The Knickerbocker (Volume 8)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1836 edition. Excerpt: ... streams, which have long since disappeared; those which. were exclusively marine, occupying the same alluvial formation with land animals. Indeed, the various and anomalous relative positions in which organic remains are now discovered -- their immense numbers, and, to us, strange formations -- admit of no definitive description, nor even an enumeration. We shall allude, however, in an ensuing number, to some of the probable causes which have been instrumental in effecting the changes, the depositions, and entombments of some of these fossil bodies, and sketch a limited description of their extraordinary forms and character--and shall content ourselves, thereafter, with the establishment of the general fact, that this planet of ours has undergone numerous and astonishing revolutions. AMERIcAN ANTIQUITIES. What though they tell thee thou hast nought, Young land of beauty, to bear back, Through crumbling arch and fane, our thought To Time's long hallowed track; That thine antiquity begun When other lands were growing old -- Thy name unwon, till Spain's bold son Came to thy shores for gold: Heed not the imputation Ihrown So rashly on thy rising fame; Each giant cone of thine was known When Rome was but a name; Each glorious stream which bears its foam To the Atlantic's deep repose, Was known and named before a dome On Tiber's banks arose. His bow had many a warrior bent, In deadly conflict or the chase, Whose long descent was closely blent With Israel's royal race; And many a sage had made his grave By Niagara's ceaseless roar, Ere Cajsar's legions crossed the wave To Albion's chalky shore. What are the castle's turrets gray, Clothed with the moss of centuries ten -- Or what the scenes of fierce affray Between half savage men 1 Point thou...