The World Before the Deluge

Fig. 47, — Lepidodendron Stembergii. epoch.Crustaceans are rare in the Carboniferous Limestone strata; the genus Phillipsia is the last of the Trilobites, all of which became extinct at the close of this period. As to the Zoophytes, they consist chiefly of Crinoids and Corals. The Crinoids were represented by the genera Platycrinus and Cyathocrbius. We also have in these rocks many Polyzoa. Among the corals of the period, we may include the genera

CARBONIFEROUS LIMESTONE.

Lithostrotion and Lonsdaiea, of which Lithostrotion basaifiform^ (Fig. 58), and Lonsdalea Jloriformis (Fig. 59), are respectively the representatives, with Ainplcxus coralloides. Among the Polyzoa are the genera Faiestrella and Polypora. Lastly, to these we aiay add a group of animals which will play a very important part and become

48.— Pecopteris lonchitica, a little magnified. Fig. 49.— Neuropteris gigantea.

abundantly represented in the beds of later geological periods, but which already abounded in the seas of the Carboniferous period. We speak of the Foraminifera (Fig. 60), microscopic animals, which clustered either in one body, or divided into segments, and covered with a calcareous, many-chambered shell, as in Fig. 60, Fumlina cylindrica. These little creatures, which, during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, formed enormous banks and entire masses of

144

THE WORLD BEFORE THE DELUGE,

Fig. 50.— Lonchopteris Bricii. Fig. 51.— Odontopteris BrardiL

Fig. 52.— Sphenopteris artemisiaefolia, magnified.

CARBONIFEROUS LIMESTONE.

rig. 53-— Produci.t:..c., Fig- 54-— Bellerophon costatus. Fig. 55.— Goniatites evolutus.

One-third uat. size. Half nat. size. Nat. size.

Fig. 56.— Bellerophon hiulcus.

Fig. 59.

Fig. 57- Fig. 58. Orthoceras laterale. Lithostrotion basaltiforme. Lonsdalea norifonnis.

Tock, began to make their appearance in the period which noir engages our attention.

The plate opposite (Plate X.) is a representation of an ideal aquarium, in which some of the more prominent species, which inhabited the seas during the period of the Carboniferous Limestone, are represented. On the right is a tribe of corals, with reflections of dazzling white: the species represented are, nearest the edge, the Lasmocyathus^ the Chcetetes, and the Ptylopora. The Mollusc which occupies the extremity of the elongated and conical tube in the shape of a sabre is an Aploceras. It seems to prepare the way for

^Sjr

Fig. 60. — Foraminifera of the Moun- Fig. 61.— Foraminifera of the Chalk, tain Limestone, forming the centre obtained by brushing it in water. of an oolitic grain. Power 120. Power 120.

the Ammonite; for if this elongated shell were coiled round itself it would resemble the Ammonite and Nautilus. In the centre of the foreground we have Belleropho7i hiulais (Fig. 56), the Nautilus Kojii7ickii, and a Frodtccta, with the numerous spines which surround the shell. (See Fig. 62.) On the left are other corals: the Cyathophyllum with straight cylindrical stems; some Encrinites (Cyathocrmus and Flatycrinus) v/ound round the trunk of a tree, or with their flexible stem floating in the water. Some Fishes, Amhlyptei'us^ move about amongst these creatures, the greater number of which are immovably attached, like plants, to the rock on which they grow.

In addition, this engraving shows us a series of islets, rising out of

X.—Ideal view of marine life in the Carboniferous Period.

a tranquil sea. One of these is occupied by a forest, in which a distant view is presented of the general forms of the grand vegetation of the period.

It is of importance to know the rocks formed by marine deposits during the era of the Carboniferous Limestone, inasmuch as they include coal, though in much smaller quantities than in the succeeding sub-period of the true coal-deposit. They consist essentially of a compact limestone, of a greyish-blue, and even black colour. The blow of the hammer causes them to exhale a somewhat fetid odour, which is owing to decomposed organic matter — the modified substance

Fig. 62.— Producta horrida. Half natural size.

of the molluscs and zoophytes — of which it is to so great an extent composed, and whose remains are still easily recognised.

In the north of England, and many other parts of the British Islands, the Carboniferous Limestone forms, as we have seen, lofty mountain-masses, to which the term Moutitain Limestojie is sometimes applied. In Derbyshire the formation constitutes rugged, lofty, and fantastically-shaped mountains, whose summits mingle with the clouds, while its picturesque character appears here, as well as farther north, in the dales or valleys, where rich meadows, through which the mountain streams force their way, seem to be closed abmptly by masses of rock, rising above them like the grey ruins of some ancient tower; while the mountain bases are pierced with caverns, and their sides covered with mosses and ferns, for the growth of which the limestone is particularly favourable.

The formation is mctalliferoMS^ and yields rich veins of lead-ore in

Derbyshire, Cumberland, and other counties of Great Britain. The rock is found in Russia, in the north of France, and in Belgium, where it furnishes the common marbles, known as Flanders marble {Marbre de Flandres and J/] de petit graiiit). These marbles are also quarried in other localities, such as Regneville (La Manche), either for the manufacture of hme or for ornamental stonework; one of the varieties quarried at Regneville, being black, with large yellow veins, is very pretty. In France, the Carboniferous Limestone, with its sandstones and conglomerates, schists and limestones, is largely developed in the Vosges, in the Lyonnais, and in Languedoc, often in contact with syenites and porphyries, and other igneous rocks, by which it has been penetrated and disturbed, and even metamorphosed in many ways, by reason of the various kinds of rocks of which it is composed. In the United States the Carboniferous Limestone formation occupies a somewhat grand position in the rear of the Alleghanies. It is also jfound forming considerable ranges in our Australian colonies.

In consequence of their age, as compared with the Secondary and Tertiary limestones, the Carboniferous rocks are generally more marked and varied in character. The valley of the Meuse, from Namur to Chockier, above Liege, is cut out of this formation; and many of our re-aders mil remember with delight the picturesque character of the scenery, especially that of the left bank of the celebrated river in question.

Coal Measures. (Sub-period.)

This terrestrial period is characterised, in a remarkable manner, by the abundance and strangeness of the vegetation which then covered the islands and continents of the whole globe. Upon all points of the earth, as we have said, this flora presented a striking uniformity. In comparing it with the vegetation of the present day, the learned French botanist, M. Brongniart, who has given particular attention to the flora of the Coal-measures, has arrived at the conclusion that it presented considerable analogy with that of the islands of the equatorial and torrid zone, in which a maritime climate and elevated temperature exist in the highest degree. It is believed that islands were very numerous at this period; that, in short, the dry land formed a sort of vast archipelago upon the general ocean, of no great depth, the islands being connected together and formed into continents as they gradually emerged from the ocean.

COAL MEASURES. I5I

This flora, then, consists of great trees, and also of many smaller plants, which would form a close, thick turf,. or sod, when partially-buried in marshes of almost unlimited extent. M. Brongniart indicates, as characterising the period, 500 species of plants belonging to families which we have already seen making their first appearance in the Devonian period, but which now attain a prodigious development. The ordinary dicotyledons and monocotyledons — that is, plants having seeds with two lobes in germinating, and plants having one seed-lobe — are almost entirely absent; the cryptogamic, or flowerless plants, predominate; especially Ferns, Lycopodiacese and Equisetaceae — but of forms insulated and actually extinct in these same families. A few dicotyledonous gymnosperms, or naked-seed plants forming genera of Conifers, have completely disappeared, not only from the present flora, but since the close of the period under consideration, there being no trace of them in the succeeding Permian flora. Such is a general view of the features most characteristic of the Coal period, and of the Primary epoch in general. It differs, altogether and absolutely, from that of the present day; the climatic condition of these remote ages of the globe, however, enables us to comprehend the characteristics which distinguish its vegetation. A damp atmosphere, of an equable rather than an intense heat like that of the tropics, a soft light veiled by pennanent fogs, were favourable to the growth of this peculiar vegetation, of which we search in vain for anything strictly analogous in our own days. The nearest approach to the climate and vegetation proper to the geological period which now occupies

our attention, would probably be found in 'certain islands, or on the littoral of the Pacific Ocean — the island of Chloe, for example, where it rains during 300 days in the year, and where the light of the sun is shut out by perpetual fogs; where arborescent Ferns form forests, beneath whose shade grow herbaceous Ferns, which rise three feet and upwards above a marshy soil; which gives shelter also to a mass of cryptogamic plants, greatly resembling, in its main features, the flora of the Coal-measures. This flora was, as we have said, uniform and poor in its botanic genera, compared to the abundance and variety of the flora of the present time; but the itw families of plants, which existed then, included many more species than are no^y produced in the same countries. The fossil Ferns of the coal-series in Europe, for instance, comprehend about 300 species, while all Europe now only produces fifty. The gymnosperms, which now muster only twenty-five species in Europe, then numbered more thon 120.

It will simplify the classification of the flora of the Carboniferous epoch if we give a tabular arrangement adopted by the best authorities—: