Part 17

From the fossil-bone caverns in Wellington Valley, in 1830, were sent to Professor Owen several bones which belonged, as it turned out, to gigantic kangaroos, immensely larger than any existing species; to a kind of wombat, to formidable dasyures, and several other genera. It also appeared that the bones, which were those of herbivores, had evidently belonged to young animals, while those of the carnivores were full-sized; a fact which points to the relations between the two families having been any thing but agreeable to the herbivores.

THE POUCH-LION OF AUSTRALIA.

The _Thylacoleo_ (Pouch-Lion) was a gigantic marsupial carnivore, whose character and affinities Professor Owen has, with exquisite scientific tact, made out from very small indications. This monster, which had kangaroos with heads three feet long to feed on, must have been one of the most extraordinary animals of the antique world.

THE CONEY OF SCRIPTURE.

Paleontologists have pointed out the curious fact that the Hyrax, called ‘coney’ in our authorised version of the Bible, is really only a diminutive and hornless rhinoceros. Remains have been found at Eppelsheim which indicate an animal more like a gigantic Hyrax than any of the existing rhinoceroses. To this the name of _Acerotherium_ (Hornless Beast) has been given.

A THREE-HOOFED HORSE.

Professor Owen describes the _Hipparion_, or Three-hoofed Horse, as the first representative of a family so useful to mankind. This animal, in addition to its true hoof, appears to have had two additional elementary hoofs, analogous to those which we see in the ox. The object of these no doubt was to enable the Hipparion to extricate his foot with greater ease than he otherwise could when it sank through the swampy ground on which he lived.

TWO MONSTER CARNIVORES OF FRANCE.

A huge carnivorous creature has been found in Miocene strata in France, in which country it preyed upon the gazelle and antelope. It must have been as large as a grisly bear, but in general appearance and teeth more like a gigantic dog. Hence the name of _Amphicyon_ (Doubtful Dog) has been assigned to it. This animal must have derived part of its support from vegetables. Not so the coeval monster which has been called _Machairodus_ (Sabre-tooth). It must have been somewhat akin to the tiger, and is by far the most formidable animal which we have met with in our ascending progress through the extinct mammalia.--_Professor Owen._

GEOLOGY OF THE SHEEP.

No unequivocal fossil remains of the sheep have yet been found in the bone-caves, the drift, or the more tranquil stratified newer Pliocene deposits, so associated with the fossil bones of oxen, wild-boars, wolves, foxes, otters, &c., as to indicate the coevality of the sheep with those species, or in such an altered state as to indicate them to have been of equal antiquity. Professor Owen had his attention particularly directed to this point in collecting evidence for a history of British Fossil Mammalia. No fossil core-horns of the sheep have yet been any where discovered; and so far as this negative evidence goes, we may infer that the sheep is not geologically more ancient than man; that it is not a native of Europe, but has been introduced by the tribes who carried hither the germs of civilisation in their migrations westward from Asia.

THE TRILOBITE.

Among the earliest races we have those remarkable forms, the Trilobites, inhabiting the ancient ocean. These crustacea remotely resemble the common wood-louse, and like that animal they had the power of rolling themselves into a ball when attacked by an enemy. The eye of the trilobite is a most remarkable organ; and in that of one species, _Phacops caudatus_, not less than 250 lenses have been discovered. This remarkable optical instrument indicates that these creatures lived under similar conditions to those which surround the crustacea of the present day.--_Hunt’s Poetry of Science._

PROFITABLE SCIENCE.

In that strip of reddish colour which runs along the cliffs of Suffolk, and is called the Redcrag, immense quantities of cetacean remains have been found. Four different kinds of whales, little inferior in size to the whalebone whale, have left their bones in this vast charnel-house. In 1840, a singularly perplexing fossil was brought to Professor Owen from this Redcrag. No one could say what it was. He determined it to be the tooth of a cetacean, a unique specimen. Now the remains of cetaceans in the Suffolk crag have been discovered in such enormous quantities, that many thousands a-year are made by converting them into manure.

EXTINCT GIGANTIC BIRDS OF NEW ZEALAND.

In the islands of New Zealand have been found the bones of large extinct wingless Birds, belonging to the Post Tertiary or Recent system, which have been deposited by the action of rivers. The bird is named _Moa_ by the natives, and _Dinornis_ by naturalists: some of the bones have been found in two caves in the North Island, and have been sold by the natives at an extraordinary price. The caves occur in limestone rocks, and the bones are found beneath earth and a soft deposit of carbonate of lime. The largest of the birds is stated to have stood thirteen or fourteen feet, or twice the height of the ostrich; and its egg large enough to fill the hat of a man as a cup. Several statements have appeared of these birds being still in existence, but there is every reason to believe the Moa to be altogether extinct.

An extensive collection of remains of these great wingless birds has been collected in New Zealand by Mr. Walter Mantell, and deposited in the British Museum. Among these bones Professor Owen has discovered a species which he regards as the most remarkable of the feathered class for its prodigious strength and massive proportions, and which he names _Dinornis elephantopus_, or elephant-footed, of which the Professor has been able to construct an entire lower limb: the length of the metatarsal bone is 9¼ inches, the breadth of the lower end being 5-1/3 inches. The extraordinary proportions of the metatarsus of this wingless bird will, however, be still better understood by comparison with the same bone in the ostrich, in which the metatarsus is 19 inches in length, the breadth of its lower end being only 2½ inches. From the materials accumulated by Mr. Mantell, the entire skeleton of the _Dinornis elephantopus_ has been reconstructed; and now forms a worthy companion of the Megatherium and Mastodon in the gallery of fossil remains in the British Museum. This species of _Dinornis_ appears to have been restricted to the Middle Island of New Zealand.[36]

Another specimen of the remains of the _Dinornis_ is preserved in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, in Lincoln’s-Inn Fields; and the means by which the college obtained this valuable acquisition is thus graphically narrated by Mr. Samuel Warren, F.R.S.:

In the year 1839, Professor Owen was sitting alone in his study, when a shabbily-dressed man made his appearance, announcing that he had got a great curiosity, which he had brought from New Zealand, and wished to dispose of to him. It had the appearance of an old marrow-bone, about six inches in length, and rather more than two inches in thickness, _with both extremities broken off_; and Professor Owen considered that, to whatever animal it might have belonged, the fragment must have lain in the earth for centuries. At first he considered this same marrow-bone to have belonged to an ox, at all events to a quadruped; for the wall or rim of the bone was six times as thick as the bone of any bird, even of the ostrich. He compared it with the bones in the skeleton of an ox, a horse, a camel, a tapir, and every quadruped apparently possessing a bone of that size and configuration; but it corresponded with none. On this he very narrowly examined the surface of the bony rim, and at length became satisfied that this fragment must have belonged to _a bird_!--to one at least as large as an ostrich, but of a totally different species; and consequently one never before heard of, as an ostrich was by far the biggest bird known.

From the difference in the _strength_ of the bone, the ostrich being unable to fly, so must have been unable this unknown bird; and so our anatomist came to the conclusion that this old shapeless bone indicated the former existence in New Zealand of some huge bird, at least as great as an ostrich, but of a far heavier and more sluggish kind. Professor Owen was confident of the validity of his conclusions, but would communicate that confidence to no one else; and notwithstanding attempts to dissuade him from committing his views to the public, he printed his deductions in the _Transactions of the Zoological Society for 1839_, where fortunately they remain on record as conclusive evidence of the fact of his having then made this guess, so to speak, in the dark. He caused the bone, however, to be engraved; and having sent a hundred copies of the engraving to New Zealand, in the hope of their being distributed and leading to interesting results, he patiently waited for three years,--viz. till the year 1842,--when he received intelligence from Dr. Buckland, at Oxford, that a great box, just arrived from New Zealand, consigned to himself, was on its way, unopened, to Professor Owen, who found it filled with bones, palpably of a bird, one of which bones was three feet in length, and much more than double the size of any bone in the ostrich!

And out of the contents of this box the Professor was positively enabled to articulate almost the entire skeleton of a huge wingless bird between TEN and ELEVEN feet in height, its bony structure in strict conformity with the fragment in question; and that skeleton may at any time be seen at the Museum of the College of Surgeons, towering over, and nearly twice the height of, the skeleton of an ostrich; and at its feet lying the old bone from which alone consummate anatomical science had deduced such an astounding reality,--the existence of an enormous extinct creature of the bird kind, in an island where previously no bird had been known to exist larger than a pheasant or a common fowl!--_Lecture on the Moral and Intellectual Development of the present Age._[37]

“THE MAESTRICHT SAURIAN FOSSIL” A FRAUD.

In 1795, there was stated to have been discovered in the stone quarries adjoining Maestricht the remains of the gigantic _Mosœsaurus_ (Saurian of the Meuse), an aquatic reptile about twenty-five feet long, holding an intermediate place between the Monitors and Iguanas. It appears to have had webbed feet, and a tail of such construction as to have served for a powerful oar, and enabled the animal to stem the waves of the ocean, of which Cuvier supposed it to have been an inhabitant. It is thus referred to by Dr. Mantell, in his _Medals of Creation_: “A specimen, with the jaws and bones of the palate, now in the Museum at Paris, has long been celebrated; and is still the most precious relic of this extinct reptile hitherto discovered.” An admirable cast of this specimen is preserved in the British Museum, in a case near the bones of the Iguanodon. This is, however, useless, as Cuvier is proved to have been imposed upon in the matter.

M. Schlegel has reported to the French Academy of Sciences, that he has ascertained beyond all doubt that the famous fossil saurian of the quarries of Maestricht, described as a wonderful curiosity by Cuvier, is nothing more than an impudent fraud. Some bold impostor, it seems, in order to make money, placed a quantity of bones in the quarries in such a way as to give them the appearance of having been recently dug up, and then passed them off as specimens of antediluvian creation. Being successful in this, he went the length of arranging a number of bones so as to represent an entire skeleton; and had thus deceived the learned Cuvier. In extenuation of Cuvier’s credulity, it is stated that the bones were so skilfully coloured as to make them look of immense antiquity, and he was not allowed to touch them lest they should crumble to pieces. But when M. Schlegel subjected them to rude handling, he found that they were comparatively modern, and that they were placed one by the other without that profound knowledge of anatomy which was to have been expected from the man bold enough to execute such an audacious fraud.

“THE OLDEST PIECE OF WOOD UPON EARTH.”

The most remarkable vegetable relic which the Lower Old Red Sandstone has given us is a small fragment of a coniferous tree of the Araucarian family, which formed one of the chief ornaments of the late Hugh Miller’s museum, and to which he used to point as the oldest piece of wood upon earth. He found it in one of the ichthyolite beds of Cromarty, and thus refers to it in his _Testimony of the Rocks_:

On what perished land of the early paleozoic ages did this venerably antique tree cast root and flourish, when the extinct genera Pterichthys and Coccoeteus were enjoying life by millions in the surrounding seas, long ere the flora or fauna of the coal measures had begun to be?

The same nodule which enclosed this lignite contained part of another fossil, the well-marked scales of _Diplacanthus striatus_, an ichthyolite restricted to the Lower Old Red Sandstone exclusively. If there be any value in paleontological evidence, this Cromarty lignite must have been deposited in a sea inhabited by the Coccoeteus and Diplacanthus. It is demonstrable that, while yet in a recent state, a Diplacanthus lay down and died beside it; and the evidence in the case is unequivocally this, that in the oldest portion of the oldest terrestrial flora yet known there occurs the fragment of a tree quite as high in the scale as the stately Norfolk-Island pine or the noble cedar of Lebanon.

NO FOSSIL ROSE.

Professor Agassiz, in a lecture upon the trees of America, states a remarkable fact in regard to the family of the rose,--which includes among its varieties not only many of the most beautiful flowers, but also the richest fruits, as the apple, pear, peach, plum, apricot, cherry, strawberry, raspberry, &c.,--namely, that _no fossil plants belonging to this family have ever been discovered by geologists_! This M. Agassiz regards as conclusive evidence that the introduction of this family of plants upon the earth was coeval with, or subsequent to, the creation of man, to whose comfort and happiness they seem especially designed by a wise Providence to contribute.

CHANGES ON THE EARTH’S SURFACE.

In the Imperial Library at Paris is preserved a manuscript work by an Arabian writer, Mohammed Karurini, who flourished in the seventh century of the Hegira, or at the close of the thirteenth century of our era. Herein we find several curious remarks on aerolites and earthquakes, and the successive changes of position which the land and sea have undergone. Of the latter class is the following beautiful passage from the narrative of Khidz, an allegorical personage:

I passed one day by a very ancient and wonderfully populous city, and asked one of its inhabitants how long it had been founded. “It is indeed a mighty city,” replied he; “we know not how long it has existed, and our ancestors were on this subject as ignorant as ourselves.” Five centuries afterwards, as I passed by the same place, I could not perceive the slightest vestige of the city. I demanded of a peasant who was gathering herbs upon its former site how long it had been destroyed. “In sooth, a strange question,” replied he; “the ground here has never been different from what you now behold it.” “Was there not of old,” said I, “a splendid city here?” “Never,” answered he, “so far as we have seen; and never did our fathers speak to us of any such.” On my return there five hundred years afterwards, _I found the sea in the same place_; and on its shores were a party of fishermen, of whom I inquired how long the land had been covered by the waters. “Is this a question,” say they, “for a man like you? This spot has always been what it is now.” I again returned five hundred years afterwards; the sea had disappeared: I inquired of a man who stood alone upon the spot how long this change had taken place, and he gave me the same answer as I had received before. Lastly, on coming back again after an equal lapse of time, I found there a flourishing city, more populous and more rich in beautiful buildings than the city I had seen the first time; and when I would fain have informed myself concerning its origin, the inhabitants answered me, “Its rise is lost in remote antiquity: we are ignorant how long it has existed, and our fathers were on this subject as ignorant as ourselves.”

This striking passage was quoted in the _Examiner_, in 1834. Surely in this fragment of antiquity we trace the “geological changes” of modern science.

GEOLOGICAL TIME.

Many ingenious calculations have been made to approximate the dates of certain geological events; but these, it must be confessed, are more amusing than instructive. For example, so many inches of silt are yearly laid down in the delta of the Mississippi--how many centuries will it have taken to accumulate a thickness of 30, 60, or 100 feet? Again, the ledges of Niagara are wasting at the rate of so many feet per century--how many years must the river have taken to cut its way back from Queenstown to the present Falls? Again, lavas and melted basalts cool, according to the size of the mass, at the rate of so many degrees in a given time--how many millions of years must have elapsed, supposing an original igneous condition of the earth, before its crust had attained a state of solidity? or further, before its surface had cooled down to the present mean temperature? For these and similar computations, the student will at once perceive we want the necessary uniformity of factor; and until we can bring elements of calculation as exact as those of astronomy to bear on geological chronology, it will be better to regard our “eras” and “epochs” and “systems” as so many terms, indefinite in their duration, but sufficient for the magnitude of the operations embraced within their limits.--_Advanced Textbook of Geology, by David Page, F.G.S._

M. Rozet, in 1841, called attention to the fact, that the causes which have produced irregularities in the structure of the globe have not yet ceased to act, as is proved by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, slow and continuous movements of the crust of the earth in certain regions, &c. We may, therefore, yet see repeated the great catastrophes which the surface of the earth has undergone anteriorly to the historical period.

At the meeting of the British Association in 1855, Mr. Hopkins excited much controversy by his startling speculation--that 9000 years ago the site on which London now stands was in the torrid zone; and that, according to perpetual changes in progress, the whole of England would in time arrive within the Arctic circle.

CURIOUS CAUSE OF CHANGE OF LEVEL.

Professor Hennessey, in 1857, _found the entire mass of rock and hill on which the Armagh Observatory is erected to be slightly, but to an astronomer quite perceptibly, tilted or canted, at one season to the east, at another to the west_. This he at first attributed to the varying power of the sun’s radiation to heat and expand the rock throughout the year; but he subsequently had reason to attribute it rather to the infiltration of water to the parts where the clay-slate and limestone rocks met, the varying quantity of the water exerting a powerful hydrostatic energy by which the position of the rock is slightly varied.

Now Armagh and its observatory stand at the junction of the mountain limestone with the clay-slate, having, as it were, one leg on the former and the other on the latter; and both rocks probably reach downwards 1000 or 2000 feet. When rain falls, the one will absorb more water than the other; both will gain an increase of conductive power; but the one which has absorbed most water will have the greatest increase, and being thus the better conductor, will _draw a greater portion of heat from the hot nucleus below to the surface_--will become, in fact, temporarily hotter, and, as a consequence, _expand more than the other_. In a word, _both rocks will expand at the wet season; but the best conductor, or most absorbent rock, will expand most, and seem to tilt the hill to one side; at the dry season it will subside most, and the hill will seem to be tilted in the opposite direction_.

The fact is curious, and not less so are the results deducible from it. First, hills are higher at one season than another; a fact we might have supposed, but never could have ascertained by measurement. Secondly, they are highest, not, as we should have supposed, at the hottest season, but at the wettest. Thirdly, it is from the _different rates_ of expansion of different rocks that this has been discovered. Fourthly, it is by converse with the _heavens_ that it has been made known to us. A variation of probably half a second, or less, in the right ascension of three or four stars, observed at different seasons, no doubt revealed the fact to the sagacious astronomer of Armagh, and even enabled him to divine its cause.

Professor Hennessey observes in connection with this phenomenon, that a very small change of ellipticity would suffice to lay bare or submerge extensive tracts of the globe. If, for example, the mean ellipticity of the ocean increased from 1/300 to 1/299, the level of the sea would be raised at the equator by about 228 feet, while under the parallel of 52° it would be depressed by 196 feet. Shallow seas and banks in the latitudes of the British isles, and between them and the pole, would thus be converted into dry land, while low-lying plains and islands near the equator would be submerged. If similar phenomena occurred during early periods of geological history, they would manifestly influence the distribution of land and water during these periods; and with such a direction of the forces as that referred to, they would tend to increase the proportion of land in the polar and temperate regions of the earth, as compared with the equatorial regions during successive geological epochs. Such maps as those published by Sir Charles Lyell on the distribution of land and water in Europe during the Tertiary period, and those of M. Elie de Beaumont, contained in Beaudant’s _Geology_, would, if sufficiently extended, assist in verifying or disproving these views.

THE OUTLINES OF CONTINENTS NOT FIXED.

Continents (says M. Agassiz) are only a patchwork formed by the emergence and subsidence of land. These processes are still going on in various parts of the globe. Where the shores of the continent are abrupt and high, the effect produced may be slight, as in Norway and Sweden, where a gradual elevation is going on without much alteration in their outlines. But if the continent of North America were to be depressed 1000 feet, nothing would remain of it except a few islands, and any elevation would add vast tracts to its shores.

The west of Asia, comprising Palestine and the country about Ararat and the Caspian Sea, is below the level of the ocean, and a rent in the mountain-chains by which it is surrounded would transform it into a vast gulf.

Meteorological Phenomena.

THE ATMOSPHERE.