coal-basin, and the mines are occasionally worked to a great depth, (even to 1200 feet, in some places in England,) it is plain that no sudden and transient event, like the deluge, could have produced such deposits, although it might bury wood and trees, which, in the course of time, might approximate to the condition of lignite, or bituminized, or partially mineralized, wood, which is often found under circumstances indicating a diluvian origin.” Prof. Silliman's "Outline of Geology,” p. 122.* The phenomena of the coal-formations have been ably argued by Mr. Murchison, in a series of considerations, which prove both the intensity of action and the long succession of periods that are marked in the structure and alterations of the crust of the earth. "How have the coal-fields been rendered accessible to man's use? Have we not shown that many have been forced to the surface by volcanic action; and that some have assumed a basin shape, in consequence of their margins having been thrown into that form by a number of violent upcasts of the subjacent solid masses, which, wrenched from their original position, now converge towards a common centre ?" "Silur. Syst." i. 574. Our respected author appears not seldom to fall into the besetting error of controversialists, misapprehension of the opinions which he opposes, or of some part of their relations. For example; he seems to think it a fatal objection to the doctrines generally held by geologists, that the Tertiary Strata "occupy but a small space in the crust of the earth, yet three or four ages have been assigned to them;" that "the whole Tertiary Strata cover but a small portion of the face of our globe, and each of the four sections" [the Eocene, the Miocene, the older Pliocene, and * Third ed. A remarkable instance of this phenomenon has been communicated to the Royal Society, (in a letter read April 1, 1841,) by Mr. Mac Cormick, one of the band of scientific men whom Her Majesty's enlightened and judicious government had sent upon the Antarctic expedition under Capt. James Ross. It is a description of Kerguelen's Land, two very small islands with a few islets, at so high a latitude as must, in that hemisphere, ensure perpetual storms and cold, producing no vegetation above lichens, mosses, and a few grasses and water-plants. "From its sterility," says Capt. Cook, "I should with great propriety call it the Island of Desolation, but that I would not rob M. de Kerguelen of the honour of its bearing his name." These isles are masses of basaltic rock, with fossilized wood imbedded in it, aud coal beds or seams overlaid by it. Thus there is evidence that the locality was once an extent of dry land on which grew large trees, that the climate must have been much warmer than is its present condition, that submergence took place, and then pressure under stratified deposits, that such a succession was effected at least once, perhaps oftener, and that, at last, an outburst of melted rock from the fiery gulf below elevated, shattered, enwrapped, and overtopped the whole. Fourth ed. The best and most recent account, historical and descriptive, is given in Sir James Clark Ross's interesting volumes, "Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions," chap. iv. Mr. Mac Cormick, who gives the geological descriptions, says: "The most remarkable geological feature in the island is the occurrence of fossil-wood and coal; and, what is still more extraordinary, imbedded in the igneous rocks. The wood, which for the most part is highly silicified, is found inclosed in the basalt, whilst the coal crops out in ravines, in close contact with the overlying porphyritic and amygdaloidal greenstone." Vol. i. p. 74. numerous seams of coal vary in thickness from a few inches to four feet." P. 71. "The 66 the more recent Pliocene] can claim but a few patches; yet to these patches a whole age is assigned!" (Pp. 19, 20.) On the scale of reason, this is much the kind of argument which infidels employ, when they object to Christianity that it is not universal. Does our objector suppose that topographical extent is a measure of duration? Is it not of the very essence of the case, that these patches' (which, be it remarked, cover thousands of square miles in Europe, Asia, and America,) should occupy the situations which, by the laws of nature, belong to them? They consist of the wearings away and washings down of older rocks, derived from the elevations and projections of innumerable eras; and they must of necessity have been received and retained in the intervening hollows. This is one of the striking instances of the Creator's wisdom and goodness; that, by a series of slow operations, effected according to the known laws and methods of physical action, diversified results are brought to pass which are in the highest degree beneficial to the animated tribes, and preeminently to the race of man. The very processes are marked with the indications of very long periods of time, which (if I may express my humble opinion) our imaginations are more in danger of unduly contracting than of immoderately extending. 66 Yet, after all, Dr. Young makes a surrender of the chief position; and therefore all the other parts of the field are fairly debateable without mutual prejudice, however we may feel convinced that he has unhappily undertaken the defence of posts which cannot be maintained. He says, Many are of opinion, that as, without contradicting Scripture, we may believe in the existence of numerous planetary worlds, all furnished with their respective inhabitants; so also we may be allowed to think that numerous creations might exist on our globe, long before the creation recorded by Moses; the sacred pages making no mention of the one, any more than of the other. To a certain extent, this may be conceded. I agree with my learned friend Dr. Buckland, that the narrative of Moses does not necessarily preclude the supposition, that the materials of our globe might pre-exist under another form, and that this world may have been constructed out of the wreck and ruins of a former creation." (Pp. 40, 41.) Yet under the reservation clause to a certain extent," he attempts to render this concession of little value. He is willing to admit of a previous condition of the earth, provided it may be a state of darkness and confusion, devoid of life and beauty. He thinks that, how the supposition of " a goodly world- -can be reconciled with the scripture narrative, it is difficult to conceive.” May we not reasonably ask, Why should this be difficult? The scripture narrative relates (according to our views of its meaning) an adjustment of a suitable district of our globe for the reception of a new order of creation; and, to make this known in the manner best adapted to the comprehension of the early ages of mankind, and to the religious benefit of all generations, was the gracious intention of that page in the records of revelation. am unable to perceive any inconsistency in this with the belief, that the bountiful Creator had before made ample use of this part of his works, to be one of innumerable other seats of life, intelligence, and happiness. Rather should I think, that we might regard this arrangement as a case included under the grand proposition, "By faith we understand that the worlds were arranged [κατηρτίσθαι τοὺς αἰῶνας, which might be rendered, the vast periods adjusted,] by the word of God, to the effect that the objects seen [Tà BλETTÓμεva] did not come into existence out of those which are manifested."* Dr. Young's mode of reasoning about stratification appears to me surprising. From a partial, trivial, and much exaggerated case which he alleges, of the action of the waves on a soft seabeach, he draws conclusions extravagantly large. A few feet or yards of sand and marl may be washed down by a flood, or torn off by a storm; and almost immediately afterwards redeposited in sorted forms and this occurrence which, in the very conditions of the case, can take place only on a small scale, he applies unlimitedly by simple multiplication, and infers thirty feet of strata in a day, and nine hundred in a month. But he takes no notice of the extremely slow rate of deposit, in those circumstances which constitute the general course of nature; and which is demonstrated by facts innumerable in estuaries, in deltas, or in fresh-water lakes. He exhibits the crude impertinence of a few foreign sophists, whose day in this respect is passed, representing the succession of organized beings as becoming gradually more complete and perfect, so as to indicate an improvement by practice in the Creator's skill; and he notices not the fact, that all the great geologists repudiate such a notion with abhorrence, and give physical evidence of its falsehood. With respect to this subject, it should not be forgotten that, on account of the perishable substance of their structure, many species of both animal and vegetable creatures must have failed to perpetuate any memorials of themselves, in all the periods of the earth's antiquity. The more profoundly anatomical investigations are carried on, the more abundantly is it evinced that, within the range of the animal remains presented even in the earliest fossiliferous strata, the remark will hold, as a general truth, which has been made by eminently qualified judges, in relation to the vegetable kingdom :-" The result of this investigation is well worthy of attention. It shows that, so far from a gradual perfection of organization having been going on from the remotest *Heb. xi. 3. I have ventured to give the closest translation. period, till the latest geological epoch,' [the words of an able adverse writer,] some of the most perfect forms of each of the three great classes of the vegetable kingdom were among the very first created; and that, either the more simple plants of each class did not appear till our own æra, or that no trace of them at an earlier period has been preserved." Lindley and Hutton's "Fossil Flora;" vol. i. pref. p. xix. It would appear almost incredible that Dr. Y. should say, Fishes, zoophytes, ammonites, belemnites, terebratulæ, &c., occur in almost every portion of them [the secondary strata]: but those in the inferior strata have as much similarity to the living races as those in the superior." P. 9. An assertion full of extreme inaccuracies! Can he, for example, push out of sight a most remarkable circumstance in the caudal prolongation of the backbone, which distinguishes all the fish of the Magnesian limestone, and the earlier formations from the subsequent; and from almost all existing species? This, and many other striking peculiarities in the fossil ichthyology, were discovered by the distinguished investigator, M. Agassiz. See Lyell's "Elements," p. 417. And who ever heard of ammonites or belemnites of "living races ?" I thankfully avail myself of the authority -can there be a higher?-) and testimony of Mr. Murchison. "The fossils of the Silurian system here represented, and amounting in all to about 350 species, are, with the exception of a very few (chiefly doubtful casts), essentially distinct from any of the numerous and well-defined fossils of the Carboniferous System; and further, that the Old Red Sandstone which separates these two systems is also characterized by fossils peculiar to it.——Having for a series of years collected fossils from every stratum of the Silurian rocks, throughout a large region, in which the stratigraphical order is clear, I now present the results. Professor Phillips had previously completed a valuable monograph of the organic remains of the Carboniferous System; [in his "Illustrations of the Geology of Yorkshire;" vol. ii. 1836.] If the naturalist will compare the figures in these, the only two works yet published upon the older fossilliferous rocks, which combine geological description with { zoological proofs, he will at once see the truth of my position. 66 Beginning with the vertebrata; Are not the fishes of the Old Red Sandstone as distinct from the Carboniferous System on the one hand, as from those of the Silurian on the other? M. Agassiz has pronounced that they are so. "Are any of the crustaceans, so numerous and well-defined throughout the Silurian rocks, found also in the Carboniferous strata? I venture to reply, not one. "Are not the remarkable cephalopodous mollusca, the Phragmoceras, and certain forms of Lituites, peculiar to the older system? Is there one species of the Crinoidea figured in this work, known in the Carboniferous strata? "Has the Serpuloides longissimum, or have those singular bodies the Graptolites, or, in short, any zoophytes of the Silurian System, been detected in the well-examined Carboniferous rocks? And, in regard to the corals, which are so abundant that they absolutely form large reefs, is not Mr. Lonsdale, who has assiduously compared multitudes of specimens from both systems, of opinion that there is not more than one species common to the two epochs ? "Such evidences are-additional supports of the important truth which Geology has already established; that each great period of change, during which the surface of the planet was essentially modified, was also marked by the successive production and obliteration of certain races." "Silur. Syst." pp. 581, 582. With astonishment I read in Dr. Y., "The general conformity of the strata and their undisturbed succession indicate that they must have been deposited about the same era." P. 23. He admits indeed of some exceptions, but he confines them to the elevating force of "volcanic agency." One might almost fancy that the worthy author had never fixed his eyes upon any rocks but those of his own Yorkshire coast, and that he had explored even them but cursorily. That all strata were at their origin deposited horizontally, or nearly so, is not the question. But, is it possible for him to be ignorant of the instances innumerable, in almost all parts of the world, where the formations of the secondary series, and many even of the third, follow with most remarkable disconformity? How often a deposit has been laid, long after the underlying one has been raised and bent and broken? The Sections published in the Geological Society's Transactions, and innumerable other works of unquestionable authority, furnish the most ample proofs of the contrary to Dr. Y.'s assertion. If possible, I am still more surprised to read, "The breaks, or faults, in the strata affect the whole mass of rocks, in almost every instance where they occur; instead of being limited by the boundaries of particular formations." P. 24. So far as, in a subject including many and various conditions, one can lay down general positions, I must say that what he affirms is not the fact, and what he denies, and builds largely upon his denial, is the fact. It is painful to me to remark thus upon the writing of a very estimable friend; and to be obliged to acknowledge that to me his book appears to abound in misconceptions of the sentiments of others, and wrong imputations to them, in assertions positively made, but often hazardous or decidedly erroneous, in narrow investigation and defective induction, and in too rapid conclusions from imperfect premises. I should not, however, have brought forward these observations, which might be considerably extended, but for this reason; Dr. Young's character as a Christian and a minister of the Gospel, gives weight and currency to his opinions, |