The World Before the Deluge

We can hardly walk any great distance along the coast, either of England or Scotland, without remarking some flat terrace of unequal breadth, and backed by a more or less steep escarpment — upon such a terrace many of the towns along the coast are built. No geologist now doubts that this fine platform, at the base of which is a deposit of loam or sandy gravel, with marine shells, had been, at some period, the line of coast against which the waves of the ocean once broke at high water. At that period the sea rose twenty, and thirty, and some places a hundred feet higher than it does now. The ancient sea-beaches in some places formed terraces of sand and gravel, with littoral shells, some broken, others entire, and corresponding with species in the seas below; in others they form bold projecting pro-montories or deep bays. In an historical point of view, this coast-line should be very ancient, though it may be only of yesterday in a geological sense — its origin ascending far beyond written tradition*

THE ASIATIC DELUGE. 48/

The wall of Antoninus, raised by the Romans as a protection from the attacks of the Caledonians, was built, in the opinion of the best authorities, not in connection with the old, but with the new coast-line. We may, then, conclude thatjn a.d. 140, when the greater part of this wall was constructed, the zone of the ancient coast-line had attamed its present elevation above the actual level of the sea. The same proofs of a general and gradual elevation of the country are observable almost everywhere: in the estuary of the Clyde, canoes and other works of art have been exhumed, and assigned to a recent period. Near St. Austell, and at Carnon, in Cornwall, human skulls and other relics have been met -^vith beneath marine strata, in which the bones of whales and still-existing species of land-quadrupeds were imbedded. But in the countries where hard limestone rocks prevail, in the ancient Peloponnesus, along the coast of Argolis and Arcadia, three and even four ranges of ancient sea-cliffs are well preserved, which Messrs. Boblaye and Verlet describe as rising one above the other, at different distances from the present coast, sometimes to the height of 1,000 feet, as if the upheaving force had been suspended for a time, leaving the waves and currents to throw down and shape the successive ranges of lofty cliffs. On the other hand, some well-known historical sites may be adduced as affording evidence of the subsidence of the coast-line of the Mediterranean in times comparatively modern. In the Bay of Baiae, the celebrated temple of Serapis, at Puzzuoli, near Naples, which was originally built about 100 feet from the sea, and at or near its present level, exhibits proofs of having gradually sunk nineteen feet, and of a subsequent elevation of the ground on which the temple stands of nearly the same amount.

So, also, about half a mile along the sea-shore, and standing at some distance from it, in the sea, there are the remains of buildings and columns which bear the name of the Temples of the Nymphs and of Neptune. The tops of these broken columns are now nearly on a level with the surface of the water, which is about five feet deep. With respect to the littoral deposits of the Quaternary period, they are of very limited extent, except in a few localities. They are found on the western coast of Nonvay, and on the coasts of England. In France, an extensive bed of Quaternary formation is seen on the shores of the ancient Guienne, and on other parts of the coast, where it is sometimes concealed by trees and shrubs, or by blown sand, as at Dax in the Landes, where a steep bank may be

THE WORLD BEFORE THE DELUGE.

488 traced about twelve miles inland, and parallel with the present coast, which falls suddenly about fifty feet from a higher platform of the land, to a lower one extending to the sea. In making some excavations for the foundations of a building at Abesse, in 1830, it was discovered that this fall consisted of drift-sand, filling up a steep perpendicular cliff about fifty feet high, consisting of a bed of Tertiary clay extending to the sea, a bed of limestone with Tertiary shells and corals, and, at the summit, the Tertiary sand of the Landes. The marine beds, together with the alluvium of the rivers, have given rise to those deposits which occur more especially near the mouths of rivers and watercourses.

^^^ ^^^B^^^

Fig. 201.— Shell of Planorbis corueus.

489

EPILOGUE.

Having considered the past history of the globe, we may now be permitted to bestow a glance upon the future which awaits it.

Can the actual state of the earth be considered as definitive? The revolutions which have fashioned its surface, and produced the Alps in Europe, Mount Ararat in Asia, the Cordilleras in the New World — are they to be the last? In a word, will the terrestrial sphere for ever preserve the form under which we know it— as it has been, so to speak, impressed on our m.emories by the maps of the geographers? It is difficult to reply with any confidence to this question; nevertheless, our readers will not object to accompany us a step further, while we express an opinion, founded on analogy and scientific induction.

What are the causes which have produced the present inequalities of the globe — the mountain-ranges, continents, and waters? The primordial cause is, as we have had frequent occasion to repeat, the cooling of the earth, and the progressive solidification of the external crust, the nucleus of which still remains in a fluid or viscous state. These have produced the contortions, furrows, and fractures which have led to the elevation, of the great mountain-ranges and the depression ofthe great valleys — which have caused some continents to emerge from the bed of ocean and have submerged others. The secondary causes which have contributed to the formation of a vast extent of dry land are due to the sedimentary deposits, which have resulted in the creation of new continents by filling up the basins of the ancient seas. Now these two causes, although in a minor degree, continue in operation to the present day. The thickness of the terrestrial crust is only a small fraction compared to that of the internal liquid mass.

The principal cause, then, of the great dislocations of the earth's crust is, so to speak, at our gates; it threatens us unceasingly. Of this the earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, which are still frequent in our

day, give us disastrous and incontestable proofs. On the other hand, our seas are continually forming new land: the bed of the Baltic Sea, for instance, is gradually rising, in consequence of the deposits which will obviously fill up its area entirely in an interval of time which it might not be impossible to calculate.

It is, then, probable that the actual condition of the surface and the respective limits of seas and continents have nothing fixed or definite in them — that they are, on the contrary, open to great modifications inthe future.

There is another problem much more diflficult of solution than the preceding, but for which neither induction nor analogy furnish us with any certain data — viz., the perpetuity of our species. Is man doomed to disappear from the earth some day, like all the races of animals which preceded him, and prepared the way for his advent? Will a new glacial period^ analogous to that which, during the Quaternary period, was felt so rigorously, again come round to put an end to his existence? Like the Trilobites of the Silurian period, the great Reptiles of the Lias, the Mastodons of the Tertiary, and the Mega-theriums of the Quaternary epoch, is the human species to be annihilated— to perish from the globe by a simple natural extinction? Or must we believe that man, gifted with the attribute of reason, marked, so to say, with the Divine seal, is to be the ultimate and supreme term of creation? Science cannot pronounce upon these grave questions, which exceed the competence, and extend beyond the circle of human reasoning. It is not impossible that man should be only a step in the ascending and progressive scale of animated beings. The Divine Power which has lavished upon the earth life, sentiment, and thought; which has given organisation to plants; to animals, motion, sensation, and intelligence; to man, in addition to these multiple gifts, the faculty of reason, doubled in value by the ideal — reserves to Himself perhaps in His wisdom the privilege c f creating alongside fof man, or after him, a being still more perfect. This new being, religion and modern poesy would present in the ethereal and radiant type of the Christian angel, with moral qualities whose nature and essence would escape our perceptions — of which we could no more form a notion than one born blind could conceive of colour, or the deaf and dumb of sound. Einmt ccqtiales angelis Dei. " They will be as the angels of God," says Holy Scripture, speaking of manraised to the life eternal.

During the Metamorphic epoch the mineral kingdom existed alone; the rocks, silent and solitary, were all that was yet formed of

the burning earth. During the Primary epoch, the vegetable kingdom, newly created, extended itself over the whole globe, which it soon covered from pole to pole with an uninterrupted mass of verdure. During the Secondary and Tertiary epochs, the vegetable and animal kingdoms divided the earth between them. In the Quaternary epoch the human ki??gdo7n appeared. Is it in the future destinies of our planet to receive yet another lord? And after the four kingdoms which now occupy it, is there to be a Jiew kingdom created, the attributes of which can never be anything but an impenetrable mystery, and which will differ from man in as great a degree as man differs from the other animals, and plants from rocks?

We must be contented with suggesting, without hoping to solve^ this formidable problem. It is a great mystery, which, according to the fine expression of Pliny, " lies hidden in the majesty of Nature," latet in majcstate natures; or (to speak more in the spirit of Christian philosophy) it is known only to the Almighty Creator of the Universe.

TABLE

BRITISH SEDIMENTARY AND FOSSILIFEROUS STRATA.

By H W. BRISTOW.

L

TERTIARY

PLIOCENE

MIOCENE

EOCENE

SECONDARY

CRETACEOUS

JURASSIC

TRIASSIC

PRIMARY

PERMIAN

CARBONIFEROUS

DEVONIAN & OLD RED SANDSTONE

SILURIAN

CAMBRIAN

LAURENTIAN.

METAMORPHIC ROCKS

TRACHYTE

ELVAN

GRANITE

BASALT

LAVA

Metalliferous Lode

ERUPTIVE ROCKS