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the evidences illustrating the state of animal life, during the period immediately preceding the formation of this diluvium, I must refer to that work for details respecting the nature and habits of the then existing population of the earth. It appears that at this epoch, the whole surface of Europe was densely peopled by various orders of Mammalia; that the numbers of the herbivora were maintained in due proportion by the controlling influence of carnivora; and that the individuals of every species were constructed in a manner fitting each to its own enjoyment of the pleasures of existence, and placing it in due and useful relations to the animal and vegetable kingdoms by which it was surrounded.

great part of the northern hemisphere, and that this event was followed by the sudden disappearance of a large number of the species of terrestrial quadrupeds, which had inhabited these regions in the period immediately preceding it. I also ventured to apply the name Diluvium to the superficial beds of gravel, clay, and sand, which appear to have been produced by this great irruption of water.

The description of the facts that form the evidence presented in this volume, is kept distinct from the question of the identity of the event attested by them, with any deluge recorded in history. Discoveries which have heen made, since the publication of this work, show that many of the animals therein described, existed during more than one geological period preceding the catastrophe by which they were extirpated. Hence it seems more probable, that the event in question, was the last of the many geological revolutions that have been produced by violent irruptions of water, rather than the comparatively tranquil inundation described in the Inspired Narrative.

It has been justly argued, against the attempt to identify these two great historical and natural phenomena, that as the rise and fall of the waters of the Mosaic deluge are described to have been gradual, and of short duration, they would have produced comparatively little change on the surface on the country they overflowed. The large preponderance of extinct species among the animals we find in caves, and in superficial deposites of diluvium, and the non-discovery of human bones along with them, afford other strong reasons for referring these species to a period anterior to the creation of man. This important point, however, cannot be considered as completely settled, till more detailed investigations of the newest members of the Pliocene, and of the diluvial and alluvial formations shall have taken place.

Every comparative anatomist is familiar with the beautiful examples of mechanical contrivance and compensations, which adapt each existing species of herbivora and carnivora to its own peculiar place and state of life. Such contrivances began not with living species: the geologist demonstrates their prior existence in the extinct forms of the same genera which he discovers beneath the surface of the earth, and he claims for the Author of these fossil forms under which the first types of such mechanisms were embodied, the same high attributes of Wisdom and Goodness, the demonstration of which exalts and sanctifies the labours of science, in her investigation of the organizations of the living world.

CHAPTER X.

Relations of the Earth and its Inhabitants to Man.

FROM the statements which have been made in the preceding chapters, it appears that five principal causes have been instrumental in producing the actual condition of the surface of our globe. First, the passage of the unstratified crystalline rocks, from a fluid to a solid state.-Secondly, The deposition of stratified rocks at the bottom of the ancient seas. Thirdly, The elevation both of stratified and unstratified rocks from beneath the sea, at successive intervals, to form continents and islands.-Fourthly, Violent inundations; and the decomposing Power of atmospheric agents; producing partial destruction of these lands, and forming, from their detritus, extensive beds of gravel, sand, and clay.-Fifthly, Volcanic eruptions.

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We shall form a better estimate of the utility of the com

plex disposition of the materials of the earth, which has resulted from the operations of all these mighty conflicting forces, if we consider the inconveniences that might have attended other arrangements, more simple than those which actually exist. Had the earth's surface presented only one unvaried mass of granite or lava; or, had its nucleus been surrounded by entire concentric coverings of stratified rocks, like the coats of an onion, a single stratum only would have been accessible to its inhabitants; and the varied intermixtures of limestone, clay, and sandstone, which, under the actual disposition, are so advantageous to the fertility, beauty, and habitability, of the globe, would have had no place.

Again, the inestimably precious treasures of mineral salt and coal, and of metallic ores, confined as these latter chiefly are, to the older series of formations, would, under the supposed more simple arrangement of the strata, have been wholly inaccessible; and we should have been destitute of all these essential elements of industry and civilization. Under the existing disposition, all the various combinations of strata with their valuable contents, whether produced by the agency of subterranean fire, or by mechanical, or chemical deposition beneath the water, have been raised above the sea, to form the mountains and the plains of the present earth; and have still farther been laid open to our reach, by the exposure of each stratum, along the sides of valleys.

With a view to human uses, the production of a soil fitted for agriculture, and the general dispersion of metals, more especially of that most important metal, iron, were almost essential conditions of the earth's habitability by civilized

man.

I would in this, as in all other cases, be unwilling to press the theory of relation to the human race, so far as to contend that all the great geological phenomena we have been considering were conducted solely and exclusively with a

view to the benefit of man. We may rather count the advantages he derives from them as incidental and residuary consequences; which, although they may not have formed the exclusive object of creation, were all foreseen and comprehended in the plans of the Great Architect of that Globe, which, in his appointed time, was destined to become the scene of human habitation.*

With respect to the animal kingdom, we acknowledge with gratitude, that among the higher classes, there is a certain number of living species, which are indispensable to the supply of human food and raiment, and to the aid of civilized man in his various labours and occupations; and

"It is true that by applying ourselves to the study of nature, we daily find more and more uses in things that at first appeared useless. But some things are of such a kind as not to admit of being applied to the benefit of man, and others too noble for us to claim the sole use of them. Man has no farther concern with this earth than a few fathoms under his feet was then the whole solid globe made only for a founda. tion to support the slender shell he treads] upon? Do the magnetic effluvia course incessantly over land and sca, only to turn here and there a mariner's compass? Are those immense bodies, the fixed stars, hung up for nothing but to twinkle in our eyes by night, or to find employment for a few astronomers? Surely he must have an overweening conceit of man's importance, who can imagine this stupendous frame of the universe made for him alone. Nevertheless, we may so far acknowledge all things made for man as that his uses are regarded conjointly with those of other creatures, and that he has an interest in every thing reaching his notice, and contributing either to the support of his body, the improvement or entertainment of his mind. The satellites that turn the night of Jupiter into day, assist him in ascertaining the longitude, and measuring the ve. locity of light the mighty sun, that like a giant holds the planets and comets in their orbits, enlightens him with its splendour, and cherishes him with its warmth: the distant stars, whose attraction probably confines other planets within their vortices, direct his course over the boundless sea, and the inhospitable desert."-Tucker's Light of Nature, book iii. chap. ix. P. 9.

See an excellent note on prospective provisions, to afford materials for human arts, and having reference to the future discoveries of human science, in Rev. W. D. Conybeare's Inaugural Address to Bristol College, 1831.

that these are endowed with dispositions and faculties which adapt them in a peculiar decree for domestication:* but their number bears an extremely small proportion to the total amount of existing species; and with regard to the lower classes of animals, there are but very few among their almost countless multitudes, that minister either to the wants or luxuries of the human race. Even could it be proved that all existing species are serviceable to man, no such inference could be drawn with respect to those numerous extinct animals which Geology shows to have ceased to live, long before our race appeared upon the earth. It is surely more consistent with sound philosophy, and with all the information that is vouchsafed to us respecting the attributes of the Deity, to consider each animal as having been created first for its own sake, to receive its portion of that enjoyment which the Universal Parent is pleased to impart to each creature that has life; and secondly, to bear its share in the maintenance of the general system of co-ordinate relations, whereby all families of living beings are reciprocally subservient to the use and benefit of one another. Under this head only can we include their relations to man; forming, as he does, but a small, although it be the most noble and exalted part, of that vast system of universal life, with which it hath pleased the Creator to animate the surface of the globe.

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"More than three-fifths of the earth's surface," says Mr. Bakewell, are covered by the ocean; and if from the remaining part we deduct the space occupied by polar ice and eternal snow, by sandy deserts, sterile mountains, marshes, rivers and lakes, the habitable portion will scarcely exceed one-fifth of the whole of the globe. Nor have we reason to believe that at any former period the dominion of man over the earth was more extensive than at present. The remaining four-fifths of our globe, though untenanted

• See Lyell's Principles of Geology, 3d edit. vol. ii. book. 3, c. 3. VOL. I.-8

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