The Subterranean World

Geology teaches us that, from times of the remoteness of which the human mind can form no conception, the surface of the earth has been the scene of perpetual change, resulting from the action and counter-action of two mighty agents—water and subterranean heat.

Ever since the first separation between the dry land and the sea took place, the breakers of a turbulent ocean, the tides and currents, the torrents and rivers, the expansive power of ice, which is able to split the hardest rock, and the grinding force of the glacier, have been constantly wearing away the coasts and the mountains, and transporting the spoils of continents and islands from a higher to a lower level.

During our short historical period of three or four thousand years, the waters, in spite of their restless activity and the considerable local changes effected by their means, have indeed produced no marked alteration in the great outlines of the sea and land; but when we consider that their influence has extended over countless ages, we can no longer wonder at the enormous thickness of the stratified rocks of aqueous origin which, superposed one above the other in successive layers, constitute by far the greater part of the earth-rind.

Our knowledge of these sedimentary formations is indeed as yet but incomplete, for large portions of the surface of the globe have never yet been scientifically explored; but a careful examination and comparison of the various strata composing the rocky foundations of numerous countries, have already enabled the geologist to classify them into the following chronological systems or groups, arranged in an ascending series, or beginning with the oldest.