The World before the Deluge ... Containing twenty-five ideal landscapes of the ancient world, designed by Riou, and two hundred and eight figures of animals, plants [with illustrative text] ... Translated from the fourth French edition

Front matter

The First Man. THE WORLD BEFORE THE DELUGE. BY LOUIS FIGUIER. A NEW EDITION. THE GEOLOGICAL PORTION CAREFULLY REVISED, AND MUCH ORIGINAL MATTER ADDED, By HENET W. BKISTOW, F.RS., OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOUVEY OF GREAT BRITAIN ; HONORARY FELLOW OF KING'3 COLLEGE, LO:.!)' » CONTAINING THIRTY-FOUR FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS OF EXTINCT ANlilA' AND IDEAL LANDSCAPES OF THE ANCIENT WORLD, DESIGNED BY RIOU. AND TWO IIONDIIED AND TWO FIHIPRES OF ANIMALS, PLANTS. AND tPTUF.K FuSSIL IŒMAIVS ANT> RESWkATIONS. LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193 PICCADILLY. 1867. UOnxm ! Eft*tu R wauAM cu,wES a*d »Ns, srAurom, nn, AXL c , IAHn;f . cre38s ■1 TO SIR RODERICK IMPEY MURCHISON, Bart., K.C.B . G.C. St. A. and St. S, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., etc. etc, DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. AND PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY, WHOSE ORIGINAL WORK ' SILURIA ' FIRST ATTRACTED THE TRANSLATOR TO THIS CLASS OF STUDIES, THIS WORK IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED.

Preface

. The text of this, the second Edition of M. Fignier's popular work, has undergone a careful revision, so as to assimilate the phraseology of the French Geologist to that adopted in English science, as far as this could be accomplished without prejudice to the Author's method and reasoning. Some inaccuracies which had crept into the previous ver sion have been rectified, and statements of fact upon which discoveries , subsequent to the publication of the original work have thrown light, have been corrected or remodelled, so as to represent more precisely the present state of scientific opinion. Mr. Henry W. Bristow, F.E.S., to whom the task of revision was intrusted, has, however, confined himself to such alterations as were absolutely indispensable to secure the accuracy of the work in so fer as demonstrated facts are concerned.

Many points which are more or less inferential, and therefore matters of individual opinion, and especially those on which M. Figuier bases his speculations, Mr. Bristow has left in thenoriginal form, rather than make such modifications as would wholly change the character of the book. In a work whose purpose is to give the general reader a summarized account of the results at which science has arrived, and of the method of VI

PREFACE.

. reasoning regarding the facts on which these generalizations rest, it would be out of place, as well as ineffective, to obscure general state ments with those limitations which caution imposes on the scientific investigator. A new Edition of the French work having appeared in the early part of the year, to which the Author contributed a Chapter on Meta morphic Rocks, a translation of it is appended to the Chapter on Eruptive Rocks. M. Figuier has also furnished the paragraph expla natory of the supposed thickness of the Earth's Crust, at p. 78. A Chapter on the Rhætic (or Penarth) beds has been inserted (amongst other original matter), the stratigraphical importance of that series having been recognized since the publication of the first Edition. W. S. 0. 103, Piccadilly, 15th September, 1866. CONTENTS.

PREFACE.

. page GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS ....■>.. 1 Consideration of Fossils 4 Chemical and Nebular Hypotheses of the Globe . . 16 Modifications of the Eaeth's Surface .... 27 Eruptive Rocks 32 Plutonic Eruptions 34 Syenite 36 Protogine ......... 37 Granite 38 Porphyry 39 Serpentine 40 Volcanic Rocks . . .• .42 Trachytic Formation ...*... 42 Basaltic Formation 44 Lava Formations 48 Metamorphic Rocks 62 General Metamorphism 66 The Beginning 73 PRIMARY EPOCH 89 Silurian Period 91 Cambrian and Lower Silurian 91! Upper Silurian ... . ... . 97 Devonian Period . . . _ 107 Devonian Rocks . . . . . .113 Carboniferous Period 117 Carboniferous Limestone ...... 124 Coal Measures 134 Formation of Coal . 141 Permian Period *' . 151 Permian Rocks 156 SECONDARY EPOCH .165 Triassic, or New Red Period 166 Keuper, or Muschelkalk Period . ' . . 174 Rhætic (Penaetej Period 183 Jurassic Period 187 Liassic Period 191 Oolitic Sub-Period 214 Lower Oolite Fauna 215 Rocks 220 Middle Oolite .224 Upper Oolite ...... ...

CONTENTS. l'AGE Cretaceous Period 239 Lower Cretaceous Period 250 Upper Cretaceous Period * 262 TERTIARY EPOCH 273 Eocene Period 277 Miocene Period 294 Pliocene Period 312 QUATERNARY EPOCH 331 Post-Pliocene 331 European Deluges 365 Glacial Period 377 Creation of Man 403 Asiatic Deluge 418