sow, reap, hunt and fish, in the Cirknitzersee, within the space of a single year. But what is truly wonderful in this lake, is the manner in which it ebbs and flows. The former happens during a long drought, whether in summer or in winter, and the ebbing continues commonly, for about five and twenty days. The water during this time is absorbed by eighteen holes or cavities, resembling whirlpools, in the bottom of the lake. The water seems to rush through a crust of the earth into a cavern below. The cavities have each a particular name and period of time when they cease to absorb water. These periods differ, probably according to their different elevations above the lowest surface of the ground. One ceases in five days, one in ten, one in fifteen, and so on, until the end of about twenty-five days, when the lake is entirely dry. Instances have been known of its having dried up three times in the year. When great quantities of rain fall, this lake is again filled by the same cavities which absorbed its waters. If the rain continues, and especially if attended with claps of thunder, the water issues out of these holes with great impetuosity, rising, two or three fathoms above the surface. Some of the cavities only absorb, but do not eject the water, while others both absorb, and eject, as the lake ebbs or flows.

Notwithstanding the lake becomes absolutely dry, and nothing remains alive in it, yet as soon as it begins again to flow, great quantities of excellent fish, of different kinds, some weighing fifty pounds, are taken in it; a convincing proof that the reservoir which supplies it with water is well stocked with fish. But the most extraordinary fact is, that ducks also are ejected with the water, many of them being seen to rise from two of the cavities in particular. They are of a black color, blind and almost destitute of feathers, but they are fat, and in about a fortnight's time, become fully fledged, receive their sight and fly away." Keysler's Travels through Germany, &c. translated from the German, and published in London, 1756. Vol. iv. p. 213.

FOSSIL REMAINS OF PLANTS AND SHELLS.

It has been supposed, by some naturalists, that there

was a gradual and progressive developement in the organization of created beings, from the most simple to the most perfect and complex; and in proof of this doctrine, it has been shown that in the strata of the earth, the lowest orders occur first, or are situated at the greatest depth, over which occur those that are less simple, being created afterwards, and so on progressively, to the most perfect or complex, which are found only near the surface.

It is true, indeed, that plants were created before animals, and that the inferior animals were formed before the more intelligent; and it is also true, that, in this respect, the discoveries of geology harmonize most perfectly with the order of creation as recorded by Moses; the several creations, with respect to time, coinciding entirely with the successive order in which their remains are found in the earth. But it will be shown, in the sequel, that the general fact of the lower orders being found in the deepest strata, proves nothing with respect to the progressive improvement of organized beings, because in many instances, animals of a more simple structure are found above the more complicated. This is particularly the case, with several species of shells, some of the most curious and complex kinds being found in the deepest strata, and far below those of a more simple structure. This fact, while it takes nothing from the coincidence which exists between the scripture narrative of the creation and the discoveries of geology, destroys at once, the doctrine of the gradual developement of organic life, since the very basis of this doctrine, supposes an uninterrupted progress from the most simple structure, towards that of the greatest complexity.

Plants of the lower orders, and many of them entirely different in structure and species from any now existing, have been discovered in situations, which not only indicate, from the nature of the rocks in which they occur, their great antiquity, but also that they were embedded at a time anterior to the existence of any other organized substances.

Next to the plants, and above them in the order and succession of strata, occur shells of various kinds, and next above these are found the remains of reptiles, fish, birds, &c., and still nearer the surface, the bones of quadrupeds. But we will not here anticipate a subject to

which a section will be devoted at the close of this volume.

FOSSIL PLANTS.

Fossil botany has within a few years, been studied with much ardor and considerable success. Most of the plants discovered in deep strata and which have been attributed to a period before the deluge, are of the cryptogamous* and monocotyledonous tribes. These occur chiefly in the slates, limestones and sandstones, together with other formations which are associated with coal; and it is a curious circumstance, that the vegetable impressions from coal strata in North America, New Holland and various parts of Europe, show a close analogy in the ancient vegetation of these distant countries. Indeed, so far as observations have been made, there exists a similarity in the plants of coal formations, in every part of the world. Most of these plants belonged to tribes or orders now in existence, though in nearly, if not in quite every instance, these species are now no where to be found. These species are, therefore, considered as extinct, but at what period, and in what manner they were destroyed must be left entirely to conjecture.

We shall see that some of these ancient plants were highly curious and singular in their construction, and in which they differed entirely from any vegetable of the present day, while others were similar in appearance to those now existing.

The argillaceous nodules found in some of the English coal mines, exhibit beautiful and distinct impressions of many unknown species, some of which, however, it is said, have living analogues in tropical climates. When these nodules are carefully broken, the impressions are preserved on both sides, but not as might be expected, displaying each side of the vegetable, but the same side on each broken surface; in one, in alto, in the other, in basso relievo. The explanation of this curious circumstance,

These plants have their fruit concealed and are flowerless, as the mushrooms, ferns, mosses, and sea-weeds,

+ As the palms, rushes, lilies, grasses, &c. This term has already been explained.

which long puzzled observers, is found in the vegetable matter which during its passage through the bituminous change became softened, and having filled its own mould with its melted and subsequently hardened substance; the nodule, on being broken, showing on one side, the surface of the adherent bituminous cast, and on the other, the corresponding mould.

The adjoining cut will give a good idea of these impressions. It represents a species of polypodium, in slate clay, from the coal mines of Lancashire. Sir James E. Smith, considers it the production of a tropical climate, nothing of the same species being known in Europe.

It has repeatedly been stated in different parts of this volume, that the cryptogamous plants found in Europe, in the fossil state, indicate by their immense sizes, a tropical climate. The calamites or equisetums, a genus well known to botanists, and one species, to housewives, under the name of scouring rush, are examples. The remarkable size of this species, at the period when the earth produced the vegetables which now form coal, would seem to show, that the climate of England, and the higher parts of North America, where its fossil remains are also found, were hotter than any region of the earth is at the present day. The equisetums afford an excellent standard of the warmth of the climate in which they grow, being found at the present day, from the highest northern regions, to the hottest southern; and progressively increasing in size, from the pole to the equator.

But even under the equator, they never attain the size of their fossil analogues, the calamites.*

Fig. 60.

The annexed figure, from Dr. Ure, represents the fossil species called by Brogniart, Calamites approximatus, on account of the proximity of its articulations. It is found in the coal formations of Newcastle, at Lubec, near Canada, in France, and in Siberia. One specimen from Lubec, is nearly two inches in diameter, but much larger ones, even ten or twelve inches in diameter, are said to have been found. In this climate, it is believed that none of the equisetums now rise higher than four or five feet, with a diameter seldom exceeding half an inch, and generally little more than half this size.

Some of the ante-diluvian plants, were singularly curious and beautiful, as is shown to us by the impressions, or casts left on stones, or by their petrified remains. Some are ornamented by regularly disposed, straight ribs, arranged longitudinally, or transversely, over their whole surface; some by the decussation, or crossing of nearly straight lines, obliquely disposed; and many, by the alternate contact and receding of gently waving lines, forming areas, regularly, but most singularly varying in their forms, and having in their centres, tubercles and depressions, from which spines have probably proceeded. In others, lines, obliquely disposed, intersect each other at angles, varying in their acuteness, in different specimens, and in, it would seem, an almost endless variety, forming surfaces apparently covered with scales.

One of these, called Phytolithus verrucosus, or warty

The calamites are not considered of precisely the same species as the equisetums, the first being only fossil, and the second only recent; but both are of the same family.