reproduced from original documents in the library holdings of
Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA
Copyright © 2002 by Dr. David C. Bossard
Frontispiece - Temple
of Serapis
"Verè scire est per causas scire." — Bacon.
"Amid all the revolutions of the globe the economy of Nature has been uniform, and her laws are the only things that have resisted the general movement. The rivers and the rocks, the seas and the continents have been changed in all their parts; but the laws which direct those changes, and the rules to which they are subject, have remained invariably the same." — Playfair, Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory, § 374.
"The inhabitants of the globe, like all the other parts of it, are subject to change. It is not only the individual that perishes but whole species.Contents vii viii ix x xi xii xiii
xiv xv
xvi
Plates xvi
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES
| Plate 400 ppi |
Plate 100 ppi |
Description |
Face page |
| frontispiece (400ppi) | frontispiece | View of the Temple of Serapis at Puzzuoli in 1836 | titlepage |
| I (400ppi) | Plate I |
Map showing the present unequal Distribution of Land and Water |
110 |
| II (400ppi) | Plate II |
Map showing the Position of Land and Sea, to illustrate changes of Climate |
111 |
| III (400ppi) | Plate III |
Map showing the Area in Europe which has been covered by Water since the beginning of the Eocene Period |
121 |
| IV (400ppi) | Plate IV |
Boulders drifted by Ice on the Shores of the
St.
Lawrence |
223 |
| V (400ppi) | Plate V |
Map of Coast from Ostend to Rugen | 313 |
| VI (400ppi) | Plate VI |
Map of Volcanic Bands | 337 |
| VII (400ppi) | Plate VII |
Map of Volcanic District of Naples | 345 |
| VIII (400ppi) | Plate VIII |
View looking up the Val del Bove, Etna | 387 |
| IX (400ppi) | Plate IX |
View of the Val del Bove, Etna, as seen from above |
389 |
| X (400ppi) | Plate X |
Map of Cutch | 441 |
| XI (400ppi) | Plate XI | View of Sindree, on the Indus | 442 |
| 1832 map
(400ppi) |
1832 map |
Map of volcanic zones from 1832 edition |
--- |
Werner's application of geology to the art of mining — Excursive
character of his lectures — Enthusiasm of his pupils —His authority —
His theoretical errors — Desmarest's Map and Description of Auvergue —
Controversy between the Vulcanists and Neptunists — Intemperance of the
rival sects — Hutton's Theory of the earth — His discovery of granite
veins — Originality of his views — Why opposed — Playfair's
illustrations — Influence
of Voltaire's writings on geology — Imputations cast on the Huttonians
by
Williams, Kirwan, and De Luc — Smith's Map of England — Geological
Society of London — Progress of the science in France — Growing
importance of the study of organic remains — — 048 049 050 051 052 053 054 055 056 057 058 059 060 061 062 063
Prepossessions in regard to the duration of past time —
Prejudices arising from our peculiar position as inhabitants of the
land — Of those occasioned by our not seeing subterranean changes now
in progress — All these causes combine to make the former course of
Nature appear different from the present — Objections to the doctrine,
that causes similar in kind and energy to those now acting, have
produced the former changes of the
earth's surface, considered — — 063
064 065
066 067
068 069
070 071
072 073
074 075
[viii CONTENTS.]
Climate of the Northern Hemisphere formerly different — Direct proofs from the organic remains of the Italian strata — Proofs from analogy derived from extinct quadrupeds — Imbedding of animals in icebergs — Siberian mammoths — Evidence in regard to temperature, from the fossils of tertiary and secondary rocks — From the plants of the coal formation — Northern limit of these fossils — Whether such plants could endure the long continuance of an arctic night — — — — Page 075 076 077 078 079 080 081 082 083 084 085 086 087 088 089 090 091 092 093
On the causes of vicissitudes in climate — Remarks on the present diffusion of heat over the globe — On the dependence of the mean temperature on the relative position of land and sea — Isothermal Lines — Currents from equatorial regions — Drifting of icebergs — Different temperature of Northern and Southern hemispheres — Combination of causes which might produce the extreme cold of which the earth's surface is susceptible — Conditions necessary for the production of the extreme of heat, and its probable effects on organic life — 093 094 095 096 097 098 099 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113
Geographical features of the northern hemisphere, at the period of the oldest fossiliferous strata — State of the surface when the mountain limestone and coal were deposited — Changes in physical geography, between the carboniferous period and the chalk — Abrupt transition from the secondary to the tertiary fossils — Accession of land, and elevation of mountain chains, after the consolidation of the secondary rocks — Explanation of Map, showing the area covered by sea, since the commencement of the tertiary period — Astronomical theories of the causes of variations in climate — Theory of the diminution of the supposed primitive heat of the globe — — — — 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130
Theory of the progressive development of organic life — Evidence in its support inconclusive — Vertebrated animals, and plants of the most perfect organization, in strata of very high antiquity — Differences between the organic remains of successive formations — Comparative modern origin of the human race — The popular doctrine of successive development not established by the admssion that man is of modern origin — Introduction of man, to what extent a change in the system — — — — 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150
Intensity of aqueous causes — Slow accumulation of strata proved by
fossils — Rate of denudation can only keep pace with deposition —
Erratics, and effects of ice — Deluges, and the causes to which they
are referred — Supposed universality of
ancient deposits — — — — 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157
Volcanic action at successive geological periods. —Plutonic rocks of
different ages — Gradual development of subterranean movements — Faults
— Doctrine of the sudden upheaval of parallel mountain-chains —
Objections to the proof of the suddenness of the upheaval, and the
contemporaneousness of parallel chains — Trains of active volcanos not
parallel — As large tracts of land are rising or
[ix CONTENTS.]
sinking slowly, so narrow zones of land may be pushed up gradually to great heights — Bending of strata by lateral pressure — Adequacy of the volcanic power to effect this without paroxysmal convulsions — — — — Page 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169
Consolidation of fossiliferous strata — Some deposits originally
solid — Transition and slaty texture — Crystalline character of
Plutonic and Metamorphic rocks — Theory of their origin — Essentially
subterranean —
No proofs that they were
produced more abundantly at remote periods — — — — 169 170 171 172 173 174
Supposed alternate periods of repose and disorder — Observed facts in which this doctrine has originated — These may be explained by supposing a uniform and uninterrupted series of changes — Threefold consideration of this subject; first, in reference to the living creation, extinction of species, and origin of new animals and plants; secondly, in reference to the changes produced in the earth's crust by the continuance of subterranean movements in certain areas, and their transference after long periods to new areas; thirdly, in reference to the laws which govern the formation of fossiliferous strata, and the shifting of the areas of sedimentary deposition — On the combined influence of all these modes and causes of change in producing breaks and chasms in the chain of records — Concluding remarks on the identity of the ancient and present system of terrestrial changes — — — — 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192
Division of the subject into changes of the organic and inorganic world — Inorganic causes of change divided into aqueous and igneous — Aqueous causes first considered — Destroying and transporting power of running water — Sinuosities of rivers — Two streams when united do not occupy a bed of double surface — Heavy matter removed by torrents and floods — Inundations in Scotland — Floods caused by landslips in the White Mountains — Bursting of a lake in Switzerland — Devastations caused by the Anio at Tivoli — Excavations in the lavas of Etna by Sicilian rivers — Gorge of the Simeto — Gradual recession of the cataracts of Niagara. — — — — 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206
Course of the Po — Desertion of its old channel — Artificial
embankments of the Po, Adige, and other Italian rivers — Basin of the
Mississippi — Its meanders — Islands — Shifting of its course — Raft of
the Atchafalaya — Drift-wood — New-formed lakes in Louisiana —
Earthquakes in valley of Mississippi — — — — 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221
Carrying power of river-ice — Rocks annually conveyed into the St.
Lawrence by its tributaries — Ground-ice; its origin and transporting
power — Glaciers — Theory of their downward movement — Smoothed and
grooved rocks — The moraine unstratified — Icebergs covered with mud
and stones — Limits of
glaciers and icebergs — Their effects on the bottom when they run
aground. — Packing of coast-ice — Boulders drifted by ice on coast of
Labrador — Blocks
moved by
ice in the Baltic — Ground-ice and coast-ice in the Baltic — — — —
221 222
223 224
225 226
227 228
229 230
231 232
233
[x. CONTENTS.]
Origin of springs — Artesian wells — Borings at Paris — Distinct causes by which mineral and thermal waters may be raised to the suface — Their connection with volcanic agency — Calcareous springs — Travertin of the Elsa — Baths of San Vignone and of San Filippo, near Radicofani — Spheroidal structure in travertin — Bulicami of Viterbo — Lake of the Solfatara, near Rome — Travertin at Cascade of Tivoli — Gypseous, siliceous, and ferruginous springs — Brine springs — Carbonated springs — Disintegration of granite in Auvergue — Petroleum springs — Pitch lake of Trinidad — — — — Page 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253
Lake deltas — Growth of the delta of the Upper Rhine in the Lake of Geneva — Computation of the age of deltas — Recent deposits in Lake Superior — Deltas of inland seas — Rapid shallowing of the Baltic — Marine delta of the Rhone — Various proofs of its increase — Stony nature of its deposits — Delta of the Po, Adige, Isonzo, and other rivers entering the Adriatic — Rapid conversion of that gulf into land — Mineral characters of the new deposits — Delta of the Nile — — — — 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263
Deltas of the Ganges and Brahmapootra — Formation and destruction of
islands — Abundance of crocodiles — Inundations — Boring in the delta
at Calcutta — Quantity of mud carried down by the Ganges — Grouping of
new strata in general — Convergence of deltas — Conglomerates — Various
causes of stratification — Direction of laminæ — Interchange of
land and sea — Supposed epochs
of existing continents — — — — 263
264 265
266 267
268 269
270 271
272 273
274 275
276 277
278
Differences in the rise of the tides — Rennell's Account of the
Lagullas and Gulf currents — Velocity of currents — Causes of currents
— Action of the sea on the British coast — Shetland Islands — Large
blocks removed — Effects of lightning — Isles reduced to clusters of
rocks — Orkney isles — Waste of East coast of Scotland — and East coast
of England — Waste of the cliffs of Holderness, Norfolk, and Suffolk —
Sand-dunes how far chronometers — Silting up of estuaries — Origin of
submarine forests — Yarmouth estuary — Suffolk coast — Danwich — Essex
coast — Estuary of the Thames — Goodwin Sands Coast of Kent — Formation
of Straits of Dover — South coast of England — Sussex — Rants — Dorset
— Portland — Origin of the Chesil Bank — Cornwall — Coast of Brittany —
— — — 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312
Inroads of the sea upon the delta of the Rhine in Holland — Changes in the arms of the Rhine — Proofs of subsidence of land — Estuary of the Bies Bosch, formed in 1421 — Zuyder Zee, in the 13th century — Islands destroyed — Delta of the Ems converted into a bay — Estuary of the Dollart formed — Encroachment of the sea on the coast of Sleswick — On shores of North America — Tidal wave, called the Bore — Influence of tides and currents on the mean level of seas — Action of currents in inland lakes and seas — Baltic — Cimbrian deluge — Straits of Gibraltar — No under-current there — Whether salt is precipitated in the Mediterranean — Waste of shores of Mediterranean — — — — 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324
Estuaries how formed — Silting up of estuaries does not compensate
the loss of land on the borders of the ocean — Bed of the German Ocean
—
Composition and extent of its sand-banks — Strata deposited by currents
in the English Channel — On the shores of the Mediterranean — At the
mouths of the Amazon, Orinoco, and Mississippi — Wide area over which
strata may be formed by this cause — — — — 324
325 326
327 328
329 330
[xi CONTENTS.]
Dimensions and structure of the cone of Vesuvius — Dikes — Lavas and mineral — Alluviums called "aqueous lavas "— Origin and composition of the matter enveloping Herculaneum and Pompeii — Condition and contents of the buried cities — Small number of skeletons — State of preservation of animal and vegetable substances — Rolls of papyrus — Stabiæ — Torre del Greco — Concluding remarks on the Campanian volcanos — — — — 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380
External physiognomy of Etna — Lateral cones — Their successive
obliteration — Early eruptions —Monti Rossi in 1669 — Towns overflowed
by lava — Part of Catania overflowed — Mode of advance of a current of
lava — Subterranean caverns — Marine strata at base of Etna — Val del
Bove not an ancient
crater — Its scenery — Form, composition, and origin of the dikes —
Linear
direction of cones formed in 1811 and 1819 — Lavas and breccias — Flood
produced by the melting of snow by lava — Glacier covered by a lava
stream
— Val del Bove how formed — Structure and origin of the cone of Etna —
Whether
the inclined sheets of lava were originally horizontal — Antiquity of
Etna
— Whether signs of diluvial waves are observable on Etna — — — —
380 381
382 383
384 385
386 387
388 389
390 391
392 393
394 395
396 397
398 399
400 401
402 403
404 405
406 407
408
Volcanic eruption in Iceland in 1783 — New island thrown up — Lava-currents of Skaptár Jokul, in same year — Their immense volume — Eruption of Jorullo in Mexico — Humboldt's theory of the convexity of the plain of Malpais — Eruption of Galongoon in Java — Submarine volcanos — Graham island, formed in 1831 — Volcanic archipelagos — Submarine eruptions in mid-Atlantic — The Canaries — Teneriffe —Cones thrown up in Lancerote, 1730-36 — Santorin and its contiguous isles — Barren island, in the Bay of Bengal — Mineral composition of volcanic products — — — — 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433
Earthquakes and their effects — Deficiency of ancient accounts —
Ordinary atmospheric phenomena — Changes produced by earthquakes in
modern times
[xii. CONTENTS.]
considered in chronological order — Earthquake in Syria, 1837 —
Earthquakes in Chili in 1837 and 1835 — Isle of 5auta Maria raised ten
feet — Chili, 1822 — Extent of country elevated — Aleppo and Ionian
Isles — Earthquake of Cutch in 1819 — Subsidence in the Delta of the
Indus — Island of Sumbawa in 1815 — Town of Tomboro submerged —
Earthquake of Caraccas in 1812 —
Shocks at New Madrid in 1811 in the valley of the Mississippi — State
of
the convulsed region in 1846 — Aleutian Islands in 1806 — Reflections
on the earthquakes of the nineteenth century — Earthquake in Quito,
Quebec,
&c. — Java, 1786 — Sinking down of large tracts — — — — Page
433 434
435 436
437 438
439 440
441 442
443 444
445 446
447 448
449 450
451 452
Earthquake in Calabria, February 5. 1783 — Shocks continued to the
end of the year 1786 — Authorities — Area convulsed — Geological
structure of the district — Difficulty of ascertaining changes of level
— Subsidence of the quay at Messina — Movement in the stones of two
obelisks — Shift or fault in the Round Tower of Terranuova — Opening
and closing of fissures — Large edifices engulphed — Dimensions of new
caverns and fissures — Gradual closing in of rents —Bounding of
detached masses into the air — Landslips — Buildings transported entire
to great distances — New lakes — Funnel-shaped hollows in alluvial
plains — Currents of mud — Fall of cliffs, and shore near Scilla
inundated — State of Stromboli and Etna during the shocks —
How earthquakes contribute to the formation of valleys — Concluding
remarks — — — — 452 453 454 455 456 457 458 459 460 461 462 463 464 465 466 467 468 469 470 471 472 473 474 475
Earthquake of Java, 1772 — Truncation of a lofty cone — St. Domingo, 1770 — Lisbon, 1755 — Great area over which the shocks extended — Retreat of the sea — Proposed explanations — Conception Bay, 1750 — Permanent elevation — Peru, 1746 — Java, 1699 — Rivers obstructed by landslips — Subsidence in Sicily, 1693 — Moluccas, 1693 — Jamaica, 1692 — Large tracts engulphed — Portion of Port Royal sunk — Amount of change in the last 150 years — Elevation and subsidence of land in Bay of Baiæ — Evidence of the same afforded by the Temple of Serapis — — — — 475 476 477 478 479 480 481 482 483 484 485 486 487 488 489 490 491 492 493 494 495 496 497 498
Changes in the relative level of land and sea in regions not volcanic — Opinion of Celsius that the waters of the Baltic Sea and Northern Ocean were sinking — Objections raised to his opinion— Proofs of the stability of the sea-level in the Baltic — Playfair's hypothesis that the land was rising in Sweden — Opinion of Von Buch — Marks cut on the rocks — Survey of these in 1820 — Facility of detecting slight alterations in level of sea on coast of Sweden — Shores of the ocean also rising — Area upheaved — Shelly deposits of Uddevalla — Of Stockholm, containing fossil shells characteristic of the Baltic — Subsidence in south of Sweden — Fishing-hut buried under marine strata — Upheaval in Sweden not always in horizontal planes — M. Bravais — Sinking of land in Greenland — Bearing of these facts on geology — — — — 498 499 500 501 502 503 504 505 506 507 508 509 510 511 512
Intimate connexion between the causes of volcanos and earthquakes —
Supposed original state of fusion of the planet — Universal fluidity
not proved by spheroidal figure of the earth — Attempt to calculate the
thickness of
the solid crust of the earth by precessional motion — Heat in mines
increasing with the depth — Objections to the supposed intense heat of
a central fluid — Whether chemical changes may produce volcanic heat —
Currents of electricity circulating in the earth's crust — Theory of an
unoxidated metallic nucleus — The metallic oxides
when heated may be deoxidated by hydrogen — — — — 512 513 514 515 516 517 518 519 520 521 522 523 524 525 526
[xiii CONTENTS.]
Division of the subject — Examination of the question, Whether
species have a real existence in nature? — Importance of this question
in geology — Sketch of Lamarck's arguments in favour of the
transmutation of species, and his conjectures respecting the origin of
existing animals and plants — His theory of the transformation of the
orang-outang into the human
species — — — — 544 545 546 547 548 549 550 551 552 553 554 555 556
Recapitulation of the arguments in favour of the theory of transmutation of species — Their insufficiency — Causes of difficulty in discriminating species — Some varieties possibly more distinct than certain individuals of distinct species — Variability in a species consistent with a belief that the limits of deviation are fixed — No facts of transmutation authenticated — Varieties of the Dog — the Dog and Wolf distinct species — Mummies of various animals from Egypt identical in character with living individuals — Seeds and plants from the Egyptian tombs — Modifications produced in plants by agriculture and gardening — — — — 556 557 558 559 560 561 562 563 564 565 566 567 568 569
[xiv. CONTENTS.]
Powers of diffusion indispensable, that each species may maintain its ground — How changes in physical geography affect the distribution of species — Rate of the change of species due to this cause cannot be uniform — Every change in the physical geography of large regions tends to the extinction of species — Effects of a general alteration of climate on the migration of species — Gradual refrigeration would cause species in the northern and southern hemispheres to become distinct — Elevation of temperature the reverse — Effects on the condition of species which must result from inorganic changes inconsistent with the theory of transmutation — — — — 666 667 668 669 670 671 672 673 674 675 676 677 678 679
[xv CONTENTS.]
time to time, of certain animals and plants, is compensated by the
introduction of new species? — Whether any evidence of such new
creations could be
expected within the historical era? — The question whether the existing
species have been created in succession must be decided by geological
monuments — — — — Page 679 680 681 682 683 684 685
[xvi. CONTENTS.]
