Fourteen Weeks in Popular GeologyA.S. Barnes, 1877 - 280 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
abundant agate ammonite ancient animal Appalachian appearance beautiful beds bones bottom bowlders Brachiopods called Carboniferous cave chalk clay coal color contains corals Cretaceous crinoids crystals débris deep deposits Describe Devonian dikes Drift earth earth's crust elephant Eozoic Epoch existed feet thick feldspar ferns fish folded forests formation fossils geologic geologist glaciers gneiss granite heat hills Hugh Miller hyena Ichthyosaur igneous inches Irish elk iron Kinds of rock Lake Superior land lava layers lime limestone mammals mammoth marble mass melted Mesozoic metamorphic metamorphic rocks mica miles mineral Mississippi mollusks mountains Nature Niagara ocean Oölite Paleozoic pebbles Period plesiosaur polished present quarried quartz region remains reptiles resembling river rocky sand sandstone Scenic sediment sedimentary rocks shales shells shore siliceous Silurian siphuncle slate soil species stone strata stratified rocks striæ surface teeth Tertiary tion traced trees Trenton Triassic trilobite valley vegetation veins York
Popular passages
Page 118 - Year after year beheld the silent toil That spread his lustrous coil; Still, as the spiral grew, He left the past year's dwelling for the new, Stole with soft step its shining archway through, Built up its idle door, Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more.
Page 12 - Useless? Lost? There came a thoughtful man, Searching Nature's secrets, far and deep; From a fissure in a rocky steep He withdrew a stone, o'er which there ran Fairy pencilings, a quaint design, Veinings, leafage, fibres clear and fine, And the fern's life lay in every line! So, I think, God hides some souls away, Sweetly to surprise us, the last day.
Page 255 - We have but faith : we cannot know; For knowledge is of things we see ; And yet we trust it comes from thee, A beam in darkness : let it grow.
Page 37 - For a stone, when it is examined, will be found a mountain in miniature. The fineness of Nature's work is so great, that, into a single block, a foot or two in diameter, she can compress as many changes of form and structure, on a small scale, as she needs for her mountains on a large one ; and, taking moss for forests, and grains of crystal for crags, the surface of a stone, in by far the plurality of instances, is more interesting than the surface of an ordinary hill ; more fantastic in form, and...
Page 120 - Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, As the swift seasons roll ! Leave thy low-vaulted past! Let each new temple, nobler than the last, Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, Till thou at length art free, Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!
Page 3 - My heart is awed within me when I think Of the great miracle that still goes on, In silence, round me, — the perpetual work Of thy creation, finished, yet renewed Forever.
Page 12 - But no foot of man e'er trod that way; Earth was young, and keeping holiday. Monster fishes swam the silent main, Stately forests waved their giant branches, Mountains hurled their snowy avalanches, Mammoth creatures stalked across the plain; Nature...
Page 156 - ... mines are overhung. The roof is covered as with a canopy of gorgeous tapestry, enriched with festoons of most graceful foliage, flung in wild, irregular profusion over every portion of its surface. The eflect is heightened by the contrast of the coal-black colour of these vegetables, with the light ground work of the rock to which they are attached.
Page 37 - There are no natural objects out of which more can be thus learned than out of stones. They seem to have been created especially to reward a patient observer. Nearly all other objects in nature can be seen, to some extent, without patience, and are pleasant even in being half seen. Trees, clouds, and rivers are enjoyable even by the careless ; but the stone under his foot has for carelessness nothing in it but stumbling: no pleasure is languidly to be had out of it, nor food, nor good of any kind...