CHAPTER XII.THE TERTIARY SYSTEM.

â€œAnd God made the beast of the earth after his kind.â€Moses.

â€œAnd God made the beast of the earth after his kind.â€

Moses.

In our rapid sketch of the materials constituting the crust of the earth, we first of all, in that imaginary section which we supposed to have been laid bare to us, studied the characters of the hypogene rocks,[110]that make up the Azoic period, in which, with the exception of a few zoophytes, all nature was void of animal, life and possessed only by the genius of dread silence. Rising higher, we surveyed the PalÃ¦ozoic or primary rocks, where the fishes of the Old Red Sandstone convinced us of progress in the forms of life, and taught us our first lesson in the ascending scale of those types of life with which PalÃ¦ontology has now made us familiar. Leaving this period at the Carboniferous era, we entered upon the Mesozoic,[111]orSecondary period, ushered in amidst strange convulsions that must again and again have rendered the earth â€œwithout form and void;â€ and here we found ourselves in company with the strange and gigantic remains of a higher order of vertebrated animals, the saurians, the crocodile-kings of a bygone period; and as we pondered these hieroglyphics of past generations, our souls â€œwere seized the prisoners of amaze;â€ and now, in our upward ascent, leaving behind us the scenes

â€œWhere eldest NightAnd Chaos, ancestors of nature, heldEternal anarchy,â€

â€œWhere eldest Night

And Chaos, ancestors of nature, held

Eternal anarchy,â€

we come to the Cainozoic,[112]or Tertiary Rocks, where other and higher types of life are found. Huge mammals, beasts of prodigious size, are now found inhabitants of the earth, the precursors of manâ€”reasoning, intelligent, responsible man, who is presently to make his appearance on this great theatre of life, â€œmade a little lower than the angels,â€ to have dominion over the works of Jehovahâ€™s power.

Sir H. de la Beche proposes, for tertiary, theterm â€œsupercretaceous;â€ it is, however, of little consequence which term is adopted, the meaning in each case being the same, that all the rocks or strata lying above the chalk are to be considered as belonging to the tertiary system or series. Confessedly, it is a dark period in the history of those successive creations which have been engaging our attention, for we can trace no near connexion between the secondary or older, and tertiary or newer formations. That is to sayâ€”and the bare statement appears so sufficient and final a refutation of what has been termed the â€œdevelopment hypothesis,â€ now recognised as contradictory to fact and to Scriptureâ€”that there are not known to exist in any of these newer strata the same beings, or the descendants of the same beings, that were found upon the earth at the termination of the chalk deposit.

Nor is this all; not only are none of the old fossils found in any one of the three divisions of this system, but we are introduced at once to so many new ones, that their species and genera are almost endless; and he is not only a geologist of mark, but a most singularly accomplished geologist, who thoroughly understandstheir minute subdivisions, and can appropriately classify the fossils of this most fossiliferous era. To make the matter as simple as possible, let us add that â€œthe broad distinction between tertiary and secondary rocks is apalÃ¦ontologicalone. None of the secondary rocks contain any fossil animals or plants of thesame speciesas any of those living at the present day. Every one of the tertiary groupsdocontain some fossil animals or plants of thesame speciesas those now living.â€[113]

Having alluded to the threefold division of this series of rocks, we shall proceed to notice them, dwelling a while upon each, and showing the principle on which each is based, as originated and enunciated by Lyell. Of the three divisions, the first is calledEocene(Ä“Ås, the dawn, andkainÅs, recent), by which term is represented the oldest or lowest of this tripartite series. Then we have theMiocene(meiÅn, less, andkainÅs, recent)â€”a name, we think, not the most appropriate, and likely to mislead the beginner, because really it represents a series of beds,moreand notlessrecent thantheEocene; but the idea of the name is this (and it must be carefully borne in mind), that although it ismorerecent than the series of bedsbelow, it islessrecent than thoseabove; it is nearer the â€œdawnâ€ of our present era than theEocene, but not so near the dawn as thePliocene. This last term, thePliocene(frompleiÅn, more, andkainÅs, recent), is applied to the newest of the beds of the tertiary series in which there are found manymore recentthan extinct shells. The Tertiary system or series, then, is divided into these three sections: viz. 1. The older Tertiary or Eocene; 2. The middle Tertiary or Miocene; and 3. The newer Tertiary or Pliocene.

We used a term just now, in quoting from Mr. Jukeâ€™s most useful manual, which we will explain; we said, the â€œdistinction between the secondary and tertiary rocks is wholly apalÃ¦ontologicalone;â€ that is, it is a distinction founded not on the character of the rocks, but on the character of theorganic remainsfound in the rocks. â€œThis character,â€ says Sir Charles Lyell, â€œmust be used as a criterion of the age of a formation, or of the contemporaneous origin of two deposits in differentplaces, under very much the same restrictions as the test of mineral composition.

â€œFirst, the same fossils may be traced over wide regions, if we examine strata in the direction of their planes, although by no means for indefinite distances.

â€œSecondly, while the same fossils prevail in a particular set of strata for hundreds of miles in a horizontal direction, we seldom meet with the same remains for many fathoms, and very rarely for several hundred yards, in a vertical line, or a line transverse to the strata. This fact has now been verified in almost all parts of the globe, and has led to a conviction, that at successive periods of the past, the same area of land and water has been inhabited by species of animals and plants even more distinct than those which now people the antipodes, or which now coexist in the Arctic, temperate, and tropical zones. It appears that, from the remotest periods, there has been ever acoming in of new organic forms, and anextinction of those which pre-existed on the earth, some species having endured for a longer, others for a shorter time; while none have ever reappeared after once dying out. The law which has governedthe creation and extinction of species seems to be expressed in the verse of the poetâ€”

â€˜Nature made him, and then broke the die;â€™

and this circumstance it is which confers on fossils their highest value as chronological tests, giving to each of them, in the eyes of the geologist, that authority which belongs to contemporary medals in history. The same cannot be said of each peculiar variety of rock; for some of these, as red-marl and red sandstone for example, may occur at once upon the top, bottom, and middle of the entire sedimentary series; exhibiting in each position so perfect an identity of mineral aspect, as to be undistinguishable. Such exact repetitions, however, of the same mixtures of sediment, have not often been produced, at distant periods, in precisely the same parts of the globe; and even where this has happened, we are seldom in any danger of confounding together the monuments of remote eras, when we have studied their imbedded fossils and relative position.â€[114]

Let us now briefly explain the very simple but satisfactory basis on which this threefold division of the Tertiary rocks rests, and thenproceed to a brief explanation of each. The reader will already have noted a statement on a preceding page, to which we shall be pardoned, if, a second time, we ask attention to it. In imparting elementary instruction on geology we have always found our classes more or less puzzled by the tertiary system, on account of its nomenclature and minute subdivisions, and we have learnt from experience the importance of presenting this statement over and over again. We have remarked that in thesecondary rocksâ€”that is, up to the end of the chalk systemâ€”there arenoorganic remains found precisely similar to any species existing at the present day; but when we come to the tertiary rocks, although we find many strangers, we find also a good many organic remains of the same kind and character as the shells, that are now found on our shores. In one part of the Tertiary the number of fossils that belongs to existing genera is many, in another more, in another more still; and upon this simple idea of positive, comparative, and superlative, the present division is based. Taking thepercentageprinciple as a guide, Sir Charles Lyell and a distinguished French geologist, M. Deshayes, have ascertainedthat in the lowest beds of this system there were only 3Â½ per cent. of fossil shells similar to existing species, and this, for â€œthe sake of clearness and brevity,â€ says Sir Charles, â€œwas called theEoceneperiod, or the period of the dawn, the dawn of our modern era so far as its testaceous fauna are concerned.â€ Rising higher in the examination of these rocks, certain strata were found containing 18 per cent. of fossil shells, similar to shells found now; and to this was given the name ofMiocene, the puzzling name already spoken of, because it meanslessrecent, whereas it is in realitymorerecent, and is to be understood in relation to the seriesbelow, and not to the seriesabove. A step higher up in this system revealed deposits of a coralline and craggy character, in which 41 per cent. of fossil shells like those of the present era were found; and to this the name ofPliocene, or more recent still, was given; and latterly, in Sicily chiefly, a series of strata has been discovered, referable to the Tertiary, in which 95 per cent. of recent species of shells have been found, and to this series the name of Post-Pliocene, orPleistocene, has been given. Before our description of each of these divisions, let us add, that â€œthe organicremains of the systemconstitute its most important and interesting feature. The fossils of earlier periods presented little analogy, often no resemblance, to existing plants and animals; here, however, the similitude is frequently so complete, that the naturalist can scarcely point out a distinction between them and living races. Geology thus unfolds a beautiful gradation of being, from the corals, molluscs, and simple crustacea of the grauwackeâ€”the enamelled fishes, crinoidea, and cryptogamic plants of the lower secondaryâ€”the chambered shells, sauroid reptiles, and marsupial mammalia of the upper secondaryâ€”up to the true dicotyledonous trees, birds, and gigantic quadrupeds of the tertiary epoch. The student must not, however, suppose that the fossils of this era bring him up to the present point of organic nature, for thousands of species which then lived and flourished became in their turn extinct, and were succeeded by others long before man was placed on the earth as the head of animated existence. OfPlants, few marine species have been detected; but the fresh-water beds have yielded cycadeÃ¦, coniferae, palms, willows, elms, and other species, exhibiting the true dicotyledonous structure. Nutsallied to those of the cocoa and other palms have been discovered in the London clay; and seeds of the fresh-watercharaceÃ¦, or stoneworts, known by the name ofgyrgonites(Gr.,gyros, curved, andgonos, seed), are common in the same deposit. Of theRadiata,Articulata, andMollusca, so many belong to existing genera, that this circumstance has suggested the classification of tertiary rocks according to the number of recent species which they contain.â€â€”Chambersâ€™ Outlines, p. 147.

Let us now beginthe Eocene period. The most remarkable formations of this period are the London and Hampshire basins. Of the London basin we have already spoken in a previous chapter; a few additional remarks will be sufficient. The diagrams 4 and 5, p. 25, will explain these tertiary deposits better than any verbal explanation; and when it is remembered that this bed of clay is probably a thousand feet in thickness, we get a passing illustration of the folly of those puerile reports which a few years since were industriously circulated about a coming earthquake in London. Poor, uneducated people took up the alarm rather anxiously, never dreaming of what any tyro inscience would have told themâ€”that supposing there was a subterranean chimney on fire down below, there was a wet blanket under their feet composed of a thousand feet of sodden and solid clay, a blanket of the material they may see in the deep cuttings of the Great Northern Railway in and about London, that would most effectually have put out any fire, or checked the progress of any earthquake, just as a cannon-ball is stopped dead by a woolsack.

A run down the river Thames will take any one who has a day to spare to the isle of Sheppey, where he will be amply rewarded by seeing, on the north side of the island, an exposure of this formation in the cliff laid bare to the height of 200 feet, and which pleasure trip will be amply rewarded by the discoveryin situof the fossil tropical plants, &c., that once flourished in the neighbourhood of our cold and foggy London. â€œAt the entrance of the Thames, the London clay extends on both sides of the river, and is admirably exhibited in the isle of Sheppey, which consists entirely of this stratum. The cliffs on the north side of the island are upwards of 200 feet high, and are cut down vertically by the action of the sea;they have long been celebrated for the remarkable abundance and variety of the organic remains obtained from them, amongst which, perhaps, the most interesting are the fruits, berries, and woody seed-vessels of several hundred species of plants. From the same locality there have also been obtained the remains of upwards of fifty species of fish, and a considerable number of crustaceans, and many other invertebrata; besides some remarkable bones which have been described by Professor Owen, and which indicate the former existence in this island of large serpents, and of such birds as prey upon small reptiles and mammalia. Many of these fossils, especially those of plants, are very difficult to preserve, owing to the great tendency of the iron pyrites, which enter largely into their composition, to effloresce and be destroyed by exposure to the atmosphere.â€[115]

Passing from the London basin to the Hampshire basin or Barton beds, we shall first give a group of the shells found here; and we wish our readers could look at them as they lie before us in their condition of most exquisite preservation, so exquisite, that those who have seen themhave involuntarily and frequently exclaimed, â€œBut these canâ€™t be fossils!â€ I know of no picture-painting of past history so touching, and yet so true, as these lovely specimens of the shells of the pre-Adamite condition of England in all their native simplicity. To those who see in them shells, and only shells, why, in the name of the prophet, give themfigs, while we again remember Wordsworthâ€™s hero,â€”

â€œA primrose on the river brim,A yellow primrose was to him,And it was nothing more.â€

â€œA primrose on the river brim,

A yellow primrose was to him,

And it was nothing more.â€

To us they speak a wondrous story, replete with the knowledge that maketh glad the heart of man, because it is purifying, elevating knowledge; and though it does not teach the peculiar truths of theology, and we heartily wish that geology had been allowed to tell only its own tale of Creationâ€”for here, as elsewhere,

â€œNature, when unadorned,Is then adorned the mostâ€â€”

â€œNature, when unadorned,

Is then adorned the mostâ€â€”

instead of being put to the rack, and made to suggest the special truths of Revelation,[116]withwhich it has nothing to do;â€”although, we say, it does not teach the peculiar and special truths for which a Revelation was needed, it everywhere throws light on the boundless treasures of wisdom and care and beneficent Providence of the God of revelation. But again we catch ourselves sermonizing: to the diagram.

Fossils from the London Clay.1.Tellina crassa.2.Chama squamosa.3.Turritella imbricataria.4.Fusus asper.5.Pleurotoma colon.6.Murex tubifer.7.Aporhais pes-pelicani.8.Voluta luctator(or luctatrix).9.Trochus monolifer: the necklace trochus.10.Venericardia cor-avium.11.Fusus bulbiformis: the bulb fusus.

These fossils we obtained from the neighbourhood of Christchurch; and as these sheets were being written, we received from Dr. Mantellâ€™s â€œGeological Excursions in the Isle of Wight,â€ the following appropriate description of them: â€œThe numerous marine fossil shells which are obtained from this part of the coast of Hampshire, are generally known as Hordwell fossils; but it is scarcely necessary to remark, that they almost entirely belong to the London clay strata, and are procured from Barton cliffs. These fossils are most conveniently obtained from the low cliff near Beacon Bunny, and occur in greatest abundance in the upper part of the dark green sandy clay. There are generally blocks of the indurated portions of the strata on the beach, from which fossils may be extracted. A collection of Hordwell fossils, consisting of the teeth of several species of sharks and rays, bones of turtles, and a great variety of shells, may be purchased at a reasonableprice of Jane Webber, dealer in fossils, Barton cliff, near Christchurch.â€â€”(P. 124.)

Before leaving the Eocene, or rather the London clay of the Eocene, we will give a drawing of a fossil in our possession. The drawing opposite represents a piece of fossil wood, pierced through and through by TeredinÃ¦, a boring mollusk allied to the Teredo, which still proves so destructive to our vessels. Although the wood is converted into a stony mass, and in some parts covered by calcareous matter, the same as is found in the septaria, so common in these beds, to which we shall presently direct attention, still the grain and woody texture are most distinct. This wood was once probably floating down what we now call the Thames, when these piercing, boring mollusks seized hold upon it, penetrated its soft texture, and lived, moved, and had their being down at the bottom of the river in their self-constructed chambers. Time rolled on, and the log of wood is floated upon the shore, and there it lies to harden and to dry; again the log is drifted away, and, buried in some soft bed of clay, is preserved from rotting. In process of time it again sees the light; but now saturated byargillaceous material, and when hardened by the sun, becomes the petrifaction such as we see it.

WOOD PERFORATED RY TEREDINA PERSONATA, LONDON CLAY.

Here let us refer to the septaria, of which we have just spoken; two specimens lie before us, which we will briefly describe. In one (1) the clay is in distinct lozenge-shaped masses of a blue colour, while veins of calcareous spar or crystallized carbonate of lime surround these, which are capable of a beautiful marble-like polish; in the other (2) the clay is of the same colour, only in larger proportions, and the spar is of a deep brown colour, while here and there portions of iron pyrites may be seen; they become beautiful ornaments in a room when cut and polished. It should be added, that the septaria are not without their economic uses,being extensively used as cement after being stamped and burnt.

SEPTARIA

Here we may leave this brief sketch of the Eocene, or lowest beds of the Tertiary. A new creation has been introduced to our view; and although we still wait for the coming of manâ€”the lord and interpreter of allâ€”the contemplation of these successive acts and centres of creation fills our minds with renewed admiration and reverence of Him for whom, and by whom, and to whom are all things. Thus â€œeven Geology, while it has exhumed and revivified long buried worlds, peopled with strange forms in which we can feel little more than a speculative interest, and compared with which the most savage dweller in the wilderness of the modernperiodâ€”jackal, hyÃ¦na, or obscene vultureâ€”is as a cherished pet and bosom friend, has made for us new bonds of connexion between remote regions of the earth as it is, on account of which we owe it a proportionate share of gratitude.â€[117]

We shall briefly pass over this period. At Bordeaux, Piedmont, and in Lisbon, this formation is seen; as well as in various other parts of the Continent of Europe. The supposition of Geology is, that during this period â€œwhole regions of volcanoes burst forth, whose lofty but now tranquil cones can be seen in Catalonia, in Spain, in France, Switzerland, Asia, and in America. The Alps, the Carpathian Mountains, and other lofty ranges were at this period partially upheaved. The researches of Sir Robert Murchison have established this fact, by his finding deep beds of limestone, characteristic of the Tertiary period, on the summit of one of the loftiest of the Alps, fully ten thousand feet above the level of the sea.â€

No. III.â€”The Pliocene Period.

This term has already been explained. We shall only detain the reader by a few words respecting the organic remains that characterize this formation. In England it is confined to the eastern part of the county of Suffolk, where it is called â€œCrag.â€ This is a mere provincial name, given particularly to those masses of shelly sand which are used to fertilize lands deficient in calcareous matter. The geological name given to this strata is the â€œRed or Coralline Crag;â€ and it is so called on account of the deep ferruginous colour its fossils have through extensive oxidization of iron. We give drawings of the fossils of the Red Crag, obtained from the neighbourhood of Ipswich.

FOSSILS FROM THE RED CRAG, NEAR IPSWICH.1.Venericardia senilis.2.Turritella.3.Patella Ã¦qualis.4.Cyprea.5.Paludina lenta.6.Pectunculus variabilis.7.Murex.8.Fusus contrarius.9.Buccinum elongata.10.Venericardia scalaris.11.Voluta lamberti.12.Fusus asper.13.Pectunculus pilosus.

But these are not the only fossils of this period; it is here we meet, and that for the first time, with the highest form of animal life with which the researches of geology have made us acquainted. We have traced life in various forms in the different rocks that have passed under our rapid survey, and in all we have seen a wondrous and most orderly gradation. We began with the coral zoophytes, and from them proceeded to the mollusks and crustacea of the hypogene rocks; ascending, we discovered â€œfish with glittering scales,â€ associated with thecrinoids and cryptogamous plants of the secondary series of rocks; and then we arrive where we are now, among the true dicotyledonous and exogenous plants and trees, with the strange birds and gigantic quadrupeds of the tertiary period. But the student must not imagine that even the fossils of this epoch bring him up to the modern era, or thereign of man; for even in the tertiary system numberless species lived and flourished, which in their turn became extinct, to be succeeded by others long before man, the chief of animals and something more, made his appearance, to hold dominion over these manifold productions of creative skill and power. But amidst these creations,

â€œGod was everywhere, the God who framedMankind to be one mighty human family,Himself their Father, and the world their home.â€

â€œGod was everywhere, the God who framed

Mankind to be one mighty human family,

Himself their Father, and the world their home.â€

It would be altogether beside the purpose of this preliminary treatise to enter into any details respecting the animals that have been found in such abundance in the Norwich Crag, that it has been called the â€œMammaliferous Crag.â€ Those who desire full and deeply interesting information on this question should consult Owenâ€™s noble work, entitled â€œBritish Fossil Mammalsand Birds,â€ where, under the respective divisions of Eocene, Miocene, and Pliocene, he will see a complete chart of our riches in the possessions of a past creation. For the discovery of the Siberian Mammoth so often quoted, we shall refer to the same work, page 217, &c.; from which we shall only quote one brief extract, illustrative of the abundance of these remains in our own coasts in the ages past.

â€œMr. Woodward, in his â€˜Geology of Norfolk,â€™ supposes that upwards of two thousand grinders of the mammoth have been dredged up by the fishermen of the little village of Happisburgh in the space of thirteen years. The oyster-bed was discovered here in 1820; and during the first twelve months hundreds of the molar teeth of mammoths were landed in strange association with the edible mollusca. Great quantities of the bones and tusks of the mammoth are, doubtless, annually destroyed by the action of the waves of the sea. Remains of the mammoth are hardly less numerous in Suffolk, especially in the pleistocene beds along the coast, and at Stutton;â€”they become more rare in the fluvio-marine crag at Southwold and Thorp. The village of Walton, near Harwich,is famous for the abundance of these fossils, which lie along the base of the sea-cliffs, mixed with bones of species of horse, ox, and deer.â€[118]

SKELETON OF THE MEGATHERIUM CUVIERI (AMERICANUM).

All the animals of this period are called theroid animals: fromtherion, a wild beast; and looking at the skeletons as they have been arranged from the few existing fossils, or from nearly complete materialsâ€”a matter not of guess-work, but of the most rigid application of the principles of comparative anatomyâ€”we stand astounded at the prodigious sizes of these mammoths of the tertiary era. There is thedeinotherium, or fierce wild beast; thepalÃ¦otherium, or ancient wild beast; theanoplotherium, or unarmed wild beast, and others.We give above a drawing of the well-knownmegatherium, or great wild beast, to be seen in the British Museum, and add the following from Mantellâ€™s Guide to the Fossils of the British Museum:â€”â€œThis stupendous extinct animal of the sloth tribe was first made known to European naturalists by a skeleton, almost entire, dug up in 1789, on the banks of a river in South America, named the Luxon, about three miles south-east of Buenos Ayres. The specimen was sent to Madrid, and fixed up in the Museum, in the form represented in numerous works on natural history. A second skeleton was exhumed at Lima, in 1795; and of late years Sir Woodbine Parish, Mr. Darwin, and other naturalists have sent bones of the megatherium, and other allied genera, to England. The model of the megatherium has been constructed with great care from the original bones, in the Wall-cases 9, 10, and in the Hunterian Museum. The attitude given to the skeleton, with the right arm clasping a tree, is, of course, hypothetical; and the position of the hinder toes and feet does not appear to be natural. Altogether, however, the construction is highly satisfactory; and a better idea of the colossalproportions of the original is conveyed by this model, than could otherwise be obtained.â€[119]

SKELETON OF THE MASTODON OHIOTICUS, FROM NORTH AMERICA.(Height, 9Â½ feet; length, 20 feet.)

We give below a drawing of the â€œMastodon Ohioticus;â€ for the following account of which we are indebted to the same source. It will be found in Room 6, figure 1.â€”â€œThis fine skeleton was purchased by the trustees of the British Museum of Albert Koch, a well-known collector of fossil remains; who had exhibited, in the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, under the name of the Missourium, or Leviathan of the Missouri, an enormous osteological monster, constructed of the bones of this skeleton, together with many belonging to other individualsâ€”the tusks beingfixed in their sockets so as to curve outwards on each side of the head. From this heterogeneous assemblage of bones, those belonging to the same animal were selected, and are articulated in their natural juxtaposition.â€[120]

FOSSIL HUMAN SKELETON, FROM GUADALOUPE.(The original 4 feet 2 inches long, by 2 feet wide.)

PLAN OF THE CLIFF AT GAUDALOUPE.

In Wall-case D of the British Museum, may be seen a fossil skeleton of a human being, brought from the island of Guadaloupe, the consideration of which must for ever remove any idea that may exist about man being contemporaneous with the theroidal mammals of which we have been speaking.[121]Professor Whewell has remarked that the â€œgradation in form between man and other animals is but a slight and unimportant feature in contemplating the great subject of the origin of the human race. Even if we had not revelation to guide us, it would be most unphilosophical to attempt to trace back the history of man, without taking into account the most remarkable facts in his nature: the facts of civilization, arts, government, speechâ€”his traditionsâ€”hisinternal wantsâ€”his intellectual, moral, and religious constitution. If we will attempt a retrospect, we must look at all these things as evidence of the origin and end of manâ€™s being; and we do thus comprehend, in one view, the whole of the argumentâ€”it is impossible for us to arrive at an origin homogeneous with the present order of things. On this subject, the geologist may, therefore, be well content to close the volume of the earthâ€™s physical history, and open that divine record which has for its subject the moral and religious nature of man.â€

â€œMysterious framework of bone, locked up in the solid marble,â€”unwonted prisoner of the rock! an irresistible voice shall yet call thee out of thy stony matrix. The other organisms, thy partners in the show, are incarcerated in the lime for ever,â€”thou but for a term. How strangely has the destiny of the race to which thou belongest re-stamped with new meanings the old phenomena of creation!... When thou wert living, prisoner of the marble, haply as an Indian wife and mother, ages ere the keel of Columbus had disturbed the waves of the Atlantic, the high standing of thy species had imparted new meanings to death and the rainbow.The prismatic arch had become the bow of the covenant, and death a great sign of the unbending justice and purity of the Creator, and of the aberration and fall of the living soul, formed in the Creatorâ€™s own image,â€”reasoning, responsible man.â€[122]

FINIS:â€”THE GEOLOGISTâ€™S DREAM.

ALARM, BUT NO DANGER.

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