Part 5

Paradoxides Tessini, do. Europe. Spinulosus, do. Europe. Gibbosus, do. Europe. Scaraboides, do. Europe. Hoffii, Goldfuss. Europe.

Nileus Armadillo, Dalman. Europe. Glornerinus, do. Europe.

Illænus Centaurus, Dalman. Europe. Centrotus, do. Europe. Laticauda, Wahlenberg. Europe--U. States.

Ampyx Nasutus, Dalman. Europe. Olenus Bucephalus, Wahlenberg. Europe. Agnostus Pisciformis, Al. Brong. Europe. Isotelus Gigas, De Kay. United States. Planus, do. United States.

Genera and Species not fully determined.

Trilobites Cephaleurya, Rafinesque, United States. Simla, do. United States. Granulata, do. United States. Bilobites Lunulata, do. United States. Lobata, do. United States.

From the short descriptions given by Professor Rafinesque of the five last mentioned fossils, I conclude that they belong to the genus Calymene of Brongniart.

The study of the trilobites naturally leads to the consideration of those beings which appear to have inhabited our earth previous to the creation of man. Every one knows that the sceptical naturalist has drawn from these vestiges of organic life, an argument contradictory to the Mosaic account of the history of the world, and though every cavil of the least importance, urged against the truth of the sacred historian, has been triumphantly confuted, still, the geological sciolist boldly impugns his veracity, whenever any new facts in his science can be distorted to his purpose. Such being the case, we cannot conclude this preface without briefly stating two or three methods by which any seeming discrepancies may be explained. First, those who imagine that the six periods of creation, mentioned in the beginning of the pentateuch, mean literally days of 24 hours each, believe that, as only a small part of the earth was at first required for the abode of man and the higher animals, the present continents might have remained as long beneath the waters, and have undergone every change necessary to solve this geological puzzle.

Again, others have thought that Moses, after recording, in the first sentence of Genesis, the great truth that all things were made by the will of an intelligent Creator--passed silently over some intermediate state of the earth, which had no direct relation to the history, or to the duties of man--and proceeded to describe the successive appearance of the present order of things. On this supposition, the fossil remains and peculiarities in the structure of the earth may have belonged to that intermediate state.

A third method of explaining the difficulty, and which we think highly satisfactory, is, by understanding the days of creation to mean, not ordinary days, but periods of time, in which the recorded events took place in the order described so briefly by the sacred historian. It is acknowledged by every one competent to judge, that among the Hebrews, days and weeks were often used in this manner. The accordance between the order in which, according to the account of Moses, the work of creation was accomplished, and the order in which the fossil remains of plants and animals are deposited in the earth, has surprised, and has been acknowledged by learned sceptics themselves.

It will be useless to push these arguments further. The catastrophes which have produced the secondary strata, and the diluvian depositions, could not have been local or partial phenomena; but rather than call upon a comet, with the abstracted philosopher, to deluge the earth for every new geological epoch--or to change the axis of motion of our planet--or to resort to any of his wild, fanciful, and impious theories, we should, with Sir Humphrey Davy, even prefer the dream that all the secondary strata were created, filled with the remains, as it were, of animal life, to confound the speculations of our geological reasoners.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

Every author who attempts a Monograph of any of the departments of Natural History, must necessarily depend, in a greater or less degree, upon the kindness and liberality of others. Rare and unique specimens, particularly of fossil species, are often scattered through different cabinets, and his work would be rendered very imperfect, if they were not intrusted to his care. In preparing the following Monograph on the plan of giving exact models of the species, instead of illustrating them by engravings in the usual manner, the specimens when used by the artist are perhaps more liable to accident, and it was at first supposed that this circumstance might have prevented the original design. But in no instance, where an application has been made, either to a public institution or to a private cabinet, has the author met with a refusal; indeed the courtesy, kindness, and liberality which he has experienced from naturalists, who have every where aided him in the prosecution of his work, form no inconsiderable portion of the gratification which he has received. Besides the acknowledgments to public museums, and to individuals, which are made in the body of the work, the author is desirous of recording in this place, the following cabinets from which he has derived much assistance.

IN PHILADELPHIA.

The Cabinet of John P. Wetherill. The Cabinet of the Academy of Natural Sciences. The Philadelphia Museum. (Peale's.) The Cabinet of P. A. Browne, Esq. The Cabinet of Dr. R. Harlan. The Cabinet of William Hyde. The Cabinet of J. Pierce. The Cabinet of the Geological Society. ———— Lambdin's Museum, Pittsburgh, Pa. The Cabinet of D. Keim, Reading, Pa.

IN NEW YORK.

The Cabinet of the Lyceum of Natural History. The Cabinet of Dr. J. E. Dekay. The New York Museum. (Peale's.)

IN ALBANY.

The Cabinet of the Albany Institute. The Cabinet of Professor T. R. Beck. Albany Museum. The Cabinet of Dr. James Eights. ———— The Cabinet of the Rensselaer School.

IN BALTIMORE.

The Cabinet of Dr. Joshua J. Cohen. The Cabinet of the Baltimore College. The Cabinet of the Atheneum. The Baltimore Museum. ———— The Cabinet of Professor Hall, Mount Hope.

TRILOBITES, &c.

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Genus Calymene. Brongniart.

The name of this genus is derived from a Greek word which signifies obscure or concealed. The fossil animals included by it are characterized as having contractile bodies; the buckler as bearing many tubercles or folds--the cheeks as being oculiferous, and the abdomen and tail as being composed of from twelve to fourteen articulations or joints, without any membranaceous expansion. The Calymenes in thickness are nearly semicylindrical, and the buckler in front presents a chaperon or upper lip more or Jess raised. In perfect specimens, there is a small furrow which seems to indicate a separation between the upper and under parts of this kind of lip. The eyes are always raised, and frequently present the remarkable structure observable in many of the crustacea; but as this part is generally very prominent, the reticulations of the eye are commonly worn off or injured.

Professor Brongniart places but little confidence in any of the generic characters above enumerated, except the number of articulations of the abdomen: these, however, in our opinion, are more vague and uncertain than most of the others. The genus, however, we think may be readily identified, after becoming familiar with one well characterized species. The general aspect of the buckler is peculiar--the body is not so depressed as in most other genera, and the lateral lobes are destitute of all membranaceous expansion.

To the genus Calymene, belongs the celebrated Dudley fossil, called Entomolithus paradoxus by Blumenbach, but which is not the same organic relic, to which Linné applied that name.

This genus includes a great number of species, and though some of them are said to be found in different and distant parts of the globe, they are according to our limited observation, for the most part confined, like recent species of animals, to particular districts. The C. polytoma, C. pulchella, C. bellatula, C. concinna, C. sclerops, and the C. punctata, all finely figured by Professor Dalman, and which are found in Sweden, have not yet been noticed in any part of North America.