Discourses Biological and Geological: EssaysMacmillan, 1894 - 388 pages |
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Page 6
... bottom of the earth - kettle , which is kept pretty hot below . Let us try another method of making the chalk tell us its own history . To the unassisted eye chalk looks simply like a very loose and open kind of stone . But it is ...
... bottom of the earth - kettle , which is kept pretty hot below . Let us try another method of making the chalk tell us its own history . To the unassisted eye chalk looks simply like a very loose and open kind of stone . But it is ...
Page 9
... the same time , it became desirable to ascer- tain and to indicate the nature of the sea - bottom , since this circumstance greatly affects its goodness as holding ground for anchors . Some ingenious tar , ON A PIECE OF CHALK 9.
... the same time , it became desirable to ascer- tain and to indicate the nature of the sea - bottom , since this circumstance greatly affects its goodness as holding ground for anchors . Some ingenious tar , ON A PIECE OF CHALK 9.
Page 10
... bottom can be scooped out and brought up from any depth to which the lead descends . In 1853 , Lieut . Brooke obtained mud from the bottom of the North Atlantic , between Newfoundland and the Azores , at a depth of more than 10,000 feet ...
... bottom can be scooped out and brought up from any depth to which the lead descends . In 1853 , Lieut . Brooke obtained mud from the bottom of the North Atlantic , between Newfoundland and the Azores , at a depth of more than 10,000 feet ...
Page 11
... bottom , so as to guard against chances of cutting or fraying the strands of that costly rope . The Admiralty consequently ordered Captain Dayman , an old friend and shipmate of mine , to ascertain the depth over the whole line of the ...
... bottom , so as to guard against chances of cutting or fraying the strands of that costly rope . The Admiralty consequently ordered Captain Dayman , an old friend and shipmate of mine , to ascertain the depth over the whole line of the ...
Page 12
... bottom is now covered by 1,700 fathoms of sea - water . Then would come the central plain , more than a thousand miles wide , the inequalities of the surface of which would be hardly perceptible , though the depth of water upon it now ...
... bottom is now covered by 1,700 fathoms of sea - water . Then would come the central plain , more than a thousand miles wide , the inequalities of the surface of which would be hardly perceptible , though the depth of water upon it now ...
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Common terms and phrases
Abiogenesis accumulation Anchitherium ancient animals appear Arctogæal Atlantic body bottom calcareous carbonic acid Carboniferous Carnivora causes Cetacea chalk cilium coal contains creatures cretaceous deep sea deposit depths Devonian Diatoms distribution doctrine doubt dredge dry land earth Eocene evidence existence fact fathoms fauna fermentation fish fluid Foraminifera formation forms fossil genera geological speculation geologists germs give rise globe Globigerina ooze gradually Heteromita Hipparion hypothesis knowledge known less living lobster Mammalia mammals matter Mediterranean Mesozoic microscope Miocene Miocene epoch modern modification monad naturalist nature observed ocean organisms oxygen paleontology particles Pébrine peculiar period physical plants present day protoplasm proved Radiolaria red clay regions remains rocks scientific sea-bottom shells silicious Silurian similar species sporangia spores structure substance sugar suppose surface tertiary things tion Torula trawl Triassic types Ungulata Uniformitarianism vegetable whole Wyville Thomson Xenogenesis yeast zoology zoospores
Popular passages
Page 14 - Globigerince, with the granules which have been mentioned, and some few other calcareous shells ; but a small percentage of the chalky mud — perhaps at most some five per cent, of it — is of a different nature, and consists of shells and skeletons composed of silex, or pure flint. These silicious bodies belong partly to the lowly vegetable organisms which are called Diatomaceoe, and partly to the minute, and extremely simple, animals, termed Radiolaria. It...
Page 13 - Globigerince of every size, from the smallest to the largest, are associated together in the Atlantic mud, and the chambers of many are filled by a soft animal matter. This soft substance is, in fact, the remains of the creature to which the Globigerina shell, or rather skeleton, owes its existence — and which is an animal of the simplest imaginable description. It is, in fact, a mere particle of living jelly, without defined...
Page 22 - This is a kind of shell-fish, with a shell composed of two pieces, of which, as in the oyster, one is fixed and the other free. " The upper valve is almost invariably wanting, though occasionally found in a perfect state of preservation in the white chalk at some distance. In this case, we see clearly that the sea-urchin first lived from youth to age, then died and lost its spines, which were carried away. Then the young Crania adhered to the bared shell, grew and perished in its turn; after which,...
Page 32 - Indians. Crocodiles of modern type appear ; bony fishes, many of them very similar to existing species, almost supplant the forms of fish which predominate in more ancient seas ; and many kinds of living shell-fish first become known to us in the chalk.
Page 244 - But the great tragedy of Science — the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact...
Page 6 - Or, to take a more familiar example, the fur on the inside of a teakettle is carbonate of lime, and, for anything chemistry tells us to the contrary, the chalk might be a kind of gigantic fur upon the bottom of the earth-kettle, which is kept pretty hot below.