectly known, through-
out geological time.

It seems singular, in view of the facts of palaeontology, that
evolutionists of the Darwinian school are so wedded to the
idea of one introduction only of each form of life, and its
subsequent division by variation into different species, as it
progressively spreads itself over the globe, or is subjected to
different external conditions. It is evident that a little further
and very natural extension of their hypothesis would enable
them to get rid of many difficulties of time and space. For
example, certain Millipedes and Batrachians are first known in
the coal formation, and this not in one locality only, but in
different and widely separated regions. If they took be-
ginning in one place, and spread themselves gradually over
the world, this must have required a vast lapse of time — more
than we can suppose probable. But if, in the coal-formation
age, a worm could anywhere change into a Millipede, or a fish
into a Batrachian, why might this not have occurred in many
places at once ? Again, if the oldest known land snails occur
in the coal formation, and we find no more specimens till a
much later period, why is it necessary to suppose that these
creatures existed in the intervening time, and that the later

THE DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS 419

species are the descendants of the earher? Might not the
process have been repeated again and again, so as to give
animals of this kind to widely separated areas and successive
periods without the slow and precarious methods of continuous
evolution and migration ? This apparent inconsistency strikes
one constantly in the study of discussions of the theory of
derivation in connection with geographical and geological dis-
tribution. We constantly find the believers in derivation
laboriously devising expedients for the migration of animals
and plants to the most unlikely places, when it would seem
that they might just as well have originated in those places by
direct evolution from lower forms. Those who believe in a
separate centre of creation for each species must of course
invoke all geological and geographical possibilities for the
dispersion of animals and plants ; but surely the evolutionist,
if he has faith in his theory, might take a more easy and
obvious method, especially when in any case he is under the
necessity of demanding a great lapse of time. That he does
not adopt this method perhaps implies a latent suspicion
that he must not repeat his miracle too often. He also per-
ceives that if repeated and unlimited evolution of similar
forms had actually occurred, there could have remained little
specific distinctness, and the present rarity of connecting links
would not have occurred, f'urther, a new difficulty would
have sprung up in the geographical and geological relations of
species and genera, which would then have assumed too much
of the aspect of a preconceived plan. It is only fair to a
well-known and somewhat extreme European evolutionist,
Karl Vogt, to state that he launches boldly into the ocean of
multiple evolution, not fearing to hold that identical species
of moUusks have been separately evolved in separate Swiss
lakes, and that the horse has been separately evolved in
America and in Europe, in the former along a line beginning
with Eohippus, and in the latter along an entirely separate line,

420 THE DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS

commencing with Paleotheriuvi. The serious compHcations
resulting from such admissions are evident, but Vogt deserves
credit for faith and consistency beyond those of his teachers.

With reference to the actual distribution of species, the
question of time becomes most important when applied to
the Glacial period, since it is obvious that much of the pre-
sent distribution must have been caused, or greatly modified,
by that event. The astronomical theory would place the
close of the Glacial age as far back as 70,000 or So,ooo years
ago. But we have already seen in the chapter on that period
that geological facts bring its close to only from 10,000 to
7,000 years before our time. If we adopt the shorter esti-
mates afforded by these facts, it will follow that the submer-
gences and emergences of land in the Glacial ages were more
rapid than has hitherto been supposed, and that this would
react on our estimate of time by giving facilities for more
rapid denudation and deposition. Such results would greatly
shorten the duration assignable to the human period. They
would render it less remarkable that no new species of animals
seem to have been introduced since the Glacial age, that many
insular faunas belong to far earlier times, and that no changes
even leading to the production of well-marked varieties have
occurred in the post-glacial or modern age.

In conclusion, does all this array of fact and reasoning
bring us any nearer to the comprehension of that " mystery of
mysteries," the origin and succession of life ? It certainly does
not enable us to point to any species, and to say precisely here,
at this time and thus it orginatcd. If we adopt the theory
of evolution, the facts seem to restrict us to that form of it
which admits paroxysmal or intermittent introduction of
species, depending on the concurrence of conditions favoural)le
to the action of the i)0\ver, whatever it may be, which pro-
duces new organisms. Nor is there anything in the facts of
distribution to invalidate the belief in creation, according to

THE DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS 42 1

definite laws, if that really differs in its nature from certain
forms of the hypothesis of evolution. We have also learned
that, time being given, animals and plants manifest wonderful
powers of migration, that they can vary within considerable
limits without ceasing to be practically the same species, and
that under certain conditions they can endure far longer in
some places than in others. We also see evidence that it is
not on limited islands, but on the continents, that land animals
and plants have originated, and that swarms of new and
vigorous species have issued from the more northern regions
in successive periods of favourable Arctic climate. The last
of these new swarms or "centres of creation," that with
which man himself is more closely connected, belongs to the
l^alearctic region. We have already seen that in every geo-
logical period, when the submerged continental plateaus were
pervaded by the warm equatorial waters, multitudes of new
marine species appear. In times when, on the contrary, the
colder Arctic currents poured over these submerged surfaces,
carrying mud and stones, great extinction took place, but
certain northern forms of life swarmed abundantly, and \vhen
elevation took place, marine species became extinct or were
forced to migrate. Everywhere and at all times multiplication
of species was promoted by facilities for expansion. The great
limestones of our continents, full of corals and shells of new
species, belong to times when the ocean spread itself over the
continental plateaus, affording wide, untenanted areas of
warm and shallow water. The introduction of new faunas
and floras on the land belongs to times when vast supplies of
food for plants and animals and favourable conditions of
existence were afforded by the emergence of new lands
possessing fertile soils and abundantly supplied with light,
heat, and moisture. Thus geological and geographical facts
concur with ordinary observation and experience in reference
to varietal forms, in testifying that it is not mere struggle for

422 THE DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS

existence, but facilities for easy existence and rapid extension,
that afford the conditions necessary for new and advanced
forms of Hfe. These considerations do not, of course, reach
to the first cause of the introduction of species, nor even to
the precise mode in which this may have acted in any parti-
cular case: but perhaps we cannot fully attain to this by any
process of inductive inquiry. The study of geographical dis-
tribution, therefore, does not enable us to solve the question
of the origin of specific types, but, on the contrary, points to
marvellous capacities for migration and a wonderful tenacity
of life in species. In these respects, however, it is a study
full of interest, and in nothing more so than in the evidence
which it affords of the practically infinite provisions made for
the peopling of every spot of land or sea with creatures fitted
to flourish and enjoy life therein, and to carry on the great
and progressive plan of the Creator.

Referen'CES : — Continental and Island Life, Princeton Revtezv, July, i88i.
Address to American Association, 1883. Papers and Addresses to
Natural History Society, Canadian Nalnralist, Montreal. "The
Story of the Earth and Man," ist ed., 1873, 9th ed., London,
1S87.

ALPINE AND ARCTIC PLANTS IN CONNECTION
WITH GEOLOGICAL HISTORY.

DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF

DR. ASA GRAY,

THE GREATEST AND MOST PHILOSOPHICAL EXPONENT

OF AMERICAN BOTANY.

A BoTANico - Geological Excursion in the White
Mountains — Distribution and Migrations of Al-
pine Plants— 1R.ELATI0NS to the Later Geological
Changes — Bearing on the Vegetation of Earlier
Times

WT'^^^^^:^^

=^'

Mount Washington, from Tuckerman's Ravine, (p. 426.)
(After Filmer, in King's " White Hills.")

CHAPTER XVI.

ALPINE AND ARCTIC PLANTS IN CONNECTION
WITH GEOLOGICAL HISTORY.

The group of the White Mountains is the culminating point
of the northern division of the great Appalachian range, extend-
ing from Tennessee to Gaspe in a south-west and north-east
direction, and constituting the breast bone of the North Amer-
ican continent. This great ridge or succession of ridges has
its highest peaks near its southern extremity, in the Black
Mountains ; but these are little higher than their northern
rivals, which at least hold the undisputed distinction of being
the highest hills in north-eastern America. As Guyot^ has
well remarked, the White Mountains do not occur in the general
line of the chain, but rather on its eastern side. The central
point of the range, represented by the Green Mountains and
their continuation, describes a great curve from Gaspe to the
valley of the Hudson, and opposite the middle of the concave
side of this curved line towers the almost isolated group of the
White Hills. On the other side is the narrow valley of Lake
Champlain, and beyond this the great isolated mass of the Adi-
rondack Mountains, nearly approaching in the altitude of their
highest peaks, and greatly exceeding in their geological age, the
opposite White Mountain group. The Appalachian range is
thus, in this part of its course, supported on either side by out-
liers higher than itself. The dense grouping of mountains in
this region is due to the resistance offered by the old Adiron-

■ Silliman's Journal.

4=5

426 ALPINE AND ARCTIC PLANTS

dack mass to the westward thrust of the Atlantic and the sub-
sequent piHng up against this mass of the ridges of palaeozoic
sediments. Southward of this the Atlantic thrust has driven
these ridges back in a great bend to the westward.

My present purpose is not to give a general geographical or
geological sketch of the White Mountains, but to direct atten-
tion to the vegetation which clothes their summits, and its
relation to the history of the mountains themselves. For this
purpose I may first shortly describe the appearances presented
in ascending the highest of them. Mount Washington, and
then turn to the special points to which these notes relate.

In approaching Mount Washington by the Grand Trunk
Railway, the traveller has ascended from the valley of the St.
Lawrence to a height of 802 feet at the Alpine House at Gor-
ham. Thence, in a distance of about eight miles along the
bank of the Peabody River, to the Glen House, he ascends to
the elevation of 1,632 feet above the sea ; and it is here, or im-
mediately opposite the Glen House, that the actual ascent
begins. The distance from the Peabody River, opposite the
hotel, to the summit is nine miles, and in this distance we as-
cend 4,656 feet, the total height being 6,288 feet above the
sea.^ Formerly only a bridle path led up this ascent ; but now
access can be had to the summit by carriage roads and by rail.

These royal roads to the summit are, however, too demo-
cratic for the taste of some visitors, who mourn the olden days
of ponies, guides and adventures ; and though they give an
excellent view of the geological structure of the mountain, they
do not afford a good opportunity for the study of the alpine
flora, which is one of the chief attractions of Mount Washington,
For this reason, though I availed myself of the new road for
gaining a general idea of the features of the group, I determined
to ascend by Tuckerman's Ravine, a great chasm in the moun-
tain side, named in honour of the indefatigable botanist of the

^ According to Guyot, but some recent surveys make it a little higher.

ALPINE AND ARCTIC PLANTS 427

North American lichens.^ I was aided in this by the kindness
of a gentleman of Boston, well acquainted with these hills, and
passionately fond of their scenery.^ Our party, in addition to
this gentleman and myself, consisted of two ladies, two children,
and two experienced guides, whose services were of the utmost
importance, not only in indicating the path, but in removing
windfalls and other obstructions, and in assisting members of
the party over difficult and dangerous places.

We followed the carriage road for two miles, and then struck
off to the left by a bridle path that seemed not to have been
used for several years — the gentlemen and guides on foot, the
ladies and children mounted on the sure-footed ponies used in
these ascents. Our path wound around a spur of the mountain,
over rocky and uneven ground, much of the rock being mica
slate, with beautiful cruciform crystals of andalusite, which
seemed larger and finer here than in any other part of the
mountain which I visited. At first the vegetation was not
materially different from that of the lower grounds, but as we
gradually ascended we entered the " evergreen zone," and passed
through dense thickets of small spruces and firs, the ground
beneath which was carpeted with moss, and studded with an
immense profusion of the delicate little mountain wood sorrel
(Oxa/is acefose//a), a characteristic plant of wooded hills on
both sides of the Atlantic, and which I had not before seen in
such profusion since I had roamed on the hills of Lochaber
Lake in Nova Scotia. Other herbaceous plants were rare, ex-
cept ferns and club mosses ; but we picked up an aster (A.
acuminatiis), a golden rod {Solidago fhyrsoidca), and the very
pretty tway blade {Li'sfem cofdafa), a species ■' very widely dis-
tributed throughout British America.

* Peck, IVigelow and Booth were the early botanical explorers of the
Wliite Mountains ; though Pursh was the first to determine some of the
more interesting plants, and Oakes and Tuckerman deserve honourable men-
tion, as the most thorough modern explorers.

- Mr. Raymond. ^ L, macropItylLi Pursh (Macoun).

428 ALPINE AND ARCTIC PLANTS

In ascending the mountain directly, the spruces of this zone
gradually degenerate, until they present the appearance of little
gnarled bushes, flat on top and closely matted together, so that
except where paths have been cut, it is almost impossible to
penetrate among them. Finally, they lie flat on the ground,
and become so small that, as Lyell remarks, the reindeer moss
may be seen to overtop the spruces. This dwarfing of the
spruces and firs is the effect of adverse circumstances, and of
their struggle to extend their range toward the summit. Year
by year they stretch forth their roots and branches, bending
themselves to the ground, clinging to the bare rocks, and avail-
ing themselves of every chasm and fissure that may cover their
advance ; but the conditions of the case are against them. If
their front advances in summer, it is driven back in winter, and
if in a succession of mild seasons they are able to gain a little
ground, less favourable seasons recur, and wither or destroy the
holders of their advanced positions. For thousands of years
the spruces and firs have striven in this hopeless escalade, but
about 4,000 feet above the sea seems to be the limit of their
advance, and unless the climate shall change, or these trees
acquire a new plasticity of constitution, the genus Alnes can
never displace the hardier alpine inhabitants above, and plant
its standard on the summit of Mount Washington.

I was struck by the similarity of this dwarfing of the upper
edges of the spruce woods, to that which I have often observed
on the exposed northern coasts of Cape Breton and Prince
Edward Island, where the woods often gradually diminish in
height toward the beach or the edge of a cliff, till the external
row of plants clings closely to the soil, or rises above it only a
few inches. The causes are the same, but the appearance is
more marked on the mountain than on the coast. It is in minia-
ture a i^icture of the gradual dwarfing of vegetation in the great
barren grounds of Arctic America.

On the path which we followed, before we reached the upper

ALPINE AND ARCTIC PLANTS 429

limit of trees, we arrived at the base of a stupendous cliff,
forming the termination of a promontory or spur of the moun-
tain, separating Tuckerman's Ravine from another deep de-
pression known as the Great Gulf. From the top of this
precipice poured a little cascade, that lost itself in spray long
before it touched the tops of the trees below. The view at this
place was the most impressive that it was my fortune to see in
these hills.

Opposite the mouth of the Great Gulf, and I suppose at a
height of about 3,000 feet, is a little pond known as Hermit
Lake. It is nearly circular, and appears to be retained by a
ridge of stones and gravel, perhaps an old moraine or sea beach.
On its margin piped a solitary sandpiper, a few dragon flies
flitted over its surface, and tadpoles in the bottom indicated
that some species of frog dwells in its waters. High overhead,
and skirting the edges of the precipices, soared an eagle,
intent, no doubt, on the hares that frequent the thickets of
the ravines.

Before we reached Hermit Lake we had been obliged to
leave our horses, and now we turned aside to the left and entered
Tuckerman's ravine, where there is no path, but merely the bed
of a brook, whose cold clear water tumbles in a succession of
cascades over huge polished masses of white gneiss, while on
both sides of it the bottom of the ravine is occupied by dense
and almost impenetrable thickets of the mountain alder {A/niis
7'in'dis).

Tuckerman's Ravine has been formed originally either by a
subsidence of a portion of the mountain side, or by the action
of the sea. It is, like most of the ravines and " gulfs" of these
hills, a deep cut or depression bounded by precipitous sides,
and terminating at the top in a similarly precipitous manner.
It must at one period have been in part filled with boulder clay,
steep banks of which still remain in places on its sides ; and
extensive landslips have occurred, by which portions of the limit-

S. E. 31

430 ALPINE AND ARCTIC PLANTS

ing cliffs have been thrown toward the centre of the valley, in
large piles of angular blocks of gneiss and mica slate, in the
spaces between which grow gnarled birches and spruces that
must be used as ladders and bridges whereby to scramble from
block to block, by every one who would cross or ascend one of
these rivers of stones. These "gulfs " of the White Mountains
are similar to the "cirques" of the Alps, and various explana-
tions have been given of their origin. To me they have always
appeared to be of the same nature with the " chines " or bays
with precipitous ends seen on rocky coasts, and which are pro-
duced by the action of the surf on the softer beds or veins of
rock. They testify to the raging of the waves for long ages
against the sides of what are now lofty mountains. This, we
know, must have occurred in the great Pleistocene submergence;
but in mountains so old as those now in question, it may have
in part been effected in previous periods.

At the head of the ravine we paused to rest, to admire the
wild prospect presented by the ravine and its precipitous sides,
and to collect the numerous plants that flower on the surround-
ing slopes and precipices. Here, on the 19th of August, were
several large patches of snow, one of them about a hundred
yards in length. From the precipice at the head of the ravine
poured hundreds of little rills, and several of them collecting
into a brook, had excavated in the largest mass of snow a long
tunnel or cavern with an arched and groined roof. Under the
front of this we took our mid-day meal, with the hot August
sun pouring its rays in front of us, and icy water gurgling among
the stones at our feet. Around the margin of the snow the
vegetation presented precisely the same appearances which
are seen in the low country in March and April, when the
snow banks have just disappeared — the old grass bleached
and whitened, and many perennial plants sending up blanched
shoots which had not yet experienced the influence of the
sunlight.

ALPINE AND ARCTIC PLANTS 43 1

The vegetation at the head of this ravine and on the preci-
pices that overhang it, presents a remarkable mixture of lowland
and mountain species. The head of the ravine is not so high
as the limit of trees already stated, but its steep sides rise
abruptly to a plateau of 5,000 feet in height, intervening between
Mount Washington and Mount Munro, and on which are the
dark ponds or tarns known as the Lakes of the Clouds, forming
the sources of the Amonoosook river, which flows in the opposite
direction. From this plateau many alpine plants stretch down-
ward into the ravine, while lowland plants, availing themselves
of the shelter and moisture of this cul-de-sac, climb boldly
upward almost to the higher plateau. Other species again occur
here, which are found neither on the exposed alpine summits
and ridges, nor in the low country. Conspicuous among the
hardy climbers are two coarse and poisonous w'eeds of the river
valleys, that look like intruders into the company of the more
dwarfish alpine plants ; — the cow parsnip {^Heracleum lanatum)
and the white hellebore ( Veratrtan viride). Both of these plants
were seen struggling up through the ground at the margin of the
snow, and climbing up moist hollows almost to the tops of the
precipices. Some specimens of the latter were crowded with
the infant caterpillars of a mountain butterfly or moth. Less
conspicuous, and better suited to the surrounding vegetation,
were the bluets {Oidenla?idia ca-n/ka), now in blossom here, as
they had been months before in the low country, the dwarf
QOmcM^CorniiS Canadensis), O-wd. the twin flower {Linnccaborealis),
the latter reaching quite to the plateau of the Lake of the
Clouds, and entering into undisputed companionship with the
truly alpine plants, though it is also found at Gorham, 4,000
feet lower.

Of the plants which seemed to be confined, or nearly so, to
the upper part of the ravine, one of the most interesting v/as
the northern painted cup {Caste/kia septcntrionalis), a plant
which abounds on the coast of Labrador, and extends thence

432 ALPINE AND ARCTIC PLANTS

through all Arctic North America to the Rocky Mountains,
and is perhaps identical with the C. Sibirica of Northern Asia
and the C. pallida of Northern Europe. Large beds of it were
covered with their pale yellow blossoms on the precipitous
banks overhanging the head of the ravine. With the painted
cup, and here alone, was another beautiful species of a very
different order, the northern green orchis {Platanthera hyper-
bof'ca), a plant which occurs, though rarely, in Canada, but is
more abundant to the northward. Here also occurred Peck's
geum {G. radiatiim, var.), Arnica mollis, and several other in-
teresting plants.

Of the alpine plants which descend into the ravine, the most
interesting was the Greenland sandwort {Areiiaria {Alsiiie)
Grcvnlandica) which was blooming abundantly, with its clusters
of delicate white flowers, on the very summit of the mountain,
and could be found here and there by the side of the brook in
the bottom of the ravine.

Clambering by a steep and dangerous path up the right side
of the ravine, we reach almost at once the limit, beyond
which the ordinary flora of New England can extend no longer,
and are in the presence of a new group of plants comparable with
those of Labrador and Greenland. Here, on the plateau of the
Lake of the Clouds, the traveller who has ascended the giddy
precipices overhangingTuckerman's Ravine is glad to pause, that
he may contemplate the features of the new region which he
has reached. We have left the snow behind us, except a small
patch which lingers on the shady side of Mount Munro; for
it is only in the ravines into which it has drifted a hundred
feet deep or more, that it can withstand the summer heat until
August. We stand on a dreary waste of hard angular blocks of
mica slate and gneiss that lie in rude ridges, as if they had been
roughly raked up by Titans, who might have been trying to pile
Monro upon Washington, but which seem to be merely the
remains of the original outcropping edges of the rocks broken up

ALPINE AND ARCTIC PLANTS 433

by the frost, but not disturbed or rounded by water.^ Behind
us is the deep trench-like ravine out of which we have cHmbed ;
on the left hand a long row of secondary summits stretching
out from Mount Washington to the south-westward, and desig-
nated by the names of a series of American statesmen. In front
this range descends abruptly in great wooded spurs or buttresses
to the valley of the Amonoosook, which shines in silvery
spots through the trees far below. On our right hand towers
the peak of Mount Washington, still more than a thousand feet
above us, and covered with angular blocks, as if it were a pile
of fragments rather than a solid rock. These stones all around
and up to the summit of the mountain, are tinted pale green by
the map lichen {Lecidea geograp/iica), which tinges in the same
way the alpine summits of European mountains. Between the
blocks and on their sheltered sides nestle the alpine flowering
plants, of which twenty species or more may be collected on
this shoulder of the mountain, and some of which extend them-
selves to the very summit, where A/sine Groenlandica and the
little tufts of deep green leaves oi Diapensia Lapponica with a
few Carices seem to luxuriate. Animal life accompanies these
plants to the summit, near which I saw a family of the snow
bird, evidently summer residents here, instead of seeking the
far north for a breeding place, as is the habit of the species, and
a number of insects, conspicuous among which was a brown
butterfly of the genus Hippanhia. Shortly before sundown,
when the thermometer at the summit house was fast settling
toward the freezing point, a number of swallows were hawking
for flies at a great height above the highest peak. To what

^ Hitchcock lias since found travelled blocks on the summit, beaiing evi-
dence to its submergence under tlie waves of the glacial sea, and to the
grinding of ice floes upon it. Such a fact helps to account for the broken
character of the summit, and also implies that unequal subsitlence of the
land elsewhere referred to, since we know of no agency which could carry
boulders so high as the present mountain top.

434 ALPINE AND ARCTIC PLANTS

species they belonged I could not ascertain. Possibly the cliff
swallows find breeding places in the sides of the ravines,
and rise over the hill top to bask in the sunbeams, after the
mountain has thrown its shadows over their homes.

To return to the Alpine flora which is peculiar to the peaks
of these mountains — are the species comprising it autochthones
originating on these hill tops, and confined to them, or are they
plants occurring elsewhere, and if so, where? and how and
when did they migrate to their present abodes ? These are
questions which must occur to every one interested in geology,
botany, or physical geography.

Not one of the Alpine plants of Mount Washington is peculiar
to the place. Nearly all of them are distinct from the plants of
the neighbouring lowlands, but they occur on other hills of New
England and New York, and on the distant coasts of Labrador
and Greenland, and some of them are distributed over the
Arctic regions of Europe, Asia and America. In short, they
are stragglers from that Arctic flora which encompasses the
north polar region, and extends in promontories and islands
along the high cold mountain summits far to the southward.

Some of the humble flowerless plants of these hills are of
nearly world-wide distribution. I have already noticed the pale
green map lichen which tints the rocks of the Pyrenees, the
Alps, and the Scottish Highlands ; and the curious ring lichen
i^Parmelia cc/itn'fi/ga) paints its conspicuous rings and arcs of
circles alike on Mount ^Vashington and the Scottish hills. A
little club moss {Lycopodiuin sc/ai^o) is not only widely dis-
tributed over the northern hemisphere, but Hooker has recog-
nised it in the Antarctic regions. Not long ago we unrolled in
Montreal an Egyptian mummy, preserved in the oldest style of
embalming, and found that, to preserve the odour of the spices,
(luantilies of a lichen {Ei'crnia fitrfuraced) had been wrapped
around the body, and have no doubt been imported into Egypt
from Lebanon, or the hills of INLaccdonia, for such uses. Yet

ALriNE AND ARCTIC TLANTS 435

the specimens from this old mummy were at once recognised
by Professor Tuckerman as identical with this species as it
occurs on the White Hills and on Katahdin, in Maine. These
facts are, however, easily explicable in comparison with those
that relate to the flowering plants.

The spores of lichens and mosses float lighter than the light-
est down in the air, and may be wafted over land and sea, and
dropped everywhere to grow where conditions may be favour-
able. We can form an idea of this from the fact that the vol-
canic dust, consisting of shreds of pumice, etc., thrown up by
the eruption of Krakatoa, in 1883, was wafted, in a day or two,
round the globe, and remained suspended for months in the
atmosphere. The spores of many cryptogamous plants are
even lighter than volcanic dust. Had the Egyptian embalmer
used some of the first created specimens oi Evcniia fiirfuracea,
it might easily, within the three thousand years or so since his
work was done, have floated round the world and established
itself on the White Hills. But, as we shall see, neither the time
nor means would suffice for the flowering plants. The only
available present agency for the transmission of these would be
in the crops or the plumage of the migratory birds ; and when
we consider how few of these, on their migrations from the
north, could ever alight on these hills, and the rarity of their
carrying seeds in a state fit to vegetate, and further, that few of
these plants produce fruits edible by birds, or .seeds likely to
attach themselves to their feathers, the chances become infi-
nitely small of their transmission in this way. The most profit-
able course of investigation in this and most other cases of
apparently unaccountable geographical distribution, is to incfuire
as to the past geological conditions of the region, and how
these may have affected the migrations of plants.

The earlier geological history of these mountains far ante-
dates our existing vegetation. It belongs, in the first instance,
to the Archaean and early PaLxozoic period, in which the

436 ALPINE AND ARCTIC PLANTS

materials of these mountains were accumulating, as beds of clay
and gravel, in the sea bottom. These were buried under great
depths of newer deposits, and were folded and crumpled by
lateral pressure, baked and metamorphosed into their present
crystalline condition.^ Again heaved above the sea level, they
were hewn by the action of the waves to some degree into their
present forms, and constituted part of the nucleus of the
American continent in the later Tertiary period, when they were
probably higher than now. They were again, witli all the sur-
rounding land, depressed under the sea in the Pleistocene
period, and in the Post-glacial or modern, slowly upheaved
again to their present height. These last changes are those that
concern their present flora, and their relations to it are well
stated by Sir C. Lyell in the following passages from his inter-
esting account of his ascent of Mount Washington in 1840.

" If we attempt to speculate on the manner in which the
peculiar species of plants now established on the highest sum-
mits of the White Mountains were enabled to reach those
isolated spots, while none of them are met with in the lower
lands around, or for a great distance to the north, we shall find
ourselves trying to solve a philosophical problem which retjuires
the aid, not of botany alone, but of geology, or a knowledge of
the geographical changes which immediately preceded the
present state of the earth's surface. We have to explain how
an Arctic flora, consisting of plants specifically identical with
those which inhabit lands bordering the sea in the extreme
north of America, Europe and Asia, could get to the top of
Mount Washington. Now geology teaches us that the species
living at present on the earth are older than many parts of our
existing continents ; that is to say, they were created before a
large portion of the existing mountains, valleys, plains, lakes,

' Wliile the mass of the White Mountains is probably older than the
Silurian, there are beds of mica scliisl wliich contain corals of the genus
Halysites, and stems of large crinoids.

ALPINE AND ARCTIC PLANTS 437

rivers, and seas were formed. That such must be the case in
regard to Sicily I announced my conviction in 1833, after first
returning from that country ; and a similar conclusion is no
less obvious to any naturalist who has studied the structure of
North America, and observed the wide area occupied by the
modern or glacial deposits, in which marine shells of living but
northern species are entombed. It is clear that a great portion
of Canada, and the country surrounding the great lakes, was
submerged beneath the ocean when recent species of molluska
flourished, of which the fossil remains occur about 500 feet
above the level of the sea at Montreal. Lake Champlain was a
gulf or strait of the sea at that period, large areas in Maine were
under water, and the White Mountains must then have consti-
tuted an island or group of islands. Yet, as this period is so
modern in the earth's history as to belong to the epoch of the
existing marine fauna, it is fair to infer that the Arctic flora, now
contemporary with this, was then also established on the globe.
" A careful study of the present distribution of animals and
plants over the globe has led nearly all the best naturalists to
the opinion that each species had its origin in a single birth-
place, and spread gradually from its original centre to all access-
ible spots fit for its habitation, by means of the powers of
migration given to it from the first. If we adopt this view, or
the doctrine of specific centres, there is no difficulty in compre-
hending how the Cryptogamous plants of Siberia, Lapland,
Greenland and Labrador scaled the heights of Mount Washing-
ton, because the sporules of the fungi, lichens and mosses may
be wafted through the air for indefinite distances, like smoke ;
and, in fact, heavier particles are actually known to have been
carried for thousands of miles by the wind. But the cause of
the occurrence of Arctic plants of the Fhcetwgamous class on
the top of the New Hampshire Mountains, specifically identical
with those of remote polar regions, is by no means so obvious.
They could not in the present condition of the earth effect a

43^ ALPINE AND ARCTIC PLANTS

passage over the intervening lowlands, because the extreme
heat of summer and cold of winter would be fatal to them
We must suppose, therefore, that originally they extended their
range in the same way as the plants now inhabiting Arctic and
Antarctic lands disseminate themselves. The innumerable
islands in the polar seas are tenanted by the same species of
plants, some of which are conveyed as seeds by animals over
the ice, when the sea is frozen in winter, or by birds ; while a
still larger number are transported by floating icebergs and field
ice, on which soil containing the seeds of plants maybe carried
in a single year for hundreds of miles. A great body of geo-
logical evidence has now been brought together to show that
this machinery for scattering plants, as well as for carrying
erratic blocks southward, and polishing and grooving the floor
of the ancient ocean, extended in the western hemisphere to
lower latitudes than that of the White Mountains. When these
last still constituted islands, in a sea chilled by the melting of
floating ice, we may assume that they were covered entirely by
a flora like that now confined to the uppermost or treeless
region of the mountains, except in such portions of the period
as were sufficiently cold to clothe their summits permanently in
.'now. As the continent grew by the slow uj)heaval of the land,
and the islands gained in height, and the climate around these
hills grew milder, the Arctic plants would retreat to higher
zones, and finally occupy an elevated area, which probably had
been, at first, or in the Cllacial period, always covered with per-
petual snow. Meanwhile the newly formed plains around the
base of the mountain, to which northern s])ecies of plants could
not spread, would be occupied by others migrating from the
south, and perhaps by many trees, shrubs, and plants, then first
created, and remaining to this day peculiar to North America.''
The time to which the above views of Sir. C. Lyell would
refer the migration of the White Mountain flora, is historically,
very remote. The changes of level which have submerged the

ALPINE AND ARCTIC PLANTS 439

American continent and re-elevated its land have occupied long
periods. Whether, with Lyell, we measure these periods by
the recession of the Falls of Niagara, or by the growth of the
alluvial plain of the Mississippi ; or, with Agassiz, by the exten-
sion of the peninsula of Florida, or endeavour to estimate the
time required for the abrasion and deposition of the great mass
of clay that fills the valley of the St. Lawrence, and allowing
for the reductions of the antiquity of the Glacial period arising
from recent observations and calculations, we cannot suppose
that less than 8,000 or 10,000 years have elapsed since the
Alpine plants of the White Mountains were cut off from all
connection with their Arctic relatives. Their reign upon the
mountain tops not only antedates all human dynasties, but
probably reaches beyond the creation of man himself, and many
of his contemporaries.

Positive evidence of the existence of some of these plants
during a large portion of this lapse of time has actually been
preserved in the Pleistocene deposits of Canada. At (rreen's
Creek, on the Ottawa, in nodules in the clay containing marine
shells, and coeval with the Leda clay of Montreal, there are
numerous remains of plants that have been embedded in this
clay at a time when the Ottawa valley was a bay or estuary, and
when the Adirondack Mountains of New York and the moun-
tains of New England were two rocky islands, separated from
each other and from the mainland on the north by wide arms
of the sea. The plants found in these nodules all appear to be
of modern species. Several of these plants are found on the
AMiite Mountains, and they are all northern or boreal, but
scarcely Arctic, belonging as they do to the southern margin of
the Arctic land species. I have no doubt that further examina-
tion of these deposits will lead to the discovery of additional
examples. This fact, proving as it does the existence of these
species at the period in which the theory of Lyell and Forbes
retjuires them to have migrated, is in itself strong corroborative

440 ALPINE AND ARCTIC PLANTS

evidence. We can say that some of these species were waiting
on the shores of the north, ready to be drifted to the insular
spots to the south-west, and that their seeds were actually being
washed out to sea by the streams which emptied themselves
into the then estuary of the Ottawa.

Another aspect of the inquiry is that which relates to the
reduction of temperature, which might be consequent on the
great depression of the land which we know to have existed
at the close of the Tertiary period, a fact on which I have
insisted in former papers on the Pleistocene deposits of
Canada.^ A very clever writer on the subject of geographical
distribution- has pictured the case of a subsiding continent,
with the fauna and flora of its lowlands becoming gradually
concentrated on the spots which had previously been Alpine
summits, but now reduced to low and temperate islands. But
he has left out of view the fact, that if land still existed in mass
in the Arctic regions, and if the subsidence was that of land in
temperate regions, and if the remaining islands were encom-
passed with cold and ice-laden currents, then, on the principles
long ago so well stated by Sir C. Lyell, these islands might
have a mean temperature far below that of the former plains,
and might, in consequence, be suitable only to such an Alpine
flora as that which they had previously borne.

Now this is precisely what seems to have occurred in the
Pleistocene period. The Arctic land remained in great mass,
detaching into the sea annual crops of icebergs and fields of
coast ice, which have strewed all the northern hemisphere with
boulders : the temperate regions were submerged, except a few
insular spots. These are the very conditions required for a
low mean temperature, both in the sea and on the land, and
these geographical conditions correspond precisely with the
facts as indicated by the fossil animals and plants of the

' Canadian Naturalist, vol. iv. ^ Wollaston.

ALPINE AND ARCTIC PLANTS 44I

period. We must bear in mind, however, that under certain
contingencies the high mountain summits might have been
clad in snow and ice, like Greenland, and the Alpine plants
might have been able to live only on their margins.

Further, it would be easy to show that the Alpine plants of
Mount Washington would thrive under such conditions as
those supposed, at the sea level ; a low and equable tempera-
ture, with a moist atmosphere, being that which they most
desire, and their greatest enemy being the dry parching heat of
the plains of the temperate regions. Those of them, such as
Potentilla tridcntata and A/sine Gromlandica, which occur in
low ground within the limits of the United States, are found
under shaded woods, in damp ravines, or on the moist sea-
coast ; and as we follow the coasts northward, we find these
plants, on these and on neighbouring islands, in lower latitudes
than those in which they occur inland. This is well seen in
Northern New Brunswick and in the south shore of the St.
Lawrence, where several northern species occur in shady and
moist localities. I have, for example, collected Cornus Siiecica
and the Alpine birch in such places. When the summer mists
roll around the summit of Mount Washington, it is in every
respect the precise counterpart of an islet anywhere on the
coast of America, from Cape Breton to the Arctic seas, and
when winter wraps everything in a mantle of snow, all these
lands are in like manner under the same conditions. So, in
the Pleistocene period, though the islets of the White
JNIountains may have experienced a less degree of winter cold,
they must have had very nearly the same summer temperature
as now ; and as this is the season of growth for our Alpine and
Arctic plants, it is its character that determines the suitableness
of the locality to them.

Those stupendous vicissitudes of land and water which have
changed the aspect of continents, and swept into destruction
races of gigantic quadrupeds, have dealt gently with these

442 ALriNE AND ARCTIC PLANTS

Alpine plants, which long ages ago looked out upon a waste of
ice-laden waters that had engulfed the Pliocene land with all
its inhabitants, as securely as they now look down upon the
pleasant valleys of New England. It is curious, too, that the
humbler tenants of the sea have shared a similar exemption.
In the clay banks of the Saco, on the shores of Lake Cham-
plain, and mixed with the remains of these very plants in the
valley of the Ottawa, are shells that now live in the Gulf of St.
Lawrence and on the coast of Maine, intermixed with other
species that are now found only in a few bays of the Arctic
seas. Just as in the Post-pliocene clays of the Ottawa, the re-
mains of northern plants are found in the same nodule with
those oiLeda glacialis, so now similar associations maybe taking
place on the coasts at the mouth of the Great Fish River.
Truly, in nature as in grace, God hath chosen the weak things
of the world to confound those that are mighty, and has left in
the earth's geological history, monuments of His respect and
regard for the humblest of His works.

It is interesting to notice here that Greenland, at the present
time, presents conditions as to vegetation which may, in some
respects, correspond to those of the White Mountains in Pleis-
tocene times. Its flora, though altogether Arctic, contains 386
species, none of which are peculiar to it, but many of them
range quite round the Polar circle. Of those that are not so
generally distributed, some, more especially on the west coast,
are common to Greenland and Arctic America. Others, and a
larger number, more especially on the east coast, are common
to Greenland, Iceland and Norway, between which and Green-
land there may have been a closer land connection than now,
in Pliocene and Post-glacial times.

We look in vain among the Alpine plants, so long isolated in
these mountains, for any evidence of decided change in specific
characters. The Alpine plants, for ages separated from their
Arctic brethren, are true to their kinds, and show little ten-

ALPINE AND ARCTIC PLANTS 443

dency to vary, and none to adapt themselves to new forms in
the sunny plains below. This is especially noteworthy on
Mount Washington and the neighbouring peaks, because the
soil of these is the same with that of the valleys. Several of
the plants peculiar to these hills, as the black crowberry
(^Eiupetnini nigrum)^ for instance, even when otiier conditions
are favourable, shun rich calcareous soils, and affect those of
granitic origin. In many cases the difference in soil is a suffi-
cient reason for the non-occurrence of such plants, except on
certain hills. At Murray Bay, and on the shores of Lake
Superior, the plant above named occurs only on the Lauren-
tian gneiss. In Nova Scotia, its relative. Corona Coiiradi, is
confined to the granite barrens of the south coast. Many such
plants skirt the whole Laurentian range from Labrador to Lake
Superior, but refuse to extend themselves over the calcareous
plains of Canada. But in the White Hills the soil of the
river alluvium is the same micaceous sand that fills the crevices
of the rocks in the mountains, and hence there is no obstruc-
tion, in so far as soil is concerned, to the diffusion of plants
upward and downward in the hills. In like manner there is
every possible condition as to moisture and dryness, sunshine
and shade, in both localities. These circumstances are of all
others the most favourable to such variation as these plants
are capable of undergoing. The case is the same with that
which Hugh Miller so strongly puts in relation to the species
of algae that occur at different distances below high water mark
on the coast of Scotland, each species there attaining a certain
limit, and then, instead of changing to suit the new conditions,
giving place to another. So it is on Mount Washington ; and
this, whether we regard the lowland plants that climb to a cer-
tain height, and there stop, the plants that are common to the
base and summit, or the plants that are confined to the latter.
I have already referred to the evident struggle of the spruces
and firs, and the plants associated with them, to ascend the

444 ALPINE AND ARCTIC PLANTS

mountain, and the same remark applies to all the plants that
one after another cease to appear at various heights from the
lower valleys. One by one they become stunted and depau-
perated, and then cease, without any semblance of an attempt
to vary into new and hardier forms. And this must have been
proceeding, be it observed, from all those thousands of years
that have elapsed since the elevation of the mountains out of
the glacial seas. It is to be observed, also, that the new plants
that occur in ascending, often belong to different genera and
families from those left behind, not to closely allied species;
and in the few cases in which this last kind of change occurs,
there is no graduation into intermediate forms. For instance,
Solidago thyrsoidea and ^. virga-aiirea ^ occur around the base
of the mountain, and for some distance up its sides. At the
height of four to five thousand feet the latter only remains,
and this in a dwarfish condition. This corresponds to its dis-
tribution elsewhere, for, according to Richardson, it occurs in
lat. 55^ to 65° in Arctic America, and according to Hooker, it is
found in the Rocky Mountains, while it also occurs in the hills
of Scotland, and very abundantly in some parts of Norway.
In the White Mountains 6". thrysoidea prevails toward the base,
S. virga-aurea toward the summit ; and at the top of Tucker-
man's ravine I found the former of these golden rods in blos-
som, within a few hundred feet of the latter, each preserving
its distinctive peculiarities. Much has lately been said of the
appearance of specific diversity that results from the breaking
up of the continuity of the geographical areas of plants by
geological changes ; but here we probably have the converse of
this. The mountain species is no doubt a part of the older
Arctic flora, the other perhaps belong to a more modern flora,
and they have met on the sides of the White Hills.

' Macouii thinks that most of tlie specimens referred to tliis species be-
long to the allied form, S. MulHiitaUata^ Ast, which is very extensively dis-
tributed on the mountains of British America and in the Arctic regions.

ALPINE AND ARCTIC PLANTS 445

Some hardy species climb from the plains to heights of
5,000 feet or more, with scarcely even the usual change of
being depauperated, and then suddenly disappear. This is
very noteworthy in the case of two woodland plants, the dwarf
cornel or pigeon berry {Comus Ca?iadensis), and the twin-
flower {Linncea borealis). The former of these is a plant most
widely distributed over northern America, and probably be-
longs to that newer flora which overspread the continent after
its re-elevation. In August this plant in the woods around the
base of Mount Washington is loaded with its red berries. At
an elevation of four to five thousand feet it may be found in
bloom ; above this a i^w plants appear, destitute of flowers,
dwarfish in aspect, and nipped by cold, and then the species
disappears. No doubt the birds that feed on its little drupes
have carried it up the mountain, and have sown it a little
farther up than the limit of its probable reproductiveness.
The beautiful little LinncEa is a still more widely distributed
plant ; for it occurs on the hills of northern Europe, and is
found across the whole breadth of the American continent
from Nova Scotia to the Columbia River. It is almost beyond
question a member of the old Arctic flora which colonized the
islands of the Pleistocene sea, and has descended from them
on all sides as the land became elevated. This plant also
climbs Mount Washington to a height of 5,000 feet, and pre-
sents precisely the same characters on the top as at the bottom,
only losing a little in the length of its stem. Specimens bear-
ing blossoms, and quite in the same stage of growth, may be
collected at the same time on the highest shoulders of Mount
Washington, and on the flats at Gorham. The Lituicca in this
is true to its designation. For, as if it belonged to it to sup-
port the reputation of the great systematist after whom it is
named, it preserves its specific characters with scarcely a tittle
of change throughout all its great range. One cannot see this
hardy little survivor of the Glacial period, so unchanging yet so
s. E. 32

446 ALPINE AND ARCTIC PLANTS

gentle, so modest yet so adventurous, so wide in its migrations
yet so choice in the selection of the mossy nooks which it
adorns with its pendant bells, and renders fragrant with its
delicious perfiime, without praying that we might, in these days
of petty distinctions and narrow views, be favoured with more
such minds as that of the great Swede, to combine the little
details of the knowledge of natural history into grand views of
the unity of nature.

Another plant which, being less dependent on shade and
shdter th.-Tn the Linniza^ mounts still higher, is the cowberr\-
or foxberry ( Vaccinium vitis-Idizd). This, also, is both Euro-
pean and American, and is probably a survivor of the Pleis-
tocene period. It still occurs in at least one locality in the
low country of Massachusetts, and on the coast of Maine. It
is found along the granitic coast of Nova Scotia, and extends
thence northward to the Arctic circle, being found at Great
Bear Lake and at Unalaska. This, too, is a most unchanging
species, and the same statement may be made respecting the
cloudberry {Rubus Chamamorus), the black crowbeny {Em-
petrum nigrum), the Labrador tea {Ledum latifoHum), the
three-toothed cinquefoil {Potentilla indentata), which grows
on the coast of Nova Scotia, and is found m the nodules of
the Ottawa day, the same in every detail as on Mount Wash-
ington, the bog bilberry ( Vaccinium uiiginosum), and the
dwarf bilberry ( V. ccespitosum). Several of these, too, it will be
observed, are berry-bearing plants, whose seeds must be de-
posited in all kinds of localities by birds. Yet they never
occur in the warm plains, nor do they show much tendency
to vary in the distant and somewhat dissimilar places in which
they occur. In the case of most of these species, the most
careful comparison of specimens from Mount Washington
with those from Labrador, shows no tittie of difference. When
we consider the vast length of time during which such species
have existed, and the multiplied vicissitudes through which

ALPINE AND ARCTIC PLANTS 447

they have passed, one is tempted to believe that it is the
tendency of the '" struggle for existence "' to confirm and ren-
der permanent the characters of species rather than to modify
them.

Of the more specially Arctic plants which have held their
ground unchanged on Mount Washington, the following are
some of the principal. Diap€nsia LafponiccL, in beautiful deep
green tufts, ascends quite to the summiL It occurs also in the
Adirondack. Mountains, on Mount Katahdin, in Maine, and on
the summit of Mount Albert, Gaspe (Macoun). It is found
in Labrador, and, according to Hooker, extends north to
"WTiale Island, in the Arctic seas ; but it is not found west of
the Great Fish River. It occurs also on the morm tains of
Lapland, and is described as the hardiest plant of that bleak
r^on. Arenaria {Alsine) GrcEnlandica, the Greenland sand-
wort, adorns with its clusters of white flowers every sandy
crevice in the rocks of the very s-ommit of Mount "Washington,
and is trodden under foot nke grass by the hundreds of care-"
less sightseers that haunt that peak in summer; though I
should add, that not a few of them carry off lirde tufts as a
memento of the mountains, along with the fragments of mica
which appear to form the ordinary keepsakes of unscientific
visitors. It is a most frail and delicate plant, seemingly alto-
gether unsuited to the dangerous pre-eminence which it seeks,
yet it loves the bare, unsheltered mountain peaks, and when it
occurs in the more sheltered ravines, has only its stems a little
longer and more slender. It occurs on the Adirondack
Mountains and on Katahdin, where, if I may judge from
specimens kindly sent to me by Prof. Goodale, it attains to
smaller dimensions than on Mount AVashington, on the Cats-
kiUs, and at one place on the sea coast of Maine. I have not
seen it in Xo\"a Scotia, but it ranges north to Greenland.

Another of the truly Arctic plants is the alpine azalea {Loi~
Sckun'a J>n\T/mofns), a densely tufted mountain shruK with

448 ALPINE AND ARCTIC PLANTS

hard glossy leaves, that look as if constructed to brave ex-
tremest hardships. It is found on the mountains of Norway,
at the height of 3,550 feet on the Scottish hills, according to
Watson, and according to Fuchs, at the height of 7,000 feet in
the milder climate of the Venetian Alps. In America it is
found in Newfoundland, in Labrador, at 4,000 feet on jMount
Albert, Gaspe,' and in the barren grounds from lat. 65" to the
extreme Arctic islands. Gray does not mention its occurrence
elsewhere in the United States than the summits of the ^^'hite
Mountains. A member of the same family of the heaths, the
yew-leaved phyllodoce {F. tnxifolia), presents a still more
singular distribution. It is found on all the higher mountains
of New England and New York, and occurs also on the moun-
tains of Scotland and Scandinavia, but its only known station
in northern America is, according to Hooker, in Labrador.
As many as nine or ten of the Alpine plants of the White
Mountains belong to the order of the Heaths {Ericacece).
Another example from this order is Rhododendron Lapponiciim,
a northern European species, as its name indicates, and scat-
tered over all the high mountains of New England and New
York, occurring also in Labrador, on the Arctic sea coasts, and
the northern part of the Rocky Mountains, and at 4,000 feet .
on Mount Albert, Gaspe (Macoun).

It would be tedious to refer in detail to more of these plants,
hut I must notice two herbaceous species belonging to differ-
ent families, but resembling each other in size and habit — the
Alpine epilobium {E. alpiniim or ahinefolium), and the Alpine
.speedwell ( /vnw/W? alpina). Both are in the United States
confined to the highest mountain tops. Both occur as alpine
northern plants in Europe, being found on the Alps, on the
Scottish Highlands, and in Scandinavia. Both are found in
Labrador and on the Reeky Mountains, and the J'eronica ex-

' >'aco'.in.

ALPINE AND ARCTIC PLANTS 449

tends as far as Greenland. The Alpine epilobium is one of the
few White Mountain plants that have attained the bad emi-
nence of being regarded as doubtful species. Gray notes as
the typical form, that with obtuse and nearly entire leaves, and
as a variety, that with acute and slightly toothed leaves, which
some other botanists seem to regard as distinct specifically.
Thus we find that this little plant has been induced to assume
a suspicious degree of variability ; yet it is strange that both
species or varieties are found growing together, as if the little
peculiarities in the form of the leaves were matters of indiffer-
ence, and not induced by any dire necessities in the struggle
for life. Facts of this kind are curious, and not easily explained
under the supposition either of specific unity or diversity. For
why should this plant vary without necessity ? and why should
two species so much alike be created for the same locality ?
Perhaps these two species or varieties, wandering from far
distant points of origin, have met here fortuitously, while the
lines of migration have been cut off by geological changes ; and
yet the points of difference are too constant to be removed,
even after the reason for them has disappeared. If this could
be proved, it would afford a strong reason for believing the
existence of a real specific diversity in these plants.

I have said nothing of the grasses and sedges of these moun-
tains ; but one of them deserves a special notice. It is the
Alpine herd's grass {Phleum alpinum), a humble relation of our
common herd's grass. This plant not only occurs on the
White Mountains, in Arctic America, in the Canadian Moun-
tains, from the summit of Mount Albert, in Gaspe, to the
mountains of British Columbia, and on the hills of Scotland
and Scandinavia, but has been found on the Mexican Cordil-
lera and at the Straits of Magellan. The seeds of this giass
may perhaps be specially suited for transportation by water, as
well as by land. It is observed in Nova Scotia that when the
wide flats of mud deposited by the tides of the Bay of Fundy,

450 ALPINE AND ARCTIC PLANTS

are dyked in from the sea, they soon become covered with
grasses and carices, the seeds of which are supposed to be
washed down by streams and mingled with the marine silt ;
and fragments of grasses abound in the Post-tertiary clays of
the Ottawa.

It seems almost ridiculous thus to connect the persistence ot
the form of a little plant with the subsidence and elevation of
whole continents, and the lapse of enormous periods of time.
Yet the Power which preserves unchanged from generation to
generation the humblest animal or plant, is the same with that
which causes the permanence of the great laws of physical
nature, and the continued revolutions of the earth and all its
companion spheres. A little leaf, entombed ages on ages ago
in the Pleistocene clays of Canada, preserves in all its minutest
features the precise type of that of the same species as it now
lives, after all the prodigious geological changes that have
intervened. An Arctic and Alpine plant that has survived all
these changes maintains, in its now isolated and far removed
stations, all its specific characters unchanged. The flora of a
mountain top is precisely what it must have been when it was
an island in the glacial seos. These facts relate not to hard
crystalline rocks that remain unaltered from age to age, but to
little delicate organisms that have many thousands of times
died and been renewed in the lapse of time. They show us
that Avhat we call a species represents a decision of the un-
changing creative will, and that the group of qualities which
constitutes our idea of the species goes on from generation to
generation animating new organisms constructed out of difter-
ent particles of matter, 'i'lie individual dies, but the species
lives, and will live until the Power that has decreed its creation
shall have decreed its extinction ; or until, in the slow process
of physical change depending on another section of His laws,
it shall have been excluded from the jiossibility of existence
anywhere en the surface of the rarih, unless we suppose with

ALPINE AND ARCTIC PLANTS 45 I

modern evolutionists that there is a possibility of these plants
so changing their characters that in the lapse of ages they might
appear to us to be distinct specific types. The fact, however,
that the Arctic species have migrated around the whole Arctic
circle, and have advanced southward and retreated to the north,
again and again, without changing their constitutions or forms,
augurs for" them at least a remarkable fixity as well as con-
tinuity.

^Vhile the huge ribs of mother earth that project into moun-
tain summits, and the grand and majestic movement of the
creative processes by which they have been formed, speak to
us of the majesty of Him to whom the sea belongs, and whose
hand formed the dry land, the continuance of these little plants
preaches the same lessons of humble faith in the Divine pro-
mises and laws, which our Lord drew from the lilies of the
field.

It is suggestive, in connection with the antiquity and migra-
tions of these plants, to consider the differences in this respect
of some closely allied species of the same genera. Of the
blueberries that grow on the White Mountains, one species,
Vacciniuni uliginosum, is found in Behring's Straits and
very widely in Arctic and boreal America,^ also in northern
Europe. V. ccespitosum has a wide northern range in America,
but is not European. V. Peniisy/vaiiiciait and V. Caiia-
deiise, from their geographical distribution, do not seem to
belong to the Arctic flora at all, but to be of more southern
origin. The two bearberries {Arctostaphylos uvn-iirsi and
alpifia) occur together on the White Hills, and on the Scottish
and Scandinavian mountains : but the former is a plant of
much wider and more southern distribution in America than
the latter. Two of the dwarf willows of the White Mountains
[Sa/ix repcns and .S'. herbacea) are European as well as

' Macouii, Catalogue of Canadian plants.

452 ALPINE AND ARCTIC PLANTS

American, but S. uva-ursi seems to be confined to America.
Rubus trifloriis, the dwarf raspberry, and R. cha??iaemorus, the
cloud berry, cUmb about equally high on Mount Washington ;
but the former is exclusively American, and ranges pretty far
southward, while the latter extends no farther south than the
northern coast of Maine, and is distributed all around the
Arctic regions of the Old and New ^^'orlds. It is to be
observed, however, that the former can thrive on rich and
calcareous soils, while the latter loves those that are barren
and granitic ; but it is nevertheless probable that R. triflorus
belongs to a later and more local flora. Similar reasons would
induce the belief that the American dwarf cornel or pigeon-
berry {Cor?iiis Canade?isis), whose distribution is solely Ameri-
can, and not properly Arctic, is of later origin than the C.
Suecica,'^ which occurs in northern America locally, and is ex-
tensively distributed in northern Europe.

I can but glance at such points as these ; but they raise great
questions which are to be worked out, not merely by the patient
collection of facts, but by a style of scientific thought very
much above those which, on the one hand, escape such prob-
lems by the supposition of multiplied centres of creation, or
on the other, render their solution worthless by confounding
races due to external disturbing causes with species originally
distinct. Difficulties of various kinds are easily evaded by
either of these extreme views ; but with the fact before him of
specific diversity and its manifestly long continuance, on the
one hand, and the remarkable migrations of some species on
the other, the true naturalist must be content to work out the
problerns presented to him with the data afforded by the actual
observation of nature, following carefully the threads of guid-

' I have found C. Stwcica growing along witli C. Caiiai/ciisis in shaded
and northern exposures on the south side of the St. Lawrence, near Ca-
conna and Metis. Its seeds may have been brought over from Labrador
by migratory birds.

ALPINE AND ARCTIC PLANTS 453

ance thus indicated, not rudely breaking them by too hasty
generalizations.

But it is time to leave the scientific teachings of our little
Alpine friends, and to inquire if they can teach anything to the
heart as well as to the head.

The mountains themselves, heaving their huge sides to the
heavens, speak of forces in comparison with which all human
power is nothing ; and we can scarcely look upon them in their
majesty without a psalm of praise rising up within us to Him
who made the sea, and from whose hands the dry land took
its form. As we ascend them, and as our vision ranges more
and more widely over the tops of wooded hills, along the
courses of streams, over cultivated valleys, and to the shores
of the blue sea itself, our mental vision widens too. We think
that the great roots of these hills run beneath a whole con-
tinent, that their tops look down on the wide St. Lawrence
plain, on the beautiful valleys of New England, and on the
rice fields of the sunny south. We are reminded of the bro-
therhood of man, which overleaps all artificial boundaries, and
should cause us to pray that throughout their whole extent
these hills may rise amidst a happy, a free, and a God-fearing
people.

Our Alpine plants have still higher lessons to teach. They
are fitting emblems of that little flock, scattered everywhere,
yet one in heart, and in all lands having their true citizenship
in heaven. They tell us that it is the humble who are nearest
God, and they ask why we should doubt the guardian care of
the Father who cares for them. They witness, too, of the lowly
and hidden ones who may inhabit the barren and lowly spots
of earth, yet are special subjects of God's love, as they should
be of ours. We may thus read in the Alpine plants truths that
beget deeper faith in God, and closer brotherhood with His
people.

The history of these plants has also a strange significance.

454 ALPINE AND ARCTIC PLANTS

It might have been written of them, " Though the dry land be
removed out of its place, and the mountains cast into the midst
of the sea, yet the Lord will not forsake the work of His
hands " ; for this has been literally their history. In this they
hold forth an omen of hope to the people of God in that once
happy land through which these hills extend, and who now
mourn the evil times on which they have fallen. The moun-
tain plants may teach them that though the floods of strife
should rise even to the tops of the hills, and leave but scattered
islets to mark the place of a united land, their rock is sure, and
their prayers will prevail.^ The power that has waked the storm
is after all their Father's hand. For years a cry has risen high
above these hills : the cry of the bondman who has reaped the
fields and received no hire. That cry is sure to be heard in
heaven, whatever other prayers may go unanswered. An apostle
tells us that it enters directly into the ears of the God of
Sabaoth, and is potent to call down the day of slaughter on
the proud ones of earth. The prayer of the slave has been
answered ; and the tempest is abroad, sweeping away his
oppressors and their abettors. Yet God rules in all this, and
those whom He has chosen will be spared, even like the hardy
plants of the hill tops, to look again on a renewed and smiling
land, from which many monsters and shapes of dread have for
ever passed away.

But last of all, the Alpine flowers have a lesson that should
come near to all of us individually. They tell us how well
natural law is observed, as compared with moral. Obeying with
unchanging fidelity the law of their creation, they have meekly
borne the cold and storms of thousands of winters, yet have
thankfully expanded their bosoms to the returning sun of every
summer, and have not once forgot to open their tiny buds, and
bring forth flowers and fruit, doing thus their little part to the

' This paper was oiiginally written at tlic time wlien tlie Anicriean Civil
War was racinp-.

ALPINE AND ARCTIC PLANTS 455

glory of their Maker and ours. How would the moral wastes
of earth rejoice and be glad, did the sunshine of God's daily
favours evoke a similar response from every human heart !

References: — Paper on Destruction and Renewal of Forests in North
America, Edinburgh PhilosopJiical Journal, 1847-8. Alpine and
Arctic Plants, Canadian Naturalist, 1862. "The Geological History
of Plants," International Scientific Series, 2nd edition, 1891. "The
Pleistocene Flora of Canada," Dawson and Penhallow, BuUetin,
American Geological Society, 1890. Papers on Pleistocene Climate
of Canada, Canxdian Naturalist, 1S57 to 1890.

EARLY MAN.

DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF THE LATE

SIR DANIEL WILSON, LL.D., F.R.S.E.,

a dear and valued priend,

and one of the most eminent and judicious students of

Pre-historic Man both in Europe and America.

Summary of the Story of Early Man — Classification
OF Tertiary Time — Probabilities as to the Intro-
duction OF Man — The Anthropic Age as distin-
guished from the Pleistocene — Its Division into
Palanthropic and Neanthropic — Sketches of Palan-
thropic Man and his Immediate Successors

Four Pre-historic Skulls, (p. 472.)

Outer outline, Cromagno7t ; second, Engis ; third, Camtsfadt ; fourth,
Canadian Hochelagan on smaller scale.

CHAPTER XVII.

EARLY MAN.

THE science of the earth has its culmination and terminus
in man ; and at this, the most advanced of our salient
points, as we look back on the long process of the development
of the earth, we may well ask. Was the end worthy of the
means ? We may well have doubts as to an affirmative
answer if we do not consider that the means were perfect,
each in its own time, and that man, the final link in the chain
of life, is that which alone takes hold of the unseen and
eternal. He alone can comprehend the great plan, and appre-
ciate its reason and design. Without his agency in this respect
nature would have been a riddle without any solution — a
column without a capital, a tree without fruit. Besides this,
even science may be able to perceive that man may be not
merely the legatee of all the ages that lie behind, but the heir
of the eternity that lies before, the only earthly being that
has implanted in him the germ and instinct of immortality.

Whatever view we may take of these questions, it is of inter-
est to us to know, if possible, how and when this chief corner
stone was placed upon the edifice of nature, and what are the
])recise relations of man to the later geological ages, as well as
to the present order of nature, of which he is at once a part,
and its ruler and head. Let us put this first in the form of a
narrative based on geological facts only, and then consider
some of its details and relations to history.

The Glacial age had passed away. The lower land, in great
part a bare expanse of mud, sand, and gravel, had risen from

s, E. «' 33

46o EARLY MAN

the icy ocean in which it had been submerged, and most of the
mountain tops had lost their covering of perennial snow and
ice. 'J'he climate was ameliorated, and the sun again shone
warmly on the desolate earth. Gradually the new land became
overspread with a rich vegetation, and was occupied by many
large animals. There were species of elephant, rhinoceros,
hippopotamus, horse, bison, ox and deer, multiplying till the
plains and river valleys were filled with their herds, in spite of
the fact that they were followed by formidable carnivorous
beasts fitted to prey on them. At this time, somewhere in the
warm temperate zone, in an oasis or island of fertility, appeared
a new thing on the earth, a man and woman walking erect in
the forest glades, bathing in the waters, gathering and tasting
every edible fruit, watching with curious and inquiring eyes
the various animals around them, and giving them names
which might eventually serve not merely to designate their
kinds, but to express actions and emotions as well. When,
where, and how did this new departure, fraught with so many
possibilities, occur — introducing as it did the dexterous fingers
and inventive mind of Man upon the scene ? The last of
these, questions science is still unable to answer, and though
we may frame many hypotheses, they all remain destitute of
certain proof in so iar as natural science is concerned. A\"e
can here only fall back on the old traditional and historical
monuments of our race, and believe that man, the child of
God, and with God-like intellect, will, and consciousness, was
placed by his Maker in an Edenic region, and commissioned to
multiply and replenish the earth. The when and where of his
introduction, and his early history when introduced, are more
open to scientific investigation.

That man was originally frugivorous, his whole structure
testifies. That he originated in some favourable climate and
fertile land is equally certain, and that his surroundings must
liave been of such a nature as to give him immunity from the

EARLY MAN 46 1

attacks of formidable beasts of prey, also goes without saying.
These are all necessary conditions of the successful introduc-
tion of such a creature as man, and theories which suppose
him to have originated in a cold climate, to struggle at once
with the difficulties and dangers of such a position, are, from a
scientific point of view, incredible.

But man was introduced into a wide and varied world, more
wide and varied than that possessed by his modern descend-
ants. The earliest men that we certainly know inhabited out
continents in the second Continental age of the Kainozoic
Period, when, as we know from ample geological evidence, the
land of the northern hemisphere was much more extensive
than at present, with a mild climate, and a rich flora and fauna.
If he was ambitious to leave the oasis of his origin the way
was open to him, but at the expense of becoming a toiler, an
inventor, and a feeder on animal food, more especially when he
should penetrate into the colder climates. The details of all
this, as they actually occurred, are not within the range of scien-
tific investigation, for these early men must have left few, if any,
monuments ; but we can imagine some of them. Man's hands
were capable of other uses than the mere gathering of fruit.
His mind was not an instinctive machine, like that of lower
animals, but an imaginative and inventive intellect, capable of
adapting objects to new uses peculiar to himself. A fallen
branch would enable him to obtain the fruits that hung higher
than his hands could reach, a pebble would enable him to
break a nut too hard for his teeth. He could easily weave a
few twigs into a rough basket to carry the fruit he had gathered
to the cave or shelter, or spreading tree, or rough hut that
served him for a home ; and when he had found courage to
snatch a brand from some tree, ignited by lightning, or by the
friction of dry branches, and to kindle a fire for himself, he had
fairly entered on that path of invention and discovery which
has enabled him to achieve so many conquests over nature.

462 EARLY MAN

Our imagination may carry us yet a little farther with reference
to his fortunes. If he needed any weapon to repel aggressive
enemies, a stick or club would serve his purpose, or perhaps a
stone thrown from his hand,.' Soon, however, he might learn
from the pain caused by the sharp flints that lay in his path the
cutting power of an edge, and, armed with a flint chip held
in the hand, or fitted into a piece of wood, he would become
an artificer of many things useful and pleasing. As he wan-
dered into more severe climates, where vegetable food could
not be obtained throughout the year, and as he observed the
habits of beasts and birds of prey, he would learn to be
a hunter and a fisherman, and to cook animal food ; and with
this would come new habits, wants and materials, as well as a
more active and energetic mode of life. He would also have
to make new weapons and implements, axes, darts, harpoons,
and scrapers for skins, and bodkins or needles to make skin
garments. He would use chipped flint where this could be
procured, and failing this, splintered and rubbed slate, and for
some uses, bone and antler. Much ingenuity would be used
in shaping these materials, and in the working of bone, antler
and wood, ornament would begin to be studied. In the mean-
time the hunter, though his weapons improved, would become
a ruder and more migratory man, and in anger, or in the desire
to gain some coveted object, might begin to use his weapons
against his brother man. In some more favoured localities,
however, he might attain to a more settled life ; and he, or more
likely the woman his helpmeet, might contrive to tame some
species of animals, and to begin some culture of the soil.

It was probably in this early time that metals first attracted
the attention of men. The ages of stone, bronze, and
iron believed in by some arch^ologists, are more or less
mythical to the geologist, who knows that these things depend
more on locality and on natural products than on stages of
culture. The analogy of America teaches us that the use of

EARLY MAN 463

different metals may be contemporaneous, provided that they
can be obtained in a native state. At the time of the dis-
covery of America the Esquimaux were using native iron,
which, though rare in most parts of the world, is not uncom-
mon in some rocks of Greenland. The people of the region
of the great lakes, and of the valleys of the Mississippi and
Ohio, were using native copper from Lake Superior for similar
purposes. Gold was apparendy the only metal among the
natives of Central America. The people of Peru had invented
bronze, or had brought the knowledge of it with them from
beyond the sea. Thus the Peruvians were in the bronze age,
the Mexicans and Mound builders in the copper age, and the
Esquimaux in the iron age, while at the same time the
greater part of the aboriginal tribes were at one and the same
time in the ages of chipped and polished stone and in these
ages what have been called paleolithic and neolothic weapons
were contemporaneous, the former being most usually unfinished
examples of the latter, or extemporized tools roughly made in
emergencies.! How long this had lasted, or how long it would
have continued, had not Europeans introduced from abroad an
iron age, we do not know. It was probably the same in other
parts of the world, in pre-historic times. In any case, the dis-
covery of native metals must have occurred very early. ISIen
searching in the beds of streams for suitable pebbles to form
hammers and other implements, would find nuggets of gold
and copper, and the properties of these, so different from those
of other pebbles, would at once attract attention, and lead to
useful applications. Native iron is of rarer occurrence, but in
certain localities would also be found.'- It must have been

1 "Fossil Men," by llie Aullior. \V. II. Holmes, " Americin Anthro-
pologist," 1890.

^ The rarity of native iron, whether meteoric or telluric, and its rapid
decay by rusting, suft'iciently account for its absence in deposits where im-
plements of stone and bone have been preserved.

464 EARLY MAN

experiments on these ores, which resemble the native metals in
colour, lustre and weight, that led to the first attempts at smelt-
ing metals, and these must have occurred at a very early
period. Yet for ages the metals must have been extremely
scarce, and we know that in comparatively modern times civil-
ized nations like the Egyptians were using flint flakes after they
had domesticated many animals, had become skilful agricultu-
rists and artisans, and had executed great architectural works.

Probably all these ends had been to some extent, and in
some localities, attained in the earliest human period, when
man was contemporary with many large animals now extinct,
l>ut a serious change was to occur in human prospects,
'inhere is the best geological evidence that in the northern
hemisphere the mild climate of the earlier Post-glacial period
relapsed into comparative coldness, though not so extreme as
that of the preceding Glacial age. Hill tops, long denuded of
the snow and ice of the Glacial period, were again covered, and
cold winters sealed up the lakes and rivers, and covered the
ground with wintry snows of long continuance, and with this
came a cliange in animal lite and in human habits. The old
southern elephant {E. antiqiiiis), the southern rhinoceros {E.
leptorhinns), and the river hippopotamus (//. niajo/-), which
had been contemporaries, in Europe at least, of primitive man,
retired from the advancing cold, and ultimately perished,
while their places were taken by the hairy mammoth {E.
/'/i/ziii^i'/iii/s), the woolly rhinoceros (A^ iichorJiimis), the rein-
deer, and even the musk ox. Now began a fierce struggle for
existence in the more northern districts inhabited by man — a
struggle in which only the hardier and ruder races could sur-
vive, except, perhaps, in some of the more genial portions of
the warm temperate zone. Men had to become almost wholly
carnivorous, and had to contend with powerful and fierce
animals. Tribe contended with tribe for the possession of the
most productive and sheltered habitats. Thus the struggle

EARLY MAN 46;

with nature became aggravated by that between man and man.
Violence disturbed the progress of civih'zation, and favoured
the increase and power of the rudest tribes, while the more deli-
cately organized and finer types of humanity, if they continued
to exist in some favoured spots, were in constant danger of
being exterminated by their fiercer and stronger contemporaries.

In mercy to humanity, this state of things was terminated
by a great physical revolution, the last great subsidence of the
continents — that Post-glacial flood, which must have swept
away the greater part of men, and many species of great beasts,
and left only a few survivors to re-people the world, just as the
mammoth and other gigantic animals had to give place to
smaller and feebler creatures. In these vicissitudes it seemed
determined, with reference to man, that the more gigantic and
formidable races should perish, and that one of the finer types
should survive to re-people the world.

The age of which we have been writing the history, is that
which has been fitly named the Anthropic, in that earlier part
of it preceding the great diluvial catastrophe, which has fixed
itself in all the earlier traditions of men, and which separates
what may be called the Palanthropic or Antediluvian age from
the Neanthroj)ic or Postdiluvian. Independently altogether of
human history, these are two geological ages distinguished by
different physical conditions and different species of animals ;
and the time has undoubtedly come when all the speculations
of archaeologists respecting early man must be regulated by
these great geological facts, which are stamped upon those later
deposits of the crust of the earth, which have been laid down
since man was its inhabitant. If they have only recently as-
sumed their proper place in the geological chronology, this is
due to the great difficulty in the case of the more recent
deposits in establishing their actual succession and relations to
each other. These difficulties have, however, been overcome,
and new facts are constantly being obtained to render our

466 EARLY MAN

knowledge more definite. Lest, however, the preceding sketch
of the Palanthropic age — that in which gigantic men were con-
temporaries of a gigantic fauna now extinct — should be re-
garded as altogether fanciful, we may proceed to consider the
geological facts and classification as actually ascertained.

The Tertiary or Kainozoic period, the last of the four great
" times " into which the earth's geological history is usually
divided, and that to which man and the mammalia belong,
was ingeniously subdivided by Lyell, on the ground of per-
centages of marine shells and other invertebrates of the sea.
According to this method, which with some modification in
details is still accepted, the Eocene, or dawn of the recent,
includes those formations in which the percentage of modern
species of marine animals does not exceed 3^, all the other
species found being extinct. The Miocene (less recent) in-
cludes formations in which the percentage of living species
does not exceed 35, and the Pliocene (more recent) contains
formations having more than 35 per cent, of recent species.
To these three may be added the Pleistocene, in which the
great majority of the species are recent, and the Modern or
Anthropic, in which we are still living. Dawkins and (iaudry
give us a division substantially the same with Lyell's, except
that they prefer to take the evidence of the higher animals
instead of the marine shells. The Eocene thus includes those
formations in which there are remains of mammals or ordinary
land quadrupeds, but none of these belong to recent species
or genera, though they may be included in the same families
and orders with the recent mammals. This is a most im-
portant fact, as we shall see, and the only exception to it is
that Gaudry and others hold that a few living genera, as those
of the dog, civet, and marten, are actually found in the later
Eocene. The Miocene, on the same mammalian evidence,
will include formations in which there are living genera of
mammals, but no species which survive to the present time.

EARLY MAN 467

The Pliocene and Pleistocene show living species, though in
the former these are very few and exceptional, while in the
latter they become the majority.

With regard to the geological antiquity of man, no geologist
expects to find any human remains in beds older than the
Tertiary, because in the older periods the conditions of the
world do not seem to have been suitable to man, and because
in these periods no animals nearly akin to man are known.
On entering into the Eocene Tertiary we fail in like manner to
find any human remains ; and we do not expect to find any,
because no living species and scarcely any living genera of
mammals are known in the Eocene ; nor do we find in it
remains of any of the animals, as the anthropoid apes, for in-
stance, most nearly allied to man. In the Miocene the case is
somewhat different. Here we have living genera at least, and
we have large species of apes ; but no remains of man have
been discovered, if we except some splinters of flint found in
beds of this age at Thenay, in France, and some notched
bones. Supposing these objects to have been chipped or
notched by animals, which is by no means certain in the case
of the flints, the question remains, Was this done by man ?
Gaudry and Dawkins prefer to suppose that the artificer was
one of the anthropoid apes of the period. It is true that no
apes are known to do such work now ; but then other animals,
as beavers and birds, are artificers, and some extinct animals
were of higher powers than their modern representatives. But
if there were Miocene apes which chipped flints and cut bones,
this would, either on the hypothesis of evolution or that of
creation by law, render the occurrence of man still less likely
than if there were no such apes. The scratched and notched
bones, on the other hand, indicate merely the gnawing of sharks
or other carnivorous animals. For these reasons neither Daw-
kins nor Gaudry, nor indeed any geologists of authority in the
Tertiary fauna, believe in Miocene man.

468 EARLY MAN

In the Pliocene, though the facies of the mammahan fauna
of Europe becomes more modern, and a few modern species
occur, the chmate becomes colder, and in consequence the
apes disappear, so that the chances of finding fossil men are
lessened rather than increased in so far as the temperate
regions are concerned. In Italy, however, Capellini has de-
scribed a skull, an implement, and a notched bone supposed
to have come from Pliocene beds. To this it may be objected
that the skull — which I examined in 1883 in the museum at
Florence — and the implement are of recent type, and probably
mixed with the Pliocene stuff by some slip of the ground. As
the writer has elsewhere pointed out,^ similar and apparently
fatal objections apply to the skull and implements alleged to
have been found in Pliocene gravels in California. Dawkins
further informs us that in the Italian Pliocene beds supposed
to hold remains of man, of twenty-one mammalia whose bones
occur, all are extinct species, except possibly one, a hippo-
])otamus. This, of course, renders very unlikely in a geological
point of view the occurrence of human remains in these beds.
In the Pleistocene deposits of Europe — and this applies also
to America — we for the first time find a predominance of
recent species of land animals. Here, therefore, we may look
with some hope for remains of man and his works, and here,
in the later Pleistocene, or the early Modern, they are actually
found. When we speak, however, of Pleistocene man, there
arise some questions as to the classification of the deposits,
which it seems to the writer Dawkins and other Ikitish geolo-
gists have not answered in accordance with geological facts,
and a misunderstanding as to which may lead to serious error.
They have extended the term Pleistocene over that Post-glacial
period in which we find remains of man, and thus have split
the " Anthropic " period into two ; and they proceed to divide
the latter part of it into the Pre-historic and Historic periods,
' " l\)ssil Men,"" iSSo.

EARLY MAN ■ 469

whereas the name Pleistocene should not be extended to the
Post-glacial age. The close of the Glacial period, introducing
great physical and climatal changes, some new species of
mammalia and man himself, should be regarded as the end of
the Pleistocene, and the introduction of what some French
geologists have called the Aiithropic period, which I have else-
where divided into Palanthropic, corresponding to the so-called
Palnsolithic age, and Neanthropic, corresponding to the later
stone and metal ages.^ These may be termed respectively the
earlier and later stages of the Modern period as distinguished
from the Pleistocene Tertiary.

In point of logical arrangement, and especially of geological
classification, the division into historic and pre-historic periods
is decidedly objectionable. Even in Europe the historic age
of the south is altogether a different thing from that of the
north, and to speak of the pre-historic period in Greece and in
Britain or Norway as indicating the same portion of time is
altogether illusory. Hence a large portion of the discussion of
this subject has to be properly called " the overlap of history."
Further, the mere accident of the presence or absence of his-
torical documents cannot constitute a geological period com-
parable with such periods as the Pleistocene and Pliocene, and
the assumption of such a criterion of time merely confuses our
ideas. On the one hand, while the whole Tertiary or Kaino-
zoic, up to the present day, is one great geological period,
characterized by a continuous though gradually changing fauna
and series of physical conditions, and there is consequently
no good basis for setting apart, as some geologists do, a
Quaternary as distinct from the Tertiary period ; on the other
hand, there is a distinct physical break between the Pliocene
and the Modern in the great Glacial age. This, in its Arctic
climate and enormous submergence of the land, though it
did not exterminate the fauna of the northern hemisphere,
* " Modern Science in Bible Lands."

470 EARLY MAN

greatly reduced it, and at the close of this age some new forms
came in. For this reason the division between the Pleistocene
and Anthropic ages should be made at the beginning of the
Post-glacial age. The natural division would thus be : — -

I. Pleistocene, including —

(a) Early Pleistocene, or first continental period. Land
very extensive, moderate climate. This passes into the pre-
ceding Pliocene.

{b) Later F/eistocene, or glacial, including Dawkins' " Mid
Pleistocene." In this there was a great prevalence of cold and
glacial conditions, and a great submergence of the northern
land.

II. Anthropic, or period of man and modern mammals,
including —

{a) Palanthropic, Post-glacial, or second continental period,
in which the land was again very extensive, and Paleocosmic
man was contemporary with some great mammals, as the
mammoth, now extinct, and the area of land in the northern
hemisphere was greater than at present. This includes a later
cold period, not equal in intensity to that of the Glacial period
proper, and was terminated by a great and very general subsi-
dence, accompanied by the disappearance of Paleocosmic man
and some large mammalia, and which may be identical with
the historical deluge.

(/>) N^eanthropic or Recent, when the continents attained their
present levels, existing races of men colonized I^uropc, and
living species of mammals. This includes botli the Pre-
historic and Historic periods.

On geological grounds tlie above should clearly be our
arrangement, though of course there need be no objection to
such other subdivisions as historians and antiquarians may find
desirable for their pur[)oscs. On this classification the earliest
certain indications of the presence of man in Europe, Asia, or
America, so far as yet knoivn, belong to the Modern or Anthropic

EARLY MAN 47 I

period alone. That man may have existed previously no one
need deny, but no one can at present positively affirm on any
ground of actual fact. It may be necessary here to explain
the contentions often made that in Britain and Western Europe
man belongs to an interglacial period. When with Dr. James
Geikie, the great Scottish glacialist, we hold that there were
several interglacial periods, the Glacial age may be extended
by including the warm period of the Palanthropic, and the cold
at its termination, as one of the interglacial and Glacial periods.
In this way, as a matter of classification, man appears in the
latest Interglacial periods. This, however, as above stated, I
regard as an error in arrangement ; but it makes no practical
difference as to the facts.

Inasmuch, however, as the human remains of the Post-glacial
epoch are those of fully developed men of high type, it may be
said, and has often been said, that man in sorhe lower stage of
development 7nust have existed at a far earlier period. That
is, he must, if certain theories as to his evolution from lower
animals are to be sustained. This, however, is not a mode of
reasoning in accordance with the methods of science. When
facts fail to sustain certain theories we are usually in the habit
of saying " so much the worse for the theories," not " so much
the worse for the facts," or at least we claim the right to hold
our judgment in suspense till some confirmatory facts are forth-
coming.

We have now to inquire as to the actual nature of the indi-
cations of man in Europe and Western Asia at the close of the
Glacial or Pleistocene period. These are principally such of
his tools or weapons as could escape decay when embedded in
river gravels, or in the earth and stalagmite o( caverns or rock
shelters, or buried with his bones in caves of sepulture. \'ery
valuable accessory fossils are the broken bones of the animals
he has used as food. Most valuable, and rarest of all, are well-
preserved human skulls and skeletons. Some doubt may attach

472 EARLY MAN

to mere flint flakes, in tlie absence of other remains ; but the
other indications above referred to are indisputable, and when
proper precautions are taken to notice the succession of beds,
and to eUminate the effects of any later disturbance of the de-
posits, human fossils become as instructive and indisputable as
any others.

When the whole of the facts thus available are put together,
we find that the earliest men of whom we have osseous remains,
and who, undoubtedly, inhabited Europe and Western Asia in
the second continental period, before the establishment of the
present geography, and before the disappearance of the mam-
moth and its companions, were of two races or subraces, agree-
ing in certain respects, differing in others. Both have long or
dolichocephalic heads, and seem to have been men of great
strength and muscular energy, with somewhat coarse counte-
nances of Mongolian type, and they seem to have been of
roving habits, living as hunters and fishermen in a semi-barbar-
ous condition, but showing some artistic skill and taste in their
carvings on bone and other ornaments.

-The earliest of the two races locally, though, on the whole,
they were contemporaneous, is that known as the Cannstadt or
Neanderthal people, who are characterized by a low forehead,
with beetling brows, massive limb bones and moderate stature.
So far as known they were the ruder and less artistic of the two
races. The other, the Engis or Cromagnon race, was of higher
type, with well-formed and capacious skull, and a countenance
which, if somewhat broad, with high cheek bones, eyes length-
ened laterally, and heavy lower jaw, must have been of some-
what grand and impressive features. These men are of great
stature, some examples being seven feet in height, and with
massive bones, having strong muscular impressions. The Engis
skull found in a cave in Belgium, with bones of the mammoth,
the skeletons of the Cromagnon cave in the valley of the Vezere,
in France, and those of the caves of Mentonc, in Italy, repre-

EARLY MAN 473

sent this race. Doubts, it is true, have been entertained as to
whether the last mentioned race is really palanthropic ; but the
latest facts as to their mode of occurrence and associations
seem to render this certain. These men were certainly contem-
poraneous with the mammoth, and they disappeared in the
cataclysm which closed the earlier anthropic period. Attempts
have, however, been made to separate them into groups ac-
cording to age, within this period ; ^ and there can be no doubt
that both in France and England the lower and older strata
of gravels and caves yield ruder and less perfect implements
than the higher. Independently, however, of the fact that the
very earliest men may have been peaceful gatherers of fruit, and
not hunters or warriors, having need of lethal weapons, such
facts may rather testify to local improvement in the condition
of certain tribes than to any change of race. Such local im-
provement would be very likely to occur wherever a new
locality was taken possession of by a small and wandering
tribe, which, in process of time, might increase in numbers
and in wealth, as well as in means of intercourse with other
tribes. A similar succession would occur when caves, used
at first as temporary places of rendezvous by savage tribes,
became afterwards places of residence, or were acquired by
conquest on the part of tribes a little more advanced, in the
manner in which such changes are constantly taking place in
rude communities.

Yet on facts of this nature have been built extensive generali-
zations as to a race of river-drift men, in a low and savage con-
dition, replaced, after the lapse of ages, by a people somewhat
more advanced in the arts, and specially addicted to a cavern
life ; and this conclusion is extended to Europe and Asia, so
that in every case where rude flint implements exist in river
gravels, evidence is supposed to be found of the earlier of these
races. But no physical break separates the two periods ; the
' Morlillet, " Pic-hisloric Men."

474 EARLY MAN

fauna remained the same ; the skulls, so far as known, present
little difference ; and even in works of art the distinction is in-
validated by grave exceptions, which are intensified by the fact,
which the writer has elsewhere illustrated, that in the case of
the same people their residences in caves, etc., and their places
of burial are likely to contain very different objects from those
which they leave in river gravels.

It is admitted that the whole of these Palaeocosmic men are
racially distinct from modern men, though most nearly allied
in physical characters to some of the Mongoloid races of the
northern regions. Some of their characters also appear in the
native races of America, and occasional cases occur, when even
the characters of the Cannstadt skull reappear in modern times.
The skull of the great Scottish king Robert Bruce was of this
type ; and his indomitable energy and governing power may
have been connected with this fact. Attempts have even been
made ^ to show an intimate connection between the cave men
and the Esquimaux of Greenland and Arctic America, but, as
Wilson has well shown, ^ this is not borne out by their cranial'
characters, and the resemblances, such as they are, in arts and
implements, are common to the Esquimaux and many other
American tribes. In many respects, however, the arts and
mode of life, as well as some of the physical characters of the
Palaeocosmic men of Europe were near akin to those of the
ruder native races of America.

Perhaps one of the most curious examples of this is the cave
at Sorde, in the western Pyrenees. On the floor of this cave
lay a human skeleton, covered with fallen blocks of stone.
With it were found forty canine teeth of the bear, and three of
the lion, perforated for suspension, and several of these teeth
are skilfully engraved with figures of animals, one bearing the
engraved figure of an embroidered glove. This necklace, no

* Dawkins, " Early Man in Britain."

* Address to Anthropological section of the American Association, 1SS2.

EARLY MAN 475

doubt just such a trophy of the chase as would now be worn by
a red Indian hunter, though more elaborate, must have belonged
to the owner of the skull, who would appear to have perished
by a fall of rock, or to have had his body covered after death
with stones. In the deposit near and under these remains
were flint flakes. Above the skull were several feet of refuse,
stones, and bones of the horse, reindeer, etc., and " Paleolithic"
flint implements, and above all were placed the remains of
thirty skulls and skeletons with beautifully chipped flint imple-
ments, some of them as fine as any of later age. After the
burial of these the cave seems to have been finally closed with
large stones. The French explorers of this cave refer the lower
and upper skulls to the same race, that of Cromagnon ; but
others consider the upper remains as "Neolithic," though there
is no reason why a man who possessed a necklace of beautifully
carved teeth should not have belonged to a tribe which used
well-made stone implements, or why the weapons buried with
the dead should have been no better than the chips and flakes
left by the same people in their rubbish heaps. In any case
the interment — and this applies also to the Mentone caves — ■
recalls the habits of American aborigines. In some of these
cases we have even deposits of red oxide of iron, representing
the war paint of the ancient hunter.

Widely different opinions have been held by archaeologists
as to the connection of the Palanthropic and Neanthropic ages.
It suits the present evolutionist and exaggerated unlformitarian-
ism of our day to take for granted that the two are continuous,
and pass into each other. But there are stubborn facts against
this conclusion. Let us take, for example, the area represented
by the British Islands and the neighbouring continent. In the
earlier period Britain was a part of the mainland, and was occu-
pied by the mammoth, the woolly rhinoceros, and other
animals, now locally or wholly extinct. The human inhabit-
ants were of a large-bodied and coarse race not now found

S. E. 34

476 EARLY MAN

anywhere. In the later period all this is changed. Britain
has become an island. Its gigantic Post-glacial fauna has dis-
appeared. Its human inhabitants are now small in stature and
delicate in feature, and represented to this day by parts of the
population of the south of Wales and Ireland. They buried
their dead in the peculiar cemeteries known as long barrows,
and their implements and weapons are of a new type, previously
unknown. All this shows a great interval of physical and
organic mutation. In connection with this we have the high-
level gravel and rubble, which Prestwich has shown to belong
to this stage, and which proves a subsidence even greater than
that to be inferred from the present diminution of the land
area. Knowing as we do that the close of the Glacial period
was not more than 8,000 years ago, and deducting from this
the probable duration of the Palanthropic age on the one hand,
and that of modern history on the other, we must admit that
the. interval left for the great physical andfaunal changes above
referred to is too small to permit them to have occurred as the
re;sult of slow and gradual operations. Considerations of this
kind have indeed some of the best authorities on the subject,
as Cartailhac, Forel, and de IMortillet, to hold that there is
"an immense space, a great gap, during which the fauna was
renewed, and after which a new race of men suddenly made its
appearance, and polished stone instead of chipping it, and sur-
rounded themselves with domestic animals."^ There is thus, in
the geological history of man an interval of physical and organic
change, corresponding to that traditional and historical deluge
which has left its memory with all the more ancient nations.
Thus our men of the Palanthropic, Post-glacial or Mammoth
age are the same we have been accustomed to call Antediluvians,
and their immediate successors are identical with the Basques

^ Quatrefages, "The Human Species." The interval should not, how-
ever, be placed after the reindeer period, as this animal occurs in both
ages.

EARLY MAN 477

and ancient Iberians, a non-Aryan or Turanian people who
once possessed nearly the whole of Europe, and included the
rude Ugrians and Laps of the north, the civilized Etruscans of
the south, and the Iberians of the west, with allied tribes occu-
pying the British Islands. This race, scattered and overthrown
before the dawn of authentic history in Europe by the Celts
and other intrusive peoples, was unquestionably that which
succeeded the now extinct Palsocosmic race, and constituted
the men of the so-called " Neolithic period," which thus con-
nects itself with the modern history of Europe, from which it
is not separated by any physical catastrophe like that which
divides the older men of the mammoth age and the widely
spread continents of the Post-glacial period from our modern
days. This identification of the Neolithic men with the
Iberians, which the writer has also insisted on, Dawkins de-
serves credit for fully elucidating, and he might have carried it
farther, to the identification of these same Iberians with the
Berbers, theGuanches of the Canary Islands, and the Caribbean
and other tribes of eastern and central America. On these
hitherto dark subjects light is now rapidly breaking, and we
may hope that much of the present obscurity will soon be
cleared away.

Supposing, then, that we may apply the term Anthropic to
that portion of the Kainozoic period which intervenes between
the close of the Glacial age and the present time, and that we
admit the division of this into two portions, the earlier, called
the Palanthropic, and the later, which still continues, the Nean-
thropic, it will follow that one great physical and organic break
separates the Palanthropic age from the preceding Glacial, and
a second similar break separates the two divisions of the An-
thropic from each other. This being settled, if we allow say
2,500 years from the Glacial age for the first peopling of the
world and the Palanthropic age, and if we consider the modern
history of the European region and the adjoining parts of Asia

47^ EARLY MAN

and Africa to go back for 5,000 years, there will remain a space
of from 500 to 1,000 years for the destruction of the Palaeo-
cosmic men and the re-peopling of the old continent by such
survivors as founded the Neocosmic peoples. These later
peoples, though distinct racially from their predecessors, may
represent a race contemporary with them in some regions in
which it was possible to survive the great cataclysm, so that we
do not need to ask for time to develop such new race.^

We cannot but feel some regret that the grand old Pala^o-
cosmic race was destined to be swept away by the flood, but it
was no doubt better for the world that it should be replaced by
a more refined if feebler race. When we see how this has, in
some of its forms, reverted to the old type, and emulated, if not
surpassed it in filling the earth with violence, we may, perhaps,
congratulate ourselves on the extinction of the giant races of the
olden time.

References : — " Fossil Men," London, 18S0. The Antiquity of Man,
Princeton Kevieiv. " Pre-liistoric ALin in Egypt and the Lebanon,"
Trans. Vict. Institute, 1884. Pre-historic Times in Egypt and Palestine,
North American Kivinv^ June and July, 1S92.

' For details of the physical characters of the older races of men I may
refer to the works mentioned below, or to the writings of Dawkins anil
Quatrefages.

MAN IN NATURE.

DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF

MY DEAR FRIEND DR. P. P. CARPENTER,

at once an eminent naturalist and

Educator —

equally a lover of nature,

OF HIS Fellow Men and of God,

What is Nature — Man a part of Nature — Distinction
BETWEEN Man and other Animals — Man as an
Imitator of Nature — Man as at War with Nature
— Man in Harmony with Nature

Carving ok the rALANTiiRoru- Agf. — Cave of Mas d'Azil, France ;
after Carlailliac.

Heads of the wild horse, carved on antler of the reindeer, and showing
accurate imitation of nature, with ideal and adaptive art on the part of the
antediluvian sculptor. (See p. 490.)

CHAPTER XVIIl.

MAN IN NA TURE.

FF-W words are used among us more loosely than "nature."
Sometimes it stands for the material universe as a whole.
Sometimes it is personified as a sort of goddess, working her
own sweet will with material things. Sometimes it expresses
the forces which act on matter, and again it stands for material
things themselves. It is spoken of as subject to law, but just
as often natural law is referred to in terms which imply that
nature itself is the lawgiver. It is supposed to be opposed to
the equally vague term "supernatural" ; but this term is used
not merely to denote things above and beyond nature, if there
are such, but certain opinions held respecting natural things.
On the other hand, the natural is contrasted with the artificial,
though this is always the outcome of natural powers, and is
certainly not supernatural. Again, it is applied to the inherent
properties of beings for which we are unable to account, and
which we are content to say constitute their nature. We can-
not look into the works of any of the more speculative writers
of the day without meeting with all these uses of the word, and
have to be constantly on our guard lest by a change of its
meaning we shall be led to assent to some proposition alto-
gether unfounded.

For illustrations of this convenient though dangerous ambi-
guity, I may turn at random to almost any page in Darwin's
celebrated work on the "Origin of Species." In the beginning
of Chapter III. he speaks of animals " in a state of nature ''

482 MAN IN NATURE

that is, not in a domesticated or artificial condition, so that here
nature is opposed to the devices of man. Then he speaks of
species as "arising in nature,'' that is, spontaneously produced
in the midst of certain external conditions or environment out-
side of the organic world. A little farther on he speaks of use-
ful varieties as given to man by " the hand of Nature," which
here becomes an imaginary person ; and it is worthy of notice
that in this place the printer or proof-reader has given the word
an initial capital, as if a proper name. In the next section he
speaks of the " works of Nature " as superior to those of art.
Here the word is not only opposed to the artificial, but seems
to imply some power above material things and comparable
with or excelling the contriving intelligence of man. I do not
mean by these examples to imply that Darwin is in this respect
more inaccurate than other writers. On the contrary, he is
greatly surpassed by many of his contemporaries in the varied
and fixntastic uses of this versatile word. An illustration which
occurs to me here, as at once amusing and instructive, is an
expression used by Romanes, one of the cleverest of the fol-
lowers of the great evolutionist, and which appears to him to
give a satisfactory explanation of the mystery of elevation in
nature. He says, " Nature selects the best individuals out of
each generation to live." Here nature must be an intelligent
agent, or the statement is simply nonsensical. The same alter-
native applies to much of the use of the favourite term " natural
selection." In short, those who use such modes of expression
would be more consistent if they were at once to come back to
the definition of Seneca, that nature is " a certain divine purpose
manifested in the world."

The derivation of the word gives us the idea of something
produced or becoming, and it is curious that the Greek p/iysis,
though etymologically distinct, conveys the same meaning — a
coincidence which may perhaps lead us to a safe and service-
able definition. Nature, rightly understood, is, in short, an

MAN IN NATURE 483

orderly system of things in time and space, and this not invari-
able, but in a state of constant movement and progress, whereby
it is always becoming something different from what it was.
Now man is placed in the midst of this orderly, law-regulated
yet ever progressive system, and is himself a part of it ; and if
we can understand his real relations to its other parts, we shall
have made some approximation to a true philosophy. The
subject has been often discussed, but is perhaps not yet quite
exhausted.^

Regarding man as a part of nature, we must hold to his
entering into the grand unity of the natural system, and must
not set up imaginary antagonisms between man and nature as
if he were outside of it. An instance of this appears in Tyn-
dall's celebrated Belfast address, where he says, in explanation
of the errors of certain of the older philosophers, that "the ex-
periences which formed the weft and woof of their theories were
chosen not from the study of nature, but from that which lay
much nearer to them — the observation of Man ": a statement
this which would make man a supernatural, or at least a preter-
natural being. Again, it does not follow, because man is a part
of nature, that he must be precisely on a level with its other
parts. There are in nature many planes of existence, and man
is no doubt on one of its higher planes, and possesses distin-
guishing powers and properties of his own. Nature, like a per-
fect organism, is not all eye or all hand, but includes various
organs, and so far as we see it in our planet, man is its head,
though wc can easily conceive that there may be higher beings
in other parts of the universe beyond our ken.

The view which we may take of man's position relatively to
the beings which are nearest to him, namely, the lower animals,
will depend on our point of sight— whether that of mere anatomy

' " Man's Place ill Nature, " /'/■///tr/t;;/ y^t^vcTc, November, 1S78. "The
Unity of Nature," by tlie Duke of Argyll, 1SS4, may be considered as sug-
gestive of the thoughts of this chapter.

484 MAN IX NATURE

and physiolog}', or that of psychology and pneumatology as
well. This distinction is the more important, since, under the
somewhat delusive term ''l)iology," it has been customary to
mix up all these considerations, while, on the other hand, those
anatomists who regard all the functions of organic beings as
merely mechanical and physical, do not scruple to employ this
term biology for their science, though on their hypothesis there
can be no such thing as life, and consequently the use of the
word by them must be either superstitious or hypocritical.

Anatomically considered, man is an animal of the class
MammaUa. In that class, notwithstanding the heroic efforts of
some modern detractors from his dignity to place him with the
monkeys in the order Primates, he undoubtedly belongs to a
distinct order. I have elsewhere argued that, if he were an ex-
tinct animal, the study of the bones of his hand, or of his head,
would suffice to convince any competent palaeontologist that he
represents a distinct order, as far apart from the highest apes as
they are from the carnivora. That he belongs to a distinct
family no anatomist denies, and the same unanimity of course
obtains as to his generic and specific distinctness. On the other
hand, no zoological systematist now doubts that all the races of
men are specifically identical. Thus we have the anatomical
})osition of man firmly fixed in the system of nature, and he
must be content to acknowledge his kinship not only with the
higher animals nearest to him, but with the humblest animalcule.
With all he shares a common material and many common fea-
tures of structure.

When we ascend to the somewhat higher plane of physiology
we find in a general way the same relationship to animals. Of
the four grand leading functions of the animal, nutrition, repro-
duction, voluntary motion, and sensation, all are performed by
man as by other animals. Here, however, there are some
marked divergences connected with special anatomical struc-
tures, on the one hand, and with his higher endowments on the

MAN IN NATURE 485

Other. With regard to food, for example, man might be sup-
posed to be limited by his masticatory and digestive apparatus
to succulent vegetable substances. But by virtue of his inven-
tive faculties he is practically unlimited, being able by artificial
processes to adapt the whole range of vegetable and animal
food substances to his use. He is very poorly furnished with
natural tools to aid in procuring food, as claws, tusks, etc.,
but by invented implements he can practically surpass all other
creatures. The long time of helplessness in infancy, while
it is necessary for the development of his powers, is a practi-
cal disadvantage which leads to many social arrangements and
contrivances specially characteristic of man. Man's sensory
powers, while inferior in range to those of many other animals,
are remarkable for balance and completeness, leading to percep-
tions of differences in colours, sounds, etc., which lie at the
foundation of art. The specialization of the hand again connects
itself with contrivances which render an animal naturally de-
fenceless the most formidable of all, and an animal naturally
gifted with indifferent locomotive powers able to outstrip all
others in speed and range of locomotion. Thus the physiolo-
gical endowments of man, while common to him with other
animals, and in some respects inferior to theirs, present in com-
bination with his higher powers points of difference which lead
to the most special and unexpected results.

In his ^hft^^leal- relations, using this term in its narrower
sense, we may see still greater divergencies from the line of
the lower animals. These may no doubt be connected with
his greater volume of brain ; but recent researches seem to
show that brain has more to do with motory and sensory
powers than with those that are intellectual, and thus, that a
larger brain is only indirectly connected with higher mental
manifestations. Even in the lower animals it is clear that the
ferocity of the tiger, the constructive instinct of the beaver, and
the sagacity of the elephant depend on psychical powers which

486 MAN IN NATURE

are beyond the reach of the anatomist's knife, and this is still
more markedly the case in man. Following in part the in-
genious analysis of Mivart, we may regard the psychical powers
of man as reflex, instinctive, emotional, and intellectual ; and
in each of these aspects we shall find points of resemblance to
other animals, and of divergence from them. In regard to re-
flex actions, or those which are merely automatic, inasmuch as
they are intended to provide for certain important functions
without thought or volition, their development is naturally in
the inverse ratio of psychical elevation, and man is conse-
quently, in this respect, in no way superior to lower animals.
The same may be said with reference to instinctive powers,
which provide often for complex actions in a spontaneous and
unreasoning manner. In these also man is rather deficient
than otherwise ; and since, from their nature, they limit their
possessors to narrow ranges of activity, and fix them within
a definite scope of experience and efiiciency, they would be
incompatible with those higher and more versatile inventive
powers which man possesses. The comb-building instinct of
the bee, the nest-weaving instinct of the bird, are fixed and
invariable things, obviously incompatible with the varied con-
trivance of man ; and while instinct is perfect within its narrow
range, it cannot rise beyond this into the sphere of unlimited
thought and contrivance. Higher than mere instinct are the
powers of imagination, memory, and association, and here man
at once steps beyond his animal associates, and develops these
in such a variety of ways, that even the rudest tribes of men,
who often appear to trust more to these endowments than to
higher powers, rise into a plane immeasurably above that of
the highest and most intelligent brutes, and toward which they
are unable, except to a very limited degree, to raise those of
the more domesticable animals which they endeavour to train
into companionship with themselves. It is, however, in these
domesticated animals that we find the highest degree of approx-

MAN IN NATURE 487

imation to ourselves in emotional development, and this is
perhaps one of the points that fits them for such human asso-
ciation. In approaching the higher psychical endowments, the
affinity of man and the brute appears to diminish and at length
to cease, and it is left to him alone to rise into the domain of
the rational and ethical.

Those supreme endowments of man we may, following the
nomenclature of ancient philosophy and of our Sacred Scrip-
tures, call " pneumatical " or spiritual. They consist of con-
sciousness, reason, and moral volition. That man possesses
these powers every one knows ; that they exist or can be de-
veloped in lower animals no one has succeeded in proving.
Here, at length, we have a severance between man and material
nature. Yet it does not divorce him from the unity of nature,
except on the principles of atheism. For if it separates him
from animals, it allies him with the Power who made and
planned the animals. To the naturalist the fact that such
capacities exist in a being who in his anatomical structure so
closely resembles the lower animals, constitutes an evidence of
the independent existence of those powers and of their spiritual
character and relation to a higher power which, I think, no
metaphysical reasoning or materialistic scepticism will suffice
to invalidate. It would be presumption, however, from the
standpoint of the naturalist to discuss at length the powers of
man's spiritual being. I may refer merely to a few points
which illustrate at once his connection with other creatures,
and his superiority to them as a higher member of nature.

And, first, we may notice those axiomatic beliefs which lie at
the foundation of human reasoning, and which, while appa-
rently in harmony with nature, do not admit of verification
except by an experience impossible to finite beings. Whether
these are ultimate truths, or merely results of the constitution
bestowed on us, or effects of the direct action of the creative
mind on ours, they are to us like the instincts of animals — in-

488 MAN IN NATURE

fallible and unchanging. Yet, just as the instincts of animals
unfailingly connect them with their surroundings, our intui-
tive beliefs fit us for understanding nature and for existing in it
as our environment. These beliefs also serve to connect man
with his fellow man, and in this aspect we may associate with
them those universal ideas of right and wrong, of immortality,
and of powers above ourselves, which pervade humanity.

Another phase of this spiritual constitution is illustrated by
the ways in which man, starting from powers and contrivances
common to him and animals, develops them into new and
higher uses and results. This is markedly seen in the gift ot
speech. Man, like other animals, has certain natural utterances
expressive of emotions or feelings. He can also, like some of
them, imitate the sounds produced by animate or inanimate
objects; while the constitution of his brain and vocal organs
gives him special advantages for articulate utterance. But
when he develops these gifts into a system of speech expres.s-
ing not mere sounds occurring in nature, but by association
nd analogy with these, properties and relations of objects and
general and abstract ideas, he rises into the higher sphere of
the spiritual. He thus elevates a power of utterance common
to him with animals to a higher plane, and connecting it with
his capacity for understanding nature and arriving at general
truths, asserts his kinship to the great creative mind, and fur-
nishes a link of connection between the material universe and
the spiritual Creator.

The manner of existence of man in nature is as well illus-
trated by his arts and inventions as by anything else ; and
these serve also to enlighten us as to the distinction between
the natural and the artificial. Naturalists often represent man
as dependent on nature for the first hints of his useful arts.
There are in animal nature tailors, weavers, masons, potters,
carpenters, miners, and sailors, independently of man, and
many of the tools, implements, and machines which he is said

MAN IN NATURE 489

to have invented were perfected in the structures of lower ani-
mals long before he came into existence. In all these things
man has been an assiduous learner from nature, though in
some of them, as for example in the art of aerial navigation,
he has striven in vain to imitate the powers possessed by other
animals. But it may well be doubted whether man is in this
respect so much an imitator as has been supposed, and whether
the resemblance of his plans to those previously realized in
nature does not depend on that general fitness of things which
suggests to rational minds similar means to secure similar
ends. But in saying this we in effect say that man is not only
a part of nature, but that his mind is in harmony with the
plans of nature, or, in other words, with the methods of the
creative mind. Man is also curiously in harmony with ex-
ternal nature in the combination in his works of the ideas of
plan and adaptation, of ornament and use. In architecture,
for example, devising certain styles or orders, and these for
the most part based on imitations of natural things ; he adapts
these to his ends, just as in nature types of structure are adapted
to a great variety of uses, and he strives to combine, as in
nature, perfect adaptation to use with conformity to type or
style. So, in his attempts at ornament he copies natural forms,
and uses these forms to decorate or conceal parts intended to
serve essential purposes in the structure. This is at least the
case in the purer styles of construction. It is in the more de-
based styles that arches, columns, triglyphs, or buttresses are
placed where they can serve no useful purpose, and become
mere excrescences. But in this case the abnormality resulting
breeds in the beholder an unpleasing mental confusion, and
causes him, even when he is unable to trace his feelings to
their source, to be dissatisfied with the result. Thus man is
in harmony with that arrangement of nature which causes
every ornamental part to serve some use, and which unites
adaptation with plan.

s. E. 35

490 MAN IN NATURE

The following of nature must also form the basis of those
fine arts which are not necessarily connected with any utility,
and in man's pursuit of art of this kind we see one of the most
recondite and at first sight inexplicable of his correspondences
with the other parts of nature ; for there is no other creature
tliat pursues art for its own sake. Modern archaeological dis-
covery has shown that the art of sculpture began with the
oldest known races of man, and that they succeeded in produc-
ing very accurate imitations of natural objects. But from this
primitive starting-point two ways diverge. One leads to the
conventional and the grotesque, and this course has been
followed by many semi-civilized nations. Another leads to
accurate imitation of nature, along with new combinations
.arising from the play of intellect and imagination. Let us look
for a moment at the actual result of the development of these
diverse styles of art, and at their effect on the culture of hu-
manity as existing in nature. ^Ve may imagine a people who
have wholly discarded nature in their art, and have devoted
themselves to the monstrous and the grotesque. Such a
people, so far as art is concerned, separates itself widely from
nature and from the mind of the Creator, and its taste and
j)Ossibly its morals sink to the level of the monsters it pro-
duces. Again, we may imagine a people in all respects
following nature in a literal and servile manner. Such a people
would probably attain to but a very moderate amount of cul-
ture, but having a good foundation, it might ultimately build
up higher things. Lastly, we may fancy a people who, like
the old Greeks, strove to add to the copying of nature a higher
and ideal beauty by combining in one the best features of
many natural objects, or devising new combinations not found
in nature itself. In the first of these conditions of art we have
a falling away from or caricaturing of the beauty of nature. In
the second we have merely a pupilage to nature. In the third
we find man aiming to be himself a creator, but basing his

MAN IN NATURE 491

creations on what nature has given him. Thus all art worthy
of the name is really a development of nature. It is true the
eccentricities of art and fashion are so erratic that they may
often seem to have no law. Yet they are all under the rule
of nature ; and hence even uninstructed common-sense, unless
dulled by long familiarity, detects in some degree their incon-
gruity, and though it may be amused for a time, at length
becomes wearied with the mental irritation and nervous dis-
quiet which they produce.

I may be permitted to add that all this applies with still
greater force to systems of science and philosophy. Ultimately
these must be all tested by the verities of nature to which man
necessarily submits his intellect, and he who builds for aye must
build on the solid ground of nature. The natural environ-
ment presents itself in this connection as an educator of man.
From the moment when infancy begins to exercise its senses
on the objects around, this education begins — training the
powers of observation and comparison, cultivating the concep-
tion of the grand and beautiful, leading to analysis and abstract
and general ideas. Left to itself, it is true this natural educa-
tion extends but a little way, and ordinarily it becomes ob-
scured or crushed by the demands of a hard utility, or by an
artificial literary culture, or by the habitude of monstrosity and
unfitness in art. Yet, when rightly directed, it is capable of
becoming an instrument of the highest culture, intellectual,
aesthetic, and even moral. A rational system of education
would follow nature in the education of the young, and drop
much that is arbitrary and artificial. Here I would merely
remark, that when we find that the accurate and systematic
study of nature trains most effectually some of the more prac-
tical powers of mind, and leads to the highest development of
taste for beauty in art, we see in this relation the unity of man
and nature, and the unity of both with something higher than
either.

492 MAN IN NATURE

It may, however, occur to us here, that when we consider
man as an improver and innovator in the world, there is much
that suggests a contrariety between him and nature, and that,
instead of being the pupil of his environment, he becomes its
tyrant. In this aspect man, and especially civilized man, appears
as the enemy of wild nature, so that in those districts which
he has most fully subdued, many animals and plants have been
exterminated, and nearly the whole surface has come under his
processes of culture, and has lost the characteristics which
belonged to it in its primitive state. Nay more, we find that
by certain kinds of so-called culture man tends to exhaust and
impoverish the soil, so that it ceases to minister to his com-
fortable support, and becomes a desert. Vast regions of the
earth are in this impoverished condition, and the westward
march of exhaustion warns us that the time may come when
even in comparatively new countries, like America, the land will
cease to be able to sustain its inhabitants. Behind this stands
a still farther and portentous possibility. The resources of
chemistry are now being taxed to the utmost to discover
methods by which the materials of human food may be pro-
duced synthetically, and we may possibly, at some future time,
find that albumen and starch may be manufactured cheaply
from their elements by artificial processes. Such a discovery
might render man independent of the animal and vegetable
kingdoms. Agriculture might become an unnecessary and un-
profitable art. A time might come when it would no longer
be possible to find on earth a green field, or a wild animal ;
and when the whole earth would be one great factory, in which
toiling millions were producing all the materials of food, cloth-
ing, and shelter. Such a world may never exist, but its pos-
sible existence may be imagined, and its contemplation brings
vividly before us the vast powers inherent in man as a sub-
verter of the ordinary course of nature. Yet even this ultimate
annulling of wild nature would be brought about not by any-

MAN IN NATURE 493

thing preternatural in man, but simply by his placing himself
in alliance with certain natural powers and agencies, and by
their means attaining dominion over the rest.

Here there rises before us a spectre which science and
philosophy appear afraid to face, and which asks the dread
question, — What is the cause of the apparent abnormality in
the relations of man and nature? In attempting to solve
this question, we must admit that the position of man, even
here, is not without natural analogies. The stronger preys
upon the weaker, the lower form gives place to the higher,
and in the progress of geological time old species have died
out in favour of newer, and old forms of life have been
exterminated by later successors. Man, as the newest and
highest of all, has thus the natural right to subdue and rule
the world. Yet there can be little doubt that he uses this
right unwisely and cruelly, and these terms themselves explain
•why he does so, because they imply freedom of will. Given
a system of nature destitute of any being higher than the
instinctive animal, and introduce into it a free rational agent,
and you have at once an element of instability. So long as
his free thought and purpose continue in harmony with the
arrangements of his environment, so long all will be har-
monious ; but the very hypothesis of freedom implies that he
■can act otherwise, and so perfect is the equilibrium of existing
things, that one wrong or unwise action may unsettle the nice
balance, and set in operation trains of causes and effects
producing continued and ever-increasing disturbance. Thus
the most primitive state of man, though destitute of all me-
chanical inventions, may have been better in relation to the
other parts of nature than any that he has subsequently
attained to. His " many inventions " have injured him in
his natural relations. This " fall of man " we know as a
matter of observation and experience has actually occurred,
and it can be retrieved only by casting man back again into

494 ^lAN IN NATURE

the circle of merely instinctive action, or by carrying him
forward until, by growth in wisdom and knowledge, he becomes,
fitted to be the lord of creation. The first method has been
proved unsuccessful by the rebound of humanity against all
the attempts to curb and suppress its liberty. The second
has been the effort of all reformers and philanthropists since
the world began, and its imperfect success affords a strong
ground for clinging to the theistic view of nature, for soliciting
the intervention of a Power higher than man, and for hoping
for a final restitution of all things through the intervention of
that Power. Mere materialistic evolution must ever and
necessarily fail to account for the higher nature of man, and
also for his moral aberrations. These only come rationally
into the system of nature under the supposition of a Higher
Intelligence, from whom man emanates, and whose nature he
shares.

But on this theistic view we are introduced to a kind of
unity and of evolution for a future age, which is the great
topic of revelation, and is not unknown to science and philo-
sophy, in connection with the law of progress and develop-
ment deducible from the geological history, in which an
ascending series of lower animals culminates in man himself.
Why should there not be a new and higher plane of existence
to be attained to by humanity — a new geological period, so
to speak, in which present anomalies shall be corrected, and
the grand unity of the universe and its harmony with its-
Maker fully restored. This is what Paul anticipates when he
tells us of a " pneumatical " or spiritual body, to succeed ta
the present natural or " psychical " one, or what Jesus Himself
tells us when He says that in the future state we shall be like
to the angels. Angels arc not known to us as objects of
scientific observation, but such an order of beings is quite
conceivable, and this not as supernatural, but as part of the
order of nature. They are created beings like ourselves^

MAN IN NATURE 495

subject to the laws of the universe, yet free and intelHgent
and hable to error, in bodily constitution freed from many of
the limitations imposed on us, mentally having higher range
and grasp, and consequently masters of natural powers not
under our control. In short, we have here pictured to us
an order of beings forming a part of nature, yet in their
powers as miraculous to us as we might be supposed to be
to lower animals, could they think of such things. This idea
of angels bridges over the great natural gulf between humanity
and deity, and illustrates a higher plane than that of man
in his present state, but attainable in the future. Dim per-
■ceptions of this would seem to constitute the substratum of
the ideas of the so-called polytheistic religions. Christianity
itself is in this aspect not so much a revelation of the super-
natural as the highest bond of the great unity of nature. It
reveals to us the perfect Man, who is also one with God, and
the mission of this Divine Man to restore the harmonies of
God and humanity, and consequently also of man with his
natural environment in this world, and with his spiritual en-
vironment in the higher world of the future. If it is true
that nature now groans because of man's depravity, and that
man himself shares in the evils of this disharmony with nature
around him, it is clear that if man could be restored to his
true place in nature he would be restored to happiness and
to harmony with God, and if, on the other hand, he can be
restored to harmony with God, he will then be restored also
to harmony with his natural environment, and so to life and
happiness and immortality. It is here that the old story of
Eden, and the teaching of Christ, and the prophecy of the
New Jerusalem strike the same note which all material nature
gives forth when we interrogate it respecting its relations to
man. The profound manner in w-hich these truths appear in
the teaching of Christ has perhaps not been appreciated as it
should, because we have not sought in that teaching the

49^ MAN IN NATURE

philosophy of nature which it contains. When He points to
the common weeds of the fields, and asks us to consider the
garments more gorgeous than those of kings in which God
has clothed them, and when He says of these same wild
flowers, so daintily made by the Supreme Artificer, that to-day
they are, and to-morrow are cast into the oven. He gives us
not merely a lesson of faith, but a deep insight into that want
of unison which, centring in humanity, reaches all the way
from the wild flower to the God who made it, and requires
for its rectification nothing less than the breathing of that
Divine Spirit which first evoked order and life out of primeval
chaos.

References : — Articles in Princeton Review on Man in Nature and on
Evolution. "The Story of the Earth and Man." London,
1890. " Modern Ideas of Evolution." London, 1891. Nature as an
Educator. Canadian Record of Science, 1890.

INDEX OF PRINCIPAL TOPICS.

Airbreathers, their Origin and His-
tory, 257, 303.

Alpine and Arctic Plants, their
Geological History, 425.

American Stone Age, 464.

Animals, their Apparition and
Succession, 169.

their Geological History, 176,

187, 194.

Permanent Forms of, 87, 180.

Anthropic Age, 461.

Antiquity of Man, 469.

Arctic Climates in the Past, 213.

Atlantic, its Origin and History, 57.

■ Cosmical Functions of, 72.

its Influence on Climate, 81.

Deposits in, 83.

Migrations across, 84.

Future of, 90.

Azores, their Animals, 40S.

Baphetes planiceps, 263.

Bay of Fundy, its Deposits, 312.

Footprints on Shores of, 311.

Bermudas, their Flora, etc., 85.
Boulders, Belts of, on Lower St.

Lawrence, 345.
Boulder-Clay, Nature, etc. , of, 360.

Cave Men, 476.
Canstadt Race, 474.
Chaos, Vision of, 90.
Chronology of Pleistocene, 470.
S. E.

Climate, its Causes, 81.

as related to Plants, 215.

Climatal Changes, 382.

Coal, its Nature and Structure, 235.

its Origin and Growth, 233.

Summary of Facts relating to,

241.
of Mesozoic and Tertiary, 249.

its Connection with Erect

Forests, 296.

Continents and Islands, 402.

Permanence of, 31, 403.

Contrast of land and sea-borne

Ice, 360.
Cordilleran Glaciers, 369.
Cro-magnon Race, 474.
Crust and Sub-crust, 62.

Dawn of Life, 95.
Deluge, The, 467.
Dendrerpeton Acadianuni, 270.
Determination in Nature, 329.
Development of Life, 23.

Laws of, 194.

Distribution of Animals and Plants,

401.
Drift of Western Canada, 369.

Early Man, 459.
Engis Race, 472.
Eozoon, Discovery of, iii.

Nature of, 112.

Contemporaries of, 129.

Teachings of, 135.

497 3^6

498

INDEX OF PRINCIPAL TOPICS.

Eozoon, Preservation of and Struc-
ture, 143.

Eyes, earliest Types of, 331.

Evolution, its partial Character,
188.

Flora of White Mountains, 421.
Floras originate in the Arctic, 297.
Floating Ice, 360.
Footprints of Reptiles, 260.

of Limulus, 319.

Fossils, Preservation of, 136.
Fucoids, 311.

Galapagos, how Peopled, 412.
Geographical Changes and Climate,

390.
Geological Record, Imperfection of,

40.
Glaciers, Work of, 353.
Glacial Period, Conditions of, 375.
Gulf Stream, 3S8.

Hydrous Silicates, 144.

Huronian as a Geological System,

104.
Hylonomus Lyelli, 279.

Icebergs, their Nature and Work,
348.

Ice Age, the, 343.

Imperfection of the Geological Re-
cord, 40.

Land and Water, 58.
Land Snails, Earliest, 247.
Labyrinthodonts, their Origin and

History, 265.
Laurentian System, 97.

Life in the, 107.

Laurentide Glaciers, 3^64, 368.
Leda Clay of Lower St. Lawrence,

365.

Life, First Appearance of, 19, 96,

157.
Limbs, the Earliest, 337.
Limulus, Footprints of, 319.

Magmas under Crust of the Earth,

63-
Mammoth Age, 466.
Man in Nature, 484.

Early, 461.

an Imitator of Natural Objects,

490.

at War with other Natural

Agencies, 495.

in harmony with Nature, 496.

Markings, Footprints, etc., 301.

Rill and Rain, etc., 317.

Microsauria, 279,
Migrations of Plants, 434.
Millipedes of Carboniferous Age,

295.
Mineral Charcoal, 237.
Missouri Coteau, 271.
Mountains, Origin of, 33.

Classes of, 66.

Mount Washington, 426.

Nature, Various Senses ot the

Term, 483.
Neanthropic Age, 472.

Ocean, the Atlantic, 58, 67.
Oceanic Islands, 407.

Palanthropic Age, 462.
Permanence of Continents, 31, 403.

of Animal Forms, 87, 180.

Plants, Geological History of, 202.

as Indicators of Time and

Climate, 229.

of the Erian, Carboniferous,

etc., 202.

of the Pleistocene, 439.

INDEX OF PRINCIPAL TOPICS.

499

Pleistocene, Tabular View of, 472.

Polygenesis of Species, 418.

Predetermination in Nature, 329.

Primitive Rocks, 16.

Protozoa, their Place in Nature, 152.

Pseudo-Fucoids, 318.

Pupa Vetusta, 288.

Races of Early Men, 474.
Rill Marks, 317.

Scorpions, Carboniferous, 295.

Sigillaria', Erect, 276.

Sorde, Cave of, 476.

Species, Permanence of, 87, 180.

Origin of, 418.

Sponges in Cambro-Silurian, 46.
Spore-cases in Coal, 234.
Stigmaria, 246.
Stone Age in America, 464.

Terraces of Lower St
346.

Lawrence,

Tides of the Bay of Fundy, 312.

Time, Geological, 416.

Tracks of Animals, 51.

Trees, Erect, with Animal Remains,

276.
Tuckerman's Ravine, 427.

Underclays, their Origin and
Nature, 236.

Vegetable Life, the Earliest, 338.
Vegetable Kingdom, its History,

202.
Vertebrates, History of, 183.
Vision of Creation, 90.

Worlds, the Making of, 9, 14.
Worm Tracks, 318.
White Mountains, 426.

Zoological Regions, 405.

Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London.

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