A serpent from the tomb began to glide;
His hugy bulk on sev’n high volumes roll’d;
Blue was his breadth of back, but streak’d with scaly gold;
Thus riding on his curls, he seem’d to pass
A rolling fire along, and singe the grass.
More various colors through his body run,
Than Iris, when her bow imbibes the sun.”
Even the tegument of the Earthworms is made in the completest manner, for effecting a passage in the earth, wherever instinct directs their motions. Their bodies are composed of small rings, and have a curious apparatus of muscles, which enables them with great strength to extend or contract the whole body. Each ring is likewise armed with stiff, sharp prickles, which they can open or close at pleasure. And under their skins is a shining juice, which they emit, as occasion requires, to lubricate their bodies, and facilitate their passage into the earth. By all these means they are enabled, with ease and speed, to work themselves into the ground, which they could not do, if they were covered with hair, feathers, scales, or such clothing as any of the other creatures.—One of the most singular properties of the serpent tribe is that of casting their skins from time to time. The beauty and lustre of their colors are then highly augmented. The old skins have a tarnished and withered appearance, and are forced off by the growth of the new. When this takes place, so complete is the spoil or coat-skin, that even the external coat of the eyes themselves make a part of it.
Among creeping things, the Spider engaged the attention of Solomon who observes, that he is one of those “little things on the earth, that are exceeding wise.” This creature subsists on flies, wasps, and similar insects, without having wings to pursue them; a circumstance apparently of great difficulty, yet provided for by a resource, which no stratagem nor effort of his own could have produced, had not both the external and internal structure of this animal been specifically adapted to the operation. What surprising skill and sagacity does the Spider discover in weaving and spreading her nets to ensnare and entangle her prey! How wonderfully artificial is her web, or house! How astonishingly curious its architecture! With the fine and delicate threads she spins out of her bowels, how thin a web does she weave, constructed for the purpose of procuring food! It is fastened according to the rules of mathematics, for its lines are drawn exactly from the centre at parallel distances.[172] When this net is spread, that she may the more effectually secure her prey, she cunningly conceals herself in her covert, to evade the discovery of flies. It is from the accuracy of this geometrical workmanship, that this cunning artist is immediately apprized of the approach of a fly, or any other insect of the like nature, when she sallies forth and seizes on her prey. She is furnished with a very sharp hooked forceps, placed near the mouth. With this weapon she seizes and pierces the flesh of such insects as entangle themselves in her web; and, at the same instant, by means of a small white proboscis, she infuses a deadly juice into the wound, which, in a moment, kills the animal. This poison must be very deleterious; for flies, and many other insects, may be mutilated by depriving them of their legs, wings, and even cutting their bodies through the very middle of their abdomen, and, in that condition, will survive several days.—The Centipeds, the Scorpion, and the Tarantula, are all provided with poisonous weapons.
Appendix to the Chapters on Plants, Fishes, Fowls and Quadrupeds.
[If we will attentively examine the fossil remains of fishes, animals, birds, and vegetables, so abundantly preserved entombed in the crust of our earth, we shall easily see the necessity of looking into the sepulchres of these primitive creatures if we would freely describe the “Mosaic Creation.” Many of their genera and species are now extinct: and those which remain seem to have dwindled down to mere dwarfs in comparison with their prototypes.
It is a matter of great satisfaction, that these interesting remains of the primordial world are so well preserved. They are called by one the medals of creation: they reveal the ancient condition of our earth; the successive events; and the attending organic appendages of sensitive beings: and it is a matter of great pleasure to the Christian, that what they disclose so clearly on this subject agrees expressly with the Bible.
The class of animated beings called pisces, or fishes, is not so well known in regard to their genera, and species, as the classes of quadrupeds and birds.
From the fossil remains of each, and their position in the crust of the earth, it is well ascertained, that their genera were created successively, and that the most ancient genera are extinct. The same is true in regard to vegetables. It is equally true, that, connected with the successive creation, was a successive improvement in the delicacy and complexity of their structure and parts. There was also a reduction in the size of fishes, and quadrupeds, and a great reduction in the amount of vegetation, as well as the size of many of the plants.
These periodic variations in all early organized bodies, were evidently owing to the variations of the state of the surface of our earth, and the surrounding atmosphere. The Divine Being appears to have created the different genera suited in constitution to the condition of the world at the time. The cause of their successive extinction appears to have been successive catastrophes, which altered the constitution of our earth and atmosphere.
All these facts taken together indicate, that, in the early periods of the earth, the soil, water, and air were better calculated to sustain the simply huge, and inconceivably powerful and fierce creatures of the animal kingdom, than the delicate and beautiful beings of the present period. The same is eminently true in regard to vegetables, specially their quantity. They were of trunks, and spreading branches so huge as to exceed belief, did we not see them well preserved in a fossil state. Their quantity also was immense; hence the amount of vegetable coal found in the earth.
These facts clearly indicate that, in the early periods of our earth, the surface was moist, perhaps, marshy for a long time, gradually drying, and passing to a habitable state: the air was very moist and gross, and the temperature of the earth was much higher than at present. Hence the huge and abundant vegetable productions. These general facts shall be confirmed by a few remarks in regard to each class.
Fishes.—Under this class is included, here, testaceous, and crustaceous creatures, as well as fishes commonly so called. The most ancient of this family seem to be entirely extinct, and their remains are found in great abundance in the lower transition rocks. There are many localities where fossil fish, of various kinds, are found abundantly. They are sometimes found in the heart of mountains, thousands of feet above the level of the sea. Their localities are so numerous they need not be mentioned. They are found in all possible positions, and in every degree of preservation—some are contorted, and crushed; indicating sudden violence. Others are inhumed in the very act of swallowing their prey, and in every easy and natural position; indicating that they expired without violence. Some of these, which are thus quietly buried, are of the most active species; thus proving the suddenness of the catastrophe.
So extensive are the depositions of shell-fish, that whole beds of rock, in some cases, appear to be composed of them; and, indeed, in some instances, mountains are composed principally of these rocks filled with organic remains.
From these facts, it is allowed by all, that the sea once covered these localities; and when it is recollected that some of the rock strata, composed of the exuviæ of these marine creatures, are hundreds of feet thick, the conclusion will be irresistible, that the sea covered them for a long time, and that these rocks which contain them were deposited at the bottom of the sea, which have since become dry, by the retiring of the waters, or by some subjacent force upheaving the bed of the sea, and of course these deposits which had been made at its bottom—when these fossil remains are found in mountain masses they have been upheaved—when in low lands, where the rocks lie in situ, the sea has exposed them by retiring.
Amphibious Creatures.—There are yet a few animals of this class; but they can scarcely be called the types of the ancient races, now extinct, whose remains have lately been discovered, and attracted so much attention in Europe. They are principally of the crocodile, and saurian (or lizard) families. Their size, and indicated power, ferocity, and fierceness, are astonishing beyond measure. Their structure clearly indicates their proper element was wet, marshy, and reedy places, such as the crocodile delights in at this time: thus indicating that they were in the earth as the ancient chaotic seas retired, and was leaving the earth dry.
If a single skeleton only, of any one of these creatures had been found, naturalists would have pronounced it a lusus naturæ. But many have been found, of different genera and species: only two or three shall be mentioned here.
One of the crocodile family, as is supposed, had a spine composed of 133 vertebræ, or joints, taken together 21½ feet in length. The head was nearly 4 feet. Its species are extinct; some refer even this huge animal to the lizard family.
The Megalosaurus. The skeleton of this huge creature has been satisfactorily examined, and ascertained to belong to the lizard family. Its thigh bone is 32 inches long. It is said some have been found 4 feet. At 32 inches, the animal must have been 48 feet in length. Dr. Buckland, from some fossil remains, calculates some of them were as high as our largest elephants, and sixty or seventy feet in length. And yet this was a lizard of the ancient world!
The Pterodactyle. This is a species of the saurian family as those above. Its distinctive character is the elongation of its fourth toe, so as to support a membrane for the purpose of flying: hence its name, wing-toed. It is indeed a curiosity. Its species is extinct.
The Ichthyosaurus. This is also a reptile of the lizard kind: but because it so much resembles a fish; it has this name, i.e. fish-lizard. It has a moderate tail—long pointed muzzel armed with sharp pointed teeth; two huge eyes; breathed air; swam in the water; crawled in marshy, reedy places, but could not walk or run on land, having flat fins, or bony paddles, somewhat like seals. The skeletons indicate some of them to have been 25 feet long.
The Plesiosaurus. This animal, as its name imports, was rather akin to lizards, than decidedly of the genus. Its very peculiar characteristic is the immoderate length of its neck, and the unexampled number of vertebræ of which it is composed. In other respects it approaches the ichthyosaurus. Its remains indicate an animal, according to Cuvier, at least 30 feet long.
The Iguanodon, was of the lizard genus, three or four times as large as the largest crocodile; having jaws equal in size to the incisors of the rhinoceros, and crested with horns. (Dr. Buckland.)
Many more creatures of the early periods of our earth might be mentioned, which would come expressly under the title of this volume; and the knowledge of which is durably preserved in the fossils of the earth, all of which would confirm the facts stated in the commencement of this paper, viz: that during the first and grossest periods of our earth previously to the creation of man, great numbers of genera and species of huge and misshapen animals existed, which are now extinct. For instance: the skeletons of animals of the frog and toad families, have been found so large, as to induce some naturalists at first to call them human remains. A tapir has been found the size of an elephant; and a species of the sloth tribe as long as a rhinoceros!!
These things will indeed appear incredible to the reader at first; but let him recollect that the evidences of these astonishing facts are contained in the solid crust of the earth, and cannot be deceptive. They may be seen, measured, weighed, and put up so as to form the whole animal, an object of inspection to thousands.
There are but few fossil remains of birds found in the earth, and these are principally in the upper tertiary strata, and in company with the fossil remains of such animals as are companionable and serviceable to man. The reason of this is obvious: the earth was not suitable for the habitation of birds until it had become comparatively dry, and the seas had retired in a great measure, and vegetation abundant. The aquatic genera appeared first, of which there are a few remains. Moreover this class of creatures could not be overtaken with any violent catastrophe, so as to bury them in a body, or in particular strata. It is, therefore, probable that birds, as a class, have preserved their genera and species from the first; and are now nearly the same in this respect, as well as in size, as in the earlier periods of the world.
Vegetables.—In the vegetable kingdom we are if possible, more astonished than in the animal, of the ancient periods of our earth. From their fossil remains, well and abundantly preserved, it is very evident that the vegetation of the first periods of our earth was abundant and heavy, beyond any thing which we can conceive at this time. It cannot be doubted but that the vegetative powers of the earth was very much greater than at this time, or within the memory of man. This is evident from the immense production of vegetable coal.
This statement may be rendered somewhat more credible when it is recollected, that the earth, in its first periods, was of a much higher temperature than now; and of course not only produced more abundantly, but all parts of the earth produced vegetation in abundance. This is evident from the fact, that within the arctic circle, where now reigns eternal winter, and no vegetation can be found, there was anciently successive products of heavy vegetation. (See appendix to our paper on volcanos.) This is proven by plants being found fossilized on the spot, and in the position in which they grew; as also the leaves and fruits of plants, which are known now to be tropical, so well preserved, and in such a natural, easy position as to prove clearly they grew on the spot on which they were fossilized.
The flora of the primordial world was expressly a part of the ‘Mosaic creation,’ and which is but little understood as yet. Some of the principal plants were of the fern and palm genera; but their size very far exceeded those now found growing. By closely examining these fossil plants, it will be found, that they increase in size and quantity as the period of their growth is distant from the time in which man was created: thus indicating an increasing temperature of the earth as we ascend in time. This also corresponds with the well known fact, that the size of these plants now increases progressively from the polar regions to the equator.
Our author has given a concise and edifying description of the principal families and individuals which now exist, and are found in the earth. The above remarks are intended to direct the attention to those which have long since passed away.]