A complex full-page chart, ‘TABULAR GEOLOGICAL PROFILE’, appearedas p. 3, in mid-paragraph, and has been moved slightly forward.It is presented here as a single image. Thelink provided below the chart will direct the reader to a textrendition, found at the end of the text.
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CARBONIFEROUS FOREST, CARBONIFEROUS PERIOD.
THE
SUBTERRANEAN WORLD.
PREFACE.
Nature displays her wonders not only in thestarry heavens or in the boundless variety ofanimal and vegetable life on the surface of our earth.In the dark regions underground she likewise showsus much that is remarkable or beautiful, or carrieson gigantic operations, which are sometimes beneficentand sometimes disastrous to mankind.
There lie concealed the mysterious laboratories offire, which reveal to us their existence in earthquakesand volcanic explosions. There, in successive strata,repose the remains of extinct animals and plants.There many a wonderful cavern may be seen, with itsfantastic stalactites, its rushing waters, and its noblehalls. There have been deposited the rich stores ofmineral wealth—the metals, the coals, the salt, thesulphur, &c.—without whose aid man would neverhave been more than a savage.
The aim of the present work has been to describe thewonders of this hidden world in their various relationsvito man, now raising him to wealth, and now doominghim to destruction.
The author trusts that he may have succeeded ingiving a sketch of the phenomena resulting from theaction of subterrane