Principles of Geology: Being an Inquiry how for the Former Changes of the Earth's Surface are Referrable to Causes Now in Operation, Volume 1John Murray, 1834 - 1692 pages |
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ages analogy ancient animals and plants Apennines appear arctic ation Auvergne basalt beds calcareous carboniferous catastrophes causes century chap climate continents creation crust delta deluge deposits depth district doctrine dogma earth earthquakes elevation Eocene epoch Europe existing extinct feet flood formations formed former changes fossil fossil remains fossil shells genera geographical geologists geology globe gradual granite heat Hutton hypothesis igneous inhabitants islands Italy labours lakes latitudes lava limestone living marine mass Mediterranean Melville Island mineral modern Moro mountains naturalists nature northern hemisphere observations ocean opinions organic remains origin Paris basin period petrifactions phenomena philosopher present progress proofs quadrupeds quantity recent regard regions revolutions rivers rocks sand secondary sediment Sicily species speculations Spitzbergen springs Steno Strabo strata Subapennine submarine subterranean succession supposed temperature tertiary testacea theory tion travertin tropical Val di Noto valleys vegetable volcanic Werner writers
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Page 271 - che in ver lor s'avventa, Fanno lo schermo, perché il mar si fuggia, E quale i Padovan lungo la Brenta, Per difender lor ville e lor castelli, Anzi che Chiarentana il caldo senta — Inferno, Canto
Page 36 - sea have undergone, we meet with the following beautiful passage, which is given as the narrative of Khidhz, an allegorical personage :—" I passed one day by a very ancient and wonderfully populous city, and asked one of its inhabitants how long it had been founded. ' It is indeed a mighty city,' replied he,
Page 364 - tons weight of mud, were to sail down the river every hour of every day and night for four months continuously, they would only transport from the higher country to the sea a mass of solid matter equal to that borne down by the Ganges in the flood season.
Page 167 - At Pékin, in China, where the mean temperature of the year is that of the coasts of Brittany, the scorching heats of summer are greater than at Cairo, and the winters as rigorous as at Upsal. * If lines be drawn round the globe through all those places which
Page 131 - supposed, of the existence of certain heavenly bodies still giving and reflecting light, and performing their movements as of old. Some imagined that the strata, so rich in organic remains, instead of being due to secondary agents, had been so created in the beginning of things by the fiat of the Almighty ; and others
Page 397 - the ancient villages of Shipden, Wimpwell, and Eccles, have disappeared; several manors and large portions of neighbouring parishes having, piece after piece, been swallowed up ; nor has there been any intermission, from time immemorial, in the ravages of the sea along a line of coast twenty miles in length, in which these places stood.
Page 268 - at the point now reached by the falls, a circumstance which may enable it in future to offer greater resistance to the force of the cataract.* If the ratio of recession had never exceeded fifty yards in forty years, it must have required nearly ten thousand years for the excavation of the whole ravine ; but
Page 257 - The river Don," observes Mr. Farquharson, in his account of the inundations, " has upon my own premises forced a mass of four or five hundred tons of stones, many of them two or three hundred pounds weight, up an inclined plane, rising six feet in eight or ten yards, and left them in a rectangular heap,
Page 113 - other occurrences afterwards found to belong to the regular course of events, are regarded as prodigies. The same delusion prevails as to moral phenomena, and many of these are ascribed to the intervention of demons, ghosts, witches, and other immaterial and supernatural agents. By degrees, many of the
Page 112 - IF we reflect on the history of the progress of geology, as explained in the preceding chapters, we perceive that there have been great fluctuations of opinion respecting the nature of the causes to which all former changes of the earth's surface are referrible. The first observers conceived