Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1863-08-10
Physical History OF the World.

rIout IToi. ARaSSll, III the Atlantic Monthly.
Passingover the time when the first stratifed
deposits were accumulated under a universal
heated ocean in which neither animals nor
plants existed, there was an age in the physi-
cal history OF the world when the lands con
sisted of low islands - when neither great
depths nor lofty heights diverSifedlh surface
of the earth, both the animal and veg
etable creation, however numerous, was inte-
rlor to the later ones, and comparatively uni
form in CHARACTERIZATION marine Cryptogams
were the highest plants, and fishes the highest
animals. And this broad statement holds good
Tor the whole of that time, even though it was
not without Its MINOR changes, its new forms
OF animal and vegetable life, its variations of
level, its upheavals and subsdenceS; for, new
---.l.~l-s +ilrai,a I'll -. l-.-..:..gi, II was
the age of low detached lands, 1T was the age
of Cryptogams-it was the age of fishes.
From its beginning to its close, no higher
type in the animal kingdom, no loftier group
in the vegetable world, made its appearance.
There was an age in the physical history Of
the world, when the patches Of land already
raised above the water became so united as to
form large islands; and though the aspect of
the earth retained its nSuIar character, yet the
size of the islands, their tendency to coaleSce
by the addition of constantly increasing depos-
its, and thus to spread into wider eXpanSes of
dry land, marked the advance toward the
formation of continents. This extension of
the dry land was brought about not only by
the gradual accumulation of materials, but also
by the upheaval of large tracts of stratifed de-
posts; for, though the loftiest mountain
chains did not yet exist, ranges like those of
the Alleghanies and the Juara belong to this
division of the worlds history. During this
time, the general character of the animal and
vegetable kidgdoms was higher than during
the previous age. Reptiles, many and vari-
Gus, gigantic in size, curious in form, some of
them recalling the structures of fishes, others
anticipating birdlike features, gave a new
character to the animal world, while IN the
vegetable world the reign of the aquatic Cryp-
togams was over, and terrestrial Cryptogams,
and later, Gymnosperms and Monocotyledo-
nous trees, clothed the earth with foliage.
Such was the character of this second age
from its opening to its close; and though there
are indications that before it was wholly past
some low, inferior Mammalian types of the
Marsupial kind were introduced,* and also a
few Dicotyledonous plants, yet they were not
numerous or striking enough to change the
general aspect of the organic world This age
was throughout, in its physical formation, the
age of large continental islands, while in its
organic character it was the age of reptiles as
the highest animal type, and of Gymnosperms
and Monocotyledonous plants as the highest
vegetable groups.
There was an age in the physical history of
the world when great ranges of mountains
bound together in everlasting chains the ISL
ands which had already grown to continental
dimensions, when the wide tracts of land,
hitherto insular in character, became soldered
into one by the upheaval of Pleutonic masses
which stretched across them all and riveted
them forever with bolts of granite, of porphy.
ny, and of basalt. Thus did the Rocky noun
tains and the Andes bind together North and
South America; the Pyrenees united Spain to
France; the Alps, the Caucasus, and the Him
alayas bound Europe to Asia. The class of
Mammalia were now at the head of the animal
kingdom; huge quadrupeds possessed the
earth, and dwelt in forests characterized by
plants Of higher order than any preceding
ones,-the beeches, brches, NAPLES, oaks and
pOplars of the Tertiares. But though the
continents had assumed their permanent out
lines, extensive tracts of land still remained
covered with ocean. Inland seas, sheets OF
water like the Mediterranean, so unique in our
world, were then numerous. Physically
speaking, this was the age of continents brok-
en- by large inland seas; while in the organic
world it was the age of Mammalia among an
lldlS, anu OF extensive DlCOtyIeuuHOus lOIeStS
among plants. In certain sense it was the
age of completion, the one which ushered in
the browning works of creation.
There was an age in the physical history of
the world Qt is in its infancy still) when man,
with the animals and plants that were to ac-
company him, was introduced upon the globe,
wiiich had acquired all its modern characters.
AT laSt tne continents were redeemed from the
water and all the earth was given to this new
oelhs lor ms home. Among all the types born
INTO the animal kingdom before, there had
never been one to which positive limits had
not been set by law of geographical distribu-
say nothing Of the traces Of birds in the secon.
dairy deposits, because the bird tracks seen,
to me OF very doubtful character and it is also nv
opinion that the remains of feathered animal re-
Gently found in the Solenhofcn lithographic lime
stone, and believed to be bird by SOME
do not belong to genuine bird but to one of those
synthetic types before alluded to- in which renilian
structure IL combined with certain bird-liie fea
lures.