Death introduced, through fierce antipathy; Of man, but fled him; or with countenance grim It may be well to glance at the difficulties necessarily connected with the hypothesis, that the subjection of the animal creation to the law of death is an accident that befell it in consequence of the sin of man, and formed no part of the Creator's original design. Examining the anatomical construction of the carnivorous races, the demonstration is complete, that they are organically adapted to prey upon each other, or subsist upon animal! food. The lion has his canine teeth, claws and juices for digesting the fleshy material upon which he feeds, with instincts to direct him to it; and are we to suppose that this apparatus was originally given him without an office to perform? or that it was an alteration subsequently introduced? in fact, that he never became in reality a lion until some time after his formation? The microscope has enabled us to detect animalcules, invisible to the naked eye, existing in myriad swarms upon leaves, grasses, and in drops of water; and were these created before the event of human delinquency, or not till afterwards? The supposition that death came into the animal kingdom at that era, necessarily involves the fact, that the numerous families of invisible animalcules were parts of a subsequent creation, for beforehand the herbivorous quadrupeds must have destroyed them by wholesale, in walking the earth, or feeding on its plants. But it would be easy to show, that the law of death in the animal creation is a necessary adjunct of the law of reproduction, for without the regular removal of one generation of the species after another, the universal ruin of the whole would ensue, through failing nutrition. Revelation is not opposed to geology upon the point in question, for those passages of the former which treat of the sentence of death involve no other doctrine than that of its application to man, and it has been very justly remarked, that man being threatened with death as the penalty of disobedience, seems very clearly to imply a knowledge on his part of the nature of the event, or the means of acquiring it by observation. Another general conclusion established by the ancient flora and fauna of the earth, is the former prevalence of a high temperature in northern latitudes, perhaps amounting to an ultra-tropical climate, or one warmer than at present exists upon the globe. The bones of the mammoth occurring in such profusion along the shores of the arctic ocean, and the banks of adjacent rivers, the Obi, Yenesi, and Lena; the remains of extinct species of the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, lion, tiger, and hyæna, scattered through the diluvium of almost every part of Europe, the existing genera being confined almost exclusively to regions within the tropics; the abundance of shells in the tertiaries of northern countries, the analogues of which are now found in tropical seas; the extraordinary development both of the animals and plants of the secondary rocks, compared with that of living organic beings of a similar kind; the tropical character of the flora of the coal formation, distributed around Baffin's Bay, and even as far north as Melville island; these are the leading facts for which it is impossible to account, but upon the assumption, that in early times the climate of the temperate and arctic zones possessed a temperature as elevated as that of equatorial latitudes in the present day, and probably more elevated, since the arborescent ferns, palms, equiseta, and lycopodiacea of the carboniferous era are much larger than their existing tropical analogues. When we consider that all the unstratified rocks, the oldest granites, have evidently been in a melted state, and that the primary stratified formations have either been entirely fused, or so highly heated as to be able to assume a crystalline arrangement, the hypothesis of a globe cooling down gradually from a condition of igneous fluidity commends itself to attention; and if this be admitted, we may reasonably impute to internal heat the high temperature of the climate of far remote ages, reduced to its present statical condition in the refrigeration of the surface by radiation. Whatever be the true theory of volcanic action, whether the mechanical of Cordier, or the chemical of Daubeny, or both combined, each involves the existence of heated fluid masses in the earth which the phenomena display, while thermal springs occurring in regions far apart from any modern volcanoes, and the raising of the temperature as we descend below the surface, point to a generally heated interior, if not to an ocean of molten rock," not far below the external shell. -- It may be justly inferred also, that those causes which in former ages operated to modify the aspect of the earth, and those that are now in action, are identical in their nature atmospheric, aqueous, and igneous agencies. But this conclusion leaves it an open question, whether their intensity was not much greater in ancient than in modern eras. Sir C. Lyell has answered here in the negative, contending that the causes of geological change now acting upon the globe, and with no more energy than at present, are amply sufficient to explain the revolutions which the crust of the earth has undergone, all its fractures, elevations, and subsidences. No catastrophes are admitted into his creed greater than what now take place, and all effects which transcend any single effect of existing causes are resolved into the result of an agency repeating its play through an indefinite series. Still, though an authority so eminent demands all respect, there are various considerations which favour the hypothesis, that while the geological processes of the current epoch are in all cases the antitypes of those which operated in remote eras, they are less intense than formerly. Thus vertical movements of the strata gradually transpiring to the amount of a few feet in a century, or suddenly occurring through paroxysmal excitement, are among the events of the present era; but if the elevatory force has exerted its maximum energy during the historic period, it is difficult to conceive of a succession of such movements uplifting vast chains of mountains and continents, several thousand feet, as we know to have taken place in early times. It may also be observed, that in passing through the series of secondary rocks, we have noticed sudden and remarkable changes in the organic remains of successive systems of strata, which seem to intimate a long period of repose, followed by destructive catastrophes, and succeeded by restored tranquillity; for the supposition that races of plants and animals became gradually extinct during periods of repose, new species gradually replacing them by a law of nature, is not sustained by the facts that are common to modern times. Though we have an example of the extinction of a species, as in the case of the dodo, and perhaps the Apteryx australis of New Zealand, no instance of the creation of a new species has been discovered during the history of the human race. Nor have we any specimen of the more important of the older rocks, stratified and unstratified, mica-schist, gneiss, granite, and syenite, having been produced during the present cycle of geological change. Granitic varieties indeed may still be elaborating in the bowels of the earth, where the deep volcanoes strike their roots, but their abundant obtrusion at the surface in by-gone ages at least proves a fiery activity operating then upon the superficies more powerful than the igneous agencies now brought to bear upon it. Upon the whole, the conclusion is most probable that while instruments of change have been incessantly modifying and altering the condition of our globe, their intensity has varied, and was far greater in ancient than in modern times, though the causalities themselves, mediate as well as primary, have been of the same kind. But decisively is the sublime truth unfolded by geological examinations, that the present terrestrial constitution is not a chance condition;-that its memorials of decay and change, which everywhere present themselves, are not instances of defective arrangement, as the untutored mind is apt to conceive;-that its very instability is an essential element of its permanence as a fit residence for a human population; and that our planet, so preyed upon, rent and shattered by various agencies, has been steadily advanced by its vicissitudes to an improved estate, developing a plan, the result of forethought and design, grand in its outlines, beautiful in its execution, and benign in its results, reaching far back into past eternity and anticipating the wants of future ages, by which the globe has become an appropriate home for moral and intellectual beings, and now takes its place in the universe among the performances of which it may be said "These are thy glorious works! Parent of good!" While yet unfit for man, its intended lord, the earth was occupied with animals whose natures were adapted to its condition, and with a gigantic vegetation, subsequently submerged, then entombed, and by chemical processes converted gradually into the beds of coal, now in course of disinterment, contributing so largely to human improvement and happiness, while formations of rock-salt, marble, limestone, and gypsum were aggregated, to minister to the comfort and pleasure of foreseen nations of men, furnishing materials for their dwellings, manure for their pastures, ornaments for their temples, and savour to their food. Wild was the chaos, and confused the scene, which the strata, elevated, disrupted, broken, and overturned, once presented to the eye: but system is now seen in the disorder, and benevolent intention in the derangement. The tilting up of the coal measures in troughs and basins has brought that mineral within reach of human industry, which would have been inaccessible had it remained horizontally disposed. By impervious alternating with pervious strata, the superficial rains are received as into natural reservoirs, in the bosom of the earth, and are returned by hydrostatic pressure in various directions to the surface, often pursuing a far wandering course, percolating through chinks and fissures created by dislocation, ultimately appearing in the form of springs, a machinery, of the action of which in the same localities we have records extending back to the Homeric age. But too for the play of elevating and disrupting forces, shaping mountains and scooping out valleys, the land redeemed from the ocean would have remained a dismal swamp, capable of supporting only the lowest forms of life, like the great floridan morasses, instead of presenting that diversity of hill and dale, glen, plain, and highland, essential to the economy of human life, and grateful alike to rustic simplicity and cultivated taste. These are indications, only a few of the number which might be named, yet sufficiently significant, which serve to establish the conclusion, that our present habitation has been framed under the direction of Divine Intelligence and Power. INDEX. Aberdeenshire, granite of, 647, 649. Abyssinia, wild oat found by Bruce in, Achray, view of Loch, 465; citation Actynolite, the mineral, 623, 644, 603. Adelsberg Cave, description and view Adige, the river, its rapid descent, 284, Egina and Egean Sea, view of, 346; Aerolites, 130-143; derivation of the Agassiz, Professor, 670, 679, 684-088, Aged persons, account of various, 607. Air, its nature and uses, 435 (see At- Aix, in Provence, hot springs of, 270. Aleutian islands, 375, 558, 588. Algæ, or sea-weeds, 558. Algol, the star, its position, 170. Alleghany Mountains, land-slip in the, Alluvium, chapter on recent formations Ptolemy, contents of the, 11; con- Alphonso of Castile, his irreverent Alpine flora of south of Europe, 560. Altai mountains, 645, 649. 386-406; encroachments by the Alum Bay, Isle of Wight, 623; fossils America, lakes of, 312; transparent Ammonite shells found at Whitby, Anacreon, citation from, 482. Analysis of mineral water, 276; of sea- Ancients, the, noticed all the celestial Angelucci, Father, his account of the Angitas, the river, sources of the, 299. Anning, Miss Mary, 723. Antarctic continent, flora of, 562; has clouds, 463; cirrus and cumulus, 464; Aral, lake or sea of, 324, 423, 578. Aratus, quotations from, 144, 147. Arbela, battle of, its date determined, Arcadia, view of limestone mountains Arctic region, flora of, 560; animals of, Arcturus, the star, 2, 176. Area of land on the globe, 596. See Aries, or constellation of the Ram, 149. Aristotle, 2; astronomical physics of, Armillary spheres early used by the Aromatic plants grow best in the cen- Asia Minor, view of the coast of, 398; electrical phenomena in, 517. Asteroids. See Planetoids. 16. Astrology, judicial, origin of, 3. Astronomical discovery, history of, Astronomy the most perfect and ancient Atchafalaya, great raft of the river, 593. Athos, Mount, 326; promontory of, Atlantic Ocean, the, 329, 337; coasts Atlas, range of Mount, 203. Attraction, that between bodies mutual Augite, the mineral, 623, 645, 652. Aurora, do sounds accompany the? 528; Australasia, plants of, 558, 562-564; 596. Australia, plants of, 562; contains Author of the universe known only to Autun, a hot and unwholesome wind, 450. Auvergne, extinct volcanoes of, 427- Avon river, at Bristol, tide of, 358. Azore islands, volcanic, 375. Back, Captain, 318, 322. Baden, grand duchy of, its hot springs, Bagnes, Val de, inundation of, 413- Bahamas, the, 333, 348. Baia, territory of, with illustrative Baily, Mr, discovers letters of Flam- Bakewell, Mr, 270, 412, 428, 647, 651, Bases of earths, alkalies, and alkaline Basin, the great European geological, Bauhinias of the tropics, 555. Bear, the polar, 342, 588; common, 589. Bearings of strata, 627. Beche, Sir H. de la, 657, 721. Bed of the ocean, 326; upheavings of, Beds, successive, of the New Red Sand- Behemoth, the, 756. Belus, temple of, 2. Ben Lair, 659. Ben Lomond, atmospheric apparitions Ben Nevis, our highest mountain, 205; Bennachie, Mount, 648. Bennet and Tyerman, Messrs, 482 Bernard, hospice of Great St, 206; its Bible, the, a book for general use, and Bifurcation of the Orinoco, 298. Biot, M., his account of the Fata Mor- 552. Birds, great dispersers of plant-seeds, |