McGill College, Montreal, _January, 1873_.
Uniformity and Progress.--Internal Heat.--Nebular Theory.--Probable Condition of the Primitive World 1
The Laurentian Rocks.--Their Character and Distribution.--The Conditions of their Deposition.--Their Metamorphism.--Eozoon Canadense.--Laurentian Vegetation 17
Chapter III.--The Primordial or Cambrian Age.
Connection of the Laurentian and Primordial.--Animals of the Primordial Seas.--Lingula, Trilobites, Oldhamia, etc.--The terms Cambrian and Silurian.--Statistics of Primordial Life 36
Geography of the Continental Plateaus.--Life of the Silurian.--Reign of Invertebrates.--Corals, Crinoids, Mollusks, Crustaceans.--The First Vertebrates. Silurian Fishes.--Land Plants 56
Physical Character of the Age.--Difference of Deposits in Marginal and Continental Areas.--Specialisation of Physical Geography.--Corals, Crustaceans, Fishes, Insects, Plants 81
Perfection of Palæozoic Life.--Carboniferous Geography.--Colours of Sediments.--Vegetation.--Origin of Coal.--Land Life.--Reptiles, Land Snails, Millipedes, etc.--Oceanic Life 109
Movements of the Land.--Plication of the Crust.--Chemical Conditions of Dolomite, etc.--Geographical Results of Permian Movements.--Life of the Period. Summary of Palæozoic History 160
Characters of the Trias.--Summary of Changes in the Triassic and Cretaceous Periods.--Changes of the Continental Plateaus.--Relative Duration of the Palæozoic and Mesozoic.--Mesozoic Forests.--Land Animals.--The reign of Reptiles.--Early Mammals and Birds 188
Chapter IX.--The Mesozoic Ages (continued).
Animals of the Sea.--Great Sea Lizards, Fishes, Cephalopods, etc.--Chalk and its History.--Tabular View of the Mesozoic Ages 211
Physical Changes at the end of Mesozoic.--Subdivisions of the Neozoic.--Great Eocene Seas.--Land Animals and Plants. Life of the Miocene.--Reign of Mammals 235
Chapter XI.--The Neozoic Ages (_continued_).
Later Vegetation.--The Animals of the Pliocene Period. Approach of the Glacial Period.--Character of the Post-pliocene or Glacial 258
Chapter XII.--Close of the Post-pliocene, and Advent or Man.
Connection of Geological and Human History.--The Post-glacial Period.--Its Relations to the Pre-Historic Human Period.--Elevation of Post-Pliocene Land.--Introduction of Man.--Subsidence and Re-elevation.--Calculations as to Time.--Tabular View of the Neozoic Ages 282