Principles of Geology: or, The Modern Changes of the Earth and its Inhabitants Considered as Illustrative of GeologyLyell, Charles, Sir
Science
Principles of Geology: or, The Modern Changes of the Earth and its Inhabitants Considered as Illustrative of Geology
Lyell, Charles, Sir
Geology
Of a still newer date is the Norwich Crag, a fluvio-marine deposit of
the Pleiocene epoch, containing a mixture of marine, fluviatile, and
land shells, of which 90 per cent. or more are recent. These beds,
since the time of their first investigation, have yielded a supply of
mammalian bones of the genera mastodon, elephant, rhinoceros, pig,
horse, deer, ox, and others, the bodies of which may have been washed
down into the sea by rivers draining land, of which the contiguity is
indicated by the occasional presence of terrestrial and freshwater
shells.
Our acquaintance with the newer Pleiocene mammalia in Europe, South
America, and Australia, is derived chiefly from cavern deposits, a fact
which we ought never to forget if we desire to appreciate the superior
facilities we enjoy for studying the more modern as compared to the more
ancient terrestrial faunas. We know nothing of the fossil bones which
must have been inclosed in the stalagmite of caverns in the older
Pleiocene, or in the Miocene or Eocene epochs, much less can we derive
any information respecting the inhabitants of the land from a similar
source, when we carry back our inquiries to the Wealden or carboniferous
epochs. We are as well assured that land and rivers then existed, as
that they exist now; but it is evident that even a slight geographical
revolution, accompanied by the submergence and denudation of land, would
reduce to an extreme improbability the chance of our hitting on those
minute points of space where caves may once have occurred in limestone
rocks.
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