The Trilobites were amongst the first creatures inhabiting our globe, and it is a curious fact to contemplate, that their eyes (fig. 12) should have been preserved perfect; they present one of those wonderful objects which carry one's thoughts backwards to the early ages of the world, probably many millions of years, and yet it is found by the peculiar structure of the eyes of these Trilobites that they were placed at the bottom of the sea with perfect power to look upwards at the light of the sun through the transparent waters. The same hand and the same power had then Divine care and solicitude for the well-being of His creatures, as great as He has for those of later ages, and these first-formed beings exactly correspond with the account of the creation of animals given in the book of Genesis, "And God said, let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life."
FIG. 12.—EYE OF TRILOBITE.
At the end of the "transition period"—after ages of long-continued disintegration of the rough surface of the earth, and its deposition in strata—after thousands of generations of crustaceans, molluscs, and zoophytes had lived and died, depositing their shells at the bottom of the seas, so as to form strata of the carbonate of lime—a great and terrific convulsion of nature put a stop to all this quiet and systematic order of things; for through these long reaches of time, the physical laws of nature had continued to exert their influence, the bulk of the world had gone on radiating its heat into space, and, as a necessary result, had gradually contracted in size. Now, this radiation had doubtless been much retarded by the badly-conducting surface of solid matter which had everywhere covered it, but, although retarded, it could not be prevented, and although the crust of solid matter may already have been several miles in thickness, yet this in relation to the bulk of the earth would hold but the proportion of the paper on the surface of a twelve-inch globe. As the fluid mass of the earth continued to contract, there would of course be a great stress or crushing-power exerted on the crust, both by its own gravity and that of the air which surrounded it, and about this period it appears to have given way over the greatest portion of the globe, producing enormous rents and fractures, seen in every country in the faults and dislocations of these primitive and transition strata, some of which were driven up by the downward force of others, and left in a perpendicular position, some overlapping each other, &c.; but the greatest effect of this convulsion appears to have been produced by the rocking or rolling surface of the sub-existing fluid world, forming gigantic waves, which, by meeting in opposite directions and thrusting upwards the strata to a great height, formed the mighty mountain-chains of the now-existing earth, which raise their lofty pinnacles above the clouds. Now, these mountains may at first thought appear too ponderous and extensive to be thrown up in this way; but by inspecting the engraved section of a part of the globe (fig. 13), it will be seen how very insignificant a mountain is when compared with the whole world. This section is through Asia from the Persian Gulf to the Yellow Sea, and embraces the highest land on the whole face of the earth, and is drawn on a scale in which the earth is represented by a globe sixteen inches diameter. The rugged and peaked tops of these mountains would be formed by the great fractured masses of the broken strata being thrust upwards and there resting against each other; but who can describe the chasms and hollows which must have resulted when the great wave of melted earth had subsided to its level under one of these huge mountain masses? or the dreadful abyss into which at some future time it and the surrounding country may fall, if they have not already been filled up by the sinking of the surrounding strata. Some of these great waves, when thrust upwards, forced their way right through the point of the mountain and came pouring down in torrents of liquid earth (lava), deluging the surrounding country and filling up the beds of the adjacent seas, casting out cinders and ores of metals—as iron, which appears to have first made its appearance at that time, mingling with the deposits and tinging them of a red colour. These great volcanoes, upon the subsidence of the rock-waves, still (more or less) retained their communication with the interior fiery earth, and are now the greatest safeguards against such a general crushing-up of the strata, for they act as safety-valves against any unequal expansion of the interior (fig. 14). The greatest eruptions of volcanoes or the most terrific earthquakes of modern times, are as the most insignificant trifles compared with what must have taken place to form the inequalities of surface found to exist.
FIG. 13—SECTION OF 40 DEG. OF THE EARTH'S SURFACE, BEING THE SOUTHERN PART OF ASIA, AND INCLUDING THE HIGHEST LAND IN THE WORLD.
The outer uneven line represents the mountains and table-lands from the sea's level, and the lower line shows the depth to which the crust of the earth's surface has been examined—about five miles.
A to B.—Level of sea.
B to second C.—Hindustan.
C to D.—Thibet.
D to E.—Great Desert of Gobi.
F.—500 miles of Earth's radius.
C to C.—The Himalayas, in which occurs the highest mountain in the world, Dhawalagiri, which is 28,174 feet high.
FIG. 14.—BURNING MOUNTAIN.