The Story of the Rocks: Fourteen Weeks in Popular GeologyA. S. Barnes, 1877 - 280 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
abundant agate ammonite ancient animals 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 mollusks mountains Nature Niagara ocean Oölite Paleozoic pebbles peculiar Period plesiosaur polished present quarried quartz region remains reptiles resembling river rocky sand sandstone Scenic sediment sedimentary rocks shales shells shore Silurian siphuncle slate soil species stone strata stratified rocks striæ surface teeth Tertiary tion traced trees Trenton Triassic trilobite vegetation veins York
Popular passages
Page 251 - There rolls the deep where grew the tree. O earth, what changes hast thou seen! There where the long street roars, hath been The stillness of the central sea. The hills are shadows, and they flow From form to form, and nothing stands ; They melt like mist, the solid lands, Like clouds they shape themselves and go.
Page 253 - 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 9 - Thy verse hath power that brightly might diffuse A breath, a kindling, as of spring, around, From its own glow of hope and courage high, And steadfast faith's victorious constancy. .True bard and holy ! — thou art e'en as one Who, by some secret gift of soul or eye, In every spot beneath the smiling sun, • Sees where the springs of living waters lie...
Page 14 - IN a valley, centuries ago, Grew a little fern-leaf green and slender, Veining delicate and fibres tender ; Waving when the wind crept down so low. Rushes tall and moss and grass grew round it, Playful sunbeams darted in and found it, Drops of dew stole in by night and crowned it, But no foot of man e'er trod that way : Earth was young and keeping holiday.
Page 39 - 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...
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 122 - Build thee more stately mansions, oh, 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 205 - ... deep, confined, labyrinthine passages, not unlike the narrow, irregular streets and lanes of some quaint old town of the European Continent. Viewed in the distance, indeed, these rocky piles, in their endless succession, assume the appearance of massive, artificial structures, decked out with all the accessories of buttress and turret, arched doorway and clustered shaft, pinnacle, and finial, and tapering spire.
Page 64 - Or upright ranged, in wondrous array, "With purple of green o'er the darksome gray. The solemn rows in that ocean den Were dimly seen like the forms of men ; Like giant monks in ages agone, Whom the god of the ocean had sear'd to stone ; And their path was on wondrous pavement old, In blocks all cast in some giant mould.
Page 14 - ... mighty motion Of the deep, strong currents of the ocean; Moved the plain and shook the haughty wood, Crushed the little fern in soft moist clay, Covered it, and hid it safe away.