CH. XXV.

LINNEAN COLLECTION.

213

and literally ran away till he reached the Thames, and landed safely in London without being caught. Thus the Linnæan collection came to England, and is now in Burlington House. The Swedes are naturally sorry that it left their country, but on the other hand it has become more known to scientific men in London than it could ever have been in Stockholm. With Linnæus we must end for the present the history of the sciences relating to living beings. Early in the nineteenth century we shall return to them again, but in the next chapter we must learn something of a new science which arose about this time; namely, the science of 'Geology,' or the study of the earth.

Chief Works consulted.-Jardine's 'Naturalists' Library,' vols. ii. and xiii.; Brewster's Encyclopædia '-'Buffon and Linnæus;' Cuvier, 'Histoire des Sciences Naturelles ;' Smith, Sir J., 'Introduction to Botany;' Pulteney's 'View of Writings of Linnæus ;' Linnæus, 'Systema Naturæ,

CHAPTER XXVI.

SCIENCE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY (CONTINUED).

The Study of the Earth neglected during the Dark Ages-Prejudices concerning the Creation of the World-Attempts to Account for Buried Fossils--Palissy, the Potter, first asserted that Fossil-shells are real Shells-Scilla's Work on the Shells of Calabria, 1670— Woodward's Description of Different Formations, 1695-Lazzaro Moro one of the first to give a true explanation of the facts—Abraham Werner lectures on Mineralogy and Geology, 1775-Disputes between the Neptunists and Vulcanists-Dr. Hutton first teaches that it is by the Study of the Present that we can understand the Past-Theory of Hutton-Sir J. Hall's Experiments upon Melted Rocks-Hutton discovers Granite Veins in Glen Tilt-William Smith, the 'Father of English Geologists'-His Geological Map of England.

Early Prejudices concerning the Formation of the Rocks. You will no doubt remember that when we were speaking of the science of the Greeks, we learnt (p. 11) that Pythagoras made many interesting observations about the crust of the earth, which led him to say that the sea and land must have changed places more than once since the creation of the world. Especially he pointed out that seashells are found inland, deeply buried in the hills; and that the sea eats away land on the coast in some places, while in others earth is washed down by the rivers and laid at the bottom of the ocean.

We have now passed over more than 2,000 years since the time of Pythagoras, and you will notice that we have

CH. XXVI

GEOLOGY

215 heard nothing more about observations of this kind. The fact is, that during the Dark Ages the study of the earth had been almost entirely neglected, and people had taken up the mistaken notion that they ought to believe, as a matter of faith, that the world was created in the beginning just as we now see it. But knowledge and inquiry were advancing so fast in the eighteenth century, that it was impossible for such ignorance to continue long. People could not go on digging wells and making mines in all parts of the world without being struck by the way in which the different strata, or layers of rock, are arranged in the earth's crust, nor without noticing the fossil shells, plants, and bones of animals which they found buried at great depths.

At first they were very unwilling to believe that these remains had ever belonged to living animals and plants, and they tried to imagine that they were only stones resembling shells, leaves, &c., which had been in some way mysteriously created in the earth. Then, when this absurd idea was given up, they next enquired whether a universal flood might not have spread them over the land; but though this opinion was upheld for more than a hundred years, yet it was clear to all those who really studied the subject that it could not account for the many layers of fossils deeply buried in the earth.

First Attempts to study the Fossil Remains and the beds containing them.-At last, little by little, there arose men who adopted the more sensible plan of studying the different formations in the crust of the earth before making theories about them. Bernard de Palissy, the maker of the famous French pottery, was the first to assert, in 1580, that the fossil shells were real sea-shells left by the waters of the ocean; then, in 1669, we find Steno, a Dane, writing a re

markable work on petrifactions in the rocks; and in 1670 Scilla, an Italian painter, published a treatise on the fossil shells and other remains in the rocks of Calabria, and made some beautiful drawings of these remains, which may now be seen in the Woodwardian Museum at Cambridge. Next we find our own scientific men, Hooke, the naturalist Ray, and a famous geologist Dr. Woodward, speculating why the earth's crust is made up of different layers, one above another, with different fossils in each. Woodward (1695) made a careful collection of specimens of chalk, gravel, coal, marble, and other rocks, together with the fossils which he found in them; and these also are in the Cambridge MuBut all these men, though they did good work, still held very erroneous notions about the way in which the crust of the earth had been formed.

seum.

The first geologist who gave any real explanation of the facts was Lazzaro Moro, an Italian, born at Friuli in Lombardy, in 1687. Moro pointed out, as Woodward had done before him, that the different strata lie in a certain order one above the other, and that within them are imprisoned fossil fishes, shells, corals, and plants, in all countries, and at all heights above the sea. The rocks, said Moro, writing in 1740, must have been soft when these fossils were buried in them, and some must have been near rivers, because they contain fresh-water animals and plants; while others contain only marine fossils, and must have been laid down under the sea. It is clear, then, that they must all have been formed in lakes or seas, and have been raised up by earthquakes, or thrown out by volcanoes, such as we see taking place from time to time in the world now. This explanation, though rough, was true, and Moro deserves to be remembered as one of the first men who led the way towards a true study of the earth.

CH. XXVI.

WERNER ON GEOLOGY.

217

After him there followed many others, whom we cannot mention here; but the next whose name is famous was the great Werner, professor of mineralogy at Freyberg in Saxony.

Werner calls Attention to Geology, 1775.-Abraham Werner, the son of an inspector of mines in Silesia, was born in 1750. His first playthings were the bright minerals which his father's workmen gave him, so that he knew them by sight, even before he could tell their names; and as he grew up he seemed to care for nothing but mineralogy and the wonderful facts it revealed about the formation of the earth. Freyberg, when he first began to lecture there, in 1775, was only a small school for miners; but it was not long before he raised it to the rank of a university, so great was the fame of his lectures. He pointed out to those who came to learn of him, that the study of the rocks was something more than merely searching for minerals; and that the crust of the earth was full of wonderful histories, which might be read by those who cared to take the trouble. He pointed out how some formations were stratified, that is, arranged in layers, and contained fossil shells and other organic remains ; while, on the other hand, some were unstratified, and had no fossils in them. Some rocks were bent, as in Fig. 35;

FIG. 35.

Diagram of Bent Rocks. (Page.)

others had been snapped asunder and forced one up and the other down, as in Fig. 36; and he bade them try to seek out the reason of these bendings and breakings of the earth's crust. He reminded them also that mining was one of the