TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.
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A superscript is denoted by ^x or ^{xx}, for example Edin^r or 1^{st}.
Basic fractions are displayed as ½ ⅓ ¼ etc; other fractions are shown
in the form a/b, for example 9/10.
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ESSAY
ON THE
THEORY OF THE EARTH.
[Illustration: FRONTISPIECE
_Page 518_ _W. H. Lizars Sc._
VERTICAL SECTION OF THE CAVERN AT GAYLENREUTH IN FRANCONIA]
ESSAY
ON THE
THEORY OF THE EARTH.
BY BARON G. CUVIER,
PERPETUAL SECRETARY OF THE FRENCH INSTITUTE, PROFESSOR AND
ADMINISTRATOR OF THE MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY,
_&c. &c._
WITH
GEOLOGICAL ILLUSTRATIONS,
BY
PROFESSOR JAMESON.
FIFTH EDITION,
TRANSLATED FROM THE LAST FRENCH EDITION, WITH NUMEROUS
ADDITIONS BY THE AUTHOR AND TRANSLATOR.
WILLIAM BLACKWOOD, EDINBURGH; AND
T. CADELL, STRAND, LONDON.
MDCCCXXVII.
_Printed by P. Neill._
PREFACE
TO THE
FIFTH EDITION.
Geology, now deservedly one of the most popular and attractive of
the physical sciences, was, not many years ago, held in little
estimation; and even at present, there are not wanting some who
do not hesitate to maintain, that it is a mere tissue of ill
observed phenomena, and of hypotheses of boundless extravagance.
The work of CUVIER now laid before the public, contains in itself
not only a complete answer to these ignorant imputations, but
also demonstrates the accuracy, extent, and importance of many of
the facts and reasonings of this delightful branch of Natural
History. Can it be maintained of a science, which requires for its
successful prosecution an intimate acquaintance with Chemistry,
Natural Philosophy and Astronomy,--with the details and views of
Zoology, Botany, and Mineralogy, and which connects these different
departments of knowledge in a most interesting and striking
manner,--that it is of no value? Can it be maintained of Geology,
which discloses to us the history of the first origin of organic
beings, and traces their gradual development from the monade to man
himself,--which enumerates and describes the changes that plants,
animals, and minerals--the atmosphere, and the waters of the
globe--have undergone from the earliest geological periods up to our
own time, and which even instructs us in the earliest history of the
human species,--that it offers no gratification to the philosopher?
Can even those who estimate the value of science, not by intellectual
desires, but by practical advantages, deny the importance of
Geology, certainly one of the foundations of agriculture, and
which enables us to search out materials for numberless important
economical purposes?
Geology took its rise in the Academy of Freyberg, with the
illustrious WERNER, to whom we owe its present interesting condition.
This being the case, we ought not, (as is at present too much the
practice), amidst the numerous discoveries in the mineral kingdom
which have been made since the system of investigation of that
great interpreter of nature was made known, forget the master, and
arrogate all to ourselves. In this Island, Geology first took firm
root in the north: in Edinburgh the Wernerian geognostical views and
method of investigation, combined with the theory of HUTTON, the
experiments and speculations of HALL, the illustrations of PLAYFAIR,
and the labours of the Royal and Wernerian Natural History Societies,
excited a spirit of inquiry which rapidly spread throughout the
Empire; and now Great Britain presents to the scientific world
a scene of geological acuteness, activity, and enterprise, not
surpassed in any other country.
On the Continent the writings of CUVIER, distinguished equally by
purity and beauty of style, and profound learning, have proved
eminently useful in aiding the progress of Geology. In this country
CUVIER was first made known as a geologist by the publication of the
present essay, which, from its unexampled popularity, has made his
name as familiar to us as that of the most distinguished of our own
writers.
ROBERT JAMESON.
COLLEGE MUSEUM, EDINBURGH,
_25th November 1826_.
ADVERTISEMENT
TO
FOURTH EDITION.
This Fourth Edition of the celebrated Essay on the Theory of the
Earth, contains, besides many additional facts and statements in
regard to the Natural History of the Earth, also learned discussions
by CUVIER, on the newness of the present continents, as confirmed by
the history of nations; and on the proofs regarding the antiquity
of nations alleged to be contained in their astronomical and other
monuments.
ROBERT JAMESON.
COLLEGE MUSEUM, EDINBURGH,
_2d April 1822_.
Fossil organic remains are the relics of a primeval world long
since gone past, proclaiming with a loud voice the instability
of earthly affairs, and impressing upon the minds of those who
seriously consider them, sentiments of piety and feelings of
devotion. If the antiquary digs from among the ruins of Herculaneum
a piece of ancient money, a vase, or a statue, we rejoice with
him, in finding the mode of life, the manners and arts of an
ancient people, placed before our eyes: If he finds an old record,
illustrative of the history of his country, however limited in
extent that country may be, we are grateful to him for the particle
of knowledge he has added to our store; but if, among the ruins
of the common country of the human race, we linger at the great
sepulchre of animated beings destroyed by the hand of fate, who
can look upon it without sentiments of piety! It is not here the
statues of Polycletus that we admire, but the admirable monuments
of the workmanship of Nature, taken from the ruins of the great
Herculeum overwhelmed by the ocean, that we look upon with feelings
of the deepest wonder and devotion.
PREFACE
TO THE
THIRD EDITION.
The attention of naturalists was early directed to the investigation
of the fossil organic remains so generally and abundantly distributed
throughout the strata of which the crust of the Earth is composed.
It is not, as some writers now imagine, entirely a modern study;
for even so early as the time of Leibnitz, we find that philosopher
drawing and describing fossil bones. After this period it continued
to interest individuals, and engage the particular attention of
societies and academies. The Royal Society of London, by the Memoirs
of Sloane, Collinson, Lister, Derham, Baker, Grew, Hunter, Jacobs,
Plott, Camper, and many others, afforded satisfactory proofs of the
importance attached to this branch of Natural History by philosophers
in England; and the Memoirs of M. Graydon, in the Transactions of
the Royal Irish Academy, shew that it was not entirely neglected
in Ireland. On the continent of Europe the natural history of
petrifactions was also much studied, as appears from the Memoirs of
Hollman, Beckman, and Blumenbach, in the Transactions of the Royal
Society of Gottingen;--of Gmelin, Pallas, Herrmann, Chappe, in the
Memoirs of the Imperial Academy of Sciences of Petersburg;--of
Geoffroi, Buffon, Daubenton, Faujas St Fond, and others of the old
French Academy of Sciences;--of Astruc and Riviere, of the Royal
Academy of Sciences of Montpellier;--of Collini of the Academia
Theodoro-Palatina, at Manheim, &c. But the geognostical relations
of the rocks in which these organic remains are contained were but
ill understood, until Werner pointed out the mode of investigating
them. His interesting and important views were circulated from
Freyberg, by the writings and conversations of his pupils, and have
contributed materially to the advancement of this branch of Natural
History in Germany, France, and also in Great Britain. Petrifactions
are no longer viewed as objects of mere curiosity, as things isolated
and unrelated to the rocks of which the crust of the Earth is
composed; on the contrary, they are now considered as one of the
most important features in the strata of all regions of the earth.
By the regularity and determinate nature of their distribution, they
afford characters which assist us in discriminating not only single
beds, but also whole formations of rocks; and in this respect they
are highly interesting to the geognostical inquirer. To the geologist
this beautiful branch of Natural History opens up numerous and
uncommonly curious views of nature in the mineral kingdom: it shews
him the commencement of the formation of organic beings,--it points
out the gradual succession in the formation of animals, from the
almost primeval coral near the primitive strata, through all the
wonderful variety of form and structure observed in shells, fishes,
amphibious animals, and birds, to the perfect quadruped of the
alluvial land; and it makes him acquainted with a geographical and
physical distribution of organic beings in the strata of the globe,
very different from what is observed to hold in the present state
of the organic world. The zoologist views with wonder and amazement
those hosts of fossil animals, sometimes so similar to the present
living species, at other times so far removed from them in form and
structure. He compares the fossil orders, genera and species, with
those now inhabiting the earth’s surface, or living in its waters,
and discovers that there is a whole system of animals in a fossil
state different from the present. Even the physiologist, in the
various forms, connections, and relations of the parts of those
animals, obtains new facts for his descriptions and reasonings.
Such, then, being the nature of this branch of Natural History, it
is not surprising that, when once understood, it should have many
and zealous cultivators, and occupy the talents of men of learning
and sagacity. In our time, Cuvier, the celebrated Professor of
Natural History in Paris, has eminently distinguished himself by his
numerous discoveries, accurate descriptions, and rational views, on
this subject. His great work on Fossil Organic Remains, of which a
new edition is now in progress, is the most splendid contribution to
Natural History furnished by any individual of this age.
The Essay on the Theory of the Earth, now translated, is the
introductory part of the great work of Cuvier. The subject of
the _deluge_ forms a principal object of this elegant discourse.
After describing the principal results at which the theory of the
earth, in his opinion, has arrived, he next mentions the various
relations which connect the history of the fossil bones of land
animals with these results; explains the principles on which is
founded the art of ascertaining these bones, or, in other words, of
discovering a genus, and of distinguishing a species, by a single
fragment of bone: and gives a rapid sketch of the results to which
his researches lead, of the new genera and species which these have
been the means of discovering, and of the different formations in
which they are contained. Some naturalists, as Lamarck, having
maintained that the present existing races of quadrupeds are mere
modifications or varieties of those ancient races which we now find
in a fossil state, modifications which may have been produced by
change of climate, and other local circumstances, and since brought
to the present great difference, by the operation of similar causes
during a long succession of ages,--Cuvier shews that the difference
between the fossil species and those which now exist, is bounded by
certain limits; that these limits are a great deal more extensive
than those which now distinguish the varieties of the same species,
and consequently, that the extinct species of quadrupeds are not
varieties of the presently existing species. This very interesting
discussion naturally leads our author to state the proofs of the
recent population of the world; of the comparatively modern origin
of its present surface; of the deluge, and the subsequent renewal of
human society.
In order to render this Essay more complete and satisfactory, I have
illustrated the whole with an extensive series of observations,
and have arranged them in such a manner that they will be readily
accessible, not only to the naturalist, but also to the general
reader.
Since the publication of the former edition of this Essay, many
curious discoveries have been made in regard to fossil organic
remains:--some of these are included in the Illustrations at the end
of the Essay, others want of room forces us to omit.
R. JAMESON.
COLLEGE OF EDINBURGH,
_19th April 1817_.
CONTENTS.
Page
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS, 1
Plan of the Essay, 4
First Appearance of the Earth, 6
First Proofs of Revolutions on the Surface of the Globe, 6
Proofs that such Revolutions have been numerous, 10
Proofs that these Revolutions have been sudden, 14
Proofs of the Occurrence of Revolutions before the Existence
of Living Beings, 16
Examination of the Causes which act at present on the Surface
of the Globe, 23
Of Slips, or Falling Down of the Materials of Mountains, 25
Of Alluvial Formations, 26
Of the Formation of Downs, 28
Of the Formation of Cliffs, or Steep Shores, 29
Depositions formed in Water, 30
Of Stalactites, 31
Of Lithophytes, 32
Of Incrustations, 32
Of Volcanoes, 34
Constant Astronomical Causes, 36
Older Systems of Geologists, 38
More Recent Systems, 41
Diversities of all the Systems, 44
Causes of these Differences, 46
Nature and Condition of the Problem, 46
Progress of Mineral Geology, 49
Importance of Fossil Remains in Geology, 51
High importance of the Fossil Bones of Quadrupeds, 53
Small probability of discovering new Species of large
Quadrupeds, 56
Inquiry respecting the Fabulous Animals of the Ancients, 69
Difficulty of determining the Fossil Bones of Quadrupeds, 82
Principle by which this determination is effected, 83
View of the general Results of these Researches, 94
Relations of the Species of Fossil Animals, with the Strata in
which they are found, 95
Proofs that the extinct Species of Quadrupeds are not Varieties
of the presently existing Species, 102
Proofs that there are no Fossil Human Bones, 114
Physical Proofs of the Newness of the present Continents, 121
Additions of Land by the action of Rivers, 123
Progress of Downs, 133
Peat-mosses and Slips, 135
The History of Nations confirms the Newness of the
Continents, 137
The very remote Antiquity attributed to certain Nations is
not supported by History, 149
The Astronomical Monuments left by the Ancients do not
bear the excessively remote Dates which have been attributed
to them, 201
Table of the Extent of the Zodiacal Constellations, as they
are designed upon our Globes, and of the Times required by
the Colures to traverse them, 212
Construction and Use of the Table, 216
The Zodiac is far from bearing in itself a certain and
excessively remote date, 230
Exaggerations relative to the Antiquity of certain Mining
Operations, 238
General Conclusion relative to the Period of the last
Revolution, 239
Further Researches to be made in Geology, 240
Recapitulation of the Observations upon the Succession of
the Tertiary Formations, 243
Table of Geological Formations in the Order of their
Superposition; by M. A. de Humboldt, 249
Enumeration of the Fossil Animals recognized by the Author, 253
Ichthyosaurus, 255
Plesiosaurus, 256
Crocodile, 258
Megalosaurus, 259
Pterodactylus, 261
Iguanodon, 263
Mosasaurus, 264
Dolphin, ib.
Lamantin, 265
Morse, 265
Palæotherium, 266
Lophiodon, 268
Anoplotherium, 270
Anthracotheria, 272
Cheropotamus, ib.
Adapis, 273
Vespertilio, 274
Ziphius, 280
Mammoth, 280
Mastodon, 281
Hippopotamus, 283
Rhinoceros, ib.
Elasmotherium, 285
Horse, 285
Fossil Elk, 286
Megatherium, 289
Megalonyx, 290
Bear, 291
Man, 294
APPENDIX.
On the Birds to which the name of Ibis was given by the
Ancient Egyptians, 299
GEOLOGICAL ILLUSTRATIONS
BY PROFESSOR JAMESON.
Page
On the Subsidence of Strata, 333
Deluge, 334
Formation of Primitive Mountains, 335
On the Distribution of Boulder-Stones in Scotland, Holland,
Germany, Switzerland and America, 344
On the Alluvial Land of the Danish Islands in the Baltic
and on the Coast of Sleswigh, 354
On the Sand-Flood, 368
Sand-Flood in Morayshire, 369
Sand-Flood in the Hebrides, &c. 372
Moving Sands of the African Deserts, 375
Action of the Sea upon Coasts, 378
On the Growth of Coral Islands, 379
On the Level of the Baltic, 398
Fossil Remains of the Human Species, 406
Account of the displacement of that part of the Coast of
the Adriatic which is occupied by the Mouths of the Po, 410
On the Universal Deluge, 417
On the action of Running Waters, 437
Connection of Geology with Agriculture and Planting, 453
Account of the Fossil Elk of Ireland, 486
Account of the Living Species of Elephant, and of the
Extinct Species of Elephant or Mammoth, 508
Account of the Caves in which Bones of Carnivorous Animals
occur in great quantities, 516
Cave containing Bones at Adelsberg, in Carniola, 540
Tabular View of the Genera of Fossil Mammifera, Cetacea,
Aves, Reptilia, and Insecta,--with their Geognostical Number
and Distribution, 547
Tabular View of the Classes, Orders, or Families of Animals,
occurring in a Living or Fossil State, with their Geognostical
Distribution, 550
LIST OF PLATES.
The Frontispiece exhibits a vertical section of the Bone-Caves
of Gaylenreuth, in Franconia.
Plate I. is a plan shewing the relative position of the Tertiary
Mineral Formations around Paris.
II. is illustrative of the Succession of the Secondary Formations,
and of the Distribution of Petrifactions.
II _a_. Extraordinary Fossil Animal named Pterodactylus
longirostrus, found near Aichstedt, in Germany.
III. Figure of an Ibis in a Temple in Upper Egypt.
IV. Skeleton of an Ibis from a Mummy found at Thebes.
V. Numenius Ibis, supposed true Ibis of the Egyptians.
VI. Fossil Human Skeleton found in Guadaloupe.
VII. Cervus megaceros, Irish Elk in the Museum of the Royal
Dublin Society.
VIII. Fig. 1. Head and Horn of the Fossil Irish Elk. It represents
a larger view of the head, in which the different markings are
delineated, and the expansion of the horns shewn in a front
view. In this is also seen the peculiar forked appearance of the
sur-antler.
Fig. 2. The portion of cast horn mentioned at p. 501, having the
smooth convex surface at the root.
Fig. 3. An internal and external view of the perforated rib,
described in p. 504.
IX. Cervus megaceros, Irish or Isle of Man Elk in the Royal Museum
of the University of Edinburgh.
[Illustration:
_PLATE I._ _Page 248._
_PLAN_
Shewing the relative position of the MINERAL FORMATIONS around _PARIS_
_10_ _Upper fresh water formation--Millstone--Flint--Limestone._
_9_ _Millstone without Shells._
_8_ _Upper marine Sandstone._
_7_ _Sandstone & Sand without Shells._
_6_ _Bed of Oysters._
_5_ _Gypsum & Marl containing Bones of Animals._
_Lower fresh water formation_
_Lower marine Sandstone_
_4_ _Siliceous Limestone without Shells._
_3_ _Coarse marine Limestone._
_2_ _Plastic Clay & Lower Sand._
_II._ _Alluvial._
_1_ _Chalk & Flint._
_W. H. Lizars Sc. Edin^r._
_Edinburgh Published by W^m. Blackwood 1827._]
[Illustration:
_PLATE II._ _Page 253._
_SECTION_
_Illustrative of the succession of the_ SECONDARY FORMATIONS
_and of the distribution of PETRIFACTIONS_.
_Primitive Rocks_
_No Fossil Organic Remains._
_Transition Rocks_
_First Appearance of Fossil Shells and Corals._
_1^{st} Sandstone or Old Red Sandstone & Old Red Conglomerate_
_Fossil Wood; Fossil Fishes?_
_1^{st} Limestone or Mount^n Limestone_
_Fossil Corals & Shells._
_2^d Sandstone or Coal Formation_
_Impressions of Plants principally Monocotyledonous, many with
a Tropical aspect._
_New Red Conglomerate_
_2^d Limestone or Magnesian Limestone_
_First appearance of Fossil Fishes and of Fossil Oviparous
Quadrupeds._
_3^d Sandstone or New Red Sandstone_
_Fossil Shells, Corals & Vegetables._
_3^d or Shell Limestone_
_Fossil Shells._
_4^{th} Sandstone or variegated Marl_
_Fossil Plants and Shells._
_4^{th} Limestone or Java Oolite & Lias Limestones_
_Fossil Shells, Corals, Crustacæ, Lacertæ, Turtles. Fishes and
Vegetables._
_5^{th} Sandstone or Green Sand or Quader Sandstone_
_with Coal, Fishes, Lacertæ & Emydes._
_5^{th} Limestone & Chalk_
_Fossil Shells, Corals, Lacertæ, Turtles & Fishes._
_Brown Coal Formation_
_Crocodiles &c. also Dictyledonous Plants._
_Hertfordshire Puddingstone_
_Crocodiles &c. also Dictyledonous Plants._
_Paris Formation_
_First appearance of Fossil Remains of Birds & Mammiferous
Animals._
_Diluvial Formation_
_Remains of extinct species of Elephant, Rhinoceros,
Hippopotamus, Tapir, Deer, Hyena, Bear &c._
_Post Diluvial Formation_
_Fossil Remains of the Human Species first appear in this
formation._
_Edinburgh Published by W^m Blackwood 1827._
_W. H. Lizars Sc._]
[Illustration:
_PLATE. II. a_ _Page 261._
Extraordinary animal, named PTERODACTYLUS LONGIROSTRIS found near
Aichstedt in Germany.
_Edinburgh Published by W^m. Blackwood 1827._]
[Illustration:
_PLATE III._ _Page 318._
FIGURE OF AN IBIS
_in one of the Temples in UPPER EGYPT_.
_Beak, half the natural size of a mummy Ibis._
_Eng^d. by W. H. Lizars._]
[Illustration:
_PLATE IV._ _Page 307._
SKELETON OF AN IBIS
_extracted from a Mummy found at THEBES in EGYPT_.
_Eng^d. by W. H. Lizars Edin^r._]
[Illustration:
_PLATE V._ _Page 309._
NUMENIUS IBIX
_Supposed to be the true Ibix of the EGYPTIANS._
_Eng^d. by W. H. Lizars Edin^r._]
[Illustration:
_PLATE VI._ _Page 406._
_FOSSIL_
HUMAN SKELETON
_FOUND IN GUADALOUPE_
_Edinburgh Published by W^m. Blackwood 1827._]
[Illustration:
_PLATE VII._ _Page 486._
CERVUS MEGACEROS.
_IRISH ELK._
in the MUSEUM of the ROYAL DUBLIN SOCIETY.
_W. H. Lizars Sc._
_Edinburgh Published by W. Blackwood 1827._]
[Illustration:
_PLATE VIII._ _Page 492._
HEAD AND HORNS
_of the_ IRISH ELK.
_Fig. 1._
_Fig. 2._
_Fig. 3._
_W. H. Lizars Sc._
_Edinburgh Published by W. Blackwood 1827._]
[Illustration:
_PLATE IX._ _Page 506._
CERVUS MEGACEROS,
_ISLE OF MAN OR IRISH ELK_.
_Royal Museum, College, Edinburgh._
_W. H. Lizars Sc._
_Published by W. Blackwood. Edin^r. 1827._]
ESSAY
ON THE
THEORY OF THE EARTH.
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.
In my work on Fossil Bones, the object which I proposed was to
discover to what animals the osseous remains, with which the
superficial strata of the globe are filled, may have belonged. In
pursuing this object, I had to follow a path in which but little
progress had hitherto been made. As an antiquary of a new order, I
was obliged at once to learn the art of restoring these monuments
of past revolutions to their original forms, and to discover
their nature and relations; I had to collect and bring together
in their original order, the fragments of which they consisted;
to reconstruct, as it were, the ancient beings to which these
fragments belonged; to reproduce them with all their proportions
and characters; and, lastly, to compare them with those which now
live at the surface of the globe:--an art almost unknown, and which
presupposed a science whose first developments had scarcely yet been
traced, that of the laws which regulate the co-existence of the
forms of the different parts in organised beings. I had therefore to
prepare myself for these inquiries, by others of a far more extensive
kind, respecting the animals which still exist. Nothing, except an
almost complete review of creation in its present state, could give
a character of demonstration to the results of my investigation into
its ancient state; but, from this review, I had at the same time to
expect a great body of rules and affinities not less satisfactorily
demonstrated; and it became obvious, that, in consequence of this
essay upon a small portion of the theory of the earth, the whole
animal kingdom would necessarily be in some measure subjected to new
laws.
Thus I was encouraged in this twofold investigation, by the equal
interest which it promised to possess, both with regard to the
general science of anatomy, the essential basis of all those which
treat of organised bodies, and with regard to the physical history of
the globe, the foundation of mineralogy, geography, and even, it may
be said, of the history of Man, and of all that it most concerns him
to know with regard to himself.
If it be so interesting to us to follow, in the infancy of our
species, the almost obliterated traces of extinct nations, why should
it not also be so, to search, amid the darkness of the infancy of the
Earth, for the traces of revolutions which have taken place anterior
to the existence of all nations? We admire the power by which the
human mind has measured the motions of the celestial bodies, which
nature seemed to have concealed for ever from our view. Genius and
science have burst the limits of space; and observations, explained
by just reasoning, have unveiled the mechanism of the universe. Would
it not also be glorious for man to burst the limits of time, and, by
means of observations, to ascertain the history of this world, and
the succession of events which preceded the birth of the human race?
Astronomers have undoubtedly advanced more rapidly than naturalists;
and the present period, with respect to the Theory of the Earth,
bears some resemblance to that in which some philosophers fancied
that the heavens were formed of polished stones, and that the moon
was of the size of the Peloponnesus; but after ANAXAGORAS, came
COPERNICUS and KEPLER, who pointed the way to NEWTON; and why should
not natural history also one day have its Newton?
_Plan of this Essay._
What I especially propose to present in this discourse, is the plan
and the result of my labours regarding Fossil Bones. I shall also
attempt to trace a rapid sketch of the efforts that have been made up
to the present day, to restore the history of the revolutions of the
globe. The facts which I have been enabled to discover, form, without
doubt, only a small portion of those which would be necessary to
complete this ancient history; but several of them lead to decisive
consequences, and the rigorous manner in which I have proceeded in
their determination, affords me reason to think that they will be
regarded as points definitively fixed, and which in their aggregate
will form an epoch in science. Lastly, I trust their novelty will be
a sufficient excuse for me, if I claim for them the earnest attention
of my readers.
My object will first be to shew by what relations the history of
the fossil bones of terrestrial animals connects itself with the
theory of the earth, and for what reasons a peculiar importance is
to be attributed to it, with reference to this subject. I shall then
unfold the principles upon which is founded the art of determining
these bones, or, in other words, of recognizing a genus, and of
distinguishing a species, by a single fragment of bone,--an art, on
the certainty of which depends that of my whole work, I shall give a
rapid account of the new species, and of genera previously unknown,
which the application of these principles has led me to discover, as
well as the different kinds of deposits in which they are contained.
And as the difference between these species and those which exist
at the present day is bounded by certain limits, I shall show that
these limits much exceed those which now distinguish the varieties of
the same species. I shall therefore make known to what extent these
varieties may go, whether from the influence of time, or from that of
climate, or, lastly, from that of domestication.
In this way I shall be enabled to conclude, and to induce my readers
to conclude with me, that great events were necessary to produce
the more considerable differences which I have discovered. I shall
next mention the particular modifications which my researches must
necessarily introduce into the hitherto received opinions regarding
the revolutions of the globe; and, lastly, I shall inquire how far
the civil and religious history of different nations corresponds
with the results of observation with regard to the physical history
of the Earth, and with the probabilities which these observations
afford concerning the period at which societies of men may have found
fixed places of abode, and fields susceptible of cultivation, and at
which, therefore, they may have assumed a durable form.
_First Appearance of the Earth._
When the traveller passes over those fertile plains where gently
flowing streams nourish in their course an abundant vegetation, and
where the soil, inhabited by a numerous population, adorned with
flourishing villages, opulent cities, and superb monuments, is never
disturbed, except by the ravages of war, or by the oppression of
the powerful, he is not led to suspect that Nature also has had her
intestine wars, and that the surface of the globe has been broken
up by revolutions and catastrophes. But his ideas change as soon as
he digs into that soil which now presents so peaceful an aspect, or
ascends to the hills which border the plain; his ideas are expanded,
if I may use the expression, in proportion to the expansion of the
view, and begin to embrace the full extent and grandeur of those
ancient events, when he climbs the more elevated chains, whose base
is skirted by these hills, or when, by following the beds of the
torrents which descend from those chains, he penetrates, as it were,
into their interior.
_First proofs of Revolutions on the surface of the Globe._
The lowest and most level parts of the earth, exhibit nothing,
even when penetrated to a very great depth, but horizontal strata
composed of substances more or less varied, and containing almost
all of them innumerable marine productions. Similar strata, with the
same kind of productions, compose the lesser hills to a considerable
height. Sometimes the shells are so numerous as to constitute of
themselves the entire mass of the rock; they rise to elevations
superior to the level of every part of the ocean, and are found in
places where no sea could have carried them at the present day, under
any circumstances; they are not only enveloped in loose sand, but are
often inclosed in the hardest rocks. Every part of the earth, every
hemisphere, every continent, every island of any extent, exhibits the
same phenomenon.
The times are past when ignorance could maintain, that these remains
of organized bodies are mere sportings of nature, productions
generated in the womb of the Earth, by its own creative powers; and
the efforts made by some metaphysicians of the present day, will
not probably succeed in bringing these exploded opinions again into
repute. A scrupulous comparison of the forms of these remains, of
their texture, and often even of their chemical composition, does
not disclose the slightest difference between the fossil shells and
those which still inhabit the sea: the preservation of the former is
not less perfect than that of the latter; most commonly we neither
observe detrition nor fracture in them, nothing, in short, that
announces a violent removal from their original places; the smallest
of them retain their sharpest ridges, and their most delicate spines.
They have, therefore, not only lived in the sea, but they have also
been deposited by it. It is the sea which has left them in the places
where they are now found. But this sea has remained for a certain
period in those places; it has covered them long enough, and with
sufficient tranquillity to form those deposits, so regular, so thick,
so extensive, and partly also so solid, which contain those remains
of aquatic animals. The basin of the sea has therefore undergone
one change at least, either in extent, or in situation. Such is
the result of the very first search, and of the most superficial
examination.
The traces of revolutions become still more apparent and decisive,
when we ascend a little higher, and approach nearer to the foot of
the great chains. There are still found many beds of shells; some
of these are even thicker and more solid; the shells are quite as
numerous, and as well preserved, but they are no longer of the
same species. The strata which contain them are not so generally
horizontal; they assume an oblique position, and are sometimes almost
vertical. While in the plains and low hills it was necessary to dig
deep, in order to discover the succession of the beds, we here
discover it at once by their exposed edges, as we follow the valleys
that have been produced by their disjunction. Great masses of debris
form at the foot of the cliffs, rounded hills, the height of which is
augmented by every thaw and tempest.
These inclined strata, which form the ridges of the secondary
mountains, do not rest upon the horizontal strata of the hills
which are situate at their base, and which form the first steps in
approaching them; but, on the contrary, dip under them, while the
hills in question rest upon their declivities. When we dig through
the horizontal strata in the vicinity of mountains whose strata
are inclined, we find these inclined strata re-appearing below;
and even sometimes, when the inclined strata are not too elevated,
their summit is crowned by horizontal ones[1]. The inclined strata
are therefore older than the horizontal strata; and as they must
necessarily, at least the greater number of them, have been formed in
a horizontal position, it is evident that they have been raised[2],
and that this change in their direction has been effected before the
others were superimposed upon them[3].
Thus the sea, previous to the deposition of the horizontal strata,
had formed others, which, by the operation of problematical causes,
were broken, raised, and overturned in a thousand ways; and, as
several of those inclined strata which it had formed at more remote
periods, rise higher than the horizontal strata which have succeeded
them, and which surround them, the causes by which the inclination
of these beds was effected, had also made them project above the
level of the sea, and formed islands of them, or at least shoals and
inequalities; and this must have happened, whether they had been
raised by one extremity, or whether the depression of the opposite
extremity had made the waters subside. This is the second result, not
less clear, nor less satisfactorily demonstrated, than the first, to
every one who will take the trouble of examining the monuments on
which it is established.
_Proofs that such revolutions have been numerous._
But it is not to this subversion of the ancient strata, nor to this
retreat of the sea after the formation of the new strata, that the
revolutions and changes which have given rise to the present state of
the Earth are limited.
When we institute a more detailed comparison between the various
strata and those remains of animals which they contain, we presently
perceive, that this ancient sea has not always deposited mineral
substances of the same kind, nor remains of animals of the same
species; and that each of its deposits has not extended over the
whole surface which it covered. There has existed a succession of
variations; the former of which alone have been more or less general,
while the others appear to have been much less so. The older the
strata are, the more uniform is each of them over a great extent; the
newer they are, the more limited are they, and the more subject to
vary at small distances. Thus the displacements of the strata were
accompanied and followed by changes in the nature of the fluid, and
of the matters which it held in solution; and when certain strata, by
making their appearance above the waters, had divided the surface of
the seas by islands and projecting ridges, different changes might
take place in particular basins.
Amidst these variations in the nature of the general fluid, it
is evident, that the animals which lived in it could not remain
the same. Their species, and even their genera, changed with the
strata; and, although the same species occasionally recur at small
distances, it may be announced as a general truth, that the shells
of the ancient strata have forms peculiar to themselves; that they
gradually disappear, so as no longer to be seen at all in the recent
strata, and still less in the presently existing ocean, in which
their corresponding species are never discovered, and where several,
even of their genera, do not occur: that, on the contrary, the shells
of the recent strata are similar, in respect to their genera, to
those which exist in our seas; and that, in the latest and least
consolidated of these strata, and in certain recent and limited
deposits, there are some species which the most experienced eye could
not distinguish from those which are found in the neighbouring seas.
There has, therefore, been a succession of variations in the economy
of organic nature, which has been occasioned by those of the fluid
in which the animals lived, or which has at least corresponded with
them; and these variations have gradually conducted the classes of
aquatic animals to their present state, till, at length, at the time
when the sea retired from our continents for the last time, its
inhabitants did not differ much from those which are found in it at
the present day.
We say for the _last_ time, because, if we examine with still greater
care those remains of organised bodies, we discover, in the midst
of even the oldest strata of marine formation, other strata replete
with animal or vegetable remains of terrestrial or fresh-water
productions; and, amongst the more recent strata, or, in other
words, those that are nearest the surface, there are some in which
land animals are buried under heaps of marine productions. Thus, the
various catastrophes which have disturbed the strata, have not only
caused the different parts of our continents to rise by degrees from
the bosom of the waves, and diminished the extent of the basin of
the ocean, but have also given rise to numerous shiftings of this
basin. It has frequently happened, that lands which have been laid
dry, have been again covered by the waters, in consequence either
of their being ingulphed in the abyss, or of the sea having merely
risen over them. The particular portions also, of the Earth, which
the sea abandoned in its last retreat,--those which are now inhabited
by man and terrestrial animals,--had already been once laid dry,
and had then afforded subsistence to quadrupeds, birds, plants, and
land productions of all kinds: the sea which left it had, therefore,
covered it at a previous period[4].
The changes in the level of the waters have not, therefore, consisted
solely in a more or less gradual, or more or less general retreat;
there have been various successive irruptions and retreats, the final
result of which, however, has been a universal depression of the
level of the sea.
_Proofs that these Revolutions have been sudden._
It is of much importance to remark, that these repeated irruptions
and retreats of the sea have neither all been slow nor gradual;
on the contrary, most of the catastrophes which have occasioned
them have been sudden; and this is especially easy to be proved,
with regard to the last of these catastrophes, that which, by a
two-fold motion, has inundated, and afterwards laid dry, our present
continents, or at least a part of the land which forms them at the
present day. In the northern regions, it has left the carcases of
large quadrupeds which became enveloped in the ice, and have thus
been preserved even to our own times, with their skin, their hair,
and their flesh. If they had not been frozen as soon as killed,
they would have been decomposed by putrefaction. And, on the other
hand, this eternal frost could not previously have occupied the
places in which they have been seized by it, for they could not
have lived in such a temperature. It was, therefore, at one and the
same moment that these animals were destroyed, and the country
which they inhabited became covered with ice. This event has been
sudden, instantaneous, without any gradation; and what is so clearly
demonstrated with respect to this last catastrophe, is not less so
with reference to those which have preceded it. The breaking to
pieces, the raising up and overturning of the older strata, leave
no doubt upon the mind that they have been reduced to the state in
which we now see them, by the action of sudden and violent causes;
and even the force of the motions excited in the mass of waters, is
still attested by the heaps of debris and rounded pebbles which are
in many places interposed between the solid strata. Life, therefore,
has often been disturbed on this earth by terrible events. Numberless
living beings have been the victims of these catastrophes; some,
which inhabited the dry land, have been swallowed up by inundations;
others, which peopled the waters, have been laid dry, from the bottom
of the sea having been suddenly raised; their very races have been
extinguished for ever, and have left no other memorial of their
existence than some fragments, which the naturalist can scarcely
recognize.
Such are the conclusions to which we are necessarily led by the
objects that we meet with at every step, and which we can always
verify, by examples drawn from almost every country. These great
and terrible events are every where distinctly recorded, so as to be
always legible by the eye skilled to decypher their history in the
monuments which they have left behind.
But what is still more astonishing and not less certain, _life_ has
not always existed upon the globe; and it is easy for the observer
to distinguish the point at which it has begun to deposit its
productions.
_Proofs that there have been Revolutions anterior to the existence of
living beings._
If we ascend to higher points of elevation, and advance towards the
great ridges, the craggy summits of the mountain chains, we shall
presently find those remains of marine animals, those innumerable
shells, of which we have spoken, becoming more rare, and at length
disappearing altogether. We arrive at strata of a different nature,
which contain no vestiges of living beings. Nevertheless, their
crystallization, and even their stratification, shew that they have
been also in a liquid state at their formation; their inclined
position, and the cliffs into which they are broken, shew that they
also have been forcibly moved from their original places; the oblique
manner in which they dip under the shelly strata, that they have been
formed previously to these latter; and lastly, the height to which
their rugged and bare peaks rise above all these shelly strata, that
their summits had already emerged from the waters, when the shelly
strata were forming.
Such are those celebrated Primitive Mountains which traverse our
continents in different directions, raising themselves above the
clouds, separating the basins of rivers from one another, affording,
in their perennial snows, reservoirs which feed the springs, and
forming, in some measure, the skeleton, and as it were the rough
framework, of the Earth.
The eye perceives from afar, in the indentations with which their
ridge has been marked, and in the sharp peaks with which it is
bristled, indications of the violent manner in which they have been
elevated. Their appearance, in this respect, is very different from
that of those rounded mountains, and hills with long flat surfaces,
whose less ancient masses have always remained in the situation in
which they were quietly deposited by the waters of more recent seas.
These indications become more obvious as we approach. The valleys
have no longer those gently-sloping sides, those salient and
re-entering angles corresponding on either side to each other, which
seem to denote the beds of ancient streams. They widen and they
contract without any general rule; their waters, at one time, expand
into lakes; at another, fall in torrents; and sometimes their rocks,
suddenly approaching from each side, form transverse dikes, over
which the waters tumble in cataracts. The dissevered strata, while
they shew on one side their edges perpendicularly raised, on the
other present large portions of their surface lying obliquely; they
do not correspond in height, but those which, on one side, form the
summit of the cliff, often dip underneath on the other, and are no
longer visible.
Yet, amidst all this confusion, distinguished naturalists have
been able to demonstrate, that there still reigns a certain order,
and that those immense deposits, broken and overturned though they
be, observe a regular succession with regard to each other, which
is nearly the same in all the great mountain chains. According to
them, Granite, of which the central ridges of the greater number of
these chains consist, and which thus surmounts every other rock,
is also the rock which is found deepest in the solid crust of the
globe. It is the most ancient of those which we have found means of
examining in the place assigned them by nature; and we inquire not
at present, whether it owes its origin to a general fluid, which
formerly held every thing in solution, or may have been the first
consolidated by the cooling of a great mass in fusion, or even in a
state of vapour[5]. Foliated rocks rest upon its sides, and form
the lateral ridges of these great chains; schists, porphyries,
sandstones, and talcose rocks, intermingle with their strata; lastly,
granular marbles, and other limestones destitute of shells, resting
upon the schists, form the outer ridges, the lower steps as it were,
the counterforts, of these chains, and are the last formations, by
which this unknown fluid, this sea without inhabitants, would seem to
have prepared materials for the mollusca and zoophytes, which were
presently to deposite upon these foundations vast heaps of their
shells and corals.
We even find the first productions of these mollusca and zoophytes
appearing in small numbers, and scattered at greater or less
distances, in the last strata of these primitive formations, or in
that portion of the crust of the globe to which geologists have
given the name of Transition rocks. Here and there we meet with beds
containing shells, interposed between certain granites of later
formation than the others, between schists of various kinds, and
between some newer beds of granular marbles. Life, which was in
the end to obtain entire possession of the globe, seems, in these
primordial times, to have struggled with the inert nature which
formerly predominated; and it was not until a considerable time
after, that it obtained the ascendancy over it, and acquired for
itself the exclusive right of continuing and elevating the solid
envelope of the Earth.
Hence, it is impossible to deny, that the masses which now constitute
our highest mountains, have been originally in a liquid state; and
that they have for a long time been covered by waters in which
no living beings existed. Thus, it has not been only since the
appearance of life that changes have been operated in the nature of
the matters which have been deposited; for the masses formed previous
to that event, have varied, as well as those which have been formed
since. They have also experienced violent changes in their position,
and a part of these changes must have taken place at the period when
these masses existed by themselves, and were not covered over by
the shelly masses. The proof of this lies in the overturnings, the
disruptions, and the fissures, which are observable in their strata,
as well as in those of more recent formations, and which are in the
ancient strata even in greater number and better defined.