The Wonders of Geology: Or A Familiar Exposition of Geological Phenomena, Volume 1Henry G. Bohn, 1848 - 938 pages |
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The Wonders of Geology: Or, a Familiar Exposition of Geological Phenomena ... Gideon Algernon Mantell No preview available - 2015 |
Common terms and phrases
abound alluvial ancient animals appear basin beds belong bones breccia Brighton calcareous carnivora caverns characters clay cliffs coast composed containing corals cretaceous crustaceans deposits dermal detritus discovered drifted earth elephant elevation eocene epoch existing extinct feet fishes fissures flint fluviatile formation fossil fossil remains Fossils of Tilgate fragments fresh-water Galt Gavial genera Geology granite gravel greensand hills hippopotamus Iguanodon imbedded inches inhabited island Isle of Sheppey Isle of Wight jaws lakes land lava layers Lign lignite limestone London clay mammalia marine marl masses mastodon Medals of Creation Megalosaurus mineral mountains nature numerous occur ocean oolite organic remains peculiar phenomena plants plates portion present Purbeck quarries recent relics remarkable reptiles river rocks sand sandstone shells skeleton South-East of England species specimens stone strata structure surface Sussex Swanage teeth terrestrial tertiary thickness Tilgate Forest tooth trees valley vegetable vertebræ volcanic Wealden
Popular passages
Page 118 - Thy shores are empires, changed in all save thee — Assyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage, what are they ? 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
Page 65 - Far down, and shining through their stillness lies ! Thou hast the starry gems, the burning gold, Won from ten thousand royal argosies. Sweep o'er thy spoils, thou wild and wrathful main ! Earth claims not these again.
Page 65 - Yet more, the Depths have more ! — What wealth untold Far down, and shining through their stillness lies ! Thou hast the starry gems, the burning gold, Won from ten thousand royal Argosies.
Page 48 - ... more than four times the velocity of a ball when first discharged from a cannon — instead of falling back to the moon by the attraction of gravity, it would come within the sphere of the earth's attraction, and revolve about it like a satellite. These bodies, impelled either by the direction of the primitive impulse, or by the disturbing action of the sun, might ultimately penetrate the earth's atmosphere, and arrive at its surface ; but...
Page 108 - On Lough Neagh's bank as the fisherman strays, When the clear, cold eve's declining, He sees the round towers of other days, In the wave beneath him shining! Thus shall memory often, in dreams sublime, Catch a glimpse of the days that are over, Thus, sighing, look through the waves of time For the long-faded glories they cover!
Page 47 - ... the earth. The fall of meteoric stones is much more frequent than is generally believed. Hardly a year passes without some instances occurring ; and, if it be considered that only a small part of the earth is inhabited, it may be presumed that numbers fall in the ocean, or on the uninhabited part of the land, unseen by man.
Page 88 - Nothing can be more melancholy," says Denon, " than to walk over villages, swallowed up by the sand of the desert, to trample under foot their roofs, to strike against the summits of their minarets, to reflect that yonder were cultivated fields, that there grew trees, that here were even the dwellings of men, and that all have vanished.
Page 445 - ... source, to the grander depositions in the secondary rocks, where the zoophytes or coral insects have worked upon a grand scale, and where palms and vegetables now unknown, are preserved with the remains of crocodiles, turtles and gigantic extinct animals of the sauri genus, and which appear to have belonged to a period when the whole globe possessed a much higher temperature. I have likewise often been led from the remarkable phenomena surrounding me in that spot, to compare the works of man...
Page 15 - ... not highly probable that at the end of such a period, pillars, vases, and statues now in being of granite, or porphyry, or jasper, (stones of such hardness as we know them to have lasted two thousand years above ground, without any considerable alteration,) would bear record of these and past ages ? Or that some of our current coins might then be dug up, or old walls and the foundations of buildings show themselves, as well as the shells and stones of the primeval world, which are preserved down...
Page 104 - Whose lonely columns stand sublime, Flinging their shadows from on high, Like dials, which the wizard, Time, Had raised to count his ages by...