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matters. Moreover, Mr. Bentley confirms his proposition by a number of new calculations which we deem it needless to transcribe." Histoire de L'Astronomie Ancienne, I. 494.

ན

The Hindoos transposed their history, to their fictitious system of astronomical epochs. This transfer occasioned a thousand palpable absurdities; to disguise which, they were obliged to remould their pouranas, to introduce fictions, and prophecies which might correspond with the end they had in view; but these very artifices more clearly display the folly of the enterprise. This system of antiquity, though fitted in many respects to flatter the national vanity, excited numerous reclamations, which continued as long as the memory of the ancient order was preserved. The necessity was then perceived of causing all its vestiges to disappear. There is, indeed, a current tradition that the Mahrattas (Maharastras) destroyed all the works of the ancient astronomers that could be found. "Finally, it appears that there does not exist at present a single Hindoo book, which can possess an antiquity higher than 1300 years, if it makes the slightest mention of these enormous periods; and that none of the romances called pouranas date farther back from the present time than 604 years, while some of them are more modern still!"

The opinion therefore entertained by the Hindoos about their antiquity, is founded principally on vanity, ignorance, and credulity. "Their great geographical treatises are merely a tissue of the most incredible absurdities, of which we shall say nothing else here, out of regard to the honour of the Hindoos. One of them is of the 5th, and the other of the 10th century of our era." Ibid. p. 500.

In concluding my survey of the primeval world, while I readily acknowledge that many of my views are but partially developed, or faintly shadowed forth, and that some of them may want confirmation, yet I trust that the accordances brought out between scientific induction, and sacred history, are neither fanciful, nor overstrained. Well aware of the morbid

resilience of the human mind against arguments of this nature too closely pressed on its acceptance, I have omitted to notice in the progress of my inquiries, several analogies on which it would have been not undelightful to expatiate. Such as belong to the deluge the reader will spontaneously recognise, on comparing the graphic description of Moses, with my delineation, directly drawn from physical principles. For a popular narrative what language could be happier than the following: "The same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened!" The atmospheric calm, also, which prevailed during the consummation of the catastrophe, the resulting tranquillity of the circumfluent waters, and the majestic buoyancy of the Ark, are well indicated in the record. "The waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth. And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters."-Genesis, chap. vii. And long before the diluvial deflux acquired its destructive velocity, we are informed that the proto-ship was quietly grounded on the summit of a mountain.

I now dismiss these lucubrations, humbly hoping that they may promote the study of a new, but magnificent field of knowledge, and a far greater good than all physical science can bestow, one which the finest philosophical spirit of the age, justly declares he would prefer to every other blessing, as most delightful and most useful to him— a firm religious belief.*

* Sir H. Davy, in Salmonia, p.136.

EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES.

PLATES I. II. III. IV. and V., representing the fossil shells of the successive mineral strata, require no explanation, as the generic and specific names, according to Mr. Sowerby's nomenclature, are annexed to each shell. The mineral conchology of this eminent naturalist is a work of great merit, which every practical geologist should have in his hands, as it will enable him to discriminate with accuracy the several secondary and tertiary formations from one another. The ammonites

occur in all the formations, up to the chalk inclusively, in which they abound. The figure on the margin is a section of an ammonite, to show the course of the siphuncle, or channel of communication between each

successive cell in the spiral. It is believed that the membranes of the molluscous animal in the living state enveloped this shell, as the sepia and nautilus do theirs. See p. 236 at top.

Plate VI. is a lithographic representation of the petrified stem and leaves of a plant akin to the cactus cylindricus of Martius. See p. 449.

The fossil was found in the neighbourhood of Swinridgemuir in Ayrshire, in a stratum of very hard coal-sandstone. The whole freestone bed is thickly interspersed with these stems, having the leaves No. 4 attached to them. In the blocks cut out by the quarriers, the leaves are seen radiating, as it were, from the stems in all directions, to a length of from 18 to fully 24 inches. The stems are frequently enclosed in a thin case of stone, resembling the bark of a tree, with a surface like that of the interior organic form, through which case, the leaves pass, being there attenuated.

The workmen have lately begun to quarry a lower stratum, which is much softer, and seemingly destitute of vegetable remains. A coal mine exists in the immediate neighbourhood.

Fig. 1, Represents the fossil stem upon a considerably reduced scale.

Fig. 2, Is a portion of the natural size, to show the surface figures more distinctly.

Fig. 3, Is a magnified view of one of the cicatrices or scars; whence the leaves have fallen, with the central umbilicated papilla.

Fig. 4, Portion of the stone that enveloped the stem, in which the leaves are imbedded; of the natural size.

a, Corresponds to the pith of the stem, nearly in the axis of the fossil, from which a soft or spongy matter may be extracted by the fingers from some specimens; longitudinally wrinkled on its surface.

In the coal-measures immediately round Glasgow, petrified cactuses are very common. I have one from Mr. Dixon's coal-field, in the form of a compressed stem, (somewhat like an opuntia,) covered with a thin crust of pyrites, veins of which pass also through it. The fossil is attenuated at the edges. The surface is areolated with ovate umbilici disposed in diagonal lines parallel to each other. The umbilici with their central tubercles, are in several cases filled with carbonaceous matter, as might be expected from the circumstance of the petrified plant having been enveloped in a mass of cubical coal.

Plate VII. Represents the cavern of Gaylenreuth, as delineated by Dr. Buckland.

A. The entrance; a passage from 6 to 10 feet high, opening outwardly in a steep cliff, and expanding inwardly into the large chamber B, studded with stalactite on its roof, and stalagmite on its floor, which uniting in the centre of the chamber, form a species of pillar.

C. Crust of stalagmite, forming a nearly complete carpet

EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES.

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to the chamber B, but broken into patches in the lower apartment F.

D. Bed of diluvial loam, mixed with bones and teeth.

E. Hole dug in the mass D, in exhuming the bones. F. Second chamber, separated from the first, by a mural precipice.

G. Enormous congeries of bones, lying among loose earth in a deep cavern, which descends from the side of the chamber F. H, the empty vault of the cavern over the bones at G.

I. Mass of bones 25 feet deep, mixed with pebbles and loam. It is cemented by stalagmite into a solid osseous conglomerate, somewhat like the Mediterranean breccia.

K. Well, sunk 25 feet into L, in order to extract the bones.

KK. Cavities dug at the bottom of the well K; but not perforating through the breccia to the subjacent limestone. L. Another artificial cavity dug in the side of I, in search of bones.

M. Low corridor connecting the chambers F and N.

N. Small innermost chamber, on whose floor the well K is sunk. Dr. Buckland considers this to have been originally the roof of a deep cave, which has been filled by the mass of bones and diluvium I I.