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There are more things in heaven and earth
Than are dreamt of in our philosophy.—SHAKSPEARE.
The variety of fossil substances, many of them marine productions, which
are found in mountains remote from the sea, are undeniable proofs that
the earth’s surface has undergone considerable changes, some of which
indicate an alteration of climate not easily to be explained. The
remains of animals inhabiting hot countries, and the marine productions
of hot climates, which are frequently found in high northern latitudes,
lead to a suspicion that the earth’s axis was at a very remote period
differently inclined from what it is at present. The tropics now extend
twenty-three degrees and a half on each side the equator; but if they
were extended to forty-five degrees, then the arctic circle and the
tropics would coincide, and thence would arise inconceivable variations
in the productions and phenomena of the earth. All this would form an
amusing speculation to a person possessed of a terrestrial globe, who
might tie a thread round it to represent the tropics at forty-five
degrees of elevation.
By the gradual operation of the sea and of rivers, the face of the globe
has, in the course of ages, undergone very material changes. The former
has encroached in particular parts, and retired from others; and the
mouths of large rivers, running through low countries, have often been
variously modified, by a deposition and transfer of the matter washed
down from the land. At Havre, the sea undermines the steep coast; while
it recedes at Dunkirk, where the shore is flat. In Holland the Zuyder
Zee was probably formed, in the middle ages, by continual irruptions of
the sea, where only the small lake Flevo had before existed. The mouths
of the Rhine have been considerably altered, as well in their dimensions
as in their directions. The mud, as it is deposited by large rivers,
generally causes a _delta_, or a triangular piece of land, to grow out
into the sea. Thus the mouth of the Mississippi is said to have advanced
above fifty miles since the discovery of America. The island called
Sandy Hook, at the entrance of the harbor of New York, was formerly a
peninsula attached to the main land. The old citizens of New Haven,
Connecticut, point out places where once boats, and even small vessels,
used to anchor, but which are now at quite a distance from the water and
covered with the dwellings of the inhabitants. Most of the large rivers
of the United States are more or less changing their banks, and the
places of their channels, from year to year. The sea, within the space
of forty years, has retired more than a mile from Rosetta, in Egypt; and
the mouths of the Arno, and of the Rhone, consist in a great measure of
new land.
The Javanese have a tradition, that in former times the islands of
Sumatra, Java, Bali and Sumbawa, were united, and afterward separated
into nine different parts. They add, that when three thousand rainy
seasons shall have passed away, they will be united. In the
Mediterranean, geological phenomena evince, that the island of Malta,
and that of Gozo, its dependency, now separated by a wide channel, and
the intermediate small island of Cumino, formed, together with the
latter, a single island. By the encroachments of the sea, and the
subsidence of some parts of the land, the islands of Scilly, the
aboriginal inhabitants of which carried on a considerable trade in tin
with the Phenicians, Greeks and Romans, are now little more than barren
rocks, with small patches of earth interspersed in the hollows. Strabo
describes the Phenicians as having been so jealous of their lucrative
traffic with these islands, that they ran a vessel purposely on shore,
and risked the lives of the crew, rather than have it made known to the
Romans. The land within which these tin mines were worked, must now be
sunk, and buried beneath the sea. On the shifting of the sands between
the islands, walls and ruins are frequently seen; the difference of
level, since these walls or fences were made, to prevent the
encroachments of the sea, being estimated at sixteen feet. There is
little doubt but that there must have been a subsidence of the land,
followed by a sudden inundation. This, indeed, seems to be confirmed by
tradition, there being a strong persuasion in the western parts of
Cornwall, that there formerly existed a large country between the
Land’s-end and the islands of Scilly, now laid many fathoms under water.
Although there are no positive evidences of such an ancient connection
between the main land and these islands, still it is extremely probable,
that the cause of the inundation which destroyed the greater part of
them, may have reached the Cornish shores, there being several proofs of
a subsidence of the land in Mount’s bay. The principal anchoring place,
which was called a lake, is now a haven, or open harbor; and the mount,
from its Cornish name, signifying _the gray rock in a wood_, must have
formerly stood in a wood, but is now at full tide half a mile in the
sea.
Examples of a similar kind, relative to every known country, might be
multiplied. One of the most considerable inundations to be met with in
history, is that which happened in the reign of Henry I. and which
overflowed the estates of Earl Goodwin, forming the banks called the
Goodwin or Godwin sands. In the year 1546, a similar irruption of the
sea destroyed a hundred thousand persons in the territory of Dort, in
the United Provinces, and a still greater number round Dollart. In
Friezland and Zealand more than three hundred villages were overwhelmed;
and their remains are still visible, on a clear day, at the bottom of
the water. The Baltic sea has, by slow degrees, covered a large part of
Pomerania; and, among others, overwhelmed the famous port of Vineta. The
Norwegian sea has formed several little islands from the main land, and
still daily advances on the continent. The German sea has advanced on
the shores of Holland, near Catt, to such a degree, that the ruins of an
ancient citadel of the Romans, formerly built on that coast, are now
under water. The country surrounding the isle of Ely was, in the time of
Bede, about a thousand years ago, one of the most delightful and highly
cultivated spots in Great Britain: it was overwhelmed, and remained for
several centuries under the water, until at length, the sea, by a
caprice similar to the one which had prompted its invasions, abandoned
the earth, but without the latter being able to recover its primitive
state, that of one of the most fertile valleys in the world.
On the other hand, the sea has in many instances, deserted the land; and
by the deposition of its sediment in some places, and the accumulation
of its sands in others, has also formed new lands. In this manner the
isle of Oxney, near Romney marsh, was produced. In France, the town of
Aigues Mortes, which was a seaport in the time of Louis IX., is now
removed more than four miles from the sea. Psalmodi, also in that
kingdom, was an island in the year 815, and is now upward of six miles
within the land. In Italy, a considerable portion of land has been
gained at the mouth of the river Arno; and Ravenna, which once stood by
the sea-side, is now between four and five miles from it. Every part of
Holland seems to be a conquest from the sea, and to have been rescued,
in a manner, from its bosom. The industry of man, however, in the
formation of dikes, is here to be brought into account; for the surface
of the earth, in that country, is for the greater part below the surface
of the sea.
Three-fifths of the surface of the globe are covered by the sea, the
average depth of which has been estimated at from five to ten miles.
Demonstrative proofs exist in Great Britain, and in various parts of the
world, that great changes have taken place in the relative positions of
the present continents with the ocean, which, in former ages, rolled its
waves over the summits of our present elevated mountains. To illustrate
this subject, and before these proofs are entered on, in the
consideration of the geological phenomena named extraneous fossils, it
will be proper to introduce the pleasing and truly philosophical view of
the successive changes the earth has undergone, contained in Sir Richard
Phillips’s Morning Walk to Kew. In passing near the banks of the Thames,
Sir Richard was led, in two several places, to introduce the following
observations and reflections on this highly curious and interesting
subject. They apply the principles and facts of geology in a way in
which they may be applied to any river, and indicate how much we are
daily surrounded by the wonders of creation, the process of which, as
Sir Richard observes, is _never ceasing_. In passing over the alluvial
flat of Barnes common, he introduces the following thoughts, which are
given in very nearly his own language.
“On this common, nature still appears to be in a primeval and unfinished
state. The entire flat from the high ground to the Thames, is evidently
a mere fresh-water formation, of comparatively modern date, created out
of the rocky ruins which the rains, in a series of ages, have washed
from the high grounds, and further augmented by the decay of local
vegetation. The adjacent high lands, being elevated above the action of
the fresh water, were no doubt marine formations, created by the flowing
of the sea during the long period when the earth was last in its
perihelion during our summer months; which was probably thousands of
years since. The flat, or freshwater formation, on which I was walking,
still only approaches its completion; and the desiccated soil has not
yet fully defined the boundaries of the river. At spring-tides,
particularly when the line of the moon’s apsides coincides with the
syzygies, or when the ascending node is in the vernal equinox, or after
heavy rains, the river still overflows its banks, and indicates its
originally extended site under ordinary circumstances.
“The state of transition also appears in marshes, bogs and ponds, which,
but for the interference of man, would, many ages ago, have been filled
up with decayed forests and the remains of undisturbed vegetation.
Rivers thus become agents of the _never-ceasing creation_, and a means
of giving greater equality to the face of the land. The sea as it
retired, either abruptly from some situations, or gradually from others,
left dry land, consisting of downs and swelling hills, disposed in all
the variety which would be consequential on a succession of floods and
ebbs during several thousand years. These downs, acted upon by rain,
were mechanically, or in solution, carried off by the water to the
lowest levels, the elevations being thereby depressed, and the valleys
proportionally raised. The low lands became, of course, the channels
through which the rains returned to the sea, and the successive deposits
on their sides, hardened by the wind and sun, have in five or six
thousand years, created such tracts of alluvial soil, as those which now
present themselves in contiguity with most rivers. The soil, thus
assembled and compounded, is similar in its nature to the rocks and
hills whence it was washed; but, having been so pulverized, and so
divided by solution, it forms the finest medium for the secretion of all
vegetable principles, and hence the banks of the rivers are the favorite
residences of man. Should the channel constantly narrow itself more and
more, till it becomes choked in its course, or at its outlet, then, for
a time, lakes would be formed, which, in like manner, would narrow
themselves and disappear. New channels would then be formed, or the rain
would so diffuse itself over the surface, that the fall and the
evaporation would balance each other.
“Such are the unceasing works of _creation_, constantly taking place on
the exterior surface of the earth; where, though less evident to the
senses and experience of man, matter apparently inert is in as
progressive a state of change, from the operation of unceasing and
immutable causes, as in the visible generations of the animal and
vegetable kingdoms. Thus water, wind and heat, the energies of which
never cease to be exerted, are constantly producing new combinations,
changes and creations; which, if they accord with the harmony of the
whole, are fit and ‘good;’ but, if discordant, are speedily re-organized
or extinguished by contrary and opposing powers. In a word, _whatever
is, is fit; and whatever is not fit, is not, or soon ceases to be_! Such
seems to be the governing principle of Nature, the key of all her
mysteries, the primary law of creation! All things are the proximate
effects of a balance of immutable powers; those powers are results of a
_primordial cause_; while that _cause_ is inscrutable and
incomprehensible to creatures possessing but a relative being, who live
only in _time_ and _space_, and who feel and act merely by the _impulse_
of limited senses and powers.”
And, again, the same writer introduces the following apposite remarks on
this very interesting subject.
“As I approached a sequestered mansion-house, and the other buildings
connected with it, I crossed a corner of the meadow toward an angle
formed by a rude inlet of the Thames, which was running smoothly toward
the sea, at the rate of four miles an hour. The tide unites here with
the ordinary current, and running a few miles above this place, exhibits
twice a day the finely reduced edge of that physical balance-wheel, or
oscillating fluid-pendulum, which creates the earth’s centrifugal power,
and varies the center of its forces. In viewing the beautiful process of
nature, presented by a majestic river, we cease to wonder that
priestcraft has often succeeded in teaching nations to consider rivers
of divine origin, and as proximate living emblems of omnipotence.
Ignorance, whose constant error is to look only to the last term of
every series of causes, and which charges impiety on all who venture to
ascend one term higher, and atheism on all who dare to explore several
terms, (though every series implies a first term,) would easily be
persuaded by a crafty priesthood to consider a beneficent river as a
tangible branch of the Godhead. But we now know that the waters which
flow down a river, are but a portion of the rains and snows which,
having fallen near its source, are returning to the ocean, there to rise
again and re-perform the same circle of vapors, clouds, rains and
rivers. What a process of fertilization, and how still more luxuriant
would have been this vicinity, if man had not leveled the trees, and
carried away the crops of vegetation. What a place of shelter would thus
have been afforded to tribes of amphibiæ, whose accumulated remains
often surprise geologists, though necessarily consequent on the fall of
crops of vegetation on each other, near undisturbed banks of rivers.
Happily, in Britain, our coal-pits, or mineralized forests, have
supplied the place of our living woods; or man, regardless of the
fitness of all the parts to the perfection of every natural result,
might here, as in other long-peopled countries, ignorantly have thwarted
the course of nature by cutting down the timber, which, acting on the
electricity of the clouds, affects their destiny, and causes them to
fall in fertilizing showers. Such has been the fate of all the countries
famous in antiquity. Persia, Syria, Arabia, parts of Turkey, and the
Barbary coast, have been rendered arid deserts by this inadvertency. The
clouds from the Western ocean would long since have passed over England
without disturbance from the conducting power of leaves of trees, or
blades of grass, if our coal-works had not saved our natural conductors;
while the Thames, the agent of so much abundance and of so much wealth,
might, in that case, have become a shallow brook, like the once equally
famed Jordan, Granicus, or Ilyssus.
“I now descended toward a rude space near the river, which appeared to
be in the state in which the occasional overflowings and gradual
retrocession of the river had left it. It was one of those wastes which
the lord of the manor had not yet enabled some industrious cultivator to
disguise; and in large tracts of which Great Britain still exhibits the
surface of the earth in the pristine state in which it was left by the
secondary causes that have given it form. The Thames, doubtless, in a
remote age, covered the entire site; but it is the tendency of rivers to
narrow themselves, by promoting prolific vegetable creations on their
consequently increasing and encroaching banks, though the various
degrees of fall produce every variety of currents, and, consequently,
every variety of banks, in their devious course. In due time, the course
of the river becomes choked where a flat succeeds a rapid, and the
detained waters then form lakes in the interior. These lakes likewise
generate encroaching banks, which finally fill up their basins, when new
rivers are formed on higher levels. These in their turn, become
interrupted, and repetitions of the former circle of causes produce one
class of those elevations of land above the level of the sea, which have
so much puzzled geologists. The only condition which a surface of dry
land requires to increase and raise itself, is the absence of salt
water, consequent on which is an accumulation of vegetable and animal
remains. The Thames has not latterly been allowed to produce its natural
effects, because for two thousand years the banks have been inhabited by
man, who unable to appreciate the general laws by which the phenomena of
the earth are produced, has sedulously kept open the course of the
river, and prevented the formation of interior lakes. The Caspian sea,
and all similar inland seas and lakes, were, for the most part, formed
from the choking up of rivers which once constituted their outlets. If
the course of nature be not interrupted by the misdirected industry of
man, the gradual desiccation of all such collections of water will, in
due time, produce land of higher levels on their sites. In like manner,
the great lakes of North America, if the St. Lawrence be not sedulously
kept open, will in the course of ages, be filled up by the gradual
encroachment of their banks, and the raising of their bottoms with
strata of vegetable and animal remains. New rivers would then flow over
these increased elevations, and the ultimate effect would be to raise
that part of the continent of North America several hundred feet above
its present level. Even the very place on which I stand was, according
to Webster, once a vast basin, extending from the Nore to near Reading,
but now filled up with vegetable and animal remains; and the illustrious
Cuvier has discovered a similar basin round the site of Paris. These
once were Caspians, created by the choking and final disappearance of
some mighty rivers; they have been filled up by gradual encroachments,
and now the Thames and the Seine flow over them; but these, if left to
themselves, will, in their turn, generate new lakes or basins, and the
successive recurrence of a similar series of causes will continue to
produce similar effects, till interrupted by _superior_ causes.
“This situation was so sequestered, and therefore so favorable to
contemplation, that I could not avoid indulging myself. What, then, are
those superior causes, I exclaimed, which will interrupt this series of
natural operations to which man is indebted for the enchanting visions
of hill and dale, and for the elysium of beauty and plenty in which he
finds himself? Alas! facts prove that all things are transitory, and
that change of condition is the constant and necessary result of that
motion which is the chief instrument of eternal causation, but which, in
causing all phenomena, wears out existing organizations while it is
generating new ones. In the motions of the earth as a planet, doubtless
are to be discovered the superior causes which convert seas into
continents, and continents into seas. These sublime changes are
occasioned by the progress of the perihelion point of the earth’s orbit
through the ecliptic, which passes from extreme northern to extreme
southern declination, and _vice versa_, every ten thousand, four hundred
and fifty years; and the maxima of the central forces in the perihelion
occasion the waters to accumulate alternately upon either hemisphere.
During ten thousand, four hundred and fifty years, the sea is therefore
gradually retiring and encroaching in both hemispheres: hence all the
varieties of marine appearances and accumulations of marine remains in
particular situations; and hence the successions of layers or strata,
one upon another, of marine and earthly remains. It is evident, from
observation of those strata, that the periodical changes have occurred
at least three times; or in other words, it appears that the site on
which I now stand has been three times covered by the ocean, and three
times has afforded an asylum for vegetables and animals! How sublime,
how interesting, how affecting is such a contemplation! How transitory,
therefore, must be the local arrangements of man, and how puerile the
study of the science miscalled antiquities! How foolish the pride which
vaunts itself on splendid buildings and costly mausoleums! How vain the
ostentation of large estates, of extensive boundaries, and of great
empires! All, all will, in due time, be swept away and defaced by the
unsparing ocean; and, if recorded in the frail memorials of human
science, will be spoken of like the lost Atlantis, and remembered only
as a philosophical dream!”
Such are the speculations of Phillips, containing many things highly
interesting and instructive; though, with our advanced knowledge of
geology, we involuntarily smile at his “_periods_” of “_ten thousand,
four hundred and fifty years_,” knowing, as we now do, that some of the
great changes of which he speaks must have occupied the long ages of the
earth’s chaotic state, before God, by his word, formed it again to life
and order and beauty. The merest tyro in science now knows, that in the
great facts of geology God as truly speaks by his _works_, as in the
book of revelation he speaks by his _word_; and though we are far more
liable to misunderstand and misinterpret the former than the latter, yet
_rightly_ understood there is no discrepancy between the two, but both
speak the same language of truth. In the very structure of the earth
itself, we have the evidence of the changes it has passed through. The
wonderful wrecks of a former state of nature, preserved, like ancient
medals or marbles in the ruins of an extinct empire, tell of the
progress of the earth in past ages, and teach us that many of the
changes which Phillips would refer to comparatively modern times, belong
to a period far back of the creation of our first parents, when our
planet, though existing, had not as yet been prepared for the habitation
of mankind. We will not, however, dwell on these points; but merely
allude to them, referring our readers to any of the elementary treatises
on geology, where they may find the full details of facts, and also the
various theories which reconcile these facts with the statements of the
Mosaic history.