Principles of Geology; Or, The Modern Changes of the Earth and Its Inhabitants Considered as Illustrative of Geology, Volume 2D. Appleton, 1876 |
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alluded America ancient animals and plants appears archipelago atolls Azores beds birds Calabria Calanna calcareous Catania cause century changes coast common cone continued coral crater currents Darwin deep deposits depth distance distinct earth earthquake elevation eruption Etna Europe existence extinct fathoms fauna feet fissures fossil genera Geol geological geologist globe gradually ground heat height hyænas Iceland inhabitants insects islands Journ lakes Lamarck land lava living Madeira Malay Archipelago mammalia manner marine mass miles Miocene mountain Natural Selection naturalists observed ocean organic origin of species peat peculiar period Pliocene Porto Santo quadrupeds races reef regions remains remarkable rise river rocks sand scoriæ seeds seen shells shock shore soil solid strata stream submerged subsidence subterranean supposed surface terrestrial terrestrial animals theory thickness tion trees upheaval Val del Bove valley variation varieties vegetable volcanic volcanic cone waves wild
Popular passages
Page 438 - ... so thick the aery crowd swarmed and were straitened ; till, the signal given, behold a wonder ! they but now who seemed in bigness to surpass earth's giant sons, now less than smallest dwarfs in narrow room throng numberless...
Page 177 - 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 27 - The seat of Desolation, void of light, Save what the glimmering of these livid flames Casts pale and dreadful?
Page 146 - ... swallowed up, with all the people on it, who had fled thither for safety, and had reason to think themselves out of danger in such a place: at the same time a great number of boats and small vessels, anchored near it, (all likewise full of people, who had retired thither for the same purpose,) were all swallowed up, as in a whirlpool, and never more appeared.
Page 278 - The explanation is not difficult. The food most congenial to this species, and on which it thrives best, is abundantly distributed over a very extensive region, offering such differences of soil and climate, that in one part or another of the area the supply never fails. The bird is capable of a very rapid and long-continued flight, so that it can pass without fatigue over the whole of the district it inhabits, and as soon as the supply of food begins to fail in one place is able to discover a fresh...
Page 501 - Thus, in Mar forest, in Aberdeenshire, large trunks of Scotch fir, which had fallen from age and decay, were soon immured in peat formed partly out of their perishing leaves and branches, and in part from the growth of other plants.
Page 362 - Near the east coast of Greenland," observes Scoresby, " they have been seen on the ice in such quantities, that they were compared to flocks of sheep on a common — and they are often found on field-ice, above two hundred miles from the shore f.
Page 554 - ... these, when they happen to be enveloped in a matrix capable of protecting them from chemical changes, much information of historical interest will remain inscribed, and endure for periods as indefinite as have the delicate markings of zoophytes or lapidified plants in some of the ancient secondary rocks. In almost every large ship, moreover, there are some precious stones set in seals, and other articles of use and ornament composed of the hardest substances in nature, on which letters and various...
Page 506 - At the battle of Solway, in the time of Henry VIII. (1542), when the Scotch army, commanded by Oliver Sinclair, was routed, an unfortunate troop of horse, driven by their fears, plunged into this morass, which instantly closed upon them. The tale was traditional, * See above, p.
Page 253 - The camelopard was not gifted with a long flexible neck because it was destined to live in the interior of Africa, where the soil was arid and devoid of herbage ; but, being reduced by the nature of that country to support itself on the foliage of lofty trees, it contracted a habit of stretching itself up to reach the high boughs, until its fore legs became longer than the hinder, and its neck so elongated, that it could raise its head to the height of twenty feet above the ground.