east of Europe, however, and more especially in
Russia, this series is exhibited in its greatest complete-
ness. It is there found occupying a hollow or trough-
like depression in the carboniferous strata, and is said
to extend for a distance of nearly seven hundred miles
from north to south, arid for four hundred miles be-
tween the Ural chain and the river Volga, in the
ancient kingdom of Permia, now included within the
vast compass of the Russian empire. In this tract con-
glomerates and grit-stones, with magnesian and other
limestones, make up the series, and contain fossils iden-
tical with those common in Durham and the neigh-
bourhood of Bristol. Over the whole of Europe,
therefore, similar causes seem to have acted in produc-
ing this series of magnesian strata at the close of the
carboniferous period; and a dreary waste of sandy un-
productive beds seems to mark the disappearance of
land clothed with vegetation, and the gradual deep-
ening of the sea, which at first received rolled and
pounded fragments of rock, carried out to a distance
in the form of sand, until afterwards, the land dimi-
nishing and disappearing, even this small supply
ceased, and scarcely any deposit or any fragment of
organic existence was retained, in consequence of the
absence of material in which it could be buried and
preserved.

F 5



106 PICTURESQUE SKETCHES

The nature of the remains of fishes found in the
magnesian limestone rocks indicates also a diminu-
tion in the size of the prevailing species, perhaps
arising from the gradual diminution and increasing
distance of the land, and the deepening of the sea
in the district where such remains occur.

The reptilian fishes remain indeed, but they also
become small : those of the shark tribe are few, and
exhibit some peculiarities of structure, but are com-
paratively unimportant ; and the rest were chiefly the
bad and slow swimmers, or bottom fish, living on offal
and on the invertebrated groups.

But a time of much greater change was approach-
ing a time of disturbance, which should shake to
their foundations all the solid and massive rocks that
had been then deposited ; and of subterranean move-
ments, which in their course should break asunder the
hardest and the strongest among these rocks ; crush-
ing and grinding into small fragments whole strata that
had become compact and closely consolidated, and
crumpling into complicated folds the toughest and
most unyielding beds, as if they had been layers of
some soft material carelessly squeezed in the grasp
of a powerful hand.

It is indeed impossible for words to express the
complication of disturbance, or the amount of confu-
sion, that has been produced in some districts by forces
acting on the solid crust of the globe, between the
close of what we have called the first epoch, and the
commencement of the second ; and yet all this was done
with a certain degree of order, and doubtless occupied
a long period of time. Volcanic eruptions have taken
place in some districts, and their effect is seen in tor-



OF CREATION. 107

rents of ancient lava, heaps of erupted ashes, and rocks
chemically changed by the intrusion of heated vapours
charged with gases. In others, enormous cracks
extending for many hundred yards, or even for miles
together, may be traced in the more brittle rocks ; and
the rocks themselves have been burnt as in a furnace
by the boiling and bubbling mass of molten lava
which has been poured from beneath into such wide
fissures. Sometimes extensive tracts, where the rocks
are thinner and tougher, have exhibited these cracks
in systems of hundreds in number parallel to one ano-
ther ; while here and there the intense fiery action
from beneath has thrown up the surface into blisters
and domes, which are often fractured at the top, and
thus reveal the history of their elevation. Still more
frequently, also, the irresistible subterranean force has
snapped asunder the strata, as a violent blow would
pierce through a few folds of paper, and one side of
the broken bed has been lifted high in the air, or has
sunk into a deep hollow beneath. And if, as hap-
pened occasionally, the force was not sufficiently ener-
getic to break up in this way the whole group of over-
lying matter, it might yet effect a no less striking
result, raising up the strata upon a line or on a point,
and producing a saddle-shaped or a dome-like eleva-
tion, according to the circumstances of the case.

All these effects, and all of them on the grandest scale,
were produced in some way or other upon many of the
old rocks towards the close of the first epoch of crea-
tion ; and every Geologist, familiar with the structure of
our own island, could readily point to abundant exam-
ples of each particular disturbance above alluded to.
Every coal-field is so split asunder and broken into



108 PICTURESQUE SKETCHES

small fragments by what are called ' faults,' (cracks
and consequent disturbances of the strata,) that they
alone might be appealed to as sufficient proof; and, in-
deed, the very appearance of the smaller coal-fields of
the middle of England, lifted as they are far above
the great expanse of the new red sandstone, is due
solely to these under-ground movements, which have
borne to the surface portions of the carboniferous and
lower strata, that would otherwise have been hidden.
It is not unlikely that much of the general contour
of the high ground of England and many parts of
northern Europe was originally marked out during the
restless disturbances of this interval of violence. The
districts occupied by the mountain limestone and the
olde? rocks, at least, have probably in later times been
disturbed only by movements affecting the general
level of large tracts ; and there cannot be a question as
to the intensity and continuance of the forces acting
beneath the surface at that time having been then
much greater than any that have since affected that
portion of the earth's crust exposed for investigation
in our own island.

These remarks apply chiefly to the physical geo-
graphy and geology of England, but they also de-
scribe with very little modification a large propor-
tion of all those tracts in which the carboniferous
and older rocks appear. Exceptions, it is true, are
not wanting; and a very interesting one is met with in
Russia, where various rocks of this first epoch stretch
over a vast extent of country, and seem to have
been little disturbed, except by exceedingly slow move-
ments of elevation, since they were originally deposited.
We shall find hereafter, that, on the one hand, similar



OP CREATION. 109

elevatory movements and corresponding depressions
were continued incessantly at intervals to a very recent
period, (and, indeed, there is evidence that they have
not yet ceased in our own latitudes in Europe,) while,
on the other hand, very few instances are known of
extensive dislocation affecting the beds newer than the
magnesian limestone in the British islands, at any
period except that one marked by the commencement
of the tertiary series of deposits.

There are no means whatever by which we can at
present determine how long a time elapsed between the
conclusion of the first great series of deposits in Eng-
land and the commencement of the next ; nor is it
for us to assert that the wild and chaotic confusion
resulting in all those violent dislocations of the hardest
strata, which we so readily observe, was in any way
inconsistent with the existence of life in many other
parts of the world, now, perhaps, covered with hun-
dreds of fathoms of salt water. But I would not
dwell on this possibility, for I wish only to speak of
what is known ; nor can it be necessary to wander
into the field of conjecture or romance, in order to
obtain a striking picture of a former state of existence
which shall exhibit all the charm of novelty, both in
the outline and colouring*. Without any such con-
jectures, of one thing at least we are certain: that
during this interval, whatever it may have been, and
however it may have been occupied in various parts of
the world, every species of animal, and almost every
vegetable, seems to have been replaced by some new
one, not differing much perhaps from the former, or
performing another office, but yet different, exhibiting
an instance of the rich variety of nature, and an effect



110 PICTURESQUE SKETCHES

of that law of universal dissolution which appears to
influence species, as well as individuals, allotting to
each its appointed time, and causing each to pass
through the different phases of imperfect development,
full growth and vigour, and then gradual but certain
decay and death.

Little as the transition from the rocks of the older
to those of the secondary period is marked by mineral
changes in the strata, this total difference in the nature
of the organic remains is far too important to be
passed by without notice. Both the upper part of
the magnesian limestone series, and the strata that
are superimposed, consist of sands often loosely aggre-
gated, but sometimes hardened into stone by the infil-
tration of oxide of iron or some other cementing
medium. Neither of these beds is prolific in fossils,
but each contains a few; and this is the case as
well in England as on the Continent, where the
development is much more remarkable, and where the
beds contain many more fossils. The difference be-
tween the organic remains of the two beds is, however,
total, and in fishes is carried even into a point of struc-
ture which seems to be connected, though in an obscure
way, with the whole organization of the class.* The
vegetation, too, of the newer period is distinct ; and
the introduction of reptilian animals in great abund-

* In the fishes met with in the older rocks the vertebral column is in-
variably continued to the extremity of the tail (fig. 42) ; and the upper lobe
of the tail-fin, into which the back-bone extends, is larger than the other.
In the rocks of the secondary period, the vertebral column does not extend
into the tail, but the tail-fin is generally unsymmetrical, the upper lobe
being the largest. In more modern fishes the tail-fin is perfectly symme-
trical in every respect (fig. 43).



OF CREATION.



Ill



ance, and of large size, offers a characteristic of consi-
derable interest.

I have been the more anxious to mark the exist-
ence of this break in the general continuity of the
various strata, because, unlike that occurring after the
deposit of the chalk, it is by no means distinctly visible
to every one, nor is it altogether understood even by
many Geologists. It is, however, almost equally im-
portant with respect to the great standard of com-
parison, that of organic life, and its conditions have
been worked out carefully, although they have only
lately been so satisfactorily proved as to admit of
confident and direct assertion. One reason of this
may perhaps be, that of the disturbances ultimately
so effective we see in some cases the first small com-
mencement, and are enabled to trace the gradual
change in the general character of the deposits, and
perceive the mineral structure of the beds insensibly
adapted to the new state of things. Another reason
undoubtedly is, that the changes produced on the
older rocks after the deposit of the carboniferous sys-



Fiff. 42



Fig. 43




HETEROCERCAL TAIL.
(Platysomus.)



HOMOCERCAL TAIL.

(Pristipoma.)



112 PICTURESQUE SKETCHES

tern, are very much hidden and covered up, in conse-
quence of their long exposure to aqueous action, and
perhaps also to the atmosphere, during the countless
ages that have elapsed since the commencement of
the secondary epoch of creation.

We pass on now from the consideration of this
chapter in the world's history. We have seen, first
of all, how the earth lay buried in the dark obscu-
rity of its early state, when the only rocks of mechanical
origin consisted of huge masses of decomposed and
pounded granite, broken into fragments by the disrup-
tion of the first thin shell of solid matter; and in these
deposits no evidence has yet been obtained of any
created thing having existed, either animal or vegetable.
We have traced the history from this time through the
period when a few worms crawled on the mud and sand
of the newly-made shores of the ocean, when to these
were added other lower forms of animal existence,
and when marine vegetables first contributed to the
subsistence of its inhabitants. We have watched the
appearance of its denizens, as they, one after another,
or in groups, present themselves, and have seen how
different were these from the present tenants of the
sea, and yet how like them, and how evidently and
admirably adapted to perform the part assigned them ;
and we have thus gazed upon the first doubtful and
misty appearance of light and life, as they have be-
come visible in the morning of creation by slow de-
grees, and through a long twilight. Trilobites, bra-
chiopods, shell-fish of various kinds, are seen to abound;
and the cuttle-fish, or creatures nearly allied and not
so highly organized, reign for a time undisputed lord
of the sea. At length their reign terminated ; other



OP CREATION. 113

animals, of higher and more complicated functions,
succeeded, and the waters, after a long preparation,
became fit for the presence of fishes. These, at first of
small size and comparatively powerless, soon increased
rapidly, both in number and dimensions, and, encased
in their impenetrable armour, seem to have delighted
in the troubled ocean where the coarse conglomerate
of the old red sandstone was being accumulated;
and for a long while these less perfect species of
the class were predominant. In time, however,
other fishes sprung up, the old ones were displaced,
and a new, vigorous, and powerful group of animals
came into the field, endowed with exuberant life, and
darting with speed and with almost irresistible force
through the water. Land, also, richly clothed with
vegetation, even to the water's edge, contributed to
support this abundant flow of life ; and some few land
animals of high organization appear to have been
associated with the insects and the fresh-water ani-
mals whose remains have been preserved. But few,
indeed, were the tenants of the land, so far as we can
judge, when compared with those of the ocean ; and
while we have in so many parts of the world a rich
supply of the vegetable remains of that period, there
are only to be quoted the fragments of a scorpion, one
or two foot-marks, and such like indications that
nature was not inactive, though the conditions for
preserving any terrestrial animal remains were so
eminently unfavourable, that there is only just suffi-
cient evidence to satisfy us of the fact.

The conditions of aqueous deposit were, however,
more advantageous, so far as marine animals were con-
cerned ; and during this period, and especially towards



114 PICTURESQUE SKETCHES

its close, we find that the fishes assumed their maxi-
mum of development, at least in the placoid and
ganoid orders, for at this time the reptilian fishes and
sharks were both numerous and powerful, while very
soon afterwards the whole tribe of fishes was repre-
sented by animals of smaller dimensions, of different
habit, and comparatively powerless. It is very in-
teresting in this case to watch the progress of the
transition. The fishes in the carboniferous rocks,
include many large shark-like and reptilian groups.
In the sandstone above the coal, and in the magnesian
limestone, are many nearly allied fishes, although of
much smaller size, but all the more advanced types
seem to fail. In the same newer beds, however, ap-
pear true reptiles, not indeed of large size, but of
complicated dentition, and the representatives of a
high group ; while, as we shall hereafter find, in the
beds of the secondary period the reptiles at first
exhibit high analogies and then pass off into a mag-
nificent series, including true representatives both of
the earlier sauroid fishes and the later aquatic mam-
mals. On the other hand, the fishes there exhibit a
lower form of higher groups, afterwards continued and
advanced to the most complicated types, but only
attaining a gigantic size in rocks of far newer date.
The bearing of these points on the general question
of development we shall have occasion afterwards to
allude to.



OP CREATION. 115



THE SECOND OR MIDDLE EPOCH.



CHAPTER VII.

THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE SECOND EPOCH : THE FORMATION
OF THE NEW RED SANDSTONE, OR TRIASSIC SERIES.

OVER a large part of the known world, the close
of the first epoch, marked by great subsidences of
land, by the swallowing up of continents and islands
into the sea, and by accompanying violent disloca-
tions of the stratified crust of the globe, was of neces-
sity accompanied by the re-distribution of these frac-
tured materials of strata ; and, owing no doubt to the
great amount of trituration, the beds thus formed
contain but few remains of organic beings. These,
however, indicate the commencement of the new era.

The presence of the new red sandstone, a forma-
tion consisting of sand and marl with rare local in-
terpolations of limestone, characterises this epoch ;
and, after this, until towards the close of the secondary
or middle period, we find few intermediate beds over
the whole of America ; * and the same is the case
with regard to the greater part of Asia and Australia,
as far as Geologists have yet been able to determine.

In England we have this chapter of the history

* There is, indeed, one magnificent exception in the Richmond
oolitic coal-field of Virginia, U. S., where the beds of coal are of vast
extent, and rival those of the true carboniferous period.



116 PICTURESQUE SKETCHES

much more fully developed. The new red sandstone
itself, it is true, consists of little more than loose
sand and mud, deposited, perhaps rapidly, from the
fractured rocks of the earlier period. It is, there-
fore, very poor in fossils, and exhibits but few of these
hieroglyphics whose language we can interpret ; and,
although richer in this respect than England, the
whole continent of Europe is marked by a similar
comparative rarity of organic remains in the beds.
But afterwards, it would appear that, the subsidence
not having been complete, there remained in our la-
titudes a number of islands, forming an archipelago
not unfavourable to the existence of many races of
animals and vegetables, especially those capable of
supporting life in spite of constant oscillations and
changes of condition of the surface.

We have seen that, even up to the very close of
the earlier epoch, there is no distinct and unques-
tionable evidence of the nature and position of the
land on which grew the vast forests from which coal
was elaborated. Here and there it has seemed that
the trees of which we find fragments must have grown
on the spot where broken trunks are now apparently
attached to their roots, the roots and trunks being
buried together in the very soil from which they ob-
tained their nourishment. But these instances are
rare and exceptional ; and although we may be
certain that the land was not far off, yet its exact
position, and whether it was a continent or an island,
or a group of islands, whether it extended south-
wards or northwards, whether it occupied what is
now the Atlantic Ocean, or was shaped like Europe,
and represented the two north-eastern continents, we



OF CREATION. 117

cannot satisfactorily determine. Perhaps the most
probable opinion is, that an extensive archipelago,
like that near the eastern shores of Asia, was the
remnant of a sinking tract throughout a great part
of the north temperate zone ; that portions of that
tract, now forming parts of England and central Eu-
rope, remained thus for a long time in shallow water,
the recipients of many deposits ; but that during this
time the other tracts were too deeply submerged and
too far from land to receive such additions.

Whatever the cause may have been, the result, so
far as concerned the inhabitants both of sea and land,
was sufficiently remarkable. Between the close of
the older epoch and the commencement of this, which
we call the middle, every species, both of animal and
vegetable, seems to have been, almost without excep-
tion, changed. All the older forms have disappeared ;
all the modifications up to that time introduced have
vanished ; many even of the larger groups are so
greatly altered, and have become so rare, that they
also have nearly died out, either from the lapse of
time or change of condition ; and we have thus a
new creation, a new world, as it seems, supplying
the gap produced by the mighty change, whatever
it may have been, which closed one epoch of the
earth's history and commenced a second.

But next in importance to the fact that this change
has taken place to so great an extent, is a fact no
less certain, that some species of one of the principal
groups of the higher animals the reptiles were
unquestionably introduced before the change took
place ; and this dawn of reptilian existence, ob-
servable in the magnesian limestone, gradually opens



118



PICTURESQUE SKETCHES



Fig. 44



out into the broadest and fullest development of these
singular animals, without exhibiting any marks of
interruption, and as if there had been little or no
disturbing action. Thus we have a link connecting
the chain of beings, and uniting two conditions so
dissimilar that whole families of fishes and inver-
tebrated animals were unable to endure them; and
this link moreover is one of great
importance, and, as it might have
seemed to us, the one least likely
to be selected for this purpose.
It may ultimately be found to
have reference to the permanent
elevation above the water of some
portion of the land, while the
sea bottom was undergoing great
change of level.

The seas of the new red sand-
stone period were not favourable
to the development of the coral
animal, but numerous radiated
animals existed, of which the most
interesting is that known to fossil-
collectors by the name of the lily
encrinite (fig. 44).

This animal was one of a sin-
gular group already described (see
p. 34), inclosed within a stony
STONE LILY. habitation, and planted upon a
(Encrinites moniliformis.) stony but moveable column nearly
cylindrical, and attached at its
base to the solid rock. From the pouch, which is
divided into five parts, as many pairs of smaller



OF CREATION. 119

columns proceed, and each of these ten columns
immediately splits itself into two, so that there are
twenty moveable arms of no great length imme-
diately above the body, each of them being pro-
vided with a number of fingers made up of similar
small stony columns admitting of considerable mo-
tion, by means of which food could be obtained
and conveyed at once to the stomach of the animal.
It is calculated that nearly thirty thousand separate
pieces of stone exist in the skeleton of this singular
creature.

Among the shell-fish of this period, which is a
kind of transition from the earliest to the next suc-
ceeding one, there are few species that require very
special notice, although the whole group taken to-
gether is interesting, as showing an approximation
in general character to that of existing seas, without
any of the species being
identical, and with little
approach even to exist-
ing genera. Among the
cuttle-fish, and especially
those animals of the group
defended by shelly cover-
ings, and resembling the
nautilus, there is a curious
example forming a link CERATITB.

between the goniatite of the mountain limestone,
and the ammonite of the secondary period. This
shell is known as the Ceratite (fig. 45), and will be
alluded to again in describing the shells of the next
group of deposits.

The fishes of the period we are now considering.




120 PICTURESQUE SKETCHES

while they differ from those of earlier date in one
point already alluded to, are not unlike them in some
respects. The difference consists in the non-pro-
longation of the back-bone or vertebral column of the
fish into the upper part of the tail-fin, a condition
that obtains with regard to all known species, without
exception, obtained from the older rocks ; while the
termination of the vertebral column before the tail-fin
commences characterises those of newer date. With
the exception of this difference, of which it is not
easy to conjecture the exact meaning, there was con-
siderable analogy and much general resemblance of