AREA AND DEPTH OF OCEAN INVERTED.

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viously developed. The first enigma is the vast extent and magnitude of volcanic agency in that ancient world, as indicated especially in its basaltic façades and domes of porphyry; compared to which every volcanic monument erected within the scope of history, shrinks into insignificance.

If the antediluvian seas had a superficial area, less than ours, their depth would be proportionally greater. Resuming, for the sake of illustration, our former ratio of an equality between the land and water (the doctrine of Deluc and Penn assigns 3 of the former to 1 of the latter), the antediluvian ocean would be to the postdiluvian in surface as 2 to 3; and in depth as 3 to 2; whence the sea would then penetrate one-half further into the crust of the earth, and thus present along its base a most formidable line of proximity with the fused and explosive metals of the interior. We We may thus also perceive on what a tottering equilibrium, the devoted dwelling-place of the Cainites was suspended. During nearly the whole period of its existence, the penal fire sent forth its convulsive prodigies, as if to repress the growing wickedness of man, but in vain. Mighty memorials of these tremendous earthquakes pervade the whole masonry of the antediluvian earth, from the deep carboniferous limestone, to the uppermost tertiary beds. After many a disregarded presage, however, the disruptive consummation arrived, the deluge rushed over the subverted lands, and a more stable terraqueous equilibrium ensued. Yet, for some time, the residuary diluvial waters, would soak freely down into the still yawning crevices of the crust, and provoke fresh eruptions,

almost rivalling those of the primeval ages. To this epoch obviously belong those vast lava torrents of extinct volcanoes in France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, &c. of whose activity, there is not a traditional vestige; probably because the eruptions occurred before the posterity of Noah had colonised these western countries.

The second fossil enigma, which the superior depth of the primeval seas, enables us completely to solve, is of still greater interest than the first to the natural history of the earth. "In the organic beings buried in the shelly strata," says Humboldt, "every thing astonishes, and nothing can be explained, as to the climate which gave them birth." To the many proofs of this proposition formerly given, we shall add a few decisive documents.

The observations made during our four Arctic expeditions, viz., the one under Captain Ross, and the three under Captain Parry, afford, according to Professor Jameson, the following general facts and inferences:

"That previous to the deposition of the coal formation, as that of Melville Island, the transition and primitive hills and plains supported a rich and luxuriant vegetation, principally of cryptogamous plants, especially the ferns, the prototypes of which are now met with only in the tropical regions of the earth. The fossil corals of the secondary limestone, also, intimate that before, during, and after the deposition of the coal formation, the waters of the ocean were so constituted as to support polyparia, closely resembling those of the present equatorial seas."

CAUSES OF ANCIENT POLAR WARMTH.

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"That previous to, and during the deposition of the tertiary strata, these now frozen regions supported forests of dicotyledinous plants, as is shown by the fossil dicotyledinous woods met with in connexion with these strata in Baffin's Bay, and by the fossil wood of Melville Island, Cape York, and Byam Martin Island."*

The heat applied beneath the seas, in exciting the internal motions of the aqueous particles, caused an equal distribution of warmth throughout the whole body, and in every possible direction. Though the slanting sunbeams, therefore, should have proved ineffectual to produce in the ancient arctic regions even under their diminished counteracting extent of evaporation, a sufficient warmth, yet the hot currents from the bottom, not only of the arctic grounds themselves, but from the more southern sea-beds, would by the laws of liquid equilibrium, flow towards the pole in exchange for its colder aqueous particles, and thus maintain a temperature commensurate to a vigorous vitality of the polyparies and shellfish.t

The circulation of a body of waters thus rendered tepid by subjacent heat, was the most direct method

* Edin. Phil. Journ. New Series, vol. II. p. 105; and Capt. Parry's third voyage. Captain Parry observed only 12 or 13 species of plants growing on Melville Island, among which the only one belonging to the tribe of shrubs, was betula nana, which was there a creeping vegetable, not rising two inches above the ground. No amphibia, or reptile, exists in these arctic regions. The frog alone is seen, but further to the south.

+ The effect of subterranean fire in heating a vast body of water, even to the boiling point, and the steam over it under compression, much higher, is well related by Mr. Bald in his memoir on the fires that take place in collieries.-Edin. Phil. Journ., July, 1828.

of diffusing a genial soft climate over all the contiguous lands. The efficiency of this process will be readily appreciated by the modern horticulturist, who has learned to heat his vineries, &c. with economy and precision, by circulating hot water in a series of iron pipes distributed through them.

Under such circumstances as we have now detailed, that vegetation would luxuriate, which Mr. Konig and Professor Jameson have so fully recognised amid the circumpolar ruins of the ancient earth.*

I am not conscious of having employed in the preceding investigation, any causes whose operation is not both actual and sufficient to explain the appearances. I leave others to speculate about the igneous origin of the globe, and its having spontaneously evolved during an indefinite period of refrigeration, successive orders of organic forms. This hypothesis is founded neither on natural nor revealed knowledge; nor will it accord with those great and sudden crises of temperature, which innumerable monuments attest. Baron Cuvier indeed has placed the suddenness of these ancient revolutions of the earth and animated nature, beyond all rational doubt.

CHAP. VI.-ANIMAL REMAINS OF THE DELUGE.

I HAVE already described in Chap. I. of this Book, that superficial stratum of mingled sand and gravel

*The chilling influence of damps, even in the arctic zone, is well shown by the fact, that during foggy weather, the thermometer falls on the Greenland seas in summer to the freezing point of water, and there remains stationary, till the sky becomes clear.

MORAL COROLLARIES.

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which covers almost every region of the earth, in situations beyond the reach of river deposits, and to which the name diluvium has been given, to denote the detritus of the deluge. It is in this gravelly soil that the fossil bones of ancient animals are usually found. But kindred skeletons, or their parts, have been also discovered in great numbers in the limestone caves of this and many other countries, which are supposed, with much probability, to have been the dens of antediluvian animals, the last tenants of which were drowned in the universal cataclysm. I shall dedicate this chapter to a brief but comprehensive view of these bony relics, selecting the most interesting objects, and describing in particular, the principles of that marvellous sagacity by which MM. Cuvier have taught the man of science to determine, almost at a single glance of the eye, the order, family, and species of an extinct animal, from the inspection of a single tooth. The more ancient organic remains of the regular secondary and tertiary strata were examined in treating of their sepulchres. They bear good evidence of having been inurned at a period long antecedent to the deluge.

These physical researches, elevate the mind above objects simply material; they inculcate great moral truths. In demonstrating that our earth is not peopled with the same species of animals which existed in the parent world, they display the renewing hand of Providence. The fossil elephants, rhinoceroses, bears, hyænas, &c. exhibit both in the individual bones, and their mutual adaptation, essential differences from all their living types. We