and the temperature of the globe had become cooler, the small islands of the first period increased in size; some parts appear to have been lifted above the level of the sea, while others sunk beneath itnew species of plants and animals made their appearance, and the vegetation bore some resemblance to that of the large islands of the Torrid Zone. These islands appear to have been drained by rivers of considerable size, inhabited by crocodiles, and several kinds of gigantic oviparous reptiles. In the south-west of England, a curious assemblage of fossils has been discovered, supposed to have been deposited before the chalk-hills were formed : these fossils consist of land-plants, fresh-water shellfish, tortoises, and large reptiles; such a collection as the delta of the Ganges, or some other large river in a hot climate might be expected to produce. 1 I might tell you strange stories of the monsters which appear to have haunted the primitive waters -of immense reptiles, with paddles instead of legs, and clothed in mail, as large, or even superior in size to the whale of great amphibious creatures with bodies like turtles, and long serpent-like necks, probably designed to enable them to feed on vege

1 Lyell, p. 132-134.

PRIMITIVE ANIMALS.

53

tables growing beneath the shallow waters—and I might puzzle you with the formidable names which naturalists have thought proper to give them; but we have talked enough for the present-now go and work in your garden."

54

CHAPTER III.

And now, upheaving from the dark abyss,

Th' imprison'd granite rises into day,
Shakes from his shoulders the investing schist,
Lifts his bare peaks sublime, and looks abroad
In sovereign majesty.

OLD FRAGMENT.

HARRY was so much interested by his mother's account of "The watery world," as he called the sketch she had attempted to give of the primitive Earth, that he took the first opportunity of renewing the conversation by saying: "If you will be so kind as to talk with me in the plain, easy way you have begun, I shall soon have a general notion of the structure of the Earth, and that will help me exceedingly when I come to read books on the subject, as I hope I shall by and by. You know you advised me not to attempt this just yet."

"I did, my dear Harry, and for this reason:-if you were now to begin such a course of reading,

TECHNICAL TERMS.

55

you would be discouraged at the outset, by finding you had not the knowledge necessary for understanding books of this description. Among other difficulties less easy to explain, you would meet with a great many words entirely new to you, describing the qualities of substances with which you are equally unacquainted: but if, as you just now said, you first acquire a general notion of the subject, and feel an interest in it, you will have such a perception of the meaning of the writer, as will enable you to accustom yourself to the language in which he expresses it, without weariness or disgust. Many young persons call books dry,' that would entertain them exceedingly if they were prepared to understand them. Each art or science has a kind of language belonging to itself, consisting either of appropriate words, or of common words, used in a peculiar sense :-thus a painter talks of keeping and distance-a musician of sharps and flats-and a chemist, when he uses the word precipitation, does not mean inconsiderate haste, but that process by which bodies that are dissolved or mixed in a fluid, are separated from it by settling down to the bottom. When I was describing the formation of the first kind of rocks, I called this process deposition, because that is the

name usually given to it by those who are speaking of the structure of the Earth. Such words are called technical terms, from techne, the Greek word for art and each art or science, as I just observed, has its own."

"I am sorry for it; because you see it obliges one to learn as it were a new language with each kind of knowledge."

"I must own, Harry, it is a difficulty; but the best way of surmounting it, is to make the attempt very gradually.

"In talking to you I generally endeavour to avoid technical terms, unless I think they can be made perfectly familiar; they are then a great convenience, because they express our precise meaning in the most expeditious manner. How many words a painter must use to describe those nice gradations of shade and colouring which produce the effect expressed by the single word keeping.” ·

"That is true," replied Harry; "and now that I know what is meant by the word deposition, it will be quite as easy to understand as settling down to the bottom. Mamma, I shall be obliged to you to explain such words sometimes; because it will make the books you were speaking of much easier to me afterwards."