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These are divided Into five sub-genera:--

The numerous additions and modifications, which subsequent experience and discoveries have led M. Brongniart to introduce into his classification, will be found in an article recently published in the "Dictionnaire Universel d'Histoire Naturelle," under the title of "Tableau des Genres de V?g?taux Fossiles, consid?r?s sous le point de vue de leur classification botanique et de leur distribution g?ologique."

The animal of the Cephalopods is composed of a body, which is either enclosed in a shell, as in the Nautilus, or contains a calcareous osselet or support, as in the Sepia or Cuttle-fish; it has a distinct head, and eyes as perfect as in the vertebrated animals, with complicated organs of hearing, and a powerful masticating apparatus, surrounded by arms or tentacula. Below the head there is a tube which acts as a locomotive instrument, to propel the animal backwards, by the forcible ejection of the water that has served the purpose of respiration, and which can be ejected with considerable force by the contraction of the body.

Their fossil remains consist of the external shell and the internal osselet; and in the naked tribes, of the soft parts of the body, the ink-bag, &c., as noticed in the account of the Belemnite and Belemnoteuthis.

In argillaceous strata, as the Kimmeridge and Oxford clay, London clay, &c., the shells of Cephalopoda are oftentimes beautifully preserved; the chambers are frequently filled with the solid matrix, but in many instances these cavities are lined either with brilliant pyrites or spar. Stony or sparry casts of the cells or chambers, the shell having perished, are another common state in which vestiges of these animals occur. Sometimes the cast of each chamber is isolated, so as to present a series from the innermost to the outermost cell. Sections of those casts, in which the chambers are filled up with spar, constitute specimens of great beauty and interest. The so-called snake-stones are, of course, mere casts of Ammonites; those of Whitby, from the lias limestone, are well known to every collector; the casts of a very large species are common in the oolite, especially at Swindon, in Wiltshire, and in the neighbourhood of Bath.

Thus an uninterrupted series of strata, in which triple deposits of this kind are repeated, constitutes the predominant character of the ancient coal formations wherever they have been explored. The difficulties attending a satisfactory solution of this problem, are fully stated in the last edition of my Wonders of Geology , and to that work I must refer the reader for a more extended consideration of this highly interesting subject.

Although at the present time no one at all conversant with geology doubts the vegetable origin of Coal, the period is not distant when many eminent philosophers were sceptical on this point; and the truth in this, as in most other questions In natural philosophy, was established with difficulty. The experiments and observations of the late Dr. Macculloch mainly contributed to solve the problem as to the vegetable origin of this substance; and that eminent geologist successfully traced the transition of vegetable matter from peat-wood, brown coal, lignite, and jet, to coal, anthracite, graphite, and plumbago. Nor must the important labours of Mr. Parkinson in this field of research be forgotten. The first volume of the "Organic Remains of a former World," which treats of vegetable fossils, contains much original and valuable information on the transmutation of vegetable matter, by bituminous fermentation, into the various mineral substances in which its original nature and structure are altogether changed and obliterated; and that work may still be consulted with advantage by the student.

But though the vegetable origin of all coal will not admit of question, yet evidence of the original structure of the plants or trees whence it was derived is not always attainable. The most perfect coal seems to have undergone a complete liquefaction, and if any portions of the vegetable tissue remain, they appear as if imbedded in a pure bituminous mass. The slaty coal generally preserves traces of cellular or vascular tissue, and the spiral vessels and dotted cells of coniferous trees may often be detected by the microscope. In many instances the cells are filled with an amber-coloured resinous substance; in others the organization is so well preserved, that on the surface of a block of coal cracked by heat, the vascular tissue, and the dotted glands, may be observed. Some beds of coal appear to be wholly composed of minute leaves or disintegrated foliage; for if a mass recently extracted from the mine be split asunder, the exposed surfaces are found covered with delicate laminae of carbonized leaves and fibres matted together; and flake after flake may be peeled off through a thickness of many inches, and the same structure be apparent. Rarely are any large trunks or branches observable in the beds of coal; but the general appearance of the carboniferous mass is that of an immense deposit of delicate foliage shed and accumulated in a forest, and consolidated by great pressure while undergoing that peculiar process by which vegetable matter is converted into carbon.

The essential conditions for the transmutation of vegetable substances into coal, appear to be the imbedding of large quantities of recent vegetables beneath deposits which shall exclude the air, and prevent the escape of the gaseous elements when released by decomposition from their organic combination; hence, according as these conditions have been more or less perfectly fulfilled, coal, jet, lignite, brown-coal, peat-wood, &c. will be the result.

A very prevalent error regarding their nature Is, that the beautiful stony substances generally called corals, are fabricated by the animalcules which inhabit the cells when living, in the same manner as is the honeycomb of the bee and wasp. This opinion is utterly erroneous: the coral is secreted by the integuments or membranes with which when recent it was invested and permeated; in like manner as are the bones of the skeleton in the higher orders of animals by the tissues designed for that especial purpose, and wholly without the cognisance or control of the creature of which they constitute the internal support.

I must refer to the Wonders of Geology for a more extended notice of fossil corals, and other zoophytes, and will only add that the calcareous and siliceous spines or spicula, not only of sponges, but also of Gorgoniae, and other corals, are often met with in a fossil state.

The beds containing the above fossil remains, consist of stratified gravel and reddish mud, and stand only from fifteen to twenty feet above the level of high water; hence the elevation of the land has been small since the great quadrupeds wandered over the surrounding plains; and the external features of the country must then have been very nearly the same as now.

In another place, Mr. Darwin observes,--"The number of the remains of these large quadrupeds imbedded in the grand estuary deposit which forms the Pampas and covers the granitic rocks of Banda Oriental, must be extraordinarily great. I believe, a straight line drawn in any direction through the Pampas, would cut through some skeleton or bones. Besides those which I found during my short excursions, I heard of many others; and the origin of such names as, 'the stream of the animal,' 'the hill of the giant,' is obvious. At other times, I heard of the marvellous property of certain rivers, which had the power of changing small bones into large; or as some maintained, the bones themselves grew. As far as I am aware, not one of these animals perished, as was formerly supposed, in the marshes or muddy river-beds of the present land, but their bones have been exposed by the streams intersecting the subaqueous deposit, in which they were originally imbedded. We may conclude that the whole area of the Pampas is one wide sepulchre of these extinct gigantic quadrupeds."

But there are innumerable flint nodules in which no traces of spongeous tissue are apparent, and veins, dikes, and sheets of tabular flint, that are in a great measure free from organic remains; containing only such as may be supposed to have become imbedded in a stream of fluid silex that flowed over a sea-bottom. Wood perforated by lithodomi and silicified, is occasionally met with; and fuci or algae are sometimes found, appearing as if floating in the liquid flint.

For the most part, the minute shells in the chalk and flint are filled with amorphous mineral matter; but in many examples, the soft parts of foraminifera remain in the shell.

Neither organs of nutriment nor of reproduction have been detected. In the genera having one large aperture from which the filaments issue and retract, we can conceive nutriment to be absorbed by that opening; but this cannot be the case in the species which have the last cell closed up; in these the filaments issuing through the foramina are probably also organs of nutrition. M. D'Orbigny considers the Foraminifera as constituting a distinct class in zoology; less complicated than the Echinoderms and the Polypiaria in their internal organization, they have by their filaments the mode of locomotion of the first, and by their free, individual existence--not aggregated and immovably fixed--they are more advanced in the scale of being than the latter. To me they appear to be merely hydra-form polypes of the most simple structure, protected by shells; those composed of different segments, I conceive to be a single aggregated individual, and not a successive series of beings.

M. D'Orbigny gives the following summary of the distribution of the known fossil species of Foraminifera:--

There are 228 species in the Tertiary deposits of Vienna alone, of which twenty-seven species are known living in the Adriatic and the Mediterranean.

Foraminifera are unknown in the Silurian and Devonian formations.

Jurassic or Oolitic formation Genera 5 Species 20 Cretaceous " 34 " 280 Tertiary " 56 " 450 Living in the present seas " 68 " 1,000

Of these last, 575 species inhabit tropical seas, 350 the seas of temperate, and 75 the seas of cold climates.

This creature far exceeded in magnitude any living species of elk or deer. The skeleton is upwards often feet in height to the top of the skull, and the antlers are from ten to fourteen feet from one extremity to the other. The fine perfect skeletons in the British Museum, College of Surgeons, and in the Museum at Edinburgh, render a particular description unnecessary. The bones are generally well preserved, of a dark brown colour, with patches of blue phosphate of iron. In some instances they are in so fresh a condition, that the hollows of the long bones contain marrow having the appearance of fresh suet. Remains of this majestic animal have been found collocated with ancient sepulchral urns, stone implements, and rude canoes, in such manner, as to leave no doubt that this now extinct deer was coeval with the early human inhabitants of these Islands. Its bones and antlers have been found at Walton, in Essex, associated with the remains of the Mammoth, or fossil elephant.

Slowly, imperceptibly, but incessantly, are the vital energies of the feeblest and minutest animal and vegetable existences separating from the element in which they live, the most enduring of mineral substances, silex--fabricating it into structures of the most exquisite forms and sculpturing, and thus adding to the accumulations of countless ages, which make up the sedimentary strata of the crust of the globe.

In the "Medals of Creation" will be found a summary of what was then known as to the formation and composition of many tertiary deposits which the indefatigable Ehrenberg, Dr. Bailey, and other eminent observers, had carefully investigated and described. The five years that have since elapsed have been fruitful in results of the most important and interesting character; from every quarter of the world, from the loftiest mountain peaks, and from the deepest recesses of the ocean which the plummet can reach, from the ashes of volcanoes and from the snow of the glaciers, the durable remains of Infusoria have been obtained. That excellent scientific periodical, Silliman's American Journal, contains numerous interesting communications on this subject from the eminent chemical professor of the Military College at West Point, Dr. J. W. Bailey; and the labours of Mr. Bowerbank, Williamson, and other active members of the Microscopical Society of London, have yielded much interesting information on the infusorial deposits of our own country.

The extent of this infinitesimal flora throughout regions where no other forms of vegetation are known, is strikingly demonstrated by the observations of the eminent botanist and traveller. Dr. Hooker, in his account of the Antarctic regions.

"Everywhere," he states, "the waters and the ice alike abound in these microscopic vegetables. Though too small to be visible to the unassisted eye, their aggregated masses stained the iceberg and pack-ice wherever they were washed by the sea, and imparted a pale ochreous colour to the ice. From the south of the belt of ice which encircles the globe, to the highest latitudes reached by man, this vegetation is everywhere conspicuous, from the contrast between its colour and that of the white snow and ice in which it is imbedded. In the eightieth degree of south latitude all the surface ice carried along by currents, and the sides of every berg, and the base of the great Victoria barrier itself--a perpendicular wall of ice, from one to two hundred feet above the sea-level--were tinged brown from this cause, as if the waters were charged with oxide of iron. The majority of these plants consist of simple vegetable cells, enclosed in indestructible silex ; and it is obvious that the death of such multitudes must form sedimentary deposits of immense extent.

"The universal existence of such an invisible vegetation as that of the Antarctic ocean, is u truly wonderful fact, and the more so, from its being unaccompanied by plants of a high order. This ocean swarms with mollusca, and entomostracous crustaceans, small whales, and porpoises; and the sea with penguins and seals, and the air with birds: the animal kingdom is everywhere present, the larger creatures preying on the smaller, and these again on those more minute; all living nature seems to be carnivorous. This microscopic vegetation is the sole nutrition of the herbivorous animals; and it may likewise serve to purify the atmosphere, and thus execute in the antarctic latitudes the office of the trees and grasses of the temperate regions, and the broad foliage of the palms of the tropics."

Infusorial earths may therefore be composed either of microscopic vegetable or animal remains, or of both. The brackish and fresh-water deposits I have examined are siliceous and almost wholly diatomaceous: the marine calcareous strata composed of microscopic organisms, consist chiefly of various kinds of foraminifera, a large proportion belonging to the polythalamia, or chambered shells. I am not certain as to the animal or vegetable nature of some of the beautiful siliceous disks so abundant in the Richmond, Barbadoes, and Bermuda infusorial earths, and which occur in so splendid a state in the Guano deposits of Ichaboe.

With the corrections which the above remarks will enable the reader to make, I would refer to the account of Fossil Infusoria in the Medals of Creation, and Wonders of Geology.

I discovered, many years since , some vertebrae in the chalk near Lewes, which closely resemble the corresponding bones of the Mosasaurus, and in all probability belong to another species. In the cretaceous strata of New Jersey, Dr. Harlan found and described, and my friend. Dr. Morton, of Philadelphia, sent me, in 1834, teeth which cannot be distinguished from those of Maestricht. Vertebrae, and other bones, have since been obtained from the same deposits by Professor Rogers, and described by Professor Owen in the Geological Journal.

The announcement of the founder of palaeontology, that there was a period when the lakes and rivers of our planet were peopled by reptiles, and cold-blooded oviparous quadrupeds of appalling magnitude were the principal inhabitants of the dry land; when the seas swarmed with saurians, exclusively adapted for a marine existence, and the regions of the atmosphere were traversed by winged lizards instead of birds; was an enunciation so novel and startling, as to require all the prestige of the name of Cuvier, to obtain for it any degree of attention and credence, even with those who were sufficiently enlightened to admit, that a universal deluge would not account for the physical mutations which the surface of the earth and its inhabitants had, in the lapse of innumerable ages, undergone.

During the incalculable ages which the formation of the various systems of secondary strata must have comprised, we find no evidence in the fossils hitherto observed, of the existence of birds and mammalia, as the characteristic types of the faunas of the dry land. On the contrary, throughout the immense accumulations of the spoils of the ancient islands and continents, amidst innumerable relics of reptiles of various orders and genera, a few jaws and bones of two or three kinds of extremely small marsupials, and the bones of a species of wader, are the sole indications of the presence of the two grand classes of Aves and Mammalia, which now constitute the chief features of the terrestrial zoology of almost all countries.

The earliest indications of air-breathing vertebrata in the ancient secondary formations are those of small saurian reptiles in the carboniferous strata; a few vestiges occur in the succeeding group, the Permian. In the next epoch, the Triassic, colossal Batrachians appear; and on some of the strata of this formation are the footmarks of numerous bipeds, presumed to be those of birds; but at present the evidence of the bones of the animals that made those imprints is required to establish the hypothesis.

In the succeeding eras, the Lias, Oolite, Wealden, and Cretaceous, swarms of reptiles of numerous genera and species everywhere prevail; reptiles fitted to fly through the air, to roam over the land, to inhabit the lakes, rivers, and seas; and yet not one identical with any existing forms! These beings gradually decline in numbers and species as we approach the close of the secondary periods, and are immediately succeeded in the eocene epoch, by as great a preponderance of warm-blooded vertebrata--birds and mammalia--as exists at the present time; and an equal decadence in the class of reptiles. With the Cretaceous Formation the "Age of Reptiles" may be said to terminate.

Since the first announcement of the discovery of the remains of the Iguanodon, vast quantities of bones belonging to a great number of individuals of all ages have been collected; but until a few years since, not a vestige of the jaws had been observed, notwithstanding the most diligent research. In the early part of the year 1848, I was surprised and highly gratified by receiving from Capt. Lambart Brickenden , who then resided at Warminglid, near Cuckfield, in Sussex, the greater part of the right side of the lower jaw, with several successional teeth in their natural position, of an adult Iguanodon. See p. 202.

In the course of last summer I obtained a very instructive fragment of the middle part of the right ramus of the lower jaw of a much larger Iguanodon, found by Mr. Fowlestone, with some enormous bones of the extremities, in the Wealden strata of the Isle of Wight. A portion of the upper jaw was discovered some years since in Tilgate Forest, and is deposited, with the whole of the collection I formed at Brighton, in the gallery of organic remains of the British Museum. These three specimens are the only parts of the jaws of the Iguanodon, with the exception of a fragment of the angular bone, that I have had the opportunity of examining. The other portions of the skeleton hitherto discovered are the following: the tympanic bone; cervical, dorsal, lumbar, and caudal vertebrae, and chevron bones; ribs; the iliac bones, and sacrum composed of six anchylosed vertebrae; the coracoid, scapula and clavicles; humerus, radius? metacarpals; femur, tibia and fibula, metatarsals and ungueals. The cranium, carpals, and tarsals, have not been discovered.

So anomalous is the osteology of the Iguanodon compared with that of existing saurians, that from my discovery of the first vestige of this reptile--a fragment of a tooth--thirty years ago, to the recent important acquisition of the jaws, I have had to contend with the opposition of eminent naturalists, who have refused assent to the physiological inferences suggested by the specimens which were from time to time brought to light, because the modifications of structure in a colossal herbivorous reptile, essentially differed from the hypothetical archetype skeleton of the class to which it belonged. When the first discovered teeth were shown to Baron Cuvier, he pronounced them to be the incisors of a Rhinoceros; the metatarsals, those of a Hippopotamus; the fragment of a femur, with a medullary canal, that of some large mammalian. But the candour and liberality of the founder of Palaeontology were worthy of his transcendent genius; upon receiving further evidence, he immediately acknowledged the error, and expressed his conviction that the teeth and bones belonged to an herbivorous reptile more extraordinary than any that had previously been brought under his notice.

The following are the physiological inferences relating to the structure and habits of the Iguanodon, which Dr. Melville and myself conceive our investigations have established: the discovery of the cranium, and of perfect examples of the upper and lower jaws with both successional and mature molars in their natural position, may modify, but, we believe, will in no material respect invalidate these conclusions.

The sharp ridge bordering the deep groove of the symphysis, in which there are also several foramina, evidently gave attachment to the muscles and integuments of the under lip; and there are strong reasons for supposing that the latter was greatly produced, and capable of being protruded and retracted so as to constitute, in conjunction with a long extensile tongue, a suitable instrument for seizing and cropping leaves and branches, which, from the construction of the teeth, we may infer was the food of the Iguanodon.

Although some important data are still required to complete our knowledge of the structure of the Iguanodon, we are warranted in concluding that this colossal herbivorous reptile was as bulky as the elephant, and as massive in its proportions: for, living exclusively on vegetable substances, the abdominal region must have been largely developed. Its limbs must have been of proportionate size to support and move so enormous a carcass. The hinder extremities probably presented the unwieldly contour of those of the Hippopotamus, and were based on strong short feet, protected by broad horny ungueal phalanges, or nails. The fore-legs appear to have been less bulky, and adapted for seizing and pulling down plants and branches: the teeth and jaws demonstrate the nature of its food; and the fossil remains of ce bulk of the huge rock mass. Obliged at last to stoop too low for comfort, Grenville began to wonder if the thing would never end. It appeared to be exceptionally straight for a natural tunnel in volcanic rock, but Sidney began to realize its upward incline had rapidly increased.

When he presently found himself enabled to stand once more erect, he paused to cast a light on the walls to confirm a new thought in his mind. He had finally remembered a feature long before noted on top of the terrace itself--the long straight crack through the massive tower of tufa and the "slip" that had once formed a shelf.

He went upward again, more swiftly, wondering thus belatedly how far he might have come and regretting he had not thought to pace the distance. Through a place ahead he was barely able to force his supple body. Then came another passageway that was not only narrow but low. Fragments of stone were likewise under foot, and the passage formed another angle.

Beyond this turn he found himself confronted by more broken stone and a difficult ascent. But, toiling up there eagerly, he presently raised his eyes and beheld a bright white line, as narrow as a streak of lightning.

It was simply a crack through a shattered bit of wall that closed up the end of the passage. It was daylight--sky--that he saw thus slenderly defined, and the man could have shouted in joy!

He could not, however, escape to the outside world when he presently came to the wall. For all the fragments he loosened and threw back behind him, he could not open the exit, or even determine where it was. Only work outside could accomplish this end, and this he was wild to begin.

About to turn back and hasten to the terrace, he realized instantly how utterly impossible might be the task of finding the place from without. But Elaine was doubtless on the terrace. If only his voice could be carried to her ears, she could mark the spot at once.

But, although he called with all his lusty might, there was no response from the camp where Elaine was doubtless working. His torch was burning low, with the draught fanning constantly past him through the channel. It occurred to his mind to go back to Elaine and instruct her how she could assist him. He also thought to place his torch against the crack and permit its smoke to filter through and perhaps thereby blacken the fissure.

Until he felt he must save what remained, to illumine his way downward, he burned the torch close to the rocks. And thus, when he came to the larger cave again, he was once more obliged to depart with not even a sight of the treasure.

AN INTERRUPTED DIVERSION

Not only had Grenville to a small extent succeeded in smudging the outside terminal of the passage discovered through the rock, but also Elaine had discovered the smoke so strangely ascending in the air.

She had been thoroughly mystified by the singular sight, but had crept about the place inquiringly, expecting perhaps a volcano to begin some destructive demonstration. She had likewise fancied that rumbling sounds proceeded from somewhere in the "mountain." The entire phenomenon had finally ceased, however, greatly to her relief.

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