Principles of Geology ; Or, The Modern Changes of the Earth and Its Inhabitants Considered as Illustrative of GeologyD. Appleton, 1853 - 834 pages |
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alluvial America ancient appears Bay of Bengal beds bottom Calabria called carbonic carbonic acid carboniferous causes century Cetacea changes channel cliffs climate coast cone continued crater delta deposits depth distance district earth earthquakes elevation Eocene eruption Etna Etym existing feet fissures flood flowing formation formed fossil geographical Geol geological geologist glacier globe gneiss gradually granite Gulf heat height hundred hyæna inhabitants inundations Ischia island Journ lakes land latitudes lava limestone marine mass matter miles mineral Monte Nuovo mountains nature observed ocean Oolite organic origin period Phil plain portion present produced quadrupeds quantity regions remains rise river rocks sand scoriæ sediment seen shells shores soil solid species springs stone strata stream subsidence subterranean supposed surface temperature terrestrial tertiary theory thickness thrown tides trachyte tract Trans travertin trees tuff valley vegetable Vesuvius volcanic whole
Popular passages
Page 681 - complain, with the melancholy Jacques, that we Are mere usurpers, tyrants, and what's worse. To fright the animals and to kill them up In their assign'd and native dwelling-place. "We have only to reflect, that in thus obtaining possession of
Page 27 - accomplishments of Hudibras, he says,— " He knew the seat of Paradise, Could tell in what degree it lies; And, as he was disposed, could prove it Below the moon, or else above it." Yet the same monarch, who is said never to have slept
Page 62 - so expressive of the sense of mankind, may be ascribed to the genuine merit of the fable itself. We imperceptibly advance from youth to age, without observing the gradual, but incessant, change of human affairs ; and even, in our larger experience of history, the imagination is accustomed, by a perpetual series of
Page 514 - deserts :—not so thou, Unchangeable, save to thy wild waves' play: Time writes no wrinkle on thine azure brow; Such as creation's dawn beheld, thou rollest now.
Page 490 - A great number of boats and small vessels anchored near it, all full of people, were swallowed up, as in a whirlpool-^ No fragments of these wrecks ever rose again to the surface, and the water in the place where the quay had stood is stated, in many accounts, to be unfathomable; but
Page 14 - 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 ; ' we know not how long it has existed, and our ancestors were on this subject as ignorant as ourselves.' Five centuries afterwards, as I
Page 48 - 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 termination of the present order. It is unreasonable, indeed, to suppose that such marks should
Page 126 - secondary strata there are no remains of such animals as now belong to the surface; and in the rocks, which may be regarded as more recently deposited, these remains occur but rarely, and with abundance of extinct species;—there seems, as it were, a gradual approach to the present system of things, and a succession of
Page 664 - themselves by chance in a particular spot tend, by the mere occupancy of space, to exclude other species—the greater choke the smaller; the longest livers replace those which last for a shorter period; the more prolific gradually make themselves masters of the ground, which species multiplying more slowly would otherwise fill.
Page 606 - Gthly. From the above considerations, it appears that species have a real existence in nature ; and that each was endowed, at the time of its creation, with the attributes and organization by which it is now distinguished. CHAPTER