Litchfield enquirer., 1835-10-01
LEcTUREs ON GEOLOGY,
RY PROFEssOR sILLIMAN.

TENTH IIECTUAE-OAx los-Au COmutch~ cing his tenth lecture, on Tuesday evening. May I0, Professor Silliman said the distinc- tion between the tertiary formation and the others that had been described, could be known principally by the fact. that below this there were nO perfectly formed, VIvlparous, terreaHvial animals; all discUVeIed below be- ing more ar lees imperfectIy formed and Ovi- parOus. From this it was reasonable to in- fer. that when the tertiary had been formed considerable progress had been made in veg etable life, as we'll as in the condition of the aArth, He said we could not tell why death bad entered the world, nor why animals prey ed upon each other. So it was; and there we must leave the questions. To the inqu- ry, why did animals die before Adam sinned, as death is said to have entered the world in consequence of his shining, the lecturer re- piled, that it was no doubt the design of the Creator that those ancient animals should die before man appeared; and that their organi-1 xaliOn absolutely demanded they should prey upon each other; and that moreover the death referred to in the Bible was not the death of animals but of man.
 The terrestrial animals found in the tertia. py are all extinct. This formation may be considered the last of the regular dresses thrown over the earth. Much of it is soft and stratiied; and no doubt it's structure was oc- casioned by water. Indeed it is rational to believe that all parts of the world have been under water, at times, when various matters were held in mechanical solution by the wa ter and hence the peculiarites of substance and appearance. The tertiary has DO refer dnce whatever to the sea shores, existing as
 much in the interior of a country as on it's borders. It must therefore have been form- ed when the whole globe was submerged.
 In the retiring ofthe waters. lakes and ponds would be left just as the forms of the land
 would arrange them. Mr. BakewelI remarks that when the waters of Niagara shall have worn away the rocks that now present such a mighty barrier to their progress, the north ern lakes will then be drawn off, and vast ter aiary basins, now the reservoir Of the waters, will be visible. So basins have no doubt been formed.
 The quarry of Mount Bolca, near the city of Verona, in Italy, and about fifty miles from the Adriatic, and twelve hundred feet above it. consisting of what is called ire rock and fish rock, contains immense deposits of fish, 1 sufficient to supply all the cabinets of Europe. l Some of the fish here are like mummes, dri- l ed up, not petrifed. They are in all condi- eions: some are contor:ed; and in a museum, at Paris, there is one in the very act of swaI- lowing another. They must have been sud ! denly surprised in their native element; pro- hably a volcano threw up argilaceous and culcsroous masses of the consistency of mud. in which the fish were embedded. The mud came up and caught the fish, and then fire rocks arose beside it. These operations would be under the water. Afterwards there was . great movement which lifted the whole mass far above the surface of the water.
 The Professor now entered upon the diu' vial formations. He said the term diluvial meant the deposits made by the water; allu- vial meant also the same thing, only denOting less intense action. Diluvial refers to those formations which no ordinary or present ac- ton of water can effect, but which are the work of general deluges. AlIuvial refers to those formations which go on by the com mon influence of water. He noticed the evi- dlence of the Noachic flood and remarked that the principal difficulty was in selecting the best out of SO great quantity.
 Pebbles and bou!ders are found all over the world; some in the tertiary and others in the diuvial formation. There are also what ge- geologists call diIuvial scratches, which are furrows worn in rocks by currents of matter passing over them, and which generally run in . direction from north to south. Many rocks, which have probably been buried. ev- er since the currents passed over them. are found, on digging, to have these furrows or scratches. A diluvial formation may be known by its entire destitution of arrange menf every thing composing it would seem to have been tumbled together peIl mell. just as would have been the case with substances | thrown together by rushing waters. Boul- der stones are in every part of the world l they are rocks torn from their native beds, l and transported sometimes to great distances l by torrents of ice and water. The places in i mountains from which they were taken can l often be discovered. The rocks which com pose the Scandinavian Mountains, in Sweden end Norway. have been transported across the Baltic Sea into the plains of Prussia aud Germany. The banks of Jura, which is !ime- stone, contain boulders from Mount Blanc, which is granite the distance between the two being one hundred miles. RUcks from | the north ofthe great lakes, in our own coun- 1 try, have been carried over into Indiana and l Illinois. Being broken down and embedded l tn ice, they could easily be transported from ! their native place to other regions. Tire rtl- 1 ins of mountains are found the world oyer@- | and the common name for rocks thus trans. 1 ported is travelled rocks. Boulders are ex- I cellent materials fOr building and it is an in- | stance Of goodness On the part of the Creator | Go have permitted them to be thus transport cd to the very places where they are wanted for the convenience of man. Boulders lying between Lynn and Salem can be traced to their native beds, at considerable distance : from their present resting place.
 In Salem, New York. there is a wonderful granite rock standing upon seven pillars. No