France is represented merely by an island cor- | favored of the tropical latitudes. Plants responding to the central land of Auvergne, that now hardly raise their humble heads and by some strips of land in Vendée, in above the ground, then attained the size of Brittany, and in Calvados. In Germany, our forest trees. Such was the lycopodium, Bohemia, forming a great island, the Harg, or club-moss family, seeking, even at this and the plateau of the Lower Rhine; small day, hot, humid situations at the tropics, portions of the Vosges, and of the Black For- and especially in small, low islands, but est, and some low lands on the spot occupied never exceeding the height of two or three by the Alps, between Toulon, Milan, and Ty- feet, and of flimsy and weak structure. But rol, compose an archipelago which is to be- in the ultra-tropical climate of those far-off come the centre of the continent. All the years, and under their watery skies, this regions of the south, except, perhaps, a few lowly plant reached the imposing growth of small portions of Spain and of Turkey, do not seventy or eighty feet, and spread to such yet exist. North America, at the coal epoch, an immense extent that it is thought to which, though a little more recent, belongs have composed a larger proportion of the almost to the same age, is in like manner entire coal formation than any other of its made up of a few islands only, analogous to vegetable compeers. Almost rivalling these Scandinavia, but less numerous, less parcelled in size and importance was the equisetum, out than we find them in Europe at the or common horsetail, a plant which is now same period. A large island occupies all the found in ditches and rivers in most parts of present north-east of the continent, with the the world, within and without the tropics. region of the Alleghanies and the Apala- From the researches of M. Brongniart, it chian, and all the region north-west of the appears indisputable that plants, very nearly Valley of the Mississippi, and forms a species the same as these in their organization, of small continent, in the interior of which formed a considerable part of the original are three inland seas, or three large swamps, vegetation of the globe; not the diminutive where the plants are vegetating that com- species of the present day, but towering pose the great coal deposits of the present vegetables, many yards in length; and inday. A similar sea doubtless lay between deed, if certain striated fossils of the coal Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, bordered fields should be referable to this family, it perhaps by lands which have disappeared will be found that some of them must have beneath the waves. All the great belt of been vast trees. The ferns too played an low lands along the Atlantic coast and the important part in this early flora. From Gulf of Mexico, including Florida, did not these facts, less disputable than aught reexist; the ocean formed a deep gulf, run- corded by the pen of human historian, we ning up the Valley of the Mississippi one can form a tolerably accurate idea of the half its length. The vast plains west of the appearance of nature-the nature whose Mississippi, the Rocky Mountains, the table-gentler face now fills the heart of man with lands, and the high snow-capped chains from California to the Frozen Ocean, were still at the bottom of the sea."

The coal epoch, or the era of the carboniferous formation, was the triumph of vegetable nature. The insular forms of the newly-created continents, the ocean permeating and encompassing them in every direction, and the consequent universal humidity of climate; the large proportion of morasses and lowlying lands, hardly raised above the surface of the waters; and, above all, the heated atmosphere, surcharged with the peculiar food of plants-carbon-gave birth to a Titanic vegetation, of a low rank indeed in the vegetable kingdom, but surpassing in luxuriance and extent any thing that is found at the present day, even in the most

delight, then sorrowful, sombre, pale, with the agonies of her mighty travail. Archipelagos, the germ of continents, almost lost in the immensity of ocean, and darkened by perpetual mist; mountain ranges, of no great height or extent, but dangerous with gorges and precipices and jutting cliffs; rivers, swollen with floods and surcharged with detritus, heaving mournfully through the silence of primeval forests; endless fens, where the children of nature stand in ranks so close and impenetrable, that no bird could pierce the net-work of their branches, nor reptile move through the stockade of their trunks. But neither bird nor quadruped had yet started into being, for no living creature could breathe for a moment the noxious air, from which vege

tation drew in safety the sustenance of its gigantic development. The leafy Titans waved over a world that was yet their own; from the reservoirs of the sky they drank in the liquid carbon; they drained off the poison and locked it in the bowels of the earth; they filled the estuaries and watercourses and shallow seas with their prostrate forms; the purification of nature was the purpose of their creation, and for unbroken ages the work went on. This was the twilight of the morning.

September,

that so many escaped to be imbedded in rocks, and, after the lapse of ages on ages, to tell the planet. And strange inhabitants they undoubtedly tale of their existence as former inhabitants of our were; for, as Cuvier says, the Ichthyosaurus has the snout of a dolphin, the teeth of a crocodile, the head and sternum of a lizard, the extremities of cetacea, (being, however, four in number,) and the the same cetaceous extremities, the head of a lizvertebræ of fish; while the Plesiosaurus has, with ard, and a neck resembling the body of a serpent."*

In the tertiary formation, the continents Succeeding epochs present a continuous have assumed very nearly their present outupheaving of the bed of the ocean, and a lines, while the superior class of animals-the nearer approach of the dry land to the pres- mammifers-have become abundant. Spain, ent forms of the continents. Animal life at France, Central Europe, the British Isles, are last appears in shapes fitted to the gradual well defined; Scandinavia has reached alpreparation of the earth for the reception of most its present limits. Italy, the Morea, the highest types. Heretofore, fishes and Barbary, the Levant are there; while, from mollusks had found protection in their proper the north, Russia already hangs like a cloud element from the deadly impregnation of the over the future realms of civilization. With atmosphere. But now, reptiles are found-a the increase of dry land and the continued class of animals, from their slow respiration, diminishment of the surface-heat of the earth, peculiarly fitted for a medium yet wanting is lost the uniformity of temperature that has its due proportion of oxygen. Each era of the hitherto prevailed through the whole course world's history seems to have brought its of these elementary wars. From these two especial form of life to its maximum size, changes follow the most momentous results. and we accordingly find these animals to Climates are established somewhat as they assume a magnitude and variety of attri-exist at the present day, and the various butes no longer possessed by the similar species of the present day.

"It does not seem unphilosophical to infer that the bays, creeks, estuaries, rivers, and dry land were tenanted by animals, each fitted to the situations where it could feed, breed, and defend itself from the attacks of its enemies. That strange

pe

reptile, the Icthyosaurus, (one species of which, I. platyodon, was of large size, the jaws being strong, and occasionally eight feet in length,) may, from its form, have braved the waves of the sea, dashing through them as the porpoise now does; but the Plesiosaurus, at least the species with the long neck, (P. dolichodeirus,) would be better suited to have fished in shallow creeks and bays, defended from heavy breakers. The crocodiles were probably, as their congeners of the present day are, lovers of rivers and estuaries, and, like them, destructive and voracious. Of the various reptiles of this riod, the Icthyosaurus, particularly the I. platyodon, seems to have been best suited to have ruled in the waters, its powerful and capacious jaws being an over-match for those of the crocodiles and plesiosauri. Nor are we unacquainted with some of the food upon which these creatures lived; their fossil fæces, named coprolites, having afforded evidence not only that they devoured fish, but each other; the smaller becoming the prey of the larger, as is abundantly testified by the undigested remains of vertebræ and other bones contained in the coprolites. Amid such voracity, it seems wonderful

forms of the animal and vegetable kingdoms become localized. Living nature is henceforth parcelled out according to its natural affinities, and individualized by geographical and climatic barriers. Each type finds itself in the sphere in which alone it can reach perfection. Nature becomes more prodigal of creative power, and more avaricious of space. Animals analogous to existing species are now found in the greatest abundance. The Saurian still possessed the muddy margins of the seas, and the early vegetation still continued under the equatorial sun. But, in more temperate latitudes, a nobler and higher life bursts forth tumultuously. On the hill-slopes it basks and sports; in the wooded valleys it flutters, and sings the morning-song of creation. tremble beneath the tramp of bovine myrThe uplands iads; and in the desert prowl the felina.

Thus, step by step, from its earliest baptism of flame, through convulsions when the central fire fought for its ancient dominion, through alternate cycles of rest and agitation, we come to the final chapter in this wonder

*De la Bèche's Geology.

Let us now look at the surface of the earth, perfected and fitted for a new day, and seek for the connection which we cannot doubt must exist between its physical conditions and the past history of man. And thereby we may obtain a clue to his terrestrial destinies. For if we can see an evident fitting of the powers of nature to the purposes of individual existence, we may rest assured that there is an equal parallelism between the great features of nature and the past and future fortunes of the race.

ful history, the submersion of the continents, | America terminate in the rugged heights of and the subsequent withdrawal of the waters. Cape Horn, Africa in the Cape of Good The geological appearances of Europe and Hope, Asia in Cape Comorin, the extremity North America render it probable that those of the chain of the Ghauts, and Australia regions were at a late period swept by pow-in Cape Southeast, of Van Diemen's Land. erful currents of water, which rounded off This tendency of the continents to group the forms of the mountains, scooped out the together in the north, and to become attenvalleys into gentler shapes, filled up with the uated and narrow towards the south, is carried transported débris the fissures and breaks in out in all the separate and minor forms in the superficial strata, in a manner which no which they present themselves. For instance, atmospheric influence could possibly have Greenland, California, Florida, in America; effected, and smoothed and softened the Scandinavia, Spain, Italy, and Greece, in whole in its final preparation as the abode Europe; the two Indies, Corea, Kamtschatka, of the human race. in Asia, all point to the south. The next series of resemblances is found by grouping the continents in three double worlds: the two Americas, Europe-Africa, and AsiaAustralia. Each pair we find to be united together by an isthmus or chain of islands. On one side of the isthmus is an archipelago, on the other a peninsula. Thus, in America, on one side of the connecting isthmus is the archipelago of the Antilles, on the other is the peninsula of California. In EuropeAfrica, (considering Italy and Sicily as the true isthmus, since they almost touch by Cape Bon the Barbary shore, and the sea between being shallow and full of ledges of rock,) we have on the east the Grecian archipelago, and the peninsula, Spain, on the west. In Asia-Australia, there is the continuous chain of islands, stretching from the peninsula of Malacca, by Sumatra and Java, up to New-Holland, presenting thus the appearance of an isthmus in embryo; and on one side is the archipelago of Borneo, Celebes, and of the Moluccas, and on the other the peninsula of India. Another fact worth noticing, with regard to the disposition of land and sea, is that the surface of the globe is found to be divided into two hemispheres, the one containing all the principal terrestrial masses, the other, only vast oceans; forming, in this way, a continental hemisphere and an oceanic hemisphere.

The outline of a continent, depending as it does on the height of the surrounding seas, and liable to assume a most complete change of appearance with the elevation or depression of those seas, even with the slight variation of a few hundred feet, would seem a matter altogether accidental and devoid of significance. But as there is nothing accidental in nature, but every thing the result of physical laws fixed in fate, by observing closely these sinuosities of shape, together with their associated natural phenomena, we may be enabled to detect, in the apparent confusion, a system and design world-wide as the materials out of which it is wrought. And first we will refer to the work with which we have headed this paper, for some of the coincidences and contrasts, the resemblances and irregularities in the vertical and horizontal forms of the different bodies of dry land which compose the habitable earth. A glance at the map of the globe will show us the continents surrounding the northern pole, and springing out from it like an opened fan, jutting into the great southern ocean in pyramidal forms. The points of these pyramids are invariably the extremities of mountain belts, which proceed from the interior and break off abruptly, forming bold and precipitous promontories. Thus we see

Again, instead of the great masses of dry land rising at irregular and hap-hazard elevations above the surface of the oceans, and interspersed with depressions below that surface, as can be witnessed in the isolated cases of the Caspian and Dead Seas, the valley of the Jordan and the beds of a few of the Italian lakes, we observe a gradual and steady rise in each of the continents towards a range of highlands constituting its crest. These apices are never in the cen

"The Old World is that of table-lands and elevated, so numerous, so extensive, as Asia and mountains. No continent exhibits plateaus so Africa. Instead of one or two chains of mountains, like the Andes, Central Asia is traversed by four immense chains, supporting vast tablelands of from five thousand to fourteen thousand

tre, but always on one of the sides, pre-sented the most attractive field for the labors senting thus two slopes of unequal length of the geologist, and have in fact, until of late and inclination. Of these, the long slopes years, almost engrossed the attention of tend invariably towards the Atlantic or the scientific men, it is nevertheless not there Frozen Ocean, which is only a portion of it; that we must look for the solution of the while the short slopes descend to the Pa- momentous questions to which their labors cific, or its continuation, the Indian Ocean. have been but the prelude. It is in the low, Incidentally, we can find from these facts level stretches of land, or plains, and in the a clue to the manner in which the conti- high and level table-lands, or plateaus, that nents emerged from the bed of the ocean. men build their homes, and make the scene Lifted up by the internal volcanic forces, the of their labors and hopes, of their trials and crust of the earth would seem to have been rewards. The first to point out the imporraised either way, from a line following the tance in physical geography of these divisions centre of the Atlantic, by successive diverg- of the earth's surface, was Humboldt; and ing upheavals, until it attained the height later geographers have followed closely in of its loftiest mountain barricades. That this the track that his great intelligence opened was effected by a series of convulsions, and for them, whilst their moral bearings upon not by a single one, is proved by the com- human fortunes have hardly yet had bestowparative geological appearances. The Gram-ed upon them a due share of attention. pians of Great Britain, and the Scandinavian mountains, are far more ancient than the Alps, Carpathians, and Himalaya; while, in America, the Rocky Mountains and the Andes are of much later origin than the more moderate ranges along the Atlantic coast; the general elevation of the uplands and feet in elevation, and the loftiest mountains plains corresponding also very closely with of the globe. The extent of this elevated that of the mountains. The same tilting mo- region is more than two thousand four hundred tion, we may observe, which raised the outer miles in length, by one thousand five hundred or Pacific margins, would be likely to cause a miles in breadth. The principal mass of Western proportionate depression on the inner line of Asia is nothing but a plateau, from three to six thousand feet in height. Africa, south of Sahara, junction; and to this cause may be owing seems to be only an enormous pile of uplifted the existence of the Atlantic Ocean, which loads. It has been calculated that the mounhas more the character of an inland sea than tains and plateaus of Asia cover five sevenths of the Pacific, resembling in its form a trough its surface, while the plains occupy only twe between the opposite continents. Strength-thirds of the continent, the plains only one third. sevenths. In Africa, the high regions form two ening the above view is the fact that the But although the Old World may be called the greater part of the volcanoes of the globe are world of plateaus, it is not because great plains strung along the shores of the Pacific, while are wanting there. The whole north of Europe the Atlantic is comparatively free in this and Asia is nearly a boundless plain. In Africa, also, the plains of Sahara extend two thousand respect; pointing thus to the latest theatre five hundred miles in length, by one thousand of elemental strife. In addition to this main in breadth. But the situation of these plains of system of slopes, there is a system of coun- the Old World, under the frozen sky of the north, ter-slopes, commencing in both the eastern and under the fires of the tropics, together with and western hemispheres at the poles, and the nature of their soil, takes from them all their importance. The one is a frozen waste, a Siberia; reaching their greatest altitudes at the trop- the other a burning desert; and neither the one nor the other is called to play an essential part, nor do These are a few of the points of resem- they impress upon their respective continents their blance or intimate connection between the essential character. The New World, on the other hand, is the world of plains. They form two thirds two great divisions of the globe. There are of its surface; the plateaus and the mountains, others of contrast, however, equally strik- only one third. The high lands form only a narrow ing, and not to be forgotten in a view of the band, crowded upon the western coasts of the two influence exerted by the forms of the conti- continents. Almost the whole east runs into immense plains, covering it, one might say, from pole nents upon the physical destinies of manto pole. From the Frozen Ocean to the Gulf of kind. Mexico, over an extent of nearly two thou-and four Whilst the mountain systems have pre-hundred miles, we cross only insignificant heights.

ics.

dry land, but to the extent of the continents and the varying altitudes and depressions of their surfaces. And whether the ocean breezes are met by inhospitable mountain barricades, robbing them of their humid treasures, and sending them inland dry and sterile, or whether they pass for thousands of leagues over low-lying plains, are matters involving not only climate, but civilization and barbarism, and place and precedence of the continents in the preparation of the earth for the universal home of the human family. But before we consider these great physical features, so important in their moral results, we must call to mind the various atmospheric phenomena by which land and sea are enabled to act and react on each other. And first the general theory of the winds.

From the 'llanos of the Orinoco to the banks of La | treme variations are due not alone to the Plata, we traverse more than three thousand miles mere contour of the confines of ocean and of low plains, slightly interrupted by the somewhat more elevated regions of western Brazil; they are prolonged even to the Pampas of Pata gonia, six hundred miles further south, to the south ern extremity of America. The length of the rich plains watered by the Maranon, in the direction of the current, is nearly one thousand six hundred miles. Finally, if we were seeking for a continent where the form of mountains, without plateaus at their base, should be the characteristic feature, it would be necessary to name Europe, comprehending in it only Western Europe, without Russia; that is, historical Europe, the true Europe, after all. Traverse Europe from one end to the other, whether over its central mass or its peninsulas, you will find every where its soil modified, cut in all directions by chains of mountains intersecting each other. In all this part of the Continent, the largest existing plain, that of northern Germany and Poland, is only six hundred miles long by two hundred broad. It is the extremity of the great Asiatic plains in the north. The other plains, as those of France, of Hungary, of Lombardy, are smaller in extent, and do not deprive this part of the Continent of the mountainous character essentially belonging to it.”

Among the causes of atmospheric disturb ance, the chief is the unequal rarefaction by the sun's rays of the different levels and secIn connection with these varying shapes tions of the atmosphere, the more heated of the earth's surface, and essentially modi- layers of air rising, in consequence of their fied by them, is the question of climate. lessened density, and the adjacent colder and The great zones of the astronomical climate heavier volumes rushing into the comparaare due, it is true, to the spherical form of tive vacuum thus formed. What is true our globe, causing the unequal distribution of incidentally and on a small scale, it is clear the sun's rays. But these are modified to such must also be the case in the regular and a degree by the great divisions of land and grander operations of nature, and more espesea, that in the same latitudes we will find cially with respect to the two great reservoirs at one point the freshness and verdure of a of heat and cold, the poles and the tropics. perpetual spring, and at another, winters From these causes we would conclude an almost aretie in their severity, followed by uninterrupted march or progression of the summers where the sun beats down with winds, from the arctic and antarctic regions, equatorial fervor. For instance, at the Faroe in the direction of the equator. This hypoIslands, situated in the midst of the Atlantic, thesis observation has rendered certain, modthe thermometer falls, during the coldest ifying it, however, by antagonistic phenommonth of the year, ts 36.8° Fahır., while in ena sufficiently numerous to leave this elethe hottest month it only rises to 55°. In the ment its character as the type of all change same latitude, in the wilds of Siberia, stands and uncertainty. As the waves of air roll the city of Yakutsk. Here the thermometer from the poles to the tropics, they are afranges from 40.9° below zero, during the fected by the rotary motion of the earth. coldest month, to 68.5° of Fahr., during the The speed of the earth's rotation on its axis summer heats, making an annual variation is of course almost nothing at the poles, and of 109.4 On the southern shores of Great obtains its maximum at the equator. The Britain, delicate shrubs suffer no injury polar winds, as they sweep towards the from the mild winters, while the summer equator, do not acquire this increased velosun has not power to bring to its full ripe-city at once, but, as the earth rolls from west ness the grape. On the northern shore of to east, lag behind, presenting thus the apthe Caspian, wines are grown of equal pearance of a current of air from east to west richness with those of Spain, while in the This tendency to the west increases, the same latitude at the mouth of the Loire, nearer the approach to the tropics, and at the vine can hardly be raised. These ex-last assumes a due westerly direction, and