THE CREATION THE EARTH'S FORMATION ON DYNAMICAL PRINCIPLES IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE MOSAIC RECORD AND THE LATEST SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES BY ARCHIBALD TUCKER RITCHIE AUTHOR OF THE " COLUMBIAD," ETC. " Magna est veritas et praevalebit." ^ifth Cgbition REVISED, AND CONSIDERABLY ABRIDGED BY THE AUTHOR LONDON DALDY, ISBISTER, AND CO. 56, LUDGATE HILL 1874 LONDON : PRINTED BY VIRTUE AND CO., CITY ROAD. Stack CONTENTS, Introduction SECTION I. THE ANIMAL EXISTENCES OF THE PERIOD OF NON-DIURNAL ROTATION. CHAPTER I. Subject of argument in the present Section. Early conception of a Prin- ciple of Limitation involved in the Mosaic Record. Definition of the Living Principle. Faint Line of Separation between Vegetable and Animal Vitality. Difference determined ; and also that between Ver- tebrate and Invertebrate Animals. Mollusca, Articulata, and Radiata. Apulmonic Tribes of Animals defined generally. Nature and Habits of the Extinct Races of Interior Animals. Evidence of the Extinction of their Races, and of the successive Creation of others. The Design and Object of the Temporary Existence of the Inferior Apulmonic Animals, with a view to resume, and dwell, in the sequel, upon both of these points 6 CHAPTER II. Review of the progress made in the previous Chapter. Followed up by exhibiting the description of Fossil Animal Remains which have been discovered in the older formations. The whole compared with the Animal Remains which, by dependence on Scripture, might have been expected to have been diseinbedded from the older strata, and found sub- stantially, and with few exceptions, to correspond. Some explana- tions respecting the points of disagreement ...... 23 CHAPTER III. Adaptation of the Apulmonic Invertebrate Animals to the state of the Crea- tion previous to the Earth's rotation around its axis. Origin of Calca- reous Rocks, and the influential part which the primitive Animal Organisms performed in producing them. Increase of these rocks in an ascending series. Summary of the subjects treated of in this Section .... 28 ,002130 vi CONTENTS. SECTION II. THE VEGETABLE ORGANISMS OF THE PERIOD OF NON-DIURNAL ROTATION. CHAPTER IV. PACK The Vegetation of the Non-rotatory period neither flowering nor seed- bearing plants. Striking analogy in this respect to the Apulmonic Creatures which were the subject of the previous Section, pointing to a common cause. The Dicotyledonous class of Plants fully described. The Monocotyledonous also minutely characterized, and both of these great divisions eliminated from Iho argument, as having been formed during the Mosaic week. These, however, not comprising the entire Vegetable Kingdom, leave the Acotyledons as a residue, which nre considered to have been willed into existence during the period of non- rotation 44 CHAPTER V. Summary application of what has been established in the foregoing Chapter. DICOTYLEDONS comprehend all plants "bearing fruit whose seed is in itself upon the earth." MONOCOTYLEDONS embrace " the herbs yielding seed." But the Vegetable Kingdom being examined into, a third description of plants is discovered, bearing neither flowers, fruits, nor seeds, called ACOTYLEDONS, and these are supposed to have been created during the non-rotatory period. Review of the progress made thus far. Adaptation of the imperfect, flowerless plants to the state of the creation during the ante-rotatory period ; and their capa- bility of having grown and propagated in a submerged condition con- firmed, by contrast with the incapability of flowering plants to have existed without either light, atmosphere, or dry laud .... 55 CHAPTER VI. The assumed condition of the primitive vegetation compared with Botanical descriptions of Cryptogamous Plants. Characters and habitats of these given in detail, and found to coincide with the supposed state of the Submerged Vegetation of the ante-rotatory period. Capability of plants growing in the waters of the primeval ocean, although this held in solution saline materials 64 CHAPTER VII. Brief review of the progress made, and its application to the development of the general argument. Adaptation of the plants of the non-rotatory period to the state of creation during that epoch. Fronds and foliaceous appendages of Cryptogames described ; they are shown to be in har- mony with the effects which the flowerless plants were intended to produce, namely, absorption from the surrounding water, retention of carbonic acid, and deposition, by their roots, to assist in forming the carboniferous strata. Short concluding observation .... 70 CONTENTS. vii SECTION III. DEPOSITION OF THE STRATA DURING THE PERIOD OF NON- DIURNAL ROTATION. CHAPTER VIII. I'AOK The subject of argument of the present Section succinctly stated. Deposi- tion of the stratified masses. Proof that the materials which compose the strata existed in the primeval ocean. The Earth accurately weighed before the deposition commenced, and after it ceased, and found, in either case, to be the same. In continuation, several sources of doubt respecting the origin of the strata removed, and clearly shown that underneath the stratified masses of the Earth's crust there is an impervious base of amorphous crystalline rock. Wherever the surface of the Earth has been geologically examined, it is found to have been, at one time, submerged in the waters of the ocean ; and that all strati- fied rocks afford evidence of having been deposited from water . . 93 CHAPTER IX. Further inferences respecting the existence of the elements of the strata in the primitive ocean ; and of the crystalline base on which they univer- sally repose. Attendant circumstances of the Earth in perfect accord- ance with the work of deposition then going on. Character and com- ponent elements of the lower stratified or non-fossiliferous rocks, given with the design of showing that their elements existed in the primi- tive menstruum. Endeavours to describe the process by which these elements were abstracted from the water with which they were thus combined. The immediate influence of the luni-solar current exemplified by the theory of the tides. Geological construction of the non-fossiliferous rocks confusedly crystalline. Aqueous crystalliza- tion, and the predominating influence which it exercised at this early stage of the creation. Capacity of water for becoming chemically impregnated with mineral elements shown and corroborated by the waters of Carlsbad and other mineral springs. Chemical affinity ; its universality and influence 107 CHAPTER X. Position assumed, that the primeval water was chemically saturated with the mineral elements of the strata ; and could, therefore, according to the laws of affinity, arrive at a static condition of chemical equilibrium. To produce any change of this state there must have been the inter- vention of a power beyond materialism, and the employment of an agency exempted from the law of gravitation. Aqueous crystallization apparently the first means made use of to produce that change by the Creator ; evidences of this discoverable in the earlier strata. Animal and Vegetable vitality next introduced to continue the same effect. The vast extent and depth of the calcareous formations. The mineral elements how dissolved and held in combination by the primitive menstruum and their affinities ; hoyr they operated in causing deposi- tion when the general equilibrium was disturbed by aqueous crystal- lization and by animal and vegetable life. Adaptation of these con- straining agencies to overcome chemical affinities, and to form substances which otherwise would have been injurious to future life. Animal death, and the effects produced by the gaseous exhalations arising from their decomposition . . . . . . . . . .12" viii CONTENTS. CHAPTER XL PAOR The consequence of the introduction of any new element into chemical com- pounds of numerous ingredienis. Evidences to show that clays, sand- stones, and shales are composed of the same materials which are assumed to have been held in solution hy the primitive ocean. Geological evidence for.the existence of extensive stratified masses of clays, sandstones, and shales underneath the Coal Measures. The succession of animal life during the period alluded to clearly deduced from the progressive change of the primitive ocean, and confirmed hy the results of geological research 15-5 CHAPTER XII. Universal warmth which prevailed in the water of the non-rotating sphere ; chemical action the principal secondary agency employed in producing that result. Effects of animal and vegetable vitality again alluded to. The consequences arising also from the death and decomposition of animals and plants particularly investigated with reference to the puri- fication of the ancient ocean ; more especially the effects of ammoniacal exhalations arising from the putrefaction of animal remains. The "blending " and the " thinning out " of the strata attempted to he accounted for by the Dynamical System ; and an endeavour to explain, according to the same principles, by what means the primitive ocean changed its character from turbid, fresh water to the saline and pellucid seas of the present period . . . . . . . . .169 SECTION IV. INTRODUCTION OF THE LIGHT ; THE CONSEQUENT FIRST DIURNAL ROTATION OF THE EARTH ; AND ITS DYNAMICAL RESULTS. CHAPTER XIII. Condition of the Earth during the period alluded to. Introduction of Light into the material universe. The relative qualities of Light its quasi- ubiquity, expansion through visible space, velocity of propagation, and vividity. Heat the cause of expansion in material bodies. The source of external Light and Heat received hy the Earth. Identity of these two subtile influences. Sunlight the direct cause of Heat. Attraction and Expansion the antagonistic forces which maintain all matter in its constitutional state of equilibrium. Deduction from these facts, that Darkness means Attraction 195 CHAPTER XIV. Possibility of the Earth and other planets, with their respective satellites, having, in accordance with astronomical laws, revolved iu space around CONTENTS. ix the common centre of the system, long previous to the illumination of the sun. Further proofs that Darkness implies Attraction. Existence of the primeval Light before it was divided from the Darkness, and the important bearing of this truth on the subject under discussion . .211 CHAPTER XV. Some of the immediate effects of the Light with reference to its Dynamical power. During the first three days it was not concentrated around the Sun, consequently different from the Light at present received. The expansive influence of Light and Heat act in opposition to Attraction. The repulsive power of Light. The introduction of Light into the material universe equal to the introduction of a new force. Expansion being a force, and trie bodies of the solar system bping incapable of expanding beyond their prescribed orbits, they must have expended or met this new force by rotation around their respective axes show that the Earth has a double movement in space, and that the diurnal rota- tion is perfectly independent of the periodical revolution around the Sun. Other corroborations of these important conclusions. Evidences to prove the enormous amount of Heat and Light which come from the Sun : 'I '" . 221 CHAPTER XVI. Geological phenomena in proof of the Earth's period of Non-rotation, divided into external and internal evidences. Centrifugal impetus engendered by rotation, the admitted cause of the equatorial protuber- ance of the Earth, and of the oblate form of other planets of our system. Geographical data in con oboration of the former assumption. Mechanical-dynamic Laws brought forward to account for the eleva- tion of the horizontal concentric strata of the non-rotating sphere. Their change of position, and the vast extension of surface occasioned by the spherical .earth having been suddenly transformed into a spheroid of rotation 237 CHAPTER XVII. Relative thinness of the Earth's crust when compared with its semi- diameter. The existence of this " outer shell " of the Earth esta- blished. Relative densities of the materials composing the amorphous and the stratified formations of which it consists. The relative distances from the centre of gyration being considered equal, the greater density of the older amorphous masses would occasion their being impelled further from the centre, and consequently cause them to perforate or to raise up the superincumbent or lighter strata, when the whole concentric mineral envelope of the non-rotating sphere burst asunder and became transformed into continental ridges, oceanic hollows, hill and dale, by the centrifugal impetus of the Earth's proto- rotation 247 CHAPTER XVIII. Modification, according to latitudinal zones, of the dj namical influence of the Earth's first diurnal motion. Several distinct effects which pro- ceeded coevally from the centrifugal impetus engendered by protorota- tion. Evidences of this having taken place after the stratified masses CONTENTS. PAOK had been deposited and become indurated, deducible from the diversi- fied surfaces assumed by the terraine and by the aqueous portions of the Earth ; and also from the great continental ridges and oceanic depres- sions of the globe . 254 SECTION V. GEOLOGICAL PHENOMENA RESULTING FROM THE EARTH'S FIRST DIURNAL ROTATION. CHAPTER XIX. Classification of rocks into STRATIFIED and UNSTRATIFIED. Geological data for the correctness of these two great divisions. Evidences in favour of the Dynamical System deducible from the umtratified rocks. Nuclei and centres of mountain chains generally composed of amorphous masses. Their prevalence on the Earth's surface. Axes of elevation observable in mountain ranges, and the conical form which their eminences have assumed. Argument, founded on the stratified rocks, to show that the mineral crust of the Earth has been moved, in mass, from where it was formed. Firstly, Strata deposited horizontally at the bottom of the water. And secondly, That they have been elevated from the position in which they were deposited, proved by numerous evidences ......... 266 CHAPTER XX. Evidences to prove that the non-rotatory sphere was circumbounded by water; astronomical proof geological proof. This fact, combined with what was established in previous chapters, leads to the conclu- sion that violent movement, therefore much friction, and consequently great heat, would necessarily ensue amongst the rocky masses of the earth's crust. The characteristics of Friction inquired into, and the Breccia which would result, when mineral formations, abounding with calcareous material, were subjected to its influence under water. The great Breccia and Conglomerate formations geologically de- scribed, and shown to correspond with that which the Dynamical System requires for its perfection should be found to exist. Some of the more special uses which they were designed to accomplish made manifest. The Coal Measures protected by the Conglomerate and Breccia from fusion and denudation. The nuclei of mountain ranges the icsultaut foci of heat engendered by friction . . . .281 CHAPTER XXI. Evidences of the existence, in former times, of fusion in the primary rocks derived from their internal or miner alogical structure. Carbonate of lime fused under pressure mineralogical results. Crystallization proceeding from igneous fusion. Essential difference between rocks properly called crystalline, of older formation, and those resulting from modern volcanoes, called lavas .... 300 CONTENTS. xi CHAPTER XXII. I'ACK The evidences adduced, and the points established in the foregoing Chapter, briefly applied. Firstly, to explain the enigma of the presence of crystallization arising from both aqueous and igneous fusion observable in the rocky crust of the Earth. Secondly, to account for the exist- ence in the same of mineral veins and dykes of Granite, Porphyry, Trap, &c. Geological evidences in confirmation of these two branches of inquiry .-,.. 306 CHAPTEE XXni. FAULTS or FISSURES described. Geological evidences of their existence. Application of these data to the COAL MEASURES, considered to have been the uppermost strata of the Non-rotatory Sphere. METALLIC VEINS described ; geological and other scientific data descriptive of these interesting portions of the rocky crust of the earth . . . 315 CHAPTER XXIV. Recapitulation. Conclusions to be drawn from the oblique direction of metallic veins : various means by which their contents may have been lodged in them. Thermo-electricity that which most probably was employed. Geological testimonies of the existence of amorphous rocks, capable of having occasioned the electrical currents and other phenomena from which these metalliferous veins originate. Granitic rocks : their genera, position, and their relation to associated and superincumbent formations. Inquiry into their supposed origin with respect to the internal structure of the Earth, and the assistance which the Dynamical System affords, by simplifying this difficult question 323 CHAPTER XXV. The immediate consequences of the two established positions the non- rotation of the earth until all the strata, up to the coal measures, had been formed ; and its subsequent protorotation, considered with refer- ence, firstly, to the rush of water which took place from the poles towards the equator, and, secondly, to the disintegration which ac- companied the upbursting of the amorphous rocks, during these violent movements of the primitive water. This conflux of water attempted to be explained analogically by currents of wind ; and applied to the peculiar case under consideration. The upbursting of the amorphous masses, and the disintegration which must have ensued, together with the disseminating effects of the violent aqueous currents towards the equator. Geological evidences . . . .337 CHAPTER XXVI. Formation of Earths and Soils. The attendant circumstances peculiarly favourable for this needful process. The unconformable rocky masses which overlie the coal measures. Geological evidence of their exist- ence. Inquiry into their origin, as made known to us by the Dyna- mical System. Geological character of the newer secondary suites. The New Red Sandstone, the Oolitic, and the Cretaceous groups. The Supra-cretaceous deposits, as explained by this Theory, and the clear line of demarcation which it draws between them and the still more recent surface-accumulations, the residuum of the Deluge . . 349 xii CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXVII. PAOB Erratic block group. The importance of travelled debris in substantiating the Dynamical System. The information acquired applied to the point under discussion, and to the assumed condition of the earth, at the period of the origin of the Erratic Block Group, and found to agree most conclusively ......... 366 CHAPTER XXVIII. Brief recapitulation of the principal subjects of this Section. Uranogra- phical effects of the transformation of the earth, from a non-rotating sphere to a spheroid of rotation. Precession of the equinoxes astro- nomically explained, and its bearing on the question pointed out. Chronological data to show at what period the longer axis of the solar ellipse coincided with the equinoxes. The precession of the equinoxes commenced with, and is dependent for its existence on, the earth's protorotation ; and that the commencement of the two was coeval, and their periods have had the same duration. A combination of these established positions, with the fact of " matter never engender- ing motion in itself," employed to show that the earth's motions must have originated from the Creator, and that the Creator is GOD : 377 SECTION VI. METEOROLOGICAL PHENOMENA RESULTING FROM THE LIGHT, AND FROM THE EARTH'S FIRST DIURNAL ROTATION. CHAPTER XXIX. The consequences likely to result from a world of water being thrown into violent agitation and motion by the first diurnal revolution. Longitudinal etfects on it of the elevation of continental ridg^ti, and the depression of oceanic hollows. The effects of the introduction of the principle of expansion into the primeval water. Chemical analysis ot water. No Nitrogen in water. No Hydrogen in the atmosphere. Nitrogen traced to its origin in ammoniacal gas. Free Oxygen its source. Appropriateness of the juncture, while these elements abounded, for the introduction of Light into the material universe. The diffusion principle of gases requisite to complete the force which expanded the aerial elements to their prescribed boundaries. Com- position of gases in general, and the indestructibility, in particular, of those which constitute the atmosphere . . 338 CHAPTER XXX. Diffusion principle of gases. Theorem and scientific evidences in favour ot their expansiveness. Scriptural corroborations. The Atmosphere : its aerial portion ; its aqueous or vaporous portion. The action of these two distinct bodies on one another, constituting the principal part of the machinery of the weather . . . 405 CONTENTS. xiii CHAPTER XXXI. PAOK Scientific evidence of the manner in which the Aerial and the Aqueous portions of the Atmosphere respectively act under the influence of a common cause. Scriptural and Philological confirmations of these announcements. Application of the information acquired from hoth of these branches to the further elucidation ot the Dynamical System 423 SECTION VII. COMPLETION OF THE ATMOSPHERE ; SEPARATION OF THE SEA FROM THE LAND ; AND THEIR IMMEDIATE COMBINED RESULTS. CHAPTER XXXII. Separation of the Sea from the Land. This separation effected by VAPORI- ZATION. Different substances vaporized at diverse temperatures: scientific evidences of this. The effects of the application of heat to a solution of salt and water. Results which occur when different descriptions of salts, held simultaneously in solution, are allowed to crystallize ; and, also, when these are associated with earthy mate- rials. Concluding proofs on these two points 436 CHAPTER XXXIII. During the juncture of protorotation, immense masses of mineral debris mixed with saline materials spread abroad, and separated within a few hours from the water which held them in suspension. The Dynamical System requires that this separation should have taken place by VAPOKIZATION. This fully borne out by the deposits of native salts, and confirmed by geological evidences, especially those having refer- ence to the saliferous and gypseous associates of the New Red Sand- stone and Oolitic formations. Operations then taking place : their order of sequence : the description of forces which prevailed ; and the order in which they, too, were introduced into the universe. In- dispensable utility of lateral motion in the formation of clouds, or in " gathering together " the nephalic masses of the atmosphere . .451 CHAPTER XXXIV. Different consequences which result from the application of the Expansive principle to the Aerial and to the Aqueous bodies of the Atmosphere exemplified by what took place at the epoch alluded to. Evidence that it was at this juncture the Atmosphere was completed, and the Sea and the Land were separated from each other. Concurring testimony that these events were effected by VAPOKIZATION. Scien- tific evidences as to the action and reaction of these great natural bodies on each other, and their beneficent results . . . .464 xiv CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXXV. PAOB The newly formed atmosphere a receptacle for the elements which con- stitute the Phanogamous class of plants ; and afterwards for nourish- ing and sustaining them. Supernatural action of Light in and during the formation of this division of the Vegetable Kingdom. Evidences in favour of the Dynamical Sj stem deducible from the existence of distinct Botanical districts throughout the earth's surface. Scientific confirmation of thete assumptions ; and the regions defined in which the Phanogamous classes abound. Combination of these truths with those formerly wrought out, applied to prove that the Earth, in perfect accordance with this treatise, received from the hands of the Creator, on the first day of the Mosaic week, the identical inflexions of surface which it still retains 486 SECTION VIII. CONCENTRATION OF THE LIGHT AROUND THE SUN ; AND COMPLETION OF THE WORK OF CREATION. CHAPTER XXXVI. Primitive state of the Light and supposed Centre. Analogical authority, deduced from Astronomy, for assuming that primarily the Light had a different nature from that which it now has. Evidence to this effect, and that it was precisely similar in kind, though differing in degree, with the force which occasioned the orbital motion ot the spheres. The sun, together with all the planets, caused to rotate around their respective axes by means of the primary light. Astro- nomical proof of the sun's rotation. Dynamical law, that equal but opposing forces produce equilibrium. Astronomical evidence that equal amounts of heat and light are received by the earth from the sun in passing over equal angles round it. These two bodies of evi- dence prove that the Light, as now constituted, could not have caused either the sun or the earth to rotate . . 505 CHAPTER XXXVII. The non- concentration of the Light, during the first three days of the Mosaic week, deduced from the measured quantity of light and heat received at present Irom the sun. Astronomical evidences. Deduc- tion drawn from the circumstance, that the act of illuminating the Sun caused it to become the teller of the earth's signs, seasons, days, and years. Corroborative conclusion from the peculiar direction in which the primary light acted, in order to occasion the diurnal rotation of the earth ; and presumptive evidence of its being akin to electro- magnetism 517 CHAPTER XXXVIII. Unique nature of the force which occasioned the protorotation of the earth, and other spheres of our system. Supposed to be identical CONTENTS. xv PACK with electro-magnetism. Movement of rotation which frequently accompanies the exhibition of this kind of electricity. Confiimatory evidence deducible from the single motion, or non-diurnal rotation of the moon ............ 525 CHAPTER XXXIX. The concentration of the primary light treated scientifically. The earth a non-luminous body, receiving its external light and heat from the sun. Constitution of the solar light inquired into by a consecutive series of investigations. Polarization of light : sun's rays not pos- sessing this remarkable property ; therefore not proceeding from an incandescent body, but from a luminiferous atmosphere. Identity of Electricity and Light, and of the various kinds of electricity with one another. Intimacy subsisting between Electricity and Magnetism. Terrestrial Magnetism. Evidences to prove that Light, Heat, Electri- city, and Magnetism are considered to be diversified manifestations of the same comprehensive law of nature 539 CHAPTER XL. Change in the direction of the primary light ; deductions drawn in favour of a bygone period of non-rotation. Confirmatory conclusion deduced from the fact, that the illumination of the sun ~^as the final coincident cause of the commencement of " signs, seasons, days, and years." Astronomical explanation of the vicissitudes of season. Application of the uranographical phenomfena to the point under discussion. Testimony borne to the correctness of this hypothesis by the creation, at this particular juncture, of the several races of animated beings which are dependent alike for motion and existence on atmospheric air. Termination of the evidences in favour of the Dynamical System 554 Conclusion 574 APPENDIX A. Evidences from Scripture 578 THEOREMS 581 APPENDIX B. Classification of Invertebrate Animals British Types . . . .622 APPENDIX C. Animal Exuviae, in the descending order, from the Cretaceous Group . 627 APPENDIX D. Fossil Vegetable Existences, from the Chalk downwards .... 636 Natural Orders of Plants . . . ... . . . . .646 APPENDIX E. The Animal Kingdom 648 APPENDIX F. The Vegetable Kingdom 652 xvi CONTENTS. APPENDIX G. Dicotyledon* APPENDIX H. Equisetacea? ............ 653 APPENDIX I. Classification of Rocks . . . . . 650 APPENDIX K. Older Stratified Rocks .......... G57 APPENDIX L. Secondary Rocks . ... . . . . . . . . 657 Glossary of Scientific Terms ......... 659 INTEODUCTION. "jl/TANY years have elapsed since the fundamental principles -"-- of the Cosmographical System, whose development occupies the following pages, presented themselves to my mind. Some of these have been passed under a tropical sky, and others in the more cloudy and sombre regions of my native land ; vicissitudes of circumstances, and changes in life, and, consequent thereon, variations of mental habitudes have intervened indeed, have intentionally been permitted to intervene in order that, by every possible test, I might prove the soundness of the remarkable but indestructible conclusion to which my earlier studies had led me namely, THAT THE EARTH DID NOT ALWAYS ROTATE DIURNALLY AROUND ITS AXIS. I am fully aware that it is extremely difficult for the inhabitants of a world, wheeled round by its diurnal motion through space, and constrained to take this elementary motion into all their calculations, to believe that it was not always so that there once was a period of non-diurnal rotation. Those who, from "the moment they open their eyes on this fair earth, perceive the light of the sun, will most reluctantly give themselves up to the persuasion that there once was a time a period of long duration, when the central orb afforded no light, and when the earth recognised it only as the convergent centre of attraction the great sustaining counterpoise which enabled it to revolve through unillumined space. - It is no easy task to. persuade mankind that the briny B z INTRODUCTION. seas were once a dark, unruffled, and atmosphereless mass of turgid waters, charged to repletion with the mineral elements of those stony concretions which now engirdle the terraqueous globe, and have been thrown up, as barriers, to restrain the very waters from whence they themselves were deposited. Nor is it a less arduous undertaking to convince mankind that, for ages, this sphere existed without so indispensable a means of sustaining voluntary motion as the atmosphere and that myriads of apulmonic creatures, " more numerous than the sands on the sea-shore for multitudes," were, all the while, employed as the humble and submissive agents of the Creator, in producing one of its component elements ; in elaborating that, without which no being, endowed with the faculty of locomotion, could either have breathed, moved, or lived. All these, nevertheless, are truths ; truths of the utmost importance. Of this, the perusal of the following treatise can hardly fail to convince every unbiassed mind. Responsible as it is to stand against the arrayed opinions of a whole world, I have resolved to be the first to break silence, and endeavour to prove, that what I assert is true, and stands upon the authority of the immutable word of God, from which, assisted by the discoveries of science, there can be derived the necessary data to prove, that, during the period called in Scripture " the beginning," THE EARTH HAD, IN REALITY, NO DIURNAL ROTATION AROUND ITS AXIS. Before I proceed, however, to the development of my cosmographical conceptions, it may be conducive to give a summary of those principles of belief which will -be found at the bottom of them all ; and which, indeed, alike con- stitute their groundwork, and support their subsequent super- structure. These are, in the first place, that the Bible contains a revelation from God : and that " a revelation " is a discovery by God to man of Himself that is, of his attributes, his works, or his will, over and above what He has been pleased to make known by the light of nature or reason. That, as no material thing is self-created, all must possess a condition which has not emanated from materialism, and, therefore, to attain a perfect knowledge of whatever the INTRODUCTION. 3 senses make known to us, we must, after receiving all the answers which nature can give to our inquiries, apply to a source above and beyond it. For nature cannot answer all the questions requisite to be put to it, in order to comprehend its objects thoroughly, and having thus to apply to a source beyond nature, we must appeal to the Bible ; the only revela- tion from God the Creator. That the Bible can afford whatever explanation is wanting by the light of reason for a perfect comprehension of the works of creation ; that in it nothing is overlooked, nor is there in it anything redundant ; and that the words of the first chapter of Genesis detail, in the only way in which man can be made to comprehend it, the unfolding of the plan of creation, devised from all eternity ; that these words embody NATURE'S CONSTITUTIONAL CODE, which it cannot fail impli- citly to obey ; and, therefore, to understand it thoroughly we must become acquainted with them. That whatever is mentioned in the first chapter of Genesis as having been either created, made, suspended or changed by God, has from thenceforth become a primary, permanent cause, with no intervening cause between it and the Creator ; and, there- fore, all attempts to investigate the unrelated or intimate nature or composition of such, must, as a matter of course, prove entirely fruitless. That we can know only what is revealed respecting it, and acquire an intimacy with its relative nature in respect to other material substances around. That all results not directly mentioned in the first chapter of Genesis, but w r hich are implied, are secondary causes, emanating themselves from primary causes, and together producing those effects which, from their persistency, are termed natural. And that all alike of whatever descrip- tion originated from God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, " without whom was not anything made that is made." That previous to the Mosaic week, and during the pro- tracted period called " the beginning," God created certain substances, organic and inorganic, whose existence (although they are not particularly described) is assumed, and clearly inferred by the inspired historian in his subsequent narrative. And, further, that during the six working days of the Mosaic B 2 4 INTRODUCTION. week, each day consisting of twenty-four natural hours, these primary substances were wrought up, transformed, or modi- fied by the Creator into the varied objects which now com- pose the material universe. That while unfolding the numerous conceptions which have conspired to produce the most prominent dogma of this system, the non-diurnal rotation of the Earth around its axis, I finally believe, that scientific research has attained a state of perfection sufficient to enable us, by judiciously blending its truths with those of revelation, to produce such a system of cosmogony as shall meet all the requirements and fully satisfy the human mind, by convincing the under- standing while it invigorates our faith in the Word of God. But, before I proceed any further, and while yet on the threshold, I take occasion to observe, that unless my readers are prepared to receive the announcements of Scripture with as implicit confidence as they would a thrice-demonsf. rated problem, it will avail them little to accompany me. We shall be losing sight of each other at almost every turning and winding of the long and intricate path which lies before us : for, I consider it an axiom that there is only one reliable source of information respecting that which was, and of events which occurred immediately preceding the present order of things; especially as the preceding did not stand in the relation of natural cause to the succeeding, as its effect ; but indispensably required, in order that it might become so, intervening acts of Omnipotent will and power. To render the work as concise as possible, I shall give only a limited number of authorities in support of those points which it may be deemed necessary to establish ; for, where unanimity prevails, further evidence would render the dis- cussion diffuse, and distract the attention : where it does not, multiplicity of quotations would only increase the difficulty. Some difficulty exists in making a proper selection of the first link to be examined, for the whole is bound together in a circle, the one dependent on the other ; no point presenting itself in well-marked and visible separation so that it might be laid hold of, and enable us, link by link, in continuous succession, to unravel the whole. I have, however, adopted the only plan which bids fair to obviate this difficultv, INTRODUCTION. 5 namely : to commence at whatever part of the argument appears to be most conducive to its eventual success, and interim, assume as established whatever other conditions may be necessary for the perfect support of that which first occu- pies my attention, and, afterwards, to return upon those which have been thus assumed, and prove them also, on the precise understanding, that should I fail to establish what- ever may have been made use of provisionally, then the superstructure will fall to the ground along with that on which it was erected. The point with which I have chosen to commence has likewise this recommendation, that it is the most analogous to that where the narrative commences in Scripture : a motive which I trust will also have due weight with the reader. SECTION I. THE ANIMAL EXISTENCES OF THE PERIOD OF NON-DIURNAL ROTATION. CHAPTER I. TN conformity with the resolution thus adopted, I shall, for *- the present, consider the EARTH as a spJiere, surrounded by an atmosphereless ocean of different composition from ilie actual seas, and, under the influence of the same forces which at present govern its orbital motion, revolving in darkness round an unillumined sun, but without diurnal rotation. And having done so, I shall endeavour to prove, as my first position, that these primitive, dark, and atmosphereless waters were the abode of innumerable races of living apulmonic creatures, independent alike of light or atmospheric air for life or motion ; the greater part consisting of descriptions which either were entirely fixed or moved but imperfectly. That of these there were several successive generations. And that the assumptions are as consistent with the true meaning of Scripture as tJiey are accordant with the results of philoso- phical investigation and of geological research. When I became convinced that the Earth had revolved for ages in a state of non-diurnal rotary motion around the unillumined sun ; that it had been the abode of certain classes of molluscous animals, whose shelly coverings are everywhere discoverable in its stratified masses ; and that all this had been previous to the Mosaic week, I failed to see clearly how this conclusion was reconcilable with the an- nouncements of Scripture until the words descriptive of the FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 7 operations of the fifth day of creation, as recorded Gen. i. 20 " God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life ;" or, as another version puts it, " the reptile of living mind," specially directed my atten- tion to the principle which induced the peculiar wording of this portion of Scripture and that principle was, that a line of division had been intended to be clearly and empha- tically drawn between certain races of marine creatures which were, by the Command itself, to start into being, and certain other tribes of the same grand division of animal life, which had existed previously. My next step was to ascertain, if practicable, the direction of this line of demarcation, or the point where it commenced on the scale of creation. After much thought it occurred to me, that if the revealed were perfectly known and applied to the whole existing races of animated creatures, all those which are over, as it were, must have been willed previously into being. For the revealed might be known, but the un- revealed could only thus be inferred, and afterwards be con- firmed by a comparison with fossil exuviae. Subsequent inquiries into the more precise meaning of the words used, at the commencement respectively of the 20th and 21st verses, convinced me that when applied to the collective tribes of creatures known to inhabit the waters, they seemed to exclude a vast multitude. They could not, I imagined, comprehend those which are fixed to other bodies ; those which creep along the bottom of the ocean ; nor any which do not possess the faculty of moving freely and rapidly. In short, all that are independent of atmospheric air to sustain them in life and to enable them to move. Every creature so constituted, whatever may be their form or constitution, I therefore apprehend, was known by the inspired historian to have existed previously, and, therefore, had been carefully and deliberately excluded from the Creative Command on the fifth day of the Mosaic week. From the moment I came to this conclusion I never doubted, but the principle which led me to it would afford me the long-wished-for explanation of this hitherto inscrut- able arcana ; and my attention, thus freed from doubt, became wholly directed to ascertain whether the discoveries 8 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE of philosophy would bear out these robust, but incipient conceptions. I proceeded by the way of differential reason- ing, if I may be permitted so to express myself, and the more I read, studied, examined, and compared, the more firmly I became convinced that I was on the right path. That those marine animals which do not depend for motion on atmospheric air were capable of existing previous to the formation of the light ; that they only could fulfil the pur- poses which were then to be wrought out ; and, knowing this, the inspired historian meant, as I have said, carefully and deliberately to exclude them from the narration given of the operations of the first part of the fifth day. The result of these researches, in further confirmation of my assump- tion, I now proceed to lay before my readers. I shall commence by inquiring, whether naturalists acknow- ledge a class or division of beings corresponding to the definition I have just given ; observing, in general, that whatever creatures did exist before the formation of the atmosphere must have been inhabitants of the water. Let us first, then, examine the evidences in favour of what it is to be possessed of life, or of the living principle. See the first part of the hundred and twenty-ninth Theorem." 5 " "Life," says Baron Cuvier, " being the most important of all the properties of created existence, stands first in the scale of character. It has always been considered the most general principle of division ; and, by universal consent, natural objects have been arranged into two immense divisions ORGANIC beings (comprising animals and plants) ; and INORGANIC beings (comprising minerals)." And again, " In conclusion, we shall repeat, that all living bodies are endowed with the functions of absorption (by which they draw in foreign sub- stances) ; of assimilation (by which they convert them into organized matter) ; of exhalation (by which they surrender their superfluous materials) ; of development (by which their parts increase in size and density) ; and of generation (by which they continue the form of their species). Birth and death are universal limits to their existence : the essential character of their structure consists in a cellular tissue or network capable of contraction ; containing in its meshes fluids or gases, ever in motion ; and the bases of their chemical composition are substances easily convertible into liquids or gases ; or into proxi- mate principles, having great affinity for each other. Fixed forms, * 129th Theorem. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. g transmitted by generation, distinguish their species, determine the arrangement of the secondary functions assigned to each, and point out the part they are destined to perform on the great stage of the universe. These organized forms can neither produce themselves nor change their characters. Life is neverfound separated from organiza- tion ; and, whenever the vital spark bursts into a flame, its progress is attended by a beautifully organized body." * Having ascertained the characteristics which constitute an organized or living being, it becomes necessary to delineate the distinguishing properties of the animal from the vegetable kingdom. By the one hundred and twenty-ninth Theorem it will be perceived that the lower boundaries of these two divisions of organized existences are so contiguous, indeed so frequently blended, that it " has hitherto baffled the attempts of natural- ists to point out the precise limits which separate them ;" for there are some objects, so very doubtful in appearance, as to render it uncertain to which natural division they ought to be assigned. But difficult as it may be to effect this separation, an attempt has been made to accomplish it ; and with relation to the hundred and thirtieth Theorem it may be observed, that the following seem to be the conditions which essen- tially constitute the animal state of organic existence ; those which do not possess these qualifications taking their rank in the vegetable kingdom : " 1. Animals are possessed, in some form or other, of an alimentary cavity, or intestinal canal. 2. They are endowed with a circulating system,. 3. That, besides the three elements, oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon, which both plants and animals contain, the latter have a fourth, namely, azote, or nitrogen, which enters more largely into their composition. 4. They possess the power of respiration. And lastly. That, perhaps, the superaddition of sensibility to the common living principle, is requisite to complete the characteristic property of animals." "f We can now distinguish an organized being from mere inert matter which constitutes the mineral kingdom ; and have acquired such a knowledge of the characteristic pecu- * Edinburgh Philos. Journal. t See Cuvier's Animal Kingdom, Edinburgh Journal, "Natural History," pp. 18, 19, 20. See 129th and 130th Theorems. io DYNAMICAL SVSTEM OF THE liarities of an animal, as to distinguish it from a plant. In short, we now know what a "creature" is which hath " animal life." In continuation, I shall inquire, whether any of these are so circumstanced as to be independent of light and atmospheric air ; commencing with such as, being immovable during the whole period of their existence, are most decidedly indifferent to both these influences. In effecting this, I wish it to be clearly understood, that the immovability to which I allude is that which is akin to the immovability of a tree ; whose static condition cannot be questioned, although its seeds may be wafted by the winds, or borne by the waters to a distance, there to take root, and, in turn, from thence to spread further and further over the face of the earth. In like manner, I assert, that any mollusc or zoophite which ultimately adheres to a rock, and there- after continues fixed, is an immovable creature, although it should be proved that its spawn separates itself from the parent mollusc ; and, either by the currents of the water, or even by rotiferous motion, succeeds in reaching a convenient distance from the original bed ; there, like the race to which it belongs, to become a permanent fixture, and to send forth, in turn, animals of its own kind, ephemerally endowed with the faculty of locomotion. I maintain, therefore, that, in respect of fixity, these two extensive groups of created exist- ences are precisely upon a par, and that the immovability of the ostrea or the patella can no more be questioned than that of a shrub or a tree. While by " restricted motion " I mean such as, during the whole course of their existence, creep upon, or burrow in, the bottom of the ocean, and are incap- able of swimming freely. In short, all those whose motion is not the effect of aerated blood, even although they should, by means of the surrounding element, be capable of restricted movements of mechanical origin. O In conducting the inquiry into this matter, I shall elimi- nate those animals whose nature and conformation leave no doubt as to their possessing the power of locomotion, close in by degrees upon the more questionable descriptions, situated upon the very line of demarcation, and, passing on, at last arrive at such as are positively deprived of the faculty in question. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. n By the hundred and thirtieth Theorem it is asserted " That the animal kingdom, from the most perfect of its beings, down to the verge of that indistinct line where it comes into contact ^vith the vegetable kingdom, may be comprised within tivo grand divisions, namely, VERTEBRATE and INVERTEBRATE. The former provided with a skull and vertebral column for the protection of the brain and spinal marrow. The latter being destitute of both of these defences." This is so rudimentary a truth in natural history, and so well known to all who have paid the slightest attention to its study, since Lamarck adopted this method of classification upon positive and negative principles, that it is scarcely necessary to delay the investigations to prove it. I shall, therefore, proceed to give the description of animals which constitute its positive branch the VERTEBRATE : " VERTEBRATED ANIMALS," says Baron Cuvier, "the first of whose forms is that of man, and of the animals most resembling him, have the brain and the principal trunk of the nervous system enveloped in a bony covering, composed of the cranium (or skull) and the vertebrae (or bones of the neck, back, and loins). To the sides of this medial column are attached the ribs, and the bones of the limbs, forming collectively the framework of the body. The muscles, in general, enclose the bones which they set in motion, and the viscera are con- tained within the head and trunk. They are all supplied with red blood, a muscular heart, a mouth with two jaws, one being placed either above or before the other, distinct organs of sight, hearing, smell, and taste, in the cavities of the face, and never more than four limbs. The sexes are always separate, and the general distribution of the medullary masses with the principal branches of the nervous system, are nearly the same in all. Upon examining attentively each of the parts of this extensive division of animals, we shall always dis- cover some analogy among them, even in species apparently the most removed from each other ; and the leading features of one uniform plan may be traced from man to the lowest of the fishes." * No further evidence need be adduced on this point : who- ever reflects for a moment must be convinced, that the very possession of a skull and vertebral column, with their con- tents and accompaniments, the brain and spinal nervous cord, is sufficient proof that their possessors live and move them- selves. But that we may know which animals belong to this * In the Appendix there will be found a Synoptical Table of the entire animal kingdom, according to Baron Cuvier, to which please refer. 12 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE class, a list is, in the Appendix, given of them by the same illustrious anatomist. Without hesitation, I eliminate from the future argument the whole of the multitudinous tribes of animals which com- prise the four classes, MAMMALIA, AVES, REPTILIA, and PISCES. They were all called into existence on the fifth and sixth days of the Mosaic week. Not one of them existed previously.* - Of the other three divisions, MOLLUSCA, ARTICULATA, and RADIATA, some of the classes are as decidedly on the same side of the line of demarcation ; and I proceed to single them out, that they also may be set apart. They are eight in number, f These, CEPHALOPODA, PTEROPODA, CRUSTACEA, ARACHNIDES, INSECTA, ENTOZOA, ACALEPHJE, and INFUSORIA, which may, without any fear of regret hereafter, be eliminated at once, as pertaining to " the moving creature that hath life ;" and, for the same reason, will not again require to be referred to, or brought forward. It is extremely difficult, when treating of a description of animals whose habits are so little known as those of the inferior tribes of MOLLUSCS, RADIATA, and ZOOPHYTA, to be able to draw a line of separation between those endowed with the faculty of locomotion and those which are deprived of it. If a creature be dependent for life and motion on atmospheric air, it is on the one side : if it be not, it is on the other. I shall, therefore, adduce the distinguishing characteristics of entire groups, which sufficiently evidence the immovability of numerous included tribes of submerged aquatic animals. The list given in Appendix, which is Baron Cuvier's classification, is the most appropriate for my purpose. It is considered to be deducible from the direct though unconscious testimony of a man, whose evidence it will be somewhat difficult to set aside, that the three first * In making this assertion I am well aware of the difficulty which may arise respecting the fourth great class, PISCES ; but, besides having reference to true fishes only, or such as are possessed of perfect organs of locomotion, I am pre- pared to explain, in the sequel, the peculiar difficulties which beset this part of my discourse. Meanwhile, I shall proceed on the assumption that no true fishes, which aerated their blood by gills or branchiae, did exist during the preparatory stage of the world, or before the Mosaic week. AUTHOR. t See Appendix. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 13 ACEPHALA, BRACHIOPODA, and CIRRHOPODA belong to the great division of " immovable creatures that have life ;" are independent of atmospheric air, and as such must rank accordingly in all deductions which may, hereafter, be legiti- mately drawn from that fact. It will also, I think, be readily conceded that the Polypi with some slight exceptions which include the Zoophyta, may be added to those which find themselves also on the immovable side of the line of demarcation. Of the Third Division, ARTICULATA, I have already allo- cated the Second, Third, and Fourth classes to the great group of animals fully possessing the faculty of locomotion ; therefore, I have only now to account for the several Orders comprising the First class, for which see Appendix E. The general classification I have thus given seems to embrace the animals which, with great deference, I consider to be distinctively characterized as those which may not be considered " the moving creature that hath life," and known as such to the inspired writer of Genesis to have existed in the primeval ocean, unendowed with the faculty, in its plenary sense, of self-movement ; in a condition somewhat analogous to that of the globe they inhabited, which was without diurnal rotatory motion, uncheered by the light of the sun, and as yet without an atmosphere. That we may be better able to apply these results to future reasoning, by identifying those tribes which are considered to have belonged to the non-rotatory period with the lists of fossil exuviae brought to light by geologists, there will be found in the Appendix a more detailed Kst of those which I consider to have belonged to the primitive division.* I have thus endeavoured to trace the line of separation between " the moving creature that hath life," and the Testa- ceous, Molluscous, and Zoophytic inhabitants of the ocean which are endowed with life, but not with the faculty of free and rapid locomotion, with as much distinctness as the state of information on that particular description of animal life will permit. In conducting this investigation I have necessarily been actuated by the different relations of the subject towards the * See Appendix B. 14 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE existences which are ranged on the opposite sides of that principal boundary line. " The moving creature that hath life " (more easily characterized by the possession of organs indicative of motion), not being essential to prove any future assumptions, I have, at once, discarded them from the atten- tion and the memory ; while, on the other hand, I have, by a recapitulation of the various Classes, Orders, Tribes, and Genera deduced from the most elaborate classifications of modern conchologists sought to arrest the attention while I impressed the memory with particulars respecting those creatures actually ascertained to be, or which are con- sidered to be, on that side of the line which implies that either entire immovability or restricted motion is their lot ; an additional labour undertaken, not only with the design of more effectually separating those two divisions, but in order that, when we come to compare the description of animals which are considered to be of primitive origin, with the fossil remains brought to light by geologists, we may be enabled to arrive at more satisfactory and more correct con- clusions. The following corroborating testimonies, although couched in general terms, are deserving of attention, considering the assiduity and the success of the researches made by their authors into this particular branch of natural history : " Besides possessing the faculty of sensation and voluntary motion," says Dr. Fleming, " I likewise am able to move my limbs in such a manner as to change the position not of one organ merely, but of my whole body, or to shift from one place to another. This new action is termed Locomotion. It requires for its performance, not merely the conditions requisite for sensation and voluntary motion, but likewise an arrangement of organs so constructed as by their action on the surrounding elements, whether of air, earth, or water, the body may be displaced. Quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, and fishes possess such an arrangement of organs, and exhibit the locomotive power in a great degree of perfection. But as we descend in the scale, we find many animals in which such an organization does not exist, and that live on the same spot from the commencement to the termination of then- existence. " Those animals, however, are all natives of water, and although they be thus stationary themselves, the fluctuations of the element in which they live produce a variety in the scene, and daily bring new objects in contact with their organs of sensation. " Among the invertebral animals, in which the faculty of locomotion FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 15 is not present in every species, there does not appear to be any link in the chain, or any system of organs connected with other functions, which regulate the presence or absence of locomotion. The Oyster, for example, in which a heart, blood-vessels, brain, gills, and stomach may be easily observed, has one valve of its shell cemented to the rock, and depends on the bounty of the waves for all the objects of its sensation and nourishment " The fourth method," continues Dr. Fleming, " termed Cementa- tion, employed by animals to preserve themselves stationary, consists in a part of their own bodies being cemented to the substance on which they rest. This takes place in the common mussel, by means of strong cartilaginous filaments, termed the byssus, united in the body to a secreting gland, furnished with powerful muscles, and, at the other extremity, glued to the rock or other body to which it connects itself. In other cases, as in the oyster, the shell itself is cemented to the rock." * "The first thing that strikes a geological naturalist," observes Mr. Ansted, " in looking over the numerous fossils from the silurian rocks is the apparent want of fishes, and, indeed, of all vertebrated animals. Abundant proof is afforded that these were formed at the bottom of water : some in shallow parts, others in the deepest recesses of the ocean, but nowhere throughout their wide-spread extent in all parts of the world have they yet yielded the smallest fragment that could be referred to a fish. It is, therefore, pretty clear, either that fishes had not been created, or that the conditions for their development were so unfavourable that they were extremely rare Until the termi- nation of the first great epoch, the silurian, there seem indeed only to have been introduced successive modifications and additional species of the Invei'tebrated type, and not until its close did the fishes appear, as if preparing the way for the next period marked by the prevalence of these more highly organized beings It is important to remember, however, that almost all the great natural divisions of the Invertebrata began at once and together to perform their work on earth There is no appearance of any regular order of succes- sion They seem to have been truly contemporaneous, and doubtless were introduced as the group best fitted to perform the functions of their existence." t And the remaining extract is from the address of Sir R, I. Murchison, the President, at the opening of the British Scientific Association, at Southampton, in which, after a very learned introduction (too long to be given here), he concludes with the following remarkable announcement : " After toiling many years in this department of the science, in conjunction with Sedgwick, Lonsdale, De Verneuil, Keyserling, and * Philosophy of Zoology, by Dr. Fleming, &c., vol. i. pp. 46, 47, 129, * t Ancient World, by Ansted, London, 1847, pp. 25, 4751, 395, 390. and 130. 1 6 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE others of my fellow-labourers, I have arrived at the conclusion, that we have reached the very genesis of animal life upon the globe, and that no further ' vestigia retrorsum ' will be found, beneath the protozoic or lower silurian group, in the great inferior mass of which no vertebrated animal has yet been detected, amidst the countless profusion of the lower orders of marine animals entombed in it." By the evidences connected with the hundred and thirty- third Theorem it will also be seen that several families of testaceous and zoophytic animals have, by their petrified remains, been discovered by geologists to have become extinct ; not in one formation only, but in a succession of geological formations ; not in one part alone of the surface of our planet, but in groups over its whole extent. It may have occurred to some that I have been too elabo- rate in treating of facts so well authenticated as these are ; but I have to remind them that the general position taken up of the primitive, animal life having been restricted to beings which Avere indifferent to light and atmospheric air, and either incapable, or almost incapable, of locomotion, occupies so prominent a part in the groundwork of this system, that it requires to be fully proved and well secured. In continuation and with more direct reference to the numerous families of testacea and zoophyta which have become extinct, I shall recapitulate the hundred and thirty- Jifth Theorem, that when the AUTHOR OF NATURE creates an animal or plant, all the possible circumstances in which its descendants are destined to live are foreseen, and a correspond- ing organization is conferred upon it to enable the species to perpetuate itself as long as is consistent with His ominiscient purposes, under all the circumstances to which it will inevi- tably be exposed. From so self-evident a proposition it is presumed that no one will be disposed to dissent. The admission of power and disposition to create, must be allowed to involve the power and the will to have overruled all concomitant circum- stances, as far as is consistent with the general plan of creation. To satisfactorily account for the extinction of many tribes of mollusca and zoophyta at several epochs, and over the sur- face of this planet, it will be necessary to adopt, one of the FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 17 two following inferences which alike presume the direct inter- ference of the Deity, namely, either that they were entombed by a succession of vast and general revolutions of the earth's stratified surface, extending simultaneously over the whole circuit of the globe, which so completely extirpated several races of its living inhabitants, that not one escaped, whereby its species might have been perpetuated ; or that it was an act of providence in the development of the plan of creation which brought about their extinction, when they had performed the object of their being, namely, the, exhausting the waters of those peculiar elements on which they could alone subsist. The acceptance of the former of these alternatives involves many improbabilities, and is moreover at variance with esta- blished geologic facts ; but the latter is a reasonable infer- ence, and, as I hope to show, is in accordance with the principles on which the system is based. An eminent geolo- gist has expressed the idea in these words : " Whatever the kind of the animal life may have been which first appeared on the surface of our planet, it was consistent with the wisdom and the design which has always prevailed throughout nature, and that each creature was peculiarly adapted to that situa- tion destined to be occupied by it." * At the same time, I am as fully convinced that several tribes and families of animals of the lower orders have become altogether extinct. Their solid remains discovered in the strata sufficiently attest the fact. It has already been shown, " that the slightest trace of organization discoverable in any natural body is a complete proof that life is, or at least once was, present in that body;" and that one of the necessary conditions of a living being is " that of generation, by which they continue the form of their species," and that " fixed forms, transmitted by generation, distinguish each species, determine the arrangement of the secondary functions assigned to each, and point out the part they are destined to perform on the great stage of the universe. That organized forms can neither spontaneously produce themselves nor change their character. Life is never found separated from organization ; and whenever the * De la Beche's Manual of Geology, 2nd edition, p. 476. C 1 8 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE vital spark bursts into a flarne, its progress is attended by a beautifully organized body." Now, there is undeniable proof, by means of fossil remains, that organization, and consequently the living principle, once existed ; and, if the living principle, then the necessary con- ditions of life ; and if the necessary conditions of life, then the power, by generation, of transmitting the form of their species ; and, if the form, then the arrangement of the secon- dary functions assigned to each, and the part they are destined to perform on the great stage of the universe. Recurring, however, to what has been established by the unanimous conclusions of geologists aiid comparative anato- mists, that, although endowed with all those requisites, num- berless families of the lower class of animated beings have ceased to exist, are no longer found holding a place amongst the innumerable living forms which inhabit the surface of the earth, I ask, how can these evidences be applied so as to prove that the extinct races were indifferent to light and atmospheric air, and, consequently, Avert- not possessed of the faculty of free locomotion ? It has been asserted on the authority of those who have dedicated their attention to the subject, " that there could be no organic change wrought in the animal by its own agency; that fixed forms transmitted by generation distinguish their species, and determine the arrangement of the secondary functions assigned to each." This, then, precludes the possi- bility of change in the conformation of animal form itself, arid guards, at the same time, against the error of supposing that any transmutation took place from form to form. It also proves that had ilie attendant circuit stances remained unaltered, the existing animals must have continued to have lived, and to have transmitted their forms to their succeeding generations. But they did not do so, therefore there must have been a change, and such a change in the surrounding medium, from whence they drew their subsistence, as to occa- sion their gradual decrease, and ultimately, to cause their utter extinction. One of the fundamental principles of this system is, that the introduction of animal life into the world during the non-diurnal rotatory period, was with the design of interpo- FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 19 sing animal vitality and secretion between the solid mineral masses and the liquid waters ; to disturb the chemical equi- librium to which the primitive fluid was ever prone to revert ; to abstract certain earthy and acidulous elements held by it in combination, and to transform these ingredients into animal bodies and testaceous and zoophytic coverings, the direct tendency of which was to effect a change in the con- stituent elements of the primitive ocean. It must also be observed that, owing to the peculiarity of the concomitant circumstances, the ocean could not be replenished with the materials which were thus being absorbed from it, which were taken away once for all and transformed at its base into other distinct substances, and thus they became fixed and stored up for the future designs of the provident Creator. Any change once begun under the circumstances here alluded to, namely a living active agency operating upon an unrenewable amount of mere material could tend only to one result : an exhaustion of the material on which the animal subsisted ; and, consequent thereon, an extinction of the animal itself. Another fundamental principle of this system is, that neither the successive stratiform beds of rock deposited at the bottom of the primitive ocean nor the ocean itself were in a state of readiness to be transformed into their present condition until immediately before the first diurnal rotation of the earth ; consequently, a succession of distinct vegetable and animal forms would be indispensable to bring both to that degree of perfection. As one race of the latter exhausted its peculiar food and became extinct, another race would be willed into existence to occupy its place and to continue the labour of assimilation, purification, and solidification. If any races were so constituted as to subsist on that which remained in the waters during the whole protracted time from the beginning until the period of diurnal rotation (and it is known that many elements did so remain), these races would exist through all the vicissitudes which necessarily extirpated others of more restricted assimilation. While with reference to the employment of animal and vegetable agency for the purpose of simultaneously preparing the ocean and the earth's mineral crust, I may observe, that c 2 20 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE during the period in question and in an element such as water, which admits of its associated ingredients on their equilibrium being disturbed so easily to obey the laws of gravity and to take a downward tendency, the bottom of the ocean was, of all others, the most suitable position for the collocation of the multitudinous artificers which it had pleased the Creator then to employ. It was also the most benign, for the lowest stratum of water would be that in which the last particle of sustenance would be found by them. To have conferred the power of their going elsewhere in quest of what could not have been found, would, on the other hand, have been inconsistent with our ideas of the Creator's goodness ; while it would have been positively inimical to His future plans, as I shall hereafter abundantly make manifest. When, in regular sequence, we come to treat of the fossil vegetable remains of the era to which I now allude, it will be shown that there was a succession, likewise, of distinct families of plants. That the epochs of their existence are clearly demonstrated by their fossil remains which are dis- covered in the strata. That by this undoubted test it is known that in many instances they grew coevally with the existence of certain molluscous and zoophytic animals, like- wise now extinct. That the greater part being furnished with roots, they must have been attached to the bottom, conse- quently, were fixed during the whole period of their existence to the spot where they once took root. From all of which considerations I cannot imagine any reason why we should admit the fixity of the plants, and doubt or deny the degrees of immovability which are contended for in the other ; and the more so, as the absence in the animals of the usual organs necessary for locomotion is as direct a corroboration, though negatively so, in their case, as the positive proof of roots is in the case of plants. Fixity is the general law governing the latter ; hence the presence of organs adapted thereto is sufficient to complete the identity. Motion, on the other hand, is the general law of animal life ; therefore the absence of organs fitted to effect this must be admitted as a proof, equally valid, of their incapacity to fulfil the requirements of their general law of being. It has been asserted, " that all the fixed animals of the FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 21 present day are inhabitants of the water, whose fluctuations bring food within their reach:"* and, although this is very different from maintaining what the direct line of our argu- ment would demand, that all animals which depend for food on the surrounding element must, necessarily, be fixed; nevertheless, there is a sufficiency of presumptive proof scattered throughout the writings of geologists who have given the subject their earnest attention, to show, that the extinct molluscous and zoophytic creatures which inhabited the profundity of the primeval waters were either fixed, or had not the faculty, in its usual general acceptation, of locomotion. For, even were we to relax our confidence in the wisdom and benignity of the Creator, and suppose that, having willed those primeval animal forms into existence for the purpose of purifying the waters, draining them of certain ingredients, and locking up those otherwise noxious materials in a solid, insoluble form at the bottom of the ocean, while they at the same time contributed layer by layer to the outer crust of the Earth, HE endowed them with faculties of locomotion, not only to impede the accomplishment of His own plans of infinite wisdom, by rendering uncertain the accumulation of their remains in any given locality, but to admit of their going in search of what the waters (by animal action and secretion) had been incapable of supplying ! I repeat, that were we even capable of adopting so improper a view as this would infer, it would still be requisite to explain why, both in form and in the massiveness of their outward coverings, they were creatures apparently so ill adapted for locomotion, unless what I am so anxious to establish be con- ceded, namely, that primeval animal life, which is known to have existed, was restricted to forms which were either altogether deprived of the power of locomotion or endowed with it in a very limited degree. Thus it would appear, that all the evidences, direct as well as presumptive, tend to prove this leading peculiarity with respect to the animal inhabitants of the waters which sur- rounded the globe during the period of non-diurnal rotation, while as yet there was no atmosphere, and " darkness was * Dr. Fleming's British Animals. 22 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE EARTH. upon the face of the deep." In the sequel of this section I shall endeavour to show the perfect adaptation of creatures, such as testacea and zoophyta, to perform what was then in procress of execution ; and at the same time point out the incapability of forms possessing locomotion, in the plenary sense of the term, either to have performed that work, or to have existed in the then condition of the world. Perhaps the strongest light in which the question can be put after what has been adduced would be to imagine the difficulty attendant on any attempt to wrest the mass of evidence, which can be collected on the subject, so as to sustain the opposite position to endeavour to prove that the animals of the primitive ocean were possessed of the faculty of moving themselves, at will, from place to place ; and that, too, when, from the concomitant circumstances of the period alluded to, every part of the circumfluent ocean must have been as nearly as possible alike. Before leaving this part of the subject, I would take occa- sion to point out with precision, that what has been said has had no reference whatever to the fossil remains of those extinct monstrous animals which have been discovered in the tertiary and other recent strata. They, too, have been extirpated by a fiat of the Omnipotent, but this, I firmly believe and trust, hereafter, satisfactorily to prove, was that denunciatory decree which caused the Noachian deluge. SECTION I. THE ANIMAL EXISTENCES OF THE PERIOD OF NON-DIURNAL ROTATION. CHAPTER II. TI7E have thus, step by step, and by the most careful investigation, reached another resting-place on our onward and upward course. At the previous stage we became acquainted with the necessary conditions of animal life, and wherein it differs from mere vegetable existence. "We have since been assured by the concurring testimony of some of the most accomplished naturalists of the age, that several extensive and numerous sections of the animal kingdom are entirely destitute of the faculty of locomotion, and others of it, in its plenary signification ; and conse- quently all alike independent of atmospheric air. In very many and very important instances this fact is spontaneously and directly asserted. In other cases it is as conclusively inferred ; thus completing, by those concurring testimonies, the proofs in favour of the concluding part of the hundred and thirty-first Theorem : although it is extremely difficult to draw the line with perfect precision which separates the beings possessed of locomotion from those which are fixed, yet such a distinction does actually exist, and is, therefore, capable of being delineated. Had it been merely to establish the fact of the existence of animal forms destitute of the power of voluntary motion, I might have rested satisfied Avith what has been accom- plished ; but, when it is considered how studiously the whole 24 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE division of creatures so constituted seem to have been ex- cluded from the command, which, on the fifth day of the Mosaic week, called into existence " the moving creature that hath life ;" and then take into account, how clearly and how conclusively the fact has been established of there being so many distinct tribes of Testacea and Zoophyta, which did not, indeed could not, have sprung into being on the promul- gation of that command which called forth forms possessing a faculty to which they cannot make pretension there can be little hesitation in admitting that the immovable creatures, and creatures with restricted power of motion, had been willed into existence before ; and, strange as the means may appear, that they, nevertheless, formed part of the agency employed by the Omniscient Creator " in the beginning, when He created the heavens and the earth." Nor should any limita- tion of our own mental capacity be permitted so far to dero- gate from a just appreciation of the attributes of God as to cause us to hesitate in admitting this assumption, which our judgment, founded on the palpable evidence of the senses, so clearly demands. No man, endowed with reason, for an instant doubts or pretends to deny that the world in its finished state, with all its inhabitants, is the workmanship of God ; an irresistible concession which confessedly implies his power (when required for the accomplishment of ulterior plans) to have exercised what, to us, appears a minor degree of creative energy ; if, in reality, it can be considered a more restricted manifestation of wisdom and power, to constrain a simpler form of animal life to work out and accomplish any portion of the great and progressive plan of the Creation ! We must now follow up the vantage ground which we have gained, by ascertaining, from the compilations of geolo- gists, what are the classes, orders, genera, and species of the fossil animal exuviae which have been discovered embedded in the strata ; and, by comparing them with those w T hich we have presupposed, exhibit the analogy which exists between the two an accordance as perfect as the state of scientific research warrants. Referring, therefore, to the lists given in the Appendix,*'' a satisfactory coincidence will be discovered between the * See Appendix C. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 25 forms which really existed, and those which, by a priori deductions, I presumed would in accordance with the pro- gressive development of the great plan of Creation be found embedded in the stratified formations of the earth's outer crust during its non-rotatory period. Confiding implicitly in Scripture, I was induced to ask it What description of animal life inhabited the primeval ocean previous to the formation of the light, and before the Earth revolved diurnally around its axis ? The clear and unhesitating reply was All, except " the moving creature that hath life," dependent on light and air; for these were subsequently created. I then turned to those naturalists who have given the subject a lifetime's attention, and said to them " Scripture informs me that the living beings which inhabited the world's ocean before the introduction of light into the material universe, and ere the Earth revolved diurnally round its axis, must have consisted alone of those which are either deprived of locomotion or possess that faculty restrictedly. Do you know of any such ? what are they ? and where do they usually dwell ? " The ready and precise answer to those inquiries was " We do know of many tribes of animals, some of which are totally incapable of locomotion, while others possess it only in a slight degree. They are all inhabitants of the water ; and we have classed them under the distinctive groups of Zoophyta, Radiata, Conchifera, and Mollusca." Assured by this impartial and spontaneous testimony, I passed on to another department of the learned, and entreated them to inform me, what description of animal life do the petrified remains which they have met with embedded in the successive layers of the earth's outer crust reveal to have chiefly inhabited the water, during the period when those rocks were being deposited and indurated. The reply which they gave, after referring to the tabulated lists which they had compiled during their geological investigations, has been submitted in the Appendix, and is found to be, as near as possible, a counterpart of the answer received to my previous inquiry. The majority of the living forms made known to us by 26 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE their exuviae seem to have belonged to that great division, inhabitants of the water, which are either wholly incapable of locomotion, or whose motions are restricted ; and which, when reduced to scientific classification, range themselves, with a few exceptions, under the orders Zoophyta, Radiata, Conchifera, and Mollusca. With respect to the discovery of animal exuviae in situa- tions of which there can be no doubt as to geological correct- ness, although from the paucity of our knowledge of their individual conformation and habits there may be serious doubts as to their having possessed the power of locomotion, in its proper signification it appears to me, that the strongest line of defence which can be taken up is to express a firm conviction that no animal which encrusted the bottom of the ocean during its period of non-rotation was, or could be, possessed of the faculty of freely moving from place to place ; that such ability was alike inconsistent with, and would have been prejudicial to, the development of the great plan of Creation ; that locomotion, where all the surrounding elements were entirely similar, would have been a superfluous endowment, and, therefore, was not conferred ; and finally, without an atmosphere there could have been no voluntary motion impelled or sustained by aerated blood. With these declarations this point will be thus left to clear up itself when the great Scriptural announcements of the plan of Creation shall be better understood, more faithfully applied to the researches of philosophy and science, and more gene- rally believed in. Then, there is little doubt, those seeming anomalies will give place to juster views and to more correct classifications ; so that what now threatens to be a serious difficulty, will wholly disappear, and give place to a perfect, consistent, and convincing system of Cosmography. In noticing the conflicting circumstance of the primitive waters being considered to have been fresh, while .numberless remains of exuviae correspond to living congeners inhabiting our present briny seas, I have to allude to the minuteness of the difference of conformation which might enable a conchifer or mollusc to inhabit fresh water, and to point out, that the primitive ocean contained all the elements of its present saline nature, although differently combined, and then to FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 27 % give the following conclusive extract from one of our most argumentative geologists, which seems to have been written so expressly for the occasion, although he was then treating of the origin of the Paris and Isle of Wight basins, that with it I shall close this part of the evidence : " The sources of the organic fossils," says Dr. M'Culloch, " are no less obvious. But I must not pass from these without inquiring into their value in determining the marine or other nature of these strata. This is especially necessary, as the theory, and the mistakes of fact, together, have been among the chief sources of erroneous judgment in these cases, and will remain so as long as this engrossing pursuit shall occupy all the attention of geologists, and this hypothesis shall continue to rule. If to mistake respecting a fish has been sufficient to confound the class of Oeningen, it is easy to see what more may have happened and may happen again ; not only in such instances, but in the judgment respecting alternating deposits. " I do not give catalogues of species and genera I shall only, therefore, name among the living genera of freshwater Lymneus, Planorbis, Physa, Paludina, Ampullaria, Cerithium, Melanopsis, Melania, Nerita, Cyclas, and Unio. Of these Lymneus, Planorbis, Physa, Paludina, Cerithium, Melanopsis, Melania, and Nerita are found in the fossil state ; and Paludina, Ampullaria, Cerithium, Melania, and Nerita are common to fresh and salt water. Of the shells called exclusively marine, Modwlus, Mytilus, and Corbula live in fresh water ; and different species of Anodon, Cyclas, Unio, Tellina, Cardium, and Venus, some belonging to fresh and others to salt water, are found promiscuously in the Gulf of Livonia. Our own mussels and oysters, and many more, thrive better in fresh water than in salt ; and, reversely, many freshwater shell fish can live in salt water, and those of salt marshes are especially indifferent on this subject." * * Geology, by Dr. M'Culloch, vol. i. pp. 327, 328. SECTION I. THE ANIMAL EXISTENCES OF THE PERIOD OF NON-DIURNAL ROTATION. CHAPTER III. r SHALL now endeavour to make apparent the perfect L adaptation of the description of animals, which are con- sidered to have existed, to the then condition of our planet, on the supposition already assumed, of its being unillumi- nated, without diurnal rotation, and enveloped by an atmo- sphereless ocean, differing in composition from ivhat it does at present; and, afterwards, I shall adduce some of the more apparent reasons why animal life should at that period have been confined to beings of simpler conformation and, com- paratively, of sedentary habits. In developing this plan of procedure I shall commence by showing the nature and functions of lungs and gills. " Whether the aerating organs of animals," says Dr. Fleming, "be lungs or gills, it appears to be the object of nature in their construc- tion to expose a large surface to the contact of the air. This object is accomplished by their division into numerous cells and leaf-like processes, or by their extension on the walls of cavities or the surface of pectinated ridges. The blood brought to the organs by the pul- monic vessels is there distributed by their terminating branches. Although still retained in vessels, it can, nevertheless, be easily acted upon by the air on the exterior." : After describing the accompaniments to those important organs, Dr. Fleming further observes : * Philosophy of Zoology, vol. i. pp. 348, 349. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 29 " A part of the oxygen has disappeared, and an equal bulk of carbonic acid is found occupying its place. The quantity of oxygen in this carbonic acid is equal to that which has been abstracted from the air. In this case, either carbonic acid escapes from the blood and an equivalent bulk of oxygen is absorbed ; or the blood furnishes the carbon only, with which the oxygen of the air unites." * "In respiration," says Mr. Hugo Reid, "the oxygen of the air is diminished one-third in quantity ; and, either it is converted into carbonic acid by combining with carbon in the lungs ; or, the oxygen of the air is absorbed and retained in the lungs, and carbonic acid is given off. It is not certain which of these is the true theory of respiration, but it is certain that carbon (in union with oxygen) is expelled from the lungs during respiration And there seems reason to believe that the main use of respiration is to expel a super- fluous quantity of carbon from the body, and that the oxygen of the air effects this by uniting with the carbon, and thus converting it into a gaseous substance (carbonic acid gas), in which form it is more easily got rid of." I And thus is proved what is stated in the hundred and thirty-eighth Theorem, to which please refer, as being essen- tial to the general argument. The next process to which I shall direct the attention, is the formation of the shelly substance which constitutes the envelope, or, as it has by some been called, the external skeleton of the conchiferous molluscs. Messrs. Todd and Bowman say " Among the invertebrated classes there are hard parts .... which serve as bases of support for the soft parts The cal- careous plates of the star-fish (asterius) and sea urchin (echinus'), the hard coriaceous covering of insects, the hard external integuments of crustacea, and the infinitely various shells of the gasteropoda and conchifera, must all be regarded in the light of hard parts performing the offices above referred to." J Dr. Fleming asserts " That the most important appendix to the skin of the molluscous animal appears to be the shell. The matter of the shell is secreted by the corium, and the form which it assumes is regulated by the body of the animal. It is coeval with the existence of the animal, and appears previous to the exclusion from the egg ; nor can it be dispensed with during the continuance of existence. The solid matter of the * Philosophy of Zoology, pp. 350, 3.51, and 137th Theorem. f Lectures on Chemistry, pp. 61, 62. j Philosophy and Anatomy of Man, vol. i. p. 79. 3 o DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE shell consists of carbonate of lime, united with a small portion of animal matter, resembling coagulated albumen. " The mouth of the shell is extended by the application of fresh layers of the shelly matter to the margin, and its thickness is increased by a coating on the inner surface. These assertions are abundantly confirmed by the observations of naturalists, whose accurate experi- ments have greatly contributed to the elucidation of conchology." * Dr. Ure says " Porcellaneous shells appear to consist of carbonate of lime, cemented by a very small portion of animal gluten. This animal gluten is more abundant in some kinds, however, as in the patellae." t " Testaceous shells," says Captain T. Brown, " are composed of carbonate of lime, combined with a small portion of gelatinous matter. They are, in general, permanent coverings for the inhabitants, and the animal is of a soft simple nature, without bones of any kind ; and attached to its domicile by a certain adhesive principle possessed by some of the muscles The shells of the testacea evidently are formed by the animal gradually adding to them either annually or periodically." J Carbonate of lime, according to the concurring testimony of all chemists, is composed of 4 3 '6 of carbonic acid and 5 6 '4 of lime. " M. de la Beche has recently published a list," says Professor Buckland, "of the specific gravity of living shells of different genera, from which he shows that the specific gravity of all the land shells examined was greater than that of Carrara marble ; in general more approaching to Arragonite. The freshwater and marine shells, with the exception of the Argonauta, Nautilus, lanthina, Lithodomus, Haliotus, and great radiated crystalline Teredo from the East Indies, exceeded Carrara marble in density. This marble and the Haliotus are of equal specific gravities." || These expositions, therefore, show : 1st. That the prin- cipal end attained by pulmonic respiration is to throw off, through the medium of carbonic acid, a superfluous quantity of carbon from the circulating system. 2nd. That respira- tion by lungs necessarily implies the residence of their pos- sessor in atmospheric air. 3rd. That the conchifera, mollusca, cirripeda, zoophyta, and radiata are not furnished with lungs, * Ancient World, pp. 213, 244. t Chemical Dictionary, p. 741. J Conchologist's Text Book, p. 12. Theorem 157. Dr. lire's Chemical Dictionary, p. 245, &c. || De la Beche's Geological Researches, 1834, p. 76. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 31 but with bronchise of an extremely rudimentary description, even in most of these classes ; that they are . principally situated within their shelly cavities, and are subject to the will of the animal. 4. That the testacea secrete their shelly coverings, by means of the corium, by additional layers from within, to which they are continually adding. And lastly. That the shells of testaceous tribes are principally composed of carbonate of lime, which, in turn, is a composition of carbonic acid and lime, in the proportions of 44 and 56 in 100 parts; while the density, generally, of these shelly envelopes exceeds even that of Carrara marble. An intimate connection seems thus evidently to subsist between the non-existence of an atmosphere, the want of lungs, and the formation and secretion (not the exhalation) of carbonic acid ; for, had carbon been required to have been ejected through the medium of carbonic acid, lungs would not have been denied to the tribes which then inhabited the water ; and if lungs, then a corresponding atmospheric medium. But so far from lungs and an atmosphere being then conducive to the plans of the Creator, they would have been positively inimical, and therefore were withheld ; for the great object then desired was the formation of carbonate of lime. And carbonate of lime was actually being accumu- lated by the instrumentality of the internal functions of the testaceous tribes ; while it was, at the same time, being trans- formed into their beautiful, secure, and convenient envelopes ; thus exhibiting the goodness blended with the wisdom of God, for that which afforded support, fixity, and defence against the pressure of the surrounding element to these ancient submerged animals, was also so disposed as to yield carbonate of lime in a ratio equal to that which the periphery bears to the central bulk of any form whatever. It will be remembered, that carbonate of lime is composed of carbonic acid and lime. The source and application of the carbonic acid have been satisfactorily explained ; to account for the lime, we must come to the unavoidable conclusion that its component elements were absorbed or extracted from a menstruum holding it in combination ; for living creatures which were either altogether fixed, or pos- sessed only of restricted power of motion, and surrounded by 3z DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE a tranquil medium, had no other means of being supplied with the elements of lime than by the water in which they were immersed, while the tidal fluctuations of the primitive ocean, occasioned by luni-solar influences, would be the means of bringing successive parts of the water within the reach of those which were absolutely fixed, and enable them to extract those elementary principles necessary for the forma- tion of carbonate of lime an assumption corroborated by the fact, that whatever may be the diversity of their form, or their other constituent characteristics, carbonate of lime is invariably found to compose a great proportion of their fossilized remains. The operation alluded to, so essential for their own well- being, so admirably adapted for the great end in view that of combining in them, and by means of their animal secre- tion, the requisite proportions of calcium with carbonic acid not only tended to abduct from the ancient ocean the primary elements necessary to effect those purposes, but by locking them up together, rendered them innocuous and insoluble, and capable of being preserved in that condition for the requirements of future beings. The water was drained of elements which, if left uncombined, would have been positively hurtful to future life ; while, at the same time, the disturbance of the chemical equilibrium thereby effected, greatly tended, simultaneously, to promote the precipitation of other materials from the ocean holding them in combination. I wish it particularly to be borne in mind, that the perfect adaptation of the species of animal life to the then condition, and to the progressive development of the earth's material crust, was one of the means which most effectually promoted and accelerated the whole operation. By its being so planned, that the superfluous and conse- quently the otherwise injurious portion of carbon taken into the animal circulation should be got rid of, not by ejection, as now done through the medium of gills and lungs, and by combina- tion with the oxygen of atmospheric air, but by internal secre- tion, and being by the agency of the corium formed into car- bonic acid, and united with calcium into carbonate of lime, the sub-aqueous surface of the earth wherever deemed requisite became gradually enveloped by a calcareous crust composed of the exuviae of myriads of marine testacea, wonderfully FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 33 destined, while enjoying the successive functions of their degree of animal life, to promote the plans of the Creator. These slow but unerring instruments in the work of calcareous elaboration, while they were encoating themselves in their variegated shelly defences, unitedly encrusted that portion of the sub-oceanic surface to which many of them were affixed for life, and others nearly so, by the unalterable and wise decree of the Omnipotent. When they were thus occupied, and well adapted by their species to the then condition of the surrounding creation, there appear to have been other concomitant objects wrought out by the agency of those animal elaborators. They were producing and accumulating molluscous animal matter, of which one peculiar ingredient, after they had become extinct, assumed almost an ethereal buoyancy, and ascended through the mass of waters to the very surface ; to constitute the material bases of the ethereal fluid, or of the primary light ; there to await the further development of the great plan of Creation. All these ends, so essential to the object then in view, seem to have been intimately connected with partial or total immovability of con- struction ; fixation, or degrees of fixation, could alone ensure the encrusting of the earth where such was necessary. The profundity of the ocean was the only locality where this could be done by a living agency ; Water the only medium for hold- ing the requisite component elements in suspension, in equality throughout, and in adaptation for being readily imparted in the quantities and proportions required by animal life successively developed ; Vacuum, or the absence of the atmosphere, the most effectual means for the perfect retention of these accu- mulated exhalations, associated with the primitive waters ; whilst, as regards its inhabitants, fixation being so indispens- able, movement or fluctuation of the surrounding and con- taining fluid became as essential ; hence the adaptation of the luni-solar current, which, even before the illumination of the sun, or the diurnal motion of the earth, must have been continually flowing round the non-rotating sphere. Fortunately for the perfect establishment of the position which I have assumed, the presumptive evidence arising by contrast from the supposition of an opposite state of animal life during the period alluded to, when the several suites of 34 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE strata were in progress of formation and enduration, is as conclusive in my favour. Animals endowed with locomotion (even could they have existed, which, before the atmosphere was formed, was impossible) would not have been adapted for the object designed. Had they been swift, free, swimming creatures, they must have been of nearly equal specific gravity with the element in which they moved ; consequently, could not have been encased in a shelly coating of carbonate of lime weighing 2 '7, or nearly three times, the weight of the same bulk of water.* Deprived of this solid covering they would have left no calcareous exuviae to promote the object for which the testacea, zoophyta, &c., were willed into exist- ence. Had they been without this shelly defence against the pressure of an ocean, such a state would have been incon- sistent with the goodness of God. All these irreconcilable anomalies vanish when it is assumed that the living creatures, which dwelt at the bottom of the primeval waters consisted of those which were either incapable of locomotion, or only partially endowed with that faculty. Their conformation and habits were in perfect accordance with the state of the world at that time, and with all its attendant circumstances. Light and darkness were equally the same to them. They were not dependent on atmospheric air. Their wants were amply supplied by the carrier water wherein they dwelt ; whilst, in the particular instance alluded to, all that was going on within these zoophytic and testaceous creatures, every atom of matter which they assimilated to their molluscous bodies, or to their zoo- phytic or testaceous coverings, was an atom added to and to- wards the promotion of the work then in progress : for ages every pulsation which took place in their imperfect circula- ting system along the whole underline of the dark and silent waters was a beat towards the accomplishment of the great plan of Creation ! And when that work was so far accom- plished as afterwards to admit of its being completed, and when it pleased the Omnipotent to reveal to us the very words in which His commands were given for that purpose, no discrepancy is found, even there, between what I have supposed and what actually took place ; for, with an evident * tire's Chemical Dictionary, p. 215. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 35 foreknowledge of their pre-existence, they were studiously and deliberately excluded from the Command which, on the fifth and sixth days of the Mosaic week, willed all the remain- ing tribes of animal beings into existence. True to the fiat of the Creator, " the waters " and " the earth " produced on those days " the moving creature that hath life ; fowl that may fly in the open firmament of heaven ; cattle, and creep- ing thing, and beast of the earth after his kind ;" all of them being animals possessing powers of free locomotion, dependent on atmospheric air and influences, and which, in union with those previously created " in the beginning," completed the animal kingdom, as it is now known to be. As a summary of the whole of this part of the argument, while I firmly assert that the primeval atmosphereless waters were the abode of innumerable tribes of living creatures, I as firmly believe that not one of them could accelerate its own movements at will by means of aerated blood ; and, although myriads of animals had, for ages, encrusted the bottom of the ocean, there was not, until the fifth and sixth days of the Mosaic week, a pair of perfect gills or lungs within the whole range of the solar system ! After what has been so clearly and circumstantially stated, and considering the lists of organic remains which have been adduced, it is not very probable that any well-founded doubt can exist respecting the origin of the calcareous formations ; or the important part which the exuviae of marine animals have exercised in their construction ; yet, to defend myself against the possibility of any such lurking suspicion in the mind, and to put the natter in the clearest possible point of view, I shall have recourse to part of the sixteenth Theorem, and to some of its innumerable authorities. The former asserts That with the exception of some of the inferior, the stratified rocks contain innumerable vestiges of vegetable, animal, and zoophytic remains Some of which are of gigantic dimensions in comparison with recent equiva- lents And that they have by their exuviae contributed largely to the formation of the carboniferous and calcareous strata ; the calcareous matter increasing in an ascending series, yet found to be, during every epoch, precisely similar in its component elements. D 2 3 6 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE " Indeed," says M. de la Beche, " it would appear that we should look to the medium in which testaceous animals and polypifers existed, for the greater proportion, if not all, of the carbonate of lime with which they constructed their shells and habitations. " That the animals, by secreting carbonate of lime from the medium in which they lived, somehow contributed considerably to the mass, we are certain, as their remains now constitute a large portion of it." * And again M. de la Beche proceeds : " To discover that there may have been some connection between the animals with solid parts, and a facility of procuring carbonate of lime on the surface of the globe, appears perfectly consistent with the design manifested in the creation ; because it assumes such design at all periods, and constant harmony between the forms of creatures and their mode of existence. The solid parts of animals which have been successively imbedded in various rocks, constitute a very large pro- portion of certain of those rocks, and, if withdrawn from the fossili- ferous deposits generally, would very considerably diminish their thickness. Therefore, if the exuviae of animals had not been entombed, and if the supply of carbonate of lime had not been greater than that which could have been derived from a mere destruction of one animal by another for the purpose of food, the surface of our planet would not have been what it now is ; and, consequently, the fitness of things for the end proposed being constant in creation, the general condition of animal and vegetable life would not have been such as we now find it."t The opinion of Dr. M'Culloch respecting the origin of limestone formations is very interesting, as he has directed his attention closely to that branch of geological research ; and, with much satisfaction, therefore, I have selected the following apposite passages from amongst innumerable others, in his last publication : " The formation of coral islands proves that enormous and solid masses of calcareous rock are the produce of animals alone ; and when we reflect on the magnitude of some of these, we have no reason to be surprised at the extent of those rocks which, among the secondary strata, are composed chiefly of shells. Were we even to suppose that every particle of the largest bed of limestone known was originally part of a shell, we should, as far as the bulk of the mass is concerned, assume nothing that would be discountenanced by the magnitude of the great coral reef of New Holland. If the most minute animals of creation can thus by their numbers execute, unassisted, works of such enormous magnitude, and, as navigators think, within spaces of time comparatively limited, it is far from unreasonable to believe that the succession, through unnumbered ages, of animals so far exceeding * Manual of Geology, p. 451. f Ibid., p. 459. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 37 these in bulk, and in the relative quantity of their calcareous produce, should have, generated all the calcareous strata in the secondary series."* .... Mr. Lyell says " The testacea, of which so great a variety of species occur in the sea, are a class of animals of peculiar importance to the geologist, because their remains are found in strata of all ages, and generally in a higher state of preservation than those of other organic beings. Climate has a decided influence on the geographical distribution of species in this class ; but as there is much greater uniformity of the temperature in the waters of the ocean than in the atmosphere which invests the land, the diffusion of many marine molluscs is extensive." In conclusion Mr. Lyell says " So wonderfully minute are the separate parts of which some of the most massive geological monuments are made up ! When we desire to classify, it is necessary to contemplate entire groups of strata in the aggregate ; but if we wish to understand the mode of their formation, and to explain their origin, we must think only of the minute subdivisions of which each mass is composed. We must bear in mind how many thin, leaf-like seams of matter, each contain- ing the remains of myriads of testacea and plants, frequently enter into the composition of a single stratum, and how great a succession of these strata unite to form a single group ! " f Mr. Miller affords the following evidence j " The Cambrian group being the representative of the first glimmer- ing twilight of being of a dawn so feeble that it may seem doubtful whether, in reality, the gloom had lightened must still be regarded as a period of uncertainty. " Thus ere our history begins, the Silurian had passed into extinc- tion, with the exception of what seem a few connecting links, exclu- sively molluscs, that are found in England to pass from the higher beds of the Ludlow Rocks into the lower or tilestone beds of the Old Red Sandstone. " The exuviae of at least four platforms of beings lay entombed, furlong below furlong, amid the grey mouldering mud stones, the harder arenaceous beds, the consolidated clays, and the concretionary limestones, that underlay the ancient ocean of the Lower Old Red. The earth had already become a vast sepulchre, to a depth beneath the bed of the sea equal to at least twice the height of Ben Nevis over its surface." * Geology, by Dr. M'Culloch, vol. i. pp. 216, 217. t Principles of Geology, vol. ii. pp. 307310; vol. iii. pp. 47, 163, 239. J In order to adapt this passage to my work, and the object I have in view, I have very reluctantly been obliged to abstract it more than I otherwise should have wished. AUTHOR. Old Red Sandstone, 3rd edition, pp. 266272. 38 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE These extracts from the writings of geologists who have given the subject their careful attention, both in situ, in the field of labour, as well as in the retirement of their closets, cannot fail to be otherwise than conclusive and convincing to every one of the paramount influence which the fossil exuvice of marine animals have exercised in the formation of calca- reous strata. The conclusion which seems so irresistible that the primitive waters contained the appropriate elements for the sustentation of apulmonic animal life, and that these were gradually abstracted from it by secretion, accords so admir- ably with the conception of the reciprocal influence of the liquid upon the solid portions of the globe the one con- tributing towards the formation of the other, and the perfect- ing of both being the result of their mutual progress that they cannot be separated from each other in the imagination. I cannot conceive otherwise than that the deposition from the primitive menstruum was as indispensable towards the purifi- cation of the waters, and to prepare them for becoming " the seas " of the present day, as that the rocky material was requisite for the completion of the solid strata which was being formed beneath. It was, in fact, the same operation. What the primitive ocean resigned to render it the sea, the mineral bed beneath acquired to solidify it into a rocky stratum ; whenever the interchange became sluggish, by the aqueous medium assuming a static condition of equilibrium, to which chemical compounds in large masses are ever prone, fresh excitement was given to the work of progression by the creation of a more searching and influential race of animal existences. The equilibrium by this means became disturbed, and the abstraction and solidification again went on. No one for a moment doubts that the stratified masses underwent a protracted course of progressive preparation to fit t hem for the important part which they had to perform in the economy of the earth's formation ; and, therefore, there is no just cause to deny to the less consistent oceanic waters, which also were from " the beginning," the necessity of undergoing some analogous process of preparation to enable them also to perform their part in the newer economy, when the earth should be no longer slumbering without diurnal rotatory motion, and FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 39 bearing them tranquilly over all its surface ; but when they should be confined within narrower troughs of much greater profundity, and be the limpid, sparkling seas of our present day. In corroboration of this opinion, I shall, without adducing any of the evidences, refer to the ninety-seventh Theorem. " That geologists generally concur in the opinion, that the sea is the residuum of a primitive ocean, which, at one time or other, seems to have covered the dry land which now constitutes the habitable surface of the globe. That from it were deposited the mineral ingredients which compose the inorganic portion of the stratiform masses of the earth. That this separation simultaneously prepared the primitive ocean for becoming the present sea. And, lastly, it has been maintained, especially by some of the earlier geologists, ' That there are no opera- tions now taking place in the sea, which bear the slightest analogy to those productions of mineral substances in strata which took place formerly on our globe.' " The next point to be considered is the circumstance of the calcareous formations increasing in an ascending series from the grauwacke to the chalk inclusive, and to show its analogy to the natural increase of apulmonic animal life, in order to be convinced that there exists an intimate connection between them. The horizontality of surface of the primitive earth, assumed to be a perfect sphere surrounded everywhere by an equal depth of water,* entirely precludes any recourse being had to the supposed influence during the non-diurnal rotatory period of springs, volcanoes, fissures, or disintegration. To be consistent these must all be discarded from arguments which have reference to that period and condition of the globe. During that period the important uses which were made of apulmonic animal life, testaceous and zoophytic, must be looked to alone for the proper explanation of the phenomenon in question. Deposition from the primeval ocean, chemically charged with numerous ingredients possessing different degrees of affinity for each other, was a principal object * The surface of a sphere whose diameter is 8,000 miles, may, for all practical purposes, be considered level. When I say "an equal depth of water," I do so irrespective of the luni-solar wave which travelled round the non-rotating earth. 40 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE sought ; but, in a chemical compound of inert matter, when once the affinities. of the several ingredients are satisfied or completed, the static condition of the equilibrium they assume cannot, of themselves, be altered, for " matter can neither generate motion nor change in itself, nor alter the direction or the velocity of that which may be impressed upon it ; " and we must, therefore, of necessity, look to some other sufficient cause a cause independent of the medium itself for the renewed disturbance of the equilibrium, and the acceleration of the deposition of the material held in solution. It appears, from the concurring evidence of all geologists, that the formation of calcareous matter went on increasing in an ascending series, and a power should be sought for which also went on augmenting. An inert precipitate, falling from a mass where chemical affinity was tending to produce equilibrium amongst its ingredients, would have gradually declined in energy. A local living agency, radiating from foci of creation, re- producing themselves with that rapidity which comparative security from the rapacity of other creatures permits ; coat- ing themselves with carbonate of lime, as they now do, whose component elements were abstracted from the sur- rounding medium, and, by these increments of abstraction, occasioning a simultaneous deposition of other ingredients from the primitive ocean, seem to fulfil all the conditions of the problem, and to leave no desideratum unsatisfied ; so that we can hardly acknowledge the necessity of seeking for any cause beyond the agency of the testaceous and zoophytic animals with which the submarine surface of the earth was densely encrusted ; and more especially, as this, which forces itself so strongly upon our notice, may be considered com- petent to have produced the effect. This conviction will be materially strengthened when I come to adduce the analogous fact, placed on clear, undeniable record, that the waters were commanded, and immediately did produce the more recent congeners of those testacese and zoophyta. For, upon the presumed principle that no secondary agent of the Creator was ever called upon to perform any part of the great work of creation without having the necessary materials placed at its disposal, analogy leads to the conclusion, that the primi- FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 41 tive waters of our sphere, before diurnal rotation was im- pressed upon it, did contain those elements which, by the diligent and enduring agency of the more simple forms of marine animal life, produced those vast and pervading cal- careous coatings of the earth's mineral crust which, unless we had known the effects of persevering industry, we might be apt to consider entirely disproportionate to their puny powers. In a subsequent part of this treatise I shall have occasion to show that, in addition to the work assigned to these suc- cessive races and forms of apulmonic creatures of encrusting the shell of the earth with carbonate of lime at the bottom of the primitive ocean they were destined, all the while, by the wisdom of the Creator, to produce a peculiar animal secretion, required for the formation of the life-sustaining atmosphere, and designed to be associated in it with another, without which no air-breathing animal could, for one moment, have existed. And that, however wonderful this arrangement may seem, it is equalled only by the wise forethought which devised that this subtile and buoyant element should, in its primary form, have been produced and set free at the bottom of the ocean ; its ascent, as it percolated, in that state, through the superincumbent waters, contributing very essentially to the work of precipitation which was then going forward through- out their whole expanse. I trust it may not be out of place to endeavour, here, to generalise the evidence which has been gone through in detail, as far as it bears upon the necessity if I may be allowed so to express myself for there having been a succes- sion of sub-marine animal life, to ensure the success of the co-relative operation during the protracted process of encrus- tation with calcareous material and the purification of the waters. The fact of the primitive earth having been enveloped by a menstruum which, ab initio, contained the calcareous ele- ments, in chemical combination, when contrasted with that of the ratio of encrustation having kept pace with the .increasing power of the water to retain these elements in its grasp, necessarily implies a change in the intermediate living and operative agency. 4* DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE The work beneath having progressed in proportion as the reluctance to part with the means went on augmenting above, from whence alone the necessary supply could be obtained, there appears to have been no other method, consistent with the laws prescribed for creation, than that of bringing about the double effect then contemplated, short of a change in the agency, and an increase of its power of abstraction and assi- milation ; an increase of warmth in the containing medium being added as an essential auxiliary. While it ought to be borne in mind, as an additional reason for coming to this con- clusion, that as the waters were undergoing a gradual change, as from Z to A, and the earth, benefiting thereby, was simul- taneously altering its state, as from A to Z, the same living agency could not, during the whole intervening period, have effected the interchange which was necessary between the two mutating bodies. In conclusion of this part of my subject, I hope I have, in the first place, shown the close consistency during the primeval era, between the forms, the nature, and the functions of the living creatures which then encrusted its submerged surface, with the absence of light and of an atmosphere ; and not only this, but also the object which was in view, by their priority of existence ; inasmuch as they appear to have been the instrumentality made use of to elaborate part of the maternal bases of which the light and the atmosphere are composed. And, finally, I consider that the exposition given has established, as far as the state of information on the subject will permit, the position assumed at the commencement of this section namely, That before the diurnal rotation of the earth around its axis, or during the period called in Scrip- ture " the beginning," the primitive, dark, and atmosphereless waters were the abode of innumerable races of living apul- monic creatures, independent alike of light or atmospheric air for life or motion. The greater part consisting of descriptions which either were entirely fixed, or moved but imperfectly ; and that of these there were several successive generations. And thereby there has been wrought out, as far as this par- ticular branch of evidence is available for that purpose, sufficient proof that, during the same Scriptural period of FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 43 indefinite duration, there were formed and forming, by the united instrumentality of animal and vegetable secretion and decomposition, of crystallization, and of ordinary deposition, the materials which were afterwards to constitute all the geological and meteorological phenomena ; when they should, by the centrifugal impetus engendered by the proto-diurnal rotation of the earth, be placed in their respective positions. And that, by the same instrumentality, the primitive waters were, likewise, undergoing due preparation for their present condition. While in effecting this I have manifested the dependence which philosophy ought to have on Scripture, the position assumed being as consistent with the true meaning of the inspired narrative, as it is accordant with the results of philosophical investigation and of geological research. SECTION II. THE VEGETABLE ORGANISMS OF THE PERIOD OF NON-DIURNAL ROTATION. CHAPTER IV. TN following out the plan which has been laid down for the L consideration of my subject, the attention must now be directed to an interesting group of natural objects, which contributed very materially to the formation of the stratified masses, not only by constituting, in themselves, the greater portion of the coal-measures, but by the influence they exer- cised over the restricted animal life then in existence ; and also by occasioning depositions from the surrounding primeval fluid. I allude to the Flora of the ancient world, as repre- sented by the FOSSIL VEGETABLE REMAINS found embedded in the strata. It may be as well to explain, that during the protracted period when they existed and grew in succession, the supposed circumstances of our planet are considered to have been identical with those premised when treating of the apulmonic animal kingdom, namely, That it was an unillumined sphere, without diurnal rotatory motion, and circumbounded by an atmosphereless ocean of considerable depth ; higher in temperature, and differing considerably in the combination of its associated elements, when compared with the present seas. The point to be established is That although in the primeval ocean there grew innumerable plants, of ivhich there were several successive creations, yet they did not belong to any class possessing true seeds, or fruits having seeds within FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 45 themselves, which require dry land and atmospheric air for their full development and the performance of their several functions. This branch of inquiry is involved in still greater diffi- culties than the previous one, but notwithstanding these I trust successfully to show that the great mass of fossil plants found in the strata were distinct in their nature and charac- ters from those willed into existence by the concise yet com- prehensive words : " Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth." * When we look at the subject in the point of view in which I have placed it, a striking analogy is recognised a strong mannerism, if I may be allowed so to express myself in the primitive works of creation. There was no atmosphere ; and, accordant therewith, the animals were apulmonic, and, conse- quently, deficient in their power of locomotion. The plants had neither flowers, seeds, nor fruits, but rudimentary sporules, possessing neither radicle nor plumule, and, consequently, alike insensible to light or darkness ; while none of their processes seemed to have required dehiscence, which can alone be brought into operation by atmospheric air. And, lastly, the description of plants discovered in the strata have a close analogy to recent plants of imperfect formation, or to those denuded of floral and fructifying or seeding processes, properly so called ; or, in other words, they correspond to those which, under the conceptions formed, might, a priori, have been expected to have been found there. Besides, when ^the result of our previous investigations is applied, there will be found strong presumptive evidence for con- cluding that all the plants of the primeval era were aquatic. The primitive animals were inhabitants of the waters ; their remains are found wherever geologists have investi- gated ; consequently, the whole globe must, at one time or other, have been under water ; and we have therefore no authority for supposing one condition of the earth for the Animal, and, at the same period, a different condition for the Vegetable kingdom. The proof which goes to show that the earth was circumbounded by oceanic waters * Genesis i. 11. 46 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE in the one case, cannot, as their geological eras were identical, be set aside or weakened in the other. But, that all may be able to form their opinions on circumstantial data, I shall go on to examine the evidences leading to this conclusion, in doing which, as it will greatly contribute to perspicuity and conviction to adopt such a plan of investigation as shall dis- pose simultaneously of whole groups of plants, this shall be done accordingly. Pursuing this method, I shall commence by submitting a brief view of the CLASSES which compose the whole vegetable kingdom, according to the natural system of botany ; together with the various orders, genera, &c., of those which it may be essential to particularise. For this purpose I refer to the concluding words of the hundred and thirteenth Theorem ; * and proceed to give the evidences upon which they are founded. Professor Henslow says " All plants may be referred by any botanist at a single glance, and with unerring certainty, to their proper classes ; and a mere fragment, even of the stem, leaf, or some other part, is often quite sufficient to enable him to decide this question. The names of these three classes are derived from one of the chief characteristics which prevails through nearly all the species included under each of them separately. This we shall presently explain ; but the reader may understand these names to be DICOTYLEDONS, MONOCOTYLEDONS, and ACOTYLE- DONS ; and that the two former of these classes have, respectively, the names of Exof/ena; and Endogena, the former being derived from peculiarities connected with the structure of the seed, the latter from a consideration of the internal organization of the plants them- selves " In the very slight sketch here given of the primary groups under which all plants may be arranged, we have not pretended to notice any terms which different botanists have applied to them ; but we shall now collect the substance of what has been said in the form of a table to assist the memory of the reader : EMBRYO. STEUCTUBE. FRUCTIFICATION. 1. Dicotyledons . Exogenae 1 Phenerogamaa 2. Monocotyledons Endogenae j J; } Acotyledons { gJjj } Cryptogama," t A table, presenting a comprehensive view of the classi- * See 113th Theorem. t Botany, by Professor Henslow, pp. 30, 37. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 47 fication of plants, taken from Baron Cuvier's work, will be found in Appendix F, to which please refer. Mr. Turner, the author of the work, gives the following explanation of the motives of the divisions which exist in the Natural System of Botany : " The seed contains the embryo plant in the little corculum, which all, on being carefully opened, display. It is familiarly called the heart of the walnut, the little figure at the one end of all nuts and kernels. Vessels extend from this to the substance in which it lies, which has received the name of cotyledon. If this be single, as in the grasses and corn, it is MONOCOTYLEDONOUS ; if, as in the larger herbs and trees, it consists of two lobes, they are called DICOTYLEDONS ; and, if no such are discernible at all, they are termed ACOTYLEDONOUS plants, which in some and, perhaps, in most countries are the most numerous." These quotations will be sufficient to convince any one that all known plants may either be referred to, or distin- guished by, comparison with some one of the three classes enumerated. In order to be able to do this when requisite, the next step will be to unfold more minutely their distin- guishing characteristics. I begin with the DICOTYLEDONS referred to in the hundred and seventeenth Theorem, which see. The definition given in it shows that the plants composing the Dicotyledonous class possess numerous peculiarities of construction, by which they can be distinguished from the other two. But the characteristics to which I am more de- sirous to direct the attention for the present, are their manner of seeding, and the construction of their stems, for on those two points will hang the burden of the proof required to substantiate my future argument. The writer on Botany in the Library of Useful Knowledge, already alluded to, says " All the parts hitherto treated of belong to what are called the organs of nutrition, or of vegetation Everything which is developed subsequently to the leaves belongs to the organs of repro- duction , or of fructification ; the sole office of which is to secure the perpetuation of species by seed, an action they are enabled to perform by the nutrient properties of the stem and leaves " A perfect flower consists of three principal parts ; namely, the floral envelopes, the fructifying system, and the fertilizing system. Of these the two last are always present, either both together or in separate flowers.' 1 .... 48 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE " The Fruit of a plant is the fertilised ovary arrived at maturity, and consequently both organs must have the same structure in all their more essential points ; for the plan upon which the ovary is to be constructed is finally determined at the period when fertilisation takes place. .... "In order to avoid circumlocution, the numerous varieties which occur among fruits have been classified by botanists, and names given to the most important of their modifications, such as the Follicle, the Legume, the Achenium, the Cariopsis, the Utricle, the Nut, the Key, the Drupe, the Berry, the Gourd, the Pome, the Siliqua, and, finally, the Capsule. " The Seed. While changes are coming over the pistil, the ovules are also undergoing a metamorphosis still more interesting and important. No sooner has the mysterious influence of the pollen been introduced into the ovule, than its foramen closes up ; its integu- ments extend and harden, the pulpy substance within them consoli- dates, and in the midst of the latter, within the kernel, close to the foramen, there appears a minute, yellowish, opaque speck, which gradually enlarges and projects forwards into the centre of the kernel, absorbing the fluid that surrounds it, and, by degrees, assum- ing the appearance of an organized body, which it ultimately becomes, in the form of an embryo plant. " The embryo is originally formed in the midst of the pulpy substance of the kernel, and is nourished by it during its growth. This pulpy matter bears apparently much the same relation to the embryo plant as the white of an egg to an embryo bird ; and hence it has obtained the name of albumen. Usually this substance is so wholly absorbed by the embryo that no trace of it is left behind." Professor Henslow says " Beans, peas, almonds, the kernel of our stone fruits, &c., afford us familiar examples of the structure of the seeds of dicotyledonous plants. When the outer skin is removed, we find that they are com- posed of two large fleshy lobes termed ' cotyledons,' which are attached to a small rudimentary germ almost entirely concealed between them. The entire mass forms the ' embryo,' and the skin which invested it the ' seed-cover.' "* Whatever degree of attention may have been given to the perusal of these leading characteristics of the plants com- posing the class occasionally termed EXOGEN.E, but more usually DICOTYLEDONS, will have been sufficient to convince any one that none of them could have existed during the long but indefinite period when the earth was without diurnal rotation, enveloped in darkness, and circumbounded by water. * Botany, in Cab. Cyc. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 49 They all require light, atmospheric air, and dry land ; * not only for their perfection and reproduction, but even for their very existence. It may not, besides, be inopportune to ob- serve, with more particular reference to the woody fibre of their exogenous stems, that as " every year an addition of new liber in the form of a concentric zone beyond that of the previous one is made to them," each zone being the material index of the vicissitudes of summer and winter, marked with undeviating precision by the finger of time within the stems of the Dicotyledons, these zones could not have been formed before the seasons were instituted by the lighting up of the sun, by the same Omnipotent Being who chose to reserve this central orb in darkness for many ages. Thus we acquire, by every new object of investigation, additional and concurring testimony of the truth of the assertion that such was then the state of the solar system. It will also have been observed, that by whatever denomi- nation the plants composing the Dicotyledonous class may be called, they all "produce fruit whose seed is in itself;" whether they are designated as the legume, or that implied by it, the bean, or the pea ; or by drupe, nut, glans, capsule, berry, or >ome,t they are all alike " fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth ; " and, consequently, whether these are produced by a tree as majestic as the oak, or as diminutive as the Radiola millegrana, they alike come under this clear and comprehensive classification. Indeed, there is no definition which, in so few words, can be made to group together, by one common characteristic, such an infinite number and so great a diversity of plants as those composing the Dicotyledonous Class : while the wonderful wisdom which selected the fruit or seeding processes as the one grand common feature, becomes more apparent when it is remembered that all the other parts of the plant are sub- servient to this one essential object the means of perpetuating itself by reproduction ; and that, however diversified the intermediate processes may be which lead to this, they all meet, as it were, by myriads of distinct approaches at this common comprehensive resting-place " Fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself." * Theorems 118 and 120. t H9th Theorem. so DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE As it may be conducive alike to unity of design and to the attainment of a more perfect knowledge of this great division of the vegetable kingdom, to enumerate the several orders which are comprised in it, I do so, selecting for that purpose the classification given by Sir William Jackson Hooker in the Flora Scotica ; in which he commences with the imperfect, and goes up to the Vasculares, or Flowering Plants. See Appendix G. Before concluding this part of the subject, it may be well to bring before the mind the perfect conformity in the con- dition of the earth at the period when it is recorded that the objects forming this class of the Vegetable Kingdom, which require light, atmospheric air, and dry land for their existence and perfection, were introduced. The inspired historian in- forms us they were willed into being on the latter part of the third day, that is, after the primary light, the atmosphere, and dry land had been formed or precisely at the juncture most appropriate for their introduction. I must now proceed to display the characteristics which distinguish the MONOCOTYLEDONOUS class, the second division of plants according to the natural system, which I do by referring to the hundred and sixteenth Theorem. * In order to acquire a more intimate knowledge of the structure, properties, and habitudes of the numerous and delicate plants composing this group, it will be necessary to go into a few details to enable us hereafter to judge of the correctness of the conclusions deduced from them. First of the SEEDS. " The general structure of the seeds of the Monocotyledonous class of plants," says Professor Henslow, " may be exemplified by the examination of a grain of Indian corn, wheat, &c. ; or of a seed of an onion, lily, &c. An albuminous mass forms the main bulk of most of these seeds, and the embryo is placed within it towards the centre, or one side. The embryo is not so distinctly developed in the seeds of this class as in those of the dicotyledons ; and its several parts cannot always be readily recognised before germination has commenced. Its general character is that of a cylindrical body, tapering more or less at the extremities, from one of which protrudes the radicle, and from the other arises a single, conical, and almost solid cotyledon. This elongates, and is ultimately pierced by a leaf, rolled into a conical form, and which was at first completely invested by the cotyledon." t * See 116th Theorem. t Botany, Cab. Cyc. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 51 In working out the problem which I am so desirous to solve, I shall next briefly inquire what ORDERS of plants are grouped together under the denomination of MONOCOTY- LEDONS or ENDOGENS ; and whether they are of the descrip- tion which are commonly called " herbs." Professor Henslow has asserted as an axiom "That the proportion of Dicotyledons to Monocotyledons, and of woody species to the herbaceous increases as we approach to the equator ; " consequently, it is only necessary to reverse the axiom, to be made aware, that a northerly region will more greatly abound with Mono- cotyledons ; and, applying this to practice, I shall appeal to the Flora Scotica as the most apposite text book for the purpose of inquiring whether MONOCOTYLEDONS may be con- sidered HERBS. The orders and their characteristics, taken from the work in question, are given in the Appendix, to which please refer. In describing generally " The Organization of the Stems " of this class, Professor Henslow says " In Monocotyledons there is no distinction between the pith, wood, and bark ; but their stems consist of a cylindrical mass of cellular tissue, through which bundles of vascular tissue are distributed in a scattered manner. Every fresh development of new matter is carried towards the centre of the stem, and, as the stem elongates, the outer parts become more and more solidified, whilst the inner remain soft. These stems possess no traces of medullary rays." These investigations, conducted in so detailed a manner, of the seeding processes, the construction of the stem, the for- mation of the leaves, and the designation as herbs of the second natural division of the vegetable kingdom, all concur in proving that, when compared, they agree, in every possible point of view, with their simple but comprehensive classi- fication in Genesis, so often referred to " the herb yielding seed after his kind upon the earth." They come up com- pletely to, but do not exceed, those standard characteristics. They are herbs bearing seed ; but are not trees bearing fruit with seed in itself. To produce seed they require to flower, and although some are aquatic, yet they all flower in the open air, and require sun-light to enable them to perform their various functions : consequently they stand in the same relative position with respect to the darkness and circum- E 2 52 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE fluent ocean which enveloped the primitive earth, as the Dicotyledons. Like them, they could not have grown while the globe was in that condition ; and, for the same reason, the period they are recorded as having been brought into existence that is, after the light and the atmosphere had been formed, and the dry land separated from the waters is peculiarly and convincingly appropriate, Those two great and comprehensive classes the DICO- TYLEDONS and MONOCOTYLEDONS must now be looked upon in another point of view, and one which leads to consider- able intricacy and difficulty. They seem, between them, to embrace the whole of the plants recorded to have been formed by the earth, in consequence of the powers conferred upon it by the Almighty, on the latter part of the third day of the Mosaic week: the one referring especially to "herbs yielding seed ; " the other comprehending all " fruit trees yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth ; " and thus they oblige us to look to the previous creative influ- ences of the Divine will, for the origin of all plants which do not fulfil either of those t^vo conditions. In working out the conclusions to which these remarkable and apparently embarrassing facts may lead, no opposing obstacles though these, indeed, may be neither few nor easily overcome must deter me, as this would imply less than due reverence for the Almighty. The evidence of the senses constrains us to admit that there were numberless varieties of plants in existence for ages before He chose to record the last act of creative influence with respect to the vegetable kingdom ; and, therefore, shrinking from, or even being fearful to assume such a position, which is borne out by undeniable evidence, would be doing despite alike to the power and to the wisdom of the Creator. For if it be con- ceded that God did create those plants which produce seed, and those trees which bear fruit with seed in itself, it would be quite inconsistent to deny his having previously willed into existence those other descriptions of plants required for the progressive perfection of his work, when " in the begin- ning He created the heaven and the earth," although we have not been expressly told when or how they were brought forth, during the world's dark and submerged condition. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 53 Our senses convince us, nevertheless, that they then existed ; reason and analogy point out their uses and their habitudes ; while Revelation leaves not the semblance of a motive for either doubting their existence, or for attributing their creation to any other Being. With this explanation, and begging it may be borne in mind that the chief difficulty will arise from that which is experienced in classifying the objects of research, in conse- quence of their imperfect nature, let us proceed to acquire a knowledge of the Third, or remaining division of the Plants known by the denomination of ACOTYLEDONS ; while it is to be remarked, that the lower we proceed on the descending scale, the less dependent these plants seem to be on the influence of light, and the more attached to dampness and moisture until the Algce is reached, an order whose natural element is water.* Please refer to the hundred and fourteenth Theorem, which treats of the cryptogamous plants. t With respect to the reproductive organs of Cryptogamous plants, Sir William Jackson Hooker expresses himself in the following impressive words, to Avhich I beg particular atten- tion : " The more intimately we become acquainted with the reproductive organs of the Acotyledonous or Cryptogamic plants, the more apparent is it, in my opinion, that there are no sexes as in the phanogamous plants, no stamens, and no pistils, nor anything analogous to them ; consequently, no true seed, which can only be produced through their co-operation. The structure of the seeds themselves (more properly sporules) tends greatly to confirm such an opinion ; there being in reality no distinction into cotyledon, radicle, or plumule ; in short, no embryo, any more than is in the little bulbs seen upon the stalks of the onion tribe, and on the Polygonum viviparum, &c,, which yet equally produce perfect plants. A sporule has alike the power of pro- ducing from every part, either stem or root, as circumstances may require; but it is quite otherwise with the true seed." J " AcotyUdons," says Professor Henslow, "include an extensive series of plants, grouped under several orders, which differ consider- ably in many particulars. The whole agree, however, in the im- portant circumstance of never bearing flowers like those of the two former classes ; hence they are termed ' cryptogamic,' in contradis- tinction to ' phanoyamic,' 1 which is applied to all flowering species. * Popular History of British Algae, by the Rev. Dr. Landsborough, 1849, t 114th Theorem. J Flora Scotica, part ii. p. 3, 54 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE EARTH. Having no flowers they produce no true seeds ; but have ' sporules,' as they are termed. They are also variously shaped, but generally spherical or spheroidal, and are not separable into distinct parts, with radicle and cotyledon, like the seeds of phanogamous plants. Among the higher tribes roots are afterwards produced, and a part which is more or less elevated above the soil is the representative both of the stem and leaves of phanogamous plants combined. In the lower tribes, however, there is seldom any separation of parts into distinct organs, but the functions of nutrition are carried on in an obscure manner by the general mass. " Acrogens, as the cryptogamia are called, are totally different in the organization of their stems from either the Exogens or Endogens. In ferns, which are most remarkable both for their size and singularity of structure, the stem is a cylinder usually hollow ; if solid, having the centre filled with spongy substance, destitute of bark, with neither woody bundles nor woody wedges interposed among the general substance of the stem. The shell of this cylinder, which answers to the woody part of other plants, is composed of excessively hard plates, folded upon themselves in such a manner that a section of them represents a number of sinuous lines doubling about among spongy matter. These never increase in thickness, number, or quantity after being once formed ; but they seem as if they were, as in all probability they are, mere prolongations of the woody matter lying inside the footstalks of the leaves ; whereas exogens increase by addition to the outside of their wood, and endogens by additions to the inside of their stem ; whence their respective names have been formed. Acrogens seem to have little or no power of increase in diameter, but simply to lengthen by continual extension of their points ; their name has been contrived from this circumstance." SECTION II. THE VEGETABLE ORGANISMS OF THE PERIOD OF NON-DIURNAL ROTATION. CHAPTER V. copious explanations and botanical descriptions which I have been given in the preceding chapter, will have prepared the mind for the application which induced me to enter so fully into them. The position I shall endeavour, with their aid, to establish is That considering the Dicotyle- donous Class of plants comprehends indiscriminately all those "which bear fruit whose seed is in itself upon the earth;" and the Monocotyledonous division, in like manner, includes all " herbs which yield seed ; " and that these two, together, embrace all descriptions of vegetable objects willed into existence during the Mosaic week ; and, considering it to be equally well known, by reason and observation, that there does exist another great division of the Vegetable Kingdom, differing from either of them, we are constrained to con- clude, while I am prepared to prove, that before the world revolved diurnally around its axis there did exist beneath its waters innumerable plants of great secreting powers, per- taining to, or very much resembling, the fiowerless ACOTY- LEDONOUS class of the present day, which, by means of their cryptogamic construction, and other peculiarities, were there enabled to exist, to propagate, and to acquire vast dimen- sions. As the only effectual corroboration of this view of the case (considering the epoch to which I allude), I have given 56 DYNAMIC 'AL SYSTEM OF THE in the Appendix"'' two distinct, but corresponding con- solidated lists ; one abstracted from M. de la Beche's manual of the fossil vegetable remains discovered in the several stratified masses, from the chalk down to the non-fossiliferous rocks of primary formation ; and the other from Messrs. Lindley and Hutton's Fossil Flora, in which the objects are classed botanically, together with notes from other scientific writers on the same interesting subject. The well-established character of these authorities warrants the expectation, that perfect confidence will be placed in those lists and explana- tions ; while the surprising conformity which they make manifest between the result of actual discoveries and the d priori conclusions I have come to, by perfect dependence on Revelation on the one hand, and on scientific researches on the other, will, I earnestly trust, lead ultimately to the com- plete establishment of the truth. The copious extracts and lists, which I have given in the Appendix, will, it is hoped, be considered sufficient to prove the existence of vegetable remains in the older stratified masses, and fully to have exhibited their character ; should, however, further evidence be wished, reference may be made to the geological works mentioned in the course of this Treatise, from which these extracts have been taken, where all required information will be found. Considering this a convenient resting-place, from whence to take a review of the ground which has been gone over in this and the previous chapter, which has unavoidably been much broken and uneven, I shall briefly recapitulate what has been done, the more effectually to apply what has been acquired to what has yet to be accomplished. By an inquiry into the characteristics of the first great CLASS of plants, the Dicotyledons, or Exogence, it was found that they corresponded so closely to the group mentioned in Scripture which " bear fruit having seed in itself," that they completely filled up that division of the Vegetable Kingdom. By a similar investigation into the nature and structure of the second class, called Monocotyledons or Endogence, it was discovered that, being "herbs bearing seeds " merely, they, in like manner, completed the group designated in Genesis " tlte * See Appendix D, FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 57 herb yielding seed." But as these two classes do not, how- ever, exhaust the whole of this kingdom, but leave to be accounted for the flowerless, seedless plants, called Grypto- games, to which neither allusion nor of which direct mention is made in Genesis, it was conjectured that the plants of this description, or such as shall be declared flowerless, seedless, or fruitless, had been willed into existence by previous fiats of the Creator during the period of the earth's non-rotation, and at those particular junctures when their agency was most required, while as yet there was no sun-light, and the Earth, being without diurnal rotation, was immersed in a uni- versal ocean. On this account I was particularly desirous to explain the probable consequences of the indistinct line of separation between plants possessing perfect seeds and those having no claim to such, when investigations were being made amongst the orders of Cryptogamia, where these characteristics are involved in obscurity and uncertainty ; and where, moreover, only vestiges of fossil plants form the objects of examination. Confirmed, however, in the belief that the flowerless, seedless, fruitless plants were not formed on the third day of the Mosaic week, but had been previously brought into existence, the attention was next directed to the character of the fossil remains themselves, by these being presented to the reader in abstract consolidated lists, with the additional evidence of the explanations and notes of those writers who have most dedicated themselves to the investigation of these objects of natural history,* and the result was, that a direct corroborative testimony was afforded as to the sound- ness of the leading views which had been adopted ; the vast majority of the fossil plants being unconsciously declared by men who never anticipated such an application of their evidence to belong chiefly to the cryptogamous class of plants. And, on the whole, it is considered to be hardly possible to meet with greater success in any similar inquiry than that which has been experienced in this branch of the argument. The conviction entertained of the truth of Scripture and of the Omniscience of its Author Creator also of the objects of our research when applied to the experience of botanists, * See Appendix D. 5 8 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE led me to conclude tltat a grand division of the vegetable king- dom had been created before the period of diurnal rotation, and were of a description corresponding to the then condition of the world. On farther research geological botanists were found busy with extensive repositories of fossil plants which they had dug up from the bowels of the Earth, and which without any reference to the source of my information they had described and classed as correctly as the peculiar circumstances attending their discovery would permit. And when the vestiges thus discovered were compared with those whose origin I was in quest of, the two were found to corre- spond in almost every particular ; so much so that when their opinions agree and this is happily the case with respect to the great majority of the plants they concur in referring them to those Orders of imperfect plants whose formation is not recorded by the Sacred Historian : and wherein any are inclined to refer them to higher classes or orders, there is not unfrequently a difference of opinion amongst them ; the plurality of votes seeming to be in favour of the assumption that disputed fossils belonged to the flowerless Cryptogames. Having thus, with much care and success, surmounted the prefatory part of my labours in this section, I must now direct the attention to the adaptation of those imperfect, flowerless plants to the condition of our planet at a period when it was without light, iviihout diurnal rotation, and circumbounded by an atmosphereless ocean. In doing this, I shall pursue a path somewhat similar to that which, in a corresponding part of the preceding section, was followed when showing the close adaptation of the animals of the ancient world to the state of the Creation during their occupancy of the earth ; and, to a certain extent, the con- straint I am thus placed under, will add another, and no mean proof, to the many already adduced, of the justness of my views ; similar influential causes having produced, in either case, analogous results. I shall commence, therefore, by a detailed investigation into the nature and functions of the respiratory organs of plants, which principally consist of their green parts the leaves. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 59 The writer on Botany, in the " Library of Useful Know- ledge " says " Leaves are usually those expansions of the bark into which slender processes of the wood and fibre insinuate themselves. The Uaf is therefore in intimate connection with both parts ; with the bark on the one hand, and with the wood on the other. "The universal presence of leaves upon all plants; their highly complicated structure ; the ultimate connection which it has been shown they maintain between the systems of the wood and the bark ; their extremely high development in many cases ; and their multiplied variety of forms, all lead to the opinion that they are organs of the most essential importance. This is confirmed by their internal structure, independently of experiment. " Most leaves are not thicker than a piece of paper or parchment, and appear to the naked eye as nothing more than a thin green plate, so that an ordinary observer would never suspect that their internal structure, which no eye, unassisted by glasses, can investigate, was one of the most complicated and highly organized character ; and yet there is no part among those with which plants are furnished which is more complex. It is necessary, indeed, that it should be so, in order to be enabled to perform the important functions of digestion, respiration, and perspiration, for which it is destined. " The anatomical structure of the leaf appears distinctly connected with its functions of respiration and evaporation. Here the functions of respiration are best performed : each bladder, on the one hand, exposes the greatest possible extent of surface to the action of the oxygen or carbonic acid that may be received by the breathing pores ; and has, on the other, the greatest possible power of parting, firstly, with the oxygen which results from the decomposition of the carbonic acid in these vegetable stomata, and secondly, with the superfluous water which is not evaporated by the upper surface through the cuticle. " Light, heat, and water are the external agents which, acting upon the vital principle, set all the machinery of vegetation in motion. No one of these causes will, by itself, produce the effect, although their continuation be of the most powerful kind. " Light causes the decomposition of carbonic acid, fixing the carbon in the interior of the tissue, and thus solidifying the more delicate parts, or altering the chemical nature of others. In its absence plants are weak, sickly, and soon perish. " Heat, by drying the atmosphere, produces evaporation, which is one of the great means by which the crude fluids become inspissated and altered in their nature : it causes the expansion of the gases which plants contain, distends their tissue, and renders the latter more capable of performing its contractile and hygrometrical func- tions. " Water relaxes all the parts, dissolves the soluble matters which are laid up in a plant in a state of torpidity, and softens the tissue till 6o DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE it is capable of receiving the influence of temperature. It is, more- over, the medium by which the nutritious principles that are deposited in the earth are absorbed by the roots, and conveyed from one part of the system to another. " To sum up in a few words all that has thus far been stated, it is light, heat, and water, acting in concert upon the irritable membrane, which enable plants, by virtue of their extensibility, elasticity, and hyyro- metrical powers, to perform the phenomena of contraction and endosmose, by means of which they absorb and digest their food, circulate their fluids, develop their organs, increase in size, and reproduce themselves.* " Under the name of respiration, we shall include all that is con- nected with the inhaling and giving off" of gaseous matter. This function is chiefly connected with the absorption of oxygen and carbonic acid, and their expiration. By a vast number of experiments chemists have determined that the green parts of plants placed in the sun absorb carbonic acid from the atmosphere, and decompose it, giving back the oxygen ; and that at night they absorb oxygen from the atmosphere, giving off carbonic acid : it is also probable that they part with a small quantity of carbonic acid during the day These conditions are necessary in order to secure the disengagement of oxygen by leaves : firstly, the parts must be green ; secondly, they must be exposed to the direct action of the solar rays ; and thirdly, there must be carbonic acid in the water. " It is not suflicient to place leaves in bright light to procure the emission of oxygen by their leaves in water ; it must be under the direct rays of the sun. De Candolle found the purest daylight, the brightest lamplight, insufficient to produce the phenomenon ; a very curious result when we consider how large a part of vegetation is seldom exposed directly to the solar rays From whence, it may be inquired, is the large quantity of carbonic acid obtained which is thus necessary to the support of plants ? Certainly not from the atmosphere alone, for it does not usually contain one part in a thousand of carbonic acid. There can be no doubt that this gas is supplied principally by the Earth, in which it exists in great quantity; that a part is obtained from the atmosphere ; and that a certain other portion results from the combination of the oxygen of the atmosphere with the carbon of vegetation ; and it would seem as if a repeated decomposition and recomposition of carbonic acid was the principal phenomenon in respiration.! .... " What we have now seen of the action of the leaves and green parts of plants will enable us to appreciate the adaptation of their internal structure to perform their functions. We have found them to consist of a number of little cells or bladders, so loosely cohering that the air has room for free circulation between them ; and that, by the way in which they are arranged, they present the greatest possible surface to the action of the atmosphere. Although they are enclosed in a thick cuticle, yet they are provided with openings through it, called stomates, by means of which free admission for air is secured, * See 120th Theorem. f See 124th Theorem. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 61 and through which it may be expelled again with facility when they are submersed, and are, consequently, neither exposed to irregularities of temperature nor of dryness in the air It is true that M. de Candolle entertains doubts whether the stomates are not rather organs of evaporation ; but when we consider the relation they bear to the air-cavities in leaves we can scarcely doubt that they are really respiratory organs ; nor does it appear clear why they should not, in fact, perform the functions both of perspiration and respiration. If we hold a leaf of Laurustinus over a candle, so as to heat the air contained in it without burning the leaf itself, the air will be expelled through the stomates with such force as to extinguish the flame." * These explanations of the phenomena attending the organization, the respiration, and the evaporation of perfect flowering plants, together with the manner in which they form and decompose carbonic acid, are amply sufficient to show that sun-light and atmospheric air are indispensably requisite for effecting those important functions of the vege- table economy ; and, consequently, it is quite unnecessary to prove that none of the flowering plants requiring these essential elements could have existed, previously to the for- mation of the light and of the atmosphere ; and are, on that account, to be considered as not having, in any way whatever, contributed to those widely extended and im- portant labours performed by the agency of plants during the protracted period of non-rotation. They may, I there- fore apprehend, after a few further explanations, be elimi- nated altogether from the future argument. They did not then exist. But, to leave no lingering doubt unremoved, let it be next inquired whether they could have fulfilled the end of their being their reproduction had they been submerged in water. I shall first recapitulate the hundred and eighteenth Theorem : That all the phenomena attending the flowering of plants, and the dehiscence of the various receptacles which are instrumental in the fertilisation and maturation of the SEED and FRUIT, and the dissemination of the former, fully attest the absolute necessity of these COMPLICATED OPERATIONS BEING CONDUCTED IN ATMOSPHERIC AIR ; the presence of much moisture being prejudicial to the peculiar development of the pollen ; " and, in continuation, I shall give a few corrobora- * " Botany," in Library of Useful Knowledge, pp. 21, 2831, 79, 80, 8790. 62 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE tive extracts, although the Theorem itself is almost sufficiently conclusive : " It is further essential," says Professor Henslow, " that the pollen should be protected from the influence of moisture ; and, consequently, we find that aquatics, as the water-lily (Nymphaaalba), elongate their flower stalks until the blossoms float upon the surface of the water. In the water-soldier (Stratiotes aloides), water- violet (Huttonia j)a- lustris), and others, the entire plants float to the surface of the water during the period of flowering, but live submerged at other times. In the Zostera marina the flowers are arranged within a cavity filled with air ; and thus, although they are developed beneath the surface, they are protected from the immediate contact of the water. " The salt of sea-water produces an injurious effect upon the seeds of plants, and completely destroys the vitality of those which are long subjected to its influence." : " When the flower unfolds," observes the writer on Botany in the " Library of Useful Knowledge," " the anther is a tolerably solid, moist body, filled with moist pollen. The grains of the latter contain a fluid more dense than the tissue that forms a covering for them, and rapidly absorbs its moisture from the anther-case. As soon as this has happened to any great extent, the tissue of the anther-case contracts, and at first rends into grated cells of various forms ; as the dryness is increased, these latter contract still further, and exercising a general power over the whole surface of the lining would, in the end, be rent into still finer portions, if it were not for the slight degree of cohesion which exists between the valves of the anther at the sutural line." t These quotations sufficiently prove that atmospheric air is not more essential to the entire phenomena connected with the development and reproduction of the Monocotyledonous and Dicotyledonous plants than that an undue degree of moisture is prejudicial to these functions : consequently, deprivation of the light and atmospheric air and submersion in water would have been altogether destructive of those important processes in flowering plants. They could not, in such a condition, have existed. But, on the other hand, as the most perfect wisdom pervades the whole design of Creation, it is but just to conclude that an adequate motive existed for the adoption of whatever principle may be evidently traceable in it. There is a principle peculiarly observable in the formation of the Vegetable Kingdom. The two great classes of plants which were called into existence * Botany, in Cab. Cyc., pp. 263, 266, 303. t Library of Useful Knowledge, p. 109. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 63 after the formation of the light, the atmosphere, and the " dry land," were flowering plants, whose submersion in water, as has just been made apparent, would have been wholly destructive of their propagation ; while those which existed before were flowerless plants, possessing neither stamen, stigma, nor pollen, radical nor plumule ; therefore it is allowable to conclude that light or atmospheric air was not indispensably essential, nor was water inimical to the matur- ation, or to the subsequent development and germination, of their reproductive organs, whether these were sporules, cones, or dot-like bodies. SECTION II. THE VEGETABLE ORGANISMS OF THE PERIOD OF NON-DIURNAL ROTATION. CHAPTER VI. THE important results which were come to at the con- clusion of the preceding chapter will be greatly confirmed should it be found that what was deduced from reasoning a priori, agrees with that which experimental botanists declare to prevail amongst the interesting objects of the vegetable kingdom now under consideration ; for, if those two branches agree, we can scarcely any longer entertain a doubt. Accord- ing to the consolidated lists which have been given, the plants found in the stratified masses, which have been iden- tified and classed, consist of 1. Algse; 2. Filices; 3. Characea; 4. Lycopodiacese ; 5. Marsileacere ; 6. Equisetaceae ; 7. Naiades, or Fluviales ; 8. Cycadese ; 9. EuphorbiaceaB, with a few Coni- fera3 and Palma?, some Cannse, and others still uncertain as to class and genera, which consequently cannot be taken into account. But to those which have been identified I shall affix, in the order in which they stand, a succinct account of their usual characteristics and habitats. " ACOTYLEDONS. " ORDER III. AL.GM. Vegetables, for the most part aquatics, des- titute of roots, or furnished only with a fibrous or scutate base for the purpose of attachment merely ; having, for fructification, seeds or sporulfs " Many species of this singular and, generall)' speaking, beautiful FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 65 order of plants, frequently float in the water without any point of attachment to extraneous substances.* " ORDER VII. FILICES. Fructification only of one kind on the same individual. Capsules spiked or racined, or mostly collected into clusters of various shapes (sori) upon the back of the leaf or frond, naked or covered with an involucrum, often surrounded by an elastic tiny, opening irregularly, or without a ring, and opening with a regular fissure. Seeds or sporules minute In the tropics the caudex forms a trunk resembling that of the palms. "t Of the stations of the various species enumerated, eight are particularised as being in " marshes and bogs ;" " woody and wet rocky places ;" " rocks by the sea-side ;" wet rocks and along the shores of Loch Lomond (the Osmunda regalis, the largest and handsomest of the British ferns) ; and " meadows and moist places." The remainder seem to prefer shady woods and fissures of rocks. + MM. de Candolle and Sprengel (in the " Elements of the Philosophy of Plants ") say " The remains of the former vegetable world belong almost entirely to the lower families ; they consist for the most part of Grasses, Reeds, Ferns, and Palms, the latter being almost always destitute of fruit." ORDER IV. CHARACEJE. Fructification of two kinds. Nucleus 4, bracteated, standing solitary, &c. Seeds, or sporules, very minute, whitish, spherical, &c. " Vegetation. Aquatic plants never rising above the surface of the water, fixed into the mud by slender fibrous radicles issuing from a swollen portion of the stem," &c. " A minute fossil body frequently found in chalk, which is spirally twisted, and which was formerly considered to belong to the animal kingdom, is, I believe, now gene- rally allowed to be the kukule of Chara. Various species have been discovered, and they are called by the French gyrogomites."|| " As the Chara," says Mr. Lyell, "is an aquatic plant, which occurs frequently fossil in formations of different eras, and is often of much importance to geologists in characterizing entire groups of strata, we shall describe the manner in which the recent species have been found in a petrified state In some species, as in Chara hispida, the plant, when living, contains so much carbonate of lime in its vegetable organization, independently of calcareous incrustation, that it effer- vesces strongly with acids when dried," &c.^I " ORDER VIII. LYCOPODIACE^E. Fructificat ion bracteated, auxiliary, or spiked. Capsules frequently of two kinds on the same plant, * Flora Scotica, part ii. p. 74. t Ibid., p. 152. J Ibid., pp. 152158. Ibid., p. 276. || Ibid., pp. 108, 109. II Principles of Geology, vol. ii. pp. 280, 281. F 66 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE 1-8 celled, 2-3 valved, containing many minute granules; or a few larger corpuscles. Roots fibrous. Stems herbaceous or woody, simple or branched, often creeping. Of five habitats, two are ' wet heathy places, and by the sides of lakes,' and ' boggy places by the sides of rivulets on the highland mountains,' the others are on rough, stony, heathy mountains. " :! Mr. Lyell explains Lycopodinew as " Plants of an inferior degree of organization to conifera?, some of which they very much resemble in foliage, but all recent species are infinitely smaller. Many of the fossil species are as gigantic as recent conifers?. Then 1 mode of reproduction is analogous to that of ferns. In England they are called club-mosses." (Glossary, p. 72.) " ORDER IX. MARSILEACE.^E. Fructification radicle. Involucrum subsperical, not opening, coriaceous, or membrauaceous. One or many celled. Aquatics. Hal. bottoms of the highland lakes, and damp places that are overflowed during winter, but not common," &c. " ORDER X. EQUISETACE^;. Fructification terminal, spicate, con- sisting of peltate polyognous scales, on the under side of which are from 4-7 involucres, which open longitudinally, and contain numerous naked (?) seeds, unfolded by four filaments bearing anthers (?) at their extremities. " Vegetation. Stems rigid, leafless, jointed, striated, the articula- tions sheathed at the base, the branches whorled. " Habitat, ' wet marshes ;' ' shady marshes,' and ' the brinks of stagnant waters ;' ' moist shady places :' ' lakes and ditches ;' ' ditches and wet soils.' >: " MONOCOTYLEDONS. " ORDER XVIII. FLUVIALES. (Part of Naiades, Juss.) Flowers unisexual or bisexual. Ovary 1 or more superior. Seed solitary, pen- dulous, or suspended. Embryo without albumen, having a contrary direction to the seeds, with a lateral cleft for the emission of the plumule. Floating herbs with very vascular leaves and stems. Flowers inconspicuous." t CYCADE.E. By referring to Messrs. Lindley and Hutton's Fossil Flora, it will be perceived that the fossils classed under this Order are known only by their leaves, and are found in the lias, the oolite, and the grey chalk formations. " The Cycadecr form the passage from the palms to the ferns." (Sprengel.) * Flora Scotica, p. 159. t Ibid., p. 192. The yaiadcx are placed by MM. de Candolle and Sprengel, in their "Elements of the Philosophy of Plants," amongst the Acotyledons. bee p. 139. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 67 " The Cycadea have great proximity to the ferns." (Lindley.) " The associated fossil plants (in the coal formation), although imperfectly known, tend to the same conclusion (an elevated tempera- ture), the CycadecB constituting the most numerous family." (Lyell, vol. i. p. 116.) In addition to these descriptive notices it is considered opportune to subjoin one or two extracts of a more general character. They will likewise prove the extreme warmth which everywhere prevailed during the period now alluded to. " We learn," says Mr. Lyell, " from the labours of M. Ad. Brong- niart, that there existed at that epoch during the formation of the Coal measures, Equiseta upwards of ten feet high, and from five to six inches in diameter ; tree ferns of from forty to fifty feet in height, and arborescent Lycopodiaceae of from sixty to seventy feet high. Of the above classes of vegetables, the species are all small at present in cold climates ; while in tropical regions there occur, together with small species, many of a much greater size, but their development at present, even in the hottest parts of the globe, is inferior to that indi- cated by the petrified forms of the coal measures. An elevated and uniform temperature, and great humidity in the air, are the causes most favourable for the numerical predominance and the great size of these plants within the torrid zone at present." In a note to this paragraph it is added, " Martins informs us that on seeing the tessel- lated surface of the stems of the arborescent ferns in Brazil, he was reminded of their prototypes in the impressions which he had seen in the coal mines of Germany."* Although Sir Henry de la Beche's opinion has already and so recently been put on record, yet, as it is of interest, I again briefly recur to it : " Respecting the general character of the vegetation which we find entombed in the carboniferous rocks of the Northern hemisphere, M. Ad. Brongniart observes, that it is remarkable, 1st, for the con- siderable proportion of the vascular cryptogamic plants, such as the Equisetacece, Filices, Marsileacea, and Lycopodiacea ; 2nd, for the great development of the vegetables of this class, proving thereby that circumstances were particularly favourable to their production during the period under consideration " This view leads us to another consideration. There certainly was a similar vegetation about the same period (for whether the American coal measures may be, like those of Ireland, somewhat older, does not alter the question) over parts of Europe and North America ; we may, therefore, infer a similar climate over a large portion of the Northern hemisphere, such as we have not at present, for it was at least tropical, and very probable ultra-tropical." t * Principles of Geology, vol. i. pp. 116, 117. t Manual of Geology, 2nd edition, pp. 429431. F 2 68 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE I shall conclude this part of the evidence with a few sentences from the work of those indefatigable fossil bota- nists, Messrs. Lindley and Hutton : " In the coal formation, which may be considered the earliest in which the remains of land plants have been discovered, the flora of England consists of Ferns in 'amazing abundance ; of large Coniferous trees of species resembling Lycopodiacecc, but of most gigantic dimen- sions ; of vast quantities of a tribe analogous to Cactece or Euplior- biacea, but perhaps not identical with them ; of some palms and other monocotyledons, and, finally, of numerous plants the exact nature of which is as yet extremely doubtful. About two to three hundred species have been detected in this formation, of which two-thirds are Ferns " It may be observed that no trace of any glumaceous plant has been met with, amongst the fossil flora, even in the latest tertiary period ; although we know that grasses now form a portion, and usually a very considerable one, of every recent flora of the world, from New South Shetland to Melville Island inclusive ; it may, indeed, be conjectured, that before the creation of herbivorous animals, grasses and sedges were not required, and, therefore, are not to be expected in any strata below the Forest marble and Stonesfield slates, but it is difficult to conceive how the animals of the upper tertiary beds could have been fed if grasses had not then been present. " >; The general impression left upon the mind, after perusing these copious extracts, is, that the plants which constituted the carboniferous portion of the coal measures delighted in warmth, carbonic acid gas, and moisture, and having enjoyed these three requisites in an abundant degree, they increased to gigantic proportions when compared with recent equiva- lents : while the more particular inferences to be drawn from the same quotations are, that with respect to the Algce, Marsileacece, Equisetacece, Naiades, and Characece, undoubted evidence has been adduced to prove, that water being their natural element, in it they grow and propagate. I firmly believe that the faithful application of the compre- hensive rule laid down in Scripture will suffice to show us, that although during the protracted period of non-diurnal rotation and darkness there existed at the bottom of the atmosphereless ocean innumerable families of plants, not one of them ^vas furnished luith any traces of either flowering or seeding pro- cesses, in the true and full acceptation of these terms. That, in fine, although for ages previously there had been myriads * MM. Lindley and Hutton's Fossil Flora, Introduction, vol. i. pp. x. xi., xxiii. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 69 of what are now called imperfect flowerless plants secreting carbonaceous material for future purposes, there was not, until the period represented by the third day of the Mosaic week, a single perfect, or flowering, seeding plant within the whole range of the solar system ! But there remains a difficulty to be disposed of. For after it has been made out that the whole of the objects comprising the cryptogamous class of plants have been discovered in a fossil state, and that they could have existed and propagated in a submerged condition, the doubt still remains whether they could have done so in the waters of the primeval ocean, con- sidering them to have been impregnated with saline mate- rials, as manifested, amongst other vestiges, by the extensive deposits of salt found in the new red sandstone, and other associated formations. Before, however, this explanation can be satisfactorily given, or conclusively understood and relied on, my labours will require to be considerably more advanced. Then I have little doubt but I shall make it abundantly evident, that although in reality the waters of the primeval ocean did contain all the elements which go to the formation of salt, yet other co-existent ingredients held these in a dif- ferent state of combination, and caused the entire mass to be altogether distinct from the saline waters of the present seas. I shall then, also, be in a position satisfactorily to account for the deposition of culinary and other native salts in the new red sandstone and associated formations, and thus at one and the same time remove two obstacles to the complete establishing of the one great fact, That, during a long but indefinite period of its early geological history, the Earth did not diurnally rotate around its axis. SECTION II. THE VEGETABLE ORGANISMS OF THE PERIOD OF NON-DIURNAL ROTATION. CHAPTER VII. TTAVING reached another convenient resting-place, we may U- again look round, for a moment to consider how far we have advanced in the general argument. When we had acquired a sufficiently accurate knowledge of the distinguish- ing characteristics of the three classes into which all known plants are grouped by the natural system of botany, and had compared them, thus arranged, with the comprehensive de- scription given in Scripture of the creation of vegetable sub- stances, it was found that the latter had reference merely to seeding and fruit-bearing plants, to the exclusion of all otJiers a singular anomaly which constrained us to look elsewhere and to other manifestations of creative energy for the origin of the flowerless, seedless, fruitless plants. During this research it was perceived that writers on fossil botany had announced their having discovered amongst the stony tombs of earlier geological periods, the fossilized remains of plants, some of them in perfect preservation, resembling in almost every respect the Cryptogames or Acotyledons, whose origin we were in quest of : a remarkable coincidence in epoch, locality, and character, of no small importance to the argu- ment, and leaving little doubt on the mind that the com- mand given on the third day of the Mosaic week had exclusive reference to the two more perfect classes of flower- ing, seeding plants in correspondence with the altered con- FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 71 dition of our planet after the formation of the light ; whilst the Cryptogaines had existed during the period of darkness, or of non-diurnal rotation. This led to a new set of inquiries, namely, to prove the adaptation of this latter class to the primeval condition of the earth ; but as direct evidence of this was not attainable, I endeavoured indirectly to make good that position, by showing that the two other classes, comprising the flowering plants, could not possibly have then existed ; although these disabilities neither militate by assumption, nor yet by the direct experience of botanists, against the possibility of at least the greater proportion of the cryptogamous plants, or plants analogous to them, growing in the supposed circumstances of the earth previous to its rotation. These inquiries brought out. in the clearest manner possible, that the respiratory functions of plants, which reside in their leaves and other green parts, together with the decomposition of carbonic acid and the fixation of carbon, depend on the direct light of the sun's rays acting upon these foliaceous appendages ;* facts at direct variance with a state of matters which would apply to plants existing during the non- diurnal rotatory period, and while as yet there was no sun-light, one of the fundamental principles of this theory. And it now, consequently, becomes impe- rative, in continuation, to show the adaptation of crypto- gamous plants such as the discoveries of geologists have revealed were the occupiers of the submerged surface of the earth to the other attendant circumstances of the period alluded to ; and, at the same time, to point out the probable uses to which they were applied, in the exercise of their functions, by the all-wise Creator, during the protracted ages which preceded the formation of the light. To effect this purpose I shall first direct the attention to part of the hundred and fifteenth Theorem, relating to the fronds and imperfect leaves of the cryptogamous plants. " The higher tribes of cryptogamic plants," says Professor Hens- low, "contained in the division 'Ductalosa' have great expansions, much resembling leaves in their general appearance, and, like them, possessing stomata ; but differing from them very considerably in some respects, especially in bearing the fructification upon their sur- Theorems, Nos. 44, 118, and 120. 7z DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE face. These have, therefore, received a distinct appellation, and are called ' fronds ;' and that part of a frond which is analogous to the petiole is termed the ' stipes.' .... In several tribes the fronds possess nerves, but in many cases they are composed entirely of cellular tissue They are either terrestrial, aquatic, or marine. Many of them are parasitic, seldom green, and without stomata." * To this description of the foliaceous appendages of Crypto- gamic plants, I shall add a more particular account of those of each Order, from the work already so often referred to, by Sir William Jackson Hooker : FUNGI In the larger sense of the word, the whole may be considered &B fructification, since distinct from it there is no stem, there are no branches, no leaves, no frond, and very rarely a simple base. LICHENS The Lichens bear a closer affinity to the Fungi than to any other order. Sometimes they are formed of a simple pulverulent crust or frond ; sometimes membranaceous, coriaceous, gelatinous, lobed, and variously branched ; at all times destitute of leaves. ALGJE Fronds are either gelatinous, filamentous, membranaceous, or coriaceous. CHAEACE^E Stems slender, confervoid, tubular throughout, pellucid or covered with a calcareous crust, very brittle when dry, and generally foetid, branched ; branchlets whorled, often aculeated. Walloth has given a most admirable account of the fructification of this curious tribe of plants, from which it appears evident that it has no claims to be ranked among the perfect plants, and that its nearest affinity is with the Conferva and lllvce among the Alga. HEPATIC^: Minute plants frequently frondose, sometimes (as in Jun- germannia) foliferous ; the leaves often divided, never really nerved. Musci Bearing leaves which are very rarely indeed divided, often nerved, entire, or toothed, or serrated at the margin. FILICES There is, usually, a subterraneous horizontal stem or caudex. Fronds, before expansion, circinate ; they are simple and entire, or variously divided and branched, and cut into lobes and segments or leaflets, of various forms. Substance varying from membranaceous to coriaceous. LYCOPODINEJE Leaves small, undivided, numerous, scattered or alter- nate and distichous, often stipulated. MABSILEACE.E ' Isoetes.' Leaves all radicle, 5 6 inches long, subu- late, semi-cylindrical, fleshy. ' Pilularia.' Leaves 2 3 inches long, subulate -filiform, clustered. * Botany, in Cab. Cyc., pp. 76 78. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 73 EQUISETACE^: Stems rigid, leafless, jointed, striated, the articula- tions sheathed at the base ; the branches whorled. NAIADES Floating herbs with very vascular leaves and stems.* These extracts demonstrate evidently that we are now occupied with a group of plants whose leafy expansions are relatively imperfect when those of the higher Orders are taken as a standard ; and that when they are compared analogically with the respiratory organs of the testaceous and conchiferous Mollusca, a very close analogy is found to exist between them. These latter are defective in pulmonary apparatus, which, in the animal economy, constitutes the point of contact between atmospheric air and the circulating fluids of the higher tribes. The Cryptogamia are imperfect in their foliaceous appendages, which are the respiratory organs of more perfect plants, and the means of commu- nication between their circulating system and the sur- rounding atmosphere ; while both, respectively, are provided with modifications of these corresponding organs, in the vegetable and animal existences, well adapted to execute the functions which devolved upon them under analogous cir- cumstances ; in either instance differing materially from the duties which the more perfect orders of both kingdoms have now to perform, when the earth has undergone a vast and material change ; the modifications alluded to in the con- struction, and consequently in the functions of the animals and the plants, agreeing admirably with the alteration which, it is maintained, took place about the same period in the material universe. From a corresponding similarity in the organization respectively which thus prevailed in the animals and plants of the non-diurnal rotating period of the Earth's existence, there may justly be inferred an analogous object in the design which induced it. This analogy, as a general feature, is very clearly pointed out in a recent standard work on physiology and anatomy. " The function," says Messrs. Todd and Bowman, " which has for its object the propagation of species, Generation, presents many points of resemblance in plants and animals. " In the former it is cryptogamic or phanogamic ; in the latter non- * " Flora Scotica ; " also " British Ferns and British Algoe." 74 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE sexual or sexual. In the phanogamic and sexual, the junction of two kinds of matter furnished by the parents is necessary to the develop- ment of fertile ova. In the cryptogamic and non-sexual generation, the new individual is developed by a separation of particles from the body of the parent, by which the new formation is nourished only until it has been so far matured as to be capable of an independent existence." .... And again " In plants there is no nervous system ; there is no mental pheno- mena. The motions of plants correspond in some degree with those movements of animals in which neither consciousness nor nervous influence participate. Such movements are strictly organic, and result from physical changes produced directly on the part moved."* In the case of the Mollusca, the imperfection of their re- spiratory organs with respect to that which surrounded them, and a corresponding facility of disposing of inhaled elements internally, together with their independence of atmospheric air, was designed as in reality it was accomplished to facilitate the formation of carbonate of lime, by abstracting calcium from its combination with other acids possessing a stronger affinity for it than carbonic acid, and constraining these two, through the agency of the molluscous corium, to unite together in due proportions, so as to constitute the innocuous and insoluble material, carbonate of lime, whereby the waters not only were purified from and deprived, to a certain extent, of carbonic acid and of calcium, but the two were safely locked up together in store for future usefulness ; becoming first a secure defence to its molluscous inhabitant against the pressure of the surrounding medium, and, eventually, a rocky limestone barrier against the ocean itself, in which it had been formed. It will be seen, when the plan of argument is further developed, that the imperfection of the leafy expansions of the Cryptogamia and their independence of light the great decomposer of carbonic acid in the vegetable economy was intended to facilitate, in like manner, the accumulation of their peculiar secretions, not only in themselves, but also by their instrumentality to store up, in the water, elements destined to aid in the formation of the atmosphere, and likewise for more terrain purposes in the subsoil or strata * Physiology and the Anatomy of Man, vol. i. pp. 25, 27 28. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 75 then forming, underneath the primeval ocean. These latter secretions consisted principally of carbon and soda, but were also extended to some others of less general prevalence ; while both the solid precipitate and the gaseous exhalation were equally essential for the wants and the comforts of beings to be brought into existence subsequently, and for whose wants the Creator was even then providing with that goodness and forethought which characterize all His plans and arrangements. My more immediate duty, therefore, at present, is to show, That the imperfect construction of the foliaceous appendages of the Cryptogamia, or of plants resembling them,, was designed to produce effects within the sphere of their action ana- logous to those proceeding from the circumscribed and defec- tive respiratory organs of the apulmonic molluscous, animals of the same period of the Earth's geological history. To do this I must again have recourse to the same method which has hitherto been found so successful ; although it may be requi- site to pursue what may with propriety be called the differ- ential method of reasoning. That is, after having acquired a brief but comprehensive idea of the several divisions of the Vegetable Kingdom, in order to arrive at a knowledge of the functions of those which existed during the non-rotating period, and with luhose habits and character we can possibly have no direct acquaintance, I must, first, show the result of an opposite state of matters on plants differently constituted, and then, by inference, deduce the effects likely to have taken place by the action of the imperfectly formed crypto- gamia, under the supposed circumstances of the Earth at the time to which I allude ; and, by way of confirmation, afterwards compare these deductions with established facts. Having already acquired a knowledge of the principal effects produced on vegetation by the action of the sun's rays, I have now briefly to direct the attention to another result, no less important, which proceeds from the influence of LIGHT. Dr. Roget, in his Bridgewater Treatise, says " An important chemical change is effected on the sap of plants by their leaves when they are subjected to the action of light. It con- sists in the decomposition of the carbonic acid gas, which is either 76 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE brought to them by the sap itself, or obtained directly from the atmosphere. In either case its oxygen is separated, and disengaged in the form of gas ; while its carbon is retained, and composes an essential ingredient of the altered sap " It is in the green substance of the leaves alone that this process is conducted : a process which, from the strong analogy that it bears to a similar function in animals, may be considered as the respiration of plants. The effect appears to be proportionate to the number of stomata which the plant contains* .... " The function by which the fluids are thus aerated," according to Messrs. Todd and Bowman, " is called Respiration. In plants the introduction of atmospheric air conveys nutriment to the organism ; carbonic acid and ammonia are thus introduced ; the former is decom- posed, its carbon is assimilated, and its oxygen is exchanged for a fresh supply of atmospheric air. As the agent in the decomposition of the carbonic acid is light, it is evident that the generation and the evolution of oxygen can take place only in the day-time. Conse- quently, during the night, the carbonic acid, with which the fluids of the plant abound, ceases to be decomposed, and is exhaled by the leaves. Hence plants exhale oxygen in the day-time, and carbonic acid at night." t The evidences for the thirty-sixth Theorem bear particularly upon the point now under consideration ; I shall, therefore, direct attention to some of them, although they may have been already referred to : " Geologists," observes Sir Henry de la Beche, "have discovered that the superficial temperature of the earth has not always remained the same, and that there is evidence of a very considerable decrease. This evidence rests on the discovery of vegetable and animal remains entombed in situations where, from the want of a congenial tempera- ture, such animals and vegetables would now be unable to exist. And as we now find every animal and vegetable suited to the situa- tions proper for them, we have a right to infer design at all periods, and under every possible state of our earth's surface ; and therefore to consider that similarly constituted animals and vegetables have, in general, had similar habitats The vegetable remains are often of considerable size. M. Brongniart observes that, in the coal strata of Dortmimd, Essen, and Bochum, stems are found in the planes of the strata more than fifty or sixty feet long. Vegetables of large size have also been detected in Great Britain ; Mr. Witham mentions one in Cragleith quarry as being forty- seven feet in length from the highest part discovered to the root. The bark is described as con- verted into coal * It is worthy of observation that Dr. Roget mentions in a previous page of his work (vol. i.) that stomata are never found in the leaves or stems of submerged plants, nor even on the under surfaces of the leaves of aquatic plants. Dr. Roget's Bridgewater Treatise, vol. ii. pp. 29 32. f Physiology and Anatomy of Man, vol. i. p. 24. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 77 " According to M. Adolphe Brongniart, if we look at the abores- cent ferns and the mass of the other plants, we must consider the vegetation of the carboniferous group to have been produced in climates at least as warm as those of the tropics ; and, as we now find plants of the same class increase in size as we advance towards warm latitudes, and as the coal-measure plants exceed the general size of their existing congeners, he concludes with much apparent probability that the climate in which; the coal plants existed were even warmer than those of our equinoctial regions." * The following concurring evidence is from the standard work on Fossil Botany, to which we have already so frequently had occasion to refer : " Up to this time " that of the formation of the lias and oolitic group " the features of ancient vegetation were exclusively extra- European and chiefly tropical ; but immediately succeeding the chalk a great change occurred, and a decided approach to the flora of modern days took place in some striking particulars " It is a very remarkable fact that in former ages the range of the species of plants was far more extensive than at the present day. . . . M. A. Brongniart assures us that the plants of the North American coal mines are for the most part perfectly identical with those of Europe, and that they all belong to the same genera ; the same is stated of fossils from Greenland and from Baffin's Bay. That ours are very much the same as the rest of Europe is certain. " And, therefore, a Fossil Flora of Great Britain applies not only to the rest of Europe, as might have been expected, but also to very distant countries." f Mr. Lyell says " That the climate of the Northern hemisphere has undergone an important change, and that its mean annual temperature must once have resembled that now experienced within the tropics, was the opinion of some of the first naturalists who investigated the contents of ancient strata. Their conjecture became more probable when the shells and corals of the secondary rocks were more carefully ex- amined ; for these organic remains were found to be intimately con- nected by generic affinity with species now living in warmer latitudes. .... When the botanist turned his attention to the specific determi- nation of fossil plants, the evidence acquired the fullest confirmation, for the flora of a country is peculiarly influenced by temperature ; and the ancient vegetation of the earth might, more readily than the forms of animals, have afforded conflicting proofs, had the popular theory been without foundation. When the examination of animal and vege- table remains was extended to rocks in the most northern parts of * Manual of Geology, pp. 6, 429, 431. f Lindlcy and Hutton, vol. i. pp. xi, xxiii. 78 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE Europe and North America, and even to the Arctic regions, indica- tions of the same revolution in climate were discovered."* These evidences prove the fact of the general belief enter- tained, in consequence of the size and other appearances of the vegetable remains, of the universal prevalence of a tem- perature, in the original ocean, much exceeding that of the present seas ; and that, too, for a long but indefinite period, during which, according to this system, the Earth was unillumined by the rays of the Sun. All that can be brought forward to explain this seeming anomaly will be carefully adduced in its proper place : meantime it is suf- ficient for my present purpose to have made evident the prevailing belief, " That the temperature of the primitive ocean, throughout its whole extent, was as great as that which at present prevails within the tropics, or perhaps greater, and that it contained a larger proportion of carbonic acid gas than is, at present, consistent with animal life. These incontrovertible evidences shut us up into a position from which, at first sight, it appears rather difficult to escape ; for by them it has been shown, 1st, That Light, Heat, and a moderate degree of Moisture are the essential requisites for the increase of the objects 'forming the present Vegetable Kingdom. 2nd. That during the formation of the older strata there grew and propagated innumerable gigantic plants ; a fact which necessarily implies the simultaneous and abun- dant prevalence of what are considered the essential requisites for enabling them to do so ; while, in opposition to this, although I willingly admit the existence everyAvhere through- out the strata as shown by their vestiges of immense cryptogamic and other allied plants during the period alluded to, I deny the presence of Sun-light, maintain the existence of a universal circumfluent ocean, and the presence of con- siderable surface warmth. The difficulty of escape from this apparent dilemma is not in any degree lessened by an appeal to writers on kindred subjects, for, as a combination of this kind has never been anticipated, very little can be gleaned from their writings bearing directly on the subject. Never- theless, I must endeavour to grope my way onwards, in the * Principles of Geology, vol. i. pp. 105, 106, 145. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 79 hope that these seemingly conflicting evidences may only be fences which may eventually lead to the truth. What, then, do the assertions which have been made on this subject by botanical writers amount to ? It is stated by one of them " That the quantity of water lost to a plant by evaporation, and its power of absorption from the soil, is in proportion to the quantity of light;" and " That the action of solar light is the great exciting cause of suction at the one end, and of evaporation at the other end of a plant." Although it is not absolutely denied " that these phenomena may le produced rather by the dri/ness of the atmosphere, caused by the heat of sun-light, as compared u-ith the moisture of the air in the absence of the sun."* But let the circumstances to which these announcements have reference, and the ends designed to be effected by them, be alike duly considered. They apply to plants growing on SOILS prepared during the lapse of ages for . their reception, with depth and consistency sufficient to uphold them through- out every vicissitude of the atmosphere, which contain the requisite salts and other materials for their nourishment, and for enabling them to obtain their full vigour, and to display all their natural attractions. They are, in fact, the conditions of soil, light, and atmospheric elements adapted to form and sustain those beautiful and useful vegetable expansions of the earth's surface ; destined, while they attract by every elegance of form, to prepare inert matter for the sustenance and the support of animal and rational life, which, without their intermediate agency in the elaboration of crude matter, would cease to exist. Contemplated from these, which are their true points of view, they manifest the wisdom of the plan which, when such is their design, did place the efficient cause of their absorption, vegetation, and increase in a lumi- nary far beyond the earth ; by which means that which is to be formed the vegetable substance is intermediately placed between the source of nutrition and the absorbing power, between the soil and the sun, and surrounded besides by a fostering atmosphere impregnated with elements suitable for assimilation ; while the immense proportional distance, by conferring parallelism on the influencing power, the rays of * " Botany," in Library of Useful Knowledge, pp. 84, 85, and p. 110 of this work. 8o light, causes perpendicularity of position and equality of effect. These, therefore, are the attendant conditions of the vege- table kingdom of the present day, and all the relative circum- stances are in perfect harmony with the design for which they were called into being. They, consequently, could not have existed under a totally different state of matters, which must be inferred to have prevailed during the period of non- diurnal rotation. But if the actual vegetable kingdom be, in every respect, suited to the earth, the air, and the sun- light, it is but just to conclude, that the plants of the primeval world, before those conditions existed, would, in like manner, be adapted to their attendant circumstances. If, in place of the soil being there for their support and sustentation, it was, itself, to be deposited, they would be independent of it, or, perhaps, instrumental in accumulating it. If there was wo atmosphere, but, on the contrary, a deep surrounding fluid, it is natural to suppose they would not require the former, and be capable of deriving nourishment from the latter ; and that while as yet there were no rays of bright sun-light to excite the several functions of air-breathing plants, those that existed in the " darkness " would be wholly indifferent to the sun's enlivening influences. When we more narrowly scan, with an unbiassed and comprehensive view, what appears from the revelations afforded by the researches of geologists, to have been taking place at the bottom of the primitive water, while as yet " the Earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep," these anticipations are found to be completely borne out ; for if we turn for a moment from the consideration of the Earth and its vegetable covering in their present state of perfection, to inquire whether the same reasoning will hold good, or if the same application of means would have suited, had they been directed to the submarine vegetation of the primeval world, w r e shall find, with regard to it, that in place of the soil having been perfected for the growth of the plants, these, imperfect as they were, appear to have been the means employed to form the carboniferous deposits, by acting as absorbents on the surrounding medium, and elaborating, by their vegetable chemistry and vitality, FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 81 the earthy ingredients which the waters held in solution, whereby they contributed towards the formation of the car- bonaceous and alkaline deposits by those peculiar secretions which they alone could supply ; and, further, by disturbing the equilibrium of the ocean they accelerated the deposition likewise of other earthy matter ; and, indeed, that the de'bris of the strata which they mainly aided to form, has contributed the principal ingredients of the very soil employed at present in cultivation ! Indeed, so concurrent is the prevailing opinion on this point, as regards Algse, that many seem to think, that plants of this order derive the whole of their nourishment from the water by means of their general surface, the roots serving no other purpose than to attach them to the rocks on which they grow. Or, in some cases, that they are still more inde- pendent of their radicle terminations, as the widely extended masses of gulf-weed, a species of Sargassum, which, hitherto, has never been found attached by roots. Those ends having been manifestly held in view, the wis- dom and adaptation of the arrangement are made evident by the Creator having ordained that " darkness should be on the face of the deep ; " because " Light being the great exciting cause of suction at one end of a plant, and of evaporation at another," Light would have been inimical to the whole scope of the operations then in progress. On the contrary, what was required, and, consequently, that which was in operation, was an influence to stimulate the plants in a direc- tion opposite to that in which the sun-light is now known to act upon them, and thereby to occasion an active absorption from the surrounding fluid through their organization, whereby they might appropriate and afterwards assimilate in themselves the nutritious ingredients with which the water was charged ; so that in place of nourishment being derived, as it partly is at present, from the soil, it should be abun- dantly abstracted from the surrounding water, and, by vege- table chemistry, be locked up in the strata, for the future uses and necessities of the world's inhabitants ; while the w r aters themselves should, by the same agency, become simul- taneously prepared to perform their important part, also, as the seas of the present day. R 2 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE This view of the case receives confirmation when it is considered, 1st. That there positively did grow in the ancient water gigantic plants, either of the Oryptogamic orders, or closely allied to them ; the fossil vestiges which remain proving this by the evidence of the senses. 2nd. That these plants could have been in contact with only two distinct substances, or bodies, namely, with the soil and with the water. And 3rd. That they were, themselves, chiefly the means of forming the soil ; consequently, as there was little preparatory soil, and the plants are admitted to have grown, and to an immense size, there is no alternative left but to conclude, that as their principal means of subsistence was not in the soil, it must have been in the water : that is, in a degree analogous to the sustenance which plants of the present day derive respectively from the earth and from the atmosphere. If such was the case (and I hardly know how it can be doubted), there should, on investigation, be discovered a peculiarity of structure in those ancient submarine plants whereby they were adapted to perform their peculiar func- tions with an effect analogous to what recent trees and plants are enabled to do through their roots and foliaceous appen- dages. In place of comparatively slender stems and Avide- spreading roots to support them in the ground and afford them the requisite nourishment, trees and plants should be discovered with their outer surfaces widened by every possible contrivance, punctured by absorbing apparatus as the means of imbibing from the surrounding waters, with stems, which, in place of spreading out into boughs and branchlets, and being covered with thin and delicate leaves, and decked with flowers, should be less ramified and furnished with other analogous and useful appendages equally well adapted to their native element, and not being subject to the vicissitudes to which trees growing in the atmosphere are exposed by its sudden and violent movements, and which, on that account, are provided with roots to uphold them against the winds those submarine plants should be furnished with roots much less in proportion to their stems, and by no means so wide- spreading, the still-tranquil ocean of the primitive world never exposing its vegetable inhabitants to similar trials, but, on FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 83 the contrary, sustaining them while they grew, at the bottom of its dark waters, and enabling them to perform their part in the development of the plan of creation. The following extracts confirm this so completely, that, although somewhat long, they cannot properly be omitted : " When Dr. Martins saw the first specimens of Polypodium cor- coradense, so remarkable for the tesselated surface of its eaude.v, he immediately called to mind the figures of certain petrified forms de- scribed by Sternberg under the name of Lep^dodendron ; on com- paring which with the stems of eight arborescent species collected in his journey, he found them connected by so intimate an affinity, that he could entertain no doubts of their generic identity, and was con- vinced in fact that their characters were perfectly concordant " The Filicites quadrangulatus, called Palmacites quadrangulatm by Schlotheim, occurs in the older coal formation, at the coal mines of Opperoda and Manebach. It corresponds with the stem of the Poly- podium corcovadense " Various genera of arborescent grasses, allied to the Bambusia, seem to have been much more frequent than palms in our antedilu- vian plains. To these fossil plants the older writers applied the name of Calamitcs. They are now referred to Equisetums by Mons. A. Brongniart. The Caciphora;, Draccena, Pandani, Yucca, and Vellosia constitute another tropical series allied to the palms, which also make their appearance among our primeval plants There exist in our coal mines numerous examples of petrified forms, frequently several feet long, remarkable for tubercules or polygonal impressions distinct from each other, and longitudinally disposed in straight lines, sepa- rated by parallel grooves or ridges, and marked with a simple cicatrix impressed in the specimen itself upon the carbonaceous bark, but elevated in the impression or cast. These vegetables belong to the genus Cacti It is well known that the Cacti, as well as most succulent plants, derive their nourishment more from their relation to the air than to the earth. The Yucca, and Lychnaphora, which choose for then- habitation a soil that has undergone little preparation from the de- composition of previously existing vegetables, were peculiarly adapted for clothing a recently formed world much warmer than the present. By such plants, vegetable matter would rapidly accumulate to the extent that we find in our coal strata."* What has now been said, together with the evidences which have been adduced, will be sufficient to show the adaptation of the primeval plants to the primeval condition of the world ; and lead to the conviction that only as they then existed could they have fulfilled the object, and wrought out * New System of Gr-ology, pp. 44J5 450. G 2 8 4 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE the design of their being. There are still, however, some points to be looked into before this part of the subject can be altogether dismissed. It will be requisite to explain how the decomposition of the carbonic acid and the fixation of the carbon took place ; and to show, if possible, what became of that which was not decomposed, and of the other materials which may be supposed to have been imbibed by those plants, deprived, as they were, of sun-light, to cause decomposition and exudation, and stinted, as most of them appear to have been, in foliaceous appendages. This undertaking is by no means easily accomplished ; arid in attempting it I am met, at the very outset, by rather an imposing difficulty, arising from the seeming incompatibility of some of my positions with admissions which are equally tenable. Not the least formidable of these consists of the following : The denial, on the one hand, of the existence of sun-light, the great decomposer and solidifier of ligneous material. On the other, the fact that Coal not only is of vegetable origin, but, as appears by the fossil vestiges found intermingled in the formations, that it must have accumulated from plants which acquired enormous 'magnitude, while, at the same time, it is an axiom in Botany, that tJte amount of the decom- position of carbonic acid and the fixation of woody matter take place in direct proportion to the, quantity of light ; or, as expressed by writers on those subjects, " Light causes decomposition of the carbonic acid of vegetation, and con- sequently, by solidifying the tissue, renders those plants the hardest which are most exposed to it.""' The only explanation which can be offered, in the present state of information, respecting those arcana? of the primeval world, is, that the fixation of carbon in forming the woody fibre, having reference principally to that which takes place in the plants of the Dicotyledonous and Monoctyledonous classes, while the whole scope of my argument rests on the assumption that tlie older Coal formations originated in sub- merged Acotyledons, or plants similar thereto, it becomes a question, whether these objections, or any that may arise from the ascertained functions of the other two classes, ought to * "Rotiiny," in Library of Useful Knowledge, p. 85. See tbe whole passage in- cluded between j>i>. 85 87.- FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 85 be admitted against the latter, even supposing it to be satis- factorily established tliat the chemical gradation is uninter- rupted between the lignites which proceed from Monocoty- ledonous and Dicotyledonous plants, and the coal of the older formation ; which latter, although evidently of vege- table origin, yet arose, as has been so frequently insisted upon, from the accumulation of plants whose character and habits show them to have been closely allied to cryptogames, one of whose chief characteristics is indifference to LIGHT. In following up this subject, therefore, it will be necessary, before making any further inquiries into the disposal of the carbonic acid, and the fixation of the carbon, to ascertain by which part of the vegetable economy the former is considered, by botanical physiologists, to be elaborated. " The formation of carbonic acid," says Professor Henslow, " takes place in the leaf, beneath the epidermis. If a section perpendicular to both surfaces of a leaf be examined under the highest powers of the microscope, the interior will be observed chiefly made up of cellular matter, or ' parenchyma,' whose vescicles are loosely aggre- gated, so that large intercellular passages exist in communication with each other through its whole substance. That these passages are filled with air is readily shown by placing a leaf under water, and beneath the receiver of an air-pump. Upon exhausting the receiver, the air contained in the leaf will be seen to escape through the petiole : and upon removing the receiver, the water will then find its way into the leaf, and occupy the interstices which were originally filled with air " At present so little has been ascertained of the conditions under which this air has been introduced into the vessels, or of the peculiar oflice which it is destined to perform, that we can do no more than just mention the fact, and state the opinion of some botanists, who have considered it probable that in these situations also it is sub- servient to the process of respiration, and who conclude that it is not impossible there may exist a strong analogy between the manner in which this function is performed by plants and by some of the in- ferior tribes of animals."* If, therefore, it be the case that leaves elaborate carbonic acid, it follows, that the more reduced the size of the leaf, and the more imperfect its structure, the less will be the formation of carbonic acid; and, consequently, the less the necessity of decomposition and exudation. And, as it has been already shown, from undoubted authority, that the Avhole of the Orders * "Botany," in Cab. Cyc., pp. 187, 188. 86 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE and Genera which compose the Acotyledonous class of plants are defective in foliaceous appendages, "it clearly follows that those operations were by them performed only to a limited extent. In this w r e enjoy another convincing illustration of the wonderful harmony which prevailed between their con- formation and the state of the creation at the period of their existence. The design was, not to exude, but to retain car- bonic acid in the system of the plants, and, therefore, those appendages, which, by decomposing and exuding this acid, would have frustrated that object to a certain extent, and thereby have proved inimical to the design intended, were very feeble in these vegetable elaborators. Nor should the idea be overlooked which has been sug- gested above, " That leaves, under the circumstances men- tioned, perform the function of vegetable respiration in a manner analogous to that in which the same operation is carried on in the inferior races of animals ;" for the establish- ment of what is thus so unconsciously admitted, or rather conjectured, is the very point sought to be established, as one of the principal steps towards the elucidation of the uses made of those vast forests of submerged Acotyledons, which abounded during the period of darkness and non-rotation. That the mind may be relieved from any doubt which may arise from the idea that an adequate substitute might have been provided to carry on these operations by other parts of the plants, the following passage is given from the botanical writer to whom we have been already so frequently in- debted : " With regard to parts not green, which botanists usually call coloured, their function seems to be to absorb o.ri/yen without Ji. ring it, and they appear to j>osess no power of decomposing carbonic acid wJien they have formed it. Such is said to be the case with roots, old trunks, petals, stamens, ripe fruits, mushrooms, and certain lichens. A part of their carbonic acid escapes into the air, a part is dissolved in their fluids, especially in the roots, whence it passes upwards into the system."* These opinions, given by physiological botanists, of the process by which carbonic acid is decomposed by living * " Botany," in Library of Useful Knowledge, p. 90. Confinned by Dr. lioge'.'s Biidgewater Treatise, vol. ii. p. 32. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 87 plants, and carbonaceous material becomes fixed in the two higher classes, when applied to the case of Submerged Aeoty- ledons, would lead us to conclude that, taking their deficiency in the operative organs and the entire absence of the requisite external stimulants into account, they would be found to be remarkable for their paucity of woody fibre throughout the masses of their trunks and branches. The evidences, taken from the works of geological botanists who have directed their attention to this particular feature of fossil plants, and given in detail in Appendix H, will fully corroborate this assumption. After perusing these it cannot be doubted that the design which of course was accomplished was to throw the bulk of the carbonaceous material, which the ancient plants were capable of elaborating, into the exterior rim of their stems and branches. The element in which they floated would, while it supplied them with nutriment, very materially contribute to this by upholding their pulpy or semi-hollow bulky trunks, and per- mitting them to send forth their spirally arranged branches in every direction around them/"" The whole arrangements respecting these ancient plants existing as they did at so early a period of the Earth's history exhibit another fine example of the admirable adaptation of means to an end which characterizes all the handiworks of the Omnipotent. The evident intention having been to create carbonaceous matter by means of the periphery of these huge vascular plants, there was no element by which they could have been better upheld than water, and there is no imaginable form better calculated to confer strength upon, and to increase the extent of, the external surface of any cylindrical body what- ever than by fluting, that is, by forming it into ridges and * I consider the spiral arrangement of their branches, leaves, and fronds, or cones, which seems to have been general, very strong presumptive evidence of their having floated in water. It is asserted of the Stigmtiria that they either did so, or "trailed on the ground." Had this latter been their habit, would their branches have proceeded in regular order all round the stems ? "Would not the spiral arrangement have been interrupted wherever the trunk rested on the ground ? It is maintained from their debility, in comparison with their great size and length, that they must have done the one or the other: the attendant circumstances are adverse to one of the suppositions that of trailing on the ground but are in strict accordance with the other. Can there, therefore, be auy doubt as to which opinion shuuld be ultimately adopted ''. 88 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE depressions parallel to the line of its axis ; nor is there any other construction which would enable a plant, in contact with a surrounding fluid from which it was deriving nourish- ment and support, more effectually to be supplied with both. And, in the instance in question, these means, it is found, were effectually adopted. There may also be discovered, what, with all deference, may be called a degree of mannerism in these arrangements. In the case of the molluscous and zoophytic agency the object then was to create carbonate of lime for the beneficent purposes intended, and this was effected by causing the innumerable forms of these creatures to encrust themselves with ponderous coatings of that stony material. In the instance now more immediately under consideration, the design seems to have been to create carbonaceous matter (and perhaps to form free oxygen), by an agency in the vegetable world corresponding to the imperfect molluscs of the animal kingdom ; and, in carrying this into execution, the plants were caused to secrete carbonaceous matter throughout the whole extent of their comparatively rigid exterior around a soft and vascular central axis ; whereby it is to be assumed that the greatest amount of the destined material could be elaborated in the least possible time, while it conferred rela- tively the greatest degree of strength to the stems them- selves. It now only requires to be ascertained whether plants which are denied the sun-light contain more carbonic acid than those which enjoy its rays ; and if aquatic plants actually deposit carbonic acid from their roots ; and, fortunately, both these points have been established beyond the possibility of a doubt, as will be seen by the following quotation : Mr. Murray, writing to the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, says "While in London, last winter, I made a considerable number of experiments on the hyacinth, &c., growing in bulb glasses ; the bulb being carefully washed with distilled water was seated on the glass filled also with distilled water, and the whole covered with a bell glass. In two or three days the water was highly saturated with carbonic acid gas, and this being precipitated with lime-water, potassa, or caustic baryta, afforded a brisk effervescence on the affusion of diluted acid. The immediate tnilkines-t which ensued on agitating the FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 89 fluid with lime-water was proof enough, though it was well to carry the experiment to its ultimatum. In numerous repetitions I found it uniform, and showed it to some of my friends. " By using lime-water much diluted with distilled water, the interior surface and bottom of the bulb glass were incrusted with minute rhombs of carbonate of lime, perfectly diaphanous." On consulting any work on chemistry, it will be ascer- tained that the Algae, produce soda and potash combined with carbonic, sulphuric, and muriatic acids ; and it has been seen by the remarks of Dr. Roget that marine plants deposit saline substances when placed in circumstances favourable for doing so. The following direct testimony corroborative of these facts, from a different source, will, no doubt, be perused with interest : Dr. Landsborough says, " Our British sea-weeds rise in national importance on account of kelp, which is made from them In 1818, the total product realised the sum of 120,000. .... We shall pass over the method of making the kelp, and follow the material to Glasgow, where there are at present twenty establishments, some of them very extensive, for the Uxiviation of kelp, and the manufacture, from it, of iodine, &c " The object of the Uxiviator, as he is called, is to separate the various salts which the kelp contains. The most insoluble are those which are first separated, consisting of the sulphate of potash, the carbonate, muriate, and sulphate of soda, and the muriate of potash. " The most soluble remain in the solution. In the solution the iodine and other very soluble salts are found, and it is from them, the liquor called the mother liquor, that iodine is extracted.'" 1 With this satisfactory testimony I close the evidences for this part of the subject, and , proceed to sum up what has been said during the present chapter. This branch of our general subject has been followed through all its windings, until we have reached a point which establishes the fact, that it is a property common to plants to deposit carbonic acid by their roots, or accumulate it within themselves when deficient in those radicle appendages ; and that some of the cryptogamic plants produce carbonate, muriate, and sulphate of soda and of potash. These evi- dences corroborate, to a certain extent, the assumption that the elaboration of carbonaceous matter and the storing of it * History of British Alyxe, pp. 60, 61. 90 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE up for future purposes in certain forms, together with the deposition of some of the stratified masses, were within the scope, and appear to have been the principal objects contem- plated, and fully accomplished, by the submerged vegetation during the non-diurnal rotating period of the primitive world. Indeed, we have only to take into account the inex- haustible stores of carbonaceous matter which exist in the great coal formations, the large proportion of carbon which enters into the composition of almost all vegetable soils, and the volume of carbonic acid locked up [to be released at plea- sure] in the extensive calcareous formations which everywhere abound, to be convinced of the amount of work performed during that protracted period by the instrumentality of vege- table chemistry, the plants which performed it being im- mersed in the waters of the primeval ocean, whilst " the Earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep." The evident and close adaptation of means to the end, which is recognised in all these arrangements, evinces, in the most undeniable manner, that no other class of plants, except one which does not correspond with the description of either of those given in the first chapter of Genesis, could then have existed ; for, if any other could have performed the work required, they would have been there associated with the ancient flora ; while, in another respect, there is a perfect accordance between this state of matters in the primeval world and the announcements made by the inspired his- torian, who, evidently being cognizant of this fact, omitted to enumerate the flowerless, seedless, fruitless plants, when put- ting on record the creation of the other two perfect classes.* The knowledge of this also clearly points to the alone source from whence it could have been derived. Nothing, perhaps, tends more to corroborate the view we have adopted of the entirely distinct eras of the creation of the flowerless, seedless, fruitless, and of the phanogamous plants, than the contrast which is afforded by a comparison between the well-authenticated restriction of the recent Flora, * I beg to be clearly understood: 'I mean by this all plants not included in the description given, namely, " The herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit, \\hose seed is iu itself upoii the earth," eaik after their respective kinds. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 91 of more perfect construction, to foci of creation treated of so much in what is called botanical geography ; and the universality and equality of the wide-spread and everywhere abounding Cryptogames of the primeval world : the former, affected by the divergent inequalities of the earth's surface, kept apart from each other, as it were, by insular and conti- nental distances, and bearing the stamp of differences of climate and of soil : the comprehensive command applicable to the whole terraine surface, " Let the Earth produce grass," having, by its climatic zones, been modified into perfect adaptation to each, and thereby having caused distinct foci of vegetation amongst the phanogamous classes. The primeval flora, seemingly indifferent to all these influencing causes, found embedded everywhere, and everywhere alike, so that in the language of M. de la Beche, " there certainly was a similar vegetation about the same period over parts of Europe and North America, which leads to the inference that there was a similar climate over a large portion of the northern hemisphere, such as we have not at present, for it was at least tropical, if not ultra-tropical ;" and this Messrs. Lindley and Hutton fully corroborate when they offer the following cogent reasons as a general recommendation of their admir- able work, the Fossil Flora : " In another point of view, we think," say they, " a work of this kind is likely to be of general utility. It is a remarkable fact, that in former ages the range of the species of plants was far more extensive than at the present day. The plants of the North American coal mines are, for the most part, perfectly identical with those of Europe ; they all belong to the same genera. The same is the case with fossils from Greenland and from Baffin's Bay. Ours are very much the same as those of the rest of Europe, and, therefore, a Fossil Flora of Great Britain applies not only to Europe generally, but also to very distant countries." And, altogether, warrants the belief, that one set of effects are produced by the plianogamous plants having been created after the Earth had assumed its actual diversity of form, and present vicissitudes of climate, while another and an altogether different set of effects arose from the no less certain cause of the earth having, when the ancient flora existed, been a sphere without diurnal rotation, surrounded by a dark and atmosphei'elcss ocean, where no difference of climate or change 92 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE EARTH. of season was ever known ; but being one vast range of level surface, under the same omnipotent and fostering care, the plants now found fossil were equally produced wherever necessary over its whole extent ; nurtured until they assumed their indicated magnitude, and caused to perform important offices in the formation of the strata and in the purification of the waters. With these observations I shall bring this section to a close ; believing that what is contained in it has advanced us another step towards the unfolding of the prefatory assump- tion, " That, during the period referred to, there were being formed, under tJie primitive ocean, by the combined instru- mentality of chemical and electrical agency, and of animal and vegetable secretion, those materials which ivere afterwards, when raised from their recumbent position by centrifugal impetus, to constitute an important part of the earth's geo- logical fomnations and meteorological phenomena,, while, simultaneously, the ocean was undergoing due preparation for becoming tlie seas of the present time." SECTION III. DEPOSITION OF THE STRATA DURING THE PERIOD OF NON-DIURNAL ROTATION. CHAPTER VIII. TTAVING shown, in the preceding Sections, that there -*-^- existed in the primitive ocean, before " the separation of the waters and the dry land," successive tribes of creatures and of plants which were made use of to secrete the peculiar ingredients necessary alike for the meteorological elements and for the perfection of the stratified masses, it now becomes necessary to endeavour to elucidate the manner in which it is considered that these strata were deposited from the ocean in which the inferior animals and plants were thus engaged, while fulfilling their appropriate destinies. To relieve the argument from ah 1 unnecessary complication, no direct allusion shall be made, for the present, either to the Conglomerates and Breccias, nor to the Unstratified Forma- tions under pledge of resuming those points hereafter. The attention will be principally directed to the deposition of the strata, with only such occasional allusions to the others as are indispensable. The first step to be taken in this inquiry is to become assured tlnx.it the materials ivhich contributed to the formation of the strata actually did exist in the water then, surrounding the nucleus of the Earth ; for, unless we are convinced of this, all the reasoning which may be founded hereafter on its assumption will be uncertain and inconclusive, while, on the other hand, if established, as I trust it will be, the future argument will be greatly confirmed and strengthened. 94 DYNAMICAL SFSTEM OF THE Let it, then, be supposed, that, before any deposition whatever took place, the whole Earth was accurately weighed, and the weight noted down ; that, after a lapse of ages, the examination of its surface displays certain concentric layers of strata surrounding it in every direction, bearing evident symptoms of having been deposited from a fluid which had held them in solution and suspension ; that we should be assured the greatest part of these did not derive their origin either from the comminution or the disintegration of other rocks ; that we should be made aware of the existence under- neath the secondary strata of a continuous hard shell or crust, from within which the strata could not possibly have come ; and that there should now be an immense body of water, clear and pellucid, containing little or no earthy matter, washing those stratified masses in their upheaved position ; and then let it be further supposed that the terraqueous globe, after all these changes had taken place in both of its portions, was again placed in the same balance, and found to have neither lost nor gained a single apice in weight ; that it remained precisely the same as it was at first ; it would seem natural and just to infer therefrom, that the materials of the stratified masses DID exist in the turbid primeval waters, from whence they were deposited, leaving them pellucid and sparkling as they noiu are ; and it shall be my care to show that all these presumed circumstances are correct, and capable of bearing whatever superstructure may be raised upon them. It will be observed by the seventeenth Theorem, that the law of gravitation is in direct proportion to the mass, and inversely as the square of the distance. It is stated by an accomplished writer on this subject to be " A singular result of the simplicity of the laws of nature, which admit only of the observation and comparison of ratios, that the gravitation and theory of the motions of the celestial bodies are inde- pendent of their absolute magnitudes and distances. Consequently, if all the bodies of the sokr system, their mutual distances, and their velocities were to diminish proportionally, they would describe curves in all respects similar to those in which they now move ; and the system might be successively reduced to the smallest sensible dimen- sions, and still exhibit the same appearances." * * Connection of the Sciences, p. 408. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 95 The same writer further states that " In the midst of all the vicissitudes which affect the solar system, the length of the major axes and the mean motions of the planets remain permanently independent of secular changes. They are so connected by Kepler's law, of the squares of the periodic times being proportional to the cubes of the mean distances of the planets from the sun, that one cannot vary without affecting the other. And it is proved that any variations which do take place are transient, and depend only on the relative positions of the bodies." * This truth was previously borne ample testimony to by Professor Flayfair, who, Avith his usual elegance of language, says " La Grange found, by a method peculiar to himself, and inde- pendent of any approximation, that the inequality produced by the mutual action of the planets must, in effect, be all periodical : that amidst all the changes which arise from their mutual action, two things remain perpetually the same, viz., the length of the greater axis of the ellipse which the planet describes, and its periodical time round the sun, or, which is the same thing, the mean distance of each planet from the sun, and its mean motion, remain constant. The plane of the orbit varies, the species of the ellipse and its eccentricity change ; but never, by any means whatever, the greater axis of the ellipse, or the time of the entire revolution of the planet. " The discovery of this great principle, which we may consider as the bulwark which secures the stability of our system, and excludes all access to confusion and disorder, must render the name of La (j! range for ever memorable in science, and ever revered by those who delight in the contemplation of whatever is excellent and sublime. "t When we have to bring forward evidences from the resources of the exact sciences, the matter is very soon con- cluded. These two quotations equally confirm and com- pletely so, the first and last assumptions with which I commenced ; because, before the laws which are mentioned in them could have been established, the relative mass of the earth, with respect to the sun and other bodies of the system, must have been determined with unerring precision ; and, consequently, whatever that was, at the most remote period to which astronomical calculations have any reference, it must be the same at this moment ; for, as the earth's mean dis- tance from the sun is invariable, and the law of gravitation exacts a proportional increase or diminution of the mass, * Connection of the Sciences, p. 25. t Review of Laplace, Mecanique Celeste, Playfair's Works, vol. iv. p. 289. o6 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE should the distance be enlarged or reduced, it follows as an axiom, that as the distance has remained the same, tJie mass or weight must also have remained without change. The next point to be disposed of, is, to prevent any subterfuge being sought in the belief that the secondary strata owe their origin to the comminution or disintegration of pre-existing rocks. The fundamental assumption in this argument, namely, the non-diurnal rotation of the earth during the period of the deposition of the stratified masses, is so inseparably connected with the dogma of its having been then a sphere or level surface, bounded by a circumfluent ocean, that the possibility of disintegration from previously existing rocky mountains is so incompatible with these that they must either stand or fall together. The change in the position of the primary and stratified masses will be explained in its proper place ; but, in the meantime, I beg that the horizontality of the whole earth during that epoch may be allowed, and considered to be a sufficient explanation for the absence of disintegration. Although this may, perhaps, be considered an extreme request by those who are accus- tomed to witness the primary rocks forming the highest points in almost all mountain ranges, and the secondary ones tilted up and hanging on their shoulders, yet, when it is considered that it has been adopted as a geological axiom, that ilie.se, rocks have been moved through a certain space into their present positions, the intervening space may, as fairly, be considered to have been from horizontality as from any intermediate inclination ; and the more so, as their elevation from a perfect level can be proved, although I should shrink from the task, if a less static position were imperatively demanded as that of their original starting-point. This brings me to examine into the truth of the only remaining unproved postulate, namely, the existence under- neath the secondary strata of a boundary line of impene- trable rocks, forming a continuous shell or crust, from within which the stratified masses could not possibly have come ; and here, before proceeding with any proof, I feel disposed to use the words of Dr. M'Culloch, and say " It is our object to trace the disposition of the rocky surface of the globe, from the most distant or early point at which the marks of FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 97 change are perceptible, and to pursue its changes down to the present day. Beyond that distant point it is possible that there may have been other changes ; but of these we can find DO evidence. A curtain is here drawn to separate the visible world from that which is, to us, as if it had never existed. That this system had a beginning, we are certain ; where that may lie, we know not ; but for us it is placed beyond that era at which we can no longer trace the marks of a change of order, of the destruction and renovation of its form. It is from this point that a theory of the earth must commence ; it is from this also that the present inquiry begins." * There is even a higher authority for laying this restriction upon our inquiries. The inspired historian himself in his narrative takes up the Creation as the light found it ; and from that eventful period only enters into particulars. I assume the Earth to have been without inequalities of form, and bearing upon its rocky level surface a shoreless circum- fluent ocean. He narrates that " the Earth was without form and void," while, availing myself of what he was made the chosen instrument to reveal, carrying it back, as it were, by the differential method, I apply it and endeavour to fathom the dark and atmosphereless "abyss of waters" which circumbounded it in the beginning. Admitting the deposition of the stratified masses to have been from a fluid holding them in suspension and combina- tion, which is not attempted to be denied, then it follows as a matter of course, that there must have been an under surface of rocks, of some DESCRIPTION OR OTHER, which formed the groundwork or base on which the. universal menstruum was sustained, while those strata were being deposited from it. This general view of the case will be strengthened when it is considered that it is contrary to the laws of matter to sup- pose that the original water could have been the matrix of all the rocky materials constituting the solid nucleus of the earth. This would involve the double absurdity of supposing that the containing water increased as the solid nucleus increased, and experienced a corresponding augmentation of earthy sediment in proportion to the increasing demand for deposition. But, entertaining little fear that such tenets as these will be brought forward and sustained, while, on the other hand, the fact of "the strata having been deposited * Geology, vol. i. p. 462. H 98 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE tranquilly in a horizontal position from water holding them in combination"* is never for a moment doubted, we are shut up to the conclusion that, at whatever geological period it may have occurred, there assuredly was, at one time, a solid surface around and all over our earth impervious to water, on Avhich the primeval ocean rested, while from it were being deposited those successive layers of different kinds which constitute the whole of the older and part of the more recent strata ; while the animal and vegetable remains found interwoven in these f prove beyond the possibility of a doubt, that the water, however different from the seas of the present day, was capable of sustaining the creatures and plants to which these exuvias belong. The existence of such a universal base is fully admitted by geologists in all their writings on the subject.* Indeed, so much so, that, in another part of this work, the general conclusion has been come to, " That the granitic, trappean, and serpentinous classes of rocks, with their immediate associates, form the nuclei of all mountain ranges ; that there is a strong analogy between granite, trap, and por- phyry ; and that their common origin must be sought for in nearly the same source and from the same cause. " A few illustrations bearing on these conclusions may be satisfactory before this part of our subject is closed. " Assuming," says Professor Puckland, " that fire and water have been the two great agents employed in reducing the surface of the globe to its actual condition, we see, in the repeated operations of these agents, causes adequate to the production of those irregular elevations and depressions of the fundamental rocks of the granitic series, which are delineated in the lower regions of our system, as forming the base of the entire superstructure of stratified rocks." || Mr. Lyell states that " If we investigate a large portion of a continent which contains within it a lofty mountain range, we rarely fail to discover another class, very distinct from either of these alluded to, and which we can neither assimilate to deposits such as are now accumulated in lakes or seas, nor to those generated by ordinary volcanic action. The class alluded to consists of granite, granitic schist, roofing slate, and many * 13th and 14th Theorems. f Theorems 16 and 19. + Theorem 21. Theorems 25, 26, and 27. || Bridgewater Treatise, vol. ii. p. 3. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 99 other rocks, of a much more compact and crystalline texture than the sedimentary and volcanic divisions before mentioned. In the unstratified portion of these crystalline rocks, as in the granite, for example, no organic fossil remains have ever been discovered " These remarkable formations have been called primitive, from being supposed to constitute the most ancient mineral productions known to us, and from a notion that they originated before the earth was inhabited by living beings, and while yet the planet was in a nascent state. Their high relative antiquity is indisputable ; for in the oldest sedimentary strata, containing organic remains, we often meet with rounded pebbles of the older crystalline rocks, which must, therefore, have been consolidated before the derivative strata were formed out of their ruins. They rise up from beneath the rocks of mechanical origin, entering into the structure of lofty mountains, so as to constitute, at the same time, the lowest and most elevated portions of the crust of the globe.* .... "It is," says Dr. M'Culloch, " in the deeper regions of the globe, therefore, in those where we have found the origin of granite, that we must seek that of trap. These substances are essentially of the same nature, but they have been produced at distant periods of time. . . . " I am unable to perceive that anything is wanting to prove the identity of origin in trap and granite. It is little likely, at least, that geology will often furnish us with evidence of a more decided nature. Nor is it an indispensable requisite to this argument to produce numerous examples ; since there are innumerable cases in science, among which this seems one, where one or two facts are as decisive as a hundred." f "Notwithstanding its inferiority in position," continues the same author, " we must not grant, as asserted, that granite constitutes the mass of the globe, or is the lowest rock in existence. Of its interior we know nothing ; but its weight is sufficient to prove that it is not formed of granite Some unstratified matter, solid or fluid, does, doubtless, lie beneath the stratified surface of the earth ; but while conjectures are fruitless, it might, if solid, be basalt, as well as granite. " Though treating of it first in order, it is plain that it is not so viewed here ; while I need not re-discuss the relations of the stratified to the unstratified rocks. It is sufficient that granite disturbs the former, transmits veins through them, and affects their mineral characters ; while the strata do not follow it in that regular order in which they succeed each other, but are variously and confusedly placed with regard to it, so that a single mass may touch all the members of one series a property not possessed by any stratum. This is posteriority, but it is a posteriority only where the fact of intrusion is thus proved. Rocks have been deposited on it, as I shall immediately show ; and, in examining the revolutions of the earth, I have rendered it probable that there has been granite, or an * Principles of Geology, vol. iii. pp. 10 13. t Geology, by Dr. M'Culloch, vol. i. r- I 48 e * se( l- H 2 ioo DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE analogous substance, prior to all -strata, and the original source of the whole." * Professor Phillips asserts " Inferio rly, the primary strata rest on unstratified, generally granitic rocks, so situated as to cut off all possibility of observation at greater depths. This granite floor this universal chrystalline basis to all the stratified rocks appears, in many instances, to have under- gone fusion since the deposition of the strata upon it It is enough for our present purpose to recognise the general truth of the stratified rocks, which are the products of water, resting universally on unstratified crystalline rocks, which, through whatever previous conditions their particles may have passed, have assumed their present characters from the agency of heat. Igneous rocks then rest below all the aqueous deposits." t The last postulate, namely, that the earth was re-weighed after deposition, and found to be precisely the same as before, having been already proved, I shall consider that, with the concurring extracts just given, the case is closed in favour of the point so important to be established, namely, that the materials which compose the strata of the secondary and part of the tertiary formations, were at one time contained in the water which surrounded the globe during its period of non- diurnal rotation; and having thus prepared the mind, by freeing it from all bias to the contrary opinion, I shall be the better able to fix upon some admitted order of superposition, from the oldest stratified formation up to the magnesian lime- stone ; as it is indispensably necessary to adopt and to follow out some one geological classification. " To propose," observes Sir Henry de la Beche, " in the present state of geological science, any classification of rocks which should pretend to more than temporary utility, would be to assume a more intimate acquaintance with the earth's crust than we possess. Our knowledge of this structure is far from extensive, and principally confined to portions of Europe. Still, however, a mass of information has gradually been collected, particularly as respects this quarter of the world, tending to contain general and important conclusions, among which the principal are that rocks may be divided into two great classes, the stratified and the unstratified ; that of the former some contain organic remains, and others do not ; and that the non- fossiliferous stratified rocks, as a mass, occupy an inferior place to the fossiliferous strata, also taken as a mass. The next important * Geology, by Dr. M'Culloch, vol. ii. pp. 87, 88. t Treatise on Geology, pp. 69, 70. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 101 conclusion is, that among the stratified fossiliferous rocks there is a certain order of superposition, apparently marked by peculiar general accumulations of organic remains, though the mineralogical character varies materially " Classifications of rock should be convenient, suited to the state of science, and as free as possible from a leading theory. The usual divisions of primary, transition, secondary, and tertiary may, perhaps, be convenient, but they certainly cannot lay claim to either equality with the state of science, or freedom from theory." * As it is intended, amidst the prevailing diversity of nomenclatures and classifications, to adopt that of Sir H. de la Beche, his table of comparative classification is given in Appendix K, to assist in leading us through the difficulties which will assuredly present themselves.t " The greater part of our continents," says Mr. Lyell, " are evidently composed of subaqueous deposits ; and in the manner of their arrangement we discover many characters precisely similar to what has been described. We find, for example, beds of limestone several hundred feet in thickness, containing embedded corals and shells, stretching from one country to another, yet always giving place, at length, to a distinct set of strata, which either rise up from under it like the rocks before alluded to as forming the borders of a lake, or cover and conceal it. " All the subaqueous strata which we before alluded to as overlying the primary, were at first called secondary ; and when they had been found divisible into different groups, characterized by certain organic remains and mineral peculiarities, the relative position of these groups became a matter of high interest. It was soon found that the order of succession was never inverted, although the different formations were not co-extensively distributed ; so that if there be four different formations, as a, b, c, d, which in certain localities may be seen in vertical superposition, the uppermost or nearest of them, a, will in other places be in contact with c, or with the lowest of the whole series d, all the intermediate formations being absent." j " The great bulk of the accessible surface of the solid earth," observes Dr. M'Culloch, "is composed of stratified rocks, which, under different modes of distribution, form not only the low plains, but the elevated mountains ; being brought into view by their irregularities of position, and by that denudation which so often laid them bare. " The term stratum, or bei, carries its own definition with it; its extent, according to the prolongation of its great opposing planes, being generally far greater than its thickness. A repetition of such * Geology, by Sir H. T. de la Beche, pp. 32, 33. t Manual of "Geology, pp. 38, 39. See also the very comprehensive Table, No. 2, given by Mr. Lyoll, in his work, vol. iii. pp. 389 J**?S j Principles of Geology, vol. iii. pp. 9 15. loz DYNAMIC AL SFSTEM OF THE beds forms a scries of strata ; and the term stratification implies the mode of their deposition, to whatever cause that may be attributed. .... The term stratification, therefore, implies a cause, as well as a mode of form and deposition ; and that cause is assumed, or proved, to consist in a deposition from water, of materials that have been suspended and dissolved in it." : It will now be necessary to adduce some of the innumer- able proofs which exist in favour of the thirteenth Theorem, " That wherever any considerable portion of the earth's sur- face has been examined by geologists, it has invariably afforded proofs of having been at one time submerged in tJie water of the ocean." "A very little attention," Professor Playfair remarks, in his Illus- trations of the Huttonian Theory, " to the phenomena of the mineral kingdom, is sufficient to convince us, that the condition of the earth's surface has not been the same at all times as at present. When we observe the impressions of plants in the heart of the hardest rocks ; when we discover trees converted into flint, and entire beds of lime- stone or of marble composed of shells and corals ; we see the individual in two states the most widely different from one another ; and in the latter instance, have a clear proof, that the present land was once deeply immersed under the waters of the ocean." ' " The lowest and most level parts of the earth," M. Cuvier asserts in his Theory, " when penetrated to a very great depth, exhibit nothing but horizontal strata composed of various substances, and containing almost all of them innumerable marine productions. Similar strata, with the same kind of productions, compose the hills even to a great height. Sometimes the shells are so numerous as to constitute the entire body of the stratum. They are almost every- where in such a perfect state of preservation that even the smallest of them retain their most delicate parts, their sharpest ridges, and their finest and most tender processes. " They are found in elevations far above the level of every part of the ocean, and in places to which the sea could not be conveyed by any existing cause. They are not only enclosed in loose sand, but are often encrusted and penetrated on all sides by the hardest stones. Every part of the earth, every hemisphere, every continent, every island of any size, exhibits the same phenomenon. We are therefore forcibly led to believe, not only that the sea has at one period or another covered all our plains, but that it must have remained there for a long time, and in a state of tranquillity ; which circumstance was necessary for the formation of deposits so extensive, so thick, in part so solid, and containing exuviae so perfectly preserved." J " Geologists," Sir John Herschel states, " now no longer bewilder * Geology, by Dr. M'Culloch, vol. i. pp. 61, 67. t Playfair's Works, vol. i. p. 19. J Cuviei's Theory of the Earth, by Pro lessor Jamieson, pp. 7, 8. FORMA TION OF THE EARTH. 103 their imaginations with wild theories of the formation of the globe from chaos, or its passage through a series of hypothetical trans- formations, but rather aim at a careful and accurate examination of the records of its former state, which they find indelibly impressed on the great features of its actual surface, and to the evidence of former life and habitation which organized remains embedded and preserved in its strata indisputably afford. "Records of this kind are neither few nor vague, and though the obsoleteness of their language, when we endeavour to interpret it too minutely, may, and no doubt often does, lead to misapprehension, still its general meaning is, on the whole, unequivocal and satisfactory. Such records teach us, in terms too plain to be misunderstood, that the whole, or nearly the whole, of our present lands and continents were formerly at the bottom of the sea, where they received deposits of materials from the wearing and degradation of other lands not now existing, and furnished receptacles for the remains of marine animals and plants inhabiting the ocean above them, as well as for similar spoils of the land washed down into its bosom." * "Calcareous rocks," says Mr. Lyell, "containing the same class of organic remains as our transition and mountain limestones, extend over a great part of the central and northern parts of Europe, are found in the lake districts of North America, and even appear to occur in great abundance as far as the border of the Arctic sea. The organic remains of these rocks consist principally of marine shells, corals, and the teeth and bones of fish ; and their nature, as well as the continuity of the calcareous beds of homogeneous mineral com- position, concur to prove, that the whole series was formed in a deep and expansive ocean, in the midst of which, however, there were many isles." .... Again " A glance at the best geological maps now constructed of various countries in the northern hemisphere, whether in North America or Europe, will satisfy the inquirer, that the greater part of the present land has been raised from the deep, either between the period of the deposition of the chalk and that of the strata termed tertiary, or at subsequent periods, during which various tertiary groups were formed in succession. For, as the secondary rocks, from the lias to the chalk inclusive, are, with a few unimportant exceptions, marine, it follows that every district now occupied by them has been converted into land since they originated." t Evidences so unanimous and so conclusive leave not a doubt, that, " wherever the earth's surface has been examined to any extent, it affords undeniable proofs of having been formed at the bottom of the ocean." The importance of this * Natural Philosophy, in Cab. Cyc., pp. 282, 283. t Piinciples of Geology, vol. i. pp. 116, 155. 104 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE demonstration, however, cannot be fully appreciated until it has been shown, that there was only one general elevation of the strata ; and, consequently, that the stratified masses which afford such perfect evidence of their submarine origin must Jiave been so situated at one and the same time ; while the circumstance of their having been simultaneously covered by the ocean, proves alike that the earth must, of necessity, have been a sphere Avithout diurnal rotation ; for no other form could fulfil all the conditions required, when the com- parative shallowness of the ocean is taken into account ;* and the impossibility of this ever covering the earth's surface after the first revolution around its axis had occasioned those great inequalities, which, at present, distinguish its geographical outlines. Without dwelling longer, however, on this great truth for the present, but resting satisfied with having shown that wherever any considerable area of the earth's surface has been accessible to geological examination, it affords the clearest possible evidence of having been formed beneath the water of the ocean, I shall next proceed to give some equally conclusive quotations in support of the first part of the four- teenth Theorem, in which it is asserted that the stratified rocks afford sufficient evidence of having been formed in succession, horizontally and tranquilly, by deposition from water. " It is well known," says Dr. Button's accomplished illustrator, "that the materials of the strata are disposed, as we have already . seen, loose and unconnected, at the bottom of the sea ; that is, even on the most moderate estimation, at the depth of several miles under its surface "Now, it is certain that many of the strata have been moved angularly ; because that, in their original position, they must have been all nearly horizontal. Loose material, such as sand and gravel, subsiding at the bottom of the sea .... will arrange themselves in horizontal layers ; and the vibrations of the incumbent fluid, by * Sir H. T. de la Bechc considers the ocean to be only two miles in mean depth, and his evidence on this point is so apposite that I cannot avoid giving jt : " The depth of the ocean has heen variously estimated at hetween two and three miles. The mean height of the dry land above the ocean level does not exceed two miles. Therefore, assuming two miles for the depth of the ocean, the waters occupying three-fourths of the Earth's surface, the present dry land might be distributed over the bottom of the ocean in such a manner that the surface of the Earth would present a mass of waters an important possibility, for with it at command, every variety of the superficial distribution of land and water may be imagined ; and consequently every variety of organic life, each suited to the various situations and climates under which it would be placed.'' Manual of Geology t pp. 2, 3. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 105 impressing a slight motion, backward and forward, on the materials of these layers, will very much assist the accuracy of their level. . . . 11 Now, rocks having their layers exactly parallel, are very common, and prove their original horizontality to have been more precise than we could venture to conclude from analogy alone. In beds of sand- stone, for instance, nothing is more frequent than to see the thin layers of sand separated from one another by layers still finer of coaly or micaceous matter, that are almost exactly parallel, and continue so to a great extent without any sensible deviation. " These plains can have acquired their parallelism only in con- sequence of the property of water just stated, by which it renders the surfaces of the layers which it deposits parallel to its own surface, and therefore parallel to one another. Though such strata, therefore, may not now be horizontal, they must have been so originally, other- wise it is impossible to discover any cause for their parallelism, or any rule by which it can have been produced.* Mr. Lyell says when reasoning on the unphilosophical assumption of the discordance of the ancient and existing causes of change, "It should have been evident to unbiassed minds, that successive strata, containing, in regular order of superposition, distinct beds of shells and corals, arranged in families, as they grow at the bottom of the sea, could only have been formed by slow and insensible degrees in the lapse of ages ; yet, until organic remains were minutely examined and specifically determined, it was rarely possible to prove that the series of deposits met with in one country was not formed simul- taneously with that found in another. But we are now able to determine, in numerous instances, the relative dates of sedimentary rocks in distant regions, and to show by their organic remains that they were not of contemporary origin, but formed in succession. We often find that where an interruption in the consecutive formations in one district is indicated by a sudden transition from one assemblage of fossil species to another, the chasm is filled up, in some other district, by other important groups of strata." * A geologist, much esteemed in his day, expresses his opinion, as far as the Old Red Sandstone group is concerned, in the following graphic manner, with which I shall close this part of the evidence : " The geologists of the school of Werner," says he, " used to illustrate what we may term the anatomy of the Earth, as seen through the spectacles of their system, by an onion and its coats. They represented the globe as a central nucleus, encircled by con- centric coverings, each covering constituting a geological formation. The onion, through the introduction of a better school, has become obsolete as an illustration ; but to restore it again, though for another purpose, we have merely to cut it through the middle, and turn down- * Playfair's Hut Ionian Theory, pp. 4, 4446. t Principles oi' Geology, vol. i. p. 99. io6 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE EARTH. wards the plane formed by the knife. It then represents, with its coats, two such hills as we describe hills such as Ben Nevis, ere the granite had perforated the gneiss, or the porphyry broken through the granite." After pointing out, in another passage, how unsafe it is to calculate the depth of deposits by the altitude of hills, or to estimate the correctness of the calculations made in one dis- trict by those which may have been made in some other widely separated locality, he states " So enormous is the depth of the deposit (the red sandstone) in Caithness, that it has been deemed by very superior geologists to represent three entire formations : the Old lied system, by its unfossiliferous, arenaceous, and conglomerate beds ; the Carboni- ferous system, by its dark-coloured middle schists, abounding in bitumen and ichthyolites ; and the New Ked Sandstone, by its mottled marls and mouldering sandstones that overlie the whole ;" and which, unitedly, " in some localities attain a depth fully equal to the elevation of Mount Etna over the level of the sea."* Old Red Sandstone, by Miller, Edinburgh, pp. 60, 61, 62. SECTION III. DEPOSITION OF THE STRATA DURING THE PERIOD OF NON- DIURNAL ROTATION. CHAPTER IX. copious and concurring extracts which have been given - in the preceding chapter sufficiently prove the deposition from water of the stratified rocks which now constitute a great portion of the solid crust of the earth. They also bear testi- mony to the fact, that those successive layers rest upon a base of unstratified material, from within which they could not possibly have come. The sphericity of the earth's surface, which has been pre- mised, precludes it from being supposed that the strata owe their origin to the disintegration of pre-existing rocks ; while it has been shown by a combination of fundamental astrono- mical laws, that no increase of the weight or gravity of the globe took place since its creation ; and that the only addition made to it was the principle of organic life in the inferior animal and vegetable existences which were then brought into being ; but as this living principle added not one iota to the gravity of the sphere, I have a right to conclude, as the result of these well-sustained premisses, that the elements of the strata which formed part of the weight of the Earth at the beginning were contained in the circumfluent ocean, and were deposited from it. But it must be here observed, that it was not alone by the separation of the mineral parts, by deposition, that the primeval water became the pellucid seas of the present day ; the gaseous elements of the atmosphere io8 were, by combination with the principle of light, when formed, made to ascend from the water, and, by their abstraction, also to purify and leave the ocean what it now is. If it be ad- mitted, therefore, that the ponderous earthy masses were, on the one hand, taken by precipitation from the primitive water, and that the volatilised gaseous elements were made to rise out of them, on the other all having originally been con- tained in the water when " the Earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep " surely, without departing in the slightest degree from philosophical reasoning, or asking too much, it may be demanded, for argument's sake, that they may be considered for a short time to be restored to them ; while the non-existence of the atmo- sphere w T ill render this concession, as far as regards the gaseous elements, all the more easily granted. And it having been shown, by the writings of geologists, that the strata now rest upon a base of unstratified rocks, we may safely consider, that the water, which held the elements of the strata in its grasp, rested, before these were deposited, on that on which the de-posited matter now reposes ; while to complete the proper conception of the condition of our planet at the remote period to which I allude, we have only to imagine it, thus geologi- cally constituted, to be without diurnal rotation, but revolving with the same velocity in the identical orbit through dark- ened space, wherein it now travels around the illumined sun. If there be anything, more than another, which I desire to avoid in conducting this work, it is that of assuming any un- necessary or unfounded supposition as the base line of subse- quent conclusions. / assume nothing but what can be proved by ivell-sustained evidence in the sequel. Our senses evidence to us undoubtedly that the Earth at present diurnally rotates, is illumined by the sun, and is beautifully diversified by hill and dale, and by the greater inequalities of continental ridges and oceanic hollows. Yet, in asking my readers to imagine that the world which they now inhabit if eyes there had been to behold it would have presented to the vision a shoreless abyss of dark and atmosphereless water, without diurnal rotation, and deprived of the soul-cheering rays of the sun, I do no more than truth dictates to me ; for this was FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 109 its actual condition for many ages. It is thus first of all presented to our notice in the Sacred Volume, Avherein it is announced that " the Earth was without form and void ; darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." If this revealed description be believed in, and its non- diurnal rotation conceded for a short time, I feel confident of being able to prove that it did not so rotate for a long but indefinite period, and that it was then in the dark and atmo- sphereless condition to which allusion has so frequently been made. To be assured that the attendant conditions of the Earth were in accordance with perfect wisdom, I purpose to inquire, whether the spherical form of the globe, surrounded by an illimitable ocean of equal depth, was not better adapted for promoting the deposition of earthy matter from a fluid, than the relative distribution of land and water, with unequal depths, and reduced aqueous surface, which at present con- stitute its geographical features ; and whether, under any possible circumstances, and at any period, the sea could have covered the whole sphere. To do this, reference will be made to the first Theorem, in which it is stated, " That a sphere is that form which contains the greatest volume of all bodies of equal surface." This, applied to the case under consideration, assures us that a sphere is that form capable of containing the greatest possible mass of matter within a given quantity of water, and to per- mit this last to maintain the greatest possible depth while it circumbounds the contained solid mass. In this state the globe and its aqueous envelope are conceived to have remained during the entire period of non-diurnal rotation. By refer- ring to the eighth Theorem, it will be observed, that the aqueous portion of the earth's present surface is to the terres- trial part as three to one, or nearly so ; i.e. only three-fourths of superficies is now covered by the same water which for- merly circumbounded its whole extent ; and if, from the first Theorem, there be taken the diameter of the Earth, we shall soon discover what a vast area that is, and how admirably adapted the surface then was for favouring deposition from a fluid holding matter in suspension ; while, if it be considered no DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE that the most moderate estimate makes the mean depth of the ocean two miles, others considering it between four and five, and that the average of mountains is only two miles above the level of the sea the greater portion of the earth's surface having but a very limited elevation above that level no doubt will remain as to the possibility, under the pre- mised conditions of the globe, of the water of the ocean having covered the whole surface of a non-rotating sphere ; thereby more fitly adapting it for the gradual deposition of the earthy matter contained in the circumfluent water.* Thus we acquire, by every additional step in the investigation, increas- ing evidences of the infinite wisdom which directed the whole plan of creation. I have next, in the prosecution of this laborious research, to set forth the nature and component parts of the stratified rocks throughout the series which are supposed to have been thus deposited, and inquire into some of the causes then in operation which contributed to their formation. The inferior stratified or non-fossiliferous rocks, according to Sir Henry de la Beche, consist of "1. Clay ; 2. Aluminous Slate ; 3. Whetstone Slate ; 4. Flinty Slate ; 5. Chloride Slate ; 6. Talcose Slate ; 7. Steachiste, Hornblende Slate; 8. Hornblende Rock; 9. Quartz Rock ; 10. Serpentine; 11. Diallage Rock; 12. Whitestone ; 13. Mica Slate; 14. Gneiss; and 15. Protogine ; with respect to which he remarks " If we consider what minerals have entered most largely into the composition of the whole mass, we find that quartz, felspar, mica, and hornblende are those with which it most abounds, and which impress their characters upon its various portions. The inferior stratified rocks, which form the largest part of the exposed surface of our planet, are gneiss and mica slate, and when viewed on the great scale the others are more or less subordinate to them. " Supposing this view an approximation to the truth, we arrive at another and important conclusion, namely, that the minerals which compose the mass of these stratified rocks are precisely those which constitute the mass of the unstratified rocks rocks which, from the phenomena attending them, are referred to an igneous origin We find, still viewing the subject in the mass, that the same elemen- tary substances have produced the same minerals in both, the only difference between them being their general difference of arrange- ment relatively to each other, so that they should constitute a stratified compound in the one case, and not in the other. " The coal measures," according to the same geologist, " are com- * See note at page 104. FORMA TION OF THE EARTH. 1 1 1 posed of various beds of sandstone, shale, and coal, irregularly inter- stratified, and in some countries intermixed with conglomerates ; the whole showing a mechanical origin. " The old red sandstone is of very variable thickness, sometimes consisting of a few conglomerate beds, while at others it swells out to the depth of several thousand feet The sandstone possesses different degrees of induration, and is not unfrequently schistose and micaceous. The conglomerates of course vary in their contents, but pieces of quartz are very common."* Should further and corroborative evidence be required on this essential point, the reader may refer to the detailed and elaborate tables which are given by Mr. Lyell, in his " Ele- ments of Geology," which, although, in some cases, compiled more immediately from the analysis of rocks composing the older formations, may on the whole be taken as exhibiting pretty nearly the constituent principles of the others also. " Chemical science," says Dr. lire, " demonstrates that the crust of the earth consists mainly of six substances, Silica, or the matter of rock crystal, Alumina, or pure clay, Iron, Lime, Magnesia, and Potash. Silica, in the crystalline form, is called quartz, and is a large consti- tuent of the primitive mountains, granite, gneiss, and mica slate. .... The third of the primitive stratified rocks is clay slate or roofing slate. If to these four bodies, namely, quartz, felspar, mica, and clay slate [called simple materials, because they are of homo- geneous aspect], we add hornblende and augite, we shall have before us the principal mineral constituents of the primitive shell of the globe " Thus we see that silica, clay, lime, magnesia, iron, oxide, and potash constitute by far the greater portion of the hard materials of the earth, as far as it has been explored." f The table of the Older Stratified Eocks, taken from the same work, and which will be found in Appendix L, shows the components of the same series. Thus, by continuing our researches, we have reached a point from whence it can be clearly discerned, that the whole of those vast rocky formations which contribute so essentially to form the surface of the Earth, when traced to their ulti- mate constituent principles, are found to be composed of a few simple elements, scarcely exceeding twelve in number ; and that they might, perhaps, be found to owe their origin to a still smaller number of undecomposable substances, had * Manual of Geology, by Sir H. E. de la Beche, t Geology, pp. 89, 90. ii2 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE we the power, or had chemistry the skill, to analyze still more minutely the objects of its own discovery. This point, then, under present circumstances, may be considered for all practical purposes an ultimate one. And I shall next endeavour to convey some conception imper- fect I fear it will be of the means whereby those elements were separated from the primeval ocean, which held them in suspension and combination, and became transformed into those successive layers or strata, which, when the continents arose from their recumbent position by centrifugal impetus, assumed their destined places as the chief supporters of the primary nuclei of the mountain masses. It must not, however, be attempted to be concealed, that we have reached an extremely difficult part of our labours ; the more so as it is quite impossible to attempt anything like a detailed exposition of the manner in which those stupen- dous works were conducted in the great laboratory of nature. And, therefore, without wasting time and attention in the unsatisfying and fruitless attempt to penetrate into periods too remote in the history of the world's creation, or endea- vouring to conceive its rudimentary elements, before they were in that condition in which it has pleased the Creator to introduce them to our knowledge in the sublime and com- prehensive announcements of Genesis, or attempting to trench on those hidden grounds which are beyond the limits of human comprehension, but submissively making an un- biased use of whatever faculties of investigation it has pleased Providence to endow us with, let the attention be directed to inquire into these works which, even in his estimation, appeared " very good," and are spread out as a field on which to exercise the powers of mind conferred upon us, and whose contemplation, we trust, will occasion senti- ments of delight and adoration, when the understanding shall have become convinced, and we are enabled to behold them in the clear light of heaven ! It is by such considerations as these, that the mind debarred from wasting its powers in endeavouring to com- prehend incomprehensible things can best apply its unim- paired energies to the work \vhieh lies before it, I therefore trust that in this frame of spirit we may be enabled to FORMA TION OF THE EARTH. 1 1 3 imagine a shoreless mass of dark tremulous water [whose purified remains are the seas of the present day], flowing in a slow, secular, unvarying, and uninterrupted course round a sphere without diurnal rotation, and charged with the ele- ments of countless stratified rocks, while it also held the gaseous constituents of the present outstretched firmament in combination with the mineral ingredients ; and doing so, let us endeavour to determine the probable consequences. And, first of all, let it be shown how this secular flow of the primitive water round the circumbounded sphere, ere it had diurnal rotation, could then have existed : happily, the amiable writer on the Connection of the Sciences has provided an illustration of the present tides, which by analogy will render this quite evident. " It is proved," says that accomplished writer, " by daily experi- ence, as well as by strict mathematical reasoning, that in the tides there are three kinds of oscillations, depending on different causes, and producing their effects independently of each other, which may therefore be estimated separately. " The oscillations of the first kind, which are "Very small, are inde- pendent of the rotation of the earth : and as they depend upon the motion of the disturbing body in its orbit, they are of long periods." As this kind of oscillation only bears upon the present subject, I shall enter more particularly into it. " The particles of water," says the same writer, "under the moon are more attracted than the centre of gravity of the earth, in the inverse ratio of the square of the distances.* Hence they have a tendency to leave the earth, but are retained by their gravitation, which is diminished by this tendency. On the contrary, the moon attracts the centre of the earth more powerfully than she attracts the particles of water in the hemisphere opposite to her ; so that the earth has a tendency to leave the waters, but is retained by gravita- tion, which is again diminished by this tendency. Thus the waters immediately under the moon are drawn from the earth at the same time that the earth is drawn from those which are diametrically opposite to her : in both instances producing an elevation of the ocean of nearly the same height above the surface of equilibrium ; for the diminution of the gravitation of the particles in each position is much the same, on account of the distance of the moon being great in com- parison of the radius of the earth. Were the earth entirely covered by the sea, the water thus attracted by the moon would assume the * It will of course be understood, that although the sun and moon were not illumined at the period we treat of, yet the consequences resulting from the gravity of the unillumined bodies were the same as at present. AUTHOR. ii4 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE form of an oblong spheroid, whose greater axis would point towards the moon, since the columns of water under the moon and in the direction immediately opposite to her, are rendered lighter in conse- quence of the diminution of their gravitation ; and in order to pre- serve the equilibrium, the axis 90 distant would be shortened. The elevation, on account of the smaller space in which it is confined, is twice as great as the depression, because the contents of the spheroid always remain the same." :; To comprehend thoroughly the nature of the luni-solar current which must have periodically traversed the whole extent of the primitive ocean, there requires only to be added to this beautiful and perspicuous illustration of the theory of the present tides, the conditions peculiar to our planet pre- viously to the formation of the light, namely, its non-diurnal rotation round its axis ; the universality of the ocean ; and the circulation of our planet in space round the imillumined sun, accompanied by its opaque satellite, the moon ; in which state, the force and effects of gravity being the same then as now, it is evident that a current flowing from east to west would be constantly circulating round the globe, whose oscillations would vary in degree, and keep pace with the circulation of the moon in its orbit, and, consequently, would take place twice within the lunar month, and produce the greatest disturbance of the aqueous balance, and its velocity upon those parts, now the equator, where it had to perform the greatest circuit, while it diminished to nothing where the poles of revolution now are. The only other peculiarity is, that the non-rotating earth presented the same side towards the sun as it revolved in annual circle round its imillumined centre, and, as a con- sequence thereof, according to the foregoing theory of the tides, there would be two points on the earth's surface having luni-solar tidal ridges ; the one immediately under the sun, the other 180 from it, or diametrically opposite; Avhile it must not be lost sight of that, in consequence of there being no rotation of the earth, the attractive influence of the moon and sun would exercise full power, unrestricted by the counteraction of rotation in the water, as shown that it does at present by the extracts just given ; and, consequently, the * On the Connection of the Sciences, pp. 105 110. If more information he required on this point, please rei'er to Ilcrschcl's Astronomy, chap. xi. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 115 primeval water being capable of assuming the form of equi- librium, would spontaneously occasion all the results flowing therefrom. In confirmation of the general argument, I take occasion to observe, that there seems to be no doubt of the fact that the primitive circumfluent water was CHEMICALLY saturated with mineral elements, which in succession were abstracted from it by deposition, through the agency of commensurate means, to which frequent and particular allusion will shortly have to be made. This truth seems to be admitted by all who have paid any attention to the subject, and, therefore, I shall only insist on the fact itself of the chemical saturation of the original ocean. To saturate any mass of water with ingredients soluble in it, the most effectual means which can be adopted is to charge the menstruum throughout with finely comminuted material, in order that the powers of absorption and chemical affinity inherent in the fluid may be equally, generally, and effectually brought into exercise ; while those powers are considerably augmented by the simultaneous presence of certain gases, especially oxygen, which it is known everywhere abounded in the primitive water. Without presuming determinately to assert that such did occur during the development of the great plan of creation at a period so remote, and while the stony concretions of the earth's surface were so devoid of denotation by organic remains, yet we seem warranted, from a combination of the known effects of the general laws which then prevailed, together with the actual findings of geologists, to suppose that there might have been a stage in the earth's geological history when the means employed to form concentric layers of rock may have been so simple as to be little less rudi- mentary than the method alluded to ; and that the circum- fluent water, in order that it might become thoroughly and generally saturated, chemically, with the elements afterwards deposited in a crystalline arrangement of structure, was mechanically surcharged with finely comminuted mineral material. When we contemplate the peculiar circumstances of the earth at the period during which those deposits are considered i 2 n6 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE to have been made unknown to diurnal rotation, unaffected by external light, and surrounded everywhere by the primeval ocean, " the earth without form and void, darkness on the face of the deep," there is no difficulty in perceiving that the law of attraction acting on those particles of inert matter, free to percolate through water, would be wholly unabated by any of those counteracting causes which, under a different condition of the earth, might have impeded their progress to the bottom of the ocean. The several descriptions of mineral matter, besides, which constitute the inferior stratified or non- fossiliferous rocks, are represented by numbers so compari- tively high in the scale of specific gravities for instance, fibrous quartz 3.25, felspar 2.57, hornblende 3.25, mica 2.65, clay slate 2.65, oxide of iron 3.45, chlorite 2.60, and talc 2.77, that it must be confessed they would be specially amenable to the influence of the force in question, and be more readily precipitated from a fluid holding their sur- plus quantity in mechanical suspension ; while we have only to imagine, what cannot very well be doubted, that aqueous crystallization, for which all the attendant circum- stances were admirably adapted, was in full operation at the same time, to be able readily to recognise how, between these two causes, the precipitated rocks of that period would assume "a confusedly crystalline" structure, and be com- posed of the comparatively ponderous materials to which allusion has just been made. The result of those combined operations on the general plan, besides so far purifying the water, would be to lay a solid base, on which fixed animals and other apulmonic ones of restricted motion were to dwell, and acotyledonous plants were afterwards to grow, both contributing to the perfection of the rocky zone which, for the very purpose, they were made to tenant ; while the pre-deposition of so much mineral matter, by means next to mechanical, would save those organized beings incapable by their conformation of evading it from being suddenly entombed in a descending mass of earthy matter. As already observed, sedimentary accumulation seems to have been only one of the means employed, at that early stage of the Creation, to form the bases of the stratified FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 117 rocks ; their mineralogical character clearly indicating that almost from the beginning, at least as far back as geologists have yet penetrated, aqueous crystallization was an influential and a general agent in the hands of the Omnipotent to pro- duce, in perfect order, the framework of those rocky layers, those confusedly crystalline masses described by M. de la Beche and the other geologists whose works have been quoted. When we look upon crystallization from aqueous elements, which it seems to have pleased the Creator to have employed ere there was a dawn, even of animal or vegetable existence ; and when the beautiful and symmetrical arrangement of the particles, in the many-formed mineral crystals, is contrasted with the simple juxtaposition of particles in the structure of other inert masses, we cannot avoid being impressed with the belief that crystallization fills up a gap, or forms an inter- mediate link, as it were, in the agency of creation, between mere inert matter and the organic forms which denote animal and vegetable life. Although neither the reproducing crea- ture nor the propagating plant be there, yet polarization is so far endued with those energies of perpetuation, that when the same material elements are placed within its reach and under its control, the same forms and similar symmetrical arrangements of particles invariably follow, so that cube suc- ceeds cube and rhomboid succeeds rhomboid as certainly and as persistently as patella does patella or equisetum equisetum. It is true they are not reproduced, the one by the other ; nevertheless, from causes much more applicable to the then condition of our planet, owing to its universality, and possi- bility of being employed, simultaneously, at almost every pin's point throughout the whole extent of the earth's sur- face, and at the bottom of its dark and circumfluent ocean, equivalent effects were produced, and the design of the Creator accomplished. This interesting but comparatively modern branch of science has been made the theme of so many works of late, and been so much brought before the learned, that scarcely anything beyond allusion requires to be made to the Theorems which relate to it. They are numbered one hun- dred and eleven and one hundred and twelve. Neither ii8 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE need protracted evidence be adduced to establish their con- tents ; yet the following brief notices may prepare the mind for the application which is intended to be made of them hereafter : " It remains," says Mr. Donovan, " to consider the restoration of cohesion to bodies in which that force has been suspended This may have been effected through the intervention of a liquid. If a large quantity of sugar be dissolved in a small quantity of boiling water, and the syrup allowed to grow cold, the attraction of cohesion will begin to take effect between its particles, and, at length, the sugar will once more become a solid. " But in this case, as in many others, whatever may have been the original state of the sugar, it always, in resuming its solidity, assumes a particular one of great regularity and beauty. " It was originally opaque ; it is now transparent. It was originally a shapeless mass ; it is now a prism of six sides, in regularity and lustre scarcely to be surpassed by the products of the lapidary's wheel. A solid of this symmetrical form, and of spontaneous produc- tion, is called a crystal, and the process by which it is produced is called crystallization Many bodies are found naturally in the crystalline state, as various precious stones and minerals."^ " Crystallization is an effect," says Mrs. Somerville, " of molecular attraction, regulated by certain laws, according to which atoms of the same kind of matter unite in regular forms a fact easily proved by dissolving a piece of alum in pure water. " The mutual attraction of the particles is destroyed by the water, but, if it be evaporated, they unite, and form, in uniting, eight-sided figures, called octahedrons. .... It is quite clear that the same circumstances which caused the aggregation of a few particles would, if continued, cause the addition of more ; and the process would go on so long as any particles remain free round the primitive nucleus, which would increase in size, but would remain unchanged in form, the figure of the particles being such as to maintain the regularity and smoothness of the surfaces of the solid, and their mutual inclinations " All these circumstances tend to prove that substances having the same crystalline form must consist of ultimate atoms having the same figure and arranged in the very same order ; so that the form of crystals is dependent on their atomic constitution.''! It fortunately happens that those views have been fully corroborated by the discoveries of others, who have closely applied themselves to the experimental part of this branch of science ; and, not resting satisfied by merely propounding the rationale of a crystal's formation, have set about, and actually * Chemistry, in Cab. Cyc., pp. 17, 18. t Connection of the Sciences, pp. 124, 127. FORMA TION OF THE EARTH. 1 1 9 produced them from the ingredients of which they were known to be composed. Allusion to this is made more espe- cially to Mr. Cross, M. Becquerel, and Dr. Faraday. The first, having made electrical phenomena his study for many years, states the circumstance of a voltaic apparatus remain- ing in constant action for twelve months, and from the influ- ence of this continued electric action he had produced, not only crystals of lime, but he had likewise submitted powdered flint to its influences, and found that around the positive pole, crystals of quartz were formed, but not touching the wire. He subsequently produced crystals of iron pyrites at the negative pole from elements of these crystals ; and has now various crystals of copper, tin, silica, and lime, in daily for- mation. The crystals of aragonite were formed from the water of a cave in Somersetshire, highly charged with the carbonate and sulphate of lime, by submitting this water to the action of a common water-battery (for he uses no acid), in nine days' time. He also mentions a very material and curious fact, that light is detrimental to the progress of crys- tallization, and that the action of the battery was greater between the hours of seven and ten in the morning, being at that period, from repeated observations, at its maximum ; and at the same hour in the evening, at its minimum. Barometrical, thermometrical, and other assumed causes he found to have no effect on this latter circumstance."* What has now been gone through will, it is hoped, have sufficiently prepared the mind for reasoning with those truths which have been brought out. To do this effectually, how- ever, the attention will have to be carried back to a period somewhat earlier in the earth's formation. We 'must endea- vour to realise a time when the water was charged with mineral matter in mere mecJianical suspension. In attempting to do this, there is particular need of the caution with which we set out, namely, to avoid trenching, in the slightest manner, on the boundary line which prohibits inquiry, and be content with coming to conclusions on matters within the grasp of the comprehension ; in short, to avoid the quagmires of geology, and adhere as closely as pos- * Literary Gazette. 27th August, 1836. Further information will likewise be found in Gazette of loth October, 1836, pp. 667, 668. izo DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE sible to its firm ground, although it may have been little trodden, and may pertain more to clear deductions than to actual research. The way I feel inclined to look upon this part of the sub- ject, and the view, perhaps, which is the least exposed to error, is this : We find, at the present moment, an immense mass of water contained within, and resting upon, a framework of solid rocks. When those rocks are examined into, they reveal to us, as well by their mineralogical as their geological structure, that they have been very differently formed. Those which are nearest to us, or the more recent, bear evident marks of having been carried about by water, and having been, as it were, thrown down suddenly and violently from it ; like sedimentary deposits from water in agitation and motion.* Below these, again, are more extended formations exhibiting as undeniable symptoms of having been deposited slowly, tranquilly, and persistently, from water holding their ingredients so firmly in suspension as to part with them particle by particle, deliberately and, as it were, compulsorily, by means of its animal and vegetable inhabitants. t Going downward still, there are found more compact rocks, whose stratified texture shows that they also have been the product of water, but Avater acted upon and seemingly drained of its material by one universal agent, Avhich, by the infinitude of sparkling, symmetrical crystals which it has formed, evinces how general has been its operations, and how effectual its work.+ All these have evidently been held in suspension by water ; but held in such a manner, that had it not been for those successive agencies which were employed to disturb its chemical equilibrium, for wise and beneficent purposes, it might have continued holding them until now in suspension, or as long as it pleased the Creator. When we penetrate still lower, Ave encounter rocks whose structure is hetero- geneous and confused, manifesting both the influence of crys- tallization and simple aggregation of particles, apparently by mere juxtaposition ; and last of all Ave come to a species of rock, or rather a diversified series of rocks, of vast and general * Theorem 32nd, and its proofs. t 14th Theorem, and proofs. + 23rd and 18th Theorems, and evidences. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 121 extent, in which all traces of deposition from water are wholly lost. They are clearly unstratified, or without symp- toms of having been formed in layers or beds ; while the crystallization they exhibit seems to have owed its origin more to heat than to the slow molecular aggregation of aqueous origin.* When by an effort we take all these great and successive formations of mineral matter into our mind at once, and estimate them with relation to the quantity of water in our present seas, whose average depth is considered to be only two or three miles, the inference must of necessity be drawn, that while the water positively did contain a great part of these rocks, it could not contain the whole of them : it is physically impossible. There is not capacity in the ocean to have contained all the rocks of the world. Therefore, when all this is reflected on, we must come to the conclusion that there wets an epoch in the geological history of the world, when, in obedience to the laws impressed upon them, some parts of its earthy crust were condensed into a solid form, and left the turbid aqueous portion, charged with similar material, resting on the base thus formed beneath it. Supposing such to have been the case, and, indeed, all the facts connected with this period seem to imply that it was so, the water which, by its lighter specific gravity, assumed the exterior position would become charged with mineral ingre- dients beyond what it could keep in suspension ; what it has parted with confirms this conclusion. And we have only to infer that, conformably to the laws which govern matter, it would first part with its surplus, according to the specific gravity of the ingredients, which, likewise, seems to have been the case, as shown, when the mineralogical structure of the lower rocks was explained. What is chiefly required, at present, is to direct the attention to the undeniable fact, fully evidenced by the discoveries of geologists, that the primeval water was at one period actually charged abundantly with mineral ingredients ; that from it has been deposited, at some time or other, and during the succession of ages, the greater part of what are termed the stratified rocks. I am * 23rd, 24th, and 25th Theorems and proofs; likewise Tahle in Appendix K. 122 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE not solicitous about determining the precise period when those deposits took place, nor, at present, how they took place, but merely to be allowed the admission which, I apprehend, cannot consistently be withheld, that such actually did take place. Supposing, therefore, such to have been the case, and pre- suming that water then possessed the same absorbing powers which it does now, and, from having been surcharged with gaseous elements, that its powers of absorption would even be much greater ; it follows, obviously, that the primitive water must have become chemically saturated with the mineral ingredients which were thus percolating through it. It is not to be expected that evidence as undeniable as that which is afforded by analysis, or by examination, can be adduced to prove that the original ocean was so impregnated, but I can offer facts that, layer after layer, thin scaly sheets of stone have been deposited from it ; and, in addition, the corroborative analogical evidence that water now, even when exposed to the evaporating influences of the atmosphere and of sunlight, is occasionally met with which holds in chemical combination ingredients almost similar to those which it is supposed the dark and atmosphereless primitive ocean con- tained. Without fatiguing the reader with diversified analyses, I shall, on account of their being so well know r n, give that of the water of Carlsbad, in Bohemia. According to the analysis made by M. Berzellius, and referred to by Dr. Ure, the mineral matter found in these springs consists of " Sulphate of soda 2-58714 Carbonate of soda 1-25200 Muriate of soda 1-04895 Carbonate of lime 0-31219 Fluate of lime 0-00331 Phosphate of lime 0-00019 Carbonate of strontia 0-00097 Carbonate of magnesia 0-18221 Phosphate of alumina 0-00034 Carbonate of iron 0-00422 Carbonate of manganese a trace. Silica . . 0-07504 5-4665G." * Ann. de Chim. et de Phys., xxi., p. 248. See also Tables in Murray's Chemistry, vol. ii. pp. 741 743. FORMA TION OF THE EARTH. 123 A confirmation, to a certain extent, of this last evidence is found in a note by M. de la Beche, when treating of the " variations in the mineralogical character of the cretaceous group." The passage and note run thus " When we turn to the higher part of the group, into which the lower portion graduates, the theory of mere transport appears opposed to the phenomena observed, which seem rather to have been pro- duced by deposition from a chemical solution of carbonate of lime and silex, covering a considerable area.'' Then follows the note " If we regard present appearances, we find that silex is held in solution by thermal waters, which also, as in the case of those of St. Michael in the Azores, may contain carbonate of lime. No springs or set of springs that we can imagine, are likely to have produced this great deposit of chalk so uniform over a large surface. But although springs, in our acceptation of the term, could scarcely have caused the effects required, we may, perhaps, look to a greater exertion of the power which now produces thermal water for a possible explana- tion of the observed phenomena." * This quotation and the foregoing analysis (besides many similar ones which may be seen by referring to the synopti- cal table of mineral waters in the same work) will sufficiently show what diversified ingredients water can, at the same time, hold in chemical combination. When it is considered that the condition of the primitive ocean, charged with gaseous elements, without an atmosphere to act as an absorbent, and without the influence of the sun's rays to aid in withdrawing or in volatilising those aeriform elements, was much better adapted for holding extraneous earthy matter in solution, we shall not be surprised to find, by inference drawn from the nature of the deposits, that the following ingredients were, at the same time, suspended in the primitive ocean, viz. : silica, alumina, lime, magnesia, baryta, strontia, glucina, zirconia, potash, soda, ammonia, oxides of iron, manganese, tin, copper, and other metals, iodine, carbonic, fluoric, sulphuric, and nitric acid, with free oxygen, and other gaseous elements which will be enumerated in the sequel, t * Manual of Geology, 2nd edition, pp. 264, 265. t Theorems 96, 97, 99, and 100. i2 4 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE In continuation, I shall demonstrate the chemical laws which under . the appellation of general affinities influence their procedure, when brought into contact by a solvent or carrier, such as the water of the circumfluent primitive ocean. " There must be some power or influence," states Mr. Hugo Reid, " operating to draw bodies into such intimate union with each other ; and to express their power, we use the term chemical attraction. We know not how this power operates, and know not its nature ; we can only judge of it from its effects, and we see that it is the nature of these substances to be united in this way when they are brought together : also we see that a great number of other substances have a disposition to unite in a similar manner ; hence we infer that there is some peculiar influence acting between substances which disposes them to unite with each other, and as they appear to be attracted or drawn towards each other, it*is called attraction, and receives the epithet ' chemical ' to distinguish it from other kinds of attraction. " By combination (chemical union), two different bodies unite and form a third, differing very much from either. It is chemical attrac- tion which causes them to combine when brought together, and thus this agent is the cause of the differences which we find in bodies. Were there no such agent as chemical attraction, there would be only about fifty-four different kinds of substances the simple bodies, and of these several are very rare ; but chemical attraction makes these unite with each other, and these compounds unite with the simple sub- stances, and with each other, so that we may say there is almost no end to the number of different bodies brought into existence. It draws towards each other the particles of different kinds of matter and binds them together, causes them when they are brought into contact to enter into new arrangements and combinations, and thus gives rise to the variety in the objects around us, and to the varied phenomena of chemistry.'' :! Mr. Donovan, writing on the subject of chemical affinity, thus expresses himself " The natural forces, gravitation and cohesion, belong, in their full development, more to mechanics than to chemistry But there are other forces in nature to be considered which fall more exclusively within our province ; and which, so far as this planet is concerned, act a part equal in importance and interest to any other." After exemplifying the different effects which result from the immersion, in mercury, of a rod of iron and of a rod of gold, and showing that part of the mercury has become inti- * Chemistry, l>y Hugo Reid, p. 8. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 125 mately combined with the gold on the surface of the latter, he proceeds to say " This, then, is to be acknowledged as a different exhibition of the attractive force that pervades all matter; it is distinguished by the name of chemical attraction, or simply by the term affinity a more convenient but less expressive term ; and it differs from all known forces in its agency " This kind of attraction acts upon matter in all states, whether solid, liquid, or gaseous. " When a piece of sugar falls into water, it sinks to the bottom ; yet, after a time, by the taste of the water it will be proved, con- trarily to the laws of gravity, to have ascended towards the top and spread to all other parts ; it must, therefore, have been gradually attracted. The same would happen with salt, alum, and various other articles, between which and the water affinity is known to exist And so, likewise, with two fluids, between which affinity subsists. Thus : spirit of wine is lighter than water, and if poured cautiously over water, it will float ; but, after a length of time, it will be found to have descended to the bottom, and to be equally diffused through all parts, in consequence of affinity. But if oil be poured on water, it will remain there during any period, for it is lighter than water, and is not attracted by any strong affinity to that liquid " This attraction does not act at any distance which can be per- ceived ; its existence is only discoverable by its effects, but its conse- quences are very striking, and the changes it produces are of such a nature as cannot be overlooked By melting two metals into combination extraordinary changes are produced What the nature of the change may be that is thus produced on the two metals cannot be explained, but it is certain that, in the mixed mass, the contiguity of a particle of one kind of metal produces a very decided change on the properties of the adjoining particle of the other, and a property is produced by their union which neither particle apparently possesses " The change of properties which takes place when chemical attrac- tion acts is not confined to metals, but is a general result in every case where different bodies are brought into this state of combination or chemical union. " Frequently we find that the properties of each body are totally changed ; and that substances, from being energetic and violent in their nature, become inert and harmless, and vice versa One of the chief differences," he goes on to say, "between chemical and cohesive attraction is, that the former takes place only between the particles of different kinds of matter, whereas the latter occurs be- tween the particles of the same kind. . , . . " We have now to inquire," says he, " whether or not affinity is a force of very extensive operation in nature ; whether it acts in the case of certain kinds of bodies only, or is a general property of matter. The facts known seem to warrant the inference that there are no two bodies between which an affinity does not subsist, .... iz6 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE EARTH. although there may be antagonistic forces which prevent their com- bination " Most of the great changes which are constantly taking place in nature, are instances of decomposition and chemical affinity. It is by decomposition that the solid rock becomes covered with a fertile soil ; it is by the same agencies that the soil throws up its verdant cloth- ing ; that growing plants are converted into animals by assimilation ; that animals at length fall into decay, and return into their original state. In fine, it is by decomposition that the great natural pro- cesses of renovation and decay are kept in a state of perpetual circulation."* These data comprehend all that is required to enable us to enter into the investigation of the proceedings of nature in the formation of rocky masses, by the united agency of simple deposition, of crystallization, of animal and vegetable secretion, and of chemical combination ; for we have a uni- versal solvent, holding an almost indefinite quantity of the various elementary materials in solution, and itself constitu- ting a carrier to assist in their union ; we have the radical principles of electrical phenomena ; we know the names and natures of most of the ingredients employed ; we are aware there was a constant current in the primeval water flowing round the globe from luni-solar influences ; and that there were other currents within the water itself, caused by the unequal degrees of gravity of the aqueous strata ; and being in possession of all these particulars, together with the knowledge just acquired of the nature of chemical influence and attraction over the elements of matter held in suspen- sion, which caused them to unite together and form an almost endless variety of other substances, we may be con- sidered fully prepared to enter on the investigation of what took place during the formation of those stratified masses whose constitution appears evidently to have been the chief end of the co-existence and operation of all those means, and to have been wrought out during a protracted but indefinite period of non-diurnal rotation, when all the concomitant circumstances were peculiarly favourable for the accomplish- ment of what was then designed. * Chemistry, in Cab. Cyc., pp. 2025. SECTION III. DEPOSITION OF THE STRATA DURING THE PERIOD OF NON-DIURNAL ROTATION. CHAPTER X. TTAVING made good the position that the primeval water, J--L which circumbounded the rocky nucleus of the earth, was, at one time, charged with mineral material, which, by some means or other, became separated from its sustaining men- struum, and was slowly and tranquilly deposited at the bottom of the ocean, it follows as a corollary, that those mineral masses were associated with that vast, shoreless, and atmosphereless body of water, in part by chemical affinity, and thereby held, to a certain extent, in suspension by it ; because, while the rocky elements were percolating mechani- cally through the water, to assume that position at the bottom which their specific gravities occasioned them to do, the ocean, for the reasons which have been assigned, must have become chemically saturated with those very percolating ingredients, as they passed onwards and downwards ; and this brings me at last to the point I have so long wished to reach, namely, that the primitive oceanic water must have been, at one time, to a certain extent, chemically charged with mineral elements. Now, it is a fact well known and admitted, that water especially large masses of water when chemically impreg- nated with such extraneous substances as it is capable of taking into combination in that state, continues to purge itself, as it were, of every superabundant particle of any one 128 of these ingredients until a static condition of perfect equili- brium is attained ; after which, if in vacua, and no new element be added, or none of the original ones withdrawn, it will, for aught we know, continue to maintain the same state of chemical equilibrium ad infinitum* This principle is so well known and admitted, that the general argument need scarcely be retarded to bring forward evidence to prove it ; although it should be borne in mind that I am treating of a period when there were neither sun-light nor atmospheric air to operate in producing those slow but gradual changes Avhich now, apparently almost without the interference of any agency, are certain to be the result when any solution is exposed to their influence. At the time to which I allude, neither the heating nor the chemical rays of the sun were shed upon the ocean, nor was it operated upon by the searching and all- pervading agency of the atmosphere. These were all inten- tionally kept back, the leading principle and main design having then been to exclude evaporation, and by all con- curring means to CREATE by assimilation through SECRETION, whether w T e judge of this by what has been effected by the corium of a 'mollusc, by the corticle exterior of a cryptogame, or by the vast periphery of the Earth's mineral crust, which was thereby accumulating beneath the primeval ocean. And therefore its causes of change, whatever they were, resided entirely within its dark and atmosphereless mass, and there, under the directive power of the Creator, were made to pro- duce those ends for which they were brought into being and thus peculiarly circumstanced. I shall therefore as the natural result of the law of equilibrium conclude, that water, chemically charged with extraneous ingredients, would, by parting with the surplus atoms of any one of them, assume a static condition by the mutual arrangement of the molecules inter se, according to their respective affinities ; and that so long as none of these ingredients were withdrawn, nor any other substance was added to them, the mass would continue in the condition of equilibrium which it had assumed. It is stated, and with perfect truth, in the sixty-seventh Theorem : " That one of the most important qualities of * See the 67th and 09th Theorems, and their evidences. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 129 matter in mechanical investigation is INERTIA, or that pro- perty which results from its inability to produce in itself spon- taneous change or action, either from a state of rest to that of motion, or vice versa, to diminish any motion which it may have received from an external cause, or to change its direction." Now, when those two fundamental truths are brought into juxtaposition in the mind, and we take into account the con- dition of our planet at that period, namely, " the Earth being without form and void, and darkness upon the face of the deep ;" and that it was a non-diurnal rotating sphere enveloped in a dark, atmosphereless ocean of water, reduced, by the deposition of all superabundant earthy ingredients to a state of chemical equilibrium, it must be concluded, that the inertia of matter would be the governing principle of the whole. As long as there was no abstraction from the mass and nothing could, under the circumstances described, be taken from it ; or no new principle impressed upon it, or addition made to its constituent particles ; or no external force brought to bear upon it a change could not by possi- bility have taken place. The primeval water, once brought to a state of chemical equilibrium and to that condition, if left entirely to itself, it must of necessity have come no change could, or ever would, have taken place in the mass thereafter, unless by the interposition of something beyond and external to itself. This conclusion has been come to by applying the announcements of science to the conditions of the earth during the early age to which I allude ; while it is worthy of being remarked, that in the Scriptures alone is any adequate account to be found of those conditions which the wonderful discoveries of after-science when carried back, and applied to the case in question require, satisfactorily to solve the important problem of the geological phenomena. These dis- coveries demand that there should have been a stage in the world's geological history, when its surface should have been devoid of form ; surrounded by water, and cloaked by universal darkness ; and these are declared, in the simple but comprehensive language of Scripture, to have been the actual circumstances of the earth, when first introduced to our notice as " without form and void ; darkness upon the K 130 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE face of the deep." When we take a deliberate and compre- hensive review of the position now reached in this argument, it will with little hesitation be admitted, that it would be one of insurmountable difficulty were we to attempt to walk by the light of Science alone. A world without diurnal rotation enveloped in an atmosphereless ocean reigned over by universal darkness, and whose circumfluent water had, by the laws which regulate molecular attraction of affinity, reached a state of equilibrium, and, consequently, without some influence beyond itself incapable of alteration, are con- ditions which, contemporaneously operating, without the con- tinuing influence of the Creator, would have brought the work to a conclusion in that incipient and imperfect state. For, if we turn to the astronomer, he will, after consulting his well-authenticated general laws, inform us, that con- sistently with those which govern the earth's orbital motion, there could have been no addition of ponderable matter made to it after it was translated in space ; neither could any abstraction have taken place without endangering the per- manency of its periodical course. If, to the natural philo- sopher rendered conversant, by deep and protracted study, with the laws of inertia we next seek for aid, he will inform us, with that reliance which he has acquired by repeated experience, that " matter is incapable of producing in itself spontaneous change, either from a state of rest to that of motion ; or of diminishing any motion which it may have acquired, or to change its direction ; that, in fine, it is, as designated, wholly inert and entirely passive at the will of external causes. And, lastly, if we direct our inquiries to the chemist, in hopes that his minuter investigations into the constituent elements of material substances arid their affinities may have furnished him with the knowledge necessary to relieve us from our embarrassment, we shall be met by still closer and more impassable barriers. We shall find that his labours and instructive investigations have clearly revealed to him that the ultimate molecules of matter are governed by and obedient to the same law of inertia ; their chemical affinities being once sati-sfied, they never can, of themselves, thereafter change ; they can neither increase, diminish, nor alter their own powers spontaneously. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 131 Hopeless of success, the inquirer who supposes nature alone to be able to answer all the questions requisite to be put, in order to unravel the mystery either turns aside from the arduous task, as one incapable 0f being satisfactorily accomplished, or rushes blindly into some wild and general speculation, wholly disregardful, not only of revelation, but of all well-investigated natural laws made known to us by modern science, in hopes that by some desperate effort he may be enabled to clear the dangerous gap which presents itself to impede his further progress. But those who are enabled to recognise the necessity of consulting the announce- ments of Scripture, will find, that in immediate sequence to that passage describing the static condition of the creation to which I have alluded, there is another which supplies all that is wanting ; for it is written, " And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." It would be presumptuous to attempt to determine the period or its duration when it was essential, in the develop- ment of the plan of creation, that this immediate FIRST CAUSE should be exercised. The only key we have is what is con- tained in the 1st and 2nd verses of Genesis. It is, however, my belief, as it will be my care to make manifest in the sequel, that the period of non-diurnal rotation was coeval and coexistent with it, and that the other attendant circum- stances of the material universe were in perfect accordance with the announcement therein made : while it must be con- ceded, that no being, except the Spirit of God, could have conducted a progressive operation to its destined end, whose ultimate condition of perfection was known only to God. Meantime we may with safety, and for all practical purposes, adopt the impressive language of Sir K. I. Murchison, and assert, " That the very genesis of animal life, upon the globe has been reached by the indefatigable exertions of geologists ; and that no further vestigia retrorsum will be found beneath the protozoic or lower silurian group, in the great inferior mass of which no verte- brated animal has yet been detected amid the countless profusion of the lower orders of the marine animals entombed in it." And that it cannot be doubted, that there are entire for- mations in which no traces of the remains of organized K 2 1 32 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE existence (animals or plants), of even the lowest or simplest grades, have ever been discovered, the mineralogical structure of the rocks revealing to us that crystallization was then the almost exclusive agent employed by the Creator to perform the work of preparation. And when it is considered with what minuteness and universality the encrusting process of crystallization would go on at the bottom of a tremulous, dark, atmosphereless ocean, of shoreless extent, charged with all the elements most conducive to its advancement, we must admire the wonderful adaptation of the means to the end : while we recognise the wisdom which devised an agency of such universal efficacy, and a promoter of such a variety of pleasing and symmetrical forms ; while, at the same time, the minutest particles of matter, by being subjected to the peculiar elaboration required to polarize them and so to induce crystallization, became wrought into combinations which no other means could have effected ; and, substances which otherwise would have been hurtful to after-states of the creation, were thereby neutralised and locked up, in perfect innocuous security, for the future uses of the world's inhabitants. The crystallization which is here mentioned, induced by aqueous solubility, although akin to that which was after- wards produced by fusion, from heat, arising from the fric- tion occasioned by the movement inter se of the mineral masses of the earth's crust, when the sphere was first made to rotate diurnally around its axis, should be clearly dis- tinguished, in its objects and effects, from this latter : aqueous crystallization having affected the stratified formations more exclusively, and having evidently been brought into operation at a different stage of the creation ; indeed, long before crys- tallization from caloric induction could have been made an agent, as it certainly was at its appropriate period, in the great work of the world's formation then in progress. Having so recently given the more particular evidences regarding aqueous crystallization, and made these general remarks, I shall not now require to do more, with respect to this very interesting and modern branch of study, than to allude to what is stated in the hundred and eleventh Theorem, to which please refer. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 133 The evidence afforded by this Theorem leaves not a doubt on the mind as to the existence of a progressive power having been exercised over the particles of mineral matter, by which they became symmetrically arranged into crystals of adaman- tine hardness and brilliancy, in a manner precisely analogous to the arrangement more frequently witnessed amongst the less adherent particles of neutral salts ; and that all the con- ditions of the earth, at the period I allude to, as supposed in this treatise, were precisely those most conducive to foster and to promote the aqueous crystallization of mineral matter, on a scale commensurate to the magnitude of the design. Having arrived at this conclusion, it only now requires to be seen, whether the mineralogical structure of the rocks, which constitute the basis of the Earth's crust, affords corresponding evidences of the silent, slow, and universal work of this in- fluential agency. To attain this end I shall recapitulate the words of the hundred and twelfth Theorem, in which it is stated, on the authority of those writers who sustain that proposition " That most of the rocks which compose the mineral crust of the earth are in a crystallized state ; GEANITE, for example, consisting of crystals of quartz, felspar, and 'mica ; MARBLE, of crystals of carbonate of lime, &c. And that the whole phenomena attendant on crystallization go to prove, that substances having the same crystalline form must consist of ultimate atoms, having the same jigure, and arranged in the same order, so that the form of crystals is dependent on their atomic constitution." In support of this abstract form of stating the subject, I shall next take occasion to add a few descriptive extracts from the works of those who have favoured the world with the result of their interesting inquiries into this branch of mineralogical geology. M. de la Beche says " Granite is a confusedly crystalline compound of quartz, felspar, mica, and hornblende It is occasionally porphyritic, large crystals of felspar being disseminated through the mass, showing that, however confused the crystallization may have been, circumstances were such as to permit the production of distinct crystals of felspar. Greenstone, and the other rocks usually termed Trappean, vary in texture from an apparently simple rock to a confusedly crystalline compound, in which crystals of felspar are disseminated " Such are the rocks commonly considered unstratified. It will have been seen that they so pass into one another that distinctions are not easily established between them." * " It has been observed by Mr. Murchison, ' that in referring both joints and slaty cleavage to crystalline action we are borne out by a well-known analogy, in which crystallization has in like manner given rise to two distinct kinds of structure in the same body."' f . . . . The following corroborative testimony is from Mr. Ramsay's admirable little Treatise on the Geology of Arran an island, our readers are aware, which presents great facilities for such investigations : " The mass of the granite of Goatfell is the large-grained variety ; but there are found in it many veins of a fine, compact texture, which indeed are common throughout all the coarse-grained granite of Arran The constituent parts of the latter are felspar, quartz, and mica ; and the differences in texture are owing to the variable proportions and sizes of these constituent minerals. Generally the felspar predominates, next quartz, and lastly mica, in comparatively small quantities. . . . . " The transparent and dark varieties of quartz are usually found in the form of hexagonal prisms, and occur along with crystals of felspar, in those rounded cavities which are so common in this granite. Specimens are also found, in which the transparent and light grey varieties alternate in layers, like the various colourings of an agate. " The mica is much more sparingly diffused than the other minerals, and is usually found in small scales of a dark brown or a black colour. The fine-grained granite does not occur in mass in the neighbourhood of Goatfell, being only found in the form of penetra- ting veins Wherever it penetrates the coarse granite in veins, there it exhibits the finest and most compact texture, and frequently the quartz and mica totally disappear, leaving the remaining con- stituent in the form of a compact felspar." J Were it essential, it might be easy to show that the con- tinued action of a single agency, such as the one alluded to however searching and universal it may have been in its effects upon impregnated water, so well calculated to promote them would have again brought the entire aqueous body into a static condition of equilibrium ; and have occasioned the necessity of introducing some new power, in order to perpetuate the work of deposition, which, in that epoch, it * De la Beche, pp. 486489. f Lyell's Elements of Geology, vol. ii. p. 379. Silurian System of Rockw, p. 246. J Geology of Arran, by Andrew C. Ramsay, pp. 5, 6. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 135 seems to have been the design of a beneficent Creator to accomplish. Fortunately, however, I am spared the neces- sity of this investigation. The fossil exuviae of inferior classes of animals and plants which are found embedded, nay, partly constituting the very rocks themselves, sufficiently attest this great truth, and show that besides crystallization which may be looked upon as an earlier means of transforming those aque- ous compounds into solid matter there were other scarcely less ubiquitous, silent, and indefatigable agents employed in this great work of solidification ; and which, while they were progressively increasing, and some were encrusting themselves with shelly coverings of carbonate and phosphate of lime, and others with ligneous fibres, were all alike fulfilling the decrees of Providence, and preparing the earth and the water for their relative fitness and position when they should, by the diurnal rotation of the sphere, be finally transformed into " the habitable globe," the solid portion rising to restrain the puri- fied aqueous part within the bounds which appear to have been from the beginning designed for it. Nor should it be overlooked that it was only from such a source as the life- giving Creator that this new principle of animal and vegetable vitality could have been derived ; and that He alone could thus interpose an effectual and successive agency to interrupt the state of equilibrium which the water would otherwise have inevitably assumed. Were it not that I have undertaken the rigid task of en- deavouring to explain these wonders, and am bent on con- vincing the understanding, not affecting merely the imagina- tion, I should feel an irresistible desire to ponder over and admire the amazing stretch of wisdom and power, which, by means apparently so simple, could effectuate ends so vast, and designs so beneficent ; could cause those comparatively insig- nificant instruments to drain the primitive ocean of elements which, in other states, would have proved injurious ; and could, with the matter thus solidified, form that which in due time was to set bounds to the water, which, with shore- less expansion, had eircumbounded the whole earthy nucleus ! It is so entirely in accordance with the manner of the growth of plants, and Avith that in which the lower apulmonic tribes of animals and zoophytes propagate, to extend them-t 136 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE selves from centres or foci, that it need scarcely be particu- larly proved. Those centres would, of course, be originated where it was foreseen by the Creator to be most conducive, for the ulterior development of his plans, to place them. The stereotyped remains of each of those classes of existences pertaining to the inferior branches of their respective king- doms, enable us still to read, with almost unfaltering precision, the history of their bygone but essential labours at the bottom of a dark and boundless ocean of considerable depth, and charged throughout with the materials I have so often alluded to, held in firm chemical combination by the aid of associated gaseous elements. It is when the subject is looked upon in this point of view that we behold with greater vividness the combination of wisdom and benignant goodness which characterized all the proceedings of the Creator : for, while those animals, zoophytes, and plants were abstracting from the water that which was necessary to be taken from the primitive ocean, before it could be made the seas of the present day, they were drawing down the material to the bottom, and encrusting with it, through their own bodies, film after film, as it were, the vast submarine surface of the earth, and causing it gradually to expand to its destined size, preparatory to its future change of posture and form ; while, during the whole process, those successive creations were each fulfilling, to the uttermost, the functions of their limited career of existence, and deriving therefrom whatever satisfaction they were capable of enjoying. Why it should have seemed good to an all-wise Creator thus gradually to have introduced the living principle into the material universe, and to have adopted this protracted method of " creating the materials of the heaven and earth at the beginning," is not for me to inquire ; nor are such inquiries within the scope of this work, even were it within my power to accomplish such an undertaking. The organic remains, which everywhere exist, afford undeniable evidences that it pleased Him to do so, to restrain for a time, as it were, his life-giving influences, and to lavish the riches of his goodness and providential care on classes of animals and plants apparently so insignificant, and comparatively incapable of either enjoying or appreciating those bounties which He con- FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 137 ferred upon them ; while, on the other hand, the knowledge of his revealed attributes affords sufficient assurance, that whatever did then exist was that which was most consistent with those attributes ; and that when the Creator beheld them labouring to accomplish his will in their dark and pro- found abodes, He could have declared although it has not pleased Him to reveal it to us that their work also " was good." When treating, in the First Section, of the animal exist- ences of that period, I made it very plain that, by means of the corium and other secreting membranes, they fabricated to themselves coverings of carbonate of lime, cemented together by a small portion of animal gluten,* and, also, that their testaceous and zoophytic remains are of immensely greater dimensions than any belonging to recent equivalents. It is also acknowledged that the presence of the organized exuviae proves, to a certainty, the existence at one time of the animal inhabitants, while the known relation of the animal to its covering demonstrates their excess in size beyond any of their living congeners. That, besides the three elements, oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon, which plants and animals alike contain, the latter generally have more azote or nitrogen in their composition," t and that these apulmonic animals and zoophytes, from either being fixed or of restricted motion, were wholly dependent on the surrounding fluid for their sustenance. \ Combining all these essential circumstances together, the clear deduction is, that the effect upon the primeval ocean of animal drainage alone, through numberless ages, was, to abstract from its water a quantity of matter equal to the aggregate mass of their shelly coverings, and of those parts of the animal bodies which, after their death, did not re-enter into the circulation then going on. And, lastly, that the ele- mentary materials thus withdrawn from the primitive ocean, by animal chemistry, and agency, consisted of carbonic acid (oxygen and carbon) and lime (calcium and oxygen), to form * 136th Theorem. t Animal Kingdom, by Baron Cuvier : Edinburgh. Preface to Nat. Hist., pp. 17, 18. I Dr. Fleming's Work on British Zoology. 1 38 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE their testaceous and zoophytic coverings ; and of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and azote, to constitute their animal bodies. With respect to the no less active and extended agency of vegetation in effecting the object now alluded to, sufficient has already been explained to show, that enormous crypto- gamic and allied plants of different families abounded, and were influential in producing the changes which took place throughout the whole period of non-diurnal rotation, and more especially during the formation of the coal series ; and as analogy and the nature of their remains authorise us to con- sider their constituent elements to have been oxygen, hydro- gen, and carbon ; we may conclude that for all of these, as well as for whatever they, through their roots, deposited in the soil, they must, from the very nature of the attendant cir- cumstances, have been wholly dependent on the surrounding medium. In fine, it may be assumed, that there Avere abstracted from the primitive water, by vegetable agency and secretion, all the materials which constitute the carboniferous portion of the terrene formations ; or, in more general terms, all that which went to form the submarine vegetation of the earth during the protracted period I allude to less the ele- ments which, after the plants were deprived of the principle of vegetable life, re-entered into circulation, and became parts of new combinations ; while, to complete this conception, it should be kept in mind that, at the bottom of a deep and atmosphereless ocean, the gaseous exhalations which escaped from decaying plants would be infinitely less than under the circumstances which attend their decomposition in the present state of the earth. The ultimate result of the combined secretions by animal and vegetable agency, must have been to have abstracted from the PRIMITIVE WATER elementary materials equal to all the organic matter which owes its origin to these two sources : a conclusion which is quite undeniable, and of which I shall avail myself hereafter by combining it with others, equally well substantiated. To convey an adequate conception, in a few words, of the actual results of the means then employed is impossible ; I shall, therefore, as usual, have recourse to concise extracts FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 139 from the writings of those indefatigable men, who, by their researches, have done so much for this branch of science, and have contributed so essentially to the elucidation of this part of the earth's history. " The carboniferous limestone," says Sir Henry de la Beche, " in the South of England, Wales, the North of France, and Belgium, is a compact limestone, at times appearing to be in a great measure composed of organic remains, while at others not a trace of these remains can be observed. " It is occasionally of an oolitic structure, and sometimes contains parts of encrinal columns in such abundance that the rock is, in a great measure, made up of them, whence the name Encrinal Limestone."* " Some of the beds of the carboniferous limestone," writes Dr. Ure, " are so pure as to contain 96 per cent, carbonate of lime. Its beds are commonly very thick, extending in a continuous series many hundred feet in depth. Many species of testacea or shell-fish begin to appear in the carboniferous limestone ; but they, all along, belong to a very few genera ; while the zoophytal families (polyparies), par- ticularly encrinites and corallites, exist in the greatest abundance. .... From the profusion of encrinites, this species of limestone has often been called encrinal. The coralloid remains are caryophylea, turbinolia, astrea, favocites, tubipora, and retipora." f " It is a difficult problem," states Professor Buckland, " to account for the source of the enormous masses of carbonate of lime that com- pose nearly one-eighth part of the superficial crust of the globe. Some have referred it entirely to the secretions of marine animals ; an origin to which we must obviously assign those portions of cal- careous strata which are composed of comminuted shells and coral- lines."! " The most prolific source," says the same author, " of organic remains has been the accumulation of the shelly coverings of animals which occupied the bottom of the sea during a long series of con- secutive generations. A large proportion of the entire substance of many strata is composed of myriads of these shells reduced to a com- minuted state, by the long-continued movements of water. In other strata the presence of countless multitudes of unbroken corallines, and of fragile shells, having their more delicate spines still attached and undisturbed, shows, that the animals which formed them lived and died upon, or near, the spot where these remains are found. " Strata thus loaded with the exuviae of innumerable generations of organic beings, afford strong proof of the lapse of long periods of time, wherein the animals from which they have been derived lived and multiplied, and died, at the bottom of the seas, which once occupied the site of our present continents and islands. Repeated changes in species, both of animals and vegetables, in succeeding members of different formations, give further evidence, not only of * Geological Manual. f Dr. lire's Geology, pp. 17-5 178. J Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i. p 89. I4-Q DYNAMICAL SYSTEM' OF THE the lapse of time, but also of further important changes in the physical condition and climate of the ancient earth. " :i " Successions of strata, each many feet in thickness, and many miles in extent, are often half made up of the calcareous skeletons of encrinites. The entrochial marble of Derbyshire, and the black rock in the cliffs of carboniferous limestone near Bristol, are well-known examples of strata thus composed, and show how largely the bodies of animals have, occasionally, contributed by their remains to swell the volume of materials that now compose the mineral world."! " The remains of organic existences," according to a late continental writer, " reveal to us that entire formations occur wholly composed of the fossil relics of anirnalculites. To Ehrenberg we are indebted for the development of the fact, that ages ago our world was rife with these minute organisms, belonging to a great number of species, whose mineralized skeletons actually constitute nearly the whole mass of some tertiary soils and rocks several feet in thickness, and extend- ing over areas of many acres. The size of a single one, forming the polishing slate, amounts, upon an average, and in the greatest part, to one two-hundred-aud-eighty-eighth of a line. As the Polerschiefer of Bilin is slaty, but without cavities, these animalcules lie closely compressed. In round numbers, about 23 millions would take up a cubic line, and would, in fact, be contained in it. There are 1,728 cubic lines in a cubic inch, and, therefore, a cubic inch would contain, on an average, about 41,000 millions of these animals. On weighing a cubic inch of this mass, I found it to be about two hundred and twenty grains. Of the 41,000 millions of animals, 187 millions go to a grain ; or the siliceous shield of each animalcule weighs about a hundred and eighty-seven millionth part of a grain." A modern author, who has given a great deal of attention to fossil remains, when treating of those of the Silurian or first epoch, assures us that " Polyps as animals of this low organization are called appear to have been among the first of created beings, and are also those which are changed least up this present time They seem to have been comprised within a very limited number of natural families, and some particular species probably extended through the whole number of beds of the first great epoch During every succes- sive period, from this their first appearance in the infancy of the world, to the present, these polyps have been adding to the solid matter of our globe by their singular buildings of stone These little creatures are enabled to separate from the sea- water a propor- tion of carbonate of lime, used in constructing their stony encrusta- tions ; and they do this, although the quantity present is so minute as to be almost inappreciable by the most careful chemical analysis. .... They secrete the calcareous or stony coverings on the outside of their soft bodies, and some of them form themselves into com- pounds resembling trees, with root, stem, and branches, composed of * Bridgewatcr Treatise, vol. i. p. 116. f Ibid., pp. 416. 417- FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 141 separate and detached particles. The Encrinites, Spharonites, and Pentacrinites are remarkable examples of this ; one individual of the former being made up of no less than 30,000 separate particles of stone, while one of the latter contains 150,000 minute pieces of the same material. 1>:i Besides the intrinsic and almost unlimited value of these mineral treasures to man, as a material siibministering to his use and comfort, and as the chief repository of many of the metalliferous ores, the testacea and zoophyta, which, by their indurated remains contributed so essentially to the con- struction of the calcareous deposits, imparted, at the same time, from their molluscous parts, a peculiar ingredient which enters very materially into the composition of coal. In the calcareous formations were bound up, in a perfectly harmless condition within the reach and at the will of man noxious and superfluous gases, in union with earthy and insoluble bases, whereby the primitive water not only became cleansed of those life-destroying elements, but, hurtful as they are in themselves, they were also transformed into deposits of useful material for the wants of races destined afterwards to inhabit the Earth, and into solid barriers to restrain the ocean within the bounds assigned to it : a provision of gracious forethought, whereby these elements were rendered always useful and innocuous to the altogether different races of living beings which seem to have been destined to people the earth at suc- cessive periods of its creation. No less admirable was the adaptation of the calcareous deposits in a relative point of view. In this respect, aided by aluminous admixture (the best non-conductor of heat among minerals), they performed the important office of a great lining formation, to defend the coal measures from the action of those intense heats which were engendered by the first diurnal rotation of the Earth ; and which, without this almost impervious defence underneath the great body of the coal, would have driven off, by fusion, the essential bitu- minous portion, and left the extensive coal measures of the world as indurated, and, perhaps, more unserviceable than the hardest anthracite ; which, occurring in small portions at the points of contact and fusion, have left specimens of what * Ancient World, by Ansted, pp. 2731, 118, 119, 137. H2 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE would otherwise most probably have been the inevitable result throughout the whole extent of the coal series. And, finally, the great underlying calcareous formation marked by the bold caligraphy of fossilised remains reveals to us by those enduring characters, which can neither be set aside nor misunderstood, that ages before the principal accu- mulation of the vegetable remains which constitute the coal measures, the solid portion of this sphere teemed with animal life, with beings of apulmonic description, and of the kinds so elaborately classified by geologists, who have given their attention to the subject, and whose writings have afforded some of our most efficient evidences. To these I may have occasion to recur as I proceed with this discourse. In a former part of this work it was shown that there was a succession of inferior animal life in the primitive ocean ; and if a succession, then an adaptation of being to the various changes which the water underwent.* It may be well to have these facts present to the mind, while, amidst the difficulties which arise from the uncertainty that still prevails as to the sequence of and influence exer- cised by electro-chemical attraction when several ingredients are held in simultaneous solution, from the variations of temperature, and the unknown amount of these, and from the effects of the immensity of the body of the water em- ployed, I endeavour, notwithstanding these formidable ob- jections, briefly to explain how the several ingredients (many of which are of themselves insoluble in water) are considered to have been held in chemical suspension by the primitive ocean. SILEX, the most abundant of those earthy ingredients, is wholly insoluble in water in the state in which it is generally found deposited. Alumina, however, unites with it in the humid way, and renders silex soluble in acids, an effect which barytes also exercises over it.t Muriatic acid, dissolves a small portion of it when finely comminuted ; and fluoric acid dissolves it either when the acid is gaseous or when combined with water. + And it is asserted, on the authority of BerzeliusJ " that when newly oxygenated it is extremely * In accordance with the 13oth Theorem. f Murray, vol. ii. pp. 71, 98. t Ibid., p. 111. Ibid., p. 108; and Dr. Lire, p. 743. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 143 soluble." At that time water must also have existed. A combination of these facts permits the fair conclusion that it may have been dissolved and remained soluble in the primitive water from the period of its having been newly oxygenated. ALUMINA the next abundant earth in nature although of itself not soluble in any sensible degree in water, yet its compounds are soluble in every possible proportion. The salts of alumina, formed by its union with muriatic, carbonic, sulphuric, and nitric acids, especially the first, are all abun- dantly soluble in water. MAGNESIA may be considered pretty much in the same relative circumstances as the last-mentioned earth ; although its carbonate requires two thousand times its own weight of water to dissolve it. LIME, which, in respect to prevalence in the earth's crust, occupies the third place, is of itself rather insoluble in water, for this, at 60 of temperature, only takes up 1-6 5 6th part of its own weight. Its carbonate is also nearly insoluble, and its sulphates require nearly 500 times their own weight to dissolve them.* ZIRCONIA and GLUCINA -earths but sparingly found in nature though not soluble when united with carbonic acid, yet are soluble when combined with either muriatic or nitric acids ; consequently their solubility may be considered like- wise established. SODA and POTASH, fixed alkalies, possess great affinity for water, and are not only soluble in it themselves, but so, like- wise, are the salts which they produce by combination with the acids above mentioned. They materially aid the solu- bility of other substances, and in aqueous potash even the oxides of many metals, such as lead, tin, manganese, zinc, &c., become soluble a fact which will greatly assist in fol- lowing out this inquiry.t The ACIDS are not only extremely soluble in water, but some of them are absorbed by it to the extent of many times its own bulk.+ Muriatic and sulphuric acids act on the metallic oxides, and also form soluble salts of iron, copper, tin, and zinc ; sulphuric acid forms one of manganese ; and carbonic acid * Murray, vol. ii. p. 83. f Ure, p. 691. I Hugo Reid, p. 108. i 4 4 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE does the same with iron ; and by this we are enabled to account for the solubility of those otherwise refractory sub- stances. Having thus summarily accounted for the solubility of those various ingredients in the primitive ocean, it next becomes necessary to attempt some explanation of the manner in which it is supposed they could have assumed such a state of equilibrium as would have required either some abstraction from, or addition to, the general menstruum, before any precipitate could have taken place. Had the earthy substances which were employed in this vast laboratory all severally exercised the same degree of affinity for the acids there present, or reciprocally for each other, the state of equilibrium, so often alluded to, would have been utterly unattainable. The simple ratios of affinity of several of them, however, have been accurately ascer- tained, and are known to differ considerably. It is, there- fore, natural to suppose that, being all present simultaneously in the general menstruum, they would arrange themselves according to those affinities, until they had found their level, and attained those partial states of equilibrium from which no change could have taken place without some abstraction from or addition to the general mass. The reasoning on this point will receive much confirma- tion when we reflect that the seas have come to a static condition of equilibrium ; that they maintain this now in their normal or finished state, incapable of ever being again disturbed ; while it is just as conceivable that, during the pro- gress of their arriving at this ultimate stage of equilibrium, they may have passed through several intermediate stages of partial equilibrium, from which they could only have been aroused to renewed progress of purification that they might assume their ultimate state, by some such agency as has been alluded to. While the general though feeble .affinity of water itself (the vastly predominant element in the whole mass) to one and all of those substances, which has been shown could, under certain forms, be held in solution in it, would greatly tend to perfect freedom of motion amongst the variously relationed elements, and admit of their uniting with facility according to their several affinities. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 145 At the same time it should be remembered that the gaseous elements now composing the atmosphere were, as yet incor- porated with their parent water, and would confer upon this latter vastly increased facility to solve and to retain other ingredients. Let it be supposed, therefore, that the primitive ocean, charged with earthy, alkaline, and gaseous elements, had' assumed one of those stages of partial equilibrium ; and that no further deposition could have taken place until either some abstraction from, or some addition to, the general mass had been made. A spontaneous alteration, it has been shown by reference to the law of inertia, could not pos- sibly have occurred, and it was, therefore, indispensable that an agency, possessing powers independent of inertia, should be employed ; or, in other words, that the universal men- struum should be acted upon either by crystallization or by the principles of animal or vegetable life; consequently, in either of these latter cases requiring a specific act of creative power. Presuming the intention to have been to tenant the bottom of this immense laboratory with innumerable ani- mated agents endowed with faculties adapted for absorbing, decomposing, assimilating, and recombining the elements which were suspended in the universal menstruum, whereby many of these elements became locked up ; the results alluded to, all alike dependent on animal energy, would naturally ensue during their lifetime ; and after their death, the elements so absorbed and elaborated would be restored to the water in modified combinations, and with certain peculiar additions which animal secretion alone could bestow upon them. Thus there would be a continual and an intri- cate circulation maintained in the primitive ocean from as many points, along the whole extent of its base, as there were mouths and stomata in the aggregate of its testaceous and polypiferous inhabitants and its vegetable existences. It appears, also, from undoubted evidence, that those operations were carried on by a succession of races, each adapted to the surrounding media of its day, and that they were continued in a similar manner through many ages, whose duration, together with the multiplicity of points and currents, would amply compensate for the small amount of work accomplished 146 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE by each individual agent, and the minuteness of many of those employed. In order to simplify the subject as much as possible, I have, in the foregoing, alluded chiefly to the effects of inferior animal life ; but the reader should remember that a succes- sion of events and eftects precisely analogous were almost simultaneously taking place by means of the vegetative functions of imperfect orders of plants, of which it will be necessary to treat more especially in the sequel. It has also to be explained, that carbonate of lime is com- posed of carbonic acid and lime, insoluble in water in their combined state, consequently, by means of the universal carrier, water, and the constraining animal agency referred to, those two ingredients one of which in large volumes is very injurious to animal life became reciprocally bound up ; were rendered innocuous to the more perfect races which were afterwards to follow ; and w y ere stored up for the future uses of man, whose intelligence alone could disunite and apply them to his own purposes. Significant as this is of the unbounded goodness of Pro- vidence in providing for his creatures, it was not with this view alone of the case that the attention was directed to the fact, "that the shelly coverings of those testacea and conchifera were composed of carbonic acid and lime, forced into union by their animal chemistry and elaboration," but to bring out another very striking manifestation of the wisdom which pervaded the whole work of creation. According to the well-ascertained affinity which lime exercises towards the various acids known to have existed in the primitive ocean there is none with which it would not sooner have sponta- neously united than with carbonic acid ; and, consequently, had the constituent elements been allowed to combine as their affinities would have induced them, it is evident that so long as there remained within a combining distance an unappropriated volume of muriatic, nitric, sulphuric, or, indeed, any other acid, no spontaneous combination between lime and carbonic acid would have taken place. No car- bonate of lime would have been formed. In order to separate lime from its combination with muriatic, nitric, or sulphuric acid, to which it has so strong an affinity, and cause it to FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 147 combine with carbonic acid, the application of a force beyond chemical affinity was essential, and that power was provided by the faculty having been conferred on the testacea, conchi- fera, and zoophyta to abstract those elements from the sur- rounding medium, and to elaborate them into carbonate of lime, to constitute their calcareous coverings. The fact, itself, of their union has been established beyond a doubt.*" The motive which induced the Creator so to order the chemical affinities that this animal agency should be indis- pensable, may not, at first sight, be quite so apparent ; but when we submit, in our researches, to a constraining convic- tion of the fitness of the means adopted, on all occasions, by the Omnipotent, to the end which He has in view, and bring to mind the perfection of the attributes which, in union, guide his determinations, we shall be ready to confess that beneficence towards his creatures must have prevailed throughout the whole. When we are made aware of the importance, in the deve- lopment of the plan of Creation, of certain elements which appear to have been capable of being produced only by animal secretion ; and remember the necessity of the elabo- rators being provided with coverings of some hard material insoluble in water, to protect their molluscous bodies from the pressure of the ocean ; and add to these that, while assiduously working out the Creator's will, they were enjoy- ing all the pleasure of which their restricted powers and inferior animal life were susceptible ; a clear glimpse is obtained, faint though it be, of some of the motives which seem to have induced their being called into existence, and employed for ages to do the Creator's work at the bottom of the primitive ocean ; while their comparative fixity, and limited degree of animal sensation, adapted them more pecu- liarly to the situation they held, and fitted them for the labour they had to perform. * A competent and impartial authority has stated that the polypiferous and molluscous inhabitants of the ocean possess the faculty of abstracting lime from the surrounding briny element, even though it should exist only in proportions so minute as to escape the most searching chemical test ; and we have also seen that they can elaborate it into particles of such tiny proportions, that hundreds of thousands of them are required for the construction of an animal not larger than a usual-sized lily. L 2 1 48 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE Neither should it be altogether overlooked that, eve 11 although they had been supplied with the nutriment they required, death would frequently be taking place amongst those mollusca and zoophyta ; and that the gaseous exhala- tions which, as will be seen more particularly in the sequel, arising therefrom, would, by separating certain earthy ele- ments from others with whicli they were associated, cause the deposition of as much earthy and metallic bases as those gaseous exhalations were capable of releasing and precipita- ting. The small continued doses of ammonia, arising from the decomposition of their bodies, and ascending by its lighter specific gravity, would also contribute more effectually to this than if those exhalations had been more abundant ; for more powerful doses of ammonia are found to redissolve the precipitate.* Without tarrying at present to inquire into the cause of the progressive increase of the temperature of the primitive ocean, but assuming this to be a fact established beyond a doubt, f I shall apply it to a point equally well ascertained in chemistry, namely, that water, when heated beyond 60 of Fahrenheit, deposits part of the lime which it can hold in solution at that degree of the thermometer. Or, in other words, " that lime possesses the remarkable anomaly of being less soluble in warm than in cold water." This may, perhaps, in part account for what has hitherto appeared so inexplic- able, namely, the increase of calcareous formations, up to a certain point, according as they approach the present era, lime abounding more in the upper than in the lower forma- tions. Agreeable to the laws which regulate animal functions and life, its gradual and progressive increase will, most prob- ably, account for the remainder of this excess of lime in the newer, when compared with the older series of rocks ; while what has been said on the subject, altogether, may serve as an imperfect indication, and point the way to a more success- ful explanation of the manner in which the whole of the GREAT CARBONIFEROUS LIMESTONE SUITE may have been formed. As a suitable illustration of this I may quote what Profes- * Attraction, Dr. Ure's Chemical Dictionary, f See 36th Theorem and proofs. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 149 sor Phillips says regarding the " deposition of the oolitic system : "- "The concretionary structure of these limestones is imitated in modern times only in situations where carbonate of lime is separated from chemical solution in water (Carlsbad). If we ascribe this origin to the oolitic sediment, the concretionary aggregation of the particles may be understood as arising from molecular attraction in the mass, and, in fact, many of the sporules of oolite contain an internal nucleus of previously solidified matter, a small shell, a gram of sand, or some- thing else, capable of determining the condensation of the particles to particular centres ; just as the matter of ironstone has collected into nodules round a fish-scale, a piece of fern-branch, or a shell."* It was formerly explained at considerable length, that the researches which have been made into the state of the ancient fossil remains reveal, in the most unequivocal manner, that there has been a succession of inferior animal life during those early geological epochs ; and it was attempted to be proved, that as these successive generations were wholly dependent on the surrounding medium for their food, and matter for their coverings, each race must have become extinct when those peculiar substances, which it required, had, by drainage, been exhausted from the surrounding element. In the subject which has more immediately occupied the attention, a glimpse was obtained of some of the more prominent uses to which these testacea, conchifera, and zoophyta were made subservient by their agency during the course of their fixed and tranquil life. And it will now be requisite to show, that by their death which, for the reasons already given, has been assumed as a matter of fact they also contributed in a singular man- ner to the development of the great plan of creation. With this view I shall first unfold the phenomena which attend the decomposition of animal matter. " When," in the expressive language of Dr. Fleming, " the vital principle has deserted the body which it had constructed, and sur- rendered it to the influence of the laws of inorganic matter, then the body falls to the ground ; the pressure of the upper parts flattens those on which the, others rest ; the skin stretches ; and the graceful rotundity olife is exchanged for the oblateness of death. The laws of chemistry then appear to operate in the production of the cada- veroua smell, the prelude to putrefaction, when dust returns to dust/'t / * Treatise on Geology, pp. H7, 148. i Philos. of Zoology, vol. i. p. 39. r 50 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE Messrs. Todd and Bowman confirm this, when they say " While these substances (those of animal bodies) retain a perfect organization, and are supplied with their proper stimuli, vital actions go on without interruption, and no change takes place in the matter of the organism excepting such as result from its proper affinities. But no sooner is the integrity of its structure destroyed, or the influ- ence of the vital stimuli withdrawn, than action ceases, the organism dies, and the organic matter yields up its elements to form new com- pounds, a large proportion of which are inorganic." ' In support of the hundred and thirty-ninth Theorem, which see in the Appendix " When the putrefaction of animal substances commences," states Dr. Murray, " their elements enter into new combinations, which generally pass off in a gaseous form ; and only an inconsiderable quantity of earthy matter remains when the process is finished. . . . The air does not seem essential to putrefactive changes by chemical action, but a communication with the atmosphere is favourable, by allowing the elastic products to escape. . . . Ammonia, formed by the union of the nitrogen and hydrogen of the animal matter, is always disengaged in considerable quantity. Phosphuretted hydrogen appears to be produced ; and to this gas the odour termed putrid is chiefly owing. Sulphuretted hydrogen occasionally forms another part of the vapours disengaged from putrefying substances. Carburetted hydrogen and carbonic acid are likewise separated."! "Like vegetables," says Mr. Reid, "animals, as soon as the vital principle has departed from them, are solely obedient to the laws of chemistry ; they lose their form and entirely disappear ; the elements of which they are composed enter into new states of combination. "From the presence of nitrogen, ammonia is formed during their putrefaction. Ammonia consists of hydrogen and nitrogen, as formed during the decomposition of animal substances ; it is in union with carbonic acid in the state of carbonate of ammonia. The chief pro- ducts of the decomposition are water, carbonic acid, and carbonate of ammonia." I .... " Ammonia," says Dr. Murray, " is always produced by indirect processes. Its ultimate source is usually from the decomposition of animal matter, of which its constituent principles are elements, and which, in the new combinations taking place in that decomposition, unite so as to form it." Dr. Fleming observes, " The soft parts of animals, after death, are disposed to become alkaline, the azote entering into new combinations with the hydrogen and forming ammonia." || * Physiology and Anatomy of Man, p. 15. t Murray's Elements of Chemistry, vol. ii. pp. 676, 677. t Chemistry, by Hugo Reid, p. 181. Murray's Elements of Chemistry, vol. ii. p. 11. || Philosophy of Zoology, vol. i. p. 41. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 151 " Organized bodies," say Messrs. Todd and Bowman, " are found in two states or conditions, life and death That of death is one in which all vital action has ceased, and to which the disintegration of the organized body succeeds as a natural consequence " Such bodies are also capable of being resolved by chemical analysis into the inorganic simple elements, but comprising only about seventeen. " Of the widely spread elements, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon, two, at least, will be found in every organic compound ; and these four, as Dr. Prout has suggested, may therefore be called the essential elements of organic matter. The other simple substances are found in smaller quantities, and are less extensively diffused ; these may be termed its incidental elements. They are sulphur, phosphorus, chlorine, sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, silicon, aluminum, iron, manganese, iodine, and bromine ; the last two are obtained almost exclusively from marine plants and animals." * In order to preserve that continuity of thought which is so essential in close reasoning, I have confined myself to a succinct account of the usual results of animal decomposition. One of the principal exhalations arising therefrom is ammonia, which originates in the combination of hydrogen with the nitrogen of animal secretion. But ammonia, introduced into a compound, in which the salts of alumina are held in solu- tion, throws down their earthy base, even although acidulated with muriatic acid.t Consequently, as the decomposition of animal substances would assuredly create ammonia, its low specific gravity would cause it to ascend and enter in amongst the other ingredients in the compound solution held by the primitive ocean, whilst its introduction would precipitate alu- mina. Again, it is asserted by M. Berthollet, whose authority is of great weight in ah 1 matters relating to experimental chemistry, that " whenever an earth is precipitated from a saline combination by an alkali, it will carry down along with it a portion of its acid associate. "+ These truths should be kept present to the mind, for I shall have occasion for them presently in the farther illustration of this subject. It is also deserving of notice, that the moderate doses of ammonia which would, from the nature of the circumstances, be intro- duced into the menstruum, would greatly aid the operations then going on. Ammonia would exercise the same influence over whatever * Physiology and Anatomy of Man, pp. 4 6. t Ure, p. HI ;'and Murray, p. 82. t Ure, p. 186. i52 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE zirconia and glucina was held, at the time, in solution, for it also precipitates their earthy bases, and may account for the occasional presence of these scanty earths in the rocky masses of the globe ; while barytes and strontites, in their several soluble states, aided the solubility of alumina ; and they would, by the deposition of the latter, be left disengaged to act wherever their natural affinities thereafter induced them. Barytes, strontites, and lime, by the attraction they exercise towards silex, would cause the latter to separate from its solu- tion in potash ;"* and, according to the phenomena above mentioned, to carry down a part of its associate ; while a simultaneous precipitating influence would be brought to bear on silex by ammonia depositing alumina. Alumina being no longer present to aid the acids in dissolving silex, that flinty earth would be discharged in a ratio proportioned to the deposition of the other ; and these two concurring causes, the one positive, the other negative, will, to a certain extent, account for the simultaneous deposition of silex and alumina, two earthy substances which enter chiefly into the composition of all clays. But yet, it is evident that these causes are by no means sufficient to account for the great preponderance which silica has in almost every formation, especially in the aluminous strata, whose principal ingredient it is. Silica being a substance so difficult of solution, and so recondite with respect to the agents capable of acting upon it, I am prone to suppose that some other causes beyond those stated were present in effecting its deposition ; while, at the same time, it is well known that electrical currents would effect what otherwise is so difficult to be accounted for ; and as I do not doubt the existence of electrical currents, they are looked upon as the efficient cause for the prepon- derance of the silicious elements alluded to. It has been shown that lime exercises a stronger affinity for carbonic acid than magnesia ;t while both barytes and strontia possess stronger affinity than lime does, certainly to sulphuric, and perhaps to muriatic acid.+ Carbonic acid enables water to hold carbonate of magnesia in solution. Alumina, by the affinity it exerts towards magnesia, aids its * Murray, p. 111. f Ure, p. 585. ; Ibid., p. 184. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 153 precipitation from saline compounds ; and ammonia assists to precipitate magnesia from its solution.* Combining these truths, we have the following : 1. That the abstraction of carbonic acid from the water would cause the precipitation of the carbonate of magnesia. 2. That the more powerful affinities of the other earths for the acids mentioned, by pre- venting this alkaline earth recombining with them, would tend to the same result. Lastly, that the free alumina, in subsiding, by the affinity which it has to magnesia, would carry a part down along with itself; the introduction of ammonia would effect the same results. And these com- bined causes afford a sufficient explanation for the presence of magnesia ; while a varying intensity in the activity and quantity of the efficient causes may, perhaps, be sufficient to explain the difference in the proportions observable in the several .minerals of which this porous earth forms a part.t It has already been shown how the metallic oxides are capable of being solved and held in suspension by the primitive fluid ; and it only remains now to endeavour to explain the process by which they were precipitated from it. To do this recourse must be had to another of the principal binary compounds, which, according to the scientific writers formerly quoted, results from the decomposition of animal matter ; namely, phosphuretted hydrogen, which, in general parlance, precipitates metals from metallic solutions. + While confining these general assertions to particular cases, it can be said that it throws down iron from the salts of that metal, and also from that of manganese. Ammonia, likewise, pre- cipitates iron, manganese, and other metals from their watery solutions.il But all of these precipitates must yield the palm to the electrical influences acting in aqueous currents, which have been found to be peculiarly adapted, not only for crystallizing those and other metals, but also for disposing them in nodules, or small detached masses, for Mr. Fox justly observes, that " copper, tin, iron, and zinc, in combination with the sulphuric and muriatic acids, being very soluble in water, are in this state capable of conducting voltaic electri- city."^ Iron, it would appear, is generally found as an * Murray, p. 89. t Ibid., pp. 82, 380. 1 Ure, p. 681. $ Murray, vol. ii. p. 210. || Literary Gazette for 7th May, 1836, p. 296. K Murray, pp. 380, 381. 154 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE EARTH. oxide intermixed with argillaceous, calcareous, and silicious earths. * Sulphuretted hydrogen, another of the binary compounds arising from animal decomposition, possesses the property, when in union with sulphur and the alkalies, of forming very variable triple combinations. f Carburetted hydrogen, which is the remaining exhalation, seems, under certain circum- stances, to deposit carbon, leaving the hydrogen free. It also possesses the peculiarity of impeding the union of oxygen and hydrogen, and other gases having an affinity for oxygen. When brought into contact with muriatic acid, it combines and produces an oily-looking compound of con- siderable specific gravity. The respective bases of these two gases can be made to produce an interesting fluid compound, called carburet of sulphur,? which, when introduced, together with potash and water, into metallic solutions, causes pre- cipitates of a peculiar kind called carbo-sulphurets. The remaining binary exhalation from the decomposition of animal substances after death is carbonic acid. When it is considered how essential this is towards the growth and nourishment of the plants which were about to be brought into existence, we cannot but admire the wonderful wisdom and providential care of the Deity, who thus provided, before- hand, for every successive step in the work of creation. * Murray, p. 197. t Dr. lire's Dictionary, p. 777. | Ibid., p. 778. \ Ibid., p. 307. SECTION III. DEPOSITION OF THE STRATA DURING THE PERIOD OF NON- DIURNAL ROTATION. CHAPTER XL T)EFORE commencing the principal subject of this chapter, -*-' the attention should be directed for a moment to an important feature in all chemical compounds in which a variety of substances are held in combination. I allude to the change produced on the whole by the introduction of any new element ; the greater affinity manifested by the introduced substance for some of the original elements causing these to abandon their former associates, in order to unite with it ; while this, in turn, paves the way for other similar re-arrangements amongst the remaining ingredients, although no direct influence may, or indeed could, have been exercised over these latter by that which has been added to the compound. Changes such as are now referred to in the nature of the binary or ternary compounds, of which the mass consists, have the effect of altering the equilibrium of compatibility, and producing such a state of incompatibility as may occasion the precipitation of whatever is requisite to restore the mass to a condition of equilibrium. For full information respecting substances which cause incompatibility, I beg to refer to the table given by Dr. A. Ure in his "Chemical Dictionary," p. 815, a perusal of which will convey a more perfect conception of what is desired, by this reference, to impress upon the mind. It may, perhaps, tend to simplify the general question, 156 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE were it made quite apparent, that the elements of the clays, sands, and shales which were formed during the period to which I now allude correspond with the character of the precipitates supposed to have been discharged from the primitive fluid by the causes referred to. This will be best accomplished, perhaps, by giving the analysis of these several earths by writers who have treated the subject chemically. " Kaolin, or porcelain earth," according to Dr. Ure, " consists of 52 per cent, of silica, 47 of alumina, and O33 of oxide of iron. Potter's clay contains 63 of silica, 16 of alumina, 1 of lime, 8 of iron, and 10 of water. Another analysis of the same gives 63 - 5 of silica, 33 of alumina, and 3'5 of lime. Adhesive slate is composed of 62-5 silica, 9'5 alumina, 8'0 magnesia, O25 lime, 4-0 oxide of iron, and 14 water. Common clay, I'O of silica, 31 of alumina, O5 lime, 21 - 5 sul- phuric acid, and 45'0 water. Clay slate 48'6 of silica, 23'5 of alumina, 1'6 of magnesia, 11*3 oxide of iron, 0'5 of manganese, 4'7 potash, 0'3 of carbon, 0*1 of sulphur, and 7'6 of water."* " Aluminite," says the same author, "consists of sulphuric acid 19*25, alumina 32 - 5, water 47'0, silica, lime, and oxide of iron 1-25. "t "The term clay,'' observes Dr. Murray, "is ambiguous, but is applied to those earthy mixtures, more or less indurated, which im- bibe water, and may be kneaded into a paste somewhat ductile. Alumina is the base of all of them, and gives this predominating character ; it is mixed with various proportions of silex, magnesia, lime, and oxide of iron. Clay slate, as found by Kirwan, is com- posed of silex 38, alumina 26, magnesia 8, lime 14, and oxide of iron 14." \ These results, it will be observed, very closely agree with what was anticipated would take place, from the introduction of the peculiar exhalents of decomposing animal substances into a general menstruum, holding alumina, silex, lime, mag- nesia, potash, soda, oxides of iron and manganese, and several acids in solution. It seems, therefore, almost impossible for any unprejudiced mind to contemplate this perfect coincidence without feeling convinced tfMt deposited strata corresponding to these characters would necessarily be the result. Indeed, we must either come at once to this conclusion, or for ever abandon all faith in the true meaning of words or in the results of scientific experiments. After having endeavoured to explain how some of the remaining earths were thrown * Ure, pp. 331, 332. t Ibid., p. 146. $ Murray's Elements, vol. ii. pp. 311, 312. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 157 down, I shall close the evidence on these particular points, by proving, from the experience of- geologists, that rocky masses of corresponding character do really exist precisely where, as the direct effects of these causes, they might most naturally have been sought for. Although hitherto I have not alluded to the ocean having contained nitric acid, yet as it held in solution the elements of which this is formed, viz., oxygen and nitrogen, it is per- fectly legitimate to suppose that they did combine in such proportions as to form that powerful acid. It has been assumed that baryta and strontia were held in solution in the ocean, and assisted to cause the solubility of other substances ; and, if they were so held in solution, they must have been in union with muriatic and nitric acids, in which states alone they present soluble compounds. It will be remembered that a list was exhibited of the comparative affinities, given by Dr. Ure, of several substances with sulphuric acid, in which baryta predominated over all the others ; but as strontia possesses properties and affinities very similar to the latter earth, it may be conjectured that each of these would rob the other enumerated substances of their sulphuric acid. Again, baryta and strontia exercise very strong affinities for carbonic acid, and would, when both were free, combine with it. But baryta and strontia, in union with the carbonic and sulphuric acids, form some of the most ponderous and less soluble of the earthy minerals ; and con- sequently, they would, on assuming these combinations, be precipitated from the general menstruum. That such was actually the case, it is considered will be sufficiently proved by the following quotations : " Baryta," says Dr. Ure, " is divided by Dr. Jameson into the four following species, viz. : " 1. Rhomboidal Baryta, or Withente. A carbonate of baryta, with occasionally 1 per cent, of carbonate of strontia, and sulphate of baiyta. It rests on the red sandstone ; its specific gravity is 4.3. " 2. Prismatic Baryta, or Heavy Spar. Of this there are nine sub- species They are all sulphates of baryta in composition Specific gravity 4.1 to 4.6. In Great Britain they occur in veins of different primitive and transition rocks. " 3. Diprismatic Baryta, or Strontianite. Its constituents are 158 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE Ftrontia 61-20 Carbonic acid 80-30 Water , 8-50 100-00 " Its specific gravity is 3.7. " 4. Axifrangible Baryta, or Celestine, is a sulphate of strontia, with about 2 per cent, of sulphate of baryta. Specific gravity, 3.9."* Besides these four species of baryta, in which there are occasional admixtures of strontia, these two earths unite together and form a mineral called Barystrontianite, or Strom- nite, of which Dr. Ure gives the following account : " It is composed of carbonate of strontia 68-6, sulphate of baryta 27'5, carbonate of lirne 3-6, and oxide of iron 0-1, and is found in veins, or rather nests, accompanied by galena, at Stromness. Specific gravity 3-7. "t In continuation, the following passage from the " Old Red Sandstone " is so interesting, and indicates so clear the diffi- culties of the case, that I appeal to it with satisfaction, and am persuaded it will be perused with pleasure : " Is the reader acquainted," asks Mr. Hugh Miller, " with Mr. Pepy's experiment, as related by Mr. Lyell, and recorded in the first volume of the Geological Transactions / It affords an interesting proof that animal matter in a state of putrefaction proves a powerful agent in the decomposition of mineral substances held in solution, and of their consequent precipitation The animal and mineral matters had mutually acted uj on one another ; and the metallic sul- phate, deprived of its oxygen in the process, had thus cast down its ingredients. It would seem that over the putrefying bodies of the fish of the lower old red sandstone the water had deposited, in like manner, the lime with which it was charged ; and hence the calca- reous nodules in which we find their remains enclosed. " . . . .1 have repeatedly found single scales in the ichthyolite beds surrounded by uncoloured spheres about the size of musket bullets. "It is well for the young geologist carefully to mark such appear- ances to trace them through the various instances in which the organism may be recognised and identified with those in which its last vestiges have disappeared. They are the hatchments of the geolo- gical world, and indicate that life once existed where all other record of it has perished." t * lire's Chemical Dictionary, pp. 518, 519. f Ibid., p. 200. J Old Red Sandstone, pp. 288292. FORMATION OF THE EARTH, 159 Inattention to the chemistry of geology appears still to be felt, for we find Professor Hopkins, in his Inaugural Address at the Meeting of the British Association in Hull, thus expressing himself " The science of geology may be regarded as comprising two great divisions the physical and the palaeontological portions. The for- mer may be subdivided into its chemical and dynamical branches. The chemical department has never made any great progress, though abounding in problems of first-rate interest ; such, for instance, as the formation of coal ; the segregation of mineral matter constituting mineral veins of all descriptions ; the processes of the solidification and crystallization of rocks ; of the production of their jointed and laminated structure. . . . The problems, doubtless, involve great difficul- ties, both as regards the action of the chemical agencies themselves, and the varied conditions under which they may have acted We cannot too earnestly invite attention to this branch of geology on the part of those qualified to contend with its difficulties." * To complete the evidence on this particular branch of the argument, it is now only necessary to bring forward the pro- mised proofs, that aluminous and arenaceous beds and shales intervene between the carboniferous part of the coal measures and the limestone beneath. For this purpose, besides refer- ring to the incidental evidences which have already appeared in the quotations taken from the works of Sir Henry de la Beche, Dr. M'Culloch, and others, when establishing the position and character of the carboniferous limestone, I have to add the following extracts bearing more immediately on the present question : " With respect to the carboniferous group," says M. de la Beche, " the masses of the old red sandstone, carboniferous limestone, and coal measures are well separated from each other, though there may be small alternations at their contact. " f And again, quoting from Professor Sedgwick, he says " On the re-appearance of the carboniferous limestone at the base of the Yorkshire chain, we still find the same general analogies of structure : enormous masses of limestone form the lowest part, and the rich coal-fields the highest part, of the series ; and we also find the millstone grit occupying an intermediate position. The millstone grit, however, becomes a very complex deposit, with several subordi- nate beds of coal, which is separated from the great inferior calca- reous groups, not merely by the great shale and shale limestone, as Athenaeum, p. 1086, September, 1853. t Manual of Geology, p. 431. 160 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE in Derbyshire, but by a still more complex deposit, in some places not less than 1000 feet thick. "* .... "According to M. de Villeneuve, the coal measures and limestone strata alternate at their contact with each other between Liege and Chaude Fontaine. " According to the same author, the coal measures, which are composed of the usual mixtures of sandstones, shales, and coal beds, present, at the Montagne de St. Gilles, no less than 61 beds of the latter The coal beds of Liege contain 83 beds of coal." t " M. Pusch describes the coal measures in Poland as extending from Hultschin to Krzeszowice A black marble employed in the arts supports the coal measures. M. Pusch considers this marble as equivalent to the carboniferous limestone of the English geolo- gists." \ And in conclusion from this author " After a thickness of seven or eight hundred feet of calcareous rock had been formed, another great change in the matter deposited was effected ; not, however, so suddenly but that the arenaceous sediment which afterwards became so abundant, and the calcareous matter, were alternately produced for a comparatively limited period. An immense mass of sandstones, shales, and coal was then accumu- lated in beds, one above another, which, though very irregular with regard to the relative periods of deposit, are frequently persistent over considerable areas. " By general consent the coal is considered as resulting from the distribution of a body of vegetable remains over areas of greater or less extent, upon a previously deposited surface of sand, argillaceous silt, or mud, but principally the latter, now compressed into shale. " "It must have been already understood," observes Dr. M'Culloch, " from former observations, that the coal series is not anywhere found among the secondary strata, however steady its place may be where it exists ; but that it occurs in distinct tracts often widely separated from each other. These are known, technically, by the term coal- fields, and they vary in their characters in different places ; not only in their extent and in their depth, but in the order of succession of the integrant rocky strata, in the numbers and relative proportions of these ; and in the numbers, thickness, succession, and qualities of the beds of coal The strata which accompany the beds of coal, contributing to form what is here called the series, consist of sand- stones, shales, limestones, and clays. "|| " The most remarkable accumulations of coal," says Professor Buckland, " in England are in the "VVolverhampton and Dudley coal- * Manual of Geology, pp. 431, 432, taken from Professor Sedgwick's Address to the Geological Society, 1831. t Ibid., p. 436. J Ibid., p. 437. Ibid., p. 441. Shale, according to Mr. Lyell, is " a provincial term adopted in geological science to express an indurated slaty clay." Vol. iii., Glossary. || Geology, by Dr. M'Culloch, vol. ii. pp. 301303. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 161 field, where there is a bed of coal ten yards in thickness. The Scotch coal-field, near Paisley, presents ten beds whose united thickness is one hundred feet. And the South Welsh coal basin contains, near Ponty- pool, twenty-three beds of coal, amounting together to ninety-three feet. " In many coal-fields the occurrence of rich beds of iron ore in the strata of slaty clay that alternate with the beds of coal, has rendered the adjacent districts remarkable as the site of most important iron foundries ; and these localities, as we have before stated, usually present a further practical advantage, in having beneath the coal and iron ore a substratum of limestone that supplies the third material required as a flux to reduce this ore to a metallic state."* Concurring testimony, to the same effect, is borne by Messrs. Lindley and Hutton, although they had occasion to advert to the circumstances only incidentally, when describ- ing the fossil flora of the coal formations : o " The beds usually denominated the coal measures " (say they, in part 1st of vol. ii. pp. vi. and vii.), " being the higher part of the car- boniferous formation, repose upon, and are conformable to, the inferior members of the series. " They consist of irregularly alternating beds of sandstone, shale, or argillaceous schist and coal, whose aggregate thickness (in North- umberland and Durham) may be estimated at about three hundred fathoms. This may not probably be correct, but is near enough to the truth for our purpose." No further evidences, it is presumed, need be given to prove the existence of extensive stratified formations, consist- ing of clay, sandstone, and shale, associated with the car- boniferous limestone, and generally underlying the coal mea- sures. The calcareous deposits, it has been shown, owe their origin, in a great degree, to the exuviae of innumerable testa- ceous and conchiferous mollusca and zoophyta, and to the chemical decomposition occasioned by their death, whereby they promoted the deposition, from the surrounding water, of the components of those aluminous, arenaceous, and shaly strata which are intermixed with, and found covering, their fossilised remains ; electrical influences having been also employed as a slow but certain and universal agent to co-operate with these other causes, and to complete the deposits in question. It is necessary, at this juncture, to allude again to the * Bridgewator Treatise, vol. ii. p. 529. II 1 62 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE irresistible inclination which water, impregnated with various elements, has to assume a state of chemical equilibrium whenever the disturbing causes have ceased to exercise their influence over the mass ; or, in other words, whenever the chemical affinities of the several ingredients become stronger than the disturbing influence. * Now, there is scarcely any fact in geology better authenticated than that, during the entire course of the older formations, there was a succession of plants and of inferior animal life differing from the present generations, in proportion as their remains are distant from the surface. t This, therefore, having been the case, -it is natural to con- clude that each race, as it approached extinction, would exer- cise a diminished influence on the surrounding medium, until at length it reached a point when it would be alto- gether nil. I am persuaded that the subject of the preceding observa- tions has not been sufficiently dwelt upon by others, nor has it attracted that attention which it ought. For, if properly considered, it may assist, in part, to clear up the mystery which hitherto has enveloped the operations of those long- by-gone times. The fact of there having been successive races of inferior animal life throughout the stratiferous period of the ancient ocean, combined with the assurance, acquired by the registered accumulations of their fossilised remains, " that there is not one solitary example on record of a race or species which had become extinct ever having been thereafter re-created," J when contrasted with the permanency of the recent allied tribes of inferior animal life in our present seas, seem to afford a clear glimpse of the operations which were then going on, and the changes which were taking place underneath the dark and otherwise incomprehensible primi- tive water. For, although the more rigorous proof of analysis at any of these periods of important change is now out of the question, yet these stereotyped vestiges denote the mutations of the scene in a way scarcely less certain. The ever-changing, mingling fluid has come down to us in its purified state, bringing no * 69th Theorem and proofs. t 16th and 133rd Theorems, and their proofs. J Ancient World, Ansted, p. 56. FORMATION OF THE EARTH, 163 evidences in itself of what it once was ; but it has clearly recorded the progressive stages through which it has passed by the indelible legends written and left behind it in stony concretions, the former habitations of its living associates, as it passed onward and onwards to its present limpid condition ; while those endurable records, if properly studied and applied, may be found of essential benefit in guiding us through the maze which lies before us. Striking contrasts, by arousing the attention, sometimes becomes useful in such mental exercises ; and none can be more so, perhaps, than that which is afforded by the static condition of the water of the actual ocean and the permanency and persistency of its inhabitants, when put into juxtaposition with the mutation, so well authenticated, which took place in the living forms of ancient times and a progressively purifying medium. A con- tinuous change in the character of marine animal life, with the static condition of our " seas," is not more imaginable than is a static condition of the primitive fluid with the mutability of its living inhabitants ! Judging by the laws which govern materialism, neither the one combination nor the other can, consistently, be imagined. But, in addition to the legends which the ancient ocean has bequeathed to us by means of the fossilised remains of its inhabitants, we are happily furnished with a series of threads of the slenderest and most even description, which, throughout the whole of this shoreless and atmosphereless water, have passed up with unbroken continuity from the earliest dawn of animal life to the latest geological formation. I allude to the calcareous formations. Lime, wherever it has been taken for analysis, has been found to be identically the same.* And this holds good whether that which is examined be derived from the nethermost series of rocks, or from the coral islands of the present seas. Now, without stopping to inquire whether calcium, itself be peculiarly an animal secretion, but proceeding on the general admission that lime is an animal product, and presuming that its production was one of the designs of the Creator during the stratiferous period of the primitive ocean, and even to the present day, and taking into consideration that a substance which, from * 16th Theorem, section F. M 2 ib4 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE its first appearance on earth to the last particle yet formed in the sunny seas of the inter-tropical regions, was destined to be invariable, although produced by successive and distinct races of marine animals, there is no other alternative but to conclude, that to continue the unvarying nature of the animal product, Lime, it became requisite to adapt the form and construction, and consequently the physiological pOAvers, of the elaborators to the menstruum from which they extracted it, as this changed from stage to stage. Analysis testifies that the product has ever been the same. We are as equally well assured that the fabricators have not always been the same, but on successive occasions they have been changed ; a combination of these two terms can leave no doubt upon the mind, that the menstruum, from which the latter derived the elements of the former, was likewise undergoing a corre- sponding alteration. That the deposition here referred to (which was so essen- tial) should, however, be continued, new races of animals adapted to the altered medium, and capable of deriving sus- tenance from it, would no doubt be willed successively into existence ; and the fate which awaited their predecessors would, in time, also overtake them. Consequently, what has been said of any one generation of inferior animal life may, with equal justice, be applied to all the others, while it like- wise points out that the primitive water would, in all proba- bility, eventually assume such a condition as that animal secretion, alone, might not be suited to drain it of those peculiar elements, which the ulterior plans of the Creator required that it should part with ; and, therefore, it might have been conducive to employ the influence of vegetable vitality to assist in carrying on the process of purifying the ocean, and cause to be deposited, at its base, masses of carboniferous material which vegetable secretion, alone, could accomplish. Geology seems to corroborate, very fully, this view of the case ; for we are shown, as the result of its researches, that not only were there new races of shelly animals brought into existence about that period, but plants likewise. For this very important modification in the plans of the Creator, due preparation seems to have been made. One of the tendencies FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 165 A of the chemical composition and decomposition which had been going on in the primeval water was to impregnate the menstruum with the element of carbon, the main ingredient in the construction of woody fibre. And this, then, must have been the epoch when it pleased the Creator to bring to perfection the submarine vegetation whose accumulated remains were providentially destined to furnish, in after-ages, to an entirely distinct race of beings, that which, in time, would be as essential for their use and comfort as what was held in chemical suspension had been for the growth of those plants which elaborated the carboniferous portion of the coal measures. Considering that we can, with so much certainty, trace back the formation of the great coal deposits to the earlier ages of the creation, and thereby are constrained to acknow- ledge the goodness and manifest design of Providence in heaping up those vast subterraneous stores which contribute alike to the power and to the comfort of man, we assuredly ought not to doubt, for one moment, of its having been the same beneficent hand which, with equal priority, provided for the requirements of those inferior beings which He saw fit in his goodness, and found necessary by his wisdom, to will into existence, when their peculiar agency was required to work out his sovereign pleasure during their day and genera- tion. I myself am thoroughly persuaded, and would most willingly persuade others, that the confidence arising from experience in our day ought to be applied, by analogy, to the case of all those inferior races of plants and animals, whose existence has been made known to us only by their fossilised remains. The manner in which they were collocated on the earth's submarine surface shows, also, that everything was done with consummate wisdom ; for it is in perfect accordance with the known habits of plants and fixed animals (without at present taking into account other apulmonic inhabitants of the water), to increase by radiating from centres or foci."'" Placed, as they no doubt were, at appointed and propor- tional distances, they would at length, by gradually extend- ing their respective areas, intermingle along their borders of * Principles of Geology, by Mr. Lyell, vol. ii. p. 131 et scquitur* 1 66 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE demarcation, and fulfil the object of their original collocation towards the ultimate end in view, namely, that of producing a variegated whole, fitly jointed together, and well adapted for preparing strata, capable of being applied to what was designed, with a view to the great revolution which was to take place when the earth should be caused to rotate around its axis. Thus every successive stage in the work of creation affords convincing evidence of the most perfect wisdom and beneficent foresight having been exercised in preparing for it. What has preceded; distinctly points out the adaptation of the means to the end, whose accomplishment has been attested by the researches which geologists have made into the external crust of the earth ; in some localities there having been discovered the remains of wide and extended colonies of shell-fish alternating with those of broad patches of vegetation ; and, in other parts, symptoms of both having partially intermingled. The idea of successive creations of animated beings pre- vious to the general one, narrated, in Genesis, by the inspired historian, may appear to some to be heterodox. I do not insist on any one agreeing with me in those points of belief ; yet it is due to all to explain, that being most firmly con- vinced that everything which is, was created by God, I can recognise no just grounds, considering I believe in the later or ultimate acts of his creative energy, to withhold my belief as regards those instances of greater antiquity. Besides, if the successive tribes of plants and testaceous animals, so often alluded to, were not created in succession during the period of non-diurnal rotation, they were not formed at all, for no direct mention is made of them in the narrative given in Genesis : their previous creation being deducible only by inferences arising out of the differential mode of reasoning which has been applied to that part of Scripture. But as, in confirmation thereof, geology reveals their existence, and sound reasoning leads us to imply their uses, no motive remains for withholding assent to the only deduction which can, legitimately, be drawn from the facts of the question, and from the unlimited powers of the Creator, namely, that there were several successive creations of both animals and plants, FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 167 during a long but indefinite period in the earlier geological history of the earth. In addition to the direct proofs in favour of the inference which has just been come to on this point, the consideration, that layer after layer of inert matter was accumulated upon each other until they attained an immense aggregate thick- ness, precludes us from conceiving, with propriety, that any one creation of animals""" or plants could have surmounted these accumulations, and have survived throughout their whole duration ; it being quite at variance with sound analogy to suppose that the spawn of testacea or zoophyta, or the sporules of acotyledonous plants, could have done this, even could these animals and plants have derived sustenance from the surrounding medium which was itself continually changing by the effects of their own drainage, and by those of chemical affinity. On the contrary, they must each eventually have been, as they really were, buried under the effects of these joint causes ; and, finally, in consequence of the change produced on the elements of the primeval ocean, a corresponding change was essentially necessary in the adaptation of its animal and vegetable inhabitants, in order that the process of purification should be continued. When a general view is taken of the works of the Creator, and when, with more speciality, the attention is restricted to the construction of the complex and finished piece of mechanism of the human frame, and we behold its numerous muscles, each wrapped in its own ponobrotic envelope, meet- ing, and even overlapping, in order that they should, in their several departments, perform the work assigned them, and conjointly constituting an harmonious whole, well adapted for the end intended, we should have no hesitation in sup- posing that similar forethought and design were applied to the collocation of the strata, and to the formation of the great body of the earth. It is true, the objects are incom- parably dissimilar in size ; yet the gigantic parts of the earth will be found to be in as perfect proportion as those of the human frame ; and were we more narrowly to trace the * Even the polypiferous creatures, which have been most persistent throughout the whole geological era, seem, from their productions of earlier times, to have been distinct in some respects from those which now inhabit the ocean. Ancient World, p. 32. 1 68 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE EARTH. special ' design of each, we would, no doubt, discover equal wisdom and intention pervading them both. It would be found that as the ponobrotic coverings are useful to the muscles in protecting them from the effects of friction inter se, so the limestone and shaly formations rendered a similar service to the coal measures, when the first diurnal rotation of the earth caused the development of so much heat as would, without these impervious barriers, have fused and rendered those immense store depots of fuel utterly unser- viceable. And we shall, at last, be convinced that the same Almighty hand which fashioned the earthy mould of our first progenitor into bones, muscles, ligaments, and manifold winding conduits, and filled them with fluids ere yet these last had circulated or beat a single pulsation did, with the same consummate wisdom and forethought, lay down every distinct bed of calcareous, carboniferous, or aluminous strata, in ready preparation for that eventful moment, seen by Him- self from all eternity, when, by the formation of light, the dark, motionless orb was caused to start into its description of life, and to rotate in the gladdening rays of a sun which was to be illumined almost immediately thereafter, as the inexhaustible reservoir of its light and heat, and the teller of its signs, its seasons, days, and years. SECTION III. DEPOSITION OF THE STRATA DURING THE PERIOD OF NON- DIURNAL ROTATION. CHAPTER XII. A ELUSION has already been made to the ample provision ~- for the nourishment of the vegetable kingdom of this early period, by the suffusion into the water of carbonic acid arising from the decomposition of animal matter ; and revert- ing now to the warmth, so often before alluded to, which prevailed throughout the water during the formation of the great coal measures, I shall endeavour to trace the source of this increased temperature. It would, assuredly, be an unwarrantable use of the reasoning faculties conferred on finite beings, to attempt to raise any veil which has pur- posely been cast over his works by the common Creator, or to dogmatize on points of such entity as whether economy in time is an object of importance to a Being who inhabits eternity. Yet the investigation of his other works reveals a principle of the most rigid economy running through the whole in the weighing of every atom, and in the measuring of every drop of fluid ; and we are, therefore, authorised to conclude that the same principle has been exercised in duration also. It would appear that, while economy in time was studied in the plan of the Creation, the most inferior creatures were carefully nurtured, and everything, consistent with their several natures was done to enable them to assume the fullest expansion of which they were respectively susceptible. Warmth very essentially contri- 170 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE buted to effect this, and warmth was conferred upon them. Its existence, by inferences draivn from tJie gigantic relative size of the organic remains, has already been demonstrated in a previous chapter. I shall, therefore, in this, proceed to trace the secondary agency employed in its development. To do this let us, first of all, refer to the forty-ninth Theorem, viz. : " That it may be assumed, as a general principle, that chemical combination is one of the numerous causes by which heat may be developed or absorbed ; while caloric, or heat, is itself the most general agent employed in all chemical operations;" and, in continuation, peruse briefly some of the authorities which support this conclusion. " One of the chief agents in chemistry," says Sir John Herschel, " on whose proper application and management the success of a great number of its inquiries depends, and many of whose most im- portant laws are disclosed to us by phenomena of a chemical nature, is heat. " The discoveries of chemists, however, have referred most sources of heat to the general head of chemical combination. Thus, fire or the combustion of inflammable bodies, is nothing more than a violent chemical action attending the combination of their ingredients with the oxygen of the air." * " It may be taken," says a writer in the Cabinet Cyclopaedia, " as a general principle, that chemical combination is one of the numerous causes by which heat may be developed or absorbed. Every part of chemical science abounds in facts illustrative of this principle."! "Combustion," writes Dr. Ure, "is the disengagement of heat and light which accompanies chemical combination Whenever the chemical forces which determine either composition or decomposition are energetically exercised, the phenomena of combustion or incan- descence, with a change of properties, is displayed. "From the preceding facts it is evident that no peculiar substance or form of matter is necessary for producing the effect (evolution of heat) ; but it is a general result of the actions of any substances pos- sessed of strong chemical attractions or different electrical relations, and that it takes place in all cases in which an intense and violent motion can be conceived to be communicated to the corpuscles of bodies. " Finally, we may establish it as an axiom, that combustion is not the great phenomenon of chemical nature, but an adventitious accidental accessory to chemical combination or decomposition ; that is, to the internal motions of the particular bodies, tending to arrange them in a new chemical constitution." \ * Natural Philosophy, Cab. Cyc., pp. 310313. t Dr. Liirdner on Heat, Cab. Cyc., p. 354. J Chemical Dictionary, pp. 3.53, 3<34, 368. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 171 Before concluding this branch of evidence, it may not, perhaps, be superfluous to notice particularly certain sub- stances which evolve considerable heat on combining with others. The acids, in general, on combining with water evolve heat.'*" Azote arid phosphorus combine at common temperatures, and produce heat without light.t Iodine also produces combustion in uniting with azote and other sub- stances by the intensity of their mutual action. And as this peculiarly energetic substance has been discovered in most of the fuel and several of the other algae, J there can be no doubt of its presence, and, consequently, of its effects. That the circulation of voltaic electricity is accompanied by a con- tinued development of heat, lasting as long as the circuit is complete.! And, lastly, " That water has a greater capacity for caloric than an equal bulk of any solid substance known." || After what has been so recently said, it may scarcely be requisite to reiterate, that the warmth which existed during the incipient stage of creation, and with which w^ have just been occupied, could not have been occasioned by the sun's rays ; for that orb was not yet illumined ; neither was it the effect of radiation from masses of heated mineral matter, for the hills and continental ranges had not been moved from their original horizontal position, had undergone no friction, consequently were not imbued with any super- abundant heat, which, by requiring to part with, they would have communicated to the surrounding media ; and there- fore we are shut up to the necessity of considering, that the secondary agency of the heat or warmth in question was electrical currents and chemical combination and decom- position. But " heat occasioned by chemical action is derived," as has just been shown, " from motion amongst the corpuscles of elementary bodies, while its rate is deter- mined by the rate of that intermotion." And as, on the other hand, we are equally well assured "that matter can neither produce in itself spontaneous action, either from a state of rest to that of motion, or diminish any motion it * Ure, p. 5. f- Ibid., p. 540. J Ibid., p. 537- Connection of the Sciences, pp. 306 312. || Hutchison's Essay on Unexplained Phenomuea, pp. 25, 26. iyz DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE may have received from an external cause, or change its direction;" it is, ultimately, obliged to be confessed, that whatever may have been the nature of the intermediate agency, or the instruments employed to occasion the inter- molecular motion engendering that warmth which all geolo- gists agree in considering did exist throughout the primitive ocean, its ultimate cause was not, could not have been, material. We must look to w r hat is beyond matter, to a higher source, and to a distinct set of evidences evidences which, for our assurance and satisfaction, are plainly and unequivocally set before us. As the present part of the argument, however, admits of being conducted with reference more directly to the material and secondary agency employed, I shall, therefore, proceed by that line of approach. The warmth in question having proximately been engen- dered by chemical and electrical action, it follows that its maximum would be wherever these were in greatest activity. This was at the bottom of the ocean, throughout its whole extent ; where myriads on myriads of animals and plants were incessantly at work imbibing the materials chemically suffused in the water, and elaborating them into the sub- stances of which their bodies and their coverings were composed. There also the lower stratum of water, by being despoiled of its earthy associates, and impregnated Avith ammoniacal gases, by exhalations from decomposing animal matter, would, in addition to the extent of volume, acquire a reduced specific gravity, and be made to ascend, to give place to colder and less pure portions, to be in turn freed from their earthy load, and expanded by warmth ; and thus a constant and equalising current would be kept up between the lower and the upper surfaces of the great mass of water constituting the primeval ocean. The peculiar adaptation of this alternation, which caused the earth-charged portion to descend and deposit its load within reach of those apulmonic beings which required the supply, and would, othenvise, have been deprived of it, and, on the other hand, which raised whatever of the ammoniacally impregnated portion escaped recombination with suffused bases to the surface, for pur- poses of future usefulness, showed forth the same provident FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 173 forethought so strongly illustrative of the whole proceedings of the Creator ; and fills the mind with admiration. While it should not be forgotten that the material crust of the Earth, whose construction was partly accomplished by these, though it could not thereby have acquired a heat approaching in any degree to fusion, would become the regulating reser- voir of a considerable residue of that warmth which was thus constantly evolving itself along the whole extent of its sub- marine surface ; and whose accumulation in the water was much assisted by the great capacity of this for caloric and by its atmosphereless condition ; the whole having been, as it were, conducted in vacuo. The mind being sufficiently prepared, by the review which has been laid before it of the adaptation of the material part of the Creation, during the pre-diurnal rotatory period, to the species of animal and vegetable life then willed by the Omni- potent into existence, it becomes requisite to inquire, next, what would be the probable results, according to natural causes, of their growth and propagation, and, afterwards, of their decay and death. There is little to be added to what has already been brought forward respecting the agency of the animal kingdom in the composition of the solid strata. During their lifetime they secreted calcareous coverings, whose remains have contributed very considerably to the formation of the limestone series. After death the elemen- tary components of their fleshy parts appear to have entered into a new series of binary and ternary compounds, which, in seeking the level their reduced specific gravity induced them to do, disturbed the chemical equilibrium of the water through which they ascended, and assisted to cause the pre- cipitation of aluminous, calcareous, arenaceous, and other deposits, which partly intermingled with, and partly covered, their endurable remains. The services which were performed by living plants in secreting and accumulating carbonaceous matter in their own gigantic forms, and by instilling certain deposits into the strata by exudation from their roots, have been fully ex- plained in the chapters which were dedicated to the primeval vegetable kingdom. Consequently, at present, I have merely to inquire into the effects which were likely to have occurred 1 74 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE by the decomposition of vegetable substances in as far as they differ from those produced by animal decomposition when introduced, by exhalation, into the surrounding fluid ; the disturbance they were capable of occasioning in its chemical equilibrium ; and the effect which animal and vegetable exhalations would have on each other when inter- mingled by the luni-solar current ; and the new compounds they would form, and precipitates which they would throw down. To accomplish the first of these objects, I shall commence by recapitulating the hundred and twenty-eighth Theorem, to which please refer ;* and as the truths therein stated may exercise considerable influence over the subsequent argu- ment, I shall strengthen their impression by a few concise quotations. "All vegetables," says Mr. Reid, "when the principle of life has departed from them, begin spontaneously to be decomposed. Their elements have a tendency to separate from each other, and form new compounds very different from those which compose the living plant. These are carbonic acid, water, carbonic oxide, and carburetted hydrogen. The two former are the chief results of the decomposition, the two latter are formed more sparingly, and principally when there is not a free supply of oxygen In vegetables which decay under water, carburetted hydrogen is abundantly formed ; hence arises the gas which is found so plentifully in summer in stagnant waters, which contain quantities of putrefying vegetables."! "To this" (vegetable decomposition), says Dr. Murray, "the name of putrefactive fermentation has been given The elastic products disengaged are compounds of carbon and hydrogen and carbonic acid " Carbon being, in general, the base of vegetable matter, it fre- quently remains, forming an inert residuum after the decomposition has proceeded to a certain extent, constituting what is termed vegetable mould. This, when the air is excluded, is scarcely liable to further change, there being no other principles to act on it with sufficient force. "It appears that often from the operation of circumstances, pro- bably the exclusion of the atmosphere and the presence of pressure, the decomposition does not proceed beyond the accumulation of this carbonaceous residuum ; the former circumstance removing the agency of oxygen, the latter preventing the formation of elastic products ; and from the process conducted under these circumstances, and from vegetable matter being originally composed chiefly of carbon, as wood, 128th Theorem. t Chemistry, by Hugo Reid, pp. 178, 179. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 175 have probably principally originated the different varieties of bitumen and coal, the origin of which, from the vegetable kingdom, can be so often traced." =: "When vegetables putrefy," says Mr. Donovan, " the changes are not so complex as in the case of animals, because the elements con- cerned are fewer. "The oxygen combines with hydrogen; another portion of hy- drogen combines with carbon. The chief part of the carbon remains as such, unless free access of air be admitted, which then slowly combines with it. " During the putrefaction of animal and vegetable matter, much heat is produced ; and if the mass be considerable, the heat con- tinues a long time."f It appears from these authorities that, with the exception of carbonic oxide, the gaseous products arising from the decomposition of vegetable substances under water are, in some respects, similar to those which proceed from the decomposition of animal matter ; that carburetted hydrogen is the compound gas most abundantly given out ; but that ammoniacal gases never originate from the decomposition of vegetable substances under any circumstances, whilst the exclusion of air causes the material residuum to consist almost entirely of carbonaceous matter, or vegetable mould. Taking into account that the luni-solar current, which flowed in the primitive ocean, and has been so fully described in a previous part of this work, would have the effect of gra- dually bringing strata of water, charged with gaseous exhala- tions arising from animal decomposition, over parts of the earth's submarine surface producing plants, and, vice versd, of carrying the exhalations from decaying vegetable substances over regions inhabited by fixed animals, it remains to be ascertained, what would, in such circumstances, be the pro- bable result when the decomposition of animal substances, by their exhalations ascending into the fluid mass which held the various materials in solution, threw down deposits on the plants. The products of these decompositions were, as I have repeatedly observed, all gaseous ; some of them of consider- able specific gravity. Water possesses the capability of absorbing several times its own bulk of many of those which were then present. This would render the portions of water, * Chemistry, vol. ii. pp. 570, 571. t Chemistry, in Cab. Cyc., p. 343. 176 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE which were impregnated with those of greater specific gravity, heavier than others, and cause them to descend. But, on the other hand, "those strata of water which were combined with ammoniacal gas being of lighter specific gravity, together with the increased temperature of the lower aqueous strata in contact with the bottom where chemical changes \vcre in more active operation would be caused thereby to ascend, and, by giving place to heavier strata, would produce a con- tinued alternation of currents.* Had the fluid mass, in which those relative movements were taking place, been itself stationary with respect to the' solid part of the earth, the currents, w r hether ascending or descending, would have been in directions perpendicular to the surface ; the gaseous elements of reduced specific gravity would have risen directly from the spot of their exhalation. The deposits would have descended from the precise points of their liberation ; but when it is taken into account, that the luni-solar attraction, by operating upon the water of the ocean, kept it in a con- tinued flow from east to west, these perpendicular currents would not take place. But by the rule for the composition of forces the direction of the ascending and descending par- ticles is to be determined ; it would be a diagonal compounded of the two motions.! In this direction, then, the effects of the ascending exhalations would., be in operation ; while the continued westerly flow of the whole moving mass, by divert- ing the deposits also from a perpendicular, would co-operate with the other to place them much to the westward of their efficient cause. This divergence, when all the exhalations were supposed to have been of animal origin, was of so little consequence that no notice was then taken of it ; but this is SPECIFIC GRAVITY. * Of ammonia water can absorb 670 times its own bulk 0.59027 Muriatic acid 500 Sulphurous acid .... 33 Chlorine 2 Carbonic acid Nitrous oxide Sulphuretted hydrogen Olefiant gas, or carburetted hydrogen, l-8th its own bulk 1.28472 2.2222 2.5000 1.04166 1.18050 1.5277 0.5555 Oxygen, and nitric oxide, l-27th its own bulk 1.5277 Nitrogen, hydrogen, and carbonic oxide, l-64th its own bulk . j Q'Q-JOO (Chemistry, by Hugo Reid, p. 108 ; and Dr. Thompson, p. 734.) f Mechanics, in Cab. Cyc., pp. 49, 50. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 177 now no longer the case, for it becomes very important in the present stage of the argument, inasmuch as it can be applied to prove that, although the extensive patches of animal and vegetable existences might have been perfectly separate from one another, yet the effects produced by their extinction would, in consequence of the flow of water carrying the com- pounds formed by their decomposition to great distances, be attended by one universal result over the whole space ; and a general deposition, it is presumed, would take place of silex, alumina, lime, magnesia, potash, soda, and oxides of iron and manganese, which, uniting with those already formed in the several localities, would according to that which had already been deposited there assume the respect- ive forms of clay, shale, or sandstone, varied in conformity to the original nature of the exuviae on which the precipitates fell. When, by the exhaustion of the exhalations, the disturb- ing power began to diminish, the aluminous and arenaceous strata which entombed the calcareous exuviae of the animals, and the carbonaceous remains of the vegetables would have attained their maximum thickness ; and we have only to carry forward our conceptions a little further, to arrive at a point when, like that to which I formerly alluded, the power possessed by those gaseous exhalations to disturb the general equilibrium would be proportional to the races which sur- vived the deposition. At this point new creations of vege- table and animal existences, each with an organization suited to the purified state of the surrounding element, would be essential for effecting a further disturbance of the equilibrium, and an acceleration of the deposits which would result from its derangement. Thus we have an approximative explana- tion of the probable cause which motived another change in part of the organic life, both vegetable and animal, which encrusted the bottom of the original ocean, 'derived from what has been made known by the nature of the fossil remains brought to light by the researches of geologists. These new creations would, in the course of time, be pro- ductive of effects analogous to those which have been so minutely described ; therefore a detailed repetition will be unnecessary. By draining the ocean during their lifetime of N ijS DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE part of the remaining elementary materials held by it in solu- tion, which were as essential for their peculiar secretions as those which were drained before had been for their predeces- sors, they would thereby gradually unfit it for continuing to administer to the wants of their own race ; while they ren- dered it more capable of nourishing others of dissimilar habits destined to succeed them, and also brought the whole mass one step further in progression towards its present limpidness and purity. By the exhalations arising from their decay and decomposition, they would gradually, though slowly, entomb their own remains in a mass of stony matter, whose decom- position would also contribute to accelerate the desired change or preparedness of the water ; while the combined effect of those several causes would be to add layer after layer of solid stratified material to the envelope which it pleased the Crea- tor to form around the earth, in order that it might after- wards fulfil the ulterior design He had in view, when the whole sphere, thus curiously and elaborately encircled, coat after coat, with rocky strata fitly joined together, should be caused to revolve diurnally around its axis by the introduc- tion of the primary light and its division from the darkness. Thus far I have endeavoured to explain, in a cursory manner, how the deposition and formation of the secondary strata were effected. Difficult as the subject is, from the absence of all direct evidence, and the necessity, therefore, of leaning so implicitly on results, and of tracing them back- wards through their progress of accomplishment to their ulti- mate visible or material causes, I have made an attempt, though merely to indicate what the process of creation may have been, in the hope that others, better qualified, may resume and continue the undertaking until they carry it to perfection. Meanwhile it seems conceivable, that in some such progressive manner, and under the few but comprehen- sive laws which tfien governed materialism, the depositions and encrustations constituting the secondary strata took place. And, likewise, that science possesses stores of accu- mulated knowledge sufficient to unravel, with perfect and convincing precision, as much of those operations, during that incipient age of the earth as shall be requisite, in con- junction with the sacred narrative, thoroughly to establish FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 179 our faith in the announcements given with respect to what no mortal eye was privileged to behold. Should what I have endeavoured to accomplish, amidst the discouragement arising from the conviction of incom- petency, be the means of pointing the way to a more satis- factory explanation of the manner in which the older strata were deposited from the ocean, which held their elements in mechanical suspension and in chemical solution, it may also explain, to a certain extent, that which is mentioned in the fifteenth Theorem (to which please refer), namely, the indica- tion shown by many of the stratiform masses to blend into one another in mineralogical character, when examined in the order of superposition ; causes sufficient having been adduced during the discussion to account for the blending of one rock into another. But there is still another peculiarity mentioned in the same Theorem, which it is necessary to notice, namely the " thinning out," or mineralogical transition of the strata, when traced continuously to any distance in an horizontal direction. Let it first be shown, from undoubted authority, that such is really the case ; and, afterwards, I shall endeavour to account for it by an application of the principles sought to be established. "If you inquire," says Mr. Lyell, "into the true composition of any stratum, or set of strata, and endeavour to pursue these continu- ously through a country, it is often found that the character of the mass changes gradually, and becomes at length so different, that we should never have suspected its identity if we had not been enabled to trace its passage from one form to another " Thus, for example, we may trace a limestone for one hundred miles, and then observe that it becomes arenaceous, until it finally passes into sand or sandstone. We may then follow the last-mentioned formation throughout another district as extensive as that occupied by the limestone first examined." * " The most perfect form of a stratum," Dr. M'Culloch states, "is that in which the two planes are accurately parallel, but it is the most rare. They are more commonly inclined in different ways ; so that a bed terminates at length, in one or more directions, or in all, by a thin edge ; while it may also present surfaces so frequently and unequally inclined or undulated as to be of various degrees of thickness throughout." f * Principles of Geology, vol. iii. p. 38, 39. t Geology, by Dr. M'Culloch, vol. i. p. 6. N 2 i8o DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE " Professor Sedgwick has shown," says M. de la Beche, " that still further north in England the great line of distinction between the carboniferous limestone and the coal measures are broken up, and that the one rock is lost in the other The alternating beds of sandstone and shale expand more and more as we advance towards the north, at the expense of all the calcareous groups, which gradually thin off, and cease to produce any impress on the features of the country " Mr. Lyell gives the following opinions on this subject : " If we drain a lake which has been fed by a stream, we frequently find at the bottom a series of deposits disposed with considerable regularity one above the other If a second pit be sunk through the same continuous lacustrine formation at some distance from the first, nearly the same series of beds is commonly met with, yet with slight variations; some, for example, of the layers of sand, clay, or marl may be wanting, one or more having thinned out and given place to others, or sometimes one of the masses first examined is observed to have increased in thickness to the exclusion of other beds." And again mineralogwally : " These three classes of rocks, the arenaceous, argillaceous, and calcareous, pass continually into each other, and rarely occur in a perfectly separate and pure form." " We may sometimes," continues the same writer, " follow a bed of limestone, shale, or sandstone, for a distance of many hundred yards continuously ; but we generally find at length that each indi- vidual stratum thins out, and allows the beds which were previously above and below it to meet." And finally from this author " The first observers were so astonished at the vast space over which they were able to follow the same homogeneous rocks in a horizontal direction, that they came hastily to the opinion that the whole globe had been environed by a succession of distinct aqueous formations, disposed round the nucleus of the planet like the con- centric coats of an onion. But although, in fact, some formations may be continuous over districts as large as half of Europe, or even more, yet most of them either terminate wholly within narrower limits, or soon change their lithological character. Sometimes they thin out gradually, as if the supply of sediment had failed in that direction, or they come abruptly to an end, as if we had arrived at the borders of a sea or ancient lake, which seemed as their receptacle. It no less frequently happens that they vary in universal aspect and composition as we pursue them horizontally. For example, we trace a limestone for a hundred miles until it becomes more arenaceous, and, finally, passes into sand or sandstone. We may then follow this FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 181 sandstone, already proved by its continuity to be of the same age, throughout another district a hundred miles or more in length." * At a more advanced stage of this work, when it is shown how these rocky masses were elevated from the horizontal position in which they were formed, occasion will be taken to allude to several phenomena connected with this insensible junction of the strata which have evidently arisen from violent movement and fusion. But the present observations are restricted to only such appearances of this kind as can be traced to the manner of their deposition. I have been endeavouring to establish the fact, that the calcareous and carboniferous strata owe their origin, princi- pally, to the propagation of inferior marine animals, and to the spread of imperfect flowerless plants from centres or foci of creation ; and I have, therefore, merely to direct the attention to the form which extensive tracts of strata, pro- ceeding from such sources would naturally assume, whose greatest density would be in their respective centres, to be fully persuaded that they would " thin out " as they approach their common limits, where they would blend entirely together, thus demonstrating, in the cause of their accumu- lation, that also of their sectional form ; whilst the arenaceous and aluminous beds associated with them would be deposited from the fluid mass floating above ; and as this impregnated mass extended alike over all, that which fell from it would, conformably to the laws regulating such depositions, be spread out in horizontal layers of considerable extent, whose upper surfaces would assume a perfect level by first filling up all inequalities of the base which received them. The simultaneous propagation of the testacea, conchifera, and zoophyta, and the spread of the cryptogamous and other imperfect plants, would present the appearance of slight elevations and depressions, having their higher parts at the centres, whence the animals and plants radiated ; and it is therefore in strict accordance with the laws governing a fluid tranquilly depositing earthy sediment, to infer, that those depressions on the common original base would be gradually filled up by the deposition of layer after layer of earthy material. These afterwards amalgamating with the bounding * Elements of Geology, pp. 6, 27, 64, 198. 1 82 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE strata around, would, when finally indurated, present the seeming anomaly " of a limestone bed gradually becoming more arenaceous until it eventually ended in a pure sand- stone ; or of a coal seam assuming an aluminous structure, and eventually ending in shale." For a corroboration of this opinion, with regard to the manner in which a fluid mass, holding earthy sediment in solution, deposits this on the bottom, it may be opportune to extend the evidence already given, by the following ex- tract from Professor Playfair's " Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory :"*- "Loose materials," says that sagacious investigator, " such as sand and gravel, subsiding at the bottom of the sea, and having their interstices filled up with water, possess a kind of fluidity : they are disposed to yield on the side opposite to that where the pressure is greatest, and are, therefore, in some degree, subject to the laws of hydrostatics. On this account they will arrange themselves in hori- zontal layers ; and the vibrations of the incumbent fluid, by impressing a slight motion backwards and forwards on the materials of these layers, will very much assist the accuracy of their level. "It is not, however, meant to deny, that the form of the bottom might influence, in a certain degree, the stratification of the sandstones deposited on it. The figure of the lower beds, deposited on an uneven surface, would necessarily be affected by two causes the inclination of that surface, on the one hand, and the tendency to horizontality on the other ; but, as the former cause would grow less powerful as the distance from the bottom increased, the latter cause would finally pre- vail, so that the upper beds would approach to horizontality, and the lower would neither be exactly parallel to them nor to one another." \ I have, with this, reached the limits of my present in- quiries into the formation of the original stratiform masses of the earth ; for the coal measures, with their associated lime- stone beds, are considered to have constituted the surface, or boundaries of the earth's outer crust, during the period of non-diurnal rotation; and that the superincumbent masses of more recent epochs owe their collocation to the effects of its first diurnal motion ; consequently, whatever elucidation may be presented of that stupendous event, these newer formations must assume their relative places in it. Before diurnal rotation took place, however, it seems * Chapter viii. pp. 320, 321. f Professor Playfair's Works, pp. 58, 59. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 183 apparent that successive formations of calcareous, carboni- ferous, aluminous, and arenaceous deposits succeeded each other, until the ocean was so far drained of its earthy material as to fit it for its ultimate state of equilibrium, and for becoming the pellucid " seas " of our day ; and this the researches of geologists assure us actually was the case, as stated on the authority of those writers who have expressed concurring opinions.""" While these investigations have made it evident that the vast and continued operations then carried on were chiefly effected by the combined instrumentality of zoophyta, apnl- monic animals, and of plants, whose labours having been per- formed under water, each of the creations of these organized beings, respectively, must have been of the description men- tioned : and it has also been made manifest that they did perform the work they were called upon to execute ; and, therefore, according to our ideas of an all-wise and beneficent Creator, no other classes of organic creatures, animal or vegetable, could by possibility have been employed for that purpose, consistently with the then incipient condition of the world. I trust, therefore, it may be considered that I have now redeemed the pledge given at the commencement, to prove " that, during the period of the Earths non-diurnal rotation, there were formed, and forming, under its waters, by the united instrumentality of 'mechanical deposition, of chemical and electrical action, and of animal and vegetable secretion and decomposition, those materials which were afterwards to constitute part of its geological and meteorological phenomena ; but which had not as yet assumed their present relative posi- tion, or their form. That the ocean was also undergoing the necessary preparation fur its actual condition. And that the whole of these operations were going forward under the Divine influence, as recorded in the jirst chapter of Genesis." In immediate connection with this part of the subject I shall proceed to inquire, whether what has been said with respect to the deposition of earthy material in the form of strata, from a menstruum holding it in suspension, may not * See the 97th Theorem, already recapitulated in a previous chapter. 1 84 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE afford some clue to unravel what has hitherto been wrapped in mystery, and has occasioned much discussion : I mean the fact of the primitive ocean having entirely changed its character, from an aggregated mass of earth-impregnated fresh water into the present salt sea. This attempt is beset with many difficulties, some of which are peculiar to itself, such as the meagre and some- times equivocal character of the only evidence which can be brought forward to prove its original freshness. Neverthe- less, confiding in the truth of what has been adduced, I shall commence by endeavouring to show that the ocean has not always been salt, although from the first it contained within itself the elements of its saline constitution. By the concluding words of the nineteenth Theorem, it will be observed, " that none of the plants discovered in the coal formations have been recognised as being of marine origin ;" while by one of the paragraphs of the hundred and twenty- fifth Theorem it is stated, " that in the green sandstone and the chalk, the few species of plants which have been found are principally marine." Let us proceed more closely to examine the authorities for these propositions. "It was soon remarked," says Professor Henslow, at a much later date, "when the study of fossil vegetables began to attract the atten- tion of botanists, that those from the coal measures were distinct from the plants now existing on the surface of the earth, and that they more nearly resembled the species of tropical climates than such as grew in the temperate zones. Subsequent researches have shown that the species imbedded in different strata likewise differ from each other, and that, on the whole, there are about fourteen distinct geological formations in which traces of vegetables occur. According to M. Brongniart, they first appear in the schists and limestones below the coal. These contain a few cryptogamic species (about thirteen), of which four are marine algae, and the rest ferns or their allied orders. In the coal itself, above 300 distinct species have been recognised, among which those of the higher tribes of cryptogamic plants are the most abundant, amounting to about two-thirds of the whole. Many of them are arborescent, and parts of their trunks are found standing vertically in the spots where they grew There are no marine plants in this formation. In the green sandstone and chalk few species have been hitherto found, and these are almost all marine." * " It is a remarkable circumstance," says Sir Henry de la Beche, * Botany, in Cab. Cyc., pp. 311, 312. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 185 " connected with the coal measures of the south of England, that marine remains have not been detected in them, which, though it does not prove the deposit of coal to have been effected in fresh water, does appear to show that there was something which prevented the presence of marine animals a circumstance the more remarkable as we have seen that such animals swarmed during the formation of the carboniferous limestone." * " M. Ad. Brongniart," says Dr. Ure, " in his ' Treatise on the Classification and Distribution of Fossil Plants,' comes to the following geological conclusions: 1. That in the formations of the coal and anthracite, the vegetables are almost all cryptogamia of the monocoty- ledonous tribe, such as filices (fern), equisetum, lycopodiums, mar- sileaceae, &c. ; but the former three families included arborescent species, which no longer exist, except in the first." t " Mr. Murchison infers," say the editors of the " Literary Gazette," " that the coal measures of the great Dudley coal-fields were accumu- lated exclusively in fresh water." J "In the coal formation," says MM. Lindley and Hutton, "which may be considered the earliest in which the remains of land plants have been discovered, the flora of England consists of ferns in amazing abundance ; of large coniferous trees, of species resembling lycopo- diacece, but of more gigantic dimensions ; of vast quantities of a tribe analogous to cacta or euphorbiacea, but perhaps not identical with them ; of palms and other monocotyledons ; and, finally, of numerous plants the exact nature of which is extremely doubtful. Between two and three hundred species have been detected in this, the coal forma- tion, of which two-thirds at least are /mis." Considering, therefore, the coal measures themselves to have been wholly formed by the remains of freshwater plants, and to have constituted the grand centre of vegetable existence in the primitive world, they ought to form the principal basis of the argument. Besides, it is more con- sistent to suppose, that the development of the vast but progressive plan of Creation proceeded upon fixed principles, capable of adapting themselves to that progression, than to imagine it to have been subject to capricious changes from salt to fresh water, and from that again to salt. Even supposing it should be eventually established that, during the early part of the coal formation, a few species of fucoid plants were intermingled with those more purely of fresh- water origin, it might be possible, on the well-ascertained capability of plants undergoing remarkable modifications of * Manual of Geology, pp. 424, 427. t New System of Geology, pp. 440, 441. J Literary Gazette, 21st May, 1836, p. 329. Vol. i. pp. x. xi. 1 86 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE character without impeding any of their vegetable functions, to explain the anomaly by the supposition that plants so constituted, and, subsequently, found inhabiting the briny ocean, might have grown and flourished in a medium hold- ing soda, lime, magnesia, sulphuric and muriatic acids in solution, but in different combination from what these ingredients are at present ; although it may be utterly im- possible to conceive that plants decidedly of freshwater origin could exist in the present water of the ocean, as these materials are now combined in association with them. I shall proceed, therefore, with the present argument upon the supposition that the ocean, during the earlier geological epochs, possessed all the properties of fresh water, as far as the nourishment of its vegetation was concerned, notwith- standing the presence of the ingredients just mentioned. Before proceeding, however, with this chain of argument, there is a general prefatory conception to which I am desirous of alluding, from its being essential to the thorough understanding of the subsequent reasoning. It is this : that like most of the other great aggregate bodies (the atmo- sphere, for example) which, taken together, make up the Earth we inhabit, the ocean, one of these bodies, has peculiar laws impressed upon it, which may, with perfect propriety, be called constitutional. That from these normal laws it never very greatly deviates, and to their subjection it has a constant tendency to return, even when deflected therefrom in any degree. That the water of the primitive ocean was gradually approximating towards this static condition during the non-rotatory period ; and that, towards its termination, it had closely approached that state which was to be for ever afterwards its natural condition ; from which the ocean would only partially, but never materially, deviate in future ; and whose constituted power of stability Avould be such as to enable the sea- water to subdue any minor disturbing cause into obedience with the pervading laws of its constitution. The fixing of this principle in the mind will not only make what I have to say more easily understood, but will also serve to explain the equability with which the ocean .throughout maintains its saltness ; being neither rendered more so in mass by local evaporation, nor less saline by the FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 187 emptying of rivers into it." 5 '" To this constitutional state, therefore, I consider the primitive ocean was gradually approaching, by the deposition of those ingredients which it had held in solution, to facilitate their chemical combination with each other ; while it also conveyed them from place to place in obedience to the will, and in conformity with the plans, of the Omnipotent ; the carrier-ocean itself being likewise thereby prepared to assume that clear and sparkling state which renders it at once the most beautifully grand, the most wholesome, and the most useful element in nature. Nor can I recognise any objection to this view of the case ; or any reason why it should not be admitted that the ocean required to undergo a course of preparation for being ren- dered capable of executing its part, any more than that the solid strata, born of it, should require to have been perfected in order to fulfil their part in the unfolding plan of the Creation. On the contrary, I consider it peculiarly charac- teristic of the great source from whence they all originated when we perceive two effects springing simultaneously from one cause, the one co-operating towards the perfection of the other. The ocean approaching nearer and nearer to its own maturity in proportion as it parted with the stony concretions which were forming within its bosom by the several combinations alluded to, while they, as they were being deposited crust after crust of mineral strata were destined, in turn, when they should be elevated, to become solid defences to the terrene portions of the world, to protect them against the future encroachments of the very element from whence they emanated. It may be remembered, that at the commencement of these investigations into the nature of the deposits which, in all likelihood, were taking place from the primitive ocean, it was considered that silex, alumina, lime, magnesia, barytes, strontites, zirconia, glucina, potash, soda, and ammonia, oxides of various metais, especially iron and manganese, car- bonic and fluoric acids, hydrogen and oxygen, with muriatic, * According to Mr. Reid, "the water of the Atlantic ocean within the tropics contains l-24th of its weight of saline matters; while that of the Firth of Forth is only reduced to about l-30th." (Chemistry, p. 118.) 1 88 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE sulphuric, and nitric acid, were the ingredients held by the ancient water in chemical combination. In continuation, it was explained, first, that by the abstraction of those elements which are known to have been taken from it by animal and vegetable agency, and, after- wards, by the infusion into it of several gaseous exhalations, arising from the decomposition of the animal and vegetable bodies, successive alterations of its equilibrium must have taken place, so as to have brought about new combinations, and to have caused insoluble precipitates which, in time, became mineral stratiform masses encrusting the bottom of the ocean. And in this way there was accounted for, the locking up, in these stony concretions, of the silex, alumina, barytes, strontites, zirconia, glucina, oxides of iron and man- ganese, fluoric, carbonic, and nitric acids, and part of the lime and magnesia ; consequently there are now only to be accounted for the residue of the magnesia and of the lime, as well as the soda, potash, and ammonia, and the sulphuric and muriatic acids, which remained after the others had become solidified and insoluble. When the earthy and metallic substances preserved the relationship which has been described, to the muriatic, sul- phuric, and nitric acids, and, by their superior affinity towards these acids, excluded the alkalies which, in turn, would com- bine, by their affinities, with the carbonic acid, ike oceanic water would not, it is presumed, have possessed the saline taste and properties which it does at present ; because it has those properties, in our day, by the presence of the muriates of soda, magnesia, and lime, and the sulphate of soda, which it holds in saturation in certain determinate proportions, the muriate of soda, or culinary salt, prevailing greatly over all the others. But as soda could not then have been in com- bination with muriatic acid it being an axiom in chemistry that an acid will affect the saturating principle in proportion to the strength of its affinity ; so, therefore, neither could the taste and qualities which that combination alone confers have been present ; hence it may be looked upon, without much fear of being wrong, that, up to the time of the carboniferous era, the primitive ocean wa,s not salt. Moreover, as the sub- stances dissolved in it were hold in chemical combination, FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 189 they would, even though in great abundance, detract very little from the limpidity of the water.* Those two essential conditions will account for the possibility of its abounding with freshwater plants, in accordance with what is stated in the concluding part of the nineteenth Theorem. Neither is this state of matters greatly at variance with what occurs at the present day, as is shown in the hundred and tenth Theorem, to both of which please refer. Thus I have fulfilled the promise made when treating of the ancient flora, to prove that, although the water of the ocean contained, from the beginning, the elements which confer on it its saline taste, yet it was not salt, but fresh, up to the period when geology can prove " that the whole of the carboniferous plants were of freshwater origin." Having done this, I must now, in continuation, endeavour to show how the ocean assumed its present saline condition. What has already been stated will have prepared the mind for entering upon this explanation ; for I have accounted for the locking up of nearly the whole of the carbonic acid in forming the shelly coverings of the inferior animals of the primitive era, and in the nourishment afforded to its flora. During the same period, we have seen that immense deposits of lime took place, not only in completing these coverings, but also in forming the calcareous cement discoverable every- where in the limestone strata ; and that the same must, like- wise, have occurred with respect to silex, magnesia, and alumina. We were, also, made aware that the introduction of ammonia precipitated the alumina which constitutes the slaty and shaly formations, which, in turn, gave occasion to other changes, causing the simultaneous deposit of more silex, and of magnesia ; while phosphuretted hydrogen per- formed the same office towards the metallic oxides. That barytes and strontites, from being light and soluble com- pounds in union with muriatic and nitric acids, on becoming associated with carbonic and sulphuric acids were precipitated as the most ponderous of the rocky masses. That fluoric acid, holding silex in solution, seems to have entered into the composition of the micaceous deposits which frequently * Lyell's Principles of Geology, vol. i. p. 227. Vide also any analysis of mineral waters. i go DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE accompany the porcelain earths.* And, lastly, it was shown on sufficient authority, that earthy precipitates, on being thrown down by the agency of an alkali, generally carry a small proportion of their acid associate along with them- selves. Having in this way accounted for the purification of the primitive water by being deprived of these earthy, metallic, and acidulous ingredients, it will be seen, by instituting a comparison between the precipitates above enumerated and the ingredients which the water was considered to have con- tained at the commencement, that there remain only to be accounted for the residue of the lime, magnesia, soda, potash, muriatic and sulphuric acids, and the ammoniacal gas which must have arisen from the putrefactive decomposition of innu- merable races of marine animals during a long but indefinite period ; even although a considerable portion of this buoyant gas would be intercepted, in performing other services on its way to the surface. In conducting the remaining inquiry I shall endeavour, first, to dispose of the volatile alkali, which, from its low specific gravity, possesses the peculiar property of conferring on the water a lesser specific weight than it had previous to imbibing it. On a point so essential to the future argument, I should wish to base this fact on the securest evidence. Attend, therefore, to what Drs. Murray and Ure state on this point. "Ammoniacal gas," says the former, " is largely and rapidly absorbed by water ; the water, under a mean atmospheric pressure and tempe- rature, taking up, according to Sir H. Davy, 670 times its bulk of this gas, and acquiring a specific gravity of 0*875. According to Dr. Thomp- son, water takes up even 780 times its bulk of ammoniacal gas. Its solution, in water, is of inferior specific gravity to pure water, being usually from 0-900 to 0-936. This gas is expelled from it by elevating the temperature to 136. "f " The specific gravity of ammonia," says Dr. Ure, " is an important datum in chemical researches, and has been rather differently stated. Yet, as no aeriform body is more easily obtained in a pure state than ammonia, this diversity among accurate experimentalists shows the nicety of this statistical operation. MM. Biot and Arago make it 0-59438. Kirwan says that 100 cubic inches weigh 18-16 gr. at 80 ins. of bar. and 61 of Far., which, compared to air reckoned * Ure'e Chemical Dictionary, p. 331. t Elements of Chemistry, vol. ii. p. 13. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 191 30,519, gives 0-59540. Sir H. Davy determines its density to be 0-590, with which estimate the theoretical calculations of Dr. Prout, in the 6th vol. of the ' Annals of Philosophy,' agree Water is capable of dissolving easily about one-third of its weight of ammo- niacal gas, or 640 times its bulk." Dr. Ure, after referring to a table " of the quantity of ammonia in 100 parts, by weight, of its aqueous combina- tions at successive densities, as given in the Philosophical Magazine for March, 1821," and which in general shows a lower specific gravity than pure water, ranging from O'OOOO to 0'9944<7, goes on to say "The remarkable expansiveness which ammonia carries into its first combination with water, continues in the subsequent dilutions of its aqueous combinations. This curious property is not peculiar to pure ammonia, but belongs, as I have found, to some of its salts. Thus, sal ammoniac, by its union with water, causes an enlargement of the total volume of the compound, beyond the volume of the con- stituents of the solution, or the specific gravity of the saturated solution is less than the mean specific gravity of the salt and water. I know of no salts with which this phenomenon occurs, except the ammoniacal."* The fact of the specific gravity of water being reduced, when combined with ammonia or with its salts, is a remark- able evidence of the all-pervading wisdom of the Creator ; for it will be remembered that its introduction into the primitive water, when in equilibrium, became the prime mover of many of the chemical changes which followed, while as its chief action was directed to the aluminous and magnesian earths dispersed throughout the water, in this diminution of specific gravity an adequate provision was made for its ascending through, and searching, the whole of that world-wide mass of liquid, so that none of the parts might escape its penetrating and precipitating influence. And, lest it should be detained in its upward progress where it was destined long afterwards to act an important part in the future plans of the Creator a weaker affinity was conferred upon it for the acids which remained, than was bestowed upon, the potash, the soda, the lime, or the magnesia, all of which, as has been already shown, rob ammonia of its acid associates wherever they find them united ; and thereby it was left free to pursue its upward tendency, j * Chemical Dictionary, pp. 148, 119. t Ure's Chemical Dictionary, p. 184 ; and Dr. Murray's Elements, vol. ii. p. 15. Nisbet's Chemistry, and Table of Affinities from Dr. Pearson's Chemical Nomen- clai ure. 1 92 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE Hence it may be considered as a legitimate conclusion, that the ammonia, whose low specific gravity, either when pure or when combined with water, caused it to arise in exhalation from putrefying animal substances at the bottom of the ocean, enabled it to continue its course uninterruptedly, while it performed the chemical duties imposed upon it, nor stopped until it reached its destined position amongst the uppermost liquid strata of the primitive ocean, there to await the future designs of the Omnipotent. The disposal of the ammonia leaves us to deal with the following materials only, all of which, according to the best received opinions, would be combined in the water in their most soluble states, viz., soda, potash, lime, magnesia, and muriatic and sulphuric acids ; ingredients which confer on sea-water its peculiar saline constitution, as will be seen by referring to part of the ninety-first Theorem, which states : " That, by repeated analysis, sea-water has been found to con- sist of the following ingredients in every 500 grains, namely, 478 '4 20 of pure water ; 1 3 '3 00 muriate of soda, or culinary salt; 2 '3 3 3 sulphate of soda; 0'995 muriate of lime; 4 '9 5 5 muriate of magnesia. Wherefore, the ocean, besides the elements of pure water, contains muriatic and sulphuric acids, soda, magnesia, and lime, together with traces of iodine, bromine, and, occasionally, 'potash." A more detailed examination of the evidences for this con- clusion, gives us the following particulars : Sir H. de la Beche states, that " according to Dr. Marcet, 500 grains of sea- water, taken from the middle of the North Atlantic, contained Muriate of soda 13-300 Sulphate of soda 2-300 Muriate of lime 0-995 Muriate of magnesia . . . . 4-985 21-580."* Dr. Murray says, that sea-water, on the principle that the most soluble salts will be those existing in solution, will con- tain in a pint * Geology, p. 3. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 193 Muriate of soda .... 159 '3 grains Muriate of magnesia . . . 85'5 Muriate of lime .... 5'7 ,, Sulphate of soda .... 25-6 ,, * Finally, as regards the evidence on this point, although it may, in some degree, be an early anticipation, I can hardly pass onwards without alluding to another concurring cause, namely, the introduction of the primary light into the material universe on the first day of the Mosaic week, whose electrical effects would thereafter tend, perhaps, more than any other influence, to complete the perception of saltness by means of the pre-existing saline elements. Having thus reached a point where the argument d priori coincides with the conclusions of experience, deduced from actual analysis of sea-water, I trust it may be considered that the steps which have led to it have also been correct. When we reflect on the progressive character of the process which transformed the ocean from a boundless reservoir of earthy mineral water, with its saline ingredients and properties neu- tralised by the presence of substances possessing greater affi- nity for the acids than the fixed alkalies, whose union with them is now the cause of its saltness, and, at the same time, consider that the deposition of these earthy materials, which now form the rocky beds of the earth's outer crust, extended in duration from the earliest geological epoch wherein regular strata can be detected, up to the latest of the coal measures, and that these stupendous depositions were many ages in being effected, we have every reason, also, for concluding that the sea acquired its saltness by degrees, and, therefore, that the successive families of plants would correspond, in every respect, to the predominant constitution of the element during that particular period in which each was destined to grow ; while, as an evident deduction from these truths, the final conclusion may be come to, that marine plants, or those most resembling them, such as the fucoides, would be dis- covered only amongst the latest series of the coal measures, or embedded in some of those above them, such as the tertiary strata, which are of still later formation. Before quitting this portion of my labours, and whilst the * Elements of Chemistry, vol. ii. p. 396. O 194 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE EARTH. circumstances are fresh upon the mind which bring out, so clearly and delightfully, the wisdom which devised, and the power and skill which wrought out, these beneficent ends by such numerous and humble instruments, through protracted ages and on a scale so vast, we cannot more appropriately offer up the tribute alike of our adoration and our thanks- giving, than by adopting the language of the Psalmist, and proclaim with one voice, " The sea is his, and he made it ; and his hands formed the dry land. come let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our maker. For he is our God, and we are his people !" SECTION IV. INTRODUCTION OF THE LIGHT; THE CONSEQUENT FIRST DIURNAL ROTATION OF THE EARTH : AND ITS DYNAMICAL RESULTS. CHAPTER XIII. A T the period to which allusion was made towards the close *^- of the last section, the earth was considered to have been a spherical planet, whose horizontal, rocky, stratified crust beneath a dark and atmosphereless ocean was covered in some places by dense vegetation, and in others teemed with inferior animal life ; while the primeval water, though drained of its metallic ingredients, and most of its suspended earths and acids, in forming those strata, still retained some of the two latter, and a proportion of the original alkaline and acidulous elements : and that, thus constituted, the earth was looked upon as circulating round an unillumined sun, in obedience to the same laws which still govern its periodical motion ; and in precisely the same orbit wherein it continues to perform its annual revolution. The great movements of the orbs in space had, long ere the period alluded to, reached a state of equilibrium, from which nothing but a fiat from the Omnipotent could ever have caused them to depart ; but, as regards the earth itself, it is to be borne in mind that, according to the same immu- tability of the laws which govern every particle of matter, the primeval water might, by a continuance of the purifying pro- cess, if it had so pleased Heaven, have gone on parting with elements until it became inconceivably more aeriform than it ever was destined to be. Still, being material, even under o 2 i 9 6 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE these imaginary circumstances, it would have reached a point, and have assumed a state of equilibrium, from which, until the laws Avere changed, it could not possibly have departed. For without the direct and opportune interference of a power beyond itself, and of adequate influence, the non- diurnally rotating earth, with all its concentric stony encrusta- tions, its myriads of living beings, with its dense submarine fields of gigantic plants and its limpid but dark atmosphere- less water, must have continued for ever to have circulated, in annual orbit, around the imillumined sun, without any further progress having been made in the work of Creation. A little more attention and assiduity will, however, bring us to a point where we shall perceive that the world was not destined to be left in this unfinished condition ; but that God, from everlasting, had foreseen this exigency, and did in due time, by the creation of the light, introduce into the material universe a power sufficient to impel the work onwards until it was completed. The condition described at the beginning of this chapter is that in which the earth is considered to have been while, in the impressive language of Sciipture, "darkness was upon the face of the deep;" and it continued in the same state until every atom of superfluous earth was precipitated from the water, and the last plant or creature had fully executed the object for which it was brought into existence. For such is the manifest design prevailing throughout the whole, and so minute the superintending care of the Creator, that the strongest conviction is impressed upon the mind, that whilst a single grain of silex, intended to aid in the forma- tion of any of the numerous stony concretions at the bottom of the ocean, had not as yet been separated from the water, and placed by crystallization in its destined position, no change would be commanded to take place in the great governing laws of the universe ; while, on the other hand, whenever the last particle had subsided, we believe that not one instant of time would elapse until the fiat went forth which should change the whole face of Creation ; and the material universe, from an un illumined congeries of spheres, revolving in the dark womb of nature, should be transformed into a radiant galaxy of worlds, shining in the beams of the FORMATION OF THE EARTH. i 97 newly formed light, and rejoicing in all their pristine purity and loveliness. In prosecution, therefore, of the subject, it is now to be considered that the moment had arrived, foreseen from all eternity, when submerged plants and animals had for the time being alike fulfilled their destined functions, and the last material particle designed to be separated from the pri- mitive water, and aggregated to the solid earth beneath, had reached its destination, and the august command, " Let there be light," was resounding throughout the universe ; suffi- ciently vouched for by the obedient response which imme- diately follows, " And there was light." After dwelling for a moment with feelings of admiration and astonishment on whatever can be comprehended of the attributes and power of that Being who could thus command and be obeyed by all nature, and filled with love for the unbounded goodness which caused such a gracious act of volition, let us endeavour to determine the results of this important and transforming announcement on the state, the motions, and the materials of the hitherto non-rotating, watery-bound sphere, " without form and void," but which, with pleasing variety of hill and dale, of land and water, and in the enjoyment of the vicis- situdes of day and night, and summer and winter, now forms the mighty pedestal whereon myriads of beings, adapted to its altered condition, are wheeled with rapid but unconscious speed through the prescribed regions of space. In attempting this arduous undertaking, the conceptions which crowd upon the attention are so numerous, and have reference to so many and to such stupendous operations, that they almost overwhelm, and leave the mind in a condition to be scarcely able to deal effectually with any of them. Hitherto these investigations have had reference to works carried on throughout a period of long duration, but of so progressive a character that leisure was afforded for careful examination, as the work went on, step by step, towards per- fection ; and composure was enjoyed to note down the suc- cessive events which were taking place beneath a shoreless ocean and upon a motionless sphere, where all was still and slowly progressive. But from the time now referred to, when the prime mover, LIGHT, was introduced amongst the i 9 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE materials which had thus been prepared, the whole aspect of creation suddenly changed, and events of transcendental importance succeeded each other with astounding rapidity. Those elements, which had been the work of ages to create, were now, within the limited space of six days, to be all remodelled, fashioned, and framed, and made to occupy the relative positions on the land, in the sea, and throughout the air, for which they had been designed from all eternity ! Where darkness reigned paramount before, material light was intro- duced to be its powerful and active competitor. The dark, slumbering, shoreless ocean was made to rush, wave over wave, with impetuous haste, from the poles towards the equator, so soon as the finger of God, by causing the earth to rotate, had marked off those points, hitherto non-existent, upon the surface of the non-rotating sphere ; while the great conti- nental ridges of the world raised their huge backs from beneath part of that agitated ocean, to restrain it in future within the hollow cavities which simultaneously sank down in obedience to the Creator's will. And the elements of the atmosphere, ejected far into space by the same proto-motion, were there transfixed by their decreed union with light, and never allowed to return ; but there retained, as the life-sus- taining atmosphere. LIGHT, however, the chief secondary agent in producing all these wondrous e'ffects, is that to which I would, at present, more particularly direct the attention. It is not intended to enter into any discussion as to the exact nature of the light which, on the first day of the Mosaic week, was willed into existence. Yet it is considered to have been akin to the invisible light and heat which can be excited by electrical agency that powerful but imperceptible fluid, for example, which results by completing the voltaic circuit and that not until the fourth day of the Mosaic week did visible light exist. The words, " Let there be light : and there was light," have usually a signification applied to them almost exclusively of power. But, besides the incontestable evidence of Omni- potency which these passages so clearly display, they, at the same time, convey a meaning equally as wonderful by the UBIQUITY of the light which they make so manifest. It is FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 199 considered that the element, recorded to have been formed on the first day of the Mosaic week, is the most immaterial of all material substances which were created. I am well aware of the difference between materialism and immaterialism, and have no intention of confounding them ; it is merely wished to convey, by these assertions, a conception of the tenuity, subtilty, and buoyancy of light. It was the Creator's chief agent, of a material kind, in accomplishing the six days' work recorded in the Mosaic narrative ; and, before it was created, a " movement on the face of the waters " produced effects which, although material, light could not have done, yet were they entrusted to this latter agent, for ever after- wards to be continued and preserved in the condition to which they were brought by more immediate influence. In the thirty-eighth Theorem (which please see) light is described, and, in selecting the evidences, I shall, for the present, dwell more especially upon those which refer to its ubiquity, whether as regards its universality throughout space or its searching penetrability and minuteness. Upon its velocity and intensity a few passages will suffice, and these shall be first submitted. Sir David Brewster states " That light moves with a velocity of 192,500 miles in a second of time. It travels from the sun to the earth in seven minutes and a half. It moves through a space equal to the circumference of our globe in the eighth part of a second ; a flight which the swiftest bird could not perform in less than three weeks." * Sir John Herschel says " Roemer (a Danish astronomer, in 1675), speculating on the prob- able physical cause of the difference in the times of the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites, was naturally led to think of the gradual, instead of an instantaneous, propagation of light. This explained every par- ticular of the observed phenomenon, but the velocity required (192,000 miles per second) was so great as to startle many, and, at all events, to require confirmation. This has been afforded since in the most unequivocal manner." f It is stated in the " Connection of the Sciences," with reference to the intensity of this subtile element, that * Optics, Cab. Cye., p. 2. t Astronomy, Cab. Cyc., p. 466. 200 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE " The intensity of light depends upon the amplitude or extent of the vibrations of the particles of ether ; while its colour depends upon their frequency. The time of the vibration of a particle of ether is, by theory, as the length of a wave directly, and inversely as its velocity." And after describing the delicate and ingenious method employed by Sir Isaac Newton, and others, to compute the frequency of these vibrations, it is further said " Now, as Sir Isaac Newton knew the radius of the curvature of the lens, and the actual breadth of the rings in the parts of an inch, it was easy to compute that the thickness of the air at the darkest part of the first ring is the l-89000th part of an inch, whence all the others have been deduced. As these intervals determine the length of the waves on the undulatory hypothesis, and as the time of a vibra- tion of a particle of ether producing any particular colour is directly as a wave of that colour, and inversely as the velocity of light, it follows that the molecules of ether producing the extreme red of the solar spectrum perform 458 millions of millions of vibrations in a minute of time ; and that those producing the extreme violet accom- plished 727 millions of millions of vibrations in the same time The determination of these minute portions of time and of space, both of which have a real existence, being the actual results of measure- ment, do as much honour to the genius of Newton as that of the law of gravitation." : "According to the undulatory theory," says Sir David Brewster, in the Treatise on Optics, " an exceedingly thin and elastic medium, called ether, is supposed to fill all space, and to occupy the intervals between the particles of all material bodies. The ether must be so extremely rare as to present no appreciable resistance to the planetary bodies which move freely through it." These evidences, as to the velocity, intensity, and the minuteness of the vibrations of light, must now be followed up by some extracts regarding its wide-spread expansion throughout space. The author of the " Architecture of the Heavens," in his impressive language, says " The nebulae, whose general aspect I am about to describe, present very various appearances to the telescope " It was a bold conception, after having recognised the great mean- ing of these nebula;, to undertake to compute their relative distances, and to lay down their plan. But, undaunted even by the idea of the firmamental universe, Herschel undertook to fix what it was within reach of his telescopes, and of course, what it might be beyond them. * Astronomy, Cab. Cyc., pp. 190 193. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 201 By using comparatively small telescopes he determined the remoteness of 47 resolvable clusters, ten of which were upwards of 900 times more distant than Sirius. Suppose a cluster as ascer- tained to be of the 900th order of distances were first seen by a tele- scope whose space-penetrating power is 10, it is easy to compute how far off it must be to be descried as a faint speck by an instrument whose power is 200 it would evidently be at the enormous remote- ness of 18,000 times that of Sirius ! Very many unresolved clusters are undoubtedly as profound, and many still profounder in space. Herschel reaches the depth of the 35175th order of dis- tances, in which some of these nebulae must be A forty-feet reflector could descry a cluster of stars, consisting of 5,000 indi- viduals, were it at the remoteness of 11,765,475,948,678,678,679 miles, and, in fact, the limits to the power of such an instrument being only an object fainter than the general light of the skies constituted by the intermingling of the rays of all the stars." * More conclusive evidences than these, of the almost im- measurable expansion of light throughout the universe, or of the extreme rapidity of its vibrations, need scarcely be desired. Indeed the tongue can hardly repeat the numbers which the foregoing array of figures denotes, nor the mind imagine the almost illimitable immensity of space to which they have reference ; while it should be remembered, that, as far as the human eye armed with the most powerful lenses is concerned, these vast distances at which luminous objects are visible these vanishing points of light extend in every direction, as from a centre, around our mundane speck, that they are as remote in every quarter of the heavens as in any one region ! Nothing appears wanting, therefore, to show the universal diffusion of light ; or the almost inconceivable velocity of its undulations, whereby it seems to shrink, as it were, as far from our perception by minuteness as it spreads itself throughout space in extension. And this having been satis- factorily established, I have next to combine it with the no less certain fact of its having been complete in itself before that state or quality which divides it from the darkness was impressed upon it. And here I may observe, that the bound- less stores of SCIENCE, varied and delightful as they are, may be ransacked in vain without imparting to us the slightest information on this particular point. Yet we know, upon * Architecture of the Heavens, Nichol, 1837, pp. 48, 54, 39, 102, 103. 202 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE the irrefragable authority of Him who formed it, that such was the case ; that there was a time however evanescent when the LIGHT, before it was divided from the darkness, was complete and whole in itself, and lacked nothing. It was light, but quiescent light, as yet undivided from the darkness ; for it is recorded, where no mistake can occur, that in that condition " it was good." And therefore, as a correct infer- ence from these positions, there can be laid down the two bases, that there was an instant of time when the light, though com- plete, was without motion, and that, as near as matter can be, it is ubiquitous. Holding these two dominant qualities of light steadily in the mind, and pondering over their united effect upon the act of conferring motion upon that subtile element, it is impossible to come to any other conclusion than that the motion impressed upon it would be one of VIBRATION or UNDULATION. For it can be easily imagined that throughout any space, however vast, which is completely filled by an elastic medium, eminently ethereal (and the more ethereal the greater tension and effect), a vibratory motion may, when engendered, be propagated and transmitted with the utmost rapidity. But it seems wholly inconceivable, on any- thing like philosophical principles, to imagine that particles of matter, although ever so minute, subtile, or penetrating, which, before motion was communicated to them, filled all space, could be made to travel through the identical sjace which was filled with them previously ! This brings us a stage nearer to the point at which I wished to arrive ; and leads to a further and more important consideration of the same combination, namely, the ubiquity of the ethereal element, and the fact that there was a time, however brief, when light existed, complete in itself, but with- out having been divided from the darkness. The results arising from these positions will, on inves- tigation, be found to have been most momentous. The introduction of this new force into the material universe, as the first act of creative power during the Mosaic week, amongst materials which it had required ages to prepare for its reception, will show us, as the inquiries proceed, that light, and especially its ubiquity and its division from the FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 203 darkness, caused it to become the prime material mover in almost all the stupendous operations of that eventful week, ivhich were designed, from everlasting, to follow in the sequence in which they stand recorded. The first point in this new chain of argument is to prove, that the presence of lieat and light invariably causes expansion. In effecting this I shall commence by supporting the statements made in the fiftieth Theorem (to which please refer, as essential) with the following evidence : In another part of the work from which this is taken it is added " It will be seen that when heat is imparted to a body its dimen- sions are immediately increased ; and it is found that this increase takes place equally throughout every part of the dimensions, so that the figure or shape of the body is preserved, every part being enlarged in the same degree. Now, this effect must be produced by the con- stituent particles of the body moving to a greater distance asunder ; and since the increase of diminution takes place equally throughout every part of the volume of the body, the component particles must be everywhere separated equally. In fact, they have driven each other to a greater distance asunder, and a repulsive force has conse- quently been called into action." * Sir John Herschel, in his "Treatise on Natural Philosophy," expresses himself thus, on the same subject : " The dilatation of bodies by heat forms the subject of that branch of science called pyrometry. There is no body but is capable of being penetrated by heat, though some with greater, others with less rapidity; and being so penetrated, all bodies are dilated by it in bulk, though with a greater diversity in the amount of dilatation produced by the same degree of heat." And, in continuation, he adds - " These facts, coupled with the greater compressibility of liquids, and the still greater of gases, strongly induce us to believe that it is heat, and heat alone, which holds the particles of all bodies at that distance from each other which is necessary to allow of compression ; which in fact gives them their elasticity, and acts as the antagonistic force to their mutual attraction, which would otherwise draw them into actual contact, and retain them in a state of absolute immobility and impenetrability. Thus we learn to regard heat as one of the great maintaining powers of the universe, and to attach to all its laws and relations a degree of importance which may justly entitle them to the most assiduous inquiry." Heat, in the Cab. Cyclopaedia. 204 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE The attention will next be directed to a part of the second Theorem, namely, " that the Earth is a non-luminous body, receiving its external light and heat from the sun;" and, in continuation, to some of the evidences on which that assertion is founded. Sir John Herschel, in his " Treatise on Astronomy," says " Henceforward, then, in conformity with the above statements, and with the Copernican view of our system, we must learn to look upon the sun as the comparatively motionless centre about which the Earth performs an annual elliptic orbit of the dimensions and eccentricity, and with a velocity regulated according to the law above assigned ; the sun occupying one of the foci of the ellipse, and from that station quietly disseminating on all sides its light and heat." And again " The sun's rays are the ultimate source of almost every motion which takes place on the surface of the earth The great mystery, however, is to conceive how so enormous a conflagration (if such it be) can be kept up. Every discovery in chemical science here leaves us completely at a loss, or, rather, seems to remove farther the pros- pect of probable explanation. If conjecture might be hazarded, we should look rather to the known possibility of an indefinite generation of heat by friction, or to its excitement by the electric discharge, than to any actual combustion of ponderable fuel, whether solid or gaseous, for the solar radiation." In the article on Heat in the " Cabinet Cyclopedia," it is stated " From this it appears that the only external source of appreciable heat to the earth is the sun." I must, in continuation, recapitulate the first part of the forty-seventh Theorem : " That a comparison of the natural phenomena, in which the effects of light and heat are mani- fested, affords reason to infer the existence of a connection so intimate between them as to warrant the, belief of their identity." Before proceeding to bring forward the direct evidences on which this Theorem is founded, reference is requested to the definitions given by Sir William Herschel, in a paper read before the Royal Society, May 15, 1800, of light and heat, whose manner of comportment in all essential circum- stances are stated by him to be identical ; and then let the only natural inference be drawn which can possibly be done FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 205 by an unprejudiced mind, namely, that no two substances or states of matter could comport themselves with such perfect similarity in such a variety of cases, and yet be essentially different. Sir John Herschel says " The laws of the radiation of heat have been studied with great attention, and have been found to present strong analogies with that of light in some points, and singular differences in others. Thus, the heat which accompanies the sun's rays comports itself in all respects like light ; being subject to similar laws of reflection, refraction, and even of polarization, as has been shown by Berard. Yet they are not identical with each other : Sir William Herschel having shown by decisive experiments, verified by those of Sir H. Englefield, that there exist in the solar beam both rays of heat which are not luminous, and rays of light which have no heating power." * " Between light and heat," says Dr. Ure, " so intimate a relation- ship subsists, that they must be conceived as two modifications of the same fundamental agency." In another part of the same work he adds " Associated with light in the sunbeam, heat must also follow its theoretic fortunes." In the " Cabinet Cyclopaedia" it is said " That the principal properties of heat are so nearly identical with those of light, that the supposition that heat is obscure light is coun- tenanced by strong probabilities." Again " The calorific property which constantly accompanies the solar rays, as well as the rays proceeding from flame, would indicate that heat is a necessary concomitant or property of light The whole body of natural phenomena in which the effect of heat and light are concerned, demonstrate an intimate physical connection between these agents." And, " if the identity of light and heat be admitted, then the question of the nature of heat is removed to that of light." " In what has just been said," says Professor Whewell, " we have spoken of light only with respect to its power of illuminating objects, and conveying the impressions of them to the eyes. It possesses, however, beyond all doubt, many other qualities. Light is intimately connected with heat, as we see in the case of the sun and of flame ; yet it is clear that light and heat are not precisely identical. Light is evidently connected, too, with galvanism and electricity ; and, per- * Nat. Philos., in Cab. Cyc., p. 314. 206 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE haps, through these, with magnetism It manifests, also, chemical action in various ways." : Mr. Turner bears the fullest testimony in favour of the point now sought to be established. "From light," says he, "we cannot separate the recollection and companionship of heat. They are now found to be so generally existing in the latent or the active state wherever either is present, that they are thought to be modifications or different conditions of the same element ; when both these occur, we have fire. Fire is luminous heat, or heat in the state of light. The sun's light has the effect of both heat and light The Hebrew word used by Moses, " aor," expresses both light and fire." f We now require to examine the forty-eighth Theorem, to which please refer, and its conclusion, that in certain cases sunlight is the direct cause of heat. " The calorific powers of the sun's rays," says the writer on Heat in the ' Cabinet Cyclopasdia,' " may be exhibited in a very conspicuous manner by concentrating a large number of them into a small space, by means of a burning-glass The heating power of the sun's rays, when collected by a burning-glass, far exceeds the heat of a powerful furnace. A piece of gold placed in the focus of such a glass has not only been melted, but has been actually converted into vapour by Lavoisier." J Sir David Brewster, in his " Treatise on Optics," cor- roborates this opinion : " A combination of plane burning-mirrors forms a powerful burning instrument ; and it is highly probable that it was with such a combi- nation that Archimedes destroyed the ships of Marsellas M. Peyrard conceives that with 590 glasses, about 20 inches in diameter, he could reduce a fleet to ashes at the distance of a quarter of a league ; and with glasses of double that size at the distance of half a league " There have thus been proved, by the concurring testi- mony of the most scientific writers of the age on the respect- ive subjects under discussion, 1. That the sun is the source of the external light and heat received by the earth ; 2. That light and heat are either identical or most intimately connected ; 3. That the rays of sunlight cause heat ; and 4. That heat causes expansion. It is requested that these * Bridgewater Treatise, p. 138. f Turner's Sacred History. I Pages 349, 350. Optics, Cab. Cyc., p. 314. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 207 several results may be carefully borne in mind, as they may be the means, hereafter, of enabling us to arrive at some important conclusions. Let it now be seen what evidences there are for the support of the fifty-first Theorem, concerning Attraction and Repulsion, to which please refer. The " Cabinet Cyclopaedia " remarks " We have seen that when heat is imparted to a body its dimen- sions have immediately increased ; and it is found that this increase takes place equally through every part of the dimensions, so that the figure or shape of the body is preserved, every part being enlarged in the same degree In fact, they have driven each other to a greater distance asunder, and a repulsive force has, consequently, been called into action. On the other hand, if heat be abstracted from a body, its dimensions uniformly contract, its figure being preserved as before, and the diminution of size being equally produced through- out its whole volume. The component particles, in this case, there- fore, approach each other equally throughout the whole volume of the body ; in other words, they are drawn together, and an attractive force is brought into action These phenomena indicate the presence of two antagonistic forces, acting at the same time on the constitutional particles, and suspending them in equilibrium ; namely, the repulsive agent, determined by the presence of heat, and increased in its energy by the increased application of the physical principle ; and the attractive force, with which the particles are naturally con- densed, and by which they always have a tendency to cohere in solid masses. So long as the energy of the cohesive principle exceeds the power of the repulsive force produced by heat, the body will remain in a solid state ; but, by the continued application of heat, the energy of the repulsive principle being increased, and the particles continually separated, these two powers will at length be brought nearly to the state of equilibrium." * And, lastly, on this subject, it is ascertained from Mr. Donovan " That it may be received as a general law, which, however, is not without exception, that the effect of cold on all bodies is to lessen their bulk, and to increase their specific gravity. Conversely, it might easily be anticipated, that, by adding heat, the repulsion of the material parts would be increased, the bulk would be augmented, and the specific gravity diminished ; this, accordingly is found by experi- ment to be the case ; and the law applies to matter, whether in the solid, liquid, or gaseous state." t This, therefore, is another and an important step in the * Heat, in Cab. Cyc., pp. 8, 169, 177, et seq. t Chemistry, Cab. Cyc., p. 44. zo8 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE direct progress of our argument. The conclusion was for- merly come to that light and heat cause expansion. By this we perceive that the expansive influence occasioned by light and heat is the direct antagonist to attraction ; for it is asserted, that " were this principle of expansion not present, mutual approximation, crystallization, solidification, in short attraction, would be the natural and infallible consequences." We also have been made aware that heat and light may be considered concomitants. Being so, and, at the same time, the cause of expansion, it follows that their absence would be equivalent to the absence of the expansive principle. But the absence of light is darkness, and, as has just been made out, the absence, also, of the expansive principle ; while this, in turn, is equal to the presence of the attractive principle. Consequently, when this reasoning is applied to Scripture, it warrants the conclusion, that the words which state that " darkness was upon the face of the deep," '"" imply, as deter- minately, that " attraction was on the face of the deep." In continuation, I have, if possible, to determine the true import of the expression in the original, which the transla- tors have rendered " deep," and afterwards to inquire whether scientific writers concur in considering attraction to extend throughout space, and to pervade all matter. With reference to the first of these points there are, for- tunately, the following very apposite remarks in one of the Northern Reviews : " Of the earth (referring to the second verse of Genesis), it is said that it was l thohu" and 'bohu;' of the 'thehom,' that there was darkness on its aspect ; and of the waters, that they were subjected to the vital energy of the Spirit of God. Now the thehom here men- tioned seems to be used in a wider sense than as an appellation of the deep sea, or the bottomless place ; for it is separately distinguished from the waters. It probably has here a more primitive meaning than that which is implied in its etymological relation to thohu, namely, a boundless place, and is used to denote space, that which is boundless, not in one, but in all its dimensions, not the deep, but the vast." | This philological explanation appears closely to agree with the opinion of astronomers. Sir John F. Hersehel, in re- ferring to Newton's law of gravitation, says * Gen. i. 2. f Presbyterian Keview on Mr. Fairholnie's Geology. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 209 "Every particle of matter in the universe attracts every other particle with a force directly proportioned to the mass of the attract- ing particle, and inversely to the square of the distance between them." And again "It is in consequence of the mutual gravitation of all the several parts of matter, which the Newtonian law supposes, that the earth and moon, while in the act of revolving, monthly, in their mutual orbits about their common centre of gravity, yet continue to circulate without parting company in a greater annual orbit round the sun."* And in conclusion on this point, there is the forcible evidence of a recent writer, who, when describing the binary stars, says " One star moves round another (or, more properly, each round their common centre of gravity) in an elliptic curve ; precisely the curve which is described by the earth and other planets in their revolu- tions around the sun. Uniformity of this sort is exceedingly remark- able ; it points to some common cause ; in other words, to the LAW OF GRAVITATION, which the nature of this curve enabled Newton to detect as the first principle of planetary order. Gravity has often been surmised to be universal : at all events we have now stretched it beyond the limits of the most eccentric comet into the distant inter- vals of space ; whilst every extension of its known efficacy manifestly increases, in accelerating ratio, the probability that it is a fundamental law of matter."| Thus carefully and inquiringly has this investigation been brought by two distinct routes to a converging point, where it is found that the darkness mentioned in Scripture, besides its more popular meaning as the opposite of light, has a scientific and more recondite signification, and one which leaves no doubt upon the mind that it was meant to imply attraction, or an influence which, were it permitted to operate exclu- sively, would so grasp all materialism as to reduce it into one solid motionless mass of inertia. And after having satis- factorily identified the darkness of Scripture with the attrac- tion of science, the inquiry has been continued. from sources connected with the latter, until it has been proved that attraction is an all-pervading principle, or, as Newton's * Astronomy, Cab. Cyc. t Architecture of the'Heavens, pp. 92, 93. zio DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE EARTH, followers express themselves, " the first principle of planetary order;" and equalled in ubiquity only by light; which may, therefore, with perfect propriety, be styled the second " prin- ciple of planetary order " a result which the whole tenor of these inquiries respecting this subtle fluid authorised the fullest anticipation. SECTION IY. INTRODUCTION OF THE LIGHT ; THE CONSEQUENT PROTOROTA- TION OF THE EARTH ; AND ITS DYNAMICAL RESULTS. CHAPTER XIV. TTAVING reached this convenient resting-place, it may be *-*- proper, on commencing another chapter, to avail myself of the juncture thus afforded, to say a few words in explana- tion of the position assumed from the first, on the faith of its being unquestioned, although at variance with most of our preconceived opinions. I allude to the fundamental doctrine of this Treatise, that the earth and other planets in virtue of the same laws which now govern their orbital motions revolved around the sun, the satellites around their primaries, and the whole around their common centre of gravity of the system, for ages before the sun was illumined; for it may be supposed, by those who have not inquired into these subjects, that the solar system could not have existed under such circumstances. In a subsequent part of this work it will be satisfactorily shown that the planetary orbital motions in space are per- fectly independent of, and can exist with or without, diurnal rotation. Meanwhile, to convince the reader, that the solar system might exist, and perform all its orbital functions, although the sun should be again reduced to what it assuredly once was, for a long but indefinite period, AN OPAQUE MASS, and darkness should be again restored to its ancient dominion over the face of the deep if the assertion made, to that effect, in Scripture be not deemed sufficient the following p 2 212 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE opinions are offered, of men whose word should dispel all remaining doubts : " Let it be granted," says Professor Whewcll, when deducing evidences of desiyn from the sun being in the centre, " that the law of gravitation is established, and that we have a large mass, with others much smaller, in its comparative vicinity. The small bodies may then move round the larger, but this will do nothing towards making it a sun to them. Their motions might take place, the whole system remaining still utterly dark and cold, without either day or summer. In order that we may have something more than this blank and dead assemblage of moving clods, the machine must be lighted up and warmed. " Now this lighting and warming by a central sun are something added to the mere mechanical arrangements of the universe. There is no apparent reason why the largest mass of gravitating matter should diffuse inexhaustible supplies of light and heat in all directions, while the other masses are merely passive, with respect to such influences. There is no obvious connection between mass and lumi- nousness or temperature. No one, probably, will contend that the materials of our system are necessarily luminous or hot " The sun might become, we will suppose, the centre of the motions of the planets by mere mechanical causes ; but what caused the centre of their motions to be also the source of those vivifying influences ? Allowing that no interposition was requisite to regulate the revolutions of the system, yet observe what a peculiar arrange- ment in other respects was necessary, in order that these revolutions might produce days and seasons ! The machine will move of itself, we may grant ; but who constructed the machine so that its move- ments might answer the purposes of life ? " There appears, therefore, to be nothing wanting to con- vince an unprejudiced mind, that darkness signifies attrac- tion ; and that, according to the Mosaic account, it "was upon the face of the deep," implying space in all its vastness and extent ; and consequently that it pervaded our system as a portion of space. For my own part, I adopt these terms in the acceptation here given ; and until they can be proved to have a different meaning they shall be applied accordingly in all future reasoning. Yet, I desire not to be misunderstood ; for no doubt there are minds capable of resisting this mode of reasoning ; and, indeed, every mode of reasoning short of tangible evidences. For the convincing of such, it is to be regretted, that neither * Bridgewater Treatise, pp. 169 171. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 213 the nature of the subject, nor the present state of science, will admit of these direct appeals being made to their senses, although presently it will be shown that, during a long but indefinite period, there existed a state of matters on the face of our planet, to which light, as it now exists, so far from being serviceable, would actually have been inimical; and consequently could not, in accordance with the wisdom of the Creator, have possibly existed. Besides, by denying or refusing to accede to the supposition that darkness is the expression for attraction, it would imply, that the inspired historian has omitted to mention a principle which is known, and confessed to have pervaded the whole universe ! a conclusion alike inconsistent with our belief in the wisdom and prescience of that Being who dictated the divine record, as well as with all experience regarding it : for no other circumstance, no, not even the most minute, is overlooked when such is necessary to render the announcement com- plete. But it is not alone in this part of Scripture that darkness is mentioned as equivalent to attraction. We have the authority of the Almighty himself, who, when speaking from the whirlwind to his patient and afflicted servant, asks him in the sublime words which suited such an occasion, " Who shut up the sea with doors when it brake forth as if it had issued out of the womb ? When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling-band for it."* The following considerations may, perhaps, serve to con- firm the conviction with regard to the meaning here attached to the word " darkness." Admitting, for a moment, that it does signify attraction, then there is the following. The ultimate end of attraction is rest or inertia ; for it cannot be conceived of matter tending, as it would do under the unrestrained influence of attraction, to a centre, without associating in the mind the idea of its tending ultimately to rest. But if attraction be rest, inertia, or immovability, then it follows that all motion must be the antagonist of attraction. It certainly does not become finite, imperfect beings to inquire too scrutinisingly into the nature of the movement * Job xxxviii. 8, 9. 2i 4 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE which was communicated to "the waters;" all we have to do is to believe, because it is so written, that the counteract- ing influence to attraction, whose effects are still appreciable in the works of the Creator during the period when " dark- ness was upon the face of the deep," was communicated to matter by immediate and Divine influence ; and that it was 'motion which was then communicated. Not only because it is thus recorded in Scripture, but because it is confirmed by reflection. For as, by the law of inertia, " matter can neither spontaneously create nor destroy motion in itself,"* conse- quently, whatever vibratory motion existed in the circum- fluent atmosphereless water of the earth before the formation of the light must have been derived from a supernatural and immaterial source. Those only who have felt the intense anxiety of mind aris- ing from the contemplation of such subjects which require to be traced out in the illimitable field in which they exist, and the fear which is entertained, in doing so, of blending or weakening truth by conjecture are capable of appreciating the comfort of finding spots of such secure foundation as those which have just been elicited, and which, springing from opposite sources science and religion afford a firm footing amid all that is obscure and dubious around. Science has rendered incalculable service by tracing so clearly the boundary line of the capability of matter, and by frankly declaring " that it is unable to engender spontaneous motion in itself, or to destroy it when once it is originated by any external cause." Whilst, with an assurance such as this, exhibiting the inherent limits of matter, it is satisfactory to be informed by the Creator himself that He supplied that which was wanting ; and what matter could not do for itself was done for it by Divine power. These investigations, likewise, seem to strengthen the reli- ance which the mind is disposed to place in the truthfulness of this recondite portion of Scripture. For it may be remem- bered, that considerable pains were taken to draw a broad line of distinction between the two consecutive creative acts that of f warning the light complete in itself, and that of impressing a peculiar state or condition upon it. The former of these * Vide the 67th Theorem. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 215 was considered to have permeated all materialism with an ethereal quiescent fluid. The latter communicated to that elastic, tenuous expansion a vibratory movement of almost inconceivable rapidity, and in a direction which should cause it to act as the antagonist of attraction. And it is when we distinguish most clearly 'between the perfection of the consti- tutional nature of this all-pervading fluid and its impressed condition, and also keep before the mind that, at the period alluded to in the second verse of Genesis, it was not in exist- ence, that we shall be most fully impressed with a conviction of the correctness and truth of the announcement therein made. All matter is now pervaded with the ethereal fluid to which such frequent allusion has been made, and through its movements or vibrations light and heat are communicated, by certain determinate laws, to the former. " In the begin- ning," however, the whole material universe was surrounded by aqueous envelopes ; this, as regards the Earth, has been made clearly manifest in the three preceding sections, when showing what were the existences, alike of the animal and vegetable kingdoms, which then tenanted the bottom of the primitive water ; and also that the stratified rocky masses were deposited from an ubiquitous ocean which held their elements in suspension ; and, consequently, that the whole sphere was circumbounded by water. Indeed there is every reason for supposing that then there was no existent state of matter of greater tenuity than water. To this, therefore, the requisite vibratory motion was communicated by Him who alone could impart it, or who could determine the degree of warmth necessary to maintain it, and the material portion beneath, in the state best adapted for sustaining and fostering the myriads of living creatures and of plants which were destined to dwell beneath, and there to work out his sovereign will and pleasure. The great difference between the medium which received and communicated the sensation of heat in that era of the earth's history, and the ethereal medium which now performs the same office, may, possibly, account for the additional density which, in general, is found, by the exuvise, to have prevailed in the external coverings of zoophyta, plants, and apulmonic animals of the ancient world ; and to which refer- 2l6 ence has been made in the hundred and thirty-seventh The- orem. To this, however, I shall merely allude, leaving it to others, and to a more advanced condition of science, to eluci- date the subject more thoroughly ; but, even now, it may be beneficial to caution whoever engages in this new and ample field of investigation, to beware of confounding in any degree the power and the free will of God with the designs which it pleased Him then to have in view. It was not the want of power which withheld the light from existing as now consti- tuted for so many ages, but because another and a more direct agency was more consonant with the plan of Creation. Neither was the arm of the Omnipotent less capable of having " stretched out the firmament like a curtain " from everlast- ing ; but because he chose to place the whole material universe in vacuo, and in that state to cause his multifarious organic instruments to produce that which would endure. Not air- dissolving textures, but hard, stony, perdurable substances, which should remain, and, by layer after layer, encrust the mundane sphere, in preparation for the first rotation of the earth, when they should start into life, as it were, and form themselves into continental chains and oceanic hollows, with all the variety of hill and dale, mountain and valley, which render the present earth so fitting an abode for those creatures destined in due time to be ushered in for the purpose of rendering Him intellectual service, and for his own glory. I shall, therefore, leave the conception, that the peculiarity in the external media, which the animals and plants of the non-diurnally rotatory period were made to interpose between themselves and the communicating medium of heat during that era, has an intimate connection originating from a law common to both, to be matured by others ; but, in the mean- time, I take occasion to observe, that what has been made out so clearly respecting the working of the Creator " in the beginning" has opened up a fine vista into those remote periods of time, by showing us, that although " darkness was upon the face of the deep," yet there has been an uncle vi- ating unity of plan from the first ; that, during the Avhole period shadowed forth by " the beginning," the law of pro- gression, by repeated consecutive acts of creative energy, was FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 217 the principal feature impressed upon matter. That it was, in fact, the development of the great plan of creation, traced from everlasting, and continued to be unfolded until the riches of a wisdom which is unsearchable was fully displayed, and it could be declared that the whole was " very good." The following passages, from some of the scientific writers of the day, seem to corroborate the views here adopted of LIGHT and DARKNESS ; while they more especially tend to confirm the idea of the identity of DARKNESS and ATTRAC- TION : "The luminous ether, then," says Professor Whewell, "if we so call the medium in which light is propagated, must possess many other properties besides those mechanical ones on which the illumi- nating power depends. It must not be merely like a fluid poured into the vacant spaces and interstices of the material world, and exercising no action on objects ; it must affect the physical, chemical, and vital powers of what it touches. It must be a great and active agent in the work of the universe, as well as an active reporter of what is done by other agents. It must possess a number of complex and refined contrivances and adjustments which we cannot analyze, bearing upon plants and chemical compounds, and the imponderable agents ; as well as those laws which we conceive that we have analyzed, by which it is the vehicle of illumination and vision All analogy leads us to suppose, that if we knew as much of the con- stitution of the luminiferous ether as we know of the constitution of the atmosphere, we should find it a machine as complex and artificial as skilfully and admirably constructed. " The mere fact, however, that there is such an ether, and that it has properties related to other agents in the way we have suggested, is well calculated to extend our views of the structure of the universe, and of the resources, if we may so speak, of the power by which it was arranged. The solid and fluid of the earth are the most obvious to our senses ; over this, and in its cavities, is poured an invariable fluid, the air, by which warmth and life are diffused and fostered, and by which men communicate with men j over and through this again, and reaching, so far as we know, to the utmost bounds of the uni- verse, is spread another most subtile and attenuated fluid, which, by the play of another set of agents, aids the energies of nature, and which, filling all parts of space, is a means of communication with other planets and other systems."* "It appears highly probable," says Professor Buckland, "from recent discoveries, that light is not a material substance, but only an effect of undulations of ether ; that this infinitely subtile and elastic ether pervades all space, and even the interior of all bodies ; so LONG AS IT REMAINS AT BEST THERE IS TOTAL DARKNESS ', WHEN IT IS PUT INTO Bridgewater Treatise, pp. 138 140. 218 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE A PECULIAR STATE OF VIBRATION, THE SENSATION OF LIGHT IS PRODUCED : this vibration may be excited by various causes ; e.g. by the sun, by the stars, by electricity, combustion, &c. If, then, light be not a substance, but only a series of vibrations of ether, i.e. an effect pro- duced on a subtile fluid by the excitement of one, or many, extraneous causes, it can be hardly said, nor is it said in Gen. i. 3, to have been created, though it may be literally said to be called into action." * In a previous part of this section it was endeavoured to be proved that, in Scriptural language, darkness signifies attrac- tion, and that attraction propends by its inherent nature to immobility, inertia, or rest. Now, in the passage just quoted, Dr. Buckland, supported by numerous respectable authorities, considers darkness to be " the ethereal medium at rest." The evidence, in this instance, of Dr. Buckland and others goes to prove, that the existence of the ethereal medium, and its movement > are separate and distinct, and that the one may exist altogether irrespective of the other, which is tantamount to the admission that the motion which it did receive was communicated to it by some power or influence exterior to and above itself. The opinion entertained in this argument, viz., that during the period of non-diurnal rotation, or that which is signified by " the beginning," the " ethereal medium " did not exist in its perfected condition, rests alone upon the authority of Scripture ; for, with every reliance on this, it is believed that at the time when it is said " darkness was on the face of the deep," it is not meant to imply, that this all-pervading ethereal element was then stretched out, although it had not been put into motion, in the perfect sense of that term, but that as yet there was no ethereal medium at all, although the materials of the ethereal fluid were created during the period called the beginning, in common with the materials of every- thing else pertaining to our system. But its existence then, in its perfect state, was not in accordance with the degree of development to which the plans of the Creator had, at that period, attained. But whenever these were sufficiently matured, it was immediately put into vivid motion and requi- sition ; and became the active instrument of completing many of the subsequent works of that eventful week. It would indeed have been alike consistent with truth, * Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i. p. 32. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 219 whether the words of the original had been rendered into our language, " attraction was on the face of the deep," or " dark- ness was on the face of the deep : " while it is considered that the movement mentioned in the clause immediately following, did impart, in due proportion, the counteracting principle (that is, to attraction) according as the progressive state of the creation then required, or could receive it. The light, as it is now constituted, and the effects which its formation pro- duced, would have been positively injurious to the operations then progressively taking place towards a state of perfection and fixity, which renders the light, as we now enjoy it, neces- sary for its permanency and well-being. It is scarcely possible to conceive that while the creation was passing through innumerable stages of progression, never stationary at any one point in the scale, nor indeed could be until it was finished, and pronounced to be " good," light upon fixed and permanent principles, whereby a certain quantity only is imparted daily," 5 ' should have been, at all, adapted to it. A progressive state, with a constant deter- minate fostering medium, is not, cannot be considered, con- sistent with the wisdom of the Creator. This self-obvious truth being conceded, it follows that the spirit of Him who was forming and preparing the whole for a subsequent state of permanency, which it was to attain at a future period, could alone have supplied the proper and requisite portions of warmth, or heat, or motion, or counteracting principle to gravitation, during all the successive stages of its progression. For who could have known or divined the particular point to which the whole was tending to which all the conjoint means were to concentrate in perfection, except the Spirit of the Creator himself? This conclusion is assuredly the legitimate result of the attendant conditions, tvhenever a progressive state of the Crea- tion is admitted. We must either believe that, in a state of progression, the supply of heat would be varied, or doubt that the sun now yields a fixed and determinate quantity of that enlivening and all-pervading medium. But this latter point being established, it enables us to come to the final conclusion, that, whatever may be thought respecting the * See the 2nd Theorem. 220 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE EARTH. ethereal medium of modern philosophy, this is known and, fortunately, it is sufficient for our future purpose that the "darkness" of Scripture does mean "attraction," and that the movement mentioned there also communicated that pro- portion of the countervailing principle which was most con- ducive to the well-being of creation, as it passed through the successive stages of progression, until it reached its present perfection. These truths having been sufficiently established to admit of their being applied throughout the remainder of this treatise, will enable me to adduce evidences of a more tangible and purely geological description, to contribute in establishing the fact of the NON-DIURNAL ROTATION of the EARTH, in corroboration of what has all along been so earn- estly contended for. SECTION IV. INTRODUCTION OF THE LIGHT ; THE CONSEQUENT PROTOROTA- TION OF THE EARTH ; AND ITS DYNAMICAL RESULTS. CHAPTER XV. IN prosecution of what was resolved upon at the close of the last chapter, I shall endeavour, in continuation, to estimate the consequences which resulted to the earth by the introduction of the Light into the material universe, when the plan of creation was so far matured as to admit of indeed to require this new agent, in order to put the earth in motion ; for without the sudden impetus of the primary light our planet would have continued to have slumbered on, unknown to diurnal motion, around the unillumined sun, enveloped in its stony crust of horizontal concentric strata, surmounted by an atmosphereless ocean, but entirely without any inequalities of surface. Before proceeding, however, to trace the momentous con- sequences which sprang from the introduction of the light, it may be conducive to the development of this treatise to con- sider, that it was the introduction of a new force into the material universe which was, at the period, indispensable to promote the plan of Creation, and that only by conferring on Light a nature totally distinct from attraction could this required power be instituted. To appreciate fully, therefore, the importance of the an- nouncement, that " the light was divided from, the darkness" we must recur to what was endeavoured to be substantiated at the commencement of this section, namely, that darkness 22 z DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE is the expression for attraction; and then learn from Sir John Herschel the direction of that centripetal force. " The direction of attraction," that gentleman says, " at every point of the orbit of each planet always passes through the sun. No matter from what ultimate cause the power which is called gravitation originates, be it a virtue lodged in the sun as its receptacle, or be it a pressure from without, or the resultant of many pressures or solicita- tions of unknown fluids, magnetic or electric ethers, or impulses : still when finally brought under our contemplation, and summed up into a single resultant energy, its direction is, from every point on all sides towards the sun's centre. ""'' By combining these truths with the one under con- sideration, there results, that to " divide the light from the darkness " signifies, to impress upon it an opposite nature or tendency to that of darkness. But darkness is attraction ; and, therefore, if attraction be a force propending towards or propelling matter towards the centre, light or heat must be a force propelling matter from the centre a conclusion which perfectly accords with what has already been said, viz., that light and heat are so intimately connected, as to warrant the assumption of their identity ; t that heat causes expansion ; + that expansion is the antagonist of attraction ; and, there- fore, as before stated, if attraction acts in a direction from the circumference towards, and through, the centre, then expansion, as its antagonist, must act in a contrary direction, or towards the circumference. Assured, therefore, that during the first three days of the Mosaic week, the light, although it existed, was not concentrated around the sun ; that consequently it was not, could not be, the description of light which is now received from that luminary ; convinced, that wherever it was during that intervening period, it was precisely where the plans of the Creator required that it should be ; and satisfied that the important positions which have been successively taken up and proven, namely, its ubiquity ; its perfection before it was put into motion ; and that when put into motion it was impressed with a nature which made it the opponent of gravity that these are sufficient to permit the argument being proceeded with ; I shall endeavour, next, to determine the probable conse- * Astronomy, in Cab. Cyc., p. 221 et seq. t 47th Theorem. I 50th Theorem. 51st Theorem. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 223 quences of the introduction of the expansive principle of light into the material universe as it was then constituted ; con- fining the investigation to those which would take place on our planet, revolving, without diurnal rotatory motion, round an imilluminated sun, and constituted geologically, as at the conclusion of the last and commencement of the present chapters, it has been supposed to have been. This investigation will be commenced by referring to the sixty-eighth Theorem, defining the nature of force, which please see. Convinced that repulsion is one of the two principal forces recognised, by mechanical writers, as governing materialism, the next process will be to examine some of the evidences regarding its intensity : " It is a general law," observes Mrs. Somerville, " that all bodies expand by heat and contract by cold. The expansive force of caloric has a constant tendency to overcome the attraction of cohesion, and to separate the constituent particles of solids and fluids ; by this separation the attraction of aggregation is more and more weakened, till, at last, it is entirely overcome, or even changed into repul- sion By the continual addition of calorie, solids may be made to pass into liquids, and from liquids to the aeriform state, the dilata- tion increasing with the temperature ; and every substance expands according to a law of its own."* " The first and most common effect of heat," according to the Cabinet Cyclopaedia, " is to increase the size of the body to which it is imparted. This effect is called dilatation or expansion ; and the body so affected is said to expand, or be dilated. If heat be abstracted from a body, the contrary effect is produced, and the body contracts. These effects are produced in different degrees, and estimated by different methods, according as the bodies which suffer them are solids, liquids, or airs."f " Caloric," says Dr. Ure, " is the agent to which the phenomena of heat and combustion are ascribed. This is hypothetically regarded as a fluid of inappreciable tenuity, whose particles are endowed with indefinite idio-repulsive powers, and which, by their distribution in various proportions among the particles of ponderable matter, modify cohesive attraction, giving birth to the three general forms of gaseous, liquid, and solid The force with which solids and liquids expand or contract by heat and cold is so prodigiously great as to overcome the strongest obstacles. "J These evidences will suffice to convince any one of the * Connection of the Sciences, p. 234. t Heat, in Cab. Cyc., p. 8. I Chemical Dictionary, pp. 253, 257. 224 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE enormous, the almost irresistible power of expansion. This being in direct proportion to the quantum of light and heat, there will next have to be investigated the consequences of the introduction of so inconceivable an amount of the expan- sive influence into this system, the remainder of which, in its visible condition, is now concentrated around the sun ; and in attempting this, it is fortunately not necessary, for the present, to take into account either its primitive locality or direction, but merely its expanding influence. The first idea which occurs to the mind is, that by the formation of the light, and its division from the darkness, a new agent, a new cause, a new FORCE, was introduced into the system ; and this, in reality, was the case. Every cause being accompanied by a corresponding effect, and the defini- tion of " force " being " whatever produces or opposes the production of motion in matter,""'' we must endeavour to discover the legitimate effects, or the motion engendered by this new force thus introduced to such an amazing extent ; assured, beforehand, that as it did not oppose the production of motion, it must necessarily have caused it. Instead, how- ever, of making the inquiry general to the whole of the solar system, it will be restricted to the phenomena experienced by our own planet ; being persuaded, that results similar to those which took place on this would be common to all the other spheres of the solar economy. Before proceeding further, it may be well to reiterate the following fundamental positions, namely, that although the earth, during its period non-diurnal rotation, circulated in free space around the sun, under the dominion of the same laws which at present govern its orbital course in the heavens ; yet, according to that of gravi- tation, so long as the earth consisted of the same quantity of matter, it could not increase, in the smallest degree, its mean distance from the sim.t Consequently, as there has been neither any augmentation nor diminution of the mass of matter of which it is composed, ever since it was translated in space, at the beginning, although its materials are now differently combined in the relative positions of their mole- cules, it must be concluded that it neither did, nor could at * Mechanics, Cab. Cyc., p. 7. f Connection of the Sciences, p. 408. Likewise the 70th Theorem. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 225 any time, for any cause, nor under any circumstances, deviate in the slightest possible degree, from its original orbit ; or, in the language of astronomers, " whatever may have been the form of the ellipse, or successive ellipses, which it has de- scribed around the sun, the length of the longer axis of the orbit has continued to be invariable," a truth which it will be found particularly useful to bear in mind, while the follow- ing investigations respecting the laws of force and motion are gone into. The first to which reference will be made is a part of the fifty-second Theorem, which states, " That an irresistible body of analogies leads to the conviction, that the same physical properties, which observation and experience disclose in the smaller masses immediately surrounding us, are possessed by the infinite systems of bodies which fill the immensity of space. That the distribution of heat is regulated by the same laws amongst tlie bodies of the universe as amongst those which exist on our globe" At the risk of being considered tiresomely prolix, I must, for the sake of perspicuity, call to mind what has already been brought so prominently forward, namely, the creation of the ethereal fluid, or the light, of the first three days ; its ubiquity, both as to extension and minuteness ; the circum- stance of its having been made and completed before it was put in motion ; its having been subsequently put in motion : and that the motion then given, conferred a state or condition upon it which caused it to become the opponent of attraction. And having these particulars present in the mind, it is next to be considered, that as the " distribution of heat " is regu- lated by the same laws among the bodies of the universe as among the bodies which surround us, " and the greater masses of the universe, including the earth itself, are playing, though on a greater scale, the self-same part as do the most minute particles of dust which dance in the sunbeam, or the still more impalpable atoms of air which float around us ; " while the introduction of heat amongst these indivisible molecules of matter, of whose movements we have a more intimate know- ledge, from being immediately under our observation, invari- ably causes them to expand or separate from each other ; we are warranted, according to what has been announced in the Q 226 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE fifty-second Theorem, to conclude that similar consequences would result, should a proportionate quantity of heat be in- troduced amongst the larger indivisible molecules of the universe. Now, the spheres of the various systems constitute those larger molecules of the universe ; and if, in place of contemplating them in general, the attention be restricted to those only of the solar system, and suppose that what are called molecules should assume the more appropriate name of planets, there may assuredly be extended to them the same conditions, especially when it is considered that the light was infused almost ubiquitously into materialism, and afterwards put into motion with a vividity beyond conception, and from these combined reasons finally conclude that, could they pos- sibly have increased their distance from each other, the intro- duction of the LIGHT ivould, in like manner, have produced a corresponding expansion, in the regions of space, among the spheres of our system. It has just been shown, however, that owing to certain peculiarities in the law of gravitation, unless a proportional augmentation had simultaneously been made to the respective masses of the planets, they could not deviate in the smallest degree from the orbits in which they commenced to circulate when first translated in space, which is equivalent to saying, that they could not possibly expand. While all previous reasoning and the evidences brought forward have, alike, con- spired to prove, that no ponderable element was added to the earth during the protracted period of non-rotation. On the contrary, that this seems to have been sedulously avoided, and the work of deposition and solidification carried on solely by the combined agency of chemical and electrical influences and of animal and vegetable vitality. Consequently, unless it can be satisfactorily proved, that, on the formation of the light, they did receive some increment to their respective masses, other consequences must be searched for than those of expansion amongst the spheres of the system, as the result of the introduction of this new force ; which, being knoAvn not to have opposed motion, must, as the remaining condition of the problem, have produced it in some direction or other. Under this view of the case, and in order to ensure the most thorough conviction, it requires only to be proved, that FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 227 no augmentation of ponderable matter was made to the earth by the formation of the light. There being minds so reluct- ant to admit any new conception, that, rather than believe what has been stated, they would endeavour to persuade themselves that the earth and other planets received such an increase to their respective masses by the impartation of light as would enable these orbs, in virtue of the proportional law of gravitation, to expand in space, or separate from each other and from the sun ; and thereby continue to describe orbits round that central luminary, although of greater circuit than formerly. Fortunately, however, for the cause of truth, the imponderable nature of light has occupied the attention of philosophers of all countries, and been made the theme of protracted discussion ; and is now universally admitted to be as stated in the forty-sixth Theorem, namely, " That light and heat either do not possess the property of gravitation, or possess it in so small a degree as to be wholly inappreciable by any known means of measuring it ;" while the several authorities in support of that opinion, which are subjoined to the Theorem, can be consulted, should any doubts still lurk in the mind as to the soundness of the assertion, and a hope be raised of having discovered an outlet for the expenditure of the newly introduced force now alluded to. But, on the contrary, the unprejudiced adoption of what has been said, and a deliberate perusal of the accompanying evidences, will show the fallacy of such an expectation. There is, therefore, no alternative left, but that of proceeding in earnest to look for some more probable manner of accounting for the expenditure of this new force a force of such amazing power which was thus introduced into the material universe, by the for- mation of the light, and its division from the darkness. Meanwhile, the following passage is so apposite with respect to the levity of light and heat, that I give it with much pleasure : " The question, whether the increase of magnitude caused by raising the temperature of a body arises from its having received any addition of a material substance to its mass can only be decided by previously fixing on some one quality which will be regarded as inseparable from matter, and, therefore, the presence or absence of which being ascertained, will decide the presence or absence of the additional portion of matter under inquiry. The quality which seems Q 2 228 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE best adapted for such a test is weight ; and the question, whether the increased dimension of a heated body proceeds from its having received any excess of ponderable matter, becomes one which is to be decided by direct experiment. Experiments to ascertain this fact have been instituted, attended by every circumstance which could contribute to ensure accurate results, but no change of weight has been observed. We are, therefore, entitled to conclude, that what- ever be the nature of the principle which gives increased dimensions to a body, when its temperature is raised ; whatever it be which fills the increased interstitial spaces from which its constituent particles are expelled, it is not a ponderous substance it is not one on which the earth exerts any attraction it is not one which if unsupported would fall, or if supported would produce any pressure on that which sustains it."* Let us now, therefore, commence this straightforward endeavour, by recapitulating the nature of the forces which maintain the earth, and other bodies of our system, in the respective orbits which they describe round each other. The first part of the fourth Theorem bears directly on this point " That the orbital revolutions of the EARTH and other planets around the sun, almost in the plane of its equator, and of the satellites around their primaries, are caused by the combination of tJie sun and the planets? mutual attraction, and an original projectile impulse." This will enable us to perceive, that the earth is maintained in its orbit by two nicely equipoised forces, whose conjoint result causes its orbital revolution : and likewise that those two forces produce one uniform and constant motion, merely from their being so justly proportioned to each other as not to admit of increase or of diminution in either; or, in other words, they are incapable of resisting any additional pressure which might be brought to bear upon them; for any such would infallibly be destructive of the resultant motion. It is requested that these facts may be kept present to the mind, as allusion will frequently be made to them during the reasoning which follows. Having established these preliminary points, please refer to Avhat is stated in the seventy-Jifth Theorem concerning the Action of Forces. Now, the formation of the light, and its division from the * "Hydrostatics," in Cab. Cyc., pp. 142, 143. I FORMATION OF THE EARTH. z 2 g darkness, was, to the spheres of the solar system, revolving round each other in darkness, equivalent to the application of an expansive force amongst them, whose effects they must either have resisted, expended, or receded from. But these celestial bodies, we have just learnt, were from the beginning, and still continue to be, maintained in their respective orbits, by two divellent forces, in just and delicate equipoise ; conse- quently, they were incapable of either deviating from their assigned orbits, and, by expanding in space, thus to retreat from it ; or of continuing to revolve in their orbital paths had they been made to resist the newly applied force : and this, too, whether its direction was from the centre of the system towards the circumference ; from the circumference towards the sun ; or from any point intermediate between these .directions ; for, in either of these cases, a pressure equal to the applied force would require to have been either borne or retreated from ; while, as has just been demonstrated, they could neither resist any additional pressure on their orbital motion, nor recede before it. Consequently it may safely be concluded, that in neither of these ways was the newly formed expansive force either resisted, receded from, or expended. This leads to the consideration of what is stated in the seventy-seventh Theorem, to which please refer, and applying the truths contained in it to the case under consideration, it becomes obvious, from what has been already stated, that the first of these conditions could not possibly have taken place. The earth's axis could not have resisted the force and pre- vented the motion. For the same reasons neither could the second consequence have followed the application of the force in question, for the earth's axis could not " have modified the effect of the force and have sustained a corresponding per- cussion," And, therefore, as neither of these two conditions of the Theorem could have taken place, we are constrained to admit the remaining one, and to conclude That the consequences of the expansive force introduced into the material universe by the formation of the light and its division from the darkness, when applied to the non- diurnally rotating earth, tvas, to cause it to revolve around its 2 30 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE axis in such a manner that the axis suffered neither pressure nor percussion. This could only have been accomplished by the new force having acted in such a manner, that its power was exerted in a tangential direction, thereby causing no pressure on the axis of the body which was impressed with rotatory motion. The soundness of this final conclusion is corroborated in a remarkable manner, by the speciality with which the announcement having reference to it is worded ; for be it observed, the diurnal rotation of the earth is there treated of, not as a primary law, but as an effect ; and an effect produced by the operation of a law directly mentioned, with others which, from only being implied, must have been known to have previously existed. For, after making the announcement alluded to, the nar- rative goes on to state, " The evening and the morning were the first day ;" an indirect method of informing us, without expressly stating it, that the earth at this time performed its first rotation; for, without diurnal motion, there could have been neither morning nor evening, day nor night. And it is again to be remembered, that the words of this chapter of Genesis were the laws which constituted Nature itself. All that is present to our perceptions, and we, ourselves, existing merely in virtue of these laws, and others of similar potency, which, although not specifically mentioned, are as clearly implied ; therefore it is essential to distinguish when a law is directly announced, and when it is only implied by the mention of its effects ; for in this latter case, a law, causing an effect either wholly or in part not directly recorded in this chapter, must have previously existed, as it co-operated to produce that which is expressly narrated. The truth of this observation is forcibly exemplified in the case we are now contemplating ; while the observation itself is akin to, and perfectly accordant with, the fundamental principles laid down at the commencement of this work. It has been aptly observed by a recent writer, " that Sir William Herschel soon came to the conclusion that gravita- tion, although it accounts for the proximity of bodies, does not alone account for the stability of systems ; there must FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 231 also be orbital motion ;" * in like manner, it is here considered, that though diurnal rotation is to be attributed to the effects of the expansive principle of light introduced into the universe, nevertheless, the formation of the light, and even its division from the darkness, although this conferred upon the former properties diametrically opposed to attraction, could not of itself have caused the rotation of the earth around its axis, unless it had been previously counterpoised in space by two nicely balanced powers, which left it free to revolve, while they enabled it to do so as around a fixed axis. At the same time, by a dexterous application of these principles to the verses just quoted, in which no mention is made of such pre- existing laws ; while the formation of the light and its divi- sion from the darkness, although not sufficient of themselves to have caused the change contemplated, are announced to be the completion of what was required to cause the revolution of the earth around its axis, another great truth is clearly brought out, namely, that both centripetal and centrifugal force must have existed from " the beginning." By this it can be explained how the earth and other planets could have revolved around the sun, and the whole round the common centre of gravity, although the central orb was not, as now, illumined. Otherwise, it is impossible to conceive a system composed of various spheres, some revolving round others, partly by the influence of attraction, unless they had been impressed with centrifugal impetus ; or, on the other hand, to imagine one sphere revolving round another, or rather around their common centre of gravity, without the existence of attraction, as an antagonist to the centrifugal force thereby generated. Hence, if it can be proved, that the whole of the stratified masses constituting the greater part of the earth's rocky crust were formed during the period when as yet the earth was not impressed with diurnal rotatory motion, it must follow as a necessary consequence, that the duration of its non- diurnal rotatory revolution around the unillumined sun, or of " the beginning," was that required for the depo- sition and formation of those masses. In order to show that the earth actually performs a double revolution in space, and thereby relieve the mind from any * Nichol's Architecture of the Heavens, p. 75. 232 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE doubt that may arise from the suspicion that the motion of diurnal rotation is either necessarily or in any manner depen- dent on orbital motion, the truths contained in the third Theorem are referred to, which please see. As a corroboration there is subjoined what is said in the " Connection of the Sciences," regarding the independency of these two movements : " If a sphere at rest in space receive an impulse passing through its centre of gravity, all its parts will move with an equal velocity in a straight line ; but if the impulse does not pass through the centre of gravity, its particles having unequal velocities will have a rotatory or revolving motion at the same time that it is translated in space. These motions are independent of one another ; so that a contrary impulse passing through its centre of gravity will impede its progress without interfering with its rotation. As the sun rotates about an axis, it seems probable if an impulse in a contrary direction has not been given to its centre of gravity, that it moves in space accom- panied by all those bodies which compose the solar system ; a circum- stance which would in no way interfere with their relative motions ; for, in consequence of the principle that force is proportional to velo- city, the reciprocal attractions of a system remain the same, whether its centre of gravity be at rest or moving uniformly in space. It is computed that, had the earth received its motion from a single impulse, that impulse must have passed through a point about twenty-five miles from its centre. " Since the motions of rotation and translation of the planets are independent of each other, though probably communicated by the same impulse, they form separate subjects of investigation. ' !:i " The planets," says the author of the "Architecture of the Heavens," " move around the sun in orbits almost in the plane of the sun's equator, and in the direction of the sun's rotation on its axis ; they rotate on their axes in the same direction, and with some exception as to Uranus the whole satellites revolve around their primaries also in that direction, nor are the rotations of these secondary bodies, in as far as they are known, subject to a different law. Now, these phenomena receive no explanation from what we usually term the law of gravitation, inasmuch as gravitation could sustain systems dis- tinguished by no such conditions. Nay, it actually does so, for the comets are free from all these laws ; they move in very eccentric orbits inclined to the plane of the sun's equator at all degrees, and their motions are as often retrograde as direct." t Depending chiefly on geological phenomena, which may be termed the practical or tangible evidences, I shall not bring forward any further theoretical proof in support of * Mrs. Somerville's Connection of the Sciences, 3rd edition, pp. 9, 10. t Nichol, 1837, pp. 176, 177. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 233 the present position, considering what has been already said 'sufficient to convince any unprejudiced mind, as far as mere theory can effect that purpose. But should any one still doubt that the formation of the light and its division from the darkness caused the earth and other spheres to revolve around their axes, we would merely ask them, What then did it do ? It must have done something. The light must have had an effect ; for there is no cause, however trivial, without an effect ; indeed, it cannot be a cause without having an effect ; and, consequently, it is to be supposed that this, one of the most stupendous of known causes, must have been attended by an effect of corresponding magnitude. I repeat, therefore, the inquiry, If the first effect of the introduction of the light and its division from the darkness was not that of causing the spheres to revolve, what was it ? And again, if the earth and other orbs revolved around their respective axes from the " beginning," how was the new force the introduction of Light into the material universe expended or disposed of? These may appear remarkable questions ; but it should be remembered that I am strangely circumstanced, my true posi- tion towards the earth's inhabitants being this, that while there is, perhaps, not a single person capable of reflection who for an instant doubts that the earth now revolves around its axis, there is, perhaps, not another being on its surface, at the present moment, who believes, THAT THERE WERE AGES WHEN, ALTHOUGH IT REVOLVED AROUND THE SUN AS IT NOW DOES, IT HAD NO DIURNAL MOTION. It therefore becomes me to strengthen my argument by all possible means ; and with this design, before closing the present chapter, some allusions will be made to a subject which hitherto has been deferred. In consequence of not considering the Light, as now received from the sun, to have been in any manner instru- mental in having caused the sun itself, the earth, and the other spheres of the system to rotate around their respective axes, there has not, hitherto, been brought forward any evi- dence to show the intense heat which the sun is considered to engender. Nevertheless, as the primary light and the light of the sun are mere modifications of each other, in a manner analogous to the blaze of light which bursts forth, 234 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE when the charcoal-tipped wires of the voltaic pile are brought into contact by a skilful electrician, after having, by their invisible streams, caused rotation, decomposition, and many other surprising experiments, and the spectators are thereby made to appreciate in a more convincing manner the potency of the unseen element which he had before put into activity, and employed in performing those experiments ; so the light and heat which now issue from the solar orb may be assumed as an appreciable measure of comparison in any endeavour made to form an estimate of the intensity and power of that stream of primary unseen light, which caused the rotation of the spheres of our system, and of every system where rotatory motion is known to exist, which decom- posed the water, and formed the atmosphere, which evapo- rated the surplus vapour ; gathered the water together, and left the dry land in possession of stores of their saline asso ciates for the future use of man, animals, and plants ; and whose unwearied potency was made to combine in a few hours all the woody textures and fibres of the phanogamous vegetable kingdom ; and was afterwards, by the all-powerful hand of the Creator, made to collapse until the stream of invisible light came into contact with that of darkness whose centre had always been in the sun or, in other words, until the streams of expansion and attraction met around the central orb of our system,* and, at the command of the Omnipotent, have ever since sent forth those regulated sup- plies of warmth aad light which sustain all nature ; the con- junctive force or intensity of which has drawn the attention of some of the ablest of our modern philosophers, and whose deductions shall be given in a few brief extracts ; expressing, previously, the conviction that as the rays of light emitted from the charcoal point are merely the visible manifestation of the union of two streams, whose well-springs are in .the voltaic generator behind ; so the luminary which enlivens all nature is solely the junction-point of those streams of attrac- tion and expansion whose fountain is inexhaustible and ever- lasting. The following are the philosophical opinions above alluded * Sun, the centre of attraction (Connection of the Sciences, p. 7). FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 235 to, and which, of course, are restricted to what is alone visible : "The ocean of light and heat," observes Mrs. Somerville, "per- petually flowing from the sun, must affect the bodies of the system very differently, on account of the varieties in their atmospheres, some of which appear to be very extensive and dense. According to the observations of Schroetz, the atmosphere of Ceres is more than 688 miles high, and that of Pallas has an elevation of 465 miles. These must refract the light, and prevent the radiation of heat like our own " The direct light of the sun has been estimated to be equal to that of 5,563 wax candles of moderate size, supposed to be placed at the distance of one foot from the object. That of the moon is probably only equal to the light of one candle at the distance of twelve feet. Consequently, the light of the sun is more than three hundred thousand times greater than that of the moon."* " That the temperature at the visible surface of the sun," says Sir John Herschel, " cannot be otherwise than very elevated much more so than any artificial heat produced in our furnaces or by chemical or galvanic processes we have indications of several distinct kinds. First : from the law of decrease of radiant heat and light, which being inversely as the squares of the distances, it follows that the heat received on a given area exposed at the distance of the earth, and on an equal area at the visible surface of the sun, must be in the proportion of the area of the sky occupied by the sun's apparent disc to the whole hemisphere, or as 1 to about 300,000. A far less intensity of solar radiation collected in the focus of a burning-glass suffices to dissipate gold and platina in vapour. Secondly : from the facility with which the caloric rays of the sun traverse glass, a property which is found to belong to the heat of artificial fires, in the direct proportion of their intensity. Thirdly : from the fact that the most vivid flames disappear, and the most intensely ignited solids appear only as black spots on the disc of the sun, when held between it and the eye The sun's rays are the ultimate source of almost every motion which takes place on the surface of the earth. By its heat are produced all winds, and those disturbances in the electric equilibrium of the atmosphere which give rise to the phe- nomena of terrestrial magnetism. By their vivifying action vegetables are elaborated from inorganic matter, and become, in their turn, the support of animals and of man, and the sources of those great deposits of dynamical efficiency which are laid up for human use in our coal strata. By them the water jof the sea is made to circulate in vapour through the air, and irrigate the land, producing springs and rivers. By them are produced all disturbances of the chemical equilibrium of the elements of nature which, by a series of composi- tions and decompositions, give rise to new products, and originate a transfer of materials. * Connection of the Sciences, pp. 253, 254. 236 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE EARTH. "The great mystery, however, is to conceive how so enormous a conflagration (if such it be) can be kept up. Every discovery in chemical science here leaves us completely at a loss, or, rather, seems to remove farther the prospect of probable explanation. If con- jecture might be hazarded, we should look rather to the known possibility of an indefinite generation of heat by friction, or to its excitement by the electric discharge, than to any actual combustion of ponderable fuel, whether solid or gaseous, for the origin of the solar radiation."* * "Astronomy," in Cab. Cyc., American edition, pp. 200 202. SECTION IV. INTRODUCTION OF THE LIGHT ; THE CONSEQUENT PROTOROTA- TION OF THE EARTH ; AND ITS DYNAMICAL RESULTS. CHAPTER XVI. TTAVING, in the preceding chapter, presented a vivid idea -'-'- of the potency of the primary light, in order, if possible, that no essential point should be left undetermined, I shall now proceed to another chain of reasoning entirely distinct from the former, and having for its general object to explain the manner in which the geological phenomena can be made to prove the non-diurnal rotatory period of the earth's exist- ence. And, while, as a whole, it is offered as a body of evi- dence having tangible materials for its basis ; yet, for greater perspicuity, it requires to be divided into two branches : one, whose superstructure is founded on well-known and estab- lished, but abstract, principles of mechanics ; and another the most important arising from material geological pheno- mena, which can be seen, weighed, and handled, and which, consequently, carry perfect conviction to the mind that con- viction generally attendant on the evidence of the senses. I shall commence, as a part of the former division of these proofs, by calling particular attention to what is stated in the seventy-second, seventy -third, and seventy -fourth Theorems, which please see. The conclusion arrived at by writers on mechanics and astronomy of the more general results of the diurnal rotation of the earth round its axis may be expressed in the following words : " That to the centrifugal force arising from the diurnal rotation of the earth around its axis, and to 2 3 8 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE its greater opposition to gravity in the equatorial regions, is attributed the protuberance of its form in those regions ; or the excess of the equatorial beyond the polar diameter. And that this opinion is corroborated by the excessive oblate form, and corresponding rotatory velocity of Jupiter." As this is rather an interesting point, precaution will be taken to examine some of its evidences in detail, before going on to consider more fully the actual results. " The most remarkable and important manifestation of centrifugal force," says the writer on Mechanics, in the Cabinet Cyclopaedia, "is observed in the effects produced by the rotation of the earth upon its axis. This rotation causes the matter which composes the mass of the earth to revolve in circles round the different points of the axis as centres, at the various distances at which the component parts of this mass are placed. As they all revolve with the same angular velocity, they will be affected by centrifugal forces, which will be greater or less in proportion as their distances from the centre are greater or less : consequently, the parts of the earth which are situated about the equator will be more strongly affected by centri- fugal force than those about the poles. The effect of this difference has been, that the component matter about the equator has actually been driven farther from the centre than that about the poles, so that the figure of the earth has swelled out at the sides, and appears pro- portionately depressed at the top and bottom, resembling the shape of an orange. The exact proportion of the polar to the equatorial radius has never yet been certainly ascertained. Some observations make the equatorial radius exceed the polar radius by l-277th, and others by l-835th. The latter, however, seems the more probable. It may be considered to be included between these limits. " But there is another reason why the centrifugal force is more efficient in the opposition which it gives to gravity near the equator than near the poles. This force does not act from the centre of the earth, but is directed from the earth's axis. It is, therefore, not directly opposed to gravity, except on the equator itself. On leaving the equator, and proceeding towards the poles, it is less and less opposed to gravity. "* " The forms of the planets," it is stated in the "Connection of the Sciences," "result from the reciprocal attraction of their com- ponent particles. A detached fluid mass, if at rest, would assume the form of a sphere, from the reciprocal attraction of its particles. But if the mass revolve around an axis, it becomes flattened about the poles and bulges at the equator, in consequence of the centrifugal force arising from the velocity of rotation ; for the centrifugal force diminishes the gravity of the particles at the equator, and equilibrium can only exist where these two forces are balanced by an increase of * "Mechanics," in Cab. Cyc., pp. 105, 106. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 239 gravity. Therefore, as the attractive force is the same on all 'particles at equal distances from the centre of a sphere, the equatorial particles would recede from the centre, till their increase in number balance the centrifugal force by their attraction. Consequently, the sphere would become an oblate, or flattened spheroid ; and a fluid partially or entirely covering a solid, as the ocean and atmosphere cover the earth, must assume that form in order to remain in equilibria" * These quotations are very satisfactory and conclusive gene- rally so far as they go ; but as there is occasion for consider- able exactitude in the present inquiry, I must proceed in quest of such investigations as shall determine the precise amount of the centrifugal force, in order to be convinced that the rotundity of the earth's equatorial diameter accords with deductions made by a priori calculations. With this design let us resort to the first Theorem, which please see. And any, or all, of the numerous authors on whose accredited writings that elementary theorem is founded, may be consulted, should more particular information be required, or any doubt remain on the mind. Meanwhile, explaining that the dimensions above given are taken from Sir Henry de la Beche's " Manual of Geology," I shall consider it sufficient to adduce one concurrent quota- tion from Sir John Herschel's " Treatise on Astronomy," in which he refers to an " Essay on the Figure of the Earth," by Professor Airy. It is as follows : " Without troubling the reader with the investigation, which maybe found in any part of the conic sections, it will be sufficient to state, that the lengths which agree, on the whole, best with the entire series of meridianal arcs which have been satisfactorily measured on the earth's surface are as follows : FEET. MILES. Greater equatorial diameter .... 41,847,426 7,925,648 Lesser or polar diameter .... 41,707,620 7,899,170 Difference of diameters, or polar com- pression 189,806 26,478 " The proportion of the diameters is very nearly that of 298,299, and their difference l-299th of the greater, or a very little greater than l-800th."t After perusing these evidences, it is presumed that no doubt can be entertained as to the CAUSE of the protuberance * Connection of the Sciences, 3rd edition, pp. 8, 9. t Treatise on Astronomy, p. 114. 2 4 o DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE in the equatorial regions of the earth. This will be admitted by all who reflect upon the subject ; but perhaps few or none consider its oblateness to have taken place after it had circu- lated, as a sphere, for ages round an unillumined sun ; and subsequent to the stratified rocks having been deposited from its primitive ocean, in successive concentric hollow spheres, above the unstratified masses, then also in a similarly hori- zontal position. Or, in other words, the actual diurnal rota- tion of the earth, and the equatorial protuberance occasioned by it, are readily admitted by all ; but the epoch of the com- mencement of the one, and the origin of the other, have hitfierto been considered to coincide with that in which it was trans- lated in space. * Whatever has hitherto been cited in this Treatise, to ascer- tain the precise figure of the earth, and to adduce conse- quences from it, may be considered as a part merely of its external evidences; having been derived from abstract truths, founded on abstruse calculations, and profound mathematical manipulations ; but the evidences now about to be brought forward based exclusively on geological phenomena may, with perfect propriety, be termed its internal evidences, un- deniable proofs, written in legible characters, within the reach of all who choose to dedicate a few hours of exhilarating exer- cise to their perusal ; and, by examination, to assure them- selves of the truth of their existence by the strongest of all convictions ocular demonstration. At this, as the most opportune juncture, I would observe, that while it was indispensable for the disciples of Copernicus to have recourse to objects beyond the earth, to prove that it has orbital and diurnal motion ; and by means of these dis- tant and distinct objects to overcome the inveterate preju- dices of apparent ocular conviction to the contrary, confirmed * It is not my intention to delay the general argument, by fully opening up the interesting field for expatiation which presents itself, when we endeavour to grasp the consequences resulting from the establishment of the fact, that the diurnal rotation of the Earth took place at a distinct and distant period from that of its orbital motion in space. The mind, freed from the trammel under which it has so long laboured in this respect, is at liberty to attribute boldly the orbital movements to a force similar in kind (because proceeding from the same source, though infinitely vaster and more comprehensive), which, by its tangential influence, caused the whole orbs of the universe to revolve around their respective centres of gravity, the axis of their orbital path. To this I can only allude at present ; perhaps I may enter upon it more fully hereafter. ACTHOK. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 241 by the imperceptible uniformity of motion in all the parts of the moving mass on which those who doubted were, at the very moment, unconsciously whirled through space ; with me it is almost the reverse. The actual rotation of the earth is now so well established, and is an element so intimately bound up with the conceptions of every living being, that to assert it ever was otherwise will be found as incredible as was the announcement of orbital motion by Copernicus ; while I am, in consequence, constrained to adopt an entirely distinct line of proof . External bodies, except in one or two respects, will be of little avail. The earth's diurnal rotation finds little sympathy at such remote distances, or, to express this more correctly, the respective diurnal rotations of the spheres exercise but little mutual influence on each other ; it will be quite unavailing to go to them for proofs ; these must be almost exclusively drawn from the symptoms of change within the compass of the earth itself, and more especially upon its surface its geological manifestations, and the formation of its continental ridges and oceanic depressions. But to return to the subject more immediately under con- sideration : let the attention be directed for a moment to the following considerations: In consequence of its being considered that the diurnal rotation of the earth was impressed upon it by the same impulse which caused its translation in space, it has hitherto been looked upon, as a natural result, that the earthy parts should have assumed their present form of equilibrium, while yet capable of doing so, by being in a fluid state either from aqueous or from igneous liquefaction. Even those who, being most bold, have departed furthest from these conceptions of fluidity, and of coeval movements in space, have only ventured to conjecture that, although it was formed, at first, as a sphere, it might gradually have acquired its present relative dimensions, and have become a spheroid of rotation, from the united agency of comminution, disin- tegration, and the equilibrising effects of its aqueous portion ; but without having explained how the water, which must previously have assumed the form of rotation, or of rest, came afterwards to exercise those equilibrizing effects on materials of greater density than itself. Setting this important omission, however, entirely aside R 2 4 z DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE for the present, it may be observed in general, that none seem yet to have dealt in earnest with the difficulty ; or have endeavoured to account, in an intelligible manner, for the position of the strata with relation to each other ; or with respect to the primary masses ; or for the formation of the great continental ridges and oceanic hollows ; nor indeed for innumerable other natural appearances. These, when touched upon at all, are treated at respectful distances, or hurried over in general terms, as points not requiring or which, perhaps, can ill bear discussion, although their importance demands that they should not by any means be overlooked in a comprehensive statement concerning the formation of the earth. In short, they have hitherto been difficult points in all geological disquisitions, which even the most profound thinkers have been glad to dispose of in a transient manner ; and, consequently, when introduced, have left no impression of correctness on the minds of the readers ; or, rather, have left them entirely in doubt. It is hoped, therefore, that it may be considered an addi- tional pledge for the truth of the present System when it is known that, however careful to avoid misleading any one, it is intended to dwell particularly on those very points, and to bring them forth as the firmest and surest conclusions ; trust- ing to prove, that to this very change in the form of the earth, from a sphere to a spheroid, effected in the short space of twenty-four natural hours, are to be traced many of those geological and geographical phenomena which have hitherto baffled explanation. I beg, however, it may not be over- looked, that while thus anticipating the true and only expla- nation of the cause of that motion, and the effects proceeding from it, little or no progress could have been made without the surprising and well-attested facts brought to light, and established by th.e intelligence and industry of geologists, naturalists, and other scientific men ; and, therefore, standing as a day's man between those who place implicit faith in Scripture, while they turn aside from the lights of philosophy ; and those in a more critical position who, while they gaze with delight on the dazzling lustre of philosophic lore, wilfully shut their eyes to the softer and more glorious light of Revelation ; I would be understood as saying to the one : FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 243 " While you gladly and joyfully listen to the inspired Word, be not insensible to the majesty of works, which are wrought in truth, and are fearfully and wonderfully made." To the other it might be said : " Amidst the excitement and the exhilarating influences caused by the investigations of the works of the Creator, oh ! turn not a deaf ear to his word. Remember that nature cannot answer all your enlightened and intelligent questions ; but, in order that you should be fully informed of the origin of her stores, you must turn at last to Nature's God ; and to what He has been pleased to reveal in his sacred volume regarding them." Let not, therefore, believers in the Bible any longer dread the announcements of nature's wonders, they were all framed and fashioned by their Lord's own hand : nor let the votaries of nature's phenomena any longer deride the worshippers of his word ; for without it they can neither satisfactorily account for that of which they are in quest, nor return with- out it to the right path from whence they have so long diverged ; but, rather, let harmony reign between them ; for only by their cordial reconciliation and perfect union can the truth be effectually established. But to proceed with the argument. Let that be conceived to have been, which in reality was the case, namely : That the spherical non-rotating earth, geologically constituted as it is described in the preceding section, and performing its pe- riodical revolution around the unillumined sun, by the con- joint influence of two divellent forces, so nicely equipoised as to be incapable of resisting the slightest addition to either, was, by the application of an instantaneous tangential force, made to revolve diurnally around its axis, with an angular velocity of 15 per hour, and then let an endeavour be made to determine the results. To enable us to do this there will, first, be reference made to what is contained in part of the seventy-eighth Theorem, which please see. According to its tenor, it is evident that when the earth was caused to revolve, the consequences mentioned in it would take place, either by the cohesion of the parts resisting the inclination to fly off, which was occasioned by the centri- fugal force being brought to bear upon them, and the general R 2 244 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE tendency be expended by exciting a pressure or strain upon the axis ; or, the cohesion amongst the particles would be too weak to resist the force engendered by the centrifugal impetus, and they would, therefore, hasten to assume such an arrangement among themselves, as should confer on the whole mass the form of equilibrium under rotation, and so relieve the axis from the strain or pressure indicated above. In effecting which change of arrangement, they would be subjected to all those results proceeding from movement among the various parts of which the whole mass is consti- tuted. Now the previous investigations have made us aware, not only that the earth's axis could not have resisted the consequent strain or pressure to which it would according to the former alternative have been subjected, but likewise, that both by calculation and actual measurement it has been ascertained, that the centrifugal force overcame the cohesion among the parts of the earth's outer crust, and both caused and enabled it to assume the oblate form best adapted to meet the rotatory motion with which it was impressed, and thereby to relieve the axis from all strain upon it. In the immediate sequel it will be satisfactorily proved that this change was effected after all the stratified masses preceding the upper portion of the coal measures had been deposited, and therefore it follows, as a natural consequence of these combined truths, that in accommodating themselves to the alteration in the earth's form, which has just been indi- cated, from a sphere to a spheroid of rotation, tJie strata, and other mineral masses, must have undergone very considerable changes in tlieir relative positions. To be thoroughly convinced of this, in a general way, as also of the fact that there must have been an instantaneous intrusion of unstratijied rock amongst the strata, let the following consideration be duly appreciated, namely, a spheroid, the mean of whose diameter is 7,912 miles, has upwards of eight hundred and sixty-one thousand square miles more of superfice than a sphere whose diameter is 7,899 miles ;* and those being the dimensions corresponding to the earth as it now is, and as it was before rotation, it follows that in order * It is to be remembered that I do not consider that the solids of the earth became flattened in polar diameter after rotation. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 245 to complete the outer crust of a world, on which such an immense increase of surface had been instantaneously pro- duced, there required to have been provided instantaneously an amount of solid rock to fill up the expansion which had thus taken place. Nor must it be supposed, that this differ- ence of surface is the estimate at its full extent ; for, were the inequalities occasioned by the continents and ocean beds, the mountains and valleys, and other flexuosities of surface, taken into account the above being merely deduced from plane surfaces the actual increase would be found to be infinitely beyond that which has been stated. It must, at once, be confessed, that the superficial extent of rock, instantaneously required to fill up this void, could not have been supplied from any resources residing in the stratified masses themselves. For there is no possible way, according to natural cause and effect, whereby a movement of the earth could have occasioned a spreading out of the strata over this enormous increase of surface ; and, likewise, over that which has not been taken into account. It is said, " according to natural cause and effect," because, for wise purposes, the diurnal rotation of the earth was ordained to be the natural effect of causes instituted directly by the Deity, with power to produce, in sequence, that stupendous result as their first and chief effect ; there- fore, it is considered quite justifiable to adopt this language, without in the least attempting to limit the infinite powers of the Creator ; but, on the contrary, while reverencing those attributes of Omnipotence, I look upon myself as authorised, in the present instance, according to the natural connec- tion between cause and effect, to conclude, that not only was there no possible way whereby the strata could have been made to cover this extra surface ; for the vertical posi- tions, which most of them have assumed, would increase the embarrassment, were it attempted to bring them forward as sufficient for the exigency contemplated, it being well known, and readily admitted, that a plane of any given dimensions covers a greater concentric surface when horizontal than when tilted up into any angle whatever out of perfect hori- zontality. Some other phenomena must therefore be looked to for a satisfactory explanation of this difficulty ; although 246 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE EARTH. it will lead us into rather a lengthened chain of reasoning, requiring the aid of various Theorems and their accompany- ing evidences, and the combination of truths which, perhaps, have never before been brought into juxtaposition ; neverthe- less the undertaking must be continued with patient per- severance, in hopes that it may ultimately lead to satisfactory results. SECTION IV. INTRODUCTION OF THE LIGHT ; THE CONSEQUENT FIRST DIURNAL ROTATION OF THE EARTH ; AND ITS DYNAMICAL RESULTS. CHAPTER XVII. TX7ITH reference to what was stated at the conclusion of the foregoing chapter, the first point to which the attention will now be directed, while endeavouring to establish it, is the relative insignificancy of the estimated thickness of the earth's outer crust, in comparison with its entire radius. With this view, let us, on commencing, read carefully the twenty-first Theorem, to be assured that there is such a thing understood among geologists as an "outer crust of the earth." In selecting evidences from among the numerous autho- rities for this opinion, I shall give what may be considered the expression of a pretty general one on this point, since Dr. M'Culloch takes it up with the intention of refuting it, when treating on " the depth of the strata beneath the surface." " It has," he says, " been ignorantly made a matter of reproach to geologists, that they reason respecting the structui-e of an earth to which they have had no further access than by operations that ought to be considered but as scratches on its surface. It has been said that the highest mountains are but as dust, and the deepest mines but as invisible punctures on a common geographical globe." * "When we examine," observes Mr. Lyell, "into the structure of the earth's crust (by which we mean the small portion of the exterior of our planet accessible to human observation), whether we pursue our investigations by aid of mining operations, or by observing the * Geology, vol. i. p. 94. 248 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE sections laid open in the sea cliffs or in the deep ravines of moun- tainous countries, we discover everywhere a series of mineral masses which are not thrown together in a confused heap, but arranged with considerable order ; and even where their original position has under- gone great subsequent disturbance, there still remain proofs of the order that once reigned."* "Beneath the whole series of stratified rocks," says Professor Buckland, " which appear on the surface of the globe, there probably exists a foundation of unstratified crystalline rocks, an irregular sur- face, from the detritus of which the materials of stratified rocks have in a great measure been derived amounting, as we have stated, to a thickness of ten miles. This is indeed but a small depth in com- parison with the diameter of the globe ; but, small as it is, it affords certain evidence of a long series of changes and revolutions, affecting not only the mineral condition of the nascent surface of the earth, but attended also by important alterations in animal and vegetable life."! A recent popular work contains the following evidence respecting not only the assumption of the earth having an outer crust, but also its presumed thickness. It is given in reference to Part II. of Mr. Henessy's " Researches in Phy- sical Geology," communicated to the Royal Society by Major Beamish ; the part which interests us, at present, being Clause 2nd, which states that " By employing the values of the constants obtained in Section IX., it appears that the thickness of the earth's crust cannot be less than 18 miles, and cannot exceed 600 miles."] And still more recently, on this much-debated subject, the following hints transpire in the inaugural address of Professor Hopkins, at the last meeting of the British Association at Hull, when treating of the prevailing favourite speculations as to the internal condition and temperature of the earth : " Hence," says he, " the opinion adopted by many geologists is, that our globe does really consist of a solid shell not exceeding 40 or 50 miles in thickness, and an interior fluid nucleus, maintained in a state of fusion, &c. It might, at first sight, appear that this enormous mass of molten matter, enclosed in so thin a shell, could scarcely be consistent with the general external condition of the temperature of our globe ; but it is quite certain that these are not inconsistent with each other, and that no valid argument can be urged against the hypothesis." * Principles of Geology, vol. iii. p. 8. t Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i. p. 42. J Year- Book of Facts, 1850. Athenaeum, p. 1068, Sept., 1853. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 249 If the estimated elevation of nearly 27,000 feet be thought unworthy of being taken into account, when estimating the diameter of the earth, neither is the mean thickness of the earth's crust comparatively worthy of notice. Thus we have come to one certain conclusion for determining the question at present under discussion. It is this : that, during the non- diurnal rotatory period of the earth's existence, the perpen- dicular distance, from the surface of the coal measures to the inferior strata which repose on the unstratified rocks, was so insignificant, in comparison with the radius of the earth, that, for any purpose wherein those two limits require to be adduced, they may be assumed, for all practical purposes, as equidistant from the centre of gyration. We must next endeavour to determine the relative densi- ties of the several classes of rock, especially of the primary and older stratified masses, and of the more modern of the secondary formations, in order to institute a comparison between them ; though it is somewhat difficult to arrive at this point with any degree of precision, for it seems hitherto to have attracted but little attention as a specific question ; nevertheless there is abundance of evidence to prove, in a general way, the received opinion, that our globe is formed of materials whose density increases from the surface towards the centre. In support of the point, generally, sought to be established, namely, the greater specific gravity of the older rocks, I offer, first of all, the following clause from the twenty- third Theorem : " That they (geologists) also concur in con- sidering the primary rocks, besides being deficient in inor- ganic remains, to be more compact and crystalline in texture than the others." The following are some of the authorities for that opinion : "When we trace," says Dr. Fleming, "the characters of the different depositions which have taken place, from the newest alluvial beds to the oldest transition rocks, we witness very remarkable grada- tions of character. The newest-formed strata are loose in their tex- ture, and usually horizontal in their position. In proportion as we retire from these towards the older formations, the texture becomes more compact and crystalline, and the strata become more inclined. These characters may be traced by comparing the common loose marl of a peat-bog with the former chalk ; the compact floetz limestone with the transition marble ; or the peat itself with the older beds of wood coal, or the still older beds of coal of the independent coal 250 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE formations. The organic remains in the newer strata are yet un- altered in their texture, and easily separable from the matter in which they are embedded. In the older rocks the remains are changed into stone, and intimately incorporated with the surrounding rocks. These facts make us Acquainted with the original condition of the matter with which the organic remains were enveloped, and lead us to believe that the bed now in the form of limestone or marble was once loose as chalk, or even marl ; that coal once resembled peat ; and that the strata of sandstone and quartz rock were once layers of sand."* Sir Henry de la Beche, when treating of the Non-fossili- ferous Stratified Rocks, says "From various circumstances, many of the lowest fossiliferous rocks assume the mineralogical character of those in this class so as to be indistinguishable from them, except by geological situation ; but it may be assumed that, as a mass, the strata in this division are far more crystalline than in those of the superior stratified rocks, the origin of which seems chiefly mechanical." Mr. Lyell, in one short passage, when treating of the Meta- morpkic Rocks, says " Nor should it be forgotten that, as a general rule, the less crystal- line rocks do really occur in the upper, and the more crystalline in the lower part of each metamorphic series."! Professor Phillips, in his Treatise, says "Induration, or consolidation to a high degree, is a general pro- perty of the primary strata, composed of silicious, argillaceous, and calcareous rocks. There is, in fact, no sand, no clay, no marl in the whole series. "J Besides these general evidences, we are, fortunately, sup- plied with proof of a more specific character by the accurate experiments made by Lord Webb Seymour and Professor Playfair on the mountain of Schehallien, and whose results have been given to the world by the latter accomplished writer. The whole is so interwoven together, and dependent on mathematical calculations, that a satisfactory abstract can hardly be formed of it, but the following short extract seems to convey all the evidence which is required for the pre- sent : t Lftter in Edin. Journal., No. 15, January, 1823, pp. 120, 121. Elements, vol. ii. p. 4.6. J Page 71. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 251 " One thing only seemed wanting," says Professor Playfair, when alluding to Dr. Maskelyne's astronomical observations made on that mountain in 1774, " to give to the determination of the earth's density all the accuracy that could be obtained from a single experi- ment, namely, a more accurate knowledge of the specific gravity of the rock which composes the mountain, as being the object with which the mean density of the earth was immediately compared. The specific gravity of that rock was assumed to be to that of water as 5 to 2, which, though it be nearly a medium when stones of every kind from the lightest to the heaviest are included, is certainly too small for Schehallien, the rocks of which belong to a class of a specific gravity considerably above the mean."* After giving the particulars of the various specimens employed, and tables of their individual densities, he goes on to state " From the inspection of the preceding table it is evident, that the specimens relatively to their specific gravity may be divided into two classes, sufficiently distinct from one another. The specimens of granular quartz are in spec. gr. comprehended between 2'61 and 2'60, nearly ; and the mean is 2'639876. The micaceous rocks, including the calcareous, are contained between the limit 2-7 and 3-06 ; the mean of all the 15 specimens being 2-82039. Now it happens fortu- nately that these two classes of rocks distinguished by their spec. gr. are also distinguished by their position, so that the line which separates them can be accurately traced out on the face of the mountain."! From what has now been said another important datum has been acquired to enable us to continue our present in- quiry ; for we have been made aware by these evidences, that the stony masses which constitute the unstratified rocks, their associated schists, and the older stratified formations, gene- rally speaking, exceed in specific gravity the latter ones, which are not so perfectly consolidated from age or pressure ; or, in other words, that the specific gravity of the earth's rocky crust, of the ancwnt globe, increased in proportion to the distance from the submarine surface of tlmt period. With these data, namely, the greater specific gravity of the older or then inferior rocks, and the equality of distance at which the upper and under surfaces of the stratified envelope of the globe, for all parallels of latitude, may be considered to have been in relation to the centre of gyration, let us recur to the laws of mechanics, and endeavour to discover what would be the effect of the rotation of the earth on materials * Playfaiv's Works, vol. iii. p. 404. t Ibid., p. 421. 252 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE so circumstanced. It will be found stated in a part of the seventy -third Theorem, " That weights which are as one to two at equal distances, with the same velocity, will have tlieir centrifugal force increased as the mass of the moving body increases." This rule embraces all the circumstances of the case which are now under investigation ; for, by the diurnal rotation of the earth around its axis, the angular velocity, and conse- quently the centrifugal impetus, was the same for all places on the same parallels of latitude ; the perpendicular distances, between the upper and under surfaces of all formations over- lying each other, might for each mass be considered equally distant from the centre of gyration ; while their relative den- sities, although not as one to two, were sufficiently diverse to cause a difference in their centrifugal impetus, and, according to the above law, the heaviest would be made to fly further from the axis of the earth, which, in this case, was also that of gyration. This, then, is another step towards the termination of this part of the inquiry ; for we have been made aware that, when the globe was made to revolve diurnally, there would be unequal centrifugal forces engendered among the several masses con- stituting the envelope of the spherical earth ; and in order to come to a final conclusion, there requires only now to combine it with what was established when the seventy-eighth Theorem was formerly applied, namely, " That the centrifugal force overcame the cohesion among the parts of the earths outer crust, and caused them to burst asunder, in order to assume the oblate form, corresponding to the rotatory motion with which it was impressed." For the combination of these conditions 'must persuade us, " That in .the general move- ment which took place among the stony masses constituting the earths outer crust, when thus broken up, and unequally impelled from the centre, the undermost or heaviest would be caused to perforate or heave up, if they did not entirely pierce through, the stratified masses which reposed upon them." This conclusion, it is considered, must, of necessity, be come to, as the legitimate deduction of what has been stated in the preceding argument. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 253 No doubt, the diverse increments in the centrifugal im- petus according as the zones were nearer to the equator, and the oblique action, towards the polar regions, of gravi- tation upon this newly engendered force, will together even- tually aid in removing the difficulties which, at present, interpose to prevent a satisfactory account being given for the peculiar sweep which the three great continental ridges have assumed, as well as for the particular lines of direction which mountain chains took when they alike rose up, at his command, and " stood fast." The chief difficulty in this branch of inquiry consists in our ignorance as to the way in which the crust of the world should break up when caused to fly asunder by the sudden impetus of protorotation. This, however, would in some degree be obviated were we to admit that deposition, by means of the great luni-solar cur- rent, and of animal and vegetable agency, may have been so arranged and carried on, that there were sutural lines (similar to those which occur in other natural objects) pre- pared parallel to the axis, whose divergence from perfect parallelism, when they became apparent by dehiscence, was occasioned by the action upon them of the forces engendered by protorotation."" It is not intended, however, to push this particular point any further ; it is merely alluded to as one with regard to which the Dynamical System will be found to lend much assistance ; especially to those who are dedicating profound mathematical reasoning to the solution of the great problem of the inequalities of the earth's outer crust. Fortunately, the general argument can be prosecuted altogether irrespect- ively of this investigation, and it will accordingly be proceeded with. * Eleventh Theorem. SECTION IV. INTRODUCTION OF THE LIGHT ; THE CONSEQUENT FIRST DIU11NAL ROTATION OF THE EARTH ; AND ITS DYNAMICAL RESULTS. CHAPTER XVIII. TVEFORE proceeding to trace more circumstantially the -*-* important results emanating from the general convulsion of the earth's rocky frame, in accommodating its masses to the modified form which its diurnal protorotation caused it to assume, it may be proper to make the following opportune advertencies. The effects proceeding from the dynamical law which has just been contemplated, are to be considered applicable more especially to points of equal latitudes ; and to hold good with regard to all masses immediately superimposed on each other ; whilst a different and more complex rule requires to be applied when it is wished to ascertain the comparative results of points of divergent latitudes. In consequence, for example, of parts within 25 of the equator being at much greater relative distances, from the common axis of gyration, than those of higher latitudes, and, consequently, falling within the dominion of the second rule of the seventy-third Theorem, a somewhat different effect would take place with regard to them. For although the circumstances, mentioned in the previous argument, would undoubtedly cause all more weighty rocks to rise up from beneath the incumbent ones of less dense material, at every point along the whole line of axis, except when very near to tftc poles : it follows, from the observation just made with respect to unequal distances from FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 255 the centre of gyration, that the violence of protrusion would not only be in proportion to proximity to the equator, but, under a parity of circumstances, the whole movable mass, upper, and under, and all between, would, within the tropical zone, be forced farther from the axis, and thereby caused to form more elevated continents and deeper oceanic hollows. The diurnal revolution of the earth around its axis having been the cause of innumerable important phenomena, radiat- ing from it as a common centre, the} 7 were consequently all undergoing their phases, assuming their forms and states, and speeding to their respective destinations at one and the same period of time ; and therefore, in order to assimilate the de- scription to the events which took place, they should, were it possible, be all described simultaneously. But as many details require to be gone into, several difficulties to be over- come, evidences to be brought forward, positions laid down, and conclusions drawn from the whole, this rapidity of de- scription, however desirable, cannot be accomplished, for some order of sequence must be observed ; hence the necessity for this advertence, that the mind may be prepared for the un- avoidable descrepancy which must, of necessity, take place between the simultaneous rapidity of the events themselves and the unavoidably dilated explanation which is about to be attempted of them. For, with man's circumscribed faculties, AVC are constrained to submit to sequence in all subjects which engross the attention ; and more so, when it is of so complex a character as a description of the earth rising, at the command of the Great Creator, from beneath the water which had so long encompassed it ; and by one vast effort sending forth enormous mountain chains ; scattering massive boulders and blocks ; forming breccias and conglomerates ; engendering fusion by inconceivable heat from friction ; caus- ing the deposition of extended areas of strata mechanically formed ; and giving birth to an irresistible rush of water from the poles towards the equator ; almost all synchronous, or during the first two days of the Mosaic week. If the positions which I have assumed be correct, the deductions hitherto drawn be exact, and the mechanical laws have been properly applied, we should be able to deduce therefrom, that very important transformations necessarily 256 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE took place in the form and surface of the spherical non-diur- nally rotating earth covered, as it was, by a circumfluent ocean when it was first caused to revolve diurnally around its axis. Hitherto it has been customary to consider that the earth assumed its oblate form, or that which corresponds to rotation, while it was yet in such a state of fluidity as to admit of per- fect mobility amongst its particles ; and thereby became, as is usually expressed, " flattened at the poles, and protuberant in the equatorial regions." "" These assertions, however, can be admitted as perfectly correct, provided only that a clear line of distinction should be drawn between the Aqueous and the Mineral portions of the earth. In the former there was a flattening at the poles ; in the latter there was none. In- deed, one of the most essential dogmas by which the present system is distinguished from all others, and by which its truth is hereafter to be tested, consists, in fact, that with respect to the solid materials of the earth, there was no flatten- ing at the poles. This diameter of the globe (for there were then no poles) is considered to have remained as far as the solid materials are concerned the same as when the earth existed in a spherical form circulating through space, but be- fore it was impressed with diurnal rotation ; the change in diameter, from those of a sphere to its actual spheroidal dimensions, having been effected by a decrease in the aqueous portion at the poles, unitedly with an enlargement of the surface and general diameter of both the solid and aqueous portions around the equatorial regions. In order more thoroughly and perfectly to comprehend, what is proposed to be stated respecting the results which proceeded more immediately from the earth's first diurnal rotation, there must beforehand be taken into account those which would arise from two very distinctly constituted spheres being put into rotatory motion by the same force, namely, one sphere composed of solid matter, and another, a hollow one, of water ; both containing a determinate quantity of matter, the latter being borne on the surface of the former. In reasoning, with respect to these, the liquid hollow * " Astronomy," by Sir John Herschel ; " Connection of the Sciences," by Mrs. Somcrville ; and others. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 257 sphere may, at once, be disposed of, by conceding what actually took place, namely, that a sudden conflux of its water, from the poles towards the equator, caused this mov- able hollow sphere to become flattened at the poles and pro- tuberant at the equator, by a transfer of its particles from the one part to the other, in order to complete that perfect form of equilibrium which the ocean alone presents ; while it is to be remembered, that it was enabled to do this merely because the molecules of its mass were so constituted, with regard to each other, as to admit of perfect mobility in all directions, and thereby of their arranging themselves, when the entire mass was accommodating itself to the new form of rotation, so as to adopt a level surface throughout its whole extent.* The concession of this point produces spontaneously the following two important conclusions : 1st. That the water was then under the same laws as at present, of which more hereafter ; and 2ndly. That had the portions of the earth, now solid, been then in such a state of fluidity, either from aqueous solution or from igneous fusion, as would have ad- mitted their assuming an oblate form by a transfer of particles, or becoming in the same manner flattened at the poles, with a corresponding protuberance at the equator, they, likewise, would, in obedience to the laws affecting fluid bodies in revo- lution, have assumed, at the same time, a perfectly level sur- face, similar to that adopted by the hollow sphere of water which has just been contemplated, for they were both sub- jected to the same centrifugal force in quality and degree. Under these circumstances there can be recognised no reason why the mineral portion of the earth should be supposed to have been possessed of sufficient fluidity to admit of its hav- ing assumed the spheroidal dimensions by a flattening at the poles, and corresponding protuberance at the equator, while there is denied to it the adoption of the other consequences which would inevitably have followed from the same degree of fluidity. It is of the utmost importance to be consistent in opinion, and I therefore quote what has been said by scientific writers on the subject under consideration. In the " Cabinet Cyclopaedia " it is stated * In accordance with what is stated in the 80th Theorem. 2 5 8 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE " Indeed, this theorem " (proving the tendency of water to assume and maintain its level) " is nothing more than a manifestation of the tendency of the component parts of every body to fall into the lowest position which the nature of their mutual connection, and the circum- stances in which they are placed, admit. Mountains do not sink and press up the adjacent valleys, because the strong cohesive principle which binds together the constituent particles of their masses, and those of the earth beneath them, is opposed to the force of their gravity, and is much more powerful ; but if this cohesion were dis- solved, these great elevations would sink from their lofty eminences, and the intervening valleys would in their turn rise an interchange of form taking place ; and this undulation would continue until the whole mass would attain a state of rest, when no inequality of height would remain. All the inequalities, therefore, observable in the sur- face of land, are owing to the predominance of the cohesive over the gravitative principle ; the former depriving the earth of the power of transmitting, equally in every direction, the pressure produced by the latter.'"' Whoever, therefore, maintains that the important transfor- mation alluded to occurred while the globe was fluid, will have to explain, according to his own hypothesis, why the mineral portion did not adopt a perfectly level surface, and undergo a change from a level sphere to a level spheroid. That this did not take place was fortunately and providenti- ally ordained otherwise ; and we must therefore look to some other source for a more correct and comprehensive elucida- tion of the cause whereby it is so differently constituted in its two important elements land and water. In doing this I shall commence by assuming the following limiting positions : 1st. That there was not a transfer of solid material from the polar to the equatorial regions, when the change of the earth's form took place, sufficient to effect its transformation into that of equilibrium ;t and 2ndly. That assuredly there was an enlargement of the equatorial surface and its general diameter ; + which two limiting assumptions * Treatise on Hydrostatics, Cab. Cyc., pp. 57, 58. f When it is said "there was not a transfer of solid material took place," these terms are not meant to be an unqualified negative ; for I shall have to show, in the sequel of this discourse, that there was a vast quantity of loose material borne by the conflux of the water from the poles to the equator, which filled up the rude and deep acclivities of these regions. But this did not in any manner contribute to produce the outline form of equilibrium, although it served to round it off; and render it more productive and habitable. It is in this latter sense merely, that of the general outline, that the expressions above used are designed to be nega- tive. AUTHOR. % These qualified expressions are used from the belief, that there are parts of the earth's equatorial regions now covered by the ocean, which, if estimated from FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 259 force us into the conclusion, That such a transformation of the surface occurred as served to fulfil the conditions of the new state to which it was subjected only when caused to rotate diurnally. As the sole change in the form of a spherical body, to which no addition from the polar extremities is made during the process, while an actual enlargement of sur- face ensues, is that whieh transforms it into ridges and corre- sponding hollows, it therefore results, that one of the most prominent effects of the centrifugal impetus upon the earth, constituted as it is supposed to have been, would transform its surface (enlarging it at the equatorial regions), by the addition of material from within, into immense continental ridges and oceanic hollows, whose direction would, in general, be in lines parallel to the axis of rotation, modified by a variation in the intensity of the elevating force, occasioned by the form of the revolving body ; and whose elevations and depressions would increase in proportion as they approached the equatorial regions. That this is the form which its surface has assumed, the eleventh Theorem will satisfactorily prove. Besides the evidences arising from the outline form of the great continental ridges, there are likewise satisfactory proofs discoverable in favour of this part of the dynamical system, in the relative position of the component rocky masses them- selves, as will be seen by perusing the twenty-eighth Theorem. On a retrospective view being taken of what has been said with regard to the change which took place " in the twinkling of an eye," as it were, in the form of the earth, from a non- diurnally rotating sphere to a spheroid of rotation, perhaps no evidence could be adduced which militates more against the conceptions, hitherto entertained, of its having assumed the oblate form while in a fluid state, than the circumstance of there actually having been two spheres, the one fluid, the other rigid, superimposed on each other, and subjected simul- taneously to the same impetus. For this remarkable coinci- dence leaves the theories, which are formed on the supposition of fluidity, without the shadow of a foundation ; it brings them to the touchstone at once, and reveals their unsound- the solid surface of the antipodes, would, perhaps, he found to measure less than the polar diameter. s 2 2 6o DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE ness, by furnishing an example in point, in which, one of the spheres being fluid, in accommodating itself to the change, has not adopted a surface of undulating elevations and de- pressions, but moving on the face of the more rigid mineral sphere, has arranged itself in perfect horizontality : and un- less it can be proved (but what no one will ever attempt to do), that the impelling force applied to the aqueous portion was different from what was exerted on the mineral mass, some other source must be looked to for the cause of the differences of form and surface which, under similar circum- stances, they have assumed ; a difference only to be accounted for by admitting what was really the case, that the one was liquid, and obeyed the laws which govern matter in that state, while the other was so far rigid, that although the cohesion among its parts was overcome to a certain extent by the cen- trifugal impetus, yet it impeded the transmission of sufficient mineral matter from the poles to the equator to fill up the perfect form of rotation, and to round it off into a revolving spheroid of level surface. A few moments of reflection will convince any one that the diversity observed by these two spheres the outer pliant and moving like an elastic ring upon the other, while the mineral one remained invariable in polar diameter was wisely ordained by the Creator, in order to form those open cavities, or hollows, which were destined to confine the water when " it rushed forth as from the womb," and to separate it from " the dry land ; " likewise to adorn the earth with that charming diversity of land and ocean, hill and dale, river and lake, which render it so fit an abode for those creatures for whom it was prepared the theatre, alas ! of all their in- gratitude for the wisdom, goodness, and power which were lavished in preparing it for them ! There are seldom any attempts made to explain the origin of the continental ridges and oceanic hollows into which the earth's surface is so prominently undulated. These appear either to have been looked upon as necessary parts in the form of a world, or to be entirely beyond the limits of geology. Whether they should form a part of that pleasing and instruc- tive study will not at present be inquired ; but certainly they ought not to be overlooked in any treatise having for its FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 261 object to account for the formation of the earth. They are very prominent features on its surface, and should therefore occupy a corresponding place in all cosmographical treatises ; while it may very safely be affirmed, that they could not be in existence without having had an adequate cause. This explanation, therefore, is offered as an additional feature in favour of the dynamical system, which not only does not shrink from nor overlook them, but would not be true if these immense elevations and cavities did not exist. They are the necessary consequences of the earth having been caused to rotate diurnally, AFTER the greater part of its stratified material had been deposited in concentric layers upon its sub- marine surface, and of the existence of the watery envelope which everywhere surrounded the non-rotating sphere. It is likewise presumed that the prevalences of islands within the equatorial zone noticed in the eleventh Theorem is another proof of the correctness of the dynamical system. Islands are the apici of submerged mountains, and evince at one and the same time the increase of the centrifugal impetus in those regions, and conflux of the water thither from the poles ; the wisdom and the goodness of which binary arrange- ment are very manifest ! Had the former not taken place with sufficient force to have thrown up these mountains, the equatorial portion of the globe would have been an unbroken, wearisome waste of water a liquid, unproductive zone ! On the other hand, had the latter been wanting, it would have been a rugged and impassable girdle of arid mountains ! But by the manifold wisdom of the Creator, and the fitness of his arrangements, it is not lost to usefulness, either by the one extreme or the other, their harmonious combination ren- dering it easy of access, fruitful in soil, and salubrious in climate, the fierce rays of the tropical sun being mitigated by the abounding water, which likewise facilitates the communi- cation from zone to zone, and from hemisphere to hemisphere. It must have appeared obvious to the reader, by what has hitherto been said, with respect to the great continental ridges, that they have been merely treated of in general terms, and presented to the view only as outlines a rude mineral skeleton of towering peaks and sharp acclivities, such as might be con- ceived to arise, when one mass of bare rock was caused to 2 6z DYNAMICAL St'STEM OF THE perforate another by the violence of the centrifugal impetus, but which had not yet been filled up, or rounded off, by the deposition of the immense mass of debris spoken of in the thirty-second Theorem. The process by which this transfor- mation was effected, and this part of the earth rendered a litter habitation for man and the terrestrial animals, will be fully explained when I close in upon the subject, and treat it in a more definite manner, with reference to stratified masses superimposed on the unstratified ones in a determinate order, subjected alike to a force of known rate and direction, capable of dislodging both from their recumbent posture. Then it will be recognised, that there Avas a mass of debris spread abroad, which can only be accounted for by supposing that it went to fill up rocky hollows such as have been already alluded to ; while it will be iny care to explain how great a proportion of it was swept by the rush of the polar waters to the equatorial regions, and, being there spread abroad upon its rugged and rocky surface, conduced to round it off, and to render it more habitable. In further confirmation of this view of the case, without going into particulars (which will presently have to be done), it may be generally observed, that denudation is a geological feature, which writers in that science have occasion to insist much upon when they are describing formations in high and even moderate latitudes, such as those of our own country. The respective works of MM. de la Beche, Phillips, and Lyell abound with passages descriptive of the effects of denudation by water. When the same writers, however, have to direct the attention of those whom they are instructing to the regions within the tropics, and near to the equator, they require to bring forward evidences of vast accumulations of water-borne stratified material which have filled up hollows and rounded off sharp acclivities amongst widely extended table lands. For example, the description given by the first of these,* from the writings of Humboldt, of the plains of Mexico and New Granada, and the more recent and admirable description, by / Mr. Lyell, of the valley of the Mississippi, all of which, and especially the contrast they present, between the leading de- velopments of these two divergent regions of geological re- * Manual of Geology, pp. 409 412. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 263 search, are precisely in keeping with what there is reason to expect would result as the effects of the centrifugal impetus, and the rush of water from the poles towards the equator, which took place on the protorotation of the earth ; while the denudation in the higher latitudes, and the corresponding deposits in the tropical regions, afford the most conclusive evidence that the waters did not return ; but having carried their earthy load and deposited it where they came to rest, by assuming their static form of rotation, they were there constrained for ever afterwards to remain, and to produce those desirable and needful effects to which allusion has been made above. It should be noticed, at the same time, that this result would be accomplished by a transference of waters from the polar extremities in quantity corresponding to a depth of about 6^ miles, or half the excess of equatorial radii over those corresponding to the earth's other two semi- diameters. I confess I am quite incapable of determining, by reasoning d priori, whether the number of three great outline ridges into which the earth is divided be that into which a world such as ours in dimensions, geological structure, and impelled by an angular velocity of 1 5 per hour, ought, from secondary causes, to have been broken up. This interesting problem may probably form the subject of future investigations, and it is not doubted but that it will then be found to have been the result of secondary causes. I am, however, convinced that all things were previously disposed so as to enable the terraqueous globe to assume its present tripartite continental divisions, with their respective accompaniments, as the neces- sary results of secondary causes, themselves the effects of immediate causes emanating from the Omnipotent Creator of all, " without whom was not anything made that is created and made." Proceeding with the argument, the reader must now be reminded, that in a former part of this section it was laid down as ascertained data, that the consecutive layers of rock which formed the outer crust of the non-rotating submarine earth increased in density as they receded from the surface- Also, that the distance of the upper and under surfaces of the stratified envelope might, for all practical purposes, be considered equidistant from the centre of gyration. To the 264 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE geological phenomena, circumstanced as thus stated, there will now be applied the last clause of the seventy-third Theorem, wherein it is asserted " That all other circumstances being equal, ' the centmfugal force increases as the mass of the moving body increases.' ' If the deposited strata, at the bottom of the original ocean, be conceived to have been lying horizontally, in a determi- nate order of superposition, at the time when the above law was brought into exercise by the diurnal rotation of the earth around its axis, whereby centrifugal impetus was impressed alike upon all the rocky masses of its terrene crust ; it will appear obvious that, when they started from their recumbent postures to assume their respective places in the new order of things which was to follow, when the transformation from a sphere to a spheroid took place, the heaviest all other circumstances being equal would be caused to fly farthest from the centre of gyration, " the centrifugal force increasing as the mass of the moving body increases." From what has already been explained, it has been seen that the undermost were the heaviest ; consequently, in obey- ing the new law thus impressed upon them, they might either have perforated the stratified rocks above, and thrust their rugged and pointed summits, in towering grandeur, above all around them ; the superincumbent stratifications, from being also impressed with centrifugal impetus, and possessing con- siderable molecular cohesion, might have resisted the per- forating action of the inferior masses, and the whole group have swelled out into a mountain form, with summits capped by stratified material, in disjointed massive blocks suitable to the enlargement of superfice which together they had under- gone ; or, lastly, a modification of these extreme cases might have taken place, and the unstratified rocks, while they par- tially perforated the strata, might have forced other parts of them into elevations along with themselves, assisted by the centrifugal impetus imparted to the accompanying strata ; in which case, the apices of the mountains would consist of amor- phous rock, presenting high pointed peaks, with shoulders and flanks, composed of those stratified materials which accom- panied the nuclei to a certain extent in their rise from hori- zontality. And, finally, as the strata were elevated by the ^ impetus of underlying masses, which, in moving from below FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 265 upwards, assumed a pyramidal form, they would be raised to the greatest elevations, and into positions approaching nearer to verticality in proportion to the priority of their deposition, or their inferiority in the order of stratification. According to these views it is obvious, that diversified effects would ensue from the application of the centrifugal force to a sphere of such complex structure. The continental elevations and oceanic hollows, together with the general form of equilibrium, may be considered as the principal results the greatest change of relative position to which its rocky masses were subjected. Mountains and valleys, more dependent on the nature of the masses immediately over- lying each other, and on their latitudinal situation, would be brought forth indiscriminately on the surface of continents, or on that of the ocean beds ; while these, in turn, would become studded over with lesser inequalities, from the unequal densities of their component elements, and other influences of a more local character. Thus we have one general cause, the first diurnal rotation of the earth around its axis -modified by the nature and situation of the materials on which it was made to act employed by the hand of the Creator, in a moment of time, to change that which was " without form and void " into a world of infinite variety of surface, admirably adapted to fulfil the chief design of its creation : a richly adorned pedestal on which myriads of creatures, of widely diversified habits, are nurtured and reproduced in almost endless succession, " each after his kind," and designed to glorify Him, who, in wondrous wisdom, made them all ; while they are wheeled so smoothly through space as to have required the intellectual labours of generations of astronomers, to convince the human race that the planet they inhabit is not absolutely immovable in the clear blue vault of heaven. And now, most probably, it may prove as arduous an undertaking to convince their descend- ants, that what their forefathers wrongfully maintained as an immutable law of the system, even to the persecution of those who asserted to the contrary, was once actually the case, and that the revolving globe, on which they stand, has passed through a period of non-rotation so protracted as to warrant the surmise, that it may have much exceeded even that of its known diurnal motion. SECTION V. GEOLOGICAL PHENOMENA RESULTING FROM THE EARTH S FIRST DIURNAL ROTATION. CHAPTER XIX. TTAVING, at length, entered within the more immediate -*-* domain of Geology, its powerful aid will assist us in demonstrating the validity of those assumptions which have been endeavoured to be sustained in the preceding part of this work, and more especially in the last section. Those who may not have given much attention to the study of geology, or made themselves acquainted with the nature of the researches peculiar to this branch of science, may, perhaps, feel some surprise on perceiving that I am so disposed to lean, with such implicit reliance, on what it can do ; but when they reflect, that the objects, with which geologists are conversant, are appreciable by the senses, can be seen, handled, and materially dealt with, and that these investigators have been the most assiduous and systematic, perhaps, of scientific labourers, their surprise will give place to unshaken confi- dence, when they remember that while those whose lot it was to convince mankind of the orbital revolution of this planet had to appeal to objects external to the earth itself, and placed at vast distances in space, by whose relatively chang- ing position they could manifest the rapid progress, in the clear blue vault of heaven, of the pedestal on which they alike stood, while the one asserted and the other denied the fact ! I, on the contrary, am constrained, from the altogether FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 267 different nature of this subject, to seek, within the compass of the sphere itself, for the chief sources of proof; and to point the finger, not to the rising splendour of the sun, or to the waning lustre of a setting star, but to the material vestiges of change upon the globe itself , to the adamantine symptoms, which yet remain, of the presence, in bygone times, of great and unusual dynamical influences on its rocky surface ; and by their means, and the assurance derived from ocular demon- stration, to endeavour to convince my readers, that the first diurnal rotation was not coeval with the commencement of orbital revolution, but followed after a lapse of ages, and produced upon the indurated, laminated, submarine crust of the sphere, which the intervening period had allowed to be prepared and fitted, those vast and manifold changes which might have been expected, when a non-diurnal rotating globe, possessing a level, concentric, rock-bound shell, was caused to rotate around its axis, and transformed, by the centrifugal impetus, into an earth diversified by continents and oceans, hill and dale, and all the pleasing variety which now meets the eye, and renders it so admirably adapted for its present inhabitants. That Geology, with its almost inexhaustible stores of authenticated facts, can supply the evidences which are now alone required to work out this great problem, I am fully persuaded ; and I shall therefore, without further prelude, call upon it to do so, while it is hoped the result will leave such impressions of conviction on the mind as shall neither be liable to be misinterpreted, nor capable of being set aside. The statements set forth in the twenty-third Theorem will be sufficiently intelligible, without further illustration, to those who have paid any attention to geology ; but, for the benefit of those who are not versed in that and kindred studies, an occasional extract is subjoined from some of the numerous authorities, to place the subject in a diversity of lights, in order that conviction may be impressed upon every mind. " Unstratified rocks," Dr. M'Culloah observes, -"have been pro- duced from below the stratified. They are found below these, or above them, or intermixed in the form of masses, beds, and veins. The intermixture is attended by mechanical and chemical changes in 268 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE the stratified rocks. They have been consolidated after fusion, and their structure is necessarily chemical." * The following is the description which Mr. Lyell gives : " The aqueous rocks, sometimes called the sedimentary or fossilifer- ous, cover a larger part of the earth's surface than any others ; and are stratified, or divided into distinct layers or strata. The term stratum means simply a bed, or anything spread out or streiced over a given surface, and we infer that these strata have been generally spread out by the action of water. " The volcanic rocks are those which have been produced at or near the surface, whether in ancient or modern times, not by water, but by the action of fire or subterranean heat. These rocks are for the most part unstratified, and are devoid of fossils. They are more partially distributed than the aqueous formations, at least in respect to hori- zontal extension. " But there are other two classes of rocks very distinct from either of those above alluded to, and which can neither be assimilated to deposits such as are accumulated in lakes or seas, nor to those generated by ordinary volcanic action. The members of both these divisions of rocks agree in being highly crystalline, and destitute of organic remains. The rocks of one division have been called plutonic, comprehending all the granites and certain porphyries, which are nearly allied in some of their characters to volcanic formations. The members of the other class are stratified, and often slaty, and have been called by some the crystalline schists, in which group are included gneiss, micaceous schist (or mica slate), hornblende schist, statuary marble, the finer kinds of roofing slate, and other rocks afterwards to be described." f Professor Phillips, when comprehensively classing the rocks of which the earth's crust is composed, says " The stratified structure is that which is always assumed by suc- cessive depositions of the sediments of water. " The materials (clay, sand, limestone, &c.) composing the strata of the crust of the globe are exactly similar and in the same condition or else very analogous to deposits now forming under water in various parts of the globe, and similarly associated. " The organic contents of the rocks are such as admit of no other explanation, for they are mostly of marine or fresh-water origin, and the few terrestrial reliquicB which occur in them show, by various circumstances, that they were drifted from the land or overwhelmed by the sea. By combining all these considerations, we arrive at the positive conclusion, that all the really stratified rocks are of aqueous origin. But when we turn to the unstratified rocks, the same con- clusion does not apply. Independent of the universal want of this Geology, vol. i. pp. 12, 13. t Elements, pp. 4, 15, 16. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 269 unequivocal mark of watery action .... the following circum- stances are decisive : " The materials of which the rocks are composed, are neither similar to those now deposited by water, nor in a similar condition. They are not composed of sands, clays, or limestone, but of a variety of crystallized minerals "In these unstratified rocks, organic remains do not occur, .... and, from the whole evidence, no doubt remains of the igneous origin of the crystallized and other unstratified rocks." * And again "It is remarkable that the lowest of all the known systems of stratified deposits should be at once the most extensive, the most nearly universal, tbe most uniform in mineral character, the only one from which organic life appears to be totally excluded, and in which the character of mechanical aggregation is the most obscure. " The primary strata rest on unstratified, generally granitic, rocks, so situated as to cut off all possibility of observation at greater depths. This granitic floor this universal crystalline basis to the stratified rocks appears in many instances to have undergone fusion since the deposition of strata upon it, for veins pass from it into the fissures of these rocks It is enough for our present purpose that the general truth is recognised, that the stratified rocks, which are the products of water, rest universally on the unstratified crystalline rocks, which, through whatever previous condition their particles may have passed, have assumed their present character from the agency of heat. Igneous rocks, then, rest below all the aqueous deposits."! In corroboration of the foregoing position, with which it is intimately connected, there is adduced what is stated in the twenty-sixth Theorem, to which please refer. The following are offered as some of its evidences : Professor Phillips says " The high mountain districts generally exhibit in the central points, or along their axes, granitic and other unstratified rocks under all their strata, which slope away on all sides at high angles of inclina- tion, descend to lower and still lower ground, and, finally, pass under the plains and more level regions, and are there covered up and buried under other superimposed strata. Very few parts of the world offer real exceptions to this general statement." And again " This leads directly to another very important law of the phe- nomena of disturbed stratification. The centre or axis of the moun- tain group, and consequently of the disturbing movement, is generally Treatise on Geology, pp. 55, 56. t Ibid., pp. 94, 95, 69, 70. 2 yo DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE seen to be a mass of unstratified rock, such as granite, sienite, &c., which shows, by a variety of circumstances, that it was not deposited in water, but rather crytallized from igneous fusion." : The following extract is from the pen of the graphic writer on the Old Red Sandstone : " I have often stood," says Mr. Miller, " fronting the three Ross- shire hills, Suil Veinn, Coul Beg, and Coul More " The prevailing gneiss of the district reflects a cold bluish hue, here and there speckled with white, where the weathered and lichened crags of intermingled quartz rock jut out on the hill-sides from among the heath. The three huge pyramids, on the contrary, from the deep red of the stone, seem flaming in purple. There spreads all around a wild and desolate landscape of broken and scattered hills, separated by deep and gloomy ravines, that seem the rents and fissures of a planet in ruins, and that speak distinctly of a period of convulsion, when upheaving fires from the abyss, and ocean currents above, had contended in sublime antagonism, the one slowly elevating the entire tract, the other grinding it down and sweeping it away." .... " In most of our hills," he continues, " the upheaving agency has been actively at work, and the space within is occupied by an immense nucleus of inferior rock, around which the upper formation is wrapped like a caul, just as the vegetable mould, or the diluvium, wraps up this superior covering in turn. One of our best-known Scottish moun- tains the gigantic Ben Nevis furnishes an admirable illustration of this latter construction of hill. It is composed of three cones or rings of rocks, the one rising out of or over the other, like the cases of an opera-glass drawn out. The lower one is composed of gneiss or mica slate, the middle one of granite, the terminating one of porphyry," While, " the elevating power appears to have acted in the centre, as in the case of Jorullo, in Mexico."! "It is a familiar observation," says Dr. M'Culloch, "that granite forms the highest peaks and ridges of the most elevated mountains of the globe. The remark is, however, more common than true ; it is certain that it constitutes many of these, but there are numerous mountains in the first class of elevations, that are formed of stratified rocks to the summits. Even where granite exists, it often forms only a portion of the highest points ; the sides at very great elevations, and many of the ridges and peaks, being still constructed out of the superincumbent strata. In a certain limited sense, it may also be said, that trap forms the higher summits in mountains and hilly regions ; a remark very conspicuously true in some parts of the enormous ridges of South America." } " Granite," according to the same author, " is one of the most universal rocks, forming some of the highest and most remarkable chains of mountains ; being thus the most elevated, in absolute posi- * Treatise, pp. 42, 43, 61. t Old Red Sandstone, pp. 56, 58. J Geology, vol. i. pp. 132, 133. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 271 tion, as it is supposed to be the lowest in a geological one. It is not, however, limited to such high chains as the Himalaya or the Alps, or even to the much lower ridges of Britain ; since it also occupies many extensive tracts of comparatively level land. Hence it presents that diversity of picturesque outline formerly noticed ; and if this variety sometimes results from disintegration, the same effects arise from its natural disposition. In these cases it forms tracts of various extent, though often constituting single mountains, or groups, or ridges, far separated from any analogous mass ; as it sometimes also occupies places so small as not to be easily discovered." * Mr. Strickland, in his Memoir of Geological Investigations in Asia Minor, states " He did not observe granite in situ; but on the authority of MM. Fontanier, Texier, and other travellers, he believes that it constitutes the highest part of Ida, the Mysian Olympus, the Bithynian Olympus, Mount Dindymus, Mount Tiinolus, and Mount Latmus. And that the micaceous schists, and associated rocks, occupy a very important place in the geology of Asia Minor, forming nearly all the mountain chains that intersect that country."! M. de la Beche says, on this subject " It must not be inferred, from the small space here dedicated to the inferior stratified rocks, that they are of little importance ; for they are found to occupy a large portion of the earth's surface, wher- ever from denudations and disruptions of strata, or from the original absence of superincumbent rocks, they are exposed to our obser- vation. Wherever observed, whether in Asia, North America, or Europe, they appear with constant general characters." And a little farther on, he adds " It would be tedious to enumerate the various situations where these rocks may be found. It may suffice to state, that there is scarcely any very large extent of country, where from some accident or other they are not exposed on the surface. They abound in Norway, Sweden, and Northern Russia ; they are common in the North of Scotland, whence they stretch over into Ireland. In the Alps and other mountains they occupy the central lines of elevation, as if brought to light by the movements which have thrown up the different chains. They abound in the Brazils, and occur extensively in the United States. Our navigators have shown that they are sufficiently common in the various parts of North America visited by them. They are found exteneively in the great range of the Himalaya ; Ceylon is in a great measure composed of them ; and they would not appear to be scarce in various other parts of Asia. And in Africa, also, we know they are not wanting, * Geology, vol. ii. p. 89. t Proceedings of Geological Society, in Literary Gazette, 5th Nov., 1836, p. 714. 2 yz DYNAMICAL SYSTEM QF THE though but so small a part of that continent has been yet explored with scientific views."* In further confirmation of the more prominent effects of the centrifugal force, considered by the dynamical System to have been the cause of the elevation of mountain chains, I shall call attention to the twenty-seventh Theorem, and bring forward some of the evidences on which it rests. Professor Phillips says " By a careful study of the circumstances, we observe that these indications of disturbance augment continually toward the axis or centre of the mountain group ; and that the direction of the move- ment has there been upwards; There has, in fact, been a real and violent elevation of the stratified crust of the globe, corresponding to the centre or axis of each mountain group," as shown by the diagram which follows.! .... " Cases of conical elevation do occur, but rarely : elliptical ridges are more frequent ; and the centres and axes of such being removed more or less completely, make round or elliptical valleys of elevation. "Hardly any of the lofty mountain ranges on the face of the globe," he continues, " are entirely devoid of gneiss and mica slate uplifted upon an axis of unstratified granitic masses, so as to be inclined at right angles to the horizon. The great European basin is defined by irregular elevations of this kind from the Frozen Sea to the Atlantic : by the Uralian and Caucasian chains, the ranges of Asia Minor, Greece, South Italy, and the Atlas : the irregular Western Border of Spain, Ireland, the North of Scotland, and Scandi- navia is of similar structure." t "Mr. Martin," observes Mr. Lyell, "in his work on the Geology of Western Sussex, throws much light on the structure of the Weal- den, by tracing out continuously, for miles, the direction of many anticlinal lines and cross features ; and the same course of investiga- tion has been followed out, in greater detail, by Mr. Hopkins. The mathematician last named has shown, that the observed direction of flexure and dislocation in the Weald district coincide with those which might have been anticipated, theoretically, on mechanical principles, if we assume certain simple conditions, under which the strata were lifted up by an expansive subterranean force. He finds, by calcula- tion, that if this force were applied, so as to act uniformly within an elliptic area, the longitudinal fissures thereby produced would nearly coincide with the outlines of the ellipse forming cracks, which are portions of smaller concentric ellipses, parallel to the margin of the larger one. These longitudinal fissures would also be intercepted by others running at right angles to them, and both lines of fracture may have been produced at the same time. In this illustration it is sup- * Manual, pp. 484, 485. t We would beg particular reference to this diagram. { Treatise, pp. 60, 62, 71. 72. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 273 posed that the expansive force acted simultaneously, and with equal intensity, at every point within the upheaved area, and not with greater energy along the central axis or region of principal elevation. This accords well with that expressed by M. Thurnam, in his work on the Anticlinal Ridges and Valleys of Elevation of the Bernese Jura Among other results at which this author arrived, it appears that the breadth of all the numerous anticlinal ridges and dome-shaped masses in the Jura is invariably great in proportion to the number of the formations exposed to view." * To prove that mountains and mountainous chains are, generally, more elevated the nearer they are to the equatorial region, I advert to the testimony afforded by the various graduated scales, or synoptic views of the most noted moun- tains of the world, and, also, to the following more general evidence, which incidentally occur in scientific works. " It is well known," says the accomplished author of " The Connec- tion of the Sciences," " that the continents at the equator are more elevated than they are in higher latitudes." t Professor Phillips, when endeavouring to disprove the as- sumption, that the globe might, by natural changes, be worn down by rains and waves, from a perfect sphere to a spheroid of rotation, after showing what would, under such a state of matters, have been the case near to the equator, goes on to say: " But nothing of the kind appears ; on the contrary, the distribu- tion of land and water is excessively irregular, &c. ; and the equatorial regions include some of the highest 'mountains on the globe." J What has hitherto been brought forward refers to external appearances only ; to prove by them, as far as they are avail- able, that the mountain chains owe their elevation to the protorotation of the earth, and its dynamical consequences ; and certainly, when the evidences which have been adduced from geological writers are compared with the effects anti- cipated from the dynamical force, engendered by the first diurnal revolution of the earth, upon the concentric rocky masses of the primitive sphere, we are borne out in maintain- ing, that this external branch of the evidence goes a great * Elements, vol. ii. pp. 28 30, and the authorities there given. t Page 56. j Treatise, pp. 7, 8 ; which please see. 274 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE way towards proving, that the peculiar structure of the mineral crust of the earth is due to that cause. But I must now proceed, in further support of the same position, to carry the investigations into the more intimate formation of those mountains, and into the mineralogical structure of the rocks which compose them. To effect this, I shall commence by adducing the reasons which exist for supposing, that the rocks of which they are composed have been moved en masse from the positions wherein they were originally formed. In con- sequence of the simplicity and homogeneity of the mineralogi- cal composition, as well as the amorphous nature of the un- stratified rocks, they do not, of themselves, present a sufficient prominency of character, on which to raise a conclusive chain of reasoning ; but, fortunately, this difficulty is removed when the inquiry is directed to those stratified masses which immediately rest upon or overlie them ; and with whose elevation they are so intimately associated that, by their means, we can reason regarding the primary rocks with a degree of certainty which banishes all doubt from the mind. Referring to the conclusions stated in the fourteenth Theorem, concerning stratified rocks (to which please refer), I propose to give at some length the evidences on which they rest, as they are of importance to the future argument. " Stratified rocks," says Dr. M'Culloch, " have been deposited from water. They have been produced from fragments, or from dis- solved substances, or from both. They have been consolidated by mechanical forces, or by chemical actions, or by both. They were once horizontal in position, or nearly so, and their positions are now various. They were once continuous and straight planes, or nearly so, as far as their extent; and they are now bent, fractured, and separated. They were once unmixed with unstratified rocks, and they are now intermixed with them. They were once, or oftener, below water, and they are now above it. They are repeated in con- secutive and parallel order of the same, or different kinds. With rare exceptions, every stratum is of later origin than the one next below it " The term stratum, or bed, carries its own definition with it ; its extent, according to the prolongation of its great opposing planes, being generally far greater than its thickness. A repetition of such beds forms a series of strata ; and the term stratification implies the mode of their deposition, to whatever cause that may be attributed. The term stratification therefore implies a cause as well as a mode of form and deposition ; and that cause is assumed or proved to consist FORMATION OF THE EARTH, 275 in a deposition from water, of materials that have been suspended and dissolved in it."* " The aqueous rocks," observes Mr. Lyell, "sometimes called the sedimentary, or fossiliferous, cover a larger part of the earth's surface than any others. These rocks are stratified, or divided into distinct layers or strata "Fossil shells, of forms such as now abound in the sea, are met with far inland, both near the surface and at a great depth below it. They occur at all heights above the level of the ocean, having been observed at an elevation of from 8,000 to 9,000 feet in the Alps and Pyrenees, of more than 13,000 feet in the Andes, and above 16,000 feet in the Himalayas (Geogr. Journal, vol. iv. p. 64). These shells belong mostly to marine testacea, but in some places exclu- sively to forms characteristic of lakes and rivers. Hence it is con- cluded that some ancient strata were deposited at the bottom of the sea, and others in lakes and estuaries " We have now pointed out one great class of rocks, which, how- ever they may vary in mineral composition, colour, grain, or other characters, external and internal, may, nevertheless, be grouped together as having a common origin. They have all been formed under water, in the same manner as accumulations of sand, mud, shingle, banks of shells, reefs of coral, and the like, and are all characterized by stratification or fossils, or by both." And again " Before entering into a more detailed investigation of the stratified rocks, it will be advisable to say something of the ordinary materials of which such strata are composed. These may be said to belong principally to three divisions, the arenaceous, the argillaceous, and the calcareous, which are formed respectively of sand, clay, and car- bonate of lime. Of these, the sandy masses are chiefly made up of silicious or flinty grains ; the clayey, of a mixture of silicious matter, with usually about one-fourth in weight of aluminous earth ; and, lastly, the limestone or calcareous rocks consist of carbonic acid and lime. " It has generally been said, that the upper and under surfaces of strata, or the planes of stratification, are parallel. Although this is not strictly true, they make an approach to parallelism, for the same reason that sediment is usually deposited, at first, in nearly horizontal layers. " The ripple mark, so common on the surface of sandstones of all ages, seems to have originated in the drifting of materials along the bottom of the water in a manner very similar to that which may explain the inclined layers above described. This ripple is not entirely confined to the beach between high and low water marks, but is also produced on sands which are constantly covered by water." f * Geology, vol. i. pp. 12, 67. t Please refer to the diagram given at this place in Mr. Lyell' s works. T 2 2 7 6 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE Professor Phillips thus expresses himself on the same subject : " The essential principles admitted by both of these eminent men (Werner and Smith) are very simple ; they affirm that the materials in the crust succeed one another in a particular order or series. This is nothing more than asserting generally, what is, in very many instances, found to be true locally, by the experience of miners, colliers, well-sinkers, quarrymen, and others." Again, after enumerating in detail the several descriptions of stratified rocks, he adds " And under these is granite, which nowhere appears to be stratified. " Thus we have two classes of rocks, stratified and unstratified, which will require distinct examination. " In each of the localities specified, the series of strata is found to be constant, not that every particular stratum is everywhere observed ; but the order in which they succeed one another, when present together, is never reversed. This is consistent with all experience." * M. de la Beche says " The superior stratified, or fossiliferous, rocks are divided into nine groups, namely : "In a descending series: 1. Modern; 2. Erratic Block Group ; 3. Supra-cretaceous; 4. Cretaceous; 5. Oolitic; 6. Red Sandstone; 7. Carboniferous ; 8. Gfrauwacke ; and 9. Lower Fossiliferous ; and underneath them all, the Inferior or Non-fossili/erous strata." f With these facts, obtained from so many unquestionable authorities, fresh upon the mind, let us recur to what is stated in the seventeenth Theorem, which please see. The following are some of the evidences for the therein- given opinions : Mr. Lyell boldly commences " LAND 7ms been raised, not the sea lowered. It has already been stated, that the aqueous rocks, containing marine fossils, extend over wide continental tracts, and are seen in mountain chains rising to great heights above the level of the sea. Hence it follows, that what is now dry land was once under water." .... And then goes on to say " I may now announce the conclusion at which we have arrived. The dry land consists, in a great part, of strata formed originally at Treatise on Geology, pp. 30, 291. f Manual, pp. 3437. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 277 the bottom of the sea, and has been made to arrange and attain its present height by a force acting from beneath. " Indeed, if we admit that solid hypogene rocks, whether stratified or unstratified, have in such cases been driven upwards, so as to pierce through yielding sedimentary deposits, we shall be enabled to account for many geological appearances otherwise inexplicable."* Professor Phillips asserts "We are fully convinced, that broad and extensive formations of strata, composed of various successions of sands, clays, and lime- stones variously stored with organic remains, were deposited nearly level. But the most general condition at present of the stratified rocks of all ages is, to be not quite level, but inclined to the horizon in some one direction, and at some certain angle, in each locality " By a careful study of the circumstances, we observe, that these indications of disturbances augment continually towards the axis or centre of the mountain group ; and that the direction of the move- ments has been there upwards. There has, in fact, been a real and violent elevation of the stratified crust of the globe, corresponding to the centre or axis of each mountain group " We are thus led to associate the phenomena of the disturbance of strata with the eruption of crystallized rock from beneath. The latter, however, is not the cause of the former, but rather a con- comitant effect of some general dynamical agency." f Professor Playfair, in his " Illustrations of Button's Geolo- gical Theory," gives the following graphic passage : "We have seen," says he, " of what materials the strata are com- posed ; we are next to inquire from what cause it proceeds, that they are now so far removed from the region which they originally occu- pied, and wherefore, from being all covered by the ocean, they are at present raised, in many places, 15,000 feet above its surface. It is certain that many of the strata have been moved angularly, because that, in their original position, they must have been all nearly hori- zontal Now rocks, having their layers exactly parallel, are very common, and thoroughly prove their original horizontality. This horizontality could only be produced by those laminas having been originally spread out on a flat and level surface, from which situation, therefore, they must afterwards have been lifted up by the action of some powerful cause, while they were yet, in a certain degree, flexible and ductile. Though the primary direction of the force which thus elevated them must have been from below upwards, yet it has been so combined with the gravity and resistance of the mass to which it was applied, as to create a lateral and oblique thrust, and to produce those contortions of the strata, which, when on the great scale, are among the most striking and instructive phenomena of * Elements, vol. i. pp. 9496, 101, 102, 146, 147 ; vol. ii. pp. 370, 371. ^ t Treatise, pp. 5961, 98. 278 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE geology. Great additional force is given to this argument, in many cases, by the nature of the materials of which the stratified rocks are composed. The beds of breccia and pudding-stone, for instance, are often in planes almost vertical, and, at the same time, contain gravel- stones, and other fragments of rock, of such a size and weight, that they could not remain in their present position an instant, if the cement which unites them were to become soft ; and therefore they certainly had not that position at the time when this cement was actually soft. Nothing can be more sound and conclusive than this reasoning. If some of the vertical strata are proved to have been formed horizontally, there can be no reason for not extending the same conclusion to them all, even if we had not the support of the argument from the parallelism of the layers, which has been already stated All these are the undeniable effects of some great con- vulsion, which has shaken the very foundations of the earth; but which, far from being a disorder in nature, is part of a regular system, essential to the constitution and economy of the globe " Though such marks of violence as have been now enumerated are common, in some degree, to all strata, they abound most among the primary, and point out these as the part of our globe which has been exposed to the greatest vicissitudes. At their junction with the secondary, phenomena occur, which mark some of the vicissitudes with astonishing precision ; and from which Mr. Hutton concluded, that the primary strata, after having been formed at the bottom of the sea, in planes nearly horizontal, were raised, so as to become almost vertical, while they were yet covered by the ocean, and before the secondary strata had begun to be deposited upon them " And on the whole, therefore, by comparing the actual position of the strata, their erectness, their curvature, the interruptions of their continuity, and the transverse stratification of the secondary in re- spect to the primary, with the regular and level situation which the same strata must have originally possessed, we have a complete de- monstration of their having been disturbed, torn asunder, and moved angularly, by a force that has, in general, been directed from below upwards."* Sir John Herschel bears testimony to the same effect, when he thus expresses himself " Many of the strata, which thus bear evident marks of having been deposited at the bottom of the sea, and, of course, in a hori- zontal state, are now found in a position highly inclined to the horizon, and even occasionally vertical. And they often bear evident marks of violence, in their bending and fracture, in the disloca- tion of parts which were once contiguous, and in the existence of vast collections of broken fragments, which afford every proof of great violence having been used in accomplishing some, at least, of the changes which have taken place." f * Playfair's Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory, vol. i. pp. 56 67. t Discourse on Natural History, Cab. Cyc., p. 284. FORMATION* OF THE EARTH. 279 Mr. Miller, when describing the upheaved position of the strata in the Great Caledonian Valley, thus expresses him- self " The north-eastern portion of this rectilinear wall or chain runs, for about thirty miles, through an old red sandstone district. The materials which compose it are as unlike those of the plain out of which it arises, as the materials of a stone dyke, running half-way into a field, are unlike the vegetable mould which forms the field's surface. The ridge itself is of a granitic texture a true gneiss. At its base we find only conglomerates, sandstones, shales, and stratified clays, and these lying against it in very high angles. Hence the geo- logical interest of this lower portion of the wall. Imagine a large wedge forced from below through a sheet of thick ice on a river or pond. First the ice rises in an angle, that becomes sharper and higher as the wedge rises ; then it cracks and opens, presenting its upturned edges on both sides, and through comes the wedge. And this is a very different process, be it observed, from what takes place when the ice merely cracks, and the water issues through the crack. In the one case there is a rent and water diffused over the surface, in the other there is the projecting wedge, flanked by the upturned .edges of the ice ; and these edges of course serve as indices to decide regarding the ice's thickness, and the various layers of which it is composed. Now, such are the phenomena exhibited by the wedge- like granitic ridge. The lower red sandstone, tilted up against it on both sides at angles of about eighty, exhibits in some parts a section of well-nigh two thousand feet stretching from the lower conglomerate to the soft unfossiliferous sandstone, which forms, in Ross and Cromarty, the upper beds of the formation."* .... These numerous and concurring evidences, to which may be added, with perhaps equally convincing effect, the sectional drawings of suites of formations on Mr. Knipe's geological map of the British Islands, exhibiting at a view, and in the most faithful manner, the effects of the elevating power upon the stratified formations, will sufficiently testify, that the stratified masses are considered to have been moved from the horizontal posture in which they were deposited, to the ele- vated positions they now occupy, by a force which acted from below upwards. And as they repose on the unstratijied rocks, it follows as an axiom, that the latter must likewise have been moved from where they were formed, before those which overlie them could have been elevated by a force acting in the direction just mentioned. This direction from below upivards, coinciding precisely with that of the centrifugal * Old Red Sandstone, pp. 139141. 280 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE EARTH. impetus occasioned by diurnal rotation necessarily im- pressed on these associated masses, which remained at rest as long as the earth had not been caused to revolve diurnally around its axis, it is claimed as its just privilege, that the dynamical force thus engendered may, for the present, be allowed a place amongst those which are considered com- petent to have occasioned the removal of the concentric mineral masses from the recumbent posture in which they were formed, to the elevated positions they now occupy ; and, in the sequel, proof will be brought forward to show, that to this force exclusively must be attributed that stupendous result, and whose successful establishment will prepare the way for clearing up other points from their present uncertainty. SECTION V. GEOLOGICAL PHENOMENA RESULTING FROM THE EARTH S FIRST DIURNAL ROTATION. CHAPTER XX. several subjects which the successful issue of the - argument in the last chapter enables us now to inves- tigate, though numerous, are all equally worthy of notice, while they simultaneously press upon the attention ; but I shall follow what may be considered to have been their sequence in the order of time, by endeavouring to prove, first, that the primeval world was enveloped by an illimitable ocean, under whose atmosphereless waters the elevating revo- lution just established took place. With this view I shall begin by recurring to the tenth Theorem, which please see. Looking more minutely into the evidences which warrant this general assertion, Professor Playfair is found thus express- in himself : " La Place has treated a subject connected with the tides, that, so far as we know, has not been entered upon by any author before him. This is the stability of the equilibrium of the sea. A fluid surround- ing a solid nucleus may either be so attracted to that nucleus, that when any motion is communicated to it, it will oscillate backwards and forwards till its motion is destroyed by the resistance it meets with, when it will again settle into rest ; or it may be in such a state, that when any motion is communicated to it, its vibrations may in- crease, and become of enormous magnitude. Whether the sea may not, by such means, have arisen above the tops of the highest moun- tains, deserves to be considered ; as that hypothesis, were it found to be consistent with the laws of nature, would serve to explain many of the phenomena of natural history. La Place, with this view, has in- 282" DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE quired into the nature of the equilibrium of the sea, or into the possi- bility of such vast undulations being propagated through it. The result is, that the equilibrium of the sea must be stable, and its oscil- lations continually tending to diminish, if the density of its waters be less than the mean density of the earth ; and that its equilibrium does not admit of subversion, unless the mean density of the earth was equal to that of water, or less. As we know, from the experiments made on the attraction of mountains, as well as from other facts, that the sea is more than four times less dense than the materials which compose the solid nucleus of the globe are at a medium,* the possi- bility of these great undulations is entirely excluded ; and, therefore, says La Place, if, as cannot well be questioned, the sea has formerly covered continents that are now much elevated above its level, the cause must be sought for elsewhere than in the instability of its equilibrium." f Mrs. Sonierville confirms this Avhen she asserts that " One of the most remarkable circumstances in the theory of the tides is the assurance that, in consequence of the density of the sea being only one-fifth of the mean density of the earth, and the earth itself increasing in density towards the centre, the stability of the equilibrium of the ocean can never be subverted by any physical cause. A general inundation arising from the mere instability of the ocean, is, therefore, impossible." \ While the impressions arising from these evidences are vividly on the mind, should reference be again made to the thirteenth Theorem, it will be found therein recorded, in con- formity with this opinion of M. de la Place himself, and on the authority of a host of other witnesses, whose testimony can- not possibly be set aside, " That wherever any considerable portion of the earth's surface has been examined by geologists, it has invariably afforded proofs of having been, at one time, submerged in the waters of the ocean." This evidence, certainly, appears to be very perplexing, when we take into account what has just been established, with respect to the equilibrium of the ocean, and the impos- sibility of its overflowing the land, as the two are at present constituted. It places us, as well as M. de la Place, in a dilemma, from which we can be extricated only by one of * Confirmed by the eighth Theorem. t Playfair's Works, vol. iv. pp. 302305. j Connection of the Sciences, pp. 56, 114. Tt will be remembered that, in a previous part of this Treatise, the evidences pertaining to this Theorem were adduced ; consequently they are not here recapitulated. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 283 the two following conclusions ; either that those portions of the earth and it must be remembered they embrace parts of its whole surface which afford such unequivocal symp- toms of having been formerly submerged in the ocean, have risen above it in detached portions, at different periods, whilst corresponding depressions of surface took place in other localities ; or, that they were all synchronously elevated and depressed, as the effects of one great and general revolution, while as yet the earth was surrounded by the primeval ocean. Leaving the supporters of the former opinion to bring forward their evidence at leisure, without adding to their difficulties by a single observation, I implicitly rely on the well-grounded assumption, that every succeeding fact which may be brought to light will tend further to corroborate the opinion maintained in this treatise, namely, that there was only one general elevation of the continents and mountains of the world ; and one simultaneous depression of its ocean beds and valleys ; being the first and most important results of the centrifugal force, occasioned by the earth's proto-diurnal rotation, and which, in turn, was caused by the formation of the light, and its division from the darkness positions which every successive step in the progress of this work will render more and more apparent and convincing. It is re- peated, therefore, that there was only one general foi^mation of continents and mountains, with corresponding oceanic hollows and valleys, on the face of the globe we inhabit; and that this took place on the Jirst day of the Mosaic week. It is hoped that in due time both of these positions will be proved; thereby leading to the undeniable con- clusion that, previously to these elevations and depressions, the whole surface of the earth was synchronously submerged in the water of the primitive ocean. To this conclusion the DYNAMICAL System leads us. The same final result may, I think, be come to by impartially comparing the opinions given by geologists who have directed their attention to points connected with the Dynamical branch of their re- searches. Professor Phillips says " Over immense tracts of the eaiih's surface, the angle of inclina- tion is extremely moderate ; more than three-fourths of the surface of Europe (and probably of other continents) is occupied by strata 284 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE which in common language may be said to be nearly horizontal Among the Alps and Pyrenees, the strata which in every part of their surface were originally very little inclined, and which at a dis- tance from the mountains retain nearly their original position, are thrown into various disturbed positions ; the local effect of violent con- vulsions. By a careful study of the circumstances we observe that these indications of disturbance augment continually towards the axis or centre of the mountain group ; and that the direction of the move- ments has been there upwards. There has, in fact, been a real and violent elevation of the stratified crast of the globe, corresponding to the centre or axis of each mountain group."* .... " We are thus led," he continues, a little further on, " to associate the phenomena of the disturbances of the strata with the eruption of crystallized rock from beneath ; but the latter is not exactly the cause of the former, but rather a concomitant effect of some general dynamical agency Once acquainted with this relation of the two classes of rocks, we are in possession of a clue to guide us through all the mazes of local geology ; for it is equally true of small elevations of strata, as of all mountain chains, that the most general condition observable is the mutual dependence of these disturbances, and the eruptions of unstratified rocks."! The whole tenor of these passages clearly indicates, that while the elevations of these centres or axes of elevation have been the immediate cause of the alteration and disturbance of the once-horizontal strata, they were themselves impelled to become so, as the co-effect of some general and deep- seated force which occasioned them to protrude, and, in doing so, to elevate and to disturb the once-superincumbent strati- form masses, and that this may be considered as a general rule, applicable to the whole surface of the earth, wherever mineral masses are found disturbed and elevated. Then, from an entirely different source the result of dexterously applied mathematical investigation to the pro- bable origin of the inequalities of the earth's mineral crust we have a remarkable corroboration of the same views ; with the addition, that this method seems to repudiate the possibility of "an elevated range, characterized by continuous systems of longitudinal and transverse fissures being pro- duced by successive elevations of different points, by the partial action of an elevatory force ;" but that "every system of parallel fissures, in which no two consecutive fissures are * This he illustrates by a diagram, which it would be well to consult, f Pages 60, 61. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 285 remote from each other, must necessarily have had a simul- taneous origin."* To these two sources of evidence, which prove, that throughout the whole terrene surface, disturbances of the strata may be considered to be intimately associated with the irruptions of unstratified rocks, and that " continuous sys- tems must have had a simultaneous origin," there may be added, the late hypothesis of M. Elie de Beaumont, by which the principal mountain chains throughout the world are grouped into systems, each supposed to have " a common origin," and some of which embrace a vast extent of geo- graphical area ; for instance " M. de Beaumont," says Professor Phillips, " assigns to this period (that of the cretaceous system) his Pyreneo-Apennine system of con- vulsion, the elevation of the Pyrenees, Carpathians, Northern Appen- nines, Dalmatia, and the Morea, in lines ranging parallel to a great circle on the sphere, through Natchez on the Mississippi and the Persian Gulf. It appears, also, that some disturbances, which happened during the cretaceous era, are traceable in Mont Viso and the Western Alps."t Taking, therefore, all the data which has here been col- lated into account, we are constrained to come to the conclu- sion that there could, in reality, have been only ONE GRAND AND SYNCHRONOUS elevation of HILLS, MOUNTAINS, MOUNTAIN CHAINS, and CONTINENTAL RIDGES throughout the world. This opinion is strengthened by the consideration that, besides the more local indications of disturbance which the upheaving force has occasioned, it has afforded enduring symptoms of having acted according to a more general prin- ciple and upon a more comprehensive scale than what the writers of these conceptions seem to have imagined. I allude to the continental ridges and to the greater elevation of the continents and mountain chains within the tropics, and the nearer these approach to the equator, where the force was evidently at its maximum. This prominent peculiarity, this evidence of the force having had a maximum and minimum, corresponding to parallels of latitude, and profound curvatures by meridians of longitude, whose depth seems to be inversely as the * Phillips, p. 270, from Mr. Hopkins's calculations. t Treatise, p. 160. 286 degrees of the former, cannot be accounted for has never, as far as I know, been attempted to be accounted for by any other theory, except by this, which attributes these effects to a world put into diurnal rotatory motion, with an angular velocity of 15 per hour, after its crust had been so constructed by deposition, and so consolidated by duration, as to admit of being broken up by the centrifugal force brought to bear upon it ; and capable of being transformed into hill and dale, mountains and valleys, continental ridges and oceanic hollows, with all the variety of mineral structure, and central amorphous masses, which are now found to con- stitute the nuclei of elevated ranges, with stratified envelopes reclining, like stony drapery, upon their huge flanks and shoulders. Recurring to the position established in a previous chapter, that the undermost masses of the non-rotating sphere, from being the most dense, became the central and most elevated parts of the various formations in the earth's present geo- logical economy ; I shall next proceed to inquire into the immediate results, or natural consequences, of this remark- able transformation, occasioned by the centrifugal impetus of the first diurnal rotation. The most obvious idea which presents itself to the mind is, that motion equal to the change of relative position must have taken place during the process. One of the first and most important effects of motion, or movement, amongst masses in contact with one another, is FRICTION a property arising from the imperfect smoothness of surfaces, which im- pedes the motion of bodies whose surfaces are in contact.* Requiring to know something of the nature and effects of this property now introduced to our notice for the first time-: I refer to the definition given of it in the eighty-third Theorem. From this it will appear obvious, that when an uneven surface is made to slide upon another, under the influence of great force applied to the movement of heavy masses, one of the most immediate tendencies is to overcome, wear away, or grind down, whatever asperities may impede the progress of the moving body. In the event of either or both of the masses * " Mechanics," in Cab. Cyc., p. 262. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 287 which present such asperities being composed of materials prone to split and break into detached pieces, they would most probably, by doing so, yield to the greater force ; and the fragments, by moving along with the mass of greatest velocity, would, as far as they are capable, facilitate the general movement. The intensity of these results would be much increased were the mass of greatest velocity forcibly ejected, or thrust through amongst others which had been formerly incumbent upon it ; while comminution, and dis- integration of the substances brought into contact, and the evolution of fierce heats, would be the general consequence of the whole operation ; and, finally, if this were done under water, and amongst calcareous and arenaceous materials, there would be produced a tenacious cement capable of binding the whole together into one firm and inseparable mass. Now this is precisely what has taken place in the great cementing processes of the world, which Nature's Architect designed and wholly executed, as will be seen by referring to the hundred and second Theorem. With this information on the mind, let us turn to the twenty-second Theorem, in which it is stated, " That thick and extensive beds of breccia and conglomerate, in which the fragments are generally united by calcareous and other mineral svbstances, are found to intervene amongst the various series of the older and f the secondary stratified masses, especially in the vicinity of mountain chains, and above and below the coal formations." This clear but concise view of the case ought to make us fully aware of the wisdom and harmony of the plan, which provided such abundance of materials for the formation of those great cementing processes which, by the wonder- working hand of the Creator, combined the apparently heterogeneous materials of the earth's outer crust into one great, consistent, and firmly united whole. As there may be many who are not sufficiently acquainted with the nature of these well-known conglomerate and breccia bindings of the earth, so as to be capable of appre- ciating the perfection and adaptation of their construction in which the masonic art seems to have been anticipated 288 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE and all that was necessary accomplished in one great and simultaneous day's work, over the whole surface of the earth; it is with great satisfaction I subjoin the following extracts, to excite in others the same pleasure and admiration I have myself enjoyed in their contemplation. Professor Phillips says "Along the flanks of the Grampians, Lammermnir, and Cambrian mountains, the old red sandstone formation is chiefly a rude conglo- merate of pebbles " We find, in fact, round all the mountain ranges, which for other reasons were presumed to have been uplifted before the carboniferous epoch began, some of the most remarkable conglomerate rocks which occur in the British strata. The character of these conglomerates, too, varies in direct relation to the proximity of the mountains " The great qualities of those sediments imply, probably, some great physical changes of land and water, in situations not far removed " And again " When we behold conglomerate rocks, which hold fragments of other earlier deposits, and in these fragments the organic remains of still earlier periods, which had already undergone their peculiar mineral changes, when we collect the history of such an organic form its existence in the sea its sepulchre in a vast oceanic deposit of limestone the induration of this rock its uplifting by subter- ranean forces the rolling of it into pebbles the reunion of them into a totally different substance, it is evident that no greater folly can be committed, than to think to serve the cause of truth by con- tracting the long periods of geology into the compass of a few thousand years."* M. de la Beche says " If we look to the Alps, we find, on all sides of that chain, beds of various depths of sandstone and conglomerates, forming a whole of very considerable thickness " I cannot avoid connecting this conglomerate (that on the shores of the Magra), and that on the Lake of Como, with the conglomerates and sandstones of the Valloisine and other parts of the western Alps, and referring them to the same epoch of formation one in which water, with certain velocity, ground down portions of pre-existing rocks, and which was attended with a state of things when a great abundance of carbonate of lime was deposited.! Mr. Lyell, when treating of the old red sandstone, states * Treatise, pp. 104, 115, 116, 293. t Manual of Geology, p. 210. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 289 " The beds next below the yellow sandstone are well seen in a large zone of old red, which skirts the southern flank of the Gram- pians, .... where the entire mass of strata are several thousand feet thick, and may be divided into the following principal masses 1st. Red and mottled marls ; 2nd. Conglomerates of vast thickness. " The eastern chain of the Andes consists chiefly of sandstones and conglomerates of vast thickness, the materials of which are derived from the veins of the western chain. The pebbles of the conglo- merates are, for the most part, rounded fragments of the fossiliferous slates before mentioned." And when describing the effects of granitic injections, he says " Professor Sedgwick and Mr. Murchison conceive that this granite (near Brora, in Sutherlandshire) has been upheaved in a solid form ; and that in breaking through the submarine deposits, with which it was, perhaps, originally in contact, it has fractured them so as to form a breccia along the line of junction."' 1 Mr. Miller observes, in describing the conglomerate of the old red sandstone " During the contemporary period in our own country, the vast space which now includes Orkney and Lochness, Dingwall and Gamrie, and many a thousand square miles besides, was the scene of a shallow ocean, perplexed by powerful currents, and agitated by waves. A vast stratum of water-rolled pebbles, varying in depth from 100 feet to 100 yards, remains in a thousand different localities to testify the disturbing agencies of this time of commotion. The hardest masses which the stratum encloses, porphyries of vitreous fracture, that cut glass as readily as flint, and masses of quartz that strike fire quite as profusely as from steel, are yet polished and ground down into bullet- like forms, not an angular fragment appearing in some parts of the mass for yards together And yet it is surely difficult to conceive how the bottom of any sea should have been so violently and so equally agitated for so greatly extended a space as that which inter- venes between Mealforvonie, in Inverness-shire, and Pomona, in Orkney, in one direction, and between Applecross and Trouphead in another, and for a period so prolonged that the entire area should have come to be covered with a stratum of rolled pebbles of almost every variety of ancient rock, fifteen stories' height in thickness. The very variety of its contents shows that the period must have been prolonged. A sudden flood sweeps away with it the accumulated debris of a range of mountains ; but to blend together, in equal mixture, the debris of many such ranges, as well as to grind down their roughness and angu- larities, and fill up the interstices with the sand and gravel produced * Elements, vol. i. pp. 7, 38, 101, 365 ; vol. ii. pp. 148, 357, 370 ; vol. i. pp. 7476. 290 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE in the process, must be a work of time. I have examined with much interest, in various localities, the fragments of ancient rock enclosed in this formation. Many of them are no longer to be found in situ, and the group is essentially different from that presented by the more modern gravels A fine semi-calcareous, semi-aluminous depo- sition took place in waters perfectly undisturbed ; and here we first find proof that this ancient ocean literally swarmed with life that its bottom was covered with miniature forests of algae, and its waters were darkened by immense shoals of fish." ; These evidences are so concurrent in themselves, and so conclusive on the whole, in favour of the position sought at present to be established, respecting these singular formations, which intervene amongst the others, in almost all tracts of country which have been the theatre of great disturbances, that no further testimony is needed to prove their existence, in precisely the geological localities where the Dynamical System required for its perfection that they should be found. "Viewed as they are in this System, the first impression which presents itself to the mind is the infinite wisdom which willed them into existence ; forming, as they do, the great oementing processes by which the rocky crust of the globe is so admirably bound together, and the heterogeneous mate- rials of its outer crust united into one impervious whole ; rough, it is true, to our microscopic eyes, but no doubt preserving the most perfect proportion to its own gigantic dimensions ! When we consider that the whole of this wonderful operation, extending, though not continuously, over nearly the whole surface of the globe, was begun and completed within the short space of two natural days, we cannot fail to be impressed with increasing admiration and reverence ; while we acquire juster conceptions of the power and the attributes of that Being, " who weighed the hills in his balance, and meted out the ocean in the palm of his hand." These formations, thus wisely and powerfully brought into * Old Red Sandstone, pp. 272 275. It is scarcely possible for even an im- plicit believer in the Dynamical System more perfectly to describe what would take place after the earth was made to rotate for the first time, and when the ancient waters, at the commencement, rushed towards the equator surcharged with debris, sand, and silt, to complete the figure of equilibrium, and having accomplished this, assumed a death-like stillness, and deposited the fine particles ; while the subsequent evaporation, when the atmosphere was formed, caused the desiccation of the very finest, which had, until then, remained. AVTHOR. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 291 existence, appear to have had other very important ends to serve. They greatly facilitated the relative movements between the primary amorphous masses and the stratified rocks, and also between the different formations of strata ; enabling them to pass each other, in order to assume their places in the elevations they were destined to form, with less evolution of heat than would otherwise have taken place, had the moving masses been composed of fibrous and less brittle materials, resisting disintegration, and supplying no natural rollers to " lighten the heavy load along." For, although the heat evolved by those moving masses was absolutely essential for the accomplishment of important mineralogical phenomena, such as the formation of veins, &c., yet numberless means were adopted for confining its effects to the localities where it was most required, and for modifying its application. One of these appears to have been the creation of the great breccia and conglomerate beds which have just been contemplated ; another, the interposition of alternate layers of aluminous material (an indifferent conductor of heat) between the primary masses and the calcareous formations ; and both aluminous and calcareous strata between the injected rocks and the coal measures, in order to defend the latter from too intense a degree of fusion, during the convulsive movements of a world starting into life ; which, otherwise, would have deprived the carboniferous series of those essential qualities which now render them so useful. Meanwhile, it should be remembered, that as the coal measures, when these revolutions were taking place, formed the uppermost strata of the ancient world, they would naturally be in so soft and flexible a state as would permit of their yielding, in a certain degree, to whatever form was impressed upon them, by the more rigid masses with which they were brought violently into contact ; their plasticity, at the same time, enabling and inducing them to assume the inflections of the older strata on which they now repose. The evidence for the truth of these assertions is still discoverable by the forms in which the carboniferous concretions and their associated shales are found in the various workings of the coal mines ; while the testimony derived from the perfection and uninjured condition of their fossil vegetable remains, u 2 292 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE sufficiently evince that they were not removed far from where they had been formed. The fact of the coal measures presenting these peculiar features, in a very striking degree, is so abundantly evidenced by what is said of them in every geological treatise, that it will be quite superfluous to arrest the progress of the general argument by going into details. They have been frequently alluded to in quotations already given, and they will, of themselves, come out more prominently as we proceed. It will likewise, hereafter, be made manifest, that with similar provident wisdom to that by which the coal measures were thus shielded underneath from the fusing heat of the moving mountain masses, the elevation of these very moun- tains was made the means of spreading abroad an immense mass of debris, which, being conveyed by the rushing tumultuous ocean, and deposited upon the upper surface of these carboni- ferous formations, protected them, alike, from the denuding and transporting influence of that very ocean, in its course towards the equatorial regions ; from the sudden evaporation that took place when the land was separated from the water; and from the slower, but no less destructive, agency of the atmosphere which was shortly thereafter to be formed. Indeed, the closer the works of creation are examined into, the more thoroughly shall we be convinced of the beneficent forethought of the Creator. By the concluding paragraph of the eighty-third Theorem, it will be seen, that another immediate effect of friction is, "heat, independently of fire or flame;" and, consequently, that the degree of heat is in proportion to the friction. As friction according to the evidences connected with the same Theorem depends upon the amount of the pressure, together with the roughness of the surfaces brought into contact, it follows, that the amount which would necessarily be evolved by the movement of the continents and mountain chains must have been almost infinite, judging by our ideas of friction proceeding from mechanical causes : while the heat must have arisen to a corresponding degree of intensity a fact which will appear more evident when account is taken of the combustible nature of the mineral materials of which these mountain masses are composed."" * See Theorems 98, 99, 103. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 293 It is, likewise, to be considered that, as the degree of friction, and, consequently, of heat, depends upon the amount of motion, the rocky masses would be subjected to both of these results in direct proportion as they became the central and more elevated portions of mountain chains, inasmuch as these had to traverse greater distances before they reached their destined height. A composition of these gives, as a common result, that the symptoms of fusion should most strongly pervade the neighbourhood of the greatest and most elevated masses, which have been forcibly intruded among the associated strata. This is precisely what the researches of geologists reveal to us has taken place, as shown by the tiventieth Theorem. The following are some of the evidences declarative, in the most striking manner, of the effects produced by fusion among the mineral masses ; and which can be traced to their source, by a chain of causes and effects which link the fusion of the injected rocks to the heat, occasioned by the friction which necessarily arose from the protorotation of the earth on the first day of the Mosaic week. " The peculiar condition of the rocks," says Professor Buckland, " which form the side walls of granitic veins and basaltic dykes, affords another argument in favour of their igneous origin ; thus, wherever the early slate rocks are intersected by granitic veins, they are usually altered to a state approximating to that of fine-grained mica slate or hornblende slate. The secondary and tertiary rocks, also, when they are intersected by basaltic dykes, have frequently undergone some change ; beds of shale and sandstone are indurated and reduced to jaspar; compact limestone and chalk are converted to crystalline marble ; and chalk flints altered to a state like that resulting from heat in an artificial furnace." * M. de la Beche thus expresses himself with respect to the unstratijied rocks " The rocks constituting this natural group are widely distributed over the surface of the world, are found mixed with almost all the stratified rocks, and bear every mark of having been ejected from beneath. They commonly occur, either as protruded masses, as over- lapping masses resulting from the spread of matter after ejection, or as veinstones filling fissures, apparently consequent on some violence to which the strata have been subjected Bridgewater Treatise, vol. ii. p. 9. 294 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE " Thus far we have only seen granite rising through and covering other rocks in considerable masses, but we have also evidence in granite veins, that the matter of the rock was in such a state of igneous fusion as to penetrate into thin clefts opened in stratified and older rocks by some violence, such as probably resulted from the up- burst of the igneous matter accompanied by elastic vapours, the intruding substance breaking off and including in it all loose frag- ments, and those projecting portions which opposed the fury of the injection. "According to Mr. Aikin, a good example of the apparent inter- stratification of greenstone with the coal measures is observable at Birch Hill Colliery, Staffordshire. The bed seems to be connected with a mass of trap on one side, whence it has been injected amongst the strata, altering the coal where it covers it by depriving it of its bitumen. " There is a trap dyke, described by Mr. Hill, as occurring at Walker Colliery, Newcastle, which has converted the coal contiguous to it into coke. " The annexed figure will illustrate a considerable fracture and alteration in the limestones at the Black Head, Babbacombe Bay, Devon, effected by the eruption of greenstone The slates and limestones have evidently suffered, not only from the mechanical action of the erupted greenstone, but also chemically from the prox- imity of the mass in a state of igneous fusion. " Mr. Lyell has described a serpentine dyke which cuts through a sandstone near West Balloch Farm, in Forfarshire The ser- pentine is also said to be bounded on the left bank of the Carity ' by a vertical mass of sandstone conglomerate evidently much altered, some parts approaching to jaspar in hardness and appearance, 1 in which some of the quartz pebbles have even been fractured and re- united. This fracture of the quartz pebbles is precisely what we should expect from a sudden application of heat, and would speak strongly in favour of the once-igneous fusion of the serpentine in the dyke, if any evidence were wanting " . . . . These changes are no more than we should expect from the in- trusion of a mass in a state of igneous fusion Indeed, cases of induration and alteration of rocks in contact with igneous products are so common, that it would be useless further to enumerate them." * " Having now," says Mr. Lyell, " said thus much of the mineral composition of the metamorphic rocks, I may combine what remains to be said of their structure and history with an account of the opinions entertained of their probable origin." In consequence, somewhat farther on, he continues " Geologists have been very generally led to infer, from the pheno- mena of joints and slaty cleavage, that mountain masses, of which the sedimentary origin is unquestionable, have been acted upon simul- * Manual, pp. 186510. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 295 taneously by vast crystalline forces. That the structure of fossiliferous strata has often been modified by some general cause since their original deposition, and even subsequently to their consolidation and dislocation, is undeniable We have seen that, near the con- tact of granitic veins and volcanic dykes, very extraordinary altera- tions in rocks have taken place, more especially in the neighbourhood of granite The aluminous shales are hardened and have become flinty. Ribboned jaspar is produced by the hardening of alternate layers of green and chocolate-coloured schists The limestone .... becomes a white granular marble near the granite, sometimes silicious, the granular structure extending occasionally upwards of 400 yards from the junction ; and the corals being for the most part obliterated, though sometimes preserved even in the white marble " Although the precise nature of these altering causes is obscure, we must suppose the influence of heat to be in some way connected with the transmutation, if, for reasons before explained, we concede the igneous origin of granite In conclusion from this intelligent and instructive geo- logist " I shall mention," says he, " one or two examples of alteration on a grand scale, in order to explain the kind of reasoning by which we are led to infer that dense masses of fossiliferous strata have been converted into crystalline rock. " Northern Apennines. Carrara. The celebrated marble of Car- rara, used in sculpture, was once regarded as a type of primitive lime- stone. It abounds in the mountains of Massa Carrara, or the ' Apuan Alps,' as they have been called, the highest peaks of which are nearly 6,000 feet high The researches of MM. Savi, Boue, Pareto, Guidoni, De la Beche, and especially Hoffmann have demonstrated that this marble, once supposed to be formed before the existence of organic beings, is, in fact, an altered limestone of the oolitic period, and the underlying crystalline schists are secondary sandstones and shales, modified by plutonic action. " Alps of Switzerland. In the Alps, analogous conclusions have been drawn respecting the alteration of strata on a still more extended scale. In the Central or Swiss Alps, the primary fossiliferous and older secondary formations disappear, and the cretaceous, oolitic, and liassic strata graduate insensibly into metamorphic rocks, consisting of granular limestone, talc-schist, talcose-gneiss, micaceous-schist, and other varieties." * " The centre or axis," says Professor Phillips, " of mountain groups, and consequently of the disturbing movement (during its upheaval), is generally seen to be a mass of unstratified rock, such as granite, sienite, &c., which shows, by a variety of circumstances, that it was not deposited in water, but rather crystallized from igneous fusion. Very often, indeed generally, proofs of its having been in a state of Lyell's Elements of Geology, vol. ii. pp. 379, 386, 401, 403 407, 419, 421. , 296 DYNAMICAL SFSTEM OF THE fusion at the time of the elevation of the strata, are found in the extension of veins of the crystallized into the sedimentary rocks, accompanied by the characteristic effects of heat ; and we are thus led to associate the phenomena of the disturbance of strata with the eruption of the crystallized rock from beneath " What, then, is the fruit of all this discussion ? It is the convic- tion that the gneiss, mica-slate, primary limestone, quartz rock, &c., are stratified rocks ; the most important evidence being the alterna- tion of these different rocks, and the lamination of different sub- stances in them ; but that the causes which tend among all rocks to complicate the stratification with new structures, have gone to the maximum in these, the oldest of all ; the principal of these causes being heat, either locally exhibited in the neighbourhood of igneous crystallized rocks, or generally pervading the whole mass of deposits." * These quotations must be sufficient to convince any one, that when geologists have occasion to reason respecting the symptons of fusion among the older rocks, they never doubt that it existed in the intruded masses ; these are, at once, assumed as having been injected, while yet liquid, by igneous fusion ; and the whole of their reasoning is directed to exhibit the effects on the masses which are found in their immediate vicinity, while the fact of the injected mass itself having been fused is never even called in question. This, of course, is an important concession in favour of the views here adopted ; and it remains only for me to be able to prove the source of the heat, whose existence is thus so unanimously and unhesi- tatingly admitted. These symptoms of heat are, generally, found to exist in a ratio proportioned to the friction supposed to have been experienced ; that is, in proportion to the mass of matter moved out of perfect horizontality, the distance it had to go, and the asperities overcome in moving from horizontality into the present posture, t * Treatise, pp. 61, 75. t It is particularly to be observed, that while the heat here treated of had no connection whatever with the warmth existing in the primitive world, neither did it, in any manner, proceed directly from the action of the first rays of light ; for, had it done so, it would not only have acted equally over all the surface of the earth, but would have affected the surface more than the internal rocky masses, a tendency precisely the reverse of what appears to have been designed during the great revolution now under consideration. Besides, had it been so produced, before it could have effected the fusion of rocks forming the interior of mountains and elevations, in order to produce their veins, ramifications, and other attendant circumstances, it must have first passed through^ and consequently, to a certain extent, destroyed the whole of the calcareous and carboniferous formations which surround and overlie the primary a result expressly sought to be avoided, and arranged for accordingly. AUTHOR. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 297 The views adopted in this system lead to the conclusion, " That as the heat ivhich fused the primary rocks proceeded entirely from friction, engendered by motion acting on their combustible matei*ials, it must have reached its maximum in the interior of elevations, ^vhere the motion was likewise greatest." In confirmation of this doctrine, which is peculiar to the Dynamical System, I have merely to take up and substantiate the concluding paragraph of the twentieth Theorem, namely: " That the extent of the alteration and the insensible transi- tion of the altered mass are in direct proportion to the volume of that which has been injected." Applying this to the primary strata and transition series, it will satisfactorily account for the prevalence of the crystalline texture in both of these formations ; for, if the heat which proceeded from a trap, or a greenstone dyke, has been, in numberless instances, sufficient to alter the texture, to a certain extent, of the strata in their immediate vicinity, to what extent must these fierce heats have penetrated, which radiated from the fused granitic nuclei of entire mountain ranges ? In considering this, it should be remembered, that the intensity of " the radiation of heat is in direct proportion to the magnitude of the radiating surface."""" Having so recently had occasion to adduce evidences con- firmatory of the fitted and altered condition of the formations which are found contiguous to intruded amorphous masses a branch of this same argument on this occasion the proofs will be restricted to such as show the prevailing geological sites of these altered rocks, and the accordance of their cha- racter and features in general with previous assumptions. Professor Playfair, in one of his pithy illustrative sentences, when reasoning about " whin-stone," observes "If all these circumstances are put together, there appears but one conclusion which can be drawn from them. If the mass in which these rocks are now embedded be supposed to have been once in fusion, and forcibly thrown up from below, invading the strata, and carrying the fragments along with it, the whole phenomena admit of an easy explanation, and all the circumstances accord with one another. Indeed, the effects of motion and heat can scarcely be more clearly * Evidences in connection with the 57th Theorem. 298 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE expressed than they are here, or the subject in which these powers resided more distinctly pointed out." * Mr. Miller bears testimony to the same effect, by the description he gives of the elevation of mountains. "In most of our hills," he observes, "the upheaving agency has been actively at work, and the space within is occupied by an immense nucleus of inferior rock, around which the upper formation is wrapped like a caul, just as the vegetable mould or diluvium wraps up this superior covering in turn. " One of our best known Scottish mountains the gigantic Ben Nevis furnishes an admirable illustration of this latter construction of hill. It is composed of three zones or rings of rock, the one rising over and out of the other, like the cases of an opera-glass drawn out. The lower zone is composed of gneiss and mica-slate the middle zone of granite the terminating zone of porphyry. The elevating power appears to have acted in the centre In the formation of our Scottish mountain, the gneiss and mica-slate of the district seem to have been upheaved, during the first period of plutonic action in the locality, into a rounded hill of moderate attitude, but of huge base. The upheaving power continued to operate the gneiss and mica-slate gave way at top and out of this lower dome there arose a higher dome of granite, which, in an after and terminating period of the internal activity, gave way in turn to yet a third and last dome of porphyry. Now, had the elevating forces ceased to operate just ere the gneiss and mica-slate had given way, we would have known nothing of the interior nucleus of granite ; had they ceased just ere the granite had given way, we would have known nothing of the yet deeper nucleus of porphyry ; and yet the granite and the porphyry would assuredly have been there. Nor could any application of the measuring-rule to the side of the hill have ascertained the thickness of its outer covering the gneiss and the mica-schist." t Mr. Lyell says " In proof of the mechanical force which the fluid trap has some- times exerted on the rocks into which it has intruded itself, I may refer to the Whin-sill, where a mass of basalt, from 60 to 80 feet in height, is in part wedged in between the rocks of limestone and shale, with which they were united ""When trap dykes were described in the preceding chapter, they were shown to be more modern than all the strata which they traverse " When plutonic rocks send veins into strata, and alter them near the point of contact, in the manner we have before described, it is * Playfair's Huttonian Theory, vol. i. p. 301. t Old Red Sandstone, pp. 58 60. It is considered by this system that the upheaval took place simultaneously by the first diurnal rotation of the earth. AVTHOR. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 299 clear that, like intrusive traps which have been separated from the great mass of limestone and shale, they are newer than the strata which they invade and alter." And finally, from this geologist- " In considering, then," he says, " the various data already enume- rated, the forms of stratification in metamorphic rocks, .... clay-slate may be altered shale, and granular marble may have originated in the form of ordinary limestone, replete with shells and corals, which have since been obliterated; and, lastly, calcareous sands and marls may have been changed into impure crystalline limestone. ' Hornblende- schist,' says Dr. M'Culloch, ' may at first have been mere clay.' And ' the anthracite found associated with hypogene rocks may have been coal, for we know that, in the vicinity of some trap dykes, coal is con- verted into anthracite.' "* * Elements of Geology, vol. ii. pp. 224226, 241, 350, 401405, 412, 413. SECTION V. GEOLOGICAL PHENOMENA RESULTING FROM THE EARTH S FIRST DIURNAL ROTATION. CHAPTER XXL TTAVING thus established the presence, in former times, L of fusion amongst the primary stratified and unstratified rocks, and the stratifications of the secondary series, by tracing its consequences to those formations which are in contact with them, and which, for the sake of perspicuity, may be called tJie external evidences of that intense heat, I must next endeavour to bring home the same degree of evidence as to its existence from the structure of those rocks, by inquiring whether in their mineralogical character, and other internal circumstances, they afford corresponding marks of having been subjected to that fierce heat, and consequent fusion, which are recognisable, externally, at their junction with other rocks. To do this properly, however, I must depart somewhat from the straight line of the argument, and direct the atten- tion, for a moment, to some of the phenomena which usually accompany the liquefaction of mineral masses by heat. These are first, the results which proceed from heating mineral masses under pressure, and permitting them to cool slowly, or by excluding them from the action of atmospheric air ; and, secondly, Crystallization from igneous liquefaction. These subjects will occupy the attention in the order in which they stand. The hundred and first Theorem concerninsr the fusion of FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 301 carbonate of lime (to which please refer) is founded on scientific experiments, of which the following succinct details may be interesting to the reader ; and being, by their character, quite conclusive, will close the argument for this particular point : " The alterations of limestone in contact with trappean rocks is sufficiently common, producing a greater or less amount of crystalliza- tion, in accordance with the well-known experiments of Sir James Hall (Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. vi.), who has proved, that when carbonate of lime is subjected to great heat beneath sufficient pressure, it does not part with its carbonic acid, but that it is fused and rendered crystalline a fact previously doubted."* Mr. Lyell says " The experiments of Gregory Watt, in fusing rocks in the labora- tory, and allowing them to consolidate by slow cooling, prove dis- tinctly that a rock need not be perfectly melted in order that a re- arrangemnt of its component particles should take place, and a partial crystallization ensue. We may, therefore, easily suppose, that all traces of shells and other organic remains may be destroyed ; and that new chemical combinations may arise, without the mass being so fused as that the lines of stratification should be wholly obliterated." | With regard to crystallization by fusion, which seems to have acted so important a part in the ultimate mineralogical composition of the primary and other secondary formations ; the two Theorems (lllth and 112th) which have relation to it, are referred to in succession. The attention is more espe- cially directed to the last. Some of the evidences which substantiate those parts of the above Theorems which relate to the present inquiry are subjoined. Sir John Herschel says " Whatever conception we may form of the manner in which the particles of a crystal cohere and form masses, it is next to impossible to divest ourselves of the idea of a determinate figure common to them all " That peculiar internal constitution of solid bodies, whatever it be, which is indicated by the assumption of determinate figures, &c., cannot but have an important influence on all their relations to external agents, and accordingly the division of bodies into crystallized * Manual of Geology, by H. T. de la Bec.he, p. 497. t Elements, vol. ii. pp. 259, 406. 302 DYNAMICAL SFSTEM OF THE and uncrystallized, or imperfectly crystallized, is one of the most universal importance "The mutual attractions and repulsions of the particles of matter, then, and their polarity, whether regarded as an original or a deriva- tive property, are the forces which, acting with great energy, and within very confined limits, we must look to as the principles on which the intimate constitution of all bodies and many of their mutual actions depend. " These are what are understood by the general term of molecular forces. Molecular attraction has been attempted to be confounded, by some, with the general attraction of gravity, which all matter exerts on all other matter, but this idea is refuted by the plainest facts.* " Heat," observes Mrs. Somerville, " appears to have a great influence on the phenomena of crystallization, not only when the particles of matter are free, but even when firmly united, for it dissolves their union and gives them another determination " All attendant circumstances go to prove, that substances having the same crystalline form must consist of ultimate atoms, having the same figure, and arranged in the very same order ; so that the form of crystals is dependent on their atomic constitution f " Hence it may be inferred, that all substances are composed of atoms, on whose magnitude, density, and form their nature and qualities depend ; and as these qualities are unchangeable, the ultimate particles of matter must be incapable of IK ear the same now as when created." J In continuation of these evidences, others have now to be adduced to show, that what thus takes place in the chemical laboratory has prevailed for ages in the great laboratory of nature, and has produced those vast mineral masses which constitute the outer crust of the earth. Professor Phillips, in a general way, speaks of the un- stratified rocks forming " a universal crystalline basis to the stratified rocks," and again, " the stratified rocks which are the products of water rest universally on unstratified crys- talline rocks, which, through whatever previous conditions their particles may have passed, have assumed their present characters from the agency of heat." A little farther on he adds " The calcareous portions are somewhat remarkable among lime- stones for their generally crystalline character. Even the fossiliferous rocks have much of thia feature, and all the older beds are really crystallized. * " Discourse on Natural Philosophy," Cab. Cyc., pp. 239 245. f Connection of the Sciences, pp. 12o, 127, 312. J 56tl 6th Theorem. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 303 " The case of limestone is soon settled. It is known that, in contact with igneous rocks, the chalk of Ireland and the limestone of Teesdale are turned to crystallized carbonate of lime ; and experiments in the laboratory have left no doubt of the propriety of referring this crystallization of the limestone to the mere agency of heat and pressure. This high temperature must have pervaded, of course, all the rocks with which the altered limestone is associated. But it occurs with nearly all members of the mica-slate and gneiss systems. All these rocks, then, have suffered the influence of heat. In like manner experimental proof has been offered by the chemist that quartz rock is merely sandstone altered by heat ; and thus we find reason to believe that some of the characters by which gneiss and mica-slate approach to granite, are owing to their having experienced consider- able influence of heat." * The crystalline structure of the igneous rocks is so well known and admitted by all, and the assumption of a trans- formation having taken place in producing that texture is so general and implicit, that proofs need hardly be multiplied on the subject ; I shall therefore conclude with a brief obser- vation from Mr. Lyell : which is the more readily given, not only because he has dedicated so much attention to this particular branch of geology, but in this instance he identifies his own opinion the result of his labours with that of another distinguished writer. " Sir John Herschel," says he, in allusion to slaty cleavage, " has suggested, that if rocks have been so heated as to allow a commence- ment of crystallization ; that is to say, if they have been heated to a point at which the particles can begin to move amongst themselves, or at least on their own axes, some general law must then determine the position in which these particles will rest on cooling. Probably that position will have some relation to the direction in which the heat escapes. Now, when all or a majority of particles of the same nature have a tendency to one position, that must, of course, deter- mine a cleavage plane. Thus we see the infinitesimal crystals of fresh precipitated sulphate of barytes, and some other such bodies, arrange themselves alike in a fluid in which they float; and what occurs in our experiments on a minute scale, may occur in nature on a great one." f The information which has thus been acquired, must now be applied to the more direct chain of the general argument, with a view to discover whether the mineralogical structure * Treatise on Geology, pp. 69, 70, 75, 76, 259. t Elements, vol. ii. pp. 399, 400, taken from a letter from the Cape of Good Hope, of 20th February, 1836. 304 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE of the older rocks affords those internal symptoms of having been subjected to the fusing heat which this System pre- supposes. As it is stated in the twenty-fourth Theorem, to which please refer. This being an important point, requiring to be well authenticated, its evidences will be gone into somewhat in detail. M. de la Beche enters on the subject at once, but with characteristic caution, when he says " If this opinion, of the greater prevalence of the granite rocks over the trappean at the earliest periods be correct, it would seem to point to a certain condition of things at such periods, which subse- quently became so modified that the igneous eruptions became altered, and we obtain little help on the subject from the pheno- mena of modern volcanoes, granite never having been known to flow from them What igneous matter ejected beneath a great pressure of sea may form we are unable to determine, but that it would be greatly modified by such pressure cannot be doubted " It has been, indeed, generally considered that the mineralogical character of igneous rocks has been changed during the deposit of the stratified rocks, through which they have more or less forced their way ; that is, we do not find granite and serpentine flowing from modern volcanoes, nor trachite, nor leucitic lavas intimately associated with the oldest strata in such a manner, that their relative differences of age could not be very considerable We are compelled, therefore, to admit, that the conditions under which the two kinds of igneous rocks have been formed have not been the same. What these conditions may have been is a separate question, and one, as observed above, requiring investigation ; but it will be at once obvious, that the ejection of a mass, in a state of igneous fusion, into the atmosphere, would be likely to have its constituent parts arranged differently from those in a similar manner forced out beneath a great pressure, such as we may consider to exist beneath deep seas. Independently, however, of this consideration, there appears to have been something in the condition of the world at the earliest times, causing certain compounds to be formed in great abundance, which does not now continue in such force as to permit the production of similar compounds." * " If," says Mr. Lyell, " we examine a large portion of a continent, especially if it contains within it a lofty mountain range, we rarely fail to discover two other classes of rocks, very distinct from either of those above alluded to, and which we can neither assimilate to deposits such as are now accumulated in lakes or seas, nor to those generated by ordinary volcanic action. The members of both these divisions of rocks agree in being highly crystalline and destitute of * Manual, pp. 493, 501. FORMA TION OF THE EARTH. 305 organic remains. The rocks of one division have been called plutonic, comprehending all the granites and certain porphyries, which are nearly allied in some of their characters to volcanic formations. " The members of the other class are stratified and often slaty, and have been called by some the crystalline schists, in which groups are included gneiss, micaceous schist, or (mica-slate), hornblende-schist, statuary marble, and finer kinds of roofing slate, and other rocks afterwards to be described. As it is admitted that nothing strictly analogous to these crystalline productions are now to be seen in the progress of formation upon the earth's surface, it will naturally be asked, on what data can we class them as to origin ? " And again " To a certain extent, however, there is a real distinction between the trappean formations and those to which the term volcanic is almost exclusively confined. The trappean rocks, first studied in the north of Germany, and in Norway, France, Scotland, and other countries, were either such as had been formed entirely under deep water, or had been injected into fissures and intruded between strata, and which had never flowed out in the air, or over the bottom of a shallow sea." * Elements, vol. i. p. 14, and vol. ii. pp. 232, 233. SECTION Y. GEOLOGICAL PHENOMENA RESULTING FROM THE EARTH S FIRST DIURNAL ROTATION. CHAPTER XXII. fusion of the injected, amorphous rocks, which every- -*- where so abound in fields of geological investigation, and the means employed to effect their fusion as pre- supposed by what has been stated in the foregoing chapters could scarcely- have been better authenticated. The evidences adduced are perfectly conclusive ; for, that which ought to have been the result of the application of fierce heat, under the circumstances presumed, having been pre- mised, the experience of geologists, in their researches amongst the same rocky formations, has been adduced, and the two are found closely to coincide ; while the wisdom of the method adopted by the Creator has been made most manifest. In contemplating the harmony which, by these two methods of investigation, is seen to prevail, the mind cannot fail to be impressed by the wisdom and goodness which are displayed, as well in the time as in the mode of their execution ; and gratified, besides, that science has been the means of revealing these to us. For it appears evident by the two Theorems which have been alluded to,* that the fusion of calcareous rocks is greatly facilitated by pressure, and by exclusion from the air ; these conditions serving to retain their gaseous components : and that the same object is likewise attained by their being subjected in great masses 24th and 101st Theorems. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 307 to the sudden application of heat ; while their gases are bound up and rendered innocuous by union with lime, or by decomposition, the oxygen being set free by the action of plants. Therefore, had this universal and intense fusion of limestone taken place in atmospheric air, and after the for- mation of the vegetable kingdom, so much carbonic acid would have been evolved, that animal life dependent on pulmonic action could not have existed. But by opportunely choosing the time, and performing the whole in one grand operation, all these requisite conditions being foreseen, were duly provided for ! By the evolution of the heat beneath the primeval waters, and before the formation of the atmosphere and the vegetable kingdom, the otherwise noxious gases were rendered beneficent, and subservient to the future wants of man ; the same provident forethought being ever present in all the works of the Creator. By this we are, likewise, supplied with a striking corroboration of the exact- ness of the epoch, assigned by the inspired historian, as that of the elevation of the continents and mountains of the earth, from its having taken place beneath the pressure of the ocean, and while as yet there was no atmosphere. The application of these conclusions may assist to unravel one of the greatest enigmas attending geological research. I allude to the evidences existing in the rocky masses, which lead to the undeniable conclusion, that crystallization, both by aqueous and igneous means, has been employed in their formation a fact, which, to account for previously, seemed to require that recourse should be had to probabilities which could scarcely be conceded. But by this it can be clearly perceived, that aqueous crystallization was employed to aid in forming these masses in a horizontal position before the earth was made diurnally to rotate ; igneous crystallization, arising from fierce heat occasioned by friction, having been afterwards evolved to complete their structure, when they were simultaneously raised from that recumbent posture by the first diurnal movement of our sphere ; while it is obvious that as this latter crystalline structure is the effect of heat ; aDd heat, in the instances alluded to, arose from friction i and these, in turn, were occasioned by the general movement, inter se, of the mineral masses composing the crust of the x 2 3 o8 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE globe, then the ultimate result crystallization would be at its maximum amongst the more elevated and more disturbed formations ; those which travelled farthest from horizontally having undergone greatest fusion, and consequently evolved most heat. These natural and unconstrained conclusions supersede the necessity of recurring to supposed sudden and capricious transitions from one description of crystallization to another ; and while they remove this difficulty, they reveal the cause of those phenomena which intrude them- selves so strongly upon the notice of geologists in these departments of their research. What has now been said has also sufficiently proved, that violent movement did take place, during the epoch referred to, amongst those masses of mineral matter which now con- stitute the rocky formations of the earth's surface, as shown by the local fusion, which was the immediate consequence ; and that, therefore, the foci of heat resided in the centres of motion, that is, in the highest elevations. It must, also, be obvious, that if these rocks, so circum- stanced, were impelled by the centrifugal impetus with so much force as to elevate the superincumbent strata, veins or branches of the fused material should be found not only insinuating themselves into the crevices formed by the strata, where they were shook and distorted by the general commo- tion, but, likewise, that these streams of fused mineral should be discovered to have burst through and overcome every obstacle, when the superincumbent masses did not separate so as to permit them to pass. On referring to the facts which have been brought to light by the investigations of geologists, it is discovered that rocky protrusions, called reins and dykes, of the description and character here antici- pated, are frequently found intersecting the whole series of formations, from the primary to the surface inclusive. But let geology speak for itself. The following evidences are given in support of the statements made in the twenty-ninth Theorem, which please see. " Within the primary granite," says Professor Buckland, " we find other forms of granitic matter, which appear to have been intruded in a state of fusion, not only into older fissures of the older granite, but frequently also into the primary stratified rocks in contact with it, FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 309 nnd occasionally into strata of the transition and secondary series. These granitic injections were probably in many cases contempo- raneous with the rocks they intersect ; they usually assume the condition, of veins, terminating upwards in small branches ; and vary in dimensions from less than an inch to an indefinite width. The direction of these veins is very irregular ; they sometimes traverse the primary strata at right angles to their planes of stratification, at other times they are protruded in a direction parallel to those planes, and assume the form of beds. " Closely allied to granitic veins, is a second series of irre- gularly injected rocks, composed of sienite, porphyry, serpentine, and greenstone, which traverse the primary and transition formations, and the lower regions of the secondary strata ; not only intersecting them in various directions, but often forming overlying masses in places where these veins have terminated by overflowings at the surface. The crystalline rocks of this series present so many modifications of their ingredients, that numerous varieties of sienite, porphyry, and greenstone occur frequently in the products of the irruptions from a single vent " A third series of igneous rocks is that which has formed dykes, and masses of basalt and trap intruded into and overlying formations of all ages, from the earliest granites to the most recent tertiary strata. These basaltic rocks sometimes occur as beds, nearly parallel to the strata into which they are intruded, after the manner repre- sented in the carboniferous limestone of our section. More frequently they overspread the surface like expanded sheets of lava." * "The last circumstance," Dr. M'Culloch states, "in the geological character of granite, relates to its distribution in the form of veins, of which there are two distinct kinds. The first lie wholly within the rock, consisting of the same materials, under slight differences in the colour and magnitude of the parts, being also connected with similar variations, of a concretionary appearance without the veuous form. The next are much more interesting, and constitute the principal arguments respecting the posteriority of granite to the strata with which it is associated. These vary infinitely in their dimensions, extent of course, entanglement, and ramifications. At times they are rather protuberances from the general mass than veins, while at others they extend to great distances, insinuating themselves widely into the surrounding strata, above all, in gneiss, in which rock also they especially abound. Thus, also, their thickness varies, from many yards, even to the minuteness of a thread, being simple or ramifying ; and often also presenting the most intricate reticulations. In com- position, the larger veins, at least, sometimes, resemble the purest mass, while, in the smaller, the structure often becomes minute, as if proportioned to the size of the vein. But, more commonly, the materials are crystallized on a much larger scale, producing the well- known specimens of felspar and mica, as. in these veins also, the accidental minerals enumerated in the classification are chiefly found. * Bridgewater Treatise, vol. ii. pp. 4 6. 3io DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE Yet the size of the ingredients does not bear a proportion to that of the vein ; the larger crystallizations as often occurring in the small as in the large ones." * "Thus far," says M. de la Beche, "we have only seen granite rising through and covering other rocks in considerable masses ; but we have also evidence in granite veins, that the matter of the rock was in such a state of igneous fusion, as to penetrate into thin clefts opened in stratified and older rocks, by some violence, such as probably resulted from the upburst of igneous matter accompanied by elastic vapours Granite veins traversing the stratified rocks are now known in various parts of the world Granite veins, therefore, cannot be considered as rare ; on the contrary, they are sufficiently common, when circumstances permit good sections of the junction of the granitic mass, and of the rocks among which they are intruded, to appear "If we regard these igneous products as a mass of matter which has successively, and during the lapse of all that time comprehended between the earliest formation of the stratified rocks and the present day, been ejected from the interior of the earth, we shall be struck with certain differences of these rocks on the great scale, which has led to their practical arrangement under the heads of granitic, trap- pean, serpentinous, and volcanic products as above noticed."! " Few parts of the globe," says Professor Phillips, " except some of its vast plains and deserts, are entirely deficient of rocks which are not stratified. . . . For granitic rocks, throughout the globe, are the most frequent axes or centres of mountain groups, and basaltic rocks fill dykes and spread in irregular cappings over the strata. It is evident, therefore, that the structure of the exterior parts of the globe, though full of local diversity, is all formed upon one general plan, and pro- duced by similar agencies." { " When," says Mr. Lyell, " geologists first began to examine atten- tively the structure of the northern and western parts of Europe, they were almost entirely ignorant of the phenomena of existing volcanoes. They found certain rocks, for the most part without stratification, and of a peculiar mineral composition, to which they gave different names, such as basalt, greenstone, porphyry, and amygdaloid. All these, which were recognised as belonging to one family, were called ' trap,' by Bergmann, from trappa, Swedish for a flight of steps, a name since adopted very generally into the nomen- clature of the science ; for it was observed, that many rocks of this class occurred in great tabular masses of unequal extent, so as to form a succession of terraces or steps on the sides of hills Suppose a quantity of melted stone to be driven or injected into an open rent, and there consolidated, we have then a tabular mass, resembling a wall, and called a trap dyke. " In the Hebrides and other countries, the same masses of trap, * Geology, by Dr. M'Culloch, vol. ii. pp. 95, 96. t Manual, pp. 491494, 496, 498, 600. J Treatise on Geology, pp. 42, 110, FORMA TION OF THE EARTH. 3 1 r which occupy the surface of the country far and wide, concealing the subjacent stratified rocks, are seen, also, in the sea cliffs, prolonged downwards in veins and dykes, which probably unite with other masses of igneous rock at a greater depth. The largest of the dykes, which are seen in a part of the coast of Skye, is no less than 100 feet in width. Every variety of trap rock is sometimes found in these dykes, as basalt, greenstone, felspar, porphyry, and more rarely trachyte " Some dykes of trap may be followed for leagues uninterruptedly in nearly a straight direction, as in the North of England, showing that the fissures which they fill must have been of extraordinary length. " A striking example," he continues, when instancing the alteration effected by these dykes, " near Plas Newydd, in Anglesey, has been described by Professor Henslow. The dyke is 134 feet wide, and consists of a rock which is a compound of felspar and augite. Strata of shale and argillaceous limestone, through -which it cuts perpendi' cularly, are altered to a distance of 80 or even, in some places, to 85 feet from the edge of the dyke." * These passages, taken from the works of some of the most scientific of our geological writers, will have sufficiently ex- plained what is meant by dykes and veins, and have exhibited the characters of mineral protrusions : but geological maps on sectional principles t can alone make completely evident at one view what is more especially desired to be impressed, at present, on the mind, namely, the general direction which these igneous injections appear to have taken, as they came upwards to burst forth and to overflow upon the land. Without taking into account the venous ramifications or more minute inflections, their course, wherever it has been practicable to examine this continuously, seems to be nearly perpendicular to the surface. Without any intention to assert that these protrusions proceed from or reach the centre, it is merely meant that a parallel straight line passing down the main trunk of trap or basalt dykes, and prolonged imaginarily would converge, until they all met in- one common centre the centre of the earth. The origin of this uniformity of course must be sought * Elements, vol. ii. pp. 186, 212216, 219, 220, 223, 224. t Such as that constructed by Professor Buckland, and appended to his valuable work, the " Bridgetrater Treatise;" the views in the several works quoted, and, above all, Mr. Knipe's Geological Map of Great Britain and Ireland, and part of France, where these dykes and veins are admirably portrayed. Al'THOR. 3 i2 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE for, not in one, but in a combination of causes, which, unitedly, may be considered commensurate with the effect. The origin of that which, while it is everywhere the same on the surface of a spherical body, and affords symptoms of having travelled thither, must be looked for towards the centre ; and, moreover, the imaginary prolongation of these trappean and basaltic dykes points in the same direction. Nevertheless it is denied that there resides at the earth's centre any adequate cause or power which could have sent forth these streams of melted mineral a denial which will appear more just, after having perused the observations which immediately follow. While the necessity is acknowledged of looking towards the centre for an effect which is everywhere alike on the surface, and while, at the same time, the centre itself of the earth is set aside as the site of the common cause ; and, in lieu thereof, it is considered that the centrifugal impetus, arising from the first diurnal rotation of the earth, has been the prima causa of these protrusions ; yet it is believed, that neither could centrifugal impetus alone have given direction to them. Streams of melted mineral matter pro- ceeding solely from, or, what is equivalent, in straight lines from, an axis of gyration, which extended the whole diameter of the earth, must have cut the concentric shell in degrees of obliquity, according to their parallels of latitude. This, had it taken place, would neither have fulfilled the design which the Creator had in view, nor have caused the protrusions to run in the direction in which they are seen by geologists actually to do. By this system it has always been maintained, that the first rotation of the earth around its axis occasioned a sudden, violent, and general movement among the various masses of mineral matter which at that time composed its concentric rocky crust, and, as a natural result of this movement, inter se, the evolution, by means of friction, of intense heat ; and it is when we come to investigate into the origin and direction of these dykes and other mineral protrusions, that more than ever is recognised the soundness of these views. Without movement amongst the stony materials of the earth's original shell there could have been no heat; without heat there FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 313 would have been neither dykes, veins, nor other overflowings of fused mineral matter. Their mere existence, therefore, testifies to the fact of those fierce heats having been en- gendered ; whilst the direction they have pursued not only affords evidence to the same effect, but shows that the expanding influence of heat co-operated with the centrifugal force in constraining them to adopt a course somewhat between the two, and towards the surface from every centre of heat, or, what is the same thing, from every mountain range, and thus there was conferred upon them that remark- able coincidence of direction throughout all varieties and inequalities of surface, which no single force could have caused them, under any circumstances whatever, to have pursued. From what has been said it must appear evident, that any attempt to have explained the origin and direction of these mineral protrusions without reference to centrifugal impetus, would have been as unsuccessful as, on the other hand, any endeavour to have accounted for them by that force alone would have been unsatisfactory and inconclusive. Their existence and their geological position are alike due to that inevitable modification of the centrifugal force, which was caused by the heat which that motion engendered. When it raised the heat which melted the mineral matter, it likewise propelled the whole towards the periphery ; and these to- gether constrained the streams of fused material to find the nearest vent at the surface, as so many outlets for the exten- sion of the matter which an increase of volume, attendant on that of temperature, had occasioned on the earth's crust ; whilst the Creator, by his wisdom and power, made use of all these concomitant circumstances to weld the shattered fragments of the earth's outer crust securely together in the very midst of its convulsions, and to bind stratum to stratum, and rock to rock, in the most perfect and enduring manner by a universal protrusion of veins and dykes, which, after perforating the whole, were clenched and riveted by their overflowings on the surface the mineral bolts and bars of the earth's outer crust ! These veins and dykes also afford other undoubted indications. They show, in the most un- deniable manner, whereabouts the surface of the earth then 3H DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE EARTH. was ; for, as long as they had to perforate rocky masses, they proceeded in straight lines, generally speaking, under the combined influence of a superior force, and the opposition which the perforated masses, by their density, offered to their lateral dispersion ; but so soon as they reached the surface, or the looser materials of the more recent deposits, having no longer impenetrable substances on each side to confine them, they spread out and around in obedience to the joint laws of gravity and centrifugal impetus ; the latter inducing them to overflow, the other causing the ejected mass to fall down by its own weight : hence we are authorised to conclude, that wherever accumulations of fused rocks are found, the surface either was there at the time of the earth's first rotation, or there were present only materials of less density than the overflowing masses, amongst which they con- ducted themselves almost as they would have done upon the altogether external surface of the forming continents ; while the abrading influence of the primitive ocean, as it simul- taneously rushed from the polar regions towards the equator, to complete the static condition of liquidity under rotation, would greatly contribute, by its denuding effects, to render the rocky protrusions more prominent, and leave around those impervious barriers incontestable traces of the path which it hurriedly followed, as it swept past them in its impetuous course. SECTION V. GEOLOGICAL PHENOMENA RESULTING FROM THE EARTH 8 FIRST DIURNAL ROTATION. CHAPTER XXIII. TTAVING thus been enabled to indicate the probable origin *-*- of the mineral veins which proceed in directions from the centre towards the circumference, I shall in this chapter endeavour to explain, as far as the Dynamical System will enable me, whence those called "fissures" or "faults," which proceed in a contrary direction, or from the surface towards the interior of the earth's crust, have arisen. They are taken notice of in the thirtieth Theorem, which please see. Professor Buckland observes, concerning them " The component strata of a coal-field are divided into insulated masses, or sheets of rock, of irregular form and area, not one of which is continuous in the same plane over any very large district ; but each is usually separated from its next adjacent mass by a dam of clay, impenetrable to water, and filling the fissure produced by the fracture which caused the fault. " If we suppose a thick sheet of ice to be broken into fragments of irregular areas, and these fragments again united, after receiving a slight degree of irregular inclination to the plane of the original sheet, the re-united fragments of ice will represent the appearance of the component portions of the broken masses, or sheets of coal measures we are describing. The intervening portions of more recent ice, by which they are held together, represent the clay and rubbish that fill the faults, and form the partition walls that insulate these adjacent portions of strata which were originally formed, like the sheet of ice, in one continuous plane. Thus, each sheet, or inclined table of coal measures, is enclosed by a system of more or less vertical walla of broken clay, derived from its argillaceous shale beds, at the Ji6 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE moment at which the fracture and dislocation took place ; and hence have resulted those joints and separations which, though they occa- sionally interrupt at inconvenient positions, and cut off suddenly the progress of the collier, and often shatter those portions of the strata that are in immediate contact with them, yet are, in the main, his greatest safeguard, and are, indeed, essential to his operations."* Professor Playfair observes, " If all the circumstances accom- panying the formation of mineral veins are put together, there appears but one conclusion to be drawn from them. The manifest marks of some power which could lift up fragments of rocks from their native places, distant several hundred yards from their present situations ; place them upright on their edges, encompass them with solid rock quite heterogeneous to themselves, and bestow upon them a great addition of solidity and induration. " It is, indeed, impossible that the effects of motion and heat can be more clearly expressed than by these symptoms ; or the subject, in which these powers resided, more distinctly pointed out." t " Faults," according to Mr. Conybeare, " consist of fissures, tra- versing the strata, extending often for several miles, and penetrating to a depth in very few instances ascertained ; they are accompanied by a subsidence of the strata on one side of their line, or (which amounts to the same thing) an elevation of them on the other ; so that it appears, that the same force which has rent the rocks thus asunder, has caused one side of the fractured mass to rise, or the other to sink. The fissures are generally filled by clay." \ " Numerous rents may often be seen," says Mr. Lyell, " in rocks which appear to be simply broken, the separated parts remaining in the same places ; but we often find a fissure, several inches or yards wide, intervening between the disunited portions. " These fissures are usually filled with fine earth and sand, or with angular fragments of stone, evidently derived from the fracture of the contiguous rocks. " It is not uncommon to find the mass of rock on one side of a fissure thrown up above, or down below, the mass with which it was once in contact on the other side. This mode of displacement is called a shift, slip, or fault." " In some cases," says Professor Phillips, " instead of acclinal or decimal slopes to or from an axis, we have a complete fracture of the mass of strata along a vertical or inclined plane, parallel to which the beds on one side are uplifted, and on the other depressed. This is called a fault or slip ; almost every coal district and mining region in the world is full of such, though their number is, upon the whole, very much greater in elevated districts, and least in the youngest strata. " The extent of displacement on one side of such fault is some- * Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i. pp. 541 544. t Illustrations of Huttonian Theory, Playfair' s Works, rol. i. pp. 76, '258. 301. t Geology of England and Wales, part i' p. 348. ' Elements, vol. i. p. 128. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 317 times only a few inches; in other cases 10, 100, or 1,000 feet or yards. The great Craven fault and Cross Fell fault in the North of England is complicated with a narrow anticlinal axis ; the extent of displacement produced by both is 1,000, 2,000, 8,000, or even 4,000 feet (Diagram, No. 7)." * If we imagine the surface of a level sphere enveloped, in certain portions of its area, by concentric and alternating strata of coal and clay, or shale, in a semi-indurated condition, and then suppose that, by a sudden revolution, it is greatly enlarged and this enlargement is filled up by the protrusion of amorphous rocks among its stratified masses, whereby great elevations and depressions are caused upon its surface the origin of these fractures or faults, in the secondary strata, will be recognised at once. Indeed, there is no other way in which the coal measures, then partially constituting the surface of our globe, could possibly have accommodated themselves to a simultaneous enlargement of surface, and to a change of inclination. It must likewise be obvious, that the fissures or spaces thus occasioned between the cuboidal masses of coal, clay, sandstone, &c., could not be entirely filled up by material derived from the alternating shale beds of the carboniferous series themselves, because there is no way whereby a deter- minate quantum of strata, which once covered a certain extent of area, could be made to cover a greater extent of surface. On the other hand, a ready and satisfactory solution of the question will be found, if the matter contained in these partitions be attributed to infiltration from above, while the surface of the earth (although rotating) was as yet submerged in the primeval ocean. At the time of its first diurnal rotation the waters were surcharged, as will be shown presently, with mineral debris of all kinds ; and these, in rushing in to fill up the chasms caused by the enlargement of the earth's surface, would carry in a portion of their mineral contents along with themselves, and thus charge them with a mixture of " clay and rubbish," which, by afterwards becom- ing indurated, formed those useful, though sometimes em- barrasing, compartments into which the secondary strata, and especially the coal-fields, are found so frequently to be divided. Treatise, pp. 62, 63, 107, 260. 3i8 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE This view of the subject explains, likewise, the cause of these cuboidal masses being higher on one side of the fault than the other. For this is precisely the position in which masses of that form, if free to move, would arrange them- selves, when raised up from a horizontal position, and made to lie upon an inclined plane, provided the spaces between them were jilted with a substance of so soft a consistency as to offer no opposition to their movement. This, besides, is the only way in which the phenomena attendant on these faults, and inter- contained cuboidal masses, can be thoroughly explained ; for there is no direction in which any mass injected from beneath supposing this to be the cause of the dislocation could have raised up the strata on the one side and depressed them on the other. Cuboidal masses of equal thickness laid upon an inclined plane would assume a relative position to each other, precisely in accordance with that which those forming the coal-fields are found to do. These considerations, the legitimate offspring of the Dynamical System, also tend to reconcile the conflicting opinions as to the aqueous or igneous origin of veins, by showing that there may exist veins proceeding from both causes, easily to be accounted for when looked upon in the light with which they are here viewed, although resisting a cordial reconcilia- tion when they are wholly attributed to any one of these causes. Finally. From all that has been said on this branch of the subject, it appears evident, that the dislocations and cor- responding faults in the secondary strata were occasioned by the Jirst diurnal rotation of the earth around its axis, while yet its whole surface was under water; that is, at some period between the FIRST and the THIRD days of the Mosaic week. We have, in continuation, to consider a third and distinct class of veins found intersecting the earth's outer crust, and whose origin is involved in considerable obscurity. I allude to the METALLIC VEINS. It is presumed, however, that the Dynamical System by having made so manifest the existence of distinct centres or foci of heat, while it has explained the origin of the other two classes of veins and fissures, may, happily, be capable of also throwing some light upon these FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 319 arcanse of the creation. The hundred and fifth and hundred and sixth Theorems are those which relate to this subject. Considering the fact of the mere existence of these veins to be too well authenticated to require any further evidence, I go on to inquire into their direction, and other conditions, which are much more essential to the establishment of the present subject. " Metallic veins," eays Professor Buckland, " are of most frequent occurrence in rocks of the primary and transition series, particularly in those lower portions of stratified rocks which are nearest to unstratified crystalline rocks. They are of rare occurrence in secondary formations, and still more so in tertiary strata." In a note he adds " M. Dufrenoy has recently shown that the mines of Haematite and Spathic iron in the Eastern Pyrenees, which occur in limestones of three ages, referable severally to the transition series, to the lias, and to the chalk, are all situated in parts where these limestones are in nearer contact with the granite ; and he considers, that they have all, most probably, been filled by the sublimation of mineral matters into cavities of the limestone, at, or soon after, the time of the elevation of the granite of this part of the Pyrenees. The period of this elevation was posterior to the deposit of the chalk formation, and anterior to that of the tertiary strata. These limestones have all become crystalline where they are in contact with the granite ; and the iron is in some places mixed with copper pyrites and argentiferous galena." Professor Buckland observes further " This section, reduced from Thomas's ' Survey of the Mining District of Cornwall,' exhibits the manner in which the granite and slate near Redruth are intersected by metalliferous veins, terminated abruptly at the surface, and descending to an unknown depth ; these veins are usually most productive near the junction of the granite with the slate, and where one vein intersects another. The mean direction of the greatest number of them is nearly from E.N.E. to W.S.W. They are intersected, nearly at right angles, by other and less numerous veins, called cross-courses, the contents of which usually differ from those of the E. and W. veins, and are seldom metalliferous. " The granite, and Killas and other rocks, which intersected them, e.g. dykes and intruded masses of more recent granite, and of various kinds of porphyritic rocks called Elvans, are considered to have occupied their present relative positions before the origin of the fissures which form the metalliferous veins that intersect them all." * * Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i. pp. 548, 549, and vol. ii. pp. 107, 108. 320 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE Mr. Lyell is rather concise on this branch of geological research, but quite conclusive. He states that " Granite, sienite, and those porphyries which have a granitiform structure, in short, all plutonic rocks, are frequently observed to contain metals at or near their junction with stratified formations. On the other hand, the veins which traverse stratified rocks are, as a general law, more metalliferous near such junctions than in any other positions It is also an important circumstance, that near the point of contact, both the granite and the secondary rocks become metalliferous, and contain nests and small veins of blende, galena, iron and copper pyrites." * Professor Phillips, with respect to this point, declares " It to be a general truth, that metallic veins abound in proportion to the proximity of the situation to axes of dislocation, and eruptions of pyrogenous rocks." t A more perfect conception of the direction in which these veins intersect each other, and run through the rocks com- posing the earth's outer crust, will be acquired by reference to any of those geological maps which have been already enumerated, and which embrace extended areas of primary formation ; for by them it will be seen, that the metalliferous veins generally cut one another at right angles ; while they penetrate 'each successive formation without causing the slightest dislocation, or derangement of the relative positions of contiguous rocks. Having perused these evidences, which are meant to show the localities and the usual direction of metallic veins, I shall next submit some information as to their supposed origin, or the causes which produced them. Dr. Buckland gives some particulars respecting Mr. Fox's views and experiments, which are extracted with much plea- sure, in consequence of the surmise that they contain " tht rudiments of the true theory of metallic veins :"- " Mr. Fox has found by experiment that when a solution of muriate of tin is in the voltaic current, a portion of the metal is determined towards the negative pole, whilst another portion in the state of an oxide passes to the positive pole. This fact appears to him to afford a striking illustration of the manner in which tin and copper have been separated from each other in the same vein, or in contiguous * Elements, vol. ii. pp. 342, 343, 363. f Treatise, p. 91. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 321 veins, while these metals also very commonly occur together in the same veins." * Following up these conceptions and discoveries of Mr. Fox, the following is subjoined from the Literary Gazette. The editors of that periodical say " Mr. Fox has for some time and hitherto very successfully turned his attention to the formation of mineral bodies or veins ; and to the principle of electro-magnetism, as applied to these formations. It had been observed by him, and by others acquainted with the peculiar structure of the Cornish metalliferous deposits, that the same lode would sometimes contain copper pyrites ; and within a short distance, and merely separated by the common argillaceous sub- stances, sulphate of copper or some other modification of the same material. Whenever this occurred the lode was generally found to be saturated with water, containing various salts a circumstance that seems to influence in some degree the change in the mineral deposit. Mr. Fox, applying the exercise of his strong and highly cultivated mind to these phenomena, immediately conceived the notion that electro-magnetism was the prime agent in the production of this extraordinary change. To prove this he procured an earthen pan, which he divided into two compartments, by inserting in the centre a barrier of clay, saturated with dilute sulphuric acid, and jammed down closely. In the one compartment he placed water, charged with the sulphate of copper ; and in the other dilute sulphuric acid. In the sulphuric acid he placed plates of zinc, connected with a rod and wire with a piece of copper pyrites, suspended in the water contained in the other compartment. In a short time electro-mag- netism commenced. The sulphur passed from the water, through the barrier of clay to the zinc, and there not being sufficient sulphur in that water to form, by this union, sulphate of zinc, the copper pyrites was deprived of a portion of its sulphur, and changed to common grey copper ! Mr. Fox thinks he shall be enabled to complete this experiment without the dilute sulphuric acid, and merely by water." t Professor Phillips thus expresses himself on this new and interesting branch of geological research : " One might venture to say there is a peculiar electric attraction between sulphuret of lead and limestone rock ; and this idea, followed so far, leads to the doctrine of the metallic contents being secreted from the bordering rocks. The materials of the veins seem, indeed, in many instances, to have been transferred by electric currents through solid substances, but they are really diffused /row the veins into the cavities of the neighbouring rocks, not collected from these into the vein fissures." * Bvidgewater Treatise, vol. ii. pp. 108 110. t Literary Gazette of 3rd May, 1836, p. 296. Y 322 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE EARTH. And at another place he says : "The first notions on the direction of convulsive movements were formed by miners, who observed, as a fact of great practical import- ance to their art, that the mineral veins which were most generally and uniformly productive ranged east and west, or nearly ; and that these right-running veins were divided by cross-courses, passing north and south, or nearly. Not that there are no other directions of veins and cross- courses, but amidst many directions these prevail. Corn- wall, Wales, Cumberland, the Pennine limestone region, Brittany, the Hartz, the Hungarian mines, and even Mexico, appear to confirm this law, suggested by practical men. It is very difficult, or rather impossible, to explain it ; but we may remark, that in many cases the direction of mineral veins follows that of the natural joints and fissures produced by consolidation of the rocks ; and that it is very conceivable that electrical currents, or other polarizing agents, might communicate to such fissures one or more definite directions. In fact, it is proved that, in Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and other large tracts, these fissures have definite directions, mostly rectangular to one another." .... And again : " . . . . Repletion of mineral veins. The opinion of the Cornish miners and geologists generally appears to be, that most of all these veins are to be regarded as contemporaneous with the rocks which enclose them. " . . . . Whatever force may be thought due to the facts and the opinions brought forward on the subject of veins in Cornwall, it is perfectly certain that, in distinctly stratified countries, the mineral matter has been introduced into open fissures long after the deposition and consolidation of the strata. The proof is unanswerable. Joints and fissures filled with metallic and sparry matters (mineral veins) pass through rocks which are not contemporaneous but successively deposited, and divide corals, fishes, &c. It is evident that this must close the discussion as far as regards these rocks." * * TreatiBe, pp. 262, 263, 270. SECTION V. GEOLOGICAL PHENOMENA RESULTING FROM THE EARTH'S FIRST DIURNAL ROTATION. CHAPTER XXIV. THE mind having been prepared by the extracts and opinions which have been given in the preceding chapter, let us now endeavour to come to some conclusion which may assist in eventually leading to the truth. We are already furnished with a considerable amount of data to enable us to proceed satisfactorily with the solution of this difficult problem ; I shall take the liberty of recapitulating them. Firstly, then, the direction of the veins is ascertained ; secondly, we know their contents, and the contents of the cross-courses ; thirdly, we are aware -of their relative geological positions, and that they do not cause faults or dislocations amongst the formations through which they pass ; fourthly, we are convinced that a force of some kind sufficient to have caused their formation, and especially their direction^ must have been employed ; and, lastly, we know the nature and direction of all forces. Therefore, that which was employed by the Creator, as the secondary cause, in forming the metallic veins, may, perhaps, be dis- covered by the application of the differential method of reasoning. From the perpendicular direction in which mineral veins proceed towards the surface, it has been shown, in treating of them, that they owe their origin to a combination of the centrifugal impetus occasioned by the first diurnal rotation of the earth around its axis, and to the heat which was y 2 324 DYNAMICAL Sl'STEM OF THE engendered thereby, especially at the axis of elevation ; and if this be contrasted with the oblique direction in which metallic veins proceed to the same point, we shall at once be convinced that these latter cannot have emanated from the same cause which produced the others: unless, indeed, it should be imagined that, unlike any other force, it could have simultaneously given birth to two sets of veins, pro- ceeding in different directions. We may, therefore, discard the centrifugal impetus as not being the immediate cause of the direction of the metalliferous veins ; and in this manner dispose of one of the known forces. Neither could the oblique direction of these veins result from a composition of forces, between that engendered by centrifugal impetus towards the circumference, and a tan- gential force at right angles thereto : because, though this might account for some of these diagonal lines, it completely fails when applied to those which cut the others at right angles; and, therefore, this also may be dismissed as not having been the immediate cause of the fissures in question. Infiltration from ^wthout may be disposed of in the same manner. For, although it is probable it may have been the means of filling the external fissures when once they were made with mineral and metallic solutions, it could not have caused the fissures themselves ; both on account of its inade- quacy as well as the oblique direction in which these proceed. A liquid, if it could by any possibility have so penetrated as to have caused fissures in solid rock, would, by the laws governing its motion, have done so in lines perpendicular to the earth's surface. We may, therefore, eliminate this cause of origin also from the catalogue. Consequently, by the disposal of those forces, we are shut up to select the only remaining power at all capable of producing these metallic veins, namely, some one of the various modifications of elec- trical agency ; a conclusion, which not only agrees with Mr. Fox's conceptions and experiments, but likewise harmonizes with the results of geological research amongst the forma- tions where these veins abound. The particular kind of electricity which seems best to accord with what has been observed, is that called Thermo-electricity ;* and, in conse- * Theorems 59 to 66. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 325 quence, after relating some particulars regarding its discovery and its manner of acting, I shall endeavour to apply it to the case in question and show its sufficiency. " It has already been observed," says the author of the " Connection of the Sciences," " that three bodies are requisite to form a galvanic circuit, one of which must be a fluid. But, in 1822, Prof. Seebeck, of Berlin, discovered that electric currents may be produced by the partial application of heat to a circuit formed of two solid conductors. For example, when a semicircle of bismuth, joined to a semicircle of antimony, so as to form a ring, is heated at one of the junctions by a lamp, a current of electricity flows through the circuit from the antimony to the bismuth, and such thermo-electric currents produce all the electro-magnetic effects M. Nobili observed that in all metals, except zinc, iron, and antimony, the electricity flows from the hot part towards that which is cold " M. Bequerel constructed a thermo-electric battery of one kind of metal, by which he has determined the relation between the heat employed, and the intensity of the resulting electricity. He found that in most metals the intensity of the current increases with the heat to a certain limit, but that this law extends much farther in metals which are difficult to fuse, and which do not rust. The experiments of Professor Gumming show, that the mutual action, of a magnet and a thermo-electric current is subject to the same laws as those of magnets and galvanic currents, consequently all the pheno- mena of repulsions, attraction, and rotation may be exhibited by a thermo-electric current." * " If the theory of internal heat," says M. de la Beche, with his usual circumspection, " be well founded, it will be evident that the two ends of a metallic vein will be differently heated, and therefore we should have a thermo-electrical apparatus on a large scale, pro- ducing effects which, though slow, might be very considerable. How far such really exists in nature remains questionable, but it may be observed that the experiments of Mr. W. Fox show the possibility of their occurrence ; and should further researches in this highly interesting subject so divide it, that some of its present apparent complexity may disappear, a great advance will be made in this now obscure branch of geological inquiry." f Professor Playfair, with his characteristic acumen, ob- serves : "The state in which gold and silver are often found pervading masses of quartz, and shooting across them in every direction," he remarks, " furnishes a strong argument for the igneous origin both of the metal and the stone. From such specimens it is evident, that the quartz and the metal crystallized, or passed from a fluid to a solid * Mrs. Somerville on the Connection of the Sciences, pp. 345, 346, 123. t Manual, p. 524. 326 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE state, at the same time : and it is hardly less clear, that this fluidity did not proceed from solution in any menstruum ; for the menstruum, whether water or the chaotic fluid, to enable it to dissolve the quartz, must have had an alkaline impregnation ; and to enable it to dissolve the metal, it must have had, at the same time, an acid impregnation. But these two opposite qualities could not reside in the same subject ; the acid and the alkali would unite together, and, if equally powerful, form a neutral salt, like sea salt, incapable of acting either on the metallic or the silicious body. If the acid was most powerful, the compound salt might act on the metal, but not at all upon the quartz ; and if the alkali was most powerful, the compound might act on the quartz, but not at all on the metal. In no case, therefore, could it act on both at the same time. Fire or heat, if sufficiently intense, is not subject to this difficulty, as it could exercise its force with equal effect on both bodies." * And, in further confirmation of this particular point, reference is requested to the conclusive evidence gived at page 358 of Mr. Lyell's "Elements," which, in consequence of having been so recently quoted, is not repeated. t What has been adduced will sufficiently prove, that heat, when applied to distinct mineral substances unequal con- ductors puts those associated materials into a condition proper for eliciting currents of thermo-electricity ; while, what was previously established leaves as little doubt on the mind that, during the first diurnal rotation of the earth around its axis, there was sufficient heat evolved to act as a primum momentum in this case, to set those dormant currents into active operation. And if there be added the corroborative consideration that the strata, at the period when these operations are supposed to have taken place, were impregnated with metallic depositions in combination with other elements, agreeing precisely with those discovered in metallic veins, we shall be convinced that, according to the wise and beneficent ordinations of the Creator, all the requisites were amply prepared for the event ; so that the thermo -electrical currents, when put into exercise, had where- withal to operate upon, and to produce, with due separation, either by sublimation or rapid segregation, those abundant stores of metallic ores, destined to be transmuted thereafter for the use of man. * Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory, vol. i. pp. 249, 250. f Elements of Geology, vol. ii. p. 343. " FORMATION OF THE EARTH* 327 If a view be taken of any sectional geological map, and, at the same time, it be remembered, that " the granite and killas the intruded masses of more recent granite and the various kinds of porphyritic rocks, called elvans, are con- sidered to have occupied their present relative positions before the origin of the fissures, forming the metalliferous veins which intersect them all,""* the final conclusion must be come to, that they were, in fact, formed after these mineral masses assumed their present positions ; because the fissures or veins pass indiscriminately, and almost in straight lines, through the whole A Consequently, they originated when the heat and electrical influences, occasioned by the friction arising from the movement amongst these masses, were at their maximum ; that is, towards tlie conclusion of the Jirst day's rotation of the earth around its axis. That this was the period of tluir formation must appear obvious when it is considered, in the first instance, that they could not have existed before, because the general movement which ensued amongst the rocks of the earth's crust when its rotation toojt place would have completely deranged their lines of junction, had they been formed when these rocks lay, as yet, in a horizontal position ; and, in the next, we know of no event posterior thereto sufficient to have produced them ; while, in what then occurred, there were causes put in operation, according to the thermo-electric theory, sufficient to have done so. The argument opposed to the supposition that these fissures originated in a shrinking of the rocks amounts almost to demonstration. For, although fissures from con- traction, when a mineral which has been heated begins to cool, is perfectly supposable in the case of one homogeneous mass, it is quite inadmissible when applied to the case in question, as the fissures pass in straight lines indiscriminately through granite, trap, porphyry, greenstone, gneiss, grau- wacke, limestone, and all other descriptions of clay, or aluminous formations ; it being scarcely possible to conceive that the same degree of heat could have produced so equal * Professor Buckland's Bridgewater Treatise, vol. ii. p. 108. t In confirmation of this, see especially a passage in Phillips's Treatise, p. 272, on the authority of Re-p. Brit-. As*ocia(>o>>, Edinburgh Meeting. 3 z8 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE an effect on substances differing so materially in their nature and relation for that subtile element, and, more especially, those of aluminous composition, which, unlike the other associated masses, so far from expanding on the application of heat, are found to contract. But none of these difficulties exist, when the result is attributed to the agency of thermo- electricity ; all the requisites for its evolution were present ; and when emanating from such centres of heat as the nuclei of mountain chains or axes of disturbance, it must have been sufficient to have overcome every barrier ; whilst the elec- trical influence, in proceeding "from the heated parts towards those which were cold," would pursue the very direction in which these metallic veins are found to run, provided they emanated when the mountains were at their highest elevation; which agreeing, likewise, with the period of the maximum of heat, fulfils all the conditions of the problem, and fixes the era of their formation with unlooked-for precision. Allusion may here be made to the interesting observations of Professor Buckland, and others mentioned by him, with regard to the evidences afforded of wise and beneficent design for the tudl-being of man, in the manner in which both the precious and the useful metals have been deposited in lodes or veins.* What has been said is true, and evinces the constant presence and agency of an ever-watchful Providence, while it demonstrates, in the clearest manner, the wisdom, pre- science, and goodness of God. Another instance of considera- tion for man's welfare, is manifested by the direction which these metallic veins were made to take amongst the mineral masses where they exist. Had they, like the mineral veins, been under the influ- ence of the centrifugal impetus emanating as they did from the nuclei of mountain chains, after these reached their highest elevations they would, in most cases, have had not only a longer course to run in order to reach the surface, but would have made their appearance upon the scarped, arid, and uninhabitable summits and shoulders of these primary masses, whose bare and rugged surfaces would have rendered them almost inaccessible, and scarcely capable of having been wrought. They would also have been much more concen- * Bridgewater Treatise. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 329 trated ; and, consequently, less equally divided amongst the world's inhabitants. Besides all these inconveniences, it is more than probable that had they merely obeyed the laws of centrifugal force, and had commenced their course, as they evidently have done, after the formation of all the mineral veins and dykes, they would not have had impetus sufficient to have perforated these, but would have been embarrassed, " nipped," if not entirely interrupted in their way to the sur- face. All these inconveniences and impediments, however, have not only been avoided and overcome by infinite wisdom, but they have been transformed into positive benefits by the metalliferous veins being caused to emanate from the irre- sistible power of thermo-electricity, and to shoot forth, not before, but after, the elevation of the mountains in which they abound. Born of this subtile influence, they were not only enabled to pass unresistingly through every obstacle, but likewise to follow the 'most direct route to the surface ; Avhile by their eruption, after the earth had assumed its actual form, that direction was so disposed as to occasion their spreading over an extent of country which though not the most fertile is at least incomparably better than the rugged peaks amongst which they would, otherwise, have abounded. And even the circumstance of these metallic treasures being conferred on countries not the most fertile in vegetable productions, in co*nsequence of their geological position and agricultural character, evinces a truly parental foresight and benevolence of design, together with a just im- partiality towards the world's inhabitants, who, all alike, are the children of the same Creator. This idea is so admirably brought out in the passage alluded to, that I feel myself constrained to insert it : "Whatever may have been the means," observes Dr. Buckland, " whereby mineral veins were charged with their precious contents whether segregation or sublimation was the exclusive method by which the metals were accumulated, or whether each of the sup- posed causes may have operated simultaneously or consecutively in their production the existence of these veins remains a fact of the highest importance to the human race ; and although the disturbances, and other processes in which they originated, may have taken place at periods long antecedent to the creation of our species, we may reasonably infer that a provision for the comfort and convenience of the last and most perfect creatures He was about to place upon its 330 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE surface was in the providential contemplation of the Creator, in his primary disposal of the physical forces, which have caused some of the earliest and most violent perturbations of the globe." : All that is now wanting to conclude these detailed investi- gations into the diversified phenomena attendant on the elevation of mountain chains, accompanied by the forcible injection, by means of the centrifugal impetus, of enormous masses of unstratified rock, is to inquire, whether geologists recognise a mineral of such a character and general preva- lence, as may warrant our relying, with implicit confidence, on the inferences which have been drawn from its supposed existence ? To do this, I refer the reader, in succession, to the twentieth, twenty-third, and twenty-fifth Theorems, in all of which that point is more or less elicited ; while the atten- tion is directed for the present more exclusively to the last of these. The principal evidences on which that opinion is founded are the following : " The term granite," observes Professor Playfair, " is used by Dr. Hutton to signify an aggregate stone, in which quartz, felspar, and mica are found distinct from one another, and not dispersed in layers. The addition of hornblende, schorl, or garnet, to the three ingredients just mentioned, is not understood to alter the (/etuis of the stone, but only to constitute a specific difference, which it is the business of lithology to mark by some appropriate character, annexed to the generic name of granite " One ingredient which is essential to granite, namely, quartz, is not contained in whinstone ; and this circumstance serves to dis- tinguish these genera from one another, though in other respects they seem to be united by a chain of insensible gradations, from the most homogeneous basalts to granite the most highly crystalline." f "Assuming," says Dr. Buckland, in a passage already quoted, " that fire and water have been the two great agents employed in reducing the surface of the globe to its actual condition, we see, in repeated operations of these agents, causes adequate to the production of these irregular elevations and depressions of the fundamental rocks of the granitic series, which are delineated, in the lower region of our section, as forming the basis of the entire superstructure of stratified rocks." At another part of his work, when tracing the origin of volcanic rocks, basalt and trap dykes, he adds * Biidgewater Treatise, vol. i. pp. 5o4, ooo. t Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory, pp. 9o, 96. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 331 " As the mineraljcharacters of these dykes present insensible grada- tions, from a state of compact lava, through infinite varieties of green- stone, serpentine, and porphyry, to granite, we refer them all to a common igneous origin." * " Such are the rocks," says M. de la Beche, " namely, granite, porphyry, diallage, serpentine, basalt, greenstone, and other rocks, usually termed trappean; claystone, clinkstone, &c., commonly called unstratified. It will have been seen that they so pass into one another, that distinctions are not easily established between them. Mineralogical granite passes through various stages, and graduates into the compounds named greenstone, and others of the trappean class." f . . . . "The plutonic rocks," observes Mr. Lyell, "may be treated of next in order " Felspar, quartz, and mica are usually considered as the minerals essential to granite, the felspar being most abundant in quantity, and the proportion of quartz exceeding that of mica Porphyritic granite. This name has been sometimes given to that variety in which large crystals of felspar, sometimes more than an inch in length, are scattered through an ordinary base of granite Sienite. When hornblende is the substitute for mica, which is very commonly the case, the rock becomes sienite Sienitic granite. The quadruple compound of quartz, felspar, mica, and hornblende, may be so termed Talcose granite, or protogine of the French, is a mixture of felspar, quartz, and talc Schorl rock and schorly granite. The former of these is an aggregate of schorl, or tourmalin, and quartz All these granites pass into certain kinds of trap, a circumstance which affords one of many arguments in favour of what is now the prevailing opinion, that the granites are also of igneous origin. " The minerals which constitute alike the granitic and volcanic rocks, consist, almost exclusively, of seven elements, namely silica, alumina, magnesia, lime, soda, potash, and iron ; and these may sometimes exist in about the same proportions in a porous lava, a compact trap, or a crystalline granite, .... and, finally, it would be easy to multiply examples and authorities to prove the gradation of the granitic into the trap rocks." \ The following corroborative extracts are from Professor Phillips' s Treatise : " Few parts of the globe, except some of the vast plains and deserts, are entirely deficient of rocks which are not stratified, though the surface which they occupy is not nearly so great as that covered by the strata. Granitic and basaltic rocks compose generally the greater portion of the unstratified masses, as in Britain, and lie in the same relations to the strata. Granitic rocks throughout the globe con- * Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i. p. 48 ; and vol. ii. p. 3, t Manual of Geology, pp. 486489, 493. ; Elements of Geology, vol. ii. pp. 324348. 332 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE stitute the most frequent axes or centres of mountain groups, and basaltic rocks fill dykes and spread in irregular cappings over the strata. It is evident, therefore, that the structure of the exterior parts of the globe, though full of local diversity, is all formed upon one general plan, and produced by similar agencies." And in continuation " The state of the globe during the period of the production of the primary strata may never be fully disclosed by geological inquiries, even when aided by higher departments of knowledge ; yet, as a view of the successive conditions of the globe, however imperfect, con- stitutes the very essence of philosophical geology, it is necessary to ascertain what progress has been made in this dark research into some of the earliest natural records of creation. It is remarkable that the lowest of all the known systems of stratified deposits should be at once the most extensive, the most nearly universal, the most uniform in mineral character, the only one from which organic life appears to be totally excluded, and in which the character of mechanical aggre- gation is the most obscure " In accordance with the undoubted truth of the general expansion of rocks of igneous origin, below all the stratified masses, we naturally inquire if the agency of subterranean heat is of a kind to account for the phenomena observed." Professor Phillips observes " In examining the revolution of the earth, I have rendered it probable that there has been granite, or an analogous substance, prior to all strata, and the original source of the whole." : Professor Playfair states " Granite, the fossil now defined, exists, like whinstone and porphyry, both in masses and in veins, though most frequently in the former. It is, like them, unstratified in its texture, and is regarded here as being also unstratified in its outward structure. " Granite, it has been just said, exists most commonly in masses ; and these masses are rarely, if ever, incumbent on any other rock : they are the bases on which others rest, and seem, for the most part, to rise up from under the ancient or primary strata. The granite, therefore, wherever it is found, is inferior to every other rock, and as it also composes many of the greatest mountains, it has the peculiarity of being elevated the highest into the atmosphere, and sunk the deepest under the surface, of all the mineral substances with which we are acquainted." t These copious extracts will conclude the evidence, in * Treatise, pp. 42, 78, 79, 93, 94. t PJaylair's Works, vol. i. pp. 95 97. .FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 333 favour of the acknowledged existence of an amorphous mass of mineral matter beneath all those formations which retain their stratified texture ; and, likewise, of the diversified effects shown by phenomena appreciable by the senses which resulted from the general convulsion amongst those parts of the earth's crust, when it was caused to revolve diurnally around its axis, for the first time, by the formation of the light ; this act of protorotation having, by centri- fugal impetus, produced the universal movement above alluded to, and, in turn, caused the friction and consequent fierce heat which fused the mineral substances, and fitted them, in this condition, for irresistible protrusion into the rents, fissures, and centres of mountains and mountain chains, arising from the extension and breaking up of the earth's surface, to complete its static form of revolution ; while the same centrifugal impetus, and the heat thus engendered, co-operated to impel these molten streams into the diversified apertures of enlargement, by which only they could find vent, and where alone they were required ; thus exhibiting another example of a complete chain of cause and effect, which links the external form, peculiar position, and internal structure of these rocks of igneous origin to the creation of the light on the first day of the Mosaic week. Thus far the Dynamical System successfully accounts for the earth's formation ; but when we attempt to apply it, to ascertain the probable condition of these mineral ingredients, before they were made to issue forth, in universal streams, from almost every point of the globe, to insinuate and wedge themselves into the openings prepared for them, when it pleased the Creator so to arrange it when this application is made of the treatise, we are reminded, that it has more to do with what is, than with what was ; and that it can assist only to infer the original condition of these hidden masses hidden far beneath the accumulated deposits of the non- rotatory period by the transformation which the dynamical influence has effected in them. Perhaps, indeed, the greatest benefit which can be derived from these investigations, in relation to this branch of the subject, is the perspicuity with which they point to move- ment inter se, friction, heat, and centrifugal impetus the 334 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE inseparable concomitants of the Dynamic System as the true cause of the difference between stratified and unstratified rocks, and of every diversified feature of these two great classes. Indeed, the more all the phenomena attending the eleva- tion of continental ridges, and the depression of oceanic hollows, which seem to reveal a state of mysterious elasticity in the internal regions of the globe, are considered ; also the scrupulous economy of means to the end everywhere observable in the works of the Creator, and being under the conviction, that the earth, like all the heavenly bodies, is destined to be a pedestal to uphold upon its surface, not a receptacle for containing within ; when all these motives for a hollow or cavernous structure, with the apparent neces- sity, according to the observations of some astronomers, of internal density, are contrasted, greater difficulty than ever is experienced in coming to a determination an uncertainty by no means lessened, although certainly left open to discussion, when such different opinions upon this very subject, as those I am about to subjoin, are maintained. The accomplished author of " The Connection of the Sciences " says " But a density so extreme is not borne out by astronomical observation. It might seem to follow, therefore, that our planet must have a widely cavernous structure, and that we tread on a crust or shell whose thickness bears a very small proportion to the diameter of the sphere. Possibly, too, this great condensation at the central regions may be counterbalanced by the increased elasticity due to a very elevated temperature." * "It has sometimes," says Professor Whewell, "been maintained by fanciful theorists, that the earth is merely a shell, and that the central parts are hollow. All the reasons we can collect appear to be in favour of its being a solid mass, considerably denser than any solid rock." f " Taking water at a temperature of 60 as the unit of comparison," says Professor Phillips, " we find the specific gravity of the superficial parts of the globe, as judged of by weighing the most prevalent rocks, to be 2'5. By direct experiment, and comparison of the local attrac- tion of mountains and insulated masses of matter with the general attraction of the globe, the mean density of our planet has been * Connection of the Sciences, p. 90. t Bridgewater Treatise, p. 50. The remaining part is recommended to the perusal of my readers. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 335 inferred to be about five times that of water. This result is found sufficiently in accordance with astronomical considerations, to allow us to adopt it for geological reasoning. " The interior parts of the globe must therefore be denser than the exterior rocks. " From the influence of the earth on the moon's motions, it is inferred, that the internal mass of our planet augments in density towards the centre ; the surfaces of equal density being symmetrical with the external spheroidal surface. The materials of the earth have therefore collected round the centre in obedience to the laws of gravitation and rotatory movement, and the internal substances, as having fallen to the lower place when freedom of motion was allowed, would probably be heavier under the same circumstances than the superficial substances, and so forth Now, though we cannot presume that the laws of compression would hold in these bodies to such an extent, enough is known to justify a confident belief, that the mean density of our planet would be very much greater than it is, were not the tendency to enormous condensation in the central masses counteracted by some powerful agent of expansion, such as heat, or neutralized by some peculiar or unknown constitution of the sub- stances themselves." * Dr. M'Culloch, when treating incidentally on this, says " Notwithstanding its inferiority in position, we must not grant, as asserted, that granite constitutes the mass of the globe, or is the lowest rock in existence. Of the interior of the globe we know nothing ; but its weight is sufficient to prove that it is not formed of granite Some unstratified matter, solid or fluid, does doubtless lie beneath the stratified surface of the earth ; but, while conjectures are fruitless, it might, if solid, be basalt as well as granite." \ How infinitely would the assumption of Mrs. Somerville, if eventually found to be correct, tend to exalt our ideas of the wisdom and the power of the Creator, who disposed and prepared the rocky shell in such a way, that while, by his command, it was transformed, from a level sphere, " without form and void," into a spheroid, adorned with continents and ocean beds, hills and dales, yet was so cemented and welded together, in the very act of its transformation, that neither the elastic fluids were permitted to escape from within, nor the water to penetrate the superficial crust ! But, as before remarked, while this recondite point in cosmogony is shut up from experimental investigation, and thereby exposed, less or more, to conjecture, its importance seems to be inversely as * Treatise on Geology, pp. 9 11. f Vol. ii. p. 87. 336 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE EARTH. the difficulty of its determination. The earth's formation can be satisfactorily accounted for even should this be as- sumed, merely in conformity with the requirements of inter- planetary laws. Nevertheless, I take occasion to observe, that this abstruse question has been so far benefited by the Dynamical System, that this has removed the seeming necessity which there appeared to be, for not only taking fierce internal heat into the resolution of the problem, but for subordinating all the other conditions to this datum, supposed to be so well established. Henceforward, it is to be hoped, that the heat, discoverable in mines and other perforations will be attri- buted to that which was caused by the friction of the moving mineral masses, during the earth's first diurnal rotation, and whose foci resided in mountain nuclei ; as this of itself is quite sufficient to have produced the phenomena in question ; while the Dynamical System would have been incomplete without the existing demonstrations of heat in these locali- ties, continued to the present day from the period of the earth's protorotation. SECTION V. GEOLOGICAL PHENOMENA RESULTING FROM THE EARTH S FIRST DIURNAL ROTATION. CHAPTER XXV. TTAYING thus established the fundamental positions, That -*-^- the earth existed in a state of non-diurnal rotation during a period sufficiently long to admit of the deposition of all the stratified formations up to the completion of the coal measures ; and, that its proto- diurnal rotation took place on the first day of the Mosaic week ; I have, in continuation, to consider two of the more important of the manifold con- sequences which resulted from the commencement of the earth's diurnal motion at the period alluded to. These are so intimately allied to each other in the effects which they, in turn, produced on the geological developments of the earth, that it would be most desirable could they, by any means, be described simultaneously ; but this is not possible, and therefore they will be considered in immediate sequence. I allude, firstly, to the rush of water from the polar seas towards the equatorial regions to complete the figure of. equilibrium ; and, secondly, to the comminuting and disin- tegrating influence conjointly of this sudden movement of the water, and the upheaving of the unstratified masses, when they burst through the strata in consequence of the centri- fugal impetus occasioned by the first diurnal rotation of the earth around its axis. A rush of water, similar to that which is here alluded to, never having been thought of by philosophers, no provision z 338 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE has been made for it ; and, therefore, in place of being able to produce direct testimony to show what would be the con- sequences of a world of water being thus thrown into sudden and violent movement, and sweeping over rocky masses in, the act of disintegration and comminution, and also in agita- tion, I am necessitated to reason by analogy, and to adopt the case which nearest approaches to it. The clear and con- vincing exposition which has been given of the trade winds is found to be very analogous, and suitable for this purpose, the appropriate points of which compose the thirty-fifth Theorem, to which please refer.' 5 ' The following evidences corroborate the truth o? this interesting Theorem ; they are necessarily restricted to the points which alone affect this argument : " Another great geographical phenomenon, which owes its existence to the earth's rotation, is the trade winds. These arise from, 1st, the unequal exposure of the earth's surface to the sun's rays, by which it is unequally heated in different latitudes ; and, 2ndly, from that general law in the constitution of all fluids, in virtue of which they occupy a larger bulk, and become specifically lighter when hot than when cold. These causes, combined with the earth's rotation from west to east, afford an easy and satisfactoiy explanation of the magnificent phenomena in question " Since the earth revolves about an axis passing through the poles, the equatorial portion of its surface has the greatest velocity of rotation, and all other parts less in the proportion of the radii of the circles of latitude to which they correspond. But as the air, when relatively and apparently at rest on any part of the earth's surface, is only so because in reality it participates in the motion of rotation proper to that part, it follows that when a mass of air near the poles is transferred to the region near the equator, by any impulse urging it directly towards that circle, in every point of its progress towards its new situation, it must be found deficient in rotatory velocity, and therefore unable to keep up with the speed of the new surface over which it is brought. Hence, the currents of air which set in towards the equator from the north and south must, as they glide along the surface at the same time, lag, or hang back, and dray upon it in the direction opposite to the earth's rotation, i.e. from east to west. Thus these currents, which but for the rotation would be simply northerly and southerly winds, acquire from this cause a relative direction towards the vest, and assume the character of permanent north-easterly and south-easterly winds It follows, then, that as the winds on both sides approach the equator, their easterly tendency must diminish. The length of the diurnal circles increase very slowly in the * 36th Theorem. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 339 immediate vicinity of the equator, and for several degrees on either side of it hardly change at all And arrived at the equator, the trade winds must be expected to lose their easterly direction altogether. .... All these consequences are agreeable to observed facts, and the system of aerial currents, above described, constitute in reality what is understood by the regular trade winds." * This will be found to be fully corroborated by the follow- ing observations of Mrs. Somerville : " Although the attraction of the sun and moon has no sensible effect on the trade winds, yet, the heat of the sun occasions those aerial currents, by rarefying the air at the equator, which causes the cooler and more dense part of the atmosphere to rush along the surface of the earth to the equator, while that which is heated is carried along the higher strata to the poles, forming two counter- currents in the direction of the meridian. But the rotatory velocity of the air, corresponding to its geographical position, decreases towards the poles. In approaching the equator, it must, therefore, revolve more slowly than the corresponding parts of the earth, and the bodies on the surface of the earth must strike against it with the excess of their velocity, and by its reaction they will meet with a resistance contrary to their motion of rotation. So that the winds coming from the polar regions will appear .... to blow from the north-east on the one side of the equator, and from the south-east on the other, which is the direction of the trade winds." t Applying these quotations, relating to the trade winds, to the case under consideration, namely, a primitive circum- fluent ocean of uniform depth, reposing in its then static condition of spherical equilibrium upon the non-diurnally * "Astronomy," by Sir John Herschel, Cab. Cyo., pp. 128 132. t Connection of the Sciences, pp. 115, 137- NOTE. With manifest allusion to the rush of water which occurred from the polar towards the equatorial regions of the earth ou its first rotation taking place, there are two sublime passages in Scripture one in the Book of Job, another in the Psalms ; and, however distinct they may be from philosophical evidence, I cannot refrain from giving them in this note ; the more so, as, in the absence of direct proof, or that which is appreciable by the senses, the testimony of Him, who only could know what then took place, can alone be appealed to. " Where wast thou," demands the Almighty of his afflicted servant, "when I laid the foundations of the earth ? declare, if thou hast understanding who laid the corner-stone thereof? . ... Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb ? When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a sivaddlingband for it, and brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors, and said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further : and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?" (Job xxxviii. 1 11.) And again, "Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever. Thou covoredst it with the deep as with a garment : the waters stood above the moun- tains. At thy rebuke they fled ; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away. The mountains ascend ; the valleys descend into the place which thou hast founded for them. Thou hast set a bound that the waters pass not over ; that they turn not again to cover the earth." (Psalm civ. 59.) z 2 340 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE rotating world, and conceiving the whole to have been put suddenly into motion from west to east, with an angular velocity of 15 per hour, it is evident, that in order to regain the state of rest from which the water had been aroused, and to which it would seek to return, it would hasten to assume the level of form which corresponds to equilibrium under rotation ; that is, such a change would be produced in the entire mass, as woiild have the effect of raising the water of the equatorial regions thirteen miles above the level of those at the poles ; or, what is the same, a line passed through the equatorial ocean would measure twenty-six miles more from surface to surface, than a diameter taken of it from pole to pole. To acquire this form of equilibrium there would, of course, be a transfer of water from the polar to the equa- torial regions ; and, as this transformation was effected in forty-eight hours, the velocity of the current would be in- conceivably violent ; while its retardation, or lagging behind, from the difference of velocities in the aqueous zones, corre- sponding to the radii of the circles of latitude, as the water hastened towards the equator, would be correspondingly great. Consequently, as in the case of the trade winds, instead of forming a direct southerly current from the North Pole, and a northerly one from the South Pole, that over- whelming rush of water would assume a westerly direction as it approached the equatorial regions from both of these extremities, and thus tend to mitigate the centrifugal im- petus of the intertropical ocean ; which, although of the same specific gravity as the more distant seas, would, from the form and rotation of the earth, be unavoidably subjected to a much more intense degree of centrifugal impetus. From the very lucid explanations which have just been given, of the origin of the trade winds, it will have been observed, that one of the procuring causes is the inertia of the atmosphere, or, in other words, the earth's attraction causing it to adhere to and perform rotatory motion, corre- sponding to its geographical position, or the zones of latitude where the wind is ; and as, in the immediate context to this rationale which Sir John Herschel gives of this interesting natural phenomenon, there is the following rule that " the FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 341 weight of a body (considered as imdiminished by centrifugal force) is the effect of the earth's attraction on it," it fol- lows, as a matter of course, that this action, on the part of the earth, is as much more powerful on water as it is on air, in proportion as water is heavier than air ; and, conse- quently, this lagging or westerly direction in the rush of water from the poles towards the equator would be much more certain and excessive than what is now experienced to be the case with the trade winds. The attention has in the meantime to be directed to another series of events which were going forward contem- poraneously with those which have lately been described. I allude to the ' disintegrating and comminuting effects of the protruded rocks, as they burst through their overlying strati- fied envelopes ; and spread about, with explosive violence, an immense body of debris of all descriptions, from the massive boulder to the impalpable soil ; swept away instantaneously by the water, and destined to form newer and unconformable strata in the rugged hollows occasioned by the elevation of the mountains which caused the disintegration. In a former part of this section the increase of surface which the earth underwent, on being transformed from a sphere to a spheroid of rotation, was estimated at upwards of eight hundred and sixty-one thousand square miles, by a computation of plane surfaces. It will also be remembered, that the part at present covered by the ocean is, in propor- tion to that which is dry, as 3 is to 1 ; therefore, it should justly be considered, that only one-fourth of the above increase of surface pertains to the present continents ; or to that portion which, being above the level of the ocean, may be subjected to geological investigation. But the great bulk of the increase which the globe experienced having been within a zone of from 30 to 35 on each side of the equator, where the centrifugal impetus was most felt, and where the land is in greater proportion, impartiality demands that a more liberal concession should be made ; it will, there- fore, be considered, that the portion above the level of the ocean underwent an aggregate increase equal to one-half of the above quantity, or about fo.ur hundred and thirty thou- sand square miles. 342 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE The entire surface of the globe, computed from its two given diameters, is 196,878,115 square miles ; consequently, its portion above the level of the sea, even taken at one- fourth part, is, in round numbers, forty-nine millions two hundred and twenty thousand square miles,'" which stands to the supposed portion of the enlarged surface last men- tioned in the proportion of about 1 to 115. It is very difficult, if not altogether impossible, to determine the exact proportion which the aggregate surface of protruded rocks of all descriptions bears to that which is still covered by the original stratifications ; and the more so, as much space was covered over, and consequently hidden from examination, by the very detritus whose existence it is at present sought to substantiate ; but certainly an impartial review of the geographical outlines of the earth's surface will convince any one, that the proportion of a one hundred and fifteenth part for unstratified and other protruded rocks sinks into insignifi- cance when compared with what is actually known to be their true proportion.t In prosecuting this argument, it is clearly to be understood, that according to the principles of the present treatise, not only the unstratified masses of every description, but likewise all strata which are tilted out of horizontality, are to be considered protruded rocks, from their now occupying a part of the surface formerly covered by the concentric layers of the ancient world ; and consequently by their having added to the general disintegration. Professor Playfair, after observing that the extent of sur- face occupied by granite in the immediate vicinity of Mont Blanc does not exceed one-tenth part of the rocky surface that none is found in the route across by Mount Cenis that in other parts of the Alps it is about one-sixth throughout the Pyrenees it may be estimated at one-fifth part of the whole mountainous part concludes, on the whole, that the proportion of granite to schistus, is that of one to four, and * I have much pleasure in stating, that these calculations have been examined and confirmed hy Col. Alexander R. Clarke, of the Royal Engineers, and can therefore be thoroughly relied on, my friend's acquirements in such questions being well known. AUTHOR. t Professor Phillips estimates the proportional surface covered by strata horizontal, or nearly so, at three-fourths the whole area. Page 59. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 343 then goes on to give the evidence which more immediately affects our present argument, in the following words : " It remains," says he, " to form a rough estimate from maps and from the accounts of travellers, as to what proportion of the earth's surface consists of primary, and what of secondary rocks. After supplying the want of accurate measurement, by what appeared to me the most probable suppositions, I have found, that about one- eighteenth part of the surface of the old continent may be conceived to be occupied by primitive formations, of which if we take one-fifth, we have a ninetieth for the part of the surface occupied by granite rocks, which differs not greatly from the last of the two limits assigned by Dr. Hutton." * It must be observed, that, in Dr. Hutton's theory, the primary strata comprehended, " besides gneiss, the micaceous chlorites, hornblende, and silicious schistus, together with slate and some other kinds of argillite," also " talcose schistus, and lapis ollaris, or potstone."t These, together with the granitic rocks, are included in those which he con- sidered occupying one-eighteenth part of the surface of the old continent. But as the present object is to determine, if possible, the extent of the protruded rocks of every description, the preceding data are only available in having fixed a deter- minate proportion of surface occupied by certain known rocks of the primitive class ; and as to them are to be added, not only the trap, porphyritic, and greenstone veins and dykes, the old red sandstone and the mountain limestones, but even the coal measures themselves, wherever out of horizontality, and appearing at the surface, the above frac- tion of one-eighteenth may, on their account, and on that of the whole protruded rocks of every denomination, be so far augmented in value, as that their aggregate extent shall be estimated at about one-thirteenth of the exposed surface ; which is, certainly, a moderate proportion, as may be per- ceived by surveying any geological map of extensive area. Assuming, then, the dry surface of the whole globe, as before stated, to be 49,220,000 square miles, one-thirteenth of it is somewhat more than three millions seven hundred and eighty-six thousand square miles of surface measurement, over which it is estimated that the protruded rocks extended * Professor Playfair's Works, vol. i. pp. 341344. t Ibid., pp. 29, 170. 344 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE themselves when they burst through the superincumbent strata ; and, therefore, an equal number of square miles of stratified rocks, which have disappeared or been tilted up from the position of horizontal continuity they once occupied, require to be accounted for, or, in other words, it must be shown how this vast space was filled up by intruded rock, in order that the Dynamical System may not be considered imperfect. It must appear evident to every reflecting mind, that owing to the manner in which the stratified masses were removed, and the violence with which the others were thrust into their places, through such great depths of aggregated layers of strata, immense disintegrating and comminuting effects must inevitably have ensued. I mean, even beyond those which produced the breccias and conglomerates lately treated of. Indeed, in many instances the strata must have been ground down to an impalpable powder ; while, in others, both they and the protruding rock would be broken into fragments of every conceivable dimension, from the smallest 'gravel to the most massive boulder ; and, altogether, there would be such an explosion a tumultuous explosion of rocky material as the world never witnessed before ; nor, as long as time continues, will it ever witness again ! It is only after having been made aware of the prevailing extent of this catastrophe, that we are enabled to perceive, in its full extent, the consummate wisdom and the harmony of design on the part of the Omnipotent, in providing a rush of water all over the globe at this precise and important juncture. Had the operations, thus attempted to be described, been conducted without the presence of Avater, the rocky and stony debris would, by their natural gravity, have accumu- lated around the bases of the protruded hills in rugged, unconnected, and unproductive tumuli, as is the case in the vicinity of modern volcanoes ; while, on the other hand, had the water not been in violent agitation and motion, the sub- sidence of the mineral debris would have been much too immediate, and the effects it w r as destined to produce would have been left almost wholly unaccomplished. But, by the union of these two conditions, the mineral and earthy mate- rials, deprived by the water of a great proportion of their FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 345 specific gravity, were borne along in mechanical suspension with inconceivable rapidity, and spread over the rocky hollows formed by the elevation of the masses which occasioned the spreading abroad of that very mineral material destined to round off their^ scarped and rugged half-formed scenery such as it is supposed to have been up to this date and to render the earth's surface a more choice habitation for man and the animals which were soon thereafter to be willed into existence. Whilst it ought to be observed, as one of the most opportune and wise arrangements in this wonderful operation, that " the lagging of the waters " as they reached the equatorial regions, not only moderated the rush of those within that zone, but the meeting of the two currents brought the united flood sooner to rest, and enabled the converging torrents more instantaneously and more effectually to discharge themselves of their loads of earthy matter with which they had been dispatched thither from their respective polar extremities ; when the first diurnal rotation allowed them no longer to slumber around these newly formed pivots of the earth. So wonderful are the works, and so harmonious are the designs of the Creator ! A complete corroboration of the view here adopted of the origin of this unconformable series of rocks, is given by M. de la Beche, when summing up his opinion of the new red sandstone group. "If," says he, "we abstract our attention from its subdivisions and regard the group as a mass, it would seem to constitute the base of a great system of rocks, which, when not deranged by local influences, has filled up numerous hollows and inequalities of land. United with the great capping of the oolitic group, which for the most part rests so conformably upon it, they, together, would seem to fill up great depressions in Europe During their deposit great and remarkable changes were effected in animal and perhaps in vegetable life. Very extensive tracts of red sandstone exist in Mexico and South America The porphyries and slates of New Spain are surmounted by red conglomerates and sandstones, forming the plains of Celaya and Salamanca In Venezuela the vast plains are, in a great measure, covered by red sandstones and conglomerates deposited in a concave manner between the coast mountains of Caraccas and those of Parima. . . . : . An immense extent of red sandstone is described as covering nearly without inter- ruption the southern plains of New Granada, the basin of Rio de la Magdalena, and Bio Cauca, between Carthago and Call 3-) 6 According to Humboldt, the Cordilleras of Quito presented him with the greatest extent of red sandstone which he had observed, covering the whole plateau of Tarqui and Cuenca for twenty-five leagues ; and the same also occurred, he adds, in Upper Peru, while he remarks on the resemblance of these rocks of Mexico, New Granada, Peru, and Quito, to the red sandstone, or Todtliegend.es of Germany.* Professor Phillips confirms this when he says " The next succeeding deposit, which receives the name of red sandstone, or saliferous, or poecilitic formation almost uni- versally fills a low or level country, out of which arise insulated groups and short ranges of mountains of old strata or of pyrogenous rocks The system consists of many alternations of arena- ceous and argillaceous members, with some less continuous interposi- tions of limestone usually impregnated with magnesia Thus the whole is capable of being represented in one formula, which is well calculated to show both the agreement and differences usually observed in comparing distant parts of a stratified forma- tion." f " Salt is associated with the upper parts of this system in England, France, and Germany, where the muschelkalk is quite as saliferous as the variegated marls to which, apparently, salt is confined in England. Upon the whole, therefore, the red sandstone system is a vast mass of sandy and argillaceous sediments of a peculiar aspect, accompanied more than any others yet known by salt and gypsum, generally deficient in organic remains, and only locally enclosing strata of limestone, which commonly are characterized by abundance of mag- nesia. | In a former part of this work, allusion was made to one very important service performed by the debris here spoken of, namely, protection to the submerged vegetable beds tchich now constitute the principal coal-fields. It not only saved these from being washed away by the denuding influence of the water thus thrown into violent movement, but by covering them, it likewise preserved them effectually from the atmo- sphere which was shortly afterwards to be formed, and by confining their gaseous ingredients, rendered them fit for their present purposes as great carbonaceous deposits. It must also be added, that another very wise and beneficent design was carried into execution, by the arrangement which impelled the water from the poles towards the equatorial regions. In the latter zone, the mountains having risen to a * Manual of Geology, by M. de la Beche, 2nd edition, pp. 409 412. t I would recommend my readers who may have the opportunity to refer to this formula. + Treatise, pp. 119, 120, 123. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 347 greater height by the increased centrifugal impetus, a propor- tional quantity of loose, stony, and earthy material would necessarily be requisite to fill up their deeper hollows and more rocky and rugged acclivities ; but as, at that period, the aggregate depth of the strata was uniform all over the spherical earth, it is evident, that the mere elevation of the protruded rocks, although to greater heights, would not have been sufficient to have supplied the debris required for that purpose. Hence, in the sudden rush of water, laden with earthy materials from either pole, towards the equatorial regions, and it being there brought to rest and made to unlade itself of its burden, we behold a wise and harmonious combination ; wherein the several circumstances are made to concur towards the completion of the design then in con- templation. Nothing could have been better adapted for supplying the wants in these regions, and for completing the habitable portions of its surface, than this seasonable supply of earthy matter, borne along by the rushing water, and deposited where it was so much needed ; while, by the same process, the more extreme latitudes were relieved, by disintegration and denudation, from an immense mass of loose material, which would have been positively prejudicial where it was originally formed, had it been there re-deposited. Other attendant circumstances, displaying the infinite wisdom of the whole design, ought by no means to be over- looked. In the first place, the modified state of the oceanic water itself, which, during a protracted course of preparation, had been deprived of the greater part of those previously combined gases, which, had they been permitted to exist in the water until the period now referred to, would have re- dissolved the earthy material which was designed to be merely mechanically disseminated through it ; and, by demanding a fresh chemical process, have been inimical to the intention then in view, of mechanical suspension only, and almost instantaneous deposition. Next the admirable adaptation of the agent employed for effecting, in the most appropriate manner, the deposition of the earthy material, which was thus sent to make a smooth and habitable soil, from a hetero- geneous mass of boulders, fragments, gravel, sand, and finely comminuted earthy soil ; as it must be obvious that, accord- 348 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE EARTH. ing to the laws affecting them, they would be deposited from the liquid carrier in proportion to the sizes of the fragments, particles, &c., and thus the asperities would be rounded off at the same time that the land itself was formed. Similar reasons will also explain how the more massive boulders, in many instances, would be deposited nearer to the site of their parent rocks, while the finer particles would be conveyed even to within the tropics, to fill up and form the extended table lands of these regions, and constitute those almost interminable depths of light calcareous soil, which so fre- quently characterize those elevated plains, across whose broad and fertile surface it has so often been my lot to travel ; and to view with wonder and amazement the great depth of the accumulated soil, sand, and gravel, exposed by deep ravines, and laid bare by the river courses when these were reduced to rivulets during the dry season. It will have been observed, that, in these investigations, no notice whatever is taken of the saliferous deposits which, so generally, are associated with these widely spread arenaceous formations ; it is my intention to treat very fully of these in a subsequent part of this work, after having explained the formation of the atmosphere, according to the Dynamical principles of this system. Neither has any allusion been made to the remaining three-fourths of the earth's surface, or the part which constitutes the bed of the ocean. Over all that area, no doubt, somewhat similar events would be taking place to those which were occurring on the terrestrial portion of the globe ; but as the debris occasioned in the oceanic part would be precisely proportioned to the surface over which it was spread, the quantities being equal, in both terms of the equation, they can be eliminated, or disregarded entirely, without affecting the correctness of the general argument. SECTION V. GEOLOGICAL PHENOMENA RESULTING FROM THE EARTH'S FIRST DIURNAL ROTATION. CHAPTER XXVI. fFO make manifest that everything was arranged by infinite -*- wisdom, and all the attendant circumstances made to conspire towards the completion of the plan of creation, then progressively and rapidly being unfolded, I shall, at this opportune juncture, direct the attention to the nature and formation of earths and soils. To do this, it will be merely necessary to recapitulate, in succession, the Theorems which have reference to these substances. The subjects they treat of being quite of an elementary character, it is not considered requisite to detain the general argument by bringing forward their evidences ; reference may therefore be made to their respective authorities, should any doubts be entertained, or further information required on the subject. In passing, however, I take occasion to mention, what may perhaps not be so generally known, namely that some celebrated French chemists have discovered, and satisfactorily proved, that when the contained oxygen has been doubled in water, its oxidiz- ing power is greatly augmented, the oxidation, and, conse- quently, the formation of the bases of earths, when it is in this state, going on with a rapidity almost inconceivable. Having made this advertence, I hasten to unfold the general outlines of this additional and conspicuous instance of that provident forethought and wisdom which made all things work together for the accomplishment of one great design. 350 In the present instance the chief object having been the formation of an appropriate bed of earthy soil, to receive and sustain that rich and magnificent vegetable covering com- posed of an attractive variety of foliage, of flowers, and of fruits, which was so soon to be thrown over and to adorn the new-formed land. I refer the reader, first of all, to the statement in the ninety-eighth Theorem. * When we reflect on the stupendous chemical process then going on, the introduction of heated continents and moun- tains abounding with metals and metalloids into the midst of a universal ocean, plentifully saturated with oxygen, and take into account the increased powers of oxidation which water possesses when its associated oxygen is augmented, we are forced to exclaim, This indeed was a laboratory worthy of the Creator, when producing the materials for the soils of a world ! Any observations here on a subject such as this would be wholly superfluous. To those who can appreciate its magnificence they will be unnecessary ; to those who cannot they would be of no avail. I shall, therefore, go on to exhibit the manner in Avhich these earthy oxides are generally removed from where they are formed ; and, last of all, enumerate the remaining substances which contribute to the formation of perfect soil. With respect to the material itself, please to refer to the hundred and fourth Theorem. f Bearing this information and that which has been acquired in the previous chapters in mind, and applying both to the operations going forward on the first and second days of the Mosaic week, it will be acknowledged, that every requisite element was present for the production, in the shortest possible period, of a quantity of silicious and calcareous materials, which, when joined to the debris spread abroad by the explosion of the protruded rocks, when they burst through the superincumbent strata, would be sufficient to form, by subsequent but almost immediate deposition, those uncon- fonnable suites which overlie the coal vieasu res the remains of the submarine vegetation of the primitive world and also other portions of the original surface. Therefore, in pursuance of the method hitherto observed, * 98th Theorem. f 104th Theorem. FORMATION OF THE EARTH, 351 it is only now requisite to inquire whether geologists recog- nise any formations, whatever be their denomination, which correspond in character to the material here supposed to have been spread abroad. If we set aside, for the present, the limitations imposed by the nomenclatures of the various geological systems, and take a comprehensive view of the mineralogical and geological characteristics of these formations themselves, there will be discovered, with peculiar satisfac- tion, in the proofs which geology affords, a striking corrobo- ration of the opinions Avhich have been expressed, so much so, indeed, that the substance of the following evidence may be summed up in one brief sentence, namely, every formation superior to the carboniferous group and those of the same era affords evident symptoms of having been deposited from a heterogeneous mass of mineral debris, occasioned by some great and general catastrophe ; while the coal series them- selves, with the mountain limestone and old red sandstone which underlie them, exhibit as evident symptoms of having together undergone some violent movement about the same period. To prove this, I shall now commence a new series of in- quiries, beginning with what is contained in the thirty-first Theorem, to which please refer.* In support of these opinions Dr. M 'Culloch expresses him- self thus "The coal series, which have been called independent, occupies a geological position superior to the old red sandstone, and inferior to the new one, or to the red marl As the beds of coal are found accompanying and alternating with stratified rocks, so they are also disposed in strata parallel to them. These strata are in every respect analogous, in their forms, dispositions, and accidents, to those of the rocks with which they occur. In position, they are horizontal, or inclined at various angles, often highly elevated, as in the whole series The thickness of a coal stratum varies, even from less than an inch, to ten or twelve feet, but it rarely exceeds two or three, and is, more often, much less ; and thus particular strata become attenuated till they disappear " Now, it is essential to remark, that the old red sandstone, the mountain limestone, and the coal series are all disturbed, being elevated, undulated, and fractured in various ways And it must, similarly, be recollected, that a new order commences with the 3 1st Theorem. 352 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE magnesian limestone and the red marl ; or that they are placed on the coal series, and the inferior strata, in an unconformable position, while the lower substance also presents that conglomerate structure, which everywhere throughout nature accompanies a new order in rocks." * "It was not enough," observes Professor Buckland, when treating of the carboniferous series, " that these vegetable remains should have been transported from their native forests, and buried at the bottom of ancient lakes, and estuaries, and seas, and there converted into coal ; it was further necessary that great and extensive changes of level should elevate, and convert into dry and habitable land, strata loaded with riches, that would for ever have remained useless, had they continued entirely submerged beneath the inaccessible depths wherein they were formed; and it required the exercise of some of the most powerful machinery in the dynamics of the terrestrial globe, to effect the changes that were requisite to render these elements of art and industry accessible to the labour and ingenuity of man. " The place of the great coal formations, in relation to the other series of strata, is shown in our first section ; and they are represented as having partaken of the same elevatory movements which have raised the strata of all formations towards the mountain ridges, that separate one basin from another basin " This disposition in the form of troughs or basins, which is common to all formations, has been more particularly demonstrated in the carboniferous series, because the valuable nature of the beds of coal often causes them to be wrought throughout their whole extent." f " This valuable series of strata, the carboniferous system," says Professor Phillips, " to which Great Britain owes so much of her commercial prosperity, is extended irregularly over the basins of Europe, North America, Australia, &c. It occupies large breadths in Scotland, Ireland, England, and Wales, and lies in patches in various quarters of France, Germany, Poland, and Russia. Commonly it is found at the foot or on the flanks of primary mountains which had been previously uplifted, so that its stratification is not in accordance with theirs " The variations in the development of the carboniferous system are considerable, and its occurrence is often in detached portions ; it is, therefore, requisite for obtaining a general section, to combine the results of different and independent observers There are three great formations included in the carboniferous system, which is three thousand feet thick in the North of England, consisting of abundance of sandstone and shales, layers of ironstone, and beds of coal." And then follows, after the 'mountain limestone forma- tion * Geology, vol. ii. pp. 299304. t Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i. pp. 525 527. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 353 " The old red sandstone formation, varying in its character so as to offer little that is really of general application, except its colour and the absence of coal, and rarity of limestone." Mr. Phillips goes on to say " After the deposition of this system, and hefore at least any con- siderable proportion of the superjacent rocks was formed, very extensive displacement happened in most parts of the surface of the globe where the carboniferous rocks have been deposited Hardly a known coal tract being exempt from this influence, it would appear that convulsive movements took place of a very general description, so as to affect very large tracts of the surface of the globe. In the British Islands, every coal district is disturbed and shaken in every square mile of its breadth by faults ('gauls, slips, troubles, and dykes'), passing in many directions, some of them having a great amount of ' throw,' and consequently affecting the working of the mines. But these minor effects lose their importance when we contemplate the gigantic disruption of Tynedale, the Pennine chain, the Craven fault, the Derbyshire elevation, the fault of the vale of Clwydd, the double anticlinal axis of the coal-fields of South Wales, and the parallel one of Namur North of the Tynedale fault, is a depression or throw of 1,000 to 2,000 feet ; west of the Pen- nine fault, 2,000 to 3,000, or perhaps 4,000 feet under Crossfell ; and south of the Craven fault, 3,000 feet at least near Ingleborough." * These interesting and appropriate evidences will be brought to a point by a short extract from Mr. Hugh Miller's work on the " Old Ked Sandstone," assured that, together, these various quotations are quite conclusive with respect to the subject under immediate consideration : " Is it not a curious reflection that the commercial greatness of Britain in the present day should be closely connected with the towering and thickly spread forests of arboraceous ferns and gigantic reeds, vegetables of strange forms and uncouth names, which flourished and decayed on its surface, age after age, during the vastly ex- tended term of the carboniferous period, ere the mountains were yet upheaved, and when there was as yet no man to till the ground ? " t After the perusal of these extracts, the mind may be con- sidered to be prepared for entering, with more effect, into the examination of the very interesting section of geological research comprising the several groups up to the chalk inclu- sive, which unconformably overlie the coal measures. This latter being considered by the Dynamical System to have been the last, or most recent, deposit of the non-rotatory earth, it follows, that all those just mentioned, namely, the * Treatise, pp. 100106, 112, 113. t Old Red Sandstone, pp. 233, 234. A A 354 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE New Red Sandstone, the Oolitic, and the Cretaceous groups, are looked upon as having been formed by the debris spread abroad by the first diurnal rotation of the earth around its axis. Before, however, entering upon the investigation of the new red sandstone group, it may be opportune to remind the reader of a former advertence, " that the explanation of the nature and origin of the saline deposits, so universally asso- ciated with this particular series, is reserved for a future part of this work ; it being necessary to explain the formation of the atmosphere, and the manner in which the water was separated from the land, before these saline depositions can be satisfactorily accounted for. I beg reference to the thirty-second Theorem, and to the following evidences in support of the opinions stated therein : " We now arrive," Dr. M'Culloch says, " at the magnesian limestone of the English series A new order of arrangement here begins to be observed among the strata, whence=we may take a fresh depar- ture. It is not meant to say, that the red marl, much less the associated inferior limestone, is invariably present, even in Europe where it is known to occur ; but if there is- any series truly entitled to the character of regularity, as well as universality, using that term in the general sense formerly stated, it is this one."* And again "It is not always possible to distinguish the three red sandstones, except by careful geological investigations, since the mineral distinc- tions give but little assistance ; the alternation of the primary sand- stone with gneiss, or other primary strata, is an infallible geological criterion for that rock. With respect to the red marl, the presence of salt is equally infallible ; that of gypsum is a good test, if not absolute. Its superiority to the coal series is another, as is its immediate inferiority to the lias limestone The sandstone under review appears to be one of the most generally diffused rocks in nature ; and may thus be considered, like gneiss, among the deposits commonly called universal But that which distinguishes this deposit (upper sandstones) from all the secondary sandstones, is the presence of rock salt It is the proper or even exclusive repository of salt, although the mineral occasionally passes beyond the rigid boundaries, on both sides, so as to appear in the magnesian limestone below it, and in the lias above."! " These dissimilar conditions of three great divisions of our country," says Professor Buckland, " result from differences in the geological structure of the districts through which our three travellers Geology, vol. i. pp. 274, 275. t Ibid., vol. ii. pp. 214, 228. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 355 have been conducted. The first will have seen only those north- western portions of Britain, that are composed of rocks belonging to the primary and transition series ; the second will have traversed those fertile portions of the new red sandstone formation which are made up of the detritus of more ancient rocks, and have beneath, and near them, inestimable treasures of mineral coal.* " Although the most frequent position of rock salt, and of salt springs, is in the strata of the new red sandstone formation, which has consequently been designated by geologists as the saliferoua system, yet it is not exclusively confined to them near Durham are salt springs in the coal formations."! Professor Phillips states that " Even as early as 1791, Mr. Smith found proof of the faults in the coal strata of Gloucestershire and Somersetshire being anterior to the new red marl, for the horizontal beds of that formation lie level over the inclined and broken planes of the coal system." And after going into many interesting details respecting the new red sandstone system, some of which have been quoted already, and others are reserved until we come to treat of the saliferous deposits associated with these rocks, he says " Upon the whole, then, this new red sandstone system is a vast mass of sandy and argillaceous sediments of a peculiar aspect, accompanied more than any others yet known by salt and gypsum, generally deficient in organic remains, and only locally enclosing strata of limestone, which commonly are characterized by abundance of magnesia Metallic veins are, in England, very rarely heard of in these rocks, and nowhere worked " Several reasons might be adduced to justify an opinion, that the time occupied in the production of the whole system was compara- tively short, such as the general uniformity of its composition ; the deficiency (except in limited regions) of limestone ; the peculiar chemical and mineral character of these limestones ; the general paucity of organic remains ; the frequency of conglomerates and local admixture of fragments of igneous rocks all these circumstances seem to indicate the predominance of an unusual series of agencies. \ " The Red Sandstone Group,'' according to M. de la Beche, " is often one of very considerable thickness, and succeeds, in the de- scending order, the oolitic series previously noticed " The rocks composing the red sandstone group occur in the fol- lowing descending order : 1, variegated marl ; 2, muschelkalk ; 3, red or variegated sandstones ; 4, zechstein ; and 5, red conglomerate, or todtliegendes " Taken as a mass, the group may "be considered as a deposit of * Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i. p. 3. t Ibid., vol. i. p. 71* { Treatise, pp. 123, 127129, 134, 135. A A 2 conglomerate, sandstone, and marl, in which limestones occasionally appear in certain terms of the series The conglomerates, or todtliegendes, commonly occupy the lowest position ; the sandstones form the central part, and the marls occur in the highest place. " When we look for the causes which have produced this mass, we may, perhaps, in some measure approach them, by observing the state of the rocks on which it rests. These are found in the greater number of instances highly inclined, contorted, or fractured ; evidences of disturbance which the inferior and older rocks have suffered pre- vious to the deposit of the red sandstone group upon them. From an examination of the lower beds, no doubt can exist that the fragments of rock contained in them have, for the greater part, been broken off from the older rocks of the more immediate neighbourhood. " It therefore does not appear unphilosophical to conclude, that, as far at least as regards these lower conglomerate beds, we have ap- proached to something like cause and effect ; the cause being the dis- ruption of the strata, the effect being the dispersion of fragments, consequent on this violence, over greater or less spaces by means of water, probably thrown into agitation by the same disturbing forces. " That these forces have, in some places, at least, not been small, is attested by the large size of the fragments driven off, and the rounded condition of some of them." .... And in conclusion on this important subject from this author " If we now abstract our attention from these divisions, and regard the group as a mass, it would seem to constitute the base of a great system of rocks, which has filled numerous hollows and inequalities of land over considerable parts of the world ; and seems, with the oolitic group, to fill up great depressions in Europe We must, of course, consider that numerous local disturbances would produce a marked difference in the deposits, even amounting to a perfectly un- conformable position, yet the conformable nature of the two groups, taken in the mass, is somewhat striking. During their deposit great and remarkable changes were effected in animal and perhaps vegetable life. " It would appear, from the descriptions of Humboldt, that very extensive tracts of red sandstone and conglomerate exist in Mexico and South America We can only conclude, that considerable forces have been exerted in most parts of the world, whether contem- poraneous or not remains to be determined, which have dispersed fragments of pre-existing rocks, scattering them, most probably, by the medium of water violently agitated, in various directions, transporting powers being unequal, so that sandstones and marls alternate with conglomerates. These sandstones and conglomerates would appear, from the descriptions of geologists and intelligent travellers, to extend from Mexico far into the heart of North America ; RO that, if different deposits have not been confounded under one head, these sandstones and conglomerates of America would appear, FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 357 not the result of a limited disturbance, but of one common to a con- siderable surface." * Mr. Lyell, in accounting for the origin of the new red sandstone group, says " The red sandstone and red marl, which in point of thickness form the most considerable part, both of the upper and lower new red formation in England and Germany, may have arisen in great part from the disintegration of various crystalline or metamorphic schists ; and sometimes, as in parts of Saxony and Devonshire, from porphyritic trap rocks, containing much oxide of iron " It is a general fact, and one not yet accounted for, that scarcely any fossil remains are preserved in stratified rocks in which this oxide of iron abounds ; and when we find fossils in the new or old red sandstone in England, it is in the grey, and usually in the calca- reous beds that they occur."! This brings us briefly to consider the last two geological groups of continuous formation which are supposed to have been deposited from the d&ris of the world's rocky crust when it was first put into rotatory motion ; and which mate- rially assisted to fill up the hollows occasioned by the eleva- tion of its mountain chains. They are referred to in the thirty-third Theorem, to which please refer. The evidences which support this Theorem are given in sequence : M. de la Beche, when treating of the classification of rocks, has the following, which may be considered as a " boundary" passage : " Subsequently, from observations made by MM. Cuvier and Brongniart, on the country around Paris, a fourth class was instituted, and called tertiary, because the strata composing it occurred above the chalk, a rock considered as the highest of the secondary class." And when describing the cretaceous formation, he says " The upper portion of the cretaceous group partakes of a common character throughout a large portion of Western Europe, generally presenting itself under the well-known form of chalk The white chalk, when freed from the flints or silicious grains mixed with it, is found to be a nearly pure carbonate of lime ; containing, in 100 parts, carbonate of lime 98, magnesia and a little iron 1, and alumina 1. ... Without entering further into the smaller divisions of the cretaceous * Manual, pp. 390, 400, 403405, 408412. t Elements, vol. ii. pp. 102, 103. 1" J> . . 358 group, it may be remarked, that the whole, taken as a mass, may, in England, and over a considerable portion of France and Ger- many, be considered as cretaceous in its upper part, and arenaceous and argillaceous in its lower part This group is extensively distributed over Europe " Throughout the British Islands, a large part of France, many parts of Germany, in Poland, Sweden, and in various parts of Eussia, there would appear to have been certain causes in operation, at a given period, which produced nearly the same effects. The variation in the lower portion of the deposit seems merely to consist in the absence or presence of a greater or less abundance of clays or sands, substances which we may consider as produced by the destruction of previously existing land, and as deposited from water which held such detritus in suspension. . . . But when we turn to the higher part of the group, into which the lower portion graduates, the theory of mere transport appears opposed to the phenomena observed, which seem rather to have been produced by deposition from a chemical solution of carbonate of lime and silex, covering a considerable area, the deposits arising from which have overlapped a great variety of pre-existing rocks, from the gneiss of Sweden to the Wealden deposits of south-eastern England inclusive " M. Elie de Beaumont endeavours to show, that violent disrup- tions of strata in different situations, have preceded the deposit of the cretaceous group ; and he infers this from the tranquil position of de- posits of this nature on the upheaved beds of more ancient rocks. And further on lie observes, with respect to the Wealden rocks " Some cause, with which as yet we are imperfectly acquainted, subsequently produced a great change in the relative levels of sea and land, and the cretaceous rocks, chalk, and greensand became de- posited over a very considerable area, one apparently extending over a much larger superfices than that in which the last-formed rocks of the oolitic series were deposited."* Mr. Lyell thus expresses himself regarding the origin of white chalk : "Having, then, come to the conclusion, that the chalk was formed in an open sea of some depth ; we may next inquire, in what manner so large a quantity of this peculiar white substance could have ac- cumulated over an area many hundred miles in diameter, and some of the extreme points of which are distant, as we shall see in the sequel, more than 1,000 geographical miles from each other " The area over which the white chalk preserves a nearly homo- geneous aspect, is so great, that geologists have often despaired of finding any analogous deposit of recent date ; for chalk is met with in * Manual, pp. 33, 2-59267, 310. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 359 ft north-west and south-east direction, from the north of Ireland to the Crimea, a distance of about 1,140 geographical miles, and in an opposite direction it extends from the south of Sweden to the south of Bordeaux, a distance of about 840 miles. But we must not con- clude that it was ever uniformly spread out over the whole of this vast space, but merely that there were patches of it, of various sizes, throughout this area." Professor Phillips observes " The cretaceous system is unconformed to the oolites at only two points in England, viz. in Yorkshire and Derbyshire ; and round the basin of Paris and in the south of France the same conformity of the two systems is found to prevail. It thus becomes easy to trace the boundary of the cretaceous rocks by referring to the outline of the oolites. The chalk and its associated beds pass from Yorkshire through Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, to Dorsetshire, always pre- senting a noble front of rounded hills to the west and north-west. Thence they return to the east through the Isle of Purbeck and the Isle of Wight." .... And in conclusion " It is rendered evident that the English type is more or less appli- cable to the greater portions of the earth's surface where the creta- ceous system has been recognised ; that the lower parts of the system are generally sandy, the upper parts often calcareous, but that the development of those two groups is not proportional nor depending on the same centres of influence. In the north of Europe the upper group seems generally to predominate, but in the middle of Europe the greensand system is more expanded and regular ; in the northern parts of the United States the greensand abounds, in the southern calcareous rocks are more important. Yet upon the whole it must be granted, that the agencies concerned in producing the cretaceous system were more extensive and uniform than those by which the oolites were accumulated. " Two formations are almost universally admitted as constituting the cretaceous system. " The chalk formation, named from the most characteristic mineral substance ; thickness 600 feet. It includes the following groups : Maastricht beds, upper or flinty chalk, middle or hard chalk, lower chalk or chalk marl. " The greensand formation, commonly abounding in a green silicate of iron; thickness 600 feet. It includes upper greensand, &c., golt or blue marly clay, lower green or iron sand, with beds of sandy or chalky limestone " Throughout England the chalk is the base of all the tertiary strata. In France this is generally the case, and almost universally so for the marine tertiaries. In the north of Germany, along the north and south slopes of the Alps, and in the basin of the Danube, 3 bo DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE this is at least very extensively true. In North America the general basis of the tertiaries is the cretaceous formation Hence it has become a popular opinion, that with the secondary strata ended a certain general condition of the globe, and with the tertiaries com- menced a totally new arrangement."* .... As final evidence on this particular point, I give the fol- lowing quotation from Mr. Ansted's work : " Over a large part of the known world, the close of the first epoch, marked by great subsidences of land, by the swallowing up of con- tinents and islands into the sea, and by accompanying violent disloca- tions of the stratified crust of the globe, was of necessity accompanied by the re-distribution of these fractured materials of strata ; and owing, no doubt, to the great amount of trituration, the beds thus formed contain but few remains of organic beings. These, however, indicate the commencement of the new era. The presence of the new red sandstone, a formation consisting of sand and marl, with rare local interpolations of limestone, characterizes this epoch ; and, after this, until towards the close of the secondary or middle period, we find few intermediate beds over the whole of America ; and the same is the case with regard to the greater part of Asia and Australia, as far as geologists have yet been able to determine " The deposit of sand and marly beds, which must have been steadily continued for a long time over extensive tracts at the com- mencement of the secondary period, seems to have gradually changed to a finer, more calcareous, and less sandy mud thrown down from suspension in water, perhaps after it had been carried for some dis- tance by marine currents " After the termination of that great deposit of calcareous mud, so characteristic of the older part of the middle secondary period, con- siderable change seems to have taken place in the relative position of land and sea ; and, from the abundance of calcareous rock afterwards developed, as well as from the nature of the fossils, it may safely be concluded that these changes involve important alterations in the whole system of organic nature in this part of the world. And we may venture to conclude, that, immediately after the deposit of the lias, the bed of the sea was affected by widely acting earthquake movements, and that tracts of land, more or less extensive, rose up, especially on the north-eastern flank of the lias in Yorkshire, in several districts on the continent of Europe, and in the central and eastern portions of North America." f According to the order in which geological phenomena are usually classed, it is now necessary to take a hasty view of an interesting suite of formations ; which, from some pecu- liarities, in the manner of their collocation, have been styled * Treatise on Geology, pp. 33, 149, 153, 161, 162. t Ancient World, pp. 115, 135, 183, 265. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 361 tertiary, in contradistinction to the primary and secondary divisions. They are situated in detached groups surrounded by the other two classes, without appearing to have been affected by them, although, in many instances, they are in- debted to them for the basins in which they exist ; while symptoms of having been deposited from a mass of finely comminuted material are amply afforded. The sudden manner in which the primeval water, which bore the mass of debris, was separated from the dry land, by vaporization, prevents the whole of the tertiary suite being acknowledged as the result of the commotion which took place amongst the rocky masses, and of the rush of water from the polar towards the equatorial regions, occa- sioned by the earth's first rotation. On the contrary, the principles which I have explained constrain us to look to another and more recent cause for the origin of the newer or upper portion of those tertiary deposits ; feeling confident that a closer examination will reveal, in the very formations themselves, a well-marked boundary line between the pheno- mena originating from the first diurnal rotation of the earth around its axis, and those which accompanied a much later and less auspicious event. It is presumed, that in the circumstances attending the subsiding of the water of the Noachean deluge there may be found an adequate explana- tion of the formation of the upper part of the tertiary strata. However tranquilly and slowly it may have risen to over- whelm its victims, and however slight may have been its effects upon the more prominent geological and geographical features of the world, there can be as little doubt, according to the testimony of Scripture,"'' that, when it began to assuage, it was kept, by the continual action of wind, in a state of agitation, for wise and provident purposes. This violent movement, while intended to accelerate vaporization, would, by causing comminution and the washing away of the softer soils, impregnate the water, as it subsided, with earthy sediment. This earthy sediment, evidently much more pul- verized than the debris occasioned by the first rotation, would, on subsiding, entomb the accumulated remains of those creatures in whom had been the breath of life, when * Genesis viii. 1. 361 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE the living principle, with but little exception, was extin- guished upon the face of the earth, and thereby rid its future inhabitants of the pestilence which so much putrid animal matter would, otherwise, have occasioned. As it is intended, at a future period, to enter fully into this department of geological research, and to offer some explanations, I make this passing allusion only, and revert, for the present, to the more immediate argument ; preparing the mind for what may follow by referring the reader to the eighteenth Theorem and evidences relating to the tertiary strata ; although I shall refrain from offering any remarks until the sequel of the treatise. Meanwhile, it is to be hoped that the care of defining, with precision, the boundary line which separates the formations due to dynamical causes, from those which resulted from the Noachean cataclysm, will occupy the attention of some zealous and unprejudiced advo- cate of the truth. The object sought, in this part of the discourse, having been to account for the enormous mass of mineral debris which was scattered abroad, when the disruption of the strata took place, at the first diurnal rotation, by the bursting through of the subjacent rocks ; and whose extent of surface, it may be remembered, was estimated on a moderate computation at three millions seven hundred and fifteen thousand square miles ; some estimate of the mineral contents of this vast area may be formed, when it is considered that it has to be multiplied by the thickness of the accumulated strata of which it was composed ! Did there exist no suites of forma- tions reposing unconformably upon the older and elevated stratified masses ; spreading themselves over widely extended spaces, and filling up hollows on the earth's more recent geo- logical outline, I should not have known where to have sought, or how to have accounted for, the immense mass of mineral matter which this theory thus presupposes to have been disrupted and spread abroad at that particular juncture. The existence, however, of strictly corresponding formations relieves me from all anxiety on this point, and fully confirms my opinion. How they may be satisfactorily accounted for, with all their concomitant circumstances, independently of the Dynamical System, I am at a loss to conjecture, and FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 363 must, therefore, leave it to others, should they think proper, to endeavour to give the required explanation. The following are the evidences adduced in support of the Theorem above alluded to.* Professor Buckland states that " The tertiary series introduces a system of new phenomena, pre- senting formations in which the animal and vegetable life approach gradually nearer to species of our epoch. The next striking feature of these formations consists in the repeated alternations of marine deposits with those of fresh water. " We are indebted to Cuvier and Brongniart for the first detailed account of the nature and relations of a very important portion of the tertiary strata, in their inestimable history of the deposits above the chalk near Paris." f Professor Phillips says 44 It is to be remarked, that the deposition of stratified rocks in limited basins of fresh water is a phenomenon almost characteristic of the tertiary period " It is evident, from comparing the sections given, that no special resemblance of the strata in thickness or mineral composition can be traced. . . . All are composed principally of calcareous, arenaceous, and argillaceous matter. . . . The English series has no marine limestone ; the Parisian no thick marine clays ; the sub-Apennine deposits have little arenaceous matter. ... It leads us to infer that the deposition of tertiary strata took place in arms and gulfs of the sea, which ramified among the masses of land then raised in Europe, and derived sedi- ment of different nature from these different lands. Hence the sub- Alpine tertiaries have one character; those of the sub-Apennines another ; the sub-Pyrenean a third ; the Parisian a fourth ; the Eng- lish a fifth. " By prosecuting this research, we find, in fact, that the tertiary formation was sometimes produced in insulated seas, like the Adriatic, and the valleys of the Rhine and Danube ; at other times, under the influence of the general ocean, as those in the plains of the Garonne, often in basins like the Parisian series." I M. de la Beche says " Prior to the labours of MM. Cuvier and Brongniart on the country round Paris, the various rocks comprised within the supra- cretaceous (tertiary) groups were geologically unknown, or were considered as mere superficial gravels, sands, or clays. Subsequent to the publica- tion of their memoirs (1811), it has been found that the geological importance of these rocks is very considerable, and that they occupy * 18th Theorem. t Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i. pp. 76, 77. I Phillips, pp. 163, 178. 364 a large part of the superfices of the present dry land, entombing a great variety of terrestrial freshwater and marine remains."* " Of all the classes of aqueous deposits," observes Professor Phillips, " that which is the nearest to our own days in point of date is the least exact in its boundaries and characters. While, concerning the older periods, the problem of the condition of the globe was prin- cipally confined to considerations relating to the sea, and thus the phenomena could be investigated according to fixed principles, appli- cable to at least the greater number of strata ; the tertiary deposits compel us to enter also upon more complicated researches connected with the land ; and, in discussing the history of still later phenomena, all the variations of physical geography assume still higher degrees of importance. The consequence is an amount of local diversity so great as to nearly annihilate all generality of result." f Before closing the evidence for this particular branch of our subject, I take occasion to transcribe the dictum respect- ing it of one of the most scientific and indefatigable of our British geologists : " The grand fact of an universal deluge" Dr. Buckland observes, " at no very remote period is proved on grounds so decisive and in- controvertible, that had we never heard of such an event from Scrip- ture, or any other authority, geology, of itself, must have called in the assistance of some such catastrophe, to explain the phenomena of diluvial action which are universally presented to us ; and which are unintelligible without recourse to a deluge exerting its ravages at a period not more ancient than that announced in the book of Genesis."* On the same line of proof we have the following confirma- tory evidence by Professor Henslow : " M. Brongniart has grouped the several formations, in which vegetable remains are found, under four great epochs, during each of which no very marked transitions occur in the general character of the vegetation ; but between any two of these epochs a striking and decided change takes place ; even most of the genera are different, and none of the species are alike. These epochs include the periods during which the following strata were deposited : 1st. ' From the earliest secondary rocks to the uppermost beds of the coal measures;' 2nd. 'The new red sandstone formation;' 3rd, 'From the lowest beds of the oolitic series to the chalk inclusive ; ' and 4th. 4 The beds abore the chalk.' Speculations of this description, imperfect as they confessedly are at present, may one day lead to the most important results, and may teach us many truths, respecting the earliest condition of our planet which the science of astronomy could never have suggested. And surely no one ought to consider such in- quiries too bold for our limited faculties, needless for our present, or * Manual, pp. 192, 193, 199. t Treatise on Geology, pp. 190193. | Vindiciae Geologicae, pp. 23, 24. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 365 dangerous for our future welfare. No naturalist, desirous of knowing the truth, can be so weak as to fancy that any search into the works of God, or any contemplation of the wonders of his creation, can interfere with the lessons He has taught us in his revealed and written word."* Before departing from these, which may be termed THE MINERAL GROUPS OF EVIDENCE FOR THE TRUTH OF THE DYNAMICAL SYSTEM, and while alluding to the precision with which they point to the line of demarcation between those extensively persistent rocky deposits, occasioned by the' general outbreaking and upheaving commotion of the first diurnal rotation, and the finely comminuted and more tran- quilly deposited earthy and clayey formations of the upper tertiaries, I must not overlook the concurring testimony as to the isolated character of these latter, deduced alike from their internal structure, or composition, and from their situa- tions. These facts, which are perfectly in accordance with disintegration, occasioned by water agitated by fierce winds, and consequently acting on each locality, without being attended by progressive motion, is wholly inconsistent with the violent rush of water which was occasioned by the first diurnal rotation of the earth. While the local comminution and deposition, which seem so strongly to be evidenced by the newer tertiary rocks, and which have drawn from so many geologists the concurring opinion that they were formed in lakes and estuaries, at mouths of rivers, and from the detritus of surrounding hills and anterior formations an opinion more strongly and truthfully expressed by Mr. Phillips than by any of his contemporaries are satisfactorily corroborative of a system which disowns them as the result of an impetuous onward rush of water, speedily evaporated from the high lands and dry portions ; while, on the other hand, it refers them to the more stationary, though not alto- gether tranquil subsidence of the waters of the deluge, when " a wind was made to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged ; the fountains also of the deep, and the windows of heaven, were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained ; and the waters returned from off the earth con- tinually : and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated, "t * " Botany," in Cab. Cyc., pp. 310314. t Genesis viii. 13. SECTION V. GEOLOGICAL PHENOMENA RESULTING FROM THE EARTH S FIRST DIURNAL ROTATION. CHAPTER XXVII. THE attention is now to be directed to the last division of geological phenomena which are required to be noticed a class whose elucidation, by means of this hypothesis, is almost of itself capable of proving its soundness. I allude to the fragments of rock, on which Sir Henry de la Beche has conferred the title of the " Erratic Block Group," a designation which will be found to be most appropriate, when the true origin and history of the debris, of which it is composed, shall have been investigated by the light of the Dynamical System. A learned geologist, having occasion to allude to some of the boulders of the north of England, said, " that many of them fortunately were land-marks, and boundary-stones of parishes, otherwise much of their curious history would have been lost under the hammer of the mason and of the road- maker. "* While gladly adopting, I would likewise extend this idea, and add that, fortunately, indeed, have they been preserved, from respect to those minor offices which they now fulfil ; for they likewise perform the more important duty of pointing out to the world's inhabitants how this pedestal, on which they are wheeled through space, received its variety of hill and dale from the hands of their common Creator ! In short, they are the " land-marks " of the * Professor Phillips, at the British Association, 1836. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 367 Dynamical System ; and exhibit, in language which can neither be misinterpreted nor denied, that the earth, when first caused to revolve diurnally around its axis, received the form which, in its greater outlines, it still preserves. But let the geological evidences be first adduced, and after- wards the appropriate- inferences deduced from them. The thirty-fourth Theorem (to which please refer) has exclusive reference to these interesting fragments. The evidences on which this important theorem rests, being of an interesting character, will be given at considerable length : " The erratic blocks," says Prof. Phillips, "as the larger bouldera are called, which have been transported from the Alps, are most re- markable on the eastern face of the Jura, which looks towards the Alps, over the vale of the Arve and the Lake of Geneva. On the Jura, 1,500 to 2,000 feet above the Lake of Geneva, crowning the hills and filling the valleys and rocky glens, these blocks abound ; and likewise opposite to the embouchures of these valleys, and that distinct sets of blocks derived from different mountains have followed the lines of the different valleys. The blocks in the valley of the Rhine have come from the Grissons ; those by the Lake of Zurich and the course of the Limmat were drifted from Glaris; blocks from the source of the Eeuss have followed this river ; the blocks of the Aar, and the slopes of the neighbouring Jura, have come from the range of the Oberland of Berne. From these facts, and the circumstance that the height to which the blocks have ascended the Jura, no doubt can be entertained that the currents flowed from these mountains in many directions, and followed the line of the present valleys. It appears the most probable view of these phenomena that a general and violent convul- sion of the Alps, while they were surrounded by water, caused power- ful currents to rush away from the axis of movement, bearing ice rafts* loaded with the loosened rocks. ' ' This explanation appears satisfactory to Venturi, reasoning on the phenomena of the south side of the Alps ; it has been suggested from the case of the blocks on the drainage of the St. Lawrence, and is proposed as the most probable view of the facts observed concerning the multitude of rock masses which have crossed the Baltic, and dropped in heaps on the plains of Northern Germany, Poland, and Russia, from the Ems and the "Weser to the Dwina and even the Neva. These blocks are grouped in narrow elliptical areas, with the longer axis pointing north and south, or towards the Baltic ; they often lie on the surface, especially the larger blocks, hardly ever at great depths. They consist principally of granite, sienite, porphyry, and transition limestones, with characteristic fossils which can be * From the idea of "ice-rafts" of course I dissent; for, as yet, there wa no atmosphere. How, therefore, could there be ice ? AVTHOB. 368 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE exactly paralleled in the southern parts of Sweden and nowhere else. The blocks are more numerous on the Swedish side of the Baltic, nearer their origin, but not larger. Worn and polished sur- faces among the primary rocks of Sweden are attributed to the trans- port of heavy bodies." Somewhat further on, "he continues " It is evident from all that has been proved, inferred, and admitted on the subject of the erratic blocks, that they were derived from par- ticular mountain groups, drifted thence to limited though consider- able distances, along lines which respect the present levels of the country, both as to height and direction. They lie generally at the surface of the superficial marine diluvium, and speak plainly of great and violent convulsions." And finally, on this subject, from Professor Phillips "The aggregation of the mass is such as utterly to forbid belief that it was heaved together by anything short of a mighty mechanical agency, which in its tempestuous violence permitted none of that dis- tinction of specific gravity, form, or magnitude of the masses to appear in the deposit, which is invariably seen in every case of gradual or intermitting effect of ordinary streams or tides." * Mr. Anstead corroborates these statements by the follow- ing remarks respecting travelled debris : " It seems reasonable," says he, " to assume, that the first eleva- tion of great masses of land, some part of which now consists of lofty mountain peaks of granite and of igneous rocks, should have been accompanied by local disturbances of the bed of the sea, producing waves capable of transporting large quantities of broken rock, and that by a succession of similar movements these fragments might be conveyed, being more and more pounded and rolled, to a distance of many miles, or even hundreds of miles. Perhaps it may be because the quantity of land elevated in the Arctic circle was lifted up under different circumstances, and in more uniform, dome-shaped, and larger masses, producing more powerful waves ; that the fragments broken off from the old rocks of Scandinavia, Lapland, and northern Russia, and the northern parts of our own island (which have all par- taken of this movement and its consequences) have been farther trans- ported, and are deposited in more regular, more widely spread, and more characteristic beds of gravel than the Alpine rocks, whose range is, in every respect, more limited. The whole subject of the distribu- tion of gravel is, however, one abounding in difficulties which have as yet been only partially explained Whatever the cause or causes may have been, the distribution of numerous blocks of stone, sometimes rounded, but more frequently angular, and of every size * Treatise on Geology, pp. 205, 206, 208210, 215. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 369 and shape, and the removal of these to various distances from the parent rock, are facts distinctly made out. Such blocks, also, are not confined to Northern Europe, but are met with both in North and South America, and in other parts of the world."* .... Mr. Lyell, when treating of this division of geological research, says " Between the superficial covering of vegetable mould and the sub- jacent rock there usually intervenes in every district a deposit of loose gravel, sand, and mud, to which the name of alluvium has been applied " A partial covering of such alluvium is found alike in all climates, from the equatorial to the polar regions, but in the higher latitudes of Europe and North America it assumes a distinct character, being very frequently devoid of stratification, and containing large fragments of rock, some angular, and others rounded, which have been transported to great distances from their parent mountains. " Mention," he continues, " was made in a previous chapter of an ancient alluvium in the north of Europe, called the ' boulder formation.' .... " It generally contains numerous fragments of rocks, some angular, and others rounded, which have been derived from formations of all ages, .... and which have often been brought from great distances. Some of the travelled blocks are of enormous size, several feet or yards in diameter ; their average dimensions increasing as we advance north- wards Although a large proportion of the boulder deposit is made up of fragments brought from a distance, and which have some- times travelled many hundred miles, the bulk of the mass in each locality consists of the ruins of subjacent or neighbouring rocks. . . . " That the erratics of Northern Europe have been carried south- ward, cannot be doubted ; those of granite, for example, scattered over large districts of Russia and Poland, agree precisely in character with rocks of the mountains of Lapland and Finland ; while the masses of gneiss, sienite, porphyry, and trap, strewed over the low sandy countries of Pomerania, Holstein, and Denmark, are identical in mineral character with the mountains of Norway and Sweden. It is found to be a general rule in Russia, that the smaller blocks are carried to greater distances from the point of their departure than the larger ; the distance being sometimes 800 and even 1,000 miles from the nearest rocks from which they were broken off." Again " Now, some or all of the marks enumerated, the moraines, erratics, polished surfaces, striae, caldrons, and perched rocks, are observed in the Alps at great heights above the present glaciers, and far below their actual extremities ; also in the great valley of Switzerland, 50 miles broad ; and almost everywhere on the Jura, a chain which lies to the north of this valley. The erratics, moreover, which cover it, present a phenomenon which has astonished and perplexed the geolo^ * Ancient World, pp. 323326. B B 570 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE gist for more than half a century. No conclusion can be more incon- testable than that these angular blocks of granite, gneiss, and other crystalline formations came from the Alps, and that they have been brought from a distance of 50 miles and upwards across one of the widest and deepest valleys of the world, so that they are now lodged on the hills and valleys of a chain, composed of limestone and other formations, altogether distinct from those of the Alps. " Their great size and angularity, after a journey of so many leagues, has justly excited wonder ; for hundreds of them are as large as cottages ; and one in particular, celebrated under the name of Pierre a Bot, rests on the side of a hill, about 900 feet above the lake of Neufchatel, and is no less than 40 feet in diameter." * .... And finally, with respect to this group of rocks, after detailing a great many instances of transported boulders, blocks, and other mineral detritus, and combating the opinion of their being produced by atmospheric waste, M. de la Beche goes on to say " The probability, therefore, as far as the above facts seem to warrant, is, that a body of water has proceeded from north to south over the British Isles, moving with sufficient velocity to transport fragments of rock from Norway to the Shetland isles and the eastern coast of England ; the course of such a body of water having been modified and obstructed among the valleys, hills, and mountains which it encountered ; so that various minor and low currents having been produced, the distribution of the detritus has been in various directions. " If the supposition of a mass of waters having passed over Britain be founded on probability, the evidences of such a passage or passages should be found in the neighbouring continent of Europe ; and the general direction of the transported substances should be the same. Now, this is precisely what we do find. In Sweden and Russia, large blocks of rock occur in great numbers, and no doubt can be entertained that they have been transported southward from the north Proceeding south, the course of the waters seems to have continued in that direction over the low districts of Germany to the Netherlands, depositing large blocks in their passage ; these blocks are proved by their mineralogical composition to have been derived from rocks known to exist in the northern regions. " Such a movement as this over part of Europe would, if the supposition of the mass of waters were correct, be observed in other northern regions, for the waters thrown into agitation would cause waves around the centre of disturbance. In America, therefore, we should expect to find marks of such a deluge, the evidences pointing to a northern origin. Now, in the northern regions of that country we do find marks of an aqueous torrent, bearing blocks and Lyell's Elements, vol. i. pp. 164, 16-5, 222224, 218, 255. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 371 other detritus before it, the lines of their transport pointing from the northward, according to Dr. Bigs by, and reminding us of the same appearances observed in Sweden and Germany. The quantity of transported matter covering various large tracts in North America, seems quite equal to. that scattered over Northern Europe; and as they both point one way, we can scarcely refuse to admit that the cause of the disturbance or disturbances was towards the north ; the undulations of the water having been caused by some violent agitation, perhaps beneath the sea in those regions, for it is by no means necessary that it should be above its level." : Whilst these interesting evidences are vividly before the mind, if we recur to what has been said of the disintegrating influence exercised by the protruded rocks upon the strata through which they burst, when the earth first revolved diurnally around its axis ; afterwards take into consideration the infinite number of fragments, of all dimensions and kinds, which were spread abroad from each elevated chain, as it assumed its relative height and present form ; and then direct the attention to the rush of water which, at the same time, was sweeping with inconceivable rapidity from the poles towards the equator, acquiring a westerly direction as it advanced ; and take into account its capacity as a carrier of debris ; no difficulty will any longer be found in accounting for the distance travelled over, or for the relative direction in which so many of the boulders are found, with respect to the rocks from which they appear to have been torn. For, on viewing the subject, under these impressions, with reference to what was then taking place, the following considerations present themselves almost spontaneously : That the fragments would be massive and numerous in proportion to the height of the mountain ranges from whence they emanated, or, what is precisely the same, in proportion to the violence with which the protruded rocks perforated the superincumbent strata. That these effects would be modified considerably by the nature of both the perforating and the perforated substances. That they Avould be removed to distances in direct proportion to the velocity of the con- ducting fluid, and inversely as their respective masses.. That the evidence of the distance over which they may have travelled, such as the rounding of their angles and * Manual, pp. 164, 171, 173, 177. B B 2 372 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE other asperities the usual symptoms of attrition on mineral matter would be the greater the nearer they are found to the equatorial regions, and the more moderate their size. That the effects of local formations in determining their present relative sites would be rather complexly manifested, from the influential circumstance, that, as the land was simultaneously assuming its present form, the effects of its undulations, as a modifying cause, would be exercised and be now apparent by the results, in direct proportion to the distance between the sites of the fragments and their parent rock ; or, in other words, in proportion to the time they were in motion, in consequence of the earth having been all the while approaching " nearer and nearer to its perfect form of equilibrium under rotation. Assuming these, therefore, to be the conditions of the problem, it appears evident, that, as the specific gravity of the boulders, relatively to the fluid, was the same everywhere, while the velocity of the latter would be in proportion to the latitude, there should be found, as the first and most immediate result, that the distances between the actual posi- tions of the boulders and the place from whence they came Avill be greatest in highest latitudes ; and as the current, in flowing towards the equator, acquired a westerly direction, by a composition of these two forces, the boulders of the northern hemisphere should be generally in situations bear- ing south-westerly from the places of their origin ; the westerly deviation being more remarkable the nearer to the equator a conclusion agreeing perfectly with what is shown in a clear and intelligible manner, by the foregoing evidences, to be the case. It must be understood to follow, as strict deductions from what has been here advanced, that when detached masses, enormously great, have been transported to only short distances from their parent rocks, the}' would, in a cor- responding manner, be but slightly diverted from their equatorial course, whether they had their origin in the northern or in the southern hemisphere. And as the earth, during the same brief period, was assuming its present exterior form that of equilibrium under rotation -there would occur numberless instances FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 373 where immense fragmental masses (and the more massive the more likely to happen), after being swept over consider- able intermediate spaces, may have been arrested by the upheaving shoulders of some mighty mountain chain, as it interposed itself like a barrier to their onward course may have been carried up to greater elevations along with it; whilst the surface, over which these boulders had previously and but recently travelled, may have simultaneously sunk down, as a co-effect of the elevation of the intercepting range, and the space between have become a broad and deep valley, thereby facilitating the onward equatorial course of the rushing waters, which thus left those great landmarks of their path behind them. I feel persuaded that where circum- stances are favourable for the examination and the identifica- tion of blocks and boulders, these results will be found to have taken place, and thereby furnish the most undeniable evidence of the correctness of these conclusions. The influence exercised by the form of the earth in modi- fying the relative sites of these rocky fragments, when their other prognostics, such as the distance of their route, &c., are taken into account, together Avith a candid and attentive examination of the whole phenomena, will be found to yield the most satisfactory results, and the most perfect elucidation of those geological manifestations which abound ; and will afford one of the most convincing tests of the soundness of the Dynamical System. Whilst these influential conditions, and these conditions alone, will solve the enigma, which hitherto has baffled all attempts to explain it, namely the manifest indifference shown, during their projectile progress, by several immense boulders, located among the Alps, to the enormous mountains which at present intervene between them and the places of their origin ; giving rise to innumer- able hypothetical conclusions, and to the necessity of calling in the aid of wonder-working debacles to account for their translation ; while, at the same time, the comparatively smaller and more distant travelled blocks of the north of England present the contradictory evidence of having paid every respect to the sinuosities of the land over which they voyaged, having " been drifted in certain lines, so as to show that the causes, whatever they \vere, which produced the 374 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE phenomena, were not capable of overcoming, except in a limited degree, the natural obstacles of the country.""" In the former case, the boulders must have been removed simul- taneously with the rising of the land, and during the time that the waters were in violent motion; whereas, in the latter, they, having continued their route for a greater length of time, were influenced, at every step, by two conjoint retarding causes, the more perfect formation of the land, and the decreasing rapidity of the transporting medium, as it approached its static form and condition of equilibrium. Indeed, so convinced am I of the soundness of these con- clusions, that I venture to stake the validity of this part of the Dynamical System on the assertion, that whenever the travelled boulders of the southern hemisphere are examined by impartial geologists, they will be found to occupy corre- sponding positions, with respect to the rocky formations whence they, too, have proceeded. That is, it will be dis- covered, in general, that they have been removed in a direction towards the north-west, with all the corresponding inflections which similar local circumstances are found to have produced on those of the northern hemisphere. t In addition to those observations 011 the evidences afforded by the " Erratic Block Group," it is remarked, that there is scarcely any geological data more strongly corroborative of the Dynamical System, than the abounding widely spread deposits of rolled pebbles which form a part of the ground. When the unstratified rocks burst through the superincum- bent strata, innumerable fragments of all descriptions, shapes, and sizes must have been scattered about as the immediate consequence ; but not one of them could have been round when torn off the parent rock : so certainly as the one rock per- forated and passed another, so certainly would the detached * Professor Phillips, before the British Association, at Bristol, Sept., 1836. t The assertion contained in this passage, which was written in 1836, has been fully verifit d intermediately by the investigations of those geologists who have since then had opportunities of visiting the southern regions of the globe, more especially in Chili, Bolivia, and Peru, where boulders and massive fragments, resulting from this great day's work, and general commotion over all the earth's surface, are found strewed everywhere around the flanks and amongst the hollows of the huge and far-stretching Cordillera, themselves one of the most striking monuments of protorotation long posterior to the deposition and indura- tion of our sphere's concentric stratified envelope, the work of protracted dark- ness and non-rotation. For one example, see Lyell's Elements, vol. i. p. 2.31. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 375 fragments be angular, ragged, and pointed. On the other hand, when this convulsion took place, had the whole not been enveloped in much \vater a hypothetical combination which might be supposed to have occurred if heat or fire had caused the catastrophe then the fragments alluded to would have remained almost as angular and as ragged and pointed as they were when detached. Had the displacement, and its natural consequences, occurred in the midst of water, without any peculiar impetus, such as a rush from the poles towards the equator, to complete the figure or static condition of rotation, it is not at all probable that the stones and frag- ments, to which I refer, would or could have assumed the perfect appearance of much attrition and of distant travel which those beds of pebbles do. They evidence, by their perfect sphericity, in many instances, w r hen coupled with the solidity of their material, that it was no common flood, no short space travelled over, nor any moderate speed which conferred on them their smoothly rounded form, and which have acquired for them the designation of " travelled frag- ments." It is equally as satisfactory to reflect, on taking another view of the case, that without their presence in the precise conditions in which they are found, all the assumptions of this Treatise would have -been incomplete, and liable hereafter to have been considered erroneous. And thus, the rolled pebbles afford both positive and negative proof in favour of the cosmogony which is here inculcated. It is with peculiar satisfaction I am thus enabled to close the geological evidences, in this department, for the truth of the Dynamical System, with a class of phenomena, derived from that science, so universal and so admirably adapted as are the components of the " erratic block group," both by their character and their durability, to point out the form which the earth assumed on being caused to revolve diurnally around its axis. No evidences could possibly have been more appropriate than these " boulders," tangible as they are by the senses, and everywhere to be found. Most heartily ought we to thank the Creator for having permitted that these effects should have proceeded from natural causes, in order, that along with the other designs, which they were 376 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE EARTH. intended to fulfil, they should afford the most undeniable evidence, that when torn asunder from their parent rocks, and strewed over and imbedded in the surface of the sur- rounding soil, the globe was in the act of receiving from his almighty hand, " who weighed out its hills in his balance," the identical inflections of surface ivhich, to the present moment, it retains. SECTION Y. GEOLOGICAL PHENOMENA RESULTING FROM THE EARTH'S FIRST DIURNAL ROTATION. CHAPTER XXVIII. ON reviewing the leading points of this protracted section it will be * perceived that, first of all, evidences of a mechanical character were adduced to prove, that the earth, which during the period of darkness revolved around the unillumined sun without diurnal motion, was, by the forma- tion of the light, and its division from the darkness, caused to rotate diurnally around its axis. Having dwelt sufficiently on that particular point I proceeded to inquire, in continua- tion, what were likely, theoretically, to have been the results of this new motion upon the general outlines of the globe. After these were defined, as nearly as possible, a minute and lengthened investigation was entered into, which concluded by determining, satisfactorily, that not only all geological phenomena, but likewise the greater general elevation of land within the equatorial regions, and the formation of continental ridges and oceanic hollows, accorded with these theoretical conclusions. In conducting the geological inquiries I attended both to the external evidences afforded by the action of one rock upon another, and also to the internal evidences arising from the mineralogical structure of the primary and older secondary- rocks, supposing them to have been moved from where they were considered, in the previous chapters, to have been formed. In these investigations, there were included the 378 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE mineral veins, dykes, and fissures, and the metallic lodes, and it was made manifest that they, too, could be satisfactorily accounted for by the same System. Going on, afterwards, to the sedimentary rocks, which owe their origin to the deposi- tion of debris, spread abroad by the elevation of mountain chains, it was shown, that with the exception of some of the more recent of the tertiary, whose origin was hinted at in passing, they, likewise, correspond in geological developments with what might, a priori, have been expected from the first diurnal rotation of the earth around its axis, after induration had taken place at the period alluded to. And the whole was closed in by a brief description of the " erratic block group," which was also found to be susceptible of easy elucidation, by the facts and arguments brought to bear upon it. Under these concurring and favourable circumstances, looking upon the geological and mineralogwal evidences as being uninterruptedly linked together from first to last ; and feeling assured that the proofs in favour of the Dynamical System have been, throughout, most persistent ; it is now considered we may safely conclude, as a final deduction from the whole, that the first diurnal revolution of the earth around its axis took place AFTER the formation of those materials which now constitute the independent coal 'measures, and im- mediately BEFORE the deposition of the new red sandstone, the oolitic, and the cretaceous groups : from which conclusion three important corollaries necessarily follow : 1. That the period during which the earth revolved around the sun without diurnal rotation, extended from the instant of its being translated in space at " the beginning," from the first symptom of stratification until the entire deposition of the material which now constitutes the coal measures. 2. That as the protuberance of its equatorial regions arises from its diurnal rotation, and this owes its origin to the formation of the light, and its division from the darkness, its excess of equatorial diameter can have existed only since the date recorded in Scripture as being that of the formation of the light. And 3. As a change of form would produce a corresponding effect on the astronomical relations of our sphere, this would FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 379 undoubtedly be perceptible to astronomers, by their accurate investigations responding to the reverberation which took place on that account from the allied but distant bodies of our system ; and should leave upon their records, corre- sponding evidences of a change in the earth's uranographical phenomena, indicative of that alteration of form which geology leads us to consider it underwent ; while the exact nature of those deductions should assign the precise period, or nearly so, when this perturbation was first perceptible in the motions of our planet. That, should such be the case, all these views would be corroborated by the testimony of a science dedicated to the investigation of laws which govern regions of space far beyond the sphere we tread upon ; and we would thereby enjoy the satisfaction of beholding these sciences mutually shedding their lights on each other, and unitedly conspiring to the advancement and establishment of the TRUTH. In order to discover whether such, in reality, is the case, let us attend to what is stated in the seventh Theorem, to which please refer. These results being deduced from principles in astronomy, not very apparent at first sight, and depending on two motions entirely distinct in their nature and origin, they will require to be partially analyzed and laid open to the view, by explanations drawn from the same source which furnished the materials for the theorem. In doing this, I shall commence with the "direct motion of the perigee," more with the design of eliminating it from the argument, than from any immediate tendency it has to aid our convictions ; the phenomenon which principally interests the general inquiry being the retrogradation of the node of the earth's equator on the ecliptic. The following extract proves the effect produced on our satellite in consequence of the redundant matter accumulated in the equatorial regions, and the reciprocal light which this sheds upon the external form and the internal structure of the earth : " The moon is so near," says Mrs. Somerville, " that the excess of matter at the earth's equator occasions periodic variations in her longitude, and also that remarkable inequality in her latitude, already 380 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE mentioned as a nutation in the lunar orbit, which diminishes its inclination to the ecliptic, when the moon's ascending node coincides with the equinox of spring and augments it when that node coincides with the equinox of autumn." And again, " The larger planets rotate in shorter periods than the smaller planets and the earth. Their compression is consequently greater, and the action of the sun and their satellites occasions a nutation in their axes, and a precession of their equinoxes, similar to that which obtains in the terrestrial spheroid, from the attraction of the sun and moon on the prominent matter at the equator." : Having thus become briefly acquainted with the nature of the slow secular perturbation alluded to, which, however, but slightly affects the argument, I shall next proceed to inquire into that of " the retrogradation of the node of the earth's equator on the ecliptic;' and beg that particular attention may be paid to the important evidences about to be brought forward. " The problem," says Professor Playfair, " which Newton had thus concluded, enabled him to resolve one of still greater difficulty. The precession, that is, the retrogradation of the equinoctial points, had been long known to astronomers ; its rate had been measured by a comparison of ancient and modern observations, and found to amount to nearly 50'' annually, so as to complete an entire revolution of the heavens in 25,920 years. . . . The honour of assigning the true cause was reserved for the most cautious of philosophers. He was directed to this by a certain analogy observed between the precession of the equinoxes and the retrogradation of the moon's nodes, a phenomenon to which his calculus had -been already successfully applied. The spheroidal shell or ring of matter which surrounds the earth, as we have just seen, in the direction of the equator, being one half above the plane of the ecliptic, and the other half below, is subjected to the action of the solar force, the tendency of which is to make this ring turn on the line of its intersection with the ecliptic, so as ultimately to coincide with the plane of that circle. This, accordingly, would have happened long since, if the earth had not revolved on its axis. The effect of the rotation of the spheroidal ring from west to east, at the same time that it is drawn down toward the plane of the ecliptic, is to preserve the inclination of these two planes unchanged, but to make their intersection move in a direction opposite to that of the diurnal rotation, that is from east to west, or contrary to the order of the signs of the zodiac." t In another part of his work, when reviewing the " Me'canique Celeste " of M. La Place, he says * Connection of the Sciences, pp. 48 ct srq. f Playfair' s Works, vol. ii. pp. 411, 412. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 381 " With the questions of the figure of the earth, and the flux and reflux of the sea, that of the precession of the equinoxes is closely connected ; and La Place has devoted his fifth book to the considera- tion of it Newton was the first who turned his thoughts to the physical cause of this appearance ; and it required all the sagacity and penetration of that great man to discover this cause in the principle of universal gravitation. The effect of the forces of the sun and moon on that excess of matter which surrounds the earth at the equator must, as he has proved, produce a slow angular motion in the plane of the latter, and in a direction contrary to that of the earth's rotation " That excellent mathematician, D'Alembert, gave a solution of this problem that has never been surpassed for accuracy and depth of reasoning "La Place has gone over the same ground, .... and has shown, that the phenomena of the precession and nutation must be the same in the actual state of our terraqueous spheroid as if the whole were a solid mass, and that is true, whatever be the irregularity of the depth of the sea The conclusions with regard to the constitution of the earth, that are found to agree with the actual quantity of the pre- cession of the equinoxes are, that the density of the earth increases from the circumference towards the centre ; that it has the form of an ellipsoid of revolution ; and that the compression of this spheroid at the poles is between the limits of l-304th and l-578th part of the radius of the equator." ' " It has been shown," says Mrs. Somerville, " that the axis of rota- tion is invariable on the surface of the earth ; and observation as well as theory prove, that were it not for the action of the sun and moon on the matter at the equator, it would remain exactly parallel to itself in every point of its orbit. . . . The plane of the equator is inclined to the plane of the ecliptic at an angle of 23 27' 38"'81, and the inclination of the lunar orbit to the same is 5 8' 47"'9. Consequently, from the oblate figure of the earth, the sun and moon, acting obliquely and unequally on the different parts of the terrestrial spheroid, urge the plane of the equator from its direction, and force it to move from east to west, so that the equinoctial points have a slow retrograde motion on the plane of the ecliptic at 50"'10 annually Were the earth spherical this effect would not be produced, and the equinoxes would always correspond with the same points of the ecliptic, at least as far as this kind of motion is concerned. " The action of the planets on one another, and on the sun, occasions a very slow variation in the position of the plane of the ecliptic Thus the sun and moon, by moving the plane of the equator, cause the equinoctial points to retrograde on the ecliptic ; and the planets, by moving the plane of the ecliptic, give them a direct motion, though much less than the former. Consequently, the difference of the two is the mean precession, which is proved, both by theory and observation, to be about 50"'10 annually * Playfair's Works, vol. iv. pp. 305307. 38* " Moving at this rate annually, the equinoctial points will accom- plish a revolution in 25,868 years." .... And in conclusion from this instructive writer " The mean annual precession is subject to a secular variation ; for, although the change in the plane of the ecliptic in which the orbit of the sun lies, be independent of the form of the earth, yet by bringing the sun, moon, and earth into different relative positions, from age to age, it alters the direct action of the two first on the prominent matter at the equator; on this account the motion of the equinox is greater by 0"*455 now than it was in the time of Hipparchus." : Sir John Herschel thus explains this astronomical ques- tion " The determination of the vernal equinox is a point of great importance in practical astronomy, as it is the origin or zero point of right ascension. Now, when this process is repeated at considerably distant intervals of time, a very remarkable phenomenon is observed, namely, that the equinox does not preserve a constant place among the stars, but shifts its position, travelling continually and regularly, although with extreme slowness, backwards, along the ecliptic, in a direction from east to west, or the contrary to that in which the sun appears to move in that circle The amount of this motion by which the equinox retrogrades on the ecliptic, is 0' 50" - 10 per annum an extremely minute quantity, but which, by its continual accummulation from year to year, at last makes itself very palpable. .... Since the formation of the earliest catalogue of stars on record, the place of the equinox has retrograded already about 30. The period in which it performs a complete tour of the ecliptic is 25,868 years." .... In continuation he says "It will be shown in a subsequent chapter, that j>recession and nutation are necessary consequences of the rotation of the earth, combined with its elliptical figure, and the unequal attraction of the sun and moon on its polar and equatorial regions." And, in conclusion, from the same work on this particular subject " As to the precession of the equinoxes, .... the immense distance of the planets, compared with the size of the earth, and the smallness of their masses, compared to that of the sun, puts their action, out of the question in the inquiry of its cause, and we must, therefore, look to the massive though distant sun, and to our near though minute neigh- bour, the moon, for its explanation. This will, accordingly, be found Connection of the Sciences, pp. 91 93. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 383 in their disturbing action on the redundant matter accumulated on the equator of the earth, by which its figure is rendered spheroidal, combined with the earth's rotation on its axis. It is to the sagacity of Newton that we owe the discovery of this singular mode of action." * Before any reliable conclusion can be drawn from these lucid and concurring evidences, I must endeavour, by investi- gation, to ascertain the era when the longer axis of the solar ellipse coincided with the equinoxes. This may be con- sidered accomplished by the following quotations. Mrs. Somerville supplies the first evidence. " Some remarkable astronomical eras," that lady observes, " are determined by the position of the major axis of the solar ellipse, which depends upon the direct motion of the perigee and the precession of the equinoxes conjointly, the annual motion of the one being 11" 8' ; and that of the other 50" 1'. Hence the axis, moving at the rate of 61" 9' annually, accomplishes a tropical revolution in 20,984 years. It coincided with the line of the equinoxes 4,000 or 4,089 years before the Christian era, much about the time chronologists assign for the creation of man. In 6,483 the major axis will again coincide with the line of the equinoxes." f . . . . Dr. Ure will furnish another testimony on this point : " The date of the earth's creation, according to the chronology of the Hebrew Bible, was 4,004 years before the birth of Christ. Astro- nomy shows that the great axis or longest diameter of the elliptic orbit, in which our earth revolves round the sun, as placed in one of the foci, coincided at that epoch with the line of the equinoxes. Hence, then, at the instant of the autumnal equinox, the sun was nearest the earth, or in perigee, and of the vernal equinox he was in apogee ; and therefore his elliptic orbit and time of revolution were each evenly divided between the seasons." \ * "Astronomy," in Cab. Cyc., American edition, pp. 161 166, 309. I take occasion to recommend to all who may have the opportunity to peruse attentively the whole of Sir John Herschel's luminous exposition of this intricate astronomical phenomenon, which unfortunately is too long to be given here, and c;mnot be abridged, assured that while they derive pleasure and information by so doing, they will be more than ever convinced that precession and nutation are in- timately connected with the redundant matter accumulated round the equator, or the earth's equatorial protuberance. Indeed, Sir John shows by a note, that a SPHEKE would be perfectly indifferent to these retrograding influences. AUTHOR. t Connection of the Sciences, pp. 99, 100. Mrs. Somerville having referred to the authority of chronologists, I subjoin the following from Blair's celebrated chronological tables : " The creation of the world began, according to Arch- bishop Usher's calculations, on Sunday, the 23rd of October, in the year 4004 before the birth of Christ," a season which accords better than the other with the events which then occurred. AUTHOK. % Geology, p. 13. 384 These interesting evidences must convince every one that the precession of the equinoxes is due to an excess in the retrograding influences of the sun and moon on tJie redundant matter accumulated round the equatorial regions of the earth, over and above a contrary effect, originating in a small secular motion of the ecliptic itself, caused by the action of the planets on one another and on the sun, wholly inde- pendent of the figure of the earth. The increase of the precession being calculated from an epoch (usually the vernal equinox) when the longer axis of the solar ellipse, by coin- ciding with the equinoxes, occasioned a perfect equality in the moieties of the year ; or, what is the same thing, when the precession was considered to have been an astro- nomical event which, according to the foregoing authorities, occurred about the period assigned in Scripture as that of the formation of the light, and its division from the darkness. In a previous part of this section, I endeavoured to prove, and I trust satisfactorily, the following two positions : 1. That during the period of darkness, the earth revolved around the unilluinined sun for a sufficient length of time, in geological estimation, to form all the rocky masses which compose its outer crust, until the completion of the inde- pendent coal measures. And, 2. That the formation of the light, and its division from the darkness, were the immediate secondary causes of the earth's diurnal rotation ; which in turn caused the protuber- ance of its equatorial regions, or the excess in the equatorial beyond the polar diameter. These two positions, and that established by the precession of the equinoxes, although proceeding from different sources and different branches of science, are equally well authenti- cated, but require the adoption of one of the two following suppositions in order to be reconciled to one another, namely, either that the earth revolved around its axis, and assumed its oblate figure from the instant it was translated in space, and experienced precession of its equinoxes from the same period, in which case it is to be presumed, that the light was formed precisely as it completed a periodical revolution of 20,984 years; or, that during the period of darkness, when all the geological phenomena were forming, it had neither FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 385 diurnal rotation, equatorial excess of diameter, nor secular retrogradation of its nodes on the ecliptic, but that all these modifications took place on the fomnation of the light, and its division from the darkness. The adoption of the former of these two suppositions, involves the following insuperable difficulties : 1. By imagining the diurnal motion to have taken place before the geological phenomena were produced, the only conceivable period for their proper formation, and the only known force, or power in nature, capable of having elevated the continental ridges and mountain chains is set aside. Consequently, the geological evidences are opposed to this assumption. 2. By supposing the earth to have had protuberant matter about the equator, without diurnal motion, there is involved, as a direct consequence, the destruction of the obliquity of the plane of the equator, to that of the ecliptic, as has just been learned from Professor Playfair's writings.'"" And, 3. By conceiving the earth to have revolved diurnally round its axis before the formation of the light, which, besides, serving no purpose whatever, the only adequate effect which the formation of the light was calculated to produce is done away with, and a power of such magnitude as the introduction of the principle of expansion into the material universe is left, without having produced a corre- sponding effect, or without any effect at all. On the other hand, by adopting the conclusion come to by this system, and admitting what indeed can scarcely be denied that the formation of the light and its division from the darkness caused the diurnal rotation of the earth around its axis ; that this, in turn, occasioned the terraqueous pro- tuberance of the equatorial regions ; and that the action, upon this, of the sun and moon gave rise to the precession of the equinoxes the latter phenomena will be found to have commenced at the same moment as the formation of the light, the point in space coinciding with the epoch in time ; while a counteracting influence against the destruction of the obliquity of the two planes Avill be found to consist in that which pro- duced the secular disturbance ; the whole manifesting the * Playfair's "Works, vol. ii. p. 412. C C 3 86 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE most perfect harmony between the announcements of Scrip- ture, the laws of mechanics, the discoveries and calculations of astronomy, and the researches of geology ; whereby it is clearly shown, that the equatorial protuberance of form, the preservation of the obliquity of the poles to the ecliptic, and the precession of the equinoxes have a common affinity to proto-diurnal rotation ; and that what are thus related, physically and uranographically, date their origin from the same memorable period of time. It appears, then, from all that has been said in these sections, that the primary amorphous rocks arose from beneath and perforated the superincumbent stratified masses, or elevated these along with themselves, by means of the centrifugal im- petus generated in them by the first diurnal rotation of the earth around its axis. But as the earth could only have once commenced to revolve, and thereby have caused centri- fugal impetus, all the rocks found thrust through, or elevating the strata, must have been moved simultaneously. Such being the case, there would be a period when the strata over the Avhole surface of the globe were horizontal, and parallel to each other ; and a considerable lapse of time must have been required to have deposited them in successive layers in the order of superposition in which they are generally found. If, therefore, we keep the fact steadily in mind, that tJw tarth must have been for a long period without diurnal rotation, and blend it with the statement in the first part of the sixty-seventh Theorem, which is equally well authenticated, their dexterous combination will enable us to arrive at another very important deduction ; namely That the earth at one period, not having had diurnal rotation, and consisting of inert matter, incapable of gene- rating motion in itself, a force sufficient to have overcome the resistance must have been brought to bear upon it from SOME SOURCE EXTERNAL TO AND INDEPENDENT OF ITSELF, before it could have revolved diurnally, as it novv does, around its axis. The inertia of the whole mass must have been over- come, before it could possibly have moved ; before the geological phenomena, now displayed upon its surface, could have been produced ! This important conclusion reduces us to one of the greatest FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 387 difficulties ever encountered by men who depend solely on their own resources : to assign the adequate cause which over- came the inertia of the world and made it revolve diurnally around its axis. Science knows no such power. It is only in the Sacred Volume that any allusion is made to the first rotation of the earth, " the evening and the morning were the first day :" an announcement which must not be looked upon as figurative, but understood in its plain, literal sense - a whole revolution of the earth around its axis in the space of twenty -four hours, or, what is the same, with an angular velocity of 1 5 each hour ; for, unless this be admitted, and, likewise, that it was its first rotation, the necessary centri- fugal force would not have been generated ; the geological phenomena arising from that impetus would never have existed. So long, therefore, as a peak of granite is visible to and tangible by the senses, may the finger be pointed to those monuments of Infinite power, and then to the emphatic announcement " the evening and the morning were the first day!" c c 2 SECTION VI. METEOROLOGICAL PHENOMENA RESULTING FROM THE LIGHT, AND FROM THE EARTH'S FIRST DIURNAL ROTATION. CHAPTER XXIX. A T the close of the third section, the earth was considered ** to be revolving around the unillumined sun, but without diurnal motion, while its recumbent rocky crust sustained an equally diffused and universally spread mass of water ; which, having undergone a purifying process through many ages, had been deprived of nearly the whole of its earthy and acidulous ingredients, and, at the period to which I now allude, contained only saline materials, free oxygen and am- monia, which latter arose from the decomposition of animal substances, whose living possessors once inhabited infinite numbers of calcareous coverings discovered in the strata, and that the ammonia had assumed a supernatent position. It will, likewise, be recollected that this was the state in which, in the subsequent section, it was supposed to have been, when it pleased the Creator to cause the earth to rotate diurnally around its axis; while I endeavoured, in that which fol- lowed, to unfold in succession the important results produced by that memorable and stupendous event upon its rocky masses. In describing the effects which resulted from the movement of its aqueous portion, I confined myself almost exclusively to those which it exercised upon the broken fragments of the mineral crust, merely investigating the results which occurred underneath, and were there occasioned by that singular FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 389 movement of the water of the world. But equally important consequences took place in the upper regions of that watery mass, and in its lighter and more gaseous associates, which the comminution and agitation of the water permitted to escape, and, under the influence of the centrifugal impetus, to ascend, in vaporous expansion, into those vacant regions, whose full extent they were afterwards destined to occupy ; and from whence, on this occasion, they did not return ; but, being there suspended by the wonder-working power of the Creator, were caused, by his immediate agency, to expand into the life-sustaining atmosphere ; while their partial eleva- tion, for that purpose, into space by a force so general, and so evidently destined for many other important purposes, as the centrifugal impetus occasioned by the earth's first diurnal rotation around its axis, affords another confirmation of the truth, that nothing is done in vain by the Omnipotent, but that every step in the process of this great work was previously designed by a plan of exceeding wisdom, and executed by infinite power. Before endeavouring, by closer inspection into each suc- cessive step, to form a juster conception of this magnificent transformation, it will perhaps greatly aid our convictions were we to pause a moment, and imagine, if we can, the grandeur and sublimity of a world of atmosphereless water thrown into violent and universal agitation, silent and unat- tended by the slightest noise, in the absence of the vehicle of sound, but greatly augmented in motion by the successive elevation and depression of continental ridges and oceanic hollows, when " at his rebuke they fled, at the voice of his thunders they hasted away;" wben they "went up by the mountains, and down by the valleys," or perhaps more cor- rectly still, " when the mountains ascended, and the valleys descended." * This may, perhaps, be the most opportune juncture for entering into some inquiries with a view to determine the relative levels maintained by the primitive water when the entire mass was thrown into motion by the first rotation of the earth around its axis, and before this was circumbounded by an atmosphere ; and afterwards to endeavour to trace the * Psalm civ. 7, 8, and marginal reading. 390 DYNAMICAL SFSTJS OF THE line observed by " the firmament " \vlien it " divided the waters from the waters," or the level at which that expanse was introduced into the primitive ocean. These questions are not without their difficulties, but, to simplify them as much as possible, let the case be stated thus : A sphere, bearing upon its level surface an equally distributed atmo- sphereless mass of water of considerable depth, is caused to revolve around its axis Avith an angular velocity capable of elevating immense continental ridges and of depressing corre- sponding oceanic hollows, in lines running nearly at right angles to the direction of the rotatory motion, and, under these complicated conditions, it is required to know, how the atmosplicreless aqueous portion would be disposed q/7 The question naturally resolves itself into two separate branches. First, The manner in which the water would com- port itself during the time when it was under the influence of the centrifugal impetus, and to a certain extent abstracted from that of gravity ? And, secondly, How it would proceed after that impetus had ceased, and the water was restored to the influence of attraction, as far as liquidity admits of its operation ? With regard to the first of these divisions, it is obvious, that there would ensue consequences of a latitudinal and consequences of a longitudinal character. With respect to the former, it has already been shown, in a previous part of this work, that the tendency of the water would be to rush from the poles towards the equatorial regions, in order to assume that state of equilibrium, or of rest, from which it had been roused, and which was necessary in order to com- plete the form of rotation ; while the difference or inferiority in the velocities of the higher latitudinal zones of water, as they swept towards the equator, by causing them to lag be- hind, and to acquire a westerly direction, would gradually transform the latitudinal effects into those of a longitudinal character. Those of a longitudinal description are by no 'means so easily disposed of. They are attended by difficulties, greatly augmented by the paucity of evidence, or precedents to which reference might be made ; and, therefore, adhering to that which is next best, I must abide by the light of the strictest FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 391 analogy, and direct the attention steadily to the phases of the other phenomena which resulted from the first revolution of the earth around its axis, especially to those peculiar to its rocky strata, whose solid nature, having bequeathed more permanent vestiges, afford surer data from whence conclusions may be drawn. The best way, therefore, will be to consider the water as the uppermost and most flexible of all the strata ivhich constituted the exterior of the non-diurnally rotating earth. As the most prominent effects of the first diurnal rotation of the earth on its rocky masses was to abstract these, to a certain degree, from the influence of gravity, and thereby to cause them to recede from its centre, similar results would neces- sarily ensue with respect to the water, which, being held together by slighter cohesive attraction, would be more thoroughly comminuted, and consequently relieved to a commensurate extent from the pressure which all fluids sustain from their own body,'"" and, thus becoming less dense, would be better adapted for receiving the expansive influence which was so soon thereafter to be introduced into it. At the same time it should be remembered that when bodies of dissimilar densities, capable of passing or permeating one another, are subjected to the same centrifugal impetus if this be sufficient to overcome the inertia of the most ponder- able, it will throw the heaviest further from the centre, even although it should have previously occupied a position nearer to the axis of gyration. Yet care must be taken not to apply this undeniable principle without due modification to the singular case under consideration, inasmuch as the compact nature and vast extent of area of the continents, and other eminences, evidently show that, as they could not pass through and change places with the water, they would unavoidably raise up upon their broad extent those parts of the circumfluent ocean which rested upon them, and thus they would cause, during the prevalence of the elevating force, corresponding inequalities of surface on what had pre- viously been one unbroken spherical sheet of tremulous water. As regards the longitudinal motion on the surface, it appears that a distinction should be clearly made, between * According to the 90th Theorem and evidences. 3Q 2 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE that which remained at the original extent of surface, which by revolving with the revolving sphere would partake of no other motion save that of rotation, whereas the portion which was caused to ascend beyond those original bounds, by partaking of two motions, that of rotation and that of ascent, would, according to the composition of forces, have a diagonal direction impressed upon it, in order that it might synchro- nously comply with both movements. This is all I intend to say, at present, Avith respect to the motion which would take place in the upper or external sur- face of the primitive water by the first rotation of the earth around its axis. But there is still to be taken into account that which was going on below ; for, during the same period, the rocky masses of the earth were undergoing mighty transformations ; immense continental ridges were rising above the original level, and corresponding oceanic hollows were sinking beneath it ; while Ave are warranted in supposing that similar results, modified only by the nature of the water, were taking place in it also to a certain extent. No one can imagine the continent of America, for example, to rise up from beneath a level plane of water, however deep it may have been above it, without causing a corresponding watery ridge or wave along the Avhole of its surface. And, in a corresponding manner, those portions of the primitive water which were perpendicular to where the depressions were made for the beds of the ocean, must have sunk along with that on which they rested ; while the centrifugal im- petus, being equal for all points on the same parallel of lati- tude, its longitudinal effects, in modifying these inequalities of surface, may be considered inappreciable. It is, therefore, presumed that matters would remain in this state during the whole of the first revolution which the earth performed around its axis ; for it has been shown, that this was the period during which the rocky masses of the earth were elevated and moulded into their present diversity of form. This brings me to the consideration of what was supposed to have taken place during the second day of the Mosaic week. Reference to the Record will show that the first command issued on that day when the centrifugal impetus, impressed the day previous on the waters, is supposed to FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 393 have reached its maximum was, " Let there be a firmament (or expansion) in the midst of the waters ; and let it divide the waters from the waters ; " and when it is considered that the expansive force which caused the rotation of the earth, and had acted in a tangential direction, was now employed to stretch out the firmament, and that the lower plane of this must have cut the water near to where it is at present, we shall at once recognise the wisdom which disposed the water of the primeval ocean to be raised into enormous longitudinal masses or waves, in order that the vaporization should be greater above the continental ridges, where it was so essential that the water should be evaporated, and not be drained off; while the same operation was comparatively trivial in and over those portions corresponding to the parts now forming our seas, where vaporization was not required ; and when, in addition to this, it is considered that the shal- lowness and the increased temperature of the former occa- sioned by the introduction into them of immense continents of heated mineral would predispose them to accelerated vaporization,"" we shall have still greater cause to admire the providential care which directed the whole. It becomes necessary now, to point the attention to a few preliminary explanations, which, although they may appear disconnected, will serve, nevertheless, to render the subse- quent argument more continuous and uniform ; and, besides, by storing the mind with these requisite notices, they will make what I have hereafter to bring forward more easily understood. Like the magnificent operation I am about to unfold for which all the ingredients were anteriorly stored up, ready to be combined, to form the atmosphere by our having a knowledge of these elements in the mind, the account of their subsequent harmonious combination will be rendered more thoroughly convincing, and the grandeur and wonderful wisdom of the operation more readily and clearly perceived. In conducting these succinct inquiries, my first care will be to explain the more intimate composition of water, and * This is confirmed by a passage in Hutchinson's "Principles of Meteorology," p. 27 et sequitur, and by another in the Introduction to Meteorology, 1849, p. 98 et eeq. 394 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE also the state of its elementary materials when in com- bination. Mr. Reid observes " Water, it must be borne in mind, is a true chemical compound. It is not a mere mechanical mixture of elements, in the way in which air is a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen. A mere mixture of oxygen and hydrogen has not the properties of watery vapour, and before they can be made to form watery vapour they must be made to enter into chemical union by having a considerable degree of heat applied to them, or by being strongly compressed ; none of which are at all necessary to cause a mere mixture of oxygen and nitrogen to have all the properties of air. There is a great change of properties, which is not the case with the oxygen and nitrogen of the air. When combined with the hydrogen into watery vapour, the oxygen has lost entirely its power of supporting combustion and respiration, although it is present in watery vapour in a far greater proportion than in air, and it is not easy to withdraw it from the hydrogen, being united by a strong chemical attraction ; while the hydrogen has lost entirely its inflammability, and both have become so much altered that they are easily condensed into the liquid form, which cannot be done with either of them when separate. There is a change of bulk, for the quantity of vapour formed by a certain propor- tion of oxygen and hydrogen occupies less space than the two gases separately ; and heat and light are produced when they combine a sure mark of chemical union. In this respect, water, as contrasted with air, forms a striking example of the difference between combi- nation and mixture. " It is also to be observed, that the water thus produced is to be regarded as a com2)ound of liydroycn and oxyycn, not of hydrogen and oxijf/en gases." * "Water," says Mr. Graham Hutchinson, " is composed of hydrogen and oxygen, the former being the strongest electro-positive, and the latter the strongest electro-negative element known." t Mrs. Somerville confirms this when she says "Voltaic electricity is a powerful agent in chemical analyses. When transmitted through conducting fluids it separates them into their con- stituent parts, which it conveys in an invisible state through a con- siderable space or quantity of liquid to the poles, where they come into evidence Suppose a glass tube filled with very pure water, and corked at both ends ; if one of the wires of an active vol- taic battery be made to pass through one cork, and the other through the other cork into the water, so that the extremities of the two wires shall be opposite and about one quarter of an inch asunder, chemical action will immediately take place, and gas will continue to arise from the extremities of both wires till the water has vanished. * Popular Chemistry, p. 101. f Principles of Meteorology, p. 160. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 395 If an electric spark be sent through the tuhe, the water will reappear. By arranging the experiment so as to have the gas given out by each wire separately, it is found that water consists of two volumes of hydrogen and one of oxygen. The hydrogen is given out at the posi- tive wire of the battery, and the oxygen at the negative." And in another part of the same work she thus expresses herself " The law of definite proportion, established by Dr. Dalton, on the principle that every compound body consists of a combination of atoms of its constituent parts, is of universal application, and is, in fact, one of the most important discoveries in physical science, in disclosing the relative weights of the ultimate atoms of matter. Thus, an atom of oxygen, uniting with an atom of hydrogen, forms the compound, water ; but, as every drop of water, however small, consists of eight parts by weight of oxygen and one part by weight of hydrogen, it follows, that an atom of oxygen is eight times heavier than an atom of hydrogen." * " When water," says Dr. Thompson, " is pure, it is found to con- tain an equivalent of hydrogen and one of oxygen ; consequently, it is a chemical compound, whose atomic weight, in this country, is repre- sented by 1 8'013 = 9'018, i.e. the combining proportions of these gases are in the ratio of 1 to 8. "Its composition maybe shown either by analysis or synthesis. By the former it is decomposed into its respective gases, in the rela- tive weights mentioned, or by volume into two of hydrogen and one of oxygen ; by the latter it is produced when these gases are mixed in the proportions stated, and an ele'ctric spark transmitted It is entirely neutral, having neither acid nor alkaline reaction." f It will have been perceived, from what has now been tran- scribed, that water in itself contains no nitrogen ; but, as this constitutes nearly four-fifths of atmospheric air, search will have to be made for this predominant ingredient in some one of the substances with which the primitive ocean was considered to have been saturated. Ammonia is partly com- posed of nitrogen ; and taking it for granted, from what has been fully explained in previous parts of this treatise, that where animal life abounded, and became extinct, there ammonia one of the most copious exhalations arising from animal decomposition must likewise have abounded, I shall go on to inquire into its composition, and the capa- bility of water to become saturated with it to an almost unlimited extent. * Connection of the Sciences, pp. 310, 311, 122. t Introduction to Meteorology, 1819, pp. 132, 133. 396 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE Dr. Murray says " The proportions of nitrogen and hydrogen which form ammonia, according to very careful experiments made by Dr. Henry, are precisely three volumes of hydrogen and one volume of nitrogen, in conformity with the usual simple law of volumes Ammoniacal gas is largely and rapidly absorbed by water ; the water, under a mean atmospheric pressure and temperature, taking up, according to Sir H. Davey, 670 times its bulk of gas. It is under the form of a watery solution that ammonia is usually employed as a chemical agent." : " The substance called ammonia, "Dr. Lardner observes, "was only known as a gas until a temperature of 46 was attained. Exposed to that temperature it became a liquid. Such a body, in high latitudes, would, at different seasons, exist in the different forms of liquid and gas ; in winter it would be liquid, and at other seasons gas." I "A cubic inch of water," says Mr. Hugo Reid, "could absorb 670 cubic inches of ammoniacal gas By its property of absorb- ing gases, water is very useful to the chemist. For by this means he can lay up a store of any gas, and preserve it for some time for use When water dissolves a gas, the bulk of the gas is fre- quently little, if at all, altered, so that the two together occupy much less space than when separate ; and hence the solution must be heavier than watei*. The reverse, however, is the case with ammoniacal gas ; the specific gravity of water, which has absorbed as much as it can of this gas, is 0'875, that of water being 1000." \ "According to Baron Liebig," says Dr. Thompson, "there is always present ammonia composed of one volume of nitrogen and three volumes of hydrogen, condensing into two volumes derived from the decomposition of animal matters, from which gas the nitrogen of plants is supposed to be obtained. From the great affinity of ammonia for water, it will not be found free in a humid atmo- sphere " According to Gieger, it exists in the atmosphere in combination with carbonic acid." The existence of free oxygen in the primitive water is not very easily proved in a direct manner, although it can be effected by the soundest inferences. This all-pervading element water is composed of one volume of oxygen and two of hydrogen, in the relative pro- portions of 8 to 1 in weight ; and as ammonia consists of three volumes of the latter and one of nitrogen, it follows, that in the formation of this ingredient alone, which I have chosen for an example, the liberation of much oxygen can be accounted for. The same might be done with many other * Chemistry, vol. ii. pp. 6 15. t "On Heat," Cab. Cyc., p. 178. J Popular Chemistry, p. 108. $ Introduction to Meteorology, 1849, p. 5. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 397 substances. Again, if, without taking into account the great proportion of hydrogen which enters into the composition of plants, we merely bring to mind their activity in decompos- ing carbonic acid, in order to fix the carbon and liberate the oxygen,'" and then consider the prevalence of submerged vegetable existences now constituting the coal measures which suddenly became buried beneath the debris (occasioned by the first diurnal rotation of the earth), and were thereby prevented from giving out the exhalations common to their decaying state ; and reflect on the effects of the continued introduction into the water, from the previously decaying substances, of carbonic oxide and carburetted hydrogen, which would tend to keep the oxygen, thus liberated by all these agents, free from uniting with any other substance, or re- entering into spontaneous combinations without the aid of animal or vegetable secretion ; it is presumed, that in these combined causes there will be found sufficient reason for admitting that, towards the close of the non-rotating period of the earth's existence, its circumfluent water was abundantly saturated with free oxygen, whose presence, as has been shown, was so essential for the formation of the atmosphere, and for accelerating the oxidizing process in producing the soils, when the elevation of the continents and the separation of the land from the water took place. Thus I have endeavoured, by these concise explanations, to trace the origin, and to show the existence, towards the close of the non-rotating period, of the requisite ingredients for the great work which was next to occupy the attention of the Creator the formation of the atmosphere; while it is impossible to withhold admiration when we contemplate the perfect adaptation of the receptacle selected for storing up those ingredients, an ubiquitous mass of ivater capable of retaining, and ready to give them out wherever and whenever required. It is always delightful to observe the' fitness of means to the end, and the vastness of the scale on which the wonders of the creation were conducted ; but the present affords more than the usual degree of gratification, from its attendant circumstances being so apparent, and more within the grasp * " Botany," by Professor Henslow, Cab. Cyc. 398 DVXAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE of the intelligence. When aware of the design, it is at once perceived, that nowhere could a more adequate receptacle have been found in which to accumulate and to preserve the gases requisite to form the aerial ocean, which now floats around, than a mass of circumfluent and atmosphereless water, everywhere equally proximate to the space above them, which was destined to be filled by these subtle elements, in suitable proportions, when once they should be associated with the principle of expansion, to fit them for becoming the life-sus- taining atmosphere. Being fully persuaded of these sublime truths, and having present to the mind the state of elevation and dispersion in which the primeval water was maintained by the centrifugal impetus, under whose dominion it is considered to have been at this epoch, whilst the physical light had just been intro- duced into the universe, the record of Scripture giving the next command of the Creator is most appropriate namely, " Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters." All who reflect maturely 011 what has now been stated, will acknoAvledge that this was the juncture most consistent with infinite wisdom for effecting the permanent alliance between the radicle of the gases accumulated in the water, and the expansive principle with which they are combined, and which transformed them into aerial gases. Whether the ocean was saturated, as supposed, with free oxygen, or whether the water itself was decomposed to supply it, does not in any way affect the appropriateness of the period chosen for transforming those radicles into gaseous elements ; the mass of water was then maintained, by the influence of the centrifugal' impetus, high above the land and its present level ; and, at the same time, its elements were dispersed and more easily penetrated by the light, which conferred on them their permanently elastic state ; and, therefore, the fact of this being the juncture Recorded in Scripture for the formation of the atmosphere whether from elements in or associated with the primeval water when it was under the influence of a centrifugal force of such power as that engendered by the first diurnal rotation of the earth stamps the impress of truth on the passage, and assures us, in language which can FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 399 neither be mistaken nor set aside, that infinite wisdom planned and executed the whole. Before proceeding to investigate more minutely into this subject, scientifically, let us attend to a few general observa- tions to prepare the mind, and to show the extreme difficulty of the field of research on which we are now about to enter. In whatever manner the principle of heat and light may have been combined with the gaseous bases, so as to fit them for becoming the components of the atmosphere, one thing seems perfectly obvious, namely, that, during the execution of the operation in question, there must have been an ascent or move- ment upwards of the molecules of matter ; for neither the water nor its elements could have been raised by the centri- fugal impetus to the height of 40 or 50 miles above the earth's surface, to which the upper limits of the atmosphere now extend. Therefore, there must have been a movement of matter upwards, or contrary to the direction of gravity, until the elements of the atmosphere reached their destined limits. This general truth is in itself undeniable, and may probably be referred to again during the course of the argument, With respect to the difficulties attending the study of this subject even when the investigation has reference to an atmosphere already formed they are so well and so appro- priately expressed by an eminent writer on the subject, that no apology need be offered for using his own language. " In the very atmosphere in which he lives and breathes," writes Sir David Brewster, " and the phenomena which he daily sees and feels, and describes and measures, the philosopher stands in acknow- ledged ignorance of the laws which govern it. He has ascertained, indeed, its extent, its weight, and its composition, but though he has mastered the law of heat and moisture, and studied the electrical agencies which inlluence its condition, he cannot predict, or even approximate to a prediction, whether, on the morrow, the sun shall shine, or the rain fall, or the wind blow, or the lightnings descend. 'The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth.' " * If the study of the machinery of the weather, when con- templated in an atmosphere already formed, appears so * Introduction to Meteorology, by Dr. Thompson, pp. 439, 440. 400 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE arduous, what must be the difficulties of any one who under- takes to explain its original formation ? To proceed with this enterprise, however, difficult as it may be, let us now learn the nature of the Atmosphere itself, as described in the eighty -fourth and eighty-fifth Theorems, to Avhich please refer. Having acquired this requisite information, let it be con- ceived, that, through the effects of the centrifugal impetus, the water was considerably dispersed, and its associated elements separated into minute particles of oxygen and liquid ammonia ; and, at this very juncture, the command, " Let there be a firmament (or expansion) in the midst of the waters," was given, and then endeavour to follow up the con- sequences of light, heat, or electricity the principle of expansion having been combined with the elemental ingre- dients thus put into violent agitation."" Perhaps the most perspicuous manner of treating the subject will be to consider it in separate parts ; to take up, first, the aerial portion of the atmosphere, apart from its aqueous associate, and endeavour to trace its formation by the union of light with the elements of which atmospheric air is composed ; and, in continuation, to consider, that the same expansive principle was subsequently made to combine with water, so as to constitute the aqueous or vaporous portion of the great aerial ocean which now floats around us, sustaining life, and imparting vigour to all Avithin its influence. Closing in by degrees from these more general conceptions, we must bring to mind, that the air has no hydrogen in its composition, and that water has no nitrogen, vjhile no pro- cess is known whereby the one can be transformed into the other. This will simplify the question very much ; it will enable us to eliminate the hydrogen of the water entirely from our attention when considering the constitution of the atmosphere itself ; and constrain us to restrict our researches * I have been confirmed in this view hy the following paragraph with which Dr. Thompson concludes his recent and excellent volume on Meteorology, pub- lished years after the above was written : "The various meteors described," says he, "are not the offspring of separate causations, but functions of common principles. The intimate agency of heat and electricity is apparent in the tout ensemble of the science. The former is the primum mobile of Meteorology, and oxygon, nitrogen, and hydrogen are the elements on which it operates." (Introduction to Meteorology, 1849, p. 440.) FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 401 for the required nitrogen or azote entirely to the ammonia, with which the primitive water is supposed to have been so abundantly saturated towards the close of the non-rotatory period. When it is considered that "water can absorb 670 times its own bulk of ammoniacal gas," and that the relative density of the atmosphere, when compared with the oceanic water, may be estimated by the fact that the former exerts a pressure on the surface of the globe, as if it were enveloped with water only to the height of 34 feet above the surface,* these assumptions will be found quite consistent with the nature of all the elements supposed to have been then present. Expansion, or the expansive principle, is assumed to emanate from, or to be a diversified manifestation of, light and heat. These, in turn, are considered to be identical with electricity, and capable of being made to produce, under certain circumstances, similar effects, t But whether this principle be designated by the name of light, heat, electricity, or expansion, one thing regarding it, as far as the present argument is concerned, is alike certain that it came from some source altogether beyond, and, therefore, wholly indepen- dent of, the water. The announcement is quite special with regard to this, and would not have been made had the expansive principle previously existed there. " Let there be expansion in the midst of the waters," is the clear and specific command. Therefore, we must conclude that it came from some exterior source. And, consequently, on reaching the water from without, whether it acted as a tangential or as a direct force, it must, according to the regular order of causes, have come first into contact with the uppermost strata of the water. Even should it be deemed superfluous, it cannot be too frequently repeated, that we are treating of a period when the light was not, as it is now, imparted " in measured quantities according to the angular velocity with which the earth passes round the sun " (second Theorem), but that this subtile fluid was being made use of as a material primum mobile to com- * Reid's Popular Chemistry, p. 31 ; and Dr. Thompson, p. 444. t Theorems 64 and 74, to which please refer. Also to Thompson's Meteorology, p. 278. D D 402 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE plete the work in which the Creator was engaged ; and was being imparted to the several previously prepared materials in the way, and to the extent, which was most accordant with the completion of that work. The uppermost portion of the primeval water was, as has been shown, abundantly saturated with free oxygen and ammonia ; and, mark what follows : it is asserted by an eminent practical chemist, " that on the introduction of electricity into ammonia, where oxygen is likewise present, water is formed, and nitrogen is liberated."* Thus, by being made aware of the appropriate arrangement of these elements in the great laboratory of nature, and of the intro- duction amongst them of the principle of expansion, we behold, with admiration and gratitude, the purpose for which it pleased the benignant Creator to prepare a reservoir of nitrogen, sufficient to form four-fifths of the whole atmo- sphere, that the oxygen, which was in due time to be added to it, might be diluted for the respiration of myriads of creatures then as yet unborn ; and also the manner, no less simple and elegant, by which the oxygen, destined to com- plete the elements of the atmosphere, was liberated from the fluid in which it had been stored up. For it is asserted by a French chemist, as the result of one of his operations, that on applying heat to a quantity of water impregnated with a double volume of oxygen, the super-proportional oxygen is driven off, while the water itself remains in its original state. This reveals another of the designs for which heated mineral masses, composing the continents of the earth, were intro- duced into an ocean surcharged with the oxygenous elements of a world's atmosphere ! The contemplation of such mighty operations, conducted with so much wisdom, must afford to an unprejudiced mind the most exquisite satisfaction and delight. And, when we add to these the consideration of the facts, that an agent so subtile and whose effects are so soft and impalpable as light was made use of, and that a body so admirably adapted as water for receiving without transmitting, the effects of the percussion, was caused to intervene between the impetus and Dr. Ure's Chemical Dictionary, p. 151. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 403 the terrene portions of the earth, the entire arrangement affords a perfect illustration of the surpassing wisdom which designed and executed the whole. But there are still to be traced the more permanent effects of the introduction of the expansive principle into the water of the primeval ocean. Its first results have just been made manifest ; I shall now endeavour to show how these gaseous bases were transformed into the elements of an aeriform fluid so pre-eminently elastic as the atmosphere. With this design, whatever evidences are afforded by the researches and the discoveries of chemists will be availed of; while it may heighten our admiration to reflect that, previous to the for- mation of the atmosphere itself, the combining power of light and heat would be considerably augmented :* that is, the power, or the combining influence of light, would be by an entire atmosphere greater than what the rays of light can now exercise in uniting with, or in conferring their effects upon, any substance which they may be employed to trans- form under the existing pressure of the atmosphere. The following evidences support the eighty-sixth Theorem, which denotes the nature of gas : " Bodies," observes Dr. Lardner, " existing in the aeriform state are divided into two classes, called vapours and gases The latter are those aeriform bodies which have never been known to exist in any other than the aeriform state, and which, under all ordi- nary degrees of cold, preserve their elastic condition. This class includes common air, and a great number of substances known in chemistry under a variety of names, but all comprised under the general denomination of gases. " f " It is also to be observed," says Mr. H. Reid, " that the WATER thus produced is to be regarded as a compound of hydrogen and oxygen, not of hydrogen and oxygen gases. These gases consist each of some unknown matter in union with heat, and, perhaps, light and electricity It is considered, therefore, that oxygen and hydro- gen gases consist of some unknown bodies called oxygen and hydro- gen, in union with a considerable quantity of heat. This heat is not apparent to our senses, does not make the oyxgen and hydrogen feel warm, is not heat in the common meaning of the term ; but it is, nevertheless, clear that they must contain it, or the principle which causes heat, for they produce it when they combine chemically, and produce a very large quantity of it. This heat was in them in a con- * No less than 124 of Fahrenheit's thermometer. And, according to Robin- son, fluids boil in vacuo at 140 lower than in the open air. (Thompson, p. 18.) t Heat, in Cab. Cyc., pp. 177, 178. D D 2 4 o 4 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE cealed or hidden state, but it has the effect of retaining them in the gaseous condition with great force, and, indeed, rendering it impossible for them to be condensed into liquids Oxygen and hydrogen gases, then, consist of oxygen and hydrogen united to a great quantity of heat."* Having thus been made aware, in the most convincing manner, that gases are essentially composed of a gravitating base, in union with a subtile, self-expansive, imponderable fluid ; I shall proceed to exhibit the fruitlessness of all attempts to separate between the expansive principles and the bases of the elements of the atmosphere. The remark- able and pointed testimony, which is unconsciously afforded by chemical research to the truth of this, is embodied in the fifty-fifth and eighty-fifth Theorems, which please see. In the " Connexion of the Sciences," it is said "Dr. Faraday has reduced some of the gases to a liquid state by very great compression ; but although atmospheric air is capable of a diminution of volume, to which we do not know the limit, it has hitherto always retained its gaseous properties, and resumes its primitive volume the instant the pressure is removed." t Dr. Thompson says " The atmosphere is composed of aerial fluids, chiefly oxygen and nitrogen, in the ratio of one volume of the former to four of the latter. Such is the result of numerous analyses The atmosphere has hitherto resisted every effort to produce its liquefaction. " Let us digress and examine the properties of these gases. They are elastic fluids, clear, colourless, devoid of smell and taste, but no further do they agree. " Oxygen is heavier than air This gas has resisted the efforts of chemists to liquefy it, though subjected to the pressure of 585 at- mospheres, at the temperature of 145 Fahrenheit. "Without oxygen life could not be sustained. It is the most abundant of all elements ; in water it forms 89 per cent., and it is an essential constituent in all organic bodies. It has been computed to constitute one-third of the weight of the whole globe. " Nitrogen or Azote was first observed by Rutherford, of Edinburgh, in 1772. It is lighter than atmospheric air in the proportion of 0*9727 to I'O. It neither supports combustion, nor does it sustain life, though it performs a most important part in its economy * Chemistry, by Hugo Reid, pp. 101, 102, t Connection of the Sciences, p. 1 19. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 405 " These gases are met with in nature free. To these ingredients of the atmosphere Orfila adds electricity, light, and caloric necessary for suspending the substances in the gaseous state." * " Dr. Faraday attempted, without success, the condensation of various other gases. Oxygen, azote, and hydrogen have, it is said, been submitted to a pressure of 800 atmospheres, without passing into the liquid state." t * Introduction to Meteorology, 1849, pp. 3, 9. t Heat, in Cab. Cyc., pp. 177179. SECTION VI. METEOROLOGICAL PHENOMENA RESULTING FROM THE LIGHT, AND FROM THE EARTH'S FIRST DIURNAL ROTATION. CHAPTER XXX. 1 A HE investigations which were entered into in the pre- ceding chapter, have shown, that the gaseous elements of the atmosphere consist of a base or radicle in union with the expansive principle, in so intimate a manner, that no means or power which the most scientific chemists have hitherto been enabled to bring to bear upon them, although a pressure equal to 800 atmospheres was applied, have been found sufficient to separate these associates. But we have yet to learn the more surprising fact, that, in a manner analogous to that in which each of these imperceptible particles may be supposed to be enveloped in a coating, or hollow sphere of expansion, their aggregate effect seems designed to produce a proportionably extended atmosphere, which surrounds the whole globe, with properties so peculiar as to indicate its almost abstraction from the otherwise universal law of gravity ; for its elements expand by a law peculiar to themselves termed " the diffusion principle " into regions transcending the earth's surface by forty-five or fifty miles ; although, strange to add, as a collective body this hollow sphere of aerial fluid possesses considerable gravity, pressing upon the surface with a force, as already mentioned, of fifteen pounds for every square inch. As the singular property of diffusion is that which more immediately interests us at present, it will be attended to FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 407 exclusively. Meanwhile, as this peculiar principle has only lately been discovered, the notices respecting it will not be so full as could otherwise have been wished. The eighty- seventh Theorem has reference to it, which please see.* The following evidences corroborate the truths therein stated " Strange as it may appear," says Mr. Reid, "it is now the general opinion among chemists, that the oxygen and nitrogen of the air are not in chemical union with each other, but that they are merely in a state of mechanical mixture There are some reasons which might lead us to regard the oxygen and nitrogen of the air as existing in chemical union with each other. . . . Suppose that the oxygen would sink to the ground by itself, and the nitrogen float above it, like oil upon water ; but this is not the case, for they are mixed in the same proportions at whatever distance from the ground, as GayLussac found in air which he collected at an elevation of nearly 22,000 feet, having ascended to that height in a balloon ; also oxygen and nitrogen are present in the atmosphere exactly in the same proportions, estimated both by weight and by measure, in which, from the laws of chemical combination, it is known they would be united, if it were a chemical union. " ' It appears to me,' says Dr. Dalton, ' as completely demonstrated as any physical principle, that whenever two or more such gases or vapours are put together into a limited or unlimited space, they will finally be arranged each as if it occupied the whole space, and the others were not present.' That is, each will be diffused or spread out through the whole space, not separating according to their respective specific gravities. This intimate intermixture of the two gases cannot be attributed to chemical attraction, for there is no chemical affinity subsisting between carbonic acid and hydrogen ; it must be dependent on some other power, which, acting between gases so different in density as carbonic acid and hydrogen, causing the heavy one to ascend, and the light one to descend, will produce the same effects with the oxygen and the nitrogen in the air. It is now generally considered, that it is in obedience to this law, that the oxygen and the nitrogen are mixed in the air in the same proportion everywhere. Dr. Dalton supposes, that though the repulsive principle acts power- fully in repelling from each other the particles of the same gas it does not act between those of different gases ; that, therefore, a gas, by the elasticity of its particles, expands into any space to which it may have access, completely disregarding any other gas which may be* in that space, while the gas previously there acts in the same way, and they thus become mutually diffused through, each other. " Mr. Graham, of Glasgow, found that this expansive tendency in each gas is so great, that the intermixture takes place even when the two gases are separated by some substance of a porous nature, as plaster of pans, bladder, cork, or stoneware, it has been named the * 87th Theorem. 4 o8 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE ' DIFFUSION OF GASES,' and is an extremely curious and interesting subject, throwing light on many natural phenomena, and bringing to view a power formerly quite unknown, and capable of producing effects, which, from our previous knowledge of the laws of nature, we would have been apt to pronounce as impossible " Indeed, such are the facts brought to light by Mr. Graham's experiments, that although our knowledge of the diffusion principle may be considered as yet in its infancy, they evince the existence of a power acting upon gases, and capable of counteracting, to a certain extent, the effects of the attraction of gravitation, forming an exception to what was formerly considered a universal law ; and much may be expected from the progressive development of this singular law of the DIFFUSION OF GASES." : " In viewing the atmosphere," continues Dr. Ure, " as consisting of oxygen and azote, we cannot help remarking the delicate equilibrium of chemical proportions on which the well-being of organic life, and even the whole aspect of nature, depend. " Were the proportion of oxygen or vital air diminished, breathing would be laborious, every warm-blooded animal would become asth- matic, and coal would not cheer the domestic hearth. On the other hand, were the proportion of the vital ingredient doubled, that is, instead of one of it to four of azote, as at present, were there two to four, the temperate breath of heaven might suddenly change into an atmosphere of intoxicating gas ; for these are the chemical proportions and sole constituents of this curious air. Were the bulk of oxygen quadrupled, so that its quantity should equal that of azote, a most noxious air called nitrous gas (dentoxide of azote) might result ; a gas which, with an additional charge of oxygen, would condense into an ocean of aqua fortis or nitric acid. A slight modification of chemical affinity would convert even our existing atmosphere into the most corrosive of liquids. . . . But science shows that the chemical equilibrium of the atmospheric elements is fixed by the same beneficent wisdom which confines the turbulent ocean, by an apparently slender barrier of sand." f Mr. Daniel has the following just remarks on this curious subject : " The constancy of the proportions, in which the gases of the atmo- sphere are found to be combined in every situation, notwithstanding perpetual causes of disturbance, is the never-failing theme of wonder. .... If the oxygen and azote be two distinct elastic atmospheres, as Mr. Dalton originally suggested, mutually permeating one another's interstices, the particles of each pressing only upon their fellows, and offering slight obstacles to the motions of the other sort ; then a par- tial consumption of oxygen would be instantly supplied by a rush of the elastic fluid towards the spot where the equality of the pressure had been disturbed. In fact, no sooner does a particle of oxygen * Popular Chemistry, pp. 7681. f Ure, pp. 53, 54. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 4 o9 quit the azote and enter into a new combination, than the rows of particles by which it was pressed all around, speedily supply its place." * Dr. Thompson says " The proportion of oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere is the same on the tops of mountains and in the most sheltered valleys " From every recorded analysis of air," he continues, " uniformity has " invariably " resulted The equable mixture of these gases, though of dissimilar specific gravities, has been ascribed to the principle of resistance of the particles of the same gaseous fluid. "t The establishment of these points, and especially that of the principle " of the diffusion of gases," by which they are caused to expand throughout the whole extent of the aerial ocean, ought to be received as the most convincing proof of the truth of the Mosaic record. + Whoever has paid any attention to what has been written on meteorology, must be aware, that the atmosphere compre- hends two distinct bodies of colourless, inodorous, elastic fluids the one of Air, the other of Vapour ; the former composing, by far, its greatest volume and most important part, whose movements and changes give a tone to the whole : while the watery vapour, though comparatively in- significant in volume or weight, is yet absolutely essential to the well-being and existence of the animal and vegetable kingdoms of nature. The truth of these assertions will appear more evident after perusing the following quota- tions : "We have seen," says Professor Whewell, "how many and how important are the offices discharged by the aqueous part of the atmo- sphere. The aqueous part is, however, a very small part only ; it may vary, perhaps, from 1-100 to nearly as much as l-20th in weight * Tire, pp. 65, 66. t Introduction to Meteorology, pp. 6, 24, 13. J It is also worthy of remark, how frequently throughout the sacred volume the finger seems to have been pointed to those discoveries long, long ago ; and repeated, at intervals, throughout the whole course of the divine revelation, with a clearness only equalled by man's wayward reluctance to appreciate them. In proof of this, the following are a few from amongst the numerous passages which might be quoted, to show, that under the figure of " stretching out the heavens like a curtain," the expansive principle, now termed the "Diffusion of Gases," is as clearly indicated, as if volumes, detailing the results of experimental philosophy had been written on the subject : Ps. civ. 2 ; Isa. xl. 22 ; xliv. 24 ; xlv. 12 ; li. 13. 4 io DYNAMIC AL SYSTEM OF THE of the whole aerial ocean. We have to offer some considerations with regard to the remainder of the mass. " In the first place we may observe, that the aerial atmosphere is necessary as a vehicle for the aqueous vapour. Salutary as is the operation of this last element to the whole organized creation, it is a substance which would not have answered its purpose if it had been administered pure. It requires to be dilated and associated with dry air to make it serviceable " Besides our atmosphere of aqueous vapour, we have another and far larger atmosphere of common air ; a permanently elastic fluid : that is, one which is not condensed into a liquid form by pressure of cold, such as it is exposed to in the order of natural events. The pressure of the common air is about 29 inches of mercury ; that of the watery vapour perhaps half an inch " Now this mass of dry air is by far the most dominant part of the atmosphere ; and hence carries with it in its motions the thinner and smaller eddies of aqueous vapour. The latter fluid may be considered as permeating, and moving in the interstices of the former, as a spring of water flows through a sand rock." * " Though the air we breathe,' 1 says another writer, " was formerly considered a simple substance, it is now known to be a compound. Its constituents are nitrogen, oxygen, and carbonic acid gases, and aqueous vapour, existing in a state, not of chemical combination, but of uniform intermixture with one another The relative pro- portion of the aqueous vapour contained in the atmosphere is extremely variable, and is regulated in a great measure by the temperature of the air It has been estimated, that in Great Britain, during summer, the weight of water present in the atmosphere frequently amounts to l-60th of the whole ; whereas, in winter, it often does not exceed l-300th of the whole. In warm latitudes, the weight of aqueous vapour contained in the atmosphere is frequently double what it is, during summer, in Great Britain, while in the polar regions the proportion is extremely small. Dr. Dalton supposes, that the medium quantity of vapour held in solution by the atmosphere may amount to l-70th of its bulk." t What has thus far been said will be sufficient to explain the harmony which exists between the record of creation and the experience of natural philosophy, as regards the forma- tion of the elements of the aerial part of the firmament, and their permanently expansive character, without reference having been made to the completion of the work ; for the Firmament or Atmosphere was not perfected, nor indeed could it have been, until the separation of the land from the water, on the third day of tlie MOSAIC WEEK. * Bridgewater Treatise, pp. 96 99. t Piinciples of Meteorology, by Mr. H< utchins'-.n. pp. 4 6. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 411 Whilst the signification of the words " let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters ; and let it divide the waters from the waters," appears to have reference not only to tJve, relative, positions in space of the waters which were thus separated from each other, by the agency of the firma- ment, but likewise apply (as the means of effecting that separation) to the relative degrees of expansive principle with which any portion of the water is for the time being combined. This view of the subject will be found to harmonize with those which have been adopted, as the result of experiments, by philosophers, who have been induced to ascribe similar inherent properties to what is termed the " dew-point," or ''constituent temperature for the maintenance of water in a state of vapour." For, supposing the Firmament to be, as it assuredly is, that constituent or Dew-point, and to be subject, itself, to variations according to altitude, tempera- ture, and other concomitant cirumstances (all indispensable for its perfection, as will presently be shown), then it can clearly be understood how it is that the waters " under the firmament " refer to those which, at any particular place, are in a negative or inferior degree of combination with the expansive principle, or lower than " their constituent tempe- rature " in relation to the atmosphere, at the same time and place ; and, on that account, by condensing, incline to descend ; while those again which are " above the firmament " have reference to such as are in excess of combination with the subtile element conferring expansion on them, and thereby they have become above their constituent temperature, and are inclined to ascend. Thus a division, varying in extent / o and degree, according to relative circumstances, is effected between these two portions of water, by means of the atmo- sphere, which, by being differently affected by heat, permits and enables the watery vapour to percolate through it with perfect freedom, whilst it likewise serves as a carrier, from place to place, of the aqueous portion. As the combination of the minute particles of water with the repulsive principle, is that which causes them to become watery vapour, and to ascend until they find their level in the atmosphere, they thereby naturally and spontaneously 4 i2 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE obey the law which was primarily impressed upon them- For, leaving the great body of the water, which remains uncombined, they ascend and are divided from it both in temperature and in space, as long as they continue in a positive state, or " above the firmament ;" while they descend to rejoin their parent source, as soon as, from causes whose explanation will presently be attempted, they fall below below their constituent temperature at the particular point of the atmosphere where they happen to be. And thus, the one state directly inducing the other, as cause and effect, the harmony prevailing between them manifestly shows the correctness of these assumptions, and which I shall now endeavour to prove, by the announcements of philosophy, to be also in accordance with the scientific facts of the case. Without dwelling on the details of the ninety-third Theorem, so complete as almost to be sufficient explanation of the matter it involves, I shall pass on to the consideration of the ninety-fourth and ninety-fifth Theorems relating to this particular subject ; and in conclusion bring forward evidences common to them all, which will tend, at the same time, to simplify the subject. The evidences common to the several propositions stated in them will tend, while they illustrate what has been said, to prepare the mind for what is to form the subject of the next section, when the use, made by the Creator, of the newly formed atmosphere, in separating the water from "the dry land," by evaporation, will be considered, and its ex- planation attempted. " Besides our atmosphere of aqueous vapour," says Professor Whe- well, " we have another and far larger atmosphere of common air, a permanently elastic fluid, that is, one which is not condensed into a liquid form by pressure or cold, such as it is exposed to in the order of natural events. " Now, a mass of dry air, of such a character as this, is by far the dominant power of our atmosphere : and hence carries with it in its motions the thinner and smaller eddies of aqueous vapour. " . . . . The air tends from the colder to the warmer parts, the vapour from the warmer to the colder. " Thus, we can have no equilibrium in such an atmosphere, but a perpetual circulation of vapour between its upper and lower parts. The currents of air which move about in different directions at different FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 413 altitudes, will be differently charged with moisture, and as they touch and mingle, lines of cloud are formed, which grow and join, and are spread out in floors, or rolled together in piles. These, again, by an additional accession of humidity, are formed into drops, and descend in showers into the lower regions, and, if not evaporated in their fall, reach the surface of the earth. Here, then, we have another remark- able exhibition of two laws, in two nearly similar gaseous fluids, pro- ducing effects alike in kind, but different in degree, and by the play of their difference giving rise to a new set of results, peculiar in their nature and beneficial in their tendency." * " Meteorology," observes Mr. Hutchinson, " is that department of physical science which treats of atmospheric phenomena " The parent source," he continues, " from whence the atmosphere, when undersaturated, derives a supply of aqueous vapour, is the ocean. The process by which it is supplied is called evaporation, .... and, as a considerable proportion of the moisture which is precipitated upon the land is returned to the ocean by means of rivers, it is obvious that the land would soon become dried up, were it not supplied with humidity from the ocean, through the agency of evapo- ration and atmospheric currents." .... " Clouds," says Dr. Prout, " are the great means by which water is transported from seas and oceans to be deposited far inland, where water otherwise would never reach." f .... "As the capacity of air for moisture varies with its temperature," observes Mr. Graham, " the attention of philosophers has been directed to ascertain the relative ratio of variation Judging from the experiments which have been made, it appears, that while the temperature of air increases in arithmetical progression, its capa- city for holding moisture in invisible solution increases in geometrical progression, or very nearly so. And in every increment of tempera- ture amounting to about 23-4 of Fahrenheit's scale, the capacity of air for moisture is doubled. Thus, if the capacity of air for moisture be denoted 1 at the temperature of zero, it will be 2, or double the zero capacity, at the temperature of 23-4 ; 4, or the quadruple, at 46'8; eight times the zero capacity at the temperature of 70*2; and sixteen times the zero capacity at the temperature of 93'6, &c." J " The experiments of the illustrious Dalton and Gay Lussac," says the author of the " Philosophy of Storms," " have shown, that when the dew-point is 80 Fahrenheit, and the barometer 30 inches, the quantity of vapour in atmospheric air is l-48th of the whole weight and l-30th of the whole bulk ; when the dew-point is 71 the quantity is l-4th less ; and when that constitutional point is 59, the quantity of vapour is one-half as much as when it is at 80, while at 39 the quantity would be reduced to one quarter." * Bridgewater Treatise, pp. 98106. f Principles of Meteorology, by G. Hutchinson, Introd., p. 117- J Ibid., pp. 9, 17, 153 ; Dr. Thompson on Heat and Electricity, pp. 274, 440 ; also Dr. Wells on Dew. . \ Philosophy of Storms, p. 1. 414 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE These evidences demonstrate to a certainty, that the view adopted of the separation of waters under the firmament from waters above the firmament implies, that the latter were abstracted from the dominion of gravity by combination with the expansive principle, and thereby caused to ascend until they found their level upwards ; while those which were not thus combined, but remained in their former state, were so far under the dominion of the gravitating power, that they sought as waters do in their natural state their level downwards. This instance may be offered as a most satisfactory con- firmation of the position formerly assumed, namely, that the division of the light from the darkness consisted in the DIVEKGENCY of the tendency of their influences in space ; the former propending from the centre towards the circum- ference, the latter from the circumference towards the centre. For, as these two are the only instances where the term divide occurs, they seem mutually to shed an explana- tory light on each other. And it is worthy of remark, that the same principle, the LIGHT or EXPANSION, was employed to effect this separation, evidently without any character having been impressed upon it for that purpose ; but taken up and made use of as an agent already capable of conferring expansion or repulsion. " Let there be a firmament (or expansion) in the midst of the waters, and let it (i.e. the expansion) divide the waters from the waters." And when we further reflect, that the expansive principle employed on this occasion must have been the neivly formed light ; for the opposite principle attraction had existed for ages upon the water " darkness was upon the face of the deep " tvithout having produced an atmosphere or firmament, it cannot fail to afford an additional testimony to every candid mind, that the division of the light from the darkness, on the first day of the Mosaic week, was the means of conferring an expan- sive principle upon the light ; and, that the new principle, thus formed, was made use of as the agent in effecting the division of " the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament." This conclusion, it is apprehended, is perfectly correct ; yet lest any doubt should still harbour in the mind from the FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 415 suspicion, that when the firmament or atmosphere was formed, some additional 'material or ponderable substance was intro duced into the universe ; that is, some new matter added to the earth, occasion is taken to show by the simple applica- tion of one of the most accredited laws of mechanics, motion or momentum, that no such addition was made. It is stated in the two concluding paragraphs forming the fifth rule of the seventy-third Theorem, " that weights, which are as one to two, revolving at equal distances with the same velocity, will have their centrifugal forces as one to two ; the centri- fugal force increasing as the mass of the moving body in- creases," and consequent on this invariable law of mechanics, had any addition been made to the matter or, in other words, to the weight of the world by the formation of the atmosphere, the angular momentum of the earth's rotation would have increased in a corresponding ratio ; and so would also its centrifugal impetus around the sun ; and, thereby, both its diurnal rotation and its orbital motion in space, would have been acted upon and disturbed. Nor is this all. By the further application of the same laws those of mechanics the special nature can be de- termined of that which was added to the material radicle or base of the atmosphere, to give it expansion, and we can also ascertain the precise period, almost to an hour, when this was done ; for we find by the second rule of the same Theorem, " that weights revolving with the same angular velocity, at distances from the centre in the proportion of one to two, have their centrifugal force in the same proportion." Therefore, whatever of MATTER is embodied in the atmosphere was raised at once to the height above the surface, or distance from the centre, by the cen- trifugal impetus impressed on the earth by its first diurnal rotation round its axis, and by the impartation of the expan- sive principle, when such matter was driven off from the centre to that distance which the figure of rotation de- manded ; and that whatever was added thereto, to constitute the firmament or atmosphere, did not possess the slightest appreciable gravity. The only elements in nature known to be so circumstanced are light, heat, and electricity ; conse- quently, some one of these modifications of the expansive 4i 6 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE principle must have been that which was applied to form the buoyant constituent of the atmosphere ; and which thoroughly agrees not only with the announcement, " Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters," but is also in strict accordance with the latest conclusions which have been come to, on the subject, by philosophical writers. " The meteorology of the present epoch," says Dr. Thompson, " is very different from that of Aristotle and his pupil Theophrastus, or even that of the early years of the present century. The unwearied labours of a goodly host distributed over the globe, have been already amply rewarded, and we look forward with no small expectation to ' coming events,' which, in the discoveries of Faraday, may be said to have ' cast their shadows before.' The various phenomena described are not the offspring of separate causations, but functions of common principles. The intimate connection of agency, of heat and electricity, is apparent in the tout ensemble of the science. The former is the primum mobile of meteorology, and oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen the elements on and with which it operates.". . . . And at another place he observes " The experiments of Dr. Faraday have established a true direct relation and dependence between light and the magnetic and electric forces ; and thus a great addition is made to the facts and considera- tions which tend to prove, that all natural forces are tied together and have one common oriyin." * Indeed, unless the atmosphere had been formed on the second day of the Mosaic week, there would have been an unaccountable hiatus in that period, as regards the LIGHT, that potent element so recently introduced into the universe by the Creator. It has already been shown, that it was this which was made use of on the first day to cause the earth (and we conclude the other spheres also) to rotate around their respective axes ; and, likewise, that the primary light was employed on the third day to separate the water from the land, and to form the phanogamous classes of the vege- table kingdom. Consequently, unless there was a commen- surate amount and importance of work performed, under divine direction and power, by the primary unconcentrated light, on the second day, there would be the hiatus alluded to : and unless that work was the firmament or atmosphere, * Introduction to Meteorology, 1849, pp. 440, 278. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 417 it is impossible to account for it during a period, when it is positively known to exist, by what it was made to do both before, and after, THAT IT DID EXIST. The fact has already been adverted to, that however influential and all-pervading the centrifugal force, engendered by the first diurnal rotation of the earth around its axis, must have been ; and however certainly it would have the effect of repelling part of the primitive circumfluent water to a con- siderable distance beyond its original level ; and, to a certain extent, filling with its comminuted particles part of the space now occupied by the atmosphere ; yet the force in question, so long as it was unaided, was quite incapable of having sent any particles of a material description to such a distance as forty or fifty miles from the earth's surface a height to which it is ascertained the firmament or atmo- sphere extends. It is when labouring under this difficulty that it is most easy to recognise in the principle of diffu- sion, or the alliance of the material bases of the atmo- spheric elements with the expansive principle of light, whereby they are buoyed up to the height in question, an admirable and simple explanation ; the true rationale of what, other- wise, would have been wholly inexplicable, upon the sup- position of the centrifugal force alone having effected the object in question ; and to be grateful to science for the discovery which not only has relieved the mind from anxiety on this score, but made manifest in so clear and forcible a manner the wisdom and power of the Creator. Before proceeding further, let us pause to reflect a moment upon the signal corroboration of the Dynamical System which is afforded by what has now been described. Unless it had been recorded, that there had been formed, at this precise juncture, an aggregate body so enormous as to cause a pressure of 15 pounds for every square inch of surface of the terraqueous globe ! this Treatise would have been brought to an abrupt and unsatisfactory termination. It cannot have been forgotten, that when explaining, in previous sections, what took place underneath the dark and atmosphereless water of the primitive ocean, when the stratiform masses of the earth's outer crust were being depo- sited, it was shown that this essential labour was chiefly E E 4 i 8 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE conducted by innumerable tribes of zoophytic, testaceous, and others of the invertebrate class of animals, and by the secretion of widely extended patches of flowerless submerged plants. And, that after the animal existences had encrusted themselves with coatings of carbonate of lime, and had ful- filled their other destinies, they died ; and from the decom- posing materials of their fleshy remains there arose never- ceasing streams of ammoniacal and other gaseous exhalations, in small, almost imperceptible increments, it is true, but in consequence of the myriads on myriads of these invertebrate creatures, and the ages during which these decomposing processes were going on, they must have amounted, in their aggregate, to enormous accumulations ; and that by means of the plants, in a somewhat analogous manner, the ancient water became surcharged with free oxygen. It was also made manifest, that in conducting the double process of forming and causing the deposition of the mineral stratified crust of the world, and in purifying the universal menstruum, to fit the former for becoming the terrene portion of the earth, and the latter for becoming the present seas, it pleased the Creator, by means of the various agencies employed for that purpose, to separate the original contents of the primeval water into two distinct divisions : one of which, by organic agency and electrical influences, was caused to be concreted into solid, indissoluble masses, which thereby descended to and remained at the bottom ; every particle of matter in the primitive water fitted for such purposes having been drawn downwards, and become consolidated into strata, and there detained until the proper time came when, by means of the centrifugal impetus of the first rotation, these solidified deposits were made to start up and stand erect, to form the rocky barriers of the residual water. Of this solid and enduring section of the primary matter, a sufficient and a satisfactory account has been given. They now constitute the upheaved barriers of the ocean, the stratiform masses of the world ! The other section of matter, however, which was thus being divided during the process of purification, took an opposite direction and went upivards. And one of the principal ingredients which thus arose from the decompo- FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 419 sition of the submerged animal matter was ammonia, which, owing to its specific levity, or, what is the same, its relative size of volume, and the facility with which it combines with water, percolated upwards until it reached the higher strata of the ancient ocean. And in continuation, this state of matters during the incipient period of the earth's history was shown to be no figment of the imagination, but that it did necessarily exist ; indeed, could not, according to the laws governing matter, and under the allowed circumstances, have been otherwise. For so surely as there were successive races of animal forms at the bottom of the primitive ocean and their fossil exuviee abundantly testify that there were so surely must these living, mortal creatures have died ; and so surely as they died, so certainly and unavoidably must their fleshy remains have decayed, decomposed, and resolved themselves into those gaseous exhalations which proceed from putrid animal matter, one of which, and the principal one, is the alkaline substance ammonia. If the innumerable myriads of living creatures, whose fossilised and indurated coverings compose a vast proportion of the calcareous strata, and the prevalence of this description of rock be taken into account the ages which must have passed whilst these were being formed, and whilst the primeval waters were being brought into a state of prepara- tion to be the seas of the present day be considered we shall we able to arrive at an approximate conception of the enormous accumulation of the alkaline ingredient ammonia, and of the free oxygen, which must have been stored up towards the conclusion of the non-rotatory period. Indeed, nothing short of an aerial ocean, such as the atmosphere, which envelopes the whole earth to the height of nearly 50 miles, and whose aggregate Aveight is that of 5,292,623,739,744,000 tons, or nearly five thousand three hundred billions of tons, the nitrogen or azote alone of which was derived from the ammonia in question, and whose enormous weight is 4,093,853,510,757,856 tons ; or, in round numbers nearly four thousand one hundred billions of tons, could possibly have required the protracted accumulations which have so often been alluded to and insisted upon. And fortunately it E E 2 4 2o DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE is requisite to account, at this juncture, by the formation of the atmosphere, for quantities which represent these vast accumulations, as this Treatise would, otherwise, have been incomplete. The following remarka*ble corroboration, so far as it goes, of the approximative correctness of these estimates, has been given in Dr. Thompson's recent meteorological work, published some years after these computations were made : " The weight of the entire atmosphere is equal to a sea of mercury covering the superfices of our globe to the depth of 80 inches. The pressure is equal to nearly 14'6 Ibs. avoirdupois upon each square inch, or 58,611,548,160 Ibs. upon every square mile. The pressure of the atmosphere may be thus estimated at about 8 ozs. avoirdupois for every inch of mercurial elevation of the barometer. The absolute weight of the atmosphere, assuming the superfices of our globe to be 790,116,426,647,756,800 square inches, amounts to the enormous sum of 11,456,688,186,392,473,600 Ibs., equivalent, according to Dr. Cotes, to the weight of a globe of lead sixty miles in diameter. Pascal computes the whole mass cf air at 8,983,889.440,000,000,000 Fr. Ibs. Thus the weight of the atmosphere is equal to above eleven trillions of pounds English notation, a sum which words may express and figures tabulate, but the mind cannot appreciate. Reduce this amazing weight to tons, and the mind is still unable to conceive the full value of the product 5,114,592,940,353,782. Compared with the weight of the globe, this mighty sum dwindles to insignificance. Unite the two, and none but an Almighty mind can form an adequate conception ; none but an Almighty arm could hurl it through space, and give to its motions a regularity obedient to fixed laws. The same Almighty power alone could institute these laws." * The proper consideration of all that has been brought forward, respecting this evident two-partite division of the * Introduction to Meteorology, p. 25. It may be interesting to know by what process I arrive at this array of figures, representing the weights of the whole atmosphere, and of the azote in it, respect- ively, in billions of tons quantities scarcely appreciable by the mind, yet deduced Irom undeniable data. We have, first of all, the diameters of the earth, 7,899 and 7,925 miles, and assuming the surface to be level, these give for the entire superfice, 196,878,115 square miles, and consequently 790,365,145,135,104,000, say seven hundred and ninety thousand three hundred and sixty-five billions one hundred and forty -five thousand one hundred and thirty-five millions one hundred and four thousand square inches ; and as the aggregate weight of the atmospheric elements is equal to 15 Ibs. for every one of these square inches, we have, of course, one ton of 2,240 Ibs. equal to ^square inches 149,333, which, becoming the divisor of the above surface in square inches, gives 5,292,623,739,744,000 tons as the weight of the entire atmosphere. The azote being estimated at 77'55-lOOths of the weight of that body, we must take 790,365,145,135,104,000 X 0-7755 = 611,347,439,762,002,944 -r 149,333 = 4,093,853,510,757,856 tons for the azote alone. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 42 r associated elements of the ancient ocean, taken in combina- tion with the explicit announcements made in the Mosaic record regarding them, unfold to the mind a remarkable uni- formity of proceeding and oneness of design, both before and after the diurnal rotatory period ; this event, important as it may appear, and as, in reality, it was to the whole material universe, exercised not the slightest influence over the great leading principles which continued uninterruptedly to direct the entire plan of creation. By what has just been demon- strated it is evident, that the operation of separating masses of matter into two, by causing one division to unite itself closer with the gravitating principle and to go downward, and by associating another portion of the same mass with the expansive principle, and induce it thereby to adopt an opposite or an upward tendency, had been going on for ages before the formation of the physical light. When this was willed into existence, the first impulse given to it was to divide it from, the darkness. By the application of the expansive influence, the spheres were caused to rotate, the waters under the firmament were divided from those above the firmament. And, in continuation, the residual waters were separated from the dry land, and the two unitedly stood forth, in pleasing variety, as a fitting pedestal for the plants and animals of the more recent world. Whilst the same principle seems to have been carried out even in the formation of these ; animal and vegetable organic forms, endowed with life and vegetable vitality, having been separated from the more inert materials which constituted the terra- queous globe. In short, the great leading feature of the creation seems to have been SEPARATION a separation between that which was, and which still continues to be, to a certain extent, under the influence of ATTRACTION, and that which, by the immediate agency of the Creator, has been immutably placed also, in degree, under the dominion of LIGHT Or EXPANSION. So far as has been revealed the extent of this principle of separation can be traced ; how far it really extends, is not for us, as finite beings, to inquire. The veil which has been thrown over this subject ought neither to be touched nor drawn aside ; our becoming position is obeisance before it, 4iz DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE EARTH. arid reverence to his will who alone can know what might have been the consequences had his hand not been stretched forth " at the beginning " to overrule the influence of " the darkness which reigned upon the face of the universe ! " This course, which fortunately puts all conjecture at an end, has been adopted; and it is our duty, now, in place of seeking " to interfere in things which are too high for us," to receive with reverence the revelation which has been made respecting it ; and, whenever in our power, to endeavour to apply the knowledge, thus acquired, to the glory of the Creator. SECTION VI. METEOROLOGICAL PHENOMENA RESULTING FROM THE LIGHT, AND FROM THE EARTH'S FIRST DIURNAL ROTATION. CHAPTER XXXI. TJ^OLLOWING up the design which was contemplated in -*- the previous chapter, of preparing the mind for the investigations which will soon have to be undertaken in a subsequent part of this work, I shall now proceed to inquire into some of the other conditions of the atmosphere, namely, the manner in which the aerial and the vaporous portions conduct themselves under meteorological changes affecting them both. For this purpose let us refer to the eighty-eighth Theorem, and in connection with this, to the third clause of the ninety-third Theorem, both of which please see. The following are some of the evidences : " Clouds," says Professor Whewell, " are produced by aqueous vapour, when it returns to the state of water. This process is conden- sation, the reverse of evaporation. When vapour exists in the atmo- sphere, if in any manner the temperature becomes lower than the constituent temperature requisite for the maintenance of the watery state, some of the steam will be condensed, and will become water. . . . Clouds are of the same nature with curls of steam, the condensation being generally produced when air, charged with aqueous vapour, is mixed with a colder current, or has its temperature diminished in any other manner. Clouds produce rain. In the formation of a cloud, the precipitation of moisture probably forms a fine watery powder, which remains suspended in the air in consequence of the minuteness of its particles ; but if from any cause the precipitation is collected in larger portions and becomes drops, these descend by their weight and produce a shower." * 88th Theorem ; see also 93rd Theorem and evidences. 4 2 4 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE At another part of his Treatise, when noticing the laws of electricity, he adds " We cannot trace very exactly the precise circumstances in the occurrences of the atmospheric regions, which depend on the influ- ences of the laws of electricity It is, therefore, at any rate very probable that electricity has its appointed and important functions in the economy of the atmosphere, and this being so we see a use in the thunderstorm and the stroke of the lightning ; these violent events are with regard to the elasticity of the atmosphere what winds are with regard to heat and moisture. They restore the equilibrium where it has been disturbed, and carry the fluid from places where it is super- fluous to others where it is deficient. In the natural world, these apparently destructive agents are, like all the other movements and appearances of the atmosphere, parts of a great scheme, of which every discoverable purpose is marked with beneficence as well as wisdom." * " When the air," says the author of the " Philosophy of Storms," "near the surface of the earth becomes more heated, or more highly charged with aqueous vapour, which is only 5-8ths the specific gravity of atmospheric air, its equilibrium is unstable, and upmoving columns or streams will be formed " The ascending columns will carry with them the aqueous vapour which they contain, and, if they rise high enough, the cold produced by expansion, in consequence of diminished pressure, will condense some of the vapour into cloud The height to which the air will have to ascend before it be cold enough to form clouds is a variable quantity, depending on the number of degrees which the dew-point is below the temperature of the air And the difference between the dew-point and the temperature of the air in degrees is called the complement of the dew-point.f "Mists and clouds," says Mr. Hutchinson, " seem to consist of a multitude of hollow vesicles or bladders, the coatings of which are in- conceivably thin, and similar in structure to those usually blown from soapsuds. These vesicles vary in size, according to the measurement of De Saussure, from 1 -4222nd to 1 -2620th of an English inch in diameter This is further proved by the circumstance of their specific gravity being such, that they remain suspended in the air without any tendency to descend, and even on frequent occasions are seen to ascend : whereas, if they consisted of round drops, without any internal vacuity, their descent would be rapid. " Clouds, in order to their suspension, must displace a weight of atmosphere equivalent to their own. The dissolution of clouds is effected in two ways, viz. by falling in rain, or by evaporation and reconversion into invisible vapour." { * Bridgewater Treatise, pp. 85, 89, 111, 112. t Introduction, pp. viii. Ix. J Principles of Meteorology, by G. Hutchinson, pp. 122, 152, 172, 196, 197. The following evidences from Scripture may he perused with advantage, in addition to those which have been drawn from philosophical sources ; Job xxviii. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 425 From what has now been adduced, it- is perfectly evident that the aerial body of the atmospheric ocean possesses a character entirely distinct from the vaporous portion of the atmosphere ; and with relation to certain elements, such as heat, wholly different and opposed to it ; while a third posi- tion has been as clearly and convincingly demonstrated, namely, that unitedly, these two fluid masses, the one con- tained, as it were, in the interstices of the other, possess a character, and produce effects, different from what they could have done, had they remained separate : and likewise, that without being chemically united, and thereby resulting in a third substance unlike to either, although in mechanical com- bination, and each retaining its own individual character, they nevertheless, conjointly, produce results which, sepa- rately, neither could have effected. This peculiar adaptation of means to the end, the most beneficent and life-sustaining which could have been devised, appears to be clearly indicated by the phraseology of Scrip- ture.* By reference to it there will be manifestly seen, that the aerial part of the atmosphere was formed distinctly from the aqueous portion ; indeed, the one, after being formed, was the means of effecting the other. " Let there be a firma- ment in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters." The firmament itself being that which was to effect the division between waters and waters, after- wards shown to have been the waters " which were under the firmament from those which were above the firmament." For it is perfectly conclusive, that before the firmament could have produced any effect, it must itself have been made. No sooner, however, is it constituted, than it is employed to produce a consecutive series of effects, namely, to separate, in space, those waters which were combined with what must, for the present and for the sake of argument, be called something else, and so made to be above the firmament's constituent temperature, from those which were less combined with the same entity, and so were under its constituent temperature. Nothing can be more evident, than that it could not have 20, 25, 26 ; Job xxxvii. 1012 ; Job xzxviii. 2530 ; Job xxxvi. 26 28; Psalm cxxxv. 6, 7 ; Jeremiah x. 13. * Genesis i. 6 8. 426 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE been the atmosphere itself with which those waters were combined, in order that they should become above the firma- ment. It is foreign to the law of cause and effect, that any lighter body, by combining with a heavier body, can confer upon the latter a buoyancy greater than itself. Again, we need scarcely hesitate a moment to come to the conclusion, that it was not attraction with which that portion of the water was combined, which became above the constituent condition of the firmament, for the primeval ocean had been, as it were, swathed therewith for ages without any such effects having been produced ; nor, indeed, were they pro- duced until the most subtile and buoyant of all elements, LIGHT, was introduced into the material universe ; and then, immediately thereafter, the firmament is stretched forth. This will be perceived the more clearly when it is considered that it was the impartation of LIGHT to the more material elements which principally occupied the attention of the Omnipotent during the period selected for perfecting the creation. That, in fact, LIGHT was the chief agent employed in carrying on those works. The assurance that the pheno- mena, which are now being more immediate^ contemplated, required LIGHT, and LIGHT only, to render them complete and intelligible, will greatly convince us of being on the straight path to a right elucidation ; and more especially so, should we adopt M. Peltieri's theory, in which he connects the phenomena of electricity with those of light and heat, upon the undulatory hypothesis of those fluids. This consideration will appear the more to be relied upon when we reflect, that it is precisely when most at a loss to explain how any material substance whatever could have been repelled to a distance of nearly fifty miles from the surface of the earth by the only force which can be recognised as at all likely to have effected this, namely, the centrifugal impetus of rotation, that the discovery of the innate diffusion of the gaseous elements of the atmosphere, or their permanent connection with the buoyant principle of light, comes oppor- tunely forward to explain the enigma. To remove, entirely, the scruples of any who may still be disposed to doubt whether these elements of the atmosphere may not owe their extreme elevation to the centrifugal FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 427 impetus of the first diurnal rotation, reference need only be made to those laws of mechanical momentum, whose aid has been already so frequently and so successfully sought, to be wholly convinced by them, that it would be the heavier, and not the lighter, materials composing the non-rotating spherical earth's surface which would, on the eventful occasion of its protorotation, have been thrown farthest into space, or further from the centre ; for, according to the fifth rule of the seventy-third Theorem, " Weights which are as one to two, revolving at equal distances, with the same velocity, will have their centrifugal forces as one to two ; the centrifugal force increasing as the mass of the moving body increases ;" an insuperable law of matter, which, wherever gravity exists, must put an end to any lingering conception, that it might have been the earth's first diurnal rotation which expanded the watery vapours and aerial ingredients of the atmosphere to their present elevated position above the surface of the earth and sea. A closer investigation into the reasons assigned by meteoro- logists for the formation and suspension of clouds and visible vapour in the atmosphere, will prove, that they assume, as a fundamental position, although they do not expressly assert it to be so, that the aerial portion of the atmosphere was formed before the vaporous or aqueous portion. The following passages will tend to show this : " Clouds consist of small hollow bladders of vapour charged each with the same kind of electricity. It is this electric charge which pre- vents the vesicles from uniting together, and falling down in the form of rain. Even the vesicular form which the vapour assumes is prob- ably owing to the particles being charged with electricity. The natural repulsion of the electric particles may be considered as suffi- cient (since they are prevented from leaving the vesicle by the action of the surrounding air and of the surrounded vesicles) to give the vapour the vesicular form." * " That clouds and mist consist of hollow vesicles, is further proved by the circumstance of their specific gravity being such, that they remain suspended in the air, without any tendency to descend, and even on frequent occasions are seen to ascend. Water is 828 times heavier than air ; and it has been calculated that a drop whose diameter is no more than l-1000th of an inch, would acquire a descending velocity of nine or ten feet per second. * Dr. Thompson on Electricity and Heat, p. 440. 428 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE " It might be supposed, that the atmospheric compression would pre- vent the aqueous particles from originally assuming the vesicular form. But be it recollected that this is only one force acting against another. Without the compressing force of the external air, the mutual repulsion of the particles of surplus electricity would distend the vesicles, until they burst from the thinness of their coating. Hence, the atmospheric compression may be conceived to be the cause which counteracts the mutual repulsion of the particles of surplus electricity so as to limit the distension of the vesicles to the dimensions previously stated " It is obvious, that the aqueous vesicles comprising clouds must, by some means or other, displace an amount of air, the weight of which is exactly equal to their own weight. If they displaced more, their specific gravity would be less than that of the air by which they were surrounded, and they would consequently ascend to a higher altitude: if they displaced less, their specific gravity would be greater than the air by which they were surrounded, and they would accordingly descend to a lower level " There is, therefore, no other way of accounting for the specific lightness of the aqueous vesicles than by supposing that they, by some means or other, prevent the aerial particles approaching so near their surfaces as the particles of air do to each other." *. . . . An attentive perusal of these passages (some of which I have taken the liberty to put in italics), and a reference, if need- ful, to any other treatise on meteorology, will convince every one, that no rationale of the phenomena connected with this department of nature can be attempted without assuming the pre-existence, in the order of time, of the aerial body of the atmosphere ; not only for the suspension of the aqueous vesicles when once formed, but as indispensable towards their original formation. The air, itself, being one of the equipoising forces, by whose action, on the aqueous vapour, these very vesicles are formed ; heat and electricity within causing their distention into the vesicular construction, the atmosphere without restraining these humid globules from destructive explosion, and regulating their form and specific gravity by its own density or pressure. These multiplied effects are, evidently, the result of one single law, " Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters ; " the formation and coalescing of these congeries of vesicles enabling them to float in the air, in all their varied and attractive * Principles of Meteorology, by G. Hutchinson, pp. 152, 155, 158, 160, 164. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 429 forms, while executing the important services for which they were, at the proper juncture, called into existence ; whilst the wisdom and benignity of the Creator is shown forth in their never-ending change and beauty of form, the splendour of their reflected colours, and in the welcome refreshment which they bring to the parched earth and to its fainting inhabitants. At the same time, the fact must not be overlooked, that unless there had co-existed the elements of moisture, and of heat, or electricity, the aerial ocean above would have been a barren, unproductive waste of dry air, floating around, scorch- ing and drying up everything with which it came in contact ; " the heavens would have been as molten brass over our heads." The union of these separate formations, and the peculiar way in which they are connected the one permeat- ing the other, and acted upon diversely by the same cause, heat seem as essential to the perfection of the whole, as was the aerial body in which the vesicles of moisture float ; with- out this atmosphere, even although moisture, heat, and elec- tricity had existed, there never could have been a single aqueous globule brought into visible form ; lacking this initial and important component of clouds and mists, we should have been deprived of the requisite meteorological machinery, so indispensable for the transference, from the ocean to the land, of those refreshing showers with which all departments of organic nature are now so opportunely blessed. No deduc- tion from admitted premisses can be more clear or logical than this : it is the natural consequence of the announcements of philosophy. The aerial ocean first ; the aqueous associate afterwards ; while the whole tenor of the Mosaic narrative is equally clear and conclusive to the same effect. On reviewing the simply told but wonderful account of the formation of the atmosphere, and especially when it is considered in relation to the findings and declarations of philosophy, we cannot avoid being struck by the effective simplicity and comprehensiveness of the physical laws which are recorded to have been thus impressed on the component elements then present, whereby the atmosphere was called into existence. Every attempt to explain the vicissitudes of the weather concurringly show, that there exists a certain 4jo DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE ratio of variation (whose rule, although very nearly discovered, has not yet been absolutely determined) in the influence which the atmosphere exercises in producing those vicissi- tudes, according to the temperature, altitude, and density of that great aerial body.""" And no single law more capable of producing such diversified results can be conceived than that described in this portion of Scripture, " Let there be a firma- ment in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters." For, in this we behold a uniform power, the primary light, made to coalesce with a mass, the water of the first day, whose density, and therefore whose capacity for the light, heat, or electricity which had been put into active operation, varied according to its altitude, and consequently the resultant power or body would still have diversified influences according to its density or altitude. An equal quantity, added universally to an unequal mass, would still leave the entire mass unequal in its parts. It might result in the production of a greater, or of a different, description of power, but nevertheless the original inequality would pervade the whole, and cause it to produce corresponding effects. And, indeed, this was precisely what the firmament was designed to do ; clouds, mist, dew, rain, snow, &c., and all the intricate machinery which produce those delightful and healthful vicissitudes of weather we enjoy, are all brought about by this varying power of the firmament, which at any given place, or at any supposable altitude, acts according to its constituent energy in those particular localities : modified, but not overcome, by the minor influences of land and sea, the diversity of surface, or of day and night : rendering it, thereby, almost impossible to deduce from data accumulated at any one point, what may be the results at any other, or even at the same point in succession of time, in consequence of the continuity of the aerial ocean, and the action and reaction which the climate and weather of one place produce on the climate and weather of another. This closes the evidence intended to be brought forward from this branch of our subject, to assist in proving the fundamental assumption of the Dynamical System, namely, Wells, Whewell, Graham, Thompson, and Ilutchinson. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 431 that until the formation of the light and its division from the darkness, the earth had no diurnal rotation around its aods. No evidences, taken as a whole, could be more convincingly conclusive, so far as the one subject bears upon the other ; indeed, had the philosophical part of the evidences been written for the purpose, in place of being quite unconsciously penned as regards this, they could not have been more direct, nor would they have left a more favourable impression upon the mind. To render more indelible the convictions these evidences afford, a recapitulation of their principal points, or leading features, and a comparison of them with the state of the globe at the period to which I allude, may be desirable, in order to show, that all the attendant circumstances were pre-arranged in the most appropriate manner, and with per- fect wisdom, for the promotion of the operations then taking place. The expansive principle was to be infused into, or intro- duced amongst, the waters ; and it was to divide the waters from the waters, by causing a portion of them to ascend. To facilitate the accomplishment of these two consecutive acts of divine will, the attractive influence which had formerly been exerted over the waters was, for the time being, to a certain degree invaded by the counteracting influence of the centri- fugal impetus impressed upon the water by the diurnal rotation of the earth ; it being quite obvious that a hollow sphere of water, such as then surrounded the globe, must have become much less dense when it increased its diameter, as the waters undoubtedly did, when raised up by the centri- fugal impetus, whatever may have been the amount of the increment they underwent ; and, therefore, the waters which were to be divided by the expansion, in place of presenting a compact, and comparatively impenetrable, body to the in- fluence of the light, by being dispersed through a greater extent of space, were rendered more easy of combination with that subtile fluid. The vast extent of surface, in consequence of the whole globe having been surrounded with water ; and that surface being expanded by the action of the centrifugal impetus, was likewise particularly favourable for promoting vaporization, " the quantity of water which the ocean dismisses into the 431 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE atmosphere being in proportion to the extent of surface ; "* and again, " the quantity of vapour exhaled is greater where the surface is extensive, and this in proportion to the super- fices."t The absence of the atmosphere, and, consequently, of its pressure, afforded an increased facility to the combina- tion of the expansive principle with water equal to 124 of Fahrenheit's thermometer. + " According to Robinson, fluids boil in vacuo at 140 lower than in open air." In addition to these proofs of the wisdom which was ex- hibited throughout the whole of this important part of the Creator's work the formation of " the glorious life-sustain- ing ATMOSPHERE" there is to be added the facility of com- bination with the LIGHT, towards which all things seem at that particular period to have been made to conspire, and which would be greatly accelerated by the thrusting up, from beneath and into the water, of those immense masses of heated mineral materials which were simultaneously forming into our present continental ridges and mountain chains ; also by the application of the combining principle in a tan- gential direction, as will presently be shown to have been the case ; and by the absence of atmospheric pressure it being declared by the announcements of modern philosophy, founded on experience, " That the vaporization of a fluid is accelerated by the increase of temperature, and more so when heat is applied where the surface is free from external pressure. In a vacuum vaporization is almost instan- taneous." || And, finally, the same design was materially aided by the absence of all previous watery vapour in the atmosphere, and the consequent tension arising therefrom ; it being an axiom " that the general rate of evaporation will be in proportion to the tension of the vapour which would saturate the air, diminished by the tension of the vapour which is actually in the air." For " the more under-saturated the atmosphere is, the drier it is said to be ; and the stronger is its influence in promoting evaporation from moist surfaces ;"1f and according * Theorem 93 and evidences. t Thomson's Meteorology, p. 101. J Theorem 54 and authorities. Thomson's Meteorology, p. 81. || Theorem 95 and evidences. f Principles of Meteorology, by G. Hutchinson, p. 17. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 433 to another writer, " ceteris paribus, the rate of evaporation is inversely as the air's density."* In short, it is scarcely possible, that any announcement whatever could have been more thoroughly in accordance with the facts brought to light, and established by the labours of systematic philosophy, than the declaration which has been put on record in the Word of Truth, thereby evidencing the most undeniable traces of design in the for- mation, arrangement, and union of all the elements em- ployed in producing the work itself ; while the facility which was afforded, by every step in the process, for instantaneous vaporization, harmonizes, in the most concurrent manner, with the shortness of the period assigned in the Mosaic narra- tive for its performance. A whole atmosphere saturated with moisture during part of one day could hardly be conceived, according to natural causes, without the remarkable concur- rence of all those circumstances favourable for its promotion, which have just been shown were cotemporaneously present at the period alluded to, whilst the same evidences likewise establish, beyond the possibility of a doubt, that the forma- tion of the atmosphere took place at the TIME mentioned by the inspired historian, when there was a concurrence of cir- cumstances favourable to its formation, which ha.ve never since presented themselves, nor, as far as is known, were ever pre- sent together at any time before."f The design of the Creator in forming NITROGEN by the instrumentality of myriads of invertebrate apulmonic animals, during innumerable ages, affords a most remarkable glimpse into the arcana of the creation. It evinces, in a manner which admits of no misunderstanding, that while their stony exuviae were made instrumental in forming the solid crust of the earth, the nitrogen contained in the gaseous exhalations arising from the decomposition of their animal matter was indispensably required to dilute the oxygen of the atmosphere to such a degree as should permit the respiration of animals and plants and other operations common to the surface- to go on without combustion and destruction ; thus appear- * Thompson, Introduction to Meteorology, p. 102. t This is in perfect accordance with the fundamental basis of this System, namely, that God made all things ; but that whatever is not specially mentioned in the first chapter of Genesis was the effect of natural causes. AUTHOR. F F 434 DYNAMICAL SFSTEM OF THE ing to indicate that there existed some mysterious necessity, whereby animals without lungs should secrete what was afterwards to enable animals with lungs, and plants with pulmonic appendages, to breathe atmospheric air ! More remarkable still ; it may possibly have been, indeed it is almost certain to have been, that during these protracted ages, the subtile elements of which the ethereal fluid is com- posed were being elaborated, and ready to be transformed into physical light, whenever it should harmonize with the decrees of the Creator to will the luminiferous fluid into existence, and to bring it to a state of perfection, and thereafter by dividing it from the darkness, to render it the second great and effectual principle of the material universe ! His chief agent during the six days' work of creation. This is a conception well worthy of being wrought out ; and, indeed, when the amazing tenuity and elasticity of this all-pervading fluid is taken into account, and considered that it is millions of times more tenuous in comparison with air, than air is when compared with earth, it seems more than probable that its bases had some such origin ; and that it may have required a protracted period of darkness and non-rotation to have formed its elements. In the previous sections of this work it has been made manifest, that the materials which constitute the outer crust of the earth were, for ages, preparing under the water of the primeval ocean. And, in this, it has, in like manner, been demonstrated that those which compose the firmament or heaven were also undergoing a similar preparation in the same element. On comparing these conclusions, which are founded on the undeniable evidence of philosophy, with the announcements of Scripture, which state, that " In the be- ginning God created the heaven and the earth," the strictest accordance will be found to prevail between them ; and they will therefore impress upon every unprejudiced mind the most perfect and reliable conviction of the soundness of the Dynamical System. And this, happily, brings matters to a point which enables me to draw a conclusion which I have long desired to do, namely, having shown the truth of the Mosaic narrative in all that pertains to matter, with respect to which, tangible proofs FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 435 and evidences appreciable by the senses can be made avail- able, it is surely not unreasonable to insist That the in- spired historian shall be credited, upon his mere assertion, with regard to the remaining and most important term of the whole passage, which admits of no tangible or philosophic proof whatever, namely, that they were all created and made by GOD ; for he has also affirmed, that "In the beginning GOD created the heaven and the earth." F F 2 SECTION VII. COMPLETION OF THE ATMOSPHERE ; SEPARATION OF THE SEA FROM THE LAND ; AND THEIR IMMEDIATE COMBINED RESULTS. CHAPTER XXXII. rFHE preceding chapter was almost exclusively dedicated to -*- points connected with the introduction of the principle of expansion into the water of the primeval ocean ; to the indissoluble union of this buoyant fluid with the ponderable elemental bases of the atmosphere, and the remarkable pro- perty which they possess, when so united, of spontaneously diffusing themselves throughout the regions of space, in opposition to the otherwise all-comprehensive law of gravity ; and, likewise, to the separation, from the great body of the water, of a certain portion thereof by means of the same ex- pansive and buoyant influence, and its transformation into the more subtile watery vapour of the atmosphere. When conducting these several branches of inquiry I endeavoured to preserve a uniformity of design by showing, that these stupendous works of the Creator were not only thoroughly consistent with the principal features of this treatise, but that the principles involved are indispensable towards a correct conception of the way in which those works were carried on and completed ; the centrifugal impetus, of the first diurnal rotation, having been one of the secondary or natural agencies employed for the purpose. In prosecution of the main argument, I shall now en- deavour to render conclusive the evidences which may be procurable, from this particular branch of the subject, in FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 437 confirmation of the original position assumed, the non-diurnal rotation of the earth and its subsequent protorotation, by showing that the atmosphere, thus newly formed and con- stituted, was chiefly instrumental in carrying out the next great movement in the progressive development of the plan of creation, namely the transference of the waters into one place; the restraining them at the level ^vhich they now maintain; and separating by the same process the saline ingredients from the water, and depositing them in the soil ; and that nothing but a world put into diurnal motion, for the first time, could have produced these effects. There can be no doubt, that when 'the firmament was formed, by its means and the influence of the centrifugal impetus, the waters were maintained at an elevation far above their present level, and even above the highest moun- tain chains ; but it is likewise obvious, that although under such an impetus, whenever they had attained a state of equilibrium, they would, in obedience to the universal law of gravitation, from which they had been only temporarily abstracted, seek and resume their natural level ; and, in doing this, had they been allowed to follow what is now their natural law, they would have been drained off from the continental ridges into the oceanic hollows which had been prepared for their reception. But there is another truth which, in this case, stands as conspicuously forward, namely, that had this been permitted, a corresponding denu- dation of the new-formed land must inevitably have taken place ; and the greater part of its recently deposited soil and salts ^vould irresistibly have been swept into the oceanic cavities, where they would not only have been of no use what- ever, but would have been detrimental. These observations must persuade every one that accord- ing to the laws which had been impressed on matter, up to the period now alluded to, VAPORIZATION, by means of the newly formed atmosphere, was the method best adapted for separating the land from the water, without exposing the earth to denudation, and the ocean to be injured by being re-saturated with earthy sediment.* To the complete estab- .* See also Genesis ii. 6. 43 8 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE lishment of this position the present section will be exclu- sively dedicated. As the greater part of the last division was occupied in showing the fitness, at that period, alike of the condition of the atmosphere, and of the waters of the ocean, for promoting rapid or almost instantaneous vaporization, these truths need only now be applied to the case at present under considera- tion, in order to be convinced, that no arrangement could possibly have been better adapted for effecting the removal of the waters from the continents, and from those lands whose height rose above the then lower limits of the atmo- sphere, or, what is the same thing, above the present level of the ocean. In conducting this investigation, we must distinguish with precision between the conditions of an atmosphere in the process of formation, and those of one actually constituted, as now experienced. In the former case that more imme- diately under consideration the elements of which it was being composed were in the act of emanating from the primeval ocean, and expanding themselves, with inconceiv- able rapidity and violence, into the regions of space, to the height of forty or fifty miles above their former level, and, consequently, relieving the evaporating surface from all pres- sure ; or, in other words, accelerating the combination of the expansive principle with the elements of water and their associated gases, by an accession of force, according to some estimates, equal to 124 of Fahrenheit's thermometer, and of 140 according to the opinion of others. Besides, it is one of the best-established axioms of pneumatics, " That the elastic force of any given portion of air is augmented in precisely the same proportion as the space within which it is enclosed is diminished. "* This announcement may assist us to con- ceive the irresistible violence and velocity with which the body of the atmosphere would rush upwards from its state of greatest possible reduction of space, which it maintained when, as yet, its elements were in their most condensed form, before the light was introduced, or the earth had been made to revolve around its axis, to assume its tension of equilibrium in the static condition in which it now remains ! * Hydrostatics, Cab. Cyc., p. 23". FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 439 Nothing similar to this sudden and violent rush of gaseous elements 'upwards and around can be imagined except it be the rush of waters which took place from the poles towards the equator, to complete their figure of equilibrium, or that of rotation, when the earth first revolved diurnally around its axis. In the latter case, centrifugal impetus alone occasioned their violent rushing motion. In that of the atmosphere, while the elements were assisted in their upward tendency, against the all-comprehensive law of gravity by the centrifugal force then brought into action, the simultaneous impartation to their ponderable bases of the buoyant principle of light completed their impetus of ascension into the regions of space. " Mariotte," says Dr. Thompson, as before quoted, " discovered the law of atmospheric elasticity to be, that the density or volume of a given quantity of air is inversely as the pressure." * There is another important truth, derived from the study of meteorology, which should be borne in mind for the more thorough comprehension of the present argument ; I allude to the capability of the atmosphere to support, imbibe, or to become saturated with, watery vapour. This varies greatly, and increases rapidly according to the temperature ; indeed, so much is this the case, that Dr. Dalton found the amount and tension of vapour in the atmosphere to be altogether independent of the presence of the air, and to be wholly regulated by caloric. Dr. Thompson mentions a difference of range between 1-6 2nd and l-80th of the volume of the air, but other writers give much greater extremes, t These will serve to show the amount of the agency which might be imposed upon the firmament to produce vaporization, and to bear up and transport the vapour, especially when the former was in process of formation, and while as yet it exercised a compara- tively light pressure upon the evaporating surface, and was t itself of a high temperature. The drier the atmosphere the * Introduction to Meteorology, p. 23. t Mr. Hutchinson says from l-60th to l-300th part, and in warm climates nearly double ; and Professor Whewell considers that the proportion, in weight, which the aqueous bears to the aerial portions of the atmosphere may vary according to circumstances from l-100th to l-20th of the whole aerial ocean, Bridgrewater Treatise, pp. 96, 99. See also Philosophy of Storms. 440 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE greater is its influence in promoting evaporation from moist surfaces. Keeping, therefore, these preliminary observations properly before the mind, let us endeavour to apply them to the elucidation of the present point, namely, the vaporization of the water from off the surface of the land, and its trans- ference, by means of the newly formed atmosptiere, into tlie waters of the ocean; the assumption being, that the atmo- sphere* was the means whereby the Creator effected his purpose, without exposing the land to any of those prejudicial effects which, according to the laws of matter, would have ensued, had this ubiquitous agent not been employed to raise the water off the surface of the earth ; while as yet the upper part was in process of being formed into ferraceous soil by the oxidation of the elements then present, and by the com- minution of the rocky masses brought into collision and abraded by the recent commotion, consequent on the proto- rotation of the earth ; while the same aerial agency was employed to waft aAvay the surplus water, and to deposit it in the sea. It can easily be conceived how essential such agency as this was to effect the double purpose of raising the water off the ground, in order that it might be rendered innocuous, and do no injury by denuding the land during its removal, while at the same time it was being carried most effectually, by the newly formed atmosphere, to regions perpendicular to those hollows destined to be the receptacles of the world's wide oceans ! There is something peculiarly sublime in the conception of operations so vast as these being effected by means so simply comprehensive and so effectual ! The glorious newly formed atmosphere, ere it was polluted by the breath of a single mortal, becoming the willing, the powerful, and the effectual instrument of the designs of the Creator in forwarding the progressive development of his plans ! No sooner is it fully formed, than it aids the com- pletion of other portions of the work ; draws up the surplus waters with inconceivable rapidity ; separates them by infil- tration from their saline associates, which were required where they had been thrown by the general revolution ; and * In Genesis called " the heavens." FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 441 hurries the disassociated waters through aerial space, to let them drop where they, too, are required, in freshness and separation from their formerly commingled salts ! It may be well here to observe, merely as a memorandum to be afterwards referred to, that, up to this period of the creation, there was no motion which, strictly speaking, could be considered lateral. Hitherto motion was either from the centre towards the circumference or from the circumference towards the centre. Lateral motion seems to have com- menced with the command " Let the waters be gathered together into one place." And well may the seas of the whole world be said to have been gathered into " one place." For however corrugated and diversified their littoral and their under surfaces may be, yet their upper surface, by having found and maintained a common level, shows that the waters under the heavens have all commingled, and occupy but " one place." In prosecution of the more direct line of our discourse, the reader must now be made acquainted with what is stated in the eighty-fourth Theorem, respecting the upper boundary or limit of the atmosphere, to which please refer. This theorem shows that the atmosphere has a definite boundary upwards ; and as the earth and oceans form its bed or margin underneath, it follows, as a clear deduction, that whatever may have been the force or rapidity of its expansion when in the process of formation, the direction, owing to the inflexible nature of the materials constituting its lower boun- dary lines, must have been upwards. Taking, therefore, these circumstantials into account, we cannot fail to be convinced, that whenever it reached that point of static equilibrium, " where the specific elasticity of the air " became " balanced by the power of gravitation," there must have ensued an immediate revulsion equal to the whole ueight of the atmo- sphere- So long as the atmosphere was expanding laterally and also rushing upwards, there could have been no pressure whatever on the waters beneath ; but so soon as that upward and lateral tendency ceased, an opposite tendency on the part of the atmosphere, as a whole, must, in obedience to the previously existing laws of matter, have taken place. This may be expressed in other and perhaps more perspicuous 442 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE terms by saying that, during the process of formation, the ponderable bases of the atmosphere, from the very fact of their being in the act of combining with the principle of expansion, were necessarily abstracted from the antagonistic force of attraction, until they had attained their static con- dition of buoyancy ; and in this combined state were restored to the influence of attraction ; the minute particles of ponderable matter, constituting the radicle or base, remaining in immutable combination with the elastic principle of light ; but, as a whole, recognising at the same time the law of gravity in precise proportion to the entire mass. This is expressed by Dr. Thompson (as already quoted) in the following words : " Believing that the atmosphere is composed of ultimate atoms, it is evident that a limit does exist ; for the force of gravity, drawing each towards the earth's centre, must be greater than the repulsive power of the individual particles in proportion to their density, and exactly where their forces balance the extreme boundary will be found." Reverting to the assumption, already advanced, that the surplus water was transferred from the " land " to the " sea " by vaporization, through the instrumentality of the recently formed atmosphere, and to the extraordinary range of degrees to which the latter can be saturated with watery vapour, even from one hundredth to a twentieth part in weight, accord- ing to Professor Whewell, it may be assumed, as a matter of course, that on the present occasion the atmosphere was impregnated with moisture to its utmost capability. This, it is imagined, will be readily conceded. But the transference of watery vapour from underneath the level of the atmo- sphere into the atmosphere itself, that it might become its carrier, or, what is the same thing, the loading of the atmosphere with a super-degree of watery vapour, to the ex- treme of what it would carry, is tantamount to the transfer- ence of ponderable matter from beneath the level of the atmosphere to a line above that level ; and, consequently, would be equivalent to the exertion of a pressure by the atmosphere on the waters corresponding to its increase of gravity. It will at once be perceived how conducive this pressure FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 443 would be in forwarding the due development of the plan of creation, at the very point then in progress, inasmuch as it would contribute to restrain the ocean within the limits assigned to it ; and by pressure make room for the very waters which were to be added to the seas, when that which existed as surplus vapour in the loaded atmosphere should be condensed into rain and added to the great oceanic mass.* It is further assumed on the principle " that matter can produce no spontaneous change, either in character or motion in itself" an axiom often referred to in this treatise that when the firmament or atmosphere had once reached a static condition of equilibrium and that was certain to be the case in fulfilment of the laws conferred on its material nature it could not of itself have changed a single iota ; nor would the work of creation have been advanced a single degree further, unless it had pleased the Omnipotent to have, at this very juncture, issued a new decree, whereby the work was caused to progress. And when the state of the creation at the period referred to is taken into consideration, we shall find that it was the decree most essential, nay absolutely indispensable, agreeably to the general laws of matter and the particular condition of it, alluded to above ; I mean its incapability of spontaneously producing alteration in itself. Hitherto there had been no lateral motion impressed on matter ; its movements had been produced by either attrac- tion towards the centre, or by centrifugal impetus from. the centre towards the circumference ; or by a composition of those two forces, as in the instance of the luni-solar current around the earth in the midst of the primeval cir- cumfluent waters. While in the case under immediate consideration, if there had been no new command given, the waters which rose by vaporization from off the land and from intermixture with their former earthy and saline asso- * The description given by the Creator of that event, when speaking by the voice of another of his inspired historians, is so remarkable and illustrative, that I quote the passage, as corroborative evidence : " Who," asks the Omnipotent of his afflicted but patient servant, " shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth as if it had issued out of the womb ? When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling band for it, And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors, And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further ; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?" (Job xxxviii. 8 11.) 444 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE elates, would necessarily have fallen back again in the con- dition of rain abundant rain upon precisely the same spot from whence they arose ; and have re-entered into combination with the materials from which they had been, for wise purposes, disassociated. When we consider, too, the media into which this lateral movement was first intro- duced the atmosphere a body abstracted almost, as it were, from the influence of friction, we shall more fully recognise the wisdom of the succeeding decree " Let the waters under the heaven be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear." Every concomitant circumstance having, by the previous arrangements, been made favourable to the easy fulfilment of this command. Assuming, therefore, that the primary lower level of the atmosphere over the oceanic portion of the earth's surface, with the slight difference of the increment occasioned by the water transfused into the ocean by the instrumentality of the atmosphere itself, was that which at present it occupies, it is obvious it must have been then, as it still is in many places, upwards of twenty, and in some instances even as much as twenty-seven, thousand feet beneath the summit of the mountains ; for, as the eighty-fourth Theorem expresses it " The atmosphere is an aerial ocean surrounding the earth in all directions, and of which the surface of the land and sea forms the bed." We know that there are mountain ranges of this height which, although then but recently elevated, yet existed at their present elevation before the atmosphere was formed, and which now penetrate upiuards, if I may so express it, from twenty to twenty-seven thousand feet into the aerial ocean in question : just as there are, on the other hand, oceanic hollows into which the waters penetrate many thousands of feet below the undermost aerial surface. The admission of this fact, which is apparent to the senses, and subject to actual measurement, seems at variance with another equally well authenticated fact, although not so per- ceptible to the senses, namely, that notwithstanding this great elevation of the mountain chains above the undermost level of the atmosphere, there was no land discernible ; or rather, there would have been no land discernible at that time had there been eves to have searched for it. It was FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 445 still enveloped by the primitive waters, and by their vaporous exhalations in the atmosphere, even after this had been com- pleted, until the " waters under the heaven were gathered together into one place, and the dry land appeared." The seeming opposition of these two branches of evidence, neither of which can be disputed, appears to involve this argument in so serious a difficulty, as almost to bring it to an abrupt conclusion. For, on the one hand, it has been admitted that there was an atmosphere which already divided waters which were above it from those which were under it, stretching from nearly the same lower level which at present it maintains on the bosom of the oceans, with entire continental chains of great collective elevation, and mountains towering even beyond these, all previously raised in solid stability ; and yet, on the other hand, from implicit confidence in the announcements of the only authentic evidence to be found coeval with that period of the earth's history, it is maintained That not one of all those immense masses of mineral material, thrown up by the protorotation of the world, was at all discernible, or could have been perceptible had there then been a human eye in creation to have beheld it. That which thus threatens to put so abrupt a termination to the progress of the argument, is intended to be made the chief means of proving the assumption at present contended for, namely, That the waters were separated by VAPORIZATION from the land by means of the newly formed atmosphere. For, if after this latter part of the creation had been finished, there had been underneath it only an unbroken expanse of oceanic waters, this would have been a dilemma from which no human ingenuity or powers of reasoning could have extricated us ; but the circumstance of the lower level of the atmosphere having been so many thousands of feet below some portions of the land, even when this was obscured by it, has left undeniable evidences, written in characters which cannot be misunderstood, that the surplus waters were EVAPORATED from off the land, inasmuch as they have left a residuum behind them which the atmosphere could not carry away with it ; but which would not have remained, if " the waters," which were removed to admit of the " dry land " 446 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE appearing, had been drained from it into the oceanic hollows. Fortunately, in favour of this there exists a body of evidence so strong, and so directly based on scientific research, and a chain of reasoning so complete, that nothing can withstand their combined influence. In proof of this the first point to be attended to is part of the ninety-fifth Theorem, especially its latter clause, which please see. As many evidences have already been adduced in support of the first part of this theorem, it is at present designed to exemplify, more particularly, the concluding portion, by the following apposite quotations from the scientific writers on whose dicta it is based : " Water," says Dr. Thompson, " at all temperatures, assumes the form of vapour. Evaporation proceeds from the snow-clad mountain and the glacier, as well as from the ocean and the meadow. Evapo- ration differs from vaporization in the amount of heat required for its production. Water vaporizes when it passes into steam at a tempera- ture of 212 ; below that temperature it evaporates, passing into the ambient air in insensible moisture." *. . . . "If," observes Mr. Reid, " a few fragments of caustic potash be exposed to the air for a short time, they will become moist, softened, and liquid, in consequence of the moisture which they absorb from the air If the potash thus melted be heated strongly, the water may be boiled off, when the potash will be found in its former condition, dry, hard, and solid. Common pearlash, or the substance called chloride of calcium, may be used instead ; a similar effect will be produced The chief cause of the presence of watery vapour in the air is the influence of heat, which, acting on the water of the seas, lakes, and rivers in the world, is continually infusing the repulsive principle into them, and converting part of their surface water into vapour." f " By such means," Dr. Lardner concludes, " the quantities of heat necessary to raise different bodies through the same range of tempera- ture may be compared ; and such a comparison presents the remark- able fact" which has been extensively availed of in the arts and manufactures to separate one substance from another " that every different body requires a different quantity of heat to produce, in it the same change of temperature ." \ As there will be occasion almost immediately to bring forward proofs on a subject intimately connected with the * Introduction to Meteorology, p. 97. t Chemistry, by Hugo Reid, pp. 53, 54. . J Heat, in Cab. Cyc., pp. 243, 263. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 447 whole of the ninety-fifth Theorem, whose evidences unavoid- ably blend together, the reader is referred to what may then be adduced, in addition to w r hat has been said ; and it is hoped these will be sufficiently explanatory and satisfactory : indeed, our every-day household operations evince the different capacities for heat of water and of solids ; this principle being invariably acted upon, although perhaps not chemically or scientifically understood. The next thing to be done, is to bring the general truth which has now been proven, to bear more closely upon the point desired to be established. For this purpose the con- clusion is given as in the fifty-eighth Theorem, to which please refer. The evidences of this theorem being essential, they are given somewhat in detail : " The great reservoir of water," observes Mr. H. Eeid, " from which all other kinds of water are, in the first instance, derived, is the ocean. In what way, it will be asked, can the water of rivers, lakes, springs, &c., be derived from the ocean ? How is the salt water of the ocean converted into fresh water ? The water of the ocean con- sists of a large quantity of common salt, and a few other matters. Now the water (the pure ivater) consisting solely of oxygen and hydrogen is very readily turned into vapour, even at the ordinary temperature of the air, and very abundantly in warm weather ; while the salt and other matters, having a different relation to heat, do not readily pass into vapour, even at the highest temperature in the torrid zone. Thus, the pure watery part of the ocean is turned into vapour and passes into the atmosphere, the salt and other matters being left behind ; the sea-water being thus decomposed by the effects of heat upon it In order to procure water from any common spring or river water, there are two kinds of substances which must be got rid of before it is chemically pure, the gaseous matters which it contains and the earthy matters The earthy matters are separated by the process of distillation. After the water has been boiled to expel all the gases which it may have contained, we continue to boil it, but cause the vapour or steam which comes away from it to pass into another vessel, in which it returns to the state of water. The heat applied to turn the water into vapour cannot convert into vapour the earthy matters which the water holds in solution ; they remain behind, and are thus got rid of. The next vapours which come away are collected and condensed ; they are the pure watery part." * According to the principles of heat in the " Cabinet Cyclopsedia " * Popular Treatise on Chemistry, pp. 115, 116, 131. 448 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE " If salt be dissolved in water, a chemical combination will be formed, composed of atoms of salt combined with atoms of water. Let such a solution be placed in a vessel B, closed at the top, and terminating in a tube carried to another vessel D, immersed in cold water. If boiling heat be applied to the vessel B, it will be found that the vapour produced will pass through the tube C, and be condensed into a liquid in the vessel D. After this process has been continued for some time, it will be found that nothing but solid crystals of salt will remain in the vessel B, and the liquid contained in the vessel D will be pure water. If the masses of water and salt in the two vessels be weighed, their weights will be precisely the weight of the solution first placed in the vessel B." *. . . . "The general method," says Mr. Donovan, " of obtaining crystals from substances which dissolve in water is to add the substance to the water at a boiling heat, and in as great a quantity as the water is capable of holding in solution. As the liquor cools, the crystals are produced. Sometimes it will be necessary to reduce the liquor to the freezing-point before it will crystallize ; and sometimes the water requires to be gradually boiled away until the crystals have formed abundantly ; it is in this way that common sea-salt is crystallized. Motion promotes crystallization ; but rest promotes regularity of the shape of the crystals." f In continuation of the same chain of evidence, it will be necessary to ascertain what takes place when water, holding in solution the elements of various descriptions of salt, is subject to the influence of evaporation. And it is satisfactory to find, that this and kindred subjects have received the closest attention from several chemists of the present day, on whose inquiries and chemical acumen every reliance may be placed. While it may not be uninfluential on subsequent reasoning, were it to be borne in mind, that when saline materials are held in combination by water, holding also earthy ingredients in suspension, and deposition takes place, the salts are found invariably to crystallize almost in purity and separation from their associated elements, and to leave these to accumulate at the bottom, according as their specific gravities, or other attendant circumstances, may determine. " It is," observes Mr. Reid, " from its property of dissolving solid bodies, that water has the greatest claims on our attention. Various bodies, when dissolved, manifest properties which we should never otherwise have been able to discover.". . . . " It may," he continues, " be observed in the operation of solution, which is frequently performed for the purpose of separating one sub- * Dr. Lardner, pp. 193, 207, 243, 244. f Chemistry, in Cab. Cyc., pp. 18, 19. FORMATION OF THE EARTH, 449. ttance from another, or from a number of others, with which it may be associated. Thus, the barilla from which soda is procured, con- tains the soda mixed with a quantity of other matters. The soda, however, is very soluble, while the others are insoluble, or nearly so ; by lixiviation, then, the soda is extracted in solution, and the other matters are left in the solid state. The soda, however, has not a very great affinity for water, so that the latter readily leaves it in the form of vapour when heat is applied, and thus the soda is procured in the solid form. Water and heat are applied in this way to separate from each other various matters which may be mixed together in a great many manufacturing processes, and many of the most useful articles which are used by man could not be procured without some such operation." * "Besides the methods," says Dr. Murray, "of discovering the saline ingredients in mineral waters by reagents, which indicate their principles, they may, by certain methods, be obtained in their entire state, and their quantities determined. Evaporation is employed with this view, different substances being successively obtained as the evaporation is carried to a greater or less extent. Thus the carbon- ates of lime and magnesia are usually first precipitated, afterwards sulphate of lime falls down ; if after these precipitations the liquor be drawn off and allowed to cool, the alkaline neutral salts and the sul- phate of magnesia crystallize, while muriate of magnesia and muriate of lime, if present, will remain, forming an uncrystallizable residue." f Having thus briefly shown that which usually takes place when water holding in solution the elementary principles of salts (without having taken into account the density of the earthy parts held simultaneously in mechanical suspension) is subjected to vaporization, it will now be shown, that when salts, by crystallizing, separate from their earthy associates, the latter fall down or are deposited in layers according to their specific gravities, or other attendant circumstances, or, in other words, in the inverse proportion of the power of the aqueous body to sustain them in suspension. The following extracts, a part only of those which might be given, have reference to this subject : " Much of what goes on in the sea," observes Professor Phillips, " is entirely unknown to us In distributing the materials which fall from the cliffs, the agitation of the sea produces an effect of the same kind as the operation of washing a mixture of metallic ores and various spars ; it separates the ingredients according to magnitude and specific weight ; the heavy and large masses are left on the beach Popular Chemistry, pp. 109111. f Murray's Elements of Chemistry, vol. ii. p. 385, G G 450 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE EARTH. for slow distribution over the sloping surface or gradual descent into the deep ; the coarse sand is urged onward by the tide, as a river pushes forward its bed, but the finer clays mix with the water, remain long suspended, and are carried to great distances, to be deposited wherever the sea stagnates, either by expansion, over level surfaces, or by opposition of the freshes. " It is evident that the modern deposits of the sea are pebbly where the agitation is great, sandy where it is moderate, and argillaceous where it is little."* " The existence of the great and extensive operations," Prof. Play- fair observes, " by which the spoils of the land are carried all over the ocean, and spread out on the bottom of it, may be supposed to require some further elucidation. We must attend, therefore, to the following circumstances. When the detritus of the land is delivered by the rivers into the sea, the heaviest part is deposited first, and the lighter are carried to a greater distance from the shore These are more easily carried to greater distances by being suspended in the water, from which they are gradually and slowly deposited." In continuation, lie observes, with his accustomed pro- priety of style " Amid all the revolutions of the globe, the economy of nature has been uniform in this as well as in every other respect, and its laws are the only things that have resisted the general movement. The rivers and the rocks, the seas and the continents, have been changed in all their parts ; but the laws which direct these mutations, and the rules to which they are subject, have remained invariably the sarne."f Having thus traced, by these progressive steps, the changes which take place when water is driven off by vaporization, and separated from Avhatever earthy or saline ingredients it may have been associated with ; and shown how the earths, clays, and other mineral materials are deposited from water, when borne by it in mechanical suspension ; both of which circumstances of condition it is considered took place during the first three days of the earth's rotation, when the rushing agitated ocean was plentifully charged with saline material and with earthy debris ; it may be considered that the mind is in a position to go on, in a succeeding chapter, with the general argument. * Treatise on Geology, pp. 202, 203. f Playfair's Works, vol. i. pp. 407 416, Huttonian Theory. SECTION VII. COMPLETION OF THE ATMOSPHERE, &C. CHAPTER XXXIII. X fFHE several detached but requisite investigations, which -*- have almost exclusively occupied the attention in the preceding chapter, must now be applied in furtherance of the principal argument. Before doing so, however, it is requested, that what has been stated at the conclusion of the twelfth and commencement of the thirteenth chapters, relating to saline and acidulous ingredients held in solution by the primeval water towards the close of the non-rotatory period, together with that portion of the fifth section which treats of the New Red Sandstone formations, may be carefully re- perused ; they will be found to be intimately connected with the present subject, and essential to its development. Con- sidering % these suggestions to have been complied with, attention is requested to the prefatory reasoning' contained in the following brief argument. During the elevation of the continents, an immense body of heterogeneous debris was spread abroad, and mechanically diffused throughout the surrounding waters which held saline and acidulous ingredients in chemical solution ; and these waters thus saturated were, within twenty-four hours there- after, separated from the land an operation which must have been effected either by draining off the water or by vaporization, natural means in either case having been per- mitted to operate. Under such combination of circum- stances, it is required to know, what would have been the G G 2 45* DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE probable results of the process by each of these distinct methods of separation ? And which is most accordant with the appreciable results remaining to the present day ? On the supposition of its having been effected by drainage, it is conceived, firstly, that it could not have been accom- plished within the time specified, by any natural means which are now known ; secondly, that both the earthy and the saline materials would have been simultaneously swept into the bed of the ocean ; and, thirdly, that there would have remained no indurated saline or gypseous deposits of any extent. For, considering the land to have had the same form which it now has, wherever the nature of the ground impeded the escape of the waters requisite to have formed these deposits, the drainage of the present times still consti- tutes reservoirs of water, and consequently no dry residuum could have been formed ; and therefore could not now exist. But, on the other hand, it is conceived, that if vaporiza- tion was employed to separate the heterogeneous mass of water, earths, and salts from each other, and the like laws which are still in operation operated then, their precipitated remains should be found associated together according to the manner in which such combined ingredients usually separate when they are being deposited. That although the rapidity with which the vaporization was effected, might have prevented them from assuming a perfect horizontally of position, they should, in general, be found pretty near a level, stretching over plains, at the bottoms of hills, and filling up hollows. That in obedience to the laws affecting the application of heat to a solution, in order to occasion vaporization, the water would be driven off ; but the earthy and saline sediments, in consequence of not yielding to the same degree of heat, would solidify and remain in crys- talline forms. That in accordance with the chemical affinities manifested by various salts, earths, and acids held in com- mon solution, during the process of separation by vaporiza- tion, distinct deposits should be found of these salts and other substances, produced by the modifying influences above mentioned. And lastly, that as the salts, which were separated from their earthy associates in the act of crystalliza- tion, underwent distinct precipitation, alternate layers of salt FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 453 and earth should be found occupying the places where such operations took place. Having come to these conclusions by reasoning a priori, it is only now requisite to ascertain what is the experience of geologists founded on actual research. For, if the as- sumptions come to be correct, deposits of saline ingredients associated with gypsum, commensurate to the extent of the elements employed, should be discovered in and amongst the wide-spread ranges of formations classed under the designa- tions of the New Red Sandstone, the Oolitic, and the Creta- ceous groups, and even in some of the older members of the Tertiary deposits, because these are they which, according to this System, were formed by the deposition of the debris aris- ing from the earth's first diurnal rotation. That the findings of geologists are perfectly accordant with this, and that these saline and gypseous deposits have hitherto baffled all en- deavours to account for their existence, are points plainly proven by the hundred and eighth Theorem, " That native salts, such as saltpetre, green vitriol, rock salt, sal ammoniac, borax or tincal, alum, and natron, are found fossil in the earth in regular and symmetrical crystalline forms." Whilst, without going into any of its evidences, in consequence of the subject being so rudimentary, I shall again refer to the thirty-second Theorem, which bears more directly on the point in question, and which I beg may be read. As this, and the evidences connected with it, were, as far as possibly consistent with the argument, intentionally de- ferred, when treating of the geological division of the subject, it will be requisite now to go into them somewhat in detail, and scarcely any set of proofs, in the whole course of this treatise, will be found more convincingly conclusive than they in favour of the position now sought to be estab- lished, namely, that the water was separated from the land by vaporization, and that this could have been effected only during a period when all those concurring circumstances were simultaneously present ; while this remarkable concurrence was, in turn, the immediate offspring of the first diurnal ro- tation of the earth around its axis. I shall commence with that which is given in the minera- logical illustrations of the Cuvierian theory :. 454 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE "The gypsum formation," observes Professor Jameson, "is not entirely of gypsum, but contains also beds of clay, marl, and cal- careous marl. These are arranged in a determinate order when they all occur together, which, however, is not always the case. They lie over the coarse marine limestone ; and the gypsum, which is the principal mass of the formation, does not occur in widely extended plateaus, like the limestone, but in single conical or longish masses, which are sometimes of considerable extent, but always sharply bounded. Montmartre presents the best example of those around Paris, and there, three beds of gypsum are to be observed superim- posed on each other. " The first consists of alternate layers of gypsum, solid calcareous marl, and of thin slaty argillaceous marl or adhesive slate The third or upper bed is by far the greatest, being in several places more than sixty feet thick. It contains few beds of marl, and in some places, as at Montmorency, it lies almost immediately under the soil. The whole of these beds, from the layer immediately over the marine limestone to that containing the oysters, constitute the gypsum formation. Cuvier considers them as constituting two formations, viz., the gypsum and marine marl formation."* M. de la Beche supplies the next evidence to be brought forward respecting these saliferous deposits " Masses of rock-salt occur in the lower part of the marls at Vie, Dieuze, and other parts of that district ; and masses of gypsum are found in the upper and lower portions, but principally in the latter. Dr. Bone establishes the fact, that the celebrated salt deposit of Wieliczka constitutes a portion of the supra-cretaceous series. Dr. Bone describes the deposit as 2,560 yards long, 1,066 yards broad, and 281 yards deep. The salt is termed green salt in the upper part of the mine, where it occurs in nodules with gypsum in marl. The salt sometimes contains lignite, bituminous wood, sand, and small broken shells. In the lower part the marl becomes more arenaceous, and there are even beds of sandstone in the salt Beneath this is a grey sandstone, rather coarse, containing lignite, and impressions of plants, with veins and beds of salt. In the lower part of this stratum an indurated calcareous marl is observed, containing sulphur, salt, and gypsum. From the fossils and various other circum- stances, Dr. Bone concludes that this great salt deposit forms part of a muriatiferous and supra-cretaceous clay, subordinate to sandstone (molasse). Most frequently the marly clays are merely muriatiferous ; an abundance of salt, such as at Wieliczka, Bohemia, Parayd in Transylvania, and other places, being more rare The red or variegated marls, which surmount the muschelkalk, possess a common mineralogical character over very considerable surfaces, such as would lead us to suppose some cause or causes exerting an influence of a Jamas jii'a Illusuulioiis of the Cuvicriitu The-'iry, }. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 455 similar kind over a large area. At least some of the deposit would appear chemical, more particularly the masses of gypsum and rock- salt which exist in certain situations."* Professor Phillips, when treating on the same department of geological research, thus expresses himself : " The irregular expanse of sea left in the region of Europe by the broken masses of land, belonging to the uplifted carboniferous rocks, was perhaps not fully filled, by the next succeeding deposit of sand- stones, clays, and limestone, which receives the name of red sand- stone, or saliferous or poecilitic formation, but is very extensively diffused in and beyond this area Salt is associated with the upper parts of this system in England, France, and Germany, where the muschelkalk is quite as saliferous as the variegated marls, to which, apparently, salt is confined in England. " Upon the whole, then, this red sandstone system is a vast mass of sandy and argillaceous sediments of a peculiar aspect, accompanied more than any others yet known by salt and gypsum, generally de- ficient in organic remains, and only locally inclosing strata of lime- stone, which commonly are characterized by abundance of magnesia. Several reasons might be adduced to justify an opinion, that the time occupied in the production of the whole system was com- paratively short, such as the general uniformity of its composition, the deficiency (except in limited regions) of limestones ; the peculiar chemical and mineral character of these limestones ; the general paucity of organic remains ; the frequency of conglomerates, and local admixtures of fragments of igneous rocks ; all these circum- stances seem to indicate the predominance of an unusual series of agencies."! Mr. Lyell, though very succinct with respect to the saliferous formations, supplies the following pointed evi- dence : " The term saliferous marl and sandstone," he observes, " has been applied to the upper new red system, because it is in this group that rock-salt and salt springs occur in Cheshire and other parts of Eng- land, where the alternating beds of red and green marl, gypsum, and rock-salt sometimes exceed 600 feet in thickness. The gypsum is generally fibrous, and intercalated very irregularly between the laminated argillaceous beds. The rock-salt is sometimes clear and white, but is usually reddened by the argillaceous sediment with which it is associated. At Northwich, in Cheshire, are two beds of solid rock-salt, which are, together, not less than 60 feet in thickness. The origin of these vast deposits of muriate of soda is still one of the most obscure problems in theoretical geology."^: * Manual of Geology, pp. 390, 246, 409. t Treatise on Geology, pp. 119, 123, 129. i Elements of Geology, vol. ii. pp. 90, 91. 456 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE "Hitherto," observes the illustrator of the Huttonian Theory, "we have enumerated these fossils that are either not at all, or very sparingly, soluble in water. There are, however, saline bodies among the mineral strata, such for instance as rock-salt, which are readily dissolved in water; and it yet remains to examine by what cause their consolidation has been effected The salt-rock of Cheshire, which lies in thick beds, interposed between strata of an argillaceous or marly stone, and is itself mixed with a considerable portion of the same earth, exhibits a very great peculiarity in its structure. Though it forms a mass extremely compact, the salt is found to be arranged in round masses of five or six feet in diameter, not truly spherical, but each compressed by those that surround it, so as to have the shape of an irregular polyhedron In the triangular spaces without the polygons, the salt is in coats parallel to the sides of the polygons. . . . It is clear that the whole mass of salt was fluid at once, and that the forces, whatever they were, which gave solidity to it, and produced the new arrangement of its particles, were all in action at the same time. The uniformity of the coated structure is a proof of this, and above all, the compression of the polyhedra, which is always mutual, the flat side of one being turned to the flat side of another, and never an angle to an angle, nor an angle to a side. The coats formed as it were round so many different centres of attraction, is also an appear- ance quite inconsistent with the notion of deposition ; both these, however, are compatible with the notion of solidity acquired by the refrigeration of a fluid, where the whole mass is acted on at the same time, and where no solvent remains to be disposed of after the indu- ration of the rest."* To conclude the evidences respecting these vast and widely spread deposits of native salt, those undeniable memorials of the transformation of a watery-bound sphere into a terraqueous globe, I shall give an extract (which it is to be regretted the object of this work obliges to be abridged) of the enlivening description with which Mr. Miller has favoured us, of the salt works at Droitwich : "The prevailing geological system in this part of England," he observes, " is the new red sandstone, upper and lower. It stretches for many miles around the Dudley coal basin As I saw the vats seething over the furnaces, some of them already more than half- filled with the precipitated salt, and bearing atop a stratum of yellowish coloured fluid, the grand problem furnished by the saline deposits of this formation rose before me in all its difficulty. Geology propounds many a hard question to its students Here, now, are these briny springs welling out of this upper new red sandstone of central England, springs whose waters were employed in making salt two thousand years ago, and which still throw up that mineral at the rate " Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory, pp. 62 66. 'FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 457 of a thousand tons apiece weekly, without sign of diminution in either their volume or their degree of saturation. In Poland and Spain there occur salt deposits on a larger scale. The saliferous district of Cordova, for instance, has its solid hills of rock-salt, which nearly equal in height and bulk Arthur's Seat taken from the level of Holy- rood House. How, I inquire, were these mighty deposits formed in the great laboratory of nature ? Formed they must have been, in this part of the world, in an era long posterior to that of the coal ; and in Spain, where they belong to the cretaceous group, in an era long posterior to that of the oolite. They are more immediately underlaid in England by a sandstone, constituting the base of the upper new red, which is largely charged with vegetable remains of a peculiar and well-marked character ; and the equally well-marked flora of the carboniferous period lies entombed many hundred feet below. All the rock-salt in the kingdom must have been formed since the more recent vegetation of the red sandstone lived and died, and was entombed amid the smooth sands of some deep sea-bottom A bed of salt a hundred feet in thickness would demand for its salt- pan a lagoon many hundred feet in depth, and lagoons many hundred feet in depth, in at least the present state of things, are never evapo- rated." * These evidences, which have been given at considerable length, conclusively prove, by means of the tangible monu- ments of what did then occur, that sudden and simultaneous VAPOKIZATION must have taken place over all the continents, at a period when they were immersed in saline and acidulous water, holding, almost universally, much debris of the older rocks in mechanical suspension. Because, according to the manner in which water, when impregnated with such mineral elements, is separated from them by vaporization, and leaves the one class to deposit in stratiform masses and the other to solidify into crystalline shapes, so it is found, by the geo- logical development of the groups to which the attention has just been directed, that the results precisely coincide, and, likewise, with what was anticipated. The conclusion, there- fore, is, that, as there has remained much material residuum which the water could not carry with it by vaporization, but which it would assuredly have swept into the ocean had it been drained from off the surface of the land, the former must have been the method employed. / shall assume, in consequence, that vaporization was the method of separation ; while the Dynamical System can alone account for the other * First impressions of England, pp. 177 185. I regret being obliged to abridge this passage. I would recommend the work to my readers. AUTHOR. 458 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE attendant circumstances so manifestly present, namely the evidence of previous solution the suddenness of the desicca- tion and the simultaneous character of the whole consoli- dating process. To prevent any misconception, it should be clearly under- stood, that it was not because there had been laws governing materialism established beforehand that they were had re- course to at this, or at any other, stage of the creation. All laws affecting materialism were impressed upon it by the Creator himself at the time and in the manner most con- ducive to the progressive development of a plan laid down before, and were thereafter rendered subservient to its further development. Indeed, it is in consequence of their having been then established, that we are constrained to recognise them now, and, if success be desired in any undertaking, be content to employ them ; and that we are, ourselves, un- avoidably subjected to their influences. That a clear and more abiding conception of this adver- tency may be formed, and the reader enabled more thoroughly to comprehend what may be brought forward in reference to it in the sequel, a vigorous endeavour must be made to conceive the earth to be in the condition in which it existed, while as yet it had no diurnal rotation around its axis ; when shrouded in the atmosphereless deep as with a mantle ; a stranger to the influences of light, it was comparatively more under the dominion of attraction. This is the condi- tion in which he will have to consider that it travelled for ages around the unillumined sun. When at length the period arrived in which material LIGHT became essential for the development of the same progressive plan, and, its elements having been prepared, the Light was introduced ; when from thenceforward the earth and all materialism be- came subjected to the influence of a new and additional com- prehensive law the second universal law of matter EXPANSION.* * I have already clearly pointed out the source from whence I consider the expansive principle of the primeval world to have emanated, before the formation of the physical light, on the first day of the Mosaic week " The Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters." I consider it opportune, however, to remind my readers, at this juncture, of what I have adduced on the subject, and to refer them attain to the divinely revealed authority of Scripture, for the only elucida- tion which f-nn be given. AI-THOR. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 459 The attractive and expansive principles were, from this period, placed on their present footing of antagonism. The introduction of the primary LIGHT, and its division from the darkness, caused rotation around an axis as its immediate effect ; while this, in turn, gave rise to a transitory influence, of great power during the brief period of its existence CEN- TEIFUGAL IMPETUS one of the most important of the secondary agencies employed in transforming the earth, and also to another result of greater permanency, but of less ardent power the alternation of day and night ; one which, when estimating these attendant consequences in a meteoro- logi^al point of view, must not, by any means, be over- looked. Nor is it altogether sufficient to be able to estimate the separate effects of all those influences, or even their reciprocal effects upon each other. Attention must also be given to the results which emanated from the ORDER of their intro- duction into the material universe, and from the precise period when they were brought into operation. These two essential circumstances denote more clearly than any other, the SOURCE of these important and comprehensive laws : per- haps more so even than their amazing power and compre- hensive extent great as both of these are inasmuch as they more evidently point out the exercise of infinite wisdom in the determination of the junctures when each should be brought into successive exercise. Attraction was allowed first to wield its influential sway, until that which was wrought out under its shadowy covering, by the immediate exercise of Divine power, should be pre- pared for the reception of the expansive principle LIGHT, which awakened the perfected materials from their uterine slumber, and by its concomitant power of centrifugal impetus placed them where they were destined eventually to be located. This exercise of mind will enable us not only more fully to realise the existence of an Omnipotent Power, and the exercise of a Sovereign Will, but likewise to trace the pro- found wisdom of the choice of periods, when these other attributes should be ma'de manifest by their results. And, at the same time, it will assist us to recognise the consequent 460 modifications produced by each successive law on the com- bined influences of those which had preceded it ; such, for example, as the effect of the alternation of evening and night, after the light of morning and of the day. upon the heavens, surcharged with watery vapour as they then were. It will be conducive to the same preparedness of mind, to reflect on the description of forces which were then dominant over nature. They were all of a direct tendency. Attraction propended in straight lines from the periphery toward and through the centre. Expansion, on the contrary, from the centre towards the circumference. Centrifugal impetus, caused by rotation, partook of the character of expansion. That lateral tendency in the motion of matter, which is apparently indifferent whether the direction be to the one side or to the other, was not then known ; and it was precisely when such lateral motion was absolutely essential, and when by the previous formation of the atmosphere, the region of least friction, it could be most effectually employed, that clouds appear to have been first " gathered together," or made to conglomerate, and on their vapoury wings to collect the surplus water of the heavens into those deposits which had been prepared for them ; when the Creator " brake up for them his decreed place, and set bars and doors upon them, and said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no farther ; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed." A conclusion which will appear more proper still, if it be considered for a moment, that without the lateral movement of surcharged clouds there could, humanly speaking, have been no fulfilment of the command. We have seen, by the material residuum of crystalline salts and extensive deposits of mineral debris, that the separation between the land and the water took place by means of vaporization, during which process the aqueous part would be caused to evaporate in straight lines from the surface of the heated earth ; and unless, therefore, there had both been lateral motion, in various directions amongst the clouds, and that they had been charged with surplus watery vapour, there could have resulted no "gathering together." So long as the direct forces continued paramount, there might have been a disper- sion like rays to or from a centre ; but there could have been FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 461 no result corresponding to aggregation. That such is really the case, a moment's reflection will convince every one. It can be imagined, that the watery vapour might, by the cen- trifugal impetus, or by expansion, have been impelled high into the atmosphere from the surface of the earth in parallel lines ; and have been drawn down again towards the centre by that of attraction, or it may be conceived to have vaporized by the direct action of heat. But any motion corresponding to aggregation or free lateral movement, cannot possibly be con- sidered to have arisen out of either the one or the other of these forces producing motion, nor even from any of their possible combinations ; while the probable consequences of the application of direct forces to the case in question, namely, the separation of the water from the land without removing the material residuum, could not have been effected, or even assisted in the slightest degree, by the consequent operation which would have ensued by the mere raising of the water and letting it descend again on the same surface. Nothing but the formation of clouds, and their easy and rapid move- ment, by means of the atmosphere, could have wrought out the design then intended. Without motion there could have been no "gathering together ;" and having shown that neither of the direct motions then known, nor any combination of them, could have produced this effect, the only conclusion which remains is, that a motion of aggregation was then introduced into tJie material universe, and that this was effected by means of electricity or light. This assumption is confirmed by the dicta of meteorologists, as shown by the following opinions which they have expressed on the subject, namely : "It is evident," says Mr. Hutchinson, "that WIND is a necessary agent in the formation of clouds. If there were no such thing as wind, which would be the case if the air was not liable to expansion by means of heat, no clouds, with the exception of mists and fogs, could ever make their appearance. All the moisture evaporated in such circumstances during day, would be returned to the earth in the form of dews, or falling mists, during night. In general, then, it may be remarked, that whatever effect a wind of moderate velocity is calcu- lated to produce upon the hygrometric condition of the atmosphere, will be increased by every increment in its velocity, and diminished by every decrement." 46 1 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE Again " The circumstance of clouds gathering together in heaps, so as to form the several descriptions of cloud, proves that, though the vesicles of which they are composed be mutually repellent within a certain distance, they are mutually attractive beyond that distance. If the vesicles were mutually repellent at all distances, instead of congre- gating together into those masses which we call clouds, they would separate as far as possible from each other, and diffuse themselves equally throughout the atmosphere." * It is very essential to bear in mind, that one of the imme- diate consequences of direct forces would be to saturate the atmosphere with equal proportions of watery vapour for all given zones of latitude ; the action and reaction of the direct forces on matter being equalised all over the earth's surface, in accordance Avith the static condition of equilibrium of a sphere in rotation ; that is, all portions of the atmosphere would become equally charged with watery vapour in pro- portion to what they could respectively receive. There would, indeed there could have been, no unequal loading of any part of it with aqueous exhalations, for there existed no force which could propel matter out of direct lines, or of oblique lines parallel to each other ; this advertency is quite irrespective of the immediately subsequent action of the heated and elevated continental ridges, and we must therefore endeavour to learn, from the testimony of scientific writers, whose announcements support the ninety -fourth, Theorem, (to which please refer), some of the more recondite but well- established and comprehensive principles, whose combinations of action and reaction on each other seem to give effect, by currents of wind, to the various meteorological vicissitudes. Professor Whewell observes " Thus, in the lower part of the atmosphere there are tendencies to a current of air in one direction, and a current of vapour in the oppo- site ; and these tendencies exist in the average weather of places situated at a moderate distance from the equator. The air tends from the colder to the warmer parts, the vapour from the warmer to the colder. " The various distribution of land and sea, and many other causes, make these currents far from simple. But, in general, the air-current predominates, and keeps the skies clear, and the moisture dissolved. Principles of Meteorology, pp. 102, 103, 16". FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 46 J Occasional and irregular occurrences disturb this predominance ; the moisture is then precipitated, the skies are clouded, and the clouds may descend in copious rains. " These alternations of fair weather and showers appear to be much more favourable to vegetable and animal life than any uniform course of weather could have been. To produce this variety ice have two anta- gonist forces, by the struggle of which such changes occur. Steam and air, two transparent and elastic fluids, expansible by heat, are in many respects and properties very like each other ; yet the same heat similarly applied to the globe, produces at the surface currents of these fluids tend- ing in opposite directions. And these currents mix and balance, con- spire and interfere, so that our trees and fields have alternately water and sunshine ; our fruits and grain are successively developed and matured. Why should such laws of heat and elastic fluids so obtain and be so combined ? Is it not in order that they may be fit for such offices ? There is here an arrangement which no chance could have produced. The details of this apparatus may be beyond our power of tracing ; its springs may be out of our sight. Such circumstances do not make it the less a curious and bountiful contrivance ; they need not prevent our recognising the skill and benevolence which we can discover." * " It will be recollected," observes Mr. Reid, "that there are two great powers acting upon every kind of matter, attraction and repul- sion. This latter principle is generally believed to be the same as heat. If cohesion were the sole ruling power, the world would be a dull, inert mass, for the tendency of cohesion is to draw the particles of bodies into close contact with each other, and to preserve them in that state. But the repulsive principle, by driving asunder the par- ticles of bodies, infuses life and activity into inanimate objects. " To illustrate this, it will be sufficient to mention, that without the power of heat or repulsion, there could be no winds, rain, dew, rivers, streams, or springs." t With these expositions, on this abstruse subject, the complex and seemingly capricious machinery of the weather, this chapter will conclude, that we may enjoy a slight respite, and have time to meditate on what has been perused, before proceeding to its application in confirmation of the Dynamical System ; and ere it is attempted to be shown by what means these meteorological phenomena, and the formation of the atmosphere, at this particular juncture, can be made available, to convince the reader, that there was a long but indefinite period, during which the earth had no diurnal rotation around its axis. * Bridgewater Treatise, pp. 96 101. t Popular Treatise on Chemistry, p. 22. SECTION VII. COMPLETION OF THE ATMOSPHERE ; SEPARATION OF THE SEA FROM THE LAND ; AND THEIR IMMEDIATE COMBINED RESULTS. CHAPTER XXXIV. fPHE immediate results of the first diurnal rotation of the J- earth around its axis would be to elevate continental ridges, intensely heated ; to depress oceanic hollows of corre- sponding magnitude ; to carry upwards, by means of the former, immense longitudinal waves, the latter retreating, and carrying down to a certain extent, masses of water, cor- responding to the spaces upon which they rested ; while the upper strata of water would be dispersed in extreme tenuity, by the general rotatory impulse, augmented in the zones above the continents by the incandescent mountain chains thrust into their midst. Before this period, it must be reiterated, there existed no motion, except in straight lines, either to or from the centre, or diagonal thereto as a com- pound of those primary directions, but none which could cause particles of inert matter to move out of parallelism ; while there now exists, as shown by the ninety-fourth Theorem and evidences last appealed to, a law in nature, whereby the aerial portion of the atmosphere propends from the colder to the hotter regions ; and the vaporous con- stituents from the hotter to the colder places, without refer- ence to direction, beyond what is impressed upon them by these irresistible impulses. And another constitutional law, by which its aqueous associate is induced to form itself into vaporous vesicles, of wonderful tenuity, possessing diffusive -FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 465 principles within and immediately around themselves, yet with general attractive affinities by which they congregate or gather together into those gorgeous but fantastic forms which visible vapour or clouds assume ; and having been made aware of these several conditions, and of the existing pheno- mena connected with the comprehensive machinery of the weather, application may be made of them to the subject more immediately under consideration. Alluding again to the normal law of materialism, " that inert matter can neither generate, alter, nor overcome motion in itself" and being without the knowledge of the existence, up to the period alluded to, of any source of motion save in direct lines, while the insufficiency and inappropriateness of this description of motion is freely admitted, to effect the separation of the water from the earthy and the saline residuum, which exists to this day as an incontestable proof of the separation which actually took place ; the argument is reduced to one of those unavoidable dilemmas into which reliance alone on the laws of materialism would infallibly lead. Motion, impelling matter in parallel lines, could never have effected what we are constrained to admit has been done. And it is precisely when thus critically circumstanced, when we cannot take one step forward of ourselves, that the oppor- tune interference of the Creator relieves us from the diffi- culty : " Let the waters be gathered together, and let the dry land appear." From what has been said, therefore, it will not be difficult to imagine the land to have been entirely enveloped by watery vapour, which, by reason of the causes then in com- bined operation, especially of the diffusion principle, had risen up, and, for a limited period, was sustained by the newly formed atmosphere, in which, as there had yet been no lateral motion, the mass of encircling vapour remained unbroken and undispelled ; and that, had there existed a human eye, that eye, however space-penetrating, could not have distinguished the continental ridges, to it the land would not, as yet, have appeared. It may be well to remember also, that the impelling power which the Deity chose to wield while thus putting forth H H 4 66 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE those manifestations of creative energy, was the expansive principle of light in its primary condition. And, bearing these few important circumstances in mind, it is only necessary to recur to what has been made so clear by the announcements of philosophy, when declaratory of the meteorological phenomena, to feel convinced " that the appli- cation of the same heat, looked upon as a synonym of the principle of light or electricity, applied to the globe, and acting upon the tivo principal constituents of the Atmosphere Aqueous Vapour or Air would produce currents of these fluids tending in opposite directions : the air tending from the colder to the warmer parts ; the vapour from the warmer to the colder."* While the effect of this double and con- trary result of the same propelling power, as shown by the preceding quotation from the works of Professor Whewell and other meteorologists, is so apposite, that it makes it to be understood, thoroughly and for ever, how the impartation of the primary light, and of the intense heats from the con- tinental ridges, at the period referred to, was the only agency which could have occasioned an almost instantaneous dis- persion of the watery vapour from off the warmer regions, over the continents, by transference to the colder zones above the oceanic depressions, where, losing the latent heat which retained the aqueous portion in a vaporous state, it would be discharged in copious rain, and thereby fulfil the Creator's command " Let the waters be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear." There is so much sublimity in the simplicity of this announcement, so much of omnipotence combined with omniscience, a handling of the vast materials of the universe with so much ease, and the constraining of potent and com- prehensive pOAvers to fulfil a definite purpose, that it is scarcely possible to peruse this portion of Scripture, and view it as now done, without confessing, that it is the announce- ment of the Spirit of HIM who alone could deal with those elements, and cause them to produce those monuments of his power which appear everywhere in creation. This will also enable us to understand, that it is solely as the permanent consequences of the command then given, that watery vapour * Theorem 94 and evidences. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 467 still propends from tlie hotter to the colder regions, in oppo- sition to its atmospheric associate, the aerial part ; that they are, in fact, differently acted upon by electricity, and not from any inherent principle which resided in them. The reasons so strongly urged in favour of the position assumed, namely, that the waters were separated from the land by vaporization, are all borne out and confirmed by what has just been stated. There existed powerful and influential motives for vaporization having rapidly, extensively, and effectually taken place all over those parts of the earth's surface, which now constitute its terrene portion. It was essential, for the completion and adaptation of those portions for the world's future occupants, that the various mineral salts, soils, and sand should not be swept away, when the water with which they were combined was separated from them, but that the aqueous portion should be insensibly and almost invisibly evaporated from the salts and soils ; and that these should assume their dry and crystalline state, to remain as blessings to entire races of beings destined long afterwards to employ them for their respective purposes. And thus the sub-aqueous heat, arising from the fused moun- tain chains, was simultaneously applied beneath, to occasion rapid evaporation ; whilst the expansive principle of light was caused to impinge tangentially upon these vaporous exhalations, in a direction external to the surface, and thereby to complete their entire separation. In short, no conceivable combination of circumstances could have been more complete or more favourable for the accomplishment of the object then designed, as far as regards the terrene part of the world's surface. No such end being desired with respect to the depressed portions of the earth's surface, destined to receive the waters of the ocean, the same overruling wisdom, which applied heat to the elevations, arranged that these should be less capable of producing evaporation ; and by this opposite tendency they were caused to forward the work of creation almost as directly as the evaporizing process over the land. It is not meant by this to assert, that there was absolutely no friction, and consequently no heat occasioned by the de- pression of the oceanic hollows of the world. It is believed H H 2 4 A8 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE these effects resulted from depression as well as from eleva- tion ; but owing to the description of force employed, centri- fugal impetus, it is considered, that the elevatory movement beyond the original contour of the non-rotatory sphere, far exceeded the depression within that original outline ; while, at the same time, the oceanic cavities would be covered by comparatively a much greater depth of water than the up- rising continents, and be subjected to the application of altogether different degrees of heat and other evaporizing influences. Indeed, it cannot be supposed consistent with the wisdom of the Creator to have occasioned the vaporiza- tion of any moisture unnecessarily, when it was his design " to gather the waters together" into " one place," and that place, as we are afterwards informed, was the " sea." On contemplating, for a moment, the conclusion just come to, it must appear to be immediately dependent upon the first diurnal rotation of the earth around its axis ; the cen- trifugal impetus, engendered by this event, constituting, as a secondary cause, so essential an element in the formation of those portions of the Creator's work which we have been considering, that it is altogether impossible to imagine their existence as it has pleased Him to form them indepen- dently of that special force. The deduction from this, as to the period when the waters were separated from the land, is so obvious, as scarcely to require any further notice. It could only have been at the particular juncture, when the earth was first put into rotatory motion, that the centrifugal impetus necessary, as the element and the description of power required, could have been produced ; and it is pre- cisely at that particular period when, we are told, " the waters were separated from the land." When, in connection with this striking coincidence, the attendant circumstances of the creation are made to pass in brief review, we become thoroughly convinced of the perfect adaptation of the means to the end designed ; as well as of the power and wisdom which were displayed in constraining the successive parts of the work to contribute towards the completion of that which was to follow. This feature, so characteristic of the wisest forethought, has more than once been already pointed out ; but in no stage of the creation FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 469 does it manifest itself more conspicuously than at the period now referred to. The increased pressure, occasioned by the completion of the atmosphere, would directly contribute to the condensa- tion of aqueous vapour ; while the downward tendency of the surcharged clouds, from the higher and more heated regions, above the continental land, towards the lower and colder spaces occupied by the oceans, the natural direction of all bodies under the influence of gravitation, and more especially of the nephalic masses, when the equanimity of barometrical pressure is interfered with, would accelerate their descent, and render condensation and their discharge into the general reservoir of the sea more speedy and copious ; a consumma- tion which would, to a considerable degree, be facilitated in succession all around the globe as the comparative warmth of the " morning " gave place to the darker and colder vicissi- tudes of " evening." The following extracts, though written for a different pur- pose, bear so directly on this part of the subject, that no apology is made for inserting them : " The phenomena are as follow," says Mr. Whitehurst, in his " Theory of the Earth :" " In the middle or hottest part of the Day, the sea-breeze blows towards the land, in every possible direction ; and in the middle or coldest part of the Night, the land-breeze blows towards the sea, in every possible direction. Thus they alternately succeed each other, as constantly as night and day. These singular phenomena seem to arise from the following unalterable laws of nature, namely : those properties of the air whereby it becomes subject to rarefaction by heat and condensation by cold ; and hi part to the situation of the islands within the torrid zone, where days and nights are nearly equal all times of the year." * Dr. Thompson says " The sea and land breezes are diurnal winds ; they are best studied in tropical climes, for there the exciting cause acts with greatest power. They are altogether due to solar influence ; the land being heated by day more than the sea, the air above the former is more highly rarefied than that over the latter, hence a current from the sea, or a sea-breeze, is established ; at night the reverse is the case, for by terrestrial radiation the ground becomes colder than water, and a land wind blows to preserve the equilibrium of the atmospheric forces." f * Whitehurst'e Theory of the Earth, 1786. p. 148. t Introduction to Meteorology, p. 385. 470 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE Besides the more immediate effect of gathering the waters together, and separating them from the land, towards which all those contemporaneous secondary causes were made to contribute, there were other events being brought about during their mutual action on each other, which were like- wise as essential to the well-being of those races, endowed with voluntary motion, which were so soon to become the occupants of the gorgeous pedestal then preparing for their reception ; and it may be well to bear in mind that up to this period, and for a day and night thereafter, there was not, in the whole world, a creature possessing the faculty of full and free locomotion. Therefore, whenever there is occasion to reason concerning motion up to this time, the idea must be restricted to those descriptions which proceed from attrac- tion, repulsion, or from dynamical causes. The more recent discoveries of science, at every moment, and in every branch of research, present us with continual proofs of the manifold wisdom which pervaded the operations of the Creator, the arch-chemist of nature. That which the assiduity of chemists has lately enabled them to make out, with respect to the composition of earths, affords a striking example, alike of the forethought and of the providential care which characterizes the production of the original earthy and mineral substances of the world, and also of the fitness of the juncture, on account of the abundance of the elementary constituents then present, when these earthy materials were formed. But let chemistry itself bear testimony to the cor- rectness of these observations. Professor Donovan says " Rocks, stones, and earths appear dissimilar to each other, yet observation shows that the nature of all of them is the same. Stones and rocks are often found mouldering into earth, and earth is known to harden into stone. The process of mouldering produces no change further than breaking down the cohesion of the rock, accordingly we find the soil at the foot of rocky mountains to contain the same ingredients as the rocks themselves Now, as these rocks, when broken down into small particles or powder, constitute earth, chemists have denominated the ingredients of which rocks and stones are composed, earths; and these are, consequently, of different kinds." After describing minutely the composition of the precious stones, and explaining the nature of their chief components, FORMATION OF THE EARTff. 47* alumina, silica, glucina, zirconia, and yttria, he goes on to state " We shall take leave of the gems, and proceed to consider the nature of a much less costly class of minerals "Marbles, for instance, notwithstanding their value, are the same substance with common limestone and chalk Limestone is one of the most abundant minerals in nature ; it sometimes constitutes the substance of whole mountains When water is poured on burned limestone it is immediately absorbed, and the lime appears as dry as ever. In a short time, however, it swells, bursts, grows hot, discharges steam, and falls to powder. The same phenomena are exhibited by marble and chalk, after burning, if similarly treated. " There are two minerals very different from limestone or marble, and from each other, which, however, agree with limestone in the property of affording earths, that when water is poured on them sud- denly become hot, and undergo the process of slaking. These minerals are named carbonate of baryta, and carbonate of strontia, and the earths obtained from them are called baryta and strontia." " The preceding earths are all which the ingenuity of chemists has been able to discover ; and of these are composed all the gems, stones, rocks, mountains, and soils that are found throughout and consti- tuting the globe. From this examination we learn, that the solid parts of the globe, as far, at least, as human industry has discovered, are composed of a few earths and metals, each being presented under an astonishing variety of forms. And it will presently be shown, that the distinction between earths and metals, evident as it may appear, is not well founded, for of late years it has actually been demonstrated that earths are, themselves, metallic oxides. This has been shown by extracting oxygen from them ; and determining that, in each case, globules of a peculiar metal made their appearance. To metallize the earths, it is only necessary to subvert the affinity subsisting between the metallic basis and the oxygen, by means of some body having either a naturally stronger affinity for oxygen than the basis, or made to have it by art. What these means are it is not necessary here to detail ; it is sufficient to say, that it was chiefly through the application of the powerful agent called gal- vanism that the difficulty was overcome. . . . When any of these earthy metals was presented, at an elevated temperature, to the action of oxygen, the latter was absorbed, and the original earth was repro- duced. The metals obtained from the earths are named aluminum, glucinum, yttrium, barium, calcium, strontium, magnesium, to which list a new metal, thorium, has lately been added. " It appears, therefore, from the investigations of modern chemists, that the globe of the earth is one vast mass of metals of different kinds, disguised by various substances, but chiefly by oxygen." * These extracts demonstrate, in a concise but perspicuous manner, the intimate connection which exists between earths, * Chemistry, in Cab. Cyc., pp. 115120. 472 DYNAMICAL Sl'STEM OF THE metallic oxides, and metals ; while they trace them all back to " the great globe itself," and to the slow, progressive, but powerful agency of galvanic currents. By this, not only a clear glimpse is obtained of the way in which these mineral substances were formed at first, in the womb of nature.; but, likewise, of the concurring reasons which led to the thrusting up of heated continental ridges and mountain chains, com- posed of these metallic substances, into the. midst of a world of waters plentifully saturated with saline and oxygenous elements : whereby the prompt and abundant formation of loose earths and soils, suited for the forthcoming vegetable kingdom, took place, at the precise juncture when they were required ; when they could no longer have been dispensed with, and while their earlier formation (had such been possible in the then condition of the creation) would have deprived them of much of that efficacy, which, as newly formed earth and soils, they essentially possessed. Nor have we yet exhausted the resources which science possesses to make manifest the wisdom and providence of the Creator, especially that peculiar feature of these attributes, which shows that from one and the same general combination of elements several concomitant effects are made to spring. This is more than usually manifest on the present occa- sion ; for we shall be made aware, by evidences deduced from scientific sources, distinct from those which have been quoted, that by employing ^vater, after the atmosphere had been formed over it, as the medium wherein the chemical com- binations were conducted which produced the loose earths and soils, and also by applying the heated masses underneath the water, the refrigeration of the heated continents and their mountain ranges was greatly accelerated ; and that while the caloric which they radiated in such profusion was acting with so much effect on the elements of water and air, and the associated ingredients of the former, these were react- ing, as refrigerators, with as much greater an influence than would havebeen produced by the ethereal medium or by vacuum, as their densities exceed that of these media respectively. Mrs. Somervillc observes " When boat is applied below a liquid, the particles continually rise as they become specifically lighter, in consequence of the caloric, FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 473 'and diffuse it through the mass, their place being perpetually supplied by those which are more dense A hot body diffuses its caloric in the air by a double process ; the air in contact wi'.h it being heated, and becoming lighter, ascends and scatters its caloric ; while, at the same time, another portion is discharged in straight lines by the radiating powers of the surface Hence a substance cools more rapidly in air than in vacua, because in the latter case the process is carried on by radiation alone." *..... " The constituent particles of solid bodies," we are informed by the article on Heat in .the " Cabinet Cyclopaedia," " being incapable of changing their mutual position and arrangement, the heat can only pass through them from particle to particle by a slow process ; but when the particles forming any stratum of a liquid are heated, their mass expanding becomes lighter, bulk for bulk, than the stratum immediately above it, ascends, and, allowing the superior strata to descend, .... a constant series of currents upwards and downwards is thus established, and the heat is diffused by the motion of the par- ticles among each other " If, however, heat be applied to the highest stratum of the liquid, this effect cannot ensue. In fact, the heat is, in this case, conducted through the liquid "The process of cooling which a hot body undergoes when sus- pended in air is chiefly owing to the radiation of heat from its sur- face ; but another cause of the diminution of heat conspires with this. The particles of air in contact with the surface of the body receive heat from it, and thus becoming specifically lighter, ascend and give place to others. Thus heat is imparted constantly to fresh portions of air, and carried off by them. If a hot body be suspended in a liquid, the process of its cooling is altogether produced by this means, for in that case no radiation takes place, as in the instance of refrig- eration in air." t These concise but apposite passages show not only that the cooling of the heated continents would be accelerated by the aerial elements then present, but likewise that the oxidation of their metallic and metalloid components would, at the same time, be greatly facilitated by these having been intro- duced while in this condition, or rather thrust up while in this state, into the midst of water abundantly saturated with free oxygen. The sudden and violent evaporation, from off the continents, of the water raised into steam by the intense heat of these intrusions, would occasion at the same time a rarefaction in the aerial portion of the atmosphere, which would cause uri almost irresistible rush of wind, underneath, from the colder regions of the ocean toM-ards and over the * Connection of the Sciences, pp. 246, 247. t Heat, in Cab. Cyc.. pp. 335, 336. 474 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE warmer lands ; and by this action assist in producing the effect next designed to be wrought out, namely, to reduce the temperature of the terrene portion ; and the more so, as these colder streams of air were confined to the lower regions of the atmosphere, and would on that account accelerate oxidation, and prepare the oxidized mineral material, so necessary a component of the soil which w r as so soon to be clothed with the vast variety and extent of those interesting objects constituting the vegetable kingdom of the present day. The effects of currents of air, both in a meteorological and a chemical point of view, are so influential in producing the combined results to which allusion is now made, that, except for the information of those who may not have given sufficient attention to the subject, evidences need not have been brought forward. The following brief quotations, from dis- tinct sources of scientific research, will, however, tend to illustrate the consequences which would flow from the alter- nations of colder and hotter currents : " There is a constant evaporation," observes Mrs. Somerville, "from the land and water all over the earth In calm weather, vapour accumulates in the stratum of air immediately above the evaporating surface, and retards the formation of more ; whereas a strong wind accelerates the process, by carrying off the vapour as soon as it rises, and by making way for a succeeding portion of dry air." * " If air does not dissolve water," asks Mr. Donovan, " or exert any affinity on it, as is supposed by the hypothesis of Dalton, how does it happen that the evaporation of water is greatly promoted by pass- ing a current of air over its surface ? I am inclined to think," he observes a little further on, " that the agency of both heat and affinity is necessary to the explanation of the phenomena. The in- creased solubility of air in water, in proportion as the latter is warmer, may be explained by the intensity of affinity ; for heat is known, in many cases to exalt its force." f And writers on meteorology give the following concurring testimonies, as far as they are called upon to observe and record these vicissitudes : " When the wind blows from a cold towards a warmer climate," * Connection of the Sciences, p. 250. t Chemistry, in Cah. Cyc., p. 150. In reference to this observation, it should be remarked that, in the case in question, the heated condition of the water would augment the degree of affinity. FORMATION OF THE EARTH: 475 says Mr. Hutchinson, " the air, by communicating with a progressive warmer surface, has its temperature and capacity for aqueous vapour more rapidly increased than when it is supplied with humidity by evaporation The piercing and refrigerating influence, com- monly ascribed to north and north-east winds in this island, is owing, not so much to their absolute thermometric coldness, as to their undersaturated state of dryness, and their consequently increased effort in abstracting heat from the human body, and from all other moist surfaces, by accelerating evaporation." * The wisdom which ordained that these events should take place when they did, is likewise, most remarkable. Had those violent and irresistible changes of temperature, or, in other words, the sudden rush of the wind from the sea towards and upon the land, taken place after it was clothed with vegetation, the whole must inevitably have been rooted up, torn to pieces, and destroyed ; while, at the same time, their existence, as a matted covering over the terrene surface, would have materially impeded the thorough evaporation of the water from off the land. These evils, however, were alike avoided by the Creator having completed beforehand the three constituent elements which unitedly contribute to the equable and healthfully moderate variations of climate which the world now enjoys the ATMOSPHEKE, the LAND, and the SEA. And we find that it was precisely at this opportune juncture that these three great natural systems or bodies were completed. With reference to the allusion which has just been made to the combined agency of the Atmosphere, the Land, and the Sea, as being conjointly essential to produce the delight- ful and wholesome vicissitudes of weather, so necessary for the well-being of the animated and the vegetable existences with which the surface of the globe is covered, another gratifying evidence of the surpassing wisdom of the Creator will be enjoyed when further investigation is made into the manner in which the separation between the water and the land was effected, and contemplate it with reference to the case in question. It will be recognised in the fact of vaporization and transference, by means of the atmosphere, having been employed, that the Being who ordered it possessed complete power over all ; the world being but as * Meteorology, p. 104. 4/6 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE a ball in his hand, with which He did whatever seemed to Him to be good. It was formerly shown at great length, and with consider- able care, that the water, after having been purified, by undergoing a process of deposition which continued through the whole period of non-diurnal rotation, had, towards the close of that stage of the earth's existence, reached such a state of equilibrium, with respect to the saline and earthy ingredients which it held in chemical suspension, that no further deposition would have taken place ; but in that con- dition it might have remained ad infinitum, had it not pleased the Creator to introduce the new principle of light, and thereby to impress rotatory motion upon the immense sphere over which the water was spread as a liquid envelope : and by means of the centrifugal impetus to break up the outer crust of the earth into continental ridges, insular eleva- tions, arid oceanic depressions ; and, by the same and other forces, to expel from the primeval water those free gaseous exhalations which formed the major part of the atmosphere. Whereby the earth, in place of being a concentric rock- bound surface universally covered by a liquid hollow sphere of equal depth, was transformed into the diversified and gorgeous world it now is, with its feracious lands, its spark- ling, limpid seas, and, over all, its glorious azure canopy, each contributing to the perfection of the other, and, together, to the well-being of its numerous inhabitants. Considerable pains were likewise taken to show that the atmosphere is continually operating upon the ocean in such a manner as to separate the pure water from its saline, acidulous, and earthy ingredients, over the whole surface of its almost illimitable extent ; and, by means of certain meteorological phenomena, of which ivind and clouds are very important essentials, to furnish the terrene portion of the earth's surface with the requisite supply of moisture and fresh water. The vicissitudes of weather, which, in fact, are the verifications of those essential operations in nature, are so well known and so frequently observed by all, that further explanation of them is quite unnecessary. But it may not so obviously occur to every one, that had the separation between the land and the ivater been effected FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 477 by DRAINING, or by any other means than by VAPORIZATION, those necessary and salubrious interchanges between the water of the ocean and the land, by means of their connecting syphon, the atmosphere, would not have taken place with the same beneficial results. This will be shown by recurring to the fact of the primeval water having been purified to a condition of static equilibrium, which was designed to be maintained as the constitution of the present seas.* And inferring therefrom, that had that portion of the primeval water which covered the continental ridges and other terrene elevations been gathered together, in its original condition, into the great reservoir of the ocean, that is, in combination with all its saline, earthy, and acidulous ingredients, the aggregate mass would have been precisely of tlie same descrip- tion as was the original water at the close of the period of non-diurnal rotation. This is quite undeniable. And, consequently, there would have been no more water in the ocean than w r ould have sufficed to have held the associated ingredients in chemical equilibrium. Therefore (supposing this to have been the case), every drop of pure water there- after extracted from the broad expanse of the oceanic surface by the evaporating influence of the heat of the atmosphere, and borne towards the land by means of clouds and winds, would have had the effect of precipitating the saline or earthy ingredient with which it had previously been combined, the remaining water, saturated to equilibrium, being quite incapable of sustaining the salt or the earth which would have thus been set free ; and, from the same inability, those saline ingredients would have fallen to the bottom of the ocean have been lost to the sustentation of animal and vegetable life for ever and have been incapable of re-saturating the fresh water, which, from time to time, is restored to the general receptacle by means of rivers, rain, &c. This return of water from the land to the ocean, poured into it from innumerable streams and rivers, being of lighter specific gravity and floating towards the surface, could not, under this supposed state of matters, have entered into re- * By the ninety-first Theorem and evidences it will be seen, that wherever an exact analysis of the water of the ocean has been made, it is found to consist of the same ingredients, and in the same relative proportions, the strongest proof of static equilibrium. Refer, in confirmation, lo the sixty-ninth Theorem. 478 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE combination with salts and earths, which had, during its absence, been precipitated to the bottom. The display of wisdom, which was put forth to provide for this apparently insurmountable double difficulty, is equalled only by the comprehensive simplicity and beneficence of the method adopted to guard against it, and to remove it entirely. The case stood thus : a level sphere possessing an external crust of mineral material enveloped everywhere by a shoreless expanse of saline and acidulous water was to be trans- formed into a terraqueous habitation for man, animals, and plants, which should require occasional, supplies of fresh water, by means of an atmosphere common to land and sea ; and whilst the oceanic water was to be maintained in its saline condition, a proportion of it was occasionally and universally to be made fresh for the continued supply of the beings and other formations which were to be willed into existence ; the two kinds were, mutually, to act and react upon each other, so that each should be preserved in a state of healthful usefulness ; and a MEASURE was to be found for that portion of the primeval water which was to be made fresh. This appears to have been the complex problem which was to be experimentally solved, and which was by the power and wisdom of the Creator successfully accom- plished ; as, indeed, we never could rationally suppose it would be otherwise. Although, from the static constitutional condition which the primeval water had attained towards the close of the non-rotatory period, it could neither dissolve nor chemically suspend more saline or earthy ingredients ; yet there was nothing in the composition of the mass to render an addition of FRESH ivater inimical to it. On the contrary, the salts and earths could thereby be more effectually held in solution. A proportion of the water, then, was required to be made fresh. But how was it possible that part of an illimitable ocean should be made fresh whilst the residue continued salt ? It was not a reduction of the quantity of original salt water covering the surface of the globe which was desired ; but that, while the entire aggregate quantity of water should remain the same throughout the earth, part thereof should be made fresh, and port should remain salt ; and that a FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 479 determinate scale of proportion should be established be- tween the one and the other ; so that, while they existed in due balance, they should be allowed free intercourse with each other the saline occasionally to act on the fresh the fresh to produce its effects upon the saline. The tirst means adopted towards the accomplishment of this wonderful process, was to cause the earth to revolve diurnally around its axis. The next, to expand its surface and to corrugate it into continental elevations and oceanic depressions. Then, to deepen the mass of waters towards the equatorial regions, by an additional supply from the polar regions. Afterwards, to stretch out the firmament over both land and sea ; to apply sudden and intense heats to that portion of the primeval water which corresponded to the spaces occupied by the continents ; and, by means of the different affinities for caloric which salts and earths have, when compared with water, to drive off the latter, in its vaporous state, into the newly formed atmosphere, and to leave the saline and earthy associates embedded in solid /orm in the earth. No one can contemplate this mighty operation, in which secondary causes were constrained by the Omnipotent to fulfil his wise and benignant designs, without being struck with the simplicity and grandeur pervading the whole ! Every stage which the creation underwent, as it advanced towards completion, was immediately made an instrument, first for the preparation, and afterwards for the accomplish- ment, of that which was to follow. No example, of this kind, is more fraught with instruction than that which was shown forth by the separation of the surplus water from off the land. Fresh water was not only formed by vaporization, and re-united in this state to the great remaining reservoir of saline water of the ocean, whereby this was for ever after- wards enabled to afford a supply of the same material for the future productiveness of the terrene portion, and for the uses of its inhabitants ; but the saline materials, previously combined with the water so driven off, were left in solid store upon the land, where they could afterwards be easily obtained and applied to necessary purposes, while the land portion of the earth itself was employed as a standard 480 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE whereby to mete out the quantity of fresh water to be poured into the sea ; and thence to be taken again to irrigate the very land which measured it out from the primeval ocean ! The successful illustration of this part of the subject enables me to make the following observations : According to the Dynamical System and to it alone there were, at the period of the first diurnal rotation, intense heats, and enormous quantities of saline material to be accounted for. The elevation of the continental ridges and mountain chains having been attributed to the diurnal motion, as motion inevitably occasions friction, and friction amongst material masses causes heat, and as the introduction of heated mineral masses into the midst of waters impregnated with saline ingredients, and especially when surmounted by an uncharged atmosphere, would assuredly cause vaporiza- tion and separation between the salts and their aqueous solvent ; consequently, for all these reasons it was necessary, in order that no flaw might be found in this argument, to account for the expenditure of the remainder of those fierce heats, thus raised, after they had been employed in fusing and charring the rocky masses themselves, in forming the veins, and dykes, &c., and this was done by showing that it was expended in vaporizing the aqueous portion of the atmo- sphere, and in separating and driving off fresh water, in the state of steam, from its saline associates over an extended area of not less than one-third of the entire surface of the earth. But this, true and natural as it is, only brought us into another difficulty. For it showed that there was a new and a vast accumulation the solidified saline residua of this very evaporizing operation, namely, rock-salt, sal ammonia, gypsum, green vitriol, nitre, natron, borax, saltpetre, alum, and perhaps other substances, to be accounted for. And on turning to geology for an elucidation, it was found, that its indefatigable followers had, in the course of their re- searches, discovered immense deposits of these very saline materials, but whose origin they were at a loss to explain. In fact, they could not account for them at all. They were, of course, immediately laid claim to as the natural results of the operation of those primary causes which had been un- FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 481 folded by this system ; while the coincidence itself is offered as a striking manifestation of the soundness and sufficiency of the principles which have been laid down in it from the com- mencement. The fundamental assumption which I have all along enter- tained, that it was not until the land and sea were separated from each other on the third day ; when the former, standing out in bold relief with all its variety of hill and dale ; the latter washing its newly formed shore with its sparkling briny element ; and the pure and healthful atmosphere, surmount- ing both, to enable the land and sea to act and react on each other, and together on their common canopy ; that these three great divisions of nature were thoroughly completed ; is fully borne out by the records of philosophy, \vhich afford a most direct though, perhaps, unconscious proof of the correctness of the conception entertained ; for it is therein asserted, that a mutual and intimate relationship subsists between the atmosphere, the land, and the sea ; that these two last have, in turn, a reciprocal effect on the fluctuations and circulation of the atmospheric currents ; and that, unitedly, they conspire to the health and to the existence of the animated beings and plants which inhabit the land and by which it is clothed ; while the reverse of this aspect is equally as convincing, namely, that no combination of any two of these three great elemental bodies can produce any effect whatever, without the assistance of the remaining one. "The great instrument of communication," observes Professor Buckland, " between the surface of the sea and that of the land, is the atmosphere, by means of which a perpetual supply of fresh water is derived from the ocean of salt water, through the simple process of evaporation. By this process water is incessantly ascending in the state of vapour, and again descending in the form of dew and rain. .... As soon as springs issue from the earth, their waters commence their return towards the sea ; rills unite into streamlets, which, by further accumulation, form rivulets and rivers, and, at length, termi- nate in estuaries, where they mix again with their parent ocean. Here they remain, bearing part in all its various functions, until they are again evaporated into the atmosphere, to pass and re-pass through the same cycles of perpetual circulation." * " In the adjustment," says the same author, " of the relative * Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i. pp. 557, 558, I I 482 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE quantities of sea and land in such due proportions as to supply the earth by constant evaporation, without diminishing the waters of the ocean ; and in the appointment of the atmosphere to be the vehicle of this wonderful and unceasing circulation ; in thus separating these waters from their native salt (which, though of the highest utility to preserve the purity of the sea, renders them unfit for the support of terrestrial animals or vegetables) and transmitting them in genial showers to scatter fertility over the earth, and maintain the never- failing reservoirs of these springs and rivers, by which they are again returned to mix with their parent ocean ; in all these circumstances we find such evidences of nicely balanced adaptation of means to ends, of wise foresight, and benevolent intention, and infinite power, that he must be blind indeed who refuses to recognise in them proofs of the most exalted attributes of the Creator." : " Climate, in its wider sense," observes Professor Whewell, "is not one single agent, but is the aggregate result of a great number of different agents, governed by different laws, producing effects of various kinds. The steadiness of this compound agency is not the steadiness of a permanent condition, like that of a body at rest, but it is the steadiness of a state of constant change and movement, suc- cession and alternation, seeming accident and irregularity. It is a perpetual repose, combined with a perpetual motion ; an invariable average of most invariable quantities The principal con- stituents of climate are, the temperature of the earth, of the water, of the air, the distribution of the aqueous vapour contained in the atmosphere, the winds and rains, by which the equilibrium of the atmosphere is restored, when in any degree disturbed." f And, at another part of his Treatise, he says " The properties of water with regard to heat, make one vast watering-engine of the atmosphere." J " We may observe," he continues, "that the aerial atmosphere is necessary as a vehicle for the aqueous vapour. Salutary as is the operation of this last element to the whole organized creation, it is a substance which would not have answered its purposes if it had been administered pure. It requires to be diluted and associated with dry air to make it serviceable." " It would be probable from this reflection alone, that, in deter- mining the quantity, and the law and interstices of earth, water, air, and heat, the game regard has been ehown to the permanency and stability of the terrestrial system, which may be traced in the masses, distances, positions, and motions of the bodies of the celestial machine." || Perspicuous and satisfactory as the preceding observations are, I cannot refrain from noticing, that their substance has * Vindici Geologic!, p. 13; also Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i. pp. 570, 571. t Professor Whewell's Bridgewater Treatise, pp. 75, 76. * Ibid., pp. 83-85. Ibid., p. 97. || Ibid., p. 109. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 483 been summed up and expressed, ages ago, in one brief sentence : " All the rivers run into the sea ; yet the sea is not full : unto the place from whence the rivers came, thither they return again."* Several meteorological writers, struck with the wonderful adaptation of the elements, have expressed themselves in becoming terms of admiration and thankfulness, when they contemplated the wise and the benignant arrangements which have been made, by the machinery of the weather, for the well-being of creation. " Clouds," says Dr. Prout,t " are one of the great means by which water is transported from seas and oceans to be deposited far inland where water would otherwise never reach. Clouds also greatly miti- gate the extremes of temperature : by day they shield vegetation from the scorching influence of the solar heat ; by night, the earth, wrapt in its mantle of clouds, is enabled to retain that heat which would, otherwise, radiate into space, and is thus protected from the opposite influence of the nocturnal cold. These benefits arising from clouds, are most felt in countries without the tropics, which are most liable to the extremes of temperature. Lastly, whether we contem- plate them with respect to their form, their colour, their numerous modifications, or, more than all, their incessant state of change, clouds prove a source of never-failing interest, and may be classed among the most beautiful objects in nature. "J These conclusions, so illustrative of the development of the great plan of creation, the distinct and prominent separation of the land from the sea ; and the stretching forth of the atmosphere over both, these acting on each other so as to produce the wholesome and essential vicissitudes of weather, and the necessary recurrence of warmth and moisture, con- spire unitedly to determine the precise period of tJieir common origin. To produce these results, it was absolutely essential that a sphere, covered with saline water, should be put into diurnal rotation. None but these conditions could have been attended by the resultant consequences which are now expe- rienced. A non-rotating sphere only could have been every- where covered with water. The water which everywhere covered a sphere could only have been of one kind. That which primarily enveloped the earth could not have been * Ecclesiastes i. 7. t Bridgewater Treatise. % Principles of Meteorology, pp. 146, 177, 222, 223. First and tenth Theorems and their evidences. I I 2 484 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE without saline materials. Of this we are assured by reasoning d priori, confirmed by the senses ; for had it been free from these, there could not have remained any saline deposits in the terrene portion ; nor could the present saline condition of the oceans have been accounted for ; Avhile the character and composition of the deposits prove, that the portion of water which corresponded to that part which is now land, if not actually saline, contained saline elements ; consequently, if one part was of this description, the whole of the primeval water which enveloped the non-rotating sphere, having been all of one kind, must of necessity have likewise been impreg- nated with salt. The original water, therefore, which surrounded the earth at " the beginning," contained the elements of salt in associa- tion with itself* The only method known of producing a thorough and sudden separation between water and its saline associates, is by the application of heat to the mixture. But, "as the same causes produce the same effects," had the heat been equally applied to the whole of the ancient water, an entire separation between it and the saline ingredient would have taken place alike over land and sea. The separation, how- ever, was partial ; and so surely as it did not take place to any extent in those portions of the waters which constitute our present seas, so surely did it take place in those which surmounted at one time the continents and other prominent parts of the earth, for, in these latter there still remain, deeply imbedded in the soil, solidified deposits of precisely tJie same saline description, which, by their union with the vast aqueous reservoir, the ocean, confer on it its distinctive saltness, and preserve it in its destined condition of salu- briousness and utility. This brings me to a point which shows, that to the uni- versally encircling mass of saline water which accompanied the non-rotating earth, heat of sufficient intensity and extent was applied partially ; Avhereby part was rendered fresh, by being driven off in aqueous vapour, leaving behind its saline * In a previous part of this work, it has been endeavoured, and I trust success- fully, to make apparent the difference between the present "seas" and water holding saline and earthy elements in solution. AVTHOK. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 485 associates, while the greater part remained in combination with those ingredients ; and no cause commensurate to this stu- pendous yet discriminating effect is known save the friction produced by the elevation of continents and mountain chains thrust up from beneath ; and, even, in many instances, along with the stratified mineral masses which formed the spherical crust of the earth, by the centrifugal impetus occasioned by the protorotation of our planet around its axis. No secondary , cause, short of this, can be adduced as at all sufficient for this great undertaking. While this supplies the measure required, being fully commensurate to the work performed ; therefore the conclusion is, that the formation of the atmo- sphere, and the separation between the land and the sea, took place while as yet the influence existed of the centri- fugal impetus, occasioned by the first diurnal rotation of the earth around its axis. This involves, as a -necessary corollary, that there was a period, however evanescent, when the world was not impressed ivith diurnal motion ; which being once admitted and, after what has been said, it seems unphilo- sophical to deny it it may as well be conceded, that the sphere existed in its non-diurnal rotatory condition for a period, whose duration was sufficient to accomplish that which its want of diurnal motion was intended to produce ; quiescent tranquillity being one of the most essential requi- sites for promoting stratification. And as the mineral masses, whose movement caused the friction which evolved the heat necessary to drive off the fresh water from the sedimentary salts found associated with the red sandstone, oolitic, and other kindred formations ; as well as the nitrogen required to form the atmosphere, and the peculiar material, whatever it be, required to constitute the ethereal fluid, were the products of the accumulation of a succession of ages ; the argument has by this convergent approach reached the same common and comprehensive termination, as by all other pre- vious lines of argument, namely, that the earth revolved around the unillumined sun for a long but indefinite period before diurnal rotation was impressed upon it. SECTION VII. COMPLETION OF THE ATMOSPHERE ; SEPARATION OF THE SEA FROM THE LAND ; AND THEIR IMMEDIATE COMBINED RESULTS. CHAPTER XXXV. T SHALL commence the present chapter by directing the J- attention to the further use made of the newly formed atmosphere, in nourishing and sustaining the numerous and diversified objects of the vegetable kingdom, which clothed and embellished the naked land, thus brought out in such bold relief from " the seas," which were then gathered to- gether within their assigned and predetermined limits. The first points to which the attention has to be directed, are the appropriateness of the juncture at which the phano- gamous division of the vegetable kingdom was called into existence ; and the adaptation of the elements, then existing, to its formation ; it being assumed, that u-hen a work of this kind is delegated to any agent as this was to the earth* the means to carry it into effect would be duly provided and placed by the Creator at the disposal of that agent ; likewise, that the concomitant circumstances would be auspicious for the performance of the command.'*! The state of the earth, at the period when it is recorded that this part of the vegetable kingdom was willed into existence, will satisfy us that this assumption is correct. The component elements of almost all the organized objects which constitute the vegetable kingdom * Genesis i. 11, 12. f This, which is a fundamental principle of this Treatise, has already been proved to be a sound one. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 487 may be reduced to three ultimate principles, hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon. Of these, together with a few peculiar salts in small quantities, and of a minute proportion of nitrogen found in some peculiar families, the Avhole of those interesting, varied, and useful objects of nature are entirely composed.* The two first of these elementary and necessary ingredients were abundantly provided for by the aqueous vapour with which the atmosphere was saturated, in the manner so lately explained ; while the carbon, the remaining essential requisite of the vegetable kingdom, would be plentifully supplied by the carbonic acid, liberated by heat from the fused masses of limestone intermixed in the rocky elevations which had been thrown up to form the terrene portion of the globe ; the associated lime having been disengaged to assist in composing the soil which was deputed to produce them. For it will be seen, by referring to the hundred and second Theorem, that the application of fierce heat to the carbonate of lime, or common limestone, disunites the calcareous earth from its acidulous associate, both of which, in this instance, were useful, indeed, could not be dispensed with. And thus it is seen that the provident wisdom of the Creator had provided all the requisite materials before He issued the command, " Let the earth produce grass ; the herb yielding seed : and the fruit-tree yielding fruit, whose seed is in itself upon the earth." Indeed such are the fundamental characteristics of this system, that unless some vast operation, such as the embodying of the whole phanogamous division of plants, had been undertaken, it would have failed in accounting for the extra carbonic acid which abounded at the particular period to which allusion is now made. But there is still to be unfolded, with marked effect though in brief detail, circumstances which point in a peculiar manner to the appropriateness of the juncture when it pleased the Creator to will into existence the flowering, seeding classes of the vegetable kingdom recorded to have been formed at this time. It has been already shown that the requisite materials were prepared in great abundance and held in readiness ; and it is now, in continuation, to be seen that a commensurate * Edinburgh Journal of Natural History ; Murray's and Reid's Chemistry ; and Todd and Bowman's Anatomy of Man, &c., &c. 488 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE receptacle for them, and suitable means for their ready con- veyance, were also provided. This was the newly formed atmosphere, peculiarly well fitted, both by its nature and universality, for maintaining in proximity the aqueous vapour and carbonic acid wherever plants were to be formed by the delegated command which the earth had just received. Next, the vegetable kingdom was called into existence while as yet the light and heat the principal agents in fixing the woody fibre were not concentrated around the sun, or constituted as they are at present ; for in that case there could not have been the quantity of these requisites for this operation sup- plied ivithin the time specified ; while, for other and essential reasons, it should be clearly borne in mind, that the light employed in conferring vegetable vitality Avas different in kind from that which was afterwards employed in forming the animal kingdom, and supplying its stream of nervous fluid. And, lastly, the introduction of this kingdom of organic objects was with as much wisdom and goodness deferred until this particular juncture, as it was most benignantly interposed between the formation of the continents and that of the animated beings destined so soon to follow. Because, in the elevation of the former, during which there was so much carbonate of lime present, and so much heat evolved by friction, the consequent extrication and suffusion of immense quantities of carbonic acid were unavoidable, and would have proved prejudicial, if not positively destructive, to the lives of the creatures consti- tuting the animal kingdom, had not the vegetable forms preceded them ; towards whose formation that pungent and life-destroying gas is as favourable and conducive as it is prejudicial to animal existences. In following up the argument, the first thing to which the attention requires to be directed, is the well-grounded as- sumption that there must have been a decided difference of character between the plants which were created during the non-diurnal rotatory period, and those willed into existence in the Mosaic week ; because atmospheric air, which did not exist until then, is essential for the growth and perfection of innumerable orders of plants, which could not, it is presumed, have existed before the completion of what was so essential to their well-being. Under this impression let the hundred FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 489 and eighteenth and hundred and nineteenth Theorems be re- ferred to. Truths so apparent, that nothing but the characteristic of this work exactitude could have induced their having been brought forward ; and leaving it, therefore, to those who may have any remaining doubts, to look into the coin- cidence of the evidences quoted in support of these theorems, I shall proceed to make the application in support of the general argument for which they were adduced. It is this, that as the leading difference between the phanogamous plants comprising the classes monocotyledons and dicotyledons and the cryptogamous plants or acotyledons, consists in the two former possessing flowers and perfect seeding apparatus, while the later is destitute of both ; and atmospheric air being indispensably requisite for the growth and perfection of Flowers, Seeds, and Fruits, it follows as a correct deduction, that plants of the phanogamous kind could not, by any pos- sibility, have existed previous to the formation of the atmo- sphere. And as the atmosphere, according to what has now been explained, could not have existed before the formation of the light, and the diurnal revolution of the earth around its axis, it follows, as a matter of course, that phanogamous plants could not have existed previous to the diurnal rotation of the earth. But it has been made as apparent as the evidences of the senses will permit, that long previous to the formation of the atmosphere, to the calling forth of the light, or to the diurnal rotation of the earth around its axis, the sub- aqueous surface of our planet abounded with plants. By the dexterous blending of these two classes of truths, it follows, that those which primarily existed were not flower- ing plants ; and if not flowering plants, they could neither have produced seeds, nor fruits with seeds in themselves ; because to produce seeds, or fruit with seeds, flowers must precede ; and if destitute of seeds, they were not included in the last command issued on the third day, because all the plants mentioned in it either produced seeds or fruits with seeds in themselves. And thus the word of God is alike consistent with itself in all its various parts ; and perfectly accordant with the existing laws of nature, as manifested by 490 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE the announcements of natural philosophy in its several ramifi- cations. This leads, in turn, to a well-grounded presumptive infer- ence, that as light and atmospheric air exercise their influence principally on the floral envelopes of plants, and on the seeds and fruits, which, in due time, proceed from these interesting and beautiful vegetable expansions, it may thence be con- cluded, that the plants of the non-rotatory period were deficient in these peculiar organs. Light and atmospheric air not then existing, they could not have been brought to perfection. And although it is still an important desideratum in botany to determine which families of plants are, in reality, seedless, yet it is to be inferred, that such as are so were known to the inspired historian to have existed previously to the for- mation of the flowering classes ; inasmuch as he expressly mentions the creation of the earth, and this, we know, pro- ceeded in part from their secretions and fossilized remains.* The attention will next be directed to an enumeration of the principal elements which contribute to the formation of vegetable textures, especially to those which are essential for the construction of woody fibre. With this design, I refer again to the forty-fourth, and afterwards the hundred and twenty-fourth Theorems, both of which being relevant to the same subject : the evidences common to them, which bear directly on the point to be substantiated, shall be adduced. The third section of this work having been chiefly dedi- cated to the physiology of certain parts of plants, on the present occasion, when adducing the conjoint evidences for the above theorems, I shall dwell more particularly on those affecting the fixation of vegetable matter, and the formation of textures peculiar to the objects of that kingdom of nature. In the " Cabinet Cyclopaedia " it is stated that, " under what influ- ence, except that of the vital principle, a decomposition of the sap takes place before it reaches the leaves, we are ignorant. But when it has reached the leaves, and thus becomes exposed to the effect of light, ivefind that light causes a decomposition of the carbonic acid of vegetation, and consequently, by solidifying the tissue, renders the parts most exposed to it the hardest That the quantity of water lost to a plant by evaporation is in proportion to the quantity of light is easily proved by the experiment mentioned by De Candolle. * Sec 125th Theorem and evidences. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 49 i Whatever doubt there may be concerning the precise causes of evaporations, there can be none whatever as to the power which sunlight has to cause the decomposition of carbonic acid, the fixing of the carbon, and the giving out of oxygen For, however varied experiments may be, they all lead to the same result, and compel us to acknowledge the great importance of light to plants, in enabling them to digest the crude matter which they gain from the soil. In fact, there is nothing of which we have any certain know- ledge that interferes with these conclusions." * "When all those parts of plants," according to Professor Henslow's popular treatise, " which are capable of assuming a green tint, but more especially the leaves, receive the stimulus of light, they imme- diately decompose the carbonic acid contained in the sap. The result of this action is the retention of the carbon, and the expiration of the greater part of the oxygen into the surrounding atmosphere The fixation of the carbon by plants appears to be the first step in that elaborate process by which brute matter is converted into an organ- izable compound ; that is to say, into a material capable of being afterwards assimilated into the substance of an organized body And we find, upon careful inquiry, that our choice is restricted to about four substances, all of which possess nearly the same chemical characters, and which are the most universally present among the juices of plants. These are gum, sugar, fecula, and lignine. The first of these appears by far the most universally diffused, and has been obtained from nearly every plant in which it has been sought for ; and, moreover, as it possesses decidedly nutritious qualities, it may be considered, with every probability in its favour, as the first or proxi- mate organizable compound, formed by the action of vegetable life, acting under the stimulus of light." \ Having been informed, by these evidences, what are the elements which enter into the construction of plants, and the manner in which they are solidified by the effectual influence of sunlight, the scope of the argument requires, before con- cluding the chapter, to direct the attention to seemingly a very homely and well-attested truth, declared in part of the hundred and tuenty-first Theorem, namely, " that the time required to admit of plants arriving at maturity varies from some iveeks to several years." As this is a fact so well known by all and writers on botany have seldom occasion to refer to it except by assump- tion it must either be admitted, merely on authority of the theorem, or proved by the duration or by the assumed period for the maturation of the several orders and genera of the phanogamous classes of plants throughout the world. * Botany, in Cab. Cyc., pp. 84, 85. t Ibid., pp. 189191. 4Q2 I feel inclined to rely on the former method of authen- ticating the assertion, being convinced, that it coincides so closely with the experience of all who are in any manner conversant with botany or horticulture, as to require nothing beyond its mere enunciation to be taken for granted. The period, then, necessary to mature the objects of the vegetable kingdom is never shorter than several weeks, and in numberless instances is prolonged to as many years ; and it is requested that this fact, although trite and commonplace, may be borne in mind, as it will be pretty heavily leant upon in the immediately subsequent reasoning. Considering the mind to be properly instructed with respect to the two distinct subjects which have just occupied the attention, that is to say the ponderable and imponderable elements which enter into the composition of vegetable tex- ture and woody fibre ; together with the manner and process of their acting on each other, and of being elaborated into these forms ; and on the other hand, the usual time required to bring the objects of the vegetable kingdom to perfection and productiveness ; I shall now, in continuation, endeavour, by their careful combination, to elicit another important truth, namely that to enable the earth to produce and bring to perfection the whole of the vegetable forms, which clothe and adorn its surface, in the brief period of one day, there must have been a supernatural power conferred upon it ; an extraordinary supply of material placed at its disposal ; and, likewise, a commensurate suffusion of light and heat commu- nicated ; to the intent, that the vast accumulation of material, thus provided, should be decomposed, assimilated, and fixed into the form and substance of full-grown herbs and fruit- bearing trees, ivithin the time specified. Perhaps, this may be thought rather an advanced position on the part of a creature, as if tending to circumscribe, by attempting to reduce to the standard of our puny conceptions, the ways and the workings of a BEING whose every act is, and must ever essentially be, supernatural ; and, consequently, not capable of being limited by our conceptions. Impressed, however, with the conviction that faith is not incompatible with observation and common sense, when employed in the contemplation and in the reconciliation of the Record u-ith FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 493 the works of creation, and fully convinced that laws once established by the Creator are ever afterwards respected by Him, and taken into account in all that is done subsequently to their promulgation ; it may clearly be apprehended, that it being deemed necessary to delegate to the newly formed earth the miraculous faculty of bringing forth the phanoga- mous or flowering part of the vegetable kingdom, at once and in perfection, we may look upon the objects which were pro- duced in their true acceptation, as the stock or progenitors of all the orders of the flowering, seeding, or fruit-bearing plants, the material, tangible objects of the phanogamous division of the vegetable kingdom, and conclude, clearly and decidedly, that although the power to produce them complete at once was supernaturally and only for once conferred on the earth, and the elements then present were in quantity preter- naturally brought into juxtaposition, yet the materials themselves were natural, were produced by natural agents elements so made to abound, as they then were, and for that special occasion, never afterwards to be repeated. Having, by a similar process of reasoning, been enabled to satisfy the mind, that sources sufficient to yield these extra supplies of hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon did exist at the time alluded to, it becomes, likewise, convinced that there was a source from whence there could emanate a greater supply of LIGHT and HEAT than now comes in one day, or in a part of a day, from the sun ; and which being required, was sufficient to work up these materials. Therefore it is re-asserted, that the quantity of light employed in producing and perfecting the vegetable kingdom, on the third day of the Mosaic week, was supernatural, and that it has never been so communicated again, since the remainder of the light has been concentrated around the sun, in order to be imparted to the planets of the system in quantities whose amounts can be computed by the time* To render obvious the assumption thus made that it was an application and an effect of the primary light before it was concentrated around the sun, in the extraordinary quantity required, which wrought up the vegetable elemen- tary matter, then made to abound for the purpose, there * According to the tenor of the second Theorem and evidences. D 494 should, first of all, be considered generally, that the expansive principle of light was that which the Omnipotent chiefly employed during the whole period designated as the Mosaic week. It was the electro-magnetic energy of light which caused the earth to revolve around its axis, and to occasion the first night and day. It was its expansive principle which, united to the previously prepared elements, made the firmament to stretch forth as a garment ; the same subtile and buoyant power, when combined with the aqueous elements, dispersed the necessary vapour throughout the heavens ; and it also was light which effected the separation between the land and the sea. By the evidence of modern botanists, it has been shown that it is, even now, light and heat which are chiefly instrumental in forming and consolidating vegetable fibre and texture ; and it must never for a moment be for- gotten that it is not because it does so now that it did so then, but the reverse. Light and heat are the means, now, of forming and consolidating vegetable elements into woody fibre, because, at the eventful period alluded to, it pleased the Creator, as one of the progressive fundamental laws of nature, that light should be made his agent, in forming and completing those variegated and interesting objects, the phanogamous classes of the vegetable kingdom, which were then to be brought into existence. With respect to the previously formed cryptogamous plants, whose reproductive organs are mere spornles, or analogous receptacles, possessing neither radicle nor plumule, and quite indifferent to polar energy, being such as were not comprehended in the terms, "herb bearing seed, and fruit- tree yielding fruit whose seed is in itself upon the earth," I would, before continuing the general argument, make a few brief observations. The earth having being empowered, with the aid of the elements placed at its disposal, to produce the flowering, seeding classes of plants, we are warranted to surmise that the same agent the earth was the means which the Creator, likewise, made use of to create the primeval cryptogamous kinds during "the beginning;" and, following up this assumption, to conclude that, in obedience to the more general and comprehensive laws of materialism, those which FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 495 governed the production of species would be conformable throughout the wide domains of materialism ; the same great principle the light having conferred polarity on the, earth and every other rotating spheroid, as well as polarity on every germinating body, even to "a grain of mustard seed " ! When the earth, by its first diurnal rotation, became endowed with poles, it produced plants whose reproductive organs have radicle and plumule ; and whose energies and vitalities propend in different ways, and with relation to polar direc- tions ; and presupposes the existence of the unseen fluid, which occasions this polar sensitiveness of structure and method of proceeding on the part of the phanogamous plants. But, while the earth lay slumbering in the dark womb of nature, without poles or axis, itself the sporule of a world, it is but consistent to suppose, that it could only confer on the reproductive bodies of other objects on its then restricted vegetable kingdom faculties akin to those which itself possessed ; a conclusion fully borne out when it is remembered, that the subtile imponderable fluid which occasions polarity had not then been called into existence ; and hence, when the common origin, and unity of design in all the works of creation, are taken into consideration, there can be no reason to expect that the earth, in producing any of them by delegated power, could endow the reproductive organs of the primitive and restricted vegetation with facul- ties of a higher order, or which required, for their develop- ment, the influence of a force to which it had not itself, before rotation, been subjected which, in fact, did not exist. For this would be to presume a crude anomaly in the laws impressed on materialism which is nowhere found to be the case. And, therefore, relying on this sound principle, there should, d priori, have been expected what experimental botany, when applied to the extinct fossil vegetation, has revealed as actually existing, namely, that the fossil objects of the vegetable kingdom, considered as belonging to that remote era and condition of the globe, when brought into comparison with recent equivalents, are found to belong to those orders whose reproductive organs are indifferent alike to polarity, or to the putting forth of vegetative energies in the opposite directions of radicle and plumule, but send 4Q6 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE forth their expansions from whichever side mere casualty brings into contact with the ground. And it is thus, when the whole works of creation are viewed as emanating from the same Omnipotent source, that we are best able to esti- mate their comprehensiveness, to perceive all their beauties, and be convinced of the thorough and harmonious consist- ency of the one with the other. " It must be obvious, on consideration," says the practical author of Botany, in the "Library of Useful Knowledge, ""that plants in which there exist neither stamens nor pistils, and in which there cannot take place any of those phenomena we have lately been examining, when treating of phanogaraous plants, must also be destitute of seeds ; .... but if they have not reproductive organs, like those of plants of a higher organization, they are furnished with matter of another kind which answers the purpose equally well. This matter consists of what is called sporules or spores " Yet," he very appropriately concludes, " we must not be led astray by any ideas of equivocal generation. But, in the absence of demonstrative evidence to the contrary, let us believe the great Author of nature to be consistent with Himself in all his works ; and to have taken care to enable the most humble sea-weed to be multiplied by some means as certain and unchangeable as the most stately lord of the forest. We may rest assured, for all philosophy, for all observation, and all reason prove it, that there is no such thing in nature as blind chance ; but that all things have been carefully and wisely designed with reference to the particular circumstances under which they exist." * The remarkable persistency of the general law above alluded to, not only serves to corroborate the soundness of the position assumed in this from the first ; but, likewise, to make manifest the wise arrangement, and the design of the creation developed according to one great and compre- hensive plan which subjected the planets of the system and the sporules of the cryptogamia alike to its power and to its all-pervading influence. And it is when we are enabled thus to elevate our minds above the trammels which usually confine them, and with a bold yet faithful stretch of imagi- nation conceive all the works minute and great of creation emanating from the same omnipotent source, and rendered subject to the same great and comprehensive laws, that we are enabled to recognize more clearly the adaptation of one part towards the other, and the harmony of the whole. In the further prosecution of the subject, there is now to * " Botany," Library of Useful Knowledge, pp. 117119. FORMATION .OF THE EARTH. 497 be displayed another peculiarity of the vegetable kingdom, as stated in the twelfth Theorem, to which please refer. " It seems to be a natural consequence," observes Professor Hens- low, with his usual perspicuity, " of our considering the geographical distribution of every species to have taken place by its gradual disper- sion from one definite spot on the earth's surface Such districts are termed ' botanical regions.' These are spaces enclosing particular species, distributed through them in the stations adapted to their growth ; but so encompassed by physical obstructions, that the great majority of species found within their limits are not to be met with else- where There are about fifty of these regions whose floras have been partially examined, and of which lists have been given. The centres of Africa, Asia, and other unexplored districts, probably afford several more Many local circumstances produce remarkable modifications in the relative proportions between the species of different classes and orders Thus, for instance, cateris jjaribus, the cryptogamic tribes flourish most in moist regions. The places best adapted to the growth of ferns are the islands in tropical climates, in some of which, as in St. Helena, one-half the flora is composed of them The same causes which appear favour- able to the increase of cryptogamic species, seem also to produce a diminution in the proportions which dicotyledons bear to monocoty- ledons ; and other relations of considerable interest have also been pointed out between the species of different orders, occurring in dif- ferent regions." * Mrs. Somerville says " Each separate region, both of land and water, from the frozen shores of the polar circles to the burning regions of the torrid zone, possesses a flora of species peculiarly its own. The whole globe has been divided into botanical districts, differing almost entirely in their specific vegetable productions ; the limits of which are most decided when they are separated by a wide expanse of ocean, mountain chains, sandy deserts, salt plains, or internal seas. A considerable number of plants are common to the northern regions of Asia, Europe, and America, where the continents almost unite ; but, in approaching the south, the floras of these three great divisions of the globe differ more and more even in the same parallels of latitude Various opinions have been formed on the original or primitive distri- bution of plants over the surface of the globe, but, since botanical geography became a regular science, the phenomena observed have led to the conclusion, that vegetable creation must have taken place in a number of distinctly different centres, each of which was the original seat of a certain number of peculiar species, which at first grew there and nowhere else. Heaths are exclusively confined to the * Botany, in Cab. Cyc., pp. 304 309. It is recommended that the whole passage should be perused ; that given here is merely an abstract. AUTHOR. K K 498 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE Old World, and no indigenous rose-tree has ever been found in the New ; the whole southern hemisphere being destitute of that beautiful and fragrant plant. But this is still more confirmed by multitudes of par- ticular plants having an entirely local and insulated existence, growing spontaneously in some particular spot, and in no other place ; for example, the cedar of Lebanon, which grows indigenously on that mountain and in no other part of the world." * The next step must be to discover, with greater speciality than even these quotations point out, whether any and what proportion of the flora of these distant centres or foci pertain to the Phanogamous division that is the Monocotyledo- nous and Dicotyledonous classes of plants. With this view, the following evidence will be perused with advantage. Mr. Lyell, with reference to M. Humboldt's personal narrative, gives the following : "Every hemisphere," says this traveller, " produces plants of dif- ferent species ; and it is not by the diversity of climates that we can attempt to explain why equinoctial Africa has no laurinia ; and the New World no heaths ; or why the calceolarise are found only in the southern hemisphere We cannot explain why no one family of melastomas vegetates north of the parallel of thirty degrees ; or why no rose-tree belongs to the southern hemisphere. Analogy of climates is often found in the two continents without identity of pro- ductions. "In further illustration of the principle above alluded to, that difference of longitude, independently of any influence of temperature, is accompanied by a great and sometimes a complete diversity in the species of plants, De Candolle observes ' That out of 2,891 species of phanogamic plants described by Pursh, in the United States, there are only 885 which are found in northern or temperate Europe. MM. Humboldt and Bonpland, in all their travels through equinoctial America, found only twenty-four species, these being all cyperacea and graminea (monocotyledons) common to America and any part of the Old World.' " " In the Canaries," continues Mr. Lyell, " out of 583 species of phanogamous plants, it is said that 810 are peculiar to these islands, and the rest identical with those of the African Continent."! Professor Henslow says " So far as calculations have hitherto been made, the following general laws appear to be correct ; and it is not likely they will be much modified by any -additional information which future researches may procure : * Connection of the Sciences, pp. 278 283, necessarily very much abridged, f Principles of Geology, vol. ii. pp. 71 75. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 499 " 1. The proportion of cryptogamic to phanogamic species, increases as we recede from the equator. " 2. The proportion of dicotyledons to monocotyledons, increases as we approach the equator. " 8. The absolute number of species, and also the proportion of woody species to the herbaceous, increases as we approach the equator."* The result of this last inquiry enables us so far to modify the conclusion come to in the twelfth Theorem, as to pro- nounce, that of the distinct flora found, peculiar to the conti- nents and islands of the world, a considerable proportion is PHANOGAMOUS ; and to draw from these facts whatever deduction may be considered proper. What, then, ought to result from the introduction of these truths amongst the others which have been formerly estab- lished ? It has been proved, that the different centres or foci of the vegetable kingdom are dependent upon there being detached continents and islands on the earth ; that is, they are bound up or connected with the greater inequalities of its surface ; while of the plants forming these distinct floral foci, a considerable number pertain to the monocotyle- donous and dicotyledonous classes, or to the phanogamous division of the vegetable kingdom. But it has, likewise, been as clearly shown, that these two perfect classes could not have existed previously to the formation of the light and of the atmosphere ; that they were indeed called into being through the instrumentality of a supernatural suffusion of light, or, in other words, that their formation took place before the light was placed, as it now is, in the centre of the system ; and it having been declared, that the former of these events took place on the first and the latter on the fourth day of the Mosaic week, we are thus enabled, by means of the phanogamous vegetable classes, and of a distinct floral foci, to determine the period, WITHIN THREE DAYS, WHEN THE EARTH RECEIVED ITS ACTUAL DIVERSITY OF SURFACE AND PRESENT FORM. This conclusion is based alike on the announcements of Scripture and the experience of scientific research. Those continents and islands which constitute the detached and Botany, in Cab. Cyc., p. 308. K K 2 5 oo DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE distinct floral centres, bearing flowering, seeding plants, must have been formed, and have still retained the form which was given to them, at some period between the first and the fourth days of the Mosaic week. And if from the latter there be deducted the several increments of time which were occupied in the formation of the atmosphere, in the separa- tion of the land from the sea, and in the production of the phanogamous plants themselves, we shall be thrown back on the first day of the Mosaic week, as that on which the present great outlines and inequalities of the earth's surface were indelibly impressed upon it. It may be remembered that, in a previous part of this work, it was concluded, that the earth received its actual geographical outlines, in consequence of the first diurnal revolution which it performed around its axis, as an imme- diate effect of the formation of the primary light ; and as the deductions from the existence of distinct floral foci point to the same period, another and a very interesting corro- boration is thus contributed of the soundness of the former inference. The erratic boulders and blocks, dispersed by the first revolution of the earth around its axis, supply (though occasional and detached, yet) widely spread evidences of the origin and permanency of these great inequalities of surface. But the trees, shrubs, and grasses found in distinct foci furnish a more minutely and closely interwoven web of evidences, which, filling up the interstices and covering the whole terrene surface of the globe, do away with the last refuge for doubt ; while the satisfaction, in bringing forward this new series of proof, is greatly heightened by the considera- tion that such favourite objects in the great repository of nature as the flora should, by their presence, so effectually contri- bute to establish the point in question ; and afford their humble but undeniable testimony to the truth of those announcements which proceeded from the common Creator. These combinations it has been seen have reduced the time to a period whose extent cannot exceed that of three days ; on some one of which the earth must have received the more prominent inequalities of surface which it still retains ; and resuming the subject, with the design of going more into detail, I shall now endeavour to determine on which of those FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 501 three days the change of form alluded to actually did take place. The last evidences which have arisen from the phano- gamous classes of the vegetable kingdom enable us to conclude, that both the soil to which they are fixed, and the atmosphere in which they grew, were formed before these plants were called into existence ; and, in consequence, to eliminate a portion of the ultimate time as being that occupied in the production of those essential elements, the soil and atmosphere, leaving the remainder for the formation of the earth. Every evidence which has been brought to bear upon the argument has tended to prove, that the formation of the atmosphere must have succeeded the establishment of the in- equalities of the earth's surface, and not preceded them ; because it is more reasonable to suppose that the aerial ocean was formed after these elevations and deep depressions had been made, than that it should have existed while as yet the earth was a sphere ; and, therefore, by deducting from the remaining time that which is stated to have been occupied in making and perfecting the atmosphere, and separating, through its instrumentality, the land from the water, without which these plants could not have existed, we are carried back to the first day of the Mosaic week, as that on which the earth received the greater inequalities of surface which it still pre- serves a conclusion in the strictest accordance with what has ever been set forth by the Dynamical System, and it is to be hoped, that concurring testimonies, drawn from so many separate sources and different branches of science, will carry such conviction to the mind, as shall remove every doubt, and impart that most inestimable of all blessings, perfect belief in the harmony which exists between the WORKS and the WORD of GOD. I have thus been enabled to arrive at a point where, according to the order of sequence, there appears to have taken place a manifest change in the manner of conducting the process of creation. Hitherto, the light, the chief agent employed, had been in such a state, as to be capable of being imparted in the manner and quantity most suitable for the completion of the works which the Creator contemplated ; 502 DYNAMICAL SFSTEM OF THE and which were developed in succession. But from this period ever afterwards the light was so restricted, as to be given forth in fixed and regulated quantities ; issuing in equal timely supplies from luminaries placed in the firma- ment of the heavens, to dispense the light and heat best suited to the wants and comfort of the various inhabitants of the solar system. * Amongst the numerous motives for wonder and admiration which this remarkable change, in the method of procedure, seems fitted to produce in the mind, perhaps not the least extraordinary is the announcement of its having taken place precisely on the conclusion of those parts of the creation which may be considered as unendowed with volition : a coincidence so remarkable between the period of this all-important change and the kind of beings which were willed into existence thereafter, that, joined to the impression of there being a necessity for the modification in question, it cannot fail to convince every one who reflects on the subject of the truth of the divine origin of both conditions of the light, and also of the operations which were performed by its instrumen- tality in those widely different states. Hitherto whatever had been formed was either inert matter, aeriform masses, liquid fluids, or vegetable exist- ences, none of which possessed the power of volition or locomotion properly so called. But before the Creator pro- ceeded to embody those free-moving creatures which were to roam in the ocean, inhabit the land, or to fly in the air, there appears to have been some constraining reason, having its origin in the relation of their movements to the sur- rounding media, which demanded that the quantity of light should be equable and regulated ; and that it should hence- forth issue FROM the same point TO which the principle of attraction propends. It is not intended to lead the reader into the depths of an inquiry, having for its object even a surmise in what that mysterious necessity consists. But a brief and comprehen- sive review of the leading features which characterize the operations of the three days we have so long been engaged in contemplating, will not only go some way towards elucidating * See the second Theorem. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 503 this new principle, but likewise will show how intimately connected were these works with the introduction of the light into the material universe, and the diurnal rotation of the earth around its axis ; the main tenets and fundamental doctrines of the Dynamical System. The first day of the Mosaic week was dedicated to the formation of the light itself, that is, the ethereal fluid and its subsequent division from the darkness ; whose immediate consequence, as concerns this world, was the diurnal rotation of our sphere on its axis, producing in turn those innu- merable geological and geographical developments which everywhere characterize the earth's surface. A proper degree of attention bestowed upon what is said to have been the operations of the two succeeding days, will enable us to discover, to our entire satisfaction, that light, the diurnal rotation of the earth, and the consequences arising therefrom, were mainly influential in effecting, under the direction of the Creator, the wonders of these two the second and third days. For, on looking into the details of the second day, it will be observed, that it was the prin- ciple of expansion proceeding from the light, which, in- sinuating itself among the waters and combining with their elements or associates, caused them to assume the elasticity and volume requisite to form the atmosphere ; while it was to the centrifugal impetus, occasioned by the diurnal motion of the earth, that the elevation of the continents and the depression of the oceanic hollows are due ; and which, in turn, threw the body of waters into a favourable condition for being united with the expansive principle, and being, in part, transformed into the gaseous elements of the atmo- sphere. Again, on the third day, it was this newly formed aerial body which was chiefly instrumental in separating the water from the earthy, saline, and acidulous ingredients which were in it ; and in raising it off the lands, whereby a separation between the two component parts of the terraqueous surface was effected, and each rendered the fitting habitation of the various kinds of plants and animals, with which they were respectively to be tenanted. While, towards the close of the same day, it was light ; and the presence of the atmosphere 504 ' DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE EARTH. with its watery vapour and gaseous associates and ingre- dients, which enabled the earth to obey the mandate of the Omnipotent, and to produce the phanogamous orders of herbs and trees with which its surface is now so beautifully variegated and adorned. And thus we are made to perceive, in the most convincing manner, that all the stupendous transactions of these three primary days may be traced to the introduction into the crea- tion of indefinite quantities of the principle of expansion proceeding from light on the first day;* while it must appear a self-obvious truth, that these supplies could neither have been of the same nature, nor dispensed in the same quantities, as now received from the sun ; and therefore must have anteceded its final fixation around the central orb of our system. The contemplation of which event, and the results proceeding from it, will form the subject of the next section. Meanwhile, the general impression left upon the mind, by the perusal of what has been written, necessarily is, that the whole of these operations are linked together in the most intimate manner ; and so far, apparently under the necessity of a fixed order in the mode of their arrangement, as to require that the unfolding of the one part should precede the unfolding of the other, while itself was dependent upon the unfolding of one still more antecedent, like the unrolling of some vast plan admirably delineated by consummate wisdom and skill, where all the separate parts and detached groups are made to harmonize with each other, and to form one grand whole of the most perfect symmetry ! of which the boldest and truest conception we can imagine is, that they constitute the material results of the decrees of God : the materialising of that which had been devised from all eternity, and whose execution required the INSTITUTION of an ORDER of CAUSES ; productive of consequences whose invariable repetition have acquired for them the term of NATURAL EFFECTS. While the causes themselves, thus emanating directly from the Omnipotent, compose NATURE'S CONSTITUTIONAL CODE, whose contravention cannot, under any circumstances, be attempted with impunity. * The expressions here used are designed merely as indefinite, in contradistinc- tion to the measured supplies now received from the sun. SECTION VIII. CONCENTRATION OF THE LIGHT AROUND THE SUN ; AND COMPLETION OF THE WORK OF CREATION. CHAPTER XXXVI. IN a previous part of this work a promise was given to prove that, wherever the light was or whatever was its intimate nature during the first three days of the Mosaic week, it was not situated it had not its centre in or around the sun as it has at present ; on the assumption that had it been so placed it could not, in accordance with laws then existing, have accomplished what it did perform, under supreme direction, during that period. I now pur- pose, if possible, to redeem the pledge then given, while every consideration is earnestly solicited in consequence of the difficulty of the undertaking ; and the abstract nature of the reasoning which, alone, can be employed. To convince the readers that no unwarrantable, or at least no unprecedented, liberty is taken with their credulity, in supposing a centre or centres of impulse which no longer exist, and at the same time to exonerate myself from the charge of recurring unnecessarily to final causes, I have to plead the example of astronomers, a class of men who dedi- cate themselves to the cultivation of a science which, of all others, possesses the best-founded pretensions to the charac- ter of being exact. In testimony of this I adduce the fact contained in the second clause of the first part of the fifth Theorem, namely, " That the planets move in orbits cutting the ecliptic at different degrees of obliquity ;" and shall bring So6 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE forward the evidence of Professor Whewell on that point, who, when treating of the stability of the solar system, makes use of the following expressions : " They (the planets) might have had any inclination to the ecliptic from no degrees to ninety degrees. Mercury, which deviates most widely, is inclined 7^ degrees, Venus 3|, Saturn 2f , Jupiter 1, and Mars 2. How comes it that their motions are thus contained within such a narrow strip of the sky ? " In continuation, reference is made to the fourth Theorem, concerning the orbital revolutions of the planets : " A planet," observes Mrs. Somerville, " moves in its elliptical orbit with a velocity varying every instant, in consequence of two forces, one tending to the centre of the sun, and the other in the direction of a tangent to its orbit, arising from the primitive impulse given at the time when it was launched into space " On account of the reciprocal action of matter, the stability of tho system depends upon the intensity of the primitive momentum of the planets, and the ratio of their masses to that of the sun ; for the nature of the conic sections in which the celestial bodies move de- pends upon the velocity with which they were first propelled in space. Had that velocity been such as to make the planets move in orbits of unstable equilibrium, their mutual attractions might have changed them into parabolas, or even hyperbolas, so that the earth and planets might, ages ago, have been sweeping far from our sun through the abyss of space. But as the orbits differ very little from circles, the momentum of the planets, when projected, must have been exactly sufficient to ensure the permanency and stability of the system The magnitude of the sun's mass is the principal cause of that stability. There is not in the physical world a more splendid example of the adaptation of means to the accomplishment of an end than is exhibited in the nice adjustment of these forces, at once the cause of the variety and of the order of nature." t In the Treatise on Mechanics, in the "Cabinet Cyclopaedia," after some clear, preliminary explanations on the nature " of the motion of bodies on inclined planes and curves," we are told " The consideration of centrifugal force proves, that if a body be observed to move in a curvilinear path, some efficient cause must exist which prevents it from flying off, and which compels it to revolve round the centre. If the body be connected with the centre by a thread, cord, or rod, then the effect of the centrifugal force is to give * Bridgewater Treatise, pp. 165, 166. t Connection of the Sciences, pp. 5 16. FORMATION OF THE EARTH, 507 tension to the thread, cord, or rod But if a body be observed to move in a curve without any visible material connection with its centre, as is the case with the motions of the planets round the sun, and the satellites round the planets, it is usual to assign the cause to the attraction of the body which occupies the centre ; in the present instance the sun is that body, and it is customary to say, that the attraction of the sun, neutralizing the effects of the centrifugal force of the planets, retains them in their orbits." * "Is it not reasonable to imagine," asks Sir John Herschel, "that the force of gravity may extend so far as sixty radii of the earth, or to the moon ? and may not this be the power for some power there must be which deflects her at every instant from the tangent of her orbit, and retains her in the elliptic path which experience teaches us she actually pursues ?" This accomplished astronomer then shows, by a succinct but lucid chain of reasoning, which I am sorry the limits of this work do not admit of being transcribed, that the appli- cation of this rate, and its striking nonconformity with the observed orbital period of the moon, necessarily constrain astronomers to assume that the force of gravitation decreases at a ratio directly proportioned to the square of the inter- mediate distance ; and that thus corrected, the rate above obtained yields the precise duration of the moon's orbital path around the earth. And, in continuation, after making it manifest that the same reasoning, when applied to the case of the earth's revo- lution around the sun, accounts also satisfactorily for it, he enters upon the point which more immediately concerns us, by observing "Now, the moment we come to numbers, an obvious incongruity strikes us. When we calculate, as above, from the known distance of the sun, and from the period in which the earth circulates about it, what must be the centrifugal force of the latter, by which the sun's attraction is balanced (and which, therefore, becomes an exact measure of the sun's attractive energy, as exerted on the earth), we find it to be immensely greater than would suffice to counteract the earth's attraction on an equal body at that distance, greater in the high proportion of 354,986 to 1. It is clear, then, that if the earth be retained in its orbit about the sun by solar attraction, conformable in its rate of diminution with the general law, the force must be no less * Mechanics, in Cab. Cyc., chap. viii. p. 99. I would recommend the reader to peruse these passages in the work itself, for I have been obliged to abridge them . AITHOB. 5o8 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE than 854,936 times more intense than what the earth would be capable of exerting, ctetens paribus, at an equal distance. " What, then, are we to understand from this result ? Simply this that the sun attracts as a collection of 354,936 earths occupying its place would do ; or, in other words, that the sun contains 854,936 times the mass or quantity of ponderable matter that the earth con- sists of." * The design in adducing these evidences was to show that, in assuming an original direction for the primary light, which it now no longer possesses, I did not overstep the assump- tions made in the exact science of astronomy, and this has been completely, though somewhat embarrassingly, exempli- fied by the fact that, when the CENTRIFUGAL FORCE the origin and somewhat of the nature of which it was desired to elucidate is mentioned, it seems to be either inferred, implied, or merely assumed as a force which must unavoid- ably exist, in order to complete the laws which govern planetary motion a remarkable feature in the writings of astronomers ; who, otherwise, are so justly celebrated for the depth and extent of their requirements, for the keenness of their scientific acumen, and for the scrupulous exactness of all their manipulations, and which assuredly warrants the taking up the position now intended to occupy. Nevertheless, what has now been said, and the perusal of those quotations, will be sufficient to convince the most scrupulous that in a science such as astronomy, every result of which is the fruit of the most rigorous mathematical demonstration, its professors considered themselves warranted in having recourse to the doctrine of an " original projectile impulse given when the bodies were launched in space ;" the force and direction of which, differing for each planet and comet, can only be estimated relatively, or by the amount of the gravitation to Avhich it is an equipoise; while it is clearly admitted that the motion in space is quite independent of that of rotation. Such being the case, there is certainly no reason why I should be denied a similar privilege of sup- posing that the diurnal rotatory impulse produced by the formation of the light and its division from the darkness, originated from such a condition of the light as should be * Astronomy, Cab. Cyc., chap. vii. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 509 most conducive for impressing on the planets of our system those various degrees of obliquity of axis to the planes of their respective orbits, which astronomy announces they actually possess ; when no one denies to the professors of that science the kindred assumption which they have em- bodied in their calculations, to account for the various rates of velocity of the planets and comets in their respective orbits, and the degrees of obliquity with which those orbits cut the plane of the ecliptic. It is precisely with a view to assume this privilege that the quotations now perused have been given ; for, by the first part of the fifth Theorem it will be seen, " That the EAETH and other planets have their axes inclined at various degrees of obliquity to the planes of their respective orbits." The authorities which support this well-known astronomical truth may be consulted if desired, while I apply to it one of the facts elicited during the course of those investigations, namely, that the introduction of the light into the material universe, and its subsequent division from the darkness, were the immediate causes of the spheres diurnally revolving around their respective axes ; from which it follows, as a direct consequence similar to that of the assumed primary projectile impulse that the impulses communicated were precisely those whereby, according to the nature of the light then introduced, these different degrees of obliquity of axes with respect to the planes of their orbits could have been given to the planets of our system. This conclusion receives confirmation from the assumption that the various degrees of obliquity in the orbital motions of the planets, with respect to the plane of the ecliptic, pro- ceeded from precisely the same principle and originated from causes of a similar kind with those which occasioned the differing degrees of obliquity of their axes to the planes of these orbits, the only dissimilarity being the extent of the revolution performed; for there must be considered an axis round which the revolution is described as really in the one case as in the other, although the points of their existence in space differ so far that the former is imagined to be in the centre of gravity of its periodical path, and, consequently, exterior to the mass of the planet, while the other passes Sio DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE through the centre of the revolving body itself. Still it is maintained, that they each spring from a cause which, al- though put into activity at widely divergent periods, is identically the same. Having removed this preliminary difficulty, I shall con- tinue the scope of the argument designed to form the chief subject of this section by expressing my belief that in a former part of this treatise it has been satisfactorily proved that the formation of the light and its division from the darkness caused the earth to revolve diurnally around its axis. Indeed, so long as there exists a single peak of granite perforating the strata, and pointing its rugged apex to the clouds, this truth may be considered irrefragable, and capable of supporting any chain of reasoning which may be raised upon it. The geological evidences are very conclusive on this point. And, as long as this system stands, it supports the assumption of the non-rotation of the earth during the whole period required to produce the materials of these geological manifestations. And just as gravitation, ascertained on the earth's surface, where it is within the reach of actual com- putation, is made the standard to determine the full power of that all-pervading force, whose comprehensive grasp assists to control the material universe ; so should the power which tore up and dislocated the earth's mineral crust when the globe was first made to rotate diurnally around its axis, be employed as a gauge to determine, much more approximately than is known at present, the mighty energy of that projectile force which was made use of by the Creator at the beginning, to overcome the entire inertia of the spheres themselves, when they were translated in space, and delivered up, for ever afterwards, to the unerring guidance of these justly equipoised but divellent forces, which now together govern their orbital paths. But the earth, though not impressed with diurnal motion during that period, must have revolved around the un- illumined sun ; and if it revolved around the sun, the sun must have contained the precise amount of matter which it still possesses ; for any addition of ponderable matter made to the great central orb, when it became illuminated, would have destroyed the equilibrium which the earth and all other FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 511 planets around the general centre of gravity demand, in order to fulfil the conditions of their permanency. Unless it can be proved that the common centre of gravity of the solar system was changed on the sun's becoming illuminated, this conclusion must be correct ; and therefore, to those who do not admit it, the arduous undertaking de- volves of proving upon equally responsible and solid bases, that the common centre of gravity of our system underwent- a change on the fourth day of the Mosaic week. Assuming it, however, to be established that the earth did not rotate diurnally previous to the formation of the light and its division from the darkness, and that it did commence its diurnal rotatory motion in consequence of those events taking place, the same principle may be applied to all the other spheres of our system ; and it may also be concluded with respect to them, that neither did they rotate previous to the formation of the light ; consequently, all those known to possess that motion, must, like the earth, have acquired it on the formation of the light and its division from the darkness. The next point to be established is the rotatory motion of the central orb of the system. This is done by referring to the second part of the fifth Theorem. The following important evidences prove the truth of the assertion therein made " The oblate form of several of the planets," observes Mrs. Somer- ville, " indicates rotatory motion. This has been confirmed in most cases by tracing spots on their surface, by which their poles and times of rotation have been determined. " The sun revolves in twenty-five days and ten hours about an axis which is directed towards a point half-way between the polar star and Lyra, the plane of rotation being inclined by 7 30', or a little more than seven degrees to the plane of the ecliptic ; it may, therefore, be concluded that the sun's mass is a speroid, flattened at the poles. . . . "The sun and all its attendants rotate from west to east, on axes that remain nearly parallel to themselves in every point of their orbit, and with angular velocities that are sensibly uniform, that is, with an equable motion which is never either faster or slower."* "It is hardly possible," says Sir John Herschel, when treating of the sun, " to avoid associating our conceptions of an object of definite globular figure, and of such enormous dimensions, with some corre- sponding attribute of massiveness and material solidity. That the Connection, of the Sciences, pp. 75, 438. 5i2 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE sun is not a mere phantom, but a body having its own peculiar structure and economy, our telescopes distinctly inform us. They show us dark spots on its surfaces, which slowly change their places and forms, and by attending to whose situations, at different times, astronomers have ascertained that the sun revolves about an axis, inclined at a constant angle of 82 40' to the plane of the ecliptic, performing one rotation in a period of twenty-five days, and in the same direction with the diurnal rotation of the earth, that is, from west to east. Here, then, we have an analogy with our own globe ; the slower and more majestic movement only corresponding with the greater dimensions of the machinery, and impressing us with the prevalence of similar mechanical laws, and of, at least, such a com- munity of nature as the existence of inertia and obedience to force may agree."* These perspicuous and convincing quotations, from author- ities so well calculated to give them importance, are sufficient, without further evidence, to establish the fact of the sun's rotation, and of its similarity of direction and assumed com- munity of origin with the diurnal rotation of the earth. In continuation, it may be taken for granted, that all will agree with the rudimentary truth stated in the second Theorem : " That the external light and heat received by the earth comes from the sun ; " although, from its being irrelevant to the present purpose, it need not be inquired whether it emanates from the body of that luminary, or, as now more generally believed, from a luminiferous atmosphere which surrounds it. These points will undergo special investigation in their proper places ; meanwhile, all that is asked is, what cannot well be denied That the external light and heat re- ceived by the earth come from the sun ; and that they are received by us on whatever side we may happen to be of that central point of our system.t Neither is it intended, at present, to attach much import- ance to the argument which might be adduced, were any one hardy enough to undertake it, by supposing that the light which now either surrounds and emanates from the sun, could ever have caused the solid nucleus of that luminary to revolve ; because, if the light, by its expansive or repulsive power, that is, by its tendancy to proceed from the centre to * Astronomy, in Cab. Cyc., chap. v. p. 184, American edition, t See Meteorology, by Dr. Thompson, Introduction, pp. xix.- xxi., for a con- cise but clear elucidation of this fact. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 513 the circumference, be that which caused the bodies of the system to revolve, it would be absurd to suppose, that what- ever resides in that centre could thereby have had rotatory motion communicated to it so long as the light remained in the state it is in at present. I shall, therefore, proceed to a more certain line of proof, by adducing certain axioms in mechanics, in order that they may exercise their due influence over the truths which have already been established. These are stated in the seventy-ninth Theorem. Although this theorem is essential to the development of the future reasoning, nevertheless, as the principles on which it is founded are undoubted, the data from which it has been constructed will be alone submitted. " The power of a force," it is stated in the Treatise on Mechanics in the " Cabinet Cyclopaedia," "to produce motion is, therefore, accurately estimated, not by the force alone, but by the product found by multiply- ing the force by the distance of its direction from the axis. It is fre- quently necessary in mechanical science to refer to this power of a force ; and, accordingly, the product just mentioned has received a particular denomination. It is called the momentum of the force around the axis. " The distance of the direction of a force from the axis is sometimes called the leverage of the force. The momentum of a force is, therefore, found by multiplying the force by its leverage, and the energy of a given force to turn a body round its axis is proportional to the lever- age of that force. " From all that has been observed it may easily be inferred, that if several forces affect a body movable on its axis, having tendencies to move it in different directions, they will mutually neutralize each other and produce equilibrium ; if the sum of the momenta of these forces which tend to turn the body in one direction be equal to the sum of the momenta of those which tend to turn it in the opposite direction, these forces will produce equilibrium." * It must, therefore, be obvious to every one, after perusing what has been stated, that as " the external light and heat which are received come from the sun," and are equally im- parted to the earth, whatever be the position it occupies in space with relation to that luminary, those rays must be dis- seminated from the sun in all directions, whether they emanate from the body itself, or from a luminiferous atmo- sphere which surrounds it. But then it has also been shown, " that equal forces acting in opposite directions, with a ten- * Cab. Cyc., vol. v. pp. 135, 136. L L 5i4 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE dency to cause rotation, so far from producing that motion, neutralize each other's influence, and produce equilibrium." And as, in the case of the sun without entering on the question of the influence exercised by rays of light on the body whence they emanate the same light proceeds from its equatorial region in every direction, these rays must be considered to be equal forces acting in all these directions ; and applying the mechanical law above cited to this assumption, there arises the undeniable conclusion, that the light as it is NOW constituted cannot, and, consequently, never could, have caused ilie solid body of the sun to revolve around its axis. But, on the other hand, having been made aware, that the introduction of the primary material light into the universe occasioned the rotation of all bodies of the system around their respective axes, in which motion the central orb partici- pates, the application of this truth to the conclusion come to above, obliges us to consider, that although it was the light which caused the solid nucleus of the sun to rotate around its axis, it could not have been the light as now situated or as now constituted. Indeed, these two states of the light bear a somewhat similar relation to each other, as that which now subsists between the invisible electro-magnetic streams, capable of being made, in the hands of a skilful operator, to produce such wonders in decomposition and composition, and the brilliant radiance which bursts forth from the same currents, when the wires by which they are conducted are charcoal tipped, and made to collapse upon each other. They now illumine and dazzle by their visible splendour ; they power- fully affect the eye, but they no longer produce, hiddenly, those almost miraculous changes on other bodies which they did before, when passing along silently and unseen by means of their conductors. And so with the primary light, during the first three days of its existence, before it was made to converge around the sun, ere yet there was an atmosphere, its conductor, and before the sea and the land were separated from each other, it was wholly invisible, and wonder-working. This forms the first of a continued series of proofs which I intend to bring forward to demonstrate, that the primary light did not reside in or around the sun during the first FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 515 three days of the Mosaic week ; but that on the fourth day, when God set the light in the firmament of heaven, he made the two great fountenal streams of electricity to meet around the sun, the central orb, and so to dispense light to all its attendant orbs. The next proof to be adduced is somewhat similar to the preceding, namely that had the light, from the first, been situated in its present centre, it could not have caused the earth to revolve around its axis. To substantiate this, let it be considered established, that our planet has rotatory motion ; that it was impressed upon it by the expansive principle of the primary light ; and that the sun's rays, proceeding in straight lines, strike the earth perpendicular to its surface, and consequently to its axis ; and, then, let us become acquainted with what is contained in part of the eightieth Theorem " That if the force applied to a body be directed upon the axis and at right angles to it, no rotatory 'motion will be produced." And again, " If a sphere at rest in space receive an impulse passing through its centre of gravity, all its parts will move with an equal velocity in a STRAIGHT LINE." Combining these truths with what has been admitted above, the following self-obvious conclusion must be the result : That as the rays of sun-light (supposed, for a moment, to have been the impelling power) affect the earth in lines per- pendicular to its centre of gravity, they could not, according to the mechanical axiom just cited, have caused the earth to revolve around its axis, so long as they impinged upon it in that direction. But, as it has been admitted, that the earth does revolve diurnally, and that the introduction of the primary light into our system was the immediate secondary cause thereof, it is therefore necessary, as in the preceding case, to look to some other relative position of the primary light with respect to the earth, and some other state of it, as the cause of the rotation of this latter body. It was not the light as at present constituted, but it was the light; therefore it must have been the light from some other centre, and consequently in some other condition. Another corroborating proof can be drawn from nearly the L L 2 5i6 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE EARTH. same source, namely, what is termed the obliquity of the ecliptic ; the plane of the latter, or apparent path of the sun, being at present intersected by that of the equator at an angle of 23 28'. For it has been considered by astrono- mers, that the longer axis of the elliptic orbit of the earth around the sun coincided with the autumnal equinox about the period of the formation of the light ; and it being ad- mitted that the light proceeds in straight lines from its centre, had it then flowed from the sun, it must have proceeded in lines parallel to the plane of the ecliptic ; and, consequently, would have come into contact with the earth in such a direction as would have caused it (if it could have produced rotation at all under such circumstances) to have revolved with its axis perpendicular to that plane or to the ecliptic, and not, as it actually does, in lines perpendicular to the plane of the equator, which at present is 23 28' distant from the other, and formerly was somewhat more oblique ; because this would be to admit the absurd conclusion, that the light could have acted in planes where it did not exist, or. what is the same thing, out of the plane where it was supposed to have been, if it be imagined to have been centred at that time around the sun. But as it has been shown by sufficient proof, that the primary light was actually the propelling power, whilst astronomy announces that the obliquity of the plane of the equator to that of the ecliptic, at the period I allude to, was nearly 24, we are compelled, as in the preced- ing cases, to look to some other relative position of the light with respect to the earth, and also to some other state of it, for the explanation of the phenomenon in question ; while the elaborate proofs and investigations already gone through demonstrate to a certainty, that, as far as regards the DIRECS TION OF THE IMPELLING POWER, the primary light which caused the earth to revolve diurnally, did not come from the solar centre of our system. SECTION VIII. CONCENTRATION OF THE LIGHT AROUND THE SUN; AND COMPLETION OF THE WORK OF CREATION. CHAPTER XXXVII TTAVING been thus made aware, in the preceding chapter, -*-- by arguments deduced from the direction in which the light now flows to the earth, that it could not have caused it to rotate diurnally had it, when first formed, been concen- trated around the sun, it is intended in the present division to pursue a distinct line of evidence in favour of the same argument, by proofs arising from the quantity of light at pre- sent imparted daily by the sun to the earth. With this design it is necessary to become acquainted with the truths contained in the second Theorem, to which please refer. The latter clause of this theorem, which is rather abstruse in itself, exercises so important an influence over the reasoning in this particular line of proof, that it is considered essential to open it up a little to the general reader. Mrs. Somerville explains this astronomical law in the fol- lowing perspicuous manner : " A planet moves in its elliptical orbit with a velocity varying every instant, in consequence of two forces, one tending to the centre of the sun, and the other in the direction of a tangent to its orbit, arising from the primitive impulse given at the time when it was launched into space. Should the force in the tangent cease, the planet would fall to the sun by its gravity. Were the sun not to attract it, the planet would fly off in the tangent. Thus, when the planet is at the point of its orbit farthest from the sun, his action overcomes the planet's velocity, and brings it towards him with such an accelerated motion, 5 i8 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE that, at last, it overcomes the sun's attraction, and, shooting past him, gradually decreases in velocity until it arrives at the most distant point, where the sun's attraction again prevails. In this motion the radii vectores, or imaginary lines joining the centres of the sun and the planets, pass over equal areas or spaces in equal times." * Sir John Herschel thus explains the same uranographical phenomena : "This elliptic form of the sun's path, the eccentric position of the earth within it, and the unequal speed with which it is actually traversed by the sun itself, all tend to render the calculation of its longitude from theory difficult, and indeed impossible, so long as the law of its actual velocity continues unknown. This law is not immediately apparent. It was not, therefore, without much painful and laborious calculation, that it was discovered by Kepler, and announced in the following terms : ' Let a line be always supposed to connect the sun, supposed in motion, with the earth, supposed at rest ; then, as the Bun moves along its ellipse, this line (which is called by astronomers the radius vector) will describe or sweep over that portion of the whole area or surface of the ellipse which is included between its consecu- tive positions; and the motion of the sun will be such that equal areas are thus swept over by the revolving radius vector in equal times, in whatever part of the circumference of the ellipse the sun is moving.' " t As a direct sequitur from these premisses, and from the attendant circumstance of the sun dispensing, at all periods, a constantly equal degree of light and heat, it follows that as the radii vectores sweep over areas proportional to the times, the light and heat received by the earth must, like- wise, be equal and proportional to the times. According, therefore, to these unanimous and conclusive authorities, there can be no doubt that the sun dispenses only a limited daily quantum of light and heat, whose amount being known, and being subjected to examination, can be exactly appreciated ; and that this fact stands on bases sufficiently firm to support whatever superstructure it may be considered expedient to raise upon it. This treatise has chiefly been directed to prove that, during the second day of the Mosaic week, sufficient light was pre- sent wherewith to form the whole aerial body of the atmo- sphere, and also to supply it with its constituent amount of aqueous vapour ; that, during the first part of the third day, * Connection of the Sciences, pp. 9. 85, 86. f Astronomy, CaK Cy-.. American edition, pp. 176 180. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 5 rg there was sufficient light to separate the waters from the dry land, by means of the newly formed atmosphere ; and, during the succeeding portion of that day, to form and complete the two principal classes of plants comprising the phanogamous division of the vegetable kingdom. And, when these facts are contemplated with relation to the limited supply of light which is now received, it must be admitted that the light, as it is now constituted, could not, during the circumscribed periods of time above mentioned, form an atmosphere, sepa- rate the aqueous from the solid part of a sphere, and produce fully two-thirds of a vegetable kingdom, from their germ to full fruition ; and that when the light did perform, these works, it was not then, as it now is, concentrated around the central orb of our system, to dispense a measured supply of light and heat for the purpose of sustaining and invigorating the won- derful fabric which had been produced by its instrumentality when differently situated, and directed by the wisdom and the strength of the Omnipotent ; while the presence of these works show, evidently, that the light actually did exist. This con- clusion will be the more readily acquiesced in, when it is recollected, that it is in strict accordance^ with the words of inspiration ; and will, in the sequel, lead to full and concur- ring views of the stupendous works of the Creator, who alone could wield the movements of that potent principle, and cause it first to operate in the manner alluded to, and afterwards to place it wherever most conducive for his designs and the well-being of his creatures.'"" It is, therefore, one of the clearest and best -established deductions which can be drawn from the Dynamical System, that the light did not, during the first three days of the Mosaic week, occupy the place it now does in the centre of our system ; and that, too, for the concurring reasons which * As the earth revolved around the sun, long before the period of the Mosaic week, had the light been concentrated around the sun the moment this latter was willed into existence, it would necessarily have served for signs, seasons, days, and years, from that moment ; as, in place of the earth revolving around un opaque hody, it would have been revolving round an illuminated one. This, however, is not in accordance with the language employed in Genesis ; for no. mention is made in it of these "signs, seasons, days, and years," until the fourth day of the Mosaic week, when it is expressly staled, that the sun was illuminated by the light being concentrated around it, or " set in the firmament of the heaven;" and from that period these seasons, measured out by tho ray? of the luminaries, then commenced. 520 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE have been given, namely that if so situated it could not have done what it actually has performed. It is when contemplating the primary light as existing in altogether another state or condition during the brief period alluded to, that the most invigorating views of the declara- tions of Scripture are obtained. For the subject under con- sideration has assumed a position from which neither human knowledge nor all the treasures of science can extricate it. These have, indeed, furnished the means of accomplishing what has already been done, and what will hereafter be brought forward to prove, that the primary light did not occupy the centre of the solar system during the first three days of the Mosaic week ; but as it cannot be doubted, with- out calling into question the evidence of our senses, that it does so now, science has yet to inform the world of the resources which it possesses, for explaining how the mighty change of centre was achieved; how that which, within the consecutive periods of three natural days, could cause a world to revolve, form an atmospJiere, and the greater part of a vegetable kingdom, was changed in character, and compressed around a centre. No offence is intended to science, and few, perhaps, more heartily admire its powers, or wonder at its innumerable records, than I do ; nevertheless the truth must be manfully and unequivocally proclaimed. SCIENCE, in all the range of its resources, knotvs no power capable of changing the body of light, which enlightens our system, from any other condition in space to that which it now has, and of compress- ing it around the centre ivhich it now occupies. It is here utterly helpless, and consequently must gladly cling to any means which may be found to extricate it from such a dilemma. Nor is any disparagement offered to science by having, in this instance, made allusion to final causes. It could not be avoided, unless this part of the discourse had been left unfinished. For, with all that predilection which I entertain for the scientific division of the evidences, its proof was carried to the very extremity of materialism; by its assistance matter was traced until it almost vanished, and became so tenuous as scarcely to be appreciable by the senses ; but even when this was reached, when on the very verge of materialism, FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 521 we were reminded by science, that being still within the bounds of matter and the domains of gravity, the stern and unbending law of inertia forbade us to believe, that " spon- taneous motion could by any means be engendered in it ; " from the resources within her reach all further hope of assist- ance was in vain ; and that the origin of motion of the ethereal fluid must be sought for where attraction has no power, LIGHT and HEAT having been removed from under its dominion."" Neither, perhaps, should it be undertaken to prove, that there was, on its first formation and division from the dark- ness, an irresistible rush of LIGHT, akin to that of the waters, when those of the primitive ocean, on being made to revolve, swept onwards from the respective poles to find their level of rotation ; or like to the atmospheric elements, when the firmament stretched itself throughout the expanse of its des- tined space ; although strict analogy, and the mighty labours which the light had to perform on the first day of the Mosaic week, lead to the supposition that such was really the case ; but of this there is no direct testimony, and, therefore, I shall approach this part of the subject indirectly, or by the differ- ential method ; trusting, by that means, to make manifest the irresistible influence which the primary light put forth, by the effects which it has produced the stupendous works, then accomplished by its instrumentality, which still remain to exhibit the undeniable monuments of its amazing power. Before proceeding to make good this point by an indirect approach, it may be well to recapitulate once more the expres- sion of the equipoising forces which restrain the earth in its orbital path around the sun. These constitute the subject of the third and fourth Theorems, which see. The application of the Dynamical System to these astro- nomical data, and the blending of some of their best- established announcements with the conclusions which have been come to during the course of these investigations, lead to two distinct but equally important results. With respect to the direction in which it is apprehended the primary projectile impulse was impressed upon the earth, it will be obvious that if this did not simultaneously cause * Forty-sixth Theorem. Siz DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE the earth's motion in space, and its rotation around its axis ; but, that the former preceded the latter in time by the whole period necessary for the deposition of the principal portion of the strata ; then, the force which caused the earth and other planets to revolve around the sun, and all around their common centre of gravity, must have been of a description which (in connection with the other existing laws of matter) would cause them to revolve around each other, and all around the common centre alluded to, without rotating around their individual axes. The deduction itself is so necessarily evi- dent as scarcely to require either explanation or comment ; but the direction of the impelling force is by no means so easily determined ; nevertheless I am inclined to consider it to have been akin to that power which, ages afterwards, caused the orbitally revolving earth to rotate diurnally around its axis, without affecting the forces which maintained it in its prede- termined path through the heavens, and which, no doubt, impressed similar motion on the other primary bodies of the system around their respective axes. Regarding the diurnal motion, which this theory has all along maintained was not communicated to the earth coevally with its orbital impetus, otherwise the geological phenomena which bestrew its surface could not have been satisfactorily accounted for, I shall now have to go more into detail, in order to substantiate, by astronomical data, the position which other natural evidences occasioned me to assume, and, hitherto, have enabled me to maintain. Attraction, one of those counterpoising forces which retain the earth in its orbital revolution around the sun, is (as has already been quoted) thus described by Sir John Herschel " The direction of attraction at any point of the orbit of each planet always passes through the sun. No matter from what ultimate cause the power which is called gravitation originates, be it a virtue lodged in the sun as its receptacle, or be it pressure from without, or the resultant of many pressures or solicitations of unknown fluids, magnetic or electric ethers, or impulses ; still, when finally brought nnder contemplation, and summed up into a single resultant energy, its direction is from every point on all sides towards the sun's centre." Being made aware that such is the direction of one of the divellent forces which, acting on the earth in motion in the FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 523 heavens, retains it in its destined orbital path ; and bearing in mind the deliberate conclusion previously come to " that these two motions are quite independent of each other, inas- much as that there was duration in time, between orbital revolution in space and diurnal rotatory motion, sujjwient to admit of the deposition of the greater part of the stratified formation of the earth's outer crust ; we necessarily arrive at the same conclusion as before, namely, that the other divel- lent force which is required to maintain the earth and other spheres in their orbits must have been communicated at right angles, or tangentially, to that which is occasioned by the centripetal force of gravity, and so have caused the resultant direction in which the spheres travel in space. This conclusion is most interesting, inasmuch as it points out, in language which can neither be set aside nor misunder- stood, that the force which acted at right angles to the direc- tion of gravity, and by overcoming its aggregate inertia caused the earth ever to be disposed, but, owing to the perfect equi- poise, never able, to fly off at a tangent from its path in space, must have been similar to that which is assumed to have emanated from the primary light, when introduced into the material universe, and divided from the darkness, on the FIRST day of the Mosaic week ; because the result of this last was also to communicate motion in a direction tangentially to the molecular attraction passing through the earth's centre, and to overcome the inertia of its recumbent matter. It was not, however, merely to reach this conclusion, notwithstanding its importance, that at present the attention is pointed to these facts. I more particularly desire the mind to be directed to the circumstance itself, of the just equipoise of the two divellent forces, and to the knowledge, that to this we are indebted for the steadiness and certainty with which the earth performs its annual revolution around the sun ; consequently, any increase or decrease of either of those counterbalancing forces would be destructive of that security would, in reality, disturb the whole economy of the solar system ! Now it is when this conviction is strongly impressed upon the mind, that we recognise, most clearly, the importance of the conclusions previously come to, namely that there was a protracted period during which the earth did not rotate S2 4 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE EARTH. diurnally around its axis ; but had diurnal motion impressed upon it, in common with the other spheres of the system, at a comparatively recent period ; and that thereby such a cen- trifugal impetus was communicated to the earth as to raise its continental ridges and mountain chains, to depress the oceanic hollows, and to occasion the previously circumfluent water, in rushing from the poles, to retire within these recep- tacles : because, as it has already been observed, if neither of the forces which restrained the earth in its orbital path could, without suffering disturbance, admit of either increase or of decrease, then are we constrained to conclude, that the force which caused the orbital revolving earth to rotate diurnally, could not have impinged upon it, equipoised as it was, either in the direction of gravity or in that of its divellent counter- balancing force ; and if it could not have impinged upon it in either of these two directions, neither could it have done so in any intermediate one ; because this, too, would have tended, as far as it went, to have augmented one of the equi- poising powers, to the certain overthrow of the other. This Avholly excludes the assumption, that the force which caused the earth to revolve around its axis impinged upon it in the direction of the centripetal or centrifugal influences, or in that of any intermediate point between the two ; although these, nevertheless, constitute the directions in which all forces act that proceed in straight lines, and produce effects directly either to or from their own centres ; or which could have affected the earth in any line perpendicular to its axis. SECTION vm. CONCENTRATION OF THE LIGHT AROUND THE SUN ; AND COMPLETION OF THE WORK OF CREATION. CHAPTER XXXVIII. ^FHE conclusions come to at the close of (he preceding -*- chapter are very important, and likely to exercise con- siderable influence over the future argument. Convinced of this, as well as of the certainty of the non-rotating sphere having been caused, by a commensurate influence, to revolve diurnally around its axis, we are shut up to the alternative of supposing, that this effect was produced by a force which acted in a manner distinct from any we have yet had occasion to contemplate one, for instance, which, while it proceeded in a direction parallel to the earth's axis, was capable of sending forth its resultant effects at right angles thereto ; and, for- tunately for the further confirmation of the views now being enunciated, there has been discovered, lately, a force which causes rotation in planes perpendicular to the line of its direction ; and which, therefore, completely corresponds with the description of force now sought. This unique impelling power belongs to a class of pheno- mena hitherto only casually noticed, but to which the atten- tion must now be directed, as far as the state of information regarding it will permit ; while I take occasion to observe, that this lately discovered force possesses peculiar interest, when considered with relation to the cosmographical views herein promulgated ; for, besides the important circumstance of its producing motion in a direction at right angles to the 526 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE line of its own progress, it emanates from the subtile fluid, electro-magnetism ; an influence which, in turn, is considered to-be of a kin to light and heat""" the element whose intro- duction into the material universe is considered to have been the immediate secondary cause of the diurnal rotation of the earth, and the other spheres around their respective axes ; thus presenting to the contemplative mind a most convincing testimony of the power of that Omnipotent Being, who, after having wielded this potent influence by his word, and having caused it, in the condition it then was, to produce the stu- pendous and fundamental works of the first three days, could, afterwards, by a mere command, concentrate what remained uncombined of the subtile element around the sun, to impart light and warmth and life-fostering influences, for ever there- after, to the myriads of his created beings ! In the sixty-third Theorem, ELECTRO-MAGNETISM is defined; and the following are some of the philosophical conclusions on which the theorem is founded : they place this interesting subject in distinct points of view, and may therefore tend more fully to illustrate the peculiar character of the force in question, on which account I beg attention to them. Mrs. Somerville observes : " In the year 1819, M. Oersted discovered that a current of voltaic electricity exerts a powerful influence on a magnetized needle. This observation has given rise to the theory of electro-magnetism the most interesting science of modern times, whether it be considered as leading us a step further in generalization, by identifying two agencies hitherto referred to different causes, or as developing a new force, un- paralleled in the system of the world ; which, overcoming retardation from friction, and the obstacles of a resisting medium, maintains a perpetual motion, often vainly attempted, but apparently impossible to be accomplished by means of any other force, or combination of forces, than the one in question " All experiments made in this branch of science tend to prove that the force emanating from the electric current, which produces such effects on the magnetic needle, acts at right angles to the current, and is, therefore, unlike any force hitherto known ; the action of all the forces in nature being directed in straight lines, as far as we know ; for the curves described by the heavenly bodies result from the com- position of two direct forces, whereas that which is exerted by an electrical current upon either pole of a magnet has no tendency to * " The discoveries of Oersted, Seebeck, and Faraday sho-w an intimate con- nection between these unseen fluids." Dr. Thompson, p. 278. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 527 cause the pole to approach or recede, but to rotate about it. If the stream of electricity be supposed to pass through the centre of a circle whose plane is perpendicular to the current, the direction of the force exerted by the electricity will always be the tangent to the circle, or at right angles to its radius ; consequently, the tangential force of the electricity has a tendency to make the pole of a magnet move in a circle round the wire of the battery. Mr. Barlow has proved that the action of each particle of the electric fluid in the wire, on each particle of the magnetic fluid in the needle, varies inversely as the square of the distance.* Sir John Herschel says " Magnetism and electricity, which had long maintained a distinct existence, and been studied as separate branches of science, are, at length, effectually blended. This is, perhaps, the most satisfactory result which the experimental sciences have ever yet attained. All the phenomena of magnetic polarity, attraction, and repulsion have, at length, been resolved into one general fact, that two currents of electricity, moving in the same direction, repel, and in contrary direc- tions attract, each other " And, to obliterate all traces of that line of separation which was once so broad, we are now enabled, by the great discovery of Oersted, to communicate, at, and during pleasure, to a coiled wire of any metal, indifferently, all the properties of a magnet ! its attraction, repulsion, and polarity ; and that even in a more intense degree than was previously thought to be possible in the best natural magnets." t " It was conceived," says Professor Whewell, " that the whole of natural philosophy must consist in investigating the laws of force by which particles of different substances attracted and repelled, and thus produced motions or vibrations to and. from the particles. Yet what were the next great discoveries in physics ? The action of a galvanic wire upon a magnet ; which is not to attract or repel it, but to turn it to the right and left; to produce motion, not to or from, but transverse to the line drawn to the acting particle." J In addition to what has already been offered, and in the absence of all direct proof as to the cause of the earth's diurnal rotation, it is satisfactory to be in possession of evi- dence somewhat corroborative of the opinion which has been given on the subject. I allude to the fact of rotation around an axis being one of the most constant developments of electro-magnetism ; and although, in strict reasoning, this can be offered only as presumptive evidence, yet it does not fail to exercise considerable influence in favour of the con- * Connection of the Sciences, pp. 328, 329. t Discourse on Natural Philosophy, Cab. Cyc., pp. 324, 326, 339, 340. J Bridgewater Treatise, p. 369. 528 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE elusion come to, THAT THE DIURNAL ROTATION OF THE EARTH WAS ONE OF THE EFFECTS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE HIGHEST POSSIBLE DEGREE OF ELECTRO-MAGNETISM EVER DISPLAYED IN OUR SYSTEM. The facts alluded to form the evidence for the remaining portion of the sixty-third Theorem "That in all the experi- ments undertaken with a design of eliciting the phenomena of electro-magnetism and of 'magneto-electricity, ROTATION ROUND AN AXIS is generally found to accompany them." As the experiments on which these conclusions are based are very interesting, a brief description of a few of the most celebrated will, no doubt, be perused with pleasure. " Rotatory motion," observes Mrs. Somerville, when treating of electro-magnetism, " was suggested by Dr. Wollaston. Dr. Faraday was the first who actually succeeded in making the pole of a magnet rotate about a vertical conducting wire. When the magnet was floating almost vertically with its north pole above the surface, a current of positive electricity was made to descend perpendicularly through a wire touching the mercury, and immediately the magnet began to rotate from left to right about the wire. The force being uniform, the rotation was accelerated till the tangential force was balanced by the resistance of the mercury, when it became constant. " The next step was to make a magnet, and also a cylinder, revolve about their own axes, which they do with great rapidity. Mercury has been made to rotate by means of voltaic electricity, and Professor Ritchie has exhibited in the Royal Institution, the singular spectacle of the rotation of water by the same means, while the vessel contain- ing it remained stationary "It appears," in fine, " that the principle and characteristic pheno- mena of the electro-magnetic science are, the evolution of a tangential and rotatory force exerted between a conducting body and a magnet ; and the transverse induction of magnetism by the conducting body in such substances as are susceptible of it."* We learn from the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" that " The experiments of Dr. Faraday were followed by those of Arago, Barlow, Seebeck, Herschel, and Babbage, in which a revolving plate of copper gives a rotatory motion to a magnetic needle conveniently suspended ; but, notwithstanding the ingenuity and talent with which this subject was treated by these eminent individuals, it is to Dr. Faraday that we owe the complete analysis and explanation of this curious phenomenon.''! Somewhat further on, in the same work, it is stated that * Connection of the Sciences, pp. 330, 333. t Article " Electricity," p. 574. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 529 " This tendency of points to discharge their electricity against the surrounding air enables us to perform some beautiful electrical expe- riments, in which the motion of rotation is effected. " The Electrical Orrery, as it is called, is founded on this principle. A spherical ball of metal S, representing the sun, has its inner con- cave surface supported on a pivot on the top of an insulated stand. From the ball S extends a wire, the turned-up extremity of which supports upon a pivot another ball E, which represents the earth, having a wire passing through it, and carrying at one end a smaller ball M, representing the moon, while the other is bent into a sharp point ; a sharp point H being also fixed to the arm E F. If these balls are electrified by a chain which connects them with the prime conductor, the discharge from the point H will give a rotatory motion to the arm to which is affixed the earth E, while the electrical dis- charge from the point N, will give a rotatory motion to the moon M round the earth E. In this manner the moon revolves round the earth, while the earth and moon together are carried round the sun." * Indeed, every proof on this subject tends more and more to strengthen the position that the introduction of the primary light into the material universe, and its division from the darkness, on the first day of the Mosaic week, occasioned the most stupendous of all instances of electro- magnetic rotation that of the sun and its attendant orbs around their respective axes ; and that it was the same principle which, at a far anterior period in the history of creation, occasioned the more simple orbital motions of the spheres of our solar economy, and those of all the other, then unillumined, systems of the universe. In further corroboration of what has been stated with respect to the description of force which is considered to have occasioned these effects, namely, the diurnal rotatory motion of the earth and other primary planets and which may be looked upon as presumptive evidences of a positive character I proceed to adduce an instance of the most confirmatory kind, although partaking of an entirely opposite nature, proof negative, or that which is afforded by a well-defined exception to the general law so frequently referred to, namely, the MOON, our attendant satellite, which performs its double revolution by means of one motion in space that around the earth in 27 days, 7 hours, and 43 minutes. To prepare the mind for what may be said, let us refer to * Article Electricity, pp. 591, 592. M M 530 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE the ninth Theorem ; exclusively dedicated to our companion in space. From the very moment of its existence, and for ages before diurnal rotation had been impressed upon the earth, the moon must have performed in perfect darkness the identical orbital motion which it still continues to do ; con- sequently, the fact of its remaining unaffected when the material light, by being introduced into the universe, and when, by its expansive influence, it had conferred an addi- tional motion on the primary planets, shows, in language which cannot be misunderstood, that there was something peculiar in the new propelling force which was then intro- duced into the creation. It must have been wholly different from attraction, which, disregardful of the constituent mate- rials of bodies, acts upon all merely according to their mass. But if the new force which emanated from the primary light was not thus impartial and indiscriminate, it must have be- longed to those which act by election ; the constituent elements of the mass, on which they impinge, entering so thoroughly into the operation, that on these elements it depends almost entirely whether action takes place or not. Of this descrip- tion of force there are two varieties known MAGNETISM and CHEMICAL AFFINITY. Although by some it is considered that those two influences are merely modifications of the same pOAver, yet they not only can but in this case they do require to be treated separately ; the latter, chemical affinity, being entirely restricted to inter-molecular movements, which by it are caused to take place in bodies within the boundaries of each particular sphere ; circumscribed, as it were, within the economy of a world ; while magnetic, and certainly electro- magnetic influences seem to extend throughout the whole range of each system. Chemical affinity has the molecules of an orb within its grasp ; electro-magnetism has for its dominion the orbs themselves, the molecules of a system ; consequently, there can be no hesitation in eliminating chemical affinity from the present argument, and fixing the undivided attention upon its more comprehensive congenial power ELECTKO-MAGNETISM. This, it is well known, is so far dependent for its action on the peculiar elements of the body with which it is brought FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 53* into contact, that on some it exercises no influence whatever. Now, it is certain that there was a period, measurable by the time necessary to form the materials of the stratified crust of the globe, during which the world had no diurnal rotation around its axis ; that during those protracted ages the moon revolved around the earth, and its own axis, in the precise orbit and by the same simple motion with which it continues still to perform that double movement in space ; and that, while it was thus engaged, a great change took place upon the earth which it attended in its path through the heavens, the earth being made to revolve around its axis without expe- riencing either the slightest derangement of orbit or deviation in its measured way, as it wheeled around its primary, the sun ; and, what is still more remarkable, without the smallest sensation being perceived by the moon, or any change pro- duced upon its original motion. The latter continued its monthly course around the earth, with as imperceptible a variation as the earth experienced in its more protracted circuit around the sun. Therefore, it is perfectly justifiable to conclude, that the force which wheeled the earth diurnally around its axis without acting on its orbital motion, or upon its attendant satellite, was of that description which acts by ELECTION ; and that the moon did not contain the peculiar materials required to render the then neivly foi^med force effective ; but, on the contrary, that the earth and all planetary and stellar bodies which have rotatory motion do possess those qualifications and were acted upon accordingly. What those qualifications are, it may be somewhat difficult to determine ; nevertheless, we are not wholly without the data requisite to hazard an opinion. So far the facts warrant the belief that the force employed was altogether different from attraction, which manifests no affinity whatever, acts in straight lines, and exercises a mutual, indiscriminate power, in proportion solely to the mass of the respective bodies ; and, therefore, it is the more natural to consider that the new force acted tangentially, and also had regard to the peculiar nature of the elements com- posing the bodies with which it was brought into contact. Such a force, possessing magneto-electric energies, and im- pinging on the solar system in the direction supposed, with M M 2 Sjz DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE respect to the plane of the ecliptic, would produce rotatory motion in some spheres, while it left others to revolve around their primaries wholly unaffected by its presence ; the rota- tion being produced at right angles to the line in which the expansive force travelled when it came into contact with the revolving bodies. The concurring circumstances of the seeming absence of oceans or other collections of water on the moon's surface ; the consequent impossibility of there ever having been any stratiform depositions there ; and the conclusion arrived at, from the scarped and rugged appearance of its mountain masses, that they have not been filled up or rounded off by water-borne debris, are coincidences when taken in addi- tion to its non-diurnal rotation, and compared with an opposite state of geological development on the earth and its diurnal rotation of too great importance to be allowed to pass without special notice. They are, indeed, very strong corroborations of the Dyna- mical System ; and, if thoroughly investigated, are capable of designating more clearly the special agency made use of by the Creator to turn this great globe, and all other diurnally rotating spheres, around their respective axes. This, it has all along been maintained, was the primary light, when first transformed into the expansive influence, aided by the strati- form, masses of the earth's outer crust, which, no doubt, per- formed a very important part in this powerful leverage. In fact this seems to have been one of the many co-purposes for which these concentric stony masses were originally formed by deposition during ages, and while as yet the earth had no diurnal movement around its axis. Nor need any convictions which these reflections may have raised in the mind be damped by the apparent incom- patibility of the results compared with the cause ; that is, an instantaneous and uniform motion, and a continued force of three days ; for we have been made aware, "that one of the most usual features in electro-magnetic experiments is that, after a short while and the attainment of a certain equilibrium, a continued action produces a uniform mo- tion." * * Connection of the Sciences, 3rd edition, p. 330. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 533 While the moon is thus adduced as another and a very striking instance of a supposed objection resolving itself into a confirmatory evidence, the reader should be reminded that the subtile expansive influence, whose origin and nature at the first we are endeavouring to investigate, was destined to perform other stupendous works on the second and the third days of the Mosaic week works of such a character that inconceivable volumes of the expansive principle must have been and were permanently employed in producing them. By the Creator's powerful and unerring hand, the same ele- ment stretched the firmament like a spread-out curtain over our heads ; caused the watery vapour to arise and expand throughout its aerial extent, which still sustains and invigo- rates the whole of the vegetable kingdom, which also, by its impartation, rose in such beneficial and attractive forms above the level of the earthy soil, and still spread forth their beau- tiful towering stems and shady branches in testimony of his power and faithfulness, and benignity to his creatures. These works, of wondrous extent, were quite sufficient of themselves to have expended the electro-magnetic force which was put into energy on the second and third days, even were there not the additional evidence, in the law previously referred to, of a uniform motion being the result of a continued application of the magnetic current ; while a faint conception of the amazing amount of electrical fluid which must have been employed, in producing and perfecting these world-wide works, may be obtained by the knowledge of the fact that, by repeated and well-attested experiments, Dr. Faraday has shown, " that the quantity of electricity holding the elements of a single grain of water in chemical combination would, if discharged under the form of a current, through a wire of platinum, about the 1-1 04th part of an inch in diameter, keep it red hot in the air for nearly four minutes." In further confirmation of this particular part of the sub- ject, and in order to accumulate every possible evidence, I would mention the relative direction of the moon's axis, when compared with that of the earth, as another modicum of evidence which may be turned to account, Although the plane of the moon's orbit be inclined 5 8' 48" to that of the earth, nevertheless, the axis of the 534 DYNAMICAL SFSTEM OF THE satellite being almost perpendicular to the plane of its own orbit, shows that the single movement, whereby it performs a double motion in space, is the same now as when first created ; that it still retains the identical posi- tion which it did when circulating around the earth, ages before it was shone upon by the rays of that sun around which it accompanied its primary, in comparative unuseful- ness. The Dynamical System of the earth's formation based alike on the announcements of Scripture and the revelations of Science opens up to the imagination, in the clearest manner, some retrospective views of the wonders of Creation, and the events which were taking place in the material universe, long before there was an eye to behold, or a pen to record them. When brought under the notice of minds thoroughly trained by those scientific researches to which it has reference, it will be the means of unfolding to the world's inhabitants vastly improved conceptions of the wisdom, the power, and the goodness of the Creator. It is scarcely possible, with any degree of certainty, to demonstrate the course observed by the primary light when it was made the instrument of causing the diurnal rotation of our globe. I can produce no miniature sphere encoated, layer above layer, with electric generating materials of brittle mould, surrounded by a zone of acidulated water, and freely poised in mid-air, ready to revolve ; and then, by applying the voltaic current, exhibit its rotation, the breaking up of its concentric crust ; the rising of its tiny continents, and the thrusting up of its imitative mountain peaks, the depression of its miniature ocean hollows, and the rush of its mimic oceans from the poles to the equator : but so surely as all these manifestations of protorotation exist in real grandeur on the surface of the earth we tread on, and that they can be seen, touched, examined, and commented upon, so sure is it that there was power enough in the primary light, virtue enough in the concentric strata and ancient ocean, and time enough of darkened circuit through the etherless heavens (whereby the non-diurnally rotating sphere may have become sufficiently electrified), to cause the earth to arise from its slumber of ages and to perform its first diurnal revolution and thereby to occasion the magnificent diversity of appear- FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 535 ance which its expanded surface now happily presents. And moreover, although dim in the distance, yet those wonderful arcanse of creation can be so far penetrated as to perceive traces, faint indeed, but true outlines of the working of the secondary forces which were made the instruments of the first diurnal revolution of this our pedestal around one of its diameters, which had previously held no pre-eminence over any of the others. It can be recognised, for example, that between two justly equipoised forces it was sustained in space, made to revolve around the centre of gravity of the system, and held perfectly free to rotate whenever diurnal motion should be expedient. It has been shown that the LIGHT, or expansive principle, had not the sun for its centre during the first three days of its existence ; and this of itself assists materially to solve the problem, because the solar centre is that alone from whence an emanation of the expansive principle could not have caused rotation. This and the attractive influence would, in that case, have travelled in parallel lines though in opposite directions, and therefore could not by their conjoint influence have produced a tangential result ; but not being in or around the sun, any other centre whatever would have pro- duced an oblique direction, lesser or greater according to the angle, and consequently an oblique impulse upon the one previously established, namely, Gravity which passed then, is now, through the sun the light not having been resident where it now is ; it may be assumed to have been anywliere else. We are at liberty to suppose, that the motion which was given to the primary light, or the ethereal fluid, when it was divided from the darkness, was in any direction relative to attraction, which was most conducive to the objects then to be wrought out by its impulse. Its present residence around the sun having no necessary connection with light, any further than that its being now there is conducive to the welfare of myriads of beings, whose adapted construction would render them incapable of existence were it not so situated; yet, before it pleased the Omnipotent to concentrate light in that part of our system, the sun had not only no inherent re- lation to the subtile influence whose first effects I am now endeavouring to demonstrate ; but was, of all other bodies, 536 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE the least likely then to be the centre of the direction of ex- pansion. From what has been said, therefore, it is legitimate to conclude, that the peculiar construction and mineral cha- racter of the stratified materials of the ancient earth were designed, amongst other purposes, to serve as a galvanic girdle of universal extent, that the circumfluent ocean was intended to be a general receptacle for the acidulated fluid so indispensable in all electro-magnetic operations ; and that being thus predisposed, by the wise forethought of the Creator, the expansive influence, emanating from the newly formed light, was made to impinge upon the system in a direction somewhat perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic, or parallel to the axis of rotation of each planet, and by its tan- gential influence to induce rotation at right angles to the direction in which it travelled through space, in a manner similar to that in which electro-magnetism affects objects of its affinity, and occasions rotation where the axis is fixed and the body free to revolve. Every other direction in which the impelling force could have impinged upon the earth, so as to have overcome the inertia of a world diurnally at rest, has been shown to be objectionable ; any one of them would have disturbed the perfect equipoise of the countervailing forces required to re- strain the earth in its orbital path ; and which confer upon it an axis round which it can with freedom revolve ; the line of the direction of the sun's rays, as they travel at present, being the most objectionable of all the others. To these evi- dences which are the legitimate deductions of scientific research there is merely to be added the concurring testi- mony, amounting to proof presumptive, which can be drawn from the announcements of Scripture, and which, when adopted without bias, leave not a doubt upon the mind, that, on the fourth day of the Mosaic week, the LIGHT was concen- trated, by the Creator, around the central orb of our system ; and, shedding its rays from thence upon our attendant lumi- nary, it caused a lesser degree of light to shine, by reflection, upon the earth, when, by diurnal rotation, the direct rays of the sun were hidden from our view. In that portion of Scripture we are informed, as distinctly as language is capable FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 537 of implying, that, on the fourth day of the Mosaic week, the light was concentrated around the sun, and thereby made to enlighten the moon, so that she should shed on us a lesser light ; and, consequently, the very fact that this was performed on the fourth day, proves beyond the possibility of a doubt, that the primary light did not encircle that luminary during the first three days of its existence. And if it did not which has been clearly demonstrated by proofs derived from several sources then it may as well be considered to have been situated, as has been supposed, in accordance with what electro-magnetism may hereafter demand on further investi- gation; or, in other words, in that state which is most accor- dant with the effects which have flowed from it. Notwithstanding the apparent conclusiveness of the evi- dences which have been brought forward from so many converging sources, it may still be attempted to be denied that the first diurnal rotation of the earth commenced at an epoch so late in the history of its existence as that which the Dynamical System assumes, and requires for its complete establishment ; and, probably, the bygone error of supposing, that rotatory motion was impressed upon the earth by the same projectile impulse by which it was translated in space, may be attempted to be upheld in opposition. Fortunately, however, the fulcrum on which the main argument rests is too secure, and too tangible to the senses, to be so easily set aside. Every scarped peak of primary granite, which has displaced the once-superincumbent stratiform masses, and towers its head above them, enveloped by the fleeting clouds around, affords the surest proof of the faithfulness of these assertions ; for, as durable and undeniable as are those elevated masses of solid rock, so indestructible are the proofs which are deduced from them ; and as transient as are the passing clouds which may, for a moment, obscure them from the view, so evanescent must be every attempt to deny that their elevation was caused by the first diurnal rotation of the earth around its axis, ages after it had been brought into existence, and when sufficient time had been afforded for the once-super- incumbent strata to settle down in concentric superposition, and to arrange themselves into those levers which were after- wards to contribute so essentially to the overcoming of 538 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE EARTH. the earth's inertia, and to the upheaving of its continental ridges ! Before taking leave of this interesting part of the subject, it may be observed, that the whole tenor of the discourse puts an end to all fanciful or figurative conceptions which have been applied to the duration of the day, so frequently mentioned in this introductory part of Scripture. The Dynamical System maintains, that it was a natural day of twenty-four hours, and requires, for its completion, the centrifugal impetus arising from the rotatory motion of 15 per hour, which the limitation of the above period, within natural bounds, can alone supply ; and it besides requires that this force should have been put forth simultaneously with the introduction of the light, or, rather, that this should have been the cause of the upheaving of the continents and mountains, and the depression of the oceanic hollows, &c., as stated. For if the day were supposed to have been longer than twenty-four hours, there would be a deficiency of dyna- mical power to which to attribute the numerous inequalities of the earth's surface ; while, on the other hand, if it be pre- sumed that these geographical features have existed ever since the sphere was translated in space, besides the difficulty of accounting for their origin, there would be the dynamical power of rotation, at the rate of 1 5 per hour, too much, by having no adequate objects on which to show that it was expended. This treatise shows all those data to be at one, and perfectly reconciles them. By assuming the first diurnal rotation of the earth to have taken place, as in reality it did, on the first day of the Mosaic week, by considering the speci- fied period " of evening and morning " to have been a natural day, measured by a revolution of the earth around its axis, and by attributing the change of form which it underwent, and the diversified appearance of its surface, to the force which this rapid diurnal movement, so instantaneously communicated, necessarily produced, we are relieved from all perplexity of mind, and made to see the whole to be parts of one grand and comprehensive plan : the ivork of creation carried on through innumerable ages, but completed in six natural days. SECTION VIII. CONCENTRATION OF THE LIGHT AROUND THE SUN ; AND THE COMPLETION OF THE WORK OF CREATION. CHAPTER XXXIX. IN the prosecution of the subject during the present chapter, I have to direct the attention to the fact that " the earth is, of itself, a non-luminous body, receiving its external light and heat from the sun ; " and, then, to the following con- siderations which arise from it ; namely, that there are only tiuo ways in which the earth could, at this particular period, have been made to receive light and heat from another orb around which it circulates. Firstly, the simultaneous forma- tion of the material body of the sun, with its luminiferous powers; and its being placed, thus doubly constituted, into the centre alike of attraction and of expansion ; and then causing the earth to revolve in its orbital path around it. Or, secondly, by supposing that the material part of the sun to have been previously in existence, although not illumi- nated, the earth revolving around it by the same laws by which it now does ; and that, while in this state, the light was made to concentrate around the previously dark nucleus as a luminiferous atmosphere, dispensing rays from every point of its equatorial circumference. Against the first of these suppositions there are very many and insuperable objections. It is inconsistent, with what is known respecting the laws of matter, to conceive the existence of the earth, not only for three days, but for as many seconds, without presupposing the existence, likewise, of the other 540 planets, and the material body of the sun, as counterpoises to one another, in the mutual system of which the earth forms only one member. Again, it is impossible to imagine the existence of matter without attraction, or attraction in the solar system without revolution in appointed orbits through space ; for without this last counterpoise to attraction the material universe would have gravitated into one vast and boundless whole a universe of undivided matter ! But if revolution in space be admitted, then there must needs have been a central mass round which, and the common centre of gravity, the revolution was to be performed by the revolving bodies ; while, in addition to all other objections, there can be adduced the words of the record itself " Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven : " for who, after having been made acquainted with the nature and constitution of the firmament, could, for a moment, suppose this to apply to the material bodies of the sun and moon, or imagine that it was ever meant that the firmament should be capable of up- holding them, on the fourth day, in addition to those already in our system ? Not so with respect to the latter of the two suppositions formerly mentioned ; for then every conclusion is as consistently favourable to it as they are adverse to the former. According to the natural interpretation, or strict signification, of the Mosaic narrative, there was only this addition made to the laws which had been previously estab- lished That there should be LIGHTS, a primary and a secondary light, introduced into the firmament of heaven ; and which, by the mere act of being " set there," were to become, to the earth, " signs, seasons, days, and years." In this no mention is made of causing the one sphere to revolve around the other ; or of forming the solid materials of those luminaries which were to produce these effects ; but it is strictly confined to the lights themselves, one of which was to be greater than the other, and they were to be " set in the firmament of heaven," which, from our knowledge of the earthly firmament, must be presumed to allude to the firma- ment of the sun. Meditating upon this passage, under the consciousness of the earth having for ages revolved around the unilluminated solid nucleus of the sun, which assuredly was then the con- FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 541 dition of our planet, its peculiar harmony will be recognised, not only with all the laws formerly instituted, but likewise with the original structure of the materials of the earth itself; while no difficulty will ever afterwards be experienced in fully comprehending this passage of Scripture, which, while it accounts for this wonderful operation, is remarkable for the characteristic and convincing simplicity of the words in which it is couched language which, alone, could be employed by the Omnipotent, when He graciously informs us of the primary light being made to remain permanently in the centre of the system ; and what a God-like labour it was, to cause that which, by its characteristic tendency, propends towards the circumference, to concentrate itself around the central orb of our system, and there to remain fixed and immovable to fulfil his future designs ! Besides, it agrees most admirably with those views at present entertained, and considered to be the most scientific, as to the nature and constitution of the solar atmosphere. To verify this, while I may be allowed, for the unity of our argument, to disregard, as irrelevant to the inquiry, the merits of the contending theories respecting the intimate nature of light ; a branch of natural phenomena, connected more directly with the luminiferous atmosphere which is supposed to surround the sun, will be followed up. The second part of the thirty-ninth Theorem states " That a pencil of light, by the skilful application of certain refract- ing and absorbing media, can be polarized or separated into two distinct pencils ; one whose pole is + 45, and the other having its pole 45. This interesting announcement being essential to the future argument, some of the evidences on which it is founded will be given in continuation. Sir David Brewster affords the following evidence, which is given so circumstantially, because it is inconsistent with perspicuity to abridge it : " If we allow a beam of common light to fall upon a rhomb of Iceland spar, and examine the two circular beams E, formed by double refraction, we shall find " That the beams E have different properties on different sides, so that each of them differs, in this respect, from the beam of common light. 542 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE " These two beams, E, are, therefore, said to be beams of po- larized light, because they have sides or poles of different properties. " Now, it is a curious fact, that if we cause the two polarized beams E to be united into one, or if we produce them by a thin plate of Iceland spar, which is not capable of separating them, we obtain a beam which has exactly the same properties as a beam of common light. "Hence we infer, that a beam of common light consists of two beams of polarized light, whose planes of polarization, or whose diameters of similar properties, are at right angles to one another "It does not appear," he continues, " from the preceding experi- ments, that the polarization of the two pencils is the effect of any polarizing force resident in the Iceland spar, or of any change pro- duced upon the light. The Iceland spar has merely separated the com- mon light into its two elements, according to a different law, in the same manner as a prism separates all the seven colours of the spectrum from the compound white beam, by its power of refracting these elementary colours in different degrees. The reunion of the two oppositely polarized pencils produces common light, in the same manner as the re-union of the seven colours produces white light."* Sir John Herschel may be said to have summed up the evidence regarding these optical discoveries, when he favours us with the following account of their progress, which it has here been requisite to abridge : "After a long torpor," he observes, " the knowledge of the pro- perties of light began to make fresh progress about the end of the last century The prosecution of the subject was encouraged by the offer of a prize on the part of the French Academy of Science ; and it was in a memoir which received this honourable reward, in 1810, that M. Malus, a retired officer of engineers in the French army, announced the great discovery of the polarization of light, by ordi- nary reflection, at the surface of a transparent body " The new class of phenomena thus disclosed was immediately studied with diligence and success, .... and soon excited the highest interest that sort of interest which is raised when we feel we are on the eve of some extraordinary discovery " This expectation was not disappointed. The late Dr. Thomas Young had been led to the idea that the same ought to hold good with light as with sound ; and that, therefore, two rays of light setting off from the same origin at the same instant, and arriving at the same place by different routes, ought to strengthen, or wholly or partially destroy, each other's effects, according to the difference in length of the routes described by them. " That two lights should, in any circumstances, combine to pro- * Optics, in Cab. Cyc., p. 157. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 543 duce darkness, may be considered strange, but is literally true The experimental means by which Dr. Young confirmed this principle were as simple and satisfactory as the principle itself is beautiful " Nothing now was wanting, indeed, to a rational theory of double refraction but to frame an hypothesis of some mode in which light might be conceived to be propagated through the elastic medium supposed to convey it in such a way as not to be contradictory to any of the facts, nor to the general laws of dynamics This essential idea was also furnished by Dr. Young, who, with a sagacity which would have done honour to Newton himself, had declared that, to accommodate the doctrine of Huyghens to the phenomena of polarized light, it is necessary to conceive the mode of propagation of a luminous impulse through the ether, differently from that of a sonorous one through the air. In the latter the particles of the air advance and recede ; in the former those of the ether must be supposed to tremble laterally."* Having shown what is implied by the polarization of light, the intended application must now be made of it to the present argument. The following details of the results mentioned in the forty- second Theorem will no doubt be read with pleasure : " The sun," observes Mrs. Somerville, " has a very dense atmo- sphere. What his body may be, it is impossible to conjecture ; but he seems to be surrounded by a mottled ocean of flame, through which his dark, dark nucleus appears like black spots, often of enormous size From their extensive and rapid changes, there is every reason to suppose, that the exterior and incandescent part of the sun is gaseous. The solar rays, probably arising from chemical processes that continually take place at his surface, or from electri- city, are transmitted through space in all directions ; but, notwith- standing the sun's magnitude, and the inconceivable heat which must exist at his surface, as the intensity both of his light and heat dimi- nishes as the square of the distance increases, his kindly influence can hardly be felt at the boundaries of our system ; or, at all events, it must be but feeble." f Sir John Herschel observes " That a perfectly reflective canopy would effectually defend it from the radiation of the luminous regions above its atmosphere, and no heat would be conducted downwards through a gaseous medium increasing rapidly in density. That the penumbral clouds are highly reflective, the fact of their visibility in such a situation can leave no doubt. " The great mystery, however, is to conceive how so enormous a * Discourse on Natural Philosophy, Cab. Cyc., pp. 257 264. t Connection of the Sciences, p. 254. 544 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE conflagration (if such it be) can be kept up. Every discovery in chemical science leaves us here completely at a loss, or rather, seems to remove further the prospect of probable explanation. If conjecture might be hazarded, we would look rather to the known possibility of an immediate generation of heat by friction, or to its excitement by the electric discharge, than to any actual combustion of ponderable fuel, whether solid or gaseous, for the origin of the solar radiation."* " There is no obvious connection," observes Professor Whewell, " between mass and luminiferousness or temperature. No one, pro- bably, will contend that the materials of our system are neces- sarily luminous or hot. According to the conjectures of astronomers, the heat and light of the sun do not reside in its mass, but in a coating which lies on its surface." \ "It follows at once," Mr. Nichol asserts, "from Wilson's capital achievement, that our magnificent luminary is no chaotic conflagration, as had hitherto been supposed ; and to the investigation of what it really is, the singular powers of the elder Herschel came quickly in aid of the efforts of his friend. With both of these illustrious men it seemed an unquestionable first impression, that the surface thus broken by chasms must be an elastic or gaseous fluid ; for notwith- standing the magnitude of the spots, sometimes reaching even 50,000 miles in diameter, they open and close with a rapidity altogether marvellous, often surpassing the rate of a thousand miles a day. Granting, then, that this light-giving surface is some phosphorescent gas, what is the umbra and what the dark internal spaces ? To these engrossing questions Herschel, without delay, applied the energies of a mind that ever and anon was flashing into the unknown. It seemed to that penetrating genius, and no other theory will yet resolve the fact, that the sun consists mainly of a dark mass, like the body of the earth and other planetary globes, which is surrounded by two atmospheres of enormous depths, the one nearest to him being, like our own, cloudy and dense ; while the loftier stratum consists of these dazzling phosphorescent zephyrs that bestow light and heat on BO many surrounding spheres. In this view the following is the real meaning of the solar spot. By some unknown force from below, these atmospheres are disturbed and opened, the phosphorescent zephyrs being flung aside, we descry the dark clouds or shelving edges reflect- ing somewhat of the light beaming on them from above, which is the umbra below, the darker and more sombre, because more sheltered, body of the great globe, as the central spot. In all the annals of discovery is their aught that stirs thought, or raises more strange questions, than this !" (Contemplation of the Solar System, pp. 173, 174.)* These impartial and quite unconscious evidences are very interesting ; and when considered more especially with refer- ence to the opinions expressed in this Treatise as to the * Astronomy, Cab. Cyc., American edition, pp. 200 202. f Bridgewater Treatise, p. 171. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 545 existence of the material nucleus of the sun, of the earth, and of the other planetary bodies of our system, for ages previous to the formation of the light on the first day of the Mosaic week, together with the close conformity which the idea of a luminiferous atmosphere around the sun has to the spirit and the expressive words of Scripture, all remaining doubts will assuredly be dispelled. The announcements of the inspired historian apply much more obviously to the illumination of an atmosphere than to that of a solid body " Let there be lights (or, as in the mar- ginal reading, 'luminaries') in the firmament of the heaven ;" and when we reflect on what is meant by a "firmament" it is almost impossible any longer to hesitate in admitting, that the views adopted by MM. Herschel, Wilson, Arago, Whewell, Nichol, and others, are correct ; for the laws which governed matter, even before the formation of the light, must have been complete, and thoroughly consistent among themselves, and with the state in which everything then was ; it being impossible to conceive that there ever could have been a void in the laws of the material universe ! Besides, it is much more consistent with the acknowledged conceptions of the wisdom of the Omnipotent, to conceive that a globe, like the sun, considered to be equal to 354,936 earths, should be fitted to be the abode of rational and animal existences ; while, at the same time, it dispenses LIGHT and HEAT to all around it from its luminiferous' atmosphere, which may be considered the deepest and densest of any of the whole system, than to suppose that such an enormous mass of matter is maintained in an incandescent state, merely to supply the planetary orbs with light and heat ! Without any intention to detract, in the slightest degree, from the vastness and grandeur of our conceptions of that Almighty power which could thus, at will, concentrate the newly created principle of expansion around the central orb of this system ; and as assuredly around the focal orb of every other distinct system and these conceptions will not be complete in their vastness, unless it be considered that the principle alluded to was, by its nature, disposed to expand yet the present opportunity cannot be allowed to pass without reverting, by connection of ideas, to these interesting experi- N N 546 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE ments in natural philosophy already alluded to, during which the non-luminous voltaic currents, which had been streaming unobserved by the eye along the conducting Avires, and, at the will of the operator, caused to produce many wonderful transformations and effects, are, of a sudden, brought together upon some interposed body, and made thereby to send forth the most intense rays of light and heat.* When it is con- sidered, that whatever now occurs takes place because it was then instituted, that it flows from laws then established, we cannot fail to imagine, that in this comparatively puny exhi- bition, showing the diversified power of voltaic electricity, Ave behold a faint, faint indeed, yet kindred result to that which was exhibited on the fourth day of the Mosaic week. It may be considered, that when the Creator of the uni- verse had by the application, in separate and divided streams in darkness, and of the newly formed principle of expansion brought into existence those successive changes which were considered necessary on the fourth day, He bent the great stream of light in upon the central orb, and immediately its firmament or atmosphere became the radiating source of light and heat to all those planets which before had hung upon it as the pivot of their dark orbital course through space ; and that, ever afterwards, the, two great principles of attraction and expansion travelled in parallel lines, but in opposite directions. During the delightful contemplation we have thus been privileged to enjoy, in beholding this amazing union of sim- plicity and power, we have not dwelt sufficiently upon the conception of the sun having been, during the non-diurnal rotatory period, the centre of darkness or attraction, and that it is the same still ; whilst the state or condition conferred upon the primary light was that of expansion. The juxta- position in the mind of these conceptions tends wonderfully to augment our impressions of the power and the wisdom of the Creator, who could thus, at will, constrain that which of all other elements was the least disposed to condensation the expansive principle of light to concentrate itself around a centre, and more so still, when it is considered, that that Theorem 61. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 547 point was the centre of attraction ! That the source of light should also be the centre of darkness makes manifest the consummate wisdom of God ! There it is that attraction, in our system, is at its maximum, and there, consequently, its restraining power can be most influentially exercised in main- taining the element of expansion precisely where it is least disposed, by its innate nature, to reside. Whilst the body of the sun, being the darkest point in the economy of the heavens, can best resist the approximation of the mass of light and heat which has been placed around it ! In a former part of this work, the identity of electricity and light was made manifest ; and, while I beg to refer to what has been said, before proceeding to the consideration of any other connected branch, I shall now follow up what was then done, by endeavouring to exhibit the intimacy which exists among the various kinds of electricity themselves ; next, that prevailing between electricity and magnetism ; then the magnetic currents which flow round the earth ; and, in conclusion of this branch of the subject, allude to the ascertained phenomena which link them all closely together into one grand and uniform whole, indicative of their common origin. I refer first to the fifty-ninth Theorem, and the data, &c., which substantiate these assertions will be found detailed in the following extracts : " What electricity is," observes Dr. Thomson, " we know not. It is familiar to us only in its effects Numerous as crude were the theories of philosophers before the hypothesis of Franklin was pro- mulgated. While he considered that it pervaded creation, he was disposed to think that friction changed its normal condition in bodies ; hence arose the divisions, plus or positive, and minus or negative, elec- tricities. .ZEpinus, Cavendish, and Van Marum did much to further the views of Franklin. Peltier has proposed a theory which inti- mately connects the phenomena of electricity with those of light and heat, upon the undulatory hypothesis of these fluids. The static phe- nomena he supposes to result from an undue proportion of electricity ; the dynamic to the re-establishment of electrical equilibrium between bodies unequally charged, by means of vibrations of this electric ether. Becquerel leans to the undulatory theory of this fluid, and the dis- coveries of Faraday point strongly to the same conclusion " That lightning and electricity are one, it is now firmly believed. The first suggestion of their identity is due to Stephen Gray, a pen- sioner of the Charter House, and Fellow of the Koyal Society, &c., &c." " Since the experimental proof of the unity of lightning and elec- N N 2 tricity, philosophers have pursued the inquiry still further with the design of identifying the latter with light and caloric. " The discoveries of Oersted, Seebeck, and Faraday show an intimate connection. The last-named chemist has very recently announced another brilliant discovery, which we shall merely enun- ciate, that a ray of light may be electrified and magnetised, and that magnetic lines of force may be rendered luminous. The experiments of Faraday have established a true, direct relation and dependence between light and the magnetic and electric forces ; and thus a great addition has been made to the facts and considerations which tend to prove, that all these natural forces are tied together and have one co m man origin . " * Mrs. Somerville affords us the following evidence to the same effect : " In the brief sketch which has been given," she observes, " of the five kinds of electricity, those points of resemblance have been brought forward which are characteristic of one individual power "The points of comparison are attraction and repulsion at sensible distances, discharged from points through air, the heating power, magnetic influence, chemical decomposition, action on the human frame, and, lastly, the spark," and so forth. " Indeed, the conclusion drawn by Dr. Faraday is, that the five kinds of electricity are identical, and that the differences of intensity and quantity are quite sufficient to account for what were supposed to be their distinctive qualities. He has given still greater assurance of their identity by showing, that the magnetic force and the chemical action of electricity are in direct proportion to the absolute quantity of the fluid which passes through the galvanometer, whatever its intensity may be."t Quoting again from that inexhaustible compendium, the " Encyclopaedia Britannica," we are informed that " In the progress of his electrical researches, Dr. Faraday found it necessary, for their further prosecution, to establish either the identity or the distinction of the electricities excited by different means ; and, in a paper of great value, he has established, beyond a doubt, the identity of common electricity, voltaic electricity, magneto-electricity, thermo-electricity, and animal electricity. The phenomena exhibited in these five kinds of electricity do not differ in kind, but merely in degree ; and in this respect they vary in proportion to the variable cir- cumstances of quantity and intensity, which can at pleasure be made to change in almost any one of the kinds of electricity, as much as it does between one kind and another." J * Introduction to Meteorology, pp. 271 278, based on the authority of the Philosophical Magazine, 1845, 1846; Athenaeum, No. 953; Philosophical Trans- actions, 1846 ; Quarterly Review, clvii. ; SiHiman's Journal, May, 1846, No. iii.; Pouillet, Mem. de 1'Inst., No. 630. t Connection of the Sciences, pp. 352, 354. J Article Electricity, p. 574. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 549 These concurring evidences ought to be quite conclusive as to the point sought to be established the community of principle pervading the several varieties of electricity ; but should further proof be considered requisite, the numerous other authorities on this favourite science may be consulted, with the assurance that a similar conclusion will be come to. According to the plan laid down I shall now proceed to inquire into the intimacy which exists between electricity and magnetism. With this design let us refer to the sixty-second and sixty-fourth Theorems, as given in the Appendix. It will, no doubt, have been observed, that, in adducing the evidences respecting the several varieties of electricity, and the intimacy which subsists between them and light, it has been unavoidable to give several passages strongly confirma- tory of the assumptions laid down in the two foregoing theo- rems ; a circumstance which, though it will at present restrict us to a few concise quotations, is of itself one of the best proofs of the similarity existing, in general, amongst all the ramifications of the EXPANSIVE PRINCIPLE, which sends forth, as it were, these various modifications of its power according to the attendant circumstances : " It is to Dr. Faraday," observe the compilers of the " Encyclo- paedia Britannica," " that we owe a complete analysis and explanation of the curious phenomena of rotation of a magnetical needle round an electrical current, and of a body transmitting an electrical current round a magnet, &c. " This explanation was founded on the great discovery of the evolution of electricity from magnetism, by which Dr. Faraday laid the foundation of the new science of magneto-electricity " At the meeting of the British Association, at Oxford, in June, 1832, Dr. Faraday, by means of Mr. Snow Harris's electrometer, succeeded in heating a wire by magneto- electric induction. " By means of the magneto-electric apparatus of M. Pixii, already referred to, he and Mr. Hachette decomposed water, and obtained the oxygen and hydrogen in separate tubes."* The perusal of these theorems, with their corresponding evidences, brings us to the penultimate point which is to be examined in elucidation of this particular branch of the inquiry, namely, the magnetic currents which flow round the earth. Let us begin by considering what is stated in part of the sixty-fourth Theorem, which please consult. * Article Electricity, p. 574. 550 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE Before giving the quotations which support these theorems, I would take occasion to direct the attention to the important bearing which the announcements made by some of those who have studied the subject have upon the leading features of this System, these conclusions, themselves, arising from the discoveries recently made of the more recondite laws of the subtile magnetic fluid. It is asserted by them, " that the stratified masses, which constitute the major part of the earth's outer crust, may be considered as a battery existing like a girdle around the globe, which assists to produce terrestrial magnetism, and as the channel of its currents." When the intimate connection which subsists between light and these magnetic currents is considered, we must be con- vinced that there also exists as real a connection between the TIMES of the formation of the stratified mass and of the intro- duction of the light ; both being in accordance with the prin- ciples herein laid down. The stratified girdle required to be first formed, not only that it might lend its powerful aid to overcome the inertia of the world, at rest, without rotation ; but that it should for ever thereafter be the channel through which the subtile streams of electricity might silently and unobtrusively circulate in beneficent and life-sustaining cur- rents over all its habitable surface. To be more fully per- suaded of this we have only to imagine, if we can, a reverse order in the leading events of the creation the light first, the stratified girdle not yet formed and we shall catch a fearful glimpse of the confusion and devastation which must, in that case, have rim riot, in place of the order and harmony which now prevail ; and of the fostering influences which result now from these currents, which quicken and sustain every plant whose seeds and roots are embedded in the terres- trial zone through which they flow ; the vegetable kingdom most probably, not being the only one sustained in vigour and healthfulness by them. With these remarks I have much pleasure in giving the following confirmatory passages. Mrs. Somerville supplies the first : " The magnetism of the earth extends over every part of its surface," she observes, " but its action on the magnetic needle determines the FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 551 poles of this great magnet, which by no means coincide with the poles of the earth's rotation."* " The law of terrestrial magnetism is very complicated, and the existence of two magnetic poles in each hemisphere is more than probable " The translation of the magnetic equator, the motion of the mag- netic poles, the changes in the intensity of the magnetic force, and the variations of the dipping needle and the mariner's compass, have been ascribed to the heat of the sun ; and Mr. Hansteen has even found a general resemblance between the isothermal lines and the lines of equal dip on the surface of the earth " It is moreover probable, that terrestrial magnetism may be owing, in a certain extent, to the earth's rotation. Dr. Faraday has proved that all the phenomena of revolving metal plates may be produced by the inductive action of the earth's magnetism alone From his experiments, and also from theory, it is possible that the rotation of the earth may produce electrical currents in its own mass. In that case they would flow superficially in the meridian, and if collectors could be applied to the equator and poles, negative electricity would be collected at the equator and positive at the poles ; but without something equivalent to conductors to complete the circuit, these currents could not exist. "f In fulfilment of the proposed plan, for the investigation of this particular branch of the subject, there requires on-ly to be summed up what has been said, by exhibiting, as closely as possible, the intimate relationship which subsists between what may with probability be considered mere varieties of one great and comprehensive power. The sixty-sixth Theorem has reference to this point. In elucidation of this propositional method of announcing the truths stated therein, and while consideration is had to the recent frequent allusions already made to the intimate relationship which subsists between these kindred branches of the expansive principle, I shall take occasion to give only one quotation, which forms also a brief summary of Mrs. Somerville's observations on the same subject : "In light, heat, and electricity or magnetism," she observes, * Neither should they, according to the Dynamical System. The poles of rotation were determined by the direction in which the primary light affected the earth and caused diurnal motion. The poles of terrestrial magnetism arise from the light as now concentrated around the sun, and the earth's rotation. Conse- quently, as the centre of the originating cause was intermediately changed (that is, on tte fourth day), so ought there to he a divergency between the poles of rotation and those of terrestrial magnetism. AUTHOR. t Connection of the Sciences, pp. 315, 34.9 3-51. 552 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE 4< nature has exhibited principles which do not occasion any appreci- able change in the weight of the bodies, although their presence is manifested by the most remarkable mechanical and chemical action. These agencies are so connected, that there is reason to believe they will ultimately be referred to some one power of a higher order, in conformity with the general economy of the system of the world, where the most varied and complicated effects are produced by a small number of universal laws. These principles permeate matter in all directions ; their velocity is prodigious, and their intensity varies inversely as the square of the distance. The development of electric currents, as well by magnetic as by electric induction, the similarity in the mode of action, but, above all, the production of the spark from a magnet, the ignition of metallic wires, and chemical decom- position, show that magnetism can no longer be regarded as a separate, independent principle. That light is visible heat seems highly pro- bable ; and although the evolution of light and heat during the pass- age of the electric fluid may arise from the compression of the air, yet the development of electricity by heat, the influence of heat on magnetic bodies, and that of light on the vibrations of the compass, show an occult connection between all those agents which probably will one day be revealed. In the mean time it opens a noble field of experimental research to philosophers of the present, perhaps of future ages."* These diversified investigations, which have occupied the attention almost exclusively since the commencement of this section, have been absolutely necessary, in order to show, in the first place, that the light could not have been concen- trated around the sun during the period when those works of the Creator, which are recorded in verses 3 to 13 of the first chapter of Genesis, were in process. In the next, that it is only from Scripture that any information can be derived of the means and the power by which the light, after it had performed these works, was concentrated around the central orb of the planetary system. Again, that when the dark- ened nucleus of the sun was thus illumined no matter pos- sessing gravity was added to it. And, ultimately, that the light which radiates from the sun does not proceed from it as from an incandescent body, but from a circumfluent luminiferous atmosphere, in strict conformity with the spirit and, it might be added, with the very words of the announcement of Scrip- ture, made upwards of thirty-two centuries ago " Let there be luminaries in the firmament of the heaven." The perfect * Connection of the Sciences, p. 355. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 553 harmony which is thus shown to exist between those various points where exceptions even render the coincidence more complete ought to occasion a thorough conviction of the truth of the inspired narrative. Indeed, it is hard to con- jecture what degree of coincidence will be sufficient to carry perfect conviction to the mind, if the evidences, which have been brought forward, do not produce this desirable result. SECTION VIII. CONCENTRATION OF THE LIGHT AROUND THE SUN ; AND THE COMPLETION OF THE WORK OF CREATION. CHAPTER XL. chapter will commence with the consideration of a resultant consequence of what has been so clearly made out, and has occupied the attention so much in former divi- sions ; the perfect parallelism in Avhich the influences of attrac- tion and expansion, or of darkness and light, proceed from a centre and towards a centre, will be viewed together with some of those facts which have been previously established, namely, that the direction of the force of gravity has ever been invariable, that light proceeds in straight lines, and that it did not occupy its present centre, around the sun, during the first three days of the Mosaic week. The blending of the former truth, the parallelism of light and darkness, with the three latter ones, leads to the conclu- sion, that as the direction of gravitation has ever been from the periphery towards and through the sun as a centre, and as the rays of light, in coming from their present centre, travel in a parallel direction to the others,* this could not have been the case when the light was not situated wttere it is at present ; because that which " travels in straight lines " could not have proceeded from any t^i'o distinct points to the circumference by the same path ; therefore, as they now run * See 43rd Theorem. By this it is merely meant to express the conception, that the general course of the undulations of a ray of light will be a straight lino Irom the luminary causing it. Airrnoit. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 555 parallel to each other, and one of them has been invariable, they must formerly have crossed each other with an obliquity commensurate to the obliquity of their respective centres of convergency and divergency ; again, as dissimilar causes can- not produce similar effects, and it has been laid down, as a fundamental principle of this System, that the words of the first chapter of Genesis form the constitutional code of all materialism, it should result, as a necessary consequence of these premisses, that on the light having been concentrated around the sun, on the fourth day of the Mosaic week, it must have undergone a very important change of character, corresponding to the change of relative position from obliquity to parallelism ; admitting this change of character, which can- not be denied, the necessity is perceived for the command which re-endowed it with powers which it could not have had, in consequence of the change which took place in itself, unless we should permit ourselves to suppose that two distinct causes are capable of producing the same effect. Nor should we pass on from the contemplation of this great truth without sufficiently bringing to mind the all-important difference in the effects which would flow from this relative difference in the direction of these two potent and almost omnipresent forces. This subject is well deserving of every consideration, and of being wrought out with much more care and attention than the limits and plan of this work will permit. Neverthe- less, what has been advanced has clearly brought out the pro- priety, nay, the necessity, that the lights which were placed in the firmament of the heaven should, by a special command, be made to " rule over the day and over the night, and divide the light from the darkness." Indeed, every step taken to scrutinise the more comprehensive laws which govern material- ism only shows, more convincingly, that the sacred historian precedes us ; and has revealed, thousands of years ago, in the plainest and most concise terms, those very truths which appear to be but now unveiling themselves, to reward the industry and assiduous researches of modern philosophy ! jJf> But there is another and a very important inference which is to be drawn from the divergency of directions here alluded to ; for LIGHT which did not run parallel to DARKNESS could 556 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE not produce the same effects as that which does. This con- ception will strongly corroborate the assumption so frequently adopted and applied, namely, that the primary light, though perfect in itself, was not in every respect identical with that which now proceeds from the sun. It was light, but it was light in a different state, coming from a different source, and evidently running obliquely to the direction of attraction. In prosecution of the general argument, I shall, next, pro- ceed to a brief consideration of the indirect but peculiar bearing on the leading statement of this treatise exercised by the remarkable announcement, that the sun, by being illumi- nated on the fourth day of the Mosaic week, became, to the earth, the cause of " signs, seasons, days, and years." The putting of this command on record nearly three thousand three hundred years ago, affords the most undeniable evidence that the recorder was an inspired amanuensis of the Deity. It may be well to observe, that as I am now dealing with a class of facts which occurred after the earth had diurnal rotation im- pressed upon it, and the source of whose influence is altogether exterior to it, they can only confirm this system incidentally, or as far as they necessarily involve, in themselves, an un- doubted foreknowledge of events proved by the dynamic system to have taken place previously, but which were wholly unknown to the world's inhabitants at the time when these announcements were put on record ; while they shed back, by reflection, a convincing stream of evidence on what may have been assumed in reliance on these announcements, and on the validity of scientific discoveries and deductions. The present instance is one peculiarly in point. The evidence consists in the knowledge which, the inspired writer of that recorded fact possessed of the true motions of the heavenly bodies of the system. To the act of directly illuminating the sun and the moon by reflection, are ascribed results which, of necessity, involve one of the two following consequences that the writer was aware that the earth was impressed with a double movement in space, one around the sun, and the other around its own axis ; and also, that the moon circulated in its orbital course around the earth ; and, with this knowledge, he ascribed to the lighting up of the central orb, and to the reflection of its rays from the moon, the causing of signs, FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 557 seasons, days, and years, as these actually do ; besides, he must have been aware of a still more recondite truth, which I trust presently to establish, namely, that the lighting up of the sun and the movements of the heavenly bodies could not have caused the vicissitudes of the seasons, unless the primeval light had once occupied a distinct centre, and put forth energies of a peculiar description. This is one view of his position ; the other is, he was entirely ignorant of these truths, and merely lent himself as an implicit but uncon- scious instrument to register what he did not himself com- prehend. But whether we consider the writer to have stood in one or other of these positions, when all these points are duly weighed, it must appear evident to every candid and im- partial mind, that, even after awarding to Eastern astronomy the utmost advance it can in justice lay claim to, the Jewish historian could not have been instructed in what he has re- corded by any merely human intelligence ; and, therefore, if, on the one hand he was aware of their full import, and under- stood what he wrote, he must have received that knowledge from a divine source ; while, on the other hand, if he regis- tered these sublime and recondite truths unconsciously, with- out understanding their meaning, he must likewise have done so at the dictation of a spirit more than human ; and as that which he has recorded is truth, that spirit must have been the Spirit of Truth. To make more palpably manifest the gross ignorance which long prevailed respecting the orbital motions of the heavenly bodies, and the reluctant incredulity evinced to believe in the true, the Copernican system, I give without apology the fol- lowing extracts, as nothing could be better expressed or more appropriate : "It is seldom easy," observes Mr. Nichol, "to ascertain why or how a new truth is revealed. . . . The obscurity of the times in which Copernicus lived rests over his early character. We know not how far favourable circumstances contributed to the development of his genius ; or whether, without peculiar advantages, he owes all to an inborn energy. But, whatever his mental culture, the greatness of his mind could be borrowed from no one ; inasmuch as he was the earliest to accomplish a task most difficult for man He threw from him the weight of ages, and quietly asked whether that fundamental tenet, which asserts that the earth is motionless, might 558 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE not be false.* The mental effort required, even to hesitate on a point which all mankind had up to that moment undoubtingly believed, and which had now interwoven itself with every mode of thought, was an achievement for the loftiest order of genius ; the question once put, it required only superior but not uncommon talent to follow it to its conclusions Modesty, a characteristic of the finest minds, induced Copernicus, after he had obtained sight of this great idea, to search through the ancient philosophies, lest there might be precious relics buried there, to confirm and encourage him ; and accordingly he did find certain hints, touching on a simpler order of things, which his correct and discriminating intellect speedily methodized into that system which, in the somewhat hyperbolical language of his successor, Tycho, ' moved the earth from its founda- tions, stopped the revolution of the firmament, made the sun stand still, and subverted the whole ancient order of the universe.' Using the best means within his reach, he constructed a theory of the apparent motions of every planet ; and the results corresponded so closely with observation, and offered so thorough an explanation, that nothing was left to his opponents but the interposition of mystical arguments. This illustrious man received the proof copy of his work on his death-bed."! Sir John Herschel, though in more general terms, bears testimony to the same facts, when he informs us that " As the decisive mark of a great commencing change in the direc- tion of the human faculties, astronomy, the only science in which the ancients had made any real progress and ascended to anything like large and general conceptions, began once more to be studied in the best spirit of a candid philosophy ; and the Copernican or Pythagorean system arose or revived, and rapidly gained advocates. Galileo at length appeared, and openly attacked and refuted the Aristotelian dogmas respecting motion, by direct appeal to the evidence of sense, and by experiments of the most convincing kind By the disco- veries of Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo, the errors of the Aristo- telian philosophy were effectually overturned on a plain appeal to the facts of nature ; but it remained to show, on broad and general principles, how and why Aristotle was in the wrong, to set in evidence the peculiar weakness of the method of philosophizing, and to substi- tute in its place a stronger and better. This important task was executed by Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, who will, therefore, justly be looked upon, in all future ages, as the great reformer of philosophy, though his own actual contributions to the stock of physical truths were small, and his ideas of particular points strongly tinctured with mistakes and errors, which were the fault rather of the general want * " I have seen it stated," he adds in a foot-note, " that Copernicus was a great man by accident that he owes his name to a hayipy conjecture ! Let the authors of this opinion review the whole history of mankind, and reckon the number of euch happy conjectures ! " f Contemplations of ihe Heavens, pp. 13, 14, 21. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 559 of physical information of the age, than of any narrowness of view on his own part, and of this he was fully aware." * It has been asserted in an immediately previous part of this work, that the illumination of the sun could not alone have caused it to produce the vicissitudes of seasons which are now experienced, unless the light had once occupied a distinct centre from that which it does at present. It shall now be my care to substantiate that assertion by reference to the discoveries of modern science. Let us then, first of all, consider what is stated in the sixth Theorem and the evi- dences upon which it is founded. Mrs. Somerville, in showing that the mean temperature of the earth has not varied, bears testimony to the invariable length of the day, by the following pointed expressions : " In consequence of the rotation of the earth being a measure of the periods of the celestial motions, it has been proved that, if the length of the day had decreased by the three-thousandth part of a second since the observations of Hipparchus, two thousand years ago, it would have diminished the secular equation of the moon by 4"'4. It is therefore beyond a doubt that the mean temperature of the earth cannot have sensibly varied during that time." While, as regards the stability of the seasons, the same writer gives forth as definite an opinion, thus : " The plane of the ecliptic itself," she observes, " though assumed to be fixed at a given epoch for the convenience of astronomical computation, is subject to a minute secular variation of 45"*7, occa- sioned by the reciprocal action of the planets. But as this is also periodical, and cannot exceed 2 42', the terrestrial equator, which is inclined to it at an angle of about 23 27' 38" - 25, will never coincide with the plane of the ecliptic ; so there never can be perpetual spring. The rotation of the earth is uniform ; therefore day and night, sum- mer and winter, will continue their vicissitudes while the system endures, or is undisturbed by foreign causes." f "Henceforward, then," says Sir John Herschel, "in conformity with the Copernican view of our system, we must learn to look upon the sun as the comparatively motionless centre about which the earth performs an annual elliptic orbit, the sun occupying one of the foci of the ellipse, and from that station quietly disseminating on all sides its light and heat, while the earth, travelling round it, and presenting itself differently to it at different times of the year and day, passes * Discourse on Natural Philosophy, Cab. Cyc., pp. 113, 114. f Connection of the Sciences, pp. 83, 27, 28. 560 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE through the varieties of day and night, siftnmer and winter, which we enjoy. In this annual motion of the earth its axis preserves, at times, the same direction as if the orbital movement had no existence ; and is carried round parallel to itself, pointing always to the same vanishing-point in the sphere of the fixed stars. This gives rise to the variety of seasons."* I should regret to close these evidences and explanations of the seasons without giving the substance of Professor Nichol's very perspicuous rationale of them, and the very delightful inference which he draws from their existence. " The variation of the seasons," he observes, "which, in the old astronomy, it required many fanciful and complex notions to account for, is owing to an extremely simple arrangement It is obvious that if the terrestrial poles were perpendicular to its horizon there could be no seasons ; for in whatever part of its annual orbit it might be found, the central luminary would shine over every part of it with the same relative intensity If, however, the axis leaned forward, or was inclined, the case would be wholly altered. And if we suppose the axis to retain its position while the globe revolves in its orbital path, it is manifest that on reaching opposite sides of the sun, the southern and the northern hemisphere will be intensely heated in succession. Here, then, we have a change from summer to winter, and vice versa ; and, during the transition, the intermediate seasons of spring and autumn must have taken place. The change in question, then, is wholly owing to the inclined position of the globe's axis ; and it must vary in degree with the amount of that inclination. Thus simple is the cause of such variations, and of all the exquisite adjustments with which they are connected " On matters of this kind men feel variously ; I confess that to me the sight of such exquisite adaptation, which shows such precision of workmanship and stedfast solemnity of march, is as strong and eloquent a proof of the presence of the Godhead, as those deviations from ordinary agencies, which in the course of providence the Almighty has thought proper to produce ; and that with a far loftier and more intelligent ardour than that of the Egyptian magician, we may exclaim, as we humbly contemplate, THE FINGER OF GOD is THERE." f After the theorem and evidences now submitted have been attentively perused, I must recall to remembrance what was elucidated at great length, and with much care, namely, that the obliquity of the plane of the equator to that of the ecliptic on which the vicissitudes of the seasons so essen- tially depend originated from a very peculiar quality in the primeval light, previous to its being concentrated around the sun, and when it was supposed to have impinged in a direc- * Astronomy, Cab. Cyc., American edition, pp. 185, 186. t CoTitemplutions on the Solar Syslcm, pp. 208, 209. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 561 tion perpendicular to the plane of the centre of gravity of our system ; and from thence putting forth energies peculiar to itself and in connection with influences on the earth, it generated a purely tangential force, or rotation in planes, at right angles to the line of its direction : while it was like- wise shown that, owing to the perfect equilibrium of the equipoising forces which maintained the earth in its orbital path around the sun, previous to its diurnal rotation (and which still retain it), it could have resisted no other force capable of overcoming its inertia, than the one thus wisely and wonderfully brought to act upon it in lines perpendicular to the axis of its diurnal rotation ; and certainly, when we are made thoroughly aware that the obliquity of the two planes above mentioned, those of the equator and of the ecliptic, which proceeded from so recondite a cause, must have been known to the Jewish historian, at a time when all the nations around were in ignorance of this profound astro- nomical truth ; and when we reflect that the knowledge of a force, capable of producing motion at right angles to the line of its direction, has but lately dawned upon a surprised world, although both its existence and the first and most stupendous effects produced by it are implied in the record made by the sacred historian so many centuries ago, we must become convinced, more firmly than ever, that in those writings only are, to be found the base-lines of all real knowledge. Without dwelling longer on this point, I shall pass on to remark, more especially, that the narrator of the first chapter of Genesis, by the mere fact of having recorded that the lighting up of the central orb of our system should have been the ultimate immediate cause of " signs and seasons, days and years," makes known an implied knowledge of the long-continued non-diurnal rotation of the earth ; because, without including the precession of the equinoxes, which arose partly from the earth's first diurnal rotation, the com- prehensive term of " seasons" cannot be considered complete; for although the mutations occasioned by the precession of the equinoxes are brought about in the course of many thou- sands of years,* yet they must have been as assuredly * Seventh Theorem, to which please refer. O O 562 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE meant to have been classed amongst "the seasons," as were the minute gradations which denote the diurnal progress of the sun's rays on the revolving earth. Astronomical writers assert that the precession of the equinoxes is owing, amongst other causes, to the protuberance or excess of matter at the equatorial regions of the earth ; for, says Sir John Herschel " The immense distance of the planets compared with the size of the earth, and the smallness of their masses compared to that of the sun, puts their action out of the question in the inquiry of the cause, and we must, therefore, look to the massive though distant sun, and to our near though minute neighbour, the moon, for an explanation of the precession of the equinoxes. This will, accordingly, be found in their disturbing action on the redundant matter accumulated on the equator of the earth, by which its figure is rendered spheroidal ; com- bined with the earth's rotation on its axis."* This excess of matter being wholly attributable to the con- dition of a sphere which, after remaining for ages at rest, submerged in water, and having contracted repeated and numerous concentric layers of deposited matter encrusted around it, has been suddenly put into diurnal motion, I am authorised to conclude, from this closely linked chain of reasoning, that whoever asserted, for the first time, that the lighting up of the sun, and the reflection of its rays from the moon, caused " signs, seasons, days, and years," must necessarily have been aware of the earth's previous state of non-diurnal rotation, this being clearly implied in the assertion, together with a knowledge of the actual rota- tory motion of the earth, on which he dwelt while he penned the announcement in question. Thus it is evident that those astronomical laws, certain as they have since been proved to be, whose announcement drew down upon Copernicus the derision of his more prejudiced and ignorant contemporaries, and the very truths for which Galileo, in later times, was accused before an odious tribunal, for which he was tried and condemned as an impugner of the word of God, are clearly and legibly stamped by the divine historian on the first of its sacred pages ; and, what may be considered still more remarkable, the same inspired author as clearly infers * Astronomy, Cab. Cyo., American edition, p 309. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 563 the more recondite though no less certain fact, THAT FOR AGES PRIOR THERETO THE UNFORMED EARTH HAD NO DIURNAL ROTATION AROUND ITS AXIS. I have thus endeavoured, by these continuous inquiries, to show the close connection which, in essential particulars, subsists between the subtile influences, light and heat, the points in which they seem to manifest themselves separately being as necessarily implied by this hypothesis. The inti- macy between light, heat, and electricity has been exhibited, and that also which exists amongst the several kinds of this latter fluid. There has been made manifest the similarity of electricity and magnetism, and the reflex influence which they exercise on one another, and the great probability that these, altogether, are modifications of the one comprehensive power, expansion, the all-pervading influence opposed to attraction. I have shown the need, according to the pre- viously prevailing laws, of such a power as this having been introduced into materialism, at the critical juncture it is announced to have been, in order that it should, by over- coming the inertia of the earth and other spheres, cause them to rotate around their respective axes. I have striven to prove by the presence, on the one hand, of innumerable concentric layers of mineral matter around the exterior of the earth, which has been impressed with diurnal rotation, and the absence, on the other hand, of these stratiform masses in the moon, which has not had diurnal movement communi- cated to it, that these concentric mineral incrustations, and also the saliferous waters in which they were immersed, were acquired as a commensurate leverage to produce diurnal rotation. While I beforehand took occasion to explain how it was that these necessary stony concentric layers could alone have been formed by deposition at the bottom of a dark and atmosphereless ocean, unknown to rotatory influ- ences, and inhabited by the classes of plants and animals which science and revelation concur in showing did there exist, and could alone have produced the rocky accumula- tions which are now so highly inclined and tilted up out of horizontality. And thus, link by link as it were, the sub- ject has been brought to a point which connects the whole with the first announcements of Scripture, that, " In the o 2 564 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE beginning God created the heavens and the earth," that " Darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters," during the pro- tracted but indefinite period of non-diurnal rotation, and, as a necessary consequence, the mind has thus become prepared for the emphatic declaration which immediately follows : " God said, Let there be light "- Thus rendering all these investigations subservient to the elucidation of the leading doctrines of the Dynamical System, namely, assuming a condition of non-rotation, the introduc- tion of the light caused diurnal motion, and subsequently all the phenomena resulting from it, and from the pre- arranged material elements ; THAT IT WAS GOD ALONE WHO DID ALL THIS ; and that He has been pleased to reveal, for our information, the way in which these wonderful works were performed. There remains now only one source of evidence to corro- borate the non-diurnal rotatory period of the earth's existence, one apparently so disconnected, that were it not from reluct- ance to deprive any of the works of the Creator of its rightful share of the honour of supporting this fundamental truth, I should be inclined to pass it over altogether. I allude to the formation of those creatures of the animal kingdom which depend for their existence on the ethereal medium and on atmospheric air, and are fully endoived with the faculty of locomotion, whether their movements be re- stricted to the surface of the earth, whether they roam throughout the waters of the ocean, or soar into the aerial regions of the atmosphere, provided they possess the power of freely accelerating and retarding their own motions, and breatlie atmospheric air. To cause objects so widely apart and so dissimilar to become evidences, the one of the other, will demand some exercise of patience, and constrain us to run hastily through most of the intermediate links, in order to maintain that connection which can alone carry conviction to the mind. In doing this, however, the attention given to a great many of them in the fields of inquiry over which we have already passed, will aid very materially ; while, as an introduction to wbat I may now have occasion to state, it may be observed that there is a remarkable difference be- FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 565 tween the kind of light employed to form the animal king- dom of locomotive faculties and that which was used in constructing the vegetable existences. The light which was made to enter into the composition of the creatures of the fifth and sixth days not only came from its present centre the sun but was made to pass through the waters and through the earth before it became embodied into animated existences. And in these respects it differed essentially from the light made use of during the first three days ; and consequently must have produced different results, as far as it entered into the composition of the objects formed during these respective periods. The variation, no doubt, has some mys- terious connection with their living principle, or their power to overcome attraction or inertia at will. The following is a concise definition of the species of loco- motion to which I allude : "Locomotion," say MM. Todd and Bowman, "is that function by which an animal is able to transport itself from place to place. It is enjoyed exclusively by animals ; there being nothing analogous to it in the vegetable kingdom. But even, among animals, there are exceptions to the existence of this function. Many of them are fixed in their places throughout their lives ; others enjoy the power of locomotion for a short period, but subsequently become fixed ; while others again begin life fixed to one place, and are, at length, set free."* Having ascertained what that motion is, we must next be- come acquainted with the " intimate connection which exists between the power of accelerating voluntary motion and the function of respiration, action of the lungs, arid the circula- tion of the blood," which constitute the subjects of the hundred and thirty-eighth Theorem ; and then look into some of the evidences on which that theorem is founded. "We have just explained," says Baron Cuvier, " the several points on which all the vertebrated animals resemble each other. There are, however, certain differences which give rise to their separation into four large subdivisions or classes. These are characterized by the peculiar manner in which their motions are performed, or by the degree of their energy or vigour, and these again depend upon the quantity of their respiration. The muscular fibres possess a greater or less degree of irritability and general energy according as the respiratory organs are more or less perfect. * Anatomy of Hun, by MM. Todd and Bowman, vol. i. p. 67. $66 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE " There are two conditions which determine the quantity of respi- ration. The first is, the relative quantity of blood supplied to the respiratory organs in a given time ; and the second is, the relative quantity of oxygen, entering into the composition of the surrounding fluid. The quantity of blood purified by respiration depends upon the arrangement of the organs adapted for respiration and for cir- culation."* Sir Charles Bell says " The function most essential to life is respiration ; and the mode in which this is performed, that is to say, the manner in which the decarbonization of the blood is effected through its exposure to the atmosphere, produces a remarkable change in the whole framework of the animal body. Man, the mammalia, birds, reptiles, and fishes have much of the mechanism of respiration in common ; and there is a resemblance through them all, in the texture of the bones, in the action of the muscles, and in the arrangement of the nerves." When treating of the circulation of the blood through the muscles, he says " There is one circumstance more which should not be omitted in the comparative anatomy of these muscles, as it exhibits another instance of conformity in their structure to the offices which they have to perform. We have just stated that the power of contraction is a vital property. The continued action of a muscle, therefore, exhausts the vitality ; and to support that action, when it is inordinate, there must be a more than usual provision for the supply of this living power, viz., a means of increasing or maintaining the circulation of the blood, which is the source of all vital power." { " The function of respiration in animals," say MM. Todd and Bow- man, "is a very complex process, respecting the nature of which many unsatisfactory hypotheses had been formed The pre- sence of atmospheric air is necessary to the existence of all organized beings. | The air both passes by endosmose into their nutritient fluids, and receives from them certain deleterious gases developed in their interior. The function by which the fluids are thus aerated is called respiration " In animals, carbonic acid accumulates in the blood during its circulation ; and when the atmosphere is brought to bear upon the capillary vessels containing the 'blood charged with this gas, a mix- ture takes place through the delicate walls of the vessels, the atmo- spheric air passing in, and carbonic acid, with nitrogen and oxygen, in certain proportions, escaping. Thus, the evolution of carbonic * Edinburgh Journal of Natural History, p. 24. f Bridgewater Treatise, pp. 19, 121. % This must be taken with exceptions ; for example, the animals and plants living and growing at the bottom of the ocean, indifferent as to voluntary motion. AUTHOR. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 567 acid, and the absorption of oxygen and nitrogen, are the character- istic features of respiration in animals." * Dr. Thomson assures us that " Without oxygen gas life could not be sustained. In it, unmixed with other gas, life flits away with greater rapidity than in common air ; increased frequency of respiration is the immediate consequence, and disease of an inflammatory type follows, in consequence of the blood becoming more highly oxidized. (From Broughton, Quarterly Journal of Science, April, 1830.) According to Lavoisier and Seguin, an adult man consumes, by respiration, in 24 hours 46'037 cubic inches, or 32-5 ozs., of oxygen. Davy estimates the amount somewhat less, and Menzies slightly greater " Mr. Lyell tells us, that the English greyhounds, taken out for the Real del Monte Company, in Mexico, when hunting at an altitude of 9,000 feet, where the barometer does not rise above 19 inches, were unable to bear the fatigues of the chase, and fell down gasping in such an attenuated atmosphere. "t And to conclude on this subject : " On climbing high mountains," says Baron Liebig, " where, in consequence of the respiration of a highly rarefied atmosphere, much less oxygen is conveyed to the blood, in equal times, than in the valleys or at the level of the sea, the change of material diminishes in the same ratio, and with it the amount of force available for mechanical purposes : for the most part, drowsiness and want of force for mechanical exertions come on ; after every twenty or thirty steps fatigue compels us to a fresh accumulation of force by means of rest, absorption of oxygen without waste of force in voluntary motions." I These ample and conclusive passages, supporting the theorem last mentioned, prove conjointly the indispensable necessity of atmospheric air for the perfecting of arterial blood, and the no less essentiality of this vital fluid for effecting voluntary motion ; consequently the atmosphere was, and still is, absolutely necessary for the well-being, or even for the existence, of all animals possessing the power of movement at will ; for, as Sir Charles Bell emphatically expresses himself, in another part of the work already alluded to " Any other hypothesis than that of the creation of animals suited to the successive changes in the organic matter of the globe, the con- * Anatomy of Man, by MM. Todd and Bowman, vol. i. pp. 3, 24. t The author has frequently witnessed similar results on other parts of the Mexican plateau. % Introduction to Meteorology, pp. 8, 14, 16, 19, 20. 568 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE ditions of the watery atmosphere, and temperature, brings with it only an accumulation of difficulties. " >; In another part of this Avork it has been circumstantially proved, that the formation of the atmosphere depended upon the elaboration and evolution, during a succession of ages, of the constituent elemental principles, nitrogen or azote and freo oxygen ; that these were produced by the decomposition of animal and vegetable substances submersed in water, which, in turn, was employed as a great reservoir to retain them in a proper state of preservation, against the period when they should be required, in order to be transformed into their present state in the atmosphere, by combination with the subtile principle of expansion or light ; whose exist- ence in the then condition of our planet would have been inconsistent with the plan of the creation which was in progress of being developed ; because it was essential that, throughout the whole surface of the spherical, non-rotating world, depositions, layer after layer, from water, and encrus- tation on encrustation by animal agency and secretion, should simultaneously have taken place before the sphere could be in a condition not only to aid the impetus originating from the primary light in overcoming the inertia of the globe itself, but also to be in a proper state to fulfil one of the chief objects designed by its rotation, namely, that the cen- trifugal impetus engendered thereby should have materials provided, which that protomotion was to elevate and to trans- form into the present diversified earth, a spacious and suit- able habitation for the very animals whose creation was to follow, and which, at present, are brought forward as exam- ples the last group of evidences to prove the once entirely different state of this very planet. It has already been made manifest, that wherever organic remains are found, there life must, at one time, have existed. This axiom in natural history is so simple and so elementary as scarcely to be worth insisting further upon ; yet rudimen- tary as it is, by its dexterous application, two very important truths are about to be substantiated, namely, that the fossi- lized remains of testacea and zoophyta, discoverable every- where, and which abound throughout the mountains of the * Bridgewater Treatise, p. 149. FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 509 world, and on their highest ranges, could not have been brought into existence at first, or afterwards have come to maturity, unless they had been submerged in water, and far less so had they been placed on those scarped summits, beyond the overflow of the ocean, and left without an atmo- sphere if it were possible to conceive such a state of matters on some arid peak, unsheltered from the sun's rays, even by the intervention of the aerial ocean which now floats over all. And again, that as the existence of the shelly coating, now petrified, but once a serviceable though inflexible cover- ing, proves the previous existence of a fleshy animal within, but which no longer exists ; it follows, as a clear deduction, that the fleshy molluscous portion must have undergone decomposition, separation into constituent elements, and exhalation, and that one of those elements must have been, and certainly was, nitrogen or azote, an indispensable dilu- tion in the atmosphere which now floats around and above, and which tends so materially, by the oxygen it contains, in conjunction with the azote, to the sustentation of animal life, by aerating the blood, which, in turn, is the mainspring of all voluntary motion. LIGHT, as already demonstrated, is as indispensable as any of those fundamental ingredients for the completion of the atmosphere. Without the addition of this buoyant prin- ciple to the other two more material ones, it could not have assumed its expansive condition ; consequently it was as essen- tial that, in due time, there should be light to combine with the bases, nitrogen and oxygen, as that there should have been those bases to combine with light, and, by their union, to constitute the " firmament ;" but protracted ages of dark- ness were essential for the elaboration of the elements, attenuated as they are, which constitute the light or ethereal fluid itself. It has also been shown that the introduction of light, or its completion, before the atmospheric principles had been stored up in the ancient ocean, before the primeval waters themselves had been properly purified, and the con- centric stratified coatings of the spherical globe had been deposited and formed, would have been prejudicial to the plan of creation which was then in progress of being deve- loped. That it was absolutely necessary, agreeably to the 570 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE known constitutional laws which the Creator saw fit to im- pose on matter, that, for a lengthened period, this sphere should be submersed in oceanic waters, and kept in darkness and quiescence until all those wonders which were each to assume its place in the composition of the perfect work- had been completed in the capacious womb of nature, and that not until then did it accord with his plans to complete or to introduce physical light into the material universe. It must likewise be borne in mind, that another and very im- portant means employed in forming the atmosphere was the violent agitation in the primeval waters, induced by the centrifugal impetus, arising from the first diurnal rotation of the earth around its axis. Nothing short of a commotion so general and penetrating as this protomotioii undoubtedly produced, and which seems to have been essential, could have been effectual in combining the atmospheric ponderable bases with the expansive principle of light ; arid it should therefore be understood that, in " stretching forth the firma- ment as a curtain," the Creator chose to employ the impetus arising from the first diurnal rotation of our sphere which, up to this period, had been encircled by a slumbering ocean, surcharged with gaseous elements, as one of the important agents which conspired to work out His design in this respect. These conclusions show that the following indispensable requisites, agreeably to the established laws of matter, entered into the formation of the atmosphere, namely, oxygen, azote, light, and violent universal agitation. It should, at the same time, be remembered, that, until the atmosphere had been formed, no animal existences pos- sessing tlw full power of locomotion were willed into being ; for, as has just been shown, this animal movement depends upon the circulation of the blood ; which, in turn, is due to oxygenation by means of atmospheric elements. Here, then, we have the special conditions of the present subject, namely free oxygen, azote, expansion, and violent agitation to con- stitute the atmosphere ; and the recorded creation of innu- merable tribes of animals possessing the power of locomotion. If the four principal elements which have just been enume- rated could, agreeably to the impressed laws of materialism, FORMATION OF THE EARTH. syr have been introduced into the universe, and brought into opera- tion simultaneously, or if diurnal rotation, and consequently centrifugal impetus, had not been inseparable from light, then the recorded fact of the subsequent formation of the higher classes of the animal kingdom would have been unavailing, as concurring testimony in favour of the fundamental assump- tion of a protracted period of non-rotation. But as has already been shown, at great length and with elaborate proof, with respect . to TIME, and according to the laws which it pleased the Creator progressively to impress on matter, that those elements could not have been, with the same results, willed into existence coevally, a fulcrum is thereby afforded on which to rest the chief lever of the present argument ; for there are elements in the constitution of the atmosphere (the atmosphere itself being indispensable to the higher tribes of animals) which indubitably required ages of darkness and of non-diurnal rotation to prepare and render fit to be employed in the formation of the firmament. The gaseous basis arising from the slow, successive genera- tion of animal and vegetable existences, from their death, decomposition, and the exhalation of their component elements and peculiar secretions, required protracted ages of tranquil submersion and consequent non-diurnal rotation, before the primeval waters were in such a condition of saturation with them as, when thrown into sudden and violent agitation, they should produce results commensurate to the object required before an atmosphere capable of sustaining creatures with powers of locomotion could have been formed. But the ponderable bases of these gases constitute part only of the atmosphere. Of themselves, unassociated with the expansive principle of light, they could not have constituted the atmo- sphere as it is now beneficially experienced to be. The intro- duction of light, however, was, agreeably to the laws established, associated with diurnal rotation ; and rotatory motion was inseparable from the violent agitation of the waters, and disruption of the strata, which in turn was inimical to the generation, extinction, and exhalation of animal and vegetable substances, in the manner and to the extent to which they were required ; consequently, although the buoyant principle of light was requisite for the completion 5?2 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE of the atmosphere, yet, being as evidently prejudicial to the creation of its two chief elementary materials, free oxygen and azote, it could not, according to divine wisdom, have been introduced into the universe until darkness, tranquillity, and non-diurnal rotation had wrought out the designs for which they were, for ages, allowed to predominate over the surface of the shoreless waters. It is from the fact of the indispensable concurrent and simultaneous presence of those elements for the construction of the atmosphere, contrasted with their no less certain in- compatibility of co-existence in time, and shut up, on the other hand, by the evident necessity of the formation of an atmosphere, such as we and the more perfect tribes of animals now enjoy in common, before they or we could have been willed into existence, together with the announcement of Scripture, at the very juncture when all these elements were at one, that there can be deduced from this source tfie most convincing argument in favour of a non-diurnal rotatory period. The incompatibility of co-existence as to time, and the neces- sity of being eventually brought into compatible union, so as to produce the end for which several of the elements had been so long preparing, constitute the basis of the argument, and enable me to conclude that the period of duration which intervened may be measured by what was required to be done before the two converging lines could meet and be at one, in the formation of the atmosphere : a consummation which, by the line of argument now adopted, namely, by proving the necessity of 'aerated blood for the motions of animals, is shown to be absolutely indispensable before the higher tribes of animals could, according to divine wisdom and goodness, have been willed into existence ; and such being the case, it seems evident, that the announcement on the part of the in- spired historian, of those races having been willed into existence at the period recorded by him, implies that he was fully acquainted with all the previous phases through which the earth, in its creation, had passed ; and amongst the rest, the protracted stage of non-rotation so indispensable for the generation of the elements of the ponderable bases of the atmosphere. And this, in turn, leads to the final conclusion FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 573 That before the material light could overcome the inertia of the world, and cause the diurnal rotation of the earth, it was necessary that it should have been girded round by layer after layer of stratified masses of mineral material, arranged according to a preconcerted order of superposition ; and that although, during innumerable ages, the submarine surface of this non-diurnally rotating sphere was extensively encrusted by widely spreading masses of vegetation, and by groups of living beings, diligently and submissively working out the designs of the omnipotent Creator, " God over all, blessed for ever," yet not one of the latter of these was possessed of either perfect gills or perfect lungs in fine, that there was not a single material being endowed with the faculty of free and full locomotion, within the ^vhole range of the solar economy, until after the spheres had been caused to revolve around their axes, the mundane atmosphere had been formed, and the light concentrated around the sun in the centre of the planetary system. And that these stupendous events all took place ages subsequent to the orbital revolution of the spheres around the illumined sun, and the whole around their common centre of gravity. CONCLUSION. undertaking in which I have been so long and so earnestly engaged is now brought to a close. The cares and anxieties of so many years, experienced under such a variety of circumstances, are henceforward to take another direction, to assume another aspect, to go forth in the earnest desire, that what has been done may be effectual in directing the mind to the true source and origin of all that exists around. With more direct reference to the introductory part of the treatise, and somewhat relieved, from the restraint imposed by the close reasoning required in the body of the work, I have noAV to observe that, like travellers in an alpine country, we have followed a winding but an ascending path, now in one direction, now in another, but turn whichever way we might, the progress has ever been upwards. And having gained the summit, what do we behold ? THE WHOLE WOEK OF CREATION a glorious temple laid out in vast, harmonious proportions, stretching far and wide and all around ; with its vanishing points leading up to heaven, and pointing, in every direction, to the great Creator! This is what is now beheld, and a rich reward it is foe whatever exertions may have been made to attain it. As the eye, from the eminence it has reached, scans the intellectual scene, far in the distance may be seen a sphere, surrounded by an atmosphereless sheet of turgid waters, revolving in darkness round an unillumined sun, and with- out any other motion than that which sweeps it through mirky space ; without hill, without dale, without light ; an orb of black, dull water, wending its way, in measured circuit, through the obscurity of etherless heaven ! What can be its FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 575 destiny ? Scrutinised closer and with more searching view, it is soon discovered that, hidden under these dark and tremulous waters, the solid crust teems with peculiar animal life, and is covered, in many places, by submarine forests of seedless plants, the humble but assiduous instruments whereby the Creator, by the same operation, is purifying the waters, and increasing the thickness and the consistency of the solid shell beneath, to wait His future purpose. The waters, too, when examined from time to time, are found to have become more limpid, and salter than before. And all the elements of this fair world, which are to rise out of these preparations, are being created during a period which it has pleased Omnipotence to make known to us as " the begin- ning." But " the beginning," and the slow progressive labours of separation and assimilation, are about to close. Time and the work of combination are to commence. The period seen from all eternity has arrived. And hark ! a voice " louder than the pealing of many thunders " proclaims from the midst of the universe, " Let there be light "..-.. and "let it be divided from the darkness ; " and lo ! what a mighty transformation has, on a sudden, and by this act of Omnipo- tent division, taken place ! The motionless watery-bound sphere, starting into newly begotten life, rises from its slumber of ages, and, rotating on its axis, casts off its liquid cerements, and, bursting asunder the mineral crust which can no longer engirdle its expanded size, thrusts the rocky layers hastily up into continental ridges, towering mountain chains, and massive channel courses, firm, fixed, endurable, to restrain, for ever afterwards, the waters, which, rushing with impetuous haste towards the equator, would, were it possible, have there regained their former ascendancy. But He who bade the rocky barriers rise from under the ancient ocean, had willed it otherwise, and even that violent and universal rush of waters is made sub- servient to his will, becomes the instrument of his pleasure. While yet these convulsions are taking place, the same Omnipotent voice proclaims, " Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters ; " and, transfixed by words which will materialism 576 DYNAMICAL SYSTEM OF THE into its destined condition, the watery vapour and its gaseous associates, thrown, by the violence of the commotion, into upper space, return not thence, but there remain, ready, at his command, to convey the superabundant water from off the land, and carry it whithersoever He pleases. Again it is audibly decreed, " Let the waters under the heaven be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear," and the firmament hastens to fulfil its Maker's in- junctions. The misty vapours rise in quick succession from the earth, "the waters under the heaven are gathered together " and are poured into the midst of the seas, and, thus with- drawn, they display the beauteous transformation which has been wrought beneath ! for now the land stands out to view, a glorious earth, fresh from its Maker's hand, sending up the residue of the teeming vapours from the newly formed soil, into the clear blue vault of heaven, unstained, as yet, by the breath of a living being, or the exhalations of a single plant ! The same resistless voice is again heard, in softer but more life-giving accents, " Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth;" and that which, before, was dull uncovered soil, and hitherto unproductive, responsive to the words, shoots forth in softest verdure its variegated and attractive covering of " seeding plants and fruitful trees " in full perfection ; seeds ripened for reproduc- tion ; fruits replenished with their kindred seeds the whole a pleasing sight of varied shades and colours, forms and foliage. But even these increase in growing splendour, when, with a power which nothing can resist, the Omnipotent calls in the scattered rays of pristine light around the central orb, to send it forth with concentrated and augmented impetus to the uttermost bounds of the system. Then the pure, spotless, yet untenanted earth, finished in all its loveliness, and glow- ing in the brightness of the sun's first radiance, revolves in silence before its Maker ; displaying, at each turn, traces of such matchless beneficence and wisdom of design, that the attendant angelic host, anticipating mankind's adoration, unite in one melodious burst of praise, and " shout for joy." FORMATION OF THE EARTH. 577 Not long without a mundane chorus. For soon the water and the soil are made to render up all that is within them of life- admitting and life-sustaining elements ; and earth, and air, and seas team with their respective denizens, each after his kind, all formed alike, for life's enjoyment to the full extent of their restricted faculties. Yet not a living creature amongst them can comprehend the works, the ways, the word of God, their heavenly Father ; not one to render Him intellectual praise ! until it was resolved, in the immutable council of heaven, to make a creature " in the likeness and after the image of the Triune Jehovah ; " and man came forth, made after that form and likeness, and, by the inspiring breath of God, capable of holding communion with his Almighty Maker, of understanding the revelation He has been pleased to give of his works, and of rendering up intellectual homage for all these blessings ! This glorious vista, the earth, which I have thus endea- voured to depict, and whose formation I have sought to explain, is the temple which God has constructed, and where He is to be worshipped. The azure canopy overhanging it, like a gorgeous pavilion, was stretched forth by his hand ; the sea is his, for He made it ; He rides on the circle of the clouds, and flies on the chariot of the wind ; and the earth itself is but his footstool. They all shall perish ; but He shall remain, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever ! Oh, then, let us fall down in joyful lowliness before his throne, and, casting all we have at his feet, let us ascribe to HIM all honour and dominion and praise, world without end, for ever and ever ! p P APPENDIX A. EVIDENCES FROM SCRIPTURE. " In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. " And the earth was without form, and void ; and darkness iron upon the face of the deep : and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." Gen. i. 1, 2. Genesis ii. 4 ; xxiv. 3. 2 Kings xix. 15. 1 Chron. xvi. 26. ; xxix. 11. 2 Chron. ii. 12. Ezra v. 11, 12. Nehem. i. 5 ; ix. 6. Job x. 21, 22. ; xxvi. 5 7 ; xxxviii. 47. Psalm viii. 3 ; xxiv. 1, 2 ; xxxiii. 6 ; Ixxxix. 11, 12 ; xcv. 3 5 ; xcvi. 5 ; cii. 25 27 ; civ. 59 ; ex. 1, 2 ; cxi. 2 7 ; cxv. 15 ; cxxiv. 8 ; cxlviii. 1 6. Prov. viii. 22 26. Isaiah xlii. 5 ; xliii. 10-15; xliv. 6; xlv. 57, 12, 18; xlvi. 5 9; xlviii. 18, 12, 13; Ii. 1216; Ixvi. 1, 2. Jer. x. 1013 ; xxiii. 24 ; xxvii. 5 ; xxxii. 17, 27 ; xxxiii. 2 ; Ii. 15, 16. Lam. v. 19. Ezek. xiv. 1221. Dan. ii. 22. Zech. xii. 1. Mark xiii. 19. John i. 1 3. Acts iv. 24 ; xv. 1821 ; xvii. 2226. Rom. i. 20. 1 Cor. ii. 10, 11 ; Col. i. 1217. Heb. xi. 3. 2 Pet. iii. 5, 6. Rev. i. 811 ; x. 6 ; xiv. 7. " And God said, Let there be light : and there was light. "And God saw the light, that it was good : and God divided the light from the darkness. "And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day." Gen. i. 8 5. Psalm Ixxiv. 16; civ. 2. Isaiah xlv. 7. Jer. xxxiii. 20 25. Ezek. xiv. 12 21. Dan. ii. 22. Amos iv. 13 ; v. 8. 2 Cor. iv. 6. Blair's Chron. Tables, copper-plate edition, p. 1, Sab- bath, 23rd October, 4004 years B.C. " And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. " And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. " And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day." Gen. i. 6 8. Judges vi. 36 40. 1 Kings viii. 35 ; xviii. 44, 45. 2 Chron. vii. 13. Job ix. 8. ; xxvi. 8, 9 ; xxviii. 25, 26 ; xxxvi. 2729 ; xxxvii. 1016 ; xxxviii. 810. Ps. viii. 3 ; Ixxiv. 16 ; xcvi. 5 10 ; xcvii. 6 ; cii. 2527 ; civ. 2 ; cxxxvi. 5, 6 ; cxlvii. 8 ; cxlviii. 38. Prov. viii. 27, 28. Isaiah xlii. 5 ; xlv. 12, 18 ; xlviii. 13 ; Ii. 1216. Jer. x. 11, 12 ; Ii. 15, 16. Amos iv. 13. Ezek. xiv. 1221. Haggai i. 10. Zech. viii. 12 ; xii. 1. 1 Pet. iii. 5. James v. 18. Rev. x. 6. "And God said, Lot the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear : and it was so. APPENDIX A. 579 "And God called the dry land Earth ; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas : and God saw that it was good." Gen. i. 9, 10. Nehem. ix. 6. Job xxxviii. 8 11. Ps. xxxiii. 7 9 ; xcv. 3 5 ; cxxxvi. 6. Prov. yiii. 27 29; xxx. 4. Isaiah xlii. 5; xlviii. 13. Jer. v. 22. Ezek. xiv. 1221. Hosea ii. 2123. Amos iv. 13. Jonah i. 9 ; ii. 5, 6. Acts iv. 24. 2 Pet. iii. 5, 6. Itev. x. 6 ; xiv. 7. " And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth : and it was so. " And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind : and God saw that it was good. " And the evening and the morning were the third day." Gen. i. 1113. Gen. ii. 59. 1 Kings iv. 33. Ps. Ixxiv. 16 ; cxlvii. 8 ; cxlviii. 9. ' Isa. xlii. 6 ; Iv. 10. Zeeh. viii. 12. Heb. vi. 7. Bev. x. 6. " And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night ; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years : " And let them be for lights in the firmament of heaven, to give light upon the earth : and it was so. " And God made two great lights ; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night : he made the stars also. " And God set them in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth, " And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness : and God saw that it was good. " And the evening and the morning were the fourth day." Gen. i. 1419. Gen. viii. 22 ; xv. 5. Job ix. 8 ; xxxviii. 3133. Ps. viii. 3 ; xix. 16 ; Ixxiv. 16, 17 ; civ. 19 ; cxxxvi. 79; cxlvii. 4; cxlviii. 35. Isa. xxxviii. 7, 8; xiv. 12. Jer. inm. 35, 36. Ezek. xxxii. 7, 8. Joel iii. 15. Amos v. 8. Rev. x. 6. " And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. " And God created great whales and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind ; and God saw that it was good. " And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas ; and let fowl multiply in the earth. " And the evening and the morning were the fifth day." Gen. i. 2023. Gen. viii. 17 ; ix. 117. 1 Kings iv. 33. Job xli. 134. Ps. 1. 10, 11 ; Ixxiv. 16, 17 ; civ. 25, 26; cxlvi. 6 ; cxlviii. 7. Ezek. xiv. 1221. Eev. x. 6. " And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind : and it was so. P P 2 580 APPENDIX A. " And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind : and God saw that it was good." Gen. i. 24, 25. Gen. ii. 19; vi. 6, 7; vii. 21; viii. 13, 2024; ix. 117. Job xxxix. 130; xl. 1524. Ps. 1. 10, 11 ; cxlviii. 10. Jer. xxvii. 5 ; xxxii. 27. " And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness ; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. " So God created man in his oicii image ; in the image of God created he him ; male and female created he them. " And God blessed them ; and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it ; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." Gen. i. 26 28. Gen. ii. 717 ; iii. 12, 13, 20 ; v. 1, 2 ; vi. 6, 7 ; ix. 117. Dent, xxxvii. 18. Job iv. 17 ; x. 8, 9. Ps. vii. 68 ; c. 3 ; cxlviii. 1113. Prov. xiv. 31. Eccles. xii. 7. Isu. xvii. 7 ; xlii. 5 ; xlv. 9 11 ; liv. 5. Jer. xxvii. 5 ; xxxii. 7. Dan. v. 21 25. Hosea viii. 14. Zech. xii. 1. Mai. ii. 10. Mark x. 6. Luke iii. 38. Acts iii. 27 ; iv. 24 ; vii. 2050 ; xiv. 15 ; xvii. 22 27. 1 Cor. xv. 45- 47. Ephes. iv. 36. 1 Tim. ii. 13. James iii. 9. 1 Pet. i. 17- 20. 2 Pet. i. 17, 18. 1 John iii. 14. Rev. x. 6. Blair's Chron. Tables, p. 1, Friday, 28th Oct., 4004 B.C. " And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed ; to you it shall be for meat. " And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, / have given every green herb for meat : and it was so. " And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. " Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. "And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made ; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. " And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it ; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God had created and made." Gen. i. 2931. ii. 13. Gen. ii. 4. 5 ; ix. 1, 17 ; xiv. 22 ; xviii. 25. Exod. xx. 11. Dent. v. 1214. 2 Kings xix. 15. 1 Chron. xyi. 26. 2 Chron. ii. 12. Ezra v. 11, 12. Job xii. 10 ; xxxviii. 1 11. Ps. xxiv. 1, 2 ; xxxiii. 9 ; xc. 1- 4 ; xcv. 15 ; xcix. 6 ; ciii. 7 ; civ. 13 24 ; cxv. 15 ; cxix. 89 91 ; cxxiv. 8 ; rxlvi. 5, 6 ; cxlvii. 1 9. Prov. xvi. 4 ; xxii. 2 ; xxvi. 10 ; xxx. 4, 5. Eccles. iii. 1115; viii. 17 ; xi. 5. Isa. vi. 3; xxxvii. 16; xl. 1214, 28. Ezek. xiv. 1221. Matt. xii. 8 ; xvii. 3, 4. Mark ii. 27, 28 ; ix. 4, 5. Luke ix. 30 ; xvi. 31. John v. 4547. Acts iii. 22 ; vi. 1114 ; vii. 2033 ; xvii. 2229. 1 Cor. x. 26. 2 Cor. iii. 713. Ephes. iii. 911. Colos. i. 1217. Heb. iii. 16 ; iv. 4. Jude i. 9. Eev. i. 811 ; iv. 11 ; x. 6; xv. 3 ; xix. 516. APPENDIX A. 581 THEOBEMS. 1. That the EARTH is a spheroid of rotation, whose equatorial exceeds its polar diameter about twenty-six miles, the former being 7,925, the latter 7,899 miles. That the oblateness of this ellipsoid deduced from actual measurement, although somewhat less than mathematicians affirm it should be, from calculations based on its dimensions, time of rotation, component materials, law of gravity, and centrifugal force, nevertheless corresponds as nearly as the data for 'calculation will admit. And that a sphere contains the greatest volume of all bodies of equal surface. Astronomy, by Sir John Herschel, new edit. Cab. Cyc. pp. 117, 121, 122. System of Astro- nomy, by Margaret Bryan, 1797, pp. '27, 69. Geology, by H. de la Beche, p. 1. White- hurst's Theory, pp. 3 15 (difference between diameters 36 miles). Mechanics, Cab. Cyc. pp. 24, 157, 158. Geology, by M'Culloch, vol. i. pp. 1618. Hutt. Theory, by Playfair, pp. 448504. Watts on the EUipticity of the Earth, Edin. Phil. Jour. No. VI., pp. 288 293. Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, by Prof. Airey. Mrs. Somerville on the Connection rology, by Dr. Thompson, 1849, Introduction. 2. That the EARTH is a non-luminous body, receiving its external light and heat from the sun. And that the heat received is a fixed quantity, subject to the following invariable law, namely, " that the momentary supply varies in the exact proportion of the angular velo- city, i.e., of the momentary increase of longitude ;" from which it follows, that equal amounts of heat are received from the sun in pass- ing over equal angles round it, in whatever part of the ellipse these angles may be situated. Astronomy, Cab. Cyc. by Sir John Herschel, new edit. pp. 10, 194, 198, 211, 212. Heat, Cab. Cyc. pp. 350, 382. Optics, by Sir D. Brewster, Cab. Cyc. p. 2. Mrs. Somerville on the Connection of the Sciences, pp. 11, 19, 82, 85, 86, 254, 265, 277. Geology, by H. T. de H Beche, p. 5. Prof. WhewelTs Bridg. Treat, pp. 7679, 169172. Chemistry in Cab. Cyc. p. 91. Daniel's Philos. of Chemistry, pp. 164 -166. Phenomena and Order of the Solar System, Dr. Nichols. System of the World, by M. Lambert. Meteorology, by Dr. Thompson, 1849, p. 36 et seq. 3. That the EARTH has a double movement in space ; one by which it revolves around its own axis in 24 hours solar time, or in 23 hours 56' 4-09" sidereal time, and another movement whereby it performs its periodical revolution, in an invariable plane, around the sun, in what is termed the tropical year, of 365 days, 5 hours, 48' 49'7". That these two motions are entirely independent of each other. And that if the Earth did receive its double movement from a single impulse, it is considered, by computation, that the impulse must have passed through a point about twenty-five miles from its centre. Astronomy, Cab. Cyc. by Sir John Herschel, new edit. pp. 74, 205, 206. System of Astronomy, by Margaret Bryan, 1797, pp. 191 205. Mrs. Somerville on the Sciences, pp. 9, 10, 71, 75, 8183, 88, 93, 419, 438. Prof. Whewell's Bridg. Treat, pp. 14, 33, 34, 145. 4. That the orbital revolutions of the EARTH and other planets around the sun, almost in the plane of its equator, and of the satellites around 582 APPENDIX A. their primaries, are caused by the combination of the sun and the planets' mutual attraction, and an original projectile impulse ; whilst the whole system is connected and regulated by the law, of the squares of their periodical times being proportional to the cubes of their mean distances from the sun. That the same laws maintain the comets in their more elliptical orbits, their eccentricity depending wholly on the direction and force of the original impulse which put them in motion. Mechanics, Cab. Cyc. pp. 80, 127. Astronomy, by Sir John Herschel, Cab. Cyc. pp. 232 235, 269. System of Astronomy, by Margaret Bryan, 1797, pp. 101205. Mrs. Soinerville on the Sciences, pp. 6, 9 11/15, 16, 379, 423. Prof. Whewell's Bridg. Treat, pp. 151, 157. Nat. Philos. Cab. Cyc. by Sir John Herschel, pp. 272, 273. Mechanism of the Heavens, by Dr. Nichols, Edin. 1837. Phen. and Order of the Solar System, by Dr. Nichols, pp. 108 124. System of the World, by M. Lambert. 5. That the EARTH and other planets have their axes inclined at various degrees of obliquity to the plane of their respective orbits, and that these latter are at different degrees of obliquity to the ecliptic. That the sun, and such of the planets as afford sufficient data for astronomical calculations, are known to have rotatory motion ; that of the sun being performed in days 25-01154, whilst it also describes a small irregular orbit about the centre of gravity of the system. Aud that the mean density of the sun is computed to be to that of the earth, as 0-2543 is to 1-0. Astronomy, by Sir John Herschel, Cab. Cyc. pp. 192195, 209, 240, 243287, 416. System of Astronomy, by Margaret Bryan, 1797, p. 252, et seq. Ferguson's Astronomy, vol. v. p. 17. Mrs. Somerville on the Sciences, pp. 1214, 2729, 76, 184. Geology, by H. T. de la Beche, p. 6. Prof. Wtewell's Bridg. Treat, pp. 14, 165, 166. Architecture of the Heavens, Nichols, pp. 175177. Phen. and Order of the Solar System, pp. 70, 126, 136, 142, 177, et , , . . . , , . Astronomy, by Margaret Bryan, 1797, p. 252, et seq. Ferguson's Astronomy, vol. v. p. 17. Mrs. Someryille on the Sciences, pp. 1214, 2729, 76, 184. Geology, by H. T. de la Be Ni seq. System of the World, by M. Lambert, p. 37 et seq. 6. That the vicissitude of seasons experienced by the EARTH is owing to its globular form, the obliquity of the plane of the equator to that of the ecliptic, the parallelism of the earth's axis, and to the orbital motion of the earth around an illumined sun imparting light and heat. Astronomy, by Sir John Herschel, Cab. Cye. pp. 194 266. System of Astronomy, by Margaret Bryan, pp. 252282. Mrs. Somerville on the Sciences, pp. 27, 28, 85, 100. Prof. Whe- well's Bridg. Treat, p. 17. Mechanics, Cab. Cyc. p. 14. Phen. and Order of the Solar System, pp. 31, 32, 42, 6365. System of the World, by M. Lambert. Meteorology, by Dr. Thompson, 1849, pp. xx. xx'iii. 7. That owing to a secular motion in the position of the major axis of the solar ellipse, arising from a direct motion of the perigee and the retrogradation of the node of the earth's equator on the ecliptic (called the precession of the equinoxes), which, conjointly, accomplish an entire revolution in 20-984 years, a corresponding, gradual, but entire change is going on in the relative positions of the major axis and the line of the equinoxes; which, about 4,000 years before the Christian era, coincided with each other. And that this secular change is the necessary consequence of the rotation of the earth and the disturbing action of the sun and moon on the redundant matter accumulated about the earth's equator. Astronomy, by Sir John Herschel, pp. 170 173, 313334. Geology, by Dr. Andrew Ure, pp. 13, 14. Prof. PLiyfair's Works, vol. ii. pp. 411 413 ; vol. iv. pp. 305307. System of Ash-on. by Margaret Bryan, 1797. pp. 96, 256. Mrs. Somerville on the Sciences, pp. 21 25, 32 APPENDIX A. 583 36, 6276, 9194, 99, 161 1G6, 309, 438, 439. Heat. Cab. Cyc. p. 195. Nat. Philos. by Sir John Herschel, pp. 273, 276, 277. 8. That about three-fourths of the earth's surface is covered by the ocean ; and, therefore, the aqueous is to the terrestrial surface as 3 is to 1. That the mean depth of the ocean has been variously estimated, the least being from three to four miles, the greatest from four to five miles. That the mean specific gravity of the earth's outer crust is to that of the aqueous portion as 5 is to 2, whilst its entire mean density is considered to be five times that of water. Playfair's Works, vol. iii. *pp. 438, 439 ; iv. p. 302. Dick's Christian 1'hiL p. 60. Prof. Whewell s Bridg. Treat, p. 52. Mrs. Somerville on the Sciences, pp. 63, 89, 106. Geology, by Dr. M'Culloch, voL i. pp. 21, 32. Prof. Buckland's Bridg. Treat. voL i. p. 55. Phil- lips's Geol. pp. 8, 9, 22, 23, 277282. Edin. New Philos. Jour. voL viii. 1827. Mechanics, by Laplace, Toplis, pp. 260266 et seq. Phen. and Order of Solar System, p. 142 et seq. Meteorology, by Dr. Thompson, 1849, p. xix. 9. That the MOON a non-luminous satellite 2,160 miles in diameter receives its heat from the sun, its light from the sun and earth ; has a triple revolution in space one by which it accompanies its primary around the sun, and a binary movement (performed by the same motion in 27 days, 7 hours, 43' 11"), consisting of its sidereal path around the earth and rotation around its axis. That owing to this double revolution by a single movement, together with its libra- tion, and sliijht obliquity of axis, the same hemisphere, increased by a narrow zone occasionally seen on either side, presents itself invariably towards the earth. And that no indications of either continents or oceans present them selves on its earthward disc, although it affords manifestations of being extremely mountainous, the elevations appeariny to have originated from volcanoes, now extinct. Astronomy, by Sir John Herschel, Cab. Cyc. System of Astronomy, by Margaret Bryan, 1797, pp. 272282, 293-298. Connection of the Sciences, pp. C9 80. Phen. and Order of the Solar System, pp. 149173. Meteorology, by Dr. Thompson, 1849, p. 337. 10. That according to investigations made by M. de Laplace, for the purpose of determining the stability of the equilibrium of the sea, it has been discovered, ' ' That the equilibrium of the sea must be stable, and its oscillations continually tending to diminish if the density of its waters be less than the mean density of the earth ; and that its equilibrium would not admit of subversion unless the mean density of the earth was equal to that of water or less." Prof. Playfair's Review of Laplace, vol. iv. p. 304. Mrs. Somerville on the Sciences, pp. 56, 114. Prof. Wliewell's Bridg. Treat, pp. 177 180. Astronomy, by Sir John Herschel, Cab. Cyc. Phillips's GeoL pp. 22, 277, 282. Mechanics, by Laplace, Toplis, pp. 244 270. 11. That on taking a general view of the great geographical out- lines of the world it is seen to be divided, in directions nearly parallel to its axis of rotation, into three great irregular ridges, namely, the continents of North and South America, with the intervening archi- pelago ; 2nd, those of Europe and Africa ; and 3rd, Asia and Australia, with the numerous islands which intervene between them, and those which surround to the eastward of the latter. 584 APPENDIX A. That there is a remarkable similitude in the general contour of these three great divisions, especially between the first and the last, seeming to indicate that their form is due to a common cause. And that within the equatorial zone are situated the most extensive table lands, and the greatest number of islands. Any map of the world. 12. That the continents, and even the islands, are found to possess a flora of species peculiarly their own. That whilst a considerable number of plants are common to the northern regions of Asia, Europe, and America, where these continents almost unite ; towards the south, where they widely diverge, the floras of these three great divisions of the globe differ very materially, even in the same parallels of latitude. And that, upon the principle of distinct floral foci of creation, the whole earth has been divided, by botanists, into a certain number of botanical districts, differing from each other almost entirely in their specific vegetation. Botany, by Prof. Henslow, Cab. Cyc. pp. 294309. Lyell's Principles of Geology, vol. ii. pp. 6975, 131. Mrs. Somerville on the Sciences, pp. 278 285. Lyell's Elements of Geology, vol. ii. p. 68. Old Bed Sandstone, by Miller, pp. 196198. 18. That wherever any considerable portion of the earth's surface has been examined by geologists, it has invariably afforded proofs of having been, at one time, submerged in the waters of the ocean. Lyell's Principles of Geology, vol. i. pp. 49, 51, 146, 153, 155 ; vol. ii. pp. 312 318, and map ; vol. iii. pp. 9, 23, 126, 130135, 150, 151, 213, 239, 240, 330, 331. AVhitehurst's Theory of the Earth, p. 15, et seq. Playfair's Huttonian Theory, pp. 1, 46, 40, 144, 145. Laplace's System, vol. ii. p. 116. Werner on Veins, p. 110. Turner's Sacred History. Manual of Geology, by H. T. de la Beche. Jamieson's Illus. of the Cuvierian Theory, pp. 297, 298. Edin. Phil. Jour. No. XV. pp. 116, 117. Dr. Fleming's Letter, pp. xvii. 226-^230. Natural Phil, by Sir J. Herschel, Cab. Cyc. pp. 144, 283. Edin. Jour. Nat. History, pp. 67, 68. Bakewll's Introduction to Geol. and any other similar -work. Geol. by Dr. M'Culloch, vol. i. pp. 299334 ; vol. ii. p. 360. Ancient World, by D. T. Ansted, pp. 5, 6. Old Red Sandstone, by Miller, Edin. Phillips's Treat, on Geology, pp. 45, 47, 48, 51 5C, 166, 190-200, 259, 276295. Lyell's Elements of Geol. vol. i. pp. 10, 7277, 147, 181191. Con- nection of the Sciences, p. 87. De Luc's Letters, pp. 9, 20, 2933, 41, 127, and through- olit. 14. That the stratified rocks afford sufficient evidence of having been formed in succession, horizontally and tranquilly, by deposition from water, although in many instances, bearing marks of the water having been gently undulated. 1 That they differ in many respects from the primary amorphous masses. 2 And that the series of the strata is usually found to be constant, the order in which they suc- ceed one another, when present altogether, being never reversed. 3 1. Playfair's Huttonian Theory, pp. 4, 21, 4246, 144, 145, 231, 235. Whitehurst's Theory of the Earth, pp. 15 et seq., espec. 129. Werner on Veins, pp. 10, 11. Edin. Philos. Jour. No. XVT. p. 227. Bakewell's Intro, to Geology. Hist, of British Animals, p. 16. Lyell's Principles of Geology, vol. i. pp. 82, 99, 159 ; vol. iii. pp. 2, 6, 8, 35, 213, 255, 365. Geology, by H. T. de la Beche. Jamieson on Cuvier. Theory, p. 297. Cuvier's Eloge. of Werner. Nat. Philos. by Sir J. Herschel, p. 284. Connect, of the Sciences, pp. 62, 63, 89. M'Culloch's Geology, vol. i. pp. 12, 67, 463. Prof. Buckland's Bridg. Treat, vol. i. pp. 17, 36, 44. Lyell's Elements of Geol. vol. i. pp. 10, 22, 3234, 41, 146, 191 ; vol. ii. p. 388 et seq. Atheiiseum, No. 985, p. 935. Vindiciw Geologici, pp. 11, 29. Phillips's Geol. pp. 32. 42, 57, 95, 154, 259, 292. De Luc's Letters, pp. 4, 30, 5565. New Walks in an Old Field, Miller, Edin. 1841 . Ancient World, by Ansted, 1847, p. 122 et seq. 2. Geology, by H. T. de la Beche, pp. 420, 491, 492, 508. Humboldt's Superposition, pp. 13, 14. Cuvierian Theory, p. 298. Lyell's Prin. of Geology, vol. i. p. 201 ; vol. ii. pp. 9, 14, APPENDIX A. 585 and Gloss, p. 79. Geol. by M'Culloch, vol. i. p. 463. Ancient "World, Ansted, 1847, p. 6 et seq. 3. Phillips's Treat, on Geol. pp. 3337, 41, 42. Ancient World, by Ansted. Whitehurst's Theory of the Earth, pp. 177179. 15. That when the stratified masses are examined in their order of superposition, they are frequently found to blend with each other in mineralogical character, and when traced continuously to any dis- tance, in a horizontal direction, are found to " thin out " and run into each other, with an almost imperceptible line of junction. Baron Hnmboldt on Superposition, pp. 41, 42, 465, 477. Lyell's Prin. of Geology, vol. iii. pp. 8, 14, 38, 375. Geol. by Sir. H. T. de la Beche, pp. 262, 404, et seq. Playfair's Huttonian Ked Sandstone, by H. Miller, Edin. Eussel's Egypt, pp. 423 i32. 16. That, with the exception of some of the inferior, the stratified rocks contain innumerable vestiges of vegetable, zoophytic, and animal existences, some of which are of gigantic dimensions in comparison with recent equivalents. 1 That there appear to have been successive creations in each of these divisions of animal, vegetable, and zoophytic life. 2 And that they have by their exuvia3 contributed largely to the formation of the carboniferous and calcareous strata. The calcareous matter, increasing in an ascending series, is yet found to be during every epoch precisely similar in its component elements. 3 1. Humboldt on Superposition, pp. 50, 211, 265, 307, 387. Jamieson's Cuvierian Theory, pp. 336 355. Geol. by H. T. de la Beche. Consolidated Last of Fossil Remains. Playfair's Huttonian Theory, pp. 59, 147. Nat. Phil, by Sir John Herschel, p. 283. Edin. Jour. Nat. Hist. No. II. p. 58. Turner's Sacred Hist. Botany, by Professor Henslow, p. 311. Whitehurst's Theory of the Earth, 1786, p. 29 et seq. Lyell's Prin. of Geology, vol. i. pp. 2,105, 115, 168; vol. iii. p. 327. New Walks in an Old Field, Edin. 1841. Ancient World, by Ansted, 1847. Phillips's Intro, to Geol. p. 49, et seq. Lyell's Elem. of Geol. vol. i. pp. 8, 61-67, 199201, 294. De Luc's Letters. Eussel's Egypt, pp. 423 432. 2. Geology, by H. T. de la Beche. Whitehurst's Theory of the Earth, 1786, pp. 44 19. Humboldt on Super, p. 50 et seq. 211, 287, 350, 391, 402. Playfair's Hutt. Theory, pp. 163,164. Hist, of British Animals, p. xv. Bakewell's Introduction to Geol. Jamieson's Cuvierian Theory, pp. 336 355. Dr. Fleming's Hist, of Zoology, vol. i. p. 26. Edin. Phil. Jour. No. XVI. pp. 226230. Turner's Sacred Hist. New Walks in an Old Field, Miller, Edin. 1841. Lyell's Prin. of Geol., throughout. Nat. Philos. by Sir John Her- schel, p. 283. M'Culloch's Geol. vol. ii. p. 415. Buckland's Bridg. Treat, vol. i. pp. 6, 62, 116, 295, 334, 417. Ancient World, by Ansted, London, 1847. Phillips's Geol. pp. 49, 51, 88. Vindicise Geol. pp. 8, 30. Lyell's Elements of Geology, vol. i. pp. 45, 181, 391, 408 ; vol. ii. pp. 46, 153, 243, 435. 3. Lamarck on Microscopic Mollusca, vide Miliolites. Playfair's Hnttonian Theory, pp. 5, 144. De la Beche's Geology, pp. 205 et seq. Lyell's Prin. of Geol. vol. i. pp. 2, 115 ; vol. ii. pp. Ill, 307, 310; vol. iii. pp. 47, 163, 239. Dr. Fleming's Phil, of Zoology, vol. i. p. 26. M'Culloch's Geol. vol. i. p. 12 ; vol. ii. pp. 57, 207, 262, 414. Buckland's Bridg. Treat, vol. i. pp. 62, 112. Ancient World, by Ansted, London, 1847, pp. 54 et seq. Phillips's Geol. pp. 88, 117. De Luc's Letters throughout, especially pp. 53 56, 127. 17. That from the evidence afforded by the position and dislocation of the stratified masses, it is considered that they have been elevated from where they were originally deposited into the inclined positions they now occupy, and by the agency of a force which acted from below upwards. And that the time occupied in their elevation was very brief com- paratively with that which elapsed during their formation. Prof. Playfair's Huttonian Theory, p. 40, et seq. 219. Geology of England, by Smith, Edin. Beview, No. LVILT. p. 318. Bakewell's Intro, to Geol. Geol. by H. T. de la Beche. pp. 24 et seq. Whitehurst's Theory of the Earth, pp. 115130. Humboldt on Superposi- 5 86 APPENDIX A. tion, p. 69. Connection of the Sciences, p. 89. Lyell's Prin. of Geol. vol. i. pp. 102, 156, 45(i ; vol. iii. pp. 8, 105, 148, 151, 180, 195, 284 - 307, et seq. Geol. by Dr. M'Culloch, vol. i. pp. 88, 126. Prof. Buckland's Bridg. Trc.it. vol. ii. pp. 3, 541. Pliillips's Geol. pp. 5962, 140, 187, 210, 260, 262-276, 280. Lyell's Elem. of tieol. vol. L pp. 94 96, 101, 146, 206 ; vol. ii. pp. 14, 20, 22, 356, 362. New Walks in .-in Old Eicld, Miller, 1841. Vindiciw Geol. p. 11. Disc, on Nat. Philng. by Sir J. Ilerschel. p. 284. De Luc's Letters, 1st and 2nd. Ancient World, Ansted, 1847, p. 106 et seq. Russel's Egypt, PP- 423432. 18. That in contrasting the secondary with the tertiary formations, a marked difference is observable in man}' respects between them ; the former being generally more continuous in their series and more equal in mineralogical character than the latter, and especially than their more recent portions, which are found situated in detached basins surrounded by primary and secondary formations, in very many instances without either being deranged or altered by them. Geol. of England by Smith. Edin. Review, No. LVm. p. 318. Lyell's Prin. of Geol. vol. i. p. 155 ; vol. ii. p. 313 ; vol. iii. pp. 15, 23, 229, 289, 296, 303, 309, 320, et seq. Geol. by II. T. de la Beche, pp. 192, 193, 197199. Oeol. by Dr. M'Culloch, vol. i. pp. 313, 324, 478. Prof. Buckland's Bridg. Treat, vol. i. pp. 77, 527. Ancient World, by Ansted, pp. 623, 73, 265, 266. Phillips's Oeol. pp. 4362, and diagram, and pp. 161 178. Lyell's Elements of Geol. vol. i. pp. 31, 270, 284, 327330, 381 ; vol. ii. pp. 34, 313, 334, 348, 365. Botany, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 311314. 19. That the state of perfect preservation in which the fossil remains of plants and shells are frequently found affords conclusive evidence that, in such instances, they grew and lived not far from where they are now found embedded. And that none of the plants belonging to the coal formations have been recognised as being of marine origin. Botany, by Prof. Henslow, Cab. Cyc. p. 311. Geol. by H. T. de la Boohe, p. 439, et seq. Whitehurst's Theory of the Earth, 1786, p. 59, et seq. esp. 121. Lyell's Oeol. vol. i. pp. 27, 117, 118. Philos. of Zoology, by Dr. Fleming, vol. ii. p. 88. Turner's Sacrod History. Writings of M. Ad. Brongniart on Fossil Vegetation. New Walks in an Old Field, Miller, 1841. Connection of the Sciences, p. 85. Geol. by Dr. M'Culloch, vol. i. pp. 437, 438 ; vol. ii. p. 359. Dr. Buckl md's Bridg. Treat, vol. i. pp. 16, 17, 634. Ancient World, by Ansted, London, 1847. Lyell's Elements of Oeol. vol. ii. pp. 106120, 128130, 133 135. Phil- lips's Oeol. pp. 47, 54, 107, 118. De Luc's Letters, generally, but esp. 2nd Letter, pp. 5658. Russel's Egypt, pp. 423 432. 20. That considering the granitic, trappean, serpentinous and other rocks of similar origin to have been injected amongst the stratified masses ; and that evidence still remains of great heat having been pre- sent when and where these protrusions took place shown as well by the structure of the igneous injections themselves as by the fused, altered, rent condition, and slaty cleavage of the rocks contiguous to them it is, likewise, considered that the extent of the alteration and the insensible transition of the altered mass are in direct proportion to the volume of that which has been injected. Playfair's Huttonian Theory, pp. 2133, 54, 63, 84, 89, 182190, 247. Htimboldt on Super- position, p. 46. Werner on Veins, pp. 122, 124126. Whitehurst's Theory of the Earth. Geology, by H. T. de la Beche, pp. 24, 486 4.S9, 491495, 506, 510, 575, et seq. Edinburgh Review, No. LXX1II. p. 243, Art, Trans. Camd. Soc. Lyell's Piin. of Geol. vol. iii. An 226, 110, 140, 231239. Old Red Sandstone, by Miller, Edin. Russel'V Egypt,' pp. ~423 432. 21. That all geologists make use of terms indicating that their dis- courses have reference to an " external crust," " outer coating," or, as it is sometimes called, " shell " of the earth, but generally without APPENDIX A. 587 explaining to what depth these are considered to penetrate into the viscera terra : yet, sufficient has been said to show that these expres- sions are considered to refer to that which has limits not far from the surface ; and, even, in a few instances, an attempt has been made to draw a clear line of separation, at no great depth below the surface, between the solid crust and the supposed internal masses. MSS. by M. Elie de Beaumont, as given by M. de la Beche, pp. 2, 518. Astron. by Sir John Herschel, pp. 22, 23. Nat. Philos. by the same, Cab. Cyc. p. 288. Geol. by Dr. M'Culloch, voL i. pp. 9497. Connection of the Sciences, pp. 90, 260. Lyell's Prin. of Geol. vol. iii. Jements ot Ueol. vol. i, pp. 13, 191 ; vol. ii. 141, 192, 349, 354369. Phillips's pp. 5, 6978, 108, 250258. Vindieise Geol. p. 29. De Luc's Letters, pp. 104108. 22. That thick and extensive beds of breccia and conglomerate, in which the fragments are generally united by calcareous and other mineral substances, are found to intervene amongst the various series of the older and the secondary stratified masses, especially in the vicinity of mountain chains, and above and below the coal forma- tions. Playfair's Huttonian Theory, pp. 5, 45, 51, 209 211. Lyell's Prin. of Geol. Appendix, vol. iii. p. 64. Geol. by H. T. de la Beche, pp. 214219, 323, 329, 400403, 405408, 491. Jamie- son's must, of Cuvierian Theory, p. 301. Humboldt on Superposition, pp. 269, 276 278. Geol. by Dr. M'Culloch, vol. i. pp. 89, 226, 459, 464 ; vol. ii. pp. 222224. New Walks in an Old Field, Miller, 1841. Lyell's Elements of Geol. vol. i. pp. 7, 76, 101, 365; vol. ii. pp. 148, 298, 356, 370. Vindiciee Geol. p. 29. De Luc's Letters, pp. 66, 67. Phillips's Geol. pp. 92, 104, 115, 126, 293. Russel's Egypt, pp. 423432. 23. That although a diversity of opinion prevails among geologists as to the origin, classification, and the nomenclature by which the greater groups of rocks composing the earth's outer surface are to be designated ; nevertheless, an accordance has been come to as regards the unstratified amorphous masses in contradistinction to all the stratified ones of every denomination. 1 That they also concur in considering the primary rocks, besides being deficient in organic remains, to be more compact and crystalline in texture than the others, 2 and generally more elevated in their posi- tions. 3 That they appear, in very many instances, to have been thrust up from beneath the strata, raising these up also, whether they have perforated or not wholly cut through them ; in the former case remaining flanked by stratified masses, which repose upon them in evident unconformity. 4 1. Comparative Tables in Geol. by De la Beche, pp. 38, 500. Humboldt on Superposition, pp. 30, 41, 114, 130, 133, 357. Lyell's Prin. Geol. vol. iii. pp. 5, 10, 108, 334, 332, 374, 386393. Jamieson's Cuvierian Theory, pp. 298 300. Sir H. Davy's Agricult. Chemistry. Geol. by Dr. M'CuUoeh, vol. ii. pp. 6880. Prof. Buckland's Bridg. Treat, vol. i. p. 39. New Walks in an Old Field, Miller, 1841. Ancient World, by Ansted. Lyell's Elements of Geol. vol. i. pp. 4, 10, 21, 182187, 191, 209. Phillips's Geol. pp. 42, 45, 68, 69, 95, 259. De Luc's Letters, No. I. pp. 7, 8, 60 65. 2. Manual of Geol. by H. T. de la Beche. Playfair's Huttonian Theory, pp. 84, 85. Jamie- son's Cuvierian Theory, pp. 297, 298. Edin. Phil. Jour. No. XV. p. 121 ; No. XVI. p. 244. 156 ; vol. in. pp. 10, 37, 79, 353. 1'ror. Playlair's Works, vol. 111. pp. 41 Elements of Geol. vol. i. p. 21. New Walks in an Old Field, Miller, 1841. 4. Geol. by H. T. de la Beche. Playfair's Hutt, Theory, pp. 47, 50, 83, 209, 230, 247, 311. 588 APPENDIX A. Lyell's Prin. of Geol. vol. i. pp. 61, 101, 156 ; vol. iii. pp. 77, 117, 164, 185, 364 ; Gloss, p. 70. Lithological Survey of Schehallion, Playfair's Works, vol. iii. pp. 403--440. New Wnlks in an Old Field, Miller, 1841. Capt. Boss's 2nd Voyage, 18291833. dipt. Parry's Voy- age to Northern Sens. Jamieson's Cuvierian Theory, p. 298. Geology, by Dr. M'C'ulloch, vol. i. p. 12. Prof. Buekland's Bridg. Treat, p. 36 ; vol. ii. pp. 3, 1. Phillips's Geol. pp. 42, 5557. Lyell's Elem. of Geol. vol. ii. p. 264 et seq. 24. That there exists an essential mineralogical difference between the older crystalline rocks, such as granite, trap, porphyry, serpentine, and others of that age and denomination, considered to be of igneous origin, and those which have been ejected from modern volcanoes, distinguished by the name of lavas, 1 a difference attributed to the greater pressure under which the older masses were formed, to the non-action of the atmosphere and consequent retention of their gaseous or volatile parts, and to the more gradual manner in which they have cooled down. 2 1. Geol. by De La Beche, pp. 493, 501 . Nat. Philos. Cab. Cyc. p. 269. Playfair's Hutt. Theory, pp. 67, 80, 260, and his own Works, vol. i. pp. 97108. Lyell's Prin. of Geology, vol. i. pp. 147, 456 ; vol. ii. pp. 11, 108, 117, 124, 353, 359, 364. Whitehurst's Theory of the Earth, p. 245 et seq. Lyell's Elements of Geol. vol. i. p. 14 ; vol. ii. pp. 189195, 201 254, almost throughout. Phillips's Geol. pp. 187, 238, 240. 2. Geol. by De La Beche, pp. 5, 475, 47. Nat. Philos. Cab. Cyc. pp. 2G9, 270. Phyfair's Hutt. Theory, pp. 21, 68, 135, 181, 184, 260. Lyell's Prin. of Geol. vol. i. p. 148 ; vol. iii. pp. 108, 124, 353, 360, 363, 370. Whitehurst's Theory of the Earth, p. 245 et seq. Prof. Buck- land's Bridg. Treat, vol. i. p. 41. Lyell's Elements of Geol. as above. Phillips's Geol. as above. 25. That GRANITE is found to be essentially the same wherever it hitherto has been examined. That it is in the deeper regions of the globe, where granite had its origin, that that of trap must also be looked for. That whatever difference may exist between these rocks, whether in their relation to the strata or their mineralogical character, they are remarkably analogous in almost every important general circum- stance. And that there is good reason even for considering that granite, por- phyry, and trap have had a common origin. Geol. by Dr. M'Culloch, vol. i. pp. 145160, 106 ; vol. ii. pp. 81 S3, 03, 102, 412. Lyell's Prin. of Geol. vol. iii. pp. 361363. Playf:ur's Works, vol. i. p. 95 et seq. Prof. Buoklind's Bridgewaier Treatise, vol. i. pp. 4, 17. Lyell's Elements of Geol. vol. i. pp. 14 20; vol. ii. pp. 186, 191 197, 200 et seq. De Luc's Letters, Intro, pp. 58, 14-_' ; Letter 2nd, p. 67. Geol. by H. T. de la Beche, p. 4S6 et seq. Old Red Sandstone, by Miller. Kussel's Egvpf , pp. 423-432. 26. That the granitic, trappean, serpentinous, and porphyritic descriptions of amorphous rocks generally constitute the nuclei or centres of mountain ranges, and together with their recumbent strata attain the greatest elevations throughout the world. 1 And that con- jointly they occupy a considerable portion of its terrestrial surface.- APPENDIX A. 589 27. That in mountain ranges certain axes of elevation are recognis- able ; while the outlines of the former frequently assume lengthened, irregular, conical forms, with one or more peaks, whose nuclei and apices usually consist of primary rocks. And that it may be considered as an established fact, both in geology and geography, that these ranges are, in general, comparatively less elevated in extreme latitudes. Geol. by H. T. de la Beche, pp. 484486, 490, 513. Playfair's Hutt. Theory, p. 307, Jamie- son's Cuvierian Theory, p. 298 and map. Lyell's Prin. Geol. vol. i. p. 61 ; vol. iii. p. 353. Playfair's Works, vol. iii. pp. 410 i!3. New Walks in an Old Field, Miller, 1841. Any geological map of mountain ranges. Any scale of the comparative heights of mountains. Edin. Phil. Jour. No. XVI. pp. 233, 234. Phillips's Geol. pp. 5962. Captains Ross and Parry's Voyages to the Arctic Regions. The Connection of the Sciences, pp. 56, 86. Lyell's Elements of Geol. vol. ii. pp. 30, 185, 277-304, 371373. Phillips's Geol. pp. 8, 60, 71, 93, 266-270. Ancient World, by Ansted, 1847, pp. 106, 107, et seq. De Luc's Letters, No. I. pp. 7, 60. Russel's Egypt, pp. 423-432. 28. That it is not only the greater geographical height of the inter- tropical mountains which denotes the presence of a comparatively increased force in the regions where they are elevated, but their geological structure corroborates the same assumption. For "rocks similar to those which constitute the ridge of Jura in the Alps are found to occupy the plains of England ; and basalts which repose on the granites of the Andes are discovered beneath the limestone of Skye." Geol. by Dr. M'Culloch, vol. i. p. 8. De Luc's Letters throughout, espec. pp. 60 62. Letter 3rd, pp. 106, 107. 29. That when a view is taken of any geological map, it is observed that the formations represented by it are intersected by veins of granite, porphyry, senite, trap, serpentine, greenstone, &c., and by dykes of similar material, especially of trap and basalt. That whatever may be the nature or position of the formations through which they pass, the general direction of the main trunks of these veins and dykes is per- pendicular to the earth's surface, although their branches frequently diverge and weld the several formations together in a remarkable manner. And that overlying masses of the same materials are fre- quently found on the surface as if they had overflown from the veins while in a state of fusion. 143. Prof. Buckland's Bridg. Treat, map in vol. ii. pp. 3 5. Phillips's Geol. pp. 42, 62, 111, 112, 186. Lyell's Elements of Geol. voL i. p. 12 ; voL ii. pp. 185187, 202, 212219, 262, 357372. 30. That two distinct classes of mineral veins are found to exist in the earth's outer crust one of which proceeds from inwards out- wards, having their bases in the interior, and their apices nearest to the surface ; and the other, termed Faults and Fissures, proceeding from outwards inwards, with their apices in the interior and their bases on or near to the surface. And that displacement of the strata is almost invariably attendant on the faults above referred to. Werner on Veins, pp. 50 59, 64, 90, 104, 110, et seq. Humboldt on Superposition, pp. 413, 414. " ' . Geol. vol. iii. pp. 36, 353 Geol. by H. T. de la Beche, srner on Veins, pp. 50 59, 64, 90, 104, 110, et seq. Humboldt on .^j^^,..*, w- "> Playfair's Hutt. Theory, pp. 6166, 74, 87, 311. Lyell's Piin. Geol. vol. iii. pp. 36, 353 357, 371. Geol. by Dr. M'Culloch, vol. i. pp. 139145", 163165. * 590 APPENDIX A. 134; vol. ii. pp. 213. 311. New AValks in an Old Field, Miller, 1841, sectional view in frontispiece. Vindicite Geol. pp. 1821. Phillips's Geol. pp. 62108, 110, 260 2G5. De Luc's Letters, No. III. pp. 125-128. 31. That in the COAL MEASURES there is considerable persistency of character; those termed "independent" being usually found in strata conformably to and overlying the mountain limestone and the Old Red Sandstone ; the whole three formations appearing to have been moved simultaneously, by the influence of great force, from where they were originally formed. That the magnesian limestone and New Red Sandstone, which usually overlie the coal measures, are, on the other hand, unconformable to them and more horizontal in their posi- tion. That the lower portion of the New Red Sandstone series is generally formed of conglomerate and strata. And, finally, that there is a decided difference between the coal found in the independent formations and the lignite or brown coal of the more recent deposits. Oeol. by Dr. M'Culloch, vol. ii. pp. 295334. Geol. by H. T. de la Beche, pp. 413448. Art. Coal, Dr. Ure's Chem. Die. Prof. Buckland's Bridg. Treat, vol. i. pp. 64, 524. Lyell's Elements of Geol. vol. i. pp. 29,30; vol. ii. pp. 95, 104, 105, 121, 131, 145, 279297. Ancient World, by Ansted, p. 73 et seq. New Walks in an Old Field, Miller, 1841. Vindiciee Geol. pp. 18 21. Connection of the Sciences, p. 86. Botany, by Frof. Hens- low, Cab. Cyc. pp. 202, 311. De Luc's Letters, No. IV. pp. 110, 155157, 102. Ancient World, by Ansted, 1847. 32. That the formation called the NEW RED SANDSTONE GROUP is considered to be of mechanical origin and of heterogeneous composi- tion ; containing different kinds of fossil salts associated with gypsum, and much conglomerate and breccia. That, conjointly with the oolitic group, it frequently contributes to form extended tracts of level land, having aided in filling up immense hollows on the earth's surface at a time when, or immediately after, this latter had undergone a great and widely extended revolution in its physical form, and in the condition of its vegetable and animal life. And that although most usually the deposits of rock salt are asso- ciated with the strata of the New Red Sandstone formation, yet they are not unfrequently found in the oolitic, cretaceous, and even in the tertiary formations. Lyell's Prin. Geol. vol. iii. p. 228230, 333, 392. Humboldt on Superposition, pp. 308-324, 345. Dr. Murray's Elements of Chemistry, vol. ii. p. 291. Chemistiy, by Hugn Held, p. 142. Geol. by H. T. de La Beche. Smith's Geol. of England, in' No. LVII. Edin. Review, pp. 330. Hist, of British Animals, by Dr. Fleming, p. xvi. Cuvier's Eloge. of ments of Geol. vol. i. pp. 104, 140, 201, 367370; vol. ii. pp. !K) 96, 102, 134, 242, 2S2, 350, 357. Phillips's Geol. pp. G5, 114, 120140. De Luc's Letters, No. III. pp. 131136. Nineveh and its Remains, by Layard, vol. ii. pp. 254, 314. Russel's Ancient and Modern Egypt, pp. 368375, 423432. 33. That whatever may have been the nature and extent of the revolution, alluded to in the preceding Theorem as having affected the earth's surface, it and its attendant circumstances seem to have exer- cised a direct and material influence over the widely extended deposits, the " OOLITIC" and the " CRETACEOUS GROUPS;" the CHALK formation being considered the most recent of the secondary series ; after whose APPENDIX A. 591 deposition there appears to have taken place a manifest change in the state and condition of our planet, and also in its vegetable and animal existences. Geol. by H. T. de la Beche, p. 259 et seq. Huraboldt on Super, pp. 68, 377. BakewelTs Introd. to Geol. Playfair's Hutt. Theory, pp. 25, 26. Edin. Phil. Jour. No. XVI. p. 228. Lyell's Prin. Geol. vol. i. pp. 154158, 161, 550 ; vol. ii. p. 313 ; vol. iii. pp. 16, 18, 172, 243, 320, 342. Geol. by Dr. M'Culloch, vol. i. pp. 138, 292, 482 ; vol. ii. pp. 262, 263. Prof. Buckland's Bridg. Treat, vol. i. pp. 7177, 267, 273, 282, 334375, 450. PhiUips's Geol. pp. 33, 34, 92, 140, 154, 161, 186194. Ansted's Ancient World, pp. 106110, 254, 267, 400. Lyell's Elements of Geol. vol. i. pp. 194, 270, 337, 346, 386, 421 ; vol. ii. pp. 74, 79, 308313, 349, 401403. Old Red Sandstone, by Miller, Edin. 1841. 84. That in several parts of Europe and America immense quantities of travelled debris, gravel, and massive boulders, termed by Sir H. de la Beche " THE ERRATIC BLOCK GROUP," are found either resting on or embedded in the soil. That the boulders and larger debris, when they have been traced to the nearest fixed group of the same mineralogical character, are generally found to have come from a considerable distance. That those boulders in Britain, Germany, Russia, and North America, whose sites and derivations are ascertained, have been identified with mountain chains existing to the north of where they now lie ; whilst those in South America seem, on the contrary, to have originated from localities soutlncard of their present resting- places. Finally, the position of the gravel and smaller detritus appears to have been materially modified by local formations. Playfair's Huttonian Theory, pp. 384, 385, 393, 394. Geol. by H. T. de la Beche, pp. 169 et seq. Whitehurst's Theory of the Earth. 1786, pp. 63 66 et seq. Jamieson's Cuvierian Theory, pp. 300, 301. Lyell's Prin. Geol. vol. i. p. 202 ; vol. iii. p. 148. Geol. by Dr. M'Culloch, vol. ii. pp. 364, 365. Literary Gazette, Feb. 3, 1836, p. 104, and Sept. 3, 1836, p. 565, both by Professor Murchison. New Walks in an Old Field, Miller, 1841. Phil- lips's Treat, on Geol. pp. 201, 205 216. Ansted's Ancient World, pp. 323 326. Lyell's Elements of Geol. vol. i. pp. 142, 164, 22-2225, 231234, et seq. ; vol. ii. p. 282 et seq. De Luc's Letters, Introd. p. 25 ; 1st Letter, pp. 17, 27, 38. 85. That a satisfactory explanation of the trade winds has been given upon certain well-known and established principles, amongst which the following are relevant to the present subject : 1st. That all portions of the earth's surface have a velocity of rota- tion in direct proportion to the radii of the circle of latitude to which they correspond. 2nd. That the air, when relatively and apparently at rest, is only so because it participates in the motion of rotation proper to that part of the earth. 3rd. That, consequently, when currents of air set towards the equator from the north or south, they must lag, hang back, or drag upon the surface, in a direction opposite to that of the earth's rotation, or from east to west. And lastly, That the polar currents, from a deficiency of rotatory velocity, tend by their friction near the equator to diminish the velocity of the earth's rotation ; while, on the contrary, the equatorial currents carry the excess of rotatory motion north and south. Astron. by Sir John Herschel, pp. 128132. Prof. Whewell's Bridg. Treat, p. 99. White- hurst's Theory of the Earth, 1786, p. 148 et seq,. System of Astron. by Margaret Bryan, 1797, p. 309 efc seq. Connection of the Sciences, pp. 8, 87, 115, 137, 433, 441. Capt. Hall's Voyages and Travels, 2nd series, vol. i. p. 162. Lyell's Elements of Geol. vol. i. pp. 34, 140,224; vol. ii. p. 301. Principles of Meteorology, by Hutchinson. Meteorology, by Dr. Thompson, 1849, pp. 380382. 592 APPENDIX A. 36. That the great size of fossil plants, and the magnitude of fossil shells when compared with their respective recent equivalents, afford reason to suppose that there existed, when and where they grew and lived, as great a icaniith of temperature* as now exists within the tropics, and, perhaps, even greater. That this warmth was general throughout the northern and such parts of the southern hemisphere as have yet been examined. And it is also considered that there existed in the medium wherein they grew and lived a much greater proportion of carbonic acid than is consistent with present animal and vegetable life. Botany, by Prof. Henslow, Cab. Cyc. pp. 313, 314. Botany, in Lib. of Useful Know. p. 89, Connection of the Sciences, pp. 85, 25(5 272. Manual of Geol. by H. T. de la Beohe. Lyell's 1'rin. Geol. vol. i. pp. 105118, 145; vol. iii. p. 55; Gloss, p. 72. Elem. Philos. Plants, De Candolle and Sprenjrel, p. 27(5. Humboldt on Superposition, pp. 4fl, 52. Edin. Jour. Nat. Hist. p. 63. Prof. Buckland's Bridg. Treat, vol. i. pp. 452, 4G2, et sen. Capt. Parry's Voyage, Edin. Phil. Jour. No. VII. p. 152. Fossil Flora, by Lindley and Button, vol. i. Ancient World, Ansted, p. 80 et seq. Lyell's Elements of Geol. vol. i. pp. 285, 382; vol. ii. p. 125. Phillips's Geol. pp. 96, 118, 289. De Luc's Letters, p. 110, also Letter V. Architeo. of the Heavens, Nichol, p. 106. Old Bed Sandstone, H. Miller, 1841. 87. That, besides the phenomena alluded to in the foregoing Theorems, reference is made, generally, in geological treatises 1st. To the changes which are taking place, as the effects of causes now in operation, such as the action of the sea, its encroachments and subsidences, tides, currents, lakes, and rivers, volcanoes, earthquakes, deposits from springs, and the formation of coral reefs and islands. And, 2nd. To the fossil osteological remains of extinct animals, found in various formations, which the industry of geologists has brought to light, arranged, described, and designated by names, usually derived from Greek compounds, expressive of their anatomical developments, and which seem to prove, almost invariably, that the former possessors of these fossilized bones were wholly distinct from, and not varieties of, living species. Prof. Buckland's Bridg. Treat, vol. i. pp. 79, 94, et seq. Ancient World, by Ansted, London, 1847. Old Ited Sandstone, Miller, Edin. 1841. Lyell's Prin. and Elements of Geol. Vindicise Geol. pp. 69, from Cuvier, pp. 3038. Phillips's Geol. pp. 184, 211221, 226. De Luc's Letters, and any modern work on Geology. 38. That LIGHT, according to the Newtonian hypothesis, is supposed to consist of inconceivably minute material particles, emitted by lurni- niferous bodies, and moving through space with the velocity of 192,000 miles in a second of time. That, according to the Unditlatory Theory, an exceedingly thin and elastic medium called ETHER is supposed to till all space, and to occupy the intervals between the particles of material bodies ; and that the vibrations or undulations of this ethereal medium cause the sensation of LIGHT. But, whatever may be the mode by which it is considered that light becomes perceptible, its universality and the almost immeasurable distance at which it is perceived throughout space, as well as the * This " warmth of temperature " must be carefully distinguished from the heat which is alluded to in the 20th and 29th theorems, and which is considered to have occasioned the fusion observable in the primary and secondary formations. AUTHOU. APPENDIX A. 593 amazing rapidity of its vibrations requisite to convey sensations of colour, are alike remarkable. Optics, by Sir D. Brewster, Gab. Cyc. pp. 2, 134, 283. Nat. PhiloB. by Sir John Herschel, pp. 94, 195 217, 248, et seq. Progress of Philos. Science, by J. Thomson, pp. xxxiv. xxxiz. System of Astron. by Margaret Bryan, pp. 5 15. Connection of the Sciences, pp. 38, 186188, 190193, 220224. Prof. Buckland's Bridg. Treat. voL i. p. 32. Prof. Whewell's idem, pp. 129, 130. Chemistry, Cab. Cyc. pp. 40 12, 373375. Heat, idem, p. 400. Electricity, idem, pp. 226, 227. Daniel's Philos. of Chemistry, pp. 164175, 191. De Luc's Letters, pp. 7480. Architecture of the Heavens, Nichols, 1837. Meteorology, by Dr. Thompson, 1849, p. 80 et seq. 89. That a pencil of LIGHT can be decomposed either by refraction or by absorption into three primary spectra, namely, a red, a yellow, and a blue spectrum; or into seven distinct colours when the secondary ones are included, viz., red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. That it likewise can, by the application of certain refracting and absorbing media, be polarized, or separated into two distinct pencils, one having its pole +45, and another whose pole is 45. And that the angle at which LIGHT falls on any object, and the intervening media, very materially affect the nature of the result. Optics, by Sir D. Brewster, Cab. Cyc. PP- 6672, 144147, 159169, et seq. Connection of the Sciences, pp. 177, 180, 200, 225, 452. Heat, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 295297, 399. Daniel's Philos. of Chemistry, pp. 179181, 193207. Botany, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 195198. Hunt on Light, pp. 3739. Meteorology, by Dr. Thompson, 1849, pp. 37, 218, et seq. 40. That there are two hypotheses respecting the constitution of Solar Liyht, by one of which it is considered to be composed of different physical principles ; and by the other it is supposed to con- sist of a number of distinct rays capable of being diversely deflected, and possessing different qualities according as they vary in refrangi- bility. Yet, by the adherents of both hypotheses, it is admitted that the solar rays do possess chemical properties. Heat, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 298303, 399. Optics, idem, by Sir D. Brewster, pp. 9093. Art. Light, in Dr. Ure's Chem. Diet. pp. 578-r580. Connection of the Sciences, pp. 225 227. Daniel's Philos. of Chem. p. 456. Hunt on Light. Taylor's Scient. Mem. vol. iii. p. xi. Feb. 1843. De Luc's Letters, p. 78. Meteorology, by Dr. Thompson, 1849, p. 37 et seq. (founded on numerous concurring authorities). 41. That the surface, lengthwaj'S, of the solar spectrum is crossed by dark lines of different breadths, and amounting in number to nearly six hundred. That when sun or moon light is employed in the expe- riment, their number, order, and intensity are found to be invariable. And that similar bands are perceived in light from the fixed stars and from that afforded by electricity ; but in the light given by a lamp or candle none of these fixed lines are perceptible. Optics, by Sir David Brewster, Cab. Cyc. pp. 8588, 142. Connection of the Sciences, pp. 180182. Astron. by Sir John Herschel, pp. 202, 203. Daniel's Philos. of Chem. pp. 183, 457. Hunt on Light, pp. 40 41. Meteorology, by Dr. Thompson, 1849, p. 80. 42. That some late and delicate experiments in optics having proved that rays from the sun, even when transmitted obliquely, are not polarized, whereas those which emanate from incandescent bodies possess this remarkable property, it follows as a consequence, that solar light does not issue from an incandescent solid or fluid, but rather as Herschel previously supposed from an exterior film which is the source of its light ; and that the intensity of the sun's light diminishes frqm the centre to the circumference of the solar disc. Q Q 594 APPENDIX A. Astron. by Sir John Herechel, Cab. Cyc. p. 212. Connection of the Sciences, pp. 254, 255, 310. Geol. by Dr. Ure, Intro, p. xxxvi. Prof. Whewell's Bridg. Treat, p. 171. Heat, in Cab. Cyc. p. 314. Architec. of the Heavens, Nichol, 1837. Phen. and Order of the Solar System, idem, pp. 170199. Meteorology, by Dr. Thompson, 1849, p. 83 et seq. 43. That common light moves in straight lines. That when it falls upon any surface, whether plane or curved, the angle of its reflection is equal to the angle of its incidence. That the intensity of radiant heat and light decreases in direct proportion to the square of the distance. And that one non-luminous body may receive light from another non-luminous body and discharge it upon a third ; but in every case the light must come from a self-luminous body. Optics, by Sir D. Brewster, Cab. Cyc. pp. 1, 6, 2325. Connection of the Sciences, pp. 170 176, 189. Chemistry, in Cab. Cyc. p. 91. Astron. by Sir John Herschel, p. 212. Daniel's Philos. of Chemistry, p. 166. 44. That the following are some of the best-ascertained effects of sunlight upon the vegetable kingdom, namely : 1st. The quantity of water lost by a plant by evaporation, and its power of absorption from the soil, are in proportion to the quantity of light. 2nd. Light causes the decomposition of the carbonic acid of vege- tation ; and, by solidifying the tissue, renders the parts most exposed to it the hardest. And 3rd. The green parts of plants, when exposed to the direct light of the sun, absorb from the atmosphere carbonic acid, which they decompose, and give back the oxygen. Botany, by Prof. Henslow, Cab. Cyc. pp. 92, 175, 186. Botany, in Lib. Useful Know. pp. 84 88. Hunt on Light, pp. 200202. Meteorology, by Dr. Thompson, p. 15 (founded on numerous concurring evidences). 45. That two distinct hypotheses have been proposed respecting the nature of RADIANT HEAT. By one it is considered to be a material substance, sui generis, capable of combining with other bodies, and by such combination producing the various effects attributed to heat. By the other it is regarded, not as a material substance, but as a quality of matter ; bodies when heated being supposed to be in a certain state in which their constituent molecules, or the' molecules of some subtile fluid which pervades them, are put into a state of vibration; and this vibration is considered the cause of heat. Heat, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 26, 379, 392403. Chemistry, by Donovan, Cab. Cyc. pp. 40 42, 375 378. Daniel's Philoe. of Chem. pp. 164, 208, 228, 685. Connection of the Sciences, p. 411. Disc, on Natural Philosophy, by Herschel, pp. 195, 310323. Pollock's Attempt to Ex- plain the Nature of Heat. 46. That the results of careful and repeated experiments prove, " that light and heat either do not possess the property of gravitation, or possess it in so small a degree as to be wholly inappreciable by any known means of measuring it." Heat, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 394396. Connection of the Sciences, pp. 239, 240. Chemistry, by at, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 394396. Connection of the Sciences, pp. 239, 240. Chemistry, by Hugo Reid, p. 102. Chemistry, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 373375. Electricity, in idem, pp. 1, 227. Daniel's Philos. of Chem. p. 102. Nat. Philos. by Sir John Herschel, p. 300. Hydrostatics, in Cab. Cyc. p. 142. 47. That a comparison of the natural phenomena, in which the APPENDIX A. 595 effects of LIGHT and HEAT are manifested, affords reason to infer the existence of a connection so intimate between them as to warrant the belief of their identity. Nevertheless, although the instances are rare in which light does not emanate from incandescent bodies ; yet, on the other hand, intense heat may be excited and communicated without being accompanied by visible light. Heat, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 2225, 294, 339353, 379381, 398. A Paper read before the Royal Society, by Herschel, May 15, 1800, p. 295. Dr. Faraday's Exper. Researches, vol. ii. System of Astronomy, by Margaret Bryan, 1797, pp. 5 15. Connec. of the Sciences, pre- face, also pp. 226 233, 237 249, 251, 355. Disc, on Nat. Philos. by Herschel, Cab. Cyc. p. 314. Prof. WhewelPs Bridg. Treat, p. 136. Lectures at the Lond. Instit. by Prof. Grove, 1843 and 1844. Chemistry, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 4042, 91. Hydrostatics, in idem. Electr. in idem, pp. 162, 163. Daniel's Philos. of Chem. pp. 164166, 208, 217. De Luc's Letters, pp. 76-80. 48. That by a concurring chain of deductive reasoning, drawn from the effects of the different heating powers of the component colours of the solar spectrum, when applied to substances reflecting various colours and degrees of heat, together with the corroborating testimony of the augmented heat of concentrated light, it is considered to be established, beyond the possibility of doubt, that, in these cases, sunlight is the direct cause of heat. Heat, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 345350, 382. Connect, of the Sciences, p. 229. Optics, by Sir D. Brewster, Cab. Cyc. pp. 89, 317, 321. Chemistry, in Cab. Cyc. p. 91. Daniel's Philosophy of Chemistry, pp. 99, 209. 49. That the attraction of affinity distinct from that of cohesion, and the highest degree of heterogeneous attraction, its ratios being determinate quantities is supposed to be co-existent with matter. That it is one of the few forces known to act by election, and is productive of the most important results in nature. And that, during chemical action, heat is either developed or absorbed ; whilst caloric and water are the agents most usually employed to facilitate and conduct chemical operations. Heat, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 3, 21, 25, 191193, 294296, 310, 354, 387. Disc, on Nat. Philos. in Cab. Cyc. pp. 310-;-313. Caloric and Combustion, Ure's Chem. Diet. pp. 353, 368. Chemistry, by Hugo Eeid, p. 22 et seq. Connect, of the Sciences, p. 225. Chemistry, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 2327, 384386, et seq. Electricity, in idem, p. 162. Daniel's Philos. of Chemistry, pp. 101, 219, 306, 325, 338, 397, 444, 523, 685. Physiology and Anatomy of Man, by Todd and Bowman, London, 1845, vol. i. pp. 2, 3, et seq. Dr. Faraday's Chem. Manipula- tions. 60. That the first and most usual effect of heat is to increase the size of the bodies to which it is imparted, by causing them to dilate or expand. That, although these effects are produced in different degrees and by different methods, according as the body to which heat is applied be solid, liquid, or aeriform, yet it may be considered as a physical law to which there is no real exception, that an increase in the tem- perature will be accompanied by an increase of volume, and a dimi- nution of temperature by a diminution of volume. And that the force with which solids and liquids expand or contract by heat or cold is prodigious. Heat, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 810, 2883, 162, 173175, 187189,393. Connection of the Sciences, pp. 117120, 243. Chemistry, by Hugo Reid, pp. 22, 23. Mechanics, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 19, 20. Heat, in Chem. Diet. pp. 263255, 278. Disc, on Nat. Philoa. in Cab. Cyc. pp. Q Q 2 596 APPENDIX A. 319322, 343. Chemistry, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 10, 42 18, 6458. Daniel's Chem. Philos. pp. 685687. Meteorology, by Dr. Thomson, 1849, p. 98 et seq. 61. That the phenomena arising from attraction and those from repulsion indicate the presence of two antagonistic forces acting at the same time on the particles of all bodies, and maintaining them in a state of equilibrium ; which becomes more or less disturbed according as either of these forces preponderates. Heat, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 2, 8, 11, 17, 185199, 343. Chemistry, by Hugo Reid, pp. 20, 23. Disc, on Nat. Philos. by Sir J. Herschel, Cab. Cyc. pp. 89, 321. Connect, of the Sciences, pp. 117, 241243. Chemistry, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 3744, 49, 58. Hydrostatics, in idem, p. 2. Electricity, in idem, pp. 225, 226. Daniel's Philos. of Chemistry, pp. 13, 17, 99, 450. Mechanics, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 8, G7. Meteorology, by Dr. Thompson, 1849, p. 370. 52. That an irresistible body of analogies leads to the conviction, that the same physical properties, which observation and experience disclose in the smaller masses immediately surrounding us, are pos- sessed by the infinite systems of bodies which fill the immensity of space. That the distribution of heat is regulated by the same laws amongst the bodies of the universe as among those which exist on our globe. That the earth absorbs and radiates heat in the same manner as every body on its surface, and, therefore, if there were no external source of heat, the earth would be gradually cooled down and the temperature of all bodies would fall indefinitely. Heat, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 186, 379382. Prof. Whewell's Bridg. Treat, p. 76. Dr. Faraday's Researches, vol. ii. pp. 284 293. Daniel's Philos. of Chem. p. 215. Constitut. Sidereal System, Lond. Edin. and Dub. Mag. Feb. 1843. Connection of the Sciences, pp. 29, 363, 381389, 401 411. Mechanics, in Cab. Cyc. p. 80. Architecture of the Heavens, Nichol. 1837. Phen. and Order of the Solar System, pp. 218-234. 53. That when a liquid passes into a solid state a sudden and considerable change of dimension is frequently observed ; and that it may be considered as a general truth, to which, however, there are exceptions, that bodies which crystallize when they freeze expand in doing so ; while bodies which do not crystallize in solidifying, for the most part sutler contraction. Heat, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 128 131. Chemistry, in idem, pp. 5258. 64. That water in vacuo boils at 88 of Fahrenheit ; but under the usual pressure of the atmosphere it requires 212. While, in order to maintain water in a state of vapour, the sum of its latent and sensible heats cannot be less than from 1,130 to 1,212. That different bodies undergo the process of liquefaction at different temperatures, called their point of fusion. In like manner, different liquids undergo the process of ebullition, under equal pressure, at different temperatures. And, lastly, that the states of solidity, liquidity, or of vapour, are not essentially connected with the nature of bodies, but are wholly incidental on their temperature. Heat, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 15, 118, 127, 143, 151, 166, 183, 194. Dr. lire's Chem. Diet. p. 283. Chemistry, by H. Eeid, pp. 36, 37, 101. Connection of the Sciences, pp. 243 250. Chem. in Cab. Cyc. pp. 5267, 7375. Daniel's Philos. of Chem. p. 191. Espy on the Philos. of Storms, 1841. Meteorology, by Dr. Thompson, 1849, pp. 1719. 65. TLat oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen gases have been severally submitted, by the first chemists of the age, to the enormous pressure APPENDIX A. 597 of eight hundred atmospheres, without their having succeeded in reducing either of them to the liquid state ; although many other gases have been liquidized by their vigorous and well-directed exertions ; and that hitherto no satisfactory explanation has been given of the condition in which the atmospheric elements exist in union. Heat, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 16T, 177179, 192, 344. Connection of the Sciences, p. 119. Phillips's Geol. p. 26. Chemistry, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 52, 97, 133, 138, et seq. Daniel's Philos. of Chemistry, pp. 57, 100, 310, 322. Meteorology, by Dr. Thompson, 1849, p. 7 et seq. 56. That the atomic theory is understood, by some, to imply that all substances are composed of atoms, on whose magnitude, density, and form their nature and qualities depend. Others, however, assume these atoms to be not particles of matter, but centres of force, highly elastic, varying in the disposition and relative intensity of the forces around their respective centres ; and to be in contact with each other. But all alike concur in the belief, that as these atoms are unchangeable, they must be incapable of wear, remaining the same now as when created. Dr. Dalton's Chemical Philos. vol. i. Nat. Philos. in Cab. Cyc. by Herschel, pp. 3742, 323. Heat, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 185, 291293. Connection of the Sciences, pp. 117 128. Dr. Faraday's Experimental Researches, vol. ii. pp. 284 293. Chemistry, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 13 iO, 361, 384391. Daniel's Philos. of Chemistry, pp. 7, 313, 325, 678695. Mechanics, in Cab. Cye. pp. 616, 67. Phillips's Geology, p. 257. Physiol. and Anatomy of Man, by Todd and Bowman, London, 1845, vol. i. pp. 2, 3, et seq. 57. That when any physical effect is transmitted in straight lines, especially if these lines proceed in various directions round the point whence the effect originates, the phenomena is called radiation. The effect is said to be radiated, and the lines along which it is trans- mitted are called rays. That radiation, in this sense of the term, is a property of heat, and is independent of any power of transmission which may reside in the air ; while it is proved, that the particles forming the surface of a body are not the only ones which radiate, but that this effect also proceeds from particles at a certain small depth within the surface. Connection of the Sciences, p. 226. Heat, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 21, 294, 314. Chemistry, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 8486. Daniel's Philosophy of Chemistry, pp. 209, 214, et seq. 58. That if heat be applied to a solution of salt and water, the repulsive force will cause the atoms of water to separate from the atoms of salt, and carry the former away in pure vapour, while the salt will remain in the form of crystals ; the same degree of repulsive force not being capable of overcoming the natural cohesion between its particles. That precisely similar results will ensue if a solution of the same material be exposed to vaporization ; which, if continued for a suf- ficient length of time, will cause the water to disappear altogether, and leave a crystalline mass of salt behind. Heat, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 192, 207, 244. Dr. Ure's Chem. Diet. Chemistry, by Hugo Eeid, pp. 115, 116. Chemistry, in Cab. Cyc. p. 19. Electricity, in idem, vol. ii. p. 81. Daniel's Philos. of Chemistry, pp. 77, 222226. Mechanics, in Cab. Cyc. p. 14. S9 8 APPENDIX A. 59. That ELECTRICITY is a physical agent, possessing the properties of a self-expansive fluid. That all bodies, when in a state of solution, are conductors of elec- tricity. That the mutual attraction or repulsion of two electrified bodies is directly proportional .to the quantity of the fluid in the one multiplied by that which is on the other, and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the two. And that although several varieties of electricity are known to exist, dependent on the manner in which the electric force is excited, yet they are sufficiently related to one another to justify the conclusion that they all originate from a common principle, and are the effects of one individual power. Electricity, in Cab. Cyc. vol. ii. pp. 355, 479 182. Connection of the Sciences, pp. 121, 123, 288, 307, 335. Mechanics, in Cab. Cyc. p. 75. Discourse on Nat. Philos. by Sir John Herschel, pp. 327, 330333. Lectures in London Instit. by Prof. Grove, 1843, 1844. Harris on Thunder-storms, 1843. New Treat, on Mechanics, London, 1841, pp. 8 10. Meteorology, by Dr. Thompson, 1849, pp. 270281 et seq. 60. That ELECTRICITY is confined, almost exclusively, to the sur- face of bodies, penetrating only to a depth scarcely appreciable. That the quantity which bodies are capable of receiving is neither propor- tional to their mass, nor is it affected by their component materials, but depends chiefly on the extent of their surface and their form. That the electric fluid is most easily retained by a sphere ; next by a spheroid ; while it readily escapes from a point ; and a pointed object receives it with the greatest facility. Electricity, in Cab. Cyc. Nat. Philos. by Sir John Herschel, pp. 331, 332. Connection of the Sciences, pp. 289 294. Harris on Thunder-storms, 1843. Exper. Researches, by Dr. Faraday, vol. ii. 61. That Light, Heat, and Motion are intimately connected with electrical phenomena. That the most splendid artificial light known is produced by attaching pencils of charcoal, diamond, &c., to the extre- mities of the wires of a voltaic current, and bringing the points thus prepared into contact. That the most intense heat is generated by electrical action, especially by voltaic electricity. And that some eminent philosophers are inclined to attribute the light and heat of the sun to electrical agency. Electricity, in Cab. Cyc. Hams on Thunder-storms, 1843. Disc, on Nat. Philos. by Her- schel, p. 331. Connection of the Sciences, pp. 294313, 353355. Stait's Electrical Light, Alining Jour. Jan. 1849. Meteorology, by Thompson, 1849, pp. 271, 368, et seq. 62. That there is a strong analogy between MAGNETISM and ELEC- TRICITY. The agency of attraction and repulsion is common to both, and subject in them to the same laws ; their intensities varying inversely, as the square of the distance between the bodies affected by them. That a like analogy extends to magnetic and electrical induction. And that there is such a perfect correspondence between the theories of magnetic attraction and repulsion, and electro-dynamic forces in conducting bodies, that they not only are the same in principle, but are determined by the same formulae. While experi- ment concurs with theory in proving that, with the exception of APPENDIX A. 599 electrical transference, the identity of these two unseen influences ia complete. Electricity, in Cab. Cyc. Disc, on Nat. Philos. by Herschel, pp. 324, 339. Connection of the Sciences, pp. 324327, 331, 338, 341. Prof. Whewell's Bridg. Treat, pp. 110115. 63. That ELECTRO-MAGNETISM (electricity modified by the physical influences peculiar to certain substances), by overcoming retardation arising from friction, and the obstacle of a resisting medium, main- tains perpetual motion. That the force emanating thus mutually from the electric current and the magnetic needle acts at right angles to the electric current. " Such circumferential action, arising from the tangential direction of two opposite forces," being unlike any other power hitherto dis- covered ; for all other known forces emanating from a point and acting upon any other, act in the direction of a line joining these two points ; and that in all experiments, undertaken with the design of eliciting the phenomena of electro-magnetism and of magneto-electri- city (the converse of each other), rotation round an axis is generally found to accompany them. Electricity, in Cab. Cyc. Disc, on Nat. Philos. by Herschel, pp. 93, 339. Connection of the Sciences, pp. 305309, 328, 338, 456. Edin. Philos. Jour. No. XI. p. 179. No. XV. p. 282. No. XVI. pp. 368372. 64. That the magnetic action has a circular motion round the con- necting wire of a voltaic current, whose course, always constant with respect to each of the poles of a magnet, is similar to the direction of the earth and other planets around the SUN, and about their respective axes ; that currents of electricity, analogous to these, are constantly flowing round the earth, at right angles to the magnetic meridian. And by some it is considered, that the arrangement of the mate- rials composing the outer crust of the globe may be such as to con- stitute a voltaic girdle, sufficient, though of feeble electric powers, to produce terrestrial magnetism. Daniel's Philos. of Chemistry, p. 573. Electricity, in Cab. Cyc. Disc, on Nat. Philos. by Herschel, p. 328. Electro-Magnetism, by Dr. Roget, in Lib. Useful Know. Magnetism, in Popular Encyclopaedia, pp. 833837. Connection of the Sciences, pp. 305, 324, 328, 348. Prof. Whewell's Bridg. Treat, p. 114. Electricity, in Cab. Cyc. p. 208. Edin. Philos. Jour. No. VII. p. 174. 65. That ELECTRICAL INDUCTION is that remarkable influence which is exerted by electrified bodies on other bodies at such distances as to prevent the transfer of any part of the charge, but by which a polar state is communicated to the body under induction, so as to confer upon it equal but opposite powers by a common condition. That the magnetic force of a conducting wire is capable of acting by induction on soft iron, and of communicating permanent polarity to steel ; this latter induction taking place indifferently through all kinds of matter. And that the laws of TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM, although inconsistent with those which belong to a permanent magnet, are perfectly accor- dant with the conditions peculiar to a body in a state of transient magnetic induction. Electricity, in Cab. Cyc. Connection of the Sciences, pp. 291, 347353. 6oo APPENDIX A. 66. That in light, heat, electricity, and magnetism, principles are exhibited, which, although they do not occasion any appreciable change in the weight of bodies, manifest their presence by the most remark- able mechanical and chemical effects. And that these agencies are so connected as to afford every reason to believe they will ultimately be referred to some one power of higher order, in conformity with the general economy of the system of the world ; in which the most varied and complicated effects are produced by a small number of comprehensive laws. Experimental Researches in Electricity, by Dr. Faraday, vol. ii. p. 15. Connection of the Sciences, pp. 309, 352355, 412, 413. Prof. Whewell's Bridg. Treat, p. 138. Harris on Thunder-storms, 1843. Meteorology, by Dr. Thompson, 1849, pp. 271, 278, et seq. 67. That one of the most important qualities of matter in mechanical investigation is INEBTIA, or that property which results from its inability to produce in itself spontaneous change or action, either from a state of rest to that of motion, or vice versa, to diminish any motion which it may have received from an external cause, or to change its direc- tion. That since, by this quality of inertia, a body can neither generate nor destroy motion, it follows that when two bodies act on each other, in any way whatever, the total quantity of motion in any given direction after the action takes place must be the same as before. And that any two bodies are considered to have equal quantities or masses of matter when they possess equal inertia. Mechanics, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 2733, 37, 38, 44, 6374. Chemistry, in idem, p. 2. Electricity, in idem, p. 225. Daniel's Philos. of Chem. pp. 9, 10. Disc, on Nat. Philos. by Sir John Herschel, pp. 222, 297. Mechanics, by Laplace, Toplis, 1814, pp. 2330. New Tre.iUse on Mechanics, London, 1841, pp. 2, 83. 68. That the molecules of bodies are not placed together merely in unrelated juxtaposition, but either cohere and resist separation, or mutually repel each other ; while the mutual approach, by attraction, of particles placed at a distance from each other, or their further separation by repulsion, are effects of the same class, both of which are termed FORCE. That, therefore, " whatever produces or opposes the production of motion or pressure in matter is force;' 1 in which sense it is the name or symbol for the unknown cause of a known effect. That FORCE, when manifested by the mutual approach or cohesion of bodies, is called ATTRACTION ; separable into as many branches as it has distinct modes of displaying itself. But when FORCE is indicated by the re-motion of bodies from each other, it is called repulsion or expansion. Mechanics, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 68, 49, 63. Discoveries by an Italian Philos., Lit. Gazette. Lectures by Prof. Grove, London Inst. 1843-4. Chemical Diet. Dr. Ure's, pp. 253, 278. Chemistry, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 2730. Daniel's Philos. of Chemistry, pp. 11, 1318. Disc, on Nat. Philos., Herschel, pp. 225228. Mechanics, by Laplace, Toplis, 1814, pp. 1, 30. New Treatise on Mechanics, London, 1841. 69. That the tendency to assume and maintain a state of equilibrium the effect of counteracting forces is a prevailing condition of the material universe ; that it is exemplified alike by the invariable plane passing through the centre of gravity of the solar system, around which, as a fixed centre, the great secular changes of the system APPENDIX A. 60 1 oscillate ; by the static forms assumed by fluid bodies, under rotation ; by the normal condition of the ocean and of the atmosphere ; and by the combinations produced by the satisfaction of chemical affinities ; that the stability of the equilibrium or difficulty of subverting it, is in proportion to the magnitude and importance of the constituted body ; and that it cannot be disturbed, in any of its states, without the operation of a sufficient and corresponding cause. Mechanics, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 65, 74, 116. Connection of the Sciences, pp. 306, 307. Disc, on Nat. Philos. by Sir John Herschel, Cab. Cyc. pp. 90, 222, 275, 281. Architecture of the Heavens, Nichol, pp. 185187. Phen. and Order of the Solar System, idem, pp. 231, 232. Harris on Thunder-storms, pp. 4, 10. Ancient World, by Ansted, 1841, p. 384 et seq. Meteorology, by Dr. Thompson, 1849, p. 370. Baron Humboldt's Cosmos. 70. That the law of GRAVITATION is, "That the mutual attraction of two bodies increases as their masses are increased, and as the square of the distance between them is diminished ; and it decreases in pro- portion as their masses are decreased, and as the square of their dis- tance is increased." That this law which is irrespective of the quality of matter extends not only over the planetary system, where its effects have been submitted to rigorous calculation, but is supposed to pervade the whole material universe ; and that, as the motions of celestial bodies are independent of their absolute magnitudes and distances, if all the bodies of the solar system, their mutual distances, and their velocities, were to diminish proportionally, they would describe curves in all respects similar to those in which they now move. Mechanics, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 7579, 81 102. Astronomy, by Sir John Herschel, ditto, pp. 237, 389394. System of Astron. by Margaret Bryan, pp. 22, 186205. Connection of the Sciences, pp. 17, 381, 407 409, 412. Whitehurst's Theory of the Earth, pp. 69. Treatise on Double Stars, by M. Arago, Edin. Jour. Science. Prof. Whewell's Bridg. Treat, pp. 214239. Dr. Faraday's Experimental Researches, vol. ii. pp. 284 293. Chemistry, in Cab. Cyo. pp. 3, 4, 27 29. Disc, on Nat. Philos. by Sir John Herschel, in Cab. Cyc." pp. 56, 72, 255, 280. Philos. of Chemistry, by Daniel, pp. 20, 21. Architecture of the Heavens, Nichol, 1837, pp. 152, 153, 211, et seq. Mechanics, by Laplace, Toplis, pp. 52, 285, 286. New Treatise on Mechanics, London, 1841, pp. 7, 31. Phen. and Order of the Solar System, Nichol, pp. 208281. 71. That as results of the principles mentioned in the preceding Theorems, there have been adduced by Sir Isaac Newton the follow- ing three comprehensive rules, called the laics of motion, namely: 1st. Every body must persevere in its state of rest, or of uniform motion in a straight line, unless it be compelled to change that state by forces impressed upon it. 2nd. Every change of motion must be proportional to the impressed force, and must be in the direction of that straight line in which the force is impressed. 3rd. Action must always be equal and contrary to reaction ; or the action of two bodies upon each other must be equal and directed towards contrary sides. Mechanics, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 30, 38 46. Prof. Whewell's Bridg. Treat, p. 232. Mechanics, by Laplace, Toplis, 1814, p. 2. New Treat, on Mechanics, London, 1841, p. 1. 72. That when a body has a motion of rotation, the line round which it revolves is called an axis ; in which case every point in the body must move in a circle whose centre lies in the axis, and whose radius is the distance of the point from it. That, sometimes, when 6oi APPENDIX A. the body revolves, the axis itself is movable, and, not unfreqnently, in a state of actual motion ; the motions of the earth and planets being examples of this kind. Mechanics, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 128, 129. New Treat, on Mechanics, London, 1841. 73. That the same causes which produce pressure on a body when restrained, will produce motion if the body be free. Accordingly, if a body be moved by any efficient cause, it will, by reason of the CENTRIFUGAL FORCE, FLY OFF ; and the moving force with which it will thus retreat from the centre round which it revolves will be the measure of the centrifugal force. The following are the expressions of its laws : 1. Equal weights revolving with the same velocity at equal distances from the centre will have the same centrifugal force. 2. Equal weights with equal angular velocities, at distances from the centre in the proportion of one to two, have their centrifugal forces in the same proportion. 3. Equal weights at equal distances, with velocities as one to two, have their centrifugal forces as the square of their angular velocities. 4. Equal weights at distances as two is to three, and with velocities as one to two, have their centrifugal forces in the propor- tion of their respective distances multiplied by the square of their velocities. And 5. Weights which are as one to two at equal distances, with the same velocity, will have their centrifugal force increasing as the mass of the moving body increases. Mechanics, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 98 101, 105. Mechanics, by Laplace, Toplis, pp. 49 52. New Treat, on Mechanics, pp. 7384. Whitehurst's Theory of the Earth, pp. 911. 74. That to the centrifugal force, arising from the rotation of the earth around its axis, and to its greater opposition to gravity in the equatorial regions, is attributed the protuberance of its form in those regions : or the excess of the equatorial beyond the polar diameter. And that this opinion is corroborated by the excessive oblate form and corresponding rotatory velocity of Jupiter ; the axis of the planets in general being less than the diameters perpendicular to the axis. Mechanics, in Cab. Cyc. p. ife et seq. System of Astronomy, by Margaret Bryan, 1797, p. 27 et seq. Connection of the Sciences, pp. 8, 3436, 76. Whitehurst's Theory of the Earth, 1786, pp. 914. Astron. by Sir John Herschel, pp. 108123. PhiUips's Geology, p. 7. Phen. and Order of the Solar System, p. 224. 75. That forces, in general, are classed according to the duration of their action into instantaneous and continued; the effect of the former being produced in an infinitely short time. If the body which sus- tains it be previously quiescent and free, it will move with a, uniform velocity in the direction of the impressed force ; but if the body be so restrained that the impulse cannot put it into motion, then the fixed points or lines which resist the motion will receive a corresponding shock, called percussion, at the moment of the impulse ; and which, like the force that caused it, is instantaneous. APPENDIX A. 603 A continued force will produce a continued effect, with correspond- ing results. Mechanics, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 129 131. Daniel's Philos. of Chemistry, p. 15. 76. That if a point on which a force be applied is free to move in a certain direction not coinciding with the applied force, it will be resolved into two elements, one of which will be in the direction in which the point is free to move, and the other at right angles to that direction. The point will move in obedience to the former element, and the latter will produce percussion or pressure on the point or line which restrains the body. And, that should the forces impressed on the body, whether con- tinued or instantaneous, be such as, were it free, would communicate to it a motion, which the restraining circumstances do not forbid it to receive, then the fixed points or lines which restrain the body sustain no force ; the phenomena will be the same, in all respects, as if those points or lines were not fixed. Mechanics, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 130, 131. 77. That if a solid body, movable on a fixed axis and susceptible of no motion, except one of rotation on that axis, be submitted to the action of instantaneous force, one or other of the following effects must ensue : 1st. The axis may resist the force and prevent any motion. 2nd. The axis may modify the effect of the force, sustaining itself a corresponding percussion ; and the body will receive a motion of rota- tion ; or, 3rd. The force applied may be such as would cause the body to revolve round the axis, even were it not fixed ; in which case the body will receive a motion of rotation, but the axis will suffer no per- cussion. That the same results proceed from the application of continued forces : 1st. The axis may entirely resist the effects of continued forces ; and suffer a percussion which can be estimated by the rules for the composition of forces. 2nd. It may modify the effect of the applied forces, and sustain a pressure ; the body receiving a motion of rotation, subject to constant variation, owing to the incessant action of the forces ; or 3rd. The forces may be such as would communicate to the body the same rotatory motion if the axis were not fixed ; in which case the forces will produce no pressure on the axis. Mechanics, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 129132. 78. That when a solid body revolves on its axis, all its parts are whirled round together, and each performing a complete revolution in the same time ; consequently, the angular velocity is the same for all. The tendency of each particle to fly from the axis, arising from the centrifugal force, is resisted by the cohesion of the parts of the mass, and, in general, the tendency is expended in exciting a pressure 604 APPENDIX A. or strain upon the axis, whose amount depends upon the figure and density of the body and the velocity of its motion. That the following forms of solid bodies are exempted from any strain upon the axis during rotation, namely, a globe revolving on any of its diameters, the densities being the same at equal distances from the centre ; a spheroid, or a cylinder revolving on its axis, the densi- ties being equal at equal distances from the axis, and That since no pressure is exerted on the axis, the state of the body will not be changed if, during the rotation, the axis ceases to be fixed. The body will continue, nothwithstanding, to revolve round the axis, and the axis will retain its position. Mechanics, Cab. Cyc. pp. 129131, 140142. 79. That the power of a force to produce rotation is accurately estimated, not by the force alone, but by multiplying the distance of the direction of the force from the axis (called the leverage) by the force itself, the product of which is an important datum in mechanics, and is called the moment of the force around the axis. And, that if the moment, or sum of the moments of the forces which tend to turn a body in one direction be equal to the moment or sum of the moments of forces which tend to turn it in the opposite direction, they will mutually neutralise each other, and produce equilibrium. Mechanics, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 133 136. Connection of the Sciences, p. 82. Mechanics, by La- place, Toplis, pp. 69, 70. New Treat, on Mechanics, London, 1841. 80. That if the force applied to a body be directed upon the axis, and at right angles to it, no rotatory motion will be produced. If a sphere, at rest in space, receive an impulse passing through its centre of gravity, all its parts will move with an equal velocity in a straight line ; and that if the impulse does not pass through the centre of gravity, its particles having unequal velocities will have a rotatory or revolving motion at the same time that it is translated in space. Mechanics, in Cab. Cyc. p. 133. Connection of the Sciences, p. 9. 81. That there is a certain point called the centre of gyration, at which, if the whole mass were concentrated, it would receive from an impulse the same velocity round the axis ; and that the perpen- dicular distance from the centre of gyration to the axis is termed the radius of gyration. That of all axes, taken in the same body parallel to each other, that which passes through the centre of gravity has the least radius of gyration. That the product of the numerical expression for the mass of the body and the square of the radius of gyration is called the moment of inertia. That the velocity of rotation which a body receives from any given impulse is great in exactly the same proportion as the moment of inertia is small. And that from all these principles it follows, that a given impulse at a given distance from the axis will communicate the greatest angular velo- city when the axis passes through the centre of gravity . Mechanics, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 136138. Mechanics, by Laplace, Toplis, 1814, pp. 208, 209. APPENDIX A. 605 82. That the point of a plane where the direction of an impressed force meets it when no percussion on the axis is produced is called the centre of percussion. That there are many positions of an axis which may have no centre of percussion that is, there will be no direction in which an impulse could be applied without producing a shock upon the axis. That one of these positions is when it is a principal axis passing through the centre of gravity ; and as this is the only case of rotation round an axis in which the latter will sustain no pressure from the centrifugal force of the revolving mass, it follows, that the only case in which the axis sustains no effect from the action produced, is one in which it necessarily must suffer an effect from that which produces the motion. Mechanics, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 139 145. 83. That in FRICTION the amount of the resistance increases accord- ing to the roughness of the surfaces, and the force with which these, moving upon one another, are pressed together. Surfaces being equal, a double pressure will produce a double friction. That these results are but slightly affected by the velocity with which the surfaces move upon each other. And, therefore, any body moving under the effects of a given force will, in proportion to the increase of the asperity and pressure, be the more speedily deprived of its velocity, and reduced to a state of rest. That FRICTION is a great source of heat independently of fire or flame ; and that it also excites electrical influences. Mechanics, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 260 268. Playfair's Hutt. Theory, p. 186. Nat. Philos. by Sir John Herschel, pp. 313330. Prof. Whewell's Bridg. Treat, pp. 238250. Chemistry, in. Cab. Cyc. p. 42. Heat, in idem, pp. 27, 385 i03. Electricity, in idem, pp. 230232, 259 261 ; vol. ii. p. 283. Daniel's Philos. of Chemistry, pp. 47, 60, 99101. New Treat, on Mechanics, London, 1841, p. 2. 84. That the ATMOSPHERE is an aerial ocean surrounding the earth in all directions, and of which the surface of the land and sea forms the bed. That its density diminishes with extreme rapidity as it proceeds upwards ; and, eventually, at a height not exceeding fifty miles, reaches a real and definite boundary. That this upper surface is estimated to be precisely where the specific elasticity of the air is balanced by the power of gravitation. And that the mean tempera- ture of space is considered to be 58 below the zero point of Fahren- heit. Astronomy, by Sir John Herschel, Cab. Cyc. pp. 23, 26. System of Astronomy, byMargaret Bryan, 1797, p. 73 et seq. Art. by Dr. Woolaston in Edin. Phil. Jour. No. XTTT. Note, by Mr. Smith, in same periodical, No. XVI. p. 416. Connection of the Sciences, pp. 121, 133 136. Chemistry, by Hugo Eeid, p. 37. Dick's Christian Philos. p. 106. Phillips'a Geol. pp. 23, 24. Chemistry, in Cab. Cyc. p. 94. Heat, in idem, p. 234. Daniel's Philos. of Chemistry, pp. 33, 58, 174, 324. Nat. Philos. in Cab. Cyc. by Sir John Herschel, p. 231. Espy on Philosophy of Storms, 1841. Prin. of Meteorology, by G. Hutchinson, pp. 3, 4, et seq. Meteorology, by Dr. Thompson, 1849, pp. 227, 71, 96. Manual of Barometers, by J. H. Belville, Greenwich, 1849. 85. That the ATMOSPHERE is composed of aerial fluids, chiefly oxy- gen and nitrogen, in the ratio of one volume of the former to four of the latter ; or, more correctly, one hundred parts of atmospheric air contain 20 2-10ths of oxygen and 79 8-10ths of nitrogen. It also 606 APPENDIX A. contains variable quantities of carbonic acid gas and of aqueous vapour. That the two first of these have never either been liquidized or rendered incandescent ; while the amount of moisture varies according to the dew point and state of the barometer. That although in certain states it is 815 times lighter than water, it exerts a pressure on the surface of the earth equal to 15 Ibs. for every square inch : a pressure which prevents the sun's rays from converting water and all other fluids into vapour. That it is permanently elastic, its tension increasing in proportion to its density ; admits of considerable varia- tion in the quantity of its associated watery vapour ; and that a gas and a vapour, occupying the same space, have a tension equal to their combined tensions. Heat, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 220, 221. Connection of the Sciences, p. 133 et seq. Chemistry, by Hugo Reid, pp. 2883. Dick's Christian Philos. pp. 107, 108. Prof. Whewell's Bridg. Treat, pp. 96110. Chemistry, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 99, 103, 145151. Heat, in idem, pp. 167, 177, 179, 356. Daniel's Philos. of Chern. pp. 33, 42, 76, 308, 314316, 318, 319, 338, 349. Espy on the Philos. of Storms, 1841. Prin. of Meteorology, by G. Hutchinson, pp. 4, 5, et seq. Meteorology, by Dr. Thompson, 1849, pp. 2 18, 23, 24. Manual of Barometers, by John H. Belville, Greenwich, 1849. 86. That every gas has at least two ingredients in its composition, namely, some gravitating matter, which may be called its base or principal part, and the subtile fluid, caloric or heat, and perhaps light and electricity ; which, when present in sufficient quantity, cause the base or radicle to appear in a gaseous form. Chemistry, by Hugo Reid, pp. 101, 102. Brooke's Elements of Crystalography, p. xlix. Chemistry, in Cab. Cyc. p. 52. 87. That, with respect to the oxygen and nitrogen gases of the air, although the expansive principle acts powerfully in repelling from eaeh other the particles of the same gas, it does not act between those of different gases. That by the " diffusion principle of gases," when two are put together they will finally be arranged as if each occupied the whole space, and the other was not present ; the heavier being caused to ascend, and the lighter to descend. That this is the case with the gases of the atmosphere, and that there seems to exist a power acting upon permanent gases capable of counteracting, to a certain extent, the effects of the attraction of gra- vitation, and thereby forming an exception to what has hitherto been considered a universal law. Chemistry, by Hugo Reid, pp. 28-^83. Daniel's Philos. of Chem. pp. 7376. Chemistry, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 146 151. Heat, in idem, pp. 187, 188. Todd and Bowman, London, 1845, vol. i. p. 3 et seq. 88. That when a space is filled with a mixture of gas and vapour, these two bodies act, under changes of volume, in exactly the same manner as they would if each separately occupied the whole space ; the gas dilates and contracts, changing its pressure and temperature with its density. The vapour obeys the same law, so long as no part of it is con- densed into a liquid ; but as compression renders condensation more easy by the more rapid development of heat, when much compression is used, a portion of the caloric necessary to maintain the vapour in APPENDIX A. 607 aeriform state will escape. A corresponding quantity of the vapour will become liquid ; and the remainder will be mingled with the gas, having the same tension which it would have if the gas were not present. Heat, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 221, 225, 226. Prof. Whewell's Bridg. Treat, pp. 8688, 96110. Daniel's Philos. of Chem. pp. 7375. Meteorology, by Dr. Thompson, 1849, pp. 7, 97, et seq. 89. That a LIQUID is a body, in which the attraction of cohesion, is so far overcome as to admit of its yielding to the slightest pressure ; and of the particles easily changing their relative position with respect to one another without separating the mass, or repelling each other as those of aeriform substances do. That fluids have a direct ten- dency to find and maintain their level, owing to the combined results of gravitation (whereby each particle is attracted to the centre of the earth), and the perfect mobility of the particles among themselves. And that liquids possess the property of transmitting pressure on every direction, each pressing equally on all the particles that surround it, and being equally pressed upon by them. Disc, on Nat. Philos. by Sir John Herschel, pp. 231 234. Hydrostatics, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 412, 26 30, 52. Connection of the Sciences, pp. 118, 119. Chemistry, by Hugo Beid. Me- chanics, by Laplace, Toplis, 1814, p. 125 et seq. 90. That in every fluid the particles which are beneath sustain the pressure of those above them in proportion to their perpendicular depth, uninfluenced by the size or shape of that which contains the fluid. That the pressure exercised by water is estimated at nearly one pound on each square inch for every two feet of depth; and that of all the various states of liquidity, WATER is that which has become the general type, and to which all others are referred. Hydrostatics, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 2329. 91. That the great Reservoir of WATER, from which all other kinds are, in the first instance, derived, is the ocean, which, extending over three-fourths of the surface of the globe, affords an inexhaustible supply. That by repeated analyses, sea- water has been found to consist of the following ingredients in every 500 grains, namely 478-420 of pure water 13' 300 muriate of soda, or culinary salt 2- 333 sulphate of soda 0*995 muriate of lime 4-955 muriate of magnesia. Wherefore, the ocean, besides the elements of pure water,* con- tains muriatic and sulphuric acids, soda, magnesia, and lime, together with traces of iodine, bromine, and, occasionally, potash. That its specific gravity is to that of pure water as 1-0277 is to one. And that the solution of salts or of acids in water increases the power of that liquid for the transmission respectively of heat, or of the electric fluid. * One part hydrogen, 8 parts oxygen. 6o8 APPENDIX A. Chemistry, by Hugo Reid, pp. 115120. Connection of the Sciences, pp. 227, 228, 230, 231. Geol. by be la Beche, p. 3. Prof. Buckland's Bridg. Treat, vol. i. p. 557. Prof. Whewell'a Bridg. Treat, p. 63. Chemistry, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 122125. Heat, in idem, pp. 200, 251. Daniel's Pliilos. of Chem. pp. 319, 372, et seq. Principles of Meteorology, by Hutchiiisou, p. 17 et seq. Meteorology, by Dr. Thompson, 1849, Introduction. 92. That the water of the Lakes of America, and that of most other natural inland reservoirs of the world, are fresh ; and not saline like that of the ocean. Any geographical work. 93. That the watery vapour of the atmosphere is due to the influence of HEAT ; which, infusing the repulsive principle into the waters of the seas, rivers, and lakes, causes them to ascend in an aeriform state. That the ocean undergoes a continual process of evaporation, and dismisses into the atmosphere a quantity of pure water, proportionate to its extent of surface, to the temperature of the air, and to its state of saturation. That whenever the temperature of the air is reduced below the limit at which the suspended vapour is maintained in a state of satu- ration, condensation takes place, and rain or aqueous clouds are pro- duced. And that by these alternate processes the terrene surface of our globe is supplied with fresh moisture, and with water necessary to sustain the organization, and to maintain the functions of the animal and vegetable kingdoms. Chemistry, by Hugo Eeid, pp. 53, 115117. Lyell's Prin. of Geol. vol. i. p. 269. Prof. Whe- well's Bridg. Treat, pp. 53, 87, 96110, 211214, 228235. Heat, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 211 214, 228235, 249, 250. Prof. Buckland's Bridg. Treat, vol. i. p. 557. Espy on the Philos. of Storms, 1841. Vindicise Geol. p. 13. Phillips's Geol. p. 13. Chem. in Cab. Cyc. p. 150. Daniel's Philos. of Chem. pp. 149, 156, 160. Prin. of Meteorology, by G. Hutchinson, pp. 918 et seq. Manual of Barometers, by Belville, Greenwich, 1849. Meteorology, by Dr. Thompson, 1849, p. 97 et seq. 94. That the following seem to be the most obvious principles whose combinations and mutual action on each other govern and modify the meteorological state of the atmosphere, namely : The existence of a constituent temperature for the maintenance of water in a state of vapour. The opposite tendencies of air from the colder to the warmer parts ; and of vapour from the warmer to the colder parts of the atmosphere and terraqueous surface. The dif- ferent rates at which the temperature and tension of air and of vapour decrease as they ascend from the surface of the earth or sea. The different capacities for heat of those two component parts of the earth's surface. And, lastly, the unequal distribution of the electric fluid in the nephalic masses of the atmosphere, and its tendency to a state of equilibrium. Prof. Whewell's Bridg. Treat, pp. 86112. Whitehurst's Theory of the Earth, 1786, p. 148 et. Greenwich, 1849. Meteorology, by Dr. Thompson, Glasgow, 1849. 95. That the VAPORIZATION of a Fluid is accelerated by the increase of its temperature, and more so when heat is applied to a surface free APPENDIX A. 609 from external pressure ; in a vacuum, vaporization is almost instan- taneous. The agitation of the surface likewise increases the effect. That, in general, the rate of evaporation from the surface of the water, in all states of the atmosphere, will be proportioned to the tension of vapour which would saturate the atmosphere, diminished by the tension of the vapour actually in the atmosphere. And that, as different substances are subject to vaporization at different temperatures, this peculiarity is frequently employed in chemistry and the arts as an efficacious method of precipitating solu- tions by separating them from the water with which they are com- bined. Chemistry, by Hugo Reid, p. 53. Connection of the Sciences, pp. 241, 242, 248, 250. Heat, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 18, 146149, 154175, 200223, 227232, 238244, 263. Prof. Whewell's Bridg. Treat, pp. 86 88. Prin. of Meteorology, by Hutchinson, pp. 26, 89, et seq. Chem- istry, Cab. Cyc. p. 150. Daniel's Philos. of Chemistry, pp. 139141, 149151, 154, 318, 319. Espy, on the Philos. of Storms, 1841. Meteorology, by Dr. Thomson, 1849, p. 97, et seq. 96. That the comparatively feeble affinity of WATER for bodies which is sufficient merely to dissolve them without materially altering their properties, or retaining them in too firm chemical union con- stitutes one of its chief advantages : various solid bodies, when dis- solved, manifesting properties which would not otherwise have been discovered ; but, by its means, the cohesion of their particles being overcome, and being, by this simple carrier (water), brought into close and universal contact with their particles, they are rendered more capable of chemical combination. That Water, by its dissolving power, enables one substance to be separated from another, or from a number of other bodies with which it may be associated. And that the properties of water, with relation to light, heat, and electricity, render it the fittest agent which can be employed in conducting chemical operations. Chemistry, by Hugo Eeid, pp. 109 111, 139. Phillips's Geology, p. 202. Chemistry, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 7, 364, 389391. Heat* in Cab. Cyc. pp. 348, 387. Hydrost. in Cab. Cyc. p. 3. Daniel's Philos. of Chem. pp. 6971, 129, 319, 441, 450, 525532. Electricity, in Cab. Cyc. vol. ii. p. 392. Prin. of Meteorology, by Hutchinson, p. 160 et seq. Connection of the Sciences, pp. 227, 231. De Luc's 2nd and 3rd Letters. Pop. Hist, of Brit. Algae, pp. 6062. 97. That geologists generally concur in the opinion that the sea is the residuum of a primitive ocean, which, at onetime or other, seems to have covered the dry land which now constitutes the habitable surface of the globe. That from it were deposited the mineral ingre- dients which compose the inorganic portion of the stratiform masses of the earth. That this separation simultaneously prepared the pri- mitive ocean for becoming the present sea. And, lastly, it has been maintained, especially by some of the earlier geologists, " That there are no operations now taking place in the sea, which bear the slightest analogy to those productions of mineral substances in strata which took place formerly on our globe." Phillips's Geology, pp. 54, 95, 207. Whitehnrst's Theory of the Earth, 1786, pp. 1527, 86. Chemistry, by Hugo Eeid, p. 120. Letter by Dr. Fleming, in Edin. Phil. Jour. No. XV. p. 121. Geol. by Dr. M'CuHock, vol. i. p. 497. Vestiges of Creation, p. 73. Fowne'g Actonian Prize Essay. Daniel's Philos. of Chem. pp. 446, 446. De Luc's Letters. Ancient World, by Ansted, 1847, p. 108 et seq. R R 610 APPENDIX A. 98. That EARTHY MATTER consists generally of some metallic substance in chemical combination with oxygen, forming an oxide. That the combination of earthy metals with oxygen usually takes place when favoured by a sufficient elevation of temperature. That this constitutes the important change which many metals undergo when heated under exposure to the air. And that, to facilitate this combination, it is necessary to raise their temperature considerably, to some metals it being even requisite to apply very intense heats. Chemistry, by Hugo Reid, p. 144. Brooke on Crystalography, pp. xlviii. liv. Chemistry, by Dr. J. Murray, vol. ii. pp. 123, 124. Chem. in Cab. Cyc. pp. 115120. Electricity, in Cab. Cyc. p. 170. Daniel's Philos. of Chemistry, p. 420 et seq. 99. That the great mass of mineral matter which constitutes the crust of the globe is composed of the following substances, namely: 1. Silex, or flinty earth ; 2. Alumina, or earth of clays ; 3. Lime ; 4. Magnesia ; 5. Soda ; 6. Potash ; 7. Iron, chiefly as an oxide ; 8. Baryta ; 9. Strontia ; 10. Glucina ; 11. Yttria ; 12. Thorina ; and 13. Zirconia. Chemistry, by Hugo Reid, pp. 147167. Dr. TJre's Chem. Diet. pp. 408, 409. Elements of Chem. by Dr. Murray, vol. ii. pp. 6468, 123125. Geol. by Dr. M'Culloch, vol. i. p. 194. Prof. Buokland's Bridg. Treat, vol. i. p. 69. Prof. Phillips's Geol. pp. 2729, 45, 46. Lyell's Elem. of Geol. vol. i. p. 22 ; vol. ii. pp. 196211, 226333. Heat, in Cab. Cyc. p. 126. Chemistry, in idem, pp. 115120. Electricity, in idem, pp. 172 179. 100. That LIME is never found pure in nature ; but exists only in chemical combination with other substances, chiefly carbonic acid, in which state it is so abundant as to compose about l-8th of the entire crust of the globe. It is also very abundant as a sulphate.; as a phosphate it constitutes 86 per cent, of the bones of animals and of men. And in various saline combinations, especially as a muriate, it exists in the waters of the ocean, in that of springs, and in vege- table and animal matter. It is considered by many to be the product of animal secretion. And possesses the singular quality of being much more soluble in cold than in hot water. Murray's Elements of Chem. vol. ii. pp. 81 89. Chemistry, by Hugo Reid, pp. 105, 150, 155 157. Dr. TJre's Chem. Diet. pp. 246, 247. Brooke's Crystal, pp. xlix. Ivii. Geol. by Dr. M'Culloch, vol. i. pp. 202, 216, 221, 237 ; vol. ii. pp. 256, 257, 262, 413. Prof. Buckland's Bridg. Treat, vol. i. p. 577. Lyell's Elem. of Chem. vol. i. p. 23. Chem. in Cab. Cyc. pp. 32, 118, 119. 101. That by experiment it has been proved, that if carbonate of lime be heated under a pressure equal to 1,700 feet of sea water; or to a column of liquid lava 600 feet high, so as to prevent the escape of its carbonic acid, it may be melted at a temperature even not higher than 22 of Wedgewood's scale. That by this process it acquires considerable hardness and closeness of texture, approaching, in these qualities, as well as in fracture and specific gravity, to the finer kind of limestone or marble. And latterly it has been discovered, that even without compression carbonate of lime may be fused by the sudden application of violent heat, or by submitting it to heat in a large mass. LyeU's Prin. of Geol. vol. iii. p. 370. Elem. of Chem. bv Dr. Murray, vol. ii. p. 85. Dr. Buck- land's Brid. Treat, vol. i. p. 41. LyeU's Elem. of Geol. vol. i. p. 106 ; vol. ii. pp. 258260, 406. Phillips's Geol. pp. 76, 259. Disc, on Nat. Philos. by Sir John Herschel, pp. 269, 270. APPENDIX A. 6n 102. That CAEBONIC ACID abounds in nature, and appears to be produced under a variety of circumstances. It composes 44-100ths of the weight of limestone, marble, calcareous spar, and other natural varieties of calcareous earth. That on the application of a pretty strong heat to the various kinds of limestone (carbonate of lime), the carbonic acid is evaporated and the lime remains. And, that the basis of all effectual cements used in constructing works designed to be either occasionally or permanently under water, must be made from the hydrate of lime. Dr. Tire's Chem. Diet. pp. 2527, 585. Chemistry, by Hugo Reid, pp. 151157. Lyell's Elem. of Geol. vol. i. pp. 25, 26. Chem. in Cab. Cyc. pp. 33, 118, 119, 257. Optics, by Sir D. Brewster, Cab. Cyc. p. 144. Daniel's Philos. of Chem. pp. 326, 356. 103. That Quartz consists almost entirely of silica, with a little alumina and oxide of iron. That Felspar in 100 has 63 parts of silica, 17 alumina, 13 potash, 3 of lime, and 1 oxide of iron. That Mica is composed of 46 parts of silica, 31 of alumina, 8*50 potash, 8'50 oxide of iron, 1-50 oxide Of manganese, the remainder fluoric acid and water. That Hornblende has silica 42, alumina 12, oxide of iron 30, lime 11, magnesia 2'25, and the rest manganese. That Steatite consists of 64 parts silica, 22 of magnesia, 5 of water, and 3 of oxide of iron. That common Limestone is composed of 56 parts of lime and 44 of carbonic acid. That Earthy Chlorite has 43 per cent, oxide of iron, 26 of silica, 18 of alumina, 8 of magnesia, and muriate of soda 2 per cent. That Gypsum (selenite) consists of 33 parts lime, 46 sulphuric acid, and of water 21 parts ; and that Rock Salt contains, in 1,000 parts, 983 of muriate of soda, 6 parts sulphur of lime, the remainder being insoluble matter. From which analysis it is obvious that silica, alumina, lime, mag- nesia, potash, soda, and the oxides of iron and manganese are, by far, the most abundant ingredients in the rocky parts of the earth, appearing to compose about 99-100ths of the entire mass of the outer crust of our planet ; whilst baryta, strontia, glucina, yttria, zirconia, and thorina, though occasionally found, are thus shown to be of com- paratively rare occurrence. Chemistry, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 33, 115, 120, 232. Lyell's Elem. of Geol. vol. i. pp. 90, 381 ; vol. il. p. 205, and tables, pp. 210, 328, 381. Chemistry, by Hugo Reid, pp. 147157. PMUips's Geol. pp. 25 29. Brooke's Crystalography, pp. xlviii. Ixiv. 104. That in order to form a just idea of SOIL which consists of small stones and sand, impalpable earthy matter, decaying animal and vegetable substances, and small quantities of salts it is necessary to conceive different rocks to be decomposed and ground to fineness, some of their soluble parts dissolved in water, and that water adhering to the mass, and the whole mixed with the remains of vegetables and animals in different stages of decay, together with small portions of salts ; the earthy matter, however, constituting their chief proportion. And that, when the mineral ingredients of soils are traced to their ultimate elements, they are found to consist chiefly of silica, alumina, magnesia, and the oxides of iron and of manganese. R R 2 6iz APPENDIX A. Chem. by Hugo Reid, pp. 158167. Dr. Ure's Chem. Diet. pp. 156161, 736, 757759. White- hurst's Theory of the Earth, pp. 217219. Geology, by Dr. M'Culloch, vol. i. p. 11. Agricult. Chemistry, by Sir H. Davy. Prof. Buckland's Bridg. Treat, vol. ii. pp. 69, 70. Lyell's Elem. of Geol. vol. ii. p. IRS. Vindicioe Geol. p. 17. Chemistry, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 115120. Botany, in idem, pp. 176, 299. 105. That METALLIC ORES which are metals in combination either with sulphur, charcoal, oxygen, and even with other metals, or with silica, alumina, and lime are commonly found in narrow fissures, termed lodes or veins, predominating in the primitive and transition series, and which are usually filled up with some crystalline mineral different from the rock in which they occur. That they are supposed to have been produced by electrical agency developed by the violent contact and friction of rocks of various kinds containing, previously, metalliferous elements. And that the same lode frequently contains a metallic pyrite, and, within a short distance, separated merely by a common argillaceous substance, some other modification of the same metal, whilst the lode itself is generally saturated with water containing various salts. Lyell's Elem. of Geol. vol. ii. pp. 342, 363. "Werner on Veins. Transactions of British Asso- ciation, at Bristol, 1836, Lit. Gazette. Prof. Buckland's Bridg. Treat, vol. i. pp. 548553 ; vol. ii. p. 108. Prof. WTiewelTs Bridg. Treat, p. 114. Chemistry, by Hugo Reid, p. 166. Phillips's Geol. pp. Ill, 112. Electricity, Cab. Cyc. pp. 169 1T2. Daniel's Philos. of Chemistry. 106. That when a general view is taken of METALLIC VEINS on any geological map, the following prominent and characteristic features present themselves to the observation, namely: 1. That they either entirely originate from, or predominate in, the primary masses and the transition series. 2. That, generally, they run in straight lines, and in directions oblique to the surface ; veins of different materials cutting each other at right angles, and, not unfrequently, perpendicular to the lines of stratification. 8. That, unlike faults and dykes, mineral veins do not cause disloca- tion of the strata ; but seem, whilst they have evidently passed through, to have left them undisturbed in their relative positions. And 4. That when veins cut each other at right angles they are usually different in their contents. Prof. Buckland's Bridg. Treat, vol. i. pp. 458 555 ; vol. ii. pp. 147149, map and notes. Lyell's Elem. of Geol. vol. ii. on metals in veins. PhiUips's Geol. pp. 84, 91, 111, 112, 263276. Vindiciee Geologici, pp. 18 21. Geology, by H. T. de la Beche, pp. 521 524. 107. That COAL of which there are two principal species, black and brown, and several sub-species, all varying in the proportion of their elementary constituents is generally admitted to be of vegetable origin ; and, although consisting essentially of carbonaceous matter, yet there is frequently present a soft, bituminous substance, which communicates to it peculiar properties. That, on being distilled, it affords a considerable quantity of ammonia. And it is thought that pressure and the continued action of water have been the principal agents in transforming the original vegetable matter into bituminous coal. Dr. lire's Chem. Diet. pp. 339341. Chem. by Hugo Reid, p. 157. Prin. of Geology, byLyell, vol. ii. p. 216. Botany, in Lib. Useful Know. Murray's Elem. of Chem. vol. ii. p. 368. APPENDIX A. 613 Vestiges of Creation, p. 80. Botany, by Prof. Henslow, Cab. Cyc. p. 310. Geol. by Dr. M'Culloch, vol. ii. pp. 350353, 358, 414. Prof. Buckland's Bridg. Treat, vol. L pp. 64, 454459. Lyell's Elem. of GeoL vol. ii. pp. 106, 279281. 108. That NATIVE SALTS, such as saltpetre (nitrate of potash), green vitriol (sulphate of iron), rock salt (muriate of soda), sal ammonia (muriate of ammonia), borax, or tincal (bibei-ate of soda) , alum (sulphate of alumina and jwtasli), and natron (carbonate of soda), are found fossil in the earth in regular and symmetrical crystalline forms ; and that they yield rapidly to any force applied to them, and are capable of being fused by heat. Chemis Mi P, 109. That, in chemical language, ALKALIES are bodies which, besides possessing other minor properties, combine with acids, so as to neutralise and impair their activity. That METALLIC OXIDES are metallic substances combined with oxygen without being in a state of an acid. That the characteristic and indispensable property of an Acid is to unite in definite proportions with the Alkalies, Earths, and Metallic Oxides, and form thereby the important class of substances called Salts. That " a salt," therefore, denotes a compound in definite proportions of acid matter with an alkali, earth, or metallic oxide ; and that the carbonates, sulphates, muriates, &c., of soda, lime, and magnesia, &c., are formed by the union of these acids with the bases which give them their respective denominations. Dr. Ure's Chem. Diet. pp. 5, 135, 673, 709, et seq. Dr. Murray's Elem. of Chem. vol. ii. p. 70 et seq. Chemistry, by Hugo Reid. Chemistry, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 101, 109113, 121. Daniel's Philos. of Chemistry, pp. 431, 445449. 110. That, besides pure water, the most common ingredients in mineral springs are carbonic acid, sulphuretted hydrogen, carbonates, sulphates, and muriates of soda, of lime, and of magnesia, and carbonate and sulphate of iron. And those of more rare occurrence are sulphurous acid, nitrogen gas, sulphate of alumina, muriate of manganese, silicious earth, fluoric acid, lithnia, strontia, potash, and hydriodic acid. That as mineral contents are in chemical solution, they rarely, even when in great abundance, affect the clearness of the water. That to hold a large quantity of silex in solution, it seems requisite that the water should be raised to a high temperature. And that, notwithstanding their mineral character and the high temperature of some of the springs, confervse and other plants thrive in and close around them. Dr. Murray's Elem. of Chemistry, vol. ii. p. 376. Chemistry, by Hugo Eeid, pp. 133 137. Lyell's Prin. of Geol. vol. i. pp. 227243. Geol. by H. T. de la Beche, pp. 139147. Botany, by Prof. Henslow, Cab. Cyc. p. 173. Lyell's Elements of Geology, vol. i. pp. 67. 89, 381 ; vol. ii. p. 407. Phillips's Geology, p. 147. Gardiner's Essay on Mineral and Thermal Springs. 111. That when substances are rendered fluid, with perfect mobility amongst their particles, either by igneous fusion or by solution, and are suffered to pass with adequate slowness into the solid state, the attractive forces called homogeneous attraction frequently re- 6i4 APPENDIX A. arrange these particles into regular polyhedral figures or geometrical solids ; to which the name of CRYSTALS has been given. That mere approximation of the particles is not, however, alone sufficient to pro- duce crystallization, they must also change the direction of their poles from the fluid collocation to their position in the solid state, which may be effected by the following means, namely : 1. By vibratory motion, communicated either from the atmosphere or any other moving body. 2. By contact of any part of the fluid with the point of a solid of similar composition previously formed, or other substance. 3. By the slow and continued agency of voltaic electricity operat- ing in water. That darkness, in most instances, favours crystallization. That heat likewise exercises considerable influence on these pheno- mena ; and, lastly, that the same substance, in crystallizing, not unfrequently assumes a diversity of forms ; though, in general, the same substance, under similar circumstances, assumes the same form. Disc, on Nat. Philos. by Sir John Herschel, pp. 239246, 290293. Lyell's Elem. of Geol. vol. i. pp. 7689 ; vol. ii. pp. 390400. Daniel's Philos. of Chem. pp. 7899, 603. Chem- istry, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 17 19. Heat, in idem, pp. 195 199. Brooke on CiTstalography. Prof. Buckland's Bridg. Treat, vol. i. p. 36. Vestiges of Creation, p. 170. Connection of the Sciences, pp. 124128, 312. Dr. lire's Chem. Diet. pp. 379, 380. Transactions of Brit. Asso. Sept, 1836. Electricity, in Cab. Cyc. vol. ii. pp. 379386. Botany, in Cab. Cyc. p. 6. Mechanics, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 14, 15. 112. That most of the rocks which compose the mineral crust of the earth are in a crystallized state. Granite, for example, consist- ing of crystals of quartz, felspar, and mica ; Marble, of crystals of carbonate of lime, &c. And that the whole phenomena attendant on crystallization go to prove that substances having the same crystalline form must consist of ultimate atoms, having the same figure and arranged in the same order, so that the form of crystals is dependent on their atomic constitution. Geology, by H. T. de la Beohe, pp. 486511 et seq. Lyell's Elem. of Geol. vol. ii. pp. 390 400. Geology, by Dr. 31'CuUoch, vol. i. pp. 122, 123. Brooke on Crystalography, pp. xlviii. Ixiv. Dr. fre's Chem.JDict. pp. 379 381. Connection of the Sciences, pp. 124 128. Chemistry, by Hugo Reid, pp. 147157. Prof. Buckland's Bridg. Treat, vol. i. pp. 574579. Heat, in Cab. Cyc. p. 186. Daniel's Philos. of Chem. p. 78 et seq. Prof. Phillips' s Treatise, pp. 6980. 113. That ever since BOTAXY has merited the name of a science, there has been a difference in the opinions of its followers as to the principles which ought to govern the systematic classification of the interesting objects to which it relates. And even in the present day, while the Linntean and natural methods mutually diffuse light on each other, they resist a thorough and cordial reconciliation. That the Linnaan system is founded chiefly on the leading distinctions of plianocjamous and cnjptor/arnoits construction, and the varied relations of certain parts of the floral organs of the former division ; whilst the natural system is based not only on these characteristics, but likewise on a comparison of the internal structure, nutritive organs, method of vegetation, 'and seeding processes of the various plants composing the vegetable kingdom, all of which are, by it, resolved into three classes, namely : Acotyledons, Monocotyledons, and Dicotyledons. APPENDIX A. 615 Botany, by Prof. Henslow, Cab. Cyc. pp. 30, 136155. Flora Scotica, by Sir William Jackson Hooker. Botany, in Pop. Encyclo. pp. 638 -640. Botany, in Lib. Useful Know. pp. 14 18. General Review of Living Beings, Edin. Jour. Nat. Hist. p. 18. 114. That the ACOTYLEDONOUS or CRYPTOGAMOUS CLASS includes an extensive series of plants, grouped under several ORDERS, differing considerably in many particulars, but the whole agreeing in the important circumstance of never bearing flowers. That, having no flowers, they produce no true seeds, but, in lieu thereof, the higher tribes are furnished with minute granular bodies, capable of becoming distinct plants, called sporules ; not separable into distinct parts with radicle, plumule, and cotyledons, like the seeds of phanogamous plants. That these sporules possess the power of producing from any part either stem or root, as circumstances may require, while it is quite otherwise with true seeds. That acotyledonous plants increase acrogenously, and, as a class, they consist of the following orders, namely : I. Fungi ; II. Lichens ; III. Algae ; IV. Characeaa ; V. Hepaticaa ; VI. Musci ; VII. Filices ; VIII. Lycopodineae ; IX. Marciliaceaa ; X. Equisetaceae. Flora Scotica, by Hooker, part ii. pp. 3161. Botany, by Prof. Henslow, Cab. Cyc. pp. 11, 17, et seq. Botany, in Lib. Useful Know. p. 108. Edin. Review, No. XCIX. p. 154. Con- nection of the Sciences, p. 456. General Review of Living Beings, Edin. Jour. Nat. Hist, p. 18. Pliilos. of Plants, by De Caudolle and Sprengel. Prof. Buckland's Bridg. Treat, vol. ii. p. 453. Lyell's Elem. of Geol. vol. i. p. 67. De Luc's Letters, pp. 110, 157, et seq. Pop. Hist. Brit. Algee, by Dr. Landsborough. 115. That considerable difference of opinion prevails respecting the classification of the CRYPTOGAMIC plants, owing to the great dissimi- larity between the higher and the lower tribes of the class. The former contained in the division " Ductalosaa " having green expansions, much resembling leaves in their general appearance, and possessing stomata, but differing from them in other respects, espe- cially in bearing the fructification upon their fronds ; whilst the lower tribes of cryptogamic plants included in the group called " Cellu- lares" are homogeneous in their structure, with nutritive organs not distinguishable into roots and leaves, and many of them parasitic ; seldom green, and without stomata. Botany, by Prof. Henslow, Cab. Cyc. pp. 27, 76, et seq. Mosses, by Dr. George Gardiner, 1839. Classification, by Sir William Hooker, compared with those by De Candolle and Sprengel, and by M. Cuvier. 116. That in the MONOCOTYLEDONS consisting of several orders there is no distinction between the pith, the wood, and the bark, but their stems consist, generally, of a cylindrical, though sometimes of an angulated, mass of cellular tissue, in which are bundles of vascular tissue without medullary rays. That they are called Endoyence, from the newly formed material developing itself towards the innermost part of their stems. That an albuminous mass forms the main bulk of most of the rnonocotyledonous seeds, having the embryo placed within it ; the general character of these seeds being that of a cylin- drical body tapering towards the extremities, from one of which, in due time, protrudes the radicle, and from the other arises a single, conical, and almost solid cotyledon. 616 APPENDIX A. Ilora Scotioa, by Sir W. J. Hooker, pp. 161194. Botany, by. Prof. Henslow, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 33, 43, 49, et seq. Botany, in Lib. Useful Know. pp. 924, 5657. Smith's Intro, to Botany, p. 59. Edin. Jour. Nat. Hist. p. 18. Philos. of Plants, by De Candolle and.-Sprengel. Prof. Auckland's Bridg. Treat, vol. i. p. 453. Connection of the Sciences, p. 282. 117. That the DICOTYLEDONOUS CLASS is distinguished by the exist- ence of pith in the centre of the stem, by increasing exogenous]]), that is, by fresh material being yearly arranged externally between the former wood and bark, and by medullary rays proceeding from the centre to the circumference of their woody parts. That the seeds are furnished with two fleshy lobes called " Cotyle- dons" attached to a rudimentary germ concealed between them ; the cotyledons during the first stages of germination becoming imperfect leaves to protect the plumule and to nourish the young plant until the radicle be developed into a root ; and, finally, that this natural order comprises the more perfect plants and trees, and those whose internal structures and component tissues are most complex. Flora 81- Bridg. Treat, vol. i. p. 453. Connection of the Sciences, p. 282. 118. That all the phenomena attending the flowering of plants, and the dehiscence of the various receptacles which are instrumental in the fertilization and maturation of the seed and fruit, and the dis- semination of the former, fully attest the absolute necessity of these complicated operations being conducted in atmospheric air; the presence of much moisture being prejudicial to the peculiar development of the pollen. Botany, by Prof. Henslow, Cab. Cyc. pp. 50, 79110, 195, 263268, et seq. Botany, in Library of Useful Know. pp. 3842. 108. Prof. Whewell's Bridg. Treat, pp. 19, 23-25, 27, 47 49. 51. Any other Botanical Treat. Nat. Syst. Hunt, on Light, pp. 181 i'02. Lindley and Hutton's Fossil Flora, voL i. p. xv. Pop. Hist. Brit. Alg-oc, oy liev. Dr. Landsborough, 1849. 119. That immediately after the flower has become fully expanded, eome portions of it begin to decay ; but the ovarium, and sometimes the calyx, and other parts continue to grow, and assume a very diffe- rent appearance they become the FRUIT ; while the ovula, having been subjected to the fertilizing influence of the pollen, also undergo certain remarkable changes, and become the SEED. That these fruits, thus enclosing their seeds, assume a great variety of forms and characters, some being soft and pulpy, others hard, woody, dry, and membranaceous ; but, in general, they may be classed under borne one or other of the following denominations, namely : the legume ; the drupe ; the nut ; the akenium ; the glans ; capsule ; gourd ; berry ; pome ; samara, or the siliqua. Botany, by Prof. Henslow, Cab. Cyc. pp. 102109. Botany, in Lib. Useful Know. pp. 4752. Any other Treatise on Botany, or on Horticulture. 120. That, according to the opinions of the most eminent botanists, it is light, heat, water, and air, and the conjoint action of the first three of these upon the irritable membranes, which enable plants, by virtue of their extensibility, elasticity, and hydrometrical powers, to perform the phenomena of contraction and endosmose ; by means of APPENDIX A. 617 which they absorb and digest their food, circulate their fluids, develope their organs, increase in size, and reproduce themselves. Bbtany, in Cab. Cyc. by Prof. Henslow, pp. 170184, 190203, 293295, 298. Botany, in Library Useful Know. pp. 81, 84. Prof. WhewelTs Bridg. Treat, pp. 115, 116. Daniel's Philos. of Chem. pp. 460462. Connection of the Sciences, p. 279. Hunt, on Light, p. 200. Lindley and Hutton's Fossil Flora, vol. i. p. xv. Physiol. and Anat. of Man, by Todd and Bowman, London, 1845, vol. i. p. 13 et seq. 121. That the time required to admit of plants arriving at maturity varies from some months to several years. And that vegetation exerts a conservative influence in protecting land from denudation by water, it being well known that a covering of herbage and plants pro- tects a loose soil from being carried away by heavy rains, or even by the ordinary action of a river. Botany, by Prof. Henslow, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 238, 239. Prin. of Geol. by Mr. Lyell, vol. ii. pp. 204209. Prof. Whewell's Bridg. Treat, p. 27. 122. That of all organized substances, plants are, perhaps, the most susceptible of modification in their nature and characteristic properties by the influence of climate, soil, and other circumstances. " A bitter maritime plant has, by these means, been metamor- phosed into two distinct species of garden vegetables as unlike each other as each is unlike the parent plant." That although these are extreme cases, and not strictly within the limits of causes purely natural, where extent of change has a more restricted limit, still it is admitted that considerable alterations can be eifected on plants in a state of nature by modifications of soil and climate. Prin. of Geol. by Mr. Lyell, vol. ii. pp. 3236, 50. Botany, in Cab. Cyc. by Prof. Henslow, pp. 120, 294, 309. Old Bed Sandstone, Miller, Edin. 1841, pp. 39, 40. 123. That roots and seeds will not vegetate unless they be placed only at a limited depth beneath the surface of the ground. That the roots and stems of almost all plants develope themselves in opposite directions the latter having a tendency to grow upwards, whilst the former go doivnwards. And that there can be no doubt but a direct connection exists between " gravity " and " light," and these tendencies which the roots and stems of plants, generally, manifest of growing in opposite directions. Botany, by Prof. Henslow, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 10, 280293. Chemistry of Nature, by Hugo Beid. Turner's Sacred History, pp. 127135, founded on Mr. Porteus's assertion. 124. That, besides the carbonic acid elaborated by plants within themselves by means of the oxygen imbibed from the atmosphere and by the carbonaceous matter contained in their sap, they absorb it also from the air, and receive it combined with the water taken in by their spongioles. That so long as plants remain in the dark, the greater part of the carbonic acid is retained, but not fixed in the form of an organic com- pound until stimulated by the light, when its decomposition is effected; the carbon becomes fixed, and nearly all the oxygen with which it was united is exhaled into the atmosphere. 618 APPENDIX A. Botany, by Professor Henslow, Cab. Cyc. pp. 175, 184191, 201, 202. Dr. Ure's Chem. Diet. p. 26. Botany, in Library of Useful Know. pp. 7990. Prof. WhewelTs Bridg. Treat, pp. 115117. Daniel's Phil, of Chem. pp. 315-318. PhysioL and Anatomy of Man, by Todd and Bowman, London, 1845, vol. i. p. 22 et seq. 125. That FOSSIL remains of VEGETATION are abundant in many geological formations, but especially in the Coal Measures ; and that the periods of the formations, thus abounding in fossilized remains of vegetation, have been grouped into the following four grand epochs, namely : 1. From the earliest secondary rocks to the uppermost beds of the coal measures ; in which upwards of three hundred distinct species have been recognised ; the higher tribes of the cryptogamous plants comprising about two-thirds of the whole number. 2. The New Bed Sandstone series ; affording only a few species of fossil plants. 8. From the lowest beds of the oolitic series to the chalk, inclu- sive. The few species found in the green sandstone and chalk being chiefly of marine origin ; and 4. The beds above the chalk, where dicotyledons begin to prevail, and plants of terrestrial, lacustrine, and marine species entirely diffe- rent from those of the previous divisions. While the fruits which have been found are referable to existing genera. Botany, by Prof. Henslow, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 310314. M. Adol. Brongniart on Fossil Vege- tation. Fossil Flora, by MM. Lindley and Hutton. Prin. of Geol. by Mr. Lyell, vol. i. p. 169. Elem. Phil, of Plants, by MM. De CandoUe and Sprengel, pp. 276, 277. Manual of Geol. by H. T. de la Beche, pp. 413, 430, et seq. Edin. Jour. Nat. Hist. p. 58. Prof. Buckland's Bridg. Treat, pp. 63, 453, 463, 490523. Atheneeum, No. 985. Ancient World, by Ansted, London, 1847. Phillips's Geology, pp. 289, 290. 126. That the result of investigations into FOSSIL FLORA have led eminent geological naturalists to the following conclusions respecting the three great geological periods, namely : 1. That during the First or Transition epoch, which includes the Coal Measures, there was a predominance of vascular crytogarnia, and a comparative rarity of gymnospermous phanerogames. 2. In the second, an approximation to equality of vascular crypto- gamia and of dicotyledons composed entirely of gymnospermous pha- nerogames. 3. In the Tertiary, a predominance of dicotyledons, and paucity of vascular cryptogamic plants. And 4. That during each of these three periods remains of monocotyle- donous plants occur, although sparingly. Prof. Buckland's Bridg. Treat, vol. i. p. 520. Botany, by Prof. Henslow, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 310 314. Lyell's Elem. of Geol. vol. i. pp. 285. Vestiges of Creation, pp. 8894. 127. That although the fragments of fossil vegetables often possess great beauty, and their tissue may be distinguished under a micro- scope as completely as in recent species ; yet, in general, the remains of ancient plants are not so perfectly preserved as the skeletons of animals or the coverings of mollusca ; those parts (the flowers and seeds) upon which the distinction of species and their classification chiefly depend being very rarely met with and most frequently detached. And that, as it is principally from these imperfect remains APPENDIX A. big that a comparison between the ancient and present flora can be insti- tuted, such data are by no means adequate to ensure an accurate determination of specific differences, although they afford means of ascertaining truths of high interest. Under such circumstances it has been agreed to refer the fossil vegetable remains to genera whose names are modifications of the recent genera. Botany, by Prof. Henslow, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 18, 310314. Edin. Jonr. Nat. Hist. p. 23. Phillips's Treat, on Geol. p. 286. Ancient World, by Ansted, p. 80. Vestiges of Creation, pp. 8488. Fossil Flora, by Lindley and Hutton, voL i. Introduction. 128. That when the principle of life has departed from vegetable substances exposed to the atmosphere, they begin spontaneously to decompose, and their remains, entering into new combinations, form carbonic acid, water, carbonic oxide, and carburetted hydrogen ; these modifications continuing until nothing remains but the saline, earthy, and metallic substances originally contained in the vegetable matter. But when the exclusion of the atmosphere and considerable pressure take place, the former circumstance removing the agency of oxygen, and the latter preventing the formation of elastic products, the decom- position does not proceed beyond the accumulation of a carbonaceous residuum ; from which it is probable have been derived the several varieties of bitumen and coal. Chemistry, by Hugo Eeid, pp. 178180. Elem. of Chem. by Dr. Murray, voL ii. p. 570. Chemistry, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 33, 286, 342. Botany, by Prof. Henslow, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 7, 14. Physiol. and Anatomy of Man, by Todd and Bowman, London, 1845, vol. i. pp. 10 12 et seq. 129. That all material substances may be classed under two divi- sions : Organized and Unorganized. That the want of organization is the peculiar characteristic of mere inert matter, affords an evidence of the absence of the living principle, and proves that it never has been present in these bodies ; while the slightest trace of organization dis- coverable in any natural body is a complete proof that life is, or at least once was, present in it. That organized beings have been subdivided by universal consent from the earliest ages intp ANIMALS and PLANTS ; the latter possessing only the simpler powers of vegetation ; and that, notwithstanding this classification, it is extremely difficult, and has hitherto baffled the attempts of naturalists, to point out the precise limits which separate these two kingdoms of organized existences. Animal Kingdom, by Cuvier, Edin. Jour. Nat. 'Hist, pp.3 5. Botany, by Prof. Henslow, Cab. Cyc. pp. 58. Chemistry, by Hugo Bid, pp. 169 172. Mechanics, in Cab. Cyc. p. 30. Architecture of the Heavens, pp. 119, 120. Old Red Sandstone, Miller, Edin. p. 43. Physiology and Anatomy of Man, by Todd and Bowman, London, 1845, vol. i. pp. 3 21 et seq. Dr. Pring on the Laws of Organic Life. 130. That the ANIMAL KINGDOM, from the most perfect of its beings down to the verge of that indistinct line where it comes into contact with the vegetable kingdom, may be comprised within two grand divisions, namely Vertebrate and Invertebrate ; the former being provided with a skull and vertebral column for the protection of the brain and spinal marrow ; the latter being destitute of both of these defences. bio APPENDIX A. And that all the beings comprising the first great division, when in their perfect state, possess the faculty of voluntary motion ; while amongst the invertebrate, although there are some species likewise possessed of the power of locomotion, and others which are endowed with it in a limited degree, there are many which soon become fixed to external substances, and remain, during the whole period of their natural existence, in that condition. Cuvier's Animal Kingdom, Edin. Jour. Nat. Hist. pp. 13. 18, 19. Hist, of British Animals, by Dr. Fleming, pp. 2, 46, 129. Philos. of Zoology, by idem. Botany, by Prof. Henslow, Cab. Cyc. pp. 5-8, 155168. Old Red Sandstone, by H. Miller, Edin. 1841. PhysioL and Anatomy of Man, by Todd and Bowman, London, 1845, vol. i. p. 4 et seq. 131. That all the INVERTEBRATE animals which have not the power of locomotion are natives of the water, whose fluctuations continu- ally bring new objects into contact with their organs of sensation, and by that means supply them with food ; and that, although it is difficult to draw a line of distinction between those which are endowed with the faculty of voluntary motion and those which are not, yet such a distinction does actually exist, and is, therefore, capable of being delineated. Philos. of Zoology, by Dr. Fleming, vol. i. pp. 46, 129. Vestiges of Creation, pp. 247 260. Cuvier's Animal Kingdom, Edin. Jour. Nat. Hist. Physiology and Anatomy of Man, by Todd and Bowman, London, 1845, vol. i. p. 67 et seq. 132. That, with a very few exceptions, the organized existences classed under the denominations of Zoopliyta, the whole of the Cri- noidecB and Blastoidea, and, among the Mollusca, the Acephala, Brachio- poda, and Cirrhopoda, must be considered as fixed to one spot during the whole of their perfect existence. Philos. of Zoology, by Dr. Fleming, vols. i. and ii. History of British Animals, by idem. General Review of Living Beings, Edin. Jour. Nat. Hist. p. 19. Prof. Bucklnnd's Bridg. Treat, vol. i. p. 417. Ancient World, by Ansted, pp. 38, 9295. Vestiges of Creation, pp. 178, 203. 133. That scarcely any fact in experimental geology is better esta- blished than " that the generations of organized bodies which have successively inhabited the progressive surface of our globe differ from the present generation in proportion as meir exuvia? are farther removed from its actual surface, or in proportion as the period during which they lived is more remote from the present time." That there is not a single instance on record amongst geological data to warrant the assumption that any species, once extinct, ever was re-created during a succeeding period of the ancient world ; and that products, trihbites, spirifera, orthoceratites, ichthyolites, ammonites, lelemnites, and numerous others of similar category, are examples of organized marine bodies having become extinct. Jamieson's Cuvierian Theory, pp. 336 338. Foss. Organic Remains, by M. Adol. Brongniart, in No. XVI. Edin. Phil. Jour. pp. 226230. Geol. Essay on Superposition, by Humboldt, pp. 48, 57. Nat. Philos. by Sir John Herschel, Cab. Cyc. pp. 282284. New" Walks in an Old Field, Miller, 1841. Conchol. by Capt. Brown, pp. 58-65. Hist, of British Animals, by Dr. Fleming, pp. xiv. xviii. Manual of Geol. by H. T. de la Beche, p. 193, et seq. Lyell's Prin. of Geol. vol. i. p. 82 ; vol. ii. p. 133 ; vol. iii. pp. 59, 253, 254. Prof. Buckland a Bridg. Treat, vol. i. pp. 62, 113. Ansted's Ancient World, London, 1847, pp. 54-56. Lyell's Elem. of GeoL vol. i. pp. 10, 199211. Phillips's GeoL pp. 51, 107, 287289. Ves- tiges of Creation. APPENDIX A. 621 184. That the remains of plantae, zoophyta, and testacea are not more profuse and extensive throughout the fossiliferous formations up to the chalk, than the non-appearance of vestiges of true birds is remarkable ; and that no fragment of a quadruped, bird, or reptile has yet been obtained from any of the carboniferous strata in any part of the world. Lyell's Prin. of Geol. vol. i. p. 171 ; vol. ii. p. 254 ; vol. iii. p. 253. Edin. Jour. Nat. Hist. pp. 12, 62. Prof. Buckland's Bridg. Treat, vol. i. pp. 85, 86. Lyell's Elem. of Geol. vol. i. p. 355. PhiUips's Geology, p. 289. Ancient World, by Ansted, pp. 90, 91, 208. Vestiges of Creation, Table of Classification. Old Bed Sandstone, by H. Miller. 135. That when the AUTHOR OP NATUEE creates an animal or plant, all the possible circumstances in which its descendants are destined to live are foreseen, and a corresponding organization is conferred upon it to enable the species to perpetuate itself as long as is consistent with his omniscient purposes under all the circumstances to which it will inevitably be exposed. Lyell's Prin. of Geol. vol. ii. p. 24. Manual of Geol. by H. T. de la Beche. Prof. Whewell'a Bridg. Treat, p. 18. Geology, by H. T. de la Beche, pp. 476, 477. New Walks in an Old Field, Miller, 1841. Lyell's Elements of Geology, vol. ii. pp. 435, 436. PhiUips's Geol. pp. 285290. Daniel's Philos. of Chem. pp. 324, 371, 372. Vestiges of Creation, pp. 164, 217 220, 331. Ancient World, by Ansted, pp. 4751. 136. That all Fish all that inhabit the waters, except the crusta- ceous and testaceous animals are of the same specific gravity as the fluid they live in. That these classes breathe atmospheric air. That the molluscous and conchiferous divisions of the animal king- dom possess no skeleton, their muscles being attached to the skin, which forms a soft envelope or mantle, whose most important appendix is the shell. That this latter is secreted by the corium, and increases by coatings in the inner surface, being regulated in form by the body of the animal, with whose existence it is coeval, and cannot be dispensed with ; and that the solid matter of the shell consists of carbonate of lime united by a small portion of animal matter resembling coagulated albumen. Philos. of Zoology, by Dr. Fleming, vol. ii. pp. 401, 402. Cuvier's Animal Kingdom, Edin. Jour. Nat. Hist. pp. 13, 19, 2*, 28. Dr. Ure's Chem. Diet. p. 741. Turner's Sacred History, pp. 195199. Chem. by H. Reid, p. 181. Dr. J. M. Good's Stud. Med. vol. i. pp. 138, 494523. Paper, by Mr. Hatchett, read before the Royal Society, 1800. Daniel's Philos. of Chem. p. 68. Lyell's Elements of Geol. vol. ii. pp. 298, 299. 137. That the evidences afforded by the examination of fossilized zoophyta, mollusca, conchifera, pisces, or plantse seem alike to indi- cate the existence of some general law pervading the primitive fluid wherein they grew and lived which required that they should encrust themselves with some solid intermedia between it and their interior parts ; whether these coverings assumed the character of stony par- ticles, testaceous or conchiferous coverings, enamelled plates, vegetable tubercules, or scales, &c. Lindley and Hutton's Fossil Flora. New Walks in an Old Field, Miller, Edin. Ancient World, by Ansted, 1847. 138. That ANIMAL RESPIRATION which consists in the alternate inhalation of a portion of air into the lungs, its transformation there, 62 a APPENDIX B. and subsequent exhalation occasions, by means of the diffusion principle of gases and of membraneous endosmose, a reinvigorating interchange of gases ; the oxygen of the atmosphere abstracting and occupying the place of the carbonic acid of the venous blood, which acid is exhaled in a gaseous form. That the changes which take place in the elements concerned in the process of respiration have a relation to the elevated temperature of certain Orders of animated beings ; and that there is, likewise, an immediate connection between the power of accelerating voluntary motion and the function of respiration, action of the lungs, and the circulation of the blood. Murray's Intro, to Chem. vol. ii. pp. 588591. Dr. J. M. Good's Stud. Med. pp. 494-523. Botany, by Prof. Henslow, Cab. Cyc. p. 187. Chemistry, by Hugo Reid, pp. 57, 58, 6164. Edin. Jour. Nat. Hist. pp. 24, 25. Dr. Ure's Chem. Diet. p. 704. Chemistry, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 317322, 329, 332. Heat, in idem, pp. 389 391. Daniel's Philos. of Chem. p. 318. Botany, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 156, 157, 187, 236. Hunt on Light, pp. 199201. Meteorology, by Dr. Thompson, 1849, pp. 14, 15, 1921. Physiol. and Anatomy of Man, by Todd and Bowman, 1845, vol. i. pp. 3, 24, et seq. 189. That on the decomposition of animal substances taking place, when moisture and a certain degree of heat is present, putrefaction commences, the elements of the animal matter enter into new com- binations, and generally pass off in the gaseous form, ammonia being always disengaged in considerable quantity ; phosphuretted, sulphu- retted and carburetted hydrogen, and carbonic acid are likewise separated, and only an inconsiderable portion of earthy matter remains when the process is finished. Murray's Elements of Chemistry, pp. 655, 676, 677. Dr. Ure's Chem. Diet. pp. 112117, 695. 696. Chemistry, by Hugo Reid, pp. 180, 181. Chemistry, in Cab. Cyc. pp. 131, 145, 301, 338340, 342, 343. Daniel's Philos. of Chem. pp. 324, 371, 603, 641645, 677. Old Red Sandstone, by H. Miller, 1847. Physiol. and Anatomy of Man, by Todd and Bowman, London, 1845, vol. L pp. 4, 10, 12, et seq. APPENDIX B. CLASSIFICATION OF INVERTEBRATE ANIMALS BRITISH TYPES. The following are the essential outlines of the particulars given by Dr. Fleming in his Treatise on British Animals of the GASTEROPODA, exclusive of the Pulmonifera,* namely SECTION II. GASTEEOPODA. Organs of progressive motion fitted for creeping. DIVISION II. BKANCHIFERA. Respiring in water. TRIBE I. NUDIBRANCHIA. Marine. Gernt-s Doris, Policera, Tergipes, Tritonia, Montagna, Eolida, Valvata, Patella, Chiton. TECTIBRANCHIA. Applysia, Pleurotranchia, Bulba. * These enumerations are almost exclusively restricted to the names of Genera, to admit of comparison with those discovered fossil in the strata. HOLOSTOMATA. APPENDIX B. 623 TRIBB II. PECTINABRANGHIA. DIVISION CRYPTOBRANCHIA. TTJRBONIDJE. *M~arine. Turbo, Phasianella, Turritella, Cingula, Odostomia, Monodonta, Scalaria, Cyclostrema, Delphinula, Cirus, Skenea, Euom- phalus. **Fluviatile. Paludina, Ampullaria, Melania. NERITAD M. * Marine. Nerita, Natica. **Fluviatile. Neritina. TROCHUSIDTE. Trochus, Solarium, Janthina, Velutina. DIVISION I. SOLENOSTOMATA. A. CONUSIDJE. Conus, Terebellum, Serapis. B. CYPR^AD^E. Cyprsea (Cypreovula). C. OVULAD^;. (Ovula), Volva, Calpurna. D. VOLUTIDJE. Voluta, Volvaria, Mitra, Cancellaria. E. MARGINELLAD2E. Marginella, Columbella. F. OLIVAD^E. Oliva, Ancillaria. G. TORNATELLAD^E. Tornatella, Acteon. H. BELLEROPHON. Bellerophon. DIVISION II. Shell turreted, whorls sub-conical, slightly embracing. BUCCINID.S:. Cassis, Morio, Nasa, Eicinula, Purpura, Monoceras (Concholepas), Harpa, Dolium, Buccinum, Eburnea. PECTINABRANCHIA. MURICIDE^E. Turbinella, Fasciolaria, Terebra, Pyrula, Fusus, Pleurotoma, Ranella, Murex, Typhis, Triton. CERITHIADJE. *Marine. Cerithium, Strutbeolaria. * * Fluviatile. Potamedum, Melanopsis (Pirena). SxoMBt T siD^E. (Stombus), (Pterocera), Rostellaria. SCUTIBRANCHIA. /. Shell ear-shaped. Haliotis (Padola), (Stomatia). II. Shell oblong, or conical. Crepidulidse. "Marine. Plate of the cavity spirally decurrent. Calyptraea, Infundi- bulum, Crepidula, Pileolus. * * Fluviatile. Navicella. CAFULID^E. Capulus (Carinaria). FISSURELLIDJE. Fissurella, Hmarginula, Scissurella.* The following are the particulars given, by the same indefatigable naturalist, of the Mollusca, Acephala and Branchiopoda; which are transcribed in continuation of the division of the immovable " creature that hath life." MOLLUSCA. ACEPHALA. ORDER II. MOLLTISCA. ACEPHALA. Destitute of a distinct head or neck ; no rudiments of organs of hearing and sight : organs of the two sexes incorporated in the same individual. SECTION I. CONCHIFERA. Covering testaceous. * British Animals, pp. 281- 366. 624 APPENDIX B. DIVISION I. BRANCHIOPODA. All the species are marine, and permanently attached. PEDTJNCULATA. Lingula, Terebratula, Spirifer, Magas. SESSELIA. Discina, Criopus, Pentamerus, Pioductus. DIVISION II. BIVALVIA. ASIPHOMPA. /. Valves closed by one abductor muscle. A. Shell free, or adhering to other bodies by byssus. PECTONIDJJ. Shell compact. Pecten, Lima, Plagiostorna, Pedum. Shell foliated. Gryphsea, Vulsella, Placuna. PEUNADJE. Perna, Gervillea, Crenatula, Inoceramus, Malleas. AA. Shell fixed or cemented to other bodies. OSTREAD^E. Ostrea, Hinnites, Dianchora, Anomia. SPONDYLIDJE. Spondylus, Plicatula. //. Valves closed by two abductor muscles. A. Hinge with teeth. ARCAD^E. Area, Cucullea, Pectunculus, Nucula. TRIGONTADJE. Trigonia, Castalia, Avicula. AA. Hinge without teeth. Meleagrina, Pinna. SIPHONIDJE. Cloak more or less closed, forming syphons. I. One syphon only. A. Shell transverse. MYTILID^E. Mytilus, Modiolus, Lithodomus. UNIONIDJE. Hinge simple. Anodon (Iridina). Hinge with teeth. Unio, Alismadon. AA. Shell with prominent beaks. CARDITAD.E. Cardita, Venericardia, Crassatella. II. Cloak closed anteally and retrally, with three openings towards the middle of the ventral margin. TBIDACXAD.B. III. Cloak open anteally. A. Shell ear-shaped. CHAMADJE. Chama, Diceras, Etberia. CARDIADJE. losocardia, Hippopodium, Cardium, Pholadomya, Cypricardia. AA. Shape various. CORBULADJE. Corbula, Equivalve. MACTRAD.S;. Mac- tra, Goodallia, Lepton, Kellia, Loripes, Ervillia, Amphidesma. Ligament external. DONACIDJE. Donax, Capsa, Tellina. No lateral teeth. Psammobia, Astarte, Luciua, Myrtea. Three teeth at least. CONQUES of Lamarck. * Marine. VENERIDJE. Cyprini, Cytherea, Venus, Venerupis. * * Fluviatile. CYCLEDJE. Cyclas, Cyrena, Galateola. IV. Cloak closed ventrally, &c. A. Lodged at the extremity of a calcareous tube, with which it is more or lest intimately connected. TEREDINID^E. Teredo, Xylophaga, Fistulana, Clavagella. AA. Destitute of a secreted calcareous tube. PHOLAD.J:. Pholas, Gastrochaena. SOLANID^E. No accessory valves. Solen, Sanguinolaria, Hiatella, Panopsea, Glycemerif. MYAD.S:. Ligament internal. Mya, Lutraria, Sphenea, Pandeora, Galeoma. MOLLUSCA TUNICATA. DiCHiTONiDA. All the British Dichitonida are fiied. A. Body simple. a. Apertures furnished with four rays. Pandocia. aa. Apertures with indistinct rays, or more than four. b. Body pedunculated. Clavellina. bb. Body sessile. Pirena, Ciona, Pballusia. AA. Body compound. Polyzona, Sydneum, Alpidium, Botryllus.* The necessary particulars of the Class Cirripeda are taken from another work on conchology, which, among other distinguishing * History of British Animals, pp. 367471. APPENDIX B. 625 characteristics, declares that all the Molluscs of this division " are incapable of locomotion."* CLASS CIBRIPEDA. Divided by Lamarck into two orders. ORDER I. PEDUNCULATE. The body supported by a tubular movable peduncle, the base of which is attached to extraneous substances in the ocean. It consists of the following genera : Genus. 1. Otion. 2. Cineras. 3. Pollicipes. 4. Sarpellum. 5. Anatifa. ORDER II. SESSILIA. Body without a peduncle, and enclosed in a multivalve shell ; seated immediately on marine bodies or rocks. It is composed of, Genus. 1. Prygoma. 2. Creusia. 3. Acasta. 4. Adna. 5. Balanus. 6. Coronula. 7. Tubicinella.f And lastly, Dr. Fleming affords such a description of the Echino- dennata and Polypi as the British shores afford ; which, although necessarily restricted in the latter division, will yet be sufficient to convey a distinct general idea of the existences which come under these denominations. ECHINODERMATA. SECTION I. ORDER I. Free. A. ECHINID^E. Covering of immovable testaceous plates, without projecting arms. I. ANOCYSTI. Vent in the dorsal surface. Cidaris, Echinus, Clypeus (Cassidula, Nucleolitis). II. PLEUROCYSTI. Echinarachnius, Spatangus. III. CATOCYSTI. Echinocyamus (Echinauthus, Echinodiscus), Conulus (Echino- neus), Echinocorys. AA. Covering crtwtaceous and movable. FISTULID^E. Holothuria, Cuvieria, Miilleria. ASTERIAD^E. Asterias, Ophiura, Astrophyton, Comatula, Marsupites. SECTION II. Destitute of suckers for locomotion. Sipunculus, Priapulus. ORDER II. Fixed. CRINOID^E. Apiocrinites, Pentacrinus, Encrinites. II. Plates of the body articulating imperfectly. Poteriocrinites. III. Plates of the body adhering by sutures. Cyathocranites, Caryocrinites, Actinocrinites, Rhodocrinites, Platy- crinites. IV. Plates of the body anchylosing. Eugeniacrinites. BLASTOID^E. Margin of the oral disc destitute of arms. Pentremites. * Captain Brown on Conchology. t Conchologist's Text Book, p. 148. S S 626 APPENDIX B. " The fossil remains of Crinoideases," says Professor Buckland, " have long been known by the name of Stone Lilies or Encrinites, and have lately been classed under a separate order by the name of CRINOID^E. " This order comprehends many genera and numerous species, and is arranged by Cuvier after the Asterae in the division Zoophites. " Nearly all these species appear to have been attached to the bottom of the sea, or to floating extraneous bodies." * POLYPI. I. CARNOSA. Polypi connected with a fleshy substance, and consisting of, I. Free ; marine; moving by the contraction or expansion of the fleshy part ; form symmetrical ; axis of the body supported by a bone con- tained in a sac. Pennatula, Virgularia. II. Fixed or Stationary. A. Polypiferous matter covering a solid axis ; a. axis with stellular discs. LAMELLIIADJS. b. Stellular discs terminal. Sarcinula, Lithostrotion, Caryophyllea, Turbinolia, Cyclolites. lib. Stellular discs aggregated. Explanaria, Astrea, Porites, Pocillopora. aa. Axis destitute of stellular discs, b. Axis corneous and flexible ; poly- piferous basis cretaceous ; the axis with spines. c. Polypi developed. GORGONIAD.B. Gorgonia, Primnoa. cc. Polypi not developed. CORALLINAD.E. lania, Corallina, Halimeda. bb. Axis stony. Isis. B. Polypiferous basis destitute of a continuous solid axis. a. Polypi deve- loped. b. With eight tentacula ; the basis fibrous. Lobularia, Cydonium, Cliona. bb. Polypi with tentacula exceeding eight in number ; basis nearly uni- form. Alsyonium, Cristatella. aa. Polypi not developed. SPONGIAD.S. Tethya, Halichondria, Spongia, Grantia. II. CELLULIFERA. Polypi lodged in calcareous shells ; imperforate at the base, and consisting of, I. Substance rigid stony. I. Cells in the form of minute pores, embedded. MILLEPORADJE. Millepora. II. Cells tubular and produced beyond the surface. TCBIPORADJE. Tubipora, Favosites, Tubulipora, Discopora, Filipora, Terebel- laria. III. Cells utricular, adjacent, or superimposed. ESCHARDJE. Eschara, Retepora, Cellepora, Berenicea, Hippothoa, Alecto. II. Substance ^flexible. FLUBTRAD.S:. Farcimia, Flustra. Bridge-water Treatise, p. 417. APPENDIX C. 627 III. THECATA. Polypi surrounded by a membraneous tube, covering the sub- divisions of their compound body, and consisting of, I. Sheath slightly calcareous ; cells single, or in rows. Cells enlarged, in rows, united or single. Cells united, with the orifices opening on the upper surface. Cellularia, Tricellaria, Crisia. Cells in pairs, attached by the back, the orifices with opposite aspects. Notamia. Cells single. Eucratia, Anguinaria. II. Sheath membranaeeous ; cellt enlarged externally and lateral. SERTULARIADJE. I. Base of the cells broad, coalescing with stem, and on opposite sides. Sertularia, Dynamena, Thuiaria. Cells unilateral. Antennularia, Plumularia, Serialaria. II. Base of the cells narrow or pedunculated. Campanularia, Valkeria, Cymodocia. HI. Sheath membranaeeous ; cells simple, extremities of branches. j TUBULAKIAD.T,. Tubularia, Plumatella. IV. NTTDA. Polypi naked, the mouth with marginal tentacula. Coryna, Hydra. V. VIBRATORIA. Polypi having the mouth furnished with vibrating hairs.* APPENDIX C. ANIMAL EXUVLE, IN THE DESCENDING ORDER, FROM THE CRETACEOUS GROUP. According to the lists given in the most approved geological manuals, the following compose the animal organic remains found embedded in the rocks alluded to.f They are given in geological succession, from the chalk formations downwards ; and in a consolidated abstract. OF THE CRETACEOUS GROUP. Achilleum Spon gia Alcyonium Siphonia . Gorgonia ' . Cellepora . Ceriopora . Lithodendron ZOOPHYTA. Species. Species. 3 Chenendopora. 1 Retepora . 12 Meandrina. . 1 Lunulites . 2 Nullipora . . 1 Caryophillia 2 Manon ... 5 Hippalymus 1 Spongns . . 2 Astrea . 7 Choanites . . 3 -Turbinolia 20 Hallirhoa 2 Millepora 1 Scyphia 4 Tragos . Species. 5 Ventriculites . 3 1 Serea . . 2 Eschara 1 Flustra . . 14 Orbitolitcs . 2 Fungia . . 7 Diploctenium 5 Pagrus . . 1. 10 3 .1' 8 ' 2 1 * History of British Animals, pp. 472, 505553. t The organic remains, of a testaceous character, pertaining to the tertiary formations, will be found fully detailed in Mr. Lyell's " Principles of Geology." They occupy no less than forty- three pages of his Appendix, aud aie well worthy of being referred to. s s 2 628 APPENDIX C. . POLYPIFERS. Genera not determined. RADIAUIA. Species. Species. Species. Species. Apiocrinites . 1 Pentacrinites . 1 Cidaris . . .10 Glenotremites 1 Galerites . . 9 Clypeus . . 1 Asterias, not determined. Echinus . . 7 Nucleolites . 10 Ananchytes . 9 Echinoneus . 4 Cassidulus . . 1 Clypeaster . . 3 Marsupites. . 1 Spatangus . 29 ANNULATA. SEDENTARIA. Serpula, 9 species determined, and one not determined. CIRRIPEDA. Pollicipes, 2 species. CONCHIFERA. Magas pumilus Hinnites ? Dubuisoni Thecidea, 3 species Exogyra, 5 species Terebratula, 53 species Gryphasa, 9 species Crania, 8 species Modiola, 2 species Orbicula, species not determined Pachymya gigas Sphaera corrugata Chama, 5 species Trigonia, 11 species, and 1 not deter- Cucullaea, 7 species, and 1 not deter- mined mined Nucula, 11 species Cardita, 4 species, and 1 not deter- Pectunculus, 3 species mined Area, 6 species, and 1 not determined Cardium, 5 species Podopsis, 6 species Venericardia, species not determined Spondilus ? strigilus Astarte striata, and 1 species not Plicatula, 2 species determined Pecten, 31 species, and 1 not deter- Pinna, 7 species mined Mytilus, 4 species Lima pectinoides Mytiloidea labriatus Plagiostoma, 15 species, and 1 not Thetis, 2 species determined Venus, 9 species Avicula cserulescens, and another not Lucina sculpta determined Tellina, 3 species, and 1 not determined Inoceramus, 17 species, and 1 not Corbula, 7 species determined Crassitella latissima, and another Gervillia aviculoides, and two others Lutraria, 2 species, and 1 not deter- Crenatula ventricosa mined Hippurites, 7 species, and 1 not deter- Mya, 5 species mined Teredo, species not determined SphsBrulites, 9 species Pholas ? constricta Ostrea, 19 species Fistulana pyriformis. MOLLUSCA. Dentalium, 5 species, and 1 not deter- Ampullaria, 2 species, and 1 .not deter- mined mined Patella ovalis, and 1 not determined Nerita rugosa Pileopsis, species not determined Natica, 2 species, and 1 not determined Helix gentii Cassis avellana Auricula, 3 species Dolium nodosum Melania, species not determined Eburna, species not determined Paludina extensa Voluta, 2 species APPENDIX C. 629 Nummulites, 1 species, and 1 not deter- Pterocera maxima mined Rostellaria, 6 species, and 1 not deter- Solarium tabulatum ? mined Cirrus, 4 species Strombus papilionatus Pleurotomaria, species not determined Ammonites, 50 species Trochus, 10 species, and 1 not deter- Actinocamax verus mined Scaphites, 3 species, and 1 not deter- Nautilus, 8 species, and 1 not deter- mined mined Lenticulites, 2 species Vermetus, 4 species, and 1 not deter- Lituolites, 2 species mined Planularia, 2 species Sigaretus concavus Nodosaria, 2 species Delphinula, species not determined Belemnites, 6 species, and 1 not deter- Turbo, 4 species mined Turritella, 2 species, and 1 not deter- Turrilites, 5 species, and 1 not deter- mined mined Cerithum excavatum, and 1 not deter- Baculites, 5 species mined Hamites, 20 species Pyrula, 2 species Fusus anadratus Murex, 2 species Miliolites, 2 species. CRUSTACEA. Astacus, 4 species, and 1 not deter- Eryon, species not determined mined Arcania, species not determined Pagurus Faujasii Eytaea, species not determined Scyllarus Mantelli Coryaster, species not determined. PISCES. Squalus mustelus ? and galeus ? Esox Lewesiensis Murasna Lewesiensis Amia ? Lewesiensis Zeus Lewesiensis Fish, genera not determined Salmo Lewesiensis Fish, teeth and palates. REPTILIA. Mososaurus Hoffmanni Reptiles, genera not determined Crocodile of Meudon " From an inspection of the foregoing list, it would appear that the remains of mammalia have not yet been detected in the cretaceous group." * OF THE WEALDEN ROCKS OF ENGLAND. CONCHEPERA AND MoLLUSCA. Cardium turgidum ? and 1 not deter- Ostrea, species not determined mined Cyclas, 3 species, and 1 not determined Unio, 5 species Paludina, 3 species Succinea ? Potamides, species not determined Pinna ? Melania, 2 species. Venus? PISCES, Lepisosteris, Silurus, and remains of fish, genera not determined. CRUSTACEA. Cypris faba. * Manual of Geology, by H. T. de la Beche, 2nd edition, pp. 2T1 297. 630 APPENDIX C. REPTILIA. Crocodilus priscus, and a species not determined Leptorynchus Iguanodon Megalosaurus Reptiles of the erenera Trionyx, Emys, Chelonia, Plesiosaurus, and Ptero- dactylus Tortoise.* FOSSIL ORGANIC ANIMAL AND ZOOPHYTIC REMAINS OF THE OOLITIC GROUP. ZOOPHYTA. Achilleum, 6 species Manon, 3 species Scyphia, 39 species Tragos, 9 species Spongia, 2 species, and 1 not deter- mined Alcyonium, species not determined Fungia orbiculites, and 1 species not determined Cycloliles elliptica, and 1 species not determined Turbinolia dispar, and 1 species not determined Turbinolopsis ochracea Cyathophyllum, 2 species Meandrina, 3 species, and 1 not deter- mined Ceriopora, 9 species Agaricia, 3 species Lithodendron, 2 species Caryophyllia, 8 species Anthophyllum, 3 species Astrea, 20 species, and 1 not deter- mined Aulopora compressa Entalophora cellarioides Favosites, species not determined Spiropora, 4 species Eunomia radiata Crysaora damaecornis, and another Theonoa chlathrata Idmonea triquetra Cnemidium, 9 species Limnorea mammillaris Siphonia pyriformis Myrmecium hemisphaericum Gorgonia dubia Millepora dumetosa, and 6 others Madrepora, species not determined Eschara, species not determined Cellepora, 2 species, and 1 not deter- mined Retepora ? Flustra, species not determined Alecto dichotoma, and 1 species not determined Berenicea diluviana, and 1 species not determined Terebellaria, 2 species Ceilaria Sinithii Thamnasteria Lamourouxii Explanaria mesenterina, and 1 species not determined Polypifers, genera not determined. RADIARIA. Cidaris, 18 species, and 1 not deter- mined Cidaris (spines of) Echinus, 6 species, and 1 not deter- mined Galerites, 3 species Clypeaster pentagonalis, and 1 species not determined Nucleolites, 6 species, and 1 not deter- mined Ananchytes bicordata Spatangus, 4 species, and 1 not deter- mined Solanocrinites, 3 species Comatula, 4 species Clypeus, 6 species, and 1 not deter- mined Echinites, genera not determined Echinites (spines of) Ophiura Milleri, and 2 others Encrinites, 2 species Eugeniacrinites, 5 species Apiocrinites, 8 species Pentacrinites, 14 species, and 1 not determined Crinoidea, genera not determined Rhodocrinites echinatus Asterias, 8 species. ANNULATA. Serpula sqnamosa, with 49 other species Lumbrionia, 6 species, determined, and 1 not determined. * Manual of Geology, pp. r. 03 305. APPENDIX C. 631 CONCHIFEKA. Spirifer Walcotii Delthyris, 2 species Terebratula intermedia, and 56 other species Orbicula reflexa, 2 species, and 1 not determined Hippopodium ponderosum Isocardia, 7 species, and 1 undeter- mined Cardita, 3 species, and 1 undetermined Cardium, 11 species Lingula Beanii Ostrea, 22 species, and 1 not deter- mined Exogyra digitata ? and 1 undeter- mined Gryphsea, 14 species Plicatula spinosa Pecten, 20 species Plagiostoma, 17 species, and 1 undeter- mined Myoconcha crassa Posidonia Bronni Lima, 10 species, and 1 undetermined Avicula, 11 species Inoceramus dubius Gervillia, 7 species, and 1 not stated Perna, 3 species, and 1 undetermined Creuatula veiitricosa, and 1 undeter- mined Trigonellites, 2 species Pinna, 6 species, and 1 undetermined Mytilus, 5 species, and 1 undetermined Modiola, 19 species, and 1 undeter- mined Nucula, 9 species, and 1 not determined Pectunculus, 2 species Area, 6 species, and 1 not determined Cucullaea, 13 species, and 1 not deter- mined Astarte, 12 species, and 1 undetermined Venus, species undetermined Cytherea, 4 species, and 1 undeter- mined Pullastra, 2 species, and 1 undeter- mined Donacites Alduini Corbis, 2 species Tellina ampliata Psammobia laevigata Lucina, 3 species, and 1 undetermined Sanguinolaria, 2 species, and 1 unde- termined Corbula, 4 species, and 1 undetermined Crassina, 7 species Mactra gibbosa Amphidesma, 5 species Lithodomus, species not determined Chama, 2 species, and 1 undetermined Unio, 7 species Trigonia, 13 species, and 1 undeter- mined Lutraria Jurassi Gastrochsena tortuosa Mya, 8 species Pholadomya, 16 species, and 1 unde- termined Panopsea, 2 species Pholas, 2 species. MOLLUSCA. Dentalium giganteum, and cylindri- cuin, and 1 species undetermined Patella, 7 species Emarginula scalaris Ampullaria, species not determined Natica, 5 species, and 1 undetermined Nerita, 4 species Peleolus plicatus Ancilla, species not stated Bulla elongata Helicina, 4 species Auricula Sedgvici Delphinula, species not determined Solarium, 2 species Cirrus, 5 species, and 1 undetermined Trochus, 21 species, and 1 undeter- mined Rissoa, 4 species Turbo, 9 species, and 1 undetermined Pbasianella, 2 species Turritella, 5 species, and 1 undeter- mined Nerinea tuberculata, and 1 species un- determined Cerithium, 2 species, and 1 undeter- mined Planorbis euomphalus Melania, 4 species, and 1 undetermined Paludina, species not determined Pleurotomaria, 2 species Tornatilla, species not determined Vermetus, 2 species, and 1 undeter- mined Buccinum unilineatum, and 1 species undetermined Myoconcha crassus Terebra, 4 species Belemnites, 28 species, and 1 undeter- mined Hammites, species not determined Orthoceras elongatum Nautilus, 10 species, and 1 not stated Ammonites, 172 species Trigonellites, 4 speciea APPENDIX C. Onychoteuthis angusta Murex, 2 species Rostellaria, 4 species, and 1 undeter- mined Pteroceras oceani, 3 species Actfeon, 5 species, and 1 undetermined Loligo, 2 species Sepia hastiformis, with remains of ink- bags Sepia, beaks or Rhyncolites. Pagurus mysticus Eryon, 2 species Syllarus dubius Insects of the Libellula family CRUSTACEA. Palaemon, 3 species Astacus, 3 species, and 1 undetermined Crustacea, not yet determined. INSECTA. Elytra of Coleopterous insects. PISCES. Dapedium politum Clupea sprattiformis Fish, species not yet determined Fish, palates and teeth Ichthyodorulites of different kinds. REPTILIA. Pterodactylus, 7 species, and 1 un- known Crocodilus, 2 species Gavial, 2 species Crocodile of Mans, and remains not determined Tileosaurus Megalosaurus Bucklandi, and a species not known Racheosaurus gracilis Geosaurus Bollensis Plesiosaurus, 6 species, and 1 undeter- mined Lacerta Neptunia Ichthyosaurus, 4 species, and 1 unde- mined Saurian bones Tortoise, in Stonesfield slate. Didelphis Bucklandi.* MAMMALIA. ORGANIC REMAINS OF THE MUSCHELKALK. REPTILIA. Plesiosaurus, Ichthyosaurus, and a great Saurian genus not determined. Palinurus Sueurii. Nautilus bidorsatus Ammonites, 3 species Buccinum obsoletum Turritella terebralis Dentalites, 2 species Terebratula, 4 species Trigonia, 2 species Serpula, 2 species. CRUSTACEA. MOLLUSCA AND CoNCHIFERA. Mytilus, 2 species Myacites, 4 species Pecten reticulatns Ostrea spondyloides Cardium striatum Plagiostoma, 4 species Avicula socialis. ANNULATA. * Manual of Geologry, 2nd edition, pp. 332380. APPENDIX C. 633 RADIARIA. Two species of Encrinitea Asterias obtusa.* Ophiura, 2 species ORGANIC REMAINS OF THE HED OR VARIEGATED SANDSTONE. " M. Elie de Beaumont notices that at Domptail (Vosges) this rock contains abundantly the casts of shells, for the greater part of the same genera, and even of the same species, as those discovered in the Muschelkalk. And M. Voltz remarks, that the red sandstone of the Vosges presents the following shells : Terebratula, Trigonia, Pecten, Plagiostoma, Avicula (Mytilus), Sociales, Turri- tella? Natica?"f ORGANIC REMAINS OF THE ZECHSTEIN AND COPPER-SLATE. REPTILIA. Monitor of Thuringia. PISCES. Palaeothrissum, 6 species, and 1 unde- Fish, genera not determined, termined. MOLLUSCA AND CoNCHIFERA. Turbo ? Producta, 7 species Pleurotomaria ? Spirifer, 4 species Melania ? 5 species Terebratula, 8 species, and 1 undeter- Ammonites, species not determined mined Axinus obscurus Modiola acuminata, and 1 species un- Arca tumida determined Cucullae sulcata Mytilus squamosus Avicula gryphseoides Pecten, species not determined Ostrea, species not determined Plagiostoma ? Astarte ? Venus ? RADIARIA. Cyathocrinites planus, Encrinites, and Crinoidea; genera not determined. J ZOOPHYTA. Retepora flustracea, and R. virgulacea ; Polypifers, genera not determined. ORGANIC REMAINS OF THE COAL MEASURES. CONCHIFERA. Pentamerus Knightii Pecten, 2 species Lingula striata Mytilus crassus Unio, 2 species Saxicava Blainvillii Nucula, 2 species Hyatella carbonaria Vulsella elongata and breois Mya, 3 species. * Manual of Geology, 2nd edition, pp. 393, 394. t Ibid, p. 395. * Ibid, pp. 397, 399. 634 APPENDIX C. MOLLUSGA. Euomphalus pentangularis Orthoccratites, 5 species Turritella, 2 species Nautilus ? Bellerophon, 2 species Ammonites, 6 species. PISCES. Ichthyodorulites, and fish-palates.* ORGANIC REMAINS 'OF THE CARBONIFEROUS LIMESTONE. ZOOPHYTA. Millepora, 5 species Catenipora, 5 species Cellepora urii Tupipora tubularia Retepora elongata Syringopora csespitosa Curyophyllia, 7 species Calamopora polymorpha Fungites, 2 species Favosites, 4 species Turbinolia, 5 species Lithosti otion, 3 species Cyathophyllum excentricum Amplexus coralloides Meaudrina, species not determined Polypifers, genera not determined. Astrea, 2 species RADIARIA. Pentremites, 3 species Potereocrinites, 2 species Platycrinites, 7 species Rhodocrinites verus Actinocrinites, 5 species Cyathocrinites, 2 species. Milocrinites hieroglyphicus ANNULATA. Serpula, Lithuus, and Compressa. MOLLUSCA. Pentamerus, 3 species Vulsella lingulata Spirifer, 22 species Ostrea prisca Terebratula, 25 species Hinnites Blainvillii Crania prisca Pecten, 3 species Producta, 28 species Mytilus minimus Modiola Goldi'ussii Cypricardia ? annulata Nucula palmae Cardium, 3 species Area cancellata Tellina lineata Chama ? antiqua Sanguinolaria gibbosa Hippopodium abbreviatum Megalodon cuculatus. CONCHIFERA. Patella primigenus Conularia, 2 species Planorbis squalls Orthoceratites, 18 species Natica, 4 species Pyramidella antiqua Melania, 2 species Delphinula, 8 species Ampullaria, 2 species Cirrus, 2 species Melanopsis coronata Euompbalus, 13 species, and 1 undeter- Nerita, 3 species mined Turbo, 5 species Pleurotomaria delphinulata Helix ? cirriformis Trochus catenulatus Turritella, 2 species Nautilus, 9 species Buccinum, 5 species Ammonites, 3 species. Bellerophon, 8 species * Manual of Geology, 2nd edition, pp. 419, 420. APPENDIX C. 635 CRUSTACEA. Calymene, 4 species, Asaphus cordatus, Paradoxicus spinulosus, Trilobites ; genera not determined. PISCES. Ichthyodorulites, and Tritones, or fish-palates.* ORGANIC ANIMAL AND ZOOPHYTIC REMAINS OF THE GRAUWACKE GROUP. ZOOPHTTA. Manon, 2 species Calamapora, 7 species Scyphia, 4 species Aulopora, 4 species Tragos, 2 species Agaracia lobata Gorgonia antiqua Ceriopora verrucosa, and 4 others Ma'drepora, species undetermined Flustra, species not determined Stromatopora concentrica Anthophylluin bicostatum Cellopora antiqua, and 1 species un- Turbinolla, species not determined determined Cyathophyllum dianthus, and 1 6 other Retepora, 2 species, and 1 undeter- species mined Strorubodes pentagonus Astrea porosa, species undetermined Lithodendron casspitosum Columnaria aveolata Caryophillia, species not determined Catenipora, 3 species, and 1 undeter- Favosites, 5 species mined Mastrema pentagona Syringopora verticillata Amplexus coralloides, and 1 species Tubipora, species not determined undetermined. RADIAUIA. Actinocrinites, 7 species, and 1 unde- Sphseronites, or Echinosphaerites, 4. termined species Cyathocrinites, 4 species, and 1 unde- Penticrinites prisons termined Cuprosocrinites, 2 species Platic-rinites, 4 species Milocrinites, 2 species Rhodocrinites verus, and 4 others Euglinacrinites mespiliformis Eucalyptocrinites rosaceus. ANNULATA. Serpula, 4 species. CONGHIFERA. Thecidea ? antiqua Plagiostoma, species not determined Spirifer, 18 species Megalodon eucullatus Terebratula, 23 species Tiigonia, species not determined Strygocepbalus, 2 species Cardium, 6 species Calceola, 2 species Cardita, 4 species Strophomena, 6 species Isocardia, 2 species Producta, 12 species Cypricardia ? Gryphsea, species not determined Posidonia Becheri. Pec.ten, and 2 not determined * Manual of Geology, 2nd edition, pp. 421 429. 636 APPENDIX D. MOLLUSCA.' Patella, species not determined, and 3 Bellerophon, 8 species, and 1 undeter- more in doubt mined Peleopsis vetusta Orthoceratites, 29 species, and 1 unde- Melanopsis coronata termined Melania, 2 species Cyrtoceratites, 4 species !Natica, species undetermined Euomphalus Catullus, and 3 others, and Nerita, species undetermined 1 undetermined Solarium fasciatum Trochus ellipticus Cirrus acutus Turbo bicarinatus, and 2 others Pleurotomaria cirriformis Conularia, 3 species, and 1 undeter- Delphinula rcquilatera mined Turritella abbreviata, and 1 undeter- Lituitcs, 2 species mined Nautilus, 9 species (3 are called Ellipso- Murex r 1 harpula lites by Sowerby) Buccinum, 4 species Ammonites, 3 species, and 1 undeter- mined. CRUSTACEA. TRILOBITES. Calymene, 13 species Ampyx nasutus Asaphus, 16 species Olenus bucephalus Uxygia, 4 species Agnostus pisiformis Paradoxides Tessini, and 4 others Isotelus, 2 species Nileus armadillo, and glomerinus Trilobites, species not determined Illaenus, 3 species PISCES. Ichthyodorulites, fish bones and a tooth ; and casts referable to vertebras of fish.* "Even yet," says Mr. Hugh Miller, "after many thousand Trilobites have been carefully examined, it remains a question with the oryctologists, whether this crustacean of the earlier period was furnished with legs, or creeped on an abdominal foot like the snail." t APPENDIX D. FOSSIL VEGETABLE EXISTENCES, FROM THE CHALK DOWNWARDS. Vegetable Organisms in the Chalk and other formations, in the descending series, viz. : CONFERVJE. Confervites fasciculata, C. negagropiloides, species not determined. Fucoides orbignianus, F. strictus, F. tuberculosus, F. difformis, F. intricatus, F. Lyngbianus, F. Brongniarti, F. Targioni, F. canaliculatus, F. fur- catus, F. Stokii, F. encelioide, F. Beardii, F. selaginoides, F. lycopodioides, F. frumentarius, F. pectenatus, F. digitatus, F. an- tiquus, F. circinatus, and species not determined. * Manual of Geology, 2nd edition, pp. 455469. i New Walks in an Old Field, p. ix. APPENDIX D. 637 NAIADES. Zosterites cauliniaefolia, Z. lineata, Z. Bellovisana, Z. elongata. Cycadites Nelsonii. Pterophyllum Williamsonis. Zamia pectinata, Z. pateus, Z. longifolia, Z. pennseformis, Z. elegans, Z. Goldisei, Z. acuta, Z. Isevis, Z. Youngii, Z. Feneonis, Z. Mantelli. Zamites Bechii, Z. Bucklandi, Z. lagotis, Z. hastata. EdUISETACE-E. Equisetum columnare, E. infundibuliforme, E. dubium. Catamites Suckowii, C. decoratus, C. undulatus, C. ramosus, C. cruciatus, C. Cistii, C. dubius, C. cannaeformis, C. pachyderma, C. nudosus, C. approxi- matus, C. Steinhauri, C. radiatus, C. Voltzii, and species not deter- mined. FILICES. Pachypteris lanceolata, P. ovata. Pecopteris Keglia, P. Desnoyersi, P. polypodioides, P. denticulata, P. Phillipsii, P. Whitbiensis, P. Blechnoides, P. Candolliana, P. cyathia, P. arborescens, P. platorachis, P. polymorpha, P. oreopterides, P. Bucklandi, P. aspera, and 34 other species. Sphcenopteris hymonophylloides, S. (?) macrophylla, S. Williamsonis, S. crenulata, S. denticulata, S. furcata, S. elegans, S. striata, S. artemisisefolia, S. delicatula, S. dissecta, S. linearis, S. Beardii, S. trifoliolata, S. Schlotheimii, S. fragilis, and 14 other species. Neuropteris Gailliardoti, N. acuminata, N. Villiarsii, N. rotundifolia, N. Loshii, N. tenuifolia, N. heterophillia, N. flexuosa, N. gigantea, N. ob- longata, N. cordata, N. Schewchzeri, N. angustifolia, N. acutifolia, N. crenulata, N. macrophylla, N. oriculata. Pteniopteris latifolia, P. vitata. Cyclopteris orbicularis, C. trichomanoides, C. obliqua, C. plabellata. Lonchopteris Dournaisii, L. Mantelli. Odontopterit Beardii, O. crenatula, O. minor, 0. obtusa, O. Schlottheimii. Shizopteris anomala. Sigillaria^ punctata, S. apendiculata, S. peltigera, S. laevis, S. canaliculata, S. Cortei, S. elongata, S. reneformis, S. Hipprocrepis, S. Candollei, S. oculata, S. orbiculares, S. tessellata, S. Knorrii, S. elliptica, S. transversalis, and 16 other species. Carpolithus Mentelli. MARSILLIAGEJS. SphenopTiyllum Schlotheimii, Sph. emarginatum, Sph. truncatum, Sph. dentatum, Sph. quadrifidum, Sph. dissecta. LYCOPODIACEJE. J Lycopodites piniformis, L. Gravenhorstii, L. Haeninghausii, L. embricatus, L. phlegmarioides, L. tenuifolius, L. (?) filiciformis, L. (?) amuis, L. lepidodendron, and several species not determined. * The Cycadees form the passage from the palms to the/erns. SPBBNGEL. The Cycadese have great proximity to the ferns. LINDLBY. t By referring to vol. i. pp. xvii. to xx. of MM. Ldndley and Hutton's " Fossil Flora,'' the reader will find a very interesting discussion respecting this description of extinct plant, SigiUaria, which, together with Stigmaria, M. Adol. Brongniart and his reviewer consider as belonging to the Oi-yptogamous class. t Mr. Lyell, in his Glossary, p. 72, gives the following explanation of Lycopodiacece : " Plants of an inferior degree of organization to Coniferse, some oi which they very much resemble in 638 . APPENDIX D. Selaginites patens, S. erectus. Lepidodendro)^ selaginoides, Lep. elegans, Lep. Bucklandi, Lep. ophiurus, Lep. rugosum, Lep. Underwoodii, Lep. taxifolium, Lep. insigne, Lep. Sternbergii, Lep. longifolium, Lep. ornatissimnm, Lep. tetragonum, Lep. venosuin, Lep. rodianum, Lep. cordatum, Lep. Volkman- ianum, and 26 other species. Cardiocarpwn majus, C. Pomiari, C. cordiforme, C. ovatum, C. acntum. Stigmaria reticulata, S. Weltheimiana, S. intermedia, S. ficoides, S. tuberculosa, S. rigida, S. minima. PALMJE. Flabellaria borassifolia. Naggerathia folioaa. CAMN/E. Cannophyllites Virletii. Clnthraria Lyellii. MONOCOTYLEDONS OF UNCERTAIN FAMILIES. Sternbergia angulosa, Sternb. approximata, Sternb. distans. Poacites equalis, P. striata. Trigotwcarpum Parkinsonii, Tr. Nacggerathia, Tr. ovatum, Tr. cylindricum. Musocarpum prismaticum, M. difForma, M. contractum. VEGETABLES OF WHICH THE CLASS is UNCERTAIN. Annularia minuta, A. brovifolia, A. fcrtilis, A. floribnnda, A. longifolia, A. spinulosa, A. radiata. Asterophyllites * equisetiformis, Ast. rigida, Ast. pygnuea, Ast. hippuroides, Ast. longifolia, Ast. tenuifblia, Ast. delicatula, Ast. Beardii, Ast. diffusa. Volkmannia polystacbya, V. distachya, V. erosa. Dicotyledonous wood, perforated by some boring shell. Cones of Conifera>. Ferns (?) in Green Sands. CLASS UNCERTAIN. Mammillaria Desnoyersii. Many undescribed vegetables, Lyme Regi*. CONIFERS. TJiuyites divaricata, Th. expansa, Th. acutifolia, Th. cupressiformis. Taxites podocarpoides. LlLIA. Bitcklandia squamosa. Being desirous of aifording every information, and considering that a degree of cross-examination into the facts of the case may lead to more thorough conviction, I shall, in continuation of the lists now given of FOSSIL PLANTS, as they are grouped together geologically, present an abstract list of the same fossils arranged botanically by Messrs. Lindley and Hutton. As I shall confine myself to plants foliage ; but all recent species are infinitely smaller. Many of the fossil species are as gigantic as recent Coniferse. Their mode of reproduction is analogous to that of ferns. In England they are called club-mosses." * No traces of them found among existing vegetables. They are named from the stellated disposition of the leaves round the branches. Bucklaud's Bridg. Treat., vol. i. p. 479. APPENDIX D. 639 found within the same geological range wherein those in the former lists were disembedded, no genera discovered in formations more recent than the CHALK will be included, a circumstance which will explain the occasional interruption in the numbers of the genera. As regards the apparent discrepancy occasioned by so many being ranged under the Flowering Classes, I have only to remit the case for eluci- dation to a better understanding, and to more perfect means of iden- tifying the fossil fragments. EXOGEN^I, OR DICOTYLEDONS. EUPHOBBIACEJE. P Genus 11. Stiff maria. (Variolaria, Sternb. Mammillaria, Ad. Brong. Ficoidites, Artis.) 5 or 6 species in the Coal formation. 1 species (?) in the Oolite. CONIFERS. t Wood only known. Genus 1 3. Pinites. 3 species in the Coal formation. Genus 14. Pence. 1 species in the Coal formation; others in the Oolite. Genus 17. Taxites. ft Leaves only known. 1 species in the Oolite. Genus 19. Voltzia. ft Branches, leaves, and fruit known. 4 species in the New Red Sandstone. Genus 21. Cupressites. 1 species in idem. Genus 23. Thersites. ft Branches only known. 4 species (?) in the schistose Oolite, ttt Doubtful Conifera. Genus 24. Brachyphyllum. 1 species in the lower Oolite. Genus 25. Sphenophyllum. (Rotularia, Sternb.) 8 species in the Coal formation. Genus 26. Genus 27. Genus 28. Cycadites. *Zamia. Pterophyllum. Genus 29. Nilsonia. Genus 30. Cycadeoidea, CYCADE.E. f Leaves only known. 1 species in the Grey Chalk. 15 species in the Lias and Oolitic formations. 6 species in Marl and Sandstone of the Lias. 1 species in Quadersandstein. 1 species in the lower Oolite. 2 species in Sandstone of the Lias, ft Stems only known. 2 species in Portland stone. DICOTYLEDONS OF DOUBTFUL AFFINITY. P Genus 31. Phyllotheca. 1 species in the Coal formation. Genus 32. Annularia. (Bornia, Sternb.) 6 or 7 species in the Coal formation. Genus 33. Aster 'ophyllites. (Bruckmannia, Sternb.) 12 species in the Coal formation. 1 species in Transition heds. (Ohs. This genus is probahly an extremely heterogeneous assemblage of all fossils with narrow veinless leaves, not united in a cup at their base.) Genus 34. Beehera. 1 species in the Coal formation. 640 APPENDIX D. ENDOGEN.E, OR MONOCOTYLEDONS. HARANTACE.E. Genus 35. Ccmnophyttitet. 1 species in recent bed of Coal. ASPHODELBjE. f Stems only known. 1 species in Stonesfield Slate. 1 species in the Green Sand (?). ? Genus 38. Convallarites. ft -Leaves only known. 2 species in the Variegated Sandstone ? Genus 36. Bucklandia. Genus 37. Clathraria. Genus 42. Flabellaria. Genus 44. Naggcrathia. Genus 45. Zeugophyllites. PALMJE. ft Leaves only known. 1 species in the Plastic Clay. 1 species in the Coal formation. 2 species in the Coal measures. 1 species in the Coal formation. Genus 47. Zoster ites. FLUVIALES. 4 species in Lower Green Sand. 1 species in the Lias (?). MONOCOTYLEDONS OF DOUBTFUL AFFINITY. t Stems only known. Genus 51. Sternbergia. (Colunmaria, Sternb,) 3 species in the Coal formation. ft Leaves only known. Genus 52. Poacites. Several species in the Coal formation. fft Fruits only known. Genus 54. Trigonocarpum. 5 species in the Coal measures. Genus 56. Husocarpum. 2 species in idem. FLOWERING PLANTS OF UNCERTAIN CLASS. Genus 58. JEthophyllum. Genus 59. Echinostachys. Genus 60. Palaozyris. 1 species in the New Red Sandstone. 1 species in idem. 1 species in the New Red Sandstone. CELLULARES, OR FLOWERLESS PLANTS. EQUISETACEJE. Genus 61. * Equisetum, ? Genus 62. Calamites. Genus 63. Pachypteris. Genus 64. Sjaenopteris. 2 species in the Lias and Oolite. 2 species in the Coal formation. 2 species in Transition beds. Several species in the Coal formation. 4 species in the New Red Sandstone and Coal. FILICES. 2 species in Inferior beds of Oolite. 1 species in Sand below the Chalk. 2 species in the New Red Sandstone. APPENDIX D. 641 Genus 65. Cyclopteris. Genus 66. Glossopteris. Genus 67. Neuropteris. Genus 68. Odontopteris. Genus 69. Anomopteris. Genus 70. Taniopteris, Genus 71. Pecopteris. Genus 72. Lonchopteris. Genus 73. Clathropteris. Genus 74. Schizopteris. Genus 75. Filieites. Genus 76. Caulopteris. Genus 77. Lycopodites. Genus 78. Genus 79. Genus 80. Genus 81. Genus 82. ? Genus 83. Selaginites. Lepidodendron. Ulodendron. Lepidophyllum, Lepidostrobus. Cardiocarpon. 5 species in the Oolitic formation. 28 species in the Coal formation. 4 species in the Coal formation. 1 species in Transition series. 1 species in the Oolite. 2 species in the Coal measures. 1 species in the Oolite. 1 species in the Lias. 24 species in the Coal formation. 3 species in the New Red Sandstone. 2 species in the Muschelkalk, &c. 5 species in the Coal measures. 1 species in the New Eed Sandstone. 3 species in the Lias and Oolite. 60 species in the Coal formation. 10 species in the Oolite. 2 species in the Lias. 2 species in the Coal formation. 1 species in the Green Sands. 1 species in the Lias. 1 species in the Coal formation. 1 species in New Eed Sandstone. 2 species in Marl of Lias. 1 species in the Coal measures. LYCOPODIACEjB. 10 species in the Coal formation. 3 species in the Oolite, Lias, and Chalk. 2 species in the Coal formation. Several species in idem. 2 species in idem. 5 species in idem. 5 species in idem. 5 species in idem. ALGJE. Genus 86. Genus 87. Confervites. 2 species in the Chalk Marl. Fueoides. (Agacites, Schloth.) 4. species in Transition rocks. 7 species in Bituminous Shale. 3 species in the Oolite. 11 species in the Chalk. PLANTS OF UNCERTAIN AFFINITIES. Genus 88. Genus 89. Sigillaria. Volkmannia. 40 species in the Coal formation. 3 species in idem. Notes, referable to the foregoing concentrated list of fossil vegetable remains, extracted from Professor Buckland's " Bridgewater .Trea- tise : " FILICES, on FERNS. The most numerous of the Vascular Cryptogamic plants. The circumstances most favourable to their growth are humidity, shade, and heat. In the Coal formation there are about 120 known species of Ferns, forming about a half of the entire known Flora of this formation ; these species represent but a small number of the forms which occur among living Ferns, and nearly all belong to the tribe of Polypodiacese, in which tribe are found the greater T T 642 APPENDIX D. number of existing arborescent species. The stems of these ar- borescent Ferns are distinguished by certain peculiarities frem those of all Monocotylcdonous plants. EQUISETACE.S;. Well known in this climate as the common Horsetail of our swamps and ditches ; reaches from Lapland to the Torrid Zone. Divided (the fossil ones) by Brongniart into Equiseta and Calamites. The former rare in a fossil state. The latter are characterized by large and simple cylindrical stems, articulated at intervals. Some- times marked by verticillated branches, and attain to great size. Latitude seoms to have had no effect on the size of fossil equise- taceae. LEPIDODEXDRON. In some points of their structure they have been compared to Conifera; but in other respects, and in their general appearance, with the exception of their great size, they very much resemble Lycopodiacete or Club-moss tribe. Professor Lindley states that the affinities of existing Lycopodiacene are intermediate between Ferns and Conifera on the one hand, and Ferns and Mosses on the other. They are related to Ferns in the want of seeding apparatus, and in the abundance of axilar ducts contained in the axis ; to conifera in the aspect of the stems of some of the larger kinds ; and to mosses in their whole appearance. The internal structure of their stems is intermediate between Lycopodiacea and Conifera. Lindley and Hutton state that Lepidodendra are, after Calamites, the most abun- dant class of fossils in the Coal formations of the North of England,* occurring from twenty to forty-five feet long. By means of Lepidodmdron a better passage is established from Flowering to Flowerless Plants, than by either Equisetum or Ci/cas, or any other genus. SIGILT.ARIA. Plants unknown in modern vegetation, and of which the duration seems to have been limited to the epochs of the Transition period, are dispersed throughout the sandstones and shales that accompany the Coal ; colossal ; generally filled with sand or clay, and are sup- posed to have been without any transverse dissepiments, and hollow throughout. The bark, which alone remains, probably surrounded an axis composed of soft and perishable pulpy matter, like living equisetacefc. . . . M. Brongniart enumerates 42 species of Sigillaria, and considers them to have been nearly allied to arborescent Ferns, with leaves very small in proportion to the size of the stems, and differently disposed from those of any living Ferns. Lindley and Hutton show strong reasons for considering that Sigillaria were Dicotyledonous plants, entirely distinct from Ferns, and different from any plants in the existing system of vegetation. FAVULARIA, MEGAPHYTON, BOTHRODENDRON, AND ULLODENDRON. Same group of fossil plants to which the Sigillaria belongs all exhibiting a similar disposition of scars arranged in vertical rows. They are separated into the following five families, distinguished by the form of their stems and their scars : 1. Sigillaria. 2. Fnnilaria. 3. Megaphyton. 4. ttothrodendroti. 5. Ullodendron. In the three first genera of this group, the scars appear to have given origin to leaves ; in the two latter they indicate the insertion of large cones. STIGMARIA. An extraordinary family of extinct fossil plants, stigmaria fcoiacs, dome-shaped trunk or stem, 3 or 4 feet diameter. Both its surfaces slightly corrugated, and covered with indistinct circular spots, many horizontal branches, varying from 9 to 15, and some of them supposed to have been from 20 to 30 feet long ; their leaves have * Bridgewater Treatise, p. 483 et seq. APPENDIX D. 643 been traced to the length of 3 feet, and have been said to be much longer ; the branches are covered with spirally disposed tubercules, resembling the papillae at the base of the spines of Echini; and from each tubercule there proceeded a cylindrical and probably a succulent leaf. The form of the trunk and branches shows that they could not have risen up into the air ; but must either have trailed on the ground or floated in water. ASTEROPHYLLITES so called from the stellated disposition of the leaves round the branches, are still more obscure in their nature than the fore- going, and no traces of them are found among existing vegetables, nor in any strata more recent than the Carboniferous series, and many years may elapse before they are understood. Conclusion respecting the Plants of the Coal Measures. " The plants which have contributed most largely to the highly interesting and important formation of the Coal, are referable principally to the genera Calami tes, Ferns, Lycopodiacece, Sigillarete, and Stigmariee. These materials have been collected chiefly from the carboniferous strata of Europe. The same kind of fossil plants are found in the coal-mines of North America, and we have reason to believe that similar remains occur in Coal formations of the same epoch under very different latitudes, and in very different quarters of the globe, e.g., in India and New Holland, in Melville Island and Baffin's Bay. " The most striking conclusion to which the present state of our knowledge has led, respecting the vegetables which gave origin to coal are 1st. That a large proportion of these plants were vascular cryptogamice, and especially Ferns ; 2ndly. That among the Cryptogamic plants, the EquisetacecB attained a gigantic size ; Srdly. That Dicotyledonous plants, which compose nearly two-thirds of living vegetables, formed but a small portion of the Flora of these periods ; 4thly. That although many extinct genera and certain families have no living representatives, and even ceased to exist after the deposition of the Coal forma- tion, yet they are connected with modern vegetables by common principles of structure, and by details of organization which show them all to be parts of one grand consistent and harmonious whole." * Sir Henry de la Beche, in his " Manual of Geology," when treating of the fossil flora, especially those found in the Coal measures, expresses himself thus : " "We have reason to conclude, that in Poland, Western Germany, Northern France, Belgium, and the British Isles there were some common causes in operation at the same epoch, producing the envelopment of a great abundance of terrestrial vegetables, of a nature which could not, from the want of the neces- sary heat, now flourish in the same latitudes The vegetable remains are often of considerable size. M. Brongniart observes, that stems are found in the planes of the strata more than 50 or 60 feet long ; and that they may be traced in some of the galleries of the Continental coal-mines for more than 40 feet without observing their natural extremity Eespecting the general charac- ter of the vegetation of that period, M. Brongniart observes, that it is remark- able, 1st, for the considerable proportion of the vascular cryptogamic plants, such as Equisetacece, Filices, Marsileacece, and Lycopodiacea ; and 2nd, for the great development of the vegetables of this class, so that they have attained a magnitude far beyond those of the same class now existing, thus proving that circumstances were particularly favourable to their production during the period under consideration, indeed, he concludes, with much apparent probability, that the climates in which the coal plants existed were even warmer than those of our equinoctial regions." f "When we examine," says MM. De Candolle and Sprengel, "the remains of * Professor Buckland's Bridgewater Treatise, pp. 479 481. t Manual of Geology, pp. 441447, 2nd edition, London, 1832. T T 2 644 APPENDIX D. the primeval world, we find the first traces of vegetable impressions in the slate formations. These remains of the former vegetable world belong almost entirely to the lower families : they consist, for the most part, of Grasses, Reeds, Palms, and Ferns, the latter, however, being almost always destitute of fruit. Bl'T ALTHOUGH THB8E FORMS CANNOT BE REFERRED TO ANY ONE OF THE SPECIES WHICH ARE AT PRESENT KNOWN, they have yet so much the appearance of tropical productions, that we are forced to admit a very high degree of heat at the sur- face of the earth during its former state, which heat must at that time have been diffused over all the zones, because we find the same productions in the slate formation of all parts of the earth.* In order to explain this, it has been sup- posed, that the plane of the ecliptic, during the former state of the globe, was completely different in its position, and that, consequently, our planet had then another situation with respect to the Sun. But Bode, the worthy veteran of Prussian astronomers, has shown, that the plane of the ecliptic has been for 65,000 years (! !) between the 20th and 27th degree ; and that at present it is about 23 minutes less, and, consequently, the former solution must be entirely abandoned."! The following corroborating extracts are of peculiar interest, as they mark Mr. Turner's acquiescence in, and approval of, the infor- mation given by those from whom he quotes : " That vegetable remains abound in that series of rocks and masses which con- stitute the Coal formations, is universally agreed. Plants were therefore in being before the coal strata originated ; and it is also now the general sentiment that our coals are a transmutation of vegetable matter into that state an extended mass of mineral peat or turf."! In a note pertaining to the division of his work, Mr. Turner gives the following interesting information relative to the fossil vegetable remains : "M. Ad. Brongniart's tableau, No. 17, gives a long list of them, of which the substance is ' No kind of marine plants ; all land ones ; Equisetaceae, Calamites, 12 species. Of Ferns, 21 kinds of Sphsenopteris ; 2 kinds of Cyclopteris; 11 of Neuropteris ; 1 Glossoptera ; 46 species of Pecopteris ; a Lonchopteris ; f> kinds of Odontopteris ; 4 1 of Sigillaria. Of Marsileacese, or the Pepperwort tribe, 7 species. Of the Lycopodiaceic, 10 species ; 2 of Selaginites ; and 34 of Lepido- dendron ; 5 of Lepidophyllum ; 4 of Lepidostrobus ; 5 of Cardiocarpum ; and 8 of Stigmaria ; 3 of Palms ; a Canna, and 14 species of Monocotyledons.' " Mr. Lyell says " Between two and three hundred species of plants are now enumerated as belonging to the carboniferous era, and of these a very few only are Dicotyle- donous." || Professor Henslow observes * It seems, indeed, that Section II. f ^ Entomostrachia, I. divided into Two Orders. ' , VT. Branchiopoda : , VII. Poecilopoda d CLASS HI. ACALEPHA, including Two Orders. ' , I. Acalepha simple ^ , II. Hydrostatica fl ^ t3 p^ CLASS IV. POLYPI, including Three Orders. r , I. Actinia , n. Gelatinosa , in. Corallina fi s CLASS V. INFUSORIA, f , I. Rotifera . including Two Orders. L , II. Homogenea DIVISION I. VERTEBKATA. Subdivided into four Classes. 1. MAMMALIA. Man and beasts with warm blood ; heart with two ventricles ; females suckling their young with milk ; vivi- parous, excepting the Montremata, which are either vivi- parous or ovoviparous. 2. AVES. Birds, with warm blood ; heart with two ventricles ; no mammae ; oviparous ; body covered with feathers ; and organized for flight. 3. REPTILIA. Reptiles, with cold blood ; heart with one ventricle; having lungs, or sometimes only gills or branchia? ; oviparous or ovoviparous ; generally amphibious. 4. PISCES. Fishes, with cold blood ; heart with one ventricle ; no lungs, but breathing by branchia? ; generally oviparous ; body organised for sirimminy. 650 APPENDIX E. DIVISION II. MOLLUSCA. Subdivided into six Classes. 1. CEPHALOPODA. Cuttle fishes, having the mantle furnished with a shell, and united under the body, forming a muscular sac ; head connected with the mouth of the sac, and crowned with long and strong fleshy limbs for swimming with and seizing their prey ; two large eyes ; and two gills placed in a sac ; sexes separate. 2. PTEEOPODA. Marine animals without feet ; with two fins, placed one on each side of the mouth ; head distinct ; hermaphro- dites. DIVISION III. ARTICULATA. Subdivided into four Classes. 2. CRUSTACEA. Marine animals, with a crustaceous envelope ; having articulated limbs attached to the sides of the body ; blood white ; always with articulated antennae or feelers in front of the head, and generally four in number ; distinct organs of circulation ; respiring through branchiae. 3. ABACHNIDES. Spiders, with the head and breast united in a single piece ; and with the principal viscera situated in a distinct abdomen behind the thorax ; without antennae ; oviparous. 4. INSECTA. Insects divided into three distinct parts, the head, thorax, and abdomen ; always with two antennae, and six feet. DIVISION IV. BADIATA. Subdivided into five Classes. 2. ENTOZOA. Intestinal worms, with no distinct organs of circula- tion or respiration ; body generally elongated and organs arranged longitudinally, without head, eyes, or feet. 3. ACALEPHJE. Medusa, or sea nettles, without organs for circula- tion or respiration ; with only one entrance to the stomach. 5. INFUSORIA. Animacules, or minute microscopic animals, found in fluids, or vegetable infusions. As their internal structure is but little known, from their extreme smallness, this class will probably be found, hereafter, to contain animals which ought to be placed in some of the higher divisions. DIVISION II. MOLLUSCA. 4. ACEPHALA. Aquatic animals, generally with a bivalve or multi- valve shell ; without any apparent head or limbs ; mouth concealed between the folds or in the bottom of the mantle ; hermaphrodites ; bronchia: external ; incapable of locomo- tion. 5. BKACHIOPODA. Marine animals, without a head ; having two fleshy arms, furnished with numerous filaments ; bivalve shells, incapable <\i locomotion. APPENDIX E. 651 6. CIRRHOPODA. Barnacles, inclosed in a multivalve shell, with numerous articulated limbs or cirri, disposed in pairs, incapable of locomotion. General structure approaching to articulated animals. DIVISION IV. RADIATA. 4. POLYPI. Small gelatinous animals, with only one entrance to the stomach, surrounded with tentacula ; generally adhering together and forming compound animals. DIVISION III. ARTICULATA. 1. CLASS. ANN.ELIDES. Of this class, the several orders composed of molluscs may be considered as having the power freely to change their position at will, .being generally without shelly coverings, and consequently irrelevent to the present argument, except the 1. ORDER. SEDENTARLE, consisting of the following four tribes and fourteen genera, all of which are protected by a tes- taceous tube which they never leave during life ; and have the bronchiae at one extremity of the body, namely TRIBE I. SERPULACEA. Genus 1. Megilus ; 2. Galeolaria; 3. Ver- milia ; 4. Serpula ; 5. Spirorbis. ,, II. AMPHIHIT^EA. Genus 6. Amphihita ; 7. Terebella ; 8. Sy- bellaria ; 9. Pectinaria. ,, III. MALDONLE. Genus 10. Dentalium ; 11. Brochus ; 12. Cornuoide ; 13. Clymene. ,, IV. DORSALLE. Genus 14. Siliquaria.* To these several tribes and genera I lay claim, as pertaining to the grand Scriptural division of animals which live, but move not volun- tarily and freely from place to place. This brings us to the two remaining classes of the Cuvierian arrangement of the Animal Kingdom, namely II. Division (Cuvierian) MOLLUSCA, III. Class. Gasteropoda, IV. Division. RADIATA, V. Class. Echinodermata, and which, with the exception of the Pulmonata, will eventually be found to belong to that great group of living creatures which do not move by means of aerated blood. * Conchologist's Text Book, pp. 148, 159. 652 APPENDIX G. APPENDIX F. " The VEGETABLE KINGDOM containing living beings with roots, without sensation or voluntary motion : DIVISIONS. 1. ACOTYLEDONS. Agamons, or rather crypto- gamous plants, without stamens or pistils. 2. MONOCOTYLEDONS. Plants having the em- bryo with only one cotyledon, perianth simple, consisting of a calyx only ; floral organs, generally three, or multiples of three ; nerves of the leaves generally longitudinal ; stem composed of cellular tissue, with scattered vascular fasciculi. 3. DICOTYLEDONS. Plants having their embryo with two cotyledons, excepting the coniferse, where are often from three to ten verticillate cotyledons; all of the parts of the stem disposed in concentric layers ; flower generally with a calyx and corolla, the parts of which are usually five, or some multiple of five ; nerves of the leaves generally ramified." CLASSES. 1. Aphyllae 2. Foliacea) 1. Hypogynia 2. Perigynia 3. Epigynia 1. Monochlamydeas 2. Dichlamydefe a Corolliflorae b CalyciflorjG c Thalamiflorae.* APPENDIX G. Class III. are DICOTYLEDONS, and are thus described " Embryo, with two or more cotyledons, plumule in the centre of their point of junction ; the inferior end of the embryo itself elongated into a radicle, and not containing any secondary radicles in its substance. Stem increasing by external layers or additions, with an evident distinction between bark and wood. Leaves usually varied, rarely nerved." The following numerous Natural Orders are classified under this division, namely : 1. Coniferse 2. Corylaceae 3. Salicina; 4. Ulmaceae 5. Urticese 6. Aristolochiae 7. Euphorbiaceiu 8. Rosedaceae 9. Thymeleae 10. Poly gone je 11. Clenopodea) 12. Plantaginea 1 13. Plumbagineas 14. Primulaceas 15. Lentibularia; 16. Verbenacea.- 17. Melampyrace;i' 18. Labiat;o 19. Scrophularintu 20. Orobanchea: 21. Solanea) '' Edinburgh Journal of Natural History, pp. 18. APPENDIX H. 653 22. Boragineoa 23. Convolvulaceaj 24. Polemoniacete 25. Gentianeee 26. Apocinese 27. Oleineae 28. Ericese 29. Vaccineas 30. Monotropeae 31. CampanulaceEe 32. Compositaa 33. Dipsaceao 34. Valerianeae 35. Rubiaceae 36. Caprifoliac ea3 37. Loranthese 38. Umbellifeise 39. Saxifrageae 40. Grossularia? 41. Halorageae 42. Onagrariae 43. Cucurbitaceae 44. Salicariaa 45. Illecebreae 46. Eosaceae 47- Leguminoseaa 48. Rhamneas 49. Celesstrinea? 50. Hypericinaa 51. Aceraceae 52. Tiliaceae 53. Malvaceae 54. Geraniaceae 55. Oxalidese 56. Balsamineaa 57. Linear 58. Caryophylleaa 59. Sempervivae 60. Portulaceae 61. Droseraceaa 62. Cistese 63. Violaceae 64. Polygaleae 65. Cruciferaa 66. Fumarieae 67- Papaveraceae 68. Nymphyacea3 69. Berber-ideas 70. Ranunculaceaj* APPENDIX H. EQUISETACE^E reaches from Lapland to the torrid zone. Latitude seems to have had no effect on the size of fossil equise- taceae. Calamites (Equiseta) characterized by large and simple cylindrical stems. FILJCES OR FERNS the most numerous of the vascular cryptogamic plants. In the coal measures about 120 known species forming one-half of the entire known flora of this for- mation. . . . The stems of these arborescent ferns are distinguished by certain peculiarities from those of all monocotyledonous plants. LEPIDODENDRON. With the exception of their great size, they very much resemble the LycopodiacecB or Club-moss tribe. .... The internal structure of their stems is interme- diate between these and Conifercc After Cala- mites the Lepidodendron are the most abundant class of fossils in the English coal formations. SIGILLARIA abound most in the transition series. Are colossal. Stems are generally filled with sand or clay, and sup- posed to have been without any transverse dissepiments, and hollow throughout. The bark, which alone remains, probably surrounded an axis composed of soft and * Flora Scotica, pp. 194, 297. I consider it almost superfluous to point out, that as this flora is confined solely to Scotland, there must, of course, be a great many more Natural orders, both in the Monocotyledonous and Dicotyledonous divisions in other countries, besides those which are detailed by Dr. Hooker. It will, however, be seen in the sequel, that my object shall have been fully attained should a conception be acquired of the kind of plants which usually are classed in those two divisions, especially in the first, and by establishing determinately the "Natural orders which belong to the Acotyledonnus division, on which the future argument will materially depend. Fortunately types of all those in this last division which are known in any country are likewise found in Scotland one of the chief motives for my having selected the Flora Scotica as a text book. 6 S 4 APPENDIX H. perishable pulpy matter similar to that of living Cucta-. The stems fluted from top to bottom by an external covering, separable like true bark from the soft internal axis or pulpy trunk ; this is usually converted into pure coal. The remaining characteristics of the Sigil- laria and allied group of fossil plants, Favularia, Mega- jihyton, Bothrodendron, and Ulodendron, have been so lately given, that it would be superfluous to repeat them here. STIGMARIA. Both surfaces of the external rim of the stem are slightly corrugated. Branches covered with spirally disposed tubercules. The form of the trunks and branches shows that they could not have risen up into the air, but must have either trailed on the ground or floated in water.* The following corroborative evidence is taken from the " Fossil Flora": STIGMABIA. (Variolaria, Sternb. Mammillaria, Ad. Brong. Ficoidites, Artis.) Stem originally succulent, marked with roundish tubercules arranged in a direction more or less spiral ; internally a distinct woody axis, communicating with the tubercules by woody processes. Leaves arising from the tubercules, succulent, entire and veinless, except in the centre, where there is some trace of a mid rib. ASTEROPHYLITES. (Bornia, Sternb.) Stem'scarcely tumid at the arti- culations, branched leaves verticillate, linear, acute, single mid rib. (Fruit, a one-seeded (?) ovate com- pressed nucule, bordered by a membranaceous wing, and emarginate at the apex.) Brong. Note. This is probably an extremely heterogeneous assemblage, comprehending nearly all fossils, with narrow veinless verticillate leaves, not united in a cup at their base. BECIIERA. Stem branched, jointed, tumid at the articulations, deeply and widely furrowed, leaves verticillate, very narrow, acute, and ribless. STERNBERGIA. (Columnaria. Sternb.} Stem taper, slender, naked, cylindrical, terminating in a cone, marked by trans- verse furrows, but with no articulations. Slight remains of a fleshy cortical integument. EQUISETACE^: and CALAMITES. Stems jointed, regularly and closely furrowed, hollow, divided at articulations by a dia- phragm ; covered with a thick cortical integument. (? Leaves verticillate, very narrow, numerous, and simple.) ' Professor Bucklaud's Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i. pp. 479-481. APPENDIX H. 655 LYCOPODITES. Branches pinnated. Leaves inserted all round the stem in two opposite rows, not leaving clean and well- defined scars. LEPIDODENDRON. (Sagenaria, Sternb.) Stems dichotomous, covered near extremity with simple linear leaves. Areolse, &c. ULODENDRON. Stems covered with rhombodial areolae. Scars large, few, one above the other, composed of broad cuneate scales, radiating from a common centre, and indicating the former presence of organs that were perhaps ana- logous to the cones of Coniferse. SIGILLARIA. (Khytidolepis ; Aveolaria ; Favularia ; Catenaria, &c., Sternb.) Stems conical, deeply furrowed, not jointed. Scars placed between the furrows in rows, not arranged in a distinctly spiral manner, smooth, much narrower than the intervals which separate them.* * Fossil Flora, by Lindley and Hutton, vol. i. 656 APPENDIX I. pouad ninAOf S ./^ ' perc us Gr Creta Grou 1 e : t) I : S I'- ^3 11 -*--*. is,: IB : f; II = d 5 P< o p es a t^ ll il 00 9. Lowest iferous 7) (zoe) life, or because it cannot maintain fife. It is called by Dr. Ure (p. viii.) the solitary incom- bustible. Articulations. The junctions of the bones of the skeleton. Androgynous. Where the male and female faculties of generation are united in the same animal ; from cu'Spes, a man, and yvirj, a woman. Amphibious. Amphi, both, |3io?, life. Acalephse. Acalephe, a nettle (Medusae. Polypi. Sea anemone, hydra, tubipora, cellularia, flustra, coralline, sponge). B. Basalt. One of the commonest varieties of trap rocks, green or black, composed of augite and felspar : comes from basal, an ^Ethiopian word for iron. Belemnite. Extinct genus of Cephalopoda, from /SeXe/xj-ov, a dart. Bifurcated. From bi and furca, having two branches. Boulders. A provincial term for large blocks of stone. Breccia (Ital.). A rock composed of angular fragments connected together by lime or other mineral substance. Batrachia. Barpaxos, a frog. C. Calcareous rock. Limestone ; from calx, lime. Carboniferous. Usually applied in a technical sense to the lowest group of strata of the secondary rocks. Cataclysm. From KaixucXvtJiu, to deluge. Cephalopoda. Class of molluscous animals having their organs of motion arranged round the head, Kea\i) and JTO&X. Chloritic sand. Green sand, from sand and chlorite, (cXopos, green. Conglomerate. From con and glomera, to heap; round water worn fragments, cemented by silicious, calcareous, or argillaceous ce- ment. Conifera(8e). Of pine genus, bearing cones in which the seed is contained. Crater. A circular cavity in a volcano, from KpaTTjp, cup. Cretaceous. Belonging to the chalk. Crop out. A mineralogical term to express the rising up or exposure at the surface of a stratum or series of strata. Crustacea. Animals having a shelly coat, lobsters, crabs, and even trilobites, according to De la Beche. Cryptogamia, or Cryptogamic. Applied to a class of plants in which the fructification, or organs of reproduction, are concealed ; from Kpun-Tos, and yofxos, marriage. Crystals. In mineralogy, simple minerals ; quartz in crystals is called rock crystal, and other regular forms of minerals, whether clear or opaque, are called crystals, from (cpvoroXXos, ice. Culminate. In astronomy is when a star, &c., comes to its greatest altitude on the merid- ian. All celestial objects within the circle of perpetual apparition have their upper and lower culminations in every diurnal revolution, once above and once below their respective poles. Conformable strata. Strata are termed con- formable when their general planes are parallel to each other, or unconformable when they are not. Cotyledons. In botany, is applied to the seed- 66o GLOSSARY OF SCIENTIFIC TERMS. lobes, which, on germination, turn into leaves. Cellular. Consisting of little cells or cavities. Coprolites. From xoirpos, dung, and Xiflos, a stone, is the name given by Mr. Buckland to the fossil dung of the gigantic and mon- strous animals, the plesiosaurus and megala- saurus. Cheliferous. Bearing claws like a crab. D. Debacle. A great rush of waters, carrying rocks and all before it. From Debdcler, French. Delta. The triangular land at river mouths, from the Greek A. Dicotyledonous. A grand division of the vegetable kingdom ; from two cotyledons or seed-lobes. Dikes. A mass of unstratifled or igneous rock, granite, trap, or lava, cuts the strata, and rises like a dike, ; difference between veins and dikes somewhat difficult to ex- press, but dikes are generally larger, and sides parallel for considerable distances, whereas veins have ramifications, and thin off into slender threads. Diluvium. The gravel, &c., of a diluvial wave, or deluge, sweeping over the earth. Dip. The point towards which the strata sinks is called itsdip, and its angle with the horizon is the angle of dip or inclination. Dunes. Sand hills, from dun or dune, Anglo- Saxon for hill. Dynamics. Comes from Awaits, the name applied by Ctesibius and Hero to the five mechanical forces or levers which they esta- blished. (Playfair, vol ii. p. 61.) Dynamical. The result of force or power by leverage. E. Earth's crust. Such superficial parts of our planet as are accessible to human observa- tion. Exogenous. In botany is applied to trees which augment both in height and diameter by cone after cone of ligneous matter being added, between the bark and the wood, to the trunk, so that a transverse section at the base will cut through a greater number of concentric layers than if a similar section were made nearer the top. All the Dicoty- ledonous trees, or the more perfect division, are exogenous derived from their adding their Layers to the outside of the wood. Endogenous. Are the monocotyledonous trees which do not increase by adding suc- cessive layers between the baik and the wood, but shoot up longitudinally from within the trunk, by adding layers success- ively urithin the wood, and hence the term endogenous. Entomology. From evrofia, an insect, and Xoyos. a discourse. Edentata. Toothless. Ecliinodermata. K'-hinos, a hedgehog, derma, the skin. Star-fish, sea-urchin. Exility. Rarity, tenuity. F. Faluns. A name in Touraine for some ter- tiary strata abounding in shells like the Norfolk and Suffolk a -tig. Fault. The fissure at F is generally filled with broken stone, clay, &c. Fauna. The various kinds of animals peculiar to a country constitute its fauna ; from Fauni, the rural deities in Roman mytho- logy- Flora. The various kinds of trees and plants found in any country constitute the flora in botanical language. Fluviatile. Belonging to a river ; from flu- vius. Formation. A group, whether alluvial de- posits, sedimentary strata, or igneous rocks, referred to a common origin or period. Fossil. Now restricted to remains of animals and plants found buried in the earth ; from fossilis, anything that may be dug out of the earth. Furcatus. Fork-shaped, in fossil plants. Fissile. Having the grain in such a direction as to be easily cleft. O. Galena. Metallic ore, composed of lead and sulphur ; yaXeu, to shine. Gault. A provincial term for a series of beds of (blue f) clay and marl, situated between the upper and lower green Kind. Geology. Relating to the mineral formations of the earth ; from yea and Xoyos. Geognosy. In reality the same as the fore- going, but it has been conventionally re- stricted to the dtscriptinns nf tht structure of the earth ; from yea and yiwooxio, to know. Gneiss. A stratified primary rock, same ma- terials as granite, though usually with a greater proportion of mica, and of a lami- nated texture, that is, in plates. German. Gramineee. An order of plants to which grasses belong. Granite. Unstratified or igneous rock, in- ferior to or associated with the oldest strati- fied rocks, sometimes penetrating them in veins and dykes, composed of three simple minerals, felspar, quartz, and mica, and is named from its coarse, granular structure ; from (iranum. Grauwacke. A German name, the lowest member of the secondary strata ; composed GLOSSARF OF SCIENTIFIC TERMS. 661 of sandstone and slate, and form the chief part of what are termed the transition rocks. Grau, German for grey. Greensand. Beds of sand, sandstone, and limestone, belonging to the cretaceous period; abundance of green or chlorite earth scattered among them, hence their name. Greenstone. A variety of trap, composed of hornblende and felspar. Grit. A provincialism for a coarse-grained sandstone. Gypsum. A mineral compound of lime and sulphuric acid, also called sulphate of lime. Gypseous. Of or belonging to gypsum. Gravitation. Laplace has determined that the attractive force or ^ratnty must be transmitted fifty millions of times quicker than light ; and, therefore, may be considered quite in- stantaneous, and sets aside all attempts to explain it by the intervention of an ether. (Pop. Encyc. p. xxxiii.) Galaxy. From yaXaf, milk- H. Hornblende. A simple mineral, dark green or black, which enters largely into the com- position of several varieties of the trap rocks. Hydrophytes. Plants which grow in water ; from vSiap and VTOV, water and plant. Habitation of a plant. Signifies in botany and geology, or botanical geology, in general, the country where a plant grows wild. It is a more general term than the station of a plant. Hydrogen. From vSuip, water, and yevvcua, to produce. I. Ichthyosaurus. From ix^us and o-avpa ; a gi- gantic fossil marine reptile, intermediate be- tween a crocodile and a fish. Infusory Animalcules. Minute living crea- tures generated in many infusions. Invertebrated animals. A great division of the animal kingdom, including all those which have not a backbone, joints of which are called vertebra, from verto, to turn ; mollusca, insecta, vermes, and zoophytes. Isothermal. From lo-os, equal, and 0epiu.r), heat ; such zones of land, ocean, or atmo- sphere, which have an equal degree of mean annual warmth. Infusoria. Monas, Vibrio, Proteus. K. Kimmeridge Clay. A thick bed of clay be- longing to the oolite group ; from Kim- meridge, in the Isle of Pinbeck, Dorset- shire. L. Lacustrine. Belonging to a lake ; from lacus. Laminee. Plates ; used in geology for the smaller layers of what a stratum is gene- rally composed. Land-slip. Any portion of land which has slid down. Leucite. A simple mineral found in volcanic rocks, crystallized, and of a white colour ; from Xevicos, white. Lias. A provincial name, adopted for a par- ticular kind of limestone, and, being charac- terized by peculiar fossils, is formed into a particular group of strata. Lignite. Wood converted into a kind of coal. Littoral. Belonging to the sea-shore. Loam. A mixture of sand and clay. Lithological. The stony structure or charac- ter of a mineral mass. The lithological character of a stratum is used to distinguish from its zoological character. Lithophagi. Molluscous animals which bore into solid stones ; from Aiflos, and ^ayeiv, to eat. Lycopodiacese. Plants of an inferior degree of organization to Coniferse. Lava. That which is ejected from an active volcano. The mineral felspar forms more than one-half the mass of modern lavas ; when in great excess lavas are called tra- chytic, when augite (or pyroxene) predomi- nates they are termed basaltic. M. Madrepore. A genus of corals, but generally applied to all the corals distinguished by superficial star-shaped cavities. There are several fossil species. Magnesian Limestone. An extensive series of beds lying in geological position immediately above the coal measures, so called because they contain much of the earth of magnesia as a constituent part. Mammoth. Fossil elephant (E. primigenius), from a Tartar word, to burrow under ground. Marl. A mixture of clay and lime, usually soft, but sometimes hard, in which case it is called indurated marl. Marsupial Animals. A tribe of animals hav- ing an exterior sack or pouch ; from mar- supium, a purse. Mastodon. A genus of fossil extinct quadru- peds, allied to the elephant ; from ^HOT-OS, mam-milla, and oSiav, tooth ; teeth having conical maminillary crests. Mechanical Origin (Bocks of). When rocks are composed of sand, pebbles, or fragments, to distinguish them from those of an uniform crystalline texture, which are of chemical origin. Megalosaurus. A fossil gigantic amphibious animal, of the Saurian or lizard and croco- dile tribe ; from ju.eyaArjs and avpa. Megatherium. A fossil extinct quadruped, resembling a gigantic sloth ; from ficya and Orjpioi'. Metamorphic Eocks. Another term for the stratified primary rocks, and referring more particularly to the altered stratified rocks of that group ; from liera, trans, and popifrti, form. Mica. A simple mineral, having a shining silvery surface, and capable of being split into very thin leaves, commonly called talc ; the brilliant scales in granite are mica ; from mico, to shine. Mica Slate, Mica Schist, Micaceous Schistus. One of the lowest of the stratified rocks, be- longing to the primary class, which is cha- racterized by being composed of a large proportion of mica united with quartz. Mollusca, Mulluscous Animals. Animals such as shell fish, which, being devoid of bones, have soft bodies ; from mollis, soft. Monocotyledonous. A grand division of the vegetable kingdom, founded on the plnnt having only one cotyledon, or seed lobe ; liovo';, single. Mountain Limestone. A series of limestone strata, of which the geological position is immediately below the coal measures, and with which they also sometimes alternate ; grey, compact, and crystalline (marine). Muriate of Soda. Scientific name for common salt. 66z GLOSSARY OF SCIENTIFIC TERMS. MuBchelkalk. A limestone which, in geo- logical position, belongs to the red sand- stone group. This formation is not yet found in England, and the German name is adopted by English geologists; from mus- chel, shell, and kalkstein, limestone. Mollusca. According to Dr. Fleming, con- tains Order I. Mollusca ~) Sect. 1. Natantia. Cephala $ 2. Gasteropoda, n. Mollusca ~) Sect. 1. Conchifera. Acephala f 2. Bivalvia. ) 3. Tunicata. III. Nautilidee "1 Part 1. Chambers with simple margins. 2. Chambers with waved J margins. Mosaic "Week. The first week that men- tioned, day by day, in the 1st Chapter of Genesis. N. New Red Sandstone. A series of sandy, ar- gillaceous, and often calcareous strata ; predominant colour brick red, but having portions of a greenish grey in spots and stripes, so that the formation has been also called the variegated sandstone. The Euro- pean formation, so called, lies in a geological position immediately above the coal mea- sures. Nodule. A rounded, irregularly shaped lump or mass ; from nodus, knob. Nucleus. A solid, central piece, round which other matter is collected ; from nucleus, kernel. Nummulites. An extinct genus of the order of molluscous animals called Cephalopoda, of a thin, lenticular shape, internally divided into small chambers; from numntus, coin, and XiOos, from resembling a coin. Nudosus. A term of fossil botany, means bore, stripped. O. Obsidian. A species of lava, very like com- mon bottle glass ; pumice-stone is obsidian in a frothy state. Old Bed Sandstone. A stratified rock belong- ing to the carboniferous group. Oolite, or Oolitic. -A limestone forming a characteristic feature of a group of the secondary strata ; named from resemblance to fish-roe, and comes from tu>fpos, evident, and yapo?, marriage. Physics. From $u, to form or fashion. Plesiosaurus. From irXrjcriov, near to, and aavpa, lizard. Plutonic Rocks. The primary, unstratified, crystalline rocks have been very commonly called plutonic, from the opinion that they were formed by igneous action at great depths, whereas the volcanic, though they also have risen up from below, have cooled upon or near the surface. Polyparia. Corals ; a numerous class of inver- tebrated animals, belonging to a great division called Radiaria, or Radiata. Porphyry. An unstratified igneous rock ; term as old as Pliny ; from nopiftvpa., pimple. Pinnated. Feathered ; like an arrow. Primary Rocks. Are divisible into two groups, the stratified and the unstratified. The stratified consists of gneiss, mica-schist, argillaceous schist or clay slate, hornblende schist, primary limestone, and others. The nnstratified or plutonic is composed in a great measure of granite, and others closely allied to granite. Both these groups agree in having, for the most part, a highly crystal- line texture, and in not containing organic remains. Productse. An extinct genus of bivalve fossil shells, occurring only in the older of the secondary rocks ; it is closely allied to the living genus, Terebratula. Purbeck Limestone, Purbeck Beds. Belong- ing to the Wealden group. Pyrites (Iron). A compound of sulphur and iron, yellow and shining like brans, and found in almost every rock, stratified and unstratified ; in common roofing slate it is very prevalent. Phosphorus. From <#>VTOV, a plant, and voro, to devour. Parallax. May be generally defined as the change of apparent situation of any object arising from a change of real situation of the observer. (Herschel's Astron. p. 180.) But it also has a more technical meaning. Passeres. Passer, a sparrow (lark, thrush, swallow, crow, wren). Pliosaurus. - irXeo-ioi', near to ; CO.,Pia>TKRS, CITY KOAD, LOKDON. University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. A 000 070 691 1