Principles of Geology: Being an Attempt to Explain the Former Changes of the Earth's Surface, by Reference to Causes Now in Operation, Bind 3J. Murray, 1835 - 1692 sider |
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Almindelige termer og sætninger
action ages alluvium alteration ancient animals and plants aquatic aqueous become beds bones bottom breccia buried Calanna calcareous Campania causes caverns caves 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 formations formed fossil fossil shells fragments fresh-water 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 subaqueous submarine suppose terrestrial terrestrial animals terrestrial plants tertiary testacea thickness tion tract travertin tuff Val del Bove Val di Noto valley vegetable volcanic zoophytes
Populære passager
Side 40 - In bigness to surpass earth's giant sons, Now less than smallest dwarfs in narrow room Throng numberless...
Side 350 - Millions of Spirits for his fault amerced Of Heaven, and from eternal splendours flung For his revolt ; yet faithful how they stood, Their glory wither'd : as when Heaven's fire Hath scathed the forest oaks, or mountain pines, With singed top their stately growth, though bare, Stands on the blasted heath.
Side 250 - ... method has always put geologists on the road that leads to truth, — suggesting views which, although imperfect at first, have been found capable of improvement, until at last adopted by universal consent. On the other hand, the opposite method, that of speculating on a former distinct state of things...
Side 222 - ... tides. The heat of the sun so penetrates the mass of stone when it is dry, that it splits in many places, and breaks off in flakes.
Side 39 - ... life, in the creation of which nature has been so prodigal. A scanty number of minute individuals, only to be detected by careful research, and often not...
Side 60 - France, at that time uninhabited, immediately after the discovery of the passage to the East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope.
Side 128 - ... palustre) constitutes a considerable part of the peat found in marshes of the north of Europe ; this plant having the property of throwing up new shoots in its upper part, while its lower extremities are decaying. Reeds, rushes, and other aquatic plants may usually be traced in peat, and their organization is often so entire, that there is no difficulty in discriminating the distinct species.
Side 89 - It is idle therefore to dispute about the abstract possibility of the conversion of one species into another, when 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 with a more vigorous species, is presented by the extirpation of savage tribes...
Side 283 - ... people. So, in Geology, if we could assume that it is part of the plan of Nature to preserve, in every region of the globe, an unbroken series of monuments to commemorate the vicissitudes of the organic creation, we might infer the sudden extirpation of species, and the simultaneous introduction of others, as often as two formations in contact are found to include dissimilar organic fossils. But we must shut our eyes to the whole economy of the existing causes, aqueous, igneous, and organic,...
Side 247 - ... requisite mineral ingredients. All are now agreed that it would have been impossible for human ingenuity to invent a theory more distant from the truth; yet we must cease to wonder, on that account, that it gained so many proselytes, when we remember that its claims to probability arose partly from its confirming the assumed want of all analogy between geological causes and those now in action. By what train of investigation were all theorists brought round at length to an opposite opinion, and...