Principles of Geology: Being an Inquiry how for the Former Changes of the Earth's Surface are Referrable to Causes Now in Operation, Bind 3John Murray, 1834 |
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action ages alluvium alteration ancient animals and plants appear aquatic aqueous beds bones bottom breccias buried Calanna calcareous Campania Catania causes caverns century clay cliffs climate coast cone considerable continually coral delta deposits depth dikes distinct district drifted earth earthquakes elevation Eocene epoch eruptions Etna example existing extinct fissures floods forests formations formed fossil fossil shells fragments geological geologist globe height hundred feet hyæna igneous imbedded inhabitants insects Ischia island isles lakes land lava limestone living loess marine marl mass matter Mediterranean miles mineral Miocene mountain newer Pliocene observed ocean organic remains origin peat peperino period plants and animals quadrupeds recent species reefs regions rise rivers rocks sand scoriæ sediment sedimentary seen Sicily strata Subapennine subaqueous submarine suppose surface terrestrial terrestrial plants tertiary testacea thickness tion tract travertin tuff Val del Bove Val di Noto valley vegetable volcanic zoophytes
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Side 173 - appearances they present, according to their different ages. The trunks of the trees gradually decay until they are converted into a blackish-brown substance resembling peat, but which still retains more or less of the fibrous structure of the wood ; and layers of this often alternate with layers of clay and sand, the
Side 91 - there are known causes so much more active in their nature, which must always intervene and prevent the actual accomplishment of such conversions. A faint image of the certain doom of a species less fitted to struggle with some new condition in a region which it previously inhabited, and where it has to contend
Side 174 - debris brought down by the Elk River ; and the Slave Lake itself must in process of time be filled up by the matters daily conveyed into it from Slave River. Vast quantities of drift-timber are buried under the sand at the mouth of the river, and enormous
Side 247 - to which these are subject, we find them in the situation of novices, who attempt to read a history M 2 written in a foreign language, doubting about the meaning of the most ordinary terms ; disputing, for example, whether a shell was really a shell,—whether sand and pebbles were the result of aqueous
Side 298 - rocks may be formed at the same time, differing widely both in mineral contents and organic remains. Thus, for example, the testacea, zoophytes, and fish of the Red Sea are, as a group, very distinct from those inhabiting the adjoining parts of the Mediterranean, although the two seas are only separated by the narrow isthmus of Suez.
Side 284 - of some of the statistical documents before mentioned. It is evident that, where such accidents occur, the want of continuity in the series may become indefinitely great, and that the monuments which follow next in succession will by no means be equidistant from each other in point of time.
Side 40 - will give birth to twenty thousand young ; and the larvae of many fleshflies devour so much food in twenty-four hours, and grow so quickly, as to increase their weight two hundred-fold ! In five days after being hatched they arrive at their full (growth and size, so that there was ground, says Kirby, for the assertion of
Side 257 - if we examine a large portion of a continent which contains within it a lofty mountain range, we rarely fail to discover another class of rocks very distinct from either of those above alluded to, and which we can neither assimilate to deposits such as are now accumulated in lakes or seas, nor to those generated by ordinary volcanic action.
Side 225 - themselves above the level of the sea, are usually of a circular or oval form, and surrounded by a deep and often unfathomable ocean. In the centre of each, there is usually a comparatively shallow lagoon, where there is still water, and where the smaller and more delicate kind of zoophytes find a tranquil abode,
Side 191 - instruments of the arts of war and peace, many formed of materials, such as glass and earthenware, capable of lasting for indefinite ages when once reMoved from the mechanical action of the waves, and buried under a mass of matter which may exclude the