Southern telegraph., 1838-11-28
ASTONISHING FACTS RELATIVETOt
A FORMER ORGANIC WORLD.

| Dr. buckland now proceeds 10 me most
important and popular branch of his subject;
10 give description Of the most interesting
fossil organic remains and 10 show that the
extinct species Of plants and animals which
occupied our planet display, even in their
fragments and relics, the same marks Of
wisdom and design which have been unyer-
sally recognised in the existing species of
organized beings.
After giving some account of the suppos-
ed cases Of fossil human bone; and estab-
fishing the remarkable fact Of the "total alb
sence of any vestiges oft human species
throughout the entire series Of geological
formations" our author passes TO general
history Of fossil organic remans-
"Itismarvelcus that mankind should have
gone on for sd many centuries in ignorance
of the fact, which is now so fully demon
strated, that no small part Of the present sur
face ofthe earth is derived from the remains
of animals that constituted the population Of
ancient seas. Many extensive plains and
massive mountains form, as it we're, the
great charne houses ef preceding genera
tons, in which the petrifed exuvie of ex-
tinct races Of animals and vegetables are
piled into stupendous monuments Of the op-
erations life and death, during almost i'm
measurable periods of past time. al the
sight Of a spectacle says Culver, $50 impo-
sing, so terrible, as that of the wreck of ami
Imal life, forming almost the entire soil on
which we tread, il is difficult to restrain the
imagination from hazarding some coniec-
lures as to the cause by which such great
effects have been produced The deeDer
we descend into the strata Of the earth the
higher we ascend info the archaeological his.
tory of the past ages of creation. We find
successive stages marked by varying forms
of animal and vegetable life, and these gen.
, orally differ more widely from existing spe-
cies as we go further downwards into the
receptacles OF the wreck of more ancient
creations
|, ''Besides The more obvious remains of ties.
faces and oflarger animals, minute exam
4 lnatIon dIscloses, occasionally, prodigious
J, Accommodations of microscope in shells tina,
A surprise US no less by their abundance than
> their extreme minuteness; the mode in
which they are sometimes crowded tngeth-
= er, may be estimated from tho fact that Sol
a DAM collected from less than On ounce and
halfof stone, found ia the bills Of Cascia-
4 G, in Tuscany, lO,454 microscopic cham
a bered shells or sew
) ernl species Of these shells, four or Ave hun
dred weigh but single grain, of one spe-
, cles he calculates that thousand individu.
!. ais would scarcely weigh one grainS
:. Extraordinary as these pheaomena mus,
appear, the recent discoveries of Ehrenberg
i, made since the publication Of DR.. Buck
!, and's work, are still more marvellous al
instructive. This eminent naturalist, whose
4 discoveries respecting the existing infusor
al animals we have already noticed, has dis
!, covered fossil oniaaIcuIes, or infusorial or
!. ganic remainsi and not only has he discov
). cred their existence by the microscope, bu
: he has found that they form extensive STRAIT,
: Of tnpoli, or Foleschiefer, polishing slate,
!. At FranEenbad, in Bohemia suhstanc,
supposed to have been formed from sedi
ments Of fine volcanic ashes in quiet waters
These animals belong to the genus Bacilla
q ria, and inhabit siliceous shells, the aecu
mutation ofwhich form the strata OF polish
/. ing slate. The size single individual a
= these animals is about ,2SSth Of line, tn,
34OOth part Of an inch. Ia the polishin!
r. slate from Bilin, in which there seems n
= extraneols matter, and no vocuities, a cubi
,, line contains, in round numbers, %, 900 ,00
!. ofthese animals, aud a cubic inch, 4 1000
% 600 them. The weight of the cubic inc
- of the tripoh which contains them is 81
= grains. Hence there are $4,000 Of thes
- animaicules in single grain, or the slice
~ Gus coat fone Of these animals is the Is
= DOC, 900 part of a grain.
81 Since this strange discovery was made
.. MIR. Ehrenberg has detected the same foss
:, animals In the semiopal, which is found {
I, long with the polishing slate in the tertiar
!. strata Of Bilin, in the chalk flints, and eve
= IN the semiopal or noble opal ofthe porph,
80 rite rocks. What singular application
~ does this fact exhibit of the remains of III
~ ancient world! While our habitations al
< sometimes built Of the sUiil aggregate
y millions of microscopic shells; while, as W
: have seen, our apartments are heated an
lighted with the wreck Of mighty forests thi
covered the primeval valleys, the chaplet
beauty shines with the very sepulchres
-; which millions Of animals are entombed!
"A Thus has death become the handmade az
"A the ornament Of life. Would that it wei
also its instructor and guide.
lss
be- "Stdnd and deliDer," were the words a
dressedto tailor travelling on foot, by
highw yman, whose brace of pistols look'
rather dangerous than otherwise.
OeI "Tll do that with pleasure" was the
%, o. ply, at the same time handing over to Il
MS ou,stretched hands of the robber, purs
"a apparently pretty well stocked, "but," co
her ,;,n,sd no, tssunpose Won do me favor in I