Chapter X

GUESSES AT THE PROBABLE FEATURES OF A PAST SCENE.—WHAT WAS THE
EARTH’S _COMMENCING_ ROTATION.—LAW OF THE TIDES AT SUCH A TIME,
AND CORRESPONDING ACTION OF THE SEA UPON THE LAND.—ORIGINAL
CHARACTER OF THESE FOSSIL FORMS.

Whatever may be thought of the apparent scope or tendency of some of the geological theories which are rife in the present day, no person who has really considered the subject in its principal bearings has any doubt that the surface of our globe, both as to the land and the water, was once very different from what it is now. All sound argument must allow this to be possible: all careful investigation pronounces it to be the fact.

There are potent “menstrua” and mighty furnaces in the laboratory of Nature; and while the actual _amount_ of MATTER in existence has, we suppose, never varied since the original creative act which gave birth to “the heaven and the earth,” the conditions, sensible or chemical, under which that matter presents itself have altered from century to century and from moment to moment.

It is impossible to deem otherwise, if we believe that the “laws” which are established now in this creation were established then.

Let us take, for instance, the law of Universal Gravitation, that law by which the heavenly bodies move in their orbits, and a seconds’ pendulum measures _time_ at the surface of our Earth.

We feel assured that this law has never varied; but it is almost equally certain that it must have _begun_ to operate _under different conditions_ from those which obtain at this day.

Newton, who always maintained that the commencing axillary movement of the Earth was due to an impulse from the hand of the Creator when He launched it into space,[5] and who declared that without this he could in no way account for its having rotatory motion at all, was nevertheless willing to allow that the time occupied in the first rotation may not have been, as now, twenty-four hours, but possibly an entire year. And as the Earth, once projected, would fulfil, according to the Law of Gravity, the conditions of “a body falling through space,” we find that taking the nth term (2_n_-1) of the arithmetical series … 1. 3. 5. 7. … (2_n_-1) … where the successive terms represent the _velocities_ acquired in successive annual periods, about 183 such terms must elapse before 365 rotations would be accomplished within the space of one year, or, in other words, the rotation of the earth be _diurnal_, as at present. This point of speed once reached, the centrifugal and centripetal forces balanced one another, and the axillary movement became steady.

Of course, in the above hypothesis, the assuming of one year for the first period is arbitrary; it may have been more, it may have been less; but within certain limits there is no absolute reason for supposing that it was a span of twenty-four hours, as now. _Revelation_ nowhere asserts such a dogma.

_Supposing_, then, amid confessed ignorance as to how the fact stood, that the Earth’s early times of rotation were far longer than now, and taking, say, _one year_ as the first period, how would this influence other features in a scene which has now long gone by? How would it influence the Tides of the Ocean?

Assuming a correspondingly slow motion of the Moon in her orbit, we should, it seems, have in the lapse of the first year _one_ rotation of the Earth and _two Tides_ of the Ocean; in the second year, _three_ rotations of the Earth and _six Tides_ answering to them; and so on.

Now these flowing Tides would, in fact, have been vast _inundations_, the sea rising steadily for many months together; and in like manner the prolonged ebb which followed upon each flood would have given rise to a _subsidence_ and to the deposition of such particles of mud, lime, silex, &c., as the waters then held in solution after their visiting the higher land.

And thus we see at once, without going further, that the agency exerted by the ocean in ancient times may probably have been different from and greater than any with which we are now actually acquainted, save in the account given to us, in the inspired Record, of the Deluge in the days of Noah.

When such mighty agencies were in operation, it is not unreasonable to suppose that great changes took place in the way of partial extinction of animal life, and the substitution of new forms to fill up the apparent gap left by the perishing creatures. The contents of the upper chalk, of the greensand, gault, and sandstones, as has already been observed, point to such revolutions and cycles in the history of animated nature.

MAN, who is himself an evident exception to all this, may perhaps, _as_ an exception, be said to prove that such had been the rule. For, it must be remembered, _all_ the creatures were pre-Adamitic. Not only those vast saurians and mammals, whose fossil remains we have exhumed, and cannot contemplate without wonder, were prior to our race in their actual possession of the domain of the earth’s surface, but every bird, reptile, fish, and zoophyte were certainly made before the man. Now, as the man came last in order, but first in dignity, created in his Maker’s image, and endowed with dominion over all the works of His hand, there was no longer place or argument for extinction, substitution, or change, among the creatures. _Death_ was excluded, and could not enter into the world, unless by a moral delinquency of the chiefest creature.

But already it is probable, although he perhaps knew it not, Man stood, even in the day of his innocence and happiness, in the midst indeed of a blooming creation, but upon the crust of a fossil world.

Moreover, we know from Scripture that minerals find metals abounded; so that the presence of these near the Earth’s surface ought not to be referred (as by some they have been) to the epoch of Noah’s Deluge. “Gold and bdellium and the onyx-stone” were already in the “land of Havilah;” and Tubal-Cain was “an artificer in brass and iron,” which must therefore have been exposed in veins of the upper rocks.

And if the Earth already showed her nuggets of gold and lumps of onyx, it is not likely that she was deficient in beautiful fossils. Certainly, such substances as manganese and native iron did not find their way into the heart of siliceous pebbles in _modern_ times.

* * * * *

But it by no means follows from the above, that all these fossil forms belonged to creatures whose species are wholly extinct. Indeed, in some instances, this cannot be allowed for a moment. Probably, the “choanite” is extinct. I doubt whether the “ventriculite” be so. Dr. Mantell was pleased to assume that this last-mentioned zoophyte _grew_—like one of the “mushroom” class of plants—rooted to one spot. There is no evidence for this whatever, and my impression leans another way. In the class of marine “Acrita” termed _Acalephæ_, there is a family which bears the name of _Rhizostoma_. These animals are composed mainly of a large, mushroom-shaped, gelatinous disc, and of a supporting central pedicle. In structure and function this latter organ much resembles the root of a plant; and, no doubt, it absorbs nourishment by seizing upon the minute animalculæ which abound in the water where the “rhizostome” is floating about. The entire animal is very like a toadstool, or “agaricus,” in form; but for all that, he does not grow, as a plant, in one spot, but is always sailing about by means of his large disc above-mentioned. His general appearance closely resembles that of a “ventriculite” from the flint; and I think it a probable guess to assign them to the same species.

The “branching alcyonite,” on the other hand, did, I imagine, grow, like a Coral or “Encrinite,” in one place; and I suppose it was much like an ice-plant in form, but that it had the power of drawing back at will all its branches and suckers—which were, in fact, the creature’s arms and tentacles—into the root or bulb which formed its base. The “sponges,” a large family, we know are not extinct; and the conformation of the living individuals fully bears out all the marvels which have been predicated of the fossil animal. I have handled these creatures, fresh from the sea, at Brighton; and I had an unpleasant consciousness, while holding one in my hand, that the round, greenish, jelly-like bush was only his _house_; but that the gummy fluid, which held possession of it after squirting out the sea-water, was the individual himself, though independent of the accessories of bone and muscle. This kind of “sponge” floats about: there is another, well-known among submerged rocks, which is fixed, and grows. I believe the fossil specimens to have belonged to the migratory class.

I once picked up, near Hove, a pebble which contained a fragment of the lungs of a tortoise; the elevated ridges, and depressed pulmonary cells, appeared to have left their peculiar structure in the flint. I have mislaid this specimen, and so cannot give a sketch of it here.

The “holothurida,” or “sea-cucumber,” is found occasionally in the Isle of Wight, beautifully fossilized. A specimen was shown to me, from the beach near Chale; it was a _variety_, but unquestionably of this class of animals.

A fossil, figured in one of the “chromo-plates” to this volume, has obtained the name of a “troglodyte;” I do not know why. I suspect it was one of the “asteridæ” when alive, but that in the death-struggle, the long arms collapsed and twisted together.

I have frequently found what I believe to have been some such organ as the stomach of a star-fish in the centre of hard pebbles. The form was always pentagonal, like the corolla of certain flowers pressed flat.

The “myriapod,” depicted in Plate V., I should at once conclude to have been a marine insect, answering to some of our “scolopendridæ,” if the _head_ were not lacking. But since the back or spine in this fossil is all in one piece, and there are no lateral plates or divisions for the several pairs of feelers, it may be, in accordance with such a frame, that the head fitted on without the apparent juncture of a neck; and if so, this may be an entire insect. It is right however to add, that I feel some doubts about this.

The Plate VI. contains a figure of a fossil to which I have attached the name of “Spindle-choanite.” In fact, the specimen, until cut in twain, was fusiform; and, I have no doubt, a complete animal.

The choanite from Eastbourne, _uncut_, Pl. IV., portrays a creature who, I think, expired in a vehement struggle. This would keep him on the surface of the siliceous flood; and it would harden, for the most part, beneath him, leaving his limbs sprawled out on the top of the pebble, as now seen. The beautiful “pyriform” specimen, Pl. VI., shows a similar struggle, amidst liquid agate and manganese. In the large Actinia, or “star-choanite,” portrayed in the frontispiece, the happy animal died quite quietly; and that is why his fossil mummy is of such a noble size and development.

The figure called “Nondescript,” Pl. IV., I do not think represents any complete animal, but a part of the organization of one. I have traced its likeness, in the “Animal Kingdom,” by T. Rymer Jones; and think it not improvable that a woodcut at p. 364 of that most interesting volume depicts, in the _arms_ of one of the “Brachiopoda,” in that “calcareous loop” with its curved “crura,” the exact structure which, in the living animal, served to open or shut the bivalve shell, but in the fossil specimen looks like a miniature-painting on ivory, to perpetuate some curious organism in the liveliest colours of the pallet. “Terebratula Chilensis” is Mr. Rymer Jones’s animal; and in the very vicinity where I found my fossil in question, I have since obtained, in a flint pebble from the cliff, a beautifully petrified “Pecten” (same species of shell) in agate.

* * * * *

I might multiply remarks and instances such as these; but it is not needed. Every one will form their own opinion, in collecting fossil pebbles, as to what the _originals_ were; but I think they will generally agree with me, that while our living individuals differ in many points, still we have mostly types of the same species actually existing in our present seas.

What all connoisseurs, and even amateurs, should do, is to preserve every remarkable specimen they may obtain, along with an accurate note of where they got it. It is a great pity that, among so many persons who have at once discernment and a liking for this branch of Mineralogy, there are so few who will be at the trouble of what lawyers call “taking minutes” of the evidence which comes before them in the course of the pursuit. I have looked over several fair enough collections made by amateurs; but, with one exception, I never knew an instance in which the collector could tell me, with any degree of certainty, from what particular beach he had gathered this or that specimen. Of course, when a scientific investigation is proposed, such omission renders the most valuable part of the collection comparatively useless. For the locality is all-important. A pebble may thus be always traced to its geological “home” or birthplace. It can only have had one of three sources: either it was first dropped _here_, where you find it; or, it is a “travelled” pebble, having come round from some distant beach; or, it is an offering from the deep sea. The latter case is of exceedingly rare occurrence, and need hardly be taken into account; nevertheless, for truth’s sake, and to include all possible varieties, I cite it here.

A genuine deep-sea pebble is a waif which I have only twice, as yet, met with in my sea-side experience. One of these was, I think, fished up in a dredging-net; the other was thrown on the beach during a storm. In both instances, the fossil was a “choanite,” and bore the marks of having been washed out of a limestone rock. The age of such fossil could not have been less than 4000 years, the date of Noah’s deluge, for obvious reasons; but it may have been considerably greater.

If there were any known method of softening these pebbles to a consistency like that of melted glue, we might learn something concerning their past history; but I am not aware of the existence of any such process at present. _Silex_, once hardened into the condition in which we meet with it, is a most intractable substance to deal with; and the very fact of its having at one time been viscous, renders it highly improbable that, in the course of nature, its texture will ever assume a plastic character again. Moreover, while the majority of our flints are concretions, there are some which are semi-crystalline. These latter, it is evident, cannot now advance to the stage of perfect crystals; but neither can they retrograde: the next change which awaits so hard a substance must be, to crumble away.

Sometimes, on our beaches, hollow globes of flint are picked up, which, when you break them open, are found to be full of a white, powdery substance, like the chemist’s magnesia. This is much the same as the “rock-milk” of mineralogists, a very fine deposition of lime, occasionally met with in beds of the chalk strata, and considered to be a result of some filtering process, when the water, after being long pent up, had escaped by small crevices. But in the flint-globes no such straining can have taken place; and in sundry specimens which I have examined, I generally came to the conclusion that some conchiferous animal had been inclosed in the nodule, and his shell had afterwards broken and been pulverized. Sometimes I found within the “rock-milk” a dark-brown, carbonaceous spot; this would be the creature’s body, as Dr. Mantell supposes of his “molluskite.” The cavity is never quite filled up. I imagine many of these “powder-horns” to be altogether modern in their date.

A much more curious phenomenon than the above occurs from time to time in solid agate-pebbles, which, when picked up, are found to contain in a central chamber, visible to the eye, a drop of water. These are scarce, and fetch a high price at the museums. As much as twenty pounds has been more than once given for an undoubted specimen. How the above-mentioned singular effect was arrived at, has, I believe, never been explained; at least, not so as to satisfy a close reasoner. The same _lusus naturæ_ is met with, I think more frequently, in rock-crystal and in the dark fluor-spars.

The last apparent animal organism which I shall notice, as having more than once occurred to me as a _possible_ explanation of the patterns disclosed in certain sections of agate-pebbles, is that of some creature’s “ovary.” The eggs of the whelk, and those of the cuttle-fish, are deposited in clusters, like some of the “grapes” on sea-weed. I have found, in some of the Isle of Wight pebbles, a conformation closely resembling this, but on a much smaller scale. That the original substance was part of an animal, I have no doubt whatever; and the arrangement of the lobes or spherules, composing the mass, more resembles that of the spawn of the above-named fishes than anything else which I am acquainted with. Still, resemblance is not identity. The thing may be only a curious coincidence, resulting from some unexplained freak of nature; as when she carved the profile of Napoleon’s face in the outline of a part of Mont Blanc, and also (quite as distinctly) in that of a hill which overlooks the town of Belfast.

[5] See his Letter to Dr. Burnet.

REFERENCES TO THE CHROMO-PLATES.

In the frontispiece is represented the polished section of a pebble which the author picked up on the beach at Bonchurch, in the Isle of Wight. This is an unusually large and perfect specimen, the body of the Choanite lying nearly central. The pebble contains one or two blotches of _native iron_. The “cuticle” is uninjured.

PLATE I.

Fig. 1. This is a slice from a lump of “conglomerate” found on the beach at Sidmouth. The _white_ parts are sections of the nodules of quartz, the _red_ and _yellow_ are jasper.

Fig. 2. A section of an “Alcyonite” from the bay of Sandown. It formed part of a large pebble.

PLATE II.

Fig. 1. This is, I have no doubt, a fossil “Actinia.” I have often looked on the exact living resemblance of it at the fish-house in the “Zoological Gardens,” where it is fond of clinging like a limpet against the vertical pane of glass in an aquarium.—(_Found in Sandown Bay._)

Fig. 2. I suppose this half of a pebble to represent the internal structure of some creature which dwelt in a bivalve shell.—(_Sandown Bay._)

PLATE III.

Fig. 1. This sponge, a faultless specimen of the kind, is from the Brighton beach. It was the first pebble I ever picked up there.

Fig. 2. The body and arms of this Choanite are in white Agate; the remainder of the stone is a dark moss, formed chiefly of _Manganese_, and surrounded by a yellow flinty rim.—(_Brighton Beach._)

PLATE IV.

Fig. 1. A Nondescript: but, probably, the creature was of the vermicular kind.—(_Brighton Beach._)

Fig. 2. A handsome Choanite, uncut, but polished over, so as to show the points of some of the feelers.—(_Found at Eastbourne._)

PLATE V.

Fig. 1. An “Eyed” Jasper, from the beach near Shoreham. It contains yellow “oxide of iron,” and some dark green flint.

Fig. 2. A “Myriapod.” This fossil is a very handsome one, and I have another, closely resembling it, from the same locality, in Sandown Bay. The dark, reddish spot, is of the nature of _Molluskite_.

PLATE VI.

Fig. 1. A Spindle, or _Fusiform_ Choanite, when the pebble was entire. I do not possess a more perfect specimen: the Chalcedony is remarkably fine, and the “oxide” of a rich tint.—(_Sandown Bay._)

Fig. 2. Pyriform Choanite, uncut. Here, again, the creature lies over the surface; and, as I conceive, from the position which it occupies, was swimming for its life.—(_Found at Rottingdean._)

PLATE VII.

Fig. 1. An “Asterid.” This is different from all the other creatures in these fossils. Its position in the heart of a solid limestone pebble is singular.—(_Beach at Hove._)

Fig. 2.—“Terebratula.” The entire pebble was formed inside of a “Pecten”-shell, and _inside the pebble_ lies this formation, which was a living organism connected with the hinge.—(_Beach near Luccombe._)

EXPLANATION OF CERTAIN TERMS used in this Volume.

“Hard:” that which will cut or scratch other substances.

_Example._—A diamond will cut glass.

“Tough:” tenacious; whose particles are difficult to separate
from one another.

_Example._—Jasper, though not nearly so _hard_, is more
“tenacious” than diamond.

“Transparent:” through which we can see objects.

“Translucent:” through which we see light.

“Opaque:” through which we can see nothing.

“Brilliant:” reflecting or refracting the light in rays and
flashes.

“Vitreous:” glassy in its texture.

“Conchoidal:” convex, like the outside of a shell.

“Momentum:” the result of the combined weight and velocity of a
body in motion.

GEOLOGICAL STRATA referred to in this Volume, arranged in their _descending_ order.

_Names of Strata._ _Mineral products._

Lava Pumice-stone, which is its froth or scum.

Granite Corundum, sapphires, felspar.

Old Red Sandstone Fossil ichthyolites.

Carboniferous Series Coal, lignites, jet.

New Red Sandstone Jaspers, fossilized wood.

Lias of the Oolite Fossil “Saurians.”

Wealden Fossil reptiles and mammals.

Gault } Crystals, flint-nodules, choanites,
Greensand } echini, cray-fish, lignites.
Chalk }

Tertiary Sands } Amber, carnelians, fossil shells.
Clays }

GLOSSARY of GASES, MINERALS, GEMS, CRYSTALS, and FOSSILS, named in this Volume.

_Simple Substances._

Oxygen: a gas.

Silicon }
Boron } Elements allied to the gases.
Carbon }

Alumina }
Magnesia } Soluble in acids.
Sulphur }

Manganese }
Iron } Metals.
Gold }

“Steel” is Iron which has been “carbonized.”

_Derived or Compounded._

Diamond }
Sapphire }
Ruby }
Emerald }
Topaz }
Amethyst }
Aquamarine } These are termed “gems” or “precious stones.”
Garnet }
Pearl }
Turquoise }
Jargoon }
Onyx }
Sardonyx }

Quartz }
Rock-crystal }
Tourmaline } These are crystallizations.
Spar }
Asbestos }

Jasper }
Chalcedony }
Agate }
Carnelian } These are concretions.
Flint }
Bloodstone }
Moss-agate }
Weed-agate }
Mocha-stone }

Jet }
Amber }
Clay } These are exudations, depositions, or fossils.
Chalk }
Coal }

Rock-salt: a chloride of sodium.

Kaolin: this is from “felspar.”

Echinus }
Ammonite } These are fossil
Alcyonite } animals, for
Troglodyte } the most part
Choanite } belonging to
Ventriculite } extinct species
Icthyolite } of “zoophytes.”
Cray-fish }
Sharks’ teeth }

Sand of the Desert: this is powdered quartz.

Sand of the Sea-shore: sandstone dust, mixed and penetrated with salt.

Sea-weed: a compound of vegetable carbon, salt, and siliceous
particles.

MINERALOGICAL AND CHEMICAL KEY to the GLOSSARY.

OXYGEN. This is a pure gas, and the most universally diffused
substance in nature.

SILICON }
CARBON } These elements will combine permanently with the
BORON } principal gases.

ALUMINA } These elements, when dissolved in certain acids,
MAGNESIA } yield a _colourless_ solution.
SULPHUR }

MANGANESE } These elements, dissolved in acids, yield a _coloured_
IRON } solution.
GOLD }

DELESSITE is a chloride of iron.

SILICA comprises only 2 species:—1. Quartz; 2. Opal.

From _Quartz_, come

Rock-crystal }
Cairn-gorums } which are “_vitreous_,”
Sand }

and

Chalcedony }
Agate }
Onyx }
Carnelian } which are “_concretions_.”
Sard }
Bloodstone }
Jasper }
Flints }

_Opal_ is a “hydrate” of SILICA, containing 7 per cent. of water.

Precious, or “noble.”
Iridescent.
Common (colourless).

“_Silicates._”

Of Alumina { Feldspar.
{ Kaolin.

{ Emerald.
Of do. with Glucina { Beryl
{ Garnet
{ Pyrope, or “precious garnet.”

{ Chrysolite.
Of Magnesia { Meerschaum.
{ Asbest.

Of do. with Fluorine { Topaz.
{ Tourmaline.

Of do. with Zircon { Jargoon, or “Hyacinth.”

The colour of “emerald” is
due to the oxide of chrome;
that of “beryl” to the oxide
of iron.

CARBON comprises only 2 species:—1. Diamond; 2. Graphite.

“Diamond” is a perfect crystallization,
and is the hardest
substance known.

“Graphite” (sometimes called
“Black-lead”) is a carbonate
of iron. The iron, however,
enters in very small quantities,
and is now supposed to
be _accidental_. “Graphite”
is a concretion, and is never
met with in the form of
crystals.

“_Carburets._”

Of Hydrogen { Bitumen.
{ Coal.

Bituminized wood is Lignite, which, when very compact, is Jet.

“Amber” is a vegetable resin. It is obtained from rivers in Sicily, and
from mines in Russia.

“Carbonates” of Lime { Limestone.
{ Calc-spar.
{ Chalk.

The “marbles” of Paros and Carrara are _crystalline_ Limestone:
those of Siena are _compact_ Limestone.

ALUMINA comprises 2 species:—1. Corundum; 2. Sapphire.

1. “Corundum” is a very hard crystal, the common type of all the
Sapphires.

2. Oriental “Sapphires.” These embrace 6 kinds.

The blue Sapphire.
” red or “Ruby.”
” green or Emerald.
” purple or Amethyst.
” golden or Topaz.
” sea-green or Aquamarine.

These are pure Alumina.

“Emery” is a coarse variety of Corundum.

“_Aluminates._”

Of Magnesia { Spinel ruby.
{ Balas do.

A Phosphate of Alumina and Magnesia } Turquoise.

The “Spinel” ruby is scarlet; the “Balas,” of a faint pink. The
“Oriental” ruby alone has the “pigeon’s blood” hue.

_Localities of sundry “Fossils.”_

(Name of Fossil.) (Proper locality.)

{ Galerites Albogalerus } Found in the Upper Chalk, and,
Echini { Ananchytes Ovatus } occasionally, in the Greensand.
{ Cor Anguinum }

Ammonite The Lias.

Alcyonite }
Troglodyte } The Chalk.
Choanite }
Ventriculite }

Ichthyolite The Old Red Sandstone.

Cray-fish The Gault.

Shark’s teeth The Tertiary Strata.

Fig. 1. Fig. 2.]

Fig. 1. Fig. 2.]

Fig. 1. Fig. 2.]

Fig. 1. Fig. 2.]

Fig. 1. Fig. 2.]

Fig. 1. Fig. 2.]

Fig. 1. Fig. 2.]

GENERAL INDEX.

(_Alphabetically arranged._)

Acalephæ, 167

Actinia (_passim_).

Agate (_passim_).

Alcyonite (_passim_).

Alumina, 6

Amber, 15

Amethyst, 8

Ammonite, 19

Aquamarine, 33

Asbestos, 121

Balas (ruby), 184

Beryl, 8

Bitumen, 184

Bloodstone, 43

Boron, 183

Bort, 24

Cairngorum, 36

Calc-spar, 184

Carbon, 112

Chalcedony (_passim_).

Chalk (_passim_).

Choanite (_passim_).

Chrysolite, 8

Clay, 9

Coal, 10

Coal-tar, 24

Cockle, 3

Corundum, 24

Cray-fish, 21

Crystal, 33

Delessite, 87, 183

Diamond, 112

Echinus, 19

Emerald, 8

Emery, 24

Felspar, 9

Flint (_passim_).

Fluorine, 183

Fossils (_passim_).

Garnet, 183

Gault, 19

Gems (_passim_).

Glucina, 183

Gold, 157

Granite, 5

Graphite, 184

Greensand (_passim_).

Hyacinth, 8

Ice, 110

Icthyolite, 127

Iron, 11

Jargoon, 8

Jasper (_passim_).

Jet, 15

Kaolin, 8

Lava, 181

Lias, 181

Lignite, 184

Limestone (_passim_).

Magnesia, 183

Manganese, 183

Meerschaum, 183

Mocha-stone, 38

Molluskite, 95

Moss-agate (_passim_).

Onyx, 8

Oolite, 181

Opal, 8

Oxygen (_passim_).

Pearl, 8

Pebble (_passim_).

Pecten Jacobæa, 171

Pholas Dactylus, 95

Pumice, 181

Pyrope, 183

Quartz (_passim_).

Razor-shell, 3

Rhizostoma, 167

Rock-crystal (_passim_).

Rock-milk, 174

Rock-salt, 155

Rotten-stone, 26

Ruby, 8

Salt, 155

Sand (_passim_).

Sapphire, 8

Sardonyx, 8

Saurians, 14

Seaweed (_passim_).

Sharks’ tooth, 21

Silicon, 152

Spar (_passim_).

Spinel (ruby), 184

Steel, 129

Sulphur, 183

Terebratula, 171

Tertiary (strata), 181

Topaz, 8

Tourmaline, 124

Troglodyte, 169

Turquoise, 8

Ventriculite, 167

Wealden, 9

Weed-agate, 87

Whelk, 175

Zircon, 183

Zoophyte (_passim_).

Woodfall and Kinder, Printers, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London.

POPULAR NATURAL HISTORY.

Messrs. Routledge, Warne, and Routledge

Have much pleasure in announcing that they have purchased from Mr. LOVELL REEVE his series of works on

POPULAR NATURAL HISTORY,

And in order to make them more generally known, they have published them, bound in cloth, at per volume,

SEVEN SHILLINGS AND SIXPENCE, COLOURED.

CONTENTS OF THE SERIES.

1. BRITISH BIRDS’ EGGS. By R. LAISHLEY. Twenty Plates.

2. HISTORY OF BRITISH CRUSTACEA. By ADAM WHITE, F.L.S. Twenty
Plates.

3. POPULAR GREENHOUSE BOTANY. By AGNES CATLOW. Twenty Plates.

4. POPULAR FIELD BOTANY. By AGNES CATLOW. Twenty Plates.

5. POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. Edited by Dr. DAUBENY. Twenty
Plates.

6. HISTORY OF BRITISH MOSSES. By R. M. STARK. Twenty Plates.

7. HISTORY OF PALMS. By Dr. B. SEEMANN, F.L.S. Twenty Plates.

8. HISTORY OF BRITISH SEAWEEDS. By Dr. LANDSBOROUGH. Twenty
Plates.

9. POPULAR BRITISH CONCHOLOGY. By G. B. SOWERBY, F.L.S. Twenty
plates.

10. POPULAR BRITISH ORNITHOLOGY. By P. H. GOSSE. Twenty Plates.

11. HISTORY OF THE MAMMALIA. By ADAM WHITE, F.L.S. Sixteen
Plates.

12. POPULAR MINERALOGY. By HENRY SOWERBY. Twenty Plates.

13. HISTORY OF THE AQUARIUM. By G. B. SOWERBY, F.L.S. Twenty
Plates.

14. HISTORY OF MOLLUSCA. By MARY ROBERTS. Eighteen Plates.

15. POPULAR GARDEN BOTANY. By AGNES CATLOW. Twenty Plates.

16. POPULAR ECONOMIC BOTANY. By T. C. ARCHER. Twenty Plates.

17. HISTORY OF BRITISH FERNS. By T. MOORE, F.L.S. Twenty-two
Plates.

18. HISTORY OF BRITISH LICHENS. By W. L. LINDSAY, M.D.
Twenty-two Plates.

19. POPULAR PHYSICAL GEOLOGY. By J. B. JUKES, F.R.S. Twenty
Plates.

20. HISTORY OF ZOOPHYTES. By Dr. LANDSBOROUGH. Twenty Plates.

21. POPULAR BRITISH ENTOMOLOGY. By MARIA E. CATLOW. Sixteen
Plates.

22. POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. By ADAM WHITE, F.L.S. Twenty
Plates.

23. POPULAR SCRIPTURE ZOOLOGY. By MARIA E. CATLOW. Sixteen
Plates.

24. THE WOODLANDS. By MARY ROBERTS. Twenty Plates.

“A popular series of scientific treatises, which, from the simplicity of their style, and the artistic excellence and correctness of their numerous illustrations, has acquired a celebrity beyond that of any other series of modern cheap works.”—_Standard._

LONDON: ROUTLEDGE, WARNE, AND ROUTLEDGE, FARRINGDON STREET.