Solution Manual for Biology Laboratory

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INVESTIGATION WORKSHEET 1 Name

How Temperature Affects the Production of CO2 by Yeast

Observation: Fermentation of nutrients by yeast produces CO2, and the production-rate of this CO2 can be used
to measure growth of the yeast. In this lab you’ve already investigated how CO2 production is affected by
different nutrients (i.e., sugar, protein).

Formulate and record a question regarding temperature how it influences CO2 production by yeast.

Write a your null hypothesis for this experiment:

_

Write an alternate hypothesis for this experiment:

_

Identify the independent variable:

Identify the dependent variable:_

Describe your experimental design and procedures. Identify your control and experimental groups. Remember to keep the
single variable difference between your control and experimental groups, and specify how you will analyze your data.
What safety procedures should you be sure to incorporate in your methodology?
Results:

What would be an appropriate way to graphically represent your data?

Do your data support your null or alternate hypothesis?

Answer your question:

What ideas do you have for experiments that will build on this experiment?

Comments:
(Exercise 2) Before you arrive for the Measurements in Biology lab
exercise, please

1. Read the lab thoroughly. Note all safety guidelines.

2. Answer these preparatory questions:

What safety procedures must you follow during this lab period?

Identify the metric base units for: State the value of each of these
prefixes:
length centi

mass milli

volume micro

temperature micro

nano

How many liters of cola are left in a 12-ounce can that is half full? Show your
work.

You walk 4.5 feet to reach the sink in the lab. How many centimeters did you
walk? Show your work.

How is area calculated?

Copyright © 2017 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without
the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
What is a meniscus?

Why is it important to read the volume of a graduated cylinder at eye level?

Imagine that you are a biologist who needs to obtain fast and accurate
measurements of tadpoles in a natural population. In the field you cannot access
an electronic balance, but you do have a graduated cylinder. How could you
measure the size of the tadpoles in the field?

0 If the meniscus in a 5 mL pipet is at 3 mL, how much liquid is in the

1 pipet?
2
3
4

What is the formula for density?

Consider these measurements of the lengths of leaves from a plant you are
studying in lab:

2.51 cm What is the mean?

1.10 cm What is the median?
5.35 cm What is the range?
0.79 cm What is the variance?
4.95 cm What is the standard deviation?
1.32 cm
1.82 cm

The mean and median are not identical. What does this tell you about your
data?

Copyright © 2017 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without
the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Keeping in mind what you read about significant figures and measurements, you
measured the leaves with a 10 cm ruler having 1-mm divisions. What would be
the smallest definite (not estimated) measurement that could be read from the
instrument used to measure length?

Multiply 10.232 × 44.50342. Record your answer with the correct number of
significant digits. Explain your reasoning.

Would it be equally correct and appropriate to represent the number 100 as

100.00? Explain your answer.

Copyright © 2017 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without
the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Exercise 2
MEASUREMENTS IN BIOLOGY:
THE METRIC SYSTEM AND DATA ANALYSIS
This is a simple lab exercise, that includes information about the metric system, but we've found
that well over half of our students do not understand the concepts of mean, range, median, and
variance. The most critical words to be defined in an introduction to the lab exercise are central
tendency and variation. Biology is filled with variation and students must learn not only to
document variation, but to view variation as part of natural processes rather than a sign of error.
The basic theme of this exercise is that understanding any biological data set begins with
measures of central tendency (mean, median, mode) and measures of variation about the mean
(range, variance, standard deviation).

SUGGESTED ELEMENTS FOR AN INTRODUCTORY LECTURE

Quantification of data is essential for good science.
The natural world, especially the life sciences, is filled with variation.
Natural variation often makes simple observation inadequate for study of living processes.
To deal with variation, biologists employ the scientific method and careful quantification of
data.
The most conventional and widely used tool to express scientific data is the metric system.
The metric system need not replace the English system in all walks of life. But, it is a
powerful and efficient tool for calculation-intensive sciences.
Scientists rarely convert from one system to the other. Instead, they work within the metric
system. Learning to do conversions within the metric system is more important than
conversions between systems.
Metric units include measures of length, volume, mass, and temperature, and are based on
multiples of ten.
The initial and most fundamentally important analysis of a data set is to determine the central
tendency (mean, mode, and median) and the variation (range, variance, standard deviation)
inherent in the data.

INVESTIGATIVE PROCEDURE
Inventory/survey class on what supplies are needed for this procedure:
ACTIVITIES
1. Make metric measurements of length, width, volume, mass, and temperature for common
objects.
2. Calculate mean, median, range, variance, and standard deviation for example data.
3. Gather and statistically summarize a data set of student heights.

VOCABULARY
density kilogram mean
median meniscus meter
metric system range standard deviation
statistics sum of squared deviations variance
volume

MATERIALS FOR ALL PROCEDURES

Number of lab sections Total work groups

Work groups per section Students per work group

TIME LINE FOR LABORATORY PREPARATION

Beginning of the semester:
Determine the number of sections, work groups, and students in the course.
Inventory supplies and, if necessary, reorder supplies.
After the supply of each material is verified, check off the supply in the spaces in the list(s)
below.
Two weeks before lab:
Determine how many work groups you will have.
Verify that the needed quantities of disposable supplies are available.
One–Three days before lab:
Place beaker of tap water in refrigerator.
Distribute materials to each work station.
One hour before the lab:
Fill the ice chest with crushed ice.
Heat water if hot tap water is not available. A large flask of water should be fine for the entire
class.

Quantity Needed
√ Materials Total Per Group Catalog Number
Equipment
triple beam balance 15 W 6057
refrigerator
calculator or computer
 small open-topped ice chest
Supplies: one set per group
meter stick or metric tape measure
common items to measure
(coffee cup, book, nickel,
paper clip, golf ball)
10-ml graduated cylinder 18 W 1705
100-ml graduated cylinder 18 W 1730
100-ml beaker 17 W 4020
10-ml pipet 17 W 1308
5-ml pipet 17 W 1307
pipet dispensing bulb 15 W 0511
gallon jug (milk jug)
eye dropper
centigrade thermometer
pencil
marble
small rock (1”)

Solutions
hot, cold, and refrigerated tap water

COMMENTS ON PROCEDURES
A guide to the metric system and conversions may be helpful in addition to the information
provided in the lab manual.
We also provide a few objects of unknown mass, volume, and dimensions for the students to
measure. The class results are put on the board, collated, and the variation is discussed.
Unless otherwise noted, all catalog numbers are Ward’s Natural Science. Comparison
shopping at the following scientific companies might save you money on some supplies:
o Carolina Biological Supply Company, www.carolina.com
o Fisher Scientific, www.fishersci.com
Safety first: Be sure and cover any safety issues that may be specifically related to this lab
procedure.

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS
1. a. Can measurements be accurate but not precise? Explain.
Yes, if the mean of the values is “true”, but the variation is high and scattered.
 b. Can measurements be precise but not accurate? Explain.
Yes, if the measurements are all similar (low variation), but the mean of those
measurements is far from the “true” value.
2. Make the following conversions.
1 meter = 100 centimeters = 1000 millimeters; 92.4 millimeters = 0.0924 meters = 9.24
centimeters; 10 kilometers = 10,000 meters = 100,000 decimeters; 82 centimeters = 0.82
meters = 820 millimeters; 3.1 kilograms = 3,100 grams = 3,100,000 milligrams; 281
milliliters = 0.281 liters = 2.81 deciliters; 35 millimeters = 3.5 centimeters 0.035 meters
3. What are some potential sources of error in yourmeasurements?
angle of vision, building, posture when measuring height, variation in dimensions of a
page, table, room, ceiling, mistakes in reading the ruler, etc.
4. What volume of liquid did you measure?
Variable
5. a. Density is mass per unit volume. Use data that you’ve gathered to determine the density
of water at room temperature.
Density of water = (mass/volume = 1 gram / 1 milliliter)
b. What is the density of the wooden pencil? Does it float? Why?
Because wood is less dense than water, the pencil will float. The density of the pencil will
vary.
c. What is the density of the rock? Does it sink? Why?
Because the rock has a higher density than water, it will sink. The exact density of the rock
will vary.
6. a. Does the mean always describe the "typical" measurement? Why or Why not?
No, because the mean can be dramatically affected by a single, extreme atypical
measurement. And, the mean may be calculated to a portion of a single unit; i.e., the mean
number of children per family is 2.3, but no family actually has 2.3 children.
b. What information about a sample does a mean not provide?
It does not provide information about variation, range, and extremes on either side of the
mean.
7. a. What is responsible for this difference between the mean and median?
The distribution of numbers throughout the range is uneven.
b. How would the median change if the 9-mm-long leaf was not in the sample?
The median would not change.
c. How would the mean change if the 9-mm-long leaf was not in the sample?
The mean would change from 58.6 to 62.4.
d. Consider these samples. What is the mean for sample 1? Sample 2?
Both means = 30.
8. a. Could two samples have the same mean but different ranges? Explain.
Yes, the mean does not reflect the distribution of sample values.
b. Could two samples have the same range but different means? Explain.
Yes, uneven distributions of numbers within the same range could produce different
means.
9. a. What does your calculation tell you?
Conclusions vary (males usually taller than females, range for males usually greater than
range for females, etc.).
b. What are the limitations of your sample?
 There can be great variation in small sample sizes.

Questions for Further Thought and Study

1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using the metric system of measurements?
Base 10 of units, easy to convert between scales.
Unfortunately many scientists and businesses are in countries using the English
standards of units and measurement scales.
2. Why is it important for all scientists to use a standard system of measures rather than the
system that may be most popular in their home country or region?
Good science must be repeatable.
Standards assist scientists from different countries who are working together to repeat
investigations. Their cooperative effort and repetition of the experiments strengthen the
validation of the results.
3. Do you lose or gain information when you use statistics to reduce a population to a few
characteristic numbers? Explain your answer.
Fewer examples in regulation, greater the rise of detecting a difference when none really
exists.
One loses information. A few “characteristic numbers” cannot fully describe the
variation among all members of a population.
4. Suppose that you made repeated measurements of your height. If you used good
technique, would you expect the range to be large or small? Explain your answer.
Small. Repeated measures improve technique and thus improve precision and accuracy.
5. Suppose that a biologist states that the average height of undergraduate students at your
university is 205 cm plus or minus a standard deviation of 17 cm. What does this mean?
The mean value is 205 cm. 68% of students range between 188cm – 222cm
6. What does a small standard deviation signify? What does a large standard deviation
signify?
low variation in the data set
high variation in the data set
7. Is it possible to make a perfectly precise measurement? Explain.
No, only in theory. Uncertainty in all measurements.
8. When in our everyday lives do we not want precise measurements?
Late for work, utilities rates, physical attributes, age.
Another random document with
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of Robert Merry's
museum, Volumes III-IV (1842)
 This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
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eBook.

Title: Robert Merry's museum, Volumes III-IV (1842)

Author: Various

Editor: Samuel G. Goodrich

Release date: February 26, 2024 [eBook #73026]

Language: English

Original publication: Boston: Bradbury & Soden, 1842

Credits: Carol Brown, Linda Cantoni, Jude Eylander, Katherine

Ward and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from
images generously made available by The Internet
Archive)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROBERT

MERRY'S MUSEUM, VOLUMES III-IV (1842) ***
 ROBERT MERRY’S

MUSEUM:
VOLUMES III. IV.

BOSTON:
PUBLISHED BY BRADBURY, SODEN & CO.
10, SCHOOL STREET, AND 127, NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK.
1843.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1842, by S. G.

Goodrich, in
the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.
 ROBERT MERRY’S
MUSEUM.

edited by

S. G. GOODRICH,

a u t h o r o f p e t e r pa r l e y ’ s ta l e s .

VOLUME III.

BOSTON:
B R A D B U R Y, S O D E N , & C O . ,
No. 10 School Street, and 127 Nassau Street, New York.
1842.
 CONTENTS OF VOLUME III.
JANUARY TO JUNE, 1842.

The New Year, 1

Wonders of Geology, 3
The Siberian Sable-Hunter, 7, 65, 122
Merry’s Adventures, 12, 36, 79, 150, 177
Repentance, 16
17, 41, 74, 97, 131,
Indians of America,
165
Story of Philip Brusque, 21, 60, 87
Solon, the Grecian Lawgiver, 25
How to settle a Dispute without Pistols, 26
The Painter and his Master, 27
The Turkey and Rattlesnake,—a Fable, 28
Flowers, 28
Christmas, 29
31, 95, 126, 159,
Puzzles,
190
Varieties, 31, 188
Hymn for the New Year,—Music, 32
Anecdote of a Traveller, 33
Dr. Cotton and the Sheep, 34
The Robin, 34
Echo,—A Dialogue, 35
The Lion and the Ass, 35
National Characteristics, 35
The Two Seekers, 38
Resistance to Pain, 40
The Voyages, Travels and Experiences of 45, 84, 102, 139,
Thomas Trotter, 182
Cheerful Cherry, 48
The War in Florida, 56
Composition, 58
Natural Curiosities of New Holland, 59
Beds, 61
The Great Bustard, 62
The Tartar, 63
Answers to Puzzles, 63
The Snow-Storm,—Music, 64
Bees, 69
The several varieties of Dogs, 72
Anecdote of the Indians, 73
The Wisdom of God, 77
The Canary Bird, 78
The Paper Nautilus, 79
The Zodiac, 83
The Tanrec, 89
Letter from a Correspondent, 89
Different kinds of Type, 91
The Three Sisters, 92
The Zephyr, 95
To Correspondents, 95, 127, 158, 189
March,—A Song, 96
Butterflies, 101
Herschel the Astronomer, 107
Truth and Falsehood,—An Allegory, 108
The Chimpansé, 110
The Sugar-Cane, 111
Dialogue on Politeness, 112
The Date Tree, 114
Dress, 115
Eagles, and other matters, 117
April, 120
The Prophet Jeremiah, 121
Letter from a Subscriber, 124
Toad-Stools and Mushrooms, 125
Return of Spring, 126
Smelling, 129
Isaac and Rebekah, 135
Mr. Catlin and his Horse Charley, 136
The Kitchen, 138
Knights Templars, 145
The Garden of Peace, 146
The Banana, 148
Comparative Size of Animals, 149
Misitra and the Ancient Sparta, 155
Absence of Mind, 155
The Star Fish, 156
Where is thy Home? 157
Sea-Weed, 157
Inquisitive Jack and his Aunt Piper, 158
“Far Away,”—the Bluebird’s Song, 160
The Sense of Hearing, 161
“Fresh Flowers,” 162
June, 164
House-Building, 173
Edwin the Rabbit-fancier, 175
Who planted the Oaks? 181
The Deluge, 186
Page for Little Readers, 187

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1842, by S. G.

Goodrich, in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of
Massachusetts.
THE IGUANADON.
MERRY’S MUSEUM.

V O L U M E I I I . — N o . 1 .

Tom Stedfast.
 The New Year.

There are few days in all the year that are pleasanter than the
first of January—New Year’s Day. It is a day when we all salute each
other with a cheerful greeting;—when children say to their parents,
as they meet in the morning, “I wish you a happy new year!” and the
parents reply, “A happy new year, my dear children!”
The first of January is, then, a day of kind wishes; of happy
hopes; of bright anticipations: it is a day in which we feel at peace
with all the world, and, if we have done our duty well during the
departed year, we feel peaceful within.
Methinks I hear my young readers say, “Would that all our days
might be thus cheerful and agreeable!” Alas! this may not be. It is not
our lot to be thus cheerful and happy all the days of our lives. A part
of our time must be devoted to study, to labor, to duty. We cannot
always be enjoying holidays. And, indeed, it is not best we should.
As people do not wish always to be eating cake and sugar-plums, so
they do not always desire to be sporting and playing. As the cake
and sugar-plums would, by and by, become sickening to the palate,
so the play would at last grow tedious. As we should soon desire
some good solid meat, so we should also desire some useful and
instructive occupation.
But as it is now new year’s day, let us make the best of it. I wish
you a happy new year, my black-eyed or blue-eyed reader! Nay, I
wish you many a happy new year! and, what is more, I promise to do
all in my power to make you happy, not only for this ensuing year,
but for many seasons to come. And how do you think I propose to do
it? That is what I propose to tell you!
In the first place, I am going to tell you, month by month, a lot of
stories both useful and amusing. I wish to have a part of your time to
myself, and, like my young friend Tom Stedfast, whose portrait I give
you at the head of this article, I wish you not only to read my
Magazine, but, if you have any little friends who cannot afford to buy
it, I wish you to lend it to them, so that they may peruse it.
 Tom is a rare fellow! No sooner does he get the Magazine than he
sits down by the fire, just as you see him in the picture, and reads it
from one end to the other. If there is anything he don’t understand,
he goes to his father and he explains it. If there are any pretty
verses, he learns them by heart; if there is any good advice, he lays
it up in his memory; if there is any useful information, he is sure to
remember it. Tom resembles a squirrel in the autumn, who is always
laying up nuts for the winter season; for the creature knows that he
will have need of them, then. So it is with Tom; when he meets with
any valuable knowledge—it is like nuts to him—and he lays it up, for
he is sure that he will have use for it at some future day. And there is
another point in which Tom resembles the squirrel; the latter is as
lively and cheerful in gathering his stores for future use, as he is in
the spring time, when he has only to frisk and frolic amid the
branches of the trees—and Tom is just as cheerful and pleasant
about his books and his studies, as he is when playing blind-man’s-
buff.
Now I should like to have my young readers as much like Tom
Stedfast as possible; as studious, as fond of knowledge, and yet as
lively and as good humored. And there is another thing in which I
should wish all my young friends to resemble Tom; he thinks
everything of me! No sooner does he see me stumping and stilting
along, than he runs up to me, calling out, “How do you do, Mr.
Merry? I’m glad to see you; I hope you are well! How’s your wooden
leg?”
Beside all this, Tom thinks my Museum is first-rate—and I assure
you it is a great comfort to my old heart, when I find anybody pleased
with my little Magazine. I do not pretend to write such big books as
some people; nor do I talk so learnedly as those who go to college
and learn the black arts. But what I do know, I love to communicate;
and I am never so happy as when I feel that I am gratifying and
improving young people. This may seem a simple business, to some
people, for an old man; but if it gives me pleasure, surely no one has
a right to grumble about it.
There is another thing in Tom Stedfast which I like. If he meets
with anything in my Magazine which he does not think right, he sits
down and writes me a letter about it. He does not exactly scold me,
but he gives me a piece of his mind, and that leads to explanations
and a good understanding. So we are the best friends in the world.
And now what I intend to do is, to make my little readers as much
like Tom Stedfast as possible. In this way I hope I may benefit them
not only for the passing year, but for years to come. I wish not only to
assist my friends in finding the right path, but I wish to accustom their
feet to it, so that they may adopt good habits and continue to pursue
it. With these intentions I enter upon the new year, and I hope that
the friendship already begun between me and my readers, will
increase as we proceed in our journey together.
 Wonders of Geology.

There are few things more curious, strange, and wonderful than
the facts revealed by geology. This science is occupied with the
structure of the surface of the earth; it tells us of the rocks, gravel,
clay, and soil of which it is composed, and how they are arranged.
In investigating these materials, the geologists have discovered
the bones of strange animals, imbedded either in the rocks or the
soil, and the remains of vegetables such as do not now exist. These
are called fossil remains; the word fossil meaning dug up. This
subject has occupied the attention of many very learned men, and
they have at last come to the most astonishing results. A gigantic
skeleton has been found in the earth near Buenos Ayres, in South
America; it is nearly as large as the elephant, its body being nine feet
long and seven feet high. Its feet were enormous, being a yard in
length, and more than twelve inches wide. They were terminated by
gigantic claws; while its huge tail, which probably served as a means
of defence, was larger than that of any other beast, living or extinct.
This animal has been called the Megatherium: mega, great,
therion, wild beast. It was of the sloth species, and seems to have
had a very thick skin, like that of the armadillo, set on in plates
resembling a coat of armor. There are no such animals in existence
now; they belong to a former state of this earth,—to a time before the
creation of man.
Discoveries have been made of the remains of many other fossil
animals belonging to the ancient earth. One of them is called the
Ichthyosaurus, or fish lizard. It had the teeth of a crocodile, the head
of a lizard, and the fins or paddles of a whale. These fins, or paddles
were very curious, and consisted of above a hundred small bones,
closely united together. This animal used to live principally at the
bottoms of rivers, and devour amazing quantities of fish, and other
water animals, and sometimes its own species; for an ichthyosaurus
has been dug out of the cliffs at Lyme Regis, England, with part of a
small one in his stomach. This creature was sometimes thirty or forty
feet long.

The jaws of the Ichthyosaurus.

Another of these fossil animals is called the Plesiosaurus, a word
which means, like a lizard. It appears to have formed an intermediate
link between the crocodile and the ichthyosaurus. It is remarkable for
the great length of its neck, which must have been longer than that
of any living animal. In the engraving at the beginning of this number,
you will see one of these animals swimming in the water. The
following is a view of his skeleton; the creature was about fifteen feet
long.

Skeleton of the Plesiosaurus.

But we have not yet mentioned the greatest wonder of fossil
animals; this is the Iguanodon, whose bones have been found in
England. It was a sort of lizard, and its thigh bones were eight inches
in diameter. This creature must have been from seventy to a
hundred feet long, and one of its thighs must have been as large as
the body of an ox. I have given a portrait of this monster, drawn by
Mr. Billings, an excellent young artist, whom you will find at No. 10,
Court st., Boston. I cannot say that the picture is a very exact
likeness; for as the fellow has been dead some thousands of years,
we can only be expected to give a family resemblance. We have
good reason to believe, however, that it is a tolerably faithful
representation, for it is partly copied from a design by the celebrated
John Martin, in London, and to be found in a famous book on the
wonders of geology, by Mr. Mantel.
There was another curious animal, called the Pterodactyle, with
gigantic wings. The skull of this animal must have been very large in
proportion to the size of the skeleton, the jaws themselves being
almost as large as its body.

Skeleton of the Pterodactyle.

They were furnished with sharp, hooked teeth. The orbits of the
eyes were very large; hence it is probable that it was a nocturnal
animal, like the bat, which, at first sight, it very much resembles in
the wings, and other particulars.
The word pterodactyle signifies wing-fingered; and, if you
observe, you will find that it had a hand of three fingers at the bend
of each of its wings, by which, probably, it hung to the branches of
trees. Its food seems to have been large dragon-flies, beetles and
other insects, the remains of some of which have been found close
to the skeleton of the animal. The largest of the pterodactyles were
of the size of a raven. One of them is pictured in the cut with the
Iguanodon.
Another very curious animal which has been discovered is the
Dinotherium, being of the enormous length of eighteen feet. It was
an herbiferous animal, and inhabited fresh water lakes and rivers,
feeding on weeds, aquatic roots, and vegetables. Its lower jaws
measured four feet in length, and are terminated by two large tusks,
curving downwards, like those of the upper jaw of the walrus; by
which it appears to have hooked itself to the banks of rivers as it
slept in the water. It resembled the tapirs of South America. There
appear to have been several kinds of the dinotherium, some not
larger than a dog. One of these small ones is represented in the
picture with the Iguanodon.
The bones of the creatures we have been describing, were all
found in England, France, and Germany, except those of the
megatherium, which was found in South America. In the United
States, the bones of an animal twice as big as an elephant, called
the Mastodon, or Mammoth, have been dug up in various places,
and a nearly perfect skeleton is to be seen at Peale’s Museum, in
Philadelphia.
Now it must be remembered that the bones we have been
speaking of, are found deeply imbedded in the earth, and that no
animals of the kind now exist in any part of the world. Beside those
we have mentioned, there were many others, as tortoises,
elephants, tigers, bears, and rhinoceroses, but of different kinds from
those which now exist.
It appears that there were elephants of many sizes, and some of
them had woolly hair. The skeleton of one of the larger kinds, was
found in Siberia, some years since, partly imbedded in ice, as I have
told you in a former number.
The subject of which we are treating increases in interest as we
pursue it. Not only does it appear, that, long before man was
created, and before the present order of things existed on the earth,
strange animals, now unknown, inhabited it, but that they were
exceedingly numerous. In certain caves in England, immense
quantities of the bones of hyenas, bears, and foxes are found; and
the same is the fact in relation to certain caves in Germany.
Along the northern shores of Asia, the traces of elephants and
rhinoceroses are so abundant as to show that these regions, now so
cold and desolate, were once inhabited by thousands of quadrupeds
of the largest kinds. In certain parts of Europe, the hills and valleys
appear to be almost composed of the bones of extinct animals; and
in all parts of the world, ridges, hills and mountains, are made up of
the shells of marine animals, of which no living specimen now dwells
on the earth!
Nor is this the only marvel that is revealed by the discoveries of
modern geology. Whole tribes of birds and insects, whole races of
trees and plants, have existed, and nothing is left of their story save
the traces to be found in the soil, or the images depicted in the layers
of slate. They all existed before man was created, and thousands of
years have rolled over the secret, no one suspecting the wonderful
truth. Nor does the train of curiosities end here. It appears that the
climates of the earth must have been different in those ancient and
mysterious days from what they are at present: for in England, ferns,
now small plants, grew to the size of trees, and vegetables flourished
there of races similar to those which now grow only in the hot
regions of the tropics.
As before stated, the northern shores of Siberia, in Asia, at
present as cold and desolate as Lapland, and affording sustenance
only to the reindeer that feeds on lichens, was once inhabited by
thousands and tens of thousands of elephants, and other creatures,
which now only dwell in the regions of perpetual summer.
The inferences drawn from all these facts, which are now placed
beyond dispute, are not only interesting, but they come upon us like
a new revelation. They seem to assure us that this world in which we
dwell has existed for millions of years; that at a period, ages upon
ages since, there was a state of things totally distinct from the
present. Europe was then, probably, a collection of islands. Where
England now is, the iguanodon then dwelt, and was, probably, one of
the lords of the soil.
This creature was from seventy to a hundred feet long. He dwelt
along the rivers and lakes, and had for his companions other animals
of strange and uncouth forms. Along the borders of the rivers the
ferns grew to the height of trees, and the land was shaded with
trees, shrubs, and plants, resembling the gorgeous vegetation of
Central America and Central Africa.