The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-04-12
BEFORE THE DELUGE.

Year by year he has given us of late a summary
of the scientific maryes divulged during the
twelvemonth past, with now and then a com
prehensive work treating some one subject In its
full completeness. Such is "The World before
the Deluge," of which Messrs. Chapman & Han
have published an admirable adaptation, very
different from an ordinary and serylle transla'
ton, and which comes in lust now rs most
reasonable gift,book. n D.. IL ] ~
Al this time OF year, thousands OF people are
asking themselves the question, what is the
most wholesome reading for the young? Fiction,
fables, and fairy tales-or facts M. F1guler
perhaps little too exclusive and narrow
in his educational views, too much devoted
to nothing like leather"-holds that the Hst
books placed in the hands of the young, when
r. they have mastered the first steps TO knowledge
and can read, should be on Natural History; that,
in place OF awakening the iae9ltes Oh youuIIhtmui m
better TO direct their admit1ng attention to the
simple spectacles of nature-to the structure of
tree, the composition of a flower, the organs
of animals the perfection of the crystalline form
in minerals; above all, TO the history OF the
world, our habitation. In one point at least
he is right. After ordinary and everyday facts
have been mastered, and moderate allowance
of amusing literature INDUCED in, then, nothing
is more instructive and elevatng than an intro
duction 10 new, unknown, and wonderful tacts
And certainly the incontestabe truths with
which it is desirable to furnish the minds OF
the young are not difficult to find; nor do they
impose any great labor on the youthful mind
Different species have died out quite naturally;
races have disappeared like individuals; The
plants has Nilled that the duration of the
existence OF species on the surface OF the earth
should be limited, as is the life of individuals;
1t was not necessary, in order that they should
disappear, that the elements should be over
thrown, nor to call in the Intervention of the
united fires of heaven and earth. II is accord
ing to plan emanating from the All-powertul,
that the races which have lived certain time
upon the earth have made way for Others, and
frequently for races nearer perfection, as lar as
Complexity of organization is concerned. We
see the work of creation perfecting itself unceas
ingly in the hands Of Him who has said, "Be.
fore the world was, am" The ever-increasing
beauty of the fabric compels us to adore the
Artifcer.
In introducing foreign work of this kind to
native readers the ntroducer has TO accomplish
two distinct and dissimilar tasks, both of which
must be well performed to insure success. First
he has to render foreign phraseology into easy
and elegant English and secondly, to naturalize
he work in hand, TO adapt it to our home ideas
to render it more logical, If possible and to in
crease its interest and usefulness by illustra-
tions drawn from local and familiar facts.
The version of book on popular geology (or
any other science in state of progress) has
70 be undertaken in in quite different spirit spirit
literature is best left in its original fossil form
and aspect; living literature should, if it may
be, have additional vitality infused into its veins.
Now as TO the rendering of French into Eng
lish, the translator of 1.-The World before the
Deluge" has the modesty to say that "the simple
and elegant language in which the author has
expressed himself and the profound interest
inseparable from the subject itself, rendered the
task OF translating HIM labor OF love-" The
result, we undertake to pronounce, is so fluent,
polished, and complete, that readers unac-
quainted with the fact of its being translation
would unsuspectingly receive it as original.
1t does not, like many versions of foreign
tongues, stand in need of oiing, after the
workmans sawdust and chips are cleared away.
The style does not move on by jolts and Jerks,
dislocating sentences now and then but is
charmngly clear and easy reading-whch, as
we learn from Byron, is not always easy writing.
Not few of the translated passages have been
incorporated in the present paper.
From Chaos to the Deluge the scope of NJ
Fguier's book is indeed an enormous sweep,
even Tor the most vivid imagination and the
most industrious penman. Nevertheless, by
careful subdivision into epochs, illustrating
each by authentic proofs that have been dis.
covered, and by remains preserved up to the
present day; from the imprints of ran-drops on
the earliest dry land from injected veins and
basaltic columns to the teeth of the mammoth
and the horns of the elk, which may have been
contemporary with man, a clear and distinct
notion is conceived ofthe changes that occurred
during bygone ages.
OF course it is understood that the epochs
are so arranged for the purpose of convenient
description merely; iof we are not 10 suppose oppose
from another in nature. The change was
probably gradual and msensible, instead of
being, like the acts of drama, marked by the
rising and falling of curtain. This difficulty
of drawing a satisfactory line of demarcation
between different systems is sufficient to dispe
the idea, which has sometimes been entertained
that special fauna were annihilated and created
in the mass, or wholesale, at the close of each
several epoch. There was no close then as
there is none now. Each epoch silently dis
appears in that which succeeds it, and with it
the animals belonging to it; much as we have
seen them disappear from our own fauna, almost
in our own times
The length of those periods may be vaguely
guessed at by the enormous accumulatons
made during their continuance. Thus, the
tertiary epoch was closed by gigantic elephants
(mammoths), vastly larger than any now sur
viVing, and which probably ushered in the
succeeding one They must have existed in
enormous numbers. On the coast of Norfolk
alone, the fishermen, trawling for oysters, hshed
up, between 1920 and 1888, less than two
thousand elephants molar teeth. If we consi-
der how slowly those animals multiply, these
quarries of ivory, as we may call them, suppose
many centuries for ther production.
1t has been an easy task 10 recognize the
general form and structure of the mammoth 1t
surpassed the largest elephants OF the tropics in
size, for it was from sixteen to eighteen feet in
height The monstrous tusks with which it
was armed were twelve or thirteen feet in length,
curving into q semicircle. We know beyond a
doubt that it was thickly covered with long
shaggy hair, and that copous name hoated
upon It's neck and along its back. Its trunk re-
sembed that of the Indian elephant. Its body
was heavy, and its legs were comparatively
which, nevertheless, 1t had many OF the habits
Blumenbach gave it the specific name Of ElephaE
primogenius.
discoveries have been made of fossil elephants
bones embedded in the soil. Some of the ele
plants bones having slight resemblance tC
oF oftanh toll fo,