 Chapter 4 Part 2 of Principles of Geology. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Jennifer Painter. Principles of Geology by Charles Lyle Section 10 Chapter 4 Part 2 Voltaire. Voltaire had used the modern discoveries in physics as one of the numerous weapons of attack and ridicule directed by him against the scriptures. He found that the most popular systems of geology were accommodated to the sacred writings and that much ingenuity had been employed to make every fact coincide exactly with the Mosaic account of the creation and deluge. It was therefore with no friendly feelings that he contemplated the cultivators of geology in general regarding the science as one which had been successfully enlisted by theologians as an ally in their cause. He knew that the majority of those who were aware of the abundance of fossil shells in the interior of continents were still persuaded that they were proofs of the universal deluge. And as the readiest way of shaking this ifical of faith he endeavored to inculcate skepticism as to the real nature of such shells and to recall from contempt the exploded dogma of the 16th century that they were sports of nature. He also pretended that vegetable impressions were not those of real plants. Yet he was perfectly convinced that the shells had really belonged to living testacea as may be seen in his essay on the formation of mountains. He would sometimes in defiance of all consistency shift his ground when addressing the vulgar and admitting the true nature of the shells collected in the Alps and other places, pretend that they were eastern species which had fallen from the hats of pilgrims coming from Syria. The numerous essays written by him on geological subjects were all calculated to strengthen prejudices partly because he was ignorant of the real state of the science and partly from his bad faith. On the other hand, they who knew that his attacks were directed by a desire to invalidate scripture and who were unacquainted with the true merits of the question might well deem the old diluvian hypothesis incontrovertible if Voltaire could deduce no better argument against it than to deny the true nature of organic remains. It is only by careful attention to impediments originating in extrinsic causes that we can explain the slow and reluctant adoption of the simplest truths in geology. First, we find many able naturalists adducing the fossil remains of marine animals as proof of an event related in scripture. The evidence is deemed conclusive by the multitude for a century or more for it favours opinions which they entertained before and they are gratified by supposing them confirmed by fresh and unexpected proofs. Many who see through the fallacy have no wish to undercede those who are influenced by it, approving the effect of the dilution and conniving it at it as a pious fraud until, finally, an opposite party, who are hostile to the sacred writings, labour to explode the erroneous opinion by substituting for it another dogma which they know to be equally unsound. The heretical volcanists were soon after openly assailed in England by imputations of the most illiberal kind. We cannot estimate the malevolence of such a persecution by the pain which similar insinuations might now inflict. For although charges of infidelity and atheism must always be odious, they were injurious in the extreme at that moment of political excitement. And it was better, perhaps, for a man's good reception in society that his moral character should have been reduced than that he should become a mark for these poisoned weapons. I shall pass over the works of numerous divines who may be excused for sensitiveness on points which then excited so much uneasiness in the public mind and shall say nothing of the amiable poet Kauper who could hardly be expected to have inquired into the merit of doctrines in physics. But in the foremost ranks of the intolerant are found several laymen who had high claims to scientific reputation. Among these appears Williams, a mineral surveyor of Edinburgh who published a natural history of the mineral kingdom in 1789. A work of great merit for that day and of practical utility as containing the best account of the coal strata. In his preface he misrepresents Hutton's theory altogether and charges him with considering all rocks to be lavas of different colours and structure and also with warping everything to support the eternity of the world. He descents on the pernicious influence of such sceptical notions as leading to downright invidality and atheism and as being nothing less than to depose the almighty creator of the universe from his office. Kerwan Diluk. Kerwan, president of the Royal Academy of Dublin, a chemist and mineralogist of some merit but who possessed much greater authority in the scientific world than he was entitled by his talents to enjoy said in the introduction to his geological essays 1799 that sound geology graduated into religion and was required to dispel certain systems of atheism or infidelity of which they had had recent experience. He was an uncompromising defender of the aqueous theory of all rocks and was scarcely surpassed by Burnett and Wiston in his desire to adduce the mosaic writings in confirmation of his opinions. Diluk in the preliminary discourse to his treatise on geology says the weapons have been changed by which revealed religion is attached. It is now assailed by geology and the knowledge of this science has become essential to theologians. He imputes the failure of former geological systems to their having been anti-mosaic and directed against a sublime tradition. These and similar imputations reiterated in the works of Diluk seem to have been taken for granted by some modern writers. It is therefore necessary to state injustice to the numerous geologists of different nations whose works have been considered that none of them were guilty of endeavoring by arguments drawn from physics to invalidate scriptural tenets. On the contrary, the majority of those who were fortunate enough to discover the true cause of things rarely deserved another part of the poet's panagery, Atque Matus Omnes' subjected pedibus. The caution and timid reserve of many eminent Italian authors of the earlier period is very apparent and there can hardly be a doubt that they subscribed to certain dogmas and particularly to the first diluvian theory out of deference to popular prejudices rather than from conviction. If they were guilty of dissimulation we may feel regret but must not blame their want of moral courage, reserving rather our condemnation for the intolerance of the times and that inquisitorial power which forced Galileo to abdure and the two Jesuits to disclaim the theory of Newton. Hutton answered Kerwin's attacks with great warmth and with the indignation justly excited by unmerited reproach. He had always displayed, says Playfair, the utmost disposition to admire the beneficial design manifested in the structure of the world and he contemplated with delight those parts of his theory which made the greatest additions to our knowledge of final causes. We may say with equal truth that in no scientific works in our language can more eloquent passages be found concerning the fitness, harmony and grandeur of all parts of the creation than in those of Playfair. They are evidently the unaffected expressions of our mind which contemplated the study of nature as best calculated to elevate our conceptions of the attributes of the first cause. At any other time the force and elegance of Playfair's style must have ensured popularity to the Huttonian doctrines but by a singular coincidence, Neptunianism and orthodoxy were now associated in the same creed and the tide of prejudice ran so strong that the majority were carried far away into the chaotic fluid and other cosmological inventions of Werner. These fictions the Saxon professor had borrowed with little modification and without any improvement from his predecessors. They had not the smallest foundation either in scripture or in common sense and were probably approved of by many as being so ideal and unsubstantial that they could never come into violent collision with any preconceived opinions. According to Diluc, the first essential distinction to be made between the various phenomena exhibited on the surface of the earth was to determine which were the results of causes still in action and which had been produced by causes that had ceased to act. The form and composition of the mass of our continents, he said, and their existence above the level of the sea must be ascribed to causes no longer in action. These continents emerged at no very remote period on the sudden retreat of the ocean, the waters of which made their way into subterranean caverns. The formation of the rocks which enter into the crust of the earth began with the precipitation of granite from a primordial liquid after which other strata containing the remains of organized bodies were deposited. Till at last the present sea remained as the residuum of the primordial liquid and no longer continued to produce mineral strata. William Smith, 1790. While the tenets of the rival schools of Freiburg and Edinburgh were warmly espoused by devoted partisans, the labors of an individual unassisted by the advantages of wealth or station in society were almost unheeded. Mr William Smith, an English surveyor, published his Tabula View of the British Strata in 1790, wherein he proposed a classification of the secondary formations in the west of England. Although he had not communicated with Werner, it appeared by this work that he had arrived at the same views respecting the laws of superposition of stratified rocks, that he was aware that the order of succession of different groups was never inverted and that they might be identified at very distant points by their peculiar organized fossils. From the time of the appearance of the Tabula View, the author laboured to construct a geological map of the whole of England and with the greatest disinterest of mine communicated the results of his investigations to all who desired information, giving such publicity to his original views as to enable his contemporaries almost to compete with him in the race. The execution of his map was completed in 1815 and remains a lasting monument of original talent and extraordinary perseverance, for he had explored the whole country on foot without the guidance of previous observers or the aid of fellow labourers and had succeeded in throwing into natural divisions the whole complicated series of British rocks. Dolby Song, a distinguished pupil of Werner, played a just tribute of praise to this remarkable performance, observing that what many celebrated mineralogists had only accomplished for a small part of Germany in the course of half a century had been affected by a single individual for the whole of England. Werner invented a new language to express his division of rocks and some of his technical terms, such as gravata, nice and others, passed current in every country in Europe. Smith adopted for the most part English provincial terms, often of barbarous sound, such as bolt, corn brash, crunch clay, and affixed them to subdivisions of the British series. Many of these still retain their place in our scientific classifications and attest his priority of arrangement. Modern Progress of Geology The contention of the rival factions of the Vulcanists and Neptuneists had been carried to such a height that these names had become terms of reproach and the two parties had been less occupied in searching for truth than for such arguments as might strengthen their own cause or serve to annoy their antagonists. A new school at last arose who professed the strictest neutrality and the utmost indifference to the systems of Werner and Huckin and who resolved diligently to devote their labours to observation. The reaction provoked by the intemperance of the conflicting parties now produced a tendency to extreme caution. Speculative views were discounted and through fear of exposing themselves to the suspicion of a bias towards the dogmas of a party, some geologists became anxious to entertain no opinion whatever on the causes of phenomena and were inclined to skepticism even where the conclusions deduceable from observed facts scarcely admitted a reasonable doubt. Geological Society of London But although the reluctance to theorise was carried somewhat to excess, no measure could be more salutary at such a moment than a suspension of all attempts to form what were termed theories of the earth. A great body of new data were acquired and the Geological Society of London, founded in 1807, conduced greatly to the attainment of this desirable end. To multiply and record observations and patiently to await the result at some future period was the object proposed by them and it was their favourite maxim that the time was not yet come for a general system of geology but that all must be content for many years to be exclusively engaged in furnishing materials for future generalisations. By acting up to these principles with consistency, they in a few years disarmed all prejudice and rescued the science from the imputation of being a dangerous or at best but a visionary pursuit. A distinguished modern writer has with truth remarked that the advancement of three of the main divisions of geological enquiry have during the last half century been promoted successively by three different nations of Europe, the Germans, the English and the French. We have seen that the systematic study of what may be called mineralogical geology had its origin and chief point of activity in Germany where Werner first described with precision the mineral characters of rocks. The classification of the secondary formations, each marked by their peculiar fossils, belongs in a great measure to England where the labours before alluded to of Smith and those of the most active members of the geological society of London were steadily directed to these objects. The foundation of the third branch, that relating to the tertiary formations, was laid in France by the splendid work of Cubierre and Brognia, published in 1808 on the mineral geography and organic remains of the neighbourhood of Paris. We may still trace, in the language of the science and our present methods of arrangement, the various countries where the growth of these several departments of geology was at different times promoted. Many names of simple minerals and rocks remain to this day German, while the European divisions of the secondary strata are in great part English and are indeed often founded too exclusively on English types. Lastly, the subdivisions first established of the succession of strata in the Paris Basin have served as normal groups to which other tertiary deposits throughout Europe have been compared, even in cases where this standard was wholly inapplicable. No period could have been more fortunate for the discovery in the immediate neighbourhood of Paris of a rich store of well-preserved fossils than the commencement of the present century for at no former era had natural history been cultivated with such enthusiasm in the French metropolis. The labours of Cubierre in comparative osteology and of Lamarck in recent and fossil shells had raised these departments of study to a rank of which they had never previously been deemed susceptible. Their investigations had eventually a powerful effect in dispelling the illusion which had long prevailed concerning the absence of analogy between the ancient and modern state of our planet. A close comparison of the recent and fossil species and the inferences drawn in regard to their habits accustomed the geologist to contemplate the earth as having been at successive periods the dwelling place of animals and plants of different races, some terrestrial and others aquatic some fitted to live in seas, others in the waters of lakes and rivers. By the consideration of these topics the mind was slowly and insensibly withdrawn from imaginary pictures of catastrophes and chaotic confusion such as haunted the imagination of the early cosmogonists. Numerous proofs were discovered of the tranquil deposition of sedimentary matter and the slow development of organic life. If many writers and Cubierre himself in the number still continue to maintain that the thread of induction was broken yet in reasoning by the strict rules of induction from recent to fossil species they in a great measure disclaimed the dogma which in theory they professed. The adoption of the same generic and in some cases even of the same specific names for the ex-UVE of fossil animals and their living analogues was an important step towards familiarizing the mind with the idea of the identity and unity of the system in distant eras. It was an acknowledgement as it were that part at least of the ancient memorials of nature were written in a living language. The growing importance then of the natural history of organic remains may be pointed out as the characteristic feature of the progress of the science during the present century. This branch of knowledge has already become an instrument of great utility in geological classification and is continuing daily to unfold new data for grand and enlarged views respecting the former changes of the earth. When we compare the result of observations in the last 50 years with those of the three preceding centuries we cannot but look forward with the most sanguine expectations to the degree of excellence to which geology may be carried even by the labors of the present generation. Never perhaps did any science with the exception of astronomy unfold in an equally brief period so many novel and unexpected truths and overturn so many preconceived opinions. The senses had for ages declared the earth to be at rest until the astronomer taught that it was carried through space with inconceivable rapidity. In like manner was the surface of this planet regarded as having remained unaltered since its creation until the geologist proved that it had been the theatre of reiterated change and was still the subject of slow but never-ending fluctuations. The discovery of other systems in the boundless regions of space was the triumph of astronomy. To trace the same system through various transformations to behold it at successive eras adorned with different hills and valleys, lakes and seas and peopled with new inhabitants was the delightful mead of geological research. By the geometer were measured the regions of space and the relative distances of the heavenly bodies. By the geologist myriads of ages were reckoned not by arithmetical computation but by a train of physical events, a succession of phenomena in the animate and inanimate worlds, signs which convey to our minds more definite ideas than figures can do of the immensity of time. Whether our investigation of the Earth's history and structure will eventually be productive of as great practical benefits to mankind as a knowledge of the distant heavens must remain for the decision of posterity. It was not till astronomy had been enriched by the observations of many centuries and had made its way against popular prejudices to the establishment of a sound theory that its application to the useful arts was most conspicuous. The cultivation of geology began at a later period and in every step which it has hitherto made towards sound theoretical principles it had to contend against more violent prepositions. The practical advantages already derived from it have not been inconsiderable but our generalisations are yet imperfect and they who come after us may be expected to reap the most valuable fruits of our labour. Meanwhile the charm of first discovery is our own and as we explore this magnificent field of inquiry the sentiment of a great historian of our times may continually be present to our minds that he who calls what has vanished back again into being enjoys a bliss like that of creating. End of Chapter 4 Part 2 Chapter 5 Part 1 of Principles of Geology This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Patrick McAfee, Chicago Chapter 5 Prejudices which have retarded the progress of geology Prepositions in regard to the duration of past time prejudices arising from our peculiar position as inhabitants of the land of those occasioned by our not seeing subterranean changes now in progress all these causes combined to make the former course of nature appear different from the present objections to the doctrine that causes similar in kind and energy to those now acting have produced the former changes of the Earth's surface considered. If we reflect on the history of the progress of geology as explained in the preceding chapters we perceive that there have been great fluctuations of opinion respecting the nature of the causes to which all former changes of the Earth's surface are referable. The first observers conceived the monuments which the geologist endeavors to decipher to relate to an original state of the Earth or to a period when there were causes in activity distinct in kind and degree from those now constituting the economy of nature. These views were gradually modified and some of them entirely abandoned in proportion as observations were multiplied and the signs of former mutations more skillfully interpreted. Many appearances which had for a long time been regarded as indicating mysterious extraordinary agency were finally recognized as the necessary result of the laws now governing the material world and the discovery of this unlooked for conformity has at length induced some philosophers to infer that during the ages contemplated in geology there has never been any interruption to the agency of the same uniform laws of change. The same assemblage of general causes they conceive may have been sufficient to produce by their various combinations the endless diversity of effects of which the shell of the Earth has preserved the memorials and consistently with these principles the recurrence of analogous changes is expected by them in time to come. Whether we coincide or not in this doctrine we must admit that the gradual progress of opinion concerning the succession of phenomena in very remote eras resembles in a singular manner that which has accompanied the growing intelligence of every people in regard to the economy of nature in their own times. In an early state of advancement when a great number of natural appearances and eclipse, an earthquake, a flood or the approach of a comet with many other occurrences afterwards found to belong to the regular course of events are regarded as prodigies. The same delusion prevails as to moral phenomena and many of these are ascribed to the intervention of demons, ghosts, witches and other immaterial and supernatural agents. By degrees many of the enigmas of the moral and physical world are explained and instead of being due to extrinsic and irregular causes they are found to depend on fixed and invariable laws. The philosopher at last becomes convinced of the undeviating uniformity of secondary causes and guided by his faith in this principle he determines the probability of accounts transmitted to him of former occurrences and often rejects the fabulous tales of former times on the ground of their being irreconcilable with the experience of more enlightened ages. Pre-possessions in regard to the duration of past time as a belief in the want of conformity in the causes by which the Earth's crust has been modified in ancient and modern periods was for a long time universally prevalent and that too amongst men who were convinced that the order of nature had been uniform for the last several thousand years. Every circumstance which could have influenced their minds and given an undue bias to their opinions deserves particular attention. Now the reader may easily satisfy himself that however undeviating the course of nature may have been from the earliest epochs it was impossible for the first cultivators of geology to come to such a conclusion so long as they were under a delusion as to the age of the world and the date of the first creation of animate beings. However fantastical some theories of the 16th century may now appear to us however unworthy of men of great talent and sound judgment we may rest assured that if the same misconception now prevailed in regard to the memorials of human transactions it would give rise to a similar train of absurdities. Let us imagine for example that Champollion and the French and Tuscan literati lately engaged in exploring the antiquities of Egypt had visited that country with a firm belief that the banks of the Nile were never peopled by the human race before the beginning of the 19th century and that their faith in this dogma was as difficult to shake as the opinion of our ancestors that the earth was never the abode of living beings until the creation of the present continents and of the species now existing it is easy to perceive what extravagant systems they would frame while under the influence of this delusion to account for the monuments discovered in Egypt. The site of the pyramids, obelisks, colossal statues and ruined temples would fill them with such astonishment that for a time they would be as men spellbound wholly incapable of reasoning with sobriety. They might incline at first to refer to the construction of such stupendous works to some superhuman powers of a primeval world. A system might be invented resembling that so gravely advanced by Manetho who relates that a dynasty of gods originally ruled in Egypt of whom Vulcan, the first monarch reigned 9000 years after whom came Hercules and other demigods who were at last succeeded by human kings. When some fanciful speculations of this kind had amused their imaginations for a time some vast repository of mummies would be discovered and would immediately un-deceive those antiquaries who enjoyed an opportunity of personally examining them but the prejudices of others at a distance who were not eyewitnesses of the whole phenomena would not be so easily overcome. The concurrent report of many travelers would indeed render it necessary for them to accommodate ancient theories to some of the new facts and much wit and ingenuity would be required to modify and defend their old positions. Each new invention would violate a greater number of known analogies for if a theory be required to embrace some false principle it becomes more visionary in proportion as facts are multiplied as would be the case if geometers were now required to form an astronomical system on the assumption of the immobility of the earth. Amongst other fanciful conjectures concerning the history of Egypt we may suppose some of the following to be started. Quote As the banks of the Nile have been so recently colonized for the first time the curious substances called mummies could never in reality have belonged to men. They may have been generated by some plastic virtue residing in the interior of the earth or they may be abortions of nature produced by her incipient efforts in the work of creation. For if deformed beings are sometimes born even now when the scheme of the universe is fully developed many more may have been sent before their time scarce half made up when the planet itself was in the embryo state. But if these notions appear to derogate from the perfection of the divine attributes and if these mummies be in all their parts true representations of the human form may we not refer them to the future rather than the past? May we not be looking into the womb of nature and not her grave? May not these images be like the shades of the unborn in Virgil's Elysium the archetypes of men not yet called into existence? These speculations if advocated by eloquent writers would not fail to attract many zealous votaries for they would relieve men from the painful necessity of renouncing preconceived opinions. Incredible as such skepticism may appear it has been rivaled by many systems of the 16th and 17th centuries and among others by that of the learned Fallopio who regarded the tusks of fossil elephants as earthy concretions and the pottery or fragments of vases in the Monte Testaceo near Rome as works of nature and not of art. But when one generation had passed away and another not compromised to the support of antiquated dogmas had succeeded they would review the evidence afforded by mummies more impartially and would no longer controvert the preliminary question that human beings had lived in Egypt before the 19th century so that when a hundred years perhaps had been lost the industry and talents of the philosopher would be at last directed to the elucidation of points of real historical importance. But the above arguments are aimed against one only of many prejudices with which the earlier geologists had to contend. Even when they conceded that the earth had been peopled with animate beings at an earlier period than was at first supposed they had no conception that the quantity of time bore so great a proportion to the historical era as is now generally conceded. How fatal every error as to the quantity of time must prove to the introduction of rational views concerning the state of things in former ages may be conceived by supposing the annals of the civil and military transactions of a great nation to be perused under the impression that they occurred in a period of one hundred instead of two thousand years. Such a portion of history would immediately assume the air of a romance. The events would seem devoid of credibility and inconsistent with the present course of human affairs. A crowd of incidents would follow each other in thick succession. Armies and fleets would appear to be assembled only to be destroyed, and cities built merely to fall in ruins. There would be the most violent transitions from foreign or intestine war to periods of profound peace and the works affected during the years of disorder or tranquility would appear alike superhuman in magnitude. He who should study the monuments of the natural world under the influence of a similar infatuation must draw a no less exaggerated picture of the energy and violence of causes and must experience the same insurmountable difficulty in reconciling the former and present state of nature. If we could behold in one view all the volcanic cones thrown up in Iceland, Italy, Sicily and other parts of Europe during the last five thousand years we could see the lavas which have flowed during the same period the dislocations, subsidencies and elevations caused during earthquakes the lands added to various deltas or devoured by the sea together with the effects of devastation by floods and imagine that all these events had happened in one year we must form most exalted ideas of the activity of the agents and the suddenness of the revolutions. Were an equal amount of change to pass before our eyes in the next year could we avoid the conclusion that some great crisis of nature was at hand? If geologists therefore have misinterpreted the signs of a succession of events so as to conclude that centuries were implied where the characters imported thousands of years and thousands of years where the language of nature signified millions, they could not if they reason logically from such false premises come to any other conclusion than that the system of the natural world had undergone a complete revolution we should be warranted in ascribing the erection of the great pyramid to superhuman power if we were convinced that it was raised in one day and if we imagine in the same manner a continent or a mountain chain to have been elevated during an equally small fraction of the time which was really occupied in upheaving it we might then be justified in inferring that the subterranean movements were once far more energetic than in our own times we know that during one earthquake the coast of Chile may be raised for 100 miles to the average height of about 3 feet a repetition of 2,000 shocks of equal violence might produce a mountain chain 100 miles long and 6,000 feet high now should one or two only of these convulsions happen in a century it would be consistent with the order of events experienced by the Chileans from the earliest times but if the whole of them were to occur in the next 100 years the entire district must be depopulated scarcely any animals or plants could survive the surface would be one confused heap of ruin and desolation one consequence of undervaluing greatly the quantity of past time is the apparent coincidence which it occasions of events necessarily disconnected or which are so unusual that it would be inconsistent with all calculation of chances to suppose them to happen at one in the same time the unlooked for association of such rare phenomena is witnessed in the present course of nature it scarcely ever fails to excite a suspicion of the preternatural in those minds which are not firmly convinced of the uniform agency of secondary causes as if the death of some individual in whose fate they are interested happens to be accompanied by the appearance of a meteor or a comet or the shock of an earthquake it would be only necessary to multiply such coincidences indefinitely and the mind of every philosopher would be disturbed now it would be difficult to exaggerate the number of physical events many of them most rare and unconnected in their nature which were imagined happened in the course of a few months and numerous other examples might be found of popular geological theories which require us to imagine that a long succession of events happened in a brief and almost momentary period another liability to error very nearly allied to the former arises from the frequent contact of geological monuments to very distant periods of time we often behold at one glance the effects of causes which have acted at times incalculably remote and yet there may be no striking circumstances to mark the occurrence of a great chasm in the chronological series of nature's archives in the vast interval of time which may really have elapsed in the course of operations thus compared the physical condition of the earth may by slow and insensible modifications have become entirely altered one or more races of organic beings may have passed away and yet have left behind in the particular region under contemplation no trace of their existence to a mind unconscious of these immediate events the passage from one state of things to another must appear so violent that the idea of revolutions in the system inevitably suggests itself the imagination is as much perplexed by the deception as it might be if two distant points in space were suddenly brought into immediate proximity let us suppose for a moment that a philosopher should lie down asleep in some arctic wilderness and then be transferred by a power such as we read of in tales of enchantment to a valley in a tropical country where on awakening he might find himself surrounded by birds of brilliant plumage and all the luxuriance of animal and vegetable forms of which nature is so prodigal in those regions the most reasonable position perhaps which he could make if by the necromancer's art he were placed in such a situation would be that he was dreaming and if a geologist formed theories under a similar delusion we cannot expect him to preserve more consistency in his speculations than in the train of ideas in an ordinary dream it may afford perhaps a lively illustration of the principle here insisted upon if I recall to the reader's recollection the legend of the seven sleepers the scene of that popular fable was placed in the two centuries which elapsed between the reign of the emperor Deceus and the death of Theodosius the Younger in that interval of time between the years 249 and 450 of our era the union of the Roman Empire had been dissolved and some of its fairest provinces overrun by the barbarians of the north the seat of government had passed from Rome to Constantinople and the throne from a pagan persecutor to a succession of Christian and Orthodox princes the genius of the empire had been humbled by the dust and the altars of Diana and Hercules were on the point of being transferred to Catholic saints and martyrs the legend relates that when Deceus was still persecuting the Christians seven noble youths of Ephesus concealed themselves in a spacious cavern in the side of an adjacent mountain where they were doomed to perish by the tyrant who gave orders that the entrance should be firmly secured with a pile of huge stones they immediately fell into a deep slumber which was miraculously prolonged without injuring the powers of life during a period of 187 years at the end of that time the slaves of Adolius to whom the inheritance of the mountain had distended removed the stones to supply materials for some rustic edifice the light of the sun darted into the cavern and the seven sleepers were permitted to awake after a slumber as they thought of a few hours they were pressed by the cause of hunger and resolved that Jamblicus one of their number should secretly return to the city and be read for the use of his companions the youth could no longer recognize the once familiar aspect of his native country and his surprise was increased by the appearance of a large cross triumphantly erected over the principal gate of Ephesus his singular dress and obsolete language confounded the baker to whom he offered an ancient medal of Deceus as the current coin of the empire and Jamblicus on the suspicion of a secret treasure was dragged before the judge their mutual inquiries produced the amazing discovery that two centuries were almost elapsed since Jamblicus and his friends had escaped from the rage of a pagan tyrant this legend was received as authentic throughout the Christian world before the end of the 6th century and was afterwards introduced by Mohammed as a divine revelation into the Quran and from hence was adopted and adorned by all the nations from Bengal to Africa who professed the Mohammedan faith some vestiges even of a similar tradition have been discovered in Scandinavia quote so expressive of the sense of mankind may be ascribed to the genuine merit of the fable itself we imperceptibly advance from youth to age without observing the gradual but incessant change of human affairs and even in our larger experience of history the imagination is accustomed by a perpetual series of causes and effects to unite the most distant revolutions but if the interval between two memorable eras could be instantly annihilated if it were possible after a momentary slumber of 200 years to display the new world to the eyes of a spectator who still retained a lively and recent impression of the old his surprise and his reflections would furnish the pleasing subject of a philosophical romance end of chapter 5 part 1 recording by Patrick McAfee, Chicago chapter 5 part 2 of Principles of Geology this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Patrick McAfee, Chicago Principles of Geology by Charles Lyell chapter 5 part 2 prejudices arising from our peculiar position as inhabitants of the land the sources of prejudice hitherto considered may be deemed peculiar for the most part to the infancy of the science but others are common to the first cultivators of geology and to ourselves and are all singularly calculated to produce the same deception and to strengthen our belief that the course of nature in the earlier ages differed widely from that now established although these circumstances cannot be fully explained without assuming some things as proved which it will be the object of another part of this work to demonstrate it may be well to allude to them briefly in this place the first and greatest difficulty then consists in an habitual unconsciousness that our position as observers is essentially unfavorable when we endeavor to estimate the nature and magnitude of the changes now in progress in consequence of our inattention to this subject we are liable to serious mistakes in contrasting the present with former states of the globe as dwellers on the land we inhabit about a fourth part of the surface and that portion is almost exclusively the theater of decay and not of reproduction we know indeed that new deposits are annually formed in seas and lakes and that every year some new igneous rocks are produced in the bowels of the earth but we cannot watch the progress of their formation and as they are only present to our minds by the aid of reflection it requires an effort both of the reason and the imagination to appreciate duly their importance it is therefore not surprising that we estimate very imperfectly the result of operations thus invisible to us and that when analogous results of former epics are presented to our inspection we cannot immediately recognize the analogy he who has observed the quarrying of stone from a rock and has seen it shipped for some distant port and then endeavors to conceive what kind of edifice will be raised by the materials is in the same predicament as a geologist who while he is confined to the land sees the decomposition of rocks and the transportation of matter by rivers to the sea and then endeavors to picture to himself the new strata which nature is building beneath the waters prejudices arising from our not seeing subterranean changes nor is his position less unfavorable when beholding a volcanic eruption he tries to conceive what changes the column of lava has produced in its passage upwards on the intersected strata or what from the melted matter may assume at great depths on cooling or what may be the extent of the subterranean rivers and reservoirs of liquid matter far beneath the surface it should therefore be remembered that the task imposed on those who study the earth's history requires no ordinary share of discretion for we are precluded from collating the corresponding parts of the system of things as it exists now and as it existed at former periods if we were inhabitants of another element if the great ocean were our domain instead of the narrow limits of the land our difficulties would be considerably lessened while on the other hand there can be little doubt although the reader may perhaps smile at the bare suggestion of such an idea that an amphibious being who should possess our faculties would still more easily arrive at sound theoretical opinions in geology since he might behold on the one hand the decomposition of rocks in the atmosphere or the transportation of matter by running water and on the other examine the deposition of sediment in the sea and the embedding of animal and vegetable remains in new strata he might ascertain by direct observation the action of a mountain torrent as well as of a marine current might compare the products of volcanoes poured out upon the land with those ejected beneath the waters and might mark on the one hand the growth of the forest and on the other that of the coral reef yet even with these advantages he would be liable to fall into the greatest errors when endeavoring to reason on rocks of subterranean origin he would seek in vain within the sphere of his observation for any direct analogy to the process of their formation and would therefore be in danger of attributing them wherever they are upraised to view to some primeval state of nature but if we may be allowed so far to indulge the imagination as to suppose a being entirely confined to the nether world some dusky melancholy sprite like Umbriel who could flit on city pinions to the central earth but who was never permitted to sully the fair face of light and emerge into the regions of water and of air and if this being should busy himself in investigating the structure of the globe he might frame theories an exact converse of those usually adopted by human philosophers he might infer that the stratified rocks containing shells and other organic remains were the oldest of created things belonging to some original and nascent state of the planet of these masses he might say whether they consist of loose incoherent sand soft clay or solid stone none have been formed in modern times every year some part of them are broken and shattered by earthquakes or melted by volcanic fire and when they cool down slowly from a state of fusion they assume a new and more crystalline form no longer exhibiting that stratified disposition found those curious impressions and fantastic markings by which they were previously characterized this process cannot have been carried on for an indefinite time for in that case all the stratified rocks would long ear this have been fused and crystallized it is therefore probable that the whole planet once consisted of these mysterious and curiously bedded formations at a time when the volcanic fire had not yet been brought into activity since that period there seems to have been a gradual development of heat and this augmentation we may expect to continue till the whole globe shall be in a state of fluidity and incandescence such might be the system of the gnome at the very time that the followers of Leibniz reasoning on what they saw in the outer surface might be teaching the opposite doctrine of gradual refrigeration and a varying that the earth had begun its career as a fiery comet and might be destined hereafter to become a frozen mass the tenants of the school of the nether and of the upper world would be directly opposed to each other for both would partake of the prejudices inevitably resulting from the continual contemplation of one class of phenomena to the exclusion of another man observes the annual decomposition of crystalline and igneous rocks and may sometimes see their conversion into stratified deposits but he cannot witness the reconversion of the sedimentary into the crystalline by subterranean fire he is in the habit of regarding all the sedimentary rocks as more recent than the unstratified for the same reason that we may suppose him to fall into the opposite air if he saw the origin of the igneous class only it was not an impossible contingency that astronomers might have been placed at some period in a situation much resembling that in which the geologist seems to stand at present if the Italians for example in the early part of the 12th century had discovered at Amalfi instead of the pandex of Justinian some ancient manuscripts filled with astronomical observations relating to a period of 3,000 years and made by some ancient geometers who possessed optical instruments as perfect as any in modern Europe they would probably on consulting these memorials have come to a conclusion that there had been a great revolution in the solar and sidereal systems many primary and secondary planets they might say are enumerated in these tables which exist no longer their positions are assigned with such precision that we may assure ourselves that there is nothing in their place at present but the blue ether where one star is visible to us these documents represent several thousands some of those which are now single consisted then of two separate bodies often distinguished by different colors and revolving periodically around a common center of gravity there is nothing analogous to them in the universe at present for they were neither fixed stars nor planets but seem to have stood in the mutual relation of sun and planet to each other we must conclude therefore that there has occurred at no distant period a tremendous catastrophe whereby thousands of worlds have been annihilated at once and some heavenly bodies absorbed into the substance of others when such doctrines had prevailed for ages the discovery of some of the worlds supposed to have been lost the satellites of Jupiter for example by aid of the first rude telescope invented after the revival of science would not dissipate the delusion for the whole burden of proof would now be thrown on those who insisted on the stability of the system from a remote period and these philosophers would be required to demonstrate the existence of all the worlds said to have been annihilated such popular prejudices would be most unfavorable to the advancement of astronomy for instead of persevering in the attempt to improve their instruments and laboriously to make and record observations the greater number would despair of verifying the continued existence of the heavenly bodies not visible to the naked eye instead of confessing the extent of their ignorance and striving to remove it by bringing to light new facts they would indulge in the more easy and indolent employment of framing imaginary theories concerning catastrophes and mighty revolutions in the system of the universe for more than two centuries the Shelley strata of the sub-Apennine hills afforded matter of speculation to the early geologists of Italy and few of them had any suspicion that similar deposits were then forming in the neighboring sea they were as unconscious of the continued action of causes still producing similar effects as the astronomers in the case above supposed of the existence of certain heavenly bodies still giving and reflecting light and performing their movements as of old some imagined that the strata so rich in organic remains instead of being due to secondary agents had been so created in the beginning of things by the fiat of the Almighty others as we have seen ascribed the embedded fossil bodies to some plastic power which resided in the earth in the early ages of the world in what manner were these dogmas at length exploded the fossil relics were carefully compared with their living analogs and all doubts as to their organic origin were eventually dispelled so also in regard to the nature of the containing beds of mud, sand and limestone those parts of the bottom of the sea were examined where shells are now becoming annually entombed in new deposits Donati explored the bed of the Adriatic and found the closest resemblance between the strata there forming and those which constituted hills above a thousand feet high in various parts of the Italian Peninsula he ascertained by dredging that living Testasia were there grouped together in precisely the same manner as were their fossil analogs in the inland strata and while some of the recent shells of the Adriatic were becoming encrusted with calcareous rock he observed that others had been newly buried in sand and clay precisely as fossil shells occur in the sub-aponine hills this discovery of the identity of modern and ancient submarine operations was not made without the aid of artificial instruments which, like the telescope, brought phenomena into view not otherwise within the sphere of human observation in, like Manor, the volcanic rocks of the Vicentine had been studied in the beginning of the last century but no geologists suspected before the time of Arduino that these were composed of ancient submarine lavits during many years of controversy popular opinion inclined to a belief that basalt and rocks of the same class had been precipitated from a chaotic fluid or an ocean which rose at successive periods over the continents charged with the component elements of the rocks in question few will now dispute that it would have been difficult to invent a theory more distant from the truth and cease to wonder that it gained so many proselytes when we remember that its claims to probability arose partly from the very circumstance of its confirming the assumed want of analogy between geological causes and those now in action by what train of investigations were geologists induced at length to reject these views and to ascent to the igneous origin of the Trapean formations by an examination of volcanoes now active and by comparing their structure in the composition of their lavas with the ancient trap rocks the establishment from time to time of numerous points of identification drew at length from geologists a reluctant admission that there was more correspondence between the conditions of the globe at remote eras and now and more uniformity in the laws which have regulated the changes of its surface than they at first imagined if in this state of the science they still despaired of reconciling every class of geological phenomena to the operations of ordinary causes even by straining analogy to the utmost limits of credibility we might have expected at least that the balance of probability would now have been presumed to incline towards the close analogy of the ancient and modern causes but after repeated experience of the failure of attempts to speculate on geological monuments as belonging to a distant order of things new sects continued to persevere in the principles adopted by their predecessors they still began as each new problem presented itself whether relating to the animate or inanimate world to assume an original and dissimilar order of nature and when at length they approximated or entirely came round to an opposite opinion it was always with the feeling that they were conceding what they had been justified a priori in deeming improbable in a word the same men who as natural philosophers would have been most incredulous respecting any extraordinary deviations from the known course of nature if reported to have happened in their own time were equally disposed as geologists to expect the proofs of such deviations at every period of the past I shall proceed in the following chapters to enumerate some of the principal difficulties still opposed to the theory of the uniform nature and energy of the causes which have worked successive changes in the crust of the earth and in the condition of its living inhabitants the discussion of so important a question on the present occasion may appear premature but it is one which naturally arises out of a review of the former history of the science it is of course impossible to enter into such speculative topics without occasionally carrying the novice beyond his depth and appealing to facts and conclusions with which he will be unacquainted until he has studied some elementary work on geology but it may be useful to excite his curiosity and lead him to study such works by calling his attention at once to some of the principal points of controversy End of Chapter 5 Part 2 Recording by Patrick McAfee Chicago Chapter 6 Part 1 of Principles of Geology This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Avae in June 2019 Principles of Geology by Charles Lyall Chapter 6 Part 1 Doctrine of the discordance of the ancient and modern causes of change controverted Climate of the northern hemisphere formally different Direct proofs from the organic remains of the Italian strata Proofs from analogy derived from extinct quadrupeds embedding of animals in icebergs Siberian mammoths Evidence in regards to temperature from the fossils of tertiary and secondary rocks from the plants of the coal formation northern limit of these fossils Whether such plants could endure the long continuance of an arctic night Climate of the northern hemisphere formally different Proofs of former revolutions in climate, as deduced from fossil remains have afforded one of the most clear objections to the theory which endeavours to explain all geological changes by reference to those now in progress on the earth The probable causes therefore of fluctuations in climate may first be treated of That the climate of the northern hemisphere has undergone an important change and that its mean annual temperature must once have more nearly resembled that, now experienced within the tropics was the opinion of some of the first naturalists who investigated the contents of the ancient strata Their conjecture became more probable when the shells and corals of the older tertiary and many secondary rocks were carefully examined for the organic remains of these formations were found to be intimately connected by generic affinity with species now living in warmer latitudes At a later period many reptiles such as turtles, tortoises and large psorian animals were discovered in European formations in great abundance and they supplied new and powerful arguments from analogy in support of the doctrine that the heat of the climate had been great when our secondary strata were deposited Lastly, when the botanist turned his attention to the specific determination of fossil plants the evidence acquired still further confirmation for the flora of a country is peculiarly influenced by temperature and the ancient vegetation of the earth might have been expected more readily than the forms of animals to have afforded conflicting proofs had the popular theory been without foundation When the examination of fossil remains was extended to rocks in the most northern parts of Europe and North America and even to the Arctic regions indications of the same revolution in climate were discovered It cannot be said that in this, as in many other departments of geology we have investigated the phenomena of former eras and neglected those of the present state of things On the contrary, since the first agitation of this interesting the accessions to our knowledge of living animals and plants have been immense and have far surpassed all the data previously obtained for generalizing on the relation of certain types of organization to particular climates The tropical and temperate zones of South America and of Australia have been explored and on close comparison it has been found that scarcely any of the species of the animate creation in these extensive continents are identical with those inhabiting the old world Yet the zoologist and botanist well acquainted with the geographical distribution of organic beings in other parts of the globe would have been able if distinct groups of species had been presented to them from these regions to recognize those which had been collected from latitudes within those which were brought from without the tropics Before I attempt to explain the probable causes of great vicissitudes of temperature on the earth's surface I shall take a rapid view of some of the principal data which appear to support the popular opinions now entertained on the subject To insist on the soundness of these inferences is the more necessary to indicate the uniformity of the laws of nature not by accounting for former fluctuations in climate but by denying the value of the evidence in their favor Proofs from fossil shells in tertiary strata In Sicily, Calabria and the neighborhood of Naples the fossil testesia of the most modern tertiary formations belong almost entirely to inhabiting the Mediterranean but as we proceed northwards in the Italian peninsula we find in the strata called sub-apennine an assemblage of fossil shells departing somewhat more widely from the type of the neighboring seas The proportion of species identifiable with those now living in the Mediterranean is still considerable but it no longer predominates as in the south of Italy Sicily over the unknown species Although occurring in localities which are removed several degrees farther from the equator as in Siena, Parma, Asti etc. the shells yield clear indications of a warmer climate This evidence is of great weight and is not neutralized by any facts of a conflicting character such for instance as the association in the same group of individuals referable to species now confined to Arctic regions Whenever any of the fossil shells are identified with living species foreign to the Mediterranean it is not in the northern ocean but nearer the tropics that they must be sought On the other hand the associated unknown species belong for the most part to genera which are now most largely developed in equinoxial regions for example the genera Cancelaria, Cassidaria Plurotoma, Conus and Cypria On comparing the fossils of the tertiary deposits of Paris and London with those of Bordeaux and these again with the more modern strata of Sicily we should at first expect that they would each indicate a higher temperature in proportion as they are situated farther to the south but the contrary is true of the shells belonging to these several groups whether freshwater or marine some are of extinct others of living species those found in the older or Eocene deposits of Paris and London although 6 or 7 degrees to the north of the myocene strata at Bordeaux afford evidence of a warmer climate while those of Bordeaux imply that the sea in which they lived was of a higher temperature than that of Sicily where the Shelley strata was formed 6 or 7 degrees nearer to the equator in these cases the greater antiquity of the several formation the Parisian being the oldest and the Sicilian the newest has more than counter balanced the influence which latitude would otherwise exert and this phenomenon clearly points to a gradual and successive refrigeration of climate Siberian mammoths it will naturally be asked whether some recent geological discoveries bringing evidence to light of a colder or as it has been termed glacial epoch towards the close of the tertiary periods throughout the northern hemisphere does not conflict with the theory above alluded to of a warmer temperature having prevailed in the eras of the Eocene, myocene and Pliocene formations in answer to this inquiry it may certainly be affirmed that an oscillation of climate has occurred in times immediately antecedent to the peopling of the earth by men but proved to the intercalation of a less genial climate at an era where nearly all the marine and terrestrial testesia had already become specifically the same as those now living by no means rebots the conclusion previously drawn in favor of a warmer condition of the globe during the ages which elapsed while the tertiary strata were deposited in some of the most superficial patches of sand, gravel and loam scattered very generally over Europe and containing recent shells the remains of extinct species of land quadrupeds have been found especially in places where the alluvial matter appears to have been washed into small lakes or into depressions in the plains bordering ancient rivers similar deposits have also been lodged in rents and caverns of rocks where they may have been swept in by land floods or introduced by engulfed rivers during changes in the physical geography of these countries the various circumstances under which the bones of animals have been thus preserved are currently considered hereafter I shall only state here that among the extinct mammalia thus entombed we find species of the elephant, rhinoceros hippopotamus, bear hyena, lion tiger, monkey macaques and many others consisting partly of genera now confined to warmer regions it is certainly probable that when some of these quadrupeds abounded in Europe the climate was milder than that now experienced the hippopotamus for example is now only met with where the temperature of the water is warm and nearly uniform throughout the year and where the rivers are never frozen over yet when the great fossil species hyperpotamus major, cuv inhabited England the testesia of our country were nearly the same as those now existing and the climate cannot be supposed to have been very hot the bones of this animal have lately been found by Mr Strickland together with those of a bear and other mammalia at Cropthorn near Eversham in Worcestershire in alluvial sand together with 23 species of terrestrial and freshwater shells all with two exceptions of British species the bed of sand containing the shells and bones reposes on liars and is covered with alternating strata of gravel sand and loam the mammoth also appears to have existed in England when the temperature of our latitudes could not have been very different from that which now prevails for remains of this animal have been found at North Cliff in the county of York in a lacus trine formation in which all the land and freshwater shells 13 in number can be identified with species and varieties now existing in that county bones of the bison also an animal now inhabiting a cold or a temperate climate have been found in the same place that these quadrupeds and the indigenous species of testesia associated with them were all contemporary inhabitants of Yorkshire has been established by unequivocal proof the reverent W. V. Vernon Harcourt caused a pit to be sunk to the depth of 22 feet through undisturbed strata in which the remains of the mammoth were found embedded together with the shells in a deposit which had evidently resulted from tranquil waters in the valley of the Thames as at Ilford and Greys in Essex bones of the elephant and rhinoceros occur in strata abounding in freshwater shells of the genera unio cyclus, paludina vulveta, ancillus and others these fossil shells belong for the most part to species now living in the same district yet some few of them are extinct as for example a species of Cyrena a genus no longer inhabiting Europe and now entirely restricted to warmer latitudes when reasoning on such phenomena the reader must always bear in mind that the fossil individuals belong to species of elephant rhinoceros, hippopotamus bear, tiger and hyena distinct from those which now dwell within or near the tropics Dr. Fleming in a discussion on this subject has well remarked that a near resemblance in form and osteological structure is not always followed in the existing creation by a similarity of geographical distribution and we must therefore be on our guard against deciding too confidently from mere analogy of anatomical structure respecting the habits and physiological peculiarities of species now no more the zebra delights to roam over the tropical plains while the horse can maintain its existence throughout an Iceland winter the buffalo like the zebra prefers a high temperature and cannot thrive even where the common ox prospers the musk ox on the other hand though nearly resembling the buffalo prefers distented herbage of the Arctic regions and is able by its periodical migrations to outlive a northern winter the jackal, Canis aureus inhabits Africa the warmer parts of Asia and Greece while the isatis Canis lagapus resides in the Arctic regions the African here and the polar here have their geographical distribution expressed in their trivial names and different species of bears thrive in tropical, temperate and Arctic latitudes recent investigations have placed beyond all doubt the important fact that a species of tiger identical with that of Bengal is common in the neighborhood of Lake Aral near Sasak in the 45th degree of north latitude and from time to time this animal is now seen in Siberia in a latitude as far north as the parallel of Berlin and Hamburg Humboldt remarks that a part of southern Asia now inhabited by this Indian species of tiger is separated from the Himalaya by two great chains of mountains each covered with perpetual snow the chain of Quen Lun latitude 35 degrees north and that of Muttstag latitude 42 degrees so that it is impossible that these animals should merely have made excursions from India so as to have penetrated in summer to the 48th and 53rd degrees of north latitude they must remain all the winter north of the Muttstag or celestial mountains the last tiger killed in 1828 on the Lena in latitude 52 1 quarter degree was in a climate colder than that of Petersburg and Stockholm we learn from Mr. Hodgson's account of the mammalia of Nepal that a tiger is sometimes found at the very edge of perpetual snow in the Himalaya and Pennant mentions that it is found among the snows of Mount Ararat in Armenia the jaguar also has been seen in America wandering from Mexico as far north as Kentucky latitude 37 degrees north and even as far as 42 degrees south in South America a latitude which corresponds to that of the Pyrenees in the northern hemisphere the range of the Puma is still wider for it roams from the equator to the straits of Magellan being often seen at Port Famine in latitude 53 degrees 38 minutes south a new species of panther Phyllis erbis covered with long hair has been discovered in Siberia evidently inhabiting like the tiger a region north of the celestial mountains which are in latitude 42 degrees the two horned African rhinoceros occurs without the tropics at the Cape of Good Hope in latitude 34 degrees 29 minutes south where it is accompanied by the elephant hippopotamus and hyena here the migration of all these species towards the south is arrested by the ocean but if the continent had been prolonged still farther and the land had been of moderate elevation it is very probable that they might have extended their range of distance from the tropics now if the Indian tiger can range in our own times to the southern borders of Siberia or skirt the snows of the Himalayas and if the Puma can reach the 53rd degree of latitude in South America we may easily understand how large species of the same genera may once have inhabited our temperate climates the mammoth, e. primigine that he alluded to as occurring fossil in England was decidedly different from the two existing species of elephants one of which is limited to Asia south of the 31st degree of northern latitude the other to Africa where it extends as before stated as far south as the Cape of Good Hope the bones of the great fossil species are very widely spread over Europe and North America in such profusion as in Siberia particularly near the shores of the frozen ocean are we then to conclude that this animal preferred a polar climate? if so it may well be asked by what food was it sustained and why does it not still survive near the Arctic Circle footnote the speculations which follow on the ancient physical geography of Siberia and its former fitness as a residence for the mammoth were first given in their present form in my fourth edition, June 1835 recently Dr. Sir Murchison and his companions in their great work on the geology of Russia 1845 volume 1 page 497 have, in citing this chapter, declared that their investigations have led them to similar conclusions Professor Owen, in his excellent history of British fossil mammalia 1844 page 261 at Sekwitur observes that the teeth of the mammoth differ from those of the living Asiatic or African elephant in having a larger proportion of dense animal which may have enabled it to subsist on the coarser lignious tissues of trees and shrubs in short he is of opinion that the structure of its teeth as well as the nature of its epidermis and coverings may have made it a meat companion for the reindeer and footnote palace and other writers describe the bones of the mammoth as abounding throughout all the lowlands of Siberia stretching in a direction west and east from the borders of Europe to the extreme point nearest America and south and north from the base of the mountains of Central Asia to the shores of the Arctic Sea Seamap figure one within this space scarly inferior in area to the whole of Europe fossil ivory has been collected almost everywhere on the banks of the Ertisch Obi, Yenisei, Lena and other rivers the elephantine remains do not occur in the marshes and low plains where the banks of the rivers present lofty precipices of sand and clay from which circumstance palace very justly inferred that if sections could be obtained similar bones might be found in all the elevated lands intervening between the great rivers Strahlenberg indeed had stated before the time of palace that wherever any of the great rivers overflowed and cut out fresh channels during floods more fossil remains of the same kind were invariably disclosed as to the position of the bones palace found them in some places embedded together with marine remains in others simply with fossil wood or lignite such as he says might have been derived from carbonized peat on the banks of the Yenisei below the city of Krasnoyarsk in latitude 56 degrees he observed grinders and bones of elephants in strata of yellow and red loam alternating with coarse sand and gravel in which was also much petrified wood of the willow and other trees neither here nor in the neighboring country where there any marine shells but merely layers of black coal but grinders of the mammoth were collected much farther down the same river near the sea in latitude 70 degrees mixed with marine petrifactions many other places in Siberia are cited by palace where seashells and fishes teeth accompany the bones of the mammoth rhinoceros and Siberian buffalo or bison bos Priskas but it is not on the obi nor the Yenisei but on the Lena farther to the east where in the same parallels of latitude the coal is far more intense that fossil remains have been found in the most wonderful state of preservation in 1772 palace obtained from Viljujskoy in latitude 64 degrees from the banks of the Viljuj a tributary of the Lena the carcass of a rhinoceros our tico rhinos taken from the sand in which it must have remained congealed for ages the soil of that region being always frozen to within a slight depth of the surface this carcass was compared to a natural mummy and emitted an order like putrid flesh part of the skin being still covered with black and grey hairs so great indeed was the quantity of hair on the foot and head conveyed to St. Petersburg that palace asked whether the rhinoceros of the Lena might not have been an inhabitant of the temperate regions of Middle Asia its clothing being so much warmer than that of the African rhinoceros Professor Brandt of St. Petersburg in a letter to Baron Alexander von Humboldt dated 1846 adds the following particulars respecting this wonderful fossil relic I have been so fortunate as to extract from cavities in the molar teeth of the Viljuj rhinoceros a small quantity of its half-chewed food among which fragments of pine leaves one half of the seed of a polygenic sea as plant and very minute portions of wood with porous cells were small fragments of coniferous wood were still recognizable it was also remarkable on a close investigation of the head that the blood vessels discovered in the interior of the mass appeared filled even to the capillary vessels with a brown mass coagulated blood which in many places still showed the red color of blood after more than 30 years the entire carcass of a mammoth or extinct species of elephant was obtained in 1803 by Mr. Adams much farther to the north it fell from a mass of ice in which it had been encased on the banks of the Lena in latitude 70 degrees and so perfectly had the soft parts of the carcass been preserved that the flesh, as it lay was devoured by wolves and bears this skeleton is still in the museum of St. Petersburg the head retaining its integument and many of the ligaments entire the skin of the animal was covered first with black bristles thicker than horse hair from 12 to 16 inches in length secondly with hair of a reddish brown color about 4 inches long and thirdly with wool of the same color as the hair about an inch in length of the fur upwards of 30 pounds weight were gathered from the wet sand bank the individual was 9 feet high and 16 feet long without reckoning the large curved tusks a size rarely surpassed by the largest living male elephants it is evident then that the mammoth instead of being naked like the living Indian and African elephants was enveloped in a thick shaggy covering of fur probably as impenetrable to rain and cold as that of the musk ox footnote Fleming editor new philosophical journal number 12 page 285 Bishop Haber informs us narrative of a journey through the upper provinces of India volume 2 page 166 to 219 that in the lower range of the Himalaya mountains in the north-eastern borders of the Delhi territory between latitude 29 degrees and 30 degrees he saw an Indian elephant of a small size covered with shaggy hair but this variety must be exceedingly rare for Mr. Royal late superintendent of the East India Company's Botanic Garden at Sarah Hoonpour has assured me that being in India when Haber's journal appeared and having never seen or heard of such elephants he made the strictest inquiries respecting the fact and was never able to obtain any evidence in corroboration Mr. Royal resided at Saharanpour latitude 30 degrees north upon the extreme northern limits of the range of the elephant Mr. Everest also declares that he has been equally unsuccessful in finding anyone aware of the existence of such a variety or breed of the animal though one solitary individual was mentioned to him as having been seen at Delhi with a good deal of long hair upon it the greatest elevation says Mr. Everest at which the wild elephant is found in the mountains to the north of Nepal is at a place called Nahun about 4,000 feet above the level of the sea and in the 31st degree of northern latitude where the mean yearly temperature may be about 64 degrees Fahrenheit and the difference between winter and summer very great equal to about 36 degrees Fahrenheit the month of January averaging 45 degrees and June the hottest month 81 degrees Fahrenheit Everest on climates of fossil elephants Journal of Asiatic Society number 25 page 21 end footnote the species may have been fitted by nature to withstand the vicissitudes of a northern climate and it is certain that from the moment when the carcasses both of the rhinoceros and elephant above described were buried in Siberia at the latitudes 64 degrees and 70 degrees north the soil must have remained frozen and the atmosphere nearly as cold as at this day the most recent discovery is made in 1843 by Mr. Middendorf a distinguished Russian naturalist and which he communicated to me in September 1846 afford more precise information as to the climate of the Siberian lowlands at the period when the extinct quadrupeds were entombed one elephant was found on the Tass between the Orbea and Yenisei near the Arctic Circle about latitude 66 degrees 30 minutes north with some parts of the flesh in so perfect a state that the bulb of the eye is now preserved in the museum at Moscow another carcass together with a young individual of the same species was met with the same year 1843 in latitude 75 degrees 15 minutes north near the river Taimyr with the flesh decayed it was embedded in strata of clay and sand with erratic blocks at about 15 feet above the level of the sea in the same deposit Mr. Middendorf observed the trunk of a large tree Pinus Larix the same wood as that in abundance by the Taimyr to the Arctic sea there were also associated fossil shells of living northern species and which are more over characteristic of the drift or glacial deposits of Europe among these, Nukula pygmia Telina calcera Maya troncata and Saxicava rugosa were conspicuous so fresh is the ivory throughout northern Russia that according to Tilesias thousands of fossil tusks have been collected and used in turning yet others are still procured and sold in great plenty he declares his belief that the bones still left in northern Russia must greatly exceed in number all the elephants now living on the globe we are as yet ignorant of the entire geographical range of the mammoth but its remains have been recently taken from the cliffs of frozen mud and ice on the east side of Bearing's Straits in Eschschold's Bay in Russian America latitude 66 degrees north as the cliffs waste away by the thawing of the ice tusks and bones fall out and a strong odor of animal matter is exhaled from the mud on considering all the facts above enumerated it seems the large region in Central Asia including perhaps the southern half of Siberia enjoyed at no very remote period in the earth's history a temperate climate sufficiently mild to afford food for numerous herds of elephants and rhinoceroses of species distinct from those now living it has usually been taken for granted that herbivorous animals of large size require a very luxuriant application for their support but this opinion is, according to Mr. Darwin, completely erroneous it has been derived he says from our acquaintance with India and the Indian islands where the mind has been accustomed to associate troops of elephants with noble forests and impenetrable jungles but the southern parts of Africa from the tropic of Capricorn to the Cape of Good Hope are considered a remarkable for the number and great bulk of the indigenous quadrupeds we there meet with an elephant five species of rhinoceros a hippopotamus a giraffe the boss caffer the elan two zebras the quagga two noose and several antelopes nor must we suppose that while the species are numerous it saw in one day's march in latitude 24 degrees south without wondering to any great distance on either side about 150 rhinoceroses with several herds of giraffes and his party had killed on the previous night eight hippopotamuses yet the country which they inhabited was thinly covered with grass and bushes about four feet high and still more thinly with mimosa trees so that the wagons of the travelers were not prevented from proceeding in a nearly direct line End of chapter 6 part 1