The faunas and floras of an earlier world, and their relations to existing
organisms. Colossal bones of antediluvian mammalia in the upper alluvium.
Vegetation of an earlier world; monuments of the history of its vegetation.
The points at which certain vegetable groups attain their maximum; cycadeae
in the keuper and lias, and coniferae in the butter sandstone. Lignite and
coal measures (amber-tree). Deposition of large masses of rock; doubts
regarding their origin -- p. 285 and note.

f. The knowledge of geognostic epochs -- of the upheaval of mountain chains
and elevated plateaux, by which lands are both formed and destroyed, leads,
by an internal causal connection, to the distribution into solids and
fluids, and to the peculiarities in the natural configuration of the earth's
surface. Existing areal relations of the solid to the fluid differ
considerably from those presented by the maps of the physical portion of a
more ancient geography. Importance of the eruption of quartzose, porphyry
with reference to the then existing configuration of continental masses.
Individual conformation in horizontal extension (relations of articulation)
and in vertical elevation (hypsometrical views). Influence of the relations
of the area of land and sea on the temperature, direction of the winds,
abundance or scarcity of organic products, and on all meteorological
processes collectively. Direction of the major axes of continental masses.
Articulation and pyramidal termination toward the south. Series of
peninsulas. Valley-like formation of the Atlantic Ocean. Forms which
frequently recur -- p. 285-293 and notes. Ramifications and systems of
mountain chains, and the means of determining their relative ages. Attempts
to determine the centre of gravity of the volume of the lands upheaved above
the level
p 21
of the sea. The elevation of continents is still progressing slowly, and is
being compensated for at some definite points by a perceptible sinking. All