THEATRE ROYAL.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2481, 20 March 1882, Page 4

THEATRE ROYAL.

JIE DE ETON'S LECTURES,

The firth lecture of the series oomprised under the title of " The Story of the Earth" was delivered on Saturday evening. It was throughout intensely interesting, was listened to with the deepest attention, and loudly applauded at intervals. Prior to commencing hia locture, Mr Denton said he had reosived a question, tho first during his series of leotures, asking him how water was produoed. "Well, when burned was found to contain oxyftan and hydrogen combined, and during tho fiery period of the earth the oxygen and hydrogen were burnt, and strange though it might appjar, water was the ash of the oxygen and hydrogen burned at the time of the fiary condition of their planet. [Cheers.] The subject of the lecture that evening was " Mammals and the Advent of Man on tho Planet." Tho rocks of the tertiary period were divided into three distinct parts by Lyell, viz., pliocene, eocene, and miooene. There never was a time when the whole of the inhabitants of ftheearth were swept away, and new forma introduced, butgradually, one by one, the oil forms of life disappeared, and new forms took their places, as the stars set_ in the west one by one and rise in the east in the same way. The formation of tho planet and all that existed on it gradually pasted through the different stages as the colours of She rainbow molted into each other. They oould tot tell the time when this was done, but they knew that it was so. Their continents and their islands grew similarly to their trees, and geologists oould tell them the »ge of continents similarly to the age of trees by the rings in the interior of the trees. This was noticeable ooming from Mount Cook, near which the rocks were metamorphio, but as they got nearer to the aoa the rocks grew younger So the goologist passing over these rooks as truly counted the rings of ages, geologically, as tfce rings on trees were oounted. As the age of tho rooks was thus able to be told, so were the mammals. Tho process of the upheaval of the mighty mountain chains was a alow one, millions of ages had been consumed in it — a period of time so vast as to strain the mind to oontemplate and grasp it. Now with the upheaval of these mountains, taking with them the continents and islands, they had an inorease of the land spaoe, and an increase of the animals in this tertiary period. Tho valley of the Thames, whioh perhaps many of them knew, was a place whioh gave them a most Interesting detail of the age he was speaking of. Thia information was oontained in the bed of day under the city of London, known as London clay. In this clay the fossils were very abundant, of the eocene period. He had found pieces of fossil wood bored through and through by an animal like the ship worm. This wood had become charged with stony particles, so that the whole body of the wood remained. Then there were fossil fruits found there. One gentleman had found 100,000 different specimens of tho fossil fruits of this period. All these were tropioal fruits. A very different England it must have been then. The oinnatnon tree fljuriihed at the foot of the Welsh mountains, and palms raised their feathery heads. They also found shells there, whioh proved to them that where London now stood was a gulf into whioh the rivers ran, passing through spioy and tropioal forests. The fruits of this period had drifted down into the gulf and settled into the clay. Here they found fossils of crabs, lobsters, nautilus, sea serpents, crocodiles, und they began to see what kind of an England it was then. Ireland and England were connected, stretching to the west, and no doubt Great Britain was connected with the the Continent of Europe. Through this vast country swept a mighty river, and here alsi. were animals of all kinds, many of them to ba found in tropical countries today. As to the Continent of Europe, they could not tell them much except that three times its site had been a freshwater lake and twice an arm of the sea. The Paris basin was 180 miles long, and a great deal of it was composed of gypsum, which deposit had been worked for centurion. The men working this deposit noticed that in the gypsum there were a number of bones, but they were not cultivated men, and therefore they took them to be thoso of horses, sheep, or men. So muoh depended upon the brains of men and the wc their eyes were put to. They might take a hog and drive him through New Zealand, calling his attention to all the remarkable points in it, and when he had oompleted the tonr he would not be a greater philosopher than when he started, beoause he carried hog's brains with him. There were, he was sorry to eay, many people going through the world with their understandings and their eyes darkened, because they knew sot. Well, Cuvier came, and he saw that these bones were the bones of distinct and extinct animals, differing entirely from those now koown. This was a discovery which put Cuvier, in re'pact to geology, on a pedestal as high as Columbus with regard to geography ; and then baok flew the great gates of knowledge of this subject, and man inarched through the vast galleries of .the past with knowledge of the animals whioh had lived in these past ages. M. Cuvier had collected some 300 different specimens, representing a large number of distinct speoies. When he oame to examine the specimens he found that they were palaeozoic, or old, animals. Probably three millions of years had passed since these animals lived. Some of them resembled the tapir of South America, and there were numbers of prototypes of animals which now existed, such as the hyena, &o They also found the palmetto palm, and other forms of -tropical vegetation well known to them now. Passing over to Amerioa, they found some immense deposits of the eocene period. Here were great lakes covering beds in which were fossil remains of great variety. These fossil remains, while differing somewhat from the forms now known under the same name, yet have a general likeness to them. Take the fossil prototype of the horse, found in Wyoming. This animal was only as large as a fox, and had toes resembling the human hand, though only four fingers, the fifth being missing. The horse of to-day walked on one toe, but it had two splint bones in the leg. In the pliocene period they found an animal called the hipparion, or little horse, which, though having three toes, only walked on one. Going still farther baok they found an animal that had four toes and a splint bono, aud they were looking still for the animal of the five toes, whioh, when found, would be the great- great-grandfather of the h or? e family. Now, this proved that the horse had not been made all at onoe, that millions of years had been consumed in bringing the horse to its present state. [Cheers.] This being so waj it not also probable that man had so been made. [Cheers. | Now, they oame to the monkeys, and these were their nearest brute relations. This interested them very nearly, because, though they might not like it, and because some people might like to be blind to the truth he was telling them, God's grand •tory of the earth, and laying before them the leaves of nature's Bible. [Cheer*. J He had no desire to do more than lay the facts bj fare them, because this was the most intereitirg subjoot that human beings could discuss. [Cheers.] Thinking men and women, if rbey discarded superstition, would ask that they might have light, because no one would be benefitted by holding on to a lie. Some people might call this blasphemy, but he said no moro than this, that he laid the truth before them, a truth whioh the science of geology made clour to them. [Cheers.] Well, tha fiat monkeys were allied to the lemurs, or smooth-brained animals, which were the lowest type of life. This was interesting to tin di, because for the first time they saw the dawn of tho appearance of man upon this planet. In this period they found the mastodon with tusks fourteen feet in length, tooth weighing fourteen pounds, and a body of enormous size. The fossils of these enormous animals were found in various parts, and in the miooene period in Indi*, the wild horses, the wolves, giraffes, beare, tortoises, the great elephantine stag with two pairs of horns, one similar to the deer and the other like the ox, lived upon this placet. So also did the giant boa constrictor. In American representatives of the same period they found gigantic fossils of shark's teeth, whioh were now being brought into Boston and ground up to superphosphate for manure to spread on the land. There was a large miocene deposit out West, partly in Colorado and partly in Utah. There was there about 600 miles of the strangest country he ever saw, composed of rook—absolutely nothing but rook—■<not a bush or tree,' or a shrub. There was also the most peculiar formation of tho *ooks, which were like the remains of a -ruined city. But, while it was barren, it was ■*. perfeot treasure field for the geologist, as ho had taken large numbers of fossil insects, mammals, and plants. These were there by the thousand—aye, millions. The vast bones of the mammals stood out from the recks in

largo numbers. Ihen there was the country near Dakotah, which wag full of mound*. Thisoountry abounded in fossils—large turtles und the remains of various speoies of horses. This country was a miooene country. Now, during the tertiary period hordes of horses ranged the American continent; but, when the Spaniards found America, there was not a horse on the continont. The camel, the hyena, and other animals were also then there in large numbers. So, also, ooming rearer homo, they found miocene beds at Oam»rr. This rook mi a most interesting one, being full of fishes' teeth. They found that the ocean of that period, whioh laved New Zealand, was different to that of to-day, because it was far more tropical. Tne oity of Oamaru would some day be a vory beautiful one, but very few people thought that the stone, whioh was sawn out from the quarry eaaier than sawing a piece of woad.ouce was full of life. In the early periods there must have been a dreadful storm, and a voloano broke in the bnsom of the peaceful coeaD, and over the bottom ran Ihe molten matter. He was not prepared to say positively, but he believed that the same volcanic action had taken place near Ohristohuroh as at Oamaru. Now let them pass! to fie pliocene period, but before doing so let him say that they hßd found monkeys in Europe in the mioceco beds more nearly approaohing to man than any yet discovered. These monkeys had lost their tails, and were allied to the ourang outang and the ohampinzae. In the pliocene period they found that tho rose diffused its fragrance, and the world began to prepare for the advent of the master—man. They had some splendid oasts of this_ period in their museum at Ohristohuroh, which was one of the most perfect for the size of the place ho had met with in the world. It was one of the greatest educational institutions they oould possess, and it refleoted the greatest possible credit upon those who had devoted a large period of their lives, and intelligent lives, to found this institution and bring it to its present state of perfeotion. [Cheers. ] Now, before they left the tertiary period, let him say that man was found to have lived prior to the glacial period. The skull of the first human being had been found under beds of lava in California, associated with the fossils of a camel and other animals whioh existed in this remote period. It wis of a low type, beoause man in his infanoy was low and was savage ; and it was only by a very slow prooess that man had advanoed to that state of civilization whioh characterised him in this nineteenth century. Now this was just what had been going on during the whole period of the history of their planet. A fossil marsupial —a vast kargaroo, roamed over the plains of Australia at this time, and so also did a largo carnivorous beast;. The reason why the forms of life in New Zjaland had not advanced to the high types of life found elsewhere was that the land was smaller. Here the moa no doubt roamed over New Zealand at the same time the great kangaroo was In Australia. It was asked why they in these ages did not have such large animals as before. It was explained thus—that throughout the whole history of this planet the various forms of life arose, flourished, and dooayed. They had traced the advent of life on the planet from the protozoa to the radiates, on through tho mollusks, fishes, the reptiles and the mammals until they came to the advent of man, when, as man was the lord of all, these forms of life dwindled away, while some disappeared, leaving only tho smaller types familiar to them in that day. So it would be in the natural oourße of events with man. Like those forms of life whioh, during the series of his lectures, they had traced from their appearance, through their decline, and ultimate diaappearanoe, so would the present race give way to beings of higher intelligence, who would carry on the planet to a higher and still nobler form of perfeotion. (Cheers.) The next lecture on Monday evening would be the last of the present series, and would deal with the glacial period, when the vast sheets of ice and snow wh'oh now covered various parts of the surfaoo of the planet first came into being, ohanging the face of the scene almost entirely from its hitherto semitropical charaoter to that of nearly entire winter.

In reply to a question —evidently having referenoe to a ooal deposit, but whioh was inaudible in the upper part of the theatre —Mr Denton said that the appearance spoken of was very curious, but he should not like to hazard an opinion on the matter till he had seen the locality. Another gentleman asked Mr ilenton if ho oould tell them what the greenstone of New Zealand was oomposed of, whether it was not allied to the jade of Japan and China. _ Mr Denton said there was no doubt it was a speoies of jade, and oontained sevoral metals, but he had not examined it sufficiently to give an opinion as to its component parts. The usual exhibition of photographs by the oxyhydrogen light followed, some of them being remarkably beautiful. It may be noted that to-night is the last lecture of the oourse.