Peter Parley's Wonders of the Earth, Sea, and Sky

Part I.--Wonders of the Earth.

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Chap. I. Parley explains how the Strata of the Earth are placed 1

Chap. II. What creatures once lived where Dorsetshire now is 5 The Icthyosaurus 6 The Plesiosaurus 14 The Pterodactyle, &c. 17

Chap. III. What sort of a place once existed where the neighbourhood of Paris is now, and the animals that lived there 21 The Palæotherium 22 The Anoplotherium, &c. 25 The Dinotherium 26

Chap. IV. Of Great Caverns in England and Germany, filled with bones of wild animals 30 Dr. Buckland's account of the great cave of Gaylenreuth 31

Chap. V. Of other animals that once lived in England and elsewhere The Elephant 34 The Gigantic Elk 38 The Megatherium 39 The Beaver 41 The Dodo 42

Chap. VI. Parley describes Volcanoes, Earthquakes, and Hot Springs 47 Earthquake of Calabria 49 Volcanoes 61 The way in which an Eruption takes place 63 Lava Streams 65 Great Lava Streams from Skapta Jokul, in Iceland 69 Alluvions 70 The Great Volcano Kirauea, in the island of Hawaii 71 Of the formation of new islands 76 Parley describes his visit to the Geysers of Iceland 78 The Sulphur Mountains and Sulphur Springs 87 How the Geysers may be caused 89

Chap. VII. Of the Rocks called Basaltic 92 Parley's visit to Staffa 93 The Giant's Causeway 101

Chap. VIII. Why Parley believes that there is a great source of heat within the globe 103

Chap. IX. Parley tells something about the history of Mount Vesuvius 111 The Grotto del Cano 112 Of the death of Pliny, the Naturalist 115 Herculaneum and Pompeii 124

Chap. X. Parley describes the Falls of Niagara 135

Part Ii.--Wonders of the Sea.

Chap. I. Parley tells about the Frozen Ocean 144 Icebergs 146 Parley's dangerous situation on an Iceberg 150

Chap. II. The story of a long journey over the ice with some Esquimaux 152

Chap. III. The journey over the ice, continued 167

Chap. IV. The Whale 178 The mode of catching Whales 183 Character of the Whale 187

Chap. V. A voyage on a Tropical Sea 190 Trade Winds and Monsoons 191

Chap. VI. The Waterspout 194 How Parley supposes Waterspouts to be caused 199

Chap. VII. Coral Reefs and Islands 203 Various kinds of Coral 204 The Coral-Making Polypes 206 Forms of the Coral Reefs 211 Parley's first sight of one 213

Chap. VIII. Luminous appearance of the sea 221 Animals by which it is occasioned, and the Acalepha in particular 223

Chap. IX. The Cuttle Fish 231 The Octopus 235

Chap. X. The Paper Nautilus, or Argonaut 239 How Parley saw one sailing on the sea 241 The Pearly Nautilus 245 The Nautilus Spirula 248

Part Iii.--Wonders of the Sky.

Chap. I. The Colour of the Sky 250

Chap. II. The Aurora Borealis 254

Chap. III. Parley tells of some other Meteors Parhelia or Mock Suns 263 Ignes Fatui 264 Experiment to show the cause 266

Chap. IV. Shooting Stars 267 What they are 269

Chap. V. Meteoric Stones, or Aerolites 273 How they are caused 277

Chap. VI. Bloody Rain 280 Red Snow 281 Showers of Frogs and Fish 282

Chap. VII. The Spectre of the Brocken 285

Chap. VIII. Some other instances of Aerial Reflection Souter Fell 291 What a Friend of Parley's saw 293 Dover Castle 293 What Humboldt saw 294 What Captain Scoresby saw 295 Apparent distance of Object 296

Chap. IX. Fata Morgana 299 The Mirage 299

Chap. X. How Parley supposes these appearances to be produced 303 Refraction 305 Reflection 311

Conclusion. Of some other Wonders, &c.

Section I. How We Ought to Think Upon What We Know 314

II. Ever Part of the Earth a Home for something 316 III. Birds of Passage, Dormice, and Snails 318 IV. The Rein-deer--the Camel 322 V. Benefit of the difference of Climate 324 VI. The same Organs in different Animals developed in various modes and degrees--the Acalepha, Actinia, and Sepia 326 VII. How the Stars and we are connected together-- Gravitation--Aerolites 330 VIII. Dew 332 IX. How every thing is endowed with a tendency to preserve its own life, and the existence of its race 334 X. The Bud of the Poppy--long retention of life by seeds and roots 336 XI. Of Seeds which are furnished with wings or sails 339 XII. Conclusion of the conclusion 340

List of Plates.

PLATE Page

I. EXTINCT ANIMALS THAT ONCE LIVED WHERE DORSETSHIRE NOW IS 5

II. EXTINCT ANIMALS THAT ONCE LIVED WHERE PARIS NOW IS 21

III. GREAT BONE CAVERN OF GAYLENREUTH 30

IV. GIGANTIC ELK AND MEGATHERIUM 38

V. VESUVIUS, WITH THE PINE-TREE CLOUD 64

VI. VESUVIUS IN ERUPTION AT NIGHT 66

VII. THE GEYSERS OF ICELAND 78

VIII. ISLAND OF STAFFA 93

IX. FINGAL'S CAVE 97

X. FORUM OF POMPEII 131

XI. GREAT FALL OF NIAGARA 135

XII. ESCAPE ON THE ICE 157

XIII. THE WATER-SPOUT 194

XIV. ACTINIÆ--CORAL BUILDERS 206

XV. SEPIAS 231

XVI. NAUTILUS 239

XVII. AURORA BOREALIS (FRONTISPIECE.)

XVIII. SPECTRE OF THE BROCKEN 285

XIX. DOVER CASTLE 293

XX. FATA MORGANA 299

WONDERS OF THE EARTH,

SEA, AND SKY.

PART I.. Wonders of the Earth.

WONDERS OF THE EARTH.

CHAPTER I.

PARLEY EXPLAINS HOW THE STRATA OF THE EARTH ARE PLACED.

I am now going to tell you, my young friends, about some of the wonderful things in the earth, sea, and sky. A great number of them I have seen myself in my travels through various countries, and others I have only read of; but I shall tell you nothing that is not strictly true, for I do not wish so much to astonish you as to make you take pleasure in contemplating the works of God, and to increase your knowledge of His goodness, wisdom, and power.

I shall begin with some of the wonders of the earth which, as I suppose you know, belong to the branch of natural history which is called geology; and to enable you to understand what follows, I must first explain how the materials which compose the ground you tread upon are arranged.

If you hastily travel over any extensive tract of country, such as that between New York and Philadelphia, or between London and Bristol, you might think that all the different substances, clay, chalk, limestone, and granite, were irregularly mixed together. This is, however, not the case, when taken on a great scale; for if you more carefully examine, you will find that the various sorts of earth are disposed in layers, or strata, and that a uniform order of arrangement is nearly preserved.

If these layers were perfectly horizontal, laid one over another like the coats of an onion, we should have to dig through one before we could get to the second, and our knowledge of what the globe consists, would be much more limited than it is; for the greatest depth to which men have descended in the deepest mines, is not much greater than the thickness of one of the strata.

But, instead of this, the surface is broken up by some force from beneath elevating portions, so as to form mountains and hills; and in consequence of this the edges of the strata appear on the surface one after another; just as you would see the edges of a row of bricks that had been set up on their ends, and then the last one thrown down so as to push down all the others.

This is the way in which the strata are placed in the neighbourhood of Weymouth.

The chief reason why I wished you to understand this is, that you may see how it is known that one stratum is older than another. It is evident that the substance marked a, in the section, which is limestone, must have been deposited before b, while b must certainly be older than c.

Now in most of the strata above the granite, which is nearly always in the position of the oldest formation, there are found various shells, plants, and bones of animals; and where certain remains of different animals or vegetables are found in one stratum, it is concluded that they must have been living about the same time.

Most of the animals of the older strata were different in form from any at present known to exist; and some of them are very remarkable, and if they were alive now, would seem to us very strange and awkward.

EXTINCT ANIMALS.]

CHAPTER II.. What Creatures Once Lived Where Dorsetshire Now Is.

WHAT CREATURES ONCE LIVED WHERE DORSETSHIRE NOW IS.

I will show you a picture of what creatures were once living where the town of Lyme Regis, in Dorsetshire, now stands, and tell you something about their structure and their habits. You may perhaps be ready to think that a great deal of what we profess to know concerning them, is the work of fancy, but I can assure you it is not, and by and by I will endeavour to convince you that there is reason enough for you to believe what I tell you.

THE ICHTHYOSAURUS.

That large animal lying on the ground, is called the Icthyosaurus, from two Greek words signifying Fish-Lizard, in consequence of his possessing some of the peculiarities of both fishes and lizards.

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