Principles of Geology: Or, The Modern Changes of the Earth and Its Inhabitants Considered as Illustrative of GeologyJ. Murray, 1847 - 824 pages |
Other editions - View all
Principles of Geology; Or, the Modern Changes of the Earth and Its ..., Volume 1 Charles Lyell No preview available - 2015 |
Principles of Geology, Vol. 1 of 2: Or the Modern Changes of the Earth and ... Charles Lyell No preview available - 2017 |
Principles of Geology; Or, the Modern Changes of the Earth and Its ..., Volume 1 Charles Lyell No preview available - 2018 |
Common terms and phrases
ages America ancient animals appear arctic basalt beds Calabria carboniferous causes century changes channel cliffs climate coast cone continued convulsions crater currents delta deposits depth distance earth earthquakes elevation Eocene epoch eruption Etna Europe existing extinct feet fissures flood formations formed former fossil geographical Geol geological geologist globe gneiss gradually granite Gulf heat height hemisphere Herculaneum hundred inhabitants Ischia islands Journ lakes land latitudes lava limestone marine mass matter miles mineral Miocene modern Monte Nuovo mountains nature northern northern hemisphere observed ocean oolitic organic remains origin period phenomena Phil plain plants present produced quadrupeds quantity regions remarkable rise river rocks sand scoriæ sediment shells shores Sicily Silurian Sir James Ross species strata stream subsidence subterranean successive supposed surface temperature terrestrial tertiary theory thousand thrown tract travertin tropical tuff upheaval valley vegetable Vesuvius volcanic whole
Popular passages
Page 495 - Thy waters wasted them while they were free, And many a tyrant since ; their shores obey The stranger, slave, or savage ; their decay Has dried up realms to deserts : — not so thou, Unchangeable save to thy wild waves' play — Time writes no wrinkle on thy azure brow — Such as creation's dawn beheld, thou rollest now.
Page 133 - A thousand men, that fishes gnaw'd upon; Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl, Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels, All scatter'd in the bottom of the sea...
Page 388 - The seat of Desolation, void of light, Save what the glimmering of these livid flames Casts pale and dreadful?
Page 53 - The ruins of an older world are visible in the present structure of our planet; and the strata which now compose our continents have been once beneath the sea, and were formed out of the waste of pre-existing continents. The same forces are still destroying, by chemical decomposition or mechanical violence, even the hardest rocks, and transporting the materials to the sea, where they are spread out, and form strata analogous to those of more ancient date. Although loosely deposited along the bottom...
Page 207 - Giovanni Romani. Milan, 1828. t Prony, see Cuvier, Disc. Prelim, p. 146. beginning of the fourteenth, describes, in the seventh circle of hell, a rivulet of tears separated from a burning sandy desert by embankments "like those which, between Ghent and Bruges, were raised against the ocean, or those which the Paduans had erected along the Brenta to defend their villas on the melting of the Alpine snows.
Page 55 - ... in the planetary motions, where geometry has carried the eye so far both into the future and the past, we discover no mark either of the commencement or the termination of the present order.
Page 629 - ... 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...
Page 191 - ... instruments of decay as well as of reproduction ; but they may also be regarded as antagonist forces. For the aqueous agents are incessantly labouring to reduce the inequalities of the earth's surface to a level ; while the igneous are equally active in restoring the unevenness of the external crust, partly by heaping up new matter in certain localities, and partly by depressing one portion, and forcing out another, of the earth's envelope.
Page 362 - ... clear vivid torrent of lava, in perfect fusion, and totally unconnected with any other matter that was not in a state of complete solution, unattended...
Page 56 - Author of nature has not given laws to the universe, which, like the institutions of men, carry in themselves the elements of their own destruction. He has not permitted in His works any symptom of infancy or of old age, or any sign by which we may estimate either their future or their past duration. He may put an end, as he no doubt gave a beginning, to the present system at some determinate period of time ; but we may rest assured that this great catastrophe will not be brought about by the laws...