he fish at Monte-Bolca are by some thought to owe destruction, and the origin of the rock in which they nclosed, to an adjoining volcano. The formation in h they are found is a marly slate. This, though not nic, might have arisen from the disturbance of a vol

The remains as now found, show that most of the were enclosed in the earth while in an entire state, and y of them are still so perfect, that their generas have determined, as the following list, among others, found e, is sufficient to show. The shark, ray, file-fish, sunglobe-fish, trumpet-fish, pike, silurus, herring, pipecod fish, blenny, goby, mackerel, bull-head, gurnard, head, perch, flounder, flying-fish, eel, dory, and many

rs.

hus it may be observed, that although the remains of quadrupeds are those of extinct species, a great proon of the fossil fishes are those of living genera.

66

rrangement of shells in strata. Although, as stated Le beginning of this article, the succession in which nic remains occur in the strata from below upwards, cides, in a general sense, perfectly with the succesin which they were created, that is, plants, and the ing creature that hath life," and the birds, were formefore the quadrupeds and man; still this general fact es nothing with respect to the "successive developt of organization," as some have attempted to show. ld it be proved that from the most simple organization, d in the lower strata, there was a regular gradation toAs the most complex, there might exist some ground for etence, that there had been a gradual and constant imement in the works of creation, leading to the atheistisupposition, that nature had improved by experience. in detail, this gradual development of organization does hold true, since animals of a more complex structure often found in deeper strata, or below those which are

So.

It has been conjectured by some naturalists," says Parkinson, "who had become convinced of the comatively late creation of land animals, and of man, that peopling of this planet had commenced in enduing the principle of life beings of the simplest forms organizations, and that by the influence of certain ex

ad been gradually wrought in succeeding animals, from which have resulted the numerous differences which contitute the various tribes, rising from the almost lifeless ponge to the highly complex and more perfect animal, nan. On this hypothesis, it might be expected that those eings which had possessed life under its most simple modifications, would be found in the earliest strata ; and hat in proportion to the lateness of the period at which he strata had been formed, would be the degree of com-lexity in the organization of the inhabitants whose remains they contain. But investigation has ascertained hat such a conjecture, with respect to shells, is ill-founded. n the carboniferous and mountain limestone are discovered he remains of shells, of apparently the earliest creation, which are unexpectedly found, with hardly an exception, o exceed in complexity of structure all the shells which ave been discovered, either in any subsequent formation, -r living in our present seas. It is in this early creation hat those shells are found which possess that complicated tructure, very rarely found in shells of this day, which nabled their inhabitants to rise and sink with them in the vater. Such are the many chambered univalves, the Nau ilus, Ammonites, Orthoceratites, &c."—Parkinson's Org, Remains, p. 254.

The hypothesis of the gradual development of organic ife, which it is thus shown cannot be sustained by facts, s both skeptical and unphilosophical. Its object is to rove that after the simplest form of plants and animals ad existed for ages, from these there gradually resulted ther plants and animals of more complex kinds, and so n in progressive improvement, until both, during the apse of myriads of ages, arrived at their present state of erfection. It is skeptical, because it either acknowledges o Creator, or denies his power to form at once the most erfect beings; as though the same power which created n oyster, wanted the experience of millions of years to orm quadrupeds and man. Thus showing that the work f creation, for this reason, instead of being finished in ix days, required millions of years. It is unphilosophial, inasmuch as it supposes that new genera and species, f different and more complex kinds, have been derived rom others which were less so; whereas, in truth, we nd that nature is invariable in this respect; not a solitary nstance being known where this has happened either in

ts or animals. Will any one, in his senses, believe the oak ever sprung from the polypod or mushroom, the flying fish came from the sponge, or that man an his race in the form and capacity of an ape? If is ridiculous, the doctrine of progressive organic depment is equally so, since it is founded on these very ositions.

Alternating Marine and Fresh Water Shells. It has supposed that in various parts of Europe, there was icient evidence of alternating marine and fresh water ls, imbedded in strata, and that, therefore, those parts he earth where such phenomena exist, must, at some ote period, have been alternately covered by salt and h water. In France, there occur beds of gypsum and -1, in which are found the remains of quadrupeds, and ve these occur marine shells; above which there is ther fresh water formation.

The

gypsum and marl being considered fresh water deites, it is supposed that the bones found in them, beged to animals which inhabited the shores of the lake, ich once existed there.

From such facts, Cuvier and Brongniart inferred, that se different beds demonstrated the repeated alternations the sea and of fresh water on the same tract, and that ile the sea deposited marbles and slates, the lakes in ir turn formed gypsum, marls, &c. But while maturing h opinions, these naturalists found it necessary to ad, that gypsum might be formed from salt, as well as n fresh water, and finally, that marine and river shells re really mixed together. Still Cuvier maintains the ernation of fresh and salt water formations; which doce is, however, strongly opposed by several naturalists great ability. Metherie objects entirely to the suppoon, that because the bones of land animals, and fresh ter shells, are found in these formations, that therefore re must have existed a fresh water lake, but sees no ficulty in supposing that both were carried where they now found, by the current of a river, which also desited the matter in which they exist, in the sea, the wagradually retiring as the deposition was formed. M. M. Brard, and St. Fond, are of opinion, that all the ells found in these depositions, originally existed in the

no water. but that in precess

time

come from the

increase of the saltness of the sea, a separation took place, the inhabitants of the shells which are at present found in the fresh water formation, having migrated to situations more congenial to their natures.

A dispute now commenced between these naturalists, and Cuvier and Brongniart, on the points of distinction between marine and fresh water shells, and in the course of which, the reader will find, 1st. that some shells live both in fresh and salt waters; thus, the Patellæ of rivers and those of the sea, differ hardly at all in their shells. 2nd. That in many other instances, besides that mentioned by Cuvier, land and sea shells have been found mixed with each other; thus, at Grignon, Lamarck found forty-eight river and land shells, among those which were decidedly marine, and all of them in the fossil state. 3d. It appears that the comparative thinness of land and river shells, as a distinctive mark between them and those of the sea, though often a true test, is not always so. And 4th, it appears that Cuvier and Brongniart had founded their opinion of the fresh water origin of the upper bed of gypsum, in the Paris formation, on the presence of two shells only, which they considered, of course, to be of fresh water growth; but one of which, Lamarck supposed to be a sea shell.

Now all these appearances may readily be accounted for, even admitting that there do exist fresh and salt water formations over each other, by supposing that such places were once the estuaries, or outlets of rivers, into the sea. At the mouth of every river may be found more or less fresh water shells, mixed with those of the sea. It cannot be otherwise, since the current floats these light bodies, after being separated from the animal, to considerable distances, and of course must occasionally deposit them among those thrown along the coast by the sea. would hence seem, that the revolutions of the earth, insisted on by Cuvier, and in consequence of which the sea is supposed several times to have changed its bed, and to have alternated on the land with fresh water, are no longer to be considered, in accounting for the changes which the earth has undergone.

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It has been already shown, that the facts observed at the mouth of the Rhone, will account for the mixture of marine and land shells, under the most common circumstanSee "Delta of the Rhone in the Sea."

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NCIDENCE OF GEOLOGY WITH THE MOSAIC HISTORY.

Almost from the commencement of geological inves ations, designing men have attempted to show, that physical history of the earth, and that of the creation, Moses, could not be reconciled-that the former preted facts which were incompatible with the statements the latter, and therefore, that revelation and reason re here in direct opposition.

Hence it was, that in the early history of this science, e church looked with jealousy upon these investigations, d even went so far as to restrict philosophers in their rsuits, or at least in their publications, and to denounce ose who pretended to make discoveries, which they uld not reconcile with the Mosaic record.

At that time, it is true, that little was known on this bject, and these alarming facts have long since been own to accord entirely with revelation. But as the rth has been more extensively explored, new and unplained facts have been constantly unfolded, and these, their turn, have been made to bear against revelation d have consequently, in many instances, operated gainst the free inquiries of those who had determined 5t to lift their hands against the Holy Scriptures, though ey were made to believe, that geology presented facts hich could in no way be reconciled with the common nderstanding of revelation.

Judging from the effects of causes now operating on e surface of the earth, it has been supposed impossible, at the deep strata of its crust could have been formed ithin the period assigned by the sacred history. The hole earth, indeed, seemed to bear such marks of antiuity, as could not be reconciled with any hypothesis of Es recent origin. Time was, therefore, wanted: for the osmogonist found that it was impossible to bound his peculations within the narrow limits allowed by the