DR. HANTELL'S WONDERS OF GEOLOGY. DR. HANTELL'S WONDERS OF GEOLOGY.
b. MANTILL was a Brighton practitioner, with a strong gusto for geological pursuits, and a propensity for being a member of
Let the reader suppose centuries to elapse, and volcanic action to raise the bed of the Gulf of Mexico above the sea; and he can readily understand that vast organic remains both of plants and animals would be laid open to the future observer. It is but applying the same principle to the past, and the preservation of the remains of hornier worlds is readily intelligible. Here are some passages reaching further than plants and the lower animals.
Bra) or THE OCEAN.—But the production of beach and gravel and Rand on the shores, and the drifting of sand inland, ale effects far less important than those which are going on in the profound depths of the ocean. In the tranquil bed of the sea, the finer materials, held in tnechanical or chemical sus- peosion by the waters, are precipitated awl deposited, euveloping and imbedding the inhabitants of its waters, together with the remains of buch animals and vegetables of the land as in ty be floated down by the streams and rivers. • • Yes, in these modern depositions the remains of man, and of his works, must of necessity be continually engulfed, together with those of the animals which are his contemporaries. Of the nature of the bed of the ocean, vre can of course know but little from actual observation. Soundings, however, have thrown light upon the delimiter. now forming in those depths, which are accessible to this mode of investigation ; and thus we learn, that in many parts inunense accumulations of the wreck of testaceutia anitnals, intermixed with sand, gravel, and mud, are going OIL Duaati aacertained the existence of a compact bed of shells, one hundred feet in thickness, at the bottom of the Adriatic, which in some parts was converted into marble. In the British Channel, extensive deposites of saud, imbedding the remains of shells, crustacca, &c. are in the progress of formation. This specimen, which was IlrellgVII up at a few miles from land, is an a Nregation of Rand with recent marine bhells, oysters, muscles, limpets, cocklea, fix. with minute corallines • aud this example from off the Isle of Sheppey, consists en- tirely of cockles (;E:nrilirene &ink), held together by congloinetated sand. In bays and creeks, bounded by granitic rocks, the bed is found to be composed of micaceous and quartzose sand, consolidated into what may be termed regenerated granite. of Cape Frio, solid masses of this kind were formed In a few month,; and in them were imbedded dollars and other treasures from the wreck of a vessel, to recover which an exploration by the diving-bell was nu-
tlet taken. • • •
CONSOLIDA riot; BY Iitox.—Water charged with alarge proportion of iron, acts an important part in the consolidation of loose materials, converting sand into iron-stone, and beach or shingle into fr.' ruginous conglomerates. in this example of a horse-shoe firmly impacted in a mass of pebbles and sand, .pre- seated by Davies Gilbert, Esq., the cement which hinds the mass is derived from the iron. Nails are frequently found in the centre of a nodule of hard sandstone formed by this process; the nail supplying the water with the ma- terials by which the surrounding sand is changed Into stone. In this very ins
learned bxlies. He had accumulated a vast number of " frag- ments of an earl er world;' which, according to his own state- ment, "began to acquire an European celebrity," and his house was beset by strange visiters during the Brighton season. He limited them to days and hours, without effect ; but lo I how good cometh out of evil! the consequence has been the foundation of the " Mantellian Museum," and the delivery of these Lectures, as a something for the concern to start with.
Bearing in mind the place where and the class of persons to whom these discourses were addressed, no one will expect them to aim at a distinct exposition of the principles of geology, or even a connected and comprehensive view of the science. Proof in any shape, or any strain upon the attention, would be the last thing likely to win the audience of watering-place loungers. And the Doctor was too skilful to attempt it. To please the idle and the vacant has b..h.91 his object; and he has attained it by grouping together the most remarkable facts—the "Wonders of Geology," in stall a way that each part shall arrest the attention, without much regard to method in arrangement, or to the impres- sion of a connected 0 hole which the mind may receive. The same principle has been at work as regards language. To be under- stood witlsolt effort, or n ith as little effort as possible, was Dr. MANTELL's object; and, what with his own stores of expression, and those of others, which we occasionally trace him in approl pria finis. he has well succeeded. These are just the Lectures to draw from a popit!ar fashionable audience the exclamations of " Wonderful ! how surprising ! what a fine discourse!"
Nor are they ineffective in type. Here, for instaece, is a pas- sage on the changes caused bv rivers in the surface of our globe : though the matter is not new, the statement is of a very satis- fying clearness.
Iii the mighty rivers of Americo the BIRD' effects are observable. The im- mense quantities of till,: brought down by the :Mississippi mill imbedded in its deposites are almost incredible; and the basin of the sea 'unit Intl tile embachure of that liver is becoming shallower every day, by the sole agency of the opera- tion now under our consideration. In the sediments of ti.ese rivers, the ani- mals as well as the Mama of the respective C•lutiti Ma are coutinually enveloped. It is therefore evident, that should these deltas be mine dry land, the naturalist could, on examination of the an iiii al and vegetable remains embedded in the fluviatile sediments, readily determine the characters of the fauna and flora of the countries through whieli the rivers had flowed. We may here observe, that in tropical regions, whew animal life is mofusely develoaed, and but little under the control of man, the animal 'email's bui ied in deltas are tar more abundant than in those of European countries, which are thickly peopled, and in a high state of civilization. The enterprising but unfortunate Lander in- formed me, just before lie embaiked on Ills last fatal expedition to Africa, that in many parts of the (loom, or Niger, the bed of that river, PO far as the eye could reach, teemed with crocodiles and hippopotami; and that so great was their number, that he was oftentimes obliged to drag his boat 01I shore lest it should be swamped by these animals. liut it is unnecessary for me to dwell
longer on these operations, which are so admirably elucidated in the work of my frielid Mr. Lyell : it will suffice to have showu, tmat by the simple operatiou of running water, great destruction and modification of the surface ot the land are everywhere taking place; and that at the Sallie time accumulatious of fluviatile deposits are forming on an extensive scale, mid enveloping animal and vegetable remains. Thus, in the deltas of the rivers of thia country, we find the bones
and antlers of the deer, horse, and other domesticated animals, with the trunks HA branches of trees and plants of our island, and river and land shells, and bones of man, and flagments of pottery, and other works of art ; while in those of the Ganges and the Nile' the remains of the . i lll als and vegetables of India and of Egypt are respectively entombed. teresting mass of breccia, which has been produced by a like process, are two silver pennies of Edward the First ; and this curious specimen, for which 1 zoo indebted to G. Grantham, Esq., of Lewes, was procured from a Dutch vessel stranded off Hastings a century ago, and is a conglomerate of glass beads, knives, and sand ; the cementing material having been derived from the oxida- tion of the blades.
"The world will last our time ;" but there is a selfish wish in man for the eternity of his race,—as a new species, how- ever superior, would neither have sympathy nor care for his having been. Geologists accordingly have exerted themselves to flatter this feeling, and have assured Us that there never was so great a probability of the world's permanence as under the present system. But these preparations of Nature to collect evidence of Man having once existed, jar somewhat against this hope. And it is strange to think on the things that will give to our succeasors the highest opinions of our advancement. Our writings, if they endure the action of the sea, will not after a burial of many thousand years allow of being un- folded: if opened, they most probably could not be read ; or if they could, higher beings would take no interest in our pas- sions, feelings, or speculations. The grander productions of art must utterly perish in the convulsions that destroy our world; the fragments accidentally sunk in the ocean, if circumstances should happen to embed them, will be less valued for artistical excellence than as proofs of the way in which the bones of the monster creature were clothed,—just as we should gaze at a statuary fragment of the Iguanodon. " Handsome is that handsome does —the useful, after all, is the enduring. The aura sacra fames will do our busi- ness. Money, of which so much is buried in the sea, will exhibit to our worldly successors our features and our figures, preserve the character of our writing, and our arts ; and, should the writing by any possibility be readable, will mark our geographical divi- sions as well as the names of our governments; and lead to nlany speculations on the uses of those pieces' and very probably to the true inference,—unless the next should be the golden ago of the world, with innocence, happiness, and spontaneous wealth. With such sagacity did the poet sing— "Ambition sighed : she found it vain to trust The faithless column and the crumbling bust ; Huge moles, whose shadows stretch'd from shore to shore, Their ruins perish'd, and their place no more Convinced, she now contracts her vast design, And all her triumphs sink into a coin."
But the highest and least equivocal specimen of our refinement would be false teeth. Let us hope that many gentlemen, va- riously provided, "from a single tooth to a complete set," have been drowned in proper places ; and when the future geologists of a new race compare the wonderful provision of natural flings and sockets, with the ingenious contrivance of golden clips and wires, then shall "marl, proud man," be designated, in a language yet unknown, by a compound signifying the artificial animal.
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