. Report of a geological survey of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota : and incidentally of a portion of Nebraska Territory : made under instructions from the United States Treasury Department . which lived, as we have seen,during the dawn of the tertiary period; bearing in mind the fact that at the timethey flourished in Nebraska, the Alps were just lifting their heads out of the ocean,how strange must it appear to the reflective mind, that the comparative anatomist,at this day, should be able to read their history—to restore them by minute descrip-tions, and thus embody them to the imagination a
. Report of a geological survey of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota : and incidentally of a portion of Nebraska Territory : made under instructions from the United States Treasury Department . which lived, as we have seen,during the dawn of the tertiary period; bearing in mind the fact that at the timethey flourished in Nebraska, the Alps were just lifting their heads out of the ocean,how strange must it appear to the reflective mind, that the comparative anatomist,at this day, should be able to read their history—to restore them by minute descrip-tions, and thus embody them to the imagination as in their pristine and animatedcondition. Yet far more vividly do these facts come home to the individual whobeholds and handles the specimens themselves. Some of them, disencumbered ofthe enclosing matrix, are still in such a perfect condition, and present so fresh anappearance, that the light is reflected back from the enamelled surface of the teethwith as much brilliancy as from highly polished steel. Were it not for their pon-derous character, and their strange physiognomy, one might well suppose them to bethe bones of recent animals, which had been bleached but for a
Size: 1735px × 1439px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., booksubjectbotany, booksubjectgeology, booksubjectpaleontology
