Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1846-02-27

NhlOhal Institute I'm Tue species OIL JOSH
Elephants, compared with Living Species"
in which he demonstrates that the fossil ele-
plant differs from all living species, and that
it is an extinct species, now lost. He UNDER
took to prove the like with respect TO other
animals. "May we ask, said he, 'why we
find so many remains Of unknown animals,
whilst we can find none which we can rank
among the species Which we know! We
may see how probable it is that they have all
belonged to the beings of Il world anterior to
ours-to beings destroyed by revolutions Of
the earth, and to beings which have been re-
placed by existing Species"
Surrounded by the CJuUjg oflorncr c-ea-
tons, the task assigned to Cuvier, the article
goes on to state, was to restore the fragments
TO their former positions. BY great labor lie
succeeded in tracing their connection, and
re-established 1168 vertebral animals, which
from fifty distinct genera, ofwhich fifteen are
entirely new and reckoning the addition
which has since been made, there is reason
TO believe that the species of extinct animals
are more numerous than the living ones.
But Cuvier found that the difference Of
structure between fossil and recent animals
increase with the age Of the deposit in which
the former are found, and that these differ
ences mark the age ofthe deposits themselves.
As the primitive rocks exhibit no traces Of
plants or animals, lie concluded that there
was a time when no living beings existed up.
on the earth; and that, before the creation
of man, the world was Inhabited by at least
three different generations Of animals, which
had been successfully created and DESTROYED.
1t is supposed with reason, if the subject
be not too grand for our feeble reason, that
the creation Of vegetable bodies preceded the
creation of the animals that were to devour
them. The stately pine, the gigantic equi-
s%elacee, and the lofty palm, waved in the
primeval forests, aud the sea and the land
were inhabited only by a small number ofthe
marine mammalia, and scarcely any Of the
terrestrial mammalia.
We then arrive at this Startling conclusion,
tina, among the earliest Inhabitants Of the
globe were reptiles Of euormou magnitude,
the Megalosaurus, being upwards Of seventy
feet long; the lchthyosourus, above thirty
feet in length the Piesiosaurus, and animal
combining the trunk Of an ordinary quadru-
ped, with a neck like the body of a serpent,
the head OLA lizard, the teeth Of a crocodile,
and the paddles Of IA whale a; and the Ptcro-
dactyle, the most extraordinary of exlinct
animals uniting the character OF a bird, "a bat,
a reptile, and q qnadruped!
In the second period the Terrestrial man.
malta increase IN number, and we have along
with them numerous Pachydermata of ami
J mails with thick skins, such rs the Paleotle-
rum and Anopeloilerium, and OTHER genera
Of sqratic animals which dwelt on the margin
I Of lakes and rivers. In the first Of these
extinct genera these species vary in size from
the Rhinoceros TO the hog. These and 9TH
er species, nearly fifty in number, were dis
J covered by Cuyier in the fresh wafer iorma-
: lions Of Mou'm1rtre near Paris.
In tie lhiri period lived the Mammoth,
> the Maslodon, the Hippopomatls, and those
! huge Slnths, the Mega,herium and the Me-
g%alonyx, the giants ofthe natural world, the
S grandest and the last specimens Of tina, extra
J ordinary population over which man never
svayod the sceptro.
j The lion and the tiger arc supposed TO be
5 the successors of the creatures last mention
ed. Up TO this stage, no traces of man or OF
= his labors, can be detected, and this gives
: the remarkable result that the three periods
y have been succeeded By a fourth, 10 which
: the Almighty placed man upon the earth,
: and created, as his subjects and ms servants,
those races Of living beings which occupy the
surface Of our globe, and iniabi, the depths
of the oceans.
: Referring 10 the Mosaic record Of the Gre
d alton, the article to which we have referred
d comes to this conclusion "The records Of
d faith now stand on The same level with the
5 records of reason. Truth, brought down
il g.. 1T -.--s.-- ..tf ,-,st f.,n.
J. below aud the Christian who refused to sur
render his cherished volume TO the taunls oil
u reason, now holds it with "A irmer grasp, and
IS scans the series of creations which Science
has revealed, but MS the harbinger Of tina
latest exercise If divine power which gave
birth to man, and placed him over a new an
imal world.
"But the confirmation of the Mosaic ac'
~ count of the creation is not the only, or ever
the chiefresult Of geological discovery. The
Dc co announcement of organic life in plants anC
animals Of The first period, and its higher ant
~ progressive developement in different orders
III leads Us back to that beginning which was ST
=, long yelled from human reason; while thi
successive destruction Of successive creation
carries us forward 10 the terminus Of our ow
:" periodic that day Of the Lord, when TN
heavens shall pass away with a great noise
'' and the elements shall melt with ierven
. heat, aud the earth also, and the works whicl
4" are therein, shall be burned up"
!" The Omuipoient may have designsto worl
Is out, of which we, and all we behold are bu
'o he preliminary instruments. To US, il i
i, possible, commanding beings will succeed, a
:" different from us as the lion is from the ne
galosaurus, more superior 10 us than VIC an
=" to the monkey.
Is We need say nothing TO tx the reader
Ct mind on ihe reflections which follow:
;s, "Should tins, apparently last period of an
imal life, be one in which man is 10 exercise
W his faculties in the investigation of his Ma
3 ker's works, the fossil geology of the work
g we now inhabit will exhibit deposits no los
- interesting than those which emboson
the gigantic framework OF mammoths an
90 masludons. How interesting will DO The eI
cayations in which the buried cities OF mod
ern Europe will re-appear in their RUNE
grandeur how strange the discovery of sub
H. merged navies embalmed in their ocean beds
r,h or the loundered ship with its imprisone
as skeletons; or the battle field, with its pros
,,o trate varriors. or The halloWed Cemeter