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VI. Sixth duy. Beasts, Reptiles, and MAN.

VII. Seventh day. SABBATH OF REST.

stones. Fossil shells, coral, lacerta, fishes, and vegetables. Third sandstone, or green sand. Fourth limestone and chalk. Fossil shells, coals, lacerta, turtles, and fishes. Brown coal formation. Hertfordshire pudding-stone.

Paris formation. First appearance of fossil remains of birds and mammiferous animals. Remains of extinct species of Elephant, Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus, Tapir, Deer, Hyena, Bear. Fossil remains of the human species.* First appearance in this formation.

In speaking of the general conformation of our earth, Mr. Cuvier observes, that the lowest and most level parts of the earth, 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 tenderest processes. Every part of the earth, each hemisphere, every continent, every island of any size, exhibits the same phenomena. 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

* See note, p. 67, 68.

time and in a state of tranquility, which circumstance was necessary for the formation of deposits so extensive, so thick, in part so solid, and containing exuvia so perfectly preserved.1

Now, select, by way of illustration of the above, the work of the third day, which was that of bringing together the granitic and earthy particles of the primitive aquatic elements, the former constituting thenceforward the primitive rock or skeleton of our globe, the latter, the soil with which it was covered. Then clothe this soil with vegetation-trees, herbs, and grass. You have now only to suppose this third day to be a period of vast length, and, as Mr. Faber remarks, the whole face of the earth, already separated from the waters, would soon become overspread with a rank and luxuriant vegetation: one generation of trees and plants would succeed another: a large accumulation of mould would be produced through their decomposition: and, either by one of those sudden and mighty revolutions which appear to have repeatedly agitated this globe previous to the formation of God's last work man, or even (we may venture to say) in the ordinary course of nature itself, vast masses of fallen timber would be plunged beneath the surface of extensive bogs and morasses; there, through the process either of stony accretion or of bituminous fermentation to be gradually transmuted, partly into fossil wood and partly into fossil coal. 2

1. Theory, § 4, pp. 7, 8.

2. Treatise on three Dispen. vol., I. pp., 131, 132.

The same argument may be also applied to the fifth and sixth days; similar mundane revolutions producing similar effects. Then, too, the order of fossil strata must be expected to correspond with the order of these successive revolutions: i. e., fossil fishes and other marine exuviæ, together with fossil birds, must be deposited above fossil wood and fossil coal, as the products of the fifth day; and those of fossil animals and fossil reptiles, above those of fossil birds, &c., as the products of the sixth day, which agrees precisely with the classification of Cuvier, as given on a preceding page.

As to the intermixtures of fossil stratification as given in Cuvier's table, placing fossil shells and corals IMMEDIATELY next to that of the primitive rock, they cannot be accounted for on the diluvian theory' of that writer, which assumes "that the flood (Noah's flood) was produced by a complete interchange of land and water. For, first, the four Asiatic antediluvian rivers are [to this day] geographically marked out and determined and identified by post-diluvian characteristics. " 2 And second, existing phenomena of the bones of landanimals, found under circumstances which prove them to have inhabited the precise regions where these their relics have been discov

*

* These phenomena, says Mr. Faber, seem to me quite decisive as to the fact, that we now inhabit the very same tracts of land that our ante-diluvian forefathers did, and consequently that we are not now living upon the bed of the ante-diluvian ocean.

In various parts of the world, caves have been discovered con1. Essay on Theory of the Earth. § 34. p., 173, 171.

2. Treatise on three Dis. vol I., p. 136.

ered." Still, it is beyond contradiction that we are now inhabiting the bed of a PRIMEVAL ocean. Where then, we ask, are we to look for the mighty convulsions of nature productive of such interchanges of land and sea,

taining numerous bones of land-animals, which certainly could not have been there deposited by the action of water. Hence the obvious inference is, an inference in truth drawn by Cuvier himself, that the animals, to which those bones belonged, must have lived and died peaceably on the spot where we now find them: and the propriety of this inference is further established by the nature of the earthy matter in which the bones are enveloped; for, according to Laugier, it contains an intermixture of animal matter with phosphate of lime and probably also phosphate of iron. But, if this inference be well founded, then it is plainly impossible, that our present tracts of land can have constituted the bed of the ante-diluvian ocean: because, in that case, the animals could not, before the deluge, have inhabited the regions where their bones are now found; such regions, according to the theory of Cuvier, having constituted the bed of the ocean as it existed immediately before the deluge.

As the subject is of no small importance, the inference in question clearly confirming the Mosaical history which describes the present race of men as inhabiting the self-same tracts of land which were inhabited by their ante-diluvian forefathers, it may not be uninteresting to adduce some of the facts on which the inference is founded.

1. Remains of the skeletons of animals are found in great abundance in limestone caves in Germany and Hungary. The bones occur nearly in the same state in all these caves; detached, broken, but never rolled: and, consequently, they have not been brought from a distance by the agency of water. They are somewhat lighter and less compact than recent bones, but slightly decomposed, contain much gelatine, and are never mineralized. They are generally enveloped in an indurated earth, which contains animal matter; sometimes in a kind of alabaster or calcareous sinter:

by which these interchanges and derangements of the regular order of fossil stratification have been produced? Certainly, for the reasons above stated, not between the Creation of Man and the General Deluge! which, it is

and, by means of this mineral, they are sometimes attached to the walls of the caves. These bones are the same in all the caves hitherto examined: and it is worthy of remark, that they occur in an extent of upwards of 200 leagues. Cuvier estimates, that rather more than three fourths of these bones belong to species of bears now extinct; while one half or two thirds of the remaining fourth belong to a species of hyena. A very small number of these remains belong to a species of the genus lion or tiger: and another, to animals of the dog or wolf kinds. Lastly, the smallest portion belongs to different species of smaller carnivorous animals, as the fox and polecat. It is quite evident, that these bones could not have been introduced into these caves by the action of water, because the smallest processes or inequalities on their surface are preserved. Cuvier is therefore inclined to conjecture, that the animals, to which they be longed, must have lived and died peaceably on the spot where we now find them.

2. The relics of several species of Mastodans have been found in various parts of America. The beds, which contain them, are generally alluvial, either sandy or marly, and always near the earth's surface. In many places, they are accompanied with accumulations of marine animal remains: and, in other places, the sand and marl which cover them contain only fresh-water shells. The catastrophe, which has buried them, appears to have been a transient marine inundation. The bones are neither rolled nor in skeletons; but dispersed, and in part broken or fractured. They have not therefore been brought there from a distance by an inundation but have been found by it in the places where it has covered them; as might be expected, if the animals to which they belonged had dwelt in these places, and had there successively died. Hence it appears, that, before this catastrophe, these animals lived in the countries where we now find their bones.

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