Principles of Geology: Or, The Modern Changes of the Earth and Its Inhabitants, Considered as Illustrative of Geology, Volume 3Hilliard, Gray & Company, 1842 - Geology |
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algæ alluvium America ancient animal and vegetable animals and plants appear aquatic atolls barrier reefs become birds bones botanist breccia buried calcareous causes century cetacea circumstances climate coast common considerable continually coral coral reefs deposits depth diffused distinct drifted du Mus earth eggs Etym example existence extinct feet felspar floods forests formation fossil geographical geologist globe habits human hyæna hybrid Iceland imbedded individuals inhabitants insects instincts islands lagoon lakes Lamarck land latitudes lava limestone living marine mass migrations miles mollusks Morayshire mountains naturalists nature observed ocean organic original peat peculiar period plants and animals preserved quadrupeds quantity races reef regions remains remarkable rivers rocks sand seeds shells shores simple mineral soil sometimes South species stone strata subsidence supposed surface terrestrial terrestrial animals terrestrial plants testacea thousand tion Trans trees tribes tropical variety volcanic wild wood zoophytes
Popular passages
Page 239 - But it is a fact, that the soil, notwithstanding, remains the same in quantity, or at least nearly the same, and must have done so, ever since the earth was the receptacle of animal or vegetable life. The soil, therefore, is augmented from other causes, just as much, at an average, as it is diminished by that now mentioned ; and this augmentation evidently can proceed from nothing but the constant and slow disintegration of the rocks. In the permanence, therefore, of a coat of vegetable mould on...
Page 193 - The discovery of America, and that of the passage to the East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope, are the two greatest events recorded in the history of mankind.
Page 149 - ... and I am told that the wild bee is seldom to be met with at any great distance from the frontier. They have been the heralds of civilization, steadfastly preceding it as it advanced from the Atlantic borders, and some of the ancient settlers of the West pretend to give the very year when the honey-bee first crossed the Mississippi.
Page 371 - Even before the trees form a wood, the real sea-birds nestle here; strayed landbirds take refuge in the bushes; and at a much later period, when the work has been long since completed, man also appears, builds his hut on the fruitful soil formed by the corruption of the leaves of the trees, and calls himself lord and proprietor of this new creation.
Page 87 - We can conceive, he adds, that a small number of the families of plants, for instance the musaceae and the palms, cannot belong to very cold regions, on account of their internal structure and the importance of certain organs; but we cannot explain why no one of the family of melastomas vegetates north of the parallel of thirty degrees ; or why no rose-tree belongs to the southern hemisphere. Analogy of climates is often found in the two continents without identity of productions f.
Page 163 - Each species may have had its origin in a single pair, or individual, where an individual was sufficient, and species may have been created in succession at such times and in such places as to enable them to multiply and endure for an appointed period, and occupy an appointed space on the globe.
Page 78 - On this difference of ten degrees in the facial angle the superior beauty of the European depends; while that high character of sublime beauty, which is so striking in some works of...
Page 266 - In June, 1747, the body of a woman was found six feet deep, in a peatmoor in the Isle of Axholm, in Lincolnshire. The antique sandals on her feet afforded evidence of her having been buried there for many ages ; yet her nails, hair, and skin, are described as having shown hardly any marks of decay.
Page 303 - A wooden apparatus that accompanied the boat in its progress through the deep, consisting chiefly of a piece of thick deal, about fifteen inches square, happened to fall overboard, and, though it originally consisted of the lightest fir, sank in the water like a stone.
Page 266 - On the estate of the Earl of Moira, in Ireland, a human body was dug up, a foot deep in gravel, covered with eleven feet of moss ; the body was completely clothed, and the garments seemed all to be made of hair. Before the use of wool was known in that country, the clothing of the inhabitants was made of hair, so that it would appear that this body had been buried at...